It was a day like any other in the changeling kingdom King Thorax woke up and greeted his subjects and attended their various activities such as the feelings forum and arts and crafts. But today he decided he would go to the changeling hatchery. The changeling hatchery was located at the center of the hive so that the eggs were well defended from anything that would try to attack the hive. For the most part the hatchery was a large circular room with a domed ceiling. As Thorax walked into the room, he was greeted by the appointed caretakers as they bowed to him. He then asked them how the eggs where doing, and they replied that most of the eggs were doing well all except for one. Thorax then asks them to show him the egg. They start walking further into the hatchery while passing the glowing green eggs, some of them looking close to hatching, until they come up to an egg that was kept away from the rest so that it wouldn’t infect the other eggs. The egg in question was dark brown almost black, in contrast to the normal green. It was slowing pulsing instead of having a steady glow and deep inside the egg Thorax could see the silhouette of a young changeling. Thorax asks the care takers what was wrong with the egg and they replied that they didn’t know. Fearing the worst Thorax then took the sickly looking egg to the infirmary to see if a changeling there could find out what was wrong. While the doctors there could tell that the egg was very sick but still alive, they couldn’t tell why it was sick much to Thorax’s dismay.

Thorax then remembered that his friend Princess Twilight Sparkle knew a spell that could help identify disease in creature of any kind. So, without wasting a second he sent a letter to Twilight requesting an audience with her explaining the situation. A few moments later after sending the letter to Twilight, Thorax received her reply stating that she would help and that she was sending her pupil Starlight Glimmer to retrieve Thorax and the egg as quickly as possible. A few minutes later Thorax was notified that Starlight was waiting for him in front of the hive. He quickly but carefully placed the egg inside of a saddle bag and went to meet her. After a quick greeting Starlight then cast a spell teleporting her, Thorax and the egg to Twilight’s castle in Ponyville. Twilight was waiting outside for them when she saw them appear, she quickly ushered them inside and took them to her main library where she had set up a table and had a few spell books nearby. Thorax then carefully took the egg out of the saddlebag and placed it on the table. He then stood back far enough away to not be in the way of Twilight casting her spell, but close enough to keep an eye on what was going on. Starlight stood next to Twilight as she cast the spell ready to help her mentor if she needed it. After Twilight was done casting the spell Twilight then started looking through the books she had on the table before turning to Thorax with a grim look on her face. Twilight tells Thorax that the spell she had cast had detected a rare deadly disease that up until that point was thought to only affect ponies. Thorax then asked Twilight if the disease was contagious and if anything could be done to save the egg. Twilight tells Thorax the disease was fortunately not contagious and there was a slim chance that one certain spell could save it, but it was a long shot and it was originally meant to cure the disease in ponies. Thorax then asked for Twilight to try the spell. Twilight then cast the spell concentrating it on the egg for the next few seconds nothing seemed to happen, but then the egg started to slowly turn green and the pulsing turned into a steady glow. Once the spell was complete the egg was as healthy as any other changeling. Thorax then rushed forward hugging Twilight thanking her for healing the egg. After the hug was over Twilight explained to Thorax that because the spell was never performed on a changeling before much less a changeling egg and she would like to hold onto the egg to make sure that it doesn’t need the spell cast on it again. Thorax reluctantly agrees to let Twilight hold onto the egg if she agrees to take care of the hatchling if the egg hatches while under her care, she agrees. After Thorax leaves Twilight with instructions on how to care for the egg she sends Starlight to set up a nursery for the egg while Twilight made sure the egg was doing ok.

About a week later early in the morning Twilight was awakened by the crying of a baby after realizing this she quickly teleports to the nursery to which she sees the broken eggshell and a small silvery changeling colt at the center of the mess. When the baby saw Twilight, it started crying even louder and reaching its small hooves out to her. Twilight rushed over to the small hatchling and carefully picked it up and started comforting it but noting that it exoskeleton seemed to be unnaturally strong. Soon the hatchling stopped crying and looked up at Twilight with large sky-blue eyes before nuzzling up to her and falling asleep. Not long after this a tired looking spike and a sleepy eyed Starlight came to the door of the nursery and seeing Twilight holding the changeling. Twilight asked Spike to send Thorax a letter stating that the egg had hatched and there seems to be something a little odd about the hatchling’s unnaturally hard exoskeleton. Twilight soon received a letter through Spike’s dragon fire stating Thorax himself was busy now, but he would send his brother Pharynx in his stead. But until Pharynx did arrive Thorax instructed her that the hatchling need to stay with the first creature it saw, no matter what otherwise the hatchling could die and explaining that Pharynx would explain more when he got there. So for the next few hours Twilight stayed with the hatchling with Spike and Starlight helping her with chores around the castle.

When Pharynx finally arrived Twilight met him at the front door inviting him in, once they were inside he asked her why the hatchling’s exoskeleton was made of metal. Twilight stated that she didn’t know why but she believed that the disease that the hatchling had while it was an egg and the spell used to cure it might have something to do with it. With nothing else to base it off of there was no way for her to find out. Despite hearing this Pharynx still looked skeptical. He explained to her that the reason why a changeling hatchling needed to stay with the first creature it saw was because the hatchling imprints on them seeing them as their parent and feeds off that bond to survive and seeing that the hatchling was asleep on Twilight’s back Pharynx figured out who the hatchling imprinted. Pharynx then explained to Twilight that changeling hatchlings for the most part were easy to take care of. Mostly all that was needed was to keep the hatchling close by so it would survive, comfort it when it was in distress, watch out for any surges of magic and to keep a close eye on it when it starts to fly. After giving her this information Pharynx let Twilight know that if she needed anything to let his Brother Thorax know and Pharynx would come as soon as he could to help with whatever. Twilight thanks him and sends him home letting him know that he and his brother Thorax were welcome anytime to her home and Ponyville. At the end of the day Twilight headed to bed along with the hatchling now named Iron Chitin to get some sleep.

Author's Note

This only the first chapter the next one will be set five years in the future. I would like your feedback and how this chapter can be improved