Butterfly relished the feeling of the cool breeze brushing over her leathery skin as she trotted through the tranquilizing forest. The only sound that could be heard was the song of a bird and the sound of her hooves echoing off each tree branch. The silence couldn’t be more soothing to her.
The earth she stood on was warm and still. It kept her stable as she made her way through to the unknown. She’d occasionally come across a dried leaf on her path, only making it more satisfying to step on, hearing the crunch below her hoof. She also felt no unease walking past the unknown behind the trees on either side of her, for the view of which she had only showed the appealing side of the forest.
Yes, everything was going perfect.
Until the sun disappeared.
The changeling stopped in her tracks and looked up at the sky. It had suddenly gone completely black; not nighttime so much as a missing piece of the entire sky. Unsure what to do, she continued to stare at where the blue once was. For a while, nothing seemed to happen… at least, as far as she could tell. She couldn’t exactly see anything since every light source originally in the sky was gone. That is, until it was replaced.
The black sheet above her suddenly blinked open two bright, white lights. They lit up places even the sun couldn’t, forcing Butterfly to shut her eyes tight until she could adjust to the new light. She soon dared herself to blink open one eye and stare back up a the strange new splits in the sky. She thought she would’ve been blinded… but no. Unlike the sun, she could look at the two lights with little strain. Cautiously she opened her other eye, then stared right into the lights. After some observing, she could eventually make out the shape of an eye.
That’s exactly what these things were.
Butterfly gasped as her eyes shot open. The vision of those two white eyes glaring down at her was burned in her mind. Her room was dark, only a shed of light able to get in through a small gap between the curtains.
She tried to close her eyes a couple of times, but the brightness of those two unknown eyes appeared brighter than day, so she ended up staring at the wall of her room. She lay on her left side for a while, hardly blinking, before flipping onto her right side and falling onto her pillow. She allowed her pupils to trail along the other wall, eventually reaching her window. The brightness of the moon struggling to get past her curtains was expected - and yes, the first curtain did indeed battle with the moon to block the light out of her room. She then looked to the second curtain, expecting a mirrored image of the first. But… no.
She froze. There, on the other side of her window, was a dark silhouette. And if that wasn’t enough, there, staring right back at her, was two piercing white eyes, identical to her dream, even on a dark background, only smaller. Though, that didn’t make the situation any less terrifying.
She and the figure kept their gazes locked for some time, she wasn’t sure how long, until the silhouette suddenly bolted. Butterfly still didn’t dare move a muscle, including her eye lids. She wasn’t about to sleep with a mysterious intruder lurking around the farm. She lay there for a while longer, unblinking, until she finally threw her blanket off of herself and stepped onto the wooden floor. She took one last glance at the window, ensuring the figure had not returned, before dashing out of her room and down the corridor. She stopped as she reached the door she wanted, and knocked on it quietly.
She waited a while, and when she got no reply, she knocked again a little louder. A few more minutes passed and still no response. The changeling then pressed her ear against the door, enabling her to hear the faint snoring of her uncle. She let out a sigh, before turning the knob and slowly opening the door, cringing each time a creak was heard. Once the gap between the door and the frame was wide enough for her to squeeze through, she treaded lightly with each step into the room. She stalked towards the bed as silently as she could, soon stopping at the side.
“Uncle Big Mac?” she whispered, raising a hoof to prod the stallion. “Uncle Mac, y’all awake?”
He shuffled and let out a low groan, but he didn’t turn over to face her. Butterfly nudged him again, a little more forcefully.
“Uncle,” she repeated. This time, Big Mac turned over on his other side and opened an eye.
“...Eyup?” he muttered.
“Sorry to wake you, uncle, but…” she glanced outside his window to make sure the thing wasn’t outside. “I swear I just saw something lookin’ through my window. Do you think you could go outside and check that nopony’s out there?”
“Mmm… eyup…” Big Mac sat up and wiped his eyes. He then stepped off of his bed and stood next to her. Butterfly smiled.
