//------------------------------// // W-What? // Story: "YOU DID WHAT!?" // by Dr Atlas //------------------------------// “I can’t watch!” Shift screamed while covering his eyes with his hat. “I can, pass the microphone.” Lift did it himself and held the mic to his mouth. “Are you bugs ready for tonight's main event? When a  new changeling leader DEFENDS HIS TITLE! IN THE MATCH OF THE CENTURY! AND HIS NAME IS SHA-” “Will you be quiet!” Shift said, smacking the mic out of his hooves. “What?” Lift said. “I’m Just trying to lightin’ up the mood, brah.” “I doubt you can since that pretty princess is gonna blast that changeling to bits.” Shift pointed to his left. “We’re gonna be seeing him over there” Then to his right. “over there,” Then at the ceiling. “and up there.” Shift then grabbed him and pulled him in till they were nose to nose with each other. “And then she’s commin’ for us next!” Lift turned his head to the apparent soon-to-be-dead changeling, only to see something that made him realize just why no one was listening to them. “Really? Cause that ain’t what I’m seein’.” Shift turned around and put on the same face every other changeling in the cave had, an expression of utter disbelief, an expression of complete confusion, a face that could only be described as- “Why is she hugging him?” Twig asked outloud. Hearing this, Shawn opened his eyes, seeing that he was still in the cave in one piece, and that his body was currently being embraced by a pink alicorn’s arms and wings, he looked up to see the princess’ eyes were closed during the embrace. Stan rolled his eyes at the sight. “Wow...A hug. Totally didn’t see that coming.” Twig wrapped an arm around Stan and pulled him in. “Aw, come on Stan, I think it’s adorable.” “And corny…” Stan mumbled. “Could be worse,” Carson said. “She could suddenly forgive us for what we-” “You deserve forgiveness.” Cadance finished, causing every changeling in the room to either sigh in relief, stare in confusion, or groan on how utterly anticlimactic and cliche that line was. “S-So...Y-You’re not gonna kill me?” Shawn stepped back. “W-Why?” “I’m gonna say it right now.” Cadance looked right into his blue eyes. “You were right. You changelings are hopeless without someone leading you, It’s been, what, three or so days since you guys have been by yourselves with no one leading you?” Some of the changelings in the room began to scuff their hooves on the ground or turn away in shame. “W-Well…” Shawn said. “I-It’s been pretty tough, y-you could say…” Cadance took another look at every changeling in the room. “I’m guessing none of you knew what to do before I got here, right?” More awkward sounds of silence echoed through the cave. “Um...w-well, w-we kinda knew what we were doing.” Cadance knew that tone of voice only meant she was correct. “And throwing me into this only made it worse for-” “OKAY!” Carson yelled out. “We get it, we’re completely lost without a leader to...lead us. Are you suggesting you want to be our leader, cause we can’t do that.” “I’m not saying I want to be one.” Cadance shivered at the thought of hundreds of bugs wanting her to tell them what to do. “Then what are you doing?” Carson said. “Are you just rubbing acid in the cut? Cause that hurts, ya know.” Cadance ignored the phrase and continued. “I just want to know where you guys went wrong. First off, what made you think doing it again would work?” Twig let go of Stan and raised his hoof in the air. “OH! OH! I know that answer.” He lowered his arm and ran up to her. “One of my brothers said a second time would work this time, and this time we would win!” He then went crosseyed and thought about that. “Um...but I don’t think it worked this time.” Cadance facehoofed. “No offence, but what foolish changeling told you that?” Twig went crossed eyed again. “Um...I forget, I think his name was Dooly, Doopy? Donny? I know it started with a D...or a V…” “It doesn’t matter.” Cadance said. “But there’s still some things I don’t understand about all of you.” “Really?” Stan tilted his head. “I thought our queen made it pretty clear about everything in her monologue.” The pink alicorn rubbed her head, starting to remember the dreaded speech she had to listen to for over an hour the first time she was captured. “For one thing, she didn’t tell me why you attacked the ponies?” Cadance then realized something. “Are the other mons...er, creatures not as friendly or-” Shawn shook his head. “Oh