//------------------------------// // Origins, Act 1 // Story: The Changeling Chronicles // by Shadow Beast //------------------------------// The Changeling Chronicles Book 1: Origins Author: Shadow Beast Preface: A Changeling Autobiography... Greetings, Equestria. My name is Shadow Beast, and I am a changeling. Do not fear; I am nothing like those brutish fools that followed the tyrannical Chrysalis into battle at that royal wedding. No, I am on your side! Due to common skepticism, I am forced to write this account of my heritage in an origin story explaining exactly why and how I can live without having to deceive or feed on you ponies! The following is the origin of all changelings of Equestria, then narrowing that down to MY life story... the important parts, anyways. Enjoy! Act 1: The Cold, the Dark, and the Moon Chapter 1: Hearth’s Warming Eve You have all heard the story of the foolish pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies constantly fighting and causing the Windigos to create the great blizzard. If you haven’t, well what are you doing reading this? This is meant for educated eyes only! Go back to magic kindergarten or something... but I digress. As you are aware, the leaders and their best ponies left their homes in order to find a new, not so cold place to live. But there is a side to this tale that has been hidden from you, and this is where my story truly begins. As the leaders and their ponies left to find new land, they left many ponies behind--the sick, the tired, and those who felt that they must care for them. But there was nothing to eat, and eventually even the caretakers felt nothing but hate in their hearts. My ancestors would have frozen alive, but then somepony--or someTHING came to their aid. Whatever HE is... I am sure you Equestrians, especially those from Ponyville, have come to know the tyrannical fiend... Discord. Discord saved the ponies, then drowned their world in constant chaos. Discord was all-knowing, all-powerful, and he abused every right he had as a spirit. The chaos and disharmony was shown ever more clearly as he began to shift the shapes of the ponies, eventually leaving them all without a shape... changelings. Our most powerful... changeling, spread her wings and focused her magic to become truly superior. She became the queen of the changelings, Chrysalis, and challenged Discord with every single changeling at her command. But Discord did as Discord always has done: he laughed in the face of opposition. Beyond that, he struck doubt into the eyes of more than half of her entire army with a simple thought. He claimed that Chrysalis and her followers were changelings now, so they must feed on love. He proceeded to reveal that it was his love of chaos that was keeping them all alive, and this rebellion would only be their undoing. The changelings were now split--about half doubted Chrysalis now, with a little less doubting Discord. Those who doubted Chrysalis went to Discord’s side, and prepared for the war ahead. Discord snapped his fingers and everything went back to normal. That is, if you call a wasteland normal... without anypony there to plow and till the fields, the once fertile farmlands were uninhabitable. Discord laughed and led his changeling army away from Chrysalis, who had no choice now but to find a new home for her own changelings, a place that would have more than enough love to not only sustain them, but make them stronger. They didn’t find such a place until they crashed the royal wedding, but I have no idea what lands they traversed between these two events... MY ancestors followed Discord and, for those who study obscure pony history, this next part may seem a bit familiar. Chapter 2: Discord and the Princesses of Day and Night Discord sent his changeling army in advance. Their job was simple: gather intelligence on this newly discovered “Equestria,” feed on love to grow powerful, and finally sabotage any retaliatory action that may occur when chaos arrives. Assuming pony forms, the changelings brought great trials to all of Equestria. After learning of the great alicorn princesses, a powerful changeling developed a plan. He gathered his fellows and after a briefing of the mission at hoof, the plan was set into motion. They concocted a great love poison, and gave it to foolish stallion who shared it with one of the princesses, exactly which one I cannot recall, meanwhile another changeling managed to lure a dragon closer and closer to the great city of the Sun and Moon. Then Discord struck. With one of the princesses left powerless, and the other attempting to deal with the dragon, their subjects were, well... subjected to the many torments of Discord in his new kingdom of chaos. Much to the Discord’s surprise, many of the royal guard were not as stupid as he thought. Starswirl the Bearded, among other powerful unicorns, put their magic together to create the Elements of Harmony. Meanwhile the Royal Guards of Day and Night fought with the changelings in an attempt to stop their intervention. The changelings failed, and the Elements of Harmony were complete, their power permeated through the walls of the