Shapeshifter
Sunny Starscout crouched down low, the thick foliage covering her like large green wings. Shadows of leaves danced across her coat, and through breaks in the thick green canopy, she saw it.
The Changeling Kingdom.
Consisting mostly of a central hive in the center of the kingdom, the changelings had expanded since the Guardians of Harmony, and there were many smaller hives - built to accommodate one or two families at most, though she spotted a few larger ones - were scattered around the large one. Plants grew everywhere - tall trees, bright flowers, thick green grass, strange plants Sunny had never seen before, spilling their long vines over their perches - which made it very easy to sneak in and observe the changelings from a distance.
From what Sunny had overheard the Legion of Doom talking about, the other creatures weren’t the most trustworth of ponies right now, and they hadn’t been even before Cozy Glow had sweet talked them into agreeing to potentially go to war with Equestria.
She wasn’t sure what she expected - a thousand creatures that all looked like Midge? - but the Changeling Kingdom was not it.
Starting with the changelings themselves. Though they remained whole (as in, they had no holes in their legs like Chrysalis), they were generally darker colors, deep reds and blues and even a few blacks here and there. According to the Journal of Friendship, since the changelings had reformed, they were usually bright colors like all the kinds of exotic bugs you could find. This was obviously not the case anymore.
Giving her best educated guess, Sunny had to assume that, being secluded from everypony else as they were, the changelings’ ability to share love was limited - and they were starting to resort back to their old ways of keeping some of it for themselves.
Bad news for her.
Sunny was hoping she could meet at least one changeling who would be willing to listen to her - how was she supposed to fulfill her quest if she couldn’t even get them to talk to her? But with every moment she stayed hidden, the likelihood of that happening grew smaller and smaller.
Would they scream and run away at the sight of her? Stand their ground? Imprison her and force her to reveal secrets that she was never supposed to tell? Would they even listen to her message? Or would they just scoff and wave her off? With every passing second, the latter seemed more and more likely.
Sunny sighed and withdrew from her bush, backing away into the trees and disappearing from sight.
Or, at least, so she thought.
As she turned to return to her shelter, which she had strategically placed beyond the boundaries of the kingdom, she heard a gasp, a voice whispered, “So it’s true,” and then a changeling stepped into view.
She was the first really colorful changeling that Sunny had seen. Her shimmering iridescent body was a bright aqua blue with accents of purple around the hooves and the gossamer wings, which were a coral pink that was also shaded with purple. Her eyes were completely purple and stared at Sunny with what was clearly shock.
“There really is a pony here,” the changeling said in a hushed voice. Her face slowly shifted from shock to overwhelming excitement. “Oh my stars, this is so amazing!” she squealed, dancing on her hooves. “Hi, I’m Imara, it is so nice to meet you!” The changeling rushed forward and seized Sunny’s front hooves. “What’s going on in the outside world? Are ponies really as awful as every creature is saying they are? What’s going on? You have to tell me, I swear I’m going crazy from only seeing the same places for my entire life.”
Sunny blinked. “Um… My name is Sunny. Sunny Starscout.”
Imara gasped and put her hooves (were they hooves? They looked like hooves) to her mouth in shock. “No. Way! You’re Sunny Starscout? The pony who’s going to try and make ponies the superior race by exterminating all the other creatures? Terrible, yes, but so cool at the same time!” She gasped again as a new idea came to her. “Are you coming to stalk out the enemy, see what we’re planning, what our weaknesses are?” She prowled around Sunny as she spoke, studying her. “Hm. You don’t look super evil. Is it a disguise?”
“What? No!” Sunny finally managed to get in, still processing everything the changeling had said. “I - I’m here to warn you, and I definitely don’t want to… ‘exterminate’ you all. I’m here to save you.”
The changeling seemed to deflate. “You’re not?” she pouted, plopping on the ground, sighing. “That’s too bad. I’m so tired of sitting around with nothing to do. I mean, yelling at all the other changelings to actually do something can only keep you entertained for so long.” She looked at Sunny with a pleading look. “You’re sure you’re not even the teeniest bit evil?”
