A changeling with unusual abilities get captured after accidentally sitting out the invasion via tree impact. His name is Chameleon, and he faces a dilemma - who will he be loyal to? Only one choice will allow him to survive outside of the hive.
My name is Chameleon. I'm a changeling, and I've been transferred in chains to a pony. I don't know her name, but I think she's a female. She's got a horn, no wings... Unicorn? Anyways, she's asking me questions, and I'm not sure what to do with them. Either way, I don't like it. I'm loyal to the queen, right? Would she still trust me if I answered these questions? That's... That's why I'm feeling so off about answering her questions. But what's the alternative? Death? Something else?
Either way... I'm not sure about all of this, but... What choice do I even have? Who am I loyal to after this? If I answer the questions, I'm no longer loyal to my queen. I'm a traitor to the changeling race! But...
I don't want to die!
(Disclaimer: This story is based on a RP with ImperatorAetheris) (Second Disclaimer: Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are not in this story until later on.)
Everything hurt. Everything. There is no possible way that my pain could have been understated when I woke up. It felt like I flew straight into a tree and crashed through it. Knowing my luck, I probably had.
So, my name's Chameleon, and this is the story of how I got captured by the very things our Queen said was inferior to us.
Ponies.
---
Chameleon groaned. He heard voices. How many? He couldn't tell. They... They just mixed together. Just... Just where was he? He couldn't use his magic. Not even his... other ability, his specialist ability. They were locked off too. He could barely move. Parts of him felt like they wouldn't budge. The only things he felt were...
Fear. Pain. Panic.
...
He opened his eyes. He could barely see. Everything was blurry... What even happened to him? Nothing made sense. So he managed to cough out a few words. "Where the hole am I?" His throat was dry. He could hardly speak.
...
He didn't get an answer. So he waited some more time before trying again. He thought to himself; 'If I ask enough times, surely... surely I'll get an answer? Right?'
He heard someone come in. So, he wanted to test his theory. So he asked a different question. "Am I chained up...? Or... Or is my body broken?" He followed up by stating what may be obvious to him, but not to others. "I... I can hardly see. Everything is blurry, and... Everything is stiff."
He didn't get an answer for a good few moments, but he did hear a slight hushed argument? He couldn't feel anything from anywhere. The argument just stopped, briefly. Were they focusing on him?
Then he heard a female voice... Best way to describe it? Bookworm, nerdy? Maybe a scientist? I don't know, I'm not a genius. "You crashed into something, and broke two legs, among... other things." The thing about her voice, though. She sounded sympathetic. But not 100%. He couldn't tell for sure, though.
He whispered to himself that he felt he was hopeless, that he didn't believe anyone was going to answer him. This didn't get a response or even an indication that they were listening. Then, he overheard that he should be taken to a hospital. The nerdy pony was talking to someone else. A male. They... didn't sound like they wanted to agree, but they did.
He loathed this. He could hardly hear anything or see anything. Most changelings were known for lying, but that was generally to get out of bad situations. There was no way words could get him out of this. Not one single way. He felt entirely at the ponies mercy. He hated that. He hated all of this. But there was no way out.
They were moving. He thought, at least. He disliked being unable to do anything. So he waited for something to happen. Anything.
A short amount of time later, at least to him, it felt that way, they stopped. He heard something, some sort of conversation between the nerd pony and whoever was with her, and then he was put on something solid, yet incredibly soft. He was left feeling less stiff, but he could still hardly move. Was he unbound? It felt like it.
He heard a door click. He was alone. Right?
Wrong.
He heard someone sit down. On a chair? Something? I don't know. So someone was in this room with him. No one else? That was his guess. He could be wrong.
So he decided to ask again, something a little different, not knowing that this would open up a whole can of worms, talking with what he would soon know to the Element of Magic herself. Well, more like answering questions, but close enough. "Where are we... now? I... I can't tell."
He wasn't expecting an answer. But he got one. "Alright... We are at the hospital inside the headquarters of the Royal Guard." The nerdy voice responded back to him. She seemed like the most possible way of getting answers here.
But now he was curious. Royal Guard? Like the changeling's guard? It made him slightly nervous. "Are you nervous? I'm nervous." Okay, nevermind. Scratch slightly. Just nervous. "Also... Who, or... What... Is the Royal Guard?"
