I Am Hikaru

by cutedash55

Chapter Three

“Time to get up, sleepyhead!”

Hikaru yawned and stretched, asking, ”Morning already?”

“Yup! Come on! If we want to get to the nearby village in seven hours, we can’t get lazy!” Twilight was strangely giddy today. To her friends this was normal because they would know that she had never led a group of ponies across the wilderness before, but to the group of changelings who had never even left the badlands before now, her behavior was completely alien.

Hikaru groaned inwardly before hoisting herself to her hooves and trudging over to the nearby river and beginning her morning routine. She dived headfirst into the water, moving silently and gracefully in the water. She surfaced a few moments later with her mane matted to her neck. She trotted up the banks of the river, the water streaming off her and used a drying spell, quickly returning to her former state.

Twilight was happily scrubbing her coat with a makeshift soap and got a little curious about a changeling’s physiology. It seemed that a changeling might be hindered by the holes in their legs when swimming, but Hikaru proved that theory wrong when she dived into the water a few minutes ago. It seemed that a changeling’s chitin was naturally made for water and the holes didn’t hurt their swimming style one bit.

Then she noticed that even though Asher was supposed to be part of the royal changeling family, he looked like a regular changeling nymph. Twilight decided to ask Hikaru about how a changeling could swim so well and the two ended up talking about this the entire way to the village. Twilight expressed surprise when Hikaru told her that despite the fact that changelings are insectoid, they are naturally made for water.

Some of them could even glide across the water like dragonflies! Then they got to how a changeling flew. Hikaru told her how a changeling is not that fast in the air. The holes in their legs actually slow them down instead of helping them. It was very rare to find a changeling that could fly fast.

Before they knew it, the village Twilight had talked about came into view and their conversation about changeling physiology came to a stop.

“We better stay here,” Hikaru said stopping a few hundred tail lengths away from the community. “I don’t think a village full of ponies would react too well if three changelings came into town.” Asher and Terra nodded in agreement. Even Asher was aware of the danger of going into the community.

Twilight was a little reluctant when she was told this, but she decided that Hikaru was right and went into town by herself.

Like she expected them to, the townspeople rejoiced at her arrival and was met with a surprise she didn’t expect. Two blurs, one pink with darker pink hair and one cyan blue with rainbow-colored hair tackled her the moment she set hoof in the town.

“Twilight!”

The mentioned pony struggled to get her bearings after this event and when she did, she asked, ”Girls! What are you all doing here?”

Rarity was the first to answer.

“We were staring to get worried when you didn’t come home after a few days, so we decided to take a trip to the town nearest the badlands.”

“What happened to you? Did they take you hostage?” pressed Rainbow Dash.

Twilight pulled herself to her legs and said, “I’m perfectly fine. They didn’t take me hostage or anything. In fact, the changelings weren’t the problem!”

All five mares replied to this with a confused ‘huh?’ and asked more questions about the subject.

“When we were discussing the treaty, a clan of dragons that also happened to hate the changelings decided to ‘drop in.’”

With this, Twilight dove into an epic tale about survival with danger abound and it had the girls hanging on to the edge of their seats. They asked questions like, ‘What did you after the dragons attacked?’ and ‘You really slept in a hole to escape dragons?’ When she finished the tale, the other mares were all standing around her in uncertainty.

“What’s wrong? You don’t believe me?”

Applejack stepped up and said, “We aren’t so sure what yer sayin’ is yer words.”

“What?!”
` “I’m just sayin’ that we can’t be too sure. How do we know ya haven’t been hypnotized, like Shining Armor was at the weddin’?”

“What I’m telling you is completely true! I saw all of this happen with my own eyes!”

They still looked at her with uncertainty.

“If you don’t believe me, then I can prove it!”

Twilight projected her memories onto a screen using a spell she invented herself. This proved that word for word Twilight was really telling the truth. Only Twilight and the Princesses would be able to use a spell as accurately as she could.

“Okay, so you are telling the truth. But how do we know this isn’t some kind of set up?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Are you kidding me?! What kind of pony orders a clan of dragons to attack her own home and burn it to the ground?!”

