The Student and the Time Traveler

Chapters

Chapter One: Market Day
Chapter Two: Haven's Secret
Chapter Three: Celestial Regret
Chapter Four: Changing Emotions
Chapter Six: Pinkie Party
Chapter Seven: Spin the Bottle
Chapter Eight: Troublesome Truths and Dastardly Dares
Chapter Five: One of Many
Cancelled

Chapter One: Market Day

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter One
Market Day

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
-Sun Tzu

Twilight

Twilight knew something was up. Every week, a strange stallion showed up on Tuesday, bought more groceries than one pony could possibly need, packed it into a cart, and left. Every week, for Tuesday only, everypony in town had amazing luck. At first, she had thought that it was a coincidence, but after the fourth week she decided to breach the topic with her friends. Rarity had made a large sale every Tuesday the past month. Rainbow Dash had gotten a raise last Tuesday. Applejack and Big Macintosh had bucked twice as many apples every Tuesday for the past month, and were probably going to finish a week earlier than usual. They had all remembered seeing this stallion at least once. Turns out, of all of them, only Pinkie had somehow never seen this stallion. She did not take this fact well.

“How have I not seen him? I welcome everypony to Ponyville!” Pinkie sobbed with a very Rarity level of melodrama.

That was on a Sunday. The next day, Twilight resolved to confront this stallion. Today was Tuesday. As most ponies did, he always entered from the East due to the Everfree Forest being to the West. Today, Twilight was watching for him. Little known to her, so was a not very happy pink pony.

* * *

Change

Frequent Change was grumbling to himself. Why did he always have to get supplies? Sure, he was lucky, but if he was seen too much around town, it spelled nothing good for the Haven. Send Brick, or Ironhoof! Brick blended easy with the populace of this ‘Ponyville’ place better than he did! Ironhoof was great at bartering! No, instead, send freaking mute Change every freaking week. Let him pull the heavy cart through the Everfree two times a day. What’s he going to do, complain?

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice that he was being approached until she had started talking to him. “Excuse me?” His head snapped up to look at who was talking to him. “I don’t believe we’ve met. My name is Twilight Sparkle, what’s yours?”

Change studied the mare in front of him. She was lavender, with a dark purple mane. Her mane had a pink stripe right next to a purple one. She was giving him a look halfway between curiosity and confusion. He tilted his head at her. She’s pretty.

She smiled awkwardly at him. “Uh, hello? Can you understand me?”

Change gave her a flat look before nodding. Of freaking course I can understand you.

Twilight kept her awkward grin, even though Change could see her fighting it falling. “So what’s your name?”

Change sighed in exasperation. He hated meeting new ponies. He always went through this awkward stage where they tried to talk with him. They never learn.

Suddenly her eyes widened, “You can’t talk, can you?”

Change smiled slightly, she got it the fastest of anypony. He shook his head. Pretty and smart. I like her.

“That must be horrible!” she exclaimed. “I don’t think I could just... not speak. I don’t even talk a lot. My friend Pinkie, who talks a whole lot, can’t even go for five minutes without talking!”

Change just shrugged. Been this way for years, no point in crying over spilt milk.

“You’re here to shop again, right?” Twilight suddenly asked him.

He tilted his head. ‘Again’? Damn it, I’ve been spotted. He hesitantly nodded.

Twilight smiled, “Here, I’ll help you out. Show me a list of things you need and I’ll direct you to them.”

Change was hesitant to accept, but in a friendly town like Ponyville, he really couldn’t get away with turning down something like this without suspicion.

Twilight saw his hesitation and misinterpreted, “Don’t worry, I have no plans for the day.”

Damn it. Now I have no choice, he thought. Oh well, if it’s happening no matter what, might as well just bend over and take it. He put on a false grin and grabbed the shopping list from the cart, making sure to scribble his name across the top.

Twilight grabbed the list in her purple aura. Her eyes jumped back in forth as she read each item on the list once, then twice, and then thrice. Change could see the wheels turning in her head as she built a path through the marketplace that would take him to each stall in the most orderly fashion. He hadn’t known her that long, but that just seemed like something she would do.

She looked at him, “This will cost four hundred and twenty four bits, give or take ten bits, and we’ll probably be done in an hour. That’s a lot of food for one person to be buying.”

He nodded before hitching himself to the cart before nudging a quite large coin purse, indicating that he was ready to go.

“Even if you could, you wouldn’t tell me why you’re getting so much food, would you?” Twilight asked, curious.

Change just grinned.

* * *

“This is the last stall of the day,” Twilight was talking just under an hour later. She had kept up the one-sided conversation the whole time, a fact that Change was glad for. “Hello, Applejack!”

“Hello, Twi,” an orange pony replied, adjusting the stetson she had on over her straw-colored hair. “What can ah get ya?”

Twilight levitated up the list, “Ten bushels of apples, any kind.”

Applejack sat quietly for a second, “That ain’t yer list, is it Twi?”

Twilight blushed and replied sheepishly, “How could you tell?”

Applejack chuckled, “Two reasons, Twi. First, ya would be a lot more specific like with what ya wanted. Two, that ain’t Spike pullin’ the cart yer loadin’. Who’s yer new friend?”

Change groaned inwardly. Of course the cute mare already had a coltfriend. His luck had to run out eventually. Damn it.

“Oh, I completely forgot to introduce him! Applejack, this is Frequent Change. Change, this is Applejack,” Twilight introduced.

Applejack held her hoof out for a hoofshake, “Good to meet ya.”

Change nodded and shook her hoof. Here we go again.

“Not much of a talker, are ya? Ya’d get along fine with mah brother, Big Mac,” Applejack said, letting go of his hoof. That went better than expected.

“Actually, Applejack,” Twilight began sheepishly. “He can’t talk.”

Applejack looked at him sideways before getting really close to his face. The look she had on her face was absolutely terrifying and he had no idea why it was aimed at him. “Is that so?” she said, before whispering into his ear. “If yer lyin’ to Twi, I’m gonna be mighty upset with ya. She’s important to me, practically mah sister. If ya can actually talk, ya better do it now. I saw tha way ya were lookin’ at her, so if yer fakin’ bein’ mute to be interestin’ ya better fess up.”

Change backed up under the glare of the orange monstrosity before him. He didn’t even know that a pony could be that terrifying. -and I will always eat my vegetables with each meal, and I’ll never curse in the presence of a lady, and I’ll never- After a few seconds, Applejack seemed satisfied. She smiled and spoke quietly enough that only he could hear, “Ya seem like an okay stallion, Change. Don’t make me change my opinion of ya.” Loud enough for Twilight to hear, she added, “That’ll be two bits a bushel. Ya push a hard bargain, Change.”

Change was more terrified by the fast change in the mare’s temperament than he was by her anger. He worked hard to keep as much fear off his face as he could while practically throwing the money at Applejack. She laughed silently, keeping the smile on her face unchanged.

Twilight looked at the two confused, “How’d he even barter without being able to talk?”

Applejack laughed, “We shopkeepers have our ways.” She turned to Change and winked with the eye that Twilight couldn’t see. “Nice to see that Twi’s finally hanging out with colts.”

Change tilted his head. What happened to this Spike fellow?

Twilight blushed all the way down to her shoulders, “APPLEJACK! It’s not like that!” She failed to see Change deflate slightly, crushed, but Applejack didn’t.

Applejack kept chuckling, “Keep tellin’ yerself that. Have a good day now, ya’ll.”

Change forced a smile onto his face and turned to thank Twilight. She was still blushing. He waited patiently for about four seconds, before nudging her shoulder. “Wha- oh, yes. Well, it’s getting to be about noon, so why don’t you come by the library? Spike’ll be getting ready for lunch right about now, and it’s been awhile since we had company for a meal.”

Change was floored by the question. The fact that she might like him back was thrown out immediately due to her previous statement, so she was either a heartbreaker or a tease, or she honestly had no idea what the connotation of inviting a stallion into your home was. He nodded swiftly, smiling a real smile.

* * *

Spike

Spike was just finishing up making lunch when he heard the door to the library open, “Hey Twilight!” he yelled. “Perfect timing, just finished making lunch!” He turned around, “I even managed to make-” He noticed that Twilight wasn’t alone. She was standing there with a smiling cyan earth pony, and Spike didn’t like the way he was looking at her. “What are the chances that I finish just as you walk in, and that I made enough for you to invite someone over as you bring someone over?”

“It’s Tuesday, Spike,” Twilight responded. “Everypony’s lucky on Tuesdays.”

Spike noticed that the strange stallion seemed to look at him intently when Twilight said his name. I’m not sure what his problem is, but we’re going to have issues if this keeps up, Spike thought.

Spike decided to break the ice, “Hi there,” he said. “My name’s Spike, and I’m Twilight’s number one assistant!”

Twilight smiled, “This is Frequent Change. He’s mute, so I helped him go shopping today.” Change got a small smile as she said that.

Spike got an idea, “Hey Twilight, mind grabbing lunch from the kitchen real quick?”

Twilight started walking, “Sure, Spike. You deserve at least that much of a break.”

As soon as Twilight was in the door, Spike got in Change’s face. “Listen here buddy,” he said quietly enough that Twilight couldn’t hear. “Twilight’s like my older sister, so don’t try anything funny if you know what’s good for ya.” He paused, before adding as an afterthought, “And stay away from Rarity. She’s mine.” His last word was emphasized by a bit of smoke coming out of his nostrils. Seeing that Change was properly intimidated, Spike sat down at the table to wait for Twilight. “Well?” he asked the motionless Change. “Ya gonna sit down?”

Change sat down at the table as Twilight entered the room with two daisy sandwiches and an emerald. Upon seeing the sandwich, Change’s stomach let out a rumble. He blushed, causing Twilight to giggle, which only caused him to blush even more. Spike grinned, if this stallion could withstand the combined intimidations of a dragon, no matter how small, five mares, her older brother, and three immortal princesses, then he’d make a great addition to their circle of friends.

* * *

Rainbow dash

Rainbow Dash sat in her cloud home, pondering the mysteries of the universe. Like why do griffons use feet as measurement when they have talons and paws, not feet, or why is water blue, except when it’s clear or green. Important things. Quickly she grew bored of that ‘thinking’ thing Twilight keeps telling her to do more of. Hey! Twilight! Let’s go chill with the egghead. Got nothing better to do.

Rainbow sprung into the air, leaving a hole in her wall. Meh, I can replace it later.

She made a beeline for the library, only to arrive just as Twilight was leaving. Perfect! she grinned. But Twilight wasn’t alone, following shortly after her was a cyan earth pony stallion. How long has Twilight had a coltfriend? Rainbow asked herself. Not too long, or I would have seen him before. Wait... I have seen him before, just not until recently. Maybe he just moved in? Rainbow got a huge grin on her face when she saw the adoring look on his face and the oblivious look on Twilight’s. Time to turn up the heat for loverboy, here.

Rainbow dove, landing between Twilight and the mystery stallion. Twilight groaned in annoyance at Rainbow’s antics, while the stallion jumped in surprise. Rainbow narrowed her eyes, she didn’t even get a yelp.

Twilight sighed, “Rainbow Dash, this is Frequent Change. He can’t talk, so don’t even try it.”

Rainbow pouted, stupid life, always ruining her fun. Utilizing training she got from Gilda, she turned predatory eyes on Change. She got right in his face and stared into his eyes. They stayed like that for thirty seconds, all the while Change got more and more nervous. Twilight eventually interrupted, “Rainbow, leave him alone. Please?”

Rainbow doubled the intensity of her glare for a second before breaking eye contact. “Not a bad stallion you found yourself, Twilight,” Rainbow grinned, predicting instant denial.

Predictable as ever, Twilight’s eyes widened, “No! It’s not like that Rainbow! What’s with ponies today and thinking we’re dating?”

Rainbow grinned, “Well I’m gonna need to borrow your coltfriend for a second. We’re gonna have words.” Rainbow grabbed Change and drug him into an alley.

Change paled. Rainbow could see the rising panic. Good.

“Alright, listen to me. If you break her heart, I break you. Got it?” Rainbow was short, sweet, and to the point. Change nodded as fast as he could. “If you do good by her, you’re fine in my books. Don’t mess this up.” And with that, Rainbow took off and flew back to her house. That was enough interesting, time for a nap.

* * *

Change

Change was still shaken from his encounter with the crazy colorful one that Twilight had called Rainbow, but Twilight seemed oblivious. He couldn’t decide if that was good or bad. He was currently hitched to his cart, and Twilight was walking him toward the edge of town. He would have liked to have left sooner, but he enjoyed Twilight’s company too much to muster up the willpower to leave. Unfortunately, he still had to leave sometime, so at about four in the afternoon, he had to tell Twilight it was time to go.

Twilight didn’t look any happier than he did, but it was for different reasons. She seemed to enjoy his company as a friend. Welcome to friendzone! Population: Change.

“Will you be back next Tuesday?” Twilight asked him. Change nodded immediately. Damn right, I will. Twilight smiled, “All right, I’ll see you Tuesday.” She hugged him with a chaste hug, said goodbye, and walked home. Change spent the remainder of the walk back to the Haven with a huge grin on his face.

He left Ponyville from the East, then circled around to the West side where nopony could see which way he was going. A quick jaunt to the other side of the Everfree later, he was back at Haven. Change didn’t fear the Everfree like everypony else did, his luck seemed to allow him to avoid any dangerous critters living in the forest.

The first pony he ran into, as usual, was Warden. Well, ‘ran into’ was a way of putting it. Warden was Haven’s guard and early warning system. Warden was black. Black mane, black eyes, black coat, black wings. His coloration allowed him to blend into the forest, and he was one of the fastest things on wings. If anypony that wasn’t supposed to arrive in Haven approached, Warden informed Boss. If Boss thought them a threat, Warden took them out.

“You are late,” a voice spoke from the darkness. “You were in Ponyville for an extra three and a half hours.” Change nodded, I knew that. “I will tell Boss you’re coming. He he will not very happy with you, he was preparing for your compromise.”

Change nodded again and continued to the entrance of Haven. Haven was built to blend in with the forest around it. At first glance, the walls of Haven were extremely thick foliage, but upon close examination, that was a combination of planted foliage and illusions. Change walked up to one of the many trees in the Everfree and knocked three times. The bark of the tree opened like a door, allowing passage for him and his cargo.

On the other side of the illusions, a small, permanent camp was built. There was a communal fireplace in the center, with four houses built around it. One house was Boss’s, one was for Brick and Ironhoof, and the third was for Change and Warden. They also had some of their ‘family’ out traveling that used the fourth house when visiting and dropping off money.

Boss was waiting for him, and didn’t look happy. “Where were you for so long?” he demanded. Boss was a griffon, which automatically made him intimidating. Couple that his black feathers and his striking gold eyes, he could be terrifying when he wanted to. Keeping this in mind, Change just handed him the bit bag, filled with easily a hundred more bits than usual. Boss looked at the bag for a second before talking, “You were there for three and a half hours for discounts?” Change flushed and took an interest in the ground. Boss smiled, an effect much reduced by his griffon nature, but Change appreciated the thought, “I’m not mad, I just want to know why you were there so long.”

“Ah, leave him alone,” Ironhoof piped up, walking up to the duo with Brick. “He’s back in one piece, has our supplies, and spent less money. No complaints from me here.” Brick nodded silently.

Boss looked at them both for a second before folding, “Alright then. Is this going to be a regular thing with you now?” Change nodded. “Alright, but if you stay overnight without warning, we’re going to assume that you’re compromised and jump shop, understood?” Change nodded again. Boss turned to look at Brick and Ironhoof, “All three of you have to be ready, I just received word that B is coming home tomorrow. You two, I want that house spotless, do you understand?” They nodded. He turned to Change, “I’m going to go ahead and tell you to rest as usual, even though I know you won’t. The three of you should be done cleaning in an hour.”

Author's Note

Damn, this went in a completely different direction than I thought it would when I started. If it keeps going as it's being written, I may need that dark tag early! And when will I meet him? Er... soon? If you're lying to me...

Also, Rainbow-freaking-Dash's transition tag is over a line long. That is all.

From your local overlord of everything awesome,
-HB
-PP

Chapter Two: Haven's Secret

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter Two
Haven’s Secret

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.
-Confucius

Twilight

Twilight waited with bated breath for Tuesday to come again. Change was just so interesting to be around! He listened to her talk about everything and didn’t complain. He even listened attentively when she went on a tangent about her theories on Starswirl’s Permanent Time Travel spell!

It was currently friday, and a few days ago, Rainbow of all ponies had breached the idea for a sleepover at the library today. She had explicitly told Twilight that this one was going to be off the books, meaning that Twilight couldn’t rely on a book for all the activities.

To say that Twilight was panicking would be an understatement.

“Twilight,” Spike said. “You need to calm down. You’re about to have a panic attack!”

Twilight stopped where she was and began the breathing exercises Celestia had taught her after the ‘incident that shall not be named’ involving Smarty Pants. Breathe in... Breathe out... You are in control. You will not panic. When she had calmed down, she smiled at Spike, “Thanks, Spike. I just don’t know what to do!”

“Have you thought of just winging it?” he asked. “Get ideas from your friends and decide spur of the moment?”

Twilight gasped, “But Spike! Everything has to be perfect! If this isn’t perfect, we’ll get in an argument. If we get into an argument, they won’t want to be my friends anymore, and if they don’t want to be my friends anymore then Princess Celestia will take me away from Ponyville and I don’t want to leave!”

Spike facepalmed, “Twilight, listen to yourself! None of that is going to happen!” There was a knock at the door. “That’s one of them now. Just relax and don’t overcomplicate anything.”

But contrary to what Spike said, when he opened the door, it was not one of the Elements. At the door was a panicked cyan stallion.

“Uh, hi Change,” Spike started, confused. “You need something?” Change frantically nodded his head, handing Spike a piece of paper. On it was written

Need help. Now.

Spike’s eyes widened, and he ran into the library, “I’ll get Twilight! TWILIGHT!”

“Yes Spike? You don’t need to-” Twilight started chastising him.

“No time! Change is at the door and-” Spike tried to begin.

“Change is here?” Twilight asked excitedly.

“Twilight, listen! He gave me this!” Spike handed over the paper. Twilight’s eyes widened, and she ran to the front door.

“I’m here. Where am I needed?” Twilight asked. Change nodded and, after indicating for her to follow him, he ran to the West, towards the Everfree. Twilight followed close behind. She paused, uncertain, at the border of the Everfree, but Change’s pleading look made up her mind. Within minutes, they reached a clearing where a stallion lay, motionless. Blood was running down his black coat, and it was starting to pool around his body. If he was alive, it was barely.

