Cutie Mark Crusader Changelings

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Chapter 1

The winds of Cloudsdale were cold in those wee hours of the night. Winter was fast approaching and the weather factory was running overtime to make sure they could manufacture plenty of snow for the upcoming season change. But here, deep in the residential district, everypony was tucked safely into their warm beds; meaning that none of them even had a chance to see the shadowy figure buzzing purposefully from cover to cover.

Unlike their more Equine cousins changelings didn’t have the magic that allowed them to manipulate clouds and weather the same way pegasi could. They could walk on them well enough, but they couldn’t influence their movement unless they took the form of a pegasus or used some other very attention gathering magic. Grub insertionists weren’t permitted to take a pony form unless it were absolutely necessary, which made for a much more difficult job. The changeling didn’t understand why these grubs had to be planted within pony society. They would still be far too young when the invasion soon came. However the Queen’s orders were absolute. It wasn’t for the drone to understand his orders, but to complete them without fail. So complete them he would.

An ear perked up as the changeling detected the sound he’d been searching for and buzzed up to the partially open second-story window. Holding onto the sill he hissed with pleasure and licked his tongue around his fanged teeth. It was such a delicious little bundle of raw emotion. Few drones were ever permitted the chance to experience the unconditional love and joy a newborn pony gave up so freely, so completely, but great risks offered great rewards for those most devoted to the goals of the hive. The changeling hovered for a moment and drank his fill, savoring the surge of fresh emotion that strengthened his dark form.

The stirring in his saddlebag reminded him of why he was here and he set to work. Opening the window the rest of the way he climbed in. The horn on his head flared and carefully levitated the changeling grub from his bag. From a biological standpoint the creature wasn’t really a grub, but in fact a little grey changeling. Actual grubs were white, slowly developing their legs, wings, and horn for the first year until they were unmistakably pony-like. At that point their soft white skin slowly hardened into black chitin like the rest of their kind, a developing process that lasted about 8 years (depending on the grub).

The little bundle of orange fur babbled and cooed at the mesmerizing green glow while the grey grub gave a throaty grumble as it was set down in the crib. The two creatures eyes met, looking each other over with equal curiosity and wonder neither having seen a creature of the other’s sort before. The elderling took advantage of their inactivity and touched his horn to the grub’s, manipulating its unrefined magic ability for his purposes. Pale green wisps emanated from the two horns and enveloped the young filly, who fell back and giggled, swirling the unthreatening mist with her hooves. The new joy in the moment fed the youngling its first taste of real emotion. The initial feeding normally took an hour for less experienced insertionists, but this elderling had refined his process down to thirty minutes. Just so long as they weren’t-

“Well what’s got you all excit-…-ed?”

‘Well, buck.’ Of course the mare would wake at some obscene hour. ‘It's unfortunate that stupid emotional creatures can’t ever behave logically, isn’t it?’ Looking up the drone met eyes with a pale pink pegasus mare who stood in shock at the unfathomable sight. A black monster standing over two identical orange fillies with a messy purple mane (where there only should have been one) was not something a tired mind could easily register.

Thinking fast, the changeling scooped the real infant from the crib and tossed it up towards the mare. This served the dual purpose of causing the mare to gasp instead of scream as well as distract her from the real threat in the room. ‘It's fortunate that stupid emotional creatures can’t ever behave logically, isn’t it?’

Knowing a spell would be too loud and flashy, the changeling sped across the room and lowered its horn. A satisfying -squelch- combined with the heat of blood on its forehead told the black drone a story it had heard several times before. He could almost feel the mare’s lung collapsing as blood gurgled in her throat, killing any chance of crying out for help along with her.

However, something didn’t feel quite how it should have as he extricated his horn from the mare’s chest, and when the twitching body slumped to the floor he saw why. The filly’s unnatural silence throughout the ordeal was naturally explained by the horn shaped hole in its neck. The head hadn’t quite been severed, but the foal’s death had been instantaneous. Such was not the case for the mother.

To the mare’s credit, she hadn’t intentionally used the baby pony as an ineffective meat shield for some sick, emotionally driven desire to live. She’d simply cradled the filly to her chest, completely unaware that the same location had been scheduled for an untimely mortal wound. This knowledge, however, did nothing to ease the rage that now consumed the changeling as it hissed curses at the soon to be corpse.

He reared back and stomped on the insolent dying mare, breaking four ribs and fracturing her wing, and again, this time breaking her rear legs at the knees. ‘Stupid, unthinking pony; you killed your own offspring with your idiocy and for that your final moments will be filled with SUFFERING.’ After stamping her into the floor twice again her eyes rolled back and all pretenses of life within the mare ceased. The clouds beneath her were soaking up the red and raining thick warm blood down into the kitchen below.

The cooing faux-filly brought the drone out of his ebbing rage and reminded him of the task still at hoof. The foal’s demise was a major setback, to be sure, but not an insurmountable one.

A foal’s constant raw emotional output was usually the key to long-term grub insertion. Without an appropriately large and immediate source of love the disguise that had been set in place would fade within months, a year if she was lucky. After that the undeveloped magical abilities of a grub would mean that discovery was a certainty and after that … well … the ponies would have to worry about that. The drone’s mission however, had not yet failed.

The copy had already been completed and would remain so long as the foal’s natural grey skin was permeated with a sufficient amount of energy. Once her skin completely hardened into the black chitin that was the changeling standard the image would have to be consciously maintained. Once mature a copy spell was a simple, desire driven feat. So long a changeling’s resolve held and love was consumed regularly a disguise could theoretically last forever. He simply needed to access a new source of love and transplant it so the youngling would live to maturity.

Closing the nursery’s door he locked his eyes on the dead mare. A -whoosh- of green flame filled the room and he copied her form. He’d taken the mare’s child, her pride, her life, and her body. It had indeed been an interesting and eventful night. Reaching down to the dead mare he took the earring that signified her status as a married mare. Now it was time to take the last thing in this world that was hers … her lover’s passion. Though brief and transplanted for second-hoof consumption, that intimate expression of love would be more than enough to last the youngling’s disguise on into maturity.

~~~~

-Present Day-

“LOOK OUT!”

-crash-

As the dust settled three fillies were revealed to be tangled in a pony-pile the likes of which only the infamous Cutie Mark Crusaders could seem to manage. Fortunately, they hadn’t managed to add tree-sap to injury this time. Though, the fact that they hadn’t been actively “crusading” was probably the only reason the sticky substance had remained absent. Beyond a few concerned glances nopony paid them much mind. This sort of thing was downright tame compared to their usual disasters, and on top of that they’d been wearing their safety gear.

Apple Bloom, the first to recover, blew Sweetie Belle’s tail out from in front of her face. “Good gravy, Scootaloo. What happened back there?”

“Yeah,” chimed the white unicorn, pushing the wagon from on top of herself, “don’t you nearly kill us enough when we’re crusading?”

“Sorry guys,” she apologized. “I … guess I kinda got distracted there.”

Apple Bloom hadn’t planned on saying anything, but the stunt-crazy filly crashing without doing any crazy tricks told her things were more serious than the orange pegasus was letting on. “You sure yer okay? You haven’t hardly said anyth’n since ya’ picked me up?”

Scootaloo tried to dodge the question by hitching the wagon back onto the scooter. “C’mon, we’ll be late for class.”

This, however, had the opposite effect on her friends. “Since when do you get hot around the collar fer sitt’n at yer desk all day?”

“Yeah, you hate sitting in class.”

Scootaloo shied away from their eyes, which caused a look of concern to wash over their expressions. She knew that it was now obvious she was bothered. As much as she wanted more time to think about it on her own, she also wanted to talk about it with her friends. “I …” she began, “I read a letter about me for my foster parents yesterday.” If for some reason there had been any vestige in her friends that hadn’t been worried yet, that had now disappeared.

It was an unspoken rule in the schoolyard (and pretty much the town in general). Nopony talked about Scoot’s being a fosterfilly unless she brought it up first. It had been months of Crusading before Apple Bloom found out about it. Not even Diamond Tiara or Silver Spoon had even so much as alluded to the subject during their nearly endless bouts of teasing. There were some places you just didn’t go.

The fact Scootaloo even brought it up now meant that something big had happened. “It … it was from the State Foster Institute.”

Sweetie Belle immediately wrapped the pegasus in a desperate hug that nearly knocked the two of them back to the ground. “Noo, they can’t send you away. They just can’t. Your home is here in Ponyville with us,” she wailed. “It’s not fair.”

Scootaloo scooped her up and tried to calm her now sobbing friend down. “Shhh, it’s not that,” she said softly. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” She glanced up to Apple Bloom who looked like she’d been just about to kill somepony. “The letter said that my dad is out of prison now,” she paused there to let the yellow earth-pony process that information, she’d never heard the whole story of how Scootaloo became a part of the system. It wasn’t for lack of wanting to know or that her friend’s past didn’t matter to her. It was just that knowledge of her friend’s past wasn’t necessary for them to be friends. “He’s … he’s asking for permission to meet me.”

This news prompted Sweetie Belle to look up, her tears more or less under control again. “W-w-what?” she asked. She’d heard what had been said. Just somehow the words in her ears didn’t seem to make sense yet.

“Umm … Scootaloo?” asked Apple Bloom, shuffling her hooves awkwardly. She opened her mouth a few times to say more. Trying to find the words to ask a question was a lot harder when you were afraid of the answer. “W-why’s … why was your dad … in prison?”

‘Fortunately she’s too young to remember…’ Scootaloo suddenly felt a very compelling urge to watch the caterpillar munching away on a daisy not far from where she stood and swallowed ‘…monster beat her to death right in front of the girl.’ She’d only ever had to tell a hoof-full of pony’s this before, and she never felt good about the words required for it ‘…the weapon he stabbed her with was never found.’ Her foster parents had asked the social worker about it after she’d started getting persistent about where her dad was ‘…bastard claims he never laid a hoof on her.’ None of them realized she’d snuck out and around to the open window ‘…it was an open and shut case.’ She’d just wanted to know so badly ‘…something definitely wrong with a stallion capable of doing that to his wife.’ She never suspected ‘…deserved worse if you ask me…’ never thought it could have been that bad.

As she remembered that day her mouth contorted as she tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat. Apple Bloom took a tentative step towards her friend and leaned into her friend’s line of sight, but her eyes didn’t track. Scootaloo was back in those bushes learning the worst about the one pony in the world every filly wanted to look to as their unrealistically awesome hero. Tears flowed down her cheeks but she didn’t even care enough to wipe them away. The back of her mind was prompting her to keep it together. She could do it if only Sweetie Belle would just stop shaking so hard.

Scootaloo drew in a deep ragged breath, but as she let it out her chest heaved once … twice … three times. A gentle nose on her neck made her finally admit that she was crying. She didn’t know which of her friend’s had her face buried in their chest. Frankly she didn’t care anymore, she just let her tears flow. She tried to answer Apple Bloom’s question, she really did. But even Scootaloo couldn’t understand what was coming out of her mouth. All she managed to do was wail at a varied pitch for the few words she wanted to say.

She hated this. She hated feeling so weak and vulnerable, forcing her friends to protect and comfort her. She hated clinging to them like a piece of driftwood in the ocean of tears she was drowning in. She hated her father for what he did. She hated her mother for being with him so he could do it. She even hated herself for hating so much so easily.

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t right.

It just wasn’t who she was supposed to be.

Chapter 2

The crusaders had missed the morning bell, but they had all silently decided today wasn’t a good day for school. Sweetie and Scoots were curled up in the wagon with the scooter while Apple Bloom had herself hitched up to pull them along. She’d opted to skirt the town so as to avoid any unnecessary attention. Eventually coming to the one place nopony would think to look for three wayward fillies cutting class. It was a quiet place for them to talk, think, not talk, and/or shut the world out for a while.

A quick knock and a few moments later a lavender unicorn greeted them. “Great Oaks Library, how can I-” she paused as she realized who it was, “hey girls.”

Apple Bloom was the most familiar with the unicorn so she opted to do most of the talking. “Hey, Twilight. Can we come in?”

“Sure, of course,” she said, stepping aside to allow them in, “but … shouldn’t you three be in school?” She chanced a look up at the sky before closing the door and saw that it was mostly cloudy out. Though there was no scheduled rainfall for today, it wasn’t the type of weather that usually drove otherwise good girls to try their hoof at truancy.

Apple Bloom looked down at her feet. She knew skipping school was wrong and her sis would likely give her ‘what fer’ when she found out. But Scootaloo was hurting and because of that, they weren’t going to be paying attention anyways. “It’s … it’s kin’na …” she looked to Sweetie Belle for help.

“Extenuating,” she offered.

“Yeah, exten-ee-ate’n circumvention”

“Stances”

“S’wat ah meant.”

Twilight appraised the three for a moment before slowly nodding. Though she would normally never condone a student skipping on what was no doubt a very valuable lesson, she could tell something was wrong. “Okay,” she said, hesitantly, “but I’m afraid I am going to have to tell your sisters. And your foster parents too,” she added, nodding to indicate Scootaloo. Apple Bloom made a small move to place herself between Twilight and her friend. It was little more than a step, but the protective gesture was unmistakable. “They’ll be worried if they hear you missed class and don’t know where you went.”

The three of them looked between each other silently for a few moments before Apple Bloom said, “That’s fair.”

The librarian was rather surprised. They hadn’t even tried to talk her out of it. There’d been no wheeling or dealing, promises they’d come clean on their own, or even trying to just get her to wait a bit before getting them in trouble. It was a most peculiar behavior that spoke of something much more than just getting away from class for a while, so she opted to give them some time before alerting their caregivers. “Spike’s out running errands at the moment, and I’ve got a fair amount of studying I need to do so, I’ll be upstairs if you need anything.”

“Thank’s Twa’light.”

Twilight turned and began to climb the stairs that circled the main library up to her study. As she did though, she saw that the girls hadn’t really moved from where they stood. Her pace slowed so she could watch them a little more intently and saw them glancing back and forth at each other, but none of them really made eye contact for more than a moment. This was a stark contrast to the excessive bundles of energy that was widely considered to be a force of nature that even the combined power of the Elements of Harmony would be hard pressed to contain … even briefly.

“Ya know girls,” she started, turning back down the stairs, “I was thinking.” This drew all three pairs of eyes up to her with curiosity. “I know it’s not something you three normally try, but … perhaps there’s a few types of cutie marks you could get by trying some of the things I do?”

This drew a suspicious eyebrow from Scootaloo. She’d heard Rainbow Dash talking about Twilight’s boring egghead-ed-ness on more than one occasion. So she was naturally skeptical. “What exactly did you have in mind?” she asked.

“Well, my special talent is magic,” she said, turning her flank a little closer to reaffirm a fact they already knew, “but that itself touches on a wide range of specific skills that I can introduce you to.”

Sweetie Belle, being a unicorn and not entirely averse to crusading for something a little tamer than their usual gambits, was the first to show interest. “Like what?” she asked.

Twilight smiled as she felt a nibble on the bait she’d just dangled in front of them, but knew they weren’t sold on it just yet. “Well,” she said, “there’s of course spell-casting and mana control for one; potions, alchemy, and chemistry for another; historical research, astrology, astronomy; anatomy and physiology, psychology, philosophy.” She’d managed to pique a little interest in all three of them, though she could tell they were still skeptical. “Like I said,” she added, deciding to finish up her pitch, “it’s not what you girls normally do. But it’s a quiet, no stress option, which also makes for a good way to pass the time.”

The three fillies looked back and forth to each other, a silent debate playing itself out in their eyes. A consensus was reached, all three nodded, and Apple Bloom voiced the decision. “Alright,” she said, “we’ll try it.”

She couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride fill up inside of her at those words. Twilight knew the agreement was fragile and conditional, but it would at least give them something else to think about while they worked through whatever the problem was. So she held up a tentative hoof, “Cutie Mark Crusader Scholars, Scientists, and Sorcerers yay.”

This elicited smiles from everypony. And while it wasn’t the most enthusiastic high-hoof they’d ever shared, it was at least a sign of brighter horizons.

