In the Shadow of the Sun

by Juntao112

Chapter 7

"Mighty nations may struggle against each other for years, striving for a victory that is decided in a single day. Thus, to remain ignorant of the enemy's condition is the height of foolishness. What enables the wise ruler and clever general to triumph on the field of battle is foreknowledge."
–Emperor Bai Yun of Canton, 504 BCE

Far away from the dojo, Creme Brulee sulked back towards the house he shared with his friend — and pretend brother — Caramel. The karate class had been fun, but things had gone steeply downhill after Thunderball arrived. Thunderball was clearly more interested in fighting Rainbow Dash, if not Rainbow Dash herself, and honestly, who could blame him? Leaving aside the issue of sexual orientation, Rainbow Dash had so much to offer — to the point where even otherwise straight mares fantasized about her. She was fit, attractive, and, most importantly, a national hero several times over.

Creme Brulee collapsed on his couch the moment he entered the living room and flicked the radio on with his tail. Beat Hoofen's fifth symphony soon floated over the airwaves. He closed his eyes and let the stirring music carry him away from his worries.

There was a gentle knock from the door. Creme ignored it, only for his door to be assailed by a dozen more. He dragged himself off of the couch and flung the door open to see a brown earth pony.

She smiled sweetly as she looked up at him. "Hello! Are you Mr. Brulee?"

"I am," he glowered. "Who are you?"

"I am Thunderball's cousin, Daisy. May I come in?"

Creme gave her a hard look before stepping aside. He let the door close behind her before he spoke again. "I'm sorry, but I can't help notice that you're an earth pony, and, last I checked, Thunderball is a pegasus."

"The wonders of adoption!" She threw herself on the couch, next to the radio. "Ooh, Beat Hoofen! I love this one! Come on, sit and listen!"

Creme Brulee sat down beside her. "Was he adopted, or were you?"

"Both! It runs in the family. Well, not literally, but you get the idea." She let the movement finish before turning off the radio. "I have to say, Thunderball has talked about you a lot. It is so nice to finally meet you."

"Why? I'm not exactly what you'd call special, or interesting."

"Oh, I would disagree," she purred. "And we both know why."

Creme froze. She gave him a reassuring pat on the foreleg. "No need to worry, your secret is safe with me. Runs in the family."

"Wh–what family?"

"Let us simply say that we want to make sure Thunderball is keeping good company." She leaned back into the couch. "So tell me, how did someone like you end up here in Ponyville? I have nothing against this town, but I would hardly like to settle down here."

"It has it's advantages — a large enough population to hide in and feed off of, but small enough that you can get by without official documentation. Plus we figured having Princess Twilight around would serve as a deterrent if Chrysalis ever tried to take us back. It didn't work out quite as well as we expected, but it was a good plan."

"I see your point," she nodded. "And how did meet Caramel?"

"Oh, um…" Creme took in a deep gulp of air. "Er, the short version is that the first place I ran to after leaving the hive was Appeloosa. I was starving by the time I got there, so I pretended to be a mare, went to the bar, and figured I'd have a one–night stand."

Daisy politely ignored the fact that Creme could have probably boiled a kettle full of tea on his forehead and signalled that she had a question. "I thought changelings fed off of love?"

"Lust isn't the same thing as love, but it'll do in a pinch. Um, anyways, I was running on fumes by the time somepony took interest in me, and my transformation actually gave out before we could get, um, serious. Gave Caramel one heck of a surprise, but he managed to keep a cool head and not get me arrested or anything. I apologized, we became friends, and then he invited me to stay with him in Ponyville the next morning."

"You are one very lucky changeling, to have found such a trusting friend. Was the hive so bad that you thought it better to risk things on your own?"

Creme sighed. "There was always too little food, and too many orders. It became worse after Princess Luna's return; we had to severely restrict how much love we could drain from ponies or else they might have nightmares and draw her attention. I left before the situation got really bad, but I heard that's why she invaded Canterlot."

Daisy tapped her chin. "You know, I have always wondered about that; I could never figure out what her plan was. So she charmed Captain Armor, but did not order him to drop the shield around Canterlot until her attack had already begun. While she was in the presence of Celestia herself, no less."

"Chrysalis was hardly the best tactician," Creme snorted. "Her greatest innovation was actually the development of pod farms so that our numbers could expand and overrun our rival hives in the Badlands." He saw the lack of comprehension on Daisy's face and immediately offered a clarification. "A pod farm consists of ponies who've been placed into cocoons, which keep them in a happy dream while we harvest their love."

Daisy's jaw promptly dropped "You're telling me there's ponies trapped in the hive somewhere?"

"Not many," Creme added hastily. "A dozen before I left, and I doubt she's managed to add more considering the state the hive's in."

"Are they in any danger?"

Creme shook his head. "Not as long as they're careful. Perhaps some nightmares instead of daydreams if they're strained, but as I said, the hive can no longer afford to drain them that much. As long as they keep it reasonable, the ponies don't suffer any lasting damage. Not even the mind–probes are too bad — the interrogator will just peek around for surface thoughts and observe dreams."

Daisy held her head in her hooves as she struggled to process the information. "Alright. So they are not in any immediate danger. Still, I cannot believe Celestia has let the situation stand. Does she not know?"

"I'm fairly sure one of the other changelings — ones that Twilight has interviewed — has told her, but they're going to try for a diplomatic solution first."

