A Change in Darkness

by David Silver

17 - Research Complete

"Here!" Lemon added a book to the growing pile on the table. "I had no idea we had so many books on changelings... They didn't teach any of this in school."

Skyline grabbed a stool in his teeth and pulled it over in the same motion he threw himself onto it. "Changelings don't even have schools... Just passing words on from 'ling to 'ling. Um..." He glanced away at the other ponies studying quietly and back to Lemon. "I'd like to visit one of these schools."

Lemon giggled. "Aw... So cute. You looked, for just a moment, like a foal eager for their first day. I'd love to help, but we're in the middle of something. What is that something?" She waved at the books. "We have tons of books, what's next?"

Skyline took a slow deep breath, nose filling with the scent of ancient paper. "We read. Um, I read. You don't have to. This isn't an assignment of yours."

"I don't have a better one." She hopped up onto a stool next to Sky. "So we read. What are we reading for?"

Skyline reached with his wings for the first page of the first book. "I need to know more, everything really, about changelings. I need to know every secret ponies have managed to find about how they work. Especially the insides. Any hint of changeling anatomy, bring it."

"Insides of changelings, got it." Lemon grabbed for her own book and got to leafing. "Oh... That makes sense, come to think of it. That's your job, right?"

"I don't want that to be my job." Skyline flipped to the next page with his wings, eyes trained on the words. "But it's become one, and I want to know what's happening inside me."

"I would too..." She rubbed at her cheek. "If I had a foal coming, I'd want to know everything." She glanced sidelong at Skyline. "That's a very female thing."

Skyline tensed at Lemon's words, though he tried not to show his discomfort openly. The prospect of essentially becoming a mother still felt alien to him despite his changeling physiology.

"I suppose nature has her own ideas about me," he said, attempting lightness but unable to keep an edge from his voice.

He turned his attention sharply back to the book before him, as if hiding behind the pages. Diagrams of changeling anatomy met his gaze, along with dense text describing metabolic processes and reproduction. Yet as his eyes scanned the information, he found none of it put him at ease.

There were too many uncertainties. Would these pony analyses even apply to his situation? What if attempting to create new life went horribly awry?

Skyline's ears pinned back against his head as scenarios of failure played out in his mind. His breathing quickened and claws instinctively emerged from his hooves, scraping the table.

Noticing his agitation, Lemon reached out a hoof tentatively. "It's okay to be scared you know. Anycreature would be." Her voice was gentle.

Skyline closed his eyes, trying to collect himself before panic set in completely. He focused on the soothing tones of Lemon's words until the tension in his muscles began subsiding. There was comfort in not facing this alone.

"I don't know if I can do this," he admitted at last, hating the vulnerability in his own voice. "The expectations are so high...what if I let everycreature down?"

He turned and met Lemon's earnest gaze. "You all have been so supportive and I'm grateful but...in the end I'm still just me. One lone changeling against the weight of history."

Lemon reached past him, to the book he had been reading. "That looks like it might help."

Skyline turned sharply back to it. "Hm? Oh." He sighed at the pages. "It's fine, but it's going over the usual way... A lady changeling, or one willing to play the part and a guy changeling, or one playing the part, gets together, does the thing two ponies would do, and a grub or few happens in whichever is playing the role of female."

"Okay..." Lemon raised a brow slowly. "But any changeling could play either? Any changeling could be a mom if they wanted?"

"It's not the same." Skyline fell forward, flopping chin-down on the book. "To start, the normal way, the lady 'ling is stuck in lady 'ling mode. They can become other ladies, but all ladies until the grubs happen, at least their eggs." He turned a hoof at himself. "But am I a lady? I am not... But there's an egg in here. That's not normal."

Lemon hummed and swayed with thought. "Okay... But that narrows things." She put down the book she had been searching. "If the book talks about the usual, we can put it to the side and keep looking. I'm ready to keep reading, Skyline."

Skyline sat up slowly, a little smile forming. "Thank you... Let's keep going." He browsed forward in the book. "Thank you, really... You're being so supportive."

It was just then he thought to check. The warmth of her gentle love was there. Not a hot passionate one. He was loved as a dear friend, not a potential lover. It was still love.

Skyline paused, the smile growing on his lips as he sensed Lemon's affection. To changelings, love was sustenance - yet for that confusing time Skyline tasted that new variety: love freely given in friendship, untainted by deception or coercion.

It filled his core with warmth, easing some small part of the gnawing anxiety. He now understood what Celestia meant about being nourished by those around him. Changlings did not really "love" in the pony sense, and yet...

Perhaps Lemon was not the only one discovering that truth. Could taking refuge among the ponies be changing him in turn? It was a curious thought.

Lemon tilted her head curiously as Skyline gazed at her with new eyes. "What's on your mind?"

He chuckled softly at the question. "Only that I'm grateful," he replied evasively, unsure how to articulate what he was feeling.

Lemon seemed satisfied with the simple answer. "Me too!" she chirped. "Now, what next? We're changeling experts on the case!" She playfully struck a detective-esque pose that made Skyline genuinely laugh aloud.

The tension in his chest eased. With Lemon's help, perhaps he could unravel the mysteries still surrounding his improbable new role. And even if the undertaking brought only hardship in the end, these shared moments of warmth made every uncertain step worthwhile.

"The game's ahoof!" Skyline declared with mock theatricality. They eagerly returned to delving through page after page, buoyed by camaraderie in the face of the unknown. And though specters of doubt still whispered in Skyline's mind, they seemed - for now at least - to have lost some sway over him.

