Changeling Theory

The pitter-patter of hoofsteps echoed in Trixie’s ear. Just a few more hours… she thought.

She was making her way toward the headmare’s office, a stack of ungraded papers trailing through the air behind her. It felt as though the door was a million miles away. It seemed for every two feet she covered, the hallway would add another ten to itself.

Trixie sighed, quickly following it up with a yawn. A few more hours, and she would be able to get her beauty sleep. That was it. Trixie must have gotten about five/six hours of shuteye within the last two days. She looked forward to falling into her pillow and letting the power of sleep lift the weights from her legs, which she was practically dragging along the floor.

More importantly, Trixie wanted all of this to be over soon. As much as she cared for Starlight and wanted this chaos to end just as much as she did, Trixie barely had time to work on her magic. The tragedy!

It wasn’t the simple fact that Trixie hadn’t gotten to perform any impressive feats of magic. It was more the fact that she could feel herself entering a creative-deprive. Magic was a part of her. Simply separating her from the ability to perform was enough to send her mind into a haze. When Trixie wasn’t thinking about new spells to construct and show off, she was thinking about other stuff.

The stuff she didn’t want to think about. Trixie preferred to suppress those thoughts for the time being before their ugly heads poked out. There were other things on her mind: if she graded these papers now, she would have the rest of the weekend to sleep and work on her magic.

Trixie arrived at the door to the headmare’s office. Enveloping it in a blue aura, it opened, and — the disarray of the room was almost enough to make her drop the stack of papers from midair out of sheer shock.

The headmare’s office was a mess with various items scattered everywhere. The storage closet hung wide open. Trixie didn’t have to look inside to guess that every single box was taken out and had its contents dumped onto the floor.

Trixie stepped inside and kicked aside a box labeled UNWANTED FABRICS: DONATE TO RARITY. She got a good scan of the room. Immediately, several theories came to mind. Maybe one of the students thought it would be a funny prank, but who would do that? She wanted to believe that all of the students were smart enough to know that something like this is not cool — and then she was reminded of Cozy Glow. Ah, yes. After Cozy Glow, every teacher at the School of Friendship had a harsh realization that any student was capable of discord.

It was the only conclusion that Trixie was capable of jumping to. It was not like a burglar decided to prance through the school mid-day when everyone was hanging out on campus. She sighed, knowing that somecreature was about to get in a lot of trouble.

Trixie floated the stack of ungraded papers toward the desk on the other side of the room and set them down. Focusing her magic onto a sewing machine laying on its side, she was about to begin the process of cleaning when she heard something that sounded similar to that of sheets rustling. And then she could see movement from the corner of her eye.

Starlight, cocooned in pink, glittery fabric, was laying on the floor amidst the mess. At first, Trixie didn’t know what to think. She was so sure that a student had broken into the office barbarian-style that realizing Starlight may have been the cause of the chaos felt like an aftershock. Then, once Trixie fully recognized the situation, she wanted to pull her hair out.

“Starlight!” Trixie yelled.

Starlight responded by murmuring something incomprehensible and shifting a little onto her side. Trixie sighed — as loud and tangible to the ear as possible. Starlight slept peacefully.

It’s okay… she thought. Let her sleep. She hasn’t slept like this in quite a while. After all, it would be the friend-ly thing to do.

That word. Friend. The moment it appeared in her mind, it felt like it never existed before. In fact, as she rolled that word over in her head, again and again, an urge came over Trixie. An urge to strangle the sleeping mare.

Not yet, a voice spoke from the back of her mind. Or was it in the room? Trixie was so sleep-deprived that she couldn’t tell. Not until it’s done. She’s too important for what’s in store.

And, like that, Trixie’s mind went black. Everything she was thinking about, she suddenly stopped thinking about. Everything she thought about before, she suddenly forgot that she thought about it. The simple idea of thinking became abstract nonsense to her, and as new thoughts began to enter her head, Trixie gradually started to realize that she was still in a room, amidst a mess, in front of a sleeping Starlight, and that there were still papers to be graded!

