"--but Rrraarrriiiittttyyy!"
Sweetie Belle's shrill and plaintive cry managed not to break my concentration, and two books still hovered firmly in my magical grasp. I narrowed my eyes as I lifted them so I could see the bookshelf more clearly.
"No 'buts' about this, Sweetie Belle," Rarity declared. "I am simply beside myself over your behavior!"
I uttered a soft sigh. I had hoped to finish my task of reorganizing my bookshelf and set about my morning errands before the shit hit the fan. Not that I cared in what order my books sat on the shelf, but it was another exercise in managing multiple objects.
I heard a hoof-stomp. "You're not listening to me!" Sweetie cried.
"Don't stomp your hoof like that at me," Rarity snapped.
"Why not? You let Candy do it."
I sighed, though I had resolved not to get involved. The Crusaders had brought this on themselves. I stared at the bookshelf and tried to extend my magic to open a space and not drop the two books I still held aloft.
"Never mind what I let Candy do," said Rarity. "She's been acting far more mature than you lately."
"You're not being fair!"
"Sweetie Belle, you broke an outlaw out of jail!"
She did what now? She hadn't told me that part!
"But he wasn't really ... I mean ..." Sweetie trailed off. "Okay, officially, he kinda was, but by then, we--"
"Didn't the incident with chasing changelings teach you anything?" Rarity cried.
"But this wasn't the same! Troubleshoes hadn't really done anything wrong. He just got clumsy when he tried to watch the rodeos. He didn't understand what his cutie mark meant."
The books I pushed to the side to open the space wobbled but did not fall over. I admit that I still had one ear on the conversation. Not actually hard to do with swiveling pony ears.
"Which does nothing to excuse the fact that you and your Crusader friends tried to obtain your cutie marks by finding him when you did believe him to be an outlaw," said Rarity.
I shook my head as I slid a book into the space. Seriously, how did the Crusaders manage not to get themselves killed?
"Oh, um, yeah, that," Sweetie said in a low voice.
"Yes, that!" Rarity declared.
"But I did start having some doubts about it, especially when it started to rain and we, um, kinda got lost."
"In a strange forest! At night! And Applejack had no idea where you or your friends were! At least when you went off on that insane lark in the White Tail Woods, ponies knew where you were. You're extremely lucky Troubleshoes did turn out to be harmless."
I opened a second space on the bookshelf more easily despite cringing slightly. I actually felt a little sorry for Sweetie Belle. I never heard Rarity so angry.
"I'm sorry," Sweetie said in a tiny voice. "But it did turn out okay in the end."
"Your behavior is still inexcusable, and you're still grounded for a month."
Sweetie Belle gasped. "A whole month?!"
I shoved the remaining book onto the shelf, closing up the extra space with one last magical push that left nearly every book leaning slightly. I decided not to trust my now disrupted concentration and nudged it back with a hoof.
"B-but ... but the Gala ... it's next week," Sweetie said in a quavering voice.
"I am seriously reconsidering whether to take you or not."
My eyes widened. Oh, shit.
"WHAT?!"
"Don't yell, Sweetie, I--"
"You can't do that!"
"And don't tell me what I can or can't do."
"But--!"
"Enough! Go to your room!"
I remained standing by the shelf until I heard Sweetie's stomping hooves rise in volume and then fade. I flinched as she closed her door with a bone-jarring slam that knocked the books askew again.
I paused another few moments before venturing out of my room. I heard Rarity's own heavy hoof-falls in the back room. Avoiding her sounded like the best thing for--
"Candy!" Rarity suddenly snapped.
"Um, yes?" I called out.
"You need to go about your errands. Twilight has to cast those spells for you, and the market should have that thread I need."
"Okay, be right down." I levitated my saddlebags onto my barrel before trotting out of my room. I knew I should stay out of it, but I stopped by Sweetie's door and knocked gently.
"Go away!" Sweetie yelled before I could speak.
"Sweetie, it's me, Candy."
I heard a deep sigh. The latch glowed, and the door opened a crack. I pushed it fully open with a hoof and stepped inside. Sweetie sat scowling on her haunches on her bed, her fore-legs crossed. She turned her head towards me, her eyes glistening. "What do you want?" she said in a sharp but quavering voice.
"Just seeing if you're okay."
"No, I'm not." She took a deep breath and said in a softer voice, "But there's nothing you can do about it."
"I'm sorry about what happened." It sounded as lame to my ears as it had in my head, but nothing else seemed appropriate. The alternative was to take sides.
