Going Rogue

Chapters

Prologue
Cockatrice's Revenge
Stone Siphon Potion
Free (edited)
Illusions

Prologue

“No!!!” Twilight's heart was beating like a drum as she galloped down the stairs in her library towards the two Canterlot Guards that were dragging away a limp form. “You don't understand! You can't take him!”

Shining Armor was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. He held out a hoof to stop her and keep her back.“Stay back Twily, it's too dangerous. You could get hurt.”

Twilight backed away a step from her brother, a look of indignation on her face. “I could get hurt!?!” With a snort, Twilight decided that enough was enough, and tried to run around him.

“Twilight, stay back!”

Startled, Twilight looked towards her front door where none other than Princess Celestia was standing just inside the entrance as the two guards dragged the form beside her.

“Princess!”

“It was very foalish of you to trust a changling, and even more so to bring one into your home.”

“But, Princess”

Celestia's horn glowed a bright orange as she readied a spell while was walking over to the changling who was lying on the ground, flanked by the two guards. “I'm going to end this right now.”

When Twilight saw what Celestia was about to, she paniced. “ROGUE!!!” Her horn glowed bright purple as the very air around her became charged with magic. A glowing sphere of pure energy surrounded Twilight and suddenly expanded, which knocked Shining Armor to the ground. Twilight's eyes begin to take on a blinding white glow that became brighter and brighter by the second. A single purple bolt of magic struck out from her horn towards Celestia, who was focused entirely on her spell and didn't notice Twilight's actions. The two guards saw the bolt and jump into its path to shield Celestia.

The changling groaned, opened his eyes, and looked over. Seeing what was about to happen, his eyes snapped open and a burst of adrenaline filled his veins. He jumped to his feet and didn't even notice Celestia's spell narrowly miss him, and half ran, half flew with the three of his four wings that weren't injured, around Celestia and the two guards, right into an intercept path with the magic bolt. The blast collided with his body, the resulting shock sent him flying back ten feet, only to be stopped by a wall. He lay on the ground with purple electricity still lingering on him. As the paralyzing spell took hold, he laid there, eyes open, motionless, except for shallow breathing and slow heart beat.

Shining Armor had got back up by now. He looked back to check on Twilight, who was gasping for breath, as he ran over to Celestia and the other guards.

The two guards had cringed and shut their eyes when they had expected the bolt to hit. Confused, they both looked at the fallen changling, and then Celestia, who was looking at it suspiciously. She tentatively walked towards him. Her voice wasn't tinged with anger this time. “Let's get to the bottom of this.” As she was walking she began charging up another spell, and her horn glowed a soft yellow in response. When she reached the changling, she slowly lowered her head and closed her eyes in concentration.

Twilight looked up just as Celestia cast the spell on the changling. She gasped, worried, she teleported over to the changling's side, and began to cast a Shielding Spell. Then she noticed what spell it was and backed off.

The spell flowed from Celestia's horn and into the changling's forehead. It's pupils dilated slightly and it breathed in deeply as the spell took hold. As Celestia stepped back a faint, hollow oval of orange energy formed between the changling and Celestia. Slowly, the oval began to fill in with colors. As the Memory Sight spell finished, Celestia started to browse through the changling's memories at a speed that nopony else could follow, stopping suddenly at a specific memory, merely a week prior to this night, in Everfree Forest. Then the memory began to play in real time.

Cockatrice's Revenge

Twilight was walking along on an barely visible, overgrown path through the Everfree Forest. She was on her way to visit Zecora because she had found a couple rock thistle blossoms, which she now had in her saddle bags. They were a rare ingredient that she had heard Zecora needed for a special potion. The potion was supposedly able to make ponies immune a cockatrice's Petrification Spell, and since Twilight had already experienced being petrified once before, she had decided that it was in her best interest to not let it ever happen again. Ever.

As Twilight was walking, the events of the past couple weeks were all rushing through her head. Distracted as she was, she failed to notice that she was being watched, closely.

As she came to a rocky clearing, she noticed that it looked very familiar. Then she realized that this was the same place that she had been attacked by a cockatrice a while back. She tried to hurry through to the other side as quickly as possible, but as soon as she reached the middle a cockatrice came out of the woods just ahead of her. She gasped and tried to turn around and run away but the cockatrice flew over her head and landed directly in front of her with it's back turned.

After Twilight's first encounter with a cockatrice she had studied several spells to counter their Petrification Spell, so this time she was prepared, or so she thought. She started to cast her Petrification Ward, "Your not getting me this time!" But just as she had almost finished casting her ward the cockatrice suddenly spun around and hit her in the face with it's tail. Which affectively broke her concentration and caused her ward to fail. The force of the blow made her stumble backwards and drop her saddle bags.

Before she could right herself and try again the cockatrice wraped its tail around her neck and pulled her head up to stare into her eyes, which started the Petrification spell. Her body began to slowly turn into stone, starting with her hind legs and moving forward to her head. As the process reached her midsection the her front legs started to petrify as well. Twilight tried to cast an Interference Spell to disrupt the process, but the cockatrice saw what she was doing and simply accelerated it's spell to turn her horn into stone, preventing Twilight from using any magic. If a cockatrice could smile, this one would have.

