Equus Bravo - Equestria - Ponyville - Market Square

Doctor Thomas Mackey’s POV

“Monster attack!” somepony shouted — a pony with a pink mane.

All the little ponies ran into their houses or hid in barrels and stuff like that. It was like an old cartoon.

I sighed and then sprinted to where the shout originated, burning appreciation for extra speed. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Upon reaching the scene of the crime, I grimaced. There stood a small, lone, black chitinous, fanged creature with perforated hooves.

“Jiminy Crickets, Bodo,” I swore. The bug equine didn’t even register what I had said. His attention was directed to the empty space right in front of him while his horn glowed. I put my right hand on his shoulder and gave him a slight shove to wake him from his hyper focus. “You are scaring the ponies.”

He snorted in response.

“Okay, we are going back to the library. Get disguised.”

He disguised a unicorn mare I hadn’t seen before. ‘At least, he took Autumn’s advice to not transform into any person that these ponies know. The locals haven’t gotten to experience our base forms yet, so they naturally think it is a monster still. However, why doesn’t he go back to his human form.’

Bodo stood up on two hooves, gave himself (herself?) a quick hug, and then joined me on the way back to the library. There we found Autumn waking up finally. She had taken to sleeping in recently. Although she denied doing it consciously, she had mimicked sleeping. This replaced our far more efficient changeling love meditation. I thought it was a rather bothersome vice interfering with our mission.

“What was all that racket outside?” she asked with a yawn.

“Bodo here-” I pointed to the young gray mare next to me. “-had another incident.”

“This is the third time this week! Okay, you are not going outside without supervision until you get out of this funk. Epona!”

“I am right here. You don’t have to yell.” Penny had just arrived at the bottom of the stairs. I assumed she had heard us talking and come down to see us.

“Would you please watch Bodo, so he doesn’t cause scare anymore incidents?” the unrepentant dryad requested.

“Fine, but you are buying me a winter scarf from Rarity’s.”

I thought about my colleague’s situation as the other two bickered. Bodo hadn’t woken up the same man. Autumn and I thought it might help to give the guy a vacation. During that time, he did and said very little. The only things I remembered him saying were “meh”, “whatever”, and “you should probably diversify your menu as they will get bored of curry pretty fast.” The last one was helpful though heretical, but the previous two gave a good idea of his general demeanor after his return to the land of the living.

My philosophical rival went up to a decorative mirror hanging on the wall and stared at the mare she had become. She sighed before returning to the man’s human form. Bodo went to the writing desk and picked up a quill. A green aura enveloped his left hand, which I had never seen before. He lifted the quill in a telekinetic grip and then it suddenly shifted to an inch to the right. The magic began to only cover his pointer finger which he would wag back and forth as he continued this bizarre magical exercise.

I watched in silent observation until someone knocked at the library’s door. I opened it to reveal-

“Hey, it’s Pinkie!”

The Shining flashed through my mind as pounced on me through the doorway. Instead of getting knocked down, the mare bounced off me and landed on her tookus.

“Please control yourself,” I told the party pony.

“And you should loosen up!” Autumn called out and Pinkie nodded in agreement.

‘Yeah, loosen up. No need to resist so much,’ Slither added helpfully. I pulled at my knuckles on my left hand, which soothed the artificial intelligence back to sleep.

“So what do you want to do, friend?” Pinkie inquired after quickly recovering.

I had honestly not given it much thought, being too distracted by Bodo’s depressed and silent demeanor. Pinkie made me pinkie promise to play with her in order to get her files on everypony in Ponyville.

“Let’s go outside, Pinkamena.”

“Why do you two call me that?”

We walked out of the library and towards a field on the east side of Ponyville as I considered the party pony’s question.

“I wouldn’t pretend to speak for Autumn, but I know why I do it. Names are important because they are given to us by our parents. They remember where we come from. Nicknames are nice, but I have a feeling — call it changeling’s intuition — that you miss your family and should reconnect with your roots.”

