Testing
Rose awoke, looked at the calendar Twilight had made for her, and immediately tensed up with nervousness. Today Twilight would be testing Rose's magic capacity. She would have to pretend like her maximum amount of magical energy was less than it was in reality. If she tested to high, her cover could be blown. If she tested too low, Twilight might think there was something wrong with her.
"Breakfast is ready!" Twilight called from the kitchen. "Wake up, Spike, Rose!"
Rose got out of bed, rubbing the Crystal she had gotten in the Crystal Empire for luck. She walked slowly down the stairs, toward her potential doom. At the bottom, her meal was waiting. Twilight had made a nice breakfast soup to nourish her body, while Twilight's growing love for her fed her magic. Rose savored every sip of her soup, knowing that this could be the last time she ate good food for a while. If she was found out, she would probably be banished. Then imprisoned in the place she was banished to! Rose shuddered at the thought.
"Are you alright?" Twilight asked, concerned. Rose's anxiety was clearly visible.
"Just nervous about the test today." Rose said truthfully.
Twilight smiled encouragingly. "Don't worry, there is no passing or failing score, this just determines how much time we need to spend solely on training your magic capacity vs. actual spell casting."
Rose had finished her soup by this time. "Okay." she said, gulping nervously. "Let's begin."
"Follow me." Twilight said, leading Rose to the basement. Rose turned her head as they walked through the basement, staring at several complicated machines before finally stopping at one that had a metal horn-shaped cone, with adjustments of angle, length and width so any horn could fit comfortably. Rose shuddered in fear, the metal machine looked ominous.
"Just put your horn in there, and I'll adjust the machine to it. When I say, channel all your magic into your horn." Twilight instructed.
Rose gulped, and closed her eyes as she inserted her horn into the metal device. She could feel it changing shape to fit her horn, and she finally heard the dreaded words. "Begin channeling your magic now."
Rose began channeling magic. When she reached the level of what she felt a talented young filly, like she was supposed to be, she stopped adding magic to her horn.
"2317 Maguns." Twilight announced, pleased. "Well above average, higher than 92% of fillies and colts your age."
Rose winced. She was going for higher than 75% of fillies and colts her age, but at least it didn't look like Twilight suspected anything. She let out a long sigh, greatly relieved that it was over. Nothing bad was going to happen to her, she was safe. Just then, a knock was heard on the door, accompanied by a familiar voice. "Can Rose play now?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yeah! We haven't seen her in, like, days!" Scootaloo added.
"One moment!" Twilight called, heading for the door. "Rose can play now, we just finished up for today."
"What about actual magic lessons?" Rose asked.
"I need to finish our schedules first, now that I know what your magical capacity is. You can go play with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, unless you want to do some more scheduling with me?" Twilight asked, grinning. She wanted to encourage Rose to be more social than Twilight was at Rose's age, and she knew that Rose didn't enjoy thorough scheduling.
"No thanks, I'll go play." Rose said quickly, rushing out the door as if a pack of Timberwolves were chasing her.
"Yay!" the Cutie Mark Crusaders cheered.
Rose followed her friends to the wagon, which they brought with them. Scootaloo began driving them to their clubhouse.
"What's the plan for today's crusading?" Rose asked.
"We wanted to learn more about Changelings!" Sweetie Belle said.
"Keep your voice down! Somepony might hear you!" Rose hissed. "I don't actually know that much, I was a pony originally."
"You weren't?" Scootaloo asked, excited. "Oh yeah, now I remember! Does that mean that I could become a Changeling too? Not that I'm going too try." She added hastily, almost suspiciously.
"Well, yes..." Rose said slowly. "But why would anypony want that?"
"Because they're like Alicorns that can change their shape to anypony!" Scootaloo said excitedly.
Rose rolled her eyes. "I guess." she conceded. "But that doesn't take into account all of the downfalls of being a Changeling." Rose was about to go on, but somepony was approaching.
"Excuse me, but can you tell me where I might find Petal Blossom?" the pony asked.
Rose had a suspicion, and whistled a familiar tune, the one she was taught that meant she was a Changeling. Recognition flared in the pony's eyes, as his question was answered by one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
"She was hit by a cart yesterday." Sweetie Belle said, downcast. "She's no longer... with us."
