//------------------------------// // A Wish Fulfilled... But at What Price? (Edited 2014-09-11 13:44 EST) // Story: CMC Changeling Protectors // by contodaslasganas //------------------------------// “Everything ready? Everypony in position?” Twilight was busy directing the final preparations for the spell, being meticulous as ever. “No, no! You guys have to make a larger circle! Princess Celestia and the crusaders have to be in the center.” The potion was mixed and ready, spawning a small amount of green odorless fumes. The Bearers had their Elements ready, and in no time at all the six ponies surrounded the alicorn princess and the four crusaders. The foals distinctly displayed their nervousness with small flaps of a wing or a continuous tap of a hoof, all still not sure what they would have to do nor why they were needed. “Okay, so let’s run this through one more time,” Twilight proclaimed to everypony. Her voice commanded authority even to the grass she was standing on, which silently stopped its movement in the light wind. “Princess Celestia is going to establish a soul link from the changeling to the three crusaders… so that’s you guys, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo.” The trio shifted their gaze from the changeling to Twilight as she spoke. “What the soul link will do is connect your ethereal life chains so that transfer of soul energy will be possible in either direction, but as a result your conscious mind will be transmuted to your subconscious to strengthen the connection enough to withstand the stress of the metamorphosis.” “Wait, what?” The four crusaders simply stared blankly at the purple mare, having understood absolutely nothing; even the other Bearers were flabbergasted at the complex words Twilight had spouted. “What that means is that when I cast the soul link spell,” Celestia explained to the foals, “it will seem like you are in a dark room with many different things floating around you. As long as you can all see each other, everything will be fine. Remember, your memories and the time you foals have spent together can be very powerful.” “Ohhhh.” “Now that that’s taken care of,” Twilight continued, “Princess Celestia will drink the elixir as Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie and I charge up the Elements of Harmony. We will strike Silver at the same time the princess casts the spell. We have to make sure to get rid of the changeling body completely as she constructs the new pony body.” “Okie dokie lokie!” “Um… okay.” “Got it, darling.” “What’re we waitin’ for?” “Alright, let’s do this!” The six Bearers set themselves up for the task at hand, the Elements humming softly as they begged to be used. “Princess, begin the spell, please,” Twilight spoke, a small quiver in her voice, everypony unsure whether it had risen from nervousness or from excitement. Princess Celestia closed her eyes, concentrating a small amount of magic on her horn to cast the soul link spell. “Wooooaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!” The four crusaders felt the sensation of falling, yet no wind seemed to be rushing up against their coats or manes. In a manner of seconds, they felt their speed decreasing, as if they were being held up by some unknown force. Soon after, they landed on the ground softly, their hooves barely making any sound. Nopony moved after they touched the surface, their eyes unable to see if there were any pits they could fall into if they changed the placement of their hooves. “Sure is dark here, ain’t it?” Sweetie Belle agreed with Apple Bloom and struggled to gather her magic into her horn to light up the place. Come on, focus! You practiced this a million times already! First try, nothing. Second, zilch. Good thing third's time the charm: a small, dim light arose from the tip of Sweetie's horn, but it was enough for everypony to notice the intricacies of this new place. Every crusader’s eyes grew to the size of melons as they looked around. The ground seemed to stretch out for hundreds of hoof’s lengths while different pictures, numbers and symbols circulated above, every couple of seconds a complete sentence popping up. “If we’re in our subconscious… “Does that mean that everything around us is our thoughts?” Silver’s question almost made everypony blush as they feared the worst: their secrets exposed to their other friends. As if on cue, a small sentence materialized on the wall in front of the group, the lettering just large enough to be visible. “I like her mane.” At that, Silver began to blush uncontrollably, attempting to hide his face but failing to do so in time. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo simply looked at each other and then at the other two— immediately recognizing whose thought it was— while Sweetie Belle copied Silver and hid her face from the other two fillies. Before anypony could say anything, however, a small chill ran up Silver’s spine. The foal simultaneously fell to the ground, squirming uncontrollably as if struggling to stay in his body. “Silver!” The Elements of Harmony had all charged up, the multi-colored circle of light rising along with the Bearers, all poised to shoot. “I’m ready!” Celestia, still with a bitter and spicy taste in her mouth, quickly shot a steady beam of magic at the changeling body as the Elements released their own energy, both conglomerating at the site of the changeling’s body. The chitinous black was disintegrating slowly with the power of the Elements, Celestia’s spell creating a pony body in its place. By no means was the spell a simple task: why, had any other pony tried to cast it, they would have used up their energy in an instant. Still, the princess was slowly losing ground: her own magical reserves, though large, was by no means infinite. A sudden shock traversed through her mind, which filled with dread as she felt a presence disappearing slowly. No, I can feel the young foal’s soul fading. Come on, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle… The three fillies were dumbfounded at the sight that lay before them: Silver’s body was fading, a bright white glow surrounding him as he started to disappear. “Come on, guys, we have to save him!” Sweetie Belle went over to him, but as she touched him, a small electric shock hit her hoof and traveled up, making her instinctively pull away. “But what can we do? How do we save him?” Scootaloo began to blame herself for not having asked the princess what to do in such a situation. “Well, the princess did say our memories were powerful or somethin’,” Apple Bloom chimed in, attempting to remember anything of value from the princess’s small speech. “That’s it! We have to make him remember! See all those thoughts and pictures floating around? They’re our thoughts and memories! Maybe if we try to remind Silver of all the time we’ve spent together, we can stop him from fading!” Sweetie Belle had almost run out of air by the time she had finished speaking. “Come on, guys, let’s get in a circle around him! We’ll yell out all the crusades we went on! I’ll start!” Scootaloo went over to the body first, the other two making the circle as she continued speaking: “Come on, Silver, you can fight it! Remember how you climbed up that tree and jumped on my parachute to stop me from going over the cliff? Remember how you saved me?” Not even a second after Scootaloo had finished, Silver seemed to stop fading, his body restored to its lusterless black… for about two seconds, then the process continued, all four hooves almost gone. “We need more memories! Come on, Silvah,” Apple Bloom began, “D’ya remember when ya comforted me after Ah accidentally squished all the pinecones we were goin’ to plant for our tree-plantin’ cutie marks?” The crusaders continued in that fashion, each time their hopes rising and falling as they watched the scene play out before them, the small reappearance followed by the ever-dreaded change back to translucence. As if their hope wasn’t low enough to begin with, every memory was having less of an effect each time. The last memory anypony could come up with no longer stopped his disappearance, the only parts left being a barely visible chest and head. I guess I was wrong. There was one part that Celestia had left out when she had told the Bearers and the crusaders about the spell, at Silver’s behest: the possibility of death. He must have known that somepony would have talked him out of it if they had known. This possibility was now quite high, she reasoned, seeing how her own spell had stopped creating the new pony body. The more magic the princess imbued into the spell, the more it would recoil, never budging from that spot, right above his heart. I thought the crusaders would have given him enough emotional energy to accept the conversion, but I guess I was wrong. … Maybe friendship just isn’t strong enough for this spell. … At this rate, I’m going to run out of magic. I’m going to have to cancel and reverse the spell, as well as temporarily divert the Elements’ magic. Hopefully, enough of his old body is still there so he can stay alive. I’m so sorry, Silver. I have failed you. Soon, Sweetie Belle could take no more. “Come on, Silver! You said we were going to go hang out later!” Tears began to cloud Sweetie Belle’s vision after the two other fillies had stopped talking: all three had run out of memories to share, and Silver just kept fading. Scootaloo's and Apple Bloom's eyes had also begun to water, but it was nowhere near to the extent as the white unicorn. “You promised me, Silver. I don’t want you to die.” Die. Void of life. Gone, away from Equestria, away from this world, never to be seen again. Sweetie Belle summoned all her courage to stop from thinking about that word, but it was just… just too much for her to bear. The one