The Decision
I awoke with a throbbing pain in my head which meant one of two things. Either I had been drugged, or someone had decided to knock me out for whatever reason. You would be surprised how much this happened. It seemed like every other day I was waking up with a huge migraine and a lump on my head. It happened so much that I often felt that something was missing when I wasn’t suffering from a splitting headache. What took me by surprise this time though was who had caused it.
Sitting up and opening my eyes I saw Twilight laying at the end of the oversized Canterlot guest bed. She was reading and looking very grumpy. “You know if you hit me like that again you might cause some serious brain damage.” I said jokingly in an attempt to brighten the mood. Twilight wasn’t laughing.
She slammed her book shut and glared at me. “What is wrong with you?”
I smiled nervously and replied, “Can you give me a hint?” I knew that was the wrong thing to say but I really didn’t know what I had done to make her mad and I tend to joke around when I’m nervous. Yeah, it’s a weird way to cope especially since it normally ends up making the situation worse, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Right after I convinced that little changeling that she had nothing to be afraid of and we would be there to help her… YOU SLAM THE DOOR IN HER FACE! And that's not all! No, you just had to shout out every stereotype that there is against changelings!” Twilight shouted.
Being the ‘considerate’ guy I am, one thing stood out to me in all that. “Wait, rewind for a second here… ‘her’?”
I was met with a deadpan expression. “Yes… her. She is female and a child. You only treated her like that because of what she was born as. All I heard from you was ‘changeling’ this and ‘changeling’ that… not once did you treat her like a normal pony.”
Rolling my eyes I responded, “Well that is because ‘she’ isn’t. I saw what she was and I wasn’t taking any risks.”
“YOU NEVER DO! For just this once can you try something that involves a little bit of risk?”
“Twilight, when you do something risky you have a chance to lose. There are always stakes bet in those risks and here the thing I’m betting is your safet-”
“Yeah, my safety, my safety… I’m telling you I don’t care about my safety! I want to do this! She doesn’t have anyone else to turn to and she’s all alone. I want HER to feel safe.” Twilight paused and took a moment to sigh. “You used to say you wanted to help everyone. I can't count how many times you told me that you didn’t care who it was, if they needed your help, you would be there. What happened to that?”
From hearing that statement I felt like I had a sledgehammer drive straight into my train of thought. What had happened to that part of me? She was right… I wasn’t acting like myself anymore and that part of me that wanted to bring peace to everything succumbed to my fears. This wasn’t me, and I had to do something to set things right, even if it meant taking a risk or two.
I calmly got off the bed and said, “Okay, I see your point. If it means that much to you we can give it a go… but if she does anything to make me think she’s planning something, she is gone. No second chances, no do-overs, alright?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “She looks like she isn’t even seven years old. What could she possibly be planning? How to get a cookie without getting caught? You worry too much.”
“Says the mare that wears grooves into solid oak with her pacing.” I replied with a smug smirk. “So… what is the little monster's name?”
“She isn’t a monster!” Twilight shouted defensively.
“It was a figure of speech! Geez, I can’t say anything anymore without getting in trouble!”
Twilight blushed from her overreaction and smiled sheepishly as if that was going to make me… okay I admit, it helped me forgive her quicker than it should have. You try staying upset when you are put up against that face. There’s just no winning with their mastery over facial expressions!
“Sorry… I guess I’m just a little on edge. Anyways, she said she doesn’t have one, though I’m pretty sure that was a lie.”
I raised my eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”
“First of all she hesitated.” Twilight responded instantly.
“And?”
“And she said that Changelings don’t have names, but we all know they do. We have gotten names from them before.”
I got off the bed and proceeded to stretch, popping a few joints in the process. “So she’s hiding her name for some unexplained reason. Really that could be either good or bad.”
“How so?” Twilight asked, preferring to stay on the bed rather than get up with me.
“If she is hiding her name she is doing it for a reason that she thinks is necessary to do so. She wouldn’t just be doing it for kicks. Furthermore, the reason behind it is to make sure we don’t know who she is for whatever reason. So in conclusion, she either just dislikes herself, or she dislikes us and believes that revealing herself would put her in harm's way from her identity alone.” I finished by jerking my head to the side to cause my neck to give a pleasurable pop.
“I still have no idea how you make it look so easy.” Twilight said shaking her head.
