Twilight Sparkle approached the door, having finally reached doctor Lab Coat's laboratory with all of her notes carefully organized within the saddlebags that she had brought for just this occasion. Knocking on the door exactly three times at the very same spot with the perfect amount of force to make it polite, she patiently waited and made sure to appropriately restrain her desire for complete cleanliness in preparation for what she knew lay inside the room.
The door flew open with a fuming unicorn in its place—
"MY AFTERNOON COFFEE ISN'T DUE FOR ANOTHER TWENTY-SEVEN MIN—Why hello there, Miss Twilight! How are you on this fine day?" the doctor cheerfully greeted.
The startled unicorn slowly relaxed her pose, blinking at the sudden mood change. "Uh, all things considered, I... think I'm fine. How goes the research?"
Lab Coat moved to the side and motioned for Twilight to enter his lab, closing the door behind her. "Trying to understand just how exactly changelings work is frustrating, yet it remains fascinating nonetheless." His smile widened, eyes gleaming in hope. "Did you procure the samples from the nymph?"
She nodded and levitated the two containers out of her saddlebags, giving the doctor a sheepish smile when he looked at the sticky glob of slime in confusion. "I managed to get Artemis to understand that I wanted her to spit in one of the containers—and I still find it surprising how easily she seems to comprehend gestures—but I wasn't sure how to ask her about giving some venom; and I certainly wasn't going to..." She wrinkled her muzzle. "...manually extract it out of her. Besides, she coughed up that gel in the middle of lunch, and I was wondering if you knew anything about it."
"Why, yes, I do already know what this is," he replied, levitating a little glass box from across the room to himself. "Sort of."
He opened both the box and the container containing the gel, proceeding to—
"Is... is that saliva?" Twilight asked, gazing at the liquid contents of the glass box.
"Yes, gathered from multiple changeling 'drones'," Lab Coat answered, gathering a tiny amount of the secretion in his magical aura and spraying it on the gel that Twilight had brought.
"Then why would you ask me to... Oh, you wanted to compare it to Artemis' to see if there was a difference between a drone and a queen's?" she guessed as the gel appeared to dissolve into a non-sticky and more liquid form in front of their very eyes after the application of the changeling slobber.
"Quite," the doctor acknowledged. "Nearly every single drone that I've inspected also had this 'gel' inside a certain organ that was located where the stomach would've been for any other creature. I discovered that the slime could take on various forms; from a type of resin that would harden to the point of being viable in use for construction, to a sticky adhesive like you've brought. I'm not sure if it can become anything else as of yet, but I did find out that their saliva would melt the latter, as you can clearly see."
And then he proceeded to 'eat' a small portion the aforementioned melted gel, to Twilight's horror.
"Doctor! You... t-that's changeling puke that you're chewing!" she screeched, her face turning to a shade of green similar to the slime.
He held up a hoof, signaling her to wait while he looked up to the ceiling in contemplation, nom nom'ing away. "Hmm, mmph, sunflower..."
Twilight paused, staring at him in confusion. "...Huh?"
"Mmm, pancakes?" Lab Coat remarked, smacking his lips as he continued to 'taste' the substance. "And... apples..."
At more or less the same time that Twilight appeared to realize what he was experiencing, Lab Coat finally seemed to slow his chewing down at the next 'flavor'. His face took on various expressions, eventually settling with a frown. "Not sure what... this last one is..." He suddenly smiled. "But I like it!"
The doctor happily swallowed with a satisfied sigh, inviting Twilight to try some of it for herself by bringing the gel-carrying container closer to her.
She gave him a dubious look. "Are you sure that it's safe to eat... that?"
"This isn't the first time I've taken some, in case that was what you were wondering. If you need any proof that there is no danger, then all you need to do is look at me! I've been eating nothing but changeling gunk ever since I discovered its properties a few days ago, yet I am still a perfectly normal and healthy stallion!" Lab Coat pointed out with a wide grin.
Twilight stared at him in disbelief. If what he claimed was true, then maybe she could have a little nibble. But... that stuff just didn't look appealing at all! it was as if someone had asked her to eat vomit!
...Which was technically true in this case, even though they were dealing with another species.
Watching her internal struggle, Lab Coat butted in with his two bits.
"Do it! For SCIENCE!"
The slime abruptly became akin to a piece of candy for Twilight as she reconsidered her options, and once she gained a determined expression shortly thereafter, she subsequently grabbed a decent chunk of it.
She still kept her eyes closed to maintain the illusion, though.
"As you've probably noticed right after the invasion was thwarted, a tremendously large amount of this 'slime' was still laying across all of Canterlot; mostly around the captured and occasionally cocooned ponies," Lab Coat started explaining as the lavender unicorn began chewing with fascination marring her face, surprised at the explosion of flavors that was occurring within her mouth. "Like you said, the gel is a form of 'changeling puke' since it comes from what passes as their stomach; though, I'd say it's more of a storage sack than an actual stomach. Considering that some of the cocooned ponies we discovered at the nearby changeling outpost had apparently been encased in the substance for longer than a month, I suspected that it might've been providing nourishment to the captives during their 'coma', and it turned out I was right."
Twilight was stuck between listening to his explanation, taking notes about it, and overall enjoying the... meal. Yes, it was a meal; a delicious meal that came from a questionable source, but it was just so... simple, yet flavorful and delicious and... and...
What the hay was that last flavor?
"If what they eat ends up as a gel that can be regurgitated at will, then it begs the question of: what actually provides nourishment for them? Or do they merely consume more food than us so that they can feed themselves as well as others?"
Twilight finally forced herself to swallow, grimacing at the final taste and sticking her tongue out in disgust for a few seconds. "Well we did learn that... urgh. 'Love' is something that apparently feeds Artemis," she said, struggling to hold the gel in. "Chrysalis did say that love gave changelings more 'power', and if Ms. Yearling is to be believed, then Artemis hasn't eaten anything 'physical' during their entire trip."
Lab Coat hummed to himself. "The nymph obviously ate a few things if the gel we just tasted is of any indication, but eating emotions? Are you certain of it?"