Her answer surprised him. "It's the force of ponies that defends and protects Canterlot Castle, and the Princesses." He frowned slightly, mainly because she either didn't pick up on his nervousness or responded to that via body language. Which he could hardly see, nor feel. Something about the impact left him partially blind. He could still see, sure, but well? Hole no. Everything looked like a bunch of blobs to him. Colourful blobs, but blobs nonetheless. Blurry as all hole. He prayed mentally to the roaches above to make sure he was safe. That he wouldn't die here.
Regardless of his mental praying, however, he still had to talk. Why? He felt like he had to. Keep the pony talking, less focus on himself. Probably. That's what they taught me to do, keep your captor(s) talking when you're the prisoner? Even if changelings weren't prisoners very... Chameleon, you're rambling again! He shook his head and looked at the blob in front of him. The purple, and very much in control blob. He wanted control. He didn't have it so he decided to keep up this little charade of the helpful talkative changeling. "Why... Why do the princesses need protection, though? I thought they were pretty powerful... Right? At... At least as far back as hive legends go, they are..." Unless something's changed, he mentally added.
It took her a while to answer this time... Thinking about her answer? Regardless, he listened. "Well... That they are, but there are situations where their power is... Too much... Hive legends? What do they say?"
That... felt like a hard question to answer. There were so many hive legends. Too many to list with sufficient detail. "About who? There's... a lot. I don't... I don't really want to list them all. There's too many."
"That's alright. What about the origin of the changelings?"
He didn't know. "I... don't know. I genuinely don't. Most of the legends... They're based on singular members of your kind, usually famous ones. Like... The princesses. They're kinda morbid though, so... If you really want to know them, I'd grab a bucket. They're also... Kinda morbid. They're usually used though, to scare other changelings into keeping their disguises up. I know, it's kinda disappointing, but I can't give you any kind of information on our origin."
A few seconds of silence passed before the nerdy voice asked: "A-And the legends about the princesses?"
This, admittedly made him think for a fair amount of time. Then, he responded "You... Might want to grab yourself a bucket. They might make you sick, because of the gruesomeness of them." He waited for her to grab a bucket, for about 10 seconds. After that was over, he continued; "The most, uh, scary story is that the princess of the sun ate changeling children or... nymphs. There's a story similar to it, but it's less relevant... How she got changelings baked into her cakes." He waited for her to take this in, then he continued further. "Then... the princess of the night would take changeling hunting as a part-time, and by that, I mean slaughtering any she'd find, brutally. Not just your regular changeling killing spells, at least they'd kill decently quickly, no, according to the legend... ripping out vital and non-vital organs alike and... I don't remember what she did with them..." He shivered at the last part.
'Did I break her? She's been silent for a good minute.'
"Well..."
'Nevermind, she's fine.'
"Most ponies had forgotten about Changelings, up until after... y'know, but there were many myths where Changelings did the same to foals so... would that make us even?"
He took in a deep breath. Because he wasn't expecting her to be this resilient to the legends. They sometimes gave him nightmares. 'Is... Is she hiding something? Could these... Legends be true? Maybe ponies are just as dark as us?' He thought. "I guess. I still wouldn't want to face one of the princesses though, heh." He said nervously.
"I can understand that..." She sighed, before saying further "Um... How do you identify if Changelings are from one clan or another?"
This was an easy one to answer. Wing colour. I think, anyways? "My wings are blue, and so are the rest that was in the invasion... I'm guessing that if you have a different wing colour than you're from a different hive than mine."
The nerdy voice spoke up again. "Alright! Um... What about the relations between the hives? ...How are they?" She questioned slightly nervously.
'Am... Am I scaring her? I'm not even doing anything. Or maybe the questions are just awkward for her to ask. Eh... I'll bite.' "Pretty much non-existent from the rest of the hives, generally they just ignore our existence because of what... some of us have done. Especially Chrysalis. Her ways of doing things are frowned upon because she wants to take love etc by force. The other hives would rather just take the place of some pony who isn't necessarily kidnapped or anything, but just isn't there. Passive, I guess."
"Alright..." The nerdy voice-
'Hole, I need to find out her name, this is getting old. Eh, I'll do that later.'
"Uh, what about your eyes?"
'Wait. My eyes?' He thought, then questioned, slightly frantically, "My eyes? They're... They're still white, right? Gradient white? Grey-ish? Slightly? Sort of? Something like that?" Okay, scratch slightly. Add very.
"Yes. They're this grey-white gradient."
