The Monster that is Me

by Terrahex

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Doctor Whooves, Sad, Lyra, Changelings, Derpy Hooves, Crossover
Length: 51680

Midnight, a reformed changeling, finds a job and a home with Twilight Sparkle. Now in the messed up town of Ponyville, she has to overcome mental disorders and make friends all while keeping her real identity a secret.

Midnight is a changeling... who works and lives at the Golden Oaks Library with Twilight Sparkle herself. It wasn’t a very smart decision, but the reformed changeling needed a place to stay. Now she’s building herself a new life in Ponyville, but as the events of season three play out it gets increasingly harder to keep her identity secret. Combine that with her new friendship with Lyra and Bon Bon and sporadic appearances from the Doctor, can she keep her cover and defend her new life in Ponyville?

Published 2013-03-11 10:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-04 04:36:05 UTC

Chapter 1: The Hunt

o----[Chapter 1: The Hunt ]-----------------------o

I used to be nervous while doing this. But routine has a way of chasing those nerves away. Of course, it couldn't do the same to disappointment and as a result, I had felt a lot of it as I worked my way through Ponyville's main street businesses, searching in vain for a job and a place I could rest my head.

I had lost count of how many towns I had been through now while looking for a job that would last. Turns out I wasn't the best changeling to come out of the hive, because every time I finally landed a job, I always messed up. I had so many memories of angry mobs, sharp objects, and fire.

I couldn't really blame the ponies of Ponyville from being wary of me. I was a dark blue earth pony mare with a darker blue mane that had hardly had a good shower in the past two weeks and probably wouldn't have a good shower in the next two weeks if I couldn't find a job that came with a place to stay. My cutie mark was a stack of old tomes, hardly indicative of a good worker, and all the possessions I had in this world were on my back in a tan saddlebag. I essentially was a homeless pony.

Still, if I had learned anything about ponies in the nine months since hitting the streets of Fillydelphia, it was that ponies were good. My mother had taught me that ponies weren't the terrible things I'd been driven to believe. I would find a place to stay eventually, and then everything would be alright.

A bell tinkled overhead as I stepped inside the latest establishment, the sweetest of smells tickling my nose. Titled Sugarcube Corner, the place appeared to be a bakery. Tables occupied most of the front of the store, the ponies of Ponyville milling about as they enjoyed donuts and cookies. Being unable to eat pony food, I could already tell I'd be a bad fit for any job I'd manage to get here, but I pushed my weary legs forward anyway.

"Hello and welcome to Sugarcube Corner!" Exclaimed a very pink pony with a mane almost literally made of cotton candy. "How may I hel-wait a second..." She leaned forward over the counter, narrowing her eyes on me. "Hmmm."

As a changeling in disguise, her scrutiny didn't sit well with me. "W-What?" I asked, forcing a smile to come to my lips. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah!" She announced, making a cold sweat break out all over my body. "You're new here!" She suddenly leaped into the air, exploding in candy scented love that tickled my senses. "That's great! I'll be right back, don't move!" She shot off through a door behind the counter, leaving me to stare in confusion at the place she had previously been standing. A nervous look around told me that nopony was concerned with the pink one's behavior. I glanced into the doorway that she had disappeared through to see a normal kitchen but no pink pony. "Hello?" I called out tentatively.

No answer. Right. I'll just... I took a step backwards, turning around to see...

"I told you not to move!" The pink pony shouted at me, now wearing a conical party hat. An ungodly amount of balloons were now tied around her midsection.

I cried out in surprise, jumping backwards into the counter. "Where did you come from?!" I shouted.

"From my parents, silly!" She replied cheerfully. "My name is Pinkie Pie!"

"I meant a bit more recently..." I face hoofed. "Nevermind. I just came in here to ask if you had a job opening."

"Nnnnnnope!" She bounced in place, her descent slowed by the mass of balloons secured to her barrel.

I sighed, working keep my voice free of disappointment. "Thank you." I sidestepped, walking past the odd earth pony.

“Where ya going?” Pinkie asked, following me out the door. Her limbs swam though the air as she floated just above the ground. “You didn’t even tell me your name.” When her legs eventually made contact with the ground, she jumped again to float next to me.

“Midnight.” I murmured, trying to distance myself from her. I didn’t like the eyes she was attracting from the sparse traffic trotting through the street. Too many eyes were bad. I swallowed nervously, feeling my breath shorten, my legs beginning to tremble.

"Ooh Such a pretty name!" Pinkie shouted obliviously next to me. "When's your birthday? What's your favorite color? Which leg is your favorite? Do you like candy corn?"

I didn't answer her. They’re just ponies. Pinkie soared past me, spinning around on the balloon string. They won’t hurt me as long as they don't know what I am. Slowly, I felt my anxiety in the face of so many strangers fade. I didn't have a problem. I could deal with my phobia just fine.

“What’s the matter, Midnight? Are you sick? I can take you to the hospital!” Pinkie’s shrill voice grated on my ears.

“No thanks, Pinkie. I’m going to be leaving now.” I turned away from her, hoping she wouldn’t follow me as I walked down the street.

I couldn’t be that lucky. “Leaving? What do you mean leaving? I can’t throw you a party if you leave!” She pouted in a happy way, all the time exuding sugary love that took all my willpower not to lap up. It had been way too long since I last had a good meal, but eating from random strangers was something I tried to avoid unless I was desperate, even if this specific one seemed to be radiating it at unsafe levels.

“Why would you want to throw a party for me?” I distracted myself.

“I just met you! DUH!” She booped my nose as if that was the only explaination needed.

“Well, Pinkie, if I can’t find a job and a place to live, then I can’t stay here.” I calmly explained to the excitable, slightly annoying pony. "And you following me around prob-"

“Why didn’t you just say so?” Pinkie happily interrupted me. “I can get you a job! And then we can par~tay!”

“You can?!” I exclaimed.

“Mmhmm!” She hummed. “Just follow… Meeeeeeeeee!” She kicked off the ground, gliding over the heads of ponies who were completely under reacting to a pony gliding over their heads. Tentatively, I ducked through the milling ponies, keeping my head and my ears sheepishly low to avoid attention.

Then again, I thought to myself, This mare doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. Can she really get me a job?

She was waiting for me when I reached the other side of the plaza, fidgeting about as if someone had stuck and active jackhammer down her throat. "Boy, you're slower than my friend's tortoise, and he's a tortoise."

I almost got to speak before she continued her own conversation.

"But it really isn't your fault, because he has this really cool beenie that lets him fly all around like zzzzeeeewww." *GASP* "I need to introduce you to Rainbow Dash!!! She's only the bestest, most fastest, most awesomest pegasus in all of Ponyville! Maybe even all of Equestria!!"

"Pinkie," I almost felt bad bursting her bubble, "Can we focus on one thing at a time, please?"

"Okie Dokie Lokie." She smiled, bubble totally unbursted. She undid the knot on the balloons around her midsection, retying the balloons around a fence post on somepony's flower bed. You had to admire the mare's ability to tie knots with hooves. "But I should totally invite her to your party!"

"Yeah..." I trailed off. I really wasn't good in a crowd, much less so when that crowd was focused on me, but I wasn't in any position to deny her. "Just don't go too crazy with it, okay?"

She didn't seem to hear me as she bound down the street, cheerfully bouncing like a spring. I scrambled after her bounding lope, which was a surprisingly effective method of movement. "So, uh... what job exactly do you have in mind?"

"My friend works at the library! I'm sure she could use the help of another egghead like you."

"Egghead?"

"Yup." She gestured to my flank. "Your cutie mark. It's a buncha books, so I thought to myself 'I wonder what color confetti would taste best if I baked it into a cookie,' but after that I totally thought about the library."

I don't even know how to respond to that. "And she's hiring?"

"Weeeeeellllll... Not technically." She giggled.

"Well, if she's not hiring why are-"

"We're he~ere!" She sing-songed. Having been absorbed in our conversation, I hadn't noticed that the large tree we were approaching had actually been our destination.

I had read about ponies forming houses from trees before, but never had I seen one in person. An oak of legendary proportions stood solidly before us, its branches spanning outward above our heads. Several round windows were carved up and down the trunk, and at the base of the tree, snuggled in with ancient roots, was a two-level stable door with a candle pattern carved on the top half.

Reading about it was one thing, but actually seeing it was another. The tree itself must've been ancient, centuries old at least, and the effort it had taken to hollow out a manageable space without killing the tree must've been monumental.

"Equis~to~Mid~night!" Pinkie waved her hoof in front of my face. "The library is inside the tree, silly."

"Yeah," I agreed in a daze, "it really is..." Even if this job turned out to be a complete flop, I wouldn't regret a thing. How often was it that an opportunity like this was going to come around? "Let's go in!"

"That's the spirit!" She bumped her flank against mine overenthusiastically with a force I didn't expect the pink mare to be able to muster, sending me crashing head-over-hooves into, and then through, the door. Pinkie skipped in behind me. "Twilight, somepony's here to see you!" Pinkie shouted at the top of her shrill lungs.

I was about to complain about Pinkie's rough behavior when I was struck by the inside of the library. Picking myself up off the floor, I tentatively walked around the perimeter. Books were everywhere, and they weren't just sitting on boring bookshelves that had been moved inside after the tree had been hollowed out. Every wall was covered with rough-hewn bookshelves carved directly into the wall, even into the bottom few faces of the stairs at the back of the room. A check-out desk with a large book register stood vigilantly beside the door, and separate reading desks were set up beneath the each of the windows, along with a circular table in the center of the library. Several alcoves were carved above the practical reach of ponies and, from what I could see, held even more books, scrolls, and literary curios.

"It's amazing." I breathed out naturally.

"It sure is." A new voice affectionately chimed in. Descending the stairs was a plum-purple unicorn. She had a studious look about her, her darker, eggplant mane and tail that was brushed neatly and cropped evenly with a single streak of pink running through both. Pinkie's love suddenly went haywire, flowing freely with the newcomer's less overwhelming love. They swirled and mixed freely in the air, creating a distant embrace between two mares'. I swallowed nervously. This relationship was very deep and intimate, and the two had obviously been through a lot with each other. I had trouble containing my hunger.

The new pony's tone became somber. "It's a dying breed. Most trees like this one die from improper care and maintenance, and they're too expensive and impractical to make anymore."

"Oh no!" Pinkie gasped. "That means I have to throw all the parties I would've thrown in here now before it's too late! A huge party party!"

"Pinkie, I'm taking very good care of the tree." She assured her friend. "And I'm actually quite busy with studying, so if you just came here to talk about the library..."

"Actually," Pinkie interjected, "This is Midnight! Midnight, this is Twilight Sparkle. She's super duper smarty."

"Hi." I meekly waved my hoof.

"She needs a job so I can throw her a welcome-to-Ponyville-and-congratulations-on-getting-a-job party!"

"Well," Twilight smiled helpfully, "If you're looking for help wanted ads, you can check at town hall. There's usually an odd job or two that somepony needs getting done."

"Actually..." I glanced at Pinkie insecurely, "I was hoping that you could give me a job."

Twilight's smile became neutral. "Oh... well, um, I don't really need any help. It's not the biggest library in the world, and I already have an assistant."

"But Twilight," Pinkie whined, "Look at her cutie mark! It's a stack a' books, and you like books, so you should totally give her a job because you're both eggheads!"

"Pinkie, I don't think you overestimate the funds a small library like this gets. I only have enough to support the library as it is. I can't just hire another employee."

"I don't need a pay." I persisted. "I just need a place to stay. I don't even need a nice place, and I don't eat much. I'll do anything you ask."

"Look, I'm really flattered, but-"

"And you have a lot of studies to do!" Pinkie smiled a wide, toothy grin. "With Midnight around, you'll have all the time you need to work."

"But Spike-"

"Can help you!" Pinkie took off her party hat, quickly slapping it onto Twilight's horn. "Let's face it, Twilight, you couldn't get anything done without Spike and Owlowiscious helping you all the time. Now you'll have another assistant, and you'll get even more done! At a bargain price, too!" She threw her arm around my neck, pulling me close. "Order within the next ten minutes, and you'll get a free welcome-to-Ponyville Pinkie Party, too."

I put on a pleading smile.

"I don't know..." The hat levitated off of Twilight's horn. She twirled it around in front of her face, wearing a thoughtful look. " Your accommodations won't be nice."

"I'll sleep in a closet if I have to." I replied.

"I can't really afford to pay you."

"Like I said, I don't need a salary. I just want a place to stay." I insisted.

Twilight sighed. "Spike is never going to let me hear the end of this. Fine."

"R-really?" I asked hardly willing to hope I had heard right.

"Yeah." She sighed again.

"HURRAY!!!" Pinkie exploded with confetti. She ran around the library in a sugary blur, eventually settling on picking up my front half and forcing me into an awkward dance that I didn't know the steps to. I didn't mind. My smile might not have been as large as her's, but my heart was soaring.

"Alright, alright, alright." Twilight laughed. "Stop before you break something."

It was at that moment that Pinkie's overenthusiastic dance pushed me too far backwards, putting me off balance on my hindhooves. I back-peddled, trying to regain my footing before crashing heavily into a bookcase, knocking several tomes loose to come crashing down on top of me.

"Pinkie..." Twilight whined.

"Oopsie." She giggled. "We need to work on our dance moves, Midnight, and now we'll have plenty of time to practice before the next dance contest!" She gasped suddenly. "I have a party to go plan!" That was all the warning she gave before zipping out the door.

"That hurt." I moaned, pulling myself out of my tomb of books. "Uhm... sorry about the mess."

"Don't worry about it." Twilight chewed on her lip. "It happens every other time she visits. Plus, now it's your job to clean it up."

"Right..." I looked up at the disarray on and at the foot of the bookshelf.

"Right now, though, it can wait. I'll show you to your room, and you can get settled. Then you can meet Spike and my owl."

"Thanks. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"I have an idea." Twilight responded simply, leading me up the stairs. She stopped at a landing where a doorway revealed a quaint kitchen and dining room combination, though she was facing what appeared to be a regular wall that was slightly sunken in compared to the rest of the stairway. She nudged it and a faint clicking sound was heard, letting what was apparently a door open into a room hardly big enough for a bed and an end table. A small, round window let in whatever light it could beneath a large branch extending from the trunk.

"This is it." Twilight announced. "It's not much, but it'll have to do."

I smiled widely. "It's perfect. Thank you again, Twilight. You won't regret this, I promise."

Twilight gave me a small smile. "I'd better not. Bathroom's further upstairs across from my room. once you're settled in, you might want to take a shower before Spike gets back from grocery shopping. Is there anything else you need?"

"No, you've done enough." I almost thanked her again, stepping into the room, my room. As Twilight turned to leave, I a stray thought occurred to me. "Oh, um, just one question though."

Twilight poked her head back into the room.

"This... party that Pinkie's throwing for me... it's not going to be too big is it?"

"You're in luck." Twilight smile wryly. "She'll likely invite the whole town."

A gulping sound seemed to echo through the small room. "The whole town?"

Twilight nodded. "Don't be nervous. The whole town won't actually show up, and even so, most of the ponies in this town are really nice."

That wasn't what I was worried about. I could feel my heart rate increasing, my hoof shaking slightly as I undid my saddlebag's straps. "I don't... Can I ask her not to?"

"Invite so many ponies?" Twilight shook her head. "Pinkie Pie works a certain way, and she doesn't quite understand other ponies' points of view. She doesn't mean to be rude, she's just... Pinkie."

And I couldn't just not go, not after what she just did for me for no other reason than she wanted to throw a party for me. My fate was sealed. "Right."

"You'll probably get your invite later tonight." Twilight mentioned before closing my door. A chill went down my spine as I was left staring into a full body mirror hung on the back of the door. Falling back to my haunches, I sat in front of the mirror in my completely and deliberately unremarkable body. A parasite hiding in plain sight.

Making sure the door was secured first, my body became engulfed in green fire, burning away Midnight to reveal the changeling dubbed 'Niphi' below. The exoskeleton on my front right leg was an ugly, uneven mess from being broken those nine months ago in Fillydelphia, and my horn was still a jagged stump. A simple drone like me couldn't regrow a horn or completely make an injury disappear.

Still, I had to remind myself, it could be worse. A chance meeting with a grey unicorn led to me spending the night in her house. Then a week in her house. Then a month. Even after I was healed, I stayed. She became my mother; the only family I've ever had. If my mother hadn't cared for me and looked after me, adopted me as her daughter, I'm positive I would've ended up dead either from my injuries or from my lack of understanding of Equestrian society. She helped me realize that ponies weren't the enemy. They were capable of scary things, but they were also capable of so much good.

Consequentially, I suppose I came to view myself bitterly. All my kind ever did was trick these ponies and steal their love. It was no wonder they didn't like us. Changelings didn't look out for each other the way ponies did. Each of us was hatched from a designated mother, and our family was an entire hive of strangers. We did the jobs we were bred to do, and we listened to a mad queen's whisper in the back of our heads.

I was tired of being a changeling. I hated it. I hated all of it. Unable to look at my insectoid features any longer, I willed myself to return to Midnight, burning Niphi away.

Author's Note

Achievement get: Rewritten

Chapter 2: Killing Pinkie Pie

o----[ Chapter 2: Killing Pinkie Pie ]-----------------------o

Dear Mom,

I stared blankly at the scrawling hoof writing before me. Having survived my first week in Ponyville, I was reasonably sure I was going to be staying here for awhile if I stayed as far away from parties as possible.

That said, a letter to my mother was in order. I promised her that I would write regularly when I left home, but circumstances hadn't been so fortunate. I had hardly been able to stay in one place for more than a few weeks, so I hardly had a chance to write, let alone get many letters in return. The ones I did get were reassuring and encouraging, but I could tell she was worried about me.

How are you doing?

That seemed like a good start. I didn't want her to worry about me any more than she already did, so I couldn't very well tell her about all the trouble that had been finding me.

I'm doing fine. I found a new place to stay. It's pretty safe, and it's in a tree!

That seemed a bit childish, but that was what I'd first noticed when I saw the place. Besides, she was well acquainted with my innate curiosity. She was the pony who had to deal with a curious changeling who had never encountered most of the things in her house, after all.

I live with one pony. She's a bit of a spaz at times, but she's very smart and kind. Believe it or not, but she has a dragon as her assistant. I've seen the way she treats him though, and it's more akin to little brother than assistant, though.

Of course, having an awareness of love helped me come to that conclusion, but I had learned the hard way never to leave any evidence that I was anything but who I said I was, even in a private letter to my mother.

I watch over the library and help reshelve books. Twilight has a lot of studies to do, so usually I'm the one manning the desk during the day. As it turns out, I'm well built to be a librarian. Not many ponies stop by, but to fill up time I have all the books I can read.

"What are you writing?" Spike suddenly materialized beside me. I shrieked, jumping off my stool and landing in a heap on the floor.

"Spike!" I whined. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry." The utterly adorable dragon shrugged. "It's not my fault nopony in this library pays attention."

"I'll take the apology without the sarcasm thank you very much." I rubbed my sore neck, sitting back in front of the desk. "I'm writing a letter to my mother."

"Oh, is that all?" Spike chuckled. "It's kind of refreshing to not be the only one writing letters."

"Oh, do you have dragon friends you write to?" I asked curiously.

"Nah, all the dragons I've met are jerks. Usually it's just letters to princess Celestia."

I grinned, not believing him. "And what do you tell her?"

"Twilight and her friends send in reports, so it depends on who's telling me to write it."

As if summoned by her name, Twilight appeared at the top of the stairs, clad in a purple saddlebag with a checklist floating in front of her. "Okay, I think that's everything." She announced cheerfully. She looked out from her list as she descended. "Good morning, Midnight. You do know that we're closed on Sundays, right?"

"Well..." I flushed a bit. "Maybe."

"Great," Twilight smiled obliviously. "I'm off with Spike to learn a new spell."

"Sounds interesting." I stated. "What's the spell?"

"Apples to oranges." She replied.

"Which I'm sure AJ won't be happy about." Spike added, jumping up to sit on Twilight's back.

"And that's why we're not going to tell her, Spike. You want to come, Midnight?"

"I can use you as a shield when things go wrong." Spike offered.

"No thanks." I declined politely.

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked with concern. "You haven't left the library since Pinkie's party. You weren't that bad."

"I almost threw up." I replied plainly. In fact, the only reason I didn't was probably becuase I never had anything in my stomach worth the trouble. "Forgive me if I don't feel like going showing my face again."

"That could've been avoided if you just told somepony you had Enochlophobia."

"I-I don't...!" I trailed off. "I just don't want to go, okay? Besides, I've got to finish writing a letter to my mom."

"Well, if you change your mind, Spike and I will be getting an apple from Applejack's stand in the market then going to the plaza."

"Yeah, okay." I conceded as they left. For a minute, I just sat there, regretting my decision to let them leave without me but being too stubborn to actually do anything about it. Then I decided I was being stupid and cut my letter short, giving it a quick reread before realizing that I hadn't actually told her where I lived.

P.S. I settled in Ponyville.

With that amendment, I folded it into a letter, added the appropriate regalia, then stepped outside to put it into a mailbox.

"Morning Twilight!" A grey mare suddenly dropped out of the sky sporting a blue cap and a tan satchel spilling over with letters. Her golden eyes trained in on me before she realized something important. "Hey, you're not Twilight!"

No, I wasn't, but I could've made a convincing counter-argument. Wisely, I decided not to. "I'm Midnight. I just moved in."

"What?" She panicked. "What happened to Twilight?"

"Nothing!" I quickly answered. "I just work here now."

"Oh." She sighed with relief. "I was worried for a second there." One of her eyes suddenly took a detour as she reached into her mail bag. She pulled out a stack of six letters, proudly holding them out to me. "Here you are. I think these are Twilight's." She frowned, pulling them back in to examine them again. "Darn eye." She muttered.

"I actually have this letter..."

"Yeah, these definitely say Twilight." She nodded to herself, looking back at me with her misaligned eyes. She opened the mailbox, depositing the letters inside. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got a lot of mail to deliver."

"Wait, I actually-"

With a powerful flap of her wings, she was off, flying to wherever googly-eyed mailmares go.

I growled in frustration. "There, Twilight. That's why I don't socialize." I retrieved Twilight's, replacing them with my own. I spitefully wondered why I had to try so hard at acting normal when mares like her could go around acting so abnormal and nopony bothered to question her.

"Fun! Fun! Fun!"

Speaking of abnormal mares...

"Pinkie Pie," I threw a glance at her as she bounced up to me, "do you mind? I'm not really in the mood today. I swear I don't need another party."

"That's okay! Hey, want to have fun?" She trotted in place, her smile disturbingly wide. My nose was assaulted with the scent of her sugary candy love.

"Er," I grimaced. "That's alright."

"But C'moooooooon!" She whined. "Let's go snowboarding! ooh, or skiing!"

I wasn't going to bother mentioning the season to her. She didn't seem the type to be restricted by seasonal changes. Before I could respond, she caught sight of something beyond me, eyes going wide. She rushed off like a pink bullet, leaving a trail of love coated dust in her wake.

"Nice to see you, too." I muttered under my breath, returning to the library. Pinkie was a pleasant enough pony, and there never was a moment when I thought she had anything but the best intentions, but she was a bit draining to be around for an introverted pony like me.

Opening the library door, I was stopped in my tracks. Pinkie Pie sat in the center of the room, the contents of the bookshelves now emptied onto the floor where they were stood up in a long, swirling line.

"Fun?" She turned innocent blue eyes on me as she continued standing the books up, one by one.

"Pinkie Pie..." I fought to keep my voice under control. Spike and I were, after all, the ones whose job it was to reshelve those. "What are you doing in here?"

"Fun!" She responded happily, setting book after book down on the floor in her long domino line. "Fun. Fun. Fun. Fun." She punctuated the placing of each.

"No, Pinkie, not fun." I set Twilight's mail on the checkout desk so I could grab Pinkie's sugary tail in my mouth. I dragged her, kicking and squirming, toward the door.

"No fun!" She shouted, chucking a book at the line to start the sequence. "Oooooh." She stopped squirming as the line began to topple. I groaned through her pink tail hair. It was going to take forever to reorganize all of those.

I kicked open the door behind me, dragging the prone Pinkie out into the shade of the golden oak. "There." I breathed. "Stay out of the library."

"Ooh, can you drag me next?" Pinkie's voice asked as she rolled around, giggling, on the grassy lawn. I stared in confusion.

"Me! My turn!" I turned around to find Pinkie Pie standing next to me, grinning with all her might.

"What." I looked back at Pinkie rolling around in the grass, now captivated with a ladybug making its way across a fallen leaf. I looked again at Pinkie standing next to me. Pinkie in the grass. Pinkie standing next to me.

"What." I struggled to comprehend this revelation, taking a step back so both of the pink mares were within my line of sight. "Something in this picture doesn't belong." I muttered obviously to myself.

"Want to have fun?"

My immediate gut instinct was that I had to do something about this. One Pinkie was bad enough. Two was worse.

"Fun! Fun! Fun!"

Three... couldn't be comprehended. But what could I do?

"Fun? Fun! Want to have fun? Can we have fun now?"

Four... I could feel a migraine coming on. What was worse, if any more started showing up, I doubted I'd be able to keep a clear head. Despite my wishes to the contrary, Twilight was right about my phobia.

And what could I do to stop them? I was just a sheep in wolf's clothing. I didn't know anything about spontaneous Pinkie clones, but if anypony did know about spontaneous Pinkie clones, it would be...

"Twilight." I looked up, down the dirt path past the Pinkie that was currently hopping circles around me. If anypony knew how to fix this, it would be that purple unicorn that constantly had her nose stuck in a book (not that I was one to talk now that I did the same thing). I galloped past Pinkie, heading for where I remembered the plaza was.

"Ooh, a race!" I heard Pinkie shout behind me. Several duplicates ran up beside me, all vying for first place. Not being particularly fit, they quickly passed me and headed off in all directions, leaving me confused as to what she believed a race to be.

Once I finally reached the cobbled plaza, a quick glance around the abandoned town told me that I was already too late. I should've figured that even the most dedicated of students couldn't ignore a veritable thunderstorm of pink hyperactivity.

"So, did I win?" A Pinkie ran up to me, panting.

"What?" I took a step backward as she totally violated my personal space as Pinkie was wont to do.

"The race, silly!" She giggled. "Silly willy Mid...something." She booped my nose. "Now what should we do? Ooh, I know let's go to Sugarcube Corner and bake, like, a zillion cupcakes and then shove them in my party cannon and shoot them all over Ponyville that would be the most fun ever or we could go and herd up a bunch of frogs and-"

"Pinkie!" I coughed, backing up as her love hit me like a brick wall. My stomach grumbled agitatedly, but I pushed it down like always. "That sounds really fun, but I really need to find Twilight." I turned to step past her, but I immediately found the same Pinkie duplicate in my way.

"Ooh, Twilight could make things even more fun!" Pinkie's eyes went wide as saucers. "We should all play instruments together! You can play the accordion, I'll play the bungalow, and Twilight can play the tuba!" She advanced on me as I retreated. That's when it happened. A tiny wisp of candy flavored love slipped into my mouth and down my throat. A neglected stomach suddenly jump started, roaring in my gut for more food. "No, wait. I don't think that Twilight can play a tuba change of plans Spike can play the tuba, and Twilight can play the elbow! An elbow is an instrument right? Or was it an olbow?"

"S-sounds," I swallowed, not really listening, "F-fun." When was the last time that I had a good, sustaining meal? I couldn't remember. And I'd hardly had a thing to eat since coming to Ponyville. Another bite couldn't hurt right? I needed to stop myself. I took a step back, but Pinkie pushed forward, her face right up in my bubble.

"We could become the world's most famous band! I'm great at writing really catchy songs even though most of the time they're just spur of the moment and its really fun when everypony else joins in and OOOOOOH we should do a musical right now! I'll start... umm... maybe we should go rollerskating instead cause I really don't feel like singing right now it'd probably be best if I saved my voice for band practice anyway."

I couldn't help myself. At first I tried to ration with myself: only one swallow, then no more. I could only feel my hunger swell painfully, begging pitifully. One swallow turned into two and two into three. I cherished the feeling of liquid love rushing sensually down my throat; it was a sensation I'd hardly had the chance to experience since leaving the hive where I had taken it for granted.

All the while Pinkie had continued to babble. I caught the tail end of a sentence as I continued to feed, something about rolling down a hill in a giant snowball, but my mind was going blank as I filled my stomach.

Then warning bells started going off in my head as I leeched off of her. Pinkie began to sway back and forth, hooves not fidgeting so much as they were stumbling. Her tone went from happy and energetic to strained and tired like she was talking just because she felt she should be talking, but, to my mixed feelings of annoyance and awe, she continued to babble on and on. I tried to stop myself, but my body didn't respond.

"This reminds me of this one time," She slurred her speech, "that I went on a roller coaster after eating like... a million churros and cotton candies and hot dogs or maybe... it was the teacups because I remember getting really really really really dizzy and... throwing... up... aaaaaaaall over the place..." She managed to finish before collapsing onto the street.

My eyes went wide, and I finally managed to cut off the stream of love flowing down my throat with a terrible cough rolled through me, forcing me to my knees. My stomach gurgling as I felt bitter love sloshing around inside it. "Pinkie."

Pinkie's vibrant pink coat had faded into an ugly, faded, greyed-out pink, like when my mother mixed the wrong paints together on a canvas. Her mane seemed straighter than I'd ever seen it, Chrysalis, I didn't even know her mane couldn't be curly. It all seemed so wrong. This couldn't possibly be Pinkie, like somepony had taken her Pinkie Pie away and left the body behind. My stomach heaved suddenly as I realized that that somepony was me. It had been such a long time since I'd had something in my stomach worth vomiting, and I didn't like the reunion.

Was she... dead? I doubted I'd be able to live with myself if all those things ponies shouted at me turned out to be true. I tentatively stuck a hoof before her snout, holding my breath for a tense second before... yes.

The sigh of relief was palpable, like I was expending all the tense energy waiting in my muscles through my lungs. Pinkie's breath was strongly tickling the fur on my fetlock. She was alive.

She would regenerate her love eventually, I knew. While changelings couldn't generate love, ponies could do it in spades. She'd no doubt be all right. It'd just take awhile for her to return to normal. Meanwhile...

I looked around, panicking suddenly. I had just drained Pinkie. No, I recalled, a Pinkie clone, of her love in the center of town. If anypony saw me...

I relaxed when I saw that the only thing around appeared to be more Pinkies, and they were hardly interested in me at all, enraptured as they were with vandalizing the town. It appeared that the whole population of town had taken shelter under this barrage of cuddly pink.

That realized, I came to the decision to head back to the library and shut myself in until Twilight or whoever decided to do something about this, not wanting to risk stupidly getting into anymore trouble. I shivered, realizing how close I came to breaking my cover after only a week of staying in Ponyville. And just as I sent my mother that letter.

