Twilight helped me find places to put my pills and bullet jar as Spike went off on an errand to some store called Sugar Cube Corner. When my stuff was situated, she brought me to a field outside of the town where I couldn’t accidentally hurt anyone by experimenting with my new abilities.
Deciding to start with something simple I attempted to morph myself to give my human form dragonfly wings reminiscent of my old flight pack. It worked and was ridiculously easy even compared to making myself look human. I assumed this was because I was essentially just revealing and enlarging my changeling form’s wings while in my human form rather than explicitly morphing my form to look different.
I flapped them and lifted up off the ground thus proving that I could indeed fly despite the holes and relatively small size of the wings. That was good to know. Mover 3.
I attempted to morph my hand to give myself oversized house cat claws. Green energy enveloped my hand for a moment. When it dissipated nothing had changed. So while I could reveal my changeling features while morphed, I couldn’t just morph my form however I wanted. If I wanted specific features I would have to change into a creature that had the feature I was looking for naturally. A drawback but not an insurmountable one.
I changed myself into a bald eagle. Then a pigeon. Then a mouse. Then a black widow. When I became a black widow I noticed something. I felt off. Something about this form felt completely wrong. Then I realized. It was the venom and spinnerets. They weren’t there. It wasn’t just that they were malformed or something, no, they genuinely weren’t there at all. I had enough experience with what it felt like to be a spider from my power to realize they were missing. So, sure, I looked like a black widow but the key functions that would make this form useful were missing.
I morphed again, remaining a black widow but trying to change my body to give myself venom and silk glands. It took a lot of concentration and intense attention to detail but I eventually succeeded. It took a couple tries to get it exactly right, however. Though once I had gotten it correct, I noticed the glands were both empty. So while I could apparently form the glands it would take time to build up the substances I wanted to produce. It also required in depth knowledge of the structure and functioning of the glands.
So this proved I could produce venom. However if I wanted to produce the venom of, say, a Black Mamba I was going to have to do a lot of research into the biology of it.
So for now I was limited to producing insect venom and spider silk. Though that wasn’t really all that bad since I could produce the venom of a Sydney Funnel Web and Darwin Bark Spider silk even if it required me to stay in one of those forms for some time. It would be far more convenient if I could give myself the appropriate glands in my human or even changeling form and have them build up constantly and on a larger scale. However, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Continuing on with my experiment I morphed into a brown recluse, since brown recluses were smaller than black widows. The smaller I became the more effort it took to transform and the more it felt like my body was being compressed. That said, it seemed relatively easier for me to turn into bugs than other things. Finally I tried to transform into a fly but ultimately nothing happened. There was a flash of green energy around my body but I remained a brown recluse. It seemed this was roughly the smallest form I could take. So it seemed I wasn’t going to be turning into a dust mite or tardigrade any time soon. Not that I would ever need to.
Now came the part I was truly curious about. I morphed back into my changeling form for a moment before morphing into Tohu, with Eidolon, Alexandria, and Legend’s faces and masks. It was more difficult than making myself a bird or something but not by much and I still successfully managed to make myself look like Tohu, but that was all. I didn’t inherit any of its abilities. I pinched myself just to be sure and I felt skin. It wasn’t whatever hyper durable material Endbringers were normally made of. Oh, and I was missing one of the four hands Tohu normally had.
“Weaver? What is that thing?” Twilight asked, examining my current form curiously.
“It’s an Endbringer called Tohu. I’ll tell you more about it later. I’m going to try to turn into a few other Endbringers to get an idea of just how big I can make myself.” I responded through Legend’s face and voice since that was the only head with an actual mouth.
I attempted to morph into the Simurgh next. This transformation was by far the most difficult one yet requiring a truly herculean effort on my part. In the end, however, I was a near perfect mirror of the Simurgh, minus the powers that made her arguably the most dangerous of all of the endbringers.
I tried to turn into Leviathan next. The attempt stretched me to the absolute limits of the effort I was capable of exerting and once again nothing happened. I still looked like the Simurgh.
I morphed back into my human form and it was a massive relief, as if my body had just been stretched to its very limits and the tension had just been released.
Wondering if the complexity of the shape mattered, I tried to turn into Lung’s dragon form at the point where he was roughly the size of the Simurgh. This still took a lot of effort but it required less than trying to turn into the Simurgh. So that proved simpler forms were easier to morph into than more complex forms. Not that Lung’s dragon form was simple by any means, but it did have a lot less parts than the Simurgh.
