//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: A Changeling to Remember // by Blueheartpegasus //------------------------------// Ditto stared out the window at the ponies below. They trotted along, carrying saddlebags and chatting with friends. Nopony noticed the Changeling above, carefully keeping herself hidden behind a branch of the tree that covered the window. She scanned each pony, thinking of her dream. What was her dream supposed to be? Was it just some crazy nightmare? No, Ditto thought, it was no nightmare. It was warning of some kind. Suddenly, a loud noise startled her so much she nearly fell out of the window. Catching herself just in time, Ditto looked around, trying to find the source of the noise. She saw a stage fold out of small box with a blast of magic and cheering ponies crowded around it. "Oh, she's back!" one of the ponies in the crowd cheered as another blast of magic revealed a pony. Ditto would have understood what was going on, but the stage was in her blindspot. All she could see was a corner and a part of the crowd, the rest covered by branches. It was off to the right of the window, and the only way to see it clearly would be to either go out there or go out on the balcony. She wouldn't do either, as both would leave her wide open to prying ponies' eyes. "She's back," someone groaned behind Ditto. The changeling turned around to see Twilight closing her book and standing. "I'm going to go watch this. Stay here." She then trotted out the door. Ditto watched the purple Unicorn walk down the stairs then out the door. For a moment, Ditto wondered if she should put on her Moonbloom disguise and watch from the balcony. Then again, if Twilight saw her, she'd probably get banished or locked away, or locked away in the place she was banished to. Ditto always wondered why, if Twilight thought she was so evil, she was still keeping her around. Why didn't she just throw her out on the street? "Ah, the famous Twilight Sparkle!" called a voice in a dramatic tone. Ditto ran over to the window and tried to see, but saw only the back of a purple robe covered in stars. "Have you come to humiliate the GREAT and POWERFUL TRIXIE once more?" the pony continued, voice obviously a mare's. "Well, you can't! It will take more than a lie to derail The Great and Powerful Trixie!" "What do ya mean 'a lie'?" Applejack's voice demanded. "Oh, silly ponies, you certainly don't think that everypony believes Twilight saved us all from the Ursa!" Trixie said smugly. She backed up and for a moment Ditto could see a blue hoof before it was covered by the robe. "She did save us from the Ursa Minor!" Ditto recognized the voice of Rainbow Dash, followed by the muttering of the crowd. "We all saw her, and so did you!" "Oh, poor, misled pony." Trixie said with fake sympathy. "What you don't know is that I was the one who saved you all!" "Liar!" a few ponies growled at her. There a stamp of a hoof to quiet the crowd before Trixie explained. "You see, my little ponies, I had set up a deal with Twilight earlier that day. She felt bad that I was superior to her in magic, so she begged me to give her some time in the spotlight. I told her I would try my very best, so I sent these young colts to fetch an Ursa Major." Ignoring the callings of disbelief in the crowd, Trixie continued. "When it came, I pretended I was a hopeless liar so the ponies would turn to Twilight. While she was pretending to do magic, I was really the one saving the day, making it look like Twilight was doing it." "That was so nice of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" a small blue foal with messy orange hair said. "That's not how it happened!" other ponies shouted. "Do you have any proof?" Trixie asked. "We saw her!" Rainbow said, flying up to Trixie and into Ditto's line of view. "We all witnessed it!" "You saw what Twilight wanted you to see." Trixie responded, flicking Rainbow's nose with a blue hoof. Ditto almost cried out with frustration. Why wouldn't this pony reveal herself to Ditto? She was blue and obviously an Unicorn- as she kept speaking of how she performed magic-, so what if she was the blue Unicorn from Ditto's dream? "We saw what was real!" Rainbow growled. "But you have no proof that Twilight was indeed who did it." There was a flash of purple magic and a dark cloud appeared over Rainbow Dash. A lightning bolt shot out and hit the cyan Pegasus's back, shocking her and making her fall onto the stage. She laid on her back, eyes rolling as she tried to recover from the shock. "If you ask Twilight, she will lie." Trixie continued, making no attempt to help Rainbow up. "I have given you a perfect explanation that can't be proved wrong. For all you know, it is true." "I never agreed to such a deal!" Twilight exclaimed. "I don't