Previous Chapters Next
Close
Chapter 17,876 words
Chapter 25,138 words
Chapter 32,565 words
Chapter 45,364 words
Chapter 56,056 words
Chapter 65,944 words
Chapter 75,412 words
Chapter 84,934 words
Chapter 93,693 words
Chapter 105,365 words
Chapter 114,645 words
Chapter 126,009 words
Chapter 138,861 words
Chapter 144,580 words
Chapter 155,025 words
Chapter 167,818 words
Chapter 178,331 words
Chapter 182,598 words
Chapter 196,623 words
Chapter 205,630 words

Chapter 9

Aura smiled as she walked into her room. Nothing beat that feeling one got when returning home after spending a long day at school, having their head crammed with all sorts of knowledge that likely would never come into play later on in life.

As she entered, she was greeted by a series of loud bangs and sprays of confetti flying towards her. She stood frozen as she looked around at all of the changelings in the room. Her maids and butlers were there, most of her tutors were there, her knights were there, and even some students from her class were there, too. Her two brothers were also there, but there was no sign of either of her sisters or of her mother.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” everybody all cheered in unison. Alexander and Odysseus stepped forward and the latter offered her a slice of chocolate cake.

“Happy birthday, Sis,” Alexander said, roughing up the youngling’s mane a little bit. “Another year, but you’re still a runt. Hurry up and grow a bit so I can teach ya how ta fight.”

Odysseus rolled his eyes and levitated a fork to his younger sister. “Don’t listen to him. The last thing we need is another brute walking these halls.”

Aura giggled as her two brothers began bickering. She saw Knight approaching her from the side and turned to address him. “Who came up with all this?” she asked.

“All of us did,” Knight answered, stopping just short of Aura and bowing to her. “That’s why I didn’t accompany you today, Princess.”

“I see,” she said, motioning for him to rise. She took another look around the room and then turned back to her siblings. “Where are Mother, and our sisters?”

The two brothers’ argument and they faced Aura together. “Victoria caught ill this morning, and Elizabeth is looking after her,” Odysseus explained.

Aura looked concerned at this news. “It’s not… serious, is it?” she asked, her voice shaking.

Alexander laughed at Aura’s question, resulting in a deadpan stare from the youngling. “Nah, she’s just got a cold. Liz’s just overreacting is all. As for Mother, she’s a little busy right now, but-”

“But for her daughter, she’ll make some adjustments to her schedule.” The three siblings turned to see their mother, Queen Chrysalis, approaching from the room’s entrance. Everyone in the room, including the three siblings, bowed to their queen upon her arrival. She ordered everybody to rise and then looked down and smiled at her daughter. “Happy Birthday, Aura. It seems like only yesterday that Odysseus was celebrating his sixth birthday.”

Alexander grinned at his mother. “What’s the matter? Ya feeling old, Ma?”

“Brother!” Odysseus scolded before bowing again to his mother. “Apologies, Mother. I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”

Chrysalis simply laughed it off. “No, he’s right. The years just seem to fly by… and I’m constantly reminded that I’m not as young as I once was.”

“Nonsense, Mother. You still have many, many years before it’s time for you to pass on the throne.” Odysseus turned to Aura, who was smiling brightly as she hugged their mother. “But anyway, perhaps we should move things along? I believe there are a pile of presents over there for you, Aura.”

Aura’s eyes lit up and she looked around the room excitedly. “Really? Where?” She stopped when she realised her behaviour and cleared her throat, her cheeks turning a slight shade of red. “I mean… I would like that, Brother.”

Odysseus and Alexander couldn’t help but chuckle at Aura’s actions, although Odysseus at least tried to hide his laughter. Alexander stepped forward after he was finish. “This way, Sis.”

Aura handed her used fork and plate to one of her maids, who took it away to the kitchen connected to the room. Alexander led Aura to a table with a pile of presents on it and smiled when he saw his sister’s excitement grow tenfold.

“Well?” Odysseus said, stepping next to his sister. “Go ahead, Sister. Open your presents.”

Aura nodded and ran forward to open her presents one-by-one. The first one she opened was from Odysseus. It was a first edition copy of the newest story in a series of youngling books that Aura liked, something that caused Aura to jump up in joy and hug her brother tightly. “Thank you, Brother! I love it! Thank you so much!”

“I’m glad you like it,” Odysseus said, patting his sister’s head lightly.

“Yeah, a book’s alright,” Alexander said, “But really, she could’ve gotten that anywhere.”

“It’s the thought that counts, Brother,” Odysseus said, narrowing his eyes at Alexander. “So, what did you get her?”

Alexander grinned at Odysseus’ question. “Well, it’s her sixth birthday today. That means she’s finally old enough.”

