We'd All Love to See the Plan
I woke with late sunset light filtering in through the windows. A warm weight across my back was Pinkie Pie, draped over me. Another weight was Wildcard, his head pillowed on one of my forelegs. Against my other side a drone pressed close, with another draped partially across the first, her head against my flank. One of the warriors was dozing too, still in position but with her head resting on the floor, her eyes closed. The second warrior sat bolt upright, alertly looking around. Her eyes met mine and she nodded a silent greeting.
Since rising would mean waking everyone else, I merely stayed where I was and reached my mind out. I found what I sought easily. The drone who had volunteered to travel to the Crystal Empire had just disembarked from the Friendship Express.
I'd been a little surprised when she had volunteered. Most of the drones who offered to deal directly with ponies were infiltrators or infiltrators in training, with the occasional worker who'd always wanted to be an infiltrator. This drone, however, was a warrior. She had definitely been the most interested of those who'd responded to my call for volunteers, though.
When I'd asked her why she wanted to go, she'd said, I was raised my whole life to fight ponies. They were the enemy. Now they're friends, and I find I'm curious about them. I was also raised to protect the other drones. I am better suited to go into danger than anyone else in the hive. I couldn't stay here and let some worker go instead.
Now I looked out through her eyes to see that she was standing on the platform at Canterlot Station, looking curiously around at the ponies going about their business. Most circled wide around her. No doubt they were intimidated by the sight of the burly changeling, with gleaming midnight-blue armor augmenting her natural chitin. She could probably take any dozen or so of the ordinary citizens.
An equally well armored guard unicorn approached her. "You the changeling headed north to the Crystal Empire?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"Follow me then."
She trotted behind him calmly, ignoring the way ponies continued to give her wide berth. He led her not to the palace, but to a guard station. Guard unicorns passed a changeling-revealing spell over them both as they entered. The guardspony remained a pony. The warrior remained as she was as well.
Inside she found the Princess Luna standing with a bat-winged pony at her side. "I am sending one of my Night Guard with you. Although we do not anticipate any particular danger, there is always a risk of encountering enemy changelings. We considered sending a whole company, but that would draw undue attention to this mission. So I am merely sending Shadowed Path. He is a master of shadow magic, and one of my best fighters. I hope he will serve you well."
"Thank you," said the warrior with a nod. She gave Shadowed Path a curious look. He was not much like the ponies she'd seen before. In fact he looked a little bit like a changeling in some ways. His bat wings were closer to her translucent wings than to a pegasus' feathered ones, and he too had fangs, though they were smaller and blunter than hers.
"We have also prepared some supplies," said Luna. "I trust you will not find it onerous to carry a saddle bag?"
"No." The warrior shook her head.
"In addition, Shadowed Path volunteered because he feels positively towards changelings. I hope that he will be able to provide the emotional energy that you require."
The warrior found she could indeed taste a hint of something sweet and pleasant in the air, along with a stronger flavor that was citrus-tart. She smiled, entirely delighted to actually taste positive emotions, straight from a pony, for the first time. She drew on the pleasant sweetness and it flowed into her, just like taking from a feeding crystal, only better. "Thank you," she said.
She and the bat pony donned their saddlebags without further conversation. When they were done, Luna bid them good hunting, and directed them to the train station. Shadowed Path led the way, with the warrior trailing obediently—and curiously—behind him.
They waited on a different platform from the one the warrior had disembarked on, and when the train arrived it was different as well. It was sleeker, with a dangerous, military air about it. Fewer ponies boarded it than had boarded the Friendship Express to Canterlot.
The warrior drone and Shadowed Path had a car to themselves. Shadowed Path sat on one of the benches; the warrior sat across from him. As the train began to move, Shadowed Path said, "So you never did introduce yourself."
"Forgive me if I offended," said the warrior. Her voice was nearly flat, with very little inflection to it. She was unaccustomed to speaking aloud. "I know very little of pony ways. I am a warrior, not an infiltrator."
"Nah, I'm not offended." Shadowed Path smiled. "I would like to know your name though."
"Changelings do not have names."
