Queen Chrysalis addressed the fourth wall and began cackling in a high voice.

“Greetings, workers and gentledrones! It’s your old pal, the Hive-Keeper, here with some more tales of me and my beloved changelings, so spooky that you'll be changing yourselves! Ahaha! And today we have a very special guest. Welcome Discord, a real mixed bag who likes to spend his nights getting stoned! Ahaha!”

“Hi, Chryssy,” Discord said.

“I hate that name!”

“Ooh, I know! That’s why I said it! Now, shall we get to our first story? I’m sure you’re ready.”

“Oh, yes! You could say I’ve been awaiting it,” she lifted a hoof to show its disfigurement. “. . . hole-heartedly! Ahaha!”

“Don’t you mean, ‘hole-hoofedly’?” asked Discord.

“No, I mean hoof-heartedly,” said Chrysalis.

“Hoof-hearted?”

“Wasn’t me, must have been you! Ahaha! Now, kiddies, while Discord’s draggin’ himself off, why don’t you enjoy a little tale I call, ‘A Clone’s Throw Away!’ Ahaha!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well, this bites,” the changeling said. “Another plan down the drain. Oh my Chrysalis, but I’m so hungry!”

“I know what you mean,” his friend, who was also a changeling, said. “I haven’t had any love to snack on in days!”

“First we get forcibly expelled from Canterlot, and then you go and insult the queen’s haircut and she kicks us out!”

“Yeah, I know all that, I was there.”

“Yes, but it’s back-story, I have to repeat it.”

“Stop breaking the fourth wall! That’s not going to get us any closer to a plan to feed!”

“Actually, it might. Haven’t you heard about the humans?”

“What’s a human?”

“Weird creature. No wings, no horns. Doesn’t matter, they’ve got love to give and apparently they’ve been dishing a lot of it out to Queen Chrysalis. That’s how we’ve been surviving ever since.”

“So what do we do about it?”

“We find where the humans live and go feed off them. Rather than wait for their love to come to us, we go and get it!”

“I like it. OK, you’re elected leader!”

“Hey, I don’t want to lead; I just want to feed!”

“Good slogan. You’ll be popular.”

“But I don’t even have a name!”

“None of the changelings do. We take the name of whatever we change into. For that matter, have you ever heard Queen Chrysalis actually called as such?”

“Funny enough, no. Makes you wonder how we even know her name. OK, well, give me a name.”

“Um. . . Changey McChangerton? Lord Evil? Swarmy?”

“Ooh, go with that one,” Swarmy said. “And you, loyal assistant. . . “

“Yes? I get a name too?”

“I just gave it to you! Come on, Loyal, let’s find the humans.”

*********************************************************************************************

“Well, you’ve done it.,” Loyal Assistant said. “Here we are in a human city, filled with humans waiting to give us love. How do we go about getting it, oh fearless leader?”

“We try the direct approach,” said Swarmy. “Go change yourself into a human and ask.”

Loyal peered out from the alley they were hiding in. He saw that as a general trend some humans were smaller than others. He figured he’d turn into one of those first to make it easier. Spotting one with particularly colorful plumage, he memorized its pattern and, as soon as it had walked away, converted himself. He walked out and approached a human.

“Excuse me, but do you know where I could find some love?”

*********************************************************************************************

“Well, that didn’t work!” Loyal reported back to Swarmy. “Apparently these humans are related to some of our lower-order insect cousins. The males’ only function is to mate. I tried asking where I could find some queens, but when I went there, there were only more males, and they weren’t interested in me at all!”

“Great, just great! I don’t want to breed; I just want to feed! What do we do now?”

From the front of the alley a new voice came. “Oh my gosh! Changelings!”

“What?!” said Swarmy. “Who goes there?! Stay back, we have sharp teeth!”

The speaker was one of the humans, smaller than the average. To the surprise of Swarmy and Loyal, this one was actually decorated on the front with the image of one of the ponies they had taken the form of not too long ago.

