Part 4 - Interlude
Changelings are enigmatic beings, largely unknown throughout Equestrian history despite coexisting with ponies at various points since its founding and likely before. Several of the ancient masters mention beings that are or might have been changelings.
To our knowledge, the essence of no changeling has been incorporated into the preservation spell. Unfortunately, the clandestine nature of these beings practically assures a few managed to make changes insignificant enough that they could not be prevented. Even the smallest weighting of probability is guaranteed to manifest given the staggering numbers of humans present prior to Thaumic Manifestation.
To those unfortunate enough to find themselves in the body of a changeling, we are sorry we could not prevent what you are experiencing. We are sorry we cannot provide you with more. Princess Celestia would have you know that the antagonism and fear ponies feel for you was well earned in Equestria, but that does not make you party to it. She hopes a new world of ponies might also be an opportunity for reconciliation, and that you might live in harmony with the ponies who rebuild humanity’s world.
Riley the changeling queen rested securely on the thick cloud as it scuttled across the sky, knowing she needed to stand but afraid of what might happen when she tried to make the cloud bear more weight. Everything she knew about the world already suggested she should be plummeting through the sky.
But then, what she had previously known about the world obviously didn’t hold true anymore, if the world she lived in now was a place where a pegasus could fly through the air and battle a dragon made of fire using a rainstorm. Yes, things had changed since the world of her birth. Every day Riley was reminded of how much she wanted things back to the way they were supposed to be.
Still, she couldn’t deny there was something wonderful about literally riding through the sky on a magical cloud with a pegasus pushing it for her. Ignoring certain inconvenient facts, Riley’s life was the dream of many children.
Her brain didn’t work the way it used to. Now all she had to do was consider a thought, and in the time it would’ve taken her to form a few words before, she could fully explore its every facet. Thus, in the time it took her to look up at Cloudy Skies and prepare to listen for what she had to say, Riley had made a mental list of all the good things her life had going right now.
1. No rules.
2. No need to wait to buy things, she could just take what she wanted!
3. She could eat anything she wanted; nothing made her sick anymore.
4. She had a whole city to explore whenever she wanted (at least until the newest wave of settlers had arrived).
5. She was no longer hungry on a daily basis, but now felt sated and strong constantly.
6. No more school.7. No more being bullied.
8. Great new friends like Adrian and Alex.
And just like that, before even fully exploring her first thought, a separate branch of Riley’s consciousness immediately shifted to the list that was on her mind more and more since the immigrants had arrived: all the lousy things. She ranked them in order of the amount of discomfort they gave her. Not because she wanted to, or because she liked lists very much, but because she had to.
1. Being a freaky monster.
2. Mom and Dad are gone.
3. People hate her.
4. No more Facebook.
5. Live TV is gone.
6. Not sure what she’s eating.
7. Not sure if she wasn’t a monster.
Thus went her considerations, in the time it took Cloudy Skies to say: “You know, Riley, I’ve been thinking.” It took an effort of will for her to turn her attention on the pony, offering her one hoof to help her clamber up onto the cloud. Riley did so only after spreading her legs, anchoring herself so the effort would not make her fall. Other ponies felt light to her, so she wasn’t worried. One tug was all it took.
There was something strange about the way she heard voices ever since her transformation, something shallow and washed out. She never let it show in her face, though. Hadn’t ever told anyone about it, not even Adrian.
“I’ve been thinking you could use another name.” Sky reached forward, tugging her hood away from her face so she could see her. Riley braced herself for the wave of revulsion and fear… but it never came. Instead she felt only compassion. It was the difference between tasting the putrid smell of oil in the air and the sweet perfume of a roast cooking downstairs. It wasn’t food; not yet. But it was close. “Ponies need pony names. Even if you only use it as a nickname, like the others. It’s high time somepony give you one.”
“Does that mean you think I’m a pony now?” she asked without thinking, the words spilling out of her mouth before Sky had a chance to resume speaking.
Sky retreated a step, the cloud deforming under the pressure of her hooves. Her ears flattened, and she nodded. “Guess I probably deserve that.” She reached out, patting Riley on the shoulder.
Riley might’ve pulled away in disgust from someone whose mere presence had made her feel hated and feared (and who happened to be dating the pony she was living with, so she was always around!). Riley the child had been that way, but Riley the changeling was much more pragmatic. She felt a few slivers of love in that gesture, so she accepted it.
