Legends Never Die: The Beginning of Harmony

by bookhorse125

The One You Thought You Knew

Zephyr Heights truly was beautiful - a modern marvel of the world, a testament to all that ponies could accomplish even without magic.

And Termite officially hated it.

He shifted uncomfortably - he wasn’t used to disguising himself in a pony form. In fact, he hadn’t turned into a pony since his younger days when they had to transform into any creature that the teacher rattled off, rapid fire, and if you missed a beat, then you were out. The longest lasting was the winner.

Even more uncomfortable was the fact that he kept being asked all these questions. Ponies would stop him in the halls of the castle and question him on what to do about the lack of security, and where the queen was, and if the earth ponies or unicorns might have done anything to her. He would stammer the best answer he could, but he eventually realized that was making him look suspicious, so he would tell them to meet him later that day.

Hopefully by then, he would have collected all the information he needed, and the original pony would be back at work.

Termite was seeking information on the ponies themselves - what they were planning, how big their army was, how they planned to exterminate all the changelings - and, most importantly, what their weaknesses were.

But that required a disguise, and he had discreetly watched from the shadows (as a house fly - he had narrowly avoided being swatted at least two dozen times) to see what pony he could impersonate that would get him the most useful intel. He eventually found somepony named Helios, he thought, and now he assumed that this pony was put in charge - because, apparently, their queen was gone.

So Termite was disguised as Helios, a sunny yellow pegasus with a ridiculous bright orange mane, trying to figure out how these ponies worked without appearing too suspicious.

When he wasn’t disguised as hideously colored creatures (how anyone could live with being that bright, he had no idea), Termite was a dark green changeling with deep red wings and eyes, and, in his opinion, that was a much more sensible color palette than what these ponies thought was.

They honestly reminded him of Imara, and he wanted the similarities to stop there.

And when he wasn’t pretending to be hideously colored creatures, he was right-hoof to the Queen Monarch herself, and he had been promoted to a much more powerful position ever since their own hive had been infiltrated by a pony seeking to destroy them all. The queen had never expressly given her permission to put him essentially in charge of the defense of the Changeling Kingdom, but beggars cannot be choosers, and someone had to make sure that the next generation of changelings was safe from the impending threat looming over them. So he had given himself that power, and now all the changelings would follow him to their deaths - the queen wouldn’t risk taking it away under the risk of losing her power.

Ah, yes. Being in charge of the changelings. Every time they obeyed his orders, it was pure bliss.

Contrast that with this miserable place.

Termite bumped into a pegasus and stumbled back, muttering, “Sorry.”

The light pink pony blinked and seemed to register who he was - or who he looked like. “Oh, Helios! Thank the stars,” she said, looking around furtively as if they might be overheard. “Listen, I need to talk to you - it’s very important.”

“I’ll get around to it,” he mumbled, eager to find some kind of record of who ran this land.

“Sir!” the pegasus insisted, grabbing his hoof and pulling him down the hall. She lowered her voice and whispered, “It’s about the queen.”

Termite stopped. That could be useful to him. “All right, you have five minutes of my time,” he snapped. “But make it quick, I have some very important research to do, um…” He paused, realizing that he didn’t know her name.

“Glimmer,” she said brightly, and he had to truly refrain from rolling his eyes. How thick were these ponies?

In his frequent wanderings of the palace, eavesdropping on any and all conversations to see what he could detect, Termite had determined the location of Helios’ office, and he led Glimmer there now. Inside, he sat behind Helios’ desk, putting his hooves up on the paper-covered oak and glaring at the pegasus who looked slightly shocked at his behavior. Well, let them. “Five minutes,” he reminded her in a warning tone.

“Right,” she said, composing herself. “Sir, the queen has been… conspiring. With…” she glanced at the shut door and whispered, “traitors.”

“Traitors?” Termite shrugged. “So?”

Glimmer looked shocked. “W-why sir, aiding and conspiring with enemies of Equestria makes you an automatic traitor - you should know this.”

He blinked. “R-right. Of course. Um… who was she conspiring with?”

“Sunny Starscout,” the pegasus whispered. “A-and all of her friends, in a kind of kingdom up north. There was this horrid pony who mind controlled us all, and all I know was that Queen Haven was up there with an earth pony and a unicorn, and then she…”

Termite wasn’t listening. He hadn’t been listening ever since she said Sunny Starscout.

“Sunny Starscout is a traitor?” he said sharply. “What did she do?”

The tone of his voice was enough to scare her enough that she didn’t ask questions. “S-sir, you could just look at your phone,” she whimpered, looking around her. “N-now, if you don’t mind me leaving, I’ll just…”

She sidled out of the room, but Termite didn’t notice. He glanced at the device that Glimmer had pointed to with curiosity. He had seen all the other pegasi using these strange black rectangles, taking pictures and scrolling through and watching tiny ponies trapped inside of them. He picked it up and tapped the black screen gently.

He yelped as the screen lit up. After several minutes of testing and going to the strangest games and taking about a dozen pictures and even slamming the ‘phone’ on the desk once or twice, he finally figured it out, and he opened the… the… the ‘search bar’ and typed in ‘Sunny Starscout’.

About a million things popped up. He selected the first, and it was an article about how Sunny Starscout had brought magic back and united ponykind once again - When was the first time? he thought. He selected another, and it was a picture of the pony with a golden horn and pair of matching golden wings, just like he had seen her. Another revealed that Sunny Starscout had apparently willingly walked into the company of three of Equestria’s greatest enemies and had been charged with treason, as well as her friends when they had pledged loyalty to her.

