Changeling Theory

“Ocellus, wake up!” Silverstream yelled.

Ocellus groaned and rolled onto her belly, face pressed into her pillow. This was a methodical procedure she used to put up with her personalized alarm clock when it split the curtains open a few minutes too early in the morning. On this particular day, the alarm clock’s snooze was broken.

“Ocellus, get up. It’s Thursday!”

She lifted her head from the pillow, eyes still closed. “Yesterday was Thursday,” she mumbled. “Today is Friday.” Her head fell back with a muffled thump.

Silverstream gasped. “Even better!”

A cool wind washed over her as Silverstream presumably took to the air, and Ocellus knew she had a few more minutes of shuteye before the hippogriff would come blaring back. She dragged her blanket over her head, blocking out the stern veil of light that tried to burrow through her eyelids. Despite how tired she was, she couldn’t sleep.

Silverstream woke up a few minutes earlier than necessary. It was customary for the excitable hippogriff to do that on special days. Without eyeing the clock, Ocellus figured that it was nearing seven o’clock. That would be just dandy because she went to bed at nine o’clock—an hour before her actual bedtime. So, for as well-rested as she should have been, why was she still tired?

Yesterday’s events invaded her mind. They got out of classes early because it was test day, then she spent the day with Silverstream, and then she and Silverstream had the talk.

“No, not that—gross!” Ocellus had blurted out last night during their game of Candy Land.

The talk. The version with juicy gossip. “Like, o’mygosh, did you know..” and the like. The talk eventually ended with a ubiquitous decision that the deed discussed during said the talk needed to be settled today, or what was the point in having it? There was the next week, sure, but today was today, of all days!

And that was pretty much it. They both went to bed early and nothing else happened the rest of the night. She didn’t even get up to use the bathroom.

As Ocellus laid in bed, she stretched out her body, enjoying the warm strain that flowed through her back and leg muscles. She opened her eyes, giving them a moment to adjust to the sunlit room. If it was up to her, she would have stayed in bed all morning, but the excited clambering in the bathroom, among other things, kept her awake. She had a decision to make: sleep in until classes started or be a productive member of society. The choice wasn’t easy.

During her morning routine, Ocellus walked around the dorm, hooves shuffling and eyes bleary. She cleaned up most of the mess from last night, but for a minute she was so brain dead that she stood in place and nearly ogled off to sleep. She snapped out of her zombish, drool-dribbling stupor when she heard the bathroom doorknob turn.

She immediately went back to putting board game pieces into their box. Silverstream came out of the bathroom, feathers damp and groomed, and she smelled like a lavender-infused concoction.

Seeing that the bathroom was open, Ocellus hurriedly placed the board game on top of her armoire and went inside. She started a long shower. It was probably ten minutes when Silverstream knocked on the door and yelled, “Hurry, we’ll miss breakfast!”

She shivered, cold water running down her face. She was so busy trying to wake up that she didn’t think to clean herself. Switching to hot water, she stood in the shower for another minute before turning it off completely and drying herself with a towel.

“You took your time in there,” Silverstream acknowledged with her usual gleeful smile as Ocellus was coming out. A pair of saddlebags sat on her bed, packed and ready for the day. The hippogriff was shuffling through the armoire on her side of the room, looking for something to wear.

“Sorry, I’m a little tired this morning.” Ocellus emphasized the statement with a yawn.

“Oh! Did you not sleep that well?” Silverstream asked. She settled on a blue wool sweater and worked to fit it over her head.

“I slept very well, I think.” Ocellus levitated her cerulean parka with tufts of white faux fur sprouting from the hood off the coat rack next to her armoire and slid it on. After zipping up, she focused her magic on the saddlebags sitting at the foot of her bed and set them over her back. “Do you remember if I got up during the night?”

Silverstream shrugged. “Beats me. I was asleep.” Ocellus could now see the yellow font stitched onto the blue wool sweater that read I ♡ Fillydelphia. The hippogriff struggled for a moment to fit her wing through the slot in the back before it finally poked through. Giving a satisfied smile, Silverstream picked her saddlebags off the bed and threw them over her back.

