This is Shining Armor. You know that royal guard that married Cadance and is now a prince of the Crystal Empire. Yeah, you wouldn’t think somepony like me would have any problems in his life outside of occasional attacks. I got a beautiful wife, a great nation to protect, lovely civilians. Nothing could turn it upside down.

Or so I thought. As it would turn out that I’m the father of a changeling. Yeah I know, completely insane. Well, after trying to deal with this dilemma, my life took many twist and turns until I eventually ended up in the situation I’m in now. What situation you might ask? Well I could tell you now but that would only further confusion. So I’ll start from where it all began, back about two weeks ago.

It was one of those lazier days. Not much activity going on and my wife was doing some boring meeting, so there wasn’t much to do but patrol the Empire every now and then, and even that got tiring. So after a good hour of doing, well honestly nothing, I went back to the palace to kick back and unwind on the balcony. I got to say, living here is a lot different from my childhood home back with Twilight. Never in my life did I think I would be living the life of luxury, staring down at the citizens as the carried on with their everyday lives, enjoying the scenic view of the empires glow. All there was for me to do was kick back with my wine cup and just soak in the warmth and gentleness of the air. And really, how could you argue with that. With sleep trying to overwhelm me, I decided to lay back on the recliner and began to drift into a short nap.

Knock knock.

A very brief one at that. Awoken from my peaceful sleep by a loud rapping on the door of the palaces living quarters, I lazily rubbed my eyes to wipe away the blurry vision. I wondered if it was my wife getting out of the meeting early, or maybe one of our guards wanting to inform me of something. Either way, he or she was being really impatient.

Knock knock!

“In a minute!” I stated trying to make myself slightly presentable for whoever was at the door. Making my way through the bedroom, I brushed my hair with my hoof as to not look messy and then opened the door.

“Well, how are you to…”

The sight of the thing I was looking at silenced me and any anticipation of knowing who this was. The long, tall, and lanky black demon spawn who had more holes in her than Swiss cheese. The changeling queen herself, Chrysalis.

“Hey Shining! Long time no see,” she greeted with a mocking tone. Me personally, I greeted her in a way which I thought she deserved.

Slam!

I barricaded the door with my body to prevent her from coming in in hopes that she would eventually grow tired and try to leave. However, the ever so resilient queen kept banging away at the door.

“Let me in now you barbaric fool!” she screamed with rage at being disrespected.

“No!” I refused. “How did you get through the guards anyways!?”

“By turning into one you idiot! Now let me in; it is of the utmost importance that I see you instantly!”

“Go away now! I’m giving you a chance to leave me and my people alone. You don’t want to be here when my wife arrives!”

“So what if she shows up!” Chrysalis hissed, “That means she gets to see what you helped make!”

Wait, what did she say? “What are you talking about? What did I helped make?” She stopped beating on the door momentarily and smugly answered me.

“Why not open the door and find out.”

This was a risky gamble. This was the creature that mentally broke me and tried to destroy a place I held near and dear to me. I could not allow her to do something similar again. However, that was also when she caught me off guard. If the situation called for it, I could always defend myself.

“Fine I’ll let you in. But no tricks got it!” I demanded.

“ Wouldn't dream of it Shiny.” Chrysalis continued her mocking quips. While annoying, it was nothing too pressing. I took a deep breath and opened the door, watching as the fanged changeling walked into my bedroom as if she owned the place. As she walked past me, I noticed a giant satchel like bag strapped across her back.

“Hmm, nice bed,” she complimented while pressing on the soft sateen sheets. “I wonder though, do you use it often or is it generally left cold?”

It was blatantly obvious what she was implying and I found myself getting very annoyed by her.

“That’s none of your business!” She giggled at my disdain. She knew I was uncomfortable with her presence and she drank that fact in giddily. “And what’s with the giant bag you have strapped on you?”

When I asked this, I noticed a change in her demeanor. She gazed at me with her glowing emerald eyes with a serious expression.

“Well glad you asked. As you know, we have spent some time together while I was masquerading as your wife, and by doing so I did things she would normally do just to keep you around for my, well, plot to feed off of Canterlot’s ponies.”

“Yes I’m aware of that,” I coldly responded still looking at the bag. I could have sworn I saw it kick. “But what does that have to do with you being here?”

“Well…you see…” the queen in question started fiddling with her hair trying to figure out a way to explain it. “I think you will understand better if you see him for yourself.”

Him? Many thoughts were swirling in my mind, some I chose to dismiss on the grounds of them being stupid. Chrysalis slowly set the bag on the ground and unzipped it, using her hoof to tell me to look inside. I walked over and peered inside to find out what was inside the bag. What I found was a baby changeling sleeping. It had all the components.

A jagged tiny horn: check

Holes in his hooves: check

Albino skin color: che…wait. Albino skin color?

The little changeling stretched and let out a tiny squeak as he woke up from his slumber. As his eyes widened I noticed something else disturbing. He shared my same eye color. His irises were not like normal changelings; they shared similarities to ponies.

“Wh…why does he look similar to me?” I asked practically delaying the inevitable. Apparently she found this amusing because she trotted towards me and caressed my face with her hoof, smiling coyly.

“Well, Shining Armor, it’s because he’s our son.”

At that moment I could feel my heart drop. I nudged Chrysalis back and scooted away from her still in shock and disbelief.

