Heart of Mist

Heart of Mist

Written By: CleverGoblin171 & fistfire fimfiction.net

Proofread By: fistfire fimfiction.net

.:Chapter 3:.

Shard slowly wakes up finding himself in a room.  Where am I?  He thought.  Oh, that’s right I’m in the hospital.  How did I get here?   “But something is different.  The bed is the same as a hospital bed, but the sheets are tie-dyed in lots of colors.  And the walls have a shifting flower print like they are waving at me and smiling.  Wait a minute, I think I remember taking something.  Wow!  Those drugs they have me on, I hear happy music!”  Shard said to no one in particular.  Lifting up his hoof that has an IV drip in it, starts to move in different ways.   “Wow!  My hoof looks different”  Sensing the happiness, the hoof he is looking at turns psychedelic colors and warps into a bouquet of flowers, all smiling at him.

“Shard, what are you staring at?” Spark says as she is walking into his room in the hospital.

“Cool!  Did you change your mane color?  It looks beautiful!  It's a very pretty color of teal!” He said with a noticeable slur.  “Here, These are for you.”  A very happy smile on his face.

“What are you talking about?  And why are you holding your hoof out to me.”

“Humor him darling”  A teal colored mare in a nurses uniform walks in to check his vitals.  “How are we doing Shard.  Still trying to give you hoof to the pretty mares?“

“It's not a hoof,  Its flowers!”

“Nurse, what do you have him on?!” Spark questioned worryingly.

“Oh?  Isn’t he normally like this?”  She says with a witty smile.

“No, he isn’t. He’s usually quiet and doesn't speak with such a happy tone… It’s kind of nice to see him happy.” her ears flattened and her voice cross at first, but going normally as she finished.

“Well, it's Percocet and Carisoprodol.  He was thrashing around last night, threatening to rip the stitches out.  So, Doc gave him something to calm him down”  The nurse explains.

“Hey!  Where did the flowers go!” He said looking disappointed.  Looking to Spark, “I have nothing to give you.”

“It's not you who is supposed to give presents to, Loopy, it's your visitors who are supposed to give them to you.” Spark covered her mouth with her hoof, trying to hide her smile.

“Well, I’ll leave you two alone then,  everything is looking better and it looks like he’s coming back down to Equestria.  Stop by the Nurses Station on your way out okay?” Spark nodded, and with that, the nurse exits the room.

An orderly enters with a tray of food  “Here you go,  try to eat something if you can.  Doc wants to get you on solid food as soon as possible.”

Spark looks at the tray, and it doesn’t look too appetizing.  It smells like it's been massively overcooked.  “Yeeeesh! Do you think you can stomach this?”

“Let me try.”  He picks up a spoon with his magic, it falters and clangs back onto the tray.  “Oh! My head!” Shard yelps out, nausea threatening to empty his stomach.

“Here, let me help you.”

“I-I don’t think I want anything right now.”

“There is a cup of water, with ice cubes in it, here. Maybe you can have a sip of that?” She levitates the cup to his mouth.

“Sure.”  He takes a sip, “Thanks.”

“What happened last night?” Spark asked levitating a chair up behind her, sitting down on it scooting closer to Shard.

“Well, I was just standing around in the doughnut shop, no customers around. It was late at night when a pony wearing a long cloth like a cloak, runs towards the shop. Two other ponies run up behind ‘her’ and start bashing ‘her’ against the pavement.” Shard spoke quickly, pausing for a moment.

“Her? Are you doubting it was a mare?” Spark questioned narrowing her gaze and tilting her head.

“Well, it was a changeling, so I’m not entirely sure what to call a female changeling… So I’ll just call it her, that’s it.” Shard smiled nervously.

“I believe the correct terminology is: "Spooky bug bitch." Heart joked cursing nonchalantly.

“Anyways, they were bashing the changeling against the pavement, but I didn’t realize it was a changeling, so I walked outside and told them to leave her alone. If I had known it was a changeling I would have immediately taken action.”

“Why is that?” Spark scowled clenching her jaw.

“Because maybe not all changeling’s are evil, and don’t usually travel alone, if a changeling is in Manehattan I wouldn’t want it telling any other changeling’s to go and attack random ponies because of the actions of a few idiots,” Shard said flatly.

“Fair enough I guess… Maybe not all changelings want to enslave ponies.” Spark muttered unsurely.

