//------------------------------// // Chapter 19 - Homing Instinct // Story: Changelings, Love and Lollipops // by Georg //------------------------------// Changelings, Love and Lollipops Chapter 19 Homing Instinct The changeling blinked, but that did not change the sight of the furious Nightmare standing over his previously peaceful shaded resting spot. In the background, he could still hear the happy splashing sounds of the little ponies playing in the pond, a distant chirping of a bird, and the sudden hammering of his heart. The indigo bonds of magic still wrapped him securely from hooves to face so he could not scream or thrash as he so much wanted to do as The Nightmare lowered her head and growled. “Why hast thou—” The changeling couldn’t help it. He fainted. * * * The star-strewn night sky of the Dreamscape surrounded the changeling on all sides as he opened his eyes and took a deep breath to scream. The Nightmare remained almost perfectly aligned with her place in the waking world, staring down at him dispassionately as she continued the speech she had started before he fainted. “—ignored the summons of thine— With a screech of terror, he woke up. * * * …and found himself still held in The Nightmare’s magic underneath the same tree as she continued to talk. “—duplicitous Queen of the Changelings in order to— He still could not help it. He fainted again. * * * Endless darkness covered the world, with only the smallest of silver flickers of light to show there was still anything in existence beyond his eyelids. In that infinite darkness, something which drank the remaining bits of light like a sponge coiled and writhed, coming closer and closer with the hiss of scales and the faint scent of draconic breath. One tiny fleck of silver at a time, the lights vanished as the immense bulk of a titanic beast formed in front of him, the only sign of its size being two slits of deep blue-green far, far above his head. With a rumble of massive scales pressed against each other, the eyes grew closer, and closer, until an entire cavern of needle-sharp teeth opened up below them and a voice more powerful than the mountains bellowed. Awaken! * * * The changeling woke up trembling in the restraints of The Nightmare’s powerful magic and prevented from screaming by the magical barrier across his mouth. He gave several convulsive spasms in an attempt to escape, changing forms from pony foal to hefty guard back to his normal chitin-covered form before remaining almost rigid on the slightly-damp grass. The Nightmare looked down on him, her face set in a grim frown and with no mercy in her voice. “Art thou going to faint upon us again?” The changeling shook his head as much as he could. The Nightmare cleared her throat. “As I was saying, why hast thou ignored the summons of thy queen? Dost thou have a nefarious plan involving dear, sweet Pinkie Pie, or is this another of Chrysalis’s devious ploys to see just how far she can push the conditions of our treaty? Our temper hath been restrained while waiting for the last of your ilk to be cleansed from our lands, but we hath reached our limits. Speak, before I lose my temper.” There was an exceedingly long silence before the changeling meekly squeaked against the magic bonds that covered his mouth. The stern facade on The Nightmare cracked with a tiny bit of embarrassment before the magical gag across his face faded away. He took a quick glance in the direction of the pond and the happily splashing ponies in it before swallowing and working up his nerve. “I’m deaf. I mean deaf to the hivemind,” he quickly added as The Nightmare took a deep breath of her own. “I can’t hear the hive any more, and since I’d just be killed there, I was starting to think I might… stay here.” Go home… He was expecting a rumble of thunder and a flash of lightning that would reduce him and the tree he was under into smoking ashes. The last thing he expected was the terrifying Nightmare to blink in astonishment and take a step backwards, casting her own surreptitious glance at the pond full of splashing ponies who had not noticed her arrival yet. Taking a step forward again and tucking her spread wings back onto her flanks, The Nightmare shook her head and regarded him with puzzlement. “Our agreement with thy queen is most clear. Wouldst thou risk open warfare among our kind for a single changeling, or is this some ploy of your ilk to see how far we can be moved in our negotiations?” “It’s not a trick.” He flared with a soft green light and resumed his yellow unicorn disguise. “I think I could. Stay here as a pony, that is. Since I lost my connection to the hivemind, my hive won’t accept me any more. I’ll be killed if I go home.” Go home… “Are you sure he can’t stay, Princess Luna?” An extremely damp and dripping Pinkie Pie had somehow slipped up next to The Nightmare and regarded her with big sorrowful