It took hours of digging and rooting about. A few times, a fellow guard would wander in, spot them, and leave without a word. Lemon should have been doing other things, but they left her when they saw her helping Skyline.

Little fragments of information, gathered by ponies in the past, rose to the surface. It seemed changelings had, often by accident, been the starting point of a few species that had gone on to become quite self-sufficient.

One 'ling had bridged griffons and ponies, untold moons ago, and the hippogriffs had resulted. The changeling had wandered off, confused and uninterested, but the new species had done well for itself.

Dragons and ponies were brought together, with a changeling serving again as that unwitting bridge. That one had remained with the kirin for a time, serving as mother for the rest of their life, but they had also done well for themselves.

One thing unified both cases. "They weren't alone."

Lemon shook her head at that thought. "They weren't. The hippogriffs was a community project. So many griffons and ponies came together to get that started." She colored faintly. "If I read that right, there was love, um... even physical involved."

From one, came many, with genetic snag points avoided by mixing in other creatures that were closely related.

Skyline was smiling. "I get it... I see how we can do this. It all makes sense now."

A surge of relief and growing conviction stirred within Skyline as the pieces came together in his mind. Studying the archives had illuminated a path forward, improbable yet no longer unthinkable.

He met Lemon's expectant gaze, sensing her unspoken question hanging in the air between them. Taking a steadying breath, Skyline gave voice to the epiphany those tales of mythic hybridization had sparked.

"The secret was diversity," he explained, struggling to articulate revelations still coalescing rapidly. "Every past success drew from an array of fathers, not just one. And the mothers, though alone in bearing children, were never isolated."

He paced in tight circles, words flowing faster. "Don't you see - having one bat pony sire risks weakness, but having many begets strength! And with a whole community involved in nurturing the offspring..."

Skyline trailed off, a fire kindling in his eyes. "It can work! Between my nature and all of you to support me...this dream can survive contact with reality. We will flourish together!"

His voice had risen to nearly a shout in fervor. With visible effort, Skyline tempered his zeal, not wishing to seem mad, or get yelled at for making noise in the library.

"What I mean to say is...I cannot succeed alone." He extended a grateful hoof towards Lemon. "But maybe, with friends like you who become family...we can guide this new herd together."

Lemon clasped his hoof firmly, meeting his gaze with equal parts amusement and resolve. "Quite the rousing speech there! But you know what - I believe it too. We're with you, Skyline."

Buoyed by her solidarity, the last of Skyline's doubts burned away. What emerged instead was a sense of soaring purpose. The future remained unknown, but as they left the archives with new understanding, Skyline felt anything was possible with such allies at his side.

"This means Luna will lose her guard."

Lemon recoiled with shock. "What?! I don't plan to quit. None of us do. You know that. What would make you say that?" She looked around as if somepony would spot such treacherous words. "Seriously..."

"I am serious." Skyline sat up, crossing his arms. "For this to work, Luna's project, her guard must, at least a little while, give up guarding. We, all the guard, will be the loving family for this child, for this tribe. We must welcome them into ponykind with genuine love. Them, and more of them."

"She's not going to like that," murmured out Lemon in barely a whisper. "You... will need to talk to her first before you go around shouting that at every night guard you run into, or any guard you run into, really..." She reached hesitantly for Skyline. "Talk to her first."

Skyline drew in a slow breath as Lemon's warning gave him pause. In his excitement, he had let zeal carry him forward without considering how Luna might receive this new vision. Would she see the dissolution of her night guard, even temporarily, as a necessary step - or an unacceptable breach of trust?

"You're right," he conceded, exhaling a nervous chuckle. "Boldness outran wisdom for a moment. I must speak with Luna before advocating anything that would diminish her forces."

He glanced back towards the palace that was as much home now as hive had ever been. "She may resist...but surely she will see that establishing enduring bonds between bat ponies and the community is paramount. And for that, we must be nurturers first, warriors second."

Skyline furrowed his brow contemplatively. "Although if she insists on maintaining militant readiness even now, we shall find a way to balance both roles. Her trust and needs are paramount."

He turned back to Lemon with a small, hopeful smile. "But with tact and care, I believe Luna's heart will welcome this new direction once she understands it fully."

Lemon still looked anxious but nodded encouragement nonetheless. "I hope you're right. Just remember she's a princess first, friend second. Tread gentle, Skyline."

"Of course." Skyline hesitated, then pulled Lemon into a quick, grateful hug. "Wish me luck. And thank you for everything!"

Before she could react, he set off for Luna's hall with purposeful strides. Apprehension and conviction warred within him. But Lemon's guidance had been wise so far. Now he must simply help Luna glimpse the future he saw unfolding thanks to her vision - and have faith she would embrace its fullest potential in time.

Author's Note:

As I've seen it said, Read a book!

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Comments

[redmar]

I think that a compromise might be possible but I doubt that Luna is going to make any decision abou this without thinking it over first and probably discussing it with Celestia.

[tsaukpaetra]

Certainly a community is required, no doubt. But it shouldn't be necessary to maintain a massive dedication of the whole group for the duration. It is likely the Guard will still be highly functional with participants supporting in turn, shifts even.
That may also be a key in distributing diversification amongst the progeny, if they're all a homogenous mis of everypony they might end up effectively clones. Care and study will prevail!

[David Silver]

11768385
For sure. But guarding for Luna is not a peacetime task. If the task was, say, opera singing, they could surely sing and parent at once.

Soldiering and parenting is a harder comingling.