castle, deterring the dragon and releasing the princess and stallion from the effects of the poison. The changelings outside were now disoriented; with the potion no longer working, those feelings of love were gone and their power had weakened. The princesses swiftly found the Elements of Harmony, claimed and donned them in order to protect what little was left of their kingdom. The princesses stood before Discord, ready to strike him down. But Discord did as he has always done: he laughed in the face of opposition. He knew he had already won. He held his chest and lifted his head back and laughed and laughed and laughed... keeping that pose indefinitely. The Elements had transformed him into a statue, and corrected the remaining chaos. In their haste, the princesses were unaware of the changelings’ presence, and they had disappeared. But the changelings never left. After seeing their great leader’s defeat, the hundreds of hundreds of changelings knew that running was not an option. Hiding was the only way to survive this. They took the forms of the ponies they had defeated in battle, and assumed their roles in life in Equestria. Most of them took the forms of royal guard of Sun and Moon, but sadly, this move would only split the changelings even more... in the great war to come. Chapter 3: The Rise of Nightmare Moon I’m sure I don’t have to explain how Luna’s jealousy got the better of her. Anyways, when Luna became Nightmare Moon she took her followers and royal guard (many of which were changelings) and fled to the moon. There they built a new castle, one even more powerful than the one in Canterlot. Using the best magic and technology known to them, they constructed special telescopes capable of sending magic spells through space. The changelings incorporated their shape-shifting prowess with the moonicorns’ magic to send spells down to Equestria, creating what is now known as the Everfree Forest. They buried the old castle in vegetation, and transformed once harmless creatures into monsters such as manticores, cockatrices, and timberwolves. Equestria became a land covered in darkness, and the Elements of Harmony were lost in the nightmares of the Everfree Forest. I know these things for I was born on the moon. The capital city, to be exact. Equestria has Canterlot, the moon has Palomoono. The palomoonicorns would use their magic to harvest the power of the stars. This position was sought after by the changelings, as many ponies would look up at the stars with wonder and love in their eyes. These feelings would travel through space and radiate from the stars, warming and empowering the changeling workers and soldiers. The non-changeling troops of Palomoono faced a greater challenge: food. Being cut off after Celestia’s Solar Guard began possessing the many farmlands of Equestria meant that the Lunar Guard must find their own fruit to consume. Nightmare Moon would not allow her guards, let alone herself, go hungry... so she called forth her most powerful moonicorns, all of which were changelings. The changelings used their newly acquired strength to summon a new form of edible life: Apples Placed on Palomoono for Lunar Edibility and Sensation... or A.P.P.L.E.S. as a clever anagram. However, it has come to my attention that some of the test batch, located deep within the Everfree Forest, were relatively recently absconded by some farm filly who probably didn’t even know what she was doing. In order to save time, I will use the term that she gave them: “Zap Apples.” Zap apples were perfected on the moon, where the harvest time is decided by the growers, who are all changelings in the form of moon ponies. They added a special “harvest time limit” feature that makes the apples simply disappear if not harvested in time. They never reported this effect, allowing them to trick Nightmare Moon into thinking that the missing apples were spent in the farmer’s food rations. In reality, changelings do not eat, they feed on love and similar feelings that are radiated off of uniforms, stars, or even the moon itself; but mostly it comes from the forms they themselves take. Chapter 4: The Lunar Fever All was good for the many citizens of Palomoono. The war below concerned few of us, but as we expanded the country to Nightmare Moon’s design, we realized that as it came to completion that this “Mare in the Moon” design was not appealing to the citizens of Equestria. With less love coming up to the moon, the changeling populace came down with “Lunar fever,” an inexplicable weakness of the entire body. It was all we could do not to lose our forms and get ourselves killed by Nightmare Moon and her Lunar Guard. I was born on Palomoono when it was just a colony, I mentioned that didn’t I? Oh well... by the time I came of age to choose what I wanted to be, I went for telescope operator. In order to be a telescope operator, I needed to be a moonicorn. My parents gave me a picture of a generic, dark purple moonicorn with a plain black mane and yellow crescent moon cutie mark. I hated that picture. I had no choice though, so I went ahead and used the special magic formula to transform myself from a simple