//------------------------------// // Who Doesn't Like Change? // Story: Ofolrodi // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// Ariel scuffled to a stop. She turned around, shining her torch on Logan and the dimly-lit storage room behind him. "Did you hear that?" she stammered. "Hear what?" "It..." Ariel's brow furrowed. "It sounded like somepony's voice..." Logan gestured at the flickering, static image of Onyxxus in the corner of the room. "You sure it wasn't this exhilarating motherbucker?" "Hmmmmmmfff..." Ariel's nostrils flared. "I dunno. This one sounded more desperate... high pitched..." She pivoted once again, waving her torch towards the opposite end of the room. "...more adorable—" "Ariel!"" Rainbow Dash hollered in her face. "Gaaaaaaaa-beeeee-cheeeeee!" Ariel flailed wildly, dropping the torch. Before she could recover, a pair of blue forelimbs wrapped tighter around her. "H-help me, Ariel!" Rainbow Dash sobbed, clinging to the mare. She buried her face in Ariel's fuzzy chest and stammered: "It's loose! It's after me!" "Whoah...!" Logan flinched with his grip of the axe. "The Hell did you come from, Rainbow?" He craned his neck to look across the dimly-lit chamber. "Where's Double-Yoo?" "Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh..." Rainbow Dash whimpered, hugging Ariel tighter. "I'm so scared. So friggin' scared. Ariel... Ariel y-you gotta save me..." "It's... it's..." Ariel was short on breath. She reached a shaky hoof out and patted Rainbow's back. "It's going to be okay! I promise! What's the matter?" Despite her trembles, she narrowed her eyes and spoke firmly. "Is it Discord? Have your friends vanished again?" "We have to get out of here." Rainbow gulped, grasping Ariel's shoulders as she gazed deeply into her eyes. "Just you and me." "Wh-what?" "Rainbow..." Logan squinted at her. "...the Hell is going on—?" "Shut up! Just sh-shut up!" Rainbow hissed, tail flicking. She brought her muzzle so close to Ariel's face that they were practically nuzzling. "You love me, don't you?!" Ariel's ears instantly folded as her eyes went wide. "I... I-I-I..." "Then you'll do this for me! Please! Forget the others!" "Okay..." Logan marched towards the pair. "Now I know that something's—" "Get away from her!" a voice cracked from the distance. Ariel and Logan instantly looked over. Standing limply in the entrance to a stairwell were two figures. A thoroughly bruised Wildcard... and Rainbow Dash. The Desperado brandished Bard's staff while Rainbow pointed at Ariel and the doppelganger. "It's a changeling! One of Tchern's! I... I-I think it just freshly hatched!" Logan's face distorted into a grimace. "'Hatched?'" "Hrshhhhhhhhhh..." Fangs protruded from the doppelganger's muzzle. She lifted a blue forelimb and—within seconds—it morphed into a bulbous husk of black chitin. Bright green flame billowed from within as she aimed the body part at Logan and— POW! —launched it at the stallion with a burst of emerald gas. THOKKK! "Aaaugh!" Logan fell one way and his axe rattled in another. "Big Show!" Ariel shrieked. At that very moment, the lopped-off limb of the creature narrowed into a tentacle that surrounded her neck three times. "Grkkkk!" "No—!" Rainbow shouted from afar, wings flexing. The doppelganger spun and morphed until she was positioned directly behind Ariel. With a tentacle wrapped around the mare's neck, the rest of her turned into an athletic old mare with a gray-streaked red mane. "Back off, creeps!" she spoke in a booming voice, dragging Ariel backwards. "You cannot have her!" Ariel sputtered her breath. The pegasus' eyes teared up as she managed a mewling breath: "M-Mom...?" "Dammit, Ariel..." Logan hissed. He struggled to get up as his body steamed in multiple places from the gaseous impact. "That freaky thing ain't your mom!" Schiiing! Wildcard made to charge the creature from afar. "Wait!" Rainbow anchored him in place by his tail. Swallowing, she slowly approached the metamorph from afar. "Don't do this, please..." She trotted underneath flickering lights and past the translucent mess that was Onyxxus' hologram. "I know what you are." She took a calm breath. "You're tired. You're hungry. You need emotions to sustain you—" "You've put my daughter in danger," the mare seethed, her eyes changing color each time she glanced at a different Heraldite. Dragging Ariel with her, the creature made its way for a stairwell leading up the neck of Darkreach. "I'm taking her someplace where we'll be safe. Where we will be warm and secure!" "Just minutes ago, you wanted to take me back to the hammock to cuddle forever." The mare trembled at that. Her mane turned fully red for a moment, metal ringlets forming and dissolving. Ariel glanced at the phenomenon through the corners of her twitching eyes. "Oh Goddess. What's happening—?" "Stay calm, girl..." Rainbow looked at the metamorph's face again. "It's not me this is about... or your 'daughter.'" She shuffled to a stop, gesturing. "This is about your Mother, isn't it?" The mare's muzzle grew black fangs for a fraction of a second. "Mother..." "She left you here, didn't she?" Rainbow stared firmly at the creature. "Abandoned you. Planted commands in your head. Left you starving in a strange and unfamiliar place." She shook her head. "It wouldn't be the first time. It's... okay to be