I came out of my changeling info coma about an hour after Tia left to get ready for the day, and was met with a mess of dark purple upon opening my eyes. It had been such a long time since I actually slept kind of slept with Twilight, as in the kind that involved me going to sleep with her instead of the release of bodily fluids, that I took a moment to enjoy the feeling. The back of her body was pressed up against my front, and I found my forelegs were still around the princesses chest, or barrel, whatever the upper pony part was that could have been a chest on a human.
Thankfully, Spike had been called back to Canterlot the day after Tia’s dinner party, and that meant me and Twilight got snuggles after sex. Call me crazy, but I think she actually enjoyed that more than the massive orgasm that left the alicorn laying on her side, with her tongue hanging out for about three minutes. But ponies did tend to put more importance on the whole physical contact backed by emotional intimacy than they do on just for fun sex.
It was strange, but true. Hell, more snuggling went on in Ponyville’s red lights district than banging. Oh, and talking about their feelings, and their day, and a bunch of other things that makes reviewing any memories gained from that brothel I own kind of a letdown. A big letdown. But at least it gives me lots of gossip.
I mean, did you know that Colgate had a thing for Raindrops? I always thought she had a thing for that unicorn she’s always with, but…Raindrops.
Other than that, we got to sleep at the library. And have sex, in a library. Public indecency wins again!
Okay it was the back room of the library where Twilight slept in her cozy little bed, but it was still kind of a public place. At least I thought it was. I would need to check the zoning laws or something to be sure. Hell, for all I knew, public sex wasn’t even frowned upon by ponies. They did tend to walk around in the nude a lot.
Twilight stirred and let out a moan.
Since I couldn’t get a good beat on her face, I went for the back of her ears. As soon as my lips touched them, her body stiffened at the contact, and she turned her head a bit so I could get at her cheek.
The kiss got a giggle out of her. “Forgot what it was like to wake up with you in the morning.”
“Better give you a good reminder then,” I said before working on her neck since I couldn't get at her lips with her head still half-turned around.
Twilight moved around a bit, and I had to stop my make-out session with her neck to let the mare move onto her back. But then I got access to both cheeks and muzzle, so it was worth the wait. My inability to leave a job unfinished moved me back to her neck again, and the little goddess ran her hooves along the side of my body. “So frisky,” she told me as I made it to her pony collar bone. “What’s got into you this morning?”
That made me stop my attentions to her body, and I shuffled back up to look at her in the face. “What do you mean?”
“You’re being all…super affectionate,” she managed before I pecked her on the muzzle again, which got another giggle from her. “You’re not usually this way when we wake up together.”
I gave the alicorn a carefully raised eyebrow to keep from scowling. “What do you mean?”
Twilight just rolled her eyes. “Well usually its bang, suck, snore, and back to work with you. Don’t get me wrong, I still love that too, but...you haven’t been this...playful with me since...a while, actually.”
“Wait, you mean the lunch sex?” I asked for clarification. It was Equestria after all, miscommunication could easily snowball into something capable of destroying entire lives and drive pink ponies to further insanity.
“Well,” Twilight drawled out for a bit. “Yeah.”
The little bit of hurt in her voice, and disappointment in her Scent got a sigh out of me. “Well, I thought…you know…I had just fed off you and…um…you always have your work to do these days. Plus I’ve got that thing going on with Dash and the Equestria Games.”
That put some fear, and then a bit of shame into the melting pot of Twilight’s emotions, and I couldn’t help but cock my head a second before those Smells just disappeared. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she replied a little less than one hundred percent enthusiastic. Bit of guilt hit her too.
Thus came the sign that I had said something wrong.
See? I was learning to pick up on stuff.
Two seconds too late, but...I was learning at least.
I sighed. “Okay, what’s wrong?”
“I just,” she managed before licking her lips. “I just miss this…I guess. When the castle was being rebuilt, we woke up together like this all the time and…I miss it.”
Yeah, she totally had me there. Hell, we usually did a lot more together than I had been doing since I got back. At least, a lot more social stuff. Sure, Twilight was kind of a nymphomaniac, wanting sex at least two times a day and usually turning the whole thing into a marathon, but…she was still a pony first and foremost. She still loved the cuddling and talking too.
“Okay then…you want me to move back in?” I asked.
