On the Rocks
Dazzle informed his brothers that he was leaving. He spoke in their odd changeling tongue, occasionally gesturing to Trixie or the surface, pausing at one point to address Trixie directly. "Can we be back here within a month?" He inquired. Trixie nodded hopefully and Dazzle returned his attention to his gathered family, who reacted with surprise, then sadness, finally settling on stoic acceptance. Trixie got the impression that they didn't want Dazzle to go.
The changelings walked with Dazzle and Trixie all the way to the tunnel’s entrance where they paused to say their goodbyes, which were, for the most part, silent. Dazzle’s brothers gathered around him, each touching him on the shoulder with a hole-filled hoof before shuffling back down the tunnel.
"How did they take it?" Trixie asked apprehensively as they climbed into the blinding sunlight.
"They'll survive without me for a while." Dazzle answered with conviction. "And they know to keep an eye on Burt." He muttered as an afterthought. "I told them I'll come back within a month and share whatever I can get."
As Trixie led the changeling toward her wagon, she tried to puzzle out exactly how one would share such intangible goods, but decided that, for now, she preferred not to know. As the wagon came into sight, the showmare let out a cry of frustration. The wolf had gotten into the syrup supply and had its muzzle buried in the jar. "Well it's a good thing I bought the economy size. Otherwise how would you fit your whole head inside?" She asked sarcastically.
Dazzle merely gawked at the spectacle. "When Burt said that you'd brought a timber wolf, I assumed he meant one was stalking you." He shook his head in silent wonder.
"You're with the Great and Powerful Trixie now. Assume only Greatness." She boasted. "Besides, this one isn't bright enough to stalk anypony. If he was, I doubt he'd be in a harness." She tittered.
"So he's just been pulling you the whole way?" Dazzle asked incredulously, cautiously keeping his distance while Trixie hopped onto the wagon.
"He joined the party right before I reached the Badlands." She levitated the jar off of the wolf's head with a light sucking sound and brought it to her eye level to inspect it. "I heard he'd been terrorizing Dodge City, so I bought the syrup - NOT cheap in a frontier town - and set a trap for him." Satisfied that the jar was mostly empty, she swaddled it in a blanket of cushy magic and, with a zap from her horn, launched it like a sticky piece of artillery. It sailed out of view to the north.
The wagon jolted forward as the wolf pursued his lost love. "It's a pity we're skipping Dodge. I really wanted to see the looks on their faces when I showed them my new draft wolf." Trixie sighed wistfully. "A triumph wasted."
Dazzle had still been watching, dumbfounded, from the ground when the wagon began to pull away. "Are you coming?" Trixie called back. He galloped after her, taking flight after he'd picked up some speed. The changeling buzzed in for a soft landing on the cart just in time to watch Trixie draw water from a tapped barrel into an ornate goblet.
"To an amazing double act." She declared, raising the cup in a toast. As she drank, it occurred to her that she'd missed something. "Oh, right." She blinked, quickly prying a large trunk open with her magic and levitating the contents so that she could see them. A cracked teacup separated itself from the rest of the wad and flew under the tap on the barrel of water, which Trixie activated with an outstretched leg. The teacup flew to a halt under Dazzle's face. "I only have one of these." She blushed slightly, tapping her floating goblet by way of apology.
"It's fine." Dazzle smirked at another clear indicator that Trixie hadn't had company in a long while.
A moment passed in silence as they drank. Silence was not unusual for Trixie. But is it unusual when traveling with somepony new? Maybe. The showmare was uncertain.
Ultimately she concluded that she should probably say something, and supposed that now was as good a time as any to start being friendly, since a starving changeling would probably make terrible company. "So, you said those were your brothers. Are you the oldest?" She inquired, having noticed that all present seemed to defer to Dazzle's authority.
"Actually I'm the second-oldest. We lost our oldest brother during the invasion." Dazzle didn't seem too deeply affected, but Trixie mumbled her condolences all the same.
"Were you there?" She couldn't help but ask.
"No. I thought the invasion was a bad idea. And even if it had worked out, I could still just show up the next day when the fight was over. I convinced most of my brothers to stay behind and see what happened. We volunteered to be the skeleton guard for our region of the nest." He allowed himself a smile at the fact that he was still alive and not rotting in a cell beneath Canterlot. "I'd say it worked out pretty well."
"I have to agree with you there." Otherwise I’d be headed back to civilization with no new act. The wagon trundled along in near-silence for some time, the only sound being wheels crackling over parched earth. Suddenly, Trixie was struck by a thought. "Wait, aren't all changelings brothers? Didn't you all come from the same queen?"
"Technically, yes, but I don't call every changeling my brother.” Dazzle snorted. “I grew up with the changelings you saw. We're all near the same age and all from the same part of the nest." He explained.
"Ah." Trixie could think of nothing better to say. "So... about that changeling magic." She began with deliberate nonchalance, casting an almost painfully casual glance at Dazzle.
"You're serious, huh?" Dazzle chuckled. "Well, I'll do my best, but no promises. Hmm." He lapsed into thoughtful silence as he tried to decide where to begin. "Wearing a disguise is just a small part of what we do. The rest... the rest is commitment, I think. There's the disguise, you see, but that's just part of the overall illusion. We commit to the whole illusion." He gestured with his forehooves splayed wide as if to indicate something greater than himself. "Do you get it?"
Trixie nodded smugly. "Nopony would buy your disguise if you didn't have behavior to back it up."
