> Unexpected Changeling: What It Means To Be Loved
>  by The ancient one
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Unexpected Changes- Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was standing with my mother on the side of the street. I held a ball with a small turtle figurine inside, and tossed it around. After bouncing it a few times, it fell into the street...I chased after it. My mother reached out to me and screamed, “VERILY THY FEAST IS MOST GLORIOUS ON THIS DAY OF LUNAR CELIBRATION!” 

My eyes broke open in realization it was a dream. I looked around to see I was in my bed, nothing special, just a small wood frame bed with a pillow and blanket. All the while, Luna practically laid in the Taj Mahal. Pillows surrounded her on a dark blue bed, silk screens hung from it, standing on the corners were wooden pillars, each engraved with a spiral design. I didn't care about any of it, what I did care about, is that she woke me up.

“BEHOLD! THY QUEEN IS-”

“LUNA! SHUT UP!” I screamed. She continued Royal Canterlocking in her sleep, “LUNA!” I screamed once more, but to no avail. I sighed to myself, “I guess now would be as good a time as any” I smiled to myself, pulling some small fireworks from underneath my pillow. I went into the bathroom, a mere ten feet away from Luna's bed. The inside was as white as snow, the porcelain walls and floor almost blinding in their radiance.

Where would be a good place to put these, I thought to myself. I looked over to my right to see the toilet, that works. I made a small hop to it, lifted the seat up, charged my horn with magic and put the fuses to it, lighting them. I then placed them in the toilet, making sure the fuses were safe from the water. I walked out whistling a kindly tune, and flew onto Luna's bed. I shook her a bit, and in a childish, groggy voice said, “Luna..” I yawned for effect, “Celestia says she wants to speak with you, she's in the toilet...”

Luna barely opened her eyes and got up from her bed, she made a slow trot into the bathroom. I heard Luna groan, “Yes, dear sister?” followed by the sound of an explosion. I made my way to the bedroom door, I had a feeling things were going to get out of hoof.

“SHIFTING SAAAAAAAAANDS!!” She screamed, causing the room to quake.

“We need more lemon pledge!” I shouted as I ran down the halls like a bat out of hell, turning as many corners as I could to keep her off my tail. This was a daily occurrence, it's how I kept fit. Passing through the halls of Canterlot Castle, the majestic panned glass, and the ruby colored rugs with golden accents on the edges. The eggshell colored walls and the occasional painting. This was my home for the past five years, Canterlot Castle.

I noticed a mirror, it must have been new because I'd never seen it before. In-fact, a month after I started living here, Celestia made sure to keep certain furniture out of the halls. I ran up to it and began looking at the edges, it looked like liquid space. Stars and the sun and moon floating in it, I thought it was pretty cool. Then I looked to my reflection, it took some time, but I finally adjusted to my new form, at least a little, “Hey, sexy changeling,” I said, making kissey faces at myself, “You are one sexy mother- shut yo mouth! I'm only talkin' about you! I can dig it.” I was honestly impressed my holes had managed to close up, it almost made me look normal.


I heard a sudden crash, I looked around to see what it could've been. It was just Luna, she smashed into one of the hall walls behind me, “MY WRATH SHALL CONSUME THEE IN A CLEANSING FIRE!”

I looked to myself in the mirror,“Run, Sands, RUN!”

I quickly threw up a brow and said, “How in the hell...”

My reflection leaned out the mirror and grabbed my face, “Don't question it, just run!” I listened to..me(?) and ran down the hall, Luna chasing me down. I turned the next corner on the right and flew onto the ceiling. Hopefully she wouldn't find me. Once she turned the corner she stopped, and started looking around. My heart was pounding, pulse racing, and I was sweating. 

She began walking through the hall, her gaze going over almost everything in view. A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead and onto my nose. I took quick notice, and my heart began to beat even faster. It dropped off my face, and struck the ground. To me, it sounded like an atomic bomb. Luna, however, didn't notice. She just continued walking down the hall, as if nothing had happened.

And then I fell to the ground face first, I pulled my face out of it's new indent and screamed, “YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO NOTICE WHEN A DROP OF SWEAT TOUCHES THE GROUND!” The sapphire alicorn turned around with bared teeth and fire in her eyes, “Why on earth did I just do that!?” I facehoofed myself, “Luna, can we start ov-” I noticed she didn't have the usual look she gave me. A look of slight annoyance, she looked angry, ready to snap, “Luna...” I whimpered. I don't want this, I don't want this at all! I thought to myself.

Then things began to change, I started to see everything in thirty-two bits. A red ring surround the ground where Luna stood. The walls, window and everything around us, now gone. And in their place, nothing but white. I saw a white box with black edges appear above Luna's head, and mine as well. Inside them were green bars, our names were over them. Next to Luna's name was, “LV 32” and mine, “LV 28”. There was a return of familiarity, it comforted me, I no longer feared Luna, I stood my ground ready for battle. 

Just as I had begun taking my steps toward Luna, there was a flash of red and orange. I couldn't look at it directly so I turned away. When the light had faded, everything had gone back to normal, and in the place of the sudden light burst was a bird. Philomena, Celestia's pet phoenix. It looked at me for a bit, then turned it's head to Luna, who had lost the angry look and had the “Somewhat annoyed” face on. Luna's expression must have been another glorious gift from my mother, no doubt. Philomena leaned it's head to the right, gesturing us to follow, and flew off down the halls.

Without hesitation I followed it, and lo and behold I ended up in the throne room, before Celestia. Luna just teleported in. Celestia looked at us from her throne and said, “What is it with you two? Every day and every night, it's the same thing. You two end up getting into some sort of argument and then, one way or another, destroy part of the castle.”

“We didn't destroy anything, today...” I lied, Innocently.

“'Tis true, sister, we've not destroyed anything.” Luna said, her eyes still half shut.

“Oh? Then mind telling me what the crash and explosions were about?” Celestia said expectantly. It was clearly a trap, there was no way I was gonna answer that.

“Shifting Sands laid waste to the throne.” Luna yawned out. 

“Tattle-tail!”

Celestia sighed, “What am I going to do with you two? You're family, yet you act like enemies.”

“It's not my fault Luna doesn't like me. I don't like her either. It's a simple matter of conflicting interest,” I folded my hooves, “I'm sure she'd try to get rid of me, if you weren't here.”

Luna perked up a bit, she seemed genuinely shocked at what she had heard, “Don't like you? Get rid of you? Shifting Sands, whilst we have our problems, I love you just as much as Celestia does.”

“You tried to spear me, just last week!”

“'Twas a fake! I've no intent to harm ye!”

“Enough!” Celestia shouted, “I think the problem with you two lies in your relationship. Perhaps you should spend more time together.”

“What's option B?” I asked, stroking my chin with my hoof.

“Would you really like to find out?” She gave a sly grin.

“No ma'am...” I withdrew, giving a smile and a small squee.

“Good,” She smiled, “Luna, at sunset I want you to go get a cake, bring Shifting Sands with you. It'll be a good way for you both to connect.”


“Yes, sister...” Luna barely managed to get out before collapsing to the ground, sleeping. It's not that she was just that tired, she was just that eager to end the day. I left her where she lay and gave my response to Celestia's suggestion

“Mom, I'm not so sure this is a good idea, me and Luna just don't like each other. What if she tries to hurt me while we're out?”

“Shifting Sands, come with me.”

“Can I take the usual spot?”

“Of course you can.” She said, giving a leisurely smile. Her horn began giving off a soft golden light, and I was covered in an aura of magic. I gently floated over to her, where I took my usual spot in her mane, “You know, one of these days, I'm going to break this little habit of yours.”

“Are we talking any time soon?”

“Maybe~” she giggled slightly. 




The Canterlot Gardens. The place where flowers of all sorts, colors and effects grew, the place where even exotic wildlife lived. The scent of this place was more beautiful than anything back home, but I only came here if I were dragged into it. I preferred to stay away from it, for some reason.

“Shifting Sands, why do you think Luna hates you?” Celestia asked, walking through the garden, past the statues and flowers.

“Never really thought about it, I guess it's because I'm a changeling. My kind attacked Canterlot, and ponies haven't forgotten about it. Maybe Luna just wants to kill me to please her subjects, or to show she's not Nightmare Moon anymore.”

“Shifting, it would bring Luna to tears if she heard you say such things. You may not know this, but she worries about you more than I do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember when I told you about how you were kidnapped?”

“Yes, Variance, do you remember that day?” A genderless voice from my mind intruded.

“Yes, I remember...” I answered to them both.

“Well, after Luna learned about it, she created two enchanted statues of you. One of them lets her know where you are, the other tells her if you've been hurt.

“Why?”

“She worries you'll get hurt.”

“But she always attacks me!”

“So I've heard. But thinking about it now, I'm wondering if that really is the case.”

“What reason would she have for attacking me?!” I shouted.

“Tone, Shifting.”

“Sorry...what reason could she have for attacking me?”

“Hmm...” Celestia opened her wings and took to the sky, flying directly over the hedge maze, “Shifting Sands, look at the maze and tell me what you see.”

I squinted my eyes and concentrated as hard as I could, then it hit me, “I see it! I see! Absolutely bucking nothing.”

“Shifting Sands, watch your mouth!” Celestia said sternly, giving me her sharpest glare.

“Yes ma'am...” I resigned. I really hated the fact they could understand me, “I don't see anything, just a maze”

“Imagine you were in the maze, and there were dangers hidden in the twists and turns, and if you hit a dead end...well, you get the picture. How would you find your way through it and come out unscathed?”

“I couldn't, there's no way.”

“Alone, no. But that's what parents are for, we stay above the maze. And because of this, we can guide our children, teach them to recognize the dangerous traps that await.”

“I see...”

“Luna fell into one of those traps...the pain she felt was immeasurable. I think that's why she worries so much, because she's trying to make sure you don't fall into one. She's been there, and she knows how easy it would be for you.”

“She thinks I can't take care of myself? I can handle any situation that comes my way, and there's no way I'd do anything to hurt anypony.” I defended myself, internally cringing. It was hard lying to Celestia on such matters, but I had no choice. Every time I tried to tell her, Chrysalis stopped me, and I ended up saying nothing more than gibberish.

“Luna was overtaken by jealousy, though it was justified, it consumed her. And transformed her into something she wasn't,” She took a deep sigh, it was clear she didn't want to talk about this. She was really trying to be a good parent...it made me feel worse knowing that I would betray her, “Shifting Sands. Your kind attacked Canterlot and hurt hundreds of ponies. Many of them will look at you, and see nothing more than a monster. If simple jealousy could fester into such a being, then just imagine...”

“Mom, I'm not like that...” I said in a collected voice, trying to calm her down.

“I know, and neither was Luna. The point is, she's trying to guide you away from a path she tread, and she's trying in her own way. I won't claim to know the reasons for everything she does, but that is what I do know, so give her a chance to get closer to you, alright?

I nodded in agreement. Maybe she was right, maybe Luna really was trying to help me, somehow. I decided I would talk with her about this, about the attacks and even the statues I'd never seen. She knows herself better than anyone else, “Thank you for putting that into perspective.” I gave her a smile and hug. But something caught my attention, a sound in the air, it was too loud for me to bear, I covered my ears, “Mom, what's that sound?”

“What sound? I don't hear anything.”

“How can you not hear it!? It's so loud I think my ears are gonna bleed!”

“Shifting Sands?” She worriedly asked, “Shifting Sands are you alright?”

“No I'm not! Make it stop!” I gritted my teeth, that sound...it was getting louder. It sounded as if someone was screaming in anger and sorrow.  What on earth could that be? I thought to myself, the more I listened, the more unsettled I felt.

I looked to the maze, wondering if anything down there could be causing it. I surveyed that entire maze, but I couldn't see anything, and that noise was getting closer, and more damning by the second. Where else could it be coming from?! The sky? My eyes shot upwards, and I examined as much as I could. Nothing, where on earth was it coming from? Come on, you must have missed it somewhere! Calm down, where is it? I thought to myself. I tried again and pushed my eyes all over the blue sky, then I saw it. It looked like a blast of green magic flying over head, “Mom! Up there!” I screamed aiming my hoof at the object.

“Up where?” She looked,“I don't see anything.”  she looked back at me, her eyes were filled with worry.

“What do you mean you don't see anything?! You can't hear it! you can't see it! Why?!” A realization came over me, “Chrysalis! What are you doing to me?!” I screamed internally.

“I haven't done anything, this time. But it seems your maze just got a bit more complicated.”

I ignored her and looked back at the sky, and the blast seemed to be aiming for us, “Mom, it's coming right at us! Move!

“Shifting, there is nothing there, calm down.” The look of concern Celestia gave me, it worried me even more than that ball of agony coming our way, “I think it best we go inside.” She turned around and began flying back to the Castle, unfortunately she wasn't going at the pace I would've liked. At the speed that blast was coming, we wouldn't escape it. Or rather, I wouldn't. It struck me in the back, causing me to fall out of Celestia's mane and knocking me unconscious.




“Ian...Ian get up, you'll be late for the bus.” Said my mother, my human mother.

“Mom, it's Saturday. I don't need to go to school..” I replied with my eyes closed.

“Ian, it's Friday.”

“What!?” I screamed as I propelled myself forward, eyes bursting open. I looked to see my mother, her magenta eyes, radiant smile, and her brunette hair. As always, she dressed in a suit. She worked as a realtor, and as far as I know, she never missed a sale. She was an incredible woman, so loving and kind. But if I didn't make it to the bus in time, I would be seeing the ugly side of her, “I haven't even picked out my clothes!”

“I already picked them out.”

“What, really? Aren't I a bit old for my mom to pick my clothes?”

“Not if it actually does you a service. Now go take your shower, and get dressed.” She said pulling me out the bed, and pushing me out the door.

I ran to the bathroom down the hall, and grabbed the doorknob, “Ian...” My mother called out to me again. I turned my head to look at her, but instead I saw Chrysalis, “Did you miss me?”

“Chrysalis!? Y-You can't be here! You're...” I put my hands over my eyes, trying to reject this, “This isn't real, you're not real!”

“Oh, I'm very real, Variance.” She smiled

I took my hands off my eyes to see they were hooves again, “This...this isn't right. Earlier today, everything changed...then my mother...why didn't I notice?”

“Variance, do mama a favor.”

“Don't call yourself that! You're no mother of mine!!”

“Shh, my child. There's nothing to be afraid of. Mama's here.” She said as I realized I was back to my changeling form, “I'll make sure you grow up big and strong, and then you'll be the king you were always meant to be.”

I started backing up, “G-Get away...GET AWAY FROM ME!”

“Now, Variance, it's time to wake up!”




“AHHHHHH!” I screamed awakening into the real world, Celestia and Luna standing over me as I lay in my bed.

“Shifting sands, it's alright! It was just a dream!” Celestia said, trying calm me.

“Yes, forsooth, I believed ye to be mortally wounded when my sister broke through the door, raving like a madmare. But thou are free from harm..”

“Oh...sorry, I-I just...h-hey how about we go get that cake?” I asked, weakly.

“I think it's better you stay in bed, just to be safe about your condition.” Celestia stated with a worried expression.

“Mom, I'm fine.” I stood on my hind legs, “See? Perfectly alright!” I wobbled a bit, and held my head, “Mom, please, Luna will be there with me. If anything happens she can bring me back, safe and sound.” she looked to Luna, who gave a small nod, with an unsure smile.

“Alright... you can go get the cake...tomorrow. After you've had some rest.” Celestia said, leaving the room, leaving me and Luna alone. Luna, without much thought, went over to her game systems and began playing Sleeping Dogs.

I laid back down, closing my eyes, thinking about what had happened in my dream, how I hadn't noticed the world changing before me. I wondered if it happened before, and Chrysalis... Something about her didn't sit right with me, she was more vivid this time...was she doing something to me, again? Questions better asked when I have the strength, for now, I should focus on the main one, “Luna.”

“Yes, Shifting Sands?”

“Do you love me?” I opened my eyes and looked over to her. She sighed, sitting there, frozen. She paused the game and walked over to me.

“Shifting Sands, Celestia told me of your talk. Ye truly believed I hated you...”

“Do you...?”

“No. Shifting, I've told thee before, I love ye just as much as my sister. I would lay down my life for your safety.”

“What if I was a monster, what if I couldn't stop myself from hurting others? Would you both still love me then?”

“Though we would take drastic measures, thine place in our hearts would surely stay,” She hugged me, “We have a rough relationship, but a mother always takes care of her child.” She smiled to me and went back to playing her games. 

Luna, you really are trying in your own special, psychotic way. It makes me happy to know that your brutal attempts on my life have some merit. I thought to myself and smiled, just as a strange anger started to overtake me. I began gritting my teeth, followed by a strong desire to leave Canterlot Castle. Why? I had such a happy moment not too long ago, I recognized the feeling from my first week in the castle, “Chrysalis!? What are you doing to me?!” I screamed internally.

She gave a small yawn and said, “Don't worry, it's a natural reaction to changelings from other hives.”

Changelings from other hives and a desire to rampage? That's not good, I had to get out of there, before Luna was forced to live up to her words,“H-Hey, Luna! I'm gonna go to the bathroom really quick! Hehheh” I got out of bed and ran out the open door, down the dimly lit halls, the only source of light being the moon through the windows.

“Remember not to leave the seat up! I fell in last time...” Luna shouted in reply.

“Where is this changeling? Who is it?” I asked Chrysalis, barely restraining myself from jumping out the windows.

“Considering how angry you are, only one changeling comes to mind, and if it's her, you've just made a big mistake in distancing yourself from the alicorn."

I stopped in my tracks. “I did what now?”

“Behind you.” A female voice whispered. It was calm and flowed like water, I turned around to see who said it and saw a changeling hidden in shadows.

“Chrysalis!?” I jumped back, shocked.

“Sorry, but no. While it is true we have similar figures,” The shadowed changeling's eyes began to glow turquoise. Soon after she started walking towards me, into a small glimmer of moonlight, revealing a red flowing mane and a long, curved horn, with a large cut down it's side, “The differences between us are much more than you can imagine.”

“Variance, I want you to say hello to Cicada, leading specialist in assassination and intelligence gathering."

“Hello...” I whimpered, uttering nothing more than a small squeak.

“Hello,” she casually said, walking towards me. “Nephew.”
> Unexpected Changes- Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Nephew!? Since when!?” I shouted, stepping back.

“Be quiet, use your wings to talk.” Cicada calmly demanded.

“My wings? I can't-” I was cut off by the soft sound of my wings, they were flapping without any input from me.

“I see, he doesn't know about know about ultrasonic speech. He's more detached than you let on, sister.” she said teasingly, obviously getting some satisfaction from my ignorance. 

“What do you want from me?” I silently spoke, inching back ever so slightly.

“Come here, let me get a good look at you.” She said as she wrapped me in an orange aura of magic, and pulled me to her face. She straightened my hind legs, “Strange... No holes, but spikes? Could it have anything to do with your impurity?”

“My what?”

“Hush, child.” She straightened my head, “Your neck muscles are weak, it would be easy to strangle you” she bent my head down, “Your horn is sharp, at least. Though your mane could use some work. It's too much like your mother's.” she turned me around, “Your wings seem to be healthy” she finally let me down.

“LU-” My screams for help were cut off, no doubt by Chrysalis. Every time I tried to scream for help, nothing would come out.

“So you are the fabled Variance, the one who can absorb magic. The perfect heir Chrysalis loved to brag about.”

“She bragged about me?” I said with curiosity, somewhat flattered.

“Yes, it's one of the reasons we killed her.” she gave a light chuckle.

“Killed her? She-”

“Yep, died. Here, let me show you how, nephew.” Her voice filled with sadistic joy, as her magic began holding me in the air once more. She aimed her horn at me, and slowly put it to my neck, “You might want to brace yourself, I hear being impaled hurts.” 

I cringed and shut my eyes as tight as I could, I couldn't believe I was going to die so young into my new life. “That's enough Cicada, he's already regretting his life.” Chrysalis said. I looked around and no matter where I looked, I couldn't find her, “Why are you here?” the voice spoke once more, but this time I saw the source. My mouth, Chrysalis was somehow using my mouth to speak.

“I just came to see how my nephew was doing. You never let us see him while you were alive, so I thought this was a good opportunity.”

“Are the others aware of his whereabouts?”

“No. I'm the only one, though they are itching to find out.”

“I see... Cicada, I'll need you to protect him. His powers have not fully developed, he'll be nothing more than fodder for the girls.”

