Life is Unfortunately Death

by voxlez

Chapter One - Decisions

I woke up the next day, looking around my room as I got ready for the day. My room was quite simple, it had a mirror next to a sink, and a desk next to my bed where I kept some of my belongings, including a shiny rock I found one day, and a trinket that one of my friends, Fornim gave me as a goodbye gift, when he was banished from the Hive for trying to get more love then his rations allowed.

I went over and touched the red, translucent stone, as I looked at the reflection of me, with blue eyes and black skin as I thought about Fornim. He really didn't do anything wrong, he just wanted to help his friends by getting more food for them. I sighed as I shook my head. The Queen's assistant managed the food beyond what I could understand. I'm sure that if he stole extra rations, other Changelings of the Hive would suffer.

I said my goodbyes to him as I walked out of my quarter, and looked at the Hive in action. Changelings were flying around busy with their day, caring for their young ones, the medical team helping some with injuries, I honestly never noticed how beautifully they work every day with so much symmetry.

As I walked over to my Captains station, I saw Nima, a Changeling who I would call my best friend. I waved at her and she waved back, as I started to come over to her. She was making a tapestry of some Changelings and the queen, kneeling before her.

"Hey, watcha' looking at?" She asked me as I stared at her art, I quickly shaked my head and look at her, chuckling slightly.

"Oh nothing much, I was just looking at what you were working on, four Changeling guards kneeling before the captain, right?"

"Actually they are captains, Fimdul, Molda, Tenim and Septum." "Aren't you going to visit Fimdul today as your new captain?" She asked, as I looked at the painting tilting my head slightly, trying to get a view of Fimdul.

"Well, yeah, I've never really seen him around the Hive before though, he's the one on the left, right?"

She laughed and looked with me, who now had a confused face at why she laughed, "You don't even know what he looks like?" I laughed with her for a bit before responding.

"Like I said, I haven't really seen him in the Hive yet, he's most likely really busy with all his jobs." I said, looking at his station where I was headed.

"Oh, well then I better not hold you up! See you in the bit Persephine." She looked back down at her tapestry, working again with her magic to move the needles.

I smiled at her before leaving, letting down my emotional barrier slightly, before raising it back up as I started to fly up with my wings to the station. Changeling wings are actually very complex, they are made out of a light material that can break really easily if cut, but it can be stretched really far with the tension helping to fly. It isn't really considered a weakness all that often because they fold into our sides.

As I flew, I noticed some Changelings smile at me, I realized that they were most likely congratulating me for my first day, and I smiled back as I thought to myself, I won't fail for the sake of the Hive! As I finally reached my destination. The small area where the Captain worked.

I entered to see the Captain writing some papers, as he noticed me he raised his head, and used some magic to push the paper out of the way. Which I think were on the recent controversy of Changelings wanting to go outside more then ever now, making it a problem due to the fact that when there are a lot out, it can distract some from their important work.

"Greetings, I suppose you are..." He said brightly, looking at one of his papers. "Persephine, no?"

"That's me, I was told by my teacher to come here today, I'm ready to start my first task."

"Well, first off we have to go over exactly what you are doing, you know how to extract love I'm assuming?"

"Yeah, my teacher taught me about the spell, I can perform it very precisely" I said, trying to make myself look good.

"Oh? Maybe I should start you off with something slightly more difficult then..." He said trailing off, as he looked at one of his papers."

"I would love that, Captain." I quickly responded, trying to hide my excitement.

"Ah, great then. I have something just for you, there's been a pony who has been visiting the edge of the forest every day for a while now to pick flowers, I'd like for you to come up close to them and see if there is a need for backup as a feeding job." He quickly added on, "In fact, if you notice you have the opportunity, I'd like for you to extract love from the Pony and bring them back as a prisoner."

"Really? Isn't this a bit much for a Changelings first task? I asked, although I was excited for the task.

"Well, if you don't think you can handle the job." He said with a smirk. "But I trust you can do this, no? I've begun to put faith into new Changelings to see what they can do."

"Of course Captain, I'll definitively perform this as best as I can." I said with a smile, trying to please the Captain.

"Well then, why don't you start right now? I'm sure this will take you at most ten hours, and it's already nearing the afternoon." He said using his magic to rip off a piece of paper from the document he was reading earlier.