“The neck thing? It’s easy, you just-”
“No, not that.” She said, interrupting me. “How you can hear two seemingly meaningless bits of information and come up with some outrageous deduction from it.”
I shrugged. “I only use basic reasoning and psychology… really you should be able to do the same thing. Hell, I bet you can even do better than I can. I’m not the only genius around here.”
“That's unusually modest of you, especially since it's like one of those things you’re great at. OH! That reminds me, did you-”
Looking back at my flank I sighed in aggravation. “No, I still haven’t gotten my cutie mark. It isn’t as easy as I thought it would be to find out what makes me special. Sure I’m good at a lot of stuff, but I can’t find that one thing that makes me who I am! Now I know how the crusaders feel…”
Twilight laughs. “They wanted me to tell you ‘hi’ by the way. All three of them miss you… especially Applebloom.”
I could only imagine. Applejack was very strict about her not speaking to me while I was around. I believed the reason was because I lied like crazy the day I left with Discord and everything could have probably been avoided if I was honest with Twilight. I was so evil in her eyes she refused to talk around me and given Big Mac an order to not let me on their property… and they had a LOT of property. Sweetie Belle was able to see me a bit since I often had to take my jacket into Rarity’s boutique and Scootaloo would occasionally pass me in the street, but Applebloom hadn’t been able to even get close to me since everything hit the fan. Kinda sad when you think about it. Also I knew what she was going through… my best friend on earth was a nice guy but my dad didn’t like him so he did all he could to make excuses why we couldn’t see each other. Since I never had many friends to begin with, it hurt and took away what little social interaction I had in the outside world. Knowing that the crusaders were being subjected to basically the same thing sucked, however there was nothing I could do.
* * * * * *
Twilight and I talked for a while about what was going on in Ponyville since I was so overdue on an update. For the most part everything sounded like the same old stuff just on a different day. Everyone was doing fine, going about their daily business. The most recent news was that Daring Doo was actually real… and she was the writer of her own adventures. Seriously who does that sort of thing?! That’s just asking for people to bash your books! If other ponies knew she was real she would be hearing ‘what an arrogant piece of crap’ all day! Yep, you’ll never catch me doing anything that… uh, on the other hand maybe I’m being a little too harsh.
It was already sunset by the time I gained consciousness so we were going to have to stay at the castle for the night. Twilight and I had finished our chat session and I had the munchies so I thought I would get a snack. Celestia was supposed to have the best junk food in Equestria and I wanted to see if that was true for myself. I was casually strolling along, passing a few night guards every so often. They nodded silently as kept on my little jaunt. Everything was going smoothly… and then I heard a giggle.
I turned around to see the changeling looking up at me with a wicked grin. She honestly creeped me out, but I was still hungry. I chose to turn my back and keep walking. Amazingly I didn’t hear her hoofsteps as she followed behind. I knew she was following me solely because I saw her shadow cast on the wall by the opposite wall mounted candles. The silent hoofsteps coupled by her speed shouldn’t have been possible and that only added to the creepy factor. Why was she following me? Was she hunting me? Wait, do changelings hunt?
“I own you now…” I heard an odd wavering voice say behind me.
I slowly turned my head to look at her in disbelief. “Excuse me? What did you just say?”
Her smile nearly stretched from ear to ear. “I OWN you!” She said widening her eyes.
I just raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really? How so?”
“Not telling… it will be so much better to keep that part a secret. You’ll find out soon enough though, and I can’t wait to see how you’ll take it.” She responded cryptically. The way she said everything was like some cliche Bond villain. I could totally picture her strapping me to a table with a slowly moving laser and saying, ‘no, I expect you to die’.
I did my best to ignore her statement as she followed me into the kitchen and watched me raid the place. As I sat down, the little creepazoid sat in the chair opposite to me. She would have been kind of cute if it wasn’t for that menacing smile. I lifted a cookie to my nose and smelled it to check for poison before eating it. It was safe to say she was greatly disturbing me, and I’m not one to get disturbed easily.
A full fifteen minutes passed before I stopped eating and asked, “What do you want from me? Do you want me to wet myself from fear? Beg for mercy? Cry?”
“All of the above sounds nice.”
I snickered at her. “Well you are going to be waiting for a long time. I don’t really do any of that crap. You would have a better chance of winning the lottery, followed by getting struck by lightning three times in the same place, then winning the lottery again.”
