//------------------------------//
// Conditioning And Extinction 
// Story: Body And Mind 
// by Starman Ghost 
//------------------------------//

As she again approached the doors to Celestia's throne room, Twilight felt a twinge of unease. It was unthinkable that the Princess would manipulate ponies into genocide, but she wondered what could cause the changelings to harbor a grudge for centuries.

"Mrs. Watcher, could you tell the Princess I need to speak with her about the prisoner, please?"

"Sure thing, Miss Sparkle. Just sit tight." Vigilant Watcher's horn glowed, and she disappeared behind the door.

Even though she didn't take Pincer at his word, Twilight shuffled her hooves nervously. Celestia could and would withhold information she considered dangerous; her handling of the return of Nightmare Moon had proven that. It was worryingly plausible that Celestia would spare the details of some earlier encounter with the changelings if some stray spell or overzealous pony had caused something she would never approve of.

On the other hoof, Celestia had had a very good reason to hide the truth of Nightmare Moon from her. It was because she'd told Twilight not to worry and to make some friends that the Element Bearers had ever come together to begin with, and they never would have defeated her otherwise. Being deceptive to help save Equestria and rescue her sister was a very different thing from being deceptive to cover up a crime she'd committed, and Twilight couldn't imagine Celestia doing the latter.

Even so, nervousness gnawed at her.

The door eased itself open and Mrs. Watcher emerged from behind it, smiling. "She says you can come in."

Twilight nodded and mumbled her thanks, privately wishing Celestia had been occupied. The distance from the door to the spot in front of the throne seemed much longer than it had ever been, and at her reluctant pace, the walk there seemed to take an eternity. Even Celestia's usual smile was doing little to calm her nerves.

"Is everything okay, Twilight?"

Twilight nodded. "I was just wondering about, uh, something the changeling told me."

"You convinced him to talk, then?"

"Well, not very much, but a bit." Twilight popped open her saddlebag and unfurled a scroll from it.

"I fed him love," she said, her eyes darting back and forth across it. "I was worried about him because he could barely move, and I wanted so badly for him to survive and get better. He still looked pretty hungry when he left, but I think he'll be okay for awhile."

Celestia's smile broadened in approval. "You've done something wonderful, Twilight. I was getting quite worried about the changeling, and not only did you quite possibly save his life, but you've proven that a pony can feed a changeling of her own free will. I'd been hoping that we could peacefully coexist with them, but you have given me reason to believe we can."

Despite the situation, Twilight couldn't help blushing and laying back her ears.

"Now, please tell me what you were able to learn from him."

"Oh, right!" Twilight looked back down at the parchment. "Well, to start with, his name's Pincer. It looks like every changeling has a name, so they might be more individualistic than we'd first assumed. That's another good sign.

"He didn't say much else, but I was able to pick up a few other things from what he told me. It sounds like he and the other changelings underwent some kind of training where they were verbally and physically abused. And..." Twilight's voice lowered. "It seemed like he was used to the idea. Like it was all normal."

Twilight's tail swished. "And what's more, he was sure we all hated changelings. Not just because of their attack on the wedding, either. He talked as if we'd all been trained to hate them since birth, even though I think you're the only one who knew they existed. And, well...." Twilight swallowed, lowered the parchment, and looked straight at Celestia.

"According to him, this wasn't the first conflict between ponies and changelings. He said that sometime long ago, changelings used to live openly, but were forced into hiding and infiltrating because you'd tried to... commit genocide." Twilight quickly shook her head. "There's no way I'll believe him just because he said that, especially if he's been listening to Chrysalis. But can you tell me how you recognized the changelings, or if something happened that'd help me figure out why he's so convinced that we're out to destroy them?"

Celestia's smile vanished and, taking a breath, she stood more rigidly.

"Yes. Yes, you're correct. I recognized changelings because Equestria crossed swords with them many centuries ago. As a matter of fact, it was about three hundred years after I banished... Nightmare Moon.

"The changelings of that age were not like the ones we know today. Chrysalis was still their queen, but she was far less experienced. She didn't attempt to use subtlety or the ability of changelings to transform as she did in the most recent invasion. Instead she directed her drones as though they were a swarm of locusts, and they devoured anything in their path. They barely used their ability to transform except to create confusion during battles.