“It doesn’t matter. I can get some coffee in the cafeteria.” While it’d stop the grogginess, Ocellus knew that her brain would be running on a slight delay all day.

She stepped out into the hall, Silverstream hovering in the air behind her. “So, are you going to do it today?” Ocellus asked as they passed the other dorms. She wasn’t in the mood for talking at the moment but thought it would be awkward to leave the air silent.

Silverstream appeared next to her, tapping her beak. “Eh, I’m not sure if I should. It doesn’t seem right.”

Ocellus looked up at Silverstream, head tilted and brow raised. “What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it weird for a girl to ask a boy out? I’ve never heard of that.”

Ocellus shook her head. “Just because it’s a social norm doesn’t mean it has to be followed. Besides, I’m sure Gallus will gather up the courage to ask you out himself sometime before the break starts.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah! At least show him you’re interested. Flirting, certain gestures, simply sitting next to him—”

“Ooo! what’s that?”

Silverstream halted mid-air, Ocellus stopping just a little bit ahead of her. She didn’t have to look at Silverstream’s jaggedly pointing claw to notice the two Royal Guards standing on either side of the tall wooden double doors at the end of the corridor.

“I don’t know,” Ocellus said, throwing a worried look in the direction of the guards.

Silverstream landed next to her, still looking ahead. “Think they’ll tell us if we ask them?”

“We can try.”

They walked over and stopped a few meters away from the wooden double doors. Ocellus made a glance at both of the guards and asked, “Excuse me, why are you here?”

“We are tasked to guard the students until all commotion has been cleared,” the guard to their left said in a very gruff voice.

“Per Princess Twilight’s demands,” the guard to their right added.

“Oh, okay.” Ocellus said. “So what’s going on?”

The guard on the left said, “That will be disclosed during Monday announcements.”

“Per Headmare Starlight’s demands,” the guard on their right added.

Silverstream took a hesitant step forward. “So, can we go outside? Pretty please?”

“You may,” the guard on the left said. “However, neither of you are allowed to leave the premises for the day.”

“Per Headmare Starlight’s demands,” the guard on their right added. Ocellus was really starting to not like that guard.

“Oh no!” Silverstream whined. A bit of sadness seeped into her voice. “That means we can’t do movie night at the Castle of the Two Sisters as we planned!”

Ocellus waved her hoof for Silverstream to calm down. “We still have the weekend.”

As Ocellus pushed open the door and took that first step out into the courtyard. The guard to her left said, “Stay out of the other guards’ way.”

She found out what he meant when they were outside. Two guards stood on either side of each door that led into the different wings. The ones that weren’t guarding doors, were busy shoveling snow into giant mounds. Metal stakes with little red flags attached to the top of them were inserted into the surface next to where there were holes.

Ocellus blinked, trying to register the scene. Silverstream walked up beside her, and without looking she could perfectly imagine the hippogriff opening her beak in brief shock before commenting on what they both saw. Before she could, however, a gruff voice erupted from behind them.

“Nothing to see here.” One of the guards caught their attention. The two guarding the dormhouse from the outside had noticed them eyeing the scene. “Move along.”

And they did, with an air of confusion. On their way to the east wing, Ocellus noticed something from across the courtyard.

Leaning toward Silverstream, she whispered, “The doors to the west wing are missing.”

Silverstream’s eyes widened. When they arrived at the east wing entrance, she managed to get a glimpse and realized that they were, in fact, “...Gone.” Silverstream muttered. She turned back to Ocellus. “They really are gone.”

“What do you think happened?” Ocellus asked.

After arriving in the cafeteria, grabbing their food, and sitting at their table, Smolder asked the same question. Silverstream gave both Ocellus and Smolder the credible answer of, “I don’t know.”

“What if there was a murder?” Smolder mused. Everyone at the table could tell that she was joking. Well, everyone except for Silverstream, who straightened up at the word “murder” and began to tap her claws against the table’s surface with a nervous rhythm.

“Unlikely,” Ocellus replied as she hovered her coffee close to herself, allowing the steam to gently caress her face. “Ponyville has some of the lowest crime rates in Equestria. It’s highly unlikely you’d get robbed in the middle of the night, much less murdered.”

Smolder crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. “Hey, there’s a first for everything.”

