A changing crashes into the Everfree Forest after the failed attack on Canterlot.
After the failed attack on Canterlot, a changeling is sent flying into the Everfree Forest. As it wakes up, it finds that it has been abandoned and left to fend for it's self. Soon it finds another changeling and they try to make their way in the world together.
It was mayhem in Canterlot as a mob of strange creatures descended on the city. It seemed that all was lost as ponies were being attacked left and right until a strange blast of force sent most of the horde flying in every direction. The rest that remained airborne made a hasty retreat. We now cast our view on one of these beings. It had been sent crashing far into what it knew to be the Everfree Forest. It tried to get up and follow the rest of the swarm, but most of it's body parts had been injured in the fall. The creature could feel the Hive-mind observing it an all of the fallen troops before giving one word in command: Abandon. That was the last thing the creature heard before sinking into the depths of unconsciousness as the telepathic mind-link was broken.
The creature's mind slowly swum into consciousness and it finally woke up. It's injured parts had healed so it tried to contact the Hive-mind so as to find the location of the rest of the swarm. Yet, it could no longer feel the presence of the Hive-mind, nor the rest of it's brethren. Then, after it's entire life a of absorbing emotions, the creature felt one of it's own: Sorrow. Right after that, another emotion, uncertainty, surfaced as well. For it didn't know what to do without orders from the Hive-mind to direct it. All it knew was that the beings called "ponies" were trouble to creatures like it. It slowly sat down and started to have it's first self-conscious thoughts. Names, It thought, I need names for things if I'm going to stay sane. It thought for a moment before remembering what it was called by all other beings: a changeling. As that name came up, a rush of Hive controlled memories came as well. It remembered sapping the love out of innocent ponies, taking the pony's form, terrorizing the land, but also being connected to all of the other changelings, and the cold nights where all of the changelings huddled together for warmth. This in itself sparked a whole new emotion: Emptiness.
The changeling sat down as this new feeling washed over it. The memories of past events were starting to fade from it's head. I'm not sure what to do if a pony actually does find me... Just then, the snap of a branch caused the changeling to look up. What it saw was a female striped quadruped staring back at the changeling.
"Is this a changeling that I see," the striped one said, "or are my eyes deceiving me?" Panicked, the changeling did the first thing that came to it's head: it tried to transform. But instead of sprouting green flames, it's horn only gave off a few sparks and caused a strange feeling in the changeling's throat.
"It seems that it's horn is broke, I should still warn the pony folk." She was backing away slowly as she said this, and as soon as she was far enough she turned tail and fled. "Great. Now I'll probably have a whole mob of ponies chasing after me." The changeling gave a start, realizing that it had been voicing these thoughts aloud in a scratchy, yet definitely masculine voice. "I guess changelings actually do have genders," he said to himself, "It feels good to talk with my own voice, instead of somepony else's... I wonder what that, what was it, a zebra? Was talking about 'it's horn is broke'." He walked over to a puddle of water and saw that his horn had indeed, been broken in half. The reality of this sunk in as he realized that, without his horn, he was stuck in his true form. As he was thinking about this, he noticed a familiar feeling in his head similar to the connection to the Hive-mind, but extremely faint. Now, with something to do, he set of to find the source.
Inside of the Ponyville library, Rainbow Dash was returning her most recently finished Daring Do book to Twilight Sparkle.
"So, what did you think of this book?" Twilight asked as Spike, the purple dragon, put the book in it's correct position.
"It was even better than the last one!" Rainbow said, "I can't wait to read the next one!"
"Good! Spike, could you get the next book for rainbow dash?"
"I have it right here Twilight!" Spike said, waving the book in the air. Just then, Zecora the zebra burst into the room, causing Spike to lose his grip and fall of the ladder.
"Zecora, what's wrong?" Twilight asked
"I have come to you with a warning," Zecora said, "about what I have found this morning. I saw a changeling with my own eyes! It gave me a very nasty surprise."
"A changeling?!? I thought we got rid of them all! Show me where you found it."
"I knew you were the one to warn, but there was something wrong with this one's horn."
"Wrong? What do you mean by that?"
"Half of was not there, like it had been broken off elsewhere."
"No matter, we'll find it. Come on Rainbow Dash, let's find that changeling."
"Right!" All three of them dashed towards the Everfree forest as fast as they could to find the changeling.
