Chapters The first thing I ever felt was some kind of thick liquid. The translucent green sludge gave way as I bit through the membrane of my egg, crawling out soaking wet to look at Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings. She levitated a small furry creature down to me, laying it on the residue left behind from my natural incubator. Looking down at the loving animal, my instincts took over. My horn full of holes light up a sickly green and a beam pointed at the critter. My mouth opened and I began to inhale, sucking every bit of love from the little runt until it had no more to give.
The Queen looked down at me, pleased. I had done my job, and for the time, it felt good to me. I followed her to join the other changelings. They welcomed me as insect-like armor was applied in between my transparent wings. I licked my sharp teeth, beginning to form thoughts. I wondered what my life was to be like, and I wondered if I would ever see any battles. I had hatched full grown, so it must've been a full grown pony that I came from.
The hive was damp nearly all over, some sort of fluid that allowed changelings to share thoughts to a degree. Plenty of other changelings were pumping my young head with new thoughts. I wanted to feed, I wanted to take ponies' love. I wanted to drain them until they were all dry. Suddenly, I felt something tingling all over me. I looked down and saw solid white hooves in place of the black ones covered in holes I had seen before. Other changelings looked at me and cheered. I had become a new pony image. I had the ability to live among the ponies as somepony. I could feed on my own love, changelings told me that it would be much richer than the love toward somepony else.
I smiled, knowing that I could now feed on somepony who's love was just for me. I licked my lips, greedily and wondered when Queen Chrysalis would let me go and do so. The Queen looked at me, smiling excitedly. I tried to change back, my horn glowed green, a brighter green this time. Magic enveloped me and when it cleared, I was still the same form.
I looked up at Chrysalis, "My queen, I cannot change back."
"Oh? No matter, I shall have you infiltrate Canterlot and join the royal guard. Can you change races?" She replied.
I concentrated and felt my body begin to change. My horn shrunk and wings sprouted, growing larger until they were of size for me to fly. My horn had completely disappeared. I looked back at my new feathered appendages, knowing they would be useful. I suddenly knew my queen's intent for me. I spread my new wings and flew upward and the ceiling opened up for me, giving way to bright sunlight.
I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the harsh glow. As my vision started to clear, I looked over the landscape of Equestria. My own individual thoughts began to form, not just the flood of the other changelings'. I wanted to feed, yes, but more than that, I wanted to see this land in its majesty. My senses were bombarded with everything from the smell, to the touch, to the taste. I eagerly began flying my way to Canterlot.
When I landed in the city, my wings were tired. They had grown sore from the long flight. I didn't have the energy to fold them, so they dragged along with me. I went from door to door, seeing if anypony would house me for the night. Something about the way I spoke put most of them off and my never before groomed wings dragging behind me made the rest of them weary of me. I found an unoccupied alley to sleep in that night. I layed down in the filth, now aware to how cruel this world was.
Author's Note
Sorry if it started out a little dark. It'll get far better as I start building Metalwing's character.
I felt vibration, like I was in a vehicle of some kind. I also felt like I was at a different angle at which I had slept. I heard voices conversing, but I wasn't paying attention to what they were saying. I opened my eyes and found myself sitting in a seat with a buckle across from another dirty looking stallion. I looked around what appeared to be a metal box with seats layed out on either side. There were two other ponies aside from the sleeping one I could see.
"Hey, you're awake. I'm Lighting Strike." Said the pony next to me.
I thought about the way he spoke and replied in the same manor, "I'm Metalwing."
"Nice to meet you. This mare here is Malana." He gestured toward the pony in front of him who bashfully looked away.
I didn't know where I had gotten the name, but I figured it was as good as any. I wondered what was going on, but couldn't work up the nerve to ask. We rode on in the metal box, not knowing where we were going. Suddenly, we felt a force push us toward one end of the box for a moment before the vibration stopped. We sat in silence for a moment before two ponies opened up the structure from the outside. A brown earth pony wearing aviators looked at us in the bright sunlight.
He smiled a bit, "Looks like you got the real dirty ones this time, but I see two good guards and a good medic. The sleeping one's gonna be useless, but I guess we'll let him cave on us."
