The story of Cabaal the Necromancer and how he stole somepony's soul

Author’s note- I’m going to use Zethariel’s concept for changelings out of his story ‘My Little Changeling—“I” is Magic’. Basically they function as a hive mind all controlled by Queen Chysalis whose the only changeling with her own identity/personality. If they get disconnected from the Hive they become mindless beasts with only the instinct to feed.

“Vix!” Where is that damn changeling? “Vix get over here!”

“I’m here Master.” And how can I never find her until she opens her mouth?

“Ah there you are. I like your disguise for this trip.” Really how can anypony not see a bright strawberry red mane in a gloomy forest like this?

“I’m glad. I didn’t even copy the cutie mark this time.” She showed me her cream beige flank and I had to admit she was finally getting creative.

“Two white lilies with red stems crossed like an X.”

“Yes I’m going to tell them I’m a botanist studying rare flowers. I think it’s a good excuse to be trudging around Everfree forest at odd hours.”

“Smart.” I always prefer when she dresses in colors. It contrasts with my grey body and black mane. The only color I have is a red recycling symbol for a cutie mark. Even my eyes are black. “Using nature conservationist will be a good cover for me. A botanist will go well with that. ”

“Thank you Master.” She is technically my slave, I have the contract to prove it, but she’s competent and loyal enough that I view her more as a partner than a slave.

“Are you going to be a unicorn or a pegasus while we’re in Ponyville?” I’d found her soul haunting some broken down inn unable to move on. She was interesting enough so I kept the soul bound to a doll until the changeling invasion. It wasn’t hard to convince her to sign the slavery contract; after all who wouldn’t want a new chance at life? The hardest part wasn’t even getting a changeling to body accept a new soul. The real challenge was teaching her how to control her new body’s instincts to drain all the emotion out of anypony she saw.

“I still don’t have a handle on most magic other than shape shifting so I think pegasus will be more valuable.” I watched as she sprouted a brand new set of wings.

“It amazes me every time I see that body morph. Changelings truly are amazing creatures.”

“Damned hard to control though, this body doesn’t even breath automatically! And do you know how hard it is to relearn the habit of breathing after you’ve been dead for Luna knows how long?!”

“I can’t say I’ve ever had that experience.” I said as light started to show up ahead. We were nearing the exit to the Everfree forest.

*knock knock knock*

“Coming!” A purple pony opened the door, “Hi, can I help you?”

“Hello my names Caz and this is my colleague Vix. We’re looking for a Twilight Sparkle, we hear she runs the local library.”

“You found her, it’s nice to meet you both."

“Nice to meet you as well,” Vix said in a polite if bored tone.

“Likewise,” I said after her.

“Please come on in,” Twilight said. I played the gentlecolt and motioned for Vix to go in first. “What kind of books are you looking for?”

Vix was the first to speak up as I was admiring the shelves of books, “we’re looking for any information you have on the Everfree forest. You see I’m a botanist and my colleague here is a nature conservationist. We’re here researching the forest.”

“Oh, a fellow researcher?” What kind of project are you working on?”

“Right now I’m going to be looking for some new medicines.” That wasn’t a bad lie. We only needed her to believe us for a short time.

“I can get you some books but I can do you one better! There’s a zebra shaman who lives in the forest. She knows all kinds of herbal remedies.” Or it could backfire instantly.

“Really?” I spoke quickly. “We’re definitely going to have to meet this mare.” I really didn’t want to. A shaman could be a big annoyance if she wanted to be.

“Yeah I could take you to see her tomorrow if you like.”

Vix started in, “I don’t know if tomorrow would-“

“No, no I think it would work fine,” I interrupted.  “We’d just have to move a few things around but I think it’ll work fine.”

We made the most boring kind of small talk for a couple hours after that and politely excused ourselves. We didn’t check out any of her books saying that we’d have plenty to learn tomorrow.

“We need to move our plan forward. I don’t want that shaman to know about us.” I spoke softly to ensure no passersby could hear.

“What do you want to do?” Vix said in a worried tone.

“I need you to change and find our vampire friend. Tell her ‘Castiel is here to collect his payment.’ She’ll know what that means. I want you to bring her to our camp in the forest.”

“Yes master, I’ll bring her.”

