Author's Note

WARNING! The story takes a slightly more serious shift in this chapter as it transitions from Canon to non-canon, according to the rules of the OTVerse. I've made this change to allow more creative freedom for myself and to enjoy writing this story just a little more. I hope my change to third person, and my new style of writing was a good change. I do appreciate feedback and will gladly listen to any suggestions!

P.S.: I might end up needing a new editor

EDIT: ~~LONGEST CHAPTER I'VE POSTED! Now wait a little longer. I have a pleasant surprise.~~ As of now, Chapter 10 is the longest chapter!
PS: It's gonna be more horse words...

The troubles of a dying, but hated race

The OC Theory
Chapter 9

Three guards approached the main entrance to the Crystal Empire's castle.
As they approached, the guards on watch detail snapped to attention and saluted as their captain arrived.

“At ease” spoke the armored mare as she made her way towards the doors.

On her back was a changeling, dressed in basic linen cloth, hastily thrown on him, to keep him from freezing in the cold of the north. As the doors swung open and the guards on duty all saluted, the captain just rolled her eyes and put them at ease. This was the one part of her job she despised.

Being the highest ranking officer meant that everypony, except the princess and the prince had to salute her on sight. She continued down the hall, the other two guards long forgotten at the main entrance, as they fell back to their original post.

The captain entered the main hall and headed straight for the throne room. As the doors approached she took one more look at the unconscious changeling on her back.

“This is it for you. You’ll be interrogated and then most likely killed….I’m sorry. I’m actually quite fond of your kind…” She sighed before opening the doors to the throne room, and walking in.

The throne room was nothing too majestic, just a big room made of crystal. Two finely crafted thrones sat near the the back, right next to each other. Both were carved out of the finest, purest, and clearest quartz in the land. The captain knew this since her job used to be to tour the empire.

“Where's the other?” Asked Prince Shining Armour as he glared at the changeling, with what appeared to be absolutely no patience.

“They merged sir. We restrained them and then the other one was absorbed into this one.” the captain responded, shooting her own glare back at him for showing no respect to the changeling.

“Very well. Leave him here and report to the test facility. After you are cleared and proven to be a pony, report to your office and leave your ranks and go home. Enjoy the week off you have Captain Prism.”

“Yes Sir! Thank you sir!” She exclaimed and ran straight to the test facility to get cleared.

“You're not going to tell her now that she won’t be returning to her position after her vacation?” said Princess Mi Amore Cadenza as she looked at her husband.

“It’s a surprise sweetie. With the new position and title she will hold, it will be a nice break from being a captain.”

Cadence was about to respond when the changeling started stirring. Both her and Shiny trained their horns onto him. They started charging them, and holding it, building a powerful ball of power at the tips. It was mostly for intimidation as they still needed to interrogate him, but it was nice to ensure cooperation from the beginning. With the disguise of a magical attack, Cadence executed a spell her sister-in law Twilight had made for her, in order to scan the magical abilities of anyone. She fired the spell and waited for feedback. Within no time she had a response, which was incredible, as it took on average 1 minute to respond. The results shook her to the core. This changeling was more powerful than all the alicorns combined.

“Shining, fire it now…” she whimpered in fear to him.

“Wh-Why?” he asked. Although he had a burning hatred for changelings, he wasn’t going to kill one without reason.

“He’s more powerful than all four of us alicorns. We need to fire it now.”

And with that the beam was fired. Chase woke up to see a swirling blue and pink beam the size of the room, heading straight towards him. As if time had slowed, he got off his back, shook himself awake and walked to the throne and sat right next to Cadence.

Time resumed and the beam hit the front doors of the throne room, and obliterated them. Considering they had been crafted from Diamond, that was quite the feat.

“What just happened?” asked Chase, completely lost to the situation.

Cadence let out a shriek and took flight, attaching herself to Shiny, who threw up a shield around them and stared at the changeling like his life depended on not blinking.

“Why are you- oh. Oh! Gimme a second!” Chase said before switching to his OC’s form. As the green flames died down, he smiled from ear to ear, trying to look as harmless as possible.

“Please don’t hurt us! We’ll meet any of your demands!” Shining cowered and scrambled onto his hooves, and ran behind Cadence. “Take her! She’s hotter than me!” he cried and so did Cadence, feeling betrayed.

“I’m not going to hurt you! I’m lost! Oh one sec, the other changeling, Kate, wants to come out...” he began a spell that popped into his head out of nowhere. As Kate began to materialize next to him, the shield dropped and Cadence and Shining fired the same spell they did before.

Chase was flung back, and so was Kate, their screams of terror and pain pierced the air and the entire castle heard. Kate’s newly manifested body, having not yet solidified, burned, her chitin not lasting the hit and her flesh vaporizing until nothing was left of her. Chase lose half of his lower torso and his horn split in half down the middle. As the beam faded, Shiny and Cadence watched in horror as Chase was the only thing left, still alive, screaming in pain, as he fell to the floor. Blood pooled around him until most of the the floor in his vicinity was covered in it.

“Wh-Why?” he stutter through his cries of pain before falling limp and quiet.

“GUARDS! GET THE MEDICAL TEAM HERE NOW! Cadence, send a letter to all the other alicorns and summon them here now!”

