//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Devotion // Story: Nature of Change // by PostNinja //------------------------------// “Well, this is certainly a more comfortable way to travel,” Rarity said as she looked at the dark forest flashing past below her. “Are you sure you will be alright?” Starlight Glimmer didn’t answer at first, all her attention focused on the flight spell. The unicorn’s horn shone with a brilliant light that enveloped both unicorns, Spike riding on Rarity’s back. Together, they levitated across the night sky. “I can handle it for a while,” Starlight said, not turning her head. “Ponyville is in danger, we can’t afford to waste any more time.” Spike held tightly on Rarity’s back, trying his best not to look down. Even if they were only flying just above the treeline, it was still far too high for the dragon’s liking. Enough to make him less enthusiastic about his current position than he normally would have been. “You didn’t really plan to turn that changeling into a toad, did you?” Spike asked, also trying not to sneeze despite Rarity’s perfumed mane fluttering right in front of his face. “Of course not,” Starlight snorted and shook her head. “Thank you for playing along with it by the way.” “That changeling looked so disappointed to end up in a block of crystal again,” Rarity said with a smirk. “What will happen to them?” “The spell fades in a day or so,” Glimmer said as she looked down to make sure they were still following the river. It should eventually lead them to the lake next to Ponyville. “If a wild animal happens to find them, the crystal is too hard for it to do more than to bounce them around.” “I still think it lied to us,” Spike stated. “Fluttershy is a changeling? How does that make sense?” “Well, I did plan to turn one of Twilight’s friends into a hideous monster just to cause her grief before I found Star Swirl’s spell,” Starlight admitted with a guilty smile. “Maybe Chrysalis thought of it too? Deception and turning friends against one another is kinda her thing, isn’t it?” “We will know once we get there,” Rarity said, looking at them both. “Chrysalis went through all this trouble to isolate Ponyville. We can be certain that she does have something terrible planned.” Tibia crept through the bush, stopping to peer through its leaves at Ponyville all around her. The timber-framed houses with their thatched roofs cast long shadows across the dark streets. All houses were dark, streets empty. The changeling scout glanced further. She saw the towers of the castle in the distance, clearly visible even in the middle of the night. Tibia didn't see them, but she knew that other scouts were also moving into position, slowly surrounding the town. The main force would move in once everything was ready. They wanted to use the element of surprise as long as they could. Ideally, by the time ponies realized what was happening, changeling drones would already be dragging them out of their houses. Considering that Tibia hadn’t seen even a single guard or sentry anywhere, even being this careful felt like a waste of time. Ponies were completely clueless to what was about to... “Boy, it’s fun to sneak around, isn’t it? It’s like playing hide and seek!” somepony said from behind Tibia in a cheery tone. “Be quiet!” Tibia whispered as loudly as she dared to. She turned around to chastise what sounded like an overly eager hatchling, only to be greeted by a wide smile of a pink pony with three balloons as her cutie mark. Pinkie Pie enthusiastically waved her hoof to the stunned changeling scout, giggling. “You bug-bugs are really good at playing hide and seek!” she said, poking the changeling’s nose with her hoof. “Do you think Pinkie Sense counts as cheating?” Tibia opened her mouth to speak, only to blink when she realized that there was now a bright red clown nose stuck on her face. “Playing without telling anypony about it is not nice though,” Pinkie Pie scolded the changeling scout with a disapproving frown on her face. “I think everypony could use a heads-up!” Before Tibia could move to grab her, Pinkie Pine flashed past the changeling scout and toppled her over. Tibia grunted when the side of her head hit the grassy ground, trying to rise up so she could catch that bizarre pony. This proved difficult because somehow her hooves and wings were now tied together with yarn string. All she managed to do was to roll clumsily out of the bush. It was enough to give her a clear view of Pinkie Pie, who was now standing on the roof of the house next to them. The party pony was also holding a ridiculously large trumpet, or at least something that pretended to be one. Pinkie Pie winked to the changeling scout, taking a deep breath. Then, the party pony started blowing the trumpet. The noise that filled the air could have raised the dead. It was almost ear-shattering in its loudness. The intense, vibrant cacophony of sound echoed through the night. Within moments, lights were turning on all around Ponyville, groggy residents opening their windows and doors. In a town where monster attacks were almost routine, having to come out of your bed at night wasn’t even a surprise, merely an annoyance. Tibia laid there on the ground, half deaf and too dazed to even crawl away. She felt like