Chapters Seeing things in a different light
‘Alright well laying on the ground isn’t getting me anywhere,’ I think as I try to stand up on my new hooves. I’ve already been here for about a half hour and all I’ve done is complain, feel sorry for myself, and scream about my new form. I walk uhhh…trot over to the nearby lake to get a good look at myself and luckily the lake is sparkling clean.
The lake confirms my suspicions and I can see a black disfigured horn, bug-like wings, holes in my new hooves, and black chitin covering my body. I am definitely a changeling from the show My Little Pony but now luckily, although I would never admit it back home, I know everything about the show. It took me a second to realize that I don’t know how changelings transform into somepony and I would definitely need that ability.
‘First things first I should learn how to fly and use magic so I can at least pass as somepony. I also need to think of a name because I’m sure Dave isn’t gonna cut it. Pony name…pony name…maybe uhhh?’ I kept trying to come up with a new name but I was never good at coming up with names. “I’ve got it” –I said realizing I was talking to myself- “My name will be Blaze. Just Blaze.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took me a few hours but about an hour before nightfall I had finally learned everything that I should need to become a pony. It took about five minutes to figure out the disguise, about two hours with the wings, and learning magic took at least three hours but I finally felt I was ready. The only thing left for me to do now is get some rest and try to find a town in the mourning.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I awoke when I heard voices. It was definitely a conversation but I didn’t think anything of it so I ignored it and looked towards the sun to check the time. If my military knowledge was still valid in this world then it was about ten o’clock. ‘I guess yesterday really took it out of me if I slept this long.’ I thought but decided to disregard it and make my way into town.
I took off to try and find town and apparently I wasn’t too far away from it because I could see what looked like a track. There were a lot of pegasi using it to build their wing muscles so I thought about turning into a pegasus but decided that magic was more useful in the long run. I concentrated and made a mental image of a blue unicorn stallion with a deep red mane and just as I had practiced I became said unicorn.
Right before my body was covered in the green transformation flame I realized what an idiot I was. I forgot one little detail. I was about twelve feet off the ground and unicorns can’t fly. The green flame surrounded my body and just like I thought I started falling. ‘Great not even two days in and I made such a stupid mistake. OWWW.’ I finished my thought just before I hit the ground.
I got up and made sure nothing was damaged too badly before turning and walking towards the pegasi I had seen earlier. On my trot over I realized that the track reminded me of something but I didn’t want to assume anything. If I were going to assume that everything from the show is actually going to happen then I would say I arrived just before the wedding.
I stopped in my tracks both from realization and due to me hitting the forest edge. ‘If it is before the wedding then I have to warn somepony about it.’ I stop thinking for a minute because that is way too much assuming for me so I look at what is around me. It’s a clearing and on the other side is the track I had seen earlier so I casually trot up to the track since staying put doesn’t get anything done. Of course being a fan of the show I can recognize Rainbow Dash even at this distance and she is talking to somepony.
As I get closer I realize that she is talking to Fluttershy and that’s when I finally remembered that this is exactly like the episode Hurricane Fluttershy. My mind instantly races so much that I almost ran into somepony but when my mind slows down I catch the last part of their conversation.
“I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash. I just can’t do it,” Fluttershy said as she was leaving.
I think somepony said something shortly after that but it was just too much of a coincidence for me to continue on a single train of thought. I saw everypony going somewhere so I just followed them and after a little bit of walking past some shrubs and a few trees I had finally found it. It was almost exactly as the show described but it had enough similarities for me to recognize the town of Ponyville.
I saw Ponyville and it gave me a great idea. How do you learn about a world that couldn’t exist? Easy you go to their school so after a thorough inspection of my surroundings I turned myself into a unicorn colt with a white mane with black streaks and a light blue coat. I was surrounded in green flames and I quickly looked myself over before going to school but the only thing wrong was my coat was a few shades darker than what I wanted.
Shortly after I walked into town I was dragged to the place I wanted to be by a police pony. I looked up at the sky again an it looks like it only took about two hours to get this far. All of the kids where out back enjoying recess I guess but the cop and the teacher who I recognize as Cherilee. They talked for a bit and Cherilee scolds me for a bit but then I get to join the other kids for recess.
“Hey,” I hear so I turn around and come face-to-face with an eager unicorn filly with a white coat and a half-purple half-pink mane and tail whom I recognize as Sweetie Belle.
“Hello,” I try to say as energetic as I can but I’m getting hungry and its being distracting.
Seeing things in a different light
“Hello,” I said watching Sweetie Belle look me over probably looking at my cutie mark.
“Hey ya’ll don’t gats your cutie mark yet,” Apple Bloom says as she makes her way over.
I glance at my flank and realize that I did indeed forget about a cutie mark so I answer, “No, not yet.”
“Yah wanna join the-” Sweetie Belle pauses for a breath and I already know what comes next so I put my hooves to my ears. Even with it muffled by my hooves I can hear them both say, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!”
It took me a second to remember the CMC has three Ponyville members but I know I shouldn’t know that so I just said, “Sure.” I knew that my new life was going to be a lot more interesting from this point onward.
~~~~~~~~~~
I had a long day not because of crusading, my initiation was postponed until Scootaloo is at least informed, but I had made a lot of friends today. As I watched the sunset I had realized that I have nowhere to sleep so I made my way back to where I started because I knew it was safe enough. On my way back I noticed something shining in the moonlight so I went to investigate.
As soon as I saw I was instantly glad I had come back to where it all began. On the other side of the lake in some bushes I found the backpack I had a few days ago when I was walking over to my friend’s to go on vacation with them. I opened my backpack and funneled some magic into my horn for light and inside was everything I was going to take on my vacation.
~~~~~~~~~
I was in my house playing a game when I heard the phone ringing so I paused my game and answered the phone.
“Hello,” I said slightly annoyed.
“Hey. I heard you just finished college again and I wanted to invite you with us on a cross country road trip. Unless you think you’re too smart for us now,” Steve sort of asked but it sounded more like a demand. I had known Steve since I was really young when his parents started to look after me.
“Just tell me when we’re leaving,” I said a little excited about seeing the county I was protecting for four years now.
“We’re leaving in one week so be prepared and I’ll see yah then.” He replied about as excited as I was and hung up. I turned to return to my game and my house fell apart around me.
~~~~~~~~~
As my eyes opened I could see that last night wasn’t entirely a dream and my backpack had come across with me. I look at the usually mundane black leather pack with an old used-to-be silver keychain. I never did like the keychain but I kept it on my backpack at all times because it was the only thing I had from my biological mother. I hold it in my hoof and let a single tear fall for my real mother.
I turned from my unicorn colt into a pegasus stallion but once again I needed to come up with a name. I had to be introduced as Blaze at school but two ponies with the same name in the same town is unrealistic. Being bad with making names I decided to call this form Frost since blaze also means fire and frost also means ice.
Once again I made my way into town but I don’t have school today since the pegasi are funneling water up to Cloudsdale with a giant tornado. I made my way over to Carousel Boutique to get a saddlebag since I now have something important to carry. I didn’t try my backpack because I knew it would impede on my flying and I might need to fly if something goes wrong.
Before I opened the door to the Carousel Boutique I looked over my form. I had a light blue coat with a white mane and a simple snowflake as a cutie mark. I figured I got lucky this time and next time I should pick a form and create a name to go with it. I finally pushed open the door and I heard a small bell.
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique where everything is chic, unique, and magnific. How my I help you?” Rarity said in her usual tone but she was never my favorite character on the show so I didn’t want to spend too much time here especially if Pinkie sees me.
“I would like to order a saddlebag made out of a good material. I have some one-of-a-kind items that just can’t be replaced,” I say honestly but also a little annoyed though I’m not sure why.
“Of course, I can have your saddlebag ready by tomorrow,” She answered cheerfully as she takes my measurements so that it will fit perfectly. I had already considered this so my form is the same size as my changeling form. When she was done I started walking towards the door but again stop before opening it.
“I’ll be by tomorrow afternoon to pick it up. Thank you,” I said walking out the door. I opened my left wing to make sure that my wallet didn’t fall out and sure enough it was still there. I trot back to my little sanctuary and think about how lucky I was that my money had turned into bits on its crossing.
I was nice enough at school to get a few friends and their friendship had given me a little something to eat but I was still hungry. When I was younger I didn’t want to put my godparents into a financial situation so I ate as little as I could to keep costs down. It was stupid and I was usually hungry but it always felt right so I was actually a pretty skinny kid.
I shook my head not wanting to think about my home too much so instead I think about how I was fortunate enough to avoid Pinkie Pie so far. I knew if I ever ran into her she would definitely get on my nerves but I was also trying to avoid all of the Elements of Harmony. Instead of thinking I dropped my disguise and grabbed my GAMEBOY out of my backpack since it should be fully charged.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that playing a game with hooves is hard even though I was playing Pokémon. I always liked the game and it had some nostalgia for me so I usually have it with me in case I get bored. I sat and played for a few hours before I heard some crashing nearby so I went to investigate. I found a pegasus in the woods not far from my camp but she looked like she was in rough shape.
Looking her over I realized that she had a broken wing although I’m not sure how I could tell just by a quick examination since I know nothing about pony physiology. I really wanted to help her so I disguised myself as a unicorn and tried to levitate her to the hospital in Ponyville. I channeled some magic into my horn but something didn’t feel right. She was surrounded in my aura but the spell was more taxing than a simple levitation.
I tried to stop but the spell kept on going and when I looked up to see if I was hurting her I noticed that she was actually being healed. I would have been thrilled about this ability of mine but I was exhausted. A few seconds after I started I was finished and she was fully healed but it took so much energy I couldn’t hold my disguise. She started waking up and there was about an hour before dark so I took my leave.
It made me feel great that I could help somepony by actually healing them even though it was very taxing. I put my GAMEBOY back in my backpack and laid down to get some rest witch usually takes a while since I slept on the ground but I was so exhausted that it only took a few seconds.
Seeing things in a different light
I was packing my backpack with everything that I could take to entertain myself during our cross-country tour. I was very excited about it and we are leaving tomorrow mourning but everyone agreed to meet at Steve’s house today. It’s mainly so we can catch-up and get to know each other before we leave since some of us have never met before.
My bag was completely packed with a bunch of my electronics since everyone will get bored eventually and I like to know I have as many options as I can get for entertainment. It’s funny because usually I’ll just watch the scenery and listen to music or talk to my friends but I like having the option open. With my backpack packed with my electronics, wallet, and some extra batteries and my duffle bag packed with some clothes and food I decide I’m ready to go.
I walked out my door and locked it since I’ll be gone about a month or two for this trip I start my walk to my friends house. Steve actually lives a few blocks from my house so I decide to walk and after about a minute I’m glad I did. I stopped in my tracks because the sky looked like it was short circuiting. It was an amazing light show even though I was worried about what it might mean.
The near the end there was an enormous beam of green light that cleared the skies of clouds. The light barely missed the nearby mountain and continued into space. The sky continued its light show for a few more minutes before it got brighter than any day I have ever seen but when the light faded I blacked out. A few hours later I awoke as a changeling and worried, screamed, and complained for a few more hours before I was determined to get moving.