"Artemis sure didn't show any signs of hunger during the entire day despite having eaten nothing," Twilight assured him, frowning to the side in contemplation afterwards. "...Well, she did eat a sunflower and a little piece of a pancake from what I was told, but I doubt that it would be enough to sustain her throughout the day. In fact, she even seemed to be more energetic as time went by; we couldn't get her to sit still for longer than a minute at some point, so I just gave up on trying to teach her Equestrian and let Cadance take over to play with her."
The doctor cocked an eyebrow. "You tried to teach a four day old nymph the Equestrian language?"
"Successfully, I would say!" Twilight beamed. "It's really amazing to see that she's able to grasp the meanings of various words so soon! We could only cover a bunch of basic ones for now though, but at this rate she might be able to have and sustain a regular conversation within a week or two!" She clapped her forehooves together, squealing in happiness. "Oooh, I can barely wait for that to happen!"
Lab Coat was finishing up some notes about possible future research avenues. "Considering our own foals take a few months to start talking, I can only wonder whether changelings mature that much faster, are simply smarter, or if Artemis is a unique case." He carefully set the notes down in his neat pile of 'changeling-related' notes—though to Twilight it looked as if he launched them randomly across the room and let them flutter to the ground on their own—and held the container containing the nymph's slobber in front of him. "I'll compare the little queen's saliva with a common changeling's later, but for now I want to show you something else!" Lab Coat joyously exclaimed.
Twilight gave him a perplexed look. "Hold on, why did you need saliva from Artemis specifically? Couldn't you just get some from Queen Chrysalis?" she asked.
"Princess Celestia only allowed me to run a magical scan on the Queen for documentary purposes, and nothing else. That was the only time I got to see her, and the Princess refuses to let anypony know where the body currently resides," he informed Twilight with a disappointed tone. "In any case, I have found something that you simply must see!" he proclaimed, miscellaneous papers flying everywhere as he excitedly dragged the mare—whom yelped in surprise—along with him, until they stopped in front of a changeling corpse preserved within a stasis spell that was laying on the examination table.
This time, however, a special wire with thaumaturgic properties was connected to the bug-like equine's head, the line leading up to a small machine that the purple unicorn quickly identified as one that was designed to detect any magic that would flow within it.
"Observe!"
Lab coat aimed his horn at the changeling's barrel and fired a constant beam of completely harmless magic onto it. After a few seconds, the apparatus attached to the changeling's cranium beeped as it began glowing, seemingly starting to fill up with the unicorn's energy.
"As you can clearly see—"
"The changeling's chitin is conducting the magic infusion spell, unlike how a pony's coat would normally be absorbing it!" Twilight suddenly exclaimed in fascination, interrupting Lab Coat.
"Yes! Which means that—"
"The chitin must have a different kind of magical composition, since harmonious magic—"
"—the magic that all ponies use everyday and the one that was used just now—"
"—would've instead merged with or taken effect on the chitin if the shell had the same harmonious magical resonance—"
"—as our own coats do!" Lab Coat happily finished.
Twilight frowned in thought. "The chitin didn't outright repel your simple magic infusion, though. It channeled it until it found an outlet, which ended up being the machine that you've set up right there. Thus, to some degree, the exterior skin of changelings still does possess harmonious magic."
"Indeed." The doctor gave her a confused look. "But, I expected you to know of this already. Haven't you run a standard magical surface scan on the nymph?"
The mare chuckled nervously, rubbing one of her forelegs with the other while thinking back to her failed attempt to properly greet the celebrity and the innocent little nymph. "Truthfully, it was one of the first things I had planned to do when I went to visit, but I didn't do it." She looked away for a moment, ashamed. "And I probably would've done a few other things too, if I hadn't... startled Artemis into paralyzing me, but because of those few minutes where I couldn't move or use my magic, well... it gave me time to rethink my approach, even more so since I could actually see Artemis while she was awake, and see how she acted around other ponies; yet in the end, all I saw was a carefree nymph that wanted nothing more than to play and be happy. It made me realize that I hadn't even taken into consideration Artemis' feelings because I didn't think that she'd be just like any other regular foal..."
"A scan would only bring a minor amount of discomfort for a very short time, though," Lab Coat pointed out.
"Perhaps, but I had already given her one of the most terrible first impressions ever," Twilight glumly replied. "I didn't want to make it worse, so I decided to just... treat her like I would any other young filly and forego any examination, be it magical or physical. Besides, we don't know if changelings would react and/or feel different from being hit with scanning spells, and I assumed that you would be doing those examinations anyway."
"I see," the doctor said. "Then you're in for a little surprise! Go right ahead and run the scan on this changeling." He gestured to the corpse.
Twilight Sparkle stared back and forth between the doctor and the changeling, visibly looking reluctant to do so on a dead body, especially one of a sapient being... but her curiosity easily won over and she promptly cast the relatively easy spell, focusing on the information it was giving her.
A few seconds into the process and she backpedalled a couple steps, her eyes widening in disbelief. "There's... t-there's chaos magic in there!"
Lab Coat sighed in relief. "Whew, that's good! I thought I had scanned wrong."
"How is that good!?" Twilight exclaimed. "Not only are we talking about chaos magic, but it's also somehow coexisting perfectly with harmonious magic! That shouldn't be possible at all without an extremely violent reaction!"
"And yet, here we have an entire species that managed to do so naturally!" the doctor cheered.
The mare opened... and closed her mouth after a moment, unable to come up with a retort. How could she object against that when there was irrefutable proof in front of her?
"Their exterior skin only redirects excess magic, though, since the chitin seems to innately maintain a perfect balance of both types of energies; which means that most spells—levitation, for example—still work on them without issues because they don't actually affect the energies within the changeling's chitin. Certainly, that balance must be the key to their shapeshifting, or at the very least play a large factor in its process. Perhaps the chaos performs the transformation, while the 'harmony' merely contains or directs its effects?" Lab Coat's smile faltered somewhat as he stared at the changeling. "I was hoping to see if replicating their abilities was possible, but... unfortunately, it seems that progress on that front will have to be put on hold until we figure out a way to harness chaos magic; something that the Princesses won't let me attempt, considering its nature."
Twilight nodded in agreement, her unpleasant encounter with Discord at the forefront of her mind.
"Nnrgh... quiet..." a voice tiredly mumbled from a nearby corner, hidden behind the many tables and contraptions dotting the room.
