//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Interview with a Changeling // by Obsidian Ink //------------------------------// Sergeant Iron Shield was widely known around Canterlot as the single most boring, and un-interesting guardspony in the service of the princesses. He was a plain white, blue eyed pegasus with a blue mane and tail, the same as every other pegasus in the guard. The same since he used standard blue contact lenses and went, once every month, to the barber to have his mane, tail and coat cut to regulation length, and then dyed regulation colors. Every day at mess he always took the same thing. Cream of mushroom soup with a lettuce and tomato sandwich and a glass of ginger ale. The one time the other guards had tried to spring a surprise birthday party for him at his private quarters, they'd found his pantry stocked with nothing but cream of mushroom soup. That, along with being an absolute bore at his own party made them rethink doing anything other than a 'sheet cake in the break room' party at the palace for years to come. That isn't to say Iron wasn't good at being a guard, no sir. He could stand perfectly immobile at any doorway or other point that needed guarding without flinching at anything, unless of course somepony tried to enter who wasn't allowed. He also made an excellent escort and patrol stallion, and on several occasions he'd even made arrests and saved the lives of ponies that were in trouble. Like this one group of earth ponies that had been transporting a load of produce up to Canterlot along the mountain roads. They had nearly fallen off when part of the road had given way. Things like that had seen him given a few commendations, and even one medal of bravery. Iron Shield was a guard of little ambition but admirable ability, and little in the way of social skills, but he seemed happy enough that. After those around him got used to him, they let him be. But that suited Iron, that suited him just fine. Every other Friday -his day off- Iron did the one thing that could be considered 'interesting' by his peers. He went hiking in the woods around the base of Canterlot mountain. He didn't go flying, like most pegasi would, he'd land on the ground, and go for a long, all day walk. He didn't go with any other pony, just by himself. The few times any of his comrades had imposed themselves on this activity, it ended up being so awkward and uncomfortable they never bothered to try again. Leaving him alone on his bi-weekly walk in the forest. But that suited Iron, that suited him just fine. Several months ago, Iron Shield was part of the rank and file of the guard buildup in Canterlot at the request of the princess to secure the city against an unknown threat that Celstia had sensed coming. This didn't bother him. Greater numbers of guardponies, fresh faces brought in from all over Equestria? At least two guards on every corner, and marching in ranks five to ten ponies deep down the street? Checkpoints at all the city entrances, and a great big magical barrier surrounding the entire city? It was a minor change in routine for him. He was out on the street in the market the day of the wedding, standing on a corner along one of the main avenues of the city that was expecting to see the post-nuptial parade come by when it happened. The sound like cracking glass, but far 'bigger', it seemed to come from everywhere. Like everypony else in the streets, he looked up, to see many, many small, black objects beating against the rapidly cracking Magical shield, just before it shattered, the shards of solidified magic collapsing in on them even as they vanished into thin air. And then the air was filled with descending forms, sheathed in neon green magical light as they crashed into the street, into buildings, into carts and stands, ponies were hard pressed to avoid being hit themselves. This did not suit Iron, it didn't suit him at all. But not for the reason every other pony and guard in Canterlot had. The invaders immediately attacked the guards in their gilded heavy plate barding, Spitting globs of sticky resin at their hooves and binding them to the ground, then going after the hapless citizenry. However, when they tried to attack iron, he danced, side to side, jumping and flapping out of the way of the gluey wads with practiced ease, not that it diminished the expression of confusion and panic on his face, though it did confuse his attackers. With the sky full of attackers barring escape by air, Iron Shield escaped into the alleyways as he moved away from the chaos of the open street. They gave chase, he dodged this way and that around corners, over piles of garbage waiting to be collected. Iron Shield galloped and leapt and briefly flew as fast as he could through the twisting alleys as fast as he could, familiarity with the area the only thing that allowed him to put some distance between himself and his pursuers. Finally he came to a dead end, his pursuers were near enough that he could hear them, but far enough he knew he couldn't be seen. He then did the only thing he, and he alone, could do to get out of this situation. He reached inside himself, and brought forth magic a Pegasus simply should not have had. This situation did not suit Iron, it didn't suit him at all. * * * * * A few seconds later, Iron's pursuers rounded the bend and screeched to a halt. Before them, in the dead end alleyway, with all the doors securely bolted around them, there was no sign of a golden armored, pure