A Force of Change

A Force of Change

Prologue - Probationary Measures

So there I was, brought before Celestia in irons, to be persecuted for a crime that was not my own. I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't leave this hall alive.

As I think back to the events leading up to this moment, how I was arrested for simply being a changeling, my self-imposed exile to Equestria, and the augmentations that were forced upon me.

"You are charged with the crimes of assault, attempted coup, attempted foalnapping, use of magic maliciously, and espionage, how do you plead?"

"Not guilty."

"So what you are saying is that you didn't try to invade with the rest of your race, you didn't attack innocent ponies, you didn't forcibly feed on the energies of innocent ponies, and you didn't give information about Equestria to your queen?"

"I did none of those things, and if you think I do anything involving that monster, you are sorely mistaken."

"You are a changeling. Changelings follow the queen. You obviously-"

"Let me stop you right there. You know next to nothing about my race. That 'queen' as you so put it is nothing but a tyrant to her people, and it would do you good to remember that most of us do not follow her blindly. She has kept our race fed during the last three hundred years, but she has very little love from her subjects. See these markings on my carapace? on my wings? on my very eyes? Do you think I wanted to have them permanently carved into my body? Sure I was in the changeling military for a few years, it was mandatory at the time I was of age. That monster forced changes on me. I used to be a regular royal breed drone, but that meddler of a queen turned me into a weapon against my will. I defected soon after the forced augmentations, and I have been trying to live in peace and harmony ever since then."

"How long ago did you defect?"

"Ten years."

"How old are you exactly?"

"Twenty-two years."

"I see… In light of what you have divulged, you will be released, but you will be on a probationary period for the next six months. Your probationary period will be reduced to three months if you will agree to disclose everything you know about changelings."

"That seems acceptable, but if you expect me to tell you all I know about changelings, you will first have to call off this witch hunt of yours. Being a changeling is not a crime, no matter how much your propaganda in the aftermath of the Canterlot attack said it is. I want a public statement about how you were wrong about my race, how we are not mindless monsters bent on replacing loved once and sucking you dry."

"You are hardly in a position to make demands like that. After all, we could always just throw you back in a cell."

"You already sentenced me, going back on that and throwing me in a cell will just tell everypony that you are just as much of a tyrant as Chrysalis."

"Ensuring the safety of my citizens does not make me a tyrant, changeling."

"But breaking due process and arresting somepony who was just proven innocent does. How do you think your citizens will react to you arresting somepony on grounds of not telling you what you want to know? How long before you set up a curfew that restricts the times that ponies can be outside of their homes? How long before you have guard patrols breaking into houses to take able bodies stallions for work camps? You may never do any of those things, but going back on your sentencing will make ponies wonder."

"I will uphold my sentence, and I will call off the search for changeling infiltrators. I would like to discuss something with you over tea after the Day Court, so I will have one of the castle workers escort you to a guest room where you will stay for the next few days."

"I thought I would be free to go after this trial."

"You are on a probationary period, we need to discuss your integration and assign a handler for you before you can be released."

"Ah, okay then…"

Okay, you may be wondering who I am exactly. Well to put it bluntly, I am a rogue royal breed changeling, with bodily augmentations that gave me some interesting abilities. My body has runic glyphs carved into some of the surfaces of it, said glyphs allow me to channel magic though my body differently.

On my wings, I have glyphs on the solid parts that improve air manipulation and focus my innate flight magic.

On my legs, I have glyphs around the holes that improve my muscle recovery, strength, stamina, and my innate earth magic.

On my horn, I have glyphs that improve mana channeling and allows me to use non-changeling magics.

On my carapace, I have glyphs that make my chitin stronger, strengthens my wing muscles with the same augmentations my legs have, and allows me to direct barrier wards and shield spells around my body.

On my eyes, I have glyphs that allow me to effectively zoom in like a telescope, as well as enhanced night vision and pupil dilation response time. The transparent outer eyelids that changelings close when in battle have glyphs that allow me to see with sound, like a bat, but clearer.

On the ridges around my chest, I have glyphs that improve cardiovascular function, my heart and lungs are more efficient, to support the muscular augmentations, and my emotive feeding has been modified to where I can feed on all emotions, not just positive ones.

As I told Celestia, Chrysalis intended me to be a living weapon. A side effect of my augmentations is that my natural changing is weaker. I cannot take a form without a horn, and when I do take a form, the horn appears to be incredibly disfigured. The glyphs always show through the transformation, and my eyes cannot be changed. I can use illusion magic to correct some of the issues with my alternate forms, but it is draining, and illusion dispel charms will cause magical backlash.

You may be wondering what my name is. Well, I don't have one, not officially at least. Ponies call me Shadow Shifter, you can do the same.

After a few hours of waiting in my quarters, Day Court finally ends and Princess Celestia escorts me to a gazebo in the Royal Gardens. We sit down and the castle staff brings out a silver tray with a porcelain teapot, two teacups, and a plate piled with some form of pastry.

Celestia delicately pours the tea into the two cups, "This tea is my favorite. It is a special blend imported from Saddle Arabia."

I take a sip from my tea -- it has a delicate flavor, with hints of lavender and sage, an overall light bodied blend, "Wow, this tea has a great taste. If I was more like my brethren, I would probably find myself raiding your stock sometime later tonight."

With a sound like tinkling glass and fine bone china, Celestia chuckles at this remark, "It is a quite delightful blend, I wouldn't be surprised to find many of my subjects trying to raid my royal tea store, I am just glad my dear sister Luna has a taste for that awful swill she calls coffee."

"I never much liked coffee myself, too harsh to the palette, not to mention how bad it is for your mental health."

"There are many a time where I wish my dear sister would stop drinking that boiled bean juice, she is always so wired as of late… Of course I probably shouldn't have gotten her that Ponystation for Hearths Warming either, she spends way too much time on that idiot box… Should have got her some socks or something instead…"

"Personally, I never saw the appeal of video games. You spend all kinds of bits on the system, then even more bits for the games, just to sit in front of a screen for hours while trying to mash buttons in a way so you don't get blasted or whatever."

"Speaking of things getting blasted, I have decided to assign my personal student Twilight Sparkle to handle your probation. I just hope she won't react too harshly when she sees you. According to Luna, she had nightmares for weeks after the Canterlot attack…"

"So why would you assign somepony who is more likely to blast me into next week than be my friend to handle my case?"

"Twilight is incredibly talented, she is generally open minded about things, and she is the closest thing we have to an expert on changelings at this time, not to mention I think once she gets over the fact that you are a changeling, she will find your personality quite charming."

"So all of this just to set me up with your student? It seems all of those rumors about Princess Celestia being a chess master who likes little plots and schemes make sense…"

"Well, nopony's perfect… Not even me. And what can I say? It's a guilty pleasure."

"If the hive had a ruler like you, changelings and ponies would already be living together in harmony."

"Two Princess Celestias… I think my sister had a nightmare about that once… Something about too many pranks at once…"

We both stop to laugh at this. After a few minutes of laughter, a messenger comes over and whispers something in Celestia's ear, "Sorry Shadow Shifter, but something has come up that needs my attention, so Gilded Rose here will escort you back to your quarters. We will have to have teatime again in the future, I haven't had a fun conversation like that in weeks. Have a nice night."

With that, Celestia trots off to do whatever needed her attention, and the castle servant leads me back to my quarters.