//------------------------------//
// A change back 
// Story: A Change of Pace 
// by Votederpycausemufins 
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	Nymph had locked herself in her bedroom and asked Nettle to take Cicada to the infirmary. Two changeling twins named Azuli and Rosa were currently in the infirmary to take care of any injured changelings.
The two of them started to patch Cicada up, even able to finish healing the last of her burn from Sparkle. Spike, Nettle and Lila waited outside until the two medics let Cicada out.
She looked and felt a little weak, but she was still able to walk. Nettle helped her leave the area with Spike helping out as well. 
Eventually, Nettle led them all to the large dining room of the castle. The room was had white walls adorned with gold and sometimes a bit of purple. The floor was of the finest of marbles. The ceiling was tiled with marble and basalt in a checkerboard pattern. At the end of the room was a set of double doors with a circular window in both of them revealing what must have been the kitchen with all of its magically powered ovens and what not. Each of them taking seat on velvet plush-cushions near the closer end of the large mahogany dining table sitting in the center of the dining room. Nettle called for a servant and soon a changeling wearing an apron came through the doors leading to the kitchen. 
The changeling started over toward Nettle, but trotted over quickly when he saw Cicada. The servant whispered something in Nettle’s ear. He answered out loud, “Oh, don’t worry Cricket, that’s Cicada. She just can’t change back for some reason.” Cricket whispered something to Nettle again, while giving Cicada a sideways glance. “Well, she ended up going to an opposite version of our world where ponies are nice but are scared of changelings after they attacked one of their cities or something like that.”
Spike nudged Cicada, asking why Cricket was whispering. “Well, he’s rather shy. He even whispers instead of talking if it’s just his friends around.”
“Wow, he sounds worse than Fluttershy.” Spike remarked.
Cicada gave a half-hearted laugh. She didn’t feel like telling Spike that Cricket used to speak normally around the changelings he knew well before he met this world’s Fluttershy. Now he couldn’t help but whisper.
“Anyways, Cricket is here to ask what we want to eat for dinner.” Nettle explained. “I’ll just have my usual, thanks.”
Cicada ordered herself a sandwich and a small dish of meat for Lila. Spike said he would eat just about any food, but if it was possible, he’d like a few gemstones.
“I heard dragons liked gemstones, but I didn’t think it was real.” Nettle commented after Cricket left with their orders. “There are enough around this place that he should be able to round up a couple for you.”
A few minutes later, Cricket came back with their orders. Cicada got a turkey sandwich, Lila received a bit of cooked rat meat while Nettle had a plate of various crackers and an orange. Spike was given a sandwich similar to Cicada’s, but with a few gems in it as well. Nettle grabbed his orange and was about to throw it away before Lila hissed at him.
“Nettle, if all you’ve been eating are crackers then you really should consider having that orange, too. Just because we couldn’t have them before, doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t.”
The changeling glared at her before peeling the fruit, splitting it in half and shoving one of them in his mouth. He bit down, reacting only a few seconds later to the bitter taste. Cicada fell of her pillow, unable to contain her laughter, just as she saw Nettle stuffed some crackers in his mouth, too. As soon as the queen finally manage to contain her laughter, merely giggling at the scene that had transpired merely seconds earlier, she got back onto her cushion and took a bite of her sandwich to calm down the rest of the way. 
“You know, Nettle, most eat them one slice at a time for a reason...” Cicada told him after she swallowed in a teasing manner. In response, Nettle just grumpily chewed on his crackers while he glared at her. If glares could kill, this one would do some serious damage to Cicada, Nettle still a bit annoyed with the whole orange deal. 
By the time most of them had finished eating, Rosa and Azuli joined them along with another changeling named Lavanda. 
“Ma’am, we went to talk with our cousin…”
“...About something we noticed while healing you…”
“...We questioned some of the captured ponies…”
“...We believe that we can help you with your ‘pony’ problem.”
Cicada looked at Lavanda. The queen always had a little bit of trouble following what the twins said, mostly because they liked to speak as one, continuing of where the other one left.
“Apparently the gel like substance you mentioned was something the ponies were making for changelings to keep them from being able to shapeshift. They were going to start putting them in the magic suppressors so that even if we got them off, we couldn’t escape once we were in the dungeons.”
Cicada didn’t know exactly how to respond. She was happy that they could fix her shapeshifting problem, but worried about what might happen to other changelings. There were still ponies that escaped the lab and some of them might have a way to make more of the gel. 
“So, what do we need to do to fix this?” Cicada asked.
“Well, we’re not exactly sure.” Lavender started, only for the twins to take over.
“We have a couple of theories…”
“...Until we try them out…”
“...We can’t be sure that they’ll work.”
Cicada put her head in her hooves to think. “Fine, we can try them all out, but leave the talking to Lavanda, got it?”
Azuli and Rosa nodded their heads before leading Cicada away. After she was gone, Spike looked awkwardly at Nettle. The room was silent except for Lila attacking the last of the changeling’s orange.
“So, um, how are you doing?”
“Okay, so what should I do?” Cicada asked Lavanda.
“Well, currently we don’t know exactly how it’s affecting you. You might not be able to change into yourself, but you’re bigger than a pony.”
“So, you’re saying i should make myself smaller like a filly?”
All three of the changelings nodded. Cicada tried, but nothing happened. They asked if she could try to change to a pony filly, since she was currently a pony. Still, there was no effect. 
“Alright, have you tried to make a portal yet? It could be like a null stone and make it so you can’t use any changeling magic at all.”
Cicada tried, and a portal appeared in front of her. At the same time, a second one appeared across the room. Lavanda started to pace around, grumbling at the unyielding puzzle, “I don’t get it. Somehow this stuff only stops you from using your changing abilities, but not blocking any other forms of magic, which is a bit odd considering that they wanted it to work well enough to capture us, it would have need to stop it all.”
“Well, why can’t we…”
“...Try and look at…”
“...The stuff that’s making her…”
“...Unable to change back?”
Cicada glared at Azuli and Rosa, but Lavanda voiced her agreement cutting out the queen before she had time to voice her displeasure. She tried multiple times until she got some sample of the gel. The changeling got a microscope out and put the sample under it. She tried to figure out exactly what it did, and after a while, Lavanda perked up and walked back over. 
“All we should have to do is get the dried gel off of you and you should be able to change back. The gel seems to be strong, but if we can make it absorb water, it shouldn’t be hard to wipe it all off.” 
Turns out she was wrong, very wrong. Even after the gel has absorbed a bunch of water, it was still hard to get off. By the time all of the gel was off Cicada, she had basically be rubbed raw.  After they let her soak a bit more, Cicada waved goodbye to the changelings and thanked them for their help.
It wasn’t long before Cicada found herself meeting up with Nettle, Spike and Lila. Spike ran over and hugged her when he saw she was back to normal.
“Please don’t leave us without you again.” He whispered. “It’s really weird to be alone with him.”
Cicada laughed, but then walked the rest of the way to Nettle. “Has Nymph come out yet?” The changeling shook his head. “Please see if you can get her to come out. In the meantime, do you know where the dungeons are? I’d like to have a chat with one of the ponies down there.”










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