//------------------------------//
// Flashback  - Chapter 7 
// Story: The Queen Inside Of Me 
// by K.J. Cragon 
//------------------------------//

	With Twilight's voice screaming loudly inside Applejack's head, she couldn't think straight. It was clear that she was not going to be calming down very soon. AJ couldn't blame her. Twilight had found out that her friend, the Element of Honesty of all ponies, was a changeling. Well, she was only half wrong but still, changlings had been considered the mortal enemies of Equestrian society for millenia. And that was before they invaded Equestria and killed or turned half of the population of the capital city. That was going just a little bit too far on their side.

She heaved a heavy sigh, not even trying anymore to calm the voice of her friend that was inside her head. Everything was going wrong. Heck, everything already went wrong the moment that she had finally gone out of the hive and swore vengeance against her queen. Almost being killed in the Everfree Forest should have just been it for her. Maybe she shouldn't have even tried to fight back, 'cause if she hadn't, she would be dead, the queen would have been content (at least for the time being), and her Element could have chosen a pony that was actually HONEST. She should have just sworn allegiance to the queen again and gone back to her once normal life as a guard. If only she was normal, instead of an entirely new type of species.

Her father, Kyo,  had been a changeling, and her mother, Apple Core, had been a pony born of the Apple family. Applejack always did wonder why her mother had been named that, it was kind of a nasty name to give to a foal. She had been born after her father learned that he had an extremely rare changeling defect that allowed him to actually love something rather than just take love from others to survive. 

Ususally, the 'victims' of the defect had been in love with an inatimate object, making others think that they were just crazy and lock them up. Her parents had both been killed by the queen after she learned of the affair, though surprisingly AJ, the daughter, had been left with only a few scratches and was offered a completely new life in the hive as a guard by the queen. Obviously the queen wanted to use her, and if she didn't listen, possibly hurt of kill her. AJ finally accepted out of the fear of being killed instead of just wanting it. The fact that she was part pony helped with the hunger for love that seemed to seep from regular pony's head, looking like a wafting smell.

Containing herself had been hard at first, and she knew why any regular changeling would practically get hypnotized by the smell and soak it all up with magic, eating it, until the victim was left with no love. In the brain, there is a part that controls emotions like hate, fear, and especially love. In some serious cases of what was called 'Emotion Drought,' that part of the brain could be blocked off my changeling magic and used up, leaving an emotionless shell of the victims former self. That was horrible and she knew it, but didn't always think much of it. It helped to keep things like that out of her mind. 

After a while of working in the guard, she realized that doing so was a bigger mistake than she had thought before. Well, sure, the meals were fantastic and she actually got a really nice room, but she was always treated different. Not just by the Changeling society who always made fun of her, though, but also by the prisoners who were trapped there, sometimes for weeks on end without food and sometimes water. Since she was half pony, her natural form was the pony she had posed as for years, an orange earth pony with blonde hair that her parents had originally named 'Secret Apple,' but was later dubbed 'Applejack' by herself after she began to think that her birth name was not corresponding to her life at all (Except for the obvious, that no one in the Apple family knew about her).

Because of that she was able to pose as a regular Equestrian citizen, but also becuase of this, and the half pony genes, she couldn't change forms to a changeling. She could only change forms to any type of pony wether it be earth, pegasus, or unicorn, and also change her natural apperance, hair shape and color, cutie mark, colors of coat and mane, ect. It was pretty cool and miraculous at first, but the truth was that it only made her job at the hive worse. She was in charge of gaurding the prisoners usually for days on end, her changeling gene usually helping with the job of actually staying agake. But, whenever at a captured pony awoke to see her, they thought that she was either there to help her or was captured too, so they called out to her to help them. Sometimes thy screamed for her to help them for days, weeks even. Until they became too weak to do so and initally died.

The fact that she couldn't help them at all had eaten at her for a long while, leading to nervous breakdowns and beatings for not behaving. But, another contributing fact was that when they died, she was usually the one that other changelings chose to carry the dear ones out. That usually confused the screaming ones for a while and shut them up a little, which was a relief to her, so she ended up actually volunteering to do it more than she was being chosen. Until they were screaming questions that couldn't be answered. That made it harder sometimes.

There were many things that made her want to leave, but the last straw was when she overheard rumors that there had been a very powerful unicorn found by Celestia that the queen was either planning to kidnap or kill. She had only been about seven years of age at that point, the same age as the powerful unicorn (which she later found out was Twilight) and even though that was true, her mind, like all changelings, excelled much faster than her body did. Thats how most Changelings died, their body and mind excelled. Again, she had the altered genes to thank for that point. After she found of that information, about a pony she might be able to relate to but couldn't, she couldn't deal with much of her usual life any more. So, after that, she planned to run away. To warn the unsuspecting unicorn of the danger that she was definetly in. Maybe even make a friend, though probably not.

Another thing that made Applejack so special was that she was powerful. She didn't know for certain, but she was probaby either as powerful, or more powerful that Twilight because for one, changelings have more magic than a regular pony, and her father had actually been a prince, the son of chysalis. That's how cruel the queen was, killing her own son in cold blood. Sometimes, she felt pity for the queen and wondered what could make somepony so mean.

