Changelings have been living their lives in secrecy for the last thousand years. We were able to do this because of our ability to take the form of somepony, which lead to replacing said pony's place in society. Nopony knew we existed until our queen, Queen Chrysalis, decided to do something drastic. Her plan was to invade the capitol of Equestria, Canterlot, during the royal wedding of Captain Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.
Changelings need love to survive. For a changeling, a wedding is an all-you-can-eat buffet. After hearing about the queen's plan every changeling soldier was pumped and excited to crash the wedding, except for me. My name is Shift and I was born different. Like the other changelings I had bug-like wings and eyes, a horn, holes in my legs, and a smooth but strong carapace. What makes me different is the fact that instead of having blue eyes,wings, and carapace I have red. My personality is different too. I don't like violence and the idea of taking the place of somepony. I believe in obtaining love by befriending ponies, but when we had to live in secrecy that was kind of hard to do without revealing our race's existence.
Don't get me wrong, I admire Queen Chrysalis but I hated her plan to invade Canterlot. A full scale invasion would start a war between changelings and ponies. Ponies would view all changelings as evil. But like a good subject, I kept my mouth shut. Protesting against or even questioning one of the queen's orders could result in either banishment or execution.
***
The day finally came. The day that would no one would forget. Queen Chrysalis had all of us position ourselves around the purple-ish pink barrier that surrounded Canterlot. I was towards the top of the barrier. In the streets below I could see ponies staring up at us with looks of confusion mixed with fear.
"Begin," I heard the queen say, via the hive mind. The changelings around me started to ram themselves into the barrier in an attempt to break it. I thought it was pointless but sure enough it broke and the streets became nothing but chaos.
I saw ponies running for their lives and changelings dive bombing them. I followed suite and attempted to dive bomb in front of the nearest pony, a unicorn mare with a grey coat and a purple and white striped mane. Her cutie mark consisted of three purple stars. I stopped half way and hovered there, staring at her. What am I doing? I thought to myself. If I want to prove that not all changelings are bad then I shouldn't attack them, and with that thought in mind I yelled "RUN!" to the mare.
The mare didn't need to be told twice. I watched her run away until I was shot out of the air by a bolt of magic. When I got up, I saw a unicorn guard standing about ten feet from me and he was pissed. I tried to fly away but was stopped by another bolt of magic hitting one of my wings. "OW!" I screamed out as I fell and hit the ground. Slowly I got up and started running from the guard.
I ran from that guard for what felt like an eternity. While I was passing a huge firefight, I was hit by an armored changeling who got launched into me by a purple unicorn. He got up and yelled "You! Get up and help us take care of the Elements of-" he was sent flying by a bolt of magic from the guard that was chasing me.
I got up a resumed running from the angry guard. He chased me into an alley that had a dead end. I stared at the wall in front of me. From behind I heard "I've got you now, PARASITE!" I have never heard anypony angrier than this guard. I turned around just in time to see him charging another spell. I freaked out and, instinctively, shot him with a bolt of my own magic. He was launched out of the alley and back onto the street,
"Sorry!" I yelled as I ran passed the now dazed guard. I went to go look for a place to hide so I could be safe until the invasion ended. Before I could find one I sensed a large discharge of magic. I turned around and saw a huge bubble-like field launching every changeling it touched. "What the buck-!" was all I could say before I too was sent flying away from Canterlot.
Two Days After the Invasion
Fluttershy was approaching her cottage when she noticed an injured changeling lying in the stream that ran through the front of her house. "Oh my goodness," she said as she ran up to the changeling. She saw it had many cuts and bruises, one of its wings were torn and burned, and there was a large burn on its chest. Its left eye was swollen and it appeared to appeared to be unconscious. "You poor thing," she said as she tried to bring it inside.
Once inside she set the changeling on the table. Fluttershy went to go look for some gauze. A few minutes later she came back and started tending to the changeling's injuries. When she was done she carried it upstairs and set it on her bed to rest.
On her way out of her room she stopped and turned to look at the unconscious changeling. I hope the others won't be mad at me for doing this, she thought. She was about to close the door when she heard the changeling begining to stir.