"I can't tell you exactly where they came from, only that we first encountered them on our western border. With no guardsponies present and the local ponies too badly outnumbered to defend themselves, several of Equestria's border towns were completely destroyed. The ponies who hadn't died in the fighting were trapped in some sort of cocoons so that the changelings could use them for food."

Celestia's head lowered and her ears drooped. "I led some royal guards to save them. Most of them had been drained to death by the time we'd arrived. All we could do was to free the ponies and ensure that the changelings could not destroy any more towns.

"When they attacked again, we were ready. They left us with no choice but to fight, and to kill. They were vicious and relentless, utterly unwilling to listen to us and throwing themselves at us despite their many losses. Not having absorbed love like she had before the wedding, Chrysalis was unable to match me, and they were forced to retreat after having been devastated. Hundreds attacked us. No more than fifty survived.

"I don't know why Chrysalis and her drones were so persistent even in the face of utter defeat. Perhaps they'd run out of other nearby food sources. Perhaps it had become a matter of pride for her. Either way, she came perilously close to fighting to the death of her entire species.

"I cannot deny that several hundred years ago, we were very nearly responsible for the complete extinction of changelings. I would never have done it if I'd had a choice, though. At no point did I ever desire their extermination."

Twilight's eyes were wide.

"This is surprising for you, I'm sure," Celestia continued. "It's not something your average pony knows about. If they find out that the changelings already attacked us once before, it will become even more difficult to convince them not to condemn the entire race. Because of that, I ask that you not tell anyone about this unless you believe it absolutely necessary."

Twilight mulled over this for a moment, hoof to her chin, then nodded. "Of course, Princess. Thank you for trusting me with this." Celestia nodded.

"Anyway," Twilight said, "I think Pincer will be more willing to open up to ponies besides me if I can get him to understand that, but I'm not really sure what to do." She rolled her eyes. "He's just going to say that you're lying about everything so that I'd keep getting him to try to talk so that you can finish the job."

Celestia nodded again. "A lifetime of conditioning is difficult to break, but you've been making steady progress, and so has Pincer. You have been telling him the truth and acting as a friend to him, and it has worked. It's taken time, and it will take more time still, but you have my confidence."

Twilight nodded, her posture having straightened a bit since Celestia began speaking. "Of course, Princess. I'll let you know when I've made my next major breakthrough."

Celestia smiled again. "And I look forward to seeing you again when that happens."

"Me too, Princess."

With that, Twilight bowed, turned, and walked back toward the doors.





"Do you expect me to believe that, Sparkle?"

Twilight merely shook her head; she'd expected Pincer to react this way as soon as Celestia told her the story the previous day. "Well, no. Not if you'd been hearing a different version of the story all your life."

"The real version."

"What makes you so sure? Haven't changelings been wrong before?"

"Chrysalis was there!"

"So was Celestia."

It was Pincer's turn to shake his head. "She has every reason to lie."

"But she hasn't been trying very hard to spread it, has she?" Twilight asked, shifting her weight to her front legs. "Very few ponies know that story, even after the wedding. I'm sure none of them have mentioned it to you since you were captured. Don't you think that if Celestia had made that up to demonize you, she'd be shouting it from the rooftops? I didn't even know about it until I asked her."

Pincer briefly tilted his head up and his eyes flicked towards the ceiling. He'd had limited contact with others during his stay, but not once did he hear any of them mention anything about the events of seven hundred years ago. Even so, he decided, that didn't prove anything.

"She may have told them not to repeat it around me."

Twilight waved a hoof. "Actually, I haven't heard anypony talking about it either. She specifically told me not to repeat it except to you because she didn't want ponies to have another reason to be hostile to you."

Pincer scraped a hoof against the ground. "I still can't trust her. She'd make it look like she was my friend if she thought it would get me to talk."

"Why go through that ruse at all? She knows the Want It Need It spell, too."

She had a point. As formidable as Twilight was, even she paled in comparison to Celestia. Celestia surely had at least one way to force him to give up the answers, possibly more. If this was all some act of cold manipulation, he had a hard time seeing the sense in it.

"Maybe you're right, but what about the others in The Hive? Are you going to tell me she cares about them? I can't say I really care what happens to me if all my friends and family are dead, especially if I have to live knowing it was my fault."