At that moment, Trixie felt stupid. Stupid in that she didn’t realize that she had been standing in place for an entire minute thinking about nothing. Rather than further berate herself, she gathered her ego back up and decided there was nothing stupider than being caught in the act of doing something stupid by someone else. For that, she was grateful nocreature saw her.

The fabric strewn over Starlight became enveloped in a light blue aura. Along with how glittery it already was, Trixie thought it looked especially pretty the way it glistened in response to her magic. Maybe that could be a new concept for a trick? Trixie was sure that Rarity wouldn’t miss this fabric. She could already hear the hoity-toity mare scoffing at the hot pink faux-fur and commenting about how putting glitter on pre-existing fabrics was like putting salt on salt rocks to improve the flavor. If that made sense. Probably. To Spike, it would.

Trixie was folding the fabric midair when something caught her eye. She looked down and saw that Starlight was clutching something to her chest. A box.

Focusing her magic on it, Trixie slid the box out from beneath Starlight’s hooves and hovered it in front of her face. It was metallic for sure — that she could infer from the rust. Two gold bands perpendicular to each other arched over the lid, perfectly framing the keyhole in the center.

Lucky for Trixie, the small chest was already unlocked. It opened with a loud squeeeek! but not loud enough to wake Starlight. Inside the box was a gemstone of some sort. It was a dark green color, about the size of the circumference of Trixie’s hoof.

You tore the room apart to find this? she thought. Then, she noticed something interesting: the gemstone didn’t reflect the light of the room but rather emitted its own soft green glow.

There was a humming sound from within.

“Don’t touch it!”

Trixie had just snapped the box shut out of panic when Starlight leaped off the floor and swiped it out of her hooves. Starlight turned away from Trixie, cradling it to her chest.

“Starlight…” Trixie said, hardly budging a muscle out of fear of provoking her. “Are you alright?”

Starlight didn’t respond. Well, she didn’t respond to Trixie. Instead, she lowered her head and whispered into the box. Whatever Starlight was saying, it was incomprehensible and all Trixie could make out was psst-psst-psst.

Trixie placed a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. Starlight’s head shot up straight. Without turning, she said, “What?”

It was like a stab to Trixie. She knew that Starlight was sleep-deprived, but this? She was scared. Not scared of Starlight, but scared of what she might do in this state.

“Are you okay?” Trixie asked.

This time Starlight did turn, revealing eyes that were wide and hateful. “Yes. I’m fine. Why?”

“Nothing. You just seem…”

“I’m fine,” Starlight stopped her. Her hateful gaze retracted into one more somber. “Sorry. I didn’t expect to be woken up so soon.”

“I can leave if—”

“No,” Starlight sighed. “I shouldn’t have snapped. I’m sorry.”

“Well…” Trixie looked around the room, examining the mess. “Mind telling Trixie why the Headmare’s office is in disarray?”

For the briefest of moment’s Trixie could see Starlight hug the box closer to her chest. “I was looking for something. But I found it. And… that’s all I could remember before I passed out.”

Trixie tilted her head a little. “Is that it?” She pointed at the box that Starlight was holding.

Starlight nodded. “Yes. I think it is. I don’t know. Kind of. I think I was supposed to send it out to Thorax.”

“Well, how about you let Trixie do that while you —”

“No!” Starlight shouted, sounding panicked. Trixie flinched back, surprised by the sudden outburst. “No,” Starlight continued. She was breathing heavily now. “I’ll… I’ll do it. J-just give me some time to sleep, and I’ll do it myself.”

“Oh—okay.”

“What did you come in here for?”

“Trixie came in here to grade the papers.”

“I’ll grade them.”

Trixie blinked. “You’re going to grade the papers and mail the box to Thorax? Don’t you have to sleep first?”

Starlight nodded quickly. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Wha—Starlight, those papers have to be graded by Monday. Trixie will do it.”

“Fine, fine,” Starlight said. “You can do it. Just take them and leave me in peace, okay?”

