Rarity, standing in front of a large empty display window, anxiously chewed on her bottom lip as she stared off down the street, looking for her missing employee.
“I do apologize,” the unicorn seamstress said to the annoyed mare beside her. “Sassy is normally a very punctual pony.”
Idly tapping a hoof, Miss Bygone, was a no nonsense pegasi well into her golden years. With her gray mane tied back into a tight bun, the shrewish mare viewed the world through a pair of silver framed spectacles and had the look of somepony who had just caught a strong whiff of flatulence perpetually locked on her face. She was also the building’s current owner.
“But I suppose we could get started without her,” Rarity added when the mare harrumphed and give her a displeased sideways glance.
As Miss Bygone turned to unlock the weathered door, which desperately needed to be repainted, Rarity privately wondered if all landlords were such difficult ponies or just the ones she had the pleasure of dealing with.
“Well, come on in,” the elderly pegasus said, waving a wing in the direction of the open portal before traipsing inside, “I ain’t getting any younger.”
Biting back a quip, Rarity cast one last glance down the street for Sassy and then entered the building.
“It’s a little hard to see in here darling,” commented Rarity, looking ahead at the pegasus. “Is there a light switch?”
“On the wall by the door,” answered Miss Bygone, stopping in the center of the room and showing no indication of moving let alone turning the lights on.
Rarity fought back the urge to roll her eyes at the old mare’s attitude and used her magic to flick up the switch; but the bulbs must have been very old and only provided a merger amount of illumination.
“Oh dear, it seems your bulbs are dim,” Rarity noted, receiving a suspicious glance from Miss Bygone.
Small puffs of dust kicked up in the unicorn’s wake with each step she took across the room; and, only after creating a furrow with her hoof in the debris, could Rarity see the lightly colored maple wood flooring hidden beneath the layers of grime. Some youths must have broken inside at one time or another because most of the walls had been covered in graffiti. Surprisingly, the ceiling and floor had been spared and none of it appeared to be vulgar.
“It seems some vandals have made their way in at some point,” Rarity said as she inspected the peeling wallpaper.
“No, it’s always looked like that,” snorted Miss Bygone.
“Really?” The unicorn quirked her eyebrows. “How long did you say the store’s been unoccupied again?”
“It’s been vacant for about eight years now,” answered the pegasi.
“May I enquire why you’ve waited so long to sell it?” ask Rarity.
“Taxes,” scoffed the pegasus. “My aunt left the place to me but since I have no use for it, it doesn’t make sense to keep paying the taxes for it.”
“Oh, well, I’m terribly sorry about your aunt's passing,” Rarity said sympathetically, moving across the room to check out a cluttered display case made of wood and glass.
“I ain’t,” said Miss Bygone as if they were talking about the weather. “She was a real delinquent and her loose morals was a stain on the family name. Probity left me the place just to roil up my blood one last time.”
Taken slightly aback, Rarity couldn’t help but turn to look at the senior with surprise at her lack of compassion for her relative.
“I know it’s none of my business, but what could she have done that was so uncouth?” the unicorn asked as she perused a few scattered pieces of paper on top of the display case.
“She was one of them ‘punks’,” complained Miss Bygone, “had her mane all spiked up and everything. Wearing a leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders and had her body pierced in all kinds of places. Completely disrespectful and distasteful.”
While the old mare continued her diatribe, Rarity cleared the dust from the papers in front of her, revealing them to be old photographs and concert fliers. One picture in particular caught her eye and the fashionista couldn’t help but smile at the grinning pink pegasus mare in it. With a tall black mohawk and her forelegs playfully draped around the necks of a laughing griffon and a zebra, the memento was a beautiful testament to the life of a unique individual.
“Oh now what in Equestria is going on?” snapped Miss Bygone, stomping over to the display window.
Rarity pivoted her attention to the sight of a frightened herd of ponies running past the store. A few within the stampeding crowd noticed the old pegasus watching from the window and must have assumed the previously closed store was now open. They quickly scrambled inside to take refuge despite Miss Bygones angry protests.