The earth pony nodded empathetically. “I’m very sure,” she said, getting an idea. “But… I may have something for you to do that would keep you from getting too bored.”
Imara gasped and leaped to her hooves. “Say no more!” she said, grinning and saluting. “Whatever it is, I’m sure I’ll be able to do it! Once, I-”
“Do you think there’s a way that I could find out what’s going on for myself?” Sunny asked. The changeling stopped immediately. “Like - like hear it myself. It’s one thing for you to tell me everything - it’s another to experience it myself.”
Imara tilted her head at her. “I suppose there’s that tribe meeting soon,” she said slowly. “The oldest member of each family is required to go. I’m going - I don’t have any siblings, and I never knew my parents.” For a split second, her expression turned sad, but she quickly shook it off. “But I could never waltz in there with a pony - least of all one who’s supposed to want us all gone.” She scrunched her lips and tapped her chin, looking at Sunny. “I’m sure there’s a way I could make it work-”
“What about this?” The small area was suddenly filled with golden light, and Sunny lit up her horn, more golden light dancing across the leaves of the trees. She surrounded herself with light and envisioned herself as a changeling - this was a spell she had always wanted to have an excuse to try.
When the light cleared, Sunny was still… Sunny, but now her golden wings were shaped like a bug’s, folded neatly on her back, her eyes were entirely a bluish-green, and her mane had disappeared, replaced with a sparkling pink ridge down the back of her neck.
Imara took a step back, her eyes widened, and she felt an irresistible grin. “Woah,” she said. “That was so cool! I didn’t know ponies could shapeshift!”
“They can’t,” Sunny explained, still getting used to this whole ‘shapeshifting’ thing. “You need a spell, and obviously magic, a lot of it. Plus a lot of unicorns don’t know a whole lot about magic, so it would probably only be the really powerful ones and alicorns.”
“What’s an alicorn?” Imara asked, looking thrilled at the prospect of more information. “Did you have wings and a horn? I’ve never seen a pony like that.” She gasped. “Is that an alicorn? Oh, wow, that is amazeballs, you have to tell me what kinds of magic you can do with that magic horn of yours, have you ever used it to take over the world? Oops, sorry, wrong question, you’re right, let’s go,” she amended at Sunny’s reproachful look, turning on her heel and leading the way out of the trees.
It was strange to be walking amongst these creatures she had never seen before with them hardly noticing her. Wherever Imara walked, changelings would sigh and turn away from her as if she didn’t exist. Sunny gave her a questioning look, for both why they were doing that and why she still looked so cheerful.
“I’m used to it,” she assured her. “I’m told it’s because of my free spirit, whatever that means.”
“IMARA!” called a voice, and the changeling tensed up, letting out a groan.
“There is, however, one changeling who will tolerate me,” she told Sunny, “and she just so happens to be the absolute most boring changeling in the existence of changelings.” She turned, plastered a very forced smile onto her face, and said in a falsely cheerful voice, “Auntie Cercus! How-” she gulped before forcing it out “-how lovely it is to see you!”
The approaching changeling sniffed and rolled her eyes. She was a withered old bug, a dull, washed-out peach color with purple wings that had seen better days. Her piercing purple eyes landed on Sunny, and they narrowed suspiciously.
“Who’s your friend?” Cercus snapped, raising an eyebrow at Imara while not taking her eyes off Sunny.
“Uh, she’s from out of town!” Imara quickly covered for her. “A-and her name is… is…”
“Ocellus,” Sunny said quickly, also wearing a fake grin and hoping that the changeling who befriended other creatures and saved the world a few times wasn’t idolized and written down in changeling history as the hero of the changelings.
Cercus’ expression didn’t change. “Now behave yourself at that meeting today, sweetheart!” she snapped at Imara. “Stars only know what would happen if we had another incident like last time.”
Imara paled. “What happened last time stays in last time,” she hissed at her aunt, who snorted and turned to hobble away. As soon as she was out of sight, the changeling breathed a huge sigh of relief and turned to Sunny. “Cercus isn’t really my aunt, but she’s the one who raised me, so…” She sighed and looked at the direction she had gone. “She’s not exactly the loveliest changeling in Equestria.”