Twilight whipped around. "BBBFF!?" she exclaimed, ignoring the curious look that followed from the doctor.
"I had to sedate the Captain once Princess Cadance brought him back here," Lab Coat informed her as she set her saddlebags to the side and started trotting towards the voice. "As interesting as it was to hear him spilling out what were probably his deepest and darkest secrets, there were some that, I... hmm, let's just say that it was getting a little too weird for me and leave it at that." He shuddered.
Twilight paused on her way to where she thought her brother was. "Spilling out secrets?"
Lab Coat nodded. "He was having emotional mood swings to the point where I believed that he somehow ended up associating 'happiness' with 'saying whatever came to mind', however unlikely that may seem."
"...N-nyooooo! Make, life... take the citrus... back!"
The mare finally found her brother curled up on a simple cot under a table, sleeping with a dopey expression on his face.
"Cadance... is best pone..." he happily mumbled, grabbing the nearest thing and squeezing it tightly against his chest.
"Ack!"
The nearest 'thing' at that very moment being Twilight.
His smile widened, even though he was still asleep. "There you are, Snooky Wookums!"
"Uhm... Shining—!?"
"Now kiss me!"
Twilight's pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Realizing the impending danger she found herself in, she immediately began flailing all of her legs, frantically trying to escape his powerful grip to no avail.
Shining Armor puckered his lips and brought them closer to—
She haphazardly smacked him across his muzzle and managed to concentrate long enough to teleport out of his embrace. The flash and the hit he took snapped him wide awake and he shot straight up in alarm—
*THUNK*
—at which point he hit his head on the table that was on top of him, knocking himself unconscious once more.
Twilight's panicked breathing quickly calmed down afterwards. She mentally berated herself for having forgotten how... clingy her brother tended to be in his sleep.
"Potential hidden feelings...?"
The unicorn mare turned around to see the doctor mumbling to himself as he scribbled something on a random piece of paper. "What?"
"Nothing of importance!" Lab Coat proclaimed, making the note vanish while he maintained his ever-present cheery grin. "Now, I believe it is your turn! What else have you discovered about our only live specimen of the changeling race?"
Twilight found herself frowning at the way he referred to the nymph, yet her concern for her brother prevailed. "Actually, I'd like to know more about my brother, first. What exactly happened to him? Cadance was being really vague when she talked about it."
Lab Coat hummed in thought for a moment before he started trotting towards a section of the room that somehow turned out to be messier than the rest of the place. "I may have a hypothesis for what is happening to the Captain, but... that is all it is, for now: a hypothesis. Nevertheless, it all started when he supposedly consumed some of this." He opened a hidden safe and brought out of it via levitation an almost completely emptied vial, containing a liquid substance that Twilight couldn't quite recognize.
"What exactly is that?" she curiously asked, quill and notepad at the ready.
Was it a specially processed version of liquid rainbows? An experimental wine? Was it a mixture that granted ponies enhanced senses and extra strength? Or... or perhaps what her brother had drunk was—
"Changeling egg fluids."
Her quill broke before she could even write a single word with it and Lab Coat could almost swear he heard the sound of breaking glass from... somewhere.
"...What!?"
"Changeling egg fluids," the doctor nonchalantly repeated, shaking the vial a little while he examined it for the eighty-fourth time as the liquid sloshed. "Given to us by A.K. Yearling after she cleaned the nymph once it hatched during her trip back to Canterlot."
Twilight stared at the vial in disbelief. "Why would my brother drink that!? Did he even know what it was!?"
"We are still unsure as to when he got a hold of the substance, but the symptoms he experienced ended up being the same ones as the ponies I tested it on displayed—"
"You gave it to other ponies to consume!?"
"Yes," he answered without hesitation. Because there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. Even if everypony else told him otherwise.
"...Did you at least test it with every type of pony and note all of the results?" Twilight asked with a hopeful grin.
Lab Coat snorted. "Of course! What kind of researcher would I be if I didn't? Princess Celestia had taken a sample of her own volition, though." He gazed at the container with a thoughtful look. "The liquid—or perhaps I should say 'changeling honey', as I've taken to calling it—has the unusual property of giving off a unique smell and taste depending on the pony. For example, while Princess Celestia claimed that it tasted like cake, your brother mentioned chimicherrychangas, and somepony else had an obsession with pie. A few ponies had declared a severe aversion to the honey before drinking any, however, and I have yet to figure out the exact reason."
Twilight listened with rapt attention while taking her own notes, to the doctor's amusement.
"Symptoms after consumption included and were not limited to: euphoria, happiness, a sudden and very intense desire to cling to somepony else, pegasi mentioned an increase in sensitivity on their wings while unicorns claimed the same happened with their horns, and the earth ponies said that they felt 'tingly all over'. However, every single pony subjected to the honey had one thing in common: they wanted more of it. Since I refused to allow them any more of the substance, they all developed a craving for their favorite foods instead, trying to fill an insatiable 'need'; and I have to emphasize that it was a need, as it was seemingly the only thing running through their minds at the time. I had to quickly work on preparing something that would counter its effects before any further testing, and I came up with this!"
A bubbling concoction was brought to Twilight's attention, and even though she wrinkled her muzzle at the terrible smell, her curiosity still pushed her to move closer in order to better examine it.
"So what did you put in it as a counter to the changeling honey—"
"You do not want to know."
She tilted her head at him. "Actually, I kind of do—"
"No," he quickly interrupted, shaking his head. "Trust me, you don't"
"But... b-but what if I end up needing—"
"I produced a very large quantity of the antidote after your brother's accident." He shuddered. "Believe me when I say that there's enough of it to cure a large portion of Canterlot's population if the need would arise."
Twilight pouted at being denied information, thus Lab Coat decided to employ the usual method for changing the subject when talking with a curious scholar:
Give the curious scholar something else to be curious about.
"In any case, the symptoms I mentioned earlier were nothing but the first stages of the changeling honey's effects, from what I am able to tell. I had administered the antidote to each test subject before it could progress any further, having decided to monitor a single pony's reactions to prolonged exposure the next day, but before I could begin that particular experiment, well..." he turned to look at the unconscious stallion, "...your brother happened."