"You get away from her!"

Suddenly, an unusually large changling flew out of the forest to twilight's right and plowed straight into the cockatrice. Leaving Twilight standing with her entire back half, most of her front legs, her horn, and part of her mane all turned to stone. "Oh great! First a cockatrice and now a changling! How in Equestria do these things keep finding me?"

The changling was crouched down, keeping a close eye on the cockatrice as it got up. "I don't know how it found you, but I've been trying to track you down for over a week. You're surprisingly hard to find"

"And let me guess, you're going to get your revenge on me because we beat you back in Canterlot, right?"

The changling turned to face Twilight, "Actually, I came to thank you." He had barely finished talking before the cockatrice body slammed into his side. "Augh, I look away for one second!" By the time he had stood up the cockatrice had already begun to charge him again, but this time he jumped over it, snapped open his four wings, flew over to a tree, and clung upside down to the trunk like a squirrel. "Oops, you missed me!"

The cockatrice had all but forgotten about its original prey for the time being and was entirely focused on chasing down its new tormentor. Meanwhile Twilight was exeplifying the word confusion while she tried to sort out what had just happened."Thank me?"

The changling was currently hovering just out of reach of the enraged cockatrice. Who was squaking and hissing furiously. "Yeah, you saved my life back in Canterlot, so I thought I'd at least say thanks."

"What? When did I save you?"

The changling had begun dive bombing the cockatrice. "Well, I was in the first wave that attacked and had changed ino you. You ended up tackling me and using some spell that forced me back into looking like myself. It turns out that whatever that spell was, you must have really let loose with it. Because now, I can't change at all."

"Wait, you can't? I didn't know that was possible."

The changling dove at the cockatrice again, but this time it ducked under him and hit him in the face with its tail. Causing him to ram into a nearby tree face first. After a second he got up and shook his head before looking over at Twilight. "Neither did I."

"But, how did that save your life?"

The cockatrice had jumped on the changlings back and coiled around his wings, preventing him from flying while pecking at his head. He attempted to buck it off but was unsuccesful. "Turns out that Chrysalis had been using some kind of telepathy to make us belive everything she said. That way we'd follow her without any questions. When you blasted me with that spell it must have knocked her link out of my head or something."

"So you don't follow Chrysalis anymore?"

The changling suddenly had the brilliant idea to preform a graceful back flop to rid himself of his annoying passenger. Unfortunately his attempt at gracefullness was an epic failure. Resulting in him getting the breath knocked out of him. Fortunately the rest of the manuever worked perfectly. He landed on top of the cockatrice, which stunned it and made it relinquish its hold on his wings. He rolled over off of the dazed cockatrice and attempted to breath, with limited success. "No way! After I saw what a crazy tyrrant she really is?"

The now recovered and furious cockatrice started to charge at the changling again. The changling was obviously not looking forward to another round with the creature. "I've had just about enough of you!" The changling reared up on its hind legs and slammed down its forehooves into the ground, each sending out a green tinged shockwave towards the cockatrice. When they reached the cockatrice the ground itself seemed to rise up and grab it, stopping it in its tracks, and encasing its entire body in a rocky shell except for its head.

The surprised look on the cockatrice's face was mirrored by both Twilight and the changling. Twilight was the first to real in her slack jaw. "How did you do that?"

The changling was next to gain control of his voice. "Wish I knew. That was cool!"

"You mean you've never done that before?"

"Nope."

"Can other changlings do that?"

"None that I've heard of."

During this exchange the cockatrice had been struggling to break free but now, after finding that it couldn't, it started screeching, anouncing it's defiance to the world. The changling cringed at the deafening sound before launching a small glob of green ooze from his horn at the cockatrice's beak. "Oh, be quiet already!" The ooze hit the cockatrice's beak and instantly stuck it together, effectively silencing it's shrieks. "Thank you!"

"Now what?"

The changling looked over at Twilight. "What do you mean?"

"Now that you found me and said thanks, what are you going to do?"

"I... don't know........... Ha. First of all I'm gonna figure out a way to get you out of there." He started walking towards Twilight.

Twilight was apprehensive as the changling approached her. It WAS a changling after all! And hadn't they just attacked Canterlot a few weeks ago? How could she trust one of those, well, monsters! But it's not like she had many options at the moment. She decided that she would have to risk trusting him. Partially. For now. "I think I might know a way."

"How?"

"There's a zebra named Zecora that lives in a hut nearby. If you follow this path for a few minutes you'll find it. She should be able to make a potion that can free me."

"Oh, well that's convinient. But how can I get her to believe me? I don't exactly look very trustworthy."

Twilight took a while to think of some way to convince Zecora to trust somepony that she herself didn't entirely trust. "Well, if you tell her something that only I would know that might work."

"Like what?"

"Like... Oh, back when we first met I thought that she was going to eat AppleBloom!"

"Wait, what?"

"Long story. But I was so embarrassed afterwards that I didn't tell anypony else. That should work."

