The Equestria Diaries

by Istaran

Chapter 8: Wind and change

When the fever broke and Wind Chaser awoke, Istaran was sitting by her side, back against the apple tree, looking up at the night sky. "I told Luna I was the wind," he mused. He looked back down at the false pegasus. "That's why we will stick with Wind Chaser, as the name of my first new Henchman. I've taken the liberty of naming your sub-net 'Turbine'."

Wind Chaser opened her mouth to question his last statement, then closed it as Turbine made her aware of his meaning, as well as its own presence. They sat in silence for a few minutes as Wind Chaser became familiar with her new partner. Her new jailor. She couldn't help but be happy about its presence, which terrified her. "What do you want from me?" she finally asked.

"For starters, I want to watch you change shapes. Do so as slowly and carefully as you can, really focus on every detail of what you are doing. Male and female versions of each pony tribe, your own natural form, and human if you can. End back in your current form, but otherwise the order is up to you. Can you do clothing as part of the change?" She nodded. "Good, then include a wardrobe change in each transition."

"Okay... why am I doing this though? What do you hope to gain from it?" She asked as she began to transition to an earth pony mare.

"I suppose the fever has made you forget? I need to be more familiar with your capabilities, ideally to the point of being able to emulate them. I sincerely doubt I will be able to match a changeling's talent, but being able to pass as a pony will be an incredible asset in this land."

"Do you honestly think you'll be able to learn changeling magic just from watching me?" the unicorn stallion asked.

"I think it is a necessary piece of information, though I do not yet know if it is sufficient. I expect learning to accomplish any single magical task will be quite difficult for me, but once I have mastered one.. I have a lot of data that I cannot yet translate. You shall be my <Rosetta stone>. One spell will open the door to more."

The human soldier looked at him quietly for a moment, shouldering his assault rifle. "My Queen gave me up too easily. You have no army, you would be no help against the other humans even if you did join our fight against them."

"Your Queen fights against them now? Your army? Why were you on the road then?" Istaran asked rhetorically.

"I don't have to answer that," the changeling evaded.

"Of course you don't. Turbine has already provided your memories to me. Your people are on the run. They have lost the will to fight, and switched to flight. You were just one of the forward scouts, making sure your Queen and others passed as safely as possible as you fled. Your Queen didn't have the time or the will to fight to reclaim you, especially against such an unknown. You've already lost against one human, you didn't need to try your luck against another."

"It wasn't just one human, it was armies of them! And dogs! And they had siege weapons backing them!" the unicorn mare objected.

"It was one human, and you, masters of infiltration, haven't even gotten close enough to see his face. Those 'drones' you faced? The dogs? The siege engines? Those are just manifestations of his power. That's why they don't act like people. Why you can't sense their emotions. Why their weapons don't work like real weapons. That is his power, as this is mine!" Massive spiders assembled themselves out of the ground behind him, towering over the earth pony stallion for a moment before melting back away. "And this is mine!" A crawling sensation made the pony shudder as he became intimately aware of the nanospiders throughout his blood stream. "And this is mine!" He cried out dramatically as green light traced along his circulatory system before enveloping him completely. It was an incredibly painful sensation, like being torn apart and rebuilt, cell by cell, but only an insane grin showed his pain visibly. Slowly, his legs swelled as his feet retracted, settling into the form of hooves, over-sized to bare his upright weight more easily. His face extended out into a snout, while his ears drifted upwards and became more pointed and flexible. His hair stretched and thinned, extending down his back into a mane, while his skin grew fur to cover it all over. The light faded for a moment as he stood there as a human/pony hybrid before lurching forward onto all fours, a second wave of light focusing on joints and hooves to reshape him into a more normal quadruped form.

The changeling was speechless for a moment, even after he was done changing. "It's not supposed to hurt," he finally pointed out.

"You make a compelling argument. I will work with <Deus> to optimize the parameters better." Istaran slumped to the ground. "We will rest before resuming our journey. We must reach the badlands before the human's armies have secured too much of it."

As I returned to myself, Wind Chaser returned to her pegasus form and snuggled up against my side. "I underestimated you. Twice. I won't do it again, I promise. Just don't let scary-you get me."

I blushed a bit, at her touch, and at the memory of her response when Istaran had said he would 'make her his own'. I blushed harder as I realized the changeling could sense my own conflicting feelings. But even with all of her memories laid bare by technological expedience, I still felt like I barely knew her. So I snuggled a little closer and left it at that, as my thoughts turned inward.

