A Pony's Heart

by CTVulpin

Cabbage Makes a Choice

The Canterlot train station had been cleared of civilians by royal command in preparation for the arrival of the express train from Manehatten. The only ponies on the platform were six unicorn Guard ponies, two pegasus Guards, and one tall white alicorn. Celestia’s usually serene face was marred by a mild frown as she watched the train pull into the station and screech to a stop. She tried to school her expression as she caught sight of several sets of eyes staring at her from the second-to-last car, but the frown kept sneaking back. The door of that car opened, and as Celestia and her guards moved toward it another pair of Royal Guards exited and flanked the door, followed shortly by Trixie, Barnacle Salt, Harlequin, and Maggie Pie. Cabbage Patch and Turnip came out next and stood behind the rest of the troupe, and everypony bowed to the Princess.

“I’m glad you all made it safely,” Celestia said. “You were probably expecting Princess Luna to meet you, but she’s a little busy at the moment lending her magic to the fight to keep the comatose Changelings alive. We must make haste.”

“A moment, please, Princess,” Trixie said. “On the way here, Turnip made some… stuff that should help. We’ll need a cart or two to transport it all, though.”

“Ah,” Celestia said, looking slightly more relaxed, “very well.” She motioned to a couple of the Guards and they trotted off.

“We should make sure they’re ready to load up,” Cabbage said to Turnip, and then went back into the train.

“Of course, my Queen,” Turnip replied, following her.

“Stop calling me that!” Cabbage snapped.

Celestia’s frown returned and she cast a questioning look at the remaining ponies.

“Eh heh,” Trixie said, rubbing her leg and smiling nervously, “Turnip there has gotten it into his head that Cabbage should be the Queen of the Changelings now.” Celestia raised an eyebrow. Trixie shrugged. Celestia lowered the eyebrow and smirked.

Nothing I have lined up in Court today is going to top this, the Princess thought.

The raised eyebrow and the frown made a coordinated comeback once the Guards returned with a commandeered cart and the cargo car at the end of the train was thrown open to allow Cabbage and Turnip to start loading sacs of green, faintly glowing jelly. She was reminded uncomfortably of being encased in a cocoon of similar green stuff during the first Changeling invasion. “Go assist them so we can be on our way sooner,” Celestia ordered the unicorn Guards. “And tell the Changeling I want a word with him.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the sergeant of the unicorns said as the six saluted. They walked over to Cabbage and Turnip, and after an exchange of words the Guards started levitating sacs into the cart while Turnip approached Celestia.

“What can I do for you, Princess?” he asked.

“Tell me what those are, exactly,” Celestia commanded, pointing at the cart

“That is surplus love,” Turnip answered. “Well, mostly love with some jubilance and strong friendship mixed in. It’s a lot like fruit preserves – concentrated and much longer-lasting than the original product. Queen Cabbage and I are going to use both to revive the comatose Changelings and to convince the lot of them to accept Cabbage as the new Queen. Oh, and don’t worry, Your Highness; it was all obtained through Cabbage-approved means.”

Celestia wanted to continue interrogating the Changeling, but stopped herself. This is Luna’s project, she told herself, so let her have the first go at sweating the details. Instead, she turned toward the cart and asked, “How soon can we depart?”

“This is the last load, Your Highness,” the sergeant responded as two of his stallions settled their loads of sacs onto the cart. One of the Guards started to back into the harness, but Turnip scurried over and waved him away, taking charge of pulling the cart himself.

“Then let’s go,” Celestia commanded.

---

Nothing ever stays a secret for long when ordinary citizens are involved in a project. The entire royal medical staff had obviously been aware of the two dozen Changelings and their queen being kept under medical arrest in the infirmary from the start, and ponies talk. Families and friends of the staff began learning about the Changelings and Luna’s plan for them within days, and Turnip’s debut in Trixie’s show had caused no small stir among the general populace. The rumor mill went to work on those seeds over the proceeding weeks, and now almost nopony in Canterlot was entirely surprised to see a Changeling hauling a cart through the streets, under guard and accompanied by Princess Celestia herself.

