Friendship is Not Dead

by Pterry

The Queen, pt 2

The queen of Equestria was sitting in a large bathtub. The water was hot and scented, a band servants stood at the side playing a delightful tune, and the sound of buzzing was growing louder and louder. To be quite honest, Trixie was starting to have a hard time hearing her servants' music.

The buzzing noise was accompanied by thunderous, running hoofsteps until the door of the royal bathroom was flung wide open by a wide-eyed guard who shouted, "My queen! The army from the border! It's already here!"

"Very astute of you, Captain," Trixie stated coolly, "Now, what are you planning to do about it?"

"I-I... Th-the border patrol isn't here yet!"

Trixie's smile was like ice, "That's fine. We don't need them. Now, I suggest you get a team of your biggest, strongest stallions out on the streets to protect our good city's property."

The guard's face made it clear that he felt that this would be an inadequate response to an army of porous, insectoid monsters. All the same, he knew better than to voice his concerns, so he walked out of the room with his queen's orders ready to be relayed to the city guard.

This, believed the guard, would be a long night.

---

The queen of the changeling swarm was soaring across the Canterlot sky, accompanied by a million of her children. The air was cold, the rain slid off of her smooth exoskeleton, and the ponies below her were looking out their windows and panicking. To be fair, the queen reasoned, the ponies were right to panic.

A little under eight years ago the changeling swarm had assaulted Canterlot, subdued the princesses, stopped the wielders of what had essentially been Equestria's super weapon, and gorged themselves on the love that positively flowed through the land. This had all been thwarted, however, when a young princess and her groom repelled the changelings with - of all the things - a great blast of love.

This time things would go differently. Word had reached the swarm that Equestria had undergone a regime change. There were no more princesses, no more Elements of Harmony, and no more royal weddings. The new ruler was an ordinary unicorn; there was no hope of resistance for the helpless ponies of the land. The queen and her children would feast forever.

The queen dived toward the ground, and her children followed. A sound like a great screech permeated the air and carried for miles as air was forced through billions of holes in millions of changelings. The ground shook as the swarm landed all at once. Ponies ran to and fro, dashed into their easily-broken homes, and curled up into quivering wrecks. The queen's good children subdued screaming ponies with green resin, and the queen herself stormed Canterlot Castle with her fiercest soldiers.

After the ruler of the ponies was defeated, the castle would make an excellent hive.

---

Twilight Sparkle awoke to the sound of chaos. Screams, crashes, roars, and a terrible buzzing noise raged outside of the former library. Twilight peeked through a boarded window and saw something horrible. Changelings. Thousands of them were rampaging through the city and terrorizing the pony folk. Twilight couldn't stand by and do nothing; it simply wasn't in her nature. So she did something.

Twilight snuck out of the old library through a secret passage that opened up in the sewers beneath the streets. She found a ladder and went up to the surface. Surveying the town, Twilight saw a small filly being gooped up by a large changeling. She decided to start there.

Twilight ran to the changeling and headbutted it. She reared up and brought her forehooves down hard on its body again and again and again. It simply wouldn't stay down; its hard exoskeleton protected it against any pain that the assault would have inflicted on a pony. Twilight felt a hard hoof strike the back of her head and went down.

Twilight's attacker sauntered over to her and opened its mouth, drawing from her a dark pink smoke into its gullet. The changeling licked its chops and shrieked, "THISSSSS ONE!"

Immediately Twilight Sparkle was set upon by a dozen changelings, all frantically feeding on her love like suckling piglets on their mother. Twilight's vision went dark. Surely this was the end. Wait, a voice. Rainbow Dash? No, this voice was rougher.

"You leave her alone!" cried a young, orange mare. A changeling was knocked off of Twilight and all the others turned to face this new challenger.

As they set upon the orange mare, Twilight realized that her savior was herself in need of saving. She got up and headbutted a changeling. The attackers looked between the mares and decided that whatever love they carried was simply not worth the trouble. If there's one thing that a predator hates, it's a fair fight.