“Thank you!”
“Mhmh…” He gave a yawn. “Where was this here intruder?”
“Oh! Right, err...” She then led the way down the stairs and outdoors. It was still dark - the moon high up in the sky.
“So, uhh… it was…” She galloped around the house to reach her window. “It was just outside my window-” she pointed up to her window, “-either they were standing on somethin’, or they were flyin’.”
“Eyup,” Big Mac murmured in agreement, clearly putting in a lot of effort to stay awake.
“I think it ran away into the orchard, but I don’t know.”
“Eyup…” He then sauntered around the house, his green eyes scanning the area for any movement. Butterfly followed close behind, keeping at his slow pace. Soon they had circled the entire house, and there was no sign of any intruder.
“No sign of anythin’,” Big Mac told her. Butterfly gave an uncertain look and glanced around her.
“A-are you sure? Should we do another search, just in case?”
Big Mac shook his head, turning towards the door. Butterfly didn’t follow, instead turning her head to face the orchard. The light of indoors caught her attention and made her break her gaze from the farm. Big Mac waited at the entrance, holding the door for her.
“You comin’?” he asked. Butterfly hesitated to answer, causing him to sigh. “Butterfly, I promise you there’s nothin’ out there. You’ve been overworking yourself recently, which has made you more tired than usual. Your mind is likely playin’ tricks on you.”
It was then she realized how tensed up her muscles were, and so she took a breath and allowed herself to relax.
“Yeah… I… I guess you’re right, Uncle.” She prodded forward, entering the house. Big Mac closed the door once she was inside, and then turned his attention to her.
“If you see or hear anythin’ suspicious, just wake me up.”
Butterfly nodded. “I will. Thanks, Uncle.”
He nodded back. “Eyup.”
“Good mornin’, Butterfly.” Applejack greeted her daughter as she slipped into the kitchen, her mane ruffled and her face lacking any sort of makeup.
“Mornin’, mom,” she mumbled, walking over to the table. She sat down at her usual seat, which was a couple of seats away from Apple Syrup.
“Geez, did you find an ants’ nest under your mattress last night?” He tilted his head, chuckling to himself.
She looked over to the brown stallion. “Nope.”
“Well, something is up,” Applejack pointed out, placing a plate in front of her and Syrup. “Didn’t get much sleep last night, did you?”
Butterfly shrugged. “Not as much as usual.”
“Dang, what went on?” Syrup leaned forward towards her, brushing his orange-and-sand coloured mane away from his face, so his magenta eyes were fully visible. “Some weird dream? If so, lemme hear it.”
“Well...” Butterfly pursed her lips. “You could say that.”
“Ooh, what happened? Was it like that one time you dreamed about Gale blasting me off into space where I met a living constellation of Flame?”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t as weird as it was… err… well, I don’t really know the right word for it.”
She had been so lost in the conversation that she hadn’t noticed Apple Spice walking up behind her and sitting opposite her. She flinched and glanced in his direction.
“What’s this here about dreams?” Spice asked curiously.
“Butterfly had a weird dream about… something. We don’t know what yet,” Syrup explained.
“I see,” Spice said cooly.
Syrup then sat back in his chair and took a bite of one of his pancakes. Butterfly remembered that she had her own food, and took a bite out of her own.
“I just had a weird dream about the sky having eyes.”
Next to her, Syrup almost choked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He arched a brow and smirked, despite his mouth being full.
“I mean that the sky had eyes. It was weird.”
“Soo… how does the sky having eyes equal you not getting any sleep?” Syrup muffled his words through his food.
“I… um…” The image of the figure flashed in her mind, but she shook her head. “It just did. It was a lil’ freaky, that’s all.”
“I can understand that,” Spice agreed, taking a sip of his water.
Butterfly gave a small smile as she finished the last bite of her pancake. She wiped the sugar off of her lips with her hoof before stepping off of her chair. “Right, I think I better get ready. I look like a mess.”
