The Changeling of Illusions

Aurelic sits at his Twibrary workbench, using a book to cast different enchantments on the gems he procured a few days before. He places and tests the gems inside of the ornate tube, one by one. A few seem to spark, though they don't do much more than that. As he removes and continues to modify enchantments, a gem bursts like an M80 from the stress of a particular combination of enchantments. The shards bounce off of the welding mask he'd... borrowed, for his little project.

"Ugh, fucking damnit! Why can't I get this right!?" He yells with exasperation, tossing an enchantment book to the ground in a miniature rage. "Breathe, Aurelic. Don't let this get to you. I mean, it's not like I'm trying to bring something that would normally be impossible to exist into a world simply because 'magic' exists. Hell, magic isn't able to stimulate hair growth. HAIR GROWTH. What the hell is up with that anyway? Teleportation, telekinesis, shielding, bursts of attacks, even transmutation! But hair growth? Nope, because plot. This is some stupid bullshit soft magic system that does whatever the hell it wants, not a thought out hard magic system at all... Or, maybe it's just so complex that it looks like bullshit? Not to mention, new spells and such can still be discovered or finished... Bah, more testing needs to be done. Maybe I should get bookhorse in on this?" He paces in thought, pausing briefly. "Maybe just indirectly, who knows what she'd do if she knew what I was trying to accomplish... I may also just be using insufficiently weak gems too, maybe I need something from the Crystal Empire? It'll be a while before it returns though, at least a year... Maybe something in the Dragon Lands? Any natural gems or crystals there would probably be able to resist the heat better, despite the moon metal heat sink... Dragon lands would be sooner, since I would have to follow the gigantic group of them when it's time. Incidentally, I'll need to design a dragon character to become for that... Later. I need sleep."

Aurelic puts everything away, securing it all safely before heading home for the night.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Celestia wanders through her celestial plane, the screens still showing static for the most part. She contemplates on this, though some things in the almost immediate future are becoming clearer by the day. She decides to view the past instead for now, turning around and looking over everything of importance that's happened so far. Namely, in regards to the anomalous changeling that appeared out of the blue one day. "So, he's finally been accepted by Twilight and her friends for who he is. That's good. Soon, maybe he could be accepted by the rest of Equestria. And maybe once everypony's accepted him, he can learn to accept himself." She sighs, exiting the plane to take her leave for the night. "Aurelic, you may not think you're anything special, but you may be more instrumental in Equestria's future than you realize..."

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge arrives at the ~~generic~~ Ponyville schoolhouse after a long day of work, taking note of the actual size of the stage. "Not as big as it looked in the show. This can only end poorly." He's taken out of his thoughts when Applejack waves from her seat right next to him.

"Thank ya for comin' out to the talent show." She says with a smile.

"Genuine positive emotions. Did I really become this jaded with the world back when I was human?" Forge briefly ponders. "Well, you know what they say. The more, the merrier." Forge replies, turning his attention back to the stage. Strangely, he doesn't sense any other changelings in the audience. "Must be a Canterlot only issue then..."

"Somethin' on your mind?" Applejack asks.

"Pretty much all the time, but right now it's nothing important." Forge says as he stares indirectly at the curtains.

"Well uh, between you and me, I'm a bit scared of what Apple Bloom and her friends are doin' for the show. But, at least they're tryin', right?" Applejack confides nervously.

"Well, I guess the most important thing is effort. After all, nothing is impossible to those who try." Forge says, quoting an old motivational poster he used to have.

"Darn tootin'. How'd you get that nugget of wisdom?" Applejack asks.

"I've heard a lot of little motivational quotes like that my whole life." Forge answers with a smile, before looking back to the stage again. "Although, sometimes I wish I'd followed them when I needed to..."

Then, the first act begins, the S&S magic act. "Of course Snails ate the fucking carrots." Forge thinks to himself with a smile. Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of acts before the final act by the Cutie Mark Crusaders comes on. "It's like watching a train wreck. You know it's terrible, but you can't look away from the mesmerizing chaos..."

And it all comes crashing down at the very end, perfectly timed. Not even a cricket chirp for a few seconds before the audience is able to fully process what just happened, before erupting into laughter. "Yep, that's definitely the mocking kind of laughter... Tough crowd." Forge thinks as the trio run off the stage. "At least Cheerilee will cheer them up... oh my fucking god that's perfect. I'll have to use that sometime if a specific circumstance where it fits ever comes up. And Snips and Snails get best magic act by default. Although, I think it still would've won even with another magic act in the show. Poor Twist though, she was the only one that tried to do a comedy act. Even if it was a bit... dull. She didn't even do the airline food joke, that makes no sense here..." He mentally deadpans at his own failure in logic.