"She wouldn't do that. She just wants to keep Equestria safe."

"I'm sure she does, but how far is she willing to go?"

Twilight frowned for a moment before screwing up her face in thought. Then, with an air of finality, she pulled her posture rigid. "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

Pincer balked. "What?"

"Well, I think that once you try talking to her, you'll understand her better. I'm sure she'd be willing to listen and answer your questions."

"I don't think it would help."

"Why not give it a try, though?" Twilight smiled reassuringly. "You don't have to be afraid. She's not going to hurt you."

"That's not it at all," Pincer said in his best dismissive tone. Twilight stopped smiling, but leaned forward curiously. "It just wouldn't go anywhere."

"You know, I'll bet that for a long time, you felt the same way about talking with me. You won't know until you try." She smiled again.

"What's there to say?" Pincer asked with a shrug.

"You could..." Twilight tapped her chin. "...ask her yourself what she wants. Or tell her about how things have been for you here. I know she'd want to make sure you weren't being mistreated. And besides, do you have much else to do?"

Pincer's thoughts turned back to Nurse Clean Bill, and he found himself wondering if Celestia would be unlike the authorities at The Hive, who would have reacted to such reports with indifference and impatience. He wasn't feeling brave enough to find out.

That was strange to think about. Back when he'd first been captured, some part of him had been hoping that Celestia would want to see him personally. When he'd been completely certain that he was going to die miserably and pointlessly in the castle, the chance to personally defy his greatest enemy before he breathed his last would have been one of only a few small sources of comfort.

Now though, he thought as he looked at Twilight, he had something to lose.

"Actually, there's the book," he said. "The one from yesterday. You gave it to me. It's been very good." He swallowed and drew himself rigid. Having little else to do and enjoying it so much, he'd actually nearly finished it already.

"Thank you," he said, the words nearly running together.

She smiled. "You're welcome. I'd heard from a pony it was one of the best on its subject, and I guess they were right." Her gaze drifted upward, and she frowned. "You can finish reading it before you talk to Celestia, if that's what you want. I know what it's like to be absorbed in a book."

Pincer turned over in his mind what she'd just told him. Even during his infiltration missions, he'd never truly gotten such a chance. When a pony told him to relax and enjoy himself, he still needed to constantly monitor his behavior and be act in certain ways consistent with the personality he'd established for his disguise. Doing what he wanted to because he purely wanted to do it felt almost improper.

Twilight was turning around. "If that's everything, I'll check with you tomorrow," she said.

"Wait."

Her hooves scuffed against the floor as she turned on the spot. She looked at him, eyebrow raised.

"I'll talk to her. Please, as soon as possible."

Twilight's confused expression lingered. "But you just said—"

"You're right. I have questions for her."

"What about your—"

"It can wait."

Twilight blinked. "Well, if that's really what you want, I'll head up to the throne room and ask her if she'd have time to talk with you."

"Yes, thank you," Pincer said with a nod.

"Okay. I should be back in a few minutes. In the meantime, just wait here..." She glanced at the bars and grinned sheepishly. "...though I guess you kind of have to. Sorry, I'll be quick!" She punctuated her statement with an embarrassed laugh, then slipped around a corner and out of view.

Pincer went back to reading his book, but only got through a few pages before Twilight returned. She was positively beaming.

"Great news," she said. "Celestia actually just got done with a long review of some legislation, so she has some time to meet with you!"

"When?" Strain crept into Pincer's voice.

"Right now, actually. The guards are on their way to open your cell."

Pincer felt his stomach drop out of him. "Right now? But, I mean, I wasn't ready. I need more time to think about what I'll say."

"Oh, um, well...." Twilight was blushing, ears laid back. "I already told her you'd be right over, so she'll be expecting you soon."

"You what?"

Twilight cringed. "I'm sorry! Look, it'll be okay. We talked about this. Just tell her what's on your mind and what you're worried she'll do. Then you can go from there."

If there was anything for Pincer to be thankful for about his upbringing, it was that it had made him very adept at hiding fear. "Look, I know you've got enough traditions and rules of conduct in your Royal Court to fill a book, because I read it. I don't want to ruin everything because I forgot the number of seconds to bow or the titles of any of her staff. You need to..." He looked left and right. "...make me sick. You probably have a spell for that. Tell them I suddenly came down with something, then later you can get me the book on royal conduct so I can use it to prepare. No reason to waste a chance."

