//------------------------------// // Have You Seen My Changeling? // Story: Mark My Words // by Goldfur //------------------------------// All this week I had been looking forward to taking a trip through Twilight’s dimensional portal, despite the inherent risks. Running the Equestrian Empire, consulting on issues stemming from Harmonic Composites, and laying the groundwork for Equestria’s future contact with Earth often left me strung out by the time the weekend started. The prospect of discovering a new dimension was always refreshing and the perfect antidote for stress. Today’s excursion would take place in the Castle of Friendship, thanks to the creation of yet another new-and-improved dimensional portal. This version could stay open for twelve hours but was still considered experimental. With so many parts replaced and improved, Twilight’s latest gateway bore little resemblance to the original model. One unintentional (but not unwelcome) new feature was a lightshow hovering over the portal resembling an aura borealis. Twilight assured me it was harmless, as far as her tests could determine. Still, the test run had to take place where lab technicians and resources were available “just in case something interesting happens.” When I told her how reassuring that statement was to me, the icy gaze let me know she caught the sarcasm in my voice. The team today consisted of myself, Penumbra, Shining, Trixie, and Chrysalis. In a rare occurrence, our dimension’s Luna had requested to join us as well. She confirmed that talking with her sister and Loopy about the excursions had raised her curiosity. My sister-in-law wanted to meet other versions of herself on a first-contact basis. Personally, I think she also wanted a chance to freak out alternate versions of Celestia in dimensions where Luna had not yet been redeemed. With Shining in the lead as always, we passed through the portal into the unknown. We arrived in the castle gardens in the middle of the night, a fact that immediately put all of us on edge. While this was not unheard of, some of these exceptions had involved unpleasant reasons. The majority of other worlds synched up with our time of day. Twilight tried to explain this phenomenon in simple twelfth-dimensional terms, but I could never follow the reasoning that stretched across multiple blackboards of magic equations. My brain invariably switched off and I caught up on my sleep instead, sometimes doing so while standing up. I did grok the simplified version: control of heavenly bodies by alicorn magic. A quick look at the moon hanging in the sky confirmed the absence of the Mare In The Moon upon its surface. Either this Luna never became Nightmare Moon, she had been already cleansed by the Elements of Harmony, or Nightmare Moon had prevailed and brought eternal night. We waited in combat-ready positions for a few minutes before I nodded to Shining Armor and he dropped the shield. Our arrival was still unnoticed – not typical for most dimensions and especially those where either the Nightmare or Daybreaker were in power. In those cases, guard responses to our arrival were the quickest and most violent. Penumbra was the first to stand down, “I can hear music coming from the courtyard and happy voices. I can’t fathom a tyrant scenario where we find a party on castle grounds.” I relaxed at that, straining my ears to catch the faintest tone of music in the distance. “Agreed, we won’t learn anything standing here. If no one is going to come to us we’ll have to go to them.” I briefly popped back through the portal to appraise Twilight of our status. She nodded in understanding and resumed studying her readings. One Triarch always stayed behind until we were thoroughly confident of a dimension’s safety. There was indeed a party taking place in the Canterlot Castle courtyard – a Nightmare Night party. Luna buzzed with excitement and could barely keep from hopping in place. Her grin spread ear to ear. “My serendipity is most pleasing! ‘Twas expeditious that I come hither with my friends today!” Around us, foals and adults sported all manner of costumes. Throngs of ponies and a scattering of other races played games at carnival booths; food cart vendors hawked their wares; and a few stages featured acrobats, wrestling ponies, and a light green unicorn demonstrating illusion magic. I firmly guided my protesting leadmare in a different direction, promising that we could spend time critiquing the mare’s performance, but only after we had gotten a lay of the land. Penumbra broke out laughing when a passing mare complimented me, Trixie, and Chrysalis on our costumes. Shining seemed a little put out. “Between the lack of guard response and no negative reaction to your Chrysalis, I wonder if this world has had fewer problems than our own.” I shook my head and pointed to a large statue in a corner of the courtyard. It featured the familiar forms of Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis in less-than-flattering poses. I said, “Or they haven’t had any disasters for a while because they already cleared the board.” Sally narrowed her eyes at the statue and snorted. “… and have become over-confident.” She didn’t seem pleased at the company her dimensional counterpart had been keeping and becoming a matching set of lawn ornaments with. I turned to Trixie and Shining Armor. “Let's see if we can get into the castle and