“Maybe some creatures from the Everfree, like, snuck onto school grounds?” Sandbar suggested, before going back to sipping his strawberry milk with a bendy straw.

Ocellus took a sip from her coffee. “Maybe. It makes sense that there would be a few guards for protection then, but a whole cavalry unit? This seems a bit excessive.”

“Yeah, they’re all over the school,” Smolder said. She flicked a claw between Ocellus and Silverstream. “You two meet the guards in the dormhouse?”

Ocellus gave her a tired nod, and Silverstream gave her an enthusiastic, “Yup!”

Smolder chuckled. “Heh, I gave those dickholes a difficult time.”

Ocellus levitated the fork that was next to her porridge and jabbed Smolder in the paw. “Ow!” Smolder yelled, even though the fork was plastic and wouldn’t puncture dragon scales. She pulled her paw back and rubbed it.

“Language,” Ocellus said sternly, eyes half-lidded. She took another sip of coffee.

Smolder pointed toward Ocellus with the stabbed paw. “Are you waiting for that to cool down or something?”

“Hm?” Ocellus looked down at the styrofoam cup filled with coffee in her hooves for a moment before she realized that Smolder was actually talking about the untouched bowl of porridge in front of her that was beginning to crust over. “Oh, no. You can have it.”

A blue aura appeared around the bowl and it slid across the table. Smolder leaned forward, a greedy smile on her face, and pushed her own empty bowl out of the way. She had grabbed her spoon from off the table when she gave Ocellus a credulous look. “You aren’t hungry?”

“I’m a changeling,” Ocellus said. “I don’t have to eat food. I can just feed off everyone.”

“So what’s the point in getting food then if you’re not going to eat it?”

Ocellus set her coffee down on the table. “You’ve seen me eat before. Why does this surprise you?”

“I know, but I need to clarify. Why?”

“Why do I eat food?” Ocellus shrugged. “I like the taste. It smells nice, too.”

Sandbar shuffled forward, his windbreaker rustling. “So, do you digest it like everyone else or does it go straight to your — “

Ocellus held up a hoof. “I’ll stop you right there. It gives me the energy to function, although love is preferable because it’s what powers my magic. Besides, eating is a good social activity.”

Smolder took a big, droopy spoonful and shoved it into her mouth. “Well, I’m loving this porridge,” she said with her mouth full. “Can you taste that?”

Ocellus shook her head and picked her coffee up with both hooves. “My receptors are off right now.” She took another sip.

“You aren’t hungry at all?” Sandbar asked.

“No. I guess I had a big dinner.”

Smolder’s brow jolted upward. “You guess?”

“It varies. Creatures pour out different amounts of feelings.” And she guessed most of that “big dinner” stemmed from her conversation with Silverstream about Gallus last night.

Smolder shoved another spoonful of porridge into her mouth. “Changelings are weird.”

Ocellus poked her with the fork again.

“Ow!”

“So what are we going to do about movie night?” Sandbar interjected. Silverstream perked up hopefully, and Smolder kept a mutual expression.

“I think we’re going to have to schedule that for the weekend,” Ocellus said.

“Aww, I was really looking forward to it.” Sandbar laid his hooves onto the table and balanced his chin over them. “I’ve been really wanting to try out that old projector.”

Silverstream reached over the table to give him a comforting pat on his head. It looked more like she was petting a puppy. “I know, but hey, Saturdays are great too. They’re like a second Friday!”

“Yeah, but it sucks to cancel plans.”

Speaking of plans. Ocellus had finished off her coffee and set the styrofoam cup on the table. The moment she did, she saw a blur of blue and brown entering the cafeteria from the corner of her eye.

Gallus, wearing a raggy green wool sweater that looked itchy, sat down next to Ocellus with his own paper bowl and milk. Yona sat between Smolder and Sandbar setting her food down on the table. “What’s going on out there?” Gallus asked through a spoonful of porridge.

“Beats me,” Smolder said. “We were just trying to figure that out.”

“Any ideas?”

“A murder.”

Ocellus jabbed her with the fork again.

“Quit it!”

Ocellus turned to Gallus. “I’m pretty sure it’s not a murder. We think a creature from the Everfree might have snuck onto school grounds.”