Maybe I should just stay in the library forever. Bad things always happened whenever I stepped outs-

"WOOO!!!" The drained Pinkie suddenly sprung off the ground, her color magically returning to her body. "That was really fun Midsomething, but next time we should just, like, not do whatever we just did. What did we do anyway? Was it really fun? Oh, what am I saying, I just said it was fun so obviously it really was really fun silly willy Pinkie." She stuck her tongue out, trailing her hoof in a circle next to her ear.

My jaw opened, nose immediately assaulted by a wave of love that wasn't quite as powerful as before. "Pinkie, how did you-"

"Ooh, wasat?" She shot off down the street as if nothing had happened.

My mind realed. How did- She couldn't just-

She was drained of love. Sure, I hadn't seen many ponies drained of love like that, but I knew for a fact that even Pinkie couldn't just spontaneously regenerate love whenever she wanted! That had to be against the law or something.

"Ow." I rubbed my temple with my hoof as I felt a migraine coming on. "Yeah, I'm going home and sleeping for... forever sounds good."

Author's Note

Achievement get: Remastered

Chapter 3: The Lyrist

o----[ Chapter 3: The Lyrist ]-----------------------o

My whole body jerked violently, my lungs sucking in a breath that seemed to compensate for an entire night's worth of air. Twisted heart beating in my ears, shivering cold sweat, faint flicker of a dreamscape filled with a nightmarish level of pink... I shivered. Pinkie was horrible enough to interact with during the day, especially with more than one hopping around; I didn't need to start having nightmares about the incident I'd had with her the day before.

A quick look out the window confirmed that my blinds were drawn, meaning the darkness of my room was more than circumstantial. It was night, likely only hours from dawn judging from the greyness of the sky.

Knowing that I'd likely have a tough time getting anymore sleep, I rolled out of bed, my hooves clopping onto the floor. The depths of my sleepy mind registered something off. Reaching for the lantern I put at my bedside, I turned on the gas, using the striker shtik, shtik, shtik until it lit. A friendly orange glow filled the room, revealing what I already knew.

At some point in the night, I had accidentally reverted back to my original form. It was a terrible habit that I had: transforming when I had nightmares. Nothing cheered me up more when I woke from a nightmare than finding myself in a body that looked like one.

I angrily shook my head. I didn't really believe that, did I? There wasn't anything I could do to stop myself, and Twilight or Spike could just come right into my room to find me exposed like that. It wouldn't take much guessing after that to realize that I needed to be run out of town, angry mob hot on my hooves. I closed my eyes, concentrating for a bit before I felt Midnight return to me.

I took the lantern's handle in my jaw, carefully pulling it from the table. Twilight made it extra clear to be wary of fire in this tree. The last thing I wanted was to contribute to the extinction of an endangered species (even if golden oaks weren't really endangered). Exiting my room, I descended the uneven wooden steps into the library proper where I had toiled all afternoon yesterday reorganizing all the books Pinkie had laid out in her foalish domino line. Spike and Twilight helped, too, after they had taken care of the whole 'Pinkie problem.’

Really it gave me a dangerous sense of ownership. Before I was just a pony with a job who sat at the front desk. Now I had helped maintain the library. I cared for it just like Twilight and Spike did. It would only make my inevitable departure harder.

I sat at the checkout desk where a familiar tome was waiting for me, still open in the place where I had abandoned it the night before. Humming softly to myself, I set the lantern down far from any edge of the desk, taking a seat before the book.

I'll admit that I never thought much about my choice of cutie mark. My mother, a painter by trade, had many books littered around the house in odd places, and I quickly took a shine to the reading material. The changeling hive was definitely on a need-to-know basis, and the concept of being able to learn anything that I wanted blew my fragile bug mind. Reading seemed like such a good talent; why wouldn't I want it to be my cutie mark? I guess I just didn't realize that not everypony thought along the same lines as I did.

But the cutie mark did suit me I suppose. I was a fast reader, and the book went by quick. It was filled with unsubstantiated claims of an underwater civilization in the Sunrise Sea. Oatlantis, I think it was. The only real evidence offered up was circumstantial and easily faked. Really, the author had nothing to go by, but still insisted whole-heartedly there existed an underwater race of ponies.

Something flapped in the dim light, startling me into looking up from my book. "Oh, Owlowiscious." I breathed, calming my pumping heart. "You scared me half to death." The owl stood enigmatically on his perch, pearing at me with his big yellow eyes that glinted in the lantern's light. Being nocturnal, Twilight's pet came and went as he pleased through a window that Twilight kept open.

"S'okay," I waved a hoof at him, "I'm the only one awake down here."

He stared at me. Even after nine months, animals were still weird as a whole to me, not having much contact with them inside the hive. Most of them seemed to understand Equestrian, but Owlowiscious gave no indication that he even heard me.

Outside the window behind him, the sky was turning a hazy purple, threatening a sunrise. A rainbow contrail streaked across the sky, clouds bursting apart in its wake.

That would be Rainbow Dash. I realized. I hadn't gotten a chance to meet many ponies at Pinkie's party before I make a fool of myself, but Pinkie had made good on her promise to introduce me to Rainbow Dash.

Several other pegasi flew into view, the rainbow contrail stopping momentarily before them. The shadowed cyan pegasus gesticulated toward them before they separated, flying off toward a peaking red sliver of sun.

Phantom wings itched on my back; I wondered briefly how it would feel to be a weather pony. In the hive I had been a courier; I was constantly on my wings trying to keep a hive of several thousand updated on mandates and build plans.

"Who?" Owlowiscious snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah." I muttered. "You're right." I shook my head. Even if I could change my appearance without consequence, I'd still need to learn how to fly on the infinitely more daunting jointed pegasus wing. It was a foolish thought.

I returned to my book, extinguishing the lantern as Celestia raised her charge. It wasn't long before I heard a familiar set of hooves descending the stairs. A knock sounded in the silence of the library, a feminine call to arms.

"Down here!" I announced, slipping a ribbon into the book. "I'll be up in a sec."

.-~*~-.

Breakfast was a standard ordeal of scrambled eggs, hay bacon, and toast, which didn't make much sense to me. Weren't eggs used when baking bread? Why have scrambled eggs if they were already in the bread? Also, weren't ponies vegetarian? Why did they eat eggs? (Did the eggs volunteer or were they drafted? If the eggs are old enough to fight in the war, shouldn't they be allowed to purchase alcohol? Why should young chicks die while the old chickens sit home and profit from it? Was I actually going somewhere with this or am I just making stuff up at this point? I think it's the latter. [If you get the reference, post a comment])

"You're up early." Twilight pointed out as Spike placed a plate before her.

"Couldn't sleep." I shrugged, waving away Spike's attempts at placing a plate before me. A good chunk of Pinkie's love was still sitting in a lump in my stomach, and I wanted it to stay there.

"Not hungry again?" Twilight inquired.

"I... already ate." I excused, smiling sheepishly.

"You raided the fridge?" Twilight frowned, her tone reproachful.

I jumped at the accusation. "What? Ah, no!"

"But you just said you already ate." Twilight furrowed her brow.

"I... um..." My face felt hot. There was no backing out of this. I couldn't tell her the truth, and anything else would just make me look even more suspicious. There was no other choice than to take the bullet on this one. "I... I guess I did."

"Just don't do it again." Twilight scolded lightly. "You can wait for breakfast and eat with us."

I looked down at the empty place before me, absorbing myself in the grain of the wooden table. "Yeah." I muttered.

Spike set his plate down on the table, hopping up onto a stool to join us at the table. "So what's the plan for today?"

"First of all," Twilight announced authoritatively, "I'm going to go take care of that mirror pool. The world doesn't need duplicates running around all over the place."

I nodded. Especially when those duplicates were Pinkie.

"It's a shame though." Twilight sighed dreamily. "To cover up such an amazing scientific find! Imagine what we could learn! It couldn't be a natural phenomenon! That means an incredibly powerful pony must've created it, probably centuries ago. But why? And how?" She gazed off out the window.

"Maybe he was vain." Spike skewered his hay bacon with his fork.

Twilight tapped her chin. "Perhaps, but unfortunately it'll have to wait until it can be studied." She chewed thoughtfully on a mass of yellow egg. "The town is still recovering from the Pinkie storm, and it's best that it gets out of the way for now."

"Makes you wonder what else is out there, doesn't it?" I muttered to myself.

After breakfast, Twilight levitated a familiar stack of letters onto the table. "Derpy delivered mail to us by mistake again. Why don't you two go deliver them while I take care of things with Pinkie and Zecora?"

I looked at the letters apprehensively. After that fiasco yesterday, going outside seemed less appealing than ever. "I think I've had enough excitement after yesterday."

"That was hardly a regular day in Ponyville." Twilight assured me. "You can't stay in this library forever. Why don't you go make some friends?"

Truth be told, I did need to stretch my legs a bit. Pinkie's love was starting to make me like I was constantly on a sugar rush, and a library wasn't a perfect place to work off energy. I was starting to feel like scrambling all the books up again just to have something to do.

"Yeah we'll take care of it." Spike answered for me.

"Great." She tossed a small, clinking purse in my direction. "For all your hard work reorganizing yesterday."

"It was my job." I replied, nudging the purse back. "The deal we had was work in exchange for a place to stay, not money."

"You reorganized the entire library, Midnight." Spike pointed out. "By yourself."

"It's not much, but it'll pay for lunch." Twilight smiled. "Take it for that if nothing else."

That touched me more than I expected. "Thank you..."

"I'd better get going before Pinkie gets into anymore trouble."

.-~*~-.

Hours later, I found myself walking through the park with Spike seated on my back, munching away on a gem encrusted cupcake. He weighed little more than a full saddlebag, and I didn't mind toting him around. We'd already delivered all the letters, but neither of us felt like returning to the library, hence the park.

"How does a mailmare get away with delivering mail to the wrong houses?" I asked.

"Small town, most don't mind the extra hassle." Spike replied. "It's a job she likes so she's extra careful, which is good because the town hall can't take another hit."

"Another hit?"

"Don't ask. Rainbow Dash is still forbidden from calling her up for weather duty."

I decided that I would follow that advice, letting the subject drop. My ears perked up as they caught a subtle melody in the air.

"Why don't you like crowds anyway?"

"I just don't." I winced, following the music down to the path toward a bench occupied by a teal unicorn.

"Buy why not?" Spike persisted.

"They just... make me nervous." I replied reluctantly. The unicorn sat on the bench oddly, on her haunches, and in front of her was a golden lyre encompassed in a golden glow. The strings vibrated from invisible plucks, releasing notes to form a complicated melody. Her eyes were closed as she concentrated on the music. Rightly so, the song was so complicated that even from twenty feet away I didn't want to breath too hard for worry that I might distract her.

"Why would you be nervous?" Spike asked.

"I don't know, okay." I replied coldly, hoping he would take the hint that I didn't want to talk about it. Part of me still insisted I didn't have a problem. All I had to do was avoid crowds and I wouldn't have a problem.

Spike got the hint and let me enjoy the song. At the musician's hooves was her lyre case, a dozen bits already cluttering the bottom. Taking out the purse Twilight had given me, I threw the last few bits in to join the others. I wasn't going to use them afterall.

Her eyes opened at the noise, revealing a vibrant gold that mimicked her magical glow. She nodded to me, a grin on her face. "Much obliged." The lyre continued to play, not missing a beat. Her voice was husky yet uniquely girlish.

"I've heard better." Spike bluntly stated, shifting around on my back.

"I'll get you one day, overgrown lizard." Lyra retorted. "At least your friend has impeccable taste in music."

"I'm Midnight." I introduced myself, suddenly self conscious around Lyra's lax demeanor.

"Lyra." She shot back, morphing the music into a simpler, slower moving tune. "I haven't seen you around here."

"I just got a job at the library."

"Cool. You one of those egghead types?"

Again the word egghead. "If reading a lot is what eggheads do."

Lyra stood off the bench, her lyre stopping midsong. "I guess you could say that I'm an egghead, too then." Lyra tossed a grin at me, replacing the bits in her lyre's case with her instrument. "I mostly research about mythology though. Well," She paused, "I used to."

Spike piped up, "Weren't you reading about Oatlantis or something. That's mythological, isn't it?"

My face flushed. "Well, uh, it wasn't really that good..."

Lyra chuckled, snapping the latches on her case shut. "I research something a bit different than a pony civiliazation under the ocean. Want to go get lunch with me?"

I didn't want to be rude, but there was no way I was repeating what happened this morning with Lyra. "I wish I could," I started, "But... I just had lunch with Spike."

"You didn't even have anything." Spike pointed out.

"Thanks Spike." I grumbled. "I gave you the rest of the bits I had, Lyra."

"No problem, my treat then." Lyra responded smoothly.

My mind went blank. "O-oh... I-I can't... I'm just not hungry right now." And there was the rude part. I swore inwardly.

"I see..." Lyra turned around, balancing her case on her back. "Well... Come around sometime, I guess."

"Yeah." I tried to cheer myself up. "I'll see you later."

"I look forward to it." She tossed a genuine smile back at me casually.

Author's Note

Achievement get: Rewired

Be forewarned: the quality of the chapters past this point dips until chapter ten. I plan to eventually return and rewrite chapters 4-9, but for now I have other projects to work on, including this story.

Chapter 4: Time Lords and Tribulations

o----[ Chapter 4: Time Lords and Tribulations ]---------------------o

The moon had risen more than an hour ago, and not many ponies were out this late. Despite this, I cheerfully plodded down the avenue, the bright, beautiful moon making the large buildings on either side of the street into dark grey silhouettes devoid of any color.

Balanced on my back was a stack of Daring Do books that teetered now and then as I walked down the street. Rainbow Dash was an avid reader, but she tended to forget to return her books after she was finished with them, so Twilight, after returning from the day’s latest venture, asked me to pick them up.

Now I was heading home. I almost wished that I had brought a lantern with me, but Luna’s moon was bright enough that I could adequately see (though there were numerous times when I accidentally sploshed through mud puddles from today’s earlier storm). Wispy clouds passed by overhead, opaque enough to see, but transparent enough to not disrupt the light streaming down from Luna’s charge.

Then I heard some sort of groaning. It was quiet. Very very quiet. So quiet that I stopped midstep just to listen to make sure that I actually heard it. The groan quickly came again, louder this time, and I pinpointed the source of the noise to be... coming from the empty space right in front of me.

The groan faded and came again over and over, louder and louder. A ball of light materialized above and slightly in front of me, pulsating in time with the groans. An object several meters tall and about two wide began phasing in and out of existence until it finally settled and solidified, blocking my way down the street.

At first I didn’t know how to react. I glanced around warily, but there wasn’t anyone around to confirm that a large rectangular object appeared out of thin air in the middle of the street. Turning back to the odd object, pure white light flared outward from high windows, and even higher than that were the words POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX. They shined brilliantly, lit in that same white light.

I approached it cautiously, bumping my hoof against it. A soft wooden thunk was the response. Obviously, this box was some sort of powerful magical object to appear with hardly a warning in the middle of town and emit strange light, and who in Ponyville was most magically inclined? Twilight. She seemed to be the go-to mare for all types of situations.

I edged around the POLICE box carefully, keeping my eye on it. It calmed down quickly until the light it was emitting became soft and completely unthreatening. Unconvinced by its less than scary appearance, I turned back in the direction of the library, hoping to find Twilight before the box... I don’t know... exploded or something.

Before I could get far, however, I heard a creaking sound and I turned to see the box open, spilling light out into the street. A stallion ran out, yelling loudly as several bright pink balls of light flew about his face. I jumped as he ran by, startled. My books spilled off my back and plopped onto the dirt.

“Get off I say!” He yelled, whipping his head around, his mane waving about. I gawked as the pink balls giggle. “I said, get off of me!” He tripped over something in the dark, falling flat on the ground. The pink balls stayed up, releasing more giggling before flying off in different directions, abandoning the pony on the ground.

He didn’t move.

I edged closer slowly. The light was too dim for me to see him very well, especially after being blinded by his box. “Hello?”

No answer.

“Are you alright?” I inquired, slowly approaching. If he was hurt, I had to help, but it would be foolish to just haphazardly approach someone emerging from a magic box in the middle of the night. “Do you need a doctor?” I asked, now only a few meters away.

“Woah!” He jumped up suddenly, flying through the air, flipping over, and landing on his feet unsteadily. “Oh wow, it hurts when you stop your body functions.” He spoke in an odd accent. He twisted his neck, cracking it. “Ah! Much better!” He noticed me. “Oh, hello. Sorry if I startled you. Uhm...If you could be so kind as to tell me where and when I am?”

“When?” I repeated skeptically. “You’re in Ponyville. Year ten-oh-three.”

“Ha ha! Even with agrigite fairies attacking me, I can land her right on the mark!” He looked around at the dark buildings. “Well, more or less. You’ve got to understand that there’s some wiggle room when ‘the mark’ is one point in the whole of time and space.” He walked to his box, tapping the front door lightly.

“Is that your magic box?” I approached the strange pony. I didn’t understand exactly what he was saying, but when one lives with Twilight Sparkle, one learns to accept that they won’t always understand every combination of words or not-words spoken.

“Oi, it’s not magic. Why does everypony just jump to the conclusion that its magic?” The stallion opened the door briefly, the bright light blinding me momentarily. When he shut the door, he was holding a tattered suit jacket.

“Well if it’s not magic, what is it?” I asked, remembering the library books I had dropped. I picked up the first one, dusting off the dirt. “From it’s size, what else can it be?”

“Very logical. Don’t you have somewhere to be?” He asked me, putting on the suit jacket.

“Don’t you have a better suit?” I countered, tossing the books onto my back where they belonged. I was thankful that none of them landed in a puddle.

“It’s not my fault that agrigite fairies enjoy partaking in the consumption of clothing.” The stallion looked around. “What are you doing out here at this hour anyway?”

“Going home until you and your not-magic box appeared.” I answered. He seemed to be contemplate this information, so I decided to strike at the heart of the matter. “Who are you?”

“The Doctor.”

“Doctor who?”

“Exactly.” He replied, a grin on his face. “You would be?”

“Midnight.” I replied. Wait, should I have told him my name? I know almost nothing about this guy.

“Midnight. What a lovely name. Is that Midnight as in the exact middle of the night or Midnight as in just during the night?”

“What? I don’t know. Does it matter?”

“I suppose not.” The Doctor replied, bemused. “Though you have to admit that meeting a beautiful mare such as yourself at the exact time she’s named after would be quite a coincidence.” He paused for a second. “And I don’t believe in coincidences.”

I blushed from the complement despite how unsettled I should have been by that sentence. Nopony ever complimented me. I had chosen the most plain persona I could have. “I... I should get going.” I said, turning back toward the library.

“Goodnight, Midnight.” The Doctor. “By the way do you know where Ditzy Doo lives? I promised to give her a ride to last Tuesday or perhaps last-last Tuesday.”

Paying no mind to his odd way of speaking: “I just moved here a week ago.” I replied. “I don’t know a Ditzy Doo.”

“I’ll find her eventually.” The Doctor stubbornly announced, opening the doors to his magic box again, flooding the street with light.

“Good luck!” I wished. after a minute, I heard the same groaning noise. Looking back, I saw the box disappear. I wondered what it could be if it wasn’t magic. “That was the strangest pony I’ve ever met.” I muttered under my breath.

When I reached the library, thankfully with no more strange ponies interrupting my journey, I opened the door to see Twilight pacing hurriedly back and forth, Spike scratching away at a scrap of parchment at the desk. “-And I look forward to seeing both you and the delegates from Saddle Arabia.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, setting the books down on the checkout desk to record later. Twilight looked at Spike.

“You didn’t write that down, did you?” She asked incredulously. She didn’t give Spike a chance to answer before continuing. “Nevermind, just scrap the whole thing. We’ll start over.” Spike suppressed a groan, crumpling up the parchment.

I repeated my question.

“Princess Celestia wants me to be the entertainment for the embassadors from Saddle Arabia.” Twilight said, not even glancing toward me. She continued her rapid pacing while Spike scrambled to get another parchment ready for writing.

“You know Princess Celestia?” I asked, suddenly feeling like I was filled with broken glass. I got a job with someone who, if she found out what I was, had a direct connection to the highest authority in the land.

“Oh no, I haven’t even told her about you.” Twilight said as if Princess Celestia would come into her home and personally banish her for forgetting to inform her about her tenant.

I shook out the ill feelings. First thing comes first: calm Twilight down. Then I can worry about what this new revelation means. I put my hoof out and stopped her rapid pacing.

“Why are you so nervous?” I asked her. “You’re the best magic user in Ponyville.” That didn’t seem to calm her down. “Stop pacing.” I said. She stopped for a moment. I seized that moment. “Take a deep breath.” She did. Too short. “Deeper.”

“This is-” Twilight started.

“Do it.” I adamantly interrupted her. She sighed, consenting to my demand. “Now, what does the princess want you to do?”

“A levitation spell,” she replied, “on animals.”

“That’s simple isn’t it?” I haven’t used many spells, but levitation was always a simple one. virtually any unicorn knew how to levitate objects.

“Well...” Twilight trailed off.

“And this should be a breeze for a unicorn of your caliber.” I reasoned. I could almost see the panic dissipating like steam.

“What if I mess up?” Twilight looked over at the waiting dragon scribe. “What if I can’t handle it?”

“When can’t you handle something?” I retorted. “I’ve never seen you unable to take hold of a situation.” I remembered how I immediately thought of Twilight whenever something went wrong. “You’re the first pony everypony turns to for help. You can do this.”

Twilight was silent for a moment. “Spike!” Her ears shot up, her voice much more cheery that it was before. “Take a letter: Dear Princess Celestia,”

Twilight’s muffled voice as she spoke her letter should’ve been a comfort to me while I laid in my bed, staring up at the wood ceiling. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but Twilight’s voice has always been soothing to me. Why, I’ll never know, but that’s the way it’s been.

It isn’t now. If she found out that I was a changeling, I could be in big trouble. Bigger than big trouble. Twilight was the best sorceress in all of Ponyville and she was dangerous enough without knowing Princess Celestia.

Now that I think about it, am I really in any more danger than I was before? Twilight is, as I mentioned, the best sorceress in Ponyville. I’ve seen her explode Pinkie Pie duplicates for crimes no greater than being distracted while watching paint dry.

Then there were her friends. Rainbow Dash was the fastest flier in equestria, and she never hesitated to tell me. Applejack spent all day kicking trees to knock fruit loose and was a master with a lasso. Really, the three of them could take me out in no time whatsoever, and that wasn’t even counting Pinkie Pie and those other two mares that I keep forgetting the names of.

Really, did knowing Princess Celestia even make a difference? I knew that if I thought about this anymore, I’d start having nightmares again. I rolled off of my bed, looking at my reflection in the dim mirror. Midnight fell away, replaced by Niphi. What was so bad about changelings anyway?

Well, we’re scary, gross, and we eat love. That would do a good job of scaring me if I was a pony, especially since love is something ponies need to survive. Tired of looking at myself, I returned to my bed, pulling the covers over my insectoid body. It had been so long since I had spent an extended amount of time in my changeling form that I had forgotten how weird the blankets felt on my exoskeleton.

It sucked being a changeling, I concluded.

“Midnight?” Twilight’s voice came from outside my door. I suppressed a yelp of surprise. It was just Twilight. Being Niphi must’ve made me jumpy. I tried to turn back into Midnight, but I couldn’t calm down enough to concentrate.

“What?” I called out, flinching at the raspy changeling voice in my throat. Calm down! I yelled at myself. Remember what you were just thinking about? Remember how dangerous your closest friend in Ponyville is?

That’s not calming me down, brain.

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked, her voice filling with concern. I hoped to Queen Chrysalis she wouldn’t open the door. I drew the covers further over my body just in case she did.

“Yeah. Just got a frog in my throat.” I replied.

“Can I come in?”

“J-Just a minute.” I replied, trying to buy some time.

Okay, okay, okay. This was incredibly stupid of you. never ever ever, do this again!

Shut up, brain, I’m trying to concentrate. Soon enough, I managed to calm myself down enough to change back into Midnight. I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself before hopping off my bed and opening the door.

“What’s up?” I asked, trying not to look too flustered.

“I just wanted to thank you.” Twilight said, looking at me with concern.

“For what?” I asked dumbly.

“Well, for getting me to think clearly.” Twilight said. In the low light of the stairway, I could see her blush. “I’ve been told that can be hard to do at times.”

“Yeah, well. You were panicking over nothing.” I replied, shutting my door in her face. I let out a sigh of relief. An intense shiver went down my spine. Never be that stupid again.

“Anyway,” Twilight said through the door, “I told Princess Celestia about you. She wants to meet you.”

“You already got a reply?” I asked, yanking the wooden obstruction open once more. “Wait, you already sent the letter?”

“Yeah.” Twilight answered. “Spike serves as a link between me and the princess. He sends letters with his dragon breath.”

“Oh.” I shut the door in her face again.

Chapter 5: The Great and Powerful

o----[ Chapter 5: The Great and Powerful ]---------------------o

Lyra looked at me expectedly from the other side of the picnic table. A hay sandwich was in her hoof with a huge bite taken out of it. There was absolutely no way out of it now. Tentatively, I nibbled at my own sandwich, not wanting to offend the musician sitting on the other side of the table.

“It’s good.” I forced a smile, trying not to show how sick real food could make a stomach that was accustomed to digesting love in liquid form.

The look fell from her face. “You don’t have to lie.” She muttered.

“No really.” I insisted, not wanting to offend her. Lyra was the closest thing I had to a friend besides Twilight and she was my employer so that didn’t count. knowing I was going to hate myself for this later, I took a huge bite out of the sandwich, chewing and trying to overcome my gag reflex. I overestimated my will power however, and I soon spit it out on my plate. “Okay.” I admitted. “I don’t like it.”

Lyra shrugged. “So how’s it going at Twilight’s?”

Twilight? When I left for the park this morning, I had to calm her down again. It had been two days since Princess Celestia’s letter and the odd pony with the magic box and Twilight’s assurance in her abilities was beginning to fray again.

“Interesting.” I responded, throwing my sandwich and the paper plate it sat on into the trash. 5 bits wasted. “She over reacts a lot. For someone so smart, she isn’t always the most... level headed.”

“Yeah, remember that time when she enchanted her old doll so everypony would fight over it?” Lyra laughed. “My girlfriend and I had bruises for a week afterward..”

Girlfriend? Um... well... I... uh... okay then... Lyra looked at me expectantly, as if she was gauging my reaction. “I wasn’t around for that.” I choked out. Really, I had no problem with it. She could date whoever she wanted. It just caught me a bit off guard.

“Oh, yeah.” She dismissed. “I guess I forgot.”

“So, uh, what did you say you studied again?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

“I didn’t.” Lyra replied, swishing her lemonade around in her plastic cup. “You’d think I was crazy if I told you anyway.”

Glad that awkward moment was gone. “You’d be surprised what an open mind I have.”

Lyra smiled. “I study mythological creatures.” She stopped swishing her lemonade. “Actually, everyone says they’re mythological, but I don’t think they are.”

“What are they?” I asked.

Lyra looked around. “You’ve probably never even heard of them.”

“Try me.”

“Well, they’re these things called humans.” Lyra flinched when she said it. “My girlfriend doesn’t like it when I tell ponies about them. I used to be really obsessed with them, and everyone thought I was crazy.” She sighed dejectedly. A subtle droplet of love splashed on my nose. I resisted the urge to try to lick it up. Yes, I know it sounds gross, but it’s what changelings do.

“Well, I’ve never heard of them.” I replied.

“There’s a book on them in the mythology section in the library if you’re interested.” Lyra suggested. “It’s called ‘Anthropology: the Study of Humans and the Things They Left Behind.’”

“I’ll check it out.” I promised. “But don’t expect me to start spouting that they’re real.”

“Eh, I’ve gotten used to ponies saying they’re not real. You’d just be another one. Even my special somepony tells me that I’m missing some of my marbles.” She smiled, showing her white teeth. She finally downed the lemonade in her cup, slamming it down onto the table and crushing it. “Let’s get out of here. I need to work off all this energy.”

“Where to?” I asked as Lyra levitated the plastic cup over to the garbage can.

“To the movies of course!” Lyra announced, earning looks from other outdoor patrons of the restaurant.

“The movies?” Immediately my knees began quivering a bit. “Where we’ll sit in a dark room filled with other ponies?” I could feel my phobia of crowds beginning to rear up.

“Uh, yeah. That’s kind of the side effect of going to a movie theatre. You coming?”

NO! Absolutely not! Just say no! “Sure.” WHAT? I forced a smile. “What are we seeing?”

“Batpony!” Lyra answered. I followed her as she walked down the street, her Lyre case floating next to her until she tired of carrying it with magic and rested it on her back. “His parents died of gang violence so he learned ninjutsu or something and hunts down evil so that what happened to him will never happen to anypony else!”

Sounded interesting at least. I could only hope that it wouldn’t be a popular movie so the theatre wasn’t full. I knew that my fear of crowds was a bit irrational, but that didn’t help me get over it. Every time I’ve been in a place packed with ponies, I’ve found myself quaking, short of breath, and thinking irrationally, and I didn’t want Lyra to see me like that.

Lyra trotted down the street happily, she turned to me and tapped her lyre case. “I hope you don’t mind if we stop by my place on the way there to drop this off.”

“Of course not.” I replied.

“My girlfriend works today, so she won’t be home.” Lyra continued without giving a hint that she even knew that I responded. “Maybe you’ve met her. She works in Sugarcube Corner.”

Pinkie Pie? Despite Pinkie’s party animal vibe, I never expected her to actually be in a relationship (let alone that kind of relationship). I was about to ask her about this when we reached the town square. A group of ponies was gathering. “What’s going on?” You asked Lyra.

“Heck if I know.” Lyra shrugged, cantering over toward the center of attention. I followed her, unnerved by the amount of people bumping into me as Lyra insisted to make her way to the front of the crowd. I slowly struggled behind her, saying sorry to every person I just so happened to touch until I finally emerged at the front.

“Twilight?”

The group of ponies were watching Twilight as she exchanged spells with a caped figure wearing a large hat.

“What’s going on here?” I whispered to Lyra beside me.

“That’s Trixie.” She whispered, glaring at the mare dressed in the starry cape. “She was run out of Ponyville two years ago. What’s she doing here?”

So these townsponies run ponies out of town? Great. Now I know I’d have to run again should I mess up and “Is she evil?”

“Well... Not the last time she was here.” Lyra admitted. “We were all kind of acting off of adrenaline from a giant bear made of cosmic energy attacking the town, and we took our anger out on her.”

“A giant bear made out of cosmic energy?”

“Yeah, It was a weird day.”

Twilight lashed out with her magic, striking Trixie square on the face where... a mustache suddenly grew. Not exactly awe inspiring, Twilight. Trixie countered this by spawning a pair of scissors and cutting it of. Well played, Trixie. You cut off a mustache. I would never have seen that coming.

“This seems kind of...” I started, unsure of where I was heading.

“Lame?” Lyra offered, a toothy smile on her face.

“Yeah.”

