//------------------------------//
// Part 2: Plan 'B'. 
// Story: They Grow Up... 
// by overlord-flinx 
//------------------------------//

	Ponyville. Many, if not all ponies within the area would call it a model of how a community should be. Everyone knows your name, never a dull moment, a faithful companion at each turn; many would consider it the utmost luck that you live there. It's so humble; it's so peaceful. But, to a very small minority of jilted individuals, it's the bane of existence. Their perfect buildings, their perfect hospitality, their harmony; it's sickening to some. A majority of that minority are the Changelings. More precisely, their queen. However, as it turns out, those thoughts and feelings of great disdain have begun to fade away over the years.

Why?

It's the small and insignificant ideas that turn minds.




The sun was still making its grand arc across the spanning sky, now just starting to meet its noon peak. It was at this time that mares and stallions would file out from their homes and fill the streets of Ponyville, Canterlot, or any other city or town of that sort. It was also at this time that Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, would look out from her twisted castle's balcony towards her most hated foe's prized village. Though her ears were constantly assaulted by the buzz and hum of her subjects' flying by and around her castle, she could still, in her own mind, hear the jovial laughter and talking of those ponies.

Sickening.

But, it was when her inner flames of a toxic green began to find fuel that she brought her mind to happier notes. It wasn't her kingdom or army of loyal subjects that brought her down from her anger; those only made her feel more entitled and proud. It was the thoughts of one certain pony in that village that made her feel a bit at peace. This time, however, those thoughts had suddenly brought a nagging pain to her mind. Normally she would have time to think of her charge in peace, but she was too aware that in only moments, that peace would be—

"Honey! I'm home!"

—Shattered.

Queen Chrysalis ignored every single one of her inner pleas to not turn around, instead giving an uninterested turn to face the draconequus that had summoned himself in the room leading to her balcony. "Discord, it would seem I may need to have some harsh words with my so-called guards..."

"Hard to stop something that can just... Poof pass them." As if to demonstrate, he made a show of snapping his fingers and appearing inches away from the queen.

Once more she ignored every tugging thought that told her to simply set fire to this abomination but instead moved around him to enter her chambers. Discord followed after her, deciding that walking on his back limbs was getting boring and fell to all four of his limbs and walked alongside her. Chrysalis would've normally been bombarded with Discord's rambles by this point in his visits, but noticing his relative silence despite his—albeit normal for him—overly joking air, she knew what was holding his tongue. "No news from the boy?" her eyes didn't even meet his as she said her coldly voiced words.

Unfazed by the words but rather the idea of actually failing the job, Discord could only laugh weakly and give a shrug of his shoulders. Queen Chrysalis met her own gaze as she looked into the Gothic framed mirror in her chamber, using her own sickly green magic grasp to pick up her darkened applicator and brought it to her 'lashes. "Well no matter. I had already planned a fail-safe for your failure."

"But then why even ask me to do the deed when the deed couldn't be done?"

Stroke. One of her long eyelashes was brought back to its full glory. "No reasons other than to elude our charge on the idea that one of his guardians is a bumbling idiot."

"Hmmm... Touché." Discord slithered his lengthy body up to a stand and he rested his back against the curve of Chrysalis' wall.

The queen needed only to peek a single eye in the beast's direction to see that his more playful stature and expression had faded. Now, they could move onto the main structure. "Phase one is complete of course. Though, I'll admit phase one was also Plan 'A'. If he had divulged the needed information, we would've been done far sooner..."

Stroke. Another perfect 'lash if Chrysalis could say so herself. "That goes without much saying. But you and I both know Pippy doesn't budge so easily." For a brief second Discord formed a crooked smile before going back to a focused look. "I blame the mother-figure."

"Make your jokes, cretin, make your jokes." The applicator found its way back onto the stand and Chrysalis turned a direct look to Discord. "I for one will stay focused on the goal."

"Don't keep me in the dark. Tell me what this brilliant plan of yours is."

"Simple," She took her eyes away from Discord and moved across the room, perhaps only to elongate the tension of her words on Discord's spastic mind. The wait, however, didn't last long as she began to unravel her plan to her partner. "Now that our charge's attention is fixed primarily away from you and I, we may now act on him without his knowing."