“Or into the school?” Sandbar added.

“Sure.”

“Why ponies afraid of animal?” Yona slammed a hoof against the table. Smolder had just enough time to snatch her bowl up before its contents spilled out. “Yak need no protection against puny creature!”

“You say that,” Smolder replied, “but those puckwudgies gave you a good scare.”

“Puckwudgies, schmuckwudgies!” Yona blurted. “That three years ago.”

“There was also that mouse in your dorm room earlier this month,” Silverstream pointed out.

Smolder shook her spoon with agreement in Silverstream’s direction. “Oh yes, the mouse! Can’t forget the mouse!”

Yona opened her mouth, fixing to drop a retort when she got interrupted.

“May I have everyone’s attention?”

The chatting in the cafeteria died down to whispers, and all heads turned toward the entrance, where Trixie stood with a stern face. “Trixie is sure everycreature wants to know what the fuss is about.” A few creatures mumbled in agreement. “The guards will be here for the remainder of the day. Absolutely nocreature is allowed to leave school grounds unless authorized and supervised by a member of staff.”

Confused faces blossomed everywhere. Gallus leaned into Ocellus’s ear and whispered, “What’s going on?”

Ocellus only shook her head and shushed him.

“Because of the severity of the situation, we have permitted all classes for today to be canceled so that the matter can be dealt with.” Many of the confused faces turned into excitement, but not Ocellus’s. Hers became one of calm focus. She was still caught up in ‘the severity of the situation’. “You are free to move around the school but must listen to the guards. It is for the safety of everyone.”

The excited faces on some of the students loosened at the acknowledgment that they had to be ordered around by strangers, but not by much. “Everything will be explained during Monday's announcements. If you have any inquiries…” Her stern face faltered into worry, and her voice lowered. “My office is always open.”

~•~

After Trixie’s announcement in the cafeteria, and after finishing breakfast, Ocellus and her friends debated on where to relax. They couldn’t hang out in the dormhouse because boys and girls aren’t allowed in each other’s rooms, and they couldn’t get ten yards outside of the school without running into a guard. Sneaking out was out of the equation.

They settled on the next most comfortable place to have a chill time: the library. During the entire walk there, they theorized about what the situation in the courtyard was about.

“Still betting on a murder!” Smolder joked for the third time, getting promptly ignored by everyone.

They found a table next to the biography section. The moment they sat and settled down on comfortable pillows, Sandbar, still standing, said, “I’m going to take a look around.” and headed toward the nonfiction section.

“I’m pretty sure it was a prank,” Gallus said, scratching a spot on his right shoulder where the raggy green sweater made it itch.

Ocellus squinted at him. “I’m pretty sure Princess Twilight has better things to do other than sending her guards after some vandal.”

“Well, think about it this way. Princess Twilight used to be headmare, and she founded the school. Also, since she became leader of Equestria, not much has happened. I’m just saying, she’s bored.”

Ocellus grimaced at the thought of Twilight Sparkle getting bored. “What do you mean bored? She’s running a country.”

“While you two are duking it out,” Smolder interrupted. She stretched her arms into the air and yawned. “I’m going to catch up on some Zs.”

Gallus played a coy smile. “That’s right, let’s stop arguing. The dragon needs her beauty sleep.”

Smolder scowled at him. “If I weren’t tired I’d set your head on fire.”

She crossed her arms over the table and laid her head down. Smolder began snoring the moment she closed her eyes.

Gallus felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Let’s go look at the books.” Ocellus said, nudging her head to the right like she had a nervous tic.

“Can’t,” Gallus said. “I already have too many books checked out.”

“Yeah, but I just want to look at them.” She nudged her head in that same odd way again.

Gallus scrunched up his face at her. “Is something wrong?”

“I just… want to…” She did it several more times, and Gallus realized that Ocellus was nudging her head in Silverstream’s direction, who was locked in conversation with Yona.

“Ah. Yeah, let’s go.”

They stood up from their pillows. Silverstream gave the both of them an, “Okay, hurry back!” before veering back into a conversation with Yona.

The two arrived in an aisle that still provided a view of the table, although it was distant enough that they could not be heard. So long as they didn’t speak at a loud volume, that is.