That got a bit of a reaction out of her. Twilight stared at me with wide eyes for a moment, and took in a breath. “Um…but…Spike…”
“I mean, the whole sleeping at the castle after Spike goes to bed didn’t work cause he might wake up at night with you gone, I get that,” I told her while repressing my mad rage towards the dragon of relationship ruination. Seriously, the little clingy bastard with abandonment issues wants to get busy with a woman that’s about ten years older than him, but I’m not suppose to have my time with Twilight because he’s around?
Double-standard dragons suck.
Twilight let out a sigh. “And he’s too afraid of the changelings to move in there.”
“So, I’ll just move in here,” I concluded. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but at least we’d get more morning time romance. “A few spells to make sure he can’t see or hear us and…”
Then something else occurred to me. “Except…Sunset.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What about Sunset?”
“Look, I know she’s a grown mare and all, but…she’s still my responsibility,” I told Twilight. “I’m not exactly comfortable with leaving her alone at night.”
“Don’t you have dozens and dozens of changelings looking after her?” Twilight asked.
I cleared my throat and looked away. “Well it’s more like a protection detail of two. That also assist her with anything she needs thanks to a lack of magic on her part.” True, I had assigned them just last night, but…they were there now and that is what counted. “But I still don’t feel right leaving her out there Twilight she…well…Sunset may not act like it sometimes but…she is just a teenager again, and she’s still scared and…I can’t just shove her to the side or throw her to any pony else to take care of.
“And I can’t just be a jerk and try for something like,I dunno, try and force you to move into another house,” I went on. “I know you love this place. Plus we’d have to move Sunset in until I can do something for her and…pony houses aren’t really made for humans. Not to mention there’s the big evil storehouse of dark magic that I need to keep safe from vault hunters.” When something did come like Equestrian law said it would, I doubted the changelings would actually be able to stop him, her, or it, but they’d be there to raise an alarm.
Twilight turned my head back to her, and kissed me on the lips. It wasn’t a peck, or an invasive tongue wrestle. We just has a nice, long, normal kiss as I Smelled the love coming off her in waves that washed everything else away. “Well then, I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” she said with a smile. “Now, how about some breakfast?”
I tried to clear the distressing thoughts from my mind, but…it wasn’t all that easy. “Sugarcube Corner?”
Then Twilight put on her sultry smile. “I was thinking breakfast for you…professor,” she said as her legs spread further apart beneath me, which kind of made me gulp as the whole need to ravish her started to kick in on top of my hunger. “Sorry but, I was up all night with my fillyfriend, being naughty. Does that mean I’m going to get punished?”
It had been awhile since Twilight had done the whole teacher role-play thing, but…at least she had put away the school desk and chalkboard. Now it was just a bunch of dirty talk full of double entendres. That I could deal with.
I swear, the way she was before…it was almost silly. Not to mention a little weird when Celestia had been her personal teacher.
“You know the rules Twilight,” I told her before reaching down to rub her cutie mark. The things weren’t exactly g-spots but…Twi did seem to like it when I messed with them. “Missed work means you get licks until you complete your paper on…”
Twilight looked at her horn in thought for a moment. “How about…Starswirl the Bearded?”
I did my best to hide my disappointment. If it wasn’t for the fact the old bastard disappeared thousands of years ago, I might have been a little worried Twilight was going to cheat on me or something. But then again, I had Rainbow to worship, so it was only fair she had her heroes too. “Okay then. But just remember, it’s ten licks to start, and there will be a penalty when you don’t finish.”
“You mean if,” Twilight corrected as I was moving down towards her more private pony parts that she had exposed. The girl’s sex already smelled of need, and I hadn’t even begun.
Twilight never really did get around to telling me when he invented the anamorphic spell. Hell, she barely got past the whole magical advisor to Celestia part before having her first orgasm. Then she just kind of went with it.
“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” I asked Twilight after we sat down to the Sugar Cube breakfast table. I didn’t really need to eat, at least not food, but the social interaction part of dining was always good.
“Well school’s in recess for today because of the big tryouts sendoff ceremony, so I thought Sunset would like to spend time with all of us instead of the castle. I know we’ve got to get more work on this project for Princess Celestia, but the next summit isn’t for awhile, and we just got the information from Vanhoover yesterday. Not to mention I’ve done with all the smaller towns. Thankfully, Sunset finally decided to do it by region too. At least now our data isn’t going to overlap.”
