Interview with the Changeling

by Fimbulvinter


Chapter 3

Interview with the Changeling

By: Fimbulvinter

Chapter 3

Every royal guard in the palace knew there were two things you never did. One: never stand between Celestia and cake, it wouldn’t end well. Two: never be the one to convene the nobles, especially near sunset. But this was exactly what Phalanx had been ordered to do. Phalanx briefly considered handing in his resignation as an alternative solution, but in the end decided that such a move still would not get him far enough away in time.

Phalanx knew that he was being overly dramatic about this, not all of the upper crust of canterlot nobility were stuck-up prissy whiners, only most of them were. Though Phalanx had never met them personally, he knew that Fancy Pants and his mare friend, the aristocrat Fleur-de-lis were good ponies who helped others when ever they could. Unfortunately most of the nobles were cut from the same cloth as the insufferable prince Blueblood.

Shuffling off to the royal communications room Phalanx sighed as he entered. It was going to be a long night, not to mention the actual trip itself. Why Celestia desired that the nobles be the ones to go he would never know, maybe she knew that they would be the only ones who could be ready at such short notice if it meant spending time with royalty, or perhaps she hoped that not all of them would come back.

Phalanx slapped himself, such thoughts were ill befitting his god-ruler. Stepping into the comms room, Phalanx quietly wrote out a parchment note summoning all the nobles to canterlot castle at once at the request of princess Celestia. Canterlot castle had a small number of adolescent dragons employed as a means of providing rapid communications for royal activities and duties. Phalanx had one of the scribes working in the room copy his note using magic and then gave the parchments to the dragons, instructing them as to which nobles each one was to go to. After the last note had been consumed in various colours of dragon-fire, Phalanx thanked the dragons, provided them with some gems and moved back out into the entrance hall. Most of the nobles were unicorns and would be teleporting into the ante chamber shortly, they would answer a royal summon instantly. Of course nopony said that they had to be happy about this.

“What is the meaning of this? I was just about to have my hooves done” Prince Blueblood, 5th cousin to Princess Celestia, 28th in line for the throne should something happen to both Celestia and Luna, entered the room in a full huff.
“You guardsman, I demand to know what reason my aunt had for summoning me here. Not only have I had to miss a grooming session, but my dinner plans for tonight have been disrupted” Blueblood whined as other members of the Canterlot upper crust entered the room, many of them echoing his sentiments.

“Now now, everypony clam down. The Princess would not have sent out a request at such short notice unless she had a very good reason”. The cultured voice of the gentlecolt Fancy Pants rang out as he walked calmly out from the cluster of ponies and approached Blueblood and Phalanx. Fleur simply waited with the others.

“What possible reason could she have had? There has been no national emergency or state death. Nothing that has happened could be worth disrupting my meticulously planned evening”. Blueblood was in fine form tonight, many of the other nobles were starting to rally behind him, agreeing that this would end up being a waste of their precious time.

Fancy was unperturbed “I’m sure that the reason is a good one. I dare say that this guard will know more. Guardsman… Have we met before, It’s Hoplite isn’t it?”

“Phalanx Sir, Hoplite is my Brother, and no we have never met personally” Phalanx replied and then turned his attention to the assembled crowd. “If I can have the attention of everypony please”. The crowd slowly quietened down and turned to Phalanx.

“Firstly, thank you all for coming so quickly, Celestia knows that it has disrupted many of your schedules and apologizes that more notice could not be given. The reason that you have all been called here is that the princesses are forming a new diplomatic mission to leave in the morning and are looking for volunteers to join it. She has promised a private gala dinner to those who join”. Phalanx deliberately left out where they were going. It would be interesting to see who would back out after they all mindlessly volunteered to join the party. As he expected all of the nobles raised a hoof to join the party.

“Thank you all for volunteering, now that you are signed on I feel I should mention that this expedition is a mission of ponytarian aid to the changeling hives to the east, we are going to save a colony from starvation”.

As he expected following that announcement came the flurry of suddenly remembered prior commitments
“I just remembered I have a meeting with some clients tomorrow”
“My mother is coming to town, I can’t leave her”
“I think I left the oven on”

On and on it went until the only ponies still remaining were Fancy, Fleur and Blueblood. It seemed that not even the promise of a gala dinner was enough to temp the nobles to have anything to do with changelings, even if it was a peace mission sanctioned by the princess.

