//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: When a changeling gets a bright idea // by Rarity Belle //------------------------------// The rays of the sun teased the nose of Twilight quite a bit. Her eyes opened up under the sound of a heavy groan. The alicorn wasn’t ready to leave the comforts of her bed just yet, even though the day had started hours ago. The normally so eager mare was having troubles. The words from the previous evening still lingered through her mind and she wasn’t happy with them. Twilight let out a deep exhale while she managed to rise her body up from the bed. Everything just felt wrong in the moment, at the same time did her castle feel empty. Maybe they had all gone? She didn’t knew nor did she really care. The mare managed to crawl her way out of the bed and she was presented with a sight curious. The curtains were lifted and the striking blue skies were the first things revealed to her. The storm had passed over, but the rain it dropped was still visible in massive puddles. “Must have been a terrible a storm,” the mare mumbled to herself. After that she left the scene and went for the bathroom to refresh herself. If anything, maybe that would have awoken her a bit more, that, and she looked like a mess with fur, mane and feathers. When the bathroom door was opened again, the alicorn left with grace and elegance unseen before. Twilight was ready to hit the day and went over to the guest chambers. Naturally she wasn’t expecting that any of her friends were still there, but the hope remained. But her feelings were right on the matter, all of them had departed from the castle to do their own things, all while their friendships laid on the brink of being broken by something and everything. It devastated the feelings of Twilight for sure, as she had been hoping that their friendships would be lasting forevermore. The situation was dire to say the least. “Spike!” Twilight called out. “I’ll making a round through town, you’ll see me when I get back, no idea when I’ll be back.” “But what about breakfast? You gotta eat something, you know,” the dragon replied from the kitchen. Even though he had a point, Twilight wasn’t letting anything come pass her mind. She wanted to go, had to go even, and that was exactly what she would have done. Leave the castle be for the time being. A scuff came from her. “I’ll eat something in town, enough places are already open where I can get something that I need. And please don’t try and eat the place when I’m gone. It’s our home, not your secret food stash.” “Yes ma’am,” the dragon answered with a grumble. He shook his head to the words that she had spoken and sighed afterwards. “Even if I could eat it all, it wasn’t that secret of a stash.” Spike left the kitchen and just began to wander through the halls without a true aim. The sheer and immense size that it had was something that kept him amazed for all time. How such a thing had even come to be, after such a devastating battle, was something that he would never fully realize. On the other end, it also felt strange for him, strange because of the fact that everypony had been turning against each other. Something had happened and he had some ideas of his own, ideas that Twilight should probably have listened to, but too stubborn to admit. A chuckle came from the dragon while he landed in a chair, thinking of what to do next with the rest of the day. ~~~~ Twilight wandered through the streets of Ponyville with a slow trot. She wasn’t her usual happy and cheery self, far from it even. She was like the ground after the storm, she felt both gloomy and defeated by her own friends. The chaos that had been born the night before was something that she didn’t wanted to be reminded on. Something had to change everything around and Twilight hoped of course that she was able to become the fixer. Now that was wishful thinking indeed. With her eyes set on everything and nothing at the same time, she wandered past the market. And thus past ponies that knew her well enough. A lot of them said their casual hello’s while Twilight never replied to any of them. The alicorn just kept on walking, lost in her thoughts. One of the ponies that she encountered was one whom didn’t wanted to stop at the mere silence of the mare. Something was wrong with her and he felt it, better than anypony. Because that pony was the pegasus stallion Chara. He approached Twilight carefully and began to walk besides her. “You don’t mind if I trot along for a little while?” For the first time had Twilight glanced up and saw the charismatic smile of the stallion. He seemed to be genuinely concerned about her matter, a little thing which warmed her heart maybe a little bit too much. “Not at all, Chara, please, I would be honored if you joined me in this.” A little chuckle came from the stallion who then nodded. He couldn’t help but to notice that something was wrong with the mare. “You seem, troubled today. May I ask what the possible cause of that might be?” His tone was kept low while his words spoke of a genuine concern. Twilight appreciated it, for there was at least one other pony in the whole of Ponyville who wanted to ask what was wrong with her. On the other end, it meant that she had to speak her words of concern. The alicorn took her eyes away for a second or two, not sure whether she had to spill the words to the likes of him. On the other end, it may have been the only pony against whom she could have spoken the words in general. The decision was tough, but settled down on one fact because of his looked. His charms had done the trick, really. With a sigh would she started to tell