“...Let’s get to that meeting,” Sunny suggested, turning and walking towards the main hive. Imara nodded and joined her, her bouncy attitude back.
Unlike Izzy, who was bouncy and cheerful to bring other ponies happiness and show them the good things in the world, Imara’s attitude came from a desire to bury any and all other feelings of sadness or self-doubt that she may be feeling. In her world, she had been abandoned and raised by a changeling she didn’t know (and also happened to be super annoying), and the feeling of being alone and uncared for resonated so deep within her that she swore never to feel that way again. You have to look out for yourself in this world, she always told herself.
Just like changelings, the changeling hive also shifted and moved. New doorways opened up as old ones closed, and just like the landscape outside, the whole thing was overflowing with plants.
“Wow,” Sunny said in wonder as she looked around. “This place is beautiful!”
“Yeah,” Imara said proudly, standing a little taller as she walked. “We’ve been making it amazing again, ever since it started shifting.” She spotted a new opening and walked over to it. “This way.”
“What do you mean, ‘started shifting’?” Sunny asked as she carefully pulled her hoof through the hole just before it closed behind her. “You mean it wasn’t always like this?”
“Well, if the old stories are to be believed, changelings used to be not very nice creatures,” she told Sunny out of the corner of her mouth. “In fact, we were downright mean. We would take the form of some creature you loved and grow stronger by feeding off their love for them. But no matter how much we took, we always wanted more. But then King Thorax showed us that we could share love instead of taking it, and suddenly, we felt a whole lot better! The hive used to shift just like this, but once we started sharing love, our feeling of being whole was reflected onto the hive, and it became solid.”
“But now…” Sunny prodded.
Imara sighed. “Now it’s reverting back to the old ways.” She dropped the gloomy expression, trading it for a cheerful smile. “But that’s if you believe the old stories, which just about no creature does anymore.”
“Random question,” Sunny said slowly as an idea came to her. “When you were taking love instead of sharing it… were you all black? With lots of holes everywhere?”
The changeling looked shocked. “How did you know that?” She gasped. “Can ponies read minds?”
“No,” she said hurriedly, uneager to start more rumors. “Just… read it somewhere.”
Imara shrugged, as if this was perfectly normal. Still, as Sunny looked around the hive at the opening and closing holes, she couldn’t help but feel that her quest had suddenly gotten a whole lot harder.
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Wow this Changeling is very excited to see a ponies despite the history but it's actually really nice to see somebody that didn't give up on them and she is very energetic like Pinkie Pie Autumn Blaze silverstream Gabby and princess skystar again I miss them
Whoa ok she can to transformation spell that is awesome
Wow her and Izzy can get along with each other and they both have in common with each other
Aww it's always nice to see those kids actually have recognition and also representing their Kingdom and I've always been interested to the young 6
So okay it looks like Sunny finally got out the forest but then she saw the changeling Kingdom she could have asked them but unfortunately they don't have a really good relationship with ponies ever since the magic disappeared so she needs to retreat back to the forest to figure out what to do until a female changeling showed up and her name is Imara and just like Izzy she was pretty excited to see other ponies aside from her kind but Sunny told her about the situation and hopefully whatever they're doing let's just hope this will work because right now things are really bad oh and by the way that transformation spell is pretty cool are we going to see other creatures well I guess we'll find out next time
I'm so liking this new chapter. Wow, Sunny's at the changling kingdom. I wonder what she'll do, I better wait and found out. You're welcome, bookhorse125. You're an amazing author!
Well you can't blame them. I mean losing magic meant losing their abilities to sharing love. Wonder if there's a smashed statue of Thorax? I mean if his way of sharing love got them to be part of losing their magic, wouldn't they reject his teachings after getting their magic back to prevent it from repeating?
Even if Imara isn't like Izzy, at least she gave Sunny a chance to say her piece and a way into the kingdom. it won't be easy, but as the new alicorn of this generation, she has to convince the other species that Cozy's words were just lies. And Sunny is improving on her magic.