Little Changes

by tom117z


4 - A Shift in Scenery

Rainbow Dash let out a low, tired groan as consciousness slowly snaked back into her throbbing skull. Her entire body was sore, and her right wing had the now-all-too-familiar pain that came with recovering from a break. Wonderful. How many times had she broken that darned thing, now? Three?

She let out another groan before slowly opening her eyes. She had been expecting a hospital room or even her bed in the library. What she was not expecting was to be alone on a bed in a dimly lit grey stone room, the main source of illumination coming in the form of glowing green crystals along the walls amidst strange, chitinous growths. The walls appeared to be made of dark-coloured bricks and stone, those aforementioned growths pervading the structure at varying intervals.

‘What the heck? Where am I?’ Rainbow thought to herself. She’d never seen anywhere like this before, and it was more than a little unsettling. The chitinous growths made her skin crawl, and the low green light was eerily similar to the magic of changelings. Trying to keep herself from focusing on that particular part of her environment, she racked her brain to try and remember what had happened.

‘Okay, okay, let’s see here… uh… I was sleeping on a cloud and Twilight was inside. There was that really kinda awesome storm thing in the sky we’d been watching. Uh… it…” her blood steadily began to turn cold as the memory fully resurfaced. The storm, how it had pulled her away, the odd flash she’d been subjected to, and then her less-than-graceful landing in the middle of a vast, barren desert.

Thanking her lucky stars that nopony had been around to see that - not that she had seen, at least - she turned her attention to her wing. She cringed, finding it bound in a cast.

“Oh, great,” she mumbled irritably to herself before checking over the rest of her body. She had a few small bandages here and there, little more than band-aids for paper cuts but on a moderately larger scale. All things considered, broken wing aside, she had come out of that crash pretty okay, especially given her uncontrolled landing and high velocity.

She wiggled each of her legs a little just to be sure they weren’t in any extra pain and was relieved to find them more or less fine. “Okay, okay, so far so good,” she whispered before sitting upright on the bed. She grimaced with effort from the movement, her muscles stiff and uncomfortable. “Ack! Gah… hello?! Anypony there?!”

“Gack!” a surprised shout, and one that was strangely familiar, came in from outside of the nearby doorway sitting beyond the empty row of beds.

Seriously, did it or did it not sound like Twilight whenever she’d been caught doing something all egghead-y? But… different. Rainbow couldn’t put her hoof on it, but something about that voice had made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Maybe she’d just hit her head even harder than it felt like she had. That had to be one heck of a painkiller she was on in that case.

But if it was Twilight, then that meant-

The door opened.

“Oh, Rainbow! You’re awake!” a creature that was definitely not Twilight greeted with no small amount of relief as she trotted on in, looking at a spilt cup of coffee with no small amount of disdain. “Ow, hot! Ugh. Sorry, I had just stepped out to get this and your shout startled me. At least I don’t have any fur to get all sticky when I’m like this…”

Rainbow sucked in a deep breath, a rush of adrenaline flooding her veins. ‘Changeling,’ her mind screamed at her, heart starting to hammer brutally inside of her chest. The creature before her stood a little taller than most changelings Rainbow had met thus far and sported a mane and tail of green and teal. Her lavender eyes and their reptilian slit pupils turned back to look at her, and Rainbow’s own dilated.

‘She looks like Chrysalis,’ Rainbow thought, her nostrils flaring and her eyes narrowing. She moved quickly, springing off of the bed in spite of her injured wing’s protests. She lowered into a defensive stance, her good wing flaring out instinctively while her lips curled back into a vicious snarl. “Who are you?!” She demanded in a shout, her eyes briefly darting left and right to look for an escape route.

‘I gotta get out of here.’

The changeling blinked in confusion. “Uh, Equus to Rainbow, you okay? It’s Twilight. You didn’t bump your head that hard, did you? Here, if it’s hurting, I can probably fix it with a quick healing spell.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?!” Rainbow snapped, her blood starting to burn hotter in her veins. “You’re not Twilight! That’s not even a good attempt at looking like her! What do you want with me, huh?! Are you holding me hostage?! WELL?!”

The changeling took on an aura of concern, placing aside her ruined coffee as she started to approach. “Seriously, Rainbow, you’re starting to scare me. You crashed into the atrium’s shield. But you came here, remember? Why aren’t you in Ponyville? And how in Celestia’s name did you get that?”

The self-professed Twilight Sparkle pointed at Rainbow Dash’s hoof, specifically the one that held the little reminder left to her by Queen Chrysalis in the Crystal Empire.

Rainbow’s coat bristled. It was getting pretty clear that this thing wasn’t breaking off its act. ‘Fine, then,’ she thought to herself. ‘I don’t wanna play along anyway.’