~~~~~~~~
My eyes opened slower than usual but I guess it shouldn’t be surprising since I used so much energy yesterday. My eyes shoot open and I jump back a little when I see the mare that I helped last night. Maybe if I’m lucky she couldn’t see me last night since it was dark but as far as I know ponies don’t have night vision. Now that I think about it I could see much better at night than I used to so maybe I do have night vision.
My train of thought is destroyed when I hear her making some cute mourning sounds but I didn’t have time for useless thoughts so I simply turned into Frost. She rolled over and looked at me with a questioning look on her face. ‘Maybe she did see me last night. If she did then this is going to be a very long day,’ I thought as I tried to get the courage to talk to her and find out what she knows.
“Hello,” I finally said giving her the same confused and questioning look that she was giving me.
“Hey,” She said as she stood up while keeping her eye on me like I might vanish if she would look away.
“Why are you here?” I asked bluntly since I just got up and didn’t want to deal with this crap.
“I remember drinking, I flew away, then I don’t know I just crashed and then I found this place,” she answered truthfully. Again I am thankful of my new changeling abilities.
“I’m gonna head into town if you wanna join me,” I said plainly since I don’t wanna leave her alone with the stuff from my world.
“There’s a town around here?” she asked obviously not remembering anything from last night.
“It’s about a five minute tort that way,” I answer pointing a hoof towards Ponyville.
“I’ll follow you into town but you’re on your own after that,” she said making me perk up a little.
‘That’s exactly what I wanted to hear from her,’ I thought as we made our way into town. The walk there was silent so it wasn’t hard to hear what sounded like a stampede coming towards us. I instantly took off and hid in a cloud while the mare froze in fear but from what I could see it was a one pony stampede.
It was the same pony I had been trying so hard to avoid, Pinkie Pie. She bounced around the mare for a while before rushing back into Ponyville. While I was on the cloud I was thinking about what I would do about the invasion and I decided that gaining ponies trust would be very difficult and I don’t have that kind of time. I decided to make this my last day around here and tomorrow I would go to the changelings.
I took one last look at the mare that I had helped and now that I wasn’t worried about something she looked pretty. She had a mixture of yellow and orange in her mane, a bluish green coat, and a lightning bolt with a few stars at the bottom for a cutie mark. I face hoofed when I realized that I had left my money back at camp so I went back to grab it. As camp came into view I could swear I saw something nearby but I couldn’t see it when I landed so I ignored it and grabbed my money.
Seeing things in a different light
Canterlot was as peaceful and posh as always, there were ponies going about their daily mundane business but some of their business is more important. The castle is usually a pretty boring place with no really important business but in a highly secured room under the castle two pegasi are discussing very important business.
“This isn’t something anything can deal with. Even us,” the mare said worriedly.
“Maybe if the others were still alive,” the stallion countered obviously annoyed.
“There isn’t anything we could have done then and nothing we can do now,” she shuddered at the memory of their fallen comrades.
“Maybe your right but if we don’t do anything we could…no we will lose everything,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“I know but we both know that even our full powers combined wouldn’t fix this problem,” she retorted.
The two pegasi flinched when the door opened flooding the room with light. The mare had a deep red mane, sky blue coat, and magenta eyes. The stallion had a jet black coat, emerald green eyes, and a black cloak covering his mane and tail. The two pegasi looked to the open door to see an alicorn with a bluish-purple and light purple mane, a deep purple coat, and blue eyes.
“Princess Luna,” the two pegasi said as the Princess bowed to the two.
“Have you made any progress on solving the problem yet?” she asked as she arose from her bow.
“Maybe…” the stallion said trailing off. He was obviously thinking if his plan could work.
“Care to inform us of your new plan?” the mare asked. He started looking around like he didn’t mean to say that.
“Yes, we would like to know what you’re thinking,” Luna added.
“Well-” he dropped his head and the other pegasus caught on.
“Absolutely not! That would only make this problem worse,” she said confusing Luna.
“If you have another option I’d love to hear it,” he said annoyed and slightly angry.
“There has to be another way! SHE CAN’T BE TRUSTED!” her voice raising with every word.
“She is the only one with the power to help. Not to mention she has better control over everything than any creature and if this problem gets any worse nothing will survive,” he countered.
Tired of not understanding their conversation Luna finally spoke up, “What is your suggestion?”
“This idiot” –she pointed to the stallion- “intends to release Nightmare and use her powers to fix this problem.”
“Nightmare, I was Nightmare remember?” Luna said earning a chuckle from the others.
“You were possessed by a strand of her hair,” she corrected.
“Nightmare is easily the strongest creature in existence and has even destroyed a few universes,” he continued.
“She is also the reason our numbers are dwindling,” she added sadly as he looked down in shame.
“How many of you are left?” Luna asked with concern.
“There are only five of us left, Princess,” she answered.
“Actually Raiyu, Reiyu, and Rieyu fell trying to solve this problem,” he corrected.
“They were our three strongest! If they couldn’t solve this then how can we?” she half yelled and half asked.
“Exactly why I even considered Nightmare as an option, she has killed thousands of us already,” he retorted.
~~~~~~~~~~
‘I finally got my saddlebag and I guess next thing I should do is get something to give me an edge on the changelings,’ I thought as I noticed a blacksmith shop. I trotted into a few stores and walked up to a few stands and ordered what I needed before going back to his camp to put his edge together. After I was done with all the preparations I transferred my things from my backpack to my new saddlebag. I liked it; it was a nice deep shade of blue mixed perfectly with a lighter shade of purple.
As I sat on a nearby hill, and watched the sunset for what might be the last time, I noticed something flying not too far away. It was a phoenix and it was obviously tamed so I grabbed it in my magic and brought it to me. I didn’t want to believe it but with what had transpired in the few days I had been here everypony did almost exactly what they did in the show but with no singing.
I grabbed a small canister that was leftover from my preparations and wrote a quick note to attach to the phoenix. I tied the canister containing the note to the phoenix and released it from my magical grip hoping that I was right just this once. If I was right then the phoenix will go to Princess Celestia and she will prepare for the upcoming invasion. I pushed my worries to the back of my mind and lay down to get some sleep.
~~~~~~~~~
I was in the middle of Canterlot without a disquse and I watched as Celestia as defeated by Chrysalis but this time Luna was there. It took me a minute to realize that Luna wasn’t part of my dream but actually in my dream. I trotted up to the surprised Princess to try and talk to her about this dreadful battle.
“This battle is going to happen soon and maybe if you’re here this time it will end quicker,” I said hopeful.
“How do you know? Are you the one planning this?” she asked annoyed and a bit angry.
“The Elements of Harmony couldn’t do anything in time,” I said ignoring her questions.
“We cannot help in the near future because we have a much bigger problem to deal with,” she said truthfully.
“A bigger problem?!” I almost yelled in disbelief.
“Indeed but the way you talk about this event you know how it’s going to end?” she asked curiously.
“Yes and it doesn’t end well for a lot of ponies and changelings,” I lied a bit to get her to take this attack more seriously but everything starts falling away and our conversation is cut short.
Seeing things in a different light
As soon as I woke up my mind raced and the main thing on my mind was the bigger problem that Princess Luna had mentioned. I couldn’t figure out what could be more important than an attack on Canterlot. A bright flash of purple light brought me out of my thoughts and when I looked up I could see something falling. It was really high up and falling fast but what worried me most was the smoke trail coming from it.
Without hesitation I took off to intercept and stop whatever it was from falling to its death. As I got closer I could see that it was a pony, probably a pegasus, wearing a cloak. I couldn’t close the distance fast enough and I knew it was going to crash into the ground at a remarkably high speed. After a few seconds it finally happened, the pony smashed into the ground leaving a very big crater.
When I got to the injured pegasus smoke was still rising from the poor pony but what amazed me was the cloak was moving. I moved closer and discovered that I was right the pegasus was still alive, it was definitely a stallion. I decided that I should heal him; however I do that, so I funneled energy into my horn and just like last time his injuries were healing.
The poor stallion had broken every bone in his body, had some internal bleeding, and had also damaged several organs. While I was healing him I decided to look over the pony I am saving, he had a jet black coat and even though the cloak was covering his mane and tail I could see some of his red mane. As soon as the magic stopped flowing and he was healed I promptly threw up. I looked at my vomit and noticed it had some blood in it before my body gave out on me and I passed out.
~~~~~~~~~~
I was in my family home, my family’s first house, but we had to get rid of the house because it flooded back when I was about six. As I walked around the house again it felt really weird since I don’t remember much about the house. I spun around when I heard the floor creek and I saw myself, my human self, it was obvious that he could see me because we just kept looking at each other.
“What happened?” my younger self asked.
“I really don’t know. The sky turned many-” I started saying but he cut me off.
“To me, the person you used to be?” he asked.
“Not really sure about that either. The only answer I can think of is time, I grew up,” I answered honestly.
“I know what you have become and you definitely didn’t grow up,” he said looking annoyed.
“There was an accident-” I started but couldn’t finish.
“You have to stop blaming yourself. We both know if we could have helped we would have,” he said comfortingly.
“What should we do now?” I asked sadly.
“We couldn’t have helped then but maybe we can help now,” he said looking me in the eye.
“You mean the bigger problem that we have no idea about?” I asked.
“Possibly but I was referring to the problem that we know almost everything about,” he reminded me.
“The changeling attack on Canterlot?” I asked making sure that was indeed the problem.
“You know what they say, knowledge is power and we have a lot of knowledge,” he stated.
“We could help with almost everything but we should only help in extreme cases,” I stated more determined.
“Now you’re starting to think like me but let’s see you start acting like me again,” he said as the dream ended.
~~~~~~~~~
I woke up before the stallion and I was hungry, no I was starving, so I thought about how fast everything was progressing to figure out how much time I have. Now that I stopped to think about it I realized a few things like I don’t know how long until the attack, I can’t fight Chrysalis with less than full strength, and I have no idea how to find the changelings.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 6*
I flew back to my camp and checked my saddlebag; one side had my preparations while the other held the things from my world. I checked my wallet and found that I still had about a hundred bits inside witch caused me to wonder about the exchange rate for currency. I knew that I had to go back into town and that one more transformation would be my limit.
I finally decided to become a Pegasus since my favorite character on the show was a Pegasus and I really did enjoy flying. Now that I thought about it, I really did love flying witch is weird since I used to be afraid of heights. I got lost in thought for a lot longer than I wanted to but I didn’t actually have the courage to go into town and meet Pinkie Pie since she would probably bother me a lot.
I did what I used to do to calm my nerves; I started whistling a song that has been stuck in my head for a long time. On earth I didn’t think I had very many talents but I always liked working with computers and whistling some songs. I wasn’t entirely sure what song I was whistling but I think it’s the Legend of Zelda Theme Song.
As I stood up to go to Ponyville something compelled me to go in the other direction it was something in the back of my mind. I transformed into a sky blue Pegasus with a deep yellow mane and a small star as a cutie mark. I took to the skies and flew away from Ponyville as fast as I could go almost as if I went any slower the signal would disappear.
I was almost too lost in my thoughts to notice the mach cone forming around me and my mind started racing again. Before I could formulate an actual thought about the unexpected cone it broke creating a very loud boom. I turned around and got to see the explosion witch looked the same as the show depicted except my trail was the same dark yellow as my tail.
