The birds chirped, and the squirrels squirreled around my room. I yawned. "Oh, what a beautiful day," I said. "It's a beautiful day to be alive." I stood up from bed.
"Okay, so what do we do today?" I wanted to do a lot of things, and I wasn't sure where to begin. I was surrounded by animals, beautiful critters, of all colors, and shapes too. It made me happy. Everything made me happy. I was just happy. I wanted to sing, but I didn't. I stood up, and put on my robe.
"It's time to take a bath, angel bunny," I said to angel bunny. "How nice." He cuddled me. That's what I said was nice. I thought it would be a great day.
"That's great," Rarity said, putting down a card on the table. They were on Captain Spider's ship, off on adventure, but this time, as guests, rather than intruders, or prisoners for that matter. "It's wonderful to hear that, my dear."
"Oh, yes," Fluttershy said, remembering back. "It sure was a good, really good day."
"That makes me really happy to hear," Rarity said, smiling at her. "Ace of hearts. I win."
"Oh, you sure do," Fluttershy said, reaching over and hugging Rarity. "Good job."
"So what happened next?" Spike said, with the notebook in his hand.
"Oh, you can put that down," Rarity said, admonishing him. "We solved the mystery. There's nothing else to say or do."
"I'm just." Spike quieted down. "Twilight wanted me to do it."
"Well, go right ahead, Fluttershy," Rarity said, "and tell your story."
"Oh, boy." Fluttershy looked around. "To be on a real pirate ship." Pinkie was standing not too far away, talking to Captain Spider. All over were pictures of spiders in different sizes and shapes. The décor represented Captain Spider's family.
Pinkie's voice got a little loud. "And I said, no way! There's spiders in my hair. Can you believe it? What a crazy day that was. It was like, oh my! And, oh! What? Spiders in your hair? Can you believe that?"
"It does sound like you had a rough day," Captain Spider said, nodding.
"Hey!" Rarity said. "Could you lower your volume just a decibel? We're trying to relax here. Thank you."
"Sorry. My bad, Rares," Pinkie said, looking sheepish. "And then..."
"So what was it that happened?" Rarity said.
"Oh, nothing in particular. It's not really that interesting."
"Let's talk about it anyway," Rarity said. "I want to know it, and Twilight is being paranoid, so it might ease her nerves to know that you had a totally normal day."
"A not crazy day," Fluttershy said. "Okay then. Just listen. It was a good day. I was having visitors in the sanctuary."
I was in the water outside my house, scrubbing my body with a brush. "Oh, what a beautiful mooorning," I sang, because I was so happy. The sun shone high in the sky, and made the water look like something out of a fairytale, and a beautiful almost rainbow of colors gathered around me, making the place too pretty for life.
I was about to stop scrubbing, but then I felt like I wasn't quite clean yet, so I continued, and I scrubbed, and I scrubbed, and scrubbed. Then, I was totally done scrubbing. I was all clean, and happy. I stepped out of the water. Angel bunny came running.
"I haven't given you any food, have I?" I said to him. He shook his head. "Poor fella."
Angel bunny brushed up against me, even better than the brush did. "Oh, how cute." Let's go in and get you some food. I went in and gave him food. He ate the food. That was good. I was relieved that he wasn't skipping his meal. Then I went out. I walked out into nature, beautiful nature, undisputed.
"Come on, angel. Let's go to the animal sanctuary and see to it that everything is all right."
"Oh, gosh, Rarity," I said, putting my cards down. "Why, it looks like you won again. Good game. You are one of the best players I know."
"Oh," Rarity said, blushing. "So what happened then, when you got to the sanctuary?"
"Some really sweet and special things."
I got there, and everything just felt, for lack of a better word, beautiful. I loved looking at all of it, and it made me happy, happy in my tummy. I don't even know how to explain it. You have to feel it to know, but I think it was just happiness. I had woken up on the right side of bed today. I didn't meet any of you, off on your crazy adventures. I was all alone, with the animals.
It's probably for the best too, for, had I been there with you, I would probably have been in your way, and one never knows what will happen when changelings are around. Gosh, I'm just so glad that everything turned out okay.
Rarity smiled, having a good time. "Me too," she said. "Me too."
"Oh, isn't it wonderful to be alive?"
"You're in a good mood today, as well," Rarity said, remarking on Fluttershy's euphoric behavior, and outlook.
"Oh, yes," Fluttershy said, putting down a clover with an eight on it. "Oh, I might win this time, but maybe not, but that's okay. I'm just glad to be here."
Pinkie Pie hugged her from behind. "Me too."
"That's great," Fluttershy said.