Wondering if I could turn into the opposite sex, I morphed into Brian. I looked at myself for a moment to confirm everything was correct. It seemed there was no issue with making myself look male. And I had no trouble making myself look and sound like whoever I wanted.
So I estimated myself to be a Changer 6. It would be 7 if I could morph myself to have completely made up body structures for combat or could give myself claws or venom glands in my human or changeling forms. Unfortunately I couldn’t do that so Changer 6 was the highest I was willing to give myself. I also estimated myself to be a Stranger 3 maybe 5 at the highest.
I turned back into my changeling form. I had noticed that strange energy from earlier whenever I was transformed felt more restricted. I could only use it to transform and that was it. So if I was going to figure out what I could do with it, it had to be in this form.
Channeling the energy through my horn I just did what felt natural to me. Suddenly thousands upon thousands of tiny green glowing dots appeared like a swarm of bees and started tearing into a nearby tree. The trunk was quickly enveloped by green energy and began to visibly disintegrate. I stopped the flow of energy and looked at the results. If that were a person they’d be dead, dying, or would be seriously injured right now. So I was very glad I hadn’t tried this in the hospital.
“What was that?! I’ve never seen a spell do something like that before!” Twilight said, walking over to the tree to get a better look at it. “It looks like it’s been chewed to pieces by termites!”
I would have shrugged but I was on all fours, or all threes I suppose was more accurate. So I just stood there. “Hell if I know. I just did what felt right. You should get behind me, I’m not done experimenting with my new powers. I don’t want to accidentally hurt you. Imagine, for example, you were the one caught in what I just did instead of that tree. It wouldn’t be pretty.”
Twilight looked at the tree for a moment longer before shuddering. “Yeah… That, uh… That would have been bad.” She then went back behind me, walking at a slightly faster pace than she had to go look at the tree.
“You called it a spell. I’ve heard a lot of references to magic since I’ve come here. Back on Earth Bet magic didn’t exist. So does this mean I can learn entirely new spells or am I limited to what I can do naturally?” I asked. I had to know if these were just parahuman powers being misconstrued as magic. If they were just parahuman powers, there would be limits. If it wasn’t… I wouldn’t know what to think, honestly.
I didn’t want to believe magic actually existed, but I fed on love now. An emotion. A chemical reaction in the brain that causes neurons to fire in specific patterns. Something that by all rights should have just been pure data and nothing more. That didn’t make sense even from the perspective of Parahuman powers.
Twilight nodded. “Of course! I have a ton of books on magic in the library. It’s all unicorn magic so I’m not sure how well it will translate to changeling magic but you should definitely be able to learn new spells just like us.”
I turned and looked at her. “There’s a difference between changeling and unicorn magic?”
“Yes, there is. Every creature in the world has their own unique forms of magic. For example, there are spells that can let us unicorns change our forms and the forms of others to some extent. However those spells are far more limited than what you changelings can do naturally. Another example would be pegasi. You and Pegasi both have wings, right? Well, you can both fly because of magic but Pegasi can touch clouds and control the weather while Changelings can’t. Alicorns like the Princesses have the magic of all three types of pony, unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies.” Twilight informed me.
That almost sounded like parahuman powers but it didn’t fit the Modus Operandi of an entity. At least based on Scion. “Hm… So it's possible I won’t be able to learn magic from your books?”
Twilight raised a hoof in thought. “Well… You might be able to or you might not. I have no idea. We should test it when we get back!”
“If it doesn’t work I’m guessing you don’t have any books on magic that were written by changelings?” I asked.
Twilight shook her head sadly. “Unfortunately not. I don’t know if any books like that even exist to begin with. If they do, they’re all kept somewhere in Chrysalis’ hive and I doubt she would be willing to share them with you.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I expected as much…” Books like that would be incredibly useful too. So I was just going to have to hope Twilight’s books on unicorn magic would work for me. If not… Well I could figure things out on my own but it would take longer. Then again, I was apparently immortal now so in a way I had all the time in the world. Though, immortality or not I sincerely doubted Chrysalis would give me the time I needed to figure it out.
I turned away from Twilight and continued my experimentation. Remembering a few of the things I saw ponies doing with magic I decided to see if I could do anything similar.
I decided to try telekinesis first, wanting to start with something relatively simple. Seeing a particularly large rock on the ground nearby, I focused on it and tried to envelop it with energy. The rock started glowing with green light. I attempted to lift it off the ground and the “spell” immediately fizzled out, much to my frustration. I tried again, only this time I tried to condense the energy around the rock in an attempt to make it more “solid”. Once it felt solid enough I attempted to lift the rock again. This time it actually worked.
