Give 'em the Old Razzle Dazzle
What if, infact, you're just disgusting.
The adoration of the crowd. Their loving 'Ooooos' and 'Aaaaaahs'. This was what Trixie lived for. With just another flick of her head and a light brush of power from her horn, she created an even more spectacular illusion than the last, a great and fearsome looking dragon soaring down out of the sky to breath fire onto the stage. Of course, Trixie deflected it easily, she was Trixie, after all, the Great and Powerful. They didn't have to know that the dragon was merely an illusion, just like the shield she erected to protect them from the flames.
With another illusory surge of magic, she speared the 'dragon' through the heart, and it plummeted to the ground behind her stage. When the villagers went to see it, it was gone. "And never come back, lest you once again suffer the wrath of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" She declared boisterously, throwing her hooves into the air.
She felt the incredible rush, the surge of emotion and the absolute adoration of the crowd. This was why she went into show biz. At that incredible crescendo of the act, when the crowds whole attention was on her and she could almost taste it, almost drink it up. She couldn't live without it.
That was when the light hit, when Canterlot, so far in the distance, seemed to explode with energy, radiating outward. That energy covered all the lands, even reached the small, sleepy little village that Trixie was performing in. And when she was hit with the force of the blast.
By then, it was weak, too weak to do more than just knock her out for just a moment. But as she opened her eyes, the crowds adoration had turned to horror. The font of love and admiration had completely dried up. Her own eyes wide in fear, she retreated from the crowd, not knowing what had gone wrong. When one of them screamed, she made her horn glow as she readied a spell to escape. She didn't even notice that her aura had changed from it's usual pale blue to a sickly green.
With a famp of magical energy, she teleported into her caravan (not as nice as her old one, but it suited). And that's when she saw it. In the mirror. The Great and Powerful Trixie... was a Changeling.
******
Trixie was thirsty, and hungry. Soooo hungry. She'd tried eating something, some stolen apples from the orchard near town, but that had done nothing for her. She couldn't remember the last time she was this hungry.
She'd wandered into Ponyville the night before, completely unaware of where she was. Her memory was fading and her magic was already weak. She couldn't understand what was wrong, what had... happened... too her. Right now she was riffling through the fridge of some unlocked home in the night.
"Mommy?" She heard, turning and seeing a young, pink and purple filly walking into the kitchen and rubbing her eyes. She almost screamed when she saw Trixie's hideous visage, but the changeling quickly silenced her with a simple spell, covering her mouth with a silken gag.
"Please don't scream... please don't struggle... I just... I'm just looking for some food... please?" She pleaded with the filly, and she heard hoofsteps outside the kitchen.
Trixie panicked, quickly casting a sleeping spell on the filly and then stuffing her under the kitchen sink. She didn't know what she was doing. She was going to get caught! And then... she couldn't even think of what would happen then! She'd probably starve to death!
The light came on, and a purple mare, obviously the filly's mother, walked in. Her eyes were closed, and she was obviously drunk. Trixie had just a moment before the mother realized what was going on, and she reacted on instinct. In a flash of green, the Changeling Trixie was no longer there, and in her place stood the little filly.
The mare blinked, rubbing her eyes, then blinked again. "Pinchy... what are you doing out of bed?"
Almost immediately, Trixie felt something change. Her thirst was... alleviated, as though she had just taken a sip from a stream after a long trek without water. Nervously, she responded, and she found to her surprise that her voice was replaced with that of the foal's. "I... I just got scared, Mommy. Can... Can I sleep with you tonight?"
"Awww... come here hon..." The drunk, but obviously loving, mother said, and she escorted Trixie to her room.
And that's when she realized what it was she felt. It was like the adoration of the crowd, but less... pure. More powerful, certainly. But it left an unsettled feeling in her, like when she'd stolen those apples earlier. She didn't let it bother her, though, she couldn't. Not when she no longer felt hungry. . .
******
The past week had been a mixed one for Trixie. She'd gotten her shapeshifting down well enough that she could do it at will, and take on any shape she was marginally familiar with. She still didn't dare turn back into Tri- . . . Into her original shape... again. She was certain people were out looking for her, so showing up as the blue coated and silver haired unicorn would just draw unwanted attention.