"I'll be right back." Rose said, and left the cart to talk to the Changeling.
"She had to change forms, 'Petal Blossom' was in danger of being discovered. She's now known as Tulip Bulb." Rose told the Changeling. "Who are you?"
"I'm her messenger. What happened that threatened the disguise?"
"I visited the Crystal Empire after becoming Twilight's personal prodigy."
The Changeling let out a low whistle. "How did you manage that? And how did you avoid being caught?"
Rose blushed. "It wasn't that hard, you know how I was a Pony before I was a Changeling? Well, I studied magic in school, so Twilight currently thinks I'm a genius due to my filly form. As for not getting caught, that was easy, they never even scanned me. Paranoia is at a minimum."
"This could be useful for the Hive. Anything else?"
"Well, Celestia caught two infiltrators, she wants Twilight's help to decide what to do with them, and Twilight wants me to help her make the decision of what to tell Celestia, so I indirectly have partial power over what happens to them." If you hadn't forced me to become one of you, I'd just tell her to kill them all on sight. Rose thought mentally. The only reason I haven't revealed everything is fear that I will be in trouble from the Princesses of Equestria.
As it turned out, Rose's fear was well founded. While Celestia wanted to talk to the Changelings captured, Luna wanted them killed. If she tried, Luna could easily convince Cadence and Shining Armor that killing them was the best method, and she could convince Twilight that she could learn a lot scientifically from the autopsies. The only reason Luna didn't do this was love for her sister. She wouldn't undercut her sister's decisions, but she would attempt to convince Celestia that she was right. The only thing keeping the Changelings from being killed was Luna's love for her sister.
Rose rejoined her friends. "That was a Changeling, he was Petal's messenger from the Hive."
"How can you tell?" Scootaloo asked.
"Did you hear that tune I whistled? That means, 'I am a Changeling too', so if a Changeling hears that they know who is a Changeling so they don't get mixed up." Rose said. "Quite useful."
"What else can Changelings do?" Applebloom asked.
"We can sense emotions with a spell, we can drain them actively or passively, but I only know passive draining so I can't teach you about that, we can- obviously- change out forms to look like other ponies, we have better precision flying than pegasi but we can't go as fast. Of course, if we transform into a pegasus than we can fly almost as fast as the original. However, transformations do not completely capture the magic of a pony, so if I turned into Rainbow Dash I couldn't do a Sonic Rainboom."
Scootaloo deflated at that, but then perked up a bit. "But I could still look like Rainbow Dash, and fly fast?"
Rose looked troubled. "Theoretically, but don't become one. It's not a good idea."
"Yeah, yeah, okay." Scootaloo said, but it didn't sound like she was listening.
"We also are hunted down at every opportunity, constantly have to worry about food, and I was forced from my old way of life." Rose said sharply. Even if my way of life wasn't to great in the first place, at least it was mine.
"Why don't we build disguise costumes out of fabric from my sister's shop?" Sweetie Belle asked excitedly. "It would be a great crusade!"
Applebloom, who had appeared disinterested before, suddenly perked up. "Yeah!" she smiled. "Great idea!"
Scootaloo looked disappointed for a moment, before smiling also. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DISGUISE COSTUME MAKERS!" the four friends yelled at the top of their lungs, before Scootaloo began driving the cart to Carousel Boutique.
"We can explain!" Rose said desperately, as she hopped on one hoof towards a disappointed looking Twilight. Her other hooves were stuck to Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom- who in turn were also on one hoof, their limbs stuck to each other. The four ponies, trying desperately to walk with one hoof from each of them, suddenly collapsed on the ground. Twilight levitated them off the ground with a sigh.
"Why are you all wearing bad disguises and stuck to each other? Where did the tree sap even come from?" Twilight asked, perplexed.
"Well, it all started with the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders Disguise Costume Makers'. We traveled to Rarity's Boutique, and then..."
"We should make costumes of our close relatives!" Sweetie Belle suggested. "Rose, yours could be of Twilight!"