I began forcing the energy to constrict around the rock tighter and tighter which required more and more effort. I could feel it working but the rock refused to break. It was like I was trying to crush the rock with my bare hands.
So I dropped it and decided to try on something a bit more fragile. So I picked up an old dried out tree branch off the ground and proceeded to try to crush it. This time it worked. The branch was crushed to splinters in my grip.
“Uh… Were you trying to do that or…?” Twilight asked, looking at the broken branch floating in the air.
“Yes, I was. I’m trying to figure out everything I can do with these new powers.” I told her. Looking at a source of emotions on the ground nearby I saw a grasshopper. Continuing to hold the broken stick I attempted to grab the grasshopper too. It worked. I lifted it up in the air and proceeded to crush it into a tiny ball before dropping its tiny compressed corpse. “It seems they aren’t manton limited which is useful”
I could sense that Twilight was unsettled by this but she didn’t voice her concerns. Instead she asked, “What does ‘Manton Limited’ mean?”
“In my world powers often come with a built in limitation to affect either inanimate objects or living things but not both. So if a power isn’t manton limited, it can affect both. Obviously having no manton limit is more useful. Especially in my case if I’m going to have to defend myself from Chrysalis anytime soon.” I explained as I continued my experimentation.
Crushing the branch into even more splinters I began trying to grab individual splinters and separate them from the rest of the branch. I started slow at first, separating splinters individually, but when I realized it barely required any focus I grabbed all of them and separated them all at once. It required more effort than holding them all together, but not by much. The real kicker about this was that it required me to divide my attention in a lot of different directions at once. Fortunately, I was really good at that. I could make it even easier and limit how many things I needed to focus on if I moved them all as one mass even separated like this. However, that limited the utility.
I would have to get a box of nails, sewing needles, or even just some broken glass later because this could be very useful. Instead of a swarm of bees, I’d have a swarm of shrapnel, albeit with more limited range. It seemed the further an object was from me the more energy it took to hold onto and move. So I wouldn’t be controlling thousands upon thousands of knives across multiple city blocks or anything like that. But a few hundred fresh razor blades within a few dozen feet of me was entirely within the realm of possibility. Though admittedly it didn’t seem that different from the spell I cast that disintegrated the outside of that tree. Still, I would take what I could get.
I dropped the splintered branch and moved on.
Since I could now sense emotions, I wondered if I could control them too. I decided to test this on a random butterfly I saw. It felt content as it sat there on a flower. I attempted to change its contentment to love. My logic being that if I could just make random insects feel love whenever I wanted, I wouldn’t need “donations” from ponies.
The butterfly was enveloped by green light for a moment, startling it and causing it to flutter away but it didn’t feel any love. Even its startlement only lasted a brief few moments until it realized it was safe, at which point it landed on another flower.
I frowned and tried again, and again, and again… Over and over with little to no success. It was incredibly frustrating. I decided to move on for the moment, but I wasn’t about to give up on this.
On a whim I wondered if I could use a more typical blaster-type spell. So I attempted to just shoot energy out of my horn towards the tree I partially disintegrated earlier as fast and hard as I could.
The result was a wide cone of green energy that seemed to act like a strong gust of wind. I tried again, this time trying to condense the cone of energy. It took a few tries and a lot of effort but I managed to condense it down to a beam roughly the size of a basketball. This hit with enough force I was pretty sure it could knock someone around and leave a few bruises or at worst cause a sprain but not much more than that. I was certain I could condense the beam even more but I could tell it was going to take practice.
Next I tried and completely failed altogether at teleportation.
I kept trying different things for a couple hours until I had used up so much energy I felt like I was going to collapse if I kept going. I probably shouldn’t have pushed myself that far, but I wanted to figure out my abilities as fast as possible so I could defend myself when Chrysalis tried to kill me.
By the end I had determined I was a Mover 3, Changer 6, Stranger 4, Thinker 5, Blaster 6, and Shaker 4. I was pretty sure I could probably use my powers as some sort of Master ability but I had no idea how yet. There were a few things I was confident were possible that were just too complex for me to figure out right now. I was hoping those books Twilight had mentioned would help me figure out what I was doing wrong.
I was sitting there panting in exhaustion. The painkillers the hospital had given me while I was still unconscious were starting to wear off. It hurt, but the pain didn’t even come close to Bakuda’s pain bomb or Lung cauterizing my hand. I could probably survive without the pain killers but that didn’t mean I wanted to.