Twilight gasped when she checked him over. He had dozens of lacerations over his body, multiple broken ribs, a broken leg, and what looked like a sprained wing. She had never seen anypony this injured before. “He needs to get to the hospital!” Twilight exclaimed. Change nodded before scribbling a question in the dirt.

Teleport?

Twilight shook her head, “Puts too much stress on the body, we need to run him back, and fast. My magic can only stall the bleeding for a few minutes.”

Change nodded, gingerly picking up the injured pegasus. His face was a mask of determination as they ran back through the forest, him carrying the pegasus and Twilight using her magic to make sure he didn’t bleed out or fall off Change’s back.

The streets of Ponyville were nearly devoid of any ponies due to the late hour, but the few that were there quickly moved out of the way of the three ponies sprinting towards the hospital. They burst through the doors of the hospital, and Twilight yelled, “We need a doctor, here! It’s an emergency! Code E!”

Everypony in Ponyville knew what a code E was. That pony had been injured by an unknown entity in the Everfree, and subjected to who knows what venoms and magical maladies. Within seconds, the stallion was picked up off of Change’s back, and rushed to the nearest room.

Change threw a pouch full of easily three hundred bits on the counter, starting to write something. The receptionist pushed the pouch back at him, smiling, “Emergencies are free of charge.” Change shook his head and put the piece of paper on the counter. The receptionist stared at it in shock.

He was never here.

* * *

Spike

Spike sat in the library, worried for Twilight. He worried about Twilight, he worried about Change, but most of all, he worried that Change had hurt Twilight. He had no reason to distrust the stallion, in fact he had nothing but the opposite. However, he also hadn’t known the stallion for long, and his first impression could have been completely wrong.

His musings were cut short by a knocking at the door. He opened it to reveal a perplexed looking Rarity. “Spike?” she asked, obviously confused, “Do you have any idea why Twilight almost ran me over getting an injured pony to the hospital?”

“Change came by,” Spike rubbed the back of his head, “Said he needed help. Beyond that, I have no idea.”

“Change?” Rarity asked.

Spike facepalmed, Rarity hadn’t met the stallion yet! Of course she didn’t know who he was! “He’s a mute stallion from out of town that Twilight made friends with. He has the hugest crush I’ve ever seen on her, and she’s completely oblivious.”

“Ah, so that was the stallion carrying the injured pony, then,” Rarity thought out loud. “Cyan? White hair? Horseshoe cutie mark?”

Applejack spoke up from behind Rarity, “Woah! Injured pony? Ah missed somethin’, didn’t ah? How’s an injured pony involve Change?”

Spike looked behind Rarity to see Applejack walking up to the library with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.

* * *

Twilight

Twilight had no idea who this mystery stallion was, or how Change knew he was in the Everfree. There were so many unanswered questions already, and this just brought up more of them!

She paced back and forth, thinking important thoughts, when she noticed a piece of paper on a nearby table addressed to her. She unfolded it to see

Twilight. Be back sometime tomorrow. I have something important to do. Don’t let him leave if he wakes up before I return. Change.

She groaned. Of course he left.

* * *

Change

Change felt kinda bad for leaving how he did, but he needed to get to Haven. He didn’t know why Warden was in the lair of a manticore, but he had an idea. Boss was going to want to know he was injured. Now. Change knocked on the tree, allowing access for himself. He barely paused to close the secret door, charging into the clearing. He whipped his head around, checking if Boss was out and about. Seeing nopony, he knocked on Boss’s door.

Change knocked every few seconds until Boss opened the door, “CHANGE! What is so important that you can’t wait five damn seconds?” Change scrawled into the dirt. “What do you mean Warden’s- that can’t be good. Will he live?” Change nodded. “That’s something at least. Where did you take him?” More scrawling. “The hospital? Change! You should know better than that! We can’t have any of us on record!” Scribble scribble. “You what? That was... forward thinking of you. I didn’t expect that from you. Brick, maybe, but you don’t seem like the bribing type.” Change gave Boss a flat look. “Look, Change, we don’t have anyone we can send to watch over him. We’re going to have to assume he’s compromised and move.”

Change shook his head. “Change, we don’t have time for this! We have preparations to make. We can’t be seen in Ponyville again.” Change glared at Boss, and scribbled into the dirt. “You’ll...” Boss’s voice trailed off as he read. “You wouldn’t, Change. You wouldn’t dare. She’d kill you too.” Change’s glare remained unchanged. Boss sighed, “Fine. He’s your responsibility. Check in in a week. If he doesn’t wake by then we move without him.” Change nodded, erased his writing, and left to return to Ponyville.

“And Change?” Boss called after him with an unusually cold voice, “If you ever pull something like that again, I’ll kill you.” Change whirled around, shock and hurt clear on his face. “I’d rather have to kill you with my own claws than know that you went to that monster to give us up. I agree that I gave up on Warden too fast, but if you think I won’t sacrifice one of this family for the well being of the rest of it, you’re wrong.”

Change left before Boss could see the tears.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight was sitting in her library, curled up with a good book in front of the fire. She paused for a moment and watched how the flickering flames in her fireplace caused shadows to jump around. She sighed in contentment. Her life couldn’t get any better.

Life proved her wrong within seconds as Change walked up next to her and placed down a steaming cup of tea. He smiled at her, before laying down stomach-to-back with her, placing his head on her shoulder to read her book with her. She sat there for a minute, just enjoying the feeling of his closeness.

Eventually she decided it was time for bed. She lifted her head and nuzzled Change, who had fallen asleep, and extracted herself from the sleeping stallion’s grip. She levitated him while walking upstairs, and after placing him in his usual spot next to her, climbed in herself. She snuggled up next to him, and let sleep claim her.

Twilight’s head snapped up, and she looked around the room in panic. Blue walls, green ceiling, purple sheets. She sighed in relief. She had just fallen asleep in the strange stallion’s room. But what was that dream? she thought. That was too weird.

She looked at the clock. Ugh, it’s only seven. She looked outside to see the sun on its descent to nighttime. Standing and stretching, she suddenly saw something out of the corner of her eye. When she turned to look, she saw Change curled up in the corner, shaking.

Twilight quietly made her way over to him, only to find that he was quietly sobbing. She didn’t know why he was crying, or how long he had lain unnoticed there, but seeing him in that state hurt her. She felt him stiffen when she hugged him, but he didn’t pull away.

Within minutes, his sobbing subsided and his breathing evened out. Twilight smiled, he’d fallen asleep. Hopefully his dreams weren’t full of whatever it was that put him in this state.

“It’ll be okay, I promise. I won’t let anypony hurt you.”

* * *

Change

Change was running. It didn’t matter how long he was running, or how fast he ran. Every time he looked back, he saw those cold golden eyes piercing him from the darkness. The world around him thrummed with the words “I’ll kill you.” Those words echoed around him, tore into his soul. So he ran, he ran away from the pain, from the hurt.

Suddenly he heard a voice call out of the darkness, “It’ll be okay, I promise.” He saw a lavender light in front of him, and he sprinted for that light with all his strength. The closer he got, the less afraid he felt, the less those eyes could be seen when he looked back. Eventually, he reached the light.

He looked around in confusion, what had formerly been darkness was now a sunny summer meadow. Inside this meadow was Twilight, and she walked up to him and hugged him. He stiffened at her touch, but slowly relaxed. He heard her say, “I won’t let anypony hurt you.”

The rest of his night was spent in the meadow.

* * *

Twilight

The strange stallion spoke up weakly, “Poor guy. Wonder what got him in that state?”

Twilight whipped her head to look at this stallion. He had woken up? How long had he been awake? “How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough,” came the weak reply. “I’ve never seen him in that state, nor have I seen him calmed down that fast. Usually we need to wait for Beatrix to calm him down, he must like you. A lot.” He looked out the window and frowned, “What day is it today?”

Twilight frowned as well, that was an unusual question to ask, “Friday, why?”

The strange stallion frowned even more, “Gonna need to talk to him when he wakes up.” He yawned, “Musta used healing magic. Always takes a lot out of you.” He yawned again, “Wake me up when the kid’s awake, kay?” His eyes were closed before she could even reply.

Twilight frowned, she hadn’t gotten to learn much, but what she did confused her. First, this stallion knows Change. Second, this stallion knows someone named Beatrix. And third, he’d most likely been injured to an extent needing healing magic at least once before.

The nurse knocked quietly at the door before entering, “Visiting hours are over, I’m sorry but both of you have to leave now.”

Twilight thanked the nurse for informing her, and levitated the sleeping Change onto her back. She paused as she was leaving, “Nurse Redheart? He was awake for a while. I didn’t get much out of him besides the fact he knows Change here, someone named Beatrix, and that healing magic ‘always takes a lot out of you,’ so he most likely had been injured sometime. Maybe he’s in the records somewhere?”

Nurse Redheart smiled, “Thank you, Twilight.”

Twilight nodded and left the hospital. She noticed all her friends were outside, except for Pinkie, for some odd reason. She did a double take, “Where’s Pinkie?”

Rarity chuckled, “Just went on a bathroom break. Poor thing’s been trying to meet Change since you brought him up, but always barely misses him.”

Rainbow snickered, “He looks comfortable.”

Twilight gave her a flat look, “Says the pony resting on Applejack’s back.”

Rainbow blushed and rolled off Applejack and onto her feet. Applejack had a quiet chuckle at her expense. “Guess ah’m comfy, she does it so much it don’t bother me anymore.”

Twilight smiled, “Well, I’d wait for Pinkie, but Change needs a place to sleep. I’m taking him to the library. Say hi to Pinkie for me, would you girls?”

Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Wait a minute, we came here to see you and figure out who this strange stallion is. You can’t just leave!”

Twilight shook her head before looking back at Change fondly, “Something was bothering Change, I don’t want to risk waking him up after how hard it was to get him asleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

On her back, Change shifted around.

* * *

Change

When Change opened his eyes, he was confused. This wasn’t his house in Haven. His panic rose. Where am I? Did she find me? Damn it! The events of the past day caught up with him, and he calmed down.

He climbed out of bed and remade it. This bed is too nice to be a spare. Walking downstairs, he sees Twilight sleeping on the couch. Knew it. She gave me her bed? I would have been happy with the couch, myself. He smiled and walked back upstairs. After writing a short thank you note, and some quick searching, he grabs some spare blankets out of Twilight’s closet.

He returned downstairs and draped a blanket over Twilight. He smiled fondly as she snuggled up with a smile on her face. If I’m going to be a guest, I won’t be a freeloader. He decided, heading into the kitchen. A cursory searching of the pantries led to pancake mix. Breakfast? Looking at the clock, it was eight in the morning. Breakfast.

* * *

Twilight

Twilight woke up slowly, feebly fighting a losing battle to keep in the realm of dreams. When she inevitably woke up, she felt warm. The sound of pans clanging came from the kitchen. Pans clanging? I sent Spike to Rarity’s, who’s in the kitchen? When she went to get up, she noticed she had a blanket on. That’s why I felt warm, she thought. Smiling, she thought, Change must have given me a spare blanket.

Twilight levitated the blanket into the air and folded it, placing it on the back of the couch. She went to investigate the noises coming from the kitchen, forming suspicions in her head as to the source of the noise. Her suspicions were somewhat confirmed when she saw Change trying his hardest to put out a fire in a pan. She looked on in confusion before seeing the box of pancake mix. When Twilight realized that Change had caught pancakes on fire, she couldn’t help but giggle.

Change turned around, and upon seeing Twilight was mortified. He quickly tried to hide all the evidence of his mishap, causing Twilight to giggle even more. She levitated more supplies to them. “Here, I’ll help,” she giggled. “Maybe with our combined abilities, we can avoid burning down the library.”

* * *

Change

Change and Twilight sat at the table, eating burnt pancakes. With their combined culinary abilities, they were able to make just enough edible pancakes for the two of them to eat. Twilight broke the companionable silence, “I guess neither of us are good cooks, huh? Good thing I have Spike around.”

Change chuckled silently. Damn it, it annoys me that I can’t even laugh anymore.

Twilight suddenly remembered, “Oh, and the stallion you found in the Everfree wants to talk to you when you’ve woken up. I guess that’s now huh?”

Change’s whole demeanor changed. No longer was he the friendly, happy Change Twilight was used to. This was a whole new Change. He seemed old, tired, but despite all that, still angry. She wasn’t sure what to think of that.

He stood up, and started clearing dishes unusually robotically. Twilight grabbed the plates in her levitation and smiled sadly at him, “I’ll get it. You go, it sounded important.”

Change nodded and grabbed paper, ink, and a quill. He turned to Twilight with a questioning look on his face. She nodded. At least I can ‘talk’.

* * *

Warden

Change and Warden had been sitting in their current positions for the last five minutes, neither willing to breach the topic on hand. Finally, Warden broke the silence. “How much did you see, kid?”

Change shoved a piece of paper at Warden.

What were you doing dragging a body into a manticore den?

Warden flinched. “I’d hoped to not have to answer this question for years, if ever. Kid, just let it go. This is not a path you’ll want to go down.”

Change tapped the paper for emphasis.

“Kid, please. I don’t want to have to be the one to tell you this,” Warden pleaded.

Change scrawled onto another piece of paper.

How many?

“Kid, don’t. Drop it,” Warden continued pleading. “Don’t go down this line of questioning. It brings nothing but pain.”

Change scrawled another note, tapping each word.

How. Many. Have. You. Killed.

Warden hung his head, “Thirteen.”

Change’s mask of fury melted, and he broke down crying.

“Kid-” Warden reached for Change, only to be batted away. He looked into Change’s eyes and saw what he had never hoped to see. Change’s eyes were filled with betrayal, and worse, hatred. Warden had to face the fact that Change, who was like his little brother, would never forgive him for what he’d done.

Another note was pushed into his chest. It was simple, just a tear mottled note with one word on it.

Why?

Warden sighed in defeat, “Boss’s orders. I’m sorry kid. This was one thing I had hoped you’d never learn.”

Change looked into his eyes with the most lost expression on his face. He backed up, shaking his head. Warden opened his mouth to say something else, but Change had whirled around and sprinted out of the room. “KID!” Warden called after him. “WAIT!”

But he was already gone.

Warden sighed and pushed the nurse call button. When Nurse Redheart walked in, he started with the heavy stuff. “I’d like to report a murder.”

Author's Note

Aaaaand it begins. I'm going to tear down Change one peg at a time until he's literally nothing. Then, when he's finally at rock bottom, I'm going to tear him down more. And you're going to enjoy it, you little sadist, you.

Keep in mind that while Change is both mentally and physically an adult, he's only about as emotionally developed as a child. In one day he had his 'dad' threaten to kill him, and his 'older brother' admit to killing thirteen ponies, on his 'dad's' orders, nonetheless. I think this deserves the sad tag, cause I was getting feels writing this damn thing.

This was a Pinkieless broadcast

-HB

Chapter Three: Celestial Regret

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter Three
Celestial Regret

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
-Buddha

Celestia

Princess Celestia sat on her throne, listening to her Captain of the Guard’s report with sadness. There had not been a confirmed murder in Equestria in centuries, and Shining Armor was here in her throne room reporting over a dozen from one perpetrator.

“-but the most interesting part about this is the pony gave himself up,” Shining Armor was saying. “Just... called in the nurse and reported his thirteen murders. What would cause a pony to do that?”

Celestia smiled sadly, “Guilt can do many things to my little ponies. It seems it was too much for this stallion.” She sighed, suddenly weary. “I trust that you can apprehend this pony?” she asked. When Shining Armor nodded, she continued, “Good. After he’s in custody, send me a message via Spike with any other information you might find.” She added almost as an afterthought, “Oh, and you’ll be staying in Ponyville for a week.”

He tried to reply, flustered, “I don’t need a vacation! I’m perfectly capable of handling something like this!”

Celestia would have none of it. “Shining Armor, you have served me for ten years, three as my Captain of the Guard, without taking a single vacation save for your honeymoon. This is not a request, this is not because of the subject matter, this is because you haven’t seen your sister in nearly six months, and she misses you. Take the vacation, that’s an order.”

Shining Armor smiled a small smile, “Alright, Princess. I’ll get a squad to the sky carriages.” At Celestia’s look, he added reluctantly, “And I’ll get my bags there too. I have the feeling that something horrible will happen while I’m gone, however.”

Celestia nodded with a happy smile, “Complaint noted, and summarily dismissed. Have a fun week.”

* * *

Shining Armor

“Alright men,” Shining Armor announced as his soldiers landed in Ponyville square. “This will be an easy arrest. The stallion we’re arresting in currently in the hospital. All we have to do is make sure he doesn’t get out without us.”

The ponies of Ponyville were confused. The Royal Guard was never called without one of the Princesses around, and even then they hadn’t come in force in nearly three hundred years!

“Shiny! What is going on?” Twilight yelled, running out of the crowd. “What is the Guard doing here?”

Shining Armor looked around at the crowd of ponies waiting for his response, and shook his head. “I’ll tell you later Twily, when there aren’t so many prying ears about.”

Unnoticed to the two of them, one cyan stallion was extracting himself from the crowd with as much stealth as he could muster.

“Does it involve the stallion Change and I brought in from the Everfree?” Twilight asked.

Shining Armor froze. His sister had been near that murderer? Suddenly one detail of her sentence stuck out to him. “Who’s Change?”

“He’s a stallion from out of town,” Twilight said looking at the crowd. “And he was just behind me.”

“Ponies can get lost in the crowd, Twily. He’s there somewhere. What do you mean you and Change brought him from the Everfree?”

“Well, Change showed up at my door last night asking for my help. He then led me into the Everfree, where the stallion was laying in a clearing, bleeding. We brought him to the hospital, and-”

Shining Armor interrupted, “Wait, how did Change know the stallion was there?”

Twilight shrugged, “I didn’t have the chance to ask.”

Shining Armor turned to his lieutenant, “Bright Aegis, you’re in charge until I get back. We have a possible conspirator.”

“Conspirator? Shiny!” Twilight complained.

“We can’t rule anypony involved out. This is big, Twily. I have to take every lead,” Shining Armor apologized. “What does Change look like?”

Twilight reluctantly told him, “He’s average sized, with a cyan coat, a white mane, and a horseshoe cutie mark.”

Shining Armor scanned the crowd for a pony matching Change’s description. Let’s see... pink, blue, green, cyan! Nope, that’s Lyra. Wasn’t she supposed to be a bridesmaid at my wedding? Focus, Shining Armor! You’re looking for Change. Yellow, pink, purple, cyan! There he is. Shining Armor was confused. Why is he trying to sneak away?

