“Ya know, blacking out and waking up in a different place is a disorienting and worrying experience. It’s even more worrying when you smell blood when you wake up.”
An unknown character opened their eyes to darkness, with only their smell and touch being able to guide them. Wherever they were, it was quiet. As quiet as death, some could say. The floor they laid on was wet with something thick. Sticky. Our stranger could only assume it was blood, with the strong smell of the iron-rich substance that seemed to permeate through the air.
They sat up as best they could while trying to see something, with no results. “If only I had a light,“ they muttered to themself. Her voice was noticeably feminine. The pitch seemed to change in every other sentence or so, not entirely keeping to a set range. After making their comment, a ball of light the size of a hand appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Everything had a tint of purple to it. ”Is the light the color purple?”
They looked around with their renewed vision and, just as they assumed, the floor was covered in blood. No corpses in sight though. They briefly wondered what or where it was coming from but let it go for the time being.
Another thing that they noticed while they were looking around was a distinct lack of white skin on them. What replaced their skin was a pure black material that was incredibly smooth. ”Weird,” they thought to themself. But…there wasn’t a hand either. The stranger looked over themself, pieces of an invisible puzzle slowly coming together in their head.
A smooth black material covering their body, the body in question was shaped equine-like. There even was a snout and tail visible when they looked hard enough.
The approaching questions were placed into the back of their mind. Once they got out of wherever they are, they can bother dealing with whatever crisis this is they’re in.
They slowly stand, their balance weak like a foal’s would be. A slow walk forward began, the light ball floating alongside them and lighting the way.
…
Nothing was said. Nothing was done. Just walk and walk and walk. ”Man, this is a long walk.” It takes a while, but don't quote them on the assumption that it's been hours. Their lack of a sense of time aside, they were finally seeing a light other than the ball that they accidentally summoned. Was it sunlight? The burning of their eyes said yes.
At last, they can finally have an idea as to where they were.
...
...
“Oh, come on! Why a desert, of all places?! Of all the places I could’ve ended up at, it had to be a place where I’m blinded by sunlight and battered down by constant, overbearing temperatures!” The character yelled.
Once their vision adjusted to the bright sunlight and they had taken a breath to calm down, all they could see was sand. The heat was already bearing down on them and they hadn't even taken a step out of the cave or whatever yet.
Now with more light available, their appearance was fully revealed. They were a changeling, but unlike other changelings they had neither wings nor holes. Although, they still had the curved horn many of their kind possessed, and like any other changeling that wasn't a queen, their eyes were an entire color with a much lighter shade indicating the pupil location. Different from the usual changeling we’ve seen in this world, their eyes were purple instead of that light blue. They had a black mane and tail as well, different from more common changelings, who had a type of fin instead of hair.
‘Couldn’t I have just, like, ended up somewhere colder?‘ the changeling thought to themself. As soon as the thought was said, the ball of light suddenly expanded and washed over them, blinding them with purple light. And then, it and the changeling were gone.
Within the Frozen North, a sudden flash of purple appeared, revealing our changeling character to be there now instead of the desert they were in previously. They were surprised to see their surroundings changed so drastically. They turn behind themself and found that the cave they had walked out of was no longer there, more snowy wasteland taking its place.
”How in the nine rings of hell did that happen? This is probably a dream, right? But, if this was a dream, wouldn't I be acting as if this was normal? That's how most dreams worked, at least for me.”
They sighed, giving up on that train of thought before they could spiral down any further. They looked down at themself, checking their new appearance again.
”Perhaps in this world, changelings aren’t like in the show?’ the changeling thought to themself. ‘It could just be something for me though, considering that I teleported from what I assume was the southern part of Equestria to the Frozen North. I don’t think anyone has done that without at least falling unconscious.”
After spacing out for a few moments, the changeling snapped out of it and got back to the task at hand. What was it? Ah yes, trying to find civilization. Well, the Empire should be around there somewhere. Unfortunately, they don’t see it anywhere. This could mean one of two things. they’re in a part of the timeline before the Crystal Empire appeared, or the Empire was simply not in view from where they were. There was no real way to know…
Only one thing to do. Improvise. The changeling spun around and stopped after a few seconds. Whatever direction they stopped at was going to be where they headed. So the long march started.
After another jump of perspective for us, we find the changeling no longer within the Frozen North.
After a few days of straight walking and going over a mountain, they found themself in a forest. Surprisingly, they hadn't felt tired and their legs weren't sore. They even took no breaks during that whole walk. ”Is that a changeling thing?” they wondered to themself. ”They have a lot of bug-like qualities, so maybe they do?” They asked themself as they kept walking through without worry.
The changeling looked up as their mind drifted. They could see a large mountain in the distance. ”Considering that I came from the North, I wouldn’t be able to see Canterlot from here. It’s attached to the southern face and is on the tallest mountain in the middle of Equestria. Since I can’t see any others from here, I can only guess-“
Unfortunately, their internal monologue seemed to have been interrupted by the sudden appearance of a group of ponies carrying weapons and wearing bits of armor. ”Bandits? The more you know.” The group consisted of six, with two of each main subrace of ponies making them up.