Twilight approached me and asked, “It’s getting a bit late. Let’s head back to the library.”
Too tired to even turn back into my human form, I nodded wordlessly and she teleported us to the front door of her library.
I immediately felt several presences inside. “You have company.” I commented.
Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise. “W-what? No, don’t be silly, of course I don’t…”
“Twilight, I’m an empath. I can feel their emotions. There are over a dozen people inside. If you weren’t expecting them, either Spike invited them, they’re customers checking out books, or they’re intruders. Either way there are a lot of people inside the library right now.” I told her.
“Ehem… Uh… They must be customers then. Come on, let’s just head inside.” Twilight said nervously.
I watched her approach the door. I sincerely doubted this was a trap. If it was, they would have just thrown me in prison or done whatever they wanted to me while I was unconscious. Still, it was suspicious. Something was up. I just didn’t know what.
Cautious, I followed her wishing I hadn’t used up so much energy earlier so I could turn into my human form. Not only would I feel less embarrassed since I would at least look like I had clothes on, but it would also make walking a hell of a lot easier. However, I felt like if I tried to turn into a human right now I’d pass out.
Twilight opened the door revealing a dark interior. “Customers, huh?” I muttered under my breath quiet enough only I could hear it.
We both stepped inside and twilight closed the door behind us. A moment later the lights flipped on and…
“SURPRISE! Welcome to Ponyville, Weaver!” Shouted a pink pony without either wings or a horn. Twilight had mentioned something about “Earth Ponies” when talking about alicorns earlier, so I assumed she was one.
There were a lot of other ponies too. Most of them felt nervous or intimidated by my presence. However, after a moment I felt something else from some of them. Sympathy? Was it because of my missing forelimb? That was the only reason I could really think of.
“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you! Were you surprised?! Were ya, were ya, huh?!” The pink pony said, invading my personal space. I could sense pure excitement, eagerness, and joy radiating off of her. It was unsettling.
I blinked and took a step back away from her. “Uh… sure…”
“Yes! We’re going to be the bestest friends, I just know it! Ooh, I’m so excited! I’ve never had a Changeling friend before! Usually Changelings are so mean! Especially Queen Chrysalis, she’s just the worst! When Twilight first told us about you I was super worried you were going to be a meanie just like her. But today Spike told us you’re a nice changeling after all, which is super duper awesome because that means we can be friends!
I was unable to keep up as I was being talked at by this overly excitable pony, so I just stopped trying. How the hell was I supposed to deal with someone like this?
Mercifully Twilight stepped in. “Pinkie, Weaver’s a bit tired from experimenting with her magic so maybe we should give her a chance to rest a bit before overwhelming her too much?”
Pinkie Pie stopped. “Oh. Okay!” She then bounced off towards a table that had a bunch of cupcakes.
“The painkillers the hospital gave me are starting to wear off. I should go get them.” I said, hoping to use that very convenient excuse to escape whatever the hell this was.
There was a flash of purple light and the pill bottle with my pain killers appeared in front of me.
“You should have told me sooner! Here you go.” Twilight stated.
I sighed as my escape route vanished and grabbed the pill bottle with my own telekinesis. Fortunately holding something so small so close to me took barely any energy at all. It was almost like holding it in my hands, if I were in my human form. So I opened the bottle and proceeded to take a pill. “Thanks…” I said as I closed the bottle.
Twilight grabbed it again and teleported it back to the medicine cabinet. “No problem. Anyway, sorry I lied to you outside. I just didn’t want to ruin the surprise. Pinkie loves her surprise parties and she always works really hard on them. I didn’t want her effort to go to waste.”
“It’s fine. I don’t get why you’d throw me a party at all though.”
“Pinkie throws a welcome party for everypony who’s new to Ponyville. This is actually one of her smaller parties. If she had it her way, half of Ponyville would be here right now. Anyway, follow me! I want to introduce you to some of my friends!” Twilight said, leading me over to a specific group in the middle of the library.
Music was playing and the ponies were socializing. Though even as they talked with each other I noticed most were staring at me, refused to look me in the eyes, attempted to give me a wide berth as I limped past them, or all three. I didn’t let it bother me. I just ignored them.
We reached the group and Twilight motioned to me. “Everypony, this is Queen Weaver. She’ll be staying with me for awhile while she builds a hive in the Everfree. Weaver, these are all my closest friends. You just met Pinkie Pie, she’s one of the few ponies who volunteered to let you feed on her love.”