Phew. No more franticness. Yay. "Okay, so... Changelings kind of go on a sort of rank, or class basis. Blue means drone, Green... is generally for queens, I guess, or changeling guards. White is for specialists, with abilities that most changelings can't do, sometimes useful, sometimes not so much. Yellow is for sentinels, which are basically senior changeling guards. Don't mess with them. Don't worry, white doesn't mean I'm blind, I'm just not your everyday changeling." She seemed really full of questions. Just who is she? Was her kindness a mask? ... 'It doesn't matter. Even if it's a mask, if I don't... don't answer, I'm as good as dead. If I do answer, I'm dead if I have to go back to my... Queen. No. Former Queen. She isn't my Queen anymore. Not if I keep answering these questions. I... only have two choices. Tell her everything, and maybe live, or tell her nothing... and die.' She started speaking again. So he listened. She listened to him, so he'd listen to her.
"And what are you a specialist in? Oh, and can you eat normal food? Also, will it feed you to some extent?"
'Trying to wean me off love, pony? It'd be expensive, probably.'
"I... I can eat normal food, but... It only benefits us about 1/32th of the way that just absorbing some emotions would do. There's not exactly a term for what I specialize in, because it's random. Sometimes it's completely useless. Sometimes it's got no use whatsoever, but sometimes, like myself, it's got a use. I can basically change my body's material to something's material around it. With a few exceptions. I can't turn my body's material into a pony, for example. Any living creature I can't copy its body material. Or liquids. Even if they're frozen. By the way, my name's Chameleon." She didn't say much for a while. So he was back to his thoughts. His solace. Except, he didn't have much to think about.
"Ah, nice to meet you. My name's Twilight Sparkle." ...He did now.
'Wait... Wait... THE Twilight Sparkle? The Element of Magic? Oh roach, I hope she doesn't plan to kill me with her element. Or get the sun princess involved... I don't wanna die!' "Wait... You're the Element of Magic? I... I didn't think I'd meet one of them and live, to be honest. It's said in the hive each element has the power to kill if used to do so... I... I had no idea... Heh... I'm just glad you're not trying to kill me right now."
Silence. How he hated silence. It was worse than words of hatred.
"Well, why would I?" She nervously chuckled. "Well... I am a changeling." 'Not helping your case here Chameleon. Well, it's said and done now. So buck trying to fix it.'
She spoke up again. Great. More stuff for him to think about. His head hurts too much for this. "Well, it's not as if we're trying to exterminate the changelings..."
He sighed and said "I'm sorry, it's just... This isn't going to be the first time someling decides to invade somepony's place. That's just what we are. Sneaky. We walk outside not as ourselves, but as someone completely different from who... We actually are. Like a race comprised entirely of actors, I guess."
...
"And why not become actual actors?"
...
'WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO THIS IS ANOTHER BUCKING CAN OF WORMS HOLY BUCK! ...It's not too bad, I guess there's worse fates than talking to Twilight Sparkle about changeling secrets. Like Chrysalis finding out that I'm talking to Twilight Sparkle about... Chameleon... Stop thinking about that.' He shook his head again, sweating slightly. "I don't know. Never thought about it that way. It makes perfect sense, but noling's thought about it, at least as far as I'm aware. Or maybe a drone has. But they're not important. At least not to most of the hive."
She started to attempt to reason with him about her idea. "I mean... You could collect a lot of emotions as an actor, and the shapeshifting would help a lot." It certainly would. But who'd let them? It'd be a difficult thing to pull off. "True, but there's two small problems with your idea. One... Getting other ponies to agree with it... Two... To collect emotions, we need to be within about 50 feet of our target(s)."
She stopped talking. "What about sticking to the theatres then?" Nevermind. 'More reasoning with me. Joy. Makes me have to think. I hate thinking. Especially when it hurts. I just want to sleep.'
"You would have ponies within that range... And maybe the getting ponies to agree with won't come immediately, but I'm sure some would let you try, and that is a start."
...
"This... This is probably one of those things that's easier said than done, don't get me wrong, I like your idea, but... It'd be difficult to pull off. Besides... Finding somepony who'll let us... needle in a haystack."
She argued with him more, "But if it can be done and if I could help you look for somepony who can help?" I let out a loud sigh. "...Maybe. I... I won't give you a definite answer because I'm... Not exactly certain on it. Just need to think about it, really, and not when my head is buzzing all over the place."
...
"Alright, that sounds good enough." She told him after taking a deep breath. Then, groaning slightly, I admitted to her about my feelings. My fear. My everything. Also that I was tired. "Besides, right now nothing to me is really clear, not even my thoughts. I never thought I'd be alone like this. I know, I've got you near me, but all changelings are supposed to hear their siblings voices over the hivemind. But I just hear... Silence. Have you ever had a really, really bad headache like this?"
