The Witch, The Bug, And The Airheadby Bucking NonsenseChaptersThe Unhappiest Pony In EquestriaAnd Down We GoHugs Can Hurt?Trouble Making, Friend MakingNot My DecisionA Surprise EncounterDoctor Doctor PleaseThe Unhappiest Pony In EquestriaSilhouette was finally ready. She had spent weeks practicing all of her spells, refining her mystical energies, and psyching herself up for what was to come. She had her cloak and her best witching hat on. Her midnight black mane and tail were brushed to a silky perfection, and blew dramatically in the wind that she had specially summoned just for that purpose. As she gazed down at the town of Ponyville, her crimson eyes narrowed with determination, and a look of fierce concentration crossed her fair features. TODAY was the day she would go down into Ponyville as a true witch. TODAY was the day that she would show the world what she could do. TODAY was the day that she would make her mark on Equestria. NOW WAS THE TIME TO STEP FORWARD, AND MEET HER DESTINY!!! ...Yup. Any second now... Silhouette sighed, disgusted with herself. It had been like this every day for over a moon now. After having returned from the Time Skip spell that had put her out of action for... well, if she really thought about how long it was, she'd break down and start crying again. Where was she? Oh yes, ever since she had returned, and found out what had happened while she had been away, she had made plans to move forward, to get on with her life... Except... well... Let's be honest here: her father, being who he was, had cast a massive shadow on her life, and unless she managed to do something big, something really, incredibly, unbelievably big, then she'd spend the rest of her life being known JUST as his daughter. The problem is, the world was a radically different place from what it was like a thousand years ago... Oh drat, and there she went and thought about it again... After Silhouette had cried her eyes out for a few minutes, she started to get ahold of herself. It was a terrible thing, being away for a thousand years, then suddenly finding out that everyone you knew and loved was gone forever. She didn't miss Daddy (he was a great big jerk), and Mommy had... left before Silhouette could even remember her, but Silhouette used to have a lot of friends. All of her friends had been in Canterlot, though, before daddy had relocated the two of them to the Crystal Empire, and then... well, you can read about what happened in the history books, if you like. Her friends had, upon hearing that their friend Silhouette might not reappear for a thousand years, taken steps to ensure that, no matter how long she was gone, she would be well taken care of. But wealth, no matter how substantial, cannot change the fact that her world had been turned upside down. Princess Luna had been kind enough to take Silhouette under her wing, being one of the few ponies in the world who understood what it was like to be out of circulation for so long. One of the best pieces of advice that Luna had given her was to go out and make friends... or it would be, if there were anypony out there that she felt she could make a real connection with. Twilight Sparkle and her friends were alright, but... well, she could never lose the nagging suspicion that they were all secretly watching her in case she started doing anything suspicious, like building a gingerbread cottage, or threatening other ponies (and their little dogs too). You know, stuff that witches do when they go cackling crazy. Worse, Silhouette was having a great deal of trouble adapting to the world as it was now. There were so many strange things now that had not been in Equestria before. Indoor plumbing, for starters. Having how a toilet works explained to you is more than a little embarrassing. Mind you, just about everything out there now was an improvement, but still, it took a lot of getting used to. There were so many possibilities for embarrassment out there that she was honestly quite terrified that if she went down there and tried to do some honest to goodness witch-work, she would just end up humiliating herself. Currently, the only reasons she went down to Ponyville at this point were to order fresh foodstuffs for her home, visit the spa, and to have her weekly meeting with Princess Luna. She'd been understanding, so far, about her not having had much social interaction with the rest of the town, but Silhouette had the feeling that if she didn't start making progress soon, there would be an intervention in the near future. Well, at least there was ice cream now. That helped a great deal with dealing with her overwhelming depression and feelings of inadequacy. Silhouette had spent the last month psyching herself up for going out and making friends, doing some great thing that would get her the respect and admiration of her fellow ponies, then getting cold hooves, returning home and eating chocolate ice cream until she was nearly sick (best invention ever, chocolate ice cream. She wished they'd had it... back in the day). If she hadn't spent most of the rest of each day practicing spells and prepping herself for when she finally did overcome her fear and self-doubt, she'd likely have gained a lot of weight by now. Yeah, ice cream was sounding pretty good now. Silhouette sighed, shook her head, and used a teleportation spell to send her cloak and witching hat to the trunk back in her room. Well... tomorrow was another day. Tomorrow, she would stand tall, be brave, and start making headway towards truly thriving in the modern era! ...Yeah, right. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" "COME BACK, I JUST WANT TO HUG YOU!" Silhouette's head turned to look behind her and saw what may very well have been the strangest sight she had ever beheld: A changeling was being chased by what looked to be an earth pony in a hooded cloak. The changeling was looking behind it, shouting at it's pursuer, and sadly, not looking where it was going, which was on a collision course with Silhouette. And in the time it took for what she was seeing to register, it was already too late for Silhouette to get out of the way. And Down We GoUnder other circumstances, had she not been so surprised by what she was seeing, Silhouette would have summoned a simple forcefield and used it to deflect the changeling and her pursuer. Or used a spell to teleport out of the way. Or... really, just about anything other than stand there with her mouth wide open as first the changeling, then the cloaked pony, collided with her at high speed, resulting in all three of them rolling down the hill. Sadly, it was a rather large hill, so the three of them ended up rolling a rather long distance, Silhouette screaming in fear, the changeling yelling in surprise, and the cloaked earth pony exclaiming "WHEEEEEEEE!!!!" all the way down. When they finally reached the bottom, it took a bit of effort for everypony to get untangled. The changeling seemed somewhat stunned by what had happened (she may have taken a knock or two to the head on the way down). The earth pony, on the other hand, if anything, seemed... absurdly cheerful about the whole thing, and in fact her first words when they reached the bottom had been "DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN!" Once everypony was sorted out, and she made certain that no one was seriously hurt, Silhouette asked what that was all about. Well... she tried to. Before she could get even on word out of her mouth, the earth pony pounced on the changeling, giving the creature a fierce hug. The changeling was not amused. "ARGH! Get off of me!" the changeling shouted in anger. She was obviously trying very hard to get away from the earth pony. However, the earth pony wasn't about to let go, and all of the changelings efforts seemed only to amuse the hooded pony. "STOP IT!!! YOU'RE HURTING ME!!!" Under other circumstances, Silhouette might have considered just walking away (in all honesty, if a pony wants to hug a changeling, that's their own business, not hers), but then she heard something like a series of cracks. Expending a little bit of magic, she pulled the pony and the changeling apart, held the two of them in midair, then looked at the changeling's side. As she had feared, there was a series of visible cracks in the changeling's exoskeleton, and it seemed that the pony's hugs had worsened them. Silhouette walked closer to the changeling, held in the air by a levitation spell, and examined the cracks further. Some of them looked like they had recently healed, then reopened, and if left untreated, they could get much, much worse. She said to the changeling, "You've got some cracks in your thorax. Nothing too deep, thankfully, but they're pretty bad. If you'll lay down and hold still, I'll see about patching them up for you." The changeling seemed shocked by the offer, but said, "Alright, but don't try anything funny. And be quick about it!" Silhouette smiled and said, "Relax, this won't take a minute." She cleared her mind, focused, and called up a basic mending spell. While it wasn't a perfect fit (the spell