My Little Changeling: Friendship is Survivalby OdicHastingsChaptersPrologueCanterlot IntruderCanterlot Intruder IICanterlot Intruder IIICanterlot Intruder IVCanterlot Intruder VCanterlot Intruder VIProloguePrologue A hoof pressed into my side a few times causing me to awaken groggily. I let out a groan in response as I stirred, keeping my eyes shut. The hoof pushed in a little more forcibly. “Come on, it's time to wake up,” my mother stated. I thought we didn't have school today? I looked up at her slowly, blinking a few times. I glanced up at her cream colored face as I reeled the rest of my body up, stretching my limbs out as far as they would go before she motioned for me to follow her. “You don't have school today,” my mother said. “Yep,” I groaned. “That's because there's something you and your classmates have to do today,” she said anxiously. I didn't question what she was talking about, instead opting just to keep walking with her. As we stepped outside I was about to mention breakfast before she cut me off. “We'll grab something to eat after this, alright?” She smiled sweetly as she spoke, I honestly couldn't tell if she was worried about what we were about to do or not. I realized when we reached a large crowd of ponies that she was in fact, worried, that there was something wrong with someone else's child. A tent was set up ahead of the nervous crowd and the town's children were lined up in front of it. My mother gently pushed me forwards. “Don't worry about this, it should only take a few minutes and then we'll go eat.” I nodded in response as I stepped into the back of the line. The adult ponies chatter caused me to feel more nervous about what this could be than I had been previously. “I know my own child but it's scary to think that someone else's child might... You know?” A feminine voice responded, “Yeah, I hear you. Did you tell your kid what this was about?” The line moved forward, preventing me from being able to hear any more of their conversation. I had gotten close enough to the tent to see a flash of light coming from inside every time a pony entered it. It wasn't clear what was happening in there, but whichever pony had gone in would always walk back out completely fine, if not a little confused. I relaxed a bit, honestly I had thought that maybe this was something like when I had to get a shot. It was good to know there wasn't any indication that this was going to hurt. A hoof poked at my flank after a few moments of waiting. I looked back to see a filly I recognized from school standing in line behind me. What was her name? Resonance? Resound? Was it just Ruby? I hesitantly stated, “Ruby? … Right?” “Uh, no. Lyrical, remember?” she said. Evidently, I did not. She looked past me as a flash of light came from the tent again. “Do you know what this is about? Mom and dad said that they were testing me for something but wouldn't say what.” I shook my head in response. “Why will nopony tell me anything!” She groaned loudly. I thought about it for a few moments before responding. “Hey, all the ponies they're checking are about the same age as us. Maybe they do it yearly?” She shook her head. “That doesn't make any sense. I've never seen them do this before, and I've lived here my whole life.” A flash of light caught my eye, causing me to turn my head back towards the front of the line. We were right in front of the tent now. Whatever they were doing in there, it didn't take very long. I looked back towards her. “Well, we're about to go in, so I guess they'll tell us then.” She nodded at me. We were the last few ponies in the line, the parents surrounding the tent had dispersed. Quite a few other ponies hadn't, they looked very anxious, as if they were expecting something to happen. Most of them weren’t talking but I managed to just barely hear a couple near the front of the crowd before being ushered in. “It's definitely one of those few that are still waiting then, right? I mean they were sure it was one of the kids, twelve to fourteen?” I shuddered slightly. What are they checking for here? There were a few guards standing in the back of the tent, a mat sat in the center of the room. A blue unicorn motioned for me to sit before he approached me. There was a look in his eyes I couldn't quite read, almost like he was apprehensive. To my surprise, he spoke kindly and calmly. “Alright, this will only take a moment. It might daze you for a second but it won't hurt, I promise. Ready?” “...Yep.” My heart started beating a little faster. Somepony in line definitely has... Whatever they're checking for? There's only a couple of people in line behind me, so one in three chance? The unicorn stood in front of me as his horn gave off a white glow. It exploded out, blinding me. He was right about being dazed, and I don't just mean blinded. I fell forward immediately. What he did didn't hurt, I just couldn't seem to coordinate myself for a few moments. After a few moments it occurred to me that I couldn't hear anything either, my ears were ringing. Thankfully my sight and hearing slowly crept back into me as I regained my coordination. I was staring at a black leg as my sight returned to me, it had holes in it. ...Is that my leg? That's not right, my fur's cream colored. I tried to move my leg a little, the black leg responded. The holes in it didn't hurt at all but I couldn't help but find them a little disconcerting. I shakily raised back up onto my hooves, attempting to regain my composure. Something became apparent to me at that moment. My snout is black... My mane is blue... Every pony in here is staring in absolute shock... My breathing quickened immediately. The unicorn started to compose himself as he took a tentative step towards me. Go... Go, go, go, go go go gogogogo GO! I didn't know or care what this was. Fear surged through me as I took off out of the tent. A light wrapped around me before I made it outside, somehow slowing me down. I glanced back to see the blue unicorn's horn glowing. Fear washed through me once again when the guards posted in the room started to move. “Stay... Stay away from me!” I managed to choke out. My struggle against the light around me had little effect. I wasn't stopped in my tracks but moving proved difficult. After having made one last desperate struggle to move towards the door a sensation built up inside me and I became aware of my horn. Horn? ...I'm an earth pony not a unicorn. A green energy burst out from my horn causing the glow around me to dissipate. The guards and unicorn flinched backwards in response to my action. I didn't hesitate to bolt out of there. I was greeted by a shocked crowd, as well as the filly Lyrical. “Oh god, it was that little colt.” “Wasn't that Shining Star?” “Where's his mother?” “Cirriform isn't that things mother. Where's her real child?” “It replaced him, it knows where he is!” “What if they were swapped at birth?” The situation was too overwhelming for me to process anything they were saying. I couldn't deal with that right then. The guards had left an opening in their formation outside of the tent, I had a way out towards the nearby woods. Unlike the guards inside the tent, the ones outside were a bit more ready for me. They quickly formed a line and walked towards me, pushing me back towards the woodland. Is that what they wanted? For me to just leave? Doesn't make sense... That unicorn tried to stop me. There wasn't any time to think about it. I glanced at Lyrical for a moment, uncertain what I was searching for in her surprised expression. I ran. I ran as fast as I possibly could. I didn't dare look behind me as I neared the stretch of trees. All I have to do is get past those trees and I can lose those ponies. That's all I have to do. My legs were burning when I finally crossed the brush that marked the edge of the forest. I didn't stop moving for a second, I gritted my teeth and ignored the pain. I kept moving until I finally was ready to collapse from exhaustion. I leapt straight into some shrubbery in an attempt to hide myself. After I struggled within the bush for a few moments I successfully untangled myself from the plant. It took several minutes for me to stop panting from exhaustion. I didn't dare move an inch even though I was pretty certain I hadn't been followed. The silence sunk in while I waited. What now? I mulled over that for a long time. What was there to do? I examined my new legs for a few moments. What am I? I crawled out from under the shrub to get a better look at myself. My appearance was the same as it had been back in the tent, Black fur, Blue mane, a horn, and wings... I hadn't noticed the wings previously. They didn't look like Pegasi wings. They weren't feathery, they kind of looked like they belonged on an insect. That thought made me uncomfortable. I settled down in the grass and rested my head on my hooves. Maybe I could go back. Mom could help me with... Whatever this is. Would those guard ponies just stop me if I tried though? I was hungry, I hadn't eaten breakfast. All that running didn't exactly help. I thought about where my mom and I would have gone afterwords. There was a new place that served breakfast foods all day, that would have been pretty good. Something in my mind seemed to click. A realization. Those new features I had gained suddenly had a new sense of familiarity to them. I'm certain I had never seen something like myself in person but it all just sounded too familiar. Something from school... What was it? An understanding slowly settled into my mind. It didn't come to me all at once, instead opting to reveal itself just a little bit at a time. I came to know what I was. Changeling. The word drifted around in my mind for a while. I understood what that was. I understood the implications of what being one meant but I refused to let myself think about it for as long as I could. The full impact of my realization couldn't be held back for long though. I wasn't a pony. I wasn't my parent's child. I didn't have any parents. Would it matter to them? I wanted to believe that I could just walk back into my home and be welcomed. Is that really so unbelievable? They had raised me, it didn't seem so implausible that this wouldn't matter, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was just pretending, that I was trying to make the problem disappear by rationalizing it. I had to just take this one step at a time. First things first, I was a changeling. Changeling have powers, I had already used some sort of magic back inside the tent. I knew I was supposed to be able to shape shift and I was pretty sure I could fly. I looked my wings over for a few moments, they were smaller than what I typically saw on Pegasi. Can I really fly with these? It seemed like it was worth a shot. I attempted to simply move them around at first, however they wouldn't budge at all. It felt more like I had no idea how to actually move my wings then that they were somehow stuck. A few minutes of effort resulted in my wings finally moving around a little, I had no intention of trying to fly until I could move them more easily though. I didn't even know where to start when it came to using magic. I had been, well pretending to be, an earth pony. They didn't teach magic in the standard classes, unicorns were given specialized classes. Then again, unicorns were supposed to be able to use simple magic shortly after they were born, so it couldn't be that hard to do. I scrounged around for a stick to levitate. A decently sized one lay next to a tree not ten feet away. I sort of just... Stared at it for a few moments. The stick did not respond. Some kind of sensation had built up inside me back in the tent. I tried to somehow invoke that feeling, causing me to briefly feel a twinge of... Something. I took a deep breath and tried again. A light gathered around my horn, I wasn't sure how to direct it though. I just followed my instincts, hoping something would happen. The light around my horn swirled around me in an instant before vanishing. It didn't seem to have any effect until I looked at myself. My fur had turned back into its former cream color, my horn and wings were gone as well. It hadn't been what I was going for but it worked pretty well. Shape shifting seemed more useful than levitation anyways. There wasn't any reason for me to turn back to my true form, I didn't really want to anyways. Now that I had acclimated a little bit to my new abilities I had to make a move. It didn't seem like I could go home. I could show up like this, except everyone knows what I am. I could also try to change my features to look like a different pony. It didn't seem like there was any point to the latter option, I couldn't just start a new life out of nowhere. A new pony coming in to town would be suspicious anyways. They'd probably just check me again. How did they even know to check? I didn't even know what I was. I couldn't really keep denying it. There's no going back there, not right now anyways. I have no choice but to go somewhere else, those ponies won't stay there forever. Eventually I'll go back and reunite with my family and everything will go back to normal. Just gotta stick this out... Canterlot Intruder--Canterlot Intruder-- --I-- My stomach had been feeling empty but I was holding up surprisingly well considering I had been walking for a couple of hours and hadn't eaten all day. It was more than just feeling well though, there was an energy behind it, like I was gaining strength from something. I just hope this lasts. Changelings supposedly required love instead of food to survive but I had always been able to feel real hunger, I was feeling that right now. The thought was disconcerting though. what happens when a changeling isn't receiving any? I still hadn't exited the woods despite how long I had been walking for. I made a point of heading towards the first sign of civilization I saw. Which, after the first few hours of walking, ended up being structures jutting out from the side of a mountain. They were white towers capped with golden spires, surrounded by a large city. I didn't need long to deduce that it was Canterlot, I may never have been there but the place was extremely iconic. Maybe this won't be so bad, I hear this city is great. Unfortunately, I had seriously underestimated the sheer size of Canterlot's castle. I had already been walking for hours and I had to go for a few more before I finally reached the freaking city. My legs had never been so sore in all my life. It was easier when I reached an actual paved road that led into the city. I hesitated to approach the front gate, afraid that any guards posted there would somehow know what I was. The notion that they could just know something like that was ridiculous but I still had to build up a bit of nerve to walk through it. Just act natural and they won't notice a thing... I tried to take a deep breath which immediately hitched in my throat. I could not have been walking more stiffly while going by those guards. Not breathing? Check. Walking stiff and unnatural-like? Check. Yep, I walked through the front gate just like normal ponies do. I should get an award for such quality acting. Evidently those guards somehow didn't notice me or just didn't care. I'm not sure which explanation for their lack of action I found more disconcerting. I acted far more casually once I was inside the city. I had to admit, what I had been told about Canterlot was true, this city was amazing. I had lived in a fairly small town and this place was far more beautiful and absolutely massive. Not to mention crowded and noisy, I wasn't sure how I felt about that part. So... I'm here. And once again I have to ask myself, what now? I could kick myself for my complete inability to plan ahead despite having been given hours with nothing to do but think. Canterlot wasn't a city I was familiar with, which made coming up with a good plan difficult. In truth, I had no inkling of what I should do. I had no place to stay, no money, it wasn't a good situation to find myself in. I opted to wander around for a while, hoping a solution would jump out at me. Which it did. “That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!” A pony shouted. A colt shoved another white colt towards the ground, causing two other young ponies to approach in response. A cursory examination of the situation told me that the pony who had been shoved down was about to be attacked by all three. A fight was definitely about to break out in the middle of the street and I realized destiny had just handed me a golden opportunity. I was alone in this city and I needed a friend if I was going to get by. Looks like fate just gave me three. All I had to do was help those three ponies beat that one up and I would be set. I didn't have much time, I needed to jump in quickly and show how tough I could be. I charged right on in prepared to beat down on that poor colt and attain a glorious new friendship with a foundation built on violence. I stopped by his side, raising my hoof up to stomp down on his face. ...And I hesitated to go through with it. ...Which caused him to think I was offering to help him. ...Which caused him to immediately spring to his feet and shout at the other ponies. “Hah! Let's see how tough you are when it isn't three on one!” Whoops... I was hungry, I was tired, It was a two on three fight, these were the excuses I would make for the rest of my days about why I absolutely got beaten down. The pony who initiated the violence continued to attack the white colt while his two friends attacked me. One rammed into my side, flooring me. The other immediately stomped down on my head, dazing me. I had never been in a fight in my life but I was pretty sure cringing into a ball on the ground as two people kick you is a sign that you're losing. After getting kicked about a dozen times I finally forced myself to stand back up. They moved on both sides of me and I kicked my hind legs backwards hitting the colt standing behind me in the face. It absolutely floor him. I had never hit anypony before so I got pretty excited. That excitement distracted me from the pony in front of me who struck his hoof down over my head, knocking me back down. He didn't end up striking me again because a couple of the town guards finally showed up to break us up. “Hey! That's enough, break it up!” The guard shouted towards us. I was still struggling to get back on my hoofs when the three colts bolted out of there. The white colt I had unintentionally backed up stuck around to face the consequences of fighting with me. Luckily there