After I woke up I found it was mid-day and my cellmates were gone, probably in their trial already. I sat up and felt a strange chill come through my body after doing so. I heard the door open and saw a guard come in with some handcuffs in his magic aura.
"Time for your trial," he said carelessly. I nodded and let him put the cuffs on before being led to the throne room. When we got there it turned out that at least twenty-five ponies came to see the trial, including the Mane Six and the princesses of day and night.
"We are here for the trial of a changeling queen named Shade," started Celestia.
"Her crimes are for the destruction of property, impersonating a pony, and for assault. What is your claim?" Luna asked.
I rolled my eyes and said, "Not guilty for impersonation and assault. Destruction of property is a different story.”
Celestia then gave a signal to the guard next to me, he took the necklace off and conjured chains to keep me in place. ”Your memories will now be seen by us. There will be no secrets after this,” exclaimed Celestia before she, and Luna, blasted me with a spell.
Next thing I know, I'm feeling large amounts of pain in my head and a holographic screen appeared above me. It showed my earliest memory of this world and reviewed everything that happened in my perspective until I was put in my cell.
After it was over Luna observed that the pony I ’impersonated’ was, in fact, not real so I was excused from that crime. It was also observed that ’Smile’ threw the first punch so I was excused from that as well.
I was still being charged for damage of property though. I had no way of arguing for that so it was left to just that. Though before the final decision of what would happen was said the world turned gray and stood still.
Starting from the walls it slowly turned black and into a void. The darkness was slowly coming to the center of the room until it stopped, a message appeared in front of me consisting of purple letters spelling out ’hope you like your second chance.’ After that, I knew nothing more than darkness.
I woke up to the sound of groaning and saw myself to be in a canyon with a giant skull towering over me, I was back where I started. I sat up before looking at where the groaning came from and saw it was me, I looked at my hand and instead of black chitin, I saw a literal piece of Luna’s night sky shaped like a hand. I moved various parts of my hand and it did the same thing.
I quickly looked at myself and found my whole body was in the same state except with a few holes here and there on my arms and legs. Even my hair was like a night sky with a hole or two, thankfully not flowing in a nonexistent wind. There was also a horn with a few holes in it, no wings. I was wearing a red short-sleeved shirt with a pair of loose jeans and some pink gloves covering my hands and wrists. I conjured a small hand mirror and found that my eyes were a deep purple with slip pupils.
The one with my old body got up and said, ”I died again, didn’t I?” She sighed and looked around until she saw me, ”Hello, my name is Snow and I’m now technically your mother.”
...
...
’Well. That’s a surprise,’ I thought in my head.
She asked for my name and I told her, ”It used to be Van but due to me being in a different body and gender I should change my name so it won’t be weird.” She agreed and asked what I would prefer. ”I would prefer Shade Tangible Nightmare but it’s your choice, you’re the mom after all.”
”We’ll just leave it as that. So, welcome to Equis, specifically the outskirts of Griffin Stone,” she sighed in slight annoyance. ”Why did that disguise have to fade? If I had just a few minutes longer I would have been fine,” she said to herself.
I cleared my throat to get her attention and said, ”Is there a place you stay by chance? I don’t exactly have anywhere to go.”
She got an annoyed look on her face before saying, ”I used to but since I was found out to be a changeling the griffons probably destroyed the place. Luckily I have a home in Canterlot we could stay in, full of mostly rich snobs but it’s better than nothing.”
I nodded and stood up shakily, chaos magic must’ve been why I could walk so easily before. I slowly took a few steps to get used to it and asked how we can get out of the canyon. ”We are going to fly out obviously, I’m too exhausted to use teleportation. Let’s start a magic lesson since you don't have wings,” was her excited response. I’m not going to enjoy this, am I?
I was right, I hated it. First I had to learn a basic levitation spell and use a more powerful version if it on myself as well as keep a shield up so I won't get ripped apart, it sounds easy but magic can only be used in a certain way depending on the user. The second was to get the hang of using it and not feel sick, or freeze up(I have a fear of heights that didn't bother me before due to my inability to die and feel fear).
Luckily it only took about an hour for it all to be over. ”Okay. Let's get going,” said ’Mother.’ I nodded and used my night sky aura to bring me up without the wind ripping me apart. It’s a rather odd experience, flying like this instead of chaos magic. You feel so much weaker like this than when using chaos.
After we got up Snow turned to face me, ”Alright. Now that we’re out of that let’s get you started on using a disguise. You have more changeling magic than I do so it’ll be easier for you.” I nodded and asked how to do it. ”Like usual magic, it depends on the user. You could do it by acting like you’re playing pretend, you are replaced by the one you’re pretending to be or something like that,” explained Snow.
I hummed and thought about what would work and got an idea. I channeled my magic into my hand and turned the green sphere into the shape of a mask before putting it on. A cloud of green smoke surrounding me later and I was a simple yellow unicorn with a brown mane/tail wearing the clothes my original form has on, my eyes too were the same but with round pupils.
”Unique,” Snow said, ”I’ve never seen someone do it like that and without green fire.” She was engulfed in green flames before coming back as a blue pegasus with a pink mane/tail wearing all grey. ”Shall we get to the train station then?” she asked with an accent similar to the one Rarity uses. I nodded and we headed off.