“Is that him?” he asked, pointing to the retreating Change.

Twilight was confused as well, “Yes, but why is he running?”

“I intend to find out.”

* * *

“STOP! I just want to talk!” Shining Armor yelled after the sprinting Change as they tore around a corner, nearly bowling over Bon Bon. The second Shining Armor had tried to talk to him, he had bolted. Shining Armor was convinced of his innocence before, but now he had his doubts.

He only had doubts because, despite the fact he was running, every time he looked back, his eyes were filled with unadulterated fear. Something about seeing Shining Armor made him terrified. He hoped that Change made a wrong turn fairly soon, or somepony might get hurt.

Quickly, Shining Armor turned one last corner to see an entrance to the Everfree forest. Change quickly vanished into the brush.

“Damn it!” Shining Armor stomped his hoof in the dirt. “So close.”

* * *

Warden

Warden gave a sad little smile when a guard walked into his room, “I take it you’re here to take me to Canterlot?”

The guard didn’t return the smile, but Warden didn’t expect him to, “The second the hospital clears you for movement, you’ll be the first guest at the dungeons in nearly a century.”

“No less than I expected.”

The duo sat in silence until a third figure walked in. Shining Armor walked in with both a manilla folder and a look of frustration on his face, muttering something about a ‘stupid forest’. “Sorry I’m a little late, but I had to stop off at the mayor’s office to grab their ‘missing ponies’ file. The mayor is very talkative when nervous.”

The guard spoke up, “I take it he got away, sir?”

Warden’s ears perked up as Shining Armor replied, “Yeah, Bright Aegis. Ran straight into the Everfree. Poor guy was terrified of me.”

“Why would he run?” the newly dubbed Bright Aegis wondered.

“I’m not sure. Just like I’m not sure how he knew our ‘friend’ here was in the forest.”

“You’ll never catch him,” Warden grinned. “He’s gone and not coming back.”

A third guard chimed in from the doorway, “I wouldn’t be so sure. Captain, Bravo is requesting your presence. Change is in our custody.”

* * *

Change

Change felt his panic fall the farther into the Everfree he got. He recognised the purple armor of the Captain of the Guard. This was troubling news. There was one reason Change could think of for sending the Captain to Ponyville; they had been compromised.

As he drew nearer to Haven, Change recalled his conversation with Warden. His face hardened into a mask of anger as he walked in through the secret door. He steeled himself for a conversation he didn’t want to have. I guess you don’t always get what you want.

Boss was out by the fire and appeared to be roasting dinner. Change didn’t even look twice at the carcass on the spit, which was Boss’s first sign that something was wrong. His second sign was the look of anger, a look rarely seen on Change’s face. His third sign was the piece of paper that Change shoved at him.

I talked with Warden.

Boss smiled, “So he’s awake, is he?”

He was hurt dragging a body into a manticore den. One he had killed. One of thirteen.

Boss froze, “That’s... not good.” At Change’s glare, he continued, “There’s more you’re not telling me, Change. I need to know what’s wrong to fix it!”

What’s wrong? What’s wrong is that you ordered every single damn kill.

“What do you mean? I didn’t-”

Straight from the horse’s mouth, you ordered the death of thirteen ponies. Thirteen.

“Change, I’d never do that! I would never order Warden to murder!”

Then why did he tell me, in no uncertain terms, that he did it on ’Boss’s orders.’

“I told him to get rid of trespassers, yes, but I never wanted him to kill them! Scare them away, alright. Maybe if he had no other choice knock them out and move them, sure. But killing? Dangerous animals, sure. But thinking beings? I would never condone that!” Boss pleaded.

Change smiled, relieved. Boss wasn’t bad, it was just Warden. Just Warden. His world had not fallen completely apart. Suddenly he remembered.

Celestia sent the both the Guard and its Captain to Ponyville. He nearly caught me before I escaped. We’re compromised.

Boss’s eyes widened significantly. “HAVEN!” he yelled, “WE’VE BEEN COMPROMISED!” He turns back to Change, “You know what to do.”

Change nodded and went to getting ready to move.

If we move, you’ll never see her again, Change’s mind reminded him.

If we don’t move, we’ll die, he shot back.

You don’t know that for certain. I’d be willing to face the Guard for Twilight.

But are you willing to face her?

Yes.

Well I don’t care if you are or not, because I’m not.

Yes, you are. I am you. You are ready, you are more than ready. You’re just afraid.

* * *

This is the stupidest thing I have ever done, and I blame you.

Change was currently surrounded by Guards, awaiting the arrival of their Captain. He hadn’t taken three steps outside of the forest before he was discovered.

I am you, remember?

“Well, well, well,” Shining Armor walked up. “So you came back.”

Not surprisingly, Change said nothing.

“Why did you run?” Shining Armor asked.

Again, Change said nothing.

Let’s see how long this goes on for.

* * *

Twilight

“Shining Armor!” Twilight exclaimed, exasperated. “Would you stop yelling at that poor colt?”

Shining Armor growled, “I’ll stop yelling when he starts answering my questions.” Change stuck his tongue out at the older stallion in a juvenile display of defiance. Shining Armor glared at him. “He’s also been acting like a child the whole time!”

Twilight firmly planted her hoof onto her forehead, just below her horn. She groaned, “Shiny.”

She didn’t notice how Change started looking at Shining Armor quite intently after her use of a pet name.

“Listen, Twily, you’re my sister, and I love you, but you can’t just barge into an interrogation like this! There are laws and regulations we have to follow,” Shining Armor stated.

“Did it ever occur to you while you were dragging Change halfway across town to town hall that maybe he was not talking because he, I don’t know, can’t?” Twilight asked.

Shining Armor scoffed, “Twily, it is much more likely that he is pretending to not be able to talk than he actually can’t.”

Change chuckled silently behind Shining Armor, shaking his head. Twilight perked her ears toward him. “What’s so funny, Change? You’re being interrogated as an conspirator to-actually, what is he being accused of, Shiny?”

Shining Armor sighed, “I can’t tell you, you know that.”

Change tapped the table in front of him twice. Twilight and Shining Armor looked at him in confusion for a second. He tapped the table twice more, moving his hoof in a wiggly line from left to right. Twilight’s eyes brightened. “He wants a pen and paper.”

Shining Armor shook his head. “You’re kidding me, right?”

Twilight glared at him. “Get him the pen and paper, Shining Armor, or I’m telling Cadance that you are yelling at a mute colt for not talking and withholding something for him to communicate with.”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened as he quickly walked out of the room they were occupying inside town hall. Twilight turned back at Change and smiled. She could tell he did his best to smile back, but it looked so obviously fake that it ruined any effect it would have had.

Within a minute Shining Armor came back with pen and paper. He placed them in front of Change, and quickly took a step back. Change looked at him with some amusement in his eyes before scribbling on the paper quickly and passing it to Twilight. She barely got to look at it before Shining Armor snatched it up in his magic, but that was enough.

13 murders

Shining Armor growled at the mute stallion, “That is classified information.”

Change just rolled his eyes, writing something else before hoofing it to the Captain of the Guard.

I talk through Twilight, or not at all. Your choice.

Shining Armor just glared at him, he opened his mouth to say something, and Change hoofed him another note.

Not that it matters, anyway.

Shining Armor looked at Change sideways. “What do you mean, it doesn’t matter anyway?”

I was fully expecting to be mind reamed the second I was in custody.

Shining Armor was taken aback. Mind reaming was an effective way of extracting information from a subject, but it was extremely illegal and only to be used in the most dire of circumstances. It is one of the most restricted spells ever created, therefore most Equestrians don’t even know it exists.

Is that not how this works?

Change had a look of genuine shock on his face at Shining Armor’s reaction. Neither of the stallions noticed when Twilight read the notes over Shining Armor’s shoulder. “Shiny, what’s a mind ream?”

Shining Armor quickly, and belatedly, flipped all the notes over so his sister couldn’t read them. “Extremely illegal, and even more classified. You have no idea what a mind ream is, and never heard the term before, understand, Twily?”

“How about you actually explain what it is?” Twilight shot at him.

He sighed, “Twilight, this is above your pay grade.”

“I’m an Element of Harmony, Shiny. I think I should know about something like this.” She shook her head.

Change slid a note between the two, smacking Shining Armor’s horn as he tried to snatch it up, fizzling his spell. Twilight picked it up and read it quickly, growing more horrified as she went on.

A mind ream is when a Guardsman, usually the Captian, forcibly enters the mind of another pony, roots around in your memories with a metaphorical stick, and rips out the information he’s looking for.

Shining Armor tacked on, “Usually it causes a lot of damage to the subject’s brain, sometimes it causes blindness, deafness, memory loss, complete loss of higher brain function-”

“Muteness,” Twilight breathed sadly, looking at Change. He nodded, face somber.

I got lucky.

“How is losing the ability to speak lucky?” Twilight demanded.

“He could be dead, or the next best thing,” Shining Armor reminded.

Some call it “brain dead.” Seems quite accurate, since your body lives on without you.

Shining Armor stared at Change for a minute. Twilight could swear she heard the grinding and scraping of gears as they turned inside her brother’s head. Eventually, he spoke up, “Twily, keep this guy busy. I have a report to make.”

Twilight looked at him in shock. “What about the ‘laws and regulations’ you were so adamant on earlier?”

Shining Armor leveled an annoyed glare at her. “This is one of those regulations. It is also a law. I’m pretty sure we can accept a breach of protocol for a matter of national security.”

“Matter of national security? What are you talking about, Shiny?” Twilight asked.

He sighed, pausing to collect his thoughts. “There has not been a confirmed use of a mind ream in longer than I’ve been alive, and I’m pretty sure I’m older than this colt here.”

Change shrugged, pushing another note to join in on the conversation.

Maybe. Not sure.

Shining Armor looked at him for a second before shaking his head. “Kid, I’m nearly thirty. There’s no way you’re older than me. Not with how you look, and frankly, how you act.” He turned to Twilight. “I’ll probably be back to collect him soon. It won’t take five minutes.”

* * *

“I think I see something,” Shining Armor said, squinting and pointing a hoof at a faint black dot in the general direction of Canterlot. “It’s probably her.”

He had indeed been back swiftly, as he said he would be, and pulled the two inside the room outside. He refused to say, however, why they were heading out there. The reason, however, became more and more apparent as the speck the Captain of the Guard had pointed out got larger and larger. It started to expand, like one of those “grow your own Princess Celestia” toys for foals after being put into water.

The growing mass turned out to be a royal carriage. Twilight saw the blood drain from Change’s face, turning his face as white as his hair. After a second of statuesque stillness, he started to bolt. He got three steps before Shining’s horn fired up, and didn’t get three more after that before he was coated with glowing rose chains. He struggled against the magical chains like a cornered animal, and Twilight could swear she heard the magical construct clink, even though hard mana made no noise. Exactly like a cornered animal, Twilight decided, noting the frantic, primal attempts at escape employed by Change while he was constantly looking over his shoulder at the approaching carriage. Something about the Princess was causing this stallion to want, no, need, to run.

The carriage touched down, causing Change’s attempts to escape to increase exponentially. Shining Armor’s brow started to sweat, and he grit his teeth. His horn flashed once, and the chains tightened on the frantic stallion.

The door to the carriage swung open and Princess Celestia hastily disembarked. “Shining Armor, you claimed there was-oh, my.” Her jaw dropped as she beheld the chained stallion laying on the ground, looking to all as if he was having a seizure. “Why are these chains so tight, Shining Armor?” the Princess snapped, suddenly seeming much different than her normal, calm, disposition.

“Uh, I-well you see Princess-” Shining Armor tried to come up with an excuse, but was interrupted.

“Loosen them at once!” the solar diarch commanded. “Honestly, Shining Armor, you are my Captain of the Guard. You’re better than this.” She turned her reprimanding gaze over the assembled Guardsmen and rhetorically asked, “And all of you, is there nothing else you could be doing?”

“Uh, well-” one brave Guard tried to answer.

“No, that was rhetorical. Look around you. You’re lucky that he’s not raising a ruckus or you would have triple the peering eyes. I expect professionalism from you all.

“And you,” She rounded at Change, who by that point was breathing heavily and had stopped struggling for the most part, now trying to back up as far as the chains would allow. The sudden attention from the Princess seemed to give him a new burst of energy. He glared at the alicorn and in what he thought would be his final act of defiance, and to the surprise of all around, spit directly into her face.

To the further amazement of all around, Celestia didn’t so much as react, save to flinch. After a second, she sighed, “I guess I deserved that, didn’t I?”

Shining Armor rocked back, voicing what was on everyone’s minds, “Wait, what?”

Princess Celestia, again astounding the assembled crowd, lowered her head and kneeled her forelegs on the ground in a bow.

None were more taken aback than Change. He resumed his slow walk backwards, finding himself suddenly stopped by the still-there mana chains binding him. Celestia didn’t even look up as she spoke, “I have wronged you, in a way that is unforgivable. Still, I must ask.” She drew in a shaky breath, and Twilight realized that Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, raiser of the sun, and immortal alicorn from an age lost, was nervous. “Is there any way you can forgive me?”

Change sat very still as the chains around him dissipated. He took no notice of the shattered and dissolving chunks of faintly glowing rose mana, focusing his full attention at the immortal lying prostrate before him. He looked at the Princess with confusion for a moment, before looking to Twilight.

Not even needing to be told, Twilight levitated over parchment, quill, and inkwell. Change scribbled a note, and Princess Celestia kept her pose, awaiting an answer. He tapped her softly, and only then did she dare raise her head. The assembled ponies cried out in horror as a cyan hoof flew into the solar diarch’s face. Her head snapped to the side, where it remained for a second before Celestia slowly brought her head back into position. Change handed her the parchment before walking off, none of the shocked ponies, not even the Guardsmen, tried to stop him.

Celestia looked up from the note with a sad smile on her face. “Thank you, Frequent Change.”

Twilight was the first to break the spell that Change’s blatant, even unpunished, assault of Celestia had cast over the assembly. She slowly walked up to the mare she had seen as a second mother for the last decade and a half of her life, and read the note Change had left her.

It’s a start. I want a place to stay in Ponyville and a public admission of what you did. Then, and only then, will I even consider you on the path to forgiveness.

What had Celestia done, to anger the childish stallion so?

Chapter Four: Changing Emotions

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter Four
Changing Emotions

Those who realize their folly are not true fools.
-Zhuangzi

Change

Change was sitting in the library batting stones between his hooves when Celestia walked in. Next to her floated a rolled up scroll coated in her gold aura. She settled to the ground a few feet away from him. He didn’t look up, just continued batting the stones.

“Change,” Celestia spoke up softly. “I have something for you.” She flinched as his eyes raised. They were full of hate, like two smoldering pits of restrained fury. She levitated the scroll over to him. “I know there are others. Shining Armor took me to see Warden.” She sighed, “No matter how much I want to, I cannot pardon his actions.”

Change swirled his hoof in a ‘hurry up’ motion, causing Celestia to sigh again. “This is a message telling them that they will receive a full pardon for most actions taken to insure their safety, and informing them of my intention to publicly announce my crimes to the masses.” She placed the scroll down next to him. “I know I can’t ask you any favors, but could you deliver this for me? Just take it to them and have them read it.”

Change nodded, tucking the scroll closely. “It also informs them that there will be a public vote. If it passes, I will willingly abdicate the throne, leaving Equestria in the complete control of my sister.”

Change coughed in surprise. What?

“With crimes like mine, what else am I supposed to do? If my kingdom calls for my abdication, then I must abdicate. It is that simple. I will not rule a kingdom that does not wish me to rule it.” Celestia stood up and walked towards the door. “They will, of course, be allowed to join in the vote if they wish.”

After she walked outside, Change heard her call out, “Shining Armor, you are to keep Warden under guard until the hospital clears you to move him, and then he is to be moved to the best kept cells in the prison.” There was a pause. “I won’t budge on this, Shining Armor. He deserves that much.”

Change unrolled the scroll with shaky hooves. Inside, it read exactly as she said it would. She added nothing and left nothing out. He stood up, swallowed, and walked out the door, heading for the Everfree.

“Change, wait!”

He turned to see Twilight running towards him. He stopped walking to let her catch up. Once she was next to him, he started walking. “Change, I heard Celestia, at least part of it. Where are you going?” He tilted his head at the Everfree Forest. “The Everfree? Why would you want to go there?”

He tapped the scroll. “What about the scroll, Change? What is so important that you have to go through the Everfree Forest?”

Change paused for a moment, before scrawling into the dirt.

Family.

“Your family? Change, you could die in the Everfree Forest! It just isn’t natural!” Twilight tried to convince him. “You just can’t walk through there!”

Did twice Tuesdays, twice today.

Twilight was taken aback by his response. Taking advantage of her reeling he scrawled out more.

Going. Safe. Can come, can stay.

With that, he turned around and started walking. Just when he was starting to feel disappointed that she hadn’t trusted him, he heard galloping as she caught up with him. He smiled at her in thanks and reassurance.

“I’m coming along so that when we do get attacked, I can teleport us back here,” Twilight cautioned. Change shook his head, tapping the scroll. “That’s not worth more than your life, Change.”

Change nodded. It is to me.

“Not to me,” Twilight sighed. Change’s heart soared, only to come crashing and burning at her next words. “You’re my friend, and I won’t let you die.”

He shook his head once more, heading into the Everfree and, hopefully, bringing his family back with him.

—*~*~*—

Twilight

Twilight sat at the base of a tree, checking every few seconds to where Change had disappeared to not five minutes ago. She checked his message scratched into the ground.

Stay. Be back soon. Boss doesn’t like visitors.

She sighed in frustration. She could feel illusion magic from over in the direction he went, but he had trusted her a lot to take her this far. She wouldn’t betray that trust by heading over to check it out. Faintly, she heard words floating through the air. She swiveled her ears over towards the source of the magic.

“You don’t honestly believe this, do you?” a non-equine sounding voice shouted.

“Calm down!” another voice interrupted the last few syllables of the first voice’s sentence, before adding something too quiet for her to hear at this distance.

A third voice, belonging to a mare and somewhat familiar to Twilight, somehow, spoke up then. She strained her ears, but only caught some words. “—Change—Celestia—bitch—Captain—chance—back—”

The first voice bellowed, “NO! This is a trap! We can’t, she’ll just take us back! Do you want that, B? Do you, Change? Ironhoof? No?”

The familiar voice responded with a voice of iron, just loud enough for Twilight to hear her over the distance, “I’m going, and you can’t stop me.”