“Two more ponies came up out of nowhere, taking me by surprise, they told me to just ignore what I was seeing, I didn’t. One thing lead to another, and one of them ended up kicking me through the glass door making a few shards of glass get lodged in my skin, I levitated the shards that weren’t stuck inside me and threatened to cut them up or something like that. Managed to scare them off, then I saw that I had protected a changeling, and she ran off after a bit. Then I ended up here.” Shard let out a sigh, breathing slowly, and finding himself rather drained from all that talking.

“Hey, is there anything sweet in that pile of food?”

Spark looking at the tray, “There is some applesauce or a small cup of juice.”

“I think I would like to try the applesauce.” he says weakly.

She levitates a small spoonful up to him. “Here try this.  It’s not a lot.”

“Thanks again.” He takes the whole spoonful, swishing it around in his mouth, then swallowing.

Knocking on the doorframe he greets the occupants.   “Well,  Look who’s finally awake, and no worse for wear I see.”  A smiling gray unicorn stallion enters the room followed by Heart Attack. “The name’s Doc Clockerson and I was one of the doctors doing your surgery last night.  How are you feeling by the way?” Doc Clockerson asked in a kind voice.

“Could be better, could be worse, all in all, I’m okay.”

“Well, it was a bit of touch and go for a while.  Some of the shards of glass worked their way near some of your vital organs.  We were able to get every piece out, though.  You’re one lucky stallion, not to mention to have two fine ladies looking out for you while you stay in Mercy General Hospital.”

Heart just scowls at him while Spark blushes lightly.

“One of those fine ladies is his sister, shut up before I break your muzzle off.”

“What, You can’t take a compliment?” Doc smirked.

“Sorry, I just took that the wrong way I guess…” Heart’s ears flattened looking down.

“Hey, that's alright I just like to see pretty mares smile is all,”  Doc said with a grin. Although no one could actually tell, Heart’s face blushed a light shade of pink ever so slightly around her cheeks.

“He should be here a couple more days at least. Shard, you need to eat a meal before I can let you go.”

“Fine, if it means I can go home, payments have to be made.” Shard frowned rolling his eyes.

“Shard, you’re not able to work for at least a week, you need time to recover from your injuries”

“Are you kidding me?! I’m not going to be able to pay off the bills for my house.” Shard exclaimed.

“We will help,  Icewing and myself.  We’ll get the bits to help you.  In the meantime,  enjoy your vacation.”  Spark said with a smile.  “Can I get you anything to bring back this afternoon?  I still have to find Icewing and figure out how to market this drink.”

“Just add a warning to it, may cause the consumer to fly off out of sight at the speed of sound.” Heart Attack spoke with a sly smile.

“Real funny Heart. It's no joke, I have no idea where he is.  For all I know, he could be at the badlands this very moment.”

“Oh, sorry about your friend. I will stay here for a while.  Why don't you go and get something for Shard.”

Looking over at Shard, Spark realizes he is fast asleep.  “Oh, well, not much more for me here then.  See you later.”  She walks up to Shard and gives him a peck on the cheek.  “Rest well.”  Leaving the white mare in charge of their patient, She trots out of the room.

The changeling still in the vent above, listened in on their conversation. A large grin played across its face as she backed up and left the area quickly. An idea of how to repay him formed in her mind.   Dropping down from the vent disguising itself as the blue stallion from earlier. She walked  quickly towards the exit. Once outside he ran off towards the doughnut shop, jumping into an alley along the way disguising herself as Shard, trotting out of the alley casually heading off towards the doughnut shop.

____________

A little while later, she arrives at the doughnut shop assessing the damage.  Glass everywhere, and the store seems to have been looted for any small valuables. In there stood an orange coated earth pony stallion assessing the damage.  Looking up he sees who he believes to be Shard walking in.  “Well, it's about time you decided to show up after abandoning the store!” The manager shouted appearing not to have listened to Shard’s message he left for him.

“Y-Yeah, sorry about that.” The changeling spoke hesitantly, trying to mimic Shard’s voice the best she could, but unable to get it just right for some reason.

“You alright? You sound… Different.” The stallion questioned shooting mimic Shard a confused glare.

“Of course, just got a- sore throat is all.” The changeling said letting out a fake forced cough.

“Well, why are you here? Your shift is over. Go home and get sleep.” The manager spoke quickly.

“I want to work overtime… Do the morning shift.” The changeling spoke unsure of what she was saying was right.