She sighed and said: "I cannot help with that though."
'Did she just nod? I'm... I'm guessing she did.' I grunted. "I know." Then I sighed, and asked softly, yawning slightly. "W...Would you be okay if I tried to sleep it off? It feels like my head is going to split open. That's how bad it is. Or... Or do you want to ask me some more... stuff?"
...
"No, no, if you need to sleep, that's fine."
'I like her. She seems more merciful than I expected.' "...Thanks. Y'know, if you were a... changeling, you'd be one of the most merciful of us." He commented, then added slightly frantically. "No, no, I don't mean that I intend to turn you into a changeling, even if that were possible, I don't intend on it!"
"Um, thanks, I guess..." She said awkwardly.
Okay, maybe that was a little awkward. He guessed that she was smiling. "...Are... Are you smiling? I... I can't tell, genuinely, I can't tell anything about you physically except... you've got a horn, and you're purple..." I added after a few moments. "Everything... Everything looks like a blob to me."
...
"Perhaps once you sleep you will be able to see better?" She asked in... A motherly tone?
"True." He wriggled slightly, before turning his back to you, before wriggling back to attempt to view her slightly. "Be...Before I sleep, are you going to watch me, or... something else?"
"No... There are guards outside the door" She told him "But they will not come in unless it is necessary"
He yawned and said, "Alright..." and turned my back to her. "I'll see you later? Well... Sort of hear you?"
He didn't hear her answer because he had fallen asleep. But one thing he knew when he fell asleep, that perhaps he could be who he was and get away with it. In this cold world.
No, I didn't. This... This is another nightmare. Isn't it? ...When will they end?
...
The ponies might have the princess of the night to save them from nightmares... But...
I have no one to save me.
I'm in the hive. My vision's back. What happened?
"So, what didn't you tell the ponies about us?"
...Chrysalis knows.
"I know this might look bad Queen, but... but... I fed her lies!"
...She and I both knew I was lying there.
"Do you really think that you could lie to me. Changelings cannot lie to other changelings!" She growled. He could feel her rage across the ground. "You can't lie to me, TRAITOR!"
...Traitor...
"I'm... I'm not a traitor! I lied to her, I promise!"
...I kept trying to hide it. But this wasn't going to work. I needed a better strategy of getting out of this.
"GUARDS, KILL HIM NOW!"
...I don't want to die!
I panicked.
"What."
"Shh! He's having a nightmare... Oooh, I didn't think Changelings had those, but that's what it looks like..."
What... What was that?!
"Queen... Please... I don't want to die." I begged.
"Well, you should've thought about that before giving information out, especially to our enemies!" She yelled.
"I... I know I gave one of the elements crucial information... about... about us... But I swear, I swear I lied to her, it wasn't true...!" I yelled back as if trying to prove myself. To prove that I was right. Even if I was wrong.
"It was true Zero. Not a single word you spoke to the element was a lie. NOT. ONE. WORD."
I hated that name. She ignored the one I chose because it meant nothing to her. Just like I meant nothing to her. That name was the value of my life. The value of my existence in the hive.
"No... No... I'm... I'm not a traitor... I... I just made mistakes..." Immediately after I said that, My former queen went to strike me. I raised my front two hooves up over my head, in order to protect my head. That's when they turned to look like they were made out of wood, especially at the front, and he blinked. There was no wood in the hive. Just... This isn't real. Is it? She doesn't know. This is a nightmare. J...Just a nightmare. So why did it terrify me so?
That's when I woke up. I was wrong when I said that I had no one to save me from nightmares. I have myself. That's better than some princess of the night. ...So why do I want her to protect me so badly? I'm sure she'd rather break me apart with her scythe of the moon than actually protect me!
...
"What in the..." A voice spoke up, female. Sounded... Confident. Proud. 'I... I... I think I'm going to call this one confident voice.'
He groaned slightly, waking and sitting up. "You heard it all, didn't you?" He asked, his headache still there. Growing, maybe?
"Yupperoonie, you were speaking a lot, and by a lot, I mean a lot a lot!" Another female voice spoke up. More like... yelled excitedly? Oh boy. To put it lightly, they sounded excitable, bouncy, and all over the place. Seriously, he could feel her bouncing around. 'and... and this one bouncy voice...'
...