She gritted her teeth and snarled. “Alright, I’ve had enough!” she snapped before kicking off and launching herself at the changeling. “Outta my way! I’m going home!”

“Rainbow!?” Twilight shouted out in both surprise and a little bit of annoyance, her horn suddenly lighting a bright lavender as her magical aura reached out for the pegasus. “Sit. Down. Now!”

Rainbow’s breath hitched in her throat, a violent tremor building up in her body. Her momentum was brought to an abrupt halt, her hooves mere inches from her target’s face. She had been ensnared in magic, and already the world was losing its shape. Her eyes flew wide, the face of the alarmed changeling before her being shattered and replaced by the sadistically grinning face of Chrysalis.

It was the same as it always was, and it was no less painful. Rainbow’s throat burned as a scream of agony tore itself past her lips, the sensation of sharp fangs plunging into her hooves and her ribs breaking overwhelming everything else. But worse than that was the fear. The raw, unfiltered terror of being on death’s door, staring it in the face and knowing that, no matter what she did, her fate was out of her hooves.

She screamed and she thrashed uncontrollably, desperate to just get away. But like always, she was completely and utterly powerless. For what felt like an eternity she suffered, her wails echoing into the world around her.

And then, just as quickly as it had started, it ended. Rainbow fell to the floor in a crumpled, gasping, quivering heap, her entire body drenched in a cold sweat.

“R-Rainbow…?” the not-Twilight said more shakily, stepping forward and crouching down next to the incapacitated pony. “What happened!? That was only a low-level levitation spell, that shouldn’t have hurt you! Did I mess up somehow? Am I… Rainbow, can you hear me? Rainbow!”

Rainbow could barely hear those words through the sound of her heart hammering in her ears, and the primal voice of her fight-or-flight instinct driving her into action. Still shaking horribly, Rainbow rolled onto her hooves and launched herself at Twilight again, this time too close to be stopped. Her hoof struck the changeling in the side of the head hard enough to knock her off to one side and to the floor.

Without even looking to make sure the bug would stay down, Rainbow barreled through the door, her mind shrouded in a panicked haze. Hyperventilating, she chose a direction and ran as hard and as fast as her still trembling legs could carry her, leaving the chamber behind as she disappeared deeper into the hive.


“Did I mess up somehow? Am I… Rainbow, can you hear me? Rainbow!”

Then something hit her. Hard. Twilight felt herself be launched to one side as a cyan hoof met the side of her muzzle, sending her vision swimming as the entire room swirled. She saw a blur rush by her, vanishing through the door and into the corridor.

So many thoughts ran through Twilight’s head in the following nanoseconds. Why had one of her best friends just punched her? Why did she not remember her being a changeling? Was it amnesia? Mental trauma from the crash? Was some other force at play? And why was her vision suddenly-

And then her head was pain.

Her mouth opened in a silent scream as it felt like hot nails were being drilled into her skull, her body feeling heavy as her breaths became erratic and deep. Her eyes were jittery and unfocused, her heart sinking as she saw strange white tendrils begin to claw at them. And they… they weren’t right. Weren’t natural. Moreover, they looked almost sickly. Like they were phasing in and out of existence, convulsing as if struggling against some kind of barrier that she couldn’t see. Whatever was happening, it was confused and struggling to manifest.

And it hurt like hell.

And then everything went white.


The Friendship Express. Twilight recognized it, but the scene playing out before her was completely foreign to her. She was seated next to Rainbow Dash, albeit her entire mane had been dyed a shade of pink with a dark purple strike running through it. In the central aisle next to them, a lilac-coloured mare with a purple mane and tail stood with an expression of nervousness and discomfort rapidly replacing a friendly smile.

Suddenly, Rainbow’s fur bristled, and her pupils dilated. Her entire face morphed into one of hatred and rage that Twilight had never seen before. Had she not been so utterly confused by what she was seeing, she might have reached out to Rainbow on her own to try and calm her down.

Her body decided it did not need her permission to act.

Two lavender-coloured hooves, those of the unicorn all had once believed her to be, reached out and grasped the furious pegasus by the shoulders. Her mouth opened, and words spilt out unbidden. “Rainbow, wait-”

Rainbow wasn’t listening. She suddenly shoved Twilight back onto the seat and then lunged past her at the other unicorn. Twilight’s ears rang as Rainbow let out a furious scream, and her hoof collided with the face of the other unicorn, sending her flailing back into the unoccupied seat behind her.

Then everything became fuzzy and disjointed. Static flashed through her vision, and the entire image took on a look reminiscent of shattered glass. A sound like crumbling boulders echoed in the back of her mind before the vision suddenly snapped back into place. The layout was much the same, but now she was reaching out and wrapping her hooves around Rainbow from behind in a desperate bid to pull her back and restrain her.

