The Changelings Have a King

by Jade Ring

Prologue: Concerning Changelings

For the original 130. You've been on this ride the longest.

Excerpts from the Wanderings of Mareco Polo
Last Existing Copy located in the Archives of Truth

My father and I have made contact with a peculiar society that is unlike any other that we have ever encountered.

They are not ponies, per se, but instead bear more similarities to large insects. Their wings are paper-thin, their bodies encased in a hard exoskeleton. Their legs are riddled with a random number of holes, presumably top aid their frail wings in bearing them into the sky.
The most notable feature of the species is their ability to change their very appearance, down to mimicking voices with perfect accuracy. Simply remarkable.

The society is notably advanced, with leadership coming from a central queen. She is a vast and humbling creature, both terrifying and beautiful to behold. She received us with great hospitality and invited us to a great festival being held in her honor. This queen has reigned for several centuries, since a queen cannot die until she has birthed the new queen.

An examination of the queen’s most recent clutch of eggs has revealed not one, but two new queens.

The changing ones are ecstatic, as their low numbers attest to the fact that they are slowly dying off. Two new queens means two new societies. The species will be able to spread and flourish once more.

My father asked her majesty why the number of her subjects was so low. Apparently, these creatures once subsisted on the flesh of living creatures. When this most recent queen took over, she forbade the consumption of flesh and introduced a new food source; emotions. Inability to adapt to this new feeding source starved many of the changing ones, but allowed them to live in peaceful coexistence with their neighbors; a small pony village called Sunny Town.

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The peace has been shattered.

The ponies of Sunny Town stormed the home of the changing ones just this afternoon, claiming that a foal was taken the night before. The changing ones protested their innocence, but I saw several of them hiding what appeared to be a small cocoon.

An all-out battle erupted and the changing ones were overwhelmed by the pony’s superior numbers. In their panicked state, several of the changing ones adopted pony disguises in hopes of being ignored.

The fear driven ponies turned on each other in their haste to eradicate the society.

My father was one of those slain by the ponies in the confusion.

I found the queen as she lay dying by what was left of her clutch. The ponies mortally wounded her and smashed every egg.

All but one.

The new queen has hatched.

The dying queen passed the babe to me, more larva than foal, and begged me to protect her. To safeguard the species.

I gave my word that I would.

I fled, the hatchling tucked in my saddle-bag and accompanied by a young changing one carrying the cocoon I saw earlier.

I will leave this journal with ponies I can trust and then get my new friends to safety.

We will go to the Bad Lands.

I will not let an entire species die.

I will protect what remains of this society.

I will protect this little queen.

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The Bad Lands
Some Years Before the Incident in the Canterlot Caverns

“Your majesty?”

Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, started from her daze. She looked down at Molt, her most faithful advisor and confidant. Slightly larger than the average drone, Molt still only came up to his queen’s chest, so he was forced to direct his large green eyes upwards to see her. They glittered with concern. “I’m fine.” She smiled at him.

Molt returned the smile and looked back to the cocoon the pair of Changelings were observing. “It’s been months since we were banished from Canterlot, your grace. Surely this one’s metamorphosis is nearly complete?” He scratched at the membrane on his chin, its position making it almost look like a beard. “This was that foppish imbecile we found cowering in the kitchens, wasn’t it? Seems fitting to reduce him to a mere drone.”

Chrysalis shook her head. “No, he won’t be a drone. He’ll be something special. Something… new.”

“New?”

She started towards the cocoon and Molt followed diligently. “We are dying, my old friend.”

Molt gaped at her. “If you require sustenance, your majesty, I can summon a troop of drones here at once. Our love should surely…”

“I meant our species is dying, Molt.” Chrysalis sighed as they finally reached the cocoon. While most cocoons the Changelings used to change their captured prey into Changelings were relatively small, this one was much larger, nearly as large as the queen herself. The membranous window revealed a slightly twitching form that took up most of the space inside. “We cannot continue like this, replenishing our ranks with converted runaways and kidnapped foals. If the Changelings are to live on, I must breed.”

Molt cast his eyes downward. “But there are no Pure Changeling males. Unless you have a way for us converts to mate…”

Chrysalis laughed and rubbed the cocoon with one hoof. “No, but I did find a solution during my time in Canterlot Castle. The princess I impersonated had a trusted relationship with one of the librarians. He loved her so, nearly as much as Shining Armor did. He showed me so many things…”

“What sort of solution, if I may ask?”

“As best as I understand it, if somepony is converted into one of us that has been touched by alicorn magic, the combined magical lines will produce a new life-form. In other words…”

“…you could create a new Pure Changeling.” Molt marveled. “But, my queen, this one wasn’t an alicorn.”

Chrysalis smirked. “No, but he had close contact with Celestia his entire life. He reeked of her magic.”

Molt watched, fascinated, as the cocoon began to bulge. “He was a prince then?”

“He was, but no longer.”

Molt gulped as the sides began to rip. “A king.”

The cocoon burst, the viscous liquid inside sloshing all over the ground before the two Changelings. A large form, curled in a fetal position, washed out with it, settling at the hooves of the Changeling queen. He was as tall as she was, and just as thin. His mane, a once luxurious blonde, was gone, replaced by the flowing moss-like substance that made up Chrysalis’ own faux hair. His horn was now the same jagged shape as the queen’s and two still drying wings lay against his sides. He whimpered as she stroked his still hardening exoskeleton.

“Shhh, my love.” Chrysalis cooed. She leaned down and placed the tip of her horn against his. “Feel my love for you. Take strength from it…”

The horns glowed, the queen’s love flowing into the still forming creature. His whimpers faded into quiet grunts of contentment.

Molt raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “He’s as helpless as a newborn drone.” The look his queen shot at him made him bow. “What I meant to say is that he doesn’t seem ready to breed, my queen.”

Chrysalis smiled as she stroked her king’s new body. “No, it will take a few years for him to mature. It will take just as long for my own body to prepare to create life.” She kissed his cheek, thrilling as it hardened beneath her lips. “We’ve waited this long. A little longer won’t hurt anything.”

Molt nodded and looked again to his new king. “Will you rename him, your highness?”

“I suppose I should. He hardly looks like a ‘Blueblood’ anymore…” She grinned as his green eyes opened and took her in. She was familiar with the imprinting process. She was present at every hatching so that the newborn drones would recognize her as a queen and mother figure.

But this one wouldn’t see her as a mother.

He would see her as a mate.

“I name thee… Carapace.” She whispered.

“All hail Carapace! All hail the King of the Changelings!” Molt cried, bowing even deeper.

Chrysalis wasn’t paying attention. She was lost in the newborn king’s eyes. In them, she could already see something; a clutch of newborn Pure Changelings.

She saw the survival of her species.

Comments

[Yami Vizzini]

...a small pony village called Sunny Town.

Aw snap, pulling in from every dark corner of the fandom here.
So Mareco Polo became Ender.
It may not matter but I can't help but wonder about that other changeling who escaped w/Mareco and larva!Chryssy. (Not to ignore the foal, but I'm more sure that that one will be back.)