“You seem to forget, you're dead. I don't take orders from you anymore. And even when you were alive, I held just as much power as you did, or did you forget the damage I did to your horn? Why should I listen to you?”

“You're scared of what the others would do if they came to power.” 

“Ah, that's true. The thought of seeing any one of them in the throne...ugh, it sends chills down my spine.”

“If that's the case, then it stands to reason that you should do whatever is in your power to protect my son.”

“It does, doesn't it? Fine, I’ll do it, but don't take this the wrong way sister, I want to see how this ability to absorb magic works. Nothing more, once I've seen it, I may just abandon him.”

“Well then, I'll let you two get back to bonding. It also seems you have some company, take care of them will you? But don't kill them, we don't want you  leaving a trail they can follow.” Chrysalis said, finally letting me control my mouth. 

“You aren't much fun.” Cicada pouted as she walked around me, her horn shining with magic. Two guards, a white pegasus and a brown earth pony turned the corner. As soon as they caught sight of her, they began to panic. She then used her magic to suck the air from their area, and placed a shield around them, so they couldn't get out. The guards fainted and Cicada undid her spells. She turned to me and said, “Well, my king, I am wondering what you plan to do now.”

“About what?” I tried to move away, but my legs were frozen in place.

“About your hive. Without a leader, the hive you command will grow more and more lost, hungry, and scared.”

“I'm sorry, does it look like I care? The changeling world has nothing to do with me, or did you miss the part where I live in a family, with two loving mothers, an entire castle filled with ponies who treat me with respect and protect me? I have everything I need right here. The hive, and all the changelings in it, can burn for all I care! ” I challenged.

“Oh... Now I see why you don't have any holes. Ha-ha, child, you really believe they have accepted you? Do you really think they care? Don't be a fool! You're a changeling, and should the need arise, they'll denounce you. You can't escape being treated like a changeling.” She said as her horn began to glow again, causing smog to arise and blind me. When it cleared, she was gone.

“Treated like a changeling? Whatever...” I said to myself, rejecting her words with all my heart. I saw the guards she knocked out and ran to them. I saw they were cuddling one another, and the brown one was nibbling on the white ones ear. I just sat there, staring... they began to hold onto each other tightly, the white guard moaning as the brown one caressed him. Their intimate passion beginning to show...

I walked back to my room, and jumped in my bed. Luna took a look at me and said,“Shifting, it sounded as though someone were with ye. Did anything happen?”

“Go see for yourself.” I responded, watching her walk out of the room and down the hall.

“OH MY GOODNESS!! SHIFTING, FORGET WHAT YE SAW!!”

“But I-”

“FORGET!!”





“Shifting Sands? Shifting Sands! 'Tis time to retrieve our baked delicacy” Luna shouted, walking through the halls of Canterlot Castle. 

“Little did she know, just beyond her view, the orange shadow hid on the ceiling and waited for the moment to strike. The shadow knew not the meaning of the word mercy, he would take down his target without question. He also was incredibly handsome and had the body of a Greek god. The orange saw an opening, and knew it was time to destroy the mare!” 

She turned her head skyward and saw me just as I jumped at her screaming, “Requiescat in pace!” she reacted fast enough to avoid me, ducking out of the way. I smacked into the ground and let out a muffled, “DATTEBAYO!” before pulling my face from another new indent.

“Shifting, what on earth hast thou been planning?” Luna gave an awkward stare.

I stood on my hind legs and struck a pose. “I'm a ninja! An assassin of the night!”

“Mhm, and what hath brought upon this sudden profession?”

I gave her a blank stare, thinking about last night. “Yes.”

“...'Twas not even the right response...”

“Exactly!”

“...Ye live in a land of fairy tales, doth thou?”

“No, I live in a land of rainbows and unicorns.” I paused for a moment, thinking about what I said, how sad it was that my words actually made sense. I then began to stare at Luna once more, and she stared back... there was a long pause between us. “NINJAAAAAA!” I screamed, doing a backflip out of a panned glass window behind me, escaping the tension. 

“I never should've given back your transformation ability, all you do is abuse it.” Chrysalis shouted at me.

“Sorry, what's that? I couldn't hear you! The sheer wind force is too loud!”

“Why did you jump out an thirty storey window anyway?”

“Well, I want to enjoy whatever individuality I have now. You're dead, so your restrictions on me are null and void! I have to catch up on the freedom you stole from me. So you know what they say, YOLO!”

“Yolo?”

“You only live once.”

“This is your second life. Besides, why not just say Carpe Diem?”

“Because I'm modern. Besides, shut up.” I realized how close to the ground I was getting, so I decided it was best to start flying. However, my wings wouldn't move. I tried again, and nothing. Once more, and nothing. The ground was coming ever closer, the image of myself splattering into the ground become more and more vivid. “Why the hell won't my wings work?!”

“I'm holding them still.” Chrysalis said, monotonously.

“Why would you do something that stupid!?”

“Yolo.” 

“I hate you. I hate you so much.” As I peered towards my undeniable fate, I started to scream uncontrollably. For a fraction of a second, I saw blackness, and within said blackness stood a skeleton pony. Next thing I knew, I was sitting on Luna's back, at the castle gate. Although at the time, I didn't notice, so I continued screaming.

“Shifting...” Luna calmly said, giving a warm smile.

“AHHHHH!” I screamed in ignorant shock.

“Shifting...” She said a bit more seriously.

“AHHHHHH!”

“SHIFTING SAAANNNDSS!!” She said, using the dreaded CanterLock.

“AHHHH!”

“STOP THY SHRIEKS! 'TIS NO REASON TO BE FRIGHTENED!”

“I'm not screaming because I'm scared, I'm screaming because you blew out my eardrums!” 

“Oh...Sorry...” She cleared her throat, and began walking towards a chariot with two guards in-front. The same guards from the previous night, they avoided eye contact with one another. “Now, enough tom foolery. Let us go get our delicious baked goods.”

“Right...right...” A wave of green and blue fire traveled over my body, transforming me back to normal.

“Pray, for what reason did ye begin wailing?”

“My wings stopped working...didn't you see me falling?”

“Nay, verily, I gazed upon ye dancing on the breath of the wind, howling like a wild animal.”

“Now you're just showing off...”

“Ye were flying in circles, screaming like an idiot.”

“...Well, yeah! I knew that.” 

“Then why did ye-”

“Barrel roll!”

“'Tis going to be one of those days, I see...”

Luna paused for a moment, wondering if I was alright. I looked away to avoid suspicion, but I think that only made me look more suspicious. After what seemed like an eternity of awkward staring, she made it onto the chariot and we left the castle grounds. We traveled down a curving dirt road, and traveled, and traveled...and traveled some more...the guards seemed to be deliberately going slow. I think I fell asleep around the thirty minute mark, only to be woken up by a bump in the road.

I looked around to see where we were, and we were still on a dirt road. I knocked on Luna's horn and asked, “This is taking too long, I've been out the castle before, it's never been such a wait. Are we taking the long way or something?”

Luna looked back at me with a curved brow and replied, “It's only been eight minutes, Shifting Sands.”

I scratched the back of my head, thinking of an excuse to give. I couldn't, so I just shrugged. “Luna, why didn't we just teleport to the bakery?”

“Sifting, the point of this errand is to bridge the gap between-”

“Shifting.” I interrupted.

“Huh?” Luna replied.

“Shifting. My name is Shifting Sands. You called me 'Sifting'.”

“I doth think ye heard me right, I said thy name correctly.”

“No, I heard you fine. You called me 'Sifting' and that's not my name.”

“Shifting, I know the words of which I speak.”

“And I know the words of which I hear.”

“No,” her voice began to sound of mild irritation, “Thy hearing is improper. I know how to say thy name, and would never make such an error.”

“I heard you say 'Sifting'!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Whatever! Just keep your eyes on the road!”

“Hmph!” She responded, refocusing her gaze back on the road ahead of us. The only noise to be heard were the sounds of the wheels turning and hooves trotting on the dirt road. Birds chirping as they flew overhead. And the city of Canterlot came into full view. “I still know what I said”

“Drop it, Luna!” I shouted as we entered the city. The tall buildings, white as snow, usually with a roof that reminded me of the circus big-top. They normally had spirals of light purple and violet, occasionally there would be signs representing what the store was selling. The streets filled with the most pompous of ponies. Their heads were so far into the air, I assumed someone must be shoving a thirty foot rod up their flanks.

Ponies started giving me looks. They glared and whispered, snarled and pouted. “Looks like it's time for me to get dressed...” I sighed.

“Shifting, stay the way ye are.”

“You sure? Remember the first time ponies saw me?”

“Yes, the rumors of my sister and I.”

“The- The rumors!? They formed a mob outside the castle, demanding to ban me from Equestria!”

“Shifting, ye can't always be another pony.”

“Watch me.”

“We must all face our demons, Shifting Sands. Ye can't just hide thyself and pray ponies forget thine existence.”

“Again, watch me.” I said as I transformed, giving myself brown eyes and fur, with a darker brown and mane and tail, and an hour glass cutie mark. I left my size unchanged.

“Why doth this new form look familiar?”

“Who knows?” I said, looking away. We traveled along a dirt path, and turned left at the crossroads, and continued down for a few minutes. We stopped outside a small white building. It had a shade above the door, green and dark green. There was a sign at the top that said, “Grand Icing.”

Luna stepped out of the chariot, with me on her head, and walked into the store. The ponies standing in line quickly moved to the side, bowing in her presence. Luna walked through the row of bowing ponies and up to the glass counter. The counter showcased cakes of all sizes and colors. One was blue with a rainbow top frosting, another was white on the sides, but brown through the center, another had the picture of a foal. It was made of frosting and underneath it, the word, “Congratulations!”

Behind the counter stood a golden brown pony, his mane and tail were a  light red. His right eye was a shade of lavender, his left eye was gray, it was clear he was blind in it. It didn't really effect me, I was focused on the food in-front of me. “Which one are we getting? Which one?!” I asked as I began to drool.

“We're getting a special one, calm down.” Luna replied, closing the broken dam that was my mouth.

“Hey, Luna, whose the little scamp?” The golden brown pony asked.

“Ah, yes, neither of ye have met. Joe, this is-” Luna tried to reply as I cut her off.

“Whooves! Jimmy two whooves...”

“Whooves, huh? Ay, you related to Derpy?” Joe asked.

I sat with blank expression on my face. “Yes...”

Luna sighed and said, “Joe, me and...Whooves, were asked to retrieve a special Cake.”

“So you don't want the weekly triple fudge, icream filled, caramel covered cake with extra chocolate?”

“Nay, this time we want...” Luna gave a small pause, and looked at me.

“What?” I responded.

Luna's eyes drifted towards Joe. 

“Oh, I see! It's dat kinda order!” Joe exclaimed, understandingly.

“What kind of order?” I asked, scratching my head.

I gave small notice to the odd smell that suddenly began wafting. It was somewhat familiar, but at the same time different, I focused more on Joe saying, “Don't worry about it, me and da princess got it all covered for ya. Why don't ya go out and play little-” The scent irritated my nose, and I sneezed, accidentally transforming back to normal. “Changeling!?”

The ponies behind Luna began getting angry, they focused their stares on me and began to close in. A loud clank disrupted their advance. “Ay, don't none of ya put ya hooves on him. If any of yous got a problem, take it out of my store!” Joe demanded, with a crowbar in his hoof. The ponies looked disappointed that they couldn't shred me to bits, thank goodness Joe was there. 

Oddly enough, Luna didn't react, and she was supposed to be the more protective one. “Luna, why didn't you do anything? They were going to-”

“Do nothing. Joe would never allow such an act to take place within his domain, least of all against a child.” Luna assured. Joe nodded in agreement.

“Thanks Joe.” I smiled, before the shaking realization hit me. I had to use the bathroom. “Joe, wheres the...”

“To the right, down the hall, first door on your left.”

“Thank you!” I said as I jumped off of Luna's head and followed Joe's directions. The bathroom was fairly clean, though it looked like your average multi-stall bathroom. After I took care of business, I exited the stall to find a white unicorn standing over me. His mane was green and tattered, his eyes were a shade of magenta, he didn't look well. “Hello...?”

“Hello there, you little terrorist.” He said to me.

“I'm sorry, what?”

“It's time to pay for your crimes.” His horn began to glow dark blue.

“LUNA-!” I screamed, only to be cut off by the unicorn and his teleportation spell. In a flash of white light, he and I vanished from the area. When we reappeared, I was in a dinning hall. A relaxed, dim yellow glow filled the room, tables strewn about with white clothes on them. On the ceiling hung crystal chandeliers. At the front of the room, a stage. On it's floor instruments of all sorts laying on the wooden floor boards. However, the center of the stage caught my eye. A steel chair, leather straps and faded splotches of red.

I stepped back in fear, and turned to run, but I ran into the white unicorn's leg. I slowly looked up to him, my eyes widening in terror. He looked at me and smiled. “Don't worry, you'll get your spot in the limelight.” He said. He then took his hoof and smashed it into my face. I fell to the ground, unconscious.





I opened my eyes to see the blurred world around me. My face aching like a thousand hammers had smashed into it, it had to be the second worst pain my face has ever felt. I shook my head to get a grasp on my bearings, but no good, it only aggravated an already searing headache. I leaned to my side, and I could feel the cold sensation of metal. It was somehow soothing to the headache, but my face still hurt.“Oh man...what...what happened...?” I groaned.

“Oh, finally awake are you?” The familiar voice called out.

“Wha..?” I blinked and rubbed my eyes, focusing as hard as I could. “Who said that?”

“We talked like twenty minutes ago, how are you this stupid?”

My vision finally came into clear focus, it was the white unicorn. His image sent a jolt of fright through my body, causing me to jump back into the metal ceiling. I looked around to see that I was in a cage. “W-What the-”

“Don't worry, I'm not here to harm you...yet. You see, it's tradition that we tell the trash why they're here and what's going to happen to them. This way they die knowing full well what they've done, we don't want you feigning ignorance in the afterlife, do we?”

“What we've done? I haven't done anything!”

“So you say. But then again, you are a leech. Can't trust your kind, you know.”

“Look, I know the siege on Canterlot was a big deal but-”

“HA! Oh, I'm sorry, that, that was funny. You really think this is about Canterlot? Please! We've been bringing your kind to justice for centuries. And now in tradition, I must ask your name.”

“S-Shifting Sands.”

“Well then, Shifting Sands. It is my honor to tell you, I, Balance Justice will be your judge, jury and if necessary, executioner. By the power given to me by the Shielded Heart, I bring you up on your charges!”

“Charges?! What?! Since when was I in a court system!?!”

“Shifting Sands, you are held under suspicion of feeding on love, pretending to be somepony else, ruining family bonds and friendships, murder, cruelty to the pony race, and disrupting the peace of Canterlot. How do you plea?”

“I haven't done...all of those things! Come on, you can't fault me for being a changeling, or that I feed off love, or that I pretend to be-”

“Silence! By the power of The Shield, I sentence you to death! Since you are young I am also willing to go light on your punishment.”

“You just sentenced me to death! How can you possibly go light on me!?”

“We won't torture you. We'll give you a quick death. Now, just wait your turn like a good leech. Oh and one more thing I should mention, you're wearing a special collar, it absorbs magic. The more you try to use, the more it drains. Enjoy!” He said, exiting through the door on the right.

“Well, I have no clue what just happened. But all in all, I think I just made a friend.” I took in a deep breath to sigh, but ended up coughing instead. The room smelled horrible. I looked around the room to see the floor was covered with some strange, brown substance. Looking to the center I saw a cooking station, knives, pots, pans etc. were all stacked in the center of it, some were even growing mold. Apparently no one had ever cleaned this place.

“Hey! Hey, you! New guy!” I heard a weak, female voice whisper. I started looking around the room to find whoever had called out to me. “Over here! In front of you!” 

I looked straight ahead to see a dark gray changeling, skinny, with soft blue eyes. “What? What do you want?”

“You, you're related to the queen, right?” she wheezed out.

“Yeah, how did you know?” I scratched my head.

“You have the royal mane.”

“Oh, ok? Uhm, who are you?”

“My name is Anna, third rank, tactical invasion.” she coughed. “At your service.”

“Of course you are. So, Anna, why did you want to know if I'm related to Chrysalis?”

“I've been telling these guys, that our queen would send back up for us.” she began to cry. “And now we can finally be free! I told you guys! Our queen would never abandon us!”

“Even now, my changelings still have faith in me. Seeing them like this...it's heart breaking.” Chrysalis echoed in the back of my mind.

In reply, I thought to her, “You don't have a heart.” then refocused my attention to Anna. “Sorry to tell you this, but I've no intention of saving any one of you.”

“W-what?” tears of a new kind began to fall. “But-”

“I have no business with the hive. And it has no business with me. My only concern is how I am going to get out of this place.”

“How could you be so cruel? So selfish!?” she cried out in agony.

Her voice began to annoy me. “It runs in the family.”

“The queen is nothing like you! She's kind, she's caring, she's selfless and most of all she'd die for us!”

“Funny, I've been her son all this life, I've never seen any of those traits.”

“Her son? You're Prince Variance?!”

“I've been told, unfortunately.”

“How can you be like this? The queen, your mother, put her blood, sweat and tears into fighting for this hive. Making sure that we were fed and sheltered. Making sure we survived!”

“The most she's ever done for me is tell me she loved me and-”

“Wait! She-she said she loved you?”

“Yes...”

“Wow... she said she loves you...” she and the surrounding changelings began muttering.

“The queen said that?”

“She really said those words...?”

“To think the queen would say such a thing...”

I sat in my cage confused. “What? It's not that big of a deal...”

“What?!” Anna gasped. “For a changeling to use those words on anyone but themselves...it's just unbelievable.”

“Why? It's just a couple of words.”

“A couple of words?! Do you hear yourself? Changelings have rarely ever used that phrase on anyone but themselves. It's the highest form of affection we know.”

“Oh...I didn't know...” I started rubbing the back of my back of my neck. “I thought she was just saying that...”

“Variance, just because I don't coddle you at every turn, it doesn't mean I don't care.” Chrysalis said, benignly.

“To think the queen would waste such powerful words on you! I can't even begin to believe it!” Anna outraged.

“Argh! Fine! I get it, I'll find a way out for all of us!” I screamed

“Thank you, Variance.” Chrysalis whispered.

“Shut up, don't remind me I'm doing you a favor.” I grabbed onto the bars of the cage, and tried as hard as I could to bend them, but no such luck. I tried bucking them instead, but still, no such luck. I even tried biting them, I think I chipped a fang somewhere, but nothing to show the bars were even remotely damaged. I only had one option left, and it was the most dangerous. I stood tall on my hind legs, and said, “OPEN SESAME!”

“Did you really just say that?” Anna deadpanned. The bars and collar were suddenly surrounded by an aura of black, starry magic, falling off the hinges. The collar cracked, and broke, falling to the cage floor. Anna stared, her jaw hanging. “H-How did you do that?!”

“Uhm, I'm the boss?” I had no clue how these occurrences came to pass, but they did, and I wasn't willing to look a gift pony in the mouth. I flew out of my cage, and over to Anna, where I began trying to pull her cage doors off

“Why don't you just do that thing again?”

“Because-”

“Hey, you! What do you think you're doing!?” A brown earth pony with a gray mane, questioned.

I smiled and looked to Anna. “Will you hold on for a moment?” I looked back to the brown pony. I aimed myself towards him, and began transferring magic through my wings, boosting me into him and through multiple walls. When it was over,  I hovered over him, the world spinning around me. “I'm on the phone!” I held my head. It had been a while since I'd done that, I forgot how much magic it eats away. I tried to fly back to Anna, but was quickly caught in a white, magical barrier.

“Looks like the guest of honor has arrived early! Fillies and Gentlecolts! I present to you, Shifting Sands, the Canterlot changeling!” The voice of Justice rang out, I looked around and realized I was in the ballroom again. The barrier pulled me to the stage, where Justice made sure to strap me down tight. “You know, we weren't going to torture you, but since you made this pathetic escape attempt, and hurt my brother over there. I think we'll change that. Besides, these ponies want a good show, so make sure to scream nice and loud.” He moved to the side.

As I looked into the crowed, I saw nothing but shadowed figures. Their only source of light was a small candle on the table, the only thing making them visible. “I only have one dying request.” I said, looking to Justice.

“And what's that?”

“That you go buck yourself.”

