Chapters Anisoptera lurked in the shadows of the alleyway as she spied on Discord, the lord of chaos was currently sat upon a throne, cackling madly at all absurdity happening around him. She looked around trying to see if anypony were still around, when she saw nopony she knew it was her time to strike. Anisoptera dropped her disguise and prepared to leap out of the alley, but then she felt a presence behind her.
"Y'know, this somehow might not even be the dumbest thing you've ever done." Said the all to familiar voice of Anax
She turned around to see Anax, along with Nannophya the goliath, and Telephlebia the seeker, all of whom were standing there without their disguises. "What are you guys doing here?" Anisoptera asked.
Telephlebia chuckled. "Oh come on, we've been your bodyguards for long enough to know your going to do something cool." She said as she took her own glance outside of the alleyway.
“H-Hey! I’m not that predictable.” Anisoptera cried.
Nannophya shook his head “Of course you’re not, you’re awesome.” He said reassuringly.
Anisoptera groaned, and then looked to her two bodyguards. “I really appreciate how supportive you two are, but you gotta tone it down a bit.” She then looked at Anax. “Let me guess, you’ve come to talk me down. Well sorry, but there’s nothing you can say to make me change my mind.”
“I know.” Anax said calmly.
"Goo-" Anisoptera stopped mid sentence as the words sank in. "Wait what?"
"I know I can't stop you, and I know these two aren't going to do it." Anax said as he gestured towards Telephlebia and Nannophya. "The only thing I can really do is either knock you out, and I'm pretty sure you need to be conscious to use your element. Or I can help you on your insane plan to make sure you survive."
"Huh. Well thanks I guess, you do know mom is going to kill you guys for this thought, right?" Anisoptera said peered out of the alley once again, this time joined by the others.
"Wouldn't be the first time." Nannophya said.
"Alright. So here's the plan, we need to distract Discord so we can make sure that he doesn't stop Twilight while she finds the elements and fixes the girls." Anisoptera said as she began to draw a crude map on the ground. "Anax, Telephlebia, you two head up on the buildings, Nannophya you head around back and flank him, I'll walk straight up to him and start talking."
Anax looked up to her and blinked in confusion. "Alright I take it back, this is the dumbest thing you've ever done."
Anisoptera groaned. "Look, we can't do anything against him. The best thing we can do is keep him entertained so he keeps his eyes on us."
Anax looked down in thought for a moment. "Alright, but we need to change this up a bit." He took a look out of the alley and pointed to a floating island. "Telephlebia, you head up to that island and provide long range support." He said as he turned to the seeker, who gave a nod of approval. "Nannophya will still flank around back, but I'm coming with you on the initial approach." He said as he looked at Anisoptera.
"And what about me Captain, where should I position myself?" Discord asked while wearing Canterlot guard armour, a manic grin spread across his face.
The four changelings staired wide eyed at the draconequus. All of them were stunned into silence by his sudden appearance. "Horseapples." Anisoptera muttered as the shock finally managed to waver from her.
(Meanwhile)
Twilight entered the library she called home... or she used to call home. "Pack your things Spike were leaving." She said with a huff.
Instead of the immediate response Twilight was expecting, but she was instead met by soft snoring emanating from behind the central table of the library. Rolling her eyes, twilight walked around and gave Spike a firm poke on his shoulder. "Huh wa.." he said groggily. “Twilight? Why are you grey?”
"Get your things spike we're leaving." Twilight said as she grabbed a suitcase with her magic and began to fill it with various books from around the library.
“Wait what!?” Spike shouted in alarm as he bolted upright. “What about Discord? Aren’t you going to stop him?” He asked in a panicked tone.
Twilight, not even looking away from her suitcase, just shook her head dismissively. “Discord won.” She said flatly. “He did something to the others, they all left.”
Spike was about to say something else, but he was interrupted by a familiar sensation of pressure building in his stomach. A sudden gout of flame erupted from his mouth, which then promptly took the form of a scroll bound by a red ribbon and golden seal.
Twilight knew what was going to be written on the letter. She thought that princess Celestia had found out that she was giving up, and had sent the letter to tell her that she was no longer her pupil. A part of Twilights mind wanted to begin to break down and start crying or panicking, but a much larger part was telling her to… just ignore it.
Spike bent down to grab the letter. "Aren't you go-" he was then cut off by another letter, and then another, and another. The letters began to form a small pile on top of one another, meanwhile Spike doubled over in agony due to the amount of them being sent.
Twilights curiosity and dread eventually won out over her apathy, so she grabbed the first letter from Spikes claws and began to read. As Twilight read through the letter however, she realised something, this was the letter she wrote to the princess when she sent back the tickets to The Grand Galloping Gala. Twilight then decided to grab another one of the letters, it was the friendship report she wrote after helping Applejack during applebuck season. Twilights magic seemed to begin acting on its own as it grabbed more and more of the letters, they were all friendship reports.
As Twilight read she felt more and more unsure about her decision to leave Ponyville, and eventually she recognised the thought as entirely foreign as it truly was. When Twilight was done reading she looked down at her hoof to see that it was back to its normal vibrant purple, she wanted to jump for joy, to grab spike and start spinning around in circles, but something much more pressing came to the forefront of her mind. "Dash was right..." She muttered to herself.
Twilight was then suddenly snapped from her thoughts by a knocking at the door. Twilight carefully approached the door and cracked it open slightly, standing just behind the door was Carrot Top, Thunderlane, and Doctor Hooves. "Twilight!" Carrot Top cheered upon seeing the unicorn. "Dash told us to bring your friends here, you have a way to fix them right?" The three ponies stepped aside to reveal several other residents of Ponyville, most of which were currently occupied with restraining her friends.
Twilight staired wide eyed at the crowed, these were the same ponies that used to run away whenever Zecora visited, 'why would they decide to stay behind and help instead of evacuating' she thought. Twilight shook her she had more important things to focus on. "Yes, I can get started in a bit." she said, Twilight then turned to address everypony present. "In the meantime could somepony help look for any clues as to where the elements of harmony are." Wordlessly many of the ponies present filed into the library and began to search every nook and cranny. With that addressed Twilight began preparing the spell she would need to cast, but not before asking a question. "Where is Dash now?" Twilight asked Carrot Top.
Carrot top gave Twilight a look of surprise upon hearing this. "She's not with you?" She asked a hint of fear in her voice. "She said she would be with you."
"No, we... I yelled at her and stormed off. I haven't seen her since." Twilight stated. But before anything more could be said a sudden thunderous boom rang out over Ponyville, followed by the tell tale shockwave of a sonic rainboom. After seeing this Twilight raced over to her other friend, and began to work on the memory spell as fast as possible, she had a sinking feeling that Dash wasn't doing something she would consider smart at the moment.
Anisoptera groaned in pain. It turns out that smashing into a building at supersonic speed hurt, even with a shield spell to protect her. It also tuned out that trying to tackle someone who could teleport, was also not a good idea. "Oh my, that looks quite bad." Discord said in a mocking tone.
He was right, Anisopteras right foreleg was completely broken, and her left one had a large crack running down the carapace. The other weren't faring much better, Telephlebia and Nannophya were both pinned to a massive board like they were insects in a collection, and Anax was currently being chewed on by a massive Venus flytrap. "I do have to give it to you though, solid A for effort, I would most definitely say I am 'distracted'." he said as a large piece of paper with a bright red A stamped on it appeared next to him. "But I don't think it means much, when I last saw your dear book horse she look like she had most definitely given up."
Anisoptera rolled onto her stomach. "I wouldn't count on it." She spat as she tried to raise herself up onto her hooves. "I trust Twilight, she wouldn't give up that easy, she probably managed to get rid of the brainwashing you put on her all on her own." Anisoptera said as she shifted the interior of her mouth and throat to that of a dragons, she then spun around on her hooves and breathed out a stream of red flames at the draconequus.
However Discord simply turned the flames into a cloud of butterflies, which all then swiftly reverted back into caterpillars . “Sorry to burst your bubble dearie.” He said as many of the caterpillars turned into bubbles and began to float away. “But the only creatures I know that can to that are you changelings, you all are a bit to conscious of how you act if you ask me.”
Discord was about to continue speaking but was interrupted when a blast of red magic glanced his side, turning around, Discord saw that Anax had managed to free himself and was now charging towards him. "You get away from the prince-" Discord sapping eagle claw, causing Anax to appear on the board with Nannophya and Telephlebia. "-cess." Anax finished before looking down to see himself trapped, he then let out a deep sigh, "Great." He muttered.
"Excuse me!" Discord said in an over the top voice. "I'm trying to have a conversation here and I would apricate it if you didn't interrupt." Discord then disappeared in a flash of light only to reappear beside the board, only now he was wearing golfing clothes and wielding a golf club. "FORE!" He shouted before swinging his golf club and sending the three changelings far over the horizon. "Well now that that's taken care of what to do with you?" Discord said as he turned back around, only to see that Anisoptera was no longer there. Discord blinked in confusion before shrugging, "Well she's certainly making a habit of getting away from me." he said before turning to enjoy the chaos he caused.
Anisoptera hobbled through the back alleys of Ponyville. "You guys alright?" She asked her bodyguards over the hive mind.
"Yeah were fine, Anax managed to teleport us out, but we still got sent pretty far." Telephlebia replied "We'll try to get back as soon as possible, but you'll probably have fixed everything by then."
"Alright see you guys later." Anisoptera said, she was about half way to the library, where she hoped her friend were. Just as she was about to step into the open streets of Ponyville Anisoptera decided that it would be best to put her disguise back on, just in case any of the regular citizens had stuck around. However as soon as the transformation began the pain from her wounds intensified, causing her to cry out in agony, and for the transformation to slow.
"Girls over here." came the all too familiar voice of Twilight, followed by the sound of galloping hooves. Anisoptera was relieved to hear that Twilight managed to break the girls out of the brainwashing, but that relief was soon over taken by panic when she heard how close their hoof steps were.
Anisoptera tried to increase the pace of the transformation, only to be met with another bolt of agony from her legs, resulting in her concentration slipping and for much of the transformation to revert, only the back half of her body was transformed and her friends were getting close.
"Rainbow...!" Twilight cried as she rounded the corner alone, only for her voice to catch in her throat as she looked at her friend "...Dash?" She finished as she stumbled backwards.
Anisoptera was at a loss for words, what could she say? She decided first she needed to complete her transformation, which she did much slower then she usually would, both as a means of reducing the pain of her wounds and to not scare Twilight. "Twi listen, I..." She was about to go on a long tirade about how she was and had always been the real Rainbow Dash, how her friend hadn't been replace by an imposter, but she was interrupted by the element of loyalty floating towards her and clasping around her neck which then began to glow in response to her presence.
Twilight nodded in satisfaction to herself. "Aright I don't know what... that was." Twilight said before putting on a warm and comforting smile. "But I trust you Rainbow, and I'm sorry about before."
Rainbow was at a loss for words, every time she had heard stories of this type of situation happening they had always gone horribly wrong, usually ending with somepony having their memory locked away or being sent to a psychiatric hospital, but here Twilight was just... accepting it, TWILIGHT of all ponies was just accepting it. "Thanks Twi." Rainbow said, as that's all she could think to say, followed swiftly by, "Please don't tell the others!"
"Don't tell us what?" Applejack said as she and the others finally caught up to Twilight.
"Nothing!" Both Rainbow and Twilight shouted.
