Twilight’s Secret
An Intentionally Vaguely Named Short Story
by TheEarthSheep
Twilight Sparkle nervously crossed the street down by the park on the east end of Ponyville. She saw her destination at the end of the block.
Okay, Twilight. You can do this, she assured herself.
Carousel Boutique was now only half a block away. Her pace quickened as her innards clenched from anxiety.
What if she rejects me? What if she yells at me - hurts me?
She was almost at the front of the Boutique. Every step felt like an Olympian feat as she dragged herself closer to the front door, her tension building as her nerves sounded a thousand klaxon sirens. She struggled to lift her hoof to the front door, sweating like Applejack did when her sister asked why mom went away. She tried to knock, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She dropped her hoof and practically sprinted away.
I’ll just circle the block, and then come back, she thought to herself, I just need a little more time to collect myself. I need to circle the -
“Twilight stop!” She tripped, her face landing directly on the road. She tried to crawl away as a set of hooves beat their way towards her. “Oh, Celestia! Twilight, are you okay?”
“‘m fine need to go ‘round block,” Twilight blurted as her pistoning legs pushed her face deeper into the asphalt. Still, the friendly hooves came closer. “Get away from me! I need to circle!”
Suddenly, Twilight was lifted into the air and spun around. She found herself encased in a blue magical field, staring directly into the worried eyes of Rarity.
“Twilight, what’s gotten into you? I’ve seen you pass the Boutique four times this morning! Is something wrong? Why did you run from me?”
Twilight knew defeat when she saw it. “Rarity, um… we uh… can we talk?” She tried to smile.
Rarity gingerly set Twilight down. “But of course we can, darling! Come on in to the Boutique.” She helped her to her hooves and tenderly supported her on their way into her store. Once inside, she led the now-hyperventilating Twilight to a sofa and made her lay down. “Just wait here for one moment, and I’ll get some tea on.”
When she returned, Twilight had calmed down somewhat. Rarity sat down on a nearby chair and asked, “now, what did you want to talk about?”
Twilight looked her friend in the eye and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her lip started to quiver, and then she started crying, shoving her face into the sofa cushion. Rarity closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Why me? Why now? she wondered. After a moment of self-pity, she forced a smile and brought Twilight a blanket. She wrapped it around the miserable filly and started to rub her shoulders, whispering meaningless assurances and eyeing the clock. After a few annoyingly long minutes, a whistle pierced the air.
“Oh! That’ll be the kettle.” Rarity stood and shortly brought back a tray with an ornate ceramic teapot and matching cups. She poured tea for two and helped Twilight to an upright position, pressing a cup into her hooves. Twilight sipped it, quietly gasping for air after her long cry.
“Are you ready to talk to me?”
After an (annoyingly) long pause, she nodded. In between sharp breaths, she managed, “It’s *hih* just *hih* you and the girls have *hih* been so nice and loving for these *hih* past several months and *hih* I *hih* I don’t,” before falling back into incomprehensible tears.
“Twilight…” Rarity groaned.
“I don’t deserve it! Rarity, I… I’m a changeling!” she shrieked. Rarity, mid-sip, spat tea all over Twilight, but she didn’t stop talking. She couldn’t stop, now that she’d come this far. “It was at the wedding it wasn’t a real invasion it was all just a plot to get me to replace Twilight she never came back from the underground caverns I’m so sorry but I have no idea what they did to her. But everyone here... Everyone here is so nice and loving, and I don’t want to help the Hive anymore, I just want to be like you!” She threw herself to Rarity’s hooves.
Rarity helped her up, looked her up and down, and then hit her with a hard right cross. “Get a hold of yourself, girl!” Seeing not-Twilight’s confused look, she rolled her eyes and shifted her shape to Twilight’s and back again.
“You… You too?”
“Obviously. And you’re lucky you came to me instead of somepony else, ‘Twilight’, or they might have taken you seriously and brainwashed you.”
“No! We don’t have to live like this, hiding our true selves from everypony we know!” Twilight’s eyes shone. “We can be like them! We can be happy! Haven’t you had that feeling, when you’re writing the friendship reports - even when you were faking it? That feeling of true friendship?”
“You know… now that you mention it, I have had that feeling. And you’re right… I don’t want it to stop.” The two smiled at each other, then embraced. “We can do it, we can integrate into pony society together!”