The changling turned and started to run down the path. "Ok, AppleBloom, got it."

"Wait a second!"

The changling skidded to a stop and turned around to look at Twilight, confused. "What?"

"What's your name?"

The changling chuckles and smirks. "My name's Rogue." With that he galloped off towards Zecora's hut. Which left Twilight alone with her thoughts. And of course the imprisoned cockatrice who was still grunting and struggling, to no avail, against its rock cocoon.

"I hope he was telling me the truth."

Stone Siphon Potion

Rogue was running along the path as fast as his hooves could carry him, also using his wings for a further boost of speed, and was beginning to tire. He had been going at full speed for about ten minutes already and there hadn't been a single sign of anypony. Or zebra. "I thought she said the hut was supposed to be just a few minutes ahead! Apparently judging distance isn't one of her strong points."

There was a sharp bend to the right in the path a few hundred feet ahead. As he rounded the corner at full speed he narrowly avoided running into a strange oversized mask that was sticking out of the ground, and instead skidded straight into what seemed like a door... in the front of a tree? "What in Equestria?"

A voice came from somewhere inside the tree hut. "Who is knocking on my door at this hour? Come in, come in, don't stay outside and cower."

Rogue had to think for a second before realizing who the voice might belong to. "Zecora?"

The voice from inside answered, but it seemed closer than before. "Yes, that is my name. But from merely your voice, your identity is not plain."

"She lives in a tree? Uh, I'm a... friend... of Twilight's. She sent me to get you cuz she was mostly turned to stone by a cockatrice, and she said you might have a potion that would cure her."

The door flew open in Rogue's face and he was suddenly face to face with a hooded Zecora. "Then there is no time to waste. If Twilight is in trouble, we must make... haste?" When Zecora saw Rogue she took a moment to look him over.

"I know this looks bad, but I'm telling the truth. Twilight's in trouble, and she said that you might be able to help. Ah, what else did she say? Oh, yeah! She said that she thought you tried to eat AppleBloom or something."

At this Zecora did the one ting that Rogue didn't expect. She laughed! "Twilight's imagination caused her to see what was fake, and I know that she did not circulate this past mistake."

Rogue stared confused at the strange laughing zebra for a few seconds before speaking again. "So... you trust me?"

Zecora stopped laughing and looked up at Rogue. "You can not simply ask to gain my trust, but on the chance this is the truth, then follow you I must."

Rogue was caught completely off guard by her seeming acceptance of him. "Oh, ok then. Follow me! She's in a clearing about ten minutes down the path." He turned to run down the path again, but Zecora stepped out in front of him and halted his progress.

Zecora's face was calm but her voice was as cold as ice. "I will give you the benefit of the doubt, but if you are lying then hear me out. If you have harmed Twilight in any way, then upon my word, I will make you pay."

The sharp tone of Zecora's voice showed Rogue that she was serious about her threat, and was perfectly able to carry it out. He smiled nervously. "Heh, noted."

As suddenly as it had appeared, her dangerous demeanor dissapeared. Replaced by her earlier calmness. "Now lead the way and I'll be right behind. If we hurry we should make it in time."

At that, Rogue and Zecora ran down the path towards the clearing where Twilight was waiting. Zecora was surprisingly quick, being able to keep up with Rogue going at full speed even with his advantage of wings. By the time they arrived at the clearing Rogue was tired out, but Zecora was barely even breathing hard.

Rogue ignored the imprisoned cockatrice, who had given up its fruitless struggle and was currently occupied in glaring daggers in Twilight's general direction, and immediately ran up to Twilight. "Twilight, we're here!"

Twilight was annoyed that Rogue had taken so long. "Well it's about time!"

Rogue was taken aback by Twilight's attitude. "Well somepony's impatient!"

Twilight started to retort before catching herself. "Sorry, Ive just had an itch on my side ever since you left. I can't reach it and it's been driving me crazy!"

The thought of Twilight struggling to scratch her side while mostly petrified sent Rogue into a fit of laughter.

Twilight was not amused. "It's not funny!"

While Rogue was busy laughing and Twilight was busy rebuking him for laughing, Zecora was busy ignoring them both and had been going through her saddle bags, which she had apparently concealled under her oversized cloak. She had already set out an assortment of different sized bottles of strange colored liquids and sacks of various exotic herbs and had begun mixing them together with a mortar and pestle while talking to herself. "If only I had a rock thistle bud, without it my potion will be a dud."

Zecora's comment reminded Twilight of her entire reason for coming into the Everfree Forest. "I have some!"

Zecora looks up from digging in her bags. "You do?"

"Yeah, they're in my saddle bags, I dropped them when the cockatrice attacked me. I think it's somewhere behind me, but I can't see for sure." Twilight attempted to look behind her, unsuccesfully.

Rogue, finally over his lauging fit, walked over to where Twilight seemed to be trying to look. "Yeah, it's here."

Zecora left her bags and went over to look in Twilight's. Rogue stepped aside as Zecora came over. Seeing as the two rock thistle blossoms were the only things in the bag, Zecora found them right away. "You spoke true." She took a small section out of the middle of the blossom which was still in the bud phase. "With just one of these buds mixed in with my potion, it will gain potency and apply like lotion." She walked back over to her bags and added the bud to her mix.

