//------------------------------// // The beginning of the end // Story: Unexpected changeling // by The ancient one //------------------------------// The sound and feeling of fists and shoes making their way onto my face. The last memories of the world I called "Earth".  Let me explain a bit of what happened before we get too deep, my name is Ian. I had been bullied, again, for the third time that day. There were three students who abused me on and off school grounds. A portly one, a skinny kid, and one who genuinely seemed to want to kill me. Why they beat me up I never understood, they didn't even go to the same school but were always able to sneak on, find me and well...you get it. This was part of my morning routine. Wake up, tell the sun how much I despised it, walk to school, get beat up at school, go to lunch, get beat up at lunch, walk home and get beat up on the way. On weekends it was pretty much the same, except they stalked me and beat me at whatever location I was heading to. Honestly the only thing that keeps me going is watching this cute little show. What was it called? "My licking foamy"? No that can't be it. "Tie sticking tony"? No wait...  that's right "My Little Pony: Friendship is magic"! I do so enjoy the show, but unfortunately I wouldn't be watching it today, as my eyes had swelled shut and I was beginning to lose consciousness in the middle of the side-walk. I lifted my arm into the air, flipped them the bird and then...darkness. -------- "Please, I know what they've done, but he's different!" I heard a voice cry out urgently. Female...scared, frail...sad. "I understand your plight but we cannot take it!" A rough male voice replied as a sharp thud pierced my ears. "But you have to! I-I can't take care of him anymore! Please for the love of-" "Don't you dare say her name while holding THAT in-front of me." The male cut her off, he sounded angry, threatening even. I kept my eyes closed so I wouldn't get involved...what? I had gotten beaten up three times today already, I don't need a fourth. "Please!" The woman began to wail repeatedly, but each time was met with an equally harsh "NO". Then she began to scream bloody murder. "CELESTIA! CELESTIA PLEASE HELP ME! I BEG OF YOU!"  The guard replied in a scream, a strange mix of fury and...fear? "BLASTED MARE!" His breathing became so heavy that even I, a half conscious 17 year old, could hear it. Man this guy was so scared that...did she say "Celestia"?  Then it happened, a light blinding as the sun broke forth through the darkness of my eyelids and a new voice came too. Calm, kind, loving..."My dear, whatever is the matter? Why are you crying?" She gently said to the woman who could barely maintain her voice "I-I- My princess! I-" She stopped herself and tried to calm down. "My princess, this child. I have been taking care of him for for the month, but I cannot support him anymore. The looks I get from others, the things they say it’s," she sobbed a bit. "It's all too much my princess." Hearing all this I began to wonder if I had fallen "asleep" before some sort of LARP field or something. "Before I give an answer I must know a few things. First of all, what is your name? Second, where did you find him? And third, and the most pressing, why me?" said the calm and collected voice, and all the questions this woman asked, the other answered. "My name is Gemstone, your highness! And I found him weeks after the attack, in a broken down house, there was rubble everywhere. He was crying, alone, and I didn't have the heart to leave him there so I began taking care of him. I can only assume he had been freshly hatched. And the reason I chose you princess is because out of everypony else, you're the ONLY one I know who could look past what he is and love him. Please, look at him, he's no threat to anypony!" Hmm...strange. I feel like I'm being lifted, probably moving me out the way for this crap. I mean "Everypony"? "Princess Celestia"? "Mare"? Really? I like MLP but pretending to be the characters? Of all the places I could end up knocked out, I end up HERE! I opened my eyes to get a good look at the people around me, but instead of people in MLP themed costumes...standing before me was the REAL Princess Celestia! I stared for a moment and a single thought crossed my mind, "DON'T RAPE ME!" my mouth dropped. The princess looked me over, her eyes piercing every part of my body. I didn't like it, it felt as if I was on roll call for execution. I watched carefully so she couldn't get the drop on me if she wanted to do anything sneaky. I then began to notice, I was floating. Bloody hell that's awesome! If I survived I had to remember that sensation. "I'll take him," she said "but if anything happens to make me regret this decision, I WILL hold you responsible," she turned to the guard lowering her voice "Understood?" The guard gulped, the quaky mare nodded her head in excitement and thanked the Princess, then stuck her tongue out at the guard and ran off. "I must be dreaming." I thought as THE Princess Celestia carried me off inside the castle, that yellow glow surrounding me as I float through the air. I looked around, panned glass painted by what I could only assume to be a master, beautiful tapestry showing the sun and the moon, floors that seemed to be made of a type of crystal or glass. I enjoyed the sight of it all. Then I saw a throne, gold, the ground curved to stand above the rest of the floor, surrounded what looked like fountains on each side. It was all so beautiful.  