Ever since I helped Applejack’s family and Autumn had gotten me to do it for a few more families, I had adapted the ability to sense ponies who had suffered loss or missed somepony deeply. It didn’t work on us changelings as I knew we all had people we miss back on Earth but didn’t get a reaction.

Pinkie went quiet for the rest of the short jaunt. Once out of Ponyville, I didn’t have any idea of what to do, so I just crouched down and started tracing shapes in the loose dirt as the first idea.

“Whatcha doing?” she asked me.

“When I was a kid after school, I would take sandstone pebbles that lined the road and draw on the concrete like they were chalk. Drawing in the dirt with my finger is the next best thing.”

“Oooo! That sounds cool. Why have I never done that!”

“As a pony that grew on something called a ‘rock farm’ I am surprised you didn’t. But then again, I am pretty sure I was the only kid who did that at my school.”

Pinkie then pulled a plow from nowhere, scaring me enough to react with magic. Love energy flowed through my hand and into the soil. Worried that I had done something dangerous, I ignored Pinkie who proceeded to part dirt to make a contour drawing of her bust with her pet alligator gummy. Inspecting the damage, I found that my magic flowed through my drawing like electricity in a circuit. It was somehow adapting to the negative space of the little divots, and I could feel the energy as an extension of myself.

“Lordy….”

“You say something Tommy?”

I started drawing more, forming lines connecting various shapes together. Once I had finished, I tried to flex the magic within the pattern. It exploded. Dirt flew everywhere.

“Do you kiss your mommy with that mouth?” Pinkie gasped as I spit out dirt.

‘This could get dangerous, but there is definitely a thrill to this magic,’ I thought as Pinkie bounced around me. The mare watched me expectantly, so I made a decision.

“Pinkie, it is time to do some experimenting.”

“What does the evidence say, Doctor?”

“That you need to do some more furrowing,” I replied as I rubbed the furrow on my brow.

“For science!” she shouted at she did just that.

Equus Bravo - Equestria - Ponyville - Golden Oaks Library

CPA Autumn Wright’s Point of View

It was noon by the time I had to leave for Rarity’s. Like always, I had a ton to do. It didn’t help that Thomas was goofing off and Bodo was being all silent and moody. My eye twitched as I realized what I had just thought. ‘Why can’t people just be themselves?’

I sighed in relief as I saw that Bodo was also goofing off even though it was quietly with Epona (aka Dame Honest Penny). The short guy had a bunch of quills he was using in a manner similar to darts. They used a two-by-four as a dartboard and teleported darts towards a crudely-drawn target on it. It was a practice, in essence, of magical accuracy and precision. I didn’t know what had spurred the philosopher into this kind of magic, but I felt like it was probably a good thing for our mission.

“I'm leaving,” I called out to them while picking up a gift bag I had made. I got a mumble from the hyperfocused Bodo and a grunt from the competitive Epona.

It didn’t take long to get to Carousel Boutique where Rarity worked. Lo-Costs needed unicorns for several of our inventions, but Ponyville was an earth pony town. All the adult unicorns in the town had their own profitable businesses due to the lack of competition. Rarity was a prime example of this.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique where every garment is chic, unique and magnifique,” Rarity greeted before she saw me. “Oh, it is you Autumn. Are you here to talk business?”

“You know me too well, darling,” I replied with a small laugh. “But first, I brought you this.”

I handed her the gift bag.

“You shouldn’t have.”

“What businesswoman would I be if I didn’t think of my vendors?”

Rarity opened the bag to find three thick sheets of magical leaf cloth — one green, one yellow, and the last red.

“Oh, the things I could do with these!” the mare exclaimed. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. They weren’t easy to make as I had to grow them with my magic.”

“Even if it is my birthday, I can’t possibly take these without repaying you somehow,” the white mare proclaimed. I smiled at how helpful Pinkie’s file on Rarity was proving to be.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“No, I insist. I just must repay you.”

“Well, there is something,” I began. It was cute how her eyes went big and sparkled in anticipation. “It would just be a favor between neighbors. I would like to use some of your clothes-making equipment — with your guidance, of course.”

