A Changeling Tradegy

by Reddling Rain

Queening

"Oh Lazni, what will I do if I have to go without you... I can't go on."

Prominence's words were the first thing that Lazni could remember about waking up. She felt far less sludge filled and chilled from the inside, but there was a painful throbbing in her hind legs. Lazni forced her eyes open, still not comprehending exactly what was going on. Prominence let out a chitter as she leaned forward, her face pressed against the side of a cocoon that encased Lazni's body. Lazni could see around the room other cocoons like hers, although they housed ponies rather than Changelings like her.

Lazni looked down at her own body and felt her insides-- which really, was her whole body so to speak-- metaphorically turn over. Lazni's outer chitin had been completely removed, leaving her with only a simple formkeeping membrane binding her together. Her back legs were bound in extra layers of opaque goo, which given the last memories Lazni could recall before passing out was probably for the better.

"Pupae, Pupae!" Prominence called over her shoulder. "Lazni is awake!"

Lazni could make out the shifting of the world as another form drew closer, that of Pupae. Pupae looked surprised that Lazni had survived, and yet, there was some other emotion, something that Pupae did not want Prominence to feel. Pride? Yes, Pupae felt pride, although why, Lazni was unsure. This was a department she normally felt was left to Prominence.

"It's all coming together, Pupae." Prominence said happily, standing back so that Lazni could get a slightly better view of the room at large. Her insides turned over, once more metaphorically, as she saw what had invoked Prominence's glee. A dozen new cocoons had been added seemingly overnight, each with a pony resting peacefully inside.

"Pupae?" Lazni tried to say from inside her cocoon. "Those things that attacked us-- were they?"

Pupae, seeming to understand, gave a nod, putting a hoof on Prominence's shoulder, a motion for her to sit down. Pupae cleared her throat as she sat, saying, "I think that now that the three of us are together and alive, we should discuss this threat."

"Moth Ponies, that's what you called them." Prominence said. "What are they?"

Pupae closed her eyes, as if reciting a story that seemed painful for her to recall. "The Moth Ponies are the first ponies that walked the world, according to changeling legend. As a princess, I'd have thought you might have learned this story, or at least heard of them. They once ruled with world with massive kingdoms, celebrating their culture of decadence as they abused the ponies under their rule, using earth, unicorn, and pegasi as slave labor."

"Their society was one that lived in the past, unchanging and afraid of social progress. Technologically they may have even exceeded that of ponies today, but their civilization was destroyed when the first changelings appeared."

"I know this part." Prominence interrupted. "It's the story of the first High Queen, the Asteroid, the High Queen, or the High Queen of Asteroid. I prefer the latter where Asteroid is an adjective."

"That's not..." Pupae let out a chitter, abandoning that line of speaking as she chose a wiser battle. "The first High Queen, in any case, was blessed with powers by a fallen star that heard her cries of unrequitted love. She had escaped the moth ponies, but instead of returning a mere slave, she returned powerful and beautiful. First she took the love of the one she had wanted after, bringing more and more ponies one by one under her thrall. Eventually, when the stage was set, there was a great uprising. The Changelings destroyed the great city of the moth ponies. More and more ponies joined the swarm, the High Queen creating Queens and Princesses under her to govern the land. They created a rightous world, one where ponies were allowed to grow fat and happy, changelings stealing the love of ponies and treating them not as slaves, but as subjects. Ponies now had a purpose in the world, rather than simply existing before having purpose."

"It seemed that all of the world would be under the rule of changelings, and when the last light seemed to have gone out for the moth ponies, the antithesis to Changelings appeared. A different kind of Moth Pony was born, and she had the power to drive drones to madness. Simply by being present, she could turn Changeling ranks on themselves. the moth ponies began to fight back, unleashing deadly attacks that were completely invisible. There were so few moth ponies left, but those few that remained fought changelings to the bitter end."

Prominence cleared her throat, raising her head high. "The moth ponies scattered to the winds, their race all but destroyed, but at great cost to the Changelings. The High Queen fell to the Moth Pony menace, and the changelings crawled into the world to await the coronation of the next High Queen."

"I don't remember that last part." Pupae said begrudgingly. "That story is the extent of Changeling knowledge I have on these creatures. They stay together in very small hives and do not have the ability to reproduce at the rate Changelings can. We cannot allow our guard to be let down though."

