Hidden Wings

Twilight was now sat in Rainbow's room with nothing to do, she had long since revised, edited, and re-revised her notes on Rainbow's species but now she had nothing else to add. So eventually with nothing else to do Twilight began to look around the room more thoroughly, the first thing she moved to examine was the many posters and pictures on the walls, starting with the ones closest to the door. The first photo Twilight saw brought an immediate smile to her face, it was the photo of her, Rainbow, and the rest of the girls that they had taken on a whim during a picnic, the photo turned out much better than any of them had expected, so they all decided to get copies made for each of them.

Moving further along the wall, the next thing to catch Twilight's attention was another photo, this one depicted Rainbow Dash sitting in a booth with several other individuals, presumably at a bar or some other similar establishment if the mugs of cider were anything to go by. There were two individuals that Twilight recognized immediately, the first was of course Rainbow Dash who was hoof wrestling a unicorn mare that Twilight didn't recognize, the mare had a dull green coat, lime coloured eyes, and a ginger mane.

The second pony that Twilight recognized was her friend Lemon Hearts, who didn't seem to be holding up that well, with her resting her head on the table... that or she had passed out, the idea of either was shocking as Twilight had heard tales of Lemon Hearts incredible alcohol tolerance from her Canterlot friend, well... that's what Twilight thought she heard, she was only half paying attention when she hung out with them, her face more often than not being buried in a book.

A wave of guilt washed over Twilight as she remembered how poorly she treated her friends in Canterlot. She gazed back to the photo of her Ponyville friends, then to the photo of Dash and her friends, in both Twilight could feel the strong connection that was held within the two groups, but when looking for any such memory of her Canterlot friends there wasn't much, the closest they came was the memories of her and Moondancer studying in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns together.

Without another thought, Twilight brought up her notebook and turned to a new page, being sure to leave plenty of room for later discoveries about Rainbow, and made a note to plan a trip to Canterlot to see her old friends.

After she was done writing, Twilight turned back to the photo of Rainbow Dash with her friends, upon doing so she realised that there was a third pony she recognized, but had never actually met. Taking up a large chunk of the left side of the photo was the head of a mare with a light grey coat and an orange mane with occasional black patches throughout it, this pony was none other then Firecracker Burn, a brilliant up-and-coming engineer and inventor from Manehattan, notable for making the first mass producible coloured cameras when she was only six years old.

Other than her though, no further observation brought any clue to the identity of the others, aside from the ginger unicorn, there was another unicorn who seemed to be albino, with a white body and mane with the tips being dyed black and pink coloured eyes, a rose gold pegasus with a dark blue mane that had strakes of pink running through it as well as similarly coloured rose gold eyes. The last two individuals were the ones who stood out the most, the first was a bulky grey bodied griffon with a snow white head and a set of amber eyes, the other was a slender black dragon with a red underbelly and red spines running along her back as well as having emerald green eyes.

Twilight believed that she had gathered all she could from this photo so she moved along the wall to the next photos. These ones were seemingly all taken at different Wonderbolts shows from throughout the years, the first that Twilight saw was of a smiling young Rainbow Dash leaning over the railing, looking out towards her heroes, several before this followed a similar trend each of Rainbow Dash and each showing her at a younger age, then something strange happened, instead of showing Rainbow Dash the photo showed an entirely different pony, still a fairly young one, but seemingly older than Rainbow Dash appeared in the last picture. Twilight took a step back and skimmed through the remaining photos, it seemed that each of them showed the image of a different pony, different ages, genders, colours, cutie marks, and even tribes in one or two of them.

Twilight thought back to all she had seen Rainbow and her mother do, Rainbow had demonstrated the ability to transform into a form that looked completely different from their natural one, and Fairy Flight showed that they could also preform partial transformation. Twilight concluded that if they could preform both of these feats then she saw no reason that they would be limited to just transforming into one pony. But this brought another question to her mind, considering that Wonderbolts show usually happen around every two years, and if she believed that the ponies that were the subject in these photos was Dash, the number of photos would indicate that Dash would have to be in her forties at least. After coming to this realisation Twilight made a note to ask Rainbow Dash what her age was.

