Changing the Balance

by Fantastic Fantasies


Chapter 2 : In the Night

Night Dance stared at the window as tears fell from her eyes. She felt sobs rise from her throat as she folded her hooves on the window pane. She stopped trying to hide her anguish as she cried into her front arms. Her body shook with every ragged breath she took in. She felt as though she were dying.

Suddenly a light appeared behind her as she looked up from her arms in shock. She cried out with confusion when the light grew brighter than anything, even brighter than the sun which she seldom saw anymore.

Suddenly standing in the middle of the room was. . . Herself? She looked exhausted, the rug beneath her was charred, and bits of it were turning red from the sheer heat. The version of herself that had just appeared took notice and started quickly stamping out the red embers.

"What in the name of Faust?!" Night Dance cried as she got off of her seat next to the window and started walking towards herself, only to have her doppelganger's hoof slap over her own mouth. Night Dance gagged, tasting the ash on the false her's hoof.

"I have not much time!" The copy of herself cried out as she lowered her hoof. "You must go to The Blackbird!"

"The witch?!" Night cried out as she brought her hoof and did a quick sign of the cross so as to not curse herself for mentioning the witch. "Who are you to request my death sentence!?"

"I am thou from seven days in the future!" The copy told her. "I used a spell the witch had stolen. Now if we are to ever cure our broken heart, you must go to The Blackbird! 'Tis the only way!"

"But-!" Night tried to plead with herself, but the future version of herself brought up her hoof to silence her. And much to Night's horror lightning was beginning to cover the hoof.

"I have to go back now!" The copy said as she brought her hoof back down. "And the scroll is in the dish bowl! And she isn't a witch she's a mage! Also-!"

But just as she had appeared she disappeared in a bright flash leaving the distraught mare to ponder her sanity. But just as the night began to quiet she looked at the window and screamed a pitiful, agonizing screech of insanity.


Crystal sat up panting, covered in a cold sweat. She frantically looked about her. She saw nothing but blackness trying to swallow her. The suffocating darkness! It was choking her!

Crystal screamed as she used her horn to try and provide light for her to see. She kept panting as she tried to get the terrible nightmare out of her mind. She looked about her room, in search of a copy of herself that she hoped she would never find.

"Princess!" A guard cried as he came running into her room. Crystal screamed, but more out of shock than anything else that time. The changeling's wide eyes took in every detail of the chamber before she sighed and looked at her, a knowing grin taped to her face. "Nightmare?"

Crystal could only nod, her ears splayed backward. She came to her nest and sat down next to her, setting her hoof on top of hers. Crystal smiled at the guard, touched by this small act of kindness.

How could pony kind think that they were heartless? They had bigger hearts than they would ever have!

"Do you want to talk about your nightmare, princess?" The guard asked, using her other hoof to remove the helmet from her head. Crystal looked into her blue compound eyes before nodding. The guard smiled as she lied down on the floor next to her, doing her best to get into a comfy position. "Go ahead, I won't say a word until you're done."

"It. . ." Crystal started, a little unsure of where to start. She decided to just try and explain as she went, asking every once in a while if the guard was keeping up with the story, she would just smile and nod most of the time. Only every once in a while would she ask a question at those times and they were relatively easy to answer.

At the end of it, the guard was in complete silence, more than a little unnerved by the princess's tale. Not because it was exceptionally scary, it wasn't even very creepy, but it was recognizable as one of the queen's nightmares when she had been a filly. She hadn't been there to hear it, but her great-grandmother had been there and told her about it when she was just a kid.

"Maybe, you should tell your mother," The guard suggested. Crystal looked at the guard with wide eyes, thinking she must have heard that wrong. The guard just rolled her eyes. "Truly, princess. She is your mother if I am not mistaken."

"But. . ." Crystal said, trying to come up with the right words like her mother always did. "A future queen of the hive being so easily frightened by a figment of her imagination? I would be nothing but a joke to her! I simply can't do that. . ."

"Insecta. my name is Insecta."

"Well, Private Insecta, I really can't tell her," Crystal said, turning her back to the kind changeling. "Not only will she laugh at me, so will everyone else."

"Please," Insecta said with a snort. "If anyone even laughs in y'alls direction yah mom'll send 'em to Tartarus!"

Crystal just stared at the changeling, her eyes wide. None of her brothers or sisters ever got this relaxed around her. She rather liked it. Insecta realized just how relaxed that she had gotten, slipping into one of her favorite pony accents.

"Many apologies my princess," Insecta said as she straightened her posture, or as much as she could when she was still lying on her belly. If Queen Chrysalis heard of this. . . !