“Enough!” Trixie shouted suddenly. “Snips. Snails. Step forward.”

A pair of colts stepped out of the crowd and timidly made their way to Trixie.

“What is it Great and Powerful Trixie?” The smaller, pudgier one inquired.

Trixie, with hardly a warning, blasted them with a crimson bolt of light with her horn, causing a poof of red smoke to blow up from the ground beneath their hooves. When it quickly cleared, the two colts had been transformed into a baby and an old grandpony.

Twilight gasped. “An age spell? How can you do an age spell? Only the highest level unicorns can do age spells!”

“What’s the matter, Twilight?” Trixie bragged, polishing her pin. “Give up?”

“You can do it Twilight!” Somepony in the crowd shouted, a sentiment that was quickly mirrored by another pony.

“Yeah!” I joined in, a blush growing on my cheeks. “Show that mean Trixie who’s boss!”

Twilight tried to hide an exasperated look before closing her eyes; her horn lit up with her powerful magic. Snips and Snails began levitating, purple lights corkscrewing around them. She could do it, I thought. After all, if this Trixie character could do it, Celestia’s personal student could. Right?

Twilight’s horn flared suddenly, the light flickering sporadically. She wavered unsteadily, stubbornly trying to keep the spell from petering out. My sympathies went out to her. I knew what it was like trying to control unruly magic. My broken horn served as a spigot through which my magic could escape, but without a horn to direct the flow of magic...

Twilight’s back left hoof slipped on something unseen, and that was all it took. She lost her concentration and Snips and Snails fell to the ground, unchanged by Twilight’s attempt at restoring their proper age.

“I win!” Trixie screeched in a voice that seemed just as surprised as the crowd was. “Ah, I mean, of course I would win. The Great and Powerful Trixie is the highest level unicorn!” She let out a demented maniacal laugh.

“Do you think she’s laying it on a bit thick?” Lyra whispered. I didn’t answer, stepping toward Twilight to comfort her. Her confidence for her upcoming performance would be shattered, I suspected.

“Now,” Trixie said, a dangerous tone creeping into her voice, “It’s time for you to leave Ponyville! FOREVER!”

“What?” I shouted. The crowd milled nervously behind me, discussing things in hushed tones. Twilight’s friends quickly stepped up to defend her, barring her line of sight to the purple unicorn.

“That’s enough Trixie!” Applejack shouted. “You can’t expect Twilight to leave!”

“Fool!” Trixie shouted. “She’s already gone.” Her horn lit up with red energy, surrounding Twilight with her aura. She shot off the ground, spinning around violently as she shot off down the road out of Ponyville.

“Twilight!” They shouted, running after her.

“Stop!” I commanded at Trixie as Twilight’s friends chased her down. I hoped they could get to her before something bad happened.

“Why should I?” Trixie said, her horn flaring with a sudden blast of red light. A giant upside-down fishbowl materialized above Ponyville and hit the ground. I felt the shockwave and made an educated guess that Twilight was outside of the fishbowl. “The condition of the duel was that the loser leaves Ponyville.” She said, smugly smiling at me.

What did you do, Twilight? I never pegged her as a pony who would be so impulsive to make a deal like that.

“Fine then,” I stated, “I’ll fight you!”

Wait... Did I really just say that? what was getting into me? Was it Twilight, my one friend in this town being mistreated? Maybe it was my turn to run somepony out of town.

“How could you beat Trixie when you’re not even a unicorn?” Trixie smirked.

Time to pull some changeling magic. “I am a unicorn!” I shouted, green fire sprouting on my forehead as I edited my Midnight persona, not caring how I could explain it later. It cleared to leave a jagged bit of keratin; That was all I could spawn with my changeling horn broken. I wondered briefly what I was doing and what I hoped to accomplish using a horn as badly damaged as mine. It was too late now, though.

“So you are.” Trixie conceded, a glint of surprise in her eye. “Or half of one at least, but you’re wasting Trixie’s time. Trixie has already beaten the best magic user in town.”

“I might be better than you think! I live with Twilight!”

Her horn suddenly lit up, and I levitated into the air, my limbs flailing wildly. “That would certainly explain how you hid your horn. The Great and Powerful Trixie has never seen such magic!” Trixie stated, squeezing me uncomfortably with her telekinesis. “The Great and Powerful Trixie demands you tell her your secret!”

She wouldn’t like the answer. “Let me go!” I choked out through clenched teeth as Trixie’s grip slowly tightened.

“Was it your cutie mark? It appears to be a stack of books; is disguise your real cutie mark?”

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” A familiar voice came from the crowd. A mint green pony separated herself from the masses, her horn glowing green as she popped the levitation bubble Trixie had around me. I fell to the ground, landing unsteadily on my feet. I turn to my savior, Lyra, to see her smirking while keeping a wary eye on Trixie.

“You’re an idiot, you know that?” Lyra smiled wryly. “Now you’ve got me wrapped up in this.”

“I try my best.” I retorted. The crowd had started to thin out after Trixie defeated Twilight, but now there was a new spectacle and the crowd was beginning to refresh itself.

“Two on one?” She rolled her great and powerful eyes. “The Great and Powerful Trixie can take on a thousand unicorns!”

“Care to put your bits where your mouth is?” Lyra taunted.

One of the sides of Trixie’s mouth twitched upward in a half-smile. “Gladly.” Her horn lit up, summoning a much larger version of the pies she had thrown at Twilight earlier.

Lyra summoned a light green force field hemisphere that enveloped the two of us and the pie splattered messily as it impacted the magical barrier. She turned to me hastily. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, she didn’t hurt me too much.”

She looked relieved before snapping back to battle mode.“It’s her necklace.”

“What?” I asked,

“Her amulet lights up every time she uses magic. I’d be willing to bet that’s the reason she’s more powerful than Twilight. If we can get it off of her, we’ll stand a chance, but I don’t like our odds as it is.”

“Great. I like all or nothing.” Experimentally, I reached out to my horn, something I hadn’t done since I almost burned down my mother’s home. It lit up with sickly green magic before suddenly launching a flaming green ball that bounced off the force field. Lyra yelped as it flew past her, jumping around until the magic dissipated.

Lyra narrowed her eyes on my broken horn.“Can you control that thing?”

I shrugged. “There’s a reason I keep it hidden. It’s not as reliable as I’d like it to be.” Actually, it wasn’t reliable at all, but I didn’t see a reason to worry her with that.

Lyra opened her mouth to respond when a pickaxe suddenly hit itself against the force field, causing a spiderweb of cracks to snake across the hemisphere surrounding us. “Looks like our time is up. You’ll have to tell me all about it when this is all over.”

I nodded, knowing that Lyra wasn’t looking at me. “What’s the game plan?” The pickaxe hit the field again, widening the cracks and chipping the surface so that a small triangle of the upside-down fishbowl could be seen through a hole.

“Get her pendant away from her.” She responded, taking a battle stance.

“And if we can’t?”

“Plan B.”

“Plan B?”

“I’ll tell you when I think of it.”

the pickaxe struck again and the force field shattered into a million green shards. Lyra’s horn glowed fiercely; mine erupted in green flames. The battle began.

Chapter 6: Futile Flailing

o----[ Chapter 6: Futile Flailing ]---------------------o

Before the light green shards of Lyra’s magic barrier even hit the ground and faded out of existence, Trixie snapped into action. Her horn glowed and, now that Lyra had pointed it out to me, I noticed her amulet flash briefly. A bolt of crimson lightning sparked from her tip and harmlessly planted itself into the ground.

“What did she just-” I began before a writhing red vine burst from the ground close to me.

“Move!” Lyra yelled (like I wouldn’t if she didn’t tell me). I threw myself away from the vine as several more grew from the ground and began swinging wildly around. I ducked under a swipe as a small vine went by, going so fast it made the air scream. A vine jabbed at me but I jumped back, sparks of flame jumping off of my horn stub as I wracked my brain for a spell. having hidden my horn for almost a year, I was a little out of practice.

A heavy vine whipped downwards toward me, managed to graze my flank before I could get out of the way. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mint colored pony in the center of a forest of flailing red vines. A flash of green later and many of them ripped to pieces, only to be replaced as the vines rapidly regenerated. Trixie said something (probably , but I was distracted as a vine wrapped itself around my front ankle.

I yelped, hastily trying to tug my leg out of the vine’s grip but the vine held firm. Panicking slightly, I forgot that my head was on fire. A spark of magic fire popped off of my horn and landed on the vine, immediately setting it aflame. The vine burned away, releasing my leg as it disappeared.

Fire. Ran through my mind. Other vines reached out for me, but a minimal jet of flame was enough to ward them off until one managed to twist around and get me around my midsection. I let out an ungraceful shriek as it hoisted me into the air. More vines poised themselves around me, daring me to try something.

A spell came to my mind. It was an odd spell for a changeling drone to know but an essential one when changelings made organized military maneuvers such as a massive assault on the capital of Equestria. It almost brought a smile to my face. The Queen had wanted more soldiers for her foolhardy assault and drafted massive amounts of drones that were given a crash course in being a soldier, including the fire charge spell.

If anything, I’d say that having hundreds of inexperienced soldiers in her ranks hindered her more than helped her.

The fire charge spell was harder to cast than I remembered, though a broken horn might have had something to do with it. Eventually, fire from my horn spread to the rest of my body, enveloping me in a roaring flame. Honestly, I had no idea if it would work while I was in a pony body, but since it didn’t seem to be hurting me, I went ahead and assumed that it did.

The fire spread to the vines holding me before long, and they were quickly eaten through by the green flames. More vines grabbed me, but they shared the same fate as the first. Eventually I reached the ground, but before I did, the majority of Trixie’s red vines were consumed by my green fire and more were being consumed as burning ones flailed around and caught others on fire.

Once more on the ground, I shook off the remaining flames as the spell sputtered out. finding Lyra once again by my side.

“Good going.” She complimented.

“Oh, don’t be so smug,” Trixie snorted, “the fight has only just begun.”

“Don’t be such a downer!” Lyra smiled ruefully in my direction. Her horn glowed and billows of dust burst into the air around Trixie, obscuring the magician.

“Now let’s get that amulet!” Lyra exclaimed triumphantly, disappearing into the dust cloud. I followed shortly after, stumbling blindly through the thick dust. I wished for a moment that Lyra would have told me about this so I could at least try to remember where Trixie was. Now I was just blindly hunting around in a cloud of dust with a madpony who trapped Ponyville under a sheet of glass.

A great wind hit me without warning, causing me to tumble over until my frantic grabbing at the ground yielded me a good grip. Dust and pebbles buffeted my face, the roaring of the wind in my ears. I looked up to see Trixie standing in a show-offy stance that put her on her hind legs with her forelegs pointed out diagonally. Her horn glowed like a beacon, and plastered on her face was a manic grin as she loudly gloated something that was lost to the severe wind.

My horn lit up with green fire once more. I intended only to use a telekinesis spell to push her off balance to hopefully disrupt her spell, but a bolt of electricity jumped from my horn to the ground in front of me, tracing a scorched, black line in the ground until it hit a tree which promptly burst into flames that were fanned by the ferocious wind.

Oops.

Trixie, upon seeing my sad attempt at frying her brains, blasted me with a large gust of wind that tore me away from the ground, tossing me head over heals until I landed hard on my back, my breath driven out of my lungs. I gasped, trying to suck in air. Most of the crowd had dispersed by now, driven away by the gale force winds, but among the few stubborn stragglers was a single pony that I immediately knew was not a pony at all.

Now was not the time to think about it. Lyra needed my help to stop a madpony.

Lyra was closer to Trixie, still struggling with the wind. Her horn glowed brightly and a new minty hemisphere appeared around Trixie. The effects were immediate. The wind outside the force field stopped and a cyclone began swirling around inside. Trixie was picked up and tossed around, her hat and cape whipped around until they were eventually blown off.

“Good thinking.” I complimented, walking back up to her so we were once again standing side by side.

“My mom used to say I was too clever for my own good.” She smiled ruefully.

The cyclone stopped and the barrier shattered. An angry (and quite disheveled) looking Trixie emerged. She snatched her hat and cloak from the air before they hit the ground and repositioned them on her figure.

“Trixie has to admit,” She said, her usual boasting voice gone, “she didn’t expect you two to last this long.” Her horn flashed brightly and the ground around Lyra’s feet ejected itself, launching her head over heels into what was left of the crowd, a silent scream on her lips.

“Lyra!” I almost reached out to her with my horn as she flew but stopped myself. My horn obviously wasn’t in any shape for doing something as delicate as carrying somepony. I just set a tree on fire with a bolt of lightning on accident. I didn’t want that to happen to Lyra. She could take care of herself.

“As for you...” Trixie continued, drawing my attention back to her. Her eyes and amulet flashed red briefly. That couldn’t be good. I took a step backward, bracing myself for whatever new spell she might throw at me.

But before she could do anything, my horn lit up on its own accord and exploded with concussive force. I fell over from the force, black smoke dissipating into the air.

Trixie’s horn stopped glowing, her face spreading into a wide smile as she began laughing loudly. “What was that?” She asked between loud guffaws. “Was that supposed to do something?” She collapsed on the ground, writhing with laughter. “Trixie has never seen something so hilarious!”

Disoriented, I struggled to my feet, a blush growing across my face as Trixie continued to laugh. You’d think a drone, the lowest rung in the social ladder in the changeling hive, would be used to being degraded and humiliated. Well, Niphi was. Long days under the bellowing voice of a manager made sure that my ears strained to hear the voice of those who are better than me and my hooves longed to carry out orders.

Midnight, on the other hand, never had that particular flavor of pleasure, and Trixie’s laughing stung about as much as a blister in an inconvenient place.

My vision was blurry as I tried to focus my sight on Trixie, likely stemming from magical exertion. I hadn’t used magic for months and this sudden flurry of relatively complex spells were starting to tax my horn which was still smoking from the earlier explosion. That probably wasn’t good.

I was about to try one last assault on Trixie when Lyra limped up to me, favoring her front left leg. I gave her a sympathetic nod which she returned. She readied her lyre.

“Go for the amulet.” Lyra said, her proud, boastful voice almost a whisper. She readied her lyre beside her, strumming all the strings at once, making a single, ugly chord. It faded and Lyra had an evil smirk on her face. “Now.”

I ran toward the still laughing stage magician as best I could, stumbling dizzily on my own feet. A loud WUM pierced the air. Trixie stopped laughing turned into a silent scream as she frantically tried to cover her ears with her hooves. I looked back to see Lyra, eyes closed in concentration.

I cringed. It was loud, but obviously much louder for Trixie, who was desperately trying to cover her ears. I leaped at her, my forehooves wrapping around the amulet desperately, pulling to no avail. Trixie let out a frustrated screaming, summoning a pair of earmuffs that settled on her head. That done, she grabbed me with her telekinesis, and I could feel her trying to fling me in a random direction. I held fast to her amulet.

“Release Trixie!” Trixie bellowed over the loud Lyre.

“Come off stupid amulet!” I shouted in return. The pulling on my body became more intense, my grip began to slip, and I felt like I was going to tear apart any second. As a last ditch effort, I quickly knocked off her earmuffs, letting Lyra’s playing in at full force. It didn’t seem to affect her nearly as much as it had before, however.

“You will release me!” She shouted over the loud ‘music.’

My hind end began to flail around in the air as Trixie tried to loosen my grip. It was probably more effective as an attempt to embarrass me than it was at loosening my vice grip. I had worked hard to get my hooves on this amulet and I wasn’t going to let anything come between me and the object of my desire.

“That’s it!” She shouted. “I am so sick of this game!” I was so shocked that she wasn’t using the third person that I almost let go. So much for unbreakable bonds.

“Trixie is sick!” She amended after a second. Her horn flashed brighter and a shiver of terror ran down my spine before a red light obscured my vision. It cleared and suddenly I wasn’t holding onto Trixie’s necklace.

Blue sky surrounded me. Everything seemed so quiet compared to the clamor raised by Lyra’s lyre, and the sudden absence of sound was, in its own way, even louder than the sound so recently assaulting my ears... and blue sky surrounded me.

And I was sliding.

Far below me was Ponyville’s town square. Soon, it dawned on me; Trixie put me up on top of that stupid upside-down fishbowl, and I was sliding down the side. I rolled over, my hooves scrambling for purchase on the smooth glass surface. The glass bowl was at a 45 degree angle at the least here and I quickly realized that there was no way I’d be able to stop myself.

I screamed as I continued uncontrollably rushing down the side at an ever faster rate. I felt myself lift off the glass and go careening into the trees. A large limb struck my midsection, knocking the wind out of me. Momentum tugging at me, I flipped over that, cracking my hind hoof on something before being tossed around and whipped in the face with another branch. Several branches later, I hit the ground.

_____ _________ ______ _______ __ ______ ______________ ____________ ______ _________ ________ ____________ _______ ____ _______ _______ _________ _____ ___ ______ _______ _________ ___ __ __________ _______ ________ _______ ______

My brain overloaded with pain. My lungs slowly coming back to life. Every beat of my heart feeling like an explosion in my chest. Limbs. What are limbs?

Did I pass out? I hope I don’t pass out. Didn’t? Did I or don’t I? Or will I? I hope I didn’t. I don’t pass out.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ oh. that would be a limb. that thing throbbing with pain. all the pain. excellent.

Okay, okay, okay. Stay calm. think rationally. Oh Celestia that hurt.

Anything broken? Everything working? Vision swam- swimming? swamming? blackness encroaching. No, must not pass out.

I moved my foreleg almost passively, turning myself over onto my side.I fought to get a leg under my body, eventually push myself up enough to get my feet underneath me. The fuzziness in the edges of my vision disappeared slowly as I put my weight against the tree.

I felt thoroughly battered. Examining myself revealed a myriad of scrapes and sore spots that would become the worst bruises, especially the one on my back leg that had been cracked hard against a sturdy branch. Putting weight on that sent a tremor of pain down my spine even in my adrenaline injected state. On the brighter side, nothing felt broken. Well, plenty felt broken, but I don’t think anything really was. The upside-down fish bowl was a good twenty feet away and as impenetrable as always.

Lyra. I hoped Lyra would be alright. What Trixie would do with her, I couldn’t conceive, but I could’ve been seriously injured by that little trick she pulled. Hopefully she wouldn’t hurt Lyra just for helping me try to beat her.

But even if I could get into Ponyville, I’d be in no shape to help her if I couldn’t move without cringing at the sheer agony of it all. To top things off, my stomach rumbled, alerting me to the fact that fighting with Trixie had left me nearly drained of the duplicate Pinkie’s love. I groaned, Pinkie’s love had been an exception. Since leaving my mother, I went from snack to snack, never truly feeling full or satisfied. I wasn’t really looking forward to going back to that.

After a minute, a girly shout permeated the air. “I found her!”

Flying low in the sky was a grey pegasus I recognized as Derpy the mailmare. Her head turned off in another direction as she called: “Over here!”

She landed in front of me. “That took a while.” She whined, stretching her graceful wings. “I was up on that cloud for hours waiting for you.”

“Waiting for... me?” I looked around. This had to be some kind of vulgar joke.

“Yes.” Derpy responded, oblivious to my concerns. “Try to be more specific next time you ask us to be somewhere. Coincidentally the next time you might ask us to be somewhere might actually be the time you ask us to be here, isn’t that funny? Wait, that means you didn’t listen to my advice!” She tried to glare at me, but her eyes went off in different directions. She stuck out her tongue in concentration, trying to get her eyes to cooperate.

I looked at her blankly. Was the pain making me hallucinate? Everything she said made no sense. Then again, it was Derpy, and from the few instances that I’ve had the pleasure of conversing with her, she never pegged me as an entirely rational pony. Or maybe she was real, but the pain was making it hard to understand her.

Derpy must have noticed that I was having trouble, throwing me a confused expression. Her eyes only momentarily focused on me before one meandered to gaze at an innocent boulder. “I’m sorry, we have met before right? I was told that at this point in your timeline, we’d have met.”

“Yeah.” I choked out after I realized she expected an answer. “We’ve met a few times.”

“Great. Now, I’ve also been told that we wouldn’t have been properly introduced. My name is Ditzy Doo.”

Ditzy, not Derpy. Got it. Wait a second... Why did Spike call her Derpy then? This made a solid case for that whole ‘hallucinating’ thing.

“Midnight...?” I trailed off.

“We know who you are.” A familiar voice was emanated from a brown pony trotting toward the two of us through the trees. His suit jacket was in a better state than the last time we met, but there was no mistaking him.

“You!” I exclaimed. “You’re that weird pony with the magic box!” I was sure of it.

“It’s unnerving how every pony in the entire universe describes me the same way.” The stallion shook his head. “The Doctor at your service, though as I recall, we have already been introduced.”

“I just saw you two days ago.”

“Yes,” Ditzy cut in, “You saw him two days ago, but we just saw you about three hours ago.”

“Eight hours ago actually.” The Doctor corrected. “Sorry, Ditzy has a bit of a problem with numbers.”

“It’s not a problem!” Ditzy angrily interjected.

“Hush now, Ditzy, we need her to have a good impression of us.” The Doctor gave me a grin.

“Honestly, Doctor.” Ditzy said in a reprimanding tone. “Let’s just do what we came here to do, and leave this all behind us.”

“Alright, alright.” The Doctor dismissively waved a hoof. “Midnight, how would you like an all expenses paid trip to the sunny Everfree Forest?”

I eyed him warily. Almost every pony in Equestria knew that the Everfree Forest was bad news with its monsters and immense size. If you weren’t immediately killed by the monsters, you’d surely get lost in the maze of twisting branches and clingy brambles. I didn’t really have a problem with it, seeing as I had lived most of my life in the changeling hive situated somewhere in the eastern end of it all, but I was supposed to be a pony. Ponies don’t like scary forests.

Back on topic, anypony who wanted to go into the Everfree Forest was either an adrenaline junkie, had brain problems, or was a hallucination produced by excessive pain coupled with a concussion. “I think I’ll pass.”

“But wait, there’s more! Waiting for you at this destination is your disgruntled friend, Twilight Sparkle!”

That caught my attention. “Twilight’s in the Everfree Forest?” Now that he mentioned it, Twilight was partial to a type of tea leaf she told me came from a friend in the Everfree forest.

“Do try to pay attention, Midnight, so I don’t have to repeat myself.” The Doctor turned around and started trotting off into Whitetail woods. “Come along now.”

But the Everfree Forest was in the other direction. More importantly, every breath I took was starting to feel like I had swallowed a needle and my lungs were brushing up against it with every breath. In addition, every fourth step sent an extra bolt of pain as I favored my back left leg.

“You alright?” Ditzy asked, stretching out her wings.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

She frowned in my general direction, neither of her eyes trained on me. “Will you really? You’re pretty beaten up.”

“No worries. It’s just my entire body.”

“Doctor...” Ditzy’s wings flapped once uncertainly as she looked back to the Doctor.

“I’ll go get the TARDIS. Stay right there. I repeat: Do. Not. Move.” The Doctor continued off into the woods while muttering something about wandering off.

And then I was alone. Well, alone with Derpy. Ditzy. Ditzy Derpiddy Doo. The mare in question bumped her hoof against the tree that had fondled me on my way down.

Yeah, this is awkward...

“So...” I began.

Ditzy looked at me expectantly (with one eye).

“You’re with... the Doctor?” I asked. I honestly shouldn’t have been surprised. the first time I saw the Doctor, he had asked for Ditzy.

“Not ‘with’ with him,” Ditzy blushed, “but I travel with him. Well, I suppose I’m not quite there yet.”

“What?”

“Well, in your timeline, not yet. I’m his companion now, but not to you.”

“Why do you keep saying ‘timeline.’ You talk about it like you’re not part of it. You can’t seriously-”

“Travel through time?” Ditzy interrupted. “I thought it was weird at first too.”

“You can’t be serious.” One look at Ditzy told me that she was dead serious. “How is that possible? Even Star Swirl couldn’t make a proper time travel spell!”

“The Doctor is-” Ditzy began before she was interrupted by a familiar sound. “-Weird” She finished.

“That’d be his magic time traveling box.” I muttered, wincing as I took a step toward the location it was materializing in. The door opened and the Doctor stepped out with a flamboyant wave of his hoof as if he expected me to fall at his feet asking for the secrets of the universe.

“You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not in the mood to be impressed.” I said, limping past him into his blue... woah.

The Doctor is and has remained the strangest pony I’ve ever met, and that instant was probably the first time I realized that he truly was not like any other pony.

Inside the relatively small space was an expansive room with a large, domed ceiling. Walkways with metal grates for floors led to the center of the room where a console covered in levers, toggles, dials, and many (many) blinking lights surrounded a glass tube that rose to the ceiling. My mouth dropped open in awe. “It’s...”

“What was that about you not being in the mood to be impressed?” The Doctor mused, showing his pearly whites.

Not responding, I ran outside, ignoring the pain. “It’s not possible.” I said. “Not even Twilight could do this.” Ditzy giggled as my beliefs on how the world works were strained.

“I assure you, Midnight, it is entirely possible.” The Doctor disappeared into the box

“You have a time machine that’s bigger... on the inside.”

“C’mon,” Ditzy beckoned, “we’ve got work to do.”

I swallowed, nodding. Like it or not, we did have things to do, and sitting there trying to wrap my mind around the impossibility that was this box wasn’t going to get anything accomplished.

Chapter 7: Plan B

o----[ Chapter 7: Plan B ]---------------------o

“Welcome,” the Doctor greeted me as I reentered the box, “to the TARDIS. You should count yourself lucky. Only the best people ah ponies ever get to step hoof in her, so play nice.”

Ditzy flew in behind me, landing on the balcony. She threw open a panel and began ruffling around inside. Beside her I spotted a doorway leading deeper into the TARDIS, tweaking my curiosity. “How large is this place?”

“Picture the largest thing you can possibly imagine.” The Doctor said, flipping levers around on the low console. “Are you picturing it?”

I nodded even though I wasn’t.

“Well throw it out the window because the TARDIS is infinite.”

“Great, does it have a first aid kit?” I asked, not truly believing him. Stallions are known to exaggerate in the presence of mares, though I’ll admit that infinity is a pretty large exaggeration.

“Got it!” Ditzy exclaimed, yanking at a large red box from the panel that seemed to be stuck. It came loose without warning, sending her teetering backwards; she tried to regain her balance on her hind legs until she bumped into the guardrail. It snapped feebly and she crashed down onto a sunken section of the floor below.

Ditzy! I ran to her, pain be damned. Concern consumed my features as I stood over the prone pegasus while the Doctor continued playing with the console. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Ditzy sat up, scratching the back of her head. Thankfully, she seemed completely unhurt. “That happens sometimes. More importantly...” She opened the latches on the red box, taking out a roll of bandages. I winced, inadvertently bringing back memories of when my mother, also a grey pony, had patched me up.

The Doctor, seemingly satisfied with his controls, meandered over to us as I took a roll of bandages from ditzy and began wrapping them around a nasty cut on my foreleg. He took a metal cylinder about the size of a pen from his pocket.

“What’s that?” I asked, as I realized I forgot disinfectant. I debated the merits of disinfectant versus the pain and effort it would take to unwrap my bandages, apply said disinfectant, then apply the bandages once more. In the end, I decided that not getting an infection would be much better than the alternative, especially since changelings are known to shift sporadically when they get ill.

“A sonic screwdriver.” The Doctor answered my question. “Don’t worry, this won’t hurt.” He extended it at me and an annoying shrill buzzing along with a green light washed over me as I undid the bandage.

“I wouldn’t have started worrying if you hadn’t told me not to.” I countered, squirming uncomfortably under the light of the glorified flashlight. Ditzy slapped a bandaid on my midsection suddenly and I jumped in pain.

“Yow! Der-Ditzy!” I shouted. “What’d you do that for?”

“Sorry.” She said. “It was stuck on my hoof.”

Maybe somepony who can actually see straight should be fixing up the things I can’t reach. I thought spitefully, though I completely regretted it as the stinging in my midsection slowly ebbed back to its previous level.

The annoying buzz of the Doctor’s flashlight mercifully stopped and the tip opened. Looking at the side, he whistled. “Your exoskeleton is fine, of course. It’s protected as long as you’re in this form,” he glanced at me, raising an eyebrow, “But you’ve gone and cracked three of your ribs. Smooth.”

“Exoskeleton?” I squeaked, my mouth dry.

“Don’t worry about it.” The Doctor slipped his screwdriver back into his pocket. “Your secret’s safe with us.” He rounded the console and pulled down a screen, studying whatever was on it as Ditzy continued to paste bandaids all over my back, most of which I suspected didn’t actually cover any injuries.

An awkward silence was left in the wake. Well, I thought it was awkward. I hardly knew these two ponies, and one day they drop out of the sky claiming they were from the future and that they knew me well enough to know my worst secret.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it or anything,” I started, trying not to sound rude, “but why are you two here?” I looked back at Ditzy as she was finishing. “You have to be here for a reason right?”

“We’re here to help you. Isn’t that enough?” The mailmare responded.

“I’d like to know why you’re so keen on helping me. I barely even know you two.”

“Because you are very important.” The Doctor said seriously. “And because you asked us to be here.”

Without warning, the Doctor yanked a lever and the entire place shuddered and shook. I tumbled sideways, hitting the most bruises possible as I did.

“What in the name of Celestia is going on?” I asked, struggling to my feet as the world shook itself all around me. I grabbed onto a handrail and hung on for dear life.

“We’re moving!” The Doctor shouted followed by a healthy laugh. “We’re not going to get to Twilight if we’re not going anywhere!”

He had a point there.

“Maybe next time you could give us some warning.” I muttered as Ditzy tried her hardest to collect all the first aid stuff that was skittering about the floor as the TARDIS jumped around. The thought of the Doctor’s blue box vaulting around the countryside until it reached its destination brought a small smile to my face.

“Stop being such a downer, Midnight. Honestly, I’d say you get better with time, but really, you’re always just a stick in the mud aren’t you?”

The smile fell off of my face. Jerk.

The TARDIS halted all of a sudden; the rumbling stopped; the groaning stopped; and, most mercifully of all, the shaking stopped.

Death to the rumblies.

“Are we there?” I tentatively asked.

The Doctor shrugged. “Give or take an hour or two.”

“The Everfree Forest is out there, huh?” I nodded in the direction of the door, hardly able to believe it despite how many unbelievable things had happened to me today.

“Yes, that was our destination after all.” The Doctor . “It’s perfectly safe. Just a forest. Out you go.”

“Yeah,” Ditzy agreed, “It’s just a forest full of manticores, dragons, timber wolves, and giant bears made out of pure cosmic energy.” She paused for a moment, her eyes traveling in opposite directions. She blinked once and they realigned themselves. “And snakes. Lots of snakes.”

“And you’re just going to leave me here?” I pouted.

The Doctor sighed, his ears slouching. He turned to Ditzy. “Care to accompany the lovely shape shifter and I on a romantic walk through the woods?”

“Better not risk Twilight seeing the two of us together.” Ditzy responded. “I’m hardly associated with you right now. I don’t want her asking me about you later. I won’t know what the hay she’s talking about.”