“How? We never…I never…”

“Oh yes we did,” she stated matter-of-factly.

“No we didn't.” I was still denying the possibilities as best as I could.

“Yes…we did.” It was obvious she was getting annoyed of my denial. “Remember when you swayed ‘Cadance’ to have some fun with you a few days before the wedding?”

That sadly was all the info I needed to confirm it. The pony I spent that night with wasn't a pony, and worse of all, I got her pregnant. It was practically cheating without the knowledge of you cheating. I sat there with my hooves over my face.

“Why?”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” Chrysalis assured me while holding the albino changeling who was happily nibbling on her ear. “Little Kilo here is a nice child. He shouldn't be any problem for you, except for the occasional acid he might spit up.”

I honestly was kind of disgusted with that fact. “I have no problem with the kid…well, I do, but what I’m questioning more is why you are bringing him now. That was nearly a year ago!”

“I know it feels like I’m springing him onto you quite suddenly,” she began to explain, “but my Empire hasn't done well with finding enough love to feed on. And because you and your uppity wife practically banished us from ponykind, we have to do some hunting. And that’s why I brought Kilo to you.”

Chrysalis held the baby towards me as his stubby little arms reached for mine. As awkward as the situation was, I couldn't deny the fact that he was kind of cute. I reached for him too and took him from his mother’s arms. Eager to see his…ugh…father, he made a melody of bubbly sounds that sounded almost bug-like. “Well, that’s understandable and all, but why not just have somepo..er…changeling from your Empire do it.”

“You obviously don’t know much about changelings if you had to ask that. “Chrysalis found my ignorance of the changeling species to be quite adorable for some odd reason. “Changelings, especially when they are young, do not accept just any old changeling to care for them. They know who their birth parents are from birth even if they have never seen them. If any other creature or changeling tries to raise them, they will immediately be on the offensive and attack the one who doesn't carry its parents scent.”

That would explain why the kid was so comfortable with me.

“You should have seen little Kilo the other day,” the Queen gushed rubbing the babies cheeks. “When one of my servants tried to touch him without warning he used his cute little fangs to bite down on him. He has a pretty impressive set of chompers; managed to tear into the guy’s skin!”

Chrysalis proudly praised Kilo’s behavior, though I personally thought she was getting too happy about the kid trying to rip a changeling apart. And even with the knowledge she gave me, I still had my doubts.

“I don’t know Chrysalis. I mean, it’s not that I don’t like the kid. It’s just you I can’t stand and I’d prefer to have nothing to do with you.”

“Blunt, but reasonably honest,” she replied. “But just so you know you can’t neglect to take care of our child. The Equestrian law for changelings states that if the parent is not dead and refuses to take care of the child, the other legal guardian is entitled to take their life as well as the life of one of their family members.”

“What! Where in the Holy Buck does anything like that come up in any legal document!” I exclaimed defensively as my horn glowed. I did not appreciate anyone making threats towards my family, especially if they were idle.

“First of all, you will watch your language around Kilo! He’s very impressionable,” Chrysalis haughtily retorted covering Kilo’s ears from my vulgar language. “And second, it’s listed in the legal documents of Equestria, Changeling Law 5 Section C. Maybe you should read more often.”

I rolled my eyes and calmed down. She obviously had no intention of leaving until I agreed.

“So, let’s just say I keep this child,” I hypothetically began, “how long would you be gone on this little hunting expedition?”

Her face contorted to a surprising look of disappointment. “You really want to get rid of me don’t you? If it eases your mind, I won’t be around for the next three days max.”

While not as long as I wanted, any reason for her to leave me alone would suffice. Besides, I couldn't harbor all my hatred of Chrysalis and put it on the young changeling here. Even though it happened under unfortunate circumstances, he was my seed.

“Fine, I’ll take care of him,” I agreed and was rewarded with an unexpected hug.

“Thank you so much! I knew you were the most sensible of the bunch.” She let go of me to get the bag and bring it closer. “Everything you need for him is in this bag. There is a list of instructions on how to care for him, when he needs to sleep, and things to look out for, like the acid spit up I warned you about. It’s also a good way to carry him around if you need to. Anyways, thanks again and see you later Shiny!”

When she concluded her instructions, she leaned into me and playfully pecked me on the lips.

“Hey, you’re getting the wrong idea! I never said I’d treat you as an item!” I exclaimed with reddened cheeks.

“Really? A little kiss should be nothing at this point considering that we…”

“Just get out of here already,” I uttered with my hoof against my face.

“As you wish,” was her final reply until she left. So there I was, sitting in a room with a little changeling. An albeit cute changeling (he does take after his father after all) but a changeling no less. I picked the smiling wide eyed child up and gazed at him.

“Well Kilo, looks like it’s just you and me now.”

In response, Kilo’s cheeks began to bulge up. Almost instantaneously, the changeling spat up green acid that splattered on the floor and melted any part of the floor it landed on. The kid just smiled innocently with the remaining acid leaking down his mouth.

“Great, now I’m going to have to explain why there’s a hole in the floor,” I moaned.

“YOOOOOOOOOWW!”

Bloodcurdling screams of pain came from below as well as the sound of sizzling flesh. I could practically guess what happened.

“Looks I’m going to have to explain that too.”