The dark brown pegasus came soaring through the air, screeching to a halt as she hit the ground. She had landed at the hooves of a Royal Guard.

"Let me in!" she pleaded, looking him directly in the eye.
"I have urgent business with the Princess of the Day, and I'm late!"

"I understand, Miss," he replied stoically, "but you'll have to show me a certificate of authentication." He was unmoved, just standing there in his golden armor--despite her frantic attitude. His grey eyes never once blinked.

The mare groaned and stamped the ground with one hoof. She began digging anxiously in her saddlebags. Thoughts were speeding through her mind as she did so.

Why in Equestria did Canterlot have to be built on a stupid mountain? It takes so much exertion to even get to the forsaken place! And where's that document, for the love of Cadance?

Being a pegasus had its downfalls. Unicorns got in easily, before you could even flap your wings, and Earth ponies...well, not that many of them actually took care of all their matters in the castle, but the ones who did usually had something to show for it, like a VIP ticket or a court order.

"Alright, sir, here you go." At last, she pulled out her written authentication and identification, which contained the signature of the very pony she needed to get to. That pony had been her boss for the last six years now.

The certificate was quite lengthy, and it took him a full ten minutes just to skim. The subject with whom it was concerned started to fidget with her long, odd turquoise mane, wishing it was more concise.

"You may enter," he proclaimed, finally. The moment the words had left his mouth, the worried mare bolted past him. She was intent on making a beeline for Canterlot Castle.

"Good luck with your espionage!" the white stallion yelled over his shoulder.

The hurried pony only scoffed.

Yeah, keep it down if you want me to have any, she thought.

Maybe the guard understood the huge bags under her eyes now. She knew that they were there, althought she hadn't looked in the mirror yet today, unlike her favorite celebrity would have.

She was the beautiful Element of Generosity, and worth reading about for her drama. Also, she compelled this pony to have more of that particular attribute.

Once, the mare had bought a fashion magazine just because it had a picture of her in it--after all, she did dearly love Rarity's mane, albeit not the most important thing.

Poof!

The shock of being instantaneously teleported rang throughout her. Maybe it was just her pegasi heritage, but she had always been a little bit wary of anything to do with magic.

The spy tried to look at her surroundings, but as soon as she caught sight of a familiar and pristine, alabaster alicorn standing in front of her, she quickly dropped down in a bow.

Then, she brushed her quirky mane out of her face (the thin, red stripe and large, geometric cuts running through it made it so) and raced forward to face the princess.

"My apologies, Your Majesty! Please, I can explain!"

"It's alright, Cerise. I will only start our discussion once you have settled down. Have some tea, if you'd like." The alicorn's regal and tranquil voice echoed off the walls and high ceiling of the pleasant side room they were meeting in.

Just as Cerise, full name Chocolate Cherry, was about to give her her written report, Celestia gently took it from her chocolate hoof with her pale yellow magic. Her flowing mane moved with her as she examined her findings.

"Well, I must say you've done an excellent job," began the graceful princess.
"Aside from that, I will get right to my point: I'm going to have to let you go," she sighed.

Cerise's pupils, the left a deep purple, the right a lake blue, shrank majorly.
"P-p-p-princess Celestia, what d-do you mean? I've worked for you for such a l-long time! It hasn't been an easy job, either! What-what've I done?" she stuttered fearfully.

Celestia calmly cleared her throat.

This has to be more difficult for her than it seems, Cerise thought, half hoping and half wishing.

"Because, Chocolate Cherry, it's been confirmed that you are..." She trailed off, as if she'd hit something very hard to announce.

"What please, Your M-m-majesty?" She was starting to tremble in dreadful anticipation.

"You are, ahem, part...changeling." The last word sounded ugly coming from the mouth of one of Equestria's noble and gracious rulers.

Cerise fainted instantly, to land on the ground with a rather loud clatter that shook all the teacups on the table. Several items spilled oit of her saddlebags, including reports, notes, tools a packet of dried fruit and a scrap of sheet music.

The princess sighed again, placing her gilded hoof on the table.

"She's usually able to withstand a lot. I guess telling her was too much."

The world of the subject of her mention had shattered after she spole those words. Her mindset, viewpoint and her identity, which had fully formed on the assumption that her parents were pegasi, now lay crumbled, like the smoldering ashes of a fire that had burned brightly in the past.

Unconcious though she was, Cerise knew she was left with nothing.

Nothing, that was, except for a dizzying pain in the head.

How did I end up in the orphanage in the first place, then? And why?

She had come to. Presently, after standing up, she discovered she was on one of Canterlot's busy streets, her final payment--a bag of two hundred bits, coupled with a worthless "Best Wishes" card from Celestia--sticking out of her bag.

She came to the conclusion that she'd passed out, or been teleported, or perhaps both.

But then, she found herself thinking about the nightmares.

Somehow, they had wormed their way into her mind, likely from her new and shocking revelation, although she preferred not to dwell on them when awake, if she could help it.