"Look at it this way," Sweetie said. "She'll probably take you to the Gala instead."
I wanted to go, but not like that. As I struggled to think of something to say, Rarity called out, "Candy! No more dawdling! Come down at once."
Sweetie Belle faced me. "You better go. You don't want her mad at you, too."
I nodded. "We'll talk later, okay?"
Sweetie managed a tiny smile. "Okay."
I cantered down the stairs. "Sorry for the delay," I said as I entered Rarity's workroom.
"It's fine," Rarity said in a lower but still tense voice. "Do you remember the specifications for the thread?"
I nodded. "Cerulean, check that it stands out slightly against blue sky, slightly stretchy, shiny but not flashy, and check for stray strands that show the weave is inferior."
"Good. Perhaps something will go right this morning."
"Um, yeah, I kinda heard your, uh, discussion with Sweetie Belle." When Rarity didn't reply, I asked in a tentative voice, "Are you really thinking of not taking her to the Gala?"
"It would allow you to go in her stead."
My eyes widened, and I nearly recoiled before I could catch myself.
Rarity shook her head. "Forget I said that. That was ... thoughtless. Not that I wouldn't love to see you in that dress again. With a few accessories, it would be perfect for the Gala."
I smiled. The dress she had created for me for the summit had been on my mind recently. I had carefully stowed it in my closet when I had first moved in. As much as I trusted her fashion sense, I really didn't want to see the dress altered. "Thank you, but ... well ... one thing I was afraid of when you started fostering me was that Sweetie Belle would see me competing for your attention."
"Yes, you're right." Rarity sighed. "I really don't want to deny her something I had promised her. I simply wish she hadn't put me in this position. I can't seem to get her to realize how concerned I am for her safety."
"Well, didn't she say it worked out in the end? Okay, yeah, all Sweetie told me about it at first was the bit about helping that stallion figure out what his cutie mark meant. I didn't even know something like that could happen."
"Nor did I," Rarity said in a soft voice.
"She pretty much gushed over it. I think she's even proud of it. I mean, yeah, she did something dumb, but this whole cutie mark thing is supposed to be important, right? So maybe by helping this pony, she--"
"You've made your point," Rarity said. "Now go about your errands. Please."
Some things didn't change across worlds or species, and that included a mother's "end of discussion" tone. I headed out without another word.
The pendant glowed as Twilight worked her magic while we stood in the castle library. A flicker of energy briefly enveloped my body, my fur and hair feeling like they were standing on end before it dissipated. Twilight lifted her head and smiled. "There! The shield is in place."
I glanced down as the residual glow faded. "So how does it work?"
"It will detect an incoming violent blow and activate a shield around you that will absorb it," Twilight explained. "But it won't ward against a softer touch, so you don't have to worry about it activating when you're hugged or something like that."
I had indeed entertained the notion that I would be walking around with a big energy bubble around me, much like the protection field used on my pendant when I was in the hospital. While I was happy not to look like I was inside a giant hamster-ball, I would have liked some sign that it was active. "So, um, are you sure this will work?"
"Positive," said Twilight. "I tested it thoroughly before you arrived."
Just as she spoke, Spike waddled into the chamber, covered in cushions strapped to every part of his body, forcing his arms out straight. "Does that mean I can take this off?" came his muffled voice from behind a protective face mask.
I placed a hoof over my mouth and tried not to giggle.
Twilight blushed. "Oops!" Her horn glowed, and Spike's protections flew off and into a neat pile in a far corner. "Sorry about that."
"Thanks," said Spike. "But, yeah, Candy, no worries at all. It worked perfectly." His eyes slid to the side as he added in a lower voice, "Once she worked out a few problems."
That explained the Spike-sized hole I had seen in one of the windows on my way in.
"These spells really are more of a precaution than anything else," said Twilight. "It's unlikely that Sevfivtoo will get close to you even if she does attempt to enter Ponyville."
"Why's that?"
"I've placed wards around the periphery of Ponyville to detect the approach of strong magical beings. It can't detect ordinary drones, but a changeling of Sevfivtoo's ability will stand out easily, regardless of what illusions she can cast."
"Twilight, do you have any idea what to do about that changeling?" I still resisted calling it by name. I preferred it remain a nameless monster, as that made it easier to deal with.
Before Twilight could respond, a soft gong-like sound echoed through the castle. "Spike, could you see who's at the front door?"
"Will do," said Spike as he headed away.
