Going Rogue

by MidnightBlaze

Illusions

Over half an hour had passed before Twilight finally emerged from inside Zecora's hut, still mostly bald. The sun had begun to set and with the thick tree canopy overhead it was already fairly dark.

Twilight had to look for a few seconds before she could see Rogue. He was sitting on the path with his back turned to the hut, his black shell blended so well with the shadows he almost looked like one himself.

Not wanting to yell, Twilight walked over to Rogue before addressing him. "Rogue, Zecora and I have been talking about all you told us earlier and we decided... that... Rogue? Are you even listening to me?" Rogue hadn't reacted to Twilight's approach or words at all. Irritated, she walked around in front of him to see if talking face to face would get his attention. What she saw made her gasp in surprise.

Rogue was blankly staring straight ahead with a sad, far off look. Tears trickled down from his eyes, small trails of moisture slowly making their way down his tear stained face before falling to the ground. A small puff of dust, which lasted only for a second, was the last thing each left behind.

Concerned, Twilight stepped into the center of the weeping changling's field of vision. "Rogue? A... are you okay?"

The movement caught Rogue's attention and brought him out of his memories and back into the present. "Huh? I'm, uh, *gasp*." Rogue realized that he'd been crying and quickly turned away from Twilight's gaze and tried to rub the tears off his face, but they just kept coming.

Twilight moved in front of Rogue again to try and help. "What's wrong Rogue?"

Rogue gave up on trying to stop the flow of tears now and sighed. "It's... It's just a... bad memory."

Despite her overwhelming curiosity to find out what the memory was, Twilight knew that this was neither the time nor the place. There were other, more pressing matters at hoof right now. She'd just have to ask Rogue later. For now, she'd just sit down, be patient, and wait.

While waiting, Twilight noticed something interesting about Rogue's eyes. They were normal, -ish. They weren't compound like the other changlings she'd seen. The iris' were mainly light blue with a deeper shaded jagged pattern around the pupils, which were slitted like a reptile. Where they like that earlier?

Chrysalis was the only changling with eyes even similar to that, at least that Twilight had seen. That made her wonder... And what was it with this display of emotion? Didn't changlings feed on that? "How much do I really know about changlings?"

Twilight found that trying to separate fact from assumption was very difficult when she barely knew anything about the subject, currently changlings. Not knowing much about any subject was an unfamiliar and annoying experience for her. She didn't like it.

After a couple minutes Rogue had regained his composure and turned to Twilight, ready to talk. "Sorry about that. *sniff* So, what were you saying?"

Now it was Twilight's turn to be snapped back to reality. "Oh! uh, Zecora and I were talking about what you told us earlier, and we were needing to know what you were planning to do, now that you found me."

Rogue had given this plenty of thought on his way to Ponyville and answered readily. "Well, honestly I just want to find a way to fit in with everypony. I'm planning on going around looking for a job or somewhere I could help out and meet some ponies while earning a living. I'd like to find a place to stay but until I get enough money I'll probably just stay here in the Everfree. It doesn't seem like many ponies come through here so I won't have to worry to much about hiding."

Twilight was pleased by Rogue's answer, but she still had one thing she needed cleared up before revealing the decision she and Zecora had made. Besides, didn't she need to know more about changlings anyway? "But won't you need to feed?"

Rogue chuckled, amused at how little Twilight actually knew about his species. "There's plenty of food around here. There's fruits, berries, vegetables, I'm a pretty good scavenger. But if by feed you mean on emotions, then it's actually the same answer. I've been feeding on the local wildlife ever since I left Canterlot."

"Okay." "So changlings eat real food, and they don't have to feed on ponies specifically. Interesting." As unexpected as this info was at first, it did make sense when Twilight thought about it. And Zecora had said not to worry about Rogue feeding on anypony. After a few seconds of sorting out this new info she asked Rogue her next question to lead up to the big reveal. "Have you thought of any ideas on how you could try to fit in?"

This is where Rogue had run into difficulties. "*sigh* That's where it gets difficult. Unless I can find some way to make a disguise or something I won't be able to get anywhere near a town without causing a panic I can hide my wings and horn, and change my proportions to be more like a normal pony, but with my ability to Change gone I'm stuck looking like this."

Twilight grinned slyly as she replied. "What if you weren't?"