“Oh I will, young colt. I will!”

“Ew...”

He looked towards the silhouette ponies. “Unfortunately, since he arrived early, I do not have my equipment. Does anypony mind me using a knife of theirs?”

“As if anypony is going to give you-” I was cut off by a flurry of sharp objects, knives, swords, axes and other assorted cutting tools piercing the stage around me. Including an active chainsaw. “Your metal detector sucks.”

“Haha, you never change.” he said as levitated the chainsaw to my right shoulder. “This is goodbye!” I closed my eyes.





I opened my eyes to see the blurred world around me. My face aching like a thousand hammers had smashed into it, it had to be the second worst pain my face has ever felt. I shook my head to get a grasp on my bearings, but no good, it only aggravated an already searing headache. I learned to my side, and I could feel the cold sensation of metal. It was somehow soothing to the headache, but my face still hurt.“Oh man...what...what happened...?” I groaned.

“Oh, finally awake are you?” The familiar voice called out.

“Wha..?” I blinked and rubbed my eyes, focusing as hard as I could. “Who said that?”

“We talked like twenty minutes ago, how are you this stupid?”

My vision finally came into clear focus, it was the white unicorn. His image sent a jolt of fright through my body, causing me to jump back into the metal ceiling. I looked around to see that I was in a cage. “W-What the-”

“Don't worry, I'm not here to harm you...yet. You see, it's tradition that we tell the trash why they're here and what's going to happen to them. This way they die knowing full well what they've done, we don't want you feigning ignorance in the afterlife, do we?”

“Wait a second...”

“Now in tradition, I must ask your name.”

“It's Shifting Sands.”

“Well then, Shifting Sands. It is my honor to tell you, I, Balance Justice will be your judge, jury and if necessary, executioner. By the power given to me by the Shielded Heart, I bring you up on your charges!”

“This seems all too familiar...” I whispered to myself.

“Shifting Sands, you are held under suspicion of feeding on love, pretending to be somepony else, ruining family bonds and friendships, murder, cruelty to the pony race, and disrupting the peace of Canterlot. How do you plea?”

“Hmm... Guilty as charged.”

“Well then, I sentence you to death! Since you are young I am also willing to go light on your punishment.”

“How so?”

“We won't torture you. We'll give you a quick death. Now, just wait your turn like a good leech. Oh and one more thing I should mention, you're wearing a special collar, it absorbs magic. The more you try to use, the more it drains. Enjoy!” He said, exiting through the door on the right.

“Well, I have no clue what just happened...again.”

“Hey! Hey, you! New guy!” I heard Anna whisper. I looked into the cage across the room from mine. “You're related to the queen right?”

“Yes...yes I am...Uhh, don't worry, Anna, I'm going to get you all out.” I replied, as the bars of the cage and my collar broke off once more.

“You've noticed it too, haven't you Variance?” Chrysalis whispered.

“Yeah, I did, I feel fully charged, even better than before and everything is repeating itself. I don't get it, but I don't care. It's a chance to get out, and we better take it.” I flew out of my cage and over to Anna's. “Wait just one moment!” I turned to the doorway, grabbed a pan, and flew onto it's overhead.

The brown earth pony walked past and ran in, looking at my open cage “Hey, where'd he go?!” He said. I flew down and hit him over the head with the pan. He fell to the nasty floor unconscious.

After which, the rest of the cage doors fell off, and the changelings inside came out looking good as new, not a single collar to be found. “Oh come on, if the cage doors were just gonna fall off-! And the collars-! AH! You mean I almost got sliced and diced for nothing!?”

“What are you talking about?” Anna raised a brow.

“Nothing, nothing at all...so how are we gonna get out of here?”

“You just said you'd free us, and you don't even have an escape route?!”

“That's pretty much the gist of it. Any ideas?”

Anna began rubbing her temples. “Hold on a minute, I'm still having trouble dealing with the large amount of stupid in the room.”

“Yeah, I could feel the stupid coming off of him when I knocked him out.” I looked at the brown pony on the ground.

“Please stop talking.” 

“I've been trying for the past eight minutes, I don't think it's gonna happen.”

“I still can't believe you...”

“Anna, calm down. I think the stupid is affecting you.”

“You have no idea... Wait a minute, that's the second time you've called me by name. Which part of the royal branch are you from?”

“We'll talk about this later, right now we need to get out of here. You need to learn your priorities.”

“Excuse me?! You're the one who busted in here without a plan, and unless you guys plan on blasting through the roof, we're gonna need one!” They blasted through the roof, we didn't need one. We looked around to see where we were, and around us, nothing but forest and mountains. “Do you hear that?” Anna gasped, the surrounding changelings began muttering among themselves.

“Hear what?”

“It's Cicada!” She growled.

“Good, we finally have help.”

“I would never take help from her hive! None of us would!”

“That's too bad, we need help, she's the only one around, we're meeting her as soon as we can. Which way is she coming from?”

She spat at the ground far below us and said, “Follow me...” Then flew off. I followed her as close as I could, and soon enough we met up with Cicada. Just thinking about talking to her, it filled my throat with knives. It seemed as if I was being a traitor to myself. I could see why Anna didn't want to join her, now. 

“Variance, your 'parents' are on their way over here, and fast.” Cicada calmly announced, paying no attention to the other changelings. “Mind telling me how you managed to get over half way across Equestria?”

“Some crazy unicorn kidnapped me. 

“Well isn't that nice? Because of this unicorn I now have a stain on my perfect record.” She pointed behind her. “Canterlot is that way. Variance, I'll need you to tell me more about this unicorn.”

“Why?”

“I like to know about the ponies I kill.”

“What a lovely personality you have. But what are they supposed to do?” I shifted my attention to my changelings.

“I have a list of recently deceased ponies.”

“How recent?”

“Recent enough. Not a single pony knows they're dead.”

“And how exactly did they die?”

“We ate them.”

My eyes widened. “OK! That's interest-OH LOOK AT THE TIME! I better be on my way! BYE!” I shot off like a rocket in the direction Cicada pointed.

“Variance! You didn't tell me anything about the unicorn!”

“You also didn't tell me you were the prince!” Anna shouted.

It didn't take long before I accidentally slammed into Celestia and Luna. “Shifting Sands! You're alright! It took us hours to get here, we weren't sure we would make it before anything would happen.” Celestia cried out, holding me.

“Hours? I was only gone for, like, thirty minutes.”

“Nay, Shifting, ye vanished for ten hours.”

“It doesn't matter, you're safe! Let's just go home...” Celestia began to smother me in her hug. I fainted. When I woke up, I was in my bed, Luna sitting over me. She said she was sorry for letting it happen, over and over again. It took a while before I could convince her, it wasn't her fault. Although, I'm not sure if I made it through. Her face still showed doubt.





The next morning, the police came to the castle, and asked to speak with me alone. The conversation didn't go well...“WHATTDYA MEAN YOU DON'T HAVE INFORMATION ON THE SHIELDED HEARTS!?” I screamed in anger. “DIDN'T YOU CAPTURE ANYPONY WITH A LEAD?!”

“Yes, we captured tons of ponies, most of which were in near death condition. So we have to wait until they heal, those we could interrogate, didn't know anything about it. We used the strongest truth spells we could, we got nothing.” The gray police-pony statuesquely said.

“What about the white unicorn? You know, Justice?”

“The suspects didn't know anything about him either. We checked the records in Equestria, and there's no trace of evidence showing he even existed.”

“So he's still out there...”

“Don't worry, you'll be the first to know if there's any updates.” He said, leaving my room. I didn't want to worry, and I try not to make it a habit to. But there was a feeling about that pony. Something I couldn't shake, something about him didn't feel right, even for a psychopath. I told myself that I he'd never get the drop on me again, that I'd expect it. I told myself if I saw him again, I would be ready, and willing to fight back. I lied...
> Dawn Of The First Day- Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Oh loves gonna get ya down, say love, say love, oh loves gonna get ya down~” I sang in the early morning, walking through the halls of the castle, on my way back from the bathroom. “I went walkin' with my momma one day, when she warned me what people say: Live your life until love is found or loves gonna get- YAH!” I screamed as Philomena passed overhead, burning hot enough, and close enough to scorch my horn.

I didn't mind, burning my horn was something she did as a way to play for me, besides, Philomena always brought me joy. Very few things she did would irritate me. Maybe it's because I didn't have any pets when I was human, or maybe I just had a thing for flaming, mythical birds. To this day I still don't know, but she was fun.

“Philomena! Philomena, come here!” I called out, she turned around and flew over my head again, and landed on an open windowsill. I flew over to her and began stroking the feathers on her head. “Hey girl, how did you get out? Did you burn through the bars again?” She looked away, not really paying attention to my interrogation. “Ah well, it doesn't matter. At the very least I now have an excuse to escape Luna's snoring. C'mon girl!” I patted her on the head, flying out the window into the open sky.

I flew high into the air, feeling the crisp morning air on my skin, the clouds gently passing over me. Seeing the sunrise from the air... watching the warm orange glow illuminate everything over the horizon, it was a sensation I would always enjoy. I breath in the fresh air of the heavens, and exhaled giving light laughter, a smile on my face that reached from ear to ear.

I stretched out my arms, and stopped my wings, beginning my free fall. My face still skyward, I felt the rush of the wind wrapping around my body, as if the air itself was trying to slow, or even stop, my rapid decent. I carelessly looked towards the ground, it's quick approach threatening to end my joy. It didn't scare me, no, in fact I took it as a challenge. Stop me if you can, I thought to myself, turning around to start my dive-bomb into oblivion.

As soon as I got around twelve or so feet, I hastily flapped my wings again and curved just enough to avoid certain demise. I flew back into the sky, laughing at the fact I had just cheated death. “What did you think of that, Philomena?” I said, looking around, trying to find my companion. I couldn't see any trace of her, in the sky, on the ground, or around the castle. “Philomena? Philomena!” I shouted, getting no response.

“Did she stay inside? That's weird, she normally loves to stretch her wings. The only things she loves more than that are pranks and-” I was abruptly cut off by an orange and red blur striking my hind legs, sending me into a mid-air spin. I somehow managed to stop spinning and stated the obvious conclusion, “Showing off.”

And there she was, flying circles around me, gesturing laughter. “Oh, you think you're hot stuff, huh?” I challenged. I flew at her, arms open wide in some vain attempt to catch her. I of course missed, she flew over me and gestured another laugh. “Don't laugh at me, Philomena!” I shouted, attempting to catch her again, she flew under me this time, and stuck her tongue out at me. “Why you little-!” she flew away from me, and toward the castle spires. 

I chased after her, flying full speed, my attention focused on her alone. But that was just what she wanted, she flew under a bridge connecting two towers, and I noticed it just in time to fly over it. I continued my chase, flying once more at full speed. Just as I was getting close, she turned causing me to fly towards another spire. I tried as hard as I could to turn, and managed to run along the wall, if you could call it that, and leap back into chase. “YOUR FEATHERED BUTT IS MINE, PHILOMENA!” I shouted in premature victory.

She flew down towards the lower spires of the castle, and once again, I followed. She started flying around a flag pole atop one of the spires. I knew it was a trap, I wasn't that stupid. Then she stuck her tongue out at me. I completely ignored the obvious trap and flew at her, top speed, no remorse. She pulled out the flag and caught me in it, “PHILOMENA THAT'S CHEATING!” I started flying in random directions. I finally managed to get the bloody tarp off, just in time to see myself crash through a window, and slam into a wall.

I pushed myself from the wall and landed on my back. “Shifting Sands, what are you doing here?” I heard Celestia question as she leaned over me.

“Uhh...what are you doing here?!”

She leaned closer to me and said, “I'll tell you a secret,” she looked around the room, “This is my room.” she whispered.

I looked around the room to see the large golden crown design over the fireplace and the tapestry displaying the stars, sun and moon. I gasped, “Why so it is! Well, I better be on my way.” I said, walking towards the door.

“Hold it right there, young stallion.”

“Yes, my dear sweet, terrific, and bestest mother in the entire world?” I said with large eyes, a moderate smile, and a small head tilt. It was this very look could melt the coldest of hearts, brighten the darkest minds, and even halt the ultimate destruction! 

It didn't phase her one bit. “Shifting Sands, what were you doing?” she asked. She obviously knew the answer, but I guess she just wanted me to tell the truth.

“I was flying around the castle...with Philomena...”

“Didn't I explicitly tell you, 'Do not leave the castle without super vision'!?”

“But I did have supervision! Philomena was there, if anything happened she could've-”

“Done what!? Shifting, you should know better than to expect a pet phoenix to protect you.”

“It worked for Harry Potter...” I mumbled.

“What was that?”

I let my head hang, “Nothing...you're right. I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to upset you...”

“Shifting, You have to think about the consequences of your actions. You aren't the only one affected by them.” she sighed. “Look, I'm not angry. It's just, Luna and I aren't fully over what happened. Luna... I can only imagine what she's going through. Shifting, a lot of ponies assume that being a princess means you have nothing to worry about, but that's not true, we worry constantly and especially about you. I mean, where do we go if you're taken again? Who do we turn to if we can't find you? How do we deal with the stress and fear that you might be hurt...or worse? We may have lived long lives, Shifting, but that doesn't mean we know everything. I don't even know if the security parameters in the school will be able to protect you.” she took a deep breath and said, "What I'm trying to say is that we love you, and we can't imagine life without you, so please think about how we would feel if you do something like that again. Ok?"

“I'm sorry I- Did you say school?”

“Yes, I was going to tell you later today. I've enrolled you in my school for the gifted.”

“You enrolled me in a school for advanced unicorns?! You enrolled me in school!?!”

“No, I enrolled you in my school for the advanced. I couldn't have it species specific, otherwise your friends couldn't join.”

“Friends? What friends?”

“You'll see, but first we should probably get you some school supplies, shouldn't we?”

“HA!”

“Hmm?”

“HA-HA! Funny!”

“What?”

“You! Mom! Always joking around!”

“Shifting Sands, this isn't a joke.”

“HA-HA! There you go again! Never knowing when to stop your jokes!”

“Shifting, I-”

I cut her off, leaping onto her face and hanging by her horn, saying, “NO! I refuse!” I leaped down to the ground and continued, “I am not going to school, and there is NOTHING you can do to make me!”





The next morning we made our way to the school, by flying chariot, though I wasn't too happy about the flying conditions. “This is cruel and unusual on so many levels.” I said to Celestia, who had me tied to her horn.

“You have no one to blame but yourself.” she replied.

“Oh, really? Silly me, I thought you tied this rope around me. I thought you tied me to your horn, but apparently, I did both of those myself. My memory must be off!”

“Must be.” She giggled lightly, as I struggled intensely, trying to gain my freedom, even going so far as to attempt to gnaw my shoulders off. “Oh come on, Shifting, it won't be that bad.”

“I'll be sure to remember that, if I survive!”

“Shifting, don't you want to make any friends? Meet all the nice ponies your age?”

“Let me answer this in the most simplistic manner possible. Ahem. NEEEEEEIIIIIGH.” I tried struggling once more.

She sighed. “Shifting, humor me. If you can go to all your classes, without making a fuss, I'll get you any one thing you ask for.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

I thought to myself, what would I get? A pet? New toys? No...I knew what I would get. I would get a large cannon, with which, I could blast Luna to the moon! “HA-HA-HA-HA-Deal.” as we soared through the skies, something caught my attention. My head was silent, not silent like it normally was, but a different type of silence. Like something was missing, it didn't take me long to realize that Chrysalis hadn't said a word all day. “Chrysalis? Chrysalis? Chrysalis! Chryyyyysaliiiiiis! Chyrsalia! Queen Cwisawis! Chrysalis-DESUNEEE!”

“WHAT!?” she angrily screamed in retort.

“Hi.”

“Variance, I'm tired. I don't have the strength to deal with you.”

“Tired? You're a voice, in my head! How are you tired?”

“Variance, just let me rest. I can't deal with you today.”

“Oh...well...ok then. See you later...I guess.” hearing her say that was somewhat disheartening, though at the moment, I didn't know why. After that, I just stayed silent, looking up into the blue sky, watching the clouds pass over us. After a good while, the site was cut off by a sudden darkness.

“We're here.” Celestia announced, pulling me off her horn and placing me on the ground. 

Looking around, I saw it was just a cave. “I'm going to be going to school here?!”

“No,” she  answered, walking towards one of the cave walls. She placed her hoof on the wall, and it started to shine a brilliant white light. Once the light died, the wall had become completely see-through. Amazed, I went to get a closer look, and what I saw next would only further my awe. 

I saw an impossibly large room. Hundreds, nay, thousands, possibly even millions of levels with possibly trillions of bookshelves on them. In the center of the room sat a large tube, inside, it held it's very own universe. The walls, floor and roof all made out of some sort of clear stone, yet it held a very similar form to white marble. It's pattern always changing, always in unison. “This is where you'll be going to school.”

After watching Celestia step through the wall, I did the same. The floors, it felt as though you were walking upon nothing at all, and all of it was bathed in a soft, warm golden glow. I saw the spiral staircases at the far left and right of the room, leading all the way up to the top of this impossible place. The amount of sheer wonder and joy I felt, it was simply awe inspiring, however, something caught my eye. “Hey, mom, where is everypony?”

“You'll see.” she smiled. Not more than a minute after she had said that, ponies began appearing in the room, unicorns, pegasi, and even earth ponies were appearing out of the thin air.

My jaw dropped. “This place teleports it's students in!? That's awesome!”

Celestia let out a light chuckle at my amusement. “I knew you'd enjoy that.” she turned her head over to the left of the room and walked off, saying, “Shifting, I have some important tasks I need to get done. So please don't move from this spot.”

And that's when I completely and utterly ignored every word she said, and ran into the crowed of ponies. I was overjoyed to see so many, and not all of them were my age, some even seemed to be full grown adult ponies. Not to mention the place itself still had it's grasp on me, but that's where the joy ended. Ponies began taking notice of me, some giving glares, others whispering to one another, and some acting as if I didn't even exist...it hurt. 

Then I suddenly found myself walking into something...furry...next thing I know, I had been kicked to the floor by a lions paw. My eyes shot open, wondering what on earth that had been. To another amazement, it had been a female gryphon, I guessed she was around teen-age, based on her size alone. Her chest feathers showcasing a small crescent moon, the larger feathers on her head overlapping half her face. I was amazed that the school wasn't just letting in ponies, but then again, I technically wasn't a pony. So they'd have to if I were to join. “Hey! Watch where you're going you-Changeling!?” the gryphon said in surprise.

I began dusting myself off. “Yes, yes. I'm a changeling, big deal.”

“Changeling...” the gryphon began licking her beak, with a subtle lioness growl in her voice.

“Gryphon! See? I know your species too!”

“Variance, you might want to run.” Chrysalis chimed in.

“Why?” I replied, scratching the back of my head, inadvertently turning it away from the gryphon.

“Because gryphons eat changelings.”

“That's interesting, but I don't see what that has to do with anything.” I turned my head back around to see her large open beak inching every so close to me. “Oooooh.” I jerked my head back, just in time to avoid the snap of her jaw. 

I ran through the crowed of ponies, jumping over some, sliding under others, trying my best to lose my apparent predator. She simply ran down anypony in her path. After noticing this, I decided to run over to the far right, trying to climb up the many stairs and possibly lose her. “CHANGELING MEAT!” she roared out.

She kept after me, the lioness growl in her voice growing stronger, louder. The stairs were even longer than I thought, they just kept going forever and ever, and the gryphon just kept getting closer, and then it hit me. “Why am I running? I can fly!” I began fluttering my wings in an attempt to fly away from the situation, but a small block of magic appeared over my wings, stopping them. In front of my face appeared a small notice with the words, 'You do not have proper flight privileges, please see the help desk for more information, and registration.' “ARE YOU BUCKING KIDDING ME!?”

The gryphon roared, “YOU CAN'T GET AWAY FROM ME!”

“The first time a girl actually says that to me, and she's a mishmash of animal parts! That is so unfair!”

With flying not being an option, I had to think of something and quick. I took notice of the tube in the center of the room. I was high enough to latch onto some part of it. I ran out into the next level the room had to offer, the gryphon not letting up any time soon. I ran to the railing, and made the jump without a second thought. I would soon live to regret this decision, as the glass around the universe was made of magic, and I fell straight through. 