weren't any. One of the guards examined my head for a few moments. “Are you all right?” I nodded at him with a hint of indignation. I was pretty sure the only reason they weren't angry about me fighting was because of how badly I had been doing. Still, their pity saved me from having to explain who I was or why I was alone in the city. He seemed satisfied that we were fine after a few moments and let us go. I was completely fine with his decision but considering I had been hit in the head twice I would've thought he'd be a little more thorough. Take some pride in your work, geez. “Hey, thanks. Those odds were pretty bad, it took some guts to help me,” the white colt said. “Yep.” I decided it was better to keep my original intent to myself. At least I had gained one friend. It was all I really needed anyways. I was going to need him to show me around this city. “So, I'm... Visiting this city. I don't actually live here. Any chance you know this city well?” I asked. He nodded at me. “Sure, it would be the least I can do. I'm Gale Force.” “I'm Shining Star,” I responded as we began walking. I took a moment to look over Gale. He was a white unicorn with three clouds for a cutie mark. Two clouds were different shades of gray with an additional white cloud in the front. It was odd for anything other than pegasi to have weather based cutie marks. He noticed me examining it. “Meteorology, study of natural atmosphere changes.” Ah, meteorologist. A crucial member of weather teams production of weather related bullsh- He interrupted my thought. “I don't have to be up in the sky to study what it does.” I mulled that over for a few moments. “Can't weather teams change the weather pretty easily? Who cares what it does naturally.” He gained a slight smirk as he spoke. “Everypony living around here is so used to having weather teams they forget not everyone has them. Not to mention it's kind of important to keep track of more severe weather like tornadoes.” “I guess that makes sense.” I glanced towards Canterlot's castle. “Hey, have you ever been in there?” “I went up there with my dad once, the only ponies our age that go there regularly are the ones who are in the academy.” I raised an eyebrow in response. “You... Don't go to school?” He chuckled to himself. “Of course I do. I go to the regular school. The one up there is quite a bit more impressive. The only ponies who go to that one are either extremely talented, rich, or royalty.” That last part did not escape my attention. Royalty? I stopped walked and turned to him. “Rich or royal. When you say that do you mean royalty doesn't necessary have to be rich to go there?” He considered what I said for a few moments. “Well, I suppose? I mean I don't know any royalty that do not at least have a degree of wealth, upper middle class at least, if you will. But, yeah. I don't think royalty pays anything.” “Fascinating. And what do you know about the royals? Any particularly iconic ones around here?” “Well, there's blueblood. He is Celestia's cousin, three thousand times removed, or something,” He gained a slight smirk at his comment, “I've never actually met him despite being around our age. I'm not sure if he goes to the academy.” “Home schooled?” I asked. “Possibly,” he responded. A plan was slowly beginning to form in my mind. “So... How about, you know, adult royals?” … We took in the sites around Cabnterlot for a couple of hours as we chatted. It was occasionally just casual conversation but I made a point of learning everything I could about well known royals. It felt good to be chatting with someone, I was happy to be distracted from my situation for a while. We saw quite a few different places, a massive library, some kind of museum, the public garden, I didn't ask if we could visit the castle, specifically the part Celestia stayed in. It didn't seem likely that we would be able to just meet her like that but I didn't want to risk it. The idea of meeting her made me very uncomfortable, I didn't want to roll the dice on her being able to tell what I was. It couldn't last forever of course and we soon had to part ways. “Thanks for showing me around Gale,” I said. “No problem, if you ever visit this city again be sure to look me up,” he responded. I nodded to him before I walked away. He had shown me Canterlot's library during the tour of his city, which was good, I had quite a bit of studying to do before I could put my plan into action. I have no intention of living on these streets completely homeless. Someone royal, iconic, and above all, not currently present in this city or planning to return. Lets do this! Canterlot Intruder II--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part II-- A new day had arrived and despite my exhaustion from a poor nights sleep hiding in the back of a library, I was ready. … A dark blue mare strode towards the Canterlot academy office, a fairly large structure set near the front of the castle. The mare let himself in through the double doors and waited alongside a few other ponies. Various looks were cast from the ponies in that room, each one searching the blue mare with a slightly befuddled look before settling into one of recognition. The blue mare took this as his cue to approach the front desk. “D-duke Astral Skye?” a nervous pony working behind the counter asked. The duke nodded at her in response. “I believe you can help me enroll my son?” She hesitated for a moment before suddenly scrambling to grab some papers. “Of course! I wasn't aware you had another child.” He gave an indifferent grunt at her attempt to chat. “I'm leaving Canterlot very soon and I need this taken care of immediately.” “Of course Sir! We-” “My son will be arriving here shortly. I take it I can trust you to handle this?” She stopped organizing her paperwork briefly. “Uh, sir? You mean letting you bypass the paperwork as well as setting up his living arrangements in the academy?” she squeaked out. The duke leaned in towards the counter slowly, “If you can't handle this, than I will find some-” “No need sir! No need!” She got into action immediately as the duke left. “...Just get this done.” … I kinda feel bad for being so mean to that poor pony. Duke Astral Skye. Very well known, absolutely terrible attitude. He was a good choice though, his well known aggressive personality made it easier to force my way through that conversation and he was leaving Equestria indefinitely to enjoy his retirement after he received some sort of injury, I didn't know the details. I couldn't find much information on his family, his wife was presumably joining him and he had two kids that had recently graduated from the academy. I have no idea where they are now. I let myself into a small shop's bathroom to change into Duke Astral's “child”. I didn't get too creative with my new appearance, instead opting to copy from pictures of the duke as a child. I locked the bathroom door and looked into the mirror. A green light flowed from my horn and wrapped around my body before bursting. In terms of appearance I pretty much looked the same. The only major difference was my dark blue fur and unicorn horn. I made a point of leaving my green eyes unchanged, I wanted something to be familiar when I looked in the mirror. I was about to unlock the door before noticing that something wasn't right about my disguise. I hadn't given myself a cutie mark. That was a problem, I would never gain a real one but if I made a fake one it would create the impression I was good at whatever skill it represented. And I'm off to the library again. I looked through the library for books on various cutie marks, particularly those commonly seen on unicorns. There were some vague looking ones with loose connections to astrology, They would make a good pick since I would never be expected to show my skill off seeing as no one would know what it really represented. However I eventually reached a section that contained magic related marks. Specifically, I took interest in a certain brand of them. My history class had briefly gone over a pony named King Sombra, he was the ruler of the now lost Crystal Empire, and specialized in using some kind of dark magic. I didn't enjoy the idea of it, but I figured being a changeling meant I would have a higher degree of talent in that field than any unicorn. A snicker escaped me at the notion that I had automatically become some sort of evil servant of darkness just from learning what I really was. I dug through magic related books trying to find any basic example spells that were similar to what King Sombra used, unfortunately there weren't any. So I dug through textbooks specifically about darkness magic, but many failed to go any further than a history lesson involving King Sombra and a few other historical ponies that learned that brand of magic. Ostensibly darkness magic existed, various ponies had used it throughout history. I was surprised to see that a cursory glance of those ponies history revealed that... some, of them hadn't used their power maliciously, leaving me confused as to why this magic appears to be so difficult to find information on. I put my last book up with a drawn out sigh before leaving the library. There's no information available on the subject, which actually kind of made the whole thing more appealing. I completely discarded the notion that being a changeling somehow meant I should be good at this, I was genuinely curious about it. There's nothing I can do about it. Enough time had passed for me to return to the academy office in my new form. I decided to leave my mark alone for now, it would be a couple more years before my lack of one became extremely concerning and I was sure I could find an appropriate one to fake by then. I was concerned about the fact that I couldn't really prove that I was the Duke's son, all I could really say to them was something along the lines 'Hey, I sorta look like him.'. It didn't end up being an issue though, I was asked if I was the Duke's son the moment I walked through the door by the pony from earlier. She looked stressed and seemed to be trying to get some paperwork taken care of quickly. “Yep, that is definitely me.” “Oh! Good, good...” She fumbled through a few papers before continuing. “I'm sorry your father didn't give me your name.” Whoops... Should of that about that earlier. “It's... Bright, er... Night,” I fumbled. She wrote something down. “Brighter Night? Got it.” “...Uh, yep.” It would work. She let out a frustrated sigh as she got her papers together. “I don't suppose your father arranged for you to have a place to stay while we get the enrollment process finished did he?” Now I feel really bad for being mean to her earlier. “No ma'am,” I said as innocently as I could manage. Inaudible grumbling escaped from her mouth, I was pretty sure I heard something accusatory directed at royals in there somewhere. A wide, obviously forced smile formed on her face as she spoke. “Well dear... I'll just have to take care of that... As well.” Those last two words came out quieter than what had come before. “Sorry about this... My dad is...” I let myself trail off wordlessly praying that this awful, awkward situation would resolve itself any second now. I was on cloud nine when a different pony showed up to take over for the mare in front of me. By the look of his uniform he was apparently in charge around this office, which hopefully meant he could assist me more easily than this mare could. “I got off the line with the academy, they have someplace they can put him right now. We got lucky, a few students just up and left.” A confused look crossed her face as she responded. “What happened?” “Dunno, students have been gone for 'bout a month now I think. They all disappeared just a week after the school year started. 'Nuff time has passed I suppose, they've decided to clear their rooms out.” A smirk formed on his face as he patted me on the head. “Your pretty lucky, perfect timing I would say,” “Yep,” Lucky. Right... … A few hours crept by painfully slowly as the pony finished up his work, evidently he was going to be escorting me personally. It would have been a very nice gesture but I couldn't help but get the feeling it had some sort of political motivation. The perks of being royalty I guess. I could not have been happier to finally get out of that boring office. The pony in charge of that place, a brown colored earth pony named Rustic, attempted to make some idle chatter with me a few times, but we really didn't have anything to talk about. He asked a few questions about my 'father' Duke Astral, but I really couldn't get into a conversation about it, I just ended up quoting some, according to his book, “interesting” facts from his biography. I had never even seen a school like the academy so I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew they had rooms for students to live inside the academy, I assumed it was for ponies who's families didn't live in Canterlot but wanted their children to go to a fancy school. The thought that Celestia lived very close to the academy hung around in the back of my head as I entered for the first time. The academy was right next to the castle and it actually looked like it was part of the castle grounds due to their similar aesthetic. A fence separating the two structures was the only thing keeping them apart. We stopped by the front desk so Rustic could take care of my enrollment before we were shown where my room was. The school was quite a bit larger than the one I had gone to, the school grounds had been broken down into multiple sections that contained different grade groups. The fifth to eighth graders went to the southern most building. Seventh graders were housed on the third floor of that building. Part of me kinda assumed that because Canterlot's elite go to this school it would be really fancy, a gargantuan room, filled with candy, at least one hot tub, the works. It didn't have any of those things of course, the room was kind of small but I had it to myself. I was always told you were supposed to have a roommate when you went to a school like this, I guess not having to share a room is a good thing but I still kinda felt like I was getting cheated out of the real experience. Rustic hung around for a bit after that, we still didn't have much to talk about. He was curious about my complete lack of luggage, which I didn't really have an answer for. I was glad when he was relieved by the schools headmaster. Rustic spoke first. “So... I guess I'm done here?” The headmaster, A gray colored stallion, responded, “Of course, thank you for taking care of this personally.” Rustic spoke as he walked away. “Yeah, well... Couldn't exactly send him up here by himself.” The headmaster turned to me after Rustic left. “Why is it that your parents couldn't escort you here?” I stiffened, “Oh, well... He- they had to leave immediately.” He raised an eyebrow expectantly at my response. “Uh, because...” “...” “Because, he was... late?” I asked. “I've always known the Astral to be quite punctual... Strange.” Uh oh, he knows the duke... “He also never threw his royal lineage around in such an inappropriate manner before.” The headmaster continued. I was frozen in place, I probably would have been hyperventilating if I could breathe. This is it... It's all over for me. Canterlot Intruder III--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part III-- I took a deep breath, I couldn't afford to screw up here. I needed this place. The headmaster was picking apart my story with hardly any effort at all. The only chance I had at salvaging the situation was to dig for information. “How do you know th- my dad, sir,” I nervously asked. That question alone could sink me depending on how close those two were, unfortunately that's exactly what I needed to find out if I wanted to get through this. “Your siblings went here so we inevitably had to meet on occasion, he was... interesting to deal with.” His expression darkened slightly at the memories. There wasn't anything I could really say in response to that, apparently nobody was a fan of the duke. On the plus side... “You never got to know him personally then?” I asked. Please, please, please... He gave a relieved smile at the inquiry. “I'm afraid not,” he smirked. Oh thank Celestia for small favors... “So... What happens now, sir?” “I believe it would be best to show you around now, rather than wait til tomorrow.” The gray stallion snatched some papers resting on my table and handed them to me before leading me out of the room. They were a map of the school, my schedule and the academy pamphlet. I skimmed the pamphlet over first. Canterlot Academy Providing the highest quality education in Equestria for over three centuries. “This building is over three hundred years old?” I asked. “Well... No. Not this building anyways. The only original building standing is the northern one, other structures have been torn down or remodeled, in addition to what has been added as the academy has expanded.” There was nothing special in my schedule that differentiated it from the one I had in my school before, with the exception of a class related to magic. I was going to have to pray I was a fast learner, I had years to make up for in that area. Then again, unicorns at my school always said it was really boring, it sounded like the classes go over information related to magic rather than actually teaching spells. I had to take their complaints with a grain of salt though, despite what they said I frequently witnessed them showing off new spells their class taught them. Independent study was likely going to be necessary if I wanted to keep up in that class. The building that contained the classrooms for my dorm was directly next to it, this appeared to be true for every other dorm as well. I suspected I might not actually be seeing students outside my bracket that frequently, which frankly may be a good thing. The first floor of the classroom building didn't actually contain any classes, instead it had the cafeteria and a couple of recreational areas. The rest of the floor was devoted to holding offices and the teacher's break room. There were two stories above the first floor of this building that held the classrooms. All the grades shared the same auditorium and library. “Hey, I never got your name.” I said. “Hmm? Oh, my apologies, Silver Chain.” He offered his hoof to me. “Sh- Brighter Night,” I corrected, shaking it. It was a little more formal than what I got at my old school. I guessed it was just how upper class ponies behaved, I was going to have to make a point