white pegasus. Instead, there was one of their own, sitting on his flank, and rubbing his head with a pained expression. “Hey, you! Where'd the pony get to?” the one in the middle asked, pointing a hole filled hoof at the one sitting on the ground. “I don't know, something ran up and hit me on the back of the head!” the unfortunate one whined. The leader of the trio grumbled. “He's not here. Let's go. You, get yourself back to the warband, get patched up.” he said, before the three of them took off down another path in the alleys. Once they were gone, the 'injured' changeling stood, brushed himself off, and with no sign of pain or unsteadiness that one would expect from recent head trauma, took to the air on buzzing diaphanous wings. But once in the air, the Changeling took off like an arrow for the edge of canterlot, dodging and weaving through changelings who were much too busy with hunting down love filled prey to bother noticing him, before he flew out into the peaceful air just outside the conflict, and went into a dive, heading straight for the forest. This changeling's name was Protonus, it was from an ancient language which translated into modern Equestrian as 'shield'. And not five minutes ago, he had been the boring, dutiful Canterlot guardian who had ran from invaders through the alleyways of the wealthy, fancy, and currently under attack capital city. Now, he was making a beeline for the woodland at the base of the mountain. Once there, he darted through the trees, dodging around familiar trunks, and upsetting not a few woodland creatures before he zipped into the mouth of a cave, far from the commonly used walking paths through the forest. He went to an otherwise unremarkable stone wall and immediately began rubbing his carapaced 'hooves' over the surface in a panic. “Come on, come on... come ON!” he shouted at the stone, before, suddenly, a click, and the stone wall suddenly seemed to develop a crack around a circular hole, though it was more that one was revealed to the naked eye. The stone swung open on a well maintained hinge, revealing a hidden vault. Inside was a sphere of polished, flawless quartz the size of the average mare's head, set upon a bronze stand. Several arcane runes were etched into the sides of the base. Protonus pulled the crystal ball out of the vault and placed it on the ground. He then lowered his blade-like horn and channeled neon green magical energy into the runes. One by one they became charged and began to glow without further feeding by the changeling. Once all four were lit, the crystal pulsed once, before an image appeared, a long legged, large changeling female not unlike the changeling queen who even now gloated over her victory in the palace of the royal pony sisters high on the mountain, though this one's horn curved in a different pattern, and the mane was a deep, dull green, the slitted eyes powder blue, and just barely noticeable, right at the very edge of the pupil was a striking ring of magenta. She was lounging over a Stone shelf that had been carved into the shape of a throne, with a thick but tattered cushion under her. She was also looking a little surprised. “Agent Protonus?” The noble female asked, raising an eyebrow. “Your report comes early this week.” “Queen Elytria, Changelings attack Canterlot!” he blurted. Confusion, panic and terror writ across his face and heavy in his voice. “Attacking...? My eyes and ears in Canterlot, We have not...” Elytria started, then ground to a halt, her eyes narrowing. “What color was their back carapace?” “Dark blue, Majesty.” “Chrysalis...” Elytria growled, her wings buzzing fitfully in short spurts. “The queen of the Red Wastes Hive?” Protonus said, cocking his head. “If all the drones had dark blue dorsal shells, yes.” Elytria hissed, her wings buzzing fitfully as she made a 'krik-it-ik' sound in frustration. “Damn that upstart! We warned her in council-” she said, just before a tremendous sound from outside the mouth of the cave overwhelmed her voice. Protonus whirled around and looked... his eyes widening, the faint whiteness that masked his pupils narrowing down, and his jaw dropping open. Time seemed to slow down before his eyes. A rapidly expanding sphere of purplish-pink colored magic expanded out from the heart of Canterlot, and scattered before it the cloud of dark specks. Even at this distance, though, he could hear clearly... the voice of a female noble changeling, higher in pitch than a drone's, screaming as it was catapulted off far, far to the south. And then he saw the expanding bubble of purple-pink energy coming, as it did to everything else, towards him. His legs, his wings, his mind failed him as his doom approached. He screwed his eyes shut as it came... And then struck him... not so hard as he'd feared, but still pretty hard. Protonus was tossed backwards, certainly, but only a couple canter-lengths into the cave behind him, and came to a clattering landing as he tumbled head over flank on the dirt floor of the cave mouth until he smacked into the distal wall of the cave. When the wall of force hit him next, for an instant, the life was being crushed out of him, sandwiched between the wall and the wave of magical energies... then as it passed through him, he screamed in agony as he felt something.... several somethings infact, give way within his body. Finally, it passed. He fell to the ground and sucked in a ragged, heaving breath, and yelped in agony as he felt what could only have been a