“You were always a pony.” Sky glanced down over the edge of the cloud, though there wasn’t much to see. They had merged with the thousands of other clouds that had transformed the day from clear to overcast, hiding the earth from sight. This worked to their advantage, since otherwise she was sure they would've stood no chance of escape. As it was, their chances still didn’t look good. “I guess I just took a little longer to figure it out. One day I hope you’ll forgive me… Blacklight.” Sky nodded, as though immensely satisfied.
Riley quivered under a sudden wave of emotion, a wave so sharp and intense it caused her to gasp and nearly fall over. Life rushed into her, from the pony that had never given her life before.
No matter how many times Riley experienced it, feeding was never less intense. She felt whatever emotion drove the pony, rushing through her mind as though experienced a thousand times as intense. Mere affection became zealous passion, more than her young life had ever prepared her to feel. Stronger emotions, like the fatherly paternalism Adrian felt for her, came to her as an almost worshipful zeal. The rush flowed into her as though it were air, lighting up her body with a tingling electricity that raged inside her chest like a storm. It rushed throughout her whole body, surging into every pore and healing all the little scratches and bruises she had acquired during her daring escape to the roof of the bank.
For some reason, giving her a new name was extremely important to Cloudy Skies. A name given like that had power, though she didn’t yet understand why. If the name was synonymous with Sky’s kindness, then she would probably end up using it at least some of the time. A new name for a new life?
“Sounds nice.” Riley nodded, shaking some of the water out of her sweatshirt. She hadn’t exactly dressed for the rain, and the garment clung to her like a parasite, sapping her warmth. If Sky wasn’t going to be disgusted anymore, then she would take advantage; she shrugged it off without a second thought. Unfortunately, she didn’t anticipate at least one of the consequences of removing a jacket up here. As it turned out, clouds did not hold jackets very well.
“Dangit!” Riley glared down at the opening in the cloud, watching it close. “I didn’t think-”
“Yeah.” Sky grinned. “No big deal. They’ll never find it.” She sighed, holding out her radio. Riley could see it had been soaked through, and the fancy LCD display was now a little black and brown explosion. When Sky twisted the dials, it only crackled once before going quiet again. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a satellite phone in those gym-shorts of yours.”
Riley shook her head. “It’s too big to carry. I had a regular walkie-talkie in my jacket, but…” She shrugged. “It was probably broke anyway, like yours. We should get the waterproof ones next time.”
Sky sat down on her haunches, frowning off at the horizon. “What should we do, Riley? Wanderlust is still down there. He probably needs rescuing. Our friends are up in Philadelphia and don’t know what’s happened. They might not know whether or not the visitors are really dangerous. We’ve already lost Alexandria. This is a mess.”
Of all her statements, the first motivated little Riley the most. He cared about her; he had stopped her from starving. He gave her a place to live.
She owed him for all that. More than that, he was her friend! If he had been safe, he never would have let a mob find her in that bank. That meant he was in danger.
Her mind simultaneously considered each and every possible permutation of their actions, at least so far as she understood the world. Being a queen removed the restrictions of sequential thought, but it did not impart any additional wisdom.
Even so, Riley found herself coming to a decisive conclusion within another second or two. “There’s too many.” She spread her wings in what she hoped would be a definitive, hopeless gesture. “They’re too good with magic. If we had to fight a dragon on the ground, we’d get roasted.” She shivered. “I don’t wanna be roasted." Pause. "Do you know anypony's phone numbers?”
Sky shook her head. “I know if we call the operator on the Iridium network it should get forwarded to his phone, or someone in the HPI if he doesn’t answer.”
“Okay, that works. Then… we should land far away from Alexandria, where they can’t see us.”
Sky took a moment to process the suggestion. “It’ll be way harder for them to find us on the ground! If it wasn’t cloudy, we’d be in trouble. You think we should get a phone, then hide out somewhere until we hear back from our friends.”
Riley moved past her, feeling more and more confident on the cloud as the seconds passed. She had been afraid of heights before today. Now, she wasn’t so sure she even remembered why she was supposed to be afraid. “Once we tell them, we could try to sneak up at night and see what happened to Adrian. If we think it’s safe. Or we could just wait until they get here; their plane is really fast!”
