Being discriminated for trying to fit in is one of the weaknesses of almost all worlds. My name is T and this is my story of a test involving a changeling trying to fit in a world where his kind does not belong. I'll try to explain why I'm here in the first place though before we start that.
I have been sent here from earth after the new age when me and my colleagues united the world to one nation. It started long ago when humanity was first starting out in around Alexander the Greats conquest of the world. Me and a multiple of others were approached by god telling us about how we had to help the fourth god save the world from itself. He said he would be created when the 19 goes to 2000. We were confused at first how we were supposed to live that long but then he taught us how to fully use our mind. We lived with the same mind but yet different bodies studying the human race for a few millenniums until the fourth god's first form was born. He was too powerful to remain in the same body and was sent to a world created for him. A place between Heaven and Hell or the Nieth. We still have not named it but there he sat growing wiser than us in only a few short years. During this period of time a new mind was formed to take place of the body. When the body reached 12 we took it back and gave the new mind a reward in the form of a newborn body in Africa and a place for him to go when he dies.
We spent the next decade making sure the body did not die then when the time was right we made our movement called The New Age. To unite humanity and put it as one nation. A nation where everyone was equal and there were no races but only the human race of earth. After we finally did that we finally had no purpose.
My colleagues and I thought we would get a break after all that work but we still had even more work to do. The fourth god had been in contact with 'someone' and had agreed to send us to different dimension's where there were world problems. Before we could ever ask who that someone was he always sent us away.
Now we were here in Equestria ruled by two god like beings who can control the planets rotation. To a normal person or pony this land was peaceful and friendly but if you looked closer you could see many problems with race and role discrimination.
The most noticeable one was that of the changelings. They were all seen as the same, horrible bug ponies who would only impersonate and steal your love while mindlessly following their one and only queen. Queen Chrysalis.
They did not have a queen, they had 'queens'. Each queen ruled over a different swarm located in multiple hives all over Equestria. Some were hiding for survival while others hid to capture and enslave their food source. Such was the intention of the recent Canterlot invasion, to enslave all of Equestria while the more powerful princess had no power. Others who are not part of a hive and not part of a swarm live among the ponies hiding their identities each day with worries of execution or banishment if found out. These were called free-lings and they only wanted to live with the ponies while being treated equally.
This brings me to the subject of this story. Leger End, a changeling who brought our attention to the free-lings. His actions inspired and uprising and revolution against the changeling queens that had the same intentions as Chrysalis. He was brought to our attention when we intercepted a letter from a few unsettled guards to the Princess. They were unsettled more then usual and spread rumors of changelings in the city of Manehatten. The cause of this UN-settlement was that of a witness claiming to see a changeling retreating to an apartment through an alleyway. The word got rapidly passed around until it reached the guard. They had no idea what to do as the commander of the area was missing so they contacted the princess with the help of a pony risen teenage dragon.
We investigated before sending the letter on it's way and found Leger. He was a Free-ling struggling to survive with a full pony city against him. We sent the letter to Princess Celestia after we confirmed that the changeling was indeed friendly and planned a test. As expected the Princess sent the order to investigate and capture any changelings if found. She also wished best luck in finding Commander Area.
Thus began the test.
While the guards were making their way to the last apartment complex said Leger was in the middle of returning to his apartment.
After running for so long he had finally made a life here in lower Manehatten. He was lucky to say the least that the rent was so low. He had spent all of his time searching for the right place to stay and he found the perfect one. He came here one day rented an apartment and soon the day after found a job. Now today he bought groceries and was walking home when a storm hit and he spent a long time running to his complex.
Now here he was on the third floor of an apartment complex. As he walked down the hall leading to his home he took a while to glance at him self in the windows reflection as the rain pelted against the window. His new form was that of a earth pony with a pale green coat and black mane. He had his changeling green eyes and his form was more slender then the other male earth ponies while his cutie mark was a blueprint, suiting for an architect job. As he walked down the hallway only lit by the light coming from outside he thought about how complicated it was to create a new pony form. No one new him and he had no connections with others as he just recently created it. He was hungry. Very hungry but he couldn't just waltz up to someone and become friends in a unfriendly city like this. Of course he planned to move to perhaps the new settlement Appaloosa or Ponyville.
"Hello there Leger." somepony said. Leger spun around as swift as a fox and saw an unfamiliar pony. He had a white coat and wore a suit. He could not see a mane as where it was meant to be was a top hat. The odd pony's coat was an unnatural pure for a regular white coat in lower Manehatten. He looked rich, but what would he be doing here? How did he know his name? A rich pony would not even acknowledge him or know him. How would this pony know who he was when he just recently made this new form unless...
He was a changeling
With that Leger cast the revealing spell from a sudden black horn riddled with holes popping from Leger's forehead. It did nothing "That means it's true then. You're a changeling." The pony said. Leger gulped, he had just given the pony a reason to hate him and tell others. "Worry not. I wish to just warn you."
"A-about what?"
"You life is about to change." The pony responded, "Some things to help you are in the bin on the corner of the intersection of Slush Street. It will help you with your upcoming problem." The pony was probably mad.
"What are you talking about? Where did you hear that I was a changeling?"
"Not so loud. We are in public." Leger then decides to humor him
"OK we can talk in my apartment."
"If that's fine with you."
"It is right here" Leger walks up to a door assigned with the number 14. He unlocks it hastily then turns around to see the strange pony gone. He didn't make any noise of teleportation or swift movement.
"What?" was all Leger managed to mutter before he slipped into his apartment. He plopped down hurriedly on the cheap couch that came with the room. He had a long day and that was probably a hallucination from being to tired.
