An oath.

by Saphroneth

Revelation

Oath

Things were finally settling down again in Canterlot’s court, well over a week after the attack and subsequent spectacular defeat of Chrysalis’ hordes.

Among those particularly relieved by the change were the royal guards, who were no longer expected to be ready to help the clean-up at all hours of the day or night. While the guards trained hard, they were used to at least something of a schedule.

But it was the nature of the cleanup itself that still rested heavily on the mind of one Mirrored Shield, pegasus guard sergeant.

Cleaning up after a hostile attack by changelings… He knew it was something that had to be done, but it made him… ill. As much from remembered guilt as anything.

A decision solidified itself. It was surprisingly easy.

“Sharp Spear.”

The unicorn standing duty with him looked over. “Sir?”

“Mind covering for me for a moment? I’ve got… something to talk to Her Majesty about.”

Spear nodded understandingly. Celestia had long had the policy that any, pony or otherwise, could talk to her in private if they were cleared by the guards.

She said she enjoyed being able to talk normally.

The guards themselves occasionally used the privilege to discuss things with her, whether important matters that needed to be handled discreetly - such as the logistics of a surprise royal visit – or simply a personal matter that might require attention.

The guard captain, then a recruit, had made use of it to quietly ask for Celestia’s permission to date her niece some years before. The story still made the rounds in the barracks every so often, whenever a new recruit needed reassuring that the captain was a pony, as well.

Remembering being told that was part of what let Shield make his decision.

She was no tyrant. Not Celestia.

Nodding his thanks, Shield rapped twice on the Princess’ door.

“Come in – I’m up.” Celestia called through the door, and he entered.

---

“Ah, sergeant.” Celestia said, as the pegasus closed the door behind him. “Something important, or just pleasure?”

He swallowed through a suddenly dry throat. This close, he was starting to have serious second thoughts.

Would she take it well? How would she react?

“I’m afraid it’s something of some importance, your Majesty.” He managed, voice steady enough to surprise him.

“Oh, none of that. I get it all the time. At least use my name, sergeant.” Her eyes shone with humour for a moment, the humour of someone so old they had to find jokes in everything.

He could read her like an open book, in that at least. But he still didn’t know if what he was doing was sensible – or even safe.

Enough. Like a soldier, not a spy.

He trotted to the centre of the room, and knelt. Celestia began to react with confusion, but he ignored it.

One last breath, made slightly uncertain by fear.

“I swore an oath, princess Celestia.” The sergeant said, simply. “To you, and to Equestria.”

And he dropped the transformation he’d held for months.

---

Celestia’s first reaction was pure shock. A changeling? How had it infiltrated her guard so quickly – was it one of Chrysalis’ contingency plans?

Was this an assassin?

She almost acted on instinct. Almost called down the fire of her sun – almost called the guard – almost, almost, almost.

She didn’t know why, but she didn’t actually do it.

Curiosity? She had that. But she was a ruler. She couldn’t afford to make mistakes for something like curiosity.

Was it confidence? Perhaps. Certainly the only Changeling to pose her a threat – albeit a substantial one – was the Queen, with a month or more of powerful love siphoned from her own guard captain. And she couldn’t sense the subtle stress such an accumulation of magic would create. Even the Queen had only been able to disguise her stockpile behind the smokescreen of an alicorn form.

But, again, that wasn’t quite right. She knew when she had to make the right choice, irrespective of her own opinions.

That was it. She felt that staying her hoof was the right choice. For whatever reason, the actions of this changeling were atypical – and not threatening.

“Explain.” She said, simply.

---

Shield – or Mirror, as his original name had been – looked up. “As I said, my princess. I swore an oath. While I did not originally mean to fulfil it… I have changed.”

He absently tasted Celestia’s emotions. By the feel of them, he would continue to live for at least a few seconds longer.

“I will explain further.”

“Please do.” Celestia sat back on her nearest chair, and gazed steadily at the changeling.

“To begin at the beginning. I was one of the advance scouts. Sent into Equestria years ago. Planning, infiltration.” Mirror’s eyes looked down, unwilling for the moment to meet the princess’ gaze.

“So that the Queen’s attack would have good information. I see.” Celestia did see. It was good practice. Whether planning a war, of the kind Equestria had not seen in hundreds of years, or just a good surprise for entertainment.