had been intended for fixing plates, mending ripped garments, etc.), it did the job fairly well, and within a few seconds, the cracks were, if not truly healed (changeling chitin is tricky stuff), then at least they weren't in any danger of reopening. "There we go," Silhouette said, as she finished casting the spell, "that's about as good as I can get it. I won't say it's a perfect job, but it'll hold together until a doctor can take a look at it. Just try to avoid running into anypony, rolling down a hill, or any extreme hugging." The changeling gave an awkward chuckle, then stood up, and stretched, testing the mended chitin it it's sides. "Well, it'll do, I think. It's not together enough for me to shapeshift, but it's a lot better. Ummm, thanks..." The changeling looked rather embarrassed about the whole thing. "So, um... what do I owe you?" Owe me? That sounded rather... odd to Silhouette. Like the changeling expected her to demand something from her for doing something so simple. "You don't owe me anything..." she started saying, then thought better of it, then added, "...except maybe an explanation. How did all of this happen?" If anything, the changeling looked even more embarrassed, then said, "Well, ummm, I was out looking for a quick meal, I hadn't eaten in a few days, and I spied that... pony over there walking along. I thought I'd do a quick grab and drain, nothing fancy, just take a little love and be on my way. I'm not exactly part of the swarm anymore, so I can't really do anything fancier than that. But, ummm, she saw me, and instead of screaming, running, or anything like what normally happens, she... she laughed, then ran up to me and hugged me. Hard. I got loose, and ran for it, because that hug had started making those cracks open back up, and..." "...and she chased you all the way here," Silhouette finished. She was about to ask why the changeling hadn't flown away, when she noticed that the changeling's wings appeared to be badly damaged, as if burned by a fire. It looked like they had been that way for some time. She was going to ask about that, when she heard a noise behind her. It sounded suspiciously like a pony going "WHEEEEEEEE!!!" Hugs Can Hurt?Silhouette turned around, and saw the earth pony she had been holding in the air had somehow gotten loose, had run up to the top of the hill they had just fallen from, and was now rolling down to the bottom again. Admittedly, when she did it, it did look kinda fun... When the pony reached the bottom and came to a stop at Silhouette's hooves, SIlhouette decided that now might be a good time for some answers before the earth pony ran back up to the top of the hill again. "Um, excuse me... um.... what's your name?" Even with her face obscured by her hooded cloak, the pony's smile was plainly visible, and was almost manic. The pony rose to her hooves, and pulled back her hood, revealing her face. Her coat was tan, her mane and hair was a golden blonde, and her eyes were a brilliant blue. She'd probably be quite pretty if she washed the dirt off of her face and if her mane and tail wasn't matted with mud and tangled with twigs and leaves. And maybe brought that smile under control. The mare's grin grew even larger as she said, "My name's Heddy! What's yours?" The earth pony's cheerfulness was both endearing and... slightly worrying. Nevertheless, Silhouette couldn't help but smile in return. "Ah, my name is Silhouette. If you don't mind my asking, why were you chasing after that changeling?" Heddy (what kind of name was that, anyways?) seemed confused by the question. "Why was I chasing her?" she asked, almost as though she wasn't sure of the answer herself. "Oh wait, now I remember! I was chasing her because she was running!" "Wait," the changeling said, "you followed me for seven miles straight... because I was running away?" "Well, yeah! If I see somepony running, I can't help but want to chase after them and give them a great big hug! Especially when it's something that looks so cutesy-wootsey! Like YOU!!!" WIth that, the pony sprang on the changeling again, giving her another big hug. Thankfully, the mended cracks seemed to be holding, but still... Silhouette cleared her throat and said, "Ummm... you're hugging her a bit too tight. You're going to hurt her if you don't let her go." Heddy dropped the changeling as if she were scalding hot, and turned to Silhouette with a look of absolute horror on her face. "Hugs... can hurt?" The tone she gave to those three words was almost heartbreaking, as if she'd just realized that she might have spent her whole life hurting others without even realizing it. Silhouette could quite literally see tears forming in the mare's eyes. Silhouette was taken aback by the sudden change in the pony's mood, and tried to defuse the situation before the mare started crying in earnest. "Usually... usually it's fine. It only hurts if you hug too tightly, or if you hug someone that's been hurt badly already." Heddy burst into tears, and hugged the changeling again (gently this time, thankfully) and cried out, "I'M SO SORRY!!! I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT ANYPONY!!! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!" The changeling looked more embarrassed than ever before, but collected her wits after a moment. She patted the earth pony gently and said, "Ummm, it's okay, I forgive you. Just be a little more gentle next time." Heddy wiped the tears from her eyes, then hugged the changeling again, this time lifting the poor thing off the ground, exclaiming, "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU YOU'RE THE BEST THE BESTEST OF THE BEST I'LL BE YOUR BESTEST BEST FRIEND FOREVER!!!" Then, suddenly, Heddy dropped the changeling and a look of sudden confusion came across her face again. She looked down at the changeling, who was trying to pick herself up off of the ground. "Ummm... what's your name, by the way?" Trouble Making, Friend MakingThe changeling looked at Heddy in confusion, as if she had trouble understanding what it was the pony had just asked. After a moment, she seemed to realize what Heddy had just said. "I, uh, don't really have a name," she said, looking more than a little sad, "And believe me, you don't want to be my friend. I'm trouble." Heddy bestowed upon the changeling a look that would have done proud the last puppy in any petstore anywhere in Equestria, then hugged the changeling again. It would have been heartbreaking, had the entire situation not been so absurd. Seeing it, Silhouette giggled, then said, "Well, 'Trouble', I don't think she'll take no for an answer." The changeling, "Trouble", looked at Heddy's face, and apparently reached the same conclusion. "Fine," she said in exasperation, "I'll be your friend. But no more hugging today: I'm at my limit." A sly look suddenly crossed the changeling's face. "Why don't you hug her for a while?" the changeling asked with a grin, pointing at Silhouette. "You don't want her to feel left out, do you?" Before Silhouette could object, Heddy had detached herself from Trouble and had very nearly tackled Silhouette in her enthusiasm to reach her and start hugging. In less than a second, Silhouette was being aggressively hugged by Heddy. It wasn't... bad, really, just surprising. Silhouette asked the changeling, who now looked ready to leave, "Well, Trouble, what are you planning to do now?" Trouble opened her mouth, about to answer, when she suddenly stopped, a look of surprise on her face. "Huh," she said, a slow smile spreading across her face, "well, I'm feeling... surprisingly full now, so I guess I can put off hunting for love for a while, but... I guess I don't really have any plans for the rest of the day." "Well, I didn't really have anything special planned myself," Silhouette said, a smile beginning to bloom on her face as well, "Tell you what: how about I take you down to the doctor in Ponyville," at this, Silhouette pointed to the town in the distance, then continued, "and see if he can do anything more for those cracks on your thorax, and maybe your wings, too. Then, I'll take you and Heddy," at this point, Heddy giggled and gave Silhouette a squeeze, "down to the spa and see if they can get you both cleaned up. I was due for a trip myself, and I wouldn't mind the company." Trouble seemed surprised by the offer. After a moment, she asked, "Are you sure you want to do that? I don't think changelings are welcome anywhere near that town." Silhouette looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled and said, "Well, if there's any sort of problem, I can vouch for you. There will probably be some conditions to you being allowed into the town, but it shouldn't be anything severe." Trouble seemed doubtful, but after a moment's thought, she nodded. "Alright," she said, "I guess that could work. Worst that can happen is they'll say no." Silhouette carefully detached Heddy from her and asked her, "You don't mind coming with us, do you Heddy? I mean, if you have other plans, I completely understand. I wouldn't want to impose..." Heddy looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head, and her big, goofy, slightly worrying grin was back. "I have no plans, no responsibilities, and all the time in the world," she said, "And there's nothing I'd rather do than spend time with my new bestest best friends!" Friends, Silhouette thought, surprised to hear the word, and realized that it rang true. Having only known these two for a few minutes, she could not help but feel like they had somehow formed a bond, in spite of none of them really knowing anything about one another. ...It's a start, she supposed. "Well, then, let's go to town," Silhouette said with a smile, and began walking towards Ponyville, her friends walking beside her. She had a feeling that this could be the start of something good. Or an unmitigated disaster. Either/Or. Not My DecisionSilhouette hadn't expected to encounter the Equestrian Guard as soon as they entered the city limits. More surprisingly, they weren't the normal guards that had been stationed there since Twilight Sparkle had become an Alicorn. These two were different in more ways than one. They were among the rarest ponies in Equestria: Bat-winged pegasai. That typically meant one thing and one thing only... Giving the two guards a small smile, Silhouette asked, as calmly as she could, "So, I take it Princess Luna is visiting Ponyville today?" While not completely unheard of, it was rare for the Princess to be out and about during the daylight... One of the guards snorted, then said, "Lucky guess. Yes, she's visiting: Nightmare Night is just a couple of nights away, and the Princess wants to... make up for some problems that sprang up during Nightmare Night last year. So, she'll be here in Ponyville for the next couple of days, helping with the planning and preparations." The guard's eyes narrowed a little bit and gave Trouble a look that implied that, while he was not yet at the point where he would be kicking her out of town, that could easily change at any time. "So, you'll understand why there might be a little... concern, regarding a changeling coming into town right now, I hope?" Trouble gave the guard a look that implied that, while she was not yet at the point where she was kicking the guard in his face, that could also easily change at any time. "Oh yes," she said, her voice dripping sarcasm, "Two big, strong stallions like yourselves must be terribly worried that you might not be able to stop a changeling who is too injured to fly or change shape from causing any problems in your happy little town." At this, the guard actually gave a small smile. "Point made. I'm a reasonable pony, and I'm not going to get into an argument about something that ultimately isn't my decision," and at this point, the guard pointed towards Silhouette, and continued, "Miss Silhouette is willing to vouch for you, so here's what we'll do: I'll send word to Princess Luna. If she says it's alright for you to come into town, then that's what'll happen. If she says no, then you can argue about it with her. Not my decision to make, not my headache if you don't get your way, and not my flank on the line if you turn out to be a problem. Fair enough?" Surprisingly, Trouble laughed out loud, then said, a large grin on her face, "I suppose I'd be wasting my time if I tried to argue with that. Fine, send a message to the princess and see what she has to say. I'll sit right here with my friends and wait." WIth that, Trouble sat down with a chuckle. As the guard sent his counterpart to deliver the message to the princess, Silhouette asked, "Trouble, what's so funny?" Trouble gave Silhouette a grin that would have made Heddy's look almost normal, and said, "Would you believe me if I told you that this is still the warmest welcome I've ever received in my entire life?" At the end of that sentence, Trouble gave another laugh that almost sounded like a sob, and continued, "At least they haven't broken out the torches and pitchforks yet. But hey, the day is young. HEY!!!" Trouble shouted, as Heddy suddenly gave her a hug, "I thought I told you, no more hugging today!" Heddy looked at Trouble with big puppy-dog eyes and said, "I know. But you sounded like you really needed one..." Trouble looked like she was about to argue, then seemed to reconsider. "Yeah, you're right, I did," she said, her voice a bit gentler than before. "Hug away, Heddy. Hug away." Silhouette wanted to say something, like maybe things couldn't get that bad, that she was sure that Princess Luna would be reasonable about this, or at least something optimistic, but she realized that saying anything like that would not dispel any fears that Trouble had: For a changeling, 9 times out of 10, the worst case scenario was probably the one most likely to occur. Instead, Silhouette took a deep breath and said, "Don't worry about it, Trouble: even if the Princess declines letting you into the town, you can stay at my place, and I can have a doctor brought over to see you. I don't live inside the city limits, so the Princess can't object to that." The look on Trouble's face was one of pure disbelief. "Y-you," she started stammering, "you'd d-do that for me?" Silhouette smiled at Trouble and said, "Of course. That's what friends are for." Trouble seemed startled to hear those words from Silhouette's mouth, and after a moment, she did something surprising: she stood up, and, dragging Heddy along with her, walked over to Silhouette... and hugged her. It wasn't a bad hug, as hugs go. Admittedly, changelings are bit more... solid than most ponies, but it was a good hug, for somepony who probably wasn't very used to hugging. Trouble said, in a voice that was almost a whisper, two simple words that had a world of emotion crammed inside of them, "Thank you..." "You know, that is a really touching scene," the guard said, "and if it were up to me, I'd go ahead and let you three come into town. But, like I said, not my call," he finished, as his counterpart returned, carrying a folded up note in his mouth. Taking the note, the bat-pegasus read it, then said, "The princess has given her approval, with one condition: you must be accompanied by a guard for the duration of your stay in Ponyville." The guard looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I suppose I can escort you three to wherever you need to go today. That is, unless you have any objections." Trouble untangled herself from what had ended up being a group hug, then looked the guard in the eyes. After a moment, she tilted her head to the left, then to the right, as if she was actually seeing the guard for the first time and was wanting to get a better look at him. After a moment, Trouble smiled, then said, "No, I guess I don't have any objections. Mind telling us your name?" "Sir Belfrey, Royal Canterlot Guard, at your service, miss," the guard said, smiling in return. "Well," Trouble said, turning back to look at her friends, "Now that all of that is settled, I believe we were going to see a doctor?" Silhouette nodded in response. "Well then," Trouble said, turning back to Belfry, "Would you be so good as to lead the way, Sir Belfry?" "It would be my pleasure," Belfry replied, then turned and began marching, and Trouble, Silhouette, and Heddy followed close behind him. A Surprise EncounterHalfway to the doctor, the four ponies ran into one of the most famous, or perhaps it should be infamous, creatures to now live in Ponyville. The embodiment of chaos, Discord, the bane of law and destroyer of order... was helping Fluttershy with putting up decorations for Nightmare Night. Discord made Silhouette extremely uncomfortable: she'd been around to see some of the stuff that Discord had done. It wasn't pretty. The fact that he was semi-reformed didn't change the fact that he could cause mass chaos and destruction any time he chose, or ruin your life utterly if you even slightly annoyed him. Silhouette had hoped that they could pass him by without incident. This would not be the case. Discord looked at the group as they were passing, then returned for a moment to what he was doing. Then, abruptly, he turned back and stared, mouth open, at the group. He abruptly teleported in front of them, and staring at the group with a look of curiosity upon his face, asked, "What in the wide, weird world of Equestria are you?" Trouble, a scowl on her face, answered, "What, you've never seen a changeling before?" Discord frowned, then snapped his fingers. A zipper formed on Trouble's lip, then zipped her mouth shut. "I've seen changelings before," Discord said, annoyance clear on his face, "and I wasn't talking to you, thank you very much. I was talking to her," he finished, pointing at Heddy. "What are you?" Heddy, her slightly disturbing grin still on her face, exclaimed, "Hi! I'm Heddy! What's your name?" Discord frowned slightly, then said, "I'm Discord, Master of Chaos and Embodiment of Disharmony, and I didn't ask who you are, I asked WHAT you are. Now, tell me, what, exactly, are you?" Silhouette, Trouble, and even Belfry were staring at Heddy in shock. What could possibly be so interesting about Heddy that one of the most