I spun around at break neck speeds before being tossed up into the higher levels of the room, into a bookshelf, gasping for air. My crash caused the bookshelf to fall into the one behind it, and the one behind that, and so on and so forth, systematically causing every bookshelf to fall. “Mom is so gonna kill me.” I said to myself, walking towards the railing to view the gryphon  far below. “But she can only do it if I'm alive.” 

There she was, just standing there. She couldn't harm me anymore, knowing this I screamed at the top of my lungs at her, “HA! WHAT NOW!?” she responded by opening her wings and flying for me. “Oh, of course SHE has flight privileges!”  before I knew it, she'd landed on the railing and began staring me down. “Hi! I'm-”

“Lunch!”

I started to back up, standing to my hind legs, trying to keep her at bay, “Hold on, maybe we can talk this out.” she packed at the ground in front of me, causing me to fall onto my back. She poised herself for another strike. “Wait! If you eat me, all those calories are gonna go right to your backside, and sister, looking at it now. That is the last thing you need.”

“WHAT!?” she looked towards her rear. “Do...do you really think it's that big...?” her voice sank.

“Oh wow, a self conscious gryphon... Uhh, no. No, I don't. I only said that so you wouldn't eat me. I think...and I'm going to have to eat a bar of soap after this, I think it looks....fine....”

“Thank you.” she smiled.

“No proble-” she pecked at the ground in front of me once more. “Hey, what about the moment we just shared!?”

“What about it?” the oh so familiar tone of a lioness growl arising once more.

“Curse you, bleeding heart!” I shook my hoof in the air, as the gryphon drew closer. I looked around the room for a possible escape, and on the far left, a door. If I could only manage to get there, I could finally escape this terror. “I surrender.”

“Huh?”

“I surrender. I give up, if I'm gonna be eaten, it might as well be with dignity. But if you don't mind, may I ask one more question before I die?”

“Fine, what is it?”

I rose to my hooves saying, “Have you always been stupid enough to give your prey two chances to escape you?” I ran for the door as fast as I could, the gryphon angrier than ever, her wings expanded and claws ready to shred me. I just had to get a bit further, just a bit more! I could feel her intent to devour me growing larger, but it didn't matter anymore. I had made it to the door, and I opened it and sat on the other side, waiting for her. When she got just close enough, I slammed it into her face, there was a small bulge on my side of the door.

Joy overran my body. “HA! HOW-YOU-LIKE-ME-NOW!? CAN-YOU-FEEL-IT!? CAN-YOU-FEEL-IT!?!” I screamed, pelvic thrusting with each word. I spun in a circle and grabbed my nether region and shouted, “WHOOO!” into the empty halls.

Looking to my surroundings, I saw myself in another part of the schools. Blue lockers hanging from the walls, a blue and white tile floor with a white, though tinged yellow ceiling, with lights hanging from it. Along the walls lay an ever expanse of windows. Kind of a let-down compared to the last room I had been in, still, this was a good chance to get my bearings. I walked up the wall and looked out the window to see nothing but grassland as far as the eye could see. 

I found that to be rather odd, I wondered why this place was so secluded if this was one of Celestia's schools. Although, before I could think of an answer, I heard it. An enraged roar, a roar that had been stalking me moments ago, I turned around to see she was already leaping at me. On reflex, I jumped onto the lockers, barely avoiding her. She broke through the window and began flying into the distance.

Was that it? Was it over? Unfortunately not, she turned back around, and and aimed herself right for me. I started running along the top of the lockers, jumping over the gaps caused by hallways. I looked out the window to see where she was, outside the window, keeping up with me. Not even breaking a sweat, I pushed myself harder. I had to escape her, I had to survive.

It was then that she spun through the windows, and bolted out in front of me, cutting off my escape. I was scared, more terror than I had ever felt in my life. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, this was it...I had been caught. I raised my hooves over my face, a vain attempt to protect myself. It was then that I uttered those words for the very first time, ever, “HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME, PLEASE!!” I shut my eyes.

“HEY, LEAVE HIM ALONE!” I heard a young male voice cry out, before a loud thud. “Hey, Shifting Sands, are you alright?”

“W-Who are you!? How do you know my name!?”

“Open your eyes and find out, genius.”

I opened my eyes to see a pegasus with a coat of light goldish gray, a brown mane leading into a curve, and eyes of a dark tangelo. These traits were all so familiar, I knew only one pony who ever had them. “POUND CAKE! IT'S YOU!” I shouted joyously, grasping an old friend in a hug. “Dude! I can't believe it's you! How have you been!!?”

“I've been fine, it's nice to see you too...hmm...hey, what happened to your eyes? They were blue last time I saw them.”

I didn't know how to tell Pound Cake the change in eye color was due to the influence Chrysalis has  on my body, she probably wouldn't let me tell him anyway. “Uhh, I don't know myself. One day I had blue eyes then the next, these! Heh, anyway wheres your sister?”

“Oh, she's-” the gryphon had gotten up once more, cutting off Pound Cake in her surprise attack. We didn't have the time to react with more than screams, lucky for us, a cerulean beam of magic struck the gryphon down. “Right there.” Pound Cake finished, pointing behind me.

“PUMPKIN!” I turned around, eager to see another friend. There I saw a filly with a yellow coat, a light orange mane that lead over her shoulder, held together by a small bow, and azure eyes. Upon laying my eyes on her, I felt strange. The more I looked at her, the more I felt I had to look away. My thoughts scrambled together, and I couldn't keep focused, my chest tightened and I found it harder to breath with each second I made eye contact. Eventually, I had to turn away from her. “Pumpkin! Hi! Nice to see you again!!”

“Uhm, why aren't you looking at me?” she questioned.

“N-No reason!” I smashed my face into the wall, making everything go back to normal.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I do that all the time.”

“That...actually worries me more.”

“Sorry, heh.” I said jumping from the locker to the floor, making my way to give her a hug, Pound Cake next to me every step of the way. “So how did you guys get here? How did you find me?”

“Princess Celestia sent an invitation to come here. Mom and dad couldn't have been happier to enroll us.” Pumpkin said with a smile.

“As for how we found you, you passed by the hall we were in.” Pound Cake stated.

“Well that was incredibly convenient.” I said to myself.

“By the way, Shifting Sands, what happened to your eyes? They were blue before, weren't they?” Pumpkin queried.

“I already asked him, he says he doesn't know.” Pound Cake replied for me.

I smiled to myself and said, “Guys, thanks for saving me. I really don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been here.” 

“It's no problem, Shifting.” They said in unison.

“Oh look, the twin thing you guys do, haha, stop.”

“Stop what?” they spoke in unison once more.

I put my hoof on my face and walked away saying, “Well, it was nice seeing you guys again, but I have to go. I'm not supposed to get into trouble today.” suddenly, blue bars of magic shot from the ground and stabbed into the ceiling, in front of me, and behind the gryphon, trapping us all in one place. “Well, there goes my cannon.”
> Dawn Of The First Day- Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 “Can someone explain to me, why there is a cage surrounding us!?” I screamed aloud, trying my best to turn into something to break out, but being unable to. “Why can't I transform?” I whispered to myself, “Is it because of the cell? Is it suppressing me, somehow?” I turned my focus to Pumpkin and said, “Pumpkin, see if you can blast us out.”

Her horn glowed with an azure aura, and she shot out a small beam at the bars, her attack was absorbed and the cage unaffected. “Doesn't seem like it...” she replied.

“Weird...Pumpkin can still use her magic...Is it species specific? No, that can't be it. There's no reason to worry about a changeling wrecking the place, no more than a unicorn or pegasi at least.” I thought to myself.

“It's interesting watching you think, it's not often these dusty gears start turning.” Chrysalis commented.

“Chrysalis, are you blocking me from using my powers, again?” I thought to her. She gave no reply, only simple silence. “Argh! It looks like we're trapped. Buck!”

Pumpkin and Pound Cake gasped, speaking in unison, “Shifting Sands! You're not supposed to say that word!”

“So I've been told. Then again, I'm also not supposed to prank Luna, but I still do.”

“You still like to prank?” Pound Cake tilted his head.

“Yep, I even plan on shaving her mane off, tomorrow.”

“Nice.” we hoof bumped.

“I can't believe you two, hoof bumping over something like that? I'm disappointed in you both.” Pumpkin said, crossing her arms. “You can't just shave off somepony's mane like that. You also need to dye their coat.”

“Ahh! I should've thought of that!” I replied, hitting the side of my head. “But where would I get the dye from?”

“Well, Rarity owns some special dye, if you put it on somepony and wet them, they'll randomly change color every couple of seconds.” Pound Cake stated, getting a nod from Pumpkin.

“That's great, you gotta bring some here, next time. I think we could-” The gryphon suddenly roared out, the shade of her face matching that of bright crimson.  “I thought you guys laid her out!” I shouted at the twins.

“Did you really think a filly and colt could take me down with a few cheap-shots!?” The gryphon snarled, stepping ever closer to us.

“Uhh...yes?” I whimpered.

“You know, I was originally going to make your death simple and quick. But because of that, I think I'm going to take my time ending your life...and how about your little friends join in!?” She said, her focus sharpening by the second. Pumpkin and Pound cake started holding onto me, shivering in fear. I held onto them, terrified myself. She roared and leaped at us, her claws prepped to slash and rip apart anything that had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting them.

I don't understand what happened next, I felt a deep, terrifying fear. I wanted to leave, I wanted to run, I wanted to push Pound Cake in the way so I would last a little longer. Instead, I pushed the twins behind me and held my arms out. “What are you doing!? Move!!” Chrysalis screamed to the furthest depths of my mind. She didn't know how much I wanted to,  she didn't know how I wanted to break down and cower. I couldn't, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't.

And thus, I met with the gryphons claws, shredding through my skin like paper. I screamed out in agony, the pain much more than I could have ever imagined. I fell to the ground writhing in pain, my blood spilling out onto the floor, she cut deep, very deep. “Smart move, it's best not to prolong your suffering.” the gryphon said, giving a smirk and licking her claw. “Mmm...delicious. I might as well pick up where we left off, we've played enough, I think.”

She raised her claw into the air once more. I remember the twins calling out to me, their cry faded, as though it was nothing more than a whisper. The gryphons sadistic smile growing larger, as her claw once again made it's way to me, only to be stopped inches from my face, by a yellow aura of magic. 

“Shifting sands!” I heard, looking out the corner of my eye to see that familiar, blue alicorn standing above me with tears in her eyes and worry on her face. 

“Luna, calm down, close his wounds, we can't move him like this.”  I heard the voice of Celestia say.

“Tis alright, Shifting, ye shall be fine.” she said, magic flowing from her horn into my wounds. 


I moved my eyes to focus on Celestia, who was standing face to face with the gryphon. Celestia gave her, of all things, a smile.“Well, princess Maryiana, it seems you've caused quite the incident. You even mortally wounded my son.” she said in a kind tone.

“Oh, that's the changeling you told me about? I'm sorry, I thought he was just some meal that happened to wander in.” Maryiana replied, sarcastically.

“Meal? Neither you or your father told me you ate changelings.”

“Must have slipped our minds.”

“Well, whatever the case, try to stay out of trouble, ok?” Celestia closed her eyes, still giving the gryphon a warm smile. 

“Don't worry, I'll do my best.”

“Oh, and don't you ever strike my child again, understood?”

Maryiana grinned and replied, “What if I confuse your son with some other changeling and, accidentally, rip him to pieces?”

That gentle face Celestia had been giving her was now gone, replaced by one of pure rage. The second she opened her eyes, the windows were blasted out of the school, her eyes had gone completely white, and she stood as if she were ready to fight. “Don't you EVER strike my child again,” she roared in the traditional Canterlot voice. The school began to shake, and the tiles on the ground started cracking, “Understood!?”  Luna didn't seem to mind all the chaos, she was completely focused on healing me. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Never in my life had I seen Celestia so angry, I was now more scared of her than I was the gryphon.

Maryiana sighed, “Yeah, sure. Now let my talon go.” the school stopped shaking, Celestia's eyes returned to normal, and she let go of Maryiana's talon. Maryiana just looked at me and walked down the hall, away from the disturbance she had originally caused.

Luna managed to close the wound, to both of our relief. She picked me up and hugged me, covering herself in some of my blood. I could feel her heart racing. While Luna did heal me, she couldn't put the blood I had lost back inside me. I hadn't regained my strength. “Luna...what are you doing here?” I coughed.

She hugged me tighter and said, “Did ye really believe we wouldn't arrive at thy first day of school?”

“Oh...well, it's nice to see you're here...where are Pumpkin and Pound Cake?” I said, my breathing getting heavier.

“They're fine, I told them to hurry to their classes, but right now we need to get you to the school medic.” Celestia said, walking over to me.

“Oh mom, I'm fine.” I tried to wave a hoof, but I couldn't lift my arm. “Whats going to happen to the gryphon...?”

“We'll talk about that later, right now we need to get you to the school medic.”

“I told you, I'm fine. Watch, I'll show you.” I tried to push myself onto my hooves, failing miserably, unable to move at all. “This paralysis  proves nothing.”

Celestia shook her head with a smile and said, “Alright, I think it's time to go.” as Luna began lifting me with her magic.





“Nurse Rose Heart! Are you here?” Celestia called out, practically breaking the door down.

“Hmm? Celestia, is that you? It's great to see-” the blue-gray, unicorn mare stopped in her tracks as she came from behind a white curtain, her light brown mane being held in a bun. Her eyes being of a vibrant violet. “Oh my goodness...w-what on earth happened!? Luna you're covered in blood, and the changeling...”

“Can ye treat him?” Luna asked, the urgency in her voice clear as day.

“I'll do what I can.” she replied, pulling me into her magic field and resting me on a white bed. “First things first, what happened?”

“Maryianna.” Celestia said, her face scowling at the mention.

“Ok, that answers that.” Rose Heart replied, lifting my eye lids, taking a deep gaze into them. She then placed her hoof on my forehead. “He's so cold... This blood you two are covered in, it's his isn't it?”

“Indeed, we took attention to his wounds as soon as possible.” Luna answered.

Nurse Rose Heart cast a spell, a light shining from her horn. She moved the light around my body, her focus on it seemingly unbreakable. “Ok, I think I know the problem...” she said, putting a hoof to my chest, casting another spell. On the wall above me appeared a display of my vital signs. “Ok, we're in the green zone for now.”

She tapped on the the floor beside the bed, and a magical image appeared in front of her. I don't know what it said, but I do know is that she moved her hoof around it, looking as though she was pressing something, and out of a white light, an IV came into existence. She placed the needle in my arm and the clear liquid began to drain into me. “There, that should do it.”

“A simple IV? Are you sure?” Celestia asked.

“Yep, his vitals still appear to be in the 'safe zone' so I don't think anything more than this should be needed. Still, it's kinda off putting to know that a child was sent into hypovolemic shock just because of that gryphon. Why did she attack him anyway?”

“Verily, she wanted to devour him.” Luna said.

“Oh, great, another thing to worry about.” Rose Heart sighed. “Anyway, this changeling, this is Shifting Sands, right? The one you told me about?”

“Yes, and I can't thank you enough for helping him.” Celestia said, bowing her head.

“I just need to ask, are you absolutely sure this is Shifting Sands?”

“Yes, I am, why?

“I ask because there are some other issues that need to be addressed.”

“Other issues?”

“Yes, I noticed it when I was examining him with my scanning spell. Shifting Sands seems to be showing some signs of malnourishment.”

“What? How? Are you saying one of us isn't loving him enough?”

“No, I'm not. I'm saying that as a changeling, he might need to digest more than just love. Maybe it's like giving a little colt nothing but candy to eat, while you are feeding him, it's not going to supply the nutrients he needs. I'll do some research on it...and there's one more thing.”

“What?”

“Shifting Sand's genes, they don't...seem right. I could just be exaggerating, but I would like to take a blood test to be sure, once he's recovered, of course. I can't use the blood you two are covered in, I want as little contamination as possible.”

“Of course, Rose Heart, but what do you mean 'they don't seem right'?”

“I'm sorry, Princess, I'd like to be sure before I say anything more on the subject....where did Luna go?” Rose Heart asked, looking around the room.

Her question came in the form an explosion, followed by a booming voice shouting, “TURN AND FACE US!”

“Oh dear...” Celestia said, running through the door. “LUNA! STOP!!” 

Nurse Rose Heart shrugged and walked over to me, she lifted my hind legs and cast another spell, creating pillows under them. “What are you doing?” I groaned out.

“Exactly what it looks like, elevating your legs.” she replied, magically fluffing the pillows.

“Why?”

“It'll help the blood circulation. You know, you really shouldn't be talking while you're trying to recover. What you went through was nothing to laugh about.”

“Sorry, but I want to ask you something.” I said, trying to lift myself up.

“Ap-ap-ap!” she said, pushing my back down. “Lay down, and stay down.”

“But-!” I sighed and gave in. “Alright.”

“Now, I'll let you ask your question, but it'll have to be brief. I don't think your mother would approve of me letting you strain yourself.”

“That gryphon...who was she?”

“Maryianna, daughter of the gryphon king, princess of the gryphon kingdom, royal pain in my flank.”

“I take it the kind of encounter I had with her is normal?”

“No, she normally just breaks a bone or two. She doesn't usually try to kill, or much less eat other students.” she said, walking to a counter on the far left of the room, shining in the same manner as the marble I'd seen before.

“If she causes so much trouble, why does Celestia let her stay here?”

“Should you really be calling your mother by her name?” she turned her head towards me, giving a friendly smirk as she raised her eyebrow.

I sighed. “Fine, why does my mom let her stay, if all she does is cause trouble?”

“That's better!” she turned her head back, and began opening some of the drawers. “Now, she lets her stay because the gryphon king has been kinda antsy lately.” she said, causing assorted medical equipment to float out of the drawer.

“Antsy?”

“Yeah...” she looked around the room, “where did I put them..?” she whispered, putting everything back.

“What do you mean, 'antsy?”

She began looking in other drawers on the counter. “I mean he's been threatening to go to war with Equestria. The princess didn't want that to happen, so she decided to let her stay here to show that she holds no ill will against them. The only problem is-”

“Maryianna?”

“Exactly.” She pulled out a bottle of pills and closed the drawers. “Finally found them.”

“So if Maryianna is here to help create peace, why is she so violent?”

“Well, I think it's because Maryianna is a spoiled brat, but your mother believes the king is trying to provoke a war. Today's attack certainly adds evidence to that.”

“What would the gryphon king want a war for?”

“I think I've answered enough of your questions, your mother would really be disappointed in me for telling you. So let's agree to keep this between us, alright?” she said, walking over to me with the bottle of pills.

“Don't worry, your secret is safe with me.”

She opened the bottle and said, “Good, now open wide.”

“What fo-” a pill shot into my mouth, and the shock caused me to swallow. “What did you just give me!?”

“Just a little something to help you relax.” she said, gently stroking my mane my mane as I drifted off into slumber.





“Chrysalis? Chrysalis!” I shouted into the dark abyss of my dream world.

“What is it?” She responded, slowly forming out of the darkness.

“Earlier today, I couldn't transform. When I asked you what happened, you stayed silent. Why? What did you do?”

“As nice as it is to see you thinking of me,” she darted directly in front of my face, “I didn't do anything to deserve this pleasure.” she pulled back and started walking around me.

“Like hell! Pumpkin could still use her magic, and it's unlikely they were specifically for me. Someone had to be behind the strings, and you're the only one I know who could stop my abilities like that. What's even worse, you made me stand there and get slashed, too!” I said, pointing at her.

“I did no such thing! I told you to move out the way, I told you to save yourself! Why you didn't is beyond me.”

“Oh yeah, you did tell me...wait...you told me.”

“I believe we've covered that, I told you to move.”

“You told me to move...you told me to... Chrysalis! At any point in time, you can freely control me to do whatever you want, even speak through me. If you wanted me to move, why didn't you just do that?” I sat there, waiting for her to respond, but she didn't. She simply stared at me and stayed silent.

“Well? Why didn't you?”

“Because she couldn't.” said a deep, booming voice coming out of the surrounding shadows. “She's lost the power, isn't that right, Chrysalis?”

“What?! Whose there? Show yourself!” Chrysalis replied.

“If that is what you desire, then I will reveal myself...” the voice said, as an open claw rose from the shadows, “But not to you.” the claw closed into a fist, and crushed her.

“CHRYSALIS!!” I screamed, my heart starting to sink.