“I don’t think we should wait.” Sky glared over her shoulder, in the direction of Alexandria. “They had to come here for a reason, right? I’m sure mean ponies wouldn’t have come just to ruin our lives. Probably… I’m sure there’s something in all the runes I saw Joseph could’ve figured out.” She took out a regular cell phone from her satchel, as drenched as the radio had been. The screen flashed and came back a mess, just like everything else. “Figures.” She tossed the phone to one side, where it plunged through the cloud and out of sight.
“No!” Riley wasn’t sure what she was doing, or even how she was doing it. All she knew was that she didn’t want to lose that phone! To her shock, she found the waterlogged phone levitating back up towards them, glowing bright green. A similar glow came from her forehead, right up until she set it back down in Sky’s hooves. “Don’t you know anything about phones?”
Sky sighed. “I got my first phone six months ago. I never had one before the Event.”
Riley was silent for a few moments, not knowing what to say to that. Eventually she gave up on a logical response, and just said, “We just need some rice! Though… it probably would’ve helped if you hadn’t tried to turn it on. If we turn it off, somebody like Joseph might still be able to get the pictures off.”
She leaned closer, curious. “What’d you see, anyway? What set them off?”
Sky rose to her hooves. “Not very much. But… we should probably walk a little ways from here before we try to come down.” She gestured left, to the alien landscape rising around them. “I can tell you on the way. I don’t want Carol or somepony to find us up here.”
“Yeah.” Could Riley even walk on clouds this uneven without being able to fly like Sky could? She was about to find out.
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YES! Changeling Queen perspective! This helps more than you ever know.
Is... is that blurb about Changelings at the top all that was written about them?
The rice thing is scarily effective. Had a phone sitting about 6 hours in water, about a day in a bunch of rice, changing it out, and it worked fine, even after being run over.
And a bit of perspective from Riley. It's interesting to see that she know she is a queen, and I'm wondering where that letter about the princesses opinions came from. I honestly thought you were going to do another of Alex's journal entry for this, but I like this better.
However now I want to know if we will get a Riley arc in this story or if this is the most we get to see of her perspective.
So, Riley is a queen.
Damn, ponies had better be nice to her now. Alex might have some super-regeneration and Cloudy might have the ability to command a storm, but Riley looks like she's shaping up to be Team Alexandria's real powerhouse. She could literally birth an entire nation.
6314201 or an army.....i remember one of these pony after earth story have a changeling queen somewhere...
Riding the silver lining?
That seems a good motivator to go off the deep end. Hopefully It won't happen to Riley.
That reminded me to comment on this one...
6255068
The only question remaining was if the changelings only helped with the spell to keep their disguises (Luna's spell was a nation-wide movement so any dissenters may attract too much attention to themselves) or if they honestly wanted to help too. I guess this should be in a 'ling-by-'ling basis, and it isn't like the answer it really important now.
6314172 im sorta shocked they hadn't actually involved them in a way, given this was a massive shapeshifting spell done for so many types and peoples. They look to be the undisputed masters of it, and getting insight into how they do enough to make it stick might have been good. But this sorta points to them being united in a way under a single queen to not want to go about things, if they resorted to putting in a few aspects from the spell.
Something tells me that being a Changeling is as much nature as it is nurture. The way Riley described her experience of empathivoricism had a sexual subtext that made me feel that it might prove addictive over time. It's a shame but the simple fact of her biology may yet drive her into the wilderness.
There are days when I am sure that the Princesses wish that they were as perfect as their Little Ponies imagined them to be.
6314256 Two actually. Still, we don't know what the reproductive rate is for them yet.
Riley's perspective in interesting though. Seems like a queen's mind is built for multitasking and semi-rigid organization, if those quick lists are anything to go by. Which hints that some variation of a hive mind may be canon to the setting. And it seems that rather than straight up 'love' feeding, it's more the spectrum of concern and positive emotions directed towards them.
edit: And interesting note on the letter. It's not outright saying changelings shouldn't have been including in the spell, but that Equestria doesn't know enough about them to adequately prepare information for those who drew that race from the pot.
And Riley's cute factor just skyrocketed.