“Well then.” The Doctor grinned at me. “I suppose it’s just you and me then.”

“Don’t get any weird ideas.” I said, stepping away from him. It’s funny, earlier today I was willing to confront a serious phobia just to get Lyra to like me, but the Doctor already seemed to like me despite my ‘stick in the mud’ nature.

“What? No!” He insisted, exasperated. “Let’s get moving. Believe it or not, but Ditzy and I are actually very busy ponies.”

I nodded, opening the doors. Half of me expected us to still be in Whitetail Woods, but the blackened, twisted trees with gnarled limbs proved the contrary. The Doctor stepped out behind me. I returned my gaze to our vehicle. It was still as small as it always was.

“How does it work?” I asked him on a whim.

“Pocket dimension.” He responded cheerfully, acknowledging the question but not really answering it. Fine. I didn’t expect him to answer anyway.

Besides, a different, more pressing question needed to be asked. “How do you know I’m a changeling?”

“Because you told me.” The Doctor replied. It unsettled me how comfortable he was as he said it, like it didn’t matter at all that he knew a secret that would drastically change my life, likely for the worse, if anypony found out about it. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m not a pony either.”

“What?” He certainly looked like a pony to me, and to the best of my knowledge, changelings were the only things that could emulate the appearance of a pony. The not-pony I saw in the crowd earlier during that fight with Trixie came to mind. I didn’t really know what to do about that, and there was no way that he didn’t notice me. He was looking right at me, and even if he wasn’t, I was right in the middle of a fight. He would’ve seen me and noticed what I was. Our species can’t fool each other after all.

“I’m a timelord.” The Doctor continued, oblivious to my inner conflict. “In my universe, I resembled something called a human being. In this universe, I’m a pony apparently. Strange how the world works, huh?”

“A human?” My mind caught on that subject. This was the second time today I heard that word after an entire life of never knowing it existed. What was it the Doctor said when he met me? He didn’t believe in coincidences? “They’re real?”

The Doctor nodded, a smile on his face. “We have ponies in my universe as well, but not nearly so colorful and cuddly... And they’re not sentient.”

My mind was still a whirl from the earlier revelation and the best I could manage was: “How can they not be sentient?”

“Humans are the universal model there while ponies are the universal model here. With humans as the dominant species, all the other species got pushed to the side.”

I was going to ask him more questions, but he interrupted my unspoken thoughts.

“Ah! here we are. Ta-da.”

If the Doctor hadn’t pointed it out, I doubt I would’ve seen it myself. Right in the middle of the Everfree forest was another gnarled, green-grey tree with murky leaves, but this one was different. Most obvious about it, of course, was the slightly lighter colored wooden door blending in with the dark wood. hanging from many of the branches were bottles fill with colorful liquids and resting against a twisted root was a large, red mask with green highlights.

“What is it with ponies and living in trees?” I asked the Doctor.

He shrugged. “It’s the economy.” He walked up to the door with me fol--- that mask was totally looking at me.

Knock-knock. Stupid mask. Go look at somepony else. Knock-knock.

No answer. I shifted uncomfortably under the scrutinizing gaze of the mask.

I was about to tell the Doctor to knock again when the door opened and a zebra adorned with bands of gold that ran around her neck and fore legs emerged.

“This is a surprise.” She said, an odd rhythm in her voice. “Two more ponies right before my eyes.” Her eyes fell on the bandage wrapped around my leg.

“Hello, I’m the Doctor and this is Midnight. We’re looking for Twilight Sparkle.”

Zecora invited us inside with another verse. The inside of her home unsurprisingly reminded me of the the library. The walls, like the library, were covered in shelves, but unlike the library, the shelves were laden with large beakers and bottles and bags full an array of strange liquids, sand or powder, or leaves. In the center of the room was a cauldron simmering over an active fire, and sitting around the cauldron was Twilight and a yellow pegasus.

“Midnight?” Twilight shouted in surprise, concern filling her voice. “What happened to you?”

“It’s a long story.” I dismissed. “But right now we have a huge problem.”

“No, you’re hurt!” Twilight walked up and examined me.

“I’m fine.” I moved away uncomfortably.

“Last I checked, three cracked ribs isn’t fine.” The Doctor mused. I shot him a glare.

“Three cracked ribs! What happened to you?” Twilight ran around me, fussing over the bloodstained bandages tangled around my leg.

“It’s nothing.”

“She and her friend tried taking on Trixie.” The Doctor answered, examining things on the shelf closest to the door so he wouldn’t have to meet my second death glare. He took his screwdriver out and that annoying buzzing played as he pointed it at a jar full of bubbling, blue liquid.

Meanwhile, Twilight’s eyes got really wide. “You what?”

“It’s not a big deal.” I pushed past Twilight, grunting as she gingerly touched my side.

“Of course it’s a big deal!” Twilight exclaimed. “Look at how you ended up! Trixie went from banishing me to seriously hurting you and...” She gasped. “Who did you fight her with?”

“Lyra.” I responded, sitting down roughly next to the yellow pegasus. “Hi.” I grunted. She squeaked something in return, her face going red.

“The musician who plays in the park? Is she okay?” Something clicked in her brain then. “How did you take on Trixie?”

A jar suddenly exploded. My head whipped around to see the Doctor, his buzzing screwdriver in his hoof, surrounded by the remnants of one of Zecora’s jars.

“Zecora, you have some wonderfully explosive concoctions.” He coughed. The zebra gave him a disapproving look

“Who are you anyway?” Twilight asked.

“So many questions.” The Doctor ignored her question, picking up glass with his hoof.

“Twilight, it’s a really long story, and we need to focus on the problem at hoof.”

Twilight closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She released it slowly. She opened her eyes. Those eyes got wide. Her mouth opened. “When did you become a unicorn?”

I tugged at my mane. “That’s not important right now.” I tried. That didn’t remove Twilight’s scrutinizing gaze from my forehead. She was asking too many questions and she wasn’t getting enough answers. I could tell she wasn’t going to let this go without an immediate answer, of which I had none.

I shifted next to the silent pegasus, looking around the room to avoid Twilight’s gaze, trying to come up with a suitable response. The Doctor picking up glass, depositing it into a deep pocket. Zecora grinded something with a mortar and pestle at her work table.

Twilight didn’t really deserve to be lied to. I didn’t want to lie to her. The Doctor already knew I was a changeling, and he didn’t seem to care. Then again, he wasn’t a pony either. There was no telling how Twilight would react.

In the end, I could the only response I could come up with was one that I knew was woefully inadequate. “Yeah... I’ve ah... I’ve always been a unicorn.”

Twilight gave me a hurt look.

“I’ll explain everything later, okay? Right now we’ve got to focus on the problem at hoof.”

“I must agree with Midnight. Calm your mind and see what’s right.” Zecora rhymed. “If we are to win this fight, you must see past this simple slight.” Zecora approached me warily, holding a wooden cup full of a noxious green paste. “This will help your weary bones, calm your pains, and block your groans.”

Trying not to be rude, I declined. “I have an easily upset stomach.” I rationed.

Zecora shrugged in a way that suggested that she would’ve been impressed if I was able to keep it down even if I didn’t have an uneasy stomach. “Consumption is not the way to apply this medicine. Put it in your bandages next time you change them.” [it almost rhymes, okay]

“Um... Sure thing.” I took the wood cup from her, having absolutely no intention of applying it to anything, least of all my bandages.

“So, Twilight Sparkle,” The Doctor started, throwing a bunch of glass shards into his pocket, “Why don’t you tell us what you’re planning on doing about this problem.”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “Fluttershy,” She gestured toward the yellow pegasus that had yet to say a coherent word, “made it out of Ponyville. Apparently Trixie is using the power of an ancient artifact called the alicorn amulet in order to boost her magical capabilities.”

I nodded. “Lyra noticed that.”

“It corrupts the wearer’s mind every time the amulet is used. Unfortunately, we can’t just run up to her and take it off. Only the wearer can remove the amulet.”

“Of course.” I muttered bitterly. “It would have been too simple if I had actually been able to take it off.”

Twilight paid my mutterings no mind. “I think that I know how we could get it off of her.”

“Enlighten us.” The Doctor smiled.

“Well...” Twilight told us of her plan. She told us how she was going to have Fluttershy sneak back into Ponyville. She told us how she planned to trick Trixie using a deceptive combination of fur dye and ingenuity.

“Ingenious.” The Doctor mused. “Well, ingenious only if it works I suppose.”

I nodded when the Doctor looked my way. It did sound like it could work if everything went right, but it also sounded like it had a million seems that could burst at any moment. “It’s not the most watertight of plans.”

“I know.” Twilight acknowledged despondently. “but it’s the best of our bad options.”

“Can’t you get ahold of the princesses?”

“Princess Celestia is still in Saddle Arabia, and without Spike I can’t get a message to her.”

Oh yeah. Well feathers.

“What about the other princesses?” I heard myself say.

Twilight paused. “I... didn’t really think of them.”

“Great!” The Doctor said, throwing a hoof over my shoulder. “Midnight and I will go alert Luna while you, Zecora, and Flittershoot go and try out plan A.”

I shrugged out from under the Doctor’s leg, giving him a scolding look. “Are you okay with that, Twilight?”

“The trains can’t run if Ponyville’s station is still under the dome, and it’ll take days to get to Canterlot on foot.” Twilight shook her head. “You’re in no condition to go anywhere.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but the Doctor beat me to it. “Don’t worry about transport. I’ve got that covered, and don’t worry about Midnight. She may be a bit rough around the edges, but she’s got a heart of gold.”

I tried to stop myself from gawking. The Doctor didn’t seem like the type of pony who doled out compliments. That just made it weirder.

Chapter 8: TARDISing

o----[ Chapter 8: TARDISing ]---------------------o

My second trip in the TARDIS was only marginally better than the first. Damaged as I was, I didn’t have nearly as much fun as the Doctor seemed to have, and while Ditzy did throw an apologetic look toward me, I suspected she liked it as much as the Doctor did.

When the TARDIS stopped, the Doctor took it in stride. “Here we are, Canterlot castle.”

“Excellent.” I smiled, trying to chase away the remaining agitation. “Let’s get going.” I put my hoof against the door, but I didn’t open it when I realized that the Doctor and Ditzy weren’t following.

“You’re not coming.” I didn’t phrase it as a question. I knew that I was lucky just to get their help as long as I did.

“If it’s any consolation,” The Doctor frowned, “it’s not for lack of wanting to help.” The smile returned to his face and I had no doubt that it was genuine. “You can take it from here.”

“We’re already here.” Ditzy smiled as well, though hers was more apologetic. “We’re taking a big enough chance as it is.”

“What do you-”

“Paradoxes.” The Doctor interrupted. “Younger versions of Ditzy and I are already in Canterlot right now, chasing after a large carnivorous fungus through the sewer system if I recall.”

“We can’t cross our own timeline.” Ditzy explained. “Bad things happen.”

That made a lot of sense, and I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Thank you.” I looked at both of them in turn. “Both of you. I don’t know what I would have done if you two hadn’t shown up.”

The Doctor waved his hoof dismissively. “We’re only returning a favor. Someday we’ll ask you if there’s anything we can do for you, and you’ll think of now.”

I was quiet for a bit. “I probably shouldn’t ask, but... how is it?”

Ditzy tipped her head inquisitively, her eyes rolling around in their sockets. “What?”

“The future.”

1 “That’s a dangerous question.”

I shrugged. “It wouldn’t have felt right if I didn’t ask.” My smile was easy and without a trace of apology. “I’ll be off then.” I raised my hoof and nudged the door. it opened easily, squeaking at the hinges.

“You’re brilliant.” The Doctor said as a good bye. “That’s all you can ever be.”

The door shut behind me. The TARDIS quickly disappeared.

~~~~~

I’ve only been to Canterlot once, and I never got near the castle. I was lower on the mountain near the red district, the closest thing to a ghetto the most prosperous city in the world could have. The red district was nice enough, every building was certainly nicer than the nicest building in Ponyville. It wasn’t red though.

Canterlot castle was a great deal nicer than the red district. The hallway I was deposited in had a high, arching ceiling, with long stone walls interrupted by large stained glass windows depicting fanciful creatures that I wasn’t sure existed. Large wooden doors occasionally interrupted the detailed masonry of the walls and were carved with fancy patterns. Even the floor was lavished with a myriad of colorful tiles.

I almost didn’t mind being surrounded by three of Celestia’s royal guard, spears pointed at my face.

Almost.

I suppose I wasn’t exactly allowed to just TARDIS into a royal castle. Then again, I doubt there was a rule explicitly stating that I shouldn’t use the TARDIS to get into the castle. I doubted they’d appreciate it if I mentioned that though.

“State your name.” One of them, a pegasus, gruffly demanded.

Lying occurred to me. However, when I worked under somepony who personally knew and regularly exchanged letters with Celestia herself, I had a good chance at getting caught in that lie later, unnecessarily complicating the situation. Not to mention that despite being a changeling, I wasn’t the hottest liar around.

“Midnight.” I replied, though I guess that was technically still a lie, but it was close enough to the truth. “I have urgent-”

“How did you get here?” The same guard asked.

“I-”

“Hey!” Another guard raised his spear, a glare thrown off into the distance seemingly at nopony in particular, “what are you, thick? Captain Armor said that anyone observed with the blue box was to be apprehended and taken to him immediately.” This guard was a unicorn, and something about him was off. It took me a moment to realize that his eyes, fully white, didn’t focus on anything.

He was blind.

“Yes, Lieutenant.” The other guard, presumably a lower rank, saluted with his wing. He looked a bit annoyed, but complied anyway.

“You two, comb the area. Trouble is known to crop up where when the police box shows up.”

“Yes, sir!” They both shouted in unison, going in different directions.

“Midnight?” The blind unicorn guard probed. “I trust you won’t do something stupid like run away.” The way he phrased it made it sound more like a statement than a question.

“I doubt I’d make it very far.” I said truthfully, though I quickly realized how bad it made me look in more ways than one. It implied that I would run away if I thought I could, but I apparently couldn’t even escape from a blind pony. I opened my mouth to abridge that, but I decided to let it drop rather than draw attention to it.

“You wouldn’t.” The guard agreed. An expression of disdain appeared on his face as he shouldered his spear. “I hate this thing.” He admitted.

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything. He began walking down the hall. I gave him a pony length before following him. A spear in the hooves of a blind pony is what makes more blind ponies, reminding me painfully that I couldn’t just shift away my ailments like my higher-ups in the hive could.

The lieutenant led me through lavenous hallways, up flights of stairs, through doors of stone and wood. never once did he hesitate or bump into anything like I would expect a blind guard would.

Eventually we reached an uninteresting door studded with iron. The blind guard knocked on it. “A passenger from the blue box has arrived, captain.”

Where once there was silence there was now a sound like furniture being tipped over as the occupant(s) of the room scrambled to the door. The blind guard pushed me back a bit before the door flew open, brushing past the place where I had just been standing.

“Where is he?” A lone white unicorn with a blue mane, the standard guard colors, demanded. He wore no armor, which jarred me. I had never seen a guard without armor. Rather, I probably had, but without enchanted armor, the colors of guard ponies return to their original scheme.

I found my voice. “The Doctor? He’s gone. He was only dropping me off.”

The guard captain looked me up and down, making me shift uncomfortably. When he spoke, he did so to my escort. “Lieutenant Vigilance, I trust you’ve searched the surrounding area?”

“Redfield and Flusher are on it.” Vigilance nodded.

The guard captain seemed unsatisfied with this. “Get Bitter Bun on it as well... and you’d better get down there as well. Sweep the entire area twice. We can’t risk missing anything.”

Vigilance nodded again then excused himself out the door.

The captain finally turned back to face me, a judging look on his face. I once again felt his eyes sliding down my form, stopping at my bandaged leg, my multiple bandaids, my back left leg that was barely touching the ground because when any weight was put on it, a jolt of pain would jump up my spine.

“You look like a mess.” The captain said, his horn lighting up as he levitated the papers scattered across the ground into a messy stack.

“I feel like a mess.” I admitted.

“Do you need medical attention?” He asked.

“No.”

“Your name?”

“Midnight.”

“Captain Shining Armor, at your service.”

Captain... Shining Armor? As in the captain Shining Armor? My fur tingled and I forgot all about Trixie.

“I suppose you’d better come in.” Shining Armor entered the room, and I followed him after a moment of struggling with quivering legs.

“So, to what do I owe this unexpected visit to?” He asked, his horn glowing with blue light as he swept up the mess he made in his mad rush to get to the door.

“Uh... Ponyville! Ponyville is in trouble!” I choked out, trying to shake the awkwardness out of me. I’m Midnight, not Niphi. I had nothing to do with the invasion of Canterlot...

“Is everyone okay?” He asked, an urgent tone in his voice.

“Yeah... last time I was there. The only reason I got hurt was because I challenged Trixie. It figures. If the most powerful unicorn in Ponyville can’t beat her, then what could I do?” I said the last bit as a joke, but it only piqued his interest.

“Twilight? Is she okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, confused. “She’s actually going back to try to win a rematch. We need to get the Princess. She doesn’t stand a chance.”

“What do you mean? Twilight is the most powerful unicorn I know.”

“Yeah, but Trixie has a magic amulet.”

“What?”

“Okay,” I facehoofed, “maybe I should start from the beginning.”

“That might be helpful, yes.”

So I explained to him how Trixie came into town and started messing things up. At the mention of how Twilight bravely stepped up to defend Ponyville, he smiled. I told him how Twilight lost her fight and was banished. I told him how Lyra and I stepped up to the plate and were also beaten. I told him how I found Twilight with the Doctor’s help though I told him nothing of Ditzy and the words shared between the three of us. I told him about the alicorn amulet, I told him about Twilight’s plan, and I finally told him how I got to Canterlot.

He was silent as I finished the story. “...And that’s why we need Luna.”

Silence. Shining Armor’s eyes roamed his desk as if searching for something. “That’s quite a story.” He said finally. “I have complete faith in my sister, but...”

“Sister?”

“Twilight Sparkle. I thought you knew.” He said absently.

…... Feath- no! Feathering feather. Not only did I make the bright decision of getting a job with Princess Celestia’s personal student and the element of magic, but apparently she’s also the sister of the captain of the guard whose wedding my species decided to crash. Feathering FEATHER. How stupid can I possibly be.

I kept a strained smile on my face.

“Cadence should be more than enough to handle this.” Shining Armor said, deep in thought.

Of course. If Twilight’s brother wasn’t enough, let’s bring in her sister-in-law! Some part of me thought bitterly while the rest of me slowly began to sink into panic. Today was not my day.

“What about princess Luna?” I asked timidly.

“Luna is otherwise occupied.” Captain Armor replied sternly. He came out from behind his desk, trotting to the door. “You coming?”

I didn’t want to. I just wanted to go home and sink into my bed and never get up. “Yeah.” I sighed, coming to my feet. I winced as stiffened limbs began to hurt as I raced to catch up with Shining Armor.

~~~~~

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza could really only be described in one way: graceful. And beautiful to a lesser extent, I suppose, but describing Princess Cadence as beautiful brings up an image that isn’t nearly as accurate as graceful is. While beautiful is what she looks like, graceful is what she is. Every movement she made was perfect and flawlessly elegant. Every smile that came to her face, and there were a lot of them, was natural and easy. Her voice was smooth and pleasant on your ear like a creek running over smooth stones. Every step she took caught your eye as if she were dancing.

Princess Cadence fit well into the role of princess, even if she wasn’t nearly as important or widely known as Celestia. Her wedding, and the fiasco prior to it, had cast her back into the public eye, and when Captain Armor and I found her, she was entertaining the delegates from Zebrica over tea. At her husband’s calling, she politely yet gracefully excused herself even as the snooty, noble, gold plated zebras turned their noses up at the sight of me.

“This had better be important.” Princess Cadence snapped at Shining Armor once the door to her rooms shut behind her. “I had them sitting next to each other! Sitting without a cold word between the two!”

“Congratulations!” Shining Armor smiled, but dropped it when he saw that his wife wasn’t sharing in his enthusiasm. “Ahem... We need to head to Ponyville ASAP.”

Cadence’s voice turned gentle. “Is something wrong?”

Shining Armor nodded. “I’ll explain on the way. I’ve already sent word, there’s a chariot waiting for us.”

“I don’t understand, Shining. Shouldn’t Luna handle this? We don’t have jurisdiction here.”

“The Princess is otherwise occupied.” Shining Armor said automatically.

“What is she doing?” Cadence asked, confusion thick in her voice.

“I’d rather not say.”

“Tell me right now.” She stamped her hoof.

“She’s ah...” His eyes flickered toward me as he gave a resigned sigh. “I’d rather not say in front of our company.”

“Wha-” Cadence followed his gaze and finally saw me. “Oh. Hello.”

“Hi.” I said awkwardly. What do you say to the mare that your queen practically tried to murder?

“Who is this?” She asked, directing her question to Shining.

“Cadence, this is Midnight. She’s come from Ponyville.”

Cadence looked me over. Her eyes didn’t widen or do anything of the sort but I could just feel that she was alarmed. “Oh my.”

Shining Armor nodded. “And this is why we have to get to Ponyville.”

“Are you okay?” Cadence asked, her voice dripping with her graceful concern.

“I’ll be fine. Ponyville is what we need to focus on.”

“Right.” Cadence nodded, a determined look on her face. “I assume you’ve already told Aunty Luna that we’re departing.”

“Well, uh... No.” Shining stuttered. “She’s kind of... busy right now. I don’t want to disturb her.”

“That may be, but she still needs to know that we’re leaving.”

“You know that any other time I’d agree with you, but trust me when I say that this one time we should leave Luna to her business.”

Cadence looked as if she was going to press the issue, but back down. “Alright sweetie. I trust you.”

Up until that point I had been gently nursing on the stream of love flowing between the two of them, but when Cadence said that, the flood gates opened, throwing me into a fit of coughing.

~~~~~

Of course, Twilight being Twilight, when we reached Ponyville, it wasn’t under the tyrannical rule of a cynical sky-colored mare. The glass bowl was gone and the black clouds trapped within had been kicked away by the resident weather team.

The royal chariot caused quite a commotion among the ponies when it set down, and Cadence immediately began greeting the ecstatic ponies. The signs that Trixie was here were still all over the place: banners, statues, houses damaged by the terrible storm caught in the bowl, settling my fear that the Doctor had put me down at the wrong time. It was clear that Twilight’s plan had succeeded.

Good for her. So everything I just did was completely unnecessary. I sighed dejectedly.

Captain Armor’s attention was fixed on his wife as she greeted the populace, and, judging I was no longer needed, I decided to prolong a goodbye and slipped off the back of the chariot, sucking in a breath as my hooves hit the ground.

Despite the pain I felt, I was feeling good as I strutted (as best I could in my condition) away from the chariot and the gathering crowd of ponies. My hunger was sated thanks to Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, and Twilight stopped a threat to ponyville. I played a part, however small, in helping her do that. And Lyra...

I wanted to know if Lyra was alright, but how was I supposed to find her? After all the activity today, I doubt she’d be playing in the park, and I didn’t know where she lived. Buck it. It had been a long day and I could worry about that tomorrow.

Still being a little fuzzy with the layout of Ponyville, I locked my eyes on the canopy of leaves that I knew had to be the library. I set a pace and began weaving through the streets and alleys between buildings to reach my destination.

~~~~~

Stepping into the library was certainly an experience, meaning that I screamed to say the least. Every single shelf was empty and the floor was covered in a carpet of books, most of them splayed out and folding the inside pages. The desk was in the center of the room, two of the legs broken off, and the book ledger was nowhere to be seen.

I tip toed around books incredulously. “What in Tartarus happened here?” I asked out loud, though nopony was around to hear me. Knowing that I was in no state, neither physically nor mentally, to fix any of this, I made my way to the stairs, climbed up said stairs until I reached my room, then collapsed in my bed inside said room, closing my eyes for what seemed like only a second.

When I opened my eyes, my door was open and the silhouette of a pony was outlined against the light of the hall. I shouted in surprise, flailing my limbs wildly and bringing a wave of pain through my body.

“Midnight, it’s just me!” Twilight stepped into my room, flicking on the light switch with her flowing purple tail, exposing my ruined room.

She looked around ruefully. “Even your room is a mess.”

“It was like that when I got in.” I said, wiping the sleep from my eyes.

“Trixie turned the library upside down.”

“She what?” I didn’t even know it was possible to move something so big with magic. No wonder I got my flank kicked.

“And you missed an awesome party Pinkie Pie threw at Sugarcube Corner.”

“You know I don’t really like parties.”

…

“We have something to discuss.” Twilight said without warning, looking at the mirror on the back of my door. Three long cracks originated from the center, spiking out to the edge of the mirror and reflecting three slightly different Twilights.

“I’m afraid so.” I conceded dejectedly.

“So I have four questions.” Twilight turned around, looking me in the eye seriously. “One: Why are you a unicorn? Two: why is your horn broken? Three: how did you hide your horn? And four: why didn’t you tell me about any of this?”

“Uh...” Horseapples. I had expected questions, but her barrage left me looking like a deer in headlights. “I- I’ve always been a unicorn.” I said unconvincingly. “And I broke my horn years ago, but it never regrew... and I’ve been hiding it-”

“You’re not a very good liar.” Twilight interjected.

“I...” I looked away from her. Feather. This always happened when I found a place to stay. I always messed something up. I said the wrong thing. I transformed in my sleep. I ate too much love. Somepony always found me out and I was run out of town. “I’m sorry.”

Twilight’s look softened, and she sighed. “Fine. I don’t need to know. Just answer me one question and promise not to lie.”

“I promise.” I had a sinking feeling that I wouldn’t be able to keep my promise.

“Are you...” Twilight started, looking at me with an unsure expression on her face. I bristled, waiting for the word ‘changeling.’ “Are you in trouble?”

“W...What?”

“It’s just,” Twilight elaborated, “you always look so unsure, and you’re always watching what you say. It’s like you’re a filly caught with her hoof in the cookie jar.”

I didn’t really know what to say to that. “I... I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

“No lying.” Twilight chastised.

“No.” I conceded. “I’m not in trouble.” Not yet. But if this keeps up I will be. “It’s just post-moving nerves.” And there I go breaking my promise. Not only am I terrible at being a changeling, I’m also a terrible pony in general.

Twilight looked me up and down. “Fine... but you’ve got to teach me that spell some time. I’ve never heard of a spell that can hid a unicorn’s horn.”

“Yeah. Maybe sometime.” I smiled.

“And thank you.” Twilight’s eyes softened. “For trying to beat Trixie.” She pulled me into a hug unexpectedly, a weak trickle of love dripping down my throat. “You’re a good friend.”

I was suddenly unable to form a coherent thought. I couldn’t remember the last time somepony besides my mom had given me a hug.

“But you’re going to the hospital tomorrow.” Twilight finished, unwrapping her hooves from around my neck.

Going to the place full of ponies professionally trained to spot things wrong with ponies? I just dodged one bullet. Why would I voluntarily shoot myself? but I didn’t want to throw her kindness back in her face by refusing. I’d make some excuse tomorrow. I didn’t want to ruin this moment.

“And we need to clean the entire library, reshelve all the books, and replace all the things that Trixie broke.” Twilight groaned. “And I need to practice for the show for the delegates from Saddle Arabia. So much to do.”

“And so little time.” I agreed.

Author's Note

... Don't ask. I hate this chapter. well, I hate the middle part. The end and beginning are fine, but the middle was an uninteresting place that was basically just there to tie up the story arc.

And now that there's a dry spell in the episodes Midnight can appear in, it's time to come up with filler! and by that I mean original content!

like, favorite and comment. They're all appreciated, especially comments.

Chapter 9: Spaghetti and Haybales

o----[ Chapter 9: Spaghetti and Haybales ]---------------------------o

“Why give him two tails?” I complained. “Why not just give him wings and let him fly with those?” The pony on the television screen jumped into the air with a press of a button. His twin tails spun around at a high velocity, lifting him through the air flank first. It was a completely ridiculous concept, and it was completely unresponsive as as I forcibly twisted the joystick around on the controller in my hooves. I grunted in frustration, my eyes briefly roaming Lyra and Bon Bon’s bedroom momentarily before returning to Lyra’s large television.

Not many ponies in ponyville had a TV -it was a luxury item that rarely had a use in rural Equestria- and I doubted anypony had a TV as large as the one in Lyra and Bon Bon’s bedroom. Lyra was a Canterlot pony after all.

“I told you that you wouldn’t like this game.” Lyra idly mentioned. She loused lazily on her bed, strumming one of her lyres lightly with her hoof to create an enchanting background melody that teetered on the edge of awareness.

it wasn't the same lyre she had used while fighting Trixie. Trixie, in her anger, had savagely rended the beautiful instrument after ripping it from Lyra's stubborn hooves. I felt a bit guilty. After all, if it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t have been fighting Trixie, but glancing over at Lyra’s dresser where two ornate and well kept lyres still sat in their display stands made me feel a bit better.

“Nopony likes this game.” Lyra continued her earlier statement.

Some time after landing from my awkward attempt at virtual flight, I pushed the analog stick forward, engaging in battle against a robot that... just sort of stood there awkwardly. “And why does Tails throw fake rings as an attack? It’s just confusing.” I wasn't having a difficult time understanding why no pony would like playing this.

“Because it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. That was the entire goal for whoever designed this game. after a certain point, you can't claim that creating an abomination like this was an accident.” Lyra absent-mindedly launched into a new ditty with her lyre even while talking with me. She made a small mistake, grunted in acknowledgement, then started over. “You’re going the wrong way by the way.”

“I can do it.” I snapped even as Tails touched ankle deep water. He then died from drowning In water that was hardly deeper than an inch. Something deep and primal inside my twisted changeling body stirred in frustration. How many times by now had I died from something as inane as this?

“You’ve got to go the other way. When you reach the beach you’ve got to fly onto that dock.”

“I can figure it out.” I snapped. “Just because I haven’t played as many video games as you, doesn’t mean that I can’t figure it out.”

“You’ve never played a video game before." Lyra giggled at my frustration. "Excuse me if I was trying to help.”

“Fine.” I threw the controller onto the bed. “You beat it.”

She took the controller in her telekinetic grasp, smiling widely. Tails ran across the screen, firing fake ring bombs at anything and everything that moved before flying up and away. “I’ve beaten the Sonic Boom campaign. I was being serious when I said that this is one of the worst games I’ve ever played. Don’t you want to play something else?”

I stubbornly shook my head. “I can do this.”

“But you can’t even call this a game. It’s so broken.” Tails flew around the screen, the camera spinning around wildly, causing Lyra to grunt in frustration. “My girlfriend is going to be home soon.” She smiled as a thought occurred to her. “You really thought Pinkie Pie was my girlfriend?”

I flushed, picking at the bandage still around my left foreleg. “I didn’t know that anypony else worked at Sugarcube Corner.”

