Two Faced
*Time skip - one week since Lightning and Scootaloo met*
The wind blew through Ponyville at a steady pace, bringing with it the distinct chill of the coming storm. The rainy season was just setting in and with how things looked, most everyone would be gathered inside today.
Lightning was at the front door of her home, staring out at the growing storm the weather ponies were stirring up. Her shift would come soon, but she needed to take care of a few things before she left. One being her daughter that would be home alone for several hours as she worked.
The rose coated mare turned to the living room where said filly was working on the homework she’d gotten from school that day. “Scoots, I’ll be back when my shifts over. Dinners in the kitchen, and don’t even think of eating any junk food while I’m gone.”
Amethyst eyes rolled as Scootaloo turned her head in her mother’s direction. “I know, mom. You say the same thing whenever you have a late shift.”
Lightning huffed a bit at her daughter’s response. “Because if I don’t, you’ll load up on sweets, and I’ll have to clean up the mess.”
The orange coated filly had the decency to look embarrassed as Lightning spoke. “It was one time! It’s not my fault Pinkie gave us those leftovers from the party.”
Lightning shook her head with a small grin. “No one said you had to eat them all in one sitting either.”
Scootaloo just rolled her eyes and focused on her homework, “Whatever. Love you, mom, be safe.”
Lightning trotted out the door giving a quick, “Love you too,” before closing the door and heading off for her shift.
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As Lightning flew above the cloud line, she looked around before quickly shooting off toward the northern end of Ponyville. Her shift was coming up, but what she hadn’t told Scootaloo was that it wasn’t for another two hours. Plenty of time to do what I need too.
Her flight brought her to a simple brick building. She landed behind some nearby bushes, and scanned the area. Just as she’d hoped, with the storm coming, everyone had elected to stay inside. With a quick, almost unnoticeable flash, her appearance had changed to that of an older earth stallion. A plain brown coat and graying, sandy mane replaced her earlier form. The last change was her cutie mark morphing into a notepad. Disguise in place, she strode through the building’s front door.
As she walked the halls of the building, she kept her eyes pealed for a specific door. If I remember right it should be down this hall and on the left next to the stairs. Ah! There it is. Lightning smirked as she found the door marked -Records- and entered.
After a few minutes of searching, the disguised mare couldn’t find what she was after, and was getting a little tense. Where is it? Gah! Over half of these aren’t even dated, and the other half seems to just be shoved in here! As her search became more frantic, the door creaked as another pony came in.
The unexpected visitor was a middle aged mare with a lime green coat and an orange mane tied into a bun. Her brows rose above the rims of her glasses as she spotted the other occupant of the room. “Mr. Notes? I didn’t think you’d be in today.”
Lightning, or in this case, Notes, turned with a relaxed smile on his face and greeted the mare “Hello Miss Quills. Yes, I needed a few documents, and I can’t seem to find them. Would you help me please? If I don’t get home before the storm hits, my wife’ll have my head.”
Miss Quills chuckled and walked further into the record room. “Sure I can help. Wouldn’t want you in the dog house with judge Mercy would we? What document number was it?”
The disguised Notes gave a short laugh “Yes, I’d rather not be on her bad side. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking, marrying a judge, but she’s a fine mare. The number was seven eighty six I think.”
Quills nodded before quickly shuffling a few boxes and looking through one near the bottom of a stack. After some flipping and ruffling of papers, the lime coated mare gave a little hum of approval and turned to the waiting stallion. “Here you go, Mr. Notes. I swear if I didn’t check where things were in here every few days, I’d be as lost as you were. That new clerk needs to do some serious reorganizing.”
Lightning took the offered files and sat them on her back before turning back to the helpful mare and nodding in thanks. “I agree, and thanks again for the help. Be sure and get home before it starts pouring to heavy out there.”
Quills waved as the false Notes trotted away “Will do. Say hello to Mercy for me.”
Once outside, and after doing a quick look around, Lightning flashed back to the form of the mare known as Scootaloo’s, mother and zoomed back to her street. Placing the files in her mailbox, she raced back to the area her where shift mates would arrive and and notice only one or two others were present.
She flew beside a pegasus stallion she knew, and tapped his shoulder. “Hey Blitz, how much time we got before our shift starts?”
Blitz turned to face her, and scratched his head “About fifteen minutes I think.”
Lightning nodded and thanked her coworker before giving herself a mental pat on the back. I was worried I couldn’t get this done in time, but looks like I’m living up to my name. One thing left for today, but I’ll have to wait till after my shift.