eyes. “I’ll keep him fed and let him sleep in my bed so he won’t cause any trouble. He’s been really handy around Sugarcube Corner with the baking and the serving and the cleaning and my heat… Oopsie, I probably shouldn’t have said that. But it was only one or two or twelve times and it won’t happen again unless it does and you don’t have to worry about us making a bunch of little pink buggies because changelings and ponies can’t cross-breed well I suppose they can but they can’t have any little foals out of it no matter how much fun it is trying or how many times they try which is probably a good thing for Twilight because I don’t think she could accept a cute little buggie niece or nephew no matter how huggie and kissie they are. I’ll even keep him tied up so he won’t get out at night.” The changeling helpfully held up the tattered pink ribbon which was still tied to one leg. She’s treating you like a pet… The Nightmare looked between damp pink pony and cringing disguised changeling with increasing displeasure before turning to Pinkie Pie. “The creature is simply using you, Miss Pie. By spell or pheromones, he has addled your mind. We shall take him away and return him to his kind so that you may recover from his mental influence in the company of your friends.” Finally!… “She’s right, Pinkie,” he said with a sudden leaden feeling in his chest as all of the little voices he had been attempting to ignore suddenly made sense. “All I’m doing is feeding off your love. I’m a changeling. I can’t give it back.” “Liar,” whispered Pinkie Pie. “You just don’t know how. I can teach you.” “No, you can’t,” he responded as the leaden feeling spread across the rest of his body until he might as well have been turned to stone. “I just realized something. I can hear the hivemind now. I’ve just been ignoring it by trying to pretend to be something I’m not.” He took a deep breath and just listened for a long moment to the faint whispers that had been on the edge of his hearing for his entire life. Ponies could never understand what it was like to be so close to so many others, somewhat like being with Pinkie Pie but multiplied by thousands. And with less cannons. It brought him joy to be reunited with his hive, but that happiness was far outweighed by the crushing responsibility that a changeling bore to his fellow ‘lings. As much as he wanted to stay, now he had no excuse. A pony, even Pinkie Pie, was not more important than his hive. His home. Go home… “The Nightmare is right,” said the changeling with a brief sniff. “I’ve probably been manipulating your emotions, even if I don’t realize it.” A sharp fluctuation in the emotions of the area made him look up into the eyes of the dark alicorn, who had begun to radiate a smoldering rage just one step away from bursting into flame. Out of reflex, he lowered his head and tried to put as much of an apologetic tone into his words as possible. “I’m sorry, Princess Luna. I’ll go back home, but can I please stay with Pinkie for a little while longer? Just a day or two until she has a chance to get used to me leaving. I may not be able to love her in the way she loves me, but I don’t want to hurt her any more than I already have. Once I leave, I won’t be coming back. Changelings never return.” There was a very long silence in which he could only hear the alicorn’s breathing, short and strong breaths as if she were mentally wrestling with the idea. Finally, she spoke in a much calmer voice with just a hint of regret. “Very well, for Pinkie Pie’s sake. We do not believe that you wish to keep her from harm, but it seems she has developed a certain bond with you. No changeling could possibly develop feelings of their own for a…” The dark alicorn paused, as if she had caught a whiff of something drifting through the air. Closer and closer, that inquisitive nose descended until it pressed against his disguised head to part the orange and red stripes of his mane… And sniffed. The Nightmare’s eyebrows shot up and she recoiled back with a look of astonishment. “Thou didn’t!” “Several times,” he blurted out, “although we couldn’t figure out how to use the bridle.” To his growing horror, he could see The Nightmare’s tail begin to rise, as well as her wings. “Pheromones!” he added in a blind panic. “I must be leaking them again! Don’t…” He trailed off, trying to figure out just what he did not want her to do. Detailing a full list would take hours, but he had several entries which would be on top of the list. * * * “Good evening, Queen Chrysalis,” said The Nightmare with a giggle as she glided into the queen’s throne room on wings of darkness. “I hath brought thy missing subject.” An indigo glow of her magic brought out a somewhat rumpled dark form, looking much like a deflated changeling balloon, which the Nightmare placed at the foot of Chrysalis’ throne. “Thank you, Princess Luna,” snarked the