A Mission and an Urge to Survive
The Change Within
By: Shorty Sparkle
A Mission and an Urge to Survive
The darkness over Canterlot subsided as the ponies around began to realize that the battle was over. The explosions had ceased after the strange outburst of magic that re-engaged the shield around the great mountainside city. Cheering could be heard from all points of the massive capital of Equestria. The threat that had so viciously taken over Equestria’s most renowned and by far most beautiful city was repelled from the borders.
Celestia looked upon the two ponies responsible. Who would have known how well the power of love could flow through two ponies such as this. No doubt they had an astonishing connection to one another.
Twilight Sparkle walked up to her brother, Shining Armor, and squeezed him so hard everypony thought he was going to pop like a balloon. “Whoa there Twilight, you don’t want to, AH, make me explode do you?” he chuckled.
Twilight backed off and let the blush fill her face; even her dark purple coat couldn’t hide it. Everypony took one last laugh to shake away the events of that day; the events which should ever change Equestria.
---{A Few Hours Later}---
I opened my eyes for the first time in what seemed like days. I rose to my hooves only to be forced back down from the panging in my head. No doubt that shield did a number on me and left me with more than just a scratch. I flexed my wings open and a sharp stinging pain rushed through them.
“Broken,” I whispered to myself as I let the wings fall against the side of my harsh, black body. I looked down at my hooves as I lay on the ground. The holes in them were showing the yellow sand below me. I raised my head and took a look at my surroundings. The area seemed to be a desert of some sort. The terrain was harsh and I couldn’t see much for miles besides a single set of train tracks.
“How far did that spell launch me anyway?” I asked myself as tried again to rise to my hooves. I had a better time this run around but still found myself having trouble keeping stable. I looked around once again to see if I could find any sort of signs of life but none seemed to reveal themselves. I realized that I had to find some love to feed on to fix this wing and soon.
I took a peek back at the semi transparent wing to take a look at the damage. The view forced a cringe. It wasn’t just broken. It had been completed folded back into an extremely unnatural position. There was no chance I would be flying on that even after a few hours of the greatest love on the whole planet!
I looked again at the tracks realizing now they would be my only chance of finding any sort of civilization. I took a slow, unsteady step forward to test my hooves. The burning from the sand and the continuous pain from my head was proving to be tad too much for my tastes. I knew I would have to find a way to move or I would be as good as dead.
As to seal that fate a loud gawk came out from above me. I shot my head up, much to the dissatisfaction of my headache, to see a vulture circling above. ‘How long had I been here?’ I thought to myself as the vulture dipped a little bit closer; too close for my comfort and with that I began walking, even if unsteadily, parallel to the tracks. I made sure to not approach them too closely as to not draw any unwanted attention to myself. I knew however that a black dot against the white, searing sand would attract plenty of attention in itself.
I let a sigh escape my muzzle as walked across the searing hot desert. This would prove to be the worst day ever. I retraced the events of that day and realized just how real those words were. I hadn’t even had a chance to feed when I was expelled from that infernal city. No doubt Queen Chrysalis had failed again to get them the much needed nutrients they required. I banished those thoughts immediately. The queen was more than great and thoughts like that showed faulty in my loyalty, and I am not one to be disloyal.
I had been so engrossed in my thoughts I didn’t even notice the approaching darkness; again proving my sense of time to be less than amazing. I peeked over to the sun to see it had already set completely. Only the last legs of light shone themselves to the darkening world. In its place the moon began to rise to the east. “At least now I know what direction I am heading,” I snorted as I continued to move what I now knew to be north. “How far did that thing throw me anyway?” I asked myself for the second time in a day.
It was a legitimate question which was only answered after hours of walking. As I crested what seemed to be yet another sand dune I found myself at the very edge of a cliff. A screech escaped my muzzle as I caught myself before falling completely. The cliff itself was almost straight down with no visible path leading to the bottom. I let my eyes trail however as I noticed what I originally thought was an illusion from the lack of love. I blinked multiple times almost not believing what my eyes were telling me. No, they were right; a city was here, in the middle of a desert.
I knew the city well from a previous mission; a city where love was easy to come by if you could manage to get there.
“Las Pegasus”
---{Meanwhile, in Canterlot}---
Princess Celestia watched as the repairs for the city began already. After making sure all changelings were evicted from the city they began working on said repairs. Ponies from all walks of life chipped in to make sure the grandiose capital was returned to its formal glory. She turned from the window which occupied the meeting room and took a look at the Elements of Harmony as they sat before her.
“My little ponies,” she began. “It pains me to say that in the haste we made to clear the city from the changelings we seemed to have forgotten something.”
Twilight, being the inquisitive mare she is, spoke up first. “Whatever do you mean Princess? We got rid of them and managed to secure Canterlot.”
“That is exactly it my faithful student. We secured Canterlot, but in the process spread the changelings all across the country. Now we are getting reports of changeling’s attacking all over Equestria. I need the six of you to each take a detail of royal guards and head out to the corners of Equestria to find, and dispose of the creatures.”
Fluttershy gasped at the last line. “You- you don’t mean that w-w-we… Kill them do you!?” She exclaimed at a volume that surprised everypony in the room.