Rainbow Dash shook her head and flew out of the alley. "Come on, we've got a draconequus to stop." This thankfully seemed to change everyponies focus back to stopping Discord, and the six friends charged off to face the Lord of Chaos.
Everything after that was a blur for Rainbow, she remembered confronting Discord, Twilight saying something about how great friendship was, Pinkie drinking chocolate milk, blasting Discord with a rainbow laser, and turning the town back to normal.
But after that, everything was just black.
Author's Note
Hey sorry this took so long, I'm starting Uni so that going to take up most of my attention.
Expect larger time gaps between chapters
Deep in the most isolated areas of White Tail Woods, right on the border of the Everfree sat a young unicorn filly, she had a dull green coat and a ginger mane and tail, her cutie mark displayed a cartoonishly drawn ladybug above three leaves, her eyes were shut in concentration and her horn was aglow with an emerald green aura as she practiced levitating several stones around her.
Suddenly she felt something thump against the side of her head. Cracking one eye open and looked down to see an acorn laying on the ground next to her, assuming it fell from the tree she resumed concentrating on her magic... Then she felt something else hit her.
Dropping the stones, she looked up to see a non descript white pegasus foal sitting in a tree.
"Anisoptera, what are you doing?" the unicorn asked her friend, her voice tinged with annoyance.
"Chrysi I'm bored, when are we gonna do something cool?" Anisoptera asked.
'Chrysi' gave a huff, mainly for the use of that nickname. "Firstly don't call me that you know I hate it, call me Crackle Cosette or by my actual name." Anisoptera gave a smug grin in response. "Secondly I told you I was just coming out here to practice my magic."
Anisoptera flared their wings and swooped down from the tree. "Hey you just used my name while I'm disguised so I get to use yours."
'Chrysi' rolled her eyes. "I used it because you haven't made a disguise yet, I don't have anything else to call you by."
Anisoptera landed on the ground and crossed her forelegs, a grumpy look plastered across their face.
"Why did you come with me? You probably knew you were going to be bored, you barely use your magic"
Anisoptera's face softened as they looked at their friend. "Well... It sometimes doesn't feel like we're friends."
'Chrysi' looked at her companion with a confused expression. "What do you mean?"
"Well with all our other friends they do something when its just two of them, like Acromyrmex and Hymenopus work on ways to mix magic and technology, Pheropsophus and Heteropoda have sparing sessions, and Cocoon and Belgica look after animals together. But with us... there isn't anything."
'Chrysi' stared at her friend, this might have been the most thought Anisoptera has put into anything, not to say they were stupid, they just always worked off of their gut instincts. "Well me and Cocoon don't really do anything together."
"Well yeah, but you two are sisters, you spend way more time with each other even if you don't do much." Anisoptera countered.
"Exactly! We don't need to do anything to be close to each other."
Anisoptera huffed. "But with us it doesn't feel like there is anything keeping us close, and I still want to be your friend Chrysalis."
Chrysalis was taken aback by this statement, it was true that her and Anisoptera weren't particularly close amongst their group of friends, but hearing those words made her realise that despite that their friendship was still something that she cherished and wouldn't want to see falter.
After thinking for a moment, Chrysalis felt that the right words came to her. "Alright, let's think of something we can do together, but on one condition."
"What?" Anisoptera asked with bated breath.
"If you keep calling me Chrysi, then I also get to call you by a nickname you hate as well."
"Uh... sure. But why?" Anisoptera asked.
"It's simple, either you have to stop using that name, or endure the one I give you." Chrysalis explained as she explored her mind and surroundings for inspiration.
Then she remembered, Anisoptera hated things that they considered 'overly cutesy' or anything romantic. Upon remembering this, as well as spotting the fresh morning dew still covering many of the leaves on the surrounding trees Chrysalis had the perfect nickname. "How about... little dew drop~."
Anisoptera could taste the glee radiating from Chrysalis, and Chrysalis could taste the disgust coming from her friend upon hearing the proposal. "Ugh that's awful." Anisoptera said while trying to scrape the taste off of their tongue.
"Then it's perfect!" Chrysalis said triumphantly.
"Fine," Anisoptera huffed. "lets just think of something for us to do."
(2 hours later)
"Bird watching?" Chrysalis asked.
"Too boring." Anisoptera replied. "Racing?"
"I'm the slowest of all of us, it wouldn't even be a challenge for you."
"Ugh this is impossible!" Anisoptera shouted into the air before flopping down on the ground.
Chrysalis hummed in thought for a moment. "Maybe we could practice our shapeshifting?"
"That..." Anisoptera raised their head to look at their friend. "... Actually sounds kinda fun, lets do it." she said as she got up from the ground.
"Alright, well I guess the first thing we can do is make you a primary disguise."
"Do we really have to do that now?" Anisoptera groaned.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "We both know if someling doesn't make you, you'll never do it. So stop complaining, it won't even take that long."
"Fine, how did you do it then?"
"First I picked a tribe, but we both know you want to be a pegasus."
"Well duh, what else would I be?" Anisoptera asked with a chuckle.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes again in a display of annoyance, but her body betrayed her as a smile grew across her face. "Alright next is gender, what do you feel like you lean more towards?"
Anisoptera's eyes squinted in contemplation and stayed that way for a good 30 seconds. "I guess I've always felt more comfortable disguised as fillies then colts." The white pegasus was then suddenly engulfed in red flames, once the flames cleared they revealed the same pegasus but with a much more feminine build.
"Huh." Was all Chrysalis had to say.
"What?"
"I honestly would have expected you to go for a colt, considering how much you act like one."
Anisoptera gave a laugh in response. "Hey it's not my fault I like things like sports instead of dressing up in frilly dresses."
Chrysalis chuckled along with her friend. "Well alright. Next is your coat, mane, and tail colour."
Anisoptera hummed in thought for a moment before the perfect Idea came to her. "Rainbows!"
"Rainbows?" Chrysalis said in confusion.
"Rainbows!" Anisoptera said excitedly. "All rainbows, mane, tail, and coat."
Chrysalis facehooved. "Dew Drop-" Anisoptera gaged at the use of the name."- You can't just cover yourself in rainbows, it would be way to suspicious."
"Hey my brother has a rainbow mane, why can't I?"
Chrysalis brought her other hoof to her face "Bow only has a rainbow mane and tail , he doesn't also have a rainbow coat. If you really want to have a rainbow mane and tail you can, just pick a different coat colour, like blue or something."
Anisoptera groaned. "Fine." And with that the red flames erupted around the pegasus filly again, once they subsided there stood a blue pegasus filly with a rainbow mane and tail and a set of magenta eyes.
Chrysalis hummed in approval. "Good work on the eyes, the magenta looks nice."
"Thanks, Cocoon always talks about colours and character design and stuff so I might have picked some stuff up." Anisoptera said proudly.
"Alright." Chrysalis said as she clapped her hooves together "The next step is the Cutie Mark, make it represent your actual special talent so it's less suspicious, have any ideas for it?"
"Uhh... I don't really know what my special talent is yet." Anisoptera said in embarrassment, a light blush covering her face.
Chrysalis shrugged her shoulders. "Well that's not much of a problem, you can make one later when you figure it out." Anisoptera breathed a sigh of relief as she heard this.
"Alright, the last step is the name, think carefully on this." Chrysalis stated.
Anisoptera looked down in contemplation and stayed that way for several minutes, she took so long that Chrysalis started practicing her levitation again. "I've got it!" Anisoptera shouted, her voice dripping with excitement. "Rainbow Dash."
"Hmm.. that's pretty good, so I guess were done now what else do you want to-" Chrysalis was suddenly cut off by a voice calling out to her over the hive mind.
"Chrysalis, mother called us home, we have to go"
"Alright I'm coming Cocoon." she replied to her sister. "Sorry 'Rainbow Dash', mother has called me home, I will see you later, be sure to tell your mother about your new disguise." Chrysalis said as she began to walk away.
"Alright see you later Chrysi." 'Rainbow Dash' called out to her friend.
"See you later little Dew Drop."
Rainbow Dash moved as fast as she could through the hedge maze, she had to find either the elements or her friends, preferably both. She stopped in her tracks when she heard the sound of rumbling thunder come from somewhere close, she moved towards the sound and spotted a small cloud flying quickly through the maze occasionally spewing bolts of rainbow coloured lightning.
"I've got you now element." She said to herself before bolting after the cloud, she followed it through the many twists and turns of the hedge maze only to be confronted by Discord, currently lounging on a hammock made of clouds while wearing a pair of flashy green sunglasses.
Discord gave a half hearted yawn while stretching out his mismatched limbs, resulting in several pops and cracks coming from them. "I can see why you like these clouds so much, very plush." he said while patting the cloud he lay on.
"Get off there and put 'em up!" Rainbow Dash said as she assumed a fighting stance.
"Hey, I'm here to deliver a message." Discord said while sitting up from his hammock.
Rainbow Dash however couldn't care less. "I've got a massage for you too!" She shouted as she threw several gabs in the air.
Discord, seemingly growing irritated took off his sunglasses and moved closer. "Listen closely this is important." He then suddenly appeared on Rainbow Dash's right. "A weighty choice is yours to make." He then pulled away to appear on Rainbow Dash's left. "The right selection or a big mistake." He then pulled away again only to appear behind her, wrapping his lion arm around her back. "If the wrong choice you choose to pursue, the foundations of home will crumble without you."
Rainbow Dash was confused at what the lord of chaos meant, but when he snapped his finger it became all to clear. The cloud Rainbow had been chasing earlier had reappeared and began to spin around, what it revealed was a vision of Cloudsdale crumbling and its populous running in fear.
"Honey?"
"Cloudsdale... crumble... without... me?" Rainbow Dash said as Discord's trick began to take hold.
"Sweetie!"
"NOOO!" Rainbow Dash screamed as she watched the city she grew up in crumble.
"Rainbow!"
Suddenly a box appeared in front of Rainbow Dash. "That box contains your wings, you can take them and leave the game or continue endlessly wondering this maze, your choice." Discord said as he caressed Rainbow's cheek, as he did so the colours of her coat and mane began to become more dull.
"Anisoptera!!" The voice from inside Rainbow Dash's head screamed, snapping her out of the trance Discord had put her in.
Rainbow Dash shook her head in an attempt to shake off the last of the mental manipulation. She looked to the box and then to Discord, who had a smug grin stuck to his face. (Literally there were stickers of smug grins stuck across his face.) Instead of dignifying him with a verbal response, Rainbow Dash smacked the box out of the air and darted off into the maze.
"... Well that was unexpected." Discord muttered to himself. "Oh well, 4 out of 6 is still a passing grade in my book." he said as he laid back down on his hammock.
"Thanks mom." Rainbow Dash said to her mother over the hive mind.
"No problem sweetie." Queen Meganeura responded "Once your done I'll see if I can get some of those candies you like as a treat."
Rainbow Dash groaned "Mom I'm not a grub anymore, stop treating me like one."
Before she could hear her mothers reply, Rainbow Dash heard voices from deeper in the maze.
"Well looky there, Rainbow Dash is flying away. She's abandonin' us." She heard Applejack say.
"Well I know that's got to be a lie." Twilight said.
"Yeah, what the hay AJ?" Rainbow Dash said as she rounded the corner.
"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight cheered as she dropped the boulder she was carrying for some reason, and ran up to hug Rainbow.