As everyone rushed to follow Shiny’s orders, he fell to his side next the the changeling and cried into it’s waist. For the first time since the wedding, he cried, and felt bad, over hurting a changeling.

As the medical team rushed in, it was evident on their faces, that they had little hope for the changeling's survival…

<~=O=~>

Prince Shining Armour paced the only hall of the private hospital inside the castle. His wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, sat in a chair next to the door of the ICU, bags under her eyes, and her blinks slow, as she was lost in thought, appearing almost dead.

The sound of hoof steps marching up and down the hallway were the only thing to be heard. They were alone. No one else was allowed in the hospital as it was sectioned off from the Medical section of the castle, so it could service guards and royals only.

The main door was flung open by an infuriated Ex-Captain of the Royal Guard.
She ran straight for Prince Shining Armour and slapped him.

“YOU SHOT THE CHANGELING?!?! WHAT THE BUCK KIND OF CORRUPTED GENOCIDAL RULERS ARE THE TWO OF YOU?!?” she yelled into his face, infuriated by the actions of one of the so to speak, ‘Perfect’ rulers.

“..i’m….I’m sorry…..” he cowered as he fell to the floor. It had been 20 hours that the medical team had been attempting to save the Changeling. They brought medical professionals from every corner of Equus, and imported all the documentation Pony kind had on changelings. Yet, it seemed that nothing could speed this up.

Shining Armour did not sleep once in those 20 hours. Every time he blinked he saw the moment replay in his head. At the wedding, it didn’t feel like this. It wasn’t supposed to feel like this…. For all the 2 million changelings they had killed before, it never felt this, painful.

Ex-Captain Prism sat in the seat next to Cadence, looking away from her and at the floor. She was told this happened as it passed down the chain as a rumor. She canceled her vacation entirely. She had carried thousands of changelings into that throne room, and to their inevitable deaths, before this one, feeling equally as sorry for them as she did for this one. Yet, something tugged at her heart when she thought that they killed him.

As Shining completed yet another pace down the hall, the door to the ICU opened, and a young griffon doctor, whose name tag said ‘Ivanov’ spoke.

“Your friend will be fine. Although we do have something to mention…”

Shining practically tackled the doctor to the ground and looked at him like a mad mare.

“What is it!?!”

The doctor began sweating “I assume you already know that this changeling’s magical potency is beyond that of all of the alicorns’. Well, as soon as we repaired the horn, the body began to heal itself. We observed the entire process, documenting more and more about changelings as we witnessed it’s own body using it’s magic to repair what would have been fatal wounds to the average pony, until a misty figure appeared next to him. Another changeling but not fully tangible. As if it were a ghost. When it looked at it’s friend, it gasped showing concern over it, similar to a pony’s concern over their partner’s well being. As it inspected it’s fellow changeling wounds, it seemed to get a sort of, flashback. It fell to the ground, curled into a ball, and began sobbing, and screaming in pain.

“We’ve attempted to coax her out of it but it appears as though it can’t interact with us.”

This left the waiting party somewhat lost. Shining dismounted the griffon, apologized, and trotted into the room, followed by the doctor, and the rest of the party.

What he saw left caused what remained of his heart, to shatter. The friend that the changeling had spoken of, Kate, was curled in a ball on the floor, sobbing. The same changeling that he had vaporized with his magic….

He ran up to her and cuddled her, his touch seeming to cause her to become tangible, and real. She gasped before seeing the pony that had killed her cuddling her. At first she panicked and squirmed, but his strong embrace of comfort, repentance, and great sorrow, calmed her down, as she returned the embrace and cried into his shoulder.

Cadence watched this behavior, not feeling jealous over the fact that Shining was paying attention to a changeling, but rather, disappointed with herself for not being the first to offer comfort to the changeling.

Instead, she decided to check on the other changeling in the room. She glanced on top of the bed, to find it empty. She gasped in alarm and looked around the room in a panicked haze. Had the changeling sensed her and awoken, preparing to strike and get it’s revenge? She looked everywhere, until she felt a wing on her back and turned to find Prism, one wing over Cadence’s back to calm her, and the other around the changeling from before, that was crying into her embrace.

“He remembers the words I told him before entering the throne room, and he’s glad that I’m here.”

Cadence felt her heart sink. Yet another pony- er...changeling, that she had inflicted pain and suffering upon, and failed to comfort. Just as she felt her eyes water, she looked up to see both Prism and the Changeling hugging her. She felt their breath against her fur, the warmth of their embrace, and the beating of all their hearts. She hung her head and cried into the embrace.

<-~=O=~->

Tears shed, and hugs exchanged, the group checked out of the hospital with two new changelings. Shining led the party to the royal diners hoping to get a meal and apologize and offer mentor ship to the changelings.

In the back of the group Prism sighed. Her rainbow mane and tail floating gently in the wind, her cyan coat contrasting, yet blending with the teal tinted crystal floors. Her cyan wings, strong enough to take out an army, yet soft enough to comfort an injured and lost changeling.

These are the details Princess Celestia and Luna took note of as they sat in the void, and observed the group. Little did the entire group know, that the cosmic forces had a few plans in store for them….

“Soon sister, our ponies shall learn the destiny that awaits them….”

“I can only hope they do well….”

“Thou must relax sister. We art certain that our ponies shall prove themselves capable of handling their new positions in life….”

“I hope…”