The Gateway

All I could see was blackness. Not the kind of blackness you get when you close your eyes, or when it's particularly dark; the kind of blackness that seems to be an absence of all light and seems to have no beginning or end. The kind of blackness you see when you try to stare down the abyss, and the abyss doesn't particularly like you looking at it.

The only other sensation was the insistent throbbing in my head. My head felt as if someone decided to get creative with a jackhammer, and it didn't really feel like stopping.

Gradually, my headache started to ease up. Eventually, it was just a light tapping at the back of my mind; easily insignificant enough to tune out.

Now, I have to find out a way to restore my vision. I can't asses the situation I'm in if I don't know what the situation actually is.

Then, as if fate itself decided it wanted to play a cruel joke, the darkness suddenly gave way to blinding light. I shut my eyes as quick as I could, but it did nothing to stop the tide of agony. After the pain subsided, slowly, cautiously, which may as well have been my middle name by this point, I started to open my eyes. What I saw was only slightly more believable than a magical orb creating a vortex of swirling fire in the room I was in.

All I could see was white, but the white had some order to it. I could clearly make out a floor, and what seemed to be the sky, if you can call it that. It didn't have any more features than that, and it seemed to go on indefinitely.

Checking my body, I seemed to be completely unharmed. Nothing seemed to be broken or bruised, or anything really, and I still had control over my limbs and other body parts.

Did I die? Is this limbo, or Heaven's waiting room? Where in the hell am I? What did that orb do to me?

So many questions, so many questions indeed. Welcome, Hunter. I hope your ride here was pleasant. The fire can certainly be unsettling to some

"Who are you, where am I, why are you in my head, and what do you want with me?!" I yelled at the voice, not really expecting answers, but demanding them all the same.

Very good question, my boy. I go by and have gone by many names over the years of my life, but you may call me the Overmind. Know this; I do not mean you harm. If I meant you harm, surely you would not be here to talk to me; after all, you've spent a good chunk of time here unconscious, and I could have killed you if I wanted easily

"I guess you have a point," I agreed reluctantly. "You obviously need me alive for something. Where am I though, and what did that orb do to me?"

The two questions are rather intertwined actually. The artifact you found was called the Orb of the Reborn, and in it lies the gateway between worlds. The orb was made out of some of my essence, so that when I left your world to become the gatekeeper, I would have a way to indirectly transport people between worlds when one of them is in need. The mountain it is in will only show up when the other world Earth is tied to is in danger, and the same would happen if Earth was in danger. If you want to put it simply it is a gateway that shows up when the other side of the gate needs help.

"So obviously the other side is in danger, and I assume I will be your messenger, or your champion, or whatever you want to call me, that will help save them. It's the only reason I would be here in the first place, wherever here is."

Very good, my boy. You catch on much quicker than I anticipated. Now, to answer where you and I are. Right now we are in the world between worlds. If you wanted to use a gate for an example again, this would be the area that the gate itself occupies or the booth the gatekeeper is in. From here, you could go to both sides if you so wanted, but I'm going to make a deal, and it will take a while to explain, so bear with me for a moment.

Right now, the other side of the world is not in any fatal danger, but rather, in a more political sense of danger.

Right as he finished his sentence, what appeared to be a screen appeared in my view. From a outside perspective it looked just like an old colonial settlement, not another world. Then I saw the inhabitants. They were for lack of a better term techno-color ponies, but some had wings, and some were very clearly using magic, or some form of it. It obviously wasn't science, because it seemed they were still a couple hundred years behind us in that regard.

Meet the citizens of Equestria. As you can see, magic is existent and a big part of this world. If you accept my deal, you will get to know a lot more about them before you are sent off. The thing is however, they aren't the ones in danger. Their country has been in a time of peace for thousands of years, and not a single war has been started since the royal family was established. If there was a picture in the dictionary for an utopian society, this would be it. No, they aren't in any danger at all; they are.

Suddenly, the screen zoomed away from the ponies of Equestria. The scene was now of a rocky, dry desert with nary a speck of green to be found. The screen closed in on the base of an descript mountain, where a rock could be seen being moved from underneath. What stepped out was vaguely pony like creature, looking like a mix between a pony and bug.

Its body was a pure black chitin. Protruding from its back was a set of extremely thin, gossamer wings. Its legs had holes in them, but there wasn't any indication it was an injury, so it must be their natural look. It had a solid black horn, and it's eyes were a pure sky blue. It also had a set of small fangs sticking out from its mouth, and another gossamer fin on the back of its neck, kind of like a shark, although the purpose still remained unclear.

What you see now is known as a changeling. As you can tell, they are pony like in appearance, and they share many similarities, but there are some major differences that separate the two.