But there was one thing on his mind. There was no nerdy voice. Where was she? Sweat trickled down his forehead. He liked her. She was merciful to him. It was a welcome change... From most of his own kind being nasty. She made him feel... safe in this world. "Where's... Where's the nerdy sounding... one... I..." He looked around the blurry, blobby room, but could only see two major blobs here with him. A blue blob with... wings, and a purple blob with no horn. Or was it pink? He couldn't tell. It looked more purple to him. "I can barely see anything... still. Everything's still blurry. ...Did she tell you that, or... is this new?" He started to ramble on and on about stuff. "...Y'know... I'm terrified to think what my queen will do to me if I have to go back... I... told the nerdy sounding one things... Twilight... Twilight Sparkle... The Element of Magic... I told her things about my kind that... I shouldn't have told... Secrets. Even if they were legends, I weren't supposed to tell em'..."
"What is that supposed to mean!?" Rainbow yelled, yet did nothing to him. Someone was holding her back? 'I... I don't even know what I've done.'
He asked, confused: "D...Do you mind telling me what part of what I said you're... referring to? I... rambled a bit..." All of this was a lot to take in, and now he was meeting new ponies... Or whatever they were.
The confident one sounded like she was going to say something, but was stopped. Then, the bouncy one asked curiously, "Oooh, Changeling Legends? What kind of legends?"
...
He sighed. Was he going to have to repeat himself?
"I'm... I'm going to just say this as a warning. Grab a bucket, if you really want to know them. They're dark. Very dark. Because they might make you sick. I don't know. They're about your kind. Usually the more famous ones though, like the princesses."
"Oh... Those kinds of legends.." The bouncy one whispered as if she knew the legends already. Huh.
"And, what do you mean you can't see?" The confident one asked, getting all close to him. He shivered.
"Uhm... I... I can. Just... Just not very well. Everything's very, very blurry, and everything looks like a blob to me. For a bit I had your friend mistaken for Twilight, until I realized, no sort of horn image on her head, even if it's blurry, I can tell if you've got wings, horn, or nada. They just look really blurry." He explained, then thought for a few moments before adding, "I... I think I hit something and it's affected my vision. I could see fine before I woke up stiff, and unable to move pretty much."
The confident one fell over on their back... and... and... started laughing? Why was she laughing? "Yeah, and I'm some sort of singer!" She chortled until she got interrupted by the bouncy one, who was sort of telling her off?
"Dashie!"
"What?"
I groaned. This was going to be difficult. "I'm serious." He said with a frown "I know you don't have a way to tell if I'm lying, but I genuinely can't see very well right now."
"Sure." The confident one, -or Dashie. 'I'm not going to call her that. Let's go with the rude one.' Anyways, the rude one said sure sarcastically right back at him.
He just kept frowning, no longer saying anything. He wasn't being taken seriously. He hated that feeling. He really hated that feeling. It made him want to punch something. Hit something. But he couldn't. He was entirely helpless.
"What?" The con- rude one repeated. Why was she repeating herself?
"You're being rude for no reason." Oh. Oh great, an argument. Whats next, multiple arguments?
So he interrupted. He didn't want to hear it. Not without his input. "Well, technically she has a reason. It's not a good one, though. I could be mean back to her with the reason that she's a pony. Just like she can be mean to me just because I'm a changeling." I waited a few moments to let that sink in before continuing. "But tell me how being mean based on your race is fair? Why not judge on what you've done. Okay, maybe not judge on what you've done, because I rammed into a bucking tree. Or something. That's... embarrassing."
"Well, it is not fair" She sounded upset. Or she was just talking slowly for emphasis. One of the two. 'Did I upset the bouncy one? Is she now the sad one?' The rude one and the sad one. What a pair.
...
He took in a deep breath and looked at the rude one. He wanted to make this right. He had no idea exactly how difficult it would be to get her on his side. "So... Do you have any reasons why you don't trust me, other than that I'm a changeling? Because those I can change. I can't change who I am deep down. Under all the disguises."
She scoffed and didn't even answer him. Instead, she told him firmly - "I'll be watching you." Then, he heard her walk out. Did she even care what he had to say? Then, he heard the bouncy one sigh. She seemed less upset now. But who was he to guess that? He couldn't even see her expression.
"Well... That... Didn't really answer my question." He said before shrugging and leaned back on the bed. "Is... She normally like this?" He asked, looking up at the bouncy one.
"Just give her some time." The bouncy one told him, a bit more subdued than before. Was she smiling? It felt like she was. So he smiled too.