“Seriously? Well, since the other employee called in sick, I guess you’ll have to.”

“Yea, I want to work longer… Who was going to be doing the morning shift?” The changeling said looking around the doughnut shop, a small smile playing across her lips.

“Well, you’re going to have to pay for the broken glass. The camera clearly shows you breaking the glass. I will dock it from your pay.” An evil smile plays across his face.  “Go ahead and take the shift. And don’t let anything happen this time or I will fire you!”

“O-of course!” The changeling yelped, her ears flattening. Not liking being yelled at, since every time somepony yells at her, a beating usually follows.

“I’ll be in the back.  Clean up this mess anyway.  I gotta make the doughnuts.” The manager sighed, walking past the changeling through a door into the back of the shop.

So mimic Shard grabs a broom with her magic and starts to clean up the mess of glass fragments.

After she cleans up the fragments and puts them in the trash, she looks up to the menu in the doughnut shop, looking to each of the titles for the doughnuts curiously. Chocolate Dip, Sour Cream, Plain, and the Maple Dip. The last menu option in particular left the changeling intrigued. Her ears perked up looking to the image of the maple doughnut besides the price. It looked delicious. Shame this changeling has problems digesting physical food, which means she’d never be able to enjoy the food she was looking at.

She smirked looking to the front of the shop, the frame of the door barely able to keep itself closed. Her eyes flashing lime green seeing one of the ponies from last night, who had beaten her, walk into the shop. Making eye contact with her He froze in place.

“Oh please no- you’re still working? Even with those shards in your hide? N-no hard feelings about last night dude! W-we just- didn’t want to have that changeling hurt any fillies & colts- you’re not mad? Right?” The pony stuttered, the pony was a stallion with dark green fur and a brown mane.

“You! You tried killing me, do you honestly expect me to not be mad at you? Your friend kicked me through a window and you beat a changeling for no real reason other than she looked at you funny. I should have torn you apart last night.” The changeling smirked sheepishly as she spoke, trying to have as much of an intimidating voice as possible, imitating Shard’s voice almost perfectly when she was trying to be intimidating, rather than a calm one. She was a pacifist, so when she saw a pony protecting her and nearly killing the ponies who attacked her, she enjoyed it quite a lot.

“I’m sorry dude! I didn’t want him to have kicked you, dude, it was uncalled for. And the changeling thing… I.. I swear I just went along with the others, plus changelings are practically terrorists right? I was just doing Manehattan a favor.” The stallion gulped backing away and out of the door.

The changeling’s jaw dropped, she took a deep breath and glared into the stallion’s eyes “go rot in a hole filled with spiders and snakes. If I see you again so help me I’ll break every bone in your body.” The changeling spoke holding back the urge to strike the stallion down he was making the threat hoping that was how Shard would have responded.

“Of course.” The stallion backed out of the shop, running off to the left out of sight.

She started thinking about how the ponies of Manehattan likely see changelings. She muttered to herself that she wasn’t like other changelings, she wasn’t a monster like how the others were portrayed like.

She was hatched in the sewers of Manehattan and was instantly abandoned by her mother, left to die. She wasn’t around other changelings when she was a hatchling, so she didn’t adapt their ideologies and only learned how to shapeshift by accident when she was looking at ponies in the distance, her horn sparking and then she suddenly became a copy of the pony she was looking at while spying on ponies from an alley. Frightened by the sudden change of appearance and species, she ran off deep into the alley passing four ponies. Looking back, they recognized her and shouted to her. She continued to run changing directions several times. Eventually, she outruns the four ponies, removing the manhole and dropping into the sewers.

She let out a deep breath, nuzzling her head against the concrete walls as she tried changing back to her original form to no avail. After hours go by, the young changeling manages to fall asleep to the sound of water dripping from a leaky pipe.

The next morning, when she wakes up, she finds herself in her natural insectoid state. To her surprise, she had reverted back to normal during her sleep and five mice had fallen asleep within the holes in her hide.

She waited for the mice to wake up and run off before deciding to stand up. She looked at her reflection in the sewer water, sparking her horn trying to replicate what happened yesterday.

Eventually, after a few tries, her horn sparks a bright lime green, a lime green flame engulfing her for a moment, when the flames dissipated her appearance was the same as the pony she had first mimicked.