Oh ho. Well, this is unexpected in several ways. Not only is the interlude from Riley's perspective, we get to see how unhuman a changeling queen's mind is. (Not inhuman. Riley's still a nice kid. But her thought process is undeniably different from human or pony cognition.) Also, Riley's really coming into her magic. Another telekinetic will be incredibly helpful for the settlement... assuming there will still be a settlement.
Also, Blacklight? I like it. Revealing what most people can't see by going outside of the spectrum we can process. Cloudy has a gift for this kind of thing.
41.media.tumblr.com/3d8924c445bd94145714798b31028503/tumblr_nt0ce6BVTf1rsmidfo1_r1_1280.png
Have I mentioned that I love Zutcha's art?
It's interesting to see how differently Riley thinks after becoming a changeling, but it actually kind of highlights how little the spell had to change for those who became ponies in comparison.
Yay! Empathy for the empath! One of the major building blocks of humanity in my opinion actually. I kinda wonder if Riley knew how to use magic before coming to Alexandria, or if Joe taught her.
Has anybody noticed that this little Alexandria group has a similar makeup to the Mane 6? Like swap out Riley for an Earth Pony and we have a 1-1 thing going.
Also, I kinda want to learn the Satellite Network Operator's story!
Cute.
Riley doesn't seem so childlike now that she's had time to adjust.
Ahhhh, so changelingness wasn't intentionally included in the megaspell, but they're so sneaky sneaky they managed to get included anyway. Makes sense.
Riley the changeling queen?
Oh wow, and their minds are significantly different.
A Cloudy Sky brand nickname! That's how you know you've arrived for real in Alexandria.
Blacklight? Not bad, kind of metal even.
Interesting, though in hindsight not really surprising.
Dang, having a changeling queen on hand seems like it would be very useful for always being able to quickly get a full list of possible actions for consideration.
40.media.tumblr.com/3d8924c445bd94145714798b31028503/tumblr_nt0ce6BVTf1rsmidfo1_r1_500.png
Awesome, looks like changeling magic is a go.
so riley is a queen? AWESOME!
6314201 That and when she has fed on enough love she can be more powerful than an Alicorn.
That image is absolutely adorable. Riley is so cute!
6314294
'Empathivore', I love it! That's the perfect word for them.
That's an interesting point, about the addictive qualities of emotional feeding. Makes a lot of sense that something which causes intense rushes of sensation would cause the feeder to be addicted. Once you got a taste of better and better emotions, you'd constantly be seeking a greater rush.
If simple affection feels so intense, true love must be heavenly bliss.
Hopefully emotion freely given will keep Riley sane.
All headcanons confirmed!
Great description of how it feels to be a changeling (queen)!
"Queen Blacklight".
...
..
.
Chrysalis who? *shrug* Next.
This was the perfect mixture of interesting plot development and world building, and adorable bug pony being adorable.
Well. Good things or bad things could happen here. I just hope Riley keeps her head on straight.
And keeps looking adorable.
6315355 As if it's not awkward enough for a pony to milk a cow with their mouth, make 'em sapient? Rename the colony Awkwardopolis.
Is it just me, or does the preservation spell seem to have highly prioritized folks whose lives were more or less crap when selecting the first-wavers?
I knew it!!!!!!!!!!
6310680
Gotta use what you have! She's got weather magic, so... that's what she'll use.
6310714
Hopefully somewhere awesome. Hopefully. We'll know in two weeks if I got us there, but that would be the goal.
6310720
Don't make those pegasai angry, yo. At least, not the skilled/talented ones.
6310762
Yeah, I wouldn't want to miss the climax. Alex wasn't here for any of this, so we didn't see another journal this time. Having Riley as the perspective character is much better. ^^
6310861
She was bound to get her magic eventually. She's been not flying for half a year now, or not flying very well. Only a matter of time that cutie mark would actually mean something.
6310896
Hah, I would've deserved to be strangled if I'd done that. Alex: So we fought them, and it was really hard, but in the end we realized they hated changelings and we used this cunning trap to..."
Nah, that'd be stupid. Can't leave the drama behind for a journal entry when you're in the middle of something.
Also, I hope I've never come across as being biased against either group (though my characters sure as heck are depending on which one you're talking about). I wouldn't hesitate to have an Equestrian villain, just as the first story kinda had human villains.