cracked rib, or perhaps several... not to mention what felt like a concussion probably meant his skull wasn't exempt from the trauma. Minutes passed before his senses returned to him, adrenaline and endorphins finally taking the edge off the agony in his chest. It was then that he heard his queen's voice. “Protonus! Protonus, answer me! Protonus!” “Uuuugh...” he moaned, but dragged himself towards the sound with one good foreleg. “I'm... here, your majesty.” “Protonus, my agent, what happened?” His queen asked, semi-relieved, but still panicked. The changeling flopped down in the mouth of the cave, still within audible range of the crystal ball, and tilted his head as he lay there, gazing towards the city perched on the mountainside. The cloud of black specs that was the changeling army was gone. The distant towers gleaming in the direct sunlight. “I... believe the ponies... just repelled Crysalis' invasion.” Protonus wheezed, before passing out. “Protonus...? Protonus! Damnit, someone get to him, now!” * * * * * “Well I'm glad THAT'S over...” Shining grumbled under his breath as he and his sister left the northwest tower. The sun was setting and Maxillus was now awaiting the arrival of his supper, which a unicorn servant carried up in a telekinetic field in a silver platter past them. “What was that Shining?” Twilight said, only half paying attention to him as she looked over all the notes she'd taken down. “Eh... just glad we get to head to dinner finally.” Shining said. His small lunch of a cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwich had given up the ghost hours ago and he was starving again. The rest of the day's chat had covered more basic ground, academic questions about changeling society. It turned out that most of the magic generated from stolen love energy went into rather mundane things, such as construction and agriculture. The royal family was, for once, all gathered in the private dining hall. Celestia and Luna sitting at opposite ends of the relatively short rectangular dining table. Cadence and Blueblood were seated opposite each other, and Spike was even seated there, waiting for them. As soon as they entered Cadence's eyes lit up. “Twilight!” The pink alicorn said, before hopping out of her seat and galloping over. “Cadence!” Twilight beamed before she pranced over to meet her sister in law and former foalsitter halfway. The two grown mares immediately broke into their foalhood greeting song and dance, which had Luna raising an eye ridge. Celestia just smiled indulgently. The gleeful ritual of meeting completed, Cadence accompanied twilight to the table. “Welcome, my faithful student, nephew.” Celestia said, nodding her head to them. Shining sat down next to Cadence after giving a brief bow to the princesses of the night and day. “Evening princess Celestia, princess Luna.” Twilight said as she hopped up into the only available remaining place at the table... the one next to prince Blueblood.. Spike sniggered briefly, but when Twilight shot him a look he suddenly found the ceiling tile VERY interesting... Shining shook his head. That dragon must be going through puberty, if he was constantly pushing Twilight's buttons like this. “So, Twilight, how did things go today?” Celestia asked as the servants brought out the repast. In favor of Cadence's background, the meal's theme was heavily based on pasta. “Well, I learned quite a bit about Changeling biology, anatomy, and a little bit about how their powers work. We'll be starting on culture one I have the basics down.” Twilight said. “Oh?” Celestia said, levitating up a knife and fork and cutting off a bite sized piece, which she then lifted to her mouth. “Anything you'd like to share?” “They eat meat.” Shining grumbled. Everypony gave him an odd look. Twilight grumbled under her breath before clarifying. “Actually, he's an omnivore. Plants and meat, like gryphons.” “You shouldn't hold what a species subsists on against them, Nephew.” Celestia said. “Quite true. I remember living on such fare for years during our youth while the windigoes continued to make a nuisance of themselves in Equestria.” Luna said. Everypony in the chamber besides Celestia snapped their attention to the princess of the night with looks of horror. Luna glanced about, then snorted. “Oh come now, surely ponies have not forgotten...” she started, but seeing the looks continuing she glared at Celestia. “Sister...” Celestia rolled her eyes at her sister and sighed before speaking. “It's true, my little ponies, we are omnivores, though we do lean very heavily towards plants.” “Auntie!? You mean to tell me you ate...” Blueblood started turning green when he tried to finish that sentence. “You were young once?” Twilight asked, looking at her teacher with rapt attention. Celestia gave a wry grin. “Despite popular thought, my sister and I have not existed since the dawn of time, though that's an entire story in itself. Suffice to say that in our youth, before equestria became quite as... prosperous as it is now, we had trouble growing enough fruits, vegetables, and grains as we needed to feed everypony purely on plants. We often had to 'supplement' our diets the only way we could. Especially since, unlike dragons, we can't eat gemstones.” “Heh, more for me then.” Spike commented. Luna smiled indulgently at the young dragon. “Quite, more for you, young whelpling.” She looked back at Shining. “Though I’m surprised you would not know of this basic fact about ponies, in our time 