//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: You Look Familiar // Story: A Harmonic Sonata // by keaton-furman-prower //------------------------------// Under normal conditions, the Everfree forest would be so dark that ponies would struggle to see more than a few feet in front of them, even in broad daylight. The predators which inhabited the forest, on the other hoof, found it to be an ideal place to snatch unsuspecting prey. It was just one of the many reasons why ponies avoided the place like the plague. The fact that the forest was now as bright as an average day in Ponyville was not a good sign. “Oh wow, it’s hot,” said Sugar. “No, really?” Glides asked sarcastically. “Not that I’m complaining, but shouldn’t it be harder to see?” asked Sonata. “The sun’s radiance has increased massively,” said Amethyst. “If anything, we should be surprised that the leaves above us haven’t burned to a crisp yet.” “Oh, my,” said Fluttershy. “The poor little animals! They’re going to be so stressed out by all the changes!” “And all this sunlight is gonna give us skin cancer,” said Tennis. “Seriously, what’s this mare’s problem?” “She’s crazy,” agreed Glides. “I really hope Luna can handle her. I mean, I know she’s a princess who can raise the sun and moon, but-” Glides was interrupted as six creatures jumped down from a nearby tree. They were pony-like in shape, though their bodies were covered in a black insectoid exoskeleton, and their eyes were featureless blue orbs. In addition, their mouths were lined with razor sharp teeth, and their legs were full of holes. Although she had never seen them in the flesh, Sonata had read about them in the past and recognized them instantly. “Changelings!” she yelled out. “Watch out!” said Amethyst. “They’re shapeshifters! They could turn into any of us!” “They could turn into any of us!” one of the changelings repeated. However, when everypony turned to see it, they realized that it had turned into a duplicate of Amethyst. As they looked around, they realized that the other changelings had changed to look like Tennis, Sugar, Fluttershy, Sonata, and Glides. “Whoa!” said Glides. “That is sweet!” “It won’t be once they lock you up in a cocoon and drain your life!” yelled Amethyst. “Oh, don’t worry,” her copy said with an ominous smile on its face. “You won’t even notice after the first few-” Before the duplicate could go any further, Amethyst lunged at it, tackling it into the ground and smacking her hooves into its chest. At the same time, four of the other ponies began to brawl with their own duplicates, punching and kicking wherever they could. One of the six, however, was not so willing to fight. “Oh my goodness,” said Fluttershy. “I can’t fight! I’m not strong enough to not get hurt! And then I’ll get really badly hurt and maybe even die, and I’ll never get to see Big Mac, or Apple Bloom, or Rainbow Dash, or-” “Aw, don’t worry about that.” Fluttershy squeaked as she noticed her duplicate standing mere inches from her with a terrifying smirk on her face. “You don’t have to worry about your friends,” the changeling said. “We’ll make sure to keep you right next to each other.” “NO!” Fluttershy opened her eyes wide and stared into the changeling’s eyes. “You will not harm my friends or my family!” The changeling tried to move, but was stuck in place as Fluttershy stared into its eyes. Meanwhile, not too far away, Sonata was trapped in her duplicate’s front hooves. As she struggled to slip out of her grasp, the changeling simply held on tighter, laughing at her futile attempts to escape. However, while it had managed to keep both of her front hooves restrained, it had no way of knowing what she was truly capable of. Sonata opened her mouth and began to sing. It was a soft, peaceful melody that Luna had sung to her whenever she had nightmares. At first the changeling simply looked at her in confusion. Then, for reasons beyond its comprehension, it slowly released its grip on her. The blue earth pony smirked and bucked as hard as she could, sending the changeling wilhelm screaming into a nearby tree. While this was going on, Tennis and Sugar were fighting back-to-back, struggling to maintain an advantage over their opponents. “Okay,” Sugar said as she tossed a cupcake from her mane. “I don’t want to be mean, but you guys are really getting on my nerves!” “Yeah! We’re trying to save the world right now, so there’s no reason for you to-” Tennis stopped talking as she noticed something sticking out of Sugar’s mane. “Wait a second. Is that…” Before Sugar could object, Tennis stuck her hoof into the frizzy purple mane and pulled out an object. As it came out, the peach mare smiled excitedly. “My first tennis racket! I’ve been looking for this for weeks!” She then looked at Sugar curiously. “How the hay did it end up there?” “I dunno,” said Sugar. “I have a lot of things in my mane.” Before Tennis