There was silence until Twilight heard footsteps approaching. There was a quiet, one-sided conversation just drifting along the wind, “So there’s a mare, is there?” A slight pause. “Oh, please, Change, I know you. What’s she like?” The footsteps stopped for a minute, before the voice giggled, “Oh, Change. You’re smitten! It’s so cute!”

Through the trees, Twilight saw Change walking up with an all-too-familiar blue mare. The two locked eyes at the same moment, and simultaneously jumped into a defensive posture.

“You!” they shouted at the same time. Change looked between the mares in abject confusion.

“What are you doing here?” Twilight growled.

“I could ask the same thing,” Trixie shot back. “Are you here on behalf of your mistress? Are you being an obedient pawn? I should have listened to that insufferable griffon!”

“My mistress? Princess Celestia is a teacher, and a good one at that,” Twilight fumed. “She doesn’t demand obedience; she asks it and gives you reasons to give it!”

“She definitely did some demanding with Change, here!” Trixie snarled.

Twilight was about to respond when Change jumped in between the two of them. He looked at Twilight with eyes begging her to stop. She took a deep breath in, before exhaling slowly.

Trixie had a smug grin on her face, “Of course he sides with me. That’s what family does, Sparkle.”

Change whirled at Trixie and glared right into her eyes. She took an involuntary step back at the intensity of the narrow-eyed glare coming from the usually passive stallion. He scratched into the dirt.

Not a word. Either of you.

“But–” Twilight tried to say, only to have a cyan hoof covering her mouth. She took one look at the serious face Change was giving her, and sighed, nodding. Change removed his hoof and started walking back towards Ponyville, and some damn paper.

—*~*~*—

Trixie

They were walking to Ponyville, Trixie knew this because it was the same path she had taken on that fateful day two years ago. The day those idiot foals brought an Ursa Minor into town for her to vanquish.

Not her greatest hour, but she had tried.

In the end, Twilight-freaking-Sparkle, Protégé of the Sun, had shown her up and nearly ruined her act permanently. Trixie couldn’t really blame her, logically. A rampaging monster was destroying her hometown, and she only acted out of desperation. Logic, however, often took a backseat to emotion. Trixie was not happy that one of Haven’s two supply lines was nearly severed, and by complete accident.

As such, the walk to Ponyville was filled with glares from one mare to the other. It seemed that Twilight hadn’t forgotten that she was responsible, in an incredibly minor way, for the near destruction of Ponyville the last time she had been there.

Of all the mares he had to fall for, it had to be Sparkle.

Of course, how many ponies could “kind, beautiful, talented in magic, humble” describe?

As they reached the edge of the woods, Twilight spoke up. “We need to be careful if we’re taking Trixie into Ponyville.” Change looked at her, slightly annoyed at her disobedience of his command, but curious. “My friends haven’t forgotten the last time she was here, and neither have the populus.”

Change nodded, then planted his hoof into his face. He looked at Twilight and tapped his forehead, right where a horn would be if he had one. Twilight and Trixie both blushed. How had neither of them thought of using magic? With a flash, the trio were in the library. Change went straight for the pen and paper, leaving the mares alone in the room for a minute.

“So, back in Ponyville, are you?” Twilight asked, trying for nonchalant as she sat on a pillow by the big table in the middle of the library. It didn’t exactly work.

“For now,” Trixie replied, sitting on the other side of the table on another cushion. “I fully intend to leave this backwater little town for somewhere with culture and class as soon as I can.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Trixie, “Well, I can’t say I’d be sorry to see you go.”

Trixie sighed, “But if Change stays—oh, I don’t know!”

Twilight’s curiosity overpowered her dislike of the mare she was talking to. “What’s Change to you?”

“He’s like the little brother or son I never got to have,” Trixie settled onto the ground. “He never had any mother figures around him, so he latched onto me as soon as he could. Because of that, I became the ‘mother’ of the group.”

Twilight looked at the door Change had left through with soft eyes. “I never had a chance to ask about his past since I thought about asking.”

Trixie scoffed, “Well I’m not going to be the one to tell you. His past is his to tell to whom he wants to.”

Twilight sighed, “I know, I know. It’s just that he’s damaged—broken even—and I want to help, I just don’t know how.”

“You’re doing the best you can just by being there for him.” Trixie dropped all semblance of hostility momentarily. “He cares for you, don’t hurt him. Please.”

Twilight’s response was cut off by the re-emergence of the stallion through the door, pen and paper in hoof.

—*~*~*—

Change

To Change’s surprise, the mares were having polite conversation when he walked in and not at each others’ throats. He blinked in surprise, before pushing on and laying the paper on the table. After a bit of scratching, he had a message for the two.

Good to see you two behaving. I was sure someone would be dead when I got back.

“We still don’t like each other,” Trixie said, “we just decided to cooperate for now.”

Change nodded, writing down another note. When he was finished, he placed it between the two unicorns.

Better than I expected. Now, you two have a history.

“I’m assuming you want us to tell you the whole thing, right?” Twilight asked. “It wasn’t that big of a deal, in the end.”

“To you,” Trixie grumbled.

Change knocked on the table with his hoof, giving the two rivals a small glare. Trixie sighed, “Sparkle can go first, so I can correct her inevitable inaccuracies.”

“Glad to hear you have such a high opinion of me,” Twilight said, glaring at the other unicorn. She turned to Change. “Trixie came into town for a magic show. She made ludicrous boasts, including how she once beat an ursa major. After that, she humiliated my friends and called it a day.

“During the night some local foals went into the Everfree forest to find an ursa for Trixie to vanquish. They ended up bringing one to town, and Trixie wasn’t able to live up to the expectations she set forth. Because of that, the ursa ended up destroying half the town before I could stop it.” Twilight leaned back on her cushion as she finished in a clear sign that she was done.

Trixie gave a long-suffering sigh, shaking her head. “Oh, Sparkle. How wrong you are. Let’s fix this story.

“First off, she was actually partially right as to why I came into town, no matter how wrong she was about the rest of it. I had heard that Ponyville had some high-profile residents—the Elements of Harmony themselves, if you believe it—and decided that it would be a good idea to make some connections, despite the dangerous proximity to Haven. I’m not quite sure why I was lied to, but whatever. I came in with my usual theatrics to impress both the plebeians and the Elements. Not three minutes into my show, however, I got heckled.

“Being a stage performer, I have standards for a crowd. I must say that Ponyville had the most boorish, insensitive, ill-mannered, impolite, discourteous, and uncivil group I have ever had the misfortune of performing for. Of course, I couldn’t let that stand, so I gave the town a challenge. Anything anyone could do, I could do better. It’s actually pretty easy, all you have to do is embarrass them somehow related to their talent, and nopony mentions that you actually didn’t do what you said you would.

“After I showed up some of the residents, apparently some of Sparkle’s friends, I retired to my wagon. I was planning on doing another show or two the next day before announcing that I would be accepting donations, as was the usual for these stops. Two of the local foals decided they needed to wait on me hoof and tail, and I tried to get them to leave me alone without telling them off. They were foals, after all. I’ll admit that I got a little rude with them in the end, though. They just wouldn’t take a hint.

“Next thing I know, they’re banging on my wagon, yelling at me to vanquish the ursa they had brought into town. Since that was all theatrics, I couldn’t actually do it. It would take a unicorn of Starswirl the Bearded’s levels of magic to do so, after all. I tried my hardest, and only lost my wagon for the trouble.

“Turns out that it only takes a unicorn of Sparkle’s talent to vanquish an ursa when they’re young, since she ran out and showed me up. I didn’t handle meeting someone better than me very well, and left. Within weeks, a version of the story blaming me alone for the negligent near-destruction of an entire town—which was not, in actuality, my fault—got out. I couldn’t perform anywhere for nearly three months before the truth got out.” Trixie hung her head, saying quietly, “Sorry for the lean times, Change. I tried my hardest.”

Twilight sighed, bringing a hoof up to massage the bridge of her nose. “You were showing off and making yourself seem better than you were.”

“And what was I?” Trixie snapped.

“A braggart who was too big for her own horseshoes,” the purple mare responded.

Trixie stood up, slamming a hoof onto the table in anger. “Yes, I exaggerated my abilities! That was my job! Excuse me if I had eight mouths to feed at home, Twilight Sparkle. Forbid that you would ever have to care for a family while traveling around the country.”

“Maybe you should have—” Twilight began to retort.

There was a loud slamming sound as Change slammed his hooves on the table as hard as he could. In the moment of stunned silence, he scratched out a note.

Stop arguing!

“But she—” Trixie started.

Change glared at her and tapped the note.

Twilight sighed, “Fine.”

Now you wouldn’t happen to have ice cream, would you?

“Wha—?” Twilight asked, confused.

“He prefers vanilla over chocolate,” Trixie said as if this was a normal occurrence. “I can’t see why.”

—*~*~*—

Change sat with a pleased look on his face, holding a tub of vanilla ice cream in his hooves. Half of the tub had already been shoveled down his throat, and he was taking a break to avoid a brain freeze.

“Okay, so what do we do about you?” Twilight asked, looking at Trixie.

“I don’t like you,” the mare in question said, “but I respect you. I trust that—even if you don’t care much for me—you’ll do the best you can to help me get settled in.”

“You’re staying?” the purple unicorn asked. “Why?”

“At least until the proclamation, if it even happens,” Trixie said. “After that, it’s all up for grabs. I’ll figure it out later.”

“ ‘If it even happens’?” Twilight exclaimed. “Princess Celestia said she would do it, so she will!”

“Excuse me if I don’t trust her,” Trixie scoffed.

“How could you not trust her?” Twilight asked. “What did she do to you?”

“First off, she pulled us off the streets, then she—” the mare stopped mid-sentence, looking over at Change. Twilight followed her eyes to see him shaking his head back and forth swiftly and repetitively, rocking slightly with a face that suggested that if he could, he would have been whimpering. “Nevermind. You’ll learn later.”

“It was bad, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked softly.

“Very,” Trixie said. “I’m surprised that his mind made it through. He got the worst of all of us, and he was only a foal at the time.”

Twilight shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe it, myself.”

“Do,” Trixie said. “It happened, and we were the lucky ones; we lived through it.”

Twilight sighed. “She’ll tell everypony soon. I’ll figure everything out then. For now, I only have one spare bed, and I’m giving that to Change.” Change’s ears perked up at that. “I’ll have to talk with my friends, see if any of them are willing to give you a spare bed.”

“I only need an open spot on the floor,” Trixie said. “Wood is much softer than stone, and I spent years sleeping on that stuff.”

“You’re telling me something about what happened when Change isn’t around,” Twilight stated.

“I can tell you something now,” Trixie said. “Nothing good.”

Chapter Six: Pinkie Party

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter Six
Pinkie Party

Stuff happens when you are a kid; it scars you inside for life.
-Corey Haim

Twilight

Twilight smacked a hoof over her mouth, but it was too late. The damage had been done. Change slowly slid to the floor, accompanied by a loud thumping sound as Rarity sprinted up the stairs. Twilight quickly lashed out one of her back hooves, kicking the door shut.

“Twilight, darling?” Rarity called through the door. “Are you okay?” The door started to be pushed inwards as Rarity attempted to enter the room.

“Fine,” Twilight said, pushing the door closed again. “Everything’s fine.”

“If everything’s fine, then let me in,” Rarity said.

“Uh, no,” the lavender unicorn said. “Sorry. Change doesn’t want you in, remember?”

“Twilight,” Rarity said sternly, “Open the door.”

Twilight looked back at a destroyed Change before sighing. He couldn’t handle going through that again. “Rarity, I can’t.”

“What did you scream at, then?” the seamstress asked through the door.

“I, uh,” Twilight said, pausing in thought. “I. . . saw his. . . uh, sheath! Yeah, I saw his sheath and overreacted. Everything is fine.”

“Twilight,” Rarity said, obviously disbelieving.

There was a clicking sound as Twilight locked the door with magic, simultaneously turning on the water. “Sorry, Rarity. I need to get Change clean. I’ll talk to you later.”

The door rattled as Rarity tried to open it. “Twilight Sparkle, open this door now!”

Twilight ignored her and sat down next to the colt, who was attempting to wiggle back into the cover. “Hey,” she said quietly, pulling it off of him. He didn’t look up. “Change, look at me.” She pushed on his chin with her hoof until she could stare into his brilliant blue eyes. “You surprised me. Yes, I screamed, no, I shouldn’t have, and yes, you’re still getting a bath. Okay?”

“Twilight Sparkle!” Rarity yelled over the rattling door and rushing water.

He sat for a moment, unmoving, before reaching forward and writing on a piece of paper.

They always scream. I don’t like screaming.

“I’m sorry, Change,” Twilight said quietly. At this point, Rarity had given up on opening the door, lending a silent air to the room broken only by the magically silenced bath. “I was scared. I’ll admit that. We don’t see scars in Ponyville, especially not like. . . that.” She sighed. “Yes, it’s scary, okay? It makes me uncomfortable.” Change whimpered silently, reaching to grab the cover. Twilight pulled it out of his reach with magic. “Uh uh, mister. I wasn’t finished. It makes me uncomfortable, but it’s also kinda sexy.”

A very red and very confused Change looked at her in disbelief, seeing the smirk on her face. She spoke up louder this time, “You weren’t expecting that, were you? Most wouldn’t agree with me on the sexy part, but it means you’re strong. I mean, look at you! Nurse Redheart kicked me out of the hospital twice when I went in with a stubbed hoof, and there you are, covered in wounds that make my worst days look like a walk in the park.” The stallion shrunk into himself at her words. “There. Right there. That’s what makes these scars endearing. Normally, ponies with scars are the tough type, but you seem so. . . fragile. Like you have to be protected. Then you take that cover off and prove that even though you’re like you are, you can still be strong when you need to be.

“You went through something I can’t even imagine,” she continued. “I couldn’t even imagine getting one of those scars, but there you are. You’re fragile and injured, but not broken. You lived. That’s what makes you strong, Change. You didn’t avoid fate, you didn’t get lucky, you got dealt a bad hand, and you lived through it. You don’t let your scars define you.”

He scribbled out a note and hoofed it to her.

I do. I cover them. I avoid letting ponies see them. I don’t wash when others can see me. Everything I do is to avoid being seen without my cover. That’s what makes me weak. I’m afraid.

“Change, do you know what bravery is?” Twilight asked. He cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “Bravery and courage are not feeling fear, right?” Change nodded his head.

“Wrong.” Change tilted his head. “Bravery isn’t not feeling fear. Stupidity is not feeling fear. Confidence is not feeling fear. Bravery is being afraid—no, horse apple dropping terrified—and going ahead anyway. That’s what you do. You were willing to go back to the library, even though my brother terrifies you. That is bravery.”

Scratching noises filled the silent room as Change prepared his rebuttal. He scratched out words and underlined others as he went, before being satisfied. He hoofed the response over to Twilight.

I was willing to go to the library because I was more afraid of disappointing you than ~~him~~ your brother. I lived my life in constant fear of Celestia finding me and my family, especially when I was in a town. We had protocols set to abandon any~~pony~~one we thought might possibly be compromised, since ~~she~~ Celestia could just ~~rip the information out of~~ extract what she needed from a captive.

Twilight squinted. This part was faintly written and heavily scratched out, as if Change was uncertain writing it then decided that he didn’t want her to read it. After a few moments, she managed to make it out.

~~Then I met you. You helped me do a task that was extremely difficult out of the kindness of your heart. You came out of nowhere like an angel to save me.~~

She looked over at a heavily blushing Change, a blush on her own face. He was looking directly at the ground, shuffling his front hooves together while waiting for her to finish reading. The next part was a stronger writing, and there were no words crossed out.

Then I met you, and got caught saying goodbye after Warden got compromised. That is why I am weak, Twilight. I am weak because I was willing to cause the deaths of my entire family to say goodbye to a mare I had met only days ago, and would never see again.

“Change,” she said quietly. He looked up at her, a tear tracking down his face. She stuck out a hoof, wiping the tear off. “We all make mistakes. Some end poorly, while some—like coming back to say goodbye—end well.” She stood up and turned the water off, the tub being full enough for her purposes. She paused for a moment, looking at the door, before saying, “And Rarity? Not a word.”

There was a squeak from the other side of the door before the sounds of retreating hoofsteps could be heard. “You hear me, Rarity?” Twilight yelled. “Not. A. Word!”

Twilight sighed after she didn’t get a response, then stepped into the tub. She turned back to Change. “Well?” she asked. “Are you coming in?”

His face lit up like a Hearth’s Warming tree before he started scratching out a note.

I can wait for you to finish, I’m in no hurry.

“Change,” Twilight deadpanned, “I have to be in the tub to clean you properly. Get in.” A thoroughly reddened colt took halting steps up to the edge of the quite large sunken tub. Twilight rolled her eyes and pinched him in the rump with her magic. He gave off a silent yelp and jumped forward, right into Twilight’s waiting hooves. “Isn’t that better?” she asked through her laughter. His glare only served to extend her laughing fit.

—*~*~*—

Change

After a bit of sulking, he had eventually told Twilight that the cover was magical and didn’t just look and feel like fur, it was fur. After that little tidbit of information, she drug the cover in and washed that too. Now he looked and smelled much better.

Change was still red when they made it downstairs, a fact not lost on Rarity. “Oh, had a little mishap, did we?”

Twilight blushed. “Rarity! I had to be in the tub with him to clean him properly, and it embarrassed him.”

“You thought nothing about getting into a bath with a stallion?” Rarity asked.

“Things like this are only awkward if you make them that way,” Twilight said, frowning at Rarity.

“Oh?” the seamstress said, her grin suddenly threatening to rip the corners of her mouth. “Not even with a stallion as, ahem, ‘sexy’ as Change?”

The duo both went cherry red instantly, Change purely out of embarrassment and Twilight out of a mix of embarrassment and anger. “Rarity!” she shouted. “Not a word!”

Rarity chuckled. “Fine, fine. I won’t tell Shining Armor that you shared a bath with this colt that you find sexy.”

Change’s eyes went wide as he realized just what kind of trouble he would be in if this ever got out. Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Not a word to anypony,” she growled. “Especially not Shining Armor. Change is already terrified of him enough.”

Rarity frowned. “I hadn’t thought about that. Okay, then. You have until Shining Armor heads back to Canterlot before I tell.”

“Rarity,” Twilight warned.

“Do you honestly think I can keep something like this silent forever?” the seamstress asked. “I’ll tell eventually. This way, I’m not letting it slip accidentally later.”

Twilight let out a growl before turning to Change. “Do you know the way to the library from here?” When he nodded, she continued, “Good. Then head there. I’ll be back eventually with Rarity.”

