//------------------------------// // The Dentist // Story: The Bridesmaids // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Colgate Aquafresh Tonight's game was a good game. Well, I guess that's not really saying much. Vi's games are always good, she's a pretty good storyteller. I'd bet she could make some serious money as an author but well, she would never stop DJ-ing. She simply likes music too much to stop, and I doubt she could give up our weekly game, which she would probably have to if she didn't stop her gigs. Vi wouldn't have the heart to do that. Those games were the glue that kept our little group together this long. Everypony would miss it far too much if we stopped playing. Tartarus, our current game featured the seventh generation of our character's respective family lines setting out to carry on the tradition of adventuring, and we had actually played the other six generations. It was like one ongoing chain of heroes protecting their world and our friendship. Our D&D game held us together completely. Our group would survive without it, but it would be a lot like preforming a root canal without novacaine. Bloody, painful, and lawsuit spawning. The game had run pretty late tonight. Late enough that Shine eventually asked if we could stop as she was missing out on some atmospheric gravity lens thing. Everypony didn't mind stopping, we all knew how much Shine loved the stars. But best of all in my opinion, that meant it was time for my favorite part of Friday nights. Walking home with her. Shine would never say much, her eyes always were fixed on the stars like they were a massive basket of fresh hay fries. I swear that she picked the name Twinkleshine to be as apt as possible. I knew it wasn't her real name. Heck, my real name isn't Colgate, it's Minuette. Nicknames tend to stick with a pony, especially when they involve that pony's passion. Shine's name wasn't just a nickname or something she likes to go by. It's an alias, a name given to a fake identity. Or at least that's normally how they work. I'm not sure how much, if any of Shine is fake other than her name, appearance, and age. I know what Twinkleshine is. I've known ever since spring break eight years ago. I gave her little reminders of that camping trip once every little while. I hoped she would remember one day, realize what I am pointing out, and then admit everything to me. Not because I want her gone, in prison, or hurt. See, I like her. As in I like-like her. I just want her to be honest with me. I am apparently way to shy with relationships for my own good. On spring break junior year everypony in our little click had gone on a camping trip together. It was just the six of us for the whole week. Hard cider blocked everypony else's memories of that week. See, Tavi used to be the wild party animal of the group. Her parents rained her in something fierce after the trip. They own one of Canterlot's most famous distilleries. Tavi had stolen a keg of salted hard cider from their stocks for the trip. She had kept it hidden the whole time in the cart, until the last night when she tapped it, passed out mugs, and announced it was time to end the trip properly. Everypony had been totally happy to do the typical teen thing and drink themselves stupid. But me? I guess all the anti-drinking propaganda really stuck with me. I didn't drink a drop of it, I just sat there the whole night faking it. Which is why I am the only one who can remember that last night of vacation. The four of them wound up arguing over increasingly stupid things as the night wound on and the mugs piled up. Eventually they started arguing about the behavior of changelings. I didn't care for nonpony lore back then so I was about to just walk off and find someplace quiet to go to bed when Shine jumped up onto the wagon. Her pony shape dropped in a flash of green fire as she screamed that at them, “That's stupid! You're stupid! We don't eat ponies whole! We don't even eat matter! Stop being stupid!” The others ran off drunkenly screaming into the night and Shine had passed out a few seconds later. But not me, I was too stunned to run. I felt like I should be afraid, but I wasn't. I knew why I wasn't afraid of her though. Shine's glossy exoskeleton and shimmering wings were gorgeous. I remember exactly how she looked in that moment, she was like some engineer's streamlined version of a pony. All smooth curved plates of glossy blue-black chitin with a few harsher lines here and there. Two slightly slanted sets of compound butter yellow eyes, like gemstones with hundreds of tiny facets adorned her face. She had a small horn, pretty much foal-sized it was curved, and swept back towards her spiky ears before tapering to a sharp point. A pair of gossamer wings which covered her back like a shimmering cape atop a shiny amber plate. Short cropped black and gray mane and tail cut in a nice pixie-bob pattern. Her legs were thin insectoid style appendages covered in long fur clumped up giving the illusion of 'holes' through the legs. She was pretty. Shine's real shape was the fist person I had seen which I felt a real attraction towards. I didn't realize that for a few weeks afterwards. Which is good, I would have done especially something stupid. See, all I knew about changelings was they supposedly ate a pony then replaced them to