Snap Out Of It
SNAP OUT OF IT
The morning after Azalea’s date, the pleasant fuzzy feelings of seeing her happy have faded away in the harsh light of day. It doesn’t help that Rainbow Dash has summoned pretty much every pony who works for the weather team into the office, and we’ve had to bring in a bunch of extra chairs for the all-hooves-on-deck emergency in progress. Even Fluttershy showed up.
“Right!” says Rainbow Dash, bringing the small talk in the room to a halt. “Weather, schmeather. Today your job is to find Scootaloo, or at least any trace of where she went.”
“Uh... boss?” asks Blossom, raising a tentative hoof.
She’s ignored. “Alright, yesterday we covered most of the middle of town so today we’re going to focus more on the outskirts. If there’s even an orange feather laying out in a field somewhere I want to know about it.”
“Rainbow,” says Blossom with a bit more force.
Finally Dash has something else to fixate on besides her plan. She glares at Blossom with a look of aggression that does a barely passable job of concealing the worry underneath it. “What?”
Under the biting edge in her voice, Blossom’s confidence withers a bit. “It’s just—” she waves a vague hoof towards her own cheek, “—you’ve got red on you.”
Several of the other pegasi snicker and turn away. Nopony missed the sticky red patch, with a little purple and yellow at its edge, that’s staining her coat right below her cheekbone. Rainbow Dash turns away for a moment and rubs furiously at it. “Did I get it?” Nods all around. “Thanks. I went over to Twilight’s this morning and kinda got slapped in the face with a rainbow. Thought I’d gotten it all.
Oh gee. That explains everything. “So Twilight’s in on the hunt too?” I ask.
Rainbow Dash hesitates. “I kinda... didn’t mention this to her.” The room collectively groans. “Look, if we don’t have a lead by tonight I’ll bring her in on it. She’s got this whole other thing going on right now, even has a specialist on time spells crashing at her library while they figure it out. Real egghead stuff.”
“She’d still be helpful, though,” says Flitter.
“I know, I know,” says Dash. Then she sighs. “Thing is... I’m the one who let her down. Somehow. I don’t know why she ran off, but it’s my fault for missing the signs. Maybe it’s stupid, but it’s partly my mess and I’m going to be the one to clean it up.”
Blossom nods. “You’re right. That is stupid.”
I’m about to weigh in on Blossom’s side of the conversation when the office door opens up to reveal Kicky.
“Thanks for coming, Kicky. Grab a chair,” says Dash.
“Sorry I’m late. I wanted to do a quick loop around town and it took a bit longer than I thought it would.” She doesn’t come into the room, though. “Actually, could I borrow Cloud for a bit?”
Dash’s eyes go wide. “Did you find something?”
“Nothing that’s a sign of Scootaloo, sorry,” says Kicky. “Still, there’s something I want her to weigh in on.”
That grinding sound? Rainbow Dash’s teeth working out her frustration. “Fine. Cloudy, go see what clone-you found, but if it turns out to be at all related to Scoots I want to hear about it ASAP.”
I hop out of my chair, which is immediately claimed by another pegasus I don’t know very well, and follow Kicky up to the roof. “Grab your saddlebags and a cloud. We’ll need a decent hiding spot.”
Now more confused than ever, I go along with what she asks. Soon the two of us are pushing a thick tuft of cumulus out of town, following the main road. When we’re about a quarter mile from the point where the road splits off towards the Everfree Forest, Kicky slams on the brakes. “Okay, from here on out we’re in stealth mode. We’re just another cloud drift along in the breeze.”
“You want to let me in on what all this is about?” I ask. I get that she might feel like there’s stuff she doesn’t want to broadcast to every pony in town with wings, but I’d also like to know what I’m getting into.
“I’m only, like, seventy percent sure about this,” says Kicky as she burrows into the cloud. “For all I know, he might not even be there anymore.”
“Who? Where?” I am so lost in all this, and I don’t like it.
“Just keep an eye out. Blue unicorn stallion, hanging out right where the road forks. And if he is there, make sure he doesn’t see you.”
We dig into the cloud and with a few gentle flaps start flowing along with the breeze. At our leisurely pace it takes us a good ten minutes to cover the remaining distance. I try to wheedle more information out of Kicky, but every time I try to speak up she shushes me. Finally we’re over the spot Kicky wants and I chance a peek down.
There’s a pony down there, but not the one Kicky described. She’s a red earth pony, and looks like she could easily be Fire Brand’s cousin or even sister. Her way hotter cousin or sister. She’s got a worried look on her face and she begins to pace back and forth, limping a bit and favoring one of her forelegs, which has a bandage wrapped at the ankle.
“She’s hurt. We should help her,” I say, only to get a hoof shoved into my mouth for my trouble. When Kicky pulls it away I give her an incredulous glare. “Oh, come on. Forget this stallion of yours, this is a golden opportunity. Just think of how grateful she’ll be when two gorgeous young mares descend from the heavens and carry her off for some... hooves-on therapy.”
“No bucking kidding,” mutters Kicky. “Remember how I said seventy percent? Make it ninety-five. Now be quiet!”
And so begins what may go down as the greatest tragedy of our age as I’m forced to watch the mare below me pace back and forth looking absolutely delicious while my evil twin here forbids me from doing anything to remedy that. The torture goes on for a good twenty minutes and I’m about to ask her why we’re even here in the first place when my ears perk up. Somepony’s coming down the road heading towards Ponyville. Soon enough a green unicorn stallion with a streak of black in his blue mane enters my field of vision. Judging by the way he’s trying very hard and very unsuccessfully not to stare at the mare, I’m pretty sure he’s straight. The mare waves him over and says something I can’t make out. “Did you catch that?”
“I’m sure I can figure out the gist.” Kicky switches to a falsetto. “Oh, no, I was on my way back from the nymphomaniac convention when I tripped and sprained my hoof! How can I continue my career as an erotic masseuse now?”
I grin and drop the register of my voice to play the other part. “Well, you shouldn’t irritate it any more. Climb up on me and you can ride me as long as you want.”
Kicky gives a fake gasp and clasps her hooves to her chest. “Oh goodness! Thank Celestia a big, strapping stallion came by. I hope it won’t be too long, or too hard.”
We both chuckle like we’re back in grade school while the flirtation below continues. The mare tosses her mane and a few strands of it land on his back while she locks her eyes onto his. His go wide for a second, but then a vacant grin spreads over his face. “That lucky bastard.”
“Not really,” says Kicky. I’m about to ask her why when the mare gets to her hooves suddenly and turns. Not towards Ponyville, though. Towards the Everfree. “Just like I thought. You’re hungry aren’t you, scumbag?”
Whoa. There’s a growl rumbling away in the back of Kicky’s throat. “Ex-fillyfriend of yours?” I ask, even though I’m pretty sure I can guess the real reason she’s upset.
“She’s a changeling. Not a former one like me, either. Pretty bold of her to come this close to town looking for a snack.”
I frown. “I thought the Elements took care of them.”
“Not all of us,” says Kicky. “Remember how I told you Luna picked our brains for hidden caches, outposts, that kind of thing? Well there’s a cave in the Everfree we used to use as a staging area. It was empty when they checked it right after the invasion, but if there are marauding changelings looking for food around Ponyville, that’s where those things will probably be.”
There’s a degree of barely suppressed fury in her eyes that I don’t like the look of one bit. “So why did you drag me out here? Tell the Guard.”
“I wanted to be sure first. A whole division of the Guard would spook them from a mile away. I’m surprised they didn’t hear the two of us, frankly. You ponies can’t move quietly for the life of you, not like us. I guess you’ve never needed to learn.”
