Fires of Change: Origins of a Race

Fires of Change: Origins of a Race

Prologue

Meeting in the Shadows

Deep in the Hayseed Swamps, East of Dodge Junction and South of Baltimare. Five cloaked figures with glowing black horns approach a surprisingly large hollowed out tree.

The first voice opens the secret meeting , "We need to send scouts to her territory, to make sure there will be no more acts of this sort."

"We cannot risk exposing ourselves further, we must fall back and use our reserves until our presence fades into obscurity again,"  a second voice retorts.

"We cannot just run and hide, it would take years for us to vanish from the spotlight!" the first voice exclaims.

A third voice speaks up, "Why would our sister do that? Has she lost her mind?"

The tallest figure commands, "Daughters! Enough! I have called you all here to discuss this development. I have a contingency plan for this kind of event. We were thrust into the spotlight, and we cannot feasibly fade away."

"So what is your plan Mother? Do you plan on selling us out to the ponies?" a fifth voice snarks.

The tallest figure takes a deep breath before responding, "I do not plan on selling anybody out to anyone. I have already taken steps to salvage the situation, it would be wise for you to draw back any scouts in Equestria."

The speaker with the fifth voice puts on a dangerous tone, "You want us to pull our scouts and gatherers back, care to tell us why?"

With a sigh, the tallest figure speaks up again, "It would make the whole ordeal a lot smoother if only one presence is within their borders. I simply plan to negotiate, and explain how she went rogue. I do not like it why my daughters go rogue."

The other four step back to converse for several minutes.

Finally one of the cloaked figures steps forward, "Very well, we will pull out all of our troops, but we will only give you one month before we send our scouts back in. We hope you know what you are doing mother."

After the meeting is over with, the cloaked figures remove their cloaks and burn them with magic, then fly off in different directions.

O------------{[][][][][][][]}------------O

In a meeting room in Canterlot Castle, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, Princess Cadence, Prince Blueblood, Guard Captain Armor, and Archmage Sunray are gathered around an enchanted map of Equestria and the surrounding territories.

Shining Armor huffs with annoyance, "I still think we need to amass our forces and invade the badlands."

"We all heard your suggestion to 'invade' the last three times you said it Shiny, but the last thing we need is more violence," at that, Shining Armor looks to Cadence with a dejected face.

Blueblood interrupts Shining Armor's retort, "As the representative of the Noble Families, would it be wrong to suggest we secure our borders and start searching our populations for changelings?"

"We- I mean I agree with our nephew, we should shore up our borders before any retaliation," Luna agrees.

Celestia speaks up, "Not to disappoint anypony, but we will not be invading anywhere. We would be no better than the changelings if we did that."

Before anypony else could speak, Sunray interrupts, "If I could possibly interject, I have an idea on what we could do. First, we should increase border security. Then, we will research changelings, if we know more about our would-be enemies, we can determine if peace is a viable option. After that, if peace is viable, we will send a diplomatic party to their leadership."

"Archmage Sunray, I have a few questions about your idea. Firstly, how would we handle the changeling presence in Equestria after we seal our borders? Secondly, who would you suggest participate in the research?" Celestia asks.

Sunray responds, "Princess, we would position more unicorn guards on the gates to cities, and we would take in any changelings we discover for questioning. We have no idea if all of the changelings are loyal to that queen. If we discover changelings that are living peacefully with our populations, we wouldn't want to destroy whatever lives they have made."

Celestia pauses for a moment to think before responding, "Why would you think that there could be changelings living peacefully among us? And how would we handle them if they do have lives here?"

After thinking for a moment, Sunray answers, "I would suggest offering probationary citizenship, after registering their pony forms, and putting a magic trace on each one we find that becomes a citizen. Shining Armor and Princess Cadence would train our guards to detect these magic traces. Of course we would need a propaganda campaign to make sure the changelings know we do not mean harm."

"I will begin work on a propaganda campaign that would prevent any hostilities from citizen changelings, and as for the research, I have the perfect mare for the task. My student would be perfect to find anything about the changelings."

Luna interrupts, "It seems that we have a plan now, I will order my night guards to go to our borders. Archmage, I hope your detection wards are up to the task at hand."

Blueblood clears his throat, "I will inform the noble families of our plans."

Shining Armor decides to speak up, "Tomorrow, Cadence and I will inform my guards and train them to detect changeling magics and the magical trace."

As the meeting is concluded, all but Princess Celestia and Archmage Sunray leave the meeting room.

Turning to Celestia, Sunray speaks, "You do realize that I was going to suggest your student to research the changelings right?"

Celestia chuckles, "Without a doubt. Everypony has heard of Twilight's studiousness."

The chuckling devolves into quiet laughter as both ponies leave the room.

O------------{[][][][][][][]}------------O

Deep in the Canterlot Archives, a single pony wearing an enchanted cloak enters the Starswirl Wing. Approaching the shelf with all of Starswirl's personal journals, the figure places a single worn tome and quickly retreats into the darkness.