A Change of Pace

by Votederpycausemufins

Train Ride

It had taken a relatively short time to get situated on the train. Twilight had used her royal status to get a car all to themselves. Once they were allowed to move around the car again after the train left the station, Cicada immediately got up to look around the car. Lila had already started to fly around as well, not really caring that they were supposed to be in some sort of seated position when the train started moving.

“Wow, you act like you’ve never been on a train before!” Pinkie said to Cicada.

“Yeah, that’s because I haven’t. We mostly use them for goods. Ponies use them more for self travel.”

“I’m glad you seem to be enjoying yourself.” Fluttershy told the Queen.

“It is kind of nice not to have to worry all the time about things like war for once. It gives me a chance to be the kid I never really got the chance to be. Instead of having to stay strong and make sure everyone knows what to do, I get to relax and have a bit of fun. Who knows, maybe this short bit of relaxation is all I really need and when I get home, I can finally defeat Empress Twilight.”

“And what will you do after that?” Rainbow asked.

Cicada stopped exploring the car to think of her answer. “I’m not fully sure. I mean, it would be bad for me to make all the ponies leave Equestria since it wasn’t really them who have been the cause of the war. More likely just put the ponies who were really at fault on trial.”

“But what then? What about all your changelings?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well you’ll be ruling again, so they’ll take the chance and start doing whatever ponies were doing to them.”

“I’ll make sure they try to treat each other more like equals. Anything less would be enough for me to come and try and fix.”

“Right… you would personally go to every place where a pony and changeling were arguing to fix whatever problem they had.”

Cicada’s wings buzzed a bit as she scrunched up her face in anger at the blue pegasus. “Well of course I couldn’t do that! It’s going to be tough enough as it is with how changelings have been treated by ponies for the past few year. We had tried to work on that before, but then something happened between my mom and Celestia. I at least have some good experience with ponies after they turned on us because of Selena.”

“Who’s that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Celestia’s younger sister.”

“Don’tcha mean Luna?”

“No… Did she keep that name here? Because she changed it in my Equestria after coming to help us.”

“Yeah! She’s still Princess Luna here. But I bet if everything works out you’ll still get to be friends here!” Pinkie Pie said to the queen.

“Yeah… hopefully that’s the case. I’d hate for me to get to see her and have her be too different for what I know. It would be heartbreaking.” Cicada took a few seconds to think before adding. “Wait… everything seems to be the reverse here. She’s not evil or anything, is she?”

“She used to be, but we helped fix her!” Pinkie responded as she bounced towards the door of the car. “I’m going to go get some food from the diner car. Anypony want to join me?”

“I’ll follow you darling. Not much else to do around here that I can think of.” Rarity answered.

“I think I’ll come too."

"Could one of you bring something back for Lila and I? Anything small like a few crackers would do."

Fluttershy was the one to turn back and nod her head in response, making Cicada smile. There was an awkward silence in the moments after the small group left the train car. Finally, Cicada spoke up.

"Would you stop glaring at me like I'm about to attack you?" she said, turning to Rainbow.

"No."

"And why's that?"

"Because I for one, don't really believe you."

"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Ya don't have to treat her like a villain before ya know her that much."

"Well she's a changeling isn't she?"

"I'm right here you know! And by your logic, I should have tried killing you when we first met. But guess what? I didn't! So why don't I get the same privileges?"

"Stop you two!" Twilight called out. "Seriously Rainbow, this is worse than when you and Applejack compete." She turned to the orange mare. "No offense."

"Don't worry 'bout it. Ah'd say that it called for it."

"Are you two seriously going to believe her?" Rainbow started.

Cicada thought she heard the pegasus continue her argument, but her mind drifted to envision how her sister might be doing. She pictured Nymph in the same room she had before. This time she seemed to look thinner than earlier during the party when the queen had zone out and imagined her then.

'She needs love, and fast! She'll starve within the day without it!' Cicada thought before she returned to the train. There she found Applejack waving her hoof in front of her.

"You okay there? Ya kinda zoned out for a minute there."

"Yeah sorry. Just remembering how bad a situation my sister is probably in right now. Are we almost to Canterlot yet?"

She got another angry glare from Rainbow Dash, most likely for dropping their previous conversation. Before Twilight could answer Cicada's question, Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy returned from the food car. Lila instantly swooped down from where she had been pretending to be asleep and grabbed one of the crackers Fluttershy brought back. It briefly startled the timid pegasus, but she quickly recovered and gave the rest of the crackers she brought back to Cicada.

"We should arrive in Canterlot in about an hour or so." Twilight finally answered. "Which reminds me, you might want to try and disguise yourself for when we're in Canterlot. Ponies there are less likely to be welcoming to changelings than the ones you met in Ponyville."

