Chapter 5
Exposed
Grey whistled a happy tune as he sauntered down the street of canterlot, bound for the high school. Today was the day he did it: he was going to ask Applejack out on a date! He would meet her as she was leaving school and ask her to dinner. Now, as a changeling, Grey has had to charm his way into the bedroom of many women, mostly to get necessary information. But this time, there were no tricks, he just wanted to spend time with her. So, he leaned against Applejack’s car in the parking lot, and waited for her to arrive. He didn’t know how long he waited, staring off into space, but he was brought back to earth by the smell of smoke. He stood up and looked to the school to find it consumed by flames.
Grey bounded toward the school, just about to make it to one of the windows, when the entire wall exploded, sending him flying back. He looked up to see Silver, stepping out of the flames, with Applejack’s neck in his hand. A rage filled Grey like never before. “You!” he shouted, transforming into a bear and running toward silver, with intent to maul the crystal guard to death. Grey was simply knocked aside.
Silver stared down at him, holding up the limp body of applejack. “This is your fault, changeling,” he said. “Did you really think you could escape me forever? That you could just run from what you are?” Silver dropped her and opened his palm in Grey’s direction. “Now…Die!” a ball of magical energy formed in his hand, and he fired it at Grey.
Grey reached for Applejack as the energy impacted him. “No!” he shouted as darkness consumed him.
“Gah!” Grey shouted, shooting up in his bed in a cold sweat. He put his hand to his chest to still his heartbeat. After a moment, he got up from his bed and walked to the bathroom. He needed a shower.
After washing himself to calm his nerves, he looked in the mirror to find that he was in his changeling form. He froze as he realized how easy it would’ve been for him to be discovered, had he awoken an hour later. He was about to change back, but stopped when he remembered that he had never seen himself in this form, at least not in this world. Everyone was still asleep, so a closer inspection wouldn’t hurt. Pitch black skin, that was a given, along with the large bug-like blue eyes. Serrated teeth, wings just big enough to carry him over short distances. Everything he had as a pony, he had in this new form.
Grey quickly returned to his human form when he heard footsteps coming from down the hall. A knock at the bathroom door. “Grey?” asked Applejack, her voice groggy, having just awoken. “You alright in there, partner?”
Grey sighed. “Yeah,” he said. “Bad dream. Needed a shower. I’m fine, though.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He heard Applejack mumble “okay” before the sound of her footsteps grew quieter as she returned to her room. Grey was lucky it was as early as it was. Had Applejack not been so tired, she would’ve instantly knew something was up and pressed him. Grey sighed. Perhaps he should return to bed as well.
The morning sun crept into Silver’s jail cell through the barred window above him. But Silver had not slept that night. Rather, Silver was meditating. He could feel his magic inside of him, it was only a matter of reaching it. If he could just access it for a minute or two. Silver’s eyes finally opened and he extended his hands. Magic spurted from his palms like a partly clogged faucet, gathering in midair in front of him. The magic took on the shape of a mirror, and on the other side was Princess Cadance. “Silver?” she asked. “Silver Bullet, is that you?”
“My lady, Princess,” said Silver, his voice strained from holding the spell. “I am contacting you from the other side of the mirror. I apologize for any worry I may have caused.”
“It is good to see you still live, Silver,” said Cadance. “But why have you not returned?”
“I would if I could, but after I eliminated the changeling spy, I was apprehended by the authorities of this world. I was reckless in my anger, I caused damage to one of their cities, and now they suspect me of terrorism. And without the ability to control my magic, I cannot escape. It may be a while before I am able to return, but do not send anyone after me. We cannot let this become more complicated than it already is.”
Cadance sighed. “Very well. Just make sure you escape. You’re one of our best, and with recent developments I have been made aware of, I believe your help is going to be invaluable in the near future.”
Silver nodded. “I will get out of this, Princess. I’ve broken out of worse prisons than this.”
“One last thing,” Cadance said. “Are you sure you eliminated the changeling?”
