The Changeling Princess

Joker's eyelids felt like lead, she wanted to keep sleeping, but her body was urging her to wake. She was surprised to find herself still wearing her armour, her helmet included. She was even more surprised to find herself in the middle of a forest. Joker was on her hooves in a heartbeat. She glanced around. The alicorn took in every inch of her surroundings.

The trees seemed different to those that grew in Equestria and the Everfree Forest. The clouds above seemed to move different, there were no pegasi moving them. The calls of the creatures seemed different. In fact, those calls were the only noise along with the faint rustle of the leaves as the breeze touched them. The entire place seemed to scream danger.

"Okay," Joker tried to calm down. She started pacing, muttering to herself as she went. "Okay, think. What happened last night? The changing of the guard, my shift ended. I was taking to Captain Armour and . . ."

"Can you keep the noise down?" a sleepy voice asked. "Dawn is far too early."

Joker scanned the sky. Indeed it was the crack of dawn, as far as the white pegasus could tell. It took a few moments before the voice registered, her senses still recovering from whatever happened.

"Spike?" Joker frowned at the purple dragon curled up in the grass. "Hey, long time no see."

"Joker?" Spike then glanced around. "Where are we?"

"If I knew I would flying back to Canterlot as we speak," Joker sighed. "But I have got no idea."

"Great," Spike muttered.

"Wait here," Joker ordered, convincing herself it was only a training exercise. "I'm going to see if I can my bearings."

Spike nodded. Joker spread her wings and shot into the sky. She shot through the canopy of the trees and landed on a small cloud. She glanced around. A chill went up her spine as she recognised the sinister mountain terrain with the patches of emerald forest. She leapt off the cloud and folded her wings against her body. When she was close enough, Joker pulled out her wings to stop her crashing into the ground.

"I have good news and bad news," Joker announced as Spike walked over. "Good news; I know where we are and how to get back home."

"Where?"

"That's the bad news," Joker bit her lip unwilling to tell. "But the sooner we move and get out of here, the less you have to know."

"Can't you tell me?" Spike asked as Joker explored the little patch of forest they'd somehow been dumped in.

"We're in the Changeling's Realm," Joker admitted.

"How do you know what this place looks like?" Spike frowned.

It had been a few minutes ago the duo were panicking. Joker had calmed herself down and now was leading Spike to where, hopefully, they can get home.

"Um," Joker hesitated, her mind reaching back to the cover story she usually used. "I accidentally slid through a portal when I was younger and found myself here. I memorised the landscape in case I accidentally came through again or got lost. I believe there is a portal nearer the ground that has been used recently. If we find it we can get home."

"Don't you find it curious how we ended up here?" Spike frowned.

"I have a theory," Joker said, looking straight ahead. "But my top priority is to get out of here and then figure out what caused this. Had I been alone, I would have started looking around, but because I am with a civilian, my first job is to make sure you are safe."

"What if we aren't the only one's around?" Spike asked. "What if others were also transported here?"

"Good point, Spike," Joker stopped. "We'll travel from forest to forest as we get back. When we do, you are going to find Princess Celestia and tell her what happened while I come back and search the rest of this place."

"I want to search with you," Spike frowned. "You can't just stroll around here like you own the place."

"I'm sorry, Spike," Joker sighed. "If you get injured or killed and it was your fault, I get the blame because I 'failed to protect the defenceless.' Besides, I kind of do own this place."

"Then I'll do my best not to get killed," Spike said, leaping onto Joker's armoured back. "Please?"

"Fine," Joker sighed, her eyes rose to the sky. She had feeling she was going to regret this, but she didn't like travelling alone.

"What did you mean when you said you kind of own this place?" Spike asked.

Joker bit her lip, but hid her expression from Spike as she pulled off her helmet and tucked it under a wing.

"So, you gonna answer my question?" the baby dragon pestered.

"I will tell you and the six later," Joker sighed, closed her emerald eyes. "Just not now. I need you to trust me like you did when I was in Ponyville. Promise me that?"

"Pinkie Promise," Spike said, mimicking the actions, finally glad he'll be getting some background info on a mysterious mare.

"I don't know about you, but I didn't eat last night because my shift had just ended when I somehow ended up here," Joker glanced around. "How about we find something to eat?"

"Yes, please." Spike grinned, licking his lips.

"But first, I do not need heavy little dragons on my back making me use more energy than needed," Joker smirked as she stood on her back legs before throwing herself into a cart wheel.

The dragon couldn't react fast enough and found himself on the floor, blinking, trying to figure out what just happened.

"We should make bags to carry food," Joker said as she explored. "The gaps between the forests can measure from an hour's journey to a week."

"But we don't know what is edible and not," Spike frowned, glaring at a colourful flower.

"That one isn't poisonous," Joker trotted over. "But I wouldn't recommend it. The colours are warnings meaning that it is not suitable for eating."

The white pegasus took wing and grabbed some large leaves. She landed and glanced over at Spike. The baby dragon was preoccupied. She ground her teeth together. A twisted black horn slipped through her disguise and the pupils of her eyes turned dragon-like with a dark green oval second pupil. Her iris was emerald green and the whites of her eyes turned pale green. Her horn charged with sickly green energy. The same green appeared around the leaves, making them into a makeshift saddlebag with a spell to stop them breaking. When she was done, she activated her disguise that made her horn disappear.