Change nodded again as he left the building quickly. Again, Twilight’s yelling started before he closed the door. “You will not tell a single soul about this or I swear by Celestia—” Change shuddered as the rest of her sentence was cut off. She was quite prone to freaking out.

It took him only a few minutes and two wrong turns before somepony pointed him to the library. He opened the door, and walked in. He noticed after the first step that the rainbow terror was waiting right inside for him. Right next to the prismatic nightmare was the Captain of the Guard. His second step was going right back outside.

He felt a tug at his tail as somepony grabbed onto it. She got me again! Immediately he freaked out, jumping forward and yanking his tail out of the mouth of whoever had grabbed it. He turned around, backing up slowly, only to see Applejack sitting in the doorway rubbing her jaw. “Ya got a strong jump, ah’ll give you that.”

Change sighed while he walked back inside. A shy yellow pegasus was the next to speak up. “I guess we don’t touch him if he’s not expecting it,” she said. “I mean. . . if that’s okay with you girls.”

Applejack replied, “That’s more’n fine with me, Fluttershy. He’s a mite bit stronger than he looks.”

Rainbow scoffed. “He’s not that strong. I mean, he’s an earth pony, but he can’t compare with AJ or Mac.”

“They work on a farm for a living, silly!” a pink pony exclaimed. “They have to be strong strongy strong-pants, or they can’t do their job!”

“Rainbow, he’s easily strong enough to injure you if you spook ‘im,” Applejack said, “so don’t.”

“Psh, I could take ‘im,” Rainbow boasted. Change wilted at her words.

“Ah’m not saying ya can’t,” the farm mare replied. “Ah’m just sayin not to spook ‘im. Ah don’t want either of ya hurt.”

"I'm glad you think so high of me, AJ," Rainbow grumbled. "I could totally avoid getting hurt by a single colt."

“And ah’m not sayin’. . . ya know what? I give up,” Applejack groaned. “You’ll never leave it well enough alone, will you?”

“No, I won’t,” Rainbow said. “Now I have to get in a tussle with this guy. My pride is on the line.”

Shining Armor took a hissing intake of breath. “I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

“Oh? Why not?” the cocky flier asked.

“What would attacking him do, hit or not?” he asked.

“Hurt him?” she tried.

“Only if you hit. What about if you miss?” he encouraged.

“It would scare him,” Fluttershy spoke up.

“Exactly,” he said.

“Okay, I get that that’s a bad thing, but why?” Rainbow asked.

“One: he’s traumatized, and Twilight will yell at you for making it worse,” Shining Armor listed. “Two: he’s like a colt, and I don’t think that you scare the younglings. Three: he’s like a different pony when he gets scared enough.”

“Explain,” the flier demanded.

“It’s like his fear reaches critical mass and he stops being afraid,” the Guardspony said. “It confused and intimidated me. He stopped being so soft.”

Change was looking at him oddly. I don’t remember that.

“I gotta see this for myself,” Rainbow declared, then withered at the glares the rest of the room threw at her. “Or maybe not.”

Shining Armor got a confused look on his face. He sniffed the air. “Lavender. Something smells like lavender.”

“Maybe it’s something in the library?” Fluttershy suggested. Change shuffled nervously. The Guard had a good nose, and hopefully wouldn't smell the same smell on his sister. That could be awkward.

“No, it’s something recent,” he declared.

“Why does it matter?” Pinkie asked. “Maybe somepony likes lavender-smelly stuff.”

The Captain of the Guard sighed. "You're right. It doesn't matter. I don't even know why I mentioned it."

There was a loud, drawn out sniff as Pinkie shoved her nose into Change's shoulder. She grinned ear to ear as she faced the rest of the group. "Found it! It's Change!"

Rainbow burst out laughing while the rest of the room looked at her like she was crazy. "Pinkie Pie, you are so random!"

Shining Armor grinned despite himself. "You sure know how to lighten a mood, Miss Pie."

"Just Pinkie to my friends, Shiny," the pink pony said. "I'm Miss Pie only to formal formally formal-pants ponies and malevolent world eating entities that are over for tea."

Deciding his sanity was more important than figuring out what she was talking about, Shining Armor turned to a more sane conversational partner. "So, Change, where's Twily and Rarity?"

The mute opened his mouth and pointed at it, causing the Guardspony to facehoof. "Paper and pen, I forgot. Now where would Twily keep paper and a pen?"

Spike, heretofore unnoticed by the cyan pony, spoke up, "Anywhere. She keeps everything organized, but only she knows how."

Change felt a poke on his shoulder, and saw a bouncy pink pony holding a pen and some paper in her mouth. Change took them, nodding in thanks.

They stayed at the Boutique to talk about something.

"Do you know what?" Shining Armor asked.

Nope. Not a clue.

Luckily Shining Armor believed him. and moved onto other topics. “So, I’m here for the rest of the week. What do you girls suggest we do?”

“We could have a party!” Pinkie bounced into the middle of the group. “It would be sooooooo cool! I’d have pin the tail on the pony and bobbing for apples and maybe even spin the bottle!”

“Spin the bottle?” Shining Armor asked suspiciously. “Is that something you girls play a lot?”

“Not in the least, darling,” Rarity said, walking through the door.

“Hey Rares,” Rainbow said. “You missed the biggest chewing out of the century. I didn’t even know that Twilight knew about those words!”

Twilight walked into the suddenly-overcrowded library. “And you will keep them to yourself, Rainbow Dash.”

“Geez, she’s bossy today,” the flier mumbled.

“Why were you and Rarity late arriving, Twily?” the Guard Captain asked.

“I had to talk with Rarity about something,” Twilight said simply.

“Care to share?” Pinkie asked.

“No,” the lavender unicorn said. “So, what were you talking about before we got here?”

“Spin the bottle!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight blinked slowly. “Really? Why?”

“Because we need a party,” Pinkie said. “It’s going to be a two parter. It’s half ‘Happy-Vacation-Shining-Armor’ and half ‘I-Finally-Met-Change-so-Now-We-Can-Have-a-Party’ party. Duh!”

“Uh huh,” Twilight deadpanned before saying honestly, “Sounds fun. Why don’t you get it set up in the library? It’ll just be the nine of us.”

Pinkie started counting ponies. “Silly Twilight, there’s only eight ponies here!”

“Spike?” the unicorn suggested.

“Nine ponies here,” Pinkie corrected. “That’s what I said, Twilight. You need your ears checked.”

Twilight turned away from her insane pink friend to see a note.

Spin the bottle?

Pinkie picked it up with a huge grin. “Don’t you worry a thing. Your auntie Pinkie’s going to take care of you.”

Twilight sighed in exasperation. “Is spin the bottle really the best game for this party?”

“Of course!” the pink party pony said. “Spin the bottle is a great game for any party.”

“Okay,” Twilight sighed. “When will you be set up?”

“I already am!” Pinkie exclaimed.

The girls looked around the room. Seeing nothing, Rarity commented, “Uh. . . Pinkie, darling, this room isn’t set up for a party. You’d think there would at least be a bottle if you’re going to insist on playing that uncouth game.”

“It’s upstairs, silly!” Pinkie said. “Do you really think I’d put a party on the ground floor of a public library, especially if we’re going to be playing spin the bottle?”

“How long ago did you set this party up?” Applejack asked.

“As soon as I got here,” the pink pony said. “Then I snuck out a window and came back in from the front door.”

The other ponies looked around at each other and shrugged. Pinkie would be Pinkie. Twilight led the march upstairs, followed by Shining Armor.

“Lavender,” he muttered to himself.

“I’m sorry?” Twilight asked.

“No, nothing,” he said, waving a hoof. “We have a party to go to.” He turned to Pinkie. “Although I assume you won’t be insulted if I opt out of spin the bottle?”

“Why?” the oblivious pony asked. “It’s a bunch of fun!”

“Two reasons,” he said. “One: I’m married. Two: my sister is one of the players.”

Pinkie opened her mouth to retort, then actually thought for a second. “That makes a ton of sense. I can see how you’re related to Twilight; you’re both smart smarty smart-pants.”

“Thank you?” he asked. “I think?”

“You’re welcome!” she said, bouncing back into her position next to a now-nervous Change. What is spin the bottle?

As soon as he walked into the room, he was given the impression of what he always assumed a party would look like. It had balloons and streamers everywhere. Little paper cutout balloons were stuck to the walls in various places, except where they framed a pony silhouette missing its tail pasted onto the wall. There were different colored tails stuck onto the wall next to the silhouette. Pin the tail on the pony, I assume.

A table had a bowl of punch and some cupcakes. And by ‘some cupcakes’, I mean a ridiculous amount of cupcakes. Like, looking at it gave you diabeetus. An empty bottle with hearts and lips coating its surface was sitting on the table. There’s the bottle. Now what does spinning it do?

“We’ll start with pin the tail on the pony!” Pinkie exploded as soon as all the ponies were in the room, startling Fluttershy. The timid pegasus hid behind Rainbow, unnoticed by the party pony as she grabbed Change around his shoulders, slipping a blindfold over his eyes. “We’ll start with the party guests!”

Change couldn’t keep which was was up or down straight as he was spun like a top. After about ten seconds, he was stopped suddenly and Pinkie said, “Forward!”

The mute pony stumbled one way, then the other as he walked towards where he thought the wall was. He had no idea what he was doing, but he assumed that he had to put the tail Pinkie had put in his mouth at some point onto the silhouette’s rump. He tried to figure out where the cutout pony might be, before his decision was made for him. His nose smacked into the wall, and he fell on his own rump, missing the tail from his mouth. He pushed up the blindfold to see how accurate he was.

Good news, he’d hit. Bad news, the pony was now a unicorn with a very fuzzy horn. He blushed when he saw how bad he missed, much to the amusement of the mares around him. “Aw, come on Change,” Twilight said. “It wasn’t that bad for your first try. You should have seen mine.”

“You’re supposed to hit the wall, Twilight,” Pinkie reminded.

“I have since then!” the unicorn said, blushing.

Change’s pride healed a bit when Shining Armor went next. He started out all macho, all “Royal Guards have no problem fighting blindfolded, this won’t be a problem.” His tail was farther away than Change’s. The younger stallion passed the Guard a note.

You’re supposed to hit the pony.

Shining Armor just grumbled something about beginner’s luck. Twilight was happy to see them interacting and not just Change avoiding him. Next, however, she groaned.

“Spin the bottle!” Pinkie exclaimed after all the ponies had placed their tails on the wall. Fluttershy had won, to the surprise of only the stallions.

“Do we have to?” a tiny voice asked.

"Do you have an excuse or a doctor's note?" Pinkie questioned.

"Well, I don't have an excuse like Shining Armor's, but I don't want to kiss anypony," the shy mare said.

What. "That's okay, Fluttershy," Pinkie said. "You can kiss on the cheek, and everypony will kiss you on the cheek."

"That works, I guess," Fluttershy said. Kiss? I didn't sign up for this!

"Hey lookie, we're already is a circle!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Fluttershy, as the winner of our last competition, you pick who spins the bottle first."

Am I the only one that heard that? Fluttershy hummed in thought before pointing at Change.

"Good choice," the party pony said. "Shining Armor, since you aren't playing, you judge. Enforce. Whatever it is Guards do at parties." Why is nopony reacting to the whole "kissing" thing?

"Are there any special rules I need to be aware of?" he sighed, resigned to his fate.

"Ten second rule," Rainbow Dash said. "If they don't kiss for ten seconds, they have to use tongue."

"Ooh, great idea!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Twilight also has a walk in closet that shy ponies can use. With our judge making sure rules are followed, of course." She turned to Change. "Spin it!"

The mute glanced at the Guard, who gave him an encouraging nod. As long as it wasn't Twilight, he would be fine. He reached out with a hoof and smacked the neck of the bottle.

As it spun, he glanced up at the faces of the ponies. Rarity was glancing at Twilight, as if she wanted it to land on her. Fluttershy tensed every time it pointed at her and relaxed when it pointed away. Rainbow seemed like she was having trouble keeping her wings down, though whether it was due to excitement or excitement, Change didn't know. Pinkie was unreadable as ever, seeming to be excited no matter which pony the bottle landed on. Applejack was staring at the bottle with unequaled intensity, letting no hints slip as to what she wanted. Twilight was shifting nervously as the bottle spun, and as it slowed she fidgeted even more.

Eventually the bottle stopped spinning, and fate had made its choice. Change followed the bottle from bottom to neck before letting his vision jump to the pony it was pointing at. Change stared in horror at the pretty purple pupil pointed at by the perilous phial.

This is how I die.

Chapter Seven: Spin the Bottle

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter Seven
Spin the Bottle

Change

The two ponies stared at each other for a few seconds. Her deep purple eyes gazed into his rich blue orbs, and nothing around them seemed to move, not even Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. The silence that coated the room was only broken by a single voice after a momentary pause. "Eight, nine, ten!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Man, on the first one, too."

The resident judge took that moment to speak up. "Change, can I speak with you for a second?" The mute's eyes widened. I knew it. This is where and how I die. "I won't hurt you, I just want to talk."

"Shiny," Twilight warned.

"Talk," he said. "Not threaten. I learned my lesson." He walked over to the younger stallion, pulling him up to his hooves. "I won't be more than a few minutes, and the game will continue. Feel free to tease Twily while I'm gone." With that, he drug the stallion into the closet and shut the door.

It wasn’t a large room—since, duh, closet—but it was more than large enough for the Guardspony’s needs. He shifted uncomfortably, not accustomed to being without his armor when outside the castle and not happy about the subject matter to be discussed. He sighed, bringing a hoof up to his blue bangs and brushing them out of his eyes.

"Look," the Captain of the Guard sighed again, "I know you have a crush on my sister.” Change lifted his hoof in a vain attempt to stop the older stallion. “Don't deny it,” Shining Armor said. He sighed, “Look, I love my sister, but I can't try and control her life. I can almost guarantee it that she likes you back. There goes your worries about this. I won't be mad, and neither will she."

Change tilted his head as he looked at the older stallion, locking eyes with his cerulean orbs. Shining Armor kept going, shifting from hoof to hoof as he talked about an awkward topic. "Yes, I’m her brother, but I’m also in charge of making sure this game runs smoothly, so here's what you're going to do: you're going to go back in there and kiss her full on the lips, as the rules say, and you're going to do it with confidence.” He stopped, almost leaving it as it was, but he decided to go the whole nine yards. ”As much as I hate to say it, I will be forced to be upset with you if you don't touch tongues, so you're doing that, too. Understand?"

The mute nodded hesitantly. "With confidence," Shining Armor said. The younger stallion nodded again without hesitancy. "Now go in there with that level of confidence."

Change pushed open the door and strode out of the closet, followed closely by Shining Armor. Whatever conversation that was going on ended as the two stallions walked up to the group. Change walked with purpose up to Twilight and—in an act that surprised himself as much as the ponies around him—pressed his lips straight against hers. Her eyes widened as he kept pushing into it, slowly pushing her onto her back. His tongue brushed against the barrier of her teeth, and she opened to allow him entry, moaning softly.

The rest of the group stared at the two ponies in shock. Rarity was the first to vocalise her thoughts. “Well, I knew she liked him, but this isn’t quite what I was expecting from her.”

Rainbow stopped even trying to keep her wings down. “But it’s hot,” she said, grin as wide as her dark pink eyes. “Who knew the egghead had it in her?”

“Who knew Change did?” Shining Armor asked. He looked over at the duo, and stopped breathing. Change’s eyes—whatever was visible through the slit between his eyelids—were a bright pink. It wasn’t Change making out with Twilight. The Guard grabbed the stallion by the neck and hauled him up. “We’re talking privately. Now,” he growled, dragging the still pink-eyed stallion downstairs.

As soon as Shining Armor made sure he wasn’t followed, he started talking. “Which one of you is this?” he demanded. The mute tilted his head in a good facade of confusion, but Shining Armor wasn’t fooled. Not with his eyes as pink as they were. “Don’t lie to me, I spoke with Braveheart. I know there’s more than one of you in there.”

The Change-that-was-not-Change giggled, “Caught me,” the colt said in a very feminine tone. He gazed at the older stallion with half-lidded eyes in a look that made Shining Armor think of his time spent in private with his wife.

“Who are you?” Shining Armor asked. “What do you do?”

“I call myself Love Bug, but you can call me whatever you like, sugar,” the pink-eyed Change said, winking.

“First, I’m married. Second, I don’t swing that way. Third, you shouldn’t offer a body that isn’t yours,” the Guard said.

Love Bug frowned. “You’re no fun. I don’t think I’d ever tell your wife about any fun times we have, I also don’t think it matters much what I am on the outside, as long as I’m all mare inside—save the parts of the other stallion, if you know what I mean—and third, while I have this body, I’ll use it for whatever fun I damn well please and put whatever and whoever I want in it.”

“I assume you’re Change’s lust, like Braveheart was his bravery?” the stallion asked.

“Oh ho, you’re almost there,” the stallion-that-was-a-mare said. “Braveheart is Change’s protection from death. I’m his helper, not a protector. I help him when he has urges, and I know how to treat a mare.” S/he ran his/her gaze over the older stallion’s body. “Or a stallion. You look like you could be fun.”

“I already said no,” Shining Armor said. “Get out of his body.”

“Or you’ll what?” Love Bug asked. “Spank me? Oh, please say you’ll spank me if I misbehave.”

The Captain sighed. “Let me speak to Braveheart and I’ll think about it.”

“You’ll do more than think about it, cutie,” the mare-in-a-stallion’s-body said. “You just don’t know it yet." His/her head drooped, and Change’s eyes were green when he looked up again, signalling the arrival of Braveheart. “What do you want?” he rasped.

“I talked to Love Bug,” the physically older stallion said. “I want you to keep her caged up as much as you can.”

“This is your fault, you know that right?” Braveheart asked. “If you hadn’t pulled me out, then the others wouldn’t want their time in the sun.”

“What are we looking at?” Shining Armor asked.

“You’re looking at potentially two dozen ponies wanting to do something after between a few years and a decade of inactivity,” the mentally older stallion said. “Each wants something different. I won’t tell you which wants which, and I won’t help you any more than I have.”

“Why not?” the Guard asked.

“This is your mess, so you fix it,” Braveheart said. “I will give you one warning, though. If you see bright red eyes, run. Run and take your entire village with you.”

“Why?” Shining Armor asked.

“Each of us is missing something, crippled in a way,” the stallion rasped. “I am old, even if I’m physically young. Love Bug is missing her common sense, it seems. She tries to seduce anypony around her if she doesn’t already have a target, like you or your sister. She’ll keep popping up until one of you lets her have what she wants, by the way.”