properly open relations and perhaps get some details on their history.” Unfortunately, the gates to the inner parts of the Castle were closed. The squad of soldiers ensured no festival-goers would wheedle their way into the royal residence. Shining’s mood seemed to improve at this. While the guards were unconcerned regarding who was on the castle grounds, security was much tighter for the building itself. Shining tried to get us past the guards, but he didn’t have this dimension’s passcodes. The earth pony sergeant smiled and shook his head. “Sorry, citizen. Your uniform regalia isn’t quite right, so no access to the castle. Count me as impressed at your level of maintenance and polish. That’s at parade-level perfection.” We did learn that this dimension’s Princess Twilight was ruling on her own following the Royal Sisters' retirement and was in Ponyville to celebrate the holiday. Before leaving, Shining barked out an order to salute, which every soldier responded to instinctively. With military precision, he returned the salute before complimenting them for fulfilling their duties. When he executed an about-face and marched away, he left behind a confused group of ponies, half of whom had not dropped their salute. Returning to the festival grounds, Shining, Trixie, and I huddled to discuss whether we should just leave and try this dimension again next week. That’s when I noticed that Sally had slipped away. We decided to return to the portal and check with Twilight to see if my changeling wife had headed back without us. Twilight looked up from a printout with wide eyes, which confirmed to me that Sally hadn’t proceeded us. “That was quick, but not as quick as when you encounter danger. Was this a world with nothing to see? And where’s Chrysalis?” Trixie said, “To answer your first question, more of a scheduling conflict. It’s Nightmare Night in this dimension and your monarch counterpart is off in Ponyville for the holiday. Combine that with the compliments for our Great and Powerful costumes and we weren’t making much headway in first contact.” I said, “As for Chrysalis, we were hoping she came back here. She left on her own at some point in the party.” I realized my mistake the moment the last word was out of my mouth, I had used the “P” word while in Ponyville. Before I could blink, a pink pony in a chicken costume stood right in front of me. What’s more, kids began pouring into the chamber, all dressed in costumes as well. Pinkie Pie stood on her hind legs and threw her forelegs wide. “YIPPEE! Nightmare Night twice in one year!” She collapsed into a contemplative pose with her chin on a forehoof, gazing off into the distance. “Good thing I listened to my indigestion and twitchy left front knee this morning. Tough one to interpret, but then I remembered the tummy rumbles I got from eating all those candy wrappers last Nightmare Night. I just knew a kiddo costume party was in order!” I looked over at Trixie. She shrugged and grinned, matching the look on Penny’s face. I sighed and nodded to Luna who hadn’t stopped smiling since soon after we arrived in that dimension. “I thought thou wouldst never ask.” With the glow of her horn, a swirl of blue and black smoke engulfed her. When it dissipated, Nightmare Moon stood in her place and let loose her evil cackling laugh. “Come my faithful minions! This year, the Nightmare Nights have been doubled!” With a cheer, Pinkie and the kids disappeared through the portal with Luna. I shook my head and followed, intent to act as another chaperon. Penny and I kept one eye out for Sally as Shining and Trixie likewise spread out to watch the kids. However, given the number of ponies in changeling costumes and my wife being, well, a shape-changer, I came to the quick conclusion that we wouldn’t find Sally until she wanted to be found. While Penny and I stayed with a half-dozen older kids trying their hooves at the game booths set up in the courtyard, Pinkie and Luna accompanied those wanting to trick or treat at the various homes in this dimension’s Canterlot. I recognized Lieutenant Wingover and Corporal Air Strike stepping out of the tree line. A quick discussion confirmed Twilight had sent them through to assist us. I assigned them to look after the older kids, freeing up myself and Penny. Trixie somehow managed to get herself a performance space when I wasn’t looking. She was enjoying herself putting on an impromptu magic performance for a growing crowd of foals of various ages. Thanks to experience gained from occasional visits with my wife to the Canterlot Foal’s Hospital, Penny volunteered to act as her stage assistant while discreetly providing protection. Gestures between Penumbra and Shining Armor confirmed that she had passed on bodyguard duties for my person to the prince. That left me and Shining to our own devices. I couldn’t help but notice that once we were separated from the ladies, our “choice of costumes” drew a great deal of mare attention. Shining had been approached by no fewer than three different mares in Cadance costumes of varying quality. Each wanted to team up with him for the costume contest, with the clear implication of possibly more depending on how the night went. Shining’s blush got more pronounced each time, making it increasingly difficult to hold back my laughter. “Popular with the ladies I see.” Shining shook his head. “I can’t remember ever being this