Trixie was befuddled. Starlight was never quick to chase her away. Yes, the mare did suffer from social anxiety on occasion, but she was usually open to sit down with a friend and talk about her day. Trixie knew that she wasn’t a very smart mare, but she was smart enough to know that despite how much sleep deprivation Starlight was suffering from, something else was wrong with her.

What that was, Trixie had no idea, and she didn’t want to dig into her friend to find out. Her time as a counselor had taught that that would just back Starlight into a corner where she would continue to deflect.

“Starlight,” Trixie said. “Will you continue to sleep when Trixie leaves?”

Starlight nodded. Trixie couldn’t help but note that she looked like a filly the way her head bobbed up and down surreptitiously.

“Right. So how about Trixie escorts you back to your chambers?”

Starlight nodded again. “Sure, sure…” She glanced down toward that box and looked up at Trixie. After lifting it into the air with her magic so that it floated beside her head, she said, “Let’s go.”

And, so far as Trixie knew, that was the end of the oddities for the day. Trixie and Starlight walked together down the corridor, neither saying anything to each other. When they made it to the room, Starlight laid down on the bed and returned to hugging the box to her chest. Trixie didn’t comment on it. She didn’t comment on anything. She just told Starlight to have a good night, shut the door, and returned to the mess that was the Headmare’s Office.

Trixie kicked stuff aside, mostly out of laziness. It was a tactic she had learned when she first moved out of her parents’ house. If she kicked everything into one big pile, she could focus all of her magic onto it and stuff it under a bed or whatever. Only there was no bed, and Starlight would be mad if she opened the storage closet the next day for every single item in her office to come crashing over her like a tidal wave.

Trixie stopped to think. Trixie could procure the mess now, or focus her remaining energy onto the papers before she enters a state of lethargy.

That seemed like the better plan to her: focus her attention on grading for now, then use that remaining energy to clean the office.

Trixie sat behind the desk and slid the paperwork forward using her telekinesis. She took the first page off the top and began the process of grading. Then, she noticed something. The lack of something.

She looked up from her paperwork to stare at the sundial clock at the edge of Starlight’s desk. It stopped ticking again. The little hand was stuck on one while the big hand was stuck on three. Trixie sighed, knowing that Starlight would be obsessing over it the next day if she didn’t fix that. There was another thing to add to the ever-growing list of Things Preventing Trixie From Sleeping.

She would do that later. For now, she had to focus on grading papers.

~•~

A thin veil of cloud covered a portion of the moon, but Mr. Black could easily infer that it was a waxing gibbous tonight. The sky was a deep, purple hue with clusters upon clusters of stars dotting its landscape, a streak of cosmic swirls running across.

Mr. Black took a puff from his cigarette and stared back down at the courtyard from his spot on the roof. His initial reasoning was that if the killer was someone at the school, it would likely be a student. His hypothesis didn’t rule out the teachers of the school, but the bite marks he found implied that the killer was a carnivore. The only carnivores at the school were, of course, students.

That didn’t rid the possibility that a pony suddenly turned psycho and wanted to try out a new fad diet either. But, the bite marks found on chunks of the first victim’s brain implied that the killer was a predator. Already, the fact that the killer had teeth ruled out the possibility that the griffon and the hippogriff were killers, and yaks didn’t have a particularly sharp set themselves. Besides, they didn’t eat meat.

That left dragons and the changeling. Obviously, the dragon had the ability to gnaw someone’s head off if she really cared to, and the changeling could shift into any creature to throw him off. Of course, he didn’t know of any cases where a changeling attacked someone and ate their remains. Any modern cases, that is.

Unlike the first victim, whose head was gnawed off, the second victim’s head was completely smashed in without repeated force. This implied that the creature that killed him both had a particularly sharp set of teeth and a particularly strong physique. Most dragons don’t develop an overwhelming amount of strength until they reach maturity, and by then they are so overgrown that they would tower over Ponyville. Surely, someone would notice that.