moon pony to a true moonicorn. I was able to change the eye color to a bright red and even put some red highlights in my mane and tail. There was always something so... scary about the color red; I loved it. Soon my transformation was complete, and I left my parents for the first time. If I hadn’t been home-schooled, ponies would’ve gotten suspicious of my new horn. I grew up in private like all the changelings, but then again so were many of the moon pony foals. We did not really have a very good school system for a while. I applied to be a part of the Telescope systems, and was assigned to its Animal Enchantment Wing. It wasn’t a full Lunar year that had passed before the country’s design was complete and “Lunar fever” came to much of the populace. Being a changeling, I knew it was only a matter of time before I too succumbed to what seemed to be the end of our race. My only hope was to find some source of love, so I did the only thing I really knew how to do. I aimed the scope at some trees near our zap apple testing ground, and focused power to my horn, coursing the magic through the scope, through space, and hitting the trees with beastial magic. I could barely stand, everything grew hazy... a thousand questions rushed through my head: “Is this the end?” “Did the spell work?” “Was this all for nothing?” “Am I... for nothing?” “Does moondust taste like snow?” “Can pony pony a pony pony on the moon?” My mind slowly deteriorated... I stopped making sense, even to myself. Finally the strength of my legs gave way and I fell to the floor. At least, I think that’s what happened... everything got really dark for a while. I remember waking up in the makeshift Lunar Hospital, we never needed hospitals until the “Lunar fever.” A nurse, who from what I could tell was one of the normal moon ponies, smiled as I awoke. “Looks like my treatment worked!” she said in what seemed to be almost disbelief. “What treatment...” I said in a form of stupor as I looked around the room. My moonicorn mane and coat were a little less than colorful, and I saw that most of the unconscious changelings around me were barely keeping their shapes as well. Everypony seemed a shade of gray, and I noticed their eyes were all closed... probably to hide their natural bright blue colors. For some reason, I seemed to be the only pony who was actually getting better. I asked again louder, now that my voice was stronger... “What treatment, nurse?” The mare turned, “Oh, I’m not a nurse, the doctor is as ill as everypony else here! I was going by the Animal Enchantment Wing and saw your collapsed body, so I brought you here! The nurses were too busy, so I kinda took matters into my own hooves...” “What did you do to me??” “I just... set you down in the bed, covered you with the blanket and fed you some jam from my rations...” Of course! This pony cared about my well-being... it’s the same feeling that must be keeping the other changelings alive! “That must be some pretty good jam! Maybe you should try your treatment on the others... Nightmare will need all the soldiers in fighting condition!” “Yeah... yeah! The jam... sure.” The pony seemed a little scared, despite my recovery. I wanted to ask how long I had been out, but I was wasting time as it was, so I prodded the pony along with my horn, and snuck outside while her back was turned. I made my way back to the Animal Enchantment Wing, I had to know if the spell had worked. If it had, it would explain a lot. If it hadn’t... well, I shouldn’t even be alive. The good thing about having a city wide epidemic is no one wants to stick around a quarantine area. I shed my pony form to conserve energy and galloped straight to the scope. Sure enough, the spell worked. Timberwolves, dozens of them, howling with the love of animated life--straight to Palomoono. I galloped to the edge of the quarantine zone. Seeing the end, I donned my moonicorn form once more. I guessed Nightmare must have really needed the Stardust Reactor working at full capacity if it was spared the quarantine. I trotted in and absorbed the extra love energy from the stars. I felt the energy hit me somewhat like a sugar rush. I galloped for the reactor and used my extra power as a shield. It enveloped the surface of the moon, replacing the image of Palomoono with the brightest of whites. I collapsed yet again from exhaustion, but I stayed awake this time. I saw the Lunar Guards approach and I felt them lift me up off the floor, and carry me to the throne room. I knew what was coming, but I didn’t care. My people would live on... with or without me. Chapter 5: The Great Fall of the Lunar Kingdom Little did I realize that I had inadvertently set in motion the events that would lead to Nightmare Moon’s downfall. The howling of the timberwolves had attracted the attention of the other monsters of Everfree, leaving a gap in its defense. The Solar Guard moved in and reclaimed the Elements of Harmony--along with a mysterious statue--and returned them to the Princess of the Day. I was thrown to the floor of the throne room. I weakly dared to look up to the face of Nightmare Moon, who explained the consequences of my blatant