//------------------------------// // The Story Begins // Story: The Story of Chris the Changeling // by Silver Inkwell //------------------------------// Hello there, my name is Chris, I am a male changeling, and this is my story. My story begins after the failed invasion of Canterlot by Queen Chrysalis, I'm sure you know and have heard of that story, and it begins in the small town of Ponyville. But before I get to where I almost am let me first explain my past some more, after the battle I did infiltrate the city and remained undiscovered, but during all the time that I was undiscovered I had to make myself useful and helpful by doing jobs, small chores, and other various tasks that were required of me, or rather the pony that I poised at the time another pony saw me. But I never remained the same pony for long, I always changed to do something more fun, or less exerting, and I never did cause any trouble to the town, or at least not much that ever was noticeable, and never anything that had to be fixed by the princess or her friends, it was always under the radar, and no one ever knew it was me, no one ever discovered that it was me, not until recently at least. But that is enough of the past for now I think, now it is time for me to get to the events that lead me to being discovered as the real changeling that I am. I was in my usual form of a random (as in chosen, I kept the same form every day after I met him so ponies wouldn't suspect that something was wrong), non specific, generic male pony (whose cutie mark was a quill and his body color a light brown), I decided to pick up his form after I met him randomly, he worked out very well since no pony seemed to know him, and to avoid confusion I didn’t use his name, but my name instead, and I stuck to his form the most so that I wouldn’t get confused with what pony wanted what from which pony. Anyhow all the trouble began on a Tuesday (which seemed to happen quite a lot around Ponyville with Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends around), I was just walking around town, doing my chores and small part time jobs and blending in and not causing any trouble (I didn’t want to do anything so bad that it would cause me not to have love from any pony I knew or met, or the town in general), but that’s when it happened, I ran into Pinkie Pie (literally), and you might be asking, oh, what’s the trouble with that? Isn’t she fun? Well just you wait and you’ll see, I’ll tell you the truth, I bumped into her and apologized and she said, “No biggie Chris, I have lots of parties to plan today and tons of friends to see too, but I only wish that there were some way I could see them in time and all at once, like there were multiple copies of me,” “Okay,” I said and I thought to myself that she must be crazy, “I’ll see you later then if that’s fine with you, or not at all again, which would be even better.” “Okay then, bye,” she said bouncing off into the distance (literally) and I walked on oblivious to the trouble that would come my way later that day. When I finished up all my chores and jobs for the day I started to head towards my home (a house for rent actually) when I saw Pinkie Pie again, except that it wasn’t just one Pinkie Pie, but multiple copies of herself, and they were all running around causing chaos and confusion and destruction, I blinked in confusion at this and thought to myself, surely these are not my changeling brothers and sisters, and if they are why replicate her alone, why not replicate everyone here? It just made no sense to me, so I followed the mob or horde or swarm or mass of Pinkie Pies (what do you call a clone army? Chris thought to himself as he went on,) and after a while, after the whole incident with Pinkie Pie was over and Princess Twilight Sparkle sent all the clones away, she explained that they weren’t changelings, but rather the effect of a magic pond. I was curious of this as I naturally was, for I wondered in my head, if I could find this magical and mythical pond, and I used it, I could create and army of myself, and Queen Chrysalis wouldn’t have to wait so long to return to power, I could take over here in Ponyville and then maybe all of Equestria (I had grand visions and plans and thoughts and ideas like hers at some times, mostly not). So with this plan and idea in my head I set off to find Pinkie Pie and find out all I could about this magical and mythical pond, where to find it, and how to use it, the only problem would be getting her to talk, but with any luck she would spout it off the top of her head without even realizing it. So I went off in search of Pinkie Pie for the answers, and I didn’t have to wait long for it, by the time Thursday came around I had found her and cornered her and was asking her some standard questions about the whole entire event that had happened. “So,” I said casually trying to ease and lure her in, “Tuesday was quite an event, I mean there you were hopping all around the place with that clone army of yours, but tell me, how did you ever find that mythical magical pond?” “Simple,” Pinkie Pie said oblivious to what I was trying to do and eating her cupcakes, “I just followed an old nursery rhyme that I just happened to know.” “And can you please tell me this old nursery rhyme? I’m sure I haven’t heard it yet, after all, I am new around here to this place, and you would be helping me a lot with any small piece