//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: A Changeling to Remember // by Blueheartpegasus //------------------------------// Ditto was absorbed in her book about Goldhoof the Magical again. The golden alicorn pulled herself out of the cloud on the other side. Who knew clouds were so hard to tunnel through? Now that she was out of the prison, she had to lay low. She flew below the cloud-prison until she found a safe cloud to land upon and think. "How in the world am I going to figure out who this traitor is?" she wondered. She growled with frustration and dug at the cloud with her hooves. "Something wrong?" Goldhoof jumped- she hadn't noticed the Pegasus fly up next to her. She turned to take in the stranger. She was a black mare with a black and silver streaked mane and tail, blue eyes, and a moon with two clouds on each side of it for a cutie mark. "I saw you were growling. Do you need help with something?" the Pegasus asked. "Er... No. I'm fine." Goldhoof said, flapping her wings to hover in the air, ready to take off. She didn't want this Pegasus going off and causing a lot of noise- the last thing she needed was somepony to notice her. She had just broken out of prison after all. "Oh...okay." The stranger extended a hoof. "I'm Moonbloom. And you are...?" "Gold....er...wing!" she said, shaking Moonbloom's hoof. "Actually, you can help me. Have you seen any shifty-looking Pegasi? You know, ponies acting unnatural?" Moonbloom thought about. "Nope, not that I can tell." "Oh.. okay. See you later." Goldhoof flapped her wings hard, flying away from the strange pony. "Ditto! Can you come here for a moment?" Twilight called from the floor below. Ditto dropped her book on the floor and stood, limping away from her bed to the door. She used magic to open it and made her way slowly down the stairs. What could Twilight want? "Ditto." Twilight said, collecting thing and throwing them into the bag on her back. "I'm going out for a bit, and Spike's busy over at Rarity's. You'll have to be here by yourself for a bit." "Really?" Ditto was surprised. "You trust me? Since when?" "You're not going anywhere." Twilight said kindly, glancing at her broken hind leg, which hadn't healed at all. "You're fine for just a few hours." "Oh.. okay, Twilight." Ditto turned to make her slow and painful way up the stairs again. About halfway up, she noticed Twilight watching her. After a second, Twilight's horn glowed with magic and Ditto was floating into the air. Twilight set her on the landing, then turned and left. The Changeling blinked. Was it just her, or had the Unicorn warmed up to her a bit since yesterday? Ditto continued to the bedroom and went on reading her book. It was half an hour before anything interesting happened. The Pegasus Race was about to start, and Goldhoof hadn't found the traitor! The pegasi would never eat again if they pulled another prank on the Earth Ponies! *Knock Knock* Ditto jumped to her hooves and winced as she accidentally hit her broken leg to the floor. She had to answer the door, but Twilight wasn't here, and it would be foolish to answer it as a Changeling! What to do? The Goldhoof book was at her hooves. It had flipped a few pages back, and she saw a picture of a black Pegasus with a silver and black streaked hair and a moon with clouds over it for a cutie mark. She gulped and closed her eyes. She concentrated on what Moonbloom looked like. There was a pop, and she opened her eyes. She quickly glanced in the mirror. Since she didn't have wings in her normal form, she couldn't be a Pegasus, so she had chosen to be an Earth Pony instead. Everything else was exactly right down to the last detail- excluding the dark purple eyes. And her leg was still broken. Ditto limped as fast as she could down the stairs. "I'm coming, just hold on a moment!" she called to whomever was knocking. After making her way down the stairs, she raced over to the door on three legs. She opened the door with her teeth and stepped back to see a gray Pegasus mare standing in the doorway. "Oh! Hello, I was expecting Twilight! I've never met you before and that means you don't know my name, and I don't know your name, and wow, your eyes look so cool! No whites!" The Pegasus whinnied quickly. She extended a hoof. "Hello, stranger, my name's Ditzy! Ditzy Doo!" "Um... hi, Ditzy Doo." Ditto said, surprised at the stranger. Ditzy was a gray Pegasus with blonde and slightly messy hair and a bubble cutie mark. "I'm Moonbloom. A friend of Twilight's. What did you need?" "Ummm.... Is Twilight in?" Ditzy asked, her yellow-blonde eyes crossing. "No, she left, that's why I answered the door." 