• Published 9th Aug 2014
  • 17,152 Views, 250 Comments

Changeling: The Movie - Obselescence



"Dear Princess Celestia, as your (former) most faithful student, I feel I have to warn you that this is probably a trap. Chrysalis cannot possibly be serious about this. Why would anyone, much less her, want to shoot a documentary on us?"

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Take Five

“And so ends our brief journey into Equestrian territory,” said Chrysalis, touching down at the sandy edge of the Badlands. Beyond which she’d probably get a terrible sunburn, and Celestia’s prying eyes would again focus upon her. She grinned wildly at the camera. “I do believe our efforts today were an unqualified success.”

“They were indeed, your Highness,” said the camera. The other drones landed in formation behind him. “Generations of changelings shall benefit from the insight we have gleaned.”

“It will be an excellent movie, your Highness!”

“It’s gonna be awesome, probably!”

“Yes, yes,” said Chrysalis, waving them off. “The documentary was good too. But I meant the other scheme.”

Obviously.

She did a quick roll call on her changelings, just to confirm that everything had really gone that perfectly. Seven drones, the camera, and zero workers precisely. She clapped her hooves together and laughed. Perfect. Six elite workers disguised in Ponyville, and poor Twilight Sparkle hadn’t noticed a thing. If only she’d bothered to pay attention to the changelings themselves, instead of their distractingly charismatic queen. And perhaps, eventually, she would have noticed anyway—had the drones not provided a convenient excuse to bolt for it.

“Excellent work on the distraction, by the way,” she informed them, giving them all a round of well-deserved patsies. One, two, three, four, five, six, and—wait, no. Seven? She stopped. There’d only been six going in, hadn’t there?

She shrugged. Well, who could be bothered to keep track of the drones? Not her, that was for certain. She gave the seventh a pat too. “I’m moderately less disappointed in all of you.”

Chrysalis turned back to the camera and laughed her most evil laugh. “We are much alike, Twilight Sparkle,” she said, “but in the end, I think I was just a bit more cunning. Don’t you? It was so easy to deceive you.”

She grinned to herself, imagining the look on Twilight Sparkle’s face when she realized. She’d see it eventually, once she got her own copy of the documentary. Which she was still going to get—Chrysalis had every intent of keeping that promise.

She wasn’t a monster.

“What is a pony?” she asked. There were many answers to that question, only a few of which she’d learned today. She had so much to think on now, but all that came secondary to gloating. “Evidently a fool!” She laughed again. “I can’t believe she fell for those lies! ‘Friends’ indeed!”

She turned away from the camera and her triumphant grin faltered just the smallest bit. Yes, much to think on. Twilight had said things with a little wisdom to them. Only a little. Things that no drone had ever told her. Mostly because they weren’t smart enough. Twilight, though—she understood. In that single, stupid, lowly pony, she’d seen faintest glimmer of an equal. A confidante.

A friend, even.

Queens of their own little hives.

She’d never seen that glimmer in a changeling, and the realization of that made her feel... There was a word for it. It was on the tips of her tongue...

Lonely?

Surely not.

She took one last glance at the vast blue sky above her. There was a world here that stretched far beyond the walls of drone-dug tunnels and earthy ceilings. A world where she could truly be queen of all she surveyed. Ponies lived in that world, and she didn’t. That had to change, no matter what Twilight Sparkle had said. No matter what a pony was.

She was a changeling.

Chrysalis turned back toward the camera, wearing her biggest grin. “Infiltration successful,” she laughed. “And Equestria will soon fall in turn.” She gave the camera a tender pat, thinking anxiously of the bright future that lay before her. “You may stop recording now,” she told him. “This is the end.”

* * *

“And here’s your drink,” said Spike, handing Twilight her hayshake. “Sorry for the wait. There was a line.”

“Nonsense, Spike.” She took a quick sip and smiled. “Much appreciated.”

“So,” he asked, sipping on his own ruby smoothie. “You sure this’ll work?” He had the faintest sneaking suspicion that it wouldn’t work at all, but, hey—if Twilight thought it was a good idea...

It was probably still bad.

“It’ll be fine,” she told him, horn aglow. A magical monitor spread out before, displaying a bunch of gaggle of ugly changelings, and Queen Ugly Herself, in perfect detail. “Everything Dash sees and hears while she’s in disguise. Real time. Now that’s a camera, Chrysalis.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “And you don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing this?”

“Well...” Twilight bit her lip. “I, uh...” She shrugged. “All right, I do feel a little bad. I mean, I know she’s still evil and everything...”

“But...”

“But I guess I saw something in her,” said Twilight, studying Chrysalis’ toothy grin in the monitor. “Something that could maybe, possibly, just barely constitute a friend. And it’s usually not polite to spy on friends.” She coughed. “It’s only fair, though.”

Spike shrugged too. Semantically true. Which still made it true, sorta. Twilight had only sent one spy out to keep an eye on Chrysalis. The Ugly Bugling had left no less than six sneaking about Ponyville. Not that changelings were that tough to spot; they’d already found five of them gnawing on assorted trees and houses.

“Well,” Spike began.

He paused as a rhythmic thumping sound bled through the walls of their tree-house.

That was probably the one they’d missed.

“Fair’s fair,” he finished. “I’m just saying, though. I think you two might have more in common than you want to admit.”

“I told her that too,” said Twilight, smiling as she reclined in her chair. “I’d like to think she listened.”

“Mmhm.”

