Fall of the Changelings

by Dream Whisper

FOTC: Chapter 9 - United

The cracking noise of the fire slowly eating through the thick bark of the tree was the only sound in the next few minutes. When a single tear started to run down Fluttershy’s cheeks, a fire slowly started to build up in Twilight’s body. A fire she had never felt in this intensity. She had known rage, she had known anger, but this was something deeper. A deep underlying hatred against the harsh world around her, something she had never thought to experience. Her whole body slowly started to burn up in that feeling, slowly creeping into her thoughts. She quickly remembered the lessons taught to her by princess cadence. Although they seemed to work quite well against anger, they couldn’t extinguish that fire burning inside of her. Instead, her breath only started going faster and her heart became more of a series of rapid earthquakes shattering through her body than the steady drum she was used to. There was only one thing needed to turn those earthquakes into a giant volcano spewing her fire throughout this dark night… Something like a certain Changeling leaning in towards Fluttershy and whispering into her ear.

“Stop that!”

“But Twilight, he is just -”

“That is none of your business, Fluttershy! Let it answer...”

“I am not an ‘it’. I am just like you.”

There it was. The searing dagger quickly piercing through her heart, releasing all the sadness, anger and hatred she had tried to keep contained. She felt her own body burning in unnatural heat as she spoke all the unspoken words she had tried to imprison deep down in her mind. All the images she had tried to ignore. Her poor brother trying to clear his mind, but forced into submission by an unnatural being. A fallen princess - a fallen mother - before her hooves. A laughing demon looking down on her, surrounded by the flames of her dark magic.

“NO! You are not simply going to come here and act as if your life was worth ANYTHING. I should have killed you when I first had the chance to!”

“Twilight! He hasn’t -”

“I don’t care what he has or hasn’t done! He is just as monstrous as they all are!”

“I am not like them!”

“You will be. You will be dead!”

Twilight jumped up, pushing Spike and Applejack aside. Even though one of her wounds had started bleeding again due to her sudden movement, she still could not feel the pain. She could only feel the heavy quakes in her chest, hear the adrenaline rushing by her ears and sense the overwhelming anger almost ripping her body apart. It was the first spell that came to her mind, a simple transformation spell, but as she felt the magic, she just threw every bit of hatred into it, turning the very essence of the spell around. She had known how to cast the magic of shadows, magic only allowed to alicorns, and yet it had been nothing to this sudden rush of power she could feel. She wasn’t forming the spell anymore, the spell had started to take her with it into a world of harsh, uncontrollable power beyond any imagination. She could see the dark purple mixed with an even darker green which surrounded her horn, but it didn’t matter anymore. It almost felt like watching a movie of herself. When the spell had finally consumed all of her power, it burst from her horn towards the Changeling.

Even though the Changeling was able to evade the direct hit, he still did not go unharmed. The black and purple bolt of magic landed only a couple of hooves behind him, suddenly exploding in dark flames. It did not only thrust the Changeling dozens of hooves into the air, but also took Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy with him. What remained was a crater burning in dark flames and pain. As if her body had decided it had been enough, all the wounds that had almost been idle, suddenly started the bring a piercing pain with them. There was another kind of pain though, the pain of regret. Now that the hatred had subsided, it made room for the knowledge of having hurt her friends.

She just stared at her own hooves, unable to fully understand what she had just done, what she has become. The anger and hatred had overwhelmed her in a moment of weakness and taken her beyond her own morals and thrown her into a deep pit of helplessness.

“Twilight? What have you done?” screamed Rainbow Dash saucer-eyed, her mouth widely spread open, painting an image of confusion.

“Oh my! What happened to you, Twilight?” echoed Rarity, equally as much confusion flashing across her face, but also mixed with worry for Twilight.