of information that you could supply and give to me.” “Sure,” she says, “It goes something like this, ‘Where the brambles are the thickest, there you will find a pond beyond the most twisted of vines’.” “That’s very vague and general,” Chris said, “Anything else to that?” “Nope, but I did forget to mention the part where I found the pond in the Everfree forest, a spooky place if there ever was one if you asked me, there’s lots of thick fog there that just seems unnatural, and it’s very dark as well, and not unless you also count the part of the old rhyme that says, ‘And into her own reflection she stared yearning for one whose reflection she shared, and solemnly swore not to be scared at the prospect doubly there’.” “Well thank you Pinkie Pie,” Chris said smiling deviously, “This helps a lot, and now I have everything that I need to know, thanks a lot, Pinkie Pie.” “Wait,” she said, “Why do you want to know all of this?” “Uh no reason, it’s just for some research paper I’m doing on magic, that’s all.” “Well you should go out and make some friends then if you’re stuck in your room or house all day trying to study and research all those dusty old and boring books, Twilight never made any friends that way when she was just an old and boring student and not a Princess, personally I find the whole ordeal a bit too much, and instead I find that a party canon always does the trick to make someone smile, and that is why I always bring mine around to wherever I go no matter what the situation is, and it has always worked for me before.” “Uh okay then,” Chris said as he got up and started to walk out and leave, but just then Pinkie Pie was suddenly in front of him and fired her party canon. “See it always works!” she said. “How do you do that?” Chris said curiously. “Do what?” “You know, get from one place to another, it’s almost like you teleport or use magic, but you can’t, you’re an earth pony, so again I ask how you do that.” “Well I’m sorry that I can’t answer your question for you Chris, because I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just do what I do, I suppose.” “You know what? Forget that I asked that to you, anyhow, thanks a lot Pinkie Pie, I’ll be seeing you around in the future, I guess, if you’re lucky enough.” “Alright, goodbye Chris, see you later then!” Pinkie Pie said as Chris left her home and walked out and started heading towards the Everfree forest, home of the mythical and magical pond that would create an army of clones for him. So I went into the Everfree forest (and Pinkie Pie was right about it, it was dark and spooky and had thick fog and mist all around, but I wasn’t scared of it, I was far worse than anything that could be in those woods) and I wandered through bushes and brambles (the thickest I could find), but still no pond anywhere, “I wonder where it could be,” I said to myself out loud (a habit of mine when I get scared or nervous or excited or curious or anxious, and in this case it was the case of the last two), and I walked through some more brambles and then to my surprise I found myself falling through a hole, and when I finally tumbled all the way down and fell on my face (ouch, I thought), I got up and to my surprise and delight I saw a pond, “This must be the pond Pinkie Pie spoke of,” I said to myself again (this time out of nervous excitement), “But I wonder if what she told me was true and will work, but I suppose there is only one way to find out,” I said approaching the lake and said the words I had previously heard from Pinkie Pie earlier that day (I do take notes you know). “And into his reflection he stared, yearning for one whose reflection he shared, and solemnly swore not to be scared at the prospect doubly there.” And then he went through the water (a fact that Pinkie Pie had mentioned) and when he came out the other side he found an exact copy of himself standing there in his true form (he had decided to change once he saw the water for he thought it would and might only work with his true form), “Wow,” he said to himself, “I’m looking good, I wouldn’t be surprised if girls asked me out for a date sometime soon and near in the future, but I suppose that I, or we, can hold onto my, or our, dreams and hopes until Ponyville is conquered at last.” “Yeah,” Chris 2 said (I label them as to not confuse me or you), “I suppose that works with me, but I have only one question for you, or myself I suppose.” “What is it, me?” I asked curiously. “Who do you want me to take form or shape of first? I mean I know your plan obviously, and I support and agree with it because I’m you, but this is all so new and confusing to me as I’m sure it is to you, so can you give me a command or something to follow? I think I would do well under leadership.” “Good question,” I said, “When I have assembles my army here and we return and go back to town you will take form of the first pony you see or meet, as well as every other clone I make, but for a special six I will require them to take the form of the Mane 6, and then once they are out of the way nothing can stop me! Or us! I don’t really know since this is all very confusing to me, or us!” “Well then, I got that, understood, sir,” Chris 2 said. Chris sighed, “I have always wanted to be called sir,” he said to himself, “Now get to work my clone friend, we have a lot of work to do to build that army.” It didn’t take as long as I expected it to, but soon I had