“But Pinkie Pie?” Lyra shrugged, her grin never fading. “Though that would certainly make my nights more interesting. I mean, don’t get me wrong. Bon Bon is alright, but Pinkie Pie has to be into some weird stuff.”

She dropped Tails down onto some sort of button and Sonic came back on the screen. I groaned. Sonic was even weirder than Tails. He couldn’t fly, but had wings. He just used them to go fast. It made no sense. This entire game made no sense. I’ll take a book over a video game any day.

Sonic made a quip about how he needed to speed up and then the screen blurred and Sonic started running fast.

“The mach segments are really hard.” Lyra said over my shoulder. “Want me to do this, too?”

“I’ve got this.” I ran into a wall and died.

“Are you sure?” Lyra teased.

“I didn’t- He just- He just ran into the wall. I wasn’t even touching the controller. He turned and ran into the wall!”

“I told you it was a terrible game.”

“Then why do you have it?” I retorted, restarting the game.

“Because Sonic used to be awesome, and when it came out, I didn’t know that this game would suck so much.” Lyra finished her song and launched into an emulation of the one that was currently playing as Sonic the pony raced over the beach. I squinted in concentration, jumping over obstacles and squeezing between pillars of stone.

“Dude, get the rings!” Lyra announced. “You can take a hit if you have a ring.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense.” But I directed Sonic toward the rings anyway. Sure enough, when I inevitably hit a pillar of stone, I lost all my rings but Sonic was still alive.

“Hey, anypony home?” A feminine voice called from outside the bedroom. The effect on Lyra was immediate. Her cute, little pony ears perked up noticeably, a smile growing on her face. I felt a small aura of love start radiate from her. The melody of her lyre splintered off.

“In here!” Lyra called out.

A cream colored mare appeared in the doorway, her curled indigo and taffy-colored mane bobbing slightly with her sashaying steps. “Oh, hello.” She said, a surprised expression overcoming her features “I forgot we were having company.” Her cutie mark was three tastefully arranged candies with striped wrappings.

“Hi.” I greeted. I heard Sonic die on the screen, making me swear inwardly. I was almost to the end, too. Don’t ask me how I knew; I could feel it in my cracked ribs.

“Bon Bon, this is Midnight. Midnight, Bon Bon.” Lyra introduced. “This one is my girlfriend.”

Bon Bon stepped into the room. “You’re the one who thought I was Pinkie Pie?” She grinned. Despite my immediate blush that spread over my features, I was struck by the simplistic attraction of her smile.

“Lookin’ great, babe.” Lyra smirked, hopping off the bed and landing with a thud.

“I thought your leg hurt.” Bon Bon reminded her, a hint of disapproval in her voice.

“It does. It’s excruciating. Kiss me and make it all better.”

Bon Bon tried to look annoyed, but it soon turned into a smile as she complied with Lyra’s wish. Uncomfortable, I turned back to the screen, observing the features of the pause screen as love floated through the air. Changelings ate love, but they couldn’t feel it or understand it. What about it had such a dramatic affect on ponies like Lyra?

“Anyway, I’ve had a hard day of working the ovens.” Bon Bon shuffled away from Lyra. “You’d be surprised at how sick a pony can get of the smell of cookies when you’re baking them all day.”

“I’ll handle dinner.” Lyra offered. “Midnight, you got any preferences?”

“I’m... I’m good.” I excused, knowing I sounded rude.

“Oh come on.” Lyra said, nudging me with a hoof. “You’ve got to be hungry for something. I’ve never seen you eat a single thing.”

Being unable to eat pony food had been my downfall in at least one other village that I tried to settle down in. “Yeah... I’m allergic to a lot of things.” Honestly, I wish that I had come up with it sooner.

Lyra couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice. “Are you serious?”

I scratched the back of my neck, not anticipating how bad it felt to lie to my only friend (besides Twilight, but she’s also my boss, so I’m not sure she counts). “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I made you eat that sandwich!”

“I used to tell everypony, but ponies started to make fun of me for it.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Lyra sneered, “You could’ve told me.”

“Well, I know that now.” I insisted.

“Well...” Lyra glanced at Bon Bon. “What can you eat then?”

“Uh...” I hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. That’s what I get for trying to be clever. “Um... You know, hypoallergenic... stuff.”

“Whatever.” Lyra waved her hoof, trotting out of the room. “I’ll throw in a pizza.”

“We don’t have any pizzas.” Bon Bon pointed out. “You ate the last of them yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah. I did, didn’t I?” Lyra chuckled at her own absent-mindedness. “I’ll just whip something up.” She meandered down the hall.

I unpaused the game and Sonic immediately ran into a rock, spraying rings across the countryside. “I’m no good at this.”

“It’s just a waste of time anyway.” Bon Bon sat next to me, studying the screen as Sonic continued to fly his wings at high speeds to propel himself across the beach. “But Lyra loves her games at least half as much as she loves her lyres, and that’s an awful lot.”

“Yeah.” I agreed as if knowing Lyra for little over a week gave me the same impression of her as her long-time girlfriend. The only sound between the two of us was the clacking of a controller in my unwieldy hooves and the alternating sound of sonic collecting rings and then losing them right away.

“Lyra tells me that you were hurt.” Bon Bon said suddenly. I had a feeling that she’d want to talk about Lyra’s and my fight with Trixie.

“I was.” I confirmed, making a show of concentrating on the game. Unfortunately, just as I was trying to focus, Sonic ran into a giant ring and the stage was over just like that. “And Lyra was hurt a bit too.”

“Not really.” Bon Bon shrugged. “She’s more devastated over her lyre than anything.”

I glanced over at their dresser; the lyres on top of it gleamed with obvious care. “Why does she have so many?”

“Hmm?” Bon Bon followed my gaze. “Oh. She plays all of them. She’s really quite good.”

“All of them?” I asked incredulously. “You mean at the same time?”

Bon Bon nodded. “As I understand, not many musicians can do that.”

My mind spun. I hadn’t made a habit of levitating things even when I had an unblemished horn, but I knew that manipulating multiple objects with magic got exponentially harder with each object; it felt like trying to solve two separate rubix cubes in your head at the same time.

“And she composes her own music.” Bon Bon added. “I’m sure you’ve heard her play some in the park.”

“Yeah.” I got tired of looking at my D rating on the TV screen, pressing a button. A scene began playing out in which Sonic did something that I honestly couldn’t care any less about.

“And she’s got a good heart. She can’t just sit around while another pony needs her.” Bon Bon continued, ignoring the TV. “She’s beautiful and talented and the world would be a bleak place without her, so be careful around her, okay?”

I looked down at Lyra’s controller held in Midnight’s hooves. I was suddenly very painfully aware that this skin I was wearing wasn’t my own. I may have made it, but I was really only wearing it as a convincing costume. I was the wolf trying to fit in among sheep. A monster.

But I did challenge Trixie to help Twilight... right?

“I’m not going to apologize for what I did.” It was, afterall, one of the few moments I could be proud of in my short life. I could kid myself into believing I had acted out of a sense of heroism, that I had wanted to do my part in protecting my new home.

“I’m not asking you to.” Bon Bon smiled. “Just be more careful. Lyra will throw herself at pretty much anything dangerous if she thinks that it’ll help somepony in need.”

“Bon Bon,” Lyra poked her head around the corner, “Where did you put all our garlic?”

“We don’t have any garlic.” Bon Bon said with a sideways glance.

Lyra harrumphed and disappeared back into the kitchen.

“She was totally just checking up on us.” Bon Bon said a wide smile on her face. “She knows our kitchen better than I do.”

“Was not!” Lyra yelled.

“Were too!” Bon Bon replied

Having been distracted by the exchange between Lyra and Bon Bon, my eyes were pulled back to the screen when a shrill cry of “It’s no use!” permeated the air. The screen now displayed sonic being tossed around by a silver unicorn with green aura.

“Well,” I tossed the controller onto the floor, “I don’t like this game.”

“You shouldn’t!” Lyra yelled. “I think they made it just to piss off as many ponies as they could!”

“Stop yelling in the house!” Bon Bon responded.

“I pay half the rent; I’ll yell in my half!” Lyra shouted.

“Girlfriends.” Bon Bon huffed.

“I don’t know how you can stand her.” I agreed sarcastically.