queen, prodding at the listless heap of deflated changeling with one hoof. “Was he any trouble?” “Oh, no,” breathed The Nightmare with a tremble to her coat that traveled down her neck and across her flank. “He was wonderful. Which reminds me. There is just one thing I wanted to add to the conditions of our peace treaty.” She floated over a scroll, which Queen Chrysalis examined with interest. “You would offer these generous concessions in exchange for two of our subjects every month? Why two?” The Nightmare giggled again. “Don’t be silly. Celly and I share everything.” * * * The changeling froze in a rigid stance, too terrified to think of fleeing even if The Nightmare’s magic was not still wrapped around his limbs. There was an… expression on The Nightmare’s face, much as if she had seen something which could not be unseen, or perhaps in her role as Princess of Dreams having viewed a rather nearby daydream with unusual clarity. One tiny fraction of an eternity at a time, The Nightmare’s tail descended, her wings folded back onto her sides, and a particular look of ravenous hunger faded into a firm glare of unyielding willpower. “We will send our guards to take him home tomorrow,” she stated with unusual force, before releasing him from her magical bonds and striding away. Pinkie did not even wait for a second step before slipping up besides him and wrapping him in a soggy hug that made his bones creak. It was a restrained embrace, relatively, and he found himself contributing to it in equal measure while watching The Nightmare… No, Princess Luna walk through the meadow, down the road and away from them. The alicorn paused at the intersection of two roads, read the sign, and turned quite solidly to the right before accelerating her brisk stride to a rapid gallop. “Um… Pinkie?” he hazarded as the pony in question began nibbling up the side of his neck. “I’m leaking pheromones again, so you probably shouldn’t… That’s really… We really should get some of Zecora’s potion into you.” He glanced at the pond where the happy little ponies were still splashing and playing, and then to the road that led to Zecora’s forest home, which he could have sworn was down the left-side path while Sweet Apple Acres was down the right-side path. Then he looked at Pinkie, who had nibbled her way up to his nose. “Right?” “It will wait,” she whispered, pulling him behind the tree and out of sight of the little ponies in the pond. “We only have a day.” ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ “…and that’s how we wound up covered in so much poison ivy, Twilight.” Pinkie Pie had not quit scratching and itching since they had sent word with the damp little ponies to retrieve the sheltered librarian, who showed up in a full-body suit complete with respirator. After setting down some orange cones around them and unlimbering a large steel cylinder with a hose, Twilight Sparkle proceeded to spray both of them down with a sudsy solution that smelled of elderberries “Scrub my back?” asked Pinkie, holding out a scrub brush. Where did that brush come from?… “Only if you scrub mine too,” he said, holding out a brush of his own and trying to ignore the wheedling little voice in the back of his head. “Would you two give it a rest?” said Twilight Sparkle, somewhat muffled by the containment suit she was wearing. “What were you even doing in the… never mind. I don’t want to know.” From the unbroken pouring of curiosity, it was obvious that she was lying, but the changeling kept his mouth shut. Besides, she was far too accurate with the stream of suds, and far too impatient to wait for long. “So, you said Princess Luna gave you one more day in Ponyville,” started Twilight Sparkle, once the scrubbing was fairly well underway. “That’s right!” said Pinkie around the handle of her brush as the changeling continued his futile attempt to untangle twigs out of her tail. “I thought we would go to all of my favorite places in Ponyville, like Bon Bon’s candy shop, and Shuffle’s Chocolate Truffle shop, and Poppy’s Popcorn Palace, and Lickety Split’s ice cream store.” Twilight Sparkle gave her friend a long stare after removing the containment suit helmet and shaking her purple mane out of her eyes. “If he doesn’t explode from too much love, he’ll explode from too much sugar. Why don’t you do something a little more quiet once you have all of the poison ivy oils scrubbed off, like reading, or… studying. You could bring him over to the library tonight for our monthly puzzle party. Rarity brought back a really big one from Manehattan that promises to be a lot of fun.” “Just a minute, Twilight,” said Pinkie, still scrubbing diligently. “I found a big one too. It’s all pink, and the more I scrub, the more it—” “Pinkie!” The changeling flattened down on the sudsy grass and tried not to blush, or at least not to blush as much as the bright-red unicorn in front