Mr. Black mulled over this information, and every time he reached a conclusion, it would immediately follow up with a contradiction. Conclusion: only a changeling is capable of having sharp teeth while also possessing a gargantuan amount of strength. Contradiction: not only do changelings feed off feelings, but they’re mostly vegan. Conclusion: dragons do eat meat, yes. Contradiction: this one, based on the information he gathered, is typically lazy and isn’t fully grown.

A flake landed on his beak, and Mr. Black knew that the blizzard would pick up again soon. That meant his stakeout was almost at an end. He would give it a few more minutes, and if nothing happened, he would be forced by the sheer power of nature to leave.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait much longer. From his spot on the snow-laden roof, Mr. Black observed as the door which led into the student dorms opened, forcing mounds of snow aside. Out stepped the griffon, followed closely by the pony (Sandbar? Mr. Black thought.), who was followed by the yak (Yona.). The hippogriff hovered in the air behind them.

Mr. Black watched as they walked across the courtyard and entered through the door on the other side. It was only the four of them. Both the dragon and changeling were still inside. If his theory on the six students was correct, they were practically inseparable. He would wait and see if they chose to come out as well. Then, he would tail them.

~•~

Smolder banged on the door once more. “Yo, they’re already heading to the library!”

Nothing. Not even a rustle. Smolder tried banging on the door again, but there was still no response. Enough of this, she thought. She can sleep in if she wants to.

Smolder turned away and was about to run outside to join the others when the door opened. She always thought it was difficult to read Ocellus’s expressions at times due to the lack of pupils, but to her, the wrinkles beneath the changeling’s ocelli were a sure sign that something was wrong.

“You good?” Smolder asked.

“M-hmm,” Ocellus hummed. Her head drooped a little, but she uprighted it quickly. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Smolder jabbed a thumb toward the exit. “We’re heading to the Treehouse right now. You should come.”

Ocellus leaned against the doorway’s frame, clearly struggling to keep her eyes open. “What for?”

“Ocellus, it’s movie night...”

At the mention of “movie night,” Ocellus’s eyes shot wide open and she stood up straight. “That’s tonight?”

Smolder tilted her head, staring at Ocellus in confusion. She could understand being tired, but the changeling was usually more headstrong than this. To Ocellus, a late-night study session before a big test was an excuse to not sleep. Despite the lack of rest, she would still have all the mental fortitude to know all of the answers.

“Yes it’s tonight,” Smolder said, narrowing her eyes. “We’ve been talking about it for almost a month… Ocellus, if you’re not feeling well, you could just sleep in.”

“No, no…” Ocellus said quickly. “I can make it! I’ll roll around in the snow without my parka if I have to.”

She took a step forward, but Smolder placed her claw against the door’s framing, blocking Ocellus from leaving. “Are you good?”

“Yes, yes I am. Just let me —”

“No, I mean…” Smolder fiddled with the words in her head, trying to figure out the right way to express them. “Silverstream told me you two got in a fight earlier. With her and Gallus. You guys good?”

Ocellus blinked. “We did?”

“W-what?” Smolder stammered. She dropped her arm to her side. Was Ocellus lying, or did she really not remember? “Th-they tried talking to you earlier about something or whatever, and you yelled at them. You even told Silverstream to shut the fuck up.”

Despite Ocellus not having pupils, Smolder could still make out the eye roll on her face. “Nice try. I might be tired, but I’m not any less stupid. Let’s go.”

Ocellus turned away from Smolder and walked over to the coat rack at the foot of her bed, floating her cyan parka off of it.

Smolder stepped into the room. “So you’re just gonna pretend that you don’t remember what happened? What if Gallus and Silverstream are still upset about it? They’re gonna wanna talk to you!”

“I have no idea what you’re saying,” Ocellus said as she fitted her forehoof through the other sleeve. “I’ve been asleep most of the day.”

“Then why are you still tired?”

Ocellus shrugged. “I don’t know. I probably just didn’t sleep that well.”

“What do you mean ‘didn’t sleep that well?’ Ocellus, you’ve been tired for the last two days!”

“And maybe I won’t be as tired tomorrow morning.” Ocellus zipped up her parka and pulled the hood over her head. “Let’s go.”