It didn’t take long before the sudden increase in speed combined with my migraine from hunger to cause me to pass out. As my body shut down I could hear another loud boom behind me and I could also see my disquse flying off. The last thing I saw was the ground approaching a lot faster than I thought.
~~~~~~~~~~
Underneath Canterlot Castle in the most secure room that will ever be created were two pegasi but one was obviously possessed.
“You are asking me to help?” a mare asked in a deep yet quiet voice.
“If I could do this myself you wouldn’t be here,” a stallion retorted.
“What do I have to gain from helping you? In case you forgot I intend to wipe out every living creature anyway,” she responded clearly elated at their ‘problem.’
“I do remember witch is why we are talking in this room,” he said unsure of what they could give her to get her to help.
“I thought this was an unusual place. Why are you so certain it would contain my power though?” she asked obviously confident in her ability to escape.
“The walls are made out of three inch thick metil and the door is six inches with an eye scanner that detects everything about the creature that tries to open it. If I didn’t have clearance I couldn’t be here,” he explained.
“What kind of metal?” she asked causing him to laugh a little.
“Not metal, metil. M-E-T-I-L,” he spelled it out for her and her face dropped. Metil is the most indestructible substance in existence, it is so strong that not even the all the guardians together could even scratch it. The guardians of Time and Space have enough power to destroy entire universes so it is very impressive.
“That means that even if your problem continues this room would still exist,” she stated in near disbelief.
“If you help me I will release the seal on your physical form,” he offered looking visibly horrified at his own offer. She was obviously stunned at his proposal since it was him that initially sealed her physical form.
“I never thought I would hear you say that,” she admitted. She composed herself before continuing, “It would be nice to have my own form back. I’m going to accept your offer, for the next twenty-four hours I’m yours to command.”
“Alright then let’s go,” he said walking over to the bunker door and opening it. They traveled up into the actual palace but before they went outside to begin the two pegasi got a shiver. The stallion looked around and found the disturbance in time and space, a changeling that was on a stretcher being pulled by two of the best royal guards but they were pulling from the front unable to see the prisoner being brought in probably for questioning.
As they walked by the unconscious changeling a purple aura surrounded his forehead where a horn would be as Kindo grabbed it in his magic and left a magical duplicate in its place. When the left the palace Celestia’s sun shown on the possessed Pegasus revealing her usually sky blue coat turned a blood red color, her normally deep red mane was a black color and her usually matching tail color was now purple.
The stallion’s jet black coat was dulled from worry about his marefriend but he also knew he couldn’t stay in that form and continue his double ganger spell as well as an illusion spell and attempt to fix their problem. He concentrated for a few seconds before he was surrounded in a ball of electric blue light but when the light faded it revealed an alicorn.
The stallion’s cloak was lost during the transformation revealing what looked like a purple tornado as a cutie mark but his mane caught everypony’s attention. It was obvious the reason he rarely revealed his very rare hair color since his mane and tail contained every color of the rainbow. Both ponies remained focused on the task at hand and continued to make their way to a very secret safe house in the Everfree Forest.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Your prisoner should arrive momentarily,” a guard said to Princess Celestia. Even though the changelings haven’t attacked yet they are showing signs of preparing for war combined with a letter attached to Philomena warning them about an attack on Canterlot and Celestia was starting to worry.
“Good perhaps this one knows something more,” Celestia said as two guards walked in with a changeling on a stretcher. Celestia took one look at the changeling and gasped before asking, “Did anypony pass close by?”
“The only ponies that came anywhere near the changelings were them ,” one of the escorting guards answered.
“No! If Nightmare gets her hooves on it then the changeling could already be dead,” Celestia loudly complained. The guards just lowered their heads in disappointment.
“I’m sure the changeling is still alive since he was with her ,” Luna calmly said as she entered the room. Even though her bedroom was close to the other side of the Castle she still heard her sister perfectly.
“Sister, do you know where they where heading?” Celestia asked knowing her sister has been hiding things recently.
“I do but was ordered not to reveal what I had heard,” Luna said getting an idea in her head.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 7*
The only cloud house within Ponyville city limits is enormous it’s a three story building with rainbow falls on the sides of the cloud structure. Inside the beautiful cloud mansion is a certain sky blue Pegasus mare with a rainbow mane that is having problems accepting what had happened earlier that mourning. She was so unsure of what to do about it that she is leaving her cloud home to talk to somepony about it.
Rainbow Dash was flying towards a place she rarely visits, even though it’s home to one of her best friends, the Carousel Boutique. She landed about a minute later and her mind was still racing when she knocked on the door that magically opened a few seconds later. Inside was a white unicorn mare with a purple mane that had her back towards the door because of something she was finishing up.
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique-” Rarity started saying but was interrupted by Dash.
“I need to talk to you about something,” she said causing Rarity to spin around and look at Dash.
“Why of course, darling, I always have time for a friend,” Rarity said looking a little surprised by her visitor.
“Thanks but you need to Pinkie promise not to tell anypony,” Dash replied causing Rarity to immediately gain interest.
“Cross my heart. Hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye,” Rarity obeyed going through the motions.
“Don’t interrupt okay,” Rarity simply nodded to respond. Dash sighed and looked at the ground while telling her story.
************
“I’m coming hold on!” Dash yelled downstairs to whoever would knock on her door before the sun rose.
“What’s the emergency?” she said not awake enough to notice the pale blue Pegasus stallion at her doorstep.
“No emergency but early hours are the best way to avoid crazy fans,” he said looking nervous but Dash’s senses were completely functional as soon as she heard his voice.
“Soarin, it’s four in the mourning. What’s wrong?” she asked misreading his expression.
“Nothing’s wrong but I was hoping you could make it better,” Soarin answered obviously unsure of how to continue. Dash quietly waited for him to continue until he finally continued, “I shouldn’t have come, sorry for bothering you.” As he turned to leave Dash grabbed his tail and forced him back around.
“I really don’t mind the early hours but usually ponies have a reason for them,” Dash said casually.
“It’s really noting and I’m sorry again for waking you,” he quickly responded and tried leaving again. Soarin got the same results as last time, but Dash didn’t, as soon as he was facing her again he couldn’t help himself. Soarin leaned forward and put all of his hidden passion for her into one simple kiss. As soon as their lips touched Dash was instantly surprised and in her mind it was a very welcomed surprise.
After breaking their kiss Soarin took one look at the pure shock on Dash’s face and left.
**************
“He just left without another word and to be honest it hurt a little,” Dash admitted concluding her story.
“Wow that sounds less than romantic but surely there was something between you two before then,” Rarity basically asked while she was pretty surprised at her story.
“When I saw him at the Gala he said like five words,” she said confusing Rarity even more until she noticed Dash’s eye twitch a little meaning that wasn’t the whole truth and then she remembered.
“What about that day you got to spend with them when you won the Best Young Flier Competition?” she asked trying to get the whole truth but caused Rainbow to sigh again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That mourning’s story was being shared at the Wonderbolts HQ but from Soarin’s perspective.
“You should have seen her face after I kissed her. I should have known she was out of my league,” Soarin concluded his story. Surprise had forced him to tell her after noticing how down he had been all day.
“What you just left?” Surprise asked in disbelief and Soarin nodded in response. She slapped him after his nod before yelling, “You gotta let her say something! Think about this from Dash’s prospective the Co-captain of the Wonderbolts shows up at four a.m. and kisses her then leaves. I wouldn’t be surprised if you lost her over that.”
“All the Wonderbolts usually say about her is that they are surprised she isn’t one of us yet,” Soarin complained. He calmed down a bit before continuing, “They also say that she can never become a Wonderbolt. She will never achieve her dream.”
“That is only partially correct,” Spitfire said as she entered the room.
“Captain!?” Surprise and Soarin said in perfect sync.
“Heard some yelling and decided to check it out,” she explained to answer their implied question. Spitfire looked sad as she started talking, “Now then about Rainbow Dash-”
“Let me explain,” a stallion said as he revealed himself.
“Commander!” The four Wonderbolts yelled surprised to see their jet black coated leader.
“Soarin follow me and Spitfire you mustn’t tell the others about Dash,” he order as he walked out of the room with Soarin close behind.
“Why are you here Commander? What about your big problem?” Soarin asked concerned that he might have given up.
“I came back here to rest and relax before I do something vital but I snuck in to hear your story,” he explained not looking at Soarin.
“Since you heard my story what do you think I should do or could have done?” Soarin asked the usually feared Commander of the Wonderbolts.
“Ignore what you could have done since you can’t change your own past,” he said obviously annoyed but there was something else and Soarin thought it might have been anger but he hoped it wasn’t.
“Okay then what should I do now? You always say ‘you can’t change the past only the future’, Soarin recited. They stopped for a moment so that the Commander could open his office door.
“Why don’t you try and talk to her? Apologizing is a very good place to start,” he said with his usual blank expression.
“Yeah I know but it would make me feel better if I knew more about her,” Soarin stated.
“There is a very important secret about Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts,” the Commander admitted.
“I don’t get it but I swear to protect this secret with my life if you tell me,” Soarin stated with confidence.
“Fine, it’s a simple secret anyway. Rainbow Dash can’t become a Wonderbolt until her status quo changes,” the Commander admitted as he watched Soarin’s expression change to absolute shock.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 8*
“Please explain further Commander,” Soarin said after recovering from the shock that the mare of his dreams can’t obtain her dream. A little while ago Soarin became one of the few ponies to be invited into the Commander’s personal office since behind a door on the right of the room was basically his house.
“Status quo means the existing state of affairs but I can’t tell anypony anything beyond that. You might be able to get the answer out of Dash herself but she usually keeps it a secret,” the Commander explained further as he looked at some papers on his desk.
“Then Rainbow knows she can’t be a Wonderbolt?” Soarin asked with concern but the Commander just sighed.
“No. She doesn’t know that her secret is keeping her from becoming a Wonderbolt,” the Commander put flatly without looking away from the papers. Something caught his eye on the paper and he simply asked, “You went to Cloudsdale’s Summer Flight Camp?”
“Yes, sir, I attended when I was just a colt.” Soarin answered more than a little worried.
“Before or after you got your cutie mark?” he asked giving a look that demanded an answer.
“It was about six months before. Why?” Soarin asked hoping the Commander didn’t figure it out.
“You said you didn’t know much about Dash but you two went to the same school and the same summer camp,” the Commander stated before getting up.
“This is your mess to fix and I have to attend to my own mess. I assume you know the way out,” he said walking towards the door but bumped a folder in front of the Co-Captain on his way out.
“That was obviously on purpose,” Soarin said as he grabbed the folder and looked at the contents. After only a few seconds of reading his eyes shot open and he knew he had to show this to Rainbow so he stood and left the room but as soon as the folder left the office it caught on fire. Soarin was absolutely positive that this was a high class secret as he watched the folder burn from an obviously magical fire.
~~~~~~~~~~
In the skies of Ponyville is Rainbow Dash who is currently taking a flight to try and clear her head. All she could think about was the incident this mourning with a certain pale blue Wonderbolt. It’s true that Dash had met the Wonderbolts before but there was always something keeping her from talking to them.
At the Grand Galloping Gala the Wonderbolts were always getting pulled away either to talk to a Canterlot noble or give a comment to somepony. Earlier that year she had won a day with them from the Best Young Flier Competition but the official story was Spitfire was ordered to cancel. After the Gala, Rainbow found out that they had returned to HQ to start some new secret training.