The changeling's operate under a hive like structure, with a military mindset and a monarchy. The new queen, before birth, would be fed more emotional energy than regular drones, which would slowly start to give her enough magic and magic storage to turn her into a queen. When she came of age, she would rule the hive for the next couple hundred of years or until death, and a new queen would be selected.

Then there are the elite, special changelings fed more energy at birth but not as much as is required for a queen, and as they are costly to birth, there aren't too many. They have more magical storage and power, stronger chitin, faster healing injuries, and are stronger and faster than normal changelings. They usually are high ranking in the hive, being commanders, advisors, the personal guard of the queen, and sometimes infiltrators, though most of those are regular changelings. The only real way to distinguish them is from seeing their abilities, or in battle, as they usually will wear more armor than a regular soldier.

Lastly, there are the standard drones, which make up most of the hive. They are usually lower rankings, such as workers, gatherers, hunters, and soldiers, although there are many drones that are infiltrators, as the ratio is so skewed from elites to drones that even if every elite was an infiltrator, there still wouldn't be enough.

When I said that the changeling's society was militaristic, I mean they are really militaristic. Every drone and elite, and of course the queen, knows the basics of how to fight, no matter their role in the hive. While a soldier has more training than a worker in fighting, a worker, especially with how many of them there are, could easily deal with a decent threat to the hive, although not a major one.

Out of nowhere, the changeling was surrounded in a ring of green flame, similar in structure to the flames of The Overmind. When it ended, a pony was standing in its place, as if it had always been there.

The changelings are a race of shape-shifters, usually taking the form of ponies, as it is easier for them to change to something they  resemble. However, their digestive track can not keep up with the means of their body, no matte how much they eat. To counter this, changeling have the ability to sense emotions, and "feed" on them, with positive emotions like love and friendship being the most rich.

Because of these new adaptations, changelings for thousand of years have disguised as ponies, taken and stored their emotional energy, and brought it back to the hive where they would be stored in a gel like substance made from a changeling's saliva. Changelings would also take the body of the pony they were impersonating and store them in a special type of cocoon that would allow them to dream, and the cocoon would leech their emotional energy, wait for them to recover, and do it all again, effectively creating an emotional generator. Many changelings made disguises, working their way from the bottom up, as it was much safer, but impersonating the right pony could gain a lot for the hive, so they did it on occasion. Changelings had a hard life, but because of their perseverance and the fact that no one even knew of the changelings, they managed to survive. That is, until the invasion of Canterlot, capital of Equestria and home of the royal family.

The current queen of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis, was one of the most ambitious queens. She was also one of the most power hungry, warlike, and above all, prideful and arrogant. The first thing she did was invade all the other hives in the badlands, absorbing all of their ranks into her own hive, and by the third hive captured, she didn't even have to put up a fight; the other hives already surrendered. From there, she started planning the invasion of Equestria; gathering information on the layout of Canterlot and the best way to take it over. She sent an anonymous threat after infiltrating their ranks, ensuring that the captain who maintained the shield over the city was weak enough that he wouldn't be able to defend it or command his troops. They eliminated the highest command, and within hours, the city fell, the royal family was imprisoned, and the only weapons that could stop them had already been stolen by the time their wielders got to them. Her only folly was her arrogance, and she paid dearly for it.

While she wasn't paying attention, the bride she had impersonated, who was part of the royal family, was set free by the personal student of one of the royal family. She managed to free the captain of the royal guard, who was also her groom, from the spell he was under, and using their love, cast a shield of pure emotional energy. The changelings, unused to the spell and unable to feed of the energy moving at such a speed, were sent flying into the country side, and with their cover blown and unable to get emotional energy, the race as a whole will run out of emotional energy they've stored up and starve.

This is where you will come in. I know that what I just said is a lot of information to take in, and there will be more should you choose to accept, but know that they need your help. This is the deal I will propose, and it is your choice to accept or deny.

I will transform you into a changeling elite, and train you how to use your new body. Furthermore, I will be gifting to you a part of my magic, so you will be more powerful than a regular elite. I will be in touch with you the entire time; I can speak to you as I'm doing, and all you have to do is speak to me in your mind for it to register in mine. I will train you how to fight, should you encounter any hostiles along your travels. I will teach you about Equestrian society, and how to blend in. After you are prepared, I will send you to Equestria, near a town called Ponyville, which is close enough from the capital so that you could easily visit there, without trying to infiltrate the capital itself. You will go to Ponyville, and using whatever you deem the most appropriate strategy, will pursue the end goal of ultimately establishing a peaceful bond between the changelings and the ponies, at least enough that changelings will realize that they can follow in your footsteps and make peace. When they learn that they don't have to fight the ponies, and can make peace with them, there will be many that will go down that path, and in time, the changelings could be a peaceful race, co-living with ponies. You will be the first in a chain of peace and prosperity. The question is, are you willing to forge the first link?