Rainbow Dash returned the hug while receiving a large amount of love from Twilight. She then turned to look at the rest of her friends but... something was wrong. Their coats and manes look like they had the colour sucked out of them, and that was just the most obvious change. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both looked aggressive, Pinkie gave off the feeling that she would punch you for saying the wrong thing, while Fluttershy looked as if she'd do it for sick enjoyment. Applejack looked very shifty, it was just like the nights where the two had played poker together, eyes darting around and lips sucked into her mouth whenever she lied. And Rarity was obsessing over the large bolder that Twilight had dropped, when Fluttershy had gotten to close she screamed at her to get away from 'Tom'.
There was one more thing that only Rainbow Dash noticed, the only love she could sense was Twilight's, which was being directed at all their friends but mostly at Dash, and Rarity who's love was directed only at the boulder and nothing else, she couldn't feel any love coming from the others.
"Twi what happened to them?" Rainbow Dash whispered into Twilights ear while gesturing to their other friends.
"I don't know." Twilight whispered back. "I just found them like this. First I found Applejack who seemingly can't stop lying, Pinkie doesn't want anyone to laugh or be happy, Rarity is obsessing over that boulder, and Fluttershy is acting super mean."
Upon hearing this Rainbow Dash's mind wondered back to her encounter with Discord. "Twi I think I might know what happened to them." She said, looking at Twilight with a serious expression. "I ran into Discord earlier, he tried to mess with my head to try and make me abandon you guys." Her body shuddered at the memory, the draconequus had come so close to making her throw away her friends and strongest moral principle. "It didn't work, obviously, but..." Her gaze drifted to her friends.
"It might have worked on them." Twilight finished. "Oh no no no no!" Twilight began to freak out, pacing back and forth and muttering to herself about potential ways to fix this.
Rainbow on the other hoof, knew where some information on Discord's magic, and thus his mental manipulation, could be found. "Can someling check the hive library for anything about discord and his magic?" She said over the hivemind. That library had books from before the first Hearth's Warming, there was bound to be something about Discord.
Receiving several conformations to her request, Rainbow Dash moved to comfort Twilight. "Twi you need to calm down."
"Calm down? CALM DOWN!" Twilight screamed. "How am I supposed to calm down?! This will make it impossible for us to use the elements!" She then began to hyperventilate.
Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her friends shoulder. "Listen Twi, your smart, if you can't figure out a way to fix this then nopony could." She said with a reassuring smile. "But right now you can brainstorm ideas while we look for the elements, no point in slowing down to do something we can do while we're searching."
Twilight seemed to calm down thanks to Rainbow Dash's reassurance. "You're right, thanks Dash."
"Hey when am I ever wrong." Twilight bit her tongue to stop herself from going down the list of times her prismatic friend has been wrong. Rainbow Dash meanwhile turned to address their friends. "Alright everypony lets get moving!" The four acknowledged her with a chorus of grumbles as they began to plod forward.
However before the group could get far the entire maze began to rumble, and the hedges began to sink into the ground. Once it was over the group found themselves standing in a large crater, at the edge of which was Discord, still lounging on his hammock, but now with a large tropical drink held in his lion paw.
"You know, I think that was the first time anyone has been able to slip something by me, I am very impressed Rainbow Dash." He said before taking a long sip form his drink. "But rules are rules, and you broke the no magic no wings rule so this game is now over." He snaped his talon and the groups horns and wings returned to them.
Twilight and Rainbow both looked at the lord of chaos with looks of horror, which caused him to burst out laughing and begin rolling on the ground.
"And what are you laughing at!?" Pinkie Pie shouted.
"Oh you ponies are just the most fun I've had in eons." Discord said while wiping a tear from his eye.
Pinkie suddenly dashed to stand right in front of Discord. "Well quit it! You better think before you laugh at the pink...ie pie!"
"Oh yeah, well ha ha." Fluttershy mocked.
"Quit it!" Demanded Pinkie.
"No, ha ha." Fluttershy continued. The two then began to go back and forth, neither seemingly willing to back down.
Meanwhile, Applejack incited an argument with Rarity about whether or not they should share Rarity's boulder, this argument quickly turned violent, with Rarity trying to attack Applejack, but Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed Applejack and flew her away from the crazed fashionista before any harm could be done.
Twilight made a futile attempt to stop her friends from fighting, all the while Discord laughed. "Oh this is just too entertaining."
"Stop it Discord, you're not playing fair." Twilight demanded.
"I'm not playing fair?" Discord said. I Don't think we've met. I'm Discord, Spirit of chaos and disharmony. Hello?"
Then Rainbow Dash swooped in, pointing her hoof accusingly at Discord. "Hey you took away the maze before we found the elements."
"Yeah." Twilight added. "And Dash couldn't have violated your no wings rule, she didn't have them when we ran into each other."
A sinister grin grew across Discords face. "Ooo now this is an interesting development, you mean you don't know?"
A look of confusion spread across Twilight's face, and one of dread spared across Rainbow's. "Don't know what?" said Twilight.
"Ah well then I mustn't spoil things, these events turn out much more chaotic the longer you let them stew. And as for the elements, I never said they were in the labyrinth." Discord then snapped his fingers and Twilight and Dash found themselves just outside the elements vault looking at their past selves.
"Twists and turns on my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began." The past version of Discord said, once he finished Twilight and Rainbow found themselves back in the present.
"What, But.. then... where..." Twilight stammered before being cut off by Discord. "Well gotta run, I've got chaos to spread, toodeloo." He said before disappearing in a flash of light.
As soon as he left, Discords cotton candy clouds began to role in and drenched everything in chocolate milk. "Think Twilight, think. Find the elements back where you began, back where you began." Twilight began to mutter to herself.
Meanwhile Rainbow Dash received a call over the hive mind. "Princess, we have a problem." Anax the captain of the Hive guard said.
"What?" Rainbow asked.
"Everything we had on discord in the library has been destroyed." Anax let out a long, exasperated, mental sigh. "It seems like every book that mentioned Discord directly was turned into a bomb, a whipped cream bomb."
Rainbow Dash smacked her hoof to her face. "Great, just great."
"Home! Back where you began." Twilight Cheered. "The elements must be in Ponyville."
'The train or walking will take way to long, especially with Rarity lugging around that boulder.' Rainbow thought. 'We'll need some help.' As soon as she was done thinking she raced off towards Canterlot.
"Wait, Rainbow where are you going? We need to get to-" Twilight was then suddenly cut off by several popping sounds from behind her. Turning around Twilight saw what she least expected, standing there were around 20 ponies that Twilight recognised as students from Celestia's school for gifted unicorns, and at the head of the group was Twilights old friend Lemon Hearts.
"Hey Twilight, good to see you." Lemon Hearts said as she walked up to twilight and gave her a hug. "Before you ask why were here, Dew Dro-." Lemon Hearts flinched as is if expecting to be yelled at. "I mean Rainbow Dash asked us to help you guys get back to Ponyville faster."
"Wait but how-" Twilight tried to speak but was cut of by Lemon Hearts. "Listen I'm sorry we don't have time to talk, we can once you've saved the world... again."
Once she was done speaking Lemon Hearts lit her horn, along with all the other students which, as Twilight noted, all shared the same magic colour of magenta. A few seconds later and Twilight, along with her friends and the boulder were gone.
"Are you sure they'll be alright princess?" Asked one of the students.
"I've known Twilight for years, and Anisoptera for even longer, they won't stop trying until they physically can't." Lemon Hearts said with a chuckle. "They'll probably figure something out before that."
Rainbow Dash soared through the air towards Ponyville, she had just reached the outskirts when she saw a flash of magenta out of the corner of her eye. Stopping mid air, she looked down to see her friends standing on the road leading into Ponyville. "Hey are you guys alright?" She asked while swooping down to join them.
"Nope, just terrible." Applejack lied, her eyes darting back and forth.
"Great." Rainbow said sarcastically before turning to look at Twilight. "Seriously though, you guys good?"
Twilight, still seeming a bit stunned from the teleport, took a few seconds to respond. "Oh.. Uh.. yeah we're all fine. We should probably head for the library, we'll probably be able to find some clue as to where the elements ar- WOAH!" As Twilight was about to take a step forward a hoard of horse legged bunnies rushed towards her, thankfully Rainbow Dash reacted in time to push out of the way of the oncoming stampede.
"You missed Angel." Fluttershy called out to the leader of the stampede.
Suddenly the sun flew below the horizon in less then a second, being replaced by the moon in similar time, and plunging the land into pitch black night. "Wow, I can see so much better now." Applejack said as she began to blindly walk forward, however she failed to notice the sudden change in the ground and slid along the now slippery road, right into the other corrupted ponies. "I meant to do that." Applejack said after coming to a halt next to Twilight and Rainbow.
Suddenly the sun rose just as quickly as it had set. "Discords turned our dirt roads into soap!" Twilight exclaimed after a quick examination of the ground.
"Beautiful, isn't it." Discord said as he came skating by on the soap road. "This is the new and improved Ponyville." He said as he gestured towards the town. The town hall was floating upside down high above the town, several other buildings, as well as polka dot covered trees, were also floating above the town on large chunks of the earth. Much of the grass had its colour changed to create large chequered pattern of either blue or pink, And of course the sky was covered in cotton candy clouds raining chocolate milk. "And these are only my first changes."
Rainbow and Twilight grimaced as they looked at the town, only to be distracted by Pinkie skating past them. "This may look like fun, but it's not." She said.
After that Rainbow tuned herself out of the conversation to check up on her family. "How's everything going at the hive?"
However instead of receiving a direct message, Rainbow heard a random assortment of panicked cries over the hive mind.
"Why is the throne room filled with cheese." Said her mother.
"The barracks just disappeared!" One of the hives guards cried.
"Can someling help? We're stuck in the nursery." The nursery caretaker called out.
That last message in particular caused Rainbows blood to boil, she whipped around on her hooves to see Discord holding Twilight high off the ground. "Picture it the chaos capi-" Before he could finish his sentence he was cut off by Rainbow Dash punching him in the face, causing his head to pop off and his body to stumble backwards. "Well that was rude." Discords head said before disappearing and reappearing back on his body. "If you're going to be that way about it then I shall have to find my fun elsewhere." he said before disappearing once again.
As Rainbow Dash began to calm down she noticed Twilight trotting up to her. "Rainbow, are you alright?" Twilight asked, a look of concern growing on her face.
Rainbow let out a sigh. "Yeah, he just really makes me angry." She took in a deep breath, and then another sigh. "Lets get going, we still need to help them." She said, gesturing to her friends before taking to the air and moving along the road, with Twilight and the others not far behind.
Getting to the library turned out to be much easer said then done. The entire layout of the town as well as the basic rules of geometry had been warped, roads would lead to places they should not, windows and doors that should connect to the same room lead to entirely different places, and going back would take you somewhere entirely different from where you started.
Eventually Twilight came to the conclusion that it would likely be faster to just walk in a straight line and hope they reach the library, of course this would still take a lot of walking. "So Rainbow, how do you know Lemon Hearts?" Twilight asked trying to pass the time.
"Oh... Uh... Our moms know each other so they introduced us when we were really little." Rainbow said. "We used to hang out a lot more, along with our other friend, but we haven't gotten to see each other much any more. Shy's also met them, right flutters?" She called out having momentarily forgotten her friends condition.
"Oh you mean your gang of weirdos?" Fluttershy responded.
Both Rainbow and Twilight let out a groan of frustration. "We really need to find something that'll break Discords mind control."
Rainbow was about to respond, but Twilights last two words had caught her attention. 'Mind control' Rainbow parroted in her head, she felt something in the back of her mind, a memory, a memory that might be able to help.