no, we’re friends with tons of creatures. The DD’s, griffins, woodwolves, Tatzls, dragons...” “D-Dragons?” Cadance stuttered. Twig nodded. “Yup, we even babysat their eggs when they migrated, though, we don’t do it that much anymore ever since those weird bandaged bandits took a purple polka dotted egg from us.” Twig frowned. “Those two purple dragons were so angry at us for that…Even their yellow fly friend was mad...At least we kept the white polka dotted ones!” Stan rubbed his head. “I swear, I can still hear that annoying word they kept using when we were chasing after them.” Twig shook his tail. “Oh, do you mean na-” Cadance came in between them and asked, “By the way, what’s a tatzl?” “Tatzls” Shawn started. “are these weird creatures with tons of tongues that eat things for fun... They’re not to be confused with Tatzwurms, in fact, tatzls kinda look like you ponies.” Shawn pointed at Cadance’s tail. “‘cept for the tail, yours has too much hair on it.” Cadance stepped back. “How can you all be friends with such creatures? I heard they attack my sister-in-law all the time in her town.” Shawn crossed his arms. “Probably because you ponies are pretty tasty, in fact, your love is just as tasteful as the meat on your bones.” Twig nodded. “Yeah, you guys are a delicacy to all of us. You should feel honored.” “H-Honored!?” Cadance thought that was insane. “How is something like that-” “I’m sure some ponies might like something like that.” Twig said. “Ya never know.” Cadane decided to move on to the next question and forget about the logic this big changeling was trying to explain. “Anyways, how did you guys even know a wedding was going on?” Shawn crossed his arms. “We don’t just sit in a cave all day, we go out and see stuff.” “Not only that,” Stan started. “But a few other hatchlings could feel the love from here.” Twig nodded. “Yup, Sally felt it, Mark felt it, Bobby felt it, Patrick felt it, we call him Pat for short, kinda like how others call me Twig and not-” “That’s another question.” Cadance interrupted. “Why are all your names like that?” “Like what?” Carson said. “Our names are perfectly normal, unlike you ponies who have two weird ones, even your full name is weird, it took the queen days to figure out how to pronounce it.” “What’s so hard about my name?” “For one thing, it has more than one word in it, second, it’s like you’re speaking some other language when you say it.” “So, the queen makes it so you have only one word for each of your names?” Most of them shrugged or nodded. “Pretty much.” One of them said. Cadance then noticed the tables, chairs and a lot of electrical equipment on the stage, which was just a higher floor.“By the way, where did you get all these things?” Shawn was about to explain, but Twig did it worse. “We borrowed it without bringing it back to the owners.” Shawn dropped his jaw while Cadance raised an eye. “You do know that’s stealing, right?” The bright parts of Twig’s blue eyes turned in opposite directions. “It is?” “Yes, it is.” Cadance crossed her arms. “How long have you had these things?” The changelings looked away again, not wanting to remember how hard it was to get most of these things in the first place. “Um...i-is more than a month a bad thing?” Shawn asked, getting a glare for an answer. “I take that as a yes…” Cadance sighed. “You guys really need work on your relationships with ponies.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Shift asked. “For one thing, you don’t steal from them,” Cadance looked up at the DJ booth. “and you don’t throw mics at ponies!” seeing two changelings trying to look innocent. “What are your names?” Shawn leaned his head at them. “That’s Shift and Lift. They’re twins with eye disorders.” “Twins?” Cadance said blankly. “How can they be twins if they look like all of you?” Shift brought his brother in for a hug. “Cause we came out-” “-of the same egg.” Lift finished, hugging Shift back. “Right…” Cadance looked back at Shawn. “So, that explains that, but what’s with the rest of you, how can all of you know whose name is what?” “It’s all about the eyes.” Shawn said, pointing at his own. “Every eye is different.” Cadance found it difficult to take in all this information. “H-How? Your eyes look the same too.” “No they don’t.” Carson said, pointing at his own pair of blue eyes. “See, just look how different mine and Shawn’s are.” Cadance groaned. “I’m guessing it’s just another changeling