Her very first thought, upon awakening, is that she’s in an unfamiliar bed.
She opens her eyes, instantly notes the bright yellow color of her unruly hair, and finds herself suddenly thankful that she’d never shapeshifted it into a better-behaved state. Had she done so, she wouldn’t have known nearly so quickly that her disguise had held through her unconsciousness. Though…
She sucks in a deep breath. She’s completely full- but she feels some kind of barrier, keeping her from absorbing more. Exactly what she’s been trying to make for herself, but-
“You’re awake.”
She lets out a very high-pitched scream, practically flying out of bed and away from the voice. She doesn’t actually fly, though, so she promptly crashes to the floor next to the bed.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” The girl that had spoken, invisible behind the bed, sighs. “Whatever.”
She lies quietly, eyes wide, where she fell. She makes a quick glance down at herself; yes, she’s still wearing her robes, and still looks exactly like Morning Sun. Nothing suspicious.
“Ahh… Morning?” the girl continues. “You still awake, or did you knock yourself out again?”
“Um-!” she begins, scrambling to free herself from the blankets. Morning Sun doesn’t get trapped, ever.
“Okay.” The girl sounds relieved. “You okay over there?”
“Yeah!” she yelps. “Yeah, I’m fine, just…” With a little wave of magic, she shoves the blankets off of her, before she scrambles into a sitting position to look at the girl. “I’m-!” She freezes.
Of course, it’s another important person. Ginny Weasley, the Equestrian liaison, according to the newspaper she’d read last week.
Ginny blinks. “Uh… You okay?” For some reason, she’s holding a closed, unlabeled book in one hand, and her wand in the other.
She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and lets it out, before opening her eyes again. She can handle this. “I’m… I’m okay,” she mumbles, averting her eyes.
Her gaze then falls on a clock on the wall.
It’s just before noon- about two hours earlier than it had been when she’d ‘discovered’ Justin and Nick.
She decides to hazard it, and looks at Ginny. “What… What happened?” She almost blinks, and does stiffen, when she realizes that Ginny is one of the ones with crazy love output, but she isn’t feeling it. Not in any overwhelming way, at any rate- and it’s not blinding her empathy sense, either.
“Well,” Ginny mutters uncertainly, pocketing her wand and moving the book to her lap. “How much do you remember?”
She winces, flinching away from the girl. What can she tell? What can’t she tell? What will-
“Nevermind,” Ginny states suddenly, shaking her head. “Pretend I never asked that. Um, you remember finding Justin and Nicholas, right?”
She forces herself to nod. Her head moves very jerkily, but that’s about the most she can do right now.
Ginny shrugs. “Well, once everyone else started arriving on the scene and investigating…” She flinches. “I was… out of action, at the time, but Harry tells me you hyperventilated and passed out. Then wouldn’t wake back up again, so he took you here, to the Hospital Wing- where nobody’s been able to get you to wake up.”
“H-How… How long?” she stutters, inwardly terrified.
Ginny scowls, and rubs her chin. “That was about… Two weeks ago, I think.”
She gasps. Two weeks? That’d be way long enough for her to die from love overload at this place! Yet, if she’s alive now- especially with that odd block that feels like it’s not there- her secret is almost certainly out, even if she somehow maintained her disguise throughout.
Ginny’s not done talking, though. “Madam Pomfrey apparently had a lot of trouble, the first few days, with getting your magic to behave- kept going overboard, I hear. Like, dangerous buildups inside your body type thing… It got to the point where she regularly drained it out, dumping it into the atmosphere- but as near as anyone could tell, there was no reason for you to be out cold.” She shrugs. “So she had Doctor Horse come help. He apparently found a couple more oddities in your magic, but nothing that should have kept you asleep.
“After that, they came to us.” She grins. “You know, even Lyra couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Silver tried, but even with her talent, she couldn’t do it. After that… Well, I technically wasn’t supposed to come, but Madam Pomfrey let me in. And Ariel… Well, apparently even Lyra can’t see magic nearly as well as Ariel can.” She shudders. “She tells me your magic looked to be so badly damaged she was surprised you were even still alive at all, let alone coherent, before you passed out earlier. And even now…”
“D-Damaged?” she asks.