Processing that first part of the plan went quickly for Discord, and just as quickly he came to a problem. "That... doesn't even make sense. And I know a thing or two about not making sense... Most of the time that can work to my advantage, but in this case... Eh."

"What part of that made no sense to you?"

"How is his attention away from us?" Though Discord was the pure embodiment of chaos and disharmony, he did know his way around a faulty plan.

"Seeing as our entailed visits on him have been met for this day, he will believe that we won't see him until dinner, which I have already put my best Changeling chef on."

"Changeling cuisine again?" Discord let out an overly-dramatic gag at the idea.

"Pipsqueak adores it! It's what a growing—" A deep burn stretched under Chrysalis' face as she brought herself back and cleared her throat. "...If you don't want it, you have your own means to eat. Either way, let’s get back to the plan at hoof. Now that he won't expect our arrival throughout his day, we can work our way into his life."

A normal creature would've told Chrysalis to drop the cryptic code awhile back, but Discord was far from normal. Instead, he stroked his muzzle in thought. "Uh-huh... I gotcha'... Not really, but I gotcha'."

"Think Discord. I know that's a bit of a stretch for you, but think with me. If he isn't expecting us, and we couple that with his more naive accepting ways..." she left it at that for a moment, wanting her partner to pick up on it. Seeing that he couldn't, or more likely wouldn't, she continued her own thought, "...If we put those two together, it will be easy to plant our seeds from the inside."

"Let's ignore your poor, poor, poor choice of words there and instead fix in on the idea." Chrysalis rolled her eyes annoyed, but Discord went on, "How exactly are we going to plant these 'seeds'? Oh, but how?" Discord could tell right away that Chrysalis wasn't at all pleased with the playfulness he was displaying. "How can a shapeshifter and a creature of omnipotent power get into a young colt's life?"

They both knew the correct answer, but Discord wouldn't be Discord if he just went along with the train of thought. At this point, Chrysalis had had enough and stomped a hoof against the ground, igniting a small plume of green fire under it. "We take the forms of new faces to Ponyville and infiltrate his cliqué, or posse, or whatever it is that these foals have nowadays."

"Oh!" Chrysalis could tell that Discord was pretending, and it made her face boil with rage. "I get it! Clever! Clever! Always so, so clever!" Discord applauded excitedly and moved closer to Chrysalis.

"Yes... I am... But this leads us to an important step," Once more Chrysalis stepped around Discord and moved back to her mirror, looking herself over intently. "...What to disguise ourselves as?"

"Ah... The Changeling question of the lifetime."

"It's more so Changeling Law number five... But I digress." Chrysalis knew the idea would be lost on Discord, so she would simply drop the idea as a whole. "Simplicity will be our ally... I was thinking—" But before Chrysalis could finish her spoken thought, she saw a flash in the reflection of her mirror and quickly looked behind to see what happened.

Much to the queen's displeasure, Discord had changed his appearance to that of floppy eared, small, brown dog, still sporting his yellow eyes. "...No?"

"This mission will require speech... I would think a talking dog could raise a few suspicions..." Chrysalis half humoured him as she watched another flash occur, this time replacing the dachshund Discord with a Pegasus of grey coat, goofy teeth, and a cutie mark that resembled a cracked dish. "... Pegasus doesn't work as your cover."

"Oh? And what did you have tucked away as your master masquerade?" Discord's voice was brought up a few octaves to match his more teen-esque body.

Chrysalis responded by throwing her head up as a green fire enveloped her body, much like all Changelings would do if they transformed. When the fire fizzled away, it revealed a pitch-black mare with magnificent wings and a long horn dawned on her head. Chrysalis looked to Discord, expecting an amazed expression. Instead she met a bored one. "...Really? That's what you're going with? Seems a bit... Over the top."

"Very well..." Once more, the fires consumed Chrysalis as she felt her own face grow hot in embarrassment. This time, when the fires sank back into the floor, they revealed a teenage unicorn with a black coat, long, flat green mane, and a cutie mark of a broken heart. "Better?"

"Depends..." Discord snapped his fingers again and—yet again—changed shape in the flash. When Discord reappeared, his form was that of a gray-brown goat with twisted horns, still having his eyes the same shade of yellow and red. "...Does this look better?"