“Well I said that I would go, and I never renege on a promise, count me in” Fancy said calmly.

“If you’re going then I’m going too” Fleur trotted over to Fancy and stood by his side.

“You are all insane. I am leaving” Blueblood walked off towards the rooms designated teleport station, a small nook always kept clear of any clutter.

“Leave and I will see your name blacklisted in every corner of Canterlot” Fancy stated in a low calculated voice. Blueblood stopped and gaped at him. Fancy Pants almost never made threats but when he did, as with his promises, he followed through on them.

Fancy saw Blueblood hang his head in resignation. “Perfect, there’s a good chap” his demeanour changing back to the happy polite gentelcolt that he was instantly. “Lead on, my good Phalanx, lead on”.

The trio of ponies followed Phalanx back towards the meeting room. “All in all, that went far better than I could have hoped for. Almost too well” Phalanx was worried, but with Fancy keeping a tight lid on Blueblood, there was nothing the prince could do.

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Celestia watched as Phalanx moved away without a sound. She was under no illusions as to what she had ordered her guard to do. The fickleness of the nobles combined with the destination that they would ultimately end up in, she would be impressed if Phalanx returned with even 3 ponies. Fancy Pants and Fleur-de-lis would come, she was sure of that, but all the others were unlikely to even set hoof outside of Canterlot for anything other than a national emergency.

As it had come many times before, a thought occurred to Celestia. “Is a dictatorship really such a bad idea? Luna and I run most things already and it would get rid of those annoying nobles constantly clamouring for attention”. Celestia dismissed the idea just like every other time. Such a government would be just as bad as the reign of Discord.

Turning back to Drone, Celestia bade him continue. “You said something about showing us how your shape-shifting works, but first could you describe what just happened to you. Chrysalis took command of your body remotely?”

“The two questions are slightly linked, but I will answer the second on first. What you saw was a very old piece of war communication magic. As you may know the queen is the centre of every hive. She is both expected to lead us during any conflict, but is also far too valuable to risk death or injury in direct combat. What you saw was the method that changelings have evolved to deal with such a risk. When at war, the queen can order a drone to assume her form, at which point she can take full command of the drone as if it was her own body. All senses – sight, smell, touch are received as if she was on the battlefield herself, providing her with first hoof experience at none of the risk”.

Drone paused slightly “such a link is only possible through two traits that changelings possess. First is a partial hive mind. The queen can draw on this link to enter into the body of another changeling, the second is our two stage shape-shift”.

“What do you mean by a two stage shape-shift” Hard Hitter asked “do you do more than simply take another form?”

“Our shape-shifting comprises two distinct phases. The first phase is the most common and is mostly a simple illusion spell with a few force fields to simulate extra body parts. You would have all seen how that purple unicorn was able to hit us with a blast of magic to reveal our true forms?” Celestia nodded, she had seen how Twilight was able to do that. Celestia had requested that Twilight teach the spell to all unicorn guards for use in anti-changeling operations.

“That method of shape-shifting is fine for most situations but is very energy intensive to maintain over a long period. That is where the second, far more involved method of shape-shifting comes in. Rather than use an illusion to maintain our disguise, we can actually alter the physical shape and make-up of our bodies to match that of our target. In a sense we will become the pony we are copying, down to the smallest physical detail. Unlike the first stage of shifting, this one requires no additional energy to maintain, and cannot be detected through the use of spells. It is however extremely painful to undertake the changes, with the pain increasing in relation to how long we have retained the form”.

“We use this second stage usually only for deep cover agents who are to occupy a single role for the majority of their life span, or when a queen needs to use the war communication ability. We in essence become the queen, who then uses our body as her own”.

“But you were still a lot smaller than she was, did you not fully change?” Celestia asked.

“We can only take on forms that are similar to our own size and mass, hence why it was Chrysalis herself who had to take on the form of Cadance here. No mere drone would have been able to grow to the right size. It also explains why we did not become an army of Manticores, Hyrdas and Ursas for the attack. Our shifting does not work that way, despite what your legends may say about us”.