of him, who looked as if she were seriously considering just how big a mess he would make if squashed. “Aww,” complained Pinkie. “It’s a little like a puzzle too, only the pokey-out part fits into—” “Pinkie!” Twilight Sparkle hesitated a moment before turning the sprayer on Pinkie Pie at full pressure, covering the pink pony with bright white bubbles and knocking Pinkie onto her back. “Not in public, please. Not in private either,” she added with a shudder. “In fact, never mention his… attributes ever again in my presence.” Her horn lit up as Twilight Sparkle scanned the cringing changeling from top to bottom, ending with a decisive sharp nod and a faint smile. “There we go. The deodorant spell should last several days this time, or at least until you get back to the hive and they milk… I mean suck… I mean extract out all of your excess love. Let’s see just how much extra you’re holding, shall we?” Without even a moment’s pause to get a protest to her perfectly objectionable question, Twilight Sparkle pulled out what looked like a small orange propeller, which she floated over and placed securely on his twisted horn. “There we go, one thaumic anemometer, calibrated to rotate once per thaum expended. Let me get out my stopwatch to time the revolutions and we should be ready to go. I really haven’t had a chance to test this, since there are no other changelings in Ponyville, but I don’t think any of the theoretical issues with a measuring enchantment of this type will be much of a problem. I mean, you haven’t exploded yet, and—” With a sharp whir and a scream of sundered air, the propeller accelerated to a blur and shot straight up into the sky in a long orange streak of light, and ending as it struck a cloud in a colorful explosion that lit the sky, even through the bright afternoon sunshine. “Yet?” asked the changeling, staring up into the now-cloudless sky at the long streams of brilliant sparks cascading down, as well as a few startled pegasi who were looking around for the source of the odd fireworks. “Interesting,” said Twilight Sparkle in a somewhat distracted fashion, her quill scratching away at notes even while she looked up at the cascading sparks fading out above. “I wonder if we used a denser form of thaumic concentrator and reduced the ratio on the converter, if that would give a more accurate reading on his power level. Do you—” Twilight looked around, but her experimental subject and her friend were both missing, with the only clue to their location being a long trail of bubbles headed in the direction of Lickety Split’s ice cream store. ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ “Oooo, I don’t think I could eat another bite,” moaned Pinkie Pie as the two of them slipped in the front door of Sugarcube Corner and headed through the kitchen. “Oh, look! Sugar cookies.” With her mouth full and trailing crumbs, she held one out to the changeling. “Want one?” He held one yellow hoof across his expanded stomach and shook his head. “No, I better not.” Just one? They’re delicious… “Just one? They’re really yummy.” Pinkie waved the cookie under his nose until he gave in to the inevitable and nipped it out of her hoof to the chorus of many unseen voices matching his brief groan of pleasure when he bit down. The hivemind had been getting stronger as Pinkie Pie had taken him to every sweet store and prank shop in Ponyville, which had been quite an extensive tour for such a small town. His newly-acquired saddlebags (from an early trip to Rarity, another oddity in small-town living) were nearly packed to the top with various forms of sugar and clever devices of pony design, some of which could be mistaken for sugar if consumed carelessly. He had tied the saddlebag flaps down, just to prevent absent-minded snacking. She had bubbled on about him pranking his fellow changelings back at the hive while popping some flavorful delicacy into his mouth whenever he opened it for questions, or on frequent occasion using her own lips to the same goal. It was no wonder his fellow changelings were paying more attention to him over his connection to the hivemind. It was such a relief to feel their presence again, but also somewhat odd. He had somehow gotten used to the silence, and felt a sense of self that he had never really experienced before. Years of training had impressed the use of ‘I’ instead of ‘us’ in conversation, but that was only supposed to be a shell over his real self, not an actual independent creature. The thought bothered him, because if he actually had fallen in love with Pinkie as an individual, he could wind up feeling that same chest-tearing sensation of loss when back in the hive. Or maybe being around his kind again would make his newborn sense of self fade away until he could not even remember the pink pony who made his heart smile. “Pinkie,” he said with a hoof gently over her lips in