//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: A Changeling Heart 
// by Rocket Lawn Chair 
//------------------------------//


***



The tranquility of the Canterlot Castle gardens was shattered by a terrified cry, coming from the open window of the royal bedchamber. As if it was a signal, the rest of the night came to life in irritation. Crickets chirruped in the bushes. Frogs croaked from their comfortable lilly pads. Swans stirred from their sleep, craning their necks toward the source of the commotion. The two guards patrolling the garden simply looked at each other and sighed. “It happened again,” muttered one.

Princess Twilight Sparkle rose from her bed, very stricken, quite pale, her sweaty mane clinging against the side of her cheeks, her pupils zipping about like moths around a flame. Even though the summer night breeze was mild, it felt terribly icy against her damp, clammy skin. She rushed out onto the veranda and nearly vomited over the railing.

This was her routine now. She’d gone through the motions so many times that she could do them in her sleep, if she could get any sleep to begin with. She’d been having persistent nightmares for nearly two weeks, and each one seemed to be worse than the last. Her shrieks would wake Celestia, who would then try to console Twilight until she returned to sleep. But Celestia’s reassurances were becoming less potent with each sleepless night Twilight endured. Not even her sister, Luna, Princess of Night and Dreams, could make any account of the nightmares, despite her constant pressure to know Twilight’s mind.

“Twilight? Are you alright, my dear? Was it worse tonight?”

Twilight couldn’t stand the nightmares, how they dug into her mind like daggers, haunting her thoughts  the following day, only to have them return the next night. She felt irritated at Luna for questioning her so intimately about her dreams. She felt resentful of herself for keeping Celestia awake at night. She didn’t want to admit that the nightmares were only the surface of the problem. If she were honest, the nightmares were more of a distraction from what was really cutting into her mind. 

“I’ll be alright, Celly. Just need some fresh air.”

She wasn’t, and she didn’t, but she made her reply convincing enough. She thought she needed to keep Celestia in the dark more than she needed the truth.

When she tried returning to bed, she simply couldn’t find harmony with the sensations around her. The clock on the wall ticked out of rhythm with her heartbeats. The moonlight was a shade of pale blue brighter than what her bloodshot eyes could handle. The pillows felt like hot sacks of sand against her face, Celestia’s caress felt icy against her back, and now their adopted daughter, Alya, was sleeping in their room because she was afraid of monsters. 

This most recent development made Twilight more than ever want to sleep elsewhere.

For the past few nights she had made up some excuse to leave the room, some benign little reasons like needing to step out to the garden to stretch her legs, or jaunt down to the library for some late-night reading to calm her mind. 

Each time she had woken up in the library somehow, sprawled out over a couch beneath a pile of books in the “Parenting” section, so tonight she decided to try a new venue.

“I’m feeling kinda hungry,” she told Celestia, shivering as Celestia’s cold hoof rubbed her shoulder. “I may hop down to the kitchens for a snack.”

She stood up to leave without turning back. Behind her she could hear Celestia soothing Alya with a lullaby.


“You’re up in the clouds so high,
Your smile goes floating by,
Good night, my dear, sleep tight,
Float far into the night….”


Twilight breathed several heavy and slow breaths as she left the room, then she made her way towards the kitchens. As she walked, her mind brooded heavily on the lullaby Celestia had sung. Twilight herself used to sing it.

Before she had traversed two hallways, it suddenly occurred to her that the kitchens may actually be in the opposite direction, so she turned around. It was extremely late, after all, and it wasn’t her responsibility to keep an entire ground plan of Canterlot Castle inside her head at every moment.  She began to trot back from where she'd come, to where she supposed the kitchens were.

At night the halls of Canterlot can be a complete maze of dark corridors with suspiciously similar-looking suits of armor, as if some sinister interior decorator intended for his labyrinth of few landmarks to mystify ponies until escape became hopeless. During the day there was always a castle servant cleaning the draperies of a nearby window, or something like that, and they’d be happy to offer some friendly directions. But now there was only the silvery moonlight to guide Twilight, and the suits of armor certainly didn’t seem to be in the friendly direction-giving mood. All it took was a little left turn here, then a familiar suit of armor that she had already passed three times, and before long Twilight found herself completely lost.

Twilight's breath hitched and her chest quivered. It was terribly late. Her mind was terribly frazzled. Her hooves were terribly shaky and clammy. Her past two weeks had gone terribly. Under any other circumstances she would know these halls like the back of her hoof. Tonight, however, was a special breed of derangement. 

After screaming at the top of her lungs into the empty halls of Canterlot Castle, Twilight Sparkle sat down and cried. It had been a while since she’d had a good cry, and that realization made her cry even harder. Of course it wouldn’t look good to suddenly break down in front of the nobleponies during some important state meeting. All the newspapers and tabloids in Equestria would eat her up if they caught her crying in public under the current circumstances. And she didn’t want to cry it out in front of Celestia either, and risk letting her know how she truly felt about their daughter. For starters, she didn’t believe Alya even was their daughter, at least, not anymore.

For finishers, their daughter was a changeling. 

Twilight sobbed for several minutes, huddled up against an alcove in the wall with a window at her back. She lifted her head when she suddenly heard hoofsteps rapidly approaching down the hallway. If there is one thing that empty labyrinthine hallways are good for, it's carrying sounds for miles. Twilight heard the hoofsteps nearly thirty seconds before actually seeing the pony who created them.

Her sister-in-law burst into view at the end of the hallway, a magical orb of pale blue light floating above and a little behind her head. 

“What’s the matter? I came the moment I heard you scream!”

Her sister-in-law, Princess Luna, sounded anxious, but her demeanor appeared calm as ever. Twilight sometimes wondered if her sister’s lack of outward emotion was a common trait among ponies over a thousand years ago. After all, Luna had, in a sense, recently returned from a different time altogether. 

“I’m alright, Luna, don’t worry about me.” Twilight swallowed. Her own voice sounded frail, like a breath could topple it.

“Are you hurt? Why are you wandering the halls in the middle of the night?”

“I was….hungry…” She almost wanted to believe it, too.

Twilight sniffed and chuckled weakly. Then she stood to her hooves, brushed the tears away while trying to make it look like she was just zealously wiping her nose, but it was somewhat pointless because the next second she started crying again. Her tears were hot, seething with the rage she’d buried deep within herself over the past few weeks. And now Luna had to come in to ruin her private cry. 

“Oh, sister, what’s wrong? Shh, tell me what’s bothering you…..” said Luna as sweetly and hopefully as she could. She placed a wing gently over Twilight’s back.

“I’m fine,” insisted Twilight, pushing away Luna’s wing. “It was just another bad dream.” She gulped at the air, trying to get control of her breaths and press her rage further down inside her. Gradually her tears subsided. “I’d like to get to the kitchen, maybe relax over a cup of tea or some warm milk.”

“Of course, Twilight.” Luna hesitated, mentally calculating the safety of her next move, then cautiously offered her wing to Twilight once more. 

Once more Twilight shoved it away. She walked to the edge of the bubble of light cast by Luna’s floating orb and started walking down the corridor. 

Luna gently patted Twilight’s shoulder.

“Actually, the kitchen is this way,” she said, walking to the opposite end of the hall. “Follow me.”

Twilight stood dumbly, for it hadn’t occurred to her to actually go to the kitchen. Her whole plan, before Luna ruined it all, was to find another hall to get lost in, hopefully one deep inside the castle, at least deep enough to where her sobs couldn’t be heard by anypony, and then recommence feeling sorry for herself. She didn’t see any decent way of getting away from Luna now, though. 

Reluctantly, she followed.