could comment further, her duplicate lunged at her, baring its changeling teeth. But now the athletic mare was ready; quick as a flash, she raised her racket as she held it in her tail, and slammed it into her duplicate’s face with enough force to send it flying into the same tree as Sonata’s duplicate. “Wow!” said Sugar. “That was so cool!” “I know,” Tennis said casually as she slammed her racket into Sugar’s double. “Of course, I’d never be this cool without my trusty tennis racket.” The double of Sugar landed right next to the other two. Then, Glides landed next to them, slamming her own double against the ground. Amethyst then walked up to them, dragging her own duplicate, who had been tied up with some sort of rope, and laying it next to the others. Finally, Fluttershy’s duplicate backed into the others as it cowered under the pink-maned mare’s gaze. As the six changelings sat together, their disguises vanished, leaving them in their true forms. “Well, we’re done here,” said Glides. “Let’s go!” “Not so fast.” Everypony turned towards Amethyst, who was glaring at the changeling who had been impersonating Fluttershy, and seemed to be the only one in any condition to speak. “Why were you attacking us?! I know you don't like ponies, but I doubt you're dumb enough to violate the Pony-Changeling peace treaty.” “These things have a peace treaty with us?” said Glides. “One which you all broke!” Fluttershy’s counterpart growled, pointing an accusing hoof at the group “In case you haven't noticed, you're the ones who attacked us!” Amethyst yelled out. “And who made the sun so bright?! We have no power over it! This is a hostile act by ponykind!” “What?!” said Amethyst. “No! It's not like that! Ponies aren't the aggressors here!” “To be fair, though, Hellfire Sun is the one causing this,” said Sonata. “So technically-” “Don't help them!” Sonata shut her mouth. “Alright. Now, can any of you explain why you attacked us?” As Amethyst waited for a response, Sonata began to observe the changelings once again. She couldn't put her hoof on it, but something about them just felt off. Everything about them looked normal, though; the black exoskeleton, the featureless eyes, the holes in their legs- The holes in their legs. Immediately, Sonata reached out to the changeling and grabbed its leg, causing the other ponies to gasp in shock. “What are you doing?!” yelled Glides. “They're gonna bite your hoof off!” said Sugar. “Oh dear!” said Fluttershy. Sonata ignored them and kept examining the holes in the changeling's leg. Everypony kept watching, hoping it wouldn't attack her. “When was the last time you fed?” The others looked at her in confusion. “Fed?” said Sugar. “What does that have to do with anything?” Amethyst looked at the hoof Sonata was holding, and quickly understood. “Changelings usually don't have holes in their legs. Those only appear when they're starving. Changelings with holes in their legs are desperate to feed, but even then they're unlikely to attack ponies.” “Attack ponies?!” the other four said in shock. “You mean... They eat us?” Fluttershy asked in terror. “No,” said Amethyst. “They feed on love.” The ponies stared at her in confusion. “Love?” said Glides. “How does that work?” “Well, all emotions create their own unique magical energy, which together form a spectrum of emotion,” explained Sonata. “Over time, some creatures have naturally evolved to feed on certain wavelengths of the emotional spectrum, including the changelings.” “Huh,” said Amethyst. “I didn't expect you to know so much about emotional energy.” You have no idea, Sonata thought to herself. “Yes, well Princess Luna has taught me a lot of stuff.” “Okay,” said Tennis. “So, what does that tell us about these guys?” “It means we are hungry!” the lead changeling said, causing the six mares to jump in surprise. “And your princess has sent the sun to burn us! Therefore we have every right to attack you!” The ponies stared at the changelings, taking their current condition in; they looked tired, sick, and not as threatening as they had before. In fact they were starting to feel sorry for them. “Is there anything we can do for them?” whispered Glides. Amethyst stared at her incredulously. But before she could say anything, Sonata spoke up. “Well, usually they would feed either by taking the form of somepony you loved, or by standing in the vicinity of ponies and absorbing the residual energy. However, if an object is tied to strong emotions and memories, it can also be a source of love energy, although feeding on the energy of non-living objects tends to destroy them.” “Okay,” said Sugar. “So we need to find somepony who we really love, or get something that reminds us of somepony close to us. Doesn't sound too hard!” “And you're actually going to do this?” Everypony turned towards Amethyst, who was staring skeptically at them. “Well, why shouldn't we?” said