That morning, I was trotting up the road to Fluttershy’s cottage, carrying a few books in my saddlebags. It was a nice sunny day, courtesy of Rainbow and the other weather ponies, and I was looking forward to my new weekly study date with Fluttershy. I had noticed that she read a lot—more than, and more broadly than, any of my other friends—and last week had broached the idea of getting together over tea to discuss what I we had read with each other, and idea she had quickly taken to. I was quite happy with finding somepony I could talk about some of my more esoteric interests with and, truth be told, finding an opportunity to spend more time with Fluttershy. She finds being in town a little difficult, and I live in the middle of it, so we hadn’t been able to be together quite as much as I would have liked.
With my mood buoyant enough to nearly be floating away, I reached her cottage and knocked a few times on the door. It was promptly answered by her little rabbit pet. Sometimes I think she must have a very buried sense of humor, naming him “Angel”. With her out of sight, I lowered my head and asked, “Is Fluttershy here?”
He shook his head rapidly and made to shut the door. Just before it slammed shut, though, I caught it in my magic, halting it.
“Well, she won’t mind if I wait for her down here, will she?” I asked.
Ignoring his response, I walked over to the couch and sat down. It wasn’t long before my ears pricked at a strange sound coming from upstairs. It almost sounded like Fluttershy, but not quite, as if her voice was being run through somepony else’s throat. I couldn’t make out any details of what she was saying, or perhaps singing. Even so, I could tell that somepony, at least, was upstairs. If it was Fluttershy, then her rabbit had lied to me. If it wasn’t, then something very strange was going on.
I pushed myself off the couch to go upstairs. As soon as he saw where I was going, Angel leaped to intercept me. I simply caught him in a field of magic and levitated him over my back.
“I’m finding out what’s going on, whether or not you like it,” I told him. Not bothering to wait on his answer, I stepped up the stairs towards Fluttershy’s room. As I neared the door, the voice became clearer and clearer. It was definitely Fluttershy’s, but with a raspy, grinding quality I had never heard from her before. Was she sick, perhaps? The thought only increased the feeling of urgency I had, and I surged forward. As I reached the door, I shouted out “I’m coming in, Fluttershy!” and yanked the door open with my magic.
I didn’t expect what confronted me there. Inside, lying on her bed, was not the sweet yellow pegasus I was expecting, but a black, pony-like creature with a black chitin exoskeleton, insectoid wings, and a jagged horn. Changeling! my mind screamed as I was taking in the sight. In a flash, I had dropped Angel and levitated the changeling off of Fluttershy’s bed. With the creature disabled before it could do anything, I was able to conjure rope and bind it at a more leisurely pace, taking care to disable wings, horn, and limbs. Or at least try to disable horn; I knew what would put a unicorn out of action, but changeling magic might work differently. It was a risk I had to take, though.
With that done, I carried it downstairs to the living room with my magic. Although I had captured it inside Fluttershy’s bedroom, the living room would be a better place to question the creature, and in any case it would need to be moved at some point for the guards to take care of. Once I reached the living room, I unceremoniously dumped it on the ground and began to question it. I wanted to know how and why it had replaced Fluttershy. With luck, I had just forestalled a changeling plot, but I wanted my friend back.
The changeling just quivered whenever I asked a question or made a threat, letting out nothing but informationless squeaks and yelps. Whoever had trained it was good, I had to admit that. Even so…
“You know, I don’t have to stop at trying to extract information from you politely. Spells that mess with the mind are restricted, but as Celestia’s personal student I’ve been exposed to them, and I’m sure she would forgive my use on a changeling trying to replace one of the Elements of Harmony!”
Just then, somepony started banging on the door. In between knocks, the muffled voice of whoever it was flowed into the living room.
“Fluttershy, dear, is something wrong?”
Rarity! Right, their spa date was today! I spared a single piercing glance for the changeling and trotted over to the door, which I pulled open with my magic. Behind it, as expected, Rarity stood, with her hoof raised to knock at the door again. Wearing a decidedly downbeat face, I steeled myself to give her the bad news.
“Rarity,” I began. “It seems Queen Chrysalis hasn’t finished with us.”
As I half-expected, she dramatically gasped at the news before asking “What do you mean?”
I continued, “It seems one of her agents has been sent to infiltrate us. Look at who they replaced Fluttershy with!” I concluded before turning aside to let her see.
I was floored by her reaction. “Fluttershy? But how could you…Twilight Sparkle!” she erupted once she caught sight of the changeling bound in the middle of the floor. “What have you done!?” she continued, punctuating each word with a hoofpoke before quickly trotting over to the changeling and releasing her.
Well. I hadn’t expected that. Blindsided by this behavior, I just plopped down in the middle of the floor to think while Rarity checked Fluttershy to make sure I hadn’t hurt her. Was it possible…that Rarity was a changeling infiltrator as well? I didn’t think so…but there was only one way to be sure. Turning, I saw that she was preoccupied with poring over the changeling’s hard exoskeleton for any flaws, and wasn’t paying any attention to me. Good. I breathed in, visualized the magic I wanted to call on, and…released. A burst of purple light sprang forth from my horn and whirled over Rarity’s fur and mane, making them stand on end like an electric charge before dissipating gradually. Huh. She wasn’t a changeling herself…?
