When a changeling gets a bright idea

by Rarity Belle


Chapter 09

For a few precious and agonizing second had Rarity been boiling in both anger and confusion. She was still in the bubble bath after Fluttershy had left her in a manner only described as cruel. Yet it was so unlike the pegasus to come up with threats like that. In all the years that they have been friends, she had never even dared to think that the likes of Flutters could become the hardest hits. Naturally the mare cursed the day where she told the other mare her greatest secret of them all.

The hundreds of thoughts that rushed through her about the matter were all but kind. Even the thought of rushing after the pegasus and confronting her about the matter dawned to her. The mare rose up from the bath and nodded to herself. It was time to do something that she hadn’t done in a long, long time indeed. A growl left her mouth and Rarity left the bath as a whole. Her horn charged a little bit and a towel was wrapped around her body and mane.

The time had come for Fluttershy to see the damage that she had done with her words. Rarity was furious and wanted to see the yellow mare hurt to some extent. With powerful steps had she gone through the changing area and found her way to the reception, but along the way was there nothing of the other pony.

“So she gunned it with haste, didn’t she? Not that it matters too much, I will find you, Fluttershy, and I will make you pay for that. Because nopony insults neither me nor my family like that,” the unicorn growled to herself in hushed tones.

Behind the counter stood Lotus whom had kept an eye to Rarity. It was unlike the lady of fashion to act that way, that much was certain. “Are you, alright, miss Rarity?” the spa-pony asked. She was curious about what had ticked her off like that. It was unlike Rarity to throw a temper tantrum in the middle of the spa. She just hoped it wouldn’t affect the other clients.

Rarity shot her a glare that spoke more than enough and gritted her teeth. It wasn’t the time to answer any questions from stupid ponies. No, Rarity only wanted to see Fluttershy. “Where’s the pegasus, Lotus? Did she pass through here and when did she leave?”

“You mean Fluttershy, don’t you?” Lotus already began to see the gap that was made between them and slowly understood what had happened. She couldn’t say that she was happy or glad for it. She had to answer with honesty though, a furious unicorn wasn’t something to mess around with. Lotus valued her life and she knew what Rarity was capable off when angered.

The ivory unicorn nodded strong. She took a step closer to the earth pony, who gulped in response. “Yes, Lotus. I want to know, where Fluttershy has gone off to. We have unfinished business together and I gladly see it being finished today, rather than tomorrow.”

“S-She left, maybe a, a minute before you came barging in. T-Two minutes by now, probably.” The stammers in her voice usually told Rarity that she had crossed a line of some sort, but that time she didn’t care one bit. That time she was truly furious and wouldn’t back down until Fluttershy was in her hold.

The mare gave the earth pony a nod and undid the towels from her body. “Much appreciated, she’s probably off to her cottage than, telling her pets that a rampaging unicorn is heading her way.” A sneering huff was released by Rarity, who was truly and totally fed up with the pegasus. “But not even those pets of hers can save her from the coming storm...”

Lotus let out another gulp and didn’t even dare of standing in the unicorn’s way. The last thing that she wanted, was to become a target herself. “G-Good luck with that,” the mare said and cowered behind the counter, fearing the wrath of the unicorn.

Rarity would burst through the door and had a gander at the streets, they were empty of Fluttershy of course. The anger that flowed through her was still present and she took a powerful step, followed by another. Time and time again she would have done that. She was on her way to the cottage of the pegasus. She wanted the full on confrontation with her ‘friend’.

Yet when she closed the distance, there was something unexpected coming her way. Something that hopped through the street in front of her. A pink blob of energy and striking blue eyes that all came in her direction. It was the one thing Rarity hadn’t taken any account for. She didn’t knew how to react to it, what to do against it even.

Because ahead of her, hopping through the streets was Pinkie Pie, ready to almost tackle the unicorn. Agonizing seconds came by but the tackle never came. “Heya!” Pinkie said to Rarity in her usual, sharp tone. What then followed was a hug given to the unicorn. Rarity herself was both powerful and defenseless in the situation. Nopony would have escaped the grasp of Pinkie Pie once her sights had been set on. “How are you doing today?”

It was the one question that the unicorn dreaded more than anything else in the moment. Of course had she wanted to scam the earth pony off, but she didn’t have any quarrel with her, yet. “Let’s just say that I’ve been better,” the lady returned with a defeated tone. Her revenge on Fluttershy had to wait a bit longer until the time was there once more.

The party mare rose an eyebrow and let go of the hug. The air around them had become salty and sweet. The near perfect conditions for the negative emotions to run amok, which was exactly what they did. “Do tell.”

Rarity rolled her eyes at those words and had preferred it if Pinkie had just left her alone. “I’m not going to get rid of you, anytime soon, am I?”

“Nope!” Pinkie said after she appeared behind Rarity, sending her a few hooves in the air.