Daily Scoop looked like he was going to ask some more questions, but Celestia cut him off. She had spotted Phalanx returning with some ponies in tow. “I am going to have to end things here for tonight. I need to brief the volunteers coming with you, and you 5 have an early start. You set off at first light. Provisions and equipment will be waiting for you when you wake”.

Cadance, Shining Armour, Drone and the reporters bowed to Celestia and departed, followed by the two guards attached to the entryway. Turning to face Phalanx Celestia saw that her earlier estimates had been correct. There were only 3 volunteers, meaning that the party would be consisting of 10: the 7 delegates and 3 guards to accompany them, plus Drone but he did not count. Celestia was pleased to see Fancy Pants and Fleur-de-lis in the group, but very surprised to see Blueblood also tagging along. She felt for sure that he would have been the first one to abandon ship when the destination was mentioned.

“Fancy, Fleur. So good of you to join this expedition. I was sure that I could count on your support at the very least”.

“Think nothing of it, my dear princess, you know we would never turn down a good chance at adventure, and this one promises to be one at that, going where nopony has gone before and all that” Fancy was positively beaming at Celestia.

Blueblood however was still very sullen about the whole idea. “Are you all nuts? They tried to kill us all once, what is stopping them from trying again? This could be a trap for all you know”.

“My dear cousin we will have to take that risk. If you are so opposed to this trip, why are you still here, no one is forcing you to go are they?” Celestia looked slightly over at Fancy Pants who nodded fractionally to her. Not a word was said, and no a word was needed, Celestia understood exactly what had been done to ensure the princes co-operation.

At that point, Fleur made an uncharacteristic move and spoke up separate from Fancy. While not stupid or a trophy mare, Fleur was fairly timid when not at model shoots, or a part of conversations supported by Fancy. “So what exactly are we doing? I know we are going to help a changeling hive, but what does that entail?”

Celestia thought about this, it was time for full disclosure to these ponies. “You and a small number of guards will be travelling east to an as of yet unknown location to the remnants of the hive colony of the changelings that attempted to invade Canterlot during the royal wedding. Once there you primary job will be to provide a source of positive emotions that the changelings will be able to feed off of. I have spoken at length with representatives from the hive and I am satisfied that you will not be in any danger or risk any harm. A drone will be travelling with you to act as a guide”.

Fleur looked satisfied at that explanation. Celestia continued on. “You will be leaving as I raise the sun tomorrow, so you should retire for the night soon, I am told that the trip is about 2 days trot from here”.

“Who else is coming on this forsaken trip? Surely you would not send us alone?” Blueblood was still focusing on the negative regarding his involvement on the journey.

“There will be ten of you, you three, three royal guards for protection, two reporters who have been assisting me with interviewing the changeling who made this request, and finally Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armour have been requested specifically to attend. Now run along to your beds, Fancy, Fleur quarters have been prepared for you in the guest wing. Sleep well, but remember this, while I may believe Chrysalis is sincere about her need for sustenance, I do not trust her, and neither should you”.

Fancy Pants and Fleur bowed out and departed for their guest rooms. Blueblood simply walked out with no comment to anyone. Better keep an eye on that one, he is just foolish enough to try and flee in the night thought Fancy.

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Night settled in quickly as Luna raised the moon in place of Celestia’s sun. The Selene light mostly covered only sleeping ponies with its soft illumination, one pony could be seen in a feverish state of activity. Prince Blueblood was hastily emptying out his private safe and filing cabinets. “I’ve got to get out of here now, get away for a while and let this whole thing blow over, it is a lost cause, anypony with a dash of good sense can see that. Fancy would never actually have me blacklisted, he knows I would do the same to him. Maybe I will take a little trip to Horsetralia and get away from it all, visiting dignitaries and all that”.

Packing the last of his valuables into his saddlebags, Blueblood made his way towards his office door. Opening it blindly, Blueblood almost ran into the statue still form of Fancy Pants, waiting patiently outside, blocking the door enough that Blueblood would not be able to get past him.

“Going somewhere my prince?” Fancy had an expression of total and utter calm, but still not moving any part of his body.

“Just to get a drink of water” Blueblood chuckled nervously. “how could he possible know? I didn’t even know I would be doing this until an hour ago ”.

