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
It has been five years Twilight Sparkle had healed a sick changeling egg of a rare deadly disease originally thought to only affect ponies. Five years since she hatched the egg. Five years since she had adopted the changeling hatchling and named him Iron chitin. Five years since her life was changed forever. But today would be different because today Iron Chitin would finally be old enough to attend Twilight Sparkle’s school of friendship.
The reason Twilight decided to enroll her adopted son Chitin in her school was not because she wanted him enrolled there, she didn’t. The main reasons she was enrolling Chitin was: one he showed a not so subtle interest in being enrolled, and two she believes it would give him the chance to makes friends with other creatures other than her niece Flurry Heart. Twilight decided that she would tell him during his birthday party that he would be having later that day. She decided it would be held at sugar cube corner and as usual her friend Pinkie Pie would be the one throwing it.
Later in the afternoon at the party for Chitin, Pinkie decided it was time for presents. So, after Chitin had unwrapped all his presents he had received from Twilight’s friends and the young six, the one he received from Ocellus being shapeshifting lessons. Twilight decided to finally announce that he would be attending her school of friendship. To which every creature present cheered. Not long after that everyone decided it was time to wrap up and head home.
In the weeks following Chitin’s birthday party, Ocellus was trying to teach Chitin how to shapeshift. But no matter what she did Chitin seemed to lack the ability to shapeshift, which frustrated them to no end. Finally Ocellus went to Twilight stating that Chitin for some unknown reason could not shapeshift. This caused Twilight to worry so she sent a letter to Thorax telling him of the situation. A few minutes later Twilight received a letter stating that Thorax would be sending his brother Pharynx to try to help in a few days.
A few days later, true to what Thorax had written. Pharynx arrived stating that he was ready to get started teaching Chitin how to shapeshift. Pharynx first went to Ocellus to find how she tried to teach Chitin. After Pharynx found out how Ocellus tried to teach Chitin, Pharynx tried a few other newly developed methods to try to Chitin how to shapeshift. All attempts failed to Chitin’s and Pharynx’s dismay. So, Pharynx thought if a new method wouldn’t work, maybe an older one would. But he would need Twilight’s permission to attempt it.
Pharynx went to notify Twilight. Upon hearing she asked Pharynx if there was another way to help Chitin. Pharynx told her there was one possibility and it was trial by combat. Twilight immediately looked like she was going to say no, but Pharynx promised her that he would do his best to not severely hurt Chitin and with Chitin pleading to at least give it a try Twilight caved in. But only if there was some creature there to make sure nothing went wrong. Chitin said that he knew the perfect group of creatures to help with this. So, after the young six agreed to watch Pharynx and Chitin’s sparring session to make sure nothing went wrong Twilight finally said ok.
It was decided that the sparring match would be held near Sweet Apple Acres so that if something went wrong some creature could run over to the farm and get help. After everything was set up Pharynx attacked first trying to hit Chitin in the chest but missed him entirely. This impressed Pharynx despite Chitin’s entire exoskeleton being made of an unidentifiable metal he still moved with the speed and agility of a full-grown changeling warrior. So, the fight went like this for the next few minutes of Pharynx trying to hit Chitin and Chitin just dodging everything thrown at him. Finally, Pharynx landed a hit on Chitin’s barrel sending him flying off to the side and in a flash of green fire Chitin transformed into a changeling giant form.
new cover image is Iron Chitin's giant form
Upon seeing this Pharynx started getting excited and he transformed into his own giant form. After this happened things started going downhill, Pharynx started getting too rough with Chitin. The young six immediately saw this and most of them tried to stop Pharynx directly but not before he took a swipe at Chitin causing Gallus to rush forward shove Chitin out of the way narrowly getting hit himself. After Gallus shoved Chitin out of the way there was another flash of green fire and Chitin had transformed again only this time, he had transformed into a griffin that bore a strong resemblance to Gilda when she was at flight camp only silver in color and male. This surprised every creature present and they all silently agreed that they should show this to Twilight.
When they all got back to Twilight’s castle (while Chitin was still in his griffin form) and told her what had happened. After they had all told what happened Twilight first scolded Pharynx for getting too rough with Chitin, and after she was done scolding Pharynx, she then started fussing over Chitin much to his chagrin. When Twilight finally calmed down enough Ocellus asked Twilight why Chitin only seemed to transform only after coming in physical contact with another creature. Twilight thought about this for about five until saying she believed it a combination of the Disease Chitin had as an egg and the spell used to cure him. After this she explained that without another example to base this off there would be no way for her to confirm it. She then asked Ocellus to help change Chitin back to his normal Form and she did by giving him a pat on his whither.
After hearing all this Chitin realized that he would not be able to transform on his own making him seem crest fallen. When Twilight saw she felt that she needed to do something to try and make him feel better to which an idea popped into her head. She told every creature that it had been a long day and that should head home and offered Pharynx a place to stay for the night which he accepted. After showing Pharynx where he was going to sleep for the night and tucking in a sad Chitin. Twilight quietly galloped to her lab and began working on something. What that something was, only the lavender alicorn knew.
Author's Note
how is everyone enjoying the story let me know what you think in the chat. i already have a third chapter in mind but let me know what the you all would like to see in future chapters
