Author's Note

Chapter 7. Woo. Wait, one thing before I continue: (facehoof) "What the buck was I thinking?!"

Hello, Changeling

Chapter 7: Hello, Changeling

The room was devoid of ponies, just the average hospital room. The doors closed behind us and locked shut.

“Hey!” I shouted, banging against the doors. “Hey! What’s the big idea, huh?”

“The big idea is me,” replied an ominously familiar voice. It was the orange-coated nurse pony. “And my idea is to tell you how you got here.”

“We walked here, following your note’s… advice.” replied Rainbow Dash. “Now would you please cut the act, Chrysalis?”

The orange pony gave us a look of surprise. “You think I’m Chrysalis?” she laughed softly. “No, no, no. The name’s Cream Soda. And, for the record, that’s not what I meant by telling you two how you got to this room, specifically.” She shook her head. “I’m telling Denim how he got to Equestria, specifically.”

My heart rate doubled. “I’m listening,” I said.

“Buck this, I’m not,” stated Rainbow Dash. She kicked the door as hard as she could, but it didn’t even shake.

“Magic shield,” laughed Cream Soda. “And you are listening, whether you like it or not.” Cream picked up Rainbow in a green field of magic and forced her down next to me.

“Now Denim, for starters, you are a changeling.”

Wait. What?!

“Okay, so riddle me this: if I’m a changeling, how come Chrysalis wanted to torture me to reveal the location of the Rainbow Factory?”

“Because once you began living the life of a pony, you started to think yourself to be this pony, and lost your allegiance to the changeling queen. She needed to torture you because you were so convinced that Chrysalis was the “bad guy” that you wouldn’t say anything.”

“But it’s true!” I shouted. “She really is the villain!”

“Yea, you tell her Denim!” said Rainbow Dash.

“Why not try to convince me?” I continued. “The proof that she’s the villain is that she didn’t try to ease me back into her little changeling circle, she broke my wings trying to coerce the truth out of me!”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” replied Cream Soda, boredly. “Now, can I continue my story without interruption?”

Rainbow and I nodded reluctantly.

“So, Denim, you are a changeling, with the unique ability to transform into anything you want to.”

“Can’t all changelings do that?” I pointed out.

“No, you don’t get it. All changelings can turn into a pony that they see. Denim on the other hand, can turn into any pony he can come up with. You get it now?”

I nodded.

“So, you did that and became more the identity of the pony you turned into, and gradually lost your love for the great queen.”

“Yes, yes, we’ve established that,” said Rainbow Dash. “Move along.”

Cream glared at her for a second, and continued the tale. “When you did that, Chrysalis did try to coax the truth out of you, but you weren’t… compliant to say the least. So, she had no other choice but to torture you.”

“The truth about what?”

“The secrets of the Rainbow Factory,” Cream grinned cruelly at Rainbow Dash. “All of them. And you sang like a bird.”

My stomach did a backflip and landed somewhere around my heart. Rainbow Dash turned her gaze towards me. The gaze mixed anger and distrust into one.

“Hold on,” I said. “Hold on a second…,” I searched my recently re-acquired thoughts for memories of having been a changeling, or having served under Chrysalis, or… anything really to do with the changelings, period. “You’re lying,” I confirmed. “The only memory I have of the changelings is them torturing the shit out of me, and getting shoved — half-dead — through a portal. Though, where I went after that, I don’t know.”

Cream Soda plastered a fake smile on her face. “Of course not. It’s one of the side effects of a poorly-created Trans-Dimensional Gateway, which Chrysalis did intentionally, so that you would lose your memory. She also created it to be only one-way, so that wherever you were going, you couldn’t come back to Equestria.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked curiously. “And how did I get back to Equestria?”

“I,” Cream paused. “I don’t know.”

Liar.

“Liar!” roared Rainbow Dash. Her expression was horrifying to behold; Rainbow’s pupils were dilated to their maximum potential, showing nothing more than a sliver of magenta bordering a hole of darkness. Her teeth were bared, ready to rip the vocal chords out of Cream’s throat. If she wasn’t trapped in a field of magic, I’m sure things would’ve gotten pretty bloody.

I had had enough of Cream’s deception also, and grabbed the nearest dangerous object ; it was one of those poles that usually holds a bag of a patient’s fluids, complete with 4 small wheels.

Cream flashed a maniacal smile, transformed into a changeling briefly, and before we fully realized it, she teleported away in a blinding flash of light.

Rainbow let out a scream of inpony rage. Without warning, she flew across the room, and pinned me to the ground with one hoof, the other drawn back, ready to punch.

“No! Rainbow!” I pleaded. “You don’t understand! I didn’t say anything!”

Rainbow paused for a second. “Cream Soda said you said everything,” she growled.

“Who cares about her!” I exclaimed, my voice cracking. “She’s a lying, changeling, bastard!”

“Sweet dreams, liar,” said Rainbow, and with one swift knock to the head, I was out.
——————————————————————————————————————————

I woke up to find myself attached to a ball and chain in a lonely dungeon, dried blood running up the side of my head.

