Changeling Fate

by Nightmare Rift


Chapter 18: An Extra Job, Honey, & Filthy Rich

Night Crystal’s POV:
I wake up this morning still in my cloak from the previous day. My face was tired from all the tears I shed over Nightlock. I force myself up off my bed and walk over to my closet and hang my cloak up. I need to do something to get my mind off of Nightlock. I look out of my window towards the Everfree Forest and realize that I could cut down trees and collect firewood as well as collect plants to heal wounds and other ailments that may befall the town’s ponies. I saunter out the back door, take off, and go flying into the dead center of the forest. I procure an axe from magic and begin chopping down trees. Once I have chopped down five trees of a reasonable size, I stack the wood in bundles and tie them each with a vine. I teleport all thirty bundles to the back room of my house, and then walk back home, all the while keeping an eye out for any rare plants on my way.

I arrive at home to see a lone female Timberwolf scratching at my back door. I loudly approach as to figure out what the Timberwolf’s intention was. She turns to look at me and starts to growl, but once she sees it is just me, she continues scratching at the door. I open the door for her to see that her little pup managed to get inside, but mom couldn’t. I let her grab the pup and she leaves, nodding to me in thanks. I dip my head back and her and her pup go running off into the forest. As they leave, I cast a protection spell over her and her pup to make sure that the pup will grow up with its mother until it is ready to leave. I walk inside, shut the back door, and go to my room to make a sign to place in Ponyville saying, “Wood for sale, 5 bits a bundle.” Cheaper than the local lumber jack, but still high enough to earn some bits off of it. Once the sign is made, I grab it and begin to walk out the door.

I open my door to see Fluttershy and Zecora running towards the hospital. Knowing something is very wrong, I put the sign back in my house, and chase after them. I catch up to them just as they are entering the hospital and go to ask what’s wrong, but then I see that Zecora is covered in orange spots. Swamp fever. “Fluttershy, what were you and Zecora doing near a lily pad that sprayed Zecora with pollen, giving her Swamp Fever?”

“Collecting moss for Sweet Feather Sanctuary, but what is Swamp Fever?”

“Swamp Fever is-” Zecora coughs up bubbles, “supposedly an incurable disease that you get from flowers on those lily pads. At least that is what the doctor will tell you. Speaking of Dr. Horse, here he is now,” I say, turning around to see him walking towards us.

“Ms. Zecora, Ms. Fluttershy, what seems to be the problem?” Dr. Horse asks. His face glances up and down, taking a good look at Zecora, seeing her orange spots. “My my, it seems you have the first stage if Swamp Fever. Next is coughing bubbles, then electric sneezes, then finally turning into a tree that drops the poisonous flowers. Unfortunately there is no known cure, I am truly sorry Ms. Zecora,” he says, leaving us standing there.

“So, now that you know from the doctor that you have Swamp Fever, want to know the cure?”

“Yes!” yelled Fluttershy.

“Okay, not so loud, you just need Flash Bee honey. However, in order to collect Flash Bee honey, you need the healer mask of Mage Meadowbrook. Her tree is somewhere deep within the Everfree Forest. Once you have the mask you simply need to put it on, approach the hive, grab the honey, and leave with the mask still on. Simple as that.”

“How do you know this? It is not like the bees themselves hiss. The knowledge you have acquired must have been sired,” Zecora asks.

“That’s easy, I had a lot of time to read a bunch of old books in solitude, mostly found within old houses within the mountains. One of which told the tale of Mage Meadowbrook and how she cured Swamp Fever. Although a bunch that was just intuition, as it never explicitly stated that it was the honey that cured it.” Although, in reality, I actually knew because the Changelings would often get Swamp Fever from collecting moss. So we often had to get honey, although we just disguised our faces as the mask.

“Great, well I guess it is worth a shot. We should get going Zecora, we’ll grab Twilight on our way there. Maybe she has read something about Mage Meadowbrook and where she use to live,” Fluttershy says as they both go running out of the hospital.

I canter out of the hospital to my house. I approach my house to see a pony standing outside my door. As I walk closer I see that it is Filthy Rich. Great, just what my day needed, to deal with a rich spoiled rotten pony. “Good day Filthy Rich. What brings you all the way to the edge of the Everfree Forest?

“I just wanted to get a look around your property and house, so if one day you decide to sell it, I can tell you how much it is worth.”

“No thanks, I don’t plan on selling this house anytime in the near future. Have a nice day,” I say, hoping that would make him go away.

“No really, it doesn’t have to be soon to sell, just to give you an estimate to see if the value might increase later,” he says urgingly. This guy is persistent.

“I told you no thank you. Now if you would kindly leave, I have stuff to do.”

“I would love to take a look around the house to see how much furniture is in there. That adds to the value, you know.”

He never gives up does he? “You know what else adds to the value?” I question him.

“What else could possibly add to the value?”

“Your head mounted on my wall with a plaque underneath saying: Here lies Filthy Rich, a marketer that pushed a pony too far.”

“Now, now, that would never do. I simply must have a look around.”

I’m going to kill him here soon. “I said no, Filthy. You aren’t stepping a single hoof inside this house as long as I live. Now get away before I scare you all the way to Canterlot,” I growl.

He stands his ground and says, “Make me.”

He asked for it. I make smoke appear around me, hiding me from Filthy’s view. I change into my Changeling form and I jump out of the smoke snarling at Filthy. He screams and runs away yelling, “Changeling, there is a Changeling in that tree!”

I walk back into the smoke, change back into Night Crystal, grab my sign that I made earlier, and follow him into town. Everypony sees Filthy Rich run by, but I catch him in the middle of town. Once Filthy sees that it is me he stiffens in my magic. “Filthy care to tell everypony what your screaming about?”

“You are a Changeling!” he screams out.

“Wrong, I am an Alicorn that can do an illusion spell. See?” I say, casting an illusion over me to make me look like a Changeling.

“But, but, that’s impossible,” he stammers out.

“Not impossible, just difficult for an average unicorn. Now you will leave me alone. Never come back to my house, because as long as I live, you will never step foot in that house.” I set Filthy back on the ground, place my sign in town, and run home.