"I think I can do that, but it'd probably be easier if she left for a little bit." Cicada answered, nodding her head toward Rainbow Dash.

"You can't be serious!"

"Can you maybe just leave for a few minutes? Please?" Fluttershy asked her friend.

"Fine!" Rainbow sighed before zooming out of the room.

The changeling queen gave a small sigh of relief before concentrating.

'A horn would probably be best, so I can ditch the wings for now. I can just make my eyes look like normal pony ones, so no need to change their color. Maybe I can get my coat to be a nice cream color. And purple would be a nice color for a mane.'

Cicada let her magical fire surround her before she changed how she looked. Looking down at herself, she saw her disguise had worked for the most part.

'Alright, my coat is a bit darker that I hoped for. My mane didn't really change at all that I can tell. Wings?' She felt her back, but there was nothing there. She also felt her horn to make sure it was like a normal unicorn's horn, which it was. 'Good! As long as my eyes are fine, I think this is good enough.'

"How's this?" She asked the ponies in the car.

"What about your cutiemark?" Pinkie asked.

'Shoot! Forgot about that!' Cicada thought. Before making a burst of fireworks appear on her flank.

"How's that? You can call me Fireworks."

"How about Sparkleworks?" Pinkie suggested.

"No." Cicada deadpanned.

"Well, if that's all, I'm going to find Rainbow to tell her she can come back." Twilight started. "I might be a while because I'm going to see I can find Spike too."

"That's right!" Cicada exclaimed. "Where has he been?"

"Spike met up with Pony Joe on the train. He works in Canterlot and the two of them became buddies before we moved to Ponyville. Spike told me they were going to catch up and he'd find us later, but I think it's been long enough now."
With that, Twilight left. Within a few minutes, Rainbow Dash was back in the train car. She took a few seconds to look at Cicada’s disguise.

“Eh, doesn’t look that different.”

“I just need to look like a pony! Though I did want to have my mane be purple instead of deep sea green.”

“Might have been an improvement.”

“I don’t need any snarky comments.”

“It was not snarky.”

“Eh, might’ve been Dash.” Applejack commented.

“Whatever. I’m just glad we’re almost there.”

“And for once,” Cicada started. “I can agree with you.”

---

Nymph jumped in shock as the door slammed open.

“And how are you feeling today?” Twilight asked her. “Ready to open that portal I presume?”

“Of course not!” Nymph spat at her. “Wouldn’t if I could.”

“What do you mean by that.”

“I mean, even if I wanted to help you by casting the portal spell, I can’t. I barely have enough energy to move around.”

The empress frowned. “I thought you would survive longer than the other changelings with you being royal and all. I even made sure you got better food than the others that end up in these cells. Now here you are telling me you don’t have enough energy to move? I find that very unlikely.”

“I’ve had plenty to eat and drink, there’s just one thing your forgetting. I’m a changeling!” Nymph exclaimed, wincing a bit afterwards.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m still hungry. While we can eat and drink anything a normal pony could, that’s not how we survive. I’m starving because I don’t have enough love.”

“Love? You’re starving from not enough love? You’re kidding right?”

“No. Changeling feed on emotions. Love is the best source. In fact, all I get around here are negative emotions, which is actually starving me more than none at all. Emotions are wired into our systems so much, some of us are empaths. Listen… I think I’ve got until the end of the day unless you change something for the good. So unless you don’t want that portal, I suggest you fix that.”

Twilight thought for a minute. “Fine. Normally I wouldn’t trust anything your kind has to say, but seeing as I have seen almost every other changeling I’ve caught only last a few days at most, I’m trusting you this once.”

“Why not trust us all the time. I think I can still remember some of the times I saw you visit with Celest-”

“Don’t speak her name, changeling! Besides, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think you do.”

“Enough! I will return later.”

“That’s fine by me.” Nymph said as Twilight slammed the door again behind her.

The changeling collapsed on the floor, exhausted from the act she had put up for Twilight, before she started to cry herself to sleep, hoping her sister was okay.

Author's Note:

alright! back from vacation, almost caught a seagull, think my writing style changed for that last scene somehow... yep, i'm good!
oh, and i made artwork of how 'Fireworks' looks
reminder that Cicada looks like this normally:

Comments

[Starcat5]

Last.

Edit: But in all seriousness, I can hardly wait for Cicada to see how xenophobic Mama Cheese Legs is in the Mane Six timeline.

Also? Empress Twilight is an idiot. That is all.

[The Great Derpsby]

"I'm right here you know! And by your logic, I should have tried killing you when we first met. But guess what? I didn't! So why don't I get the same privileges?"

Because you kinda did. You shot at Twilight and Pinkie when you first met 'em.