Short Stories from Beyond Time, Space, and Shadow

by ZeroCore

The Guard and Queen, Or, Why One Should Not Overfeed Changelings

Light Rune was about as energetic as ever. The stallion part of the Canterlot Arcane Guard, had just gotten home from his shift, lifting the rather heavy armor all Canterlot guards wore off his back, haphazardly dropping it on the floor near his house's entrance as he ran upstairs. The pony stopped half way up, moving around a few small items he'd hidden a special little parcel in.

“Let's see... where is it, where is it,” Rune muttered. “Ah ha! There!”

The guard pony lifted the box upward, dusting it off. He smiled to himself, remembering all the extra hours he'd registered for in order to save up for this little beauty. Long hours of listening to the shouting of drill sergeants and captains, mountains upon mountains of extra paperwork... all for the contents of this little box.

The stallion slowly lifted its velvet-lined lid open, revealing a folding hoof ring. It was gold-lined and bent backwards at the sides, the piece of jewelry adjustable as to fit over even the most petite of mare's fetlocks. In its center was an enchanted gemstone, the gem enchanted to grow brighter and brighter the more the lucky mare's lover cared for her. Engraved on the back was a brief message; “Even a treasure as pure as this pales in compare to the mare it rests upon”.

If anypony had been standing in the room they instantly would have gotten what the stallion was up to. Upstairs, Light Rune's destination, was a mare about his age. She had white fur with a purple mane and tail, a horn on her head, and a mark on her flank depicting a star with butterfly wings. He'd known her for several years now, the guard sensing a connection between them shortly after they began seeing each other. They had similar interests in magic and the arcane, similar tastes in how they kept their home, and even the little mannerisms they had also felt to fall right into sync with one another.

“Oh, please... Oh, please, please don't say 'no',” the Light Rune thought, holding back a few tears.

Another thing he loved about her; whenever he felt even the slightest bit insecure, whenever anything went wrong, she would help him calm down, never expecting anything in return but friendship and affection; it was almost as if she survived on it somehow.

Light Rune finished his trek up the winding staircase, stopping as he approached a thick oak door. He creaked it open, the wooden door swinging wide with a slight squeaking noise. Light Rune felt a lump in his throat as he gazed into the bedroom, the mare of his dreams turning to face him as he entered.

He felt stiff as he slowly walked toward her, hiding the ring box behind his mane. She had a gentle smile on her face that the stallion beginning to worry; he knew that smile and knew it well.

She was up to something, or rather knew something he didn't.

“How's it going, Rune?” the mare asked, a sway in her step as she trotted up to him.

“U-ursula, hi,” Light Rune said, looking the mare directly in the eye.

Ursula. She had such an unusual name, but there was something about it that made her seem all the better to him.

“U-um, w-well,” Rune stammered, his face going red. “I-I w-wanted to ask y-you something, I mean...”

“Rune,” Ursula said, looking at him through half-lidded eyes, “just show it to me.”

“H-huh?!” The stallion was surprised. “How did you...”

Ursula rolled her eyes, latching onto the box with her magic. She shook it free of his mane, brushing the few shed strands of hair off the velvet-lined case. The mare's eyes glimmered Light Rune's magic gripped the lid, opening the box and revealing a the dazzling engagement ring.

“U-ursula,” Light Rune asked, the stallion half dazed by love, “w-w-will you...”

He never got a chance to finish. Ursula grabbed onto him, lifting the surprised stallion up as she hugged him tightly, ring firmly attached to her hoof.

“Does this answer your question?” she teased, hugging him tightly. “You know, you always were terrible at hiding things.”

The two smiled, embracing each other even as they went to bed for the night, dreams of wedding bells in their minds.

---

Several weeks passed, the two preparing for what both hoped would be one of the happiest days of their lives. Ursula had already had a gown made, and Light Rune prepared his best dress uniform. Taking notice of the guard, who, during his career, had served faithfully to their principality, the alicorn Princesses of the sun and moon, Celestia and Luna, volunteered to oversee the wedding personally, the two offering to have the whole arrangement done in a private chapel several miles from Canterlot's walls in the small village that Light Rune had grown up in.

The two were has overjoyed as ever, the night before their wedding one of complete bliss, and on the joyous day itself, the two promptly made their way down the isle, stood before the two Princesses, and made their vows, sealing the deal with a tight hug and loving kiss. As they made their way out, the sun had already begun to lower the alicorn sisters already having to resume their royal duties that kept the world going. Ursula and Light Rune proceeded into the sunset, a chariot drawn by some of the very guard ponies that the stallion had served under pulling them towards a quaint cabin in the nearby peace of the forest, the two soon spending their first night together as husband and wife...

---

You didn't think this story was over yet, did you?