“So what do you think it was?” Gallus asked as he ran his claw along a line of book spines.

“What do I think what was?”

“The thing that happened in the courtyard.”

“Oh. I’m not sure. But did you find it weird that they were digging through the snow?”

Gallus placed a claw over the corner of one book and slid it out a bit diagonally, examining it unconsciously. “So they were digging through the snow. They were probably just clearing it.” He slid the book back in. “Do you expect them to stand in it all day?”

Ocellus found a dark crimson book that interested her, and she levitated it off the shelf, flipping through its pages. “No, I don’t. But there were a lot of guards’ out there just… prodding.”

“Prodding?”

She shut the book and fit it back into its slot. “There were divots everywhere. If they were trying to clear the snow, they were doing an odd job.”

“I noticed that too.”

“Any idea what they were looking for?”

Gallus shrugged and continued skimming his claw along the book spines on a lower shelf. “Beats me. It’s hard to get an idea of what when we don’t even know what happened last night.”

Ocellus glanced away from the bookshelf and toward their table. Silverstream was chatting up a storm with Yona. A small puddle of drool had formed from Smolder’s leaky mouth where she slept. Sleep sounded nice to Ocellus at the moment, but there were a few things she had to take care of first.

“So, do you think you can do it?” she asked.

Gallus broke his attention away from the bookshelf to give Ocellus a confused look. “Do what?”

“To do the…” Ocellus nodded her head in the direction of the table. “...You know…”

Gallus raised a brow, then realization dawned on his face. “Oh, that.”

“So, you’ll do it?”

Gallus shook his head and sighed. “I’m not sure that I can do it.”

“Don’t be that way! It’s easy.”

“Ocellus, I’m not exactly comfortable with this.” He looked away from her and back toward the bookshelf. “I’m not going to do it.”

“Silverstream likes you! Are you seriously going to pass up this opportunity?”

“Okay!” Gallus bit. Ocellus didn’t think someone could yell that quietly. “If she were…” He made a hand gesture toward the area the friends were sitting at. “...Alone, I would do it. But try moving her away from someone when she’s locked in conversation.”

“Hm.” Ocellus watched Silverstream and Yona for a moment before speaking up again. Even with her thoughts muddled and tired, an idea came to fruition. “Okay, let’s try something.”

Stepping away from Gallus, a mirage of blue flame surrounded Ocellus’s body. In her place stood a hot pink pony with a blond mane done up in a bun and a freckled face with fuchsia irises. A smug grin crossed the librarian’s face. “How do I look?” she said in a nasally voice.

“You forgot the glasses,” Gallus said. “The librarian wears glasses. Besides, what are you going to do? Tell her she has a late fee that needs to be paid?”

Ocellus winced. “I was thinking of trying that with Yona, actually.”

“If you think it will work, then hey, shoot. But if it doesn’t, I guess we’re gonna have to catch Silverstream alone another time.”

Ocellus’s smug grin returned. “Fine, watch.”

She passed Gallus and headed toward the table. Gallus witnessed from the sideline as Ocellus — sorry— the librarian uttered a few simple words. Yona stood up from her pillow and followed her away from the table. Gallus had to do a double-take before he registered what had happened. When he finally realized that Ocellus had successfully led the yak away, his heart began to thud in his chest.

Smolder continued to sleep but still sat at the table. Could he do it? She did sleep through most of Silverstream’s chattering. Hey, maybe he could do this. But could he?

He walked up to the table, throat dry. Silverstream was tapping her fingers against the surface when her head jolted upward in his direction. A smile spread across her face. “Hi, Gallus!” She extended an arm into the air and waved.

Gallus swallowed saliva and stopped at the other side of the table. He found the unspoken offer to sit quite appealing but thought that any movement separate from that of a statue would throw off his flow. “Umm, hey Silver.” He thought she looked cute enough in her I♡ Fillydelphia sweater that it could provoke sweating.

Silverstream looked at Gallus, and Gallus looked at Silverstream. She scrunched her face up in confusion. “Hey, are you going to sit?”