“Okay, have fun with that.” Syrup gave her a small wave goodbye as she left the room.
Butterfly’s eyes darted back and forth as she passed through the orchard. Every sound of the trees and bushes rustling made her flinch, and each time she did, she would nervously laugh at herself for being so paranoid.
Soon she found herself out of the orchard and on the pathway to Ponyville, to her relief. Good, no weird shadow creature pounced on her. She began to calm down - maybe she was worrying over some weird hallucination she saw late at night after a strange dream, and none of it was real in the first place. It at least, made her heart beat slow.
She decided to buzz her wings and carry herself over the upcoming stream rather than using the bridge, for their were already ponies walking over it. She wasn’t ready to face anypony this early in the morning.
“Hey, Butterfly!”
Nevermind.
Butterfly landed on the other side of the bank and angled her head towards the sky, searching for the pegasus that had just called her name. The corner of her eye spotted a blurred blue shape somewhere above her. She quickly swung her head to that direction, but saw only a blue sky. She stared at nothing in confusion, wondering where the pegasus went.
“Sup?”
Butterfly gasped and stumbled sideways as she attempted turn around and compose herself at the same time. She fell backwards on her hind and shook her blue mane out of her face. She fluttered her lids and looked up at the mare in front of her.
“Damn. What’s gotten you so worked up?” She stifled her giggles as she stared down at the changeling.
“Nothin’,” Butterfly replied.
She scoffed. “Whatever you say.” She lent her gray-blue hoof to her, to which Butterfly obliged.
“Thanks, Hurricane,” the changeling said.
“No prob,” Hurricane returned. “So, where are you headed right now?”
Butterfly shrugged. “Not sure. I was just getting away from the orchard for bit.”
“Ah. Any reason?”
She opened her mouth to explain the events from last night, but then clamped it shut. At this point, she was almost certain that none of it happened, and the way she would describe it would probably cause Hurricane to have a fit of laughter.
“Nope,” she replied.
“Oh, okay. Say, I was just on my way to Lightwing’s house. Wanna come?”
The thought of visiting Lightwing sounded a lot more interesting than avoiding strangers in Ponyville all morning, so she nodded.
“Sure, why not?”
The two started to walk down the path that would eventually lead towards Lightwing’s cottage. Neither of them started any sort of conversation for a while, until Hurricane let out a long sigh.
“No way I’m gonna take this long getting there,” she muttered. She then spread her wings, making Butterfly step back.
“What do you say?” Hurricane cocked her head to Butterfly. “Or are you just gonna keep going by hoof?”
The changeling blinked at her. “Err…”
“Awesome, come on!” Hurricane grabbed her hoof and dragged her into the sky. Butterfly let out a yelp of surprise, not used to travelling so quickly by wing. She then felt the grip around her foreleg disappear, causing her to go off balance and tumble in mid air as she tried to still herself. She eventually did, shaking her mane away from her eyes.
“Hurricane Wind?” she called, confused. A moment after she said that, the pegasus bolted past her, a strong gust of wind following her, also carrying Butterfly along with it. At first she panicked, trying to work out how to escape. She glared at Hurricane, about to call for help, but got distracted by the fact that she was somehow keeping up with her. Confused, she glanced over her shoulder at her buzzing insectoid wings, and realized that the gale Hurricane had created had given her a boost. Her frown disappeared, replaced with a wide grin. She turned her head forward and laughed.
“I’ve never gone this fast before!” she remarked. At this point, she was almost neck-and-neck with Hurricane.
“Heh, you’re welcome.” She winked her rose coloured eye at her.
“Is this what it’s like being a good flyer?” Butterfly asked as she observed the view as the ground passing by below her.
“I mean… I wouldn’t call you a bad flyer,” Hurricane said. “You don’t even have feathers. You wouldn’t compare an insect to a bird, would you?” She then circled around Butterfly so that she could get behind her, before darting forward again, carrying Butterfly along with her.