Her ears perked up. "Others?"

Creme frowned. "I'm sorry, but I don't feel comfortable revealing any identities."

"Are you sure? If you did, I am sure we could help the ponies Chrysalis is farming."

"What are you thinking?"

"Well, I think that an assessment of the situation is in order before anything else. I would like to have someone run reconnaissance on the hive."

"Ah. I see." Creme Brulee bit his lip nervously. There were others better suited for such a mission, but this was also a golden opportunity to prove that he was more than just a burden, that he could be as brave and bold as anypony else. "For what it's worth, I know my way around the hive as well as anyone else, and I'm pretty good at transformation magic to boot. Not many changelings can assume a much larger form than their own, or generate the additional muscle mass to make the disguise convincing. I'd love to help put an end to all this, if you've got a plan."

Daisy looked him up and down. "Well, you do seem sincere. If you are serious, then meet me at the train station early tomorrow morning for the Appeloosan Express. Tell no–one, not even Thunderball."

---

The window of Twilight's library was open again that evening. Thunderball soared in to find Twilight seated at one of the tables. Several sheets of parchment were floating in front of her, each filled with writing, and a quill was busy filling out more pages. He walked behind her and read the first page curiously.

"Feeding Habits of Changelings. By Twilight Sparkle."

The quill made an abrupt jump upwards on the page, ruining the sheet. "Thunderball! Don't creep up on me like that!" Twilight turned around and glared at him. "How are you so quiet in those horseshoes?"

He quickly dropped to his knees. "My deepest and sincerest apologies, I was just — I just got back from karate with Rainbow Dash."

Twilight tossed the page into an overflowing wastebasket next to her chair and started over on a fresh sheet. "How was it?"

"Pretty fun overall, though she bucks really hard." He winced at the memory of her hoof colliding with his diaphragm.

"Tisk tisk. Isn't there something improper about bucking with my friends? I'm pretty sure she's at least a decade younger than you."

"Very funny, Your Highness."

"Consider it payback for surprising me," Twilight smirked. "You ruined a really good paragraph on the dietary needs of changelings."

"I thought they mostly just ate love?"

"Well yes, but it is important to keep in mind that love does not mean romantic love alone; the love between families and friends also count. Indeed, from a certain perspective, one could say that love is the basis for all of our positive emotions."

"That certainly makes sense. How many ponies does it take to sustain a changeling?"

"Now that's a difficult question to answer; after all, it's not like we have units for measuring love. It also depends on the method of feeding; casually passing through a crowd and absorbing ambient love requires many more ponies than, say, a close friendship or romantic relationship. But I'm sure that we can get by if we try; there's millions of ponies in Equestria, and by all estimates, we outnumber the changeling population quite a bit."

"What about Princess Cadance? Surely she can whip up some love magic to feed them? Heck, maybe we should send them up to the Crystal Empire, since crystal ponies don't have a history with changelings. Might even be able to feed them with the power of the Crystal Heart."

Twilight shot him a strange look. "Actually, that's not quite right. Do you remember King Sombra? Did you ever wonder why he tried to spread hatred and fear with the Crystal Heart?"

"I always figured it was because he was some sort of megalomaniacal tyrant."

"By all accounts, he was always a bad pony, but what really caused him to go overboard and lose it was when he found out his wife had been killed and replaced by a changeling. I guess he figured choking out as much love and happiness was the best way to eliminate the changelings threat."

"Ah. So there's nowhere in Equestria that'll want them." Thunderball stared at the map of the Everfree Forest hanging on the library wall. "And it's up to us to change that. What kind of timetable are we looking at?"

"Right now, I'm making arrangements to refurbish the old castle, and have asked many of our changeling friends to go to other cities in search of more defectors. I'm hoping that we'll be up and running in, oh, three months or so."

"What can I do to help?"

"You?" Twilight levitated a copy of The Daily Sun out from a stack of periodicals and let Thunderball see the front cover, which featured a picture of Creme Brulee offering him a bouquet of flowers. "I think you're doing a fine job of improving interspecies relations as is."

---

"It controls the sun."

Chrysalis stared at the Adjutant from her bed, having just been woken up by her abrupt entrance. "What?"

"This scarab allows the owner to control the sun." Adjutant held up the scarab with one hoof and pointed up at the roof with the other for emphasis, even though dawn was at least an hour away. "The sun–god Ra gifted it to the ponies of the Old Kingdom thousands of years before Celestia, when the weather was still wild and the sun and moon moved on their own."

"Right." Chrysalis clapped her hooves. "Guards! Throw her out of the hive!"

"It's in the book! Page 677!" Adjutant quickly produced the book and opened it to show a detailed sketch of the mythical scarab. It was a dead ringer for the one Chrysalis had given her.

Chrysalis raised her hoof at the guards who appeared at her bedchamber door, signalling them to halt. "Well, this is good news to wake up to. Does it actually work, or is it just some ancient superstition?"

Adjutant shot the guards behind her a nervous glance. "I don't know; I'm not skilled with magic, but if there's anyone who could do it, surely it is your Majesty?"

"Hm." Chryalis waved the guards away. "Yes, you're right. Of course I should be able to crack it. I am, after all, the Queen of the Hive. What magic is beyond my reach?"

"A better mage can't be found in the hive," Adjutant added, with a straight a face as possible.

Comments

[nocara]

So at the end this really is a spionage fic