"Some of them seem to. Ambassador Wildcard, or Queen Sweetcake, for example."
The warrior drone nodded. "The queen's name is the hive's name. I do not understand why others have taken names."
"Well if you don't have names, how do you talk about each other? I mean, if I want to tell you that I met the ambassador, I can say 'I met Wildcard," but what would you say?"
The drone blinked, considering this never-before encountered problem. "Were you of the hive I would communicate his essence to you through the bond."
"Yeah, but ponies don't have bonds. The only way I can 'communicate his essence' to anybody is by using his name."
"Ah! I see." The warrior drone nodded, understanding finally dawning fully. Names were the equivalent of a pony's essence. No wonder ponies regarded them as so important!
"So what do I call you, if I need to communicate your essence to somepony?"
"I do not have a name."
Shadowed Path heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Just make one up, then."
The warrior drone considered that. She knew almost nothing about names, or how they were chosen. Feeling rather at a loss, she reached out to me. Can you name me, my queen?
Of course, I replied. I considered her essence. Her lively curiosity, her strength, her flexibility, her unchanging determination to protect her fellow drones, all that passed through my mind. Finally I said, Your name is Bright Steel.
Thank you, my queen. "Bright Steel," she said aloud. "My name is Bright Steel. My queen has named me."
"Good to meet you, Bright Steel. You can call me Shade if you like, most ponies do."
"Shade." She gave him a smile.
"So now we have each other's 'essence', and we can start to get to know each other." He grinned at her. "I don't know much about changelings, really. I've only ever met the ones at the embassy. Well, and I met Pinkie Pie, I guess she's an honorary changeling or something. She's part of your hive, right?"
"The queen's consort is bonded to the queen. She is not bonded to the rest of the hive."
"Uhm. Okay. What does that mean?"
"The bond is what unites us. We feel through the bond. We know through the bond. I may speak to my queen, or to the other drones, or to the under-queens, through the bond. The queen's consort shares her bond only with the queen, not with me."
"Ah. So you can't just ask her stuff, the way you asked for a name just now?"
"No."
"What's this 'consort' thing, anyway? I thought a queen's consort had to be male. You know... making little baby changelings and things?"
Bright Steel shrugged. "I know nothing of mating, nor of the queen's arrangements with the hive males. I am only a drone."
"Heh. Okay then. So that brings up another question. Are you a colt or a filly?"
Bright Steel looked at him in puzzlement. "I am a drone."
"No, I mean are you male or female?"
"I... am a drone?" Bright Steel was now entirely baffled. What did males or females have to do with drones?
Shade heaved yet another sigh. "What I mean is, if I were talking about you, would I use 'he', or 'she'?"
Bright Steel blinked as yet another consequence of the ponies' lack of hive bond dawned on her. "Oh! 'She,' I suppose."
Shade gave Bright Steel a small half-bow and a smile. The taste of his emotions changed slightly, though she had no name for the new flavor. It was very like the citrus flavor she had tasted from him before, but also subtly different. "It is a pleasure to be working with a lovely lady such as yourself," he said, which she found nonsensical. Before she could ask what that meant, though, he continued. "Do you have anything you'd like to know about me?
Bright Steel found her curiosity about his words sidetracked by her curiosity about him. "You are not like the types of pony I know. You have wings, like a pegasus, but they are not pegasus wings. Your eyes are somewhat like a queen's eyes. You have fangs like I do. What are you?"
"I'm a thestral."
"What is a thestral?"
"Most other ponies call us 'bat ponies'." He wiggled his wings a bit, and Bright Steel nodded understanding. "Luna created us, way back when. So we owe her everything."
"Created? I did not know that was possible."
"Thestrals are the only created race I know of. It's why there are not many of us. It is also why we give Luna our complete and utter loyalty."
"I suppose it must be somewhat like the way we changelings feel about the queen."
Shade nodded. "I think it's probably pretty similar, yeah. Not all thestrals enter the Night Guard, but all of us find some way to serve our creator. For me, though, the Night Guard was the only way to go. I wanted to get out there and do something that mattered, not just stand on the sidelines."
"I understand. I am a warrior for similar reasons."
