Days passed, but eventually, Twilight and the others had found Everchange's hiding spot, and tried to coax him into coming out.
"Everchange, come out of here right now and explain yourself!" Applejack exclaimed, obviously furious.
"You uncouth insect! I wasted some fine materials on you! I let you into my Boutique!!" Rarity exclaimed, fuming as her face went red.
"Come out now, bug boy! And you won't get decked as hard." Rainbow Dash yelled out.
"I can't believe he was a changeling the whole time, can you believe it? Because I can't, how the heck did he fool us like that for this long? I'd be impressed if I wasn't angry!" Pinkie Pie said in a quick breath, happily making a crazy smile spread across her face. Twilight tried to use her magic to cut the resin, but it was a bit thick.
"Spike, burn it down." Twilight said. A small purple dragon with green scales stepped up and breathed a green fire onto the resin, setting it ablaze as the mares looked upon the cowering and panicking stallion.
"Hey! Didn't you hear us, you changeling weirdo? Explain yourself and you won't get decked as hard, not that hard to understand." Rainbow Dash stated, still incredibly angry.
Everchange turned to look at the mares. He didn't know how he was going to get out of this, but he was going to give it his all, if it meant he at least tried to force his way through. All of a sudden, the gem started glowing yellow again, and soon encompassed the dragon, known as Spike, in a mystical yellow essence.
Twilight tried to interfere, but her magical attempts to stop the yellow energy was futile, but Everchange was familiar with what this did, and was going to use this as his advantage to make an escape.
The mystical essence dissipated and retreated into the gem, showing an icon representing a dragon. Twilight stuck her horn in Everchange's face, obviously angry if that essence leaves a nasty side effect on her dragon friend.
"What. Did you do. To Spike?!" Twilight gritted through her teeth. Everchange felt fear, but that fear was suppressed by bitterness, and as Everchange slammed his hoof on the gem again, he had become a dragon.
The dragon was arguably taller than Twilight, had brown covered in Pink scales protruding from his body, which was covered in smaller and tougher brown-ish gray scales, his eyes burning a bright and vibrant green color, black and white marks are all over the dragon's body, connecting to a white gem embedded in the dragon's chest.
Twilight and her friends backed up a bit, but Fluttershy was a bit too far back, and she nearly fell off of the edge, if it wasn't for the swift movements of the newly transformed dragon, who grabbed Fluttershy's hoof and pulled her up, only to let her go and fly off.
"Fluttershy, did he hurt you?" Rainbow Dash asked the shy and timid pegasus.
"It pulled me up." Fluttershy said quietly.
Twilight looked up and started flapping her wings, ready to go after Everchange. Twilight was blasting several magic attacks, but the dragon just instinctively countered her efforts with a swift and powerful stream of fire breath, as yellow as sun's shining light. Twilight narrowly evaded the stream of fire, but eventually stopped following him, seeing him make his way into the Everfree Forest.
"At least he won't be as much of a threat, now, he's cornered. I have to get this information to Celestia." Twilight stated, flying back to her friends.
Meanwhile, the dragon had crashed into a couple trees, slightly unnerved and a bit sore from the sudden attack.
"I can't believe things got so bad." The dragon said, his voice gruff and scratchy. The gem began to glow a red color, and suddenly shifted the dragon back into the stallion's normal form. Everchange got up and dusted himself off, and tried to keep himself calm, knowing how dangerous the Everfree forest is, he wasn't rightfully prepared to brave it, or even step out of it and back into town.
Everchange knew the truth, and couldn't bare to speak it, for fear of attracting unwanted attention. Everchange continued onwards through the brush, avoiding as many of the deadly plants nearby, as well as trying to stay out of the line of sight to hopefully avoid Timberwolves. What he didn't know though, was that three fillies were rather curious, and were hoping to explore the everfree forest together that night, and it'd be the craziest night of his life.
As Everchange steadily hops from branch to branch, he looks down, bewildered and confused as to why he sees his former employer's little sister, and two other fillies wandering around in the everfree forest, at night.