“Still no idea what all this is for?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, but with Princess Celestia asking for it, it’s got to be something important. Then after lunch, we’re all going to Rainbow Falls of course. And that will probably put an end to my work for a few days. I really don’t want Dash to think I’m just pushing her off to the side. Plus…I kind of have a bad luck thing going whenever I try to support Rainbow and I don‘t want to get too caught up in other things this time around.”
That little confession got a little frown out of me. “What do you mean?”
Twilight gave me this look that just kind of said ‘are you some kind of moron?’ before her horn lit up. “Okay Ms I’ve watched you from the very first day,” she said right as a magical image of the Best Young Flyers crown appeared. “Remember this?”
Then the image changed to a turtle. “Or when she got her pet?”
“I seem to remember you guys talking behind her back a little, but-”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Okay, that was a little rude, but…she got trapped in a rockslide Fairy! Could have gotten killed, and…I should have known Dash would have finished the race before all the animals! Then there’s the whole Mare Do Well thing…buck! I didn’t even have a problem with that until you rode me about it for a couple of days, and yes I agree, we should have talked to her, you happy?” she asked in a huff before going on.
“Oh, and then there was the time we went to the Wonderbolts training camp,” Twilight went on. “I think that might have given her nightmares! Not to mention Rarity hasn’t gone up in my balloon since.
“Then there’s that whole thing with Daring Do where we thought you died,” she stressed. “And do I even have to mention the pirate incident on the Galloping Ghost Islands?”
Then Twilight’s voice became soft as she kept speaking while dropping her eyes to the table. “Rainbow took so long teaching me how to fly, and I know I was a terrible student. But she didn’t get angry at me once, and she was encouraging, and to be honest…it was the first time I really saw her like that! And then there was that time on the islands, when I almost…and she said… So…” Twilight slammed her hoof down on the table and let out a huff. “This time, I am making absolutely, one-hundred-percent certain that everything is going to go off just perfect for her!”
As…inspiring as her words were, the way she said them, with that angry…guilty kind of Scent on her… “Twilight, are you okay?”
She looked at me for a moment, then took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m fine,” the princess told me before her voice kind of dropped a bit. “I’m just...fine.”
“Twilight, what’s wrong?” I asked before she opened her mouth and I had to add, “and I got the empathy thing going so…I can kinda tell when something’s wrong.”
With that kind of evidence against her, the alicorn sighed in a way that said ‘I capitulate’. “It’s just…okay look, after Sunset…I kind of started looking around at all my other friendships and…there’s plenty of good times too but, every now and then we do tend to…do some pretty stupid things.”
I shrugged while trying to come up with something to reassure her. “Well um every pony makes mistakes.” Okay, I settled for basically just telling her brush it off but…close enough.
Twilight nodded. “I know, we have plenty of days when lunch goes just fine with everypony, or we just go relax, but…well…Rainbow Dash has kind of stopped hanging out at the library after she got all her own Daring Do books, and I’m having a hard time getting her into something else, and I just owe her so much and-”
Some magic around her mouth stopped the sound from coming out, and I got a glare from the purple goddess before I could speak. “And now you’re guilt tripping yourself about your other friends like you did with Sunset, I get it,” I told her before letting out a sigh and taking a moment to think while she undid my magic.
“Look,” I told her. “Mistakes were made. Okay. If you want to be forgiven, then ask for one and…don’t make anymore.”
“I just…it just…” Twilight let out a long sigh. “Okay, you’re right. Told myself before. It’s the same with Sunset. Need to have a new start. It’s in the past. Learned from it and done.”
I sighed in relief at the averted crises and looked down at the table. Where Twilight had found the need to kick herself over…some problems I sort of caused, I’ll never know, but at least she didn’t go into full-blown freak-out this time.
“So…schedule?” I asked.
Twilight gave me a blink look for a second, and then kind of just gave a start like she had been shocked. “Oh right, schedule!” she exclaimed “Okay, well…after I realized the problems involving my interactions with Rainbow Dash revolved around me not having a plan and last second decisions, I investigated what everypony else was doing to show their support and find our niche!”
