Chapter 8: No one...
I noticed that I was fidgeting nervously again, and took a deep breath to steady myself.
I'm sure Pinkie's fine. They sent the list ahead, and it said she was on that train. There's no way it could be wrong, right?
A hundred scenarios where it could be wrong tried to cram their way into my mind, from Pinkie being brainwashed by Chrysalis to the changelings developing new disguise magic that let them slip a fake on-board.
I've already been over all of that! I'll deal with any problems IF they come up!
Another deep breath. The train had just rolled into the Ponyville station.
Waiting and worrying is always so hard. Why did she take the train so suddenly, without letting anyone but Rainbow Dash know?! Oh, sure, Dash let the rest us know, but not in time for me to stop her!
The cultural exchange program had been working according to plan so far. The fact that it was a two-way program wasn't being widely advertised, and most ponies weren't willing to face the potential danger of a changeling hive, anyway.
It had been going perfectly, in fact, except for Pinkie.
The changelings aren't even allowed out of Canterlot and Manehattan without explicit invitation by one of Celestia's subjects! But that restriction might as well not exist when you invite literally 'everybuggy' to Ponyville for an 'exchangeling extravaganza'!
I was a little irritated about it, but if anything it seemed to make the exchange program work even better. The changelings were more hesitant to leave after such a warm welcome.
Hopefully, or so the plan went, they would demand better living conditions at home as a result.
Now that Pinkie's gone on the exchange, though, more ponies are showing interest in visiting the Hive. That's not the end of the world, but it's dangerous! What if the changelings hurt or brainwash somepony?!
I had to take another deep breath as I watched passengers disembark. A good half of them were changelings, while the rest were just ponies coming from Canterlot. Seeing a half-dozen more changelings walk into Ponyville made me nervous, though I tried not to let it show.
At least all of them are being magically disenchanted to reveal disguises, and we're keeping careful records of who is where. It's not much, but-
Laughter! I recognized Pinkie's high-pitched giggling over the clamor of disembarking passengers, and rushed down the train to see her.
I watched her bounce off the train merrily, but ground to a halt immediately.
What's Queen Chrysalis doing here?! And...
Queen Chrysalis. Was giggling. With Pinkie Pie.
My brain ground to a halt, much like I had a moment before.
I am looking at something that makes no sense.
I closed my eyes in hopes that the world would realize its mistake and fix it before I opened them. It didn't. It got worse. Now Chrysalis was bouncing up and down with Pinkie while they both talked excitedly about... something.
I couldn't really follow it, what with how they were speaking on two times normal speed, and my brain had gone to half.
Roll with it! Make sure Pinkie's okay!
I shook my head and trotted towards them, all full of determination.
Okay, Chrysalis' mane is orange. Why is it orange? Wait... that kinda looks familiar...
And then it hit me. The Friendship Duplicate had had orange hair!
But that spell should have expired months ago! Unless Chrysalis found a way to extend it... or this is Chrysalis in disguise, just like she did when we signed the treaty!
Yes! Now I knew what the two possibilities were! I could work with this!
“Welcome back, Pinkie! How was your- GAH!”
“TWILIGHTI'msohappytobeback YOU HAVE TO MEET mynewfriend CHEERY she's my BESTESTBUGBUDDYEVER andyoutwoaregoingtohavesomuchFUNtogether!”
Pinkie followed up that nearly-incomprehensible burst with giggling and a snort, which my brain – now enhanced, I am certain, by Pinkie – decided was a 'gigglesnort'.
“Uhh... right! Er, Pinkie, would you mind coming to the library with me? We need to talk.”
“Ooh, yeah! Good idea! We can show Cheery right to the center of the town to start with!”
I groaned internally. That meant 'Cheery' – wasn't it Cheersalis before?... on second thought, yikes, I could see why they would shorten that.
Er, that meant Cheery would be coming with us, and talking to Pinkie in private would be a lot more difficult.
“Oh, uh, right! Come on, Cheery!”