“Well, no,” she replied flatly. “Birds eat insects. That would be kinda silly.” The pegasus, who was now gliding through the air facing upwards.
“...That’s one way to put it.” Hurricane’s muzzle twitched. She then twisted her head to look at the ground below her, and her face lit up.
“Oh hey, we’re here!” She flipped back over and dived towards a familiar cottage below. Butterfly paused and watched the pegasus dash ahead, before she chased after her, panting as she strained her wings to flap as much as they could. A couple of minutes after Hurricane landed, Butterfly finally reached the ground, her wings still buzzing. She hovered just above the grass, her head hanging low and sweat dripping from her forehead.
Hurricane snickered. “You okay?”
The changeling finally dropped onto the floor, barely able to hold herself up.
“Over the moon.”
“Well that’s a relief, I thought you were about to pass out,” Hurricane chuckled, then turned away from Butterfly and along the dirt path. Butterfly took a moment to catch her breath, then stumbled after the pegasus.
Butterfly felt more comfortable in the rural area of Ponyville. The gaps between each house seemed to widen with each home they passed. She took a deep breath and savoured the fresh air, a lot of which came from the Everfree Forest in the distance. The scent of fresh, as well as cut grass filled her nostrils, as well as wild and planted flowers.
Then she paused, holding her breath. The regular scent she inhaled had a strange tinge to it. The scent was something she was sure she hadn’t smelled before, but it seemed to click in her mind that it was familiar. She stood in the middle of the path, confused. Hurricane had realized only her own hooves could be heard, causing her to glance over her shoulder.
“Hey, what are you doing back there?” she asked curiously. Butterfly was broken out of her thoughts by the mare’s scratchy voice. She cleared her throat and continued walking.
“I just got a weird wiff of a scent, is all,” she explained, sprinting over to the mare’s side.
“What kind of weird scent?”
Butterfly shrugged. “Probably nothin’ important.” She brushed it off, and yet the scent had somehow brought a sense of insecurity. She stepped a little closer to Hurricane Wind, glancing around to make sure there was nothing giving off a weird smell nearby.
Could it be…?
She snorted and shook her head.
No, no. Probably some weird plant I don’t recognize.
And yet, she couldn’t help but inhale again.
The scent’s warm. Definitely not a plant.
She then rolled her eyes for even bothering to analyse a damn smell.
...Though, just to be safe, she thought, biting her lip, maybe I can ask Fluttershy or Evergreen if they have some new animal about or somethin’.
Butterfly broke away from her thoughts once again, and widened her eyes in surprise, seeing they had already arrived at the cottage. Hurricane grinned, and quickened her pace, to which Butterfly mimicked. They paused once they were at the door. Hurricane raised her hoof and knocked loudly, then tapped her hoof impatiently on the ground as they waited for someone to answer. After a while of no response, Hurricane knocked again, harder than before.
“Hello? Anypony home?”
A few seconds after she called this, the door opened a little. A red-coloured eye could be seen through the crack of the door, until the door swung open, revealing a yellow pegasus with a green mane, the tips of it a dull red.
“Hurricane! Butterfly!” she exclaimed excitedly, embracing them both in a hug.
“Heh… hi, Evergreen,” Butterfly returned sheepishly.
“In a good mood, as always.” Hurricane gave a huff of laughter. Evergreen released her tight grip on them both and took a step backwards.
“Yeah!” She beamed. “Why wouldn’t I be? No school today!”
“You say this every week.” Butterfly smiled and raised a brow. Evergreen looked at her with her different coloured eyes and scoffed.
“No school is always something to celebrate, Butters,” she said. “Anyway, what are you both doing here? Hurricane, I’m guessing you’re here for Lightwing?”
The pegasus nodded eagerly. “Yep. Is he around?”
“Upstairs listening to his weird emo music.” She directed her to the stairs, to which Hurricane abliged, while her head faced towards Butterfly. “You here for me or Lighty?”