Of course when she explained all of this to Rarity she was left even more confused but Dash was still honestly surprised. Sure she was surprised that Soarin had kissed her but what really surprised her was the fact that he still had feelings for her. Very few ponies know that Rainbow and Soarin had attended the same flight camp and that was something that just never came up so she never told her friends.
Dash had assumed that his behavior during both the Gala and the flying competition showed her how he felt especially since a few months ago she knew Soarin was dating Fleetfoot. Rainbow was so consumed in thought that she almost ran into somepony as he was taking off from the middle of White Tail woods.
Rainbow focused on the new Pegasus, it was definitely a stallion whose coat was the same color of her own but he had a deep yellow mane. He took off before she could yell at him but he was going very fast, fast enough to create his own mach cone.
Dash was astonished at how quickly the cone formed around him and she took off after him when she noticed he wasn’t flying straight. It wasn’t too long after he broke the mach cone to create a Sonic Rainboom of his own that she noticed he was losing altitude. She sped up on an intercept course but shortly after her Rainboom could she notice that his fur was burning off.
Rainbow was able to catch the creature before it hit the ground and she flew back to Ponyville. Dash took a moment to look at the creature she just saved and it looked like a cross between a pony and an insect. She didn’t know what to do so Dash decided to go to the one pony that usually does, Twilight Sparkle. In under a minute Rainbow started descending onto Twilight’s balcony making sure the creature didn’t fall off her back. She knocked on the balcony doors and it didn’t take long for Twilight to open them.
“Hey, Dash. What is that?” she asked her Pegasus friend as soon as she noticed the creature.
“I was hoping you would know,” Dash said as she entered the library.
It took Twilight a few minutes to find the book she was looking for and find its description in the book. She looked up from the book and said, “According to this book it’s a changeling. I think I should let Celestia know we found one.”
“Alright well later, Twi,” Dash said leaving through an open window shortly after.
“SSSPIIIIKE!” Rainbow could hear Twilight yell as she returned to the open sky.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 9*
"Twilight you got a message from the Princess about that thing," Spike said as he came downstairs into the Library.
"It's called a changeling, Spike," Twilight corrected as she read the scroll.
"Something about this 'changeling' seems... I don't know, off," Spike said quietly.
"Well either way spike Celestia wants me to teleport it to Canterlot right away," she responded and channeled some magic into her horn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rainbow Dash was flying towards Canterlot with only thing on her mind being her parents. She was so focused on getting to Canterlot to finally meet them that the changeling barely crossed her mind. Not even the fact that it had been twilight for nearly an hour registered in her mind. As the castle came into view Dash got mixed emotions about seeing her parents but she had to know the same thing every orphan does: Why?
Rainbow would never let anypony know but she was raised in an orphanage and left when she was very young. Dash had received a letter from Princess Luna while Twilight was looking through books to find out exactly what Rainbow had brought to her. It was only a few seconds later that Twilight told me it was a changeling and she left as soon as she could.
Before Dash landed on one of the balconies she noticed two ponies acting suspicious so she followed them. One of the ponies had on a cloak covering most of his body and the other one just seemed different like something wasn’t right. They traveled to an unpopulated area where the cloaked pony became surrounded in a ball of electric blue light blinding her for a second.
After the light faded she opened my eyes and was surprised to find that the light had completely destroyed his cloak. Rainbow Dash was stunned when she realized that the jet black alicorn had a rainbow mane and tail just like her. ‘Could he be one of my parents?’ was the only thought in her mind right now but while she was lost in thought they left. She looked around but couldn’t see them anywhere, the only ponies around where the Princesses. Dash immediately followed them since they almost never leave the castle and she could hear them talking to each other.
“I can’t believe he is doing this,” Celestia complained.
“Sorry about earlier, I sometimes forget that he also has control over the sun,” Luna admitted.
“It’s okay Luna, even I usually forget because he hasn’t done it for almost three thousand years,” Celestia said looking annoyed but by her tone not at her sister.
“Why is Uncle Ken delaying the night?” Luna asked the obvious question.
I looked around and noticed that our destination appeared to be the Everfree forest but I still followed them.
“The last time he used this power was to lower and keep the moon down over a thousand years ago,” Celestia stated saddened by the very memory of her dear sister as Nightmare Moon.
“I haven’t seen this place since it was built,” Luna said as they landed near the underground bunker.
“Might explain why the sun is still up,” Celestia suggested as they approached the small clearing.
“You think he is helping us get here?” Luna asked. When they got to the open hatch Luna noticed Celestia had an I-told-you-so look and that the sun had almost completely set so she simply stated, “Guess that answers one question.”
Dash had also noticed the sun was setting and even though she would never admit it she was scared and she flew back to her cloud house for some rest.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 10
An unlikely group consisting of an alicorn, a Pegasus, and a changeling arrived in the Everfree Forest right above a safe house. The alicorn stallion had a jet black coat, a purple tornado as a cutie mark, and an endlessly flowing rainbow mane and tail. The Pegasus mare had a black mane, purple tail, and a blood red coat. The last creature to arrive was the unconscious changeling that the alicorn had in his magical grasp.
“Why did you bring the changeling?” the Pegasus asked.
“You know exactly why,” he retorted opening a trapdoor in the forest revealing a stone staircase.
“I meant did you have to bring him now?” she rephrased while trotting down the staircase.
“Yeah well my niece Celestia might have gone a little overboard on him,” he said following her.
“Niece huh?” she asked obviously surprised about his family tree.
“Yeah she never did like being called a Queen. On the other hoof Vectra seemed to like it too much,” he admitted though he wasn’t sure why.
“What about you huh?” she asked mainly out of boredom.
“I was never one for titles,” he stated looking back to check on the changeling.
“I know you better than that, Ken. Mr. Commander of the Wonderbolts and onc-” she stopped herself when she caught his malicious glare.
“You know better than that, Nightmare. I chose the name Kindo and I’m sticking to it,” he retorted obviously angry and annoyed.
“Fine but I still know your real name. How do I know that huh?” she asked in an annoying tone.
“You’re infiltrating her memories. Aren’t you?” he asked knowingly.
“Shut up,” she demanded quietly but her voice echoed as they entered an underground room.
“Let’s just get this over with shall we?” she asked sounding annoyed and impatient.
“For once we agree,” Kindo admitted starting to use time energy to create the seal of time.
The seal of time has a very simple design; it is just a five pointed star with a perfect circle touching every point on the star. As soon as the symbol was burned into the ground Kindo stepped back and sat down confusing Nightmare but she sat down as well. After a few minutes of waiting they heard hoofsteps coming closer as something came down the stairs.
Nightmare realized what he was doing and stood up before taking a few steps back as to not damage the ancient symbol. She shook her head before concentrating and being surrounded in a ball of electric blue light. When the light dissipated the Pegasus mare was now an alicorn and her black mane and purple tail started flowing endlessly.
“I thought you would never catch on,” Kindo commented as Nightmare took a seat again.
“You could have just asked,” she complained before looking at the stairwell to see that their guests had arrived.
“I could have but where is the fun in that?” he asked rhetorically as he also turned to look at the stairwell.
“Took you long enough,” Nightmare complained obviously wanting to be in her real body.
“You could have just asked,” Celestia said as she, Luna, and Cadence entered the secret room.
“At least somepony agrees,” Nightmare complained again.
“Let’s get this started or the time limit will expire,” Kindo said as everypony sat in between the points on the star. They closed their eyes and started funneling their magic into the symbol on the floor witch responded to their magic by lighting up. The symbol lit up starting with the circle and working its way to the center.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up and tried to move but I was obviously being held by somepony’s magic. I looked around to see that the magical grasp was coming from an alicorn who started to turn his head so I played dead. I closed my eyes and went limp again for about a minute since I’m not sure I want him to know that I’m awake.
We were going down some stairs and the alicorn was talking to somepony but I couldn’t really see who. I listened intently to their conversation for a few minutes until their voices started to echo a little. I looked around to find that we arrived in a room that was almost completely empty. The only thing in the room was an average sized bed in the corner by the stairs and that is apparently where I was headed.
It wasn’t long after I was set on the bed that the alicorn started to create a symbol on the ground. He was using his hoof to shoot what looked like purple lightning at the floor to create it. It didn’t take long for the design to be completed but almost as soon as it was they just sat down. I didn’t want to take any chances so I figured that while they were just sitting there staring at each other I’d just leave.
I got off the bed and made no noise in doing so then turned and started walking up the stairs. The walk up was silent as well and I found myself once again grateful for my new changeling abilities. At the top of the stairs was what looked like a trapdoor but it was left open. I took a look around and found myself in the middle of a dark and spooky forest, the Everfree was my guess.
Something caught my attention, I could sense emotions all around me but more importantly I could hear the Princesses talking amongst themselves. I didn’t want to get caught so I turned around and went back downstairs to the room and lay back down on the bed. It wasn’t long after I got on the bed that I could hear the ponies approaching but what caught my attention more was the Pegasus that stood up.
She stood up and trotted away from the circle before she was encased in a ball of electric blue light. When the light faded it left another alicorn that I had never seen on the show before. She trotted back over and took her seat again before they started arguing and the Princesses arrived. The five alicorns took a seat at the end of each point on the star and funneled their magic into the symbol that started to light up.
After a few seconds the symbol was almost completely lit but I could tell that was all they had in them. I approached the symbol, though I’m not sure why, and took a seat in the center of the circle. Once I sat down I proceeded to give the design my magic as well and it finished lighting up. Being at the center of the symbol I was hit with the same purple lightning that the design was made with.
Seeing things in a different light
Dave awoke when he hit his head on the ground and looking around he was in the middle of Canterlot during the changeling invasion. He saw the Elements of Harmony fighting a wave of changelings so he decided to help them although it wasn’t a tough decision. He felt strange when he started to move like part of him wanted to attack the Elements instead of helping them.
He was able to fight that side of himself and start attacking the other changelings instead of the Elements. He acted as their backup beating up changeling after changeling surprised that he was able to convert his military training so easily. After the first wave was done the seven noticed another wave about the same size as the first and he knew what was going to happen.
As soon as the mane six opened the doors to the Elements chambers Dave flew over their heads and started attacking even more changelings. Luckily he had the foresight to shift into a random pony as he flew over their heads to access the chambers. The mane six helped him fight off some of the stragglers and the room was cleared before the next wave landed.
Dave fought some more changelings to keep them away from the mane six but his energy was running low. In the end the changelings overpowered him with their sheer numbers and the mane six didn’t even get the chance to open the doors to the Elements of Harmony themselves. The six of them were taken to the caves under Canterlot and Dave was escorted to the castle but he was hoping that he could use the ‘love wave’ thing as a backup. It didn’t take long for him to reach the castle.
“Here he is your majesty,” one of my changeling captors said as we approached the Queen.
“How did you regain your free-will?” she asked me straight-out.
“Cognitive recalibration, I guess,” Dave answered honestly.
“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked again not beating around the bush.
“I got hit really hard in the head,” he relied charging his magic to release Cadence just like the show.
“How are you still alive?” she asked another question.
“Thanks for the confidence,” he said before he released a magical blast.