"...Okay." He felt a little awkward, then realized he had completely forgotten to introduce himself. So he did, awkwardly. "...I introduced myself to Twilight, so why not you? My name's Chameleon."
"Oh, nice to meet you, I'm Pinkie Pie!" She shouted.
'It's a good thing I'm partially deaf, or that would've hurt.' He thought to himself. He then said awkwardly. "...Nice to meet you too. T...This is kinda awkward, to be honest. I don't know what else to say. I'm not... very good with small talk."
"Don't worry, I understand." She said with a tone that just seemed to be indicating she was smiling. Excited. Then she asked him excitedly. "Oh Oh Oh! Do you like cake?" That... That was random. But okay.
He blinked, at the unexpected question. Not because it was an unexpected question, but the topic. "I... I... I honestly don't think I've ever had it. We don't really eat food that much." He admitted, then added, sensing something. Was she going to throw him a party? Wait, how did he know that she liked to throw parties. Buck it. "Why, though? Y...Are you thinking of throwing me a party or something? Heh... I wouldn't even be able to tell if it was cake though without you telling me."
She gasped. "You've never, n-never had cake!? or a party!?" Come to think of it, no.
"Chrysalis never believed in any of that, really. She didn't like fun." He said honestly. What did he really have to lose now? Other than his sanity?
"Well, I'll have to go plan for things! Bye!" She yelled in a tone that said 'Challenge Accepted' and then... Whoosh.
Was she gone?
...
"O...Okay. See you later?" He blinked, despite not being able to see himself blink. Even if he was unable anyways in the first place.
...
No answer...
...
He was alone...
...
Silence. How he hated it.
...
So, he lied back on his bed and stared up at the blank ceiling: blank to him. "I hate silence. It's... So deafening." He spoke out loud. Hoping to get an answer? Of course, he didn't get one.
It was a while since he had any visitors. A while ago, just after the bouncy one left, or as Chameleon now knew her, Pinkie Pie, had left, and a guard had come in and given him a large amount of food. Pity he couldn't tell what any of it was.
So he had scarfed that down. It didn't give him much, in terms of well, anything, but he felt less hungry. How long it took him? He had no idea.
Then, the nerdy one came back. Something about how she came in gave him goosebumps. He shivered slightly. He couldn't put his hoof on exactly what it was though. He shook off that thought. He didn't need... Why was he thinking about the nymph eater princess? No. Get that thought out of your head. You don't need nightmares today, Chameleon.
...
The first thing she said was "Hello." He couldn't tell much from the inflexion of it, nor her tone. He couldn't actually tell much of anything from her tone. It just felt bland. Like bread with nothing on it. Was that what "calm" was? Something felt wrong, but he pushed it away again. He didn't want these feelings. They confused him. Scared him. But made him push forward, regardless.
He looked up at her and sighed. "Hey... J...Just so you know my eyesight isn't any better. But my head's hurting a lot less." Then, he added: "I know, it sucks, not being able to see properly, but it's kiiiiinda my fault it's this way. I crashed into something, and pretty hard."
She was silent for a good while, before whispering a few words he only just made out. "Oh... I see..."
He, then looked at her... blobby form and sighed. He wanted to move this conversation along, rather than it just be awkward for both of them. "...I... But that... doesn't stop me from helping you, does it? I... I got the impression from your last meeting with me that you wanted to learn about changelings. I might not be able to see very well, but my head's not hurting as much as it was. ...Really, though, I don't want to sit in silence. I've... I've already had enough of that, not just here, but... in the hive too. I was alone. Before the invasion, my... former queen... She said the only purpose I had for her was for war. She saw me... me as a weapon. That... terrified me. It still does."
She went silent for a few moments before speaking up, "A-Alright..." She took in a deep breath, "Your, er..., I mean, Chrysalis' hive... Why do you say that your only purpose was war? Was it something about the way she runs her hive or is it common among changeling hives?" She's nervous, but so are you, Chameleon. At least she's not suspicious...
He took a deep breath inwards as he collected his thoughts on the question, before slowly answering. He wasn't even too sure of the specifics, but he knew for sure what he was supposed to be. A specialist. "Well... It's... generally for specialists, because our other abilities are heavily diminished as a result. Shapeshifting becomes much more taxing, for example. But yeah... She was... is a cruel queen. If you were a specialist, that just meant you generally could only do the thing that you specialised in particularly well. That... Isn't helpful when the only thing you can do without too much effort is change your body's overall material. I wasn't very good at helping around the hive, not that she tried to help change that." He took another deep breath as his body shuddered just thinking about it. "She... saw me as u-useless. Anything other than just a tool to achieve her aims, nothing m-more... She didn't care, and she called me Zero... She said that was my worth to the hive." He shook as he spoke, obviously terrified of the matter.