Pinkie swallowed the cupcake she had been eating and smiled at me. “Yup! Don’t you worry, Weaver, you won’t go hungry if I have anything to say about it! Ooh, but you totally have to tell me what love tastes like sometime! It would be amazalicious if we could work together to make a dish that tastes just like love!”
“Amazalicious? Seriously?” I deadpanned.
“Yeah! It’s like a combination of amazing and delicious! It would be amazing to work with you to make a dish that actually tastes like love, and I’m sure it’s going to be delicious! So, amazalicious!”
I took a deep breath and released a slow exhale. “Right…” I muttered in exasperation. I could already tell this one was going to be a major pain in the ass to deal with.
“Next is Applejack. She didn’t volunteer, but she’s still one of my closest friends. She owns Sweet Apple Acres. You’ll never find a more honest pony in all of Equestria!”
The orange Earth Pony tipped her cowboy hat to me. “Howdy. It ain’t nothin’ against you personally. Just don’t like the idea of some critter suckin’ out my love.”
“It’s fine. I don’t blame you.” I responded.
Twilight pointed at the white unicorn. “This is Rarity, the owner of the Carousel Boutique and she’s by far the most generous pony I know.”
“Good day, Queen Weaver. If you’re ever in need of a new dress, please do stop by. I would very much enjoy the challenge of trying to design a dress for you. And just so you’re aware, I’m also one of the ponies who has volunteered to assist you.” Rarity said politely.
“Thank you, and I’ll be sure to stop by if I can find a way to earn some money.” I definitely planned to buy some actual clothes for both this and my human form as soon as possible. I didn’t want to have to keep walking around like this even if it was apparently normal here.
“Next up is Rainbow Dash. I mentioned her to you earlier. Not only is she the fastest flier I know, but she’s also one of if not the most loyal pony I know”
“Hey.” Rainbow Dash said simply. I could immediately tell that she mistrusted me about as much as Shining Armor. I could sense some dislike as well but it was more subdued. I could already guess without anyone saying anything, she wasn’t one of the ponies that had volunteered.
“Hey.” I responded
“Last but not least, this is Fluttershy. She takes care of the animals here in Ponyville. She’s a bit shy but she’s incredibly kind. She’s a bit nervous about it but she also agreed to help you.” Twilight explained.
Fluttershy shrunk in on herself and almost seemed to be trying to hide behind her mane. I could feel her fear and nervousness.
“Thanks. I’ll try not to bother you any more than I have to.” I told her.
She mumbled something I couldn’t hear. I didn’t bother asking her to repeat herself.
“Nice meeting you all.” I said just to be polite before turning and limping away.
Looking at the books on the shelves I found a book labeled A Beginner’s Guide to Magic. Taking it off the shelf with my telekinesis, I went to a corner of the room to read while waiting for the party to end. Unfortunately the book was written for little kids and it mostly went over some very basic stuff I had already figured out how to do. That said, there were some interesting concepts in it that I hadn’t considered. Namely applying mathematics and philosophy to spells to achieve more complex feats of magic. The book only gave the most basic foundations for this with the most basic math and philosophy, likely to make it easier for little kids to start learning, but it was a starting point.
After a while Pinkie Pie approached me. “Heya Weaver! Why are you reading over here by yourself? Don’t you want to meet everypony and make new friends?”
“Not particularly, no. I’m not much for social interaction. Do you want something specific or are you just here to talk?” I asked as I continued reading.
“Well, I just wanted to make sure you’re having fun! After all, this party is for you!” Pinkie stated.
I stared at her for a moment. Fun… Sad thing was, I didn’t even really know what I found fun anymore. The only thing I had nowadays was just work. Whether that work was fighting villains or stopping the end of the world. Back when I had console duty in the Wards I would do things like look up facts about bugs online. However, that was just to keep myself busy rather than me actually finding any enjoyment in the random facts I learned. Even reading this book wasn’t because I enjoyed it. It was specifically because I needed to know more about magic so I could more effectively use it to defend myself.
Did I find this party fun? No. The music? No. The ponies? Hell no. Nothing about any of this was remotely fun or enjoyable to me. If anything, it just felt like a hollow attempt at ingratiation based on the emotions of the majority of the guests. Possibly for political reasons since the ponies were treating me as the Queen of a foreign nation. So all of this was just a random thing I didn’t care about one way or the other that I just had to tolerate for the moment before I could move on to more important things. Pure apathy was the best way I could surmise my feelings at the moment.