Curious, Rogue went over to watch her prepare the potion. "So how will that un-petrify Twilight?"

Zecora continued working while she explained. "When I apply the Stone Siphon Potion to Twilight's skin, it will draw out the Petrification Spell from within. To dissolve and eat away the stone, leaving only flesh and bone."

Twilight was more than a little worried about the prospect of having what was basically a stone eating acid put on her skin. "Will it hurt?"

Zecora had already began to rub the white potion on Twilight's affected areas with one hoof that was wrapped in a cloth. "Yes, and there is one side effect, but do not dispair. The acid in the potion will also eat your hair." By now Zecora had completely finished applying the potion.

The idea of being mostly bald did not excite Twilight at all. "What!?!"

The potion started to bubble as the reaction to the Petrification Spell began and small tendrils of white smoke arose whenever one of the bubbles popped. While Twilight was being freed from her stone prison Zecora had pulled out a towell from her bags and poured a bottle of water on it, thoroughly soaking it. She then took it over to Twilight and as soon as Twilight could move she began to rub off off the remnants of the potion with the towell.

Twilight's first act after being freed was to flop down on the ground, cast a Levatation Spell on a nearby stick, and proceeded to use it to scratch her right side. Which, like her entire back half and part of her forlegs, was completely bald. "Ahhh. Finally!" Twilight's behaviour, coupled with the facts that she was mostly bald, had no tail, and the top part of her mane was now gone, made a very comical sight.

Zecora attempted to hide a smile, but Rogue didn't even try to contain his laughter. "Well, that's a great first impression."

After Twilight conquered her foe, aka the itch, she realized how ridiculous she must look. Embarrassed, she stood up and released her Levatation Spell. "Heh heh, sorry."

Upon seeing it's would be prey now free, the trapped cockatrice went into a fit of rage, grunting and struggling furiously against its unyielding stone prison. And yet again Zecora did the last thing anypony expected, she walked right up to the cockatrice and stared it straight in the eyes. Meanwhile Twilight and Rogue just watched in awe of Zecora's seeming invulnerability to the cockatrice's Petrification Spell.

Zecora just stood there in what looked like a staring contest with the imprisoned cockatrice. She didn't even look away when she spoke, "How this prison was made I don't know how, but I require it to be removed now."

There was just something about Zecora that made Rogue know that he should obey her immediately. He thought for a second before he stomped one hoof down, which sent a small, green tinged shockwave along the ground. When it reached the cockatrice the ground that had held it in place just fell back down where it had come from.

After being freed both Twilight and Rogue half expected that the cockatrice would either attack again or run away into the Everfree Forest. But intead it just stood in the exact same place that it had been held, caught in Zecora's stare. The words that Zecora spoke were so deathly quiet that only herself and the cockatrice heard them. "Leave."

Then the most bizarre thing happened, the cockatrice turned and slowly half walked, half slithered back into the Everfree Forest.

Before Twilight or Rogue could even comprehend what had just happened, Zecora turned to them with her usual casual mood once again in play. "I need you two to follow me home, I must speak to both of you alone."

With that Zecora led the way down the path, leaving Twilight and Rogue with little choice. They looked at each other before following Zecora down the path to her hut.

Free (edited)

The group had been walking along the path through the dense woods of Everfree Forest for a few minutes now. Zecora was in the lead, then Twilight, with Rogue slightly behind. None of them had said a single word the entire time, and Twilight was about to burst with questions. She was unsure about whether or not she should trust anything this newcomer had to say, but so far he seemed to be sincere. At least as far as she could tell.

Zecora seemed to be content to continue walking on in silence, but Twilight's curiosity had oversome her and she had decided she needed answers to the multitude of questions she had thought up while mostly petrified. Now.

She slowed her pace just enough to allow Rogue to catch up. He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice as he came up beside Twilight. With Rogue oblivious and obviously not going to start the conversation, Twilight decided to start it off. "So what exactly happened back in Canterlot?"

It took Rogue a second to realize Twilight was talking to him. "What?"

Twilight had already made a mental list of several questions she wanted to ask Rogue, so she started off by asking the one at the top of the list. "You said that when I hit you with my Dispersion Spell you were freed from Chrysalis' mind control, but what happened after that?"

Rogue was surprise at how specific her question was. "Wow, you really don't watse any time do you?"

"I'm curious."

"Apparently. Well, that spell you used knocked me out for a while, and when I woke up, I couldn't hear Chrysalis' voice in my head anymore. I could think clearly and remembered...... everything." It seemed that Rogue remembered something very painful, but he quickly pushed it to the back of his mind and continued his story. "Then I saw Brute attacking a unicorn family and"

"Who's Brute?"

Twilight's interruption caught Rogue by surprise. "Oh, He's... He WAS my sqauds Captain. Anyway, I saw him attacking a unicorn family..."

