//------------------------------// // Seeking Revenge // Story: I am Everypony // by Diamond Sparkle //------------------------------// A whole year went by and Diamond Tiara got used to the normal routine of the life of a Changeling Hive. It was not as strict as life in a military camp would be; drills were too uncommon to be boring, and when they did happen they were normally to do with either flying or changing. Her first attempt to fly had been laughingly bad, and had resulted in her flying straight up and banging her head upon the ceiling. Clearly changeling wings were different then those of the pegusai; most pegusai needed to take a run up to take off, whilst changelings in their proper shape could take off vertically. After a couple of weeks of training however, she could fly more or less as well as everyling else. As for her early changing, the first results resembled a piece of famous art by the famous Ponycasso. Other changelings, rather then ridiculing her and humiliating her for her poor efforts, gently encouraged her to do better the next time. They had all been through their first change and the results were never very impressive. In time she learned the basics and by the end of the year could take the shape of anypony that she wanted to and hold the shape indefinitely as long as the shape she was taking was the same size as her own. It was possible to become larger or smaller to a certain extent, but it was not a shape she could hold for more then an hour or so. Mr Opaque was a good teacher; it was he who taught her how to survive outside the hive. "The ponies of Equestria, for the most part, have so much love that it is possible outside the big cities to feed on it without them even knowing. But if you ever want to feast on it, you will need to replace a beloved pony, and then your belly will be full for the rest of your life." Mainly each day in the Hive was the same;the same training and teaching and turns at guard duty and digging away to enlarge the Hive. The same love given in a small bowl from the central supplies, with no hope of being allowed second helpings for anyling. Diamond loved the taste of the sweet love, but there was never enough to fully satisfy her hunger. But as the birthday of Queen Chrysalis grew near, there was an excitement that slowly grew in the hive. On the Queen's birthday, other then a few guards in short shifts of an hour at a time, noling had to work. Those Changelings who were away outside the Hive came back, bringing large quantities of love and presents from their families from the lands of the ponies and griffins. Diamond missed out on this, but she like everyling could take part in the feast. For once, everyling could pig out on love until they could eat no more. They could also eat solid food, which they rarely did, both to avoid tooth problems and because solid food was rare in the lands of the Changelings. But that day they had mince pies and Changeling pudding with burning brandy poured upon it and the drinking of alcohol was openly allowed. So was random changing and the Queen answered random questions from ordinary Changelings who upon that day of days could question their monarch without punishment. "When are we going to get enough love to feed everyling? This is the first time my belly has been full in a long while," complained one Changeling, roared on by his fellows. "I cannot be too open about things as yet, but I am considering an invasion of Equestria," replied Queen Chrysalis. An invasion of Equestria? I should warn the ponies of the danger, but it's far too dangerous. Besides, my loyalty is to the Hive now and the Hive and it's Queen alone. That and the duty I have to avenge my slaughtered family. Diamond thought. A few days later, having served the Queen for a year, Diamond was able to leave the Hive and seek her revenge. The first thing she did was to take the shape of a Guard Lieutenant and walk into the police station, enjoying the way the police ponies bowed when they saw her. "I was sent by Captain Shining Armour himself to look into the murder investigation of Filthy Rich and his wife." she explained, and was handed the files. Let's see, three ponies are implicated, but apparently the evidence is too thin to justify taking them in, that, or they enjoy the royal protection of Princess Celestia or both. Well, as a Changeling there is more then one way to get those three into deep deep trouble. She decided that the first one of the three she would target would be Gold Bar, a unicorn pony who was one of the richest ponies in Manehatten. After resting for a while, she took his shape with it's three gold bars for a cutie mark, went to one of the main squares of Manehatten near where he worked, and began to let out a stream of the most blasphemous treason possible. "My fellow ponies...what we need is a change of government! After a thousand years of Celestia's rule, we need an end to monarchy and a democratic republic!" Silence fell across the square and everypony stared and glared in horror. Nopony wanted to dethrone their immortal goddess, at least, not publicly anyway. She strolled out of view and as soon as she was out of sight, took the shape of an earth pony filly, grinning at the thought of the trouble that Gold Bar was soon going to be in. Gold Bar was in his mansion when the knock came on the door. The two Royal Guards had orders from the Princess to take him to meet her in the Royal Canterlot Sculpture Garden for a talk.