“Sit?” Gallus balked. Yes, sit. Sitting sounded nice all of a sudden. He reached down to the floor to slide a magenta pillow his way and sat down. He made an awkward show of it, bumping the table a few times accidentally.

Silverstream noticed this. “You good?” Her talons proceeded to tap again like they did before he came.

He cleared his throat and brushed back the feathers on his crest, thinking it would make him look cool. “Yeah, I’m good,” he said in a smooth monotone. “You?”

“I’m great! Although, I would be better if I knew what was going on outside.”

Gallus nodded and snuck a glance in Smolder’s direction, who was still sound asleep. “Yeah,” he said. “That would be nice.”

“What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know.” His mind was occupied with things other than what was happening in the courtyard right at the moment. “A murder?” he suggested, not realizing the mistake until he said it.

“Oh, no!” Silverstream threw her talons up to her face in fright. “Who do you think it was? Did we know them?”

Gallus picked his hand up from the table and waved it for Silverstream to settle down, yes, settle down — none of that now! “It probably wasn’t a murder. I was just thinking back to our conversation during breakfast and got stuck on Fire and Brimstone’s —” he poked a thumb in the dragon’s direction, thinking if he said Smolder that it would activate some magic phrase and wake her up. “— joke.”

Silverstream’s panicked eyes calmed down. “So what do you think it was?”

“Honestly?” Gallus shrugged. “I think it was a prank.”

“But to ban outside travel from school? It had to have caused a lot of property damage. Did you notice that the doors to the west wing were missing?”

“I did.” He nodded. “And it really sucks. We have to schedule things for the weekend now.”

“Like the movie night we planned?’

“Among other things.”

“What other things did you have planned?”

Gallus didn’t think the body could produce this much saliva, but here he was swallowing it all down! “I’m not sure. A date, I guess?” He almost got a headrush from the word “date.”

Silverstream’s eyes widened, shining against the light of the room. “Oh! A date? Who are you going with?”

Gallus shuffled in his pillow. “Well, I haven’t said anything to her yet…”

Silverstream leaned in, her eyes widening with intrigue. “Who is it?”

“Well, it’s uh…” He rubbed the back of his head and mumbled something incoherent that vaguely translated to, “You.”

Silverstream cocked a brow and flicked her ears toward him. “Who?” she asked. By now, she was leaning so far over the table that she might as well have been laying on it.

He held a fist over his beak and cleared his throat. “You.” Silverstream’s head flinched back, and she blinked rapidly. “It’s you,” he said again to reassure her.

It happened like the explosion of a firecracker. First, he saw the blur, then pain sprawled down his neck. And a strange feeling of comfort. But mostly pain.

In the time that Silverstream screamed, “Eee!” she had leaped across the table and threw her arms around his neck in a tight hug. She also woke up Smolder.

“What—whoa, huh?” Smolder gave a panicked look around the room before her eyes landed on Silverstream, who had Gallus in a chokehold of her own variation. “Did I miss something?”

Silverstream dropped Gallus, and he breathed in a deep gulp of air. Midair, Silverstream swiveled to meet Smolder face-to-face. “He asked me out!”

“Shh!” came a loud hissing sound. Gallus didn’t know if it was from the actual librarian or if Ocellus was putting on a show.

“Oh,” Smolder said. “Hey, that’s good!”

“So what are you going to do for our date?” Silverstream said, rotating back to Gallus.

“Eh,” Gallus rubbed the spot on the back of his neck that still hurt. “Sugarcube Corner?”

“Heck yeah!” Her excited smile faltered and she scratched her chin in thought while she still hovered over the table. “But when are we going?”

“What about Saturday?”

“Tomorrow? Aren’t we having movie night?”

Gallus frowned. “Why would you want to have a date on a Sunday?”

“Sundays are fun! They’re like a pre-Monday.”

Smolder chuckled. “That’s exactly why they’re not fun.”

Gallus jabbed her with his claw.

Smolder threw both of her arms up in the air. “Why is everyone out to get me today?!”

“Shhh!”

“We can go early in the day,” Gallus said. “If we get up early, we’ll have the whole day to do whatever.”

Silverstream snapped her fingers and pointed at Gallus, giving him a wink. “That sounds like a plan. Oh! I have to get ready.”