"Perhaps we should attempt to draw out more of these creatures, they must have a hive somewhere nearby." Prominence said. "If we could, perhaps, find the source of their power, it would be a deadly weapon."

"I won't allow that, Prominence." Pupae said quickly. "If we find the source of their power we will remember it and then destroy it."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Prominence whispered. "When we confront Lalartu, we could potentially end the entire conflict by using the power o the moth ponies to destroy her. We could solve everything with almost no bloodshed. I'm sure Lazni would like that."

Pupae bit her lip, glancing at Lazni, who had been encased inside the cocoon to simply observe and listen.

"Let's focus on keeping the town calm regarding that fire you caused last night and the streak of Lazni's blood they found splattered all over the street. They seem to think the wrath of gods are on them."

"If they don't stop rattling the gates outside, then the wrath of a god will soon be upon them." Prominence stood up, giving Lazni a nod. "Do not be concerned, you are safe here. Pupae will stay with you, while I try and quell these senseless pheasants.

Pupae waited for a few minutes to make sure Prominence was gone before she leaned close to Lazni, her face pressed against the cocoon as she spoke quietly to Lazni, her voice reeking of what almost seemed to be regret.

"Lazni, when you emerge from that cocoon-- you will be, different." Pupae said slowly. Lazni didn't understand and cocked her head as best she could at Pupae. Pupae clicked her hooves together, her face a picture of resolve. Lazni tried to ask what Pupae meant, but her word either could not reach her or Pupae ignored them. Lazni tried to push on her empathetic link to reach out to Pupae, but suddenly found that she could not, as if the link had been severed. Lazni tried to reach out for Prominence, the drones, the nymph, or any of the other ponies slowly turning into changelings in the room.

It was the same story all around. Pupae had done something to sever Lazni's link with all the other changelings around her. this was the worst part of all the insides turning, because now Lazni knew that there was no one there to know how scared she was or how alone she felt. there was no comfort from other changelings or a hive, no sense of unity. There was only her, alone.

----

Days seemed to pass by without any meaning to Lazni as she felt herself reform inside of her prison. After about a week she had regrown much of her chitin, although it was much thicker now. Lazni felt taller, and judged she could now stand at eyelevel with Prominence. This had been much to Prominence's surprise and concern, but Lazni had not been able to overhear any arguments between Pupae and Prominence.

After what Lazni judged as the sixth day, she finally felt strong enough to reach out and break open her cocoon. her longer and slightly more gnarled hooves struck out at the cocoon, ripping it open and she pulled herself free of the goo. Truthfully it was quite the mess, and normally Changelings were washed clean quickly after they emerged from their cocoons.

It was after Lazni was free of the cocoon and she could feel the goo dripping off her form that she became aware of new sensations. Inside of her a familiar but long lost gnawing was starting to devour at her, pulling and ripping at her heart. As an infiltrator Lazni was built to go for months without needing to harvest love from a pony and return it to her queen, but now there was a feeling ebbing inside of her, similar and yet something new at the same moment.

Lazni felt the need to be given love, and give love back-- to changelings. And these Changelings should serve...

"Lazni," Pupae's voice came from the door. Lazni rose up, standing taller than Pupae now as she looked down at the grinning Queen. Pupae continued, keeping the smile on her face, "Or should I say, Queen Lazni. You should get used to using pronouns befitting a queen. Yourself, I, me. It's more-- appropriate."

Lazni simply blinked at Pupae, not sure if she wanted to hug her friend or punch the smug look off the queen's face.

"This is not meant to be. Pupae, please-- fix this." Lazni said, still feeling the ooze leak off her body, not unlike sewage dripping off wet clothes.

"Oh, I'm afraid I cannot do that." Pupae seemed absolutely chipper at this. "You see, you have the potential to be just as powerful as Prominence or myself now, Lazni. More importantly, you can't be apart of either of our hives."

"So that's why-- the link--"

"Yes," Pupae affirmed, "Your link naturally severed, I would have kept it intact if I could have done so. for now though, rest. I will fetch you a bucket of water so you can bathe, I am sure you are still weak. Your new drones are eager to meet their queen, and we cannot have you looking... well, we need to wash you up first."

"My drones?" Lazni asked dumbly. Pupae had already turned to fetch water, leaving Lazni to stare around the room. counting her own, four cocoons were ripped open, no changeling or pony inside to speak of. Lazni wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she knew she had to try and find a way to get out of her current state. She had to become an infiltrator again and serve her purpose.