Odysseus sighed and facehooved. “Really? You got her that?”

“What? What? What did you get me?” Aura asked, practically jumping up-and-down.

“Why don’t ya find out?” Alexander asked, pointing to the presents behind her.

Aura turned around and examined each present, eventually finding the one that was from Alexander. She opened it, revealing a bottle of wine.

“You’re finally old enough ta drink wine, so I thought I’d get you a really good bottle for your first time,” Alexander said, grinning as he called over a maid. The maid was carrying a tray of wine glasses. “So, shall we have a toast?”

Aura looked at Alexander worriedly. “Um… I don’t know…”

“C’mon, don’t be shy!”

Odysseus sighed and stepped between his two siblings. “Well, he does have a point. You’re old enough to drink now, and as it is tradition to drink wine during important ceremonies and certain events, so it might be a good idea to get used to the taste and the feeling as soon as possible.”

“Aura’s gonna drink?” a male youngling asked as he cautiously walked past the two princes. “Can we join? We’re old enough, too!”

“That’s Princess Aura,” another youngling scolded as she approached her friend and nudged his side.

Alexander levitated three wine glasses to the three younglings. “Sure! The more the merrier, right?” He gave another glass to his brother and another to his mother, before taking one for himself. “Well, Aura? Would you care to do the honours?”

Aura’s looked at her brothers, and then to her friends. She smiled nervously and concentrated her magic on the bottle in order to open it, pouring wine into each glass once the cork was removed, saving her own glass for last.

Once she was done, Aura’s friends and family watched as they waited for her to take the first drink. She looked at her glass and swirled the liquid inside, and then slowly brought it to her lips. She had to admit that it wasn’t as bad as she had feared and relaxed a little as she continued to drink the wine. Soon, she was being joined by the others.

“Congrats, Aura!” Alexander shouted when he was finished. “Two more years and you can wield a weapon! Then I’ll teach you everythin’ I know!”

Aura smiled at her brother. “Thank you.”

Aura rubbed her eyes as she awoke. She found Odysseus tucking her into her bed and shifted about slightly to sit up straight. “Brother?”

“Ah, sorry Aura. Did I wake you?” Odysseus sat down onto the edge of the bed and looked into his sister’s eyes. “You fell asleep near the end of the party. Perhaps we overdid it with the festivities…”

Aura shook her head and looked over at her clock. It was nearly midnight. She recalled that her mother had to leave halfway through the party and turned to her Odysseus. “Brother?”

“Yes?”

“Mother… she does love us, right?”

Odysseus frowned, but didn’t take his eyes away from Aura’s. “Of course she does. She’s just busy, that’s all.” Aura didn’t look so sure. “It’s the fate we must suffer with our royal blood. But rest assured that we all love you, Aura. Your mother especially.”

“Are you sure?”

Odysseus smiled warmly at his sister. “Let me tell you a story, Sister. When I turned six years old, Mother was unable to attend my birthday party. It had been two whole weeks since I had last seen her, and I was… feeling rather lonely. So I did something drastic and broke my hind leg, to try to get her attention.”

“And what happened?”

“She scolded me, of course,” Odysseus said with a little laughter. “And she punished me by ordering my knights not to read me any bedtime stories for a full month. But then afterwards, she held me close and assured me that she loved me, and all of her children, very much, with tears in her eyes.

“So you see, Aura, you should never assume, for even one second, that Mother does not love you. Because that could not be any further from the truth.”

Aura smiled and gave a soft yawn, before she felt her eyes growing heavy. “I see… Thank you, Brother…”

“Sweet dreams, Aura.”

“Next stop: Canterlot. Canterlot is the next stop.”

Aura woke up to the sound of the train’s intercom, and she stretched her hooves as she yawned.

“Next stop: Canterlot. Canterlot is the next stop. Please have your tickets ready for inspection.”

Aura flinched at the warning and looked down towards the end of the train car, where she saw a train attendant moving down, requesting to see everypony’s tickets.

‘Well, this is where I get off, I guess,’ Aura thought as she focused her magic on the window next to her. As a youngling, she could only disguise herself as a foal, which made it impossible to buy a ticket on her own. Instead, she had to sneak onboard and just hope that she didn’t get caught.

She unlocked the window and opened it. She then jumped off her seat and levitated the saddlebag that she had borrowed from Trixie onto her back. She looked around to make sure that nopony was watching and then climbed up to the window and jumped out.

She quickly altered her disguise to expose a pair of wings and started to flap them as fast as she could to slow herself down, using her magic to shield her body as she made contact with the hard ground. She rolled around for a bit, but was spared much pain thanks to her magic.