The concern in their voice made it even worse, almost a nightmare to be lived through. To be honest, she had no answer. All that was left was the inability to comprehend what had happened and the regret for her inexcusable outburst. Everything had turned against her, suddenly she was the monster now. How could she judge anypony? How could she dare to show the audacity to judge a living thing? Something so far beyond any imagination and any power in this world, the value of life and she had dared to judge. No.

“Twilight! Are you alright?” the sweet voice of Fluttershy rang in her ears like a soft bell.

“Hey! I know you are angry and all…” The voice of the Changeling was a crass contrast to Fluttershy’s voice, so much deeper and rougher. “I am sorry. I don’t know what you might be thinking about me, but I am not a monster.”

Twilight looked up again, tears blurring her vision. When she met his eyes however, she quickly burrowed her whole head between her hooves. There was a certain sincerity and forgiveness in there that she had neither expected nor deserved.

“You may only see the Changeling in me and I can’t fault you for doing that after what your friends have told me and what I have experienced myself. I am more than just the Changeling and even though I don’t know … I don’t know what I am, I know that there is more to me than the monster you might see every time you look at me. I just hope … I hope you can forgive me for whatever I might have done.”

An apology? Why did he have to apologize? Out of everything he could have said, an apology probably was what she had least expected. To be quite honest, she didn’t even know how to react to it. She should have been the one apologizing. It only made this whole situation so much worse. She was the princess, a role model for all of her subjects, her actions would be followed by thousands of ponies. The only thing she had just proven was not that Changelings were evil but instead that she had so much to learn until she could really be the princess she was supposed to be. It was never too late to start.

“Listen…”

“Ethereal Tear.”

His smile made this even more uncomfortable. Couldn’t he just… stay expressionless? This smile made it all feel so wrong, as if she was apologizing to some devilish demon.

“Listen, Ethereal Tear, I still don’t like you. However, I am not a mare who would simply ignore the truth. Instead, I see that I was wrong to prematurely judge you and I guess… I am sorry.” It felt so incredibly wrong. She already regretted even having said it, even though she didn’t know why she should regret it. It was the most logical thing to do, but her heart seemed to just not comply.

“I am sorry too. I didn’t mean to trap you but you didn’t leave me a choice.”

Such a liar! No choice? Maybe he could have not tried to trap them in a bucking dragon’s cave… Dragon?

“Where is the dragon?!”

She had almost forgotten about the dragon!

“It’s dead.” Applejack answered quickly, yet her voice was almost crumbling as if she felt some sort of pressure. Was the Changeling threatening her friend? Was there some conspiracy behind this all, just a giant illusion to fool her and to stop her finding out about this Changeling amulet? Oh, she would smite this small insect if she only got one small hint for supression.
“I think… I… Phew… I think it’s time to sleep. I just can’t hold on much longer.”

Spike seemed to be at the border of exhaustion. Had the Changeling forced him to keep the fire up at any cost? Maybe he needed the fire so the other Changelings could find them easier. This was all such a big mistake. For now however, Twilight felt the warm feeling of tiredness slowly creeping up her legs and with no imminent threats - the Changeling. How could she sleep with such a thing around her? Would he take control over one of his friends? She couldn’t allow it, no matter what the cost was.

When everypony went to lay down on the cold, hard ground, Twilight got slightly confused.

“Why don’t we use normal beds?”

The sad expression in everypony’s face that followed answered the question already, but Rainbow Dash still brought the crucial words out:

“That damn dragon burnt our supplies.”

“We are going to have to get back to the village.” answered Applejack, but not without letting out a yawn afterwards.

While everypony cuddled together before the remains of the fire, the Changeling laid down on the opposite site. He just wanted to escape without her notice, but Twilight wouldn’t allow it. She positioned herself on the far end of the cuddly furball that were her friends and tilted her head just a bit up to watch over the Changeling. It was her duty to protect her subjects and she would not allow anypony or anything to hurt her friends again.