“Rainbow Dash, stop!” she shouted out, her eyes blurring with tears.

“LET ME GO, TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted in response, struggling against Twilight’s hooves and reaching for her target, who appeared to be in a shocked daze.

“Rainbow, please, you have to stop!” Twilight tried again, her voice shaking with desperation and emotion.

The vision distorted again. If Twilight had any control over her eyes, they would have gone wide when Rainbow’s elbow collided with her muzzle. The headache she had already been subjected to was amplified several times over. Colours and dots exploded across her vision, her hooves flying up to cover her muzzle as she fell back onto the seat again.

“GET BACK HERE!” Rainbow’s voice echoed from the other side of the cart, followed shortly by the sound of shattering glass.

A deathly silence filled the air for a moment before Twilight recovered. She hauled herself back to her hooves and moved to the window, her eyes wide. She watched, eyes wide with horror as Rainbow descended through the air for the lilac unicorn again, only to be shot from the sky by a beam of cyan magic.

Before anything else could happen, the image fractured in her mind, and the vision shattered.


Twilight dropped, giving a sharp gasp of breath as her ears started ringing in such a way that really didn’t help her splitting headache. The tendrils were gone as the pain started to subside, though the Princess of the Badlands Hive was left with the distinct impression that whatever she had just experienced wasn't meant for her.

“What in all of the infernal hives, every single accursed one of them, was that!?” Chrysalis raged over the hive mind. “Twilight Sparkle, why did we all suddenly get a telepathic shockwave from your end of the egregore?”

“I… uh… I don’t really know.”

“Are… you alright? Please tell me there is a good reason you briefly incapacitated half the hive.”

“I don’t know!” Twilight stressed back.

And then she yelped, jumping to her hooves as the room began to vibrate. Dust was kicked up off of the walls and several pieces of medical equipment previously laid neatly out on nearby tables jolted from their positions and crashed to the floors. All this lasted for a few seconds at most before stopping again.

Great. Because another tremor was just what they needed right around now.

“Blasted tectonics,” Chrysalis cursed. “Bah, never mind that. Again, what happened?”

What had happened? Whatever that alien sensation was, the images she saw… It was fuzzy, disjointed, but she definitely saw some kind of memory. Her memory. But… she’d never had that happen to her. Had she? Would she?

“I’ll figure that out later,” Twilight decided. “More to the point, Rainbow Dash seems to be really freaked out for some reason and has escaped the infirmary.”

“Why do these things always happen only to you, daughter?”

“Not helping.”

“I’ve already pinged Carduus to try and locate her. I can multitask in my own hive mind, thank you very much.”

“Alright. But try not to freak her out any more than she already is! I don’t know why she’s acting like this, but we need to calm her down.”

Whatever was going on, whatever that… ‘flash’ had been, it was a mystery for later. For now, her friend was in big trouble for reasons yet unknown. And until Rainbow Dash was safe and her health examined, nothing else mattered.


‘Who designed this place?! It makes no sense!’ Rainbow wondered as she sprinted down the corridors of the hive. The place was massive, and not a single window afforded her a view of the outside world. There were a fair few changelings occupying the environment as well, but to her great shock, none of them made any effort to stop her. Most of them were quick to back out of her way or watch on with confused looks.

‘Just a trick,’ Rainbow dismissed, focusing on trying to find a way out of here. She was surrounded on all sides by creatures that probably wanted her dead for what she and her friends had done to their queen, and the fact they weren’t trying to do that right now made her more afraid than relaxed.

She rounded a corner, hoping for a staircase or something she could use to climb higher. To her dismay, she was met with a long corridor that was wider than the one she had just exited. A series of raised stone flower beds ran down the middle of the corridor, putting on display a collection of plants that softly glowed in the darkness. Subterranean and nocturnal growths, she figured. Scattered around were yet more changelings, all of whom had turned to her in surprise. A few smaller ones, nymphs if she recalled correctly, ducked behind taller changelings for protection.

Growling deep in her throat, Rainbow turned to keep going.

“Rainbow, please, stop!” the two-toned voice of ‘Twilight’ called out to her from behind, making her blood run cold.

Rainbow spun around to face her, and sure enough, there she was. ‘Twilight’ approached slowly, one of her hooves raised in a placating gesture. The nearby drones quickly began to back off as if ordered to clear out, but no words had been exchanged.

Rainbow grit her teeth and shifted back. “Leave me alone!” she snapped, ready to defend herself at a moment’s notice.