of working on my etiquette if I wanted to blend in better. There weren't very many other ponies around, it had been an hour or so since school had let out so the other students were likely in the rec rooms or their dorm rooms. I doubted I would have had very much trouble finding the right classrooms without his help seeing as I had a map and the schedule showed the room number for each class, but he went ahead and showed me to each room specifically. First class was pre-algebra, I wasn't sure what to make of it. We were at the pre-algebra level at my own school too, but in this one the eighth graders would move on to real algebra while the ones at mine were still being taught pre. It seemed to imply the course was either already ahead of mine here or the class just moved at a faster pace. I can already tell this is gonna suck. Good thing I'm actually pretty good at math. The second class was for magic. I literally had no clue how that class actually worked or what I was expected to do, I was really going to have to fake my way through it at the beginning. The teacher for that class was still present when I was shown the room and Silver Chain took the liberty of introducing me. Something I would have preferred he not do considering my complete lack of knowledge on the subject, the last thing I needed was for my scheming to fall apart from an introduction. She was a dark gray mare with a blue mane. “I'm Mirror Eclipse.” She offered her hoof to me as well. I accepted it. “Brighter Night.” As long as she doesn't ask me any questions about magi- “So, how skilled are you at magic?” Mother f- “I- I am... I mean, you know. Nothing special. About average really.” Stunningly she bought that, I was pleased when we moved on from her class right away. We didn't make it to the next one before being interrupted. “Why aren't you doing anything!? One of you knows something! You have to have seen something! Anything!” a pony shouted from downstairs. The shouting practically caused me to jump straight out of my skin. Silver Chain did not appear amused in the slightest. “Wait with Eclipse until I get back,” he said. I didn't oblige him, instead I pretended to move towards her class until he was out of sight and stalked him down the stairs. “You need to calm dow-” “Do not tell me to calm down!” “Local law enforcement will han-” “It was on your watch! Your responsible and you haven't done anything, they haven't done anything! You are the headmaster of this school and you didn't see anything!?” “Can we please talk about this inside my office?” Silver Chain insisted. There was a brief moment where I believed that the screaming pegasus was about to attack Silver Chain, but he very begrudgingly followed him instead. A green mare with a red mane who sat in one of the hallway's chairs spoke to me. “I'm sorry, you shouldn't have had to see that.” “Who was that?” I asked. “My husband. We were trying... He just came here to talk with the headmaster about our child.” My stomach clinched a little as it dawned on me who these people were. “Was your kid one of the ones that disappeared?” She hesitated to respond, which I took as an affirmative. “Do you miss him... or her?” I mumbled. She nodded silently. “Him.” I sat down on a chair placed next to her. “I'm sorry that happened to you.” She gave a weak smile that quickly faded. A few thoughts bubbled to the surface that had been hiding in the back of my mind. “I- It would be hard for any parent right?” I found myself struggling to figure out what I was trying to ask. She gave me a curious look. “I mean, any parent. They would miss the child they had raised no matter what. Right?” She nodded expressionlessly. Any parent would be happy to see their child again... I sincerely believed all I had to do was wait, I could still reconnect with my mom. After that, everything would be fine. “Can you tell me about him?” She hesitated for a moment, which made me believe I may have treaded on a topic that was too sensitive. I let out a breath I had unknowingly been holding when she finally spoke. “He was about your age. He had received his cutie mark a few weeks before school started, he was excited about showing it to his friends.” “What was his mark?” “Meteorology... odd for a unicorn, I still don't understand how he was even put in position to gain it.” She chuckled at the thought. I had not. “Wha- what was your child's name?” I asked, my voice shaky and breathless. “Gale Force, it was more of a pegasus name, but I obliged my...” I didn't hear the rest, couldn't hear the rest. He was walking around in public. He got into a fight that guards had to break up. he gave those guards his real name! “And... You haven't heard anything? They haven't seen him?” I had to force the disbelief in my voice down as I spoke. She silently shook her head. “I, uh. I have to go, thanks for talking.” I quickly got back on my hooves and went back upstairs. I wanted to tell her I had seen him, but it was just too great of a risk. Keeping my head low until I could go back home had to be my top priority. As I walked up the stairs I wished I had at least given her some encouragement, even if it was just something cliché like, 'I'm sure he's fine'. Maybe the only reason I wanted to say something like that was to relieve my guilt for doing nothing. There was something else though, he was fine. He didn't look like he had been living on the streets. He hadn't been kidnapped, he spent the entire day with me. He also said he didn't go to the academy, maybe he was just a runaway. I gloomily trotted back into Mirror Eclipse's classroom. She looked up from the papers on her desk when I walked in. “Something wrong, sweetie?” “Silver Chain told me to wait in here, he's talking with one of the parents.” Her ears lowered slightly, I assumed she realized which parent it was. “Ah, I apologize if he said anything in front of you that was inappropriate.” I shook my head. “No, he was just upset. It's fine, he didn't say anything.” The last thing I wanted was to cause any more problems for those two. I sat down in one of the desks to think about what I should do. I didn't feel like I could tell them that I saw Gale Force, my story was too flimsy to hold up under real questioning. Then again, maybe I could help them without outing myself. If I found Gale around town again I could convince him to come back home. Well... It's not like I have anything else to do here anyways. It'll feel good to help that mare too. Canterlot Intruder IV--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part IV-- I tapped my hoof against the desk before me. My stomach tied itself into a knot in response to my confliction. On one hand, if I reunited them I risked being found out; on the other, their situation just hit too close to home for me. A harsh breath escaped my nostrils. There was only one option I could accept, I would help them. Hopefully a way would present itself that didn't actually involve throwing myself into the middle of it. Mirror Eclipse hadn't really said anything for the last few minutes. I was surprised, she seemed so extroverted. Then again, she was really focused on grading those papers. “You seem to be in a bit of a rush,” I said, pointing my hoof towards the papers in front of her. Mirror gained a crooked smile as she responded, “Oh, well. I... 'may' have procrastinated on getting these done earlier.” ...You “may” have? My eyebrow raised as I opened my mouth to question her before deciding to just let it go. At the very least it saved me from having to be questioned on my non existent knowledge of magic. Speaking of which... I snatched one of the extra textbooks that sat in the back of the classroom. It wasn't clear how much time I would have before Silver Chain finished his conversation, but I figured it was a good opportunity to see what I would have to be able to do in this class. As I flipped the book open I learned something, when you have been given the option of laying your head down on a desk or studying when a teacher is present it implies to said teacher that you are quite studious, rather than just desperately trying to make up for years of lost time. “You must really like this subject,” Mirror Eclipse beamed. This will not end well. “Uh, it's... Okay. I guess,” I mumbled, praying she would just drop it. “Uh-huh, I'll be looking forward to seeing what you can do in class.” My stomach clinched in response to what may as well have been a threat. Relief swept through me when I found that the first two thirds of the book was mostly just information about magic, not instructions on how to use it. Evidently the magic class was going to be more like having an extra history. I quickly skimmed through the first few chapters. A couple of familiar names popped up that I had seen in the cutie mark book, but I didn't really know much about them. The final third of the book contained information on actual spells and how to use them. I made a mental note of the ones that were described as 'general purpose', the term seemed to imply I should know how to use them. Of course I didn't... Better hope I'm a fast learner. Silver Chain's dialogue with the distraught couple took quite a while to settle down. I didn't get to see how the father was doing when he left, but there wasn't any shouting by the end; I assumed he must have calmed down before leaving. “Brighter?” Silver Chain asked as he walked in. “They left?” I asked, not looking up from my book. “They did.” I didn't pay much attention during the rest of the tour, that talk with Gale's mother drained me; I couldn't bring myself to care about my classes. The tour still served its purpose though, I knew where I would be headed in the morning. I plopped down onto my bed when I was dropped back off in my room. Multiple textbooks were laying on my table, someone must have dropped them off while I was getting the tour. As much as I wanted to go out and see if I could find Gale Force I stuck around to get a head start on studying magic. I didn't skim the pages this time, instead I opened to the first chapter and took my time with each page. Evidently the unicorns at my school had been right about one thing: this was boring. There were no tales of epic battles between master wizards, nothing about interesting experiments that inevitably resulted in gigantic explosions, just really boring facts about how a few ponies from thousands of years ago spent decades studying and researching magic. A frustrated groan escaped me upon finishing chapter one. I flipped through the book til I found the section on actual spells. It was about time I did something other than shape changing. I glanced out at the sun before starting. It was getting close to the horizon now, I'd probably have four hours or so until it would be lights out. Before starting on anything in the book I figured it would be a good idea to work out how that horn actually worked. I allowed a familiar sensation to build again, it was how I shape changed but it seemed like I could do something else with it. A harsh grunt escaped my mouth as I tried to figure out what I could do with the glow around my horn. I took a deep breath and followed my instincts, hoping I would have some inherit knowledge of how to utilize it. I tried... something. The light bounced around, never quite escaping. I tried something else. The light quivered and shined brighter before settling into its original form. Another effort resulted in the light throwing a green spark of fire out. Which caught on the wall. I lunged forward and stomped my hoof down on the small flame, snuffing it out. A small black smudge was left on the wall, I rubbed my hoof against it. I hope no one notices that. I didn't really understand how the light worked but I had some ability to alter it. How I was altering it wasn't really clear. It wasn't so much that I was generating magic so much as I was changing the light itself, the light brought magic about on its own. That glow was tapping into something I didn't really understand. This new understanding demanded I take a look at the actual instructions for casting spells. The first one I looked at was for levitation, the book described it as the universal spell. I took that to mean there would quite literally be no excuse for not knowing it, considering that two year old children typically have that spell mastered I had already taken that as a given. The book barely bothered to fit a single paragraph in to describe the spell. If I had to guess, previous grades had likely thoroughly gone over this one. Frequency: 50 (Neutral) Fre. Shifts: No Output: Varies (More for weight and surface area) Out. Shifts: No Emotional Catalyst: None Physical Catalyst: None Side Effects: None Special Properties: None “...” I blinked a couple of times at the words before me. “...What does this mean?” The only clue I had was the word neutral, it seemed to imply that “frequency”, whatever that was, gravitated towards that... Setting? Sure, setting. A glow wrapped around my horn yet again. This time I didn't actually try to do anything with it, instead just letting it be. I focused my attention on the book, trying to extend my influence onto it. My green glow wrapped around it, lifting it up far too quickly. The suddenness with which is snapped into the air caused me to let it go, sending it up into the ceiling. The book impacted against the ceiling with a loud thud, leaving a barely visible chip in the ceiling's material. The book fell back to the floor no worse for wear. I glanced towards the door, hoping no pony heard that. When no one came by after a few moments I resumed my practice. Rather than pick the book up with my hooves I tried putting it back on the table with magic. The usual glow surrounded the book, jerking it up in front of me. It was still too fast but I didn't lose my focus this time. I made an effort to move it less slowly over the desk, which didn't work at all as it once again blasted over to it. At least I was maintaining my grip on it. It was apparent to me at that point that I couldn't just make it go slower or faster on whim. I reflected on what output could mean before realizing I had control over how strong that glow was. The light around my horn and the book decreased very slowly, eventually the book drifted down towards the desk on its own. I made an effort to raise it back up to where I had been holding it but couldn't lift it at all. I was however, able to move it from side to side fairly easily. I increased the power I was sending out until the book reversed its drift back up. Apparently if I wanted to move something slowly I needed to use as little power as needed for the object, moving something faster required more. I wonder what my weight limit is... I wrapped my aura around the same book before trying to grab another book. The first book fell as I levitated the second. I glanced between the two books for a moment before backing up until they both were in my line of sight. My aura threw itself over both books simultaneously, the light wavered at first before gaining a firm grip. Both books snapped together immediately. A sigh escaped my mouth as I struggled with the spell. It took a few attempts to part them at all, this was due to the two separate auras fusing when they came together. Essentially they were treated as one object by the spell. I had to mentally split my focus on where I wanted the objects to go if I wanted to move them separately. My eyes widened as a few memories of unicorns moving multiple objects around simultaneously popped into my head. How is that even possible!? I gently, for once, placed both books back down before turning to my bed in the corner of the room. My aura stretched itself over my bed, the fabric of my covers and pillow pulled tightly into the mattress. I focused on raising it just slightly over where it was, I didn't want a repeat of the book with something that big. ...But it didn't budge. I allowed my horn to glow a little brighter. ...But it didn't budge. My horn glowed much brighter. ...But it still wouldn't budge. I strained myself to make the glow as bright and large as it could be, which wasn't actually that much brighter. The bed didn't do anything. “I wonder if I might be out of shape,” I pondered. I fell backwards onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I had made some progress but I was miles away from everypony else my age. I was gonna have to become the most devoted student this school ever saw if I would have any chance of catching up to my peers. I get the feeling I'm gonna be spending a lot of time alone in here doing this... Canterlot Intruder V--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part V-- The buzz from an alarm clock felt like it had split my head open. I frantically threw my hoof over it, smashing down on the top of the clock. It finally shut off after a few attempts. The rush from being shaken awake wore off, leaving me feeling drained. My body ached; my head ached; I felt awful. What is wrong with me? It didn't feel like sickness, rather I felt very weak. I presumed that it was likely just a side effect of using magic for hours the night before. After I struggled to raise myself up I quickly collapsed from the painful strain. A familiar question crept into my mind. What happens when a changeling stops receiving love? My blood chilled at the thought. Starvation wasn't a good way to go... I assumed. I forced myself to focus on the fact that I had used magic quite a bit the night before, hoping that this was just exhaustion. Another effort resulted in me finally rolling out of bed, only to deliver a hard thump against the floor. I had to struggle just to stand up. I breathed deeply a few times before making one final push up onto my hooves. My legs wobbled under my weight. I stumbled towards the door. My hoof smacked down on the table for support when I lost balance; my breathing became a bit more ragged. A shadow was visible in the slit of light under the door. Somepony was standing in front of it. “Hello?” I mumbled weakly. I didn't receive a response. A few shaky steps later and I reached the door. My weight fell against it as I opened the door, falling forward with it. A hoof caught me before I touched the ground. I looked up at an angel, a figure of benevolence. Pitch black eyes stared down at me. Everything was fine in that moment. All my fears, my doubts, everything that ate at me that had been forced into the back of my mind melted away. My strength returned, my confidence became fortified; I wanted to stay here. With her. Foreve- I snapped upright. My alarm