The two ponies began unbuckling us and pushing us out the opening of the box, revealing that we were riding in a military truck. Once we were all out, Malana helped up the stallion who was previously asleep as the two ponies who had revealed the outside to us proceeded to close the doors, walk around to the front of the vehicle's cab, get in, and drive off.
"You four are lucky this program found you, ya miserable little homeless freeloaders. My first rule of order is for you to get a shower. You stink, a lot. Not to mention how ruffled some of your wing feathers are." He glanced at my wings.
He lead us to a large multi-pony shower where we cleaned ourselves. I washed the dried egg resedue from my mane, tail, and fur first. I felt my now soft hair covering my body. I then ran soapy water through my wings, straightening the feathers until they looked clean and smooth. I then ran my hooves down them, making sure there were no loose feathers. At some point, a buzzer sounded and the shower stopped. We all walked out to get towels I dried myself off, styling my long blue and green mane while looking in the mirror.
Lighting Strike looked at me from behind, "Hey, you clean up nicely. You look like a high class pony."
I smiled at the compliment. The grey pony with a brown mane also looked nice when clean. I continued drying off, shaking the water out of my wings and running the towel down my light appendages with the feathers. I looked in the mirror, seeing the stallion who made us take the shower walk in.
"You all almost look like part of the royal guard cleaned up. Except for you." He gestured at the pony who had been woken up from being pushed out of the truck, who was rather scrawny.
I turned around, "You are mistaken. He looks to be more intelligent than the rest of us and therefore could be an excellent strategist."
"You've got an attitude. I like that. Front lines of the guard for you. Brownhead? Checkpoint manager. Colors? Medic. Twig? We'll see." He adressed us with the condescending nicknames.
Within the hour, we were trotting behind the earth pony on our way to our barracks. When we got there, he had us make our beds, neatly folding the covers over the beds until you could bounce a bit off of it. He even tested to make sure it worked. He then let us be in there to get ready for basic training.
Author's Note
Also, Lightning Strike is technically my oldest MLP OC, but he has no backstory or anything like that. At the time he was purely a ponysona. And now I've changed so much mentally and emotionally that he's a really inaccurate pony version of me. And no, I have no art of him.
Numerous bat ponies started landing on the ground near where we were outside the castle. They started closing in on us as we backed the families into the stairs. We drew our guns, these were mostly decorative as we didn't expect such a dramatic event to happen, but the muskets we were armed with were still functional and loaded.
"HALT!!!" Yelled Dead Center.
One bat pony spoke up, "Inferior guards, move so we may help our ruler!"
"Well see who's really inferior when you try to get past us because the only way you're getting into this casrle is through us!" Replied the stallion.
The five of us lowered the barrels of our firearms until they were all pointed at the malicious ponies. We all pulled the triggers at the same time when we heard clicks. The bat ponies looked at us, confused for a moment as we stood in place. Muzzle loaded guns of the era these came from were impossible to predict when they would fire. Suddenly, flashes of fire came from the barrels followed by white smoke pouring out all in a loud fwoosh. At that range, we knew it wouldn't be enough to stop the whole militia, but it would've taken a large chunk of them and caused momentary panic for long enough to reload the second and final load.
We hastily pumped the powder and spherical bullets into the outdated firearms. Before the smoke cleared, we had re-aimed the guns and were pointing them at a group of shocked bat ponies who dragged incapacitated soldiers to the back. We stood, poised to fire again when they drew their swords and we pulled the triggers again. The guns fired again just before the vanguard of bat ponies reached us. We were left with midguards and rearguards.
I was defending the very kingdom I was sent to infiltrate and take down. I looked at the bat ponies in disgust as they tried to push through us, being taken down by our own swords. I wasn't doing this for Chrysalis, I was doing it for me, my friends, and Equestria. My expression hardened as I began moving with purpose. Every strike of the sword was calculated, every hoofstep thought out. I had to make sure I lived in order to make a difference here. I avoided every attack, swinging my sword back twice as hard. We all made sure not to cause death, only incapacitating the bat ponies. When it was over, we stood tall, scanning around for more troops.