It was the day that she and her other Changeling friends explored the ancient abandoned hive that Belgica found in The Frozen North. if Rainbow remembered correctly, they had found an ancient book all about mind manipulating spells. Most of the spells that the tome contained would have been very illegal to use today, but some of them had actually been put to use by The Seven Hives, such as spells for sharing ideas directly to another changeling, or a spell for locking away specific memories being used to treat those suffering from PTSD or locking the memories of changelings from ponies who learned of the existence of the changelings.
But the main contents of the book wasn't what Rainbow's mind turned to at the moment, instead it was a distinction that the book made about mind control and another form of mind manipulation.
"That's it!" Rainbow cheered as she griped Twilights face in her hooves. "Twilight this isn't mind control, it's brainwashing!"
Twilight blinked at her friend in confusion. "Rainbow, those are synonyms." She said.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Look Twi, mental manipulation magic can fall into a bunch of different camps. What Discord did is brainwashing which is changing a ponies personality and thought process to match what the caster wants. Mind control is direct command over the target of the spell, they won't do anything that the caster doesn't make them do. A brainwashed pony, on the other hoof can still act on their own." Rainbow dash took a breath, and then her mind processed everything that she said, 'Horseapples, I shouldn't know that.' She thought.
Twilight was dumfounded, she knew that Dash wasn't a dumb pony, but Twilight thought that she knew next to nothing about magic, but here she was telling the Element of magic how certain spells work. "I... wha-... Rainbow how do you know this? Also why is this relevant, you're just arguing semantics."
Dash began to panic, she had to buy time to create a convincing alibi. "Look, firstly, you are complaining about semantics when I know you would have done the exact same thing if you knew about this. Secondly this isn't the time to be worried about why I know this stuff." She took a deep breath and tried to recompose herself. "Thirdly this is relevant because brainwashing is easy to remove." This quickly distracted Twilight from Rainbows odd behaviour. "We just need to remind them of how they normally act. Do you know a memory sharing spell or something, that would work the best."
Twilight rubbed her chin with her hoof. "No I don't, but I think I could make one."
"Great!" Rainbow cheered. "Get working, wave got some friends to..." She trailed off as she looked over to where their brainwashed friends were, only to see nothing "...Fix."
Rainbow groaned. "Twilight, how long is it going to take for you to make that spell?"
"I estimate about thirty minutes." Twilight answered. "Why?"
"Alright." Rainbow said while nodding. "We'll split up to look for the girls. You make the spell while heading to Sweet Apple acres to see if AJ is there, I'll fly around town to see if I can find any of the others."
At this Twilight snaped. "Alright Rainbow what's going on with you, you're suddenly acting like a different pony. How do I know you're not some copy made by Discord trying to sabotage us!" She shouted as her colours began to drain away.
Rainbow Dash was taken aback by this sudden accusation. "Woah Twi, calm down I am the real Dash."
"Oh yeah? Then how do you explain the fact that you were somehow able to resist Discords brainwashing?!"
"Well I-" Rainbow attempted to speak but was cut off.
"Or what Discord said? He said that we didn't know something about you, something that allowed you to break his rules in the maze! How do I know that the real Dash didn't get brainwashed and just left the maze, so Discord decided to mess with us and make a copy!"
"Twi, chill I-"
"And that's not the only thing either! How were you able to tell Lemon Hearts and nineteen other students, who all just so happened to know how to teleport ponies, from Celestia's school were we were and what was going on in less then a minute! Or how you acted when we got back to Ponyville, I get that Discord is a problem and needs to be stopped, but the Dash I know isn't as quick to violence as you were! And don't get me started on the magic talk, Rainbow Dash doesn't know that much about magic so explain to me how you know something about magic, that from what I'm hearing would likely be Illegal , that I don't!"
"Well... you see... I..." Dash stammered as her mind raced, trying to come up with any sort of convincing excuse for all of this. But no matter how much she thought, Rainbow couldn't think of one that Twilight wouldn't be able to see right through. And if Rainbow decided to take the risk to reveal herself, Twilight didn't seem to be in any sort of mood to be accepting.
"Well? Do you have any sort of reasonable explanation!?" Twilight demanded.
Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath and looked Twilight in the eyes. "No." Was all she said as she lowered her head. She barely even registered that Twilight began to walk away.
Anisoptera didn't know how long she stood there, thirty minutes maybe. She felt a tickling sensation spread all over her body, she saw no change on her disguise, but Anisoptera knew what it was. A burst of red flames over took her hoof, she no longer seemed to care if anypony saw her, instead of the vibrant ultramarine it should have been, her carapace was now a blue tinged grey.
"Are you really giving up?" Anax said from over the hivemind. "We both went through guard training, what was the most important thing they taught us?"
Anisoptera just shrugged, her head still hanging low.
Instead of the expected voice of Anax, Anisoptera was surprised to hear a whole chorus of voices. "To let your hope die is to resign yourself to the same fate!" Every member of the Changeling guard said in unison.
"It's not that easy, I can't beat Discord on my own." Anisoptera said.
"Honey." Queen Meganeura said sweetly. "You know just as well as I do that you are never alone." Anisoptera was about to ask what she meant but was interrupted by another message.
"Yeah! We're here for you." Nannophya said. "Besides you're too awesome to give up."
Then another message.
"You can do this." Telephlebia encouraged.
And another, and another, and another. Everyling in the hive, her family, was cheering her on, just like when she did the sonic rainboom, Just like when she won the best young fliers competition. Except... it didn't feel right without her friends. and that's when Anisoptera realised that, to her at least, her friends were basically family, and if her Family wasn't going to give up on her then Anisoptera then she wasn't going to give up on her friends.
"Alright everyling listen up, I have a plan." She said, a look of determination growing on her face.
Author's Note
This chapter was originally going to have a flashback, but I decided it would work better as its own mini chapter.
Also next chapter will be the end of the Discord stuff.
Author's Note
Alright, I wanted to write this stuff down sooner rather then later, and I thought it would be good to explain how changelings in this AU differ from cannon.
Supplemental
The Seven Hives
The hive mind
Princess Cocoon and Princess Chrysalis were able to find a way to link themselves and the princesses of the other hives into a privet hive mind in which only the princesses can access, so far the closest any other changeling has come to this feat was when Queen Larva gained temporary access to the princesses privet hive mind.
Changeling magic and transformation
Changelings naturally have the magic of all three tribes, albeit when spread out like this it does make them weaker when comparing them to an average member of a tribe e.g. a changeling usually has weaker unicorn magic then the average unicorn, thankfully changelings can shift the distribution of their magic into what ever type they need, even into the magic of other creatures but this is difficult to do.
When a changeling transforms, their body is reconstructed into the look that they desire, this means that they must have the organic materials necessary for the form they wish to take e.g. gemstones must be consumed for a changeling to replicate a crystal pony. It is possible for a changeling to partially transform, or transform into forms other than ponies, however it is noted to be more difficult to transform into forms the less 'pony like' they are, also the larger the change in size between the original form and the new transformation the greater the difficulty.
Types of changelings
Drones
Seekers
Guard
Goliath
Royal
Drones are the average changeling, they are the most abundant, their magic is not skewed in any one direction and can fill roles that can be meant for other changing types except for royals.
Seekers are the main scouts and love gatherers for hives, they often have stronger pegasus magic then unicorn or earth pony and are usually better at transformation, although this primarily is due to practice.
Guards are the main fighting force of the changeling hives, although due to the long years of peace not many have seen any real combat. Guards usually have much weaker then average pegasus magic but make up for it in improved unicorn and earth pony magic. Guards also mature faster, reaching adulthood at ten years old and have the shortest lifespans of the changing types, usually only reaching their fifties.
Goliaths are the largest type of regular changing, often reaching the hight of a fully grown alicorn, although some have become much larger then even that. Goliath magic is skewed towards earth pony magic, so they do much of the manual labour jobs of a hive. Goliaths are also the second longest lived and second slowest maturing type of changeling reaching adulthood at thirty and can age to be over two hundred years old.
Royals are the leaders of the hive, and are the strongest of all the changeling types, having near alicorn level magic in all three categories. Changeling royals are the only member of the species that can produce changeling offspring and are the slowest maturing and longest living of any changeling, reaching adulthood at eighty four and living for nearly three millennia. At the start of a royal changelings rule, they will lay a clutch of royal changeling eggs that will not hatch on their own, the parent must make the conscious decision to funnel love into the eggs to get them to hatch, this essentially ensures that a royal egg can not hatch in a time where the hive is low on love to feed the young royal.
Changeling biology
Different changeling types feature different ornamentation that can allow them to be differentiated at a glance. Royal ornamentation comes in the form of their hair which they often style and maintain much like a pony would. Guards have a series of short spines that run down their back, connected by a thin translucent membrane that is the same colour as their eyes. Seekers have grooves on the carapace of their legs, goliaths have the opposite, protrusions of extra carapace around their barrel. Drones have a fish like fin on the back of their necks.
Changelings are hermaphrodites, thus any changeling is capable of reproducing with any member of any sapient species. With royals, no matter their position in the exchange, they will receive a sample of their partners genetic marital and with that they can then use to begin producing eggs if they so choose. For non royal changelings, the offspring of the union will be the species of the non changeling parent, although it has been noted that pregnancies and egg laying involving changelings usually result in a higher then expected number of offspring. Two non royal changelings are incapable of reproducing.
Changeling culture
Changelings are very communal creatures, often preferring to sleep in shared rooms then a room for just one changeling, this means that most changeling hives have one or more large communal bedrooms. Seekers and royals are generally exceptions to this as they spend large amounts of time outside of the hive and tend to pick up the habits and culture of those they spend time with. Changeling are also very open to visitors from other hives, as most changelings see the members of other hives much like ponies would see a distant relative.
Since changelings are hermaphrodites, they are not assigned a gender when they hatch, most tend to pick a gender to identify as when they choose a main disguise.
List of hives
Canterlot Hive
Manehattan Hive
Las Pegasus Hive
The Frozen North Hive (formerly The Chrystal Empire Hive)
The Dragon Lands Hive.
The Griffonstone Hive
Chapter 4: Emergency Care
A blinding white light was all Twilight could see, given that this had happened when the elements were used on Nightmare Moon, Twilight was beginning to dread that her and her friend would have to suffer temporary blindness every time they used the elements.
Thankfully though, her vision began to return to her just as she felt her hooves touch the ground. Directly ahead of her and her friends was Discord, now having been returned to his stone prison, hopefully indefinitely this time. "Good job girls." Said Twilight as she turned to address her friends.
Rarity began to wave her hoof dismissively. "Oh please darling, you did most of the work. If it weren't for you we would all still be acting like the opposite of ourselves."
At this Twilight began to look a bit guilty. "Actually... All I did was cast the spell. If you should be thanking anypony it's Rainbow, she told me how to undo Discord's brainwashing, and organised the team that brought you all to the library." She said rubbing the back of her head with her hoof.
Applejack tilted her head. "Really?" She said, her voice dripping with disbelief and confusion. The others seemed equally as confused, as they all turned to look at Dash.
However before any of them could question her, the group noticed that there was something wrong with Rainbow, her flight was wobbly, her breathing was shallow and shaky, and she was just staring straight forward, not at Discord or the surroundings, just staring off into space. "Are you alright Dash?" Fluttershy was the first to ask, but Dash didn't respond, she just continued to stare forward. Fluttershy then flew up to her friend and gently shook her shoulder. "Rainbow Dash are you alright?" She asked again.