When she had finally stopped rolling, Aura got up and dusted herself off before turning around to face the grand city of Canterlot, not too far from where she had landed. She hid her wings once more and began walking towards the city. “Well, I guess I’m hoofing it from this point on.”

‘It’s strange,’ Aura thought to herself. ‘Why would they send Shark to kill me, when at best I’m only a D-rank ‘criminal’? No matter where I go, allied country or enemy country, I’m no threat at all to them. It was unnecessary to go so far.

‘And then they send Razor to kill Shark, to silence him… But Odysseus said that Mother ordered my death to appease those I offended, so why keep it silent? If they really were just trying to kill Shark because they feared him, then why not send in more soldiers to do the job? Unless there was a reason that they couldn’t.

‘And now, Alexander has come here, and was fighting with two other changelings. That settles it. Something is going on, and I have no intention of being left in the dark.’

Trixie handed the train attendant her ticket and waited whilst he examined it. He handed it back to her and she continued her peaceful viewing of the scenery outside of her window. Although her thoughts were anything but peaceful.

‘That idiot. Just wait ‘til I find her. I did not almost suffer a magical meltdown just so that fill- youngling, could get herself locked away and… maybe even executed? … Is that what they do to changelings? Maybe she’ll just be banished. But she’s a fugitive, so she has nowhere else to go. Argh! This is so frustrating. Why did I have to meet her in the first place?!’

“Excuse me. Miss?” Trixie looked up to see the train attendant looking at her. “We’re here. You’ll have to get off the train now.”

“Oh, right,” Trixie said, rising to her hooves and levitating her saddlebags onto her back.

Trixie had no idea where to even start looking for Aura, but assumed that the guards near the castle might know something. Of course, she couldn’t just expect them to divulge sensitive information simply by asking them…

She noticed two guards by the southern entrance to the castle’s courtyard, both of them wearing strange, bulky goggles that gathered much attention from passing crowds. “What’s with that? Some kind of new fashion statement?”

She approached the guards and donned the face of a nervous tourist as she entered ‘stage mode’. “Excuse me!” The guards turned to face the blue mare approaching them. “Could you help me, please? I’m lost and am having trouble finding Fifth Street.”

One of the guards turned his attention back to the streets, whilst the other guard pointed a hoof down the street behind Trixie. “Just go straight down here and take a left at the statue of Clover the Clever. You can cut through the park to enter Fifth Street.”

“Oh, thank you, sir!” Trixie said, leaning forward and planting a soft kiss on the guard’s cheek, causing him to blush a little bit. She heard his partner snicker when his wings popped out and took the opportunity to hover a small listening device from her mane and place it behind the guard’s ear. It was only a simple gadget, used to time her tricks during shows, but it also worked sufficiently for eavesdropping from a safe distance.

In an attempt to shift the conversation between them to what she wanted, she used her magic to ‘accidentally’ knock the page of a newspaper from a nearby stand as she walked down the street, causing it to blow through the wind towards them. The page in question contained an article about the captured changelings.

Once she was a safe distance away, she tuned into the device and began listening.

“Hey, wasn’t there another changeling caught this morning?”

‘Wow. That worked great!’ Trixie thought to herself with delight.

“Yeah, a rather young one, this time. Well, small at least. Celestia only knows how old they really are.

“What d’you think they’ll do with ‘em?”

“Who knows? Maybe they’ll be treated as prisoners of war? I only hope for their sakes that Princess Luna isn’t placed in charge of them.”

“It’s funny. For somepony who’s able to so easily get with the times, her royal and political attitudes are still, like, ancient. Did ya see how shocked she was when she heard stealing fruit was no longer punishable by beheading?”

“I know. Kinda scary to think ponies used to do stuff like that.”

The conversation quickly derailed, leading towards talk about pony history, and then somehow leading on towards a debate on whether bowling is better than ice-skating. The Royal Guard were clearly focused on their duties.

She turned back around to face the castle behind her, gulping as she slowly started to walk forwards. If the youngling they caught this morning was Aura – which it most likely was – then that meant that she was probably being held in the castle’s dungeon with the other changelings… Which meant that, in order to save her, Trixie would need to go up against the Royal Guard.

‘What am I doing? I’m strong, sure, but to go against the Royal Guard? That’s just… stupid! Insane! And for what? That youngling? That youngling who clearly doesn’t appreciate everything I’ve done to help her? That youngling who…’

Trixie stopped Aura’s face appeared through her mind and Trixie stomped a hoof on the ground as she felt her heart swaying again. Aura’s frightened eyes, pleading for help, caused Trixie to swallow the lump in her throat and sigh as her heart made her decision for her. “Trixie must be mad to even consider this!”