"You get to choose, then? You're not like... born to it, like warrior ants?"
"No. We are all born alike, and those who will be under-queens are chosen, but drones have some choice in what we become as we grow. I have wanted to be a warrior since I first pupated."
"Me too. Well, except for the pupating part, ponies don't exactly do that. So..."
My attention was drawn from Bright Steel back to the embassy. The sun was about to set. One of the warriors spoke to me. My queen? If we are to make the last train to Ponyville we must go soon.
Thank you, I replied. I nudged Pinkie away gently. "Time to get up." Pinkie rose with a yawn, and I managed to extricate myself from the trio of drones without waking them.
The trip to Ponyville was blessedly uneventful, and after saying goodbye to Pinkie, the flight back to the hive was likewise peaceful. It was nearly midnight when I arrived. The guards accompanied me all the way back to my bedchamber, where my hoof-maidens met me and insisted on giving me a thorough grooming, as if to remove every speck of dust from outside the hive from me. I could tell that they were worried. The whole hive was still shaken and unsettled.
I couldn't blame them. Five lives lost to an enemy we know effectively nothing about, and that was almost certainly just the beginning. I couldn't help but feel unsettled myself. I wished I could think of more to do than I had already done, but nothing came to mind. I checked in on Bright Steel and Shadowed Path, and found that they'd arrived at the Crystal Empire and were staying in the palace. They would seek out the library when it opened in the morning.
The hoof-maidens finished grooming me and settled in around me to sleep. I felt too restless to sleep, but I lay among them for a while anyway. I let my mind wander around the hive, looking in on various tasks. The nymphs were sleeping, their minders watching over them. The fungus farmers were at work, the task of growing food for the hive never entirely stopped. A building crew was repairing the floor of a tunnel not far from my room. Everything seemed like a typical, peaceful night in the hive. Were it not for the edge of tension and unease in the air, I would never have known that anything was wrong.
A pair of faintly glowing blue eyes suddenly opened in the darkness next to my bed, and my attention snapped back to my room. I touched the mind that went with those eyes, and found an ordinary tunnel worker, one of the crew who I'd looked in on only minutes ago. I looked at her in confusion. Why are you here in my room?
Because things aren't always what they seem. The drone grinned at me. Suddenly I couldn't feel her anymore. She was simply gone from the bond. Yet I hadn't felt her cut it. A moment later she was back, but the mind I touched was a completely different mind. It was a bright, alert, and almost manic intellect, that flicked from thought to thought, constantly analyzing and fitting together all that it saw. I gaped at her, my jaw dropping open.
Who are you?
Ah! Trust a queen bonded to a pony to actually ask that question! I am Quicksilver.
And what are you?
I may be our salvation, my queen.
I stared at her in confusion. Despite the impossible change she'd just undergone, she seemed to be an ordinary drone. Explain, I said.
To fully explain, I must go back to before your birth.
Her darting thoughts settled, as she swiftly sorted out the narrative she wanted to convey, then she began to speak silently again. Our hive has always been the boldest. I do not believe Chrysalis' assertions that we are the largest, but she is right that we are braver than other hives. We must be, to feed the way we feed. Think on it. The other hives all have territories within the great cities of Equestria. They live beneath them, even. They travel through secret tunnels directly to their prey, in places where so many ponies throng that a new face is impossible to spot as strange. Yet in this hive, we have the choice of flying miles through open country to feed beneath the nose of Celestia herself, or feeding in small towns where every stranger is known and noted.
I nodded agreement. I hadn't really thought about it like that, but when put that way it seemed obvious. Our queens have always prided themselves on that boldness, continued Quicksilver, and each has chosen a successor based upon it. It served us well, until one let envy drive boldness into madness.
Chrysalis, I said.
Yes. Sepal, the queen before her, was perhaps the greatest trickster there has ever been. She expanded the hive greatly during her reign. She loved to trick ponies, and would dare things no other changeling would dare, just for the thrill of it. When next you speak to Celestia, ask her about her good friend Flower Leaf.
My eyes widened a bit at that. She had become friends with Celestia while disguised? That was daring indeed.