Our? I asked myself when I noticed the plural. “But um, Twilight-”
“I mean, I know Applejack is handling the catering for the team while we’re at Rainbow Falls so she’ll be fine, and Rarity is still getting the team uniforms done, and you’re helping with the training, but that’ll be finished when its time for the qualifying flight. So I was thinking we could all join Pinkie in Rainbow’s cheering section!” she finished with an excited smile.
And then I got the feeling. You know the one, that spider sense feeling of dread and danger when you’re in a dark alley and you know you’re going to get mugged? Yeah, that’s the one.
“Um,” I began to try and draw out the other shoe falling as long as possible. “What do you mean, we all?”
“You, me, Pinkie Pie, and Sunset,” Twilight finished. “Oh don’t worry, I already asked her last night. There’s even special cheering uniforms with rainbow mane styles! Hey, do you know that pompoms were probably a result of human dimensions effecting Equestrian development? And teacups? I mean, I always thought that we got the designs from the griffins because of the claws, but now that I think about it, back when I had those hand things, the tentacle appendages really would have been perfect for holding teacups.”
I held up my hooves. “Wait, wait, wait a second Twilight,” I told her while focusing on the part that didn’t sound like she wanted to put me into a cheerleader getup. “What do you mean by, helping Rainbow Dash train?”
Cue slightly confused face and… Twilight tilted her head. “What do you mean, what do I mean?” she asked. “Rainbow Dash said you and her were training for the relay together.”
“That’s…because I’m in the relay team Twilight,” I told her. In fact, I’m pretty sure I told her that…or something to that effect. Hell, with my changing memory, I could even remember my exact words. They were “Me and Rainbow Dash are helping Fluttershy get ready for the-”… Oh shit. That’s…all I actually told her on the subject. Those exact words. Not you know, that I was also training to be in the relay, just that we were helping to prepare Fluttershy.
And judging from the slightly worried look on her face…and the big amount of worry I could Smell on her… “Um…okay…what’s wrong?” I asked cautiously.
Twilight did her whole breathing thing to calm down and…okay, since she only does that for you know, super freak out prevention, I was starting to get really worried. Especially when it only took her from a level seven Sparkle Panic Scent to a level five.
Yes, I had developed a rating system for Twilight’s freak-outs based on her psychic scent. Level ten was only theoretical though, as I had only seen Lesson Zero, not experienced it.
“Fairy, you can’t compete in the Equestria games!” Twilight exclaimed in a near-panic.
The worry in my gut became kind of a jaded concern as the darker side of my mind came up with the possibility that Twilight was only saying that because she had made a plan, and I needed to stick to it. But then I crushed that thought down and kept my expression to an eyebrow raise. “Um…why not?”
“Because the Equestria Games is a contest of strength and skill for all the ponies of Equestria!” Twilight told me with a bit of panic in her voice. “Nopony is allowed to use magic!”
I blinked a few times while trying to settle the fear in my gut. “So I just won’t use magic.”
Twilight pointed a hoof at me. “You’re using magic right now! Transformation magic! In fact…I don’t even know if changelings are allowed to compete. We allow griffons, but that’s only because the Griffin Empire raised such a fuss, and it’s just in the flying events,” she said. “And even if you change into a pegasus, you’re still using magic, so…”
“Um,” I began while to forestall Twilight’s panic approached level six. “That’s um…okay, Rainbow wouldn’t just sign me up for an event if-”
“Teams don’t sign up until they get to the qualifying location,” Twilight told me.
I grasped at a straw. “But we’ve been getting ready for two days. It’s not like Rainbow wouldn’t read the…rules…and just…oh pony feathers,” I mumbled while leaning over to rest my head in my hooves with my elbows on the table.
Then the worry in the pit of my was replaced by…something else. The kind of something else that made me want to throw up. I looked up to the purple mare. “Twilight…she’s been looking forward to this since…hay, since before I even got here. If she can’t compete because of a stupid technicality like this…it’ll crush her,” I mumbled before thinking of the other pony this would hurt. “Fluttershy’s been looking forward to it too, and…we’ve got to do something. I mean, you’re a princess, can’t you just…order some ponies around and fix it?”
“Not in,” she said with exasperation in her voice before looking over at the clock before turning back to me. “Three hours…. THREE HOURS? We only have three hours to fix this?”
