Fires of Change: Origins of a Race

Fires of Change: Origins of a Race

Chapter 1

Twilight's Secret Assignment

Near the center of Ponyville, within the absurdly large tree that is the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight Sparkle is enjoying re-shelving day, as she does every third Monday of the month.

With a shout, Twilight calls to her number one assistant, "Spike! Can you bring me 'Advanced Magi-Kinetic Theory' by Clover the Clever?"

A crash followed by some loud shuffling is heard before Spike enters the room, "Here you go Twi, is there anything else you need me to fetch before I go clean up the study that I totally didn't wreck trying to get that for you?"

"I could use some help finding 'Teleportation and other- wait, I found it, you can go"

"Okay then Twi, I got to go clean up the"- with a belch, Spike catches a scroll addressed to Twilight -"Hey Twi, you got a letter from the princess!"

"Well aren't you going to read it?"

"It says 'Spike, don't read this, give this directly to Twilight', so I'm not going to read it."

"Okay then, well, go do whatever you were going to do I guess."

Spike hands Twilight the scroll then exits the room.

My faithful student,

Your presence is needed in Canterlot, I have a special assignment for you. I cannot disclose the reason in this letter, as it is important to the security and stability of Equestria. If the general populace were to discover your task, we could have an uprising. All I can tell you is that your task will involve changelings.

You will be taking the morning train to Canterlot tomorrow. Enclosed is one ticket on the Friendship Express to Canterlot from Ponyville at seven thirty in the morning.

I will meet you personally when you arrive in Canterlot.

Destroy this letter after reading.

Your mentor,

Princess Celestia, Diarch of the Sun

Twilight removes the enclosed ticket then burns the letter with a spell.

After the letter is disposed of, Twilight lets out a yell, "Spike! I will be leaving for Canterlot first thing in the morning! Can you run the library while I am gone?!"

Hearing Twilight's yell, Spike rushes back into the main room, "Sure thing Twi, I've ran the library by myself before after all."

"Thank you Spike, can you finish up here so I can go get to sleep? I need to wake up early for the morning train."

Spike takes a look at the piles of unshelved books and lets out a sigh, "Sure thing Twi…"

Twilight goes up to her room then prepares for sleep.

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

In the desolate center of the San Palomino Desert, inside the great hall of a castle hidden within the sands, a set of large gilded doors creak open. A single cloaked figure enters, and bows to their queen.

The subject gets up from the bow, "My queen, the task you assigned to me was a success, now we just need to wait for the dominoes to fall."

"Very good Bright Wing my son. You have shown great talents in the field of infiltration, and it is about time that I appointed you as Head of the Infiltration battalion. It is only a matter of time before the Equestrians send a diplomatic party to our hive."

"Mother, are you sure that they will send a diplomatic party, and not an army?"

"With the information we gave them, they will learn that Chrysalis was the exception, not the rule. And by that logic, they would have to assume that our hive is only a potential enemy, not a definite one."

"Who is to say that they don't approach one of my sisters' hives?"

"The information bundles I had you plant will only provide them with information of this location, and they will be aware that this is not Hive Chrysalis."

"Do you plan on informing the other hives that we expect a diplomatic party? They may see Equestrians approaching as a sign of hostilities."

"I already have sent messengers to the other hives, I assure you that my plan will not fail."

With a statement of "My queen", Bright Wing bows then leaves the hall.

Now that she is all alone, Queen Monarch thinks aloud, "It is only a matter of time before Hive Monarch makes itself known to the world, and when we make peace, the others will follow."

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

In the main hall of Canterlot Castle, a Changeling Queen just defeated Princess Celestia in Single Combat.

With a lilting glee, the Changeling Queen gloats, "Ah! Shining Armor's love for you is even stronger than I thought! Consuming it has made me even more powerfulthan Celestia!"

With a groan of pain, Princess Celestia turns to Twilight, "The Elements of Harmony. You must get to them and use their power to defeat the queen." Twilight gathers her friends and they make their way to the door of the hall.

With a laugh the Changeling Queen shouts to Twilight and her friends, "You can run, but you can't hide!"

As they leave the hall, Canterlot reverberates with a loud Crack, then the cascading sound of shattering glass falling from high above. Twilight and her friends rush to the elements of harmony, but are ultimately captured by the changeling swarms. After being brought back to the main hall, the Changeling Queen puts her bound captives into pearlescent green cocoons filled with a translucent gel.

Twilight yells as she is being put into the cocoon, "What is that! What are you doing with my friends!"