As I admired the place, the alicorn had sat me down in the chair and began eyeballing me again, as if not sure she made the right choice. Her horn began to glow yellow and I realized it, this crazy horse is going to kill me. The yellow light grew on her horn, then streamed out and struck me in the chest. "This is it isn't it? My life is over. I'm dead! I'M DEAD! I'M-" *Snore* -------- I slowly opened my eyes to be greeted by the rising sun, I remembered everything that had transpired and did I ever smile with glee, it was a dream, thank goodness. I began my day as usual, "Hello sun, I hate you!" I rubbed my eyes with my hooves and remembered today was sunday and i needed to take...the...trash....out....HOOVES!? "That's not right, humans have hands, not hooves. The dream I had last night couldn't be real!" I panicked and looked around. There were wooden bars around me and toys. I noticed a conveniently placed mirror beside me. I shuddered to thinking about what I looked like now, but I had no choice. I looked into the mirror and saw myself..."I'm a changeling...a....baby changeling". This was something I had not expected, and like any rational person I cried out furiously in rejection of this new reality. I shook my head and closed my eyes.  "I'm going to count to ten and when I open my eyes, I will be human again. AM I UNDERSTOOD UNIVERSE!?" I began my count...1...2...3...4...I felt strange, like I did last night. I opened my eyes prematurely to see myself floating infront of Celestia once more. I wasn't scared this time, I was angry, rage filled every fiber of my being. I pointed my hoof at her and said "LISTEN YOU! IF YOU DON'T TURN ME BACK INTO A HUMAN RIGHT NOW I'M GONNA TAKE MY FOOT er...HOOF! AND SHOVE IT SO FAR UP YOUR FAT FLANK-" Celestia cut me off, "You're so adorable. Who’s a cute little changeling? You are! Yes you are!" My expression went blank. Was this woman cooing at me? After all I had said? I grinned at what had just smacked me across the face. I'm the only one who can understand me, no matter what I say or who I say it to, to them it only comes off as adorable baby gibberish. What they don't know, won't hurt them right? I don't need to be nice at all, I can be as crude and nasty as I wanted to and they would never notice! This may not be so bad. "Lulu would you come here please," Celestia called to her sister, who despised sunlight almost as much as I did. "I want you to come see our son." she continued as she began walking to her bed chambers.  "I apologize dear sister. I didn't hear you, it sounded like you said our..." she stopped as she stared at me. A multiple of blades came to my throat in the fraction of a second I had known her, covered in a glowing blue aura. "I shall kill you", they became inflamed, "with fire". "That joke isn't even funny in my world. What's next? A Leeroy Jenkins reference?" I looked to the side thinking to myself. "Lulu, stop. He's our new son, I adopted him last night." Celestia said, calmly lowering the flaming weaponry her sister had floating around me, with her own magic. Lunas eyes didn't seem to like this, they squinted and twitched with every second they looked at me.  "Oh I'm going to make your life a living hell for that!" I spoke to her.  "I think he likes you!" Celestia exclaimed. Luna stepped back a bit, unsure of trusting me. She really shouldn't have in all honesty. She raised her hooves and held me "Hey hooves off! I've seen the pics, I know what you've done with your sister!"  I scream angrily at her. Which I guess to her ears sounded like I was giving affection. She began hugging me while cooing in that same irritating tone as her sister.  "Target locked" passed through my mind. I raised my hoof and slammed it into her face as hard as I could, again and again and again! I laughed with excitement of the pure power I could feel myself dishing out upon her! My righteous fury knew no bounds! However...my strikes came out as nothing more than light taps. I pushed on though, trying harder and harder until..."It" happened. The diaper I was wearing, became heavy and...warm, I knew it could only be one thing. I cried. Luna noticed and her face curled with the scent she had picked up. "GUARDS! GUARDS!" She screamed using her classic royal canterlot voice. Funny, it didn't break your eardrums when it came out of the TV. Two guards, one a white coat the other grey, stormed in and I was quickly tossed to them. Literally. She TOSSED me, to them. If I could still flip the bird...anyway, the white coated guard caught me in his teeth. And I kinda feel sorry for him for this, but because he was unaware of what had happened, his mouth grabbed a bit too much of the diaper and he caught a taste of my misery.  