was going off, but it wasn't as painful as before. My eyes fixated upon the ringing clock for half a minute before my hoof gingerly pressed down on it. My limbs shook, and my breath was ragged. I didn't feel weak anymore though; in fact, I felt great. The strength flowing through me was familiar; I had it when I first went walking towards Canterlot. That dream was invigorating to experience. That dream... I struggled to think about what it had been, but too much time had passed. A few vague figments remained, bits of imagery, a little emotion. Those pitch black eyes remained in my mind though, and they didn't scare me. Thinking about them was strangely comforting. Shuffling could be heard outside the door. The other students were leaving their rooms to get breakfast, I thought about whether I wanted to eat or not. My stomach felt empty, but it didn't really feel like hunger; just emptiness. I sat on the bed's edge for about fifteen minutes debating what I wanted to do. Part of me would of preferred to lay down until class started; I didn't feel like going out there. Mingling with the other students would probably be a good idea though; staying holed up all day might come off as weird after a while. I shook my head glumly before getting on my hooves. As I approached the door I snatched a bag lying under the table before several books were levitated into it. A smirk formed on my face upon realizing how automatically I had been able to do that. My hoof stopped just short of opening the door, waiting until I couldn't hear anything outside of it. I didn't want to risk having to talk to anyone. My brows furrowed; I didn't know why I didn't want to see anyone. The door creaked as it edged open; my head poked out from the ajar door, searching the hall for any other ponies. A few loitered around the hall, casually chatting with each other. I took a deep breath and put on a brave face before moving on. … The food wasn't as cheap as I expected. It wasn't great, but it was–as far as cafeteria food goes–pretty passable. I sat alone in a table near the corner of the room. A cursory glance of the room raised a red flag; there were not a whole lot of students. The crowd seemed like it should have been much larger than it was if the entire student body ate here. I levitated my bag in front of me and dug around for the school pamphlet. After locating it, I flipped through the pages, looking for anything describing the number of students that went to the school. I didn't find anything more descriptive than “A large number of students” go here. My thoughts immediately went to Gale Force. This might be bigger than I thought. I tapped my hoof against the table. This entire situation was going into a downwards spiral. regardless, I wasn't going to give up; I would still try to find Gale Force after school. Perhaps I was just jumping to conclusions though. There was still hope that the small number of students could be explained; some students probably lived off campus, some may not eat breakfast, or the class size may just be that small. I laid my head down on the table and closed my eyes. Despite my energy, I always felt sleepy when I woke up early. Strange imagery fluttered through my head. The cafeteria at my old school formed in my mind; I saw some of my old friends. I wondered what they're doing right now; I wondered how they reacted to the news that I was a changeling. Lyrical seemed pretty stunned. “Excuse me.” A feminine voice spoke. My eyes snapped open. I glanced to around until I spotted a young mare with green fur standing behind me. The red dress she wore prevented me from being able to see her cutie mark. She looked at me expectantly. “What?” I asked. She flinched before speaking again. “Oh- sorry, sorry! Yes...” I placed a hoof on my forehead, wishing she would hurry up. “Are you new here?” ...Obviously? I kept my remark to myself as I responded, “yep.” “Good! Maybe you can help me.” “...” “Well... How do I put this?” She dug her hoof at the tiled floor a few times. “Students have been disappearing and no one is noticing anything!” I stared at her for a solid minute before responding, “how many students exactly?” “I'm not sure, over a hundred... Maybe.” My jaw nearly hit the floor. I felt my confidence waver; this was way bigger than I thought. Keeping out of it completely suddenly seemed a lot smarter. “I saw Ga- some parents, up here yesterday. They noticed that their kid was missing.” “They must be like me. Some ponies just noticed the change.” “I've gotta go.” I said, quickly getting up and leaving for my first class. “I- wait!” I broke into a full sprint as soon as I walked outside, leaving her behind. I had three different classes with her, and in every single one she sat next to me and kept trying to talk; it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore her. This came to a head in the last class of the day. “Hey, uh. Brighter, right?” a red earth filly sitting next to me whispered. I kept my gaze forward while peering to the side. “Yep.” “Oh, good. I know Radiant. My name's Triumphant.” I glanced towards my opposite side, where the green pony was sitting. “I kinda figured.” A hoof tapped the back of my shoulder. “I'm Sky Wing.” I twisted around to see a light blue pegasus. Oh dear Celestia... They have me boxed in. I glared at Radiant. “You're not letting this go are you?” She only gave me a broad smile in response. I bolted out of that classroom as soon as the bell rang. I didn't get far. Triumphant tackled me as soon as I stepped outside, flooring me. “Okay! Okay! I'll help. Just get off me!” I shouted. Radiant helped me back onto my hooves. “Sorry. We just really need all the help we can get trying to crack this case.” “'case'?” “Yes sir. We're investigators!” I failed to hold back a chuckle. “So what you really want is for me to join your little club?” Her expression darkened instantly. “Hey! We're a serious investigation team!” “Yep, I definitely believe you.” I rolled my eyes before trying to walk away, only to be blocked by Sky. We regarded one another for a few moments before I spoke up. “I saw Gale Force.” “We know, I was there.” Sky responded. “What?” I said. Radiant put a hoof around Sky. “We've had him tail them from up in the sky whenever they came into town. We're trying to figure out where the missing kids go.” She pointed at me. “You, have earned his trust. You, can get him to take you to wherever they are gathering.” I scratched at the dirt with one of my hooves. This could end badly for me; I could be found out; I could be killed by whatever is doing this. Despite my reservations, I thought back to Gale's mother. Imagery of her crying sent a shudder through me. “Alright... I'll do this.” Radiant let out a high pitched squeal in response. “Yes! We're finally going to solve a case!” 'Finally'? How many “cases” have they tried to solve? Their questionable claim as 'investigators' aside, it looked like we might be able to do some good here. All I needed to do was find Gale Force again; I was certain that he could be convinced to show me where all the other kids went, and why no one has noticed their disappearance. Thinking back to that dream I had sent a chill though me. It felt comforting to see those black eyes, but I wondered if it was somehow related to what happened to the students. Then again, maybe all the other ponies in this town gaining a blind spot in regards to my existence would be a good thing. It would certainly make blending in easier. Triumphant's hoof patted my shoulder. “C'mon, we need to fill you in on what we've figured out so far.” I followed them but didn't really expect much. Their entire group seemed more like a small club than kids seriously trying to help people. Their presence did give me an opportunity; If we managed to bring all those students back I could make sure they got credit for it instead of me, shielding me from too much exposure. Regardless, I'm probably going to need their help here no matter what. Canterlot Intruder VI--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part VI-- I was too weak to move, but it was fine; I didn't need to. Her black eyes watched over all of us, keeping us safe. We were loved, and we were a family. We were all strangers before, but she brought us together. She saw how unhappy we had been, how we needed a mother who genuinely cared about us. We sat at a massive rectangular table. It never seemed to end; it's length ran off into the empty red horizon. I couldn't count how many of us were sitting at it. We each sat perfectly still, eyes locked with mother's. A plate sat in front of each of us, but it had no food; I didn't need it of course. I could feel her love radiating out into each of us; a rush of energy threatened to overpower the weakness I felt. All eyes were on me, each one unblinking. She spoke for the first time. “Won't you stay with us?” Murmurs rose from the surrounding crowd, all asking me to stay. The alarm woke me up again. I felt incredible. My body was brimming with energy. I had spent the entire previous night going through the textbook for my magic class again. I failed to cast any of the spells in the book; hopefully I would figure it out before I had to display any magic in class. I hadn't been any more productive earlier that day either. Sky Wing tailed me from up in the sky while I walked around Canterlot trying to find Gale Force. We stayed out for as long as we could, but Sky was eventually stopped mid-air by one of the pegasus guards and sent home. Evidently, they didn't even notice me. I swear, it's like those guards can't even see me. I skipped breakfast that day; I was still kind of avoiding the club I had been muscled into. I knew the effort was largely futile of course, seeing as how I had three classes with Radiant. Her constantly trying to chat with me was growing very annoying considering that I had pretty much been transplanted into this school mid-semester. I was struggling to catch up with the class, and the last thing I needed was to be chatting in class and spending hours outside looking for random students. Well, I had already committed to helping them by this point; I pretty much had to see it through. Mirror Eclipse was taking attendance. “Solar?” She asked, glancing around. “Where is everypony? That's the sixth one.” Radiant's ears perked up immediately. I gave her a curious look. Mirror set her attendance sheet down as she scanned the class. “Half the class is gone? Is there something going on today I don't know about?” she asked, looking through her school calender. Students began to stir, looking around at the class, as if they only just now realized how empty it looked. I leaned closer to Radiant. “What's happening?” She mulled my question over before responding, “I'm not sure.” Nopony in the room had a real answer to give her, so Mirror simply continued on. I assumed that she planned to check out what was going on after class was over. Things didn't get better as the day went on; teachers continued to notice the missing students. School was canceled altogether just a couple of classes later. ...Which freed us up to search for the missing students. I waited next to the front gate for Radiant to show up with the others. She had no idea why the missing ponies were suddenly noticed; I wasn't so sure we were going to find any of them if the city went on the high alert to look for them. That wasn't such a bad thing though, all the guards in the city working together would be more effective than the four of us. It was a bit of a relief really. I recoiled back when Sky landed next to me with a hard impact. “Hey!” I yelled. “Sorry, sorry... sort of.” He smirked at me. I can already tell I'm not gonna like you. “I'm sorry about him,” Triumphant said, as she trotted up to us with Radiant. “Are you ready?” Radiant asked. I nodded to her and walked out the gate. Canterlot had gone on high alert, big time. Ponies were freaking out. Various high ranking members of the guard were addressing the public on different streets, attempting to calm everyone down. “We assure you, Celestia herself is leading the charge on this- We will find out what is happening!” Some of the ponies were crying; I think they were the parents of those kids. I ducked back into an alley, motioning for the others to follow. “I don't think they're going to let us walk around much longer.” “Why don't we just sneak around them?” Sky asked. “In broad daylight?” Radiant asked sarcastically. That's not such a bad idea... For me anyways. A quick glance into the street revealed a couple of students being escorted back to the school. “I have an idea,” I pointed at Sky Wing, “fly up there,” I said, pointing up towards the sky. “...Why?” He raised an eyebrow skeptically at me. “Trust me.” I struggled to suppress my growing smirk. He looked at the others briefly before hesitantly flying straight up. I was on edge, waiting for them to show up. Which they did. A couple of pegasus guards flew next to him and I instantly bolted. “What are you doing!?” Radiant yelled after me. I twisted around while sprinting just in time to see the same guard land next to them. He looked towards me before I rounded the corner into another back alley. After rapidly scanning the alley and sky I shape shifted into an adult earth pony. I casually walked towards the street. “Hey, you!” I nearly leapt out of my skin. “Did you see a kid run by here?” The pegasus had caught up with me. I pointed towards the street. “That way.” He took off immediately. “Thanks!” I smirked at my deception while walking towards the castle; if Celestia was going to make an announcement, it would probably be there. There was no need to rush to get there; I hadn't heard anything about her making an announcement just yet. I listened intently to everypony I passed, trying to pick up on any recent developments. Rumors about what was really happening were rampant, most of them ridiculous; my favorite was that a traveling circus had brainwashed all of the missing foals. My least favorite was that changelings had kidnapped all of them to drain their emotions. A large crowd was waiting outside of the castle; I didn't like being stuck in large crowds, so I stayed away form it until Celestia allowed them inside after about half an hour of waiting. I was a little excited, since I had never seen her in person. The thought that she could detect what I really was still lingered though. Stain glass windows were placed all over the lobby, it took my breath away to see the works of art built into them. One of the windows contained the image of a white alicorn flying beside the sun with a black one on the opposite side, accompanied by the moon. I raised an eyebrow at the image, the sun side was probably supposed to be Celestia. I didn't know who the other one was supposed to be. Nightmare moon? There was nothing malicious about the lunar side of the stain glass. Both alicorns were depicted exactly the same. I shrugged at it as I joined the crowd. It was weird being the same height as the adults. A voice boomed out over the ruckus of the crowd. “Everypony, please listen!” It was a royal guard shouting from up above us. The crowd slowly died down. Celestia herself walked ahead of him, now in clear view of the crowd atop a balcony. “A tragedy has befallen this city,” her regal voice boomed. “Well over two hundred foals have vanished from this city, and nopony was aware of it until today.” Her numbers didn't immediately check out until I remembered that there was another school that was probably missing students too. Her voice only seemed to get louder as she spoke. “How we all could have been unaware of this is uncertain, but I promise all of you, here and now; we will recover our missing foals, we will find out who did this, and they will face justice for what they have done!” The crowd exploded in reaction to her passion, I couldn't help but join them. They- We wanted justice for this. I should make sure to never make an enemy of the princess. My blood was boiling along with the crowds, we wanted to go out and start kicking doors down. The more rational part of my brain kicked in a few moments later; I was letting myself get too caught up with the crowd. I had a way to help, and it wasn't by shouting angrily at an unknown threat with a bunch of other ponies. I departed immediately. It didn't seem likely that she had anything substantial to say anyways, they only knew about the missing foals for a few hours. My desire to return Gale Force to his family returned ten fold, but it was more than that. I wanted to return all of the missing foals to their families. My mind wandered back to my own mother briefly, there was a hint of doubt. I quashed it immediately. Frustration built up upon realizing the town actively searching for the missing students would prevent me from finding one. I bitterly thought back to my previous relief that the guards would do the work for us. Regardless, there had to be some hope that I could make a difference here. First thing first, I was going to have to apologize for-quite frankly-screwing over the others. Hopefully telling them about my first hand account of Celestia's announcement would make up for it, if only because it proved I seemingly had a reason for what I did. Technically I did have a reason, it just had more to do with Sky Wing than our goal. My only chance was to search at night, it was the only time the missing students would wander around with the town like this. This was assuming they would even show up again. I trotted towards the academy until my attention was caught by an odd looking pony. She seemed to be an earth pony but... her fur was just, wrong. It was shiny, like she was wearing a porcelain shell around her body; I couldn't see her face. Nopony around paid her any mind; they continued to walk to their respective destinations. I took a few tentative steps in towards her. Her head craned in my direction, revealing her pitch black eyes. They froze me in my tracks. Seeing them brought out vague memories from my sleep. Time slowed down in that instant, the crowd seemed to all blur together; none of them noticed me or her. She took slow, trembling steps in my direction. I couldn't react in any way, instead allowing her to keep approaching me. When she stood face to face with me she finally spoke up, her voice distorted. “I'vE foUnD yoU... You DoN't hAve tO hiDe wHat yOu arE fRoM mE.” I stared at her. “ComE wiTh mE.” Her features barely sunk in; her coat was smooth, like it was made from hard material. Her mouth failed to move when she spoke. ...What are you?