Rogue looked over at Twilight, confused. "What do you mean?"

Twilight had been looking forward to revealing her and Zecora's plan, and had decided to deliver it as dramatically as she could. "What if I told you, that Zecora and I, could make you, look like a normal pony?"

Rogue's eyes widened in surprise. "What? How!?"

Twilight had her explanation ready and didn't waste a moment before launching into it. "With the cloak Zecora was wearing. It has a very high level Physical Illusion Spell woven into it that makes a solid image around the wearer showing what they would look like if they were a pony."

Rogue could hardly believe his ears. It sounded almost to good to be true. "Seriously!?"

Twilight always enjoyed the look of amazement on others faces when she explained something. "Uh huh, you'll look just like a normal pony."

Rouge was overjoyed at this news, but then a thought crossed his mind. "Wait, she's just going to give it to me?"

"Well, loan it to you really, and you will have to agree to a few things first."

Rogue smiled, had expected there to be a few conditions. "Like what?"

"First of all, Zecora and I will be keeping our eyes on you."

Rogue chuckled. "I kinda expected that. What else?"

Zecora and Twilight, mainly Twilight, had compiled a short list of conditions for Rogue to meet if he wanted their help. She continued on where she had left off, plus one she had just added "You'll have to do whatever we tell you to without question, you won't go anywhere alone, you can only feed on wild animals, and there's one more thing."

The list didn't seem unreasonable so far, but Twilight's hesitance on revealing the last condition made Rogue suspect that it would be the most severe out of all of them. "What's that?"

"You won't be able to lie when you wear the cloak."

That wasn't anywhere near how harsh Rogue thought it would be. "Okay, that shouldn't be a problem. Is there any specific reason why?"

In Twilight's mind, telling a changling that it couldn't lie any more should have been one of the worst possible things that could happen to it. So Rogue's easy acceptance of this final condition was unexpected to say the least. Being caught of guard as she was it took her a few seconds to remember the rest of her explanation. "Because the fabric in the cloak has threads made from Seeds of Truth incorporated into it. That's how it senses what you would look like if you were a pony. But it also makes the Physical Illusion Spell fail if whoever is wearing the cloak tells a lie."

Now it made sense. "Okay, I can agree to those terms. Beides, I was taught to always tell the truth anyway, so that won't be an issue."

If Twilight was caught off guard before, then she was completely blind-sided by this statement. "Since when are changlings taught to tell the truth?" In the midst of all of the 'ERROR! DOES NOT COMPUTE! ERROR!' messages flashing in her mind, Twilight found herself trying, and failing, to line up Rogue with her mental image of a changling. He was too big, had four wings instead of two, was friendly, could somehow control the ground, had relatively normal eyes, appeared to have normal emotions, ate real food, was apparently taught to tell the truth, and now that she looked at him he even had more bands around his waist! "Maybe he's just weird for a changling? I mean, come on! This can't be normal for them... could it?"

Twilight's mental dilemma went completely unnoticed by Rogue, who suddenly laughed at a funny thought. "Well this is definitely gonna be interesting."

The short laugh was enough to snap Twilight back to reality. She promptly stuffed her previous thoughts into her rapidly growing file of questions to ask Rogue later in the back of her mind before responding. "What is?"

"Pretending to be a normal pony but not being able to say I'm a pony."

That Rogue would actually think that would be an issue made Twilight laugh. "That doesn't really come up in conversation much."

"Good point."

Twilight figured that she had given Zecora enough time. "Well, Zecora should be about ready by know. Do you have any questions about anything?"

"I don't think so... Wait a second." A question suddenly popped into Rogue's mind. "Why does Zecora even have a cloak like that in the first place?"

This question brought up the embarrassing memory yet again and Twilight blushed. "Well, when Zecora first came to Ponyville everypony thought she was evil and ran away when they saw her. She made the cloak so she could come into town and not scare them all away."

Rogue smiled humorlessly. "Yeah, I can relate to that. Being judged by what you look like instead of by who you are. Even back home in Metamorphica I was considered different."

Twilight and Rogue sat there thinking about the changling city, Twilight wondering and Rogue remembering. After about a minute Rogue broke off from his thoughts. "You were saying that Zecora was ready?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Follow me." Twilight shook her head to clear it before standing up and walking back to Zecora's hut with Rogue following behind her. When they reached the door Twilight held it open for Rogue before going in after him.