Rainbow Dash seemed to finally take notice of her friends questions. "Y-Yeah guys, I'm fine. J-Just a bit light headed." She said weakly, before she slowly began to rise higher into the air, directly towards a cloud that was over head. "I think I'm just gonna lie down for a bit."
"Oh uh, Rainbow I don't think flying would be such a good idea if you're not feeling well." Fluttershy said, if Rainbow Dash heard this warning then she paid it no mind.
Unfortunately, Fluttershy was right. As Dash was about to reach the half way point to the cloud she began to slow down, and eventually she began to plumet towards the ground.
"RAINBOW!" The five ponies screamed in unison as they all rushed forward in an attempt to catch their falling friend.
Rarity and Twilight both began to focus their magic to slow down Rainbow's decent, they did manage to reduce her speed somewhat, but she was still falling at speeds that could cause her serious harm. But the magic gave Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy enough time to reach the spot where dash was going to crash, and successfully catch her.
The group then set Rainbow down, followed by Fluttershy looking over her incapacitated friend. She couldn't find anything wrong through this visual observation, but when she checked Rainbow pulse she found that it would occasionally be weaker then it should or it would skip a beat before resuming. "We need to get her to the hospital!" Fluttershy cried before she and her friend lifted Rainbow up and began galloping off towards Ponyville hospital.
Thankfully most of Ponyville's medical staff had sheltered themselves within the hospital while Discord was in power, so finding a doctor was no issue, but now came the most dreaded part: waiting.
The five friends sat there, each talking amongst themselves as to what could be wrong with their friend, except for Twilight who's ponderings remained in her own mind. Twilights mind immediately went back to what she saw in the alley, 'Maybe this is normal for her?' She thought , 'Maybe her... species has to sleep more then ponies, that would explain why she naps so much.' However she soon shook her head and dismissed that thought. 'That wouldn't explain her symptoms though, you don't start breathing weird, or have an irregular heart beat when your tired.'
Twilight began to play the memory of seeing Rainbows true form over and over again, trying to remember any details that might help her understand what was wrong with her. But in the end it was a futile endeavour, she simply didn't have enough information to go on, the only thing that she could think of was that Rainbow might might have something wrong with her forelegs, they had holes and cracks in them and were leaking a dark purple liquid, but for all Twilight knew that could have been completely normal for her.
Twilight's train of thought, and her fiends conversations, was then interrupted by the clearing of someponies throat. The group turned to see Nurse Redheart, "You can all come and see her if you like." She said, in response the five friends got off their seats and began to follow her to Rainbow Dash's room.
As they walked through the halls of the Ponyville general hospital it was Fluttershy who broke the silence. "Um... nurse, I hope you don't mind me asking, but could you tell us what's wrong with Rainbow? If that's alright with you."
Nurse Redheart lowered her head in thought for a moment before answering. "To be honest, we have no idea how this could have happened. Your friend seems to have fainted as a result of a combination of exhaustion and blood loss." The group of five gasped simultaneously.
"How in tarnation could that've happened?" Applejack asked. "I ain't seen no cut on her, before or after we dealt with Discord."
Nurse Readheart nodded. "You're right, she doesn't, but despite that she was missing around forty five percent of her blood."
Twilight's memories flashed back to the alley, her mind focusing in on that purple liquid that was rushing down Rainbow's legs, 'Was that her blood?' She thought. Twilight held a baited breath as she waited for what she knew Redheart was about to say.
"Thankfully she should be alright, we've set up a blood transfusion. All we need to do now it let it finish and then let her rest." Redheart stated. And with those words, Twilight began to go into a silent panic.
'How would Rainbow's Body react to pony blood? Was her species similar enough to ponies that it wouldn't matter? Was that purple stuff really Rainbow's blood? If so, how had the doctors missed it wile examining her? Was... what ever was disguising her advanced enough to also disguise her blood?' All these questions and more flooded Twilights mind, and every time she asked herself she always got the same answer, she didn't know, Twilight just didn't know enough information to come to any conclusive answer.
She felt useless, Rainbow fought through Discord's brainwashing to stay beside her and the others, but despite that Twilight accused her of being a fake when she couldn’t accept that Rainbow knew the answers and she didn’t. And even then Rainbow didn’t give up on her, she gathered ponies to help them and did… something off in the middle of town, Twilight wasn’t sure what but her gut told her that whatever Rainbow did was to help them. But now, in Rainbows time of need, where Twilight could truly make up for how she acted towards her friend, she couldn’t think of anything that could possibly help her. ‘Unless…’
Twilight then began to feel a pit form within her stomach as her mind once again replayed what she witnessed in the alley. She knew that Rainbow possibly had serious injuries that had gone unnoticed by the doctors, she could tell them and possibly save Rainbow's life. But Rainbow seemed desperate that her secret remain as such, if Twilight told them about it and they found nothing, Rainbow Dash would hate her.
"Twi? Ya coming Sugarcube?" Applejack asked, once again derailing Twilight's train of thought. It seems that they had arrived at Dash's room, and the others had already entered.
Twilight shook her head. "Yeah I'm coming." She said, before quietly walking into Rainbow Dash's room, not noticing the concerned look Applejack was giving her.
Inside the room was Rainbow Dash, still unconscious, lying on the hospital bed and hooked up to a blood bag via an IV. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all surrounding the bed and were soon joined by Twilight and Applejack.
The group stood in silence for what felt like hours, none of them seemingly had anything to say. They weren't surprised that Rainbow Dash was in the hospital, they had known their friend well enough to know this would happen at some point, but given the odd nature of her hospitalization, and the suddenness of it, none of them had anything to say.
"Umm... I know this is going to sound strange, but I think this is the first time I've ever visited Dash in the hospital before." Fluttershy finally broke the silence only to be met with several confused looks from her friends. "N-Not that I never tried to visit!" She stammered, while retreating behind her hair. "I could just never find where she was staying."
This statement, however, just left her friends even more confused. "Wait, doesn't Cloudsdale only have one hospital?" Twilight asked.
Fluttershy, still hiding behind her mane, nodded. "Yes, whenever I went to see her at the hospital the receptionist always said that she wasn't there."
"Why didn't ya just go ask her parents?" Applejack asked, in response Fluttershy hid further behind her mane. "Never mind, I think I got it." Applejack said with a deadpan expression.
Rarity then spoke up. "Still, that is quite odd. Judging by how Rainbow acts, I'm surprised that she never asked her parents if you could visit her, I truly could not imagen her being fine sitting around a drab hospital room all day."
This statement seemed to draw Fluttershy out from her mane. "Well, the only times I know she went to the hospital was when she was sick. She probably didn't want me to catch whatever she had."
Once again, the confused looks returned. "I'm sorry darling, but do you mean to say that RAINBOW DASH has never been to the hospital for an injury?" Rarity asked, to which Fluttershy shook her head.
The room then went silent once again, nopony seemingly had anything else to say.
That was until Pinkie let out a long gasp. "Oh my gosh, she's probably going to be so hungry when she wakes up! I'll go bake her some cupcakes!" Pinkie said, all in one breath, before diving out of the window and galloping towards Sugarcube Corner.
The four mares stood in stunned silence at the sudden outburst. Thankfully Applejack managed to quickly regain her composure. "I should probably be heading on out too, last I saw of the farm it was in a bad state." She said as she began to walk to the door.
"I should make my leave as well." Rarity said, following Applejack. "The scuffle at the boutique left quite the mess, and I still need to dispose of that boulder."
Twilight was stunned, stunned that they would be leaving when they should all be here for Rainbow. "W-Wait! What about Dash!?" Twilight shouted as the two were about to cross the threshold of the door.
Applejack and Rarity both turned to look at each other for a moment before turning around to address Twilight. "Look Sugarcube, you heard what the nurse said, Dash is going to be fine. All we're doing is heading out to check on our families and homes, we'll be back as soon as we know everything is alright." Applejack said as she walked towards Twilight, she then placed a hoof on Twilights shoulder and met her eyes with a comforting look. "You got your branches growing in knots Twi." Twilight gave her a confused look. "I mean your stressing about something." Applejack clarified. "What's wrong?"
Twilight's head dropped as her mind once again was flooded with thought, specifically to when she blew up at Dash, and all of a sudden the dam, that she didn't even realise her mind was building, broke. Tears began to flow from Twilight's eyes and fall onto the floor. "I...I'm sorry, I just... With Discord and him messing with our heads, and now Dash being in the hospital..."
Twilight was about to continue speaking but was interrupted when Applejack pulled her into a tight hug, followed swiftly by Rarity and Fluttershy joining in. "It's alright darling, we understand." Rarity cooed, as she stroked Twilight's back with her hoof. This, combined with the hug, convinced Twilight to not say anything more and just focus on getting her emotions under control.
Eventually Twilight managed to calm down, and after several minutes of apologies and assuring Applejack and Rarity she was now alright, Twilight was now alone with Rainbow Dash in her hospital room. Fluttershy had left a few minutes after Applejack and Rarity, Twilight could tell she wanted to stay by Rainbow's side, but the worry she had for her animals won out, and she eventually returned home to check up on them.
Fluttershy had also mentioned that she was planning on heading to Cloudsdale, in order to inform Rainbow's parents of their daughters condition. This in particular had eased Twilights mind, as if there was anypony who could know about the best way to help Dash, it would be her parents as they most likely also knew about her secret, at least she hoped.
Right now, Twilight was silently scribbling away with a notepad and pencil that she had summoned with her magic. She was making rough sketches of Rainbow's... other form from what she had seen of it, this was mainly done to refresh her memory on what she had seen so she could create a list of questions to ask Rainbow or her parents.
Twilight glanced at the clock, thirty minutes had passed since Fluttershy had left and in that time Twilight had managed to make a fairly detailed, and annotated, sketch. "What else..." Twilight thought aloud, as she once again replayed the memory of the alley in her mind. However she was suddenly ripped from her thoughts as the door to Rainbow's room was slammed open.
Twilight let out an alarmed yelp and dropped her notepad in shock, before turning to the door. Standing there was a pink pegasus mare wearing a pair of saddle bags, she looked to be in her mid fifties had deep red mane and tail, with the mane being cut short, not extending past her chin, strangely enough the mare looked oddly familiar to Twilight but she couldn't place why. The mares orange eyes immediately fell on Rainbow Dash and seemed completely ignored Twilight.
"SWEETIE!" The mare cried before rushing over to Rainbow's side, wrapping her in a tight hug and began to weep openly. This continued for quite a while, causing Twilight to become very uncomfortable. Eventually when the mare seemed to finally calm down Twilight made her presence known by clearing her throat.
The mare's head suddenly snapped upward, a shocked look in her eyes. She remained silent however causing a sense of unease to wash over Twilight. "Um... Hi I'm Twilight Sparkle." Twilight said trying to reduce the tension. "What's your name?" She finished with a nervous smile.
The mare's eyes flashed with recognition, and her face turned into one that radiated warmth and friendliness. "Oh my goodness!" The mare exclaimed. "You're Twilight Sparkle? My daughter has told me so much about you! I'm Fairy Flight, it's so nice to meet you!"
Suddenly the pieces began to fall into place. "Are you Rainbow Dash's mother?" Twilight asked.
Fairy Flight's lips seemed to twitch downward slightly for a split second. "Um... Yes I am." She said.
Twilight jumped off of her seat and moved around the bed to be on the same side as Fairy Flight. "That's great!" She said.
