"Remind me again why we're looking for a changeling in the Everfree Forest?" Rainbow Dash asked exasperatedly.

Twilight moved a vine out of the way before looking back at her friend, "Because Spark said he can help them somehow," she turned to the kirin at the front of the group, "Right, Spark?"

Spark took another bite of his footlong Metroway sandwich and sipped some es cendol from a cup that floated in his magic, Crucible was an omnivore apparently, "Yup, if Kevin's still around after Cranky and Matilda's wedding, I think I have a solution that can get him on our side."

Spark had been once again digging through Crucible's memory and cross-referencing it with his lore. It was then that he remembered about Forgelings.

Crucible Spark's forge was supposed to be about the same size as the Castle of Friendship, everything within it was handled and overseen by Crucible himself. Obviously, for such a large place, he couldn't surveil and maintain every bit of machinery and store room twenty-four seven, and thus, he employs the work of forgelings.

In Crucible's AU, forgelings were a subspecies of changelings that have adapted to the treacherous environment of the Dragon Lands. They traded their ability to fully shapeshift for mastery over pyromancy, geomancy, and ferromancy, making them only capable of changing the shape their horns to fit the spells in their arsenal. Their large, spiny wings were covered by pair of thick elytra and their compound eyes were sharper compared to any changeling subspecies.

It is said that a forgeling's carapace can withstand heat from the surface of the sun, and that they were just as capable of swimming in lava as the dragons. Their fangs were covered by a layer of obsidian, making them incredibly sharp, which they need to protect themselves from rowdy dragons.

With the lack of genuine love dragons produced in their AU, forgelings had to change their diet to rage and greed. They would often send out teams of collectors to gather both emotions from slumbering dragons. Unlike love, when rage or greed is collected, it calms down the host and brings them a sense of tranquility.

Due to the positive relations Clan Spark had with the forgelings and their queen, their forges usually have swarms of forgelings in various ranks working for them. The magical flames expelled by nirik-fire and the greedy nature of the clan members are also a bountiful source of sustenance for them.

Spark had discovered that, if a clan member wishes it, they could 'ascend' a normal changeling into a forgeling with their nirik magic. All they needed to do was to feed the aforementioned changeling with ash from a nirik-fire forge and they will go through a near instantaneous transformation into a forgeling, who will then be compelled to follow the command of the clan member who ascended them.

He had initially planned to do this for Thorax, (or later on, Pharynx) but he didn't want to go through the effort of going to the Crystal Empire to search for a hidden ice cavern. So Spark settled for the closest available alternative: Kevin, the changeling who made a cameo during the show's one hundreth episode. He was thankful that he arrived within the range of the events of season five.

After asking around Ponyville as well as the Mane Six, Spark found out that Kevin's last known location was somewhere in the Everfree, specifically near Fluttershy's cottage. She wasn't all too happy to know there's been a changeling roaming so close to her home.

Twilight decided to tag along with her friends to help Spark in his endeavor. She was curious to see if it was possible for a supposedly fictional version of a creature to exist at all. Spark allowed them to follow because having more eyes to scan the area would be fairly helpful.

So far though, it seemed like there were no traces of Kevin to be found, and they've been trudging through the Everfree Forest for well over an hour. Despite getting multiple complaints from five out of six ponies, Spark pushed on, determined to at least get a scratch or splatter of changeling mucus in his Notebook of AutographsTM.

The group stopped in front of the entrance of a large cave as Spark finished his drink and put away the sandwich's leftovers in one of his saddlebags.

"Maybe Kevin's in here." Spark commented.

"Why do y'all keep callin' 'em 'Kevin'?" Applejack asked.

Spark shrugged, "That's what the fans call him, and there's an official card of him with that name slapped on."

"Your fandom's weird, dude." Rainbow replied.

Spark only rolled his eyes, "Says the member of a fandom with bondage body pillows of a real perso- uh, pony."

Rainbow's eyes widened after hearing his remark, "Wait what?"

"Nevermind. Anypony wants to come with?" he asked while pointing a hoof towards the cave.

The ponies looked uneasy at that comment. Going into dark cave with the possibility of a changeling ambushing them didn't seem very appealing. Fluttershy especially wasn't very keen on following.

Twilight, being motivated by research, stepped up, "I'll go!"

Applejack followed suit, "Let's just get this over with."

Rainbow, being ever courageous, was the first to fully enter, "Let's go already!"

Pinkie bounced closer as well, "Oh, oh! I wanna meet Kevin!"

Rarity sighed, "The sooner we're done the sooner I can get myself cleaned."

Fluttershy realized she would be all by herself if she stayed outside and followed the rest of the group into the cave, "Um, o-okay I'll follow too..."