Rogue took a moment to look around at all the bottles, exotic plants, and various other items in the zebra's house, most of which he had no clue as to what they might be. The fact that the hut was very similar to a regular house but was actually carved into the still living tree itself was very impressive. How could a zebra do this?

Once Twilight was inside, she didn't waste any time before leading Rogue to the center of the room where Zecora had just finished modifying the spell in her cloak, which now lay folded on a small wooden table beside her. "Zecora, he agreed."

The zebra smiled upon hearing this. "That is good to hear. Now Rogue, please come near."

Rogue hesitated a couple seconds before obediently walking up to Zecora, who picked up the seemingly ordinary brown cloak with her forehoof and gave it to him. "Simply wear this cloak to activate the disguise. With it, you will look quite normal in others eyes."

Rogue's horn glowed a light shade of green as he took hold of the cloak and put it on via levitation. While putting it on he folded his wings and hid them under his elytra to be more comfortable and left the hood down. He also straightened the joints in his horn and retracted his fangs out of habit. As soon as he finished securing the cord around his neck the Physical Illusion Spell began to take hold. A mist emanated out from the cloak that started were it touched Rogue and rapidly radiated out to cover the rest of his body. Within a matter of seconds the mist turned light brown and started to condense and look exactly like fur. As the mist cleared it revealed a blue-eyed unicorn with a reddish orange mane and tail and whose coat was the same color that the mist had been.

Zecora grinned in amusement as Rogue took a few seconds to look at himself in his new disguise. He looked just like a normal pony in every aspect as far as he could see. When he had finished his inspection Rogue turned to the patiently waiting Zecora and Twilight and said the one thing that came to his mind. "Thank you."

"Glad to help." Twilight chuckled.

Zecora's voice was still pleasant but had a serious undertone to it now. "To help you fit in we are glad to assist, now make sure you follow the rules on our list."

"No problem, I promise I won't break the rules."

Twilight's pupils dilated suddenly as she remembered a promise she had made to a certain purple dragon that she wouldn't be late for dinner, again. "Oh no! I was supposed to be back at the library before dark!" With that, Twilight ran towards to door and opened it with her magic before turning back around. "Thank you Zecora, I'll talk to you soon. Come on Rogue, we have to hurry!"

"Okay, I'm hurrying." Rogue met Twilight at the open door and thanked Zecora one last time over his shoulder before setting off to Ponyville.

Comments

[Mother3Forever]

You got some typos through the existing chapters, but that's about it.

Also, I am LOVING THIS.

[Perteks]

Interesting.
Im little off to this story because he will be probably some kind og royalty or whatever, to big similarities to Chrysalis. Anyway gonna follow this story

[MidnightBlaze]

2113592
Royalty Rogue is not.
And about his uniqueness, wait till you meet the other changlings. They all have unique traits that make them different, not so dissimilar from the ponies.

[MidnightBlaze]

2122158
thanks
The cockatrice was merely an annoyance though and interrupted, not rogue's fault.

[CommanderX5]

Story seems fine so far, just prologue was really bad.

[MidnightBlaze]

2233532
Thank you so much for your critique.
Honestly, I was excited and in a rush to post and didn't go through it that much.
I am definately going to edit and fix some isues before my next chapter.

[MidnightBlaze]

2233532
Would you mind if I ran my new and improved idea for the prologue by you via private message please?
Just want to try and stay in character with everypony and make it the best I can.

[MidnightBlaze]

Sorry about the slow updates.
Computer issues prevent me from getting to work on my fic as much as I'd like.
Will get it fixed soon, hopefully.
Thanks for the patience.

[MidnightBlaze]

Sorry about not saying this sooner everypony, but I kinda ended up liking this story far more than I thought I would..... so I'm remaking it into a actual book!
As such I have been working on it and not this version.
HOWEVER, I am NOT stopping this story, I will be using it as a parody of my own book.
Once I get farther in my book to have everything lined out in the story I plan on updating this pony version along with the actual book.
So bear with me, I did not abandon this story!

[Kuno]

3427539 You said you would continue this story, and I'm extremely disappointed that you did not.

[Rainbow87dash]

8345694
Looks like you won't get much of anything. This fic is dead Jim.