“What!” Queen Chrysalis yelled as she dodged the blast that he fired.
“Missed me,” she said obviously overconfident and unaware of her inevitable downfall.
“I… wasn’t… aiming… at… you,” Dave said slowly as the couple readied the ‘love wave’ thing.
Chrysalis turned around to see what he was talking about but it was too late and the shield repelled all of us just like in the show. Dave grinned madly even though the shield had hit him as well and sent him flying far away from Canterlot. The blast also awakened Celestia from her green cocoon and she freed herself with her remaining magic. Twilight and her friends never made it to the entrance to the crystal caverns since their changeling escorts got repelled by some sort of shield.
The six of them made their way back to the castle to check on the Princess and when they got there everything looked normal. It took a majority of the day to get the entire city back to normal although most ponies where now shaken and on edge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dave woke up as the sun was starting to set but he noticed that the other voices in his head were gone. He got up and looked around noticing he was in the middle of a forest. He tried to remember everything about after the shield but all he got was noting like the shield knocked him out. Somepony screaming jarred Dave out of his thoughts and he noticed somepony staring at him with a shocked expression.
Before he could say anything an even louder roar sounded not far away and the two ponies turned towards the noise. Standing a few feet away was either an Ursa Major or Ursa Minor he couldn’t be sure, not that he cared at that moment. The two fled from the gigantic black creature and eventually went separate ways although that was kind of a stupid decision in hindsight.
The Ursa kept charging towards Dave getting closer as he got exhausted and it was almost too late before he remembered he had wings. Deciding the face-hoof could wait Dave jumped into the air and spread his wings only to smash his face into the ground. The Ursa jumped over him and stopped mere feet away as Dave checked on his wings only to find them completely broken.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 12*
As the Ursa readied its attack against him, Dave was thinking of ways to get him out of the situation until he remembered about magic. Dave teleported not too far from the beast but enough to allow him to think although the other voice was making it difficult and as relieved as he was to know it was still there it wasn’t helping. They have an agreement that has worked wonders throughout their life together until they arrived in Equestria. The Ursa jumped out of the woods straight at him and he couldn’t react fast enough but luckily something else got him to move.
‘I don’t need your help,’ Dave thought with a lot of hostility.
“Yeah cuz you definitely had everything under control,” he said in a deeper voice than usual.
‘More control than you,’ he replied as his body avoided another attack.
“Only cuz you always get in the way,” he said in his deep voice.
‘Fine, Yami, it’s all yours’ Dave thought as he stopped resisting Yami’s control.
The Ursa swung a giant paw at Yami but he just stopped it with a hoof as his chitin changed to a deep red color. Yami grabbed the paw with both hooves and threw the Ursa as far as he could witch appeared to be pretty far. Yami saw a beautiful full moon as he threw the Ursa and started shaking at the realization. His eyes became two different colors as half of his chitin became black again.
Both Yami and Dave released a blood curtailing scream of pain and terror as the two halves were forced apart by the full moon. After about a minute of extreme pain the two changelings became face to face with each other. One looked like an average changeling while the other had deep red chitin and pale blue eyes.
“What happened while I was out?” Dave asked the other changeling.
“Voices took control without both of us to fight it. We became noting but a pawn for that stupid Queen of theirs. It wasn’t easy or pretty but as you thought hitting the ground at those speeds reawakened your side. We attacked their King and Queen along with the three alicorns there,” Yami explained.
“I’m sorry. I know everything has been harder on you since we got here so I tried to leave you alone. That’s why I didn’t ask for help since we arrived,” Dave admitted.
“Thought you learned we can achieve more when we work together. When we worked together we won a war in only a month after joining. I was worried the day we left. When the sky started acting strange you became unresponsive. I couldn’t contact you and I couldn’t move,” Yami admitted.
“Remember our first full moon,” he said as more of a request than a question. They both laughed at the not so recent memory.
“I scared the crap out of you that night,” Yami replied.
“Yeah well another person looking almost exactly like you that was also trying to kill you tends to be a little scary,” Dave said before noticing Yami’s staring contest with the ground.
“Tomorrow we can go all out if you’re up for it. You know test out our new limits,” Dave continued trying to cheer up Yami.
Yami put on a little smile since he liked finding their limits but they needed to be unified in both actions and resolve. Dave was always trying to keep things normal but would switch with Yami every couple of days just so he could have his fun too. It was actually Yami’s idea to join the military so he was usually in control during the actual battles while Dave took over in the barracks and normal stuff. According to Yami he only awaked shortly after Dave passed out and the energy almost separated them.
“Our time is almost up you ready?” Yami asked looking at the rapidly setting moon.
“Wish I didn’t have to be. You?” Dave asked also watching the moon.
“Yeah it still sucks even after five years of it,” Yami replied staring at Dave.
“We’re probably never going to get used to it,” Dave said as the moon finally set and the two halves were forced back together. Another blood curtailing scream escaped their mouths as the two bodies became one again. They blacked out just like always and even after their five years together nothing they tried could change that.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“It’s strange,” Kindo said absentmindedly as Vectra approached him.
“Still thinking about him?” she asked snapping him out of his thoughts.
“I think someone’s just jealous,” he said smirking and trying to lighten the mood.
“If I’m jealous then you should be too,” she said returning his smirk.
“You think their related?” Kindo asked slightly worried.
“No. They can’t be. The two aren’t even from the same dimension,” she answered rather sure of herself.
“I still think I saw him before. His other half,” Kindo admitted.
“I know he does seem familiar but still Chrysalis has both of them now,” Vectra stated matter-of-factly.
“I heard that he helped the Elements of Harmony and freed Cadence,” he revealed.
“You heard? Why not got back and see for yourself?” she asked him but Kindo simply stood up and faced her. With his new position Vectra could see him wearing a simple necklace with the sign of the IUF in the center. Kindo merely walked out of the room without another word.
“Inter-Universal Federation, huh, what did he do this time?” Vectra asked herself especially since Kindo has been distant towards them ever since they found out.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dave awaked slowly as the sun reached about midday but Yami was apparently wide awake already and eager to take control. Sometimes they hated each other usually because they both want to solve the same problem but had different opinions on how. After a few minutes of waking up Dave and Yami focused on the same goal with the same methods and with their minds in sync their body followed.
His chitin became dotted with deep red and his wings changed to a lighter red but his eyes were now a reflective yellow. With both minds in control they jumped into the air not to fly just to jump and judging from distance they jumped about three times as their human body. The next thing was speed and agility on the ground so they ran straight into some dense woods and dodge tree after tree with only a fraction of a second to spare.
Normally that would have been it but once they got out of the woods and to a complete stop they shifted into the first form he could think of: Frost. Frost had patches of dark blue fur where the deep red chitin would be and his wings were also a deeper shade of blue along with the normally white mane witch was now a very light red. He transformed a few more times and noticed that all of his transformations looked different.
The next test was magic so they tried a simple levitation spell and they could actually levitate things a little bigger than the Ursa they had thrown. The final test was flying but that would have to wait considering how hungry they were and shortly after his chitin became the normal black again. Dave took off to start making his way over to Ponyville.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 14*
I heard a noise so high pitched none of the ponies could hear it but I am a changeling so it was more obvious. It took a few minutes to reach the source that appeared to be a secret room referred to as ‘the haunted chambers’. Real scary but everypony assumed that the old King’s bedchambers is haunted since he died while he was still on the throne.
I looked at the magically locking gold and silver doors that only ponies that the King trusts can enter. It took two long years for me to gain his trust but the door will open to me now. As soon as the doors opened I regretted opening the doors as they flew off their hinges into some type of portal. The room was almost completely bare except for a bookshelf built into a wall, a table bolted to the ground and a single Pegasus.
The Pegasus was actually the behind-the-scenes ruler of Equestria. His name is Kindo and his disguise was not really there, he still had his rainbow mane and emerald green eyes but his coat was a pale blue instead of its usual black. Refocusing on the portal that has forced me to grab the ground with all of my strength I noticed it was a simple orange oval.
“What happened?!” I yelled over the wind that was being forced through the portal.
“Something destabilized it. The portal was supposed to be a view-way only,” Kindo explained loudly.
“Stabilize it then,” I yelled with annoyance clear in my voice.
“Don’t you think I’ve tried!? I can’t even close it but here take my notes and see if you can help,” Kindo asked honestly afraid that it might grow bigger and take the planet with it.
Kindo levitated the notes over to me since both of us have been working on teleportation spells and my last breakthrough allowed short distance teleportation. I’ve only been here three years and I learned magic from scratch, saved the King a few times and even created new magic. When I arrived creating new magic was unheard of and all they had was levitation and limited cloud walking.
My focus was brought from the notes by my sudden sliding towards the portal luckily my instincts kicked in and my strength increased my grasp on the floor. Looking at the notes again I noticed what went wrong so I circled some parts and handed him the revised notes so he could reverse it. Suddenly the portal grew in size causing me to lose my footing and fly towards the portal’s gravitational pull.
“MIDNIGHT!!!!!!!!” I heard Kindo yell I flew towards the portal.
“Close the portal,” I told him noticing his magical grip was the only thing keeping me from flying.
“If I do you’ll be sucked in,” he pointed out.
“Tell ---- I’m sorry and I hope to see her again,” I said as I broke free of his magical grasp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘That’s what he can remember anyway’ Dave thought back to their memory sharing ability. It was really weird to see Equestria like that but it explains some things as well. ‘He was really depressed that nopony recognized him but I guess all changelings look alike.’ Midnight just told them the basics like the portal that ‘malfunctioned’ witch is technically true.
“And that’s everything Princess,” Midnight finished his half-truth story.
“Almost,” Kindo said from the doorway before he approached Midnight err… Yami.
“Hello. I’m Crimson” –I then gestured to Yami- “and that is my other half Midnight. Who are you?”
“Other half?” Kindo questioned causing both of us to become alarmed.
“You’ll find out in about-” I conjured a magical clock in front of me. “-fifteen minutes,” I finished as the clock vanished again.
“Midnight Shine,” Kindo whispered as soon as he got really close to Yami. Midnight replied with just a look at both me and him so I followed his lead and started conversing with the Princesses so they could talk.
“Yes sire,” he said quietly.
“It’s been a very long time since I last saw you,” Kindo admitted.
“How long exactly?” Yami was obviously curious about how long he had been away.
“Two thousand and six hundred years tomorrow,” Kindo admitted.
“How has everypony been,” he asked calmly surprising the King.
“Everypony seemed to have forgotten about you as soon as you left and even I am fuzzy about how that happened,” Kindo admitted. Yami just froze at the thought that nopony remembered him and even the King with his remarkably great bond with time itself can barely remember the accident. Now that he thought about it Kindo’s portal closed before he went through and he smashed into a wall.
“If that wasn’t it then what was?” Midnight asked looking very upset.
The moon finished its descent and Celestia stopped our conversations to raise her sun. As the sun came into view our bodies became one and everypony had to cover their ears from our extremely loud scream.
Seeing things in a different light
In a field not far away from the royal palace in the Everfree forest a Pegasus was in terrible pain from some unseen force. The jet black coated Pegasus stallion had a rainbow mane and a confusing cutie mark of a purple vortex. He knew that this day was coming and told no one since it happens every hundred thousand years so it was normal. On these days he always wanted to be alone in case he had ever failed at his job since the consequences was always death but he wasn’t that lucky today.
