A Change of Heart
Prologue
Written by Seven81493
Edited by Miss Dark Angel
Waking up after a nightmare is one thing. But waking up after a nightmare and realizing you’re in a mysterious forest? That was on a whole other level of crazy. But for a changeling named Kishin, that was life. He had just woken up in what he quickly recognized as a forest. But where it was in relation to the hive, he had no idea of. What he did have an idea of was to explore the forest, and see if he couldn’t find his way out.
Before he started his journey though, he noticed that his disguise was gone, and instead replaced by his normal form, that of a chitin covered changeling. He let out a sigh upon looking at his back.
“Still no wings...” he thought to himself, “at least I have my magic...”
Unlike every other changeling he had seen, he lacked a pair of wings. The lack of flight had increased his magical capacity though, and he was grateful for that. But he had had enough pondering, and quickly brought up his disguise. Aqua coat, bright yellow mane, and a unicorn horn. There was one problem though. He was a mare, and that was all he could transform into. Letting out another sigh, he started his journey forwards.
But as luck would have it, he came to a clearing almost instantly. On the other side, he could see a lifesaver. A village, though small, had a variety of odd buildings. One looked like a carousel, another a gingerbread house, and yet another looked like it was built into a tree. He decided to stop by the treehome first, as it looked the most promising. So he began making his way across the clearing, but after a few moments noticed a pony coming his way.
She was lavender in color, and it eventually went off in his mind. He was looking at Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic, and she was staring right back at him with intensity in her eyes.
“Hello.”
The word startled him, and he realized that while he had been thinking, she had closed the gap between them.
“Um, hi,” was the only response he could think of at the moment.
“What’re you doing out here, miss? It’s dangerous.”
“I, um... it looked like fun? What about you?”
“I was just going to my friend’s hut.”
He watched as Twilight tilted her head in confusion, and her mouth fell wide open upon noticing his tail, which he had forgotten to disguise.
“Don’t come any closer, changeling...”
The last word shocked him, and he turned around, trying to high-tail it away from the smart mare. Eventually, he reached the edge of the forest and ran inside, not caring about the dangers that lurked deep within.
Kishin kept up his pace and eventually he couldn’t hear her hoof-steps anymore, so he decided to stop and take a look at his surroundings. All he could see was a bunch of trees, and a small cave to the east.
Against his better judgement, he made his way to the cave and, upon entering, realized it was much larger than the entrance made it seem. But hey, he wasn’t complaining. He had a place to sleep for a while, and it was warm, too. But there was one thing that threw him off. Where was that blue glow coming from?
After a few seconds, he found this out in the form of a claw swatting him into the wall of the cave. He quickly realized that he was in the cave of an Ursa Minor, and that meant trouble. Another swat sent him flying to the other side of the cave, and it made his disguise dissipate entirely. He quickly made his way to his hooves, though, and fired off a bolt of magic at the enraged minor.
The bolt hit its target, but all it did was tick the creature off further. Instead of attempting to hurt it again, Kishin simply hauled his flank to the exit of the cave. As he reached it and tried to squirm through, he noticed a familiar blob galloping towards him. He was having trouble getting free though, and it seemed he was done for. But within seconds, the pony reached him, and grabbing his hoof, pulled him out just as a large blue paw swiped at the entrance. The mare let go of him, and he fell to the ground in exhaustion.
As he slowly breathed away his panic attack, the lavender mare spoke up, saying, “So this is where you galloped off to.”
“I... thought... the cave... was... empty...” replied the out of breath Kishin.
To his surprise, the pony he had despised for so long held out her hoof to him. He grabbing it obligingly, and she helped pull him up.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. What’s yours?”
“Kishin,” came the dejected response. “But why did you follow me in here? If it’s so dangerous, why not let me go in and die? I am your enemy after all.”
“Well first, I just wanted to see why a changeling would be lurking near Ponyville by itself.”
Kishin nodded, “I was flung here by your brother and his bride.”
“That’s what I figured, but I wanted to be sure. But then I came here and saw you injured, and felt kind of bad.”
“But why feel bad?” questioned Kishin, “Why not just leave me here?”
“Because leaving a hurt pony to die is wrong, no matter what that pony has done to you.”
For the first time in a long time, Kishin was able to manage a small smile.
“Thank you for your assistance.”
“You can thank me after Fluttershy is done fixing you up.”
Before he could protest, she grabbed his hoof and started dragging him towards the town. Too weak to put up his disguise, all he could think of was what everypony would think when they saw him.
Author's Note
Okay, this took a looooong time to do. The idea took a while for me to settle on, and for it to actually come to fruition? Man, you don't even wanna know. I hope you guys enjoyed the prologue for A Change of Heart. This is my most ambitious story to date, even more so than Chaos Theory, so I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. Let me know in the comments!