“Sure. I’m having plenty of fun.” I lied to spare the pony’s feelings. “I just have fun in different ways than other people. That’s all.”
“Oh, okey-dokey then! So, are you hungry? I would offer you a cupcake, but I know normal food doesn’t fill you up. So, you can have some of my love if you want!” Pinkie offered. Based on her emotions I could tell she was actually trying to be nice. She seemed to genuinely want to be friends with me. More so than even Twilight who was pretty much the only other pony who seemed to feel like this.
It was really weird to me. It didn’t make any sense. I most certainly didn’t trust it either. For all I knew there could have been some “spell” or something that could make it seem like someone felt different than how they really felt. The Slaughterhouse Nine had Bonesaw do something like that to their brains to mess with Cherish and her powers. They admitted as much when Lisa ratted out her plan to them. So I wasn’t going to discount the possibility that something similar to that was happening here. They could easily just be trying to get me to lower my guard for whatever reason and I most certainly wasn’t going to let myself fall for it.
I waved my hoof dismissively. “It’s fine. I already ate a few hours ago. It’s not necessary.”
“Pfft! That doesn’t matter, silly! This is a party! Tasty snacks and treats are part of what makes a party so fun!” Pinkie Pie said cheerfully.
I sighed. “Are you really sure about this?”
Pinkie Pie nodded eagerly before closing her eyes. Love began to radiate from her. Familial and platonic love. I assumed she was thinking about her friends and family.
“Fine…” I said before opening my mouth. Once again it was difficult to control myself. My instincts wanted me to devour every last drop of love she had. I could sense a bunch of ponies watching me with a wide variety of emotions. Again I had to force myself to close my mouth and stop eating after a certain point.
Surprisingly I could tell I had just regained a lot of the energy I used up experimenting with my new abilities earlier.
“Thank you. That actually helped a lot.”
“No problem! So, when’s your birthday?” Pinkie Pie asked.
I blinked. “What?”
“Your birthday! When is it? I can’t plan a birthday party for you if I don’t know what day it’s on.” Pinkie Pie clarified.
“Again, that’s not necessary. You really shouldn’t bother—”
Pinkie Pie shook her head and cut me off. “Nuh-uh! Nope! It’s absolutely positutely necessary! I can’t just not throw a birthday party for one of my friends! How sad would that be? No way! Not on this party pony’s watch! Sooo, when’s your birthday?”
I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “June 19th…”
Pinkie Pie smiled at me. “June 19th, got it! Wait a minute…” She paused in thought before her eyes widened in shock. “That was just last week!”
“It was? Oh. Right. Guess I missed it again. As birthdays go, it was certainly an eventful one to say the least.” I said thinking back to everything that had happened. The Slaughterhouse Ninethousand, the apocalypse, seeing countless people die, nearly dying myself several times, losing my arm, having it regrown, losing half my body, having it regrown, losing my arm again, having Panacea break my powers, controlling every cape left in existence to fight Scion while being subsumed by my shard, overwhelming scion with images of his dead wife to drive him to suicide. All of this culminating in me getting shot in the head, turned into a Changeling, thrown into a world of colorful magical ponies, while having the threat of some other Changeling Queen hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles just waiting to drop.
“You missed your birthday?! And did you just say ‘again’?! As in more than once?!” Pinkie demanded.
“Yep. The first time was two years ago when I turned sixteen. I was too busy when my birthday happened and completely forgot about it. The only reason I remember I missed it at all was that my dad told me I had. It’s pretty much the same this time, only even more extreme somehow. This year I had to deal with an army of psychopathic serial killers led by the most psychopathic serial killer of them all trying to destroy the world. Then the literal apocalypse happened the very next day and it lasted through the following days leading up to me being shot and ending up as a changeling here in Equestria.”
As I was talking Pinkie Pie’s mane deflated somehow and tears welled up in her eyes. When I was finished she wrapped me in a tight hug much to my surprise. “That’s terrible! It sounds like you had the worst birthday ever!”
Well it was probably pretty up there in terms of shitty birthdays if nothing else. It was the worst birthday ever for me personally, that was for sure.
“It’s fine, really. My birthday really doesn’t matter.”
“Yes it does! I promise you, next year I’m going to throw you the biggest, bestest birthday party ever!” Pinkie said, absolute determination on her face.
“Please, it’s fine… Besides, you threw me this party. I think this counts as my birthday party this year.” I told her in an attempt to placate her.