“Worry not, child. She is fine.” it said, as a sudden burst of wind blew away the darkness, the wind being so powerful that I had to close and shield my eyes. It felt as though a tornado was breaking through the area, but soon enough, it stopped. When I opened my eyes, my jaw dropped and beheld a sight I never even imagined. A large crystal, in the shape of a dragon. It's scales radiating with a subtle rainbow like beauty, however, the scales themselves were the shining example of pure silver.

I looked around, trying to find the holder of the voice. Instead, I saw the room was circular, made of diamond, shining in the same way as the dragon. It's walls reaching higher than I could see. “Child, we have much to speak of.” the voice said.

“I'm not saying, or listening to a thing until I've seen who I'm dealing with!” I shouted in reply, turning around randomly, trying to catch a glimpse of the voice holder.

“I'm right here.”

“Right where?” 

A giant claw stomped down behind me. “Here.” I turned around to see the crystal dragon, moving on it's own accord.

My ears dropped, my eyes widened and my mouth hit the ground.“Ok, you have my attention.” I squeaked.

“Shifting Sands...this is the name you choose to go by, correct?”

“Y-yes...”

“Then that is what I shall call you.”

“Uhm...lovely...uhh mister dragon, sir. Why am I here?”

“I wish to test you.”

“But I didn't study-!” his claw smashed down on the ground, the wind blowing me onto my back. “Ok! I got it! No jokes!!” 

“Shifting Sands, you wondered why you could not transform, did you not?”

“Yeah, but it was just Chrysalis messing with me. Why she did it, she doesn't seem to want to say.” I got back onto my hooves.

“No, Shifting Sands. I am the one who stopped you from changing.”

“What? How? Why?!”

“I siphoned my magic from you.”

“Your magic? What does your magic have to do with anything?”

“Shifting Sands, the 'school' as you call it, is a construct of my magic. I made it long ago, to guard my place of slumber, and entrusted it to Celestia.”

“Oh...but wait, that doesn't explain why you keeping your magic from me does something!” I pointed to myself.

“It's because you inherently have no magic.” he said, dragging his claw through the ground, forming the shape of a bottle. “Imagine a bottle, empty and closed.”

“Uhm, alright...” I raised my brow, questioning what this had to do with anything.

He swept his claw across the ground, and the room suddenly flooded with water. I held my breath, thinking I was going to drown. “You can breath, relax.” I took a deep breath in, trusting him, and to my surprise, I could breath. He lifted his claw to me, holding an empty glass bottle. “Now, what do you suppose would happen if this bottle were opened while we're in this water?”

“The bottle is empty, so water will just flood in...” I said, as I was swimming around, having a ball.

He opened the bottle, and all the water drained into the bottle, and I fell to the ground. “You are the empty bottle, the water is the magic that exists within the world.”

“Uhh, what?” I pushed myself off of the ground.

“The world is filled with magic, but you are not. Every time you transform, your body drains just enough magic from the surrounding area to make it work. It is the same with your wings, however, your body can't keep up with the demand and you tire out.”

“Well...that's...huh...” I rubbed the back of my head, somewhat disbelieving of what I was hearing.

“This is where the problem arises.”

“Problem?”

“You only take in magic when you try to use your abilities, but you are a creature which requires it to function. I believe you cannot use your horn, am I correct?”

I held my horn. “I can charge it, but that's about it...”

“Because you mainly exist without magic, but require it as a changeling, your body has begun to shut down. You are slowly dying.”

“WHAT?! But what about the love I eat!? Isn't that magic!?”

“Yes, but Chrysalis feeds off most of it for her own survival, you get so little that it barely counts as food”

“Mother of the year...” I said, feeling a mixture of anger and disappointment

“It's her form of parenting. She believes it's better to watch you closely, guide your path her way, rather than existing on your own free will. But that's a topic for another day, now listen closely, there is a way for you to start absorbing magic as you should.”

“What is it!?” I shot onto his face. “Tell me!”

“You have to get your body to adjust to absorbing large, consistent quantities of magic.”

“Alright, and how do I do that?”

“You live with two beings of extreme magic, magic so powerful that it overflows into their manes.”

“If you tell me I have to eat their hair, I'm going to-”

“Do what?” his eyes sharpened.

“Give you a big ol hug! Heh...but please don't tell me I have to.”

“You don't have to.”

“YES!” I jumped off his face in joy, and began falling towards the ground again. 

He caught me and said, “Soon enough, your body will begin to lose it's ability to absorb magic, all magic, this includes love. When that happens, Chrysalis will no longer exist, and you will die.”

“I'll die if I don't start eating horse hair?! ARE YOU SERIOUS!?”

“Yes, and as you start to absorb more magic and grow stronger, so will Chrysalis. She will gain even more power over you. So much power, she may be able to over-write your will with her own.”

“These are my two options!? Eat horse hair and possibly lose all control of myself, or slowly starve and die!?” I shouted in total disbelief, the dragon nodded in reply. “This is...I don't think I like this test...” I buried my face in my hooves, trying to think of a possible way out.

“This isn't the test.”

I looked at him, my mind terrified of what the test could be. “Then what is?”

He roared at me, the voice alone feeling like a hurricane. The world began to twist, crack, and crumble. Soon it all turned into smoke, and burrowed into my eyes. It hurt, the pain even more than the gryphons claw. I screamed out, my body twisting in ways I never imagined possible, my bones breaking, my vision blurring.. my mind was going totally blank, all thoughts turned into the feeling of pain and nothing else. “I saw you protect those two, earlier today. Before I go any further in nurturing your magic, I want to see if it was a fluke. Until then, they'll be under my protection.”

“W-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!?” 

“I have given you the spirit of hate. Every day you shall grow more and more spiteful of yourself and others, and in a week, you will kill yourself. The only way to combat this spell, is to sacrifice yourself for the sake of another. In three days, I will personally see if you pass or fail. Life or death, Shifting Sands, do you have what it takes to survive?” he growled, as he closed his claw, and crushed me. 


“AHHH!!” I screamed, waking in a cold sweat. I looked around to see I was in my bed, alone in the room. I sat there, panting. I was scared, I couldn't tell Celestia or Luna anything, I could only hope they would protect me if something were to happen. Until then, I had to convince myself it was nothing more than a dream...but I couldn't.
> Who You Really Are- Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“It's too hot...”  I mumbled to myself in bed, kicking the covers off. A small chill crossed over me and my skin felt like it was crawling. “It's too cold...” I groaned. I wrapped my hooves around myself and sat up to pull my covers back. “There that should work...”

I laid my head down but quickly rose back up because I could feel some small lumps in it. I gave it a quick punch and laid back down. I closed my eyes to let myself gently fall to sleep, but the pillow was now too soft. I got back up and tried to fluff some 'hardness' into it. But then it was too hard. So I got up and punched it back down into being soft. But it still wasn't soft enough, so I punched it. And punched it. And punched it, over and over again. I laid back down on the pillow, but now, somehow it was too hard. I grabbed it and tore it in half, screaming at the top of my lungs in rage.

“What on earth is the matter with you?” Chrysalis asked.

“Nothing,” I replied internally. “I'm just...” I let out a deep sigh and fell face first into my mattress.

“Worried about the curse?”

“Yeah... I'm going to die in six days... wait, did he mean a week from the day, or a week starting that day!?”

“I don't think-”

I jumped to my hind legs and began pulling on my mane. “What if his perception of time is different from mine!? What if I don't even have a week!?”

“I think-”

“What if-”

“What if you stopped worrying for a moment and let me speak?”

I let my mane go and sat down. “Sorry.”

She sighed, “It's fine, you're worried and I can understand that. I'm a bit on edge myself.”

“So what should I do?”

“I think you should put that dragon's advice to the test.”

“What do you mean?”

“He said you're supposed to be constantly absorbing magic, right? Well, if you were to absorb the magic of the curse you shouldn't have a problem.”

My eyes widened. “I still totally have a problem! I have to eat horse hair!!”

“Isn't that a small price to pay for living?”

I looked over to the side, seeing Luna completely distracted by her games. I thought about the immense power she and Celestia possessed, and my eyes drifted to her mane. Her magic was so strong that it physically transformed her into the living embodiment of the night sky. There's no way my body could withstand such power, I'd be dead. “Oh my gosh...” my mind screamed. “What if my trying to absorb her power is what kills me!?”

“I'm sorry?”

“I kill me by trying to absorb power that's too strong for me!”

“Stretching it a bit, don't you think?”

“Look, I'm gonna die in six to seven days, excuse me for being cautious!”

“Right. Well don't get so 'cautious' that you ignore your guest”

“Guest?”

“Look out the window.”

I turned my head to the right and peered out the window, seeing nothing but the garden in the light of the moon. The flowers were quite beautiful in this light. “There's nothing out there.” I said, squinting to focus more into the darkness. I opened the window and leaned out, my eyes glossing over pretty much everything. I withdrew myself and closed the window and scratched the back of my head.  “Chrysalis what are you talking about?” 

“Into the hall.” she said.

“What? Why?”

“Don't argue. Do it.”

I let out an aggravated sigh through my nostrils, somehow turning into a small puff of white smoke, and jumped off my bed and walked into the hall. “Be back soon Luna.” I said, though I doubt she could've heard me. I sat down in the hallway, a nice little, black vase standing on a pedestal next to me. “Alright, why am I here?” I spoke internally.

“In all honesty, it's because your mother couldn't keep her legs crossed.” said an all too familiar voice from behind me. I quickly got onto my hooves and turned around and saw nothing, but the whisper of her voice still lingered in the air. “It's nice to see you again, nephew, and this time without a crowed of half-starved changelings.”

“Cicada? Where are you?” I could feel a slow breeze ride up the back of my neck. A breeze that traveled around my throat before passing away. “Chrysalis, where is she!?” I screamed within my mind.

“She's right in front of you.” she said as though it were something obvious.

My eyes ran from corner to corner of the hall, but I couldn't see a single thing. “I don't see her... why can't I sense her?”

“Because I don't want you to.” Cicada answered.

“How did-”

“Hello.” Cicada's voice came from right next to me, only this time there was a body to match. I shrieked and fell back, my head hitting the stand and the vase nearly falling on me. Cicada used her magic to stop it from hitting me, just inches from my face. “Really, sister. Your child is so frightful, it's hard to believe he came from you.”

“What was all that!? Why couldn't I sense you? And how did you get in?!”

“Oh come now, little Variance, can't an aunt spend some quality time with her nephew?”

“Is that what you call nearly giving me a heart attack?”

“Yes.”

“Then no.”

“Oh poo.” she chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and said, “Anyway, answer my questions.”

“Well, like I said, you couldn't sense me because I didn't want you to, and you're the one who let me in.”

“I can't sense you if you don't want me to? How does that work?”

“Oh, such ignorance in the face of one so noble.”

“You're not going to tell me, are you?” I crossed my arms.

“Of course not, it's far too fun to mess with you.”

“Well, whatever. How did you get in?”

“Again, you let me in.”

“I don't remember that.”

“You opened the window, dear boy.” she smiled.

“Chrysalis, translate.” I thought.

“No.” she replied.

“That explains everything.” 

“If you're done talking with my sister, we have important matters to attend to.” Cicada stated.

“Look, I told you, changeling matters do not matter. They don't concern me anyway.” I uncrossed my arms and started to walk away.

She appeared in front of me in a small fog and said, “You're the king of a nation, your followers are exhausting their love resources, your followers at the hive are still starving and barely clinging to life, your aunts are burning a trail through Equestria looking for you and none of that concerns you?”

I looked her straight in the eye and said, “None.”

“This is your birthright, your responsibility! You owe your kingdom-”

“I owe you nothing!” I shouted. “Being a changeling has only brought me closer and closer to death. I owe you!? You and your kind have done nothing for me, other than ruin my life! I can't make friends, I have to keep my 'family' a secret, and I can't even go outside without being attacked!” Cicada began to glare at me and bear her fangs. “And why is that, Cicada? Tell me why I can't do any of this!” she looked down on me with vengeful eyes, I could see in her movements that it was taking every sheer ounce of will power in her body not to kill me. But I continued. “C'mon Cicada! Answer! Your 'king' commands it!” 

She grit her teeth and her horn began to dimly glow orange. She closed her eyes and snarled out, “Because you're a changeling.”

“That's right. And all changelings have ever done is ruin lives, and that's what everyone expects me to do. I don't get a chance to be different. I don't get to go out and live like others can. No, I have to stay under international guard! And even then I'm not safe. And you expect me to help you? Any of you? Do you honestly think that I care if the changelings die off? It's a burden off my shoulders, that's for sure.”

And in that moment, her expression changed. That look of boiling rage had dulled away, and a smile crept into it's place. She said, “Variance, you say all these things, but is it even worth trying to fit in with them? The deeds of your kind should not fall upon you as an individual, yet you deal with it. Even more, you try to get along with those who persecute you. Why?”

“Ponies took care of me, ponies raised me. This castle is filled with ponies who care for me.”

“You still believe that?” she gave a small chuckle. “Young foolishness these days. The ponies don't care for you, they babysit you. They don't care what happens to you personally, so long as you aren't injured in a way they can be blamed for, they've done their jobs and that's all that matters.”

“That's... Celestia and Luna are-”

“Different, right? They love you, right? They'll always accept you... but you said it yourself, you have to hide your familial relations, don't you? If they're so different, why haven't you told them who you are? Do you deceive yourself enough to think Celestia would ever consider keeping the child of the mare who put her subjects in danger and moreover defeated her in front of them all? Do you think Luna would, even for a moment, let you walk around this castle knowing full well that the mind of said mare is inside you? Waiting to come out?”

“That can't happen! Chrysalis-”

“Died? Yes, but would they know that for certain? Would they believe a word you say after revealing such sensitive information like that? No, they'd banish you if not seal you away.”

“You're wrong!”

“Really, young king? Fine then, if you truly believe that, if you truly believe they'll love you after learning about who you are... go tell them. Go tell them of your lineage. Go tell them of the changelings hiding within their kingdom's walls. Go tell them of the looming threat that's indiscriminately killing off anything in it's path. And go tell them how it is all, your, fault.

My heart felt as though it had been crushed, my chest ached and I didn't know what to do. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. I couldn't argue against her, because she was right. I loved Celestia and Luna, and I knew their love for me was only for who they thought I was. I simply let my head fall and I forced out the only two words I could think of. “You're wrong...”

“Ponies are all the same, Variance. They claim friendship, love, and harmony, but they don't mean it. You'd be a fool to believe their lies.”

“Go away...” I whispered, I holding back my tears of frustration and broken pride.

“What's that?” she turned around and gave me a belittling, glazed look. “I don't think I heard you.”

“I said go away!”

She gave a sarcastic movement, acting as though she was shocked to hear me demand such a thing.“As you wish my king.” she gave another smile and began to sink into the floor. “Anything you command.” with a final chuckle she said, “You truly are like your mother.” before completely vanishing. I dragged myself back to the room and looked at Luna, who was still playing games, blissfully unaware of what had just happened. I made my way to her and crawled onto her lap. Then I just latched onto her. 

“Shifting Sands?” She said. I stayed silent. “Shifting Sands 'pray, 'tis the matter?” I still stayed silent. She put her arms around me and said, “Shifting Sands, ye quiver... why?”

“It's nothing.” I finally replied. “Just...don't let me go...please...” she didn't say anything. She just gently stroked her hoof through my mane and held onto me.




The next morning I awoke with Cicada's words echoing through my head. Her words cut deeper than I'd originally thought, and I didn't want to think about it anymore, so I did what came naturally. I got up and snuck into Celestia's bathroom, and pilfered a small bottle off of the counter. I went back to my room and climbed up onto Luna's bed. I opened the cap and poured out the clear liquid inside. As soon as it touched her spacial mane, it started to turn pink, however the entire mane hadn't changed. I would have to get my hooves dirty for this one. I stretched out my hooves and furiously began scrubbing the ooze into the rest of her mane. She woke up flailing and screaming. “Shifting Sands!? 'Tis the meaning of this!?” she screamed. 

“Go check the bathroom.” I replied. Luna rushed out of the bed and ran into the bathroom.

“What did ye do!?” she screamed.

“It's just some mane dye.” I chortled.

“From where did ye even receive such an item!?”

“It was Celestia's.”

“My sister?”

“That mane sure didn't change with maturity, I'll say that much.” I smiled.

“SHIFTING SANDS!!” she screamed, erupting into a large wave of pink rushing towards me. Her shrieks of anger sounded as though the damned were rising from the grave. I would've moved on my own, had I been in control of my laughter but, thankfully, my body was soon surrounded by yellow magic and pulled out the room. The door closing behind me. The pink wave struck the wall and pink little claws began to reach out from the cracks, but not very far. “YE LITTLE BRAAAAT!!” came in loud and clear.

I turned around and in the most adorable way possible, said, “Hello, dear mother.” and smiled.

“Hello, Shifting Sands,” she said, her eyes still focused on the door.

“Did you need something?”

“Uhh, yes... you got a package from Twilight.” a hole broke through the door and the only thing visible was a blood-shot red eye. “Well I think it's time for us to go.” she said, picking me back up with her magic and in a flash of white light we appeared in her room.

“Well that was fun” I said, jumping off her head and walking towards the door. I had a sneaking suspicion of why I'd been brought here and I was eager to make sure I was wrong.

“Shifting Sands, where are you going? Don't you want to see what's in the box?”

I turned around and said, “No thanks, last time she sent me a package, it blew up in my face.”

“Oh Shifting, it wasn't that bad.”

“I was blind for a month.”

“You're exaggerating, you weren't blind... you just had to rely on echo location. Still, it wasn't that bad.”

“I had to scream with every step and ended up waking the dead.” I deadpanned.

“Hmm, you do have a point there.” she lifted a small box in green wrapping. “And here I was hoping that you'd get to see the multi-use dynamite I asked her to send.” my ear twitched upon hearing that. “But if you don't-”

“MINE!” I shouted, shooting off the ground, zooming past her face and landing on the ceiling. I tore open the wrapping and opened the box, laughing maniacally, only to find that it was an orange crystal necklace. I hovered down  to Celestia's face and said, “You tricked me.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about.” her magic wrapped around the necklace and latched it around my neck. “It looks really nice on you.”

I landed on the ground and looked at the necklace, holding it in my hoof, and said, “You're sure there's nothing wrong with it right?”

“Of course I am.” she said, but without her mouth moving, I heard her voice continue to say, “I blasted it with enough counter-spells and cancellation magic to turn a phoenix into a pigeon.”

“Wait, you did what?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing, never mind. I think I misunderstood you for a moment.”

“Well anyway, there was another reason I came to get you.”

I flew up and made myself comfortable in her mane, as usual. “And that was?”

“Shifting, how would you like to spend a few days in the Crystal Empire?”

“The Crystal Empire?” I tilted my head. “What's that?”

“It's the kingdom Cadence and Shining Armor reside in.” her horn began to glow and the light coned into an image. A city with the center being a large crystaline structure. “The city will soon begin one of it's annual festivals. Every hundred years since it's foundation, they've celebrated the peace and prosperity they've enjoyed.”

“How long has the kingdom been around?” I asked.

“A five or so millennia, what's even more impressive is that they've not had a single war.”

“Not a single war outbreak in five thousand years? You're kidding right?”

“Not at all.” the image projected changed, now displaying a beautifully cut diamond in the shape of a heart. “You see the source of their protection comes from The Crystal Heart, a powerful focusing stone that amplifies one's inner desire and then gives it form. And the love they have for one another is amazingly strong by itself, but when combined with the heart, it becomes a barrier to all who would wish to do them harm. ”

“I don't know, mom... with all that love, a changeling might mess with things a little.”

“Shifting, you'll be fine. Besides, I doubt you could ever devour enough love to cause any problems.”

“Still...”

Once again Celestia's mouth hadn't moved, but her voice echoed as though it did, saying, “Please don't argue. Just go, I can't have you in the kingdom right now.”

I grit my teeth and swallowed my pride and with a smile, said, “I'd love to go, sounds amazing.”

“I'm so glad to hear you say that.”

“Yeah I bet you are...” I whispered.

“Huh?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking.”

The image projected by Celestia's horn vanished, and the horn itself had stopped glowing. “What about?” she said.

I grabbed my necklace and stared into my reflection before letting it go and saying, “How would you feel if I died?”

Her eyes widened and she levitated me down in front of her. “Shifting Sands, what on earth could possibly make you ask such a question?”

“It's just... whenever I go out, someone tries to hurt me.” I said, holding my stomach where Maryiana's claws had tore through.

