Ditto.... it was a nice name in her opinion. It referred to the slang word 'ditto', which meant to agree. It made a bit of sense, but that wasn't why she liked it. She liked it because of the way it sounded; 'di' sounded wonderful in her voice. Her voice was like a snake's, beautiful but deadly. Of course, she herself was not beautiful, nor deadly.
She was a Changeling, a bug-like creature that resembles a pony, but barely. However, she wasn't quite a Changeling, either. All Changeling had horns; translucent, bug-like wings; holes in their hooves; and bright blue eyes. She had been born a mutant with purple eyes and no wings. She was not confident like her peers, so she was singled out as the worst Changeling in the swarm.
She had been bullied a lot as a child, and it was the worst childhood she could even imagine. It resulted in her being quiet and shy as an adult, and even unskilled as a Changeling. In fact, she was a horrible Changeling. She couldn't even transform into a pony right. No matter whom she changed into, her eyes were always the purple she had in her normal form.
She wasn't even supposed to survive. Every once in awhile, a Changeling is born a mutant. Either without wings, without a horn, or without the power to transform. These eventually died off, no matter how determined other members of the swarm were to save them. They had all expected her to die the moment she was born. But no, she had survived her whole life. Queen Chrysalis had even allowed her to come along in the invasion of Canterlot, the capital of Equestria.
Well, she thought as she flew through the air, I shouldn't have accepted. It was the worst mistake of my life.
The spell from two ponies, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, had tossed all Changelings far away from Canterlot. Of course, once they had found their thoughts, the Changeling were ordered to regroup back at home. They would just spread their wings and fly away.
Too bad she didn't have wings.
As she reflected on this, she flew through the air, watching her swarm-mates fly away. As she looked around, she realized how high she was. It was going to hurt when she landed, if she even survived the landing.
Calm down, Ditto. she told herself, Concentrate on the good things. Just keep calm.
Good things, good things.... being sure of something was a good thing... what was she sure of? She was sure her name was Ditto, she was sure she could still use magic, but what else?
Nope, she was out of time. She was getting closer and closer to the ground. It appeared she would crash into a tree. She tried to relax, hoping the impact would hurt less if she did so, and waited for the pain to come. Finally, she crashed hard into a branch of the tree, only slightly cushioned by leaves.
"OUCH!" she screeched as she crashed into it. She lay there, surrounded by leaves, for what seemed like hours, thinking. How would she get back to the swarm? She was already injured from the spell, and now she felt as though her hind legs were twisted- if not broken. How in the world was she going to crawl to safety?
Ditto opened her eyes and found the glowing sun shining down on her. She thought of Celestia, the pony her queen had overthrown. Was the sun glaring at her Celestia's way of mocking her pain, her agony? It's my punishment. She thought, My punishment for being involved.
Ditto knew she had to move, she had to leave, she had to get going, she had to find the swarm, but it was so relaxing just to lay here in this tree. The leaves were soft and smelled good, the sun was warm even if it was mocking her, and it seemed nopony could see her. She was safe and relaxed. More so than she ever had felt at the swarm.
There had always been the lingering feeling that she didn't belong in the swarm. So many things were wrong with her. She had no wings, little magical power, she bruised easily, she had purple eyes, wasn't skilled at transforming, and didn't like fighting. No other Changelings liked her, and the only one who had ever believed in her was Queen Chrysalis.
But what did she believe I could do? Ditto asked herself. I was nothing than her slave of war against ponies. We could feed off of Equestrians any day, but Queen Chrysalis wanted to overthrow pony civilization.
Suddenly, a creak interrupted Ditto's thoughts. The leaves shifted beneath her and there were more creaks. What was going on? She didn't have time to ponder it before she suddenly started falling and hit a wooden floor hard.
Looking around, she saw splinters of the broken ceiling. Evidently, this was a house built into the tree. This was actually quite convenient. It was cozy and it seemed empty.
"I can stay here until I'm well enough to travel!" Ditto croaked out loud. She was surprised at her own voice. It wasn't as beautiful and deadly as it had once been- it was raspy and broken by pain. This thought made her stand shakily and make her way slowly and painfully over to a mirror.
Wow, did she looked messed up or what? She was covered in long scars and scratches, her left hind hoof was twisted all the way around from the fall, and the right hind leg was snapped just below the knee. She found it hard to even move, so she was happy that there didn't seem to be any enemies waiting for her here.
She gazed around. She saw many books, so she supposed she was in a library. She had taken the form of a librarian once, and during that time she had found that her eyes weren't just differently colored than other changelings', she could read with them. This is strange, because in their normal form, changelings' eyes can't see the letters properly, making it too hard for them to read. However, Ditto's strange eyes allowed her to read no matter what form she was in. This wasn't of much use, as there were no books back at the hive. Why have books when most can't read?
She also noticed a bed a little farther up. Maybe somepony lived here. It didn't matter though, because she didn't have the strength to care. She gathered the last tiny bit of magic she had left and performed a simple transportation spell to get her up beside the bed. She crawled in and curled up to go to sleep. She might feel strong enough in the morning.
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