---

Not too long after they had arrived did they proceed to bed; it had gotten quite late, nearly eleven in the evening. As they settled down for the night, overjoyed as ever, the two clung to each other tightly, the two equine lovers embracing each other as they planned on doing for the rest of their lives together.

“This day was just perfect,” Ursula said, nuzzling her husband.

“I think so too,” Light Rune replied.

“Although I can't help but think that I might have gotten the better end of things,” Ursula went on. “I mean, you got a mare, sure, but I got the best stallion in all Equestria.”

“No, that'd be my line, just swap the words 'mare' and 'stallion' around,” Light Rune chuckled.

The two laughed for a moment, feeling sleep drifting over them.

“Good night, Rune,” Ursula said, feeling her eyes starting to close.

“See you in the morning, Ursula,” Light Rune said. “Dear, I promise, if you thought we were in love today, just you wait; I'll make sure you'll always have enough love to fill a sea with.”

The stallion promptly fell asleep, snuffing out the light he fell, almost immediately, into a deep, deep slumber.

Ursula, however, didn't, the mare's eyes stretching open wide in an instant.

“Wait,” she muttered, “how much?”

---

The next morning came, but instead of sounding with the joyous laughter of newlyweds, a loud scream could be heard coming from the cabin.

Light Rune was in a panic, the stallion finding himself stuck to... something... something green. It was large and soft, the eldritch object having the texture of rubber sheets. A thick gel surrounded the bottom of the slimy, oblong thing, the goo holding fast to Light Rune's fur. Inside of the blob was something dark, stirring around, writhing, as it slowly rose up and down as if it were a giant, sleeping slug.

“What in the pits of Tartarus is this?!” the trapped stallion yelled, eyes still wide.

“A cocoon,” female voice echoed through his head.

“What?” he said aloud, recognizing the voice. “Ursula, is that you?! Where are you?! What's going on?!”

There was a long pause.

“Next to you,” she telepathically said.

The stallion looked through the cocoon's translucent membrane, a set of eyes staring back. The shape was alien and strange but the expression was all too familiar.

“Ursula?”

The cocooned being nodded.

“W-what is this?” Light Rune muttered, still dazed and stunned. “Who did this to you?”

“Well,” Ursula replied, a tiny half-formed laugh drifting through both their minds as her horn lit up, “technically you did.”

The stallion just rested there, confused and puzzled.

“You promised me enough love to fill a sea,” she went on, “well... this is what happens when you feed a Changeling mare that much love at once; it makes us, well, start our metamorphosis.”

“Metamorphosis?” the stallion muttered.

“Into Queens.”

Light Rune felt himself go limp, the guard pony startled, stunned, and flabbergasted.

“How long have you been doing this? Where is she?” he quietly said, feeling his confusion turn to anger.

The unhatched Queen didn't respond, looking away from him as his voice grew in volume.

“Where is she?! Where?! Where is my wife?!” Light Rune roared.

It's no secret that Light Rune had been one of the ones present in Canterlot during the Changeling invasion. He remembered being chased by the flying, insect-like equinoids, of running in terror, afraid of their strange, acidic-green magic.

He'd stifled that fear, especially after meeting Ursula, but now the stallion felt all that fear come back, boiling over now as pure anger.

“She's right here,” the Queen said, her thoughts ringing out in the stallion's mind.

“What?! What do you mean 'right here'?”

“I didn't take her place,” Ursula spoke, her voice regaining some amount of her usual strength. “I AM her; there was no 'original', no mare who went missing, not even a single female pony who looked like that. That form you knew was an illusion all my own.”

“S-so that's it?” Light Rune spoke, half crying now as his vision of a happy life seemed to fall away right in front of him. “I w-was just being used to feed a Changeling, just like Captain Armor was?!”

“No!” Ursula's words coming out as a telepathic shriek. “No! That's not it at all. Please, Rune, I need you to believe me; I never once wanted, or even thought about using you.”

The Queen's horn lit up, the stallion's eyes going wide as Ursula's own memories flowed through his mind. In the haze of this magic-induced dream, the stallion saw, through Ursula's eyes, all the times they'd spent with each other. There first ride on a Ferris Wheel at the Canterlot Carnival, the first time they'd gone for dinner at a local restaurant down the road from Light Rune's house, and the day when the guard stallion had invited the disguised Changeling into his home to stay, hoping for the day when their love had grown to the point it had now. He felt her emotions, what she had felt, during that time, and how deeply she felt towards him. Not to his surprise, she'd kept at least half of it hidden from him, projecting the deep affection as mere happiness with a stubborn streak here and there.

“That sounds like something she'd do,” he thought.