Even then, nobody's evil here, and nobody's better than anybody else. Different perspectives, different advantages, but I hope to avoid as much "pure evil" or "pure good" as possible, particularly when applied to whole groups instead of just individuals. Are there evil ponies? Sure! Are there evil humans? Yeah! But calling ponies or humans evil as groups is not something I would be willing to do. Humans have always been more complex than that in our history, with examples of good people surfacing even during awful times, and I think to make Equestrians compelling as characters, they must be complex as well.
6311085
Sadly, we won't be seeing it. >(. Got lil changeling instead, though!
6311121
Unfortunately not. The original roster of the story specified for Adrian to be a batpony. But so many of the side stories were doing it back then I decided against it.
6311275
No, it's not over. But maybe with the torch passed to Oliver, we'll be able to make some more ground. Maybe. No guarantees.
6311348
Hopefully an attitude she can keep once the pressure of danger is gone and she's no longer nudged our of her comfort zone.
6311349
But do we know that's what she did? (they did talk about security things earlier, though we haven't seen much sign of what those security measures were. We will soon enough.
6311376
I think we'll get a a good look at their motivations before too long, these apparently evil ponies. As to Sky's performance in this chapter, I mostly think of it as her special talent's first manifestation. Lots of the characters in the show had something pretty big happen the first time (correlation not causation, I know), but still. Cutie mark and magic in action, maybe?
6311659
Yep! The HPI have digital copies of every book they scanned.
6312112
It's hard to draw with hooves! Alex does her best.
6312280
I didn't see it coming either, based on my predictions for her section. I thought it would end with her first date with Adrian or something. Turns out that happened before the section even started, so we ended up going somewhere a little more exciting.
6312520
In terms of raw scope, this chapter might end up more epic than any other. Kinda silly to think that the craziest fight came during the shyest, most peaceful pony's section.
6312686
Moriah: Raw deal pony since 2015.
6312791
Not another one of us will be melted into glue, my brothers!
6312820
It's the thought that counts, right? At least she tried!
6314172
I think that blurb in the beginning came at the end of their section right before the start of the next. I think it was probably at least a few pages long, since some of their powers were observed for sure during the attack on Canterlot. Everything they learned during that event would've been there.
6314194
Unfortunately, I don't think we'll get a Riley arc. She wasn't one of the founders, so we'll just have to make due with a few quick glances. Much as I loved writing for her.
6314201
And she very well might! Though probably not during the scope of this story, since she's still a filly of sorts.
6314264
I doubt we'll learn the specifics of how it happened, unfortunately. All that really matters is the essense got in there somehow, and now there are human changelings like Riley running (buzzing?) around.
6314312
I'm sure we'll get to see more of Riley and her brood in the third story, once we get to see far enough into the future that we can see exactly what that reproduction rate is. Ultimately though, I expect its greatest limit will be the amount of love she can aquire for her swarm without anypony starving.
6314349
I like it. I don't come up with most of Cloudy's names myself, but I only use the ones I really like. Blacklight had some insight to it I liked.
6314350
Me too! And drawing something a day for 70 days must be pretty brutal, I'm sure. If it's anything like as brutal as writing something every day for 70 days, anyway...
6314422
I think the HPI do most of the work to keep the network going. I'd love to write a story about them, though I wouldn't want to write it unless I could twist things so it was "pony" enough for Fimfiction. That'll be the challenge if I ever decide to tell that story.
6314693
Having a changeling queen on your side would be awesome if she was emotionally stable. Having someone to change shape and do spying stuff would be super useful in a situation like this...
6314707
6314841
Again, I wanted to avoid characterising even an "antagonist" race like changelings as being just evil. It's easy to see how, when feeding feels like it does, they might end up pretty screwed up. Like being born addicted to a drug.
6314862
But will she be a good queen or a bad one? That's the question we really have at his point.
6315061
Thanks ^^. I wanted it to be a little break from the intensity of the last section, but not to take us out of the action. The scene we saw was the closest thing I could think of to riding that line.
6315375
Oh, always. Changelings are always adorable, even adults. Okay, maybe just to humans... but I think they're adorable!
6315410
Eww! That'd be... yuck! That's why Sky uses an automatic milking machine. Well, one of many reasons. There's no way that'd be sanitary.
