Forever a Changeling

by Scootaloo-009

Chapter 8

        Rainbow Dash stretched her wings, enjoying the warm morning sun. After doing some quick stretches, she leapt from her home and began her nearly daily ritual of flying. Her mind was busy though. She had a plan. All she needed to finish it was a little help from Twilight.

        As she flew towards Sweet Apple Acres, she picked up a negative signal coming from Fluttershy’s house. She’d developed a habit of leaving her pony sense on unless she was in a crowd to practice. She had gotten better at telling emotions apart, but it was limited to differentiating positive and negative emotions at the moment. She turned it off and went to investigate.

        “Hey, Fluttershy,” she greeted when she was close enough.

        “Oh, good morning, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said. She was walking about her yard, looking inside every bush and gazing up into the trees.

        “Did you lose something?”

        “It’s Mr. Sugar Glider. I need to give him some medicine but he’s went and vanished,” Fluttershy said, holding up a pill about the size of a grape.

        “That’s a pretty big pill for a squirrel to swallow, don’t you think?”

        “Sugar glider, and it’s not a pill, it’s suppository,” Fluttershy replied.

        “Yikes. I feel bad for him.”

        “But he needs it. He ate some poisonous berries and I need to give him this antidote soon or it will be too late.”

        “Can I help?” Rainbow Dash asked.

        “I wouldn’t want to keep you from what you were doing.”

        “It won’t take long,” Rainbow Dash said. She turned her sense back on and began picking through all the noise. There were animals everywhere, each giving off its own signal. It wasn’t enough to overload her senses but it was uncomfortable. Finally she zeroed in on a strong feeling and flew to confirm her suspicions. “Is this him?”

        “Yes! How did you find him so quickly?” Fluttershy flew over and grabbed the sugar glider tightly so he couldn’t get away.

        “I just had a feeling,” Rainbow Dash said. “Oh, I forgot. How did your parents’ visit go?”

        “It went okay,” Fluttershy replied. “I wasn’t expecting Zecora to stop bye and they were like we were at first but I managed to calm them down.”

        “I’m sorry I missed it. I’ll see you around.” Rainbow Dash flew off, headed to see her other friend on the outskirts of Ponyville.”

        “Hey, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash greeted. Her earth bound friend was slowly walking around the orchard, gazing up at the trees. “Whatcha up to?”

        “Just checkin’ the fields. It’s nearly harvestin’ time again,” Applejack replied.

        “Sweet! That means cider too!” Rainbow Dash cheered. There was one thing she’d break her total food fast for and that was Sweet Apple Cider.

        “Yup. Say, yah said yah’d tell us about yer trip but that was more than  two weeks ago,” Applejack complained.

        “I know, but they’ve kept me working around the clock. Just because I’m the head weather pony in town doesn’t mean I can take an unannounced week off.”

        “Well Ah’d like tah hear it at some point.”

        “I think I’ll tell you all together, that way I don’t have to repeat myself four times. How about you all meet a Twilight’s tonight?”

        Applejack suddenly looked startled. “Tonight? As in, tonight, tonight?”

        “Yeah.”

        Applejack quickly shook her head. “Sorry, can’t, Ah gotta... help Apple Bloom with a school project tonight. Maybe some other time?”

        “Okay. It’s not exactly urgent.” Rainbow Dash turned to fly off but Applejack called after her.

        “Rainbow, Ah wanted tah say... Ah’ve never been more scared then when Twahlight cast that spell on you. Ah thought Ah might ah lost mah best friend.”

        “What, more than when Nightmare Moon showed up? Or how about when that dragon was going to barbeque us?”

        “Ah’d rather face Discord and Nightmare Moon together then lose yah. Ah’m serious.”

        “I... I know...” Rainbow Dash replied, landing in front of Applejack. “I was scared I wouldn’t be able to come home.”

        “But yah are home, right?”

        “I’m home to stay,” Rainbow Dash declared. “Until I get drafted by the wonderbolts, that is.”

        Applejack rolled her eyes. “Typical Rainbow.”

        Rainbow Dash strolled through Ponyville, slowly making her way to the library.

        “Rainbow Dash! Oh, Rainbow Dash!”

        Rainbow Dash turned and saw Rarity was calling her name while coming towards her. “Hey, Rarity.”

        “I’m so glad I ran into you of all ponies today. I have several dresses I need fitted,” Rarity said. She leaned in close and whispered, “Somepony of your abilities would make it a lot easier than rounding up a dozen different sized ponies.”