“You don’t have to be scared. My name’s Louis. I’m a brony. Are you guys OK? Do you need love?”

“Aha!” said Swarmy to Loyal. “They have a subspecies. They’re the ones we need. Louis? You are willing to provide us love to feed on?”

“Yeah, I mean, if it doesn’t kill me,” he said. “Do you guys want to come home with me?”

Again Swarmy spoke under his breath to his companion. “We’re in.” They started walking out of the alley.

“Oh, but how am I going to get you home without anybody noticing?” said Louis.

“Let us handle that!” said Swarmy, and he and Loyal changed themselves into humans.

*********************************************************************************************

Two days later, Swarmy and Loyal, back in their own bodies, were relaxing on the back deck of a suburban house.

“Ah, this is the life!” said Loyal. “You sure steered us right this time.”

“I haven’t been so full in all my life,” said Swarmy. “These bronies are full of love to give, and when they want you to change for them, it’s so easy! Do you know that more than half of them asked for the same transformation?”

“Oh yeah. What is a ‘Megan Fox’ anyway?”

“Who knows? Who cares?! We get to sit here and lap up the love forever.”

“Ahem.”

The two changelings took off their sunglasses and sat up.

“A-HEM.”

A new figure had come on to the deck.

“May I ask what you’re doing?”

“Um. . . hi. We’re just relaxing right now. Care to join us?”

“What do you think you’re doing to my humans?”

“Yours? We’re stealing love from them to feed on.”

“Yah, I noticed. That’s our gig. We’ve been doing it a lot longer than you, and you think you’re going to come in and just start mooching?”

“But we are changelings!” said Swarmy. “We can alter our size and shape as needed!”

“Big deal, we can do that too.”

“We can go invisible and you’ll never find us if we don’t want you to!”

“Mastered that ages ago.”

“We will breed uncontrollably until we take over and rule this planet!”

“Been there, done that. Face it, guys, your evolutionary niche has a big sign marked ‘Ocupado’ on it.”

Swarmy was becoming increasingly desperate at the threats. “What are you?!” he cried.

“Felis Domesticus, or just "cat" for short.”

“Well, Felis, you may have noticed, but we’re also considerably larger than you. If it comes to a fight, I don’t think it will be any contest.” He leaned back on his lounge chair.

“You’re right, it won’t,” the cat said, and then he jumped up onto Swarmy’s lap and began purring. Swarmy reached out a hand and began stroking it gently.

“What are you doing?!” said Loyal. “Kick him off!”

“No, he’s just being a cute widdle kitty, yes he is, isn’t he?” Swarmy nuzzled his face next to the cat’s, who started knitting at his lap with his claws.

“He’s attacking you! Fight back!” said Loyal.

“No, it doesn’t—Ow—hurt. Aww, look, he’s going to sleep.”

“Get up and run! He’s put some kind of spell on you!”

“No, he’s just sweepy, the widdle baby. I’ll let him stay here till he’s ready to go.”

“Well, I’m getting out of here! Starvation’s better than being turned into a mindless zombie!”

The cat purred and curled up, but then perked his head up toward Loyal. “Do so, and tell the rest of yours that they may accept the love sent across worlds, but do not attempt to send any more to this world or to damage any humans. They are our beloved pets and we will protect them if we have to. I will keep this changeling here for my troubles.”

“You can have him!” screamed Loyal. “I’m going home. Maybe Queen Chrysalis is in a forgiving mood.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And I certainly was!” said Queen Chrysalis. “Why, I only had to chop off eight or nine limbs before I let him back in the hive!”

“Eight or nine?” asked Discord.

“Yes, changelings can be rather like plants. You prune them, and they grow back even weirder!”

“Oh, Chryssy. You and I were made for each other. Let’s go somewhere private and make beautiful music.”

“I don’t know, Cordy. Last I heard, you didn’t do so well around harmony! Ahaha!”

Discord sulked and turned away.

“Well, kiddies, until next time, remember: change is inevitable! Ahaha!”