With an apologetic smile, Twilight shook her head. "There won't be any need for that, really. Celestia's really not as uptight as a lot of the Canterlot nobles are. She's not going to throw you out because you forgot some rule buried in a book. If she was like that, she would've dropped me as her student a long time ago. All you need to do is be polite and respectful, and you'll be fine."

"She's Celestia. Would you be 'polite and respectful' to Queen Chrysalis?"

Before Twilight could answer, they heard the clopping of hooves. Twilight turned, then stepped to the side to let a pair of unicorn guards through the hallway. They stopped in front of Pincer's cell, giving him a good enough look to recognize one of them as Mystic Saber. As the other eyed him, Saber charged his horn with green magical energy. There was a click, and the cell door wearily creaked open.

"Out."

Pincer thought of attacking the guards as an easy way out of the meeting, but he stopped upon seeing that Twilight was smiling hopefully. Suddenly, it felt like assaulting a guard would be a betrayal of her trust. He'd betrayed the trust of plenty of ponies, of course, but that had been false trust placed in who he was pretending to be. Someone who was willing to befriend him and give him a chance despite knowing everything about him was entirely different. Even looking at it from a purely practical standpoint, he doubted she'd be feeding him again if he did.

He fell into formation, Saber in front of him, the other guard behind him. The walk to the throne room, which would've seemed interminable to begin with, dragged on even longer because of the guards' slow, deliberate pace. Once they were out of the dungeons and in the grand halls of the public parts of the castle, here and there he caught glances of Canterlot nobles wandering or chatting with each other. Most stopped to stare as he passed; some narrowed their eyes, others curled their lips, and one recoiled as he passed by.

Finally he was standing in front of the dominating, minutely polished marble and gold doors of Princess Celestia's throne room. Saber said something to the mare standing at the doors, who nodded, opened one, and disappeared inside the throne room. He didn't know how long he had to wait, staring at them, knowing that a great enemy he could never hope to defeat was on the other side. His imagination allowed a fresh wave of terror to seize him by the time they finally slid open completely and the other guard standing at them waved him in. He started walking in forced, stiff motions, as though he were a marionette.

Celestia held up a hoof, signaling him to stop. Standing there, at the center of the room, he was finally forced to look upon her and truly confront the figure he had hated for as long as he could remember.

Pincer had never seen Chrysalis face-to-face, and if what he experienced when he locked eyes with Celestia was any indication, he hoped he never would. As intimidating as Commander Formic was, at least she was an ordinary changeling like himself. Even Twilight's immense magical ability was something he could suppress his fear of because he could pretend she was an ordinary unicorn if he tried hard enough. Such was not possible with Celestia; every single shimmering hair of her mane and tail that billowed in some breeze he could not feel, radiated immeasurable power. Her catlike sitting posture, not betraying the slightest hint of doubt or uncertainty, did nothing to ease his fears. Suddenly, he imagined her calling down burning rays from the heavens, disintegrating him before he could scream. He forced the image out of his mind.

He was thankful that Canterlot tradition, if not cast in iron, gave him an excuse to wait for her to speak first. He couldn't have summoned the words to start a conversation if he had a year.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Pincer," Celestia said. "I understand you were badly injured when my guards found you. I heard from Dr. Hooves that you made a full recovery, though."

"Yes," Pincer said in a wheeze. He took a ragged breath. When he spoke again, his voice came in a low monotone. "I did. I'm fine."

Celestia nodded, and Pincer thought he saw a ghost of a smile play across her face. "I'm glad to know that. I also heard from Twilight that she was able to feed you love."

"She did. She fed me."

Celestia nodded again. "She also tells me that after that happened, she began building up something of a kinship with you."

"Yes. Of sorts."

"I would like you to tell me something, then. After what you've experienced here, are you gaining a better understanding of who we are?"

Pincer's eyes flicked left and right; he felt a trace of comfort knowing that Celestia probably couldn't tell. "Yes."

Celestia chuckled. "I'm afraid you'll have to tell me a bit more than that. What has changed, exactly?"