At her confused and worried stare, he continued: "I was woken up in the middle of the night by Princess Celestia herself and ordered to examine the Captain after she had administered the antidote to him. Outwardly, he seemed fine when I first saw him, but the report from the nurse that was in charge of him and the fact that he consumed something that we are still learning of remained a cause for worry. Now, if you'll look over here..." He began trotting towards a table next to the changeling while simultaneously depositing the vial back in its safe.
"Do you still have the nurse's report?"
He wordlessly levitated a few papers from around the entire room and formed a neat stack in front of Twilight. "You may keep those notes, for I made my own copies," he added.
She smiled and gratefully nodded, then realized he wasn't looking in her direction and mentally facehoofed. "Thank you."
Lab Coat then brought to her attention a series of vials, each of them filled with what she quickly determined was blood; presumably taken from her brother.
"So! I had taken samples from the Captain at different times, and I have analyzed each of them to see if there were any discrepancies between them. One was taken the moment he was delivered to me, another one was from this morning, and this third vial was obtained during your initial visit shortly afterwards. At first I hadn't found anything new or problematic, but after Princess Cadance brought him back here shortly after taking him out for a stroll, I reconsidered my initial observations and took another closer look." He stared at the blood with wonder, which was somewhat unsettling for Twilight, despite the fact that she was about to do the same.
"You see, when I cast a spell to infuse magic onto each sample, a new element showed itself," he explained as he set up a microscope with three different samples next to it and motioned for Twilight to examine them.
Everything looked normal from her point of view, based on the studies she had taken on the subject. However, the moment she heard the doctor channeling a spell, what she saw through the magnifying lens changed slightly; namely, the addition of the minuscule and rare glowing particles that were sticking to a small amount of blood cells. They were so tiny that hundreds appeared to be needed to merely 'engulf' a single cell. When she swapped to the second sample, the number of particles had increased slightly, and the third one showed even more.
"Now, examine this one; taken when the Captain returned after having visited the nymph," Lab Coat said, swapping the third sample with a new, fourth one.
The amount of glowing particles had gotten to the point where entire cells were actually vibrating, a large number of them completely coated with the previously elusive things.
"Do you have any idea on what this could be?" Twilight asked, eyes still glued to the microscope's lens in fascination.
"Not as of yet, though I found out that those tiny things have a very similar structure to the changeling honey." His cheery expression turned slightly grim. "As you've certainly noticed, something is going on with the Captain, despite the antidote. The fact that the largest change occurred during a timeframe of under an hour with a mere visit to 'Artemis' shows that the event is somehow connected to, and/or affected by the young one, at the very least."
"But... it's not causing him any pain, discomfort or negative effects, right?" Twilight asked, taking her gaze off of the microscope to stare at the stallion in worry.
"Nothing apparent, though there were the mood swings I mentioned earlier. Other than his emotional state being 'out-of-whack', as it were, he's alright." He looked to the ceiling, tapping a hoof on his chin in contemplation. "That is to say that he's only 'okay' for now, since his condition only seems to be developing further with time, despite the antidote. I may have to try and figure out a new mixture if whatever is happening with him ends up showing signs of being any more detrimental..."
"Hold on," Twilight said, suspecting something. "You told me he was having mood swings. How so?"
"Princess Cadance explained to me that, once the Captain had reached a certain distance from the nymph, he was hit by a 'headache' before suddenly feeling an increasing amount of happiness the closer he got to the young one. What happened shortly thereafter on his part was a brief bout of panic, followed by an odd sense of complete joy, then anger, panic, joy, hysterical joy, sorrow bordering on depression, until he finally calmed down somewhat once he was separated from the nymph after a short while. Considering the Queen was capable of it, I'm suspecting some form of mind control was used on him by 'Artemis'—"
"No, I don't think so," Twilight replied while interrupting, gaining her own thoughtful expression. "Even though Artemis managed to learn levitation at an astounding speed for her age, she still had, err, 'trouble' controlling her magic. Never mind the fact that nopony has ever figured out a spell that essentially fit the criteria for 'mind control', it would be safe to assume that such magic would be incredibly complex while also requiring a large amount of focus and control to properly cast; thus, even if she wanted to, Artemis wouldn't be able to perform such a spell for now, at least." She scrunched her muzzle in thought. "However, we did learn that Artemis is an empath. She seemed to know whenever somepony was sad or upset." Twilight giggled. "Sometimes, I even got the impression that she was actually trying to entertain us, instead of the other way around."
"I see," Lab Coat said, levitating various papers to himself and examining them. "I believe that this new information reinforces one my hypotheses, in fact."
"What would that be?"
The doctor seemed to ignore her and went up to Shining Armor, opening the unconscious stallion's mouth to inspect its insides.
Twilight cleared her throat. "Doctor Lab Coat?"
He hummed absently as he took additional notes, closing the mouth before moving his scrutinizing gaze over Shining's eyes.
The lavender unicorn groaned impatiently. "You know, I could probably help you if you'd just tell me what exactly your hypothesis entails, or what you're looking for..."
Still alone in his world, Lab Coat moved on to observe the other stallion's horn, took more notes, then poked the Captain's neck, chest and barrel in that specific order. He paused for a second at the barrel and tapped it a couple more times, just to be sure, before he nodded in satisfaction, having seemingly arrived at a conclusion.
Finally, the doctor turned around while sporting a bright smile on his face with the happy intention of sharing his findings with the other nearby scholar... only to meet Twilight's annoyed expression as she frowned with a deadpan look due to having been ignored.
Fortunately, he was certain that what he was about to say would cheer her right up.
"Based on my observations, your brother appears to be in the process of becoming part of the endangered race of the changelings. Congratulations!" Lab Coat joyfully proclaimed.
Twilight neutrally stared at him for some time, eventually letting out a nervous chuckle. "Oh. Oh! My brother is turning into a changeling. Hahaha, that's a good one doctor! Heheh."
"Indeed! The total known living population of changelings will essentially be doubled!"
A strand of Twilight's mane detached itself from the rest. "Heh, and I'm guessing you'll want to experiment on him too?"
"Of course! Do you think he'd mind if I kept him in here for some time?" Lab Coat hopefully asked.
Sparkle's haircut frazzled itself a little more and one of her eyes twitched briefly, though she still retained a smile that would creep out any regular pony. "Hahah, oh no, I'm sure he wouldn't mind at all! Just don't forget to bring Cadance every now and then to, heh, feed him some 'love'."