Even as the fire slowly faded into a cloud of black smoke and glimming pieces of the tree, Twilight didn’t allow her eyes to close. Even as the snoring of her friends became louder than the eventual bursting of small pieces of wood in what was left of the fire, she did keep her watch. And even as the moon shone brightly on the sleeping Changeling, she did not let her dreams catch her. She was the alicorn princess and she would protect her friends no matter what.

The stars twinkled so high up in the sky, so unreachable from anypony. Some black shadows were slowly flying over the immeasurable beauty that was the night’s sky. She could almost hear Luna laughing somewhere in the distance, watching over her and every other pony. She could hear a distant whisper, pulling her deeper and deeper into a trance, until her eyes could not resist anymore and the watch of the Alicorn Princess ended.

---

Fluttershy was frightened when Twilight erupted into a giant ball of flames. She had never seen Twilight this angry before and she wished she never had to experience something like this again. Twilight, covered in flames that didn’t seem to harm her, slowly walked towards an unseen foe, burning down the forest around her with every step she took. Fluttershy, although terrified by this image, brought herself to move to the side a bit just to get a glimpse of whomever Twilight was fighting against. If Twilight continued to burn down the forest, Fluttershy would have to intervene, she could almost hear the small birds crying in their nests for a mother that would never come home. She could almost taste the disgusting taste of burnt flesh on her mouth, the burnt flesh of all these innocent creatures. Worst of all, she could almost feel their pain in the flames, slowly consuming their tiny bodies, innocently searching for a reason for why they deserved this; a reason for this madness.

“Twilight, stop!” Fluttershy screamed once again, and once again Twilight didn’t even hesitate moving onwards.

Now, a couple of hooves further on the left side of Twilight, Fluttershy could finally make out her enemy. The Changeling, eyes widely opened in fear, trying to hide from the overwhelming fiery force that was her friend.

“Twilight, please stop!”

The purple unicorn still showed no reaction to her screams, pushing the Changeling further into a corner of trees that had started to burn behind him. The fire was quickly spreading, bringing pain to every creature that could not run fast enough. Even for herself it got too hot to bear much longer.

“TWILIGHT!” she yelled again before galloping towards the purple alicorn that was destroying everything without hesitation. The Changeling was already cornered in and Twilight slowly increased the size of the ball of fire around her, slowly pushing out towards the Changeling. His painful screams mixed with the screams of the dying animals and the burning trees.

“TWILIGHT, STOP THIS MADNESS!”

And the alicorn didn’t stop. Fluttershy galloped across to the Changeling, trying to save the only life she possibly could.

“Twilight, please…”

When the fire touched her body, she felt it consuming her flesh, making it impossible to resist the necessity to scream. Her very tears vaporized before landing on the ground and her entire body was nothing anymore, nothing but a world of pain. And she screamed.

A sudden force shook her body violently. The burning hell quickly faded into the blurred image of Rainbow Dash, looking down at her in concern.

“Fluttershy?”

It took her mind a while to realize that it had all just been a horrible nightmare and the friend she knew was still the friend she knew and had not fallen for madness.

Fluttershy got up onto her four hooves again before calming the cyan pegasus down: “It… It was just a dream.”

Even though the concern remained in the pegasus’ eyes, she backed off a bit, allowing Fluttershy to orientate herself. Twilight was sitting on a stone together with Applejack, who had spread out a leg of hers. Healing magic slowly flowed into the wound and Fluttershy’s memory returned. She quickly searched for any bruise or wound on her pegasus friend, but found Rainbow Dash to be in perfect condition.

“It is still twitching a bit, but Twilight did a fine job. I already flew a few loops without a problem.”

Fluttershy sighed in relief as she had not even realized she was tensing up this much. Her relaxation quickly disappeared again as she lay her eyes on the Changeling, still having only three legs, and confusion took its place. Before she could even ask, the rainbow colored mare had already read her expression and answered the inevitable question:

“Twilight said she didn’t know how to fix such large wounds, especially without the required knowledge of the Changeling anatomy. And before you ask: We are going to head back to Browndawn as soon as your wounds are healed.”

