//------------------------------// // Spark // Story: Mirage // by Trump-12 //------------------------------// Copycat felt weak. He had been wandering the forest for days, ever since he had been thrown from Canterlot after the failed invasion. He had been able to steal small amounts of emotions from forest creatures, but it wasn't enough to make it a viable source in the long term. Soon he would need a pony's love. Last night, he had finally found the edge of the forest, near a small pony town. He had thrown up a quick disguise and done some scouting. Love was everywhere in this town, and by this point, he could just choose a target at random. His eyes had settled on a pair of mares who were clearly deeply in love with each other. They would make an excellent food source. One was a minty green unicorn , with white streaks in her mane, and the other was a cream-coloured earth pony with a pink and blue mane. Now he lay in wait. He had watched them for hours, and while he would have preferred to do more preparation, he was running out of energy. He had to strike soon. The unicorn, who was apparently called Lyra, walked out of their house, towards the market, probably to pick up some missing ingredients if the smell from the house was anything to go on. Easy prey for a changeling. Copycat followed. He waited until she was on her way back home, before using more of his meagre reserves to cast a sleeping spell on her and hide her in a cave in the forest. Assuming Lyra's form, he returned to the house, carrying everything Lyra had bought. "Bon Bon, I'm back!" he called, knowing that this was the name of his food supply. "Great! Can you bring the stuff through here quickly, I'm just getting to the point where I'll need it." Copycat could feel the love in that response. "Sure!" he called back enthusiastically. Lyra had looked like the lively sort. He walked into the kitchen, where Bon Bon was cooking. "Did you get... everything?" Bon Bon asked. With that small pause, the love had stopped. It started back up quickly, but in much smaller quantities. If he had had more reserves, he would have been suspicious and run after that, but beggars couldn't be choosers. The fact that he was getting any love was a good thing. "Yep. No problem." "Good. It'll be ready in five minutes, so just sit down." Bon Bon pulled out a chair at the table and went back to cooking. Copycat was completely unprepared when the love cut out again and something hard hit him on the back of the head. Bon Bon put the frying pan down. No changeling was allowed to foalnap Lyra. Especially not one serving an idiot like Chrysalis. What sort of moron was she, attacking Canterlot like that? Changelings were supposed to be invisible. The best defence is not being known to exist. Still, she could play this to her advantage. Bon Bon hated having to think like a stereotypical changeling. Sure, she was one, but she had lived among ponies for so long that it was easy to think like them. Lyra was far more than prey to her. And now this foalish prat had taken her. She wanted answers. It was obvious the moment she hadn't felt any love from Lyra. The real Lyra loved her absolutely. Copycat slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was that he was still in the mares' kitchen. The second was that he was in changeling form. Oh, and he was tied to a chair. This was not good. Bon Bon walked slowly into view in front of him, giving him a deadly glare. "You... are going to take me to Lyra, right now." "And why is that?" he replied, trying to sound more confident than he actually was. "What possible reasons would I have to do that?" "Simple," Bon Bon answered with a smirk. "Chrysalis attacked Canterlot and failed, not only severely weakening her hive, but exposing changelings to everypony. At this point, the other queens will take any excuse to wipe your hive out. I'm sure Queen Imago will be thrilled when she finds out you took my main food supply. With your hive in its current state, I doubt you'll last a month. "Or, you could give Lyra back, get the hay out of Ponyville and never come back, and maybe Queen Imago doesn't need to hear of this. It's your call." If changelings could go pale, Copycat would be white by now. Accidents occasionally happened where a changeling would try to feed on another's prey, and it often became a source of tension between the queens. If Bon Bon was reading the situation correctly, this time it could lead to a full scale extermination. He really didn't have much of a choice. In a small town like this, there should be relatively few changelings, but all of them would be from the same hive. Another hive's presence in the area would not be tolerated. Only in a big city would you find more than one, and even then, each would have their own territory. He was clearly deep in enemy territory here, if not by choice, and he had been caught by the locals. His best option was to do as requested. He would have protested having to leave without a quick feed in town first, but from what little he knew about Queen Imago, her drones topped up on love by being friendly, meaning that the entire town would be considered their prey. Nopony here was fair game. Copycat nodded meekly. "I'll take you to her." A bright green light shone in Lyra's eyes as she woke up. She raised a hoof to block it out, and it immediately died down, before cutting out completely. She was lying on something hard, and her legs were laid out uncomfortably. She would never have fallen asleep like this naturally. "Ugh," she groaned, having never been a morning pony. "What happened?" "A rogue changeling took you," came a buzzing voice. Lyra opened her eyes and