I sigh, not willing to rise to her bait. “Like we didn’t have enough to worry about already.”
“There’s more. And it has to do with the reason I didn’t want Rainbow Dash to know why I pulled you off the search.” She bites her lip. “If Scootaloo went into the Everfree when she left town... the cave’s where she would probably head, at least as a stopover. If she did and the others found her...” she doesn’t finish the sentence. She doesn’t really need to.
“Well then what the buck are we waiting for? Let’s go get her back!”
Opening up a hole in the cloud with a quick swipe, I jump through to chase after the couple below. Or that’s the idea, anyway, but I don’t get far before I feel a set of teeth chomping down on my tail and a hoof twisting my wing. It’s all I can do to stifle the yelp that would give the game away as Kicky yanks me back. “Thtop, Clow,” she manages despite the mouthful of tail. When I stop struggling, she spits it out and continues. “Not that easy. They could have dragged her somewhere else after they caught her. They’ve gotta be starving; hypnotising a stallion in broad daylight like that one just did is a desperation play. So if they have Scootaloo they’re probably...” she shudders, “...they’ll stretch her energy out until they’re sure they’ve wrung every drop they can. We have to play this smart, and we might not get another chance. That’s why I didn’t tell Rainbow. She’d be trying to beat the answers out of that drone right now, and the others would be long gone by the time she got any.”
“Fine, we’ll do this your way. What’s the plan?” I ask, taking another glance downwards. The mare’s lured the stallion along at a quick pace, and he cheerfully trots behind her like a feeble-minded puppy. In the distance, the dark forest looms.
“You’re going to follow them, quietly, and I’m going back for reinforcements. No matter what you see in there, don’t move on them until we meet up again. Changeling hives have plenty of back doors and we don’t know how many there are.”
“How are you going to find me in there?”
Kicky smiles and rifles through her bag, eventually pulling out a tiny pink gemstone. “I borrowed a little something from Star that’ll take care of that. Pretty much any unicorn that knows what they’re looking for should be able to hone in on this, once I’ve given them all the frequency information Star told me. Otherwise I’d follow them myself and send you to get the others. You up for this?”
“Do I have a choice?” I take the gem and fasten it under the clasp of my saddle bags. “Any tips?”
She ponders that for a moment. “She’ll be pretty focused on keeping a hold on her prey for the walk back. Just stick to the canopy and keep your distance. That stallion isn't in any state to be moving quietly, so you should be able to follow them by sound. Oh, and try not to get eaten by anything while you're in there. You know as well as I do there are way scarier things in that forest than a few drones."
"Sounds like fun," I mutter. To little avail as Kicky's already taken to the air and started to glide back towards town, her open wings balancing stealth and speed. Not that the changeling disguised as a mare is paying attention. Even from here I can see in the way she trots with a spring in her step how pleased she is with herself, the oblivious stallion far too deeply enthralled to question why he's being led into the one place every pony in their right mind is smart enough to avoid.
As I push my cloud along above them, the uncomfortable realization that I'm not all that different from him in that regard intrudes into my mind. But past identity issues aside, I do trust Kicky. And she certainly wasn't faking the hatred in her voice. So follow I do into the dark and foreboding woods.
It's a good thing the clumsy stallion crashes hopelessly through the underbrush. I've almost lost them before my eyes adjust to the low light, drifting between treetops and trying not to brush up against any of the vines or other flora that hangs in my path. I've heard far too many horror stories about things that live in here. The after-action reports some of the Long Patrol filed about all the nasty things a pony caught unawares could be devoured by, or worse. Or all the patrols that simply vanished in places like this without a trace.
Our slow-motion chase continues for what feels like the better part of an hour. Kicky must have picked up my trail by now and ended up somewhere behind me, but I can't hear any sign of her or the guards. If something happens, I'm on my own.
I'm so wrapped up in trying not to let my imagination get the better of me I almost miss noticing when the noise in front of me stops. Cautiously, I creep along in the last direction I heard anything from. Sure enough, half-covered by undergrowth that's been pushed aside, I find a wide crack in a rock formation leading down into yet-deeper blackness. Now there's nothing to do but wait for backup.
At least that's the original plan, before I catch the scent wafting out of the cave. It's damp and earthy as I would expect, but underneath that is something else. Something enticing. Something familiar.
I've smelled that smell before, I know I have. But for some reason I can't place it. Every time I get close, little flashes of the figure that was the source of it before, it slides away and just leaves a sticky, oily sensation where there should be clarity. The harder I try to grab at it, the more my head begins to hurt.
It's only when a trio of voices rouse me from my fragmented memories that I realize I've stepped inside the cave. The entrance is already several paces behind me, but I don’t remember deciding to walk in. Maybe if I get closer to whatever that smell is I’ll be able to remember...
“You’re so kind to bring me here to the hospital. I’m sure it’s just a sprain, though,” says a female voice from further inside the cave.
“My... my pleasure... to bring you here... here to... to the hospital. Is... are we in the right place? Wait... where are we? Who are you?” That must be the stallion, struggling to force words out through whatever the changelings are doing to him. Must be quite the mind-whammy if he thinks the inside of a cave is actually the bright and sterile waiting room of a hospital.
“Don’t worry, we’re in exactly the right place,” says the mare. Her voice takes on a bit of a pout. “It’s me, Scarlet. Don’t you remember your own marefriend? Don’t you remember how much you love me?”
“How much... of course I do, Scarlet. Of course I love you.”
‘Scarlet’ lets out a long moan. “Say it again.”
The dark tunnel is lit up with a flash of green light, wiping out what little progress I’ve made in adjusting my sight to the darkness, and a new female voice joins the two of theirs. “Welcome to Ponyville General Hospital! Do you need some... attention?”
Before the stallion can respond to the new voice, Scarlet lets out an angry hiss. “Back off, this one’s mine. You can have whatever’s left over when I’m finished. And really, the naughty nurse routine? Was sexy librarian not cliche enough?”
“Cut me a break. The filly’s barely keeping me going.” That sends a shudder down my spine. Looks like Kicky’s hunch was on the mark after all. Now if she’d just hurry up and get here. And that smell just won’t quit.
“Scarlet? What are you talking about? Maybe I should see a doctor too. My head... my head hurts so much...”
“Ignore her. I’ll make you feel better. Come over here and lay down. That’s it. No need to fight it. Just let all those pesky thoughts slip away and listen to the sound of my voice.”
“Eww! What is this stuff? It’s sticking all over my coat.”
“I said lay down. You’ll be safe. Just focus on your love for me. You love me, Box Spring. Just focus on how much you love me. How much you want to give that love to me until there’s nothing left.”
“My name’s Brussel Sprout, not Box Spring.”
“Whatever. Just get into the cocoon.”
“Come on!” whines the ‘nurse’s’ voice, “It’s pouring out of him! Share the wealth a little.”
“Go get your own if you’re so hungry.”
The second changeling must have given up, because I hear her retreat further into the cave. Who knows how deep it runs? I huddle up into a little alcove off the main tunnel and settle in to wait. Minutes tick by, or maybe hours. I’m having a hard time keeping track, and every time I try to focus that weird odor sends my minding twisting down dead ends. The only company I have in the darkness are the grunts and moans coming from whatever chamber lies around the bend in the tunnel. I don’t know exactly how changelings extract love from their victims, but evidently they find the process fairly enjoyable. But soon enough Scarlet’s been sated and even the sounds stop.
Boredom is the most dangerous enemy on a stakeout like this one, and I’m just wondering whether I should try to gather more intel on the changelings or wait outside the cave for Kicky to return when I feel the sharp point of a blade press into the small of my back.