It was that, I think, that drove Chrysalis too far. The hive was not entirely happy when she became queen. There were many who felt she was not the leader that Sepal had been. In reaction, she strove to prove that she was even greater, and in the end it drove her to attempt to surpass Sepal by tricking Celestia, not into friendship, but into defeat and conquest.
Quicksilver shook her head. Chrysalis' fixation on Celestia, and on ponies in general, led her to ignore me when I came to her, as I come now to you. She did not value my skills. She was not interested in knowledge of her own kind.
My breath suddenly caught. Knowledge of changelings. As in... knowledge about the other hives?
Yes. Sepal created me. She saw what the ponies had, how strong they were, united in their countless numbers beneath Celestia. She envisioned the changelings grown to similar strength, united beneath her. She dared to dream of bringing the hives together, as allies. She tried this openly several times in her youth, but was always rebuffed by the other queens, who would not consider alliance without some compelling reason. Eventually she concluded that the only way to move towards her dream would be to infiltrate other hives, as we infiltrate ponies. So she made me. She used her magic to alter me before I even pupated, to give me the ability to alter my mind as easily as another changeling can alter her body. She intended to make more like me, and gave Chrysalis the spell to do so when Chrysalis succeeded her, but Chrysalis did not want to spend so much energy simply to obtain a spy who could go among other hives. I believe that Chrysalis did not wish to become the Celestia of changelings, she wished to simply become Celestia. So I remain the only changeling like me. Yet one may be enough, my queen, if you will let me finally go and do what I have trained to do all my life.
My mind reeled as I processed what I had just learned. I knew without needing to consider further that Quicksilver had indeed just offered me salvation. I will. I absolutely will. Go with my blessing, and my utmost gratitude.
Thank you, my queen. If you will permit me? Her mental query was a request to come close and touch me. Not quite understanding why, but willing to let her do just about anything she wanted at this point, I nodded my agreement.
She reached out and touched her horn to mine, passing a spark of magic between us. When she stepped back I felt an odd new connection in my mind. It was a bond, but somehow it was different from the other bonds I had. I looked at her curiously.
I can quite literally change my mind, my queen, she told me with a smile. If you seek me through our normal bond while I am bonded with another hive, you would find nothing. This is a bond that ties you to the part of my mind that always knows who I am, even when I am being someone else. So you will be able to contact me at need, whether I am disguised or not.
I see. I nodded. Thank you, Quicksilver. Do you need anything from me?
No. I know where to begin.
Then go. Good luck, and good hunting.
She gave me a small bow, and went. The ordinary bond I had with her flickered, and once again I could sense only the mind of a completely unremarkable worker drone, tired after a long day, thinking of nothing more than returning home to eat and sleep. Yet through the other bond she'd given me I could see that bright, amazing mind working away, planning her approach to the first of the other hives.
As I watched her make her way out of the hive I felt my heart lifting. For the first time since the attack on the embassy it seemed like we might have some real hope of survival. With that hope to comfort me, I closed my eyes and slept.
The morning dawned clear and cold. Autumn was turning rapidly towards winter now. Here in the badlands it wasn't likely to snow, but there was a bite in the air. I felt the high scout shiver, and made a mental note to see if I could get coats or something for the scouts to wear during winter.
Ponies wear clothing, said the scout hesitantly. Changelings don't.
Ponies enjoy the winter, changelings have always just endured it. Doing things the way we've always done them isn't necessarily the best way.
But... her mental voice was even more hesitant, almost afraid, Maybe we should try to keep doing things the way we've always done them. Then we wouldn't be at war with the other hives.
Some things, once done, can't be undone, I told her gently. They want to pretend we can erase our existence from the minds of all ponies. That would never work. We can't go back, we can only go forward.
The scout assented wordlessly, not entirely convinced, but either unable or unwilling to come up with a counter-argument. I withdrew from her mind. The sun was not quite up yet, but I had things to do.
The first thing I did was reach out to Quicksilver. I found her on a train to Manehattan. I wondered how she'd gotten the bits for the ticket, then decided that maybe I didn't want to know.