Meanwhile, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all left the audience already, which is starting to disperse anyway. Forge shrugs, getting up and heading to the backstage area. He walks over to where Twilight is as the trio departs with their siblings, and in Scootaloo's case, mentor hero figure.

"Hey, Twilight. May I talk to you for a moment?" Forge asks hopefully.

"Uh, sure? What about?" Twilight asks with a quizzical head tilt.

"Well, I know you've been studying magic for like, pretty much your whole life. I was wondering if you knew about a gem or crystal type capable of holding multiple fairly strong enchantments at once?" Forge inquires.

"I'm not too familiar with enchantments on items yet... just the basics. Maybe you should find and ask a geologist for that sort of thing?" Twilight responds.

"Oh... okay then. And another thing, last thing actually. Would you mind showing me where the poison joke is? I want to collect some of it for a small project of mine." Forge asks again.

Twilight looks hesitant. "Erm... what kind of project exactly? I don't really want to go anywhere near that stuff since the last time it made my horn all..."

"Flaccid?" Forge remarks with a chuckle.

Twilight blushes from embarrassment. "Yeah, something like that. Maybe sometime later, okay?"

"Okay, just let me know when." Forge says, somewhat disappointed he won't get either thing he wanted to.

"Although, I do still want to study your... kind, sometime. Are you free to stop by the library for some research tonight?" Twilight asks, in her own hopeful, slightly manic scientific way.

"Eh, I don't see why not. But I don't fully understand everything about changelings either, so it'll be a learning experience for both of us." Forge says as he follows Twilight off of school property.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge steps down into the basement makeshift lab area within the treebrary, shifting back to Aurelic as Twilight locks the door behind them.

"There, now you'll have time to re-disguise yourself if anypony visits." Twilight says with a satisfied nod.

"Cool. So uh, what now?" Aurelic asks as he looks around the room.

"Just take a seat over there, I'll get the equipment." Twilight instructs as she wheels out the big machine she had Pinkie hooked up to.

The suction cups and helmet feel completely harmless, even after Twilight turns the machine on. She immediately starts scribbling notes down frantically, glancing between her notes and the machine at a rapid pace. Aurelic remains completely quiet as Twilight works, aware that doing so could throw readings off. "Sort of like using a blood pressure cuff or something." He thinks as he sits still.

"Okay, I need you to switch into Forge now." Twilight instructs.

Aurelic does so wordlessly, the machine readouts fluctuating for a brief moment during the change. Twilight continues taking her notes, before levitating two small cups over to Forge.

"Spit in this, then change back and spit in the other one." She directs.

Forge spits into the cup, changes back, and spits into the other one. Twilight labels which sample corresponds to which form, before setting the cups to the side. Then, she turns the machine off.

"All done! I can't wait to analyze all of this data!" Twilight finishes with a squee, giddy as a kid in a candy store with fifty dollars to spend.

Aurelic smiles with a chuckle. "Glad you've got what you want. I remember how much I loved studying science. But then I took up a career in welding and metalwork, before moving on to smithing for a living. Amazing how things can change for species without cutie marks, eh?"

Twilight mulls over Aurelic's words. "So, how old are you exactly? The way you talk about things from your past makes it seem like it's been a long time."

"I'm actually twenty, soon to be twenty-one late summer. Why?" Aurelic asks.

Twilight gives him an odd look. "Huh, younger than I thought. I'm almost nineteen, my birthday's in spring. You need to word things a bit more clearly, Aurelic. You made it sound like you were middle-aged the way you talk about things."

He laughs with a head shake. "Eh, maybe I've just got that kind of mindset. So, testing's done?"

"For now, but I'll send for you when I make enough headway in the research. Or if I get stuck, since I hear fresh perspectives can help sometimes." Twilight says, walking over to the basement door. "You might want to change back."

Aurelic salutes, turning into Forge and following Twilight up to the front door. "See you soon Twilight."

"You too Forge." Twilight says, shutting the door.

Forge heads for the train station with a bit of a spring in his step. "Who knew socializing felt so nice? Then again, humans suck, ponies don't."

A particular wasp follows Forge from the treebrary to the train station. She makes her way to a nearby building for cover, turning on her device. "My Queen, it may seem that our little anomaly has been befriending more ponies as of late."

"I wonder what he's planning... changelings never just form friendships for the sake of it... continue watching him." Chrysalis orders, ceasing the connection.

"As you wish, my queen..." Wasp thinks to herself, pondering the emotions Forge seems to have as he moves to the train station. "He is strange indeed, but... he's... happy? Probably about his plans working, changelings can't normally be happy..."