eat more ponies. I spent three weeks trying to outsmart this changeling. Trying to find out when she replaced Shine and if it were possible rescue her. Trying to avenge my friend if it was too late. But as I discovered, there was no 'original' Twinkleshine. It blew my mind, but I couldn't refute the evidence. My investigation was very through. I went as far as to take a train to Las Pegasus where she said her parents lived. The address was an old empty house, nopony had ever heard of the ponies Shine told me her were parents. On the train ride back I connected the dots. Shine's face looked exactly like her real one, only covered in cream fur. Her mane was exactly the same curliness as Blue Stream's, her tail the same as our gym coach's, their pink color was the same as Bon-bon's hair streak. Twinkleshine wasn't a copy, she was an original. Whatever her changeling name is, she had made up an identity. I needed to know why. I'm ashamed to admit I once again assumed she was up to something evil, like plotting an invasion, or an assassination of the princess. I set out for the library to learn everything I could learn. I needed to arm myself with knowledge. I spent days searching the library for every book I could find on changelings. I found book after book on monster lore, and amassed a very large reading list. Only one thing prevented me from doing something stupid beyond reason. I ran into Celestia's personal protege, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight took one look at the stack of books I was had picked out, asked if I was trying to actually learn about changelings or doing a report on their literature, and then snatched up all but one of the books announcing that all of them except for that one were complete fiction. It was amazing, she moved like some kind of book analyzing machine. They seriously don't call her Book Horse for nothing. The book Twilight left me with was an old one. It may also have been the only copy lest in Equestria. The thing seriously looked like somepony's hoof written field journal. It was nothing but loose pages, worn leather cover, five different ink colors, stained pages. It was hard to read it, but I got it done in a few days. I'm glad I did. The book was written by an anthropologist a hundred years ago on a journey through the deserts west of Equestria to the jungles on the other side. In the middle of the desert his team encountered a changeling hive, and amazingly they happily traded with them. Not for physical goods though. They traded for happiness, joy, and love offering information in return. They didn't remove the ability to feel those emotions or eat them whole, they just sort of soaked up what they were radiating. That blew my mind, changelings eat love, and we call them monsters. Sure they look like a bit like big bugs, and their thin insect like legs look like they have holes in them because the long fur likes to clump. But by their very nature, according to this stallion's direct observations, they are a peaceful people who eat love for Celestia's sake! Well, not all of them are peaceful. When he and his team left to continue their journey the hive's queen warned them of another hive to the south. The changelings didn't speak fluent Equestrian, so he couldn't understand the warning very well, but it seemed as if there were two tribes of changelings. Kind of like red ants and black ants. The two big differences between the changeling tribes was one had eyes and shells in a blue shade, and followed a cruel and evil god who demanded they consume the souls of the 'prey species'. The others had eyes and shells of a yellow color, and followed the god's brother who ordered them to do no harm. There was more to it obviously but it didn't translate. It turns out ponies can't learn Changelish because It uses sounds ponies can't hear as well as transmitted emotions. This was something I took note of for later. A spell to help me understand Shine's language would be needed for later. Regardless, the anthropologists didn't heed the warning and wound up only narrowly escaping a swarm of Blue Eyes as the author called them. The changelings they met first, the Amber Eyes, found them, nursed them to health, called them idiots, and got them pointed back to Equestria. After I read that journal, I remembered what color Shine's eyes were. They were a pale yellow-white faintly glowing buttery sort of color. She was one of the nice ones. I realized then that she was just a person, someling trying to live her life. But what I didn't know is why she wasn't with her own people doing whatever they liked to do. My detective work shifted focus then. I had to know what she was up to, but not because I wanted to stop her, but because I needed to know about her. I couldn't stop thinking about her. The way her chitin had shined like a fire opal in the moon light. How her disguise had burned away in a vortex of emerald flames. The dozens of little irregular shapes which crisscrossed her wings like stained glass. Everything about her was beautiful, even her personality. Shine was always amazingly nice to all of us, even to random ponies she didn't know. Now that I knew what she was, I figured her kindness was because she was hungry and looking for a little love. But if being a changeling meant she was naturally kind, hey bonus for me