Changeling Theory

Time travels. To speed up time is to age at a pace so fast that the present loses its sense of awareness. Days are quicker to turn dark, and the same annual holiday parties feel recent.

The epiphany didn't hit right away. Instead, it lingered in the back of Starlight's mind for several years, and only on one other occasion did the thought occur. It was when Sunburst got his cutie mark. That was a blur, like a railway sign from the window of a speeding train. The second was now.

Thoughts tumbled, crashing together like waves upon a jagged cliff. A quill hovered halfway between her horn and the stack of papers on her desk. The realization hit: this would be the last batch of midterm papers she'd be grading for the School of Friendship's first generation of students. After this, there would be a week left of school before everycreature departed for Hearths Warming break, and then they would return for their last semester.

A whole generation grew up in front of Starlight, and she didn't notice. How could she? Her mind was occupied with saving Equestria, counseling, and friendship problems; all while trying to manage her own life, too. The thought of several creatures becoming a passing glance from a speeding train never occurred once. Soon, she will say goodbye to this generation, and she will say goodbye to the next generation. And so on, until…

STOP! a desperate voice screamed in the back of her mind, and she had a sudden craving for some herbal mint tea. Perhaps it would soothe her nerves?

Starlight shakily got up from behind her desk and shuffled over to the hotplate sitting on the counter on the other side of the room. The thoughts didn't leave, even as she turned the knob to its highest setting. Hovering the tea kettle next to her ear, she shook it, listening for a sloshing sound. Nothing replied.

Starlight looked at the water cooler next to the counter and breathed an annoyed sigh. The jug was empty. She would need a new one if she wanted to fill the kettle. The teacher's lounge was right down the hall, and by the time she got back and replaced the jug, the hotplate would be warm enough. Besides, it would be a good opportunity to give her brain a break from the copious grading she was already drowning in.

As she walked down the hall, she could make out light coming from the teacher's lounge. The door hung slightly ajar, as if whoever went in tried to shut it but was too lazy to do it all the way… Or someone was in a hurry to get in and get out. Immediately, thoughts of students sneaking away with armfuls of the pantry cronuts she kept stowed away behind the styrofoam cups ran through her mind. Students enjoying donuts in their dorms after dark and showing off their snacks to their friends. She had her reasons for immediately jumping to this conclusion. It's happened before and it's bound to happen again.

Starlight carried herself as quickly as her tired mind was willing to let her. Perhaps she could still catch them in on the act? As she got closer, she did her best to listen for rumbling, the sound of hoofsteps, talonsteps — any sign whatsoever — that somecreature was still in the room. She heard nothing but a subtle drip, drip — drip, drip —

The coffeemaker. It was the sound of coffee being brewed. Starlight felt stupid. What kind of student would get up in the middle of the night to brew some coffee? She wanted to kick herself for allowing her tired mind to get in the way of her judgment. The only pony that would be brewing coffee this late would also be the only faculty member living in the school after taking up residence in ex-Headmare Twilight's dorm room.

Pushing the door open, Starlight's eyes immediately met the coffeemaker. By now the pot was filled halfway, and give it another two minutes, it would be full. However, there was a different cause for concern now: where was—

"Trixie?" Starlight called.

In the middle of the lounge was the table, and on it sat an opened bag of Potato Crispies that looked as if it had been tossed there, judging by the way some of the chips spilled over the edge and onto the floor.

Starlight walked around the table to examine the mess and breathed a frustrated sigh. "Trixie…"

Whatever happened in here made Trixie run out of the room without bothering to clean up after herself. It was typical behavior coming from her, but Starlight had come to expect better by now. Still, it didn't explain what reason she left the room for —

Someone screamed.

Starlight swiveled to face the window on the side of the lounge that peered out into the courtyard. Outside, snow swirled in every direction. Between the thin veil of white tendrils and the frost on the glass, all she could see was the black of night.

If that’s Trixie… Starlight thought. If that was Trixie's scream then Starlight already had several questions, but when she turned away, she saw the answer to one of them. Hanging on the coat rack, next to the door all nice and dry, was Trixie's parka.

Starlight's already tired mind became all the more muddled. Did Trixie go outside without putting on her parka? None of it made any sense, but she was starting to get the gist of it: something happened and Trixie ran out in a hurry, a desperate enough of a hurry for her to not put on the proper gear to protect herself against the snow.

Starlight was out of the lounge in seconds, running down to the courtyard entrance. Just as she reached the double doors, they slammed open, and the pale blue form of Trixie stumbled in. Breathing heavily and shivering.

"Trixie!" Starlight yelled.

Trixie looked up at Starlight with a start. Her mane glittered with snow, and her mouth gaped in an attempt to say something. "S-Starlight." Her face told Starlight several things at once: Trixie had been out in the cold for some time, she was probably succumbing to hypothermia, and something had spooked her.

