The Journey

by Diamond Sparkle

Longwing's Vision

“Long, long ago, the Goddess Equis made the world and the moon and the stars and the creatures of the earth. And it was Equis who created Queen Ai-o-wa-ke, the very First Changeling and the Mother of us all. In those days all races were at peace with each other, pony and changeling, griffin and manticore and all the others as well. And they were pretty much the same. But as time the numbers of changelings grew until they absorbed so much love that none of the other races could love each other, and they begged Equis to do something about it. The Goddess Equis warned Ai-o-wa-ke, “If you cannot control your people, I will find ways to control them.” But Ai-o-wa-ke had grown big-headed and said to Equis “My people are the strongest in the world, and will give way to none.”

This angered Equis, and so she announced to every creature upon the world that he would give him or her a present. When the unicorn came, she was granted the power of magic. The pegasus was granted wings and the power of flight, and the earth pony was granted farming skills and a powerful kick. But when the serpent came, and the griffin and the manticore and other dangerous creatures, to each of them she granted sharp fangs and claws and a burning desire to hunt and slay the children of Ai-o-wa-ke. And that is what they went out and did and changeling after changeling perished in air and on land. Then Ai-o-wa-ke saw that Equis was too clever for her, and she was frightened. She had never before seen the Black Changeling of Death."

Equis next looked for Ai-o-wa-ke and found her hiding in a cloud and said "Come out, Ai-o-wa-ke, I wish to grant you a gift as well."

"I cannot, the manticore and the griffin are coming, and if they catch me they will kill me."

"I grant you the power to take the shape of those who would kill you, but there is a price to pay since you caused this trouble in the first place. From now on, you and all your decendants will live upon the love of those who would hunt them down, and must stay in disguise to feed and survive. If they catch you, they will most likely kill you. But first they must find you, Changer, Listener, Mistress of Guile. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people will never be destroyed."

Changefast , having heard the story of old Changeling Lore, moved on from the circle of young pupa. Above them hung a cocoon with a pony hanging within, it's love seeping out with a soft green light to feed the young Changelings who were too young to go out into the world to gather any love of their own. The Hive to a pony or griffin would be a dark place, lit only with glowing fungus upon the walls and the occasional cocoon. But the large Changeling eyes were perfectly suited to gather what little light there was down there and Changefast found the Hive a comforting place to be. One of her friends flew up to her. "Changefast, I want you to come outside with me so that we can rest in the sun." "Allright, Longwing." Longwing, he's a good friend, but I hope he does not get another one of his funny turns again.

They flew up with a soft whirring of their wings through tunnels that at times were totally vertical; no problem to anyling with working wings but hard for any creature without wings to use. Changeling Hives were built as much for defense as for protection from the elements. At last they reached the surface and landed upon the soft ground. Some Hives were based in hot deserts and other such places, but this one was deep within the Everfree Forest where almost everypony feared to set foot. On three sides stretched the forest, whilst on the fourth side was a sandy beach leading gently down to the sea.Longwing smiled when he saw a little plant with pink flowers at his feet. "Juba flowers." He was about to eat the little plant, a Changeling delicacy, when a hoof clamped down on it. Looking up, he saw Captain Mirror and a friend of hers glaring at him.

"Longwing found it, Captain," Changefast pointed out.

"And we'll eat it. Juba are for housecarls, you know that."

Longwing sighed and walked away to look at at the setting sun, then halted and stared at the sea.

It was no longer water but blood, Changeling blood,a whole sea of Changeling blood, and as he turned around, the trees turned into hooks of Changling bone, and then bent over and plunged down at him and his fellow Changelings, ripping into their bodies of chitin and tearing them apart like they were made of paper.

Everyling who was up on the surface stared at Longwing as he twisted and turned around on the ground in terror, now and then screaming in fear. Changefast went over to her friend. "Longwing, snap out of it. By Chrysalis , what's wrong with you?"

Longwing regained his senses, stood up and said "It's coming, I don't know what it is, but it's bad, really bad, we have to get out of here or it'll kill us all."

"What are you talking about? We may have lost many members of our Hive after the Canterlot Disaster, but who or what would be strong enough even so to attack a Changeling Hive? There are still hundreds of us still able and willing to fight, and the ponies would never come through the forest to attack us anyway. The griffins might, but we've been giving them a wide berth for years. They have no reason to come after us."

"We have to tell the Queen and get her to evacuate the Hive, or we will all be dead within days."

"Tell the Queen? She's been in a foul mood since what happened in Canterlot, she will hardly talk with anyling, least of all a lowly drone. She'll think you're out of your mind. We can try and see her, but I doubt she'll be in the slightest bit interested."

Author's Note:

I got an idea-what if I did a Changeling story based on Watership Down? I hope I didn't make a mistake in starting it.

Comments

[Tachyon Xenophile]

Sounds interesting.

[Tachyon Xenophile]

This is a reference to Watership Down. I knew this before I read the AN.

[McKnight93]

Found the link here from Alternatehistory.com. Nice to see fellow AHers on this site.