"The front door?" I asked.
"Yes, it chimes when somepony other than my close friends arrive," said Twilight. "Anyway, no, I haven't had a chance to make any headway. I've been more focused on unraveling the enigma of Starswirl and the pendant."
I quelled my initial response, as I didn't want to tell the Princess of Magic how to do her job. I tried to roll with it instead. "Have you found anything about that, then?"
"Only a new approach to take." She turned towards the table where several books lay. "The problem is that Starswirl didn't keep a journal of what he did during the time period when he created the pendant, but perhaps his colleagues, peers, and friends did." She picked up the topmost book. Its yellowed pages, held in a binding riddled with tiny cracks, crinkled softly as Twilight carefully opened the book. "I'm hoping to find somepony in whom he confided a key detail."
"Where did you get those books?" I asked. "I don't recall seeing any that old here before."
She closed the book and set it down gently. "I had them rushed from the Canterlot archives." She sighed. "Though I don't like the idea of finding something in them that Princess Celestia or Princess Luna didn't already know."
"Huh? I don't understand."
"Starswirl was very good friends with them," Twilight said. "That is, until he returned from the sabbatical he supposedly took during which I believe he was really crafting the pendant. Princess Celestia said he became withdrawn and defensive for a while after that, and it strained their friendship. It got better in time, but they never learned what had disturbed him so."
I actually understood that. I sometimes had confided things in Michelle that I hadn't dared tell my mother.
Twilight slowly smiled. "Anyway, I shouldn't make assumptions, and I shouldn't keep you if you have other errands to run."
"It's okay." I honestly had no idea what I had expected, but I felt a vague sense of disappointment. I wanted to prod her into doing more to help Michelle manifest, but I didn't want to seem whiny. "But, yeah, I guess I should get going."
Spike stepped into the room, frowning slightly.
"Who was at the door, Spike?" Twilight asked.
"It's Matilda," Spike said. "She's waiting for you in the council room."
Twilight gave him a surprised look. "Matilda? Really?"
"Who's Matilda?" I asked.
"A friend who's getting married in another month or so, but I'm sure it's not about that."
"Oh, yes, it is," Spike muttered.
"Does she absolutely need to talk to me about it now?" She gestured towards the pile of old books. "I have a lot of reading to do."
"Trust me, you're going to want to talk to her."
Twilight sighed. "All right. Candy, would you like to come along so you can meet her?"
While I didn't want to delay my errand for Rarity -- especially considering her mood -- the council room was on the way out of the castle. "Sure."
Twilight smiled and trotted towards the door. "You coming along, Spike?"
Spike shook his head. "Nope. I can hear you yelling from here."
Twilight chuckled. "Don't be silly, Spike. What could she possibly tell me that would make me yell?"
"You want to invite a WHAT to the wedding?!" Twilight yelled.
Matilda was not a pony but a donkey. She was also insane, at least from my perspective. In Twilight's defense, not only would I have yelled, I wanted to yell right along with her.
"A changeling," said Matilda. "Cranky said not to bother you about this, Princess, but I thought it best to check."
"Why in Equestria would you want a changeling at the wedding?!" Twilight cried.
"Why wouldn't I want a dear friend at the wedding?"
"What? A friend??"
"Yes, Kevin has been a very good friend of my family for several years now."
Twilight stared. "This ... this is a joke, right?"
If it was a joke, I didn't find it the least bit funny. "Changelings don't have regular names," I said in a curt voice. "Just numbers."
Matilda smiled. "Well, to be honest, his full name is Kayfivsevate, but he prefers 'Kevin'."
This was too surreal even by Equestrian standards. I knew I should keep my mouth shut, but emotion overruled rationality. "Twilight, you're not really going to let this happen, are you?"
"Young lady," said Matilda. "Perhaps this is best left to adults to work out."
"Matilda ..." Twilight began.
"Excuse me, but I don't think so!" I snapped. "You're not the one with a friend who was killed by one of those things!"
Matilda gasped and recoiled. "What are you saying?? D-do you seriously believe Kevin would--"
"I sure as Tartarus don't want to find out."
Matilda frowned and stepped up to me. "Kindly be careful of your language. I may not be your mother, but--"
Twilight interrupted my retort when her horn glowed, suffusing both Matilda and I in her magic. Twilight picked us up, separated us from one another, and placed us gently back down. "Candy! Matilda! Enough! Will everypony please calm down?"