It was only moments before Pupae returned with water and a few washcloths. Pupae offered Lazni one while she began helping the queen wash of the goo from the cocoon.

"I'm sorry for not telling you, Lazni. but I knew that if I had told you, you would have said no." Pupae whispered, running her washcloth down Lazni's back and cleaning off her wings with exceedingly gentle strokes.

"This is not right, Pupae, you must--"

"Shh..." Pupae said, running washcloth over Lazni's chitin again. Lazni could not tell if it was hot or cold water, but she supposed it did not matter much. She used her wash cloth the clean off her face and frontside, wiping herself clean. She now had a shiny carapace, one just as grand as any other queens-- and yet she felt like she had done nothing to deserve this, certainly she had done nothing to earn it.

"Lazni, if you truly believe that Prominence's has lost her mind-- indeed, I think she is too proud and vain for her own good, you and I now have the strength to stop her." Lazni looked over her shoulder, feeling wisdom dawn on her. Of course, this was not something Pupae meant to be permanent, she was using Lazni as a tool so that they could stop Prominence from doing something truly terrible. Although Lazni still felt violated by Pupae changing her without any regard for her wishes in the matter, she understood the need for it. It was a matter of evolving out of necessity to make the world a better place. Which, Lazni could not help but remind herself, was the exact same argument she liked to use with ponies who became changeling drones.

When Lazni's body was cleaned, she laid back and dipped the back of her head into the bucket of water. Pupae looked down on her the whole time, washing out the goo from Lazni's mane. Both of them were mostly silent, Pupae seeming rather pleased with her work and Lazni simply lost in herself, still trying to come to terms with everything.

"Your mane is clean. Now I need your tail." Pupae said. Lazni rolled over, offering up her tail as she watched the doorway. She was doing this for Prominence, and as long as she kept telling her that in her head, she'd remember it and believe it. When her tail was rinsed of the goo, Lazni rose up, towering over Pupae as she did her best to look regal.

"Puff your chest out." Pupae said. "You're a queen now, act like it. and don't forget to refer to yourself as I. Give it a try, tell me how you feel, Lazni." Lazni held her breath for a bit, trying to force the words out. it wasn't an easy exerience, and when the words left her maw they truly did not feel like they were her own.

"I feel Like I'm wandering. I'm wandering with the rest of you and now I am lost." Lazni blurted out. Pupae raised her brow a bit, giving Lazni a knowing nod.

"I too once felt that way, after my mother left me her old hive. I was told once that not all who wander are lost-- but i certainly am, so who cares about the others?" Pupae's poor attempt at a joke barely made Lazni grumble in response. The two of them slowly crept down the hallway, Lazni leading Pupae down the stairs and into a back room of the mayor's residence. The floor had been torn out here, and what resembled an entrance tunnel to a hive now replaced the room.

"What happened to the mayor?" Lazni asked, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer. They were both started down the tunnel before Pupae gave an answer.

"Never woke up," Pupae said, as if she was dismissing a speck of dirt off of her hoof. "Maybe that's for the best. Can you imagine how she'd be acting if she had woken up and seen what's been done to her house? Ponies don't respond to change very well."

"That's horrible!" Lazni said while Pupae dismissed the Raspberry Creeks' mayor. "is she still sleeping or did she--"

"Put it out of your mind, Lazni." Pupae groaned. "You sometimes need to break a few stones to build a hive. Now get yourself under control, you don't want your drone's first memory of you to be one of... whatever you're feeling. It should be a happy moment.

"How can you say that?" Lazni gasped. Pupae put a hoof on Lazni's shoulder, which required a lot of stretching on the former's part.

"Because this is your role in the hive now, and you need to fulfill it. To your drones and to yourself." Pupae stopped a a small cavern, which branched off to three more tunnels.

"It's the left tunnel , all the way to the back. It's just one cavern room right now, because we don't have enough diggers. Hopefully with your drones, we'll be able to start expanding more and move future ponies below ground. the ground hasn't frozen yet, but from what Prominence says we need to get the digging we want done before that happens. I wouldn't know, I've never experienced winter."