“Reasonably.”
Cadance nodded. “Then please, leave it at that.”
Silver hesitated for a moment before bowing his head. “By your order, my princess.” With that, the spell dispersed.
Grey let out a yawn as he made his way down the steps and into the kitchen. There, Granny Smith was fixing up pancakes for breakfast, with the rest of the family waiting at the table. “Morning, all,” grey said with a tired smile as he took his seat.
“Mornin, Grey,” said Applebloom. Big Mac gave a nod and a friendly grunt as his greeting.
“Yeah, g’mornin,” said Applejack, who was trying to hide the fact that she was avoiding his gaze. Grey sighed lightly. Ever since their hug a few days ago, Applejack had been acting this way. She wasn’t avoiding him outright, but he was lucky if she could look him in the eye for more than a few seconds before coming up with an excuse to leave. It’s not that Gray couldn’t put his finger on why that event triggered this behavior, but was it general embarrassment for venting her emotions in such a way, or did she perhaps…?
Grey was broken from his thoughts by Applebloom prodded him in the shoulder with her fork. “Ya listenin, Grey?” she asked.
“Uh, sorry, I just zoned out for a minute there,” Grey said with a chuckle. “What were we talking about again?”
“Plans for the day,” Granny said. “No work needs doin, for once, and it’s the weekend, so Applejack’s off from school. I say we have a good ol’ fashioned family day. But what to do?”
“Ooh, ooh!” Said Applebloom, who had her hand raised. “How about the zoo? I hear they got lotsa new animals.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” said Granny, who looked over to the two older siblings. “How about ya’ll?”
“Oh,” said Applejack, who looked up from her pancake. “Uh, the zoo sounds like a great idea.”
“Eeyup,” chimed in Big Macintosh.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” said Grey.
“Then the zoo it is,” said Granny.
“Awesome!” proclaimed Applebloom, who went back to her breakfast.
Grey, who had already finished his, stood from the table. “Well, I suppose I should get ready,” he said, walking back up the stairs while whistling a tune. Something like this was just what he needed to get his mind off of last night.
“And Grey was just there, waiting for you?” Asked Sunset.
“Indeed he was,” replied Rarity, who put down her fork. The two were enjoying their day off by hanging out at the local café. Their conversation hadn’t began on this Bechdel-test-breaking subject, but seeing as how it had started on the surprisingly numerous things bacon does NOT go together with, the author felt feminism would forgive him skipping a paragraph or two.
“And that didn’t raise any eyebrows?” Sunset asked.
“Oh sure, it does now, but I was just so swept up in the energy, I didn’t even think about it until after he left.”
Sunset’s brows furrowed, her hand clasping her chin. “Something wrong, dear?” Rarity asked.
“Just thinking, that’s all. Maybe-“Sunset was broken from her thoughts by her diary giving off a familiar signal. Twilight was contacting her. Sunset reached into her bag and pulled out the diary, setting her food aside to make room for it.
“Do you just carry that thing everywhere?” asked Rarity.
Sunset let out a sharp “shhh!” as she opened the book. Sunset and Rarity watched the pages as the words magically appeared.
Sunset, we may have a problem. My brother just informed me that a changeling was found in the crystal empire about a month ago. The changeling escaped into your world, and one of Shining’s knights gave chase. We just heard back from him, and he thinks he got him, but Shining still has his doubts. I just wanted to know if anything out of the ordinary has been happening lately.
Rarity and Sunset looked up at each other. Sunset looked worried, while Rarity was more confused than anything else. “A changeling?” she asked.
“Trouble,” was Sunset’s answer before she grabbed a pen and returned to the book. As a matter of act, something has happened. Not jumping to any conclusions, but I’m gonna look into it. I’ll write you back as soon as I find something.
Sunset closed the book and returned it to her bag. Sunset rose from her seat and laid a handful of dollars on the table for the meal. Rarity rose with her. “So, you think that Grey might be one of these changeling things?”
“I intend to find out.”