Converted

by Shaded Changeling

Chapter 3: Invasion

The sun had risen in the sky, and Shade was just looking outside the cave towards the city. It looked almost exactly like in his vision, as he had started to call them, even down to the pink bubble shield. He had been watching it all night.

He couldn’t sleep. Less of couldn’t, he didn’t want to sleep. He had so much running through his head, Transformations, magic, the burning city, the fact that he was spared. Was his past life just a lie? Maybe he was a Changeling the entire time, but then how did he breathe? The Burning Fiords had toxic gas coming from the lava flows, maybe Changelings could change their anatomy as well? But he remembered his family... barely. And if he was a Changeling, then why did his eye refuse to listen to him?

These thoughts had kept him up all night, along with the practice of Transforming. He was trying to figure out his own identity as well as how much he could get away with. He had managed to turn his hooves into claws, more like bird talons really, but he needed to focus on that only. He had managed to get a Pegasi disguise, it wasn’t much, but he had managed to get used to having the feathered wings,much more so than the insect-like ones he currently had. His eye was still a problem, but he could work around that if necessary. He also picked up a few magical abilities, he still hadn’t figured out Telekinesis yet, but he had managed to light fire to small stones, and lasting fire walls. Aside from that he couldn’t do much.

He had to admit though, out of all the sights he had seen, watching the sun rise over the Castle in front of him was beautiful. The white and gold city had practically irradiated the welcoming glow of the sun, like the city was built with that exact purpose in mind. The waterfall off to the side was shimmering like gemstones, and the valley beyond gleamed at the returning sun.

Shade couldn’t help but smile slightly. He hadn’t seen the sun itself in years of memory. The closest he ever got was when flying through clouds of toxic gas back in the Burning Fiords. Well, at least he had a backstory now…

As the large flaming ball began to spread its light over the small woods in front of the cave, Shade turned back into the cave, not willing to get caught before he understood everything himself. He had wandered through the small woods, looking at small woodland creatures scurrying away from him.

He found himself looking at two different images through both eyes. His right eye was showing a normal image, with the standard coloration on them. While his left eye seemed to color them a little differently, they showed some kind of, fire around the animals. Usually a black color, but sometimes it was green, yellow, or blue. He didn’t know what the colors meant, but if he had to guess, it was emotion. Even the few animals he had seen were mostly full of fear, standard when a horse sized insect is walking forward at them.

There was just no way around it now, Shade was sure of it. This was his life now. A small part of the larger Changeling machine. The only problem is he really didn’t feel like it. There was no way this was a dream. It was almost... too real to him. He hadn’t found anything strange his sleep deprived or even unconscious brain would create. Everything made sense, there were no holes in the theories, no possible other explanations. But he knew one thing for sure.

He had the mind of a Dragon, but the body of a Changeling. And there was nothing he could do about it.

The hive mind once again spoke to him, as well as the others. “It is nearly time, my children.”

The only real difference was the voice, it sounded familiar. Not in the friendly ‘I know that guy’ way but in a more, ‘Did I hear that right?’ kind of way.

The Swarm had begun to stir. The entire Swarm. Hundreds of slick black carapaces, all waiting for the call to begin an attack on the unsuspecting populace. While the rest of them all stood proudly waiting for the call, Shade remained staring off towards the sun, now crawling up the sky.

“Begin my children” The mental connection had ordered, and all at once, the army of Changelings had taken off, flying towards the shield covered city. It only took Shade a few seconds of flying to figure out a problem with this plan. How are we going to get through the shield? Shade was no expert in Magic; he preferred to be up close when fighting mano E… uhhh Equiis. Whatever. But he was pretty sure a shield wasn’t going to let an army of flying bugs through.

As soon as they reached the shield, Shade could see what the plan was for it, and judge it as kind of dumb.