Princess Celestia recoiled at the comment and immediately responded. “Of course not my little ponies! They are just hungry and probably running out of love to feed on. As Chrysalis said, she did this to give her subjects food and we should be no means kill them for attempting to survive. I just ask you all to round them up and get them out of the cities so we can decide what to do with them.” She looked over the six ponies sitting before her again. “Rarity, you and Pinkie Pie go to Manehatten. You will take the most of the royal guard with you as Manehatten is the largest city.” She averted he look to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash, I will ask you to take the wonderbolts and get to Cloudsdale. There should be less changelings there so you should be able to take care of it yourself.”
“Yes ma’am Princess ma’am!” She exclaimed.
Next the princess turned to Applejack. “Applejack, you go to Appleloosa, I don’t imagine you will need more than a couple of guards as I am sure the Appleloosans will be more than happy to help you.” Finally she looked at Fluttershy and her protégé. “Twilight, you and Fluttershy will go to Las Pegasus. I want you to take your brother and half of the remaining guards. The wedding will be postponed until this is all sorted out so let us begin.”
“But Princess, what about the northern and southern areas?” Twilight asked.
“Well, the north should have been kept safe by the mountains and Luna will be taking care of the south. I trust you all are more than capable at handling your tasks. I wish you six luck in you journeys. I must attend to the rest of my subjects now. Whatever you do, keep yourselves safe.” As the princess left she nuzzled Twilight. “Especially you my faithful student.”
“Alright ponies! You heard the princess! Let’s get cracking!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she began to exit the room behind the Princess.
“Oh dear, who will take care of my animals while I am gone? I am going to need to-” Fluttershy trailed off as she exited the room as well with Twilight right behind her.
“Well I’ll be! It seems as though I will be seeing my family in Appleloosa then! Hooeh, this is gonna be a heck of a ride.”
“Pinkie, would be as kind as to not keep talking like the last time we had to travel together?”
“Heh, whoopsie.”
---{Now Back to the Changeling}---
In the last few minutes I found myself staring in disbelief at my luck. Normally a changeling would have to go through tons of security to hitch a train or balloon ride here and more often than not you would get caught. Instead I managed to find my way here after being slung randomly across all of Equestria. This was the perfect place to huddle down for a while to heal myself up. I jumped for joy only to be immediately smashed back into the ground from how dizzy I was.
“Still not ready for that I guess…” I told myself. I knew that there was no chance I would be getting into the city without a disguise so I reached down into my memories. There were just so many choices and all of them were great. I immediately discarded Pegasi as I couldn’t fly anyway. I cursed the transfer of bodily injuries from Changeling state to pony state. So that left either Unicorn or Earth pony. I decided that Earth pony would be the best choice as the green unicorn magic with the no doubt now alert crowd could cause slight, problems.
So with the final choice made I let myself be engulfed in the green flames that allowed my transformation. I immediately felt hardening of my inner bones and the softening of my exoskeleton. Then the familiar feeling of the fur growing on the newly acquired skin which created a tingling sensation. Then the eyes began to flux a bit as the pupils grew and changed shape, the iris changing colors. The magical feeling as the cutie mark placed itself on its rightful place on my flank. My wings and horn began to decay out of existence as the change completely finished itself.
The final product was finished. I couldn’t completely see myself yet but I remembered the form from a previous time. It was a dark brown stallion with a blonde, wavy mane and a hammer and nails cutie mark. The name was Carpen Der if I remember correctly. That name would suit me just fine for this excursion. I began walking to the tracks, them being the only way down the cliffs that completely surrounded the city.
It took some time but I managed to walk the whole way to the train tracks. I took a look down the tracks where I came from to make sure no trains were coming. Lucky me, nothing was on its way. I turned quickly, much to the displeasure of my still aching head, to the city that lay before me. I began to wonder how many other changelings had made it this far. No doubt more than just one did so. I remembered how many changelings littered the city when the attack began. There definitely had to be some that had made it here.
So I began trotting down the tracks to the city. I had to beat any guards that would be coming to this location looking for the changelings trying to enter the city. After nearly fifteen minutes of trotting I found myself nearing the edges of the city. I had taken a slightly off path in order to not take the main entrance to the great city. Now I had reached one of the outlaying suburbs around the main center of the city itself.
I decided I deserved a short rest and let myself lay down at a bench alongside the road; the feeling of relief flooding over my pony body as I let my limbs rest. I laid my head down and nearly fell asleep when I heard the hoof steps.
“Hey! Why in Equestria are you sleeping on my bench?”
---{Notes}---
Well, that was a fun start eh guys? So you all know, I am not by any means stopping Origins of a Rainbow. I just had a sudden urge to write and had the unfortunateness of not having the current WIP chapter saved on this computer. I assure you though that I will try and finish it this week for sure. I just figured that if I had the urge to write now that it might not last forever so I might as well get it done while I still can.
Anyway, this is going to be my take on a Changeling in Equestria Fic which I have wanted to do so much since the ending of the season. Now this one takes place in Las Pegasus which I see as a rather different take on the whole story as all of them seem to be in Ponyville for Luna’s sake! Come one ponies, there is more than one canon city in all of Equestria. So yes, I instead will be bringing the mane six to our protagonist (Or Antagonist? What would it be in this case? I mean he isn’t the bad guy completely and from his standpoint the ponies are the bad guys so yeah… I am going to be thinking about THAT all day long now.)
So keep an eye on this story and be sure to follow me on Twitter at Shorty_Sparkle. Once I get a decent amount of followers I will be starting to provide spoilers when I am writing. So give me a follow guys! Oh yes, and a like as well as a favorite would be nice :D.