~~~~

Dear Miss Cheerilee,

Please excuse Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo’s absence today as they will be here with me at the library today. They came to me seeking shelter and (I hope) some form of guidance on an issue that I, as of yet, do not know the extent of; however it seems to be deeply upsetting for all of them. I suspect it may involve a personal matter of Scootaloo’s, but as I said I do not yet know for certain.

When you read this I will have already sent similar letters to their respective guardians, so there will be no need for you to trouble with doing so yourself. If you could provide Spike with the materials for any homework or studies they missed being assigned today I will ensure they receive it. I expect they will all be studiously attending your class tomorrow but will keep you informed if I am made aware of circumstances to the contrary. As always, thank you for the part you play in molding the pliable minds of Equestria’s future inheritors.

Your friend, neighbor, and local proponent of the written word,

Twilight Sparkle

Author's Note

Alright, leaving the last chapter on the note i did left a bad taste in my mouth. I have a tendency to abuse the characters i write about and i don't really like that. So I'm going to try and make a more concerted effort to avoid unnecessarily doing that, but no promises.

Any and all critiques, questions, comments, or complaints will be appreciated.

Chapter 3

Several days had passed since the girls had skipped school and Crusaded their way up and down Twilight’s tree library. None of the trio managed to acquire a cutie-mark, but despite being inside of a tree they managed to avoid getting covered in tree sap. So that was progress.

As expected they all had been verbally disciplined by their parents for skipping school. Even under the circumstances that was an inevitable certainty. At least they hadn’t been grounded or barred from Crusading for any length of time. That leniency was likely due to the fact that Twilight’s library had, against the odds, managed to stay more-or-less intact throughout the entire day.

However, Scootaloo was still troubled by the issue that had started the whole mess to begin with, and it showed. Today it was only compounded by the onset of a headache that buzzed and pulsed in her ears. This, of course, only made it harder to concentrate on the already boring lesson of math. She tried to relax her brain by looking out the window. Thinking about how soft and fluffy the clouds felt, how nice it would be to just curl up and take a nap in one. Just thinking about it seemed to dim the pain humming around in her skull. If only Ms. Cheerilee wasn’t teaching so loud. It almost sounded like she was standing right … next … to …

Scootaloo winced and turned back to face the class proper. ‘Aww horseapples,’ she thought, giving a sheepish grin of apology to the purple Earth Pony standing over her desk.

“Perhaps you’d care to demonstrate the equation for those who don’t understand enough to spend their time daydreaming?”

“Ummm, I-” she instinctively glanced to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom to see if she could get some backup. But they had long been separated from each other in an attempt to lower the number of class disturbances. “-I … wasn’t daydreaming.” She winced as Sweetie Belle’s desk was reintroduced to her forehead, indicating that that was the wrong answer. She could practically hear her saying, ‘Scootaloo, you Dodo’

“Well then you’ll be more than able to explain the problem I just went over with you,” said Ms. Cheerilee, handing a piece of chalk to the filly.

As she got up from her desk she heard, “Ah told ya t’ stop do’n that, ya featherbrain.” She whipped her head around to shoot a glare at her heavily accented friend … only to see her flipping absentmindedly through her book. What was more confusing was that Ms. Cheerilee didn’t say anything about it.

Continuing up to the board Scootaloo gulped as the unforgiving series of numbers stared her down. She could normally muddle her way through well enough on tests and homework. There was just something about the blackboard that always made her mind freeze up. ‘Why is it even called a blackboard in the first place? It’s GREEN.’

Fortunately for her the eggtimer that indicated it was time for recess rang. ‘Phew, saved by the bell.’ Being next to the door Scootaloo was outside before the teacher could say a word and was quickly followed by the rest of the class.

The fillies scattered throughout the schoolyard to their usual games and rambunctious behavior to burn off pent up energy. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell trotted over to the tree where a glaring Scootaloo waited. “What was that for?” she demanded.

“You know Ms. Cheerilee doesn’t like it when you don’t pay attention,” said Sweetie Belle.

The orange filly shook her head. “Not that,” she said, then pointed to Apple Bloom, “you.”

“Me?! What did I do?”

“Oh come on, calling me ‘a featherbrain’ in front of the whole class?”

“Ah did’n-”

“I don’t mind that you said it, but … there in front of everypony? Not cool.”

Sweetie Belle put a hoof on her shoulder. “Scoot’s … Apple Bloom didn’t say anything. Nopony did.”

Scootaloo looked between her two friends for a moment. Seeing the small amounts of worry in their eyes made her deflate a little. “Sorry guys,” she said, “I guess it’s the stress kinda getting to me.”

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shared a knowing look. “You still haven’t decided what to do ‘bout yer pa’?”

Scootaloo shook her head. When the social worker first came to discuss it with her, her first instinct was to say no. What she’d heard about her dad was enough reason to justify never wanting to see him, ever. But still … part of her wanted to meet him. She wanted to see the man who was supposed to have been raising her.

And then there were the questions.

Of course, that was the time which Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon decided to get in their daily taunting. “Hello, blank-flanks,” called out the pink pony as she approached. “We’re going to play tag, and that’s the base,” she said pointing to the tree. Behind the duo they could see Button, Twist, Dinky, and Pibsqueak looking a little ashamed for the part they were now playing in the mocking.

Sweetie Belle's eyes met Button and she blushed, hiding behind Apple Bloom’s mane; who in turn rolled her eyes at the antics. The schoolyard crush was old hat among the trio and they gave her grief about it constantly, but now wasn’t the time for that. “Alright, who’s ‘it’ then?”

“She is,” said Silver Spoon, pointing to Dinky. The little unicorn couldn’t help but droop her ears at this revelation. It was hardly coincidence she was known to be the slowest filly in the class.

“That’s not fair,” exclaimed Sweetie Belle. “You should at least do ‘Pick a Pony Out’.”

Tiara scoffed at this. “We don’t have time for that stupid rhyme.”

Scootaloo who’d been silent up till now stepped up, getting nose to nose with the lead bully. “It’s still not a fair pick.”

“Tss,” she hissed, unfazed by the encroachment, “oh, go cry to mommy.”

It was a throwaway insult everypony used. Few would have even thought twice about its use. But today Scootaloo detected something a little more spiteful in that statement. It could have been the look in her eyes. It could have been the tone of her voice. She could have just imagined it. Either way, the end result was two screaming fillies rolling around the schoolyard.

For a few moments nopony believed what was happening. One moment it was a usual standoff between the Crusaders and the School Snobs. They’d traded insults so often everypony practically tuned out whatever was actually said because nothing ever came of it. They’d never truly fought before.

It wasn’t until some of the other students started egging things on that everypony exploded. Sweetie Belle began crying, and pleading for Scootaloo to stop, while Dinky and Silver Spoon ran to get Ms. Cheerilee. Apple Bloom, the slowest to respond, burst through the circle that had formed and pulled the flailing pegasus away from her target. This earned her an elbow to the chin for her trouble, but managed to maintain a hold on her screaming friend, who now resorted to words. “My mother’s DEAD, you slimy sack of gum. Go back to the desk sompony scraped you out from under.”

This prompted the pink pony to let out a war cry of her own and she charged in a blind rage of her own.

Apple bloom knew better than to let go so the fight could continue, but she wasn’t just going hold her friend down so she could get pounded. So in a bit to shield Scootaloo from the assault she turned so that her own back was to Diamond Tiara.

Fortunately her bodily sacrifice wasn’t necessary. Button had decided to jump in, pinning the smaller earth pony to the ground. The fighters resorted to incoherent screaming and yelling as they each thrashed about, trying to get away so they could continue mauling one another.

It wasn’t until Ms. Cheerilee’s towering form stepped in that the crowd silenced the crowd and caused the four brawlers to freeze. The wind blew ominously over the grass as she surveyed all of her students with disappointment so thick it could practically be tasted. “You four. Inside. Now.”

Author's Note

For anyone curious as to the rhyme they would have used (think 'Eanie Meanie Miney Moe')

Horns and wings and hoofs about,
When we’re done we’ll scream and shout,
Ring tails outside, stand snout to snout,
Here how we pick a pony out.

Credit where credit is due, 'Button' belongs to AskTheCrusaders and their tumbler page. That's the only place i've seen him and thus where i drew the idea for his character. He may or may not become a more regular character in this, no promises either way.

Comments Critiques Questions and Complaints are all appreciated. Likes and Favs are doubly appreciated.

Chapter 4

After breaking up the fight Ms. Cheerilee had sent Button and Apple Bloom to summon Diamond Tiara and Scootaloo’s parents for a conference. It was unusual, to be sure, but nothing like this had really happened before. The few fight’s Ms. Cheerilee had dealt with amounted to little more than shoving between rowdy colts, and required little more than a stern reprimand and a letter home.

Until the parents arrived there was little more she could do besides separate the two fillies and continue teaching the day’s lesson as best she could. So that’s what she did. It was unlikely any of the students were actually taking notes regarding the Great Lunar War that followed Luna’s banishment. In fact, she’d already noticed most of the unicorns in class had decided today was a good day to practice their hoofwriting; while one or two of her non-unicorn students had suddenly developed the ability to levitate their quills.

Scootaloo released her quill as a magical grip took control. Although she wasn’t one to normally take part in the school’s information grapevine she felt this was a message she needed to get.

You’re not really going to fight her after class are you?

Sweetie

She felt her head throb with increased vigor at the question, like beetles were burrowing into her temple. But she shook her head know as Sweetie turned to make eye contact. Much as she’d always wanted to pound Tiara into the ground, much as she still wanted to, once was enough. Thinking back to it the whole thing was kind of … strange. It had been easy too. Actually it had been too easy … so easy it was scary. And the scary part was that it wasn’t really scary at all, not even a little. Not when Tiara started fighting back, or even when Apple Bloom was holding her back and Diamond Tiara was about to get a few free shots she hadn’t been scared. She actually kind of liked it. Scootaloo liked what had happened … and despite everything she’d ever been taught, she wasn’t entirely sure that was a bad thing.

The quill on her desk came to life once more. ‘Another note from Sweetie, no doubt,’ she thought.

Are you alright? You’re scratching?

An eyebrow rose at this. ‘What kind of question is that? I’m not-’ but in fact she was. She hadn’t even realized but she’d been rubbing both of her forelegs raw. She even pulled a lot of the fur out without even realizing it. They felt like they were on fire, and that was … well … weird. Her whole body itched and-

“Hide.”

The word rolled through her mind in a-thousand different tones. An echoing hiss that pierced the core of her being.

“Hide, youngling, you must hide yourself. Your time is near.”

Her stomach tightened and she felt like she was going to be sick. She didn’t understand. ‘Your time is near?’ What in all under Celestia was that supposed to mean? She could feel the burning in her forelegs spreading. She supposed she could go.

“Flee, or be discovered. NOW!”

“Ms. Cheerilee can I use the bathroom?” she asked, but she was already out of her seat calmly walking at a dead sprint for the door. This wasn’t right. She was hearing voices and she felt like she was on fire from the neck down, and the flames were reaching inward.

Scootaloo burst into the one pony bathroom just down the hall and locked the door. She dashed for the sink and splashed water onto her fur but couldn’t even feel it running on her hooves. She saw it soaking her fur and could feel its weight, but the cool, wet sensation she longed for remained absent.

Pain lanced through her heart and spine, causing her to collapse and convulse there on the floor. She gasped and tried to call out for help, but the pain was too great. She saw a glow emanating from her hooves as the fire she felt began to take form. Ethereal green tongues of flame consuming her legs.

“Good,”encouraged the voice, “let it take you. Let the fire consume your being. Let yourself be reborn.” A few moments later the fire evaporated and the pain vanished; little more than the memory of the blackened creature lying on the floor.

She scrambled off the floor looking around. Something felt very wrong. She didn’t know what but something was different. An image flitted in the corner or her eye and pulled her attention to it. The mirror.

