Princess Celestia has never had any foals. Or so everypony thought.....
Shade has been an orphan all his life. Knowing nothing but being a personal assistant to Princess Celestia herself, he dosn't know much about the outside world. But unknown to everypony, Shade has a secret even he doesn't know. And its reveal could change Equestria forever.
“Shade! Wake up!” I rolled over, trying to block the knocking on the door. “Shade! Get up!” I slowly opened my eyes, blinking hard to orient myself to the day.
“Come on in!” I said, sleepily. Princess Luna walked inside my room, flanked by two guards.
“Ahh, you're awake.” she said. “Good. Celestia wishes to see you when you are fully awake.”
“Thanks, Princess.” She nodded and left the room. I rolled out of bed, brushed my teeth and polished my horn.
Oh, I guess you want to know some things about me? Fair enough. My name is Shade. I'm a young colt with a blue coat. Interestingly, my mane is green and I have a yellow tail.
Princess Celestia had found me as a orphan and had decided to “adopt” me as her personal assistant. I was very grateful for the home and the job wasn't bad either. I am a unicorn and was well trained in magic. The princess took it upon herself to practice at least one spell everyday. We had started to move into more complex spells just last week. I never really left the castle, having spent almost my whole life there. Celestia had preferred to have me close to her as much as possible, so I never asked. But I was hoping that could change soon.
I dashed down the hallway to Celesta’s library, where I had sensed the princess was. Bursting in, I yelled, “Sorry I'm late Princess!”
Celestia turned and smiled at the sight of me, all disheveled. “Your mane is in a mess, but I see that you still remembered to polish your horn.”
“Oh!” I gasped. My horn flashed and my mane instead of becoming straight, decided to puff up like a cloud. “Rats!” I grumbled, struggling with the spell.
Celestia laughed, something she liked to do a lot and used a spell to straighten my mane. “Come over here, Shade.” I walked up next to the princess, taking a glance at the book she was reading.
“What do you think this is?” Celestia asked.
I took a glance at the book. “This is a spell book, right?”
“Correct.” I was told. I took another look at the book. Reading some of the spells, I saw that this was a spellbook with even more complex spells then what we had been working on.
“Shade, I have a surprise for you today, but you can't have it unless you can preform this spell correctly.” the white alicorn told me. I read the spell. “Advanced Teleportation? I already know how to teleport, Princess.”
Celestia gave me a smirk, the one she gave when she knew something I didn't. “But did you know that certain ponies can teleport things to them?” She pointed at a flower in a jar that was over by the door. In a flash of her horn, the flower was in front of us.
“Wow!” I said, impressed. Nothing either of the princesses showed me ceased to impress me. Luna never did much with me, not hating me but not really liking me either. Maybe I should ask Celestia.....
Whoop, going off topic there. I spaced back in as Celestia asked, “Are you ready to try this spell?”
“Sure! What am I bringing here?” I happily asked.
Suddenly, a picture appeared in front of me. I looked at the lavender colored mare then gasped. “Is the the Element of Magic I saw at the wedding? Twilight Sparkle?”
Celestia nodded. "She holds the element, yes. I already discussed the details with her and she is waiting at her house to come here. Shade, your test for today is to locate her with your magic and bring her here.”
My mind raced, thinking of a million different problems. But there was one thing I never did. I never questioned the tests. I didn't want to appear weak in front of the princess. She must have sensed my nervousness when she asked. “Are you feeling alright, Shade? If you like, I will save this test for lat..”
“No! I can do this!” I yelled. I looked over the book then stepped back away from the princess. Taking a deep breath, I began to cast the spell. A black beam of light came from my horn and hit the ground. Moving my head, I was able to create a circle on the ground. I then slowly lifted my head, creating sort of a magic cylinder. I closed the top, then I shot another beam at the inside. A brilliant flash occurred, then the magic cylinder disappeared, leaving a sitting lavender pony with a book there.
I shuddered, then sat as well. “Wonderful, though I don't know why you used a magic seal.” Celestia said.
“Because it was a living creature and my first time,” I started to explain, “I wanted to make sure the magic wouldn't override and send her somewhere else.” Strangely, as Celestia nodded and smiled, I felt better.
“Twilight Sparkle, please meet Shade.” Celestia said. We nodded and shook hooves.
“So, why did you want me to bring her here?” I asked.
“Well, I thought it was time for you to get out and see some more of Equestria, so I asked Twilight if she could let you stay with her for a while.”
“And I said yes!” Twilight said, excited. “I can show you all around Ponyville!”
“Are you sure about this Princess?” I asked. “What if you need me to help you with something?”
“If it's very important I will send you a letter.” Celestia said with a smirk. “Now you two head on back to Ponyville. Shade, do you want to try?”
I shook my head. “I should probably only do one major spell every day.”
Celestia smiled. "I'll see you a little later then. Enjoy yourself you two." She then pointed her horn at us and everything disappeared.
I opened my eyes to find myself in a library, sort of the one in Canterlot but smaller. “This is a really nice library.” I told the unicorn.
“Thanks.” Twilight said. “I tried to fill it with as many books as I could.”
I nodded, then yawned. “That kind of magic rather takes it out of me. Anyway we could meet everypony a little bit later?”
“Well, I guess.” Twilight said, thoughtfully. “Besides, Ponyville is a little more active in the evening.”
Yawning, I laid down on the rug on her floor. “Yeah, usually I have a little more stamina.”
“You rest, Shade.” Twilight said. “I have some work to do anyway. We'll meet everypony as soon as you wake up!” Nodding, I laid down to rest.
…
Celestia walked to her balcony. She sighed and looked over Canterlot. “Feeling a little tired sister?” Luna said, walking up next to her sister.
Celestia spoke softly, “Yes Luna. I guess you could say I am.”
Luna put her hoof on her sister. “You know that he needs to know soon. It's slowly killing you.”
Celestia stubbornly shook her head. “Him being away for a while. It'll help me regain my strength.”
Luna turned to walk away, then she turned her head to look at Celestia. “Sister, if you get any weaker when he returns, I will be forced to reveal. And then you know what has to happen after that.”
As Luna walked away, Celestia sighed again looking at the stars. “Yes, I do know what has to happen. I refuse to let that occur.”
I yawned, opening my eyes to see a scaly face. “Umm, hello?” I said. The face jerked away from me.
“Whaaa! Sorry!” I sat up and saw that it was a baby dragon with purple scales and green spines.
“Hey, it's okay.” I said, making sure to speak calmly. “My name is Shade, what's yours?”
The young dragon seemed to relax at my calm tone. “Spike.”
Suddenly, we both heard a rattling upstairs. “Spike? Shade? Is everything okay?” She walked down the stairs levitating about 6 books. “Sorry Spike. I forgot you were helping Rarity and I didn't tell you Shade was coming and...” Not paying attention to where she was walking, she stepped on a book and stumbled.
Not thinking, I leapt up toward her. I lit up my horn toward the books that she dropped and whipped my head backwards, sending the books toward the table. I landed in front of the purple unicorn and she fell on me. “Oof.” I winced.
“Oh, Shade! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?” Twilight asked, worried. She quickly rolled off of me.
“Yeah, I'll be fine.” I groaned. “Isn't as bad as when I accidentally blew up three of Princess Celestia's spell books.”
Twilight giggled. “How did that occur?” she asked, sorting though the books that landed on the table.
“She told me to pop some popcorn, I ended up popping the books.” I said with a smile. “She make me find every page. Without magic.”
“Kinda harsh?” Twilight said.
“Nah. She just wants to me to be the best I can be at magic.” I thought about that for a second. “For being her assistant, she really works with me a lot.”
Twilight finished sorting though her books. “Maybe she sees something in you.” She took a look at the clock and gasped. “Oh no! If we don't leave now, we won't be able to see everypony! Spike, please put these books away for me?”
The baby dragon nodded. “Sure thing Twi.”
Twilight nudged me. “Ready, Shade? Time for a little teleporting.” She put her hoof on my flank and we disappeared.
…
We materialized in a apple field. “This is a nice field.” I said. Understatement of the year. This field was huge, and I mean huge. Apple trees were everywhere. As we started walking toward a barn in the distance, I couldn't stop marveling at the expanse of the field.
“This is Sweet Apple Acres, Shade. It's one of the oldest apple orchards in Equestria.” Twilight told me.
“It's beautiful.” Understatement of the year again, I know. But I was truly lost for words.
We came across a yellow-orange earth pony fiercely bucking a tree with her hind legs, knocking the apples off the tree into a cart. “Howdy there.” she said, looking at us. She kicked the tree one last time and walked over to us. “Who's your friend Twilight?”
“This is Shade.” Twilight told her.
The mare walked up and shook my hoof. “Name's Applejack. You new around here?”
“I guess you could say that.” I said. “I've been living in Canterlot my whole life.”
Applejack walked over the the cart and put the strap around her so she could pull it. “Well, Ah sure am glad to meet you. Sorry to be rushing off like this, but Ah need to get these apples inside before dark. See you later!” She trotted off with the cart.
“She's the Element of Honesty, correct?” I said to Twilight.
She nodded. “Yep, come on. We still have more ponies to meet.” She put her hoof on me and we disappeared.
…
We reappeared in the middle of Ponyville in front of a rather colorful building. “Carousel Boutique.” I said, reading the sign hanging over the door.
“Yeah. My friend Rarity works here. She makes great clothing.” Twilight glanced at me. “Maybe she could make you something for you.” She walked up and knocked on the door.
A white unicorn filly answered the door. “Oh hello Twilight!”
“Hi Sweetie Belle. Is Rarity here?”
The filly nodded. “Yeah, but she's REALLY busy. I'm sure she can take a break though. You and your friend can come in. She's in her art room.”
We thanked Sweetie Belle and went inside. Sweetie Belle shut the door behind us and went into a different room. When we reached the room, we saw that the room was covered in fabric. On the walls, all over the floor and draped over tables. A white unicorn that resembled Sweetie Belle was hunched over a sewing machine.
“Rarity! What's going on?” Twilight asked, as confused as I was.
Rarity didn't seem to hear her as she dashed back and forth around the room. Twilight's horn lit up and she stopped Rarity by lifting her into the air.
“Oh Twilight dear, I didn't see you there.” she said, finally seeing us. Twilight gently put her down. “What brings you here now? And who is this dashing stallion with you?”
I started blushing and mumbled my name as started tapping at the ground with my hoof. Twilight mercifully stepped in and said. “His name is Shade and he's going to be around Ponyville for a while.”
“Is he staying with you?” Rarity asked. As Twilight nodded, she said, “Well, that's pretty lucky for you, isn't it dear?”
Now even Twilight started blushing. Clearing her throat she said, “What's going on here, Rarity? You normally aren't this busy at this time.”
Rarity put her hoof to her forehead dramatic and said. “I suddenly received a dress order from Princess Luna HERSELF! So I've been sewing non-stop for hours!” She started to rummage though the fabric on the ground. “I simply must finish this in time! I don't want to look bad in front of the princess!”
Twilight walked forward and poked Rarity. “If you want, I can help you sort though this.”
“Oh thanks, but I wouldn't want to impose. Besides, I don't think Shade wants to poke though all this clothing.” Rarity said.
I smiled and shook my head. “It's okay Twi. If you want, you could send me to the next pony you wanted me to meet.”
Twilight thought for a second then her horn lit up as she smiled. “Okay! You'll have fun here. See you in a bit!” A purple glow surrounded me and everything disappeared.
…
Twilight and Rarity proceeded to clean up the art room after Shade left. “Twilight dear, is something wrong?”
“What makes you think that?” Twilight asked, folding some fabric.
“Well, ever since you sent Shade away, you've been awful quiet.” Rarity pointed out.
Twilight sighed. “It's Shade. Not that I don't like him, but there's something off about him.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Rarity asked.
“When we returned from Canterlot, he took a nap because he was tired. About an hour after he fell asleep, I accident bumped into him and his coat seemed to....shimmer.”
“Maybe the light was on it at a certain angle?” Rarity thought as she put the folded fabric in a drawer.
“I don't think so, because I cast a magic seeking spell.” Twilight said. Somepony cast an enchantment spell on him, probably when he was very young.” She started to sweep the room. “I can't tell what it is unless I remove the spell.”
“Well, it wouldn't be very proper to ask him if you can start casting spells on him.” Rarity said.
Twilight nodded. “It's probably nothing. Are you good here?”
“Oh yes darling. Thank you for helping me.” the white unicorn said. “I'll try to finish one more dress tonight.”
“Don't overwork yourself. See you later.” Twilight lit her horn and disappeared.
…
Back in Canterlot, the only time I saw any ponies other then the princesses show a lot of emotions was at the meetings Celestia took me too with the nobles of other parts of the country. There might be some yelling or anger and laughing. Celestia told me once that any meeting with out at least one laugh was a failure. I enjoyed a good chuckle myself.