Bon Bon laughed. “It’s just because she’s cute.”

~~~~~

“It’s Do~ne.” Lyra called.

The table was set with three plates, each with a fork and knife placed next to it. In the center was a bowl full of steaming noodles next to another bowl full of tomato sauce. A large plate was set off to the side, piled high with small, cubed bales of hay.

"Viola!” Lyra continued. “Spaghetti and hay bales!”

Bon Bon frowned. “Why do you always make spaghetti when we have company?”

“Because spaghetti is cool, and I’m cool. That’s why.” Lyra huffed, sitting down heavily next to the low table.

Following her lead, Bon Bon cheerfully sat across from her. “Thank you.”

Lyra grunted, trying to retain her sullen appearance as her horn lit up. A pair of tongs floated out of a drawer, picking up a glop of spaghetti noodles before depositing said noodles on Lyra’s plate.

“Why didn’t you just pick up the noodles with your magic?” I asked, realizing that I was the only one not sitting at the table.

“Do you know where my horn has been?” Lyra mused, grabbing a ladle in the same fashion that she had grabbed the tongs. “So you can’t eat spaghetti and hay bales? Aren’t you hungry at all?”

I shrugged. “You get used to it after awhile.”

“I envy you.” Bon Bon smiled as she twirled her fork in her spaghetti. “Well, not the allergic to everything part. It’s more about the lack of eating part. Working all day in a sweet shop isn’t exactly healthy.”

“I hope you have a good dentist.” I commented.

“I was talking about how fattening it all is, but that’s important, too.”

“Bon Bon, you’re not fat.” Lyra commented. Her tone was flat and unamused and gave me the impression that that statement had worn out long ago.

I had to change the subject. “Anyway,” I interjected, “I read that book you recommended, Lyra.”

Bon Bon’s fork stopped halfway to her mouth. “What book?”

“Uh...” I looked back and forth between Lyra, who was unsubtle motioning for me to shut the hell up, and Bon Bon, who was looking at Lyra with an expression of disdain. Knowing that listening to one would upset the other, I decided to go the safe route. “Anthropology.”

Lyra immediately winced.

Going into battle with a pony watching your back tends to forge a bond that isn’t easily broken. Having just met Bon Bon, I decided that putting my newly forged friendship with Lyra could stand a bit more strain than Bon Bon’s.

“I thought you were done with humans.” Bon Bon whined.

“I am.” Lyra insisted. She released her telekinetic grip on her fork and it dropped down onto her plate. “It just came up and I recommended the book.”

“Humans never come up in conversation, Lyra.”

“I’m sorry.” Lyra’s shoulders slumped. “She just... They just...”

“You know I don’t mind if you study humans. Just tell me about it. You don’t need to sneak around behind my back.”

“No!” Lyra insisted. “I’m done with them!”

“I’m serious.” Bon Bon said. “I don’t mind you researching them.”

“But I do.” Lyra bemoaned. “ I know that ponies still talk about us.”

“Lyra, I don’t care if-”

Oh, Celestia, this conversation was worse than the last. “So...” I cut in.

“Yes!” Lyra exclaimed, hurriedly scrambling at anything to once again change the subject.

“I found more of Twilight’s books this morning. They were scattered all over the place when Trixie turned the library upside down.”

“Oh really?” Lyra said, overcompensating on her fake interest.

“Yeah, they were thrown pretty much everywhere. I found several under the flower box this morning.” And that wasn’t the worst of it. Books were showing up in the weirdest of places. The day after beating Trixie, a little over a week ago, I found a book in the toaster. In. The. Toaster.

“Wait, really?” Lyra’s the fake enthusiasm was gone, replaced by the real thing.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “It hasn’t rained in a week so Twilight asked me to water her flowers, and I just noticed them there. Now we’re only missing seven books and the back cover of Dyslocopia.”

“And I thought Lyra had it bad.” Bon Bon said sarcastically. “She’s been writhing in agony over her sporadically sprained leg. Meanwhile, you’ve been on a wild goose chase with Ponyville’s resident perfectionist. That can’t be pretty.”

I could only nod in agreement before a loud rapping noise punctuated the room, emanating through the front door.

“That’s strange.” Bon Bon muttered. “Lyra, did you invite anypony else?”

Lyra shrugged. “Who else is there for me to invite?”

Bon Bon hopped up, a bounce in her trot as she approached the door. Throwing it open, she let out a cry of surprise.

“Saf! What brings you here?” Bon Bon greeted cheerfully.

A feminine voice responded: “Oh, Derpy delivered your to me again by mist-AHHH!”

The shout drew my gaze. Bon Bon’s body blocked most of the mare in question, but it was clear that the mare was a dark blue pegasus. Her light blue mane and tail were streaked with stripes of varying shades of calming blue and they appeared wind blown and frizzed from a day spent up in the air. Over her back was a tan saddlebag and just behind that was her cutie mark: a cloud in front of a sparkling sapphire.

That’s what Lyra and Bon Bon saw.

I saw something different. Sure, I could see Saf the way she presented herself, but under that I saw the smooth black carapace of a changeling. Memories of treacherous changelings I’ve met since the wedding blurred through my mind.

“Do you two know each other?” Lyra asked after swallowing a mouthful of hay.

“Er...” Saf stuttered slightly. “No. She just reminded me of an ex-girlfriend.” I realized that I was standing, all my muscles tensed and ready for metaphorical flight. I sat back down, trying to get myself to relax. I could handle this. She was only a changeling. I’m a changeling, too.

“I thought you spent Hearts and Hooves Day with a stallion.” Bon Bon

“It was a phase.” Saf replied smoothly.

Lyra grinned. “Which one? The stallion or the mare?”

“Anyway...” Saf reached her hoof into her saddlebag, pulling out a bundle of letters held together by a rubber band. “Derpy delivered your mail to me again.”

“Oh, thank you.” Bon bon took the mail.

“Sorry that I can’t stay and catch up,” Saf turned, her indigo wings spreading, “I’ve got to get something to eat before my weather shift begins.” I relaxed. She’d be gone soon.

“Why not come in?” Bon Bon invited. “Lyra made enough spaghetti for three, but Midnight has allergies.”

“Oh...” She looked uncertainly at the table. “Well, if you don’t mind...”

“Of course I don’t mind. I feel like we haven’t spoken in ages.”

“I know.” Saf smiled widely. “We just don’t talk as much as we used to. My job has me so busy all of the time.”

She couldn’t be a drone. No drone could manipulate a pony like that.

She, of course, sat next to me. I scooted my plate over to her, more than eager to see how she’d embarrass herself getting out of eating food.

“My name is Sapphire Skies.” She held out her hoof. “But everypony calls me Saf.”

“Midnight.” I took her hoof, shaking it cautiously. Actually, this is the first hoofshake I got in ponyville that didn’t nearly tear my leg off (Pinkie Pie gets very enthusiastic).

Saf retracted her hoof, reaching instead for the spaghetti tongs. “Sorry about yelling at you.”

“It’s, uh, it’s okay. It happens to the best of us.”

“Yeah, she’s just been on my mind lately. I guess I’ve been looking for her.”

Was she trying to tell me that she was looking for me? I conjured a smile. “She must’ve been important to you.”

“She was at one time.” Saf, finished filling her plate with a healthy portion of spaghetti, then took her fork in her hoof and liften noodles into her mouth. I gagged reflexively, but Saf seemed to have no problem with the food. She chewed and swallowed, a pleasant smile on her face the entire time.

“Wow, Bon Bon, this is delicious!” She enthusiastically asserted.

“Don’t look at me.” Bon Bon diverted attention from herself. “This is all Lyra’s doing.”

“Oh.” She recovered quickly. “Sorry, Lyra. Um... It tastes great."

Lyra dismissed it with a wave of her hoof. Now that I looked at her, she was obviously perturbed that Bon Bon had invited her but was too polite to say anything.

“So Midnight,” Saf started turning her attention back to me, “I haven’t seen you around.”

“I’m new here.” I said, my mind set on revealing as little as possible to this changeling. The less she knew the better.

“Oh, welcome to Ponyville. I know how it feels being new in town. Trust me, this place is great.

I looked down, studying the grain of the wood. “Well, in the two weeks I’ve been here, it’s been assaulted by a barrage of Pinkie clones and a disgruntled magician run out of town prior to my residence.”

Saf smiled wryly. “I’ll admit that it’s been an eventful two weeks. Say what you like about Ponyville, but it’s certainly not dull.”

"That much is certain." I tried to smile, but I knew that it came across forced.

“You should come by my place some time and we’ll talk. My apartment is just on the other side of the street.”

“Yeah I... uh...” I clopped my hooves together nervously. “The thing is... my boss... she has me working, like, tomorrow and all next week."

“I thought Twilight gave you the weekend off.”

It was all I could do control my facial expression. “Oh, thanks for reminding me, Lyra.”

Lyra shrugged. If I knew Lyra at all, she had to notice that there was something going on between me and Saf. But then again, maybe she didn’t. Maybe she was just pointing out an incongruencey that she noticed.

“So you work for Twilight?” Saf smiled. “She’s nice.”

“Yeah.” My shoulders slumped.

“I’ll have to drop by the library some time.” Saf smile didn’t fade.

I stood up. “Thanks for having me over Lyra.” I said, trying to keep any edge out of my voice. “I just remembered that I have to... do something... for Twilight.” Not the best excuse I could’ve come up with, but my mindset was starting to border hysteria.

“You’re not leaving already are you?” Bon Bon, to her credit, sounded genuinely saddened at this.

“I’ll walk you home.” Lyra dropped her fork halfway to her mouth, causing spaghetti sauce to splatter off her plate.

“Lyra...” Bon Bon whined.

“It was nice meeting you.” Saf said as Lyra apologized to Bon Bon. “Truly, it was.”

“Likewise.” I lied, eager to get out of there before any more of my personal details were shared. “Coming Lyra?” I asked.

“Yeah, give me a sec.” Her horn glowed as she manipulated a napkin to clean up the mess she made before she threw it into the trash. “Let’s go.”

After Lyra gave Bon Bon a quick peck on the cheek, which nearly doubled the amount of love floating around the room, we exited their apartment into the humid dusk.

Though it wasn’t quite dark yet, Lyra immediately lit up her horn with her golden aura, lighting her features and creating a contrast with the darkness that couldn’t be dispelled from below. Taking that as my cue, I lit my horn up as well, creating a green, flickering flame that didn’t let off nearly as much light as Lyra’s silky soft glow.

I often wondered after I crashed into that tree and broke my horn why my magic aura morphed into a flame. Perhaps it was because most of the spells I knew were offensive traditional changeling soldier spells, but I’ve never seen anypony else with a flaming forehead.

Lyra snapped me out of my thoughts. “So are you going to tell what was going on back there?”

I smiled meekly. “Whatever are you talking about?”

“Well, I don’t like Sapphire Skies very much either, but you seemed to be giving her a very cold shoulder.”

“It’s... Complicated.”

“Well, I’m listening.”

For a moment, I wanted to tell her everything: confess that I’m not a pony and that I was a love eating monster. Then, common sense got in my head and I got a hold of myself. “I can’t.” I refused, hoping she’d just let the point drop. Lyra being Lyra, she didn’t.

“Why not? Aren’t I your friend?”

“Of course!”

“Then why can’t you tell me?”

“I just... You wouldn’t like me.” I flushed, knowing I was getting close to saying too much.

“Let me tell you something.” Lyra interjected, stepping in front of me to prevent my progression down the street. “When I realized that I loved Bon Bon, I also realized that she was the only friend I actually had. My study of humans seemed so weird to everypony that they all avoided me save for the pony who I lived with.”

“Is that why you stopped researching them?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“No.” She smiled wryly. “I couldn’t care less about the opinions of ponies that avoid me because they think I’m weird. I stopped because I started dating Bon Bon and my reputation was affecting her reputation.”

“Anyway,” Lyra continued, “The point being, you’re one of the only ponies in this town that matters to me, not to mention you’ve got my back in a fight. What I’m saying is that ther's not much that can change that. You can trust me.”

“So, to get this straight...” I started, “To get me to tell you something abnormal about myself, you tell me a story about how everypony ostracizes you because you're abnormal?”

“Hmm... maybe that wasn’t the best decision.” Lyra giggled, and I couldn’t help but let out a little nervous chuckle myself.

Why was I lying to her? She didn’t deserve that. After all, she leapt to my defense and asked for no favors. Friendship shouldn’t have secrets. “Do... you really want to know?” I asked cautiously.

“You can trust me.”

“Well...” I took a deep breath. “The truth is that-” A shrill voice suddenly permeated through the evening air, startling me enough that my flaming horn flickered out. In my distraction, I had failed to realize we were standing outside of Ponyville’s premier candy store.

“What are your two doing out here?” Pinkie Pie shot out of Sugarcube Corner, throwing her hooves over our shoulders. “The party’s in there!” She gestured her hoof toward the thrown open door of Sugarcube Corner where ponies could be seen milling about in various states of high spirits.

“Pinkie Pie...” Lyra mumbled mournfully.

“C’mon! you’re both invited! I have cake and games and ponies eating cake and playing games at the same time! Well, actually that’s just me, so only one pony playing cake and eating games!”

“No offense, Pinkie, but we were kind of in the middle of something.” Lyra snapped, an edge in her voice that was lost on the exuberant pink party pony.

“Actually,” I injected, “I’ve really got to get going.”

“But, Midnight...” Lyra looked hurt.

“Sorry, but I really should go. See you tomorrow.” I turned around, forcing myself not to look at Lyra as I walked away toward the mass of foliage ahead.

Was I really just going to tell Lyra my secret? I know she’s my friend but how would she react? The obvious conclusion when you have a love sucking friend would be that that love sucking friend would be, well, sucking your love, which was absolutely true. Throughout the meal, I had been tentatively eating a bits and pieces of the love flowing between the love struck mares, monitoring each to make sure I wasn’t adversely affecting either. How would Lyra feel about that?

I couldn’t risk it. She could easily turn hostile, and I didn’t stand a chance against her. Even if she didn’t outright attack me, she could still turn the town against me simply by exposing my secret to the town. There were way too many bad endings to this story. No, I couldn’t tell her. Ever. She was already suspicious enough as it was.

I had to lie low, avoid Saf, avoid both Lyra and Twilight’s suspicions. I actually felt happy here. I didn’t want to leave.

Chapter 11: Twilight at Dusk

o----[ Chapter 11: Twilight at Dusk ]-----------------------o

"Stop pacing." I groaned in annoyance. For all the times I'd uttered those two words in the last few days, I was surprised they hadn't lost all meaning. Maybe they had. I didn't know anymore because Twilight wouldn't stop pacing all the time.

I knew that I was being too hard on her. It was already the night of her scheduled performance for the delegates from Saddle Arabia and one of the three princesses of Equestria. In the preceding week, she had understandably become a twisted ball of compressed anxiety that was only kept at bay by a large number of negligible checklists.

But now there were no checklists to hide behind.

"Stop pacing." I repeated loudly.

Twilight obeyed, throwing me a short-tempered glare. I knew she didn't really mean it. She spun away from me. "Spike is everything ready?"

"Just give me a minute." Spike responded from within a ring of animals. In one claw was a fountain pen that was slowly working it's way down a checklist in the other claw. Well, there was one more checklist to hide behind, and Twilight was going to continue bugging Spike about it until that checklist joined all the rest of them.

"None of you have to do this." Fluttershy fussed, almost bringing tears to my eyes with the sincerity of her voice. "There's no shame in coming home now."

"You should've been done by now." Twilight whined, taking a step to begin pacing once more. She stopped when I gave her a venomous look, which she returned in kind.

"Stop worrying so much." I gave her a more reassuring look. "We've checked every inch of the plaza and stage. We made sure nothing can go wrong." I bucked the back of the stage with one of my legs to illustrate my point, and the wood let out a healthy THUMP in reply. Twilight had constructed the stage vicariously through Spike and I by supplying us checklists to read off to the burly stallions actually doing the work.

Twilight nodded, though she still seemed just about ready to start pacing again. "Everything needs to be perfect."

"You've been practicing for this all day every day for over two weeks." Spike pointed out. There had been that day that Twilight had manned the check-out desk for me while I recovered from sleep deprivation, but that seemed a bit counter productive to bring up.

"I should've practiced more.” Twilight continued regardless. “I've only gone over the entire thing seventeen times! What if I forget the order? What if I mess up the pirouette? or the flip? I messed up both of those only five days ago! And what about the six-pointed star? What if it turns out lopsided? What if I forget a point? It won't be six-pointed if it only has five points! What if I embarrass Princess Celestia in front of the delegates and offend them? What if I start a war?" Her eyes were wide and her breathing labored.

"You won't mess up." I said bravely, my voice betraying no doubts.

"We'll be right here for you." Spike looked over the top of his checklist at his caretaker. "Won't we, Midnight?"

"Of course." I smiled. "Even in the extremely unlikely case of something bad happening, Spike and I will be right here for you."

"And so will I." Fluttershy agreed, looking up from the raccoon she'd been pampering. "But," Her smile suddenly turned venomous, "if you so much as scratch one paw, I'll- eep!" She was cut off as I firmly yanked her away by her tail, my wispy dark green magic contrasting with her silky pink tail. Normally I wouldn't use my magic so carelessly, but if nothing else, my magic backfiring would at least get Twilight's mind off of her nervousness.

"That's enough of that." I smiled timidly, awkwardly stepping between Fluttershy and Twilight. "The point being that your friends are here for you."

Twilight wasn’t quite looking at me though. To be more specific, her gaze was drawn to my forehead. "I don't think I've ever seen you use magic before."

"Um... Yeah?" I agreed, confused by the sudden shift in topic.

Twilight reached up with her hoof and pulled my head down to get a better look at my smoldering stump of a horn still burning with magic. I blushed awkwardly as my vision was filled with purple hooves on dimming dirt. "Interesting," She mumbled, "Why does your magic manifest itself in the form of a flame?" She asked herself, tilting my head to one side, then the other. "Do you find fire spells come more easily to you?"

Of course flame spells came more easily to me. Changelings were literally forged in fire and that fire still burned inside of us as the Flames of Change. “I guess.” I responded sheepishly.

"Hmm." Twilight hummed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Spike motioning for me to continue. Despite how incredibly awkward this was, I had to agree that Curious Twilight was preferable to Anxious Twilight.

"When my horn backfires, it usually defaults to a fire spell." I added, rolling my eyes to look at her purple chin, green in the light of my glowing horn.

"Could you cut off your magic please?"

I did as she asked, plunging the two of us into relative darkness briefly before Twilight lit her own horn. and I suddenly felt the unique sensation of Twilight's magic working through my horn. "T-Twilight, what are you doing?"

She muttered a reply that I didn't quite catch, but she seemed to know what she was doing, so I let her do her thing, doing my best not to squirm as she did.

"Your leylines are a disaster." Twilight announced not even half a minute later, concern dripping from her voice. "Dead ends and burned out lines are everywhere. I can't even find your focus! It's a wonder you can even cast magic, let alone backfire as little as you do."

"So that's bad, right?" I asked.

Twilight scoffed. "I'll tell you when I find something that looks like it should.” She continued to probe through my horn, inducing an even more excruciating feeling of what I can only describe as something literally crawling under my skin like a cat under a rug.

"And that's everything!" Spike announced, finally checking off the bottom item on his list. "Everything is set."

"Mmhmm gimmeaminute." Twilight muttered, waving a purple hoof. Her magic pushed further and further through my horn. “Your focus is completely gone! It should've been in an obvious place near the tip of your horn."

“Well,” Spike pointed out, “Her horn is broken.”

“Yeah, but a temporary focus should’ve been made near the new tip of her horn, and I’m not seeing it.”

I winced as an uncomfortable pressure started to build in the base of my horn. "Twilight..." I uneasily let out a warning.

"Just a minute." She mumbled into my ear. She was pushing harder now, like she was dropping elephants on a patch of plywood that was fighting the best it could to hold it up the massive weight.

"Twilight…” I cried persistently, “you're kinda..."

"Hold on, Midnight, there's something really weird here."

"It certainly feels weird." My voice cracked as I felt that patch of plywood snap. I yelped in pain and surprise, patches of my legs catching on fire that malevolently burrowed holes into my hooves. I roughly shoved Twilight away, and she fell in a tangle of limbs.

"Midnight!" Twilight cried out, struggling back to her feet. “I was almost done!”

"N-no more!" I exclaimed, eyes widening as I viewed my appendages. Large chunks had been burned to a sleek black, making a hideous amalgamation of pony flesh and changeling chitin. I felt my breath speed up, my heart punching my ears with each beat. I looked up to see Twilight already on her hooves, a question on her tongue.

"Midnight, are you alright? I didn't hurt you, did I?" She was concerned. My mouth wouldn’t answer, unable to process how she wasn’t horrified to see my true form poking through my disguise.

The setting sun. In the dim light, my indigo fur blended with my shiny carapace well enough to mask it from somepony who didn’t know it was there. I suppressed a shudder of relief as the realization came to me.

“N-no… I mean yes… I mean I’m fine." It was only a temporary solution. Sooner or later, somepony would notice, but I couldn't transform here. While the dim light of the setting sun worked to hide my deformity, it would also make the Flames of Change too noticeable. That was assuming I could even still my heart long enough to concentrate on the change in the first place.

"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Twilight persisted in a motherly tone, taking a step forward that I matched with a step back. "I know some unicorns can be sensitive of their horns."

"I have to use the toilet!" I announced loudly. "Very badly!" I shot off, fleeing into the plaza, thankful that the steadily gathering crowd hadn't yet grown into an intimidating monster. Dodging past milling ponies, I galloped into the first familiar building in sight: Sugarcube Corner.

I was immediately greeted by a squeaky voice. "Midnight!" Pinkie waved a pink noodle of a foreleg in my direction (as if I wouldn't notice the only pony in the front of the store). "Omigosh! I was just thinking about-"

"Can't-talk-gotta-go-to-the-bathroom!" I yelled at her, immediately rushing into the ladies room and bucking the door shut behind me. I could barely make out Pinkie's exclamation of how I must've really had to go.

Surprisingly, I didn't turn into a shaking mess, my mind immediately turning to one subject.

"Did anypony see?" I whispered to myself between gasping breaths of air. Normally I'd count ponies not screaming when I ran by them as a good thing, so the dimness seemed to have done a good job of hiding me.

Really, the only pony that stood an actual chance at seeing me was Pinkie Pie while I was under the bright florescent lights of Sugarcube Corner. That sat a bit uneasily in my stomach. Pinkie wasn't exactly known for keeping her thoughts to herself. Though I immediately felt bad, I found myself wondering if it even mattered if Pinkie saw. If she told anypony, would she even be taken seriously or would she be dismissed on the grounds of “just being Pinkie Pie?”

I swallowed around a lump in my throat. There was no point in thinking about it. She either saw or she didn't, and I couldn't stay in her bathroom forever. Taking a deep breath and pushing all my worries and fears into the back of my mind, I managed to change my body back to the way I wanted it to be. After I was sufficiently satisfied with the quality of my ponysona, I exited the cramped bathroom to find an frowning face waiting for me.

"Hi... Bon Bon." I waved nervously. "What, ah, brings you here?"

"I work here." She answered, unamused. Her love, which had so amicably mixed with Lyra's on the day I had been over, was cold and distant now. "We need to talk. Well, we don't need to talk. A certain pair of unicorns need to talk."

I swallowed. "I've actually been quite busy with Twilight, what with the whole show and such. In fact, I should really be getting back to her." I stepped to the side only to find Bon Bon's intimidating presence once more in my way.

"You will talk to Lyra. I don't know what happened between you two, but I want it over with, now." Her glare intensified, freezing my hooves to the floor.

"Yes ma'am." I nodded vigorously.

"Good." The glare disappeared, a small smile replacing it. "You'll find her in the corner over there. I've got to get back into the kitchen before my sugar burns, but I expect you two to have this resolved before Lyra drives me insane with her moping." She turned, trotting back behind the counter and into the kitchen with a bounce in her step. Pinkie couldn't resist the urge to wave to me when she saw me looking in her direction.

I steeled myself as I looked in the direction Bon Bon had pointed me towards, finding the familiar sight of Lyra sitting in a booth in that same strange way she always sat. On the table was her well-kept, battered lyre case, opened to reveal her polished namesake. Her gold eyes darted up to look at me, catching mine a second before she concerned herself with the latches of her lyre case.

I bit my lip as I approached her. I hadn't seen her since that night I met Saf, when I teased her so cruelly with my trust before kicking her away. I hadn't originally meant to avoid her, but by avoiding Saf, I had also been avoiding her, and then I had to pick up all the slack at the library while Twilight practiced every day. There just seemed to be more and more convenient reasons to avoid her, and it wasn't as if she was putting in the effort to find me. She knew exactly where I lived and worked.

Then another thought occurred to me. I hadn’t noticed her when I came in, but if she'd been sitting there then she might've noticed... No, I’m pretty sure she wasn’t there before, and she probably would’ve reacted if she had been. Pinkie was one thing, but Lyra was something else altogether.

Finally I stopped next to the corner booth, standing awkwardly as Lyra flicked the clasps up and down, making a soft click, click-a, click, click-a. Lyra was a pony of sound, and the relative quiet of Sugarcube Corner certainly didn't suit her.

"Hi." I said, unsure of how to start this conversation. I didn't even know what I was even hoping to accomplish; Lyra might not know exactly what my secrets were, but she definitely had some sort of inkling that they were there. It was dangerous to even talk to her anymore. Still, even without Bon Bon's insistence that I talk to her, I wanted to be friends with Lyra like we were before. To hear Twilight talk about it, Friendship was supposed to overcome everything, right?

Lyra looked up at me as if noticing me for the first time. "Hey." She forced a strained smile on her face.

"Can I sit down?" I asked, looking over at the empty seat across from her.

"Sure." She muttered, returning to playing with the clasps on her case. I sat in a more familiar position. Click, click-a. I just wanted her to take it out and start playing something, anything. I looked over my shoulder at Pinkie. She waved a floppy noodle arm again.

"Bon Bon made you come over here." Lyra stated.

"Yeah." I scratched the back of my head.

"I thought you were avoiding me." Lyra added.

"I'm sorry." I apologized. "I didn't mean to. I've just been really busy lately." Excuses. It felt like lying.

"I thought you didn't want to be my friend anymore." Her voice stopped just shy of cracking. She continued, her voice hardly more than a whisper. "just like all the others."

"Lyra..." My heart jumped into my throat. I wished that she was angry with me. I had plenty of experience with ponies being angry with me. Granted, my usual response was to run away from those ponies, but at least it was a familiar emotion to deal with. This was something entirely different. How was I supposed to deal with this? How could I have been the cause of this?

"Lyra, I'd never want to stop being your friend." I reached forward for her hoof uncertainly, but stopped myself. She couldn't have wanted physical contact from me. "You're the best friend I've ever had."

Lyra's love, normally so closely kept while Bon Bon wasn't present, wisped outward from her in a fragile breeze, filling the air with the scent of mint. I saw her throat bob as she swallowed.

"I'm so sorry for making you feel like I didn't like you anymore." I pushed earnestly. Please stop being sad.

She looked up suddenly, a fierce look in her eye. "No!" She interjected, "I'm sorry!” She slapped the table with her hoof viciously, leaning forward as she spoke. “I let myself get carried away again, just like when I was studying freaking humans.”

“Lyra-”

“I was stupid. I was trying to get you to share something you obviously weren’t comfortable with sharing. I didn’t think. All I did was push you away like I did with everypony else I’ve ever been friends with!” She was holding back tears now.

"You didn't push me away." I interrupted her tirade, matching her fierceness with all the compassion I could muster from my burning changeling heart. "I..." I swallowed, stuttering for a minute as steel met flint. "I'm right here, and I'm not going to stop being your friend just because you got a little over enthusiastic and I was an idiot because I've never had friends before."

Lyra didn't answer right away, her fierce look slowly dissipating. "Still friends?" She inquired carefully.

"Still friends." I nodded.

Lyra collapsed into a relaxed position, a relieved smile dancing back onto her face. "Good!"

"Yeah..." I had to return the smile as Lyra’s returned to her normal grinny self, minus her misty eyes. Her horn came alive with a golden aura, pulling her lyre out of its case. She gave it an experimental strum before launching into a quiet song that filled the bakery.

"So what are you doing after the show?" Lyra asked.

My eyes widened, my head snapping to the window. "Twilight!" I shouted, abruptly ending that budding conversation. I sprang out of my seat, catapulting my body toward the door. "Sorry-gotta-go-it-was-nice-talking-to-you-Lyra-bye!" I burst free from Sugarcube Corner's sweet clutches to find that the crowd before the stage had thickened quite considerably, causing me to freeze in my reckless charge. It was now an impenetrable mass of excitable ponies frolicking and churning in the low light, raising a dull roar of conversation that tickled my ears and made my legs go numb.

I bit my lip. There was no way I could take the direct route to the stage through a crowd that thick; my heart would stop before that happened. I turned my gaze away, unable to even stand the sight of so many ponies. I didn’t even know that there were so many ponies in ponyville. Twilight’s show must’ve drawn a crowd from the surrounding towns, maybe even Canterlot.

Since going through the crowd wasn’t a choice, I turned, starting to pick my way around it’s less cringe-inducing outskirts.

"Midnight, wait up!" I heard before long. I turned around to see a charging unicorn toting her signature lyre case weaving through the ponies I'd made it by. She cantered up beside me, that cocky smile on her face. “You’re not trying to get rid of me are you?”

“Of course not.” I forced a smile for her even if my stomach was churning with every step.

Lyra gave me a weird look as she matched my pace. “Wow, you look terrible.”

“Gee, thanks Lyra.” I blushed, lowering my head. Every part of me was shaking, and every time somepony brushed up against me, I could feel bile burning the bottom of my throat. It was no wonder I looked terrible. Just one foot in front of the other. I shivered.

“I’m serious!” Lyra stepped out in front of me. “You look really sick. Get-to-the-doctor sick.”

“As if I didn’t know that.” I snapped back. “I’m perfectly fine. I just need to get to Twilight.”

“You don’t look fine.” Lyra argued as I shoved past her, quickening my pace. She bit my tail, pulling me to a stop. She continued talking through my tail hair. “And there’s a new bug going around. Six ponies are already in the hospital, and they never displayed signs of sickness before they went to the hospital. You were perfectly healthy in Sugarcube Corner.”

She spat out my tail.

“Look, I just don’t want to see you in the hospital, okay?” Lyra pleaded. “Let’s just go see a doctor at the… well, at the hospital. So I suppose we would be going to the hospital, but it’s better to walk there than to be carried there, right?”

“Look, Lyra…” I couldn’t think straight, not while all these ponies were around me. “I need…” I felt myself swaying like I had lost a leg. “I have a bit of a condition.” I had to sit down to steady myself.

“Another condition?” Lyra narrowed her eyes. I forced my attention to Lyra, trying to ignore the ponies around

“An anxiety disorder.” I clarified, cringing as I did so. To acknowledge the problem was to admit that it was a problem, but Lyra looked just about ready to pick me up and carry me off to the hospital herself. “I have enochlophobia.”

Lyra stared at me blankly.

“That means fear of crowds.”

“Oh!” Lyra rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you just say so!” Her eyes flicked around, her smile falling. “Wait a minute…”

“Fear really isn’t the right word for it.” I elaborated. Focusing on something familiar, in this case an explanation I had probed methodically every sleepless night I was paralyzed by anxiety, was a known way to lessen the impact of an anxiety disorder. Familiarity bred safety after all. “It’s more like I worry so badly that I get physically sick.”

“That’s terrible!” Lyra stamped her hoof.

I blushed. “I can live with it.”

"And why didn't you tell me?"

"You mean during that one week we were friends or during those two weeks we never spoke?"

"Point taken." Lyra offered me a hoof and I took it. "Feeling better?"

I nodded. “Well enough to make it backstage.” Immediately, I felt the crushing presence of all the surrounding ponies. Immediately, Lyra moved in close, our coats brushing. Like magic, the anxiety was pushed back. Ponies were physical creatures, but changelings were creatures with two foot bubbles. I should’ve felt uncomfortable brushing cutie marks with her, but I only felt safer with Lyra at my side.

"Thank you." I said so low I wasn't even sure if she could hear me.

.-~*~-.

Twilight visibly deflated when I arrived joined at the hip with Lyra. Spike gave me a venomous look that made me feel guilty for leaving him alone to comfort Twilight for so long.

"Thank goodness." Twilight smiled weakly. "I was afraid I really had hurt you."

"Relax." I returned a gentle smile. I stepped away from Lyra to put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "I'm just fine."

"I'm about to go on." Twilight added, her relief at seeing me quickly fading.

"Is Princess Celestia...?" Unable to stop myself, I peeked over the top of the stage to get a look at the VIP box that was constructed along with the stage. my breath hitched at the sight of the absolutely regal figure I saw chatting with two oddly shaped equines.

"That's Princess Celestia?" I choked out. Neither Princess Cadence nor Queen Chrysalis could remotely compare to the princess of the sun. She was at least twice the height of a stallion with an intimidating presence that compounded with all the beauty her graceful body exuded. Her mane and tail indeed were ethereal, waving with a nonexistent wind and glowing with untold power. How Queen Chrysalis managed to even scratch such a radiant figure was beyond my comprehension.

Lyra elbowed my ribs lightly, jarring me out of my reverie. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the image of Princess Celestia from the back of my eye lids.

"I'm ready to begin my speech." Mayor Mare trotted up. "Is everything all right here?"

Lyra nodded. "Just some pre-performance jitters. Nothing to worry about."

"Alright." Mayor Mare nodded. "My speech should take about five minutes. be sure she's ready by then."

"Don't worry. This is Twilight Sparkle we're talking about." Lyra forced a smile.

"She'll be ready." I affirmed.

"Yes, yes." The mayor nodded, trotting up the steps to begin.

It was a good thing she was gone, too, because as soon as she left, Twilight announced: "I think I'm going to throw up."

I was by her side in a minute. "Take a deep breath and it'll pass." Twilight complied, though she still looked quite unsteady. "You're letting your worries get the best of you." I of all ponies could understand that.

"I don't think I can go on." Twilight said, her wide eyes rolling about in her head, staring at everything and nothing. The starting line was in view.

"Shh." I shushed. "Keep taking deep breaths." I nuzzled her softly. "I know how it feels to be scared. I'm scared all the time, but you can't let your fears get the best of you." I had to be there for her like Lyra was for me. "You will go out on that stage, and you're going to give Ponyville a performance they'll never forget."

"But-!"

"But nothing!" I interrupted. "You're Twilight Sparkle, and I believe in you."

"We all do." Spike put a claw on Twilight's shoulder. "And we're here for you."

"Guys..." Twilight bit back tears. "You really think I can do it?"

"We've been trying to tell you that all afternoon." I nuzzled her neck gently. "Nopony else could be as capable as you."

"I don't know what to say." Twilight smiled finally, climbing to stand on all fours. She took a deep breath then let it out slowly. "I can do this!" She smiled attractively, more confident than she had all week.

When the mayor finished her speech, Fluttershy immediately paraded her conglomerate of animals onto the stage. Twilight hesitated for only a second, then she turned her back on me and strode up the steps to the stage with her head held high. The crowd, which had provided that dull background roar after the mayor finished her speech, went quiet at the sight of her.

"Hey." I heard a quiet whisper, a hoof set lightly on my shoulder. Bon Bon had at some point joined Lyra back stage, a small smile on her face. "Nice job." Lyra nuzzled her affectionately.

"Um... Thanks?" I replied quietly as Fluttershy descended the steps, her eyes watering.

"Oh, I can't look!" She cried, collapsing into Spike's arms.

Twilight showed no sign of her earlier apprehension as she wrapped each animal in a levitation bubble and pushed them into the air, sweeping them fluently through the night sky. She manipulated them into shapely spirals and elegant whorls, shapes and prisms that twisted and spun and changed. For over fifteen minutes, Twilight manipulated more than a dozen furry creatures all at once, and she didn't seem phased at all. She stood tall center stage, her horn pointed toward the heavens as if she were a princess herself.

Then as quickly as it began it ended, multiple fireworks rocketing into the sky to bloom colorfully.

Twilight gave her bow then curtly turned, her steps calm as she descended the stairs until she was out of sight of the crowd. She then let out an uncharacteristic whoop, jumping into the air. She was quickly joined by Pinkie who came clear out of nowhere and intercepted Twilight's jump arc with a pink hug of death. Twilight didn't seem to mind as they hit the ground together, rolling in the hug and letting out joyful giggles and strands of blended love.

"I did it." Twilight laughed as they settled down, panting hard as she stared up at the stars. “I did it!”

Fluttershy looked about ready to collapse from relief. She smiled weakly at Twilight. "It was a very, um, nice show."

"You know what this calls for?" Pinkie asked, a large grin set on her pink face.

Twilight smiled at that, and I did as well. I've been in this town long enough to know what that meant. "A nap?" Spike guessed, suppressing a yawn.

"A PARTY!!!" Pinkie Pie announced loudly, jumping into the air and exploding with confetti. "I've already set everything up at Town Hall, sent all the invites, and provided all the catering!"

"Pinkie," Bon Bon spoke up, "When did you have time to do all that? We've been working in Sugarcube Corner all day."

"Are you kidding?!" Pinkie excitedly ran up to Bon Bon. "I had at least two minutes and seventeen seconds after the end of Twilight's performance and five minutes while Mayor Mare was giving her speech! I even had time to make this!" She pulled a ship in a bottle out of her mane.

That caught my attention. "You made that?" Never before had I seen a ship in a bottle, nor did I think that an earth pony's hooves would be dexterous enough to assemble one.

"Yeah!" Was her reply. Then her eyes narrowed on me. "You! I wanted to talk to you back in Sugarcube Corner!" She chucked the ship in a bottle at Lyra. I didn't see whether or not she caught it because Pinkie Pie was suddenly invading my personal space, but I didn't hear the sound of breaking glass. "You know it's incredibly rude to ignore ponies!"

"Um... well yes, but-"

"Especially when I made you... this!" Pinkie Pie pulled a cupcake out of nowhere and perched it on top of my head. "Made with love!" She squeaked, nuzzled my nose for a brief second, then shot off screaming "PARTY TIME!"

"That was nice of her." Fluttershy tittered, following in Pinkie's wake.

"Yeah..." I agreed, looking up at the cupcake for a second. It gained a purple aura and dropped into my hoof thanks to Twilight.

"Pinkie does know you never eat anything, right?" Twilight grinned.

"I'm not sure." I shrugged, taking a timid bite out of the cupcake. I was a little surprise that it didn't cause me to gag. Twilight gasped.

"You- you actually ate it!"

"She ate it?" Spike echoed with the same shock.

"Of course." I replied. "She made it with love."

"I make things all the time." Spike grumbled, yawning again.

"Yes you do, Spike." I replied. "And we both appreciate you very much."

"Well..." Twilight eyed me warily as I took another small bite out of the cupcake, trying to lick off the frosting that subsequently was stuck onto my nose. "I'm going to go to Pinkie's party..."

"I'll take Spike home." I smiled wryly. "I don't think either of us are up for a party." And Pinkie only used the town hall when there was going to be a crowded party.

"Pinkie will probably be disappointed after making you that cupcake. I'll tell her you enjoyed it."

"Hey, I'm totally up for a party!" Spike insisted.

"Spike, why don't you go home and get some rest? You've been working so hard this week." Twilight smiled thankfully. "I'll let you stay up twice as long at the next party."

Spike crossed his arms resentfully. "Okay..." He was enveloped in purple, then dropped onto my back.

Before I could turn to start walking back to the library, Twilight suddenly snaked her forelimbs around my neck, pulling me into a hug. "Thank you." She said. "I couldn't have done this without either of you two." It was then that I found out that Twilight's love tasted like white chocolate: the nerdiest of all chocolates.

"Twilight, hurry up!" Pinkie's shrill voice carried over the now empty plaza. "Princess Celestia's about to hit the dance floor!"

Twilight pulled away from me, trotting off. I turned... to find Lyra's abnormally large grin right in my face, Bon Bon patiently waiting at her side.