disobedience. I explained that I had shrouded Palomoono in an invisibility spell, and that the Elements could not work without a target. I had gotten us into this mess, and I got us out of it just the same. But Nightmare would not listen to reason, she refused to believe that any proclamation she could make was wrong, and that I was to undo the spell I had cast, or be executed. Unfortunately the spell I had cast was attached to the reactor itself, not me. As long as the reactor was harvesting stardust, the shield would exist. Nightmare decreed the Stardust Reactor to be shut down immediately. “NO! My ponies will all die!” escaped my moonicorn snout in panic... “I mean... without the magic power we take from the stars, the Lunar Guard will lose its strength. This could forfeit the war to the Solar kingdom!” Nightmare Moon turned to me, “WE DO NOT FEAR THE SOLAR KINGDOM, AND IF YOU WERE TRULY A DEVOTED SUBJECT, YOU SHALT FEAR ME MANY TIMES MORE THAN YOU HATH FEARED OUR LOATHSOME SISTER!” turning to the guard now... “WE ORDERED THE REACTOR SHUT DOWN, DOTH THOU DARE TOO TO DISOBEY US?” “no... ma'am...” the Lunar Guards galloped out of the room. “WE WILL LEAD THE CHARGE ON THIS SOLAR KINGDOM, AND WE OURSELVES WILL STRIKE DOWN OUR SISTER! THE NIGHT WILL FINALLY LAST FOREVER!!!” Nightmare Moon never stood a chance. The two armies did clash, but there were no changelings on the battlefront. Only a few hundred Lunar Guard versus a few thousand Solar Guard (many of which were probably changelings) and the fight was over within a matter of minutes. The Lunar Princess charged the Solar castle of Canterlot, only to be struck down by her sister. I watched from the telescope as Celestia unleashed the powers of the Elements. Nightmare Moon and what was left of her ponies hurdled towards us in a great ray of light. The impact on the moon struck too close to Palomoono, and the stars in the reactor had to be ejected, lest they swell and burn up the city. With Nightmare’s power spent, she ordered the Stardust Reactor be brought back online. Estimates looked sketchy, and in order to find good stars, we would have to focus our magic to lasso some nearby stars and pull them close enough to use. The moonicorn scientists did some calculations: about 500 Lunar years, which comes out to be 1000 years in Solar time. Until then we were trapped. Locked away and imprisoned in our own Moon. Chapter 6: The Return of Luna Come on, you ponies! You’re smart! Do the math! You know that we did kick on the reactor, which is why the mysterious “Mare in the Moon” shape that was actually our entire kingdom disappeared. Nightmare Moon left us in Palomoono with one purpose: “RESTRAIN OUR SISTER, AS WE BEGIN THE ENDLESS NIGHT!” Seriously though, would it kill her to lower the volume? Ugh... no you stupid... don’t write ugh... my gosh you just keep doing it... BUT I DIGRESS. You know this getting published in the famous Canterlot archives, right? Okay where were we... oh, right! Well after the dark power was stripped from Luna, Celestia kinda overpowered the Reactor and made her escape as we were blinded. She took that chance to reorient our moon to make way for her sun. Upon the next lunar cycle, Luna returned to us. She seemed much more nice, but we are comparing her to a dark, evil mare here. She seemed to actually care about us as her subjects now, and living so close to her allowed us to feed off her care for us. We grew stronger overall, but we were still relatively weak. Soon, Nightmare Night came and one of my friends, a changeling in the form of a moon pony, went to Nightma--I mean, Luna to ask her if she could help the earth ponies see that the moon was to be loved and adored, not feared. She agreed and gladly obliged. She returned to us before reorienting the moon. Something happened down there, because suddenly she talked in a common pony’s voice. She stopped using the royal we and everything. It was great to have a real ruler around here, somepony who cared about her subjects and could empower them. One thing that truly made me revere Luna as a true leader was her loyalty... she was promised a seat at the throne of equal power down on Equestria, yet she chose to come back to Palomoono and care for us instead. Chapter 7: The Return of Discord With the fall of Nightmare Moon and the return of Luna, everything got much more ethical. Our Stardust Reactor empowers us, but all extra power is returned to create dazzling displays of interstellar beauty. Shooting stars, distant galaxies that seem to swirl, comets and meteor showers... this universe is truly amazing. I went to my telescope in the Animal Enchantment Wing--which was now tasked with restraining monsters and helping the innocent creatures--and noticed something was amiss. The beautiful landscape of Equestria below was stained with unnatural colors and forms. My mind went back to the tales my parents used to tell me... of the evil spirit that once controlled our family: Discord. Somehow, he must have escaped his stone prison. I rushed to the throne room, for Luna needed to be notified immediately! I galloped to those great doors, all I could think about was