ProloguePrologue A hoof pressed into my side a few times causing me to awaken groggily. I let out a groan in response as I stirred, keeping my eyes shut. The hoof pushed in a little more forcibly. “Come on, it's time to wake up,” my mother stated. I thought we didn't have school today? I looked up at her slowly, blinking a few times. I glanced up at her cream colored face as I reeled the rest of my body up, stretching my limbs out as far as they would go before she motioned for me to follow her. “You don't have school today,” my mother said. “Yep,” I groaned. “That's because there's something you and your classmates have to do today,” she said anxiously. I didn't question what she was talking about, instead opting just to keep walking with her. As we stepped outside I was about to mention breakfast before she cut me off. “We'll grab something to eat after this, alright?” She smiled sweetly as she spoke, I honestly couldn't tell if she was worried about what we were about to do or not. I realized when we reached a large crowd of ponies that she was in fact, worried, that there was something wrong with someone else's child. A tent was set up ahead of the nervous crowd and the town's children were lined up in front of it. My mother gently pushed me forwards. “Don't worry about this, it should only take a few minutes and then we'll go eat.” I nodded in response as I stepped into the back of the line. The adult ponies chatter caused me to feel more nervous about what this could be than I had been previously. “I know my own child but it's scary to think that someone else's child might... You know?” A feminine voice responded, “Yeah, I hear you. Did you tell your kid what this was about?” The line moved forward, preventing me from being able to hear any more of their conversation. I had gotten close enough to the tent to see a flash of light coming from inside every time a pony entered it. It wasn't clear what was happening in there, but whichever pony had gone in would always walk back out completely fine, if not a little confused. I relaxed a bit, honestly I had thought that maybe this was something like when I had to get a shot. It was good to know there wasn't any indication that this was going to hurt. A hoof poked at my flank after a few moments of waiting. I looked back to see a filly I recognized from school standing in line behind me. What was her name? Resonance? Resound? Was it just Ruby? I hesitantly stated, “Ruby? … Right?” “Uh, no. Lyrical, remember?” she said. Evidently, I did not. She looked past me as a flash of light came from the tent again. “Do you know what this is about? Mom and dad said that they were testing me for something but wouldn't say what.” I shook my head in response. “Why will nopony tell me anything!” She groaned loudly. I thought about it for a few moments before responding. “Hey, all the ponies they're checking are about the same age as us. Maybe they do it yearly?” She shook her head. “That doesn't make any sense. I've never seen them do this before, and I've lived here my whole life.” A flash of light caught my eye, causing me to turn my head back towards the front of the line. We were right in front of the tent now. Whatever they were doing in there, it didn't take very long. I looked back towards her. “Well, we're about to go in, so I guess they'll tell us then.” She nodded at me. We were the last few ponies in the line, the parents surrounding the tent had dispersed. Quite a few other ponies hadn't, they looked very anxious, as if they were expecting something to happen. Most of them weren’t talking but I managed to just barely hear a couple near the front of the crowd before being ushered in. “It's definitely one of those few that are still waiting then, right? I mean they were sure it was one of the kids, twelve to fourteen?” I shuddered slightly. What are they checking for here? There were a few guards standing in the back of the tent, a mat sat in the center of the room. A blue unicorn motioned for me to sit before he approached me. There was a look in his eyes I couldn't quite read, almost like he was apprehensive. To my surprise, he spoke kindly and calmly. “Alright, this will only take a moment. It might daze you for a second but it won't hurt, I promise. Ready?” “...Yep.” My heart started beating a little faster. Somepony in line definitely has... Whatever they're checking for? There's only a couple of people in line behind me, so one in three chance? The unicorn stood in front of me as his horn gave off a white glow. It exploded out, blinding me. He was right about being dazed, and I don't just mean blinded. I fell forward immediately. What he did didn't hurt, I just couldn't seem to coordinate myself for a few moments. After a few moments it occurred to me that I couldn't hear anything either, my ears were ringing. Thankfully my sight and hearing slowly crept back into me as I regained my coordination. I was staring at a black leg as my sight returned to me, it had holes in it. ...Is that my leg? That's not right, my fur's cream colored. I tried to move my leg a little, the black leg responded. The holes in it didn't hurt at all but I couldn't help but find them a little disconcerting. I shakily raised back up onto my hooves, attempting to regain my composure. Something became apparent to me at that moment. My snout is black... My mane is blue... Every pony in here is staring in absolute shock... My breathing quickened immediately. The unicorn started to compose himself as he took a tentative step towards me. Go... Go, go, go, go go go gogogogo GO! I didn't know or care what this was. Fear surged through me as I took off out of the tent. A light wrapped around me before I made it outside, somehow slowing me down. I glanced back to see the blue unicorn's horn glowing. Fear washed through me once again when the guards posted in the room started to move. “Stay... Stay away from me!” I managed to choke out. My struggle against the light around me had little effect. I wasn't stopped in my tracks but moving proved difficult. After having made one last desperate struggle to move towards the door a sensation built up inside me and I became aware of my horn. Horn? ...I'm an earth pony not a unicorn. A green energy burst out from my horn causing the glow around me to dissipate. The guards and unicorn flinched backwards in response to my action. I didn't hesitate to bolt out of there. I was greeted by a shocked crowd, as well as the filly Lyrical. “Oh god, it was that little colt.” “Wasn't that Shining Star?” “Where's his mother?” “Cirriform isn't that things mother. Where's her real child?” “It replaced him, it knows where he is!” “What if they were swapped at birth?” The situation was too overwhelming for me to process anything they were saying. I couldn't deal with that right then. The guards had left an opening in their formation outside of the tent, I had a way out towards the nearby woods. Unlike the guards inside the tent, the ones outside were a bit more ready for me. They quickly formed a line and walked towards me, pushing me back towards the woodland. Is that what they wanted? For me to just leave? Doesn't make sense... That unicorn tried to stop me. There wasn't any time to think about it. I glanced at Lyrical for a moment, uncertain what I was searching for in her surprised expression. I ran. I ran as fast as I possibly could. I didn't dare look behind me as I neared the stretch of trees. All I have to do is get past those trees and I can lose those ponies. That's all I have to do. My legs were burning when I finally crossed the brush that marked the edge of the forest. I didn't stop moving for a second, I gritted my teeth and ignored the pain. I kept moving until I finally was ready to collapse from exhaustion. I leapt straight into some shrubbery in an attempt to hide myself. After I struggled within the bush for a few moments I successfully untangled myself from the plant. It took several minutes for me to stop panting from exhaustion. I didn't dare move an inch even though I was pretty certain I hadn't been followed. The silence sunk in while I waited. What now? I mulled over that for a long time. What was there to do? I examined my new legs for a few moments. What am I? I crawled out from under the shrub to get a better look at myself. My appearance was the same as it had been back in the tent, Black fur, Blue mane, a horn, and wings... I hadn't noticed the wings previously. They didn't look like Pegasi wings. They weren't feathery, they kind of looked like they belonged on an insect. That thought made me uncomfortable. I settled down in the grass and rested my head on my hooves. Maybe I could go back. Mom could help me with... Whatever this is. Would those guard ponies just stop me if I tried though? I was hungry, I hadn't eaten breakfast. All that running didn't exactly help. I thought about where my mom and I would have gone afterwords. There was a new place that served breakfast foods all day, that would have been pretty good. Something in my mind seemed to click. A realization. Those new features I had gained suddenly had a new sense of familiarity to them. I'm certain I had never seen something like myself in person but it all just sounded too familiar. Something from school... What was it? An understanding slowly settled into my mind. It didn't come to me all at once, instead opting to reveal itself just a little bit at a time. I came to know what I was. Changeling. The word drifted around in my mind for a while. I understood what that was. I understood the implications of what being one meant but I refused to let myself think about it for as long as I could. The full impact of my realization couldn't be held back for long though. I wasn't a pony. I wasn't my parent's child. I didn't have any parents. Would it matter to them? I wanted to believe that I could just walk back into my home and be welcomed. Is that really so unbelievable? They had raised me, it didn't seem so implausible that this wouldn't matter, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was just pretending, that I was trying to make the problem disappear by rationalizing it. I had to just take this one step at a time. First things first, I was a changeling. Changeling have powers, I had already used some sort of magic back inside the tent. I knew I was supposed to be able to shape shift and I was pretty sure I could fly. I looked my wings over for a few moments, they were smaller than what I typically saw on Pegasi. Can I really fly with these? It seemed like it was worth a shot. I attempted to simply move them around at first, however they wouldn't budge at all. It felt more like I had no idea how to actually move my wings then that they were somehow stuck. A few minutes of effort resulted in my wings finally moving around a little, I had no intention of trying to fly until I could move them more easily though. I didn't even know where to start when it came to using magic. I had been, well pretending to be, an earth pony. They didn't teach magic in the standard classes, unicorns were given specialized classes. Then again, unicorns were supposed to be able to use simple magic shortly after they were born, so it couldn't be that hard to do. I scrounged around for a stick to levitate. A decently sized one lay next to a tree not ten feet away. I sort of just... Stared at it for a few moments. The stick did not respond. Some kind of sensation had built up inside me back in the tent. I tried to somehow invoke that feeling, causing me to briefly feel a twinge of... Something. I took a deep breath and tried again. A light gathered around my horn, I wasn't sure how to direct it though. I just followed my instincts, hoping something would happen. The light around my horn swirled around me in an instant before vanishing. It didn't seem to have any effect until I looked at myself. My fur had turned back into its former cream color, my horn and wings were gone as well. It hadn't been what I was going for but it worked pretty well. Shape shifting seemed more useful than levitation anyways. There wasn't any reason for me to turn back to my true form, I didn't really want to anyways. Now that I had acclimated a little bit to my new abilities I had to make a move. It didn't seem like I could go home. I could show up like this, except everyone knows what I am. I could also try to change my features to look like a different pony. It didn't seem like there was any point to the latter option, I couldn't just start a new life out of nowhere. A new pony coming in to town would be suspicious anyways. They'd probably just check me again. How did they even know to check? I didn't even know what I was. I couldn't really keep denying it. There's no going back there, not right now anyways. I have no choice but to go somewhere else, those ponies won't stay there forever. Eventually I'll go back and reunite with my family and everything will go back to normal. Just gotta stick this out...
Canterlot Intruder--Canterlot Intruder-- --I-- My stomach had been feeling empty but I was holding up surprisingly well considering I had been walking for a couple of hours and hadn't eaten all day. It was more than just feeling well though, there was an energy behind it, like I was gaining strength from something. I just hope this lasts. Changelings supposedly required love instead of food to survive but I had always been able to feel real hunger, I was feeling that right now. The thought was disconcerting though. what happens when a changeling isn't receiving any? I still hadn't exited the woods despite how long I had been walking for. I made a point of heading towards the first sign of civilization I saw. Which, after the first few hours of walking, ended up being structures jutting out from the side of a mountain. They were white towers capped with golden spires, surrounded by a large city. I didn't need long to deduce that it was Canterlot, I may never have been there but the place was extremely iconic. Maybe this won't be so bad, I hear this city is great. Unfortunately, I had seriously underestimated the sheer size of Canterlot's castle. I had already been walking for hours and I had to go for a few more before I finally reached the freaking city. My legs had never been so sore in all my life. It was easier when I reached an actual paved road that led into the city. I hesitated to approach the front gate, afraid that any guards posted there would somehow know what I was. The notion that they could just know something like that was ridiculous but I still had to build up a bit of nerve to walk through it. Just act natural and they won't notice a thing... I tried to take a deep breath which immediately hitched in my throat. I could not have been walking more stiffly while going by those guards. Not breathing? Check. Walking stiff and unnatural-like? Check. Yep, I walked through the front gate just like normal ponies do. I should get an award for such quality acting. Evidently those guards somehow didn't notice me or just didn't care. I'm not sure which explanation for their lack of action I found more disconcerting. I acted far more casually once I was inside the city. I had to admit, what I had been told about Canterlot was true, this city was amazing. I had lived in a fairly small town and this place was far more beautiful and absolutely massive. Not to mention crowded and noisy, I wasn't sure how I felt about that part. So... I'm here. And once again I have to ask myself, what now? I could kick myself for my complete inability to plan ahead despite having been given hours with nothing to do but think. Canterlot wasn't a city I was familiar with, which made coming up with a good plan difficult. In truth, I had no inkling of what I should do. I had no place to stay, no money, it wasn't a good situation to find myself in. I opted to wander around for a while, hoping a solution would jump out at me. Which it did. “That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!” A pony shouted. A colt shoved another white colt towards the ground, causing two other young ponies to approach in response. A cursory examination of the situation told me that the pony who had been shoved down was about to be attacked by all three. A fight was definitely about to break out in the middle of the street and I realized destiny had just handed me a golden opportunity. I was alone in this city and I needed a friend if I was going to get by. Looks like fate just gave me three. All I had to do was help those three ponies beat that one up and I would be set. I didn't have much time, I needed to jump in quickly and show how tough I could be. I charged right on in prepared to beat down on that poor colt and attain a glorious new friendship with a foundation built on violence. I stopped by his side, raising my hoof up to stomp down on his face. ...And I hesitated to go through with it. ...Which caused him to think I was offering to help him. ...Which caused him to immediately spring to his feet and shout at the other ponies. “Hah! Let's see how tough you are when it isn't three on one!” Whoops... I was hungry, I was tired, It was a two on three fight, these were the excuses I would make for the rest of my days about why I absolutely got beaten down. The pony who initiated the violence continued to attack the white colt while his two friends attacked me. One rammed into my side, flooring me. The other immediately stomped down on my head, dazing me. I had never been in a fight in my life but I was pretty sure cringing into a ball on the ground as two people kick you is a sign that you're losing. After getting kicked about a dozen times I finally forced myself to stand back up. They moved on both sides of me and I kicked my hind legs backwards hitting the colt standing behind me in the face. It absolutely floor him. I had never hit anypony before so I got pretty excited. That excitement distracted me from the pony in front of me who struck his hoof down over my head, knocking me back down. He didn't end up striking me again because a couple of the town guards finally showed up to break us up. “Hey! That's enough, break it up!” The guard shouted towards us. I was still struggling to get back on my hoofs when the three colts bolted out of there. The white colt I had unintentionally backed up stuck around to face the consequences of fighting with me. Luckily there weren't any. One of the guards examined my head for a few moments. “Are you all right?” I nodded at him with a hint of indignation. I was pretty sure the only reason they weren't angry about me fighting was because of how badly I had been doing. Still, their pity saved me from having to explain who I was or why I was alone in the city. He seemed satisfied that we were fine after a few moments and let us go. I was completely fine with his decision but considering I had been hit in the head twice I would've thought he'd be a little more thorough. Take some pride in your work, geez. “Hey, thanks. Those odds were pretty bad, it took some guts to help me,” the white colt said. “Yep.” I decided it was better to keep my original intent to myself. At least I had gained one friend. It was all I really needed anyways. I was going to need him to show me around this city. “So, I'm... Visiting this city. I don't actually live here. Any chance you know this city well?” I asked. He nodded at me. “Sure, it would be the least I can do. I'm Gale Force.” “I'm Shining Star,” I responded as we began walking. I took a moment to look over Gale. He was a white unicorn with three clouds for a cutie mark. Two clouds were different shades of gray with an additional white cloud in the front. It was odd for anything other than pegasi to have weather based cutie marks. He noticed me examining it. “Meteorology, study of natural atmosphere changes.” Ah, meteorologist. A crucial member of weather teams production of weather related bullsh- He interrupted my thought. “I don't have to be up in the sky to study what it does.” I mulled that over for a few moments. “Can't weather teams change the weather pretty easily? Who cares what it does naturally.” He gained a slight smirk as he spoke. “Everypony living around here is so used to having weather teams they forget not everyone has them. Not to mention it's kind of important to keep track of more severe weather like tornadoes.” “I guess that makes sense.” I glanced towards Canterlot's castle. “Hey, have you ever been in there?” “I went up there with my dad once, the only ponies our age that go there regularly are the ones who are in the academy.” I raised an eyebrow in response. “You... Don't go to school?” He chuckled to himself. “Of course I do. I go to the regular school. The one up there is quite a bit more impressive. The only ponies who go to that one are either extremely talented, rich, or royalty.” That last part did not escape my attention. Royalty? I stopped walked and turned to him. “Rich or royal. When you say that do you mean royalty doesn't necessary have to be rich to go there?” He considered what I said for a few moments. “Well, I suppose? I mean I don't know any royalty that do not at least have a degree of wealth, upper middle class at least, if you will. But, yeah. I don't think royalty pays anything.” “Fascinating. And what do you know about the royals? Any particularly iconic ones around here?” “Well, there's blueblood. He is Celestia's cousin, three thousand times removed, or something,” He gained a slight smirk at his comment, “I've never actually met him despite being around our age. I'm not sure if he goes to the academy.” “Home schooled?” I asked. “Possibly,” he responded. A plan was slowly beginning to form in my mind. “So... How about, you know, adult royals?” … We took in the sites around Cabnterlot for a couple of hours as we chatted. It was occasionally just casual conversation but I made a point of learning everything I could about well known royals. It felt good to be chatting with someone, I was happy to be distracted from my situation for a while. We saw quite a few different places, a massive library, some kind of museum, the public garden, I didn't ask if we could visit the castle, specifically the part Celestia stayed in. It didn't seem likely that we would be able to just meet her like that but I didn't want to risk it. The idea of meeting her made me very uncomfortable, I didn't want to roll the dice on her being able to tell what I was. It couldn't last forever of course and we soon had to part ways. “Thanks for showing me around Gale,” I said. “No problem, if you ever visit this city again be sure to look me up,” he responded. I nodded to him before I walked away. He had shown me Canterlot's library during the tour of his city, which was good, I had quite a bit of studying to do before I could put my plan into action. I have no intention of living on these streets completely homeless. Someone royal, iconic, and above all, not currently present in this city or planning to return. Lets do this!