"Ah, right! I'm going to have to take his new diet into account, figure out what will be and won't be edible with his new form, potentially discover how emotions can possibly be turned into usable nutrients for changelings... hmm..." he trailed off, writing a new set of notes on some fresh paper.
Twilight's 'happy face' broke a bit. "O-okay, doctor, that joke was great and all, but I-I think that we're taking it a little too far, now."
Lab Coat paused his scribbling to look at her with a genuinely confused expression, tilting his head. "...Joke? What joke?"
Upon hearing not even a single trace of humor in his tone and seeing that he maintained his befuddled stare for a straight fifteen seconds...
Twilight slowly stumbled backwards, beginning to hyperventilate. "Shiny, changeling...?" she whispered, shaking her head in denial, her rear bumping against a table. "Joke, not... not a joke, not..." she kept repeating, until she froze, as if the words had finally registered. "...Heh." Her legs were finding it increasingly difficult to stay upright. "Hahah." A somewhat crazed expression adorned her twitching face. "Hah! HahAhaH! T-turning int, into..."
The lavender unicorn swooned back and forth for a short moment...
*Thump*
...and then promptly face-planted from fainting.
Lab Coat had maintained his stare throughout Twilight's entire episode in the meantime, confused as to how a joke could produce such a reaction, as shown by his highly sophisticated and scientific response to the event.
"Huh."
Never mind the fact that he didn't know what the joke was to begin with...
Regardless, he now had an unconscious mare to wake up. Before he could test one of his numerous new methods for doing so, however, he realized that Twilight had fallen pretty close to the Captain... which explained why she was currently being held in Shining Armor's vice grip as if she were a fluffy life-sized plushy.
Of course, the doctor had to do something about it.
...So he brought up some fresh paper and began taking notes on the Captain's behavio—
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
Or, at least, he would have been taking notes on the Captain's behavior if somepony hadn't interrupted him in the middle of his work by knocking on the door. Again!
At least this time there were four knocks. Everypony knew that 'four' was the proper number of knocks needed to make it polite. He was still annoyed at being disrupted, however, therefore it wasn't really any wonder that he angrily stomped towards the door and abruptly slammed it open, ready to unleash tartarus calmly send away whomever may be on the other side.
--------------------------------------------
The maid stood just outside the laboratory and, even though the numerous signs on the door unsettled her, she still put on the customary and genuine smile she would be wearing throughout the day as she knocked on the door, preparing herself to service the illustrious 'Lab Coat'.
She had heard stories about the pony that she was about to meet; stories that ranged from the simple 'that handsome gentlecolt that studies stars and flowers' to the more commonly used tales of 'that crazy stallion that occasionally eats paper and pouts in a way that you just can't say no to when he asks you to help with an experiment'.
Though, to be honest, Dreamy Peach would say the former for any stallion she knew of, somehow even including that one hyperactive plumber they met one day.
Besides, it was just a scholar. How bad could he really—
*THWACK!*
The door slammed open with a very angry unicorn in its place, glaring death at the poor maid—
"MY AFTERNOON COFFEE IS—"
*Cuckoo! Cuckoo!* the clock on a nearby wall chimed.
"—right on time! Excellent," Lab Coat happily acknowledged with a smile.
Feather Wind was a befuddled mare.
"Three cubes of sugar?"
The maid tried to mentally shake off her surprise at the sudden question (to no avail), but managed to nod, remembering the specific instructions she had received from the rest of the staff when preparing the drink.
"Quarter of a cup of milk?"
She nodded again.
"Water heated at exactly sixty-three degrees celestius?"
The mare hesitated at that one, yet still bobbed her head up and down.
The one known as 'Lab Coat' then proceeded to take his cup of coffee and slurped some of it, smacking his lips together as he judged the drink. The instant Feather Wind blinked, she felt a gust of wind and the door was closed, while practically the entirety of the coffee was gone from the pot that she had been carrying on a cart.
She blinked again, her gaze travelling between the cart and the spot where the doctor had been mere seconds ago.
"Perfect!" she heard Lab Coat exclaim from within the room.
...!?
Feather Wind was a confused mare.
==============================================
The tantalizing smell of caffeine slowly roused Twilight from the depths of her mind. She found herself having trouble breathing from being squeezed, though a quick glance told her that she was being held by her brother, being cuddled protectively like he always used to do in his sleep. Twilight frowned, but... at the same time, she was warm and very comfortable, so she decided enjoy the moment, staying right where she was.
...Until the sounds of scribbling that she could hear from not too far away made her realize that they were not alone as the mother of all blushes rapidly formed on her cheeks, embarrassed as she was by being stared at by the doctor a couple feet away from them.
"Don't mind me," he said, taking a loud slurp of his coffee right afterwards.
And then her previous conversation came back to her.
"My brother is turning into a changeling!?" Twilight screeched, somehow overpowering Shining Armor's powerful grip and shooting straight up—
*Thunk*
—and hitting her head on the same table that had knocked out the Captain, though thankfully she managed to remain conscious despite the headache that immediately formed.
"From what I can tell, yes," the doctor replied as she got out from under the table while massaging the sore spot on her head with a forehoof.
"Wha, huh?" Shining Armor—whom had been startled out of his sleep by his sister's exclamation—mumbled while rubbing his eyes, still not fully awake yet. "Twiley? I... could've sworn you said something about me and changelings just now."
"How did you even come to that conclusion!?" Twilight asked Lab Coat, ignoring Shining's remark.
The doctor took another slurp of his coffee before happily answering. "Well, when you mentioned the empathic ability of the young nymph, combined with what I've been told by Princess Cadance, it is very likely that the Captain had been sensing, perhaps even feeling the emotions of 'Artemis' ever since she had come to Canterlot. He did mention he felt a pull last night, coincidentally at around the same time Ms. Yearling arrived."
"That's true," Shining Armor confirmed, having lazily stood up to join them. "But, wait, why are we talking about that right now?"
"Furthermore, I did inform you earlier that the structure of the particles within your brother's bloodstream had a strikingly similar composition to that of the changeling honey, which also had a resemblance to the changeling's chitin which, in turn, contains a certain amount of chaos magic."