“Just that? Why I could definitely allow you to do that. So what are you making?”

“A scarf it is for a friend. She protected me once and has been very helpful.”

“Still thinking of giving ponies gifts. There seems to be no end of your generosity, darling.”

We went upstairs. Along the way, I saw pictures of Rarity’s family and her childhood. When we reached Rarity’s work area, she prepped her equipment and tools for me. I took out some yellow leaf fabric I had reserved just for Epona.

“Would you demonstrate how to use your some of these, darling?”

“Of course, darling.”

I watched her closely mark and then cut her own leaf fabric in accordance to one of her pre-made patterns. When she finished, I transformed into Rarity. It took a full minute due to the need to copy the magic of her Cutie Mark as opposed to just having a superficial one.

“Oh my,” the real Rarity reacted as she started inspecting my version of her. “Sorry to tell you this, but you missed a curl in my tail.”

“Can you really copy such a well-groomed tail?”

“One really can’t, dear,” the fashion pony agreed. She bounced a curl in her mane with a hoof while posing. We giggled at the silliness of it.

Mimicking Rarity, I worked on my own scarf for Penny. It wasn’t as good as Rarity’s but it was a lot better than what I would have made without using my power to copy magic and skills. I kept giving appreciation to the mare, and she gave me appreciation back. This allowed me to power the expensive magic I needed to use to both mimic Rarity’s skills and operate her machines.

Redoing a stitch on the frill at the end, a thought hit me. “Rarity, I have a personal question. You don’t mind if I ask it?” She didn’t. “Why do you use an affected accent? You grew up in Ponyville. None of your family has that accent.”

Rarity stopped her stitching and put her leaf cloth scarf aside. “Talking to you feels like I am talking to an old friend sometimes. It is hard to believe we have just met, and yet you know almost everything about me.”

She pulled a picture of an old school photo from the wall. I could see her sitting next to Applejack — each with their own smile.

“When I was just a little filly, I was the only unicorn in my class. I wanted a role model, and the only other unicorns I knew were my parents and the dentist. Canterlot is full of unicorns. I read everything I could find about the ponies that lived there. The way they walked, how they shampooed their manes, and, most importantly, how they dressed. Then I believed in my heart of hearts that I was actually a Canterlot noble whom her real parents had to abandon to save my life from a scheming, villainous noble and that I had gotten adopted by some uncouth unicorns of the valley. I told all my classmates that one day a unicorn knight in shining armor would come from me and prove that I was really a noble. Not everypony liked that.”

“Applejack, I presume.”

She sighed, shaking her head — not in negation, but disbelief. “You changelings are uncanny — no offense.”

“None taken, darling. I wouldn’t say it is a changeling thing, but if that makes you feel better, feel free to believe it.”

She shook her head once more before continuing. “Applejack used to be my best friend as a foal. She hated that I was pretending to be a pony I wasn’t.”

“Applejack probably didn’t like the implication that you thought you were better than everypony else — that an accent makes you more special than them.”

“Precisely!” Rarity exclaimed before becoming thoughtful. “You know Applejack?”

“Yes, we became close friends earlier this week after doing business for Apple Bloom.” It was true, but obviously not the real reason. Out of the three professors, I had been the only one who had watched the show.

“Did she say anything about me?”

“Not a word.”

She eyed me suspiciously before sighing in dissatisfaction. I realized my slippage.

“Would you help me with the stitching here?” I asked in order to distract the mare. “I want to make a triangle just like Epona’s, I mean Penny’s cutie mark.”

“Oh, you inverted the colors.”

She referred to the fact that Penny’s coat was reddish-brown and with a golden triangle cutie mark while my scarf was yellow with a red copy of her cutie mark.

“I was just copying you,” I replied, causing the mare to feel self-conscious about the red scarf she had made with the beginnings of a yellow design on it. I giggled at her reaction, and she decided to join me in it. “Rarity, you are a good friend, you know that.”

