Changeling Amnesia

by CrutioAstarothChaos

The unicorn with a foal's heart

More than two months have passed since that fateful evening, when I took up the life Buddy decided to throw away. Since then I dated Spring Fresh for a few weeks, and then another mare for a while. I try not to get too attached to the opposite sex of whomever I’m playing, so they won’t come looking for me, and accidentally stumble upon my predecessor. Currently Buddy, or Blue Clover, as the nurse, who tended to him named the pegasus. I hear she got way too attached, and I would hate to fix Buddy’s life again, just because I got too careless.

Anyway, I’m writing this entry now, because Migraine sent another letter, informing me of another possible client – this time a unicorn. So, I memorized the details, and decided to see the next pony who would throw it all away for myself.

The changeling sat on a balcony, staring at the windows of the flat across the street. She was on the balcony of some aristocrat, who decided to take her beauty sleep. Amnesia woke her, and then knocked her out with a spell, just in case. Now she had full access to the balcony, and to the pony’s form; the perfect place and disguise to spy on the residents of the targeted flat. According to Migraine, the pony she was looking for had a grey colored coat, a dark-blue mane, gold eyes and a telescope on his flank. She heard loud talking from the flat, and looked up to see a grey colored unicorn stallion trot into the room across her. Luckily the windows of the said room were open, so she could hear parts of what they were talking about.

“No dear, I can’t see your precious scarf anywhere!” the stallion said. “Are you sure it’s not in the laundry?”

“Yes, I’m sure!” the other participant said, a light tan colored mare with brown mane and tail, and blue eyes, wearing a fancy green dress entered the room. “I couldn’t have just lost it!”

“Maxie, I’m sure we’ll find it somewhere,” the stallion tried to soothe the mare. “You’re wearing enough clothes as it is, you’ll be fine!”

“Oh, Star, you don’t know how these girls can act when a member of the group is... underdressed!”

Star Bright just rolled his eyes, hearing the endless discourse, Amnesia guessed for the thousandth time. He seemed to be a normal stallion, except maybe for being a bit too impatient. The changeling was unsure whether he was about to join Maxie, or just wanted to get rid of her.

“Look, Maxie, we’ll find it later!” Star Bright sighed. “But I have to go to work, and I know if I leave you here you’ll be late too. I suspect that you already are, so I'd feel guilty leaving you here, knowing your day will be ruined because of it!”

“But what am I supposed to do if they notice?” the mare asked with pleading eyes.

“If they ask where your scarf is, say you didn’t bring it to see if they would notice,” Star replied. “Then compliment them on how observant they are!”

Amnesia stopped listening to the driveling of the pair. She noted to herself that it seemed good that the client had a nearby source of love. But then again it could present a problem; if Amnesia were to replace anypony else later on, she might go looking for Star Bright. But problems like these could be solved, with little effort. First, however, Amnesia decided to see the rest of Star Bright’s life for herself, and then decide what to do.

About ten minutes later the stallion left the house, with a saddlebag on his back. Amnesia went back inside, grabbed her saddlebag, changed into the form of a male sky-blue pegasus, and took off, to follow Star undetected. It was harder to stalk him, since he seemed to be in a hurry, and the changeling almost lost sight of him twice. But after quite a few turns, Star seemed to have arrived at his destination; a yellow old-looking office building. She saw the sign above the door, informing everypony that it was the headquarters of the Canterlot Chronicle daily newpaper. The changeling realized that stalking somepony, to see them do their job was sometime a rather hard task. She switched into the image of a pegasus mare, and landed in front of a bakery. The bits she earned as Buddy were now spent on buying some fresh donuts. Then, without delay, she entered the office building.

Inside, she saw a huge reception desk, with security guards on both sides, and a young earth pony colt behind the desk. She went straight for the colt, putting up her most charming act.

“Good morning!” the changeling greeted. She noticed that her voice was a bit too low, and with a small cough, adjusted it to be cuter. “I’m here looking for Star Bright! Maxie sent me to deliver this fresh pack of donuts, expressing her gratitude!”

“Okay, missy, I’ll ask one of the guys,” He replied, and Amnesia noticed his nametag. It said Wisp. “Hey Biceps, wanna escort the lady to the third floor, the office of the statistics nerd?”

“I don’t see why not,” the muscular guard replied. “Come on Miss, it’s this way.”

“Thank you, Wisp!” Amnesia said, adding a friendly wink before she followed the guard.