Twilight went up to panic level eight, and I kind of just sat there while trying to think of a solution. There was that one pony Fluttershy had mentioned, so asking him was definitely an option, but…we also needed to do a few things first.
“We need to tell Rainbow what’s going on,” I said.
“Are you crazy?” Twilight demanded as she glared at me. “You know…buck, you know how she’ll react! And I’m pretty sure it’ll be two words that start with F and O.”
She was right of course, Rainbow was not going to take this well. Hell, she’d probably be hurt by it worse than Twilight! But still… “And if we don’t do anything and fail, then it’s going to do more than crush her spirits Twilight. I mean, what if the train whistle blows, and she finds out she have no business even going to Rainbow Falls? Or we spend our last few hours on the train, looking for some pony to fill in and when we get the signup, her team is disqualified?” It took everything I had to keep my voice even with all that going through her head.
“...buck it all.”
It took us some time to double-check the rules and find that it was true about alicorns not being allowed to compete. As for the changeling thing, even if we could get some kind of special ruling to allow my species to compete, that would have taken days. Me and Twilight had hours.
So with our hopes of telling Rainbow she had nothing to worry about dashed, we had to break the news to her. By the time we found her, a whole hour had passed, leaving us with even less time to fulfill our nearly impossible task.
She was on the outskirts of Ponyville, doing some last minute running through the course that actually resembled something doable at a pace that had probably been impossible for her when Twilight came to Ponyville. I didn’t know whether to be uneasy as Rainbow Dash just kept giving Sir Isaac Newton the bird as she zipped and zoomed around while banking at speeds and angles that were scientifically impossible, or just be impressed by the whole thing.
And since I was technically a girl at the time, I could enjoy the sight of a cute little pony that looked like she shot rainbows out her ass when she flew around the obstacle course that was made from fluffy clouds and rainbow rings.
Oh who am I kidding? I would have thought it cool even as a guy. Rainbow was in her element, and it was just fucking beautiful. She wasn’t even really trying to go super fast, she was just having fun. So much so that I could Smell her at twice my normal range.
And now I’m going to ruin it, I told myself while the playful pegasus just zoomed around happy as can be.
As soon as we approached, Rainbow just turned away from her third run through the course, and landed in the shade of a nearby tree. We didn’t even have to shout or anything, she just looped around after flying through a ring and landed.
“Hey guys, what’s up?” the slightly sweaty, but still somehow gorgeous pegasus asked us.
I took the initiative, and told her the bad news.
Rainbow took it about as well as anyone could have expected.
She shrieked. And by that I mean really shrieked, in that super sheik voice of her's that gets that way when she’s going to be having a panic attack. “WHAT?”
Twilight sighed. “I’m sorry Rainbow but, we checked. Short of going to an official committee and explaining our special circumstances, which we don’t have time for...Fae won’t be able to compete in the Equestria Games. Much less the qualifying rounds,” Twilight grumbled at the end.
That was apparently all Rainbow could take. A second later, she was up in the air and having a Twilight-style freakout.
“What’re we gonna do? What’re we gonna do? What’re we gonna do?” she repeated over and over again as she flew around and around in a circle, zooming every which way about a foot off the ground
Twilight tried to get a hoof on her, I used horn magic to ensnare the girl and pull her back down to the ground before she flew in so many circles and kicked up a twister. It was actually pretty hard to hold her too.
Not super impossible hard, but with changeling magic being a bit rougher than unicorn or alicorn, I didn’t want to hurt her or anything. So, I kind of got that feeling of holding a panicking bird in my hand. Too much pressure and it gets hurt, not enough and it flies away.
Hell, she was so out of it that she didn’t even seem to care that I snagged her like she usually did when she got TK’d and the poor pegasus’s chest was just going in and out to such an extent, I thought a heart attack was imminent.
Twilight was the one to talk to her though. Don’t think I could have held her and played the reassurance part with the way Dash was acting. “Rainbow calm down! We’ve still got two hours before the train leaves,” she assured the pegasus. “Now, do you know anypony in town that could still be on the team?”
“Any pony useful?” I asked to reinforce the fact it couldn’t just be some Joe Average pony. “I mean, some ponies had to have tried joining your team before you went after me, right?” Even if Fluttershy was a member of the team, there had to have been some semi-athletic ponies left in town. Even a normal Ponyville pegasus would have been okay.