The changeling didn't have to look far to find what he was looking for. He came upon a large tree that had fallen over a hole in the ground where the mental signal was emanating from. He looked under the trunk and found two luminescent blue eyes staring back at him. Quickly, he lifted up the trunk high enough to allow another changeling to crawl out from underneath.
"We have lost connection to the Hive-mind," said a monotone voice in his head, "Multiple injuries sustained. Swarm has been lost. Are you rescue?"
"No, I've been cut off as well," he said, helping the other changeling up onto it's feet, "We're on our own now."
"How can you use the voice speak? How can we be alone? Don't understand..." The other changeling passed out, leaving a trace of confusion in the first one's head.
Elsewhere in the forest
Twilight and Rainbow Dash followed Zecora through the Everfree forest to a small crater in the ground.
"Are you sure this is where you found the changeling?" Twilight asked Zecora.
"Yes, this is where I spotted it, It's crash must have left this pit."
"Well I don't see it around here any more. Let's spit up and comb the forest."
"Well, what if it changes into one of us?" Rainbow asked, "Who knows what it'll do?"
"Changing is what it can not do. It couldn't for me, so I think the same for you."
"Okay, everypony, let's go search and meet back here in 10 minuets." As everypony started to head off in different directions, Twilight stepped on something sharp. She looked down and saw what looked like a large black thorn laying on the ground. Without thinking, she picked up the object before continuing her search.
Once the first changeling had found the other, he knew that they needed some where to hide from the ponies soon. He had heard the zebra say she was going to tell the ponies and who knows how many would come searching after them. He picked up the unconscious changeling and flew them up to a small cave nearby. He placed the unconscious changeling against the side of the cave wall and set off to find some bedding for the both of them. As he went to leave the cave, he heard voices below. He sneaked up to the edge of the cliff and spotted the zebra talking to two ponies. These ponies seem familiar... I remember now! They're part of the Elements of Harmony! He watched as the ponies started to head off in different directions when suddenly, the purple unicorn stopped. She bent down and picked an object off the ground. Wait, is that? My horn! That purple unicorn has my horn! Well, there's nothing I can do about it now...
The changeling gathered a few large leaves from some nearby as the ponies were looking around the forest for him. As he arrived back at the cave, he found that the other changeling was waking up. As he divided the leaves and was making a bed, it stared at him for a while before mind-speaking.
"Broken horn." it's mind-voice came with a female hint to her voice.
"Yes, I know my horn is broken." He said, continuing to work on the leaves.
"Broken Horn."
"Sigh, What do you want?"
"Is Broken Horn... name?" She asked, Starting to put sentences together better.
"I don't know. Well, I guess so. I mean, it fits me..."
"What is... my name?"
"Hmm... Let me think..." He adopted a pensive look on his face before noticing that her wings were extreamly damaged. "How about Tattered Wing? Err... Tatter for short."
"Sounds... good. How do you speak... verbally?"
"I'm not sure... Well, when I tried to transform, what's left of my horn spit out sparks and I got the voice of a pony, but not the form..."
I guess I'll try that... Tatter started concentrating and, before long, burst into green flames for a moment. Once the flames subsided, in place of the changeling was a light purple unicorn with a blue mane and tail and the cutie mark of a cloud broken in half. "Well that didn't go as well as I had hoped..."
"Actually, that's perfect! Those ponies had to live somewhere nearby, so you can go find where they live and get back my horn fragment from that purple unicorn!"
"Purple unicorn? That wouldn't happen to be the purple unicorn from the Elements of Harmony would it?"
"Unfortunately, yes it is, but if you stay calm, you could probably fool her into thinking you're an actual pony. I saw them coming from the East, so if you head in that direction, you'd probably find their town."
"Okay. As soon as I find your horn, I'll head back here."
"I'll see you as soon as you get back, just make sure you're not followed."
Tattered Wing, now with her new form, was walking towards a not-so-far-off-town in the distance. As she approached the town, she saw a large sign on the side of the road. The sign read: "Welcome to Ponyville!" Inside the town, she walked up to a pink mare and started to say, "Excuse me, do you know-" She was cut off as the pink mare gave a loud gasp before chattering away at high speed. (It's best to read this next part as fast as you can.)
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! You must be new here! I know that because I've never seen you before and I know everypony here! So if I haven't seen you before that means you must be new here, and if you're new here then you must not know anypony. If you don't know anypony here then you must not know where anything is, and if you don't know where anything is then you need a tour of the town. And I know just the pony to give you one!"