“No way! This is your Welcome to Ponyville Party not your birthday party! I didn’t even bake a birthday cake!” She sounded highly distressed by the fact she didn’t have a birthday cake ready. She then gasped. “Ooh! I do have an emergency back up cake ready though! Wait here, I’ll be right back!”
Pinkie Pie then sprinted away so fast my eyes could barely keep up with her. Based on that display alone I estimated she had to be at least a Mover 1 or 2.
As I was staring after Pinkie Pie I felt someone else approach me. Looking, I saw it was Rainbow Dash.
“Hey, uh… I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with Pinkie Pie…” She said awkwardly.
“Yeah, I imagine half the people here did too. So, what’s up?” I asked her.
“Just wanted to say I’m sorry to hear how bucking awful your birthday was. Even a changeling doesn’t deserve that…” Rainbow Dash stated.
“Thanks, I guess, but just so you know I wasn’t always a Changeling.” I told her.
She gave me a skeptical look. “You weren’t?”
“No. I was a human. Or a parahuman, depending if you want to separate the two. I used to look like this.” I used the energy I regained from feeding on Pinkie Pie’s love to morph back into my human form.
Rainbow Dash flinched a bit as I transformed but recovered quickly. “Sooo how’d you get turned into a changeling queen then? Also, I sort of wanted to ask, was all of what you told Pinkie true?”
I shrugged. “No idea. I was shot in the back of the head. Then I met Princess Luna while I was unconscious in the hospital and she told me I had changed. Then I woke up like this. I have no idea who or what changed me into what I am now or how I got here. As for what I told Pinkie, yeah. It’s all true. Ask Twilight. She apparently knows the Princesses and they can confirm I’m not lying. Luna can, anyway, since she apparently saw my nightmares.”
“But you said the end of the world happened after those serial killers attacked. Nothing like that happened here in Equestria.” Rainbow Dash said, squinting at me. She still didn’t entirely believe me.
“I’m from another world called Earth Bet. Though considering some very important and obvious differences I’ve noticed about this world so far, it’s probably more accurate to say I’m from a different universe entirely. Which makes it harder for me to understand just how I got here in the first place since there aren’t any parahumans with powers that would let them send me to another universe. So I have no idea how or why but I wound up here somehow.”
“So you’re an alien?” Rainbow Dash asked. I could sense some measure of excitement from her. A far cry from the mistrust and dislike she felt towards me earlier. How could these ponies’ emotions towards someone change so damn fast? I didn’t get it.
“Sure. I guess you could look at it like that.”
“That’s so cool! Could you please tell me about this army of serial killers and the end of the world? How did you stop them?! You did stop them right?!” Rainbow Dash asked a little too eagerly. After a second she seemed to realize what she was asking and shrunk in on herself a bit in embarrassment. “Er… Sorry… I shouldn’t have asked that. I get if it’s a sore subject for you…”
I waved my hand dismissively and shook my head. “No. It’s fine… But it’s a long story and I already told it to Celestia after I first woke up. I don’t want to repeat myself right now. Plus it’s also not a very happy story. A lot of really bad things happened. It would probably bring down the mood here a lot. Maybe I could tell it to you some other time?”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Okay, that sounds good. So, uh… Are you any good at flying?”
“I’m very good at it.” I did have god only knew how many cumulative hours of experience flying via my swarm so I almost certainly had more experience flying than anyone else in the world. So I sort of had to be good at it.
“Then you wanna have a race some time?” Rainbow asked in a competitive tone.
I looked at her for a moment. I thought about it for a moment. If nothing else I suppose it might have been good exercise for my wings. Then again, I remembered that Twilight had introduced her as the “fastest flier in Equestria”. I didn’t exactly want to get my ass kicked in a race by the Usain Bolt of pegasi. “I’m guessing you’re probably faster than me by a fairly wide margin considering Twilight introduced you as the ‘fastest flier in Equestria. And considering how fast some heroes could fly back in my world, the difference in speed could be huge. So I’m sorry but I’d rather not.”
Rainbow Dash deflated a bit, disappointment radiating off of her. Then she perked back up a bit. “Wait, ponies in your world could fly? And what do you mean by ‘heroes’?”