taking over Ponyville wasn’t going to be so easy after all. Fluttershy yelped as her head hit the floor. She was on her back with Rainbow Dash pinning her down, the pegasus pressing her hoof against the young changeling queen’s neck. “You!” Rainbow Dash shouted, baring her teeth. “What did you do to Fluttershy? Where is she?!” Fluttershy didn’t struggle, raising her head to look at the pegasus. “It’s me, Dash. I know I look different, but I’m still Fluttershy,” she pleaded. “Please believe me! I felt sick in the meeting and came back early. When I got home, I turned into this!” Fluttershy expected… no, feared that Rainbow Dash would angrily dismiss her out of hoof. Instead, the pegasus was silent for a moment, not moving or saying anything. “Prove it,” Rainbow Dash finally said, narrowing her eyes. Fluttershy sighed in relief. Dash was giving her a chance! The young changeling queen gulped, knowing that this was the one and only chance she would get. “Bullies used to call you Rainbow Crash,” Fluttershy said, locking her eyes on her friend. “I was Klutzershy.” Rainbow Dash blinked, the pressure on the young changeling queen’s neck easing a little. “Zephyr Breeze wanted to make your mane more ‘radical’ when you two first met. You agreed because you didn’t know what a mohawk was, but it sounded cool,” Fluttershy continued. And so it went on. Fluttershy told one thing after another from their fillyhood. The frown on Rainbow Dash’s face gradually faded. It was first replaced by puzzlement and finally a determined stare. “Your first crush was S...” “Fine!” Rainbow Dash interrupted, putting her hoof on Fluttershy’s mouth. “That’s enough. I get it.” “Do you now believe it is me?” Fluttershy asked, gulping nervously. The pegasus stared down at the young changeling queen, biting her lip. “So, you are a changeling?” Rainbow Dash asked. “This is not like that one time when Discord accidentally turned your mane sky blue when he sneezed?” ”It was mossy green with flowers, actually,” Fluttershy stated, smiling weakly at the memory. “He also didn’t sneeze, he hiccuped.” Rainbow Dash’s shoulders relaxed and the pegasus smiled, sighing in relief. She stopped pinning Fluttershy down and instead pulled her up to sit. “I was so worried about you,” the pegasus admitted, briefly closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. “I don’t care what you are, as long as you are still Fluttershy.” Fluttershy nodded, trying to ignore the blurring in her vision as she smiled at her friend. The young changeling queen’s mind felt sluggish and it was an effort to keep her head from swaying, but she steadied herself with her hoof. The hunger hammered her mind with enough force to turn it into physical pain, demanding her to move, to feed. Fluttershy gritted her teeth and ignored the urge. She stubbornly pushed it to the back of her mind, determined not to show any of it in front of her friend. “Do you want to explain what is going on?” Rainbow Dash asked, glancing at First Captain standing on the side. “Changelings are still bad, right? If they wanted to take me to you, they could have just asked.” Fluttershy shook her head, gathering her thoughts. “Chrysalis is back. It was a surprise to everypony that I’m a changeling, even to other changelings. Chrysalis is also apparently my aunt. I’m a changeling queen, whatever that means.” Rainbow Dash blinked rapidly, tilting her head. “So you are not only a changeling but also changeling royalty or something?” “Something like that,” Fluttershy said, feeling out of breath. She moved her hoof on her chest, trying to stay calm. “Chrysalis is the reason why changelings attacked Canterlot. She has convinced them all that ponies and changelings can’t coexist.” Rainbow Dash frowned. “They can? Even with the whole feeding on love thing?” “Yes!” Fluttershy said, taking a ragged breath. “I never fed on anypony. Chrysalis tried to make me, but I still didn’t.” “Where is that hag, anyway?” Rainbow Dash said, glancing around the room like she expected Chrysalis to appear out of thin air at the mention of her name. “She left before I got here, I don’t know...” Fluttershy’s sentence trailed off and she turned to look at First Captain. The changeling captain was being almost suspiciously silent. “Where did she go? It felt like I’m so important to her. What made her leave?” The changeling captain shifted uncomfortably, not meeting Fluttershy’s stare. “It’s something awful, isn’t it?” Fluttershy said, narrowing her eyes. “Yes,” First Captain said in a clipped tone. “She was waiting for reinforcements to arrive from the Changeling Kingdom." "Reinforcements for what?" Rainbow Dash asked. First Captain squirmed, clearing his throat. "For her attack on Ponyville.” Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash both stared at the changeling captain for a moment. The pegasus recovered first. “We must warn them!” Rainbow Dash said, already up in the air and heading towards the door. “Dash, wait!” Fluttershy said, raising her hoof to stop the pegasus before turning to look at First Captain. Something didn’t feel right. “Reinforcements? Why didn’t she take any of you in this hive with her? You have spied Ponyville for months, why did she need other changelings?” Fluttershy said, hoping that the reason was what she thought it was. First Captain frowned, lowering his head to look at the floor. “She doesn’t trust us." Seeing that both of them were still looking at him, the changeling captain sighed and continued: "The failed attack on Canterlot shook our faith in her. Thorax wasn't the only deserter.” First Captain raised his head to look at Fluttershy. “I told you before. Ponyville has changed us. None of us want to fight ponies anymore. Queen Chrysalis sensed that. Changelings who are with her now mostly come from outside Equestria. They won't question her orders." Fluttershy smiled, turning to look at the pegasus. “See, Rainbow Dash? Changelings can change.” “Yeah, maybe.” Rainbow Dash said, narrowing her eyes at the First Captain. “There is still an army of changelings about to attack Ponyville. We can figure out which changelings don’t need a hoof to the face later.” Fluttershy sighed. But, Rainbow Dash was right. They needed to get to Ponyville as fast as possible. The young changeling queen rose to stand. Her hooves trembled and her wings felt like dead weight. She felt cold, so cold. Her stomach was twisted into a knot. Fluttershy clenched her teeth and ignored it, willing her hooves to move. She took one tentative step forward and fell. One moment she was standing, the next she was laying on her side. Fluttershy whimpered in pain against the cold floor, her limbs refusing to move. She couldn’t see anything besides vague blurry shapes. Somepony was calling her name. The words were just noise. She could feel somepony touching her. Hooves shook her, tried to lift her up. Soon, Fluttershy couldn’t feel that either. She felt like she was falling. Everything was turning black. She was so hungry… “What’s wrong with her?! Answer!” Rainbow Dash shouted, clinging to unconscious Fluttershy. First Captain flinched, taking a step back. “Sh... she is starving for love,” the changeling captain stuttered. “She refused to feed on ponies against their will. That's why I brought her here, to you.” Rainbow Dash’s mouth fell open as she turned to look at Fluttershy. The young changeling queen looked like she had a fever. Her mouth was hanging open as she took ragged, weak breaths. The pegasus gulped as she held Fluttershy, realizing that she weighed almost nothing. “Well? How do we fix it?” Rainbow Dash said and snapped her head up to look at the changeling captain. “We can’t,” First Captain said, falling on his knees and lowering his head to the floor. “She can’t feed when she is unconscious, we have to wait for her to wake up.” Expect, First Captain knew the symptoms. She wouldn’t wake up. Once starving changelings deteriorated to that state, they were beyond help. In most cases, changelings lost their minds and forcefully fed on anything they could find before they lost consciousness. Fluttershy had somehow managed to resist that urge all this time, even when a pony filled with love was sitting right in front of her. First Captain closed his eyes, resigning to his fate. Tarsus was right. He was a failure. Fluttershy would die just like her mother and… “How do changelings feed?” The question snapped the changeling captain out of his dark thoughts. “What?” First Captain asked, staring dumbly at Rainbow Dash. “Answer the damn question! How do changelings feed?” the pegasus said again, her jaw set in a hard line. “Um… well, there are a few ways to do it,” First Captain said hesitatingly. “The most common way is draining the love into our mouths.” “Like eating or drinking?" Rainbow Dash said in a sharp tone. “Well, not exactly.” First Captain didn’t know where the pegasus was taking this, but at this point, there was nothing to lose. So he explained: “It's a natural instinct. We open our mouths and the love usually manifests as this sort of vapor that flows out of our prey. Sometimes, disguised changelings also use romantic gestures as a cover for their acts of feeding. It’s more subtle and takes less effort since the mind of the prey is unaware of what is really happening and..." “You do it without thinking about it? Does it matter what kind of love it is? How close you need to be?” Rainbow Dash interrupted as she turned Fluttershy on her back, gently lowering her to the floor. “It takes a conscious effort to drain the love out of them against their will. Able to get close to our prey makes it easier, the direct physical contact being the best,” First Captain said, rising up and walking closer. “It doesn’t matter what kind of love it is, as long as it’s genuine." Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment as she stared at Fluttershy. The pegasus took a deep breath through her nose, exhaling through her mouth. “Turn around,” Rainbow Dash said. “What?” “I said, turn around!” Rainbow Dash repeated, a slight flush creeping across her cheeks. First Captain looked at the pegasus and shrugged, doing as he was told. At least, for a few seconds. After that, the changeling captain turned his head a fraction to glance what was going on behind him. What he saw was Rainbow Dash taking another deep breath before moving her hooves behind Fluttershy’s head. The pegasus lifted the young changeling queen up, Fluttershy’s head resting against her chest. Then, Rainbow Dash leaned down and moved her lips on Fluttershy’s.