The plan appeared to be to smash into it until it broke open. While maybe if the shield wasn’t made out of a corporeal energy field, it could work. This just seemed like a waste of effort. Luckily Shade wasn’t required to participate in this show of strength…or stupidity…

After only a few moments. Shade had noticed something very interesting.

He was looking down on the city, not really paying much attention to what he saw, when his right eye caught movement in one of the castle halls. While he couldn’t make out everything. He caught enough…

From where he was, he saw a sudden flash of green fire, something was happening, and then he saw her. His right eye immediately dilated upon seeing the shape of the Changeling. It was tall, taller than most of the other Changelings, but that wasn’t what Shade was looking at; he saw the horn that gnarled mess of holes attached to her head. Her strange dark green mane flowing behind her, and then the eyes… Those eyes that had followed him every time he closed his own. He recognized them at once. She was the one who he saw, Queen of The Changelings...

He hadn’t even noticed he was grinding his teeth, the fangs making a small scratching sound as they rubbed against the carapace. He hissed out her name “Chrysalis…” He was so focused on her, that he didn’t notice the other large quadruped walk up to her, at least, not until a flash of light shot through the glass.

She seemed to be the same height as the Queen, but from this distance, Shade couldn’t be sure. Her feathered wings were larger than any he had seen since… wait, is that? Shade quickly focused on the mane. The strange rainbow colored flowing mane, twinkling slightly and floating in a non-existent breeze. Then turning to her head in which a single horn protruded, reaching the same size as the Queen’s, Celestia… She was one of the two that Darkblaze had told him about and she…was losing?

The two of them had engaged in what could have been a magical duel, at first it looked like Celestia would have easily won, but the tables turned quickly. Shade couldn’t help but wince slightly as the green magic from the Queen worked its way up to Celestia’s horn, blasting her back to the ground. As the Queen laughed at her triumph. Shade saw other ponies, six to be exact.

A purple unicorn, an orange Pony wearing a Stetson for some reason, a yellow Pegasi, a Pink pony, a blue Pegasi with rainbows attached to her head, and a white Unicorn. From this distance it was difficult to pick out details, but they seemed to be worried about something.

As Shade watched, the six of them began to run out of the hall. Just as the other Changelings hit the shield with a large THUD! And the Shield began to shatter.

“Go! FEED!” Those were the only words Shade heard over the destruction of the shield, it sounded as though a thunder cloud had burst open, firing its stored lighting everywhere it could.

Shade had no choice in the matter. He was pulled along by some unseen force into the city. He began to fly around, trying to find the six he saw earlier. He frantically scanned the streets, he needed to find them, to try and help them, or at the very least, stop them doing anything stupid.

As soon as he thought he found them, a green missile flew in front of him, smashing into the ground right in front of the purple unicorn. This is a bad place to be… Shade thought. If the other Changeling saw him, they would question him. That could lead to strange complications. He needed to get out. Find something he recognized, something he could…

“OOF!” Shade said as the wind was knocked out of his lungs by a very quick head-butt to his stomach. He flew spinning a few yards away before he managed to correct himself to look at what hit him.

A white Pegasus clad in golden armor was hovering where he had been. It looked like a stallion but Shade had no idea what the difference really was yet. But he had been head-butt before, and that was definitely a male.

The Pegasi charged at him again, attempting to knock him towards the ground, but this time, Shade was ready.

Quickly, and with all the precision of someone who had done it their whole life, he lifted himself slightly into the air, turning over so that he facing the same direction as the Pegasi, and latched onto his feathered wings with his hooves.

Shade pulled up on the wings, causing both of them to begin losing altitude. Quickly, he turned the Pegasus over so that he was staring straight into his eyes, before Shade’s horn had lit up slightly, and a cloud of green was forced out of the pegasi’s mouth, moving straight to Shade’s horn. “I’m sorry…” Shade said, a small tear in his eye as he forcefully pushed the pegasi towards the ground faster while pushing himself into the air.

