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// Changelings Can Change 
// Story: A Change in Changelings 
// by PonyThunder 
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Thorax walked out the front entrance of the house with tears welling up in his eyes. He'd done something he had vowed never to do again, and felt an ache of guilt sink throughout his body. The feeling of fullness was present, but he had never felt more empty. He had tried to do what he did before, when Chrysalis offered Twilight's childhood doll for him to feed off of, but it didn't work with the filly Tarsus had forced him to. What Thorax realized, though, was that he felt no connection with the filly. There was no bond between them like the one he had created with Twilight. 

Nevertheless, he felt an immense pang of guilt. It was one thing to seek out and steal items of affection. It was, after all, their primary means of survival. Without feeding off the energy of something, a changeling would eventually starve to death. So often, it seemed like ponies just didn't understand that. To them, changelings were nothing but horrible creatures filled with nothing but envy and hatred. Misunderstood, hated, unloved. One thing that was certainly true, however, was Thorax's envy for the lives of the pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies. They lived lives of happiness, creativity and love, and he was forced to steal just to live on. It was no wonder changelings were such hardened, ruthless creatures.

But despite their seemingly heartless exteriors, the changelings did have a certain togetherness when it came to their food. It was the one common need that they all shared. Some of the time anyways.

Upon returning to the hive, they were supposed to drop off the trinkets of affection that they acquired so that they could be reallocated to those who needed them more. But other than the quasi-sharing of various trinkets, the changelings weren't that friendly, even with each other. More often than not, they wouldn't drop off the good ones. Just the bare minimum to show that they were contributing something to the hive. But it didn't have to be that way. Maybe I can show someone friendship, and they will pass it onwards, thought Thorax. He looked out from the hole in the wall that he called home. Below him were several changelings that seemed to be fighting.

"Give me that!" hissed a smaller changeling.

"No, and don't even bother trying to get it back you weak, pathetic loser," replied another changeling. The voice sounded familiar to Thorax, and as he descended closer, he realized it was Tarsus. The object of contention was a small book of sorts. Probably a favorite, adored for years and re-read dozens of times. Thorax stopped himself from thinking about it, though. More often than not, it was easier just to forget.

The smaller changeling looked distraught. "I need that! I'm...I'm so hungry..."

"Well that's too bad," said Tarsus, "because I found this on my own. It's mine, so get lost."

"We're supposed to share!" the smaller changeling cried. "You look like you're doing just fine."

"Which is exactly why I'm going to keep this...whatever it is. It doesn't matter. Better to strengthen the strong than waste it on the weak."

Thorax abruptly landed between them, facing towards Tarsus. "Just give it to him, Tarsus."

"Get out of my way if you don't want to end up like this weakling." 

Tarsus attempted to push him aside, but Thorax stopped him. "He just needs a little to get by, Tarsus. Leave him alone."

"I'm giving you one last warning. Step aside, or I'll move you myself."

Thorax didn't move. He needed to think quickly, or have to deal with a fight. "I'll give you the thing I got," said Thorax. "It's better than that, I'm sure."

Tarsus glared at him, but quickly realized he was right. He was just thinking of fighting for fun, but now that he would benefit from something, he immediately agreed. "Alright," he replied.

Thorax gave him the stuffed teddy bear he'd acquired from the small filly from earlier that night in exchange for the book. Tarsus flew off in the opposite direction, leaving only Thorax and the smaller changeling alone on the floor of the hive.

"Here you go," said Thorax as he started to offer the book to him.

The smaller changeling snatched it immediately out of habit, immediately beginning to feed off its energy. As soon as the changeling was finished, he looked at Thorax. He didn't say any words, but the shimmer in his eyes spoke hundreds. A few moments later, he clutched the book towards his body and flew off in the opposite direction.

For the first time since being in the Crystal Kingdom, Thorax felt good about himself. He'd found a way to help someone, and he could only hope that perhaps the favor would be passed on to someone else. But the good feeling only lasted a short while before fading away once again when the haunting image of the weakened filly resurfaced once more.





Once more, the familiar sound of the queen could be heard off in the distance, and suddenly Thorax found himself panicking. He'd given his only token to the smaller changeling, and now he had nothing to contribute. He frantically searched throughout his small space, finding nothing but the old pegasus doll that had long been devoid of any energy. Maybe she wont notice me, Thorax thought as he reluctantly flew off towards the meeting spot.

Hundreds of changelings had already gathered around the queen and he took his place in the line to drop off the items. He held the ragged pegasus doll in his mouth. In front of the pile stood Chrysalis, watching each and every changeling add to it one by one. Thorax felt his heart begin to race, trying to calm himself down. He had the pegasus doll. Nobody would be able to tell that it held no love. Probably.

The line dwindled quickly as Thorax came closer to the front, Queen Chrysalis watching expectantly as each changeling dropped their trinket of affection. It was his turn next. Don't look, don't look, he thought to himself as he dropped the doll on top of the pile. But his racing mind disobeyed him. He looked up at Chrysalis after dropping off the pegasus doll, and for a split second it felt like she was peering into his soul.

He quickly looked away and put his head down, making his way back to the crowd of changelings, but all of their eyes were on him. He slowly began to stop walking, and then turned around. Chrysalis had stopped the next changeling in line, and aggressively rose to the air only to land abruptly beside him. He looked up at her.