“I understand you're worried, and so am I, but I believe you'll be perfectly safe under Shining Armor and Cadence's watchful eye.”  she smiled. “Besides, I wouldn't let anyone hurt you.” she said before her voice continued “How unfortunate that my reach can only extend so far...” she put her hoof on my head and ruffled my mane before walking out of the room saying, “No more heart breaking questions. Ok?”

“No problem!” I shouted back, before I refocused my attention to the necklace. “Well it seems I'm now in possession of a magic item. One that's resistant to alicorn magic...and I'd rather not have...”

“You should ask Cicada to track whoever sent that package. That is, if she herself didn't send it.”




That night I managed to sneak back into the hall and told Chrysalis to call on Cicada. My wings started fluttering and it didn't take long for Cicada to respond, appearing behind me and startling me again. “You rang?” she said.

“Did you send this to me?” I replied in a whisper, holding my necklace. 

“Why would I send you jewelry?”

“Because it's magic.”

“How so?”

“earlier today I spoke with Celestia, but sometimes she would continue talking when her mouth wasn't moving. And she was saying things she wouldn't normally say to me. What makes it weirder is that Celestia said she hit this thing with a ton of anti-magic spells, but it's still working.”

Cicada gave me a piercing glare and said, “Let me see that.” before grabbing me in entirety with her magic and lifting me to her. She took a long hard look at the necklace and said. “It's a hollow gem.”

“A what?” she dropped me out of her magic, causing me to fall onto my back.

“It's a rare gem found in nature. It allows one to sense the true desires of another. They're not  resistant to anti-magic spells, and trying to fashion them into jewelry will completely destroy it. Or at least that's how it should be.”

“Hmm...that's a new shade of eggshell for the ceiling.”

Cicada lifted me in front of her face, again, and said, “Where did you get it?”

“Celestia said Twilight sent it.” I crossed my arms and gave her a glazed look.

“We'll have to see about that. For the time being focus on trying to stay alive in The Crystal Empire.”

“Fine. Wait how did you know I was going there? Did you read my mind again?”

“Read your mind? No, dear child, I just know enough about you to deduce your thought patterns.” she dropped me again. “I'll have a small group of changelings deployed upon your arrival into the empire.”

“What!?” I said sitting on my head. “Keep your changelings away from there. I have a chance to get a clean impression and I don't need you screwing it up.”

“Ugh, you are quite the hoof full. Fine, I'll leave my changelings here, but I will accompany you.”

“But-”

“Nephew, this isn't just about you. It's about all of the hive. You may not show any concern for it, but I do. If keeping it safe means keeping you alive, that's what I will do and no amount of begging, pleading, and demanding will change that.”

I let out a deep sigh and said “Fine... but explain one thing. How did you know I was heading to The Crystal Empire?”

She lowered her head to look at me face to face. “Celestia messaged the train station and told them that a royal would be on board to travel there, tomorrow. Celestia and Luna have no reason to go there, their schedules are completely blank for the next week.”

“And how exactly do you know that?”

“My reach extends pretty far. Be happy you're under my protection.” she lifted her head up. “I'll see you in the empire.”

“No eating ponies!”

“I make no promises.” 




The next morning, around seven AM or so, Celestia brought me to the train station with a carrying bag full of stuff I thought would be needed.  Toothbrush and toothpaste, mane care products, soap, whoopie cushions, smoke bombs, flash grenades, a book on blackmail, paintball gun, a small club, a blanket and etc. Only the essentials were brought along, and of course the necklace was still wrapped around my throat. I tried to take it off the night before, but it wouldn't move. I obviously kept it to myself. “Do you have everything?” Celestia asked.

“Yes, I have everything.” I replied.

“Are you sure? If you need anything else I can-”

I flew up to her face and said, “Please stop.”

She gave a cheerful smile and a hug, and said, “Don't forget to write every day, ok?” I chuckled, and she pulled back. “No, seriously, write me every day.”

“But my mouth writing sucks.”

“Every day. Understood?”

“But-”

“Every.” she tapped me on the head. “Day.” she tapped again.

I hugged her and said, “Every day, got it.”

The train made a loud whistle and she said, “Now go, the sooner you're on that train, the sooner you'll come back.”

“That's not technically-” 

She put her hoof over my mouth. “Every mother has her dreams. Don't break mine, ok?” I smiled and flew into the train and landed in front of the doors and waved goodbye. “Every day!” she shouted to me.

“I got it, I got it!” I shouted back as the train conductor closed the doors. 

“That includes today!” she shouted over the train whistle. Which, as amazing as it was in and of itself, was a bit terrifying. I nodded and the train left the took off from the station.

I found my seat and just sat there. The train itself was mostly empty, it felt somewhat unsettling considering that there were so many ponies in the station. I was probably just worrying too much. After all, I was going into a land I'd never even heard of, all by my self. I wondered if I'd be safe for a little bit, only to shake my head and tell myself to trust Celestia. She wouldn't put me in danger, would she? Of course I'd be safe. That was the mindset I'd kept to keep myself chipper. As time passed I just listened to the sound of the train rolling over the tracks. It was strangely relaxing, a sensation I'd never really understood myself, and soon I would find myself in the infinite black behind my eyelids.

When I woke up, I rubbed my eyes to clear it of the blur and was shocked to find I wasn't in my seat or even on the train anymore. Instead, I was in a large bed with a ruby frame. The room itself seemed to be made of some kind of light, clear sapphire. The bed sheets and blanket were all covered in some elaborate design with golden trimmings. “Chrysalis. Don't be alarmed...but I think I may have drank some cider and found a sugar daddy.”

“You know, I'd say something sarcastic about your desire to say unintelligible things, but at this point, I feel far too used to it. And that scares me, son. You scare me.”

Her words put a smile on my face. I stretched my arms and the door creaked open, with a purple eye peaking out the side. “Oh good, you're awake.” a pink mare walked in. She had wings, a horn, and a mane consisting of gold, light rose, and violet. “Do you like your room?”

“...” I squinted at her.

“Is something wrong?”

“Have we met? You seem familiar but...”

“I guess this would be your first time actually meeting me.” she cleared her throat. “I am princess Cadence.” she bowed.

“Oh right, you're the one who helped defeat Chrysalis in the show.”

“Show?” she looked at me, puzzled.

“Uhh, sorry, I'm still half awake.” I rubbed my eyes. “It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Shifting Sands.”

“Well, Shifting Sands, how do you like your room?”

“It's beautiful. Thank you for letting me stay here.”

“Oh it's no problem, Shining Armor and I-” she looked around and ducked her head back out the door. “Shining Armor, come in and introduce yourself.” she whispered.

“I've met him before!” Shining Armors voice whispered back. “I got a big mouth full of his personality!”

“He was a baby then, let it go!”

“I still have nightmares you know.”

“Shining. Here. Now!”

Shining Armor slowly walked through the door and said, “Hey.” he put his hoof on the back of his head and looked away. “I'm Shining Armor... you may not remember me since the last time we met you were an infant.”

Oh I remembered him alright. But I didn't think I needed to bring it up again. “Nice to meet you.” I smiled.

“See that wasn't so hard.” Cadence said, nudging Shining Armor.

“Yeah, I've faced my little demon.” he replied.

“You mean your inner demons.”

“I know what I said.” Cadence elbowed him in the ribs, to which he chuckled a bit. “Anyway, if you're up for it, we could take a little tour around the kingdom. You know, get you used to the place.”

“Uh, sure. That sounds great.” I jumped off the bed, and as soon as I touched the ground, I was enveloped in darkness. And then... 

'Thwak' was the sound I awoke to, finding myself being held in a light blue aura of magic coming from Cadence horn. “It's not working!!” she screamed.

“We don't have a lot of options, keep trying!” Shining Armor said, shaking his hoof as though he were just done abusing it.

“What are you two doing?” I asked.

Cadence dropped me and in unison they replied, “Nothing.” but their thoughts said, “No one must know of the things we did.”

“Are you alright?” Cadence asked.

“My face hurts a little.”

“Uhh...” she gave a weak smile, her eyes rapidly rushing between me and Shining Armor. An unusual air filled the room, soon followed by a long pause.

“So are we still going on the tour...?” I asked.

“I'm not so sure...” Cadence replied, putting me down very slowly. “Maybe some other time, what else would you-”

“Tag, no magic, you're it!” I shouted rushing out of the room, and running through the shining crystal halls.

“Shifting Sands, wait!” Cadence shouted. I turned the corner and ran up the walls and onto the ceiling. The glow of Cadence's magic surrounded my body before suddenly vanishing. “Shining, I can't grab him for some reason, do something!”

“Got it!” he replied, creating a violet wall to block my path. I ran straight through it, and the wall broke apart. He tried again with five more walls, but they all ended the same. “Well that's new.” I jumped onto a chandelier and swung around on it. It broke from the ceiling and I jumped back onto the wall.

“You can't catch me!” I shouted. 

Cadence opened her wings and flew towards the roof, her arms extending towards me. “Gotcha!” she shouted as she grabbed my tail, only to pull some of the hairs out. I jumped out a hall window, and started running down the side of the castle, shaking the glass from my mane. Cadence still on my back. I turned and jumped on her head and flew back into the hall, where Shining Armor stood prepared.

“I got him!”

“Boring!” I ran past him, laughing insanely with a blazing green trail behind me. Passing through the halls I grabbed a small marble statue. Cadence teleported in front of me, and grabbed it She tried to pull it from me, but I made sure it stuck to my hooves

“Shifting Sands,” she pulled. “Behave yourself!” she pulled again. “Let go!” I leaned back and began to fill my wings with magic.

“Zoom zoom!” I said.

“What?” Cadence replied. My wings started to flutter on the own, before I blasted my magic out of my wings, rocketing back through the hall, my horn shredding through the ground. Cadence was screaming non-stop, even after we crashed into the wall. My back was cratered into the wall and my eyes were spinning all over the place. Cadence stood up and took the statue from me and said “I think it's time for our little game to end, don't you?!”

“No way!” I blasted magic from my wings again and broke through multiple floors, until I hit the absolute bottom of the castle, where I immediately got up and ran outside. My eyes couldn't keep still, all the decorations, food stands, entertainers, everything was just a blur to me. I also didn't notice, very much, when I crashed into one...or seven...of them. I started running around in circles getting a good look at everything and then a familiar sound hit my ears. The familiar sound of being a freak.

“What's a changeling doing here?” a strangers voice said.  I stopped and looked around I, trying to find who said it, but no one was even paying attention to me. “I thought we got rid of those monsters centuries ago...” a mares voice said. I kept looking but everyone was ignoring me. 

A young, black maned, orange bodied stallion started to walk past me. I ran in front of him and he stopped, his head jerking back a little. I could see he was shaking heard one of his thoughts. “It's alright Wind Sheer, just don't make any sudden movements, and maybe it won't hurt you.”

“Hurt you?” I said, reaching out to him. “I'm not gonna-”

“Don't touch me! Don't touch me! Oh please don't let it touch me!” I pulled my hoof back.

“I...” I looked around, seeing the crowding ponies were glancing out the corner of their eyes and turned back asking if he knew what time it was. He said he didn't and trotted away. The necklace began to glow a little, and I could hear the thoughts of the surrounding ponies, even more clearly than before.

“Did anyone else see that?!”

“I thought we were safe in the kingdom... why is THAT thing here?!”

“Is this the start of an invasion? Why's there only one of them?”

“We have to get the guards.”

It was loud, ear splitting, even. I ran, I closed my eyes and ran. I didn't care where I went I just needed to get out of that area. 

“It's rampaging!”

“Someone get the king!”

“Keep focused!” I told myself.

“I have to get home and warn my family!”

“How has it not been caught yet!?” 

“Tune them out!” I started to grit my teeth. Soon I didn't hear their thoughts at all, but I kept running, until someone suddenly grabbed my tail. A chocolate brown pegasi mare, with a long, light brown mane and tail, and redish orange eyes.

“Where do you think you're running off to?” she said.

“Just leave me alone!” I shouted. “I'm going home.”

“By running into the middle of a snow storm? You should know better than that, Variance.” she let go of my tail.

“C-Cicada?” I said. Behind her stood crystal walls, with a barrier coming down behind it.

“If any other called you by that name, you'd be dead, so what does that tell you?” I jumped onto her neck and tried to hug her, but she pushed me away. “Do not touch me. No one touches me. Ever.”

“Sorry...”

“It's fine, just don't do it again.” she brushed herself off. “What's your problem now?”

“The ponies here...they all think-”

“That you're going to hurt them? I'm not surprised. Crystal ponies typically stay within' this kingdom for a reason. Their bodies are filled with love, it's their very life force. So, naturally, we feed on them every chance we get.”

“But I'm not-”

“They don't know that, Variance. As far as they know, you're a random changeling that managed to break through their barrier.”

“Barrier?”

“Yes, they designed it to ward off potential attackers, including changelings. However, since you were coming here, they lowered it for a short period. Just long enough for you, and me, to get through.”

I sighed. “I can't go anywhere without trouble starting, can I?”

“No, but you're a changeling.”

“Oh believe me, I know.” 

“What I mean is, if you really want to 'fit in' with these ponies, you can just become one yourself.” she said, wafting her mane in the wind.

“If I can help it, I don't want to lie for friendship or acceptance.”

“Honorable, but tell me, if that's the case then what do you plan to do?”

“I don't know...but I'll think of something...”

“I look forward to seeing your next move then, my king.” she said as Shining Armor and Cadence ran up to us. 

“Shifting Sands, there you are!” Cadence said as she looked to Cicada. “I'm so sorry, has he been bothering you?”

“No, of course not.” Cicada replied. “Why would such a sweet child ever be a bother?”

“Right, 'sweet child' and all.” Shining Armor said, looking rather irritated.

“Well, I must be on my way. It was fun talking to you, Shifting Sands. Greet your mother for me when you get the chance.” Cicada said, and walked away, as a black cloud  gathered around me, Cadence and Shining Armor.

“You three... COME WITH ME!”  a deep gruff voice shouted. The clouds wrapped around us and before we knew it, we were back in the castle. The clouds died down and a light gray unicorn with a red tipped horn was standing before us. He wore a red cape with white and black edges, a silver band around his head, and a long neck brace. He grabbed me by my tail and held me there. “You and I need to talk, he hissed out.” before looking at me. 

“Hi...” I whimpered.

“Hello, Shifting Sands, I am King Sombra.” he bowed.

“Uhh, nice to meet you.”

“Like-wise.” he turned his head towards Cadence and Shining Armor. “You two... we need to talk.”

“We're sorry, Sir.” Shining Armor said. “We tried to get a hold on him but-”

“Silence! This has nothing to do with that. Besides, both of you are to blame on that account.”

“Huh?” I said.

“Little changeling, were you ever told of how much love flows here?”

“Just that it was a lot.”

“Yes, so much that it even flows through the ground, and the buildings themselves. Not only that, it's very pure and powerful love... remind me, what do changelings eat?”

“Lo-”

“Love? Oh my, wouldn't it be an issue if you were to come into contact with something that was filled with love. I mean, you might even start....” he slowly turned his head to Cadence and Shining. “Climbing the walls.”

“Oh...” Shining and Cadence said in unison.

“Did either of you even bother to read those books I gave you on empathivores?”

“You really expected us to read all of that in one day?” Cadence asked.

“Yes, is that a problem?”

“They were bigger than me!”

“I'm not seeing the issue.”

“Can I be put down now? Please?” I asked.

Sombra tossed me to Cadance, who almost dropped me. “Putting that issue aside, someone drank the last Crystals Poopsy, and didn't restock.” he said, glaring at Shining Armor.

“Sorry, sir.”

“Don't let it happen again. You know how much I love my crystals... if I had the chance, I would even go so far as to say nothing BUT crystals.”

“Dad, obsessive.” Cadance said, giving a deadpanned glare.

“The drink is well worth it!”

“It's a soda.”

“That's made from diamonds!”

“It tastes like trash.”

“BLASPHEMY!” the black clouds broke from the ground and started swirling around the room like a hurricane. It blew me out of Cadence's arms, but she grabbed me by the tail and held on. “CRYSTALS POOPSY IS THE BEST DRINK EVER CREATED!” 

“Dad, calm down!”

The clouds vanished and I went back to hanging from my tail. “You know this hurts, right?” I said. She went back to holding me normally.

Sombra cleared his throat and said, “Anyway, restock it next time, Armor. I would rather not have this talk again.” he stomped his hoof on the ground and the black clouds began to swirl around him. “And remember to keep him off the ground!” his voice echoed as the clouds dissipated revealing he was completely gone.

“Well that was overly dramatic.” I said. “What now?”

“Well I have to go out and buy some more of that terrible soda.” Shining Armor said.

“If you didn't like it, why did you drink it?”

“I couldn't help it, he makes it look so refreshing!”

Cadence groaned. “Just buy the soda and hurry back, alright?  We need to figure out how to deal with this 'no ground touching' thing.” 

“He could fly, couldn't he?”

“I can only fly for a minute or two, at max.” I answered.

“Hmm.. do you still sit on Celestia's back?” Shining asked.

“I moved up to her mane.” I replied.

“Either way, that works, right? “

Cadence looked to me and said, “I guess it could, but if he falls off we're in trouble.”

“Do you mind if I go lay down while you figure this out? It's pretty early but I'm kinda tired.” I yawned.

“Oh, sure, it's no problem.” Cadence said with a smile. I flew through the halls and back to my room, where I flopped onto the bed.

“This day hasn't even fully started, and I'm already worn out.”

“You have such weak stamina... I was wondering when your father's traits would appear.” Chrysalis said.

“I'm too tired to be disgusted.” I let out a heavy breath. “I'm just glad they didn't notice my wing and absorption magic.”

“Who said they didn't? If I hadn't cast that spell to rewrite their memories, you'd still be talking to them about it.”

“You rewrote their memories? To what? And more over, how?”

“I didn't have enough energy to make any major changes, so they just think you fly and run fast.”

“Ok, that still leaves how you even managed to do that. You shouldn't have that much magic, you're supposed to be weakening as time goes on.”

“It seems when you absorbed magic from the area, I gained an impressive portion myself. And then you absorbed the magic from Shining Armor's blockades... let's just say I'm feeling very much like my old self.” she chuckled.

“I see...” I said, and stared at the ceiling.

“Wait a minute, something like that would warrant a snarky remark. What's wrong?”

I held the necklace in my hoof, and stared at my reflection. “Chrysalis... is it really worth it? The pale skin, the fangs, the insect wings, the eyes, the hair, the... me. Is it really all worth it just to be this?”

“Variance...”

“The truth is that I want to follow Cicada's suggestion. I'm tired of being me. I'm tired of all the baggage I get just for being different. Celestia told me time and time again that being different made me special, made me unique...but it doesn't. It makes me a villain, a monster. And I hate it.”

“If you truly feel this way, then why haven't you gone with the idea?”

“I don't know. I just, when I think about it, I know it would be easy. I know it would be the answer I need...but I just don't know. I've transformed before, I've made people think I was normal multiple times. But I've never considered just...staying that way.”

“Most changelings never consider it. We stay with one another and don't think about living as someone else. It's a hollow life, and we know better than to try it.”

I took a deep breath and said, “Trying to make friends with an alter-ego is disrespectful, dishonest, sneaky, shallow, cruel to all involved and all around wrong...” I said, before my green and blue flames engulfed my body, turning me into a pegasus colt, similar to Pound Cake. The only difference being that my mane hadn't changed styles and only color. “But just once...I want to see what kind of life it can offer me.”
> Who You Really Are- Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can do this." I said to myself, trying not to burst into a sprint as I walked to the castle doors. My success in that matter...could have been better. Apparently resisting the magic had some side effects, for instance, as I touched the door my neck slung back in an uncontrolled twitch. "Oh, this hurts." I said as I snapped my neck back into place and trotted off. At first I just wanted to see what it was like to be, well, not me. I traveled around the empire without any real goal other than just getting the feel of being a pony, though I'm sure the spontaneous twitching wasn't helping my disguise. I stopped off in the park, I had to get off the ground because the magic was just getting to be too much and I felt like I might burst into flame at any moment. I had hopes for a bench I could sit on but as time would soon reveal, I wouldn't need one.