Anisoptera anxiously hovered in front of her bedroom door, she was about to not only make changeling history but to finally tell one of her friends the truth, but she had no idea why she felt so scared, she had felt it before whenever she was tempted to reveal her true form in public and fulfil the crazy scheme of getting changelings to live openly with ponies, but she had always rationalized it as a fear of rejection, not just by ponies for what she was but also by her family and the changeling species as a whole for revealing them. But now there was none of that holding her back, she was just going to talk to Twilight, she had been given the green light to do so, and Twilight had already accepted her for crying out loud! But despite all of that Anisoptera could feel her heart beating franticly in her chest, as if it were desperately trying to escape her chest.

There was only one thing that Anisoptera knew to do in times like this, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and thought of her friends. She knew it was kinda cheesy, but ever since the best young fliers competition she realised just how much the knowledge that her friends were there for her eased her nerves, even if she was still anxious about performing then she probably wouldn't have gone out to perform if they weren't there for her.

Anisoptera paused for a moment as she thought of Twilight, out of all of her pony friends she was most thankful that it was her who found out instead of any of the others, she knew Pinkie would go crazy knowing how many changelings she would have to throw parties for, and the hive would likely be a complete mass for months after the fact. Applejack probably wouldn't take kindly to the fact that a secret of this magnitude was kept from her and Anisoptera doubted that she could, or would, keep the secret. Rarity she trusted to keep the secret if made to make a pinkie promise, but she would probably faint as soon as she heard that Anisoptera was royalty, and she wouldn't be surprised if Rarity pestered her to modal in all her dresses. Fluttershy could probably keep the secret if asked to but she would definitely be terrified of changelings, she was terrified of regular ponies, there was no way she could handle giant bugs that could be literally anything. But then there was Twilight.

Anisoptera trusted her enough to know she would keep the secret, even if it would take some convincing, and the most trouble she would cause after the fact would be that she would want to research changelings, and all she would have to do is point her in the direction of the library.

Taking in another deep breath, Anisoptera reached out to the door knob with her magic and gave it a twist.

Anisoptera entered the room to see Twilight, she had quickly spun around as soon as she had entered, but had appeared to be in the middle of examining the photos that decorated the walls. When the two met each others eyes both froze, Anisoptera froze due to the fear and anxiety welling up once again, meanwhile Twilight seemed to be stuck in thought.

However, after a few moments of silence, Twilight's eyes suddenly flashed with recognition. "Rainbow Dash!" She cried in joy as she rushed towards Anisoptera, leaping into the air with her forehooves outstretched, when they collided Twilight wrapped her hooves into a tight hug around Anisoptera's barrel.

Anisoptera was shoved backwards by the unintentional tackle but managed to stay airborne, causing Twilight to dangle from her just above the ground. Soon after steadying herself Anisoptera gladly returned the hug, her fears quickly washing away. She also began to absentmindedly drink in the incredibly large dose of love that Twilight was emitting, much larger than any she had received from Twilight before and not just the platonic love shared between friends, it took a moment for Anisoptera to realise what this meant but as soon as she did her heart swelled in her chest.

Anisoptera looked down onto Twilight, a rosy blush forming on her cheeks. "Twilight... do you...?" Anisoptera said in a soft voice, however the rest of her words died in her throat as Twilight looked up at her and made eye contact.

"So I take it this means I get to remember all of this?" Twilight asked, seemingly oblivious to what Anisoptera had just said.

"Y-yeah it does." Anisoptera said as she lowered Twilight gently to the ground. "On one condition." She continued in a much more serious tone.

Twilight became slightly nervous at her friend's tone. "What it is?" She asked.

Anisoptera shut her eyes, took in a deep breath, and once again met Twilight gaze. "You can't tell anypony about anything you see or learn about us, not our friends, not spike, not even the princesses."

Twilight eyes went wide for a moment, but she quickly put her hoof to her chin in thought for a moment. "Before I agree to anything, explain to me why I can't tell anypony."

Anisoptera expected Twilight to ask something to this nature, but that didn't make coming up with an answer that Twilight was guaranteed to accept any easer. "Well...Look I can't really go into any details about why, not until you agree. But I can tell you, as your friend, that it is nothing bad, we mostly just like to keep to ourselves and some ponies wouldn't accept us."