"Wait- you're supposed to be disguised as me?" Twilight interrupted. "With only a purple fabric? How did it get pasted to your body? And what's up with the bucket on your head?"
"SHH! LISTEN TO THE STORY!" the Cutie Mark Crusaders insisted.
"Sounds great!" Rose said, excited. They went upstairs, to where Rarity kept her spare fabric. "But, does any of you know how to sew?" she asked, enthusiasm dropping slightly.
"I do! Sort of..." mumbled Sweetie Belle. "Watch. First..."
After Sweetie Belle finished making the disguises... if they could even be called such... the ponies attempted to put them on, but the stitches promptly burst. "I know how to fix this!" Applebloom declared. "Tree sap! Applejack uses it as glue when things fall apart sometimes."
"I don't know..." Rose mumbled. "Are you sure that would work in this scenario?"
"Of course!" Applebloom said excitedly. "My sister even keeps a bucket of spare sap in the barn!"
"Let's go!" Scootaloo declared, and the other Crusaders hopped into the cart. Scootaloo began driving it.
Sweet Apple Acres
"Tree sap, just got to put it in the stitches... Why not pour it on the clothes?" Applebloom suggested.
Rose's eyes widened, seeing where it was about to go wrong. "Wait!" she said, rushing over to try to stop Applebloom from pouring the sap all over herself. She hit Applebloom, and the bucket landed on her instead. "Just great." she muttered, trying to get the bucket off her head, but it was stuck fast. Luckily she could still see, the bucket had landed mostly covering the back of her head.
"Rose has the right idea!" Applebloom said excitedly. "But I think we can make due with one bucket for the three of us. Next time, don't hog the sap Rose." she lectured.
"Nooooooooo!!" Rose said as the other Crusaders poured the sap on themselves, throwing the bucket away. In hindsight, it really was impressive that Rose managed to speak at such a volume that demanded two exclamation points.
"Uh, oh..." Sweetie Belle said as her hoof wouldn't move from Applebloom. Her other hoof was stuck to Scootaloo. Scootaloo and Applebloom tried to pull away, only to find that they were just as stuck. Rose walked over to them.
"Here, let me help." she said, pulling at the ponies. Unfortunately, this stuck her hooves as well. While flailing, Rose managed to get her third hoof stuck, and Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle got all but one of each of their hooves stuck as well. Rose sighed. "At least we still have four usable hooves. Let's try to walk to the library, hopefully Twilight can help."
After much struggling, and falling on their faces, the Crusaders managed to finally get to Golden Oaks Library, where Twilight stood looking at them disappointedly.
"Really?" Twilight deadpanned. "Rose has only played with you three twice and not once but both times have you all gotten stuck together with tree sap. Bedtime for all of you." Twilight cast a special spell she had created just for times like this with the Crusaders. After the last misadventure they had, Twilight had finally finished a sap-removal spell that could solve this problem easily. "Next time, you have to wash it out yourself." Twilight threatened. "Come in Rose, it's almost bedtime."
Rose stared at the setting sun. Time had passed so fast! Checking her internal stores, she measured that she now had more Maguns than she had as a Canterlot Unicorn. This was impressive, as she was a very competent magic-user before becoming a Changeling. She entered the library that had become her home, walked upstairs to her bedroom, and smiled at the crystal she had gotten from the Crystal Empire before getting an idea. She had learned to store Maguns in crystals in the hive, and the crystal she had in her possession was useable. Rose began charging the crystal, putting half of her energy into it, and was pleased to see that it began to glow with a dim green light. She then frowned, realizing that she would need to hide it. Sticking it under her pillow masked the dim glow, and Rose soon fell asleep.
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Really? under the pillow? When that glow gets noticed by Twilight, you will have much to explain.
4879089 I actually wasn't expecting anybody to pick up on that until it actually happened... Congratulations are in order for noticing the subtle but major plot point buried in the chapter.
4879094
Cool!
Cover art yee say? Eh, why not. Is there anyway I could contact you?
To sow is to plant seeds by scattering it on or in the earth.
8067723 Thanks for spotting that! Fixed. I don't know how that one slipped by me.
8067742 your welcome
Scootaloo is a gem