“I thought you weren’t helping me?” the mentally-younger stallion said.

“With your intellect and inability to tell anypony, you need all the help you can get,” Braveheart said. “She’s sticking around until she sleeps with somepony. It won’t be constant, but it is a blessing compared to Wrath.”

“The one with red eyes?” Shining Armor asked.

“Precisely. He is missing his equinity. Whatever makes us ponies is missing in that colt,” the mentally-older stallion said. “He wants to kill because he thinks it’s fun. He doesn’t feel bad for the pain caused by him or others. When Wrath gets out, sic the Princesses on him. Killing him would be a mercy if he deteriorated to that point.”

“What about his–” the Guard started to ask when Braveheart’s head dropped momentarily. When he looked back up, his eyes were blue again. Shining Armor decided to leave his conversations where they were. “You did good, kid, but you went a little far. Since you don’t need it anymore, why don’t you try and keep your tongue inside your mouth from now on, shall we?”

Change nodded, and the duo went upstairs. Twilight was there to greet them. “Shiny, what was that about?”

“I was informing him that he was to keep his tongue to himself from now on,” the Guard said, the half-truth flowing off his tongue like sweet honey. “Let’s get back to the game.”

Applejack gave him a look, but didn't pursue the issue. She turned to Change. "So, who's spinnin' next?" she asked.

He put a hoof up to his mouth and if he could have he would have hummed thoughtfully. After a moment's indecision, he pointed at Rarity. She frowned at him. "You're no fun," she said. He scribbled out a note.

It's not my fault you're pretty. I couldn’t resist picking you.

The seamstress blushed. "Such a gentlecolt while acting so uncouth," she muttered, giving the bottle a flick with her magic. Change followed the tip of the bottle with his eyes, while Pinkie followed the bottle with her whole head. She made little 'Woo! Woo!' noises as it went. After a few seconds, it made its choice.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me," the orange mare at the tip of the bottle deadpanned..

Rarity groaned, and then her eyes widened as she heard Rainbow counting. "Five. . . Six. . . ." The alabaster unicorn lunged across the bottle, slapping her lips onto Applejack's.

The two separated instantly and Rarity sat back down at her spot, a blush firmly on her cheeks. "So uncouth," she whined. "Why did I agree to this?"

Rainbow grinned. "I like this rule," she said. "Everything is much faster. No delaying."

"If you like it so much, maybe you should spin the bottle next?" Rarity said, glaring at the flier.

"You don't have to ask me twice," she exclaimed, smacking the bottle with a wing. It spun before settling on Change. "Jackpot," she said with a massive grin. The mute's eyes widened as she flapped her wings, launching herself and tackling him to the ground. After a few seconds she lifted her face, allowing Change to gasp for air. "Mmm," she said, licking her lips. "Vanilla."

"What's gotten into you, Rainbow?" Rarity asked. Don't pick Rainbow again. Don't pick Rainbow again. Don't pick Rainbow again.

Pinkie replied for the flier. "It's Cloudsdale's heat week," she said. "Most mares from Cloudsdale are going to be extra frisky."

The group looked over at Fluttershy. She blushed. "Most," she squeaked out, "not all."

"Who's next, Rainbow?" Shining Armor asked, getting the party back on track.

She stepped away from her position straddling the stallion. "Hmmm," she hummed. "Spike."

The group turned to look at the forgotten dragon sitting next to the mute stallion, who shrugged and spun the bottle. It whirled around four times before settling on Pinkie. He shrugged as he walked up to the pink mare and kissed her. He sat back down, and Rainbow frowned. "I was hoping for something more fun than that, but that works. Who's next?"

"Fluttershy," he said, pointing at the mare in question.

The shy mare gulped and got the bottle started. She looked around with nervousness as she waited for her fate to be decided. Rainbow frowned before saying, "Ten second rule doesn't apply to Flutters."

“Seems fair,” Shining Armor said, giving the nervous yellow pegasus a reassuring nod. It was probably not helpful.

The bottle slowed before pointing at Change. Me again. Why me again? The Shy mare walked up to the mute before sitting down in front of him. She shuffled her hooves nervously. “I, uh, don’t think I can just. . . kiss him,” she said.

“Take your time,” Twilight said with a smile. “We’ll continue without you.” Fluttershy sighed in relief before her friend continued, causing her to groan. “If the bottle points to your spot, we’ll have it be you.”

“Who is next, Flutters?” Pinkie asked.

“Uh, Change again,” Fluttershy said. “That worked well last time.”

Twilight and Change blushed bright red as their thoughts were drug back to the first spin. That did work well last time. Just hoping it doesn’t land on Spike this time. Change reached a hoof out and spun the bottle hard, giving it the most spin of any bottle so far. Not Rainbow or Spike. Not Rainbow or Spike. Not Rainbow or Spike.

The bottle settled right back onto the lavender unicorn. Rainbow groaned. “We already saw this!” she exclaimed, smacking the bottle again. “Respin!”

“Rainbow, that isn’t in the rules!” Twilight exclaimed, then immediately clamped a hoof over her mouth, eyes widening at her outburst.

“If you want to make out with your coltfriend, just go and do it,” Rainbow said with a smirk and a twinkle in her eyes. “You don’t need our permission.”

“It, uh, stopped spinning,” Fluttershy said, drawing everypony’s eyes to the now-still bottle in the center of the circle of ponies. It was pointed directly at himself. Now that won’t work.

Rainbow scoffed. “Somepony else spin that thing.”

Shining Armor stepped forward and spun it. “That introduces a new rule, I guess,” he said. “If your spin lands on somepony it already landed on, you respin.”

“But there is a difference between who spins and who is picked,” Rainbow mentioned. “If Change’s spin were to land on me, it wouldn’t be a repeat.”

“Why is that?” Rarity asked.

“Because there’s a difference between me kissing him,” the flier said, eyeing the slowing bottle as if she was willing who she wanted it to land on, “and him kissing me. I don’t think he’ll be the one on his back in the latter case. Especially if average is only half of what Twilight got.” The duo blushed again, glancing away from each other, much to the amusement of the ponies around them. Rainbow flared her wings and refolded them twice as the bottle slowed to a stop.

Rainbow groaned as it faced the stallion himself again. “You suck at spinning, Shining Armor,” she said, ignoring the fact that both of her spins landed on the same pony. “Lemme try again. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just have him french Twi again.” The unicorn in question squeaked and blushed harder. Her face was flushed to the point that her brother was worried about her passing out from all the blood. He was happy to see as much blood in the face of the mute, because that meant it wasn’t other places.

The bottle wobbled a little bit as it stopped one last time. This was the final decision. No more redos. He followed the bottle, having to suppress a grin at the blushing mare at the end of the bottle.

“Three,” Rainbow said. “Four.”

Change hopped to his feet, giving a small bow to Rarity.

“Five,” the cyan flier said. “Six.”

“Change,” the seamstress whined. “You better not be waiting until the ten seconds are up. If you are, I will be very upset with you.

“Seven,” the counting continued. “Eight.”

“Change,” Twilight said, frowning.

“Nine,” Rainbow said with a huge grin. “Te—”

The mute lunged forward at the last possible second and sealed Rarity’s muzzle with his own. Her light blue eyes widened as he pressed lightly into her mouth, before the lids lowered slowly. The stallion wasn’t there longer than a second, but she was panting when he retracted his mouth from hers. He lifted up Rarity’s hoof and gave it a light kiss before sitting back down. He passed Rainbow a note.

Fun enough?

The cyan mare grinned in response.

“Who’s next?” Pinkie asked.

Change looked around at the mares, looking at who needed it the most. Rainbow was fidgety, but that was expected from a mare in heat. Pinkie was sitting fairly still, boring her blue eyes into his own blue ones. He tore his eyes away from the commanding gaze of the pink one to look at Rarity. She couldn’t meet his gaze, much to his disappointment—she had such pretty eyes—so he moved on. Applejack was looking at Shining Armor and had seemed to have lost interest in the game at some point. Fluttershy was still next to—

Fluttershy was attached to his muzzle. What. The shy mare lit up like Coronation Day fireworks and leaped backwards with an adorable “eep!” She stared at him in horror, leading him to hypothesize that it was not intentional.

“Wow, I didn’t know you had it in you, Flutters,” Rainbow said, letting out a low whistle.

“I didn’t mean to!” the shy pegasus exclaimed quietly. “I went to kiss him on the cheek and he turned his head!”

“Well, it worked,” Rarity said. “Come and sit down, darling. I’ll take your next turn, if you want.”

Fluttershy gave her friend a demure smile. “Thanks, Rarity.”

“With that out of the way,” the judge interjected as the shy mare walked back to her spot, “who is spinning next?”

Change grinned and pointed at Twilight. She sighed, but twisted her magic around and spun the bottle. Everypony watched the spin with interest as it whirled in a twisting dance of fate. Half the group wanted to see what would happen if it landed on Change, and the other half already knew what would happen if it landed on him and wanted it to happen. Guess which group Twilight and Change fell into?

The bottle stopped with its neck pointing at the spinner. Rainbow groaned and slammed her face onto the floor in exasperation. “. . . Ow,” she groaned.

Twilight rolled her eyes and spun the bottle in the other direction. She tensed when it looked like it was going to land on Spike—that would have been awkward for both of them—and sighed as it passed the baby dragon. She noticed his own sigh of relief, making her feel a little less bad for her reaction. She looked at the pony sitting next to Spike with an unrestrained smile.

The studious unicorn paced over to the mute stallion. Everypony was expecting some kind of passionate makeout session like their last one, but she surprised everypony with a small, tender kiss on the lips. She pressed her mouth to his for a few seconds—not asking for more nor giving it—before releasing him, looking him in the eyes, smiling, and heading back to her spot.

“Last spin!” Pinkie announced, “then we move on to the other games.”

“I think the last spin should go to Change,” Twilight said.

Rainbow nodded. “I agree with that. Maybe we should just have him kiss us one by one?”

“You aren’t getting another one that way,” Shining Armor said, much to the flier’s disappointment.

The mute gave the last spin of the bottle, hoping that he wouldn’t get Spike—due to the awkwardness of their shared gender—or Rainbow—do do her being scary as hell and in heat. He held his breath as it spun, and released it when it landed on Fluttershy.

“Looks like that’s me again,” Rarity sighed.

“No,” the shy mare said, blushing. “You already kissed him, so you can’t do it again unless you spin him.” Rarity raised an eyebrow at her companion, but backed off. Change walked up to the butterscotch pegasus. He sat down in front of her, giving him access to her furiously blushing face. He planted one kiss on her left cheek, followed by one on her right. After a moment of hesitation, he leaned forward again and licked her nose before returning to his spot.

Shining Armor narrowed his eyes. He could have sworn that he saw a flash of pink in the mute stallion's eyes before he licked Fluttershy.

“That was. . . .“ Rarity started.

“Hot!” Rainbow interjected into the pause left by the fashionista.

“Odd,” Rarity corrected. “That was odd.” She turned to Pinkie. “What’s next on the list?” Twilight’s ears perked up at the word ‘list’.

Pinkie grinned. “Good news everypony! We won’t need this bottle anymore!” she exclaimed, grabbing the bottle and tossing it onto a nearby table. “Bad news, we’re using this one instead!” She pulled a bottle out of hammerspace that was filled with a strange white liquid, and eight glasses to go with it.

“What is it?” Shining Armor asked.

“Truth detector,” Pinkie said. “Bought it from Zecora. It works by detecting if a pony tells a lie while some of it is in them.”

“So we drink the mystery potion—” Twilight started.

“Lie detector,” Pinkie said.

“So we drink the lie detector, and then what? It hurts us if we tell a lie?” the studious unicorn asked.

“Of course not, silly,” the pink mare said. “If somepony that drank from it tells a lie, the rest of it glows red and gets all warm in your tummy. It’s perfectly safe as long as you don’t drink too much of it. ‘Too much’ being more than a mouthful. Zecora promised.”

Twilight eyed the liquid with curiosity as Pinkie deftly poured it into the glasses. The party pony passed out the lie detector to the ponies around her, and each of them drank it when they received it. Pinkie placed the bottle on its side in the middle of the group in the spot the other container had previously occupied.

“So what was the point of that?” Twilight asked. “I mean, I can see how this could be useful, especially to the Guard, but why did we drink it?”

“Silly Twilight,” Pinkie sighed. “That’s because of our next game.”

Shining Armor sat down in the circle between Spike and Change. “And what would that be?” he inquired.

“It’s simple!” the pink party pony exclaimed. “We’re playing truth or dare!”

Author's Note

What started as an idea for a oneshot became. . . this. I'm still writing that oneshot, but by God, I am not rewriting this entire chapter after finishing it. It was too much fun to write, even though I felt like I was dragging it on so I can say I have a 3k+ word chapter about playing spin the bottle. Even so, I think it isn't a bad chapter, and I look forward to seeing where the truth or dare goes next, especially with the secrets Shiny is hiding.

-HB

Chapter Eight: Troublesome Truths and Dastardly Dares

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter Eight
Troublesome Truths and Dastardly Dares

I'm terrified of losing my voice.
-Christopher Hitchens, on his esophageal cancer.

Change

Truth or dare?

"When it's your turn, you pick truth or dare and spin the bottle. Who it lands on gets to give you the truth or the dare and go next," Pinkie said. "You have to pick before you start spinning or you lose."

"Truth is one question you have to answer truthfully, and dare is one action that you have to do," Twilight explained. "If somepony physically cannot do a dare, it gets re-picked, and if it was on purpose, the giver loses instead."

"If you refuse to tell the truth or refuse to do the dare, you lose," Rarity explained. "When you lose, you can no longer get or give truths or dares."

"It's not all peachy," Rainbow continued. "The pony that wins gets to choose the punishment for the ponies behind her—possibly him, today—the pony in second picks punishments for those behind her, and so on."

"Punishments could be a truth or a dare, or even something different," Applejack said. "Ah had Rainbow demolish the barn when ah got to pick 'er punishment."

"I totally thought you were that flexible," Rainbow defended herself.

"Ya knew ah weren't," the farm mare said. "Ah should have given you something less fun for that dare."

"Moving on," a blushing Rarity said. "I think the only pony yet to participate in a bottle related game should go first."

Shining Armor rolled his eyes, but said, "Truth," and flicked the liquid-filled bottle. It spun a wobbly spin before pointing at Rainbow. He groaned quietly, knowing the kind of question that would come from the heat-ridden mare.

She grinned widely, wrinkling the fur under her rose eyes. "How old were you when you first banged Cadance?"

"You have got to be kidding me," he groaned.

"You have to answer," Rarity said. "I also have to say I'm interested in the answer, as well."

"Yeah, Shiny," Twilight teased. "Let's hear it."

He sighed. "Eightteen." The bottle lit up bright red.

"Ooh, my tummy's all warm and tingly," Pinkie exclaimed. "I probably should have mentioned that I special ordered this stuff. Every lie lowers the inhibitions of every imbiber, at least that's what Zecora said."

"What?" Twilight asked.

"I know, not enough rhymes. Well, it was more rhymey, but you understand how good she is at the rhyming thing," Pinkie said.

"Why didn't you tell us that before we drank it?" Rarity exclaimed.

"Because you wouldn't have drank it then," the pink mare said, "and then this wouldn't be as much fun."

"So does this glow until I tell the truth?" Shining Armor asked, eyeing the glowing bottle with suspicion.

"Or we accept that you aren't answering," Pinkie said. "So cough it up."

He sighed again. "Sixteen." The bottle stopped glowing.

"Uh, Shiny," Twilight said slowly. "You didn't date Cadance until you were seventeen."

"Officially," he said. "Unofficially, we were friends with benefits for a year and a half before I asked her out." His eyes hardened as he glared around the room. "Word of this doesn't reach Mom and Dad or Cadance."

"Sure," Rainbow said sarcastically, causing the bottle to glow. "I'm telling her soon as I can." The bottle returned to its white state. "Dare," Rainbow said, smacking the neck of the bottle. It spun once, twice, and thrice before settling pointed at Rarity. Rainbow groaned.

Five minutes later the tomcolt's hair was washed and in rollers to give it some curl. Her face clearly telegraphing her displeasure with the situation. Rarity had a victorious smirk on her face, leading Change to believe she had been trying to do this for a while. "Yeah, yeah," Rainbow muttered, "just spin the bottle already."

The victorious fashionista chuckled. “Why not? Dare,” she said, spinning the bottle. It spun once, twice, and landed on Pinkie Pie.

“Hmmm,” Pinkie said. “We could do something fun, or we could do something fun. What do you think, Rarity?”

“Uh, fun?” Rarity asked, not knowing which one she just referred to.

“Okie dokie lokie!,” Pinkie said, bouncing onto her hooves. She pointed a hoof at Rarity dramatically, declaring, “Lick Shining Armor’s ear!”

“What?” the stallion in question exclaimed in unison with the seamstress.

“C’mon,” Rainbow said, snickering. “Go ahead Rarity. Lick his ear.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I love you all, but I hate you all right now,” she said, walking up to the stallion.

“The sky is green,” Rainbow said, causing the bottle to glow.

Rarity looked over at her. “What are you doing?”

“Lowering inhibitions,” she said. “The Earth is flat, and Celestia raises the moon.” The glow increased with each lie, as did the warmth in the stomachs of each pony in attendance of the party.

“Stop that!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Fine,” Rainbow said. “The sky is blue, the Earth is round, and Celestia raises the sun.” The red glow that had pervaded the room faded completely after she stopped talking. There was a slight blush on her cheeks, and she had a perpetual small smile plastered on her face. The rest of the ponies—despite not having the assistance of heat to speed the process—were not far behind.

Rarity scowled at the flier, before turning to the Captain of the Guard. She quickly stuck out her tongue and flicked his ear with it, before blushing and quickly shuffling back to her spot. Pinkie grinned. “Truth!” she declared.

And so it continued. Minor secrets were spilled—nothing to the level of Shining Armor’s, though—and dares were completed. There was a long stretch of truths and easy dares, before the lies started. From there, things only got more interesting.

At one point, all of the ponies’ cheeks were dusted red from the lie detector, and Fluttershy had just spun the bottle and gotten Rainbow.

“Okay Fluttershy,” Rainbow said, “who in this room would you buck?”

“I–I’m sorry?” she asked, blushing.

“Pick one pony from this room that you would buck,” the heat-ridden pegasus said. “Bump uglies, do the dirty, fornicate. You know the word.”

“Uh, uhm,” the shy mare said, looking around the room in worry.

