//------------------------------// // Field notes on Changeling Female Bonding // Story: Integration - Part Two of A Changeling's Story (Cancelled) // by CoAlFire //------------------------------// One would have hoped that with the presence of Canterlot royal guard in such numbers, the insanity plaguing Ponyville would have died down, but one would have been disappointed. The residents of Ponyville fought against the representation of their governance, and they fought hard. Whatever magic was deluding their minds was obviously deluding their judgment as well. Powerful mind-control magic was at play here, and Echo did not like it. Rebound had recovered from his beating and arrived at the library shortly after Echo. Twilight excused herself from the conversation to tend to his wounds, which actually were bleeding slightly. "Ow. Twilight, I'm okay, honestly." "No, you're not. You're bleeding, which means you're the opposite of okay." "It's a scratch." "A scratch? It's a laceration! You've been practically vivisected!" "Okay, not quite sure what that means, but I AM sure it's an exaggeration." Finally, though, Rebound decided that the best course of action would be to just sit back and let Twilight tend to the little wound. If it satiated her need to do something, who was he to stop her. The alcohol's pungent aroma wafted from his cheek to his nose, and he scrunched up a bit, yet something seemed sweet, somehow. "Twilight," he asked, "what's in that stuff?" "It's just isopropyl alcohol. Changelings aren't allergic to it or anything, are you?" "No, I don't think so, but something in it smells sweet... like peaches." "You're smelling something else." Twilight stated matter-of-factly. Rebound, however, knew that he wasn't imagining things. Eventually, it hit him, and without thinking he blurted out, "Twilight, you love me, don't you?" Twilight's eyes widened and she blushed, facing away. Echo's ears shot up and she whipped her head around. You've got to be kidding. Rebound? She thought quietly to herself as she watched the scene unfold. Moreover, in the middle of a serious situation, they're having a moment? She shook her head with a grunt and left the room, not feeling like being involved. "How long, Twilight?" "... hush, you're still hurt." "Twilight." "It's inappropriate anyway. We work together; I'm basically your manager." Rebound stopped himself from feeding as the energy poured out of her. "This is why you got so upset when I said I wasn't interested in romance, isn't it?" "Rebound, I do not know what you are talking about so please stop talking about it now let me help you with these wounds." A run-on sentence? She doesn't just love me, she's gone mad. After a few more minutes, Twilight was done. She packed up the medical supplies and tucked them away in a cabinet before turning back to Rebound. "Why don't you go see what Echo wants you to do?" "I think she made it very clear that she doesn't want me to do anything at all, Twi." "I... suppose she did, didn't she? Well... can you at least bring her back here so I can find out what she wants me to do?" "Yeah, sure." He turned, inhaled deeply, and shouted, "Echo! Get back here, Twilight wants to talk to you." There was no reply, just the sound of hoofsteps as Echo turned the corner. She glanced at Rebound and nodded. "I'm back. Also... I'm sorry I hit you so hard. I meant for it to hurt, not to harm you." Rebound nodded back in response, and Twilight started to speak, but Rebound decided he wasn't quite done. "You know what, Echo? No. Apology not accepted. I've done nothing but try to help and you've done nothing but assault me. I saved you AND Scootaloo from being killed, and what have you done? You've kicked me, you've smacked me, you nearly killed BOTH of us! Your ego is out of control... or maybe you've just lost your mind." "Rebound --" Twilight tried to intervene. "Twilight, stay out of this. Echo, I don't know what's wrong with you, but I've known you for longer than any of these ponies and I've done more for you, too. I've gone out of my way because -- for some stupid reason, maybe I'm a glutton for punishment -- I care about you. A lot." "Rebound, I know you --" Echo was cut off. "No. Shut up. I'm the one talking now. It's actually not quite accurate to say that I just care about you a lot. I love you, Echo. For some stupid reason, I love you. Yet you continually ignore me -- or ASSAULT me -- and brush me off like you don't want my help. Guess what, TOUGH. I'm going to help you and you're going to like it." "Rebound -- " "I said SHUT UP. I've put up with you mistreating me for so long, ignoring me, and for the next few minutes, you're going to pay attention." He trotted up to her, stopping a few inches in front of her face. She seemed shocked. "There's something special about you. I don't know what it is, but you've got a strength of spirit most changelings never have. Somehow, it's gotten to your head, and you think you're BETTER than us. You're not. You're spoiled because you've got good looks and friends in high places. Your bloody mother is the queen, Echo, and even if you didn't know it for most of your life, THAT'S how you always got such great luck. Stop acting like you're Chrysalis reincarnated. You aren't the Queen, even if you are her daughter." He sneered a bit before he whipped around and walked upstairs. "She's all yours, Twilight." The two mares left in the room sat on their haunches, mouths agape at what just happened. "He said he loved you," Twilight stammered. "Sounded like he meant to say hated." Echo finished. "We... have work to do, though, don't we?" "Y... yes, of course... I... uh. Wow. I was thinking that we would try some spellbreakers on Spike. Think you can grab him out of the closet?" "Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard. It's not a very big closet so he can't be very far in there." Echo chuckled to herself as she walked over to the door, flung it open, and grabbed the angry, flailing baby dragon by the scruff of his neck like a belligerent kitten. She dragged him, literally kicking and screaming, into the middle of the room. Twilight had set up a chair and tied the little dragon to it with a length of rope. "Spike," she said, "what's gotten into you?" "There's a changeling in the