        Rainbow Dash sighed. “It’s not that easy. I basically have to be looking at them to do a good copy.”

        “Oh...”

        “Unless you needed Twilight, I can’t help,” Rainbow Dash said. “Speaking of which, I’ve got to go see her.”

        “Umm... Twilight? Right now?” Rarity asked.

        “Yeah.”

        “Err... she’s in Canterlot,” Rarity said.

        Rainbow Dash shrugged. “That’s okay. I really just need the library. I can look it up myself.”

        “The library is closed,” Rarity said quickly.

        “No problem, Twilight gave me a spare key,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ll see you later, Rarity.”

        Rarity watched her go with worry. “Uh oh... Pinkie Pie!”

        “Yes?” Pinkie asked, popping out of a nearby bush.

        “Pinkie, Rainbow Dash is heading for the library. You have to stop her!”

        “On it!”

        “Hey, Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie said, skipping along, keeping up with Rainbow Dash.

        “Hey, Pinkie Pie.”

        “Can you help me with something, Dashie?” Pinkie asked.

        “Depends. What do you need?”

        Pinkie dramatically signed and Rainbow Dash stopped. “You wouldn’t believe it. I’m swamped with work today and the Cakes are out of town. Everypony else is busy. Can you lend me a hoof?”

        Rainbow Dash thought about it. “I’m not really good at cooking,” she replied.

        “That’s okay. There are tons of deliveries that need doing.”

        “Alright, I’ll help. It’s not like I’m in a rush,” Rainbow Dash agreed.

        “Yay!” Pinkie cheered. She grabbed Rainbow Dash and dragged her into a rain barrel. The next thing she knew, Rainbow Dash was falling out of a jar in the Sugarcube Corner kitchen.

        “How did- where- what?” Rainbow Dash stammered, looking about. “How did we get here? We were on the other side of town!”

        “I’m always thinking with portals!” Pinkie Pie replied.

        Rainbow Dash just let the subject drop. “So what do you need me to do?”

        “I’ve got a whole bunch of deliveries to make and deliver. I’ll bake them up and you can bring them to where they need to go.”

        “Okay,” Rainbow Dash said. “Let me just...” she held Pinkie Pie still and focused on her. A second later she had shapeshifted into Pinkie’s duplicate.

        “Cool!”

        “What do you think?” Rainbow Dash asked. She then coughed. “I think I’m pretty convincing.”

        “Oh wow, you even got my voice!” Pinkie said. “But why?”

        “I don’t want everypony thinking I’m a delivery filly,” Rainbow Dash replied. “So do you have anything ready to go?”

        “These muffins need to go to the post office,” Pinkie said giving a box to her doppelganger.

        “Done!” Rainbow Dash declared. It had taken all day but she had finally finished all the deliveries. Spending hours as Pinkie Pie had been interesting. Everypony had greeted her and wanted to talk about something, forcing her to smile and nod. She still hadn’t worked out how Pinkie managed the things she did, but it had still been nice.

        “Thanks for all the help!” Pinkie Pie said. “I have one more delivery but I’m going to bring that personally.”

        “Okay. I'll see you tomorrow,” Rainbow Dash said, heading out the door.

        “You still look like me.”

        Rainbow Dash turned back to her normal self in a burst of blue. “Oops.”

        Rainbow Dash left Sugarcube Corner and went off to her original destination. She’s probably see if Twilight had come home before letting herself in.

        “Hey, Rainbow.”

        Rainbow Dash turned and saw Applejack struggling with two barrels. One was on her back and she was rolling the other one along with her head.

        “Here, I’ll get that,” Rainbow Dash said. She galloped over and lowered her body to the ground next to the barrel. She tilted it over onto her back and tried to stand back up. “Grrrah,” she groaned. “What’s in here, lead?”

        “Somethin’ heavy,” Applejack replied. “Thanks fer the help.”

        “No problem. I thought you were helping Apple Bloom,” Rainbow Dash said.

        “I... uh... we finished early,” Applejack said.

“Where are we going?”

        “This way,” Applejack said, leading the way.

        Rainbow Dash followed the orange mare as she walked slowly through the streets of Ponyville. The barrel was heavy and she briefly contemplated trying to shapeshift herself more muscle but there was still some ponies around that might see. Finally Applejack stopped and Rainbow Dash nearly ran into her.

        “We’re here,” she announced.