sought-after back home.” “Not many mares would want to risk the ire of the Princess of Love. Who knows? She might exile them to Lonely-Hearts-ville forever. This is their best chance to find out how good a lay you are—the stallion that could satisfy the Princess of Love. Even if they think you are just a very handsome proxy.” Shining grumbled and looked away. “That better not have been Marklestia talking.” That got me to laugh out loud. He glared at me. “You're enjoying this aren’t you?” “Every minute.” I smiled. “Now let’s check out that costume contest those mares were talking about.” “Why? Planning to compete to see if you can get first place with your white alicorn costume?” “No. I suspect Sally won’t be able to resist entering with her “Sparkly-Winged Reformed Chrysalis” costume. This could end badly if this dimension has anything like the changeling detection spells from back home.” With the integration of Changelings into the general populace, the quality of ‘costumes’ at Nightmare Night had shot up. Of course, for changelings that just meant altering their form. A petition had come to the Triarchy to either ban or set up a separate contest after a four-year-in-a-row winning streak by changelings. In the end, we ruled that a changeling transformation was not technically a costume and developed a separate competition for them in Canterlot for Best Transformation. Meanwhile, the costume contest gained the services of a unicorn mage and Red Hive princess. Between the two, they would almost certainly detect any use of changeling magic. Inspecting the area around the stage in front of me confirmed this world did not take similar precautions. Shining Armor and I found a spot in the audience and watched as the contestants took their turns to parade on stage. Each showed off to the audience and sauntered past the table of judges who were an interesting foursome: A pony-sized Lord Tirek (who moved very stiffly), Lord Fancy Pants, Fleur De Lis, and a mystery judge hidden by a billowing cloak. The contestants' costumes were of excellent quality and variety. We saw several interesting outfits including a wide assortment of alicorns, a few breezies, and an ursa minor. The next contestant was announced as “The Finest Chrysalis In Any Dimension.” That removed any doubt before she appeared from the backstage area. To confirm my suspicions, Sally spotted me from the ramp leading onto the stage and blew me a kiss. I sighed and settled in. At least I knew where she was now and could keep an eye out in case something went wrong – which, of course, it did. Everything went fine until the finalists were called back out to the stage, Sally among them. It was at this point the judges came up onto the stage to examine the finalists’ costumes more closely. That’s when the cloaked judge tackled my wife to the ground. As the two wrestled, the judge’s cloak was torn off to reveal Princess Cadance. I reached into my saddle bags and hoofed a gold bit over to Shining. He took it without comment. We had a long-standing wager on whether Sally's inclusion in these dimensional trips would make things more complicated. To date, I was out twenty bits on this sucker bet. Shining grabbed my pastern with a hoof and I teleported the two of us onto the stage. Yes, we had needed to do this on more than one occasion as well. Between us, we managed to separate the two combatants. The local Cadance’s shock at seeing her husband in Canterlot gave us the moment we needed. The pink alicorn berated Shining for abandoning their under-the-weather child Flurry Heart in the Crystal Kingdom, not giving him the chance to get in a word edgewise. Eventually, she let me explain our origins. Cadance gave the two of us the stink eye and a skeptical frown. That didn’t change until we took her and the guards that had surrounded us to the portal. Shining went through to convince our Twilight of the new dimension’s safety and that she should come through for a brief visit. After a repeat of their bizarre dancing and chanting ritual, the pair hugged and gossiped. Fifteen minutes later, Twilight reluctantly said she had to return through the portal to monitor the connection. Before parting, they mutually agreed that official interactions could be left to our next visit when their Princess Twilight would be back. While waiting for the rest of our Equestria’s Nightmare Night revelers to return, Chrysalis and I talked with the local Cadance. We learned some of the differences between this dimension and ours. Like many realities, there was no version of me present and their alicorns never disappeared. The greatest divergence was a different clock and calendar system. Princess Twilight calculated the optimum amount of sunlight for crop growth, hence why it was now late evening on Nightmare Night. Their Twilight also planned to form a herd with the other Element Bearers as soon as they could find a stallion everypony could agree upon. I immediately decided not to be among the delegation that would meet her next week based on my past track record with mares. The pink alicorn’s mood improved when my changeling wife expounded on precisely how our relationship grew from a marriage of necessity to passionate commitment. Chrysalis had never shared her feelings about me to this level of detail… at least with me present. Cadance’s pricked ears and occasional glances at our intertwined hooves