“What do you hooligans think you’re doing!?” Miss Bygone demanded to know.
“The changelings are attacking!” a mare cried out, pointing a hoof back toward the way she came in.
“Changelings?” Rarity balked, peering outside and searching the area.
“Yeah, long blue mane, crooked horn, holes in her hooves,” a stallion elaborated.
“She tossed around a couple of foals and flew off,” explained the mare, “now there’s another one shooting magic and flying all over the place!”
“Long blue mane and a crooked horn?” questioned Rarity, “You don’t mean Chrysalis do you?”
“No, she’s really tall right? This one was way shorter,” said the stallion, lifting his front hoof up to the bottom of his barrel. “About this high as far as I could tell.”
“Well I don’t see no buggy changelings zipping about, so get,” barked Miss Bygone, trying to shoo away the newcomers.
Rarity let out a gasp as a dark shape streaked across the sky, followed by a squad of pegasi dressed in police uniforms. A second later the unicorn put a hoof up to her mouth, having a sudden realization that the absence of Sassy Saddles’ and the appearance of changelings could very well be related.
“Miss Bygone, I am sorry to so rudely cut our meeting short like this,” Rarity said as she rushed out the door, “but I need to try and locate my missing friend!”
It had taken some coaxing, but eventually Pupa explained what had frightened her so immensely; or at least she tried to. Expressing the nuances of her experience was plainly difficult for the nymph and she acted rather self-conscious as she revealed the ‘vision’ she had. The queen listened patiently the entire time, while showing no outward signs of judgement, as her daughter described strange creatures that walked on their rear legs and the environment they dwelt in; and only spoke once the nymph had finished.
For her own part, Bristletail stayed out of the way, standing by the sheds single window and periodically checking on the outside world through a hole in the curtain. Occasionally she would peek over at the royal changelings, feeling slightly awkward as she unintentionally eavesdropped on the fantastical tale the young queen chronicled.
“Have you had any other vision before?” Chrysalis asked even though she already believed to know the answer.
“Yes,” Pupa quietly admitted, her eyes focused on her front hooves as she nervously rubbed her frogs together, “but they weren’t like that one…”
“Could you tell me about one?” the queen requested.
Pupa paused for several heartbeats before nodding and going into a subdued retelling of her encounter with the ferrets while at the princess of friendship’s school. Apparently the sight and scent of the weasel-kin had triggered a vision; and that vision also seemed to impart knowledge of the little beasts upon her as well.
“I’m sorry,” Pupa whispered once she finished.
“Sorry for what?” Chrysalis asked.
“For being... all messed up…” sniffed the nymph.
“You are not ‘all messed up’,” said the queen angrily, causing her daughter to peek up, “and don’t even say something like that again. Understand?”
The nymph started to lower her gaze again but the queen cupped a hoof under her chin and tilted her head back up.
“Pupa, you are a changeling queen,” Chrysalis said, putting power behind her voice, “and as a future ruler you need to be strong. You can’t let some, visions, make you feel inadequate.”
“Do you know why I’m having them?” Pupa softly asked.
“I’m not sure,” Chrysalis conceded after a long pause, “but we’re going to figure it out.”
Because she's an interloper in an interlopers world! 😅
oh boi hello rariety she ain't gonna be happy about her hire being snacked on and bit but at least she wasn't cocooned just left alone in an ally a dark one. alone. whoops.
it's gonna be crazy how they gonna act I bet there gonna be spells tossed and you're a changeling type of mass hysteria going about I wonder if pupa will get another vision?
if there is a zoo still to visit if this is a few day's trip I bet if pupa went to the zoo she so would of pick a lock for an animal encloser to bust them out if she felt there was injustice or to hold the amazing friends and bugs!
the first chance for sure after all this pupa gonna talk with the brave soldier afterward do a lil fussing and maybe even tell Bristletail some of her visions if asked I hope their lil facts to test with the others could be fun bonding with her mother to figure out these "visions" and the knowledge she gets from them old life obviously is passionate about animals and bugs along with their care and there might be other surprises!