He laid there on the uncomfortable couch, the only thing he could use as a bed, until he finally started to drift into the darkness of his dreams.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
Probably the landlord again. Leger thought as he lazily walked to the door. He opened it to be met with a flash of light. Wut was the only thing he could think as his form fell away to reveal his changeling form.
"Don't move a muscle changeling! What did you do to the pony who lives here?" The now obvious guard ordered. Crap "I made this form myself!" was all Leger could say.
"Likely story." another guard replied, "We can't trust you to give the pony back so we're sending you to Canterlot to see the princess herself!"
Leger's mind was at war with himself, what if he could convince Celestia that he was good? No, she would never listen, run now! Make friends! Run! Get love! RUN!
Leger could take it no longer and he let out a loud battle cry as he charged past the two suprised guards out of his apartment, over a guard and dive bombed through a window. He only realized this was stupid as he started falling. Lucky for him he collided with another roof and did a roll and kept running atop the roofs. He ignored the glass as it stuck to his chitin. The guards were hesitant to jump but soon followed. Leger reached the end of the roof and without thinking he slid down the nearest drainpipe into an alleyway.
Leger tried to disguise as a form he had remembered but to no avail. He had run out of love energy. Wait. The top hat guy said something about this. It's a hunch but I'll head there. he thought then quickly ran through the alleyways avoiding guards at quick corners and twisting passages. He was tired out when he finally reached the corner.
Leger looked around for what the pony had said was a bin. What he saw was a trashcan with a small box atop it with hastily scribbled words saying "Bin". He quickly grabbed it and ignored the surprised faces of the nearby ponies as they saw the changeling. He then heard the guards as the armor they wore clanked with each step they took. He quickly made his way down a open sewer grate to slip away into the darkness.
What he hadn't expected was the witnessing ponies saying he was down there. He didn't have time to think before a guard jumped through the hole and launched a missing paralyzing spell. Leger quickly sprinted to a turn and was met with another long tunnel. He made his way through the sewers narrowly avoiding the guards with the same tactic as the alleyways. What he hadn't expected was to come to a dead end with a ladder. A trap? He had no time to dwell as he heard the guards gaining on him. He quickly climbed it to end up in the alleyways again. Then somepony pulled up the ladder and closed the grate. Leger turned around to find a cloaked pony. "Open the box Leger." The pony rasped.
"W-why?" Leger was just stumped that he had the luck to find this pony.
"I don't know, that pony in the top hat told me to tell you that." The pony said as he lifted his hood up to reveal the changeling under, thank the Queens he was one of him, "He also told me to help you. A safe place is this way."
Leger hesitantly followed the changeling to a window in which the changeling opened it to let Leger inside. Inside was a cellar that seemed to be abandoned. The window was far from the ground, about 10 meters, so he quickly jumped down to cause a large rattle of the remaining bottles of cider and wine.
Leger was not thinking of how badly his hoof hurt but of how he found another changeling. Was it from a swarm or was it a free-ling? Another changeling though trying to survive in the city was enough to convince Leger to trust him. Being in pony forms for so long made him entirely forget about all other abilities of the changelings except to change forms. This is a reason as to why he was so surprised to find the changeling walk down the wall into the cellar after he jumped down.
"Open the box now Leger." the changeling commanded
"Who are you?" Leger couldn't help but ask.
"I do not have a name as I have recently escaped Chrysalis's hive." Made sense.
Satisfied with the answer he opened the box to find a cloak and a strange mask. The cloak was a shade of dark grey and Leger couldn't help but think that the cloak went through a lot at how tattered and shredded it was. The mask was black with large eye holes and a breathing hole that seemed to be ventilated. It looked a lot like this.
He put them on and the changeling brought up a slightly cracked mirror. He took a moment to notice how his face was barely recognizable with only the green glow that came from his eyes to be the thing that shows him as a changeling. underneath where they were was a dozen tools and such that seemed to be customized to fit in the holes of his hoof. A note said that the mask transformed air into both oxygen and energy allowing him not to starve but not allowing him to use changeling spells and tricks. There was a bunch of instructions that said how to use the rest of the tools involving aiming a thing attached to his hoof and pulling a trigger with his other to fire off something while also telling him how to reload the contraption.
The other gadgets involved hooks with rope, traps and a sharp dagger. There was a lot of other things that were confusing but he would figure it out. There was a a final letter at the bottom after he put all the gadgets on various straps and holsters. The straps and holster held the cloak to his figure allowing him to easily move. The letter said this
Dear Leger
The new life for you is just beginning, to relieve yourself of the burden of discrimination you must kill five changeling impostors. They are hidden among the guard to send information to Queen Chrysalis and mislead the guard. If you kill them the guard will realize you are on their side and not attack you. The changelings are disguised as Commander Area, Sergeant Stick, Captain Light, Captain Lot and Captain Court. They have also brought along many other loyal changeling to hide among the guard. You will know what to do after you complete the task. Also I hid a few extra things in the mask that the ones who made it don't know about.
Your friend, The pony in the top hat.
Leger stood up, now fully geared in strange contraptions and gadgets, and closed the box. He started to think for a moment about how he was going to go about doing this and he came to a conclusion to ask the strange changeling now stood staring at him.
"Now what?" He asked.
"You look quite intimidating but at least no one will be able to tell who you are."
"Where are the targets?"
"He also gave me a bunch of maps and stuff for that as well." The changeling informed him as he walked over to a barrel and pulled out multiple maps.
"How is this supposed to help me?" Leger said stumped again for the second time that day.
"To find your way around. The targets are dressed up in a variety of fancy armor that would not protect them in the least." The changeling turned around and gave the rest of the maps to Leger, "Should be easy right?"
"Right the guards didn't give much of a chase."
"Before you go anything else?" Of course I have something else. This is the most important thing!
"Can I call you Cleebo?"