“Ken what’s wrong?” a guard asked as he approached.
“Shine is that you?” he asked the lone guard in his pained voice.
“Yeah Ken it’s me,” Shine confirmed still worried about his friend.
“Of course who else would disobey a direct order.” –Ken stated matter-of-factly- “My only request my dear friend is that you leave immediately.”
“We’re both worried about each other for obvious reasons so until you explain everything I’m staying put,” Shine said as he sat down just far enough away that Ken couldn’t hit him for disobeying his orders.
“I fear that I will fail my test this time for the EoH decided that I shouldn’t be helping anything that didn’t act like they appreciated his work,” Ken explained as the guard shuddered at the realization.
“I always told you that the thing was evil,” Shine said in a joking manner to hide his concern.
“Leave now and that’s an order,” Ken ordered but Shine merely removed his helmet and dropped his disquse.
“It has been an honor serving you King Kenneth Nathan,” the changeling said as his best friend glowed purple indicating an attack on time itself.
“You’ve always been one of my favorite guards, Midnight Shine,” Ken replied as his glow brightened.
“As long as that pompous jerk, Starswirl, isn’t ahead of me,” he said jokingly and they both laughed as the King’s powers went into overdrive destroying his form and removing him and his faithful guard from existence. The blast erased an entire moment from time along with anything that proved they ever existed, even memories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yami awoke from the nightmare to discover that Dave was already heading somewhere outside the castle. He wasn’t really concerned about it since he just woke up and was used to Dave waking up before him so he merely watched. Yami looked outside to find a beautiful evening sky stretched out before them.
“Finally decided to wake up huh,” Dave said out loud even though it was directed inward.
‘You didn’t have to let me sleep so late,' Yami thought back to defend himself.
‘I saw your dream and I wanted to go back to the original palace,’ Dave informed him.
Yami for his part was actually surprised that the comment came from his mind instead of their mouth. Dave always thought that their telepathy made him seem crazy so he would rather talk to himself than actually send telepathic messages. They shifted into the Pegasus that they named Frost and took to the sky angling towards Ponyville.
‘I think that now that we are in Equestria your memories are starting to return,’ Dave suggested through their telepathy. Yami had to consider that since it would actually fit with how he has been remembering his life so far. When they were first fused Yami actually had no memories at all and started regaining them slowly until they started watching My Little Pony. Seeing the familiar sights sometimes made his mind regain portions of his memory like how he used to live in the Castle of the Royal Pony sisters.
After a while Ponyville was within sight but they were descending to where Dave woke up to get his saddlebag. Dave opened it to check that nothing was stolen and after a minute or two he concluded that there wasn’t anything missing. Yami was actually shocked by seeing the saddlebag actually held a cell phone, tablet, laptop, game boy, some bits, and of course their gun but that was only on one side. The other side held flash bangs, smoke grenades, sticky grenades, regular grenades, and extra bullets for their gun.
Dave threw on the saddlebag and took off into the skies once again almost plowing over the royal guard that was following them. The journey didn’t take long and they were finally at the ruins of the original castle where Midnight one lived. Yami was in pain from the sudden influx of memories from his previous life as Midnight Shine. Dave continued his walk into the castle with minor difficulty since Yami’s pain was seeping through his subconscious.
They walked through hall after hall of the unused castle until they came to a door causing them to drop from the pain of memories resurfacing. The guard that had followed them was the one to open the door and behind it were just a bed and a small desk with a single drawer. After a few seconds Dave got up and went straight towards the desk pulling out the drawer only to find nothing.
He made his way over to the bed and lifted up the mattress to find a few notebooks. Dave immediately grabbed one and looked at the title that read: Mage Midnight Shine’s personal notebook/journal. The guard also grabbed one and found nothing, to him it was just another empty book without even a title. Dave checked each one and found the same as the first so he gathered them all up and put them in the saddlebag.
“Finally our first real clue as to who Yami used to be. Guess I’ll have to call you Midnight from now on,” Dave said triumphantly as they started walking out of the room.
‘Wait! The drawer has a false bottom for the journal that I was using,’ Midnight called from his mind. Dave walked towards the drawer and pulled out the false bottom to find exactly what he expected, another journal made by the mage Midnight Shine. They took off out the window followed by their escort and headed back to Canterlot to do some very important reading.
Seeing things in a different light
“Twelve journals containing more magic than answers,” Midnight said with frustration evident in his tone.
‘I don’t know what to say to that,’ Dave thought back surprising Midnight a bit since he was sleeping.
“Now what do we do?”
‘There is… yawn… more than one pony that was alive back then. Maybe just ask some questions?’
“Yes, let’s go piss off some royalty who see us as just another enemy,” he sarcastically replied.
‘I’m sure that they’ll understand.’
“Maybe tomorrow, I’m exhausted,” Midnight said before transferring control of their body to Dave.
“I’m going for a walk,” was the last thing Midnight heard before falling asleep.
Dave teleported outside about twenty feet in the air and glided down to the gardens for his walk. He walked around and looked at all of the statues taking a couple seconds to walk around each to inspect them. The statue he stopped at was Discord’s living statue but he didn’t always see that draconequus. Every time he focused on the statue it would change from Discord to another draconequus.
Dave was so focused on the statue that he didn’t hear the royal guards coming to escort him back to their room. It took one of the guards to clear his throat for him to realize he was surrounded. Dave focused on the spells that Midnight had discovered trying to remember a specific spell. As the guard closed their circle tighter he finally remembered and started casting the spell.
Midnight had called the spell walking in the shadows and it’s very different from simple teleportation witch the guards were probably trying to counter. The last piece of the spell had been placed and Dave quickly descended into his shadow. He opened his eyes to see some very confused royal guards along with total darkness the only light in the shadow realm were other shadows.
Dave picked one at random, although making sure it wasn’t one of a royal guard, and jumped through leaving the shadow realm. He looked around to see walls with murals of battles that couldn’t be possible. The stain glass windows had aliens depicted on them. His blood froze when he realized all the murals and windows had one pony in common and turned around to find a throne.
“Nice to see you again, Midnight but I told you to stay out of the shadow realm,” Kindo said from his throne.
“I’m sorry, sire but I am not Midnight and have no recollection of that warning,” Dave said while quickly bowing.
“Where is my favorite guard in that shared mind of yours?”
“He is sleeping, sire.”
“How does that even work?”
“You seem to have a lot of questions, your majesty.”
“I think I see where this is going but yes. You are the first fused minded body that didn’t either go insane or get corrupted by another presence.”
“An answer for an answer then?”
“Agreed, I think I’ll start. Do you even need rest?”
“Yes and no. Unless our body is injured we don’t require both of our minds at the same time. Our agreement is that I shall sleep at night and Midnight sleeps during the day. What was that bigger problem Luna mentioned to me a month ago?”
“Something is degrading time and space. How did the fusion occur?”
“Don’t look at me; I was on my death bed at the time though I’d never admit it. I had lung cancer, mouth cancer, and even contracted Aids then one day Midnight appeared and I was completely healthy again. Although having another mind introduced and my body healing like that hurt. A lot. All Midnight remembers before we first woke up together was you, sire. Care to elaborate?”
“Once the energy to erase that minute in time was gathered it was only supposed to kill me but with Midnight so close. My guess is instead of attacking just me the energy went after both of us and sent our souls flying through the universes.”
“You being an energy being merely crated another form and in an attempt to survive his soul joined mine. I guess that makes sense.”
“How long has it been for you?”
“I was seventeen when Midnight jumped into my body and he has been with me for five years. How old are you?”
“One million, three hundred and sixty four thousand, four hundred forty two. Does he really still love my niece?”
“Yes he does. What’s with the necklace?”
“The Inter-universal federation has found me guilty of releasing Nightmare. Are you feeding off of me?”
“Well yeah I am. I can’t control it. What are the guardians of time and space?”
“A group of extremely powerful beings that protect a universe. Every universe has two guardians, one for time and one for space. The guardian of space makes sure everything is literally spinning properly. That usually means moving moons, planets, and rarely entire galaxies. The guardian of time makes sure time is flowing properly and stops a majority of time travel experiments. What do you think of my other niece?”
“She’s very powerful.”
“That’s it? Your blushing you idiot. Please continue I’m very intrigued to hear the rest.”
“Alright fine. She’s kind, thoughtful, fun, serious, and beautiful. Now then what does the necklace do?”
“It’s a major power suppressor so right now I’m only as strong as maybe Luna. Do you love her?”
“I’d like to consider it a small crush until I know her better. Who all can read Midnight’s journal?”
“Just the three of us and my wife. Does a new moon affect you?”
“Yes, sire. It definitely does. Do guardians take orders from anything?”
“We take orders from the being that created creation itself, a sentient power source in very center of reality. That will be all for now, Crimson.”
“Of course sire,” Dave said before teleporting back to their room.
Seeing things in a different light
Outside the sole cloud house of Ponyville is three ponies and two changelings. The hardest battle is about to unfold but the changelings aren’t the enemy this time. Right now the changelings and two pegasi are getting ready to battle somepony who is basically a demi-god. He is trying to kill the pegasus known as Rainbow Dash but the other three are between him and his target.
“I thought I could trust you,” Soarin said accusingly.
“Everyone has their orders and I’m ordering you to stand down,” was the reply.
“We know all about what you take orders from and this time you will fail,” a changeling said confidently.
“No I’ll just have to kill you first. That’s all,” he said nonchalantly.
“Fine then but don’t think we’ll go down without a fight,” the other changeling said before firing a blast of magical energy at him. The killer swiftly dodges only to find the first changeling jumping from his shadow to attack from underneath. The changelings attack makes contact but there was no visible damage done to the pegasus.
Soarin also jumped in trying to use his wings to get a speedy strike in but the pegasus dodges and teleports over to where Dash is laying. The killer goes to take a shot just for a changeling to get in the way. It tried to stop his attack but considering his monstrous strength the changeling found himself in a hole in the ground. The other changeling again jumped out of the shadows to deliver another attack.
The killer takes a swing at it just for his hoof to go right through the changeling and Soarin managed to get a full speed punch in. The punch was just enough to make him stumble away from the unconscious pegasus. Soarin dove in for another attack just for it to be sidestepped and get a painful blow to his back, breaking his wings.
With one full power swing going for Soarin’s neck he closed his eyes and waited. After a second of nothing he opened his eyes to see darkness illuminated by the shadows while in the arms of a changeling. They resurfaced a little ways away shortly after, in time to see the other changeling going for another attack. It fired off more magical bolts and blocked attacks with his shield.
“Not bad, you three make quite the team. Unfortunately playtime is over as I was just warming up,” he said confidently and with a smile on his face.
“That was a warm up?” Soarin asked quietly looking at his broken and disfigured wings.
“For him? I’m surprised he warmed up that fast,” one of the changelings said already panting quite a bit.
“Yeah, well we all knew this was basically suicide,” the other changeling pointed out.
“Mark one, release,” the attacker said as a bracelet fell to the ground increasing his powers further.
“I’m going to keep trying,” a changeling said while the other was looking at Dash.