Ginny nods. “Yeah. She’s… not exactly an expert, but she’s had a chance to see quite a few magic matrices of various sorts… and yours looked like somebody had taken one of those to the chopping block with a blunt knife many, many times.” She shudders. “One of those damages took your magic resistance right down to zero, though, so I thought I could do some repairs with the Whiskey Tango. Got permission, took it up here, used it… and you woke up, like, two seconds later.” She looks up. “Do you know what happened to get your magic… like that?” She gestures at the bed.
She doesn’t move. Two emotions are battling with each other in her head. One, relief- it would seem that she hasn’t actually been ousted as a changeling. The other, fear. She’s most definitely been noticed to be unique. Even Lyra, in whose backyard the Gate is located, had looked at her!
Oh, and worry. What exactly is this ‘whiskey tango’- sounds like some kind of alcohol dance- and what exactly did it do to her?
She shakes her head weakly. At this point, she has no idea what to do. Her Queen would be sorely disappointed that she put herself in this situation… Though, if ever she does get back to the Hive, her Queen would no doubt love to hear not only about Hogwarts… but also about just how dangerous it seems to be to hyperventilate here.
If only she could get back to her Queen at all. At this rate, she rather doubts she’ll ever see her Queen again- or, even, summer.
“Ahh…” Ginny sighs. “Well, since you’re up, Madam Pomfrey will probably want to look you over at least once more- and I need to go put the Whiskey Tango away anyways. It’s a bit too dangerous to carry around unnecessarily.” As she speaks, she puts the book into her bookbag and rises to her feet. She then gives her a small nod, and turns to leave the room.
She lets out a relieved sigh. The scrutiny of the liaison has ended.
Then she blinks, and looks to her left.
There’s Madam Pomfrey, waiting patiently, though with a confusing expression.
“Uhh…” She begins. The school matron isn’t on her list of people to avoid like her life depends on it, but she also doesn’t want to interact with her any more than she has to.
After all, the main reason she isn’t on that avoid list is because she’ll only ever meet if she does something that would take her up here. And if she does, it’s unavoidable.
“Hi?” she finishes.
Madam Pomfrey sighs. “Any funny feelings? Everything in its proper place?”
“Er…” She blinks. Why is she asking that? Maybe it has something to do with how Madam Pomfrey is holding her wand rather casually by her side. Had she already done all the scans she wanted to? “Yes?” she guesses. “I mean… I feel fine?”
She raises an eyebrow. “You seem a lot calmer, since Weasley left,” she observes.
She winces. “Ahh…” She rubs the side of her head, racking her brain for a plausible explanation. “I… I do that?”
Madam Pomfrey’s scowl tells her instantly that wouldn’t do.
“Er…” She looks away.
“Whatever,” Madam Pomfrey scowls. “You’re physically fine, so if you’re feeling fine as well, you can go. Just don’t hyperventilate on us again, alright dear? That Whiskey Tango only works once.”
She blinks, hardly believing her luck. Isn’t Madam Pomfrey normally obsessed with her patients? “Ahh… Got it,” she states, and starts for the exit.
“Oh, and before it surprises you,” Madam Pomfrey announces, drawing her attention again. “Most of the school went home for the winter holidays three days ago. They can probably get you back to Equestria separately, if you want to go too.”
She blinks. “Ahh… Thanks, but I think I’ll stay here for the holidays.” It should be easier to avoid detection amongst a few wizards that- apparently- know nothing of changelings, than in a no-doubt overpopulated Equestrian town, where everypony is almost intimately familiar with her kind.
Besides, she doesn’t want to single herself out any more than absolutely necessary- and going to Equestria separately sounds like an excellent way to single herself out.
Morning Sun hasn’t gone two steps when a sudden cough- and corresponding spike on her empathy sense- catches her attention. She whirls around to face the cough- and Madam Pomfrey traces it as well, before charging forwards.
“Ugh…” The girl that had coughed grumbles, sitting up in her bed. “That hurt. A lot. Um…” She looks around, blinking confusedly. “... What happened?”
Then it hits her. That’s one of the people that had been attacked!
Madam Pomfrey reaches her bed. “You’re awake,” she greets.
The girl- Morning can’t see her nametag- looks at Madam Pomfrey. “What happened? Was I…?”
She nods. “Petrified.” She scowls. “Must say, though, we didn’t expect anyone to recover on their own…”
The girl shrugs. “Huh… ‘Spose it might be related to how I saw it. Might also be an Equestrian thing, but Tree Hugger doesn’t look to be recovering. Um…” She looks up. “Can I help you, Morning?”