“Well,” Termite said to himself. “This could be very useful.” All the answers right here. I’ll finally find out what these ponies are planning!

As an entire day of vigorous research proved, that was absolutely nothing. He couldn’t find one thing about how the ponies were planning to exterminate the changelings - or any other creature, for that matter.

But he discovered something else.

Ponies weren’t the enemy; Sunny Starscout was the enemy. That pony was clearly up to something, something Termite could easily assume was no good. And now that he knew that she was considered a traitor and all of Equestria was supposed to be against her…

Well, a new plan was forming.

Suddenly, his choice of disguise seemed like nothing short of a stroke of pure genius.

---

All of Zephyr Heights was either gathered around the palace or was watching down below in the city on the massive screens, relaying live feed from further up the mountain. Termite took a deep breath and stepped out into a massive wave of flashing lights and screaming.

This is so different, he thought to himself, then grudgingly admitted, but it’s not that bad.

He stepped behind a platform, and instantly, his face - or, rather, Helios’ face - filled every single screen throughout the city, and he cleared his throat, silencing the crowd.

“Citizens of Zephyr Heights,” he began (that seemed like a good way to start a formal speech), “I am sure that you are quite worried - as am I - about the absence of our dearly beloved Queen Haven. But I am here to assure you that, though she may be gone, I am here to make sure that our city will continue to thrive amidst this crisis.”

The ponies began to whisper amongst each other, he was sure he could even hear it from below in the city, and Termite couldn’t help but notice - again - how it seemed to be primarily pegasi. He knew that the pegasi had dominated the city, but once the three pony tribes had united, hadn’t the only queen in existence taken over to rule, not just the pegasi, but all ponies? Still, something about that theory didn’t sit right with him, and he vowed to ask what kinds of leaders the earth ponies and unicorns had.

“I am sure,” he continued in a loud voice, and the whispering ceased, “that you are wondering what kind of crisis I am referring to. Well, it has come to my attention that our beloved queen has been caught associating with…” he paused for dramatic effect, “traitors of Equestria, including, but not limited to, our princesses Zipp and Pipp, as well as the pony you believe has saved you: Sunny Starscout.

“As much as I wish it was otherwise, the pony you may have thought was working for the greater good - uniting ponykind, bringing back magic - all the evidence points to her working for a much darker cause.” More muttering from the crowd, and Termite let it continue, prepping what he was going to say next in his head. “We are not alone in this world,” he finally decided. “There are, out there, other creatures not at all like us, but just as deserving of your friendship and recognition as the pony next to you. But this is not how Sunny Starscout sees it.

“This pony,” Termite said dramatically, waving a hoof at the giant screen behind him, where a picture of Sunny Starscout had been displayed, “wants to eliminate all other creatures until ponykind is the only species left, and her to rule all of ponykind. Everything she has done for you - it was all part of a quest for power. She is using you to gain more for herself!”

The crowd gave a collective gasp, and no more quiet muttering plagued the crowd, but loud voices screaming at him for more. Termite held up a hoof, and they all fell silent.

“I know that it may seem like there is no hope left,” he continued, “but I assure you, if we take action against Sunny Starscout and her friends, we can prevent this disaster from happening, and put this pony in her rightful place - a jail cell.”

“What about our queen?” shouted a reporter, pad and pencil at the ready. He flicked his tail, and the pony next to him immediately snapped a picture. “What will happen to her?”

“The matters concerning our most imperial majesty,” Termite said, the lie of an answer coming to his tongue immediately, “are still yet to be decided. Whether or not she was acting of her own accord or was under the influence of these… power hungry ponies remains to be seen. But I assure you that we will be trying our best to rescue Her Highness and bring her back here safe and sound. For now, though, I will continue to take care of all of you just as well as she would have, just as Her Majesty intended. Fear not, for everything shall be taken care of.”

He answered a dozen more questions, lying for the answers for each of them (the ease of which these phony stories came to his lips may have once concerned him, but now, it was extremely useful), before he dismissed the press and left for bed. He stopped by the hidden room he had found underneath a grate, where he had hidden the real Helios, just to make sure that he was safely asleep for as long as Termite would need him to be.

“Sweet dreams,” he whispered to the snoozing pegasus, though he knew he couldn’t hear him. “Of course, mine are only just beginning…”

Author's Note:

Once again, only two chapters today.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Comments

[AllenVth]

I wondered where Helios was. Well then, Termite will have a lot to answer to when Queen Haven comes back. Maybe if Imara is with her, they can just put the whole charade down.

[Yoshifan30]

Termite was seeking information on the ponies themselves - what they were planning, how big their army was, how they planned to exterminate all the changelings - and, most importantly, what their weaknesses were.

But it's not true the ponies didn't even know you guys existed

[Yoshifan30]

Oh no more lies and misunderstood the situation apparently a changeling name termite trying to find any information at Zephyr Heights and he's in Disguise who was in charge of the Kingdom which he's got all the power but then a pony told him the information about Queen Haven conspiracy having interaction with sunny and her friends which he took advantage of the situation and spreading lies about Queen Haven and everybody this is really not good he's spreading all the lies and everything towards the ponies they got to do something before it's too late and stop his lies well we'll find out next time