//------------------------------// // Revealed // Story: Changed // by Dream Seeker //------------------------------// Rose felt Twilight shake her awake. She opened her eyes and prepared to ask Twilight what she was doing today, but stopped when she saw Twilight's frown. "You have some explaining to do." she said, and Rose shrank in fear. Did she know Rose was a Changeling? How did she find out? "Spike says that you snuck out yesterday and worried him sick! What if something happened to you? What if we couldn't find you? That's why I needed you to stay with Spike!" Twilight's voice rose throughout the lecture. "What were you thinking?!" Rose flinched. "I... I..." "Now, we have work to do today. Today, you learn to solidify your magic." Twilight's voice was cold as ice, retaining none of the joy that she had when training her previously. "Come down stairs." Rose followed Twilight, head down. The only way she could see that could get her back in to Twilight's good graces was to perform better than she expected in her magic lesson. "Feel your magic, and release it. However, hold it back as you release, so it gets trapped outside your horn but not outside your natural magic field." Rose did as instructed, feeling much of her magic release, but only forming a small amount of solid magic. She wasn't content with such a small piece of magic to use. It wouldn't be enough to impress Twilight, and make her proud again. She strained, trying to use as much as possible. "Rose?" Twilight's cold voice thawed with worry. "Is something wrong?" More magic came from Rose's horn, but when she tried to cut off the flow, it didn't work! Too much was flowing out too fast! Rose opened her eyes wide in panic. "I can't stop it!" she yelled. "Hold on!" Twilight said, forming two special forcefields. These forcefields were set to block magic, and one was placed around Rose's leaking green magic and the other was around Rose's body itself. All of Rose's magic was gone and she felt the flow stop. Rose sighed in relief, glad that nothing worse would happen, when all of the magic that had leaked exploded with a bang! Rose flinched away, whimpering, until the explosion cleared. "Rose?" Twilight asked, staring at her through the thinning smoke as she released the barrier. "Yes?" she replied, feeling something weird in her voice. Suddenly her eyes widened in horror, her disguise was gone! Twilight could see that Rose was a Changeling! Star Watcher panicked, rushing to his room and hiding under his bed. Twilight rushed after him, charging her horn with a spell, when she noticed the green glow from the pillow. She lifted the pillow, and found a glowing green crystal that she recognized as the crystal Rose had bought in the Crystal Empire. "What have you done with Rose?" Twilight practically screamed. "Did you take her yesterday, when she was alone? Where is she!" Star Watcher jumped out of hiding, grabbed the crystal that held the love he so badly needed, and smashed out of window. He landed with a thud, wincing as he felt at least one bone break, and sprinted off to the Everfree, not looking back to check if Twilight was following him. Heart thumping, Twilight wrote a letter to Princess Celestia informing her of this new development. Immediately after getting Spike to send it, she raced outside to talk to her friends. Maybe they could help her find out when she had been replaced by Changelings. Star Watcher practically ran in to Bugze as he fled, absorbing some of the emotion from the crystal as he went. "What's wrong?" Bugze asked, stopping him. "It's all ruined. I've been found." Star Watcher sobbed. "You can live in the Everfree with me for now." Bugze suggested gently. "The first discovery is always the worst." "Everything was going so well!! It was all perfect, and now it's ruined..." Star Watcher curled into a ball, crying at his loss and hugging the slightly glowing green crystal. "Don't worry, it'll be fine." Bugze said softly. "I remember when I was first discovered. It was miserable, but just a few days afterwards I was already far away as a different pony. You learn a lot from discovery. I've never made the same mistake twice." Star Watcher looked up. "L-let's go, then." Star Watcher put the crystal on his back before taking off, wobbling unsteadily in the air as he followed Bugze. A gust of wind knocked him off balance, but he recovered quickly. The crystal, however, was knocked off of his back. Star Watcher didn't notice, and it landed with an almost musical note as it hit Fluttershy's door and bounced on the ground. Fluttershy emerged from her cottage and picked up the crystal, marveling at the dim green glow. She glanced around, looking for its owner, but upon seeing nopony around Fluttershy went back inside and stored it in a safe place. When its owner came back, she could give it to them. Twilight rushed to gather each of her friends. Finally she stopped at Fluttershy's house, the rest of her friends accompanying her. "Fluttershy!" Twilight called, knocking on the door. "We all need to talk, I have the rest of our friends!" Fluttershy opened the door. "Are you the pony that dropped the crystal? The one that was glowing slightly green?" "No. But I know who did." Twilight replied, entering the house. "Who?" Rainbow Dash asked. "A Changeling. Rose was replaced!" This statement was met with a commotion. "Do you know when she was replaced?" Rarity asked. "No. Her magic was always green as her eyes, so we can't use that as an indicator. I think maybe yesterday, though. She left on her own, Spike was supposed to accompany her but she snuck out without him." "That doesn't sound like her." Rarity commented. "From Petal's description of her, that doesn't seem like something she would do. Maybe she was a Changeling before that?" "Exactly why I needed all of you. With our combined efforts, we may be able to work together to find out when she was replaced!" "Excuse me..." Fluttershy said quietly. Immediately everypony turned to stare at her. "Yes?" Rarity asked. "Does it matter? Why don't we just use a tracking spell to find her, and she can tell us herself?" Rarity gasped. "Fluttershy, you're brilliant!" Twilight was already shaking her head sadly. "We need something of hers, an object she had an emotional attachment to, that she was around a lot." she muttered. Suddenly, her head popped up. "The crystal! Fluttershy, we need that crystal now. It was Rose's, she got it at the Crystal Empire." Twilight's smile widened. "She was going to have a chance to visit captured Changelings! Once the Changelings discovered that, they must have replaced her with a highly experienced Changeling to convince us to let them go!" Twilight's smile dropped. "If only I could have seen it before." "Lighten up, Twi. Like you said, this must have been an experienced Changeling! That's why you couldn't tell her apart from the original!" Rainbow reminded her. "Now we can use the tracking spell and find her!" "You're right!" Twilight exclaimed, glancing at the sky. "I think it's too late now, though. We should rest, we can find Rose in the morning." Star Watcher sniffled once before curling up on the pile of leaves that would be her bed tonight. Bugze had been living in a cave in the Everfree, with only leaves to sleep on. Star Watcher tossed and turned, unable to find a good position to sleep in. He was used to sleeping in a nice, warm, soft bed. He moved to hug his crystal again. When his hooves met empty air, he gasped. The crystal! He had lost it! He relapsed into sobbing. The one precious thing in the world, he had lost. He cried himself to sleep. Bugze frowned. He could hear Star Watcher's sobbing, but was unable to help. Every Changeling experienced it, the feeling of loss. It felt like dying. After being revealed, you couldn't go back. Your friends, your family, your home... Gone. All gone. Nothing could make that feeling go away except for getting a new life. Until then, Star Watcher would have to wallow in misery.