With a chuckle, the Changeling Queen starts to monologue, "I was surprised when I heard how close you six were from retrieving the Elements. I should just get rid of you, but for your effort and tenacity, I have decided to spare you. I have put your friends in my conversion chrysalises, and you will become my new officers."

"You will never get away with this, we will get free, and we will stop you!" Twilight shouts in defiance.

"Do you not realize, you have already lost, and I have 'gotten away with this', so quit struggling and accept your fate." the Changeling Queen Charges her horn with a knockout spell, and Twilight starts to yell in fear.

"AHHHHHHH!" Twilight wakes in cold sweat.

Spike barges in, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a nightmare, it doesn't matter."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"Not really, what time is it?"

"It is about six or so, I was preparing breakfast for you."

"Thanks Spike, I don't tell you enough, but I couldn't live without you."

"You don't have to thank me, after all, I am your number one assistant. Now get ready for your trip, I have to go and make sure breakfast doesn't burn." With that, Spike leaves the room and Twilight goes to get ready for the train ride.

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

After an uneventful, albeit long, ride on the train to Canterlot, Twilight finally arrives at the station. After Twilight gets off the train, she spots a brilliant white pegasus with a long pink mane.

The pegasus approaches Twilight, then smiles, "Twilight, welcome back to Canterlot, I trust the ride over was uneventful?"

Realizing that the pegasus was sent to receive her, Twilight responds, "The ride was calm, we boarded a few minutes late, but there was nothing amiss. I am wondering though, the Princess said she would be the one meeting me at the station."

"Your train was late to get to ponyville? I am going to have to speak with those who run the Friendship Express, I gave them a forty thousand bits so they could hire more workers, but I see that they have instead used that to line their pockets…"- The pegasus shakes her head in disgust -"Regardless, I told you I would meet you here, but that doesn't mean I would let everypony know their princess walks among them."

"Oh, you used an illusion spell, I thought Princess Luna was the one who dealt with illusion magic, I mean not that you are not capable of using illusion, I mean that, you are, I mean, ugh…" Twilight facehooves.

The pegasus lets out a laugh, "While my sister is stronger with illusion magic and the like, I occasionally like to go out without drawing a crowd. And when I am disguised like this, call me Sunny Skies."

"Very well then Pri- I mean Sunny Skies. Shouldn't we be heading to the castle now?"

"I actually wanted to stop by Doughnut Joe's to get something for my sister."

With a flash of golden light, Twilight and Sunny Skies disappear from the platform.

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

An hour later, after a trip to Pony Joe's Doughnut Shop, Twilight Sparkle is finally led to a meeting room to discuss her task. Archmage Sunray and Princess Luna are already there, with an updated version of the plan to deal with the changelings.

The welcoming voice of Archmage Sunray announces their arrival, "Greetings Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, are we ready to get this over with?"

"Tia, we have been waiting here forever, where were you?" Princess Luna groaned out.

"Luna, we went to Pony Joe's to get some doughnuts for the meeting." Princess Celestia responded with a motherly tone. Luna nonchalantly hoofs Sunray a small cloth bit pouch.

Ignoring the fact that Sunray and Luna bet on where they were, Celestia clears her throat to begin the meeting, "Twilight, we called you here today because we have an important task for you. You are to spend the next week researching changelings and their origins. I want to learn more about their societal structure and where they are located."

"Is there anything specific that I should keep an eye out for?" asks Twilight.

Celestia replies, "We want to determine where they are located, if all changelings are hostile, and if there is any way for peace-"

Twilight interrupts Celestia, "Peace?! Why would you want peace with those love suckers? They attacked Canterlot, hurt Cadence, and drained my B.B.B.F.F.! They don't deserve peace!"

Once again putting on her motherly tone, Celestia tries to calm Twilight, "Twilight, I know you are angry because a swarm of changelings attacked us and hurt your family, but that is no reason to condemn an entire race. We are prepared for war if there is no alternative, but if the group of changelings that attacked don't represent all of their race, we will try any and all diplomatic avenues before declaring war."

Sunray clears his throat to interrupt, "Twilight, we have a plan set up to quell this before it sparks war, there were no fatalities in the invasion of Canterlot, and none of us want to end the life of anything. There is no way war would end cleanly, so the best we can do is exhaust all other ways before war is even considered."

Twilight submits, "Fine, I will do your research project. I will keep you updated on my progress."

The meeting ends just before lunchtime, and everypony goes their separate ways.