But remind me to kill Twilight for sending me to where the Element of Laughter was BY MYSELF.
Pinkie Pie was a hyperactive pink pony and she lived up to being the Element of Laughter. Besides the fact she talked at 1 million words a minute. As soon as I arrived at Sugercube Corner, I was pelted with questions.
“Hiiiiiiiiiiii, I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name. Oh, I like your mane! And your tail! And your coat! Are you good with magic? Well, of course you are, you came here from nowhere! Do you know Twilight? And Rarity? And....” She asked all that in 15 flat. No joke.
I answered her questions as best as I could whenever I could squeeze a word in. Suddenly Twilight appeared next to me and Pinkie shot forward to hug her. “Hi Twilight! Your friend is really quiet!”
“Did you give him a chance to talk?” Twilight asked with a smile. As she sat next to me, she started grinning as I glared at her. She knew what she was doing when she sent me here.
Pinkie popped out from behind the counter. “You two hungry for anything? I got cupcakes!” She held out a tray of strawberry cupcakes.
“Thanks Pinkie.” Twilight said. “Sorry we can't stay, but it's getting late and we still have two more stops tonight.”
“Okie dokie!” Pinkie said. Twilight and I both took a cupcake and bit into it.
“Wow!” I said. “This is a amazing cupcake!”
Pinkie giggled. “Thanks! New recipe. Some very special ponies helped me with it! Actually, I think Rainbow Dash and I are having a baking party tomorrow!
"Sounds like fun Pinkie.” Twilight said. “We'll see you later.” We disappeared form the cake store.
…
Twilight and I reappeared under a rather huge cloud foundation. “Alright, let me cast this cloud walking spell on us.” she said. She lit her horn and a faint white glow covered us for a split second.
“If we're going on the clouds, this gives me a opportunity to test out a spell.” I said. “Don't tell Celestia I tried this.” I stepped back and my horn started to glow purple. Twilight watched in amazement as I started rising in the air. I felt a sharp pain on my back. It hurt worse and worse until.......
In a flash of magical light, two blue wings appeared on my back. I landed and stretched them out. “Well, not doing that for a while.” I looked at Twi. “Twilight, close your mouth.”
“I'm sorry.” Twilight said. "I didn't know you had the ability to use that spell. It's rather difficult."
“It wasn't easy.” I said. “It took me quite a while to finally be able to fly with it. By the way, shouldn't we get moving before nightfall? It's almost here, look.” In the distance, Celestia's sun was going down. Twilight nodded and we teleported away.
We reappeared at a racetrack in the sky. “Umm, Twilight? Were you trying to take us to Cloudsdale? Because you missed if you were.”
Twilight gave me a smirk. “We were going to meet Rainbow Dash here anyway. I thought that now you have wings.....” she trailed off. Suddenly my throat went dry. I knew what her plan was. Suddenly the cyan pegasus she was talking about landed in front of us.
“Hey Twi. I got your message. What did you need?” she asked.
“Rainbow Dash, meet my friend Shade.” As we shook hooves, she dropped the bomb. “He heard about how you won the Best Young Fliers Contest and wanted to challenge you in a race.”
Okay, so I didn't know what her plan was. Buck. Rainbow looked at me. “This guy? Okay, you're on!”
Double buck. I sighed and stepped up to the starting line. Twilight stood a little off to the side and counted down. “3...2...1..Go!”
We both took off. Considering this wasn't my very FIRST time using the temporary flying spell I wasn’t doing to bad. But I was a unicorn and Rainbow has been a pegasus her whole life. I didn't even attempt to kid myself that I was going to beat her. But that didn't stop me from trying. We flew down a straight path, went in a loop, flew down, came back up. I was on her tail for the most part. But when we were nearing the finish line, my wings turned white and disappeared. “Oh, nooooooooo!” I fell and biffed it into the clouds. I came to a stop right in front of the finish line.
Rainbow Dash flew over the line, then turned and walked back up to me. “You know, for those not being real wings, you did pretty good. If you plan to keep using that spell, I'll teach ya how to really fly.”
I got up and shook the clouds off. “Thanks.”
Twilight looked at the sky. “Sorry Dash but we need to head back. And thanks for the show.”
Dash just grinned and flew off as Twilight teleported us back to her house.
When we returned, we saw that everything was put away and dusted. “Aw, Spike must have cleaned the whole house for me while we were gone. He's so sweet.” Twilight said. She yawned, “Sorry we couldn't see everypony, but Fluttershy is probably asleep by now. We'll visit her tomorrow.”
I spread myself on the rug. “Sure thing. Night, Twi.”
She went upstairs saying back, “Good night Shade.”
…
Outside Twilight's house, a black and green mare was watching the house. “I'm running out of time, but I can't approach him directly. Too much risk.” She started pacing. “I'll befriend him. Make him think that I only want the best for him. And while I'm at it, it won't hurt to split apart the Elements either. Hahaha!!” The mare shimmered and disappeared.
The next morning I was walking up a dirt path towards a cottage. How did I end up here? Well....
Twilight and I had planned to visit Fluttershy this morning. But she had forgotten about a spa date she had made with Rarity. So when the white unicorn knocked on the door, Twilight started freaking out and running around the room. “I forgot about the date! I never forget that! But we need to see Fluttershy and I told her...!”
“Dear, we can just postpone it for another time.” Rarity offered.
I shook my head. “No, it's fine. Twilight can't you just send me there?”
Twilight relaxed. “Sure. But will you be okay?”
“I've met with royals from all over Equestria, Twi.” I said. “I'll be alright.”
“Okay.” Twilight said, lighting up her horn. “Oh by the way Shade. Fluttershy is rather quiet.”
“You mean shy?” I asked.
“Yes. So she probably won't talk too much but she's a kind pony. You'll like her. See you later.” I disappeared in a flash of light.
And that's how I ended up at the front door of a quaint cottage. It wasn't a fancy cottage, like Rarity's home or anything. And I realized that I was stalling in front of the door. Not wanting her to come outside and think I was a stalker or anything, I lightly knocked on the door.
“Oh, I'll be right there.” I heard a voice say. Lightly tapping my hoof, I waited for the door to open. When it did, I looked upon a yellow pegasus with a pink flowing mane. “Hello. Are you Shade? Twilight told me that you were coming to visit today.”
“Yup. That's me.” I said. “I take it that you're Fluttershy?”
She lightly nodded. “Yes. Won't you come in? I'm making some tea and you're welcome to join me.”
Not one to turn down an offer of tea, I stepped inside to join her.
…
Around noon, Fluttershy had shown me around her entire house and her backyard. Her backyard was the perfect place for all sorts of animals to live. She had plenty of trees for various squirrels and birds to live in. She had a giant pool for different water creatures, such as ducks, geese and fish. She had a chicken coop in another part of the yard. I was in amazement at how organized it all was. Another thing was that none of the animals were fighting or having any problems. I sat down on the deck she had leading from her back door as she went around making sure every animal was okay. When she sat back by me, I said. “Wow, I had no idea how good you were with animals.”
She looked away from me, blushing. “Oh, it's ummm.....I guess they just like me.”
“Yeah.” I said.
Flutttershy looked at me. “I have a question....that is, if you don't mind.”
“Go ahead.” I said.
“Why have you lived in Canterlot all your life?” she asked softly.
I sighed. “I never knew my parents. Celestia told me that she and Luna had found me alone in the Everfree Forest. She took me in and well, took care of me all my life. I've been her personal assistant ever since.”
“But, didn't you ever like, want to know who your parents were?” Fluttershy asked.
“Sure I have.” I said. “Celestia said that she's been searching for them. But I don't know if I would want to go with them.” I sighed again, starting to tear up.
I felt Fluttershy tense. “Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to upset you.”
“It's okay Shy. I needed to get it off my chest.” I said. I took a deep breath and tried to compose myself. “I just wish I knew who they were, ya know? I would ask them why...” I stopped as I felt a hoof on my foreleg. Fluttershy was looking right at me.
“Please, don't worry about it anymore Shade. I don't want you to be upset.” she said softly. I looked into her eyes. She really had beautiful blue eyes. We stayed like that for a bit, her making me feel better without any words.
Suddenly a white blur landed on my leg. It was a small bunny and he did not look happy. He started waving his hands at Fluttershy, pointing at his stomach. “Oh, I'm sorry Angel. You were asleep so I didn't want to wake you. Come on, let's get you some food.” They started walking inside when the pegasus turned to look at me. “Are you coming, Shade?”
“Nah, I'm going to head out. I'll see you later, K?” I said. Fluttershy nodded and went inside with the irate bunny. I chuckled, stood up and teleported away.
…
Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were standing in Twilight's library. “So, you think you can get it all ready by tonight, Pinkie?” Twilight asked.
“Yup! You're talking to Ponyville's number one party pony! I'll get it done faster before you can blink twice!” The hyperactive pony dashed out of the house.
“Umm, excuse me for sounding dumb, but what in tarnation is going on again?” Applejack asked.
“I asked Pinkie if she could throw a party welcoming Shade to Ponyville.” Twilight explained.
“Yes, That's all we talked about at our spa date today.” Rarity chimed in.
“As soon as Shade returns, I'll distract him by asking him to help me in the library. I told Fluttershy to keep him past noon if she can, so he'll probably be back soon.” Twilight said.
“Okay there. And if you get done there, send him over to the farm.” Applejack said with a mischievous grin. “Ah sure Ah've got some things he could do.”
“Thanks, but I'll be okay.” Twilight said. “I'll bring him to Sugercube Corner around 7:30. That should give us enough time before everypony arrives.”
“Okay then dear. We'll see you later.” The two ponies left the library.
Twilight walked back into the main room where Spike had just finished putting the books away that ponies had returned. “All done, Twilight. Is the party still on?”
“Yeah, but..” Twilight gave a mischievous grin. Her horn flashed and every book in the room started shaking.
“Twilight....” Spike started.
“Shh,” Twilight said, her eyebrows furrowed. Suddenly, every book in the room shot from their spots and flew around the room, making a mess.
“Twilight! That took me two hours!” Spike yelled.
Twilight panted. “It's okay Spike. You don't have to help. Shade and I will clean it up. You go relax upstairs.” The baby dragon nodded and walked up the stairs. Twilight nodded to herself. “This will keep him distracted until the party.
…
I walked along the road in a different direction from Ponyville. I could have simply teleported to Twilight's house, but I wanted some time to think. My parents, who were they. And why did they leave me in the Everfree forest? All my questions were buzzing around in my head and started to give me a headache. “Man, why can't I remember?” I said.
“Maybe you aren't thinking hard enough?” I jumped 3 feet in the air as I heard a voice from behind me. Turning, I saw a black and green pegasus mare about my age standing there, a disarming smile on her face. “I'm sorry. Didn't mean to scare you.”
I calmed down and stood relaxed. “Pardon me but, who are you again?”
The mare giggled. “I'm sorry again! My name is Dancing Mist, but you can just call me Misty. I heard you talking and thought you needed somepony to vent to.”
“Thanks.” I said. “ I'm Shade. Sorry, but I'm a little cautious to talk about personal things to a random pony I just met. I hope you don't mind.”
Misty giggled again, oddly enough like Pinkie Pie. “That's okay. I can't stay anyway. But we'll hang out later okay?”
“Why not?” I said. She threw her legs around me in a hug. I felt a very quick sharp pain, sort of like a pin prick at the back of my neck. She let go and waved. “Bye Shade!” She took off into the air. I looked up, rubbing my neck.
“That was weird. Guess I'm just imagining things. She seems rather nice though.” I shook my head. “Hopefully this headache goes away soon.” I disappeared, on my way to Twilight's.
…
Twilight. Is. Evil. It took us 4 hours to clean up the mess in the library she made because she forced me to sort every book my genre, then by name, THEN by alphabet. One book at a time. Grrr. When we finally finished, it was almost 7:15.
“Come on Shade. We'll be late!” Twilight said, going to the front door.
“Well SOMEpony thought it would be a good idea to wreck the library.” I glared at the unicorn. She just smiled and everything disappeared as we both teleported to Sugercube Corner. Well, we landed outside.
“Oops. Guess I missed.” I said.
“It's fine.” Twilight said. “Lets go inside then?”
We walked up and I opened the door. It was rather dark in the store, but as soon as Twilight shut the door, we heard, “SURPRISEEEEE!” Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie leapt out and yelled, turning the lights on. The shop was decorated with streamers and colors everywhere. Not to mention the sweets. Don't even get me STARTED on the sweets. I saw Fluttershy slowly walk out and say, “Hi there, Shade. Surprise.”
“Thanks everypony. This is really nice.” I looked up and saw the banner on the ceiling read, “Welcome to Ponyville, Shade!”
“Yay! We can totally start the party in about 2 mins!” Pinkie yelled bouncing around the room.
“Oh that reminds me Shade!” Twilight said. “Rarity and I have been working on a magical suit for you. Wanna try it on?”