"Umm... Great, who?"
"Me!" Pinkie Pie said grabbing Tattered Wing by the tail and proceeding to drag her around the town, stopping only to tell her about an important landmark. After about an hour of this, Pinkie Pie finally stopped at their final destination, a giant tree. "And this is the Ponyville library! Twilight Sparkle lives here as well if you ever feel like meeting her!"
"Wait, do you mean like The Element of Harmony Twilight Sparkle?"
"Yes! And later you can meet her and all of my other friends at a PARTY!"
"A party?!? Umm... I don't think I can make it..."
"Aww, why not? Oh, silly me, I never got your name!"
"It's, uh, Tattered wing, and I was going to need to leave town later. I only came for a few things."
"Oh, okay! We can just have the party tomorrow!"
"Umm, well, I..."
"Come on, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease pleeease?" Pinkie said, causing her eyes to grow to an outrageously large size.
"Err... Ugh, fine."
"Great! But you're going to need to pinkie promise!"
"A pinkie what?"
"A pinkie promise! Just do what I do!" She explained a series of moves accompanied with a strange chant.
"Umm... Okay then... Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my- Horse feathers!" Tattered wing said, holding a hoof to her that she just poked.
"Tee hee! Don't worry, everypony does that at some point. See you at the party tomorrow!" Pinkie said, bouncing away.
"Yeah, like that's going to happen,crazy filly..." Tattered wing said under her breath, as she turned toward the library.
As Tattered wing walked into the library she was instantly greeted by shelves and shelves of books as high as the ceiling.
"Hello, come on in," said a voice coming from up a flight of stairs. Tattered wing looked around and saw a purple unicorn descending the stairs toward her, "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and you are?"
"Tattered Wing."
"I haven't seen you around recently. Are you new to Ponyville?"
"Yes, I just got here this morning and thought I'd stop by here."
"Good, I'm glad there's another pony here that enjoys reading! Feel free to read any of the books here."
"Thank you. I'm sure to, err, enjoy them." Tattered Wing feigned interest in the bookshelves until Twilight left the library. Good, now I can find- Oh? What's this? She paused at a book labeled: A Beginner's Guide To MagicI guess that could be worth a read, but I need to find Broken Horn's horn. She glanced around the room before noticing a pointy object on the table behind her. That must be his horn. She thought as she picked up the object and placed it deep in her mane. She turned back to the bookshelves and took out A Beginner's Guide To Magic, turning to the first page. Surely Broken Horn won't mind if I linger here for just a while, will he? Everfree Forest, nightfall
Broken horn paced back and forth inside his cave, glancing back at the entrance with every pass. "Ugh, where is she?" he muttered to himself, "Tattered Wing should have been back hours ago!" A small popping sound and a flash of light interrupted his thoughts as Tattered Wing seemed to appear out of thin air in front of him. "Where the hay were you?!?" he yelled at Tattered Wing as she appeared.
"Sorry, I got caught up at the library," she responded.
"Seriously?!? You keep me waiting for hours on end for some BOOKS!?!"
"Well, sorry! I didn't expect you to get this frantic over a quick stop at a library..."
"A quick stop?!? Ugh, never mind. Did you at least get my horn?"
"Yes, I have it right here," Tatter said, levitating the horn fragment over to Broken Horn.
"Thanks, now I can- Wait, since when could you use magic?"
"When I was in the library I found multiple books on magic. Then I ended up reading almost all of them..."
"... Okay then... Well, with my horn back, I should be able to change my appearance." He grabbed the horn fragment out of the air, but as soon as he made contact with it, the fragment melted into his exoskeleton. "Wha- Well, great. Now what am I supposed to do?"
"Why don't you try anyways? It might work now that you, umm, well I think you have the fragment back now..."
"Fine. Probably won't work though..." Broken Horn concentrated on using his horn, causing it to shoot out tons of sparks. After a few moments, a ring of green flames erupted around him, slowly enveloping him. Once the flames subsided, standing in his place was a light gray pegasus pony, with a red spiked mane, and a gout of green flames broken in half as his cutie mark. "Wow. I didn't expect that."
"I have other good news," Tatter said, "in the near-by town, Ponyville, there's a pony who lives there that just radiates love and happiness constantly. We could use her for fuel and she would never feel a thing!"
"Really? Great! Who is this pony?"