powerful and dangerous beings in Equestria would stop her in the street to question her... Heddy's grin grew even wider as she said, in a tone that would have made Silhouette laugh in just about any other situation than this one, "I'm an airhead!" Discord chuckled, a small smile forming on his face. "Well," he said, "I won't argue with you there, but that's not all you are, is it?" He moved closer to Heddy, lowering his face down to where he could look her in the eyes. "Now, please, if you would be so kind, Heddy, could you tell me what you really are?" It didn't seem possible, but Silhouette could swear that Heddy's grin was now so wide that it could touch her ears. The earth pony giggled, then said something to Discord that made no sense whatsoever... "I'm a figment of my own imagination!" Discord stared at Heddy in shock, then, slowly, a smile bloomed on his face, and he began laughing, first in small chuckles, then in huge, booming guffaws, as if Heddy had just told him the funniest joke in the world. "Wonderful!" he exclaimed, when he had a moment to catch his breath, "Oh, my dear little pony, you're going to be trouble, aren't you?" "Oh no, I'm not going to be Trouble," Heddy said, looking a little confused now, then, she pointed at Trouble, who was having difficulty in unzipping her mouth, and continued, "She's going to be Trouble," then pointed to herself, "I'm going to be Heddy," then pointed at Silhouette, "She's going to be Silhouette," and pointed at Discord, "And you're going to be Discord. If we all start trying to be somepony else, things will start getting really confusing. You're the only one that can be you, and if you can't be you, then who can you be?" Discord chuckled, then said, "Well, I suppose I can't disagree with that. I wouldn't even know how to start." He snapped his fingers, removing the zipper from Trouble's mouth. Discord looked thoughtful for a moment, then continued, saying, "If you've been around for as long as I have, you'll start thinking that you've seen it all, that there are no surprises left in the world. Then, all of a sudden, you'll find out that there's something new under the sun, something that you never even imagined could exist. I can't wait to see what sort of chaos you'll cause, little pony. I'll be watching your progress with great interest. But for now, I've promised my friend I'd help her with getting things ready for Nightmare Night, so I really must go. Ta Ta For Now." With that, Discord teleported back to where Fluttershy was hanging up decorations, and continued with his previous work as if nothing had happened. Silhouette, her mouth now hanging open, was the first to break the silence that followed. "What... was that all about?" she asked, barely even knowing where to begin describing all of what was wrong with what had just happened. Heddy turned to look at Silhouette, her grin back to it's normal size, and yet somehow she seemed more terrifying than anything Silhouette had ever seen, something from out of the most terrible of nightmares. Heddy asked, as though it were the most natural question in the world, "What was what about?" Silhouette wanted to scream, to shout, to ask a thousand, thousand questions, to run and hide, but then abruptly, she realized something: whatever Heddy might be, she was still her friend, and even if she might not be as ordinary as Silhouette had previously thought she was, she was still the friendliest pony she had ever met. Whatever Heddy might be, "Dangerous" did not figure anywhere in the equation (unless it involved over-enthusiastic hugging). "Nevermind," Silhouette said, letting the subject drop, "We can talk things out later. We were going to see the doctor. Let's just get there so we can get Trouble looked after. Okay?" she finished, looking at the other ponies. Trouble and Belfry nodded agreement. What had just happened was, quite honestly, too weird for any of them to wrap their heads around right now... Doctor Doctor PleaseThe Hippocratic Oath is a wonderful thing. This oath meant, among other things, that a doctor could not refuse care to anypony, or any creature, that came asking for help, especially one who was visibly injured, even if such a creature might be considered, under other circumstances, a fearsome enemy. Of course, there were a few minor bumps along the road to good health... "You know, I don't mean this as an insult to your friend," Doctor Stable said to Silhouette, keeping his tone carefully neutral, "but it might have been a better idea to take her to a veterinarian, instead of a doctor." Trouble gave the doctor a look that implied that, while it might not have been meant as an insult, she was very close to taking it as one. "Don't talk about me as if I'm not here, or like I'm not smart enough to understand." The doctor turned towards Trouble, then nodded. "Now," Trouble continued, her tone rather measured, like someone who was trying very hard not to sound angry, "Please explain what you meant. Because that did sound very close to an insult to me." Doctor Stable nodded, sighed, then said, "What I meant was, my specialty is in the treatment of ailments and injuries that can be suffered by ponies. While I know a little bit about the anatomy and physiology of various non-pony creatures, I wouldn't be confident in my ability to treat them effectively for anything but the most basic of injuries, and even then, I'd recommend that such a patient see a specialist immediately afterwards for a follow-up. The problem is..." With a weary sigh, Trouble guessed what he would say next. "There aren't likely to be many specialists in changeling anatomy." The doctor nodded, then looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, there might be one possibility. If you'll wait right here, I'll see if I can get somepony who might now more. And you," he said, turning and pointing at Heddy, "Leave the lollipops alone. Those are for patients." When Heddy gave the doctor a puppy-dog eyes stare, Stable sighed and said, "Fine, you can have one. But leave the rest alone: I'm expecting Pinkie Pie in for her annual physical today, and she gets... crabby if there aren't any lollipops." The doctor stepped out, off to find whichever pony it might be who would know more about changeling anatomy. After he left, Silhouette asked a question that had been bugging her for a little while. "Ummm, if you don't mind my asking, how did you end up in such bad shape, anyways?" Trouble smirked, and said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Silhouette chuckled, then said, "Try me, you'd be amazed what I'll believe." Trouble smiled, then, looking Silhouette right in the eyes, said, "I told the queen that I thought that she was an idiot. To her face. Then, I explained to her, in detail, why. In front of the entire colony. As you can guess, she wasn't happy about it." Silhouette's jaw dropped. Trouble was dead serious: her voice didn't waver, she didn't blink, she didn't break eye contact. Silhouette could tell it was the truth, but it was too incredible to believe. "Why," she asked, shock plain on her face and in her voice, "would you do that? You had to know she would have reacted." Trouble scowled, not at Silhouette, but at a memory. It seemed that the entire issue was an unpleasant subject. "She... look, you know about the invasion, right? How, after the entire thing went south, we got launched miles and miles away? Well, where we were launched to wasn't anywhere near the hive, where we were situated before. Normally not a problem, we can always make a new one... except that there was a hatchling left behind at the old hive." Trouble looked deeply saddened as she continued, saying, "The hatchling was too young to participate in the invasion: she couldn't change shapes or fly yet, let alone fight, so she'd just get hurt. So, the queen decided to leave her in charge of watching over the hive. Not a big problem, the hive was hidden, and she was left with enough love to last her for weeks, if need be. But after the invasion, everything started going bad. She was like a little sister to me, so I was very worried about her. We'd expected to be gone for less than a day, but it turned out to be much longer. I was sent to the old hive to retrieve the hatchling, to bring her to the new hive, where she would be safe, but when I got there... she was gone." After a moment, as if she had to steel herself for what she had to say next, she continued, "I have no idea where she may have gone to, but when I got back with the swarm, I was furious. So furious that, once I arrived, I immediately sought out the queen, and gave her a piece of my mind. As you can tell, she didn't enjoy it. I ended up fighting my way out, but not before I took a few hits, and the queen had zapped me with a spell bolt. I didn't realize my wings were burning until I smelled them cooking. No nerves." Silhouette really didn't know what to say to that. Heddy, on the other hand, knew exactly what to do: hug. She latched herself onto Trouble, and after a moment, Silhouette did as well. Sometimes, it's better not to say anything.
