//------------------------------// // Rarity's Taste // Story: Singular's Demise // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Rarity entered her classroom and became briefly startled when she saw the new student Applejack talked about. The changeling's smile and stare were unnerving to the unicorn who forced herself to give a smile in return. She cleared her throat and levitated several boxes of cloth squares to the circular tables where the students convened together. "Alright. Today we're going to make some spring-themed quilts, with each of you working together on a side." She raised her hoof quickly in the air. "But! You're going to have to work together on how to best make the quilts. While they ARE meant to be randomly stitched together, the best quilts use the materials available to make beautiful decorations." She smiled widely. "Does anypony know why we are doing this?" A pony raised his hoof. "To give to the needy and help them get through the cold nights?" he asked. "That's right!" Rarity applauded. "But that's just one of the many things you can do with a quilt." Her eyes gleamed with ideas. The unicorn raised several brown boxes filled with greens, yellows, and white cloths onto the tables and let her students take out the contents. She opened her mouth then shut it instantly, realizing the mistake she had almost committed. "Why don't one of YOU try and figure out what another possible use for them could be," she said. "Well," Cranberry started. She flipped the cloths squares over again and again to understand them better. "If you give gifts to someone you care about, they will be extremely grateful and will likely love you for all the gifts you've brought them." The other changeling, sitting in front of Cranberry, spoke out. "But that would spoil them, and they come to expect more and more gifts and fancier ones at that!" She looked to Rarity with an angry expression. "The BEST way to make friends is to give them small and few gifts at first. Leave the large ones for special celebrations." Cranberry chuckled while some of the ponies and griffons nodded in agreement. "Yes. Give them very few gifts at very frequent intervals." The changeling was insulted. "That's not--!" "No. The best way to befriend them is to give them everything you intended to give them. Right. At. The start," She stomped the table with every word. "Otherwise, they'll start expecting gifts every day, which will tarnish the relationship and make it built on money, rather than common ground." "No...If you give them the huge gifts all at once, you're essentially bribing them into becoming friends with you, leading to a hypocritical relationship with the other creature and tarnishing what the concept of friendship is!" she said. The two glared at each other from across the table; with Cranberry leaning back in her chair, still smirking; and the disguised Mesosoma leaning forward with her hooves on the table and fangs bared wide. "A-actually--" Rarity attempted to lessen the tension of the situation. "Nooooo, your plan will lead to unrealistic expectations," Cranberry said. She put a hoof to her chest. "MY plan is a thoroughly tested and fully successful one." Mesosoma crossed her forelegs. "So bribe them and they're your friend?" She started waving her forelegs in the air and stuck her tongue out. "Oooo, we're friends whilst wearing these embroider, Saddle Arabian silk dresses you got us! BEST friends!" she mocked. Cranberry's smirk was starting to dissipate. "Because you giving them rags will make you a good friend?" she asked. "Now wait just a minute," Rarity interjected. "A gift can be of any value so long as it was made with affection by your friend. As long as you know each other very well, there would be no issues with receiving even something as simple as a quilt!" "My experiences say otherwise," Cranberry rebutted. "Giving everything all at once has presented my friendships from only being built upon the possibility of gifts." "Oh, COME ON!" Mesosoma threw her forelegs in the air in rage then pointed at her 'fellow' changeling. "There's no way that's true. You just bribed them! And if you didn't, did you at least wait until a special day to give them their gifts?" Cranberry blinked slowly at the disguised queen. "Why would I do that?" she asked with a blank stare. Twilight and Applejack were eavesdropping outside Rarity's class and hearing just how loud the changelings were getting. Twilight frowned with concern. "I don't get it," she said. "I thought that the reformed changelings were beyond this kind of behavior." Applejack pursed her lips. "Well, ah did tell ya that this changeling was a bit weird. Seems they're disturbin' the rest of Thorax's