As she neared she could see … not herself, but somepony … no, something moving just the way she was. “I’m … I’m a … changeling?” It made no sense. This had to be some kind of trick. A spell? That had to be it. Somepony in class had simply enchanted the mirror to make anypony who looked at it see themselves as a changeling. It was just a prank. Twilight had taught them about low-level enchantments like this. Just a little pressure on the mirror to bend the glass would distort the magic field on it and the spell would break.

She reached out and pressed her hoof against the mirror.

Nothing happened.

She pressed into the glass harder, and harder. ‘Come … on … you stupid … enchantment … BREAK!’

*CRACK*

The glass shuddered beneath her hoof, breaking into an irregular spider’s web of angular cracks. Each piece shifted and settled into their new spaces, revealing a thousand different views of her new face. The pupil-less blue eyes, the bent and gnarled horn, the lethal looking fangs, every detail reflected back in a faux-Ponicasso array of observation.

‘Oh nononono this is bad, this is very, very bad,’ she thought to herself. ‘I-i-I can’t be a changeling. I’m NOT a changeling. I’m a pegasus, a filly pegasus born in Cloudsdale. I live in Ponyville. I … I’m … I’m-’

The lock on the door lock clicked as a magical influence released the latch. The door opened and revealed a grey unicorn colt, perhaps only 5 years older than Scootaloo herself. She’d had seen him at the Foster Center a few times, but she didn’t even know his name.

However, the unicorn seemed unfazed by the presence of the bug-like pony. In fact, the colt bowed his head to her black chitin form.

“Greetings, your majesty.”

Chapter 5

Questions roiled in Scootaloo’s mind. Who was this colt? Why was he here? What did he know? Why did he have to be in the little filly’s school bathroom?

Apparently Ms. Cheerilee had some of the same questions. “Stop right there, Mister!”

This prompted the unicorn to jump into the bathroom and slam the door, locking it shut. “Apologies, your highness,” he said, turning towards the filly changeling. Without further preamble he touched his horn to Scootaloo’s similar appendage and magic sparked between them.

A flash of green flame enveloped her chitin form and she morphed back into the orange pegasus everypony was familiar with. “What-” she looked at her hooves to confirm her suspicions. “How did you-”

“No time to explain,” he interrupted, “we have to make this look good.” The door shuddered as Ms. Cheerilee bucked against it. “That means you have to scream.”

The door bucked again, cracking the frame around the hinges. At this the colt turned on the soul entrance and loosed a beam of magic, blasting the door off its hinges and right into the purple pony. Having been about to buck, the teacher was thrown off her two front hooves and slammed headlong into the wall. She tried to right herself. However, her already blurred vision dimmed as she slumped back to the ground unconscious.

“Nooo!” Scootaloo rushed forward past the colt to her teacher’s side. “Ms. Cheerilee, get up.”

She only had a moment to see the blood streaming out of the earth pony’s face before a magical field scooped her up. “My liege.”

“NO! Let me GO.” Scootaloo flailed and kicked the air in a futile attempt to free herself. “She’s hurt. Put me down.”

“Very good,” he commended, “that’ll be quite convin-”

“Stop! Let GO of me.”

“Alright, I think that’s enou-”

“Get. OFF!” Scootaloo’s wings buzzed in attempt to move closer to her captor which allowed her bucking feet to just reach the back of his head. This caused the magic field to dissipate and they both tumbled to the ground. Scootaloo recovered first and tried to run. “HELP!” but she was quickly tackled to the ground and the colt covered her mouth with his hoof.

“That’s what I’m trying to do. Now, if you’ll please just let me explain, I will let you go.” After a brief pause he decided it would be prudent to add, “I promise,” on the end of that.

Scootaloo had never been more scared or confused in her life. She had no idea what was happening or what this pony wanted. Baser nstincts told her she had to fight, that she had to get away and get help. But as she looked into the eyes of her foalnapper she couldn’t help but feel … curious. He had shown up only moments after her “transformation.” What’s more was he had somehow changed her back. That meant he somehow knew about what was happening to her. Was he really trying to help her? Or, if she went with him, was something very bad about to happen?

She nodded.

In a swift motion she was picked up and placed on his back as he galloped into a cornfield. “I know you’re scared,” he said. “It’s natural for a changeling’s initial rebirth to be somewhat” he paused a moment to find the right word, settling on “stressful.”

“With a royal’s natural separation from the hive mind it’s only expected that you would have some questions.” He glanced back over his shoulder to indicate that now was the time.

“How can I be a changeling? I’ve never changed before in my life.”

“Grubs are naturally able to keep a pony form on into maturity if they are infused with enough love or raw emotion, Your Highness.”

Scootaloo nodded, not quite really understanding how, but getting an idea for why it worked that way. “Why do you keep calling, me that?”

“Because you are my superior” he explained, slowing his pace to a canter. “In fact you’re a full royal. Set apart from the hive.”

Scootaloo jumped off the pony’s back and glared at him as he turned around. “What the hay is that supposed to mean.”

“It means that you are a naturally dominant member of the hive. You are a changeling, connected to the hive, and yet … separate.”

“I don’t get it.”

The colt motioned for them to keep walking. “Every drone in the hive is connected to one another,” he explained. “When I have a thought or an idea, all of the drones beneath me hear it on some level. At the same time I hear all of my superiors’.”

The filly raised an eyebrow at this. Having hundreds of different ponies chattering away inside your head at the same time seemed a little counter-productive. “That sounds exhausting.”

He nodded at this. “It can get … overwhelming, on occasion. But it allows us to accomplish combined tasks much more quickly and efficiently.”

“Okay,” she said, thinking she started to get the picture. “So, why can’t I hear you?”

He smiled at this. “Have you ever tried to listen in on somepony’s conversation while you were yelling at the top of your lungs?”

“No.”

“And why is that?” he asked

“Because …” after a moment it dawned on her. “So … I can’t hear you because my brain is just so loud that I drown out what everypony is saying?”

He nodded. “And even greater still, your mind-voice carries power over weaker ones. Your will can change the will of a drone, or even the hive itself if you grow strong enough.”

This was when they exited the cornfield and found themselves a few yards away from the Everfree Forest. Scootaloo paused, wary of the gangly twisted branches of the trees that grew there that looked distinctly claw-like. Only able to see a few feet in, to her the darkness seemed to consume the light that Celestia’s sun provided. This somehow made it seem a lot scarier than it did that night they went searching for Fluttershy’s chicken.

“Come,” said the unicorn. “We need just a little more time and this is the only way we’ll have it.”

The orange filly swallowed hard and followed. “W-where are we going?”

“I’m going to show you where to meet me next time,” he said. “Changing shape takes conscious effort and maintaining it requires a lot of energy. I’ll cast a spell that should hold your current form for the next few days. That will give you time to meet me so you can learn to change yourself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ms. Cheerilee, wake up,” cried Sweetie Belle, shaking the unconscious teacher for all she was worth. “C’mon, you have to get up.”

Diamond Tiara came and pushed the white unicorn. “Get off her. That’s not helping.”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“She needs a doctor,” the pink pony stated not missing the chance to regain her pompous air. “So go to the hospital and fetch one.”

“But what about Scootaloo?” Sweetie Belle demanded, “That colt just foalnapped her.”

Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes. “Tch, go call the guard then,” she said waving a dismissive hoof as she walked back to the classroom. “That’s what they’re there for.”

Her reentry was impeded briefly by the appalled form of none other than Silver Spoon. Their eyes locked for a moment before Sliver Spoon shook her head. “What is wrong with you?” and passed into the hallway where the rest of the class was huddled around Ms. Cheerilee’s unconscious form. “Alright everypony, there’s no time to lose,” she said, gaining all of her classmates attention. “We need to get the adults here as quick as possible.”

Nods of assent were seen all around and she continued. “Snips, Snails. Go to the school bell and ring it as loud and as hard as you can, and don’t stop until the adults get here. Featherweight, go to the hospital as fast as you can and get a doctor. Archer, go with him and get anypony you see on the way to come here as quick as possible. Sweetie, Pibsqueak, you and I are going after that foalnapper. Everyone got it?”

Shouts of affirmation rose up from her fellow students. There was one purple filly who hadn’t been assigned a job, and she gently prodded Silver Spoon to get her attention. “B-but, what do I do?”

“You get the most important job,” she said. “You stay here and tell the adults what happened, and help Ms. Cheerilee if she wakes up.” At that the kids all scattered off to their respective tasks.

As the three of them galloped off in the direction of the older unicorn Sweetie was the first to voice concern over this plan. “Hey Spoon?” she asked, having some trouble speaking through her running breaths. “Even if we … catch up … what are we … going to do?”

“Keep a safe distance and follow him,” she said. “If he sees and tries to catch us we split up and run in different directions. He can’t catch all of us.”

This may have belayed Sweetie Belle’s fears, but Pibsqueak wasn’t so convinced. “But what if there’s more?”

“Well then you’ll just have to run faster than them, won’t you?”

Author's Note

Alright everyone, it's finally here. And the next chapter is honestly well underway. I do apologize for the long wait. Life has been particularly crazy and this chapter was NOT easy for me to write. I feel like i may have OVER-vilified Diamond Tiara in this chapter, but i think making Silver Spoon not only call her out but step up and take charge can help set her up for a bit of redemption later on.

Or not.

We'll see.

Hope you all enjoy this, and hopefully it won't be near as long for the updates you've been waiting for. As always comments and critiques are greatly appreciated.

Chapter 6

Two sets of hooves plodded along the cobbled ground as Applebloom and Button made their way up the street.

“Thanks,” Apple Bloom said, trying to break the silence.

“Huh?” the brown colt stopped, having been startled by the sudden recognition.

“Fer keep’n Diamond Tiara from gett’n to me,” she explained. “Thanks.”

“Oh,” Button trotted to catch up and matched her pace again. “It’s … you’re welcome.” Silence threatened to rejoin as their third companion but Button fought to push him back. “So, you girls do any good crusading lately?”

She shrugged at his question. “Not since we missed class last week,” she said. “Twilight taught us some magic at the library.”

He raised a suspicious eyebrow at this. “She taught all of you … magic?”

She smiled at this. “There’s more to it than waving a fancy horn around,” she said.

“Well … yeah, but earth ponies-“

“-can do most’a the same things unicorns can do by using alchemy and potions,” she finished for him. “Just look at Zecora. She’s even taught Twilight a thing or two about magic. An’ Twilight’s the Element of magic.”

“Huh,” Button pondered this for a moment or two as he considered the implications. “I guess learn a lot with all the crusading you do.”

The yellow filly shrugged a bit. “I guess so. I mean, you gotta know about what yer doin’ before you go and try t’ make it yer special talent.”

“Seems like a lot of work though,” he added. “Do you ever stop and have fun?”

Apple Bloom shot him a sidelong glare. “Of course I know how to have fun.”

He winced as he realized how that sounded. “No, I didn’t mean-”

“We’re here,” she deadpanned, knocking on the library door.

A muffled ‘Just a minute’ was heard through the door and they heard somepony, presumably Twilight, stumble over something on their way towards the door. As suspected, the lavender mare opened up. “Well, hello kids,” she greeted, “what brings you two here?”

Apple Bloom reached into her saddlebag and produced the two sealed letters. “Umm … Ms. Cheerilee needs these sent to Mrs. Snowball and Mr. Rich. We were hop’n Spike could help us out.”

“Ahh,” Twilight nodded in understanding and opened the door to let them enter. “I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible today,” she said. “Spike’s in a bit of a … a stage, right now. So he won’t be able to do much until … probably tomorrow.” As if to confirm this they heard the aforementioned assistant groan in obvious discomfort. “You see,” she continued, leading the children upstairs, “dragons … actually, all reptiles grow a bit differently than we do. Our skin naturally grows and gets bigger with us. A dragon’s skin doesn’t really do that.”

Button was particularly interested in this. It wasn’t every day somepony learned something about dragons. “What does it do?” he asked.

A voice came up from behind them and whispered in their ears. “He takes his skin completely off.” This caused the two of them to jump and scream, instinctively clinging to each other as they turned to see Rainbow Dash hovering above them, cackling with glee.

“Rainbow,” Twilight scolded, “that is not funny.”

“Oh, lighten up, egghead. It’s all in good fun,” she assured. “And besides,” she added with a wink, “they can keep each other safe.”

This brought attention to the fact Button and Apple Bloom were still holding onto one another. While Button simply let go and coughed awkwardly, Apple Bloom shoved him away so that he actually hit the wall with an ‘Oooff’. “So, he’s not really taking his skin off.”

The answer was provided in the form of a pink blur. “He sure is, but he’s got another BIGGER skin hiding underneath. I know because Gummy does it too. Well, he only did it once, but he’ll probably do it again soon, and probably a few more times after that, and then he’ll get REALLY BIG. But not as big as Spike though, because dragons can get SUPER DUPER ULTRA MONDO big, or is it extra mondo? Twilight this is an important question so I know what size cake to bake, because we can’t let him run out of cake at his growing party. That would be mmpf-bmmm ffmm mmmffmmm mllfff.”

The orange hoof lodging itself in her mouth caused the ramblings to cease. Unfortunately the owner of that hoof hadn’t done so for the benefit of the children. “Apple Bloom, what in tar’nation ‘re you doin’ outta school again.” At this point the cowpony’s eyes locked onto the brown colt. “An’ just what are you doin’ with my sister?”

“Uhh, I, umm, uhh,” Button felt his eyes dilating as he stammered over his words.

Twilight chuckled at this. “Calm down,” she said, miming the breathing movements that Cadence had taught her. “Ms. Cheerilee sent them to deliver some letters and they wanted to ask Spike’s help. No doubt so they could get back to class as quickly as possible.”

The two children nodded in confirmation. It was a little two quickly for Applejack’s liking, but she let it drop for now?

As they continued the rest of the way upstairs they saw that Fluttershy and Rarity were there too. Together they lay around Spike’s basket trying their best to comfort the small drake. Rarity applied a damp cloth to his scales while Fluttershy attempted to coax him into drinking some cool broth mixed with what appeared to be powdered emeralds.