A silence hung over the throne room as Pincer whipped his mind for words. When he found them, his tone was even. "A pony giving a changeling love, knowing that she was giving it to a changeling, was supposed to be impossible. A pony attempting to befriend a changeling was supposed to be impossible." She looked at him as though expecting him to continue, but he hesitated.

"And yet it's happened," she said. "Is there anything else you see differently now? Anything you might be having second thoughts about?"

Now she was getting to the point. "If you're referring to your plans for us if you find The Hive..." He took a breath. "I can't afford to trust you about that."

"In spite of what you have seen?"

Pincer found it in himself to arch forward slightly. "I was willing to trust Twilight, but their lives aren't mine to risk."

"That's certainly a noble sentiment," Celestia said softly, "and it's one of many reasons why I don't want to destroy your kind. You have already proven to me that you may not be so different from my little ponies. I can assume, then, that you did not believe Twilight when she told you what actually happened seven hundred years ago?"

Pincer shook his head.

"I understand, of course, that you wouldn't immediately disbelieve the story you'd been told your entire life simply because you heard a different one later. I had hoped, however, that conflicting evidence would lead you to reconsider their account of those events."

She flared her wings, rose to a standing position, and began regally striding down the carpeted steps. "Pincer, I want you to come with me."

He shrank back before he could stop himself. "With you? Where?"

"To a local pastry shop."

Pincer blinked. "A... what?"

Celestia came to a stop in front of him. "I'd like you to join me for a mid-afternoon snack at a pastry shop in town. Would you be able to eat the food they have to offer, without transforming first?"

"Um... I can." He felt as if he'd stepped into a fever dream.

"Excellent!" Her warm smile made him uneasy. "Follow me then, please." She slipped past him, slowly walking toward the doors. Pincer was too flummoxed to do anything but fall into position at her side.

Carpet gave way to cobblestone beneath his hooves as they exited the castle. The courtyard was vacant except for a few guards, for which he was grateful. He may not have liked them, but he had come to appreciate their professionalism and restraint.

It was here that they had taken him to exercise daily, though the pegasi monitoring him did not permit him to fly above the castle wall. He didn't particularly enjoy the sessions, but it wasn't because he was eager to fly. He just found himself wishing he could be sparring with Antenna.

It wasn't until they left the castle grounds and entered the bustle and activity of Canterlot proper that Pincer began to feel truly exposed. Though the throngs of ponies readily parted for Celestia and most sank into brief bows as she passed, he noticed enough dubious glances and frowns among them to discern the question everybody had but nobody dared ask. He felt as though he were in the jaws of a vise.

They hadn't been walking long before Celestia was ducking beneath the awning of a modest shop, telekinetically nudging open the door. As he savored a whiff of fruit and fresh-baked bread, he tried to glance through the windows, but their decorative wooden meshes prevented him from seeing into the building.

Some of the ponies inside were already facing them when he stepped inside, their cookies or cakes forgotten. Others, who had been more absorbed in their meals or conversations, twisted on their cushions after their partners gestured towards the door. The clerk, a young earth pony stallion with a smartly-cropped mane and a bowtie, left his duties neglected; he simply stood and waited. Celestia came to a stop in the middle of the room and looked about.

"Everybody, I would like to introduce you to Pincer. Yes, he is a changeling. But he is not here as an enemy soldier or a prisoner. He is here as my personal guest, and I expect that you treat him with the same courtesy you would any other guest of the Crown. Is that understood?"

At first, the diners and staff just looked among and between themselves, as though looking for assurance that this was part of some elaborate joke, but gradually everyone's gazes drifted towards the clerk. Pincer could have sworn he saw the clerk's pupils shrink, but a moment later he cleared his throat, lightly bowed, and looked Celestia in the eyes.

"I understand perfectly, Your Majesty. Pincer will, of course, be given the hospitality any of our customers would."

Celestia smiled. "I knew I could count on your establishment to live up to its reputation. Thank you." She looked down at Pincer. "As my guest, you may order first. Choose whatever you please. Money will not be an issue."

Nudged forward by her gaze, Pincer walked up to the wooden counter, the only sound the tapping of his hooves. First he looked down through the window in the counter's side, behind which he saw rows of fat donuts and golden-brown pies. Then he looked up at the sign listing the prices. Finally he looked at the clerk, whose leg twitched.

