//------------------------------// // chapter 3 Night Time Eternal // Story: Fluttershy The Kindest Changeling Queen // by Changeing Winter //------------------------------// Day of the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration. Outside Fluttershy's cottage. After Fluttershy had gained control of the situation and calmed down the hive, a plan was quickly formulated for how to deal with the oncoming threat. Capturing Twilight Sparkle was out of the question, she was far too powerful and even if they did subdue her, the absence of Celestia's prize pupil would definitely cause ponies to investigate. With aggressive action off the table, the idea was proposed to do what changelings do best, deceive. As the group ran through the plan, it appeared to be sound. Fluttershy could continue helping the celebration along, doing her part and just acting like her normal shy self, there would be no reason for Twilight Sparkle to suspect anything. Silent and Flora both agreed to the plan immediately, Silent was always a fan of deception and Flora didn't want any one to be hurt. Primrose was at first in disagreement, due to the risk to Fluttershy if the plan failed, but Fluttershy convinced her that it was for the hive and necessary if they wanted to evade the wrath of frightened ponies. That left Thunder Hooves, he was by far the most aggressive changeling in the hive, if anyling was going to be a military leader it would be him. He didn't agree with the plan but he was out voted four to one. After the plan was finalized, all that had to be done was put it into action. 'How hard can it be to be yourself?' Fluttershy thought. She would do any thing for her hive, that's why she agreed to the plan in the first place. If the plan failed Fluttershy would be vulnerable to one of the most powerful unicorn mages ever known. Which may explain why she felt absolutely terrified. Waiting out in the open, with no defence, teaching birds to sing. The mayor had recognised her talent as an animal caretaker (it is Fluttershy's cutie mark) and asked her to organise the music, Fluttershy couldn't decline, both out of kindness and for the sake of her disguise. She just had to hope that when Twilight came, she would just see a nice shy pony who loves animals, no suspicion what so ev- "TWEET TWEET TWEET" one of the birds sang, terribly off key. "Oh my, stop please everyone" Fluttershy said quietly, trying not to frighten the birds. "Excuse me sir, I mean no offence, but your rhythm is just a teeny tiny bit off" Fluttershy whispered as gently as she could "Now follow me please, a one, a two, a one two three-" "Hello!" somepony called. "Aaahhh!" Fluttershy screamed, she turned around quickly to see who scared her and saw Twilight Sparkle, the potential doom of her hive standing right before her. Fluttershy's world began spinning, on the outside she looked fine, but on the inside she was terrified, panic stricken and confused, she could see Twilight's mouth moving, but in her panic couldn't make out the words. Fluttershy landed, trying to steady her thoughts. "I'm Twilight Sparkle." Hearing the name of her hives greatest threat, pulled Fluttershy back to reality. "What's your name?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "Um I'm Fluttershy." Fluttershy responded timidly. "I'm sorry what was that?" Twilight asked again. "Um, my name is Fluttershy." Fluttershy replied again more quietly than last time. "Didn't quite catch that" Twilight said sounding a little more agitated. "I'm Fluttershy," Fluttershy squeaked. Twilight still couldn't hear her, there was a very short silence. "Well um, it looks like your birds are back" Twilight began, Fluttershy hadn't noticed they'd gone, probably scared away. "So I guess everything's in order, keep up the good work." Twilight began walking away, Fluttershy tried to say something else, but it came out as another squeak, she was just happy her hive was no longer in danger. "Are you ok mother, your panic was spilling over the hive mind again, did you talk with Twilight?" The message was from Primrose. Fluttershy was about to respond, but then she remembered she was supposed to have a normal conversation with Twilight Sparkle, to not arouse suspicion. What if she came back and investigated her house because of her actions? What if she found the hive?! Fluttershy quickly began thinking of what to do, she needed a way to appear normal to Twilight, despite her nerves, something, anything. That was when a small baby dragon came out of a bush and began talking to Twilight. "A baby dragon!" Fluttershy yelled, this was her lucky break. She may have also then knocked Twilight over in her excitement, without even noticing. 'Ok' Fluttershy thought, 'I need to get on Twilights good side.' "Oh I've never seen a baby dragon before, he's so cute!" Fluttershy as a changeling queen had studied dragons in case they where a threat to her hive, so she knew a lot more than the average pony did, also the average pony knew nearly nothing about dragons, she could use that to her advantage, faking a lack of knowledge. "Well well well" the dragon responded. "Oh my, he talks, I didn't know dragons can talk, that's just so incredibly wonderful, I, I just don't even know what to say" Fluttershy pretended to be surprised by this fact. Suddenly Twilight Sparkle picked the dragon up in her magic and said "Well in that case we better be going." Fluttershy wasn't going to let this chance slip away that easily, "Oh wait, wait, what's his name?" "I'm Spike" the dragon replied back. "Hi Spike" Fluttershy continued, "I'm Fluttershy, wow a talking dragon! and what do dragons talk about?" "Well what do you want to know?" Spike asked. "Absolutely everything" Fluttershy said enthusiastically, she was so caught up in her own conversation she didn't even hear the groan escape from Twilights mouth. Fluttershy tagged along, listening to Spike recount