The entrance to the Main Tower of Canterlot Castle was the scene of absolute mayhem. Magic bolts fired over head as the Canterlot Guards attempted to fight off the massive Changling Horde. Green streaks of changling ooze were fired in return by the invaders themselves.

Further away from the main battle a few of the weaker changlings entertained themselves by harrassing anypony they could find. Rogue awoke in this area. The feeling of being the only one in his head was so unfamiliar at first.

He slowly got up from the ground where he had been laying, then all the memories of his life that Chrysalis had been blocking, along with everything else that had happened since, came rushing back all at once. The force of the returning memories hit Rogue like an avalanche. He stumbled backwards gasping in shock. He looked around in horror at the destruction he had played a part in. "No!" He stood in place, paralyzed, as a single tear tracked it's way down his cheek.

"Somepony help us! Please!"

Rogue looked over and saw that an short, armored changling had cornered a unicorn family against a building. The mother and father had put up a Barrier Spell around themselves and their foal, who was laying on the ground with a glazed look in his eyes, not reacting to anything, emmotionless.

"Who were they?"

"I don't know, I didn't really think to ask to ask them their names."

The changling, Brute, seemed to be enjoying himself. Cracks were slowly spreading across the surface of the Barrier as he slammed himself into it again and again, occasionally firing an acidic burst of ooze from his deformed horn at the failing spell, weakening it further, and chuckling the whole time.

The parents were obviously worn out from trying to hold the spell against Brute's relentless onslought. Rogue saw all of this, and remembered another instance from his own life remarkably similar to this one. Enraged, Rogue immediately ran over and launched himself at Brute, tackling him to the ground.

Brute easily threw Rogue off of himself within a few seconds, but not before the unicorn family had dropped their Barrier Spell and began to charge up a Teleportation Spell. Brute flew totowards them, fangs beared, but just as they were within reach, the spell finished and they disapeared, leaving Brute with nothing but a wall to greet him. Brute angled himself upwards at the last second and landed hooves first on the wall with a thud.

"How do Changlings walk on walls?"

"We use our ooze to hold on."

Furious at losing his source of entertainment, and still standing vertically on the wall like a fly, Brute turned to Rogue and immediately recognized him. A smile slowly spread across his face, then spoke to Rogue, his deep base voice in direct contrast with his short stature. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Rogue. Turned traitor I see."

Rogue was attempting to stand up, unsuccessfully. Brute jumped off the wall and began slowly stalking towards him. "What's the matter? Having a little deja' vu? Hahaha!"

Rogue was so drained after losing his mental link with Chrysalis, and the rest of the changlings, that he could barely even stand up straight. Brute came up to him and simply pushed him over with one hoof. He then stood over Rogue, smirking, while preparing to feed on his emotions. "Just like before."

"You mean you fought Brute before?"

"Yes! Now can I please get back to MY story?"

"Sorry."

Just as Brute had begun feeding, an explosion rang out from the Main Tower, distracting Brute. "What?" A huge shock wave of magic hit Brute and sent him flying backwards towards a building. The force of the blast was so powerful that when he clipped the roof he went right through it, leaving an oddly shaped hole. Throughout Canterlot all the other changlings were having similar experiences, but oddly enough, Rogue stayed in the same place as before.

Instead of meeting with a solid wall of pure force like the other changlings had, Rogue felt a warm, energy giving sensation. Upon realizing that it was mostly made of love, Rogue quickly devoured as much as he could in the few seconds that he had before, as suddenly as it had come, it stopped.

Now that he had enough energy to stand, he did so, and took a few moments to look around. Was he the only changling left? Where had that blast come from? Why was he affected by it so differently? What was he supposed to do now?

Before Rogue could think of an answer to even one of these questions, he realized that he wasn't alone anymore. A tan Earth Pony with a dark brown mane and tail, an hour glass cuttie mark, and wearing a strange red hat was suddenly standing next to him. He gave Rogue an impatient look. "Are you done daydreaming yet Rogue?"

As suprised as he was at having a pony actually talk to him instead of running in fear, he was even more surprised to be addressed by name. "I wasn't daydrea... Do I know you?"

"No, well, yes, actually, just, not yet." The strange pony looked over at Rogue with a sly grin.

The pony's bizarre answer confused Rogue even more than he was before.

The pony looked down a few of the streets before hearing a group of guards coming down one of them, and then seemed to remember something. "Oh, that's our cue! Follow me!" With that, he ran off down one of the side roads that led to the Main Gate of Canterlot.

Rogue instinctively tried to Change into one of the unicorns he had seen earlier as a disguise. His ooze was charged up by the blast from earlier. Rogue's horn glowed a light green as he drew the ooze out from inside his shell and formed it around himself while folding his wings under their cover on his back. The different segments of his shell popped into different positions as he slightly changing his body proportions to fit into the new shape. But for some odd reason, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his ooze to hold the form. This had never happened before. He'd never been the best at Changing, but he'd always been able to at least make it hold and look convincing.

Dumbfounded, Rogue mentally pulled his ooze back inside his shell. With the guards drawing closer he wasn't really left with many other choices. So he ran after the retreating pony, partially flying to catch up. Rogue was still confused, so he decided to try and clear a up a few things while following, whoever this was. "Who are you?"