Although that was an explanation for why the Changeling still had one less leg than expected, the answer still caused another question:

“Why doesn’t he get a bandage then? What if he gets a terrible infection or something?”

“Yeah, then he would be nothing but dead weight, you are right.”

Although Dash had failed to understand her logic, she was still glad that there would be help for the Changeling. She knew not to trust their enemies, but there was something good in everypony. Discord was the living proof to show the world that there was more to such “monsters”. If they all just understood her way of thinking better, maybe they wouldn’t have to fight this much…

“Fluttershy?” Twilight’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she slowly approached the Alicorn, who seemed to be finished with her last patient.

“Yes?”

“You are next.”

Although she felt bad for taking Twilight’s help before the Changeling would, she still did obey the commanding tone of Twilight’s voice. Even though she would not have admitted it, her wounds were really hurting badly and she needed the healing. A couple of steep flesh wounds covered her feet. It had probably been only a couple of dozen hooves, but the sharp stones below had dug deeply into her hooves. If the Changeling would have wanted to kill her, that would have been the best moment.

The healing magic felt so good, she could barely contain sighing in relief from the pain and stress of the last hours. Now they would finally head back from this dragon-cave-filled deadland. Only a few animals lived here, save for the dragons obviously, and those who did had become harsh in this unforgiving environment.

“Come on, y’all, it’s time to head back!” yelled Applejack when Twilight’s magic faded again.

“Okay, Fluttershy, I think it’s okay now.”

“Twilight, you need to heal the Changeling too.”

“I would if I could. I have no knowledge of Changeling anatomy though.”

It was obvious that she had lied, but Fluttershy wouldn’t care about that as long as Twilight was helping him in the end. Of course Fluttershy could have agreed with her, but it was important to care for the well-being of everything and everypony, not only for yourself and your friends.

“At least give him a bandage-”

“Or he will become nothing but dead weight.” interrupted Rainbow Dash who had listened to their conversation.

Twilight groaned, but brought out a quick “Fine!” in the end. After pulling out a bit of string and a couple of bandages, she began quickly covering the Changeling’s wounds. It was more than obvious that she didn’t care much about his health as she repeatedly brought him to cringe in pain and the final result was still more of a mess than a professional bandage. Although Fluttershy still wasn’t satisfied with that, she didn’t want to risk Twilight getting angry. Somehow, the image of the burning nightmare slipped into her mind once again and she couldn’t help but to step back a couple of hooves from Twilight. There was no reason for it and yet the image didn’t leave her mind.

Even as they headed off, the image remained.

---

The strange Changeling had fallen behind quite a bit and Fluttershy already worried about his well being. The wound seemed to be quite deep and an infection could be lethal. She had only seen such a deep wound once, when a small duckling had fallen into the streaming river. His mother had tried to save him but the river had taken her too. When she found the little duckling and his mother, the mother had already passed away. She had cared for the duckling as much as she could have, but at some time it had just given up without a mother to care for it.

“I think we should help him,” she finally brought out after being plagued by the images again and again. While everypony seemed to just ignore what she had said - No, they had probably just not heard it - Twilight groaned loudly.

“I have already helped him. He is fine. Look at him.”

was obviously distorted by the pain, but she couldn’t hear a sound. Maybe that was because of the distance that had kept on growing. He already lacked a couple of hundred of hooves and guessing by the volume of the sound of the forest, he wouldn’t be able to hear them over it.

“Twilight! Our little adventure in this uncivilised land does not have to mean that we become uncivilised ourselves. Be a deary and help the poor thing.”