And then she had tried to actually escape. Waiting in her quarters for the right time had been painstakingly boring. All that she could do was play games in her head and think about the many ways that her plan could go wrong and how many ways she could be punished or killed for trying to do so. After many games of 'I-spy' and a bunch of times trying to talk herself out of it, she could feel that it was almost time. 

For some reason that none of the Changelings could explain, at exactly midnight for a half hour, every changeling in the hive went into a deep sleep. Yet another perk of being half and half, she only felt a bit drowsy at the time. Suddenly, she felt the effects come over, and she stiffled a yawn. Going over to her tiny bookshelf, she grabbed the knapsack that held all of the possessions she needed for the journey and crept over to the door, which gave only a small creak. She succesfully snuck past the sleeping guards that were supposed to be stationed and alert in the hallways and the outside of the hive. When she reached the outside of the hive, she built up her earth pony stamina and strength and started to run. She ran and ran, trying to get as far away as she could from the hive, her old home. She ran through the badlands where the hive was located, through the everfree forest, and then soon found herslef in an orchard of bright red apples. She knew then that she was home at last. Her real home.

Afterwards, she had done things that she wasnt proud of to her real family to make them think that she had always been with them and just came back from a trip to Manehatten where her relitives lived. But that was nessisary. She couldn't let anypony know what, or who she really was. Only two ponies, one being like her, knew her secret. Well, three now.

At least she wasn't posing as somepony like Twilight thought. Twilight also was wrong when she thought she was a changeling, Applejack was only half pony. It would be a grueling process to tell her that. Alot of things had happened that were unexpected. Like when the Element of Honesty chose her as it's carrier, or when she found out that she had an older brother and little step-sister. Twilight finding out her secret was just going to be added to the list.

It was about that time that she felt someone shaking her, trying to get her back to reality. Blinking, her thoughts were inturrupted by Spike violently shaking her. "AJ, geez, don't scare my like that! Why is Twilight screaming like that? And why were you staring out into space like that? I don't think that that's normal for you, maybe for Pinkie, but not for you!" He said, voice trembeling. Dang, he really WAS scared. 

She didn't know how she should start to tell the little guy, or if she should choose to tell him at all. "Oh, um... Well, the thing is-" She started to lie when the voice in her head cut her off, somehow somewhat calm again though still with a shaky voice that was more high pitched than usual.

"She's a Changeling! A mother bucking Changeling!" She said. Spike was now staring at her with wide eyes and had started to back up, tears in his eyes. She was about to explain, but Twilight cut her off again. "How could I not have noticed all of this time? It was so obvious! Wait, no it wasn't... But still!" Spike was wimpering now looking around nervously, eyes darting. He looked like he was about to yell for a guard but was waiting for the right moment. Then Twilight unexpectidly laghed and said, "But this is so cool! A new species of changeling, and one that is actually good!" 

Applejack blinked in surprise. Spike's mouth dropped in confusion. "But..." Spike started, "how, how did you know, Twi'?"

"Oh, right, I should probably explain. When I'm in somepony's head I can see through their eyes. But also, if I consentrate really hard, I can also hear and see what they're thinking too! It was just by chance that I started to calm myself down by consentrating on something. Cool, right? So I heard and saw what she's been through, and what she can do! This will be one of the biggest scientific discoveries in a century! C'mon Aplejack, show us what you can do? Or should I say Secret Apple the half pony half Changeling hybrid?"

This time it was Spike's turn to blink in surprise, and AJ's turn to have her mouth drop open. "Uh," Spike said. "Equestrian, please?" 

"Uh, I'll explain it," Applejack offered, now without her trademark southern twang, which surprised Spike. "I'm half pony, half Changeling who can only change between an earth pony, a unicorn, and a pegasi. Plus I can also change my looks and colors. I'm good, and I've gone through alot in my life that at the moment do NOT want to explain, and you two are now in the exclusive group of (now) four who know who I am, so... yeah..." 

"Ok, uh, that makes sense I think," Spike said, still a hint of speculation in his voice.  He started to walk over to her, more slowly than before and actually smiled. Then Applejack realized something that she probably should have mentioned earlier in the conversation.

"Oh yeah, and I know where Twilight's actual body is! Or, well, where it is now at least, as it's switched positions. That's why I've been trying to help get her out of trouble all this time!" She smiled when she saw spike giving a hopeful look, finally.

Twilight spoke again from her head. "That's Fantastic AJ! Now we can finally end this! Oh and by the way, we wont tell anyone else until you say it's ok. Yep, I read your thoughts again!"  Applejack chuckled and started to canter down the hallway, and then stopped.

"Wait..." She said, her eyebrows furrowing. "We've made quite a ruckus just now, but there are no guards..." She let Spike finish the end of the sentance for her in his mind. "We have to hurry, the Elements and Princesses are in trouble!" And stared again at a fast trot around the corner, quickly followed by Spike. This was going to be one hell of a night...