Then she noticed it. If it weren’t for the hundreds of contracts and agreements she’d signed in the last few days, she would have never noticed. In the crowd of Rainbow Dashes was a single black, holed leg. Applejack followed her eyes and also saw the single flaw.
“There!” She pulled out her lasso and threw it. The flawed changeling tried to hide, but the rope already hit. “Easy there!” The other Rainbow Dashes stepped aside. The arrogant smiles they had all transformed with fell to frowns as the flawed changeling was dragged to the main group.
“Looks like some pony didn’t do their homework!” Pinkie Pie announced as the real ponies crowded the partly formed Rainbow Dash.
“What’s the big idea?” Rainbow scolded. The changeling cowered.
“I thought the transformation was perfect!” Rarity said while holding up a confused Rainbow Dash in her magic. “The color patterns are the right hue, their wings are all the same size with the same number of feathers, and this one even has her bed head perfected!”
“Hey! I’m the real deal!” Rainbow yelled while fighting out of Rarity’s levitation. “And my mane is just fine!”
Cadence approached the changeling with caution. Until this point, the changelings had obeyed her order. Why now, when the Elements of Harmony were here, would they attempt to ambush them?
“Maybe it’s a traitor?” Twilight suggested.
“I knew couldn’t trust ‘em!” Applejack said with a stomp of her hoof.
“Is this the only one, or are there others?” Shining Armor asked outloud. The Rainbow Dashes tensed up. Shining galloped into the crowd with determination to find any other defects.
“I’ll help too!” Rainbow said. “They don’t deserve to be me if they aren’t loyal!” She zoomed over the crowd diligently.
The failed Rainbow Dash changeling quivered fearfully as all eyes were back on it. All except two, kind blue ones. Fluttershy ran between the accusing glares and the changeling.
“Wait!” She cried. When every pony looked at her, she shrunk and hid behind her mane. “…please?” Fluttershy got back on her feet and gave her attention to the malformed Rainbow Dash. “I don’t think you’re a traitor.” Fluttershy’s voice shifted from adult pony to baby bunny caretaker. The changeling looked pleadingly at his only hope of survival. “I think you’re just misunderstood! Isn’t that right?” Fluttershy hugged it with a compassionate embrace much like a foal. She pet Rainbow’s forelock and smiled as she released. “Why don’t you tell us why you can’t be Rainbow Dash, huh?” The changeling looked to his queen.
“What?” She looked around. “Yes, um, you have permission to speak.”
“My greatest apologizes my queen and friend of queen,” its voice was a perfect replica of Rainbow’s. It was a strange thing to hear it talk so lowly and humble rather than bold and arrogant. “None of us have eaten since Chrysalis executed phase one of the Canterlot Invasion.” Twilight’s eyes moved to the crowd of Rainbows. They were all looking away in shame as their fellow changeling spoke.
“Oh goodness!” Fluttershy hugged it again. “How awful! You must all be starving!” The false Rainbow Dash bit his tongue and pushed away the yellow pony. She shuttered.
“Please do not.” Rainbow said, shivering as though Windigoes were passing through.
“Here are the other ones that don’t change,” Shining announced. Behind him were ten partially transformed changelings all looking fearful and nervous.
“I found this one with this big bag!” The real Rainbow said. Behind her was a sad looking Rainbow Dash imposter with a large bag in her mouth. It dragged on the floor.
Cadence looked at the ten changeling hybrids and Rainbow Dash with the bag. They all expressed fear and a degree of pain to their queen. Being the Princess of Love, she could not allow such sadness to continue. These poor Rainbow Dash hybrids needed her.
“Rainbow Dashes,” Every changeling stood at attention. Cadence froze at all the faces looking at her with the resolution of a soldier. “Please…wait out here,”
“How shall we-?”
“I don’t care!” Cadence yelled. “Just…just relax and don’t cause trouble!” The princess nudged Twilight. “Twilight, I want you and the Elements of Harmony to watch over the rest of the changelings while I talk to the others.”
“Of course,”
Cadence opened the door to her office.