"Why not ditch the armour?" Spike asked, making the pegasus jump. "It would make it so much easier."

"Do you want to know how much trouble I could get in?" Joke stood up. She replaced her helmet on her head and set the makeshift saddlebags on her back. "Captain Armour would have my head!"

"Oh," Spike never knew Shining Armour had such a reputation as Captain of the Royal Guard, but, then again, he new little about Twilight's older brother. "Are we getting food now? Do they have gems here?"

"They have gems alright," Joker chuckled. "But they are scattered around. If we are lucky, we may find a few. Plus, there is a gorge full of gems, although I don't think you'll be able to eat them . . . "

Spike did not hear; he was too busy eating a gem he found and fantasising about this gem-filled place.

Joker smiled and shook her head, but something inside of her had been reawakened when she awoke and it was desperate to escape.

*

Princess Celestia paced in her tower. She nervously bit her lip, anxiously waiting news. It was never like Joker to do things like this, especially when it came to her job. It was also never like Twilight to delay replying to her letter. Shining Armour had pulled a few guards off duty earlier this evening to search for Joker. The guard he had taken had long since returned. Shortly after he departed to see if his sister and her friends were okay. As he left Celestia made sure he didn't tell anypony. She didn't want the disappearance of a member of the royal guard getting out and causing panic.

"Princess Celestia," Shining Armour galloped into the chamber, breaking the solar princess out of her thoughts. "Twilight and her friends are missing!"

"All of them?" Celestia frowned. "Joker; one of the best guards I have and who can predict any enemy's next moves. Twilight and her friends; holders of the Elements of Harmony. They're connected to keeping me and Equestria safe. Someone must be planning an attack."

"But we can take them, right?" Shining Armour asked.

Celestia didn't answer. She was thinking. Her theory could be wrong. Joker could have been found out and some ponies decided to abduct her or something. She only prayed that, wherever they were, the seven ponies were safe.

"Maybe," Celestia replied after a few moments of dead silence. "But we do not know whom our attacker is. It could range from a small group of changelings to Nightmare Moon herself."

*

"Oh come on!" Spike complained what seemed like hours later. "Why can't you tell me?"

Joker groaned. It had been a full day since they left their little patch of forest and were heading for another. Since then Spike never stopped pestering her about how she knew where she was, where to go and what to avoid. He obviously didn't believe Joker's story about accidentally falling through a portal to this world.

"Because if I tell you, you will blab and I'm technically dead!"

"Please?!" Spike begged. "Please tell me!"

Joker glanced around, nervously biting her lip.

"Alright, fine!" Joker snapped, silencing the baby dragon and stomping her hoof on the rocky ground. She was never normally persuaded easily, but this was just one exception. "I know this place because it's my old home. I am a changeling. I should be the princess, but when Chrysalis decided to take over Equestria, I tried to stop her so I got banished! And to be perfectly honest, being banished was the best thing that happened to me!"

Spike was shocked. He just stared into the sunset, taking in everything he just heard.

"Then you're the reason I'm stuck here!" He gasped.

"No, the reason I am here is either for revenge or because they are trying to take Equestria again!" Joker snapped.

"So you are helping us?"

"If I wasn't, I think Celestia might already be dead." Joker said bluntly as she pulled off her helmet to let the air get to head.

"But she will be," a bone chillingly familiar voice hissed as the sound of buzzing wings surrounded the duo.

Joker flinched at the sound. Green flames danced around her as she transformed, dropping her helmet as she did so. Her armour stayed the same. Her pure white fur coat changed into a black exoskeleton with a green blue chitinous, similar to Chrysalis. Her tail and her mane turned blue-green and grew in length. Her horn grew in length and twisted. Her feathered wings turned into blue, slightly transparent tatters. Her fangs grew until they protruded from the sides of her mouth. Her eyes turned dragon-like and their colour was identical to Chrysalis's, marking her as the rightful heir to the changeling throne. Her height increased by a few inches.

Spike bit his lip and slid off Joker's armoured back. Joker shot a brief smile at him before a she turned towards Chrysalis, a cold hard look on her face that could turn even the hottest fire into ice.

"What did I say would happen if you came back here?" Chrysalis approached Joker, a look of disgust on her face.

"I did not come back here willingly," Joker growled. "You teleported me!"

"Smart," Chrysalis smiled slightly. "But it all goes to waste. Had you followed in my hoof-steps, Joker, you would have made a very fine queen. But, since you chose to betray me, I have no choice but to destroy you."

"Yeah," Joker scoffed. "Good luck with that."

Spike looked around nervously. They were surrounded by the changeling army. There was no way out, so he wondered why Joker felt so confident.

"You challenge me?" Chrysalis hid her surprise.

"You forget that I am one of the most powerful changelings to ever live," Joker smiled, her wings buzzing, lifting her off the ground, so she was eye level with Chrysalis. "My power is a threat to that of even Celestia and Luna."