The changelings charged the attacker again and the fight was back on for about a second. With his powers increased he was able to take all three down in about a minute. The first to fall was a changeling whom got a hoof to the skull causing him to drop and his head to bleed. The next was the Wonderbolt himself by a full on head bash to the throat causing him to gasp for air before falling silent. Finally the other changeling fell from a blow to the ribcage causing his ribs to puncture a lung and scratch his heart.
The last changeling was still conscious trying to breathe as the killer approached Dash obviously going in for the kill. Every other step another bracelet fell off and his power would jump more and by the time he reached his target any distinguishing characteristics were gone. He was just pure white with his powers seeping out of his form causing a white mist over his back, neck, and head.
The changeling closed his eyes and tried to remember how something like this would even have to happen. It remembered the attack on Canterlot, the meeting with Queen Chrysalis, and even his new marefriend. Now that the changeling thought about it, everything started about two weeks ago.
~~~~~~~~
‘Uhh…where are we going?’ Midnight thought as we walked out of the castle.
“I wanted to get out of our room for once,” I said giving him a half-truth.
‘So do you even know where we’re going?’ he asked.
“We’re going to Ponyville,” I answered taking to the skies in our usual Frost persona.
‘Why?’ my other half kept asking as we made our way to the small town.
“I have a few reasons for that,” I responded hoping it would be good enough for him. We landed on a cloud and sat there since Midnight was fighting for control. I could take a hint and explained, “Well for one, we have been reading your journal for two days now, two, it isn’t healthy to stay inside all day, and three, I wanted to talk to Twilight.”
Midnight finally relented and gave me control again allowing us to reach our destination. I landed by where I woke up and transformed into Trixie since she has been here before. That was important since neither of us were in a good mood and we don’t want to deal with Pinkie Pie right now. I teleported to the library and opened the door at speeds that would make Rainbow Dash proud.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle,” I said in an extremely polite manner.
“Trixie,” Twilight said with confusion, shock, and annoyance.
“She used to be pretty nice and I’m sure you will come to like” –I dropped the disguise- “her eventually.”
“Changeling!” Twilight yelled in surprise before starting to shoot at me with her magic. I threw up a shield spell that Midnight had discovered to block her attacks as well as putting a shield around her house to prevent teleportation. In hindsight it was an uneventful battle with her shooting me while I countered with my shield.
“Nice stability thread,” I complemented Midnight on his discovery that allowed me to keep both shields up without getting very exhausted. Twilight on the other hoof was getting very exhausted and after a minute or two couldn’t continue her onslaught of attacks.
~~~~~1014 years ago~~~~~~
“Midnight!” Luna called using the Royal Canterlot Voice to summon me to the new castle.
“Yes Princess Luna,” I greeted shortly after teleporting.
“Where were thou when We called?” she asked like usual.
“The old palace training with new and unstable magic,” I answered both that question and her next.
“We need thine help in a grave matter,” she said gesturing to the outside witch was riddled with chaos. I was honestly surprised that I hadn’t sensed it earlier.
“That should be impossible. Who?” I asked in utter disbelief since the King and Queen had banished every draconequus to uninhabited worlds years ago.
“His name is Havoc and he is currently located in the badlands,” she informed me.
“This is why you summoned me then-” she nodded confirming my task “-I will do everything I can to stop him.”
“Be careful,” she said as I teleported out into the badlands to confront Havoc. With the sun going down and two long distant teleports in such a short span of time I was exhausted. I set up a little spot to camp for the night before casting a passive barrier spell and laying down for some sleep.
The rising sun woke me up just before going behind a cloud and darkening the badlands. I extended my magical presence and found the source of chaos before jumping into my shadow and heading off to face him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The memory came forth so quickly that it had affected both of us and caused our body to collapse for a moment. Luckily for us between how exhausted Twilight was and our military training we were able to recover before she could attack again.
“Can we start discussing things now? I shouldn’t be here for too long,” I admitted. Twilight shook her head out of curiosity but she was definitely drained. I started cleaning up the library with my magic as I asked my question, “What do you know of the time shortly before Nightmare Moon?”
“After our fight with Nightmare Moon I did some research,” she answered after a moment to collect herself.
“Have you ever heard of a pony named, Midnight Shine?” I asked causing Midnight to become curious.
“According to the history books he was a skilled mage that created some of the most advanced magic still used today. Apparently he was mainly focused on teleportation but disappeared about a year before Nightmare Moon was created,” she answered with a bit of hesitation.
“Let’s just head back to the palace and finish reading. Do you remember your long distant teleports now?” Dave asked hopeful as he relinquished control.
“I remember everything,” Midnight stated before releasing the barrier spells and teleporting to their room.
~~~~~Present Day~~~~~~
The changeling snapped out of his thoughts when he heard coughing. Looking around he noticed that the other changeling was once again conscious and quickly make his way over to him. Although quickly is relative since he was having trouble breathing.
“This isn’t over yet,” he said quietly couching a bit himself.
“We only have one spell while he is in that form,” the other changeling stated watching the killer slowly approach the unconscious pegasus.
“I called it forbidden for a reason-” he glanced over to their situation “-but given the circumstances. Are you absolutely positive about this?”
“Of course,” the changeling whispered. The one changeling looked at the other and they both said as loudly as possible, “FUSE.”
The demi-god looked behind him to see a bright light. When the light died down the two changelings had become one but the damage to both was now also in one body. The changeling tried one more attack from the shadows; witch didn’t accomplish much, before the killer had it in his hooves. The changeling grew a wicked and devious smile and returned to the shadows with the killer still holding them.
“What? Why?” he asked them as he strengthened his grip.
“There are a few secrets of the shadow realm you know?” they asked mostly unaffected by the increased strength.
“Yeah like it’s one of the few places in the universe that I can’t go,” he replied unamused.
“Did you know that in this realm every shadow can attack you?” they asked and his eyes widened. Unwilling to die in the realm he again strengthened his grip but this time to lethal capacity. It took only a second for the changeling to go limp but he kept his hold. Suddenly all of the light in the realm vanished and the killer released a scream of pain.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“I remember how to split our body if it works,” Midnight said triumphantly shortly after their return to the palace.
‘What do you mean if?’ Dave thought back although he was exhausted.
“Well it would work in theory but I have no experience casting it,” Midnight explained.
‘Please do more research first. I’m going to bed,’ Dave thought before causing their body to yawn.
Seeing things in a different light
Bonus Chapter
Rainbow Dash awakes in the fields underneath her house and catches a glimpse of somepony next to Soarin. Try as she might to get her vision to clear she just couldn’t, she couldn’t even move her body for some reason. The next thing she knows there is a soothing light around Soarin and he starts to float next to the unicorn. It took her a minute to realize that the pony from earlier was now right beside her.
Now that they were closer Dash noticed the helpful pony had eyes that started glowing as his horn was lowered to her forehead. When the horn reached her head Rainbow immediately felt herself relaxing and feeling better all around. Finally her vision returned to normal and she could see the unicorn’s colors, he had a light orange coat and a light red mane. He placed Soarin on her back and raised a hoof towards Ponyville.
~~~~~~~~~
Kindo couldn’t believe it. He was one of the strongest creatures in the universe and he just got defeated by two simple changelings. Although their merger at the end of the fight was unexpected and their mastery over shadow magic was extraordinary. Still it was no excuse for a failure. Even if this was the only mission he had ever wanted to fail. He knew that he had to finish the task at had or else reality would disintegrate.
Reluctantly Kindo charged through the time vortex itself passing through the void and reaching the desired universe. This universe was his home. He was never very open about it but he was actually born in Equestria. It hadn’t been Equestria for very long but it was his home, his birthplace, the planet he protected the most. With a sigh of depression he entered Equestria airspace and headed straight for Ponyville.
Underneath the only cloud house in Ponyville he was surprised to find both Soarin and Dash missing. The only possible explanation would be that the unicorn had known lost and forbidden magic that allowed a very speedy recovery.
He landed confidently although he was being more cautious this time around. Kindo put some energy into his eyes to intimidate the three but something else happened, something confusing. When energy is flowing through his eyes to improve vision he can see everypony’s aura. The most common colors are orange for unicorns, gold for alicorns, a light red for pegasi, and dark brown for earth ponies but this unicorn had a very unique white aura.
“Who are you?” Kindo asked keeping his aura vision active.
“I don’t know anymore, so many names in my head. Over three hundred lives,” was the reply.
“You remember all of your lives? But How?” he asked his next question.
“Time was dying and I was its’ attacker,” was the unicorn’s confusing answer.
“What do you mean?” Kindo asked hopeful for an explanation.
“You never figured it out?” the unicorn asked.
“Enlighten me,” he said sounding more like an order than a request.
“Do you remember the changelings named Crimson and Midnight?” Kindo nodded in reply.
“They were me or they will be. I’m not entirely sure,” he continued but it was enough.
“Two soul’s one body. Normally that wouldn’t matter but the Alteer share the same soul so two Alteers’ in one body means one soul at two different points in its own time stream would be disastrous,” Kindo realized.
“The Alteer is a soul that had been chosen to collect information on other species by returning to the world of the living in a new body. Every time a body dies a new race is chosen and the Alteer is reborn as that species to help the deities learn. All deities gain their knowledge that way, including the EoH that gives your body its monstrous power. In three days you must head to the changelings western hive,” he finished.
“What does the western hive have to do with the Alteer?” I asked hoping for an answer but none came. The unicorn was out of sight before I even finished my question. All of the pieces were there now at least, Midnight and Crimson were both an Alteer thus their single form was destroying time. It only happened due to the fact that they should have died by now and that they were gaining information for different deities.
I felt awful about attacking an innocent due to rushed research and it definitely didn’t help that the innocent this time was my own daughter. In the battle I killed the party responsible but they weren’t even my target and it would have taken a simple spell to fix. One little spell and reality would have been saved without the loss of life.
Seeing things in a different light
Chapter 17
Somewhere in the universe there was a tiny atom that was very special and powerful. That atom ate away at other objects turning them into more atoms and altered them to its will. After a few hours the lone atom became millions and a form started to take shape. That form was a Pegasus that had a black coat and a rainbow mane often known as Kindo.
Just yesterday Kindo had gone to kill his own daughter, Rainbow Dash and unfortunately he still needed to finish the job. He knew that her connection to time was causing time itself to decay but he unfortunately didn’t have the time to train her. Even though when trained she could help to stop the destruction of time and by extension all of creation. It was with a heavy heart that he returned to Equestria to finish his task.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Today had been boring for Princess Celestia but since Luna was now awake they were in the dining hall. The two had just finished eating and were preparing to lower the sun and raise the moon before Celestia went to bed while Luna watched over the night. As soon as the two turned around they heard the sound of whooshing air and seen the light of teleportation.
“Your majesties, I’m here to request your presence in an unusual matter,” a voice said from behind.
Turning around the two Princesses saw a changeling bowing to them while levitating a scroll just above his head. Taking the initiative Luna took the scroll in her magic and promptly read it. It took a few seconds for Luna to become extremely confused but almost a minute before the scroll went over to Celestia. Celestia merely scans the scroll before she looks to her younger sister.
“Your Queen wishes to make amends with Equestria?” Celestia asked with a little venom in her voice.
“Especially after what she had done to us?” Luna continued.
“This is a misunderstanding it’s not the queen that wishes to speak to you,” the changeling replied.