“Oh I’ll make sure of it… even if it's the last thing I do.” She said, hopping off the chair and walking towards the exit. She paused to look at me one last time then left.
I sighed. “Jesus… of all the kids to get stuck with, I get the one that could make Damien look like a saint.”
* * * * * *
Having finished my taste test of Celestia’s stash of sweets along with a small bag of chips, I decided to wander the castle for a bit to gather my thoughts. How were we going to make this work? We were going to need her to stay with one of us, get her a place to sleep, figure out a name… and keep her out of trouble while going about our daily business. That already sounded impossible, but if you add to the fact that we know next to nothing about the biology of changelings nor do we know anything about how to keep them healthy, well… we’re basically screwed. I was going to tell Twilight all this, but she was really excited about trying so I decided to just let her enjoy it while it lasts. It will be kinda like getting a hamster for her. She’ll be happy at first, grow accustomed to it, then it will die. Sure she’ll probably cry for a while but she’ll get over it and have fond memories to look back on… hopefully.
Being lost in thought, I bumped into Luna. Whenever I was thinking I was oblivious to nearly everything. The castle could have be falling down around me and I wouldn’t have realized. It was like being a heavy sleeper while wide awake and often ended up making me look like an airhead. I used to imagine that I looked like I was having some sort of psychic vision as I stared off into space, but Twilight informed me that it looked like I switched brains with Snails half the time, which was a nice way of saying I looked mentally challenged. The other half I supposedly looked upset or angry when I was deducing something or trying to solve a problem. Anyways, back to the matter at hand…
“Sorry Luna, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” I apologized as she pulled me to my hooves. I was met with a tired and stern stare. Luna and I were usually on good terms and were pretty good friends all things considered, though this night she didn’t appear to be in good spirits.
“I can see that. May I speak with you for a moment? We have a few things we must discuss.” She said with a calmness as cool as the night air.
I sighed and cast my gaze downward. “I know you have been trying to help me with my nightmares and I’m sorry you are suffering for it, but I can’t help it… I’m scared of what I could be.”
“Yes, I understand that much already, however that is not what has me worried.” She said with a serious expression on her face.
I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, if that’s not the problem what is?”
“I worry for the little one. I have grown fond of her the past few days. I have watched over her and learned how worried she is. The biggest issue she has is she has no trust for anypony… it's as if she sees us as nothing but a group of murderers. My sister and I also believe she may be linked to the changeling queen somehow, yet we don’t know for certain.”
“I was thinking the same thing. That’s what has me so nervous.” I agreed, remembering how eerie the resemblance was with the two. “But I don’t see why you are worried about her.”
“I am not worried about her… I’m worried for her.” Luna said quickly. “You showed a complete lack of empathy towards her and Shining Armor didn’t do any better. The only reason why we have even agreed to let you watch over her is because Twilight has shown more than her fair share of tolerance for the changeling. All you did was treat her like a prisoner.”
“In my defense she was locked up in a cell.” I pointed out.
“That is not the point! I wanted you to be there for her the same way I hope that you’d be there for me if I were in her place! I think of you as a good friend Sir Jason-”
“Just Jason is fine.” I corrected her.
“Fine ‘just Jason’, I see you as a friend the same way I see Twilight as my friend. You are very nice just like her deep down and I only wish for you to try this one task for me. You have completed countless requests from my sister and I only ask for you to do the same for me this one time.”
I rolled my eyes at the night princess. “Come on Luna. I may not be happy about being put in this spot, but I’m not evil. There is no way I would just give up without giving it a shot first. I only want to make sure this doesn’t come back to bite us so I’m keeping my guard up. You know it's in my nature to be cautious.”
“I do, but while you were ‘interrogating’ her, you seemed to be more cruel than cautious. Even I could see what you said hurt her pride.” Luna told me, the stern look in her eyes telling me how she felt toward the changeling. The look wasn’t one of a princess but more of a mother being protective towards her child. It was almost a threatening glare that I hadn’t seen often from her.
Luna's disposition towards the changeling issue only made me think that I had to do what I didn’t want to even more since there were two mares who I would be letting down if I didn’t… and I would legitimately have to try to make it work. Luna and Twilight were by far the two most clever mares I knew besides Celestia, who I already said was practically able to foresee future events.