“If it’s natural fer ‘im, then why’s it hurt so much?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Well,” Twilight thought aloud, “I imagine it hurts for all reptiles to some degree. But Spike’s scales are a lot thicker than say … Gummy’s.”

Spike now took note of the extra company. However he wasn’t particularly enthused by it. “Gohhh, c’mon Twi. It’s bad enough that-guh- all your friends are here. But now we’re giving tours to the school?”

That was the point when everypony heard the bell from the school ringing. This unfortunately led Spike to believe that his question was being answered true. “Gawwwhohohoohhhh noo. Tell me you didn’t.”

All eight of the ponies in the room however were confused at the sound. “No, Spike. I really didn’t.”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both went out onto the balcony to try and get a look at the school. “Somepony is running up this way.” Once he was near enough Rainbow Dash yelled down to him. “Hey squirt, what’s going on?”

Archer was panting heavily, having galloped as fast as his short legs could carry him. “Ms. Cheerilee … is hurt,” he managed to gasp out. “Scootaloo got foalnapped.” Everyone present gasped. Such a thing happening was unheard of, especially in a small town such as Ponyville.

Twilight was the first to gain her wits about her. “Alright, Fluttershy, you stay with Spike and the kids. Keep the library locked. Everypony else-” Rainbow Dash rocketed off into the sky. “Ugh- Everypony else get close to me.” With that her horn began to glow with an audible crescendo of magic and-

-POOF-

Dinky jumped at the sudden appearance of the four adult mares who immediately rushed to Cheerilee’s side.

“Pinkie!” she exclaimed, beaming through eyes that had obviously been crying.

The little filly jumped up to give a hug, which Pinkie graciously scooped her up in. “Oh, it’s okay little muffin. We’re here now. And your momma is going to be SOOooo proud of you. But we probably won’t get to see that because the author is going to focus on Mmmvffmff mssf mmff fmmss is decideing whether to kill off mmsffmff mm fmm-”

Twilight was bewildered at the fact a few seconds of having a hoof in her mouth wasn’t shutting Pinkie up like it normally did. But the sound was at least muffled enough to carry on a decent conversation. “Dinky, where are the rest of your classmates?” Out in front of the school Rainbow Dash came in for one of her more graceful high-speed landings.

The little filly’s ears drooped at this, because she’d been left pretty much on her own. “Snips and Snails are the one’s ringing the bell and … Sweetie, Silver, and Pip ran to the fields to follow the unicorn who took Scootaloo.”

Pinkie pulled the purple hoof from her mouth and said, “Thank you Twilight. I almost spoiled something SUPER awesome which would have spoiled the surprise. I suppose that’s why they call them ‘Spoilers,’ huh?” Then returned Twilight’s hoof to her mouth to stifle herself, apparently just to see what sounds she could make with random muffled words.

“Alright, Rarity, see what you can do to help Ms. Cheerilee till help arrives. Pinkie, stay with the kids and make sure nopony else runs off. We’ll send the three who ran off back here so stay … put.” She turned to Rainbow and AJ. “The rest of us will search-” she reached out with her magic to keep the cyan pegasus from flying off again, “together.”

“Grah … Twilight! Let me GO!”

“No!” she said, pulling her friend down to eye level. “He probably took her into the Everfree so we need to stick together.”

“She’s my SISTER!”

“AND WE’LL FIND HER!” Twilight hadn’t wanted to yell so tried the statement again more calmly. “We’ll find her, Rainbow. I promise. But to do that we need to work together.”

~~~~

Back in the library a worried Fluttershy was trying to keep Spike in his basket. “Please Spike,” she implored, “you’re in no condition.”

“No,” he said, obviously struggling with his words as much as he was struggling with the pain. “I’m not a … baby anymore.”

“Yes you are,” she said, trying her hardest not to cry in sympathy to the young dragon’s pain. “You’re not done growing yet. Just let Twilight-”

“NO!” Spike’s eyes flashed red and a deep growl rumbled inside of him. “I have to … help. I just have to grow … FASTER!” He then took both sets of his claws and, to Fluttershy’s horror, began forcefully peeling his old scales away from his chest.

“Spike! No! Your body isn’t ready yet. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“GRRrrraahhhh I don’t care.” As he pulled his old scales away a sickly white puss clung between the dried childhood scales and the shiny new scales beneath. The smell of it reminded him much of how his breath smelled after breathing fire. “Let me outside.” If he was right this wasn’t going to be good for the library.

Fluttershy was in tears now. She wanted to physically stop him, but she knew that would only cause him more pain. So all she could do was cry and beg. “No, please, stop it.”

Spike’s eye caught the open balcony door and without a second thought he ran for it and jumped over the railing. Fluttershy managed to wrap a foreleg around his tail to keep him from falling to the ground. “Spike, please, just look at yourself. You’re not thinking straight.”

He looked up. “It’s okay Fluttershy. Just watch.” And with that he exhaled a bit of fire into the puss.

It not only caught fire, it engulfed the dragon in what was too calm to be called an explosion, but was too sudden to be called anything else. Fluttershy let go of him on instinct and ducked behind the railing, her fur slightly singed. When she looked back over the railing there was a circle of black char on the ground. In the middle of that laid Spike, who’s size had now grown threefold.

“HA!” he declared. “Eat your heart out, Philomena.” And without further farewell he tore off on all fours towards the school.

Author's Note

Alright Second chapter in the same week XD i feel proud of myself.

I do feel like i tried to do a little too much all at once in this chapter. But It just all kinda came out at once and i couldn't really find a way to put any of it off until later. I hope i didn't step on any parts i wanted to get across by throwing too much at you guys.

Anyhoo Comments Questions and Critiques are always appreciated. I'll try to keep the updates from now on as regular as i can ... though no promises if work gets crazy again.

Chapter 7

Scootaloo had been following the colt in silence for some time now. His longer legs kept a brisk pace that translated into a quick trot for her. She wanted to ask him more questions, press him for details. However, she was having trouble processing all the information he’d given her already. Combined with the nervousness of being in the Everfree she was having trouble forming thoughts into coherent speech.

To say they continued on in silence depended on one’s perspective. The forest was surprisingly alive with sounds from a myriad of different creatures. Insects buzzed and clicked, reptiles gurgled and croaked, mammals grunted and groaned, while birds chirped and cawed all around them. Despite her eyes adjusting to the relative dark Scootaloo had trouble seeing any of the animals even though she knew they were close by.

Every now and then she’d here a bush rustle or a branch shudder. She would see shadows flicker in the corner of her eye only to find nothing, not even a set of animal tracks in the soft dirt. The only things that seemed to not be shy were the insects that wiz-ed by their ears and eyes. Although the Everfree was probably the most un-natural place on the planet there was an amazing amount of nature living in it. The cacophony of animals may not have been loud, but it had a certain way of overwhelming her senses the way she suspected a PON-3 concert might have.

Then, all at once, every sound in the forest went silent.

“W-wha-”

“Shhh”

Scootaloo winced. The harshness behind the sound only compounded her rising sense of fear. She’d seen first-hoof how dangerous creatures in the Everfree could be. And the thought that one was dangerous enough to silence all the other animals was more than enough to make her knees quake.

The colt’s peered into the surrounding foliage. His ears swiveled and turned, straining to listen for anything that could indicate danger. To his right he heard a high pitched grumble, not unlike the sounds a baby grub would make. However, that same creature’s sound was echoed by second … a fifth … a tenth … a twentieth. Whatever these creatures were there was an entire swarm of them and they were getting closer.

He leaned closer to his charge and whispered, not for a moment moving his eyes from the approaching sounds. “Princess, we are going to turn around and start walking back. When I give the word, you will run back to town and you Will … Not ... Stop.”

“But-”

“If someling does not find you before the spell wears off you must hide until they do. Understand?”

“But-”

“Princess!” Though he didn’t raise his voice the colt’s tone was very grave.

Scootaloo swallowed hard and nodded. So much had happened today that she just didn’t understand. But one thing she understood right now was that this colt … this changeling … was about to risk everything to get her to safety. And she hated herself for wanting him to do it.

The pair slowly turned and began walking back to where they entered the forest. It took all of Scootaloo’s willpower to not run then and there as the sounds of several dozen creatures approached them. They went like this for several yards when three little ponies burst through the foliage.

The colts eyes locked on the unicorn and went wide with horror as the din of the creatures subsided.

“RUN!”

Turning, he cast a spell that threw a blanket of sickly green flames at the forest behind him causing several screams of pain and terror to fill the forest around him. This caused many of the creatures to flee, but not all. Four little sprites, barely larger than an average hoof fell upon the colt. They gripped his body with their bat-like wings and sank their teeth into his body and withers.

The fillies all screamed and ran. Scootaloo had the presence of mind to grab Pibsqueak from looking on in horror. “What are those things?!”

“I don’t know! Just run!” she yelled.

The four of them felt another wave of heat wash over them as another fire spell was cast. However, not all of the creatures had lost interest in the fillies. One managed to grab hold of Silver Spoon’s tail while another used its barb-like claws to latch onto Sweetie Belle’s flank.

Silver Spoon was able to buck at the sprite holding her, sending it sailing into the burning treetops. Sweetie though, found herself screaming and stumbling as the fangs sank into her flesh.

Scootaloo tried to swipe at it with her front hoof, but this only allowed it to target her now as it jumped over and latched onto her. As fang met flesh Scoots began to feel not only her energy fade, but also her will to resist. Why was she even running to begin with? There was no point in it, really. They’d get to town eventually. And if not, it really didn’t matter. In fact, a nap seemed to be a much better idea than running.

And the blackness of the forest enveloped her world.

~~~~

“What are we going to do with her?”

Scootaloo felt consciousness return to her in bits and pieces.

“..don’t know..”

For one everything sounded weird. Like everypony was further away and the room echoed more than it should have.

“…say she changed when that thing attacked her.”

Her eyes fluttered and she saw Twilight talking with a doctor in the doorway. A doctor? Was she in the hospital? Why couldn’t she move her legs?

“…means she could be anywhere… … keeping it sedated for now.”

She saw Twilight make eye contact before her horn lit up and closed the door. After that her eyes became heavy again and slipped back into unconsciousness.

Chapter 8

The first thing she heard was the heart monitor she’d been hooked up to, counting off her heartbeats in the regular rhythm that was a pony’s life. She then heard somepony else stirring, milling about the room with a cart of some sort. Scootaloo tried to talk and say hello to whoever it was, but it only came out as a groan. She opened her eyes to see an orange mare pushing a cart out the door.

“Oh!” the mare startled, “You’re awake. I’ll go fetch the doctor.”

Before Scootaloo could say anything the mare was out the door with her cart. She looked around at the room and saw just what she expected. It was spartanly decorated with neutral colors and a there was an IV hanging from the heart monitor. Before she could consider more a stallion in a white lab coat and a clipboard walked in.

“Hello, little one, I’m Dr. Cox.” He sat down and quickly looked her over before speaking again. Not that there was much to see while she was covered in a too thin sheet. “Can you tell me your name?”

“I’m Scootaloo. How did I get here?”

This elicited a short spurt of scribbling on the doctor’s clipboard. “Very good. And, what is the last thing you remember?”

She looked up and the ceiling and tried to think. Somehow it was more difficult than it should have been.

“What are those things”

“In fact you’re a full royal. Set apart from the hive.”

“Ah told ya t’ stop do’n that, ya featherbrain.”

“You bloated piece of bubblegum”

“RUN!”

“We were … running.”

The doctor nodded and scribbled some more on the clipboard. “And what were you running from?”

Scootaloo tried to get her head to work properly. But she just felt so sluggish. “It was a,” she tried to put in words what the strange creature was, “a little bat monster.”

The doctor nodded as he made a few last notes. “I take it you don’t know what that ‘little bat monster’ is really called, do you?”

“Wouldn’t I have called it that if I did?”

Dr. Cox bowed his head and raised a hoof. “A point for the lady,” he said. “It’s called a vampire sprite. Like the name suggests they are little imp creatures that feed off of other creatures, preferably magical ones such as ponies. They also produce a powerful sedative that can render most of their prey inactive while they feed.”

“Is that why I can’t move?” she asked.

“In part,” he hesitated to answer. “We also needed to cast an immobilization spell to keep you from accidentally hurting yourself if you bolted awake. You suffered some head trauma when you fell and we couldn’t risk you aggravating the injury till we were sure you were through the worst of it. I can dispel it now if you promise to stay in bed.”

Scootaloo managed a nod and the doctors horn flashed briefly. This caused the restraint she’d been feeling to lift away and she suddenly felt cold in the hospital room. “Can I get another blanket?” She asked as she turned to a more comfortable position.

“Of course, I’ll have the nurse bring one in a bit. But before that, I’m afraid the guard has some more questions.”

Scootaloo’s eyes widened at this revelation. “The guard? But,” she involuntarily checked her hooves to make sure she was still a pony. There was a fresh bandage over one where the sprite had bitten her, “but why?” In the background she heard the heart monitor pick up a notch in tempo.

The doctor noticed this too and turned to smile. “Now, now. It’s nothing to be frightened over. She simply wants to sort out a few details to find out what happened. And I’ll be right here to make sure everything is okay.”

As Dr. Cox opened the door sounds of an intense argument flooded in. “For the last time. Nopony is going into any of these rooms without express permission from both the doctor and myself. Is that clear Miss Dash?”

“And I say if you think you can keep me out you’ve got another feathering thing coming, you trumped up …” Scootaloo heard a tussling quickly followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the floor, “OW, my wing!”

Though the guardsmare’s tone was completely calm, nopony could mistake the stern threat her voice now carried. “Now you listen here, Miss Dash. This is a place of healing and rest for the broken, weak, and weary. While in such a place, especially around myself, you will keep a calm head and a civil tongue. Otherwise you will find yourself cooling your heels outside. That is if, of course, you can manage to not become a patient yourself.” Scootaloo couldn’t quite hear the muttered response, but it was followed by a light ruffling and the entrance of a lime green unicorn that bore the cutie mark of a harp.

