The Blade of Aldun

by Radiant Dawn

Chapter 1: A New Day, a New Beginning?

Chapter 1: A New Day, A New Beginning?

The journey was quiet, which was a problem for me because I had a fully-armed royal guard captain staring at me the whole time. Not that I wasn’t used to be stared at, but it was an entirely different proposition when the person doing the staring knew exactly who and what I was. Truthfully, I would have felt less exposed had they all caught me naked.

“So, uh…” I mumbled, trying to start up some sort of conversation to break the silence. “Nice air we’re having, yeah?” My response was a blank stare, and I slumped a little in the cushy seat. “Wow, tough crowd.” I busied myself with staring right back at the guard and said, “I’m going to get you to crack at least a smile before we land. Even if I have to tickle you.”

As I experimentally flexed my open fingers towards him, the guard finally moved, drawing a small magic-infused blade from its sheath. Arcs of magical energy danced around the blade, and I thought better of messing with the guard. After all, I figured I could only mess with this guard for so long before he conveniently “forgot” about their order to leave me unharmed.

So instead I slumped back against the seat again and closed my eyes, letting my mind wander as we rode the air currents on the strange motorized carriage. I had a feeling it had more of a roll-off-your-tongue name than that, but until further notice, that’s what I was going to call it.

As I sat and tried to relax, I began humming to myself. It was a sort of self-soothing habit I had learned shortly after my mother’s...passing. I always hummed the same tune, which was a lullaby my mother used to sing me to sleep with. After so much time that had passed, I couldn’t remember the words, but I would never forget the sound of mother’s voice. It was the last thing I ever heard from my mother’s lips, and it would forever be the first thing I thought of when I remembered her. Where most parents might leave behind a family heirloom or a will, I had a song and a simple few words.

“Never forget where you came from.”

My heritage...my virtues. They were things I never allowed myself to forget, no matter how many personas I used. Those two things were often what kept me from losing myself within a disguise. It was a very real danger for someone like me, because whereas full-blooded changelings had the ability to forever stay in touch with who they were, I became a disguise when I fully committed. This meant that the life I created could with time become my reality, and I would forget who I really was. My mother’s words were always kept at the forefront of my mind, along with the song. They were the only things that allowed me to keep a firm grasp on reality.

“How are you doing that?” asked the pony across from me, bringing me back to the present.

I opened my eyes and locked my eyes with his. “How am I doing what?”

“That humming thing.” he replied with a nondescript hand gesture. “It sounds like there’s a whole group of people humming with you.”

I chuckled and shrugged, a part of me glad that I finally had something he would talk to me about. “It’s a changeling thing. I mean technically I’m only half, but that’s one of the things that carries over. My mother told me that it’s what allows us to change our voice to whatever we need it to be. I’ve found that it has other uses, however. Like singing the parts of an entire choir by myself.” I then proceeded to demonstrate with seven-part harmony, much to the surprise of the guard.

His eyes were wide with disbelief, but a small smile spread across his face as well. “Well now, I was not expecting that. You have quite the singing voice, ma’am.”

I offered him a grateful smile and nodded. “Thank you, sir. If I’d have known all it would take is a pretty voice to get your attention, I would have sang you a song.”

His tentative smile broke into a full grin as he responded. “My mother was part of the Royal Orchestra. I grew up around music. It’s one of the things I love most about this world.”

I nodded a few times before shifting my weight to lay down on the bench-like seat. “So, what’s your name?”

“Valiant Justice.” he answered with a smile, the pride practically dripping from his words.

“Wow,” I began with a nod, “that’s a strong name.”

He nodded. “Thanks. Riverstar sounds pretty interesting too. Where did you come across a name like that?”

I shrugged. “I’m not really sure, actually. My mother told me that it’s an ancient name of power or something. Full-blooded changelings don’t get a name like mine.”

The guard looked me over for a moment, and a part of me wondered if he was checking me out. True that I wasn’t vain, but a girl likes to hear someone call her pretty every once in awhile; “every once in awhile” being next to never, because this group of guards were the first ones to see my true form in over three centuries.

“You know,” he began, seeming to search for the rest of his sentence, “I figured that a changeling would be a little more…” He trailed off, unable to complete his thought.

“Ugly?” I ventured with a smile. I shrugged at his apologetic expression. “It’s okay. I’ve heard it all, having stuck around as long as I have. To answer your question, yes, changelings tend to look a bit more ‘rough’ than me, with the holes covering their body and hair.” I gestured to my hole-less arms and legs. “I guess it’s part of what I got from my father’s side. I still have fangs though, and as you can see, I have monochrome eyes.” I then flashed a sultry smirk his way as I slowly ran my fingertips down my stomach. “There’s no holes anywhere except where there’s supposed to be.”