As the dream went on, the mare's image began to change, morphing into the jet-black, insect-like form of a Changeling; this was Ursula's true form. Light Rune cringed a bit, remembering how a similar shape had attacked him not more than a few years ago. Looking on, he saw the insectoid form slowly become enveloped in a thick, green slime, growing and growing as it did until it resembled the shape that it did now, one bright, green eye looking out at him from behind a translucent, rubber-like wall.

With a flash of green light, the stallion awoke, once more looking at his cocooned bride.

“It...” he muttered, “was real?”

“Every single word and moment,” Ursula softly reassured.

The two remained silent for a time, Light Rune taking all that he had seen into his mind. Ursula didn't breathe a word either, the Queen waiting for the stallion to reply. Ursula, still the stubborn being she was, would never admit it, but for the first time in a long, long while she was truly afraid of losing the one being, other than her own mother and siblings, who truly loved her, and made her feel not just compelled, but eager to return those feelings without question.

“This,” Light Rune eventually said, “will take some getting used to.”

Ursula's ears twitched, eyes still wide in anticipation.

“So,” she said, fighting back the tears, “does this mean... you'll... still stay with me?”

“Well, first off,” the guard said, “keep your disguise when we're out and about in public, but from now on, I want to see you as you, not some dreamed-up imaginary mare that never really existed at all.”

Ursula nodded, the cocoon bulging slightly as her head shifted up and down.

“But other than that,” Light Rune said, fighting back a tear of his own, “the time we spent together was real, and I did promise you a sea of love, did I not?”

Ursula felt tears of joy well up inside as her lover nuzzled the side of her cocoon.

“So,” the Changeling sobbed, no longer able to hold it back, “still together?”

“Still together,” the guard went on, “still friends, still lovers, and you, Queen Ursula, are still my wife, and I still love you ever so much.”

Ursula sobbed as her own joy matched that of her partner, their love, for a moment in turmoil, now stronger than ever. The dam had burst.

So did the cocoon.

With a loud squelch, a pile of green goo flew all over the room, the guard stallion's eyes going wide as he found usual white coat covered in a sticky green mess. Climbing his way out of his viscous prison, he did the only thing a noble, strong, stallion of a guard pony would do.

“EEEEWWWWWW, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, IT'S STICKY AND... AND... YUCK!” Light Rune yelled, flailing about like a filly who'd gotten herself covered in mud.

Next to him, a now fully-matured Changeling Queen did her best to stifle a laugh.

Shivering slightly, Light Rune looked at his wife, the Queen still coated in a thin layer of her own metamorphic goo. He chuckled slightly, wiping a bit from her muzzle as she smiled at him, Ursula now standing as tall as Princess Celestia.

“This,” he grinned, “will definitely take some getting used to.”

And get used to it he did. After spending the day cleaning up the mess the Changeling's overnight metamorphosis had caused, the two, Ursula once again disguised, made their way back to Light Rune's home in Canterlot, the pair being very, very careful not to let their new secret loose to the public. Eventually the two perfected this rhythm, keeping everything perfectly concealed. Their affection for one another grew even more, their love soon a legitimate rival for even the positively divine romance between Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor.

As per usual in the morning, Light Rune would don his regal guard armor and head out the door, less he conjure the wrath of his sergeant.

“I'm heading out now!” He called to his still-sleepy wife. “See you when I get home tonight!”

“See you later, Rune!” Ursula called back, maintaining her disguise until the door had shut.

As the wooden door closed, a flash of green light surrounded the mare, Ursula once more in her natural Changeling form. Brushing a blue lock of mane from her eye, the Queen headed downstairs, noticing the rather good breakfast her husband had left for her. With a happy smile, she ate her meal, overjoyed at just how things had gone in such a short time. Not long ago she was a mere Changeling, out on her own, away from her Hive and Swarm, and now the happy wife of a Canterlot guard, the two loving each other as deeply as anypony could.

As she finished her meal, Ursula noticed something, a small letter left by the kitchen counter.

“Hi, love,” Light Rune had written, “sorry I didn't get to give a proper hello this morning. I know, it's no way that a guard pony should behave, so I did my best to make this meal with as much love as I could, about as much as anypony could possibly fit into one. I'll see you when I get home, my dear. Your loving husband, Light Rune.”

Any other mare would have let out a sigh of happiness at the letter, and admittedly Ursula was happy, but the Changeling Queen's eyes went wide as she read the note, the small piece of paper falling to the floor as the Queen thought the words over.

“H-how much?” she said aloud. “Oh dear...”

Ursula began to feel an odd sensation inside her belly as the love her lover had indeed somehow managed to infuse into the meal began to seep through her.

“I-I hope Rune doesn't mind the idea of foals...” she thought, “or Changeling nymphs... one or two.... thousand...”