Despite its small size, Ponyville did have a lot of athletic pegasi. Tons in fact. On average, from what Twilight had told me ten minutes ago while she was trying to cheer us both up, the normal Ponyville pegasus was at least thirty-percent faster and stronger than the Equestrian average. Hell, Dash was certain they were going to break the wind speed record that one time after all, and she didn’t have a lot of pegasi to pick from like Manehattan did.
Or Fillydelphia, or...whoever the hell was still the title holder because Ponyville got jipped.
The reason being was of course, the Everfree. One did not live across the street from pony Mordor without being one tough son of a bitch. Sure it kind of kept everyone else from immigrating to Ponyville, but the threat of constant monster attacks in years past, plus all the crazy shit that started happening when Twilight moved to town had pretty much made every pony in town the equivalent of a first year royal guard at the least.
I think Twilight even mentioned how they held off a damn invasion from moon monsters at one point. So…yeah, Ponyville had faced an alien invasion after all, and kicked its ass.
Okay, they were nightmare monsters from the moon…but…that still counts as extraterrestrials, right?
“It’s the very last day,” Rainbow whined as she slumped in my grip, and I let her go before joining Twilight in the comfortable hoof patting. “Where are we going to find somepony like that?”
“What about Bulk Biceps?” Twilight asked. Luckily, I managed to resist my urge to gag. Not to mention murder her for speaking such a name. “He’s pretty...athletic.”
Rainbow sighed and moaned at the same time. “And big and...look, I didn’t want to tell this to Fluttershy when she suggested him, but...that pony is too big to fit through the rings, not to mention even slower than Fluttershy and...not the best coordinated,” she said sadly voice. “I’m super fast, but its not going to matter if we get five minutes added onto our time because he avoids all the rings, or I never get chance to fly because he gets stuck in one.”
“What about Cloud Kicker?” I asked.
“She’s got family in Canterlot, so she’s flying for them.”
“Raindrops?”
“Weighted flight and endurance race,” Rainbow replied.
Twilight nodded. “Makes sense, she is kind of strong.”
“Thunderlane and Blossomforth?”
“Sprinters,” Dash replied.
I groaned as I tried to think of any other pony that might be of help. “Cloud Chaser?”
“He also in the sprinters.”
Twilight sighed. “Oh! What about Cloudchaser?”
I looked over and frowned at her. Didn’t I just ask that?
“Synchronized diving with her sister Flitter.”
With that oddity out of the way, I moved on. “Crafty Crate?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Too old.”
I racked my brain for a pony, any pony. “Um...Surprise?”
The look on Rainbow’s face turned to confusion. “Um, why would she join the team? And...how? She’s not even from Ponyville.”
…
…
My brain shut down for a second. When it started up again, all my muscles just kind of twitched, and I looked at Rainbow eye to eye. “Wait a second, YOU MEAN THERE REALLY IS A PEGASUS PONY NAMED SURPRISE IN EQUESTRIA?”
Rainbow snapped out of her funk to look at my like I was crazy for a second. “Um...yeah?”
“How is that even...wait,” I said before pointing a hoof at Rainbow Dash. “How do you even know about her, and off the top of your head?” The chances of that were so freaking slim I didn’t even want to think about them.
Twilight groaned. “You’re not going to start going insane again, are you Fairy?”
“Beeecause she’s a Wonderbolt,” Rainbow Dash told me as she started to back away from what she probably saw as a unstable, semi-godlike being. Not that I blamed her though.
I sighed and shook my head. “No, but...okay, what about…” I wracked my brain, trying to think of another pony in Ponyville we could use, and tried my bestest to keep my mind on task.
But hell man, Surprise was real! In Equestria real. Did that mean that Firefly and the others were running around somewhere? Well, me and Tia ran into Grogar, so...I suppose anything is possible.
I shook my head to try and clear my thoughts, and flew up a bit. The whole using my wings wasn’t as...unconscious as it was with Dash, or even Twilight. In fact I kind of had to keep my mind on task while doing it, but it was like people kept their mind on task while driving a stick.
It didn’t help clear my mind, more like jumbled it with extra stuff so I absolutely had to focus on what I wanted to think about.