Once inside, Spark transformed into his nirik form, which easily lit up the entire cave and also startled the ponies.

"Can you tell us before you do that?" Rarity asked pointedly.

"Sorry."

The six ponies and one kirin continued deeper into the cave, making sure to look around for a changeling drone all the while.

After a few minutes of not finding anything, the group heard chittering and hissing noises coming from behind a stalagmite. Spark raised a flaming hoof to stop the ponies behind him.

"Bug sounds behind there. You all watch what he does and prepare to catch him if he tries to book it." Spark instructed.

The Mane Six nodded in confirmation, and he turned back to a kirin before activating his horn to light the way.

Spark tentatively stepped closer towards the stalagmite, the sound of chittering became louder and was eventually accompanied by some buzzing. Kevin was probably bracing himself.

"Kevin?"

The buzzing stopped, replaced by set of hisses.

"Kevin, you there?"

Spark carefully stepped around the stalagmite, he prepared to catch Kevin with his magic in case he was uncooperative.

When Spark, finally got behind the rock formation, he was met with a sight that he honestly was not expecting.

There was indeed a changeling hiding behind the massive stalagmite. However, instead of the usual, hole-ridden state of your typical unreformed changeling, the one in front of Spark was emaciated and heavily injured. Its carapace was cracked in multiple places, its wings looked like it had chunks ripped off, and it seemed like it was only moments away from... croaking, that's a word one could use.

When the changeling saw Spark approach, it immediately pushed itself into a corner formed between the stalagmite and the cave's wall and looked at him fearfully.

Spark lowered his body to look less intimidating to it, "Woah, woah, hey. Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you." he said softly, "Or eat you." he quickly added.

The changeling continued to squirm away from him, fear clearly seen on its face.

Spark decided to sit down on the floor, "Do you happen to know a changeling named 'Kevin'?"

The changeling stopped and stared directly back at Spark, he winced slightly when he saw a scratch on its left set of compound eyes. It nodded slowly, with a very clear expression of trepidation.

Spark took his chance, "Are you Kevin?"

The changeling nodded hesitantly.

Spark smiled. Kevin was real! But he was hurt, very hurt. Spark needed to speed this up. He pulled out a ziplock bag out of his saddlebags and opened it, revealing a couple of grams of ash from his forge.

"Kevin, listen. I want to help you." he floated a small ball of ash in front of the changeling, "This will help you heal, you just need to eat it. It won't taste good, I know, but everything's going to be better after this."

Kevin eyed the ball and Spark suspiciously, how could eating dust save him? Is this a trap? A distraction so that the other ponies with the weird unicorn could capture him?

But... if he refused, then he'd probably be left alone in this cave to starve or get eaten by a wayward monster. It was between that or eating the ball of dust.

After a moment of thinking, Kevin decided to take his chances with the odd-looking unicorn, and quickly chomped down on the ball of nirik ash.

Kevin tried to swallow it as fast as possible, as the ash tasted bitter and slightly metallic to him.

Spark stood up again with a satisfied look in his face, "Okay, good. Now wait a minute so your body can process it."

Kevin stayed put in his little corner, he felt a sense of warmth filling his stomach. Just what the heck was that dust?

Instantly, he was engulfed by a torrent of flames. Kevin panicked, but quickly felt a wave of calmness go over him. The maelstrom of nirik fire reached to such heights that it seared the roof of the cave.

The sudden lightshow caused Mane Six to run over to Spark behind the stalagmite. When they peeked over the rock formation, they were met with the sight of a madly grinning kirin and a very confused... forgeling?

Kevin looked over his new form with awe, so the unicorn truly was trying to help him.

Every bit of damage done to his body had healed over, not leaving a single trace of a scar. Everything just felt better in general.

He was taller, and generally bigger. His previously black carapace had changed to a dark crimson. His joints were covered by segmented and overlapping layers of scarlet chitin, allowing flexible movement and full coverage of his weak points. Kevin looked at his hooves and saw two large hooked spines at each tip. He tried to move his wings, and realized that they were placed below his elytra now. Kevin fiddled with the odd placement for a moment before fully opening them to reveal his large, spiny wings. They were folded up under his elytra, much like a beetle's.

One of the most prominent changes he experienced, however, was his horn. Being natural masters at magic, forgeling horns were larger and shaped in such a way to channel offensive magic more efficiently compared to other magical creatures, with the ability to change their shape if required. Kevin's horn had transformed into a shape that was more akin to a rhinoceros beetle's, with it being elongated with a tip that branched out into for points. Perfect for pyromancy and ferromamcy, not so good for geomancy.

The fin on his head had also grown, to the point where it was essentially a spiky yellow membranous mohawk.