Canterlot Intruder II--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part II-- A new day had arrived and despite my exhaustion from a poor nights sleep hiding in the back of a library, I was ready. … A dark blue mare strode towards the Canterlot academy office, a fairly large structure set near the front of the castle. The mare let himself in through the double doors and waited alongside a few other ponies. Various looks were cast from the ponies in that room, each one searching the blue mare with a slightly befuddled look before settling into one of recognition. The blue mare took this as his cue to approach the front desk. “D-duke Astral Skye?” a nervous pony working behind the counter asked. The duke nodded at her in response. “I believe you can help me enroll my son?” She hesitated for a moment before suddenly scrambling to grab some papers. “Of course! I wasn't aware you had another child.” He gave an indifferent grunt at her attempt to chat. “I'm leaving Canterlot very soon and I need this taken care of immediately.” “Of course Sir! We-” “My son will be arriving here shortly. I take it I can trust you to handle this?” She stopped organizing her paperwork briefly. “Uh, sir? You mean letting you bypass the paperwork as well as setting up his living arrangements in the academy?” she squeaked out. The duke leaned in towards the counter slowly, “If you can't handle this, than I will find some-” “No need sir! No need!” She got into action immediately as the duke left. “...Just get this done.” … I kinda feel bad for being so mean to that poor pony. Duke Astral Skye. Very well known, absolutely terrible attitude. He was a good choice though, his well known aggressive personality made it easier to force my way through that conversation and he was leaving Equestria indefinitely to enjoy his retirement after he received some sort of injury, I didn't know the details. I couldn't find much information on his family, his wife was presumably joining him and he had two kids that had recently graduated from the academy. I have no idea where they are now. I let myself into a small shop's bathroom to change into Duke Astral's “child”. I didn't get too creative with my new appearance, instead opting to copy from pictures of the duke as a child. I locked the bathroom door and looked into the mirror. A green light flowed from my horn and wrapped around my body before bursting. In terms of appearance I pretty much looked the same. The only major difference was my dark blue fur and unicorn horn. I made a point of leaving my green eyes unchanged, I wanted something to be familiar when I looked in the mirror. I was about to unlock the door before noticing that something wasn't right about my disguise. I hadn't given myself a cutie mark. That was a problem, I would never gain a real one but if I made a fake one it would create the impression I was good at whatever skill it represented. And I'm off to the library again. I looked through the library for books on various cutie marks, particularly those commonly seen on unicorns. There were some vague looking ones with loose connections to astrology, They would make a good pick since I would never be expected to show my skill off seeing as no one would know what it really represented. However I eventually reached a section that contained magic related marks. Specifically, I took interest in a certain brand of them. My history class had briefly gone over a pony named King Sombra, he was the ruler of the now lost Crystal Empire, and specialized in using some kind of dark magic. I didn't enjoy the idea of it, but I figured being a changeling meant I would have a higher degree of talent in that field than any unicorn. A snicker escaped me at the notion that I had automatically become some sort of evil servant of darkness just from learning what I really was. I dug through magic related books trying to find any basic example spells that were similar to what King Sombra used, unfortunately there weren't any. So I dug through textbooks specifically about darkness magic, but many failed to go any further than a history lesson involving King Sombra and a few other historical ponies that learned that brand of magic. Ostensibly darkness magic existed, various ponies had used it throughout history. I was surprised to see that a cursory glance of those ponies history revealed that... some, of them hadn't used their power maliciously, leaving me confused as to why this magic appears to be so difficult to find information on. I put my last book up with a drawn out sigh before leaving the library. There's no information available on the subject, which actually kind of made the whole thing more appealing. I completely discarded the notion that being a changeling somehow meant I should be good at this, I was genuinely curious about it. There's nothing I can do about it. Enough time had passed for me to return to the academy office in my new form. I decided to leave my mark alone for now, it would be a couple more years before my lack of one became extremely concerning and I was sure I could find an appropriate one to fake by then. I was concerned about the fact that I couldn't really prove that I was the Duke's son, all I could really say to them was something along the lines 'Hey, I sorta look like him.'. It didn't end up being an issue though, I was asked if I was the Duke's son the moment I walked through the door by the pony from earlier. She looked stressed and seemed to be trying to get some paperwork taken care of quickly. “Yep, that is definitely me.” “Oh! Good, good...” She fumbled through a few papers before continuing. “I'm sorry your father didn't give me your name.” Whoops... Should of that about that earlier. “It's... Bright, er... Night,” I fumbled. She wrote something down. “Brighter Night? Got it.” “...Uh, yep.” It would work. She let out a frustrated sigh as she got her papers together. “I don't suppose your father arranged for you to have a place to stay while we get the enrollment process finished did he?” Now I feel really bad for being mean to her earlier. “No ma'am,” I said as innocently as I could manage. Inaudible grumbling escaped from her mouth, I was pretty sure I heard something accusatory directed at royals in there somewhere. A wide, obviously forced smile formed on her face as she spoke. “Well dear... I'll just have to take care of that... As well.” Those last two words came out quieter than what had come before. “Sorry about this... My dad is...” I let myself trail off wordlessly praying that this awful, awkward situation would resolve itself any second now. I was on cloud nine when a different pony showed up to take over for the mare in front of me. By the look of his uniform he was apparently in charge around this office, which hopefully meant he could assist me more easily than this mare could. “I got off the line with the academy, they have someplace they can put him right now. We got lucky, a few students just up and left.” A confused look crossed her face as she responded. “What happened?” “Dunno, students have been gone for 'bout a month now I think. They all disappeared just a week after the school year started. 'Nuff time has passed I suppose, they've decided to clear their rooms out.” A smirk formed on his face as he patted me on the head. “Your pretty lucky, perfect timing I would say,” “Yep,” Lucky. Right... … A few hours crept by painfully slowly as the pony finished up his work, evidently he was going to be escorting me personally. It would have been a very nice gesture but I couldn't help but get the feeling it had some sort of political motivation. The perks of being royalty I guess. I could not have been happier to finally get out of that boring office. The pony in charge of that place, a brown colored earth pony named Rustic, attempted to make some idle chatter with me a few times, but we really didn't have anything to talk about. He asked a few questions about my 'father' Duke Astral, but I really couldn't get into a conversation about it, I just ended up quoting some, according to his book, “interesting” facts from his biography. I had never even seen a school like the academy so I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew they had rooms for students to live inside the academy, I assumed it was for ponies who's families didn't live in Canterlot but wanted their children to go to a fancy school. The thought that Celestia lived very close to the academy hung around in the back of my head as I entered for the first time. The academy was right next to the castle and it actually looked like it was part of the castle grounds due to their similar aesthetic. A fence separating the two structures was the only thing keeping them apart. We stopped by the front desk so Rustic could take care of my enrollment before we were shown where my room was. The school was quite a bit larger than the one I had gone to, the school grounds had been broken down into multiple sections that contained different grade groups. The fifth to eighth graders went to the southern most building. Seventh graders were housed on the third floor of that building. Part of me kinda assumed that because Canterlot's elite go to this school it would be really fancy, a gargantuan room, filled with candy, at least one hot tub, the works. It didn't have any of those things of course, the room was kind of small but I had it to myself. I was always told you were supposed to have a roommate when you went to a school like this, I guess not having to share a room is a good thing but I still kinda felt like I was getting cheated out of the real experience. Rustic hung around for a bit after that, we still didn't have much to talk about. He was curious about my complete lack of luggage, which I didn't really have an answer for. I was glad when he was relieved by the schools headmaster. Rustic spoke first. “So... I guess I'm done here?” The headmaster, A gray colored stallion, responded, “Of course, thank you for taking care of this personally.” Rustic spoke as he walked away. “Yeah, well... Couldn't exactly send him up here by himself.” The headmaster turned to me after Rustic left. “Why is it that your parents couldn't escort you here?” I stiffened, “Oh, well... He- they had to leave immediately.” He raised an eyebrow expectantly at my response. “Uh, because...” “...” “Because, he was... late?” I asked. “I've always known the Astral to be quite punctual... Strange.” Uh oh, he knows the duke... “He also never threw his royal lineage around in such an inappropriate manner before.” The headmaster continued. I was frozen in place, I probably would have been hyperventilating if I could breathe. This is it... It's all over for me.