Check that. Boredom is the second most dangerous enemy. “Don’t make a sound or I’ll gut you, you Faust-damned bug. Now turn around.” That’s a voice I know, although just about the last one I expected to hear inside of a changeling hive.
“Mom?” I comply with her demand to turn around, and sure enough hovering just above me with her sword at my throat is my mother of all ponies. “What are you doing here?”
“I might ask you the same question,” she replies. She pulls out a small hunk of crystal and presses it to my forehead. It flashes green. “It’s really you. Are you out here alone? Did you bring any backup?”
“I... no, it’s just me,” I reply. I’m too thrown by her showing up here and it just slips out. “Why aren’t you in Canterlot?”
Mom looks past me, checking up and down the main tunnel for anypony or anything that might be out there. “Not here. If I found you it’s just a matter of time before the changelings do too. Follow me.” She ascends with a few quiet flaps of her wings and slips into a dark hole above what I had believed to be a solid wall. At least that explains how she got the jump on me. I take off from the hard stone floor and follow her. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze, and I get the sensation that I’m descending deeper into the cave as we go, but after a hard ten minutes of wriggling along on my belly the tunnel ends in a little cubbyhole that’s large enough for us both to stand in. A glowing green crystal in the middle of the room provides enough light for us to see one another by, even as it casts odd shadows along the wall.
She puts her weapon down and starts to polish the blade. “What are you doing here, Cloud Kicker?”
All business. Why am I not surprised? “A filly went missing the other day. Orange pegasus named Scootaloo. I’m part of the search party, and I followed one of the changelings thinking she might be here.”
Mom ponders that for a moment, then nods. “She might be. They’ve been excited since yesterday, it might be because they brought back a meal.”
“And you didn’t think to, y’know, actually help her?”
“Just because I’m not rushing in without thinking like somepony I could name doesn’t mean I’m not helping her. I’ve been tracking this little cluster of drones since I left Ponyville three days ago, and reinforcements should be here in a few hours.”
“You were in Ponyville three days ago?” I ask. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She stops working on the blade and looks up at me. “We don’t share military intelligence with civilians. You know that.”
“I’m in the reserve!” I counter, although given how quick she is to shrug that off it’s clear she doesn’t consider there to be much of a difference. “You could have stopped by just because you wanted to see me. You’ve never even seen my house there.”
“I’m sure it’s very nice. Or at least as nice as one can afford on a weather pony salary.”
“Don’t start, Mom. I don’t care what you think.”
She has no immediate answer to that, so she just goes back to her work. We sit there in silence, and she just goes on polishing even after the blade’s already so clean it gleams in the dim light from the crystal. My ears twitch as I catch just the faintest whisper of words that aren’t meant for me.
“Did you say something?”
Mom won’t look up at me. “It’s nothing.”
“You might as well tell me. Not like we have much else to do until our backup shows.”
She thinks about that for a long time, so long I figure she’s just decided not to say anything. But then she does. “You used to care.”
“Huh?” I take a whiff of the air around us. “Hey, any idea what that smell is? It’s driving me crazy trying to remember where I’ve smelled it before.”
She smiles, but her eyes are a bit bloodshot when they meet mine. “Changelings aren’t very big on hygiene. We’re both going to need showers when we’re done here. But I’m more than happy to change the subject.”
That gets my train of thought back on track. It’s more important than anything else that I get her to elaborate on what she just said. “What do you mean I used to care?”
“Just what I said. Sometimes I look at you and all I can see is the little filly who wanted to do her best for her mother. But then one day, that little filly was gone and all that was left was anger.”
I scoff. “You weren’t exactly thrilled with me either, especially when I dropped out of the Guard. I’d never seen you yell like that before.”
I expect her to turn the accusation right back at me, and we’ll go through the same motions as we have a thousand times before. But she doesn’t. “I said a lot of things, and so many of them were things I shouldn’t have. I was angry too and... and I was scared.”
“Scared? You?”
“What mother wouldn’t be when her oldest daughter just suddenly stops loving her?”
I sit there in stunned silence while that sinks in, and Mom goes back to not looking at me. “I didn’t stop loving you. You thought... You think that’s why I dropped out of the Guard? Just to spite you?”
Mom nods. “I did. It felt personal. It’s taken me some very long talks with your Aunt Wind to get past that. I didn’t see any other reason that you would throw away all that training, and for what? I gave you everything I could, growing up. I wanted you to go into the Guard. Follow in my hoofsteps.”
“I’m not you though. I quit because I realized that I needed to be who I was, not just a copy of you.”
“I didn’t want you to be a copy of me. I just wanted you to be happy. I wanted you to grow into a life that was as happy as mine was, back then. I tried to give that to you the only way I knew how. And when you turned away from it, from me... well, I took it badly. This is a conversation we really should have had back then. If only I hadn’t been...”
“A stubborn bucking idiot?” I finish for her. “Seems to run in the family.” Her back shudders. “Mom? Are you... Mom, don’t cry.”
“I’m sorry I was such an awful mother, Cloud,” she gasps between sobs. “I’m sorry I’ve treated you so terribly instead of respecting you as an adult. You must hate me so much.”
It only takes two steps to get across the room and throw my forelegs around her, squeezing her tight. “I love you, Mom,” I whisper, fighting back tears of my own. My heart is pounding and my head is swimming. Letting all that pent up anger and frustration drain away is exhausting, and I want nothing more than to lay my head in her lap and just drift away.
“I’m so glad to hear that,” she whimpers, then sniffles and wipes her tears away. I back away enough to see her grinning ear to ear. “Everything’s going to be different now, I promise.”
It’s a promise I’m going to hold her to. We can rebuild everything, make up for lost time. Everything about this moment just feels right as the happiest smile I’ve felt in a long time creeps across my face.
And then the tip of a spear bursts out of her chest and it all come crashing down.
I can only gape as she stares back at me, the surprise fading in slow motion into a blank and lifeless stare. The spear retracts and without the support Mom teeters for a few horrible seconds before she collapses to the floor, revealing the murderer behind her.
“Wow,” says Kicky, “Aunt Wind’s going to have a field day when she hears about that.”
“You... you...” I can’t bring my mind to accept what I’ve just seen, not really. “Why?” is all I manage to get out.
“You can thank me later,” says Kicky. “I told you not to come in before we got here. If you hadn’t had that tracking gem on I’d never have found you. The others pulled Scootaloo out of her cocoon, now let’s WHOA!”
Fuelled by rage, I scoop up the sword the sword that Mom spent her last minutes in this world polishing this isn’t happening this can’t be happening not now not when it was all going so right and bring it down hard, trying to cleave my treacherous clone in half. She’s quick to block with her spear, but I still manage to nick her side and draw blood. “Why, Kicky? She loved you! She loved you more than me and just when I finally start to fix things you go and... and do this?”
“Cloudy, snap out of it. The air in here is totally saturated with pheromones. You must be able to smell them. You’ll feel better once you get out into the fresh air. Come on.”
“Why? So you can kill me too the instant I turn my back?”
Kicky’s eyes dart down to the floor for an instant and then back up to mine. “Look at her. Look down at the body.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Kicky groans. “Please, Cloudy. If you’ve ever trusted me at all, trust me now. I love Mom too. You know that.”
Slowly, keeping my distance from Kicky as best I can in the cramped little room, I let my eyes glance downwards for just an instant. Then the image registers and I do a double take back down at the remains laying at my hooves. The perforated husk of a changeling drone, green blood still seeping from the pair of extra holes Kicky punched in it with her spear. Something clatters to the ground, and it takes me a second to register that it’s my sword. I just stare until I feel a wing drape over my back. “I’m sorry, Cloud. There wasn’t any other way. I wasn’t going to let her shove you into a cocoon.”