“You ten who could not change and you with the bag, please come in,” They obeyed with low heads. Shining Armor went in next and Cadence soon behind. A purple hoof stopped her.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Twilight asked. The princess herself did not notice, but she was shaking and looking quite pale.
“I’ll be alright. I’m the Princess of the Crystal Empire. I’m more concerned about you and your friends.” They looked over at the herd of Rainbows. They were either napping, standing, sitting, or watching the pink one assault one of their fellow changelings.
“I’m Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie Pie said while holding up a fake Rainbow Dash’s wings. “Watch me do a Sonic Rainboom! Raaaaaaaaaain!” She cried while shaking the poor creature’s tail and blowing on its head to simulate wind. “BOOM!!”
“I don’t think they will be a problem,” Twilight grinned at her friend’s antics. “You’re the queen, they have to listen to what you say.” Cadence shuddered.
“Don’t remind me…” She said sadly and went into her office.
The eleven misfit changelings sat in a neat row in front of the princess’s desk. Cadence sat at said desk with her husband next to her.
“Tell me, what happened after the Changeling Invasion?” Cadence asked. They looked around. She decided to point at one who had a changeling eye on one side and a pony eye on the other.
“After we buried the previous queen and said our good byes to our dead brethren, we trekked from the Badlands to here in the Frozen North to find you.” The fake Rainbow explained.
“How?” Shining asked with furrowed brows. “You would have to go through Equestria to get from the Badlands to the Frozen North.” The changeling looked at his queen. She nodded so it proceeded.
“We went through the forests,” The two royal ponies’ jaws dropped. “Is that an indication more detail is necessary?” They nodded. “We went through all the various forests of Equestria without being seen. The former queen had kept a map of the land so we followed it.”
“A whole herd of changeling ran through Equestria and no pony noticed?!” Shining exclaimed. It nodded.
“We were not noticed by ponies.” It said. Cadence looked at the changeling carefully. It was a soldier’s stance, but its eyes were still those of a being with emotion and a heart. When it said ‘ponies’, its eyes moved for just a moment.
“You said no pony noticed you?”
“Yes, we were not noticed by any ponies,” the same movement occurred. Cadence grimaced.
“If you weren’t noticed by ponies, what were you noticed by on the way here?” The other changelings flinched and looked nervous. A normal pony may not see through the ‘perfect soldier’ façade, but Cadence had learned how to pick up small indications of emotion through body movement. The lead Rainbow gulped.
“We…we were noticed by various…monsters, predators, and demons on our trip.” The changeling tried to act without emotion, but the stress turned its other eye back to a solid, teal green. “There were more of us at the beginning of the trip, your highness,” Cadence’s eyes widened in absolute shock.
“But you must have had the advantage of numbers!” Shining said. Cadence nodded for it to continue.
“Perhaps, but we were brought here on instinct alone. When predators…came, we had no leader to guide us. We had to learn from…mistakes in order to defeat the enemy. More often than not, we ran from them. But…” The changeling finally let its guard down. It turned away and accidentally turned Rainbow’s feathered wings into insect-like changeling wings. “You can’t… you can’t out run a hungry Ursa Major.” Cadence looked at the bag the Rainbow on the far side held. She gulped. Were their fallen comrades…collected?
“My queen,” The Rainbow bowed, “You are looking at my bag, yes? Did you wish to see what was in it?” Cadence didn’t move. She didn’t want corpses of the vile creatures in her office! While the fake pony let the bag out of her mouth, a lump moved.
“AAAAAHHHHH!!!” She screamed. The lump continued to move until it was out in the open. It was a miniature changeling but with bigger, childish eyes, no wings, and fewer, smaller holes on its legs. Her pupils enlarged at the sight. The Rainbow Dash responsible for the bag became nervous.
“Please have mercy on this nymph, my queen!” The adult stood in front of the youth. “She did not know you did not wish to see her!”
“But Annie, I’m hungry,” The little changeling whined. The child looked at Cadence. “Are you the new queen? Please, may we have something to eat? I’m so hungry and you have all that love-” The older changeling covered her mouth with her hoof.