"Hold on, I have what in my blood!?"
"The particles were obviously related to changelings in some way and, considering Captain Shining Armor seemed to have developed the ability to sense Artemis' emotions—much like the nymph is naturally able to do, if she truly is an empath—I checked to see if anything else had changed about him physically. If you look very closely, he already has the beginnings of growing fangs..."
Shining checked, and to his shock he did feel them, though they were still barely noticeable.
"His irises aren't perfectly circle-shaped anymore as well. I wouldn't be surprised if he found everything to be brighter, as changeling eyes seemed to be adapted for subterranean use and he doesn't yet have that eye-cover that they possess to protect against strong light sources."
Wait, so there weren't extra lights in the room?
"His horn will most likely curve slightly over time, but so far there weren't any changes there."
"Could you please not talk as if I wasn't here?" Shining Armor asked.
Lab Coat frowned at him. "Shush, I'm explaining to your sister why I think you're turning into a changeling."
It took a few moments for the words to properly sink in for the Captain.
The doctor turned back to Twilight in the meantime. "Finally, his coat seems to be... softer to the touch, much like how a changeling's skin under the chitin is actually 'squishy' and very vulnerable. He's probably going to lose his fur over the coming days and have heightened sensitivity until a proper shell could grow over his new skin—"
"Oh. Oh! I'm turning into a changeling. Hahaha, that's a good one doc! Heheh," Shining Armor nervously chuckled.
Twilight stared back and forth between Lab Coat and her brother, desperately hoping the former was wrong, finally forcing the latter's mouth open with her own hooves to inspect it herself—
"Ack! Tah'light! Aht de hay!"
Twilight rapidly checked to see if the rest of the doctor's observations were true, but the moment she saw the minuscule fangs that were forming, panic and fear were already clutching her chest at the implications while a few more strands of her mane were then sticking out. "We... w-we have to find a way to stop and reverse the transformation!" she exclaimed with a shaky voice.
All traces of humor immediately left Shining Armor's expression as he stared wide-eyed between the two other unicorns. "Wowowo, hold on, you were serious!?" he blurted.
Lab Coat pouted. "But, but what about everything we could learn from him? There's only so much that can be done with deceased bodies—"
"I don't care about what we could learn from my brother becoming part of a nearly extinct race that we know practically nothing of!" Twilight snapped... but then seemed to reconsider. "...Okay, I kind of do care. But not like this! What if he loses his mind when he ends up turning into a changeling!? What if he becomes nothing but a puppet for Artemis to control as she wishes after the transformation!? For all we know, changeling drones aren't even sapient to begin with!" She paused when she looked at Shining Armor, noticing a distinct lack of panic on his part. "And YOU! How can you be so calm!? Aren't you even the slightest bit worried?"
He slowly turned to face her with a tilted head and a relaxed smile, displaying the epitome of patience. "I was panic. Then I was happy. Now, I am become Zen."
Twilight glared at the doctor, pointing a hoof straight towards her brother. "See? See!? This isn't how my brother normally acts! Will there be anything left of 'Shining Armor' once the transformation is complete!?"
"Alright, alright! Fine, I'll try to figure something out," Lab Coat said, holding his forehooves up in surrender. "I'll start by searching for the other ponies that had so gladly and willingly volunteered to help me test the changeling honey; perhaps I can find a clue as to why they themselves haven't been affected as much as the Captain."
Twilight's pupils shrunk when she remembered that there were others. "Oh no, oh nonono! What if they're turning into changelings too!?" she stammered, pacing in a very tight circle due to the lack of room to maneuver, to the point where it looked like she was simply spinning on the spot. "What if those changelings end up producing more of that honey, a-and then other ponies end up eating it!? It won't end until everypony has been converted! It'll be like a zompony apocalypse!"
Lab Coat quietly filled a cup with a special mixture he had discovered some time ago, making no sudden movements as he approached the mare that was rambling on and on about boarding up all the windows, barricading the doors, stocking up on scrolls and quills, gathering enough food to last a few hundred lifetimes, build a book fort to hold off the impending doom—
"Miss Twilight, perhaps you should sit down and drink this wonderful tea that I've made to help you relax—"
"This is not the time to relax!"
"Ah, I meant to say that it would help you panic—"
Twilight immediately snatched the drink from his magical grasp and gulped it down... then 'decided' to promptly face-plant on the floor, looking sleepier by the second.
"Don't worry, it's nothing more than a calming draught. You'll be back up in a few minutes, at which point I'm sure you'll have returned to your senses," Lab Coat informed her as he made a few preparations before he would leave. "Besides, I took precautionary measures to make sure that any problem arising with those that helped me with the honey would immediately come to my attention. If anything was wrong, I'd know about it. I'll return here once I've finished gathering information, don't touch anything in the meantime, save for that big red button over there."
"Two divided by cake equals apples," Twilight tiredly stated.
"Indeed!"
After making sure that she would really be alright, the doctor turned to Shining Armor, giving the stallion a curious look. He then straightened up and took a deep breath in preparation for a quick test.
"AttennnTION!" Lab Coat suddenly barked, causing the Captain to immediately stand up and stare straight ahead attentively.
"Hmm, standard royal guard reaction? Subconscious reflexes appear to still work," Lab Coat muttered while writing notes on the side. He then pointed at a random nearby cup and calmly asked: "Could you bring that to me?"
Shining Armor didn't move at all, so the doctor tried the initial approach once again.
"Hold position!" Lab Coat bellowed, imitating the tone a drill sergeant would use as well as he could.
This time the Captain gave a quick salute while maintaining that odd neutral facial expression, plumping down on his rear and remaining still as a statue.
"Efryting's hokay! Worry don't! I'll... shave you..." Twilight mumbled, lethargically flailing her forelegs towards Shining Armor's general direction for a moment, giggling to herself.
Figuring that the Captain wouldn't end up doing anything undesirable and that Twilight Sparkle wouldn't cause problems in the meantime due to his mixture's temporary magic-nullifying properties, Lab Coat finally left the room, satisfied that both unicorns were somewhat pacified and wouldn't do anything rash until Twilight would return to her senses.
By the time Twilight became coherent again a few minutes later, sluggishly rubbing her head while slowly getting up, she noticed that Shining Armor was still staring straight ahead with a tilted head and a peaceful expression, sitting on his haunches.
