How long had she laid there, in that ditch? A day, a week? Unable to stand, unable to move, barely able to speak. Her strength had long left. All her energy poured into repairing the damage the fall had done to her. And what a fall it was. Several thousand leagues of land passed beneath her as she fell, thrown by the very energy that had sustained her, had empowered her.
She survived, but only barely.
Queen Chrysalis, the mighty matriarch of the changeling horde, reduced to nothing more than a hollow shell, filled only with loathing and hate. That stuck-up princess and her naive fiancee, Shining Armor, she cursed them, moments before she struck the ground. Her plan had been flawless, capturing the Princess, childsplay. Duping her oaf of a coltfriend, even simpler. Even the omniscient Celestia had fallen for her tricks. Who'd have thought that all that could have been undone by the actions of a single unicorn? She thought herself doomed, locking horns with an alicorn was a fools errand and yet Celestia had fallen, defeated, even she hadn't realized just how powerful she had become. To have overcome the bearers of Harmony, and the Goddess of the Sun herself, only to be defeated by love.
Talk about irony.
She felt her strength fading and she along with it, the gaps in her hooves continually growing in size as her body could no longer sustain itself. She knew she had hours left, maybe even minutes. Soon she'd be naught but dust on the wind. She could sense it, her end fast approaching. She didn't want to die here. With no other options, Chrysalis closed her eyes and did something she had never done before.
She prayed.
She had no Gods to call upon, the only ones who existed she had challenged, only to be cast out, exiled. Instead she willed her prayer to be heard by someone, anyone. The queen's eyes watered as time continued to pass, she feared her prayer was unheard.
Then she heard it, a voice echoing across the glade.
They were getting closer, she could sense them, a bubbling pair of ponies, one large, one small. A mother and her foal perhaps? Her elation was quickly replaced by fear however, when she realized her salvation may in actual fact be her demise. She still looked like herself, any sane pony would run screaming from a changeling, even one as injured as herself.
Summoning what little of her strength that remained she cast her spell, it wasn't enough to cloak her completely but it would have to suffice. She hid her horn, the holes in her hooves and replaced her chitin with dark fur. Her insect wings replaced by thick plumage. If she was lucky, she could convince them she was simply an injured pegasus. She heard some rustling not far from her, a loud gasp and then fast approaching hoofsteps. She had been discovered. Her vision hazy she turned towards her finders. She managed to mutter two words before she blacked out.
"Help...Me..."
Having finished their business at Zecora's house, Twilight trotted along the well worn path back towards Ponyville, her saddlebags bulging with herbs and potions. Since the whole poison joke fiasco, Zecora's reputation had improved remarkably. The Ponyville Hospital and the spa being two of the first to capitalize on these new zebrican remedies. Of course as with all medicines rigorous testing was required before they could be distributed, and that's where Twilight came in. She made arrangements to visit and collect samples from Zecora every week.
For her assistant however, there were more pressing issues at hand. "C'mon Twilight, we're going to be late!" Spike said, he sat with his arms crossed, leaning back into Twilight's neck.
Twilight groaned, he'd been complaining the entire way there and the entire way back. "Relax Spike, Rarity won't mind, she's always late whenever we invite her over for lunch."
"Yeah, but when she does it it's fashionable." He huffed.
"That doesn't make any sense, how is being late fashionable?"
"It just is okay? Everything Rarity does is fashionable."
"So by being late we are also being fashionable, and since Rarity likes stuff like that, she would approve of us being late, right?"
"Now whose not making sense?"
"Look we're going to get there on time okay? I just have to drop these bags off at home, if it's that big a deal, why don't you start walking there now, I'll just-" Twilight cut herself off with a gasp.
"Twilight? Why'd you stop?" Spike spun around on Twilight's back, the mare frozen in place, her eyes narrowing as she focused on something in the distance. He almost slipped as she took off into a gallop. When she finally stopped again he leaned over to the left, try to see what had caused her sudden panic. His voice caught in his throat as he saw her.
A downed pegasus, in a deep crater. She looked over at them. Shakily she lifted her head from the dirt.
"Help...me..." She whispered. They gasped as she slipped into unconsciousness.
Whipping her head round Twilight spoke with urgency. "Spike quick, get off." He nodded and hopped off of Twilight's back. She threw off her saddlebags and magically lifted the downed pegasus onto her back.
