A hard change

by Techy

Memories

After realizing that she had just shot a random bolt of magic at Deceit, Twilight started to freak out. Twilight was just resting peacefully in bed, before waking up to some random pony busting into her house. Her instincts took over for the moment and she shot a bolt of magic at him. Twilight ran over to deceit and was checking him all over to make sure that she didn't hurt him too badly. After making sure that he was breathing and was only passed out, Twilight relaxed. She then realized that she would have to be the one that carries him to his bed. With a sigh, Twilight lifted Deceit with her magic, but was too tired to carry him all the way to his room and opted to just have him sleep in her bed.

Twilight was about to head back to bed as well before thinking to herself about Deceit. 'Was he really telling the truth about everything? Has he been lying this whole time? Ugh, it's too late to be thinking about this kind of stuff.' She thought to herself. Twilight climbed into bed and snuggled under the covers, but no matter how much she tried, she couldn't fall asleep. The same thoughts from before kept her from getting any rest and eventually she got out of bed and started reading through any spell books that she could find.

'There has to be some type of lie detector spell in one of these.' Twilight thought.

After searching for a good while, she found a spell to see somepony's memories within the last few days. Twilight gained a smile and read through every bit of it. Finally after another good while and Twilight learning everything about the spell, she walked back up the stairs. On her way to her bedroom she noticed that it was almost four in the morning, but was determined to learn everything that she could about Deceit. Twilight finally reached the sleeping changeling and cast the spell.

The first thing that Twilight saw was darkness, before a memory started to show. Twilight was standing in the Everfree forest and after looking around she noticed that Deceit was hiding in a bush next to her. She continued to look at the surroundings and saw that some parts of the forest were blurred.

'Those must be the parts that Deceit doesn't remember very clearly.' Twilight thought.

She continued to watch as two ponies walked along a path before Deceit used an illusion of a manticore and a few Timber wolves to scare them away. The illusions weren't very well constructed, but the two ponies were far enough away to not notice and swiftly ran back to where they came from. Twilight watched closely trying to take in as much as she could, before seeing a changeling walk up to Deceit.

"What was that!" The new changeling yelled at him.

"What was what, sir?" Deceit replied with confusion clearly plaster on his face.

"You let them live!"

"Well, yeah! Did you expect me to kill them?!"

"That's what our orders were! The Queen herself told us that if any ponies get close to the base that we have to kill them!" The changeling sighed before continuing, "It doesn't matter now. Come on, we need to report this to the queen."

Twilight kept watching and was taking mental notes on everything that she was seeing, but was slightly surprised when the memory faded out and a new one started up. The memory began with Deceit entering a large room that seemed to be a throne room. The Queen was sitting upon the throne with an annoyed look on her face.

"Are you the changeling that disobeyed me?" She asked.

"Yes, your highness."

"So, You didn't kill them?"

"No! We don't need to just kill any ponies that we come across." Deceit replied but with his own annoyed expression.

"They almost found our hive and then we would need to find a new place to call home!" The Queen replied angrily.

Twilight, realizing that this must have been where Deceit got thrown out, Started feeling awkward.

"But there are better ways to get them to go away then killing them, like using an illusion. It worked for me."

"If we just used illusions to get ponies to leave, then we would be wasting our magic. Killing them is much easier and faster."

The way that the Queen talked about killing so nonchalantly made Twilight sick. She looked over to Deceit to see hints of him feeling sick from it too. 'I guess he was telling the truth...' Twilight thought.

"You're so cold hearted!" Deceit said with a snarl.

"Yeah, I've heard that a few times." The Queen said with a small grin.

Deceit gave a low growl and said, "You're even worse than Queen Chrysalis!"

Suddenly the Queen became very angry and yelled, "I am nothing like that Queen! She may have been desperate, but she was also stupid. No one should try to take over a whole city, and definitely not Canterlot! That’s it, for disobeying orders and insulting your Queen you are banished from this hive for life!”

“You can’t just banish me like that!” Deceit protested.