I got above the tree we were standing next to, and then it hit me.
Or she did anyway.
We tumbled back to the ground together.
“Ouch!” the pegasus pony declared when she kind of landed on top of me hard enough for my natural changeling defenses to actually throw off the transformation magic and incase me in my protective outer shell while giving me a bit more height, masculine features, and fangs.
A tail of dirty blond hair obscured my vision, and umm...her uh...butt kind of pinned me to the ground in one of the most embarrassing of positions. I mean, she was sitting on my neck and all so...yeah.
“Oh my gosh, are you two alright?” Twilight asked.
“Come on Derpy, get off her.”
As soon as the unnatural weight was lifted from my neck, I got up and looked back at the wall-eyed mare. She was...extremely apologetic. “Oh, I’m sorry Princess Fae! was just flying by and...well...I just don’t know-”
“My fault,” I assured her as I raised a hoof.
Derpy was...well, Derpy. The girl could burn half of Equestria to the ground, and I wouldn’t care. Snapping my neck beneath that WMD she called a plot was nothing.
Okay, maybe I was a little mad but...it really is impossible to stay mad an an apologetic pony. Especially Derpy.
“Well, as long as nopony was hurt,” Twilight said as she breathed a sigh of relief. “Now what about-”
As Twilight spoke, I studied the newcomer as she gave her wings a test flap. Derpy wasn’t exactly an athlete, but she was a delivery pegasus and a mailmare. That meant she had built up some powerful wings thanks to hauling all her stuff around everywhere. Be they packages, or just sacks of mail, and she wasn’t as blind as most made her out to be. She probably had some stamina too, but that wasn’t the most important thing in a relay, it was all about speed...and cornering when it came to Equestrian air races.
“Derpy!” I practically cheered.
She looked back at me and blinked. “Um yes, Princess?” the mare asked.
I ignored the whole princess thing. Like I said earlier, Derpy.
Then I looked over to Dash, and back to Derpy. “Are you on a team for the Games?”
Rainbow got a bit of a horrified look on her face when Derpy became kind of thoughtful, and zipped over to me. “What’re you doing?” she hissed in my ear.
I gave her a nervous laugh. “Oh come on Rainbow, you need a third member and...we’re running low on available pegasi.”
“There’s plenty of Ponyville pegasi left that haven’t been poached like Cloud Kicker,” Rainbow replied. It actually took me a second to get that one.
Once I did though, I raised an eyebrow. “We went through the entire weather team and then some. I know we’ve got plenty of pegasi usually Dash, but...how many of them have gone off to somewhere like Canterlot?”
“Um,” Derpy spoke up, “I was planning to take Dinky and Sparkler to the tryouts to watch, but I’m not on any teams. Why’re you asking me?”
Rainbow looked at me with nervous eyes, then back to Derpy. “Um...well...ya see,” she managed.
I just kept my mouth shut. Choosing a side between the two pegasi was getting kind of...impossible. I couldn’t force Dash to take her, but I wasn’t going to start fanboying over Derpy’s special talents either. Mainly because I didn’t know them.
I needed a second opinion. “Uh Twilight...some help here?”
She looked back and forth between the two, then to me. “Um...well, I suppose we could try putting her down as an alternate. I mean, there is a small chance we could meet with the committee during the time trials, but...if we’re going to take her…” she paused and looked over to Derpy. “Um Derpy, do you want to try out for the Equestria Games? There was a bit of a mixup with the relay team and...it turns out they might not be able to compete unless we can find another pegasus to take Fae’s place, if the review board won’t accept her as a legitimate competitor I mean.”
The gray pegasus tilted her head. “What? Why won’t they let Princess Fae play in the Games?”
“Because she’s apparently a changeling,” Rainbow grumbled as she got into the air and crossed her forearms. “And somepony forgot to tell them changelings aren't evil anymore.”
I cleared my throat. “Technically, changelings are just as evil as ever,” I corrected her. “I’m just a hash dictator that won’t let them feed off real ponies and provided an infinite food source that requires willing participants that need to be in a state of happiness when they use the Mirror Pool for that food to be useful. Plus, I’m the only changeling that will be able to lay eggs upon full maturation,” I explained with a shrug. “They kind of have to follow me or...die out.”