Confident that her new passenger was secure, she turned to face her assistant. "Get to Rarity's tell her what's happened, then meet me at the library." She said. Her horn lit up and the pair disappeared. The young dragon waddled over to the saddlebags and gripped them by the straps. He dragged them along the path for a while, past the considerable hole in the ground. To take his mind off of the fact that not only was he going to be late to visit Rarity, he'd also have to drag Twilight's bags home as well, he started to think. He wondered how fast that pegasus must have been going, and more importantly how she was even still breathing. Even Rainbow Dash would have had a hard time walking away from a crash like that. She certainly didn't look like any of the pegasi he'd seen around Ponyville before. Then a question came to mind. She looked like she'd been there for a while so how had they missed her? They didn't pass the pegasus on their way to Zecora's that's for sure. He looked around, and realized to his horror that he was no longer on the path. Twilight must have wandered the wrong way whilst they were arguing.
"Where the hay am I?!"
As they rematerialized inside the library, Twilight trotted quickly over to her couch and slowly rolled the pegasus onto it. She gave her a quick look over. Whatever injuries she had seemed to be superficial, a couple of bruises. Not exactly consistent with a high speed collision. If anything she just seemed to be exhausted.
She shrugged. "I guess all I can do is make sure she's comfortable and wait till she wakes up."
As she turned and walked into the kitchen, unbeknownst to her, the 'pegasus' started to awaken.
W-where am I? Am I dead?" She looked around as best as her stiff neck would allow.
Have I truly been saved?
She tried to rise from her seat, comfortable though it was, but as soon as she put pressure on her forehooves they shudder and fell from under her.
This is no good, have to feed.
She cast her mind outwards, searching for any potential prey, she felt the presence of a pony nearby.
The one who found me in the forest, but then where is the young one?
She decided not to concern herself with such petty things. Her goal was clear, seduce her saviour, restore her strength and then, when she was strong enough, reassemble her scattered horde. Chrysalis hoped her disguise was alluring enough. Her musing were interrupted by a chipper voice.
"Oh good you're awake!"
Her heart sank, she'd recognize that voice anywhere. Sure enough, running to her side was the last unicorn Chrysalis wanted to see.
Fate is cruel...
"My name's Twilight Sparkle. I found you crashed in the woods on the outskirts of town. Are you alright? Can I get you anything?"
She mentally sighed, well at least she had managed to fool her this time around.
I guess as long as I avoid taking on the form of her family and friends, she's as gullible as anypony.
Adopting the softest voice she could Chrysalis replied. "N-no thank you, where, where am I?"
"You're at the Ponyville library."
"You live in a library?"
No wonder she's such a know-it-all...
Twilight nodded, the changeling queen didn't like that look she was giving her though, she felt like she was being scrutinized. It took all of her willpower not to snap at the purple mare.
Ugh. I better get this over with.
"So do you, live by yourself?"
"Oh no, there's also Spike."
Spike? That's a male name. If she's not single, then I'm in trouble.
"Spike, is that your um... coltfriend?" Twilight's face scrunched up in confusion, then much to Chrysalis' surprise, she started laughing.
"That's... no okay, Spike isn't my coltfriend, he's my assistant." Twilight said wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye.
She tucked her chin in, letting her mane fall over her face, peering through she spoke ever so softly
"Oh sorry I just thought..."
She waved a hoof dismissively. "Don't worry about it."
"It's odd, how someone as pretty as you lives alone."
Twilight blushed, inwardly Chrysalis smirked. She'd done this thousands of times before, and she was getting VERY good at it.
Gotcha! Now to reel you in.
"I- that's nice of you to say, your nice too, I guess?" She cleared her throat akwardly. "Are you sure I can't get you anything?"
"No, I'm feeling a little better now actually."
"Okay, well I'm going to make some tea, would you like some?"
"You've done so much for me already. Though tea does sound nice." She faked a smile.
I don't know if I'll be able to do this, normally by now their is at least some attraction I can feed off. How is she resisting, even if she isn't a filly fooler, some platonic love would be able to tide me over.
When Twilight returned with the teapot, she and Chrysalis sat and talked, the hours flickering by, the changeling queen trying every trick in the book, dropping in compliments every other sentance, fluttering her eyes, even faking a blush or two. All her efforts were rewarded with was barely a trickle of emotion. Friendship. She felt like a kid being forced to eat her vegetables. It may be good for her, and when your starving you can't be picky about what you eat, but she needed something sweet, something to tip her out of the friendzone before she was stuck there. If ever she were to regain her strength she needed love.