"Trixie, what's going on?"

Trixie shot a hoof toward the pair of double doors she came through. It jittered in the air uncontrollably.

Starlight placed a hoof on Trixie's shoulder. "What did you see out there?"

"I… I…" she regained some of her composure, but only enough to bring back her character. "Trixie saw… Starlight," she gulped. "Please don't go out there." Starlight stepped away from Trixie and moved toward the doors. "Don't!" Trixie screamed. "You — you're not even wearing a jacket."

Starlight sighed. Horn igniting, a bright turquoise glow appeared around her body. "There," she said. "I just used a body temperature spell. That should protect me from the cold for a few minutes."

Trixie stared back at Starlight, her face growing older and paler. "It's not safe."

"Really, Trixie, it's fine. My body should hold up against the snow. Now, what did you see out there?"

"I don't know. Why don't we go get the guards instead?"

Starlight shook her head and turned to the doors. She expected Trixie to yell, "Stop!" and feel the coldness of her hoof against her shoulder, but that didn't happen. As she made a movement to open the door and pressed her hoof against its surface, Starlight looked back. The mare didn't make any movement to stop Starlight but only quivered further away from the door as if it would grow teeth and swallow her up. She pushed it open.

Tree branches that she could barely see were swaying, limbs croaking from being thrown in all directions. The blizzard howled. Starlight trudged through snow that must have been three feet deep. Part of her regretted not grabbing her winter gear, but she also knew that would've wasted time. Based on Trixie's reaction, Starlight wanted to investigate this immediately.

The most aggravating part about navigating through a snowstorm wasn't having her own mane come back and whip her in the face, but that there was no sense of direction. Starlight looked back at her prints and saw that they filled in almost as quickly as they formed. Bringing her head up, she searched through the darkness.

Thin swirls danced everywhere, but none told her where to go. The courtyard was only fifty square feet, so looking for the thing that had Trixie terrified shouldn't have been that hard. And, if the body temperature spell wore off, all Starlight would have to do is recast it.

It started in a straight direction, but all she met was the door to the East Wing. Starlight let out a frustrated sigh. It came out like a plume of fog that got whisked away by the wind. The body temperature spell wore off gradually, and although she still had another seven minutes, she could already feel the icy powder biting her hooves. She had to be quick.

Turning in the other direction, she started again. This time after walking a few feet, she took a turn to the right so as not to end up back at the entrance. And, this time, she was met with nothing but a wall.

She lost all sense of navigation. After the fifth attempt, even after lighting up her horn to surround the snow in a turquoise glow, the air was far too thick with winter's dandruff to make anything out.

Her mind wandered to the stack of papers on her desk that needed grading, followed by the burner set on its highest setting in anticipation of a kettle. Realizing that she would get nowhere, she breathed a contemptuous sigh. "Sorry, Trixie…"

Whatever it was that had Trixie scared, it couldn't be anything drastic. Trixie did have a tendency to over-worry sometimes. Just a few days prior she woke Starlight up because she thought a chimera had found its way into her wagon and was waiting for her. It turned out to be a bobcat from Fluttershy's cottage, and a friendly one at that, that had found the barrel of apples she kept in the farthest corner.

This was just like the apple incident, so far as Starlight could see. She looked the courtyard up and down and didn't find anything. The only thing she could chalk Trixie's reaction up to was a bad case of night fright. Yes, that had to be it. Trixie must have thought she heard something outside.

It all made sense now. Trixie ran outside to investigate the noise and got spooked by something she saw. What Trixie thought she saw must have been so indescribable that she couldn't find the words to tell Starlight what it was.

There was nothing to be found. Trixie was imagining things. Starlight was going to go back inside and jokingly remark about how this was just like the apple incident and then continue grading papers. The image of herself sitting comfortably in her office chair with steam rising from a paper cup beside her resonated, and she finally took notice of how cold it was.

The spell hadn't completely worn off. It was enough to make the ice beneath her hooves bearable, but the raging wind was much too irksome. That won't matter. She could just cast another body temperature spell and find her way back inside.

Starlight pushed forward and quickly met a wall. She took a left and pursued onward, and she soon met another wall. Starlight traversed it, occasionally feeling a hoof along its surface in search of a door. She eventually found it and gave a light budge. Locked.

It was like every other door in the vicinity had disappeared after that. Starlight wandered around the courtyard aimless and distraught. A sense of urgency rose in her chest and her hooves picked up waves of snow as she tried to run. Several times she had to narrowly avoid a tree branch, the only giveaway being that some limbs were sticking out from the surface of the snow.