“L-Lyra?”

She smiled gently and nodded. “I suppose that’s one pleasantry we can dispense with.”

“You’re a- … a guardsmare?”

The mare’s smile turned to a slight cringe. “Eehhh … Technically I’m only an auxiliary on half-pay. But for these purposes, yes, I am the ranking guard on station.”

“Did you just … wrestle Rainbow Dash into submission?”

She winced at this. “You heard that, huh?”

Scootaloo nodded, more amazed that it was possible than anything. Rainbow Dash wasn’t only fast, but she was a pretty good fighter judging from some of the stories she told.

“Well, to be fair, she wasn’t expecting it,” she said, seeming a bit embarrassed. “In a fair fight, I’m sure she’d probably win. However, if you’re in a fair fight, I’d say you’re tactics are questionable.”

Scootaloo couldn’t help but giggle at that as Lyra approached the bed and sat next to it. “On a more serious note though, unfortunately, I need to ask you a few questions about what happened at the school today,” she said, placing a hoof up on the mattress.

Scootaloo broke eye contact and looked down at her hooves. “Oh … okay,” she said. It made sense. Foalnapping was a serious crime, and a rare one at that. In fact, the strange thing was that Lyra was the only guard involved. “I guess I can do that.”

“Can you tell me about the colt that kidnapped you?” She asked.

“He was a unicorn,” she said, “grey. I didn’t get a look at his cutie mark. And … I think he was only a few years older than I am.”

This piqued Lyra’s interest. “Oh? What makes you say that?”

“W-well uhh …” Scootaloo had thought she’d seen the colt at the institute sometime before, but she knew the one who’d ‘foalnapped’ her was a changeling. The colt at the institute could have been somepony else entirely. “It’s just … he didn’t seem all that big to be an adult, I guess.”

“Hmmm … okay. The other students said he took you from the school’s bathroom?”

Scootaloo swallowed at this and nodded. Lyra had already corroborated stories from the other students. She hadn’t planned on lying, but there might be things she already knew even if they got left out. That was scary enough to make the orange filly question the information she was giving out as it was.

“How did he make you go with him?”

This question startled Scootaloo. “W-what?”

“I mean,” Lyra paused a moment to rephrase her question, “did he say or do anything to you that made you go with him?”

This question caused the blood to drain from her face. There was no way she could repeat anything he’d actually told her. “W-wh … I … He.”

This prompted the Doctor to speak up. “It’s okay, dear. Anything you say will stay between us.”

Lyra nodded. “That’s right. We’re just trying to find out what happened so we can help you. That’s all.”

“It just all happened so fast … I just …” she could hear the heart monitor speeding up now. As her mind thought of what had happened several images flashed in her mind.

The grey colt touching his horn to hers and sparking his magic.

Ms. Cheerilee’s eyes fluttering as she slumped down in the hallway.

Green flames erupting from her foalnapper’s horn.

Pain in her flank as the sprite sank it’s fangs into her flesh.

She knew she was panicking, but that knowledge only made her panic more.

“You’re not in trouble,” Lyra said, removing her hoof from Scootaloo’s. “No one is going to blame you for what happened. It’s not your fault.”

“I just … ”

Dr. Cox intervened, “I think it’s time we took a break,” he said stepping up to Lyra and placing a hoof on her shoulder. She’s had a hard day and she should rest.”

Lyra looked back at him and nodded. Standing, she gave the filly a reassuring smile. “We can talk some other time after you’ve had a chance to rest, alright?”

Scootaloo looked back down at her bandaged hoof and nodded. She felt bad for not telling the truth. It was just that nopony would understand. Heck, even she didn’t understand most of it.

“Hey, umm,” she hesitated a moment, but the two adults paused on their way out. “How is Sweetie Belle?”

The two of them exchanged a look of concern before Dr. Cox smiled and spoke. “She’s under the care of another physician,” he said, smiling gently, “so I’m not entirely sure how she is at this moment. Her injuries weren’t as pressing yours though, so I’m sure she’s just fine.”

“Oh, okay then.”

“I’ll see to getting you that blanket you asked for. If there’s anything else, don’t hesitate to call for a nurse.”

Author's Note

Here's how I imagine some of my readers right now. (as well as Sweetie Belle if she were reading this)

Chapter 9

-Thock-

The day grew warmer as Celestia’s sun rose to its apex in the clear sky.

We’re Apples forever.
-Thock-
Apples together.
-Thock-
We’re family but so much more.

The leaves of the trees were beginning to change color, signaling that summer was drawing to a close.

No matter what comes,
We will face the weather
-Thock-
We’re Apples to the core.

That meant harvest was in full swing at Sweet Apple Acres. That, in turn, meant Pippin Apple was out bucking the southern orchard with his wife Jubilee. Their son and daughter were working the market with Granny Smith. Their still newborn filly, Apple Bloom, was nestled snugly in a basket of red delicious apples. There she napped, the way all the generations of Apples before had napped as newborns.

Pippin and Jubilee were working the orchard nearby. They sang the song of their family name while they toiled both keeping their child lulled and helping to pass the time.