The two of them took the stairs, and on the third floor they took two left turns, and arrived in a narrow corridor, with three doors. Biceps went to the third door, and knocked.

“Come on in!” the voice of Star Bright yelled, accompanied with the noise of papers shuffling.

“This here Lady wanted to give you a package from Maxie,” Biceps announced after he opened the door, and let Amnesia in.

“Actually I have a personal message for the guy too,” Amnesia cooed in her silkiest manner. “Maybe you think you could wait for me at the end of the corridor?”

“Sure thing, ma’am!” Biceps nodded, closing the door behind as he left.

“Boy, that sure is a nice little box you have to work in!” the changeling said, silently thanking the gods that Star remained silent until Biceps was out of the room. “How many days did you spend here?”

“Do I know you?” the stallion asked. “And what is that package?”

“Oh, right, donuts,” Amnesia replied, dropping the box on Star’s desk. “Bon appetit!”

“Who are you?” Star Bright asked again.

“You may call me the solution,” the changeling answered. “The solution to all your problems.”

“Are you the one Migraine told me to expect?”

“Sure am.”

“I expected a unicorn,” Star retorted somewhat disappointed. “With a long beard, and a saddlebag full of mystical herbs and crystals. Not a schoolfilly with donuts.”

“Never judge a book by its cover, Star Bright,” Amnesia shook her head. “and speaking of books; by your expectations, I’d say you read way too many adventure stories. But enough of this. Time is short, and I just stopped by to tell you: I hope your afternoon is free.”

“Well, I didn’t plan anything –”

“Good. I’ll come find you later!” Amnesia said, stepping out of the office.

Amnesia decided to leave the area of the office, and try to find Maxie. Somehow she thought it would be easy to befriend the mare; a few nicely said compliments, a lot of questions and praising, and it’s all in the bag. And as for questions; the changeling had quite a few about Star Bright. This was the first time when Amnesia could see the other side of the story; see how well Maxie knows Star Bright.

The shifter flew to the windows of the couple’s flat; fortunately they forgot to close them. Once inside, she started looking around. From the first impression of Maxie, Amnesia knew she went off somewhere; a spa, a theater, some garden party or fancy program; and she hoped to find a card, brochure, or piece of note to find out where she might be. After a while, she found a clue, in the most unexpected location.

“Seriously? The fridge? One would think Maxie was a proper lady watching her weight!” the changeling said when she noticed and read the note on the fridge. “Boutique opening on Dragon street today?”

The shifter went to the window, looked around to see if anypony was watching, then took flight, heading to the eastern parts of the city.

Said boutique was a place where Amnesia herself would never willingly go. Ever. But since she was a little short on options, and being Buddy was getting a tad bit too boring, the changeling let out a heavy sigh, and headed into the shop, searching for Maxie. Being a changeling she never could comprehend why ponies wore clothes at all, but now she needed to act like she was interested.

She looked around, and saw the light tan mare along with two other mares. They were currently looking at the skirts, arguing about which one looked better. Now she needed to break the ice, and get them to like her, and talk to her. Or get Maxie to do that, but it was inevitable that her friends will be dragged into this too. She stepped closer, looking at the skirts, acting clueless, thinking about how she could start a conversation.

“Excuse me,” she started, when the trio stopped talking for a microsecond. “You all seem to be very familiar with the latest fashion, mind if I ask you to help me?”

“Of course not!” Maxie replied without hesitation. “What would you like us to help you with, my dear?”

“Well, I’m looking for a skirt.” Amnesia lied fluently. “My friend’s party is in the next week, and I’m trying to impress somepony in the invited crowd; maybe you can help me find the right match for me?”

“Oh dear, I would personally love to help you!” Maxie cheered, and put a hoof around Amnesia. “Now tell me; what is this ‘somepony’ like?”

The changeling answered something, but her mind was completely elsewhere. She succeeded in starting a conversation, and Maxie seemed friendly enough. It was only a matter of time before she could question the mare about her relationship with Star Bright.

A few hours later they were far from the shop, sitting at a bar, talking about something that didn’t really matter to the shifter. She was currently sipping a milkshake, counting how much time she had left, before Star Bright left his office. The minutes slowly dragged on and on and on, until she decided that watching ponies enter and exit a building was far more interesting, than what Maxie and her friends were talking about.