Lazni did not even have the spirit to look at Pupae as the latter gave her a pat on the back, urging her onward in her task. Even as Pupae turned to leave, Lazni could not muster up the courage to face those ponies-- now changelings, waiting for her at the end of the tunnel. They were not like drones she had reared before. Before they had always accepted that they were ascending to be with the gods, the changelings. These ponies were forcibly taken from their lives by Prominence and transformed against their will. Would they hate changelings for this? Lazni wondered if perhaps, they might hate her for this?

Putting up mental guards, Lazni strode forward, hoping to not express any worry to the young drones. Willing or not, they were still very easily influenced by new experiences on their empathetic link, and it was not something Lazni wanted to damage.

the room had a single biolamp in fiery colours hanging from the ceiling like a chandler. Based on the lackluster design and colour choices, Lazni guessed that this was the equivalent of a housewarming gift from Prominence. It was a little touch of Hive Lalartu, something from home that brought back a flood of memories to Lazni. memories of an old life as Lalartu's infiltrator. Memories of useful to a powerful queen.

Lazni gave her head a little shake as she glanced around the room. In the room sat three changeling drones with opaque, milky grey-white eyes. Lazni knew this look, although it was not something she had seen often. This was the mark of a hiveless drone, a lonely existence that Lazni could sympathize with all too well.

For once, Lazni wasn't sure how to approach the drones. She had never had this problem before, but now everything as more personal, more different. Everything seemed foreign and new now.

"W-Who are you?" One of the drones asked, standing up and shielding the other two. She was by far the larger of the other two, and seemed to be the most willing to stand up. Lazni wasn't sure if she would get her guess right, but she hoped that maybe she could make the drone ease up by showing that she at least knew them.

"You used to be a medical pony, right? But you're not anymore? I'm not here to hurt you." Lazni felt like she had to puke out the start of her statement, but she knew she could get it down with practice. She had no choice.

"You-- You know who I am?" The changeling said, their eyes widening. "My name is Shade Soft, --You, you're different from those other two. Who are you?"

Lazni took a deep breath, saying, "My name is Lazni. I'm here to help you."

The changeling breathed a huge sigh of relief. The two drones under her seemed equally relieved, the group standing and trotting to Lazni.

"So you can help us? You can make us ponies again?" asked Shade Soft.

It was at this moment that Lazni stopped herself. She very well could teach them to assume any shape they saw-- and Lazni herself had seen at least two of these drones and possibly the third as ponies. Lazni let out a burst of fire, the flames covering her as she took on the appearance of the white medical mare who had rushed to aid the mayor of Raspberry Creek. The drone took a few steps back, clearly alarmed at seeing a simulacrum of what was once their reflection.

"You are changelings now. What has been done cannot be undone-- but you can learn to take the forms that you once held." Lazni frowned, feeling that perhaps she had made a misstep based on the reaction from the drone. "What have the others told you three?"

"That you're certainly not gods, and to stop calling ourselves ponies. They made us eat this-- this weird green stuff, and we've just been down here for a day or so. I guess the 'queen' of you 'gods' is supposed to visit us?" Lazni had a feeling based on the tone that this other drone was the mare from the bar, but it didn't really matter. She wasn't that mare anymore.

"That would be me," Lazni said, a little shyness creeping over her. "Changelings live in hives with drones and a queen. The three of you are going to be living with me from on, I guess you could say."

"There's no way we're doing that." Shade Soft said. "Look, I'm not a jerk like most of this town, and-- and as far as I know you didn't have anything to do with... what happened to us, but..."

"But?" Lazni queried.

"I'm not a jerk!" said the former barpony.

"But this isn't our life! We have families, they're probably... well, nopony is probably worried about me, but that isn't the point!" Shade Soft stomped a hoof on the ground.

"And it was not right of Prominence or Pupae to take you away from that life. Nothing can be done about it now. Would you like to see your families again, to walk out onto the streets and see them as you are now?"

The drones stopped, their eyes reflecting Lazni's own visage-- one of exasperation. Lazni simply could not believe that Prominence and Pupae thought this was going to be okay or that something like this wouldn't happen. Lazni let out a sigh, trying to think of something she could do to show them that things would be alright, that everything would be okay, just very, very different.

"Lay with me." Lazni said, an idea popping into her head that instantly became a plan.

"Excuse me?" Shade Soft asked.

Lazni ignored her, trotting to the wall near the exit and laying down on her side. "You've all been out of your cocoons for awhie now, so I know that you have to be suffering--"

"Obviously! Quite obviously we are suffering!" Shade Soft bemoaned.