*****
Fluttershy was in the middle of feeding a sick bunny when she was disturbed by a timid knock on the door. “I’m sorry, Mr. Scaly, you’ll just have to wait a minute,” she said. The crocodile nodded understandingly and retreated into the pond. Fluttershy set the bunny down and smiled as it sprinted into a bush.
She opened the door to see Rarity and Twilight on her doorstep, each sporting a forced smile. “Oh no, is something wrong?”
“Of course not,” said Rarity, smiling at her with a full row of teeth, “We… we just want to talk.”
“Oh, well, please come in and make yourself at home. I’ll go put the kettle on.”
The two changelings settled into her couch, and after a few moments Fluttershy returned and sat in a chair opposite them. Nopony wanted to start the conversation, so they sat in silence for a few minutes. Twilight coughed. The kettle whistled, and Fluttershy returned with a tray of tea.
In the end, it was Rarity who broke the silence. “Fluttershy, we… We need your help. You’re the most kind, caring pony we could think of, so please try to understand. We never wanted to hurt you, or anypony else - or we did, but we don’t anymore -”
Fluttershy looked terrified. “Oh, Luna, are you trying to dodge a murder charge, because I can’t take on that kind of responsibility again. I swear to Celestia I will not do that again!”
Twilight interjected, “No! No! Nothing like that! … Well, actually maybe it is a little bit like that…”
Fluttershy looked like she was about to faint. Rarity acted fast, and doused her with a cup of the still-boiling tea. Fluttershy shrieked in pain - but she didn’t faint!
“Fluttershy we’re changelings but we’re good now so don’t be mad!” shouted Rarity.
“Oh.” Fluttershy looked… relieved? “Why didn’t you just say so?”
“What? Oh, no way. You too!?”
Where Fluttershy had been sitting, instead sat Applejack, then Pinkie Pie, then Fluttershy again. “Proof enough?” she asked. “Wait, what was that about being ‘good now’? Oh, for the love of the Hive, they got to you, didn’t they?”
“Listen, we don’t have to hide any more! We can get all the love we need from the magic of friendship! Haven’t you ever felt -”
Not-Fluttershy slapped not-Twilight across the jaw. “No! You listen! We have a job to do. The Hive must have put us here for a reason, and as far as we know, we’re the only three changelings in this town. Do you know what three-changeling teams do? We must be a sleeper cell! We’re supposed to infiltrate the local government!”
“No way!” shouted Twilight.
“No, absolutely not!” Rarity exclaimed, “we need to beg these ponies’ forgiveness, not attack their culture more!”
“Oh?” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Do you remember what happened to the last changelings who tried to ‘assimilate’? What Chrysalis did to them?”
Twilight and Rarity looked at each other.
“On second thought -”
“- Attacking their culture is fine and I see no problems with this.”
“Glory to the Hive!”
They smiled awkwardly.
Fluttershy nodded. “Good. And don’t you forget it.” She stared out the window. “For years now, I’ve wondered. Wondered why She would send me here with no backup, no direction. I’ve played the fool, the shy, lonely recluse, watching, waiting for a sign from above. But now…” She turned back to the two changelings with fire in her eyes, “Now, I know my mission. You two were put here with me for a reason. It’s time. We need to destroy this town from the inside out.”
Okay, she’s insane, Twilight thought, But… She looks so excited about it, and it was such a heartfelt speech, what kind of Good Friend would I be if I said no? “Yeah, okay,” she said. “Let’s do it, I guess.”
Rarity looked at her like she was crazy. “What? What happened to ‘turning over a new leaf’? To ‘being a friend to all life’ or whatever?”
“Well, Fluttershy technically counts as ‘all life’ and look how happy she is!”
“Alright, whatever, fine. Let’s just get this over with.
And so the trio put on their best pony skins and walked to Town Hall. It was quite a small building, really just a lobby and an office. They marched right past the sleeping receptionist, and kicked the door open.
“Ah!” Mayor Mare yelped in surprise. She leapt to her feet, accidentally knocking over a tray on her desk, spilling boiling tea all over herself. “Aaaagggghgh!” She looked at her visitors, then at the tea burning her flesh, then back to the visitors. “Aaaaaaaggggghhhhh!”
Twilight ran to her aid, grabbing several tissues from a box on the desk and mopping the liquid off of the administration. “I’m so sorry! We didn’t mean to scare you like that!”
“Twilight!” Fluttershy snapped. “She’s the enemy!”
“Oh, right, sorry.” Twilight returned to the other changelings, hanging her head.
“‘The enemy’? What is this about, girls?” asked the Mayor.