Fluttershy was surprised by the sudden help from her elegant friend, who had taken special shoes with her which would prevent the dirt to creep up her hooves. Fluttershy didn’t mind the dirt, instead it was quite a comfortable feeling after having trotted around on these black sharp stones for so long. The small dirt roads laid sparsely in this deserted land. She had thought that maybe the construction ponies didn’t have enough time to complete them… But now that she thought about it, there had probably never been any construction ponies here. Maybe some exotic animals had made their paths to transverse through the lands easier. That theory was underlined by the fact that those ways most oftenly went from oasis to oasis. She had thought the roads to be constructed by the few villagers that had settled down at the oases, but the roads went much further than any settlement had. That again was a big problem now that they were trying to head back.

“Rarity? You too? Imagine we would help all of our enemies!”

“Like Steven Magnet?” Rarity quickly asked, followed by a “Like Discord?” from Fluttershy.

“Like Sombra!” Twilight screamed, getting louder than any of them had expected her to.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but to turn her head again and look over to the Changeling. Either he hadn’t heard it or he was sunken into his own thoughts too deeply.

“Calm down, y’all. It ain’t like the end of the world here. I agree, though. We should help that poor fella.”

“Twilight, you got to stop only thinking about your fears and your dislikes! It is going to bring you down.

Baaaack in the days of the-”

Pinkie Pie was suddenly stopped as Rainbow Dash quickly pushed a hoof in front of her mouth, cutting her off before she could continue with her melody. A disgruntled stare followed the gesture as the pegasus didn’t seem to be in the mood for entertainment.

“I think you are right, Twilight. He is just playing the wounded lamb until we decide to help him. Then he will show us his teeth.” with that, Rainbow Dash slowly approached Fluttershy, building herself up and blocking out the sun. Fluttershy couldn’t help but to cringe a bit at the frightening sight, and Dash seemed to be contempt with that reaction and turned around again.

“We can’t just leave him like this. If we are to be social ponies, we are not to succumb to such barbaric measures as to let somepony die in our presence.”

“If we help him, he is going to turn on us!” Twilight said angrily. The expression on her face reminded Fluttershy of the dream she had had. “It is his own fault anyway.”

Fluttershy closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the two bullies from her school. They had said the same thing when ripping the wings of one of the geese peacefully flying through the air. “It is its own fault anyway.” Such ignorance! The goose had been a mother, three little eggs, not ready to be born into the world and surely doomed for death without the care of their loving mother. “It is its own fault anyway.” Nothing but an excuse for brutes to get away with whatever cruel thing they wanted to do.

“It is not his own fault. If he dies, Twilight, you killed him."

Even though her voice had not become any louder, the expression on Twilight’s face was utter shock. Fluttershy couldn’t help but to look away, trying to evade the thought that she had hurt Twilight with her words.

“Twilight… I…”

The shock in the purple alicorn’s face slowly turned into something else, but not into regret or agreement or even sadness as Fluttershy could have expected, but instead into rage. Twilight’s eyes started to burn and she screamed out:

“WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HIM?!” and staring directly at her with a glooming glance that Fluttershy would never forget, she added: “I thought we were friends.”

Fluttershy stopped, her mouth open in shock and confusion. Why? Twilight’s reaction did not make any sense, none at all. There was a poor innocent creature getting hurt and instead of showing anything like pity, Twilight’s rage burnt like the sun itself. Not only she was now frightened, but everypony had taken a couple of steps back from Twilight and suddenly there was the image of her nightmare again. Twilight burning down entire forests like a fiery demon, consuming life itself, grown mad with her new power. Maybe she wasn’t ready for her ascension…

“Twilight?! You are scaring us.” Rainbow Dash slowly approached Twilight who had alicorn magic streaming from her eyes, reminding them all of the horrific events that had happened with King Sombra, the lord of shadows. If an unicorn that had gone mad could survive thousand years of banishment, what could a mad alicorn do?

“Twilight, please calm down,” added Pinkie Pie, also starting to approach Twilight, not looking all too happy anymore.

“We are all more than just friends, we are a family!” Applejack brought up, then proceeding to follow their example.