Twilight resumed her thinking for some time, this turned out to be a very difficult decision for her, she trusted Dash, no doubt about that but the idea of withholding information from Princess Celestia and her other friends didn't feel right to her, but then again Twilight could see the look in her friend's eyes, they showed what looked to be a silent, desperate, plea for her to agree.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity spent in complete silence, Twilight had made up her mind, she looked Anisoptera in the eyes and put on a warm smile. "Alright Dash, I won't tell anypony, but I do want an expiation."

Anisoptera's horn began to glow with red light, just then Twilight felt a force come from behind her and push her forward, straight into another hug from Anisoptera. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Anisoptera shouted in joy, tear welling up in her eyes.

However, just as quickly as it came, Anisoptera ended the hug, a bright purple blush forming on her face. Chuckling awkwardly, Anisoptera wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes. "Sorry, I've just always wanted to tell somepony about this stuff, especially you and the girls, guess I got a bit carried away."

Twilight gave her a reassuring smile. "Hey, it's fine Dash, I understand."

"Thanks Twi." Anisoptera said as she returned a smile of her own to Twilight. "I guess now that I can give you a real introduction now huh?"

Twilight Tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?" She asked.

Anisoptera chuckled in amusement. "Twi, my real name isn't Rainbow Dash." She said simply.

Twilight's eyes went wide with shock, but this shock was quickly replaced with realization. "Oh... yeah I guess that makes since, seeing as you don't have your Rainbow mane when you're like this like this." She said as she laughed awkwardly to herself, but she thankfully regained her composure quickly. "So, what is your real name?"

"My name is Anisoptera, or just Ani for short." Anisoptera said simply, but as soon as she was finished she heard a call over the hive mind.

"You might want to tell her sooner rather than later sweetie." Meganeura said in a gentle tone.

"Mom!? Are you listening in on us?" Anisoptera said in an annoyed tone.

"Of course I am, this is a big deal, I need to make sure you're okay and that everything goes well. I wouldn't be surprised if your friends were listening in as well." Meganeura replied, still in her gentle tone of voice.

Anisoptera let out a low grumble of annoyance, resulting in Twilight becoming a bit confused. "Da- I mean, Ani are you alright?" She asked.

Anisoptera let out a sigh. "You can still call me Dash if you want Twi, and yes I'm fine, it's just my mom."

Twilight looked around the room, seemingly searching for something. "But... She's not here?"

Anisoptera facehooved, of course Twilight didn't know about the hive mind. "Never mind. But there is one more thing I have to tell you before we do anything else."

Anisoptera took in another deep breath, and met Twilight's gaze. "I am... Princess Anisoptera of the Ponyville changeling hive."

As soon as she heard this, Twilight broke. An entire species she had never heard mention of, she could handle. The fact that they could shapeshift, peaked her interest more than anything. Rainbow Dash was one of these unknown creatures, that was pushing things a bit but she was otherwise fine. But Rainbow Dash being royalty? That was too much for her mind to handle, the idea of such a thing was just incompatible with her brain.

"Twi, are you okay?" Anisoptera asked as she gently nudged Twilight's shoulder.

This seemed to thankfully snap Twilight out of her shock. "You're a princess!?" She shouted. "You're the rule of your speci-" Twilight was suddenly cut off as she felt that her mouth was clamped shut by a red glow, the same rad glow around Anisoptera's horn.

"Okay could have explained that better." Anisoptera said as she released her grip on Twilight's muzzle. "I'm not the ruler of all changeling like Princess Celestia and Luna are for ponies, we have kings and queens and stuff, and even then each ruler only rules over one hive."

Anisoptera's explanation seemed to calm Twilight down, if only somewhat. "Wow... uh, sorry for freaking out. I just never expected you of all pon- I mean changelings to be royalty." Twilight said with a tone of embarrassment.

Anisoptera chuckled. "Yeah, that means I'm doing a good job at hiding it." there was a slight pause before Anisoptera continued "So I know you probably have a lot more questions, but I'm not going to be able to answer them all, so how about we go get some food, I introduce you to my changeling friends, and they can help answer your questions."

Twilights stomach growled at the mention of food, with all that had happened today she was only just now realising that she had only eaten breakfast today and nothing else. "Sure that sounds great." She said as she and Anisoptera made their way to the door and out in to the halls of the hive.