He averted his eyes and coughed nervously, and I couldn’t help but silently grin in triumph.

The door that led to the “cockpit” (what a dirty name for a room full of men) opened to reveal Guard Number One. “We’ve arrived. Miss Riverstar, I recommend you disguise yourself as a pony. It’ll make a bit of a ruckus if a changeling shows up in the middle of Canterlot.”

I nodded before letting the magic flow over my carapace. Brown skin grew in over my chitin, followed by brown fur. My hair and tail seemed to fade from their normal turquoise to blonde, followed by my eyes changing to that of a pony’s ‒ save for the color of the iris, which stayed the same. As the change slowed down, masculine muscle definition took over female curvature, and my shoulders broadened as my height increased to that of the average pony stallion.

“Wow.” the two guards commented simultaneously.

I chuckled in a deep male voice and nodded. “I expected that reaction. So, are we ready to disembark?”

Both guards nodded mutely before a slight jolt shook the carriage. After a few moments of silence, the other four guards left the cockpit and joined us, one of them opening the door and gesturing for us all to leave the interior. I cautiously followed the first few stallions as they left, ducking my head as I passed through the doorway.

What greeted me was a long stretch of road that ran parallel to another, bordered by mountains on either side. A palace could be seen ahead of us, and a small building to our left released a few dozen ponies that seemed to be gray-uniformed officials of some sort, but not soldiers.

One of them, wearing a black beret on his head, strode forth to meet the guards as we approached. “Welcome back, colts. We’ll take the plane to the hangar and perform the maintenance she needs. The princesses will be expecting you all in the Grand Hall.” The uniformed pony glanced at me curiously, but quickly looked away and walked over to the carriage.

“What’s a plane?” I asked as we began making our way toward a strange contraption that looked like an enclosed chariot with four wheels.

The guard I had spoken to within the flying carriage pointed to the contraption we had flown in. “That’s a plane. It’s a sort of flying carriage that uses magical fuel and propellers instead of ponies to fly. It’s much more efficient, and is fully protected from the effects of lightning and rain. With it, we can carry much more with us than we used to be able to.” He then pointed to the strange contraption we were approaching. “And that’s an automobile, more commonly known as a ‘car’. They’re a rather new invention that does the same thing on the ground that a plane does in the air. They can run for a lot longer and move a lot faster than a pony could on hoof.”

I nodded, taking this new information in. “Amazing. I’ve never seen anything like them before.”

He chuckled as he pulled open one of the doors to the “car” for me to enter. “That’s because you can only find them within the borders of Equestria. We aren’t allied with the griffons right now, and the dragons have no use for them. So currently, only Equestria has them.” He then chuckled again. “Although if these surprise you, I shudder to think of how you’ll react to some of the other things we have around here.”

I raised an eyebrow at his comment, but offered no reply as I sat within the car and waited for it to move. I was curious as to just how fast it could go, seeing as how it seemed we were only creeping forward at first, but then my eyes widened as we began to accelerate more and more until we were traveling at a speed that made flying by wing look slow.

---

Just from having judged where we started from on what I learned was called a “runway”, I could tell we had traveled at least ten miles in a little over five minutes. It was truly awe-inspiring how powerful this new pony machinery was.

I didn’t have much time to admire the power of the automobiles, as before long we had all arrived at a tunnel within the base of the mountain that housed the palace. Within less than a minute, we stopped within it, and I had to blink a few times to get my eyes to adjust to the dim light within the tunnel.

“Alright, here we are.” the leader guard (who I’d overheard was known as Cutter) announced. The two guards in the front seats exited the vehicle before opening the door for me, and I stepped out into a round stone room with a stairwell leading up. I followed the procession of guards silently up the steps before a door was opened by the pony in front, flooding the area with bright light.

Again, I was forced to blink my eyes a few times to adjust to the new light situation, and after I did, I recognized where I was.

Simply from the stories I’d heard as a child, I knew this was the fabled Palace of the Celestials ‒ the seat of royalty for Canterlot, and the head of government for all of Equestria. The stories I’d heard told of tall, spear-like towers of gold and ivory, but mere stories did not do it justice.

What I beheld was nothing like I could have imagined. The tall spires and sheer cliffs of stone that made up the castle were such a radiant white, it was as if it were built from pearl. And the caps of gold were bathed within the sun, so that it seemed as if drops of sunlight itself chose to be housed within the walls of the palace. Strange grooves ran upon every wall and structure within the castle walls, and these grooves pulsed with light softly in such a way that it reminded me of a beating heart.

“It’s really something, isn’t it?” the captain, Cutter, mused.

I nodded, my jaw refusing to close from the sheer amount of awe I was feeling. “It’s beautiful. Never in all my years did I believe I would ever see something like this.”