pony she had actually had feelings for, the first one that she had kissed… In a manner of seconds, her protector, her savior, the changeling with a heart of gold, the pony who had sacrificed himself for his friends— for her— would be gone, stripped from this world, and there was nothing that she could do about it. The unicorn filly reached out to Silver with her hoof, ignoring the electrical shocks she was receiving: her heart hurt much more than the physical pain the bolts imparted. Hugging him as tightly as she could, Sweetie whispered into his fading ear in the same manner he had done back at the clubhouse: “Please don’t leave me, Silver.” And with that, she moved her muzzle back ever so slowly, time freezing as if preparing for this very moment. With one last look, Sweetie’s lips met Silver’s as she gave him that one final kiss before the inevitable end. A single tear dropped from Sweetie’s eye down her muzzle and onto the changeling. Clinging to the last thread of hope she held, Sweetie nuzzled him as she uttered her last words to the changeling: “No matter where you go, I’ll go with you. Don’t leave me, because I’ll never leave you.” … Unbeknownst to the three fillies, another sentence had begun to take form above them, one in large bold letters that dwarfed every other picture and symbol, yet it was only five words long. I will never leave you. And then a bright rainbow-colored light shone through, blinding everypony in the soul link as the ground shattered, the whole scene imploding on itself in a majestic swirl of color. What is this massive surge of energy? Could it be…? With a massive amount of determination, Celestia reversed her reversal of the spell only seconds after she had resolved to return Silver’s soul to whatever remained of his changeling body. The spell easily took hold and in no time had already caught up with the Elements’ beam. They did it. Somehow, they did it… Both spells completed within a couple seconds of each other, a green glow emanating from the four foals as the magic died down. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom awoke first, disconnected from the soul link. “Huh? Oh, we’re out! We’re outside that soul link thing!” “Yeah, we’re out! But Silvah…” The two fillies diverted their gaze from the other ponies down onto the dissolving green glow, quite surprised at what lay in front of them: Sweetie Belle was on the floor, holding a small pony in a tight embrace. The foal sported a bluish-green coat and a silver mane, both traits that the crusaders knew quite well. The only major difference was his horn: it was no longer discolored, instead matching the color of his coat perfectly. The two foals on the floor stirred slightly, Sweetie Belle and Silver Flame opening up their eyes groggily, inspecting the situation at hoof. Not one second later, the filly hugged the colt even tighter, the remnants of small tears staining her muzzle. “I thought you were going to die.” To that, the foal promised her one simple thing: “I would never leave you, Sweetie Belle.” As they gazed into each other’s eyes, time seemed to slow down again, their muzzles getting ever closer, lips almost touching– “Alright, alright, you’re gonna make me sick!” Scootaloo’s response broke the mood in a flash. Sweetie and Silver pulled away with a blush as they remembered all the other ponies around him. Only then did he think to inspect how he had changed, his black skin replaced by the soft aquamarine fur he had worn before, his mind no longer holding the constant nagging sensation of returning to that changeling base. “I’m a pony! The spell worked! I’m finally free from the Hive!” Silver bounded with joy throughout the field, hugging everypony in his wake, even Princess Celestia. It worked! I’m finally a pony! However, a sudden realization made him stop abruptly: “Wait. Now that I’m a pony, I’ll be living in Ponyville, right? Where exactly will I live? The clubhouse must be in ruins.” “Don’t worry about that, my dear Silver,” Celestia responded. “One of the drawbacks of this spell is that though it turned you into a unicorn, your magic is at a very low level. You will have to practice unicorn magic for several weeks or months to be able to use it efficiently again, so I am giving Twilight the task of teaching you until your magic has replenished. I’m sure that she has an extra room for you to sleep in. Would that be alright, Twilight?” “W-why, o-of course, Princess!” Twilight was a bit shaken at that request, but it’s not like she could simply deny the foal a place to live nor reject a suggestion from the princess. “Then that’s settled. I’ll teleport you all back to Ponyville. Guess I’m going to have to explain to the Griffon Kingdom’s ruler why I suddenly disappeared with one of his teacups. Do give me a bit of a warning next time you use another one of those artifacts, please, Twilight?” A warm white light surrounded