The changeling, now in the form of a pony, smirked cheekily. Holding her breath trying to undo her transformation, her horn sparking again and the same lime green flame engulfing her, reverting back to her normal state. She then did it again in a shorter amount of time, then again, then again, after three hours of switching between pony and changeling forms, she was confident that she had it down pat. Her smile grew wider as she laughed quietly. Finally managing to successfully transform and revert.

“Um… Hello? Sir?” A mare said snapping the changeling out of her flashback.

“Hmm?” She responded quickly shaking her head nervously, quickly realizing she hadn’t switched forms during her flashback, so she calmed down slightly.

“You okay sir? You were just staring off into the distance for quite some time. Is this a bad time or-”

“No it’s fine, did you want to buy something?” She asked interrupting the mare.

“I want two maple dips, one chocolate dip, and one plain, and make it quick I’ve got a meeting soon.” The customer demanded sounding annoyed.

“Of course!” The changeling cringed, backing up and informing the manager of the order.

After a few minutes, the mare spoke again, sounding frustrated “I’ve been waiting here for two hours, where are my doughnuts?” “They’ll be coming shortly ma’am, please hold on.” The changing said trying to be civil.

“I should've just gone to a different-” The mare was cut off as the manager emerged with the mare’s doughnuts.

“Finally, it’s been four hours, what took you so long!” the mare said, snatching away the doughnuts from the manager “Actually ma’am it’s been three minutes, and that’ll be four bits.” The manager said in an almost monotone voice

“Fine, don't expect to see me here again, the wait time is terrible!” the mare said with her mouth full as she stormed out of the shop. The manager walked off to the back, leaving the changeling there alone in the front of the shop to contemplate the choices that led her to this moment.

Three hours pass before another pony walks into the shop. But quickly turned around leaving quickly upon eye contact with the changeling mimic of Shard.

The changeling leaned her head against the cash register letting out a sigh of boredom. Glaring to the clock seeing it was only 10:20 AM. She groaned in her regular voice hitting her head gently against the register.

The changeling glares to the back room where the manager walked into, thoughts crossing her mind of ‘feeding’ off him, draining him of his energy than taking his position as the manager. Then closing the shop early because she didn’t want to be cooped up in the small shop for much longer.

Eventually, a mare walked into the shop, asking for the Maple Dip donut, she gives them the donut in exchange for bits. The changeling watches the mare eat and enjoy the Maple Dip, a few hours pass, and three more ponies walk into the shop, each only getting either a Maple Dip or Chocolate Dip. Which gave the changeling the impression that the Maple Dip was a favorite of many.

An idea popped into her head, most ponies have sweet sounding names. And a few ponies seem to like the taste of Maple Dip, so why not name herself “Maple” in an attempt to possibly get ponies to like her.

“Maple… Hmph, not a bad name for a changeling I suppose.” Maple spoke softly under her breath, her mouth curling into a smile.

____________

Meanwhile, Spark was at her home, trying to brainstorm up and an idea of how to advertise/promote her product.

She lay on her couch, staring up at the ceiling with an annoyed expression  Spark mumbled to herself. “Maybe I could ask ponies at a gym to sponsor this- concoction of liquids. What if nopony wants to sponsor it? Dammit, I need a surefire way to get this broadcasted to as many ponies as possible.” Spark mused to herself, glancing across the room to a radio. Sparking her horn turning the radio on, commercials and advertisements playing before the actual music kicked in. If I advertise the PED on a radio ad, it may just annoy anypony and discourage them to actually buy it. Spark thought, then sighed as she shut the radio off.

A knock on the door startled her from her dozing. She looked over at the clock and realized she had slept the entire morning away.  “Crap, it's the afternoon. Coming!”

Opening the door she spots a pegasus with the CelEx logo on.  “I have a ponygram for a Miss Spark.”

“That's me. Who’s it from?”

“Um, it came from the Ponyville Hospital.  That's all I know.”  He offered the mare the ponygram.

Taking it in her magic, “Here is something for your trouble.” she explains levitating a few bits to him as she closes the door.  Fearing the worst, she opens and reads the letter:

Celestia Express Ponygram

For Spark/Shard, I’m doing well, will write soon. From Icewing.

Breathing a sigh of relief She mumbles “I’m glad he’s alright, but what happened to him I wonder?   I guess I’ll have to wait till he can write to us. It's just like Icewing to leave no return address.” With the telegram in tow, she heads toward the hospital to see Shard.