“Why not?” I said. I walked into the middle of the room. Rarity and Twilight lit their horns and sent a blank and pink steam at me. As it wrapped around me, a black suit started to appear around my body.
“OOOhhhh.” The other ponies in the room said. Suddenly, the back of my neck started to horribly hurt.
“Oww! My neck!” I yelped. The unicorns cut the spell but it started to hurt even more. “Ummm, was this supposed to happen?!”
“No!” Twilight said, panicking.
I rose up into the air and then the swirling magic around me turned black. Then, with an explosion the magic burst from my body and I fell to the ground. My vision swirled. When I was able to stand up and focus, I saw all my friends had backed up. “What is it?” I mumbled. “Is there something on my face?”
Nopony said a word. I glanced toward the table where Pinkie had put a bowl of water. I lifted it up and solidified it, effectively turning it into a mirror. I levitated it in front of me and looked at myself. My coat was completely black and my mane was green. My horn was bent and sort of twisted. I looked at my hooves and they had holes though them. Then I knew why my friends wouldn't talk. I knew why I was rather good at magic. And I knew, I knew why I didn't know who my parents were.
I was something that was deemed to be evil. I was something that had almost taken over Canterlot, or at least other ones did. I was something that frightened my friends and made them draw away from me.
Ten seconds and three days. That's how short of a time it can take for your life to be completely turned upside-down. Why do I give this time frame? Well, after my friends and I realized that I wasn't even a pony, ten seconds later ponies started to enter for the party. It didn't take long for most of them to start putting two and two together, but Twilight had the sense to leap forward and teleport the two of us to her house before questions started being asked.
Nonetheless, the next three days were horrible. Twilight warned me that I should stay inside so that this whole thing could blow over but, it didn't. Apparently, it had gotten around that Twilight was harboring a “dangerous creature” in her house and many ponies wanted me arrested or banished. Now before you think that the ponies in Ponyville are overreacting, think about what happened. That changeling queen and her army almost took over Canterlot. I was there when it happened. So, I really couldn't blame anypony for not suddenly accepting the fact that a changeling was in Ponyville.
I felt terrible though. Not for me, but for my friends. Rainbow was having trouble with the Weather Patrol in Cloudsdale, Rarity was having issues selling her clothes, Applejack wasn't able to sell her apples from the farm to anypony, and the Cakes were losing business because Pinkie worked there. Personally, I didn't think it was fair that my friends were suffering because of me. I also didn't know how Fluttershy was doing. Spike was also upset with me because Twilight came home each day tired, trying to defend me. I was at a dead-end. That was until the third night, when our friends came over to the house.
I had fallen asleep about an hour after noon, so I woke up about 8:00. I was lying on the floor next to Spike's basket. He was asleep in it now, so I was very quiet as I slipped out the room. As I started down the stairs, I heard the wind slamming up against the house. “Right, Twilight told me the pegasus ponies were creating a storm tonight.” I thought. “I hope it isn't a horrible one. I looked at my black hoof and sighed. I had no idea how to change my shape, so I was stuck looking like this. Yet another reason Twilight suggested that I stay in the house. As I made my way downstairs, I heard voices in the library. I stopped moving and crouched down to see. I could tell that all 6 of my friends were downstairs. It wasn't in my nature to eavesdrop so I was going to go back upstairs, until I heard Twilight mention my name.
“I don't know what I can do girls.” she said. “Nopony will believe me that Shade isn't evil.”
“Well dear, it's only been a month since your brother's wedding.” I heard Rarity say. “I don't believe that most ponies will so easily forget.”
“But..Shade isn't evil.” Fluttershy spoke up.
“Maybe, but other ponies don't know that!” I heard Rainbow's voice. “Look, I like Shade as much as all of us, but we need to figure something out. We're all getting hassled for just being there when we saw what happened. Some ponies even think that we're helping him take over the town!”
“But we wouldn't do that!” Twi said.
“We all know that Sugercube.”Applejack said. “But I feel sorry for Shade. It isn't his fault.”
“What should we do?” Twilight said.
I heard everypony in the room sigh. “Maybe we need to give it a little more time.” Twilight said.
“Yeah, you're right.” I couldn't tell which pony said that.
“I'll see you all later.” Twi said. “We all need some sleep.” The other ponies murmured goodbye and left the house.
As I heard Twilight start up the stairs, I flash teleported into the guest room. Twilight turned all the lights off and went into her room. As soon as I heard the door shut, I cast a self-awake spell on myself. The spell was designed to wake a pony up a number of hours from when it was cast. The pony would instantly fall asleep after setting the number of hours. I set the spell for 3 hours and fell asleep.
I came to 3 hours later, the spell wearing off. I stood up and quietly slipped out of the room. I wrote a note to Twilight and looked outside. The storm was going strong. As I prepared to fly out the door, I took a glance out the window and hesitated. The wind was so strong it could have easily become a hurricane. But I knew the weather ponies wouldn't let that happen. “I'm sorry Twi.” I said. Then, in a lightning fast movement, I whipped the door open, slipped outside and shut it behind me. Then I raised my wings and let the wind carry me.
I made a major mistake. Mistake was forgetting that I was a changeling and therefore these wings were REAL. Whenever I used the wing spell, I used magic to flap the wings. Since these wings were real, I was using my own power to attempt to fly. But remember that I had been in Twi's house the last 3 days. I tried my hardest to fly, but the wind was too strong for me. I had risen in the sky first, but had been tossed everywhere by the wind. Now I had no idea where I was and I was tiring quickly.
“Must. Focus.” I thought. I tried using a spell to give me strength, but I wasn't used to channeling magic though my changeling horn. It only ended up tiring me out more. “Smart move, Shade.” I berated myself. “Now you're going to slam yourself into the ground.” As I started to fall, I got a sudden idea. I attempted to put myself in a glide, which was next to impossible because of the wind and rain everywhere. I finally stabilized myself, when a bolt of lightning slammed me in the side. I screamed with pain as the electricity shot though my body. Good thing I had gone to the bathroom before I left....
I stumbled though the air, barely conscious as I fell to the ground. I hazily saw a house in front of me. I put all I could into a flap, determined to fly over the house. No such luck. A wind gust slammed my body into the door. I fell to the ground, looking upwards at the door. I thought I saw a shadow of a pony walking up to me. “no...leave.....me.” I struggled to say. Then mercifully, I blacked out.
…
Twilight woke up the next morning with a yawn. She quietly stepped out of the room as Spike was still sleeping. As she walked down the hall, she saw that Shade's door was slightly ajar. “Must have slept walked or something.” she thought. But that changed when she went downstairs and saw the note for her on the table. It said, “Twilight” in Shade's hoof writing. Worried, she tore it open and read it.
“Dear Twilight,
First off, I want to apologize for the trouble I caused you and the rest of our friends. I don't understand why I'm a changeling but I plan to figure it out. In the meantime, I don't want to be a burden. By the time you've read this, I will have been gone for hours, heading away from Ponyville. Please, do yourself and everypony a favor and do not try to find me. Please. When I've cleared my head , I will return. I don't know when that will be yet. Good bye, Twilight. Your friend, Shade
P.S. Tell Spike I owe him a sapphire.”
Twilight looked up from the letter as Spike came downstairs. “Twilight? Why are you crying?” he asked.
Twilight shook her head. “He's gone, Spike.”
Spike took the letter and glanced over it. “Well, maybe he just needs some time.”
“That's not it.” Twilight said. “The weather ponies were conducting their annual hurricane test last night. Shade might not even be alive anymore.” She paced around the room, then suddenly picked up Spike and put her on her back. “Come on! We need to talk to everypony!”
…
Celestia looked out over Canterlot, conflicted. Luna walked up behind her. “Sister. You knew he had to find out soon.”
“She didn't keep her end of the bargain!” Celestia turned and looked at Luna. The smaller alicorn flinched at the anger in her sister's eyes. “You were there with me.”
“I know, and it's true that she did but it's out of our hooves.” Luna said calmly. “Shade needs to find his way for now.”
“Until when?” Celestia said, relaxing.
“Until we-know-who returns to claim him.” Luna said, walking up to hug her sister. "Or unless we find him first."
I woke up in a bed with the sunlight covering the room. I slowly sat up and shook my head. "Man, what happened to me?" I said. I reached up to rub my head...and then saw that my hoof was blue! I used a quick mirror spell to create a mirror infront of me and was that I looked like a pony again. "I must have changed back while I was unconsious." I thought. Looking around the room I wondered whose house I was in.
Then the door opened and I saw Fluttershy walk in. Wait, what?
"Oh Shade! Your awake!" She said, smiling. She then left the room and walked back in with a tray of rose petals. How did she know I loved those?
"Fluttershy?" I started. "Were you the pony I saw before I passed out?"
She nodded. "You kept telling me to leave you alone, but I couldn't just leave you lying there on the ground. So I brought you inside, if that was okay with you." She set the tray on the bed.
"Thank you." I said sincerly then started to dig in.
Fluttershy slowly walked up and sat on the bed. "Excuse me for asking, but why were you flying around in the storm?" she asked.
I stopped eating for a second. "I heard you guys talking last night." Fluttershy's eyes widened at that. "No, it's fine. I wasn't angry. But I knew what my presence was causing you girls to go though, so I tried to leave." I tapped the bed. "That didn't go so well."
Fluttershy looked at me with a caring expression. "Where were you going to go?"
I sighed. "I didn't really have a plan. I guess I was going to hide out for a while and then head back to Canterlot. After I recover, I can go do that."
Suddenly Fluttershy forcefully put her hoof on my chest, making lie back down on the bed. "No you aren't. You will stay with me untill everypony isn't mad at you." She then blushed, but didn't remove her hoof. "I mean, if you're okay with that."
I nodded. "Sure. We just can't let anypony know that I'm here."
Fluttershy removed her hoof from my chest and nodded. She then took the empty tray and started to leave the room. "Fluttershy!" I called. She turned and I said, "Thank you."
...
The next few days were dedicated to me recovering. After I got out of bed, Fluttershy and I focused on me getting back to full shape. I trotted around the cottage and practiced my magic. I noted that my magic was weaker then it had been in Canterlot or Ponyville. I also had no control over my shifting ability, so I would randomly switch into my changeling form or vice-versa. But it turned out to be good for me, because I could practice my flying. I had flown before using the wing spell, but as last night told me, I needed to learn how to fly using my own power.
When ever I wasn't flying,practicing my magic or attempting to control my changeling powers, I would help Fluttershy with her animals. I couldn't get near them whenever I looked like a changeling, but if I was in my pony form it was okay. It gave me a chance to just relax and be with my friend. Fluttershy was just wonderful with the animals. I saw that every type of animal that lived with her was peaceful and well cared for.
Fluttershy took care of me as well. Because the only two forms my body knew would have gotten me noticed by every pony in Ponyville, Fluttershy would go into town to get food and other things and also bring me news of what was happining in the town. Unfortunaly though, even though I ate whatever she gave me, I was always hungry. I was getting weaker also.
Five days after Fluttershy took me in, she came to talk to me in the backyard. "Shade, I need to leave for a while. Will you be okay?"
"Sure." I said turning to look at the mare. "Is something wrong?"
"Twilight just wanted to talk to all of us. I won't say anything about you." she said.
"Thanks, Flutters." She blushed at the nickname I gave her. "I'll see you later then?" She nodded and left the room. I heard the front door shut.
Sighing I turned back to the yard, and was kicked in the shin. I looked over to see Angel Bunny glaring at me. "What?" I said. He pointed at the front door and hugged himself. "No, I can't go after her. She's going into town." He made the motions of re-winding a clock and I sighed again. "Yes I guess I could have done it earlier." He gave me an exaperated look and walked off.
See the thing was I had a crush on Fluttershy, and the little bunny knew it. When he saw that, he did everything he could to keep Fluttershy's attention off of me and on him. I didn't blame the bunny for being protective of her. Fluttershy was a fragile pony in the sence that she could be really hurt by somepony that didn't truly care about her. I had taken Angel outside once when Fluttershy was in town and had a heart-to-heart with him. He caught on quickly that I really did care about his owner. After that he quit trying to seperate us and tried to bring the two of us together. He was annoyed that I wouldn't just tell Fluttershy that I liked her.
Anyway, after he left the room, I wandered into the kitchen, bored. I thought about practicing my teleportation, untll I heard a knock at the door. Now the thing about the door was that I NEVER answered it. I would either go upstairs or even fly up to the clouds until visitor had left. So I have no idea what possessed me to go to the door and open it. I found myself looking at my pegasus friend, Misty.
...
"Okay girls. What do we know?" Twilight and the rest of her friends were in her house having a meeting.
"Well, didn't you say that he left a note?" Rainbow asked. "What did it say?"
Twilight grabbed the note and started reading it.
