//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Heart of stone // Story: Like A Phoenix // by Coda Singer //------------------------------// "Get back!" Twilight screamed, she pushed Sweetie Bell away from a changeling who until recently took the form of Travis the gryphon. Twilight leapt forward and held the blade against the changeling's throat. "Woah! Hey I'm not going to hurt you!" The changeling shouted. "I don't care!" Twilight screamed in response. "Your kind is responsible for my friends death's!" "I know but-" "You know?" Twilight pulled away. "Sweetie Bell did you tell Travis about the changelings?" "I, uh, I don't-" Sweetie Bell spluttered. "Did you tell Travis that the changelings were involved with the fall of Equestria!?" "No! I don't think so, no." Sweetie Bell gave Travis a questioning and ashamed look. "How did you know the changelings were involved!" Twilight screamed. She slammed her blade back in its previous position at the changelings throat. "All of us knew!" Yelled the changeling, glancing from the blade and to Twilight's fierce gaze. "The changelings live on a hive mind. Important information is passed through every changeling. That's why we're so coordinated." "Yes but you're cut off from the hive mind." Retorted Twilight. "You shouldn't have that memory anymore..." Twilight's face went blank. "You were there... Which one were you!? The one who cut of Flutter Shy's leg!? The one who torture Rainbow Dash!? The one who Took out Rarity's eye!?" At this news Sweetie Bells face went even whiter than it already was. "I was one of the changelings who carried your cage into the dungeons in Canterlot. You killed my friend yekshra, and you gave me this." The changeling opened it's mouth to reveal several broken and missing teeth, one of the fangs already sticking out of his mouth was broken in half. "You also broke my leg." Twilight looked down to see his left hoof was cracked and sticking out at an odd angle. "I should slit your throat right now." Said Twilight through gritted teeth. "No!" Sweetie Bell leapt from her previous position and pulled Twilight's blade away. "Twilight! You're not being yourself!" "I've had thirteen years to change who I was! Those thirteen years I spent alone were because of him! And all of his kind!" Twilight pointed at Travis who was looking downward in shame. She turned back to him. "And that inhale! Outside, that was you feeding wasn't it!?" "Yeah," He responded honestly. "The love between you two is strong." He looked towards Sweetie Bell, "She loves you like a daughter you know." Twilight jumped in front of his gaze. "How dare you speak to her!? You're responsible for her sister's death." The changeling looked downwards, avoiding eye contact. "Sweetie Bell... Lock him in the guest room." "But-" "Sweetie Bell!" Sweetie Bell got to her hooves. "Yes Twilight." "Oh and... Take out the bed." Sweetie Bell walked over and grabbed Travis' hoof. He screamed in pain since she grabbed the broken one. "Hold on." He said, panting in pain. His body shimmered green and soon he was back in gryphon form. Twilight was sickened when she saw the transformation. His front claw wasn't broken like his hoof was In his other form. Sweetie Bell tugged his claw and he walked with her unquestioningly into the guest bedroom. After a few seconds Sweetie Bell came out levitating the bed behind her. Twilight walked over, shut the door and locked it. She stared at the door, knowing that behind it was a monster, responsible for the death of Equestria. "What are you going to do wih him?" Asked Sweetie Bell. The bed she had removed from the room on the ground next to her. "We're going to keep him in that room for further questioning." Twilight responded. "Just make sure questioning is the only thing you do." Said Sweetie Bell. Giving Twilight a quizzical look. Twilight looked down and saw the time dial was at zero. "We should head to bed. It's getting late, we have a long day of training tomorrow." Twilight began walking towards the door to her room, on her way past she put her hoof on Sweeie Bell's head and ruffled her mane. "See you tomorrow." "Good night." Responded Sweetie Bell. However she stayed still and waited for Twilight's door to close. Sweetie Bell walked to the bed and pulled the blanket and pillow from from it. She the. Unlocked and opened the door to the guest bedroom. "Hey." She whispered into the room. "Oh, it's you." Said the gryphon in the corner of the room with relief. "I brought you these." Sweetie