“Silence! I told you we must respect our queen!” The fake Rainbow hissed. The nymph nodded and ‘Annie’ released her mouth.
Through changeling eyes…
The nymph stared at her new queen. There was so much love radiating off her it filled the room! The smell was intoxicating him. The older changelings had told stories of the most delicious and savory love called unconditional love. This love she almost seemed to be made of had to be it! However, it took all of her strength not to take a quick sample of the delicacy that sat in the room as it just sat in the air so temptingly.
Cadence could not help but stare at the drool coming off the child’s fangs and the longing desire of food in its eyes. It was pretty gross and the thing would not stop staring. She put on a fake smile.
“Is there something…wrong, little changeling?” Cadence asked through her teeth. The foal looked to ‘Annie’. She nodded.
“Can I have some of your love please? Just a little bit?” It asked. Cadence would have screamed in horror at such a request, but it seemed changeling children could effectively use puppy eyes as well.
“Um…” Cadence thought for a moment. She never actually saw love being taken. Chrysalis had her husband under a mind control spell, but she never saw a love stealing spell. A hoof touched her shoulder.
“Don’t do it,” Shining warned, “Don’t forget about all the migraines I got after Chrysalis’s spell,” Cadence moved his hoof.
“But that was the mind control spell. Do you remember what the love stealing spell felt like?” She asked.
“Well…” Shining thought back. After the incident, Cadence told him when she was abducted. His fiancée had been in the shower when Chrysalis stole her from the bathroom window. The fake Cadence cuddled on the couch next to him like nothing was wrong. That was when he felt a tingling sensation. “…it tingled?”
“Permission to speak, my queen?” Annie asked.
“Yes,” Cadence said.
“Unless a pony is low on magic, the process should not be painful at all. As your guard said, victims will only feel a tingle.” She said.
What was she supposed to do? If she denied the child’s request, it would give her awful puppy-dog eyes. If she allowed the child’s request, she risked having all her love and magic taken from her! Cadence looked around nervously. Her husband looked firm on protecting her. The false Rainbow Dashes looked pleadingly at her. Annie seemed to try and assure her nothing bad would happen. And the child had little tears in its eyes.
“Um…okay-”
“Yay!” The child’s horn glowed green. Cadence felt a tingling sensation in her body. It was no more of a disturbance than a fly landing on her. “Thank you, my queen! May she be praised!”
“May she be praised!” The other changelings in the room echoed. They all bowed. Cadence looked at her hooves.
“It just…tingled…” she said to herself. The monsters she feared just ate her love…and almost nothing happened. She quickly looked back over at the bowing changelings. “Is it this easy to feed you?” She pointed to Annie.
“Yes,”
“Are you all hungry?”
“Yes,” Annie answered on behalf of her fellow changelings. “None of us have eaten since our quest to seek the new queen,”
“Not once?” Shining asked. Just as before, Annie waited for her queen to nod.
“Not love, at least. We had to rely on basic foods like grass, hay, leaves, and wild fruits. It is up to the queen to find food for her subjects.”
And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects.
Chrysalis’s voice echoed in her head. Cadence was the queen now. Without her, the changelings would starve.
“Can’t you live on physical foods? You did before,” Shining suggested. And again, Cadence signaled her to speak.
“No, not forever. We could gorge ourselves on various meals, but without love, our bodies cannot process the food itself. It will sit in our bodies and do nothing. Cells will no longer be able to create energy and without energy, we will not be able to perform the simplest transformations.” Annie pointed to the misfit Rainbow Dashes. Upon further inspection, their disguises were getting worse. One had holes in his blue furred legs. Another had his fangs showing. “First, the body attempts to make up for the lack of nutrition by absorbing portions of the flesh itself creating holes. Second, the ability to change deteriorates until it is lost completely. Third, the body will purge all materials in the digestive system to further conserve love energy. Finally, often a few days after the purge, the changeling will lie down, become still, and never move again.” The changelings all bowed their heads and lowered their ears.
The princess stomped her hoof into her desk catching everyone’s attention.
“I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. I am the Princess of Love so as such, I refuse to let any creature go unloved as long as I can help it!”