//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Changes // Story: Over Yonder // by theNDinspector //------------------------------// After dropping off her saddlebags in the barracks, both Scootaloo and Blue Yonder made a quick detour to the mess hall—it had been a long flight from Ponyville, and Blue Yonder herself had all but skipped breakfast during that talk with Spitfire earlier. The selection was rather sparse since meal time was nearly over, but they managed to grab a couple of apples each. Afterwards, they made their way to a nearly empty table. “Wow,” Scootaloo said looking around. “This place seems to change when there aren’t that many ponies around.” “You don’t know the half of it,” Blue Yonder sighed. “Mmrly,” Scootaloo with a mouth full of red apple. “Like what?” “You’ll see soon enough.” Blue Yonder paused and took a bite out of her apple. “Do you remember that one grey stallion with the mustache that inspected our barracks that one time?” Scootaloo tapped her chin for a moment before her eyes lit up. “Oh yeah, Lieutenant What’s-his-name….did you ever find out his name by the way?” “No, actually. When we got back after our three-day leave, we learned that he got promoted and works somewhere else in the Academy. I’m not sure what he does, but I’ve seen him around a few times. He never does anything with us though.” Blue Yonder took a few bites out of her first apple while Scootaloo was halfway done with her second. The gold badge on Blue Yonder’s chest gleamed a little in the light. Scootaloo looked down on the silver badge on her own chest and thoughtfully rubbed her chin. “Who was your wingpony while I was gone?” Scootaloo asked. Blue Yonder swallowed her food before responding. “Well, for the first week, I was with Morning Light—the pink mare from our cabin—but she decided that she didn’t want to be a Wonderbolt anymore, so she left. I’ve been with Silverwings ever since.” “Ah,” Scootaloo nodded, remembering Blue Yonder’s childhood friend that always tried to hit on the other mares even though he didn’t have a chance. “Wait, isn’t he Hot Shot’s wingpony?” Blue Yonder took in a sharp breath and her lips disappeared into a thin line. The apple she was holding was in danger of being mashed against the table with all the force that she was putting into it. “Yes,” she finally replied in a strained manner. “Yes he is. There were an odd number of ponies then, so I was put into a group of three.” “So how did that work, since two of you are lead ponies and all?” The apple finally gave up as bits and pieces spread all over Blue Yonder’s tray and part of the table. Ignoring this, Blue Yonder continued, “Hot Shot made most of the decisions.” Scootaloo would have asked more, but the deadly look in her friend’s eyes said that she didn’t want to talk about it. This was rather odd for the enthusiastic, book loving pony that she remembered being with at the start of the Academy—making it really hard to figure out how to approach Blue Yonder. Instead, Scootaloo decided to change the subject. “So, anything interesting happen with those film ponies lately?” “Huh?” Blue Yonder turned to look at her with a confused look before realizing what was said. “Oh, they actually left before we came back. It’s kind of nice not having ponies watch you all day and put it on camera—even though that is what saved us earlier. But apparently, we are going to get some sort of magic show this weekend.” “Magic show?” “Yeah, the poster’s right over here.” They got up and Blue Yonder took them to the bulletin board on the wall. Among all the other diagrams, records and information there was a paper that stood out. It had a dark silhouette of a pony on its hind legs wearing what appeared to be a cape and a pointy hat. Yellow lines were coming out from behind the pony, looking vaguely similar to a sunrise. Beneath it in bold letters was the phrase: Come One, Come All! See the Great and Powerful Trixie Scootaloo groaned. “Is something wrong?” Blue Yonder asked. “Well,” Scootaloo started. “You see…Trixie has a bit of a history down in Ponyville. When I was a filly, she came by twice. The first time some ponies had a problem with her boasting during her show. Sure, it was annoying at times, but I thought it went well with the show and didn’t really hurt anypony. Then two fan boys who took her way too seriously decided to wake an Ursa Minor and bring it into town for her to defeat.” Blue Yonder’s eyes widened. “An Ursa Minor?” “Yep. She couldn’t take care of it of course, but Princess Twilight did…although she wasn’t a princess at the time.” “And the other time?” “After the Ursa Minor incident, Trixie became a laughingstock. So she came back with some Alicorn Amulet that gave her great powers and completely took over Ponyville and threw Twilight out. It was a mess, but Twilight finally outsmarted her and I haven’t seen her since. Apparently she made up with Twilight, but I honestly don’t think I can forgive her for what she did.” “Whoa. I didn’t know any of that.” Scootaloo gaped at Blue Yonder. “How? She enslaved an entire town for Celestia’s sake!” Blue Yonder shrugged. “I live in Cloudsdale. We don’t get any travelling, showpony unicorns, let alone even hear about them. I was actually looking forward to it.” “Well, it has been years,” Scootaloo sighed. “And her first show was pretty decent from what I can remember. You can go if you want to, but the thought of that mare leaves a bad taste in my mouth.” Blue Yonder nodded, but didn’t say anything else on the subject. She turned to the far wall and grimaced as she looked at the clock. “Shoot! We’re going to be late!” She grabbed Scootaloo and ran out of the mess hall and towards the eastern field. Once there, Scootaloo’s jaw dropped. There were significantly less cadets in her group than when she first came to the Academy. From what she could remember, there were about twenty of them originally; now there were less than half of that with five stallions and only one additional mare besides her and Blue Yonder. They skidded to a halt and lined up with the others. Scootaloo saw various levels of shock and disbelieve on each of their faces as they stared at her. It made her a bit uncomfortable. The only one not looking at them was a pale blue stallion in a navy-blue uniform that matched his mane. Instead he was looking at a watch, which he promptly put into his pocket. “I’m glad to see that you two have finally decided to join us,” Major Soarin said. “But since you’re both late, you’ve cost everypony here an additional two hundred laps.” “Aaaaw!”