'twas standard in military survival training to learn about the appropriate time and place to shift to a meat based diet. For instance, sister, you remember what the early explorers who investigated the frozen reaches of the north took as provisions, or those that first crossed the san-palomino?” “Aunt Luna, seriously?” Cadence said, rubbing her forehead with a gold shod hoof. “What?” Luna asked, looking at her distant relative, her head cocked to the side. Celestia cleared her throat. “I believe what Cadence means is that this is hardly proper subject matter for conversation at dinner. Suffice to say, it's taboo to eat meat at a civilized table, but it has it's uses in extreme circumstances.” “As you say, sister.” Luna smirked at her sister, and noted that in the back of the dining room one of the serving mares was looking decidedly unwell, swaying on her hooves. “In any event, is there anything you would like to share with us about changelings, Twilight?” Twilight nodded. “It turns out changelings can't generate their own magic.” “They can't?” Cadence asked. “No, actually. They absorb projected love energy and convert it into mana inside their bodies. The ambassador wasn't able to explain exactly how they do this.” Twilight said, at which Shining snorted and lifted his wineglass to his lips to take a drink. “Which is why I'd like to take him down to Canterlot university hospital tomorrow.” Shining nearly choked on his drink. “Shining!? Are you okay?” Cadence asked, patting him on the back with a forehoof After clearing his throat, Shining looked at Twilight. “Why in Tartarus do you want to take him down to the hospital?” “They have a full body Thaumic-Resonance-Scanning center there. State of the magical art. It lets you see all the body's internal structures in incredible detail, you can even manipulate the image to focus on one structure or another. Not to mention the other biological processes it can take readings of. I was hoping it'd let me figure out how a changeling converts the absorbed energy. Why, is there a problem?” Twilight asked. “'Is there a problem?' Twilight, the country's still paranoid of changelings, if we suddenly take one out and about in broad daylight, there's going to be a panic!” Shining said. “Strange, he's hardly a secret among the castle staff.” Blueblood said. “I issued strict orders that his presence not be discussed with anyone outside of the castle.” Shining said. “What about when he arrived here? Surely somepony noticed.” Blueblood pressed. “The only ponies that saw him were myself and the nightguard. We brought him from the gate to the palace in a covered sky-wagon.” “I see...” Blueblood said. “All well and good, captain.” Celestia said calmly, raising another mouthful of her supper to her mouth, pulling it off the fork with her teeth daintily, chewing and swallowing before continuing. “But this isn't how we treat Ambassadorial visitors.” “Oh no...” Shining groaned as he realized what was coming. “As long as it's under proper escort, I see no reason why Maxillus shouldn't be allowed to be seen by the public.” Celestia said. “Sister, is this wise?” Luna asked, dining on her separate breakfast of Prench toast. “Something wrong Luna?” Celestia asked. 'YES!' thought Shining, 'somepony who can actually talk some sense into Celestia!' “'Tis as Captain Armor has said, to suddenly just have a changeling walking down the streets of Canterlot will most likely cause panic amongst our citizens.” Luna said, cutting up her meal. “True. However, Luna, You haven't yet become familiar with the news media in the modern day.” Celestia said, opening a counter argument. “How so?” Luna asked. “I'm still not entirely sure how, but reporters and investigative journalists are like hounds, they can smell secrets and do their utmost to uproot them. And anypony who prevents them from doing this is likely to get bitten.” Luna's eyes widened. “We wouldst be attacked?” she asked. “In a manner of speaking. Just be glad you haven't yet had to learn the meaning of the term 'PR disaster'.” Celestia said with a self deprecating chuckled. “I know I wish I never had to.” “So thou are saying we should be open with our ponies?” Luna said. Shining's hopes started to plummet. “The longer we keep him a secret, the worse it will be when we finally reveal him, or his presence is leaked.” Celestia explained. “Then what should we do, sister?” Luna asked.. Twilight cleared her throat. “The typical thing for breaking news to the public these days is to hold a press conference.” She started. Shining's shoulders slumped. “Oh?” Luna said, raising her eye ridge again. “Yeah, you summon reporters from each of the major news agencies to the main hall, set up a stand, and make an official statement. Sometimes you allow questions to be asked and answered, but not always, depending on the situation. I used to help Princess Celestia draft statements to be put to the press before I moved to ponyville, you know.” Twilight said. “Ah, a proclamation!” Luna said, comprehension dawning on her face. “More or less.” “And it sounds like precisely what we should do here.” Celestia said. “We'll let everypony know that there's a new ambassador here, and that no-pony should panic over his presence.” Luna nodded. “Sounds reasonable, I suppose.” “Oooh! And I can draft the statement!” Twilight squealed, clapping her hooves together excitedly. Shining put his face in his hooves. “Shining, are you feeling alright?” Cadence asked. Shining just groaned.