“But... how? She knew things. She knew about me. About our family.”
“The swarm did its homework before I copied you. If we’d decided to take you out of play permanently I had to be able to play my part. Luckily you were more useful to us alive than dead and it never came to that.”
I have nothing else to say to that, and grudgingly follow Kicky back to the cave’s entrance. Stepping out even the low light of the Everfree is still enough to make me wince and shut my eyes until the burning pain passes by. When I’m able to see again, I notice a passed-out Scootaloo, her orange coat still tinted green with slime being checked over by a medic. Not too far away Bulwark is tying up the stallion from earlier with a length of rope.
“You don’t understand,” he pleads, twisting with futile efforts to escape the rope. “You have to go back. Scarlet is in there! They must still have her!”
“Sure she is, buddy,” Bulwark replies, hoisting the pony up onto his back for transport.
I furrow my brow at that, if only because focusing on something other than the image of a pony who looks exactly like me running my mother through with a spear is pretty much the only way I’m staying anywhere near together right now. “Does he not get what just happened?”
“Side effect of being fed on,” says Kicky, just as glad to have something new to talk about with me. “Unless the truth is shoved in the victim’s face, they tend to reject the idea that somepony was actually a changeling on a subconscious level. It turns into a major blind spot for them no matter how much evidence piles up.”
“Huh,” I say, “that sounds awful. Glad it didn’t happen to me too.”
For whatever reason, Kicky just sighs and we start back towards Ponyville. A quick walking conference with the guards decides Scootaloo’s immediate fate pretty quickly. She needs rest, and probably a few good meals. Fluttershy’s cottage is closest but she’s likely not home seeing as how she was at the weather team meeting. That leaves Sweet Apple Acres as the next best choice.
I pour all my focus and energy into double-timing it in that direction. If only because the alternative is curling up into a ball and sobbing myself hoarse.
----------------------
Big Macintosh is more than happy to carry Scootaloo, still out of it, into their guest room once we’ve gotten to the Acres. Kicky excuses herself to inform Cheerilee and Dash of the happy news that she’s back and safe pending a few days of recovery. I choose to hang back at the farm. In theory because I’m keeping an eye on Scoots, but really just because being in the same room as Kicky makes my skin crawl ever so slightly after what I just saw her do.
“Bit for your thoughts?”
Huh. I’ve been so wrapped up in my own head I didn’t even notice Granny Smith come into the living room and settle into what must be her regular spot in the nearby rocking chair. “Oh, just stupid drama. Wouldn’t want to bother you with it.”
“How thoughtful. Now suck it up and spill the beans anyway, young mare. Wouldn’t have asked if ah didn’t want to hear about it.”
I grin. “Anypony ever tell you you’re a bit obnoxious, Granny?”
“Can’t say they have,” she replies. “Then again, ah may have had a bit of selective hearing loss if they did. Perogative of bein’ an old so-and-so, understand.”
“But of course.” I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t even know where I’d start. But then I remember something Dash mentioned about Applejack’s foalhood and I see a possible angle of attack. “I heard once that, a few months before she earned her cutie mark, Applejack left the farm to go live in Manehatten. Is that true?”
Granny Smith tenses up just a bit. “She did. Must have been... oh... almost a decade ago now. But what’s that got to do with the price of apples?”
I shift uncomfortably in my seat. It’s not the most comfortable subject to broach, but after what I’ve just seen it’s not going to go away unless I find some way to vent the pressure that’s already building in my head. “I’m just curious. She kinda turned her back on her whole legacy.” The way Granny Smith’s eyes narrow at that is enough to tell me I’m treading on dangerous ground. “Temporarily! Just temporarily. But what if it hadn’t been? I mean, if she’d decided she was better off in Manehatten, hypothetically. Or—”
“If you’ve got a question, ah suggest you hurry up and get to it,” says Granny Smith.
“Right, sorry. I guess what I’m asking is this: If she’d decided not to come back... would you feel like you’d failed somehow? That you’d lost her?”
“Hmm...” Granny settles back in her rocking chair, the only noise in the room being the creaking of the rockers as her chair sways back and forth. “Let me answer you with another question. What do you think it would mean, for a mother and a daughter to lose one another? ‘Cause ah know you’re not just asking for the fun of it. Your friend Rainbow Dash has a big mouth, and not just about mah grandfilly.”
Damn it, Dash. Still, no point in hiding the rest of the story. “My mother and I don’t always get along. She wanted something for me, and I wanted something different. We’ve never exactly gotten over that. Things between us have been kinda strained ever since.”
“That right,” says Granny, not even the slightest bit of surprise in her voice. “Well, if y’all ask me, the both of you are stubborn idiots.”
“Listen, Granny, I don’t think you understand what I’m—”
“Oh, ah understand just fine,” she says. “Not so sure you do though.”
This is so not what I was looking for. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. Or what my relationship with my mother is.”
“Reckon you’re right about that,” admits Granny Smith. “Before ah was a grandmother, ah was a mother, though. When Mac was born, well, ah was more than ready to hang up that particular bonnet and be a grandmother for him. Was gonna spoil that colt rotten.”
I chuckle a bit at the idea of Big Mac as a plump little... well, maybe not little, but a plump Momma’s colt. But when I stop laughing at the mental picture I find Granny Smith staring at me, dead serious. “But you didn’t.”
“Couldn’t. Not after the fire.” Her eyes glaze over a bit, and I get the feeling she’s reliving something not especially pleasant. “My little colt. The filly ah loved like she was my own. One day they were here, smilin’ and laughin’ like they had all the time in the world. Next day they were gone.” She glares at me, and wipes away the beginning of a single tear. “Your mama hasn’t lost a daughter. Not while you’re here talkin’ to me. And you ain’t lost her either. You want to hear about what losing a mother or father is really like? Go talk to Mac or Applejack. Tell ‘em you could take a train ride and say anything to your mother or father that you care to, and how hard that is for you. Just don’t be surprised if they lose their temper and clock you upside the head. Ah would.”
“I’ll pass. It’s just... complicated. Between us, I mean. I want to. I want to walk up to her, curl up next to her, and just tell her everything. But it’s not that easy.”
“Not with you makin’ it difficult, anyway. Ah promise though, you wait long enough to fix things and you’ll find that eventually it’s too late.”
“No, I mean—”
And then the front door slams open and Rainbow Dash rushes into the kitchen. “Where is she? Where’s Scootaloo?”
I look askance at Granny Smith. “Looks like I need to go. Can we pick this up later?”
“Nope. Said my piece. What you do with it is up to you.”
I stare at her for a few more moments before I snap out of it and turn away to more immediate concerns. I’d almost swear she planned this out in advance. “Rainbow?” I call out.
Dash is on me in an instant. “You found Scoots, right? She’s here? You were supposed to tell me! I should have been there to pull her out of that cocoon or whatever.”
“Yeah! Us too!” says Sweetie Belle, running up behind her. Apple Bloom is close on her tail. Guess Cheerilee let them out early to see their friend. Probably knew they wouldn’t do very much learning once they’d heard the news that Scootaloo was back.
“Kicky had a lead on some changelings, and we stumbled on Scootaloo while we were following it up. We weren’t going to leave her there and go find you just so you could play the heroine. But let’s go see if she’s up for having visitors yet.”