“Rainbow,” Rarity scolded. “Don’t do this to the poor mare!”

“Relax,” Rainbow said, waving a hoof dismissively. “She’ll be fine. So Flutters, who is it?”

“Uh,” the mare in question said. Her eyes jumped from one pony to another. Eenie meenie miney moe, catch an ursa by the toe. If it hollers, let it go. Eenie meenie miney moe. “Rarity.”

The bottle lit up a dull red.

Pinkie peered at the half-glowing bottle. “I think that’s a half lie,” she declared. “But it counts. Who would it be, Fluttershy?” The mare blushed bright red, eyes glancing over at a pony. A glance caught by Change.

Shining Armor?

“Eep!” the yellow pegasus yelped, locking up from embarrassment. Change nodded and passed the note over to Rainbow, causing the bottle to stop glowing, somehow.

“Shining Armor?” Rainbow asked, causing the named stallion to start and blush. “Nice choice,” she said with a smirk in the stallion’s direction.

“I must say that I’m flattered, but married,” Shining Armor said. “That would be something you talk to Cadance about.”

“Why would she talk to Cad–oh,” Twilight started, before blushing. “I see.”

“Moving on!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Truth!” She smacked the bottle, causing it to spin and wobble quickly. As it settled down, it pointed to Change. He hummed, before scribbling down on one of the myriad pieces of paper strewn around him. Some had truths, some dares, and some bore doodles from when he got bored waiting for a dare to complete.

Who have you slept with?

“That’s an easy one. Nopony,” the flier said. “Next!”

She looked at the bottle to see it bright red.

“That didn’t count, stupid bottle!” she shouted at the inanimate object.

“What didn’t count?” Twilight asked, cocking her head slightly.

The flier sighed. “I went to a party, got drunk, and ‘experimented’ with Gilda,” she said. The bottle dimmed, but kept glowing. She sighed, rolling her eyes and adding, “And some random mare from off the streets that Gilda found.” It dimmed more, but remained slightly red. She blushed, adding to the story once more, “And Fluttershy.”

The room was completely silent as the bottle stopped glowing. You could almost light the room with Fluttershy’s cheeks. You could certainly warm the room with the heat radiating from them. “It, uh, was my heat week, and it got really bad. I, uhm, walked in on the three of them and, uh, joined in.”

The room was silent for a moment before Change grabbed one of his two most used notes. It was slightly bent in places, and the writing was partially wiped away from use.

Dare

The room remained silent as the bottle spun around, pointing at each member of the group with indecision. It slowed, and finally made its choice. Shining Armor sighed, looking down and thinking. When he looked up, his face was not quite malicious. It was more mischievous. “I have a great one for you,” he said. “Sit still for thirty seconds. Breathing and blinking don’t count, neither does trying to catch yourself if you fall. Basically, if it is involuntary, it doesn’t count. Begin when I say ‘go’.”

Change cocked his head in confusion. This wasn’t a good dare. It was terrible, frankly. He shrugged and settled into a comfortable position.

“Go,” Shining Armor said. He turned to Rainbow. “You can do whatever you want—as long as it is legal and not kissing him—until his dare is over. If he moves under his own power, he loses.”

Change’s eyes widened as he saw the Guard’s game. Clever. Rainbow grinned and walked over where she knew he would be watching, and thus unable to look away. She swayed her hips sensuously as she walked up. The effect was diminished due to the angle of her walk, but his cheeks still lit up. Her recently-styled mane did little to diminish the effect her lidded eyes gave her, though.

Her breath made his ear twitch as she whispered into it, silently enough that nopony else heard her speak. “I’m going to have a lot of fun with this, if you don’t mind.” His face lit up and a shock of electricity ran through his body as she immediately started to nip at his ear. She ran the tip of her tongue down the edge of his ear, exhaling slightly as she went. He squirmed, but did his best to sit as still as possible.

Her next target was his neck. She started to nibble by his collarbone, making him exhale sharply. If he could have, he would have been groaning. Every single one of her actions were riling him up more and more. The effects of Pinkie’s potion definitely didn’t help him calm down as she moved back to nibbling on his ears.

He yelped silently as her hoof rubbed his cutie mark. He bit his lip and closed his eyes as a shiver ran through his body. She smirked as she stopped. It had reached the fifteen second mark, and she switched tactics. She turned around and whipped her tail into his face.

His head reeled as he was assaulted by a smell thick with pheromones. He opened his eyes in surprise, only to be met with the cyan pegasus shaking her plot in his face. Her tail was placed for modestly, but that did little to diminish the effects of the display on the poor stallion. His body was trembling and he whined silently. Not fair.

The flier looked over at Twilight, who was biting her lip. “C’mon over,” Rainbow said. “He’s got ten seconds where he can’t move.” When Twilight stood up, Rainbow expanded her command. “That’s for all of you, if you want.” The other mares looked over at each other, and one by one shook their heads. This was Twilight’s stallion, and they respected that. Rainbow got a pass because she was in heat.

Twilight nervously nibbled on the riled up stallion’s ear, trying to emulate what she saw Rainbow doing. The flier looked over at what she was doing, and shook her head. “Like this,” she said, demonstrating on his other ear. When Twilight tried again, Change started panting.

Rainbow looked at the stallion’s eyes, trying to make eye contact. She was amused when she noticed that they were glazed and unfocused, staring off into nothing. “I have another idea,” she said, licking her lips. She walked over to the other mare—whipping her tail into the stallion’s face again as she passed—and whispered in her ear. After that, the flier walked to where Change couldn’t see her.

Another jolt of electricity ran through his body as Twilight’s tongue started licking the inside of his ear. Her breath came out of her nose in bursts that he felt on the top of his head. His eyes widened as he felt another tongue on the inside of his other ear.

“Three seconds,” Shining Armor said.

The stallion’s tongue started hanging out of his mouth as the mares brought their hooves to his flanks, rubbing the sensitive cutie mark as they returned to nibbling on his ears. Rainbow traced half of the outline in the three seconds she was given, and Twilight’s inexpert hooves trembled as they rubbed.

“Time,” the older stallion said.

Rainbow smirked at Twilight, who merely blushed and looked away. As the two started walking back to their seats, the flier turned to look back at the unfocused eyes of the stallion. “Hey, Change. You’ll want to see this.”

Rainbow tapped the other mare on the flank to get her attention. Change's now-half focused eyes widened considerably as Rainbow pressed her lips directly onto Twilight’s. For her part, Twilight’s eyes widened as Rainbow’s tongue sought out her throat. The lavender mare pushed off the cyan flier, blushing even more than she was before and returning quickly to her spot. Rainbow winked at the shellshocked stallion and returned to her own spot.

Shining Armor watched the whole thing with jaw agape. He shook his head swiftly, dispelling any thoughts that might have come to his head otherwise. Rainbow was skilled though. He shook his head again, more fiercely. He declared his choice with a “Dare,” before spinning the bottle.

It, of course, landed on the worst possible pony for this. Rarity smirked at his groan, knowing exactly what his dare was going to be. “I have a good one for you,” she said. “One that doesn’t require another pony. You are to write a letter.”

“What letter, to whom?” he sighed.

“A letter sent to your wife,” Rarity said, eyes hardening, “explaining that you wish her to join you on your vacation and that you threatened a traumatized pony.”

The stallion sighed, but obeyed. He should tell her to join him anyway, and she was going to learn about his threatening Change whether he liked it or not. It was best if he learned it from him, instead of one of the girls. “That sounds fair,” he said. “I’ll write it afterward.”

“You’d better,” Rarity cautioned. “If you don’t, you’ll be in even more trouble for not wanting your wife to join you on vacation.”

"Fine," he said. Spin the bottle, Rarity."

After declaring her intent for a dare, she spun the bottle. She waited expectantly as it settled on Twilight. The lavender unicorn sighed, humming thoughtfully. After having Rarity lay on the floor without her omnipresent couch, Twilight declared a truth. The bottle spun around before it landed on Shining Armor.

He grinned as she groaned. “Who do you have a crush on?” he asked.

She frowned. “Nopony.”

The bottle lit up brightly.

Twilight’s lavender coat turned the same color, and not just due to the glow. “Okay, that was a lie,” she said, dimming the bottle. She shuffled her hooves as she shifted her weight from one side to the other and back. “I forgot about that stupid bottle,” she muttered. Louder she said, “I’ve always fancied Fancy Pants.”

The bottle glowed red, although not quite as brightly as before.

“Don’t lie, Twily,” Shining Armor said. “It just makes this more interesting, and that’s the last thing we need with Rainbow in heat.”

“Keep lying Twilight,” Rainbow said, grinning. “It makes things more interesting, and that’s exactly what we need right now.”

“Change,” Twilight said, her blush dusting her cheeks red. The bottle went inert instantly.

The stallion in question blinked twice slowly in surprise. That was unexpected.

“Well duh!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Shining Armor, you suck at this game. Ask something that everypony doesn’t already know.”

What? “What?” Twilight exclaimed.

“Oh please, Twilight,” Rainbow scoffed. “It’s obvious. It has been since before this game even started.” The heat-ridden mare stared at her friend with a smirk. “It didn’t hurt when you oh so eagerly submitted to him during that makeout session.”

Twilight’s blush deepened. “I didn’t submit!” she defended herself.

She kinda did. “Twilight, darling, you surrendered with no fight,” Rarity said, joining the conversation. “You just let him put you onto your back at the slightest push.”

“Just spin the bottle already, Shining Armor!” Twilight exclaimed in exasperation.

"Truth," the stallion said, taking mercy on his sister. The bottle didn't spin long before landing on Applejack.

"Yer hidin' somethin'," she said. "Ya have been since before tha party. What is it?"

The stallion was silent for a moment, his blue eyes staring into her green orbs. His gaze flicked over to Change momentarily, catching sight of the younger stallion's own blue eyes as they flashed green momentarily. Shining Armor stood up. "I lose," he declared, getting a narrow-eyed glare from Applejack. He stepped backwards out of the circle, standing next to the twice-forgotten Spike. The guard looked at Rarity. "I'll get to work on that letter."

"Yer not gettin' out of this so easily," Applejack growled, standing up. "It's somethin' important, else you wouldn't care if we knew, and it involves Change, else you wouldn't have looked at him before backing out."

"Applejack, drop it," Pinkie pleaded. "Just get back to the game. We have plenty of time to talk with him later."

Applejack—like the rest of the mares at that moment—was drunk on the truth serum, and therefore immune to logic. "Uh, uh," she said, shaking her head. "Ah'm not leaving it alone."

Not a glimmer from the bottle.

Shining Armor spoke up, "It's not my place to be telling."

Applejack snorted and looked at Change, who was blushing and looking at the ground. "What is so important that he's risking first loss to not tell?" The mute didn't look up, almost as if he was avoiding locking eyes with the mares. After a few moments of not even acknowledging the mare's question, she exclaimed, "Change!"

His eyes jumped up with his head. He looked around the group with a confused expression written on his face. He saw the expectant looks aimed his way and shrugged, not knowing what they wanted from him. Applejack repeated her question, and he heard it this time. "Shining Armor's deepest darkest secret involves you. What is it?"

The mute's brow furrowed in thought. The stallion had been acting strangely, but it could just be how he was. Change grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down on it. He handed it to Applejack, who took it expectantly.

I don't know, and if I did I wouldn't tell anyway.

She sighed, "Really?"

He's cool, and it's his secret, isn't it?

Shining Armor nodded. "Of course."

The bottle glowed dimly.

Applejack looked at it. "Half-lie," she declared. "Who else is involved?"

"Not my place to tell," the guard said.

Pinkie sighed. "I'll go next," she declared. "Truth." The bottle spun around, landing on Applejack. The mare in question gave a glare to Shining Armor before rejoining the group.

The game continued as such for the next half hour. Eventually, there were only three ponies left in the circle. Change was—surprisingly—still in the game. On either side of his was Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the former to his surprise, the latter to nopony's surprise.

The trio were having troubles staying upright at that moment, as were all the ponies around them. Fluttershy had just chosen dare, and her spin had landed on Rainbow, much to she shy pegasus's dismay.

"Hokee," Rainbow slurred. "'Ere's a good one. I. Want you. To kiss Change on the lips.”

Shining Armor stepped forward, stumbling slightly. “How ‘bout we just end this now,” he suggested. “It’s nearly mird–nearly midmi–it’s late.”

“We still got three of us in th’ game!” Rainbow exclaimed. “I’m not outta this until it’s over!”

Change wobbled slightly, before his face smacked into the hardwood floor. His breathing evened out as it was clear to any around that he had just passed out.

The assembled ponies chuckled at the poor stallion. “Poor guy’s all tuckered out,” Twilight giggled.

Rainbow stared at Change for a moment. After a little bit of thinking, she came to a decision. “We’ll finish th’ game later,” she announced. “For now, we’re sleepin’.”

—*~*~*—

Shining Armor

—*~*~*—

Twilight sat in the entry room of the library as her friends stumbled out the door, snickering with amusement. It wasn’t that she was making fun of her friends for their intoxication or anything. . . actually that’s exactly what it was. Nevermind. Twilight sat in the entry room of the library, laughing at her friends as they tried to stumble out the door.

Shining Armor shook his head as he walked up the stairs. He placed each hoof carefully before moving the next one, understanding that he was—in the popular vernacular—drunk off his ass. His heedful steps brought him unerringly up the stairs to the two-bed room on the second floor. This brought an important revelation to the forefront of his mind.

“Twilight!” he yelled downstairs. “There are only two beds!”

There was a moment of silence before he heard faltering hoofsteps downstairs. He heard three clops on the stairs before a crashing sound echoed throughout the library. “I’m okay!” he heard his sister yell from downstairs. “Jus’. . . gimme a sec to figure out why th’ stairs threw me onto the floor.” There was a slight pause. “Stairs, why did you throw me on th’ floor?”

Shining Armor rolled his eyes, carefully walking to the top of the stairs. Twilight was upside down, flailing her legs back and forth and muttering to herself. After a moment of concentration, Shining Armor fired up his horn, enwraping Twilight in his rose aura. She squealed in surprise as her brother pulled her up the stairs. He panted in exertion when she reached the top of the stairs. He dropped her onto the landing, caring not that she was still upside down. “That is much harder than when you were a filly, Twily,” he panted.

She crossed her hooves crossly from her position on the floor. “Are you calling me fat, Shiny? You don’t call mares fat.”

The guard sighed, grabbing her tail in his mouth and walking into the bedroom. Twilight squeaked in indignation as she was dragged across the floor. After a second, Shining Armor dropped her and pointed at the beds. “There are two beds, Twilight, and three of us.”

She cocked her head. “We can share.”

“They’re not two-pony beds, Twily,” he tried to explain.

“Well, why not? They’re called ‘twin’ beds, aren’t they?” She seemed immune to logic. Her horn fired up, picking up Change—who had been placed on the spare bed after passing out—and placing him on her own bed with a gentleness that betrayed her current intoxicated state. “See? Sharing.”

“Twily,” Shining Armor said slowly. “You aren’t sharin’ your bed with a stallion.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Well, why not?” After a moment of flailing, she righted herself. With a grunt, she stood up and locked her purple eyes with Shining Armor’s own blue orbs. “Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do, Mr. Friends-With-Benefits?”

He flinched at her words. “Twilight, I started dating Cadance because I realized I made a mistake. Don’t let me makin’ mistakes cause you to make your own.”

Twilight waved a hoof in a clear sign of dismissal. “I’m not ruttin’ him, Shiny. I’m sharing a bed with him.” She paused, finished before realizing what she had just said. “Platonically,” she added quickly, blushing heavily.

Shining Armor sighed. “Fine, whatever.” He paused in thought. “His passing out was perfectly timed, I have to say. Almost as if he did it on purpose.” His eyes flicked over to Change only to find the stallion’s eyes open. One of the blue eyes vanished momentarily as the colt winked at the older stallion.

Clever.

Twilight arched an eyebrow and whipped her head around to look at Change. She stumbled slightly before beholding the cyan pony’s eyes were closed. She turned her gaze back to her brother. “What were you looking at, Shiny?”

Shining Armor’s inebriated mind raced for a few seconds before finding a suitable excuse. “He looks peaceful when ‘e’s sleeping.”

Twilight looked at Change again, smiling slightly. “Yeah, he does.” She sighed slowly before she suddenly said, “Welp, time for bed.” She stumbled over to the bed, slipped the covers down, and—with a surprising amount of gentleness—slipped both herself and the ‘passed out’ stallion into the bed. Change instantly snuggled up to her, wrapping his hooves around her like a giant teddy bear. “He’s more adorable when he’s all cuddly,” Twilight mused quietly as her eyes slowly drooped closed.

Her breathing evened out quickly, giving the stallions a clear signal that she had fallen asleep. Shining Armor leveled a slight glare at Change, who carefully raised his head to see eye-to-eye with the other blue-eyed stallion. “Watch your hooves, buddy,” Shining Armor warned. “I know many ways to make you miserable without hurting you.”

Change lifted one of his forehooves out of the covers in a clear sign of submission.

“And the other one?” Shining Armor asked.

Change glanced down at Twilight before looking up at her brother helplessly. He gave a one-legged shrug and smiled sheepishly.

“Keep them above the cutie mark,” Shining Armor cautioned. “I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night because you got touchy-feely with my sister.” Change’s off-hooved salute seemed to satisfy him, since he gave the younger stallion a small smile. “Good night, Change.”

Change returned the smile and nodded before slowly lowering his head to rest in the crook of Twilight’s neck. He gave her a small nuzzle, making her groan softly and shift in her sleep. Confidant in his ability to sleep without waking up his host, the colt allowed himself to drift off to pleasant dreams.

Shining Armor watched the two of them as their breathing seemed to sync. He never lost that small smile as he climbed into his own bed. His thoughts drifted to his wife, who—undoubtedly—was going to show up tomorrow. What with the letter sent through Spike to Princess Celestia, who most likely sent it immediately to Cadance. He sighed as his smile faded. No matter if he had already fixed his mistake and made up with Change or not he was getting a stern talking to, one he wasn’t looking forward to.

Another sigh seemed to pervade the room as Shining Armor resigned himself to his fate. There were going to be a lot of awkward moments for the rest of the week. He winced as he remembered the secret he had spilled during Truth or Dare. That was getting him “assigned to the very important duty of guarding the couch for the night,” as Cadance would put it. If he was very lucky, it would be just the night.

One last thought flashed through his head right as he fell asleep. Doesn’t Twilight have a couch?

Chapter Five: One of Many

Disclaimer: I do not own Hasbro, My Little Pony or any characters, places, or events in the extended cannon, although it would be awesome if I did.