Discord, and as they opened before me, I was almost blinded by the light. Celestia stood before me and I fell to my four knees, “What business do you have here?” she said, in a melodious voice I had never heard before. My voice was a bit less than strong, “umm... I noticed some... anomalies... on the surface of Equestria... it looks like...uh, it could be... serious...? I just thought... uh... Luna should know... there must be something wrong...” I opened my eyes slowly, still adjusting to the light, and Celestia looked down at me, smiling. As my eyes finally began to adjust, I could finally begin to make out her mouth moving... “Yes. There is trouble in Equestria. A long-defeated foe of ours has returned, and Luna offered to allow me to stay here until it passes.” This confused me, as Discord was said to be ruthless, all-knowing, and seemingly omnipresent. He was only defeated by the princesses using the greatest magic known to ponydom. But why would both Luna AND Celestia be sitting this one out? All the evidence pointed to Discord, but none of these events were making any sense. Then again, my parents said that Discord was the Spirit of Chaos, and events surrounding him never seemed to make sense. They said that a lot, actually. I wanted to just leave, but as a changeling, my greatest fears were coming true: Discord could easily remove our false forms and expose us for what we are. Whatever happens after that could not be worse than asking a relatively simple question. I dared to question the authority: “Your highness, what good comes from hiding from this foe? Shouldn’t you be down there fighting to defend your subjects? Don’t you think they’ll--” Celestia raised her hoof to silence me, “I understand your concern for your fellow ponies...” the irony made me laugh a little on the inside and I began to smile, luckily she took that as acknowledgement that she was right... “but you must understand that this is not our fight any longer. This foe can only be defeated by heroes chosen by destiny. There are six Equestrian ponies who shall stand together and banish the chaos that is consuming everything!” There was no doubt in my mind now... Celestia herself said it was chaos, and only Discord would be able to scare her away. The Elements of Harmony must have split ignto six shards over the course of their thousand years, and fallen into the hooves of whoever these six Equestrian ponies are. Chapter 8: From Dust to Dust I left the throne room to return to my telescope. I was scared, but I was sure that Palomoono would be the safest place to be in this situation. Especially considering that the princesses themselves were taking shelter here! As I reassured myself that everything was going to be alright, I noticed a group of five changelings in moon pegasus forms inside the Reactor room. Their bat-like wings cast large shadows across the floor. I wondered why they were pegasi, because usually pegasi forms are only used... on international travel. I casually trotted in behind them and asked what they were doing. They recognized me, just as I had recognized them, as a fellow changeling and carefully, quietly informed me of their plan. Their main objective would be the destruction of Equestria, then Palomoono. They would join Discord as their parents had. Like mine had. They claimed that it was the right thing to do... “for all of our parents, who died on this forsaken rock from the Lunar fever!” I knew exactly what had caused the Lunar fever, but the cure was given to zap apple jam, and telling the truth was too risky. I simply asked the five pegasi to abandon their foolish mission. Discord would only use them, if not destroy their lives. They refused to listen to reason and insisted that I NOT come along. They didn’t want to approach Discord with an “infidel” in their ranks. I confronted the leader, snout to snout, “Are you really willing to throw your life away, Night Jumper?” Night Jumper’s eyes shifted out of mine and to the floor, then closed. Then I noticed the black horn coming out of her mane. With bright blue changeling eyes staring into my pony eyes... “Are YOU willing to throw YOUR life away, Shadow Beast?” she leaned closer, lowering the volume of her voice even more, “With one... simple... spell, I could unmask you. In front of all these Lunar Guards, you would be exposed.” The horn disappeared and she shoved herself into me, practically screaming into my moonicorn ear, “SO STAY OUT OF OUR WAY YOU STUPID MAGIC-WIELDING DRONE!” With an extra shove to throw me to the ground, the five changelings, now fully charged, galloped over me without hurting me and disappeared through the corridors. As I lay there on the Reactor’s floor, all the workers and security looking at me, my ear still ringing in my head, all I could do was feel sorry for those five fools. They did not realize that all I was doing was trying to save them; and I still wasn’t finished! I got myself up, everypony in the room still somewhat shocked at the spectacle, and galloped outside and through the corridors to find my telescope in the Animal Care Wing. Sure enough, I got to see the five already in flight, already about