The Unhappiest Pony In EquestriaSilhouette was finally ready. She had spent weeks practicing all of her spells, refining her mystical energies, and psyching herself up for what was to come. She had her cloak and her best witching hat on. Her midnight black mane and tail were brushed to a silky perfection, and blew dramatically in the wind that she had specially summoned just for that purpose. As she gazed down at the town of Ponyville, her crimson eyes narrowed with determination, and a look of fierce concentration crossed her fair features. TODAY was the day she would go down into Ponyville as a true witch. TODAY was the day that she would show the world what she could do. TODAY was the day that she would make her mark on Equestria. NOW WAS THE TIME TO STEP FORWARD, AND MEET HER DESTINY!!! ...Yup. Any second now... Silhouette sighed, disgusted with herself. It had been like this every day for over a moon now. After having returned from the Time Skip spell that had put her out of action for... well, if she really thought about how long it was, she'd break down and start crying again. Where was she? Oh yes, ever since she had returned, and found out what had happened while she had been away, she had made plans to move forward, to get on with her life... Except... well... Let's be honest here: her father, being who he was, had cast a massive shadow on her life, and unless she managed to do something big, something really, incredibly, unbelievably big, then she'd spend the rest of her life being known JUST as his daughter. The problem is, the world was a radically different place from what it was like a thousand years ago... Oh drat, and there she went and thought about it again... After Silhouette had cried her eyes out for a few minutes, she started to get ahold of herself. It was a terrible thing, being away for a thousand years, then suddenly finding out that everyone you knew and loved was gone forever. She didn't miss Daddy (he was a great big jerk), and Mommy had... left before Silhouette could even remember her, but Silhouette used to have a lot of friends. All of her friends had been in Canterlot, though, before daddy had relocated the two of them to the Crystal Empire, and then... well, you can read about what happened in the history books, if you like. Her friends had, upon hearing that their friend Silhouette might not reappear for a thousand years, taken steps to ensure that, no matter how long she was gone, she would be well taken care of. But wealth, no matter how substantial, cannot change the fact that her world had been turned upside down. Princess Luna had been kind enough to take Silhouette under her wing, being one of the few ponies in the world who understood what it was like to be out of circulation for so long. One of the best pieces of advice that Luna had given her was to go out and make friends... or it would be, if there were anypony out there that she felt she could make a real connection with. Twilight Sparkle and her friends were alright, but... well, she could never lose the nagging suspicion that they were all secretly watching her in case she started doing anything suspicious, like building a gingerbread cottage, or threatening other ponies (and their little dogs too). You know, stuff that witches do when they go cackling crazy. Worse, Silhouette was having a great deal of trouble adapting to the world as it was now. There were so many strange things now that had not been in Equestria before. Indoor plumbing, for starters. Having how a toilet works explained to you is more than a little embarrassing. Mind you, just about everything out there now was an improvement, but still, it took a lot of getting used to. There were so many possibilities for embarrassment out there that she was honestly quite terrified that if she went down there and tried to do some honest to goodness witch-work, she would just end up humiliating herself. Currently, the only reasons she went down to Ponyville at this point were to order fresh foodstuffs for her home, visit the spa, and to have her weekly meeting with Princess Luna. She'd been understanding, so far, about her not having had much social interaction with the rest of the town, but Silhouette had the feeling that if she didn't start making progress soon, there would be an intervention in the near future. Well, at least there was ice cream now. That helped a great deal with dealing with her overwhelming depression and feelings of inadequacy. Silhouette had spent the last month psyching herself up for going out and making friends, doing some great thing that would get her the respect and admiration of her fellow ponies, then getting cold hooves, returning home and eating chocolate ice cream until she was nearly sick (best invention ever, chocolate ice cream. She wished they'd had it... back in the day). If she hadn't spent most of the rest of each day practicing spells and prepping herself for when she finally did overcome her fear and self-doubt, she'd likely have gained a lot of weight by now. Yeah, ice cream was sounding pretty good now. Silhouette sighed, shook her head, and used a teleportation spell to send her cloak and witching hat to the trunk back in her room. Well... tomorrow was another day. Tomorrow, she would stand tall, be brave, and start making headway towards truly thriving in the modern era! ...Yeah, right. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" "COME BACK, I JUST WANT TO HUG YOU!" Silhouette's head turned to look behind her and saw what may very well have been the strangest sight she had ever beheld: A changeling was being chased by what looked to be an earth pony in a hooded cloak. The changeling was looking behind it, shouting at it's pursuer, and sadly, not looking where it was going, which was on a collision course with Silhouette. And in the time it took for what she was seeing to register, it was already too late for Silhouette to get out of the way.
And Down We GoUnder other circumstances, had she not been so surprised by what she was seeing, Silhouette would have summoned a simple forcefield and used it to deflect the changeling and her pursuer. Or used a spell to teleport out of the way. Or... really, just about anything other than stand there with her mouth wide open as first the changeling, then the cloaked pony, collided with her at high speed, resulting in all three of them rolling down the hill. Sadly, it was a rather large hill, so the three of them ended up rolling a rather long distance, Silhouette screaming in fear, the changeling yelling in surprise, and the cloaked earth pony exclaiming "WHEEEEEEEE!!!!" all the way down. When they finally reached the bottom, it took a bit of effort for everypony to get untangled. The changeling seemed somewhat stunned by what had happened (she may have taken a knock or two to the head on the way down). The earth pony, on the other hand, if anything, seemed... absurdly cheerful about the whole thing, and in fact her first words when they reached the bottom had been "DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN!" Once everypony was sorted out, and she made certain that no one was seriously hurt, Silhouette asked what that was all about. Well... she tried to. Before she could get even on word out of her mouth, the earth pony pounced on the changeling, giving the creature a fierce hug. The changeling was not amused. "ARGH! Get off of me!" the changeling shouted in anger. She was obviously trying very hard to get away from the earth pony. However, the earth pony wasn't about to let go, and all of the changelings efforts seemed only to amuse the hooded pony. "STOP IT!!! YOU'RE HURTING ME!!!" Under other circumstances, Silhouette might have considered just walking away (in all honesty, if a pony wants to hug a changeling, that's their own business, not hers), but then she heard something like a series of cracks. Expending a little bit of magic, she pulled the pony and the changeling apart, held the two of them in midair, then looked at the changeling's side. As she had feared, there was a series of visible cracks in the changeling's exoskeleton, and it seemed that the pony's hugs had worsened them. Silhouette walked closer to the changeling, held in the air by a levitation spell, and examined the cracks further. Some of them looked like they had recently healed, then reopened, and if left untreated, they could get much, much worse. She said to the changeling, "You've got some cracks in your thorax. Nothing too deep, thankfully, but they're pretty bad. If you'll lay down and hold still, I'll see about patching them up for you." The changeling seemed shocked by the offer, but said, "Alright, but don't try anything funny. And be quick about it!" Silhouette smiled and said, "Relax, this won't take a minute." She cleared her mind, focused, and called up a basic mending spell. While it wasn't a perfect fit (the spell had been intended for fixing plates, mending ripped garments, etc.), it did the job fairly well, and within a few seconds, the cracks were, if not truly healed (changeling chitin is tricky stuff), then at least they weren't in any danger of reopening. "There we go," Silhouette said, as she finished casting the spell, "that's about as good as I can get it. I won't say it's a perfect job, but it'll hold together until a doctor can take a look at it. Just try to avoid running into anypony, rolling down a hill, or any extreme hugging." The changeling gave an awkward chuckle, then stood up, and stretched, testing the mended chitin it it's sides. "Well, it'll do, I think. It's not together enough for me to shapeshift, but it's a lot better. Ummm, thanks..." The changeling looked rather embarrassed about the whole thing. "So, um... what do I owe you?" Owe me? That sounded rather... odd to Silhouette. Like the changeling expected her to demand something from her for doing something so simple. "You don't owe me anything..." she started saying, then thought better of it, then added, "...except maybe an explanation. How did all of this happen?" If anything, the changeling looked even more embarrassed, then said, "Well, ummm, I was out looking for a quick meal, I hadn't eaten in a few days, and I spied that... pony over there walking along. I thought I'd do a quick grab and drain, nothing fancy, just take a little love and be on my way. I'm not exactly part of the swarm anymore, so I can't really do anything fancier than that. But, ummm, she saw me, and instead of screaming, running, or anything like what normally happens, she... she laughed, then ran up to me and hugged me. Hard. I got loose, and ran for it, because that hug had started making those cracks open back up, and..." "...and she chased you all the way here," Silhouette finished. She was about to ask why the changeling hadn't flown away, when she noticed that the changeling's wings appeared to be badly damaged, as if burned by a fire. It looked like they had been that way for some time. She was going to ask about that, when she heard a noise behind her. It sounded suspiciously like a pony going "WHEEEEEEEE!!!"