I had just finished making dinner, leak and potato soup, when Vix showed up with our guest. “What’s this about Castiel? What do you need this time?” A pale mare with an electric blue mane stood before me with flared nostrils. Are those fangs I see poking out from under her lip?

“Vinyl Scratch, the vampony, nice of you to join us.”

“I was in the middle of work and you send some pony I’ve never even met to fetch me? I had to leave 4 hours before my gig was supposed to end! Do you know how unprofessional that is?!”

“You’ll have to forgive me Vinyl. I know professionalism is very important to you. I meant to give you a few days warning but a great opportunity presented itself.” I really couldn’t have thought of a better excuse to bring Twilight out into the forest. “I need you out here tomorrow Vinyl. I need you to turn someone for me.”

“YOU WHAT?!” Yes her fangs were definitely out. Her eyes even shined a little red.

“Not so loud! We don’t know what else is out here.”

Vinyl looked like steam was about to start coming out of her ears. “You want me to turn a pony in the Everfree forest? Are you luring some innocent pony out here or does she know you want to turn her undead? What kind of game are you playing Castiel?”

“Please just call me Caz, and it is not your place to question my motives. You owe me a debt.” I said unable to contain my smugness at the word debt.

“So your idea of me paying you back is to force me into taking on a fledgling?”

“That is exactly my idea of payment. I saved your life. You were on the edge of your second death and I healed all of your wounds.” Not that I have to mention it was a different favor being called in that got her to the edge of death in the first place. “After this then your debt is paid in full. No more favors.”

“No more favors? You’re serious aren’t you? You’ve been milking this for the past decade and now you’re going to free me? Fine Caz,” the way she said my name was like she was spitting out acid, “I’ll turn this pony. Who is it.”

“Vix show Vinyl what she looks like.”

“Yes Master,” the changeling mare transformed into the spitting image of Twilight, purple highlights in the mane and all. Vinyl’s jaw practically hit the floor watching this.

“Is that a changeling? How in the hell do have a changeling delivering your messages and calling you master?!” I had always known Vinyl as a vampony who couldn't keep her shit together but this was getting ridiculous.

“Do you like my flank Vinyl?” I would have assumed Vinyl had plenty of experience getting hit on but she had no idea how to react to a changeling coming onto her, she just stared. “What about my throat?” Vix on the other hand seemed to love teasing her.

Vinyl was even starting to blush. “Vix! Stop toying with the poor thing she’s already shocked as it is. And in answer to your question Vinyl.The changeling body is really just an empty thing waiting to be filled. It’s usually filled by the hive mind but if it gets disconnected there’s plenty of space for the soul of a dead pony. Vix isn't actually alive shes just a ghost in a shell."

“Dear Luna… how in the hell did you do figure that out.”

“Well all we have to say for now is that there’s a huge pile of changeling corpses that didn’t make it through testing.”

“Wow. I didn’t think this kind of thing was possible.” Vinyl just stared at the changeling.

“So,” Vix started, “you like what you see.” She let that sink in until Vinyl was ready to answer her. As soon as Vinyl decided to open her mouth she was interrupted, “because this is the pony you’re going to be turning.”

“Wha… who is she?”

“She’s a purple pony, to whom you’re going to give the gift of eternal life. That’s all you need to know about her until tomorrow.” I had expected her to know what the element of magic looked like but apparently luck was on my side.

“Alright Caz, so what, you want me to just pounce on her in the middle of the woods?” Vinyl looked at me with doubt in her eyes.

“Yes that’s exactly what I want. Vix and I will be walking with her so I want you to attack when Vix changes her cutie mark. Speaking of which, you should probably change back to your other skin so Vinyl knows what to look for.”

The changeling transformed back into the beige mare with strawberry red hair. “What do you think of this body Vinyl? Personally I prefer it to that purple mare’s form.”

“Well I’ve always been one to go for a red mane.” I was wondering when Vinyl was going to go back to her casual self.

“Look at her cutie mark,” I didn’t need to tell her, she was already looking at her flank. “Watch for her to change it into a black heart, that’s your signal to attack.”

“Alright fine, but I'm not raising a fledgling all on my own."

"You wont have to worry about that. We're playing on staying in Ponyville for a while."

Vinyl sighed, "What time do you want me to be here?”

“Be waiting for us inside the forest at noon.”