She made toward the door, but Smolder blocked her. “Why are you pretending none of that happened? It’s not like you. It’s not like you to snap, and it’s not like you to curse.”

“If Gallus and Silverstream are both upset with me about something, then we can talk about it when we get there. Please, Smolder. I want to go to movie night with you guys.”

Smolder held her ground, searching her brain for something to say. But, she was no therapist. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered why she cared so much. It wasn’t her business if her friends’ weren’t getting along with each other. Shit, she wasn’t the one fighting, so why bother? Fine. If Ocellus wanted to be that way, then Smolder couldn’t oppose it.

“Fine,” she said, breathing a deep sigh. “Let’s go.”

~•~

Mr. Black had just flicked his cigarette off the roof when the door opened again. It was the dragon. Smolder, was it? Closely followed by her was the changeling. Ocellus. The two walked across the courtyard and disappeared through the door on the other side.

It was time for him to move.

~•~

Starlight woke up.

At least, she thought she did. Her head was still in that state where it couldn’t differentiate between sleep and awareness. Her mind wandered, exploring the dream that had been playing in her mind before reality crept back in. Was there a dream? It was impossible to tell.

After a few minutes, the awareness kicked in. Starlight opened her eyes, only to be greeted by darkness. Of course. She slept until the evening. She felt much better. Like her energy was rejuvenated. Yet she hated it. She hated the idea of existing in the physical world where dreams didn’t persist. She hated the consequences of reality. Primarily, she hated the silence.

Without the ticking of the decorative sundial clock, she could hear reality for what it actually was. Silence. Nothing more and nothing less. Sometimes there was a lot of screaming and kicking involved, and sometimes there was music. But, beneath the charade that is reality, both silence and darkness forever permeated the air.

Starlight didn’t want to have these thoughts, but that was all she could think about as she lied in bed. What else was there to do? She could get up, go to the teacher’s lounge, and make some instant coffee. That would require physical effort to get out of bed, however. It wasn’t a crutch used to support laziness. It was a two-ton figurative dumbbell sitting on her chest.

Then, she thought about it more, and some more, and some more, and some more. If Starlight chose to stay in bed, she would probably lie awake the rest of the night and be miserable. However, if she got up now, she could find something to get her mind away from the thoughts. It was settled.

The time it took between leaving the room and arriving at the teacher’s lounge was absent to her. One moment she got up, and the next she was already there. It was like she didn’t even lift a hoof.

Starlight placed the kettle on the hotplate and waited for it to heat up. When steam shot out the spout, she poured the hot water into a styrofoam cup and mixed it with two spoonfuls of SureFire Instant Coffee.

Starlight sat down behind her desk and slid the top sheet off the stack of papers that laid at the edge. Then she blinked. Suddenly, it felt like many details were missing. Like her journey from the bedroom, to the teacher’s lounge, and to the office lacked attention and depth. It was all just an aimless procedure generated by her mind where the mundane became dreams and actions performed in the mundane became reality.

Starlight thought she was finally starting to understand. Perhaps. Whatever the case, it was time to address the elephant in the room and channel her thoughts through verbal means.

Starlight looked up at the elephant. “Mr. Elephant!” she said.

“That’s Doctor Ellie Font to you!” said the elephant, who sat in a large rocking chair by the fireplace that Starlight was sure was always there. He wore a silk robe the color of dark purple and a yamaka on his head. Starlight didn’t know what a yamaka was, but it sounded funny. “I did not attend eight years of medical school to be called mister.”

Starlight nodded. “You’re right. Sorry. My bad.” She gestured toward the recliner across from him. “May I join you?”

Dr. Ellie Font pulled the pipe out of his mouth using his trunk and pointed it toward the chair. “You may. I am always open when you need to vent. You should know that, Starlight.”

Starlight walked around the desk and toward the recliner. She hopped up and leaned back against its cushions, relishing in how soft it was.

“Would you like some tea?”

“No thank you,” Starlight replied. “I just drank some instant coffee.”