“I’m here for whoever,” Butterfly replied dryly. Evergreen grinned and her eyes sparkled.
“Well, you can be here for me!” she declared, dashing to a table that held a notebook. She grabbed it with her mouth and flew back over to the space in front of Butterfly with her wings. Evergreen excitedly flickered through her notebook, holding it out in front of Butterfly. She muttered some inaudible words as she did so, scanning each page quickly as they flickered by.
“Ahah!” she yelled, satisfied. Her hoof slammed on a page, stopping the pages from flickering. Butterfly watched in confusion.
“What?” She tilted her head in wonder.
Evergreen’s eyes widened. She, again, hit the page with her hoof. “Look!” she commanded. Butterfly flinched and did so. On the page was a tiny, black piece of… something. Butterfly scrunched up her muzzle, clearly out of the loop.
“It’s a… broken piece of a rock?” she guessed. Evergreen laughed, shaking her head.
“No. I thought it was at first, but then I saw it shine in the sunlight, and it was then that it caught my eye.” She pushed the book onto Butterfly’s chest, which was Evergreen’s way of saying ‘hold this’. Butterfly did so, clumsily taking the notebook from her friend.
“You see, Butterfly, unless it was a pebble, it shouldn’t have shone as brightly as it did unless it was wet. And I knew it wasn’t a pebble because it was rough and triangular-like-”
“Erm, where’d you get all this information about rocks?” Butterfly asked.
“Pop Rock,” Evergreen stated bluntly. “As I was saying, I picked it up, wondering why it was so shiny, I picked it up and observed it. I then realized it’s texture was nothing like that of a rock, especially a piece of broken rock. It was leathery.”
Butterfly’s interest perked, prompting her to lift the book to her face. She observed the material carefully, even gently stroking it with her hoof. It did indeed have a strange, leathery, but tough feel to it. She lowered the book, and jumped back a little as she saw Evergreen’s wide-spread grin closer to her face than she would like.
“See? Not rock-like, right?”
Butterfly slowly nodded. “It is weird,” she agreed, “but what do you think it is?”
The pegasus shrugged. “I dunno, but that’s what I wanna find out!” She wrapped her hoof around the changeling. “It clearly doesn’t belong to a bug - it’s too big for that.” Her eyes squinted as she stared at the black material. “Nor is it an unnatural object - I did tests, and it clearly has cells.” She then pressed her cheek against Butterfly’s, much to her discomfort.
“I might’ve found a brand new species, Butters!” she squealed, her eyes lit up. “As far as I know, there is no large enough creature with this same dark-coloured, leathery, touch skin!” Both of her hooves then touched both of Butterfly’s cheeks. “Can you think of any creature with such skin?”
Butterfly stood still, her blue eyes gazing into Evergreen’s red and green.
“...Yes,” she said. Evergreen’s grin disappeared into one of wonder.
“You do?” she gasped. “What is this creature?”
“You’re lookin’ at her.”
Evergreen didn’t blink for a good long moment. She then broke any physical contact she had with the changeling and took a step back.
“...Are you sure?” She cocked her head sideways.
Butterfly nodded. “My skin is leathery and dark, Evergreen. And, according to Princess Twilight, bits of changeling’s hooves break off as they age.” She then raised her hoof, revealing the dents and holes in her hoof. “It was probably just part of that. Where did you find the specimen?”
“Around the edge of the Everfree Forest,” she replied. Then she gave the specimen a suspicious look. “But, here’s the thing, Butters.” She picked up the book and looked real close at the black object. “It just doesn’t look like it came from you.”
“You sure that just ain’t wishful thinking?” Butterfly asked.
“Nope, hold on a sec-” Evergreen then kneeled on the wooden floor, right in front of Butterfly’s foreleg. She was about to move it away from the pegasus to give her some space, but it was instead grabbed by it.