"She's a pink mare, but she's also a Element of Harmony. She's a weird one though. As soon as she saw me, she invited me to a party."
"That is sort of strange. Are you going?"
"Psh, no. Iv'e had enough of that crazy mare for now."
"Hi Tatter!" said a high pitched voice behind the two changelings, "Is that your friend?" The changelings whirled around to find a Pinkie Pie bouncing towards them. "I hope you're still planning on going to my party, because nopony breaks a pinkie promise," then her voice suddenly dropped into demonic tones, "EVER."
"Yes, we'll be there!" Broken Horn said, a hint of panic in his voice, "About what time do you want us over?"
"Oh, any time will be fine,the party's going to be going on all day so it doesn't really matter. I'll be waiting!" Pinkie said, bouncing away. As soon as she disappeared from the changeling's view, Tattered wing rounded on Broken Horn, dropping her disguise.
"Why did you do that?" she asked, peeved, "I told you that I've had enough of that mare!"
"Tatter, did you hear her voice right then?" Broken horn responded, dropping his disguise as well, "It was completely demonic! Not only is she an Element of Harmony (however unlikely that is), but she's completely insane! If we cross her, something terrible is bound to happen!"
"Ugh, fine, but you owe me for this."
"Owe you? I saved your hide from those ponies. Besides, it's a party, how bad can it be?"
"Pretty bad if the pink one is there."
"Come on, it's not going to be that bad. There will be other ponies there to use as excuses for avoiding Pinkie."
"There better be. Well, we better get to sleep if we're going to survive another encounter with her."
That same evening, as Twilight and Spike were cleaning up the library, Spike asked about the new pony Twilight had met.
"So, what was her name?" he asked, re-shelving the last of the books.
"Tattered Wing," Twilight responded.
"Hmm, strange name. So, she spent the entire day reading these magic books?"
"Yep. However, I would have thought that Pinkie would have thrown a party for her, seeing as how she's new."
"Well maybe Pinkie's just- Urp!" Spike was cut off as he burped out green flames and a message from Princess Celestia.
"My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle," Twilight read aloud, "Soon after your brother's wedding, my sister captured a changeling still inside the Canterlot borders. After much deliberation, we have decided to have you conduct a study on him. Princess Luna should arrive with him soon."
"Ohmygosh, Spike! Do you know what this means?"
"That I'm not going to get any sleep for the next month?"
"Of course you are. Owloysius can take notes during the night shifts. Right, Owloysius?"
"Hoo." the pet owl responded from her perch by the window.
"You're going to be writing the notes, I thought I just made that clear." Twilight said, giving the owl a quizzical look. Instead of giving another reply, Owloysius just buried her head in her wing. "Hmm, anyways, this means that I could be writing notes that could be put in a book that gets put in the Royal Library! That's what I've always dreamed of, aside from being Celestia's best student. There's one thing that bugs me though..."
"What?"
"Cadensa's and my brother's spell should have ejected all of the changelings from the city limits. I wonder how one managed to stay inside."
Canterlot, Three days earlier
Two fillies cowered in front of him as he loomed over them. He was going to do it, he was going to drain the both of them of emotion, but... The changeling hesitated, This seems wrong... No, it's not. The Hive-mind said to feed, so you feed. It had always been this way for the changeling, two different thoughts occupying his head at once. There was no reasonable explanation for his condition, he was just a changeling that argued with it's self. A searing headache interrupted his conflicting thoughts. Then, a flash of bright light caused him to look back towards the middle of the city and see a giant pink orb start quickly expanding from the chapel, sending his fellow changelings flying from the city. Oh, horse feathers. The changeling tried to take off and escape, but the love wave caught him in mid-flight and sent him (or rather, his face) smashing into a series of objects. Through the pain, of each impact, the changeling randomly listed each item that came in contact with his face. Sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, anvil (How did that even get there?), sign, sign, sign. sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, sign, hanging piano, sign, sign, sign, sign, and finally, solid brick wall.Thud!
As the wedding between the real Princess Cadensa and Shining Armor progressed, Princess Luna was walking around the city with two royal guards, surveying the damage to the city.
"Princess Luna!" one of the guards called from down the road, "I think you would want to look at this!" The princess walked over to where the guard was hovering and saw a long line of destroyed store signs. She followed the line of destruction and also spotted a an anvil with the indentation of a changeling face in i and a piano broken the same way as the signs. The line of destruction ended at a changeling half buried in a wall.