to land in the chaos that was once known as Equestria. To be more exact, they were right above Canterlot. What happened next was exactly as I had feared. Through my scope, I found the five attempting to give themselves over to Discord. They even shed their moon pegasus forms as a sign of allegiance. As I feared, Discord did not care about them at all. All he ever loved was chaos, and seeing these five creatures get submerged in it did not seem very appealing to him for some reason. Maybe regular ponies were more “fun?” Who could know, but Discord managed to trick the five changelings into a suicide mission. They were to spread his chaos to Palomoono. I could tell because not only did he point very vaguely in my general direction, but the foolish changelings actually attempted to fly back here, without any magical assistance beyond their simple moon pegasus forms. Then a thought occurred to me: “What if they aren’t on a mission? What if they are running away? What if Discord just turned and told them to get lost!?” I stood there, just watching... unsure what to do. Finally, I made the most logical choice: help only one of them make it back here. So I fixed my scope on Night Jumper and inserted my horn into the telescope. My extra power from laying in the Reactor room escaped through my horn and made it to Night Jumper’s wings... but too late. The five were already falling back towards the harsh, and very hard surface of Equestria. My spell did make contact with Night Jumper, who instinctively opened her wings immediately, saving her life. The others were not as lucky. Four broken changelings lay across the ground, burning back to their true forms... then to dust. Night Jumper could barely stand, she looked back up at the moon, unsure of what to do next. From the look in her eyes, I assume that she landed on her head... as she approached the nearest pony town, inhabited by earth ponies, she attempted to take an earth pony form. Despite this form being very easy, her changeling mind must have been rattled too hard, and she could not maintain a truly good form. Her new form had a very curly, purple and white mane, covered partly by a propeller beanie that one of the young colts was wearing just down the street. Her new pink coat made it easy to track her as she entered the town. She took one last glance back at the moon, allowing me to make out her new eye color. It was as purple as her mane, swirling infinitely in a dizzying way that made even me lightheaded. When I finally got the nerve to look back through the scope, I saw her floating through the air with her propeller carrying her around. I also saw her new cutie mark and then there was no doubt that she had lost it. She was a screwball now. I had to sit down. I couldn’t help but feel guilty for the downfall of this changeling. She was a manager, of what I never really cared about, but she would definitely be missed. I wondered what the hierarchy would do about replacing her, but then I remembered my job. It was necessary to continue working as part of the Palomoono community. My loyalty got my work done, my work earned their respect, and that respect may be the only thing keeping a changeling like me alive. “Loyalty requires sacrifice,” I said to myself, believing that this would all work out on its own. But I did not realize just how true that statement was, until the hierarchy worked everything out. Chapter 9: Moon to Sun, Sun to Moon A lunar cycle passed and I was at my station as always. I was so busy trying to track down that troublesome cockatrice that I didn’t even hear them enter. A deep voice from behind scared me and I bumped the scope with my head so hard that it lost its orientation. I almost had that chicken-lizard too... but when I turned around I forgot all about my telescope as there were two Lunar guards in my doorway who were now looking me in the eye. “Well?...” one officer asked. “What?” “We just asked you... are you Shadow Beast?” “...yes. What do you need?” “You. The great princess Luna and her sister would like a word with you.” With that, the guards took me to the throne room. The doors opened and, much to my surprise, it was princess Luna awaiting me. As I trotted closer, I noticed the Solar princess on the far side of the room, apparently mailing some letters. I couldn’t believe it. First she leaves her people down there to suffer by Discord’s hoof, or claw as it were, and then she updates them by mail?! I was just glad that Luna would never be so insensitive. Speaking of Luna, I was now right in front of her. I bowed down as customs state I should. “Arise, Shadow Beast.” Luna said, sternly. I could tell this would not be a very pleasant chat. I arose and lifted my head into her eyes, beautiful yet strangely foreboding--just like the night itself. “We have a few questions to ask of you.” “We?” I interjected... “My sister and I.” Luna quickly responded, her voice still stern. “What do you want to know? Current news of the chaos in Equestria? I’m sorry but I’ve been a bit busy hunting down a cockatrice to--” “SILENCE!” Luna shouted at me. She was clearly upset, but I hadn’t a clue why. “We just want to know