The Changeling of Illusions

In Canterlot castle, Celestia sits on her throne. Her emotions weary as she tries to mentally prepare for Nightmare Moon's imminent return. The guards standing at the base of her lone throne stare forward, unmoving. Celestia has a brief thought of confiding in them, and quickly decides against it. As she continues to think, she feels an odd feeling. She senses that something is wrong, although she can't place it. In her mind, she knows it's a different feeling than Luna, the Nightmare's return.

She delves into her mind, going to her plane of thought where future and past events are visible. Within this plane, she looks over the many displayed things. The screens showing the future begin to warp, specifically past her sending Twilight to Ponyville in the next week. "The presence of another? The future's changing? Wait, is that? He's doing... with... WHY AM I SEEING THIS OF ALL THINGS!?" Celestia shudders, turning away from that screen as fast as possible.

Once she exits the plane, Celestia ponders for a moment, deciding to meet this newcomer when he eventually will meet her in the near future. As long as she keeps an eye on him here, and he doesn't misbehave, that should be enough. Though she may inquire on his purpose when the opportunity presents itself, as he wasn't here before, and his own knowledge is somewhat worrying. Especially since she doesn't know his true motives, or how he would know these things. After all, the future isn't set in stone.

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

Aurelic turns in the bed, mentally debating whether or not he should get up yet. At that precise moment, he remembers he has a job now.

"Oh shit!" He exclaims, stumbling out of the bed and quickly donning his disguise as he rushes out of the castle.

Along the way, he turns invisible and muted to stay hidden from Steven and the Manticore once more, heading for Ponyville and changing back to his disguise once he gets close enough to town. He cautiously makes sure nobody, er, nopony, sees him exit the forest. "Who knows what the residents would think of me if they saw me exit the forest every morning. I might end up with the Zecora treatment if I'm not careful. Or worse."

Forge continues along his way toward the hayburger. "Maybe I should see if I can get that free customization for those bags from Rarity once I'm off work, that should accomplish at least something today." Forge thinks to himself, entering the doors to his workplace.

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

Forge exits the hayburger after work hours end, heading back to the tree line and slipping inside. He follows the path, starting to memorize his route. Soon after, he arrives to the castle, grabs his bags, and leaves. When he turns invisible, he notices his bags are not. And then his stomach growls. "Ugh, I need more energy to keep up my magic like this. Wait, I can get love from plantlife if I recall... The hive area was barren of plants until the changelings reformed. So, if I can feed on the love or energy of some kind from the plants, which might take quite a few since plants aren't exactly sentient, I can eat reliably out here. Or just buy from Sugarcube Corner regularly, those also have love in them, somehow." Forge opens his mouth, attempting to feed on the nearby plant matter. Slowly, minute amounts of the pink mist he needs drift up to his mouth. Once he feels satisfied, he tries to turn his bags invisible as well. Sure enough, he accomplishes that. Although there was no green fire on the bags when they were turned invisible either. "Interesting... I'll have to experiment with that later." Forge thinks, navigating his way back to town and searching for the Carousel Boutique.

After around five minutes of searching, Forge spots the boutique in question. He walks up to it, and knocks on the doors.

"Just a minute!" Can be faintly heard behind the doors, as the odd mechanical noise inside stops.

"Must be the sewing machine she uses." Forge concluded as he heard hoofsteps getting closer to the doors. Rarity opens them, smiling.

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is neat, chic, and magnifique. How may I help you today?" Rarity asked, looking Forge up and down.

"I'm here for the bag customs, I saved the note." Forge goes to reach into the bag for the note, but Rarity just pulls him into the shop and places him on the large round stand.

"I remember that, no need to show me the note." Rarity says as she starts taking measurements on Forge.

Oddly enough, it wasn't nearly as intrusive as Forge expected. Magic makes for quite the useful tool.

"Um, why do you need my measurements? I thought this was just for the bags." Forge says.