"A-And..." The nerdy one took a deep breath too, almost as if she was scared of the same thing he was. Or just collecting her thoughts. "Was this the case with most specialist's? The seeing changelings as tools at best, I-I mean..."
He took a shaky sigh, saying one simple word, and nearly failing at it when he felt something deeply sting him. He grimaced, and masked it by saying it. "Y-Yeah..." You need to feed kinda soon, Chameleon, but there's no one around who might trust you enough to... do that.
A question suddenly left her lips, perhaps not with thinking the question through. "A-And.. could a Changeling society work without a Queen, or at least without her having absolute power?" He was quick to answer, at least at first. "It's never been tried... I guess it might, but I dare not try. I don't know if it'd work, but... It could, I guess. ...The idea... It scares me." Was she no longer thinking about her questions? These ones made him extremely uncomfortable to think about. "A-And... Would the Other Queens put a stop to her?" They had never even bucking tried. He immediately felt rage at the subject of the question, but managed to calm himself. He hoped she didn't notice his anger. "They... They've never tried. They... just ignore that we exist. ...They've got their own hives to deal with." She spoke again, and it was another uncomfortable question! "And if Chrysalis' actions threatened their hives?" He couldn't imagine being a queen, or thinking like one. He never knew what they were thinking. "...I... I don't know. I... Really don't know. Sorry."
He hoped these kinds of questions would soon stop. He really didn't like them. Maybe she'd get the message, Chameleon? "Well... would you be willing to speak to Princess Celestia?" Well, it just got worse! He took a deep breath inwards, shaking nervously, feeling like fear itself was dripping from him. "It might... sound weird to you, but... I... I think I'm scared of her. It doesn't take much, mind you, but... I am. ...If... If I talk to her... Could you stay with me? I... I don't want anything to get out of hoof. ...Especially knowing that she could kill me if she wanted to, especially in this state." ... "She wouldn't kill you, but alright..."
He took another deep breath in as he thought of how an encounter with... her, would go. Don't think about it. "...Thanks... Does... Does she already know about... what we've talked about, and... my condition?" ... "She knows about your condition, but I have only told her a small part of what you've told me" Well, thanks for being really unspecific in how much you actually told her! I don't know how much "small" means in the hooves of a extremely nerdy pony! "...Okay... So... Should I expect to have to repeat myself on some things?" ... "Yeah." She told him, with not much discernible information from her tone. "She will probably ask some of the same things." He took in a deep breath and sighed, "Alright then... I'm ready." He really wasn't, but just wanted to get this out of the way. Even if he was thinking of the absolute worst that could happen.
As if on cue, as if "Princess Celestia" herself was listening in, the doors opened loudly, startling him. But the nerdy one didn't seem concerned, as he heard calm, quiet but noisy hoofsteps in his direction. Then they stopped, with the room itself almost feeling warmer with her presence. The very feeling felt suffocating to him, however the nerdy one didn't seem harmed by it, or anything of the sort. None of the stories he heard about her were true, right? Or was she... acting nice, acting like his own kind. "You need not fear me." She said calmly, not much he could tell from her tone. "I do not plan on feasting on you." Well, that would be almost a relief, if he didn't have a dark thought at the back of his mind that she was lying through her teeth! ...Just like his own kind. Why was he drawing parallels there? Either way, she seemed to know the legends he was told as a child, and, well... Now he was curious and terrified. What a combination. "Y...You know about the legends about your...yourself?" ... "Yes, Queen Lynthea of the Eastern Hive told me of some legends during the negotiations... Although Chrysalis was not a part to those..." ... "...Yeah... I don't really know much about any other hive than my own... so... I don't know who that is." ... "Yes... Chrysalis has always been a bit... seclusive when it comes to that" The princess responded with a small sigh. After a few moments of nervous silence, she spoke up again. "I heard that Twilight had offered to search for ponies that would be willing to receive Changelings as Actors... Do you believe that Chrysalis could be willing to accept?" ...Curse you, nerdy one. He looked down, knowing all too well what Chrysalis was like. Is. She still is. "She's... too proud, too stubborn to accept anything you have to offer... unless it benefited her much more than anyone else... That's... that's why she wanted to invade Canterlot. Invading and winning would've benefited her and the hive massively, especially if she didn't let any other hive get involved..." ... "I see..." A sizeable pause followed as she collected her thoughts. "Well, In that case, I will be on my way. And you do not have to be afraid. I will see to it that you are not harmed." There it is again... Trying to reassure me.