"BBBFF?" she slurred, worry etched onto her own features as she stumbled ahead, closing the distance between them despite the fact that the world was still spinning from her point of view. At his complete lack of response, Twilight weakly grabbed hold of him, shaking the stallion lightly, and then roughly when he still didn't answer in any way, shape or form.
"Big brother?" she once more tried, steadily putting more strength into her efforts as the potion's effects on her mind gradually dissipated. "Shining Armor! Snap out of it!"
Finally, it seemed like Shining Armor had heard her, blinking repeatedly until he seemed to notice his surroundings, as if for the first time. "H-huh? What... ugh..." He rubbed his head.
"Y-you're back!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Oof!" Shining barely had time to react when she threw herself at him in a powerful glomp. "Whoa, sis! What's wrong?"
He felt her tense in his embrace, her head detaching itself from his chest to stare at him incredulously. "What's wrong? What's wrong!? I find out my brother is turning into a changeling, then you weren't responding, and you were acting all weird for the past..." She glanced at the nearby clock on the wall. "...fifteen minutes, at the very least! And you're asking me what's wrong?!"
Shining visibly winced. "Right, the whole changeling transformation thing..."
Twilight snuggled up to her brother again, hugging him with as much strength as she could, as if she would lose him if she lost her grip. "What happened to you, anyway? It's like you weren't even there," she asked with a quiet, shaky voice.
"I'm... not so sure," Shining answered, frowning in thought while holding her close. "You were talking with the doctor about what's... apparently happening to me right now, but... I think it was when I was starting to panic? I felt really weird, kind of similar to when I went to see Artemis." He shifted to a more comfortable position. "Like, I was suddenly happy for no real reason, and nothing could change that... yet at the same time I knew that I wasn't happy, but the happy feelings were just so strong that I couldn't really feel anything else in the end... if that makes sense?"
Twilight remained quiet in thought for a few seconds. "Well, Lab Coat did mention that he was thinking that what you were feeling were Artemis' emotions," she informed him. "But if that's the case, why would Artemis be so ecstatic around you? Cadance said that she was very shy at first."
At the mention of his lovely alicorn, the Captain's composure dropped considerably. "Will... will I still be able to give Cadance the foals she wants?" he sadly asked. "Save for the 'queen', changelings are apparently all supposed to be genderless..."
"But... they can still change forms?" Twilight said, trying to sound hopeful.
"How come we haven't heard of changelings until now, then? A pony giving birth to something that isn't a pony wouldn't be the kind of thing that would stay quiet for long, especially after all the time that they've apparently been among us," Shining glumly replied.
Twilight tightened her hug on him. "You can worry about foals all you want, but I'm more concerned about whether or not you'll still be 'you' once the changes are over, if we c-can't find a cure in t-time..."
Shining ran a hoof along his sister's mane comfortingly. "Hey, hey, it's okay, I'm still here," he said as soothingly as he could while nuzzling his sister's neck, doing a decent job of concealing the nervousness he himself felt about his problem at the same time. "I promise that I'll do everything I can to resist whatever happens for as long as I am able to."
They remained in that state for a short while, until Twilight eventually separated from their mutual embrace to look at him with worry. "...You're being strangely calm about the fact that you're turning into a different species, all things considered."
He winced, looking off to the side. "Honestly? I'm trying my best not to think about it too much."
Twilight pondered on how she could help, quickly perking up as she looked around the disaster that was Lab Coat's laboratory. "Do you know where exactly Lab Coat keeps his research notes on the changeling honey?" she asked him. "I could work on furthering our understanding of it; maybe even find something that the doctor missed!"
Shining blinked. "Umm..." He glanced around. "...Somewhere in this room?"
She deadpanned at him, and he sheepishly smiled in return. "You could... try the papers near that changeling, maybe?" he suggested, gesturing at the nearby body.
"Right," Twilight agreed, carefully trotting across the room towards it. "By the way, if you're really able to sense foreign emotions, are you able to feel mine right now?" she curiously asked, picking up a random scroll that was close to the changeling's head and rapidly browsing through its contents.
While the Captain was reluctant about tapping into an ability that he wasn't supposed to have as a pony, he still decided to make an attempt for his sister, frowning and sticking his tongue out in concentration, trying to... activate something? Feel something?
The only thing he could feel that he knew wasn't coming from himself, though, was this... connection.
"BBBFF?" Twilight called upon noticing that she hadn't received a response to her query, not looking up from the fourth paper she was skimming through.
Yes, there... there was a link present between him and something, or... somepony? He could feel it; the warmth it brought, the calm it induced in him, the comfort it gave, the...
The same thing he felt for his little Twily; the love between a brother and a sister.
The incredibly and wonderfully delicious love between siblin—
Worry "Shiny?"
"H-huh? What?" he abruptly stammered, the sour spike of concern he had briefly tasted snapping him out of his trance-like state to realize that Twilight was staring at him with a slightly troubled look from across the room.
"Are you alright?" she carefully asked.
Shining momentarily shook his entire head in an attempt to clear his mind from the wonderful feeling weirdness he had just experienced. "Y-yeah, I, I think so," he awkwardly replied, still feeling himself being affected by the influx of what he now knew were foreign emotions. He furrowed his brow in concentration and closed his eyes, managing with difficulty to draw a mental line between what was his and what wasn't. "I was just trying to see if I could 'sense' anything out of the ordinary. Don't worry, I'm fine, r-really."
Twilight gazed at him with suspicion for a moment. "Well, if you say so..." she quietly said with uncertainty marring her voice, perking up afterwards. "Did you feel anything, then?"
"Yeah, but only when I actually tried to, and even then the only thing I sensed from you was your... concern?" Shining tried to explain. "I could also... even..."
Taste.
He had tasted emotions.
The mere thought of such a thing was worrisome. Just how fast were his changes progressing? How much longer did he have until they were done? Until he was turned into a member of the very same race he had unintentionally exterminated down to one being?
Was... was this karma for his actions?
"You could also what?" Twilight prodded, bringing him out of his troubled thoughts.