“More. Ambush.” The short sentences seemed to make Mirror more comfortable. “Trusted allies become enemies.”

After a moment’s thought, Celestia concluded that, yes, that was good sense as well. If it was possible.

“So…” she mused, aloud. “Why didn’t you?”

“Trusted.” Mirror replied. He closed his eyes for a moment, then steadied himself visibly and began to explain in more detail.

“It was easy, to start. Come into Canterlot. Shape of pegasus. Made up pegasus, with similar name. Makes it easier.”

“Easier to disguise?” She interrupted, curious.

“No. To remember. Made up pony, nobody to tell mistakes. Similar name, so I could react to it.”

“Mirrored Shield…” she repeated the sergeant’s – apparently false – name. “So, what is your real name?”

“Mirror.”

“I see. Interesting. I can see how that relates to changelings.” After a moment, she was struck by a new thought. “Before you go on, I’d like some more information on how you ‘made up’ the pegasus… body?”

“Started off, spying as other ponies. Would see a pony in the street. Disguise as them somewhere else – don’t run into the real pony.” The last part was said as if an oft-repeated mantra. “Notice how pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies behaved. Decided that pegasus was easiest.” He felt her attention shift and answered. “Horn magic – always same green. Giveaway. So not unicorn. But…” here he looked a little happier, remembering a different time. “I wanted to still fly.”

Celestia felt a stab of pity. She hadn’t considered that angle of it before – a disguised changeling was limited in body, or magic, or perhaps both. While it was hardly an excuse, it was… tragic.

“Invented pegasus. White, white wings, silver mane. Name fits. Easier to remember the disguise. Easier to remember being in disguise. Simple, and different to… me.” He gestured to his black body. “Emblem… obvious. Bright silver shield.”

“And then you infiltrated the guard.” Celestia’s tone cooled noticeably.

“Again, easy. Said I was from out of town, wanted to join. Entered easily – fit enough. Body invented hours before to be fit. No point inventing unfit body.”

He shuddered, remembering. “Then, oath. Swore to serve you, lying all the time. But then…”

The changeling fell silent. Looking closer, Celestia saw a tear in his eye.

“Training, we were in a squad. The guard train together.” His mode of speech changed again, returning to the style of a guardspony. “We… I don’t have the words. As a changeling, you get used to draining others of their love or affection for another, but… but… I had never encountered camaraderie.”

He looked up, finally making eye contact. “It is sincere emotion. A kind of love. Directed at me, for my deeds, not the pony I imitate. There’s something… purer about it. I know that none of the others in my squad ever seemed the least bit drained, for all that I sometimes drank deeply enough that they should have.”

Mirror looked down again. “Maybe that happens for all properly placed love. I don’t know. None of us do. But I felt it, and it sustained me, and… by the time I finished training and took the oath again, I meant it.”

“And I have never stopped meaning it.”

Thinking back, she remembered Mirrored Shield’s actions during the changeling attack. He’d run interference for his squad, somehow able to catch and knock out any changelings – any other changelings – who tried to imitate the guardsponies or those they were protecting.

“I could not get close enough to help you, your majesty. Chrysalis… she would have seen me for what I am.”

Celestia came to a decision of her own.

“She would have seen a royal guardspony, doing his duty to the best of his ability. Nothing more.”

Mirror looked up, startled.

“I understand the bravery it took to explain this to me, sergeant. And your loyalty is something that humbles me. If you have any problems with your… unique situation, do inform me. And if I ever have need of your talents, I will send for you. Aside from that…” She smiled, warmly, and a rush of understanding and good will flowed through the room.

“I believe you should continue as you were.”

---

Mirrored Shield stepped back out of the elder royal sister’s private room, nodded his thanks to Sharp Spear, and took up his vigil once more.

He felt better than he had in months.

---

Yes, it's a Changeling story. But I thought this might be an interesting idea - basically, a changeling that "went native" before the events of the finale, and how he might handle finally ending the masquerade.

Bit of an introspective feel to this, I think.

Thoughts? I might have a look into those "situations" she mentioned, if an idea comes up. Sort of like Equestrian black ops...