"Then at least lay down with me so you aren't hungry."

"Hungry?" Shade Soft said dumbly. "Why would we be hungry?"

Lazni tapped her own chest, right where she could feel the biting, painful sensation of not having harvested love inside of her. It was not a horrible pain yet, but it was one that Lazni knew would only grow over time to become something horrible and painful. Something that could consume a changeling's whole being.

"I know that deep inside you, there is a hole. Something that you cannot fill up no matter how much you eat or how much you drink. It might not hurt very much yet, but each moment that goes by you can feeling it getting worse and worse in your heart. Can you feel it?" Lazni looked at the drones with need in her eyes, watching as they slowly nodded to each other, unable to deny such an obvious pain that they all knew they had.

"That hole can only be filled with love harvested from ponies." Lazni said. Lazni was actually well educated in this process, but it wasn't one she was sure she wanted to explain to the drones just yet. When drones collect love, they were able to give it back to their queen. their queen, in turn, would release pheromones that would cause a large release of dopamine inside of drones, as well as returning the love to them in a more powerful form. "Love is the energy we changelings use to power all of our magics. It's how we are able to take the form of other ponies and even use powerful spells."

"We have wings and we can use magic?" Shade Soft asked. "Like alicorns?"

"...Yes, I suppose so." Lazni commented. "Only we are not ponies. We are evolved from ponies, better than ponies." Lazni watched as the youngest of the drones broke away, trotting over and curling up by Lazni's side. Lazni was just happy that this time she was not being viciously bitten by the small former pony.

"Let's say I believe this. What makes us superior?" Shade Soft and the other drone laid down on either side of Lazni, sandwiching her between themselves.

"Changelings have harmony unmatched by ponies, and like you've said, we can fly and use magic." Lazni replied smartly. "Additionally, we don't have to have cutie marks or special talents."

"I feel like there's a story about that somewhere..." Shade Soft said uneasily.

"We don't shun special talents." Lazni said hastily. "Instead we share them. they become part of the collective swarm in a hive. Every single drone is special and unique, even if it's impossible to tell one from the other. All of our skills and talents work together in harmony and love for one another. One large, happy family. We work hard to keep ponies happy, and in turn, ponies give us love. Nobody loses in a world where Changelings are the masters."

"But--" Shade Soft sighed. "But I want to be me again."

"You are you, drone." Lazni said, petting Shade Soft's head. "But if you ever feel like looking like your old self again... Do you have an image of what you looked like in your head/"

"Yes, I know what I look like." Shade Soft sounded almost insulted at the question. Lazni lowered her horn to that of the drone, touching their horns together and creating a spark. There was a burst of flame as Shade Soft caught on fine, green flames consuming her body before she lay next to her family, once more appearing to be a pony. Shade Soft was only able to hold this disguise long enough to feel her hooves and admire her body before it once more melted away, leaving her as nothing but a drone.

"You always have to keep a mental image of what you look like in your mind to use that spell. You also need love magic in order to keep the disguise up." Lazni stroked the drone's head before continuing, "It is my guess that you have neither."

Shade Soft had no response. There was a stunned look on her face, as if she had suddenly seem something she had never seen before. Lazni smirked at the dazed drone, turning back to the other two and holding them close to herself.

"What if we choose to just use this power to return to our old lives?" The former barpony asked. "Couldn't we do that?"

"Oh, very much so." Lazni said. "But doing so will just make the other two here kidnap more ponies. And they will force them to go through exactly what you are going through now. If I could stop them, I would. But their ambition doesn't know any limits, despite my best attempts. I will let you make your own choice though. I am merely offering to be your queen. I am offering you a lifetime of love and affection and harmony. But the choice is yours. No one should have ever done anything to you against your will, least of all this."

Lazni bowed her head. She was getting a little more used to this "I" word, but it still felt like she was puking every time she said it. Still, the statements seemed to evoke a sense of comfort in the drones, and the small former filly curled up in Lazni's arms, raising one of her hooves and wiping it across Lazni's cheek.

"Please don't cry." The small drone said. "You're the nice one. You shouldn't be crying." Despite any inner strength Lazni could draw on, this was too much for her. She began to cry at that moment, hugging the small drone to her. The barpony and Shade Soft seemed completely unable to figure out what they should do.