She somersaulted in the air and flew toward the library exit. “But the date’s not till tomorrow!” Gallus yelled at her with a hand cupped over his beak.

“I’m getting pre-ready!” she yelled back.

They were shushed again.

Gallus slapped a talon over his face and chuckled.

“Congrats on the new girlfriend, loverboy.” Smolder gave him a toothy grin.

He rolled his eyes.

~•~

Time remained still. Last night felt like it was only minutes ago. Starlight was still caught in that moment of dumbstruck horror where everything in the present felt distant. Even when Trixie came back with the police, and even when she had to compose a letter to Twilight stating that one of her students was found dead, all clocks had only two shorthands.

The police questioned her, followed by the Royal Guard. Somehow her autopilot brain gained enough momentum to explain the events that transpired. There she was grading papers. There she was brewing tea and realizing she had to replace the jug in the water cooler. There she was finding the mess that Trixie left and hearing the scream come from the courtyard. There she was getting lost in a maze with no walls, stumbling over Lemongrass’s corpse, and running for her life from a monster that she couldn’t see.

Starlight explained all of this to them while nursing a damp cloth over the eye that had a splinter in it. She didn’t explain the part about how Trixie was two places at once. At the end of the interview, she sat slack-jawed, trying to find a way to explain it. No words came out.

Trixie was adamant in ensuring Starlight that she only left the room to find a broom. Starlight pestered her for more knowledge, anything — come on, anything — that could at least give a hint to what Starlight saw. Then Trixie dropped the bomb that not just halted Starlight’s world for the second time that night, but caused it to backpedal and force her to rethink everything she knew:

“What if it was a changeling?”

She continued mulling over the many possibilities and was so lost within her own thoughts that she didn’t hear the door to the classroom opening and closing.

“Headmare Starlight?”

Starlight’s heart thundered in her chest as she knocked over the mug she had previously been drinking from, instant coffee spilling across the desk. When she saw that it was just Ocellus, her heart calmed. She looked down at the mess she made, and her sudden fright turned into disappointment.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” Ocellus blurted, and she ran for the paper towel dispenser next to the chalkboard. She might as well have taken the whole roll with how many sleeves she ripped from it.

Ocellus came back with a wadded-up mound in her magic and started to wipe away the dark brown puddle on the table. Before she could continue, Starlight said, “That’s fine, Ocellus. I’ll clean it up.”

“I’m really sorry, Headmare Starlight!” Ocellus said quickly as she pressed the wad of paper towels against the surface of the desk so that the instant coffee soaked through. “I’m really tired today, so I didn’t think to knock, and I meant to —”

Starlight placed a hoof on Ocellus’s shoulder. The changeling looked up, startled. “It’s fine, Ocellus,” she said. The blue aura around the paper towels turned turquoise, and now Starlight was the one wiping away the spill. “Do me a favor and get me more paper towels and the trashcan by the door.

Ocellus nodded nervously. “Yes, ma’am!’

Ocellus held the trashcan while Starlight swiped the spill into it. Gathering up all the soggy mounds of paper towels that were soaked to brown, she threw it in with the small pool that was now at the bottom of the bag.

“Just leave the trash can by my desk. I will take it out when I’m done in here.”

“Okay.”

“So what did you need before the — you know.” Starlight said as Ocellus set the trash can down.

Ocellus perked up and gave Starlight a nervous smile. “Oh! Yeah, yeah. I wanted to check on my rock candy!” She pointed toward the back of the classroom, where several jars were lined along a counter.

“Rock candy?”

“Yeah, Professor Pinkie was showing us how to make it.”

Focusing her magic, Ocellus enveloped one of the jars in blue and floated it across the room. She set it down at the corner of Starlight’s desk. It had a longish wooden stick held in place by two clothes pins, and it was poking through a crystalline cap.

“What is that?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s just crystallized sugar.”

Starlight nodded in acknowledgment. “Okay, so how does this work?”

“Well…” Focusing her magic again, Ocellus removed the clothespin and forced pressure against the crystalline cap, the glittery surface breaking apart like a glacier. “You boil water mixed with a few cups of sugar, roll the stake in more sugar, and let the stake sit in the centre of the jar for a week or two.”