Comments

[Reisys]

"And what should a guard do, when his background has secrets buried within?"

BUTTSECKS!

I like this story.

[Saphroneth]

698435
Not that kind of secrets...

And thanks. I tend to go for action and humour, so I thought I'd try something subdued for once.

[BurnNote]

Good enough, but not really anything noteworthy.
I guess it could be an interesting starting point.

[Saphroneth]

714908 Fair enough. I was doing it as a sort of experiment, to see if I could do something entirely character driven.
I might go on to do more of Mirror/ed shield's duties.

[Casca]

Finally had a bit of time to have a look. Let's see.

In your favour is the fact that you didn't go with changeling shipping *shudder*. It feels like a redemption fic on the right track, and the relevance of the changeling race's abilities, specifically the point about camaraderie, were novel although the structure of the story and the writing itself hurt the flow. The punch of the middle, the exposition, the reveal so to say, was hindered by Mirror's broken speech patterns. The stilted writing and many instances of starting sentences with prepositions - the latter not a bad thing unless done in excess, which I felt was the case - was a bit of a hard swallow, and a lot of the ellipses and dashes could have been done away with some way or another. They do break the flow of the story, the dashes more so, and the frequency of them was off-putting, sort of like adding too much pepper to a fish fillet.

An instance of stilted writing is:

>“Trusted.” Mirror replied. He closed his eyes for a moment, then steadied himself visibly and began to explain in more detail.

>“It was easy, to start. Come into Canterlot. Shape of pegasus. Made up pegasus, with similar name. Makes it easier.”

I would have not started a new paragraph for the second line of dialogue. "He closed his eyes..." acts fine by itself as a way of showing pause in the scene. The breaking of the one-paragraph-per-speaker guideline is rather prevalent from start to finish. Of course, I think I've seen it done in books before, just saying that personally, this was a hindrance.

And, uh, that's what I thought of it.

[Saphroneth]

730013 Heh. Thanks for being honest.

The reason I went with broken/stilted speech there was basically to emphasize how, now, he's leaving that behind in place of being Shield and it's almost unsettling to remember. His thoughts about it aren't all that coherent, whether from how he's forgetting or from the fact that he's right next to a stern deity.
Hence why, when he gets back onto a more comfortable topic, he's able to speak more naturally.

I know I kept doing new paragraph for same speaker, but my understanding of that grammatical rule is that it's "no two speakers on the same paragraph" and that the above version can be done for stylistic reasons - whether a break in the topic or in the style of speech.

And I know I overuse dashes and ellipsis a bit, but that's because I prefer to show pauses or strained speech with representation in the text.

Now, story-wise... the idea for this came from looking at the number of changeling fics around, and noticing how their most common thread was that the events of Canterlot Wedding were what set them off - so whether it's because of being lost or injured, their only choice was to be "nice" for a little.
Which can work, and work well, but I wondered if you could have a Changeling who was already on the straight and narrow beforehand.
Oh, and of course I wanted to explore the ability-set of Changelings, and how it could be used for long term infiltration as opposed to short term replacement. (Mirrored Shield's supposed special talent is to avoid being hurt by attacks, for example - what he's actually doing is shifting into an uninjured version of his body.)

[Twilight at Dusk]

Very good story. I was driving myself mad() trying to find it in my favorites earlier, and couldn't. Come to find out, I'd read it on fanfiction.net.

I had a bit of an ah-HA moment as I reread it. Don't know why the recruit asking Celestia for permission to date her niece didn't click as Shining Armor before that.

The plot is interesting, and a nice deviation from the usual "oh I'm hurt and can't get away" type of thing happening in most changeling fics.

I really hope that you write more about Mirror, cause he was a very interesting character, and it would be interesting to see what reactions other main characters would have, like say, Shining Armor(as captain of the guard) or the other princesses. Or the Mane 6. Anyway, enough or my rambling. Hope to see more soon.

[Saphroneth]

735193 Thanks for your comment. Yeah, that was sort of what I was going for - something a little original, and more voluntary.

I think I might have him carry around an official letter from Celestia saying "Yes, I know he's a Changeling, it's not a danger."
And I believe I have a potential plan to get him in the same place as some of the 6...
Mind, it's dependent on my attention deficit creator disorder.