CMC Changeling Protectors

by contodaslasganas


The Truth (Edited 2014-09-06 22:15 EST)

“What took you guys so long?” Silver had been growing impatient, his entire body quaking with nervousness.

“Well, apparently, all three of us had a hard time getting our families to let us have this sleepover, especially with the changelings that appeared out of nowhere,” Scootaloo responded.

They probably gave their families that same look they gave me, Silver thought, shuddering as he reflected on how effective it had been when he decided to become a crusader.

“But enough of that, weren’t you going to tell us something?”

All three fillies had already sat down on the floor. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom hugged some pillows as if it were some sort of story time, but alas, this story did not have a happy ending…

After all, it had no ending yet.

“Okay, first things first, I have to come clean.”

Silver took a deep breath as he spoke the one sentence that he dreaded the most, those three words that plagued his mind for more years than he could remember:

“I’m a changeling.”

The three fillies gasped loudly, so loudly they did not notice a fourth gasp coming from right outside the clubhouse.


“A changeling, all the way out here? Ah have to tell Twilight!”

Applejack hadn’t exactly meant to eavesdrop, but… okay fine, that was why she was there all along. After hearing about the appearance of changelings, the farmer had had only one thing on her mind: protecting her family.

Gosh darn those eyes, she thought as she galloped to the library, remembering how she caved in to letting Apple Bloom have a sleepover that night. Ah knew Ah shouldn’t have let her go out in this situation!

In fact, if it had only been up to Applejack, she would have bucked that changeling straight out of Equestria in an instant…

But Twilight had made her Pinkie Promise that she wouldn’t try to tackle a changeling on her own.

Where there’s one, there’s many. If you ever find one, come straight to me. We’ll gather the rest of our friends and we’ll use our Elements to blow them all away.

She was not sure if she was doing the right thing by leaving the three fillies alone with a changeling. He didn’t seem to be hurting anypony yet, and she had already told Big Mac to watch the entire situation in case it ever got out of hoof. Still, she doubled the speed of her gallop, propelling her entire momentum forward towards the library.

Don’t ya worry, little sis. Ah’ll be right back faster than you can say “horsefeathers.”


“Yes, I’m a changeling. Now, before anypony goes and starts throwing things at me, please let me explain.” Silver had already sat down, beckoning for the three fillies to do the same as well.

Apple Bloom dropped the apple she was going to use as ammunition, and Scootaloo let go of the bat she had picked up from the floor, both ponies slowly sitting back down and attempting to recover from the shock they had just experienced. Only Sweetie Belle had refrained from attacking the colt.

“Now, I shall continue my story.

“I am not a… complete changeling, I guess you could say. You see, my father is a changeling, while my mother was a pony. They had met right after the Canterlot fiasco, and by then every changeling near pony civilizations had either fled or changed into pony form. I guess if even one parent is a changeling, the foal is destined to be one, too. The thing is, my father is actually a commander in Queen Chrysalis's…” The name alone made him quiver with disgust. “… in her army, and so when I was born, naturally, much was expected of me. Another complication w-was that …”

By now Silver’s eyes had become watery, a fact visible to the other three crusaders, who gave him sympathetic looks as he did his best to carry on.

“Ponies were not meant to have changeling foals. My… my mom… died when I was born. I never got to meet her. I wish I c-could remember her, b-b-but…”

That was all Silver could bear: he simply broke down and started sobbing uncontrollably. The three fillies stared at each other in turn, but then Sweetie Belle walked up to the colt and gave him the largest, tightest hug she could muster.

“It must be really sad for you to tell us this. Don’t worry, you can cry for as long as you want. We’ll stay right here to comfort you.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo followed suit and joined in on the embrace. The three fillies’ eyes struggled to contain their rivers of salty tears, but perhaps the one who took it the hardest was Apple Bloom.

She knew what it was like to lose someone close to you.

You guys… Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle…

Silver clung tighter to the white unicorn, letting out all his sorrow in front of the three fillies.


“Twilight! There’s a changeling at the Crusaders’ clubhouse!”

“WHAT!?” The purple unicorn was simply astounded! “Are you sure?”

“Of course Ah’m sure! Ah’m the Element of Honesty, gosh darn it!”

Twilight concentrated some magic on her horn and stood very still. A small ball of light had appeared at the very tip of the appendage, glowing softly and warmly. The purple unicorn then opened her eyes in shock, the ball of light disappearing in a flash.

“No, this can't be! They’ve never gone this far into Ponyville! This can’t be good!”

Twilight raced over to one of the bookcases, pulling a hidden lever to reveal the book: or, more accurately, to reveal the book-shaped chest that contained the ultimate weapon. She quickly put in the correct combination and opened the lid, pulling out the six Elements of Harmony.

“Quickly, Applejack! We have to get the others!”


As the hug broke, the colt found himself in his thoughts once more:

I can’t believe I have such good friends.

I… I have to continue. I have to tell them the rest. I have to protect them, at least until I leave.

“Thank you, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, for everything: for being there when I needed help, for comforting me… I am so glad to have as good friends as you three.” For some reason, though, the colt found himself unable to look away from Sweetie Belle, who at that moment decided to look back at him. Their eyes connected for just a second, but that was all it took: the second after, both were blushing quite a bit. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo caught that scene but felt it necessary to keep quiet given the circumstances.

Silver quickly recovered and continued with his story.