Morning only stares, paralyzed by fear and shock. This girl either already knew her… or had been able to read her nametag from across the room. And, even, had named the first girl that was attacked- and said she doesn’t look to be recovering- without even glancing.
The girl shrugs, before flopping back down on the mattress. “Whatever. Um… Where’s Lyra? I wanna say she can speed my recovery with her ‘reset magic’ wildcard. It feels like that kind of thing.”
“You… saw the attacker?” Madam Pomfrey asks.
She nods. “Yeah… it was swimming through pipes at the time, but I saw it. It was…” She raises one hand into the air in front of her- and an image appears, floating in the air. An illusion spell. “Donno what it’s called, but it’s some kind of giant snake.”
Morning recognizes the image from some of the research she’d done early in the year, back when she’d been searching for any possible clue as to what the wizards would think of what she really is. Their Being vs Beast debate had been very interesting… and this thing is very definitely on the Beast side of the equation. “Basilisk.” The word found its way out of her mouth without prompting.
The girl on the bed rises again. “What was that?”
Madam Pomfrey also turns to her, raising an eyebrow.
Great. Now she’s attracted their attention again. At least she doesn’t recognize the girl on the bed at all, so she’s probably not anywhere near her avoid list. “T-That’s a Basilisk,” she stutters. “I f-found it when I was b-browsing the lib-brary…”
The girl nods. “And it would seem you don’t work well under pressure, too. Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you. You know any more about it, or should I send Index Eye after it?”
“Uhh…” She looks away, trying to remember. “N-No.” She hadn’t been all that interested in it, beyond what it looked like and what wizards did to it. She knows it’s rare enough that she hadn’t been able to find anything.
The girl winces, then her hand comes up to the black thing clipped to the front of her robes. “Index Eye.”
Madam Pomfrey watches expectantly. Morning, seeing this, also waits, intrigued. Is it possible she should be avoiding anyone with one of those black things as well, not just the important figures and the Guards?
Ten seconds pass silently, before the girl goes for the black thing again. “Index Eye, do you copy?”
“We are in the middle of the winter holidays,” Madam Pomfrey scowls.
The girl winces. “Then she’s probably gone home, and may or may not be wearing her radio. Well-!” She freezes suddenly, then smiles… and, eventually, goes for it again. “It’s Hidden Light. Can you reunite Index Eye with her radio- and have her look up basilisks?” Pause. “Thanks.” She looks up, hand dropping from it. “Turns out she didn’t go home, but everybody else did, so she’s not wearing her radio. Got lucky, though, because Quick Skill is not only wearing her radio but near Index Eye.” She shrugs. “I wasn’t aware we had a third local recruit… but I guess stuff happens when you’re petrified for, what, a month?” She looks up at Madam Pomfrey, who nods.
“Right about, yeah.”
Now the only question is, which of these colour schemes did she get?
https://derpibooru.org/1514271
Did Ginny fix love hunger curse of the changelings by accident?
The effect of the Basilisk worked even through sensing of its form through fully visually obscuring materials between, as long as the eyes are directly sensed, or because it can project its petrifying attack?
Only a couple Agents in School, but are they there for the whole holiday, or on a week or so rotation to spread the needs between operatives?
9977741
I don't think that's what happened, otherwise Morning would have felt full, not like there was a block inside her. And anyway, the love hunger reversal has to come from inside the changeling, remember? That's why Pharynx didn't change even though Thorax was trying to convince him. Because he didn't want to.
9977768
Viewing a basilisk's eyes through a separate medium, like glass or a ghost is canonically enough to reduce the killing gaze to a petrifying one. Why wouldn't it be reduced further if you increase the number of mediums the viewer is looking through (stone and metal in this case).
Poor little bug. Yes, being noticed by authority figures is bad, but being visibly terrified of being noticed by authority figures is ALSO bad, especially given how many of them are puzzle solvers. It's a tough line you're forced to walk given how afraid of being found out you are (justifiable or not).
9977680
An Original changeling. The reformation is never canon to my stories, as I rather like the challenges they face without that. As such,
9977774
No, I don't do reformation... ever. In my opinion, the reformation wipes out the very core of their culture- and I can't see them ever accepting it that easily... so it doesn't happen. Besides, if I wipe their love hunger, what does it get replaced by? After all, by popular fanon, they actually live and grow by eating love, not by eating food. I'm a... little different.