I had very little time to contemplate this new chunk of information before Rarity turned on me. If before she was angry, now she was positively livid. If her face had been much redder, she could have been Big Mac’s twin sister, while her eyes had narrowed into mere slits. For a long moment, she merely stared at me, as if I were the changeling in the room.
Finally, she spoke, with the sort of tone usually reserved for particularly naughty foals, the kind that will make just about anypony ashamed of what they’ve just done, no matter what it was. “Twilight Sparkle. What on Earth do you think you’re doing!? First, you admit to attacking poor Fluttershy, then you attack me! If I didn’t know better, I would think you were the changeling infiltrator, set to spread discord between us!”
My rear legs just sort of fell out from under me, leaving me sitting on the floor. Although her entire speech had stunned me, one part in particular had stood out. In her mind, at least, there was zero doubt that this changeling was Fluttershy. Why would she think Fluttershy was a changeling unless…I had to voice this question, it was too important not to get a yes or no answer.
“Fluttershy…is a changeling, isn’t she? She has been this whole time.”
Rarity nodded.
With this fact, a series of others started to fall into place. Things that I had previously dismissed as merely being the quirks of an individual pony now revealed new details under a new light. Hesitantly, I began to think out loud while Rarity turned back to taking care of…Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy is the kindest pony…um, changeling I know. So kind, as a matter of fact, that I think there’s nopony who can help but love her. Hay, she might be more popular than Pinkie. Pretty close, at least. Even if nopony loves her as deeply as my brother loves Cadence, the sheer number of ponies compensates; she—you—would never starve like Chrysalis said her hive was. Moreover, they love you for you; you don’t have to pretend you’re somepony you’re not.”
Rarity had stopped poring over Fluttershy’s chitinous exoskeleton and together with her had turned to face me. The—changeling—was nodding in response to my guess. Emboldened, I pressed forwards.
“Living out here is another aspect of that. Here, you’re of but not in the town; close enough to easily harvest love, not so close that you drain everypony dry. And the animals! That’s another part of it. Animals will love you unconditionally—I thought of Angel and corrected myself—almost unconditionally for what you do. That helps more, doesn’t it?”
Fluttershy nodded, “Yes. Animals aren’t really smart enough to love the way ponies do, but their love is enough to keep alive on if I need to take a break from being in town.” Her voice had that raspy, grinding quality I had noted earlier. Now it was clear that it was because when she wasn’t wearing her “disguise” her mouthparts were hard chitin instead of soft flesh, and rubbed against each other when she was speaking.
I concluded, “You’re really in almost the perfect situation for a changeling, and all because of your own personality. But I’m confused about where you came from and why Rarity knows what you are. And didn’t share with me,” I added, throwing the unicorn a glare.
Fluttershy shook her head and she responded, “Even I don’t know why I grew up in Cloudsdale instead of in a changeling hive, Twilight. And, um, as for the second question, it turns out that…” she trailed off into inaudibility. I could swear that, despite being a black-shelled insectoid quasi-pony creature, she was blushing.
Confused, I dumbly asked, “What was that?”
“Well, changelings still have needs, Twilight.” She paused for a moment, looking unsure of herself before continuing. “Or, um, well, I do, at least. Love isn’t just food for us you know, it's still...nice to feel loved. And it’s not like we can’t feel love ourselves. A few years back I had a crush on Big Mac. We went on a few dates, then…”
“Okay, okay,” I said, interrupting her. To be entirely honest, I kind of did want to hear how Applejack’s brother was in the hay, but now was most decidedly not the time or place for it. “I think I get it. You couldn’t keep it together under those…conditions.”
Fluttershy nodded. “Exactly, Twilight. He was very, um, surprised when I…reverted. Ran off screaming about monsters and stealing his bodily fluids and so on. Everypony in town thought he was crazy at first, especially the way he was making a scene while…um…in a less than polite condition. I had been surprised too, so I went to Sweet Apple Acres to apologize. He just ran off screaming again when he saw me, so I had to explain to Applejack and Granny Smith what had happened.” She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, exuding awkwardness. “He couldn’t walk straight for a month because of how angry Granny Smith was at him for sleeping around, but at least they stopped thinking he was crazy. Nopony knew what a changeling was…I didn’t know what a changeling was…and by that point I had been here for a few years and had a number of friends around Ponyville, so they didn’t run me out of town, just accepted that I was different.”
I nodded. They had been terrified of Zecora, but they hadn’t been able to get to know her before finding out she was a zebra, and she did live in the Everfree Forest. It wasn’t hard to see why they might be scared of someone who did that. Fluttershy, on the other hand, would have been a known quantity, and she hadn’t revealed anything that would hurt anypony.
That still didn’t explain why nopony had though to tell me. I looked back at Rarity.
“We thought you knew, darling,” she said, simply.
That…made sense. It was probably everypony assuming somepony else had told me. Gets you every time.
“Right,” I said. “There’s probably a letter to the Princess in this…”
Dear Princess Celestia,
If a friend turns out to not quite be who or what you thought they were, but still has all the qualities that made her a friend in the first place, then she’s still your friend. It’s not exterior qualities that make somepony a friend, but who they are inside. Fluttershy might not be quite who I thought she was, but she’s still the sweet, kind pony I befriended, and still deserves my friendship.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S.: Fluttershy and I need to have a private conversation with you at the next possible opportunity.
Author's Note
Just a silly little idea I had this morning. A hattip to Nosflutteratu for the general idea.