do things only for the attention of others." "See?" Trixie said smugly, "I told you she would deny it!" "Now that she mentions it," one of the ponies of the crowd said slowly, "I think the movements Twilight were making while facing off the Ursa did look a bit exaggerated." "Yeah!" another pony said, "and it seemed like she was using a lot of power for picking up a bottle of milk and giving it to a bear." "And Everypony says how Twilight is the best Unicorn in Ponyville, of course she would feel threatened by The Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie said smugly to many shouts of agreement from the crowd. "Out of the good and kindness in Trixie's heart, she helped poor Twilight with her desires for attention." "That's not true!" Rainbow shouted again, finally recovered from the sudden electrocution. "Twilight doesn't live for attention like you, Trixie!" There was a brief, tense silence. Ditto finally decided that she had to see Trixie. She could be special- she could be the blue Unicorn from her dream! The Changeling closed her eyes and transformed into Moonbloom with a green flash. Blinking her solid purple eyes, she raced for the balcony before her vision cleared fully. As she swung the glass door open and galloped out onto the balcony, she quickly closed her eyes. The bright sun had surprised her and burned her eyes. She opened them again, but the sun forced her to close them once more. "Trixie is tired." Trixie declared, "Her shows will be on this time every day- excluding weekends, of course." No! Ditto thought. She forced her eyes open and used a hoof to block the sun. However, the only thing she saw was Trixie's purple robe disappearing behind the curtain of the stage. Muttering swears under her breath, Ditto trotted back inside, closing the balcony door with a hoof. "The nerve of her!" Ditto jumped as she heard Rarity's voice from below. "She lied!" Applejack's voice said. Ditto heard the sound of hoofsteps below. "Of the things she's done, the worst thing is all her lies!" "What I can't believe is that the other ponies believed her," Twilight said, her voice sounding closer to the door of the bedroom Ditto was standing in. Ditto quickly closed her eyes and, with a flash of green magic, transformed back into her insect-like changeling form. The door swung open, revealing Twilight and her six friends. They trotted into the room, each greeting Ditto with a nod. "Why did they cheer for her when she came on, anyway?" Rainbow asked, landing on the floor and folding her wings to her sides. "Oh, I'm sure they were happy to see her." Rarity said, to many surprised looks from her friends. She explained. "This is a time of much fear and hysteria, I'm sure they were happy to see an old showpony just to get their minds off the changelings." Ditto just sat and listened in, half lost in thought about Trixie. Could she be the blue Unicorn that had been taunting her in her dream? She sure sounded like the taunting-type. She wished she could check it out, perhaps she could sneak out once more after Twilight fell asleep. She felt a prickle of guilt, but this was more important than Twilight's suspicion. "Where does she stay when traveling?" Ditto asked suddenly. When everypony gave her a strange look, Ditto realized she shouldn't have asked. Now they were all suspicious. She could tell them about the dream, but that would just end up as Twilight saying that it was just a dream and for her to stay inside. Twilight was much too realistic to believe in dreams about the future. "I don't know where she's staying, why did you need to know, Ditto?" Twilight answered, halfway between confusion and suspicion. "No reason." the Changeling responded, trying and failing to cover up her statement. "Well, who is this Trixie pony anyway?" As the six friends went on to explain to Ditto about the last time Trixie had visited Ponyville, the Changeling was thinking up a plan. ---- 'Moonbloom' limped out the door of Twilight's library. It was all black except for the shining crescent-moon above. Ditto had had to fake sleep for nearly two hours until Twilight had finally decided to go to bed. Then she had transformed into Moonbloom and slipped out the door. Trixie's empty stage was off to the left, so Ditto assumed that was where she should start her search. Trotting over to the stage, she could just make out the hoofprints of where the crowd had been earlier that day. The Changeling made her way up a small set of stairs- trying not to trip as she was having trouble seeing in the dark- and onto the stage. Her hooves clicked on the polished wood as she made her way to the curtain. Poking her head through, Ditto couldn't see anything. It appeared to be an inside room because the moon wasn't shining in. Using a hoof to hold the curtain