The pony's answer didn't really help matters much. "I'm the Doctor. I'm here to help you."

"Oh... Why?"

"Because I know that you're different from those other changlings."

"Well, yeah, but, how'd you know that?"

Now the Doctor seemed to be confused as well, just not by Rogue's question. Constantly looking from side to side, he seemed to be lost. "I'd love to play twenty questions right now, but it seems that we took a wrong turn somewhere."

"We haven't turned at all, we've been running straight the whole time."

"Oh, well that's probably it then." The Doctor quickly turned down a different road and there, before them, was the main entrance to Canterlot. They were the only two there since all of the guards had been off fighting the changlings, so they slowed their pace down to a walk.

Rogue still had one burning question that he just had to ask. "Can I ask one more question?"

The Doctor turned to Rogue. "Technically, you just did, but fire away."

Rogue pointed hoof at the Doctor's strange hat. "What's that thing on your head?"

The Doctor gestured the item in question. "Oh, what, this? It's a fez, fez's are cool."

Rogue wasn't convinced. "If you say so."

They had just passed through the huge main gates and were now officially outside Canterlot. After turning off the path and going into a sparsely wooded area to the right and out of site of the Main Path, the Doctor turned to Rogue with a serious expression on is face. "OK, so here's what you need to do. The Canterlot Guards are going to be out searching for any remaining changlings, that'd be you, and you need to avoid them no matter what, understood?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Good, you need to get to Ponyville ASAP. Here's a map, it's pretty old, but it should at least get you close." The Doctor pulled out a map from a low hanging tree branch and gave it to Rogue, who was still as confused as before, if not more so.

The Doctor continued his monologue undetered. "When you get there, you'll need to find the purple unicorn from earlier, her name's Twilight, she'll be able to help you."

Rogue had had enough of blindly following orders without question. "Help me do what? And why would this Twilight help me? Why are you helping me? I was part of this invasion!"

"But it wasn't your choice, you weren't in control."

"Well, I could've stopped myself!"

The Doctor looked skeptically at Rogue. "Really?"

Rogue relunctantly realized that this strange pony was right. If he had ever tried to resist Chrysalis' Control Link over his mind, or even thought about it, she would have had him killed immediately.

The Doctor placed a comforting hoof around Rogue's shoulder. "I know you have a lot of questions, but trust me, you'll figure it out on the way."

Rogue finally decided to give in. "Okay, but what do I do when I get there? What do I say?"

"That's what you'll have to figure out. Don't worry, you'll have plenty time. Now, you have fun with all this, but I gotta go!" With that, the Doctor promptly ran behind an over sized bush. There was an eerie blue light followed by a peculiar whiring sound, then, silence.

Rogue walked around the bush that this Doctor pony had just been behind, and surprisingly enough, although not entirely unnexpected, couldn't find a single trace of him. "Well that was weird."

Rogue decided that trying to figure out exactly what had just happened would be too time consuming, if not impossible. He took a moment to look at the map left to him by the Doctor. After finding a route that would lead him to this Ponyville place, while still stayin off the main roads, he set off to find Twilight.

"And after that, I basically just stayed off the paths and ended up finding Ponyville in about a week. It took me a few days to find you, and then I saw you going into this forest and followed you. You know the rest."

Twilight was just about to ask Rogue another question when Zecora interupted her. "We have arrived." Time had passed quickly while Rogue was telling his story, and now the three of them were at Zecora's doorstep. Zecora went up and held the door open. "Twilight, I must speak with you inside."

Relunctantly, Twilight sped up to catch up with Zecora. She looked back over her shoulder at Rogue. Rogue didn't know if he was supposed to follow them or wait outside. "What do you want me to do?"

Zecora ushered Twilight through the door before replying. "I need you to wait here, but we will not be long. I must speak with Twilight, to see if I am wrong." With that, Zecora went inside, and the door closed behind her with a soft click.

Rogue walked a little ways off to avoid overhearing their conversation with his very sensitive hearing. Then, restless, he began pacing to try and burn off some nervous energy while he waited for Zecora and Twilight to finish talking. He originally thought about what they might be saying, but after about a minute or so, he was distracted with thoughts about back home. Specifically, memories of his family.

Illusions

Over half an hour had passed before Twilight finally emerged from inside Zecora's hut, still mostly bald. The sun had begun to set and with the thick tree canopy overhead it was already fairly dark.

Twilight had to look for a few seconds before she could see Rogue. He was sitting on the path with his back turned to the hut, his black shell blended so well with the shadows he almost looked like one himself.

Not wanting to yell, Twilight walked over to Rogue before addressing him. "Rogue, Zecora and I have been talking about all you told us earlier and we decided... that... Rogue? Are you even listening to me?" Rogue hadn't reacted to Twilight's approach or words at all. Irritated, she walked around in front of him to see if talking face to face would get his attention. What she saw made her gasp in surprise.