“Dear Twilight,
First off, I want to apologize for the trouble I caused you and the rest of our friends. I don't understand why I'm a changeling but I plan to figure it out. In the meantime, I don't want to be a burden. By the time you've read this, I will have been gone for hours, heading away from Ponyville. Please, do yourself and everypony a favor and do not try to find me. Please. When I've cleared my head , I will return. I don't know when that will be yet. Good bye, Twilight. Your friend, Shade
P.S. Tell Spike I owe him a sapphire.”
Twilight put the note down as tears sprang to her eyes again. "That's all he said."
"Aw, shucks." Applejack said. "We never saw that Shade was beating himself up over what was occuring with us."
Rainbow angrily flapped her wings. "It didn't help that just about everypony in town was convinced that Shade was evil."
"And that's the problem here." Twilight said. "We know that everypony wouldn't instantly jump to the conclusion that he wasn't evil."
"Then what are you getting at dear?" Rarity said.
"Somepony must have been spreading a rumor about Shade." Twilight concluded. "Think about it. It wasn't even 12 hours before ponies wanted him gone."
"That means whoever wanted him gone, wanted him gone fast." Rainbow said.
"But who would be the meanie to want him gone?!" Pinkie yelped. "I mean, Shade was a nice pony and he never hurt anypony!"
"Well, he's gone, and we need to figure out who wanted him gone." Twilight said.
"Um, excuse me." Fluttershy spoke up. "Maybe if we could find him first?"
"Good idea. We haven't been looking hard enough." Twilight conjured a pen and some paper infront of her. "Here's the plan. Rainbow, you can search Cloudsdale for him, Applejack, look around Sweet Apple Acers and the surrounding area, Rarity and Pinkie, you can ask your customers if they've seen a blue colt with a green mane and a yellow tail. Fluttershy, you can ask your animals if they've seen him anywhere." All the ponies in the room nodded.
"What are you going to do, Twilight?" Rainbow asked.
"I'm going to do some more research on changelings. If I'm correct, we need to find him soon."
"Why is that?" Applejack asked.
"Changelings mostly feed on love." Twilight said. "Wherever Shade is, I don't think he's getting a lot of love. So if we can't find him soon, he'll die." The other ponies in the room all left to do what Twilight had told them, except for Fluttershy. Twilight didn't see that Fluttershy was still in the house and dashed upstairs. A few minutes later Fluttershy left, with a book firmly tucked under her wing.
...
Celestia and Luna were in the throne room, when they heard the door opening. Turning, they saw none other then...Shade?
"Shade? You've returned?" Celestia started walking toward the pony. Suddenly, the sun princess felt her strength leaving her body.
"No sister! That isn't him!" Luna shot into the air and pulled her sister back. She then proceeded to blast the pony in the face.
"Aw, your no fun Luna." Shade pouted, but then his skin started to ripple. He grew taller and darker untill the night princess saw herself looking at Queen Chrysalis.
Celestia was barely awake as Luna bared her teeth at the changeling. "You! What do you want here?!"
Chrysalis yawned and grinned at the night princess. "Don't act innocent with me, Luna. You and Celestia over there both know what I come for."
Celestia raised her head from her sister's lap. "He..he isn't here."
"Oh really?" the changeling queen said. "Interesting. Well, that just means I can go on a little scvenger hunt."
Luna took a step forward. "You try to touch him and you can see what life is like on the moon for a thousand years."
"Oh please, Luna. You didn't even care for the little pony." Chrysalis scoffed. "Now Celestia here, she was like an all-you-could-eat for Shade. Even more because Shade didn't know he was feeding from you."
"I knew what I was doing." Celestia said, weakly.
"I'm sure you did." Chrysalis said. "Now I have a lost changeling to find. See you two later!" Her body shimmered and she turned into a exact replica of Rainbow Dash. She then flew out of the castle.
"Luna. Please, you need to find him." Celestia said, able to stand again. "If Chrysalis gets her hooves on him, we won't be able to stand a chance."
Luna nodded. "I'm on it sister. You need to tell the wielders of the Elements." Luna rose into the air and flew off.
Celestia teleported herself to her room and picked up a pen and some paper. "My dear student, Twilight Sparkle...
I stood at the door, unable to say a word as I saw the green and black pegasus standing there. "Surprised?" she asked.
"Yeah, just a little." I managed to say.
She laughed. "Well, I was flying around in Ponyville and I heard about a certain changeling that had been there. That wouldn't have been you, would it?"
"What made you think it was me?" I asked, suddenly suspicious. "And how did you find me?"
"Oh, I could smell you when I flew over here." she said.
"Oh that makes sense....wait. What?" I said. As I looked at her, her body rippled. Her wings grew more ragged and her hooves did also. Her eyes turned green and she grew two little fangs. Misty was a changeling.
"Surprised?" She asked. Seeing my face, she nodded and said, "I thought you would be."
"So you always knew." I said. "Is that why you became my friend?"
Misty shook her head. "No, I really did want to become your friend. But now that I know for a fact that you're a changeling, I need to teach you."
"Teach me what?" I asked.
"I need to teach you how to be a real changeling!" Misty snapped. "I bet you can't even shift into anypony you know."
Trying to prove her wrong, I focused hard. My body shimmered and I felt it shift. But, it felt too familiar. "Shifting into your other form doesn't count, Shade." Misty remarked.
I sighed, now in my changeling form. "Ok then. Let me leave a letter for Fluttershy first." Misty nodded and I went back in the house. Grabbing some paper and ink, I left a quick note and returned to Misty.
"You ready? Let's do this!" Misty said, clearly excited. Her horn flashed with a green glow and the two of us disappeared.
...
Twilight had been pouring herself over her books ever since the other ponies had left her house. "No, that doesn't help." she said exasperated as she levitated another book to herself. Spike grabbed the book she had just been reading and put it away. Twilight slammed the book she was reading shut. "Spike! Have you seen that book that Princess Celestia sent me? Umm, it was called, The True Aspects of Changelings?"
The baby dragon went through the books on the ground, "Nope. All the books that the princess sent you are right here. I don't see that one."
Twilight groaned in frustration. "Are you sure? Check again."
Spike rolled his eyes, but he carefully went through each book on the ground. "Sorry Twilight. It isn't here.
Twilight stood up and walked over to her bookcase. "How am I supposed to know more about changelings when all my books have mostly the same info?"
"What if we found a changeling?" Spike asked. "Then you could just study it."
"That's what we're trying to do, Spike." Twilight said. "The only non-aggressive changeling we know is Shade, and we can't find him."
Spike thought for a moment. "Where do you think he would be?"
Twilight shook her head. "I have no idea."
Spike's eyes suddenly lit up. "I do! Think about it, Twilight. He's a changeling, and they feed on love, right?" Twilight nodded. "Well, before he left he seemed rather weak to me, that day before. He also doesn't know much of the surrounding area around Ponyville."
Twilight looked at her dragon assistant. "Go on Spike. I think you're onto something."
The dragon continued. "If he isn't feeding off of love, and he doesn't know anywhere around here he must still be in the area."
"Right!" Twilight said, her eyes also lighting up. "And he told me before when he used that wing spell that he wasn't very good at flying! He left in the middle of a storm! He HAS to be around Ponyville!"
"He must be hiding though, or too weak to leave." Spike thought out loud. Twilight pulled him in a hug.
"Oh thank you Spike!" Twilight exclaimed. She dashed out of the front door, then put her head back in. "By the way, you can have today off. I'll clean up here." She pulled her head back out and teleported away.
Spike grinned and said, "Well, guess I better clean some of this up anyway. Celestia knows, she won't remember." He started to sort out the books on the ground.
...
Misty and I were in a wide open field under the open sky. The weather was calm and sunny. I breathed the cool air in as it rushed past me.
"Ok, Shade. Time for your crash-course in being a changeling." Misty said. I looked at her and saw that she looked like a pony again.
"Fine then. What should I know first?" I said, sitting down.
"Have you been trying to eat pony food lately?" Misty asked, sitting across from me.
I nodded, "It doesn't fill me up though. I've been feeling weak for some time now.'
"That makes me think I'm right about you.” Misty said. "Changelings are different then just about every creature on Equestria. We feed on emotions, mainly love."
"Really? When I was living in Ponyville, I wasn't loved." I said. "I was respected, but nopony loved me like as you mean."
Misty nodded, "I know, and that's what made me come to my conclusion. A very rare trait of changelings was that they could feed on more emotions then just love. Basic changelings need next to nothing to survive. You on the other hand, have been without love for over 5 days and you almost died. If you only fed on love, you would be dead right now.
"So you're saying that I don't just feed off of love?" I asked.
"There's no other conclusion." Misty said. "I've calculated it over and over. You WOULD be dead if you hadn't fed off some other emotions. Think back, Shade. What did the ponies of Ponyville feel when they knew that you were a changeling?"
I thought back. Confusion, sadness, but the one that stood out was...."Fear. They were afraid of me."
Misty smiled. "Exactly. Fear is a very strong emotion. You can't just be a basic changeling, Shade. You need fuel and a lot of it. The fear of the ponies was what kept you from dying."
"If that was the case." I asked. "Why wasn't I at my full strength when I left?"
"Because you don't know how to control it." Misty said. "Not much is known about an Emotion Changeling. We only know that one of the strongest emotions is love. Changeling automatically feed off of love. Fear is different. Your body absorbed just enough to keep you alive."
"So when I left the area that had that emotion." I realized. "I cut myself off from that source of energy."
"Which is why you almost died." Misty finished.
I was quiet. Celestia had to have known what I was. But why didn't she just leave me? Or at least return me to other changelings? Did she think that if she kept me, that I would never know of my abilities?
"One more thing about this Shade?" Misty said. "Because these are emotions that we don't normally feed off, and because you're stronger, you can actually drain power from ponies by taking their emotions. So you have to be really careful. I nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, Misty broke into a grin. "Come on! It's time for your training!"
...
Everypony met back at Twilight's. "How did the search go, girls?" Twilight said, reappearing in the room.
"Nothing for me." Rainbow Dash said, slumping down.
"We didn't find anything either." Rarity said and Pinkie nodded.
"Sorry, Twilight. Ah couldn't find out anything." Applejack sadly said.
Fluttershy shook her head. "My animal friends haven't seen him Twilight. I'm sorry."
Twilight just grimly shook her head. "I think that we should tell Princess Celestia now."
"Didn't you tell her when you wrote that letter for those books?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes, but she replied when she sent them to write her back if we needed a ride up to Canterlot." Twilight said.
"Oh, Twilight, would it be possible that we went tomorrow?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean, if that's okay. I just want to be sure that my animals will be alright."
"Why, sure." Twilight said. "I'm sure that the princess won't mind."
"Oh thank you." The shy pegasus went to the door. "I'll see you all tomorrow." She left the house.
Applejack cocked her head to the side. "What in tarnation do you think that was all about?"
...
Training went off without a hitch. Apparently I had been feeding off of Fluttershy and her animals because I actually had enough energy to learn how to shift today. But, as Misty pointed out, my shifting was special. Misty told me that changelings had the ability to sense if another changeling was in the area by "casting out" our changeling pheromones. Also, I used no energy whenever I looked like my pony self, blue coat and all that. Misty said that was because my body had looked like that for so long, it was recognized as what I "naturally" looked like. But the real fun part, like I said before, was the shifting. My very first shift was into Rainbow Dash, and then Applejack, then I even pulled off Fluttershy. But, Misty and I both found out that something was....different about my shifting. Whenever I shifted, I copied that pony's voice and abilities. In essence, I wasn't a COPY of that pony, I WAS that pony. I did keep my own thoughts though. So, to test it I shifted into Twilight and tried using a complex growing spell on a sunflower. The spell worked, growing the flower as tall as Twilight's home, but I was DRAINED. I shifted back to my pony form and almost passed out.
"Interesting." Misty said. "Shade, you're like a glass cannon."
"How's that?" I gasped.
"You're strong enough to shift into maybe even Princess Celestia and use her magic, but without a stream of energy flowing into you, you wouldn't be able to hold that shape for long."
I shakily stood up. "I could hold it if I just didn't use any of her magic."
Misty nodded. "That would work."
I looked up and saw that the sun was coming down. "Misty, I've got to go. We'll hang out later." Concentrating, I teleported myself back to Fluttershy's
...
Misty looked at where Shade had disappeared from and smiled. "Don't you worry Shade. We sure will do this again. I have an even better place for us to practice next time." She disappeared also.
...
When I arrived back at the house, I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 7. I went into the kitchen to see that Angel was trying to cook something for dinner. Bless his little heart! He remembered that I wanted to try to impress Fluttershy over dinner tonight. And I had completely forgotten about it. Oops.
When Angel saw me, he proceeded to hop right over and kick me in the shin. Hard. "Okay, I deserved that one. We still have time though, right?"
Angel held a three in one hand and made a zero in the other.