“Oh...no idea what that means,” Rainbow replied before she turned back to Derpy. “So, you in?”
Twilight wasn’t so willing to blow that off. “Wait, what?” she asked as she spun around to face me.
“Sure!” Derpy told Dash, “I’d be happy to help if you all need me.”
I ignored Twilight and nodded at Derpy. “Great! We’ll see you at the train station in an hour then.”
After Derpy left and Rainbow dashed off to get her things, Twilight kind of paralyzed me with her pissed off purple pony eyes, and I let out a sigh. “Yes Twilight?”
“What’s all this about full maturation? You never mentioned anything about full maturation when you were telling me how the hive worked!” the nerd exclaimed before her angry curiosity became the normal kind and she got all bright eyes and in my face with a smile. “So, just how does it work? The maturation thing I mean. Full maturation, you already told me about the accelerated growth and your physical age.
Just thinking of it made me shudder. “Twilight, it’s gross, I...really don’t want to talk about it.” I also think about it, or access Chrysalis’s stored memories in the hive-mind to get all the disturbing details of the process; never mind the dangers of putting a psychopath's thoughts in my head. Compared to what I had found out about becoming the breeding machine of the hive since Mom’s death, the egg laying was the least gross thing about it.
Of course Twilight didn’t take no for an answer, and followed after me. “Oh come on Fae, it’s just biology! There’s nothing wrong with knowing how another species works,” she said as she chased after me. “Faaaaaairieeeee, do it for science.”
“Science nothing!”
“Pleeeease?”
“No.”
“Please tell me.”
“No.”
“Please, please, please, please?”
“...you really aren't going to respect my personal choice to try and do my best to forget about this whole thing, are you?” I deadpanned.
Twilight let out a long breath. For a second I saw a hint of sadness in her eyes that said I just might have gotten to her, but it was gone an instant later behind a adorably curious smile. “Nope!”
I sighed.
And surrendered to the cute little pretty purple pony princess’s demands.
My walls crumbled.
And I told her on the way to the castle to pack and pick up Sunset.
At least the whole thing made her get all green for a few moments from hearing all the specifics.
“So you just have to-”
“Eeyup.” I told Twilight before she could go into any details that would remind me. Also had to repress a shudder.
“And in three months-”
“More or less.”
“What about Celestia?” Twilight asked.
I shrugged. “I’d still be connect to her of course. So...we’d probably still meet up...maybe? I’m not sure.”
“What if you never do it? Won’t the changelings...rebel or something?”
Okay, that one I actually had to give a little thoughtful thought to. I mean, I was more of a hands off guy than Chrysalis ever was, so I didn’t have the tyrant stamp on my head to breed resentment...but then again, there really wasn’t something like that in the Changelings didn’t really care about being ruled by a tyrant as long as they could eat.
On the other hand...possible end of the species. Our time in the Everfree hadn’t been completely without losses. Minor ones, but still losses.
But then they didn’t really care, as long as they could eat. And grow...but, that was more just so they could find better feeding grounds and kill stuff.
Like I said, complicated. Didn’t like to think about it.
“Well, it’s only been a month or so, and it’s not like she’s going anywhere,” I said with a shrug. “Plenty of time to mull it all over, right?”
Twilight rolled her eyes as we landed at the palace. “Procrastination leads to problems Fairy.”
“And major life changing decisions can’t be undone Twilight,” I told her.
She sighed and looked to her wings for a moment. “Doesn’t mean it would be all bad.”
I sighed and looked back at the alicorn. “Look, do you want me to disappear for three months?”
“Well...no,” she admitted.
“Problem solved, now lets go,” I told her before walking in from the balcony.
Twilight groaned. “We’re not finished with this you know.”
“Yes we are,” I told her without looking back.
“No we’re not.”
“Yes we are.”
“No we’re not.”
It went on like that till we got to Sunset’s room and I opened the door to see what she was wearing. It had a sky blue top, the Ponyville symbol for the Equestria games, and the skirt was very...rainbow. Although the pompoms were just one color.
“So Twilight, did Pinkie come up with a cheer for us to do?” she asked. “And...where are your uniforms? Shouldn’t we be wearing them for the Sendoff?”
I stared at the cheerleader and suppressed a groan while I drew in on myself. Oh right...knew I forgot something.