"Official Visiting Hours Have Now Begun"
~~~~
Apple Bloom’s head reeled as her mind’s eye returned to the hospital waiting room. While she had learned to lend her voice to the hive almost at will, taking specific memories from it was still beyond her. In fact it almost seemed as if the minds retaining what she sought were actively resisting her.

Looking at the clock on the wall, she saw that non-family visiting hours were about to begin. So, she decided to shelve her external recollection for now and go visit her friend.

“But it doesn’t make sense,” she heard somepony say.

“Look, Miss Lyra, I commend you for wanting to go the extra mile here. I appreciate it, I really do. But we have plenty of irons in the fire as it is before we go chasing down wild guesses with barely an ounce of evidence to back them up.”

“But-”

The grey unicorn silenced Lyra with a hoof wave and continued. “I’ve been in the business a long time, Lyra. And while I’m all for keeping an open mind about the situation, more often than not the simplest conclusion is the most correct. We checked the filly out and she’s not using magic to disguise herself. Blatantly-”

Plain sight realized her voice was carrying more than it should and brought herself down to a stern whisper. However, Apple Bloom’s interest had already been piqued and she stopped after rounding the corner to continue listening.

“Blatantly foalnapping sompony, in broad daylight, in front of dozens of witnesses, is simply not part of a changeling’s M.O. That means the changeling discovery was coincidental. That means separate cases.” The mare pointed a hoof at Lyra. “Simply put, the foalnapping is your jurisdiction; the changeling is ours. If you require assistance while we’re here we’ll be more than happy to put some extra hooves on the ground or just lend an ear to bounce ideas off of. If you want to try and prove that changelings were involved then that’s your prerogative to waste your own time. But, start getting in the way and muck around with our case without permission, even once. Things will get messy, and not just for you. I don’t want to become the mare of misfortune, but trust me when I say nopony will forget it if I’m pushed to.”

Applebloom wanted to stay and listen longer, but lingering this way in a hospital would get her in trouble. So she scampered off towards Scootaloo’s room. When she arrived she found Pinkie Pie regaling her friends and Scootaloo with a story told in the only manner rosey-maned mare seemed capable of … flailing pantomime.

“So there I was,” she said, “with my hoof comPLETELY stuck in the brambles. The Timberwolves are stalking closer, and closer. I’ve got ONE packet of sprinkles left, but I’m all out of cherry stems. All of a sudden, the momma squirrel starts giving birth, right there. So now I’m TOE-tally freaking out and it seems like all hope is lost.”

“But then I realize I’ve got one last option in my mane. Just as the wolves are about to pounce I spin around and-“

“Oh, hey Applebloom. You here for Scootaloo’s ‘Nearly Eaten by a Monster and Lived’ party?” A collective groan resounded through the other six occupants, all of them knowing Pinkie’s story was now long forgotten.

Applebloom smile’s sheepishly at her inadvertent distraction. “I was just bring’n along the schoolwork Ms. Cheerilee assigned today. I didn’t know ya’ll were hav’n a party.”

“Well duhh¬-” replied Pinkie, bouncing back and forth in front of the filly, “of COURSE we’re having a party. It’s not every day somepony survives a sprite attack. Although,” she tapped a hoof to her chin and pondered that statement for a moment, “if you count Sprite© attacks, then that happens to me almost every other week.”

Rainbow Dash “Awesome as your parties are, I don’t think spit-taking a soda warrants one, Pinkie.”

Pinkie giggles at this. “Oh I know that, Silly-Billy. Parties are supposed to be special. Wasting soda is hardly special.”

“I know this isn’t really a gifting party, but,” Rainbow shuffled and pulled out a brown paper bag, “here’s a little something that helped me out last time I was stuck in the hospital.” Scootaloo reached in and pulled out a hardcover book. Daring Doo: The Quest for the Saphire Stone, to be precise.

“You probably won’t need it as much as I did,” Rainbow continued, “but I enjoyed reading these books even after I was out of the hospital.”

“O-oh … umm,” Scootaloo set the book down on the bed, looking at the cover. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash. It … sounds great.”

She paused a moment and glanced around the room. “I-I own all of them. So if you … ya know … ever want to borrow some, just ask.”

“Yeah, that sounds … great.”

Rarity and Twilight shared a look of concern and nodded in unspoken agreement. “Pinkie, dear, you simply must show me what you’ve done with these cupcakes. I’m certain if I serve something like these to my next host of clients it will certainly make a wonderful impression.”

“A-and, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, breaking into the conversation before Pinkie could, “I’ve got a few books you might be interested in to keep your critters safe with the sprite swarm nearby.”

Applejack was catching on to the plan and leaned her head down to Applebloom. “Hey sis, come on out with me. I’ve got someth’n I need to talk with ya’ about.”

While the two of them didn’t technically need to be out of the room, it was obvious her friends had decided to make things easier for Rainbow Dash by clearing the room entirely. “I’ve gotta get back to the farm an’ help Big Mac’ finish mend’n the south field fence. You can stay with yer friend for a while if you want an’ help her with her schoolwork. Jus’ wait for Rainbow t’ be done, and make sure y’er back afore sundown, alright?”

“Sure thing sis.”

Now that everypony else was out of the room Rainbow Dash sat on the bed. She sent out silent thanks to her friends for the privacy. “Hey … squirt?” She’d been wracking her brain as to how to go about this. “You know … I can tell something is bothering you.” Scootaloo turned to face her but couldn’t quite keep herself from scowling.

Rainbow Dash winced. “Okay, yeah. That was stupid to say.” She paused for a moment to re-gather her words. “What I mean is. If there’s anything you want to talk about, or anything you want to ask, or say. I’m here for you. I know ever since I said I’d take you under my wing, things have … well … well I pretty much haven’t. But I want to change that.”

The filly’s expression softened at this. “You … you mean it?”

“You’re one special kid. And I’m sorry it took something like this to make me see I really haven’t been treating you like you are.” She reached over and tousled the filly’s mane a bit, which elicited a small smile. “So yeah, I mean it. I’ve got some vacation time coming to me. So let’s say when you’re out of here tomorrow, we see what we can do to get you off the ground under your own power.”

Under different circumstances Scootaloo would have probably jumped for joy; and while the offer sent a thrill of excitement through her, it was blunted by all that had happened in the previous day. Still, she leaned in and gave her idol a warm hug. “Thanks Rainbow Dash.”

The hug lasted a few moments before Rainbow broke it and slid off the bed. “Well, kid. I gotta go get back to weather patrol,” she said. “Those clouds won’t bust themselves. Oh, and don’t forget to give that book a try. I think you’ll rather enjoy getting to the end of it.” Instead of using the door like any sort of civilized folk would, Rainbow Dash opened the 2nd story window and took off from there. The sudden displacement of air roared in her wake, heralding her departure to the entire hospital.

At this sound Applebloom opened the door and peeked her head inside. “Was that her?”

Scootaloo smiled, both at the entrance of her friend and the obvious answer to the question. “Yeah.”

“Good,” she said trotting in and shrugging off her saddlebags, “’cause we got things to talk about.”

“Umm Applebloom … I don’t think I’m up for any crusade-”

“’S’not what I meant.”

Scootaloo balked at not just Applebloom’s words, but the flat and serious tone that delivered them. The yellow filly had always been the most serious of their little clique, but this was something different entirely. It was even a bit scary. “W-what do you mean?” she asked.

Jumping up on the bed Applebloom sat down and looked at her friend. She’d thought about telling her friends before, and the scenario had played out in her mind many times. Even though she had to now, she found herself drawing up short. “I’m …. I uhh … I’ve been keeping a secret.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, we’ve all got secrets an’ … well … some are bigger than others.”

Scootaloo leveled a suspicious eye on her friend’s sudden burst of weirdness. “Yeeaaah?”

“Well … the other day…” Applebloom was torn between saying it outright and trying to find a way to break it gently, “I found out we share a secret.”

“Applebloom? We share lots of secrets.”

Applebloom’s hoof followed that statement straight into her own forehead. “No! You featherbrain. I mean …. I know why you were foalnapped.”

Scootaloo could see where this was headed. Applebloom wanted to play detective and maybe get a cutie-mark in investigation or something. A noble effort, but something Scootaloo had to put a stop to before things got out of hoof. “Applebloom, I don’t think-”

A hoof on her mouth silenced her. “No, Scoots,” declared the yellow filly. “I know what happened. Because I am exactly … like … you.”

The orange pegasus narrowed her eyes, thinking about what her friend could mean. What struck her as odd was the way she said “exactly.” She was being serious. She meant literally the same. That meant …

Scootaloo’s eyes shot open and she gasped. Her friend had been replaced by a changeling. She tried to shout but Applefake’s hoof was already covering her mouth. She then tried struggling but already being on her back and covered with a sheet made it easy to be pinned down.

“No, shhhshshsshh Scoots it’s me. Calm down it’s really me, I swear. I swear on the cutie mark I haven’t earned yet that I am Applebloom.”

Scootaloo wasn’t so much scared as she was angry, but that last statement gave her pause. It actually even made sense. If Scootaloo herself was a changeling, but hadn’t been replaced, (well, obviously she had, but not for the sake of simply being who she was) then it stood to reason that the same could be true of Applebloom.

The yellow filly felt her friend relax some and gave her a stern look. “Yer good now?” and removed her hoof as she nodded.

“Sorry, AB,” she apologized. “I thought you were … well-”

“I know what you thought,” she stepped back and let Scootaloo sit up again “an’ it’s fine. I kinda expected it. What I didn’t expect was fer you to be some kinda mega-changeling. You gave me a powerful headache before the other brains started toning you out.”

“The other guy called me ‘a royal’ or something,” Scootaloo explained, “Said I was strong enough to control drones or something.” A thought occurred to her and she squinted hard in Applebloom’s direction.

“Uhh … Scoots,” she asked, “why’re you look’n at me that way?”

“Mind control cutie mark,” she answered with obvious strain in her voice.

To this Applebloom struck her friend on the top of her orange head. “What good is hav’n a stronger brain if all you got in there is rocks? I just told ya yer bein’ toned out. Not to mention it don’t work like that anyhow.”

Scootaloo rubbed the sore spot on her head, a little disappointed she couldn’t make Applebloom jump on one leg making a silly face. “Well you’re so smart why you tell me.”

“It’s,” she thought for a moment, “it’s like your feelings become theirs.”

The orange filly narrowed her eyes in annoyance. “What sort of namby-pamby nonsense is that?”

“I’m bein’ serious, Scoots. That’s what happens.” She tried digging for an example. “It’s like, how you want that new scooter they’re sell’n at Barnyard Bargains, but the clerk won’t haggle down to a price you can pay. If he were a changeling and you weren’t a moron afraid of a little ‘namby-panby nonsense,’ you could make him feel how much you wanted that scooter. He’d know how much you needed it, how your life wouldn’t ever be complete without it, and how all he has to do is drop the price ten more measly bits.”

“Darned cheapskate won’t even let me layaway it.”

“FO-cus,” commanded Applebloom, punctuating each syllable with a clop of her hooves. “What I’m say’n is that if you feel your desires in here,” she pressed one hoof on Scootaloo’s heart, “and calmly share them in here,” pointing a second at her head, “then those feelings will become everypony else’s.”

After a few moments of looking at her friend a little dumbfounded, Scootaloo found her voice “Applebloom that … that was … ptstssschHAHAha,” her façade of seriousness broke into bouts of laughter. “That was the most sappiest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“Most sappiest ain’t even-”

“Feeeel your desires. Hahaha”

“Are you about fin-”

“Search your feelings young ponewan.”

“I’m being ser-”

“Wait, wait, one more, one more,” she said still giggling between breaths. In a swift motion Scootaloo gripped Applebloom’s face between her hooves and chanted, “Your mind, to my mind. My thoughts, to OW-” she cried as her friend’s hoof revisited the upside of her head. “Hey, I was just fooling around.”

“Well cut it out, this is serious.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m ‘one of the brains’ so I have to get used to it. But can I at least call the doc for something to eat. I don’t really want to get sappy on an empty stomach. And no more braining me today, ponies are gonna think I’m sprouting a horn.”

“Do they actually have anything good to eat here?” She asked as Scootaloo searched the bed remote.

“Just the dessert really. I mean, everything looks worse than it actually tastes, but that’s not saying much.” She picked up the remote but Applebloom stopped her from pushing the nurse-call button.

“Hold on, let me try something,” she asked.

“What are you-”

“Shh”

“I thought-”

“Shh”

Scootaloo closed her mouth and watched as Applebloom … sat there with her eyes closed …

… and breathed

… silently

… doing nothing

“Can I call for my food now?”

“Will ya just … shut … up for five seconds? I’m trying to-” A knock on the door interrupted her, but she smiled at this disturbance, “to impress ya.” She hopped down from the bed and opened the door. There was no one there, but a slotted tray sat on the floor just outside. The yellow filly picked it up and revealed to her friend that it contained only six cups of chocolate pudding and two spoons. “Well?” she smirked.

“Did you just?”

“Impress ya? I think so, but that’s for you to decide,” she snarked tossing up a cup, taking one for herself, and setting the tray on the bedside table.

“Oh ha ha,” she retorted. “How’d you do that?”

“A touch a’ super sappy, a dash a’ namby pamby. You wouldn’t understand.”

“C’mon, Bloom, I’m serious. You closed your eyes and thought about pudding cups for a minute and they get hoof delivered to your room?”

“I told you it don’t work like that. I simply reached out with my desire for food and impressed upon the notion for extra dessert.”

“Applebloom … this is ALL dessert. How long have you been doing this?” she asked before licking the foil top clean.

“Bout’ a year and a half now.”

“Eoo bem ah,” Scootaloo spat the foil top out of her mouth. “You were a changeling before even met us?”

Applebloom leveled a glare at her friend. “So were you.”

“You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, I never told you because you wouldn’t understand. Heck, yer just like me now and you still couldn’t understand even if ya wanted to?”

“Huh?” Scootaloo could feel the topic shifting to something a bit more serious. “Why not?”

Applebloom looked down at her hooves, and the unopened pudding cup. “It’s differn’t fer me than you.” She hadn’t meant to start making this about herself. “I …” She’d meant to start teaching Scootaloo how to integrate, to become part of the mind. It’s what she was supposed to be doing. “I didn’t have some other changeling pick’n me up when it happened. Try’n ta keep me safe.”

“W-what happened?”

“I was out in the orchard, buck’n with my sis.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “Bout’ half way through the day my head started throbb’n and spinn’n someth’n fierce. Sis thought I was com’n down with something and sent me home but … but as soon as I see the barn over the hill I hear this voice tell’n me to run. Run and hide. I didn’t know what to think. Might’a been goin crazy, might’a just been sick, might’a been a prank. But then there were least a dozen of them, all tell’n me to hide. I was so scared I didn’t know what to do.”

“At first I ran fer the house. Big Mac was injured but I knew he’d keep me safe. But, the voices just got louder, tell’n me to run away from there. To hide where I couldn’t be found by anypony. Something about ‘letting the transformation come’ or something. So I … I ran fer the forest.”

“I was so out of breath when I got there I just collapsed. Then I started hurt’n so bad I thought I was burn’n alive. That’s when I changed for the first time. Scared myself half to death when I saw my reflection in a pond nearby.”

“The voices all told me I had to change back, or … or hide forever. I think it was just a test to see how good I was, but that scared me even more. It took me a couple tries but I figured it out.”

Applebloom felt a tear drip off the end of her snout and she wiped her eyes. “But you … yer this super special changeling and ya’ haven’t even done anything. I’ve been try’n fer years to get stronger so’s they can’t force me to do what I don’t wanna. S’why I spend so much time in town try’n to absorb emotion. An’ it turns out ya’ll are changelings too.”

Scootaloo’s ears drooped and she looked away. “Oh … I … I didn’t know.”

“It’s alright,” amended Applebloom. “It ain’t nopony’s fault. It’s just frustrat’n. My whole life I thought I could be the best at whatever I wanted with hard work and elbow grease an’ you just go an’ showed me up without even try’n.”

The little pegasus gave a humorless laugh. “Oh, you know me. I’m just … too good for my own good, right?”

This got a smile and a shove from Applebloom. “Oh shut up, you ain’t that special.”

Scootaloo smiled back. Glad to have her friend back in amicable spirits. However, there was a detail niggling in the back of her mind. A question of context. “Applebloom … you said ‘ya’ll’ didn’t you?”

“Huh?”

Scootaloo knew the question was odd but she didn’t want to rehash a detail Applebloom probably didn’t remember. “What I mean to ask is …”

“…Where’s Sweetie Belle?”

Author's Note

ok ... so this one was a long time coming ... and i apologize for that ... it wasn't an easy chapter to write and life just enjoyed handing me curve balls every time i wanted to knuckle down and get this done ... not to mention i had originally intended to keep the focus on sweetie belle ... but then i heard Apples To The Core and just HAD to implement it in Applebloom's backstory

comments questions and critiques are always welcome ... pls leave a like and fav up top :twilightblush:

Chapter 10

Sweetie Belle groaned and felt soreness in her limbs as she stirred herself awake on the hard stone floor. She blinked and looked around the dark room. She could barely see, but quickly wished she could go back to not seeing. The room was three walls, a floor, and a ceiling all made of stone … and metal bars comprising the fourth wall.