Every night, for as long as Cerise could remember, she suffered from the endless horrors of her dreams--dreams where she turned into a barbaric changeling queen with no major emotions, only cold, hard senses and instincts.

There seemed to be another side of her in dreams, an intelligent evildoer who insisted she was the true side of Cerise's personality, and that her own name, and Chocolate Cherry's real name was Chambya.

She hated slumber for fear of that monster.

As she continued to think about Chambya, a small question came to mind.

Why has Princess Luna not saved me from my awful dreams? She would never shirk.

But wait, what if they weren't dreams? She was part changeling, as terrible as it was.

She was getting dangerously close to hyperventilating.

To calm herself down, Cerise looked around Canterlot, at all the fancy stores, restaurants and artistic banners depicting the Two Sisters.

She remembered hearing something about Rarity attempting to get her hooves on some beautiful, ancient tapestries from an old, ruined castle, to bring them out of hopeless disrepair with her magical, creative restoration skills.

An old. Ruined. Castle, she thought.

No, Cerise, don't think of dark things again. Ay, there are so many problems in my stupid life. At least there was a good spell for a little while, but--that's over now.

When she was very young, too young to talk or remember what was happening, a beachcomber named Spiral Shell brought her to Canterlot's only orphanage (which presently didn't exist anymore) claiming to have found her floating hopelessly in the ocean.

That mare proved to be very indecisive.

After dropping little Cerise off, she returned and requested to adopt her, but no, then she changed her mind. She'd said that she wanted to be her foster parent.

Anyway, Chocolate Cherry ended up staying with her and her family, under the incorrect title of foster foal, for nearly thirteen years. In fact, Spiral Shell was the one who had named her, inspired by her coat and cutie mark--a red triplet. Cerise reminded her of delicious candy-covered cherries.

Eventually, Spiral moved to Ponyville with her real daughter, a filly she'd had about three years after Cerise came to her house.

The now jealous pegasus was relocated to yet another orphanage, not too far from Canterlot, feeling usurped by the gorgeous Sea Swirl.
There, she miserably spent her long, dreary teenage years. She had been betrayed and rejected.

Presently, the mare knew that Spiral had never loved her. She had probably only wanted her, in the first place, as a sort of living trophy, a prized shell, because she was so unusually colored.

Still, she had been Cerise's mother figure, for however short a time period, and it hurt to see her casually walk away from her forever.

Then, the toughest stretch of her life started, from the day the orphanage kicked her out for being too old, to the weeks she spent fishing for scraps and imploring complete strangers for help.

She resorted to theft, her strong jealousy and dishonesty growing ever more malicious. She learned not to cry, and how to survive.

One day, the worst possible thing had happened: she had been caught stealing valuables, and the pony who owned them turned her in.

But things went differently than she imagined. Instead of the constantly stern, pure, just alicorn she had expected, she found a lucid, relatively laid-back princess who was only trying to manage her land smoothly and bring out the best in everypony. She still felt guilty pangs from ignoring Luna and banishing her to the moon all those years ago.

She didn't harshly punish Cerise, but offered her a job that seemed fitting.

Unbeknownst to anypony outside of their security itself, Celestia and Luna had established another line of protection. They were spies that monitored every city in Equestria, to reduce the risk of another changeling attack. There were many in the capital, but none were allowed to do their work inside the castle. The sisters had plenty of things in it which they didn't want other ponies messing around with, and besides, knowing that you were being spied on was not a very pleasant feeling.

What had Cerise done when presented with this offer?

Starved, lonely and pained, she accepted it, of course! It was long, hard work, but quite well worth it--she got quality food (occasionally, Her Majesty cooked homemade pancakes for the spies herself!), a cozy little nook in the castle, and time to do whatever she pleased when she was not on duty.

But all that was gone.

Suddenly, the voice Cerise dreaded spoke, one which dwelled inside her head.

Cerise...

She mentally replied, Go away, Cha--

Yes, it's Chambya, she interrupted.
And I do believe it's high time I got to be the leader, for once.

Her evil, follow-up snicker revealed what was coming next.

No, please, no! Not in broad daylight, you sinister--

Whirling, magical green flames (not unlike the terrifying Queen Chrysalis' own) engulfed Cerise, starting at her hooves and rushing upward. When it got to her eyes, all was dark for a few seconds, and she anxiously groped about, sightless.

When the transformation was complete, there stood no mere pony, but the misplaced lesser changeling queen, frightening all the same though she was not the highest-ranking.

There stood Queen Chambya.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading! How did you like the first chapter of my first official mlp fanfiction ever? Please feel free to deposit your thoughts below in the comments section! (Take note that they must be SFW, although it's a dark-ish story).

As far as to when/where this tale takes place, I'll let you choose for yourself.

1. Sometime before the reformation of the changelings in Season 6 and King Thorax.

2. In an alternate universe that is exactly the same, except for the fact that the changelings never reformed.

I am not asking you to make a decision for me, this is simply a matter of personal preference, for your benefit and lack of confusion in the story.

Also, my OC doubles as my ponysona.

Once again, infinite thanks for reading!