"What's with you?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing." She continued grinning stupidly, raising her eyebrows. "So, you and Twilight, eh."

"Um... me and Twilight?" I asked, confused.

"You know..." She raised her eyebrows again.

"Oh, leave her alone." Bon Bon nuzzled Lyra. "I'd really like to see a princess dance."

"Oh, fine." Lyra prodded a hoof at me. "This isn't over."

"Um... Okay?" I blinked.

"C'mon Bonny, let's go dancing!" Lyra giggled, trotting off toward town hall.

"I'm not doing any of your weird human dances!" Bon Bon followed at a more leisurely pace.

Hmm... I munched on my cupcake happily. With an unprecedented spring in my step, I trotted in the opposite direction with a sleepy dragon on my back, wondering exactly how Pinkie had managed to cook love into a cupcake.

Author's Note

This was a bit of a tough one. there was so much going on and so much that needed to get done that fitting it all together was a feat in and of itself and in the end some of it still had to get cut out (very little admittedly, but a bit). In the end, I'm pretty proud of this chapter, though I realize that I probably should have put a bit of a build up in previous chapters that this was going to happen. Either way, the subjects of the next story arc are either established or hinted at.

but I've done enough typing for now. your turn. leave a comment or something and tell me your thoughts. seriously, I live for comments

Chapter 12: Love Sick

o----[ Chapter 12: Love Sick ]-----------------------o

"Again I'm really sorry for returning this so late." The neighborhood dentist humbly apologized for the third time.

"It's no problem at all." I smiled reassuringly as I leafed through the overdue cards. "We regularly get late returns," I smiled smugly as I found the correct one, titled The Robot and the Princess. The name Colgate was signed legibly in blue ink next to a due date of two weeks ago. I removed it from the metal spiral that held the cards together, then put the rest back into their drawer.

"Two weeks isn't too bad. Believe me." I stamped the return date on the card then slid it into its proper place in the newly returned book. "Rainbow Dash regularly checks out books for months at a time. Usually me or Spike have to find the time to go get them back. Just try to be a little more punctual next time you check out a book." I shut the book. The cover showed a shiny, metallic pony with soulless red eyes and a castle in the background. The words the Robot and the Princess were written in calligraphic script along the top of the page. I briefly wondered which princess.

"That'll be a late fee of one-and-a-half bits, Miss Colgate."

"Of course." She smiled softly, showing off a thin strip of white teeth. She took a small pouch of bits from her mane and counted out three half-bit coins. "I really don't understand how I forgot about this. Normally I'm so good with time. It's my special talent after all."

"Oh?" I slid the half-bits into a drawer of the desk where they clinked against several others. Late fees weren't exactly a lucrative business model, so having a register wouldn't be economic.

Colgate nodded, her indigo and teal mane bobbing. She angled her flank into view, giving me a nice look at a familiar hourglass cutie mark. "I'm really good at keeping time. I never need a clock." How did she have the same cutie mark as the Doctor? Well, I wasn't quite sure if they were the same; I had only seen the doctor a hooffull of times. Maybe she was also a time lord? She certainly didn't seem at all like him.

I shook my head a bit to stop myself from staring. "I've got to admit I'm a bit jealous. My cutie mark just means I'm good at reading, and that doesn't mean a lot when you live with Twilight." I forced a bit of a smile.

"It's kind of a curse really." She laughed lightly. "I can never say that time got away from me. Plus, I always feel a compulsive need to correct clocks whenever I see them." Her eyes flitted up to the clock.

"Anyway," Her eyes came back down to mine, that pearly white smile spread easily across her features. "I should probably get back to the clinic. I am on my lunch break right now, and I have two more appointments today before closing." She momentarily turned. "You should come in some time. When was your last dental appointment?"

"Uh..." My mind immediately drew a blank. I swallowed once, trying to form a coherent thought. "A while ago." I immediately knew that it was the wrong answer.

"How long is a while?" Her blue eyes narrowed on me with the coldness of a dentist confronting a patient who never brushed.

I really didn't want to go to a dentist for the same reason I didn't want to go to a doctor; I wasn't quite confidant with the way I've changed my fanged teeth I had as a changeling into the herbivorous teeth of a pony. How often did ponies go to the dentist? Yearly? I was pretty sure it was yearly. "Five months ago." I muttered.

"Great!" Colgate brightened. "You're due for a check-up. Come by some time and we'll set up an appointment. Remember," She smiled as she opened the door to the library, "happy teeth lead to a happy life!" The door closed behind her.

I sighed.

Today was actually supposed to be a day off for me. Lyra and Bon Bon had invited me to join them for a picnic in the park, something that I didn't feel comfortable refusing despite knowing that I'd likely end up feeling like a third wheel. I was actually quite thankful when Twilight told me something had come up at the hospital.

Other than that, the last few days had seen the Golden Oaks Library getting back into the routine Twilight's show had thrown us out of. Descending back into normality after the past two stressful weeks felt darn near cathartic. Other ponies could have their action-packed, danger filled lives. This was probably the closest I've come to having a normal life, and I dreaded the day when one slip-up...

But today was Wednesday, and soon I wouldn't have to worry about always saying the right things. In a little less than six hours I'd be at Quills and Sofas in the company of my own species. I could say anything with no fear of being attacked or cursed at. I could finally take a break from holding up the sky.

Twilight's hoof steps drew my eyes to the stairs. "No Spike, I'm telling you." Her voice carried down to the ground floor. "I asked for Mariandra's Book of Notable Medical Advancements, not Mariandra's Book of Notable Culinary Achievements."

"Oh really," Spike's sarcastic voice followed Twilight closely, "then what are these words on the cover right here?"

"That's the wrong book." The sound of Twilight's hoof stamping reached my ears.

"This is the only book in the library with an author by the name of Mariandra."

"Obviously not if there's also a book by the title of Mariandra's Book of Notable Medical Achievements! I studied that book for over a year under Princess Celestia. I think I'd know whether or not-"

"Stop yelling in the library!" I shouted, jerking open the drawer full of check out cards, taking out the booklet and irritatedly leafing through them until I found what I was looking for.

Spike and Twilight descended into view, the latter wearing a purple saddlebag with her cutie mark as a clasp. Neither of them looked happy.

"Mariandra's Book of Notable Medical Achievements," I read from the card, "Currently on loan by 'Roseluck.'" I placed the joined cards back into the drawer. "Seriously, we have cards and a ledger for this exact reason."

Twilight gave an exasperated grunt. "I guess we could go without it. I just needed it for reference. Hopefully the hospital has a copy somewhere."

"So you're off?" I asked.

"We'd better. We're already five minutes behind schedule." Twilight threw an irritated glance at Spike.

"It's not my fault that somepony actually checked out one of those boring books." Spike harumphed, crossing his arms.

"Either way, we have a long day ahead of us." Twilight turned back to me. "Hopefully everything will be all right and we'll be back by closing."

While Twilight didn't actually have a doctorate or any practical experience in medicine, her sheer knowledge in the field was impressive enough to warrant regularly calling her into the hospital as a consultant on odd cases.

"Before I forget, though, I have a few hypotheses about your horn I'd like to go over."

"I'm not letting you touch it again." I narrowed my eyes at her. Twilight had asked several times after that first time backstage, and there was no way that I was going to risk this life just to satisfy her scientific curiosity.

Twilight looked a bit disappointed, but forged ahead nonetheless. "The first is that because your horn lacks a focus, your magic extends from the base to create an unstable artificial focus, and the instability causes this surrogate horn to sway unpredictably, giving it the illusion of being on fire." She beamed at me. "I'll admit the scientific backing on this tenuous at best, but imagine what this would mean!"

"You're not touching it." I reiterated.

"I wasn't going to ask..." She pouted, then cleared her throat. "The second is that you have a natural connection to fire, which, while quite rare, isn't quite unheard of in ponies. Spitfire, the captain of the wonderbolts, has a natural connection to fire and has been known to catch fire occasionally during practice sessions. The smoke they use in their shows was inspired by the smoke trail she leaves when it happens."

"I actually understood that one!" Spike said in moderate surprise.

"So did I!" I grinned pleasantly.

"The third is emotion based and a bit lengthy to get into without further testing which-"

"Won't happen." I finished for her.

"Yeah." Twilight disappointedly frowned. She looked up at the clock, her eyes bugging out. "Spike, we're already six minutes behind schedule!" Spike was suddenly enveloped in magic and forcefully placed on Twilight's back as she galloped from the library. half a second later, her head popped back through the door. "Oh, and sorry about making you miss that thing with Lyra."

"It's alright." I responded even though she was already gone. Through the window, I could see her sprinting off down the road, a purple dragon gripping her mane for dear life.

A small smile on my face, I picked up the Robot and the Princess. I cantered over to its proper shelf, momentarily scanning the authors before inserting it in its alphabetical place.

I spun around, walking along the shelves until the colorful spines became a blur. Row after row after row of literature. I smiled as that familiar feeling of being small came over me.

I slowed my pace as I walked by the non-fiction section. There were so many things about this world that I had yet to know; I couldn't comprehend ever moving on to fiction. Several books jumped out to me: a biography of a unicorn noble during the war between Equestria and one of the greater Griffin holds, an expedition log of the Crystal Mountains, a book on diamond dog society and culture.

Then my eye was drawn to a book on weather phenomena. I pulled it down, my interest piqued. Despite having lived most of my life in the air, surprisingly little of it was spent in the sky. I couldn't remember if I had ever even touched a cloud. My back itched, longing to sprout wings. Did I even remember how to fly? It was disturbing to contemplate losing a skill that used to be so dear to who I was.

I realized that as long as I lived with Twilight, I'd never fly again. Even worse, I was trapped as a fragile unicorn that couldn't even use magic. And for what? I had lost the fight that I'd given myself a horn for, and it had been no help at all afterwards. I should've just taken some time to learn how to fly as a pegasus. If I left Ponyville then I could... I recoiled from the thought, horrified that I'd even think of such a thing.

No, I'm happy the way I am. I glanced at my plain indigo back, finding it hard to imagine feathered wings pinned there. It is a shame though. I had to admit.

My good mood soured, I stretched my hoof up and slid the weather book off the shelf, gripping it in my teeth as I returned to the desk to drown out my sorrows.

.-~*~-.

Much of the next few hours was spent absorbed in that book. Several ponies came in, checking out and returning books. Halfway through my fourth week in ponyville, I was recognizing the ponies who walked through the door carrying books they had checked out weeks prior. I was introducing myself less, and ponies I didn't know were saying my name in greeting. It worked wonders for pulling me out of the self-imposed slump my winglessness had given me. I wasn't just staying in Ponyville anymore. I was becoming a resident.

Then, as the minute hand was making it's final round toward five-o'clock, a minty mare walked in, a brown paper bag in her mouth. She immediately made a beeline for the desk. I watched, mildly amused as she dropped the bag before me.

"I know you don't eat," Lyra said, waving a hoof through the air like she was swatting a persistent bug, "But it felt weird coming from a picnic without bringing you something."

"Did you walk all the way through town like that?" I asked, suppressing a grin. There was a reason ponies wore saddlebags. Walking around with things in their mouths all the time looked ridiculous.

"The things I do for the mares in my life." Lyra returned the grin, a glint in her eye. "You know, I don't blame you for cancelling on me and Bonny, but we really need to talk."

"What about?" I asked, suddenly concerned.

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. I meant more in broad general sense. Bon Bon kind of pointed out how weird it was that you're my best friend and we hardly even know each other."

I poked the paper bag cautiously. "We know plenty about each other." My stomach protested, so I left the bag where it lay.

"What's my favorite color?" Lyra asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Green?" She was green. logical conclusion.

Lyra shook her head. "Nope, it's Bon Bon colored."

"That's not fair." I frowned. "Bon Bon is three colors at least."

"The best three colors." Lyra nodded sagely. She opened the paper bag with her hooves and took out a sandwich, crushing and discarding the remaining bag with magic. "I'm not talking about all that personal stuff that you don't want to talk about; I'm talking about all the little things." She took a bite out of the sandwich, continuing to talk with her mouthful. "Like, what's your favorite book?" She mumbled between lettuce and daisies, gesturing to the one I currently had splayed open before me.

"Didn't you just come from a picnic?" I ignored her question, trying not to focus on the disgusting process of putting something solid in ones mouth before chewing and swallowing.

She swallowed. "That was, like, twenty minutes ago. At least."

"Mmhmm..." I've been subject to starvation more than once before, so when I found a source of love, it was sometimes hard to hold myself back... even after I was already full. But at least I never talked with my mouth full.

Lyra's mouth was once again in just that state. "So what’s your favorite book?"

I frowned. "I don't believe in comparing an entire medium’s worth of information based on preference." I answered. I closed the book on weather phenomena and tapped the cover: a picture of a poofy, white cloud; a bright, yellow sun; and a dark raincloud spouting lightning arranged in a triangle. "It's like trying to decide what type of weather is your favorite when they all ultimately have nothing to do with each other."

Lyra nodded, swallowed, and then, in her infinite wisdom, said. "Mine's this anthropology book called the Human Conundrum."

Oh Lyra.

I snatched the sandwich out of her hooves as she moved to take another bite. "Didn't you bring this for me?"

"Yeah, but..." Lyra pouted, "you don't eat anything..."

I stared at the sandwich, daring myself to take a bite. I felt the bile climbing up my throat at the thought. I offered it back to Lyra, the miniscule amount of pride I possessed bruised severely.

"Yay!" Lyra bounced up and down as she reclaimed her lost prize. "So," She started with her mouth full once again, "How'd you get your cutie mark."

"I just read a lot of books." It was a story I'd reiterated many times in previous towns. The story became drier and less complicated each iteration.

"I can believe that." Lyra forcefully shoved the last of the sandwich into her mouth then swallowed with a satisfied sigh. The look of horror on my face was enough even for her to take notice. "What?"

"Solid food." I muttered, trying to regain control of my disturbed facial features.

"You can't tell me that you've never eaten something solid before."

"Not like that." I shook my head, finally freeing my face of abject horror.

"You have got to be the strangest pony I've ever met." Lyra rolled her eyes.

"That's only because you can't meet yourself." I retorted.

"Touche." Lyra smiled goofily. There was a moment of pause before she gave me a conspiratorial look. "So, is Twilight around?"

"She's at the hospital with Spike."

"At the hospital!?" Lyra exclaimed with surprise.

"She’s just there as a consultant.” I clarified. “They’re trying to work out what that sickness is that’s been going around.”

"Oh, good. That means I can totally imply things." She grinned, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Unsurprisingly, I quickly became annoyed as her look persisted. "What?"

"Oh, I think you know what I'm implying."

"No, I don't, and you're being incredibly creepy right now."

"Oh c'mon!" She moved around the desk just to elbow me in the ribs. "I saw how you were looking at Twilight on Sunday."

I scooted over as Lyra insisted on invading my personal space. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lyra pursed her lips. "You really don't have to hide it. I think it's awesome!"

"I’m not hiding anything." I responded dumbly.

"I know you're not that thick." Lyra sighed. "I'm talking about how you have a crush on Twilight."

"I have a..." My eyes flicked around as I processed what she said, a grin growing across my face. "You think I have a crush on Twilight." A laugh kindled in the bottom of my throat, growing quickly as it travel upward until it burst wholeheartedly from my mouth in loud, sputtering guffaws. "Oh, c'mon," I choked out, putting a hoof on her shoulder as laughter wracked my body. The thought of me of all ~~ponies~~ changelings having a crush on Twilight? "You can't be serious!"

"I'm dead serious!" Lyra insisted incredulously.

"Please," I held up a hoof, tears budding in the corners of my eyes, "I can't HA I can't breath! PAHHAHAHAHA!"

"Midnight!" Lyra stamped a hoof, pouting. "This isn't a joke!"

"Okay, heheheh, okay, okay." I tried to calm down, latent laughs jolting through my body. "How could you possibly think that I have a crush on Twilight?"

"Oh c'mon," Lyra insisted, "it's totally obvious! Two studious unicorns living together in a library. You're practically the whole reason she even got up on stage! Buck, you two even look good together!"

"I wasn't... No we don't!" I refuted.

"You totally have it bad for her." Lyra grinned, having regained the upper hand. "It's so romantic!" She wrapped her forelegs around me, practically hanging off of me. "A traveling unicorn, well earth pony at the time I guess (the buck was up with that anyway?), is taken in by a librarian and the two fall for each other! It's like a fairy tail. There's even a dragon in it!"

My face was entirely red at that point, and I no longer felt like laughing. “You’re exaggerating.” I replied, trying to peel myself away from her.

“You know it’s true.” Lyra snuggled even harder against me. “All that time you spend together, all the things you do for her. C’mon, you pitted yourself against Trixie in a fight you knew you couldn’t win, just for her. That’s love if I ever saw it.”

"That's not possible!" I interjected.

"Hmm?" Lyra gave me a little grace in her constricting hug to look at me quizzically. "What, you don't like mares?"

"I don't like anypony!" I insisted.

"That's not true; you like Twilight, silly!" Lyra snuggled back up against me, cheek pressing up against mine. "Don't worry, me and Bonny know just what to do. We'll set up a romantic date with flowers and everything and you two'll-"

"No!" I pushed away from her, finally breaking free from her soul crushing hug. I was a changeling. Changelings don't get crushes. "You’ve got everything wrong!"

Lyra had an irrefutable response. "Nuh-huh! Look, I know it's scary now, but-"

"I’m not scared!" I interrupted. "Twilight's just my friend! I can’t have feelings like that!" I was nearly in full-on panic mode: my shoulders heaving, eyes wide, fire rushing through my veins. This was the first time I’d been like this when my life didn’t depend on the next few seconds.

Lyra’s ears lowered, taken aback my outburst. "Okay." Her husky voice contrasted with the meek tone.

My nostrils flared. "Okay? That's it?"

"If you say so." Lyra shrugged. "I really don't want to have another fight."

I swallowed, feeling my breathing slowly calm."We weren't fighting."

"I know." Lyra nodded agreeably. "Just... You know you can trust me, right Midnight?"

I sat down again, close to her. Closer than I really felt comfortable with. "Yeah. I know." It was a lie, even if it didn’t feel like lying.

"You can talk to me about anything. I know how scary it can be having a crush.” She smiled knowingly. “Buck, I've done so many stupid things for love. Bon Bon doesn't like to admit it, but she's done stupid things too. Love is powerful, y'know?"

Love. How could a changeling understand something like that. Love made smart ponies do stupid things. Love destroyed ponies who pursued it. Ponies felt love and were worse for it. I would not feel love.

"Just, talk to me if you need something." Lyra put her hoof on my shoulder.

I nodded, putting on a smile. "Course I will. You're my best friend." Best friends didn’t do this to other best friends. I couldn’t blame her though. She was just a pony. She didn’t know Changelings couldn’t feel such things.

"Anyway, I'll take that as my cue to leave." She got up, dusting herself off. "Gotta go finish up today’s cuddle quota with Bon Bon. See ya later, Midnight."

"Bye." I responded as Lyra left, leaving only trace amounts of minty love hanging in the air.

I just sat there behind the checkout desk, unable to bring myself to reopen the book on weather phenomena. I felt exhausted, drained. As if I had taken all that adrenalin to fight tooth and nail for my life.

The clock chimed out the fifth hour. Closing time. One hour until I met with Saf and Davenport and All-Smith. Still, I didn't move, unable to find any of that good mood that I had continually worked to achieve earlier in the day. And I had been worried about a dental appointment.

Twilight still hadn’t returned. I should’ve felt worried, wondering what it meant, but I was only thankful that I wouldn’t have to face her after all these thoughts had been put into my head.

Me in love with Twilight? That can't happen. Lyra was kidding. It’s impossible.

I stood up, trotting over to the section of non-fiction dedicated to reference books and scientific studies. Twilight kept it well stocked. Incredibly well stocked. The section was so tightly packed that one of the shelves had managed to stand firm when Trixie turned the library upside-down. There had to be something in here about love.

Soon I’d skimmed through texts on magic theory, psychology, physiology, anatomy, and philosophy with hardly more than off-hoof mentions of love like it was something even the most brainless of ponies should inherently understand. Each book lay in whatever state I had left it on the table in the center of the library.

I still had plenty of shelves to go through, but I could feel dread clawing its way up my throat. I read each spine mechanically. I had scanned so many, but I had to keep searching. I had to occupy my brain.

What if I did have a crush on Twilight?

What would Twilight think?

Was something wrong with me?

That maelstrom was tearing away in my head. I didn’t like how every thought of Twilight caused my cheeks to get hot. It wasn't possible for me to have a crush on her. I had to keep searching. There had to be something here.

All that was halted, however, when I heard the front door swing open, making me cringe with the realization that I had never actually put up the CLOSED sign.

"I'm sorry. We're closed." I turned around to face the ~~pony~~ changeling that had just walked in, my mouth running dry. "Miss All-Smith. I wasn't expecting you." I wasn’t sure if I would’ve prefered Twilight.

She briefly glanced around before turning her cold stare on me. “You didn’t attend last week’s meeting.”

“I was…” Twilight needed my help preparing for the show. “Busy.” I finished lamely. It always came back to her.

"You will be attending this week’s." She said frigidly. Though she was no larger than me, she seemed so much taller. Her voice carried that quality that the drone in me was hardwired to flinch from.

I bit my lip, my ears pressing against my skull. "I thought attendance was optional."

"That's what Sapphire and Davenport will tell you.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “I, however, require your attendance because your existence in this town threatens my existence.” She paused for a moment as that sunk in. "However, since I can't make you leave, I will see you every week at the meeting."

"Yes ma'am." I squeaked.

"Good. Let's get going." She turned her black tail on me and exited the library without another look backwards.

Twilight wouldn't be too happy to come home to the stacks of reference books littering the table, but there was little I could do with All-Smith already leaving me behind. I quickly moved to the door, closing and locking it behind me. Surely a unicorn as powerful as Twilight could unlock her own door.

Shielding my eyes from the setting sun, I set off pursuing the receding form of All-Smith. Ponies who took notice of her hastily removed themselves from her path. I fell into step behind her, conscious of how ponies were overtly ignoring us.

"So..." I started, my mouth dry. I wasn't sure what I wanted to say, but the silence of traveling in this dead space where nopony else dared to tread was stifling. "What do you do?" I angled my head to see a bit more of her profile as I followed in her tracks.

She didn't look at me, focusing only ahead. When she spoke, it was in a tone only slightly more dismissive than her regularly flat speaking voice. "I work with metal. It’s what a blacksmith does."

“I didn’t know you were a blacksmith.” I mumbled. We were almost at Quills and Sofas, but between here and there was a small crowd gathering at a restaurant’s outdoor seating. Not interested in adding irrational fear to the list of reasons why today sucked, I walked a bit further to the side to avoid all possible contact.

That, however, was not part of the universe's design. Something felt... wrong as we walked by, and when All-Smith stopped, I could tell she could feel it, too. The air was rich with the mied love of the crowd, but something seemed missing as I looked them over (from a safe distance), like some part of my vision was filled in with something that didn't belong. My ears pricked at distressing whispers of sickness and colorlessness.

My brow furrowed in confusion. Something was missing, but I just couldn't tell what. There was some sort of dead zone, not entirely unlike the wide berth ponies gave All-Smith, but I couldn't tell why.

Then there was a shout of anguish as a light purple joined the scene. It was a shout so filled with pain and fright and meaning, I had no trouble discerning it as a name near and dear to her heart.

"Cloud Chaser!"

The pegasus was held back when she tried to dart into that empty place where nopony wanted to go. My artificial fur stood on end as I looked over the scene, but for the life of me I couldn't tell why. Many of the tables had half eaten meals still on top of them, as if everyone there had left in a hurry. I blinked, aggravated. There was something there something in the corner of my...

It popped out suddenly, like it only just appeared. Another pegasus was slumped against a table with two plates of untouched food atop it. She was completely colorless from head to tail as if somepony had literally sucked all the color and life from her; the only evidence of life was the painfully slow rise and fall of her barrel.

"What's going on?" Voices were surrounding me as the crowd grew, but I hardly noticed.

"Another pony got sick. The nurses are on their way"

"Who was it this time?"

"Flitter's sister."

The purple pegasus was still desperately fighting the crowd, crying out that name over and over. Her love poured from her like a rainstorm, splashing uselessly against a colorless slab, a colorless slab that had no love to respond with.

And I had been worried about a dental appointment.

Author's Note

This was supposed to get out on the last day of February, but college has been kicking my ass hard. last week I had two multiple page essays due, three assignments, and two tests, so I hope you guys will forgive me for tardiness

unfortunately, this also means that I won't have much time to write anything special for this fic's anniversary on the 10th. if everything had gone according to schedule I would've worked all ten of those days to rewrite chapters 4-9 and edit them. it would've been tough work, but I would've done it because I care so much about this fic. as it stands now, I'm not sure what I can get done. I might try to rewrite at least one chapter, but I can't promise anything with college the way it is now.

anyway, like I said, I do this for fun and because I love it like most authors on this site. Most of us don't get paid, so leaving a comment on stories you like, even if you've already left comments before, is a great way to help make this worthwhile for us.

Chapter 13: Crashing

o-----[ Chapter 13: Crashing ]-----------------------o

“They’re here!” I heard Saf exclaim as I tromped up the metal steps. Each of my hooves felt weighed down by a lead shoe, but I forced myself to quicken my pace before All-Smith had the chance to complain about me moving too slow again.

The gaudy scent of simmering food was thick in the air, and when I emerged from the metal stairway, I was unsurprised to find a metal pot on the stove above a blue flame. Saf stood before it, stirring gently with a wooden spoon held in her fetlock.

"You two are just in time!" Saf squealed. "Soup's on!" Saf smiled broadly, stirring the sickening concoction with a wooden spatula.

Davenport sat at the table, facing the entrance. "She showed up at my door with a bag full of vegetables, wanting to make soup. Really, it's quite cute that she'd go to all this trouble..." He trailed off when he saw the somber look shared by our faces.

"We've got a problem." All-Smith spoke curtly.

"Problem?" Saf's ears flattened against her skull, spinning around with poorly concealed fright. When she spoke, it sounded little more than whining. "What do you mean ‘problem’?"

"It's that bug that's been going around." I looked to the floor. "I-I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but the ponies who-"

"It makes ponies lose their love." All-Smith interrupted.

A stony expression came over Davenport's face. "What do you mean 'losing their love'?"

"We passed the Golden Carrot on the way here.” All-Smith scowled. “Cloud Chaser was at one of the one of the tables. She had so little love, she was completely colorless, and I couldn't see or feel anything from her. In fact..." She glanced toward me. For the first time, I saw a bit of hesitance on her face. "I... I couldn't see her at all, not until I was looking for awhile."

“But I was just working with her hardly an hour ago!" Saf raised a forehoof, her eyes wide. "Was she dead?"

"No." All-Smith shook her head. "Of that much I'm certain. She was definitely breathing."

"She had no love and was still alive?" Davenport glared at nothing in particular. "Are you absolutely sure?"

All-Smith returned the glare. "I told you what I saw."

"I saw her, too." I nodded. Ponies thrive on their love for each other. It strengthens them tremendously, like steroids that a pony literally needs to live, but to use another pony's love, ponies needed to have love of their own. "She didn't even have enough love to interact with her sister."

"I've never heard of a sickness that made a pony lose her love." Saf looked around nervously.

"Neither have I." Davenport affirmed. "Could there be another changeling in town?"

Saf shook her head. "The first pony got sick just over two weeks ago, and I've been on pretty active weather duty lately. I probably would've noticed if there was somepony new by now... Well, that is if she doesn't stay indoors all day."

"I have a job." I countered defensively. "I just happen to live in the same place so there's no commute... and I don't actually stay inside all day."

"You're missing the point." All-Smith interrupted before Saf could respond. "If nopony new is in town, then it has to be one of us." She left it open ended, but her glare made it abundantly clear who she thought it was.

"Me?" I took a step back before I felt comfortable returning her glare. "I was in the library when all of this happened. If anypony here could've done it, it would be you."

"Me?" All-Smith closed the distance between us, nose only inches from mine. "Don't you dare suggest I'd pull something as stupid as this."

"I don't see who else could have! Saf and Davenport were here for the last hour. The only pony unaccounted for was you."

All-Smith's amber eyes were full of putrid hate. "You little insect! I'll have you know my forge means everything to me! Don't even think for a second-"

"All right!" Saf yelled, forcing herself between the two of us. By then we’d been standing so close that any onlookers could assume we were a couple. "That's enough from the both of you."

"I have to agree." Davenport agreed in that authoritative voice that came from higher blood. Directed partially at me, my ears sunk reflexively. "I'm firmly convinced nopony here could, or would, do something like this. Turning against each other isn't going to serve anything."

There was a quiet few moments, the only sound in the room the independent breathing of each body until All-Smith turned away from me with a ‘hmph’, sitting heavily on a cushion around the table. Though I opened my mouth, the air wasn’t right for anything I could say.

All-Smith gave an uncharacteristically defeated sigh. “You three do realize what this means, don’t you?” She first looked at Davenport, seated to her left, then Saf, then finally me. “As soon as somepony realizes that the colorless ponies are missing their love, the first thing they’re going to think of is changelings.” Her gaze fell to the faux wood surface of the table. “That means us.”

"And then they'll come searching." I bit my lip. Costs had been too high to screen the entirety of Equestria right after the battle, but a single town wasn't unfeasible. Even worse, I was living with the pony who would likely be the one to cast the spell that would identify me.

“We don’t know that!” Saf .

“Twilight left for the hospital this morning as a medical consultant.” I sat at the table across from All-Smith.

Davenport brooded, “If I know Twilight Sparkle,and it was once was my job to know her, she’ll find out eventually. Love isn't a very well researched subject, but Twilight Sparkle is not just any pony.”

I knew Twilight Sparkle as well.

"All this talk of doom and gloom is going to make me sick." Saf muttered under her breath.

"Yeah." I agreed, becoming conscious of the terrible scent wafting through the air. It was almost like love, but it's similarity only made it more disgusting to realize that it wasn't. "Throw that stuff away already."

Saf's head shot up. "My soup!" She spun around, turning off the heat and stirring viciously.

"Of course," Davenport tried to laugh, "This could all be just some new sickness that the good doctors of Ponyville General are hard at work curing. We could all be worrying over nothing."

"Yeah." I agreed solemnly. "Nothing."

All-Smith opened her mouth, a single syllable making it out before she shut it again with a frown.

It had been nearly a month since my move to Ponyville. With all the close calls I've had, it felt... wrong to have to worry about something like this. I could learn from a mistake, better myself, but there was no bright side to being exposed that way.

"Okay, I think the soup is alright."

My thoughts were interrupted as Saf's wing extended before me, dropping a hot bowl of an unidentifiable mixture before me. Uneven chunks of pale, mushy vegetables lazily lounged alongside lengthy noodles in a white, creamy broth. I could feel a fit of dry heaves coming on.

"I'm not eating this." I pushed the bowl away. I didn't want to be rude, but vomiting at Davenport's kitchen table seemed infinitely more offensive than refusing Saf's cooking. There comes a point in a changeling's life when she has to stand up for herself and defend her principles.

"Yes you are." Saf frowned as she placed an identical bowl before Davenport. "If you want to act like a normal pony, you've got to eat like a normal pony. This is the first step of acclimating yourself to pony food. The mushy-ness of vegetable soup help it go down."

This was the first step? For the first time, I realized that eating food like a regular pony meant I actually had to eat the food. This was looking more and more like a mistake.

Saf deposited another bowl before All-Smith, whose neutral features momentarily shared my look of revulsion before reverting to its natural state, before sitting down with her own bowl.

"This has to be the first time I've ever had a full table." Davenport smiled. "We've talked about enough depressing things today."

"I agree." Saf's smile returned. "There's no point in worrying about it now. Let's enjoy whatever time we have."

"You did..." All-Smith was wearily looking at the sludge before her. "You did taste test this, didn't you?"

"I followed the directions." Saf pouted. "Theoretically, there should be nothing wrong with it."

"That's what you said about your carrot-applesauce."

"Hey!" Saf pouted. "In my defense, Carrot Top's crush on Applejack tastes good."

“I’m not suffering an upset stomach on your behalf.”

“I concur.” I meekly raised my voice in agreement.

“You don’t have a choice in this matter!” Saf brandished her spoon menacingly at me. "I made this soup for you, and you will eat it."

“I've got to admit..." Davenport mumbled, spoon in mouth. "It’s not… terrible.”

All-Smith turned to him. “You’re either brave or stupid!”

“I followed the directions!” Saf slammed her hoof on the table. “Now eat the damn soup!”

“Hmph…” All-Smith crossed her forehooves.

“Fine.” Saf frowned. “Don’t for all I care. See if I do something nice for you ever again.” She stabbed her spoon into the soup and stuck it in her mouth.

“What’s it taste like?” I inquired curiously.

Saf sniffed pitifully. “Like Raindrops’s love when she’s having a bad day.”

“Anyway,” Davenport pushed his bowl away, “Anypony have anything else they’d like to talk about today?”

I started to speak. Those repressed questions about my feelings for Twilight were starting to resurface now that I had the chance to get a few answers.

Then again... As the three of them expectantly turned toward me, I really didn't want to make myself look any more stupid than I already looked. I already must seem so inexperienced to them. I wanted to be seen as an equal rather than somepony who needed to be babied.

“Well?” Davenport asked expectantly.

“Uhm…” I blushed. “N-nevermind. It’s something I’d rather talk to Saf about. You know mare-to-mare.”

Saf grumbled in her foul mood.

I looked to Davenport. "Though I could use some help with my teeth."

"Your teeth?"

"Colgate roped me into a dental appointment this morning. I want to make sure there's nothing wrong with my mouth."

"Ah." Davenport nodded understandably. "I think I can help with that."

.-~*~-.

The rest of the meeting passed slowly. Davenport brought out cards and we continued talking around a game of poker, a game I had to be taught how to play before losing every hoof. I felt bad not eating Saf’s soup after she put so much effort into it, so I tried to consume at least a single spoonful of the sludgy soup. It went about as well as I had expected.

When we finally disbanded at seven, the introvert in me felt exhausted from the social pressure. Still, as I left I couldn't help but ask, "What if it isn't a virus?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Davenport replied. "For now, there's nothing we can do. We just have to be on the lookout."

"You're right under Twilight's nose." Saf spoke quietly. "If Twilight starts looking for us..." She shook the thought from her head. "nevermind."

"We'll get through this." All-Smith snarled. “I’m not going to just lie down and take what’s coming. This is my home.”

Home.

Parting on those words, I found myself walking back to the library. The sun had been hanging in the sky for shorter and shorter lengths of time, and it was nearly touching the horizon now. As I understood it, that was a sign of the changing seasons. It's strange how much I missed from spending my whole life in the hive.

I could understand All-Smith's apprehension. The hive was safe, yes, but it was so much less than what I had now. Besides my fellow couriers, I found it hard to put a name to the face of a single other changeling in the hive, much less whether they preferred flying or walking or if they could do magic tricks or if they were obsessed with mythical creatures. I didn't even have a mom in the hive. Never before had I felt the joys of a maternal bond, of somepony I could trust over all others.

In the hive, I'd never starve, yet love was made all the sweeter by those it came from. The hive had a library, yet only the queen and her advisors were able to use it. The hive was supposed to be my family, but only in ponyville had I ever felt like I could trust my kin.

I made a decision that late-summer dusk. I'm never going to return to the hive.

Deep down inside, some part of me always wanted to return, to fill that lonely corner of my mind that was reserved for the presence of my brothers and sisters. Perhaps I'd never be free of that longing, but now I had something else: friendship. I was surrounded by ponies who were genuinely happy just to have me around, and nothing was worth sacrificing that, not even a decent night's sleep.

The library was before me now. I passively put a hoof against the door and pushed. I had expected the door to open easily, and when it didn't, I found my nose smashed against the candle painted on the top half of the door.

"Ow..." I rubbed my poor nose. I took a step back and reevaluated the situation.

The door was locked? As absorbed in my thoughts as I was, I had forgotten that I locked the door behind me when I left with All-Smith.

But Twilight should have returned by now. A cursory glance revealed each of the windows were dark. Why wasn't she home? As worrying as that question's answer could be, I had a more immediate problem to deal with, namely being locked out of the library.

Twilight very rarely locked her door and for good reason. Ponyville was a sleepy town; trouble more often came from outside rather than in, and the only reason I'd locked the door was habit carried over from some of the less well-off towns I've lived in the past few months.

Well, the solution to this was easy enough. About a week after I moved in, Spike showed me where they kept the spare key. Standing on my hind legs, I slid my forehoof along the top of the curved door frame until it met a divot...

The divot was empty.

"W-what?" I slid my hoof along the rest of the door frame and found no other divots before returning to search the one I'd originally found. A more thorough search of the small space revealed nothing new.

"Where could it have..." I backed up a few paces before it occurred to me. "Trixie!"

Even weeks after she turned the library upside-down, that stupid stunt Trixie pulled was still biting me in the flank.

At this juncture I had several options available to me. I could wait for Twilight to show up, though if she wasn't home by now, there was no telling when she could get back. I could try to magic the door open, but the same concerns applied now as they did every other time I tried to use magic. I could give myself wings and fly up to Twilight's balcony, but transforming in the open left a bad stain on my tongue.

With the emotionally draining day I've had, part of me just wanted to break the door down and be done with it, but I've never been the 'deal with it later' type. That left one other option.

Approaching a window, I peered into the empty and dimming interior of the library. Gauging that it was sufficiently late, I knocked a few times on the pane until a dark shape swooped down from the stairs and perched inside window sill. Large yellow eyes regarded me curiously.

"Hey Owlowiscious." I smiled sheepishly. "Do you mind opening the door for me? I accidentally locked myself out."

The owl hooted in response, muffled by the pane between us. He quickly opened his wings and flew out of view. Hardly five seconds later, I heard the click of the lock on the door. Smiling widely, I pushed the door open.