Ponies stopped whatever they were doing to watch the procession, of course, and there were some pockets of palpable fear in the air, but no one outright panicked or caused a scene. Canterlot trusted its Princess.

Cabbage hardly noticed the crowds or their moods. Her attention was taken up entirely but what awaited her in the immediate future, up in the infirmary of Canterlot Castle itself. She felt anxious about facing Queen Chrysalis, but it was a different sort of anxiety from the last time she’d undertaken this long walk. It wasn’t stage fright that threatened to turn her hooves to lead, but an unpleasant surety about what was going to happen at the end.

And a lack of surety that she could stop it.

---

At the palace entrance, the preserved love was transferred from the large cart to several serving carts, and Princess Celestia left the group under the guidance of a Royal Doctor, who took them the rest of the way to the infirmary. As she walked, Cabbage tried desperately to come up with some reason to delay entering the room for any appreciable length of time. Her fretting proved to be academic, since Princess Luna was waiting for them just outside the dreaded door.

“Welcome back,” Luna said warmly, “and especially to you, Changeling.”

“Please, Princess,” Turnip said, bowing, “you can call me Turnip.”

Luna’s smile grew much warmer. “I am most pleased to see such a dramatic change in your attitude, Turnip,” she said, and then cast her eyes over the line of carts behind the group, “and what I’m told is physical proof of Cabbage Patch’s success. Come, let’s not put this off any longer.”

Yes, let’s not ask if the pony/changeling this whole thing revolves around is ready, Cabbage thought bitterly.

Don’t worry, my Queen, Turnip said over the hive mind, I’ll do most of the talking if necessary. It is my testimony that the others will give the most weight to.

I am not your Queen! Cabbage insisted.

The time for argument ended right then, as Luna led Cabbage and Turnip, with the troupe and cart-pushing servants following in their wake.

Cabbage realized suddenly that she’d never heard the exact number of Changelings who had slipped into comas, but judging by the number of flat blue eyes that turned her way, only three of two dozen were unresponsive. She had thought Turnip had looked bad during his obstinate period, but that was nothing compared to the appearance of Changelings with virtually no emotional energy left in their bodies. Their eyes were so dull they seemed not to reflect any light whatsoever, and several seemed to starting to shift toward red at the edges. Their chitin had lost its gloss and developed painful-looking cracks around the joints; cracks that should have been oozing or at least scabbed over were bone dry. Mouths hung wide open as the Changelings struggled to breathe, exposing fangs that were threatening to fall out of shriveled gums. Worst of all, to Cabbage’s eye, their wings looked so dry and brittle that they’d disintegrate with the slightest muscle twitch.

The collective gaze of the hive lingered on Cabbage only for a second before being drawn magnetically to the piles of preserved love being wheeled in. One didn’t need an empathic sense or a link to the hive mind to sense the raw, desperate hunger in those eyes. Only one set of conscious eyes remained on Cabbage and Turnip: green eyes with visible, ovoid pupils. Chrysalis was in no better physical state than her subjects, but she clearly still had enough hate in her to resist the lure of food.

Turnip wasted no time in getting to work. He picked up three sacs of love in telekinetic magic and walked to the first of the comatose Changelings. He pricked each sac on the Changeling’s horn and set it on the bed near their mouth. A greenish vapor leaked out of the penetrated sacs and flowed directly into the Changeling, permeating the general area of their nose and mouth. With that accomplished, Turnip returned to the carts to pick up three more sacs, giving Cabbage a meaningful look as he did so.

Cabbage sighed and dropped her disguise, ignoring Luna’s gasp of surprise at her increased height. I can do this much at least, she thought as she wrapped three sacs in her own telekinesis and went to attend to the last unconscious Changeling. She staggered a little on her uncomfortably long legs, and she wasn’t as telekinetically adept as Turnip, but she managed to prepare and place her load properly and without mishap.

The first of the three comatose Changelings started to wake up as Cabbage was finishing up, and weak voices started to stand out from the weak hive mind buzz.

Love.

Love!

Food…

Turnip looked to Cabbage. Cabbage gave him a warning look in response and motioned or him to get on with it. Turnip smiled. Cabbage sighed.