I wasn't half the inventor Istaran was, for lack of confidence if nothing else, but I could point Deus in the directions I wanted, and he did much of the data crunching on his own anyways. That little magic trick was a lot more involved than Wind Chaser likely realized. It wasn't a matter of simply copying exactly what she did. It was a complex process of converting those natural, instinctive magical acts into a collection of microscopic crystal magical foci, each of which had the power to transform only a small chunk of flesh near itself. Twilight's books had included instructions on transcribing unicorn magic into crystal foci to create a sort of single-use spell that anypony could activate, but converting changeling magic to crystal foci without ever learning unicorn magic in between. In truth it had been more than a little guesswork, paired with a suicidal level of gutsiness, driven solely by the urgency of finishing a dramatic speech to a captive audience. In other words, it had been a literally insane risk.

But now that it had been done, now that it had -worked-, it was left to Deus and I to tweak it until it could be done quickly, smoothly, and without the horrific pain. I woke up every hour or so through the night, checking on Deus' progress and adjusting his priorities, while the machine worked tirelessly through the night to achieve my ends.

---

"You're afraid," Wind Chaser said to me as we had our breakfast of fresh-picked apples. "Of him. Scary-you."

"Why shouldn't I be? He nearly killed me yesterday to make a point. He can very quickly and irreversibly destroy any relationship I hope to foster with, well, anyone. I think he is working toward my objectives, but honestly that feels out of character for him, so I suspect he has or will develop his own agenda, possibly incompatible with mine. And.. more terrifying still, he -is- me. Anything he does I have to live with the guilt of having done, because I did it."

Wind Chaser chewed for a moment before swallowing and answering. "Makes sense. So.. what is he, anyways? I mean, he's not like Turbine.. yours is called Deus, right? So what? Is it some weird human thing?"

I shook my head. "Sort of. It's.. hard enough to explain to some humans, but.. maybe as a changeling it'd be easier for you to understand. I'm sure you've had occasion to mimic some particular pony, but do you ever just.. become a pony that never existed before? Not just surface features but.. make up the story of who they are, where they came from, and so forth. Invent a whole new person to become."

"Of course. I mean, that's one of the very basic things we do. There was no other 'Wind Chaser' before I was her."

"And does she have a history, a backstory? Things that happened to her that shape who she is and why she does things, even though they never really happened?"

Wind Chaser had to think about it a moment, before finally nodding. "Yes. I don't think about it much anymore, but I did more when I took her form for the first time, and had to convince ponies she was a real mare. I still make up new bits as I go along, to answer questions and fill in the blanks of course. But before anyone asked I knew I needed to know why she was moving into town, where she was coming from, and what she hoped to accomplish. That way everything she did, everything I did, would be consistent with who I was trying to be."

"Istaran is like your Wind Chaser then. I mean, the persona. He was a fictional character I made up, to play a role in a story. Occasionally, I would 'be' him in various games, playing out a story with other people. But yesterday was the first time he was ever real in any sense, the first time I really 'was' him. When you beat me up.. my third resounding defeat in physical combat in a row, I realized I couldn't keep being.. me. I had to be someone who could win. Someone who could stop being afraid of hurting my opponents."

"How does someone end up afraid of hurting their enemies?" she asked, curiously.

"I had a sister. Six years younger than me, and loved to pick fights with me. Mostly out of boredom and loneliness, I think? My preference in pastimes had diverged from hers, and had started to include solo activities, like reading books. So she lashed out at me. But every time we fought, it would continue until she got hurt, and would run off crying. That.. hurt me." I gripped my heart. "Far more than any of her kicks and bites. I'm not fond of being physically hurt myself, but I can generally bear it. But the pain of causing someone else pain.." I shook my head. "Anyways.. I've found something new and exciting to be afraid of for today."

"Oh? What's that?"

Green light flashed along my back, and a pair of wings sprung forth, while my body shrunk down noticeably, becoming lighter and leaner. "You're going to teach me how to fly!"

"Haha. I really didn't expect this level of foal-sitting! Honestly, we'll probably get to the badlands faster walking than giving you a crash-course in getting airborne."

"I'll take that chance. Now, let's get started!"

Comments

[doctor_n]

I bet 5 moustaches he face plants 10+ times.

[Istaran]

As the author, I feel I should be exempt from taking that bet.

The story continues, with no face plants as of yet. But our protagonist has yet to get off the ground, so it is early yet!

[Morning Dusk]

You are a very fast writer sir (or madam). I wish other authors I read were as fast. I'm actually currently following a story that hasn't updated since July of last year! And it isn't on hiatus!

[Star Flank]

His face extended out into a snout, while his ears drifted upwards and became more pointed and flexible. His hair stretched and thinned, extending down his back into a main, while his skin grew fur to cover it all over.

This should be mane.