Instead she'd been sustaining herself in a most uncomfortable, though for the most part harmless, way. Each night, she'd sneak into a house and put a child to sleep with a very careful sleeping spell. Then she'd bind them and hide them somewhere in the house, and take their identity for a day. It didn't set right with her, not in the least. But at least she wasn't hungry, and at least the guards seemed to have lost her trail.
There was only one problem with her plan. She'd been playing sick for each time to not have to go to school. But this latest parent had been a real hard ass. No amount of coughing or fake feverishness was going to cut it.
"Diamond Tiara... you get your flank to school or I will cut your allowance for a month!" Filthy Rich demanded of his 'daughter', and Trixie knew that she had to go or the jig was up.
What am I going to do! What am I going to do! She gulped. I'll just... I don't know... sit in the back of class and stay quiet the whole day.
And for most of it, that seemed to work. Silver Spoon, whom she assumed was Diamond Tiara's friend, had asked her what the big deal was, and Trixie had managed to convince her that she was sick and her 'dumb dad' wouldn't let her stay home.
Soon enough, the day was ending and the class was being dismissed. Ok, Trixie. Just keep it together... just have to get out that door, and get to Diamond Tiara's house... She cautiously walked through the school yard, trying to look as 'under the weather' as she could. Unfortunately, that mopping, sad behavior distracted her from what was right infront of her face before it was too late.
She bumped into one of the other fillies. "Oof! I'm sorry! I'm sooo sorry!"
"Dahmond Tiara?" Apple Bloom asked, highly confused. It took a moment for the filly to work out why she was confused, and by that time, so had Trixie. The little filly narrowed her eyes. "Are ya fealin a'right?" She said, leaning in just a bit.
"IMFINEGOTTAGOBYE!" Trixie stammered out quickly, then ran down the street. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I need to pay attention to these kids before I sneak into their lives! What they're like! STUPID! As she ran off, she left the earth pony filly standing there in uneasy confusion.
******
Apple Bloom's encounter with Diamond Tiara had her puzzling still even as she got to her club house. "Hay gurls... did anyone else notice that Dahmond Tiara was a little... differen' t'day?"
"Hey yea... she picked up my pencil for me when I dropped it... she never does that." Sweetie Belle said from her position, laying on her back across a chair.
"You're right... she didn't even yell at me when I accidentally sneezed at her. It's like she was a whole other person..." Scootaloo said, balancing a stick on her nose.
Apple Bloom furrowed her brow, then an idea suddenly came to her. "What if... she is a whole other person!"
Both the other girls looked to their friend in confusion, Sweetie Belle in shock, and Scootaloo in disbelief. "Oh come on, Apple Bloom. There aren't just ponies that... look like other ponies like that. It's impossible."
"Nu'uh!" Sweetie Belle interrupted. "My sister said that there was an Alien Invasion at Canterlot during the royal wedding! And that the aliens could look like anyone!"
"That's it! Dahmond Tiara's ben aducted by aliens! And they put one of them in her place!" Apple Bloom said in alarm. "We gotta help her!"
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at their friend for a moment. "Why?"
******
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle had all snuck out of their respective homes late into the night, and met up at their club house. They were all dressed in some costumes they'd stolen from one of Pinkie Pie's various stashes, only their faces uncovered by the dark spandex.
"Alraht, troops! Listen up!" Apple Bloom announced, stamping her hoof as she began their 'briefing'.
"Troops? What troops? It's just the three of us." Scootaloo interrupted, earning a glare from her red haired friend.
"Ya done? Now listen. Our enemy is cunnin, an' connivin, an' they've already taken one of our classmates hostage. We gotta fin' out who they are, where they've taken Dahmond Tiara, an' figure out what they want! The whole of Equestria might be at stake!" Apple Bloom said in a proud, commanding voice.
"Do we have to find Dahmond Tiara?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I mean... Alien Diamond Tiara seemed really nice today, I wouldn't really mind if she stayed..."