When she came back down, the unicorn sighed and nodded. “Then walk with me, let’s see where it all takes us. I think I owe you that in the least bit.”

~~~~

“But that does make some amount of sense, if you ask me,” returned Pinkie Pie after Rarity had told her the story. If the unicorn was sure of herself, the party mare almost didn’t appear surprised about the matter at all. On the other end, Pinkie knew everything about everypony, including Rarity’s little family drama. Which made her just as dangerous. Then again, who would believe the likes of Pinkie?

Though where Fluttershy spoke her mouth, Pinkie had always kept it quiet around.

“If that news is coming out, disaster will not just strike you, Rarity, but your entire family as well, not to mention your next of kin,” said Pinkie to her. It was surprisingly refreshing to see that the hunk of energy sometimes –just sometimes– had a much more serious side to her. At moments like that was it a blessing.

One thing still bothered the unicorn though. She rose an eyebrow to the pink mare, wondering what she meant with her words. “Next of kin? I don’t plan to have foals just yet, Pinkie, you know that.”

“Yet, is the keyword here, Rarity. Yet is the word that is never defined. One day, you will have foals of your own. Or, you know, dragons.”

A massive blush appeared on the cheeks of the unicorn, gulping and swallowing any words that she could have spoken as a reply. It wasn’t Pinkie’s place to tell Rarity how it worked, nor whom she had an eye on. “Don’t you ever dare to speak of that again,” she hissed to the pink mare.

Who luckily understood the message. “Fine, fine, fine, but do you believe that Fluttershy will ever go to the press to tell your secret to the world? Gossip is big bits these days and you know that,” Pinkie returned to her. Her eyes shifting between Rarity and the road.

Rarity nodded in return. It was indeed big business for everypony to do so, but the unicorn didn’t think that Fluttershy would have been seen as that credible of a source. “When you put it like that, I do not think that they will pay her much for the secret. She’s a hermit after all, living secluded by nature. But that doesn’t mean of course she’s changing. By Celestia, hear me talking...”

“I’m hearing you,” returned Pinkie while they turned in another street, one that led away from the cottage of the pegasus. “And it doesn’t sound half as crazy as you would think. But why were you going on a near rampage to meet her?”

That had the unicorn nearly gob smacked. Rarity wanted to answer the question. Unfortunately there wasn’t a single sensible word came out of her mouth for the next few seconds. Only after she had shut her mouth and thought about the matter as a whole, she would have formulated her answer in the right way. “Honestly? I don’t know. I do not know why I wanted to go on a rampage to a friend of mine. Yes, she acted a bit unusual but that’s no reason of true concern, right? But, you know about my family matters as well and you, are a much more credible source of information...”

Pinkie felt that she was heading for a crossroad. A crossroad that could have taken her one of two places. One where she kept the secret of Rarity’s family and tried everything in her might to make sure it never got out either, or one where she spoke the secret and Rarity’s humiliation would have been her greatest downfall. Both routes were tempting to take, both had their alluring status.

“But, you would never do such a horrid thing, would you?” Rarity asked of her with a trembling tone. “R-Right?” Fear had taken the once so tough unicorn whole. She had become afraid by just a couple of near meaningless words.

The pink mare took a deep breath and nodded just once. It wasn’t confirming or denying anything for the matter. Her head to be cleared a bit instead. The mare never knew what would happen next and the crossroad she stood on was still as tempting as ever. Pinkie just giggled a little bit for the moment.

“Pinkie, I’m serious here, would you tell anypony my secret?”

So Rarity was serious about the matter. That changed the whole perspective of everypony involved. Pinkie’s eyes shifted to a more shady gaze while she didn’t knew how to truly proceed on the matter. There was only one answer in the entire universe that could have been the right one. “Time will tell Rarity, time will tell whether or not I do such a thing or not. I don’t know, right now.”

It was the one answer Rarity hadn’t wanted to hear.

~~~~

The eyelids felt heavy and didn’t want to open for a few more minutes. Yet the mind had returned to the present time and wanted to know what it had missed. There was a gap of who knew how much time and everything had to be done. A groan came from the body while it rose up from the sofa. A yawn left the mouth after which the mouth was smacked a couple times.

The eyes were then finally opened under a soft, cute sounding moan. The eyes were rubbed by a pair of yellow forelegs. The body dropped itself back in the seat of the sofa and the clock chimed its late afternoon hour. The eyes had another look around and they saw the cottage filled with the walkways and the animals that lived around and in it.

The real yellow pegasus had awoken from her slumber and she had a gander at the clock with a yawn. Her eyes had difficulty reading the time but they noticed that it was too late to visit Rarity at the spa. Something had happened and she had fallen asleep.

“Oh Fluttershy, you overslept again!” the mare said to herself. Her eyes had a gander to the table where the cupcakes stood and the two cups of tea. She had a guest before she fell asleep so abruptly, but what she didn’t knew what whom that guest could have been. “What are we having here?” Her eyes went wide after seeing one of the berry’s atop the cupcake.