“There were a few people, yeah. And by heroes I mean super heroes. You know, people with superpowers who fight crime? Flight was a pretty common super power all things considered. A lot of times it came with increased strength and durability. We called the people with powers like that ‘Alexandria packages’ after Alexandria, one of the most powerful parahumans in the world. She could fly super fast, was probably the most physically strong parahuman in the world, and her body was pretty much indestructible. Though she wasn’t strictly invincible…” I explained as I thought back on how I shoved bugs down Alexandria’s throat and suffocated her to brain death.
“Seriously?! Your world has superheroes?! Wait… You also called them ‘parahumans’ and you said you were a parahuman… So does that mean you were a superhero too?!” Rainbow Dash demanded excitedly.
“I’ve been on both sides at different times in my career… When I first started out I wanted to be a hero but after taking down one of the most dangerous villains in my home city on my first day out I got dragged into being a villain by circumstance and my own naivete. Then I turned myself in and became a hero but at that point it felt hollow because I’d learned that a lot of the time the heroes were even worse than the villains. Still I stayed a hero until the apocalypse.started at which point I was neither.”
“Sweet! So what powers do you have?!”
“What powers did I have. I don’t have them anymore. Powers are controlled by a certain part of the brain. That part of my brain was destroyed when I was shot in the head. And I had the power to control every bug within a four block radius of me.” I explained.
She frowned. “No offense but controlling bugs sounds a bit lame…”
I rolled my eyes. “You might think that now, but if you saw what I could do with them you would know better… Well it doesn’t matter anymore now anyway.”
“Yeah yeah… Anyway, so how fast could these superheroes fly?! I’ll bet none of them could make a sonic rainboom!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“A what?” I asked, confused. I knew what a sonic boom was but a sonic rainboom?
She gave me a look. “A sonic rainboom! You know, only the most awesome thing anypony can do? You fly so fast you break the sound barrier and BOOM there’s a giant rainbow explosion in the sky!”
“Huh… Alright then. Anyway, it wasn’t common but there were heroes that could easily break the sound barrier. Alexandria or Legend could fly to the other side of the planet in a matter of minutes. And if anyone could make a rainbow explosion while flying, it would be Legend since his power lets his body turn into light as he’s flying and his power lets him shoot and control lasers.”
Rainbow Dash crossed her forehooves. “Hmph… I could take them in a race…”
I rolled my eyes again and leaned back in my chair. “I’m sure you could…”
Suddenly the door burst open and Pinkie Pie came rushing back inside carrying a cake on her back. She brought the cake over to a table and set it down. After lighting the candles she rushed over to me and said, “Weaver? Is that you? You look different…”
I sighed and turned back into my changeling form for a brief moment before making myself human again. “Yes, it's me. I just prefer to look like this.”
“Oh, neat! Anyway, I know this is your Welcome to Ponyville Party rather than your Birthday Party but I got you a birthday cake! Now come on, you need to blow out the candles!” She said as she circled around behind me and started pushing me towards the cake.
Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit and followed along.
Giving into my fate I just started walking towards the cake on my own rather than just letting myself be pushed.
Some ponies including several of Twilight’s friends gathered around to watch as we reached the cake.
“Happy belated birthday Weaver!” Pinkie Pie cheered, mercifully sparing me an embarrassing birthday song.
Not wanting to waste anymore time I blew out the candles.
There was some stomping of hooves as a simulacrum of clapping, much to my humiliation.
When it was over Twilight approached me. “Weaver, you didn’t tell me it was your birthday!”
“It’s not. My birthday was apparently a week ago on the 19th. Things happened, I missed it, forgot about it entirely, Pinkie asked about it, now this is happening.” I summarized the series of events leading up to this for her trying to keep it as brief as possible.
“Oooh… I guess that explains why she called it belated then… So, uh… Eighteen candles? I didn’t think you were that young.” Twilight said awkwardly.
“Is that an issue?” I asked.
Twilight shook her head. “Nope, just an observation. You act a lot more mature than I would expect for an eighteen year old.”
“Mm…” I grunted in acknowledgement.
“It’s time to cut the cake!” Pinkie announced, taking out a knife and proceeding to slice into the cake. She put the first slice on a paper plate with a plastic spoon and handed it to me. “I know normal food doesn’t really fill you up, but I hope you can at least taste a yummy cake!”
“Thanks, Pinkie…” I said taking the plate. I then took my plate and sat back down in the corner where I had been reading my book. Quickly I ate my slice of cake with one hand before taking my plate and spoon to the garbage. The rest of the party passed by quickly after that. No one else really bothered me for the rest of the night.
After most of the ponies eventually left, I helped clean up. Then Twilight showed me to the guest bedroom and I went to sleep for the night.