I could taste the friendship coming off of her when I said that. This mission was successful, and I could proceed to phase two once we finished our scarves.

Equus Bravo - Equestria - Ponyville - Golden Oaks Library

Dame Honest Penny’s POV

“Third win in a row!” I announced with a grin. The changeling didn’t react at all as he picked up another quill and started teleporting it back and forth short distances. “Okay, dude. This is fun and all, but I am hungry. As the guard protecting you, I humbly request that you take me out for food.”

Bodo snorted at me.

‘The nerve!’

I got took some bits from the ‘petty cash fund’ that Autumn had set up mostly to cover my expenses and encouraged Bodo to come with me.

While I had given them the ability to come and go as they pleased, the incident on the train convinced me that they had a closer relationship with the changeling queen than they let on. They might not be guilty of colluding with a threat against all of Equus, but they were sure as Tartarus involved somehow.

As we walked to the daffodil sandwich shop I liked, Bodo started doing cartwheels. Then he stopped me.

“Let me prepare for the future,” he told me but didn’t clarify further. The professor removed his shirt and then stood on his head.

“What are you doing?”

“A human thing.”

I shrugged and let it go. “Okay.”

The man got a few curious glances as he righted himself and started skipping through the streets. Whenever someone asked him what he was doing, Bodo just repeated it was ‘a human thing.’

They shrugged it off as well and let the guy be.

Once we got to the sandwich shop and I had made my order, I had to get answers. It was in my royal guard blood to get to the bottom of things. “So what did you mean by preparing for the future?”

He frowned as if considering whether or not to answer me. After a bit, he did. “What if I could tell you that I had more freedom here than back home?”

“I would say your home must have sucked. Equestria doesn’t really let non-ponies do much. You can’t hold office, can’t get patents, have to pay higher taxes, and a whole host of other drawbacks. You would have been better off in Bitaly if you wanted to be freer. We have a buffalo governor in Roam.”

“All fair points. Those don’t matter to me as much as they do my comrades. What I really mean is that all those things I just did would have been considered extremely bizarre where I came from. People would have thought I was crazy. Out of fear of being label thusly, I would never do things like that. Here where no one knows what a human should be like, I can almost do anything. The closest sensation I had to this was when I originally thought I was dreaming and could actually do anything without worrying about people’s judgement.”

This was healthy. He had just spoken more to me just now than he had in the last three days.

“I see,” I murmured. It took me awhile, but I could relate to the feeling. Bodo from the moment I met him always employed what I called ‘sideways thinking’. He didn’t see things in the common, straightforward way I preferred. I couldn’t really positively describe it in any other way than sideways. “I have something similar. A lot of ponies just assume I am telling the truth because my name is Honest Penny. Don’t tell anypony, but sometimes I just lie to ponies to see if they will believe in the most absurd things like ‘the sky will be green today.’”

Bodo smirked and then a laugh escape his mouth.

‘Progress!’ I cheered from within. The sooner he got back to normal, the sooner I can stop foalsitting his mopy butt.

As I ate, Bodo returned to his magic practice. This time he was just teleporting air around, causing these cracking sounds that were soft enough not to be annoying.

When I finished, he led me throughout town. He was being quiet again, so I decided to start up conversation.

“So you guys never told me what changelings were.”

Again, the musician rubbed his beard and considered my question. “Changelings are purposive beings. They fill the empty spaces in societies, families, and hearts. In many ways, they resemble vases.”

“Vases like pottery?”

“Yes,” he affirmed while pointing to a red flower in a vase nearby for an example. “A vase isn’t just a piece of clay. It is far more defined by the empty space inside of it. When a potter makes a vase, she molds the clay around that empty space to give the vase its shape and purpose. That purpose is to contain things. A changeling is the same, which is why I assume we have so many holes in our base forms. Anyways, we shape our bodies around a purpose (an empty space) we have found and allow people to naturally pour love into us.”

“What do you mean pouring love inside you?”

“It is hard to describe in concrete terms. My comrades don’t share in my vision that allows me to see these empty spaces. It was this same vision that allowed me to see that fancy pony was in love with another pony before the bombing incident those many years ago.”