"I'm sorry, Twilight," I said, my voice still terse. "With everything that's happened the past few days, I'm a little on edge."
"I know," said Twilight. "But nothing is going to be solved by yelling at each other. I'm sorry I instigated that myself earlier."
"I'm also sorry, Princess," said Matilda. "I had hoped that the changeling scare was over since the summit has come and gone."
"There's been a lot more going on that you don't know about."
Matilda turned her gaze towards me. "I'm sorry to hear about your friend," she said in a contrite voice. "But Kevin truly would do nothing of the sort."
I refrained from snapping off another irritated retort long enough for Twilight to turn to Matilda and say, "I'm really sorry, but I have to ask. Are you sure you're not being influenced in any way by this changeling?"
"Please, Princess, call him Kevin."
"Kevin, then. Is there any chance he may simply be feeding off you?"
Matilda smiled. "If he is taking in any emotions from me, they're freely given due to our friendship. If it helps any, except when I first met him, he's never appeared to me in anything but his real form."
I frowned. The memory of confronting Sevfivtoo returned to me in sharp detail. I shivered as I recalled the coldness of its eyes and that indifferent stare.
"Candy is right in that a changeling did kill her friend," Twilight said. "And it's still loose somewhere in the vicinity of Ponyville. So you can understand why we're a little hesitant."
A little hesitant? Why wasn't Twilight just outright denying Matilda's request? This was a goddamned no-brainer. I didn't need to be an alicorn princess to figure that out.
"You really wouldn't be so worried about him if you knew him," said Matilda.
"Just how did you get to know him, if I may ask?" said Twilight.
"He was one of the changelings who arrived during the initial attempt to, ah, invade Canterlot," Matilda explained. "He told me he wasn't very happy with the idea in the first place. When you and your friends began fighting the changelings to try to get to the Elements of Harmony, he was sure this meant the invasion was doomed. He left Canterlot and hid in the woods for a while. Then when the invasion did fail, he decided to travel about Equestria and find a place for himself."
Twilight's mouth fell open. "He ... he traveled all over Equestria?"
"Oh, yes, indeed. I met him while visiting some relatives in Baltimare."
"And nopony ever caught him?" I blurted.
"Well, nopony quite was looking for him, dear," said Matilda.
I just stared and muttered, "I don't believe this."
"I don't understand," Twilight said. "He's not tied to the hive? To Chrysalis?"
Matilda's smile became uneasy. "He hasn't had a lot of, ah, pleasant things to say about life in the hive. Even less so about Chrysalis. I suspect he was looking for an excuse to set out on his own."
"But that's not how changelings are supposed to operate!" I cried. I looked at Twilight. "Right?"
"It's like I said before, Candy, our knowledge of them is limited," Twilight said.
"Cherry and I have had more knowledge about them than we care to!"
"I know. But maybe Matilda is right and not all of them are like that."
My mouth fell open. "You can't be serious!"
Matilda stepped up to us. "If you could meet Kevin, you would see for yourselves what a nice fellow he is."
"No," I said.
"Candy, please," Twilight began.
I stomped a hoof. "Oh, come on, Twilight! Didn't we just finish casting protection spells on me because of one of them?"
"One of them. And as the Princess of Friendship, I have to consider--"
"You already tried that and look what happened at the summit," I muttered.
Twilight frowned. "That was uncalled for. Please, stop acting so hostile."
My ears flattened as the urge rose to retort that she wasn't my mother so she couldn't tell me what to do. That I thought of Rarity in that moment secured my silence better than any sense of propriety had.
I also quelled the urge to apologize despite seeing the brief but obviously hurt look in her eyes. I had not meant to throw the summit in her face, but I felt I had a right to be angry.
Twilight stepped up to me, and I tried not to glare at her. "Candy, I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize your safety, or the safety of anypony else. Also consider that this is an opportunity to find out more about the changelings. It could help us better protect you and find Sevfivtoo."
"Excuse me, Princess," Matilda said. "Did you say 'Sevfivtoo'?"
Twilight turned towards her. "Yes, I did."
"I remember Kevin mentioning that name."
My frown deepened.
Twilight gasped. "Kevin knows her?"
"Mostly in passing," said Matilda. "Like Chrysalis, he didn't have a lot of nice things to say about her."
"Then this is a perfect opportunity!" Twilight said. "Candy, surely you can see that for yourself."
I clenched my teeth. She was trying to appeal to my intellect, and had I been more emotionally removed from the situation, or had my day not already sucked, it would have likely worked. "Yeah, fine," I muttered as I turned away. "Do what you want. Just leave me out of it."