hive." She passed a hoof through her mane then put her hat back on. "Ah figure they've had more than enough time ta become a little more like us." She shrugged. "I'm going to intervene," Twilight said. The alicorn took a step to the door then swung around behind it when it started opening, pulling AJ with her against the wall. "Well, if you can't behave yourselves then you're BOTH staying outside!" Rarity shouted. The light and heavy hoof clopping on the school's floors preceded the door slamming shut behind the two changelings, leaving them seemingly alone in the hall. "Look what you did!" the disguised Mesosoma shouted. Cranberry ignored the shouted and gnawed at the chitin on her right foreleg. "I'm just here trying to learn about the ponies' way of life, and then you come out of nowhere and ruin everything!" She paces around, mumbling angrily to herself, then turns and points to her enemy. "YOU STUPID EL--" Her face turned pale, peaking Cranberry's curiosity. She was also surprised, although in a less extreme fashion. "Oh, the teacher's of this school!" she said happily. "And Miss Applejack!" she said. "I'm glad to see you again." "Can't rightfully say the same," Applejack replied. She was upset and lowered her hat slightly to reflect it. Twilight circumvented Cranberry, avoiding any form of eye contact, to reach Mesosoma. While the elder kept her happy expression up, being snubbed like that by a pony filled her with a seething rage. "How DARE she just ignore me like that!" she thought. "I deserve respect no matter from what creatures!" "What happened Anten?" Twilight asked softly to the disguised queen. "You never had issues like this before." The alicorn looked at Cranberry who waved back at her. "I thought you would be ecstatic about another changeling being here. You were the second to come, after all." "It's HER fault!" Anten accused. "She's being obnoxious about everything here!" Cranberry looked away in indignation. "I'm only stating my methods of approaching problems. YOU'RE the one who gets angry every time I talk," she replied. "You see?!" the changeling shouted. "She's doing it again!" While Twilight became disheartened, Applejack was having none of it. During the short exchange, she had gone to the janitor's closet and taken out empty buckets, soap, and mops and dropped them loudly onto the floor in front of them. The sudden noises startled the three. "If yer not gonna behave like adults, then yet gonna work like adults." She put a mop in the forelegs of the two changelings. "Y'all best work together until the end of the school day. Then tomorrow, ya can go back ta class normally." "But--" Anten attempted to protest. "There AIN'T no appealin' in THIS court!" Applejack interjected rapidly. "Y'all work 'n get this behavior out of your system, am I understood?!" Cranberry raised a brow and looked at Anten from the corner of her eyes. Her head was held low and her ears were drooping. "Yes, m'am," she mumbled despondently. Applejack jabbed the red changeling in the chest, surprising her a tad. " Y'all better get ta changin' yer act as well. We're more than open fer accomodatin' the more 'outrageous' kind 'o folk ta teach them how ta be 'round others, but you're in another league entirely." "Applejack!" Twilight scolded. She pulled her away, and the two started bickering loudly while walking down the halls, leaving the two changelings alone to start mopping the floors of the School of Friendship. Anten was using her wings to better reach the floors with the long broom handle, but the more she thought about how she got here, the angrier she became, until the mopping became angry 'stabs' against the floor. "You're ruining everything!" she growled through her teeth. "It was going just fine until you popped up! I was going to get all the knowledge I needed to help my hive integrate into this pony society and no longer suffer from love famine." "Uh huh," Cranberry dismissed. "So you were still going to work as changelings do?" Anten blinked slowly. "What? No. I was going to approach Thorax." Cranberry scoffed. "And thus reject all that makes changelings unique in favor of being exactly like the ponies." She used her magic to mop large portions of the floor at once. "You could have ousted me right then and there, anyways. Why didn't you?" she asked calmly. "Because it could have jeopardized my plans. Revealing you to be an elder would mean there there are other hives." She mopped a little more before continuing to talk. "I will oust you eventually, however," she grumbled. Cranberry chuckled awkwardly and spun on one hoof to face the changeling. "Ha ha. You see, now THAT'S not something you should have said." Her lips rose higher and higher, further