Yes, yes, Cabbage broadcast to the hive, there’s enough for everyling. She picked up a sac and floated it to the nearest Changeling. Turnip followed her lead, and then Trixie and Luna joined in, and finally Maggie, Barnacle Salt, and Harlequin lent their hooves to passing out preserved love.

Before the Changelings could start to feed, however, Chrysalis shouted over the hive mind, Stop! Do not feed on that stuff! We won’t give in to these ponies.

“Oh, shut up and face defeat with some dignity, for once,” Turnip snapped, throwing a sac at Chrysalis’s face. The sac popped, and the Changeling Queen instinctively inhaled about half of it before getting a grip on herself and magically thrusting the rest away to dissipate into the air. Silence fell, hard. The only movement in the infirmary for a solid minute was Cabbage Patch wearily raising a hole-pocked hoof to her forehead and rubbing it.

“How dare you speak to your Queen that way?” Chrysalis growled.

“You are not my Queen anymore, Chrysalis,” Turnip said, practically spitting her name. “You’ve placed your own petty desires for power and revenge above the well-being of the hive. Look where that has brought us.” He swept his leg around in a motion that took in the whole room. “The entire Changeling population of the world fits into a single room, when we used to number in the thousands. Starvation threatens, and not because of a lack of love,” he gestured pointedly at the carts of preserved love, “but because you don’t approve of the source. Worst of all, we’ve suffered irreparable losses to our own history and culture!”

“A Lorekeeper,” Chrysalis said, narrowing her eyes. “I should have guessed you were one, the way you put yourself forward despite my will.” She sneered. “You talk of lost culture, and yet you’d throw what’s left away to put my Changelings under the hoof of, what, that abomination?” She pointed dismissively at Cabbage Patch. “Look at her! She’s so taken with pony ways that she’s branded herself with an imitation of their cutie marks now!”

Cabbage, who had been trying desperately to block out the conversation and focus only on distributing preserved love, froze in the act of picking one up. “Seriously?” she whispered. She slowly turned to face Chrysalis and, after meeting the Queen’s eyes, started to laugh. She was surprised at the reaction as everyone else, but after a moment’s introspection, she realized why she found Chrysalis’s remark funny. “You know,” she said, “on the train ride here, one of my biggest worries was that you’d actually bring that up. I convinced myself that it wouldn’t be an issue, that there would much more important things to focus on, but you’ve done it anyway.”

The humor left Cabbage’s eyes and she stalked over to Chrysalis’s bed. “This cutie mark isn’t fake,” she said. “One of the reasons you exiled me is because I cannot fake cutie marks. You know why I can’t? Because I’m half-pony, and a pony cannot force their cutie mark to appear before they’ve earned it. I earned this just yesterday, fair and square. Know what it stands for? It stands for saving you from your own idiocy, whether you like it or not!” She shoved the sac she was carrying at Chrysalis and walked to the center of the room.

“Look at this,” she said to the whole room, “the only thing that’s really changed since I was last in here a month ago is now there are two healthy, well-fed Changelings in Equestria instead of just one. Turnip and I have brought you the leftovers of the freely given, gently received love we collected last night alone, and I’m pretty sure that’s more than enough to get you all back on your hooves for a week.” She glanced at Turnip, who nodded in confirmation. “So what’s it going to be, Changelings?” she asked, “Follow my path and live, or die to satisfy your Queen’s pride?” She focused on Chrysalis again. “Why is that even a question?” she asked, exasperated.

“Following your lead would just make the Changelings into another tool for the pony Princesses to use,” Chrysalis answered quietly, although her statement echoed across the hive mind.

The Changelings responded.

The half-breed brought love.

She brings life.

But a life of service… to prey.

Would ponies give us love for service?

Ponies give friendship in exchange for kindness and honesty, Cabbage answered, and that is good enough to live on. Friendship can become love, sometimes, when shared back and forth.

The Changelings pondered. One by one, they picked up the sacs of preserved love, pricked them on their horns, and absorbed the contents.

