//------------------------------// // Rainbow Dash's Doubts // Story: The Sneezing Changeling // by Lirg //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash's Doubts A filly Rainbow Dash walked into a room filled with prizes and diplomas with her head held low and stopped in front of a desk, where a red stallion stood, mumbling some unintelligible words with a frown on his face. “You called me coach?” she asked to the stallion. “Yes!” he replied, turning around. “Just what exactly were you thinking Rainbow Dash?” “It's not my fault!” she argued, cringing back. “Not your fault?” he barked. “Because of you, a filly has totally disappeared, and I have her parents on my back. To top it off, your little stunt broke all of the windows in the next town. Who's gonna pay the damages?” “I was...” she tried to excuse. “No. I'm sick of this!” the coach yelled. “You're gonna...” The adult version of Rainbow Dash woke up with a start in her bed. She was sweating. How many more times am I going to dream about him? --|-|-- “A week!” Mimic shouted, his patience wearing thin. He was pacing inside the Everfree Forest near their cave. “It's been more than a week since Doppel’s vanished without attracting any attention.” “I know,” Camouflage firmly said, in a low volume, hoping that the discussion would end soon. “If he's alive, why doesn't he come back?” he continued to yell. “If he's dead, why is everypony acting like he never existed?” “Quiet!” she loudly whispered. “If you keep shouting, ponies will notice us!” “Sorry,” he apologized, on a more reasonable volume. “We don't know anything about what happened to Doppel. It's obvious that we have to keep searching him. But if he's alive, I think he can't leave wherever he is. We have to trust him now. There’s nothing else we can do.” “Yes... Luckily, his cold should be cured. Hiding is probably easier for him now.” --|-|-- Rainbow stood in front of the library. More than a week had passed since she last seen the changeling. She was certain that it really was a changeling. She was sure that if she had dreamed about her favorite heroine, it would be in a stifling jungle and in some ruins with great treasures, not something like a weird transformation of her friend above the Sweet Apple Acres. She reported everything she found during the week to Twilight, though her friend was acting weirder and weirder when she talked about changelings. The first time, she honestly seemed concerned by the fact the town could be in danger, but the last few times, it looked like if she wanted to avoid the discussion altogether. Rainbow was starting to doubt Twilight. She and her friends had fought during the wedding. She knew better than anypony the real danger of a changeling's invasion. Then why was she acting so optimistic and careless about the subject? What if Twilight was the changeling I met? No, she couldn't. The Element of Loyalty couldn't doubt her friends like this. After all, nothing had gone wrong since then. It maybe Twilight was right, and it was just an isolated little changeling who wasn't going to destroy Ponyville. But Rainbow felt that something wasn’t right. “I really need Twilight to understand! We need to be more careful!” she shouted out. She burst into the library. The librarian watched her with a tired look. “Rainbow, what is it this time?” Obviously, the unicorn was going to leave. “I need to talk to you about the changeling I saw!” the pegasus insisted. “Again? How many times do I need to tell you? We can't do anything! If a dangerous changeling was here, he'd already moved.” “But strange things have been happening in Ponyville. There are ponies asking around if something strange has happened. And then, Derpy is popping up everywhere.” “Rainbow, I don't have time to fool around with this. I need to go to Fluttershy's. She asked me something very important.” The weather mare felt that something was wrong. Twilight wasn't very good at lying. Clearly, she wanted to avoid her. While the unicorn tried to get out, Rainbow caught her by the withers and made fall her saddlebag, revealing a detailed picture of a changeling. “What is this?” the pegasus exclaimed, picking up the parchment. “It's a drawing of a changeling. Why do you have this?” “Okay... I'm interested in changelings at the moment,” Twilight admitted. “I'm interested in their way of life and I find that changelings could completely live in harmony with us. It's why...” The unicorn continued to talk but Rainbow's attention was already gone, studying the drawing from every angle again. Clearly, she couldn't be a changeling. Maybe if an invasion happened, her knowledge could be useful, until then, it was useless. As soon as Twilight stopped talking, the pegasus shouted out a “Very interesting Twilight!” before flying away. --|-|-- Rainbow couldn't really count on Twilight this time. Flying carelessly, she ended up swooping into the Ponyville mailmare. The mares fell on the ground after their crash. “Oops, my bad!” Derpy apologized. “No, I think it's my fault this time,” the rainbow maned pegasus replied. “Especially this week, you had nothing to reproach yourself for. The letters were sent to the right ponies, we didn't have uncalled storm and there was still muffins at noon at Sugarcube Corner. Even your squint had weakened this week.” “Eer Rainbow...” the mailmare admitted. “I just came back from Manehattan after a two weeks' holiday. I couldn't have done all that.” The revelation astonished the cyan pegasus. Here was the proof she wanted. The changeling she met was under Derpy's disguise all week. She need to tell Twilight about this. She flew in direction of Fluttershy's cottage where the librarian was heading. --|-|-- Arriving in front of the pet caretaker's house, Rainbow Dash came to a full stop. Indeed, she had a proof that there was a changeling and it was disguised as Derpy, but she had nothing else. She was not sure that Twilight would be very happy with only that. She briefly wondered why Twilight was suddenly going to Fluttershy’s house so much. She often ran into Spike who had told her that Twilight was gone. Did they have a secret that Rainbow didn't know? What if Twilight and Fluttershy were hiding a changeling? No, that's silly. They'd never do that. Twilight probably just wants to study a critter that Fluttershy’s taking care of, and that's why she's here. She considered to knock at the door to explain what she just found. Finally, she decided against and turned around. The only progress she made was to confirm that there was indeed a changeling in Ponyville, something Twilight didn't refute even if she didn't seem to take it seriously. She