The orange mare hugged the purple mare and squealed, "Twilight!"

Twilight shook her head and got a better look at her savior. Orange coat. Purple mane. Scars where wings had once been.

"Scootaloo! You remember me?!"

Scootaloo broke the embrace and looked puzzled, "Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

Twilight's face lit up like a Hearth's Warming fire, "Oh my gosh! You have to come with me right now!"

"But what about the," Scootaloo began. She looked around and saw dozens of unconscious changelings strewn about the streets, "...changelings?"

The air was quiet, as if every changeling in the city was unconscious on the ground. Strange.

---

The changeling queen charged through the great halls of Canterlot castle, beaming away all guards who came too near her and her entourage. The queen of the changelings felt as if she had scoured every inch of the castle, but the queen of the ponies was nowhere to be seen. The changeling queen was becoming somewhat displeased, to put it lightly.

"WHERE. IS. YOUR. QUEEN?!' bellowed the massive changeling.

She was answered by the appearance of a small, light blue unicorn with a silvery mane and a smirk.

"No need to shout, your highness; I'm right here."

The changeling queen leaned her head down at Trixie's face and snarled, but the smirking blue unicorn did not so much as blink.

"Give me your love," hissed the larger queen.

"All yours," cooed the smaller.

The queen of the changelings opened her fanged mouth and drew a smoke from Trixie. But when it hit her tongue, she gagged and opened her eyes. The smoke was not dark pink like love. Rather, it was sickly green hatred. Something a siren might enjoy, but poison to changelings.

"Wh-what? What is this?! Some sort of trick?!"

Trixie's smirk grew into a sneer, "I'm afraid not, your highness. You see, I've abolished love in all its forms. There is no more family, no more courtship, and especially no more friendship. Your highness, I let you in my kingdom knowing full well what you are," Trixie's speech was starting to sound awful lot like boasting at this point, "Did you think the border patrol simply fell back because they felt like it, your highness? It was a trick, and you fell for it! Your children are strewn across my city having choked on its fear! And you, your highness, find yourself at my mercy."

The changeling queen rushed to a nearby window and looked outside. There, in the light of the newly rising Sun, were the fruits of the queen's assault. Changelings were lying unconscious all across the city and fearful ponies poked around the streets.

"B-b-but why?!"

Trixie's horn glowed indigo along with the changeling queen's body, "Why, to make my ponies love me of course!"

---

Sweetie Belle heard a knocking at her door. Fearing that it might be one of those black monsters, Sweetie stayed hidden under her bed.

"Sweetie Belle, we need to talk."

It was that Twilight Sparkle again! Sweetie Belle was angry, very angry. She was going to look that mare in the eye and tell her what. She scrambled out from under her bed and stomped over to the door. Sweetie flung open the door, angry rant ready to go, but the words were halted at the throat.

Twilight Sparkle had a companion. An orange mare with a purple mane about the same age as Sweetie Belle. Sweetie recognized this pony as a young filly in her hallucinations. But surely...

"Scootaloo? Y-you're real?!"

"Well, uh, last time I checked I was."

Sweetie Belle was compelled to step forward. She was compelled to lift a foreleg and wrap it around Scootaloo's neck. She was compelled to rest her head on Scootaloo's shoulder. Scootaloo tossed a puzzled look at Twilight, but returned the hug.

Twilight Sparkle was positively beaming, "Well, it looks like you girls have some catching up to do." Twilight stepped away unnoticed by the two young mares who were completely immersed in old memories.

"D-do you wanna come in?" asked Sweetie Belle after a while.

"I thought you'd never ask," chuckled Scootaloo.

The two old friends stepped inside Sweetie Belle's apartment. They talked. And they talked. And they talked.

Author's Note:

I wanted to add "changeling" to the character list but it's not letting me. Sorry.

Comments

[New Spark]

Oh gosh this is glorious. I love what Trixie did with the Changelings. Typical of an evil dictator. And I love how Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell met each other.