We all trot down the hallway, Dash’s wings twitching with each step as she mutters under her breath. We reach Big Mac stationed as guardian outside the guest room, and he nods to us. “She’s awake. Real tired, though. Don’t plan on stayin’ too long.”
Dash nods right back. “I just need to see that she’s alright. Ten minutes, tops.” Yeah, she talks a good game. But I bet I’ll be prying her off that filly with a crowbar about nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds from now.
The door opens and Scootaloo, mane still damp from getting scrubbed clean, looks up at her four visitors. When she registers who they are, she groans and sinks deeper under her blanket.
The other three aren’t put off even a bit by her self-evident reluctance. Dash is first to close the distance, scooping her up blankets and all in a hug that’s probably tight enough to do more harm to her than the changelings ever did. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle leap into bed to join in. “Scootaloo. Oh thank the Princesses. We didn’t even know if you were alive. I’m glad you are, though, because I’m going to kill you. What were you thinking, pulling a stunt like that?”
“I’m sorry, Dash. I’m so sorry for everything,” replies Scootaloo once Rainbow’s death grip has loosened enough for her to breathe a little.
“Didja really get captured by changelings?” asks Apple Bloom. “What if they’d made a copy of you? We might never have even known you were gone.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” says Dash with a grin, “no bug could totally copy the awesomeness of the real deal. I’d give ‘em five minutes tops before they gave the game away.”
Scootaloo looks up at her, just fixes an incredulous gaze into Rainbow’s face. Then, just as Rainbow looks like she’s getting concerned enough to say something, she starts to chuckle. A low, deep chuckle that grows into a full on laugh. Apple Bloom and Sweetie glance at one another and half-heartedly try to laugh too, albeit a lot more nervously. Scootaloo’s laugh grows, and then at some point, almost imperceptibly, it takes a turn. The guffaws turn to deep and heaving sobs as she tries to push away from Dash, though she’s not about to let her go anywhere.
“Uh, sorry,” says Sweetie Belle. “We didn’t want to scare you. We’re glad you’re home now.”
“I’m not home,” moans Scootaloo.
“Well, ah know this isn’t your house, but the point is—”
“Shut up.” Apple Bloom’s jaw drops open at Scootaloo’s angry rebuke. “You don’t know anything. Just all of you shut up. I don’t want to be this way, and I don’t know how. They were supposed to take me back. Change me back into what I’m supposed to be. But they didn’t.”
“I don’t understand,” says Sweetie Belle, “change you back? Back into what?”
“By the Queen are you all dense!” shouts Scootaloo. “You want me to say it? Fine. I’m supposed to be a changeling. I always have been. Just a drone who stumbled onto some valuable intelligence when Nightmare Moon returned and stuck around. Ever wonder why we didn’t become friends until after your sisters got their Elements? I was just using you to spy on them. Everything we did together, all the Crusading, all the time hanging out together, it was all a lie. And I didn’t care! I was good at lying and I didn’t care who I hurt when I disappeared afterwards. I didn’t care until the stupid Elements did this to me and now I do care but I don’t know what to do about that. I only know how to pretend to be somepony’s friend, not how to actually be one.” The room falls silent as Scootaloo brings herself back under control with a final sniffle. “There, now you know. Don’t worry, once I get better I’ll be out of your manes for good.”
The others have no immediate answer to that. Their grips loosen enough that Scootaloo can wriggle away and hide herself completely under the blankets. “How can that be true? I met your parents, Scoots.”
When there’s no answer forthcoming from the lump in the center of the bed, I chime in from the doorway. “That was Kicky. She covered a bunch of supporting roles to help the others keep their covers up.”
Dash’s jumbled emotions have finally found a convenient target to fixate on. I just wish it weren’t me. “Wait, you knew about this? And you didn’t tell me? What the buck, Cloud?” She gets up and stalks over to me, thrusting herself right into my face as she demands an answer. I’m in no mood to back down, though.
“Only for the last few days. I found her talking to Kicky about it.”
“You were spying on us,” says Scootaloo from under the blankets.
“Oh, like you’re one to talk. Fluttershy knows too. She figured it out yesterday while we were looking for leads on where Scootaloo had vanished to.” Scootaloo answers that revelation with a loud groan.
The other two Crusaders have fallen quiet since Scootaloo’s confession. “Everything? All of it was a lie?” asks Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom looks too dejected to speak up at all.
“Up until a few weeks ago, yeah. That’s why I left. It’s all... it’s like it’s tainted now. Every time I try to figure out how to be a pony. I just need to go somewhere new and start over while I figure it out.”
The two fillies look at each other and ponder that for a minute or so while Dash and I look on. Then, on some unspoken signal, they both reach down and yank the blankets of the bed, exposing Scootaloo huddled up on the bare mattress. “Hey there,” says Apple Bloom, extending a hoof. “Mah name’s Apple Bloom. Nice to meet ya.”
Scootaloo stares at the proffered hoof, confusion writ plain on her face. “What are you doing?”
“You did say you wanted to start over, right? So let’s start over. Oh, and my name’s Sweetie Belle. What’s yours?”
“...Scootaloo,” she replies, reaching cautiously for Apple Bloom’s hoof and bumping it. “But all the lies... aren’t you mad?”
“No idea what you’re talking about. We just met. You ain’t saying you’re gonna lie to us now, are you?”
“I’ll try not to.” Scootaloo sighs. “I might... sometimes I might need help figuring stuff out. A lot of this is all new to me.”
“Well, I guess you’ll still need a big sister then,” says Rainbow Dash, trotting over to join them.
“Really?”
“And you know, if you need somewhere to crash I’m sure Fluttershy wouldn’t mind you staying at her cottage,” I add. “Obviously we’ll have to ask her, but she’s been worried about you for a while. Plus it’s on the ground.”
“Yeah, I really should have picked a shape with bigger wings,” she groans. But then she smiles. “Thank you. Thank you so much. When the other drones took me and I realized they weren’t going to change me, I thought... I thought I’d never...” before she can burst out crying again, the other three are on top of her each trying to be the quickest with their hug.
“Reckon that’s enough excitement for now,” says Big Mac from the doorway. “Still needs her rest, and that means a couple hours nap before dinner.”
“But I’m not ti—” the yawn that cuts her off mid sentence seriously undercuts that claim. With the excitement over, I slip out before Rainbow Dash can start arguing for ‘just five more minutes’ and I get roped into dragging her away kicking and screaming. Hard to believe it’s still barely noon with all that’s already happened today. I swing by my house to grab a bite to eat, and to give somepony an update.
Kicky, obviously having had a very similar idea to mine, is rummaging through the fridge when I walk in. The cut I gave her is already cleaned and bandaged up. It doesn’t seem to be giving her much trouble, thankfully. “Hey.”
She looks up, a carrot sticking out of her mouth. “Hey Cloudy. How’s Scootaloo doing? Still resting?”
“Dash and the other Crusaders came by to visit. She told them everything.”
Kicky tenses up. “And?”
“And she still has two best friends and a big sister,” I finish, grinning at her as she relaxes again.
“Thank the Princesses. I thought she was going to turn out like Sweetie Drops did after she ran away like that. Want a sandwich?”
“Sure.” I stare at the back of her head for a second as she starts working at the counter, then speak up again. “Everypony should be lucky enough to have a big sister.”
“Yeah, I guess,” agrees Kicky, listening only halfheartedly.
“I mean it,” I continue. “Somepony with more experience to look out for them. Especially when they do something stupid and get themselves in over their heads. I guess I kinda got that shoved in my face pretty hard earlier today. My point is—” I step up behind her, wrap a foreleg over her shoulder, and nuzzle the back of her neck, “—thank you. And sorry about the ‘tried to kill you’ thing.”