“H-Hello?” she called out timidly. Her voice cracked and screeched a bit like she had a sore throat. “Is anypony there?” In response she thought she could hear whispers, just on the edge of her hearing.

Still too young.

Drained too much of her love.

She doesn’t know how.

“Hello? Who’s there?”

Already connected to the mind.

Should silence her voice.

Could be useful.

Just a drone.

Will wait and listen.

Will wait and listen

Straining to hear the voices was starting to make Sweetie Belle’s head hurt. So she slumped back to the ground to hold her head in her hooves. That’s when she felt the device attached to her horn. Her eyes went wide at this. The device was a magic inhibitor, a silver-lined cone designed to block a unicorn’s ability to use magic. “I …. I didn’t get away,” she realized, tears fillingher eyes. “Now … now I’ve been foalnapped.”

The sound of a heavy lock being unlatched echoed through the cell block, followed by the squealing of abused, rusty hinges as the door was pushed in resounded off the walls. Sweetie stood as she saw a faint torchlight peer in, silhouetting two mare ponies as they entered. The first was an earth pony that looked to be brown, while the second was a charcoal unicorn. The torch they carried was kept behind them which prevented Sweetie from getting any real sense of their features.

As they stood in front of Sweetie Belle’s cage the earth pony leaned to her leading companion. “Boss?” she said, “When you said-”

“I know,” replied the unicorn.

“But she’s just a-”

“I know.”

“She’s not ev-”

“Probie!” The unicorn’s head whipped around to her companion. Though her voice became harsher, it didn’t raise in volume even slightly. “Do you really think anything about this has escaped my attention?”

The pair went silent again and looked back to the cell’s sole occupant. Sweetie’s head lowered and her ears drooped as she backed into the corner. It hadn’t sounded like they wanted to hurt her, but the silence was more than a little unnerving, given the circumstances. “Uh-umm …” she he hesitantly began “h-hello?”

The unicorn decided to take a more non-chalant approach and lay on the ground with her hooves folded in front of her. “Well,” she said, “It would seem we’ve all gotten ourselves in a fine mess now; haven’t we, Little One?”

Sweetie Belle sat in her back corner and nodded.

“My name is Special Agent Plain Sight,” she said, introducing herself, “and Captain Obvious here is my partner. Our job here is to sort out this whole mess and hopefully find a lost little girl and return her to her family. To do that, though, I’m going to need your help, okay?”

This statement confused Sweetie Belle. Who was lost? How was she supposed to help them find her? ‘Wait,’ she thought, ‘they must have foalnapped me because Scootaloo got away.’

Protect

Defend

She felt a glare darken her expression. “I won’t help you!” she declared. Unfortunately, to her most of the emphasis seemed to be lost in her scratchy throat.

Plain Sight tilted her head in curiosity. “Oh?” she asked, “and why is that?”

“Because you’re bad ponies, and I won’t let you hurt my friends.”

Curiosity morphed into confusion and Plain Sight looked back at her partner, who seemed even more lost than she was. “Umm, Little One. Do you know where you are right now?”

Now it was Sweetie Belle’s turn to be confused. “In … in your secret hideout?” she guessed.

The grey unicorn shook her head. “No. You’re in the jailhouse beneath Ponyville Town Hall.”

“WHAT?!” She immediately began looking around. As if something about the walls of her cell could confirm or deny the claim. At that moment a thought struck her as her eyes came to rest on the open door to the cell block. Surely the walls would have a soundproofing spell cast upon them, but that wouldn’t stop sound from carrying through open doors or windows. “MOMMY! DAD! RARITY! SOMEPONY HELP ME!” Sweetie Belle then let out a blood curdling scream at the top of her lungs. If she were really in Ponyville, there was a chance somepony would hear her.

After a few seconds a magical aura reached out and clamped Sweetie’s mouth shut. “That is quite enough of that, Little One,” said the unicorn. “My partner and I are from Canterlot Special Investigations. We’re here to try and find a pony who was foalnapped.”

Sweetie glared as her mouth was released and immediately threw out an accusation. “You’re a liar,” she declared. “You’re the foalnappers pretending to be guards to get my help.”

“Boss?” The earth pony said. “I don’t think she realiz-”

Plain Sight held up a hoof to silence her partner and thought for a moment narrowing her eyes at Sweetie Belle’s form. “Little One,” she began carefully, “I do know the name you’ve preferred to go by this past … however long you’ve been here.”

Sweetie Belle tried to wrap her head around the meaning of that statement, but after a few moments all she could come up with was a resounding, “Huh?”

“Either you’re extremely clever,” Plain Sight continued, “which means you know a great deal more than you’re letting on, and this whole act is … well … an act.” She walked out from view of Sweetie’s cell and she heard the creaking of bars. The unicorn’s voice rose a bit so as she could still be heard. “The other option is that you’re as ignorant of the situation as you appear to be.” She reappeared with what looked to be a square picture frame floating next to her. “Regardless of which it is, I’m afraid we have to alleviate the potential ignorance of the situation. If you truly don’t know, then I am sorry. Nopony wakes up hoping they’ll have to break somepony’s view of the world, least-of-all me.”

With that statement, Plain Sight levitated the small frame into the cell and set it face up on the floor, just inside the door. Sweetie Belle could see from where she stood that it was, in fact, a mirror. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her captors. She didn’t understand what they expected her to see, but she moved forward and peered down into the reflective surface to see her true self for the first time in her life.

This time Plain Sight didn’t prevent her from screaming.

Chapter 11

Applebloom and Scootaloo climbed the ramp leading to their clubhouse. The spell that the mystery changeling had cast on her would only last another day at most, so if Scootaloo wanted to stay in Ponyville she would have to learn to change on her own. School had been canceled due to Cheerilee being out with a concussion and a broken foreleg. So they had Friday and the weekend to themselves.

Upon entering the small yellow structure, Applebloom immediately drew the curtains across the windows. “Before we start practice’n you need to know that I don’t know enough magic to force a change on ya’. So you’re prob’ly gonna be stuck looking like a changeling until you figure it out.”

Scootaloo swallowed hard at that. “Okay, how do I do that?”

“It’s not too hard, once you figure it out. Changelings don’t really use ‘spells’ to change themselves the way unicorns do,” explained Applebloom, “Those are illusions, something that’s meant to just trick the eyes. What we do is tune our bodies to the magic we want and it physically changes us.”

“You just made that sound even harder.”

Applebloom laughed, “Using words to explain something simple like this does that. Just watch me, I’ll do it slow.” With that she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m focusing on my heartbeat. Feeling the love I’ve absorbed humming inside me. And I’m sort of … smoothing it out.” As she spoke a green crackling slowly ran up around her hooves, leaving behind it a trail of black chitin. When it got to her back the thin membrane of wings formed and unraveled. Finally the embers reached her head and Scootaloo could see her friends’ forehead contort and slowly sprout a bent and gnarled horn. “And I’m done.”

“That’s,” Scootaloo looked for the words, “wow. You’re taller as a changeling”

“What?! Are you serious?” Applebloom groaned, “After all that, that’s the first thing you notice?”

“No, seriously look,” Scootaloo said, pointing to the small mirror. “We were the same height a moment ago. Now you’re like, a whole hoof taller than me.”

“Seriously?” Applebloom looked in the mirror to check. “Well I’ll be hogtied. It must have something to do with the holes.”

“You don’t spend much time like this, do you?”

“Tch, you kidd’n? Best thing that’d come of it would be getting run out of town. More likely I’d be captured and sent to some dungeon or a sciencey lab where they test me to death.”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

Applebloom scowled, an expression that was a good deal more intimidating in her changeling form. “Where is Sweetie Belle again?”

Scootaloo hung her head at that. Sweetie Belle had been discovered before either of them even knew she was a changeling. Now she was in the Ponyville jail surrounded by armed guards from Canterlot. Technically all three of the crusaders were criminals who hadn’t done anything wrong, at least not on purpose. It was a matter of either hiding, running, or getting captured.

“Okay,” Applebloom stated, bringing Scootaloo out of her negative train of thought, “before we have you undo the forced tuning that other changeling gave you, I’m gonna show you how to change into a pony. I’ll show you how to do it a few times. Then I’ll do you so you can have a baseline, but it should be pretty easy for you to do yourself."

"You have to think about how that pony feels, the emotions that certain parts of them create. Normally you need to get close enough to absorb some of their love first, but with practice you’ll find out how to pick out their most defining characteristics and picture how they feel.”

“You mean I’ll sympathize with them?” asked the orange filly.

“No that’s the other one. Sympathize means you’ve been through the same things as them,” she explained. “What you want is empathy. Focus on how their situation must make them feel.”

A flash of green flames enveloped Applebloom’s chitinous form and dissipated to reveal a copy of Diamond Tiara strutting around the clubhouse. “My family is rich. I can afford to have a real diamond tiara and stand tall and straight so everyone can see me and how important I am.”

Another flash of green revealed Pipsqueak . “I’m … kinda shy and intimidated, ‘cause … well, I’m new and I don’t look exactly like everyone else,” after that his ears perked up. “B-but when someone notices me and says something nice I get real excited, and I’m sure we’ll all be the best of friends.”

Scootaloo laughed at this display, “Haha, wow. You’ve really got them pegged.”

Applebloom changed back into her changeling form. “Yeah, it may not exactly be nice to think of them like that, but it can help you focus.”

“So, why do you sound like Applebloom as a changeling, but you sound like other ponies when you change into them?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Applebloom admitted. “It could be our voice-box changes to suit the first form we take, or something else.”

“Huh, weird,” Scootaloo tried to wrap her head around that for a moment, but quickly shook it off for more important matters. “Okay, do me, but slowly so I can see it.”

“Okay, just …” Applebloom paused.

“Just what?”

“I just … I want you to know, I don’t really see you like this. I just … it’s how I imagine you feel most of the time.”

“Oh … okay?”

The changeling closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Hi, I’m Scootaloo.” Green embers crackled up her snout and face altering to an orange hornless one in the same shape as Scootaloo’s. “I’m a bit self-conscious about my wings being smaller than most.” The thin membranes of insect wings burned away to reveal small feathery ones. “But I don’t let that stop me from being excited and up-beat.” The black hooves crackled green, shortening her stature as they were replaced with orange fur and hooves. “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing fast. Then we can have fun doing even more of it.” With that the green embers which had started in separate areas all met, and two identical orange fillies stood in the middle of the clubhouse.

Scootaloo tucked her wings in and looked away sheepishly. “Heh … wow,” she said, unenthusiastically, “you’ve really got me pegged too, huh?”

“No … Scoots I … I don’t mean it like that.”

Scootaloo’s eye got wide and she stared at her copy. “Wow! It’s … It’s really weird hearing myself talk.”

“I jus- … wait … you’re over it that quick?”

“Well,” Scootaloo shuffled her hooves a bit, “I mean, it kinda stings hearing it from somepony else. But it’s true. What’s that saying Applejack always says about honesty?”

“That it’s the best policy?”

“No, the other one.”

“Lies can only get you so far, but the truth can set you free?”

“The other, other one I guess. The one about yourself … and others.”

“Oh, right. The best way to learn to be honest with others is to learn to be honest with yourself.”

“Yeah that’s the one. I really am like that, and I know it. You told me you didn’t mean anything by it, and I know you didn’t. So there’s no point in getting upset over it. That doesn’t just make it easy to hear though.” Scootaloo nodded, feeling a small amount of pride. Then she quirked an eyebrow at her doppelganger “Wow, she’s really got a lot of those sayings, doesn’t she?”

“Tell me about it. Sometimes I think she got the element of brutal honesty. But that’s enough about my sister. We’re here so you can practice.”

“Right, right,” Scootaloo shook her legs out similar to a runner about to take their mark. “Deep breath, center myself,” she closed her eyes and breathed, “and reach out and feel the force.” With that she held out her hoof in front of her, trying hard not to smirk.

“I’m going to knock you if you keep that up.”

“Fine, fine,” Scootaloo scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Spoil sport,” she grumbled. She closed her eyes again and thought about those emotions that Applebloom was talking about, those things that were part of her and who she was. Taking a deep breath in she imagined pulling those emotions close to her heart, and as she breathed out she felt herself let go of them, allowing them to float out into the ether.

“How’s that?” she asked

The orange look-alike pointed towards the small mirror on the wall. “See for yourself, ya great big goofball.”

Looking over to the mirror Scootaloo could see that she had indeed fully turned into a changeling. “Alright, that was pretty easy.”

“Well, yeah, it’s who you really are. You should be able to be a changeling or your host form,” she said gesturing to her disguised self, “whenever you want.”

“Oh … Yeah, my host form.” Scootaloo’s blue eyes dropped to the ground as she thought for a moment, “Hey, AB. If Applejack thinks you’re her sister … and, well … let’s face it, you’re not. Doesn’t that mean there’s a ‘real’ Applebloom out there? Somepony who’s … a pony?”

It was strange for Scootaloo to see her own face become solemn as Applebloom took a deep breath. “Try not to think ‘bout it, okay?”

“But … but why-”

“Because it ain’t right and it ain’t fair,” she snapped. “It ain’t right that I have to live in hiding over something I ain’t done, and it sure as Celestia ain’t fair that I’m liv’n somepony else’s life with their family.” Applebloom took a deep breath and visibly calmed herself. “Look, we’re changelings. We need energy from love as much as food. This is the only way we can get it with the situation we’re in. There’s noth’n we can do about it, so … so we just gotta muddle through it. And the only way for me to do that is to just not think about it.”

Scootaloo was surprised at the outburst from her normally level-headed friend. It wasn’t so much the righteousness behind it, but the heat of the emotions that flowed from her was palpable. “So,” she started, but cut herself off.

“What?”

“You’re … really upset about not being a pony … aren’t you.”

Applebloom dropped the disguise, her voice changing back to sound more like herself. “I … I don’t know. It’s just that … every time I talk to my family. I know I’m lying to them. Everything Big Mac and Applejack know about their little sister is a lie. All those memories, the time spent with each other, the shared secrets, the stories, absolutely everything they know about me has been one big lie.” Applebloom’s blackened hindquarters slumped to the floor.

Scootaloo considered how all this had affected Applebloom. She’d been forced to hide who she truly was from her best of friends, her own family. She loved her family with all her heart and she couldn’t be honest with the one thing that really mattered. Yet she’d managed to put on a brave face despite all that. She’d carried on being the pony all of them expected her to be, and, knowing her, Scootaloo was sure it wasn’t just because her friend was scared for herself. She was scared of what it would do to her big sister and brother if they ever found out.

It was at that moment both of the changelings heard a set of hooves out on their clubhouse ramp. “Applebloom,” they heard Applejack’s voice call out, “are you in there?”

In a hushed whisper the younger of the Apple Clan urged, “Quick, change now. Turn into yourself if you can but we’ll play it off no matter who you are. Yeah, sis, I’ll be out in a second.”

Scootaloo gave a panicked nod and closed her eyes. She focused her feelings in around her heart. Both of their bodies were enveloped in green flame. When the flames dissipated there stood one yellow filly with a red mane tied up in a pink bow and one yellow filly with a red mane tied up in a pink bow. “WH-,” the real Applebloom had to keep herself from yelling at her doppelganger, “what are you doing!?! You aren’t supposed to be, me.”

“I’m, sorry! I don’t know why, it just-” a hoof over the fake’s mouth silenced her. In another flash of flame the real Applebloom transformed herself into Scootaloo. Just a moment later, a rather upset looking Applejack entered through the undersized doorway.

“Applebloom, I specifically told you to head straight back to the barn when you found your friend! Not to go gallivanting across the orchard where ain’t nopony could’a heard you if something happened.”

The orange filly stepped forward. “Sis a’-…ahemhm” she caught herself and cleared her throat. “So sorry, Applejack,” she corrected, “I convinced her to come here. I figured as long as we were on the farm it would be okay so long as we closed the windows.” She gestured a hoof at the drawn curtains to indicate that they had been trying to stay as safe as possible.

Applejack scrutinized the orange filly as if she were coming to some sort of internal conclusion. Without any apparent decision being made the Orange mare continued. “Even still, she knew better than to go off without tell’n nopony.”

The yellow filly felt as if Applejack was towering over her. ‘Ohmigosh, she’s gonna find out’ her mind panicked. ‘I’m pretending to be the sister of the element of Honesty.’ She knew she couldn’t just stand there. Applebloom never stopped and stared at anypony, least of all her sister. It wasn’t until she felt her friend give her a slight elbow that she found her voice. “Oh, uhh … s-sorry Applejack,” she said meekly. “I guess I-”

“Well, you guessed wrong,” snapped Applejack. “Get on home and get to work in the kitchen. Granny Smith’s gonna need help bake’n.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Uhh,” the orange filly interjected, “could I talk with her alone real quick? It’ll take just a second.”

