//------------------------------// // Chapter 32 - A New Beginning // Story: A Changing Perspective // by Dragrace //------------------------------// Twilight adapted quickly to her new body. Although she never really got used to the new insect wings, or the fact of having wings at all, her magical capabilities did remain. Reluctant to cast powerful magic due to the fact she was also maintaining a mental shield upon herself, Twilight found herself unable to cast spells requiring high mental focus. The spell she had cast prevented any foreign thoughts (which for a normal pony was extremely rare) from entering her mind, in this case the demands of Chrysalis. Maintaining the force field required quite a bit of her energy as well, which caused her to resort to something she never thought she would do. She was feeding off of another pony's emotions, in this case the emotions of Jack. Jack was fine with this, he was quite used to the tugging at the back of his mind when Wings and Biggs used to be around. Stopping for just a moment, he began thinking back to Biggs. 'Whatever had happened to Biggs, anyways?' Well, there was no possible way he had escaped town. The only entrance into town was a small hole around the outskirts, and from the looks of it only he and Scootaloo had used it. Biggs was still around town somewhere, and with Chrysalis around he would have to be extra cautious should he run into him. For all that mattered, Chrysalis could have 'dealt' with all the rogue changelings already, and could have turned more of the ponies into changelings. He was a changeling himself, but it was difficult enough to act like a normal one seeing as he may have been the only changeling capable of creating his own emotions. Jack and Twilight headed towards the only entrance to Ponyville. With Jack still under the effects of poison joke, he still was unable to disguise himself for reasons unknown. If poison joke was only supposed to be a joke, then why would it prevent a changeling from adjusting its form, when that could be a deadly effect? Shrugging it off as a coincidence, Jack and Twilight pressed forward into the Everfree forest, following the rough path leading to Zecora's hut. The trees loomed over the couple as if attempting to snatch one of them. It was still quite mind boggling seeing as the trees had somehow managed to curve over the sole path through the forest in such a strange manner, while any trees outside the path grew almost completely straight. It made little sense to both Jack and Twilight, but sometimes nature can be quite random. Speaking of random, when Jack looked back towards Twilight he found himself staring face to face with a mini Celestia. "Why hello there!" The miniature sun goddess said. "Greeting, your highness." Jack attempted to say sarcastically, but came out sounding sincere. Giggling at the response, Twilight quickly morphed back into her old pony form. Ever since Jack had taught her the secrets behind transforming, she had been experimenting with the different forms she could take. She was enjoying herself, which was nice, especially since she had become a changeling she had been quite a downer. Laughing alongside Twilight, they saw a small wooden hut, one which Jack had seen several times before, coming into view. >---< Celestia stood her ground firmly, preparing to blast the shield surrounding Ponyville with another blast of magic. The counter spell the minister had given her had failed several times, and she was making her own personal adjustments to the spell in hopes of at least creating a hole to squeeze through. As another bolt shot from the alicorn's horn, it deflected off completely almost destroying a nearby tree in the miniature explosion. Slightly shocked at the strength of the shield, Celestia decided it would be best not to try offensive spells to help preserve as much of the nearby landscape as possible. Being the ruler of Equestria, the sun goddess wouldn't let one single spell stop her from achieving her goal. An hour had passed, followed by another. After roughly three hours of non-stop attempts to puncture the shield through non-aggressive spells, Celestia finally admitted defeat. Instead of continuously casting manipulation spells, she instead would attempt to reconfigure the spell to allow her entrance to the town. As she pressed her horn up against the shield, she felt an unfamiliar magical presence, one that she had not felt for almost a full year. Pulling her horn back instantly, she recalled the magic quite well, since it was used against her during the wedding between Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Recalling the exact events, changeling magic was capable of besting Celestia, should the host provide enough affection for the changeling casting the spell. From what she had learned, brute force was not going to break the shield. Celestia would have to find an alternative way into the city. >---< Luna had been looking for the changeling hive for quite a while now, and had almost given up. The Everfree forest was quite immense after all, and there was no doubt the changelings would be hidden within the forest, especially since the sightings of strange pony-like creatures had been growing over the past few months. As Luna slowed her flight, she began lowering herself to the side of a large mountain just along the edge of the forest. Preparing for once final look before returning to Canterlot, she spotted a small cave just at the bottom of the mountain. Sensing a strong magical presence, Luna stepped forward towards the cave, instantly sensing life within. Not normal pony life or even wildlife for all that mattered, but something that lacked... Feelings. Was the changeling cave really that obvious, or was it some sort of trap? Ignoring her thoughts, Luna quickly mustered up a spell allowing her for full vision in darkness, despite her already having strong nocturnal vision being the princess of the night. The cave consisted of many twists and turns, as well as a very large open room with multiple different tunnels leading in every direction. Overhead, she spotted a small figure scurry into a tunnel and heard the clicking of its legs as it fled from the night goddess. With a mighty leap, the princess landed in the tunnel she had seen the creature fleeing, leaving a tapping sound as her hooves hit the stone floor. Quickly checking her rear to ensure she was not being followed, Luna followed the long tunnel in hopes of catching up to the fleeing creature. What she did not expect was to find a group of at least one hundred changelings waiting for her at the end of the tunnel. "Thou must be joking..." >---< Jack was told to