looked at the Everfree Forest near the cottage. Her only duty was to inspect every place a changeling could hide. And this was a potential place. Why didn't I think about it sooner? The only place where a changeling is almost certain to never cross the path of a pony. She grinned at the idea. Besides, it must feel safe there. It could even drop his disguise and make the job easier. Rainbow flew inside the forest. Soon, she began to hear voices. They were very quiet but surely they were voices. They seemed arguing about something. Rainbow trusted her hearing, and began to make her way to where the voices were coming from.. They started to get louder and louder as she came near a little cave near the pond. Suddenly, the voices fell silent. Rainbow started to doubt that she could catch the two changelings herself, but then she remembered fighting dozens of them at the wedding. As she was thinking, she heard a shriek and then nothing. Undeterred by any potential danger, the pegasus rushed towards the cave. “Look out! Here I come!” she triumphantly shouted. She didn't remain triumphant for long. She faced two pegasi now. One was red with a golden mane and the other looked like a small mauve filly with a look could kill an Ursa Major. Rainbow remained paralyzed. “Coach? What are you doing here?” she finally said with a shivering voice. “Rainbow Dash! I thought I was clear at flight school. You won't ever obtain a diploma with your abilities! Your actions only cause catastrophes!” “But.. but...” she stammered. “I have to expel you from this school. We've already received too much complaints about you. No flight school will take you anymore with a record like that. You're too dangerous,” the coach stated. “You'll never become a Wonderbolt! You'll never become a Wonderbolt! You'll never become a Wonderbolt!” the filly repeated, on a mocking tone. “You'll be too dangerous to be a Wonderbolt!” the coach added. Rainbow wanted to protest but nothing came out. The only time I can show him that he was wrong all this time and I'm standing here like a scared little filly. Without thinking, she jumped back into the air, fleeing from the ponies she faced. Why am I running away? I went to the Wonderbolt academy. I’ve already proved myself. Even with this in mind, Rainbow couldn't go back to face her coach again. As soon as she left the forest, the two pegasi flashed green, taking back the shape of the two changelings. “She was afraid of her former coach?” Mimic laughed. “I would have never guessed.” “After all, she never spoke about her past in flight school,” her friend pointed out. “I wonder why she's flying around alone in the Everfree. You think she knows that we live here?” “We’ll need to be more careful now!” Camouflage stated. They stood in silence, before Mimic remembered something. “Why did I change into a filly?” he complained. “Because you like fillies obviously,” she joked. “It was an accident. I wanted to do the adult Derpy, not the filly one.” “I'm sure...” she poked fun. --|-|-- Twilight arrived at Fluttershy's cottage, walking in without knocking at the door. She got used to it, mostly because each time she did so, the pegasus and the changeling hid for minutes on end, which wasn't good for Doppel's recovery. She went upstairs to meet up in the bedroom. She heard laughing coming from the room. When she entered, she saw Mayor Mare lying on the bed, looking like she was giving a speech. “And I declare that today, the hair dye will be obligatory and the pink manes will be forbidden!” Fluttershy couldn't help laughing. She felt a little shame at laughing, but she was having so much fun. Suddenly, Mayor Mare sneezed and transformed into Fluttershy. “Hey! You don't need mirror anymore. You have me. I'm better than a mirror! You can even look where you couldn't with a plain old mirror.” Doppel directly got going after looking at himself a few seconds. The laughs of the true yellow pegasus doubled. Doppel changed his appearance again, this time on his own will. He took the shape of the clown pony. He picked three balls and began jungle with them. After a while, every ball ended up falling on his head. Twilight coughed a little to announce her presence. Doppel jumped and took back his former appearance. Fluttershy blushed and looked away, trying to get serious again. “Doppel, I already told you that if you don't stop shapeshifting, you'll take more time to recover,” the unicorn lectured. “Sorry,” he apologized, a little shameful. “In my defense, shape shift doesn't need a lot of energy for a changeling.” “Talking about energy,” Twilight asked. “It's been a week that you're here, stuck in this room, and nevertheless you don't seem suffering starvation. You aren't stealing love from Fluttershy by force are you?” Doppel looked at the librarian, bewildered. Stealing her love? I’ve never done that! It's against my rules. I always use the method 2. That’s why I'm stuck here and not in the Everfree now. But it's true that I'm not starving. Can it be? “Doppel?” she repeated. “I think I’m using method 3,” he beamed. In the front of the puzzled look of the mares, he added “It's great. The changelings that can do it are counted on the holes of one hoof.” “Don't we need to feel love for you to take it?” the unicorn asked. “Friendship isn’t really the same thing, it's true,” the changeling admitted. “But with this method, there are absolutely no secondary effect, so I don't hurt anypony. Then, Fluttershy is always here, so I have it all the time.” Doppel saw the timid pegasus blushed a little hearing this. Oh no... don't tell me she's embarrassed by what I just told. There is absolutely no insinuation. “So,” Twilight continued, seeing that the silence became awkward, “I'll ask you a last question. It's clear that you don't want to harm anypony. Well, you do feed upon love from ponies you and your friends... But I also know worse changelings than you in this world. So, what are you going to do when you'll have recovered?” The question hit the changeling full force. He hadn’t thought about it yet. He could return in the Everfree Forest and take his former life back. It'd be weird now with Fluttershy and Twilight knowing his true identity. Seeing what happened, I think that nothing will be as before. Maybe I'll visit Twilight and Fluttershy when I'll go to Ponyville. It'd let me space out Bon-Bon's visits. Then something sort of hit him in the face. It was the feelings of the pegasus. A clear disappointment was read in her face, as if she only just realized that the situation we were now wasn't going to remain for ever. “So?” the librarian insisted. “I... don't know,” he confessed.