Oh yes, this is the real stuff, some Changeling said. She has a plan, and it works. “Hail to our new guide and leader. Live long, Queen Cabbage Patch.”

“Live long, Queen Cabbage Patch,” the other Changelings, Turnip included, echoed.

“Ah, nuts,” Cabbage muttered. She cast a glance at Chrysalis and saw her own horror reflected in the repudiated Queen’s eyes. I’m sorry, Cabbage thought at her just before being overwhelmed by the devotion flowing from two dozen Changelings into her body.

For a brief second, Cabbage considered trying to resist, but the pressure was too great to hold at bay. She whimpered slightly as she felt her body rapidly grow in reaction to the devotion, but that very energy seemed to block the pain of bones and sinews being stretched and chitin alternately splitting and healing as it raced to accommodate an ever-larger volume of Changeling. The fin on the back of her head shrank away and was replaced by a full mane of hair nearly the exact hue of blue she used for her pony guise’s mane, matching hair grew from her tail, and her horn doubled in length and gained a jagged appearance.

An eternity later, the pressure of Changeling devotion faded and Cabbage was able to sense the world outside her body again. A quick look around at the awestruck ponies in the room told her that she now stood slightly taller than Princess Luna. A bigger surprise occurred when Cabbage looked at Chrysalis. The former Queen had shrunk in size as much as Cabbage had grown, to the point that she’d slipped out of the restraints on her limbs by virtue of becoming too small for them to all reach her. Chrysalis still had hair, but it was reduced to short tufts in a line down the back of her head. She met Cabbage’s eyes for a moment, and then dropped her gaze with a resigned sigh.

Well, Chrysalis grumbled mentally, at least I won’t be around to witness you all finish rolling over for your new pony masters.

Pardon? Cabbage asked.

There can only be one Queen, Turnip replied.

Huh? Cabbage cast a confused glance at the Lorekeeper, but then the implication dawned on her and she hissed in shock. “Oh no,” she said aloud, “I don’t think so!” She levitated several sacs of preserved love off the carts and dropped them next to Chrysalis. “I’m here to save every Changeling,” she said. “No exceptions.”

“My Queen,” Turnip started to say.

Cabbage rounded on him with extreme irritation. “Stop calling me that!”

Turnip visibly struggled to regain control of his voice under Cabbage’s glare. “C-c-cabbage,” he finally forced out, “th-that really isn’t a wise course of action.”

Cabbage tilted her head ever-so-slightly to the side. “Thank you for your opinion,” she said dryly. “Now keep it to yourself for a while.” She turned back to Chrysalis, picked up the love preserves the former queen had shoved off the bed while Cabbage’s back was turned, and put them back on the bed. “Now listen up, all of you,” she said. “I appreciate that you feel obligated to me, but I have no desire to act as your Queen. Instead, I’m going to be your teacher and you, Chrysalis, are going to be my star pupil.”

“What,” Chrysalis said. Turnip, Trixie, Harlequin, and Luna echoed the sentiment in their own ways.

Cabbage gave the former queen a beneficent smile. “I’m going to work with you until you’ve mastered the art of making friends and earning affection on your own merits and regained the trust and confidence of your Changelings, so they’ll let you be Queen again and leave me free to live my life the way I want to.”

Chrysalis sat slightly slack-jawed for a moment, but then smiled, picked up a love sac in one hoof, and leaned over until she could see around Cabbage and look Turnip in the eye, lifting the sac in toast. “I’ve changed my mind, Lorekeeper,” Chrysalis said. “You’ve found us a great Queen! I’m sorry,” she added with a wink to Cabbage, “I meant ‘teacher.’ Ha!” She tore open the sac and inhaled.

Cabbage nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Now that that’s settled…” She called up her transformation magic, putting back on her sea-green earth pony guise and shrinking herself down. When the green flames faded, however she found she was still a head taller than Barnacle Salt. “Oh,” she said in disappointment, “is this my limit now?” She shuffled over to her troupe. “Trixie,” she said, “it looks like I’m not going to be able to stay with the troupe. At least, not for a while. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Trixie said. She put an awkward hoof up on Cabbage’s shoulder. “We can work something out.”