wait outside while Twilight acquired the cure to the poison joke. Jack would need to take a bath in it somewhere, but seeing as he couldn't take any pony form doing it while Zecora was around wouldn't be the best idea. As Twilight departed from the hut, she looked quite uncomfortable when approaching Jack. When she was finally close enough for Jack to hear her whisper, she spoke. "It's addictive, isn't it?" She asked, averting Jack's gaze. "Really? What do you mean, it’s addictive?" Jack asked, worried about his own health. "Energy... Well... In this case I would have to say..." Twilight paused for a while, allowing the wind to softly whistle through the air. "E-Emotions. I never knew what it was like not to have them until they were gone..." The wind continued to whistle through the trees surrounding the changelings. Jack didn't really understand what Twilight could be going through; he never actually experienced the need to 'feed' off another living thing. He didn't want to mention it to Twilight; she had already been through enough to drive a pony insane. Shaking his head as a response to Twilight's statement, the two departed the small hut in search of a small pond or spring nearby. While the pair wandered the forest, ominous sounds filled the air. Not the traditional timber wolf or manticore, it wasn't even the sound of the smaller creatures scurrying to their homes. It the sound of wings flapping hard against the air, as well as a feint... Buzzing? The first place Jack assumed a flying creature would be was the sky. Upon scanning the sky for movement, he noticed a large, dark pony flying through the air, chased by a mass of smaller black pony shapes. Upon the brilliant blue sky, each individual figure stood out significantly, as if the creatures were nocturnal. When Jack looked over to Twilight, she stood there with a shocked expression, eyes wide, as if she understood what was going on. "Jack, we have to go help Luna!" Twilight shrieked as she took off into a sprint. Jack, who was stunned by Twilight knocking him over as she ran by, quickly recovered back onto his hooves and trailed behind the mare. Jack had no idea of what she planned to do to save Luna, or if she even had a plan at all. All he hoped was that this wasn't some sort of evil ploy created by Chrysalis to get Twilight (and perhaps Jack) to return to changeling ranks. >---< The white alicorn sighed. As she walked around the shield she saw no particular weakness that could be exploited, or any sort of entrance for what mattered. As Celestia pressed on, she noticed a small hole in the dirt ahead. Trotting over to get a better view, she saw it to be a tiny hole that went directly under the shield. "Oh for my own sake..." Celestia mumbled. Using her own magic, she removed a large amount of dirt and rocks from the hole using telekinesis. Once the hole was large enough for the alicorn to fit through, she squeezed in and shook off the large bits of dirt. Using magic once more, she conjured a small gust of wind to blow any remaining dirt off of her, as she proceeded into the town square. Celestia's first impression was that the town had been abandoned, seeing as there wasn't a single pony wandering the streets, all the housing had the doors and windows closed and blocked, and the gardens had begun to sprout weeds. The actually structure of each house seemed undamaged, except for that of town hall. Approaching the large central building, Celestia felt changeling magic emitting from within. Instead of simply charging in, Celestia took her time wandering around the building, looking for any sort of movement within. After examining the window that usually overlooked the mayor's office, she saw tiny shards of glass missing, an obvious flaw in an attempt to fix the window. Aside from the window, the small bushes and flowers sitting just underneath had been crushed by a distinctive hoof shape, and judging by its size and lack of holes, it was the prints of a pony. There was definitely some sort of suspicion that had built within the ponies, no doubt Twilight had detected the changeling magic within town hall and a group of them must have broken through the window. Then, the minister, under changeling control, must have captured all who participated and trapped them in a small, concrete room while inhibiting any unicorn powers to prevent their escape. Then again, Celestia could be completely wrong. A couple thousand years of experience proved that she was usually correct about events that transpired, however she often found herself getting the order completely wrong. But she got that feeling, the feeling that you're right, despite the evidence being extremely limited. Assuming she was correct in assuming that almost all of Ponyville had been kidnapped, she decided it would be appropriate to get the royal guard involved in this situation. Before taking off, however, she wanted to check up on Twilight and see how she was dealing with the entire situation at hoof. Celestia wondered what she would be up to at the moment, more than likely something dealing with studying changeling anatomy, changeling habits, maybe just reading about something in general. So then the sun goddess, prepared to explain her theory to the shrinking population, headed towards the Tree-brary. >---< Twilight raced after the fleeing alicorn, Jack right behind her. Without warning, Twilight stumbled over an irregular root and face planted just in front of Jack. Without time to react, the pink changeling collapsed on top of the lavender mare, causing them both to slide for a significant distance. Pounding through multiple low shrubs and branches, they finally came to a halt in a patch of blue flowers. "It appears we have finished our travels in another collection of poison joke." Jack stated, still unable to take his own voice seriously. Twilight, looking at Jack with an upset expression, quickly rose back onto her hooves before charging towards where she last saw Luna. Still recovering from hitting his head, Jack stumbled towards where he thought Twilight ran off, but ended up going in the complete opposite direction. With neither of them noticing they were together any longer, the two ended up running in complete opposite directions, with Twilight heading towards Ponyville. Another thing the pair had failed to notice was the large group of changelings travelling by foot through the forest in attempts to catch Luna. While they had a goal to stop the princess of the night, when two perfectly susceptible morsels of food just happened to cross their path, they would feed. As the party split in two, Jack and Twilight both ran off, unsuspecting of what was yet to come.