“Water under the bridge. You’d have done the same for me.”
“You wouldn’t have fallen for it in the first place.” She doesn’t confirm or deny that either way. “I thought she was really Mom, Kicky. I thought... I thought she was...”
Kicky turns and leans in to return the hug properly, and there’s no need for me to go on. She gently lowers me to the floor and holds me as everything catches up with me and I break down sobbing there for the rest of my lunch hour, sandwiches forgotten.
----------------------
Things gradually return to normal over the next few days, until one evening I find myself in the unusual situation of having nothing to do. Blossom’s off at a weather conference, Lyra and Bon Bon are having a romantic night alone that I’m not about to intrude on, and Rainbow Dash took off with the rest of the Elements yesterday for Canterlot, something about meeting Twilight when she got back from somewhere. Azalea followed after them this morning to play the good filly friend.
As for Kicky, well, as I relax there on my couch trying to focus on the book I’m reading I keep mentally replaying the conversation she had with me before she left this afternoon.
“You’re sure you don’t want to come?”
“Yeah, have a good time.”
“Look, I’ll be busy with Guard stuff but you could just come and enjoy the city. Catch up with anypony you felt like seeing.”
“You mean Mom.”
“No duh I mean Mom. Look, I left what happened to you in the changeling hive out of the official debriefing, but I have to—”
“Don’t you dare tell Mom about that.”
“Not Mom, but I am going to tell Aunt Wind. She might have some advice.”
“I’m fine, Kicky. Say hi to Glint for me.”
So it’s quite the surprise when somepony starts knocking on the door. They really want to come inside, because the pounding intensifies before I’m even halfway across the floor. “Anypony home?” slurs Azalea’s voice from the other side of the door. That gets me to pick up my pace. Even through the door, she sounds really off. I canter over and pull the door open, and there she is. She’s swaying unsteadily on her hooves there on my stoop, and when she looks up at me with her glazed eyes I can see the unmistakable dark lines that her tears have left on her face. “Kicky?” she whimpers, “I don’t wanna be a pony anymore.”
“I’m not—” I begin before she stumbles forward, headbutting me right in the muzzle and cutting me off. “What happened to you?”
She stares at me for a second, her eyes blinking out of sync with one another. “Did you know?” she asks me.
Wow, she just reeks of alcohol, along with a few other scents that I neither can nor want to place. “Know what?”
“About the trains. It turns out.... turns out if you ask super nice they’ll give you these little tiny bottles of vodka for the ride. But they aren’t... they aren’t very big, so you need to drink two or three. Or eight. They’re only about thiiiiiiiis big.” She squints and holds her shaking hooves close together to try to show me how big the bottles are. Without the support, she slowly lists to the side and, before I realize what’s about to happen, she topples over. “Ow.”
I place a gentle hoof on her shoulder to discourage her from getting up. She tries a few times to sit up before giving in. “Do you feel okay? Do you need me to get you a glass of water? Or a bucket?”
“No,” she replies. “Not... not okay. Don’ wanna bucket. Don’ want water. I want...” she trails off. Geez, what happened to her? “Why does it hurt so much, Kicky?”
“Well, you might have twisted your wing when you landed, but I don’t think it’s broken or anything.”
“No, I mean...” she smacks her lips together. Maybe I should get her some water, whatever she says. “I’m a monster. I had... it was all going right, so of course I screwed it up. She needed me. I need her. I told her I loved her.”
“You really do have a problem with saying that too soon, don’t you?” I ask. I try to force out a chuckle, but she’s just laying there, miserable and silent. Still, a bad breakup explains a lot. “You’ll be okay, though. If she broke up with you because of that...”
“She didn’t. I think... I think I broke up with her. Because... because I’m awful and... she needed me. She’s so strong. I only had to... I didn’t even have to see what she did, I just had to shut up and hug her, and I couldn’t even do that.”
Okay, now I’m lost. “Not making a lot of sense, Az. Go back to the beginning.”
“She went to do some sort of... time... thingie,” says Azalea. She belches and her stomach gurgles in a way that makes me think I’ll be cleaning vomit out of my carpet before sunup. “She went... another world, or universe, or whatever, only it was one where everything was wrong. She was like you-know-who while she was there. She was like her and... and she did such awful things. To ponies she loves. Loved.” Azalea breaks down into heaving sobs, and I rock back and forth hugging her.
“It’s fine. I’m sure she wouldn’t ever do those things for real, you know that.”
“That’s just it!” She sits up and pushes me away, though all that accomplishes is making her fall over onto her back again. “She said she could. That if things were ever really, truly awful and she’d never escaped from the loop, she’d have ended up that way. It’s inside her, to be... that. And I... I don’t know if she really knows just how awful that would be. I imagined... Kicky, I imagined that it was you-know-who again, inside my head, making me do everything all over again. Except it was Twilight. My Twilight, and she was... she was revelling in it, in all the awfulness. I don’t... I can’t go back to that, I can’t. And I can’t even tell her why I can’t, so I just...” she stops again. “I ran away. I ran away from her. I feel like that’s all I ever do anymore. Run away. Hide. Lie to yourself until you’re convinced that you’re going to be okay.”
“It is going to be okay, though,” I whisper to her, nuzzling the cheek that isn’t pressed down into the carpet like she can burrow into it if she just pushes hard enough. “Maybe you can talk to her and just explain. She’ll understand.”
Azalea scoffs. “Yeah, that’ll be a fun conversation. ‘Sorry about my freakout, Twilight. It’s just that I was the changeling who spent a month stalking you so your story hit a little close to home.’ I’m sure she’ll feel much better knowing that.”
My blood runs cold. “What?”
“Yeah, that’s probably what she’d say,” says Azalea, too drunk to pick up on the change in my tone. I take a deep breath and a lot of things start to make a lot more sense. No wonder she and Kicky are always slipping away to talk to one another out of earshot.
“Maybe it’s time to stop hiding, then,” I say. It suddenly sinks in what a precarious position my little accidental lie of omission puts me in. Buck you too, karma.
“We’ve talked about this, Kicky. I’m not telling anypony what I used to be. I don’t want to end up like Sweetie Drops.”
“I bet Cloudy would be okay with it. She’s your friend.” I want her to be okay with me knowing this. Everything I told her, all the times I ‘agreed’ that changelings were disgusting monsters, I’ve been ripping her apart without ever realizing it. Oh, Azalea, please let me explain how sorry I am. Just trust me like I trust you.
She shakes her head, making me feel just that much more awful. “No she wouldn’t. She’s only even my friend at all because I mucked with her head.”
A creeping sense of dread starts to crawl up my spine. “Mucked with it how?”
“To make her trust me. I don’t think it ever wore off, otherwise she’d have... picked up on...” Azalea stops in her tracks as she looks up at my face. Something in my expression is obviously giving me away, but then controlling my impulses hasn’t ever been my strongest suit. “No,” she whispers. “Please, no. Kicky? Please tell me that you’re Kicky. Please... just tell me I’m really drunk and being crazy right now.” I don’t say anything, and I get to watch the desperate hope in her eyes disappear. I finally remember where I smelled that odor from the changeling hive before. It was on her.
“I’m Cloudy.” The two of us stare at one another for a few seconds as both of our lies are uncovered. “You bitch.”
Azalea’s tears start up again. “No. No, no, no this... this isn’t happening. Not you too. I’m not... I’m not trying to hurt everypony. I love you, Cloudy. You’re my friend.”
“Yeah, and you were mine,” I reply. “Made sure of that, didn’t you? Between snacks, anyway.”