exactly what it was that bothered her. She told him about the cracks she noticed appearing in the friendships between her friends, how she tried to resolve the matters on her own, but only feeling too weak to do something. The stallion placed a leg over her shoulder, trying to comfort her for what it was worth. “It’s sad to say, Twilight, but I don’t think that anything lasts forever. Times change and friends, come and go. From time to time, there’s nothing in the world that can either change minds or is powerful enough to be glue something back together what shouldn’t be. There are times where you just have to drop what is, and accept what’s going to be. I do believe, that this might be one of those instances, judging it from your words alone.” “Are you suggesting that I should just drop the ponies that I call my friends, and let them pretty much wage war with one another?” Anger had consumed Twilight then. Those words were the ones that she never wanted to hear in her life. She took a much more defensive stance with her words and would talk her way out of nearly everything that the stallion could have thrown her way. Chara only let out a light but awkward chuckle and shook his head. “I’m not saying that you should watch wage them war with one another, no, you told me that they have no quarrel with you, meaning that they are still your friends, it’s just the relationship between them that’s stands rather unstable, by the sounds of it.” Another smile came to his lips. “What you need to do, my dear Twilight, is to re-evaluate the entire situation for what it is. Only with a calmed mind are you able to see what’s been hidden, which is the right choice.” The sheer calm in which he spoke, the sheer wisdom that his words carried, together with the comforting smile, Twilight couldn’t help herself but to just melt away at it all. She wanted to hug him, but he was still holding her. The warmth of his body calmed her, it rose her spirit up to new levels. He did have a point though, she had jumped straight to conclusions and tried to fix something that maybe couldn’t be fixed at all. Twilight let out a deep sigh and a nod. She was visually calmed down again from his help. “I, do see what you mean, Chara. It pains me to say, but you’re having a very, very good point. I do need to reevaluate the situation and see what comes out of it. How’s the house hunting going, if I may ask?” The stallion let out another chuckle, glad to see that Twilight noticed the situation in his way. But there was something else of course, the whole lie and web of deceit that he had shrouded before the mare. “The hunting is going particularly well, I would say. There’s a lovely little place near the lake that I have an eye on, quite remote and out of sight, but still in walking distance from town. Have to be at the mayor’s office soon to see if I can get the lot. Because that, is just the near perfect spot.” Twilight was impressed that he wanted to build a house near the lake, the sight was pretty, though he didn’t strike her as a hermit at all. On the other end, she had been wrong about ponies before of course. The stallion removed his leg from the alicorn whom had to return back to her own things. They spoke their goodbye’s and separated their ways again, wandering off to different parts of town. ~~~~ Having taken a seat on her throne, the thoughts of Twilight had begun to both run ramped and wild. Everything would have been used in order to figure out what was wrong with her friends. Nothing made that much sense to the alicorn of course, but she tried to remember most of the words that were spoken the day before. It all just resulted in one single, little fact that she could place her hoof on, a fact so big that she never could have seen it. There was something wrong. Of course there was something wrong, that much was obvious. But then could Twilight place the matter a bit more carefully. Possibly to what the cause might have been. Her friends had never acted in the way they did to one another, the fact that one didn’t even knew what the other was talking about also gave something away. Twilight bit her lips, but she was almost ready to finally make an accusation of just what was troubling her so much, what was troubling her friends. It stared her right in the face like the walls of the castle, but she couldn’t distinguish what the shape of it was. It was maddening for the alicorn to feel the way she did. Once again was she nearly driven off the edge of insanity. With a deep sounding ‘urgh’ had the mare left her throne. She would just roam through the castle and get everything out that was troubling her. She rushed over to her bedroom first. The door flung open with her magic and she had a good look around. Something was staring at her, almost laughing at her because she was so thick. “There must be something, right!? Something that can tie this all together.” Unknown to her was that Spike had left the castle as a whole to do his own things for the day, meaning that she couldn’t ask him for aid of any sort. The alicorn was at a loss and turned around. “Only one place in the entire castle where I might be able to the answers that I need,” she said to herself. The door of the bedroom was shut again and the mare just rushed over to the library. Again was the door opened with her magic and she galloped through the opening. The grand library of the Golden Oak had been transferred to the crystal one and she began to scour through all the titles that were present. Looking at the spines of all the books, it might give her the idea of what she was looking for and at. Everything from science to fiction and