With the energy she had Chrysalis was finally able to sit up without shaking, hopefully Twilight would put her rejuvenation down to the tea. She'd fabricated a believable background, as far as this unicorn was concerned she was simply a courier caught in a storm. She decided on the name, Facade, she thought it somewhat fitting. The conversation, however was starting to run dry, she decided it was now or never.
"So, is it alright if I stay here for a while?"
"Of course, I'm afraid there's only the one bed, but don't worry I'll just sleep on the couch."
"Oh I couldn't do that! You've been so kind to me, I can't possibly kick you out of your bed. Besides this couch is more than comfortable enough."
"Well by that logic is it really so bad for me to sleep on, besides it's only temporary."
"Well, there is a... third option."
"Oh, and what's that?"
"We could... share?"
Chrysalis didn't think it was possible for a pony to change colours, yet before her eyes Twilight went from a lilac to a bright burning crimson.
I hate being so forward... Then again this is clearly the world's most oblivious pony.
Her moment of boldness however did not go unrewarded. She was actually surprised to see Twilight get up and walk towards her.
"Do you really mean that?"
She brought her head closer, Chrysalis could feel the nervous breaths on her snout.
Now who's being bold? Cute, she's getting all flustered. You know, I may actually enjoy this after all, what better way to get back at her brother and her teacher at the same time?
"You know what I'm thinking?"
Their lips were moments away from touching, Chrysalis began shaking in anticipation.
"I can guess."
'Facade' closed her eyes and leaned forward to close the kiss, only she met naught but air. When she opened her eyes, Twilight had retreated a little, she was still blushing but she had a mischievous grin on her face.
"You can quit with the act, changeling."
That sinking feeling made a glorious comeback.
Oh no...
Chrysalis couldn't move, she remained frozen, staring at the smirking face of the unicorn before her. She could feel the surge of adrenaline as every instinct told her to run, but she couldn't. She knew what Twilight was capable of, running would be pointless. As her mind frantically scrambled about for a solution, Chrysalis remembered the lessons taught to her by her mother, the previous Queen. When you're found out, when you're disguise is broken, there is only one thing left that you can do.
Lie through your teeth.
She knew that she had to try to be convincing, but when your scared out of your wits, your body and brain tend to fall out of sync. Caught and essentially captured Chrysalis began to panic. She backpeddled over the arm of the couch, toppling it over in the process.
"A changeling, what's a changeling?" She said quickly.
Twilight walked toward her slowly, with every step she took the changeling retreated and soon Chrysalis found herself backed into a corner. The purple pony's smirk gradually softened. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."
"You're crazy, I'm not a changeling!"
"That's not what your eyes are telling me."
"My eyes?"
Twilight levitated a mirror over, looking into it Chrysalis saw that Twilight was right. In her haste to throw a disguise she had forgotten a few very important details. Her eyes were still reptilian in appearance and her fangs were still there.
"You knew? You knew all this time?"
"Well I had my suspicions. For all I knew you could have simply been born with them, in fact many of Luna's personal guard have similar features, though I believe that's more aesthetic than genetic. What clinched it was how quickly you started flirting." She smiled. "I'm flattered by the way, but I'm not interested in mares."
To say Chrysalis was confused was an understatement. "If you knew then why are you helping me?"
"You were badly injured, what kind of pony would I be if I'd just left you out there?" Somewhat reassured, Chrysalis allowed herself to relax.
"Well as much as I appreciate your hospitality, I have pressing matters to attend to." She tried to walk towards the door, only for Twilight to put herself between her and it.
"I... can't let you do that."
"What did you say?"
"Well it wouldn't be responsible of me to let a changeling loose on the town would it?"
"You can't keep me here!"
"I'm afraid I can. I knew you wouldn't be happy but it had to be done. Look." She sparked her horn into life and turned Chrysalis' attention to the appearance of a glowing mark on her shoulder, that looked remarkably like her cutie mark. "That rune allows me to keep track of you, even if you change your disguise. All I have to do is concentrate and I can tell where and more importantly, who, you are. Get too far away and I'm afraid I'll have to go to the authorities. The guards won't be as hospitable as me." She smiled again, her horn stopped glowing and the rune followed suit. "They're still a little mad about the wedding."