His eyes opening larger than I had ever imagined a ponies could. He gently handed me to the other guard and walked off very composed, and soon left our sights. A few moments later you could hear him screaming in disgust. My, the pony vernacular is colorful. Luna walked up to the grey guard, "Uhh," her head still facing the way the white coated guard went, the hallways now filled with sounds of gurgling and more colorful words. "go...change the child willst thou..." "Yes your highness!" the guard said and took me through the beautiful halls, questioning why he had a changeling. He wasn't paid to think, so he said, and just kept to himself. He opened the door to the bathroom where the other guard had vanished to "OH DEAR CELESTIA I CAN STILL TASTE IT!" are the words that had greeted me. The grey guard took off my diaper and conjured another one out of thin air, quite impressive really. He took the one I had been wearing and asked his suffering friend if he wanted a second course. The white coat, of course, only screamed again. "Come on Captain, it couldn't have been that bad," the grey colt stated giggling. "now are you sure you don't want seconds? There's plenty left!" The white coat went into a stall and began hurling as much as he could to get the taste out.  The white colt, i had seen him before. Shining Armor was it? Poor dude. The grey colt began laughing. Now like I said, I felt sorry for Shining, he had no idea what was going on. So as I saw his friend laughing...my mind triggered once more. "Round two. FIGHT!"  I had "accidentally" released some liquid in his face.  "OH-OH-COME ON! REALLY!?" He roared. I smiled innocently. He changed me, as if he lightning had struck, and quickly took me back to Celestia. She looked at the two ponies who had the eyes clearly saying they wanted nothing more to do with me. "Why are you wet?" she asked politely to the grey one, as if she didn't already know. "Uhh, there was a leak in the bathroom, your highness..." he stammered. "At least you can't call him a liar" I thought to myself. And smiled as if I never had a clue. "Dear sister, what wilst thou do with him?" Luna questioned. Celestia paused for a moment. She then magically caused a pen and paper to float to her. Seriously, when do I get to do that stuff?  She began writing the letter, "Dear Twilight Sparkle, my favorite student. There has been a new edition to the royal household. I would like you to bring your friends over so that we may celebrate this new arrival. You may bring anyone you wish. Signed, Princess Celestia." The paper vanished in a flood of light. I'm guessing that's how she sends it through spike, but i'm not sure. Luna picked me up again and by this time I was kinda tired, I didn't know why as it was still early. I guess baby changelings don't stay up for too long. She held me tightly and began humming then I began to fall asleep.  "Sister, I hath no knowledge of what thou hast been thinking, but taking in the spawn of our enemies? Thy decision may not have been well made." Luna discouraged. "This creature’s purpose is surely destruction of thine throne. We must make haste and rid it from the kingdom before it is too late." I cracked open my eyes a small bit to see what was going on. Celestia peered at me once more, but this time her gaze was more relaxed. I didn't know what that meant. "You are right Luna, this child is dangerous", She turned from luna to walk through the hallway. She gestured her head telling Luna to come along, who followed without question. "Changelings feed on love and what more love could a changeling get if it were being raised by a good family?" Luna raised a brow, she began probing for information "What are thou planning, Tia? Ye have always had a knack for knowing things and not telling me" Celestia looked to her sister and said "Come to the welcoming party, it'll be held in the gardens." Completely ignoring her sister’s question. I couldn't stay awake any longer, and I fell asleep. -------- "WELCOME TO YOUR NEW HOME BABY!" My eyes burst open, wandering around to find out what the hell just shouted into my ears and woke me. It was Pinkie pie. Of course, she invited them into the castle to meet me. They were all there, Spike, Big mac, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. They had even brought the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Celestia picked me up with her magic, again, I honestly felt tired of being picked up. She began speaking to them about how she met me and why she felt it was a safe idea. "Princess, what have you named him?" Sweetiebelle asked with zeal, popping up and down like a firecracker. Celestia looked at me and pondered what she would call me. Her eyes zooming in closer into my face. Really, has she never heard of personal space? "I shall name him, Shifting Sands, in favor of his changeling nature." She smiled at me as the ponies began talking among themselves. I didn't pay attention really, looked around to see that I was in the garden, hedge mazes, the statue of discord, it was prettier in person than on a screen. I was plucked out of the air by a red pony, the one named Big Macintosh.  "Hooves off! I've read the fics I know what you've done...with spike." I said to him then snarled at him, he smiled as if it was a game. I understand I couldn't be understood verbally, but did they even attempt to look at the facial expressions I was making? He passed me off to twilight sparkle, who gave me a stern look. "Ah that's right, changelings affected her the most out of any other pony in the show. Of course she would like me the least. Speaking of which, am I in the fannon or cannon universe?" I muttered to myself. "Hey Rainbow Dash, come over to my house tomorrow, I need you to help me make the secret ingredient for my special cupcakes!" Pinkie pie squealed.  "Guess that question is answered", I said with a slight giggle. I closed my eyes again. They began passing me around, each pony cooing at me again and again, honestly I hated it. I really did. "Put me down..." I said hoping for some miracle understanding as I was passed to Pinkie Pie. "Put me down!" I shouted at them. They continued, and passed me to applejack. The kinder they were to me the angrier I got, I couldn't stop getting angry for some reason. Then they passed me to Fluttershy, who already looked worried. "PUT. ME. DOWN!" I screamed at the top of my baby lungs as a blast of giant green energy radiated from my tiny horn straight into the sky. I felt better, dizzy, but better. Everypony looked to each other, they set me on the ground and looked at me, their eyes gave off glints of disappointment and anger. I didn't like that...it was the same look those bullies gave me. I looked around and all I could see were those eyes, those angry, angry eyes. It was an accident, why were they so angry? Nopony got hurt, right?  "Stop staring at me...Leave me alone!" I cried out to them, but to no avail, their glares got sharper, especially Twilights. "Stop it, leave me alone! STOP!" I screamed in a wretched voice. The sound of a hoof hitting the ground had been made, and very loudly. "ENOUGH! It seems I made a mistake in accepting this rotten beast!" Celestia's horn began to glow intensely, more so than the first time I'd seen it. "I will destroy this creature and return balance to my kingdom" My eyes widened. I was terrified. I closed my eyes tightly and prepared for my fate as my tears streamed down my face. Instead of a blast from a magical beam, I felt a hug, it was Celestia. She was holding me and gently rocking me. "It's ok, my little pony, there's no need to be scared," she whispered gently into my ears, calming me. "Nopony is going to hurt you." I looked her in the eyes as she said those words to me. I felt a warmth that had not existed since my own mother died… "I promise." She said as she wiped the tears from my eyes. I looked around to see that the stern look on Twilight’s face had disappeared. The looks of anger had vanished from all their faces, replaced with looks of concern. "What was all of that? I felt so scared…" the tears began to come back to my eyes and I cried into Celestia's neck. I was happy she was there. "Thank you Mom...I was so scared...thank you!" I said trying not to cry but still failing miserably. I don't know why i had called her that, maybe my emotions had gotten the better of me. "You're welcome my son" she responded. "Lucky guess" popped into my mind, there's no way she could understand me. Whatever that was though, that...hallucination, that vision...no, that nightmare or whatever "it" was, I never wanted it to happen again. I believed it would never happen again. But something deep inside me said that was just wishful thinking.  "Tia, I knew thy decision were improper" She whispered, "That beam was powerful, too powerful. Release the child, tis the only thing to do before it is too late." She urged her sister. Celestia completely ignored her, and only began comforting me again. At least I knew the beam part was real.  "The guest of honor seems to be tired." She said with that same motherly warmth as before, "Luna, would you be so kind as to lay him down in his crib?"  Maybe she really was rethinking her choice to take me in.  Luna picked me up with her magic, spinning me around into different positions, being careful my horn did not aim at her. She stopped for a moment, her gaze shifting about her head before slowly turning.  "Where is the crib again, Tia?" She asked sheepishly. She put on a sneer and uttered the curse, "In your room, that's where he'll be sleeping for now." Jaw dropped, eyes bucked. Yep, that pretty much describes Luna’s face upon hearing that.  "I believe you two are going to have a good time together", Celestia said with a sarcastic smile.  "Oh yes this will be the start of a beautiful friendship", Luna grunted at me, gnashing her teeth.