“Don’t move,” she commanded. Butterfly froze in place. She watched as the pegasus peeled the tape off the paper, the specimen coming with it. She held it in front of her hoof, even sticking the tape on her hoof at one point. She then pulled it away and stuck it back down on the paper and stood up.
“It’s definitely not yours, Butters,” she confirmed. “It’s the same texture and all, but it’s not the same colour.”
Butterfly blinked. “Huh?”
“Yeah, it’s grey, but it’s lighter than your skin, and even a different hue of blue. It’s more of a really dull cyan, actually.”
The changeling’s jaw hung open a little. “So… it doesn’t belong to me?”
She shook her head. “Nope!”
“But…” she bit her lip. “Then… what animal does it belong to?”
Evergreen raised a brow. “Erm… a changeling,” she stated. “Just not you. Does that clear up any confusion?”
“But… but why is there another changeling in Ponyville?” Her voice grew louder and was filled with concern. “Evergreen, where did you see you found this thing again?”
Evergreen had a blank expression. “Err… the edge of the Everfree Forest?”
“Well, come on!” Butterfly grabbed Evergreen’s hoof with on hoof and the book in the other, and dragged her out the door and down the path, towards the Everfree Forest. The two sprinted along the grass and to the border of the forest, the trees already beginning to tower over them.
“Erm, what are we doing out here, exactly?” Evergreen asked, her gaze following Butterfly as she scanned the floor that she paced around frantically on.
“Looking for more changeling hoof pieces… whatever they are,” she said. She began trying to pick up any sort of scent in the grass, but the scent of the greenery was too strong. She groaned.
“Alright, what scent am I lookin’ for?” she asked herself, picking up the book her head dropped on the floor. She raised the specimen to her muzzle and sniffed. Once the scent processed in her mind, her eyes widened.
“Huh?” She sniffed again.
“Something wrong, Butterfly?” Evergreen finally asked, sounding both confused and worried.
Butterfly swung her head to face her.
“I know this scent!” she exclaimed. “I smelled this on the way here!” She clenched her teeth.
“Erm… so?” Evergreen’s pupils darted from left to right.
“There’s been a changeling here, Evergreen!” Butterfly cried.
“It’s only one changeling! What harm could that do?”
The dark colour of the apparent changeling hoof caused images from the previous night to suddenly flash back into her mind.
“It’s just…” She shook her head. “I… last night, I…”
She had trailed off, and was interrupted before she could continue.
“Hey, what are you both doing out here?”
They both turned their heads towards where the voice had come from. They saw Hurricane and Lightwing galloping towards them.
“We were watching you from the window. Why were you both sniffing the grass?” Hurricane questioned.
“Oh… just looking for bugs,” Evergreen said slowly.
“You were?” Lightwing flickered his ear, also flicking his brown and pink mane out of his face. “Is this about that thing you found?”
“...Yep.”
“What thing?” Hurricane asked.
“Oh, just this thing I found yesterday while I was out here,” Evergreen explained, holding the specimen out so that Hurricane could see.
“...Is that it?” The blue pegasus scrunched up her muzzle.
“Yep.” Evergreen slammed the book shut. “We couldn’t find anything out here, so…” She stood up, beginning to stroll towards the cottage. “We’ll just be on our way.”
The yellow mare glanced over to where Butterfly sat, expecting her to get up and follow, but instead, she stood up, not facing towards the cottage.
“Actually, I just remembered I was gonna visit Iremia at some point today,” she told them, beginning to walk in a slightly different direction to Evergreen. “She’s on the other side of Ponyville, so I ought to begin my journey now rather than later.” It wasn’t a complete lie. She was planning to see Iremia today, after all.
“Oh, okay then.” Hurricane waved her goodbye as she watched her leave.
“I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, okay, Evergreen?” Butterfly called. The yellow pegasus nodded.
“Sure thing.”
With that, Butterfly sprinted off, wanting to be as far away from that forest as she could.