Rogue was blankly staring straight ahead with a sad, far off look. Tears trickled down from his eyes, small trails of moisture slowly making their way down his tear stained face before falling to the ground. A small puff of dust, which lasted only for a second, was the last thing each left behind.

Concerned, Twilight stepped into the center of the weeping changling's field of vision. "Rogue? A... are you okay?"

The movement caught Rogue's attention and brought him out of his memories and back into the present. "Huh? I'm, uh, *gasp*." Rogue realized that he'd been crying and quickly turned away from Twilight's gaze and tried to rub the tears off his face, but they just kept coming.

Twilight moved in front of Rogue again to try and help. "What's wrong Rogue?"

Rogue gave up on trying to stop the flow of tears now and sighed. "It's... It's just a... bad memory."

Despite her overwhelming curiosity to find out what the memory was, Twilight knew that this was neither the time nor the place. There were other, more pressing matters at hoof right now. She'd just have to ask Rogue later. For now, she'd just sit down, be patient, and wait.

While waiting, Twilight noticed something interesting about Rogue's eyes. They were normal, -ish. They weren't compound like the other changlings she'd seen. The iris' were mainly light blue with a deeper shaded jagged pattern around the pupils, which were slitted like a reptile. Where they like that earlier?

Chrysalis was the only changling with eyes even similar to that, at least that Twilight had seen. That made her wonder... And what was it with this display of emotion? Didn't changlings feed on that? "How much do I really know about changlings?"

Twilight found that trying to separate fact from assumption was very difficult when she barely knew anything about the subject, currently changlings. Not knowing much about any subject was an unfamiliar and annoying experience for her. She didn't like it.

After a couple minutes Rogue had regained his composure and turned to Twilight, ready to talk. "Sorry about that. *sniff* So, what were you saying?"

Now it was Twilight's turn to be snapped back to reality. "Oh! uh, Zecora and I were talking about what you told us earlier, and we were needing to know what you were planning to do, now that you found me."

Rogue had given this plenty of thought on his way to Ponyville and answered readily. "Well, honestly I just want to find a way to fit in with everypony. I'm planning on going around looking for a job or somewhere I could help out and meet some ponies while earning a living. I'd like to find a place to stay but until I get enough money I'll probably just stay here in the Everfree. It doesn't seem like many ponies come through here so I won't have to worry to much about hiding."

Twilight was pleased by Rogue's answer, but she still had one thing she needed cleared up before revealing the decision she and Zecora had made. Besides, didn't she need to know more about changlings anyway? "But won't you need to feed?"

Rogue chuckled, amused at how little Twilight actually knew about his species. "There's plenty of food around here. There's fruits, berries, vegetables, I'm a pretty good scavenger. But if by feed you mean on emotions, then it's actually the same answer. I've been feeding on the local wildlife ever since I left Canterlot."

"Okay." "So changlings eat real food, and they don't have to feed on ponies specifically. Interesting." As unexpected as this info was at first, it did make sense when Twilight thought about it. And Zecora had said not to worry about Rogue feeding on anypony. After a few seconds of sorting out this new info she asked Rogue her next question to lead up to the big reveal. "Have you thought of any ideas on how you could try to fit in?"

This is where Rogue had run into difficulties. "*sigh* That's where it gets difficult. Unless I can find some way to make a disguise or something I won't be able to get anywhere near a town without causing a panic I can hide my wings and horn, and change my proportions to be more like a normal pony, but with my ability to Change gone I'm stuck looking like this."

Twilight grinned slyly as she replied. "What if you weren't?"

Rogue looked over at Twilight, confused. "What do you mean?"

Twilight had been looking forward to revealing her and Zecora's plan, and had decided to deliver it as dramatically as she could. "What if I told you, that Zecora and I, could make you, look like a normal pony?"

Rogue's eyes widened in surprise. "What? How!?"

Twilight had her explanation ready and didn't waste a moment before launching into it. "With the cloak Zecora was wearing. It has a very high level Physical Illusion Spell woven into it that makes a solid image around the wearer showing what they would look like if they were a pony."

Rogue could hardly believe his ears. It sounded almost to good to be true. "Seriously!?"

Twilight always enjoyed the look of amazement on others faces when she explained something. "Uh huh, you'll look just like a normal pony."

Rouge was overjoyed at this news, but then a thought crossed his mind. "Wait, she's just going to give it to me?"

"Well, loan it to you really, and you will have to agree to a few things first."

Rogue smiled, had expected there to be a few conditions. "Like what?"

"First of all, Zecora and I will be keeping our eyes on you."

Rogue chuckled. "I kinda expected that. What else?"

Zecora and Twilight, mainly Twilight, had compiled a short list of conditions for Rogue to meet if he wanted their help. She continued on where she had left off, plus one she had just added "You'll have to do whatever we tell you to without question, you won't go anywhere alone, you can only feed on wild animals, and there's one more thing."

The list didn't seem unreasonable so far, but Twilight's hesitance on revealing the last condition made Rogue suspect that it would be the most severe out of all of them. "What's that?"

"You won't be able to lie when you wear the cloak."

That wasn't anywhere near how harsh Rogue thought it would be. "Okay, that shouldn't be a problem. Is there any specific reason why?"