"T...Thanks. It means a lot." I smiled, or tried to. It felt like I was smiling. Though... It did feel odd. Thought she'd ask more. "It is the least I can do." She said, before quietly leaving.
He felt relief. Surprise, that it was that easy. "...That... That went better than I expected..." He admitted, surprise very much in his tone as a main feature, and the nerdy one seemed similar with her tone. He heard her take a breath "Yeah, she... she is like that..." ... "...I'm glad she's like that, rather... rather than what I spoke about her..." The noises that came from the nerdy one sounded like she was struggling not to laugh "Yeah." ... "...To be honest, when I thought I was going to meet her... I thought it'd take longer, be harder, you know? ...But I was wrong. ...I should've apologised... for what our kind painted her to be like..." ... "Ah... I'm sure it will be fine, I mean, it seems that she already knew... and I did not know that she did know..." She let out a small and somewhat awkward laugh. "...I understand, I... I just had braced myself for the worst, and got the... best." ... "Thanks for staying with me regardless though." ... "It's nothing" She replied simply, and more than a bit awkwardly. "I know that coming face to face with a princess for the first time can be... intimidating..."
"Yeah..." He laid back onto the bed...
...
The next thing he knew, he was in a dark forest, a very dark forest. It was quiet, very quiet, too quiet. He could see, so this was another nightmare. This forest seemed like the ones where Luna... the moon princess... would harvest the organs of changelings with a scythe. Ones that he had seen through this nightmares, and forcibly been read to him by his hive to keep him... scared. Docile.
So he started to run. He didn't want to encounter her. Even if it was a nightmare. Yet, he slowly felt a presence. So he tried to run faster, but he fell on his face. She was here. ...The other sister. The one with the war scythe. The murderer of his own kind. ...Surely he was wrong, like he was with the other one? So he slowly looked around, terrified. Like something was going to jump out at him. The forest was so dark around him. Like it wanted to eat him up. Rip him limb from limb.
But then, he heard something. He slowly pushed himself up - it sounded like tiny little hoof-steps. He slowly turned around, and came face-to-face with her. The other princess. But she was unarmed. You could kill her right now, Chameleon... A hardly noticeable shake of his head followed that thought. He managed to utter 1 question. One that shook him to the core. he was afraid of the answer. "A-Are you here to s-s-slaughter me?" His very voice made her look at him. A sigh left her. She was disappointed. Surprised, too. "We... I am not here to harm you." He noticed that "we". But her answer surprised him. Terror still filled him, but now he was curious. "What... a-are you here for then?" ... "I had never walked into a Changeling's dream before. But this forest... there is something wrong with it." She stated as a matter of fact. He then informed her with more than his fair share of fear that this was the place. "This... This is the place where they... they said you killed changelings in with a scythe... r-ripping out their organs..." ... "I... I did what?" She sounded appalled. "So... you didn't?" He questioned, an almost quiet but burning hope in him that he was WRONG. "I... I have killed some of your kind, that much is true," and immediately, that hope almost died. "It was more than a thousand years ago, in a battlefield that looked nothing like this... But no, I do not drag those of your kind to a forest to rip their organs out, and you need not fear that I would do that to you." It was back, in full force. He didn't even know he could feel emotions properly, but here he was!
"...They hammered into us that every story was true... Every single one...They said if we were discovered... well..." He shuddered, and continued. "I have nightmares about the stories every day..." ... "I see..." She got further away from him, as he looked away, terror once again filling him. Moments later, he felt a lot less fear. The forest was getting a lot less foreboding. "It's... gone." He couldn't believe it. "It may return in the future..." She made that evidently clear. "But you are under my protection, as you are under my sister's." She stated calmly, approaching him once more. "I would like to have your name, as it would make things... easier..."
"Thank you... My name is Chameleon..."
"Chameleon... a fitting name I suppose," She told him with a small, almost awkward smile.
"I... uh.... Kinda chose it. My mom wanted to call me... Z-Zero. Because she said that was the worth I had to the hive..."
"Then she was wrong," Luna stated calmly. "If you learn only one thing here, then let it be that, she was wrong."
Then, the realm started to lighten up. His dream was ending. "Now it is time to awake, I will visit at some point, when I can." Her voice almost felt tenderly. Motherly. Even if it felt awkward still.