"Exactly!" Dazzle agreed with conviction. "It's not just about adopting a disguise and hoping it's right." He said reverently. "A good changeling shows a pony exactly what they want to see. Let's say you get a hint of what your mark looks like from a distance." Trixie nodded to show her understanding, silently urging him onward. "That's fine for ponies who know him in passing, but they're not the ones who love him, are they? You need to fool the ponies closest to your mark. And sometimes that means getting your rough disguise together until you get close, and then filling in his cutie mark and his laugh and his walk at the last possible second." His voice dropped to a whisper and he leaned in toward the showmare until his muzzle was almost touching hers.
"How?" Trixie was listening attentively, ready to soak up the secrets of a whole species.
"You look into their memories." Dazzle said quietly, gazing into Trixie's eyes.
"How am I supposed to do that?" Trixie sputtered, avoiding Dazzle's intense stare.
"I'm not sure you can." He drew back and watched the desert go by. "I get tiny scraps of expectation when I look into a pony's eyes. They unconsciously show me the pony I'm impersonating, and I learn the relevant details just in time to use them. It's just little snippets of memories or hopes, but that's all a pony is in the eyes of another. All I have to do is read the script and play the part."
"And the script is in somepony's eyes. Fine. The Great and Powerful Trixie isn't afraid of a little eye contact!" She decreed.
"Try not to get your hopes up." Dazzle said doubtfully. "I've never heard of a pony using changeling magic before."
"The specifics might be a bit hard to nail down, but once I get past that, this changeling bit sounds like a series of well-timed parlor tricks." She said airily. "And I think you'll find that well-timed parlor tricks are my specialty." Trixie declared with pride.
"That and demolitions, right?" Dazzle casually prodded.
"Hush." Trixie huffed, though her smile ruined the effect a bit.
Hours later, after discussing some of the specifics of changeling disguises and trying to develop a mutual language for the way magic 'felt' to each of them, the duo were enjoying each other's company.
"So then - so then I wake up, right? And the tasty mare from the night before is telling me I'm late for work. OK, I've heard that one before. I tell her I'd better get going and I start making my way to the door. I open the door, and there's a royal guard RIGHT THERE." Dazzle gesticulated wildly to convey his panic.
"Of course." Trixie chortled.
"And then - weirdest mixed blessing ever - the mare comes up behind me and nudges me with a royal guard chestplate. She drops it on the ground and asks me if I'm forgetting something." Dazzle grinned.
"No!" Trixie squealed with delight.
"Yeah, turns out I'm impersonating a member of the reserve guard. So she unfurls her wing and out rolls a helmet. At this point I'm wishing I'd left in the middle of the night, but I was in deep, so I just went with it. I put the armor on, fell in step with this other stallion, hoping like crazy he'd lead me past the bushes where I'd left the real Rain Dance or whatever his name was so I could wake him up, give him a hangover and get the hell out of there, but-" Dazzle dissolved into uncontrollable laughter.
"What? What happened next?" Trixie demanded, shaking him by the shoulder.
"We're walking along, and-" He paused to cackle some more. "He pulls me behind this general store - and I've been wondering why he isn't mad at me for being an hour late for a government job - but then he looks me in the eyes." Dazzle’s voice had dropped to a dramatic whisper. "And you know what I see?"
"What?" Trixie leaned into Dazzle in suspense.
"He's expecting me to kiss him!" The changeling cried. "Like Rain Dance did every time they had a shift together! He was cheating on his marefriend with this other stallion in the guard!"
"Oh Celestia!" Trixie gasped through peals of laughter. "That's priceless."
"I know, right? So, again, I just went with it." Dazzle shook his head at the absurdity of the experience and wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes. "Love is love, and I'm not going to turn it down, but I had a hell of a weird day before I managed to get back to the real Rain Dance and give him his crazy life back."
"Sounds like you borrowed a very complicated love life." Trixie sighed. She wished she had more success stories like that.
"Yeah. What’s ironic is that I saw the royal guard armor in the mare's eyes when I first met her. I had no idea there was a reserve guard detachment in that area, so I just chalked it up to a naughty fantasy. Clearly, that was a mistake." Dazzle chuckled.
"I think I see the pass up ahead." Trixie squinted into the distance. "We're almost out."
"Probably time to get my disguise together, then." Dazzle stood up and stretched. "So, what's it going to be? Unicorn, I assume, but what colors? Think hard, because I don't want to change after we've gotten started."
"Hmm." Trixie rubbed her chin, looking him up and down. She soon realized the futility of looking at a blank slate for inspiration and laid back to gaze at the sky.
At first Dazzle merely watched Trixie watching the sky, waiting for an answer to strike her. After a moment he walked to the front of the wagon and surveyed the landscape while he waited. The sun had dropped low and would be setting in an hour or two. They'd have to make camp for the night and reach Appleoosa tomorrow.
After a few minutes had passed, Trixie's eyes finally flicked back to Dazzle. "How about a gold coat with a bright red mane?"
"Sounds Dazzling enough." The changeling agreed. He saw a reflection of what Trixie was expecting and transformed himself accordingly. "How's this?"
"No." Trixie said firmly, crossing her forehooves and practically throwing herself back to stare at the sky again. "You got it backwards. Gold coat, red mane." She said shortly.
Dazzle looked down at his body to find that it was actually bright red. I could swear that's what she asked for. "Sorry." He mumbled half-heartedly and swapped the colors. It was a simple mistake. Does she have to be nasty about it? We were getting along fine a minute ago.
The showmare gave his new look a cursory glance. "That's better." She said somewhat harshly. She took a deep breath and turned away to release a sigh off the side of the wagon, clearly not too interested in examining his new disguise.
Tense, uneasy silence reigned until the Badlands were behind them.