“Trust me, Spike, I’m confident that there’s more to her than—wait, shhh.” Twilight tightened her grip on the edges of her seat. “Let’s see what she’s saying.”

The camera focused in on Chrysalis, gloating now about how easily she’d fooled that idiot Twilight Sparkle. Laughing over poor, stupid, all-too-trusting Twilight Sparkle, and how simple it had been to deceive her. How easily she’d bought all those obvious lies.

How foolish she’d been, for thinking she’d actually made a friend.

Ouch.

Spike looked at Twilight. Twilight looked back at Spike. She took a long, solemn drink of her hayshake and set it down on Spike’s head.

“Well, I guess that’s the end of that, then,” Twilight sighed. She leaned in to get a better view of the screen. “To be continued.”

Comments ( 148 )

Even fimfic's top dogs are falling to the allure of changeling stories, it seems. :derpytongue2:

Must read this, I.

Obselescence...?
Why?

It's like Argo except with more devious shapeshifters and less Ben Affleck. Maybe she'll include Saddle Arabia in the documentary.

4824755 Welcome to the internet.

Broken link is broken. :raritywink:

4824836

Fixed link is now fixed. :V

4824834

Done.

4824828

This one's intentional. It's a bit of wordplay with the "Worthy of a queen" line above.

100% chance of featured, because mods are OP.

A perfect time to write more Changeling stories.

4824918

The second explanation would probably be more sarcastic.

"She doesn't know a thing about ponies."

Insert Strange Wilderness commentary while looking at Gizmo from Season 2!

img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120306100925/mlp/images/c/c2/Gizmo_ID_S2E19.png

I can see it now:
Royal Guard: Your Highness, a package has been received from the changelings, addressed to you. It says it's a documentary.
Princess Celestia: Well, bring it in.
(Changeling waddles into the throne room.) Hello, Your Highness. I'm Documentary.

<She took a long, solemn drink of her hayshake and set it down on Spike’s head.>
Yep, Spike is the perfect servant.

All right, I do feel little bad

Shouldn't that be "I do feel a little bad"?

To be continued? Yes, this is good. Have a like and a favorite.

They're both servant abusers and deceivers, I see.

But how exactly did they disguise Rainbow Dash as a changeling, and shouldn't Chrysalis be able to tell her apart from the real ones at any rate?

Answers, I must have. :raritydespair:

4825046

Yes, it should be. Thanks for the catches. Not sure how those snuck in there. Should be fixed now.

Has anyone noticed that there are a lot of Changeling stories floating about lately?

4825099

Probably coincidence, insofar as it concerns me. This one was planned a fair while back, as an entry for the EqD contest.

4825114

You're probably right. There is no pattern. But I feel that it isn't normal that currently, when I made this comment, 1/3 out of the 15 stories in the new stories box are about changelings.

4825132
It's not the changeling stories you see that you have to worry about, but the ones you don't see.
:duck:

4825132
Technically 100% of fics are about changelings if you believe hard enough.

4825069
Rainbow Dash is an expert in ninja catsuits and Daring Do cosplay, so dressing up as a changeling shouldn't be too hard.
And do you really think Chrysalis will pay enough attention to her drones to actually notice one of them is a disguised pony? :rainbowwild:

4825251 I can believe the latter easily enough, but not so much the former. :rainbowwild:

they’d found about five of them gnawing on assorted trees and houses.

You don't really find "about" five of something; five is too small a number really to "about" and it makes no sense in context here, where they found all but one of the changelings they knew were supposed to be lurking around.

4825132
That's probably because changelings are popular. Also there is a contest on Equestria Daily which this is an entrant for which everyone is going to submit a changeling story for, other than Bob.

4825356 Mine will be about the Smooze, for what it's worth.

4825356

I know, I love Changlings. Because of the way they work, there are infinite possibilities and ideas to be made into fan fics about them.

4825208

Please reword that. I don't quite understand.

What.

(Read later)

Pls gib more.
Gib more or i report u
BR?
BR?
BR?

4825517 Narnia bred a lamp post. :scootangel:

Much better than I was expecting. I like how the changelings are truly, fundamentally different than ponies.

I'm hoping there's a sequel of some sort later.

More please? :scootangel:

So are you going to make in to a real movie or video or something :rainbowlaugh:

An enjoyable and fun little ride! The jokes were good, the characters in character, the flow worked, all in all a recommendable read!

4825002

(Changeling waddles into the throne room.) Hello, Your Highness. I'm Documentary.

At least it's not a icky pile of glistening pheromone sacs.

Which is only slightly worse than getting it all on Betamax. :facehoof:

“To be continued.”

That's a promise!

Maybe?

4825404

It's because they're changelings

Will there be a squeal? This is good by the way.

4827057

Will there be a squeal?

Yes, from me, reading this.
(I can't help it. Twi/Chryssy 'dorbs. 'Tain't fair.)

that was really good, i got alot of laughs outta that. well done

4827919 Hard Reset. The only reason why Twi beats her at all is because she's in a time loop, and has an infinite amount of time to save the world.
The attention to detail Chrysalis paid to the invasion is nothing short of horrifying, even if it wasn't the story's focus.

...aww. That ending was kind of sad. They'd connected, and were all accepting of each other's not being completely awful...and then... :pinkiesad2:

I propose a Chrylight shipping sequel! :pinkiehappy:

Obs - I have but one thing to say:

SPY vs. SPY!

:pinkiehappy:

4828173 that is shameless self promotion

You are bad and you should feel bad
Buuuuut you don't

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