betrayed her level of interest. Doubtless, this was her first chance to learn about a relationship quite like ours. After some time, Cadance released her guards to resume patrolling of the festival. Penny and Trixie were the first to return. I noted the sound of jingling and her bulging saddle bags. That was strange. Usually, she used up material from her “emergency performance” saddlebags, leaving them mostly empty. I asked, “It was a good show then I take it.” “Yes, the wise and enthusiastic crowd was most appreciative of your leadmare’s skill. perhaps Trixie can give you a private performance tonight in bed.” As tempting as it was to let Trixie’s good mood keep rolling, I felt compelled to bring her down slightly for the benefit of interdimensional relations. With a swift application of magic, I dragged a bulging coin bag out of my wife’s saddlebags and set it in front of the local Cadance, “A contribution to a charity of your choice, Your Highness.” “Dowser, Trixie earned that money! And they still use solid gold bits as currency in this Equestria!” “Which you don’t need and probably can’t spend back home. I bet these have Twilight’s face or cutie mark on them – not legal tender. Besides, I thought you loved to entertain simply for the joy of it these days.” The light blue alicorn smirked. “Trixie is glad you brought up such an important point.” Her horn lit up and the coin bag’s drawstring loosened. Two gold bits floated in her magic until they disappeared into her saddlebag once more. “Our co-ruler will need an item from this realm as a record of its unique dimensional frequency.” “And the second?” I asked. She shrugged. “Souvenir.” With that, Trixie trotted through the portal, cutting off any chance for me to object. Penumbra came up to my side, chuckling. “Please do not think I am laughing at you, Prince Mark.” I finished the sentence for her. “You are laughing at both of us.” That earned me a smile and a wink. Soon, Pinkie Pie, Luna, Lieutenant Wingover, and Corporal Air Strike herded a jabbering mob of youngsters back through the portal. They were far too engrossed in discussing their candy and carnival booth prizes to notice the unimportant presence of a green alicorn, a pink alicorn, and a changeling queen. Pinkie swished her tail three times, tilted her head to the side, then snapped to attention. “All accounted for!” With that, she pronked through the portal. I recognized Cadance’s gobsmacked look, having felt the same on multiple occasions. Before I could say anything to get her mind aligned to a more solid reality, the Element of Laughter pronked back through, quickly followed by Luna, still dressed as Nightmare Moon. “Round two!” they both chorused. A small army of teenagers followed on their fetlocks. All of my progeny marched after the pair, each wearing familiar attire from the previous year’s Nightmare Night. Sprinkled in were Regis, Nyx, and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Two of the throng peeled off and stopped in front of a gaping Cadance. Gemini looked like a yellow unicorn fire-mare complete with red suit, yellow helmet, and a length of hose wrapped around one shoulder. Shiny Button was in his standard young alicorn stallion form. He wore a transparent form-fitting suit with an accompanying clear fishbowl helmet complete with antennas. “What? What?” gasped the pink mare as she looked the stallion up and down. For his part, Shiny Button smiled and called out. “Hi, Mama Bug! Hi, not Mom but Other Mom!” “But … but …” stammered Cadance. Chrysalis smiled sweetly… if you can consider a mouthful of fangs to ever be ‘sweet.’ “Oh, did I forget to mention? This is our progeny, Shiny Button.” “OUR progeny?” The young stallion laughed. “You betcha! I sure wouldn’t be who I am without my two moms!” He followed this up with a bout of green flames that left him as a mare, though with a changeling’s slit pupils. Right on cue, Gemini shifted to their male form. Inwardly, I congratulated their foresight to bring costumes that worked perfectly well for either gender. Cadance said something like, “Gurk … kkk … kkk”. Her eyes rolled into her head and she slumped to the ground. In another burst of flame, Shiny returned to his male form. “Oh, my goodness! Is Other Mom OK? What happened?” Gemini tossed their mane as they trotted back to the portal. “She’s fiiiiiine. I’ll go get smelling salts… and a good bottle of Eyrish whiskey.” My Dad Instincts kicked in. I called after her. “How do you know about Eyrish whiskey?” She went through the portal without answering. Penny turned to Chrysalis. “Most impressive.” My changeling wife returned the same conspiratorial smile. “It is as I foretold. And he accomplished this on an alicorn without even trying. This gift must be trained, lest it turn to darkness.” She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes. “It is time.” The two came up on either side of the young stallion and each put a hoof on his withers. My batpony wife said, “You are strong with natural talent, but strength is not enough.” Chrysalis purred, “You owe it to yourself to develop your abilities… to fulfill your potential and see where it takes you.” Penumbra used a wing to force him to look her in the eyes. “Shiny Button, I accept you as my new padawan. Your first assignment will be to prank your father-in-law when he least expects it.” I blinked. “Wait. What now?” # # # # # # # # #