9977741
Um... Kinda. It's still there, just... different. Different in a way that poor little Morning Sun doesn't understand... Don't worry, it won't jeopardize her. It's mostly just another way to sate it, after all...
9977768
No, the Agents aren't on rotation- they all went home with the rest of the Equestrians, nobody's sticking around. They don't want to be vulnerable to attack... and probably recommended all the remaining students also go home for the holidays. Harry chose to stay because he's indestructible, the Weasleys (including Ginny) because their parents are visiting I-forget-which-brother in Albania (the canon reason)... Silver because she doesn't want to go home to her dad, and Hermione... I don't remember what her parents are up to in canon, as her excuse for not leaving. Oh, and Ariel stayed too, because Ginny isn't going home.
9977779
Remember, Hidden Light's Cutie Mark Talent is this ambient, invisible light she can shine wherever around her (She used it in the Philosopher's Stone sequence, early in the story- no shadows cast), including behind walls... and she can see anything it shines upon. So, she didn't see it in a reflection or through a ghost, or through stone and metal... but through her own magic. As such, it had the same effect as if she'd seen it through a mirror- except for one difference: The petrification isn't instant... and the instant she lost consciousness, the spell collapsed and she no longer saw it. Which cut the effect off midway... meant she was still vulnerable to its deadly gaze, had it come to finish the job, but it also meant she hadn't been pushed beyond the brink of self-recovery... quite. It still took her a month to wake up, though...
9977820
Yeah... She's incredibly lucky on that front. Especially seeing as how she didn't realize the ones with radios are 'important figures'...
If I had to guess, the damaged matrix is either caused by, or what allows, a changeling’s shapeshifting. So I’m a bit curious to see: is the reason she’s still in that form because she’s locked into it, and why her love sense is blocked off because she doesn’t have it anymore?
So... The poor changeling is still a changeling? After all who knows what the Papa Tango can do to a non-pony? It could try to 'reset' but as it's not a pony could think that it should be a pony so to do the work, it turn into a pony
It's good that for now there are only ponies and a changeling, I wonder when the minotaurs, Griffons, Seaponies (Are they like ponies, or because they don't live in Equestria they did not come?) and other races do in Hogwarts
9977847
About what you say to Spice... I think you mean Romania, and is Charlie Weasley the second oldest brother that work in a dragon reserve
9977879
Well, I will say that her magic wasn’t really damaged- just her (perfectly ordinary) Changeling magic looked damaged.
And everyone seems to be getting one thing wrong: Ginny applied the Whiskey Tango, the one that turns muggles to wizards, not the Papa Tango, that turns wizards to ponies. She wouldn’t be able to use the Papa Tango on her in the hospital wing, because that spell has a fixed location.
9977847
My headcannon is that only thoraxes hive and a couple of other individual changelings were "reformed" and not the whole species.
9977934
That is... entirely possible, yes. The part about Charlie and Romania, that is. It’s been a couple busy weeks since I listened to that part of the book last, and my focus wasn’t on details like that (I skipped most of the canon vacation sequence, for example, because I detest the Polyjuice incident that dominates it)
9978127
Ahh... My headcanon is that the reformation is physically impossible... because I dislike how it handily eliminates the main challenge of Changelingkind. It feels heavy-handed- much like any TG/TF that I make deliberately.
And I mean it. Draco wasn’t originally supposed to become transgender, it just, well, happened. Harry- my other trans-transformed- has ended up becoming what’s called “genderqueer”: Identifying as neither male nor female, but as both or neither.
9978135
You only need to read some bashing stories to learn enough about HP world to memorize it
Whiskey Tango kinda sounds bad, I just don't remember what it stands for.
9978418
looks on Discord server. Yeah, that came up... it’s apparently a “in polite company” way of saying “white trash”, particularly at a bar. I like Morning’s (non-unique) take on it being some kind of alcohol dance...
Go ahead and call it the “Wizard Transform”, if you like- that’s where “Whiskey Tango” came from in here, and so what it’s really called.
Now, what did it do to our resident love-sucker?
My brain went down a strange route... I remember that Dementors kind of suck out positive emotions out, almost killing wizards... and it might be damaging their magic, which is what changelings might actually be feeding on. It made me think Dementors are the Harry Potter equivalent of changelings, and now my brain is trying to think of a “reformed Dementor” look because reformed changelings
10186401
That's... a very interesting mental picture, definitely.