Chrysalis was outraged "Y-you, I will not stand for this!" She spat. "I will not be tagged and corralled like livestock. Not by the guards, not by those holier-than-thou princesses and certainly not by some jumped up unicorn." Twilight took the abuse in her stride, she'd expected as much.
"Look on the brightside, you're alive, in one of the nicest towns in Equestria, and you're not gonna starve whilst your here." She reasoned.
So that's it? Picking my prison, be it the cold stone of the dungeon, or under the hoof of this annoying creature. I can't decide which is the more demeaning.
Swallowing this new information like a large pill, the Queen continued to ask her questions. Even if the sickening optimism that seemed to exhude from the unicorn was beginning to wear on her last nerve. "And what of your friends, how will they react to your new... tenant?"
Twilight pondered this for a moment,"Simple, copy this pony." A photograph made it's way towards the changeling queen. She looked at it with a bemused expression. It was a unicorn, with an off-white coat and a mane of bright white and purple stripes.
"And this is?"
"My mother, Twilight Velvet."
"Twilight... Velvet? So that means that Twilight..."
"Is my family name yes, at least for the mares in our family, my grandmother for instance is called Twilight Twinkle."
"That's bizarre."
Twilight shrugged. "That Canterlot for you, eccentric down to it's core."
"And why, pray tell, do you want me to impersonate your mother. What's wrong with my disguise?" Chrysalis argued, the very idea of impersonating anyone from this mare's bloodline seemed to further infuriate her.
"Well it'd be a lot easier to explain my mother coming to town than the sudden appearance of a pegasus roommate. Also can't you use the love I feel for my mother to keep yourself going?"
"I can't feed off pretend love, why do you think we disguise ourselves? We have to trick ponies into believing we are their loved ones." She replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
Twilight face lit up. "Oh! Oh... I see." She put a hoof to her chin in thought.
Chrysalis looked at her perplexed. "You sounded excited? Why?"
"Aheheh, well there isn't much information about changelings, I didn't know that before." She replied sheepishly. "This is a great research oppurtunity."
"Oh great, so I'm not a pet, I'm a guinea pig."
"Don't worry, I may just ask you a couple a questions. I'm not about to start dissecting you!" She said. Chrysalis thought Twilight's smile seemed a little more sinister after that.
"I'm keeping the disguise. I made it, and it's one of the few forms I've taken that is unique. Or do you intend to stifle my creativity, take away what little freedom I have left." She folded her hooves over and looked away with her eyes closed in defiance. In truth her disguise was far from creative, she'd just replaced her changeling aspects with their equivalent pony parts. The only thing that made her really stand out was the jet black coat, which was far from a common colour. Even then standing out was hardly the best thing for a changeling to do.
"Okay, okay fine! Keep the disguise, it was just an idea."
They didn't speak after that. Twilight tried to get the conversation going again, thinking of questions and things they could do. But every time she prepared to open her mouth to speak, Chrysalis shot her down with a cold stare. Eventually, with a loud dejected sigh. Twilight walked away, heading for her room upstairs. 'Facade' curled up on the couch and promptly fell into an uneasy asleep.
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Spike grumbled as he tugged the satchel along. The problem with the Everfree was that if you didn't know the way out, or didn't know where you were going. Nothing could help you really, the thick overgrown treeline completely blotted out the sky, moss grew wherever it very well pleased, and the few rivers that cut through it didn't pass anywhere near Ponyville. He realized that rather than wait for Twilight to come back, he should keep walking until he found some form of landmark. Perhaps he would stumble across Zecora's hut or the Castle of the Royal sisters or something, then he send a scroll to Celestia. She'd probably send some guards to give him a lift.
"Why is it always me?" Spike thought aloud. He dragged his feet as he walked, the satchel in his claws kicking up dust, the glass jars inside clattered together. The clattering got louder as Spike pulled on it harder, determined to pick up the pace a little. He didn't want to be stuck all day in the Everfree. "I bet she hasn't even realised I'm gone yet."