right? I didn't realize I was truly in love with Shine until Vinyl asked me who I was crushing on. I'm happy that she didn't manage to pry it out of me. But even unto today everypony in our little group always teases me for that one and only time I had a crush. Ah you silly fillies, I still have that crush. No not a crush, a burning star of love. Anything which lasts eight years isn't just a crush. There was only one problem with my love for Shine. Most ponies don't know anything at all about her species, and she knows this sad truth. Shine knows she is feared, hated, and would probably be hurt if ponies knew what she was. So if I ever told her I loved her, and why I did, she would run away. I've thought about lying and saying I just like pony her, but I know that wont work. I can't lie to her, not after admitting my love. You don't lie to a lover. So I've laid low for years. I've done my best to mask my feelings as simple friendship so she can't sense them. I've gotten as close as I can to her over the years. I'm her roommate, her best friend, her 'lab' assistant, the pony she sees the most. I even help her with her stargazing when I can. It's not exactly what I want, but It is enough to keep me from being sad. I've spent those years living for the little moments when she drops her disguise. Usually it's a slip of personality. The mask slips and suddenly Shine is this incredibly smart person, easily the smartest person I know. When she's like that it's amazing, she's this blazing intellect all of which is directed towards a single thing. It's awe inspiring. I remember one afternoon when in a fit of passion she wrote the entire workings of Celestia's sun into the dirt with a hoof to answer a filly's question of why the sun shined. Shine is far more kind and understanding in those moments too. It's like she goes from being in her early twenties to being an understanding middle aged pony who's seen it all and is totally aware of how hard it can be, whatever the issue is. I am damn sure that Shine's way older than her pony self looks. Which is pretty hot, I mean she can be all mature and wise and stuff but still look great. I guess I just have really weird preferences for a special somepony. Actually that's a lie. I know I have weird preferences. Far more awesome than when she drops the 'young person' act are those rare times she is in her normal body. Those precious molments happen once every few months or so. Usually it's during a sleepy shuffle to get some water. Once it was when she was simply way to excited over discovering a star which was the same blue as my coat. We had a whole conversation with her looking like her adorable buggy self. She changed back mid sentence, didn't even notice she had been out of her costume. It was so cute. The best time though was when she came back from one of Vinyl's parties, drunk to the point of staggering. She made it through the door, dropped her shape with a hiccup, walked over to me with a big smile, gave me a kiss, ate just a little of my love, grinned, announced that I was always her favorite because I was delicious, and then passed out. I moved her into her bed and got her all tucked in. It's one of my best memories... and my worst. I spent all night hoping she would remember that in the morning. “Hey, Cole.” Shine's voice interrupted my thoughts. “Huh? Oh, um what?” I asked quickly. “I was just thinking, since we are going to a wedding do you think that will be enough of a push for Octavia and Vi to finally let everypony know they have been going steady for years?” she asked, looking up at the sky the entire time. “I... well... maybe.” I answered. “They probably won't until Tavi's mom dies though. She has a lot to lose.” “I know. But it would be nice if they felt they could be open around us at least. We all know they are a couple, and they know we know. It's like this weird perpetual loop of ignoring what's right in front of your face. Or they are just incredibly oblivious, and don't actually know we've seen the hugs, smooches, and stuff. Which would be even worse. I can't stand it when ponies don't see something that's right in front of their face.” Shine said as she tracked a shooting star across the sky. My left eye twitched. The deep spike of anger Shine's incredible, obtuse, unintentionally hurtful words had created burned through my very soul. I felt my heart scream in pure unadulterated rage at the bitter irony. Shine winced visibly. I froze, realizing she must have felt that from me. “Um... I kind of felt like I said something wrong... Did I?” she asked, looking away from the stars to look me in the eyes. I shook my head. “No... I... It's... I can't stand the older generation's attitude towards gay couples. I mean Tartarus, there's like what one stallion for every five mares. What are we supposed to do? Share? Apparently not because they scream at you for that too.” “Oh. You just looked really pissed so... well you get the idea.” Shine smiled before looking back up at the sky. “I'll be looking over the data from my telescope when we get home, so I'll see you in the morning ok?” “Ok. Have fun.” I answered. I wanted to punch myself in the face for yet again not having the courage to speak my mind. I knew that Shine would run if she ever knew she was discovered. I would run with her. It's what my heart told me to do.