his entire life story, although she was here to stop herself from looking suspicious. She still found it very interesting. She also sent a message back to the hive, saying that everything will be fine and that all her children should be able to sleep soundly tonight. As she approached Twilights temporary house, a library built into a tree. Fluttershy stopped to check the local emotions and Twilight was not happy. This was very very bad and Fluttershy probably would have gone into another panic cycle, if she didn't also sense lots of ponies inside the library, including one extraordinarily happy and energetic pony, that could only be Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie was throwing a surprise party. This was her chance, her last chance to be friendly towards Twilight, for the sake of her hive and her children. "And that's the story of my whole entire life up until today. Do you want to hear about today?" Spike asked "Oh yes please" Fluttershy responded, though this time more so she didn't sound suspicious. Luckily for her, Twilight cut the conversation short and made an excuse that Spike needed sleep. It wasn't a very good excuse, but Fluttershy had to go along with it and even say she would help put Spike to bed, but Twilight quickly grabbed Spike, said goodnight and slammed the door. It was only a few seconds later when Fluttershy heard the word "Surprise!" signaling that the party had started. Sure enough, there where streamer's and balloons everywhere, somepony was even nice enough to open the door for her. It wasn't long before she heard Pinkie talking to Twilight energetically about making friends, she ran over to try and talk to Twilight, only to see her turn and bolt upstairs. Apparently she accidently poured some chili sauce into her drink, burning her mouth. Fluttershy spent most of the party just walking around, thinking how to get out of this bind. Only then, looking back on the day did she realise that in the heat of the moment she had forgotten to check Twilight's emotion, and when she had Twilight was only annoyed with Fluttershy, no suspicion. We all make mistakes when we panic, and hindsight is always 20/20, though Fluttershy was still very embarrassed with herself. To pass the time, Fluttershy began to think about her children. Even though she wasn't their mother in a traditional sense, they still cared for each other and unlike most queens, who just use it as a title, to Fluttershy it meant something special. When changeling larvae DNA is replicated, you would normally get an exact copy of the original in every way, at least with normal magical energy, when emotional energy is used you tend to get variations in changeling personality. Most changelings learn how to act from the instructions of their queen and those add to their morals and personality, but it never overrides the original personality, it just builds on it. That's why, whilst a lot of changelings in Flutteshy's hive are shy, yet kind in nature, you get variants like Thunder Hooves, who is very aggressive and like Silent Wing, the drama king. Yet even if Fluttershy could get rid of the changeling personalities and make them all like her, she never would. As the night started drawing close, Fluttershy decided to leave the party early, so she could collect her birds in time for the Summer Sun Celebration. As Fluttershy left the library, she thought about how worked up she had gotten over nothing, this night would be like every other normal night. Fluttershy had no idea how wrong she was. Five minutes before midnight, on the day of the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration Ponyville town hall "Tweet, tweet tweet tweet tw-tweet tw-tweet." Fluttershy's birds where singing perfectly, all the ponies of Ponyville were there and the celebration was well underway. At the end of the day though, Fluttershy was just happy nothing had actually gone wrong. As Mayor Mare stepped up for her speech, it truly seemed that everything was going to be ok. With everything calming down Fluttershy had allowed some of her children, five to be precise, to go out and take pony forms and blend into the celebration. These where her emotion gathers, who helped her keep the hive stable. While Fluttershy would of loved to keep them locked up in the hive what with everything that had happened recently, the hive could really use the additional energy, plus the gatherers themselves were fine with it because it would help the hive. As midnight closed in and the Mayor's speech began to reach its climax, Fluttershy could feel an odd presence, somepony full of rage, anger, and jealousy, to the point where these emotions had cloaked this ponies true colours. Whilst this was definitely rare, it was unfortunately quickly forgotten when Fluttershy heard her cue. "Ready?" she asked her little birds, they all nodded "Tweet tw-tw-tweet tweet tweet!" the birds where accompanied by trumpets, as the large curtains opened up to reveal! Nothing. Fluttershy was shocked, Princess Celestia bringer of day, protector of harmony, ruler of Equestria, was gone. At first Fluttershy couldn't believe it, but this fact was only confirmed when her friend Rarity took a look around behind the curtain and came back announcing; "She's gone!" To make matters worse the odd presence was getting stronger and stronger, whoever this pony was they were getting very close. "Aahhhh!" Pinkie Pie screamed, as a thick layer of darkness began covering the area where the Princess was supposed to be, but this darkness wasn't just darkness, it was alive, it was the cause of the strong negative emotions. The darkness began forming together, twisting its form, until it became that of a pony as tall as Celestia and like her had both wings and a horn. When Fluttershy saw this creature her heart dropped like a stone, as her head played one single message over and over again 'Nightmare Moon.'