“Many years ago?” Now I was really confused. That was like two weeks ago, not years.

He waved off my question with his left hand as if it was unimportant, which really annoyed my investigator sensibilities. I also noticed that the red flower and its vase had just disappeared, which made me want to go find the perp.

“The best way I could explain the pouring of love is like the sensation one has when your friends and family cheer you on during a competition,” Bodo continued. “They try to give you their energy, and with that energy you do better than you could have done without it. You ponies are constantly transferring energy between each other through appreciation, friendship, and love, but you don’t notice it because it happens all the time. If you really wanted to notice it, you would have either experience isolation or share in my vision.”

“You are an illusionist, aren’t you? Why don’t you just use your magic so I can see what you can see?” I suggested.

“I hadn’t thought of that…,” he replied with several blinks. “Why hadn’t I thought of that?” He proceeded to chastise himself several times under his breath.

“No need to be hard on yourself. Not everypony can be as smart as the most accomplished Royal Knight,” I stated. ‘It is not gloating if it is true, right?’

Suddenly lines and circles superimposed themselves over my vision. I could see the connections between people and how strong they were.

“Wow, what do the different colors mean? What about the shapes?” I wondered.

“The color is the type of emotional bond two people have. White is hatred, black is friendship, blue is warmth, orange is coldness, red is disappointment, and purple appreciation. There are more colors for other kinds of relationships, but I haven’t figured them all out yet. Also, don’t ask me why the colors are the way they are. The whole coldness and warmth thing throws me off all the time too.”

I looked at the colors between us and found them to be violet. “What does that mean?” I inquired pointing at it.

“I don’t really know, but the closest I could guess is mild awe of each other. That is because I must admit I am awed by your magic prowess. You are definitely much stronger in magic than all three of us changelings combined even without your armor.”

A flash of purple went from me to him when he said this and I felt hungry again for some reason.

“Follow me,” Bodo commanded me. I obliged, but I stood next to him to make a point that I wasn’t taking orders. He led me to two ponies who had a pink line between them. In the middle of it, there was an empty circle. “Those two want a child badly. Usually, ponies, as magical creatures, fill that space between them and create the new lifeform that will appear in the womb of the mother; however, something is preventing that.”

“Well, they are both stallions,” I deadpanned.

Bodo blinked and then laughed as he finally could see that. “Oh, well, that solves that little mystery. Now watch.”

Bodo started casting a spell with his hand as I watched carefully. The little circle between the two started to fill up with a green magic. Once it filled up to the brim, it transformed with a pop.

The two stallions gasped as the picked up a foal from the ground.

“What the buck did you just do?” I whispered as I continued to act aloof to the two guys.

“I simply gave them a child the changeling way. They provided the mold and I filled it with my magical essence. Their instincts will tell them that it is indeed their child and that will sustain the changeling with magic.”

“You have to tell them.”

“Too much risk. If they reject the child at this stage, she could die as she will need actual love to grow.”

“How many times have you done this?”

“I only started doing it when I was brought back. They are just experiments really.”

“You are experimenting with ponies?”

“And giving them what they want! Some ponies need a friend, others a lover, some a child. These little sparks will act in accordance to their mold until they become fully functional flames capable of really loving these ponies back.”

I bit my lip. It felt wrong to trick these ponies into feeding love parasites masquerading as honest good ponies, but I didn’t want to accidently kill these newborn changelings who didn’t ask Bodo to create them.

“But why are you doing this?” I demanded to know.

“So I can be whole again!” he exclaimed. Then Bodo stared off towards the Everfree Forest and disappeared before I could ask him what that meant. It was like I could still see him but my brain told me he wasn’t worth looking at. By the time I casted the counter spell, he was gone. All I really did was remove the delusion magic that was allowing me to see the relationships between ponies. (Delusion magic is a subtype of illusion that causes only a targeted individual or group to see the magical construct as opposed to everyone in standard illusions.)