"It is?" Fairy Flight asked in confusion.
"Well you see... it's just that... I..." Twilight stammered as her nerves began to catch up with her.
"Woah woah woah." Fairy Flight said. "Think of what you want to say before you start talking." She said in a kind and motherly tone.
A blush spread across Twilight's cheeks. "Sorry." Twilight said with a nervous chuckle.
"Oh don't be embarrassed dear." Fairy Flight said, again in her motherly tone. "My little dragonfly was just like that when she was younger." she said, pointing a hoof towards Rainbow.
Twilight chuckled at the adorable nickname for her friend, but now her mind had formulated what she thought would be the best way to break the news to Rainbow's mother. She took a step back and took a deep breath. "Alright, I know about Rainbow's secret." Twilight stated simply.
Fairy Flights lips twitched downwards yet again. "And... what secret would that be?" she said, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"It's about Rainbow not being a... normal pony." Twilight clarified. "I want to kno-" Twilight was then cut off when, in a burst of red flame, a crooked horn appeared on Fairy Flight's head and began to glow with magic. The door slammed shut and all the blinds in the room were suddenly drawn closed, the only light in the room was now Dash's heart rate monitor, and the red glow of Fairy Flight's horn.
Fairy Flight then assumed a stance that made it look as if she was a predator ready to pounce. "Wait, I just want to know how to help Dash!" Twilight shouted, but it was too late, as soon as she was done Fairy Flight was already in the air moving towards her, so she shut her eyes and waited for the impact.
But it never came, Twilight cracked open one of her eyes to see Fairy Flight mere inches away flying stationary in mid air, a look of confusion plastered on her face. "You aren't scared of her?" Fairy Flight asked. "You don't think she's not who she says she is? That she's not some kind of monster?"
"N-No!" Twilight exclaimed. "Of course not! She's my friend, I don't care what she looks like!"
Fairy Flight dropped to the ground, a remorseful look on her face. "I'm sorry, that's not the usual reaction we get when ponies find out."
Twilight was now also very confused, but she decided to focus on Rainbow's situation for the moment. "It's okay, I just want to know how to help Rainbow."
Fairy Flight's horn disappeared in another flare of red flame as she walked over to the blinds and began to open them. "You don't need to do anything dear, we have our own doctors who can help her." Fairy Flight said as she gazed out the window, seemingly looking for anypony outside. "But if you do want to help a bit, could you do me a favour and take out the IV please."
"Oh um... Sure." Twilight said, she then took out a peice of gauze that was stored in the bedside table and began to pull out the IV in a slow and steady motion, using the gauze to stop any bleeding.
"Thank you dear." Fairy Flight said, the kind and motherly tone returning to her voice. "Now usually anypony who finds out about us would have their memories locked."
"Wait what?!" Twilight said in a surprised tone. "Isn't erasing a ponies memories illegal?!"
Fairy Flight chuckled. "No no, were not erasing the memory, just locking it. The memory remains within your mind but you just can't access it." She then turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "But I don't think my daughter would be to happy with me doing that to one of her friends." Fairy Flight now turned to look Twilight straight in the eyes. "So I'm going to give you a choice, either you can choose to have your memories locked, or you can come with me and Dash and I'll see if I can't make an exception for you. But just so we're clear, there is no guarantee that I can do that, you may just be getting your hopes up for nothing."
Twilight barley had to give this decision any thought. "I'm coming with you, I'd rather have the chance then just not try anything." She said firmly.
Fairy Flight smiled warmly. "I knew my little dragonfly would make some good pony friends. Now there's just one thing I need to do before we leave."
Twilight was about to ask what she needed, but was interrupted when Fairy Flight's horn reappeared and once again glowed with magic, causing Twilight to suddenly become very tired, So tired that she passed out right where she stood.
Author's Note
Yo hope you guys enjoy.
Also while I have you here, could anyone come up with a name for an equestrian version of Tibet, I sewer it's going to be somewhat relevant to the story.
To Twilight, it had seemed like no time had passed at all. One moment she was talking to Fairy Flight and suddenly became very drowsy, the next moment she felt the impact of her landing on her back on a solid wooden floor. Twilight opened her eyes and saw that her vision was entirely filled with what looked to be a cloud.
"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!" She heard a muffled voice from beyond the white mass say, Twilight then felt a pair of hooves grip onto her shoulders and pulled her up with remarkable strength. Once outside of what she could now confirm was a cloud, Twilight saw Fairy Flight lifting her up with what seemed to be very little effort. "Sorry about that dear. I had forgotten that Ani-, I mean Rainbow Dash, had a cloud bed." Fairy Flight said before gently setting Twilight down next to the apparent bed.
Twilight began to take in her surroundings, instead of the dark blue walls and tiled floors of the Ponyville hospital, she was instead inside what looked to be a very large hexagonal bedroom. The entire room had the appearance of having been carved into a cave by natural processes rather than built, with everywhere that one would expect to see a corner or edge instead being rounded or curved.
Supporting the possibility that this room was carved into a cave, or was underground, was the lack of windows, the room was instead lit by an incredible number of luminescent crystals. Each of the individual crystals seemed to give off a fairly small amount of light, but the sheer amount of them managed to illuminate the entire room evenly.
The ceiling was incredibly tall, possibly ever riveling the Canterlot palace throne room in terms of height. Several ropes were attached to the ceiling each suspending various rings and other obstacles that Twilight assumed were for flying practice.
There were also several platforms jutting out of the walls, each one higher up on the wall than the last. Twilight could only see what was on the bottom most platform, the others being too high up for her to see what was on them, she saw what could be assumed to be some sort of dressing area of some kind, with a large wardrobe, several drawers, and a full body mirror all being imbedded into the wall.
On the ground level, there were several posters and pictures plastering the walls, a very large rectangular table surrounded by multiple chairs, many desks and drawers seemingly used just for storage, another full body mirror, though this one was free-standing and not attached to the wall, and a large amount of workout equipment, ranging from barbless, to punching bags, and a pull-up bar.
Twilight mouth hung open in awe as she looked around the room. "This is Rainbow's room?" She asked.
Fairy Flight grinned at Twilight's amusing expression. "I should hope so, otherwise I've gone senile and can't even tell my children's rooms apart from each other." She said with a light chuckle.
Though she didn't realise it, a light blush began to spread across Twilight's face. "But why am I in Rainbow's room?" Twilight asked.
Fairy Flight chuckled again, a devilish grin forming on her mouth. "Well we can't have you just running around the place, the more you learn about this place, the more memories we'll have to lock. Also, I assumed you would much rather this than a holding cell. What? Afraid Rainbow will find out?"
Twilight's blush grew tenfold. "I- I- Well I-" Twilight stammered out in flustered panic. Fairy Flight tried her best to keep herself together, but ultimately she failed. She burst into a fit of laughter, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes as she straggled to regain her composure.
After a good thirty seconds, Fairy Flight managed to calm down. "My goodness!" She exclaimed as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "You are a riot Twilight, I can see why my daughter likes you so much." Yet again, Twilight's blush grew even deeper. "And I don't think you need to worry about anything, I'm sure my daughter wouldn't mind one of her close friends being in her room... Well, at least not you." Fairy Flight finished with a sly grin. Though it should be impossible for a pony to have this much blood in their cheeks, and not pass out due to a lack of oxygen being sent to the brain, Twilight's blush somehow managed to grow even deeper.
Fairy Flight began laughing once again, though not as intensely as before. "Well I should be off now, I have a meeting to attend to." she said as she began to walk away. Just as she was about to walk through the door she turned back to Twilight. "Oh, and you dropped this back at the hospital." She said before tossing Twilight's notebook through the air, which Twilight caught with her magic.
"Wait, but what abo-" Twilight tried to speak, but was interrupted when Fairy Flight shut the door behind her and locked it, leaving twilight all alone in the massive room. It was at this point that Twilight finally noticed the warmth on her face, turning towards the mirror that she had seen earlier, she looked at the now fading blush that was on her face. "Why am I blushing?" She asked herself aloud, however the thought was soon ejected from her mind as she remembered her notebook. Quickly, Twilight began flipping through her notebook, ready to begin comparing what she had already noted down with what she had seen Fairy Flight demonstrate.
Anisoptera groaned in discomfort as she began to regain consciousness, she was greeted by a rhythmic beeping sound, accompanied by the occasional rustling of paper. "Morning Ani." She heard a familiar, apathetic voice say. "Or afternoon, or whatever. I don't know anymore after what Discord did."
Opening her eyes, Anisoptera saw that she was now in the Ponyville hive medical wing. Looking down at her legs she saw that both had been covered by a thick layer of bandages, with her right foreleg having also been placed in a splint, there was also an IV which had been hooked up to her left foreleg. Anisoptera followed the IV and found that it was connected to a nearly empty blood bag hanging next to her.
Over in the corner of the room, sitting on a wooden chair and face buried in a Power Ponies comic book was Myosa, The hive's head doctor. "What happened?" Anisoptera asked as she did her best to sit up on the bed.
Not looking up from her comic, Myosa spoke up. "Given what Nanno, Telep, and Anax said when I gave them a check-up earlier, you crashed into a building and fractured your carapace on your forelegs, breaking your right one, this caused the broken shards to dig into the tissue underneath and cause heavy bleeding, you then passed out from blood loss later on. The ponies also gave you a transfusion so I had to separate the foreign blood from your system before I could treat your wounds and give you some changeling blood."
Myosa paused for a moment as she turned the page of her comic book. "You can't walk on your forelegs for a while, but I did cast some healing spells to reduce that time, keep off the left one for three days but keep it bandaged for a week. Your right leg should be fully healed after two weeks, after that, you can walk on it again. Also, don't transform them until both are fully healed, you'd just be slowing down the process."
Anisoptera groaned in frustration, to her all she heard was going to be stuck in the hive for two weeks, she would much rather be able to go outside in the fresh air and stretch her wings, even if it was just in her pony form. She'd also not be able to see her friends for a whole two weeks, she just knew that they would be freaking out about where she's gone, especially Fluttershy and... Twilight.
Anisoptera's eyes went wide as the memories began flooding back. Twilight had seen her, but she didn't freak out, which was great, she finally could talk to at least one of her pony friends about Changeling stuff. A wide grin began to form of Anisoptera's mouth, she knew Twilight was going to ask tones of questions, but that didn't matter right now, all that mattered was the weight that Anisoptera carried from lying to her friends was just alleviated somewhat.
But then... what if any of the other changelings found out. Twilight would probably have her memories locked away, but that wouldn't be all. Twilight is Princess Celestia's personal student, a bunch of changelings would probably start freaking out, because if there was anypony who could recognise the tampering it would be the Princess, and messing with her students head wouldn't leave a good impression, any changeling who knew about this would probably feel like there was an axe hanging over them at all times, ready to swing down at a moments notice. But disregarding all that, the thought of Twilight having her memories locked brought a skinning feeling to Anisoptera's stomach, she had to do something.
"Mom, we need to talk." Anisoptera called to her mother over the hive mind, she had to convince the other royals not to lock Twilight's memories, and that started with Meganeura. However, Anisoptera never got a response. "Mom, can you hear me!" She shouted through the hive mind, and yet there was still no response.
Panic began to bubble up in her chest. "Myosa, where's mom!" she asked quickly.
Alarmed by the panicked tone of the question, Myosa looked up from her comic. "I think she's in a meeting with the royals from the other hives. Why?"