my army of clones ready to go and take Ponyville over, and so we (or is it I?) marched through the forest of Everfree back to Ponyville, and we (or is it I?) took over the town with ease, and soon we (or is I?) had the Mane 6 cornered and ready to be taken over and replaced, but I couldn’t help myself when I entered their tree house, I just had to brag, the most common and deadly fatal flaw if there ever was one. “Well hello there,” I said when I entered their tree house as my cloaked or veiled self, “I see that all of you are gathered here today in honor of me, how very lovely and nice of you, and how very thoughtful and considerate too.” “Um we’re not here on behalf of you,” Rainbow Dash said, “We’re not even sure who you are really, I mean I might have seen you around town, but who knows for sure, right? Because I’m awesome and can’t deal with minor distractions.” “I know who he is,” Pinkie Pie said, “His name is Chris and he was asking a lot of questions about the pond where I cloned myself the other day, and he was acting very strangely and odd about it too, it was almost like he was kind of keeping and carrying some sort of secret behind him.” (It was Friday now). “Oh did he?” Twilight Sparkle said, “How very interesting, but tell me Chris, why the sudden and strange and odd curiosity of this pond she talked about?” “No reason,” I said smiling deviously, “None at all.” “Shucks, you’re lying as I know it and as we all know it here around this table in this room here, so tell us the truth now,” Applejack said furiously. “Very well then,” I said, “Since you demand to know the truth, I’ll show it to you, but trust me when I say that you won’t like what you see at all.” With that said Chris transformed to his true self, “Now do you see what I am, Princess Twilight Sparkle? Now do you see the real truth that was hidden?” “What have you done?” Twilight Sparkle demanded furiously stomping her hoof on the table and flaring her wings out to show and display her anger. “Me?” Chris asked innocently, “Don’t blame me, blame Pinkie Pie if you must, I asked her the questions about the pond ad she told me where it was and how to use it, even if she did neglect to mention falling through a hole. But never mind that now, it’s too late for all of you, I have already cloned myself enough times to clone every single pony here in Ponyville, so even if you could defeat me here in this room Princess, you still have an army of me to deal with.” “We don’t blame our friends for mistakes that they’ve made,” Twilight Sparkle said looking at Pinkie Pie with a look of what Chris assumed was forgiveness, but he wouldn’t know since no one ever gave any to him, “but we do blame the actions and results that our enemies make against us, including you.” “Oh but Princess, you can place the blame for anything that happens on any pony you want and all you want, but that doesn’t make it true, everything here in the land of Equestria influences another, every action taken by one inspires another, every result that follows the action leads others to act on their own, or in other words Princess, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” “Enough of this,” Twilight Sparkle said with anger and fury in her voice, “We know a way to defeat you and your army and send them back to where they came from, and we can and will do this together, as friends, let’s do this girls!” With that said Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends rushed out of the room together and ran past Chris completely ignoring him (which came as a surprise and shock to him) and outside to where clones of Chris were walking around in disguise, and that was when Twilight Sparkle started blasting a spell at the clones and as soon as it hit them they vanished into a purple smoke and went away, presumably back to the mirror pond had visited earlier to clone himself, as Chris watched the scene unfold with horror he thought to himself, no this cannot be happening, it cannot, I had my plan laid out perfectly before me, everything was perfect and was in place, how could this plan fail? Soon enough Princess Twilight Sparkle was sending every clone of himself away and soon enough he had no army, and then soon enough after that the Princess and her friends all found the lost ponies of Ponyville which Chris had hidden away well enough, and soon enough before it he had no army and was cornered into the town square all alone without any friends to help him out. “I’m sorry every pony,” Chris said vainly trying to apologize for his actions. “I didn’t mean for it to come this far (although he actually did), I only wanted some well deserved love, because it’s something I need to live on, and not just something that I want or desire like you ponies, can’t you understand this?” “Oh we understand why you did this,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said, “You wanted to first take over Ponyville then all the rest of Equestria, just like every other villain we have met so far, but for your actions Chris, you are hereby and henceforth banished from the town of Ponyville, and if you want some free advice from me I would highly suggest staying far away from any other town.” With that said the crowd all looked at Chris with anger and fury, and with some guilt at what he had done in his heart Chris started to leave the crowd and town, “All right,” he said as he was leaving, “So be it then, as you wish."