Confrontations

Moonfire awoke to the bell clanging overhead. why must this dream haunt me?

He sat up and rubbed his eyes, what was it that I was going to do today? Moonfire thought for a little and remembered, oh yeah... I still don’t think this is a good idea... but I’d rather help her then let Caligantis catch her with her disguise down.

Moonfire stood up and walked over to the window, I just hope this isn’t what I fear it is.

He climbed up onto the edge, winced, turned left and walked over to the corner of the tower onto a ledge sticking out from the corner. He walked over to the edge of the ledge and jumped.

He landed in a pond and, after the bubbles cleared from around his head, he opened his eyes and saw two catfish with what looked like the fish equivalent of an annoyed look on their faces. Their annoyance grew as the unicorn’s horn glowed, sending forth tendrils of heat to create a pleasant bath bubble in the pond. And as was the privilege of catfish, they just decided to walk out and went to look for someplace less crowded. The colt gave them an odd look, but he figured that if Nature could see fit to give him some odd abilities, he couldn’t begrudge some fish the luxury of walking (or waddling, as they did) on land.

The crickets and frogs slowly went silent. The pond was completely still, except for some bubbles coming to the surface near the middle when suddenly it flashed green and the bubbles moved towards the edge. A unicorn filly with a carnation coat walked out and up onto the road. She stopped and flipped her mane out of her eyes and lit up her horn, instantly drying herself off.

Glad I found that spell in Baltimare, Moonfire thought as he started towards the school.

Maybe if I- He stopped as little balls of golden light danced in his vision and he felt a tug pulling him towards a nearby park. Without pause he followed the pull at a gallop and soon found an off white pegasus colt, stuck with the strap of his camera around a branch and his neck. Wait, what’s this colt’s name again? Feather... something... close enough for now.

Without a word Moonfire used his magic and undid the strap’s clasp, making the colt fall and bounce off of several branches and hit his head when he reached the ground. That’s his name!

“Hey Featherweight, are you okay?” Moonfire asked.

Featherweight looked up as he rubbed his head and, in a raspy voice said, “Yeah, my throat’s a little sore - and so’s the rest of me- but I think I’m okay.”

Moonfire looked up and saw the camera still hanging from the branch, “Huh, I thought your camera would’ve followed you. Here, let-”

“Don’t worry, I can get it down.” Featherweight interrupted. He stood up and tried to compose himself. He gave two cursory flaps with his wings, but a little wobble in his legs stopped him from taking off.

“You sure you’re not feeling dizzy? I don’t think you should try to fly right now; you might have a concussion.”

“A what?”

Moonfire restrained himself from face-hoofing, “It’s a very bad head injury that can make you feel light-headed or dizzy, most can mess with how you can fly or cast magic, and some can make you like the mailmare: barely any depth perception.”

“Oh. Well, I guess I don’t want to risk anything permanent. I don’t think I have a concussion, though. Wouldn’t I need a hospital if I had one of those?” The colt shook his head a few times to check, and didn’t seem to lose balance.

“Well, for minor ones you don’t really need to go to the hospital, you just need to lie down for a little.” the fake Berry Pinch said as she tried to examine Featherweight with her magic.

The colt backed away a little nervously as the girl leaned in close to his face, that cute little horn glowing pink. He blushed at the filly’s close scrutiny, breath suddenly coming in a little quicker. “Umm...I guess I do have a little while before class starts, right?”

Moonfire suddenly remembered who he was disguised as and blushed. “Oh, y-yeah... I wouldn’t recommend flying until lunch just to be safe,” he said as he backed away and untangled the strap from the branch. As Moonfire was about to turn away he noticed that Featherweight had gotten closer. He froze, not believing what was happening. Featherweight hesitated.

And then he backed away, blushing furiously. “Th-thanks for, um... ” he muttered, adding something under his breath about stupid movies he shouldn’t have watched.

Moonfire shook himself, “N-no problem. J-just try to fly a little higher n-next time,” he said as he set the camera down in the other colt’s hooves.

Still blushing, Featherweight thanked Moonfire again and ran off towards the school house. As he ran off, his mother’s voice sounded in his head, with all the good advice she’d given her little boy on how to handle girls. It included being polite, gallant, even. It even included not mourning over a hurt pride when a girl saved him. “That sort of thing just happens,” she’d said, and it didn’t meant anything about him being weak or anything else.

One thing his mother hadn’t warned him of yet was the possibility of girls who were really boys. She also hadn’t discussed the idea of girls who were really girls but weren’t girls all the time.

None of this mattered, though, since as far as he was concerned, Featherweight had had a run-in with a girl. And while he’d tried to be gallant and polite, he couldn’t help but wonder that those faerie tales of princes saving damsels didn’t really work the other way around.

As this train of thought ran through the hapless colt’s head, the girl who spent most of her days as a boy found her own train of thought reaching its terminus.

... What the buck just happened?

