//------------------------------// // 1 - They're not Good for Anything! // Story: A Changing Perspective: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Shell // by David Silver //------------------------------// Sweetie Belle rushed up to me as I approached the school. "Hey! Diamond Tiara! Did you hear?" We may have become friends, but that didn't make her chipperness the first thing I wanted to hear. It was probably something silly anyway. "What is it?" I asked in a tone I hoped properly impressed how unlikely I thought it was really important. No such luck. "We're getting a visitor! Not just any visitor! It's a Queen. You remember when all the changelings kinda came and crashed the wedding in Canterlot and made a big mess?" How could I not hear about it? Everypony heard about that. "Yeah, sure. Wait... You mean that queen is coming? Why?!" Sweetie bounced in place. "She made peace with Celestia I heard. She's gonna drop off a little changeling foal to go to school with us. Isn't that exciting?!" I grimaced and stuck out my tongue. "Gag me! Why are you happy about this? They're vampires, and gross ones too! Why would you want to go to class sitting next to something that wants to eat you. And don't even get me started about those big bug eyes they have." I shook my head violently. "Or is it going to be in disguise the whole time? I bet they smell funny anyway." Silver Spoon wandered up into the conversation. "I, like, never met a changeling before. Do you think they know how to behave properly, Diamond?" I snorted at the very idea. "As if! Where would they learn how to be anything like a proper pony? They'll probably be stupider than Snips and Snails." "Hey!" I ignored their complaint, as I usually did. "Anyway, it's going to make a big stinking mess and maybe get somepony hurt. Why would they allow anything like that to begin with? I'm going to--" I turned to see a pony staring at me with wide eyes. The colt's tail was tucked between his legs and he was sniffling. What was his problem? "Yeah? You need something?" He burst into tears and ran off without a word. "Geeze, what's his problem? Who was that anyway?" Nopony knew in a chorus of shrugs and generally unsure noises. Anyway, it was time to get to class. We rushed into the schoolhouse as the bell rang overhead and settled in for another day of boring lessons. Cheerilee stood at the front of the class and looked left and right slowly. "That's odd... Has anyone seen the new student? He should have already been here..." She continued on after a moment, and waved a hoof. "Today we're going to go over a very special lesson, about a very misunderstood kind of pony." She pulled down a slide, where a changeling stood, gazing placidly in its drawing. "Changelings!" Ugh! "Miss Cheerilee! Changelings are not ponies! Everypony knows that." Cheerilee shook her head. "On the contrary, recent research by none other than our local Princess Twilight Sparkle has revealed a common link between them and us. We are all ponies, despite how we appear on the outside, or our habits. Why--" I couldn't take it. What a bunch of nonsense. "Miss Cheerilee, they don't even eat like we do. They're monsters!" I thrust a hoof at the drawing. "Just look at them!" Cheerilee clopped a hoof on the ground. "That's enough interruptions, Diamond Tiara. Changelings can eat normal food, just like us, they just don't der--" A pony walked in, interrupting her as she quickly approached the teacher and whispered in an ear. Cheerilee nodded and turned to me. "Diamond Tiara, you're needed. Please go home for the day." That was odd. Mom or Dad didn't usually call me from school like that... But it did mean I could skip the rest of that lame presentation. "Alright, Miss Cheerilee." I hopped down and walked out of the room with my head held up high. How many others were important enough to be called away on business? I walked around the town, aiming to walk directly for our nice big house on the edge of things, away from the Everfree Forest. As I approached, I saw mother waving at me. "Over here, daughter." She sounded like she was in a good mood. Maybe it was good news? I trotted towards her at a moderate pace. It wouldn't do to look too excited. "What did you need me for, mother?" She waved me closer. Once I was right in front of her, she put a hoof on my head and gently mussed my mane. Ugh, I thought she quit that habit a long time ago. "I wanted to show you something. Something very special, and just for you. This way." Just for me? Something special? I followed after her with a smile, wondering what it could be. It had to be something amazing if it called for pulling me out of class! Maybe she got me a cart with my own team of ponies? May-- Everything went dark. I woke up with a start. I wasn't laying on anything. I was... floating? I was in some kind of green gunk. I could see an opening in the side of whatever thing I was in. Outside was empty and mostly dark. I tried to scream but that just made a few bubbles in the stuff that surrounded me. How was I even breathing?! Panic began to build in me as I slammed at the edge of the pod a few times, just for a face to suddenly appear in the opening. A bug face! I screamed silently and backed up into the other side of the pod. "Hello there, my little foal. Diamond Tiara, isn't it?" Queen Chrysalis smiled at me wickedly. I could hear her, even if I couldn't talk back. "You've been very naughty, hurting my precious child. I'm afraid that calls for a very particular punishment for you." Oh no! She was going to suck all the love out of me and leave me a withered husk, or maybe she'd just gobble me up! I tried to demand my freedom, but I just couldn't talk. She only seemed amused when I slammed my hoof against the opening. She didn't care what I did. She was the queen of the monsters, and she had me. I was doomed... "Aw, poor little thing... I'm not a cruel ruler." She flashed her teeth. "Usually... You've been