"Well, I was also taking your measurements in case you ever wanted something else from me later on, like a suit." Rarity explains as she finishes measuring Forge.

"Okay, so should I just take off the bags, or do I keep wearing them?" Forge asks.

"I'll need you to take them off, it will only take a few minutes darling." Rarity says.

Forge takes off his empty bags and gives them to Rarity via hoof. She looks at him oddly for a moment before levitating the bags away to go work on them. Meanwhile, Forge sits down while he waits. Rarity comes back to look at his mark a few times, before finally coming back with the finished bags.

"Sorry for the wait, your mark is a little difficult to sew. Luckily for you, I can sew anything if I try." Rarity says, levitating Forge's new bags up to him.

Forge looks over the bags. Where as before they were plain white, now they have a clip area with his mark on it, and a gear pattern spread around the bags themselves. The straps have a yellow line going through their length.

"Thank you, Rarity. This is so remarkable! How can I repay you?" Forge asks as he put the bags on, by hoof again.

"It's a gift, remember darling? Pinkie's welcome party for you, mister..." Rarity tilts her head slightly.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Turner Forge, or just Forge for short." Forge says.

"Well, those bags fit you quite nicely. I hope you come back soon, I'm already getting ideas for new outfits for you to try on." Rarity says, already walking over to her sketchbook.

"See you later Rarity, have a nice evening." Forge says, heading out of the boutique with his newly decorated saddlebags.

He makes way for the route back to his temporary home. Once he arrives, he resumes practicing his telekinesis, flight, and the other odd thing he doesn't quite know what is yet.

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

The next few days are more of the same, although there's one stop Forge has decided to make today. Time Turner's own clock shop with laboratory.

"Allon-sy." Forge mutters to himself, as he knocks on the door.

Before long, a somewhat disheveled looking Time Turner opens the door. Clearly, he was working on something through the night and hasn't had much rest.

"Sorry, I'm not interested in whatever you're selling, good day." Time Turner says as he starts to close the door.

Forge puts his hoof in the way though.

"Actually I came to thank you for the welcome gift." Forge says.

Time Turner opens the door slightly, an impatient scent about him.

"You're welcome for the watch, now if you'll excuse me I have to finish my work, I'm on the verge of a breakthrough." Time Turner said as he starts to close the door again.

"One thing, does the word Tardis mean anything to you?" Forge asks, hoping his hunch is correct.

"No. Good day." Time Turner says, shutting the door.

"Damn, I was hoping to go on an adventure through time and space. Oh well, just means I was wrong." Forge says to himself as he heads home.

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

Aurelic has made some progress on his telekinesis, having the hang of not flinging objects around explosively. His attempts at flying have improved as well, now he can achieve a slight hover, perfect for crossing the stream undetected. As for finding the library in the castle, no luck yet. He HAS found the kitchen though, as well as the smithing area.

"Now, time to head to town hall and scope it out. Good thing it's my day off." Aurelic says to himself in the castle.

He heads into town, walking into town hall. One day before Twilight arrives, one day to plan the best following route. He wasn't going to miss seeing the elements of harmony in action with his own eyes after all. It's also totally not an excuse to see Nightmare Moon for a longer period of time, no sir. Forge leaves the town hall after he finishes looking around.

"Should I say anything during the return of Nightmare Moon? Definitely, maybe once Twilight chokes up I can intervene, maybe distract her a little, or tell her how her plan is unfeasible maybe? Shake her up? Maybe I could flirt? Really get her thinking illogically? Hmm... that could be interesting to see her reaction to it. I just pray I don't get caught tomorrow night. Speaking of getting caught... I need to think about how to bullshit my knowledge of the future. Preferably early on. As soon as I'm questioned, I'll just say I had visions. Yeah, cause television. It's a half-truth, but not a complete lie either. Yep, that's what I'll do."

Forge is already halfway "home" by the time his train of thought ends.