She cast the body temperature spell for the third time. The beautiful warmth of a fire resonated within her body again, and she thought about how nice it would be to stand over the kettle with its lid off, steam wafting into the air and in her face. That thought felt far away, and her heart quickened. How do I get out of here?

In all of her panic to get back indoors, Starlight wasn't looking where she was going, and it happened — she tripped over the tree branch that she narrowly avoided on more than one occasion. She was running aimlessly when her hoof collided and met a faceful of snow.

Starlight grunted, wondering why she had been so antsy. She was more aggravated than antsy. Yes, aggravated. She had wasted over twenty minutes of precious time she could have spent working, and here she was chasing a nonexistent ghost for Trixie.

"I'm going to strangle that mare," she grumbled as she got up, and she realized that something wasn't right. It was the way her hindleg brushed against the surface of the branch. The branch. A branch that was far too soft to be a branch.

Starlight rose from the snow, turning toward the limb sticking out of the surface. She could only make out a silhouette in the darkness. Igniting her horn, she recognized it immediately: it was a hoof.

Someone was buried beneath the snow.

Anxiety took over. Starlight began shoveling icy powder left and right until there were uneven hills everywhere. The body wasn't buried deep, because she could make out a chest after the first foot. Wrapping her hooves around its shoulders, she pulled.

What Starlight saw next she would later be forced to recount to the police in all of its glorious detail. From walking into the lounge and finding the mess, to hearing a scream outside and going to investigate it — the part that would traumatize her most upon recounting the horrible experience was when she looked into the cold, dead eyes of ex-student Lemongrass and realized the top of her head was gone.

Starlight screamed. Lemongrass's limp form lolled to the ground with a resounding thud. How long had she been out here? Could Starlight have saved her if she was a few minutes early? The answer was probably no. No. Yes, of course NO. The body had been out here a lot longer than just a few minutes based on the frozen look forever etched onto Lemongrass's face.

Lemongrass died hours ago. Starlight's eyes filled with tears as she realized this was the reason why Trixie ran inside in a panic, lost for words. She too was shocked by the uncannydeath of a student. Lemongrass was missing her scalp. An insane part of Starlight wanted to look in. See if all the brain matter was scooped out as well. She pushed this thought to the back of her mind. Ha, speaking of minds…

Starlight shook her head and tried to register where such a thought came from. Perhaps it was some conscience buried deep down inside of her that was trying to find comfort in the most insane way possible? Whatever it was, she knew what she had to do next: she needed to go back inside, comfort Trixie for however long it took to calm her down, find the nearest police station, and promptly write a letter to Twilight that a student at her school was deceased. She was already writing it in her head. It said, Dear Twilight, followed by a bunch of gibberish that her mind couldn't find the ability to even form into tangible words.

Her hooves were weighted to the ground. Starlight wanted to go back inside and get this over with, but the reminder that she failed to keep one of her students safe rendered her immobile. How could she simply leave after finding Lemongrass lying dead in the courtyard? Starlight deserved whatever the forces of nature bore down on her.

Lemongrass, whose midterm paper was the second to be graded and had achieved a remarkable score of one hundred. Lemongrass, who two weeks prior had come into Trixie's office talking about how she was afraid to be around the other students because she feared not being accepted. Lemongrass, who upon —

Crunch

Starlight swiveled around so fast that she threw up snow in a semi-spiral. That noise. The cranium. The cold, dead eyes of ex-student Lemongrass. Starlight's heart dropped low in her chest as she realized that she was not alone.

"Trixie?" she called.

Crunch, crunch, the noise responded.

"Trixie," Starlight said again, hesitation seeping into her voice. "Are you there?"

The wind continued its frightening howl. Starlight was about to breathe a thankful sigh of relief that it was nothing but the wind, yes, obviously the wind, when it sounded again.

Crunch, Crunch, Crunch

This time it was much closer… and Starlight realized that there was something in the courtyard with her.

Panic rising, Starlight did the only thing she could think to do and flared her horn. The area around her erupted with turquoise, and as the light above her head emanated, Starlight could have sworn she saw it — the silhouette of a tall, slender creature receding further into the darkness.

The air filled with a sharp wail and Starlight recoiled back. Without thinking, she shot a magic beam in its direction. The air erupted in an even louder, piercing wail and the crunching of snow resounded. Cruch, Crunch, Crunch.

She fell back, practically dragging her legs through the snow. Waves of icy powder were picked up by the horrid winds and flew back into her face. She had to blink her eyes fleetingly several times, but she never quit. She had to make it back to the doors. The doors. Any door will do at this point. It could be the doors to the west wing or the doors to the east wing. It could be the door for the restroom for all she cared. She would take any route possible to get out of this courtyard.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.