“I was sent at an early age to learn Equestrian, and I was taught how to track and find food for the hive. Apparently, I had quite a talent for magic. See, changeling magic is different from unicorn magic; that was something I learned in my travels. While unicorns generally have to ‘learn’ a spell, changelings only need to think of what they want to do and then the spell is cast automatically. Even the youngest of changeling foals can, if they wanted, cast a teleportation spell. Of course, they would still need enough magical energy.”

The three fillies listened intently, making sure to catch every word lest they miss out on something really interesting or important. Apple Bloom’s curiosity, however, got the best of her.

“What d’ya mean by ‘travels’?”

“Apple Bloom, it’s not nice to interrupt!” Sweetie Belle was a bit astonished at how loudly she had reprimanded her friend, but the colt simply replied:

“It’s okay, Sweetie Belle. And don’t worry, Apple Bloom, I’ll get to that later. Now, where did I leave off? Oh! The reason that… the reason why I’m here instead of back at the hive… is… is…” Silver tried to stay calm as he continued. “The reason is because I disobeyed a direct order from the commander, from my father. I was supposed to bring food for the hive, and by food, I mean emotional food. I had been taught how to do that only a couple days before, and I was horrified by it. When you see a creature writhing in pain as their emotional essence is taken against their will… it was just… just… I could not bring myself to do it.”

The three fillies pictured somepony’s energy being sucked out forcefully, and each trembled at the thought. They all quickly switched their focus back to Silver.

“Well, my father threatened to cut off my horn for disobeying orders, and so I ran away, changing into the pony form you see now so he couldn’t track me as quickly. My father was desperate to catch me, so he cast a wide area spell that negated my magic unless I changed back into changeling form, which would alert the hive of my location. He expected me to notice this and reconsider going back. In other words, I can’t use this.” Silver raised his hoof to the gray horn above his eyes before he continued.

“I can’t go back anymore. If they found me, they would torture and kill me in front of the other soldiers, make an example of me. Since I no longer had a place to go, I simply wandered from town to town for a couple years. I spent s–”

“Wait, did you say a couple years? How old are you, then?” This time, it was Scootaloo who interrupted, baffled at the fact that the colt didn’t look a year older than any of the other crusaders.

“You see, since I haven’t returned to my changeling form, I’ve been stuck with this exact body for two or three years. Unfortunately, when changelings turn to ponies, their pony form does not grow, so for all that time this is how I have looked. Now back to what I was saying earlier. I spent some time at some rich pony’s house, attempting to make some bits as a butler to buy enough food, but nopony ever wanted to hire a small colt. I soon stopped at an apothecary’s house, and –”

“A-puth-a-what now?” the earth pony asked, the word sounding quite foreign.

“An apothecary is a pony who makes potions for other ponies,” Sweetie Belle answered. “You can continue, Silver.”

“Okay. So, that was when I found out how to make a potion to turn a changeling into a pony! Of course, it had to be coupled with a certain spell, which apparently was very hard to master. I memorized it, but in this form I can’t really cast it. Still, I have been wandering around to try and find the ingredients, and I noticed that they all could be found here. Now, why was I crying when you guys found me? Well, I had another motive for traveling here. You see, I had… I found… I found my mother’s sister, and she told me all about her and everything, and as soon as I left, I just… I couldn’t keep myself from crying.”

The fillies would have probably hugged him again had he not continued speaking.

“Anyways, if I can drink the potion and conjure the spell, I may be able to change my father into a pony and disconnect him from the hive. Only then would we have a chance to escape and live freely.”

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom had started murmuring amongst themselves, and they soon reached the same conclusion.

“Silver,” Sweetie Belle remarked, “we’ve decided that we’re going to help you make that potion to save your father.”

“What? Really?” No matter how many times the three fillies had offered to help him, the colt still couldn't stop himself from believing that this was too good to be true.

“Of course. Besides, who knows, we could get our cutie marks in brewing potions!” Scootaloo’s remark reminded Silver of his predicament, and his smile slowly faded away.

“What’s the matter, Silver?” Apple Bloom asked, noticing his sudden change in mood.

“Well, since I’m a changeling, I can’t get a cutie mark. I can’t be part of the Cutie Mark Crusaders anymore.”

“Don’t you worry about that! No matter what, you will always be a crusader, and you will always be our friend. Now, are you with us?” It was as if Sweetie Belle knew exactly what to say to cheer up the colt, who simply nodded his head.

Scootaloo whispered something to the rest of the group, everypony nodding their heads and preparing to shout.

“On three! One… two… three!”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER POTION BREWERS!”

Suddenly, a thundering crash was heard behind them, all four crusaders turning around and cursing their luck as they stood face to face with a certain creature as black as the night.


“Come on, let’s go!”

The Bearers were already in position, the attack charging up, the ribbons of rainbow light connecting each one to the other.

Then came a loud crash.

Then the screams were heard, those high pitched shrieks that could only have belonged to three distinct fillies.

“Apple Bloom!”

“Sweetie Belle!”

“Scootaloo!”

The colorful lights quickly dissipated as the circle was broken, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash hurrying off towards the clubhouse.

“No, where are you going? We have to charge the Elements!” Twilight’s shout fell on deaf ears, though, as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie galloped off in the same direction to help their other friends.

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake.” Twilight rapidly followed, ready to help in any way she could. Oh, and help her friends surely needed: Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were already fighting five changelings, five or six more zooming in for the kill from either side.

“Nopony messes with my friends.” Twilight charged up her horn as she galloped, screaming the last words anypony expected from her:

“You bucking changelings are going DOWN!”