the group as Celestia sent them back to Sweet Apple Acres. Silver himself could not believe it: he had finally achieved his dream, finding friendship… and even something more. “So, when are we going to crusade next?” Silver’s enthusiasm was evident in his question, all three fillies brimming with joy at having their newest crusader back. “Not so fast!” Sweetie Belle went up to Silver, a small blush on her cheeks. “You promised me that we would go hang out, just us two, remember?” “Hey, that can wait,” Scootaloo remarked, wanting to get to crusading as quickly as possible. “Right now, we have to go find our cutie marks!” “It’s too dark to go crusading! Besides, it’s the perfect time for Silver and I to watch the stars.” “No, it’s not too dark! We still haven’t tried getting cutie-marks in… um… in owl catching!” Silver simply watched as the two fillies continued to fight over what to do next. Apple Bloom stealthily walked up to the colt and whispered to him some fairly sound advice: “You should probably run ‘fore they make ya choose. Believe me, when they’re like this, there’s no way to win.” With one look back, Silver gulped and galloped as fast as his legs could carry him, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle turning at the unexpected sound of the quick hoofsteps. “Hey, get back here!” The two fillies galloped right behind him with incredible speed, Apple Bloom finding nothing better to do than to follow them. And so began the tales of Silver Flame, the changeling-turned-unicorn, and his new life in Ponyville. Celestia still stood at the site of the action, the place where the spell had been cast, her expression drooping a little as she remembered what she had done to the poor colt. I hope that this can finally bring you peace, Silver, and give you a new life without such life-threatening worries, a life every foal should have. And then the Princess of the Sun fell. … “Tia! Tia, art thou alright?” The blue alicorn used her levitation hold to bring Princess Celestia back on her hooves, the Sun Princess waking up at the sudden movement. “Oh, h-h-hey, Lulu. I g-guess I just used t-too m-mu–” Celestia was slipping in and out of consciousness, Luna attempting to keep her awake. “Let us guess, thou used up a substantial amount of thy life force on thy spell?” Princess Luna carried the exhausted alicorn into the castle, at times shaking her back and forth slightly to keep her conscious. “Thou knowst no doctor can replenish thy life force. Even though we are immortal, our life forces may take years to restore to our original levels!” “I know, b-b-but if I d-didn’t complete the s-s-spell, the c-colt would have d-died!” An intense pain shot through her horn, slowly arcing down to her heart… “Ah!” Luna brought her sister up to her room, placing her on the bed as softly as she could. The white alicorn feebly attempted to pull the sheets over herself, instead only earning a pang of pure pain. There’s no way I’m going to be able to conduct business like this. “Lulu, I’m g-going to have t-t-to ask you a f-favor. C-c-could y-you p–” “Shhh, sayst no more. We shall take care of thy duties. Thou must only rest for now.” With that, Luna called out to the nearest guard, ordering him to stay outside her room until she returned. As the guard closed the door and as Luna left for her room, nopony noticed the small filly hidden out in front, a filly that had been following them since the princesses had entered the castle. Nopony, at least, except for one of the elite guards who just happened to be walking past. “What are you doing here, little filly? You know, this place is off-limits.” “Oh, um… I got lost as I went to buy apples, and then I saw the princess and wanted to ask her for help. My mother’s sick, so I went out to help her buy things, but I guess I got lost.” The little filly’s expression drooped, her eyes watering the slightest bit. “Well, no need to cry, little filly,” the guard replied, leading her outside the castle. “That apple stand over there sells very delicious apples.” The pony gave her a couple of bits. “Tell the pony there my name, Sharp Sword, and he’ll give you a discount. I’ll make sure to tell the princess about your mom, and I’ll see if she can give her some medicine. What is your mom’s name?” The filly stayed mute for a couple seconds, as if she were debating whether to divulge such information. “Her name is… Majestic Daisy. Thank you, mister!” The small filly bounded away. The guard, a bit confused at the filly’s reaction, turned back to reenter the castle. Suddenly, the filly veered onto an alley devoid of anypony. Finally out of view, she cast a spell with a green aura that would have raised the attention of any of the guards, had they spotted it. The ruler is weak. The Queen shall be pleased. With that, the changeling teleported away, leaving nothing but two bits on the ground where she had once stood.