"I'm going to guess 30 minutes." I said. Angel nodded his head. "Well, we still have some time. Come on! Let's make this a good one!" The little bunny nodded at me and we got to work.
...
When Fluttershy finally reached her house, she was rather tired. "I hope that the princess will have a solution to all this. I don't like lying to my friends." She checked herself. "But, I did say I would help Shade." She shut the door behind her and went into the kitchen, where she saw that the table was lit up with candles. She also saw Angel asleep on the table.
"Angel! Did you do all this for me?" The little bunny nodded and jumped off the table. "But, where's Shade?"
The bunny grinned at Fluttershy, then his body shimmered. Fluttershy stepped back as the bunny grew into a blue coated pony. "Phew, That was not easy."
"Oh wow!" Fluttershy said in amazement. "You can....you can change your body now?"
Shade nodded, "Yup! But we can talk about it over dinner. Sit down! Angel and I made it for you." Fluttershy smiled as the real Angel hugged her leg.
...
Angel and I did ourselves proud. Apple pie, and a lovely fruit salad were for dinner. Fluttershy and I talked about what I had found out about myself today over dinner. After we finished, I refused to let her or Angel help me with the dishes, although when I finished Angel lightly punched me on the arm and mockingly gave me a sweet smile. "Yeah, I know Angel." I said.
He was about to jump off the counter before I caught him with magic. "Hey Angel. Thanks." He smiled, but then shook his fist at me, signaling that I better tell Fluttershy how I felt about her tonight.
I finished up and joined the pegasus outside, watching the stars.
"So, we are going to Canterlot tomorrow Shade." Fluttershy said. "You could come if you want."
I thought for a second. "I'll try to think of a disguise tonight. But, I probably won't see the princess."
Fluttershy asked," Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll probably walk around town for a little bit first." I said. I didn't want to tell Fluttershy that I was afraid of seeing the princess, now that I knew what I was.
We stayed silent for a while, before I decided to get it over with. "Fluttershy, have you ever, well thought about love?"
"Oh no." Fluttershy said, blushing. "I had wondered what it would be like, but I've been content to stay with my animals." She was silent before she softly asked me. "W-what about you?"
I closed my eyes, thinking carefully. "When I lived in Canterlot, I never tried to flirt with any mares. I doubt I would have been any good at it." I said with a smile. I heard Fluttershy give a slight laugh. "I was never good with talking to any other ponies in general. I spoke mostly to the two princesses. But, when I came to Ponyville, I started to open up a little bit." Fluttershy stayed silent, letting me continue.
"It was alright, until that party. But, in a way it sort of helped me." I said.
"How?" Fluttershy asked softly.
"It allowed us to grow closer." I said. I was worried about this next part. I didn't want to drive her away, but I decided there was nothing for it. "Fluttershy, this last week has been one of my best. Not because I discovered that I'm not even a pony, but because we were able to spend it together." I felt intense heat on my face and knew that I was blushing. I could tell that Fluttershy was blushing also. "I've been struggling to figure out how to say this Fluttershy, but I decided that maybe I don't need to use any words."
At this, I conjured two matching necklaces. I had bought these three days ago, by breaking into a store and leaving the bits I needed to on the counter. The necklaces were golden. There was a ruby set in the first one and a diamond in the other one.
"These are promise necklaces, Fluttershy." I said. "It doesn't mean that we are engaged, but it means that we have the same feelings for each other. I-." My voice broke and I offered the necklace to Fluttershy.
She took the necklace, not saying a word. She had her head turned from me so I couldn't read her expression. I was respectful to her and didn't try to sense her emotions. A few minutes passed. Then she turned back toward me with the necklace in her teeth. She walked up right in front of me and laid the necklace on the ground. Then she gently took the necklace with the ruby that was in my hoof from me. She motioned me to lower my head, then she picked up the necklace that she had put on the ground. She gently put the necklace around my head and said blushing, "You gave me the one that the stallion is supposed to wear. She then silently put the other necklace around her head.
Tears freely flowed down my face. I could see that Fluttershy was also crying. The look that Fluttershy gave me was so full of love that I could FEEL the love pressing up against me, tempting me to feed off of it. Instead I looked at Fluttershy. "Are you sure about this? You know that we won't be understood by lots of ponies."
Fluttershy walked up to me. "Well, I'll explain to them how love can work." Then she kissed me.
I felt pure love flow from Fluttershy into me. It wasn't stealing from her, she was offering it to me willingly. As I kissed her back, I accepted her gift to me. The love flowed into me and seemed to strike at my very soul. I felt an innermost connection to Fluttershy from my soul to my mind. We held the kiss, not caring about anything else in the world. When we finally released each other, I felt euphoric. "Fluttershy..."
She held her hoof to my lips. I realized that she didn't want either of us to talk and ruin the moment. But as we leaned in to kiss each other again, I saw Angel in the window giving me a fist pump.
Luna landed on the balcony that was outside Celestia's window. Her sister was already there, quietly watching the sky. The darker alicorn slowly walked over to her sister.
Celestia noticed that Luna was there. Turning, she said. “Luna! I am glad you are back.”
Luna sat down. “I am sorry sister. I was unable to locate Shade anywhere.” She looked out over Canterlot. “I am surprised that I could not find him. He couldn't have left Ponyville, not in the state he would have been.”
Celestia turned away from her sister and sighed. “It seems that we were too late anyway.”
“How?” Luna asked. “I can go back out and search for him.”
Celestia levitated a picture in front of Luna. “Chrysalis sent me this.” Luna took it and looked at it. It was a picture of Shade in a field. But the part that caught Luna's attention was that the back half of his body looked like a changeling.
“He's learning how to shift.” Luna said.
“That isn't the worst part.” Celestia said. She pointed at a spot on the picture. Luna looked and saw the outline of a changeling. “I believe that Chrysalis has already located Shade.”
“Then why hasn't she tried to capture him?” Luna said.
“I don't know.” Celestia said. The two alicorns were silent for a bit then Celestia said, “Get some rest, Luna. I'll take care of the dawn.”
As Luna walked off, Celestia called. “Also, I invited Twilight Sparkle and her friend to Canterlot today.”
“This early?” Luna asked.
“I have a hunch.” Celestia said. “If I'm wrong, it won't hurt anypony.” Luna nodded and left the room. Celestia turned and prepared to raise the sun.
. . .
I woke up at about 8 in the morning. I rolled over on the couch and looked at the books in front of me. Rubbing my temples, I re-read the titles to myself. “The Aspects of Changelings and A Guide to Ponyville. Hopefully these will help me.”
Truthfully, I hadn't read much of the first book, trusting on the next time I met with Misty to learn about what I was. The second book though had a picture of about everypony living in the town. I had only focused on the ponies that my six friends mostly hung around. I sighed and made my way into the kitchen.
“Uhh, I am NOT staying up that late anymore.” I said. After Fluttershy had gone to bed, I stayed up to read the books that she had brought back. I had been so interested in the Ponyville guide that I had been up until 2 in the morning. Normally I wouldn't be studying like Twilight, but I had a plan for the day.
I saw a note on the kitchen table. “Huh? What's this?” I walked over to read it.
“Dear Shade,
When you wake up I won't be here. I didn't want to bother you when you were sleeping because I know that you were up late. Twilight came by and told me that Princess Celestia wanted to see us. Don't worry though, I didn't let Twilight see you. If you want to come by, you should use the disguise that you had been working on. You don't have to if you don't want to, it was just a thought. I'll talk to you later. Love, Fluttershy
P.S. Thank you for the necklace.”
I reached up to my neck and held the necklace up to my face. I sighed. “She really did accept me.” I said. “But, I don't even know if I can accept myself.” Shaking my head I walked over to get something to eat.
Now the disguise that Fluttershy had been talking about. The two of us had decided that while I was hiding out from the residents of Ponyville, I needed a way to get around. I had tried shifting into random forms until Fluttershy pointed out a good form for me. I had shifted into a light blue pegasus with a white mane and tail. The cutie mark was a five-pointed star with beams of light extending from each point. Fluttershy had thought of the idea to have me be her fake cousin from Manehattan in this form. I gave that form the name “Starlight.”
After eating a cold bowl of hay, I went around the house and backyard to check on the animals. They were all fine for the most part, until I went back into the house and saw Angel glaring at me. “Uhhh, did I do something wrong?” I asked. The bunny held up a picture of Fluttershy in his left hand. He then lifted up a crudely drawn picture of me in my normal pony form. “That's me...I think?” I said, confused. Angel pulled another picture of Fluttershy out from behind him but I saw that he had drawn a heart on it, about where her heart was located on her body. He then took the picture he had drawn of me and set it by Fluttershy's. Then he took a red crayon and drew a jagged line down the middle of the heart. After that, he took my picture and ripped it in half.
Then I understood what Angel meant. He might have given me permission to have a relationship with Fluttershy but he was saying that if I broke her heart, he and I would have a reckoning. Somehow, that didn't help me feel any better for the day. I nodded to the bunny, showing that I understood.
As I cleaned up my dishes and left the house, I took a deep breath. This was not going to be easy. I focused hard and my body shifted. I looked at myself in a puddle and saw that I had successfully shifted into my Starlight form. I smiled, “Let's see how well this works out.” I lifted off into the air and awkwardly flew in the direction of Ponyville. . . .
As the carriage holding Twilight and her friends arrived in Ponyville, the ponies were happy to see the city.
“Finally, we made it to Canterlot!” Twilight said, happy to see it. “I wonder what made the princess need us on such short notice.”
“It's probably fine, Twilight.” Applejack said. “I reckon she just wants to tell us some important things about havin the Elements.”
Rarity spoke up. “And besides have you seen the shopping here? Just amazing it is!”
“Ohh! Maybe we could have a party here! A big party where everypony is invited!” Pinkie said.
Fluttershy didn't say anything, which worried Rainbow Dash. “Hey, something wrong?” she asked.
“Oh no Rainbow. Thank you for asking.” Fluttershy said, looking away. Rainbow exchanged looks with Twilight, silently asking her to talk to the shy pegasus. Fortunately for both of them, Rarity decided to speak up.
“Fluttershy dear, where did you get that beautiful necklace?” Rarity asked. “It's simply wonderful.”
“Thank you Rarity. My cousin bought it for me.” Fluttershy answered.
“Did your cousin know that necklace is a sign of love?” Rarity said, taking a closer look at the necklace.
“Well, I guess that he loves me a lot?” Fluttershy said, looking out the window again. Rarity looked at her friends and shrugged her shoulders.
Twilight was about to start questioning Fluttershy when the carriage suddenly stopped. “We're here girls!” she happily said. Everypony piled out of the carriage and looked in awe of the castle.
“No matter how many times I see it,” Rarity said, “It's still a beautiful castle. The other ponies nodded in agreement.
Twilight was about to lead the way into the castle when Princess Luna landed in front of them. All of the ponies bowed to her.
“Twilight Sparkle, it is good to see you again. And the same goes for the rest of your friends.” Luna said. Twilight noticed that Luna's voice sounded slightly strained. “I know that you are here to speak with my sister, but she has asked that you spend some time in Canterlot first. She will send for you when she is ready.”
“Is the princess alright?” Rainbow asked.
Luna nodded. “You may all go, except Twilight. I will speak with her for a time.” Twilight's friends nodded to her and went down into the town.
Twilight looked up at Luna. She saw that Luna had lines under her eyes and her ears were flat. “Princess? Are you alright?”
Luna sighed and sat down. “No Twilight. I am not well.” She looked at the purple unicorn. “Have you or your friends located Shade?”
Twilight looked down and shook her head. “No, I don't think any of us has seen him.”
Luna thought for a moment. “Have you asked Fluttershy where she obtained her necklace from?”
“Yes. She said that she got it from her cousin.” Twilight said.
“That is a promise necklace, Twilight.” Luna said. “Two ponies that wear the same one means that the essentially promise themselves to each other. Basically, it shows that they are in a relationship.”
“Oh...” Twilight said.
“It isn't my business but maybe you should ask Fluttershy to ask her cousin where he bought it.” Luna suggested. “Go enjoy the city Twilight. I will send for you when my sister is ready to talk to you.” Luna rose into the air and flew into the castle. Twilight looked at the castle for a few moments before leaving into the town. . . .
As I flew though the sky, I thought over my plan again. My plan was to investigate how the ponies of Ponyville felt about me. To do that, I planned to assume the forms of my friends. I needed to stop by Twilight's first. I dove out of the clouds and fortunately was by Twilight's house. But since it was in a well-populated part of town, I needed to be very careful about this. I landed in the tree by Twilight's bedroom window. “Alright, lets try this.” I wasn't sure if I could use magic without a visible horn but as I focused I was able to flash teleport into the house. Once inside, I shifted into Twilight's form. I felt tired from the flight and shifting, but not too bad. I started to go though her books. “Hmm, nothing up here. Guess I should try downstairs..” I jumped as the door suddenly opened. I turned and saw Spike standing there.