"It feels so great to be here. Doesn't it, Rarity?" Pinkie said, grinning. "I'm having a great time with Captain Spider. I might even come over my fear of spiders soon."
"I should think so," Rarity said. "You dare talk to the biggest baddest spider around. That has to say something."
"Hey!" Pinkie said, walking up beside Rarity.
"Yes?"
"Am I allowed to hug you?"
"Yes, you don't even have to ask." Pinkie hugged Rarity and walked away. "Pinkie is also happy, but she's more gentle than normal, I should say."
"Well, she was afraid that she had hurt us before," Fluttershy said. "And you know how she gets. But I'm happy everything is fine now."
"Me too," Rarity said. "I feel really happy."
"So, I was..."
... Walking along, feeling great, and I felt like nothing could go wrong, and then I met a bear. And the bear was nice. I talked to the bear. We had a nice conversation. Bear-stuff. It's a thing you will most likely only understand if you're a bear, and that felt great, and then, we just went to the sanctuary together, and I gave him food.
"Gosh, it feels great to be alive," Fluttershy said. "What could go wrong?" What indeed.
Something, happened, and something more, happen, happened? He jumped off the wall. He had thoughts. He was alive.
He turned from a bug into a bigger bug, with a scar across his face. He is the noticer of things, and he is the one that has been observing these ponies as they tell their stories, and he is here. He is real. He is actual. He exists. He comes, and he sits down beside them.
"Mind if a l- lonely, poor old chap, like myself, join you on your mishap, s- s- s- sss."
"Okay," Rarity said, clearly shocked at what was going on. "What's happening now?"
"I d- didn't mean to disturb you," the changeling said. "My name is unknown to the two, of you. Two? Yes, two. I said two? I suppose I did."
"Um, Twilight?" Rarity said.
"It's good that you call her," he said. "I should like a chat with her too, if only a tiny one."
"Um," Rarity said. Fluttershy left the table and ran away. "Okay."
"I would prefer," he said, looking at her. "I would prefer, I think, a tiny chat about the things that I have done. It might make all of us, you and me, f- f- feel better to talk about this among ourselves, 'cause- s- s- s- s, I- ehum." He took a deep breath. "Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse my hurry." He stood up. Twilight came running down the stairs.
"What in the world?" she said. "Who are you?"
"I suppose that the guy who is currently tied to the mast above has spilled the beans already, and since I cannot resist you, don't have the means, I surrender, and admit defeat, my friend there."
"Tell me first how you got on this ship," she said, very worried about what was going on, and why.
"I take on the guise of anything. I took on something with wings. I flew t- t- t- excuse my ex- x- x- xisting. I didn't mean to do it, but I'm here, so what to about that bit?"
"Who, aaare, you?" Twilight said, stopping at each word.
"I'm Esceforn's brother."
"You are?"
"I'm none other."
"Meaning?"
"I'm not his mother."
"You're the one he referred to as Anteforn."
Anteforn nodded, gaping. "Ah, so he did reveal my name. That's a big, big shame."
"Oh," Twilight said. "Oh, this is not good."
"What?" Anteforn said. "What's not good? Not? How are things not as they should?"
"You're here, and if the things he said are to be believed," Twilight said, backing away.
"What did he tell you exactly?"
Twilight backed out the room, and ran up the stairs to the deck of the ship.
"The situation is going intactly, intactly? Oh, really, me?" He said, running after Twilight. She reached the top of the stairs. He did too. "Brother, I see," Anteforn said, coming up. He saw Esceforn tied against the mask. He, in his own mind, was only an actor, among actors, observing himself and others. He liked doing so, and what you're currently reading are his thoughts.
"Oh, no. This is not so," he said.
"How so?" Anteforn said. "How no?"
Twilight looked at Anteforn, up and down, carefully. Anteforn was calm now.
Twilight said, "You threatened my friend."
"I'm giving myself over to you. I'm surrendering, that too, and what are you accusing me of? I don't even know. Wow. Threatening someone? I've threatened others than Zecora, if you're talking about that a one."
"What is the secret of your power?" Twilight said. Anteforn just walked up to Esceforn and sat down beside him.
Twilight glared, and blared, "Hello?"
"All's well that ends well," Anteforn said, smiling at Esceforn. The ship moved and everything moved back in time, just a few fractions, of actions, moving back, aback, through history. Now, Anteforn was standing at the dock, walking up to the ship.
Esceforn was sitting there, unbound. He heard a sound. Where did it come from, around what bound?
"Must've sneezed or something. Heheh. Wh- wheeze- z- d."
"Yeah, okay."
Twilight stood beside him. "Time travel, I see."
