The Friendly Changeling

by WezzaHD

Chapter 4: Nightcrawler

He didn't know how much time it had been, but he walked out of the remains, and saw his queen in the castle. He found his helmet next to him, cracked.

"Shadow, there you are!" He looked and saw his brother, Nightcrawler. His eyes and wings were green and he wore blue armour, with . "We have to report back to the Queen" He then noticed Shadowflight thinking to himself. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes. Thank you, brother" He replied, and put his broken helmet back on.

"Okay, then, let's go" and they readied their wings, when a unicorn guard jumped them out of nowhere, wielding a spear.

---

His head jumped out of his bed, panting as if he had just run a marathon, his eyes were wide with fear as he recalled the painful memory. As he checked that all the curtains were drawn and he looked at himself, his true self, his dark indigo changeling mane full of holes and looked like ripped- up silk. He was then encased in green light and transformed into his pony self. Now that he memorised it, it was easy to transform into.

He then opened the door and went outside, to get a job, and was headed to the Ponyville weather station.

---

(Twilight's castle)

Twilight was watching some workponies unload copies of all the books that had been lost in her fight with Tirek, along with some new ones. She looked in one of the series of boxes, with books to do with Exploration and Naturalism. with titles such as "All Around Equestria" and "Life in Cold Blood". She looked and saw one book titled "Species of Equestria". This one caught her eye.

"Excuse me, Princess. We are just about to pack that section onto the shelves" One of the lifters said.

"Oh, well can I take a quick look at this book? I'll give it to you when I'm done" The lifter simply shrugged and went to unload the other boxes. She went to her bedroom and looked through the chapters.

"Diamond Dogs, Breezies, Sea Ponies. Ah, Changelings! Here we are" She got to a very short passage labelled "Changelings".

Habitat: unknown

Food: love

There is still much that we are not aware of about changelings, except that they are a parasitic species that feeds off the love of others, and can change their form to that of a pony to fool their prey. If they can get close enough, they are capable of controlling ponies. They are an extremely hostile species and a rough number of their population is not known. A spell has been made which will break a changelings disguise, but only works in close proximity.

Twilight read the spell at the bottom and closed the book. She put it back in one of the boxes for the lifters to put away. She went outside and saw Shadowflight walking through town to the direction of the weather station.

---

He was right outside the weather station. A blue building with a logo of a sun behind a cloud that read "Ponyville weather station. He entered the establishment and was greeted a green Pegasus stallion with a short cut brown mane. He was writing something down.

"Excuse me, I'd like to get a job here?" Shadowflight pointed at the "help wanted" on the front of the window.

"Sure" the pony at the desk said without a hint of interest. "Just wait over there and someone will come and test you" he gestured to the seats to the left. He sat in one and waited for someone to come to him. Just then, Rainbow Dash and Twilight came in chatting to each other.

"Rainbow Dash, there's a new pony here who wants the job. Can you test him?" He used that same bored tone, and Rainbow Dash groaned. She looked behind her and saw Shadowflight, the new pony from yesterday.

"Oh, hey Shadowflight" Twilight appeared to be friendly towards him, but Shadowflight could sense the huge amounts tension in her. She hid it very well, but changelings could sense the emotions of other creatures. The tension being concealed wasn't what confused him, but that there was so much of it, and what reason did she have to be so tense?

"Alright, Shadow. Let's get this over with" Rainbow Dash used that same disinterested tone as the Pegasus on the desk. They went to the left and she showed him around.

She showed him the schedule room, where ponies report before and after their shift was done. It had a bulletin board like the other ones in Ponyville, but this one had shifts and signup sheets to fill out before and after their shift. There was also a table of ponies discussing something.

"They discuss the weather for the future" Rainbow noticed his confusion over the ponies at what looked like a miniature boardroom table.

"This is the break room, where we take our breaks between shifts" Shadowflight saw a room with lots of chairs, a window, and a jug full of water.

Shadowflight thought to himself. Only three rooms? The place was quite small.

"It's quite a small place, isn't it?" He asked.

"Yeah, but luckily most of the work is done on the outside, so we don't really need that much space" she replied. "It's why I'm showing you around even though you just got here. It just doesn't take that much time"

They were soon both outside in the sky. Rainbow Dash was sitting on a cloud.

"Alright, here's your test. Clear all those clouds in five minutes" she pulled out a stopwatch from her saddlebags. He perched himself on a cloud and got ready.

"3...2...1 Go!" He shot off to get the clouds.

Rainbow Dash was watching him. He was alright, struggling. He wasn't thinking, he was just doing. He was like some sort of machine. Sure the work itself was standard, he was doing fine, would probably get the job too. But it was the amount of effort he put into it. This guy may have been in her way, when they first met, but he might be alright on second glance.

She loomed at her stopwatch, he had about a minute left and had nearly cleared all the clouds up. This test, sometimes the workponies would would do this for a challenge, but with much more clouds. She still held the record for beating the challenge in 1 minute.

"Done!" He shouted as he flew back to Rainbow Dash.

"How'd I do?" He asked.

"Well, there are 30 seconds left, so I guess you got the job. Welcome to the weather station" she said happily. "You start tomorrow. Less work for me to do, now get out of here, I've got some napping to do. You just did my morning shift for me. Thanks!" She flew off.

He Got his saddlebags on and flew down. Would probably go back to his house and see if anything needed to be cleaned. It was only about He got a sketchbook out and looked at one of the drawings. It was three changelings sitting together. One female and two males. He smiled at it and began to head home, putting it back in his bag.

---

In an unknown forest, several changelings were setting up camp. They were all standard changeling soldiers but without the armour. Their leader was a female; about the same height and size as the others. Her eyes were purple as well as her wings. She also had a mane, which was a rarity among changelings. It was also coloured purple.

"We're hot on his trail, we're so close" one of the soldiers said.

"Good work, you will scout the area. The rest of us will set up camp." She replied and the soldier nodded. "Also, is you see anything that might tell us where he is, anything at all. Let me know, and I will send the Queen a letter". He left, while the other set up and she looked into the sky. A look of sadness on her face.

"I do not know where you are, but I hope you're safe"

Comments

[Dr_D]

And the plot thickens...