TRUE CHANGE: PROLOGUE
Many odd eggs were laid out in a mess, each one hatching in succession. It was in a darker part of the hive, hatchling after hatchling emerging from their former prisons, just to meet their Dark Queen, the warden of a much bigger prison. She grinned and hissed with delight as her children were all born that same night...except one. At first, she and the other Changelings thought it was dead, the workers proceeding to roll the egg towards the boiler, where all the eggs containing dead unborn go. If they were not working power, they were fuel for the hive. That was the decree of Queen Chrysalis when she made her home a long time ago. However, the egg started rattling when it was closer and closer to the boiler, soon bursting open. The hatchling wailed a bit before opening its eyes and looking up at its ruler and apparent "mother."
His crying soon turned into light squeaks and hisses of curiosity, staring up at the big Changeling standing over him. The Queen noticed something about the new Changeling...she could see it on his body. It seemed to release a very small yet constant stream of smoke. She was thoroughly confused, but she still accepted him as one of her drones, picking him up by the nape and carrying him away from the deadly boiler. The further away she walked, the more the other Changelings seemed to hiss and cry, cheering the arrival of the interesting Changeling newborn.
The hive was a big place where the Queen's workers toiled away almost endlessly. At his work station, around the age of 8, the young Changeling started to exhibit strange workings within his smokey powers. He was using his smoke to somehow conjure useful tools and lift objects. He even seemed to be momentarily distracted by the object he was carrying at one point and flawlessly shapeshifted into it, much to the awe of the other Changelings. The Queen noticed that in place of the special Changeling was a strange, black, girder-like object. She hissed with anger and threw a fit. "WHERE THE HELL IS MY SPECIAL WORKER!? TELL ME NOW!" Startled, the Changeling regained his true form, shivering in fear at Chrysalis' shouting. She raised an eyebrow at this. "...do that again.", she said.
Hesistantly, and with minor encouragement from the other drones, he changed into a different object, which was a comfy nest. One drone even approached the nest and lied down inside of it, hissing pleasantly to demonstrate that it was indeed like a real nest, much to the amazement of the other workers. Queen Chrysalis then angirly threw the resting Changeling out of the "nest" and huffed, scaring the young Changeling back into his true form again. "...how do you change like that? ...and why do you show fearful emotion towards me?", she asked. That was another strange thing she noticed about the Changeling...displaying emotions. Only the Queen was ever able to do that. The little Changeling tried to explain himself. "I-I-I don't know! I just..." "Nevermind," interrupted Chrysalis as she turned and left. "Back to work."
Many awkward moments like that were had by the Changeling was he grew up, especially under moments of stress while doing certain work, including demeaning things such as being forced to have sex with some of the strange local wildlife for his Queen's twisted entertainment. The Changeling would often have odd dreams and nightmares that plagued him for years starting at about 10, in which he often saw himself as a smokey grey pony with glowing gold eyes as well as a blue and green mane with matching tail. He also had dimly glowing gold eyes, and was running through a vast, green field surrounded by mountains. He didn't know where he was going, only that he was galloping aimlessly.
Depending on how his dream played out, however, he would always run into a cryptic statue, building, or monster that would tower over him. The statues would try to fall on him, the buildings were places for him to explore, and the monsters would try to chase him while loudly muttering gibberish at varying pitches. As the Changeling aged, however, he would soon see his dreams getting more elaborate, as well as see himself waking up at times shapeshifted into the grey pony from his dreams. He even asked Queen Chrysalis why he was having such strange dreams, but he gave up after the third or fourth try since she never gave a straight answer and often brushed his questions off coldly. To him, the dreams held significance.
Despite all this, at the age of 18, the young Changeling colt had quite enough of the strange dreams invading his sleep and changing his form almost every time he woke up, as well as Queen Chrysalis' bad attitude and the constant voice in his head from the hive mind. He refused to work and locked himself up inside his pod, lying down in his nest. When the colt was still 17, he heard a couple of his fellow Changelings talk to each other about how certain people meditate. As for the "certain people," he never heard of them, nor remembered what they were, but he did remember their method of meditation from overhearing the conversation, so he decided to try it out himself.