Hugs Can Hurt?Silhouette turned around, and saw the earth pony she had been holding in the air had somehow gotten loose, had run up to the top of the hill they had just fallen from, and was now rolling down to the bottom again. Admittedly, when she did it, it did look kinda fun... When the pony reached the bottom and came to a stop at Silhouette's hooves, SIlhouette decided that now might be a good time for some answers before the earth pony ran back up to the top of the hill again. "Um, excuse me... um.... what's your name?" Even with her face obscured by her hooded cloak, the pony's smile was plainly visible, and was almost manic. The pony rose to her hooves, and pulled back her hood, revealing her face. Her coat was tan, her mane and hair was a golden blonde, and her eyes were a brilliant blue. She'd probably be quite pretty if she washed the dirt off of her face and if her mane and tail wasn't matted with mud and tangled with twigs and leaves. And maybe brought that smile under control. The mare's grin grew even larger as she said, "My name's Heddy! What's yours?" The earth pony's cheerfulness was both endearing and... slightly worrying. Nevertheless, Silhouette couldn't help but smile in return. "Ah, my name is Silhouette. If you don't mind my asking, why were you chasing after that changeling?" Heddy (what kind of name was that, anyways?) seemed confused by the question. "Why was I chasing her?" she asked, almost as though she wasn't sure of the answer herself. "Oh wait, now I remember! I was chasing her because she was running!" "Wait," the changeling said, "you followed me for seven miles straight... because I was running away?" "Well, yeah! If I see somepony running, I can't help but want to chase after them and give them a great big hug! Especially when it's something that looks so cutesy-wootsey! Like YOU!!!" WIth that, the pony sprang on the changeling again, giving her another big hug. Thankfully, the mended cracks seemed to be holding, but still... Silhouette cleared her throat and said, "Ummm... you're hugging her a bit too tight. You're going to hurt her if you don't let her go." Heddy dropped the changeling as if she were scalding hot, and turned to Silhouette with a look of absolute horror on her face. "Hugs... can hurt?" The tone she gave to those three words was almost heartbreaking, as if she'd just realized that she might have spent her whole life hurting others without even realizing it. Silhouette could quite literally see tears forming in the mare's eyes. Silhouette was taken aback by the sudden change in the pony's mood, and tried to defuse the situation before the mare started crying in earnest. "Usually... usually it's fine. It only hurts if you hug too tightly, or if you hug someone that's been hurt badly already." Heddy burst into tears, and hugged the changeling again (gently this time, thankfully) and cried out, "I'M SO SORRY!!! I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT ANYPONY!!! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!" The changeling looked more embarrassed than ever before, but collected her wits after a moment. She patted the earth pony gently and said, "Ummm, it's okay, I forgive you. Just be a little more gentle next time." Heddy wiped the tears from her eyes, then hugged the changeling again, this time lifting the poor thing off the ground, exclaiming, "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU YOU'RE THE BEST THE BESTEST OF THE BEST I'LL BE YOUR BESTEST BEST FRIEND FOREVER!!!" Then, suddenly, Heddy dropped the changeling and a look of sudden confusion came across her face again. She looked down at the changeling, who was trying to pick herself up off of the ground. "Ummm... what's your name, by the way?"
Trouble Making, Friend MakingThe changeling looked at Heddy in confusion, as if she had trouble understanding what it was the pony had just asked. After a moment, she seemed to realize what Heddy had just said. "I, uh, don't really have a name," she said, looking more than a little sad, "And believe me, you don't want to be my friend. I'm trouble." Heddy bestowed upon the changeling a look that would have done proud the last puppy in any petstore anywhere in Equestria, then hugged the changeling again. It would have been heartbreaking, had the entire situation not been so absurd. Seeing it, Silhouette giggled, then said, "Well, 'Trouble', I don't think she'll take no for an answer." The changeling, "Trouble", looked at Heddy's face, and apparently reached the same conclusion. "Fine," she said in exasperation, "I'll be your friend. But no more hugging today: I'm at my limit." A sly look suddenly crossed the changeling's face. "Why don't you hug her for a while?" the changeling asked with a grin, pointing at Silhouette. "You don't want her to feel left out, do you?" Before Silhouette could object, Heddy had detached herself from Trouble and had very nearly tackled Silhouette in her enthusiasm to reach her and start hugging. In less than a second, Silhouette was being aggressively hugged by Heddy. It wasn't... bad, really, just surprising. Silhouette asked the changeling, who now looked ready to leave, "Well, Trouble, what are you planning to do now?" Trouble opened her mouth, about to answer, when she suddenly stopped, a look of surprise on her face. "Huh," she said, a slow smile spreading across her face, "well, I'm feeling... surprisingly full now, so I guess I can put off hunting for love for a while, but... I guess I don't really have any plans for the rest of the day." "Well, I didn't really have anything special planned myself," Silhouette said, a smile beginning to bloom on her face as well, "Tell you what: how about I take you down to the doctor in Ponyville," at this, Silhouette pointed to the town in the distance, then continued, "and see if he can do anything more for those cracks on your thorax, and maybe your wings, too. Then, I'll take you and Heddy," at this point, Heddy giggled and gave Silhouette a squeeze, "down to the spa and see if they can get you both cleaned up. I was due for a trip myself, and I wouldn't mind the company." Trouble seemed surprised by the offer. After a moment, she asked, "Are you sure you want to do that? I don't think changelings are welcome anywhere near that town." Silhouette looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled and said, "Well, if there's any sort of problem, I can vouch for you. There will probably be some conditions to you being allowed into the town, but it shouldn't be anything severe." Trouble seemed doubtful, but after a moment's thought, she nodded. "Alright," she said, "I guess that could work. Worst that can happen is they'll say no." Silhouette carefully detached Heddy from her and asked her, "You don't mind coming with us, do you Heddy? I mean, if you have other plans, I completely understand. I wouldn't want to impose..." Heddy looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head, and her big, goofy, slightly worrying grin was back. "I have no plans, no responsibilities, and all the time in the world," she said, "And there's nothing I'd rather do than spend time with my new bestest best friends!" Friends, Silhouette thought, surprised to hear the word, and realized that it rang true. Having only known these two for a few minutes, she could not help but feel like they had somehow formed a bond, in spite of none of them really knowing anything about one another. ...It's a start, she supposed. "Well, then, let's go to town," Silhouette said with a smile, and began walking towards Ponyville, her friends walking beside her. She had a feeling that this could be the start of something good. Or an unmitigated disaster. Either/Or.