Chrysalis has a human mind at her hoove tips!
Weapon technology, all day common invention, many approaches to magic noone ever dared to think about and most importantly...
SPACE AGE TRAVELING IS POSSIBLE
11518977
Changeling Space Program is a good fun story, I recommend it.
11519083
I love the Mars adventure sequel the most ♡
11518977
Unless the human was some form of scientist or a real engineer (a simple mechanic level competency won't cut it) there is little that can be brought over. Guns? Can you operate one? Probably. Do you understand how one is built? Maybe... at a stretch; even then you probably have zero clue as to what makes up the blast powder. Do you understand the physics required for the entire operation? Nope! You likely know the physics of a bullet better than the construction.
Even if Chrysalis wanted guns it will be years (or decades) of trial and error before a working (by which i mean safe for user) prototype can be used in the field. Even then it is likely to look like a musket.
And we haven't even started on the process of scaling up to make enough for even a firing squad. Which is all a moot point as Equestria has already demonstrated the technology required way back in season 1. There might be a good reason guns never took off.
11519171
All good points. Still there is still a lot non military they could use.
Knowing something works is already a lot worth.
- Radio communications. (Yes it takes a lot of research, but knowing it can be made is worth a ton)
- Cars running on water and oil. ( not very well but 30khp for hours seem worth the effort)
- Perhaps making a mint with entertainment?
Yu-Gi-Oh type of card games, Nerf-Guns, Water pistols, Toys of all kinds...
I loved Cardgames and Nerf-Guns/Swords the most.
11519179
Indeed. Even economic space flight is viable. By sitting a launch pad on clouds as high up as cloud engineering can go drastically changes the energy required and the shapes they come in.
With magical enchanting you can even use materials that would be impossible otherwise.
11518977
Just a recommendation if you want to see Changelings in space. The Changeling Space Program. I think is a must read story.
Granted it's Kerbal style space flight not human style. Kerbal physics are much more forgiving then Earth physics.
11519171
I feel like Equestria already has a lot of the technology necessary for weapons, they just aren't developed because there's no need or demand for them like in our world.
Other then the potassium nitrate black powder has really simple ingredients. Though I don't know if it can be obtained in Equestria in the same way humans have historically made it.
11519193
The Changeling Space program story has quite a few comments from me already
I wonder if we might get a Subnautica themed story like this. I made one myself even if my rating tanked after i give a human protagonists of Subnautica apperently a to harsh background story
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Instead of rocket fuel maybe a rail gun rocket system to space? I could imagen everycreature ping pong between Lunas Moon on a moon base and their planet.
The adventure would be glorious:
Just imagen Pupa as Cosmonaut ♡ 👍
I wonder if we will finally find out why our main character was lobotimized. As much as I like Pupa she I want the main character back.
I wonder if chrysalis will use the tree-to-person spell uniquely to understand the visions just with less dark magic and more custom!
it would be a tree familiar since it needs pupa hair but the picture is not hard since her mum saw that colt form and the cutie mark might be missing but it works without maybe blood the key for a deeper connection?
or maybe the mirror pool could help chrysalis knows a lot of magic and items both fair and foul it's all good tools for her and her daughter's sake!
11519415
Did we ever learn anything about the original human? There couldn't have been much room for him in a larva's brain.
11521944
If the larva's brain was a consideration we would not of gotten such a 'functional' human that we had. I recommend rereading the start. He might not of given us a backstory but the character I read was intelligent and thoughtful. Pupa feels like a downgrade. It's not but it feels that way as the character I was invested in was replaced by her.
*Sigh*
I know this is more of a Chrysalis story than a HiE story but I know what part keeps bringing me back. What was new and inventive about the HiE formula has been put on the back burner. Been that way since she got out of the cocoon.
Finally someone else knows.
Wonder what Chrysalis is thinking?
Maybe she eventually blames Discord for it?
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There is a story playing with this concept, it is a interesting Fimfiction story in the making.