“Twilight?” Spike said. “I thought you were in Canterlot.”
“Uhhh.” I stammered. “Come on, think!” I said in my mind. “I asked the princess to send me back for a little bit.”
“Uh-huh.” Spike said, walking closer. “And why would you need to do that?”
I looked away from him, trying to think of an excuse. “I wanted to find a book to...show her.”
Spike walked up to me and looked me in the eyes. Not saying anything he turned and walked over to his bed. I was about to make my way downstairs when he turned and scratched me on the flank. “Ow!” I cried. I temporarily lost my focus and my body shimmered.
“You aren't Twilight!” Spike hissed at me. “Who are you?!”
“Spike, it's me Shade!” I said, shifting into my pony form. “I'm not here to hurt anypony!”
Spike obviously didn't believe me. “Then why did you come back?”
I sighed and sat down. “I wanted to see what everypony thought of me.” I knew that I couldn't keep hiding forever, so I made a decision. “If you want to tell the princess that I'm here, or tell the ponies in town that I'm here, go ahead. I won't move from here.”
Spike looked at me. I could tell that he was trying to decide what to do. I looked him in the eyes, not showing any emotion in them. Finally he also sighed and said, “I can tell that you mean what you say Shade. You need to make your own decision about seeing the princess. I won't tell anypony.” I jumped up and hugged the baby dragon.
“Oh thank you!” I said, starting to cry.
“Geez, no need to get all mushy.” Spike said. I pulled away from him and wiped my eyes.
“Sorry. It means a lot though.” I said. Spike rolled his eyes.
A little bit later, I was about to head out into Ponyville. “So, what exactly is your plan?”
“I want to see what the ponies in Ponyville have been saying about me.” I said. “To do that, I 'm going to pretend to be our friends.”
“Isn't that going to use a lot of your energy?” Spike said. I had told him everything I knew, and he caught on quickly.
“The shifting itself shouldn't use too much, but if I use any of that pony's abilities, that's what will drain me.” I explained. “There's emotions all over Ponyville so I should be alright.”
Spike looked at me. “Are you sure?”
I pawed at the ground. “No. I'm really not. I have to make sure that I take energy from the emotions flowing around me.”
“Well, if you can sense emotions like you said, then you should be alright.” Spike said. I nodded.
“Did they leave rather early?” I asked.
Spike nodded. “Twilight sent me a note saying that they would probably be gone all day.”
“Good, that means nopony saw them. Which means that I should be able to freely use their forms.” I concentrated and shifted into Rarity.
Spike shuddered. “That is unnerving.”
I smiled and lightly pushed him. “As long as you aren't attracted to me, little Spikey.” I said in Rarity's voice. At that, Spike proceeded to punch me in the leg.
“Don't do that!” he said. “That's...weird.” We looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. As I was about to leave, Spike said, “I think that Sweetie Belle's at home. Maybe you could ask her?” I nodded my thanks and left the house.
. . .
It wasn't easy traveling though the streets of Ponyville and forcing myself to not talk to anypony. Although it helped to remind myself that I wasn't myself and was pretending to be Rarity. I stayed silent because I could NOT talk like she did. So when anypony spoke to me I acted like I was in a rush. I'd nod to them and move on. Finally making it to the boutique I quickly slipped inside.
“Phew.” I gasped. “This is not going to be easy.” I sensed another pony in the store so I looked around the store. I looked in Rarity's room and saw Sweetie Belle sleeping in there. “Why is she sleeping in my...I mean Rarity's room?” I thought. I gasped as she started to wake up. “Sorry about this Sweetie.” I quickly cast a sleeping spell on the filly, sending her back into a deep sleep. I made sure to cast it so she would wake up in about another hour. I jumped as I heard a knock on the door. “It's okay. I think I can do this.” I started to feel tired though. “I better hurry this up or I'll blow my cover.”
I went over to the front door and opened it. “Hi Rarity!” I looked down to see Sweetie Belle's friends, Scootaloo and Applebloom.
“Hello you two. What can I do for you?” I asked in Rarity's nicest tone.
“Is Sweetie Belle feeling any better?” Scootaloo asked. “She stayed home from school, remember?”
“Oh yes.” I said. “Let me go check and I'll send her out if she wants to play, alright?” The two fillies nodded as I shut the door. I was going to wake up Sweetie Belle when I remembered that I sensed that she was still not well. “Hmm, idea time.” I shifted back into my changeling form and concentrated. I started to shrink down until I was Sweetie's size. Then I changed my coat to white and grew my horn. I made sure to remove Rarity''s cutie mark also. I proceeded to walk out the door and was tackled by the two fillies. “Oww. Not so rough. I still don't feel well.”
Applebloom got off me. “Sorry Sweetie. Maybe we should just hang out for a little bit today?” I nodded, feeling woozy.
We were walking thought the market when I tripped on nothing. “Are you really okay Sweetie? You seem out of it.” Scootaloo said.
“I'm fine.” I snapped. I was aggravated because I was getting weaker. As we walked though the market emotions were everywhere,but not enough to help me. I didn't want to do this but I had no choice. I couldn't afford to expose myself. I slightly backed up from Scootaloo and Applebloom and sparked up my horn. Glancing around, I saw an fruit cart. “That'll work.”
I pointed my horn at the ground and did a combination spell. The spell was supposed to reflect off the surface of what I shot and home in on what I told it to hit. I shot the spell and it bounced off the ground, off several of the carts in the area and slammed into the fruit cart. Fruit went flying everywhere and started hitting everypony in sight. Everypony started freaking out and every unicorn I saw started trying to cut the spell. I ran with the fillies silently fueling back up on strength. I ended the spell, and then knew what I needed to do. It suddenly hit me like a piano falling from the sky. It wasn't about what everypony thought about me, it was about what I could figure out on my own. The ponies in Ponyville might have their thoughts about me, but it wasn't going to change what I would learn about myself. I had to take the initiative to figure out my past.
“Guys, I uh....I'm not feeling good. I need to go.” Leaving two confused fillies behind me, I dashed off to back to Twilight's.
. . .
“So you didn't learn anything?” Spike said to me. I was pouring myself over a history book of Equestria.
I turned to a time line. “Hey! This dates back to when the princesses defeated Discord.” I carefully looked over the time line. At about 18 years back, around when Twilight was born there was a interesting mark. “Spike, It says that for about 8 months that Princess Celestia went missing.”
“Yeah. Twilight told me about that.” Spike said. “Apparently the princess had to go to another part of Equestria and didn't tell anypony.”
I thought for a moment. She was missing for about 8 months, about as long as it was to have a.... No that was absurd. Celestia would have told somepony if that had been the case.
“Spike. Has Princess Celestia ever had any....children?” I asked.
Spike shrugged. “Not as far as I know.” A realization dawned on me. Not knowing my parents, Living at Canterlot my whole life, Celestia always teaching me magic and making sure I could do my best at every spell she gave me to try......
“No. Way.” I gasped. I knew what I needed to do. “Spike. Thanks!” Not thinking I shifted into Rainbow Dash's form and shot out of the house.
. . .
I could see why Rainbow beat me when she raced. Flying at the speed I was, I could tell that she had been pacing herself when she had challenged me to a race. I had to slow myself down by a lot or I would have used all of my energy in a matter of minutes. “I hope I'm right about this.” I thought. I flinched as a bolt of green magic shot past me. “What the?!”
I saw Misty break out of the clouds next to me. “Hi there, Rainbow! Or should I say, Shade?”
I would have facehoofed in frustration right there. Changelings could sense each other. But, why couldn't I tell that Misty was coming at me. “Sorry Misty! I can't really talk right now!”
Misty giggled. “Aww but that's the point! You need to come with me now!”
“I can't!” I snapped. “We'll talk later!” `
Misty shook her head. “Sorry, Shade. That wasn't a request!” She lit up her horn with green light and created a magical net. She whipped her head and shot the net at me. My eyes widened and I executed a neat back flip, dodging the net. Misty cast the spell again, but created multiple nets. I twisted and turned in the air to dodge them all. She laughed and created a butterfly net. I quick teleported behind her and slammed my front hooves into her head, knocking her away. She fell, but threw the net at me, clocking me in the head with the stick. I dizzily flew up, then flew down, headbutting her in the back. I shot away again in the direction of Canterlot. It didn't take Misty long to recover and shoot after me again.
I didn't notice that I had been unconsciously speeding up and forcing my body to use more energy. I sure noticed it when I started panting. “Aw, hayseed.” I gasped.
“Come on Shade!” Misty said. “Don't make this overly difficult!” She stopped firing magic at me and concentrated a small spark of energy. It slowly grew until she shot a quick lighting bolt at me. It struck me between the wings. I instantly started falling.
“Not good! Not good!” I yelled. I shifted back to my unicorn form.” I saw Misty flying above me.
“I'm sorry Shade! But I couldn't let you go see the princess. It would have ruined our plans!”
“Our?” I yelled. The ground was coming closer. I racked my brain for an idea. Then it hit me. Celestia had taught me a safety spell shortly after I had taught myself the wing spell. It was designed for pegasus ponies when they were first learning how to fly. The spell negated any injury from falling from a great height. I quickly cast it, then shuddered as I felt the energy leaving my body.
WHAM! I crashed into the ground. True to form, the spell protected me from dying but I was so drained I couldn't move. Misty landed next to me as I started to pass out. “I'm sorry Shade. I'll explain everything when you wake up okay?” I glared at her, and then everything dissolved into darkness.
. . .
“I'm so glad you could come my little ponies.” Princess Celestia stood with Twilight and her friends in the throne room.
“Princess, is something wrong? Is that why you didn't want to talk to us at first?” Twilight asked.
“I was trying to decide if I should reveal something to you all.” Celestia said. “Then I needed to figure out how to tell you.
“Tell us what, Princess?” Applejack asked.
Celestia sighed. “I want to apologize. I kept a secret from you and you all suffered for it.”
“Are you talking about Shade being a changeling?” Rainbow asked.
Celestia nodded. “I did know that he was a changeling.”
“But how did you know?” Twilight asked. “And why didn't you tell us? And why did you let him stay here?”
Celestia turned to look her student in the eyes. “I couldn't tell anypony for fear of him being in danger. Also, I was selfish and thought about how other ponies would think about me. But I believe that is too late.” The princess moved back to look at all of them. “It was wrong of me to keep this a secret, and I hope that I can apologize to Shade. But the reason that I knew is because...” She stopped for a moment, then continued.
The six ponies in the room sat there in total shock at Celestia's reveal. Twilight was the first to recover.
“Princess?” she started, then closed her mouth.
Celestia had looked away from them after telling her secret. “I am sorry Twilight.”
“Don't be sorry for us!” Rainbow blurted out. “Be sorry for Shade! He's been living here his whole life not knowing anything! Then you call us here and tell us? Why didn't you tell him!” Rainbow suddenly flattened her ears, realizing that she had shouted at the princess. “Um.”
“Don't be sorry, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia said to Rainbow. “I deserve worse then that.”
“But what happened Princess?” Twilight said.
Celestia motioned for the six to come closer to her and she sat down. “When Shade was born, I didn't want either of us to be judged for what happened, especially Shade. I love everypony in Equestria, but I knew that I couldn't expect Shade to be accepted. So I decided to pretend that I found him in the Everfree Forest. I made him my assistant when he was old enough so that it wouldn't be suspicious that he was with me all the time.”
“But don't changelings feed on love?” Applejack pointed out. “How was he fed?”
“I think I know Applejack.” Twilight said. “If offered, and the changeling doesn't know about feeding, love can be offered to the changeling which it's body will automatically feed on.”
“Correct Twilight.” Celestia said. “I gave Shade as much love as I could every day. It kept him strong and helped him to grow up like any other pony. He also had an education so he wouldn't seem different. Perhaps you saw him a few times?” Twilight looked away, thinking.
Celestia continued. “I knew that as long as he didn't know who he was, Chrysalis would have a harder time finding him.”
“But Shade's your son.” Rarity spoke up. “He doesn't belong to that awful queen.”
“No, but she could tempt him by offering to teach him about what he is, something that I am unable to do.”
“But why is that?” Twilight asked.
“Luna and I do not know very much about changelings.” Celestia said. “We attempted to learn as much as we could after he was born and after the attack at your brother's wedding, but it doesn't compare to what a actual changeling can teach.”
“So you didn't know anything about him?” Twilight asked carefully.
“Not as much as we should have.” Celestia admitted.
“If you wanted to keep him safe, why did you send him to Ponyville?” Rainbow asked her.
“Luna had been spying on Chrysalis for sometime now.” Celestia said. “She found out that she had been getting closer to finding Shade. So we thought that sending him away would protect him.”
“Why does she want Shade so badly?” Twilight puzzled. “He's a changeling just like she is, right?”
Celestia shook her head. “No, Twilight. She wants Shade for two reasons. He is my son, and my weakness. Whether he tries to or not, Shade steals my energy.”