We trotted quickly to the center of town. I tried to block out Pinkie's incessant rambling about everything Ponyville on the way there and concentrate on the challenge at hand, but Cheery soon got excited and came out of her shell.
Oh Celestia. Now there are two of them.
I resigned myself to figuring out the problem when I got peace and quiet, and got us to the library. I almost ran up and opened it with my hooves, but then a better idea occurred to me.
“After you, girls!”
Pinkie and Cheery went on inside, completely oblivious to the discrete scanning spell I cast on Cheery on their way in.
Score! Now I know what's going on!
I followed Pinkie and 'Cheery' inside, shutting the door behind me. Pinkie was running around the library rambling about all of the interesting books there – I was flattered, honestly – completely oblivious to the danger.
No one was going to hurt my friends. I thought of Rainbow Dash and felt full of determination – and anger.
Pinkie glanced at 'Cheery' while holding up a book – All About Equestria, I noted – and went wide-eyed as she saw me behind her, my horn already incandescent with energy.
No one!
Before Pinkie could say anything, my magic flared outwards, causing a brilliant white flash. For a second, I couldn't even see.
Did it work?!
I shook my head to clear my vision, and looked around. It had worked! 'Cheery' was held down to her knees by glowing violet chains of magic. I immediately restrained Pinkie with my magic aura, trotting forward to come between her and 'Cheery'.
“Twilight?! What are you doing?!”
“Pinkie! She's not who you think she is! Hold still, I need to make sure you haven't been brainwashed!”
Pinkie tried to object, but I cut her off with another flash from my horn. The aura around Pinkie rippled, but I didn't feel any disturbances associated with mental magic.
Just conventional trickery, then!
I whirled on 'Cheery', who was watching Pinkie wide-eyed. When I glared down at her, she glanced over to me, and I saw perfectly justified terror form behind her eyes. Mess with a princess, you get the horn!
… I probably need to work on better catch phrases.
“Give it up, Chrysalis! I've seen through your disguise!”
“Twilight, that's not Chrysalis, it's-”
“She's lied to you! She's-”
“I'M NOT CHRYSALIS!”
I jumped from the volume of her shout. But if she thought discombobulating me like that would-
She's crying?
She was hysterical!
“I'm not!
I'm not!
I am NOT... don't call me that!”
My skin felt like ice.
“I don't... I'm me!”
“But...”
“I KNOW I'M NOT A REAL PERSON! Just... can I keep pretending?”
She started sobbing uncontrollably again. I felt like a burning lump of coal had landed in my stomach.
I dully felt something brush up against me. I guess I sat down at some point.
Pinkie's voice came as a whisper to my ear, “I told you, she's not... please don't bully her, Twilight.”
Pinkie brushed past me and trotted over to the sobbing mare on the floor of my library.
I've learned a lot of things over the years. One of the most important things is to know when you might have made a mistake.
“Just a- *hic* - little longer...”
“Shh, it'll be alright, Cheery.”
Accept it quickly. Double check your work. If you made a mistake, fix it. It may have been impossible for her to be telling the truth...
But I trotted up to her to cast the spell anyway. I felt numb, and wanted to get the grim business over with as quickly as possible.
Pinkie jumped between us, shielding Cheery bodily, standing on her hind legs with her front hooves in out to her sides, like she expected me to try to push past her.
“What are you going to do now, Twilight?!”
Another friend was angry with me because I tried to protect them. I couldn't muster up the energy to be upset at that moment.
“I was going to scan her, to verify her claims. I can't accept what she says without being sure.”
Pinkie's going to object again, and I'm going to have to argue with her over it... Why is she so protective of-
“I'M NOT... I'M NOT CHRYSALIS!"
Pinkie staggered a bit to the side as the library shook from the volume of Cheery's shout. I saw her horn glowing, already incandescent with energy.
It was... pink? Her horn and eyes were both glowing pink!
What IS that? That's not normal magic!
I watched in a mix of horror and fascination as the aura wrapped around her horn and started sliding down her body, taking on streaks of red and orange. Pinkie leapt up in horror, and started waving her hooves frantically and shouting, “CHEERY! CHEERY! Don't! You said it was really dangerous!”