She just slumps down even lower, lacking even the strength to pull herself off the floor. “Yes. Yes, I did. I was hungry, and you were a useful source of information to boot.”
I stay quiet to let her go on, but she falls silent. “What, that’s it? I was just convenient, so you decided you had the right to mess with my thoughts? With my mind?” My volume is rising, but all she does is lay there taking it. “Answer me!”
“What do you want from me, Cloudy?” The words barely rise above a whisper. “I wish I hadn’t, and I’d turn it off or reverse it if I knew how to, but that’s all that mattered to me back then. You think I like not knowing if my best friend only cares about me at all because I forced her to?” She lets out a sad little laugh. “Well that’s not really true. I know that you wouldn’t. Nopony did, even back in Trottingham. I never mattered to anypony, not really. Never fell in love, never went on any exciting adventures or changed the world, just... sold flowers.”
“Get out.” I say, walking towards the door and opening it. I don’t know if I ever want to see her again, but I know that right now I want her gone. “Get out of my house. Right now.”
She slowly rises to her hooves and starts to walk across the room. She’s halfway out the door when she stops. “No.”
“I said get out,” I remind her, more than a bit testy.
“And I—” she backs up into my living room and glares at me. After a few deep breaths, her eyes seem a bit clearer and her focus tighter than it was a minute ago “—said no. I walked away from one pony who matters to me. Not... I’m not going to make that mistake again.”
“Azalea, you have no right to—”
“I know I don’t,” she interrupts. “I have no right to anything. The ponies I love would be disgusted by some of the things I did. I’ve killed. I’ve whispered a million little lies to ponies who only wanted to love the pony they thought I was, until I used them up and threw them away. Nearly did the same thing to you. You want to hate me? Fine. It is nothing, nothing, to how much I hate myself as I fall asleep at night.” She pauses to let that register, her angry glare somewhat undermined by the way her knees are shaking. “It doesn’t matter that Chrysalis was forcing me to do it. I went along because it was the easier choice. Because after long enough, what did one more layer of filth on my soul really matter? I was never going to be good. But then you know what happened?”
Well, that’s a pile of self-serving bullshit she just spewed out of her mouth, but my morbid curiousity gets the better of me. “What happened?”
“Well, the Elements, obviously, but more importantly you happened. I was laying there on my living room floor waiting for the pain of transforming into a pony to pass, but it was only getting worse. All that guilt and shame that I’d pushed down as a changeling, and now getting to relive it with a pony’s conscience? It was unbearable. I... I almost didn’t make it. Not all of us did, you know. Ask Kicky. Ask her about the ones that saw everything they’d done and took the cowardly way out. And then the second miracle of the night happened for me. You knocked on my door, gave me a hug, and made me believe everything just might turn out alright. Even when the whole world’s been against me, you and Kicky have saved me in a million little ways you don’t even realize. So you know what? You don’t scare me,” she insists, even as her voice quakes with fear. “You don’t scare me compared to losing your friendship. Because just for a little while, I got to matter. I matter to you. I matter... mattered... to Twilight. And I’m tired of being so scared of what might happen that I run away from the things that can hurt me. So if you want me gone, throw me out yourself. But don’t expect me to go quietly.”
I stalk over to her, and get right up in her face, glaring at her. I could throw her out, with as much damage, permanent or temporary, as I feel like. But she’s not backing down. “Nice speech. Didn’t hear an ‘I’m sorry’ in there, though.”
She blinks. “I’m sorry.”
And with that I wrap her up in a hug, squeezing her against my chest. Maybe I’m only forgiving her so easily because of some sort of changling mind-screwery. But honestly, if that’s why I’m not losing somepony I care about tonight then I’m pretty okay with that. “Wasn’t that easier?”
Her own forelegs come up around me, returning the hug. It takes her a few seconds before she notices something. “Um... C-Cloudy? You’re hugging a little... tight...”
“Just because I’m forgiving you doesn’t mean I’m not still really, really mad at you. You stupid, wonderful bitch.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers again. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so... I’m...” she stops and an awkward belch comes up as I pat her on the back. “I think I’m gonna throw up.”
Working together, we just barely make it to the bathroom in time. I hold her mane out of her face as she purges all the awful stuff from her system.
After all, what are friends for?
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Finally got around to putting in the scene I teased six freaking months ago! Ended up with a bit of a rewrite, actually, since I decided to push Azalea's recurring nightmares about her own death into the next chapter. Actually, the next chapter's going to suck a lot for Azalea in general.
For those keeping score at home, this puts us just past the end of Stitch chapter 6.
I love this series and this is a well written chapter.
It's good to see some of the loose ends start to tie up.
Keep it up!
Good stuff as always. Nice seeing the real adventure from another perspective.
"Oh Twilight saved everything forever and some ponies went to go see her afterward. Meh..."
I just want to say, you write emotional confrontations so deliciously well, you glorious, glorious bastard.
Man. You're good at chaotic and violent emotional confrontations
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I had to get the Azalea reveal to Cloud right. It's been building for 70,000 words, after all. Fortunately I got a pile of good advice from Luminary and Georg, like the 'you're hugging me too tight' bit. They also pushed me to focus the speech less on Azalea's 'woe is me' factor and more on the 'you saved me' idea. Both good ideas.
Having a changeling copy her Mom was a spur of the moment thing that popped into my head last night. The psychological trauma of reconciling with an estranged parent only to literally watch yourself proceed to stab her in the back was too delicious to pass up
Well, if not for the fact that I doubt this is going to turn fatal for any of Cloud, Kicker, or Scootaloo, I'd be pretty nervous about CK going on a changeling hunt. Those don't always go well for her.
Oh god oh god oh god, mama Kicker is also infiltrating. I'm having Winning Pony flashbacks!
Wait, now I'm having flashbacks.
... Huh. (No way that's a comment that won't be biting someone in the future/alternate present/future.)
Awesome Granny Smith is awesome.
Man, the mood swings in this fic, now I'm grinning like an idiot at Dash and the CMC's reunion with Scootaloo.
Wait, and now it's sad again.
And now happy!
Oh god, and now the other side of the hospital encounter aftermath.
But at least it mostly ended well!
This has been one
chapter today.
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That bit was a great touch, a really good way to cap off the various emotions in the scene.
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Mostly it's just meant to be a bit of irony that explains why Cloudy never figured out that Azalea was one of the changelings. And to give her an extra reason to be angry when she finds out.
I see you said you did a bit of a rewrite. It's been a while since I read the earlier chapters, so call me crazy if I'm wrong, but was part of the rewrite moving the scene with Azalea? It was in an earlier chapter wasn't it?
Or am I in a time loop of my own?
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I wrote the Azalea reveal way back in January, and did a blog post where I showed it to people. It was always supposed to be at this point of the story, though. Although originally the Cloudy/Kicky rivalry would still have been burning strong and Cloudy made a conscious choice to lie to Azalea about who she was.
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Ah, okay. I knew I'd read it before.
I really liked Hard reset way back when, but for some reason never got around to reading the sequels. Now, A stitch in time reached the top of my "read later" list, and I've just been binge-reading that, You can fight fate and this and thank dear sweet merciful Luna it's just like Winning pony all over again and it's 03:30 in the morning and the sun is coming up and please, sir, can I have some more?
Man, Granny Smith sure doesn't wear kid gloves, does she? Still, she makes a fair point. Now I'm going to have Mike + the Mechanics' "The Living Years" running through my head.