Not My DecisionSilhouette hadn't expected to encounter the Equestrian Guard as soon as they entered the city limits. More surprisingly, they weren't the normal guards that had been stationed there since Twilight Sparkle had become an Alicorn. These two were different in more ways than one. They were among the rarest ponies in Equestria: Bat-winged pegasai. That typically meant one thing and one thing only... Giving the two guards a small smile, Silhouette asked, as calmly as she could, "So, I take it Princess Luna is visiting Ponyville today?" While not completely unheard of, it was rare for the Princess to be out and about during the daylight... One of the guards snorted, then said, "Lucky guess. Yes, she's visiting: Nightmare Night is just a couple of nights away, and the Princess wants to... make up for some problems that sprang up during Nightmare Night last year. So, she'll be here in Ponyville for the next couple of days, helping with the planning and preparations." The guard's eyes narrowed a little bit and gave Trouble a look that implied that, while he was not yet at the point where he would be kicking her out of town, that could easily change at any time. "So, you'll understand why there might be a little... concern, regarding a changeling coming into town right now, I hope?" Trouble gave the guard a look that implied that, while she was not yet at the point where she was kicking the guard in his face, that could also easily change at any time. "Oh yes," she said, her voice dripping sarcasm, "Two big, strong stallions like yourselves must be terribly worried that you might not be able to stop a changeling who is too injured to fly or change shape from causing any problems in your happy little town." At this, the guard actually gave a small smile. "Point made. I'm a reasonable pony, and I'm not going to get into an argument about something that ultimately isn't my decision," and at this point, the guard pointed towards Silhouette, and continued, "Miss Silhouette is willing to vouch for you, so here's what we'll do: I'll send word to Princess Luna. If she says it's alright for you to come into town, then that's what'll happen. If she says no, then you can argue about it with her. Not my decision to make, not my headache if you don't get your way, and not my flank on the line if you turn out to be a problem. Fair enough?" Surprisingly, Trouble laughed out loud, then said, a large grin on her face, "I suppose I'd be wasting my time if I tried to argue with that. Fine, send a message to the princess and see what she has to say. I'll sit right here with my friends and wait." WIth that, Trouble sat down with a chuckle. As the guard sent his counterpart to deliver the message to the princess, Silhouette asked, "Trouble, what's so funny?" Trouble gave Silhouette a grin that would have made Heddy's look almost normal, and said, "Would you believe me if I told you that this is still the warmest welcome I've ever received in my entire life?" At the end of that sentence, Trouble gave another laugh that almost sounded like a sob, and continued, "At least they haven't broken out the torches and pitchforks yet. But hey, the day is young. HEY!!!" Trouble shouted, as Heddy suddenly gave her a hug, "I thought I told you, no more hugging today!" Heddy looked at Trouble with big puppy-dog eyes and said, "I know. But you sounded like you really needed one..." Trouble looked like she was about to argue, then seemed to reconsider. "Yeah, you're right, I did," she said, her voice a bit gentler than before. "Hug away, Heddy. Hug away." Silhouette wanted to say something, like maybe things couldn't get that bad, that she was sure that Princess Luna would be reasonable about this, or at least something optimistic, but she realized that saying anything like that would not dispel any fears that Trouble had: For a changeling, 9 times out of 10, the worst case scenario was probably the one most likely to occur. Instead, Silhouette took a deep breath and said, "Don't worry about it, Trouble: even if the Princess declines letting you into the town, you can stay at my place, and I can have a doctor brought over to see you. I don't live inside the city limits, so the Princess can't object to that." The look on Trouble's face was one of pure disbelief. "Y-you," she started stammering, "you'd d-do that for me?" Silhouette smiled at Trouble and said, "Of course. That's what friends are for." Trouble seemed startled to hear those words from Silhouette's mouth, and after a moment, she did something surprising: she stood up, and, dragging Heddy along with her, walked over to Silhouette... and hugged her. It wasn't a bad hug, as hugs go. Admittedly, changelings are bit more... solid than most ponies, but it was a good hug, for somepony who probably wasn't very used to hugging. Trouble said, in a voice that was almost a whisper, two simple words that had a world of emotion crammed inside of them, "Thank you..." "You know, that is a really touching scene," the guard said, "and if it were up to me, I'd go ahead and let you three come into town. But, like I said, not my call," he finished, as his counterpart returned, carrying a folded up note in his mouth. Taking the note, the bat-pegasus read it, then said, "The princess has given her approval, with one condition: you must be accompanied by a guard for the duration of your stay in Ponyville." The guard looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I suppose I can escort you three to wherever you need to go today. That is, unless you have any objections." Trouble untangled herself from what had ended up being a group hug, then looked the guard in the eyes. After a moment, she tilted her head to the left, then to the right, as if she was actually seeing the guard for the first time and was wanting to get a better look at him. After a moment, Trouble smiled, then said, "No, I guess I don't have any objections. Mind telling us your name?" "Sir Belfrey, Royal Canterlot Guard, at your service, miss," the guard said, smiling in return. "Well," Trouble said, turning back to look at her friends, "Now that all of that is settled, I believe we were going to see a doctor?" Silhouette nodded in response. "Well then," Trouble said, turning back to Belfry, "Would you be so good as to lead the way, Sir Belfry?" "It would be my pleasure," Belfry replied, then turned and began marching, and Trouble, Silhouette, and Heddy followed close behind him.