open behind her, she tried to see inside, but could only see about a foot from where she was standing. In this form, she was an Earth Pony. She had no magic to light up the darkness in this form. Perhaps, just for a moment, she could go back to her normal form. The only other ways were to wander into the darkness- not a good idea in any way you think about it- or turn into a Unicorn. The second wouldn't matter because she would have to revert to her Changeling self before changing into another form anyway. It takes great skill to go immediately from one form to another, and Ditto barely possessed any skill. In a small green flash, Ditto turned to her normal self, making sure to flick the curtain behind her closed in case anypony would be on a midnight stroll. Then she gathered all her magic and a small, green light ignited at the end of her horn. The darkness faded and everything was clearly visible. Ditto limped around, looking for anything that might point to her dream. Maybe even that pink book. The room was nothing more than a normal backstage, random trunks full of magic tricks and costumes, but no pink book or blue Unicorn. After a thorough search, Ditto decided to go on looking in a different place. She turned back into Moonbloom, making sure to add a Unicorn horn into the appearance this time, and slipped out a door in the back. *Click* Ditto turned around, but saw nothing in the darkness. Had she imagined that clicking noise? Ignoring it, she continued on. The Changeling saw a trailer behind the stage, decorated with light blue stars. At the front was a normal, horse-style door that opens at the top and at the bottom. On the top section of the door was a symbol, a wand with sparkling dust in a half-moon shape around it. "I suppose she lives here," Ditto murmured to herself. She suddenly wondered how she was going to go about this. There was only one window on the trailer, and it was covered by fluffy blue curtains so she couldn't see through it. Unless she suddenly became a master of spying, she would have to knock. Before knocking, Ditto stopped. She suddenly realized how silly this was. How would she explain why she was waking Trixie up in the middle of the night? Of course it was important, but really, what could she say? It was too important to pass up. She quickly knocked on the door with a hoof. There was some groaning noises from inside. "Who wakes up the Great and Powerful Trixie?" a voice called from inside. Ditto didn't respond, she merely knocked again. There were a few sounds of stumbling, then the click of hooves trotting towards the door. Ditto then did the oldest trick in the prankster's handbook- she hid. Quickly opening the door to the backstage room, the Changeling slipped inside and left the door open only a crack. Peering out, she waited until the door of the trailer opened. A tired, groggy-looking blue Unicorn opened the door with a glow of purple magic. "Who has knocked on Trixie's door and woken her up?" she demanded. Looking around and seeing nopony there, Trixie growled with frustration and stepped out, exposing herself fully to the night air. Ditto immediately felt disappointed. This pony was blue with pale blue mane and tail that each curled slightly at the ends. Her cutie mark was the same symbol as was on the door, and her eyes were the same purple as her magic. This was not the Unicorn she had seen in her dream. Although Ditto could not clearly remember the blue mare that had taunted her in the dream, she knew that this was a quite different pony. Cursing softly to herself, Trixie went back into her trailer and slammed the door shut. Ditto sighed and navigated her way through the dark backstage room, out through the curtains, and to Twilight's library. *Click* Ditto flipped around, trying to find the source of the noise. "I know I heard something!" she muttered, "But what makes a clicking noise like that?" Deciding it was nothing important, she flicked open the door and crept inside. With a flash of green magic, she went back to her normal Changeling form and limped towards the stairs. *Click* ---- A light tan-ish white Pegasus colt sat outside the window of Twilight's library, camera between his two front hooves. This sure was an interesting development. "Come on, Featherweight," a voice called behind the colt. Turning around and slinging the camera back around his neck, Featherweight trotted to his friend. "Hey, Snails, I think should visit Trixie after all," Featherweight suggested. "But she said we shouldn't disturb her." a smaller colt said. "I know, Snips, but she'll want to be disturbed for this." Featherweight pointed at the camera slung around his neck, then started off, trotting towards Trixie's trailer. Spellchecker and Prof-reader:Glitchhunter5000 (The Reviser/Suggester)