6315440
Hey, Riley was fine before! She was a perfectly balanced little girl! Now she's a love addict, but she wasn't before!
6316205 Oh, I completely blanked in that regard. I thought there was literally some pony sitting in Seattle routing all the calls. :P
So this is your interpretation of how changelings perceive emotions? If you take the descriptions given in this chapter and compare them to the show canon, it simply doesn't add up. The way the ponies behaved during the changeling invasion in "A Canterlot Wedding" was definitely pretty close to what I'd call "revulsion and fear". If this is really how changelings perceive emotions, how the holy hobnobs did they get anything at all out of that invasion on Canterlot???
Nice job doing your research. A few weeks ago (I think it's closer to a month but whatever), my mom accidentally got her phone wet while we were driving in the car. As soon as we got home, she put it in a bag of rice and, somehow, it was perfectly fine the next day.
6316303
Rice is fantastic at absorbing moisture. You can put a little in your salt and pepper shakers, and it'll both keep moisture from clumping them up, and keep the holes in the lids clear!
So now we're faced with a problem for the Founders. How do they get control of Alexandria back?
We're still not entirely sure how many other ponies are there, or what their loyalties all are, so it might end up being a real chore. But the Founders do have one wild card up their sleeves still: Lonely Day. We still don't really know what Celestia and Luna did to her before sending her back. One of the side effects is obviously her regeneration, but I have a strong feeling that there's a lot more to it than that.
What makes you think Changelings can stand on clouds? They have insect flight but that doesn't mean they are pegasi. Adults may be able to infiltrate Cloudsdale but likely with the aid of cloudwalking spells; I don't think Changelings have innate weather magic like pegasi.
And Cloudy, stop it. Riley is totally underage; what are you making her feel?
6316284
I'm not sure I understand your objections. How did the changelings get anything out of the invasion?
Based on the way I interpret the canon, they really didn't. They might have eventually, but we didn't get to see what Chrysalis would've done if her invasion had succeeded. As it stands, it seems like she was the only one who got to do any harvesting. All her minions seemed to be doing was taking out the pony defenses. To me, the love harvesting would've come after they'd actually taken over.
6316303
It's a really neat trick, I'm not sure what I'd do without it. I've saved all kinds of things by switch the batteries off right away and using a bag of rice.
6316711
It's a tall order in front of them, for sure. But what fun would this story be if they didn't have an ambitious goal?
6317223
What makes you think they can't?
Information on things like this is quite limited, and it's doubtful any disagreements about head-canon are going to be resolved, since the only real way it would be resolved would be if the writers actually answered the question in the episode (which isn't likely).
In my interpretation, changelings do not have weather magic. They don't need it to walk on clouds, though. In equestria, tons of different flying creatures without weather magic can walk on clouds.
Gryphons can do it:
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110829215136/mlp/images/4/43/Gilda_on_cloud_evil_stare_S1E05.png
And so can ordinary birds and even insects:
i.imgur.com/gd3X1BQ.jpg
It's possible to assume "cloudwalking spells" could've made things possible, of course. But to me, rather than assuming that all Fluttershy's birds (and several others we see throughout the series), and gryphons on several occasions, live with these spells constantly, that most flying beings can simply walk on clouds.
To me, being able to cloudwalk is something all flying species can do. You don't need weather magic to do it. Not that your headcanon is less valid than mine, not from an objective sense. But since this is my story, I get to use my own headcanon. There's nothing to contradict it in the canon so far as I know (Unless there's something in the comics that says changelings can't walk on clouds, which I don't remember from their appearances there).
6317322
Hmm, I've forgotten about that eps (mundane animals shown sitting on clouds). Terrible canon choice on the studio's part, and yet it's canon so there's no arguing with it.
I stand corrected.
Oh, I didn't see the update until the second came up.
Cool, still am a little bugged that Lainey is using 'pony' as a present term, but whatever, she has passed a large hurdle and thats good. For now, the future is dark, but it's going in a good direction.
6318299
Be glad we're not reading Game Of Thrones, because that much display of badassery and hope would assure that Lainey dies next episode.
6320852
Dammit, MLai, stop giving the author ideas.
Favorite chapter thus far. Riley's perspective is amazing.