The hiss of my can is the only sound in the street. My hood covers my horn and hides my face from the moon light illuminating the streets below. The wind whistles through the holes in my legs, sending shivers down my back. The hoodie traps my insect wings, preventing me from making a quick get away. The image finally starts to complete itself. A picture of the corrupt leader everyone worships, loves, and respects.
Respect. The word is so foreign to me. Nobody respects me. I have to fight for my right to live, my right to survive, and to prosper. You would think ponies who have so much respect for the different races would have respect for us because, after all, we are ponies. We're not alicorns, unicorns, earth ponies, or pegasi, we're a hybrid of insect-like ponies. We impose fear for simply needing love to survive?
WE are hated simply because we need the one thing people can give so easily!? We go through all this crap because nobody has a heart? I slammed my can down on the ground. It's a load of horsecrap! Why do we always play the bad guy!? If they can tolerate ponies with wings, a horn, even a pony made of crystals, why can't they tolerate us? What makes us different? Is it because we're part insect? Is it because of the radical stunt we pulled a while back?
What they don't know is that we did that to SURVIVE. That's what we fear the most, is dying because nobody gives a damn about us! Because they can't see past the skin, past the looks!
I step back to look at my work. The image of a changeling half turned into Twilight Sparkle, sat next to a message that read 'RESPECT EXISTENCE OR EXPECT RESISTANCE'. I'll admit it's a bit radical, but it's not like anything Chryssi pulled back at the wedding. I picked up my spray can, I step back some to admire the work when a shadow flies overhead. I hear a pony land behind me and instantly I run. I get caught in a light blue aura. I'm turned around to face the princess of the night. She sets me down, luckily my hood is up so she can't see my face, but the hood is removed and my face becomes visible to her.
I expect her to banish me or kill me, it's what they do right? Kill us because we aren't like them, because we don't have fur or a cutie mark, because we need love to survive and not food. I look up and face Luna, I'm not afraid to die, I'm not afraid of her. She stares at me with a nonchalant face, I can't read her emotions or anything. She simply looks at my art and looks back at me. I also step back and admire it. I'm done here, as long as people get the message, I don't care what happens to me.
"It's quite impressive." She says. There's a bit of admiration in her voice, but not much.
I nod my head in response.
"What inspired you to do this?" She asks. I look at her with my teal eyes.
"Why do you treat us like crap?" It silences her. She turns back towards the image on the wall.
"That I cannot answer. My sister, Tia, sees you as a threat. Why she does, I cannot fathom, for she is my sister. She has her right to her opinion."
"So her opinion is to kill and fight creatures who need love to survive?" She remains stoic. "Her opinion is that, we, ponies, just like her, are evil!? That just because we have insect like characteristics, we're a threat to her people!? Tell me that isn't the biggest load of bullshit you've ever heard?" She doesn't answer me.
The moonlight still shines down on us, her mane flying in the wind and sparkling none the less. To anypony else she would be intimidating. She was a princess after all.
"I do not hate you. You are as you say, creatures living, thriving, surviving. I would think my sister would have this way of thinking, not me. For I used to not value life the way others do. I wanted to be loved by my subjects too, loved and cherished like my sister. The ponies would bathe and rejoice in her sunlight, then sleep and ignore my night. I too wondered, what made me different from my sister."
"But that's individuality, it was between your personalities, not race." She sighed.
"Yes, but it's the same feeling." I thought about it for a moment.
It seemed to make sense, she was different from her sister, so she knew what it was like to be the outcast. She was hated, seen as a threat just as I am. She was accepted though, she got another chance, now she's loved, and people like her. We don't get that second chance. We never did and never will, and that's what pisses me off.
"You show little fear. Why is that? Why have you not fought back? Why have you not tried to escape?" I stand tall.
"I'm not afraid to die. I know I'm like everyone else. I hold myself to their level, to the level of society ponies hold. I am a pony, I just have a different appearance. I know that if they can tolerate pegasi, alicorns, and unicorns, they can tolerate us."
Luna nodded in understanding.
"You know that if my sister sees this, and she will see it, she'll try to silence you." I nod in agreement.
"That's the point. I want her to see it. I want her to see the hate she's caused, the hate she's spreading, the fear she's spreading. This is the only safe way to spread the word, and to attempt for equality." I put my hood up and snicker. " It's ironic really."
"How so?"
"All we need is love, and instead we get hate."
I begin to walk away, my next message ready for delivery. It's going to go nicely with the main square of Canterlot, where everypony will see it's word. Before I can disappear, though, I feel a hoof grab my shoulder. Luna looks at me with a determined gaze. She stares me in the eyes, the intensity increasing, but it does not make me flinch.
"You will not fight this war alone. I'll guide you through it, whether you want me to or not. I will not stand to see another pony turn to dark forces to survive and to be treated right."
Thank you, Princess." I bow to show my respect.
"Where are you heading now?" I point towards the main square.
"Right smack in the middle of town, where everyone can see my message, where they can see the truth."
"Be careful my little pony."
I smile big, bigger than physically possible. It wasn't because I had royalty helping me, no, it was because she had called me a pony. She had just show respect for my existence! She had respected my life, me as a whole, as a living thing. I picked up my can of spray paint and raced towards the middle of town. Adrenaline and new found strength coursed through my body. My heart was racing.
I saw a shadow fly overhead and towards the castle. I looked yonder towards my ultimate goal. The walls of the castle were my final destination. That was the prize jewel, like a diamond in the rough. It'd be my diamond though, my prize for my perseverance, but not the only prize. The prize waiting for me on the pedestal was not tagging the walls of the castle, but to gain equality and respect from the ponies of Equestria. I wasn't doing this for me, I wasn't doing this for the Queen, I was doing this for all my brothers and sisters looking for a safe haven, for safety, for happiness.