I flew upward, looking off into the distance and seeing a larger fleet approaching. My eyes widened as I thought about the difficulty we would have.
I looked down, "We need to get the tranq guns!"
Dead Center nodded as he ran in the direction of the separated armory next to the castle. I landed next to my four comrades, making sure everypony was okay. Before long, Dead returned with the guns as well as the clips. I had never used a fully automatic, but had a good idea of how to use it. I aimed my gun upward at the approaching formation, opening fire at non-vital regions. Two of us at a time would fire while the others would reload. We took down almost half the force before we ran out of ammunition.
The enemies swooped down to apprehend us, tying us up and proceeding into the castle as they terrified the families we helped out. This was it, I was going to die, as well as my friends. We failed to save Equestria and everypony would live as slaves due to our failure to save them from this fate. I would die never having known of the phenomenon of love as given directly to me by any other pony; I had even failed myself.
I then thought about our times together in the past few weeks. We had all become friends, forming a bond that could only be broken by death, and even then, it was arguable whether or not it would remain. They wouldn't die without knowing who I really was.
"I've been keeping a secret since we all met that I think you should know before we're executed..." I stated.
Lightning looked at me, "Go ahead. No matter what it is, we're still friends."
"Okay, don't freak out... but I'm a changeling." I admitted.
Dead spoke up, "I knew there was something different about you. And you're even different from changelings."
"I'm not as cool-headed as you guys think I am when making plans, I'm actually terrified of what could go wrong..." Twig chimed in.
Malana said, "I'm afraid of coming to a point where I can't save you... that fear kills me on the inside..."
"I, uhh... I love you guys..." Said Lightning.
Dead Center grunted, "Alright, we are NOT gonna die here. Mark my words. I refuse to lose my best squad I've had that just so happens to be a group of my best friends. We're not giving up! What do you say?"
"Yes sir!" Replied the rest of us in unison.
Just then, a beam of light shot down in front of us. When it faded, Princess Celestia herself was standing there. She looked at us, sympathetically.
She spoke calmly, "I was trapped in teleportation, but a culmination of friendship magic brought me out. What happened?"
"Forgive the lack of salute, your majesty, but we fought some bat ponies after guiding families out of the castle which a black alicorn materialized in. She said she wanted to bring eternal night." Dead answered.
Using one of the fallen bat ponies' swords, she cut us free, "It's as I feared. My sister has returned in a powerful form known as Nightmare Moon. Come, we must stop her!"
We followed her into the castle hastily to see six ponies wearing magic items, generating a beam that looked like a rainbow. It arced upward and shot down at the wicked mare, showering the room in an intense white light. When our vision returned, there was a blue alicorn in place of Nightmare Moon. The shadowy blue armor was scattered around her. Princess Celestia aproached her as she embraced the white pony, apologizing. We stepped out of the castle.
I now knew that I wouldn't end not knowing love, I already had experienced it between my friends. I even loved said friends back. I began to think of them as my family. I didn't need the changelings anymore, I didn't even want them. In fact, when they came to Canterlot, I would be on the opposing side, gladly fighting against the disappointing race I was born into.
Author's Note
And now Metalwing's character has completely changed.
Lack of character development? What lack of character development?
I closed my footlocker at the end if my bunk, catching a glimpse of the medal I had recieved alongside the rest of my squad a year ago we had come so far and now we were to make sure a wedding went according to plan. Reading about it made me feel suspicious, as the bride's special talent was spreading love. It would've just been too easy for Chrysalis to take her place. I didn't want Canterlot to be taken over by her, contrary to my first thoughts.
The rest of my squad arrived in the barracks, breaking my train of thought as I looked up from the closed locker at them. Straightening the cuffs on my uniform, I followed them to drink some apple cider. It had become tradition for us to drink ourselves silly two days before a mission. We shared insane stories of our assignments with others on location, no matter how much we changed them from the truth. My fondest one was from our first mission. Nightmare Moon's return was what we called it. No matter how intoxicated we were by the sweet beverave we binged on, we told of that exactly as it had happened.