“Maybe this will be a clue,” Fluttershy smiled maniacally as she stepped towards the Mayor, rapidly shifting between forms. Mayor Mare stared at the trio of changelings, mouth hanging open in shock. Then she bolted to the window. But rather than escaping, she shut the blinds and furtively looked between two slats. After a moment, she sighed in relief and turned on the changelings.
“You idiots!” she shouted. “What if she saw you?”
“Wait, Mayor, you’re a changeling too?” asked Rarity. “What in the name of Celestia’s flaring bellbottoms is going on?!”
“Everyone in this town is a changeling, you dolts! Well, everyone except her, obviously.”
“What!?” Twilight sat down, overcome. “Why didn’t anyone tell us?!”
“The Queen assumed any half-decent spy would figure it out in the first few days! This is going on all of your performance reviews.”
Fluttershy suddenly snapped out of the reverie she’d been in. “Wait, ‘her’? You mentioned somepony. Who?”
The Mayor looked at her in disbelief. “You… You really don’t know, do you? You really don’t know! She’s the reason we’re all here - the reason we set up this town, filled with agents of the Hive. One pony so dangerous that it will take all of us to bring her down. One pony trained by Luna personally in stealth, subterfuge, and most martial arts. One pony who would easily outmatch twenty others in hoof-to-hoof combat. One pony upon whom the entire Equestrian military strategy relies. One pony named... Rainbow Dash.”
“I… I never would have suspected. Are you sure it’s her?” asked Twilight.
“Don’t let her ridiculous facade fool you. She’s a battle-hardened mercenary who would slaughter you without even thinking twice.”
Suddenly, they heard a shout from outside: “Hey, everypony! Watch this!” They recognized the voice. It was Rainbow Dash. The changelings all ran out of the office and into the town square.
Rainbow Dash was hovering high in the skies above Ponyville, screaming for attention. Once she was sure that everypony in town was watching her, she dove. She picked up speed until the very air around her seemed to explode in a spectrum of light. At the moment she seemed certain to hit the ground, she spread her wings and did an immediate loop, and then another, and another! She transitioned to a corkscrew trick, still leaving a rainbow contrail in the atmosphere.
All the changelings oooh’d and aaah’d, despite themselves. Unstoppable death machine or not, she was still very exciting to see in action. For one moment, every changeling in town was a flying pegasus soaring the skies with Rainbow. For one moment they were free. They all knew that she was an inspiration to them, a symbol of hope and independence that would eventually lead them all to a brighter tomorrow.
But suddenly, one of Rainbow Dash’s taut wings slipped out of alignment. Her shoulder joint gave a pop, loud enough to be heard from the ground, as it dislocated. Everychangeling on the ground flinched as she spun out of control.
“Waaoooh!” she yelled, spiraling down to the earth.
At the end of her trajectory, she slammed face first into a stone wall. Every changeling ran towards her. They formed a massive semicircle around the wall, as they gazed at their idol, stuck to the stone wall she had splattered into. Rainbow was motionless for several seconds, and then slowly - ever so slowly - started to slide down, leaving a trail of blood and blue feathers stuck to the wall. As she descended, the crowd barely heard an almost inaudible noise:
eeeeeeeheeeheheheeeeeeeeeheeeeeeeeeeeeehehehehehehehheeeeeee
After several agonizing seconds of screeching, Rainbow Dash peeled off of the wall, flipped over a few times, and hit the ground with a splat.
“No! Rainbow!” Not-Twilight ran over to her prismatic pony pal, and touched a hoof to her neck. She turned to the rest. “She… She doesn’t have a pulse.”
The crowd was silent for a few minutes, save a small changelingling’s wail.
“So, uhm.” Rarity fidgeted.
“Uh…” Twilight shifted from foot to foot.
“Um.” Fluttershy sat down. “... That was the entire strategy of the Equestrian military?”
“Well, I…” Mayor Mare coughed nervously. “It’s, uh… it’s possible that maybe we got some bad intel.”
And then all the changelings went back to the hive, having sort-of accomplished their mission a little bit? Anyway, without any ponies or changelings in Ponyville to tend them, all the apple orchards withered and died, triggering a massive economic recession in Equestria which left millions starving. The changelings were able to assist local rebellions against what many ponies saw as a tyrannical monarchist government that was hoarding food for the wealthy at the expense of the populace. Having thus won the popular opinion of Equestria, Queen Chrysalis soon annexed all the territory.
And that’s how Equestria was enslaved.
The End!