"Thanks." I said, stepping into the darkened library. Owlowiscious flew to his perch next to the window and hooted. "I owe you a..." I couldn't really think of anything the owl could want. Owls were pretty independent creatures; all Twilight had to do to take care of him was leave a window open at night so he could come and go as he pleased. "Well, I guess I just owe you one."

He hooted in response.

I lit a lantern and busied myself cleaning up the books I had taken out in my frantic search for answers earlier that day. If ponies didn't know much about love, I doubt I'd find anything useful in the library. Hopefully Saf would have some answers for me next time we spoke.

Author's Note

This chapter took too long. exhausted. have a nice day.

Prologue: Fallen Stars

o----[ Prologue: Fallen Stars ]-----------------------o

I've come to terms that the invasion of Canterlot on the day of the royal wedding between Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor will end up as nothing more than an insignificant bullet point in the history of Equestria, despite the fact that an estimated %65 of the Everfree changeling hive perished because of our attack. To be fair, most of them didn't actually die in Canterlot, instead strewn about a hostile country to die of injuries, hostile wild animals, starvation, or the locals themselves. It was simultaneously one of the most and least successful invasions of Equestria in recorded history.

Despite those statistics, I can't bring myself to truly regret that day, not that I could've done anything to stop it at the time, and there isn't anything I can do about it now because crossing my own timeline would be really bad, I'm told. Besides, with all the events that our mad queen set in motion when she decided to march on Canterlot, it may very well be one of the most important days in Equestrian history since the first fall of Nightmare Moon. And it'll still end up as nothing more than a bullet point in a text book.

Of course, my opinion is probably biased, especially since I consider it the day that defined the rest of my life. As far as I'm concerned, my life started as a comet coated in green fire sailing across the skies of Equestria, recently launched from the capital by an explosive forcefield of magic and love. My fellow changelings that happened to be launched in the same general direction as me were blazing beside me in comets of their own, fiery tails tracing lines across the sky.

After what felt like forever, my arc finally took me below the cloud cover to expose a sprawling pony city beneath me. Fillydelphia. Most worker drones like me never left the hive for any reason, and seeing urban equestria open up before me was the first time I realized that the world I knew was really just a tiny part of a much bigger and stranger whole. Well, I put that into thought later; mostly I was just terrified.

Then the fireballs started landing or, more appropriately, crashing. They slammed into the sides of buildings, shattering windows and raining glass down upon panicking ponies. They crashed into trees and brush, kindling magical green bonfires. Several simply hit pavement, skidding along while leaving what I hoped was a line of blackened ash instead of the black chitin of our exoskeletons.

My descent was far less graceful. I cried out as a building rose up before me, and, unable to move or otherwise maneuver myself, my right foreleg clipped it's roof. My yelp of pain was lost as I immediately went into a tumbling descent like a broken pinwheel, my world turning into a rush of blurred images. My flight path was cut off by slamming, hard, into the concrete face of a ten-story building. My shroud of fire dissipated instantly. I'm not sure whether the sharp cracking sound I heard was my exoskeleton buckling under the pressure or if I imagined it completely.

Regardless, I was only dimly aware as my body separated from the wall, letting me fall a few stories into a wide decorative fountain. My world was dark and numb as I sloshed around in the shallow water unable to swim or tell which way was up. A hoof struck stone and I forced myself above the water, throwing my upper half onto the wall that ringed the fountain. My lungs struggled to come back to life, after the breath was forced from them, either from the impact with the wall or the surface of the water, and I couldn't force myself to move now that I was out of immediate danger.

Then, slightly distorted by my inebriated state, I heard a shaking voice ask: "I-is it dead?"

I blearily became aware of a mass of shifting hooves and voices over the sound of a gurgling water fixture.

"Mommy, what is it?" A foalish voice asked.

"Shush, honey. Stay away from that, it could be dangerous."

"It can't possibly be alive after that."

"Damn this thing is ugly."

"What should we do?"

"Someone go make sure it's dead..."

My lungs jump-started suddenly, spastically inhaling sweet oxygen. A chorus of gasps met my ears as my body suddenly came to life, flailing in the water. My head tipped briefly as I panicked, making me panic even more. I thrashed, twisting and turning my body around in the water until I found that the pool was shallow, hardly deeper than two feet. Planting my hooves, I jerked my head above the water to take another sorely needed breath.

There was never a need to learn how to swim in the hive. We hardly had a use for water when distilled love provided all the nutrition we needed, and I was not a fan of water as things stood. After catching my breath, I glanced around at my alien surroundings, jumping to a standing position when I saw at least a dozen ponies on the other side of the fountain's concrete partition.

Ponies were the enemy. They stood gaping at me in shock and horror, a filly clinging desperately to her mother's leg while looking at me with wide eyes. My opaque blue eyes jumped from one to the next.

I was just a courier drone plucked from the hive and chucked into the ranks of soldiers to bolster our numbers. I wasn't built or properly trained for fighting. My meager training was hardly enough to fight with numbers on my side let alone when they were against me.

"What are you?" One of them asked.

I bit my chitinous lip, unprepared for negotiations.

"Does it matter?" A stallion with a pair of wings stepped up. "These things just start falling from the sky causing trouble. If you ask me, we should get rid of it now."

"I guess that's why we're not asking you." Another stallion, this one with a horn, spoke up. "Just look at it. Sure, it may be ugly, but it certainly doesn't look threatening."

I took a step back, my insectoid wings flicking off water. They were prepared for flight, but I'd have to get out of the water if I wanted to have room to take off.

"Are you kidding?" The winged stallion gestured toward me. "Look at the size of those fangs," I clamped my mouth shut, "there is no way that thing is even remotely safe."

A murmur ran through the assembled ponies, not the least of which being, "Mommy, can I go pet it?" I uneasily took another step back.

"I..." I started in my warbling changeling voice. I didn't know what to say.

"Oh just look at the poor thing." The mother said. "It's just as scared of us as we are of it."

Scared? I was way past that. I was terrified.

"Scared! That thing is a monster!" The pegasus stallion countered.

"Yeah, if we don't kill it now, it could hurt somepony." Another pony in the group agreed. Several others muttered their agreement.

My breathing started to get erratic with panic. I whipped around, scrambling in the unyielding water toward the far end of the fountain.

"Quick, it's trying to get away!" I looked back to see several ponies break away from the group, one unfurling wings and taking to the air. My eyes widened, and my efforts redoubled as I sloshed through the chlorinated water, contaminating it with my greenish blood. Absolute terror prevented me from realizing how much pain I should've been in.

"Hold on," The pegasus stallion called out. "I never said we should kill it!"

I heard a splash behind me, feeling an insistent tug on my tail. I looked back to find a unicorn quickly gaining on me, the midsection of my tail gripped with magic.

"RAAAAAH!" I jerked my head back to my front to see a pegasus mare a split second before her hooves pummelled into me, forcing me under the water with a living weight on top of me. I shouted in surprise and pain, a pillar of bubbles erupting from my snout with nothing but water to replace the air. I pushed and shoved frantically at the pony, but she remained resolute. Panicking, I reached out to my horn, only realizing something was wrong a fraction of a second before it forcefully exploded, sending the pegasus flying through the air.

I thrust my head back above water, greedily gulping air. Throwing myself forward through the water, I hoisted myself up and over the concrete partition. Falling, gasping, off the wall to the dry land below, I hardly missed a beat before making a break for it, the sound of pursuing hooves hot in my ears. I spread my wings, jumping into the air as an earth pony snatched my tail in his mouth. I beat my wings furiously, producing a low hum that permeated the air, pulling the stallion forward even as he firmly planted his hooves. The rest of my pursuers were quickly approaching, and I needed to be airborne now.

"Just leave me alone!" I cried, lashing out with my back hoof as hard as I could. He yelped when I hoof made contact with his nose, and I jerked free, pulling up and out of the range of my land bound opponents before shooting down the street.

Nervously, after a few seconds I looked back, dreading what I would find. Fortunately, nopony seemed to be on my tail. I let out a sigh of relief, a tremor running through my body. I had to fight back blurry tears. I didn’t know how far away from home I was, and I just had a very near death experience, escaping only by the skin of my teeth. I was scared, alone, and injured. Then I caught a glance of my appearance in a glassy skyscraper.

My breath caught in my throat, and I had to slow to a hover, only now discovering the true extent of my injuries and then the dulled pain behind them. My carapace was cracked in a webbed fashion all across my body, in many places leaking my pale green blood. But by far the worst damage of all was my right foreleg. The exoskeleton was completely shattered, small bits of it barely hanging onto my skin, or even gone entirely, revealing an ugly gash in the skin below. Now that I knew about it, I couldn't ignore the dully throbbing pain welling up deep inside. The damage was so bad I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn I had several fractures on my internal skeleton.

Misty eyed, I realized my fate. I was already dead.

The changeling hive was cutthroat efficient. If I returned with a broken leg, I'd no doubt be driven away. It was more convenient to replace me than it was to heal me. I felt my energy start to wane, hopelessness a stone in my heart. It only got worse.

"My horn!" I noticed, tears coming to my eyes. As if a broken leg wasn't enough, my forehead was now occupied by a jagged, broken-off stump. Most changelings, myself included, seldom used their magic at all, but it was still an integral part of a changeling’s identity. A drone’s horn wouldn't grow back like a unicorn's would, either. Any hope I had left of returning to the hive immediately abandoned me.

I was lost and badly injured in a city full of ponies who wanted to kill me. I knew I couldn't stay here, but at the same time, I had no where left to go. Everything that I've ever known in my life was suddenly gone, and I had no hope of ever getting it back. Even if I did somehow make it out of Fillydelphia alive, I’d still be in a hostile country with no friends or family, not that I ever did have any of either.

I briefly caught a reflection in the reflective window before something managed to ram into me from behind, plowing me forward to slam bodily into my reflection. My vision immediately fuzzed from the pain of my disturbed wounds.

"Dirty bug." A mare's voice whispered into my ear as she pressed me against the glass.

I fought to push back against her, seeing stars as I took the brunt of the pain from using a broken limb. "Why are you doing this?" I choked out.

"You're a monster." She replied coldly. "This is what happens to monsters." She pulled me away from the glass momentarily before slamming me into it again. My breath caught in my throat. She could obviously tell I was in bad shape, and at this rate, I wouldn’t last much longer either.

"I wonder," She said with a dangerous tone, "how easy it would be to take one of these off." She took my right wing in my mouth, biting down. I tried to flick it away, but she held it firmly in her jaw, giving it a good yank, not enough to tear anything, but enough to send another intense jolt of pain up my spine.

I couldn't lose my wings. Breaking a leg or losing my horn were two terrible things, but my wings were who I was. My job, the thing I was meant to do since before birth, had me on them all day. I was not going to let her have them, too.

I called on my magic, and despite my horn being being broken, it lit up with burning, green fire. I needed fire. I fed it juice, letting it spread to the entirety of my body, engulfing it in flames, flames that licked and burned at the hooves pressed against my back but didn't bother me. Changelings loved fire.

My attacker immediately yelped in pain, releasing my wing and pushing off of me. Not giving her a chance to recover, I shoved off the side of the building, slamming my flaming body into hers. She screamed, hooves scrabbling on my back before she managed to fall away from me. Taking the opening, I made a snap decision and flew in that direction as fast as I could, my fire quickly dissipating as I put everything I had left in my wings.

Soaring quickly over panicking, rioting ponies and guards too busy dealing with the tumultuous crowds to deal with another changeling, I continued pumping my wings until the buildings fell around me and I burst into open skies. stunned by the sudden freedom, I faltered a beat before darting forward. I flew further and further until it was impossible for me to fly any longer and was forced to descend below the canopy of a forest.

I hit the ground hard, an unexpected jolt of pain rushing madly through my whole body. I fell, rolling as momentum carried me. Unable to stop myself, I screamed, cried even after my tumble ceased, and I lay there crying for eternity, broken as I was.

When I finally stumbled to my legs, a variety of sensation I’d never felt before wracked my fragile frame, not the least of which being complete exhaustion from my adrenaline fueled sprint out of Fillydelphia or the sharp migraine from accute magical overexertion. The tooth and hoof fight in the sky had briefly restored my appreciation for life, but now that I had finally ceased running, everything inside and outside hurt so, so much. I wanted to stop feeling, even if it meant I’d never feel again. What use was living when I wanted nothing more than for everything to stop? Yet neither was there a use in standing there like a crumbling statue. With nothing left to do, I lurched forward to begin a lilting limp. Hardly half a dozen hoofsteps after I started moving, I froze mid step as a cry rang out through the quiet woods.

“Hello? Is anypony out here?” An effeminate voice called out with no particular focus. Slowly, dread clawing my insides, I turned my head on my rusty neck to see a brash grey unicorn a dozen feet from me, the only thing separating us being inconsequential underbrush.

As if by fate, her gaze slowly turned on me, widening grey eyes locking on mine. her surprise evident, she opened and closed her mouth as if set on mute. I was obviously the thing she least expected to see.

I took a step backward, prepared to flee, but before I could make the monumental mistake of putting any weight on my broken foreleg, I stopped myself.

I was in no shape to flee again. My wings were literally exhausted, and I wouldn’t be getting very far on a broken leg. To top things off, though most of my wounds had closed up, I was starting to get dizzy from loss of blood.

It was an inevitability in my condition. I might as well be fighting when it happened. I wheeled back around to face the unicorn, lowering my front end closer to the ground while baring my fangs.

Much to my shock, the unicorn stumbled backwards, falling to her haunches. “I-I heard crying.” Her voice cracked. My face showed my confusion, not knowing how to respond. For this moment I had the advantage over her. I might just be able to beat her if I attacked now before she could restructure her defense.

But I didn't want to. I was just a courier, a simple drone in a hive of thousands. I shouldn’t be here. This shouldn’t have happened to me. I shouldn’t-

A sob slipped past my lips even after I made an effort to suppress it. My body and mind couldn’t take this anymore. I deflated, falling back to the ground and dryly sobbing. I didn't care anymore. Caring became such a burden.

“A-are you okay?”

“Just leave me alone.” I sobbed. “I just want everything to stop.”

I heard her come cautiously come closer. She was just a fool, approaching a monster like me. Then she let out a loud gasp. “You’re hurt!”

“I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” I shouted as loud as I could, attempting to light up my horn only to experience the unique feeling of what I’d imagine sticking a needle into my eye would feel like. Everything lost its luster, and I fell into a deep, dark hole. The last I saw was the concerned, silver face of the unicorn I now know as "Mom".

Author's Note

Achievement get: a New Start

Due to this prologue getting dangerously off topic, I had to cut off the end. if you want to read it in it's unedited glory. look at this blog post. Note, this blog post has no relevance to the plot. Come back and read this blog post later if you prefer, or don't even read it at all. And with this prologue, all proto-chapters are declared non-canon.

Thanks to a revelation that I can't name, Equestrian Ninja's plot is going to be restructured once more before I begin working on it in full. in the mean time, this story is off of hiatus.

Chapter 10: A Date with Destiny

o----[ Chapter 10: A Date with Destiny ]---------------------------o

"Do I flip it now?" I asked nervously. The doughy pancake in the frying pan before me was releasing a sickly sweet smell that my sensitive changeling nose couldn't decide how to feel about. "I think it's burning."

Spike glanced at it from his position on a high stool. "Just give it a minute." He said, cracking an egg into a bowl filled with flour and assorted pancake mix.

"But it's burning." I nervously shifted. Should I turn the heat down? I glanced at the gas knob, but it was as low as it could go.

"It's not burning." Spike replied, pouring in milk before picking up a whisk. He plunged said whisk into said bowl, stirring gently. Swish, swish, swish.

"It smells like it's burning."

"No it doesn't." Spike assured me, whisking more vigorously. Swish, swish. "I should know. I'm the cook."

"Mmm." I grumbled uncertainly.

"Fine. If you want to flip it that badly, go ahead."

I smiled, victory surging through my veins. Wait. "How do I flip it?" He didn't really expect me to flip it, did he?

"They're pancakes." Spike grunted. "It's not that hard." He shook off the whisk, setting it down on the counter.

"Okay..." Just flip it. I took the frying pan's handle in my mouth, gently bobbing my head. The pancake stubbornly stayed rooted where it was. This wasn't what I had in mind when I offered to help Spike make breakfast. I already was a psychological mess, I didn't need this on top of that. "I don' thin' I c'n do dis." I choked out through the handle in my mouth.

Spike took a deep breath, trying to control his voice. "It's just a pancake, Midnight."

I swallowed as best I could. Just a pancake. Right. I dipped my head low, then jerked it upward, sending the pancake sailing several feet into the air. Muttering obscenities in my head, I took a step back, trying my best to follow the arc the pancake was sailing in. Unfortunately, that was the time that Twilight chose to enter the room.

"Does anypony know what happened to all those reference books I was studying downstairs?"

Instinctively, I turned my head to look at her, consequently changing the position of the frying pan that had previously been in position to catch previously mentioned flying pancake. The pancake passed through empty air, landing on it's doughy side between my feet to display a perfectly browned top.

Shocked, I took a moment to stare dumbly down at before meekly looking up at Spike. To his credit, he was trying to contain his frustration.

"No more." Spike muttered, yanking the still searing frying pan out of my mouth with his heat resistant claws.

I could only give him an apologetic smile in return.

"What's going on here?" Twilight naively asked as she surveyed the room from her position at the door.

"Midnight was helping with breakfast." Spike curtly answered.

"It's safe to say I'm not a cook." I wryly responded, taking up a dust pan in my mouth to scrape half-cooked pancake off the floor.

Twilight smiled. "I'm not either. That's why Spike is my number one assistant." Spike grunted again, though it was clear that Twilight's compliment had brightened his mood. "Anyway, I was working on an essay for Princess Celestia last night, but my reference books I had out are gone."

"Sorry, I didn't know you were still using them." I answered, depositing the pancake in the garbage.

"You put them away?" Twilight asked, receiving a nod in return. "But when? I was up until midnight. Ahem, No pun intended."

I shrugged. "I couldn't sleep, so I put them away when you were done." I didn't notice how Twilight and Spike looked at me as I replaced the dust pan.

"You haven't been getting much sleep at all lately." Twilight ventured tentatively. "Is everything alright?"

"Of course." I lied. I couldn't very well tell her about the changeling, Sapphire Skies, I met last weekend. I glanced discreetly out the window. She said she'd stop by at the library. I had to be ready. She could be here any minute.

Any minute.

Twilight seemed dissatisfied with my answer, sitting at the table beside me. "You know, it isn't healthy to deprive yourself of sleep,"

"You should be one to talk." Spike muttered.

Twilight ignored Spike, continuing. "Or starve yourself."

Horseapples, we were back to this. "I'm fine, really." An irrefutable argument.

It wasn't as if I wanted her to worry. I couldn't help that I couldn't eat solid food without gagging or sleep without something haunting me.

It was all her fault. Sapphire Skies. She had me jumping at shadows, poised to fight or flee at any moment. She would have a surprise when she finally did make her move. I wasn't going to abandon this life, these ponies that actually cared enough about me to worry, without taking her out as well. Then the nightmares would stop.

I realized that Twilight had been talking. "Sorry. Could you repeat that?"

"I told you to go get some sleep." Twilight repeated matter-of-factly.

"I'm fine." I repeated, shaking the sleep out of my eyes.

"I believe you, but you're not going to eat anyway. You might as well go get some sleep while you can. I'll wake you up after breakfast." Twilight pushed me.

"I..." I couldn't think of anything to say, my mind seemingly sensing an impending shut down. I resisted for a moment, stubbornly trying to act like what I percieved to be a normal pony undeserving of a second glance. It was a losing battle, one that I should've known I couldn't handle. A normal pony, afterall, wouldn't be sleep deprived.

"After breakfast." I repeated. Without another word, I made my way to my room, leaving behind a slightly gratified unicorn.

I woke up panting quickly, a scream kindled in my throat. Looking about, the sight of my room was enough to keep me from acting rashly. My heart beat rushed in my ears. Looking at my hooves revealed what I already knew. The clock, at noon, predictably showed Twilight's broken word.

Hugging myself for a moment, I managed to calm my breath. "That's enough sleep." I grumbled softly in my insectoid voice. Crawling off the bed, I turned to the shattered mirror. Though my body was aching for more, at least my few hours of demented sleep had granted me that tiny bit of alertness that made my transformation into Midnight less of a chore.

Reasonably satisfied with my fractured visage, I exited my room to clop down to the main room of the library.

"Morning sleepy head." Twilight's voice greeted me from her work desk which had been piled high with thick volumes and encyclopedias, likely the ones I had put away the night before.

"Afternoon." I kept the irritation out of my voice.

"Feeling better?"

"Marginally." To tell the truth. I peered over her shoulder to see what she was researching.

"Hmm, well somepony stopped in toWAH." Twilight yelled in my ear, recoiling as she caught sight of me, making me jump in fright. Knowing that randomly screaming wasn't something Twilight was prone to do, fear that I had somehow returned to my changeling form rushed to the forefront of my mind.

Four indigo hooves, a cutie mark, and a darker blue, almost black, tail were all accounted for after a quick once-over. "What?" I asked desperately.

Twilight's eyes betrayed no fear, only surprise. She panted, a laugh bubbling up her throat. "Nice bed head. Rarity would have a heart attack."

I let out a sigh of relief, virtually every muscle in my body relaxing. "Oh. Is that all."

She righted herself, studying my mane. "It's really bad. Did Pinkie rub balloons all over your head while you were sleeping?"

She'd have been in for a surprise if she did. "Doubt it. What are you working on?"

"Oh, I'm just looking for something to set Fluttershy's heart at ease." Twilight waved her hoof. That's right. Twilight still had that show next weekend for the delegates from Saddle Arabia. "Somepony asked for you while you were asleep."

My rising mood took a nosedive.

"I told her that you weren't feeling well, so she left you a note." Twilight gestured to the checkout desk where a folded slip of paper contrasted with the rest of the bare desk.

My breath went ragged in my lungs. A glance at Twilight . She had become absorbed in her book once more. If she read the note, she gave no indication, and I didn't peg her as a good actor. Then again, she had played a lead in the Hearth's Warming play, in Canterlot no less. Sure, she was the element of magic and Princess Celestia's student, but I had to figure that one of the biggest Hearth's Warming shows in the country had standards that not just anypony with connections in high places could meet.

Sitting at the desk, I pulled the slip of paper toward myself. Spreading it open, I found a surprisingly short message.

Midnight,

Quills and Sofas, 6:00

Don't be late

I'll be waiting

-Saf

It wasn't quite what I was expecting. Then again, I didn't really know what I was expecting. Threats? Insults? A command to leave?

Certainly I was expecting more than a meeting place, though I suppose that threats, insults, and commands to leave could all be sorted out at the stated location, though not necessarily in that order.

First thing was first. Trying to steady my voice, I probed. "Twilight?"

"Hmm?"

"Is there a place in town called Quills and Sofas?"

"Mmhmm..."

...

"Twilight?"

"Hmm?"

"You want to give me directions?"

She looked up. "Directions? Where?"

I resisted the urge to face hoof. "Quills and Sofas."

"It's just down the street. You pass it every time you go to Sugarcube corner." Twilight blinked. "Why? Are we low on ink?"

"Um... Yeah." I lied.

"Gyah! Midnight!" Spike yelled as he strode into the room. "What happened to your head?"

"I'm trying out a new mane style." I grinned. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"More like nightmarish." He shuddered.

"Maybe you should go brush your mane before somepony sees you." Twilight suggested.

"And get rid of the rat that's made it its home." Spike helpfully added.

.-~*~-.

I considered not going. I was smart enough to know that there was no way that the problem was going to go away by itself, but I could certainly avoid it for as long as possible. I could give myself more time to enjoy whatever life I had made for myself before my inevitable confrontation with Sapphire Skies changed it for better or for worse.

But I wasn't really one for postponing the inevitable, and my date with Saf really was inevitable. Besides that, I wasn't stupid. I could see what the past four days had done to me. I doubted that I even got half of a full night's sleep all at once, and it was only a matter of time before I fudged up something worse than a pancake. Saf's note actually let my paranoia relax for the first time since I met her, and it felt rejuvinating.

I might as well do this while I had some form of sanity.

And that's the line of thought that brought me to the storefront of Quills and Sofas (or, more specifically, a bench across the street from Quills and Sofas). Though try as I might, as the minute hand slowly ticked toward six, I couldn't force myself forward. I found myself regretting how I had left things with Lyra. She was my friend afterall, and I just abandoned her, betrayed, in the street and hadn't spoken to her since.

And Twilight and Spike? What if I had to leave right now? Would they worry about me? I had only known them for two and a half weeks, but I felt like I didn't have a life before them, like I had been born with my pony mother, left her, then skipped forward several months to live with them. The past wasn't so sharp around them. Then, to repay these two individuals who aparantly meant so much to me, I constantly lied to them.

Well, I made up my mind, I'm not leaving without telling them the truth. Even if...

"You comin' in or what?"

It took me a moment to register that somepony was talking to me. I nearly literally jumped out of my skin when I realized that it was another changeling.

The changeling didn't seem to be very interested in me, however. A look that seemed to be a combination of irritation and boredom adorned her chosen face, which seemed to have a sharp quality to it like her snout was made of angles and straight lines. Her coat was burnt orange like a low fire, and her mane was a sharpened black and tied up into a short ponytail. The majority of her upper body was covered in a worn, leather apron fixed around her midsection. She tapped her hoof against the cobblestone impatiently as she waited for my answer.

From her build, I could tell that she was another worker drone like me, and a niggling tickle in the back of my head told me that I should know her. It wasn't really surprising seeing as I was a courier second class. If she was high enough in the ladder in whatever job she had, I had likely delivered a message to her before.

After recovering from the initial shock, my brain managed to process her question. I nodded stiffly.

She grunted. "Well come on then. No use sitting outside." She then turned and walked across the street without giving me a second glance. What she did give me was a good look at her fuex cutie mark; a pair of crossed hammers were emblazoned on her flank, one a stereotypical hammer while the second seemed more specialized, likely meant for metal working.

My mind still try to catch up with recent developments, I wordlessly followed her as she entered Quills and Sofas. She held the door for me only for a second before nearly closing it on my tail, efficiently flipping the OPEN sign over. I couldn't help but visibly swallow as she then began lowering the blinds.

The inside of Quills and Sofas was soon plunged into darkness with the exception of the front desk, on which sat an unattended, burning gas lantern.

"So..." I tested the waters, flinching at how loud my voice seemed in the quiet of the small store. "My name is..."

And that was where I ran aground, unsure of how to introduce myself. Normally, of course, I'd just use my persona's name, but that just seemed silly while talking to another changeling. We both knew that my name wasn't really Midnight.

But Niphi? If I had it my way, I'd never use that name again. Using it again would feel like I was flying against the wind, throwing away everything that I'd become since the wedding, never mind the fact that I had probably gained half a dozen disorders and phobias along the way.

The changeling rolled her grey eyes. "Davenport, show your lazy flank. The newbie's here."

"Charming as ever." Came an irritated stallion's voice.

"I heard that." The orange coated changeling gumbled.

"You were supposed to." The male voice responded. "If you're waiting for an invitation, I'm not going to give you one."

The grim mare turned to me, frown permanently affixed to her face. She tilted her head toward the door behind the counter.

I put an unsteady hoof forward, followed closely behind by the mare. The door led through a storage room full of shelves filled with boxes of paper and quills and other assorted products. On the far side of the room was a metal staircase.

The top of the staircase opened up into what was obviously the living quarters of the building: a small kitchen/dining room combination, and, at first glance, I thought I saw the Doctor sitting at the rickety wooden table. A second look thankfully showed me I was dead wrong.

I really couldn't deal with the Doctor right now.

Instead there was a stallion, a changeling really, that looked very much like the Doctor. He wore a tan coat and a slightly-mussed-up, slicked-back, mud-brown mane. His flank, appropriately enough, had a picture of a quill and a sofa.

Another soldier. I noticed, warily eying him. No... not quite. Infiltrator? I hoped not, though now that I had thought of the possibility, I found it hard to refute. I didn't see many infiltrators in the hive due to the queen keeping them out on jobs or undercover whenever possible, but they were elite soldiers, and three-to-one odds were bad enough without factoring in that the only real combat training I had was a crash course in how to set things on fire and punch somepony in the face.

"This is her?" He asked, directing his question to the changeling behind me. Realizing that I was blocking the entrance to the room, I stepped aside, unwilling to approach the table.

"Yeah." She sauntered over to the table, sitting across from Davenport. "Sapphire will be late. A storm came in from the Everfree, and her team has been dealing with it all afternoon."

"Well don't be a stranger." Davenport grinned at me. "Come and sit down. We won't bite." He cast an unsure glance at the mare across from him. "Well. I won't."

I'm sure that grin was meant to be reassuring, but it really wasn't. Doing as I was told, I sat at the table with both of them, my eyes shifting between the two. By now I was reasonably sure that they, at the very least, weren't going to physically hurt me, but I didn't survive this long without being paranoid.

"I'm Davenport." The stallion continued. "The lovely lady is Miss All-Smith, but everypony calls her Smithy."

"Call me Smithy and I will end you."

"She's kidding." Davenport smiled. "Ever the kidder, Smithy."

Pony names then? "Midnight." I muttered.

"Nice name. It suits the disguise at least." Davenport compliment.

I wasn't really expecting a compliment, but I tried to keep my face as neutral as I could. "Thanks I guess."

"Too stereotypical." All-Smith rolled her eyes. "Could there be a more fantastical name to give yourself?"

"My mother gave me this name." I glared at her.

"Mother?" Her expression remained a disinterested frown to contrast with her intrigued, almost amused tone.

I looked away, unwilling to answer. "What do you guys want from me?"

"Want from you?" All-Smith contained a chortle. "What could we possibly want from you?"

"Smithy, don't be rude." Davenport chided, turning to me. "We just want to make sure you're alright."

"Alright has a pretty loose definition." I pointed out.

"He means we want to make sure you're not going to get us all in hot water." All-Smith eloquently explained.

I opened my mouth, intent on responding, before really realizing that I didn't really know what to say. "Ah... I wouldn't..."

"You say you wouldn't," All-Smith glared at me, changing her expression for the first time since I met her, "but how do we know you're not just stupid enough to get yourself caught? I've got a good deal here, and I will not go back to that damn hive."

I swallowed past a lump in my throat. "I..."

"All-Smith, lay off." Davenport sternly commanded.

"Lay off? Davenport, you've been here the longest. You will lose the most if your cover is blown."

"I..." I tried to choke out.

"That's no excuse to treat anypony like that."

"Well, I'm sorry if you don't care as much about your life as I do about mine."

"How can you say that? You know that I've invested everything I have into this store."

"Oh, you mean bits? I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

A tromping of hooves on metal came from the staircase, drawing all eyes. Soon, the big, blue eyes of Sapphire Skies came into view. "I'm here!" She announced, exasperated. "There was this big storm and it took forever to... am I interrupting something?"

All-Smith threw one last glare at Davenport before her expression returned to her stoic frown. "No. I was just leaving."

"Smithy..." Saf stepped aside as All-Smith stubbornly passed her.

"I'll be here next week. That is if any of us are even left." And then she was down the stairs, the only evidence of her existence the sound of her steps as she eventually made her way to the exit.

"It hardly took her ten minutes to leave." Davenport muttered. "That's got to be a new record."

"Don't be so hard on her. She's just scared. We all are." Saf's voice was mournful.

"She was right." I spoke up, staring at the faux top of the plywood table misty eyed. "In the two weeks I've been here, I've nearly been discovered two or three times. Lyra's suspicious, and it's only a matter of time before Twilight puzzles it out."

"Hey, don't talk like that." Saf touched my shoulder. "You're with friends now."

I couldn't help it. All the tension of the past few days forced a brief sob out of me.

"That's right." I could hear the smile on her lips. "Sometimes it helps to cry."

Tears rushed the corners of my vision, falling down my cheeks as the floodgates opened. I cried for everything. I cried for my nightmares. I cried for my paranoia. I cried for my fears and my concerns and my lies to Twilight and Spike and Lyra. I cried for all the times I was hurt by ponies I thought were my friends when I was a pony but weren't when I was a changeling. I cried for all the changelings who were supposed to be there for me and instead threw me into the fire, and all that time Sapphire Skies stayed by my side with a reassuring hoof rubbing my back.

Eventually I cried myself out. Sniffling and rubbing my eyes with my fetlock, Davenport slid a cup of steaming liquid to me from across the table. "I-I can't eat or drink anything." I said in broken, post-sob speech.

"Tea usually goes down easier than most things." Davenport replied taking a sip from his own cup.

I nodded a thanks, picking up the cup and tentatively swishing around the steaming liquid inside. I could just pretend it was distilled love. I raised the cup to my lips, taking a sip. I winced, expecting to gag on the foreign liquid, though no such thing happened. Instead I enjoyed the sweet, refined taste of tea.

Now, imagine eating nothing but pizza for your entire life. Sure you can mix it up with various toppings, but the pizza itself would get pretty old after awhile right? That's what I felt at that moment. A wave of euphoria swept through my body as I tasted the first thing that wasn't love in my entire life.

"Better?" Saf asked.

I nodded. "Sorry for dumping this on you two."

"Don't feel guilty at all!" Saf insisted. "This is the whole reason we meet every week: to get these things out in the open with ponies that won't judge us."

"Every week?"

"Every Wednesday." Saf nodded. "And you're welcome, too."

"We just have one rule." Davenport interjected. "And that is that we protect each other's identities. If one of us is caught, only one of us will be caught."

"Sounds reasonable." I sniffed, finally getting a bearing on my emotions again.

"Perfect!" Saf clapped her hooves together. "Welcome to Ponyville! We're going to have to work together on teaching you how to eat. Believe me, it might seem gross now, but food is one of the most beautiful products of equine civilization, even if it does mean extra trips to the bathroom." She giggled and I had to smile.

"Your disguise could use a bit of work, too." Davenport noted after a sip from his cup.

My smile turned into an unsure frown. "What do you mean? What's wrong with it?"

"Oh, nothing major, I assure you." Davenport smiled reassuringly. "Just a few minor things with the grain of your fur and the way your mane works around what’s left of your horn."

"I've never made a ponysona before." I admitted, and I hadn't taken time to mess around with it for months until I added my horn just last week.

Davenport nodded. "Most drones didn't before they had to. I must say that your work is pretty good the way it is, though I would've chosen a more diverse color scheme."

"Oh, shove off Davenport. You're still bumming around in the disguise you had before the queen bit the dust." Saf rolled her eyes. "You're just jealous you're not blue like us."

"I have a motto: don't fix what isn't broken." He smiled slyly. "And this devilish exterior is most certainly working."

"Drives all the fillies wild." Saf laughed.

I almost laughed, but I knew I had to kill the mood. "None of you replaced ponies, right?"

Saf looked at me, a small smile playing with her lips. "Of course not, though Davy's been here since he was assigned to watch the elements by our late queen."

I turned my gaze to Davenport. "So you are an infiltrator."

He nodded. "Not too bad of a job. I couldn't begin to guess what type of drone you are."

"Courier second class."

Saf's eye's widened slightly with marginal surprise. "That's pretty high up. You don't get that far if you don't like your job. You should be a pegasus."

My heart gave a little jump at the thought. I missed flying more than I thought I would. "I haven't flown in months, and even then only on changeling wings."

"Changeling flight translates well to Pegasus flight. It's just flapping slower. And with more bones. And joints."

"We really shouldn't have been surprised that she was high up." Davenport mused morosely. "Most of the drones hardly made it a month without the queen's voice in the back of their mind. Soldiers and managers lasted longer, but I'll bet at least half still devolved into madness. The ones that didn't had to be independent and smart enough to avoid a watchful guard."

I nodded sorely. "I ran into a few managers and soldiers five or six weeks back in Oatsmill. I was almost gutted on a pike before they managed to raise enough of a racket to get caught." I suddenly found myself on the receiving end of a hug from Saf, an appreciated reminder that experiences like those weren't standard fare. "Those encounters are luckily becoming fewer and fewer." I continued, relaxing into the hug.

"You're safer here, at least from our own." She murmured. "Most of the deranged ones have the sense to stay out of eyesight of Canterlot, and the ones that don't tend to get caught soon enough."

The feeling of safety seemed foreign to me after so long. The last time I had felt it was while I was living with my mom, but that had almost been a mockery as I felt the crushing pressure of pony civilization.

But I felt like I was starting to remember.

Author's Note

So there we go, I actually got to working on this again before finishing my new fic (at the time of this writing, unpublished) about a wandering equestrian ninja. (yay!) Admittedly, I haven't taken much time to edit this particular chapter because I'm neck deep in National Novel Writing Month (I enjoy NaNoWriMo) and I'm slowly but surely falling behind on the goal of 50000 words.

This chapter was written in the span of three days and lightly editted earlier today. I'm still resolved to finish this story, for better or for worse, but most of the aprehension I have from doing so comes from the fact that I have grown a lot as an author since the inception, and the first chapter, the chapter that will make or break many readers, is a complete mess. to resolve this, I'll be taking much of NaNoWriMo to rewrite the first three chapters of the story. I'd still prefer to rewrite chapter four, but I feel like it's at least good enough to stand as it is (And I don't feel like it).

In addition, I'll have out a prologue that'll give the story a bit more context. I'll also upload it with the rewrites so that anyone who wants to read the rewrites will get the notification without me having to upload a crap-top of new chapters all at once.

In other news, Equestrian Ninja is officially off the ground now. I've reached a point were it seems natural to cut off chapter one, even though I had it in my overview to go on a bit longer so... I'm unsure how this is going to turn out.

Anyway, leave a comment. It means a lot more to me than a like or a silent view.