The only thing I could do at this point to assure Luna I was someone she could depend on was by degrading myself with a certain rhyme that I swore I would never utter. “Luna I promise I won’t do anything to hurt her or anyone else… cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
Luna appeared to be pleased with my promise and nodded in approval as I was holding back the urge to void my stomach of its contents. She gave me her thanks, wished me a good night, and we went our separate ways. It was a good thing she was my friend or I wouldn’t have done what I had. Yeah, I tried to be a relatively nice guy to everyone, but for me to say something so sickeningly cute… well you had to be a bit higher on my priority list than just some random pony I happened to pass. There were certain circumstances that made me more likely to help another who I didn’t know, but to say something like the Pinkie Promise you had to mean a lot to me. Luna definitely fit the category though. She was subjected to loneliness and had a point in her life where she felt unappreciated no matter how hard she worked. That was the same feeling I got from my dad back on Earth. No matter what I did, no matter how perfect my grades were, no matter how much I struggled to attain pure perfection… it never seemed to be enough to make him satisfied. I could only imagine how hard it was for Luna to feel the same way about every pony in Equestria.
* * * * * *
It took some time to navigate back to the guest room we were staying in, but I finally found it. I quietly opened the door knowing Twilight had to be asleep by now. What I didn’t know was that I would find a copy of myself snuggling up to her already.
‘That little…! She changed into me to take my place knowing I can’t do anything without waking up Twilight!’ I thought to myself, nearly ready to yank the imposter out of the bed and toss her out the fourth story window. This discovery did make me mad, but remembering my promise to Luna I chose to let it go since Twilight wasn’t being hurt.
The changeling cracked open an eye and grinned at me as it reverted back to its normal form, mouthing the words, ‘I own you...’. I ignored her and got on the end of the bed, laying down on it horizontally so as to not wake Twilight. I mouthed one last thing back to the maliciously grinning changeling before we went to sleep.
‘This isn’t over...’
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Ah…who is Damien?
Also…that changeling is really playing with fire, and…why is he exactly in trouble if he wake Twilight up? Seriously I'm con…oh, jejeje, Jason you clever guy, fake being mad, pretend you are in her little play…oh boy she doesn't had a chance
good luck in the hospital, just take your time recoverin
5112134 Glad to have you back (when I don't get comments on a chapter I get paranoid and think I screwed up so bad nobody wants to talk to me
).
The whole point of the two chapters was to do exactly what you said. They are a view 'through a changelings eyes'. It was all made so anyone reading could get a feel for the new character since it's apparent that she is going to be a large part of the story (yes, I did say 'she'... Baclox is a girl).
As for the problems you stated, it isn't all my fault. I do have an editor that is supposed to look out for this sort of thing. It isn't all his fault either, but with all the crap that has been going on recently I am lucky to be posting on a semi-regular basis. I guess you could say I'm going through a rough patch and perfect structure isn't one of my highest concerns as of now.
Anyways I'm glad you are liking it and I will be making things a bit more exciting soon.
Not a bad chapter, and I hope things go well for you in the hospital. Best of luck and here's hoping!
Loving Boclax's character and her mischievousness when it comes to messing with Jason -- stalking him and being all cryptic in the kitchen, then sneaking into bed disguised as him to be at Twilight's side; though I bet a big reason for that is to feed as well.
My only thing would be to use commas a little bit more. Several sentences in this chapter and previous have a problem of going on for too long without a break/pause. It feels a lot like rambling, and in a few areas it does not make sense.
Sir Jason, at the end, should have a comma just before Luna actually says his name, indicating it.
5124096 fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/213/c/1/crying_pinkie_by_blackthil-d59e9ac.gif
I'm sorry... I'm doing the best I can.
5124141
Hey now, we all know you are, and truth be told you're doing a fantastic job! 
Like I said before, no one is perfect; no one. Everyone makes mistakes; that is simple, undeniable fact. And the fact that you're trying and acknowledging it is improvement beyond the scope of many authors -- both on this site, others, and even professional writers. That devotion is very much appreciated. 
5125716 I only have one thing to say about that...
medias.gifboom.com/medias/t_82900289d2e843c9b72394ebebb81812.jpg
5125739
In that order~ happy to help. 
I like this story VERY much. I read the first one,and loved it. Keep up the great work!
5132216 Thank you, and I will keep it up.
5132242 You're wlecome,and I hope you're health will improve soon.
5132263 Same here dude, it would be nice to feel semi-normal again.
5132315 I know that feel,bro. I know that feel.