Shining wrinkled his muzzle and waved off the question. "N-nothing, nothing," he replied, not wanting to further worry his sister and simultaneously making sure that she wouldn't cancel her search for the doctor's notes due to going on a tangent about his newfound ability. "Though, uh, hey! Just making sure, but Artemis is more or less over there, right?" he asked, gesturing towards where he knew the 'link' led to.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Actually, Artemis should be staying with Cadance and Ms. Yearling at the guest room reserved exclusively for special dignitaries over there."
She pointed at what was practically the opposite direction.
Shining blinked in confusion at the link's location. "Huh... Never mind, I guess," he said, unsure of why the familiar 'pull' that he knew led to Artemis was telling otherwise.
After all, he was absolutely certain that Cadance wouldn't let the nymph out of her sight and out of that room, considering the current circumstances. Unless something extreme happened that would've prevented her from doing so.
He filed those thoughts for later, trotting up to Twilight to help her with her search. "Have you found anything yet?"
Twilight brightened up. "Oh! You should see these notes he made on transmogrification magic and its effects on the properties of various alchemical ingredients depending on the position of the celestial bodies and the seasons!" she beamed, tenderly hugging the aforementioned papers against herself. "I'm definitely going to be asking him for a copy of these!"
Shining resisted the urge to facehoof. "That's... great and all, but I thought we were looking for information on the changeling honey?"
The lavender unicorn had the decency to blush. "Eheh, right!" She cleared her throat, levitating the 'stack' of papers back to its original location. "I'm onto something with this one, actually. He wrote down his thoughts on your condition." She brought up the note she had previously begun reading.
"So what does it say?"
"Nothing he hasn't told us already, so far." Twilight kept reading. "By the way, try to avoid Artemis as much as you can. It seems her proximity to you had triggered an acceleration of the whole transformation process, somehow."
Shining Armor rolled his eyes. "It's not like I'm even allowed to leave this room," he muttered, glancing at a few machines with disinterest.
Twilight hummed in thought. "I'll see what I can do about relocating you somewhere else; I'm sure the Princesses would help if I talked to them."
An alarm clock suddenly blared to life, constantly ringing loudly, and Twilight got to witness her brother frantically attempt to turn it off as fast as possible, his eyes widening in unadulterated horror. As soon as he finally succeeded, Shining let out a sigh, slumping down in relief.
"...What was that all about?" Twilight asked, bewildered.
The Captain froze, having forgotten his sister's presence for a moment. "Erm... nothing! Nothing at all! Heheh," he nervously chuckled. "Just, uh, keep reading! Don't worry about the clock!"
The lavender unicorn eventually shrugged and did just as he suggested... but then she came to a certain entry.
While the antidote's original purpose no longer works on subject 47307, it still seems to delay any further changes. Either that, or the knockout potion the Captain keeps requesting is the cause of the disruption of the changeling honey's effects. Will give to subject 47307 a dose of each in intervals of three hours just to be safe; set up a timer that will ring when the right time comes for every subsequent feeding.
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You've asked Lab Coat for a drink that would put you to sleep?"
Shining shuddered. "That thing that he claims will help me, it's just so..." He visibly struggled to keep whatever he had eaten in. "I can't stand it. Words are not enough to describe how bad it really is, so I'd rather be unconscious until the taste goes away."
"You mean this thing?" Twilight asked, levitating the 'antidote' with the knockout potion right next to it.
The white unicorn's horror immediately returned tenfold once he noticed what she was holding, backpedalling with a whimper that managed to escape despite himself. "N-no, please no!"
"It's for your own good!" she insisted, drawing closer.
"Oh Celestia, not you too!" he exclaimed, curling up on himself once he reached a corner. "Where did you even get those!?"
"Lab Coat wrote down where he stashed his supply of these things," she said. "Come on, it can't be that bad—"
"Yes! Yes it can, and yes it... is... oh, n-not again... not right now..." he more calmly spoke, his fearful shaking rapidly decreasing as he seemed to steadily slip into what he earlier referred to as his 'zen state'.
Twilight took full advantage of the fact that he was 'subdued' for the moment, force-feeding him the horrid concoction first. Shining Armor ended up drinking it all in one go, a brief twitching of his eyes and a weak protesting whinny being his only reactions to the beverage itself.
He afterwards faced his sister with a serene, happy smile.
"I hate you so much right now."
Twilight winced, yet stood resolute. "You'll thank me later, now drink up the potion."
Shining greedily reached out for it, promptly falling asleep on the spot after gulping down what might as well have been the nectar of the gods after having drunk the previous... thing.
His sister carefully levitated him back to his cot, conjuring a few pillows to at least make it more comfortable for him. She sighed, worried about his repeated 'episodes'. Wondering if this were a rare occurrence, she once again picked up Lab Coat's notes on her brother in the hopes of finding out more about the event.
While she found nothing related to his occasional and sudden calmness, she did find something else.
Addendum: Woke up the Captain shortly after administering the knockout potion; results unexpected. Appeared to be having hallucinations and was slightly delirious. Will have to make sure that he remains unconscious until the end of the potion's duration next time.
Side note: The knockout potion I used is not supposed to have any side effects whatsoever besides some mild vertigo in the case of pegasi, regardless of an early interruption or not. Different outcome on the Captain is troubling. Will other known and tested mixtures evoke alternate reactions on him? Are 'safe' potions no longer entirely safe due to his condition? Must re-evaluate, tread with caution, figure out the cause of the discrepancies.
The unicorn mare sagged, giving her brother a look filled with sorrow. Shining shouldn't have to go through any of this right now; in fact, he and Cadance should've been away on a honeymoon, enjoying their newly-wed status and frolicking together happily in the meadows...
She shook her head. Now was not the time to dwell on what could've been; she had a sibling to help and support. Thus, she went back to reading through the notes Lab Coat made on her brother in the hopes that she could add something with what she herself had learned, perhaps even come up with a plausible solution to reverse Shining's transformation, or at the very least slow it down further.
Twilight made sure to remain as quiet as possible, though. She didn't want to disturb her brother's rest, if only to give him the respite he needed.
Thankfully, if memory served right—which it usually did—then this wing of the castle shouldn't have too much traffic for some time, therefore she wouldn't have to worry about his sleep getting disrupted by outside sources.
It was at that point that the entrance to the lab violently imploded out into the hallway, leaving a gaping hole.