A Surprise EncounterHalfway to the doctor, the four ponies ran into one of the most famous, or perhaps it should be infamous, creatures to now live in Ponyville. The embodiment of chaos, Discord, the bane of law and destroyer of order... was helping Fluttershy with putting up decorations for Nightmare Night. Discord made Silhouette extremely uncomfortable: she'd been around to see some of the stuff that Discord had done. It wasn't pretty. The fact that he was semi-reformed didn't change the fact that he could cause mass chaos and destruction any time he chose, or ruin your life utterly if you even slightly annoyed him. Silhouette had hoped that they could pass him by without incident. This would not be the case. Discord looked at the group as they were passing, then returned for a moment to what he was doing. Then, abruptly, he turned back and stared, mouth open, at the group. He abruptly teleported in front of them, and staring at the group with a look of curiosity upon his face, asked, "What in the wide, weird world of Equestria are you?" Trouble, a scowl on her face, answered, "What, you've never seen a changeling before?" Discord frowned, then snapped his fingers. A zipper formed on Trouble's lip, then zipped her mouth shut. "I've seen changelings before," Discord said, annoyance clear on his face, "and I wasn't talking to you, thank you very much. I was talking to her," he finished, pointing at Heddy. "What are you?" Heddy, her slightly disturbing grin still on her face, exclaimed, "Hi! I'm Heddy! What's your name?" Discord frowned slightly, then said, "I'm Discord, Master of Chaos and Embodiment of Disharmony, and I didn't ask who you are, I asked WHAT you are. Now, tell me, what, exactly, are you?" Silhouette, Trouble, and even Belfry were staring at Heddy in shock. What could possibly be so interesting about Heddy that one of the most powerful and dangerous beings in Equestria would stop her in the street to question her... Heddy's grin grew even wider as she said, in a tone that would have made Silhouette laugh in just about any other situation than this one, "I'm an airhead!" Discord chuckled, a small smile forming on his face. "Well," he said, "I won't argue with you there, but that's not all you are, is it?" He moved closer to Heddy, lowering his face down to where he could look her in the eyes. "Now, please, if you would be so kind, Heddy, could you tell me what you really are?" It didn't seem possible, but Silhouette could swear that Heddy's grin was now so wide that it could touch her ears. The earth pony giggled, then said something to Discord that made no sense whatsoever... "I'm a figment of my own imagination!" Discord stared at Heddy in shock, then, slowly, a smile bloomed on his face, and he began laughing, first in small chuckles, then in huge, booming guffaws, as if Heddy had just told him the funniest joke in the world. "Wonderful!" he exclaimed, when he had a moment to catch his breath, "Oh, my dear little pony, you're going to be trouble, aren't you?" "Oh no, I'm not going to be Trouble," Heddy said, looking a little confused now, then, she pointed at Trouble, who was having difficulty in unzipping her mouth, and continued, "She's going to be Trouble," then pointed to herself, "I'm going to be Heddy," then pointed at Silhouette, "She's going to be Silhouette," and pointed at Discord, "And you're going to be Discord. If we all start trying to be somepony else, things will start getting really confusing. You're the only one that can be you, and if you can't be you, then who can you be?" Discord chuckled, then said, "Well, I suppose I can't disagree with that. I wouldn't even know how to start." He snapped his fingers, removing the zipper from Trouble's mouth. Discord looked thoughtful for a moment, then continued, saying, "If you've been around for as long as I have, you'll start thinking that you've seen it all, that there are no surprises left in the world. Then, all of a sudden, you'll find out that there's something new under the sun, something that you never even imagined could exist. I can't wait to see what sort of chaos you'll cause, little pony. I'll be watching your progress with great interest. But for now, I've promised my friend I'd help her with getting things ready for Nightmare Night, so I really must go. Ta Ta For Now." With that, Discord teleported back to where Fluttershy was hanging up decorations, and continued with his previous work as if nothing had happened. Silhouette, her mouth now hanging open, was the first to break the silence that followed. "What... was that all about?" she asked, barely even knowing where to begin describing all of what was wrong with what had just happened. Heddy turned to look at Silhouette, her grin back to it's normal size, and yet somehow she seemed more terrifying than anything Silhouette had ever seen, something from out of the most terrible of nightmares. Heddy asked, as though it were the most natural question in the world, "What was what about?" Silhouette wanted to scream, to shout, to ask a thousand, thousand questions, to run and hide, but then abruptly, she realized something: whatever Heddy might be, she was still her friend, and even if she might not be as ordinary as Silhouette had previously thought she was, she was still the friendliest pony she had ever met. Whatever Heddy might be, "Dangerous" did not figure anywhere in the equation (unless it involved over-enthusiastic hugging). "Nevermind," Silhouette said, letting the subject drop, "We can talk things out later. We were going to see the doctor. Let's just get there so we can get Trouble looked after. Okay?" she finished, looking at the other ponies. Trouble and Belfry nodded agreement. What had just happened was, quite honestly, too weird for any of them to wrap their heads around right now...
Doctor Doctor PleaseThe Hippocratic Oath is a wonderful thing. This oath meant, among other things, that a doctor could not refuse care to anypony, or any creature, that came asking for help, especially one who was visibly injured, even if such a creature might be considered, under other circumstances, a fearsome enemy. Of course, there were a few minor bumps along the road to good health... "You know, I don't mean this as an insult to your friend," Doctor Stable said to Silhouette, keeping his tone carefully neutral, "but it might have been a better idea to take her to a veterinarian, instead of a doctor." Trouble gave the doctor a look that implied that, while it might not have been meant as an insult, she was very close to taking it as one. "Don't talk about me as if I'm not here, or like I'm not smart enough to understand." The doctor turned towards Trouble, then nodded. "Now," Trouble continued, her tone rather measured, like someone who was trying very hard not to sound angry, "Please explain what you meant. Because that did sound very close to an insult to me." Doctor Stable nodded, sighed, then said, "What I meant was, my specialty is in the treatment of ailments and injuries that can be suffered by ponies. While I know a little bit about the anatomy and physiology of various non-pony creatures, I wouldn't be confident in my ability to treat them effectively for anything but the most basic of injuries, and even then, I'd recommend that such a patient see a specialist immediately afterwards for a follow-up. The problem is..." With a weary sigh, Trouble guessed what he would say next. "There aren't likely to be many specialists in changeling anatomy." The doctor nodded, then looked thoughtful for a moment. "You know, there might be one possibility. If you'll wait right here, I'll see if I can get somepony who might now more. And you," he said, turning and pointing at Heddy, "Leave the lollipops alone. Those are for patients." When Heddy gave the doctor a puppy-dog eyes stare, Stable sighed and said, "Fine, you can have one. But leave the rest alone: I'm expecting Pinkie Pie in for her annual physical today, and she gets... crabby if there aren't any lollipops." The doctor stepped out, off to find whichever pony it might be who would know more about changeling anatomy. After he left, Silhouette asked a question that had been bugging her for a little while. "Ummm, if you don't mind my asking, how did you end up in such bad shape, anyways?" Trouble smirked, and said, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Silhouette chuckled, then said, "Try me, you'd be amazed what I'll believe." Trouble smiled, then, looking Silhouette right in the eyes, said, "I told the queen that I thought that she was an idiot. To her face. Then, I explained to her, in detail, why. In front of the entire colony. As you can guess, she wasn't happy about it." Silhouette's jaw dropped. Trouble was dead serious: her voice didn't waver, she didn't blink, she didn't break eye contact. Silhouette could tell it was the truth, but it was too incredible to believe. "Why," she asked, shock plain on her face and in her voice, "would you do that? You had to know she would have reacted." Trouble scowled, not at Silhouette, but at a memory. It seemed that the entire issue was an unpleasant subject. "She... look, you know about the invasion, right? How, after the entire thing went south, we got launched miles and miles away? Well, where we were launched to wasn't anywhere near the hive, where we were situated before. Normally not a problem, we can always make a new one... except that there was a hatchling left behind at the old hive." Trouble looked deeply saddened as she continued, saying, "The hatchling was too young to participate in the invasion: she couldn't change shapes or fly yet, let alone fight, so she'd just get hurt. So, the queen decided to leave her in charge of watching over the hive. Not a big problem, the hive was hidden, and she was left with enough love to last her for weeks, if need be. But after the invasion, everything started going bad. She was like a little sister to me, so I was very worried about her. We'd expected to be gone for less than a day, but it turned out to be much longer. I was sent to the old hive to retrieve the hatchling, to bring her to the new hive, where she would be safe, but when I got there... she was gone." After a moment, as if she had to steel herself for what she had to say next, she continued, "I have no idea where she may have gone to, but when I got back with the swarm, I was furious. So furious that, once I arrived, I immediately sought out the queen, and gave her a piece of my mind. As you can tell, she didn't enjoy it. I ended up fighting my way out, but not before I took a few hits, and the queen had zapped me with a spell bolt. I didn't realize my wings were burning until I smelled them cooking. No nerves." Silhouette really didn't know what to say to that. Heddy, on the other hand, knew exactly what to do: hug. She latched herself onto Trouble, and after a moment, Silhouette did as well. Sometimes, it's better not to say anything.