Fluttershy. “It's the right thing to do!” “Why?! They attacked us!” “They thought we were attacking them,” Sugar pointed out. “And how do we know they weren't lying?!” As Amethyst continued to argue with the others, Tennis quietly observed the changelings. She felt terrible knowing that they were starving, and that there was no way that she could help them. Unless... She looked at the racket she held in her tail. She had so many memories with it; the day her father had given it to her for her birthday, the day she scored for the first time, the day she got her cutie mark, the day she entered her first tournament... And then she knew what she needed to do. “Um, changelings?” The lead changeling glared at her. “What do you want?” For a moment, Tennis hesitated. But the sight of the sickly changelings steeled up her resolve. “I just... wanted you to have this.” She slowly lay the racket next to the insectoid creatures. Their leader gave it a quizzical look, then leaned forward to sniff it. As it did, it began to smile. “So much love energy!” At the sound of the voice, the other ponies stopped arguing and turned back towards the changelings. To their amazement, and Amethyst's horror, they saw them pointing their horns at the tennis racket as some sort of violet mist flowed from it into them. As it did, the racket slowly began to deteriorate, as if it were being exposed to several years’ worth of decay. “What are they doing?” asked Fluttershy. “They're feeding!” said Amethyst. “We need to get away!” “No!” The ponies turned towards Tennis in surprise. “Are you crazy?!” yelled Amethyst. “They attacked us!” “They need our help,” said Tennis. “We shouldn’t deny them just because they attacked us.” As she watched the changelings feed on the energy in her racket, the holes in their legs were slowly filled in, and they began to perk up. Finally, the energy stopped flowing from the now broken and decayed racket, and the insect like creatures stood up tall and proud. “Thank you, oh noble and honorable pony!” the leader said. “What is your name?” “Uh, Tennis Match,” she said, somewhat taken aback by the changeling’s reaction. “Oh noble and honorable Tennis Match! We shall always remember this generous act!” The six changelings then saluted her in unison. The peach mare slowly returned the gesture, smiling awkwardly as she did. The changelings nodded, then addressed the rest of the ponies. “We believed that you had violated the treaty by increasing the heat of the sun in an attempt to burn us to death. This, along with our desperate need for sustenance, led us to attack you. We were wrong, and thus it was our side that broke the treaty. But we are only six changelings, and our actions do not reflect on the general populace of our race. So we shall willfully submit to you and allow justice to be served.” The six mares watched in shock as the changelings kneeled down in surrender. They then looked at each other, trying to figure out how to react to the sudden turn of events. Finally, Sonata spoke up. “Um… we’re kind of busy trying to save the world. So, if you promise never to attack any more innocent ponies, we’ll let you go.” The six changelings looked up, a confused yet happy look on their face. “We do not understand why you are doing this, ponies. But we are eternally grateful.” With that, the changelings flew off, leaving the ponies behind to contemplate what had just happened. “So,” Sugar began. “We just got attacked by changelings, then they almost starved, then Tennis saved them, and now they’ve gone off.” “I think that’s about it,” said Glides. “Wow, Luna’s not gonna be happy when she hears about this,” said Sonata. “I mean, this is really gonna mess things up with her and Queen Chrysalis. Not to mention how-” Any words Sonata had been planning to say died in her throat as she noticed Tennis holding the remains of her racket. She was gently cradling it in her front hooves, and she was clearly struggling to hold back tears. “Tennis?” she asked in concern. “Are you okay?” The peach mare slowly lay her tennis racket down. She then smiled as she turned towards the others. “It’s okay,” she said. “They needed it more than I did.” The others looked at her, amazed at how willing she had been to give up something that meant so much to her. “Well, what are we waiting for?” she asked. “We still have to find those elements, right?” “Oh yeah!” said Sonata. “Let’s go!” With that, the small group began to walk once again. As they did, however, Sonata noticed that one of their members seemed to trail behind the rest. Slowly, she let the others overtake her and let the last one come near. “Hey, Amy, are you alright?” The purple unicorn looked up in surprise. She then glared at Sonata. “My name is Amethyst. And I am perfectly fine.” She then walked off, now keeping pace with the others. Sonata frowned at this, and then began to hurry up as well.