Though he hated thinking about the dreams, he drowned his thoughts within them, finding himself back in the vast field as the grey pony from all those nights before. However, instead of running he lied down perfectly still in the grass as the breeze ran through the dream's wilderness. He would hear his hive mind reacting violently, as if trying to fight his dreams, but soon the voice of the hive in his mind was all but drowned out. After achieveing this peace, he felt tired, but didn't return to the real world yet. He started carving an escape plan into the dirt and sand.
"I've had just about enough of everything I had to deal with all these years. I'm going to run away and embrace this strange form I keep attaining every time I wake up.", said the Changeling. After carving his plan into the ground, he carefully looked over it before coming back to the real world with a gasp. Did he really just do that!? He couldn't believe it worked! He overcame the hive mind and formulated escape plans while he was at it in that dream field!
There wasn't time to celebrate. He heard someone bang on his pod door, which made him glare at the door and make a thick trail of smoke rise from this body, the smoke soon wrapping around his body as he shapeshifted into his grey pony form. Soon, the door was beaten down by a small squad of Changelings. They seemed quite angry with the grey pony Changeling. "Return your mind to the hive, drone. Now.", said one of the Changelings. The grey one simply squinted. "...make me, you emotionless son of a bitch.", he said, ready to fight.
The Changelings then swarmed in, trying to fight the pony, but he would simply dissipate into a big puff of smoke that would choke everypony to death, allowing his escape. He didn't care about the bodies. He just wanted out. "It's as if they were killed by shade...", said the Changeling coldly. That gave him an idea. What if he were able to name himself? Since he overcame much of the hive mind, he was able to think and feel pretty much all he wanted. "...shade...walking...I...I will name myself Shade Walker. From now on, that is what I will be called. Shade Walker..." After giving himself a name, and therefore a much clearer sense of identity, he quickly ran along his escape route through the hive, taking down any Changeling that tried to stop him using his shapeshifting and strange powers.
Queen Chrysalis was watching the grey one's escape every step of the way, shouting at her Changelings to pursue and apprehend him for treason, but it was of little use. When Shade Walker neared the grand entrance of the hive, he was met by the dark Changeling Queen herself, her gangly alicorn form standing intimidatingly over the grey one. "How dare you...", said the Queen. "I should have pushed you into that boiler to fuel the hive! I should have let you burn in its molten depths as fuel for the fire! You're betraying me!? After everything I have given you!?" "...you have given me nothing. You are no longer my Queen.", said Shade Walker.
This angered Queen Chrysalis so much that she started firing beams of pure magic from her horn, which Shade dodged effortlessly, knocking the Queen aside and leaving through the grand entrance once he saw an opening. The Queen, instead of chasing him, walked to the edge of the entrance and watched him fall into the dark abyss with a grin. Only those who could fly could reach the hive...therefore, it seemed Shade Walker was no more...until she suddenly saw him smiling, carried up by pegasus wings that suddenly grew on his back. He simply stared at her for about a minute or so before flying off into the odd "sky" the hive was under. The Queen growled and hissed in pure, unbridled rage, starting to kick some Changelings off into the great abyss and knock things over, loudly ordering her Changelings to go after the traitor.
After Shade flew upwards for a while, he soon hit swamp water. It was just about the nastiest water he ever felt himself in, but he had to get through it, so he swam up with all his strength up to the surface and got to dry land just as an angry alligator was about to bite! Out of fear, he ran for his life, navigating through the big, scary swamp. Unwittingly, he was running through the Baysead Swamps to the northwest. Halfway through the swamps, he found himself faced with Changelings again. Shade Walker once again got a little violent, shedding the strangely colored blood of Chrysalis' many minions before flying full speed ahead out of the swamp towards Rambling Rock Ridge, still tailed by a fair mount of Changelings, only taking out the ones that mattered.
Once he got to the ridge, he followed its shape and passed by the ruins, which were near the Everfree Forest. By this time, the Changelings were catching up with Shade and starting ot read his attempts of shaking them off. Even fighting them didn't seem to matter much since more quickly replaced them. He started to give up hope when he found himself deep and lost within the forest while still being tailed, starting to tire.
Right when Shade thought he was dead, however, he saw a hut and lowered to the ground, running towards it. It was then that he was startled by a zebra clad in a cloak leaping out of her hut with two odd looking bottles at her disposal. The Changelings who pursued Shade soon found an invisible shield of sorts.