“Touche. Well, where are they, anyway?”

“They’re just outside of town. You need to be careful, though. One of them is only a colt.“

Twilight signaled for them to follow her and soon, after a few minutes, a little clearing off the edge of the town appeared. Hikaru and Terra were engaged in a conversation and Asher was busy playing with Hikaru’s tail. When the group of strange ponies appeared, however, Asher almost immediately jumped behind Hikaru and the mentioned pony and Terra stopped their conversation.

While Hikaru and the girls introduced themselves, Asher nervously began peering around Hikaru’s legs. A monarch butterfly soon landed on his nose and it tickled it. He quietly sneezed and began to pursue the butterfly. He chased it around the clearing before stopping behind a rock. Slowly, his large blue eyes peered over the rock. He narrowed them in determination, bunching up his muscles to prepare for the winning pounce.

Suddenly and quickly, Asher lunged over the rock and triumphantly planted his hooves over the butterfly. When he lifted his hooves, the butterfly had seemingly vanished into thin air. Disappointed, his ears lowered to the side of his head. Soon, he felt something land on the tiny hump that was his horn. He lifted his eyes and found it to be the butterfly that he was pursuing. With renewed confidence, Asher resumed the game of cat and mouse with the orange insect.

Meanwhile, the girls’ conversation had turned gone from introductions to the hierarchy of the Changeling Kingdom.

“I’m confused as to why the changelings have queens and kings when their culture is based upon Japonese culture. Didn’t they have emperors and empresses?” said Rarity.

“Well, yes, but the Early Kingdom had to have some differences with the Japonese. We didn’t want to completely copy them.”

“What happens to changeling queens when they stop being queens, anyway? Do you get rid of them or something?” asked Rainbow Dash with a tone of nonchalance. Twilight frowned at her and began to scold her for such a rude remark, but Hikaru stopped her and responded with, “It’s alright. When a queen or a king retires, they become part of the Council of Elders until they die.”

Twilight, interested, sat down and began to take notes in her head.

“The Council of Elders is a group of the oldest and wisest changelings in the kingdom. They usually serve as advisors to the King or Queen, and in times of dire situations, they can even override a King or Queen’s commands. Akuma, was going to be an Elder in two years.”

“Who is this ‘Akuma?’ I’ve heard you mention him before.” asked Twilight with curiosity.

“He’s my uncle. But I don’t really know him. Every time I tried to talk to him, he was always bitter and cold when he talked, so I decided that it would be better if I just kept my distance. I think it had something to do with the fact that my mother was chosen for ruler instead of him.”

“Do you think he was the one that bribed the dragons to attack the kingdom?”

“Akuma would never stoop to something that low! He may have been angry at my mother, but Akuma was the best general the kingdom had and was extremely devoted to it.”

Rarity turned and looked at the sun’s position in the sky while Hikaru and the rest of the Mane Six tried figure out who would betray the empire.

“It’s almost sundown! We’d better hurry to the station before the sun starts to set.”

The other mares agreed, but when they turned to leave, they noticed that the changelings didn’t move to go with them.

“You’re not coming?”asked Twilight.

“I don’t think three changelings would be welcome in a town so close to Canterlot. Besides, if Asher was there, I don’t think he could handle all the taunting from the colts and fillies living there. He’s so used to getting respect from those around him.”

The girls looked at each other and Twilight said, “Nobody said you have to be a changeling to go to Ponyville.”

Taken aback, Hikaru responded with, “Are you suggesting that we use shape shifting? What if someone finds out?”

“No one will find out if you only revert to true form in private. You’ll just have to be careful about who sees you.”

Hikaru ran all the pros and cons through before deciding that she would give it a try. And so she took the form of a more equine-like version of herself. Terra and Asher followed suit and after a few minutes, they set off through town to the station, completely unaware of the canine like figures that watched silently in the background.

Comments

[cutedash55]

I forgot to add an author's note! Again!

[cutedash55]

Notice: this story will be on hiatus until I can figure out how to banish this accursed writer's block period!

Sincerely,
cutedash55