Night Crystal’s POV:
I wake up in the guest room bed of the Crystal Empire castle. I look over at my saddlebags to see a note propped up against them saying:
Good morning Night Crystal. When you wake we would love if you joined Shining and I for breakfast. We are in the same room as yesterday. There are some things Shining and I want to ask you.
-Cadence
I yawn, climb out of bed, and fix my mane. I double check to make sure I am Night Crystal, grab my saddlebags, and walk towards the meeting room. I open the door and am immediately hit with a blast of magic. Not one to knock me away, but one to reveal if I was a Changeling.
“Who are you!?” yells Shining Armor.
“I am Skylight. I did not choose to reveal my true nature to you originally because I wanted to try to live a normal life without being judged; because I was a Changeling that nopony had ever met or heard of. I am still the same pony as Night Crystal, just with a different form. You have no need to fear. Although I must ask, what made you do the spell in the first place?”
“When I put that note in your room this morning, there was a Changeling in the bed and not you. So I decided to test out my theory. Who else knows about this?”
“Luna, Twilight, Zecora, and now you two. Keep this to yourselves please. I have no intention of ever hurting you guys. I would love one day to meet the colt or filly you are carrying Cadence. I didn’t give you those potions out of pity. I gave them to you out of love and friendship. I use to live around Changelings that dealt with all that pain and fatigue, but they could do nothing about it. So I decided to help you out so you didn’t have to suffer as much. Can you forgive me for hiding this from you?”
“Of course we can. Twily obviously did, Luna hasn’t said anything, and Zecora is pretty trustworthy as she is very wise from what I have heard,” Shining says, looking at Cadence.
“I can as well. You are always welcome here Skylight. I would be honored if you came back to meet the foal once he or she is born.”
“I would be glad to. I must be on my way back home now. Although, I’ll take some food for the road. Thank you both so much for your hospitality, forgiveness, and friendship.”
“Of course. I must warn you, however, that you might want to teleport back. The snow is in full force everywhere in Equestria, so the Ponyville Express isn’t running.”
“Thank you Cadence. I’ll do that. Have a good one, I hope to see you again soon,” I say as I teleport myself to the Dragon Lands again. I still need to get Spike his gemstones. Then I’ll go to Cloudsdale after this to get Rainbow Dash’s present.
I arrive in the Dragon Lands to see that my cave that is my gem location is being ravaged by other dragons, including Garble. I change into a fairly large black dragon and bark, “Hey! Get away from my stash kids. Do you not know what does and doesn’t belong to you? Or do I need to teach you?”
All of them whip around to see me walking towards them. All but Garble, no surprise there, drop the gemstones they are holding and flee in terror. Garble looks at me with a bag full of gemstones in defiance and says, “You don’t scare me. Besides, I don’t see a name written anywhere.”
“There is, right above the cave entrance dummy. So put down my jewels and I’ll let you off without a scratch. Try to take off, and I will fry you to death,” I growl out, letting a loose a jet of purple flame towards him to make a point.
“Okay, I'll put your gems back. Leave me be though, cause next time we meet I may be a little more eager to fight,” he says, dumping the gems out oh his bag and flying out of the cave.
That was easy. I thought he would have put up more of a fight than that. I procure a basket and fill it up with a variety of gemstones, focusing on Spike’s favorites. Once I heaped the basket full of various gems, I teleport it home and then teleport myself to Cloudsdale, making sure I am Night Crystal before doing so.
I arrive in Cloudsdale to see every pegasus flying around like the world is falling apart. I guess Cloudsdale is a really busy place around Hearth’s Warming Eve. I go to a directory of the Cloudsdale market and look for a pet clothing store. I find that it is right around the corner to my left. I enter the store and see Fluttershy heading towards the tortoise section, probably to get Rainbow Dash a gift for Tank as well. I follow her and see that it is a separate little alcove, essentially shut off from the rest of the store. As I go to follow Fluttershy through the doorway I stop to hear a stallion pegasus snear, “Hey Fluttershy, here to get a present for Rainbow Crash?”
“Yes, and it’s Rainbow Dash. Now leave me alone, I have no interest in talking to you,” says Fluttershy quietly in return.
“Nah. What’s the fun in that? Taunting you like we used to do as fillies is still so much fun. Since you can barely fly and all you ever wanted to do was look after the birds.”
I enter the room and walk over to Fluttershy as I snarl out, “Hey, she said to leave her alone.”
“Oh, Fluttershy is this your new friend the long lost Alicorn? Ha, relying on an Alicorn to save you from us. How pathetic.”
“She isn’t relying on me. She can take care of herself, I am just sick of hearing you two taunt her. So I will politely ask you two to leave or I will take more drastic actions. Actions of which you will not find humorous.”
“What are you going to do? Magic us to death? Oh wait, then that would put you in jail.”
Since they have yet to relent, I, with a heavy heart, do the one thing I didn’t wish to do; change into my full Changeling form. I switch and the look on the two pegasus faces was worth all of the explaining I was going to have to do to Fluttershy. Since in my dark form I am far bigger than my Skylight form, almost not fitting in the small alcove area. The two pegasus glee in terror and I turn to Fluttershy, only to find her looking at me in interest, not fear like I expected. “Fluttershy, you aren’t afraid of me?”
“No, why should I be? You are still the Night Crystal I knew. It is still you right? I mean just because you look different doesn’t change who you are inside. I’m sure you are still the kind, funny, amazing pony that I have come to call my friend; even if you don’t look like Night Crystal anymore.”
“Yes Fluttershy, it is still me, but why does this not surprise you? I have revealed this to the others and they were very shocked. I had to ask for their forgiveness and understanding. But instead, here you are, taking this all in as if this is normal.”
“I guess I kind of suspected from the beginning when you asked about seeing me in the Changeling hive. I know basically every Changeling but one, and that one is you. So, your name isn’t Night Crystal, what is it? I won’t tell anypony, I promise.”
“Pinkie Promise?”
“Pinkie Promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“My real name is Styx. The rest I have revealed myself to know me as Skylight. Twilight, Luna, Zecora, Cadence, and Shining Armor are the only other ponies that know. Now that that is done, do you think we should get back to shopping for Rainbow?”
“Yes, lets. Should we pair up and get Rainbow an expensive costume for Tank to make it more meaningful to her?”
“Great idea Fluttershy! Which one do you like the best?”
“I think I like the one that is Humdrum, since I know Rainbow has a power pony costume, it would compliment that very well. Don’t you think?”
“Agreed,” I say as I levitate it from the top shelf. We walk back up to the cash register, I made sure to switch back to Night Crystal before we left the alcove. I set the costume down on the counter and Fluttershy goes to pull out her bits. I stop her and say, “Fluttershy, let me get this. No need to waste your bits when I have it coming out my ears.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“No worries. I am glad that we could both get this for Rainbow. Do you want to wrap it for her?”
“I’d love to. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night then, Night Crystal?”
“Of course, have a good night,” I say teleporting myself to my house as Fluttershy stows the costume in her saddlebags and begins to walk away. Now I have a lot of wrapping to do before tomorrow night. However, I am so tired and just barely made it to my bed before slipping off into sleep.