'This is not my night. First, I get chased into this place, I'm on the run, Twilight knows my secret, and now these fillies are doing something that'll get them killed?! Why can't I get a break...' Everchange thought to himself. Everchange dropped to the ground, landing in the brush as he starts picking up on the familiar smell of Timber, and several canine-like growls and snarls.
"No..... They've picked up on either my scent or theirs. Keep the fillies safe, that's what matters right now. The others can nail me to the front of the castle and starve me, but I will not let those fillies get hurt." Everchange told himself. He ran towards the fillies, and saw several Timberwolves getting closer to them. Everchange jumped out in-between the fillies and the Timberwolves, and groaned as he felt his legs sting, still feeling the impact from the crash.
"Mister Everchange?" Applebloom said confusedly. Everchange looked back to the fillies, obviously not in the best mood.
"You three, go back to the farm, Now. It's not safe here for you, go back to the farm and don't stop running, no matter what! I'll hold them back as much as I can." Everchange said firmly. Everchange had been trying to not get turned around in the Everfree for 15 minutes, so he's gotten enough time to wait for the gem to regain power.
As the fillies ran, The Timberwolves were focused on the stallion in front of them. Everchange didn't use the gem, but relied on something he read about once. Everchange leaned back and started to sprint towards the wolves, ready to try and conquer the Everfree. Everchange quickly bucked his hind legs into a timberwolf's wooden muzzle, busting it to pieces as he slammed his head against another timberwolf's face, stunning it for a moment as the stallion quickly jumped up, avoiding a third timberwolf's attempt to lash or cripple one of his hind legs.
Everchange firmly planted his hind hooves into the third timberwolf's neck, and jumped off, and began to run. The timberwolves were practically aggressive now, and were now on the chase for some stallion lunch.
As the fillies run out of the Everfree, they see Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow running towards them. "Applebloom, what are you still doing up?! Why were you in the Everfree Forest?!" Applejack exclaimed.
"Sweetie Belle, we're gonna talk about this when we get back." Rarity said, putting her hoof down.
"Are you three okay? No cuts, no bruises, no broken bones?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"No, but mister Everchange, he--" Applebloom was cut off by Twilight.
"So he is in there. I'm going to get him, and get some answers. Wait here till I get back." Twilight stated, running into the forest.
"No! The Timberwolves!! He's holding them off!" the orange pegasus filly exclaimed.
Twilight ran through the branches, vines and thorns of the forest, immediately picking up the smell of Timber. Twilight sees Everchange sprinting past her, while three battered, wounded and aggressive Timberwolves chase after him.
"That guy has no respect for the natural order, does he." Twilight said to herself, teleporting in front of Everchange, charging up a magical spell.
Everchange came to a halt and got on all four of his knees. "I beg of you, don't hurt me, you just bother me. I'm not fond of seeing Alicorns, not after what happened back home! If it means you'll spare me, I'll surrender, and tell you everything, just don't cage me like a wild monster!" Everchange begged and pleaded, as he stayed on the ground. Twilight blast a powerful field of magic at the timberwolves, sending them back with a forceful magical blast. Twilight looked down at the cowering stallion, who was begging like death was imminent.
Twilight really focused on some key points of his pleas. Not fond of Alicorns, something happened back where he was originally living, the questions just kinda kept piling up on their own from there. Twilight sighed and teleported her and Everchange to the outside of the forest.
Everchange looked up and saw the other mares, obviously still mad by what had transpired. Everchange was about to back up, but soon found himself stuck in a magical shield that Twilight had created around him.
"You said you would explain everything, start talking." Twilight stated, glaring down at the stallion.
Everchange sighed. "Not here. Somewhere private, I've made enough mistakes, and I don't want to make another one blurting everything out in public." Everchange said. Twilight carried the stallion with her magic, as she and the other mares teleported to the farm, where Sweetie Belle, Applebloom and the other filly were waiting inside with Big Mac.