For love.
Hhmmm...
Mustache for you
Changelings are beautiful.
4314722
I raise you a mustache.
An interesting little fic. I always pictured Luna to be more sympathetic towards the predigest.
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest here, I've been on this site for some years and changeling angst stories really are a dime a dozen. The basic idea itself isn't flawed, but so many authors snap their shins by doing the same thing everyone else does which, while not entirely applying here, often goes as follows:
The changelings are routinely victimized and woobified to the point where they are discriminated or persecuted worse than most minority human counterparts (with changeling genocide often being used as a plot device to hammer it in), while the ponies are utterly vilified as a species of fascist, ignorant spoiled brats, where basically the worst aspects of humanity are focused into them (ironically, something a lot of people hate Conversion Bureau) with Celestia, Cadance and/or Shining Armor being the worst of them all. And more often than not, the main character is a JerkSue OC Changeling who leads the way of defeating/'showing the light' to the 'evil, corrupt and racist Equestrian government (more often than not the nobles, because after all, Nobles are ALWAYS evil) and constantly exonerates, along with the story, anything bad the changelings do because "they're just trying to survive" (even though there's no canon evidence they need love to survive, are starving, etc, but mostly just popular headcanon/fanon).
And in all honesty, this story really doesn't do anything different that two dozen other authors haven't already and to be fair, done better. I don't hate this story or you, but for a lack of a softer word, it feels trite. It's been done, ya know?
I know I'm likely coming off as way unnecessarily harsh on you, I don't mean to, trust me, it's nothing personal. But I've just never been a fan of Changeling Angst stories, at all. Not just because it's overdone, but because of how much it constantly relies of twisting canon to make it work, like any other 'Draco in Leather Pants story', especially the utter demonization of the pony characters we know and love. That's not to say I don't believe in the existence of perfectly good or neutral changelings (hell, a story I'm writing is about civilian changeling immigrants), but well, I think Starman Ghost, author of Body and Mind, put it better than I:
4316817 I want the changelings to be respected as living, breathing, things. Not racial tolerance. I want them to have respect for their existence. People to respect their lives. They don't need to love them. Just to know they are living beings on the same level as they are.
4316817 I can also see how the story fits perfectly with the evidence provided, but the character is fighting for the respect of his people as they are. People. You shpuld respect life and living things for who they are. That was the focus of the story, not that changelings aren't evil and this one isn't saying that they aren't because his message can be interpreted as a threat. Luna was there because she had a better understanding of the situation. Respect Existence or Expect Resistance. He'll fight for his right to live. Not for love but for tolerance and respect of his existence and for him as a living thing. Plus I used twilight sparkle and not Celestia or Cadenve because, in my opinion, Twilight is more respected than most ponies.
4314874
I double your mustache and then devide it by two.
4318314
You fiend!
4318323
Wait I'm a fiend!
Since when?
4318333
I suggest you make another few chapters out of this. It's truly a work of art and you can't expect me to finish reading here willingly.
At leased think it over of writing more to this.
But for now I wish you very good day.
4318338 there just might be an epilogue if the majority of people want it. I'll leave it up to you guys.
4318388 Great!
I know I sure do
4318388
Yup.
4317150
4317181
First off, thank you for replying and not getting angry. And while I understand where some of my criticism do not fit with what you were intending here, there are still some problems I have with it.
Okay, so the argument in the story is that changelings deserve the right to live and exist just like the ponies do. Fair enough and I'm totally behind that, but when you look at the show canon, there is nothing that suggests ponies do not respect the changelings' right to exist. In the show and comics, the changelings shown are the Queen and soldiers (not ordinary civilian changelings) and the conflicts between them were military invasions which the changelings themselves started and where they actively tried to invade and subjugate Equestria and the pony populace.
The fundamental problem I find is that how can the changelings ask to have their lives and existence as people respected by the ponies when they themselves were not at all willing to do the same for the them in the first place?
It's not to say they can't and shouldn't be respected as people, but respect is a two-way street and this story just seems to make it out that the ponies are the ones at fault here, ya know?
4318562 Ok. Thank you for the feedback.
4318337
NOPE!
"Generic content"
the cake is a lie!
Yes, this is perfect, 10/10. Kinda feel there could be a further story here., but it works as it is.
4319334 Thank you! But there might be a little something something for everyone in just a bit. So keep watch for it!
~Xela
FUCK YEAH.
VIVA LA REVOLUTIONES.
(Sequel please)
i will be very very angry if this does not get another few chapters! this is such a great start only to end like that! keep it up! and i will be watching you to see if it will be made X3
4319534 As I have said before, an epilogue is on it's way.
Though I feel it may not be as good as I would hope.
Well, gee, I wonder.
4325219
They held a princess in forced confinement, attacked others, and brainwashed one of their captains of the Royal Guard (or their only captain). And overall, their leader acted like a total jerk. They pretty much declared war by straight up invading the capital of Equestria. Radical is an understatement.
I understand how the changeling felt when he said they needed Love to survive, but honestly that does not justify their actions. If Chrysalis was smart, she would have gone with a diplomatic approach rather than attempt for total domination. I don't see Celestia as being a specist (racist), and would probably listen to reason. However, it didn't seem that the changelings used that.
4318388 Yes! Give us an epilogue!
4329016 Oh wait, you already have one.. oops! My bad!
I like this changeling's way of fighting the power that slaughters and condemns his kind.
I would probably do a
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/e/e8/Icon_nvdlc02perk_fight_the_power.png/revision/latest?cb=20110518143716
or Run and
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/e/e9/SurvivalistFNV.png/revision/latest?cb=20101127142755
and finally might just hide and make a profit in the illegal game of
shirtigo.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/methboy.jpg