about one of your fellow...” my heart skipped a beat, “...moon ponies.” I had to catch my breath for a second there, then I began to understand what would be asked of me. “I don’t know many of my ‘fellow moon ponies,’ my department deals internationally... with animals.” “You knew THIS one, she was the manager of your ‘department.’” Immediately my mind rushed back to the memories of her. Everything was making much more sense now. None of it looked good, though. “Night Jumper?” I decided to play dumb... “I haven’t seen her in at least a full cycle.” “Of course you haven’t. She’s gone. She disappeared, and so did a few of our other managers. However, everypony we’ve interviewed so far have testified that you had a bit of a ‘conflict’ with her the last time she was seen.” “Oh yeah... that. I guess we did have a... bit of a... disagreement... but... but I can explain! You see, Night Jumper and her friends were forming a group to go down and try to... help... the earth ponies.” “So what you are telling me is that five of our managers abandoned their own stations, leaving all of their duties behind, just to fight a war in which they had no place?!” “Yes, but... it gets worse. Dis... This monster...” I almost said his name, that would have been bad, “...I-I don’t know what it was, but it found them and the next thing I knew... they were... dead.” I couldn’t even look Princess Luna in the eye when I had to break that news to her. As I raised my head to at least try to act sincere, I noticed that not just Luna, but both princesses were now staring at me with a look of horror on their faces. “I... I tried to stop them! I tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn’t listen! They threw me to the ground and galloped out of the reactor room so I wouldn’t interfere! By the time I got to my telescope, it was too late.” I had to catch my breath, my heart was racing as the realization hit me that, by the looks on their faces, the argument was not what was bothering them. The Solar princess slowly returned to mailing the last few letters. My eyes returned to Luna, who still appeared shocked at what had happened. “I’m sorry, I should have tried harder...” Luna looked at me, she appeared a bit more calm but she attempted to hide her emotions with a smile, then she began to speak. “It’s alright. We know... you tried your best to stop them. It’s just... we had not expected Discord, the monster you saw, to kill Night Jumper and her friends. It’s not like him. He’s much more... indirect. Chaotic, to be more specific.” I did not need a lecture on how Discord handled interlopers, after hearing my parents’ stories, and witnessing Night Jumper’s descent into madness... I knew that Luna needed the whole truth as much as I did. “Discord... didn’t kill them directly.” I had to choose my words very, VERY carefully here... “Night Jumper and her friends... did not leave us to help Equestria. They left to help Discord. I’m not sure if Discord accepted their help or not, telescopes aren’t known for helping with sound, but I do know that they tried to come back here after talking with him. Unfortunately, they did not have enough energy to make it all the way ba--” “Hold on,” Celestia said. The missing letters implied she had just finished mailing the last one while I was talking. “Are you saying that Night Jumper could have given Discord our location?” I had never thought of that... if Discord is as powerful as the princesses and my parents had said, then he could easily make his way up here. His presence on the moon would unmask every changeling and true chaos would lead to the end of us all. Worst of all, he would be away from Equestria and the six ponies who Celestia claims hold the keys to defeating Discord. I was spacing out contemplating all of this new information, but meanwhile, Celestia and Luna were whispering to each other. They finished and turned to me, “Do not worry, Shadow Beast, your home will be safe,” Celestia said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Discord has been constantly speeding up and slowing down the Lunar cycles. This will allow us to not only keep up with the events down on Equestria, but also to evade Discord and stay safe. Now, I think you’ve been through enough for one day. Please go home, and get some rest.” “I can’t... I just... I need to do my job, your highness. I just won’t feel right if I don’t meet my daily quotas.” I was sick of lies, but I still needed Celestia to understand why I must work, without knowing the true reason behind it. “Don’t you think you could make an exception?” Luna asked me, “We are in a time of great conflict. I know you want to work, but with the constant reorientations, you won’t be very efficient.” A large frown dragged my pony face down to the floor. If Luna herself did not want me to work, then there was really no point in arguing. “Don’t you think you could make an exception, sister?” Celestia asked Luna. “This unicorn just wants to help...” she turned to me, “Why don’t you sneak in a few extra nap times, and keep us posted on what is happening down in Equestria.” I was amazed that Celestia would stand up for me, but I had