Spike knew that every word Joker just spoke was a lie, but the changelings seemed to believe it.

"Is it enough to rival that of the Elements of Harmony?" A changeling captain asked, eagerly.

"What do you think you are doing?!" Chrysalis snapped, hitting the changeling over the head with her hoof. "She is a traitor. It matters not how powerful she is! Destroy them!"

Joker smiled nervously, her hooves touching the ground and her wings becoming motionless by her sides. Joker backed away from the advancing changelings, but not in fear of her own life.

They got too close for Joker's liking. In a flash of her green light, she grabbed Spike with her magic, threw him onto her back and teleported away. When the green light vanished and Joker and Spike could see again, they found themselves on the edge of the forest that had been their destination.

"I don't think she'll hesitate to kill us next time we meet," Joker couldn't stop her smile. To her, it was funny when she got on her mother's nerves.

Spike tried to fight a yawn and lost. Joker walked into the forest, trying to find a place to rest where the changelings that Chrysalis would send to find her wouldn't go. She could have teleported to the mountains, but the previous teleporting spell had used up quite a bit of her magic and energy. She needed real food, not food that she and Spike could scavenge for in this world, to boost her energy so she could use more magic.

Soon, she gave up searching, her body begging for energy, and decided to use two small trees with fallen branches to create a cave of some sort. It wasn't ideal and didn't hide them in the light, but it stopped aerial patrols from noticing them.

Spike, when Joker was done, was snoring softly on her back. She gently lifted him off with her weakening magic and placed him on the floor further back to hide him in the shadows.

Joker smile before trotting back out of the cave to find some wood that would burn to make a fire. She knew that Chrysalis would be enraged that she got away, but Joker had a duty to keep Spike safe and see if anypony else was trapped here and she wasn't about to let Chrysalis and the rest of the changelings get in the way.

The creature deep inside her was still trying to escape, no matter how many times Joker tried to restrain it. The creature had been there all her life as it was part of her. Long ago, she used this monster to her mother's advantage. She had learnt to restrain the beast when she found the portal to Equestria. Her return to her kingdom had awoken the beast and it was threatening to consume her.

The changeling took a deep breath to help her stay in control as she used her magic to lift the sticks she found and pile them up, waiting for her to take them back to the shelter. It wasn't until she accidentally got her mane caught up in a particular spiky twig that she realised she was still in her changeling form. She sighed as she managed to pulled her delicate, blue green mane free from the twig.

She trotted back to the cave. Spike was still sleeping. Joker wasn't surprised; he had been awake for a long time. She got the fire started before transforming back into a white pegasus. The noise awoke Spike.

"Sorry," Joker smiled apologetically as Spike crawled closer to the fire.

"No problem," Spike assured her. "I wanted to ask a few questions anyway."

"Like what?" Joker forced her expression blank, to hide what she was really feeling. She didn't want to mention particular things.

"Like, if you're a changeling, how come the princesses allowed you to be a guard?"

"They both know that I'm a changeling," Joker was slightly relived. If these were they type of questions he was asking, she'd be in the clear. "Princess Celestia heard rumours about me when I was in Ponyville briefly. She got suspicious and transformed me in front of the guards. It took me forever to tell them that I had and wanted no part in the changeling's invasion of Equestria. My armour is different compared to the other guards. The helmet is similar to that of the changeling captain's. In battle, I normally stand next to Shining Armour, because he is the captain of the royal guard."

"And you're second?"

"Sort of," Joker levitated her helmet to examine it, a lie already forming in her head, based on what she had said earlier. "Because of what I am and how powerful I am I guard the most important things, like the Elements of Harmony, and fight the big fights, like if the changelings did a full scale attack."

"Is that what they are planning to do?" Spike asked worriedly.

"Let's see," Joker frowned, thinking. "They teleported me here with you. No doubt you were with Twilight and she got teleported too." Joker gasped when something clicked into place. "How didn't I see it before?"

"See what?" Spike was sitting up, his eyes alert. "What's going on Joker?"

"The changelings teleported me and you here," Joker began to explain, making sure all the pieces fit together. "They teleported me because I am the only one who can predict the changeling's next move. They teleported here because they are going to take Ponyville first and you can send a letter to Princess Celestia warning her of what is going on! They must have teleported Twilight and her friends here because they are the holders of the Elements of Harmony!"

"So they are going for a full scale invasion?" Spike asked, stifling a yawn. "No disguises?"

"One huge full scale attack, leaving here empty," Joker was trying to think but her runaway brain was running wild. "We need to hurry up and find them before the attack. But if we're all here, why are they waiting?"

Spike shrugged.

"You can worry about that," Spike yawned as he curled up. "I'll worry in the morning."

Joker sighed as she managed to clam her thoughts down. She knew Spike could send messages with his magical fire, but he hadn't received any. Joker knew the princess would have sent something by now. His magic fire must not work over such great distance. If his fire was capable of sending and receiving messages over great distances, then they could forewarn Celestia of the incoming attack. However, luck seemed be against the white pegasus, as usual. Joker laid her head on her fore hooves, waiting for sleep to come.