The changeling gives a simple wave, accidentally adopting an accent as they spoke to the group. “Ello there, mates, how ya doing today?” As expected, the group gave them weird looks. Surprisingly, the changeling wasn't cowering or anything. ”How am I so calm? Surely that has to be a changeling thing, so acting is easier. Rrrright?”
One of the ponies, a unicorn, snapped out of their confusion before firing a bolt of magic at them.
”Uh oh.” The changeling was unable to dodge, the spell hit them in face with no resistance. The changeling closed their eyes and gritted their teeth at the impact, expecting pain. But…nothing seemed to happen. They gingerly opened their eyes and looked down at themself, seeing that nothing was wrong.
A simple frown occupies their face as the two earth ponies with spears start to walk towards them with their weapons. They simply froze. Unfortunate, truly. They could've run or fought and would've been just fine.
“Come with us or you’ll regret it.” One of them threatened.
“Alright, alright.” The changeling relented.
“Make sure they don’t do anything funny.” A unicorn stated before moving. The changeling was poked from behind before they begrudgingly followed the unicorn away from the distant mountain and into a more crowded part of the forest.
The changeling had a bout of tunnel vision during this, unable to necessarily focus on anything besides following the unicorn. Before they knew it, they were told to enter a dark cell and it was locked behind them.
Their first day in Equestria and they're stuck in a small cell inside a cave. At least it isn’t an actual prison with law enforcement. They didn’t have any of those inhibitor things to put on their horn, so one could assume that they could use magic to get themself out if they knew how. With no way of getting out, our changeling didn't see any harm in sleeping to pass the time, so they laid themself down on the cave floor, which was surprisingly comfortable, before closing their eyes to sleep.
Outside of the cell, a trio of pony bandits spoke to each other as they played a game of poker to pass the time.
“So...” an earth pony started, “what do y'all think of that unicorn? Clearly isn't a normal pony, that's for certain.” He had chocolate brown eyes and a blue coat, coupled with a black mane and tail. It seemed that changelings were not something that they'd heard of.
“There’s no way that that is a unicorn,” the unicorn of the three guards protested. He had purple eyes with a dark orange coat, as well as a bright blue mane and tail. “It gives off nothing like unicorn magic. It not only looks alien but its magic feels even more alien.”
The pegasus just shrugged as the other two conversed. He had a white mane and tail that covered an eye, a grey coat, and light blue eyes.
“Well, if it ain't a unicorn, then what in Tartarus is it?” the earth pony asked the unicorn.
“Tartarus if I know. All I know is that it definitely isn't a pony,” the unicorn responded. Suddenly, a thump was heard from the makeshift cell that the bandits’ prisoner was being kept in. The unicorn sighed before saying, “I’ll check it out.” The unicorn stood from his stool before turning toward the cell and walking toward it, sword ready to be drawn.
The unicorn wasn't expecting the prisoner to be hitting their head against the wall. Their previously purple eyes were grey. “Hey!” the unicorn yelled, trying to get the prisoner’s attention. It worked, as they stopped and slowly turned their head toward the cell door. “Quit it, before I make you,” he threatened before turning around and going to march back to his game. As soon as he turned though, the thumping continued, and the unicorn could already feel a headache coming on.
He repeated what he did before, yelling “Hey!” But the prisoner showed no sign of hearing him this time. He tried to get their attention a second time and received no response again. By now, he got annoyed. “That’s it.” The unicorn drew his sword and opened the door. That got the prisoner’s attention. Another thing happened that the unicorn didn’t expect. The prisoner charged at him as a blur and before he knew it, they had his neck in their hooves, making his telekinesis drop his blade.
The prisoner started to mumble something. The unicorn couldn’t tell what until the mumbles turned into whispers. “Your wife is dead but your child lives abandoned and alone. Your wife is dead but your child lives abandoned and alone!” By now, the prisoner was screaming this into the unicorn’s face.
”How do they know that?!” The thought only briefly passed the unicorn’s mind as struggled against the prisoner’s tightening grip. The other guards rounded the corner with their weapons drawn, likely because of the screaming.
This snapped the prisoner out of whatever they were in, but not for the better. Their eyes faded from grey to myriad of colors as they growled. With a yell, they threw the unicorn into the guards, resulting in all three of them being launched to a wall.
“You must atone for your sins! You must all atone for your sins!” Purple smoke flared out of their nostrils as they exhaled. The unicorn tried to throw a spell at the prisoner, trying to incapacitate them with a paralysis spell. It was met with a dismissive wave, dissipating the magic. They yelled again, “Your spells from the guard will not help you! You! Will! Atone!”
The cave started to shake. Screams could be heard in the direction of the cave exit, as well as the sound of blades sinking into flesh. The prisoner, no. The monster stomped its way toward the trio of ponies as they shook with fear in their hearts. The last thing they saw was nothing but dark purple.
“You will atone. You will atone.” The changeling kept saying to itself, much quieter as it turned away from the newly made puddles of blood. They promptly collapsed after, already asleep again.