order to get a word in edgewise. Mustering up his courage to continue, as well as his willpower to ignore Pinkie licking the sugar off the bottom of his hoof, he said, “Since you have a meeting this evening with all of your friends, and their support will be critical after I’m gone, maybe I should slip away this evening. I can guide my way back to the hive using the stars, and you can be with your friends.” “Is that your decision, or Queen Meanie’s?” she asked, once he had removed his damp hoof. “Mine,” he said after a moment’s thought. “If I leave tomorrow with… Princess Luna’s guards, it will be a big, flashy event with lots of crying.” “I’ll cry too,” said Pinkie Pie, sniffing away a tear. “The foals will be upset and all of the ponies will turn out to see me leave,” he continued with a sniff of his own. “It’s not really the way a changeling should leave town. We normally sneak out while disguised as somepony else.” “I don’t want you to go, but it should be your decision. It’s wrong to force you to stay.” She looked out the open window at the distant oak tree that served the small town as a library. Lights had begun to shine out of the windows as a number of colorful ponies walked in the front door with boxes on their backs and a burst of happy friendship that he could even feel from this range. “If you love someone, set them free,” she whispered. “If they come back, they’re yours. If they don’t, they never were.” “You know I’m not coming back,” he whispered in return. “That’s what you say,” said Pinkie, turning around to wave her tail at him. “My tail says different.” It was indeed a very distracting pink tail, connected to a very nice pink pony, but he lowered his head and turned for the window anyway. This was his decision, and if he were to make his own decisions without the benefit of a semi-sentient tail or a queen looking over his shoulder at all times, he should stick with that decision like taffy. “I won’t go until you say you’re ready,” he said, shifting out of his unicorn disguise for his natural form. It felt oddly like a disguise too, as if he were attempting to show Pinkie how different he really was, and that she should be willing to accept his departure better as a changeling instead of as a pony. “Fly,” she said. “I’ll wait for you.” He lunged forward, out the window and up into the darkening sky, ascending with a loud buzz of his insectile wings despite the heavy saddlebags on his rump. The feeling of little spots of love beneath him faded as he gained altitude, although a beacon of pure affection still poured into his heart as if distance was no impediment to Pinkie’s reach. Leveling out above the few puffy clouds that remained in the sky, he turned… Where in Equestria is home? The hivemind had no directional finding ability, and although he wanted to fly back to his hive, the surrounding river valley and forest looked completely alien to him. Even when the stars eventually came out, they would be of little use. He would be able to tell directions, but that would not help the fact that he did not know which direction he needed to go. On the trip here from the hive, he had actually followed the rest of the changelings, and had not actually taken any mental note of the terrain he was flying over other than to marvel at how green it was and bask in the gentle touch of the loving ponies they were all flying over. On all of his collecting missions, he had taken the train or followed other changelings in whatever group he had been assigned. Being a follower had been easy. Now he had to lead his hive of one, and it was no fun at all. Let’s see, if Canterlot is over there, and we approached it from that side… No, we circled around a few times while waiting on… I am so bucking lost. There weren’t even any bits left of his wages to pay for a train ticket, and he didn’t think the train stationmaster would accept a saddlebag full of fake doggie doo and whoopie cushions for a ticket. The noisy hivemind was no help at all, and even seemed to be laughing at his circumstance. That left only one option, which he really, really did not want to do, but now it seemed as if he had no choice. I’m going to have to ask directions. Feathering his wings to a slow descent, the changeling glided back into Ponyville, down through the scattered clouds and in the direction of an open window that a near-solid stream of pure love flowed in his direction like a beacon. Pinkie was still in the window, looking up at him as he fluttered down with a beaming expression of pure joy, which lasted until he came to a halt outside the window and asked his question. “Pinkie, what direction is the Badlands from here?” The sheer torrent of love cut off immediately, and Pinkie Pie vanished from the window, only to reappear in less than one hammering heartbeat and bringing a very familiar object. That’s the biggest party cannon I’ve ever—