“Oh goodness! I almost forgot!” Amnesia faked panic, grabbing her saddlebag and leaving their table. “I have to pick up my little brother from his music lesson! I’m terribly sorry that I have to leave you in such a hurry, but it is urgent! And thanks again for your help!”

“Wait! You never told us your name!” Maxie yelled after her, but the shifter pretended not to hear it.

Once she was out of sight, she gently landed on a rooftop, and lay down. Her head hurt, after having to listen to such amounts of useless gibberish, but at least she got what she wanted. Turns out Maxie and Star bright had been living together for a month now, but they weren’t married. It seemed that both of them avoided the topic of getting engaged, and that calmed Amnesia a little; she really didn’t wish to play husband for anypony. Maxie and Star knew each other since high school, but it seemed that Maxie had plans of living with a richer stallion. The changeling couldn’t really understand the need for more wealth, but it meant that if she ever wanted to get rid of Maxie, all she had to do was fake bankruptcy, and the changeling was halfway to freedom.

Funny how easy it was to manipulate the emotions of ponies with simple words.

Half an hour later, sitting on yet another rooftop Amnesia finally noticed Star leaving the big office building. The day of the pony was anything but exciting; he was cramped up in a small office, between the walls, the desk and the papers, doing Celestia knows what for a living, just to go home to little Maxie, and hear about how fantastic her day was. Amnesia was sure Star had more friends in his life than what she saw that day, but sometimes ponies tend to forget what a miracle it is to have friends. She knew it first handed, when she left the hive, and again when she started living as Buddy. She got by, but it was hard managing changes in Buddy’s life on the first week.

Now she was stalking Star, thinking about how she could get him to a private place without causing a commotion. The opportunity presented itself, when the stallion entered a small bookshop. Amnesia landed on the streets, and followed her target inside. She saw the grey unicorn standing in front of a shelf, filled with works of fiction. She slowly approached Star, who was busy reading the back of a Daring Do book. With a small cough, she grabbed Star’s attention, who looked at her with a quizzical expression on his face.

“Here?” he asked point-blank. “You really want to talk about it here?”

“No, nutcase. I’m just here to say that if you are done reading that work of fiction, maybe we can get to the real deal.”

“Oh, all right. I’ll be right outside, wait for me there.”

Amnesia let out a disappointed sigh. She was uncertain why she even bothered helping the unicorn, but she really needed a change of scenery; being Buddy had become extremely boring. Plus the work she was doing didn’t really pay much, and it had started to hurt her back recently. A desk job sounded just about ideal now.

In two minutes Star was outside, and they headed for a nearby bar. Once they were there, Star ordered some refreshments for himself, and after the waiter left, he sat back and stared at Amnesia.

“I guess you have questions,” he said after a long pause.

“More than you could imagine,” the shifter replied. “But right now I’ll cut it down to a few. Starting with why?”

“Why?” Star said with a snicker. “Why you ask. Did you see my workplace?”

“Small.”

“That’s no word for it! And my life? Boring! All I do is calculate statistical data everyday! It’s been the same for the last three years! I’m sick of numbers!”

“That’s no reason to throw it all away,” Amnesia remarked.

“Look, you want a reason? Here’s one: I never wanted any of this,” Star leaned closer to her. “I wanted to go on an adventure, see the world, explore! Maybe not like Daring Do, but see something beyond the walls of our culture. I thought that Maxie, or as everypony used to call her back in high school ‘Mad Maxie’ would be my partner in these adventures. But now it seems Maxie is more of an aristocrat than I, the descendant of an old noble family could ever be.”

“So, you want adventures? The deal I offer is that I take away everything you have. Everything. Memories, belongings and so on.”

“I know, I know,” Star Bright replied. “But no life is better than dream of a life you can’t have, and live one you only wish to see in your last nightmares.”

“You haven’t really thought this through, have you?” Amnesia asked.

“I have thought enough about it for the last month.”

“Suit yourself.”

After finalizing some details, we set the place and time of the exchange, and parted ways. In the next week, I took the boring life of Star Bright, and gave him a blank page to write his new life on. Maxie never was suspicious about me, my new job made more bits than the one I previously had, I had more friends, had fun with them, and lived a normal pony’s life. I never could get it in my head why Star Bright threw it away, but after reading the Daring Do books he was so fascinated with, I could figure he was just too foalish for a life this monochrome.

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[Changeling-Drone]

Can we get back too the present?