At that point it was Rainbow Dash’s turn to walk in. “That’ll have to wait till after your training session,” she said. “I’ve got a short lunch and then it’s back to weather patrol. Cloudsdale has a big shipment coming through and it’s all hooves on deck to keep them from raining as they move on through.”

Now it was her turn to stop and stare. “I, uhh, wow Rainbow Dash. This’ll take just a second, and it’s … kin’a private.”

“Psh, you’re just nervous.” Rainbow Dash moved forward and picked the little orange filly up in her arms. “C’mon kid, no time for a pep-talk, we’ve got work to do.” And a few moments later they were flying high above the orchard towards the edge of the forest.

Applebloom held on as tight as she could as Rainbow Dash carried her away. Despite the fact she didn’t want to give anything away she couldn’t help but mutter “Oh, horse-apples,” under her breath.

Author's Note

Well, i'm back.

Life really caught up to me and i lost the inspiration to keep the story going. But now my job has temporarily separated me from my family so I've had time to refine my outline and get some pieces of this story going again. I've already got most of the next chapter fleshed out, so i can promise it won't be long before that comes out. I won't be able to give you any sort of schedule, but i really want to finish this story. There's a few plot points i'd wished i could have got out before Hasbro fleshed out the changelings themselves.

Comments, questions and critiques are always welcome. I hope you guys enjoy the story.

Chapter 12

Sweetie Belle awoke. She was stiff and sore from the stone floor, but had been given a blanket to keep herself warm. The once dark dungeon was now lit with several torches. While this made it appear much less foreboding, the visible emptiness pressed in on her like a polluted mire of filth and fog.

She was not alone, however. No, the voices in her head were quite clear on that point.

It was a near constant babble, a distant whisper of several dozen conversations talking around her. Some were louder than others, but most were incoherent and unintelligible. The one’s she did manage to make out were confusing and vague, seeming like random demands or reminders. None of them seemed to ever direct themselves at her though, even when she attempted to talk to them herself.

She considered the possibility that she was going crazy, or dreaming even. But the voices would stop to correct her on that point if she became too adamant. The voice was always from sompony different, at least that’s what it felt like. They would assure her she wasn’t alone or that what she felt was really happening, but it was never actually comforting to her.

The guards had opted to leave her alone last night after giving her the mirror. She was grateful for that. She hadn’t been in any state to answer questions. The unfortunate thing that she was now beginning to realize was that she didn’t know any more about her being a changeling than they did. She was a pony … or … at least that’s what she’d thought until last night. She didn’t know how she’d looked like a pony before, much less how she’d be able to change back.

Before she could continue that depressing line of thought the door to the dungeon opened, revealing the two ponies who’d come last night. “Feeling better, Little One?”Sweetie felt her ears droop and she looked to the floor.

Plain Sight conceded with a shrug. “I suppose ‘better’ would be a poor choice of wording, but this time we can at least avoid the existential nervous breakdown.”

Her partner coughed, uncomfortably. “Uhh, Boss?”

Plain Sight sighed at this. She disliked interruptions when she was interrogating a prisoner. Fortunately, that was all that needed to be said to make his point, and it was a good point to make. “I’m going to ask you some questions. Can I count on you to answer them?”

Sweetie Belle sat up and nodded. She didn’t know what she could tell them, but she didn’t want to be in jail anymore. She was a good pony, and the guards didn’t put good ponies in jail. If she could show them she was good then maybe they’d let her go, even if she was a changeling.

Sitting down, Plain Sight and her partner settled in to question her. “How long have you been in Ponyville?”

“I’ve lived here my whole …” Sweetie thought about her answer for a moment. If she was a changeling then she couldn’t have been born here. “As long as I can remember,” she answered meekly. Sweetie Belle was starting to piece together the implications of being a changeling. Since she wasn’t a pony that meant she couldn’t have been born by ponies. That meant she wasn’t really her parent’s daughter. She wasn’t really Rarity’s sister.

“How many other changelings are in Ponyville?”

The voices in her head went quiet, as if they too were interested in her answers. “I don’t know.”

The unicorn groused at this response. “We know your kind doesn’t settle down in a place alone, little one.”

“I don’t know.”

“Every time we find a changeling, a few days later several ponies go missing without a trace.” Though Plain Sight talked in a calm and level tone, it was cold and hard.“We aren’t stupid,” she continued. “This will all go a lot smoother if you just tell us.”

“I SAID I DON’T KNOW!” Sweetie bared her fangs and let out a hiss. This instinct surprised her and she cowered away from the sound. She turned her head away and slumped back onto the ground.

She heard the second guard walk away and open the dungeon entrance. Sweetie felt her ear flick upwards as two more sets of hooves approached. Figuring it was just more guards Sweetie Belle remained where she was. She didn’t know anything they wanted, and all she wanted was to go home. No one was getting anything they wanted so there was no point talking anymore. “Ahem,” a dainty voice cleared her throat but she ignored it.

“Dear me, manners certainly aren’t your forte.”

“R-Rarity?” Sweetie Bell turned. Sure enough the white form of her older sister shown through the bars of her cell. Of anything she could have imagined, this was a sight more welcome than Celestia’s own blessed sun. “Rarity!” she bolted for the bars and reached through.

Rarity took a step back.

“Rarity, help me, please.”

Rarity gave a small smile and laid down in front of the cell out of reach of the changeling. “Now, now dear, I’m here. And between you, me, and these agents here,” she said, gesturing to Plain Sight and the ‘Probie’, “we’re going to sort this whole thing out.”

Tears were filling up her eyes as she pleaded with Rarity. “I swear, I didn’t know I was a changeling. I don’t know anything about changelings. I don’t know when we were switched. Please, you have to believe me”

Rarity took a calming breath and carefully reached out her hoof to touch the small changeling’s grey hoof. Plain Sight bristled at the contact, but made no move to stop her. “Well then,” she said, “let’s start with what you do know, shall we?”

Sweetie relaxed a bit and pulled her hoof back to her side of the bars and nodded, “O-okay.” Having Rarity here seeing how she was. It felt like she could breathe again.

“Now, what’s the last thing you remember before you got here?”

“I-” she thought for a moment, “Scootaloo was getting foalnapped and, we were running from some little flying things.”

Rarity nodded. “Yes, and what happened just last week?”

The changeling grumbled at that. “You gave me a lecture because Scootaloo was having a bad day.”

Rarity scowled at that response. “That’s not true and you know it. You weren’t in trouble for helping your friend, you were in trouble for skipping school.”

“I was skipping school so I could help her.”

“Ahem,” the second guard cleared his throat and made a gesture for Rarity to get back on track. Sweetie Belle quirked an eyebrow at this interaction.

“Ahh, yes, right. Well, what about this past summer?” she asked, “Do you remember what happened between you me and Applejack?”

Why is the guard steering Rarity’s questions? She wondered Also it reminded Sweetie Belle that, even though her sister was here, she was still imprisoned. She looked to the guards, “The Sisterhooves Social,” and back at Rarity, still sitting out of reach, not up close like she’d normally do when having a discussion or heart-to-heart. “You got yourself covered in mud because I wanted Applejack to be my big sister instead of you.” Then she remembered there had been a second set of hooves and looked at the other pony. It was Twilight standing off to the side, scribbling furiously on a scroll; but she froze when the changeling made eye contact with her. “We even wrote a letter to Celestia about it, Twilight.”

Suspicion was slowly being replaced with anger as Sweetie Belle started to put the pieces together. This wasn’t a sisterly visit. They weren’t trying to “sort things out.” They didn’t care about her at all. They were doing research to learn more about changelings. They were just trying to find the ‘real’ Sweetie Bell.

“Uhh, wow, yes, umm.” Rarity paused to think. “Do you remem-“

“Save it! Rarity!” snapped the small changeling. “Let me save you the trouble. My first real friends in ponyville were Applebloom and Scootaloo. We met at Sugar Cube Corner when Diamond Tiara was having her cutecinera. Applebloom was trying to hide the fact that she was still a blank flank and was getting teased for it so Scootaloo and I stood up for her. That’s when we formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders and that’s the last memory you’ll be able to remember. You don’t care about me.”

“That’s not-”

“You’re just trying to prove to yourself that you’d notice if your sister was ever switched. Well, I don’t even know, so good luck figuring it out. I don’t know why you even bothered coming at all. I was only ever a child sized ponnequin to you anyway. Most years, if you even bothered, for my birthday you’d wrap up one of the tiny dresses from your shop saying the sizes might not be quite right because “I was growing so fast,” or that you made it too big on purpose “so I could grow into it.” I never said anything because it didn’t really matter to me. Not as much as it did to just have you pretend to care.” Sweetie Belle didn’t know when anger turned to crying but now she wiped the tears away. “I just wanted you there because you’re my sister. You’re my sister. I’m your sister, Rarity, and I still love you even though you’re doing this to me.”

The guards stepped up to Rarity and Twilight. “Okay, that’s enough,” they said and began ushering them out.

“Yes, I believe that’s enough for now,” replied Rarity, letting herself be led out of the cave.

Though Sweetie Belle was angry, the sudden declaration of departure made it feel like her heart was being squeezed in a vice. “No! Rarity!” she yelled. “Don’t go, please. I-I’m sorry. I’ll take it all back, just … just stay.”

“If you’re not going to cooperate then there’s nothing more to talk about.”

“W-what if there’s a way,” Sweetie tentatively claimed, “t-to find her?”

‘Betrayer’

‘Weak’

This statement caused Rarity to stop, pushing back against the guards. “If you can find her then why don’t you?”

“I - I’ve been hearing voices,” she admitted, “ever since I got put in here. I think it might be other changelings. I could try and ask them.” She scrunched her eyes shut, ‘Where is the other me?’ she demanded.

As she did this Sweetie Belle felt as if her mind was being pulled from her body and whisked across a great distance till she was face to face with three sets of glaring blue eyes, each the size of a manticore. From them came raspy voices, echoing through every part of her body.

‘Foolish traitor’

‘You are but a drone’

‘Cease this nonsense, or suffer’

She could still hear the ponies in the jail speaking to her. “Where is she? Where is my sister?”

“I don’t know,” she said, “they won’t tell me.”

“Try again.”

‘Where am I?’ Sweetie Belle tried to look around, but everything was black except for the eyes. ‘Where are you? What is this place?’

‘We are all pieces of the body’

‘We grow and change as necessary’

‘We’ve brought you to the mind’

She could feel sweat forming on her brow. “I can’t see anything,” she said. “They won’t let me.”

“Keep trying,” Rarity implored, “you can do it.”

The Sweetie Belle tried again, ‘Please, tell me where she is.’ A shrill whine that was more felt than heard began to fill her, sending an ache throughout her entire body.

‘You cannot make demands of US’

‘You will cease this’

‘Stop or Suffer’

‘Please, I have to know.’ The ache turned into pain. ‘TELL ME!’

‘Here they are’

A slight glow began to show behind the eyes, revealing several green cocoons with ponies trapped inside

‘You will die slowly, knowing that you’ve failed to betray the hive.’

“I see them, in a cave,” said Sweetie Belle. The pain in her head was almost unbearable. She tried to stop listening to the whine but it coursed through her form. She could feel her body becoming weak and her snout became moist with blood seeping from her nose.

“Them? There’s more? How many?”

“They could be anypony in town?”

“Are they adults, children? Do you recognize any of them?”

‘You won’t find them’

‘Not enough love to even try’

‘They’re right,’ she thought, ‘changelings need love. They’ve got several ponies for that. I haven’t got anyone.’ “I’m … I’m not strong enough.” Her legs buckled beneath her.

“Sweetie Belle,” Rarity cried, catching her through the bars of the cell.

At the contact the changeling felt strength flow in through her heart as she was pulled into her sisters’ embrace. She suddenly felt like she could do anything and focused on her one desire.

‘Where ARE they?’

The eyes suddenly grew very small and the cave lit up. She could see the ponies. The three changelings cast sickly green rays of energy at her form.

‘You insolent’

‘How’

‘KILL HER’

Images flashed by as the beams made contact; a cave, a river, Ponyville, a forest. Her mind tried to sort these out. Put them in order as she was forced back into her body. “There’s cave in the forest,” she gasped. “In the- CAHHH!” Sweetie Belle screamed and clutched her ears as a shrill sound only she could hear forced its way through her brain. Then the whole world started shaking.

“Sweetie Belle! NO!” Rarity shouted as the changeling convulsed, dropping to the floor.

“Stand back!” Twilight leveled her horn at the cell door and telekinetically ripped it off its hinges. “She’s having a seizure.”

A guard was at the jailhouse entrance “DOCTOR! NOW!”

“What grade is this horn lock?” Twilight demanded.

“B-grade. It’s the only kind that wo-”

“That’ll do. Hold her still.”

“What are you-”

“Hold her still or she’s DEAD!” Plain Sight and Rarity held the convulsing changeling as still as they could. Twilight brought her horn directly to the base of the silver plated lock and carefully pressed into the soft metal. She felt the slight give that meant she’d broken the outer seal. “Please work,” she prayed, and began channeling as much raw magic as she could through the puncture.

Horn locks were designed to feed magic back into the caster, disrupting the mana flow and breaking any spell before it could even leave the horn. The effect could leave them dazed or even unconscious, for particularly reckless individuals. That was what Twilight hoped to accomplish here. Lavender magic poured into the small space, charging the conductive alloys leading into the base of the horn. Some fed back into Twilights horn as well, but she had been trained to handle magical feedback for high-level spells. She was able to fight through the fuzz that was burning in and out of her mind.

‘Forsake this one’

‘You cannot save her’

The horn lock began to heat and warp as she continued to pour more and more mana into the small unit. Sparks began to fly from the tip of the lock as the alloys began to break down. Then Twilight felt a hoof on her withers. She stopped and removed her horn from the lock. The changeling lay there unconscious, but still clearly breathing. She looked about the cell and saw two more ponies in medical garb. “Keep her heavily sedated until I can come up with a spell to keep them out of her mind. If she wakes up, they’ll kill her.”

“Are you insane?!” demanded the doctor, “you could have given her brain damage! Or blown her horn clean off!”

“I’m aware of the risks of doing something like that with a unicorn,” Twilight shot back. Leaning down she slid the mangled horn lock off of its wearer, revealing a near perfect replica of Twilight’s horn. “I’m also aware that changeling horns naturally tune themselves to different thaumatic frequencies as part of their shape shifting.”

As the nurse moved to check on the creature’s vitals the horn slowly shifted back into the black and gnarled version that was the changeling norm. “I’m going to work on a spell to prevent her from being executed. Keep her sedated until then.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” It was the probationary officer. “What do you mean executed?”

“It fits, Probie,” said Plain Sight. “That changeling was about to try and help us. She didn’t know how before but finally had incentive to try. We’ve thought it was possible but had no real proof until now. The changelings have a telepathic mind of some sort. They might even be able to use each other’s senses or even memories.”

Twilight perked up at the prospect of having somepony to bounce a brainstorm off of. “And they can use that mind to command or even kill lesser drones.”

“That explains why any captured changeling until now has died. But why not just command her to shut up?”

“The pony mind is pretty complicated, and from what I can tell changelings aren’t all that different as far as our neurological complexity is concerned. I don’t think one, or even several changelings could control everything another changeling does or says even if they wanted to. It’s possible they only communicate that way, and each individual otherwise has complete autonomy.”

“Possibly,” the guardspony conceded, “but changelings feed off of love don’t they? If she’s been living this little girl’s life for as long as she says, how did she not notice that?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible eating food is a less effective means they can use to sustain themselves if they need to and she just didn’t know any better. Or perhaps absorbing love is so innate she didn’t even notice it. They could use the energy from love as a source of magical potential like the Crystal Heart. Or perhaps their bodies just grow out of being able to get energy from food. At this point it’s all conjecture.”

“Ahem,” Rarity interjected herself. “Yes, I understand this is all quite fascinating, but shouldn’t we be gathering a search party?”

“Where would you have us search, ma’am?” asked Plain Sight. “All we know is there’s a cave in a forest with trapped ponies in it. More than likely she meant the Everfree Forest, which is hundreds of square miles and Celestia only knows how many caves to search. She could have meant White-tale Woods, Foggy Bottom Bog, or heck even Sweet Apple Acres looks kinda like a forest to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if it had a cave or two somewhere in there.”

“But … well … surely we’re not going to sit and do nothing?”

“Rarity, it’s going to be okay. Once we find a way to keep the hive from killing the changeling we’ll wake her up and she’ll tell us where your sister is.” Twilight turned to the doctor who was injecting something into the changeling. “Once you’re done with that get her to the hospital and give her a full brain scan and thaumatic profile. I’ll need copies for some of the spells I have in mind.”

“I’m also going to need coffee,” she said to no pony in particular, “lots and lots of coffee.”