She left the sofa with haste and snatched just one of the berry’s. She sniffed it, licked it and felt it, only to make the most terrible of discoveries. “Sleeping berry. I thought that Pinkie never used those on her cupcakes...” It was the truth, partially at least.

Fluttershy shook her head a little bit and didn’t knew what to do next. If she had eaten one of those berry’s, it was clear why she had fallen asleep. But what didn’t make sense was that second cup of tea. Maybe she had invited the delivery pony? No memories were to be found about the entire event. It was strange to tell and even stranger to remember. Nothing made sense to her in the moment. Fluttershy just rubbed her temples a bit and thought even deeper on the matter.

The timid mare huffed and would have shut the box again. Fortunately weren’t the cupcakes contaminated with the juice of the berry. Only when the berry itself was broken and thus leaking juice in the mouth would the ‘poison’ be released and the target fall in a deep sleep. In fantasy stories had there been assassins who used a large quantity of the berry to make their targets sleep forever. A macabre thought indeed.

The pegasus cleaned the room a bit and done the dishes in about five minutes. After that had she left her cottage to roam the backyard and the first few stretches of Everfree a bit. There wasn’t anything of particular interest left inside the house and maybe a good walk would have cone some miracles to her. It was the hope at least, but whether it would have worked.

Of course had she hoped on a ‘yes’, naturally. The birds chirped lively when she began to roam around and the other critters all came her way. One of her wings was opened up for an owl to land down and inspect the world from that height, causing the mare to chuckle softly to herself.

The evening would have come to pass quietly and peacefully. Just the way that Fluttershy had wanted it above anything else. Time would be the judge on whether or not she remembered what had happened. At least there was no permanent damage of the berries.

~~~~

The response of Pinkie about time being the deciding factor about what her answer would have been had devastated her more than she had liked to admit. Rarity had gulped in silence and shook her head in response. “Y-You can’t be serious here, a-are you?” she asked with frightened hesitation.

Pinkie was of course a loose cannon by any sense of the definition. Anything could have happened around her and Rarity had prepared herself about that. But the longer that the two remained together, the more Rarity’s anger shifted into fear for the unknown. A fear that began to fill the air and would have tasted all too sweet. Danger lurked around for the lady of fashion. Pinkie’s answer could have changed everything and she noticed something terrible. Her hopes had been devastated and could only be rebuild by Pinkie’s very own answer.

Though in a strange sense of the word had Rarity been seeing the cracks emerging in not just her relation with Fluttershy, but also with Pinkie. The cracks in between their friendships have been made and one good strike with the hammer would have shattered with like glass. Rarity became even more terrified of the facts as they were presented.

It all started with Fluttershy acting strange, now Pinkie had joined her in the ranks and made her desperate. Attacking and silencing the party mare was one thing that she couldn’t have done in a thousand years. Rarity was running out of options. Anything could have been done to strengthen their relation, but it meant that Pinkie had the perfect blackmail material for the unicorn.

If there was one thing that Rarity would have never allowed herself to happen, it was that. She wouldn’t fall that far from her stand to become the servant of the party mare. No, the two of them acted strange and it was unlike them. Maybe she was just having a bad dream? She could outrun a bad dream if she wanted. And she was more desperate than ever to try it out.

With a deep inhale were the legs of Rarity kicked in a high gear. The unicorn was at a loss for words and just had to get away from the place, she had to leave the presence of Pinkie Pie as fast as possible. Without a single word spoken had Rarity just galloped away from Pinkie’s side and seemed to be heading to her boutique.

The party mare had a look at the unicorn, wanting to shout something after her but she was already out of hearing range. “Wow,” she mumbled to herself, “never knew Rarity could gallop that fast. Heh, guess you do learn something new every day.” Not that the knowledge mattered that much to Pinkie, the air was still filled with anger and fright and the state of those two emotions was as sweet as sugar.

Pinkie wandered off in a side street and shrouded herself within the shadows it carried. It was in those very same shadows that the major discovery was revealed. Because Pinkie had never been Pinkie at all. The eyes shifted from their blue color to a reddish, changeling tint. The whole eye was replaced with that of a changeling in fact.

It had been Chara all long! She had played Rarity for the mentally weak mare that she was, cracking the friendships between Fluttershy and Pinkie on purpose. Rarity’s mind had been broken, the seed of doubt had been planted and Chara could only watch how she would work herself into nothing else but devastation.

It was curious to see the one true lady of the group fall that far from her stand. The one whom she had expected to be the hardest to break next to Twilight, had in fact been one of the easiest ponies.

The pink mare engulfed herself in a bright, short-lasting flash of fire and there he stood again. The pegasus stallion Chara had taken the place of Pinkie, making sure that there weren’t two Pinkie’s roaming around. In Ponyville’s defense, it wasn’t the first time that there had been multiples of the same pony running about. Though for the changeling was it better to be safe than sorry.

In the mental checklist was Rarity crossed through, that was one down and five more to go. Whom could have been next in the diabolical plans of the changeling?