It was very odd being in her mind. I could feel her thinking, as I always could when I connected this closely to one of my drones, and I could see what she saw, and hear what she heard. But I could also sense a second layer of thoughts, not as clear to me, that covered her real thoughts. Her actual mind was laying plans to contact one of the Manehattan hives, thinking through the steps she would take to locate one of their drones. Her surface mind, though, was thinking pony thoughts, musing about weather work and anticipating the play that she would see when she got to Manehattan.
It was not quite a perfect replica of a pony mind, I'd touched Pinkie's thoughts enough to know that ponies didn't quite think like changelings did, but it was amazingly close. I even felt her expending a faint flicker of magic somehow, and realized that she was putting out emotional energy.
My queen, she said to me with a kind of mental bow.
How are you doing that? You're casting without a horn, and you're giving off emotional energy! Those are both impossible.
Sepal created well, she said. Her mental voice was amused. How else could I make contact with other hives? I cannot do any proper spells this way, but I believe this works somewhat like the way ordinary changelings can absorb such energy, which they may also do without a horn. I could not be what I am if I lacked such a skill. If I do not give off emotional energy, they will know me for a changeling, and not one of theirs. This allows me to get close enough to another changeling to slip into their hive bond.
Isn't it draining?
A little. But I am also a fairly good infiltrator. It is easy enough to get enough energy from ponies to expend at need, if I need not gather extra to take back to the hive.
I shook my head in amazement. I wish I could have met Sepal.
You are her daughter, said Quicksilver with a smile. You are a queen as great as she, in your own way.
I don't know about that. I thought I was doing fairly well, but I may still rule over the total eradication of the hive. I don't think Sepal would have allowed that.
Don't give up yet, my queen. Even if I fail, I am sure you'll find a way to save the hive.
I hope so.
I pulled my mind from hers to check on Bright Steel. She was breakfasting with Shadowed Path, Princess Cadance, and Shining Armor at the palace. Nothing of interest was going on there, so I moved on to check in on Pinkie Pie. She was packing a saddlebag full of streamers and confetti. I smiled. Getting ready to throw some parties at the hive?
You betcha!
I smiled. I could tell, though, that she was worried. I was too, of course. Not just for the hive, either, I was also worried for her. She and her friends could be going into danger by coming here.
You know... You don't have to come.
Yes I do, said Pinkie firmly. If I don't, the hive is going to starve. That's important. My friends and I are used to doing lots of crazy-dangerous stuff. She giggled softly to herself. We've fought changelings before, you know! We'll be there tonight, and we'll stay as long as we're needed.
Thank you, I said to her again.
I pulled my mind back to the hive. My hoof-maidens had risen and were grooming me, but it wasn't as pleasant and relaxed as usual. They were worried. The whole hive bond still buzzed with apprehension. I let my awareness take in the whole of it. Not only was the hive as a whole apprehensive, the usual little knots of discontent were larger, too. Those who didn't approve of my reign were gaining some traction. I touched the minds of those who were most afraid, offering them reassurances. There was hope, I promised. Some of them rallied, and the hum of the hive calmed a little bit. Others, though, still resisted. I, as queen, should do what was best for the hive and resume the Compact.
I nearly wanted to scream at them in frustration and anger at the stupidity of those—in the hive and out—who thought it possible to return to how things had been. We couldn't just go back to the old ways. Too many ponies knew about us. Even doing what the other hives wanted and erasing our existence from the minds of the princesses wouldn't be enough. It would probably be worse in the long run. The princesses weren't stupid, they'd notice discrepancies between what they remembered and what the ponies around them did, and would not only rediscover that we existed, but would probably be able to figure out that one of us had meddled with their minds. They would regard us as enemies, and rightly so, after an act such as that.
The counter argument that the malcontents presented was that it didn't matter. The princesses had said they wouldn't go to war for us, so they wouldn't go to war against us. We could quietly slip from their awareness, and all would be well.
I mentally flung up my hooves and gave up at that. Most of the hive was with me, the others would at least not betray me, so that would have to be good enough. I wasn't going to get anywhere with the few who disagreed unless I took over their minds outright, which I wasn't willing to do.