The chase soon came to an end as the zebra tossed the odd bottles at the Changelings, blowing them to bits, as they were explosive. Shade was panting from running and flying so much, so he couldn't quite get the words out right when he weakly walked close to the cloaked zebra. "Th-thank...I-I...n-not ponies...I...help me...p...please..." "Words will not compliment, nothing will. Safety is further still.", rhymed the zebra as she walked calmly into her hut, the grey pony following her.
Shade was surrounded by many odd bottles and containers that held all sorts of things new to him. In fact, what he's seen throughout his chase was new as well...it didn't cross his mind when he wearily lied down on the floor, his leg muscles twitching a bit. "Who..." was all he could utter, still tired. He was given a bowl of fresh water to drink as he listened to the zebra, who took off her cloak. "I am Zecora, and you are with me. There is truly no safer place to be."
The pony looked up and tilted his head. "What are all these bottles?", he asked. "Many a concoction I use for cures. You would not want certain ailments to be yours. In case you are wondering, I know what you are. I can also see you have travelled far.", rhymed Zecora, preparing something. "I have, indeed...surely you have seen who hunted me.", said Shade. "All too well have I known your kind. You couldn't tell if they would stab you from behind. But you are here. Only that matters now. You will need to know where you're going and how."
The zebra's words confused the grey one. "Where I'm going? But you said for me to stay here, didn't you?", asked the Changeling in confusion. Zecora shook her head. "I sense you are going somewhere. But for now you must lie over there. You are much too weak to walk. I am quite surprised you can even talk!", said Zecora. Well she was right. The fact that Shade still had enough strength to talk was a little amazing. Then again, water can rejuvenate you that way.
Zecora was making her concoction as she listened to Shade talk, his voice sounding clearer the more water he drank. "I am Shade Walker...I...I don't wish to serve Queen Chrysalis anymore. I want to live my own life away from the hive and try to live like a normal pony. I'm tired of being in a living hell! It just really doesn't help that her little helpers want to drag me back into that hell..." Zecora paused for a bit after hearing that, then spoke up. "...you have achieved that great feat, I hope you realize. Other rogue Changelings I'm sure can sympathize."
"I don't even know if there are other Changelings like me...it's unlikely.", said the colt. "But even so, I don't need sympathy. What I need is things like food, shelter, and lots of friends. I want to live in this world in a great circle of friends who would do just about anything for my sake, and I the same to them." The zebra then went to putting the final touches on her potion. "This may help your noble endeavor. Drink. Darkness and you will not be together.", she said, soon bringing the potion to Shade.
It was brimming with power that scared Shade at first, but when he looked at his reflection in the glowing liquid, he saw his dream self running through that field again, the pony he had become. However, things were different...other ponies were running with him. They were very happy and so was he. He let out a tear and smiled, soon taking the bowl and drinking every last drop.
Soon after drinking it, he felt something happening in his mind. He clutched his head as visions came rushing towards him, superimposing themselves in reality. They were visions from his past dreams. However, as they came rushing towards him, they soon broke away like shattered glass and seemed to "absorb" into him, and what little remnants of the hive mind remained were gone permanently. Shade Walker could feel himself suddenly poofing into a big cloud of smoke with gold eyes. He was worried because he was so close to Zecora, and he knew what his smoke could do...but after hearing her breathing, he could tell that she wasn't choking or anything.
"Your smoke is no longer unhealthy, young colt. Otherwise, I would be wise to bolt.", said the zebra. "Though it was an amazing chore...I have made the other side yours." Shade had a feeling he knew exactly what she was talking about...his Changeilng side. Was it really his? Not his former Queens!? He was so happy he could cry!
"Zecora...I feel...I feel wonderful! My mind is as clear as whatever sky is above this forest!", exclaimed Shade. "Thank you...thank you! How can I repay you!?" Zecora gave a friendly smile. "Walker of shade, I accept your gratitude. You can overcome anything with that attitude. I offer you a place near my hut. A quiet place where your eyes can shut." "I would love to stay there...I have to get my bearings anyway.", said Shade as he rematerialized as his pony self. He gave Zecora a sweet nuzzle, a soft and cute equine murmur escaping his snout.
So ends the trauma-filled years of the hive life for the newly christened Shade Walker. He will walk free of Queen Chrysalis and attempt to live the life of the average pony. One can only wonder what life has in store for him next.
