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// The Plan 
// Story: Just a changeling 
// by thymine 
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I’d start this story where most stories do, from the beginning, but that would be a redundant waste of time. Nevertheless, at the very least you deserve a brief explanation of how I  began. The first few years of my life were the same as any other changeling, as was I.

I’ve seen changelings being born and I can tell you it’s not a pretty sight, the one we called our queen would mould slimy cocoon-like substances on the walls of a cave and after a month or so hundreds of things will start to crawl out of them. Us changelings are renowned for our shapeshifting abilities, but for the first few weeks after birth we can’t even maintain a basic structure. We spend the first day or two as a disgusting slime that just drags across the ground, if a changeling doesn’t form itself into a basic pony after three days it is merely tossed aside like a useless pile of waste.

Most of us that make it past the three day stage can’t manage the internal body; the throat doesn’t function properly and a pony starves to death; the muscle doesn’t hold a pony together and it becomes too weak to survive; the skeleton doesn’t strengthen and a pony breaks bones at the slightest nudge. Of the hundreds of ponies that emerge only fifty or so are alive after the first week, even this is usually reduced to twenty or thirty by the end of the month. As a survivor I was made to deal with the corpses, and by “deal with” what I really mean is dump into a pit a mile away from the nest. The sad part is that our queen would have us do this every month if she could, it’s pure good fortune for us that she can only breed once every ten years.

After the bodies are dealt with we are immediately taken to what we called the lair. Now I look back on it, I find it hard to believe that not more than a few decades ago I was heaving the carcasses of my siblings into some pit of death without a seconds thought; what’s worse is I know some of them were still breathing when I did it. The harsh truth is that from day one I was desensitised to the horror that was going on around us, as were we all.

Anyway, enough about that, we were taken to the lair where we would be “trained” as she called it. I never knew what was happening, but every day for ten years we would sit in front of her and every day she would blast a bright green light out of her horn which we would all absorb with our horns. It was painful and it would last hours on end, but every day it made us stronger  and kept us alive; more importantly at the time was that it gave her strength. Now I know that she was using what little love we had in us to fuel her power. The only thing I don’t understand is how we were able to develop any love in that hellish torture that was our lives. But then after this had gone on for ten years we would stop, as the newly bred slaves would be ready to replace us; because that’s all we were to her, an endless army of slaves for her to feed on. But it only got better from there, because after that we got to spend our existence working on a rock farm to, according to her, maintain our strength. What happened to those rocks, we had no idea. Some say she was planning to have us build her a castle but I never saw anything to suggest that. This was life, or more precisely, this was my life for 60 years. It had been going on for hundreds of years before me and there appeared to be no end in sight; but that all changed one fateful morning.

Every day without order from our queen we would go out onto the rock farm and start working, except the most recent minions who would go into the lair and “train” with her. But this day was different, we were all called into her lair for an announcement that was going to change everything. She stood atop her balcony with a malicious grin on her face, something I’d never seen (the grin part, not the malicious part, I see the malicious part all the time).

“My subjects…” she began, and already I could tell something was different; on the rare occasions I’ve overheard her talking to somepony she’s been yelling at them like they were objects, but today it wasn’t like that, she was making an announcement in a way that made it almost seem like she was happy to be talking to us, as ponies, rather than just pieces of meat that did as she said. “Today we shall begin what I have been working towards for almost a thousand years…”, it was news to me, and from the expressions on everypony else’s face, all the other changelings too. “In a matter of days, the princess known as Cadance will be on a train to Canterlot, where her fiancé Shining Armor shall be waiting for her…”, again, nopony appeared to have any idea what any of this had to do with us. “It is my intention to intercept her on this train, and to take her place. In doing so, I will be able to feed off Shining Armor’s love for her, and in the months leading up to the wedding I shall consume enough to make me even more powerful than Princess Celestia herself!”

At this moment there was clear concern within the crowd, everypony muttering quietly amongst each other until one changeling mustered the courage to respond. “Ha, that’s insane!”, okay, so maybe it wasn’t courage but stupidity that pushed him to responding, as our queen’s immediate response was to levitate the fool into the air and pull him towards her. “I’m sorry, do you not approve of my plan? Does the little, pathetic, worthless peasant have some sort of concern?”, her voice was a little quieter than usual, although that’s not saying much as her usual voice is more of a bellow anyway, but there was a clear hint of anger to it above that of her typical nature. Her magic took a firm grip of his neck as he struggled to breathe, “N… n… no your… majesty” was all he got out before she sharply twisted his neck. He fell to the ground, his lifeless body attracting far less attention than the vicious glare in our queen’s eyes, as silence flooded the room.

“It appears we are all in agreement then!” she yelled, breaking the silence. “You may return to your caverns today, I will allow you to get some rest, for tomorrow will mark the day that Canterlot remembers as the day they made their biggest mistake.” We began to file out through the door, just as I went to leave she pulled me back in and slammed the door shut. The fear I had in that moment felt like it was going to engulf me there and then, nopony was ever alone with the queen, it was always the hundreds of valueless changelings there, and her majesty’s royal butt here. “This plan, it will require a lot of work, if it is to be successful I will need to ensure nopony catches on, nopony can know I am not the real Cadance.” I was speechless, never before had she talked to me, and even though I knew it was just happenstance that she’d chosen me, I still felt somewhat… special. “I want somepony to pose as my servant, to come with me and keep an eye on everypony that might cause trouble. If you want, you can be that pony.” It seemed strange, her giving me a choice in all this, she almost seemed, dare I say it, nice. “I… um… I don’t…” I began, unsure what to make of it. Nevertheless, she interrupted me, “Or, if that doesn’t suit your desires, you can be that pony” as she said this, she gestured towards the corpse that lie on the floor. Clearly I didn’t have a choice, and clearly she was not being nice. “I’ll take the job” I said grinning, trying to break the tension, it didn’t work. “Good, now take your foolish friend on the floor over there to the pit, tomorrow’s a big day, so when you’re done you can head back to your caverns and rest with the others.”

I nodded and proceeded to do as she asked. She was right, tomorrow would be a big day, and even though I was sure that this was going to result in my death at her hands, I felt… happy; I’m pretty sure no changeling has ever felt that way before.