To have something more pleasant to think on, I flung my mind back north, to see what Bright Steel was doing.
Bright Steel was walking down a street, while snow sifted down around her, the clouds muffling the morning sun and turning the streets of the Crystal Empire a dull gray. Shadowed Path walked at her side. The library loomed ahead of them, snow gathering on its imposing facade.
Bright Steel shivered, buzzing her wings to shake the snow from her carapace.
"Are you cold? We could go back to the palace and get you a coat. Or I can help warm you?" Shadowed Path stepped a little closer to her and unfolded a wing helpfully.
Bright Steel just trotted faster. "We are nearly there, I shall survive."
Shade looked—and tasted—rather nonplussed, but folded his wing again, and followed her.
The two ponies entered the library and looked around. It was a huge maze of shelves, which Bright Steel found rather daunting. She could read, she had learned as a nymph, but she did not read all that well. How was she supposed to find just one book among all these?
"May I help you?" An elderly crystal pony with a lilac coat and pink mane and tail greeted the pair. She peered at them rather quizzically through her thick glasses, no doubt somewhat surprised to see a thestral and a changeling.
"Hopefully," said Shade. "We're looking for a book with information on changelings."
"On what now?"
Bright Steel and Shade exchanged glances. That wasn't a terribly good sign.
"On changelings, like myself," said Bright Steel, gesturing at herself.
"I'm afraid I've never seen anything like you before, in the library or out of it."
Bright Steel felt her spirits sink. If the librarian know nothing about changelings, their mission might well be useless. Yet the queen had seemed very certain that a book containing changelings was here. Could the queen somehow be wrong?
"Don't look so gloomy, youngster!" The librarian smiled cheerfully. "Just because I haven't read it doesn't mean it's not here. I've read a lot of them, but nopony could read them all. Do you happen to have the name of the book in question?"
Bright Steel shook her head. "No. All I know is that it contains an illustration of a changeling."
"Hmm. Not much to go on. Still, I'll see what I can do." She turned and walked away, leaving Bright Steel and shade standing in the foyer. Bright Steel shrugged and sat down to wait. Shade seated himself as well. They were both soldiers, and soldiers learn how to wait just as surely as they learn how to fight.
The door opened and another crystal pony trotted in. He was a green stallion with a lighter green mane and tail. He paused and wiped his hooves on the entry mat, then looked up. When his eyes met Bright Steel's he gasped in shock. She expected him to flee at the sight of her, but instead he rushed to her side.
"By the Heart, it's a Love Warden! They exist! Clover succeeded! I never thought I'd actually see one even if they were real. You have to tell me where you came from! Can you really eat love energy? What is it like? How do you store it? Do you use it for anything? How many of you are there? Are you actually communal? Why are-"
"Peridot! Are you harassing our patrons?" The librarian's scolding voice interrupted the over-enthusiastic pony, much to Bright Steel's relief. She had been slowly backing away, but the pony had moved forward as she did. She had no idea what he was babbling on about.
"Sorry, Mz. Agatha. I just never thought I'd see an actual Love Warden."
"I am not a Love Warden," said Bright Steel, confused and annoyed. "I am a changeling. I came here to find a book with changelings like myself in it."
"Yes! The Journal of Stone Hoof, Volume 12. It's one of my favorites. I've read it so many times!"
"So that's what this is all about. You and your obsession with ancient history! We have a thousand years worth of knowledge to catch up on, and you still insist on spending most of your time with the books that are a thousand years older than that! But I suppose it's come in handy for once." The librarian shook her head with an amused smile. "Well, go show them the book. But don't hang around bothering them once you have. You have work to do!"
"Yes ma'am," said Peridot. "Follow me," he said to Bright Steel. He headed off into the library, practically bouncing as he went. Bright Steel trailed behind him, with Shade following her. Eventually he stopped before a shelf that looked just like all the other shelves to Bright Steel. She had no idea how anyone could find anything here. "Here's the section we want, pre-imperial history." He scrambled up a ladder and his hoof went straight to one particular book. He pulled it out and slid down the ladder. When he opened the book, the pages fell open to a easily recognizable sketch. The enthusiastic colt had apparently turned to this page very often. "And here it is, see?"