screamed, scrambling backwards. The turquoise mane, slit pupils, and fanged visage instantly labeled the being in front of her as a changeling queen. The voice was wrong for Chrysalis, and as she stared at it from the back of what she now recognised as a cave, she saw a number of other differences. This queen was far more complete than Chrysalis had been. She had none of the holes in her hooves, mane, and wings that Chrysalis had had, but she was also much smaller. Perhaps she was an adolescent. Her back plate was a bright orange as well. Not that it really mattered. "No!" she shouted, lighting her horn. "Leave me alone!" The queen gave her an unimpressed look. "Really, Lyra? I rescue you and you just run away?" Lyra's eyes widened. "H- How do you know my name? And what do you mean, rescue?" "First, hard not to, considering I spend most of my time in Ponyville. And second, Chrysalis is a moron who probably went mad with power. Most hives have no time for that nonsense. If she'd looked like succeeding, the other queens would've stepped in and smacked her down." A smirk crossed her face. "And since I was actually there, Mum would probably have been first." "Who are you?" "Call me Mirage. Now, we need to go, and I need to let Mum know that one of Queen Stupid's drones is in the area. I imagine she'll love having an excuse to take her down." Mirage turned to leave, but Lyra didn't move. After a few steps, the changeling looked back. "You don't need to come if you don't want to, but this is the middle of the Everfree. There's worse than me out there." Lyra's ears folded downwards and she shivered slightly, but she hesitantly followed the changeling who claimed to have rescued her. "Where is she?!" Copycat found himself facing an irate changeling drone in an empty cave. Bon Bon looked young, strong, and clearly very well fed. Of course, he could have guessed the last part from the fact that she had been pushing love back towards Lyra (theoretically it could earn more than it cost, but it required a far stronger bond than most changelings ever develop with their food, as well as large reserves), but the visual evidence made it obvious. This drone had never gone hungry, never suffered the pain of having its own body cannibalise itself for energy, permanently damaging itself in the process. He sighed. This drone could beat him easily. "She was right here," he protested, stomping his hoof on the floor. "I had her under a sleeping spell, she should still be here." "Are you crazy?!" Bon Bon screeched. "You left a pony unconscious in the Everfree?" Copycat's vision turned green as he was lifted up in a powerful telekinetic field. Some subtle probing with the little power he had left told him it was hopeless. "I'm bringing the hive in on this, and if she isn't found, alive and well, you're dead meat." Lyra was confused. Mirage had led her deep into the forest, before stopping at the bottom of a cliff. "We're here. Are you going to come in with me, or wait outside. This area of the forest is fairly safe, but monsters sometimes get through our patrols." Deciding that a known danger was better than an unknown one, Lyra decided to come in. She was understandably surprised when she was lifted up by green magic as the changeling flew up the cliff face. A cave entrance, practically invisible from below, became visible, and Mirage carried her in. Lyra looked past Mirage into the darkness of the cave, and was fairly certain that she could see a green glow coming from deep inside. They walked in silence, Lyra's nerves building as it became apparent that she was right. She wasn't sure how far they had come when they took a sharp turn to the right and the cave opened up into a massive cavern. It wasn't what she was expecting. To be honest, she didn't know what she had expected, but a city-like structure made of green crystal wasn't it. Mirage glanced the side as they entered the cavern. Lyra tried to see what she was looking at, but only caught a glimpse of something blue and red before she had to continue on. Mirage led her on a twisting path through the hive, and while Lyra was a bit nervous of the changelings they passed, those changelings seemed just as nervous of Mirage. Finally, they reached a pair of ornate double doors, which Mirage immediately barged through. "Mum!" she yelled. "I found Lyra in the forest under a changeling sleeping spell. I think we have that excuse you were looking for to go after Chrysalis." "Lyra?" came a much lower voice. "Isn't she Trance's -" "Yep," Mirage interrupted. "I feel sorry for the poor guy." Now that they had entered the room properly, Lyra could see a much larger changeling queen, about the size of Chrysalis but without the holes, sitting on a large green throne. Then Mirage's words registered. "Sorry for him? What about Bon Bon?" Mirage laughed at this. "He'll fool her for about five seconds before she hammers him." As if on cue, the doors slammed open and two changelings entered. One, with an extremely angry look on its face, was holding up the other in its magic. "Queen Imago!" the walking one shouted. "This pile of dragon dung left Lyra unconscious in the forest and now she's missing! We have to find her!" The queen, Imago apparently, sighed. "Relax, Trance." "Relax?! How am I supposed to relax when Lyra's missing? And don't call me Trance, you know I don't use that name any more." "Relax, because Mirage already found her." "But she's... Oh." At that moment, the changeling's eyes landed on Lyra standing behind Mirage. "I'll... just... take this guy to the dungeon. Yes, the dungeon. Bye!" The changeling left at a gallop. Lyra stood there with her mouth open. "Uhh, what just happened?"