"Guards," Luna said to the two stallions, "remove thy changeling from yonder wall."
"Yes your majesty!" The guards picked up some pieces of wood and proceeded to pry the changeling off of the wall.
"What beith the status of thy changeling?"
"It looks dead your highness, and you're doing it again..."
"What beith that we art doing that- Oh, I was speaking in Traditional Canterlot again, wasn't I?"
"Yes you were. Now what should we do with this- Hold on, I think it just moved."
"What?" the other guard said, "That can't be possible. Nothing could survive that amount of torment... Sweet Celestia, you're right! It just twitched!"
"Guarding Light," Luna said, addressing one of the guards, "bringith thy- I mean, put the changeling in a prison cell for now. You," she said pointing to the other guard, "come with me. We must finish the inspection of the city."
"Yes your majesty!" Both guards said at once. As Luna and the other guard walked away, Guarding Light picked up the changeling and carried him off towards the prison cells.
Hey, moron, wake up. The changeling stirred slightly. I'm talking to you, you piece of cow dung! Get up!
Sweet Chrysalis... "I'm up already, what do you want?" the changeling said as he got up, holding his head in pain.
"Quiet in there!" yelled a voice from outside the cell door, "The prisoner shall stay silent!"
"What the? When'd I get in a prison?"
"I said QUIET!"
Hey! You broke me! What'd you do to my body?!? Your body? This is my body! And what do you mean broke? The talky thing! You must have done it when you threw yourself in front of those signs! What? That was not my fault! That stupid love wave forced me into those! Unless you think that was my fault, too. Of course it was! Then why didn't you take over and get us out of there? ... That's what I thought. "Hey, you, there!" the changeling called to the voice outside the cell. "Why am I here?"
"Celestia, help me, if you don't shut up, I'll - "
"You'll what?" asked another voice.
"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna! I didn't expect to see you here so soon!"
"Never mind that. How is our little changeling doing?" The changeling watched as a tall white alicorn came into view outside the cell door. Using her magic, she opened the door, allowing herself and another alicorn, probably Princess Luna, to enter.
"Sister, I don't believe this is wise ... "
"Hush, Luna," the white alicorn said, revealing herself to be Princess Celestia. "Now, how are you today?" she said, addressing the changeling.
"Ummm, well- BUCK OFF!!"
"YOU DARE!?!" Luna raged.
"Calm down, sister. This changeling doesn't seem to be himself."
"Oh, shut up, you old crone! Gah! I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! Quiet, you! So come down to torture me or what, hags?" His speech was cut off as Luna's hoof came into swift contact with the changeling's face.
"Wha- Luna! Why did you do that?"
"Yonder changeling appeareth to need-"
"AHEM!" One of the guards cleared his throat.
"It seemed that the changeling needed that."
"Ugh, ow ... I think that'll shut him up for a while," the changeling said, holding his face.
"He? Wasn't that YOU talking just now?"
"No, well, yes, err, sort of?"
"Seems like multiple personalities," Luna said. "Remember the guard who had that same problem, sister?"
"Oh, yes. That was slightly problematic. Good day, changeling." With that, Celestia exited the cell alongside Luna.
"Well, Celestia seemed nice," the changeling said to himself, once the princesses were gone.
You idiot. Ugh. Don't you know what they do to changelings here?
"No, do you?"
"Well, umm, no. Shut up, it can't be anything good! I mean, we just attacked their main city! They can't be happy about that."
"Oh, I didn't think about that ... So what do we do?"
"First, we need to take out those guards.
"You mean, those two?"
"Yes.
"I think the changeling's talking to himself!" whispered one guard to the other.
"Who cares? I just want to see how long it takes to break it."
"Come on. You don't need to torment him. What's he done to you?"
"A whole swarm of them just attacked the city, two days ago! That's enough of a reason for me." The changeling stuck his head out through the bars.
"Do you mean I've been knocked out for two whole days?!?"
"QUIET, YOU!" roared the second guard, as he struck him across the face with his javelin.
"Son of Tartarus!" the changeling yelped, holding his face in pain.
"That'll teach it."
"You didn't have to be so harsh to him. He was just asking a question." The changeling lost the rest of the conversation focusing on his face's pain.
Now will you just drain them already? Ugh, now that you mention it, I do feel kinda drained... Good boy, now turn them into lifeless husks so we can get out of here. Well, when you put it that way... DO IT! Gah! Fine!