“No need, I have one right here”. Fancy lit his horn and a carafe filled with water and a small glass levitated into sight from a table behind him. Looking at the water, Blueblood slumped in defeat. Between the expectations of Celestia, and the watchful sentinel that was Fancy Pants, there was no way that Blueblood could get out of this, short of faking his own death, and even then he suspected that Fancy would see through that deception quickly. No he was going and that was all there was to it.

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Fancy saw the look of resignation in Blueblood eyes, he was defeated. And a good thing too, they would be leaving in a few scant hours, and not enough time to make going to sleep worthwhile.

Fancy again lit his horn and cast a spell he hadn’t had to use high school. The spell banished his fatigue, leaving him as fresh as if he had had his full 8 hours. He would have to pay for it later however, the spell simply delayed the bodies need for sleep, it did not remove it. At some point later on, he would have to catch up on the missed sleep. Such a spell was typically used for exam cramming, and was extremely hazardous to use repeatedly, as the effects compounded with each cast, and the spell became weaker with each consecutive use. Fancy remembered a story he had heard about the Princesses personal student, she had apparently used the spell to keep herself awake for nearly 7 days straight. By the end of it, so the story went, she was so far lost in sleep deprivation that she was convinced that her stuffed smarty pants doll was lecturing her about advanced particle physics. The strange part was that all the notes she copied down from the dolls supposed dictation checked out at every point along the line and not a single physics book could be found in her rooms.

Refreshed, Fancy went back to his shared room with Fleur, who was asleep just as he had left her. Pulling out a cushion, Fancy picked up a current issue of the Canterlot Times and began to check the stocks.

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Daybreak came quickly enough, and in the place courtyard, 11 ponies, one changeling and a dragon assembled.

“Thank you all for getting here so promptly, I know that it is still early. Now, assigned roles for everyone”. Celestia looked around at all the bleary faces, all except Fancy who looked remarkably awake. “Cadance and Shining Armour will be in ultimate control during this journey. The guards, Flitter Wing, Stout Heart and Constant Vigil will be accompanying you all for protection should you encounter difficulty. Fancy and Fleur, your primary job is simply to be there and provide a source of love for the hive, secondary is to record any interesting events and observation. Blueblood, you are there as a royal representative, alongside Cadance. Behave yourself.”

Celestia turned to the last two, the reporters Hard Hitter and Daily Scoop. “Record what you can, but respect the changelings right to privacy. If they say something is off-limits, it is off-limits, understood?”

Both reporters nodded. “Understood princess”.

Celestia turned to the last member of the group, a small blue and yellow dragon, one of the group employed by the communications office. “This is Emberflame, he has volunteered to go with you so that we might stay in contact. Should you encounter any difficulty that you cannot overcome, use him to send a message back to me and aid will be sent as quickly as possible”.

The dragon, Emberflame stood up, almost as tall as most of the Stallions in the group, small wings just beginning to sprout on his back. “Pleased to meet you all, I wanted to get out of the castle for a while, and Celestia needed a dragon to accompany you, so I volunteered”.

“Right then, if everypony is done you need to get a move on, time is of the essence”. Celestia nodded to Drone who had been silent throughout the entire speech.

“Everypony follow me, the hive is located east of here, between Balitmare and Fillydephia, at a brisk trot it will take about 2 days to reach it, so we should get started”. Drone covered himself in a green fire aura, and a non-descript light blue unicorn stood there when it cleared. “Not everypony is as accepting as you all are, so a disguise is needed for now, but time and daylight are wasting, so let us depart”.

The group walked out of the castle ground, taking the main road past Foal Mountain headed for Baltimare.

“May the almighty Faust watch your travels, and protect you should this all be a trick” Celestia said looking at their diminishing forms in the distance.

End Chapter 3

A/N
Longest Chapter thus far. A big thank you to everyone who has commented, liked or favorited this story. These first three chapters have been mostly for practice at writing large sequences of dialogue, and I hope that no one reading this had gotten too bored with what is essentially just a few ponies talking for 8000 words. If I have accidentally infringed on anyones OC ponies or story ideas, I apologize. Chapter 4 will likely be about another week away, as assignment work is calling my name.

Stay Frosty Everypony.
Fimbulvinter.