Bright Steel looked. She frowned faintly as she puzzled out the words under the sketch. It did indeed say "Love Warden." She felt somewhat confused. "This is not a Love Warden, this is a changeling."
"This is also from well over a thousand years ago," Shade interjected. "I guess they called them something different back then? What is this book?"
"It's one of the journals of Stone Hoof. He was a soldier and an explorer, he wrote constantly, producing more than fifty volumes over his life. I've read them all, he was amazing! This particular one always fascinated me. This is from when he was first in this part of the world. He was an Equestrian, who came here not long after the founding of Equestria. He was stationed at a watch tower that used to stand more or less where the palace stands now. The city grew up around it."
"What were they watching for?" said Shade.
"Well... nopony quite remembers. Some threat from the north. Stone Hoof never specified, his journals seem to assume that everypony knew what it was, and he didn't find it all that interesting. He quit the watch not long after that, and spent his time traveling and writing. It's marvelous luck that we have the journals, he loved the northern lands, so he settled here when he finally retired."
"What about the changelings?" Bright Steel peered at the page opposite the sketch. It was densely written, and she knew it would take her forever to puzzle her way through all those words.
"This part of the journal is from when he was a guard on a supply train going to Fort Winter, to Clover the Clever's laboratory there. He apparently spent quite a lot of time talking to Clover about his current project. Clover showed him some drawings, this is a copy of one of them." Peridot's hoof tapped the sketch of the changeling. "He was working on a project to create a new race! Nopony had ever made an entirely new intelligent species before."
Shade grinned, but said nothing.
"Fort Winter was abandoned about twenty years later, after some kind of disaster. The journal doesn't say anything about what, Stone Hoof had moved on by then. I always assumed that meant that Clover's work hadn't succeeded, but now I see that it did!"
"Does the book hold any further information about changelings?" asked Bright Steel.
"Only what Clover told Stone Hoof. That he was trying to create them, that they were designed to look frightening to ponies, and to eat love energy, and live in communal groups. He mentions the Crystal Heart a few times, that they have something to do with it, I think because they're supposed to store love energy in crystallium?" His eyes brightened suddenly and he stared eagerly at Bright Steel. "Can you show me that? Please, please, please?"
"Uh..." Bright blinked at him. "Can I show you what?"
"What it looks like to see crystallium charged with love energy. I've seen the heart, of course, but that just discharges it immediately. Here, I'll be right back!" He galloped off between the shelves with a clatter, leaving Bright Steel and Shadowed Path to exchange bemused glances.
"Well, that was... interesting," said Shade.
"It was. My queen had hoped for more information from the book. I wonder if perhaps there might be some further record of this Clover pony and his work?"
Shade chuckled. "There ought to be, he was only one of the Founders, one of the most famous ponies of early Equestria."
"Oh. Where would we seek for this information?"
"There might be something back in Equestria, now that we know to look for 'Love Wardens' and not changelings. But I was wondering about the fort, and the laboratory there. It's been a long time, but there might be something worth seeing left. Sometimes magical sites get left with warding spells on them, which help preserve them."
A clatter of hooves announced Perdiot's return. He had the string of a pendant clenched in his teeth. He dropped it on a reading desk next to Bright Steel and looked at it hopefully. "So... can you?"
Bright Steel looked at the pendant. It was a crystal, and she did know how to put energy into a feeding crystal, at least in theory. Presumably this would work the same way. Given how much emotional energy Peridot was giving off, she would have no trouble replacing whatever she put into the stone.
"I will try," she said, and bent her head to touch her horn to the crystal. The energy flowed easily into it, with hardly any effort at all. When she lifted her horn, the crystal was glowing with a familiar golden glow. She regarded it curiously. "This is a feeding crystal," she said, her normally flat voice sounding surprised.
"Feeding crystal?" asked Shade.
"What we have in the hive, to share and store energy."
"You do live communally then!"