“Yes I can. In case you already forgot I’m the Queen, and I can banish you because you broke the law and even had the nerve to insult me to my face.” She replied.

Twilight continued to watch and was starting to reconsider coming here in the first place. She wasn't sure if she wanted to continue watching these events unfold, but while Twilight was thinking to herself, she zoned out and only heard somepony say, "...Good luck." before realizing that the memory was changing.

The new memory was of Deceit sitting in a tree while thinking to himself. Since Twilight was in his memories, she could hear Deceit's thoughts as if they were echoing in her head.

‘Let’s see, what are my options? I can just wing it and hope for the best, or I could try to find someplace else that’s in walking distance. Or… I could try to make my own pony. No, that would never work… Or would it?’ He seemed to be so lost in thought that he was pacing back and forth on the branch as Twilight just watched from below. ‘I could choose a fur color and mane color, get a name and a cutie mark and then I’m done. This might work, it might really work!’

Twilight noticed that Deceit was getting hyped up and thought it was kind of cute before noticing that the branch he was standing on was about to break. She wanted to yell out to him but she knew it wouldn't change anything and within a short moment, the branch broke. Twilight just watched as Deceit fell all the way back to the ground.

"Ow... Maybe I should come up with my plans while on the ground." He mumbled into the dirt.

Twilight couldn't help but giggle at Deceit's antics. She watched as he got himself off of the ground and followed him as he limped back to his cave. She listened as he made up the rest of his disguise before he fell asleep. The memory then faded into another new one where Deceit was trying his disguise while looking at his reflection in a pond.

Twilight listened to everything Deceit was thinking about, before following him again. A familiar scream was heard and Twilight followed Deceit into a clearing that showed herself being tangled in some vines. She watched as the wolves backed off from Deceit and was fascinated by everything she was learning about changelings. When she saw herself, Twilight started blushing at how she acted.

'Why didn't I just teleport out of the vines!!!' She mentally screamed.

The memory faded out again and the next one showed Deceit walking around his cave in search of the wolves. Twilight also noticed that her unconscious body was on the ground, before Deceit started a small fire and scooted her over to it. She smiled at how kind Deceit was being to her.

As the memory skipped ahead again, Twilight couldn't help but notice that the memories seemed to be going by faster and faster and with each change, the memory would be blurrier. 'The spell must be wearing off. I'll need to hurry and see if there's anything that I missed.' She thought to herself.

Twilight watched as the memory changed to Deceit walking into the post office and saw that Ditzy was getting yelled at. Twilight watched as Ditzy's boss continued to yell at her as Deceit walked over and asked what's going on. When the boss left, Twilight saw that Ditzy was crying and Deceit started comforting her and promised to help her. The memory then faded once more.

Twilight knew that she would be kicked out of Deceit's head soon, but this last memory was unsettling to say the least. Twilight appeared next to Deceit and watched as he stalked Ditzy's boss. The two of them seemed to be on top of a roof and Deceit was undisguised. She was starting to think her suspicious might be true and could only keep watching as Deceit injected the pony with something before the pony was unconscious.

Twilight then watched as Deceit talked to the pony, that was now tied up, while hiding in the shadows. He talked about giving Ditzy another chance and how it wasn't her fault for losing some of the mail. She was actually surprised at how much Deceit was putting up for Ditzy.

'I guess he really is good. Although, I am going to have a talk with him about his way of dealing with these types of things.' Twilight finally thought while the spell wore off and she was brought back to the real world.

Finally as Twilight was returned to her own body, she realized how tired she was, so she crawled up onto her bed, snuggled under the blankets and fell asleep.

Author's Note:

I hope this chapter doesn't come across as lazy or anything for pretty much retelling my previous chapters. I know that near the end the descriptions of everything get a lot less detailed, but I felt like if I detailed everything then this chapter would be way too long. Also, you might have noticed that I got cover art for this! yay! I made it myself and I know that it kind of sucks, but it's better than nothing. Tell me if I made any mistakes anywhere and let me know what you think.