Trixie braced herself and began to move towards the castle’s entrance. ‘Well, guess that’ll be my defence in court…’

Aura awoke in what appeared to be a very cliché dungeon from a typical children’s fairytale. Dark stone walls, stone floor, stone ceiling, a cold chill in the air, a nasty stench all around her, and even a wooden bucket in the corner beneath a slab that was presumably her bed.

“Finally awake, huh?”

Aura raised her head to the voice that had called out to her and gasped. In the cell opposite to hers, another changeling was shackled to the wall. “W-Who are you?” she asked, before realising that her disguise was gone. “What happened?”

“You got caught, that’s what,” the changeling said. “Odysseus’ gadget, that allows one to see through a changeling’s disguise. Worked like a charm.” The changeling laughed for a bit, unsettling the youngling. “Oh, sorry. My name is Blaze Stockford. Nice to meet you, Princess Aura.”

“She’s a traitor,” another voice said, this one to Aura’s side. Aura looked to her right – realising as she did so that she was also shackled to the wall – and saw another changeling. This one she recognised. “B… Brother?”

“Nice ta see ya again, Aura,” Alexander said, although his voice was weak, and he was panting very heavily. “I’d like ta say I’m glad you’re still alive, but I guess, now that you’ve been caught, it won’t last for long.”

“Too true,” a third voice said. Aura turned to the cell next to Blaze’s and saw another changeling that she didn’t recognise. “Soon, Lord Odysseus will be here to see to it personally that you two die. And, of course, to free his loyal subjects.”

“How can you be sure, Chill?” Alexander asked in a spiteful tone.

“Please. Lord Odysseus isn’t the kind who would abandon his own comrades,” Chill answered confidently.

“Funny. I never pictured him the kind to betray his siblings, either, but I guess ya can never really be sure about some changelings these days.”

“Um,” Aura interrupted, getting her brother’s attention, “What’s going on? What’s this about… Odysseus… betraying us?” Alexander didn’t answer quickly enough, so Aura pressed further. “Alexander, please… No, I need answers!” she shouted, trying to sound intimidating and assertive. “Did Mother really sign that document ordering my execution?! Why go to such lengths to ensure my death?! Why-”

“Sheesh, calm down, would ya?” Blaze said, cutting Aura off. “It doesn’t matter anyway, since you’ll be dead soon enough.”

Aura turned from her brother to the female changeling in front of her, and then to the male one who started laughing shortly afterwards. “Yep! Ain’t no one comin’ ta save you, Princess! No one!”

Trixie knocked out the last guard in front of the armoury and propped them up to make it seem as though they were conscious… if looked at from a distance, that is.

“This is almost too easy. It’s like they have no fear of being invaded so long as their princess is here to protect them,” Trixie said to herself as she entered the armoury. “Now that Trixie thinks about it, various text books do mention that Canterlot, whenever attacked, get damaged pretty badly before Celestia repels the invading forces… They should really do something about their security detail.”

Trixie found the locker of one ‘Shining Armor’, who was seemingly ranked captain. She used her magic to pick the lock, which was actually a more challenging task than knocking out the three guards outside of the armoury, and smiled when she saw the armour inside.

She took off her hat and cape, put them into her saddlebag, and donned the armour. She then looked over to the weapons cabinet and used her magic to force it open. She looked through the choice of weapons – which were mostly polearms with the occasional throwing knife or dagger – and picked up a halberd with her magic.

She slid the halberd into a slot on the side of her armour and looked herself over in a nearby mirror. “Okay, time to go,” she said to herself, leaving the armoury and making her way through the castle. She would later realise that she had no idea where she was going… and also that the members of the Royal Guard were taught to memorise each captain and general’s name and face almost religiously.

Celestia boarded her chariot and turned to face her sister one final time, before heading off towards the battlefield. “Luna, are you sure that you’ll be okay running a full day by yourself?”

Luna rolled her eyes. “We told you not to worry, dear Sister. We will be just fine. Isn’t it about time you stop treating us like such a child?”

Celestia smiled and nodded. “Right, sorry. I guess I just like to worry… See you, Luna. Hopefully, this war will be over quickly, and without too many casualties.”

“Fare thee well, Sister!” Luna shouted as she waved her sister goodbye. As soon as Celestia was out of sight, a grin crossed Luna’s face and her horn glowed green as she gathered energy into it. The two guards beside her were surrounded by green flames, and their muffled screams filled the air as the flames drew closer, burning both of them alive slowly. “Now then, first my siblings, and then the Elements.”

3,615 views

386

Changeling - Yukito

Stats

FIMFiction

Follow & Support Us