However, there is a catch. As you know, life is too hard for an all benefits deal. None may know of my existence. If anyone knew of the gateway besides those trustworthy enough to use it for good, it would be disastrous. This is where the catch comes in, although it serves as both a failsafe should you try to betray my trust, and a failsafe if your life is in mortal danger. I will have the ability to control your body for a short period of time, but only on three specific conditions. The first is that you are in such danger that you will need all of my power and experience to stop something or remain alive. The second is if you call on me to go in control for any reason should also I find that it is necessary. The last is if you try to tell anyone about me, on one condition. The monarch of Equestria has proven time and time again to be trustworthy, and can keep her emotions in check. It is time that she knows of my existence, and when you reveal yourself and show yourself trustworthy, she will likely visit. You must show her in private when I'm in control, as it will be obvious when I am.

After you accomplish your mission, you could either stay in Equestria, or you could go back home. It will be your choice to decide which path you want to choose. I know this is a lot to take in, so I will give you some time to make your decision. I am here if you have any questions about what is going to happen and what your choices are.

First off, I want to know if you can hear my thoughts. It only makes sense, since you seemed to know what my questions where.

Very astute, very astute indeed. Yes, I can hear your thoughts.

Ok, that saves some hassle. What would happen should I say no?

If you were to say no, all memory of me and this place, along with the Orb of the Reborn, will be erased from your mind, and you could go along your way to live out the rest of your life without knowledge of this place.

If I complete your mission, will I keep my memories of my experience in Equestria and you?

If you prove prove yourself trustworthy by carrying out your mission, you will be allowed to keep full knowledge of this place, me, and Equestria.

How long would you say the changelings have left to live? Also, how would I go through all of my training in time?

The changelings have about 1 month of food stored up for the entire hive. As for how you would go through training, it is because of this place's properties. Because this place is merely a gateway, and isn't a finite realm, coupled with the fact that I am its controller, I can control the flow of time in this world, so that 1 second on Equestria can be one year in here. The training would be able to be completed easily. By slowing the time down enough that you should have years to complete your training in here, and speeding it up when you are finished, I can set you out in Equestria at pretty much any time in the future. It has already been one day since the invasion, but you I'll need to wait a couple of days regardless so that suspicion and anger dies down.

I'm going to need a bit more time to think about this. If you can, will you stop listening to my thoughts. I'll yell when I've made by decision.

Of course. I will be waiting for your answer. I understand it is a big choice to make, and cannot be rushed.

So, I have a choice. Pros and cons obviously. The pros of saying yes: I not only get  to live a once in a lifetime experience, but have the chance to save a nation. I will get to experience new things, and can even keep them if I decide what I make in Equestria is worth more than my life on Earth. The cons of saying yes: obviously the controlling. Do I trust the Overmind enough to cast a spell on me that allows him to control me. My decision will rest pretty much entirely on the controlling, so I have to find my stance on the matter. Do I trust him? He obviously could have killed me, and is even giving me a choice, so he obviously isn't entirely evil. If he wanted, he could have cast the spell while I was unconscious and then sent me to Equestria. When he controls me, it would only be for those reasons, which shouldn't happen often. I will still be the decision maker, unless it directly jeopardizes his cover. I think decided what path I will walk.

"I've made my decision, Overmind. I will accept your deal. I will be your messenger."

You have made the right choice Hunter. Their world needs a savior, and a savior you shall be. I will begin the transformation as soon as you are ready, and it will be similar to the spell you experienced when coming here. Just give me the word, and it shall begin.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Begin the transformation."

It will be done soon, just remain calm.

As soon as he finished his sentence, a ring of flames cam into being around me around me, a green the color of changeling magic, never holding its tone for more than an instant. The circle started spinning around and around, faster and faster, until it was a vortex of swirling flames. Like before, four chains of flame came out of the vortex, slower than before, and wrapped around my limbs, however, instead of stopping there, it continued upward. It started to swirl around my arms and legs, creating a corkscrew around all of my limbs. The four chains then continued corkscrewing around my stomach. As they continued to wrap me up, the flames around my limbs started to spread, connecting it all up and completely covering my limbs. By the time it started spreading across my chest, the original chains of flame where already going around my head, creating more supports for the flames to spread from. By the time the flames stopped spreading, I was completely covered in a cocoon of dark green fire. Again, a feeling of tiredness swept over me, making it harder to keep my eyelids open. All I heard was one sentence before sleep claimed me, spoken in an ethereal whisper, barely even there. "You will be reborn."

Then all was black