“Buck!” I swore, causing the two stallions to give me glares while holding the new ‘miracle’ foal.

Equus Bravo - Equestria - Ponyville Outskirts - Empty Field of Emptiness

Doctor Thomas Mackey’s POV

Pinkie had finally finished making all the lines, circles, and squares I had asked her to. After hours of testing, I had discovered what Hegel meant by ‘error being the friend of truth.’ I would never tell Bodo that as I had spent years slandering the nineteenth century philosopher for being completely incomprehensible. (It helped my case that Hegel admitted he didn’t understand everything he wrote either.)

I discovered that squares could store love and the lines could move love between them. I just needed to figure out what the circles did. I flexed my magic in them and a cone of fire erupted around one of them and then a moment later another erupted at another one.

“What happened?” I wondered aloud. Pinkie and I approached the circles careful not to trigger any unstable shapes from our failed experiments.

Pinkie smelled the soil and then rubbed her hooves in it. “There is changerite in this, Doc,” she commented as she pulled out a carrot from nowhere to chew on.

“What’s that?”

“My sister Maud would know more. She is getting her Rocktorate, but you guys know that already. How do you guys know Maud?”

“Pinkie, focus. What is changerite?”

“Someday I am going to figure out your secrets, Doc,” she replied with a suspicious squint before reverting to her cheerful self again. “Changerite is a magical mineral found in metamorphic rocks like granite. Depending on diet, some dragons also have it in their bellies and that allows them to use their flames to do magic like teleporting objects. You can tell it is changerite because it has a broccoli color — psst, I didn’t tell you this — but don’t eat it. It definitely does not taste like broccoli.”

“What properties does changerite have?”

“I don’t know. I just know it changes stuff. Change color, change shape, change location….” She kept listing hundreds of possible things that she thinks it might be able to change. Pinkie didn’t really know.

“Well, let’s try changing the location of things since it is confirmed that dragons can do that with the mineral.”

We put some big rocks in one of the circles and sure enough, when I flexed the magic, the rocks disappeared in the emerald flame hemisphere before reappearing in the circle I designated with my intent.

“Oh do me, do me!” Pinkie cried in jubilation.

“I am not really comfortable with live test subjects.”

“What about this flower?” She pulled out a vase with a red flower in it from apparently nowhere. I decided not to question it against my philosophical instincts.

“That will work.”

The flower came out of the experiment unscathed. I did it a few more times to make sure it was perfectly safe before testing itself on myself.

“Ah, why not me?”

“Because it would be far more troublesome for you to get hurt than me.”

The pony looked at me with a horrified expression as my minor slip registered in mind.

Anyways, I did my experiment and came out fine. It starts off like you are sinking into the earth, and you just emerge somewhere else from the ground. I don’t know what happens to your body while it gets transported, but it didn’t feel weird — a bit toasty at worst. After a large number of successes, I let Pinkie try. She got bored of teleporting herself after the first time. I was exhausted, so I just sat down while she contemplated ways of using teleportation to prank her friends and how to use it to be many places at the same time.

“So are we done playing?” she asked me eventually.

“I used up almost all my love reserves to perform those experiments.”

“So we are just going to play by what talking?”

“Is that so boring? I personally like a nice chat every once in awhile. Bodo and I would get in these arguments all the time. I frankly miss those days. They were so much simpler than what I have to do now.”

“Arguments? Why would you miss those?”

“While I wouldn’t say all the arguments were happy affairs — we were rivals after all, arguments are an enjoyable things for philosophers. Arguments are a proof of shared interest, and you can only have a real argument between people who have both dedicated a lot of time and research to be experts in a subject. The arguments we mostly see in day-to-day life are generally two people misunderstanding each other or having different facts.”

Pinkie yawned at my very lecture-like way of explaining things. I smiled as she reminded me much of a niece I once had. This resemblance inspired me to be more open with the mare who only wanted to play with me and indulged me in my experiments.