thing. “Hey! What’s that supposed ta mean?” Carson asked. Cadance realized how offencive that was and looked away in embarrassment. “W-Well, it’s just hard for me to understand, for starters. Is there a reason why one of you dropped your disguise when they sneezed?” Cadance asked, making Addison turn away in embarrassment. “It’s kinda hard to explain.” Shawn started. “It just happens when it happens. Now, when you get the hiccups, then it just gets worse. Reminds me of the time Chrysalis sent this poor sucker on a mission when he got the-” “Speaking of your queen, where is she?” “She’s in a coma.” Twig answered; a hoof being shoved in his face seconds later. “A coma?” Cadance tilted her head. “How did she get that?” Shawn sighed and took his hoof out of Twigs mouth. “At first, we thought it was because of the blast, but when we saw our queen get hit on her head from the fall, the caretakers were pretty sure it was...well, the fall.” Cadance was thankful to know she didn’t kill their leader in the process of getting them out of Canterlot, but she still wanted to make sure. “So, she’s okay?” “Define ‘okay’?” Carson said. “What I mean is that she’s still breathing.” Cadance asked. “She’s fine.” One changeling yelled out. “Me and Rex were able to get her back here in one piece, but she looks like she’s gonna be bedridden for a while.” Shawn pointed at the changeling. “What Sam said. She’s asleep, but not...asleep, you understand, right?” Cadance nodded grimly. “Y-Yeah, I understand.” Twig laughed. “This is great! We get to live and the alicorns not gonna try to escape, the queen will be so proud when she finds out about this.” He clapped his hooves. The changelings agreed but Cadance couldn’t help but laugh. “What are you talking about, I’m not staying here.” “Y-You’re not?” Shawn said with murmurs of worry came out of the crowd. “B-But what about-” Cadance rested her hoof on his shoulder. “Listen, changeling, I understand what you guys are going through, but pony napping me won’t help.” Twig walked up to her. “But...but what about the plan?” Carson rolled his blue eyes. “What plan? Last I heard, we don’t have one.” “Oh…” Twig frowned. “B-But we can’t let you leave now. W-What if the queen finds out we let you walk away?” Shawn looked up at Cadance. “He’s right, princess. The queen’s not gonna be happy to know we let a princess get away...again…” Cadance thought about this, part of her wanted to get out of here and go back home while the other part didn’t want her to leave a whole swarm of changelings when they needed help. “Well, why don’t you come with.” Silence filled the room. “W-what?” Shawn said, stepping away from Cadance’s grip. “I’m being serious, if you come back to Canterlot and tell the ponies just why you did this, then maybe-” “But we already tried that.” Stan said. “We’ve been through towns and towns and villages and cities where ponies roam, and not one. Single. Place gave us a chance...none…” Remembering this, the changelings hung their heads, Cadance looked over all of them in pity. “W-Well, I-I’m sure we can-” “Oh please,” Carson said, running up to her. “with the stunt we pulled, I doubt any pony will give us a chance, no one understands us.” “I do.” Cadance said dramatically. Carson only chuckled. “Psh, yeah, you understand because we had to knock you out for queen knows how long and tie you up and witness the sheer stupidity of our entire swarm.” Shawn sighed. “I hate to say it, princess, but Carson’s right, I don’t think it would be a good idea to round up one pony at a time to explain all of this.” Cadance shook her head and smiled. “You don’t have to, in fact, let’s try this.” “Try what?” Shawn asked with many of his siblings also wanting to know. “It’s simple, all we have to do is-” “WHAT’S GOING ON IN HERE!?” Yelps came out of the room from that tone of voice, a tone everyone, especially Cadance, knew all too well where it came from, a voice the changelings had heard for years on end in even louder tones than this. Slowly, everyone turned to the cave entrance to see a sight they never thought possible. “C...C..C-C-Ch..Chry...Chrys...” Cadance tried to say it, but another changeling decided to say it for her. “OH! Hi Chrysalis!” Twig yelled out, waving one of his arms. “You sleep okay? Or was the cocoon not good enough. I know it usually isn’t but...oh yeah! We  also got you a princess for your plan...that is, if you have one. You have one, right?...R-Right?”