everything in between passed her eyes. The unicorn didn’t knew what to do, what to think of it. Books were levitated like mad and she sat down on the table, looking closer to the received books. Times faded away when cold blood finally managed to rush through her veins. The realization had hit her and she felt devastated because of it. It was simple, so simple even. If only she had paid a bit more attention to her little dragon. “I’ve been played. We’ll have been played by just one pony...” Twilight mumbled to herself, finally realizing that everything was the plan of just one pony. But the question remained, whom was that one pony who could have done everything. A lot of candidates came to her mind, and even more were already crossed off the list for various reasons. “Who?! Who?! Who?!” “Whowho,” echoed through the library. “Who?!” “Whowho.” Her eyebrows rose in confusion, that sound shouldn’t have been there, right? “Who?” “Who.” The eyes of the mare had a glance all over the library. The second voice had to come from somewhere, as it wasn’t her echo that did all of the talking. And there, atop the perch that was erected, sat her owl, Owlowiscious. Twilight blushed a bit and couple plant her hoof in her face for such a thing. She didn’t knew what to say to it and just smiled to her pet. Maybe she shouldn’t have been that taken away in her mind. On the other end, in that little moment of clarity, there was something that shot through her mind. “Chara,” was the only name that she mumbled. Could it be that the stallion might have been the cause of all the troubles? Spike had mentioned it before that it was the stallion who had a strange scent to him. But they were all taken by his charms, which was more than enough to blind them. “If this turns out to be the truth of the matter, I don’t know what I will be doing to you!” The owl flew away from the perch, only to roam another part of the castle in peace and silence. The frustrations of Twilight had been building up to a degree unseen before. The time had come to finally use something that she had been wanting to use for a long, long time at that point. In the meantime had Spike returned back to the castle and entered the library, seeing Twilight as determined as she was. “W-What’s going on?” he dared to ask her. Twilight huffed just the once and had a glance to him. “I think I know who has been causing all of the trouble that’s been going on between us.” “Oh, you finally decided to listen to me, didn’t you?” “Now’s not the time to play arrogant, Spike.” “Sorry.” With his apologies accepted, Twilight rushed to the deck with the telescope. She had been wanting to use the thing so long at that point, now was the time that she could finally do it. The door to the deck opened and she rushed through the opening, capturing the device in her magical hold. Once close enough, the charge of her magic powered the telescope while she looked through it with one eye. It was time to see what the population of Ponyville was doing. All sorts of ponies were witnessed by the thing, all being carefully monitored by Twilight, who was looking for any kind of behavior that wasn’t normal, and looking for one specific pony in the meantime. Spike had entered the deck as well, curious to see what had managed to get Twilight as crazy as it did. Something had happened of course, and that was exactly the thing where Spike was afraid of. The alicorn had gone up in her methods and the most dangerous thing of all was that she could have done everything. A powerful mistress of the arcane such a Twilight could and would have done nearly everything to get what she wanted. “No, no, not you, definitely not you, got my eye on you for some time already, but not,” mumbled the mare to herself, watching over every single pony she could see. “Maybe I should expand my reach?” The charge of her horn increased just a bit more, allowing her to view even further and with more detail. “What is it, that you’re even trying to do? Spot the wrong pony, like in that book?” Spike asked after he joined her on the balcony. Twilight turned away from the telescope for a moment and gave a nod to the dragon. He wasn’t all that far off the truth, actually. “You can see it that way, yes. I should have listened to your words a lot sooner, because ever since one particular pony came into town, all the troubles that we had with our friends had started. I can’t get him in my sights though...” “You mean, that hunk of a stallion of yours? I’ve to admit that there was something fishy about him the second I laid my eyes on him,” the dragon commented, leaning against the opening with a smirk on his face. Twilight huffed once and the smirk disappeared. It really wasn’t the time to play smartass in the moment. “Fine, fine, fine, sorry for even thinking about it.” The alicorn turned back to the telescope and had another look through it, looking in the direction of the lake and finally capturing the pony whom she wanted. “So there’s some truth to your story, isn’t there?” she said aloud. A smirk came to her face and the powers of her horn increased even further. She took a couple of steps back from the telescope and prepared herself to fire a spell. “I hope that this is going to work!” Twilight grunted while all of the power stored was released in one massive blast. A blast that headed through the entirety of Ponyville. Nopony would have felt a thing from the blast, with the exception of creatures that might have been in disguise. The alicorn had placed her bets and there was no turning back. It was time to see if she was right, if Spike was right, and maybe even save her friends in the process.