Anisoptera immediately shot up from her bed and into the air. "I gotta go!" She said before racing towards the door, she didn't make it far however as her tail was tugged at by a magical pull.
Turning around, she saw that Myosa's horn was aglow with magic and an annoyed expression was fixed on her face. "Hold on a second." She said firmly, as she pulled Anisoptera to the ground and began to remove the IV. "Remember no transforming and no walking. Also make sure you tell mom I discharged you, I don't want her to think that I let you break out."
Anisoptera gave Myosa a confused look. "Your just going to let me go? The last time I did something li-"
Anisoptera was suddenly cut off by Myosa shoving her towards the door. "Yes, I was told about last time, but you're clearly panicking about something, and all your vitals look good, so go fix whatever's going on!" She said as she opened the door with her magic. Instead of speaking any further, Anisoptera gave Myosa a thankful nod, before rushing to the diplomatic wing.
(Meanwhile)
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU DIDN'T LOCK HER MEMORIES!?" Queen larva screamed at the top of her lungs.
The seven rulers of the hives had arrived at the Ponyville hive at the request of Queen Meganeura not too long ago, each of them was now seated in their own respective thrones. Each throne was built in the exact same shape and size as the others, each being built to resemble a swirling ethereal flame, the differences of each throne came from the different materials used in their construction, each being made with different stones, gemstones, metals, and woods.
"EXACTLY WHAT I SAID, I DIDN'T LOCK HER MEMORIES YET!" Queen Meganeura shouted back.
Each of the thrones also had an identical replica beside it, albeit slightly smaller, these were where the princesses currently sat, the only vacant ones were Anisoptera's and Chrysalis'."I think this is the fastest one of these meetings has turned into a shouting match." Cocoon said jokingly over the princess' private hive mind, not paying much attention to the current argument.
"Nope." Acromyrmex said, not looking up from the stop watch she was holding in her magic. "But it was close. Two seconds short of beating the meeting for the Griffonstone incident."
Pheropsophus and Heteropoda both groaned in frustration over the hive mind. "I thought we agreed to never talk about that again." Heteropoda said.
"Yes, but only when the record could be broken." Hymenopus said, chuckling at her friends annoyance.
"Wha-" Pheropsophus stammered. "That's not what we agreed on!"
"Yes it is." The other three princesses replied simultaneously.
"No we didn't! Pheropsophus shouted over the hive mind. "Bel, back us up here." she said as she turned in the direction of Belgica's marble throne, only to find that it was empty.
However before any of them could comment on this, the door to the meeting room swing open, silencing all conversation. Out from behind the door was Belgica. "Apologies, Slaughter was hungry." She said, in her thick Stalliongrad accent, as she made her way back to her throne, followed swiftly by a small Lambeten mastiff, with what looked to be a piece of cragodile meat held firmly in its jaws.
Meganeura put her face in her hooves and let out a groan. "Alright everyling just listen. I don't think we should lock Twilight Sparkle's memories, she's close to Princess Celestia."
"That's exactly why we should lock her memories!" Larva shouted.
"No it isn't!" Meganeura shouted back. "Princess Celestia is one of, if not the most likely pony to notice a memory locking spell, for her all it would take is one look. And given from what Anisoptera has said, Twilight sees Celestia like a second mother, and I wouldn't be shocked if the feeling is mutual between them, now I ask what would you all do if you found out your daughters memories were messed with?" The other rulers were silent, except for Larva who was grumbling in annoyed agreement. "Exactly, and it's not like she won't have incentive to keep us a secret, she's friends with Anisoptera and Hymenopus, they could convince her to keep the secret."
Meganeura paused and let out a long sigh before continuing. "Now does anyling have any counter arguments?" The other older rulers looked nervous but otherwise said nothing. "Very well then. All in favour of allowing Twilight Sparkle to keep her memories?" Meganeura's, and all of the younger rulers hooves immediately shot up, followed slowly by Queen Mantodea, King Formicidae, and Sovereign Diptera. The others did not raise their hooves. "Very well then. Twilight Sparkle will hereby not have her memories locked, as long as she decides to keep our existence secret from the rest of Ponykind and all other sapient species." Meganeura ended, followed by a spell being cast from her horn, which rocketed into the ceiling and dispelled the privacy field.
Just as the field shattered, the doors the the meeting chamber burst open once again, as Anisoptera raced through them. "WAIT!" She screamed before stopping in the middle of the room. "You can't lock Twilight's memories! I know none of you really know her, but I promise you she won't tell anypony, not even Princess Celestia, I swear!"
The room was silent, until Meganeura began to chuckle. "Oh sweetie. We aren't going to do that, we already voted to give her an exemption."
Anisoptera looked dumbfounded at her mother for a moment. "So you mean to tell me, that I flew across the hive for no reason!" She shouted in frustration, as she dropped to the ground on her rump.
"Yep." Her mother responded cheerfully as she got up from her throne and began to approach her.
When Meganeura reached her daughter she placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder. "Now, do you mind telling me why your out of the medical wing so soon?" Meganeura said in a threatening tone.
Anisoptera's blood ran cold. "Uhh... Myosa discharged me early."
Meganeura glared down at her. "Likely story." She said as she grabbed Anisoptera in her telekinesis. "Let's go find out the truth, shall we?"
"WAIT, NO MOM, I'M TELLING THE TRUTH!" Anisoptera screamed as she was dragged out of the meeting chamber, much to the amusement of her friends.
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.
If Twilight was going to be entirely honest, her first impressions of the hive was that it was fairly unnerving, the halls that she and Anisoptera now walked through were not very well lit by the luminescent crystals making the whole area dim, and the natural look to the halls made the hive feel much more like a large cavern rather than a place where anypony would live.
Thankfully though, Anisoptera's presence relieved most of Twilight's worries, that and keeping herself occupied with with making a, hopefully final, sketch of what Anisoptera looked like. "So Twi..." Anisoptera spoke up, drawing Twilight's attention away from her notes. "You mind telling me what exactly happened after we beat Discord? I got a general run down but I wanna know what you and the others saw."
Twilight looked up from her notebook. "Not much really, we took you to the hospital, and after waiting a bit the nurse told us that you passed out from blood loss. After that the five of us just sat with you in your room for a while, Fluttershy talked about how she never got to visit you in the hospital, and then the others left to check up on their homes, none of them met your mother." She stated as she rummaged through her memories ensuring that she didn't miss any details.
Anisoptera nodded. "Good, things could have gotten complicated otherwise." She said.
Twilight tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?" She asked.
Anisoptera turned around to face Twilight but continued her flight, only now flying backwards. "It's mostly just with Fluttershy, she thinks that Windy Whistles is my mom."
"Who's that?" Twilight asked.
"It's the disguise of one of my bodyguards, they acted as relatives while I lived in Clousdale to not raise any suspicion because of the fact that they were always around me." Anisoptera said as the two of them reached a three-way intersection intersection. Without looking, Anisoptera continued flying backwards down the right tunnel.
Twilight stopped in her tracks for a brief moment as her brain processed what she just heard. "You have bodyguards?" She asked as she increased her pace to keep up with Anisoptera.
Anisoptera let out a deep sigh. "Yeah. Wish I didn't to be honest, but it's better than my friends, they all got their guards assigned to them, I actually go to pick mine."
Twilight let this new information sit in her mind for a bit before continuing. "So I take it your other friends are also royalty?"
"Yep." Anisoptera simply responded.
"You being a princess is going to take a while to really set in." Twilight said absent-mindedly.
Anisoptera nodded, an amused grin spreading across her face. "Yeah, just wait until you have to deal with Lemon too."
It took a bit for Twilight to figure out what Anisoptera meant but when she did it hit her hard. "Are you telling me Lemon Hearts is a princess too!?"
"Yep." Anisoptera said simply.
This back to back bombardment of information that was rapidly changing Twilight's view on many of those around her was starting to become a bit too much for her. But maybe she could ground her self by confirming an earlier presumption she had made. So she took a deep breath to clear her mind and asked the question.
"So Ani... I've been wondering how old you were?" Twilight asked, mild trepidation in her voice.
Anisoptera groaned. "Twi I already said you could call me Dash."
Twilight let out a sigh. "Sorry, but I would rather call you by your actual name, if you would rather call you Rainbow Dash though I will."
Anisoptera shrugged. "Eh.. I don't really have a preference, the way I act as Dash is pretty much how I usually act, though sometimes a bit more exaugurated, so I don't really see a difference between us."
Twilight nodded. "Okay, so I'm going to call you Anisoptera then, at least when I can."
"Alright." Anisoptera relented. "And as for how old I am, I'm eighty six."
This statement hit Twilight like a sack of bricks and caused her to stop dead in her tracks. "Wh- I... I." She stammered out, as a dull ach began to build in her head. She had expected one of two answers, either that the photos that didn't feature Rainbow Dash were not of Anisoptera and she was the age she displayed herself as when disguised, or that Anisoptera was somewhere in her early to mid forties if the number of photos and the regular time gap between Wonderbolts shows were anything to go off of. But eighty six? Any sapient creature that age were usually wise beings knowledgeable beyond their years, at least that's how Twilight saw them.
Thankfully Anisoptera noticed her friends distress. "Woah Twi, you alright?" She asked as she too came to a stop.
Twilight rubbed at her forehead in an attempt to relieve the ache. "Yeah, this is all just a lot to take in." She said. "It's just... I'm sorry but I can't picture you as an eighty six year old."
Anisoptera's trademark 'Rainbow Dash ego' suddenly made an appetence as she flew up higher into and struck a pose. "I know, I'm too awesome to be that old." She said in an overly exaggerated smug tone.
Twilight rolled her eyes but she couldn't suppress the amused smile that grew on her face.
"But seriously, I am old for a pony but not for a changeling royal, we age slower." Anisoptera said, returning back down closer to the ground.
Twilight hummed in thought for a moment and was about to ask another question, but stopped as soon as she saw the sight before her. The two of them had arrived at the end of the tunnel and were now standing at the edge of its entrance that overlooked a massive hexagonal chamber, even bigger than Anisoptera's room. Leaning over the railing of the ledge Twilight saw that each walls held other tunnel, each a bit lower in position than the last, that was labelled with both glowing signs in a language that she didn't recognise as well as in equestrian made from the luminescent crystals she had seen before. The crystals were also used to create various works of art that adorned the walls of the cavern all in a variety of styles, from a realistic portrait of a changeling that appeared to be made up of millions of tiny crystals, to an abstract landscape, and even several cartoonish pieces that were concentrated around one particular tunnel entrance.
"Twilight..." Anisoptera said, an affectionate smile growing on her face as she looked out into the atrium. "Welcome to my home."
The two made their way down to the bottom of the atrium via the spiral walkway that connected between the different tunnels imbedded in the walls, however their pace was slowed by Twilight stopping each time the two reached one of the tunnels to examine the signs associated with it, and to write down what the changeling script translated into so that she could use it future attempts to learn the language. Anisoptera decided not to comment on this but did grumble to herself every time they were stopped.
When the two finally reached the bottom what they were met with was a wall of changelings blocking their path to the cafeteria.
Twilight wanted to start making notes on the various types and differences she could see between them, but hesitated when she saw the looks on their faces, each and every one of them was staring at her, and despite the pupilless eyes, she could see what they were feeling. Fear. They were all staring at her with a look of fear on their faces, the only ones who seemed to break this trend were some of the more muscular changelings, but even they looked rather anxious.
