My Little Changeling: Friendship is Survival

Prologue

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...