scared. But you don't have to be doing what you're doing right now." "I... I must get my daughter somewhere safe..." The creature's face became an old mare's again. It leaned in to nuzzle Ariel's shoulder. "Mortuana should never have touched her. I never agreed to this..." Ariel almost wretched. "She... is not... your daughter..." Rainbow growled. "Rnnnnngh..." Metal lenses flickered into place, pistoning savagely towards Rainbow as Roarke hissed, "And what do you know about family?! You could have died in peace! Loved and cared for! But you abandoned me!" "Stop... grnnngh..." Logan hobbled onto all fours. "Trying to reason with the little crud!" Rainbow's eyes darted from Logan back to Roarke. She frowned. "You...? You're going to lecture me on abandonment?" Rainbow gnashed her teeth as her voice took on a melodramatic tone: "Just like you talked Bellesmith into abandoning Kera at Lerris?!" There was a masculine gasp. Stripes formed along Roarke's face, followed by a mohawk and skull plate. "Kera..." Milk-white eyes twitched as Pilate stammered, "Beloved, I-I never meant to..." "Now, Wildcard!" Rainbow hollered. "It's blind—!" With a breathy grunt, Wildcard flung his staff like a javelin. Thwifffffffffft—! Bard's weapon sang through the air, missed Ariel's skull by millimeters, and skewered Pilate's face straight through his jaw. "Grkkkk!" The changeling flew back into the wall behind it, pinned to a mana-console by the staff. The leyline array was completely shattered by the impact. "Ooomf!" Ariel fell to the ground, trembling all over. In the meantime, Onyxxus' hologram completely vanished as multiple light fixtures sparked and ruptured. Lights shorted out across the common room of Darkreach. Kepler and Flynn spun about, eyeing the sudden energy shortage. "Harrk!" Kepler gasped through his tusks. "What is trranspirring?!" Sparks fell from mana consoles, littering the Verdestone mosaic and surrounding floorspace. Seraphimus flinched from where she was chained to the pipework. "Manafeedback!" Flynn stammered. "I think a leyline junction was damaged somewhere in the colony!" "Does that mean a powerr rrupturre?!" "Not if I can stop it!" Flynn galloped out of the flickering room. "I gotta get to the generator room!" "I'll help you—!" Kepler rushed after him. "No!" Flynn paused just long enough to point at Seraphimus. "Stay here! Guard her!" "But—" "Let me handle this! We can't leave her alone!" As Flynn left, the wyvern shuffled nervously by himself in the center of the room. Seraphimus' eyes narrowed as the environment around her grew dimmer and dimmer. "Ariel!" Rainbow rushed to the pegasus' side. "Are you okay?" "I... I..." Ariel grasped for her. She trembled in Rainbow's protective grip. Tears poured from her twitching eyes. "I feel..." Rainbow squeezed her shoulders. "It was feeding on you. Don't worry. You're safe now—" "Look!" Logan shouted. Everyone spun to see... ...the changling's head splitting in two obsidian-colored lumps of chitin. With liquid grace, it slithered away from where the staff had impaled its skull to the mana array. "That's..." Ariel's muzzle hung open, twisted. "...way goopier than I remembered." "Mgrnnnghlllghhh..." The changeling rippled upwards, took on a quadruped form, and materialized just long enough to hiss at Rainbow with Gold Petals' face. "Hresssssssssh!" "Oh buck you..." Rainbow sneered. But instead of charging Rainbow, the creature morphed so that it was facing the opposite direction. In a blonde blur, Gold Petals galloped towards the nearest stairwell. "Dammit!" Logan charged after the thing, dragging his axe. "Big Show, wait!" Rainbow reached after him in vain. "Let's at least keep it alive so we can—" Before she could finish that speech, the exiting changeling flung off its tail. The limb fell on the ground in the shape of a black husk and—PFFFFFFFT!—expelled noxious fumes throughout the room. "Guh!" Logan scampered to a stop then frantically backtrotted. "Holy shit!" "Poison g-gas!" Ariel stammered, clinging to Rainbow. "Everypony..." Rainbow Dash dragged the two of them away. "Find an exit—!" A shrill whistle. Everyone looked over. Wildcard was picking up Bard's staff beside the sparkling console. He pointed the weapon at the stairwell beside him. Just then, there was a bright red flash of overloading mana. With a mechanical groan, the door to the stairwell slid swiftly shut. "Hurry!" Logan charged meatedly towards the closing exit. He slammed into Rainbow and Ariel, shoving them towards the door. Wildcard ducked under. With the space available, he reached the staff out. Rainbow dove forward. She gripped Ariel with one forelimb and reached for the staff with the other. Wildcard yanked the two mares safely into the stairwell. However... "Big Show!" Ariel's voice could be heard shrieking, then—THUDDD! The door shut completely, locking the stallion inside the room with the spreading green gas. "Rrrrrgh!" Logan kicked and punched and bucked at the door, but it wouldn't budge. He heard the two mares shouting his name from the other side. Gritting his teeth, he turned to look at the rest of the room. Sparks flew as the other doors slammed shut. The noxious gas spread, making the chamber even dimmer... darker. "Grnnngh... kaffff..." Logan coughed and sputtered. His angry eyes teared. "Oh yeah... kofff... this is hella sexy..."