We stopped in front of an ornate set of doors before the guards opened them, leading us to a long room with white marble floors and a long, red rug that led to a series of stairs. The stairs themselves led to three thrones, and I at once gasped in surprise at where we were.

All along the walkway were posted sets of guards, each holding strange black tubes in their hands that they gripped as one would a crossbow. They wore armor of some sort, but it looked nothing like the armor the guards that retrieved me wore. It looked more suited for combat than the heavy armor the retrieval unit wore.

I was too much in awe of my surroundings to notice the guards having stopped, and I bumped into the two in front of me, offering a sheepish smile when they turned to glare silently at me.

I was unsure what we were waiting for, but then a moment later came three ponies that I could recognize simply because they couldn’t be anyone else.

The first to the left had to be Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was the youngest looking of the three, and her lavender coat was recognizable even by me. Stories of her were heard far and wide, and though she was known to be rather bookish for a pony, she was heralded as the great hero of the “Age of the Elements”. Her sharp amethyst eyes were studying me intensely as she approached her throne, and her armor-like clothing (akin to the guards that watched the throne room) made her rather intimidating.

In the center could be none other than Princess Celestia. Her pristine white coat and flowing hair of many colors was unmistakable, as was her ever-loving gaze and gentle smile. She was the physical expression of the sun itself: warm and inviting, while also being powerful beyond measure. Her behavior and formal dress robes spoke not only of confidence in her own abilities, but in those of the guards that watched over her and the other royals.

Lastly was easily the most recognizable of the three, and also the most intimidating. Princess Luna was known far and wide for her efforts on the battlefield as much as she was for the love she held for her subjects. Stories...nay, legends of her had arisen far and wide across the world. Like how she arrived as relief for a besieged division she led during the Battle of Tartarus’ Maw, ordering them to flee while she charged the approaching horde of changelings alone with naught but two swords and an axe. The story told of how she slaughtered over three-thousand changeling soldiers on her own, killing the last few hundred with her bare hands.

Of course that was only a legend...right?

As the three princesses took their seats, all was silent for a few tense moments. Then, Princess Celestia waved a hand, causing the six guards that had accompanied me to disperse, quickly leaving the throne room, and leaving me alone with three princesses and a room full of armed-to-the-teeth guards.

“Welcome to Canterlot.” Princess Celestia spoke with a smile, the warmth of the greeting confusing me. She then gestured to me and said, “There is no need for a disguise before us, Riverstar. You may be yourself in our presence.”

I felt rather uncomfortable with the request, but realized that it might not be smart to deny an alicorn such a request. So, with a sigh of resignation, I allowed my disguise to fall away to reveal my true form to the princesses.

“Hmm.” Princess Twilight Sparkle hummed to herself, then pointed to me. “You don’t look like a normal changeling. I take it you are a half-blood, yes?”

I nodded, not trusting my voice to answer for the moment.

Princess Luna eyed me curiously for a few moments before smiling with a subtle gleam in her eyes. “Oh yes, she’ll do nicely.”

Finally finding my voice, I asked, “Umm, not to sound ungrateful, but why exactly am I here? I think we can all agree that it’s rather strange for the three princesses of Equestria to send a group of guards to find a changeling if they aren’t going to kill or imprison it.”

The air of gentle hospitality left the room as if it had been stolen away by the wind, and a very serious atmosphere replaced it. Princess Celestia leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees. “I do not know what you have heard or been told, but Equestria does not attack those that do us no harm. Those that have done us wrong have been brought to justice, and we will not condemn an entire race for something a small group of them has done. To do so is unfair and cruel, and I will not allow it.” She then shook her head. “No, you have been brought here because we think we can help each other. You see, we have tracked you for years now, and have learned everything about you that we could, which was how we advised the guards on how to find you. Unfortunately, you can be rather predictable sometimes.”

I blushed in embarrassment at the statement, but kept silent as Princess Luna continued. “You see, we find that many times, greater conflicts can be avoided by a surgical strike by special individuals that act alone. These individuals are trained in the art of subtlety, assassination, and sabotage to disable or destroy their targets. The right target executed can prevent ten years of open war, and this in turn would promote a greater lasting peace than anything I or the general military could do alone, much as I am loathe to admit it. Fear of the rulers does not promote true peace, after all.”

“So instead you would have them fear the shadows.” I answered, getting a nod as my answer. “Elegant.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle nodded. “So you see why we asked for you now.”

I nodded. “I think I get the gist of it. You want to use my skills for this ‘subtlety’ tact you want enact.”

Princess Celestia smiled at me. “Indeed. I am pleased you understand. It makes everything that much easier.”

I squinted my eyes for a moment before asking, “Okay, but what’s in it for me? Am I being blackmailed or something?”