“Hey Nymph!” Came a voice from above Shade, looking up, he saw Spine hovering above him, he was wearing one of those strange dark blue helmets that didn’t look very affective at protecting the eye. “Good job taking care of that Royal Guard.” He called lowering himself to be at the same height as Shade. “You sure this is your first time in a raid?” Then noticing Shade staring at the broken Pegasus lying on the ground. “What did you-?”

“Nothing…” Shade said sighing deeply, “He attacked me first.” Shade had to repress another tear. He had just done something unbelievable. This wasn’t the first time he had to take a life. But it didn’t make it any easier, particularly when he absorbed the emotions beforehand, that Pegasus had a family, a wife, a kid. Now it was all going to be taken away from him. There was only one way to stop himself from feeling ashamed…

Shade had flown down to where the Pegasus was lying. Broken, but not dead. “Hey” Shade said to his ear, hoping to get some kind of response. It came...

The Pegasus had opened its eye. A cold blue eye that stared daggers into Shade’s heart, and it only added to the pincushion.

“Stay still…” Shade said,standing up to look at the wound in the center of the Pegasi’s chest. “This will only hurt for a moment…” Mentally adding Please let me still remember how to do this. Shade lowered his horn to the location where the blood was flowing and began quietly saying something in a long dead language. “Hashha Me al hassa…” As he spoke, the green magic of his horn began to change to a bluish light. “Morro Cothra Jusin, corra hassah coran…” As Shade continued, the wound began to seal. After a few moments, the wound was healed, but the Pegasus remained on the ground. “I am sorry for what I did to you.”

Shade took off and flew up above the buildings, hoping to catch up to those ponies. He still felt guilty for forcefully draining the guard…but he had stopped him from bleeding to death, maybe it would be enough.

---

Ten minutes of searching had turned up a fruitless effort. There was no sign of any of the six ponies he had seen with Celestia, the closest thing he got was a large group of Changelings all laying in a circle near a big tower. But now he had something else on his mind. As he flew over the city, he watched what his... he shuddered at the thought... Fellow Changelings were doing. Some were openly draining ponies in the street, sticking them to walls, and flying near the castle he even saw Celestia herself locked in a cocoon. He was just about to give up hope and then…

There were two ponies running through a small alleyway, there didn’t seem to be any Changelings after them, but they clearly weren’t eager to be found.

Shade took a look around him, making sure he wasn’t in the sightlines of any other Changelings, before he dove down into the alleyway, landing with a louder than planned THUD, behind the two of them.

One of them was a cream colored Unicorn, bordering on near perfect white, her mane was a strange shade of purple that bordered on being pink and white. Her ‘Cutie mark’ as Darkblaze had called it, was that of a candle stick. The shorter of the two looked like a child, she was a light shade of brown that reminded Shade of dried mud, and her mane was a strange shade of green. She too had a small horn jutting from her head, however unlike the other, she had a distinct lack of any ‘Cutie mark’

From the instant he landed, he knew this was going to get bad.

Author's Note:

Minor edits made: March 23, 2016

Comments

[Razzy]

Go changelings go!

[Cursed Quill]

Argh, lost work. Mano a mano means hand to hand, not man to man. Period between "Queen's Celestia". Commas inside quotes where there are speech tags. Set off addressee with commas when someone says somehing like "It is time, my children."

[Warrior Kitten]

a yellow Pegasi

a blue Pegasi

Pegasi is plural. Pegasus is singular.

[ookacha]

Hmm... Late comment is late but,
I feel like the pace is much better in this chapter. I had lost interest after the previous chapter but after scrolling through my tracked list, I figured I'd pick up on this again.

And I must say, I think messages are conveyuued much more clearly here.
And I loved how you said it was a Dead language, added a whole new depth to the power of the words.
Anyway, I am once again intrigued.
Hope it keeps up, and if not, I still love this story anyways. Even if only for a couple chapters.
Have a great day you fantastic person you.

[Black--Soul]

I wonder if the Guard will survive and Effect events