Suddenly Anisoptera stepped forward. "Alright you guys, you can chill out now. I promises you Twilight won't snitch, she already promised me she won't and she isn't the type to go back on a promise." As soon as she said those words the entire crowed seemed to deflate seemingly out of... shame and soon after the crowed began to disperse, most of them seemingly making their way to the cafeteria, but many others moving to some other place in the hive, some of them even passed by Twilight and Anisoptera, mumbling apologies to Twilight as they passed.
"Wow..." Twilight said as she watched the group dissipate. "I guess you really are a princess, huh?"
Anisoptera rolled her eyes but none the less smiled. "Its not that big of a deal." She said. "Just gotta calm 'em down when they get all freaked out, that's what big sisters are for, right?"
Twilight started formulating a response in her mind, but she got snagged on one particular word. "Did you say Sister?" She asked. "Is that a cultural thing where changelings refer to members of the same hive as siblings, or...?"
Anisoptera chuckled as she began to fly forward. "Nah, we're all actually siblings." She said simply.
Twilight was stuck in thought for a short moment before she rushed forward to catch up to Anisoptera, scribbling down notes in her notebook all the while.
The two made their way into the cafeteria and Twilight was in awe as she saw it. In the centre of the room was wat appeared to be a large multilayer kitchen, with multiple ovens, refrigerators, and freezers all stacked on top of each other, at the top was where the cleaning of dishes was preformed as well as where what Twilight assumed were deep fryers were stored. Surrounding the tower was a circular counter, with changelings running around behind it and shouting orders up to the cooks above. Capping off the massive structure was a massive glass container, filled with a glittery pink liquid which Twilight could not identify, and capped of with a large metal lid connected to a pipe that ran through one of the walls of the cafeteria. Suddenly the pipe begins to vibrate as more of the pink liquid begins to pour out of it, allowing twilight to see that its consistency is much like that of honey.
Anisoptera nudged Twilight in the side to break her out of her furious note taking, that she had started upon seeing the kitchen tower, and directed her towards one of the many tables that she had failed to notice due to her distraction.
At the table was a group of six other changelings that Twilight noticed were different than many of the others that were milling about at other tables, all of them being much taller than the others and Twilight herself, while also sporting wildly different colour schemes from one another.
The group seemed to immediately take notice of the two's approach and one of them called out in a voice that was very familiar to Twilight. "Hey Ani, hey Twi!" The yellow changeling with purple eyes said enthusiastically while waving a hoof in the air, the voice, familiar mane cut, and seeming familiarity with Twilight clewing her in that this was Lemon Hearts. "Come and sit down, Phero's already ordered food."
"Hey guys, how's it going." Anisoptera said as she used her magic to pull up a chair for herself and Twilight before sitting down, sitting in a manner which Twilight had seen Lyra sit in as to not put pressure on her forehooves.
Most of the group gave various responses mostly ranging from 'alright' to 'boring', all except for the smallest of the group, she had a green carapace and eyes with black sclera and white pupils, and though she was short compared to the others she was still a head taller than Twilight.
She began to gesticulate with her hooves as if she was speaking but she never once opened her mouth. Despite this, however, her message was seemingly relieved by everyone else at the table, with many of them congratulating her on a good job.
Anisoptera looked back to Twilight only to see her confuse expression. "Twi? What's up?" she asked.
Twilight pointed at the green changeling. "How do you know what she said? Was it sign language?" She asked.
Sudden realization flashed over the faces of everyone else present. "Ah, right. Kinda forgot about that to be honest." Anisoptera said. "Alright, let me introduce you first, then we'll explain."
She looked over to Lemon Hearts. "You already know Lemon, but her real name is Hymenopus and she's the princess of the Canterlot hive."
Hymenopus flashed Twilight a goofy grin that was made somewhat intimating as a result of her fangs, though Twilight tried to not let that bother her.
Anisoptera then looked over to the all-white changeling who appeared to have their main cut very short with the tips seemingly dyed black. Twilight also noticed that there was a small puppy resting in her lap, happily chewing away on a bone that was far too large for it. "That's Belgica, she's the princess of the Frozen North hive." Belgica then gave a curt nod after Anisoptera was done speaking.
Next was the smaller green changeling with black eyes and a black mane that didn't extend past her neck. "That's Acromyrmex, princess of the Manehatten hive and our resident pyromaniac." Acromyrmex gave Anisoptera a death glair at that last part. "Hey, you know it's true, you literally have a diagnosis." There was then a moment where Acromyrmex began gesticulate with her hooves again. "She needs to know so that you can't trick her into giving you anything explosive." This exchange caused the rest of the group to burst out laughing and for Twilight to become even more confused.
"Anyway." Anisoptera said as she turned to the tallest of the changelings who also sported a red carapace and yellow eyes and a yellow main that seemed to be held in a ponytail despite the fact that there seemed to be nothing holding it in that shape. "This is Pheropsophus and she's the princess of the dragon lands hive."
"Sup." Pheropsophus said ash she extended a hoof out towards Twilight, who responded with a somewhat awkward hoof bump.
Next was the purple changeling, who had a bright orange mane, the top of which resembled a faux hawk while the sides had been allowed to grow longer than somepony with that style would typically allow. "That's Heteropoda who is the princess of the Griffonstone hive."
Heteropoda suddenly rose from her seat and bowed to Twilight. "Madam Twilight, tis an honour to make thine acquittance." She said in a very regal manor.
Twilight was unsure as to what to do, looking back to Anisoptera she saw that her friend was looking at Heteropoda with an unamused expression. "Come on Het, stop messing with her."
Heteropoda looked up from her bow at Anisoptera, a smug grin forming on her face. "What? I do it with everygriffon and everypony I meet, it's a good test of character when you see how they react."
Anisoptera rolled her eyes, but didn't do anything to hide her amused smile. Then she moved onto the final member of the group, a grey changeling with teal eyes and a teal mane that didn't look like it had been cut in ages. "And finally, we have Cocoon, the one with the least interesting name."
Anisoptera received her second death glair of the day, although this one seemed somewhat playful in nature. "Hey, at least my mom doesn't name us after bugs." Cocoon said.
"No, she just names you after bug parts or the things bugs make." Hymenopus butted in. "At least with our names you don't immediately think 'bugs' unless you're a entomologist or a taxonomist."
Cocoon opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself to think for a moment. "Hmm, yeah that's fair." she said simply.
The group had now fallen into a silence, allowing Twilight to finally speak. "Well its great to meet you all, any friend of Ani and Lem- I mean, Hymenop-" She was then stopped by Hymenopus.
"Just keep calling me Lemon hearts Twilight, no offence but it's kinda weird hearing you call me that." She said simply.
Twilight nodded at her other friend. "Any friend of Ani or Lemon Hearts is a friend of mine." She managed to finish before one of Anisoptera's siblings walked up to the table carrying in his magic, a large platter covered by a dome.
"Here's your food." He said as he began to set the platter down on the table before stopping in his tracks as he looked at Twilight, then to the platter, then back to Twilight, and back to the platter once again. Eventually though he set the food down on the table and rushed off soon after.
"What was that about?" Twilight asked, he didn't seem to be afraid of her like the others had, but rather something about the food.
Anisoptera shrugged. "Eh, who knows? Neopetalia's always been a bit of an odd ball." she said nonchalantly as she grabbed the dome with her magic, lifting it up to revel several plates of... Sushi.
Pheropsophus and Heteropoda both immediacy grabbed a plate and began to eat, completely oblivious to the looks the rest of the changelings were giving Pheropsophus.
"Really dude? Sushi?" Anisoptera asked incredulously.
Pheropsophus looked up from her meal. "Yeah, I went fishing this morning and brought what I caught here." she said through a mouthful of fish and rice.
Everyling except Heteropoda facehooved. "Sweet Celestia you're an idiot." Hymenopus muttered under he breath. "You do know ponies don't eat fish right?"
A sudden look of realization and embarrassment appeared on Pheropsophus' face as she finally remembered that ponies were herbivores.
The rest let out a groan of frustration, all except for Heteropoda who was still happily devouring her food. "Sorry about that Twi. We can get you somth-" Anisoptera began to speak as she looked towards her friend, but stopped herself when she saw that Twilight had also grabbed a plate and was eagerly chowing down on the food.
Twilight let out a moan of delight as she chewed on a piece of salmon nigiri. "This is great!" She exclaimed happily. "It's been a while since I could find anywhere that had fish on the menu, and I've never seen it prepared like this before!"
"Twi, you eat fish?" Anisoptera blurted out, surprise and confusion dripping from her voice.
Twilight's eyes suddenly shot open and she abruptly stopped chewing. She looked up to Anisoptera, swallowed the remaining food in her mouth and began to speak. "Well, about a year after Celestia made me her pupil, she let me join a dinner with her and some griffon ambassadors. The ambassadors were served fish, and I guess one of them saw me looking at it curiously so she asked if I wanted to try some, and I said yes." She paused for dramatic effect. "It was incredible!" Twilight paused again for a moment as she quickly ate another piece of sushi. "After that, I've basically had it whenever a restaurant offers it, but as I just mentioned, you only really find places like that in the cities and not in places like Ponyville."
"Huh... And here I thought you'd just be learning things about me today." Anisoptera said with a chuckle.
This comment seemed to bring Twilight out of her fish induced daze as she suddenly brought her note pad back up. "That's right! Is it alright if I start asking my questions now?" She said in an excited tone. However it seemed she was to excited for her own good as she spoke again before any of the others could answer. "Okay first question. How could you understand Acromyrmex?"
The group chuckled slightly at Twilight's enthusiasm, including Heteropoda as she was now paying attention to the conversation again after finishing he meal.
Cocoon was the one to answer this question. "Well, Changeling have an egregore, or hive mind, that we can use to communicate and identify other changelings while disguised. It's usually only usually only between members of the same hive but me and my sister Chrysalis figured out how to create a small one for all of us to connect to."
Twilight began to eagerly wright in her note book. "Is a changeling always connected to this hive mind or is it something that comes later in life, and can they disconnect from it if they want." She asked without looking up from her notes.
Cocoon thought for a moment before she spoke again. "Well, a changeling usually learns to use the hivemind around the age when they first start speaking, but they can hear it as soon as they hatch. And as for disconnecting from it, that can only happen is a royal makes a new one through a magic ritual, those who are a part of it will be connected to the new one but disconnected from the old one."
"Fascinating." Twilight muttered as she continue to write.
"So Twi, I gotta ask, how many questions do you have?" Anisoptera asked, a small hint of worry in her voice.
Twilight stopped for a moment and began to rapidly flip through the pages of her note book. Anisoptera was only just noticing how thick it was and her worry began to grow as Twilight flipped through more pages. Eventually, Twilight stopped and grabbed all the pages she had looked over with her magic, in one fluid motion she tore all of the pages out, leaving a stack of pages around six centimetres thick. "I've got all of them here." She said with a wide smile on her face.
Anisoptera looked at Twilight with a mortified expression, she knew Twilight would ask a lot of questions but this... This was insane. Hymenopus on the other hoof looked at Twilight with shock in her eyes, not because there were so many pages, but rather that there were far fewer than she was expecting. The rest of the group were not looking at Twilight however, instead, they were all staring at Anisoptera as if they were trying to bore holes into her head with just their eyes, all the while silently cursing her out for getting caught and making them endure this.
Author's Note
Well this one turned out longer than I expected, hope you guys don't mind.
This is probably going to be the last update for the year, have a great (insert whatever December holiday you celebrate here), and have a happy new year.
Update: HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I GOT FEATURED!