'Moonbloom' said. "Oh, well, I needed to...um....." She paused for a moment, biting her lip, "Oh... yeah! I needed to return this muffin cookbook!" She reached into some bags fastened to her back and pulled out a book entitled, "Muffins! A Cookbook for Every Muffin-y Need!" "Um... Okay." Ditto grabbed the book in her mouth and limped over to the bookcase. She found where it belonged and slipped it in among the other volumes. "Oh! and I also brought some of the muffins I made with it as a thanks for Twilight!" Ditzy pulled out a tray of what appeared to be.... cookies made with muffin batter. "Yeah... they turned out kinda flat... but they're still tasty!" Ditzy trotted over and set the tray on the table. "Well, I'll see you around.... uh...." "Moonbloom." Ditto reminded her. "Yes! Moonbloom! See you!" and the strange Pegasus flew out the door, almost flying into the wall on the way. "That was...odd." Ditto said, shrinking to her normal self and using her magic to close the door. She went to limp up that stairs before a thought occurred to her. Nopony around here would have read Goldhoof the Magical, would they? And it had been so easy to transform into Moonbloom... She shouldn't. Anyway, she had a broken leg, it wouldn't be easy to walk around town. But the lure of the door was so strong. Maybe... maybe she would just go to the hospital and get tips on how to heal a broken leg! Or at least a cast. She transformed into Moonbloom again with a pop and limped towards the door. She opened it by taking the doorknob in her mouth and turning it. There she sat, on the threshold. She shouldn't, she really, really shouldn't... But she had to! She jumped out into the fresh air and spun on her healed hind leg in delight. It felt so wonderful to be outside again! She dropped down into a sitting position on the ground and watched the other ponies walking by, so happy to breath fresh air once more. Finally, she remembered why she had come out here. She limped over to a blue mare with an hourglass cutie mark. "Um... excuse me, miss....?" "Minuette." the mare said. "What do you need?" "Which way is the hospital?" "Oh... it's that way." Minuette said, pointing. She stared in curiosity after Ditto, who limped off. As Ditto made her way to the hospital, guilt poked in the back of her head. Twilight was finally starting to trust her, and now she was betraying her! Ahead, the hospital loomed. What would her excuse be? Maybe she should just duck in and asked how to heal a broken leg. But they would check her in for at least a week once they saw what bad condition she was in! Twilight would notice her absence and things would take a bad turn. Oh, why didn't she just stay inside? Ditto turned away from the hospital at the door, deciding to go home, when someone from inside called, "Miss? Did you need something?" Stupid transparent doors! "No, I um..." Ditto said quickly, her mind reeling to come up with an excuse. A pink pony with a red cross cutie mark was holding the door open with a hoof and giving her a questioning gaze. She saw the nurse glance at her eyes. Of course her eyes were strange; they were solid purple! "Your leg!" The nurse gasped. "Did you come here for help? Come inside." Ditto limped after her and said, "No, really, it's fine. I can't stay here. I have someplace to be." She kept rambling, but nopony was listening to her. "We'll need to check you in and set that leg. How long has it been broken?" the nurse asked, all business. "About a week and a half. But I can't stay-" "A week and a half!" the nurse gasped. "We have to get you into the hospital or that leg will never heal!" "STOP!" Ditto shouted, making the nurse stop in her tracks. "I told you, I can't stay. Do you have a book or something that tells how to heal a broken bone by yourself?" "I don't know. That leg may not heal correctly already." the nurse said. "Without medical help, it won't heal at all." "That's all I needed to know. Bye!" Ditto turned and raced away from the nurse as fast as she could on the broken leg. Once she reached the door, she noticed that the nurse was chasing her. "Miss! I insist that we heal that leg!" she called. "And I insist you let me mind my own business!" Ditto called back, racing away. Unfortunately, the nurse was catching up to her. How was she getting out of this one? Up ahead, she gasped as she saw Twilight clopping through town. Was she returning from wherever she had gone? Ditto had to get home before Twilight did, crazy nurse or not! Ditto was about to ask Twilight for help, pretending to be somepony else, but then realized something. Twilight would put two and two together. She looked an awful lot like a character in a book that Twilight knew Ditto had been reading, her eyes were solid purple, and she had a broken leg. Ditto swerved away from Twilight, heading toward a big forest. The nurse had almost caught up now, but Ditto stopped in her tracks. She leaned on her forelegs and, when the nurse had gotten close enough, kicked out with her good hind leg. She hit the nurse right in the face then limped off as fast as she could. The nurse no longer following, Ditto slipped into then Library and up to her bed. She transformed back into a Changeling, and below she could hear the door open and Twilight calling, "Ditto, I'm home!" The Changeling let out a sigh of relief as she picked up her book again. Spellchecker and Prof-reader:Glitchhunter5000 (The Reviser/Suggester)