Fluttershy couldn’t move a step as Rarity also started to step towards Twilight:

“Don’t let the brutality in this land overtake you. We are all here together and as friends we will get through any trouble at our hooves.”

And still, Fluttershy stood as an immovable object, wanting to follow their example but rooted by the fear of the demon she had once called Twilight. Only when the dark magic slowly faded, Fluttershy’s legs allowed her to move - And even then her steps were still slow and hesitant.

“Twilight, please don’t let him die.”

The words were almost too quiet to be heard, but she could see a fire in the alicorn’s eyes, just for a moment, but long enough for her to catch it.

“Fine!” With that, Twilight turned around to the Changeling, who suddenly seemed to have disappeared. It took Fluttershy a second to make out the Changeling, lying next to the road, fallen in exhaustion. Why couldn’t Twilight see his innocence? What else would he have to do to prove that he meant no harm to them? To her great relief though, Twilight approached the fallen Changeling. Her magic quickly lifted the poor thing up and hovered him over to them.

“How are we going to get it to the next village?”

It wasn’t concern in Twilight’s voice but instead she seemed to be talking about an annoying duty like taking out the trash on a rainy day.

“Ah’ll take him. He is not that hard to carry and I am the strongest of us.”

With that being said, Twilight didn’t make much effort out of hiding her anger about the whole situation and simply dropped the body on Applejacks back without saying a word.

“If you decide otherwise, just drop him. He is dead weight anyway.”

With that, Twilight just turned around again and started trotting away. She didn’t even give a second glance back. What would Fluttershy do if Twilight really had gone mad? Would she stand by her friend’s side or would she fight for the right thing? What was the right thing in such a situation? Why was Twilight even forcing her to think about such terrible thoughts? If only this whole accident had not happened… I thought we were friends. What if their friendship would not survive this? A friendship forged in the darkest hours, a friendship going through the darkest days of demons reigning the world, a friendship bringing them closer than ever had been thought possible. Their friendship alone had defeated every danger they had encountered… and now it was about to break apart on a Changeling? No. It wasn’t the Changeling, they had fought thousands. It was Twilight… A hatred that goes beyond what is right or ethical, an anger that would crush their friendship. The only possible way for a friendship to die is starting to drift away from each other...

Not even Discord had managed to bring such devastation to them. Now Discord was reformed, a friend of theirs. He had had his own reasons and maybe Twilight had them too. While Discord had had a grief in his heart, being so friendless, the same could not possibly be true for Twilight. So what was it? What was that spark igniting Twilight’s flame of hatred again and again? What had the Changelings really done to her?

Fluttershy suddenly stopped as the realization hit her. It couldn’t be true, could it? Why would Twilight have never said anything? But the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. It connected all the pieces, it brought it all together… but why? As unbelievable as it was to her, as much it made sense. It was something - Fluttershy was not certain what exactly - in Twilight’s family. The Changelings had attacked the wedding and while it had seemed so easy to think that Queen Chrysalis had been the true reason for Twilight’s anger, what if there was something more to it? How was it possible that her brother had asked her so late? Maybe Twilight just felt left alone by her own family… and maybe seeing a Changeling was nothing but a reminder of the pain she felt. Twilight had thrown herself into her studies, trying to impress her family who had not paid enough attention to her. She had searched a new idol in Princess Celestia as her own mother had always been distant. It all made sense… but what if it only was speculation? What if Fluttershy was overseeing some crucial detail here? She could never bring it up… and yet the idea did not leave her mind. The questions just kept on returning… What if?

Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed this as I can only thank you again and again for reading this. You are great! And now, go ponder about the possibility of Fluttershy speaking the truth here.

Comments

[Debonair]

A thing of beauty.

[Dream Whisper]

3809037

I was already looking forward to your reply, like a little child looking forward to being given candy

And now, please excuse me, it is time for me to sleep ( I do not live in the usa )

[Debonair]

3809104 Sleep well.