Dr. Ellie Font took a huff from his pipe and blew a couple of rings into the air using his trunk. “So, what do you want my dear friend? No subject is taboo with me. I have the psychology degree to provide you with the proper therapy — if therapy is what you require, that is.”

Starlight grew quiet for a moment, searching for words. The warmth of the fireplace felt nice. “Well, Dr. Ellie Font, do you think that we’re living in a dream?”

Dr. Ellie Font snorted, which came out in the form of a honk. “What are dreams but realities where everything you find unfamiliar suddenly becomes familiar? It’s the only time where you understand concepts. Then, you wake up and forget everything. You are back in your state of Wants and Needs, wishing you could go back to sleep. Does this sound like what you experience?”

Starlight rubbed her shoulder with her other forehoof and stared into the crackling fire. “Yeah, that’s about right. I wake up and I hate being awake. I want to do nothing but go back to sleep. What do you think I should do?”

Dr. Ellie Font puffed another ring into the air. “Drugs,” he said. “And lots of them. Heroin might be what you need to achieve that dream state you so desire. Some prescribed medications are also good. I personally dabble in alcohol to numb this concept that is ‘reality’ from my brain.”

“Wow,” Starlight said, smiling. “That’s really good advice. Thank you, Dr. Ellie Font!”

“It’s my pleasure,” he said. “I am always willing to help a friend, otherwise I would have no reason to earn my degree in friendology—which has gotten me no jobs despite the countless times I was told otherwise in calfolic school.”

Starlight nodded along in agreement. “I’m glad we could have this discussion. It’s given me a lot to think about.”

“Indeed,” Dr. Ellie Font replied, taking the pipe out of his mouth again. “Otherwise my degree in alottothinkaboutology would be rendered useless.”

The room filled with the cheery sound of a bell. Both Starlight and Dr. Ellie Font stared up at the cuckoo clock above the mantel. “Ah!” Dr. Ellie Font exclaimed. “It’s time for words of wisdom from our dear friend, Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker.”

Two tiny saloon doors beneath the face of the clock opened up, and out popped Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker on his iconic log.

“Greetings, everyone!” Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker said majestically. “I am Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker, and I bear words of wisdom. Ask your questions, and I’ll answer them.”

“Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker,” Starlight uttered. “I think I’m afraid of something.”

Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker tilted his head as he looked down at Starlight with his beady eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Well… I think I’m afraid of the passage of time. I feel like the older I get, the faster days go by. I feel like time travels, but not in the sense that I can control it. Days are quicker to become dark and the same annual holiday parties feel like they took place only weeks ago. I’m afraid of the concept of growing old. With each year my body will become slightly weaker, and it’s possible I’ll even lose function in some parts of it. I’m afraid of my friends growing apart from me and suddenly disappearing off the face of Equestria. I’m afraid that any moment another villain could come down from the sky and destroy the nation in a fiery reign. How… how do I cope with this? How do I find peace with my thoughts and find a way to live in the moment?”

“You could kill yourself!” Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker chirped happily. “Scared of growing old and having your body parts gradually lose their function? Scared of losing your friends and family? Scared that the world could end at any moment? You can be at peace with your thoughts knowing that you are in control of your fate! All it takes is a little bit of planning and a day to end all days.”

“:)” said Starlight.

“I’m glad you can take refuge in this thought, Starlight! I, Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker, have been happy to help. Although, there is one thing I have to say before I go, Starlight.”

Starlight tilted her head. “What is that?”

“Please don’t kill yourself before you can make it to Canterlot. You’re too essential to the cause. It would be devastating to lose you this early.”

“Canterlot?” Starlight muttered, then she heard something — like an inkwell dropping to the floor. She jolted her head toward the desk, but nothing was there. She turned back to Dr. Ellie Font, but he and the chair he was sitting in were gone. She turned to Whimble The Wistful Whimsical Woodpecker and he too was gone. So was the fireplace and the recliner that she was sitting in.

Starlight collapsed to the floor and burst into tears.