Anteforn looked at her. "Well, he was going to be a threat, so I might as well these ropes back get." The dust on the ground, from which ropes had been made a moment ago, rematerialized, and turned into new ropes. "You'll help me tie him, I bet."
Twilight grabbed him and pushed him against a wall. "I don't know what you're getting at, or what you think you're doing, but you should understand that time travel is very dangerous."
"Living," he said, "is giving, and taking, is faking, and being good, is as it should, and I am bad, because I was born mad."
"No, you're just confused. I'm sure the ones at your home could help you."
"Help? You think I want to do what they want, and- and, become a whelp? A weakling? No, I don't think so- sssking." He gritted his teeth, and grinded them against each other. His body melted and turned into a mass of colors, and his facial features changed.
Now, he had the leg of Derpy, another leg, that of Rainbow Dash, and the leg of Fluttershy, and one more leg, that belonging to Twilight. He had Rarity's facial features, and Pinkie Pie's body, and his eyes were those of Applejack.
"He told me this could happen to a changeling," Twilight said. Anteforn kept melting, and melted into the floor of the ship, disappearing. Twilight teleported to the inside of the ship. The liquid kept running down there, too. Twilight shot a beam at it, and it reshaped into a changeling.
"Please," Twilight said. "You're not acting like yourself. I know you aren't because Esceforn told me."
"All's well that ends well," he said, and disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
"So anyway," Twilight said.
I was surrounded by animals and everything was lovely. I wanted to go do something with them. We went into the forest. There, who should we meet but the mighty Derpy Hooves, who's one of the greatest ponies I know, and a dear friend.
"I envy you," Rainbow Dash said, dryly. "Don't you at least have any interesting details that make this particular day different from other days, Flutters?"
"Well, I don't know," Fluttershy said.
Twilight went around, spraying gushes of purple magic over the walls, like a fuzz of purple in different nuances. Something came off the wall. It was Anteforn.
"Okay, can we talk now?" Twilight said.
"Oh, jeez," Fluttershy said.
"All's well that ends well," he said. He disappeared.
Twilight hit another wall with magic, and now, it was outside, where Esceforn was bound. Anteforn fell off the wall and turned into his true form, which is the changeling with the scar.
"Don't be stupid."
"All's well that ends well." Twilight sighed.
"Okay," Twilight said, looking at Anteforn, who had been sitting on the side of the ship, now holding on for dear life. "This has to stop."
"Never, ever. Never. Never. Ever. Ever. Never. Ever."
"Just come up and we can talk. This is a charade."
"All's well th–"
Twilight grabbed him with her magic and pulled him up. He fell on the floor like a wet fish, bouncing up and down.
"All's well that e–"
Twilight pushed his mouth together with her magic. "We're going to have to call Thorax. Until them, let's keep an eye on him."
He was bound around the mast, along with Esceforn, and a tiny gag was put on his mouth, to prevent him from saying the magic words. He liked magic words. He liked thinking. These were his thoughts. This is also one of his thoughts. He didn't know what was going on. What does it mean to say that something is going on? Na-na-na-na.
Twilight looked at him. "Okay then, so he obviously wanted to be caught, either that, or just acting crazy, but why?"
"Look under his hoof," Esceforn said, "for proof."
Twilight did, and there was a tiny book. Twilight read from it out loud, onto the ship.
"Pinkie stood aside from the book, and Rainbow flew past her, laughing. Okay, that was weird. Don't laugh at her, Rarity said. Why, she can't help it if there's spiders in her hair." Twilight had to pick up her jaw back off the floor, after reading that.
"What the #&/"#"!" She looked at the book. "*************," she said.
"Oh, my gosh." Rainbow came flying. "Twilight. I've never heard you say such words."
Twilight showed Rainbow Dash the book.
Rainbow said, "What in the %&%& and the %&% on a hot summer's day."
"Oh, no." Rarity came running. "That is the worst thing someone could say. What in the world would possess you to say such a thing? That is obscene, even by your standards. I don't know if I can even have you around civilized company if you say a word like the word you just said."
"Look," Rainbow said, handing the book to Rarity.
"Wow," Rarity said. "Well, that is quite shocking, but that still doesn't explain the crazy, and frankly, offensive language you're using." Rarity shook her head, looking concerned. "Really? That's a horrible word to say. It's even worse than some of the worst things I have ever heard."
Rainbow crossed her arms, hovering above Rarity. "You'll get over it."
"Come here," Rarity said, and Rainbow did, flying down to the book. "What we're doing and saying is being written down right now. I don't even know if we can be in the same place as that guy, given what he's trying to do right now. He's listening to us, and everything is being passed over to this book." And indeed, the book was writing itself, as Rarity was reading it, right in this second.
