//------------------------------// // My Two Moms // Story: The Flower Ponies Tame The Changelings // by Cyndaquil //------------------------------// “Say Pinkie,” asked Rarity, “do you think Daisy is acting a bit odd.” Pinkie looked at who she thought was Daisy. She was watering her flowers. A colt walked up to her from behind, wanting to buy daffodils for his mare friend. Sensing his presence, she turned and hissed, all the while retracting her body into a pouncing position. “No why?” Pinkie asked. Nobody missed the flower ponies, because top changeling infiltrators were assigned to impersonate them. This was their punishment for failing to abduct Applejack last week. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Far away, in the crystal empire, a white stallion told a pink mare that last night had been very special. The mare asked “Oh, why is that?” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx On their first night, the flower ponies shivered atop cold slabs of stone in an odd house. The house appeared to be made of honeycomb, though it had a sickly green colour and none were tempted to lick the sticky exterior. It did smell nice. Two changelings were stationed outside the house, pacing across the front door. The girls assumed they were guards. They’d be quite surprised and even perplexed to learn that they were actually attendants meant to see to the ponies comfort. After two days, Roseluck was finally mad enough to scream at what they thought were their jailers. She told them that the beds were too hard, that they were freezing, that they needed food. The attendants were pleased that they finally had a chance to be useful. Roseluck just watched, perplexed as one changeling moved to the side of the house. There was an outdoor wood stove, its design utterly alien to the ponies. It was connected to the house via a series of intake and exhaust radiator pipes. Soon the house was comfortably warm, while a dinner was being prepared on the stove. They feasted on grilled vegetables, fruits, nuts, and even a type of cake with zucchini baked into it. Every morning the changelings escorted them out to an overgrown forested area. There they cleared trees and dug out roots, preparing the area to become farm land. They ran into a similar situation here. There were several changelings just sitting in the trees within sight, and leering at them menacingly. One day, while trying to yank out a particularly difficult root with her teeth, Daisy let go for a second and screamed “You know you could help me!” to one of the changelings. The changeling leapt from the tree and eagerly tried to do what he’d seen Daisy doing. Eventually the ponies realized that the changelings were actually worker drones, physical labourers. They were the ones who were supposed to be toiling with the earth, and the flower ponies could have just taught, supervised, and directed them all this time. Changelings were hard workers, though they needed to be told everything. There was one changeling who Daisy always wanted close to her. It was the one she believed had once been Big Macintosh. Of course no drone here had ever been a pony. This was simply a deception that Chrysalis had devised. Daisy, like many girls in Ponyville, had a crush on the manly stallion. Drone was willing to take his form, even though work was actually harder without the strength and natural armour his proper body possessed. As for Chrysalis, she’d been strangely absent for days. Once Daisy asked Drone where she was. He found a simple seed and presented it to her. She had no idea what this meant. Lily, though the most knowledgable about farming techniques, was by far the worst worker. She was a bundle of nerves jumping if a changeling so much as breathed on her. As a result she would feint sickness from time to time and just stay in her honeycomb home under the warm covers the attendants eventually brought her. One day they saw Chrysalis return. Lily wasn’t there. “What do we do?” Daisy cried. “Big Mac,” she turned to Drone, “if Chrysalis sees that Lily isn’t working she’ll be mad. I don’t think the poor dear could take a visit from Chrysalis, she’s so afraid of her.” Chrysalis landed in one of the cleared area’s. Her body appeared fuller than before. She certainly wasn’t bloated, her appearance was almost normal compared to how thin she usually was. The Queen looked at her changelings, making sure they were all hard at work. She then looked at the ponies. Roseluck was directing some changelings to safety fall a tree . Daisy started reading something, even though she didn’t know what. Finally she saw Lily helping two changelings pull a root. She sniffed at the one who looked like Lily, then smiled. ‘That’s it Drone,’ she thought, ‘convince them you’re their ally. Give them false hope so that they work harder.’ Looking pleased, Chrysalis flew off. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Around noon, Chysalis laid a bakers dozen of eggs. Contractions came upon her rather suddenly, so she laid them in her palace, then called some servants to transport them to the hatchery. She was a bit anemic, and so didn’t follow them right away. Later that day, Lily forced herself out of bed. She figured she may as well get some work done, feeling guilty that the others toiled away and didn’t even complain about her long absences. On her way to the scheduled farm land, she heard a cart coming up from behind her. Lily stepped to the side. The cart was filled with hay, and the hay had strange objects mixed into it. Perhaps it was some sort of melon. They were dark, yet not quite opaque. From within the objects a teal light did shine through. It was teal just like the mane of Chrysalis. Lily stopped as an idea occurred to her. Could those be eggs? Then she heard a plop. Just as the cart passed her, one of the eggs fell from it, into a muddy ditch. ‘What do I do?’ She thought. Lily rushed to the egg. It didn’t appear to be cracked. She was about to touch it when she remembered. Certain birds will reject their own eggs if it gets the smell of an enemy on it. It was probably silly to even consider that this could be the case for changelings, they were thinking beings after all. On the other hand, they did seem to rather enjoy their own animalistic tendencies. Lily ran ahead of the cart. “Stop she cried.” The changeling pulling the cart snarled at her. “Wait please listen. You dropped an egg.” The changeling did not listen. He growled as snapped his mouth at Lily. When she persisted the changeling finally bit her. Lily yowled in pain. It was only a minor wound, yet here was where she backed off. Soon the cart was gone. Lily ran back to the egg. She was mortified to see the teal glow had become fainter. ‘It’s getting cold,’ she thought. When Lily touched it the glow brightened a bit. She emptied out her saddle bag, letting her tools fall in the mud. Next she placed the egg inside, hoping her own body would keep it warm. Lily would just have to sneak the egg back to the hatchery herself. First she ran down the road, staying just a few paces behind the cart. She waited until the cart entered the hatchery. The hatchery was inside a cave. One guard covered the entrance. She waited behind a piece of honeycomb, looking at the egg from time to time to make sure it still had a glow. The brightness was fine, though the colour was a little off. Finally the guard took a bathroom break. Stealthily she snuck into the hatchery. It was warm inside, warm enough for the eggs. The cart driver returned from his delivery. Lily hid as he passed her. He stopped once and sniffed around. Lily cradled the egg, more concerned about it then her own life. She tried her best to slow her breathing. Finally the cart driver moved on. Soon Lily found the other eggs. They were still scattered in straw and grass. Carefully she inched her way closer to return the egg to its brothers and sisters. “Don’t.” The voice had come from behind her. Lily froze. The hairs stood up on the back of her neck. She stuttered a few times before managing to speak. “I was just putting this egg back. I didn’t steal it, it fell out of a cart.” Chrysalis approached from behind. She breathed on Lily’s back, then circled around her until she was standing between Lily and the other eggs. “Don’t mix that in with my eggs.” “This is your egg.” “Hardly, the light emanating from my eggs is a teal colour, it matches my mane. Look at your egg.” She looked. The light was amber, like her own mane, and brighter than before. “Take that away from my brood,” Chrysalis demanded. “How can you be so cruel?” “Cruel!” The Queen of the changelings laughed a long and disturbing laugh. “You’re the one who is being cruel. You who would put that child in amongst a litter of proper changelings.” Lily didn’t understand. “You’ve been feeding that unborn infant. The warmth of your body was filled with your protective feelings, your worry, your affection. You fed it. Now what hatches won’t be a proper changeling. It’s adapted. Our unborn infants don’t just change, they adapt. The other hatchlings won’t understand this. They may be curious why that one changeling is different or they may just try to play with it like they would any brother or sister. The result will be the same. With no armour, the fangs and mandibles of it’s siblings will rend apart the skin of this abnormal changeling. Returning that egg now is the most cruel thing you could possibly do.” “I’m sorry,” Lily cried. “I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to.” In truth she barely even understood. Lily cradled the egg, crying. “Quit bawling,” Chrysalis hissed. “You showed courage coming here, before I thought you were the weakest pony I had ever seen. Now I think your one of the strongest. Take the egg.” Did she just say take it? Lily looked at the egg, then at Chrysalis. “Leave!” Chrysalis snarled. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The decision Chrysalis made today was not made casually, nor did it sit well with her. She just hoped her captain had at least dropped the right egg. Even she didn’t know at just a glance. While pondering her choices she partook of the fermented nectar and so made herself tipsy. Drone found her late that night, and helped her to her bedroom “My mother was beautiful you know.” Chrysalis told the drone. Drone felt no need to respond. Chrysalis had told this story many times before. “You may not believe this. My mother had a velvety coat of pink fur, a golden horn, and a darker pink mane. If it helps your imagination, she looked like that twit, Princess Cadance.” Chrysalis held in some vomit, then breathed for a moment before continuing her story. “That’s another thing they had in common. They were both twits.” The door opened to her bedchambers “I am so lucky. My egg rolled under the bed. Imagine what I’d have been if she’d nurtured my egg. I was born around the time of the pestilence. If my body wasn’t designed to hunt, I might have ended up just like her.” There was a lavish double queen bed at the centre of Chrysalis’s room. The mattress was stuffed with the most downy of Pegasus feathers. It had silk sheets and a cozy fur comforter. Chrysalis crawled under the bed. This is were she always slept. The drone tried to nuzzle her face in an affectionate manner. She pushed him away.