//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27 - Mishaps 
// Story: A Changing Perspective 
// by Dragrace 
//------------------------------//

	The cavern was dark, but it was not quite dark enough to hide the effects of the poison joke. A mass of changelings had gathered around the strapped Jack, unable to move from the wall. If changelings did actually have their own emotions, not just those from whom they fed, they would certainly be expressing some now. It seemed as if the changelings were barely able to maintain their blank expressions, since their eyes were wide in... Shock? Confusion? It was too difficult to tell without facial expressions. Then again, when he did finally manage to maneuver his head into a position in which he could see himself, he understood why every changeling was staring at him so strangely.

Jack was no longer the traditional black changeling, with a dark blue chitin and light blue eyes. Instead, he was now a vibrant pink color, with a sky blue chitin and sky blue eyes. Not only did looking at his new appearance burn his eyes from sheer brightness, but he felt a lot less masculine than usual. If changelings did in fact have a defined gender (somehow he was still not certain) he would have definitely been a female. The large group of changelings staring definitely made him stand out, and having been trapped in a frequently used part of the cavern didn't seem to help. Taking light breaths, with his eyes jumping from one changeling to another, Jack scanned the room in hopes of finding some sort of exit. With the lack of proper lighting emitting from any of the doors, he assumed there were no nearby exits. Shifting in his bonds, Jack was carefully analyzing the situation, seeing as he was not being magically probed for a short while.

'30... No 40... A little less than 50 changelings all staring at me...' Jack thought. 'Magic seems like the best option of getting out of these bonds, but there will be no possible way for me to blend into the crowd dressed up in pink...'

Still embarrassed by the effects of poison joke, Jack dropped his head. Both to avoid further embarrassing himself (although he didn't have much control over the situation) he closed his eyes and transformed himself,


>---<


Scootaloo has managed to trot her way to what seemed like the heart of Everfree forest. The surroundings were extremely thick, the grass taller than she was, massive trees larger than most of Ponyville's housing, and a large variety of dark vines and bushes growing just about everywhere there wasn't grass. Shifting through the maze of grass proved to be quite a challenge for the little filly, let alone the challenge of wandering alone. Scootaloo had been talking to herself for quite a while to take her mind off things, and it had been quite effective.

"Just walking through the forest... Nothing here to hurt me... There's definitely not..."

There was a loud crack, and Scootaloo screamed at an extremely high pitch.

"EEEEEEEIIIIIII!"

Sprinting to avoid whatever had caused the noise, the filly's wings flapping vigorously despite her being unable to fly. Her wings did generate a small amount of lift, allowing her to easily jump some of the larger obstacles. There was, however, a large stone, so large that she was unable to jump over it and landed muzzle first into the rock. Dazed from the irregular landing, the orange filly took a few steps back and allowed herself some time to recover. Studying the object she had just collided with, she found herself face to face with a giant mountain.

"Huh?" Scootaloo said, surprised. "I didn't know there were mountains in the forest! Woah, I must be really deep in the forest then!"

Recalling back to Equestrian Geography in school, she remembered seeing a few mountains within the Everfree forest, however they were quite vague position and size wise. More than likely the area had not been charted properly, and Scootaloo definitely had no idea where she had ended up. Still shaking slightly from the loud noise, Scootaloo began following the edge of the mountain, in hopes of finding some sort of cave to take shelter. The sun was beginning to set, and Scootaloo was exhausted from running from just about every single sound. Following the edge of the massive stone slope, she eventually found a small recess. Cowering within, she lay on the dark, cold floor awaiting for the next day to arrive.


>---<


Morning came swiftly to the mass of sleeping ponies. Once the first mare had awoken, the rest had awoken as well. This was as a result of the close proximity, the small concrete room was now crammed full of a group of mares deemed suspicious. Once one of the sleeping mares had risen to her hooves, everypony else seemed to feel the shift of bodies, and ended up getting up from their slumber as well.

Twilight did enjoy the company of other ponies, however having so many in such a small proximity didn't seem to help. It was almost like talking to Pinkie Pie, always being in her face when she just wanted to be alone. But this was a crowd of ponies, not just one hyperactive mare. The previous night she had told a few of the mares of a plan she had to escape. News had spread to many of the others mares throughout the room, one telling another, because in all honesty Twilight did not want to deal with such a large group of ponies. It was largely due to the fact that everypony was starving; as the pony count increased, the amount of food sent into the room remained the same. Still, for a pony of such a high position, why would he treat these ponies so poorly? Was he not afraid of any consequences if somepony outside of Ponyville found out? Something was definitely wrong with the whole situation, and Twilight wanted to know why.

'I;m just hoping this plan works...' Twilight thought. 'So long as the door stays open just long enough-'

Twilight's thoughts were cut off by a loud squeaking, that of the only entrance to the basement opening. Without any though, she charged the door, attempting to hold it open with magic just to forget her capabilities were severely limited. Even without the magical field to keep the door open, her as well as two other mares managed to hold the door open.

"Help!" Came a panicked voice from the other side of the door.

'Wait... That voice... There's something familiar about it...' Twilight thought.