very bad, and I'm afraid you deserve everything you have coming. Some would say I'm being quite nice. Little earth pony, I'll let you rise above your limitations. You'll be able to fly, and do magic. Imagine it, you'll be like a princess. Princess Diamond Tiara. It has a lovely ring to it, does it not?" Wait, she wasn't going to eat me? Princess? I stopped thrashing as I tried to understand what she meant by that. "Got your interest, did I? Good. Relax..." As she said that, I felt my eyelids getting heavy, and I faded away. I woke up feeling like I was sprawled over something soft. I opened my eyes and everything looked a little off. Chrysalis was there, and she was still a bug, but she was different. She... smelled funny. Good... Definitely good. She gently tapped the ground beside her. "Are you awake, my little foal? Time to rise and shine. Come here and let me have a look at you." I wasn't her foal! I had a mother. She wasn't perfect, but she wasn't some hid... Ug... I couldn't finish the thought. I just stood there looking at her stupidly. Why was I getting stuck? Chrysalis chuckled softly. "Are you thinking bad thoughts? You are not a free drone. You're mine... Your will is bound to mine. Perhaps, in time, you'll earn your freedom." Oh Celestia! I was her slave! That was... I tried to think about how bad that was, but each thought short circuited before I could finish it. Being her servant wasn't that awful... She was a nice pony. No! She's contro... "What do you want?" Chrysalis sat up and snorted softly as she smiled, looking so cocky. "As much as it would amuse me to slowly break you, watching you lose your resistance and become my docile drone, I have other plans for you, and I do mean to eventually return you to your parents." She leaned in towards me. "But how much of you is returned is your choice. Play along, and maybe you'll even gain something in the end, or you can struggle bitterly until there's nothing left but a blank-eyed drone." She reached for my mane and brushed along the hair. It was still the same color, but had a few holes in it. "I do like how you've turned out. You'll be well treated, I promise, if you lose." I began to breathe faster and faster. Okay Diamond Tiara, think! She's given the rules, and she sounds serious. You're stuck in her web, but she hasn't gone for the kill yet. Maybe I should... play along, like she said. As soon as I got far enough away, I could run home and get help! That would be the smart thing to do. Bide your time, Diamond Tiara. Remember who you are. Chrysalis lifted up a mirror in her green magic and turned it towards me, letting me look at myself, but that wasn't me. That... I turned away but she kept the mirror in front of me easily. My eyes, my hair... Even my tiara was right, but everything else... I was a bug, not even a whole bug. Heh... that was a bad joke. I was a holed bug. "Your first lesson is how to change shapes. Does the form you see bother you? Good, dismiss it. It's within your power to become something else." "How?" She had my attention. Anything to make the vision in the mirror go away! "Tell me how!" She placed a hoof on my snout. "Eager? Hold the vision of what you want to be solidly in your mind, imagine it coming from inside of you and replacing what you are and let it consume you, eat you up like fire." I tried imagining my old self, pretty and perfect and strutting her stuff. I held onto that image as hard as I could, and I felt something twitch inside of me, but nothing happened. "You have to let it consume you." Consume me, right... Consume... I drew the image out, trying to imagine it overlapping me, and things began to get hot, almost painfully. I thought about her words. Let it consume me. I let the fire come, and I burned. It was a bright flash of green flames, and the insect was gone. I was me! I patted myself down quickly as I laughed almost hysterically with relief. "I did it! I'm normal again!" She flashed a wicked smile. "Very good, and almost on your first try. You'll make a good changeling yet." Her words felt... really good. Each compliment was like a hundred praises and a room full of applause. I felt so wonderful a moment before I remembered she was controlling me and I frowned at her. "Oh, don't look that way. Just remember, the changeling you saw is still you. If you get distracted, you'll become her again. It takes quite a bit of practice to learn to stay in the form you want when you are surprised, or sleeping, or hurt. Even I, a Queen, can be distracted if things are pressing enough." I would figure it out! I didn't want to be a nasty bug. "Alright... What do you want from me now?" Play her game, get away, get help! She ruffled my mane. "Nothing. Go home, practice. If you mess up in front of your parents, they'll probably panic. Good luck explaining it to them." I paled a bit. "W-what?" She laughed a cruel laugh. "Oh, you can go ahead and tell them if you like. I'm sure they'll believe you. Oh no, you'd best keep it a secret, or you'll be sleeping on the streets, or arrested for impersonating a pony. You know that's illegal, don't you?" I sank to the ground, trembling. A wave of heat washed over me as I became a bug again. I was always a bug... I was just hiding it. "I don't want to be a changeling. Please... Please change me back!" Chrysalis gave a soft tsk noise. "First, survive. Learn how we have to live. The fear, the hatred, and the suspicion. Survive one week, then we can talk." A whole week?! But there was hope. She said... We could talk. "Then you'll turn me back?" She leaned in and kissed me on the forehead right beside my new horn. "Then we'll talk. Who knows, maybe you'll change your mind. Let's not lock ourselves in." Ha! Yeah, right... I could handle this, and then she'd make me a normal pony again. "Fine! I'll show you I can do it. Diamond Tiara is no ordinary filly." I concentrated and burst into flames, becoming my usually dazzling self. "Just you see."