"Do you think a queen doesn't recognize her subjects?"

Thorax felt his heart sink.

Chrysalis raised her raspy voice. "Answer me!"

"N-No..."

"Then why did you think you could get away with not contributing?"

A couple of voices in the crowd mumbled something about the pegasus doll, but quickly had their doubts resolved.

"You told me yesterday," said Chrysalis, "that you did not have an item of affection with energy left. Am I correct to presume that is that item?"

Thorax averted his gaze to the pile and back to Chrysalis. "Yes..."

Chrysalis raised her voice once more. "Are you hording it all to yourself?"

"No!" Thorax plead. Any other changeling would consider such a thing, but not him. Of course, Chrysalis would never accept such a thing.

"Well then," said Chrysalis, "you shouldn't mind if I borrow some then?"

Thorax was confused for a couple moments. He didn't have any items of affection. And Chrysalis was asking to borrow them? But then it hit him. He felt body become completely weak. His eyes began to drain of color, and his legs became so weak that he could no longer stand, collapsing into the dust like a rag doll. A dark green aura spread over his body as it wrapped around him, constricting him from every direction.

Chrysalis was draining his own energy, just like he'd done to that poor filly. He felt his vision become blurry and faded as tunnel vision began to set in, watching Chrysalis continue to drain his energy from the corner of his eyes. Just the other day, she had been kind and courteous, offering him health and nourishment, and now she was doing the complete opposite. He thought about why he couldn't reverse the process with the small filly like he'd done with Twilight's doll again. Maybe if I think of Chrysalis as a friend, I can...

He felt the energy in his body climb ever so slowly, and heard the gasps of the crowd of changelings watching the event unfold. Chrysalis looked angry, but also in shock. Thorax felt the power return to his legs, slowly standing up. The green aura from Chrysalis was slowly dissipating and being replaced by the light blue aura of his own, until overcoming her's entirely and breaking the contact with a flash of light and sparks.

The air was silent for several seconds, broken by Chrysalis herself. "How...how did you do that?"

Thorax was just as surprised. The crowd began to chatter, but Chrysalis quickly rose her voice. "All of you, leave. Now!"

The crowd of curious changelings followed her orders instantly, leaving just the two of them standing alone. Chrysalis moved towards Thorax. "Tell me," she said with a deep, broken voice, "how you did that."

There was no use in trying to hide anymore. "I was in the Crystal Kingdom. I made friends with the princess and--"

"You what?" Chrysalis replied in shock. But the shock quickly wore off and an evil, twisted grin appeared. "So you're friends with the princess, then? This could be beneficial..."

Thorax didn't like what the queen was thinking, and there was absolutely no way he would agree to anything she would try to force him to do. "I'm not going to help you," he replied defiantly.

The smile disappeared from her face. "I suspected as much," she replied. "I suppose you think you're special? What if they're just using you to get information about us? Did you think of that?"

Thorax never doubted their friendship. They were certainly not easily swayed initially, and nobody was that talented at acting. Chrysalis was attempting to confuse him. "You're wrong," Thorax replied confidently. "We don't have to be this way. We can be like them."

"Them?" Chrysalis laughed. "Who wants to be like them? They're weak and need each other to keep themselves strong."

"So are we," said Thorax. "Except we have to steal and hurt others just to survive."

"Only the strong deserve to survive," said Chrysalis, but Thorax could see the doubt in her eyes. He'd just shown her that he was stronger. He was a simple changeling minion in comparison to the hive queen herself, and yet he was able to overpower her own magic. She was still recovering from what happened and coughed as she laid in the dust.

"I'm leaving the hive," said Thorax. There was no use trying to stay as he'd initially planned. He'd hoped to spark a revolution of sorts, but it seemed as though he'd blown his cover as soon as he'd arrived.

"Go ahead," Chrysalis replied, in Thorax's surprise. "One fewer traitors to worry about."

Thorax took one more look at her, trying to understand. She didn't look like the strong, confident queen she'd always been before. She looked like a tattered, broken wreck. An item of affection that was never cherished, never held, and never loved; empty and devoid of any life or energy.

He turned around to take off, but stopped before leaving the ground and coming back to Chrysalis. His jagged horn glowed a brilliant blue, sending tendrils of light and energy between him and Chrysalis and enveloping around her tattered body. He felt the energy in himself slowly drain until there was hardly any left, and then he drained some more. Just enough so that he was barely able to stand on his legs. And then he left, weakly rising into the air towards the entrance of the hive to return to the Crystal Kingdom. If the queen never changed her mind, at least he could say he tried.

As he was flying back, two black figures caught up to him in the air. Poison Fang, and the smaller changeling he had helped earlier.

"Wait," called Poison Fang.

Thorax stopped and hovered in the air as they caught up to him. "What are you doing?" he replied. "I'm not going back there. Not ever again."

Poison Fang laughed. "Neither are we."

"Yeah," said the smaller changeling. "We'd rather stay with you. Friends?"

"Yeah," Thorax smiled. It was small, but at least he had made a difference. He'd planted the seeds of friendship, and in time, they might just be able to do more than he ever could on his own. Change is always possible, but it has to start from somewhere. If day could turn to night, and if darkness could turn to light, surely the changelings could change.