Canterlot Intruder III--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part III-- I took a deep breath, I couldn't afford to screw up here. I needed this place. The headmaster was picking apart my story with hardly any effort at all. The only chance I had at salvaging the situation was to dig for information. “How do you know th- my dad, sir,” I nervously asked. That question alone could sink me depending on how close those two were, unfortunately that's exactly what I needed to find out if I wanted to get through this. “Your siblings went here so we inevitably had to meet on occasion, he was... interesting to deal with.” His expression darkened slightly at the memories. There wasn't anything I could really say in response to that, apparently nobody was a fan of the duke. On the plus side... “You never got to know him personally then?” I asked. Please, please, please... He gave a relieved smile at the inquiry. “I'm afraid not,” he smirked. Oh thank Celestia for small favors... “So... What happens now, sir?” “I believe it would be best to show you around now, rather than wait til tomorrow.” The gray stallion snatched some papers resting on my table and handed them to me before leading me out of the room. They were a map of the school, my schedule and the academy pamphlet. I skimmed the pamphlet over first. Canterlot Academy Providing the highest quality education in Equestria for over three centuries. “This building is over three hundred years old?” I asked. “Well... No. Not this building anyways. The only original building standing is the northern one, other structures have been torn down or remodeled, in addition to what has been added as the academy has expanded.” There was nothing special in my schedule that differentiated it from the one I had in my school before, with the exception of a class related to magic. I was going to have to pray I was a fast learner, I had years to make up for in that area. Then again, unicorns at my school always said it was really boring, it sounded like the classes go over information related to magic rather than actually teaching spells. I had to take their complaints with a grain of salt though, despite what they said I frequently witnessed them showing off new spells their class taught them. Independent study was likely going to be necessary if I wanted to keep up in that class. The building that contained the classrooms for my dorm was directly next to it, this appeared to be true for every other dorm as well. I suspected I might not actually be seeing students outside my bracket that frequently, which frankly may be a good thing. The first floor of the classroom building didn't actually contain any classes, instead it had the cafeteria and a couple of recreational areas. The rest of the floor was devoted to holding offices and the teacher's break room. There were two stories above the first floor of this building that held the classrooms. All the grades shared the same auditorium and library. “Hey, I never got your name.” I said. “Hmm? Oh, my apologies, Silver Chain.” He offered his hoof to me. “Sh- Brighter Night,” I corrected, shaking it. It was a little more formal than what I got at my old school. I guessed it was just how upper class ponies behaved, I was going to have to make a point of working on my etiquette if I wanted to blend in better. There weren't very many other ponies around, it had been an hour or so since school had let out so the other students were likely in the rec rooms or their dorm rooms. I doubted I would have had very much trouble finding the right classrooms without his help seeing as I had a map and the schedule showed the room number for each class, but he went ahead and showed me to each room specifically. First class was pre-algebra, I wasn't sure what to make of it. We were at the pre-algebra level at my own school too, but in this one the eighth graders would move on to real algebra while the ones at mine were still being taught pre. It seemed to imply the course was either already ahead of mine here or the class just moved at a faster pace. I can already tell this is gonna suck. Good thing I'm actually pretty good at math. The second class was for magic. I literally had no clue how that class actually worked or what I was expected to do, I was really going to have to fake my way through it at the beginning. The teacher for that class was still present when I was shown the room and Silver Chain took the liberty of introducing me. Something I would have preferred he not do considering my complete lack of knowledge on the subject, the last thing I needed was for my scheming to fall apart from an introduction. She was a dark gray mare with a blue mane. “I'm Mirror Eclipse.” She offered her hoof to me as well. I accepted it. “Brighter Night.” As long as she doesn't ask me any questions about magi- “So, how skilled are you at magic?” Mother f- “I- I am... I mean, you know. Nothing special. About average really.” Stunningly she bought that, I was pleased when we moved on from her class right away. We didn't make it to the next one before being interrupted. “Why aren't you doing anything!? One of you knows something! You have to have seen something! Anything!” a pony shouted from downstairs. The shouting practically caused me to jump straight out of my skin. Silver Chain did not appear amused in the slightest. “Wait with Eclipse until I get back,” he said. I didn't oblige him, instead I pretended to move towards her class until he was out of sight and stalked him down the stairs. “You need to calm dow-” “Do not tell me to calm down!” “Local law enforcement will han-” “It was on your watch! Your responsible and you haven't done anything, they haven't done anything! You are the headmaster of this school and you didn't see anything!?” “Can we please talk about this inside my office?” Silver Chain insisted. There was a brief moment where I believed that the screaming pegasus was about to attack Silver Chain, but he very begrudgingly followed him instead. A green mare with a red mane who sat in one of the hallway's chairs spoke to me. “I'm sorry, you shouldn't have had to see that.” “Who was that?” I asked. “My husband. We were trying... He just came here to talk with the headmaster about our child.” My stomach clinched a little as it dawned on me who these people were. “Was your kid one of the ones that disappeared?” She hesitated to respond, which I took as an affirmative. “Do you miss him... or her?” I mumbled. She nodded silently. “Him.” I sat down on a chair placed next to her. “I'm sorry that happened to you.” She gave a weak smile that quickly faded. A few thoughts bubbled to the surface that had been hiding in the back of my mind. “I- It would be hard for any parent right?” I found myself struggling to figure out what I was trying to ask. She gave me a curious look. “I mean, any parent. They would miss the child they had raised no matter what. Right?” She nodded expressionlessly. Any parent would be happy to see their child again... I sincerely believed all I had to do was wait, I could still reconnect with my mom. After that, everything would be fine. “Can you tell me about him?” She hesitated for a moment, which made me believe I may have treaded on a topic that was too sensitive. I let out a breath I had unknowingly been holding when she finally spoke. “He was about your age. He had received his cutie mark a few weeks before school started, he was excited about showing it to his friends.” “What was his mark?” “Meteorology... odd for a unicorn, I still don't understand how he was even put in position to gain it.” She chuckled at the thought. I had not. “Wha- what was your child's name?” I asked, my voice shaky and breathless. “Gale Force, it was more of a pegasus name, but I obliged my...” I didn't hear the rest, couldn't hear the rest. He was walking around in public. He got into a fight that guards had to break up. he gave those guards his real name! “And... You haven't heard anything? They haven't seen him?” I had to force the disbelief in my voice down as I spoke. She silently shook her head. “I, uh. I have to go, thanks for talking.” I quickly got back on my hooves and went back upstairs. I wanted to tell her I had seen him, but it was just too great of a risk. Keeping my head low until I could go back home had to be my top priority. As I walked up the stairs I wished I had at least given her some encouragement, even if it was just something cliché like, 'I'm sure he's fine'. Maybe the only reason I wanted to say something like that was to relieve my guilt for doing nothing. There was something else though, he was fine. He didn't look like he had been living on the streets. He hadn't been kidnapped, he spent the entire day with me. He also said he didn't go to the academy, maybe he was just a runaway. I gloomily trotted back into Mirror Eclipse's classroom. She looked up from the papers on her desk when I walked in. “Something wrong, sweetie?” “Silver Chain told me to wait in here, he's talking with one of the parents.” Her ears lowered slightly, I assumed she realized which parent it was. “Ah, I apologize if he said anything in front of you that was inappropriate.” I shook my head. “No, he was just upset. It's fine, he didn't say anything.” The last thing I wanted was to cause any more problems for those two. I sat down in one of the desks to think about what I should do. I didn't feel like I could tell them that I saw Gale Force, my story was too flimsy to hold up under real questioning. Then again, maybe I could help them without outing myself. If I found Gale around town again I could convince him to come back home. Well... It's not like I have anything else to do here anyways. It'll feel good to help that mare too.
Canterlot Intruder IV--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part IV-- I tapped my hoof against the desk before me. My stomach tied itself into a knot in response to my confliction. On one hand, if I reunited them I risked being found out; on the other, their situation just hit too close to home for me. A harsh breath escaped my nostrils. There was only one option I could accept, I would help them. Hopefully a way would present itself that didn't actually involve throwing myself into the middle of it. Mirror Eclipse hadn't really said anything for the last few minutes. I was surprised, she seemed so extroverted. Then again, she was really focused on grading those papers. “You seem to be in a bit of a rush,” I said, pointing my hoof towards the papers in front of her. Mirror gained a crooked smile as she responded, “Oh, well. I... 'may' have procrastinated on getting these done earlier.” ...You “may” have? My eyebrow raised as I opened my mouth to question her before deciding to just let it go. At the very least it saved me from having to be questioned on my non existent knowledge of magic. Speaking of which... I snatched one of the extra textbooks that sat in the back of the classroom. It wasn't clear how much time I would have before Silver Chain finished his conversation, but I figured it was a good opportunity to see what I would have to be able to do in this class. As I flipped the book open I learned something, when you have been given the option of laying your head down on a desk or studying when a teacher is present it implies to said teacher that you are quite studious, rather than just desperately trying to make up for years of lost time. “You must really like this subject,” Mirror Eclipse beamed. This will not end well. “Uh, it's... Okay. I guess,” I mumbled, praying she would just drop it. “Uh-huh, I'll be looking forward to seeing what you can do in class.” My stomach clinched in response to what may as well have been a threat. Relief swept through me when I found that the first two thirds of the book was mostly just information about magic, not instructions on how to use it. Evidently the magic class was going to be more like having an extra history. I quickly skimmed through the first few chapters. A couple of familiar names popped up that I had seen in the cutie mark book, but I didn't really know much about them. The final third of the book contained information on actual spells and how to use them. I made a mental note of the ones that were described as 'general purpose', the term seemed to imply I should know how to use them. Of course I didn't... Better hope I'm a fast learner. Silver Chain's dialogue with the distraught couple took quite a while to settle down. I didn't get to see how the father was doing when he left, but there wasn't any shouting by the end; I assumed he must have calmed down before leaving. “Brighter?” Silver Chain asked as he walked in. “They left?” I asked, not looking up from my book. “They did.” I didn't pay much attention during the rest of the tour, that talk with Gale's mother drained me; I couldn't bring myself to care about my classes. The tour still served its purpose though, I knew where I would be headed in the morning. I plopped down onto my bed when I was dropped back off in my room. Multiple textbooks were laying on my table, someone must have dropped them off while I was getting the tour. As much as I wanted to go out and see if I could find Gale Force I stuck around to get a head start on studying magic. I didn't skim the pages this time, instead I opened to the first chapter and took my time with each page. Evidently the unicorns at my school had been right about one thing: this was boring. There were no tales of epic battles between master wizards, nothing about interesting experiments that inevitably resulted in gigantic explosions, just really boring facts about how a few ponies from thousands of years ago spent decades studying and researching magic. A frustrated groan escaped me upon finishing chapter one. I flipped through the book til I found the section on actual spells. It was about time I did something other than shape changing. I glanced out at the sun before starting. It was getting close to the horizon now, I'd probably have four hours or so until it would be lights out. Before starting on anything in the book I figured it would be a good idea to work out how that horn actually worked. I allowed a familiar sensation to build again, it was how I shape changed but it seemed like I could do something else with it. A harsh grunt escaped my mouth as I tried to figure out what I could do with the glow around my horn. I took a deep breath and followed my instincts, hoping I would have some inherit knowledge of how to utilize it. I tried... something. The light bounced around, never quite escaping. I tried something else. The light quivered and shined brighter before settling into its original form. Another effort resulted in the light throwing a green spark of fire out. Which caught on the wall. I lunged forward and stomped my hoof down on the small flame, snuffing it out. A small black smudge was left on the wall, I rubbed my hoof against it. I hope no one notices that. I didn't really understand how the light worked but I had some ability to alter it. How I was altering it wasn't really clear. It wasn't so much that I was generating magic so much as I was changing the light itself, the light brought magic about on its own. That glow was tapping into something I didn't really understand. This new understanding demanded I take a look at the actual instructions for casting spells. The first one I looked at was for levitation, the book described it as the universal spell. I took that to mean there would quite literally be no excuse for not knowing it, considering that two year old children typically have that spell mastered I had already taken that as a given. The book barely bothered to fit a single paragraph in to describe the spell. If I had to guess, previous grades had likely thoroughly gone over this one. Frequency: 50 (Neutral) Fre. Shifts: No Output: Varies (More for weight and surface area) Out. Shifts: No Emotional Catalyst: None Physical Catalyst: None Side Effects: None Special Properties: None “...” I blinked a couple of times at the words before me. “...What does this mean?” The only clue I had was the word neutral, it seemed to imply that “frequency”, whatever that was, gravitated towards that... Setting? Sure, setting. A glow wrapped around my horn yet again. This time I didn't actually try to do anything with it, instead just letting it be. I focused my attention on the book, trying to extend my influence onto it. My green glow wrapped around it, lifting it up far too quickly. The suddenness with which is snapped into the air caused me to let it go, sending it up into the ceiling. The book impacted against the ceiling with a loud thud, leaving a barely visible chip in the ceiling's material. The book fell back to the floor no worse for wear. I glanced towards the door, hoping no pony heard that. When no one came by after a few moments I resumed my practice. Rather than pick the book up with my hooves I tried putting it back on the table with magic. The usual glow surrounded the book, jerking it up in front of me. It was still too fast but I didn't lose my focus this time. I made an effort to move it less slowly over the desk, which didn't work at all as it once again blasted over to it. At least I was maintaining my grip on it. It was apparent to me at that point that I couldn't just make it go slower or faster on whim. I reflected on what output could mean before realizing I had control over how strong that glow was. The light around my horn and the book decreased very slowly, eventually the book drifted down towards the desk on its own. I made an effort to raise it back up to where I had been holding it but couldn't lift it at all. I was however, able to move it from side to side fairly easily. I increased the power I was sending out until the book reversed its drift back up. Apparently if I wanted to move something slowly I needed to use as little power as needed for the object, moving something faster required more. I wonder what my weight limit is... I wrapped my aura around the same book before trying to grab another book. The first book fell as I levitated the second. I glanced between the two books for a moment before backing up until they both were in my line of sight. My aura threw itself over both books simultaneously, the light wavered at first before gaining a firm grip. Both books snapped together immediately. A sigh escaped my mouth as I struggled with the spell. It took a few attempts to part them at all, this was due to the two separate auras fusing when they came together. Essentially they were treated as one object by the spell. I had to mentally split my focus on where I wanted the objects to go if I wanted to move them separately. My eyes widened as a few memories of unicorns moving multiple objects around simultaneously popped into my head. How is that even possible!? I gently, for once, placed both books back down before turning to my bed in the corner of the room. My aura stretched itself over my bed, the fabric of my covers and pillow pulled tightly into the mattress. I focused on raising it just slightly over where it was, I didn't want a repeat of the book with something that big. ...But it didn't budge. I allowed my horn to glow a little brighter. ...But it didn't budge. My horn glowed much brighter. ...But it still wouldn't budge. I strained myself to make the glow as bright and large as it could be, which wasn't actually that much brighter. The bed didn't do anything. “I wonder if I might be out of shape,” I pondered. I fell backwards onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I had made some progress but I was miles away from everypony else my age. I was gonna have to become the most devoted student this school ever saw if I would have any chance of catching up to my peers. I get the feeling I'm gonna be spending a lot of time alone in here doing this...