than physically possible, warping her face into a monstrous smile. "Can't have a whistle blower ruining an operation far more important than your exposing the whole of the changeling world." She flicked the fins on her neck. "Imagine all those hives that don't want to be found." She wagged her hoof at the now distraught queen. "I might be an infertile elder, but that doesn't mean I'm incapable." She laid the mop against the wall delicately then looked to where the changeling used to be and heaved a sigh. "I know how to intercept you. I've spent about two hundred years dealing with escapees. A changeling queen is nothing special," she scoffed. Mesosoma was rushing through the halls as fast as her wings could push her. She was looking for any of the professors. She knew that they couldn't be replaced. The magic in the school wouldn't allow one of the elements of harmony to be attacked that way. No one was on the first floor, so she flew up stairs and followed the sweet, pastry scent filling her nostrils. Pinkie Pie was having a baking class. That was her chance. She was caught by the elder queen disguised as a section of the wall and the two were teleported outside just beneath the cliff that the elder had used. The two dissolved their disguises and hissed at each other. "See?" the elder gloated. "You had no chance of reaching anyone the second you announced your 'plan'." She paused a moment then lessened her body's strain. "Well. 'Plan'. As much as one can call it." "So what now? You're going to kill me?" Mesosoma growled. The elder queen raised her twisted foreleg up, and the blue queen closed her eyes, ready to be knocked out. Instead, the hoof hit the dirt wall behind her three times, and its owner back away. "No, but SHE is," she said with a grin. "She?" the blue queen repeated. The dirt behind her exploded outwards, and multiple hooves grabbed onto her screaming body. The yellow changelings of Clypeus had taken her as a prisoner, much to the elder's pleasure. The side of the cliff blew outwards as well, but the yellow queen was the culprit this time. She shook the dirt off of her body and stuck her tongue out in disgust. "I hate it when the dirt gets into my mouth," the queen complained. Her eyes went to the elder then Mesosoma. "Not even a day and we already have a problem?" "It would seem so," the elder grumbled. "Let me go!" the queen ordered the yellow changelings. Her horn lit up then fizzled out just as quickly. Clypeus wagged her hoof. "Ah ah ah! Queens cannot order the changelings of other broods!" She accentuated her statement with a chuckle. "Are you sure we need to bring her back already, though?" the yellow queen asked. The elder looked at her colleague with scrutiny. "What do you mean? She was going to oust me." "Was she?" Clypeus scratched the back of her neck. "Well, be that as it may, we came here to learn, not to randomly kidnap everyone that bothers us." "What are you suggesting?" The yellow queen hummed pensively, confusing her underlings. "We can learn of her point of view and ways of thinking to better assess any other hives that think the same way." She glared at the blue queen. "Let her go. If she tries to actually oust us, then she'll be killed." The elder shook her head. "We can't kill her. Her brood would be doomed. It has no heir." Mesosoma puffed up her cheeks. "I never told you that." The elder gave a single laugh as a response. "It's easy to tell that you're a very young queen. There's no way you could have already--" Both the elder and Clypeus bolted their attention to a ledge behind them where two red eyes his behind the shadows of a bush. Realizing it had been found, the eyes vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the two queens to fly off to the ledge. Using her magic, Mesosoma broke out of the grip of the yellow changelings and followed them, landing atop a brown patch of land where dead grass and dried bushes wilted. Clypeus and the elder observed the insects on the straw pitter-pattering in every direction. "They seem dead," the elder said. Clypeus leaned in closer then shook her head. "No. They're just completely drained." She stood up and looked at the forest. "If there are no insects to eat them, then they'll recover eventually." "What happened here?" Mesosoma asked in shock. "She got out?" Clypeus said half-surprised. "The red brood?" she asked the elder. "Well, the eyes were red, and this is still a small area, but it definitely looks like their work." The yellow queen grumbled. "Looks like we're going to have to take this approach more passively. They might know, or this was just a random occurrence." A cold shiver went through her body. "At least I hope it was just a coincidence."