“You know when I was a child I was always acutely aware of how different I was to everyone else. I never felt as strongly about things as others. Children would cry out in pain where I would be silent. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel anything, but rather it didn’t affect me nearly as much. When I was coming of age, my parents kept trying to date ‘nice girls’ from powerful families. I turned them all away without a second glance. It wouldn’t have been fair to date someone I couldn’t reciprocate love or attraction for.

“I actually volunteered for the war to get away from my parents and their politicking. There I saw soldiers I saw as friends die and others fall to depression. When I told them I didn’t feel almost anything, some thought I was just in shock, others brave, and some a monster. I really wondered if the latter was true. When I came… here and got this ability to really go into other people’s minds and compare myself to them, I got my answer.”

“What was that?” Pinkie wondered solemnly, reading the atmosphere. I am not sure whether or not she could understand what it was like to grow up surrounded by family and friends who felt emotions so differently than you. She seemed like my opposite in many ways.

'I don't think you are a monster, master,' Drafty told me through my telepathic connection to her. A thrall's testimony didn't really help my case.

“Pinkie Pie!” somepony shouted. We turned to see a familiar orange mare galloping towards us. “Give me back my plow!”

The pink mare got up and dashed off. I looked between the two. The responsible thing to do was to just face Applejack. I let my face smirk a bit, looked the farm pony straight in the eyes, and shouted: “You will have to catch us first.”

Equus Bravo - Equestria - Ponyville - Carousel Boutique

CPA Autumn Wright’s POV

The Cutie Mark designs took the longest time to make as they had to be hoofstitched mostly.

While we worked, we talked.

“So tell me about your emotional backstory? I gave you mine, so it is only fair, darling.”

I smirked. ‘Trust Rarity to think of our lives as something inside a dramatic tale of love and intrigue.’

“Where to start, where to start?”

“Why not when you were a child?”

“I guess that works. From my earliest memories, I knew who I was despite my parents efforts to turn me away. I remember on a canoe trip, I had pulled a lotus from the water to put in my hair. My father quickly tore it away from me, telling me that the other boys would get bully me. He was always worried about me and my image. The angle of my wrists, the tone of my voice, and my etiquette towards women were always being scrutinized for my sake. ‘To protect me from the bullies,’ as he put it.”

“By other boys…,” Rarity wondered for good reason. They didn’t know, and I didn’t want to explain it to her. She wanted my backstory, not a lesson — a lesson I wasn’t comfortable giving ever.

“When I told my family that I was really Autumn, they didn’t believe me, so I gave up trying to tell them. I hid behind the name Luther so long that it became a shield so I didn’t have to deal with all that judgement and scrutiny. I saw how expensive, time consuming, and social life changing SRS was, and I just didn’t pursue it. Even my few friends who knew my secret, I flinched when they called me Autumn. I felt like a fake, like I had just made it all up because I didn’t commit to being Autumn, to being the person I thought I really was.

“Now I have this power to mimic the character I drew and dreamed of being, I still don’t really know. On one hoof, Bodo would tell me that I am nothing, meaning that I am none of these labels people have made to define me. However, I wanted to know if I really was transgender or just faking it. On the other hoof, Thomas would say that it doesn’t matter as I should just aim for the good — focus on my actions, but I feel like it matters who I am too.”

I sighed and we finished our scarves in silence.

“So that is my emotional backstory you wanted,” I concluded, getting up.

I returned to my dryad form as we left the boutique and walked through town. I didn’t question why she was going with me, carrying the scarf she made too.

We ran into Epona.

“Hey, I got you—”

“Have you seen Bodo? He ran off!”

Before I could even respond to the knight’s question, somepony shouted: “Monster attack!”

I sighed and turned to Rarity. “It is probably Bodo again.”

“Oh, that is your friend I haven’t met before, right?” she asked, and I nodded. “Then it should be fine if I join you.”

Together the three of us ran towards the location of the distress call. On the way, a pink mare smashed into Epona, earning Pinkie an armor-induced headache.

“Where’s the fire, Pinkie?” I joked.

“There’s a fire?” Pinkie gasped.