In Twilight's mind, telling a changling that it couldn't lie any more should have been one of the worst possible things that could happen to it. So Rogue's easy acceptance of this final condition was unexpected to say the least. Being caught of guard as she was it took her a few seconds to remember the rest of her explanation. "Because the fabric in the cloak has threads made from Seeds of Truth incorporated into it. That's how it senses what you would look like if you were a pony. But it also makes the Physical Illusion Spell fail if whoever is wearing the cloak tells a lie."

Now it made sense. "Okay, I can agree to those terms. Beides, I was taught to always tell the truth anyway, so that won't be an issue."

If Twilight was caught off guard before, then she was completely blind-sided by this statement. "Since when are changlings taught to tell the truth?" In the midst of all of the 'ERROR! DOES NOT COMPUTE! ERROR!' messages flashing in her mind, Twilight found herself trying, and failing, to line up Rogue with her mental image of a changling. He was too big, had four wings instead of two, was friendly, could somehow control the ground, had relatively normal eyes, appeared to have normal emotions, ate real food, was apparently taught to tell the truth, and now that she looked at him he even had more bands around his waist! "Maybe he's just weird for a changling? I mean, come on! This can't be normal for them... could it?"

Twilight's mental dilemma went completely unnoticed by Rogue, who suddenly laughed at a funny thought. "Well this is definitely gonna be interesting."

The short laugh was enough to snap Twilight back to reality. She promptly stuffed her previous thoughts into her rapidly growing file of questions to ask Rogue later in the back of her mind before responding. "What is?"

"Pretending to be a normal pony but not being able to say I'm a pony."

That Rogue would actually think that would be an issue made Twilight laugh. "That doesn't really come up in conversation much."

"Good point."

Twilight figured that she had given Zecora enough time. "Well, Zecora should be about ready by know. Do you have any questions about anything?"

"I don't think so... Wait a second." A question suddenly popped into Rogue's mind. "Why does Zecora even have a cloak like that in the first place?"

This question brought up the embarrassing memory yet again and Twilight blushed. "Well, when Zecora first came to Ponyville everypony thought she was evil and ran away when they saw her. She made the cloak so she could come into town and not scare them all away."

Rogue smiled humorlessly. "Yeah, I can relate to that. Being judged by what you look like instead of by who you are. Even back home in Metamorphica I was considered different."

Twilight and Rogue sat there thinking about the changling city, Twilight wondering and Rogue remembering. After about a minute Rogue broke off from his thoughts. "You were saying that Zecora was ready?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Follow me." Twilight shook her head to clear it before standing up and walking back to Zecora's hut with Rogue following behind her. When they reached the door Twilight held it open for Rogue before going in after him.

Rogue took a moment to look around at all the bottles, exotic plants, and various other items in the zebra's house, most of which he had no clue as to what they might be. The fact that the hut was very similar to a regular house but was actually carved into the still living tree itself was very impressive. How could a zebra do this?

Once Twilight was inside, she didn't waste any time before leading Rogue to the center of the room where Zecora had just finished modifying the spell in her cloak, which now lay folded on a small wooden table beside her. "Zecora, he agreed."

The zebra smiled upon hearing this. "That is good to hear. Now Rogue, please come near."

Rogue hesitated a couple seconds before obediently walking up to Zecora, who picked up the seemingly ordinary brown cloak with her forehoof and gave it to him. "Simply wear this cloak to activate the disguise. With it, you will look quite normal in others eyes."

Rogue's horn glowed a light shade of green as he took hold of the cloak and put it on via levitation. While putting it on he folded his wings and hid them under his elytra to be more comfortable and left the hood down. He also straightened the joints in his horn and retracted his fangs out of habit. As soon as he finished securing the cord around his neck the Physical Illusion Spell began to take hold. A mist emanated out from the cloak that started were it touched Rogue and rapidly radiated out to cover the rest of his body. Within a matter of seconds the mist turned light brown and started to condense and look exactly like fur. As the mist cleared it revealed a blue-eyed unicorn with a reddish orange mane and tail and whose coat was the same color that the mist had been.

Zecora grinned in amusement as Rogue took a few seconds to look at himself in his new disguise. He looked just like a normal pony in every aspect as far as he could see. When he had finished his inspection Rogue turned to the patiently waiting Zecora and Twilight and said the one thing that came to his mind. "Thank you."

"Glad to help." Twilight chuckled.

Zecora's voice was still pleasant but had a serious undertone to it now. "To help you fit in we are glad to assist, now make sure you follow the rules on our list."

"No problem, I promise I won't break the rules."

Twilight's pupils dilated suddenly as she remembered a promise she had made to a certain purple dragon that she wouldn't be late for dinner, again. "Oh no! I was supposed to be back at the library before dark!" With that, Twilight ran towards to door and opened it with her magic before turning back around. "Thank you Zecora, I'll talk to you soon. Come on Rogue, we have to hurry!"

"Okay, I'm hurrying." Rogue met Twilight at the open door and thanked Zecora one last time over his shoulder before setting off to Ponyville.