Losing her concentration on keeping the door open, she felt a strong magical tug on the door, but barely managed to keep her balance. Peering around the open door, she saw somepony she never thought she would see again.

"Trixie?!" Twilight yelped, slightly startled at the discovery.

"Hmm?" Trixie responded. "Do I know you?"

Twilight was even more shocked by the response she received from Trixie than discovering that Trixie had taken part in the whole scapegoat situation. Twilight was the one that ended up driving Trixie out of Ponyville, and before she had finally left there was some evidence that she held some sort of grudge against Twilight. It wasn't normal to simply let a rivalry 'disappear', let alone a rivalry of such significance. It's true that Twilight had a strong distaste for Trixie as well, but Twilight was never really one to show her discontent.

"Uhh... Maybe? I know you but I mean, you have been on the move a lot..." Twilight bluffed.

Trixie gave a puzzled look, while mantaining a large amount of force into the door. She shook her head before adressing Twilight's statement.

"Yeah... Well... Whatever. Get back in there!" She yelled, slammed the door against Twilight's hoof, as well as the hooves of many others.	

In response to the pain, there were quite a few yelps and groans, before the combined force of the trapped ponies pried the door open. Trixie, shocked by the force the ponies were able to achieve without magic, quickly fled upstairs, a fleet on angry ponies chasing after her. Twilight never wanted to get revenge on Trixie, revenge was something that just seemed like a low level of evil, but she couldn't deny that revenge felt good.


>---<


The cave Scootaloo had first wandered into was much larger than she had originally thought. At first, it seemed like a small cove, something she would just spend the night in. When the sun finally rose once more, however, she found the cave to go much deeper than just a single small cavern. She was tempted to explore the cave; however she was also hungry from running so far the previous day. Walking outside, the grass just outside the cave shined with morning dew. Unlike most of the grass in the Everfree forest, it was not dark or thick. Taking a small bite from the grass, Scootaloo found it to taste quite similar to the grass around Ponyville, which was quite strange since the grass around Ponyville received special attention to keep it bright and healthy. Shrugging it off as a strange coincidence, the orange pegasus returned into the cave, preparing to explore the darkened depths.

Exploring was always entertaining, quite often Scootaloo and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders would end up exploring the shallow bit of the Everfree, always keeping within eyesight of town. Also, they would explore opportunities, and new possibilities. This kind of exploring, spelunking, didn't really appeal as much to Scootaloo as running through the forest. It was difficult enough to navigate through the dark tunnels without being able to see, let alone do it knowing there's something watching you. On occasions, she would hear rocks shifting around her, as if something was on a high ledge observing her. Following the wall on her left, the filly finally found another opening. Quickly ducking into the opening, she found the cavern to be slightly lighter than the rest of the cave, despite their being no light sources. There was some sort of magical aura floating through the air, such a strange aura that Scootaloo could sense it despite not being a unicorn. Shuddering at the thought of what possible magic could be at play, she pressed forward, determined to find some sort of evidence of Jack's location.

There was movement just ahead. Startled by actually being able to see the movement, Scootaloo shuffled into another small corridor. This cave that she was in couldn't be natural; there were too many openings and tunnels leading to other larger caves. Something was living here, and judging by the size of the tunnels it must have been approximately the same size of a pony. The only possible thing that Scootaloo could really think of was changelings or zebras, quickly ruling out the possibility of zebras due to their lack of nocturnal vision. As for changelings, Scootaloo hardly knew anything about the species, and by this point there was no doubt that the filly had wandering into their lair. Scared, mostly due to the fact that changelings fed off the emotions of any little things, Scootaloo curled up against a wall, praying not to be caught.


>---<


Jack had been watching the changelings for a while now, slowly prying himself looser and looser from the flax straps that held him in place. It was strange how changelings managed to get the flax into such a state without any evidence of tools throughout their hive. Ignoring the fact he was strapped to the wall, he carefully watched as the changelings began to wander more than usual. Something had obviously gone wrong that didn't have to do with him being a bright pink changeling. The sudden change in the behavior would prove his theory correct when a larger looking changeling entered the cavern. He approached the changeling that was responsible for his capture, the same one that had prodded him with magic. There was movement from the entering changeling’s mouth; however Jack did not hear any words. Either it was too quiet, or it hadn't spoken yet. In response, the changeling quickly turned his head looking in both directions before returning his gaze to the crowd. With a nod of his head, the mass quickly dispersed and began walking around and a slightly increased pace.

He felt the strap finally release its grip upon his legs. He prepared to run towards where the guard-like changeling had entered, it seemed like some sort of entrance to the cave. With one hard pull, he dropped down to all fours, surprising (or at least it seemed like it) the changelings. Not quite prepared to support his own weight, he almost collapsed upon hitting the ground, but managed to quickly recover. Catching the changelings off guard, he sprinted directly into the group, forcing them to either move out of the way or be hit out of the way. After all, since Jack was slightly larger than most of the changelings he was easily able to force many of the smaller ones out of his path. Rushing through the tunnel, he tripped over an irregular lump alongside a wall in the adjacent room. Turning back to see if any changelings were following him, he noticed what the irregular lump was. It was Scootaloo.