“There is no fire, but that is worse,” Thomas, who had just arrived, said. He pointed to the school house which had gotten surrounded by hungry-looking cragodiles. We couldn’t see any foals, but we didn’t want to take any chances.

I rushed in first, using my long legs to close the distance first.

A cragodile noticed me and charged. I sunk my talon-like roots into the ground beneath me and let them grow to I could fully secure my purchase. I use my magic in my staff to entangle the cragodile and found myself pinned in a wrestling match with it. I wasn’t strong enough to push it to the ground, and it wasn’t strong enough to push me back due to my roots.

The others came to my defense. Thomas took one by the horn and used his magic to turn it into a steed. By that point, Penny had already cleaved down a few with her scythe; however, I could tell she wasn’t at her best due to all the magic she had done that day.

On the roof, I could see Cheerilee and the CMC hiding from the cragodiles. I had no idea how they had gotten up there or why I hadn’t seen them until now, but I didn’t care.

Rarity and the recently arrived Applejack worked together to get the school ponies to safety. Applejack acted as a distraction while Rarity would levitate them to the ground. After that, it was hard to focus on it.

Suddenly a giant cragodile came out of the Everfree. This one had to be half as big as the school house. It took a swipe of Penny’s scythe before charging her to the ground. The knight’s armor glowed as it prevented its teeth from cutting her in two.

I wasn’t fairing much better as another cragodile wanted to help its friend and take me down.

I closed my eyes and suddenly I could hear dozens of popping sounds like distant thunder. I opened my eyes to find that all around me cragodiles start to spasm and then fall to the ground.

Epona pushed herself out of the dead giant’s mouth. “What happened?” she asked what everyone was thinking.

“They are dead,” I familiar yet nostalgic voice replied. I immediately noticed Bodo in his changeling form in the midst of the carnage. It wasn’t that he had just magically reappeared. It was like he was there all along, but I just started to notice him now.

“But how?” Epona shouted.

“I teleported air.”

“Inside of them…,” I added and shuddered. The idea of killing someone by teleporting things inside of them, especially inside the brain, just disgusted me. Sure, stabbing a person is like teleporting things inside someone but without the magic; however, this seemed cruel and unusual for some reason.

“Thanks for protecting the foals,” Cheerilee said to Bodo before talking to us. “He came to our class and told us something big and hungry was coming. He hid us from the cragodiles until he could get enough magic from us to save us.”

We went wide eye with the news.

“Okay, that is enough fun for today,” the knight declared as she started removing the bodies for the sake of the foals.

“How much do you expect me to owe yall?” Applejack said with a laugh. There were tears on her cheeks from when she had reunited with Apple Bloom.

“Don’t think anything of about it, but if you could do something for me, there is a mare I know who really wants to talk to you.” I pointed to Rarity. “It might be her birthday, but she spent all day making you a gift. I personally think you two would make great friends if you gave each other a chance. Call it changeling intuition.”

Applejack nodded and left to do just that.

I turned to Bodo and became serious.

“Why didn’t you stay with Dame Honest Penny?”

He didn’t respond immediately. “I needed to save the foals. No time.”

There was more to it than that, but I caved.

“Okay, but I want you to talk to us more. The next week is full of work. You are key to our Nightmare Night event. I need you to cooperate for the sake our goal here in Equestria.”

“Meh, whatever," he muttered. I really wanted to hit him. It isn't assault if he deserves it, right? "Mom!” he finished with a fanged grin. I really don't know how this guy who supposed to be so old insists on just being so childish.

"This hurts me more than you," I said as I punched him in the chitin. It really did hurt me more. Chitin is hard.

Thomas was negotiating returning a plow of all things, but he seemed to be all very serious. It is nice that everyone is back to being themselves again... kinda... I think.

Author's Note

Originally, I had this scene planned where Penny gets confused about both Autumn and Rarity looking the same. I will revisit making that scene when I get another pass at this chapter later. It didn't want Autumn taking too long to get battle ready as her drawback is how long her disguises take to change.