As Lightning went over her mental to do list, more of her shift showed up and they got an early start on making sure the storm was forming properly. All the while the disguised changeling kept her main goal at the forefront of her thoughts. If she could pull this off without a hitch no one would be the wiser.
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Once her shift was over, Lightning flew the the west of Ponyville and followed a well worn path leading into the surrounding Everfree forest. Lightning was thankful for the thick canopy of the forest, as it blocked a good portion of the rain that was, by now, falling in sheets.
Traveling a few minutes on her route brought her to a hut built beside a large tree. The rose coated mare approached the door and knocked. A moment later, the home’s sole resident stood in the entryway with a welcoming smile. “Ah, Lightning right this way. Your order is ready, if you’ve the bits to pay.”
Lightning chuckled as she followed the zebra inside her home. The disguised pegasus had come to Zecora a few days ago for a specific blend of herbs she needed to take care of something. “Thanks again Zecora, and yes I’ve got the twenty bits.”
The zebra nodded and took a leather pouch from a shelf and placed it in Lightnings waiting hoof while the pegasus tossed a small bag of bits onto a nearby table.
“You didn’t have any trouble finding these did you?”
Zecora shook her head “This specific blend was different for sure. But it was nothing I could not endure. Although, I’ve never heard of this mixture before. Might I ask what it’s for?”
Lightning tucked the bag under her wing before answering. “It’s an old family recipe. It just helps get rid of pests.”
The zebra rose a brow at this “I hate to contradict what you say, but this blend of herbs won’t work that way.”
Lightning chuckled “Not the way I use it trust me.”
Zecora looked skeptical, but shrugged a second later. “Then I shall trust your words. It’s not the strangest thing I have heard.”
Lightning only nodded before waving a farewell and galloping back home. With the pouch under her wing, she couldn’t fly and she wasn’t about to get the contents of the pouch wet for fear of ruining the effects the herbs would have.
Once home, Lightning took shelter under the small awning above her door. Shaking off as much water as she could, the rose coated pegasus took the files she’d stored in the mailbox and headed inside. Scootaloo seemed to have gone to bed, so Lightning put the items she carried in a safe spot in her room before taking a hot shower and getting into bed herself.
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The next day, the first shift on the weather team had disassembled the storm. But instead of clearing the clouds completely, they’d left quite a few around, making the day overcast, but this way when they needed to gather more, which would be in a few days if they stayed on schedule, the storm team wouldn’t have to gather as many.
The many free floating clouds were perfect for what Lighting had planned today. Today she was giving Scootaloo a flying lesson. Said filly was standing on a cloud about a mile or so above the ground. Lightning was beside her, giving some simple tips on what to do.
“So like I said, instead of buzzing your wings, like you do on your scooter, you need to flap down then raise your wings at an angle so there’s no up push. Otherwise, you’ll just be pushing yourself down.” After her short lecture Lightning jumped off the cloud and hovered a few feet from it. “Now give it a go, kiddo.”
The filly’s amethyst eyes peered over the edge of the cloud. She wasn’t scared of heights, but for this being her first real world test flight, she was a bit nervous. “You’ll catch me right? If I fall?”
Lightning gave the little pegasus a reassuring smile “Course I will. But I’m sure you’ll get it real quick.”
Scootaloo nodded and took a deep breath before readying her wings. She went over what her mom had said, and then leapt of the cloud.
As the orange filly began to freefall, she beat her wings and gained a bit of lift, but she was still falling. She tried harder, but it seemed that little changed. She was about to panic when she remembered what her mom had told her on the way to her lesson: Concentrate on seeing yourself flying and it’ll happen.
Scootaloo gritted her teeth and began flapping her wings as hard as she could. When she was about a few hundred feet of the ground, she felt her decent slowing. Then she arched her body and made a smooth curve upwards. She evened herself out, and she almost couldn’t believe it.
She was flying? She was flying!
“Yes, I did it! Woah!” In her excitement, she wobbled a bit and lost height. She focused again, and got control back.
“I knew you’d get it.”
Scootaloo looked to her side and Lightning was floating alongside her with a proud smile on her face. Scootaloo beamed so wide she thought she’d never stop and just nodded.
Lightnings smile turned to a cocky grin as she gently nudged the filly. “How bout a little race? Think you can keep up?”
Scootaloo mirrored the grin her mother wore “You’re so on!” With that, the filly shot forward with a boost of speed, quickly followed by Lightning.