I liked the inclusion of the Changeling hunt as a set up for Azalea's reveal... It did a good job of showing Changelings from all perspectives. I'm curious about how the remaining Changelings work though... Why weren't they changed by the Elements? The former Changelings all blame Chrysalis for what they did, but these remaining ones don't have that excuse... Though conditions are obviously rough for them.
Looking forward to seeing how Azalea does in the fallout to this chapter, and where Cloudy goes from here!
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Well, I'll try not to disappear for six months like I did when I got sidetracked writing Taste of the Good Life. But I'm afraid you're stuck on whatever update schedule I can keep up from here on in.
Unless you've got a taste for darker fare. There's always Reign of Queen Sparkle...
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Yeah, once I noticed all the parallels between AJ's cutie mark story and CK in the Winningverse I thought it needed to be at least pointed out. Plus after the scene a couple chapters ago with Granny commenting on Cloud's attempts to hit on Big Mac, I was itching to bring her back. I think she's a mother figure who Cloud could really respect enough to listen when she lays down a couple painful truths about Cloud's many imperfections.
As for changelings, Celestia said in Reset that only the ones who were disguised when the Elements smacked Chrysalis down got the full rebirth treatment. The Regalia is a force for Ultimate Good, but they're still kind of bastards about it. As for the feral ones, they do still have to eat. Chrysalis was a real piece of work, willing to have her drones senselessly murder ponies to make routing Canterlot easier, while these changelings are just doing what they have to in order to get by. Plus without a Queen to guide them drones aren't the most intelligent or enlightened. Kicky mentions that she 'appreciates the extra 30-40 IQ points' from becoming a pony, but they clearly have a degree of cunning to them. And even the transformed ones have their imperfections. Elizabeak never got a sense of pony morality, and we all know how she turned out. Also Kicky in this chapter seems to hate the unredeemed changelings far more than Cloudy does, and resorts to killing them a lot faster. And don't forget Sweetie Drops. So it's fair to say that a lifetime of viewing ponies as food rather than equals has given them a bit more of an edge compared to the ponies they became.
As for how things go for Azalea in the near future... not so well. At least not until Twilight takes her out for a stroll on the surface of the lake. The next chapter's working title is literally 'Azalea Vs. Karma.'
I've gotta say that I was smiling and scowling at the same time while reading this chapter, you c
nt-munching God of Dialogue. 
YES! My favorite story on this site is ALIVE!
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...oh. I was about to go crazy wondering where I'd seen that scene before. Thank you for the reminder.
So the changelings didn't become extinct from assimilation. Good! Or at least good in the sense that extinction is really bad. I'm sure a number of quadrupeds would prefer them extinct.
4766469 I feel like I wouldn't react like Cloudy did. I suppose it helps that I don't have mayor problems with my mother, like she does with hers.
Holy $&*)! Now go back and re-read the first three chapters!
It's horrifyingly RIGH THERE. Az, oh, what you are doing to CK! <Shudder!>
Well, holy shit. So many feels...
Can't wait the next chapter!
Also that what happens later on, and etc.
Broooooony I love your work!
Well that was a roller coaster of emotions.
The parallels between this chapter and the changeling chapters of Winning Pony are disturbingly good. I'm just hoping that they're not foreshadowing.
That Alula scene was difficult enough the first time.
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I don't really plan to kill her, at least not at this point. I've been known to change my mind about that sort of thing, though.
And there's actually another major Winningverse parallel in the very next chapter! This is tied so tightly to the Time Loop side of its joint universe, I try to toss a bone to Winningverse fans when it's practical to do so.
4765640 Ha ha! I remember this being teased! Wow it's been a while!
I really love that line. I really, really do.
I swear it just keeps getting better... How do you do that?
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I honestly try not to think about it too much. I just start with simple scenes and keep layering new ideas into them as I go, then try to tie them back to details and themes from the original TLT. For example, I spent a bit of time today working on a scene for a future chapter of this that's set about a month after the climax of Fate. It was supposed to be some light, slightly naughty fun with CK overhearing Twi and Azalea doing some erotic role play based on a fantasy she'd come up with during her emo teen 'Darkness Nightshade' phase that Spike mentioned in HR chapter 3. It is, as one would expect, completely goofy and ridiculous. But just under the surface it actually has this really sad subtext of how uncomfortable she was with her sexuality back then. Plus, some of the details she came up with cast a very interesting light on her feelings about control and, given what kind of monster she knows she can become if she's pushed too far, the suggestion that maybe that dark streak runs a little deeper than she realized. And I only even noticed it myself about halfway into writing it, then went back to flesh it out more explicitly.
Basically, I just have a really interesting world with interesting characters to play around with at this point. The only reason the trilogy can support this parallel side story at all is that there are endless ways to bounce them off one another and peel back their layers.
This ends with her being captured, I guarantee it.
... okay, I was completely convinced her "mom" was an impostor; then you managed to convince me otherwise, and then I had barely the inkling of a suspicion (at the "I love you") until Kicky showed up. Damn.
Oh, "REKT", as the colts say...
These are the Feels from Taste of the Good Life all over again...
Chrysalis is Voldemort?!
... huh, I'm a bit confused. I could've sworn that I already read the part where Azalea drunkenly confessed to being a changeling while thinking she was talking to Kicky. Did you post a preview at some point?
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Yeah, I teased this scene back in January in a blog post that linked to the gdoc I was working in.
That was one sneaky changeling, telling Cloudy exactly what she wanted to hear to bring about a much-too-easy mother/daughter reconciliation. Kicky was right about Aunt Wind having a field day when she hears about it, but that's a couple chapters out.
Ugh, now I've got to wait for the next chapter. Bravo, that mom scene was a blindsider for me.
Thanks for the rule 63 mental image of Josh Scorcher's OC.
Finally got to this chapter, and boy did lots of things happen. It was quite the emotional rollercoaster, and I liked it! Great character moments. Shame poor Cloud Kicker is getting kicked all around. But then it wouldn't be as entertaining, now would it?
So she was a changeling all along. I never said it in the comments, but I was totally calling that within the first five chapters. XD
Need to fix the ah to Ah problem in this capter. Otherwise very emotionally moving.
Glad they made up though
5367668 Why would ah be Ah? The word, or sound, 'ah', is being used as an onomatopoeic representation of a fictional speech pattern for the pronoun I. I is capitalized because it is a single letter pronoun. Other 'pronouns' are only capitalized when sitting in for proper nouns, like He in referring to God.
Just curious as to your reasoning, it has just been bugging me.
Other than that though, have a nice day please!
Needs end " mark.
_____________________
Cap Apple Family's Ah's. [Ah being a replacement for I, needs to be treated as I is.]
_________________
you
[singular pronoun. Y'all is a plural pronoun,]
_______________
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Just saw this. And why ah would be Ah is this.
He's using it as a strong phonetic I. As in a replacement for use of I. Thus it get's capped just as if that pony were to use I in that instance. It's a grammar thing, just as I wouldn't be i. Ah (strong phonetic I) wouldn't be ah.
And you have a nice day as well. Sorry I didn't respond till today
.
Come on, Cloud, the hints are going to get stronger if you don't buckle up and go...
Yea right. Next you will claim that people will worship an obvious incompetent amoral narcissist who is a known useful idiot of the Russians (they take advantage of his narcissism to control him) that they are 2ndary useful idiots, despite mountains of evidence, all because he promised to make the USA into a CristoFascist Theocracy like the Utopian Republic of Gideon from their favorite novel, the Handmaids' Tale, where women and colors are put in their place and other nonbelievers (people worshipping the wrong gods or no god) are executed. Certainly, they would not enter denile.
Didn't notice on previous reads but those last two paragraphs are poetic.