“Rainbow, please. You need to calm down,” Twilight insisted. “If you’ve forgotten the past year then you sure as hay won’t find your way out of here running around in circles like that. But you don’t need to, just think a minute. Canterlot, my brother’s first wedding attempt and all the things stemming from it. You were there when my disguise first dropped, just think.”

Rainbow snorted, her ears folding back at the reminder of Canterlot, and how she had been unable to help keep the city safe. She felt a brief flicker of confusion at the mention of a wedding, though. “Wedding? Don’t make me laugh!” she spat. “But I do remember Canterlot, thank you very much! I remember watching the city I grew up in being all but burned to the ground by you monsters! I had to sit there and watch my home being taken over, and all the while, I could only keep telling myself it was my fault!”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to have her ears fold. “What? That’s not what happened, they were just trying to- Wait, grew up?”

Before Twilight could get an answer, or Rainbow could even ponder the changeling’s confusion, several of the onlookers behind Twilight started to part away as a small group of armoured changelings made their up to the small Changeling Queen and flanked her sides.

“Twilight, there you are!” the lead drone addressed.

“Carduus, keep your changelings back,” Twilight asked. “She’s confused or… something! Don’t panic her further.”

“Yes, on it. You heard the Princess, get back!”

“That goes double for the rest of you!” another drone barked, and Rainbow visibly scrutinized the owner of the strangely familiar voice.

His eyes were purple rather than the blue most of the drones had, a trait shared by his wings as seen when they raised up in a show of dominance and authority over the more common drones.

“Come on, Pharynx, you could just ask nicely…” one of those drones asked meekly.

“I’m on duty, Thorax. Get back with the others!”

Wait…

Rainbow blinked, a lump forming in her throat. Pharynx? Thorax? But that didn’t make any sense. Thorax was supposed to be in Canterlot, and Pharynx had all but dropped off the face of the world after Chrysalis got trapped in her tree. But she recognized those two drones perfectly, and there was no mistaking their voices.

Her eyes wandered back to Twilight, the adrenaline in her veins slowly starting to taper off. As much as she hated to admit it, no matter what lies these changelings were feeding her, she wasn’t prepared to make an escape. Twilight had been right, she had no idea where she was going, and she was not in any condition to try and fight through the swarm.

She let out a frustrated growl before dropping to her haunches and sighing in defeat. “Fine… whatever, you win,” she spat out, her eyes focused on the floor. “I surrender… do your worst.”

“Worst?” Twilight parrotted, appalled at her expectation. “I am Twilight! Not your regular old unicorn as it turns out, and I’m sorry I hid that for so long that it’s a thing you can actually forget, but I am me! You know… uh, the Egghead, and… See, here’s my cutie mark! Not many changelings have those! Not unless there’s another Element of Magic I don’t know about! Eheh…”

Rainbow glanced up as Twilight turned, and sure enough, there was the familiar starburst cutie mark she had seen so many times in the past. Her keen eyes narrowed, analyzing it for even the tiniest differences. Aside from being plastered on a changeling’s flank, it was practically identical.

These changelings had really done their homework, it seemed. But that only served to make her blood boil more, as was evidenced when her ears folded back and her teeth showed themselves in a snarl. “I don’t wanna hear it. Just chuck me in a cell or whatever you do with prisoners.”

“Is she okay…?” Thorax asked in confusion.

“Ponies are just crazy, seriously,” Pharynx dismissed.

“Quiet!” Carduus dismissed before he then glanced at Twilight with worry. “Twilight, you’re bleeding.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, wiping a hoof across her nose and finding a small amount of blood. Not much, but the blow from earlier had drawn a little.

“Don’t tell my mother,” Twilight asked him. “She won’t take it well.”

“I know. I’ll do as you ask,” he confirmed. “But only if she doesn’t ask. I won’t lie to the Queen, I can’t. She will know if I try.”

“I know. At least delay until I can calm things down. Speaking of…” Twilight turned back to Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, I’m still confused as Derpy when the mail schedule changes between you and that vision, but… Look, if we wanted to trick you then why would I only replicate a cutie mark and my mane style? We’re not going to place you in a cell. If you want, I can bring you back to my room, just the two of us, and have Spike grab us some refreshments while we figure this out.”

Rainbow snorted. “...Whatever,” she grumbled before forcing herself slowly to her hooves. With the adrenaline rush well and truly ended, her entire body succumbed to a wave of lethargy and mental exhaustion. The world around her became dull and unfocused as her mind retreated into itself. She was only numbly aware of it as she was escorted away by the changeling that called herself Twilight and of the sound of their hooves echoing in the dark stone halls.

And she was only barely aware of those slits studying her, particularly her mane and the scar she wore on her hoof.

Those, the vision, the contradictions…

“I wonder…” the changeling muttered, right before Rainbow all but lost focus altogether.