"D'you want an Alien catchin, Pony rescuin cutie mark or not?"
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both let out a sigh. "Fine..."
"Now... Sweetie Belle an' ah will move in on the target premesis and trah and fahnd Dahmond Tiara or the Alien. If we can't fahnd Dahmond Tiara, Ah imagine the Alien will know where she is." Apple Bloom took out a very rough sketch of Diamond Tiara's house. "Scootaloo, yer our getaway an' lookout."
Scootaloo groaned. "I'm always getaway and lookout."
"Wait... this is the first time we've ever done anything like this.. isn't it?" Sweetie Belle said in confusion.
"Huh... you're right."
"Focus gurls!" Apple Bloom demanded, trying to bring attention back to the plan. "Now... Sweetie an' ah will sneak in through the air vent, an' then we'll make our way t' the secret lab..."
"Why would Diamond Tiara have a secret lab?" Sweetie Belle interrupted.
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Dahmond Tiara doesn't have a secret lab... but of caurse th' alien does. It's an alien."
"Oooooh... that makes sense."
"From ther, we'll spook th' alien out, and all three of us will catch it outside!" Apple Bloom smacked the drawing with her hoof. "Any questins?"
"Yeah..." Scootaloo responded. "Do you even know the way to Diamond Tiara's house?"
******
Trixie gave a soft sigh as she retrieved the little filly from her hiding spot underneath the filly's many stuffed dolls. With a very careful grip, she set her back into bed, and pulled her blankets up over her. She'd wake up in the morning with a bit of a headache, and a bit dehydrated and hungry. All the same sorts of symptoms of someone who had a mild flu or cold for a day.
As she started out of the room, her eyes turned back to linger on the filly a moment. She thought about the love she'd... eaten... that day. A bit tough, gamey perhaps. But none the less full and adoring. Trixie noticed that one of the plush dolls looked much like the girl's father, and she levitated it over to the little filly's bed, gently setting it in her hooves. With another heavy sigh, she left the room.
Her new wings made it pretty easy to slip in and out of houses unnoticed. If she only gave herself a bit of lift, the soft buzzing and almost totally silent hoof-falls would go unnoticed even by a royal guard. It wasn't long before she was out of the house and once again out in the town.
Nighttime Ponyville was quiet and peaceful, when it didn't have a rampaging Ursa Minor trying to destroy it, and Trixie had learned well over the past week that almost nopony would be out this time of night. Which made the three little fillies trying to sneak their way up to Trixie's latest 'hunt' all the more odd. She narrowed her silver green eyes, and let her insectile wings carry her up more to hide in the branches of a nearby tree. She wasn't quite good enough to maneuver with them, yet, but she could make do for a bit.
Trixie almost felt a panic overtake her as the three came over right under her tree. She recognized one of them, the filly she'd bumped into under the guise of Diamond Tiara that afternoon. Her wings wavered a moment, and Trixie had to wrap her legs around a branch to keep from falling down, covering her mouth with a hoof to kep from screaming.
"Alraht... Scootaloo, you stay here." The one from earlier, Apple Bloom she remembered her name being, said to the pegasus, and she and the unicorn began sneaking over to the house. Trixie could taste their mood, smell it like a predator smelt it's prey. The pegasus was annoyed with her friends, adding a bit of sourness to her aura. The other had a determined set about them, but it was made 'fizzy' with the unacknowledged belief that it was all just play. All of it, of course, was mixed with the sweet aroma of kinship and care for one another. Not as strong as that between true kin, but stronger than most children would have with their friends at that age. Trixie found herself almost salivating at the sweetness of it. It wouldn't be hard to ambush the pegasus and knock her out, then use a simple memory spell to extract what she'd need to imitate her, maybe for quite some...
She shook her head of the notion immediately, disgusted with the thoughts. Unfortunately, the sudden movement was a bit more than the branch she was hanging onto could take. She had only a second to panic as she heard the wood groan under the stress, and could barely even get out a quiet squeal of surprise as she plummeted to the ground and met with darkness.