"No!" Crystal screamed, flinching at the volume that she had used. Insecta flinched to, she was using a hoof to rub her temple. Crystal tried to relax again, this time using a much softer voice, "I mean, no, don't apologize. No one ever gets this comfortable around me. It's really nice."


"Seventeen bottles of cider on the wall," Centipede sang out, leaning against the iron bars of the wheeled cell. They had been traveling for hours, it was the dead of night with only stars as his company. "Seventeen bottles of cider!"

"Will you just can it already?!" Quick Clash shouted at the changeling, his ears splayed as far down and with as much force as he could. Well, stars, as well as him, were Centipede's only company. The other guard who had been a pegasus had flown ahead to prepare the dungeons for his "arrival." Such a pretty word for execution.

Quick had to give this changeling points for annoyingness. He had dealt with dragons with more ease than this changeling. At least they hadn't sung the same stupid song for hours straight.

"Sorry, sir," Centipede said, standing up and walking as close to the driver of the wagon like device as he could. "But along with the right of silence, I have a right to speech."

"Legal Equestrians have a right to speech," Quick barked. "You are an illegal monster."

"Correction," Centipede said, relaxed as he leaned against the bars facing the raging unicorn, only turning his head slightly towards the soldier. "I'm a registered member of Equestria, you just recently labeled me as a monster. That's all."

That caused Quick's mind to do a double take. He stared at the back of the changeling who had willingly turned himself in. He had been wondering why he had turned himself in the entire time they had been together. He had just kept singing.

"What do you mean legal citizen?" He asked, wanting to know more, even if the changeling was lying.

"I mean what I said," Centipede pressed. "You made it illegal to be a changeling when not all of us all evil! In fact, almost none of us are! The attack on Canterlot was a last resort for that branch of the hive. They were starving."

"How do you know this if you weren't a part of the attack?!"

"Because like news with ponies, word spreads like wildfire among the changeling communities too," Centipede said as he faced the direction of his captor. "We are just like ponies, we just have different needs. We have entire communities spread across all over Equus. But thanks to one misunderstanding, it's suddenly illegal for us to exist! You don't want justice, for a misunderstanding with zero casualties no less, you want genocide!"

"I would never want an entire race to be killed over what happened in Canterlot!" Quick shouted, throwing off the reins to the wagon and facing the creator that was bad mouthing his race. "Killing an entire race for that actions of a couple hundred is ridiculous!"

Centipede just glared at the unicorn, not sure what to say to him. He knew that the last comment he had thrown at him had stepped over the line, even if it was true. Centipede could only hang his head as he said in a small voice, "Then tell me this...

"What happens to the changelings that you've captured?"


". . . And-and then, his cover drops! In the middle o' his party, he was scared as a rattler being caught in a hen house!" Insecta cried out in her thick country accent as she doubled over with laughter along with Crystal. Insecta had been telling Crystal stories for the past hour, trying to keep her mind off of the nightmare and it had worked. Both of them had no clue what time it was, and they didn't care, they were having too much fun.

"It was family only right?" Crystal asked, still struggling for breath. "No reviling himself to ponies right?"

"O' course!" Insecta wheezed out, her thick country accent still present. "You scare a changeling good enough his disguise is bound to fail 'im."

"I'll have to keep that in mind when I go on my first feeding," Crystal said, some of the humor slipping out of her voice. Crystal looked at Insecta with pleading eyes. "It's not as scary as it sounds, right? Your first feeding?"

"Oh, trust me, darling," Insecta said wrapping her hoof around crystal's neck in a friendly gesture. "It's gonna terrify ya. But, when you look back on it y'all will never be prouder of yourself in your life. You just gotta try to relax, and do what come naturally. That is the only way to actually succeed in a feeding."

"Oh, ok," Crystal said with more than just a little uncertainty. She was still nervous, but talking with Insecta really did help. "Thank you."

"Whatever fer?"

"Just," Crystal said as she tried to find the right words. "For comforting me about my first feeding. All of this has pretty nerve wracking. And it's nice to have a friendly face support you."

"Well," Insecta said, she cheeks sporting a light blue blush. "That's a mighty big compliment, comin' from a princess no less."

"Don't think of me as a princess please," Crystal begged. She had had enough of people calling her princess to last a lifetime. "Just think of me as a friend. Or better yet!" Crystal buzzed off of the nest bringing her hooves up to her face in excitement. "A little sister!"

Insecta was a bit taken aback by the thought of her princess being a little sister being her honorary little sister. But she couldn't say no to such a cute smile.

"Ah guess I'm a princess too now, huh?"