"Let me start off by saying I am not your average stallion. I lived in Canterlot, I was poor, but I was studying under my teacher to learn about Alchemy, how to make formulas, potions and tonics that better enhanced crop growth and quickening the time it takes for certain crops to become ripe for harvest. But due to my teacher thinking I was ready for so much more, she had me work under the royals, and when I hit a roadblock, I was told to try and figure out this rare gem." Everchange explained, revealing the green gem on his right hoof.
"I looked for many books on transmogrification spells and tomes, but I was unable to find anything, and I guess it was near impossible to, since it was found in a giant flaming rock that fell from the sky, and nearby a plantation. Royal excavators had to mine every bit of that flaming stone and that Gem was all they found. I spent weeks trying to understand how it worked, but my research fell short. So it was decided by one of the royals that I keep it, if it truly couldn't do anything. I found a brown leather strap lying around, hooked it up to the gem itself, strapped it on, and that was all my first mistake." Everchange explained.
Flashback...
A slightly happier Everchange suddenly stops in place and winces, as he looks at the gem, and feels it embedding itself into his hoof, pushing past the muscle, skin and tissue till the crystal had cut through a bone, the gem going from an inactive prism to a shining green. The brown leather strap suddenly changing to a pristine white color.
End of flashback
The current Everchange shudders as he remembers how much pain there was when it bonded to him. "I, to this very day, have no idea if it's permanent, but I do know from experiences that it hates being forced to come out of my leg. So if you intend to try to remove it, then you are going to have a very bad time even attempting to get close to removing it. Whether out of compliance, or by force." Everchange explained.
"If that's the case, and you aren't a changeling, how did you become a changeling in the first place?" Rainbow asked, not understanding the logic behind the crystal.
"Well, I've come to my own conclusion based off of an event known as the attack of the Chrysalis Queen. I don't remember how it started, but I know that I was running down a castle hallway, evading the guards as I tried to escape, until the changeling queen herself, Chrysalis, made herself known. Unbeknownst to me, I didn't know what the gem would do, but that mystical yellow essence that surrounded your dragon friend?" Everchange explained, gesturing to Spike, who wasn't paying that much attention.
"This crystal recognizes the unique properties of other creatures, and seems to sample their life energy, their natural innate form of magic, or takes a sample of their DNA, cataloguing it in some sort of mystical storage it has access to. When the sample is confirmed to be ready, I can access it and retain the form for 10-15 minutes before the time limit runs out." Everchange explained. Twilight and everyone else looked at each other, and back at the stallion.
"Pardon me if I say that is ridiculous, darling, but that is COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Yeah, if this is the truth, you're leaving out some crucial details, buddy." Rainbow Dash said skeptically.
Applejack was eyeing Everchange the entire time, and she could always tell when someone's lying, and she could tell he was telling the truth, nothing but it.
Twilight stepped closer to Everchange. "Why can't you stand the sight of Alicorns?" Twilight asked. Everchange did not want to answer that question, not yet, anyways, it felt all too personal.
"I-" But before he could explain, the sound of a belch erupted from Spike, and from the flaming belch was a scroll.
"Finally, the princess got back to me." Twilight said, grabbing the scroll with her magic, unrolling it.
My faithful Student,
The way you described the stallion's cutie mark seems a bit familiar, but I'll have to comb through a few pages of history to get a better idea of what you're about to face, but don't let that stallion out of your sight, and fight if necessary.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Twilight looked back at Everchange, who had read the scroll thoroughly, and seeing Celestia's name left a very bitter taste in his mouth, as well as a couple noticeable tears.
"I assume you're not a supporter of Celestia?" Twilight asked, a bit concerned, but also skeptical. Everchange wiped his tears and crumbled up the scroll, throwing it on the ground.
"I was, 'til she ruined my entire life. What kind of ruler puts her status over the stability of her family." Everchange said, bitter and venomous words escaping his lips as he stomped on the crumpled up scroll, more tears forming in his eyes as he ran off the farm, and then head first back into the Everfree Forest.