to remain loyal to Luna. “It’s alright. If Luna thinks that my work would be pointless, then there will be no point in doing it.” Luna smiled at me, I could feel she was proud of me, and that would give me plenty more energy than any common work. Chapter 10: From Stone to Stone I stopped counting the lunar cycles. Now it’s just chaos. There is no time, no work... just laying around and taking the occasional peek through my telescope. A lot of the other changelings are starting to feel the pain, too. We’ve began flocking regularly to the Stardust Reactor. We claim that watching the stars burn is therapeutic, but all we really want is the love that comes from... well, that’s just it. With chaos reigning down below in Equestria, a few more cases of Lunar fever have been reported. Luckily, no one has had to die, since the nurses are caring for the sick and hoof-feeding them. No fatalities so far, but the reactor gets more and more crowded as the regular moon ponies attempt to find out what is so amazing. I couldn’t take the crowds, so despite probably dooming myself, I dared to go to my telescope to see if Equestria was around. Sure enough, there it was. I looked through the telescope and found that the chaos seemed to be swirling around a point on the surface. I zoomed in closer to recognize the earth pony town that Night--I mean, Screwball, had disappeared into. Everything was all the wrong color, there were floating buildings and everypony seemed to be suffering. Then I saw Discord, who seemed to be facing off against five ponies and a baby dragon. Could these be the saviors of Equestria? Four of the ponies were gray, and their leader and dragon appeared to be shades of purple. They attempted to use some powerful magic, but the spell failed half-way through. At first I thought I should report this, but there was no point. Nothing could be done, especially since I already felt my pony legs starting to weaken. I had to sit down. Some more lunar cycles passed, or maybe the “fever” was causing me to become lightheaded. No matter the reason something caught my eye as I looked through my scope. There was a tree inside the town, but upon further inspection, it was a library. My expertise of using my scope to look through the trees of Everfree had allowed me to see the many rooms of this library. Through the leaves of a tree, I could see the dragon. More than that, I saw the letters Celestia had sent many cycles ago. I knew it took a lot of strength for a pegasus to go between our nations, but I had no idea that letters took this long. Then I made out a bed and realized this was not just a library, but somepony’s home! Sure enough, a gray pony walked in wearing a crown. As she used her magic to lift it off of her head I realized it was the leader of the six Equestrians. I saw her throw her crown away and realized that she too had given up. But then she began reading her mail, and her coat turned back to the purple I remembered. She disappeared soon afterwards, and I left my telescope to go tell Celestia the good news. At a weak, slow pace I made my way down the corridors of the Palomoono facility and made my way to the throne room. There were no Lunar guards outside the door, which worried me until I realized that almost everypony was in the reactor room. I casually trotted inside, and saw Celestia and Luna in the middle of a conversation with the captain of the Lunar guard. I patiently awaited my turn. Suddenly, energy returned to my body and I lifted my head to see Luna smiling at me. She motioned for me to step forward. I approached the three ponies and explained that I had located the six Equestrians with the help of my telescope. I turned to Celestia and told her that the letters she had sent arrived just in time. “Discord turned their leader, the purple pony, gray... but when she read your letters, her colors returned to her!” Princess Celestia seemed happy to hear this, when a bright light caught our eye from above. Through the transparent ceiling of the throne room we could lights breaking through the chaos. With a special spell, Luna manipulated the view above and it zoomed in toward the chaos, which was now being contained in a large bubble. What appeared to be a massive explosion didn’t hit our ears for almost a quarter of a regular Lunar cycle. The chaos in Equestria was gone, and as the deafening sound of the explosion hit our ears, we were not filled with fright, but a kind of wonder and amazement. It didn’t sound like a weapon at all, but it certainly took care of Discord who appeared to have been once again turned back to stone. With the confirmation, Celestia returned to Equestria to celebrate with her subjects the true strength of those six ponies. As she took flight, I wondered just how many changelings were alive down there in Equestria now. I could not possibly know, since changelings can only detect each other by scent and not sight, but the answer to my question would still be answered. Soon changelings would become a household name. It would not be long before my loyalty would truly be put to the test. A thousand voices will cry out, and not a single one will be heard.