Indeed, this shape did match more presciently to Chrysalis' grand design, but she only sighed at him. "It will do... Now we need to think of aliases. I was thinking—"

"I'm gonna have to cut you off right there, Queeny. It'll be a lot more fun if we think of our names on the fly." Discord reasoned, a crooked smile on his goat face.

"Why should we put it off when we could do it—?"

"You're making sense of this! I can't work under these conditions!" Discord, with a blink of his eyes, disappeared in a quick, blinding flash, leaving the reformed Chrysalis alone.

She stomped her newly made hoof against the floor and gave a sharp huff. "No patience... He must always try mine..." As sporadic as Discord was, Chrysalis was all too aware that he would've only flashed himself ahead of her.

Not wanting to tarry any longer behind him in fear of how he could mess up the plan so early in its execution, she sprouted her disfigured wings out from her young pony body and sprang out of the balcony. With a few flaps of her wings, she was off into the noon air, seeing Changelings look to her with their wide, blue eyes and soundlessly wish their queen a pleasant flight. She gave her subjects a nod, letting them know she would soon return and for them not to follow. While setting her path towards her target, she made a mental note that once she was on the skirt of it, she would have to land and put her wings away. For once she entered that area, she would be in enemy territory.
Ponyville: Home of the Enemy...






Ponyville: Home of the Adventure. Or more so home of where the adventure starts. The bazaar-style shopping, the helpful information passing travelers can share, the fair position in relativly nowhere; Pip was at home. As a young colt, he didn't fully understand just what this town could offer him. But now, trotting down the busying streets of the shopping district of Ponyville, scarf flowing to the wind, he finally understood.

"Afternoon, ma'am!" Pip bowed his head after he gave a little slowdown as he saw old Granny Smith at her usual stand.

Granny Smith gave a slight smile and  a weak toss to Pip, sending a nice red apple his way. Pip caught the apple in his mouth and bowed his thanks before taking off once more. No pony or even a stand went by without Pip giving a hello, just like every day before one of his excursions. If any part of Ponyville knew Pip at a glance, it would've been the shopping district.

Running his mental checklist through his mind, his eyes fixed onto one point without his knowing. Silver, tied back mane, glamorous grey coat, and that pearl necklace. Pip smiled widely and changed his path and speed, slowly sneaking up behind his newfound target. His target was facing away from him, clearly looking over a new pile of gems stacked neatly on the display table of the shop. Even though he couldn't see her face, he knew who it was, and more importantly, that she wouldn't see him coming.

Deep breath in, and... "Top of the noon to ya' S.S.!" he almost yelled as he stood directly behind the young mare.

CRASH! The display table flipped over as the mare threw her front hooves up with a sharp scream. Sure enough, Pip saw his final proof be thrown up into the sky as well. The familiar blue-framed glasses that were just on the mare's face. Never one to miss a step, Pip kicked back a bit and caught the glasses on his own nose, balancing it perfectly. The cheerful colt tried to hold in a laugh as he watched his scare victim clamber to her hooves. Once the mare got to her hooves, not even taking a moment to say a breath of sorry to the shop owner for the mess she made, she shot a death glare behind her to the stallion.

But, the glare died in a moment as her jaw instead dropped a bit. Pip on the other hand smiled mischievously and bucked the glasses from off his muzzle to catch it on one of his hooves at the ready. "Sorry 'bout that. Didn't mean ta' fright ya' too much," Pip offered the glasses back while also looking past the mare and to the shop owner. "I'll be 'appy ta' pay for the damages."

The shop owner gave a half-hearted sigh and just gave a brush of their hoof before going to the back, most likely to get a broom. Seeing that that crisis was averted, Pip returned his sights to the mare who quickly snatched her glasses back and had put them back on. "All forgiven?" Pip offered.

"...I'll let it go this time, Pipsqueak." Silver Spoon sighed as she tried to fix her hair with a free hoof.

"Tops! Glad ta' hear it. Just wanted ta' say my 'hello's' to ya'... So ‘hello', and see ya' around town." Pip nodded his head and took off once more, leaving Silver Spoon with a frazzled expression.

"Such a child..." she muttered to herself.

With a newfound huff, she stormed off in the opposite direction, completely oblivious that her glasses were on upside down.