Later, that evening, we stumbled back to the base and into the barracks to sleep off our stupor, stocking our fridge full of caffeinated sodas. Sparkle Cola was what we loaded it up with this time. It was a special edition for a video game coming out at the time and they were the only labels they had. Usually, these were simply labeled with a graphic of a sugarcane, so it was nice to be able to call them something other than sodas with a sugar picture on the bottle.
We had no problem drifting off to sleep that night, cider does that to you. My slumber was dreamless, I saw, heard, and felt nothing. My eyes opened to the golden light of the morning sun the next day. Dead center was holding a radio blasting bugle music while drinking a Sparkle Cola. Twig felt around on his nightstand, picking up an airsoft pistol and pulling the trigger which sent the pellet straight into the center of the speaker, stopping it from making a sound.
"Wow, Twig! That's the fifth time in a row, I'm impressed!" Said Dead Center.
Twig groaned something impossible to make out as he rolled out of his bunk and began making his bed. I got up and pulled two sodas out of the fridge, opening them and setting one on Twig's footlocker, and drinking the other. I made my bed as I usually did, afterward chugging the rest of my drink and grabbing another. I put on my uniform, beginning to drink the other soda. Lighting Strike walked in, yawning as he began to put his uniform on. Once we were all fully clothed, we proceeded to the briefing room.
We were instructed what to do depending on the events that transpired and what we were to do on tjis day in particular. We were supposed to help escort ponies to their rooms. It was going to be a slow day, and I hated slow days. Granted, they were better than days full of battle, but at least those kept you more entertained than many normal ponies. We set off to dawn our armor and make for the castle so we could take rich ponies who thought next to nothing of us to their rooms; at least it would get us paid.
We arrived at the castle, waiting at the entrance for ponies to lead to their rooms. The first one came, he was lead by Twig. The second was following Malana. The third was behind Lighting, and the fourth guided by Dead. While they were off, a grey mare in light bronze armor without anything but the shoulder and torso plates. She d a scarf covering the pendant of a necklace. Her front left and back right legs had lines that were slightly more reflective than the rest of her fur arranged like circuit board lines. She obviously had robotic legs.
Her hair was light brown with the occasional visible copper colored strand. Her cutie mark was a gear with two wrenches crossing in front. It was set up like a skull and crossbones if the skull were behind the bones. Her other features were overshadowed by her stunning green eyes. They caught the light perfectly, almost emitting a glow somewhere between the emerald and lime variations of the color.
I was glad to let her follow me to a room of the castle. I made sure it was one of the further ones into the castle so I could be in her presence that much longer. Opening the door, I gestured her into the luxurious room within the castle. Then, something I didn't expect happened; she flirtatiosly rubbed up against me. Shocked, I had no idea what I had said. I only knew that her name was Sprocket, and we were to meet that evening in the courtyard.
The rest of my day breezed by as I guided various ponies to rooms in the castle eventually returning to the barracks to take off my helmet and head to the courtyard of the castle. I waited for about an hour before she arrived in a beautiful dress, with polished golten boots on her front hooves. Her hair was freshly cleaned and groomed. She clearly cared about this and went as far as getting a dress just to impress me. And I could tell that's what happened, as she had no luggage when we walked to her room. I was already in love with this pony, and hoped she would be in love with me. I informed her about my race, and she accepted it. I knew I had found somepony to love. That night, I slept pleasantly in my bunk, ready to resign the next day.
Author's Note
Couldn't wait to finish this mostly because I was sitting around being bored...https://www.fimfiction.net/story/320360/dream-come-true
After weeks of training, our superior officer, Dead Center, his name was, had us ready as a fully prepared squad. We were fully educated on battle and were ready to take on anything, at least that's how we felt. In reality, we would've been the laughingstock of the force if we were to go into bettle immediately. I didn't want to, but I had learned the names of all four of my colleagues and grown to know them well.
Dead Center was our superior officer, his rank was Staff Sergeant. He was much calmer and more down to earth than most in the same rank. He was far more understanding of mistakes and flaws despite how he acted toward us at times. He showed actual care for our well being and would actually order us to take breaks if he noticed too much fatigue.