“So he weakens you?” Twilight asked.
Celestia nodded. “I can't help but love him. I believe that he feeds more from me because I gave birth to him, but I have no way of knowing for sure.”
“Who is his father?” Twilight said.
Celestia looked at Twilight for a bit, then started to answer. Suddenly in a burst of blue light, Luna appeared next to her sister, panting.
“Luna!” Celestia cried.
Luna waved here sister off. “No time sister! We have a problem. Chrysalis has captured Shade!”
All the ponies in the room gasped. “How?!” Celestia asked angrily.
“I was making another pass though Cloudsdale, when I sensed him below me. I left the city to see him being attacked by another changeling.” Luna looked at Rainbow. “Are you sensitive between your wings?”
“Well, yeah.” Rainbow said. “If I get hit there, I can't fly. Hurts really bad.”
Luna nodded. “Shade had taken your form. Unfortunately he was shot between the wings and fell. He protected himself with a spell but the other changeling reached him and teleported them away. I flew straight back here.”
Twilight could tell that Celestia was agitated by the news. She turned to them. “Are you all sure that you haven't seen Shade anywhere?” Everypony nodded, but Twilight saw that Fluttershy was acting even more nervous then usual. She quietly pulled Fluttershy behind the group to talk to her.
“Fluttershy. Did your cousin really buy you that necklace?” Twilight softly asked.
“No...but I can't tell you. I promised Twilight.” Fluttershy said, clearly conflicted.
“If it's something that will help Shade, please tell the princess. Shade will understand.”
“A-are you sure?” Fluttershy asked. “I don't want him to be angry.”
Twilight smiled and hugged Fluttershy. “He won't be.”
Fluttershy walked up to the princess and softly said, “Princess...I actually have seen Shade lately. He's been staying with me.”
“That's a start.” Celestia said. “Where has he gone when he was living with you?”
“Umm, he didn't know how to change his body until last night, so he mostly stuck around the house.” Fluttershy quietly said.
Celestia thought hard for a moment and then her eyes lit up. “Chrysalis wouldn't take him somewhere far away from ponies. Shade will die without emotions for too long because his body is still adjusting to his shifting and him being able to control when he feeds.” She looked at Twilight and Fluttershy. “I have an idea, but I need you two to trust me.”
“Hold on there. Why are you only sendin them?” Applejack spoke up.
“Yeah! We need to go with them!” Rainbow chimed in.
“I know you all want to help my little ponies, but this is something that Twilight and Fluttershy can easily accomplish.” Celestia said. “Twilight, Luna and I had planned in case something like this would happen. We cast a spell on Shade that will let us teleport to him. I would go myself but...”
“It's okay Princess.” Twilight said. “We can handle it.” Fluttershy nodded. Celestia and Luna exchanged looks and stood up in front of Twilight and Fluttershy. The rest of the ponies moved away from them.
“Twilight. When you find Shade you need to immediately bring him back. Chrysalis will most likely have starved him from emotions to weaken him. I can heal him.” Celestia said. As Twilight nodded Celestia and Luna created two swirling ribbons of magic and wrapped it around the unicorn and the pegasus. It covered them and in a flash of light....there were still standing there.
“Uhhhh...” Twilight started.
“Buck!” Celestia snapped. Everypony jumped at the princesses choice of words. “Luna! She must have disguised where she is!”
“Then I will fly over the city and cast my enchantment breaker.” Luna said, then rose up and left the castle.
“We don't have a lot of time, do we?” Twilight asked, clearly about to attempt to help Luna.
Celestia sighed, “No Twilight. We do not.”
. . .
“Uhhhh, what happened?” I said as everything slowly came back into focus. The first thing I noticed was that I was laying down and my legs were cold. Then I got a huge shock as I saw that I was trapped on a table! My legs were held fast by iron chains that wrapped around the table that I was on.
“No! Nonononono...” I instantly started struggling, but it was no use. I couldn't move. I thought about about shifting, but I abandoned that idea as I started to pass out again when I tried to shift into Twilight. “Okay, so that isn't going to work.” I thought. I was going to teleport out of the chains, but these chains must have a enchantment on them. I disappeared, the reappeared right back in the chains. “That won't work either!” I hissed. “All that did was help me use more energy.” I tried to relax and think. I looked down and saw that I was still wearing my promise necklace. I remembered that I had enchanted it with at least two enchantments. One of them was to turn the necklace invisible whenever I shifted into a form that wasn't my normal unicorn form or my changeling form. But for the life of me, I could NOT remember the second one.
“Great. Ummm, where am I?” I looked around. It looked like I was in a basement. So that meant that I should be in a city, right? “And if I am in a city, I should be able to draw some emotions. I casted out, but I didn't sense anything. “Guess I'm still recovering from that fall. Or I drained myself too much when I had been in the town eairler.” I said to myself.
“Aww you're awake!” A voice said from behind me. I turned and saw Misty walk up next to the table. “How are you feeling?” I glared at her. “That isn't a nice face.” she said.
“Does it look like I care?” I hissed. “Where am I? And why am I chained?!”
Misty looked at me. “Well, I think that my mom can explain it a little better then I can.”
“Your...mother?” I asked. Misty pointed behind me.
Then a grown-up female changeling walked in front of the table. “Hello Shade. I'm Chrysalis. You can call me Queen Chrysalis.”
“Yeah, excuse me if I don't!” I snapped.
Chrysalis smiled at me, like she knew something I didn't. I hated when ponies(or I guess changelings) did that. “Shade, I'm very glad that we met. You see, you have something that I need.”
“A better looking horn?” I said
Chrysalis took my horn and started to rub it, sending shivers though my body. “You do have a nice horn, even when you are in your changeling form. But that isn't what I need.” She pointed at my body. “I don't need any particular PART of you. I needed ALL of you.”
“For what?!” I snapped.
“I'll tell you when you wake up. It looks like it's time for you to take a little nap.” Chrysalis and Misty pointed their horns and me and covered me with a green mist. Immediately I was tired. As I fell asleep again, I thought I saw Chrysalis climbing onto the table on top of me.
But that was probably my imagination.
. . .
Twilight and her friends were restlessly pacing in Celestia's library. Twilight had disappeared in the rows of books. The rest of the ponies met up in the middle with Celestia. Twilight came out from a aisle and sat by her friends. “I don't know what to do Princess.”
Celestia was about to say something when Luna appeared by her. “It's complete sister! We need to send them now!” Luna anxiously said.
As Celestia nodded, Twilight and Fluttershy stood in front of her. “Twilight, do you remember the spell to return?” Twilight nodded.
“We can do this Princess. Let's go!” Twilight said. Fluttershy stood there quietly and nodded. Celestia and Luna nodded and created the magic ribbons again. This time though, when it covered the two ponies they were gone.”
“Princess? Where are they exactly?” Applejack asked.
“As close as we could send them to where Shade is.” Luna said. “Now it's up to them to return.”
. . .
I slowly opened my eyes again, but his time it was much more painful. My body was sore from the waist down, like I had been exercise. I felt even more drained also. I looked and saw Chrysalis sitting with her back to me. “I don't know what you did to me, but I'm going to get you for it.”
She turned and smiled. “Glad your awake. Now we can talk.”
“About?” I decided that if I acted passive about the situation, she would tell me what her plan was.
“Well.” She sat on the table and looked at me. “I was thinking that you might marry Misty.”
“Excuse me?” I said in shock.
“You two would have the cutest hatchlings!” she said. That statement hit me. Celestia had told me that she had found me as a baby. But I wasn't hatched, I was sure of that. So that meant that I was BORN.
“Well, we'll have time for that later.” Chrysalis said. “I bet you're wondering why your here. Well, Misty told me that you have some “interesting” control over your shifting and feeding.”
“So I feed on emotions. So do you.” I said.
Chrysalis smirked. “I think we both know what I mean. You don't just feed on love, you feed on all emotions. Well, I wanted to enlighten you on something.”
“I'm listening.” I said calmly.
“Most changelings can only feed if the emotion is given off from the creatures in the area. Specifically, if their showing love, it can be fed off. And that doesn't directly hurt that pony, most of the time. But you.” Her smile grew a little wider. “You can reach into a pony's soul and directly feed of their emotions.”
“What?!” I said.
“This directly affects that pony.” Chrysalis said. I thought for a moment. If a pony had no emotions then they would be nothing but a soulless doll, for lack of a better term. I had a bad feeling about what Chrysalis wanted me to do.
“See, when you take the emotions, you sort of hold them in your soul. Then, you can re-distribute them at will. So you can essentially control how a pony's entire characteristics would be like. That's why your here.” the changeling queen said.
“That's horrible!” I yelled. “I'm never going to mess with anypony's soul!” Chrysalis stood up.
“I'm sure that you'll think differently if a certain yellow and pink pegasus's life hung in the balance?” Chrysalis said. I narrowed my eyes.
“Don't even think about touching her.” I said in a soft, dangerous tone. Chrysalis just smiled and left the room. . . .
I struggled and tried every spell I could think of to free myself. Nothing worked though. I would have stopped, except for the fact that now Fluttershy was in danger. I relaxed and tried to think. I needed a way to get any energy in general. Then I remembered. The other enchantment on the necklace was a oasis spell. The spell created so that any emotions that were around me that I didn't feed on were stored in the necklace so I could use it later. I cast out to sense it and found something amazing. I had cast the spell on the necklace after I had broken into that store. So when Fluttershy and I confessed our love for each other, her love had overflowed from me into the necklace, charging it for me.
I drew the energy into myself and immediately felt better. I concentrated hard then I felt my body shrink and slide out of the chains as I shifted into Sweetie Belle. I shifted back into my pony form and looked around the room. “Okay. Time to get OUT of here.” Suddenly in a flash of green light, Chrysalis and Misty appeared behind me.
“Hmm, we can't have you leaving just yet.” the changeling queen said. As she fired a magic rope at me, I flash teleported behind her. I levitated them both in the air and threw Chrysalis. She slammed into the wall and I slammed Misty on the table. I used my magic to manipulate the chains to chain her to the table. “You tricked me! You pretended to be my friend, but you only wanted to use me!”
“It wasn't going to be like that Shade!” she yelled. “I wanted you to be mine! But then you went and bonded with that pegasus!”
“Bonded?” I asked. A jolt of pain went though me as Chrysalis bucked me in the side, sending me into the wall with a thud.
Chrysalis freed Misty, who looked at me with rage in her eyes. This was not going to end well. She lifted me into the air and slammed me into the ground. Then she flung me into the wall. I fell to the ground and she jumped in the air and landed hard next to me. The shockwave flung me into the air. She yelled. “Maybe you'll think differently after this!” She shot about twelve lightning bolts at me and they slammed into me.
.
“AHHHH!!!” The pain was horrible. The lighting lanced though my whole body, burning the insides of it. Every part of my body was on fire. My head arched back and I felt magic shoot from from my horn sporadically. felt that I was going to die. Then it stopped, and then I was sent into a pile of cake mix boxes. I faintly heard Chrysalis say, “You need to be more careful. I don't want him dead.”
I was hurt, real bad. I knew that after Chrysalis was done talking to her daughter that I was going to be chained back to that table. Then I thought of a really stupid idea. I cast a spell that would remove my soul from it's body and leave my body where it was. The spell put my soul behind the two changelings.
“I hope I have enough energy for this.” I thought. Then in a burst of light I shifted into Princess Celestia. “Chrysalis!” I yelled.
“Celestia! How did you find us?!” She yelled. The changeling queen's eyes widened and her pupils dilated. I frightened her. Good.
“I have my ways.” I said, making myself look stern. “But that isn't your big problem.” I pointed at where my body was lying. “What have you done to him?”
“Well, I guess the same thing that'll have to happen to you!” Chrysalis said, suddenly getting a bolt of confidence. Wonderful. Misty and Chrysalis shot a twin bolt of green magic. I counteracted with a white bolt of my own. The drain on my energy was about automatic, but the rush of power was felt. I concentrated as hard as I could. Suddenly my magic grew, and I slammed my bolt into the two changelings, knocking them to the ground..
“Now.” I said. “I'm feeling merciful. Leave and take your daughter with you and do NOT return. Because if you do, you will be very sorry!”
Chrysalis put a hoof on Misty, who was unconscious. “Don't think that you've won Celestia. Because, we already have.” Suddenly, they were gone.
I magically teleported my body in front of me, then released the spell that separated my soul from my body. As I tried to stand I knew that I was drained. I wasn't just drained, I was dying. There was nopony around me to drain emotions from.
“I...I wasn't expecting....to die...like this.” I panted. I had shifted into my unicorn form upon reentering my body. I had a last ditch idea. I sparked my horn as much as I could and launched a blue flare. The flare crashed though the ceiling to explode in the sky. Completely drained, I fell to the ground. As everything darkened, I thought I saw a purple and yellow flash. I tried to force my eyes open again, but it was no use. I blacked out, maybe for the last time.