Chapter Five
One of Many

Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
-Aristotle

Change

Change woke up the next morning in a good mood. He stretched before hopping off of the bed. His hooves clacked lightly against the ground, and he sent a quick glance at his roommate. Twilight shifted in her bed, but didn’t wake up. Letting out a silent sigh of relief, the stallion softly and slowly creeped out of the room after making his bed. No need to get Twilight mad at him for being messy, after all.

As soon as his hooves clopped against the top stair, he regretted waking up that morning. Sitting at the bottom of the stairs at the table was the Captain of the Guard. Shining Armor’s head lifted up as he heard hoofsteps on the stairs. “Ah, Twily, you’re—” he stopped in the middle of his sentence, eyes narrowing in a glare. Change froze in terror. Uh oh “You aren’t Twilight. What are you doing in my little sister’s room?” Not surprisingly, the mute didn’t answer. After a moment of awkward glaring, Shining Armor yelled, “Twilight! Get down here!” Change took that as his cue to bolt down the stairs.

After a few seconds, a groggy Twilight walked up to the stairs. Her eyes were half closed with exhaustion, and her hair was messy. “What do you want, Shiny?” she groaned.

“Why was there a stallion in your room?” the such-named stallion asked. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

Twilight spent a second computing what Shining Armor had just insinuated, before blushing furiously. “Shiny!” she whined, now awake, “nothing is going on between us!” She muttered just loud enough for the two stallions to hear her, “What is it with ponies and assuming that I’m dating Change?”

Shining Armor looked over to the deflated stallion, narrowing his eyes. “If it’s not that, then what? He came from your room, I can guarantee it.”

“He needs a place to stay, and I have an extra bed,” Twilight said. “Extra bed, Shiny. We were in separate beds. What are you even doing here, anyway?”

“Princess Celestia gave me a mandatory vacation for the rest of the week,” he said, frowning. “I told her something big was going to happen while I was away.”

Twilight smiled. "I can finally introduce you to my friends!" she exclaimed.

"I've already met them, Twily," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but that was during the whole wedding fiasco," Twilight said. "Now that that's over, we can introduce you for real."

“The afterparty of the actual wedding,” he tried. “We met then.”

“You were exhausted,” she said.

"We met again at the Crystal Empire," he said.

"Evil king bent on enslaving an entire nation," she reminded him. Change's eyes were wide and switching from one sibling to the other.

"We held a party after we beat him," Shining Armor said.

"Again, you were exhausted," his sister replied. "And now you're out of events you met them at."

"And Change is in shock, I think," the Captain of the Guard said.

The mute stallion shook his head swiftly to clear his head. Ice cream makes everything better, he thought, walking into the kitchen.

"Uh, where is he going?" the stallion asked.

"He's grabbing the leftover ice cream, I think," Twilight said.

"Ice cream?" the baffled guardspony asked. "Why is he getting ice cream?"

"He's overwhelmed," she replied as the childish stallion walked back into the room with a tub of vanilla ice cream. "It's something comfortable."

". . . That is very childish," Shining Armor decided.

Twilight shot him a look. "Whatever he went through, and I'm assuming this includes the mind ream, he went through it as a foal. Who am I to deny him a bit of immaturity?" The mute made a face at her reference to his past.

The Captain scoffed. "It couldn't have been that bad. Look at him, he's no older than twenty. He's your age, Twily. That means he went through that during either my tenure, or the tenure of Aegis."

Twilight shrugged. "We can worry about it later," she decided. She looked over at Change, who was holding the empty ice cream container upside down, peering into it with suspicion. There was a bit of white stuck on the end of his nose. She giggled when she saw him, walking down the stairs and standing in front of him. "Missed a bit," she teased, wiping the bit of ice cream off with a hoof. The mute blushed furiously, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Shining Armor.

"Hey, Twily," he said, "why don't you gather your friends? You said something about introducing us?"

Twilight smiled. "That's a great idea!" she exclaimed. "I'll get them now."

Change watched as she left, unable to stop her. He knew what came next. He swallowed his nervousness, and turned to the Captain of the Guard. As soon as Shining Armor opened his mouth, Change bolted out the door.

—*~*~*—

Shining Armor walked back into the library with a squirming Change on his back. “Stop struggling!” he exclaimed, exasperated. “I’m not going to hurt you!” Logic, however, is not the best weapon to use against somepony who’s panicking, and therefore did little to calm down the mute stallion. “Look,” the Captain of the Guard sighed, placing Change on the ground, “just listen to me.”

Change bounced in his hooves, eyeing the door with interest. After figuring that he couldn’t escape with Shining Armor in his current position, he sighed silently. He sat down on his haunches, awaiting the berating that he was about to receive.

“Thank you,” the older stallion said. “Now as I said, I won’t hurt you. I have no interest in hurting anypony, especially not one of my sister’s friends. However,” Shining Armor got inches away from the other stallion’s nose, “if you hurt her, whatever happened in your past will pale compared to what I will do to you, do you understand?” Change’s blue eyes widened, and the blood drained from his face. He started shaking, and his pupils dilated quickly.

As suddenly as it started, though, his panic vanished. His head drooped momentarily, before coming back up. His countenance had changed completely. No longer was he Change, it was like he was a different pony. He let out an audible sigh, the first sound he had made since Shining Armor met him. “Now you’ve done it,” he said in a raspy voice. It sounded like he was an old stallion on the brink of death, in direct violation of his actual appearance.

Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you couldn’t talk?”

“He can’t,” the Change-that-was-not-Change said. “I can. You’re distracting from the point of this conversation, though.”

“I’m not doing anything,” Shining Armor said. “I knew it. I knew you could talk.”

“Stop changing the topic,” the not-Change said.

“You stop changing the topic!” Shining Armor exclaimed. “You’ve been lying. This whole time, you’ve been lying!”

“Shining Armor, sit down and shut the buck up!” Change yelled. “Let me talk!”

The guardspony sat involuntarily.

“Thank you. Now, he had gone years without using one of us,” the younger stallion said, “now you come along and pull me out without trying. Are you proud of yourself, Shining Armor? Are you proud that you terrified a colt so much that he honestly thought you were about to kill him?”

“What are you talking about?” the Captain of the Guard asked.

“What am I talking about?” Change exclaimed. “Are you seriously that dense? Change was traumatized, moron. He was beaten, abused, and experimented on. What do you think that does to a colt? Yeah, he’s not going to be all sunshine and rainbows.” The not-Change started pacing. “He was getting better, damn it! He dealt with Warden and Boss by himself. By himself! He even confronted Celestia. Now you’ve undone all that progress in a single conversation. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

“Who and what are you?” Shining asked, standing and getting into a defensive position.

“I’m Braveheart, and I’m the one that comes out when Change needs to be brave,” the stallion said. “Change made me. I’m old, and have come to terms with my death. Because of this, I can be brave when he hides. When he needs to hide. When he is about to die. Every time he sees you, he’ll try to bring me out. He doesn’t even know I’m here, and he’s going to beg me to come out and save him. I’m going to have to ignore the terrified cries of a colt. Do you understand what you just did?”

“You’re trying to tell me that there are multiple ponies living in his head?” the guardspony asked. “Do you think I’m dense enough to believe that?”

“Yes,” Braveheart answered without hesitation. “But it’s also true. He was nearly driven insane by your Princess.” He spat out the last word like it was poison. “We came out and saved him.”

“We?” the guardspony asked. “How many of you are there?”

“Enough,” Braveheart said. “Keep this to yourself, if you know what’s good for you.”

“Are you threatening me?” the Captain of the Guard asked, looking the stallion in the eyes. It was in that moment that he noticed the green eyes that the younger stallion had. The eyes that had been blue earlier. He wasn’t faking.

“It’s not a threat,” the stallion said. “But this is. If word of us gets out, I will make sure you won’t tell anypony anything again. If I can’t, I’ll just grab another who can.”

—*~*~*—

Twilight

“Of course I’ll come, darling,” Rarity said to the purple unicorn on her doorstep. “Should I fix my hair? I’m afraid I didn’t take as much time fixing it up as usual.”

Twilight looked at the other unicorn’s hair—it looked as immaculate as ever—before saying, “It looks fine, Rarity. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.”

“Guess you’re right,” the fashionista said. “He is a stallion, after all. I’m sure he won’t notice how bad my hair looks today.”

Twilight examined her friend’s hair again. Again finding not a single hair out of place, she said, “Plus, he’s married. You don’t have to worry about impressing him.”

“That’s good and bad,” Rarity said. “Let’s talk while we walk, shall we darling?” As the two of them started walking, she continued. “It’s good because I don’t have to look impressive for him, and it’s bad because he’s such a handsome stallion and somepony else grabbed him first.” She let off a thoughtful hum. “Maybe I should look even more impressive? I don’t think I could compare to an alicorn, though.”

“Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed.

Rarity gave her friend a mischievous smile. “Am I embarrassing you, darling?”

The lavender unicorn sighed, choosing to keep silent for the remaining walk back to the library. When she arrived, nopony else was in the main room.

“Uh, hello?” she called out. She had expected at least Shining Armor to stay and wait for her. She was bringing her friends to meet with him, after all.

“One second!” her brother called out. “I’m in the kitchen, and Change is upstairs.”

A white-crested cyan head peeked out of the doorway upstairs, checking if the coast was clear. Seeing it was, the rest of Change followed its example before walking down the stairs. He smiled at Twilight before kneeling one of his forelegs on the ground in a polite—if brief—bow at Rarity.

She blushed. “He’s a gentlecolt, isn’t he?”

Twilight giggled. “He’s a goof.” Change held a hoof over his chest in mock indignation. “It’s not a bad thing, Change,” Twilight said, giggling again. “In fact, it’s adorable.” The mute blushed a deep crimson.

“He’s perfect coltfriend material, Rarity,” Shining Armor said walking into the room, causing Change to lock up and stop breathing. “Twily, he’s a bad match. Don’t try it.”

Change slowly turned to face Shining Armor and backed away. Twilight looked at the terrified look on his face and turned to her brother, anger written across her face. “Shining Armor!” she yelled. “What did you do to this poor colt?”

“I just—” he started. His eyes flicked to Change, who was glaring at him with green eyes.

“Did you threaten him?” she kept going, interrupting him.

“Well, you see—” he started again, glancing back over at Change to see his eyes still rich green. Big mistake.

“I can’t believe you!” she exploded. “Why would you threaten a traumatized colt? What could have possibly made you think that was a good idea? Then you do it and can’t even look me in the eye afterwards?”

“It’s my job as a brother,” the guardspony said. “I’m supposed to threaten any and all colts you bring home, and even some that you don’t.”

“Shining Armor, he is not my coltfriend,” Twilight said levelly. “He is not just some colt. He is a traumatized and terrified colt that is in unfamiliar territory. Cadance will hear of this, I’ll have you know.”

The stallion winced. “Aw, come on, Twily! I didn’t mean to scare him that bad!”

“But you did,” Rarity butted in. “You threatened him right as he needed to feel safe and welcome the most. Even if you convince Twilight to not tell Cadance about this, I will.”

The Captain of the Guard hung his head. “Aww, man.”

“Now go back into the other room so we can talk with Change,” Twilight said. Her brother opened his mouth, but she pointed a hoof at the door. He sighed and walked out. She turned to Change, who was noticeably calmer. “Are you okay?”

He nodded before looking around. Twilight instantly got what he wanted, and levitated over some paper and a pen. He scratched out a note.

He’s scary.

“Don’t mind him none,” Rarity said. “He was being an older brother. He honestly didn’t mean to scare you that bad.”

Twilight nodded. “That still doesn’t excuse what he did. What exactly did he threaten?”

“If you hurt her, whatever happened in your past will pale compared to what I will do to you, do you understand?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Rarity, take him to the Boutique. I need to yell at Shining Armor.”

“What about Rainbow?” Rarity asked. “She’s bringing back the other girls.”

“If you run into them on the way, bring them. If not, then I’ll have an audience,” Twilight said, growling the last sentence as she stomped into the other room where Shining Armor was. The yelling started before the door even closed. “How dense can you be? I have half a mind to geld you, if I didn’t know that Cadance would do it for me!”

Rarity blushed bright red as Change tilted his head in confusion.

Geld?

“Let’s just go to the Boutique,” Rarity squeaked.

—*~*~*—

Change

Send me back to the library, Change whined silently. He was currently being used as a living mannequin for one of Rarity's many projects. He had to hold perfectly still, or he’d get poked with one of the multitude of needles floating around. Thankfully, there was a window he was facing towards, so he wasn’t completely bored. Rarity was smart enough, however, to face him away from the door to make it harder to run.

"I'm so sorry about this, darling," the seamstress was saying, "but I almost never get the chance to work with an actual stallion, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm sure you understand."

I couldn't complain if I didn't. He sighed silently, a fact not missed by Rarity.

"Oh, hush. I'm not hurting you," she said, "so stop complaining." The stallion grumbled mutely as she kept working. “Not hurting you much,” she corrected, thinking back to the needle she accidentally poked into his leg earlier.

The door swung open near-silently on relatively recently oiled hinges. Change turned his ears to face behind him to better hear whoever was coming inside. “Hi Rarity, Change,” a slightly hoarse voice said. “I think Shining Armor got the point. You can come back now.”

Hot damn! Change jumped off of the raised platform Rarity had set up to put him on, quickly shimmying out of the fancy clothes she had been creating around him. As soon as he was free, he trotted—smile on his face—to Twilight at the door.

“Change,” Rarity whined. “I wasn’t done!”

The mute winced and slowly walked back over, sullenly sitting down back on the platform. Twilight giggled at his reaction. “You can borrow him later, Rarity. Right now, I think he should come back to the library. He should meet the girls, and he needs to spend time around Shining Armor to make him less afraid.”

Change’s eyes widened and he started shaking his head quickly. No. No. Nope. Uh uh. Not happening.

Twilight sighed, frowning. “Please, Change? For me?” she asked, sticking out her bottom lip. Rarity chuckled as Change sat still, eyes looking between Twilight and the door, before sighing. He nodded, standing up and walking over to the lavender unicorn. As the duo started walking out, Twilight’s eyes caught a small pile of emeralds. “Why the emeralds, Rarity?”

“I was certain that his eyes were green when I picked him up,” the seamstress said. “I don’t quite know why, but I saw him with dull green eyes.” The two mares looked at his bright blue eyes.

“Those are blue, Rarity,” Twilight pointed out the obvious, bringing each of their attentions back to the other mare.

“Oh, I know that now, darling,” Rarity said. “That’s why I went to the back for sapphires.” She looked at the stallion. “He cleans up so handsomely, if he’d only let me do more work on him.”

Change’s stuck-out tongue was enough of an answer for the mares.

“Doesn’t look like that’s happening,” Twilight said, giggling lightly.

Rarity sighed. “He needs a good bath. He looks like he hasn’t spent any time cleaning himself more than necessary in his life.”

The stallion shrugged. I haven’t.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Not everypony spends an hour cleaning every day, Rarity. He cleans enough to look nice and not smell.” She leaned close to his shoulder before making a face. “Change, how many days has it been since you took a bath?”

The stallion looked up in thought. Let’s see, today is sunday, and so that means. . . He tapped his hoof on the ground once, then twice before pausing. After a moment of thought he tapped the ground twice more before nodding in satisfaction. Twilight and Rarity looked at him in shock.

“Four days?” Rarity asked. “That means the last time you washed was Wednesday.”

He frowned momentarily before tapping once more.

“Tuesday?” Twilight asked, bewildered. The mares looked at each other before nodding. Change yelped silently as he was enshrouded with a swirling aura of purple and light blue. The two mares dragged him in tandem up the stairs to Rarity’s large, extravagant bathtub.

It took a bit of work—and Twilight bringing up some paper and a pen—but eventually the mares were waiting outside while Change agreed to wash himself until Rarity was satisfied. The two mares looked at the note he had given them inside.

I am not a child. I can handle washing myself without getting myself hurt.

The two mares were giggling at how he phrased it, Twilight more than Rarity. The mares waited patiently outside the door waiting for the colt to turn on the bath. After about five minutes a note was shoved under the door.

I don’t know what half of these bottles are. What is a "hair serum" and how does it work? Where did you hide your shampoo?

“I can come in and help you, you know,” Rarity said through the door. Another note was slipped through the gap between the door and the floor.

I’m naked.

Twilight planted her hoof onto her face. “Change, we’re always naked.” After a momentary pause, another piece of paper was passed through.

Only Twilight.

“Change, Rarity is much better at this than I am,” Twilight explained patiently. “I think it would be better if you let her in.” After another pause, he repeated his message.

Only Twilight.

“Why only Twilight?” Rarity asked.

I’m embarrassed.

Rarity sighed. “Just go in, Twilight. I’ll be downstairs when you’re done, or if you need assistance.”

Twilight waited until Rarity was on her way down the stairs before opening the door. As soon as she entered, she gasped in horror. Change stood holding a note in his mouth.

Don’t scream

Laying on the floor in front of the stallion was what looked like a pile of fur in the exact shade of the stallion’s coat. What she had been gasping at, however, was the stallion himself.

The coat on his torso was sparse, sticking out between strips of milky-white flesh. It looked as if he had been completely wrapped in thin strips of cloth in a grotesque fascimile of a mummy. It took Twilight but a moment to realise that these were scars.

These scars spread from his torso down his legs and up his neck, leaving a lot of room for her imagination to fill in how he got them. Her eyes widened as they roamed his body. She wanted to look away, but for some reason couldn't. She just kept staring at the colt's mutilated body.

Change shifted his mouth to drop the piece of paper while still holding up the one behind it.

Please don't scream.

Her eyes were wide, locking with his pleading blue orbs. Please, they seemed to say. Please.

She screamed.

Author's Note

. . . Damn. The damage that Celestia caused him advanced the longer I went without writing this. At first, everything was magical and non-invasive, but it ended up being this. This isn't even the worst of it, either. So, uh. . . happy Thanksgiving?

I also decided to post a chapter of my shorter (and/or less seen) stories as a Thanksgiving gift. It's totally not because I think they will get more views and ratings on a holiday than on a random Sunday. I'm not like that, guys. I also was giving you an honest gift.

-HB

Cancelled

This story is now cancelled. I've gotten better enough at writing (I like to think) that this story would take too much work to get up to my current standards. As it is, I will take ideas from what I have written and what I was planning on writing and apply them to other stories I write.

To all one of you that was looking for an update on this story, I thank you for enjoying it, and am sorry that I'm not continuing it. I may start a rewrite when my life settles down a bit, but don't hold your breath.

—HB