Lighting Strike was my equal, a soldier like me. He was caring and enthusiastic, and he had the determination to make the team great. He would help us even if we didn't mean it, and he never left anypony behind. He encouraged us all to keep pushing forward no matter what happened, including Dead.
Malana Pastel was the medic. She was shy at first, but we helped her out there and she became outgoing and kind. She would save a patient at any cost and wouldn't stop until she was forcefully pulled away. She had a lot of kindness, but not a lot of nerve. She would need us to keep a close eye on her to make sure she feels safe if worst came to worst.
Twig was our unfortunately named strategist. He was smart, outgoing, and would be surprisingly formidable if it came down to it. He had a keen eye for detail, making him very reliable for hatching plans. He knew basic knowledge of bladed weapons and firearms, making him have a defense to attacks.
Lastly, I was a soldier like Lightning Strike. I cared about my friends, despite the type of pony I was. I was conflicted and didn't even know myself fully yet. Judging by the others, I was the weakest link. I was the one that would hold them back.
Miraculously, we did well enough in the testing after training that we became a fully fledged squad before any other that year. We were just in time to attend the Summer Sun Celebration at Canterlot Castle. We would be guarding Princess Celestia. Twig started drawing out plans late the night before. We all tried to stay awake for them all, but one by one, we all layed our heads on the table and passed out. I remembered being the last one to fall asleep aside from Twig. I blinked numerous times, trying to keep awake, but each time my eyes would stay closed for a little bit longer until I finally passed out from exhaustion.
The next morning I woke up alongside Twig, who had dark spots under his eyes. Had he stayed up all night long planning for this? I didn't care as long as he could do his job properly. We all dawned our armor, strapping on our detailed metal plates with different designs signifying our ranks. We trotted to the briefing room where Dead told us what was going on and Twig told us what to do if anything went wrong, paraphrasing his intricate plans.
We hung out drinking some apple cider for most of the day until it came time to guard the princess. I hadn't realized how unusual it was for me in particular to think of her as our princess. I wasn't sure if I even liked the queen who birthed me anymore. It was dark and dreary in the hive, but here, it was light, and for the most part cheery. I enjoyed having a peaceful role model in the form of a princess and in fact began to prefer it over a controlling queen.
We stood tall at the base of the stairs in the castle when the sun was to be risen. Nothing happened for a moment. I looked at Dead for a moment, curious. He shrugged at me, obviously not knowing what was happening either. All five of us turned around, looking out the large opened stained glass window only seeing the night sky and the moon through it. Suddenly the mare in the moon disappeared. The crowd started whispering nervously to each other. I narrowed my eyes, knowing something was up when a black pony with a starry flowing mane and tail and blue armor materialized in the place Celestia was supposed to be.
"The night shall last forever!!!" The tall mare proclaimed.
Twig looked at us, "You know what to do! Protect the civilians! Lightning, Metal! Grab a few families and meet back with us!"
I nodded and spotted a few families together in the crowd. I pushed through and escorted them out of the castle after making sure everypony they came with was there. I had a large group with me, a good chunk of the attendees of the event. We slipped into a side exit of the room. I guided them through corridors as I looked from room to room for the princess. I paused for a second. I could feel the love in between the family members. It was love driven by fear, but I could feed on it, and I would be satisfied for a long while.
I pushed my disgusting thought out of my head. I may have been a changeling, but ponies had taught me morals, and feeding off of innocent terrified ponies was wrong. I vowed to never follow Queen Chrysalis again. I would not bend to her will, and I would fight my disgusting thoughts of feeding off of other ponies' love. I would find somepony love that would accept me and it would be her love and hers alone that I would use for sustenance. Besides, with normal pony food, the creature I had fed off of when I hatched would be enough to keep me alive for a few years, if a little uncomfortably.
I kept darting between doors to try and find the princess, but she was nowhere to be found. I lead the large group of ponies outside the castle where I met up with the others. We questioned the families, making absolute sure that they hadn't left anypony behind. We all knew that this was going to be a long first assignment.
Author's Note
Also, the universe this is in is a somewhat modernized Equestria. It's just that much of the stuff from the past is also still used. Though carts pulled by ponies are typically not used unless used by individual ponies for carrying cargo