Transformation magic. She wasn't doing it right, either. I had seen changelings transform, but this wasn't a changeling transformation.
It wasn't even changeling magic. She was just trying to use it that way.
Pinkie ran over to Cheery, who had a look of fierce concentration etched over her face. She was glaring daggers at nothing in particular, before she screwed her eyes closed in focus and the aura covered her face.
I watched the chains break away as the aura covered her whole body, a mix of pink, orange and crimson. I had already started channeling energy to my horn, in case something went wrong, and I had to try to assist her.
Or contain an explosion. I shivered at the thought.
I never meant to cause something like this...
And then, just like that, the aura zipped off of Cheery's body and back into her horn, and winked out of existence.
Pinkie gasped. I felt my eyes widen and my own breath catch. Cheery had certainly transformed! I mentally noted differences as I took in what that meant.
She was shorter than before, and all of her limbs had shrunk in proportion, making her only slightly larger than the average pony. Her fangs had grown larger, though, and now stuck out of her mouth slightly even with her mouth closed.
I hadn't noticed before that Chrysalis' fangs don't do that...
A more rounded, slightly shorter muzzle. Her 'crown' had split into two small antennae with a single bulb each. No holes in the limbs or wings.
The horn still had two bends in it, but they were wavy and subtle – I wondered what that meant for her magic – and had the spiral pattern on it that I associate with unicorns. It was smaller, too – no longer than Rarity's.
Her mane was still in the same windswept pattern I had seen it in before – I noted dully that it was remniscent of Dash's manecut, though it looked more wild and curly – but it had turned shock white, along with her tail!
Did something go wrong?
She gasped for air, and staggered, trying to flutter her wings for support. That's when I saw them.
Her... her wings! They're ruined!
Cheery slipped to the floor as her wings, now leathery and shock-white like her mane, moved sluggishly. They were far too small for her body, only covering half of the space her former wings had.
Cheery looked up at me, weakly. “I'm not...”
“I know. I know now.”
I heard Spike come into the room from upstairs. “Twilight? What was all that yell-"
“Spike. I need you to take a letter.”
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Not sure why did you make it as different story especially that some authours write longer chapters than your story right now :D
5507121 The reasons for the separation should become apparent soon - if they aren't already.
Well, and except for the changelings that are wondering why no ponies are visiting them
Well, last I checked, Pinkie Pie is one of Celestia's subjects
Um. so the narrator isn't Twilight, then? Because she should know Cheersalis...
Wait, what? Expire?
Hoboy. That went south fast.
Remind me... what is she princess of, again?
Woah. Looks like this story will be about Cheery finding her own identity, then? Innnnteresting!
One remark:
> as the aura wrapped around her horn and started sliding her,
"and started sliding her"? That sounds... strange.
5531664 Typo fixed, thanks for pointing that out!
I admit, at first I misread "the changelings developing new disguise magic that let them slip a fake on-board" as "the changelings developing new disguise magic that let them slip on a fake beard." Let's hope I'm a bit more lucid for the rest of the story.
Oh. Oh, Twilight. You know what they say, once imprisoned in an abandoned mine, twice shy. I understand why she did what she did, but it's still sad to see her jump to conclusions like this. Hopefully, with Pinkie's testimony, she'll realize that her beef is mostly with Chrysalis. Assuming Pinkie will ever speak to her again.
Okay, that's a pretty safe assumption; this is Pinkie we're talking about. Still, Twilight done goofed. At least she's immediately taking steps to rectify said goof.
5531664 Twilight is, of course, Princess of Friendship, Books, and Teleporting To Conclusions. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Emoticons/misc_TwilightWut.png
What the hell Twilight?!?!?! See meet Cheery before and now That? She literally made Mods to the spell with Celestia blessing that Chrysalis uses later to bring Friendship to the Hive! WTF was that attack about? Twilight seem to be the villan or biggest retarded hypocritic here...
Twilight seem to be a retarded hypocritic backstabing Bitch in the chapter...