His eyes were different as well. The compound lenses had changed from blue to a bright orange, and the light glow that resembled pupils was a lot more visible. The combination made it look like he had glowing orange eyes with yellow slitted pupils.

His tail was still the same shape-wise, but had the same color as his head fin.

Kevin also realized that he didn't feel as hungry as he was before. The feeling was still there, just subdued. It will return, yes, but it won't be as agonizing as usual.

Kevin looked back towards the fuzzy unicorn with a twisted horn and his allies, "Y-you saved me... why?" he asked in a surprisingly deep voice. Spark noted that it sounded like Keith David's.

"Mmm... monkey..." Spark replied absentmindedly.

"...What?"

Spark quickly shook his head, "Uh, I mean, because I couldn't just leave you there! Let's not beat around the bush here, we both know you would've died here if this didn't happen."

The ponies were shocked, was Kevin really in that bad of a state?

It was Kevin's turn to shake his head, "I... don't know what to say."

Spark extended a hoof towards the new forgeling, "Well, how about we get out of here and I'll explain a few things?"

Kevin looked at the hoof for a moment before taking it, "Alright."

"Thorax is destined to become our king? Really? Of all the changelings in the hive? Him?" Kevin asked incredulously.

"Well, not your king specifically, since you're a forgeling now." Spark corrected.

"Right, right. By turning into this," Kevin motioned a hoof around himself, "I've pretty much pledged my allegiance to you?"

Spark nodded, "Correct. Me, as well as my friends, and Equestria in general, I suppose."

Kevin scratched the spines that connected the membranes of his fin, "That's a lot to take in." he muttered.

"So like, what? Is he good now?" Rainbow asked.

Spark waved a hoof around, "Eh, depends on your perspective. The changelings only did what they did because Chryssie told them to, and her word is absolute to them. The whole reason the invasion happened at all was because the entire hive was running low on love, being located in the Badlands and all."

Kevin gave him a confused look, "That was surprisingly accurate. How do you know all of this?"

Spark shrugged, "I just know things. It'll take too long to explain. Maybe later."

Applejack decided to chime in, "Well, now that it's all settled, what now? Where's he," she pointed to Kevin, "goin' to end up?"

Spark looked back to the forgeling, "At the castle, duh."

Rarity raised and eyebrow, "You can't possibly be serious."

"It's not like he's going to hurt anypony or anything, he feeds on rage and greed now. The fire my nirik form produces is basically physical rage, and if he eats the ash next time, it'll taste better to him."

"Really?" Kevin asked.

Spark nodded with a smile, "Really. You're not going to be looking through scraps anymore, buddy. You've got a walking all-you-can-eat buffet right here." he said while pointing at himself.

"I have a question!" Twilight exclaimed as she raised a hoof.

Pinkie giggled, "This isn't a classroom, silly!"

Twilight realized what she was doing and quickly lowered her hoof, "Ah, right..." she cleared her throat, "From what Spark has told us, changeling names are usually derived from words used in insect anatomy, unless my sources are outdated, 'Kevin' isn't used anywhere in entomology. Why is it that your name is different from the others?"

Kevin sighed, "They ran out of names and I had to choose from the 'weird names' list." he answered with an annoyed expression.

"Changelings... choose their names from a list?" Fluttershy asked timidly.

Kevin nodded, "When a changeling moults into an adult, they get to pick a name from a list based on words that we've learned from previous emcounters. There's a clear preference towards names with X-es and Y-s in them for some reason. When a list is finished, the leftover changelings get the scraps. I was hoping to get 'Proboscis' or 'Spiracle', but I was too late and got lumped in with the other leftovers."

Spark copied Twilight's actions and fervently wrote down Kevin's explaination in another notebook, "Woah, this wasn't explained in the show. Keren coy!"

Pinkie hopped between Spark and Kevin, "You know what this means?"

Kevin gave her a confused look, "No?"

"You're going to have your first ever PARTY!" She practically yelled.

Author's Note

We have the beginning of Spark building his own Mane crew, starting with Kevin the Forgeling Praetorian!

Here's a little sketch as a visual guide to what a forgeling praetorian looks like, and his colors.

As a sneak peek, the next member's going to be a blindbag pony. Which one of them has a fire theme, hmmm?

Also, looks like I'm genuinely moving my focus here. I genuinely enjoy the amount of interactions I'm getting with this story, and it's always fun replying to my readers!

Next chapter, Spark will start preparing for Starlight's arrival and we'll see how he's going to figure out going on a temporal field trip while simultaneously trying to get pictures of a magical girl fight. Kevin's going to get a headache.

If you want to share ideas on how this story should go, consider commenting!

Corrections and criticisms are more than welcome, I can't improve without those now, can I?
Have a good existence!
:)

"Remembered forever, the land of Equestria"