It was following her. Twisting her head back, she shot another magic beam into the darkness, followed by another, and another. The courtyard was soon filled with stray, shimmering lines of turquoise, but none hit the way the first one did. Absolutely none.

Just when Starlight lost all hope that she would never make it out, she found it: the doors she came through. Handles glowing, Starlight promptly... Starlight promptly... Starlight promptly…

They were locked. Her pursuer was getting closer. The seconds filled with dread as Starlight thought this might be the final moments of her life. She had to improvise. So, gathering magic into her horn until an orb the size of a volleyball formed above her head, she threw the doors wide open.

It was the understatement of the century. Starlight blew the doors off their hinges. They slammed into the walls on the other side with such a force that they shattered, showering splinters in every direction. One even got into Starlight's eye. It didn't stab her cornea so much as made it itch. Quite a bit.

Starlight was now running down the hallways of the School of Friendship half-blind. Blears of light shone through her eyes. Doors swept by like railway signs on a speeding train. She knew she needed somewhere to hide and fast, somewhere that she wouldn't have to blow another door off its hinges.

The answer became clear to her almost as soon as she saw it. Not looking back, Starlight took a hard right into the teacher's lounge and slammed the door shut. She locked the door for added measure, although she knew nothing about how it would fare against a gangly beast.

She stood away from the door, readying herself for anything that might come through. If anything did come through, she would charge her magic to its fullest potential — more like enough to not cause severe property damage — and blast that student-murdering machine out of existence.

"Starlight?"

Starlight's heart thudded in her chest. At the same time that she let out a loud, "Eep!" a beam shot from her horn and the coffee maker exploded into a thousand pieces. She turned, and her breathing died down a notch when she saw that it was Trixie.

"Whoa, uh…" Trixie looked at Starlight uncomfortably. She sat in the chair that was previously on its back, a chip that had presumably been aimed for her mouth laying on the table in front of her. "Is everything okay?"

"Trixie, you were right. There's something out there!"

Trixie stared at Starlight for a moment as if to register what she just said, and then her face scrunched up with confusion. "What?"

Starlight swallowed some saliva. Her mouth felt dry. Very dry. "I was out in the courtyard for an hour. Well, it wasn't an hour, but it might as well have been!"

Starlight sat at the table across from Trixie, bursting into tears again. Trixie's confused expression grew even harder, and she looked around the room, not quite sure what to do.

"I kept walking around and around," Starlight continued. "I must have cast the spell over a dozen times. I was lost in some sort of maze and thought I would never find my way out, then I found it. I found Le — I found Lemon…" She swallowed again, trying to find a way to say I found Lemongrass with her top popped off. "I found what you found and something more…"

"Starlight."

"I don't know what it was, but I'm sure I saw it. It's… a thing…"

“Starlight.”

"It chased me through the courtyard. I wasn't supposed to get out but I did. I don't know how. I got out and ran down the hall and into here and now —"

“Starlight!”

Her reality was slapped back together by one swift hoof dealt by Trixie. She stood over Starlight, staring her in the face. At first, Trixie gave her a look of consideration, but it quickly turned into concern when she realized that Starlight was calmed down.

"You look like you need some water," she said and walked over to the sink. Floating a coffee mug off the draining rack, she filled it up and brought it over to Starlight, who took it into her hooves.

She took a sip. "You were right. We need to get the guards."

Trixie tilted her head. "Are you okay?"

Starlight nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I'm not hurt or anything. We'll get the guards and —"

"No, I don't mean physically. I mean…" Trixie bit her lips, trying to find a way to express her words. Finally, she settled on twirling a hoof alongside her head.

"W-what, no! I'm fine. What are you going on about?"

"Trixie would like to know what you're going on about! First, you say you saw me come out of the courtyard, then you get lost out there, then say that you got chased by something I presume that you presume was a monster of some sort, and you come in here spouting nonsense! Starlight, I love you and you're my friend. I think you were out there for a little too long."

Starlight babbled dumbfoundedly. "You — you were right there in front of me. How could you not…"

Trixie shook her head. "I haven't gone outside at all, Starlight," she said. "I've been inside all night."

"B-but, I came in here and there was a mess and —"

Trixie looked away from Starlight sheepishly. "Yeah… that was mine. Sorry. I spilled a bunch of chips on the floor. I had to find a supply closet for a broom."

"So you didn't see anything?"

"No."

Several thoughts danced through Starlight's head in the form of images. The mess in the lounge, followed by a traumatized Trixie, followed by the stony face of Lemongrass, and finally the silhouette of the creature. None of it made sense. None of it could make any sense at that moment. Not at the moment as Starlight's entire world was crumbling apart.

Her mind became a jigsaw puzzle. If she had the time to do so, she would put it all together, but at that moment the pieces were scattered. Time had stopped completely for Starlight Glimmer.