Light. I never realized how much I enjoyed looking out the window and watching the sunlight. As I opened my eyes and saw the light covering the room, I felt a sense of peace. Ever since I had discovered that I was a changeling, I hadn't truly felt at ease. But now, I was happy to be alive.
My memory flowed back into my brain. I slightly winced as I remembered what had happened in that basement. I should have died there, but I was here. Looking around, I saw that I was in a rainbow colored hospital room. I noticed that the colors were the same colors that colored Celestia's mane. There was a few couches around the room. I knew then that I was in Canterlot. Celestia had shown me this hospital room when I was young. I remembered that she told me that it was the safest room in the hospital. Not only was it monitored by magic, but palace guards were outside the door and around the windows whenever there was a patent in here. This room was very rarely used. I remembered that after Luna was changed back from Nightmare Moon she had used this room for about one day. That's when Celestia had shown me how secure this room was.
My head was wrapped in a bandage and I felt a slight burning pain on my side. I looked under the blankets and saw that I had a nasty burn on my side. That must have been from when Misty had shot me with the lightning. My necklace was around my neck as always. I held it close to my head for a moment, silently thankful.
I hadn't sat up to scope out more of the room, but I did when I casted out my senses and found out there was another pony in the room. I slowly sat up and saw Fluttershy asleep on one of the couches. I saw other blankets around the room and thought that the rest of my friends had slept in here during my stay. I didn't feel as weak, so my body must have automatically absorbed emotions while I was unconscious.
I was going to lay back down and try to get a little more rest, but Fluttershy stirred and opened her eyes. She sat up and saw me looking at her. Her eyes lit up. “Shade!” she said, smiling. She walked up to the bed I was on and very softly hugged me. Being Fluttershy, it didn't hurt at all. In fact, I barely felt it. It didn't matter though, I was happy to just be with her.
“Fluttershy.” I started. “What happened?”
“Well, the princess was talking to us and then Princess Luna told us that Chrysalis had captured you.” Fluttershy started. “Princess Celestia sent Twilight and me to Ponyville to find you, but we didn't know where to look until we saw a light shoot out from Sugercube Corner.”
I smiled. “Yeah, that was me.”
Fluttershy continued. “We saw you lying on the ground, not moving. But the worst part was that all of your color was gone.” She shuddered at remembering that.
“Flutters, it's okay. You don't have to say anything else.” I didn't want her to get upset. “How long was I out?”
“Twilight and I found you 4 days ago.” Fluttershy said. I was quiet then, thinking. “When we brought you back to Canterlot, the princesses rushed you here. They refused to let anypony else even touch you. They did all they could to keep you from....” I could sense that she was getting upset, so I attempted something I hadn't tried before. I was calm so I projected that emotion onto her. Fluttershy took a deep breath and continued. “You were never alone in here, Shade. Everypony came and went, but I never left your side.”
“But, what about your animals?” I asked.
“I asked Twilight and Applejack if they could check on them.” Fluttershy said. “I told them that I would head home when you woke up.”
“You saved me, didn't you?” I asked. I could feel the love from Fluttershy in my soul. “That's why you didn't leave me here.”
Fluttershy nodded. “Everypony's going to be so happy to see you. I'll go get them, that is if you don't mind.”
I shook my head. “I don't mind.” Fluttershy turned to leave, then she came back to the bed and softly kissed me. Then she left the room.
About ten minutes later, all six of my friends came into the room. “Shade! You're awake!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing around the room. I could literally see the joy radiating from her.
“Hey there Pinkie.” I said. “You seem energetic.”
“Oh yeah! I've been planning a party ever since Twilight and Fluttershy found you! It's going to be AMAZING! Oh, I need to bake some cakes and get ice cream and finish the decorations and.....”
Rarity gently put her hoof over Pinkie's mouth. “I think that she's trying to say that we're all glad that you're awake dear.”
“So am I.” I shook my head. “It got rather rough for a bit there.”
“Don't do something like that again.” Rainbow said. “You should have seen Fluttershy when we got you in here. She was crying, in fact we were all pretty upset.”
“Don't be tryin to say that you weren't cryin also, Rainbow.” Applejack said. “You were just as upset.”
Rainbow ran her hoof though her mane. “Well, maybe just a little.”
I smiled. It felt great too be with all of my friends again. Twilight walked over to me. “I was wondering. Do you think that after you get better that I could um, study you? It would be great for my research.” I nodded.
Suddenly everypony in the room was quiet as we heard a knock on the door. “Come in!” I yelled.
Princesses Celestia and Luna walked in. “Shade! You finally woke up!”
Everypony in the room bowed down to the princesses. I was going to get out of the bed to bow also but Luna held up a hoof. “No Shade. Stay there for now.” She turned to my friends. “Come with me. I wish to show you all something.” As she led my friends out of the room, Fluttershy turned and gave me a soft smile. Then she shut the door behind her.
Celestia and I were the only two left in the room. Celestia cleared her throat and said, “We looked over everything in the basement. Chrysalis didn't leave any clues for us to follow.
“I didn't think she would.” I said. “She had what she needed.”
“Why did she leave you there? Celestia asked.
“Well, I might have used a forbidden spell I found in your room to temporarily separate my soul from my body and then shift my soul to look like you.” I said. “Just an idea though.
“Uh-huh.” Celestia said. We shared a laugh at that. After that, I could sense nervousness flowing from the princess. Then I knew what I needed to ask her.
“Why didn't you tell me?” I asked her.
“Tell you about what?” She asked.
“About everything!” I snapped. Celestia took a step back. “About me being a changeling, about Chrysalis out for my blood! About....” My eyes lost their fire and my voice died down. I turned away from her. “About you being my mother.”
Celestia walked up to the bed and put a hoof on my head. “Shade. I have no excuse for what I did. I thought that I was keeping you safe by not telling you what you really were. The truth is, I was very selfish. I hid what you really were because I thought that I could keep the image I had made for myself.”
“You aren't perfect, Celestia.” I said. “Neither am I.”
Celestia sighed. “It still isn't an excuse for me Shade. It wasn't fair to you. I am so very sorry. There truly are no words that I can say to express how horrible I have felt. And when you were in your coma, I was afraid. Not just because you were in danger of dying, but because I feared that I would never have a chance to tell you the truth.” She looked away from me for a moment. “I'm asking you if you could forgive me.”
Truthfully, I didn't want to forgive her. She had lied to me my entire life. But as I thought deeply about it I knew that Celestia did care about me. Even though she hadn't told me about what I truly was, she had been trying to prepare me for it. Training me in magic, making me practice it myself. Even Luna had thrown in a hoof by teaching me some hoof-to-hoof combat. (Wish I had remembered that when I was fighting Chrysalis.) I sensed out Celestia's emotions and I flinched as I felt a rush of sadness. I knew that Celestia really was sorry.
“Celestia.” I said softly. “I do forgive you. I can't say that I understand everything that you did, but I do forgive you.”
The sun princess smiled and hugged me. “Thank you.” She got up and turned to leave. “Get some rest, Shade. You can come home soon.”
As she left the room, I took sometime to think. Truthfully, I had forgiven Celestia but I couldn't say that I trusted her completely. But, I knew what else I had in store for me. Chrysalis was still out there and I needed to find her and stop her. But I also needed to come to grips with myself. I knew that the ponies in Ponyville didn't trust me, but I didn't trust myself. I was a monster, a monster that only I could tame. As I laid there looking out the window at the sky I made a promise to myself. I refused to let myself be the cause of Chrysalis taking control. I also resolved that I would do what I needed to to prove to everypony and to myself that I wasn't a monster.
And that was one promise that I knew I could keep.
Hai there! Twow443 here. If you're reading this you either have read though my whole story, or you looked at the title and wanted to read this. If it's the first reason, I just want to thank you for reading it. I had a ton of fun writing it and I hope you had a lot of fun reading it.
By the way, if you had any questions about anything that I wrote about, leave a comment! Did I not explain something? Did I leave something out? Do you just wanna talk to me? Leave a comment and I WILL answer it. Pinkie Promise.
Also I wanna give a special shout out to Deep Pond and Fanfanatic. You guys really helped me make this story great and I hope that you guys stick around for more!
Luna burst out of the library in Canterlot, racing though the castle as fast as her wings could take her. She was trying to hurry and reach her sister's room. After Shade had been let out from the hospital, Luna had noticed something odd on the changeling's neck. So, she had worked with Twilight to figure out what it was. Twilight was otherwise occupied today, but that hadn't stopped Luna from investigating on her own. But now, the moon princess was sure of what she had seen.
“Sister!” Luna yelled, rushing into her sister's room. Celestia was reading a letter from Twilight but she turned when her sister came in.
“Luna, is something wrong?” Celestia asked.
Luna skidded to a stop. “Do you remember that strange mark on the back of Shade's neck?”
Celestia nodded. “I was unable to figure out was it was.”
“Twilight Sparkle and I have been working on finding out what it meant....and we did.” Luna said. “It was the starting point for his first transformation.”
“I'm sorry Luna. I don't follow.” Celestia said.
“When you enchanted him as a baby, you made it so that only you and I could unlock his changeling powers.” Luna explained. “But that mark on his neck, it cast an oddly specific spell on him. Whoever put it on him knew what he was going to do next.”
“So what was the spell?” Celestia asked.
“If any sort of transformation or conjuration magic was used on him, it would automatically break the enchantment that you put on him.” Luna said. “I can only assume that whoever did this was spying on Twilight and knew that she was going to cast that clothing spell on him.”
“It had to have been Chrysalis, or her daughter that Shade told us about. She's the only one that would benefit from Shade knowing who he is.” Celestia said.
“That's-that's not the worst part.” Luna looked down. “Chrysalis also claimed him.”
“What are you talking about?” Celestia asked, worried.
“The original mark was a circle.” Luna said. “But there are two holes in the middle of the circle on his neck.”
Celestia thought for a moment, then her eyes widened. “She bit him.”
“Among other things.” Luna sighed. “Where is he now?”
“He's attending a party with his friends is Ponyville.” Celestia said.
Luna sighed. “Celestia. He can't go back to his old life. You know this as well as I do.”
“But, I don't want him to have to go though anymore.” Celestia unhappily said.
“Time isn't on our side, sister.” Luna said softly. “You need to tell him who it is, now.”
Celestia softly nodded. “I will go at once.” She stood up and hugged her sister. “Thank you Luna.” Celestia lit up her horn and disappeared.
. . .
Boy, I loved actually being able to enjoy one of Pinkie Pie's parties. The last one didn't even get off the ground.
Pinkie hosted the party at Sugercube Corner three days after I was let out of the hospital. Because I still wasn't trusted in Ponyville, it was a rather small party. Only my six friends were there the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Even though there were only a few ponies there, it was still fun.
Pinkie had baked dozen of treats before the party. Also, there were tons of games and talking and.....sorry. Kinda spaced out there.
The three fillies in the room fell asleep at midnight. Rarity and Applejack took them upstairs to bed. I was sitting at the table quietly eating a cookie. I had been the center of attention all night, so it was nice to have some time to myself.
“Hey umm, Shade?” Fluttershy quietly sat next to me. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I'm just a little tired.” I said. I wrapped my hoof around her and gave her a little kiss. “Thank you.”
Fluttershy blushed. “Your welcome Shade. I really do love you.”
I held my necklace, which was filled with love from her. “Yeah, so do I.”
Twilight was coming over to talk to us, when in a bright burst of light, Celestia appeared out of nowhere.
As eveyrpony in the room bowed, my mother walked over to us. “Shade, I'm glad you're still here. Come outside with me for a moment.”
Slightly nervous, I gently squeezed Fluttershy's shoulder and stood up. I followed Celestia outside in front of Sugercube Corner. Not trusting what some ponies would do if they saw me, even with the princess there, I shifted into my pegasus form.
“Shade, I didn't tell you everything.” Celestia said. “It turns out that you are in more danger then Luna and I thought.”
“You mean there's more that can happen to me besides a weird mark on my neck and the fact that the queen of the changelings is out for my blood?” I asked. “By the way, what is that mark anyway?”
“Luna found out that Chrysalis bit you.” Celestia told me. “We don't know what it means though.”
“It hurts at random times.” I complained, rubbing my neck. “What did you need to say? I don't want to miss the party.”
Celestia sat in front of me. “Shade, I don't know how much time we have left before Chrysalis returns, but I think it's best that you know this now.”
“Know what?” I asked, wishing that she would just tell me.
“Your father.” she said. “I know that I refused to tell you before, but you should have the chance to decide. Do you want to know who he is?”
I sat there in shock for a few seconds, knowing that this reveal would only confuse my life more. “I need to know. Who is he?”
My mother looked into my eyes for about a full minute before opening her mouth and further spiraling my life out of normality. And I knew that my personal harmony would never be the same.