Ocellus lifted the wooden stake from the dark blue slushy liquid and held it over the jar as it dripped. On the other half of it were several clusters of crystalized sugar.

Ocellus huffed a disappointed sigh. “It looks like it’ll have to sit for another week.”

Inserting the wooden stake back through the surface of the dark blue liquid, she pinched it back in place with the clothespins.

Starlight smiled at Ocellus. “That’s really cool.”

“Yeah,” Ocellus said. She levitated the jar across the room and set it back in line with the others. “But I was hoping that it’d be ready today. I wanted to give it to Gallus.”

Starlight tilted her head. “Why Gallus? Did he not get to make some?”

“No he did, but I thought he might like to give it to Silverstream.”

Starlight’s eyes brightened. “They’re dating now?”

“Yep!” Ocellus said cheerfully. “I wanted to give it to him so he could give it to her.” Her cheerful smile fell and became sad. “But it looks like I have to wait another week.”

“Hey, don’t get down, Ocellus. You can try helping Gallus find a gift for Silverstream instead.”

Ocellus’s face brightened again. “Hey, you’re right!”

“Thanks for stopping by,” Starlight said. “I’ve been up all night trying to sort out the mess and needed the conversation. Anyway, I have to get back to work. Enjoy your day off.”

“Okay!” Ocellus turned toward the door and began walking toward it. “Have a good da—” she stopped and turned back to Starlight. “What did happen last night?”

Starlight set the quill that she had picked up when Ocellus started walking to the door back down on the table. She gave Ocellus a stressed look and shook her head. “I’m sorry, Ocellus. I can’t say anything until Monday.”

Ocellus came back to the front of the desk and propped both of her forehooves upon it. “Well, can my friends and I at least go out tonight? We were supposed to have a movie night, and I’ve never been to a movie and would love the chance to go see one.”

Starlight shifted in her pillow uncomfortably. “I would love for you to see a movie also, and under different circumstances, you would be permitted. I’m sorry, Ocellus, but there’s too much happening for me to explain.”

“Starlight, please—” Ocellus placed a hoof over Starlight’s, and in that instance, time stopped once again. Ocellus stood there picturesque with her mouth hanging ajar. Her hoof felt cold. Not cold like ice, but cold like a cold shock, a shock that sparked the memory of everything that happened frame-by-frame all in the span of a single nanosecond.

There she was, sitting alone behind her desk, grading the midterm test. There she was, finding Trixie’s mess in the teacher’s lounge. There she was, running into a disheveled-looking Trixie, going out into the snow, getting lost, and finding Lemongra—

“Is Lemongrass dead?”

Starlight always thought it was a cliché to say, “You could cut the tension with a knife” but in this case, something of the equivalent and more appropriate came to mind. She could cut through the tension with a dull hacksaw while struggling for several minutes with the few remaining tendons.

“What… how…” She tried to find a way to scream, “No! Lemongrass is fine. What are you worried about?” but knew that Ocellus would find out anyways when Monday announcements came. If Starlight didn’t fess up now and Ocellus found out later that it was a lie, she would feel betrayed.

She sighed. “How… how do you know?”

Ocellus’s mouth babbled. “I... I don’t know. I don’t know.” She cleared her throat and sniffed. “I got a hunch, I guess. It’s a guess. A wild guess, I don’t know. I—” Her jaw quivered. Tears streamed down Ocellus’s face. “Headmare Starlight, please say it’s not true!” she choked.

“I’m sorry, but it is.” Saying the words hurt her. It was less telling a student and more of a confirmation that one of her students was, without a doubt now, dead. It was like reality added another layer of realism to her already festering existential dread.

“She was my partner in Laughter!” Ocellus cried. “She helped me with the rock candy. I didn’t tell her I was going to give it to Gallus but I was planning to make it up to her, and… and… and…”

Starlight got up from behind the desk, came around, and draped her right foreleg over the changeling’s cerulean parka. It was smooth and warm, unlike her chitin, which she was sure would bite her with its shock if she dared brush up against it. For several long minutes, Starlight stood there and allowed the changeling to cry. Thinking the only thing she could think about.

How do you know, Ocellus?