"LOOK OUT!" a young unicorn filly screamed at me, running atop a large, caramel colored boulder.  I turned around just fast enough to see it before it hit me but instead of being crushed, as I expected, I was sucked into it. I found myself rolling around in a greasy cavern with fleshy walls and absurd amounts of cheese cake, all the while it was still rolling. I tried to climb out but every time I stuck my hoof down to stick to the walls, I slid further and further into the cavern.  Soon enough the cave stopped, and a light blue aura of magic surrounded me and pulled out of the cavern. "Oh my gosh, are you ok?" the golden maned, blue eye and coated filly asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm not sure how, but I'm alright." I turned around to see a head sticking out of the boulder, meaning it was actually a pony. A really, really fat pony. Meaning that cavern I was in.... my mouth slowly opened in disgust of the liquids covering my skin, and cheesecake.  At least, on the inside. On the outside I didn't seem to be affected very much, but on the inside I was screaming. "Can I kill myself now?" I asked the filly.

"A little extreme, don't you think?"

My eyes widened and I leaned closer into her face and replied, "Nooo."

"Come on, it's not that bad! I mean, it could be worse." she chuckled.

"I WAS IN A PONIES ROLLS OF FAT!"

"What's your point?" 

I grabbed her by the head. "My point?" I threw her face into the fleshy folds of the ponies enormous body.

"WAIT! PLEASE! THERE ARE BEARS IN HERE AND EVERYTHING SMELLS LIKE CHEESE!"

I pulled her head out of the fat and said, "Not so-"

A voice echoed from the open void of fat, "Hey, Booboo! Let's maul the next one who comes in here!"

We simply stared at the closing cavern for a good five seconds before I continued, "Not so bad, huh?"

She punched me, I fell to the ground holding my cheek. She shouted at me, "You jerk! That was an accident, you should have moved quicker!"

I sighed, got back onto my hooves and replied, "Whatever, just don't go running over other ponies." and walked away. Until she grabbed my tail.

"Where do you think you're going? You're helping me push my brother to the hospital."

"And why would I do that?" 

"Because there are bears in there." she grinned.

I put my hoof to my chin and considered the statement, saying. "You make a strong argument...and I would like to avoid becoming bear poop..." I nodded, "You've got yourself a deal!" I galloped over to the mass of flesh and shoved my hooves under it. I lifted with all my strength. It meant absolutely nothing because my hooves got sucked right in and he kind of just hovered there in an eternal jiggle. "Ok, you're going to have to explain to me how he got like this and how you expect me to help."

"My brother's a chef and he likes experimenting with magic in some of his recipes. End result of a failed one...well, another failed one." she came over and continued while pulling my arms from the folds, "And if you want to move him, it's simple." she grabbed several rolls, pulled them and tossed them over her brother's massive body. He rolled, a little. I understood what she had in mind and joined in. It wasn't long after that I wish I'd let her continue demonstrating, because when her brother started moving like we wanted, it was down a hill. And my hoof was suction cupped to one of his rolls. It was like being slammed into the ground by a hamburger, repeatedly.  It wasn't made any better by the filly assuming her position at the top of the ball, running along my custom groove. And face. "You enjoying yourself?" she asked.

"I hate you! Both of you!"

"Good to hear!" she shouted with a laugh. After several minutes of being run over she stamped on her brother and launched me out through the hospital doors, oddly, with a bottle of ketchup in my hooves. I would never ask how this happened and I feel it is better that way.

I slid across the marble flooring, and shuttered as I reached my stop at the side of a doctor. "You knew this would happen...didn't you?" I snarled at her. 

She hopped off and laughed, "Yeah, yeah I did. This isn't exactly the first time he's gotten like this." she turned to her brother, "Bellcurve, wake up!"

The roll of pony jiggled, his body filled with ocean-like waves as he came to.  "Huh, what? Are we there?"

"Yeah, we're there. We had to get a little help this time, though." she pointed to me.

"No problem!" I said with a smile, at least while my head was facing them.

A doctor, myself and a nurse  came out of the hospital. The doctor looked at the situation and said, "Bellcurve, again?" The pony jiggled. I would have assumed that meant he nodded, but I doubt he had the neck to make such a gesture. "Nurse, get my whips and mace. I'm going in." the doctor said with courageous splendor. Once handed his equipment, he jumped into the rolls shouting "Begone, foul beasts!"

"BOOBOO! GET EM!" echoed from the gelatinous rolls of pony. 

I had no idea what I was looking at so I gave a fake yawn and told the filly and her brother, "I think I'm gonna go lay down somewhere. Somewhere far away from here." and walked off.  The filly grabbed my tail again so I stopped at gave her a deadpan glare. "Ok, we're going to need to establish some ground rules. First one being, no grabbing my tail." I pulled my tail away.

"We're not done yet. My brother is a chef, remember? He has a restaurant to deal with and we need to take care of it!" 

I chuckled and said, "Why would I help you do that?"

She drew closer and said, "Why? I can't think of any reason other than I'll just knock your punk flank out."

I squinted my eyes and said, "You are just all sorts of mean, aren't you?"

"Silence slave!" she grabbed my tail again and dragged me off. She shouted, "To the Sea of Flavor!"

"This is not how my day was supposed to go!" I screamed, my hooves pulling entire mounds of dirt in a frail attempt to resist. 





The Sea of Flavor was a rundown shack of a food joint.  I could tell it was supposed to be a first class place, but clearly, no one kept up with it. The floor was covered with grime, the ceiling was housing what seemed to be mutant, crystal rats. They also laid eggs. The tables were  broken down, the chairs were pretty much just sitting mats at this point. All things considered, it sucked, BUT... no..no wait. I actually can't think of anything that would be considered good. It sucked. "Alright, first things first!" the little filly said, standing in the center of the dining room, "We gotta finish the cooking. We don't want any customers getting sick from the food."

I looked around and said, "Customers? I'm the only one here."

"For now!" 

"For now? I can see our hoofprints in the floor, you know."

"Yeah? And?"

"There is not a single hoofprint leading to the chairs and tables. Only to the kitchen."

The filly walked up to me and pushed her head against mine. "You trying to be smart with me?"

"I don't try to be smart, I am smart. Good day." I walked away. She grabbed my tail and dragged me into the kitchen. I would have resisted but I was scared I'd get an infection from clawing my hooves at the floor.  The kitchen looked even worse than the dinning area, the utensils were covered with molded food, the pots and pans had rusted and there were vials of potion sitting on a shelf just pouring into some strange soup on the stove. "Oh...my...Celestia. WHAT IS ALL OF THIS!?"

"What? It's the kitchen."

"IT'S A DUMP! THIS PLACE IS A DUMP!" 

"Hey! Watch what you say about my family restaurant! I'll have you know that ponies came from all over the world to come and eat here!"

"Oh yeah? When?"

She sat down and counted the air around her hoof. "One thousand years ago. Not counting the time we spent it celestial stasis."

A strange, limp, and fleshy blob fell down next to me and crawled out of the kitchen. "Alright, I'm done here."

"You're not going anywhere until you've helped me fix our main dish!"

I sighed. "Fine, what is it?"

"I don't actually know. But that's why you're here!" she pressed her hoof against my nose. "We're gonna find out together! And if we get things done quick enough, we'll find out why we haven't had a customer in so long!" A dish melted off the rack and into the soup on the stove. "Don't worry about that." She said trying to keep me from looking. "We keep the ingredients in the fridge, lets get to cookin!" 

She pulled me over to the refrigerator and opened it. I screamed. And screamed. And screamed. Until a tomato reached out with it's hand, placed it's finger on my lip and said, "Shhh..." 

"Alright, buck this, I'm done." I trotted out of the kitchen. 

The filly grabbed my tail, again, and said, "Please don't leave!" there was a subtle sob in her voice. "I can't do this by myself."

I snatched my tail from her and took a deep breath which lead into a long sigh. "You want me to help you fix this place, right?"

"Right."

"Then we'll need to establish some ground rules. Again. Firstly, don't grab my tail. That actually hurts, you know."

"Right!" she nodded.

"Secondly, this place is a mess and I refuse to help ANYPONY under such conditions. We clean this place up first and then we deal with the food."

"Right!"

"Thirdly, your refrigerator has living vegetables in it. And not only did one touch me, one of them looked at me in an oddly seductive matter. Burn it."

"Right! ....What's seductive mean?"

"BURN IT!"

"RIGHT!" She nodded profusely.

"Fourthly, under no circumstances do you question what I can do for you. Understood?"

"Yes!" She grabbed me for a hug and repeated herself going "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" for at least a minute I tried to push her off of me. Her gratitude was feeding into me, making it harder to keep my transformation, although I don't know why. She should have noticed the three times I turned back to normal, but she didn't. So I had to count my blessings that she was either really oblivious or just dumb.

"By the way, what's your name?"

"My name's Bright Side."

"Your name is a lie. Now come on, we need to get some supplies to fix this place up."

"Well alright but there's only one tiny problem..."

"What's that?" I raised a brow.

"We don't have any money. My brother has all our funds, and that was last seen under one of his chins."

"Don't worry about that, just leave it to me."





I came back to the castle, returned to my normal form and found a door on the second level with some fairly heavy panting coming from it. "Yeah this is probably it." I knocked on it and said, "Cadence, you in there?" I twitched.

"Yes! I mean--No wait, don't come in!"

"I need some money. What currency does the Crystal Kingdom use and where can I get a lot of it?"

"Uhh-" I heard a whisper through the door, "Not yet, he's still there!"

I rolled my eyes. "Well?"

"We use Crystal Gold, you should be able to get some downstairs in the repository. The one near the dungeon."

"I don't know where that is." I twitched again, this time my neck spinning around three hundred and sixty degrees. It hurt, but at the very least I knew I was immune to getting my neck snapped.

"Give me...half an hour. I'll take you there."

"Alright. Oh, by the way, Shining Armor are you in there?" I heard a gasp. "I thought as much." I turned around and walked back down the stairs, passing Sombra on the way.

"Variance, have you seen Shining Armor?" He asked, "A package arrived for him and I don't feel like signing for it." 

"He's bumpin' uglies with your daughter." I said nonchalantly and continued to the bottom of the stairway. I don't exactly know what happened, but the next thing I knew, there was a loud scream followed by an even louder explosion. It didn't matter though, Cadence came down and led me to the reserve for their crystal gold. Small, gem-like coins made of gold. It was interesting to say the least, I could see through them like a crystal, but it was clearly metal. It was light, but at the same time had enough weight to make you feel that it was there. "Sweet."

"Yeah. Sweet." Cadence said, with some clear irritation in her voice. I pulled a bag from behind my back and started shoveling Crystal Gold into it. Cadence tilted her head and said, "Where did you get the bag from?"

"I've spent too much time around Pinkie Pie." Is what I said as I continued to shovel money into the bag, but in all honesty, I had no idea. I literally just put my hoof behind my back and expected something to come back. It didn't take long until the bag was as big as Cadence, and I still wasn't sure if we had all the money we needed. My neck twitched again, snapping back like I'd just been in a car crash.

"Why do you need all this again?" 

I stopped shoveling and closed the bag. "The reason is quite simple," I jumped and shouted, "BOOM SHAKA-LAKA!" as I reached behind me, pulled out a smoke bomb in the form of a rubber duck and threw it down. Erupting it into a thick smoke screen. I ran out of the castle on my hind legs, bag over my head, and turned back into Pound Cake. I made it to The Sea of Flavor without anyone following. Somehow. The fact no one questioned or followed me made me wonder if all ponies from the empire were oblivious, or if I was just really lucky today. 

Bright Side looked at the bag with her jaw hanging and stammered out, "Who..how...Did you rob someone!?"

"A little, yeah. But also not really. Hard situation to explain and I would simply rather not." I replied, playing with a few of the crystals I pulled from the bag.

"You're taking the heat if we get caught for this." She said.

"We'll be fine. Don't worry your pretty little head." I patted her on the mane.

"You think I'm pretty?" she lit up with glee.

"Ha! Of course not!" I smiled

"Feh." she turned her head.

"Now, lets go get..." In my head I listed all the things we would need to fix up this place. "A lot of stuff..."

"Just 'a lot of stuff'? Nothing specific?"  

An ear of corn walked out of the kitchen with spider legs and crawled onto the ceiling and then borrowed inside it. Sounds of clicking and hissing radiated from the hole it left. "Flamethrowers. We will need flamethrowers. And a lot of them." 
> Who You Really Are- Part 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Faster!" I shouted, sitting atop the bag of crystal gold, pulled by Bright Side. "We gotta get to the market before dark, because that means I'd have spent the entire day with you. And how would I be able to sleep with that fact in my head?"

"You!" she grunted, dragging the bag through the dirt, "Are adding!"  she pulled again, "Unneeded weight!"

"You remember you're a unicorn, right?" I asked, smugly.

"I tried lifting you and the bag before, but for some reason it wouldn't budge!" she said, pulling again. I hopped off the bag and landed next to her, and helped pull it through the soft soil it was sinking into. "Thanks." she said, "Jerk." she whispered.

"No problem," I replied. As we reached the market I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of ponies in the area. It was like an ocean, the vendors were lined up side by side, selling various items and wears, with querying ponies crossing from one end to the other. Some negotiating their prices and others just buying things outright. They seemed to sell everything we could ever want, except pre-built flamethrowers from what I could see, but I was sure we could still make do. I picked my jaw off the floor and tried to ignore all the colorful items I could easily waste this money on.  "Where's the..." I looked at the list of items we were supposed to get, "Vegetable stands?"

"The one we go to is over there," Bright Side said, as she fell to the ground, pointing and panting heavily. It reminded me a dog I was saw sitting outside the castle. It bit me and I hated dogs ever since. "Go on without me!" she wheezed. I shrugged, grabbed the bag and continued down the market. I was reading the list of things we would need as I pulled, and then I came to a sudden stop. She'd ran in front of me and held out her hoof to my chest. "Why are you so strong?" she asked.

"What?" I replied.

"That bag is at least a ton, but you're pulling it like it's air!"

I rolled my eyes and laughed it off, "You're exaggerating." she grabbed my head and turned it towards the deep trench the bag made.

"I'm exaggerating, huh?"

I pulled her hooves off my head and said, "I don't remember buying a parrot."

"You didn't. It's just your bottomless stupidity echoing back at you." she replied.

"Bottomless stupidity, huh?" I looked down at the  list and tossed it over my shoulder, said, "Welp, I guess ya don't need someone like me to help you then." And turned around. 

Before I could take a step, she grabbed the list and ran in front of me going, "No, no, no! I'm sorry. Please, come on, you can't leave me like this." she held the list out for me.

I snatched it back and said, "I wasn't planning on it. I just wanted to see that little display of desperation." I grabbed the bag and continued to drag it along. Some of the crystal ponies gave us questioning looks, others went about their business and paid little attention when they saw me next to Bright Side. Bright Side kept staring at me the whole way to the vegetable stand, her eyes squinted, both brows raised and lips pursed. It was not a face I enjoyed hovering next to me. "What?" I asked.

"Seriously though, why are you so strong?" She asked.

"I eat right and work out."

"You lie too much"

"You have no idea..." I mumbled to myself.

"What?"

"Nothing. Look, I'll explain it when we fix up the place," I said, not actually expecting us to finish up the place and completely expecting us to get away with wasting taxpayer gold. "I promise!" I crossed my heart.

"Fine..." She said. We walked up to the vendor, a pink crystal stallion with neon green mane and tail, his eyes were a light blue while he sat under a dark umbrella to protect himself from the suns heat. The placement of his stand was weird though, he was in an area of toys and books, and statues. I wondered why would you sell vegetables here? I didn't know, but Bright Side gleamed when she came across him, a smile that genuinely made me jealous of how happy she was, "Hey Mr. Price. We need some fresh stuffs, whatcha got?" 

The stallion smiled as he pulled a bag from behind his stand. He said, "What happened to the vegetables I already sold you? Did you guys actually get some business?"

"No," she sighed, "My brother did some experimenting and then ate all the good stuff."

"Ah, sorry to hear that, but don't worry. I got you covered, the freshest, and best tasting vegies I could grow." he looked at me with a smile, "Whose the kid?"

"My coltfriend." she said, completely nonchalant. In fact, she seemed pretty confident in the statement.

"LIKE BUCK I AM!" I replied, as calmly as possible. Though her confidence didn't diminish.

"Ohh, quite the mouth on this one. You two make a good couple."  Price said as he took the produce Bright Side asked for and placed it in the bag. Cucumbers, potatoes, lettuce and other assorted vegetables were thrown in, and I didn't know what it was, but something about this pony was bothering me. Something was just off, and it felt like it had to do with the food. But what was it? I watched him carefully as he placed vegetable after vegetable in the bag. And then Bright Side asked for one of the tomatoes he carried, and when he pulled one from the batch, I realized what had been bugging me so much.

"Excuse me, sir." I said, "Can I see the bag for a moment?"

"Hmm? I haven't finished filling it yet, you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm sure." he gave the bag to me and I opened it, taking out the tomato I just saw. Bright Side trotted over and asked if something was wrong, I replied, "Yeah, there is...how long have you been buying from this guy?"

"A few years?" she said.

"Is there a problem, sir?" Price asked.

I turned to him with an irritated glare and took a bite out of the tomato. I spat it out as soon as it touched my pallet. "Blech! UGH! Yeah, why are you trying to con us into buying bad fruit? Also, why are you selling tomatoes, a fruit, in a vegetable stand?!"

"What?" His head pulled back and jetted forward when he shouted, "My fruit is the freshest there's ever been! I just picked it off the vine not more than twenty minutes ago! How dare you!"

"Did you now?" I questioned.

"Yes, I did!"

"Then it's clear to me that we should buy from someone else." I put the tomato back in the bag and began to walk away. 

Bright side grabbed me by the leg and said, "What are you doing? Mr. Price has always sold us our stuff, he's always been good to us. Don't ruin the few relationships my family has. He-"

"He's selling you bad food." I grabbed the bag and picked up the tomato and showed it to her. "You see this?"

"Yeah, it's just a normal-"

"This tomato isn't ripe. This isn't an Heirloom Tomato, it's perfectly rounded, it lacks unusual blemishes and it's size is far too similar to all the others in the batch. So we can assume it to be a hybrid tomato, which means it's supposed to be a dark red, but it's actually a light red, much closer to pink. Not to mention you can still see a hint of green near the spot where the Kaelik used to be. See?" I showed her the top of the tomato. 

She leaned in and squinted her eyes and said, "Huh...you're right..."

"Oh come on!" Price said, "So I picked it a little early, it's still good!"

I glared at him and said "Touch it." to Bright Side. She put her hoof on the tomato and I continued, "How does it feel?"

"A little cold but...wait, it's cold!"

"Strange isn't it? On such a day where the vendor needs an umbrella to keep himself cool, the tomato he picked less than thirty minutes ago feels frigid? I wonder why that is..."

"Why-you-I have never been so insulted in my life!" Price said, turning his head.

"A tomato's flavor is very sensitive to temperature, you know. Once a fresh one is taken off the vine they're supposed to be placed in room temperature to keep it from being tainted. This is why tomatoes are often held in storage rooms with other various fruits and vegetables without being refrigerated or even washed. This one is cold, really cold. I'd say about seven degrees, Celsius.  When you pick an unripe tomato, you can store it in the cold to keep it from ripening as quickly as it should, but the lowest it should go is around thirteen degrees Celsius. Meaning you're trying pretty hard to keep this from getting ripe. So the question becomes, 'why stop the fruit from becoming ripe'? I mean, you're selling vegetables, and fruit, apparently, so it would make sense for you to want them ripe, right? And the answer is simple. You're lazy and greedy."

"What!?" Price shouted.

I turned my head to Bright Side and said, "Not every tomato matures at the same rate, some mature faster, and others are slower. By throwing the ones he could easily pass off as mature into a cold room, he keeps the differences minimal. It'd be easy to tell a dark red tomato from a pink one if they were side by side, but if they were all the same color, without any reference of what an actually ripe tomato would look like, you'd assume they were all ripe and perfected based on the word of the vendor alone. This way he keeps the right to say it's all 'fresh' and he gets more profit from it. In fact, he could also use this method to keep the fruit for days on end. Whatever doesn't sell today just gets tossed back into the cold room and used the next day and so on and so forth, the only negative to the tomato is that it's flavor suffers drastically. But you wouldn't normally taste it before you bought it, and you might chalk it up to it simply being a your bad luck getting bad tomato. This trick would be hard to pull with Heirloom tomatoes, which take consistent effort and far more time grow. Hybrid tomatoes are pretty resilient and can even grow under utterly terrible conditions, and they're produced in far greater quantities, so they're the easier option if you wanted to try something like this."