Princess Luna barked a laugh while the other two giggled quietly, but the lunar princess was the only one to answer after composure was restored. “Not at all. We in Equestria rule with love, not pain or hate. No dear Riverstar, we offer you a unique offer.” She then leaned back in her chair and smiled gently. “A home of your own.”

I raised my brow in confusion. “Why would I want that? For someone to know where to find a changeling whenever they’re feeling like venting their hate on one? Sorry, but that doesn’t sound like much of a deal to me.”

Princess Celestia shook her head with that same glowing smile. “No my dear, we mean within the palace. You would be treated as a trusted royal officer, free to go where you please throughout the palace. No pony would bother you, and no guards would harass you. Of this I can promise you. You will have a home where you need not be another; a home for Riverstar.”

The implications of what I was being offered suddenly seemed extremely attractive, and I had to fight to keep from blurting out an affirmative. However, if my life had taught me anything, it was to weigh all options carefully before making a decision, if time permits.

“May I have some time to consider the offer?” I asked respectfully.

Princess Celestia nodded with a smile. “Of course.” She then motioned to Princess Twilight Sparkle. “Twilight will escort you to a guest room. Dinner is served in the banquet hall at six, and you are welcome to join us. Or, if you are more comfortable dining alone, we can arrange to have a meal brought to your quarters.”

I thought on the subject for a few moments before smiling gratefully. “I mean no offense, but for the time being, I would prefer to eat in privacy.”

“I understand.” Princess Twilight Sparkle answered with a soft smile as she stood. “Come, I’ll take you to your quarters.”

I offered a polite nod to the other two princesses as we left, and followed the younger alicorn out of the throne room.

---

I felt a bit nervous as I followed the princess through the long hallways of the castle. I had attempted to change my form as we left the throne room, but Princess Twilight Sparkle had assured me there was no need. I hadn’t believed her, but every guard and servant we passed didn’t even look twice at me, as if changelings were a common occurrence in Equestria. The environment and behavior was so surreal to me, it just made me all the more uneasy. I half-expected to wake up in a dungeon at any moment, strapped to a torture table with various spells being cast on me.

“Are you alright over there?” the princess’ voice asked with concern.

I snapped my head to look at her and coughed nervously. “Uh, y-yeah. I’m great.” I motioned to the great vaulted halls and flowing tapestries that covered the walls. “It’s just that I never expected to be here without chains binding me, you know? It’s...it’s unreal.”

The princess giggled softly before sighing almost dreamily. “One never knows where life will lead us. Sometimes we have to break away from the path we were originally set on, and forge our own path.”

“Forge my own path.” I thought to myself, amused at just how often I had thought that to myself.

“Well,” Princess Twilight Sparkle announced with a smile, “here we are. It’s fully-furnished and there are towels in the washroom, as well as a magical washer that will clean your clothing. You seem like a smart girl, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

I raised my brow at her referring to me as a “girl”, but let the thought drift away unheeded. Truthfully, a good bath and a chance to wash my clothing would be nice, so I nodded in thanks to her. “Thank you, princess. I truly appreciate it.”

She nodded and smiled. “I will have a servant drop by your room with dinner options shortly after five. Should you need to speak with any of us, simply ask a guard to escort you.”

I offered a polite nod and smile before pushing open the door and entering the room, closing the door behind me as the princess walked away. I took in the sights of the guest room, marvelling at the complexity of it. So much of the devices within it I couldn’t fathom the uses of, but in the corner I noticed a strange red box-like contraption with a lid on top. Upon opening it, I saw a strange shining steel well within it, with tiny holes perforating its surface. Just underneath the lid was a set of instructions, and upon reading them, I found this to be the “magical washer” the princess had told me about.

Deciding to test the device out, I fished a rather soiled shirt out of my pack and placed it within the machine, following the instructions before closing the lid and pressing a strange knob upon the top. At my touch, the device hummed to life, and I watched as a bright light grew from within the washer.

Mere seconds later, the washer made a bell-like sound and stopped humming, leaving my shirt to fall to the bottom of the washer. I opened the lid and fished it out, only to find that it was as clean as the day it was made. With my fears assuaged, I removed the few valuables within before upending my pack into the washer, and then thought for a moment before tossing the pack in as well. I then quickly stripped myself of all clothing and crammed it in as well before pressing the button on the washer. Confident that the washer would do its job, I turned toward a white-tiled room that could only be a washroom, sighing in delight at the chance to bathe in comfort and safety after nearly a year.

Perhaps I should seriously consider the princesses’ offer.

Comments

[Uncr3at1ve]

Damn, it feels like I'm reading a professionally published book, nice work.

[Radiant Dawn]

3408802 I don't know about all that, but thank you.