        “The library?” Rainbow Dash said, confused. Applejack nodded and marched over to the door. She knocked and it opened but Rainbow Dash couldn’t see anypony inside.

        “Well, come on.”

        The inside of the tree was dark. Rainbow Dash had just made it inside the door and placed the barrel on the floor when the lights all came on at once.

        “SURPRISE!”

        “Huh? Whah?” Rainbow Dash said, looking around at all her friends. The main lobby of the library had been covered in decorations. There was a big banner saying “Happy Birthday Rainbow Dash”

        “It’s your birthday, silly,” Rarity said.

        “It’s not my birthday,” Rainbow Dash said, genuinely confused. “It’s not for a few months.”

        “That’s where you’re wrong,” Twilight said.

        “You never told us when it was before,” Pinkie said.

        “So Twi here looked it up,” Applejack continued.

        “Canterlot has a copy of all legal records from every town in Equestria. It wasn’t that hard to look it up,” Twilight explained.

        “Oh... Oh!”

        “Enough talking, let’s have a party!” Pinkie cheered. “I brought the treats!”

        “Eh... no thanks,” Rainbow Dash said.

        Pinkie’s eyes welled up. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

        “I don’t need to. I haven’t eaten since I found out I’m a changeling. I feel fine.”

        “You don’t have to, I guess,” Fluttershy said.

        Applejack had placed her barrel on a table and had stuck a tap in it. “How about some cider? Ah brought two whole barrels of mah best fermented cider! It’s the vintage from the year yah were born.”

        “I can’t say no to that!” Rainbow Dash said. Applejack poured her a mug and Rainbow Dash happily grabbed it. She went to chug it when she stopped. “That’s it!”

        “What’s it?” Applejack asked.

        “Your cider! It smells just like my hive!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

        “What are you talking about?” Rarity asked.

        “It's a long story," Rainbow Dash began.

And then she told them. She went over everything that had happened since the day she had lost her disguise. She began with the trip to Los Pegasus with Twilight, covering what she had learned there. She left out most of the real adventure in Manehatten though, for obvious reasons.

        “So we found the guy in the sewer and dragged him back out,” Rainbow Dash finished. Twilight had remained silent throughout the story, fidgeting quite a bit. at the end.

        “There’s a part two to that story,” Twilight said, speaking up. “Princess Celestia sent me a letter last weekend saying Queen Capas had signed a peace agreement. Her hive can stay as long as they are peaceful.”

        “Twilight, you promised not to tell!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

        “I”m sorry! She already knew something was up!” Twilight whined. “I didn’t have a choice.”

        “I’m confused,” Rarity said.

        Rainbow Dash sighed. “In Manehatten we found a hive of changelings. They’ve been there forever and rather than exposing them and causing a lot of fighting, we just hushed it up.”

        “It would have worked but it turns out Princess Celestia put hidden markers in the memory spell,” Twilight continued. “She was pretty upset I had used forbidden magic.”

        “Didn’t you say it had giveaways?” Fluttershy asked.

        “Well it can be obvious if the memory jumps around or has an inconsistency. I’m not sure what she did but she was able to tell I had altered his memory almost instantly.”

        “That don’t sound right, messin’ with somepony’s mind,” Applejack growled.

        “It wasn’t the best idea,” Twilight said shamefully.

        “We didn’t have a lot of options and a fight would have ended badly for us because their armor was magic proof,” Rainbow Dash replied.

        “It still seems wrong,” Applejack said.

        “I know,” Twilight said.

        “That reminds me,” Rainbow Dash said. “AJ, we need to get this girl some hard stuff. Twilight’s never gotten drunk before.”

        “Ah got two barrels here. Fill her up.”

        “Before I lose myself,” Twilight interrupted, putting up a hoof. “You wanted to see me about something?”

        “Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, unsure if she should say it in front of everypony. “Well, I’m kinda planning on going home.” Rainbow Dash was immediately dogpiled by four ponies all begging her not to go. “Not forever,” she protested. “What, can I not take a trip?”

        “You promise to come back?” Pinkie asked, her eyes watering.

        “Pinkie, I’m only going to be gone a couple days, a week at most.”

        “So why do you need me, exactly?” Twilight asked.

        “Well... I don’t exactly remember where it is,” Rainbow Dash admitted.

        “You don’t know where your hometown is?” Rarity asked, confused.

        “I left a long time ago and I haven’t gone back since. All I know is it’s west of Cloudsdale, but since Cloudsdale moves, I need to look up where it was the first day I came there and then work it out from there,” Rainbow Dash explained.