“Oh good. The traitor’s awake,” said a male voice.

“Traitor?” I asked quizzically.

“Yes, traitor, and don’t try to act innocent,” the voice ordered.

“What crimes am I suspected of committing?” I demanded.

“Lets see here,” — a ruffling of parchment — “Treason: by communicating with the enemy and giving away confidential information to them…”

“I was being tortured, alright! And I never said anything!”

“Right. That’s what I thought you might say. You are also convicted of murder and rape.”

“Wait. What?” That’s going a bit too far…

“Murder of Dr. Silver Streak and attempted rape on Rainbow Dash. She was the one who brought you in, and claimed to be witness and victim.”

“Silver Streak’s dead?”

“Yes, you should know that. You killed him.”

“Why would I kill him? And what in Equestria would possess me to —?” I couldn’t squeeze the words out. Granted, Rainbow Dash was my friend, even if she threatened to kill me at times. It at least seemed like we were friends. But seriously, I wouldn’t ever remotely dream of doing that. Well. Now, here I am in jail facing crimes that I am completely innocent of. If there’s anyone I would want to murder, it would be that lying bitch “Cream Soda”, or whatever her name really was.

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

“Wait, wait. I have evidence against murder.”

“You do? Well, save it for the princesses.”

“The princesses?”

“Yes. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Twilight. They handle all the severe crimes in Equestria.”

“What’s my sentence?”

The voice was silent for a second. “I don’t know, because you haven’t been tried yet. Execution is one of the possibilities.”

Perfect.

——————————————————————————————————————————

I woke up and screamed like my wings had been chopped off. But waking up wasn’t that great either. I was hanging upside down by my hind legs, my fore legs and wings chained to the wall for good measure. The walls of the cell seemed to be naturally carved out, rather than cut and shaped. My cap was gone too. A pony opened the bars to my cell and walked in. It was that changeling again, smiling its maniacal smile.

My eyes narrowed. “You…”

“Yes,” it replied. “Me. It was pretty easy to fool you both into the trap. Oh the queen is going to repay me so handsomely for catching her runaway.”

“I’m not a changeling!” I shouted. “I’m not a bastard like you!”

The changeling cocked its head quizzically at me. “Right. Then explain this to me: who were your parents?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but realized that I had no memory of having parents to begin with. I was furious, but held it inside, letting it bottle up so that when I was free I could pop this bastard’s head off. The changeling shook its head in mock disappointment.

“Poor Denim,” the changeling continued. “You were the pride and joy of Chrysalis’ elites, and now, here you are, deluded into thinking that you’re really a pony. You have no place in their life. Never did, never will.”

Keep it coming, and I promise, when I’m done and free, I will pulverize your brains into mush and splatter them across Equestria.

“What about Pinkie Pie? She loves me,” I said, struggling to keep my voice level. My ear’s temperature was rising with each passing second.

The changeling laughed. “The pink one? She doesn’t know the difference between mare and stallion; she loves everybody. She’ll throw a party for the grouchiest pony — or donkey — in town, they wouldn’t give a buck, and she’d still be fine with it.”

“You’re lying,” I said, my voice cracking, a sign of my temper gone out of control. Hot, angry tears traveled up my face.

“Am I?”

“You’re definitely not telling the truth,” I said defiantly. My head was now ablaze, and I could only focus on one thing: parting this changeling’s head from its shoulders.

“You know what truth needs? It needs to be proven with cold, hard, fact. And everything that I have said cannot be proven for or against it by fact. So, as far as I’m concerned, I’m telling the truth, because you believe me, don’t you, Devin Lockwood?”

The name caused my heart to skip a beat. It wasn’t a pony’s name, or a changeling’s, or a griffon’s, or anybody's in Equestria.

“That’s… that’s my name,” I finally said.

The changeling nodded.

“From… from the human dimension.”

The changeling nodded again.

“Holy…”

“Denim,” the changeling interrupted. “A pile of droppings is probably the farthest thing from "holy" you could get.”

I remembered everything. Everything about my short time in the human dimension, getting back to Equestria, and my life before I went to the human realm. Before I could only remember bits and pieces, but now… Now I had the whole story. My brain was aching and overloaded with data. I struggled to hold on to reality: the changeling smiling evilly in the distance. My anger revived me; gave me new strength and I managed to not faint this time around.

“So,” the changeling began. “Do you believe me now?”

I didn’t. Despite the memory spell and key words or actions that had triggered dormant sections of my mind, everything still didn’t add up. No changelings, or having ever been one. In fact, I do remember not having parents for… for some reason that I couldn’t quite get a hoofhold on. Meh. I’d figure out sooner or later. Just keep trying and stay alive.

I nodded. Anything to keep me alive.

It flashed its maniacal grin. “Good. Now, I’m going to get Chrysalis, and maybe this time you two will talk in a more understanding matter.”

I was still angry. Incensed. Fuming. Furious. Enraged. Pick your synonym. But whatever chances I had at staying alive and/or killing this particular pain-in-the-ass changeling, I’d take ‘em.

I nodded again. And hopefully. I added to myself. Our next meeting will be your last.