==========================

Moonfire was waiting in a bush that was near the school, trying to puzzle out what had happened that morning. Maybe if I try to get the real Berry Pinch and Featherweight together... Then I’d have to get a camera and pretend to be Featherweight a few times, and even then they might think that I’m here. And where would I get a camera anyways? Heh, at least my mom wouldn’t be happy about a colt liking me... But it isn’t me he likes, it’s Berry... Wait... Why am I thinking about this? I like D- His thoughts were interrupted by the school’s bell signalling lunch.

As he sat there, he saw his target go onto the roof with her friends. He tried to follow but was stopped when he saw Berry Pinch walking by the bush. ... Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea... No. This decision is already made. I’m going to talk to her, I HAVE to talk to her.

Moonfire waited until almost all the foals were playing near the front before leaving the bush and climbing up to the roof.

As he approached the barrel he heard Scootaloo, the one he was after, say, “Does that kid even have a voice?”

“He does,” Moonfire said as he walked up to the trio on the roof, clambering up on a barrel of rain water, “he just had a little run-in with a tree on the way here.”

“What do you mean by that?” Scoots asked.

“She means that my camera strap got caught on a branch,” Featherweight said in a raspy voice, rubbing his sore throat and blushing a little. Is he- NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT!

“Really?” Sweetie Belle asked, croaking a little herself just from thinking about it.

“Yeah, he gets that once every couple of days,” Moonfire said with a blush as he watched the colt turn back to his lunch, “but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“And why-”

“I know your secret, Scootaloo.”

Moonfire saw Scootaloo’s form shimmer a little, but a glance at the other fillies revealed that they hadn’t seen it. What was that?

“What secret?”

“Yeah, what secret?” Apple Bloom asked.

Come on, do you HAVE to drag this out right here? Taking a moment to make sure the reporter colt wasn’t looking, Moonfire held up one hoof and conjured the barest hint of a green flame, revealing the blackened surface beneath. Moonfire locked eyes with the girls.

“I know what you are,” she stated flatly before completing her disguise again.

The Crusaders’ eyes widened in realization. Apple Bloom was the first to recover from the shock. The three furtively looked around, but their classmates were all preoccupied with their meals.

“You wouldn’t show something like that for no good reason, nopony would. What do you want? Protection?” Apple Bloom started.

“I can protect myself, thanks. I’m not interested in you, just Scootaloo. Come to the clock tower tomorrow at five. There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you, and you alone. Come alone, no tricks. If you don’t, I’m taking your secret straight to Equestria Daily.”

“We could just turn you in now, you know,” Sweetie Belle started, “you’re in plain sight, at a schoolyard. All we have to do is scream.”

Thank you captain obvious!

“You could try that. You’re right: all you have to do is scream and ponies will come rushing in. But unless you three decide to jump me, all I have to do is run, and then I can be anywhere, or anyone, before any grownup even gets the chance to ask what happened. And when they do, even if you manage to catch me and hold me, what then?”

The three fillies looked to one another as they realised the full extent of what she was saying. And now they get why I didn’t want to reveal myself here.

“You’d still have to explain why any changeling would be interested in you to begin with. I’m pretty sure your friend there doesn’t want that kind of attention any more than I do. So, Scootaloo: what do you say?”

Scootaloo glared at the colt in disguise, “Five o’ clock at the belltower, huh? ... Okay, I’ll come alone. On one condition.”

“Name it,” not-Berry offered with a victorious grin.

“You don’t follow me or my friends around. You wanna talk to any of us, you ask. I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s this weird kind of smell that only we can pick up on. I’ll listen to what you have to say, but you do not get to sneak up on me or my friends.”

Come on, I don’t do that now. And I don’t stink! I take baths every day. Well, more of a rinse, but still!

“I don’t think you realise who you’re dealing with,” Moonfire threatened, slightly offended.

“Neither do you,” Scootaloo replied in kind, “I don’t know what kind of Hive you might have backing you up, but there are ponies, friends, who know about me already. And if I don’t want you bugging me, they’re not going to let you. So: I don’t try anything funny, you don’t try anything funny. Sound fair?”

Hmph, At least you have friends.

Moonfire turned and sighed, “Fine by me.”

And with that, Moonfire jumped down into his bush. A faint green light came from the bush and Moonfire stepped out disguised as himself. He looked up and said, “Remember: Clocktower, five o’clock.”

With that he turned and left.

Author's Note

Credit for the editing of this chapter goes to...
TheCacophonousMuse
Joel
Stray Dog Kane
Also: This does not mean that I am done with the fic, only that I have gotten impatient with my own writing pace. I have gone months -- MONTHS -- at a time not even looking at this. I know: "It's not good to rush yourself" and all that jazz, but I've been procrastinating with this, barely writing anything for the past year. And I know that it's a bit early for New Year's Resolutions, but I think it's time to set at least one. I WILL finish this fic before this time next year.