"Yes." Bright Steel looked at Peridot, who was nearly vibrating with enthusiasm. She could taste it too, a sweet, almost fizzy flavor. She drew a little in, replacing the energy she'd expended into the crystal.
"Is it like bees, do you have a queen? What do you do with the energy you store? How-"
"Hey, much as we would love to stick around and answer questions, we kind of have a mission to complete. There's nothing else in this book about 'Love Wardens'?"
"No, just what you've already seen."
"Right. Guess the next step is to send word back to Canterlot to search the archives, while we go looking for this Fort Winter."
"I can lead you there!"
Bright Steel ignored the crystal pony, she was busy passing what they'd learned along to Ambassador Wildcard. Shade, the other hand, gave Peridot a flat, disapproving look. "I don't think so, kid. This place is on the maps, isn't it?"
"Well... yes, any good map that shows the northwestern range will have it marked. But I still want to come! I've studied that era extensively, I know everything about the fort."
"Sorry, I'm sure you do, but we can't baby a civilian along on this trip."
Peridot bristled. "I wouldn't need babying. I do a great deal of camping, hiking, and backpacking. I know how to take care of myself."
"You also do a great deal of walking, and we'll be going there by wing," said Shade.
"Oh."
"Sorry. We do appreciate your help. Couldn't have found this without you."
"Will you promise to tell me what you find when you get back?"
Shade shrugged. "If we pass back through here, yeah. We might not, though." He turned to Bright Steel. "Let's get moving. We need to find a map, and send a message back to Canterlot."
"I have already informed the Ambassador there. He has passed the message along through the guard. Celestia will know shortly."
Shade blinked at her. "Well hey, that's convenient! Damn." He looked suddenly thoughtful. "I wonder if we could make arrangements to get a few changelings in the guard? Being able to pass instant messages halfway across the continent without needing to exhaust a unicorn or two would be pretty damn useful."
Bright Steel considered this. Once again she had failed to think what it would be like without the hive bond. She wondered exactly how they coordinated warriors in battle without the bond to guide them.
Shade's voice shook her from her thoughts. "Well, since that's done, all we need to do is get a map. Thanks for your help, Peridot. Let's get going!"
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"Love Wardens", eh? Just what was that rascally old unicorn up to?
And more importantly, what sort of purpose did the Changelings have that they seem to have forgotten? Or are they actually performing that function without knowing it?
Perhaps they eat excess emotional energy so it won't coalesce into more elemental beings like Windigos?
Looking forward to more.
7964345
that makes a scary amount of sense when you remember that Clover was almost killed by Windigos so developing a predator for them might just have been on her mind
Having read the previous two series before this. Its different, given that well, there was a mention of "Some changelings like the taste of hate" Love wardens may be a real thing to deal with the threat of those spirits to ponies. Living amongst them to siphon off the dangerous emotions, and fostering the good. It's a shockingly good symbiotic one.
That some hives may have forgotten this over the years could be why you have the hiding fragments so ingrained.
OMG! The Green Space Dorito has crossed over into the world of MLP!!
img.youtube.com/vi/qOOGPZfLvFI/0.jpg
7967905 I wrote this before watching SU. Having recently finally given in, I actually considered changing Peridot's name when I was going through and editing... but I figured I should leave it.
So writing this before I even finish the chapter I just started when this is writen. I ship Shadowed Path and the warrior changeling :U
Don't pick a fight with Lily Longstockings, though. Just.... don't. It won't end well for ya!
7964812 It's a fairly obvious conclusion that changelings and windigos must be natural enemies for one reason or another. My own little story "Metahorphosis" takes a different path with the basic notion that changelings can destroy windigos and finds a different 'why' for it all.
The consensus for a long while, and now even the comic has gone with it too, is that changelings are not an ancient species. They were created at some point between the 3 tribes era and the rule of Discord. But with so little information show-wise, who did it and how remain completely open to interpretation. I preferred to use this knowledge gap to tie up other loose ends in the world building as well.
7973103
yeah but my point was that Clover being the creator of them specifically as she and her new friends almost died from the windigo threat has merit
Yes! Love for all the love bugs
Designed scary specifically to ponies? Curious...