The pair looped around in a circle, skirting the edge of Ponyville. all the while the newly airborne filly was trying to keep pace with her mother. Lightning was holding back, but was pretty impressed by what her daughter could do. Hard to believe this is her first real flight.
As soon as she thought this, she noticed Scootaloo was looking a bit tired, and a few seconds later started to drop off in height and speed. Lightning barrel rolled under the filly and caught Scootaloo on her back. Then began to descend, angling herself to land just outside their home.
Once there Scootaloo hopped off Lightnings back and sighed “Wow. Flyings a lot harder than it looks. Guess I’m not good enough yet.”
Lightning lent down and nuzzled her little pegasus. “Hey now, you did real good for a first time out. You made it a whole lap around the town.” Scootaloo perked up at that as Lightning continued, “and I’ll bet your friends will be pretty happy for you right?”
The fillies face split into a wide grin again “Hay yeah! I should go tell them! Can I go mom?” Lightning nodded and Scootaloo dashed inside the house, returning moments later with her scooter. After fastening her helmet, the orange filly buzzed off with a quick, “Be back at dinner!” and was out of sight before the older pegasus could say a thing.
Lightning chuckled as she turned to the door, left open by her excited daughter, and went in. Looks like I’ve got some time to myself, so I might as well get the next part of my plan ready. And with that thought, Lightning retreated to her room to prepare for tonight.
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so whats her plan
733855
Sssshhh... It's a secret!
Why do I get the feeling she's gonna try and finish what she started with Rainbow before RD can find out.
Shifty....... I'm liking the story!
There are still plenty of grammar errors (prereader may help) but good for a first fic!
This is getting good.
Keep it up!
.... As Pinkie would say, BOOOORRING!
No filly like Scoots should be able to fly like that on her first try.
Not to mention, there is no way in hell that Lighting should be able to adapt to
this role so quickly. Even though she is a changeling, it seems to me that her role as a siege drone
wouldn't require her to go snooping around as somepony for an extended duration of time.
Also, sooner or later, holes in her cover story need to reveal who she truly is, a changeling.
Compared to the other changeling stories i've seen, your changeling doesn't have any conflict to speak of, not in shape nor form.
Realistically speaking, I'd assumed she would at least be wary being around any of the Mane 6, or anypony for that matter.
Remember, Canterlot just suffered from a changeling invasion, so one can reasonably assume that all of Equestria would be on high alert.
And let's not forget the fact about her loyalty to the swarm and Queen Chrysalis.
Sorry to be so brutal kid, but you must give us something to sympathize with the character.
That is drama, stress and so forth. I hope this comment doesn't appear to be obnoxious to you dude,
but Lightning seems to be a Mary Sue type of char.
764615 dude maybe she MADE her own look and also this is fiction anything happens!
Interesting story, a bit poor in execution, but I love scoots so I'll ignore it.
One thing though, when a new person is talking, it must start on a new line. You have two ponies talking in the same paragraph and it's confusing.
Do you have an editor/proofreader?
Oh sweet lord, the overall lack of commas and apostrophes made this chapter hard to read.
Not to mention the misspellings.
Ominous plan is ominous...
779739
Whoa whoa whoa, no writer should use "it's fiction" as an excuse if there's something wrong with the story. Just because anything can happen, doesn't mean it should.
812166
Then maybe you should try and POINT THEM OUT FOR THE AUTHOR.
1000167
No shit, I already pointed them out; the lack of commas were/are blatant enough for anyone who knows enough about comma usage, and a simple spell check is all that is needed for misspellings.
What do you want me to do beyond that? Pester the author with PMs about how they're wrong and I'm right? List the damn specifics in a comment that could possibly take up a good portion of the damn comment section all because I should have an all mighty urge to point out every damn grammatical or spelling error in every story I read?
I'm human, not a automated helping machine, and I have no obligation other than liking a story enough to mention that it could use a touch-up concerning grammar and spelling.
764615 um... one, i dont think this was scoot's first time, and two, there was a one week time skip ahead from chapter 2.
Damnit Lightning, everything's perfectly fine for you here! If you mess things up....
indent
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I'm guessing she stole Scootaloo's file and/or birth certificate equivalent so nopony can find out that her real mother wasn't named Lightning? I'm guessing the herbs are something to make her disguise stick better.
Also Scoots can fly, yay
So like, this is VERY fast paced.
I could complain about it but overall I'm just happy you've introduced something meaty into the story.
The items she obtained.
Thanks for keeping us in the dark there, as it proves this isn't just a slice of life story but also something with depth.
Which is great, we need some action every now and then, even if it's just a quick set up.