library, Twilight! Don't you see it, right there? How can you stay so calm?" "You knew Echo was a changeling before and you never did anything about it!" "It was some kind of mind-control... she's got you under it too! Changelings tried to take over Equestria! They're evil, Twilight." "Princess Luna used to be evil when she was Nightmare Moon." "She was still a pony though. Ponies can go back to being good, but changelings? They aren't ponies, Twilight." "Neither are you." "I was raised by a pony, though. I grew up as a pony. Dragons aren't evil like changelings!" "Okay. Well, let's see..." Twilight pulled over a book and flipped through the pages. "Let's try this one." She charged a spell to her horn and cast it over her assistant. He winced, and continued on about how evil changelings were. "Wow, that was the strongest spell I had to break mind-control." "Actually," Echo said, "I have an idea. If it is changeling mind-control, maybe it needs a changeling spell to turn it off?" Echo tapped her chin. "The only problem is that I never learned any of those spells; it was never my duty to infiltrate." "Maybe Rebound...?" "Ugh. I hate to admit it, but you're probably right." She sighed deeply and called upstairs, "Rebound? We need your help." "Well would you look at that. I thought you didn't need my help." He started down the stairs. "If you insist, though. What do you need?" "I need a changeling who knows a bit more about mind control than I do. Any way you can try to dispel whatever's affecting Spike?" The dragon squirmed. "No! Don't kill me! You're going to kill me!" "I'll give it a shot." He walked over to Spike and put a hoof on his forehead. Immediately, he stopped moving and his head lulled forward. "First things first. It's easier to work with a subject who's knocked out." His horn glowed, and a green aura surrounded Spike. "It's definitely mind control, but it's rooted pretty deep... I think I can get it, but it's going to take me some time to figure out." "How much time?" Twilight asked. "Ten minutes?" Rebound shrugged. "Maybe more. I don't really know for sure." "Well, it's all we've got." Echo sighed. Rebound grunted in acknowledgement. "So what do we do now?" Twilight asked. "Beats me," Echo sighed. "Why don't you go do some ... girl thing or another?" Rebound huffed as he worked on curing Spike's malaise. "Do each other's hooves or manes or some such thing." Twilight looked at Echo and shrugged. Echo gave her a stare in response. "I... guess?" Twilight finally said. "I think I have a book on that kind of thing somewhere. "Oh for the love of Chyrsalis, Twilight, you need a book to brush somepony's mane?" "I don't have a mane," Echo pointed out. "So give yourself one, you're a changeling." "What's the point?" "Well, I read a paper not to long ago that detailed the importance of mutual grooming in female-to-female bonding among ponies. Basically, doing each other's mane and hooves makes our bodies release endorphins, among other hormones, that stress a bond of friendship between the two of us. It's actually quite fascinating." "Among ponies. I'm not a pony." "You're right!" Twilight gasped. "I can write a paper on the effects of mutual grooming as a bonding mechanism between a changeling female and a pony female! This is a huge opportunity! You have to do this for me, Echo." Not giving Echo any time to retort one way or the other, Twilight grabbed her by the hoof and dragged her upstairs, leaving Rebound alone with Spike. "You and me, Spike. We're the only sane ones in this library, and you're knocked out under a mind-control spell. Also you're a baby. Also a dragon." He sighed. "Yep. Here I am, standing by myself, talking to myself. This is madness." ______ "Twilight, you're kidding me, right? In what world is this appropriate?" Echo struggled as Twilight grabbed her forehoof to paint it a bright shade of red. "In a world of profound scientific curiosity! The world must know, and I can tell it!" The machines that monitored both of them were clicking and whirring periodically, running tests on an automated schedule. "I don't want my hooves painted." "That's beside the point." "How long have we been at this?" "About twenty minutes." "Rebound?!" She called downstairs, "Are you done yet?" There was no reply. "Horseapples." "See? Now we can pass the time." "Why are we painting my hooves?! They're just going to get dirty." "Only if you go running around in dirt!" "Ponyville's streets are dirt, Twilight." "Ponyville's streets aren't safe for you right now anyway." There was no arguing with Twilight Sparkle when she got an idea in her head. Chrysalis was right. My sweet merciful stars, Mother was right about something. Echo groaned and rested her chin on her free hoof. Another ten minutes passed, and finally Twilight was done painting all four of Echo's hooves. "There," she said happily, "now let's take a look at the results..." She walked over to one of the machines and started to look over the readouts. "Fascinating! This isn't what the previous paper would have suggested." Twilight beamed up at Echo. "If I had to guess, this says you hated every minute of it!" "I could have told you that and saved us all that time." Echo waved her hoof in the air as if to try and get the paint off. Eventually she got up and walked downstairs. Her heart nearly stopped when she reached the bottom. Rebound was laying on the ground, and the chair was empty. The rope was in a coil on the ground. "Rebound!" She ran over next to him and shook him lightly. He didn't respond. "Twilight! Quick! It's Rebound! Spike is gone!" Twilight nearly flew down the stairs. "What happened?" "I don't know!" "He said he was going to take a nap," came a familiar voice from the kitchen, not too far away. Echo looked and saw Spike standing there with a glass of milk. "I kind of know how he feels." As if on cue, Rebound's prostrate body emitted a loud, almost earth-shattering snore. Echo rolled her eyes and let Rebound's head fall softly. "Spike? Is that you?" "Yeah, do you know any other baby dragons?" He laughed as he laid back on the couch. "You don't hate changelings anymore?" "Honestly? You scare the horseapples out of me, but I don't hate you. Never did. Why?" Twilight beamed at the unconscious changeling and hugged him. "You did it!"