"I'll start as soon as possible." I responded, as I looked at the paper the was flying over to me.

"This is a map of the spot you will be going to. Feel free to examine spots where you can hide, I wish you the best of luck." He said, smiling.

I walked out with the map overwhelmed with what just happened. I got a feeding job, as my first task? I almost couldn't contain the excitement, as I looked over the map, seeing the location of where I was supposed to go. It was a simple map, with not much detail, but it was enough for me to figure out a path to go there, a 3 hour flight I assumed.

I smiled at myself, as I left the Changeling Hive, past the Guards, and I begun to fly away on the path that I mapped out. It felt great looking back at the Hive that I was once doing nothing in, and now flying out to bring food back for the Hive. I smiled as I flew past the many trees and bushes, and continued this for a few hours, until I finally could see the edge of the Forrest.

I quickly confirmed that I was in the right spot before landing, and looking at where my target was going to pick flowers. I looked around and saw a big bush that I could hide in, before moving some flowers I saw that I thought might catch her attention, putting in a little deeper into the woods. And, well, I waited. Around 10 minutes or so later, I noticed the supposed pony coming by. She had a cutie mark as a bunch of lowers, and I quickly lowered myself and took in slow, and quiet breaths.

At this point she was very close to me, but I waited worried that there might be someone to see me. And luckily enough, the pony saw the flowers I moved deeper into the woods, and started moving towards it, that was the breaking point, I couldn't contain my excitement anymore, I jumped at her and dug my fangs filled with venom into her, and as I heard her start to scream, I quickly shoved my hoof into her mouth and looked around to make sure no one heard her.

When I confirmed no one heard her, I quickly started performing the spell that should remove the love from her, upon doing this I removed my fangs, and quickly got the love out of her. The love felt amazing, it was coursing through my body like nothing ever had before, I wanted to keep going, to keep taking the love, but eventually I willed myself to stop, as I didn't want to take too much love and turn her into a shell.

She screamed upon me stopping the spell, and I got a little worried, wasn't she supposed to be asleep now? I wasn't exactly sure what to do, but I quickly realized that maybe the venom was just taking some time to kick in, and I thought maybe to just wait a bit. But I did have to do something about the screaming, I quickly got a stick that I thought would shut her up for a bit.

"PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! I HAVE A FAMILY AND FRIENDS, I'M TO YOUNG TO DIE! PLEASE DON'T TAKE ME AWAY" She screamed, which startled me, I thought these Ponies weren't intelligent, and were just feeding prey for us to take love from, she must of noticed my hesitation, as she begun her pleas again.

"PLEASE UNDERSTAND, I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU, I JUST WANT TO GO HOME TO MY FAMILY THAT LOVE ME, I WANT TO MAKE MY MOTHER HAPPY WITH THE FLOWERS I PICKED! PLEASE UNDERSTAND" She pleaded loudly, which made me take a direct blow. Why am I doing this, she's just trying to live her life too, just like the Changelings, I can't just take her away from all of that... I shuddered at what I was thinking.

This is so dumb! I should just take her back! My inner self screamed at me, but I knew that this was wrong, I knew that she had a family too, and I thought about my friends in the Hive too, and how they would be so saddened if I was taken away, so much so that I felt so much guilt in my body, I finally broke.

"Go, run away, please, just go." I said in a loud whisper, and ran back into the forest.

I was running for a while. I stopped to catch my breath. Then, I realized what I had just done. What did I do? I just disobeyed direct orders from the Captain, and the pony is going to tell everyone about the Changeling in the woods. Come to think about it, everyone is going to know about this through the spies in Ponyville! I screamed at myself in my head.

But I knew that that was what I had to do, as I started to fly back to the Hive, ready to face whatever fury the Captain may have had, as I heard through the Hives Mind, that the Captain wanted me back that instant, as I began to fly faster. And finally, trying to ignore all the stress in my head, I reached the Hive.

I swiftly landed as the Guards allowed me to enter, as I slowly walked in and took a right turn to the Captains office. Maybe he was going to be nice, maybe he will understand what I did, I mean after all, he did give me a hard task for my first task. With these thoughts I managed to bring up a light smile, as I entered.

"PERSEPHINE. YOU COULD'VE ENDANGERED THE ENTIRE CHANGELING RACE." He screamed at me, many Changelings I could feel looking at me.

My smile dropped.