        “Or you could just go to Canterlot and look up your birth certificate like I did,” Twilight replied. “That will have the name of the town on it.”

        “That’s a much better idea,” Rainbow Dash agreed.

        “Are we going to party or not?" Pinkie asked.

"Bottoms up," Rainbow Dash declared.

Over the course of the night, Rainbow Dash shifted into forms copying all of her friends. Each time she got a round of laughter from the increasingly inebriated group. She even attempted to mimic the absent Spike, but she ended up as a purple pony with a green mane running down her back that spiked up every few inches to look like spines.

"Hey, check this," she said, looking like a hatless Applejack. "Ahem, Sweet Apple Acres has the best apple orchard in Ponyville," she said, sounding exactly as Applejack. The girls fell over laughing, except Applejack who frowned.

"Ah am offended," she said. Rainbow Dash looked sheepish as she changed into her Fluttershy form. "We have the best orchard in Equestria."

"Applejack, I just want to say this is great," Twilight said hugging her mug of cider. "Why did you not tell me about this stuff before?" She tipped over and laid on the floor with a silly grin on her face. "Hey! Who put the floor here?"

"Wow. How much has she had?" Fluttershy asked. She was still sipping her first mug.

"Um..." Applejack hummed. "Five?"

"I won't want to be her tomorrow," Pinkie said.

"Sugarcube, yah had half a barrel herself," Applejack said.

"I know. I've really held back," Pinkie replied.

"I'll help her. I know a spell that clears up hangovers, " Rarity said. "There are some good benefits to having magic."

"You'll have to teach me," Rainbow Dash said. "That is some magic I would actually want to learn."

“Does all this changing mean you’re okay being a changeling?” Pinkie asked.

Rainbow Dash stopped and furrowed her brow in thought. She was quiet for a while before replying. “I think so. You’re right. This is kinda cool.”

“That means I can have a party to announce it, right?”

“No, no, no... no... no. I don’t want this getting out any more than it already is. I’m fine but that won’t stop other ponies from acting badly.”

“I’m sure they would come around eventually,” Fluttershy said.

“Then there are other changelings who might attack me on sight,” Rainbow Dash said. “Girls, this has to stay secret.”

“Cross my pie and hope to eye, stick a fly in my heart,” Twilight mumbled from the floor.

The party had ended in the early morning Rarity had been kind enough to sober them all up with her spell. Sleep would have to wait for Rainbow Dash, but the train ride to Canterlot would be long enough for a good nap. She could have flown but she was too exhausted.

        Rainbow Dash trotted to the train station and walked over to the ticket booth. After getting a ticket, she went over to the tracks to wait. When she walked over she saw a familiar pony also waiting for a train.

        “Applejack?”

        “Rainbow! Ah was startin’ tah wonder if yah were gonna miss the train,” Applejack replied, smiling.

        “What are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash demanded.

        “Well Ah got a few days before the harvest starts so Ah might as well take a mini vacation now, so Ah figure Ah oughta tag along with you,” Applejack explained.

        Rainbow Dash smiled nervously. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll be fine on my own.”

        “Ah know. But Ah wanna.”

        “Okay,” Rainbow Dash said, figuring she could ditch Applejack in Canterlot or bore her with all the research she was going to have to do.

        “Sometimes Ah feel like seein’ mah folks too,” Applejack said, staring up into black early morning sky. “Though Ah only have tah go round the barn. You’ve got a bit farther tah go Ah wager.”

        “Huh?” Rainbow Dash blurted out.

        “Ah know what it’s like tah lose yer parents. Just remember we’re here too. Yah ain’t alone.”

        “How did you know?” Rainbow Dash asked, surprised. How could I forget Applejack lost her parents too?

        “Ah could tell. Ah never mentioned it though. Figured yah would tell us when yah were ready."

Rainbow Dash was quiet for a while. "It's been so long. The town might not even be there anymore."

"We'll find out."

"Yeah. We will."

We're coming up on the end here. The final arc has begun! Questions will be asked, answers will be given and things will happen!

        If you like this story, you should check out some of my other works:

 My tumblr, an alternate universe mixing MLP and Cyborg 009.
 The Seven Tribes, a rather long fanfic that, like many stories, tries to explain the past.
 Samurai Applejack, a drastically different kind of story. It’s rated mature for violence and some suggestive lines.
 Night of the Werepony, what I consider to be my worst story, but it’s my most popular after this one. It’s just one chapter long.