He stopped just short of a small overhang. Out in front of him stretched fields of poison joke. At the sight of the prankster plant, Spike felt elated. After their previous encounter with this particular herb, the young dragon knew to avoid it. However, he also knew that a poison joke field was quite close to Zecora's house. Using one of the many nearby vines as a makeshift rappel, he lowered himself down so he was just on the border. Sidling along the edge of the small cliff he reached one of the edges of the poison joke field and began following it along. The rough undergrowth and the burden of carrying the jars of herbs slowed Spike down considerable but he carried on regardless. He froze however upon hearing the sounds of snapping branches, very close by. Hugging the satchel close to his chest, he turned slowly on the spot, looking for the source of the sound. Adrenaline began pumping through his veins and his ear frills pricked up. He crouched and waited. Ready to run, should any monster come.
After several tense moments of silence, Spike relaxed again. He scolded himself as he realized maybe it was HE who snapped the branches and began walking again, albeit much slower than before. With every step he heard another familiar snap, confirming his suspicions. After his third step however he felt his foot become stuck and he stumbled over, the jars clinking together noisily and the poor drake barely managed to catch himself with his free claw. Looking back, it appeared as though his foot had gone through the forest floor.
As he tried to pull it free, he failed to hear the rapid splintering punctuated with loud cracks. As his foot finally came loose, his short celebration was quickly overshadowed, as the forest floor beneath his feet crumbled away, and Spike fell.
He fell several feet, losing his bag in the process. Leaves covered the floor where he fell and managed to cushion his impact, but he was still shaken. Looking around, this hole in the ground looked very clean. The walls had been dug out rather than being a natural cave formation. The leaf bed actually reminded Spike of a... nest.
"Grrrr..." A low growl, deep and powerful rose up from behind him.
Oh Celestia!
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Twilight was hard at work upstairs. Or rather she was trying to be. Already she had compiled a fair amount of textbooks, allocating each with it's own colour coded label for her to monitor the changeling's activities. She'd reworked her schedule to accommodate for the time she could spend interviewing her and had even fabricated a fairly convincing backstory for her to use. To her credit the changeling had done a pretty good job at making up her own backstory. It was detailed enough to avoid questions, yet basic enough that it was easy to remember. Had she not seen through the holes in her disguise, the unicorn may not have realized she was a changeling at all. The one glaring flaw however is that she was friends with a certain somepony, or rather two someponies who knew every Pegasus in town. Pinkie would probably get excited and throw her a welcome party, but Rainbow Dash? Whilst the headstrong Pegasus was normally a little dense, everyone was suspicious of everyone because of what happened at the wedding. Rainbow was especially suspicious of newcomers. Even Twilight's cover story wasn't foolproof, but it should be more than sufficient to dupe her friends. Though the notion of doing so made her VERY uncomfortable.
Now however came the really tricking part. Twilight considered herself as a morally upstanding unicorn, being an element of harmony and Celestia's personal protégé it was expected of her to be so. One who abided by the law (that little fiasco with Fluttershy and Philomena being the only exception). How then does one go about writing a letter to Celestia informing her that one is harbouring a fugitive? So far all Twilight could think to do was stare at the scroll before her, willing words to appear. She racked her brain for what to say, but only succeeded in giving herself a headache. Not to mention she felt like maybe she'd forgotten something. Twilight quickly dismissed that feeling however, whatever it was, if it was really important it'd come back to her eventually. She sighed and shook her head. She needed to focus right now.
Hopefully Celestia would see this as the opportunity that it was. Even the alicorns only knew a little about changelings, Cadence being the most well informed given how her magic was related to them. The records of them were pretty basic as well, listing how they live on love and can transform. But nothing about how or why. Would they see things the same way? If changelings were so dangerous, wasn't that all the more reason to want to know more about them? She didn't blame the changeling for what had happened at Canterlot, although she was there. After all, you don't get mad at a soldier who was just following orders, you get mad at the one who gave out the orders.
It was a risky venture to be sure. But science is about taking risks sometimes. Who cares if what she was doing was just slightly, ever so, immensely illegal? Twilight was sure that if she could just word the letter properly, she'd be able to convince her teacher to overlook her little transgression and focus on learning everything there was to know about changelings. Whilst this Façade was a little cold towards her, and quite rightly so. She was hardly a threat. Twilight knew her magic could easily subdue her if anything went wrong, so where was the harm really? If only she could will her quill to write. Besides it was just one injured changeling, it's not like she was going to be studying the Queen for Faust's sake.
That would just be ridiculous.
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