~~~~~~~~~~
Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor had a peaceful day and were heading towards their chambers for the night. Tonight however would turn the peace into confusion and anger from a source both of them were VERY familiar with. Shortly after they entered their chambers and got prepared for bed they noticed the signs of teleportation just outside their door. With a quick snort of annoyance from Shining, Cadence opened the door to find a changeling bowing extremely low to the ground.
“Your majesties, I am here to request your presence in an unusual matter,” it said quickly out of fear while levitating a scroll to them. Cadence read the scroll three times to make sure she was reading it correctly before passing it to her husband who reacted much the same way.
“Tell your queen that she was lucky to survive and if she tries anything like that again then she will not have that luxury again,” Shining said in a very dark tone.
“Normally I would say he’s overreacting but I also agree so be gone and be thankful for your life,” Cadence said dryly with a stone cold look on her face.
“I’m afraid that you misunderstand the letter. It is not from the Queen,” it said hoping for survival. Cadence and Shining Armor both got a look of confusion on their faces.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things had been mostly normal the last week but the one major difference was the lack of the resident speed demon, Rainbow Dash. She had been at the hospital all week watching over Soarin while he recovered from his encounter with his Commander, Kindo.
The rest of her friends however noticed something was wrong or at the very last different in an offsetting kind of way. Twilight had noticed unfamiliar magic residue from certain places. Applejack sometimes felt like something was watching her. Rarity had taken notice of some barely visible scuff marks in a few places. Fluttershy definitely noticed an increase in animals at her little sanctuary.
Pinkie Pie had noticed none of that but her Pinkie Sense kept telling her about things in the shadows, and hiding in various places. All week however her mane felt weird and it was a slightly different color but just a moment ago she got one she was used to. Something important was going to happen and everypony needed to gather at Soarin’s hospital room.
After a few minutes the Elements of Harmony had indeed been gathered in the Wonderbolts’ room. Soarin was actually awake but his wings were unfortunately scheduled to be removed and he was going to be stuck as an earth pony. The Elements were catching up with one another when there was a simple knock on the door. Opening it revealed a changeling that had a different feel about it than the others.
“You seven have been given the honor to meet with the ruler of the changelings,” it said as it walked past Dash straight at Soarin.
“Why would Chrysalis want to see us now?” Dash pressed stepping in front of the changeling. However the changeling was just an illusion so it drifted through her and, although a little shaken, she was unharmed.
“All I can say is that it’s not Queen Chrysalis that wishes to see you seven,” it answered stopping at Soarin’s bedside.
“What do I have to do with all of this?” Soarin asked as the changeling lifted a hoof to Soarin’s head.
“All will be explained when you arrive,” was the answer and although the changeling said it the voice was definitely different. The changeling started glowing very brightly as his hoof reached Soarin’s head and when it dissipated the changeling was gone. On the bed close to his head was a scroll but nopony else cared about the scroll when they noticed something else.
“Soarin your wings!” Rainbow practically yelled causing him to finally notice that his wings were in perfect condition. Twilight was the first to recover, mainly due to her curiosity when she noticed the scroll, and levitated said scroll so she could read it. Recovering from what was on the scroll was a little harder than she had thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In between the badlands and Equestria is a small country that has a high population of changelings. In the past two months however the population of ponies living here has expanded. One thing that didn’t change was that their rules were created by the changeling on top.
The capitol city itself could only be compared by combining the beauty of Canterlot with the cityscape of Manehattan. Above the capitol was a small cloud city that was in the process of being built. In the main building there are thirteen different ponies that are new to the city yet get to meet its’ ruler. Those alongside the Princesses, Elements of Harmony, the lucky Wonderbolt, and the cautious Prince are Kindo and Vectra.
“You requested to see us,” Kindo said as he and the rest entered everypony ready for battle.
“Hello again everypony,” the changeling King greeted as he turned around.
“MIDNIGHT?!?!?!” everypony exclaimed.
Seeing things in a different light
‘You need to rest,’ Yami thought.
“I’m fine,” Dave said groggily as they walked into a forest.
‘Yeah cuz you’ve only been walking for four hours,’ Yami thought sarcastically.
“I’ve been through worse,” Dave replied walking around a tree.
‘Fine I’ll trust your judgment,’ Yami thought before his presence faded in their mind.
Dave was walking towards somewhere, he wasn’t sure where but it’s definitely the closest part of civilization. Luckily for them their new changeling powers could sense ponies emotions from a good distance so they figured an entire village or city could be sensed from further away. In the last four hours of walking they went from a forest to a wide field of grass with almost no trees.
Dave had felt a lot safer the last day and a half with his other half awake. ‘Since we are both awake and the moon still has the same effect on them that means that on the night of a new moon…’ Dave was forced out of his thoughts when a Pegasus flew full speed and delivered a hard blow to the left side of his head.
“Thought you could just run away after what you creatures did?” came a feminine voice probably the Pegasus that had hit him. Dave opened his eyes only to find his vision blurry and wavy.
“You got a nice hit on me there but I’m not a fighter. Although I’m sure there is someone else who will fight for me,” Dave said rather loudly.
‘As if you needed to ask,’ Yami replied as he took control changing the usually black chitin a deep red color as usual. Yami opened his eyes and found that he still had crystal clear vision as he looked at his attacker.
“PRINCESS LUNA!” Yami shouted at the shocked and easily recognizable pony. Dave and Yami were probably just as shocked as the Princess herself, none of them knew what to do next. Dave was the first to react as he joined control of their body with Yami.
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Princess Luna was flying around looking for any of the surviving changelings so she could take them out. She knew that is word got out of Equestria about the Canterlot invasion than their nation would look weak and other nations like to act on the weaknesses of others. Even Equestria has taken advantage of the weaknesses of other nations, usually hostile ones but the point still stood.
She had already taken out about fifteen today and her sister would likely take out more tonight. Luna cleared her mind when she noticed another changeling in the woods headed for what looked like Ponyville. Her instincts and training had her coming at the changeling at very high speeds although it was too lost in thoughts of its own to notice.
“Thought you could just run away after what you creatures did?” she said not expecting a response from this one as well as the others she had taken out. The changeling however did something she didn’t expect it calmly got up from her attack and opened its eyes before shaking its head. That reaction alone was enough to startle her but what came next was something that surprised her.
“You got a nice hit on me there but I’m not a fighter. Although I’m sure there is someone else who will fight for me,” it replied and only second later its armor changed from the regular black to a deep red color. His eyes turned a translucent yellow color and even his magical aura changed color indicating that this was actually something different entirely.
“PRINCESS LUNA!” it yelled in obvious disbelief. Shortly afterward Luna could feel Celestia trying to contact her but the changing of its colors again distracted her.
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Yami broke out of his disbelief when Dave resurfaced to share control of their body. The fact Dave wasn’t talking told Yami that he was just there to help his power in case of a fight between them broke out. Usually Yami wouldn’t hesitate to fight anything especially with Dave helping his strength but the Princesses are depicted as goddesses not to mention rulers of the land they were currently on.
The sun was almost completely set so if he was going to attack it would be when Luna raised the moon or shortly afterward. The Princess landed below where she was flying and not closer to them witch usually means she will start asking questions. As the sun descended the moon rose without Luna’s intervention completely confusing Yami.
“I forgot Celestia could, has, and apparently still will raise the moon,” Dave explained quietly.
“I mean you no further harm,” Luna said as she approached.
“For now it appears that none of us do,” Yami and Dave said together in a deep scratchy voice.
“I am truly sorry for my attack I thought you to be a normal changeling,” she said in an off putting tone.
“Would you have killed us if we were?” Yami asked more than Dave causing the scratchiness to disappear from his voice.
“Honestly, yes I would have,” Luna said truthfully surprising both of them. She thought about the last statement before asking, “What do you mean ‘us’?”
“Damn she caught that,” Dave said forgetting his partial control mean always speaking.
“You’re an idiot. Always remember that,” Yami said harshly obviously remembering the small detail. After refocusing on Luna they explained as vaguely as possible, “Two souls in one body.”
“Two souls?” Luna asked making them shift uncomfortably as it was a delicate subject.
“We wish to speak in an actual shelter of any type,” they said in unison. Before the Princess could agree or say anything in general they continued, “We refuse to go to prison and explain behind bars though we do understand your uneasiness and…”
“And?” Luna asked in an irritated tone but their eyes were focused behind her. When she turned around all she could see was her beautiful moon witch her sister brought up full obviously trying to aid her fight with the added light. She returned her attention to the changeling again who seemed to be split down the middle with the color changes.
“We would allow ourselves to be locked in a nice comfy room,” they said struggling on the inside though they were very good at hiding it. As a cloud blocked the moonlight their internal struggle became nearly nonexistent. The Princess of the Night merely nodded and started to lead the way to Canterlot with the changeling not far behind.
It didn’t take long for the walk to become a flight and the flight only took a few minutes even though they were having trouble with flying. When fused under the full moon they literally have control over half of the body but they didn’t want to split in front of Luna. Almost as soon as they landed Yami and Dave were surrounded by the palace guards with a look that could kill.
“You are not to harm this changeling,” Luna order and the guards stepped back a little.
Surprisingly Luna took them to what appeared to be her personal quarters and enchanted the windows and door so they couldn’t escape. Before Luna was able to leave they had lost their fight with their very nature and let out a blood curtailing scream as the two again became separate.
“This… will make… introductions… easier,” Dave forced out.
“Introductions… but not… explanations,” Yami said with as much difficulty and the room fell silent.
“Perhaps you could get your sister so we only have to explain once,” Dave suggested and Luna simply left.
“Explain how much though?” Yami asked once Luna was out of earshot.
“I honestly don’t care but I really hate the full moon right now,” Dave explained.
“True but rather a full moon than a new moon huh?” Yami said watching Dave shiver at the very idea.
“Anyway the full story is more painful to you so it’s your call,” Dave said eager to change the subject.
Yami was silent as he was obviously considering telling the whole horrible story that forced the two into the same body. Dave for his part was actually very surprised about Yami’s consideration since he hated talking about it and other than himself nobody or nopony else knew the whole story. Just as Dave was about to get an answer both Celestia and Luna entered the room with a handful of royal guards for security.
“Are we going through the full story?” Dave asked bluntly but quietly.
“Let’s be specifically vague,” Yami answered quietly. To anypony else that would just be an oxymoron but it was actually something they came up with so he knows what parts to leave out.
“Allow me to introduce myself. Everypony calls me Midnight,” Yami said motioning for Dave to follow.
“I forgot about this to be honest. My name is Crimson,” Dave said since their names aren’t good pony names they had to be changed. Dave also motioned for the Princesses to introduce themselves.
“I am Princess Celestia,” she introduced herself mainly because she likes to every now and then.
“I am Princess Luna although you already know that,” she said annoyed about the obvious delay.
“Where’s Twilight?” Yami said obviously accidentally. The Princesses put on a more aggressive face at his comment.
“She isn’t a Princess yet idiot,” Dave said quietly but with anger present in his tone.
“I heard she was your student so I thought she would be in the palace with you,” Yami falsely explained.
“Twilight Sparkle hasn’t lived in the palace for almost two years now,” Celestia answered even though it was obvious that they were hiding something.
“Our lives became intertwined about five years ago,” Yami said even though it was a painful story it was definitely better than staying on the other topic.