She put the book down. "Will you stop that?"
"I'll do a sleeping spell on him," Twilight said. And she did.
I thought that it would be great if we could pick that bird down off the tree. Are you getting this, Spike? Anyway, and then, he didn't want to come, but he was clearly hurt. Oh, how did I know that it was a he? I just knew.
I took it back to my house and gave it a nice little massage, and I wanted its wing to heal up before it got out again, and since I didn't have anything better to do, I thought I would stay and watch this bird, and everything would turn out well in the end for the little critter. I was sure of it. I could feel sure about that, and I knew it. I just knew it. It felt great. Everything felt great.
Of course, Derpy joined me, and we had a nice little conversation, where we talked about our lives, so she told me that she got the nickname of Derpy when she was little and it was affectionate. It was something positive to her, but it has been used in many different contexts and situations, sometimes dismissively, which is terrible, and sometimes, to show that there is a close friendship between her and that other pony.
"Do you want to go inside?" she said, looking at me.
I was glad that she was here, and I looked back at her, smiling. "I think so, but first, we have to go fix a bird's nest." And we did, and then we went inside.
"Wow," she said. "This sure is a nice-looking place you got."
"You've seen it before," I said.
"Yes, but not in a long time."
I agreed with her. I liked how my home looked, and of course, there were many small things going on all over, and I was happy to see that all the animals were getting along well. If anything, this was one of the most perfect, hitch-free days ever.
"We sit down?" Derpy said, smiling, and I smiled back.
"Yes, I suppose we do." We did sit down. Someone or something knocked at the door, and who was it but our dear friend Discord?
"Hello," he said. "Hello. Hello there. Hello, everybody." His head detached from his body and flew into the house, landing in the chair beside Derpy. "Hello."
"What are you?" Derpy said.
"You don't know about me?" he said, turning his head away, or rather, his head turned away from her.
I walked away from the door. His body was just left standing there. I didn't know what was going on, but it's Discord, so you never know what he will do next.
"I'm sure she knows who you are," I said. "Everybody knows who you are."
"Well, they'd better. I was the king of Equestria, once, in my heyday."
"Was that before or after the sisters banished you and turned you into stone?"
A crown came out of nowhere and landed on his head. "I'm still the king of Equestria, as a matter of fact. If you didn't know, now you know."
"I see." I smiled.
"I know who you are," Derpy said. "I just don't know what you're doing."
"Nobody ever does," I said. "Just go with it. We can have fun, and not understand anything that's going on at the same time."
Discord pouted. "Do you really understand nothing?"
I shrugged a little. "I understand the words you're saying right now, if that's any comfort, Discord-pumpkin."
"Maybe a little bit, but you'll still have to explain yourself to him." Discord's head looked at his body, which walked in the room. It sat down beside them. "He's beyond reprieve, Fluttershy. Totally beyond reprieve."
The body bent down and sobbed.
"Don't be sad. Do you want some tea?" Fluttershy said to his body.
Derpy just looked out into nowhere. She had accepted the situation, as had I.
I like being around my friends a lot. I like to see them smile. Pinkie said that. I agree. I felt great, but I don't feel so great now. Why? I'm not really sure.
You don't always know why you feel the way you feel and that's okay.
I've enjoyed being around my friends today.
What's going on now?
It's great to be alive.
Fluttershy looked at me. "Are you finished?"
"Yes." I finished writing the last details down.
"That's great, Spike," she said. I was happy that she had been happy, but now, I was just confused about everything. Really, these changelings had gone too far, and why? What were they doing, and why? Especially that Anteforn fellow was a strange creature, and I didn't even know what they were trying to accomplish.
I said to Fluttershy, "Hey, do you think this is still about Apple-land?"
"Oh, we have them trapped anyway, so does it really matter?" she said.
"Hm," I said. "I just feel... I don't know."
Now, I began wondering if this was the real Fluttershy. I was questioning everything, but why? This was my friend. You can't do that. I couldn't do that. Now, Rainbow Dash was right. You have to be loyal.
Still, is that something Fluttershy would say?
Oh, stop it. I'm just being stupid.
She could've added a few more details into her story.
What am I even saying?
I don't know what's going on, or what to make of any of it?
Wait, but that can't be a changeling, because they're both up there.
"Hey, Fluttershy," I said.
"What is it?"
"Oh, nothing."
Twilight came walking down the stairs, and she had another Fluttershy in tow, walking with her.
"I want an explanation, now," she said.
Okay then. This was getting weeeird.