"But this could benefit you as well," Twilight said as I trotted out of the room. "Candy, wait!"
"I have errands to run!" I shouted as I broke into a gallop.
I uttered a dramatic sigh and released my hold over the thread spool, letting it drop unceremoniously to the table. "No, this isn't right either!"
The merchant pony sighed, and his eyes twitched as if he wanted to roll them but was doing his best not to. "What's wrong with this one, Miss?" he said in a voice somewhere between boredom and irritation.
"It's the right color, the right shine, but not stretchy enough. The last one was stretchy but too shiny. And the one before that had the right color and stretchiness and shininess but was too frayed. Seriously, do I have to repeat the specifications again?"
"I swear, Miss, you're as bad as Rarity."
"I'll take that as a compliment." I pushed the offending thread spool towards him with magic. "Now get me the right one."
The merchant swept up the spool in a fore-hoof. "Fine. Wait here."
"All I've been doing is waiting," I muttered.
The stallion narrowed his eyes and muttered something about "lippy teenagers" before disappearing into his tent.
I sighed and lowered my head. While it felt nice to let off some steam, it battled the guilt incurred by my abuse of the merchant. Worse, I had been holding up the line. Well, a line of one, not including myself, but still. The pony behind me -- a green earth mare with ropey pale red hair -- must have been the most patient pony in Equestria, as she had said not a word nor made the least noise of exasperation. Any time I glanced at her, she wore the same serene smile.
I turned towards her. "Um, hey, sorry about keeping you waiting. You must be getting tired of hearing me complain."
Her smile widened. "Oh, no worries, it's all groovy. I've been enjoying how the interleaving of our auras is really energizing my chakras."
I blinked. "I ... um, okay ... what??"
"You've got, like, an authentically radical vibe. So blissfully down to earth, so energetically grounded, yet so righteously exotic and fresh. It's totally sending me."
That had been either a greeting, a compliment, or a proposition, and I had no idea which was more likely. Or she represented some obscure facet of Equestrian culture I had yet to read about. Or she was insane, and my patience for insane ponies had worn thin.
Before I could say a word, she plowed on. "Even the disturbances I sense in your energy flow I can totally dig. Like, your groove is really aligned the cosmos."
I sighed. "Look, um, no offense, but I have no idea what you're talking about."
Her eyes widened slightly. "Oh, wow, you've got some negative vibes impeding your chakras. I can see why you're feeling a bit bummed out."
"Um, yeah, we'll go with that." I caught a flicker of thankfully familiar yellow-and-pink out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and called out, "Fluttershy! Hi! Over here!"
"Hello, Candy," Fluttershy said with a smile as she trotted over to us. "I see you've met my friend Tree Hugger."
I stared. "Tree ... Hugger?"
"Blessings," said Tree Hugger. She turned towards Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, you never told me Candy really digs the groove of the cosmos."
"What does that even ... Er, wait, you know my name?"
"She told me all about you. Well, except the most righteous part."
When I gave Fluttershy a helpless look, she blushed faintly. "I, um, decided to let you talk about your origins if you really wanted to."
The last thing I needed was this pony trying to figure out how my alien "vibe" fit into her "groove" and whether it messed with her "chakras" or not. Had Zecora not already set the precedent for a pony sensing I was something other than I appeared, I might have been more alarmed than annoyed.
"I met her while viewing the Breezies," said Fluttershy. "She's the friend I told you about that I'm taking to the Gala."
"Looking forward to it," Tree Hugger said, "I'm getting a really powerful vibe that it's going to be totally righteous. Your cosmic groove would really fit in, Candy."
"Ah, well ..." Fluttershy began.
"I'm not going," I said in a sharper voice than intended.
Tree Hugger's ears drew back slightly. "Bummer."
"Ahem," said the merchant's voice behind me. "Miss?"
I turned around. He pushed a spool of thread towards me. I grabbed it in my magic and went through my checks as quickly as possible, nearly snapping off a piece of thread as I drew it taut and held it up to the light. "Finally." I plopped it in my saddlebag and levitated a number of bits onto the table. I spun around to face the others. "Well, it's been, uh, radical, I guess."
"Totally!" Tree Hugger said, smiling.
"Uh, right, but I have to get going. See you later."
"Um, bye," Fluttershy said in an uncertain voice.
"Have a groovy day," said Tree Hugger.
I sincerely doubted I would.