Price slammed his hooves down on the counter, "You little trite, I'll have you know that I've always sold my stuff like this! Not a single pony has ever complained! In fact, I sell to a ton of chefs, and they all love what I sell! Do you know why? BECAUSE IT'S FRESH!"

"Name five, and please be sure that I will check them." I challenged.

"Well...there's...uhh..." beads of sweat dripped from his head and he started breaking eye contact. "I don't have to answer to you, you're just a kid!"

"There's another tell of a ripe tomato that I missed. A ripe tomato is soft, but an unripe one is hard. Rock hard, actually. It takes considerably more force to crush an unripe tomato than a ripe one." I tossed it to him and said, "Crush it." he swallowed his spit and tried to crush it, I could see him strain for a brief moment before the tomato was turned into mush, something that wouldn't have happened if it were actually ripe. "I rest my case."

"Wait, he always told us that it was hard because it was just juicy!" Bright Side said, outraged. She snarled at him, and for just a moment, I thought I heard a dog growl through her voice.

"Really now?" I turned my head back to him. "I would assume you'd know this stuff if you're selling it, but maybe that's not the case. So either you don't know anything about what you're selling and all of this is just extremely coincidental, which means buying from you is a gamble in it's own right, or you're purposely trying to sell bad fruits and vegetables because you can get them out quicker, and earn faster, than if you waited. After all an unripe tomato can take up to five weeks to ripen properly, which means a slower cash stream, and you don't want that, do you? I can only imagine how well you treat the rest of your produce." I emptied the bag and looked to Bright side, "Let's go find somewhere else to buy our stuff. This time, let me pick." 

"Right." She stuck her tongue out at Price and joined me in walking away with the bag of crystal gold.

"You little brats!" Price shouted, "YOU'RE BANNED FROM MY STAND FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY! YOU HEAR ME!? I WON'T LET MY NAME BE BESMIRCHED BY A COUPLE OF-" we didn't have to say anything, because another pony told him to shut up for us. It was a double win because not only did I get to humiliate him, he didn't make us pay for the fruit we ruined.





We made our way to the center of produce part of the market, where we inspected every fruit and vegetable vendor we came across. "What about that one?" Bright Side asked, pointing to a vegetable cart with bruised vegetables.

"No." I replied, continuing on.

"What about that one?" She pointed to another one, that had moldy fruits 'hidden' behind the 'fresher' fruits.

"No."

"How about tha-"

I stopped and said, "We agreed that I would be the one to pick the stand, didn't we?"

"Yes..." She dropped her head. After we went back to looking she took the time to bother me again. "So, how did you know all that stuff about tomatoes and what he was doing with them?"

"Hmm? I spent some time around our chefs, at home. So I managed to picked up a few things here and there. With that in mind, it was just a simple matter of thinking about it."

"Your chefs? Hold on a moment!" she grabbed my tail.

"Hey! No grabbing, remember?" I pulled it back.

"I just realized I don't know thing one about you. Who are you?"

I was partially ignoring her as my eyes scanned the area for vendors, "You don't know thing one about me because you borderline kidnapped me."

"Name."

"Hmm...that one might work." I said, focusing on a vendor far down to the right and was now intentionally ignoring her. The fruits and vegetables he was selling looked good, much better than the other vendors, at least from afar.

"NAME!" she shouted into my ear, sending shockwaves of utter surprise through my spine.

"AHH! SHIFTING SANDS!" I held my ears. "Geez, you didn't have to try to make me deaf!"

"Shifting Sands? That name is pretty unusual for a pegasus...where are you from?"

"Uhh..." I looked for an excuse not to answer. I refocused on the vendor from before, the one far away and to the right, and said, "Let's try that one!" I grabbed the bag and ran over to the vendor as fast as I could. Although, that may have been too fast, I was basically running on air, I was losing control of the magic running through my body due to my worry, and Bright Side was keeping a close eye on me. I tried to keep it in check while I fluttered my wings to make it look less suspicious, but I wasn't sure if it worked. She followed me with her lips pursed again and I wanted to make sure we stayed off the topic of my true identity, so I eagerly hopped onto the stand and said, "Hi, Mr. and or Mrs. vendor pony, we would like to see your produce!" 

Bright Slowly rose up next to me, her eyes completely locked on and said, "Yeah...what he said."

"Hold on a moment," the vendor said, their voice echoing from a hole in the ground, "I'll be right with you!"

I cleared my throat and kept a smile on my face to avoid any more suspicion from Bright Side, but I don't think I was doing very well. She only drew closer as time went on and my smile only got bigger and more suspicious. "Please hurry, sir! Not to rush you or anything." I said.

"Right, right." The vendor came out of the hole, covered in dirt. The smile quickly ran from my face as I saw that it wasn't a pony doing the selling, it was a gryphon. As he shook the dirt from his feathers, the dark gold color of his wings became more pronounced over his light brown body. The white feathers on his head were streaked back, and he kept a sense of confidence in his posture. "So whats the...the..." he started sniffing.

I jumped down and said, "I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem like you have anything we need." I picked up bright side and started walking away on my hind legs, "Sorry to have taken your time!"

"Hold it right there!" The gryphon shouted. He picked up our bag of crystal gold and said, "You forgot this."

"Right...we did, didn't we?" I dropped Bright Side and said, "You should go get that."

"Me? Why don't you go and get it? You're the one who can move it like it's nothing." She replied.

"Yeah...Yeah that is true." I cleared my throat again and carefully trotted back to him. I reached out for the bag and, as I feared, he grabbed my arm. "Uhhh, is something the matter?" I smiled.

He leaned in and whispered, "That depends on you. Why is there a changeling in the Empire?"

It felt like my heart stopped, but I had to keep my cool. Maybe if he was stupid, I could trick him into thinking he was wrong. "What? Changeling? Pshhh! I'm not a changeling, I'm a pegasus."

"I'm not an idiot, you know. I can smell you, and the scent of a changeling is unmistakable."

"Please don't eat me!" I whimpered.

"Hold on...that necklace." he grabbed it, "Where did you get this?"

"It was sent to me. Why?" I pulled back a bit.

"Who sent it to you?"

"I-I don't know!"

"Who sent this necklace to you." he gripped tighter on my arm.

"A mare! A mare named Twilight, she sent it to me!"

he let my arm go and said, "If my suspicions are right..." he pulled on the necklace and tried to take it off, but just as I had failed before, now he was too. "Just as I thought..."

"What?" 

"Get in the hole."

"Uhh...I think I'll need an adult before we go any further."

"Get in the hole or I expose you." He said in a stoic voice.

"Ok, I'm going." I turned around to Bright Side, who was looking off in the opposite direction at other vendors and shouted to her, "Hey, Bright Side, don't go anywhere. I'll be right back, ok?"

She waved her hoof going, "Yeah, yeah."

I sighed and climbed over to the other side of the counter and jumped down the hole, and fell. Apparently he'd been digging straight down after a small strip of diagonal land. When I crashed into the ground, I landed in front of a large, diamond wall. It radiated a white light that kept the room lit.  The gryphon came diving out of the hole before spreading his wings, creating a massive gust of wind to stop his decent. After pulling myself from the crater I said, "Ok, I'm down here. Now what?"

"Just stand next to the wall and look at it."

"Uhh, ok..." I timidly walked in front of the wall and stared into it. And stared. And Stared. And stared. And- "There is nothing happening!"  I turned around, only to be proven wrong.  Instead of the gryphon behind me, I turned around to see a changeling queen. She was tall, and had a long mane of brilliant gold, but it was losing all it's color and life. Becoming nothing more than a pale silk color. Her horn was broken in half and her eyes were closed tight, I had to assume something had blinded her, as blood had clearly streamed from them. She was facing something, something just beyond me. I turned back around to see an orange crystal holding something...big. About the same size as the crystal dragon. Whatever it was, I couldn't see it. The crystal was thick, very thick. It must have gone on for miles, yet whatever was in there didn't care. It's voice tore through the land and caused the cave it was in to quake and collapse.

"RELEASE ME!" It shouted, "I GAVE YOU LIFE!" The changeling shook her head, an adamant look on her face as she laid down,  waiting for the falling rocks to crush her. "My spirit will return! I will be reborn! And when I am--"

"Sure you will." she said.

"When I return, I will rule your kind. I'll bring them to an age of suffering beyond anything they've ever known. I will starve their children, incur insufferable persecution, I will drag your world into chaos!"

"You babble, Sko'lZhen Gaaell. Adjust to your surroundings, we'll be here for a long time."

"I will not let you win. I WILL NEVER LET YOU WIN!" The crystal  began to shine as the monster screamed out, "STORM THE BARRIER HELD IN VAIN AND BREAK THE LOCKS ON GRIEVOUS CHAINS!"

The changeling queen raised her head, "No...No you wouldn't dare!" 

"PROTECT MY SOUL FROM PURE DIVINE AND CAST INTO THE SEA OF TIME!"

"You're really going to do it, aren't you? Do you have no shame? No pride?!"

"DESTROY THE CYCLE AS IT MAY FOR MIND DESTROYED AND BODY DECAYED!"

The queen scrambled to her hooves and charged towards the crystal, and stabbed what little was left of her horn into it. "If this is what it takes to stop you, then I'll do it!" the crystal cracked. In those cracks ran an ocean blue stream of magic. It traveled on an intent path to surround the crystal. "Go on, finish the spell! I dare you!"

"RETURN MY LIFE UPON THESE LANDS TO CROSS THE WORLD-"

The queen sighed, "This is gonna be a long eternity..."

"AS SHIFTING SANDS!"

"What...WHAT WAS THAT!?"

The crystal shattered, a force of magic erupted from the ground blasting a hole straight through to the sky. All that was left from the moment was a single crystal necklace, formed from the destroyed stone, magic, and the crystal the beast was trapped in. After that the diamond wall returned to normal, and I was just sitting in front of it, mouth agape. The gryphon walked up to me and said, "This wall, if my theory is correct, came from a dragon that was thought to be only myth, with size inconceivable and scales the of silver. It's said that his knowledge is so vast that it couldn't even be contained in a single body, parts of what he knows are scattered throughout the world. Some say they're placed by him for specific reasons, others aren't so sure. Anyway, I brought you down here for two reasons," He pointed to my necklace, "That, and who you are, changeling."

"No! WAIT!" I held up my hooves. "Look, dude. I don't know what you're about to tell me, but I got a pretty good hint from what I saw. Just let me go peacefully and we can sum this up never, eh? I have a restaurant to help fix up, I can't-"

"Let you go? Do you even realize who that was? Who you are-? WHAT you are?"

I plugged my ears, "LALALALALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"Sko'lZhen Gaaell was-"

"LALALALA!"

"He was--"

"LAAAAAA!"

"FINE! Go! I don't have time for someone who doesn't care about their own life!"

I pulled my hooves from my ears and said, "That's good to hear. Now, do you sell any fresh fruits or vegetables?"

He sighed and smacked his claw into his face.  "Yeah, they're up top, behind the counter. You got to me before I managed to get set up." He flew back up through the hole. I simply walked up the wall until I got outside the hole. It took a bit longer but the time it took allowed me to try and forget everything I'd just saw. When I got back out he was throwing vegetables and fruits in a bag, I didn't want to spend the time checking to confirm they were good. If something was wrong I could simply ask Celestia to send some over. It'd take longer than normal, meaning I'd have more time to deal with Bright Side, and that was not an option I would ever take by choice.

I took the bag, got onto the counter, gave him the money he asked for and hopped off with them both. Looking back at the stand, it seemed a bit barren there wasn't a single fruit of vegetable around it. Like you'd never expect it to sell anything. "Hey, why'd you put all your fruit back? It all looked pretty good before, isn't that bad for business?

"Didn't you hear me? I wasn't open yet, so I didn't have them out. What you saw was likely because-"

I turned my head and said, "No wait, nevermind! Shut up, we're done here. Come on Bright Side." She trotted up to me from behind, shaking. "Is something wrong?" I asked as we walked away.

"No, nothing!" She said, but without moving her mouth, she somehow managed to say, "You're a changeling! What am I supposed to do?! This is terrible!"

"Come again?"

"Hmm? I didn't say anything, let's just get whatever is next on the list!"

"You went down in that hole, didn't you?"

"What?" She stepped back, "I-I don't know what you're talking about!" again, without her mouth moving, she said, "No! No! No! If he figures out I know he's a changeling, he's gonna hurt me!"

"What? But you-"

"Next we have to get....cleaners. I know which side of the market that's on,  let's go!" she galloped away. I looked back at the gryphon and he gave me a sleezy smile, like he knew this wasn't over. And, unfortunately, he was right.
> Who You Really Are- Part 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Bright Side, what did you hear?" I asked. 

"Nothing! I didn't hear anything, I don't know what you're talking about!" She replied.

"Is that why you're holding a chair between us?" I replied. 
She looked at the chair and dropped it onto the grass and said, "Nooo, I was holding it there because I was...looking for...uh...an..."

"Excuse?"

"Yeah! That's-! Not what I was look for at all. Heheh."

While Bright Side tried to maintain a calm and collected expression, she was displaying anything but. After only a few seconds of me pressing her on what she knew, she started running. And running. And running. I don't know how long I chased after her, it must have been at least an hour before she settled down. At least as much as she could before summoning a chair to hold between us. But she knew, it was obvious she knew. And honestly, that was terrifying. I wasn't sure if she could see the sweat coming through my transformation, but it was there. My heart felt as though it was trying to stave off a knife. I didn't want to hear any more insults, I didn't want Cadence and Shining Armor to deal with a problem I'd made. Sombra could, though. I didn't really care what he did. I took a deep sigh and with a heavy heart I said, "You know, don't you?"

"Know? Know what? I don't know anything, haven't I said that enough times? Heheh!" she said, her facade even more obvious than before.

"You know I'm a changeling, don't you?"

"What? You? No way!"

"It's fine, you can stop acting. But, do you see how you reacted? Do you see how scared you are of me? That's the whole reason I hid myself in the first place, because everywhere I go everypony acts like I'm going to hurt them. Or what happened years ago was my fault. Some ponies have even tried to take my life. I never did anything to anypony, yet I'm the one always on the defensive. That's just...it's just not fair."

"So...you changed yourself, to fit in?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to see what it was like to live as another pony, to live as a pony."

Bright Side took a step towards me and then stepped back, bringing up the chair with her magic in defense. "How do I know this isn't a trick? That you're not going to hurt me as soon as I get close."

I shook my head and said, "It doesn't matter anymore. You won't see me again, I'll just sit inside the castle and stay there until I can go home." I gave her a false smile.

"The castle? Why would you-"

"Don't worry about it, just let it go. I'm sorry for lying to you, and I wish you the best with your restaurant." I walked away. I thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn't. Instead of just leaving me to sulk and marinade in my own pity, she followed me. She didn't say a word to me and neither I to her, but she was there.

However, once I'd made it back to the castle, she couldn't help herself in saying "YOU'RE STAYING WITH THE ROYAL FAMILY!?"

"Huh?" I said, not paying much mind outside of  coming up things I could in my room, "Oh, yeah. Celestia is my mother and something was going on so she wanted me to stay here for a while."

"Wait, Celestia? You mean you're that Canterlot changeling everyone is always talking about? Shifting Sands?"

"You-You know about me?"

"Duh! Everyone in The Empire has heard about you. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the world knew by now. We thought you were a myth though, some crazy story or rumor that was just being thrown around. I never thought you'd actually exist."

"Well I do." I smiled. "Would you like to come inside?" 

I opened the crystal doors, not expecting anything more than a polite decline. Instead, I was met with a rushing wind and the sound of screams. "WHERE IS HE!" Shouted a voice. 

"I don't know what you're talking about, how many times do I have to tell you!" Cadence screamed, blasting back a black mass out of the doors. The mass turned into a thick shadow and faded away like smoke. The beam struck the dirt where it was and encased it entirely in crystal.

Before leaving it said, "This isn't over...."

Cadence ran out the doors to fire another bolt at it, but it was completely gone at just the last second. "Dang!" She turned around and looked down at us and said, "Oh, hello. Can I help you two?"

"Cadence it's me, Shifting Sands." I said.

She let out a breath of relief and said, "Thank goodness. Shifting Sands, I'm sorry but you have to go. No, we all have to go and now."

"What? Why?" Bright Side asked.

"Don't worry about it, you're going to be fine." Cadence said, a gentle tone in her voice.

"Uh, no duh. The question was because you're trying to take my coltfriend away from me." She grabbed me by the tail and pulled me close to her.

"Are you still on that!?" I replied.

"You never denied it." She said with a tone of absolute pride and confidence.

"I SAID LIKE BUCK I AM!"

"Exactly, you said you are."

"I-Wait! No, that's not what that means!"

"Look, We don't have time for this!" Cadence said. "Shifting Sands, go get your stuff. We're heading to the train station."

"Cadence, at least tell me something about what happened!" I asked. 

"There was a changeling here, a queen. It started out so weak but as we fought it only got stronger. Shining Armor got injured pretty badly, but he'll be alright.  My dad is nowhere to be seen and that thing was looking for you. We have to go, now!" And I don't know how she did it, but she also said, "If Chrysalis really has any relation to this situation then we're all in danger. I have to keep you safe, just listen to me!" Somehow, without moving her mouth.

After hearing that, I nodded and ran inside to get my things. Bright Side came with me, for some reason.

The inside of the castle was a mess, the walls blown through and shattered, unconscious guard ponies lying everywhere. Their armor looked to be melted into them, it had to be painful, even I couldn't stop myself from cringing when I saw it. And then there was the black crystals growing out of the walls, it felt like they were trying to take life from everything around them.

I ran into my room, grabbed my stuff and ran back out. It didn't take more than a few minutes, but something was off. Something inside me kept saying that I should be more on guard in the present moment. That whatever was going on wasn't actually over, it was just, waiting. We met with Shining Armor  at the front door, he had burns across his body and his horn looked like it'd been cracked nearly all the way through. It'd heal with enough time, but the power required to do that in general was horrible. 

Cadence and Shining Armor and I ran to the train station and took the soonest one they had. Bright Side, had joined in, teleporting a note to her brother at the hospital. I argued against her coming with us, but Cadence and Shining were both adamant that we didn't have enough time for that. So she came with us. I hadn't even spent two days in The Empire, yet I was already on the run from something. Could it have been one of Chrysalis' sisters? Had they found me? If so, how? I didn't know what to think. I asked if I could write a letter to my mother and Shining said it was a bad idea since we were trying to keep low. Any magic emitted by either of them, and myself, could blow our location.

I sighed and said, "Way to go, Shifting. You've already messed things up."

Bright Side struck me on the back, I think she left a mark, and said. "Hey, no more pity! Every time I see you doubt yourself, I'll slap you so hard that- That it'll hurt really bad!"

"Please don't abuse me to make me feel better." I asked.

"Feel better and I won't have to abuse you." She smiled and threw a hoof around me. Though a little crazy, she was right. I did make a friend today, and that should always be a cause for celebration. I smiled back and gave her a hug. To which she responded by pushing me back and saying, "We're close, not that close."

"You're a strange filly. Call me your coltfriend but won't even let me hug you" 

"Yep." She smiled. Shining and Cadence held back some giggles but it was clear as day that they were enjoying the show.  "By the way, Shifting, don't hide yourself just to make friends, that kind of thing can really hurt you in the end. You're lucky you found me and that I don't really care."

"You're right, being myself is the best I can do. I just need to stay true to who I really am." 

I said that, but inside I had to wonder who that really was.  Inside I was feeling ashamed of myself, they had no idea what was going on, but in the end it was because of me they were uprooted so quickly. Shining Armor was so badly hurt, and though she kept a smile on her face, Cadence was worried. Worried a lot. I thought maybe it would just be better of I leaped out that train then and there and just ended it, but I couldn't. I was too scared.

We spent the rest of the day and the night on the train, and awoke first thing in the morning to get used to our new hiding spot. Ponyville. I hoped, I prayed, for the sake of all that was good that nothing bad would happen in Ponyville, that no one would get hurt and everything would stay the warm and happy place it was supposed to be. But I knew that wouldn't be the case, I knew that whatever was happening that lead to this, would only continue. 

Two of my seven days had been wasted, and I remember on that day, with all the clarity of my heart, thinking one thing. One thing that would forever bind itself to my soul and personify all of my hopes, dreams and fears. One thing. One small sentence.

I hope I'm strong enough.