"Donut with vanilla frosting. Please."

"Of course, sir," said the clerk a bit too loudly. He dug out a paper bag from a dispenser on the counter, bent down, and pushed one of the donuts into it. He then dropped it onto the table for Pincer.

"Thanks." Pincer leaned forward to pick the bag up with his teeth, but stopped. A pony who was already skittish about changelings probably wouldn't react well to one moving toward him while showing a mouthful of fangs. He instead pulled the bag against his chest and dipped his head down to grab it.

After Celestia had placed her order, a key lime cupcake, she paid the clerk and seated herself on one of the cushions at a table Pincer had been hovering by. Pincer let his bag fall to the table and took a cushion perpendicular to her.

They ate in silence. The other customers slipped into pale imitations of what their activities had been before the two had entered, their nibbles and sips or questions about the weather schedule interspersed with stolen glances towards Pincer and Celestia. The donut didn't taste offensive compared to any he'd had during his time as a spy in Canterlot, but his mind was so occupied by the many eyes on him that he couldn't spare it more attention than that.

As their snacks diminished, so did his confidence that Celestia would accomplish anything meaningful under the silence and stares. He began looking back at some in turn. Some had eyes narrowed, others had eyes wide, but none of those eyes met his. 

By the time his donut was gone and Celestia was dabbing the last crumbs off of her cheeks, Pincer had become certain that she had proven the exact opposite of what she'd intended to. There was nothing normal about this; he was being accepted solely by Celestia's insistence. He felt disappointed, almost cheated. Could the matriarch of Equestria, one who had entertained countless guests of high esteem and met with diplomats from across the world, really be responsible for such a farce?

"Well, Pincer, are you ready to leave?" she asked lightly. "And did you enjoy your food?"

Pincer nodded. What else was there to do when faced with such a reaction? It was strange precisely because Celestia didn't seem to notice anything strange.

They headed back to the castle, and gradually his utter confusion shoved his fear out of his mind entirely. Why, after that horribly awkward scene, did Celestia act as though everything had gone perfectly fine? The thought was still nagging him even as they entered the throne room.

The moment the throne room door closed behind them, Celestia smiled down at Pincer. "We've certainly taken an important step today, haven't we?" she asked.

Pincer inched away from Celestia's side and faced her. "I don't really know," he said, shaking his head. "There was nothing normal or casual about that outing. Everyone was staring and everywhere we passed became dead quiet. That's not what blending in looks like."

"Yes, everything you said is true," said Celestia. "I would have been a fool to expect otherwise. Even so, today they have accepted a changeling openly dining with them, however grudgingly. They have heard and carried out my desires of how you should be treated. They know there is at least one changeling out there who I have accepted and who lives here peacefully."

"That doesn't mean anything. They still would've caved my headplate in if you hadn't been there."

"Does it? I think you'll find that my authority is rather highly regarded in this land." She winked. "It will take them time to adjust to your presence. Now tell me, what do you suppose would happen if you came to that shop another day with my student? They would believe her when she told them that it had been done with my approval because you've already been to that store with my approval. Some of them might not like it, but Twilight wouldn't let them hurt you no matter how much they wanted to.

"After the twentieth or thirtieth time they see you accompanying one pony or another on a social visit to Canterlot without incident, I think many of them will come to accept that you are not a danger. It may take time, but it is possible to come to trust someone you have been led to fear."

Pincer hadn't forgotten the initial reason Celestia had given for this field test, and its outcome hadn't done anything to convince him that the version of history Twilight gave him was accurate. He wasn't sure he'd believe it even if everything worked as she expected. Even so, there seemed to be little harm in trying. With Twilight's company, it might even be enjoyable.

"I'll do it. Please inform Twilight."

"I will, Pincer. Is there anything else you'd like to discuss before we conclude our meeting?" she said warmly.

Pincer tapped a hoof against the floor. "No, nothing."

Celestia nodded. "In that case, you may consider yourself dismissed." She then frowned.

"Because you are still a prisoner of the Crown, however, I'm afraid that you will have to return to your cell now." With a turn of her head and a glow of her horn, the doors swung open.

"Lieutenant Saber, escort Pincer back to his cell."

He slowly fell in line between Saber and another guard, offering no resistance as they walked him back.