Canterlot Intruder V--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part V-- The buzz from an alarm clock felt like it had split my head open. I frantically threw my hoof over it, smashing down on the top of the clock. It finally shut off after a few attempts. The rush from being shaken awake wore off, leaving me feeling drained. My body ached; my head ached; I felt awful. What is wrong with me? It didn't feel like sickness, rather I felt very weak. I presumed that it was likely just a side effect of using magic for hours the night before. After I struggled to raise myself up I quickly collapsed from the painful strain. A familiar question crept into my mind. What happens when a changeling stops receiving love? My blood chilled at the thought. Starvation wasn't a good way to go... I assumed. I forced myself to focus on the fact that I had used magic quite a bit the night before, hoping that this was just exhaustion. Another effort resulted in me finally rolling out of bed, only to deliver a hard thump against the floor. I had to struggle just to stand up. I breathed deeply a few times before making one final push up onto my hooves. My legs wobbled under my weight. I stumbled towards the door. My hoof smacked down on the table for support when I lost balance; my breathing became a bit more ragged. A shadow was visible in the slit of light under the door. Somepony was standing in front of it. “Hello?” I mumbled weakly. I didn't receive a response. A few shaky steps later and I reached the door. My weight fell against it as I opened the door, falling forward with it. A hoof caught me before I touched the ground. I looked up at an angel, a figure of benevolence. Pitch black eyes stared down at me. Everything was fine in that moment. All my fears, my doubts, everything that ate at me that had been forced into the back of my mind melted away. My strength returned, my confidence became fortified; I wanted to stay here. With her. Foreve- I snapped upright. My alarm was going off, but it wasn't as painful as before. My eyes fixated upon the ringing clock for half a minute before my hoof gingerly pressed down on it. My limbs shook, and my breath was ragged. I didn't feel weak anymore though; in fact, I felt great. The strength flowing through me was familiar; I had it when I first went walking towards Canterlot. That dream was invigorating to experience. That dream... I struggled to think about what it had been, but too much time had passed. A few vague figments remained, bits of imagery, a little emotion. Those pitch black eyes remained in my mind though, and they didn't scare me. Thinking about them was strangely comforting. Shuffling could be heard outside the door. The other students were leaving their rooms to get breakfast, I thought about whether I wanted to eat or not. My stomach felt empty, but it didn't really feel like hunger; just emptiness. I sat on the bed's edge for about fifteen minutes debating what I wanted to do. Part of me would of preferred to lay down until class started; I didn't feel like going out there. Mingling with the other students would probably be a good idea though; staying holed up all day might come off as weird after a while. I shook my head glumly before getting on my hooves. As I approached the door I snatched a bag lying under the table before several books were levitated into it. A smirk formed on my face upon realizing how automatically I had been able to do that. My hoof stopped just short of opening the door, waiting until I couldn't hear anything outside of it. I didn't want to risk having to talk to anyone. My brows furrowed; I didn't know why I didn't want to see anyone. The door creaked as it edged open; my head poked out from the ajar door, searching the hall for any other ponies. A few loitered around the hall, casually chatting with each other. I took a deep breath and put on a brave face before moving on. … The food wasn't as cheap as I expected. It wasn't great, but it was–as far as cafeteria food goes–pretty passable. I sat alone in a table near the corner of the room. A cursory glance of the room raised a red flag; there were not a whole lot of students. The crowd seemed like it should have been much larger than it was if the entire student body ate here. I levitated my bag in front of me and dug around for the school pamphlet. After locating it, I flipped through the pages, looking for anything describing the number of students that went to the school. I didn't find anything more descriptive than “A large number of students” go here. My thoughts immediately went to Gale Force. This might be bigger than I thought. I tapped my hoof against the table. This entire situation was going into a downwards spiral. regardless, I wasn't going to give up; I would still try to find Gale Force after school. Perhaps I was just jumping to conclusions though. There was still hope that the small number of students could be explained; some students probably lived off campus, some may not eat breakfast, or the class size may just be that small. I laid my head down on the table and closed my eyes. Despite my energy, I always felt sleepy when I woke up early. Strange imagery fluttered through my head. The cafeteria at my old school formed in my mind; I saw some of my old friends. I wondered what they're doing right now; I wondered how they reacted to the news that I was a changeling. Lyrical seemed pretty stunned. “Excuse me.” A feminine voice spoke. My eyes snapped open. I glanced to around until I spotted a young mare with green fur standing behind me. The red dress she wore prevented me from being able to see her cutie mark. She looked at me expectantly. “What?” I asked. She flinched before speaking again. “Oh- sorry, sorry! Yes...” I placed a hoof on my forehead, wishing she would hurry up. “Are you new here?” ...Obviously? I kept my remark to myself as I responded, “yep.” “Good! Maybe you can help me.” “...” “Well... How do I put this?” She dug her hoof at the tiled floor a few times. “Students have been disappearing and no one is noticing anything!” I stared at her for a solid minute before responding, “how many students exactly?” “I'm not sure, over a hundred... Maybe.” My jaw nearly hit the floor. I felt my confidence waver; this was way bigger than I thought. Keeping out of it completely suddenly seemed a lot smarter. “I saw Ga- some parents, up here yesterday. They noticed that their kid was missing.” “They must be like me. Some ponies just noticed the change.” “I've gotta go.” I said, quickly getting up and leaving for my first class. “I- wait!” I broke into a full sprint as soon as I walked outside, leaving her behind. I had three different classes with her, and in every single one she sat next to me and kept trying to talk; it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore her. This came to a head in the last class of the day. “Hey, uh. Brighter, right?” a red earth filly sitting next to me whispered. I kept my gaze forward while peering to the side. “Yep.” “Oh, good. I know Radiant. My name's Triumphant.” I glanced towards my opposite side, where the green pony was sitting. “I kinda figured.” A hoof tapped the back of my shoulder. “I'm Sky Wing.” I twisted around to see a light blue pegasus. Oh dear Celestia... They have me boxed in. I glared at Radiant. “You're not letting this go are you?” She only gave me a broad smile in response. I bolted out of that classroom as soon as the bell rang. I didn't get far. Triumphant tackled me as soon as I stepped outside, flooring me. “Okay! Okay! I'll help. Just get off me!” I shouted. Radiant helped me back onto my hooves. “Sorry. We just really need all the help we can get trying to crack this case.” “'case'?” “Yes sir. We're investigators!” I failed to hold back a chuckle. “So what you really want is for me to join your little club?” Her expression darkened instantly. “Hey! We're a serious investigation team!” “Yep, I definitely believe you.” I rolled my eyes before trying to walk away, only to be blocked by Sky. We regarded one another for a few moments before I spoke up. “I saw Gale Force.” “We know, I was there.” Sky responded. “What?” I said. Radiant put a hoof around Sky. “We've had him tail them from up in the sky whenever they came into town. We're trying to figure out where the missing kids go.” She pointed at me. “You, have earned his trust. You, can get him to take you to wherever they are gathering.” I scratched at the dirt with one of my hooves. This could end badly for me; I could be found out; I could be killed by whatever is doing this. Despite my reservations, I thought back to Gale's mother. Imagery of her crying sent a shudder through me. “Alright... I'll do this.” Radiant let out a high pitched squeal in response. “Yes! We're finally going to solve a case!” 'Finally'? How many “cases” have they tried to solve? Their questionable claim as 'investigators' aside, it looked like we might be able to do some good here. All I needed to do was find Gale Force again; I was certain that he could be convinced to show me where all the other kids went, and why no one has noticed their disappearance. Thinking back to that dream I had sent a chill though me. It felt comforting to see those black eyes, but I wondered if it was somehow related to what happened to the students. Then again, maybe all the other ponies in this town gaining a blind spot in regards to my existence would be a good thing. It would certainly make blending in easier. Triumphant's hoof patted my shoulder. “C'mon, we need to fill you in on what we've figured out so far.” I followed them but didn't really expect much. Their entire group seemed more like a small club than kids seriously trying to help people. Their presence did give me an opportunity; If we managed to bring all those students back I could make sure they got credit for it instead of me, shielding me from too much exposure. Regardless, I'm probably going to need their help here no matter what.
Canterlot Intruder VI--Canterlot Intruder-- --Part VI-- I was too weak to move, but it was fine; I didn't need to. Her black eyes watched over all of us, keeping us safe. We were loved, and we were a family. We were all strangers before, but she brought us together. She saw how unhappy we had been, how we needed a mother who genuinely cared about us. We sat at a massive rectangular table. It never seemed to end; it's length ran off into the empty red horizon. I couldn't count how many of us were sitting at it. We each sat perfectly still, eyes locked with mother's. A plate sat in front of each of us, but it had no food; I didn't need it of course. I could feel her love radiating out into each of us; a rush of energy threatened to overpower the weakness I felt. All eyes were on me, each one unblinking. She spoke for the first time. “Won't you stay with us?” Murmurs rose from the surrounding crowd, all asking me to stay. The alarm woke me up again. I felt incredible. My body was brimming with energy. I had spent the entire previous night going through the textbook for my magic class again. I failed to cast any of the spells in the book; hopefully I would figure it out before I had to display any magic in class. I hadn't been any more productive earlier that day either. Sky Wing tailed me from up in the sky while I walked around Canterlot trying to find Gale Force. We stayed out for as long as we could, but Sky was eventually stopped mid-air by one of the pegasus guards and sent home. Evidently, they didn't even notice me. I swear, it's like those guards can't even see me. I skipped breakfast that day; I was still kind of avoiding the club I had been muscled into. I knew the effort was largely futile of course, seeing as how I had three classes with Radiant. Her constantly trying to chat with me was growing very annoying considering that I had pretty much been transplanted into this school mid-semester. I was struggling to catch up with the class, and the last thing I needed was to be chatting in class and spending hours outside looking for random students. Well, I had already committed to helping them by this point; I pretty much had to see it through. Mirror Eclipse was taking attendance. “Solar?” She asked, glancing around. “Where is everypony? That's the sixth one.” Radiant's ears perked up immediately. I gave her a curious look. Mirror set her attendance sheet down as she scanned the class. “Half the class is gone? Is there something going on today I don't know about?” she asked, looking through her school calender. Students began to stir, looking around at the class, as if they only just now realized how empty it looked. I leaned closer to Radiant. “What's happening?” She mulled my question over before responding, “I'm not sure.” Nopony in the room had a real answer to give her, so Mirror simply continued on. I assumed that she planned to check out what was going on after class was over. Things didn't get better as the day went on; teachers continued to notice the missing students. School was canceled altogether just a couple of classes later. ...Which freed us up to search for the missing students. I waited next to the front gate for Radiant to show up with the others. She had no idea why the missing ponies were suddenly noticed; I wasn't so sure we were going to find any of them if the city went on the high alert to look for them. That wasn't such a bad thing though, all the guards in the city working together would be more effective than the four of us. It was a bit of a relief really. I recoiled back when Sky landed next to me with a hard impact. “Hey!” I yelled. “Sorry, sorry... sort of.” He smirked at me. I can already tell I'm not gonna like you. “I'm sorry about him,” Triumphant said, as she trotted up to us with Radiant. “Are you ready?” Radiant asked. I nodded to her and walked out the gate. Canterlot had gone on high alert, big time. Ponies were freaking out. Various high ranking members of the guard were addressing the public on different streets, attempting to calm everyone down. “We assure you, Celestia herself is leading the charge on this- We will find out what is happening!” Some of the ponies were crying; I think they were the parents of those kids. I ducked back into an alley, motioning for the others to follow. “I don't think they're going to let us walk around much longer.” “Why don't we just sneak around them?” Sky asked. “In broad daylight?” Radiant asked sarcastically. That's not such a bad idea... For me anyways. A quick glance into the street revealed a couple of students being escorted back to the school. “I have an idea,” I pointed at Sky Wing, “fly up there,” I said, pointing up towards the sky. “...Why?” He raised an eyebrow skeptically at me. “Trust me.” I struggled to suppress my growing smirk. He looked at the others briefly before hesitantly flying straight up. I was on edge, waiting for them to show up. Which they did. A couple of pegasus guards flew next to him and I instantly bolted. “What are you doing!?” Radiant yelled after me. I twisted around while sprinting just in time to see the same guard land next to them. He looked towards me before I rounded the corner into another back alley. After rapidly scanning the alley and sky I shape shifted into an adult earth pony. I casually walked towards the street. “Hey, you!” I nearly leapt out of my skin. “Did you see a kid run by here?” The pegasus had caught up with me. I pointed towards the street. “That way.” He took off immediately. “Thanks!” I smirked at my deception while walking towards the castle; if Celestia was going to make an announcement, it would probably be there. There was no need to rush to get there; I hadn't heard anything about her making an announcement just yet. I listened intently to everypony I passed, trying to pick up on any recent developments. Rumors about what was really happening were rampant, most of them ridiculous; my favorite was that a traveling circus had brainwashed all of the missing foals. My least favorite was that changelings had kidnapped all of them to drain their emotions. A large crowd was waiting outside of the castle; I didn't like being stuck in large crowds, so I stayed away form it until Celestia allowed them inside after about half an hour of waiting. I was a little excited, since I had never seen her in person. The thought that she could detect what I really was still lingered though. Stain glass windows were placed all over the lobby, it took my breath away to see the works of art built into them. One of the windows contained the image of a white alicorn flying beside the sun with a black one on the opposite side, accompanied by the moon. I raised an eyebrow at the image, the sun side was probably supposed to be Celestia. I didn't know who the other one was supposed to be. Nightmare moon? There was nothing malicious about the lunar side of the stain glass. Both alicorns were depicted exactly the same. I shrugged at it as I joined the crowd. It was weird being the same height as the adults. A voice boomed out over the ruckus of the crowd. “Everypony, please listen!” It was a royal guard shouting from up above us. The crowd slowly died down. Celestia herself walked ahead of him, now in clear view of the crowd atop a balcony. “A tragedy has befallen this city,” her regal voice boomed. “Well over two hundred foals have vanished from this city, and nopony was aware of it until today.” Her numbers didn't immediately check out until I remembered that there was another school that was probably missing students too. Her voice only seemed to get louder as she spoke. “How we all could have been unaware of this is uncertain, but I promise all of you, here and now; we will recover our missing foals, we will find out who did this, and they will face justice for what they have done!” The crowd exploded in reaction to her passion, I couldn't help but join them. They- We wanted justice for this. I should make sure to never make an enemy of the princess. My blood was boiling along with the crowds, we wanted to go out and start kicking doors down. The more rational part of my brain kicked in a few moments later; I was letting myself get too caught up with the crowd. I had a way to help, and it wasn't by shouting angrily at an unknown threat with a bunch of other ponies. I departed immediately. It didn't seem likely that she had anything substantial to say anyways, they only knew about the missing foals for a few hours. My desire to return Gale Force to his family returned ten fold, but it was more than that. I wanted to return all of the missing foals to their families. My mind wandered back to my own mother briefly, there was a hint of doubt. I quashed it immediately. Frustration built up upon realizing the town actively searching for the missing students would prevent me from finding one. I bitterly thought back to my previous relief that the guards would do the work for us. Regardless, there had to be some hope that I could make a difference here. First thing first, I was going to have to apologize for-quite frankly-screwing over the others. Hopefully telling them about my first hand account of Celestia's announcement would make up for it, if only because it proved I seemingly had a reason for what I did. Technically I did have a reason, it just had more to do with Sky Wing than our goal. My only chance was to search at night, it was the only time the missing students would wander around with the town like this. This was assuming they would even show up again. I trotted towards the academy until my attention was caught by an odd looking pony. She seemed to be an earth pony but... her fur was just, wrong. It was shiny, like she was wearing a porcelain shell around her body; I couldn't see her face. Nopony around paid her any mind; they continued to walk to their respective destinations. I took a few tentative steps in towards her. Her head craned in my direction, revealing her pitch black eyes. They froze me in my tracks. Seeing them brought out vague memories from my sleep. Time slowed down in that instant, the crowd seemed to all blur together; none of them noticed me or her. She took slow, trembling steps in my direction. I couldn't react in any way, instead allowing her to keep approaching me. When she stood face to face with me she finally spoke up, her voice distorted. “I'vE foUnD yoU... You DoN't hAve tO hiDe wHat yOu arE fRoM mE.” I stared at her. “ComE wiTh mE.” Her features barely sunk in; her coat was smooth, like it was made from hard material. Her mouth failed to move when she spoke. ...What are you?