Bell set the blanks and pillow down neatly on the ground in front of Travis. He looked down at them them, then looked up at Sweetie Bell with a smile on his beak. "You have a kind spirit." He said, grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around himself. "Why are you still in that form?" Asked Sweetie Bell. Closing the door behind her so she wouldn't have to whisper anymore. "Oh uh... Heh, the broken hoof doesn't hurt when I'm like this." "It doesn't hurt at all?" Sweetie Be was fascinated. "We'll it sort of... Tingles... Almost like it should hurt, but it doesn't." "Change back." Said Sweetie Bell. "What?" "Change back." She repeated. The gryphon ablidged and was a changeling again within seconds. Sweetie Bell walked forward and grabbed his broken hoof. "Aah!" He pulled it back in pain. "It's okay." She said, holding out her own hoof with a friendly smile. Travis lowered his hoof into hers and gazed at her face. She looked at his hoof with concern. "This must've really hurt." "Heh... Yeah, that was a heavy cage your mentor dropped on me." Sweetie Bell illuminated her horn And a warmth crept through Travis' body. The crack through the hoof sealed and there was a popping noise as the joint straightened. Sweetie Bell smiled at her work and looked up at Travis. "Go on. Try it out!" Travis pulled his hoof back and was marveled to see it was fully articulate again. "Wow... You're gifted... Truly." He stared at his hoof and kept moving it every which way, looking at it like it was an alien limb. "Do you always talk like that?" Asked Sweetie Bell. "Hmm? Oh." Seeming to instantly realize what she was talking about. "It's a changeling thing... After you've... 'Fed' off of somepony, you get a kind of... Deep connection with them. I got it from Twilight too." "It sounds like poetry." Travis looked up at Sweetie Bell. "The way you speak I mean." "Yes I suppose it does." He set his hoof down and smiled at how he put pressure on it. "I love poetry." Said Sweetie Bell, laying down on the floor and looking up at Travis. "Ummm... Actually... Could you..." Sweetie Bell paused. "What is it?" "Could you... Describe Twilight's emotions to me?" Travis looked surprised. "I know... You think after two years together you would know somepony but the way she acted tonight... I've never seen anything like it." Travis' surprised face changed to a smile. Sweetie Bell blushed and looked at the ground with her own nervous smile. "Twilight thought of herself as the guardian of Equestria." Sweetie Bell looked up. Travis had a distant look on his face, his eyes focused on something that Sweetie Bell couldn't see. "She spent years thinking it was all her fault, due to these thoughts, as if Medusa gazed into her soul Twilight's heart turned to stone. An impenetrable fortress where every sad thought and happy memory were mere scratches on the surface of this dark stone. She relished in things that actually made her feel true emotion. And even though the sun hangs eternally in the sky she spent a very long time In darkness. Where the only light was pretending that life was still the way it used to be. Until one day you showed up. After a couple months a crack split down the center of her stone heart and inside there was a glowing, beautiful, sensitive light blossoming. The fear and hate in her heart, bled out like rain during a storm. And then I showed up... Right when she was the most vulnerable and that crack In Her heart sealed like the crack in my hoof. All of the hate and fear was sucked back in like a sponge dropped into a pool. And now she finally found an outlet for all that anger, and hatred for anything related to her friends deaths and the fall of Equestria. She hates me... Because she hates herself inside. She blames herself and she looks at me like I'm her evil reflection In the mirror. I'm the Jekyll to her Hyde and now I fear she may soon be too far away to save. But for those two years her love for everything was rekindled by the spark of your love In return. The love between you two is strong." Travis inhaled and licked his lips. "Granted its a different flavor." "That's beautiful." Said Sweetie Bell in awe. "The world is beautiful," Travis responded. "Sometimes you just have to look through somepony else's eyes to see that." Sweetie Bell and Travis stared at eachother for a while. "You should get to bed. It's getting late." Sweetie Bell stood up and opened he door. "See you tomorrow." Said Sweetie Bell. "Promise?" Asked Travis. "Difinately."