Let's Try This Again

by HypernovaBolts11

Chapter X - Advised

The left in a pair of large, crystalline doors creaked open as the grey pegasus nudged it. He poked his head through the cracked doorway, and scanned over the area. There was a green patch of shimmering grass in the middle of the stadium, which was bordered by the track itself. The seating arrangement was just a few dozen levels of bleachers.

A white unicorn with a striped blue mane and tail blew a whistle at the top of his lungs. His red baseball cap flew off for a moment, then set back on his head as he let the whistle drop on the string around his neck. His hooves were visible under his shaggy white coat, and his hip bore an indigo shield below three turquoise stars. On the shield was an irregular six pointed star, lavender in color, a near perfect copy of Twilight's mark.

He gulped when the unicorn's blue eyes found him, and he slowly made his way forward, closing the door behind him. He watched the racers for a moment, then darted across the track once the last one had passed him. He stood just a meter away from the prince, and said, "I'm Fangheart. Twilight sent me."

Shining Armor smiled at the grey pegasus, and said, "Twiley has a-"

"No, I'm not her partner," he interrupted the buff unicorn. "Everyone I've met today has made the same assumption. It's bordering on creepy at this point."

The unicorn shouted at the top of his lungs, directly at the competing racers, "C'mon, pick up the gait!" He addressed the pegasus before him, and said, "Sorry about that." He narrowed his eyes at Fangheart, and asked, "You're not saying that you have no interest in romance, are you?"

Fangheart shook his head, his eyes widening. "N-no, sir. I... Your sister's fantastic and all, but I'm not really... I'm more concerned with getting my life back in order," he said, taking a nervous step backwards. Surely he couldn't have seen through his disguise. He wasn't a seer, or he'd have never been such an easy target for the invasion.

Shining Armor gave him a scrutinizing look, and asked, "And you don't have any plans about dating my sister?" He looked over his shoulder to shout at the racers, "Move! Move! Move!"

Fangheart gulped, and said, "W-well... I mean, I hadn't really thought about it. I only met her a few days ago, and I'm still getting over a recent loss, and I really haven't had time to think about it." He looked down for a moment, shuffling his front hooves uncomfortably, then said, "She's been good to me, and I'm still trying to deserve that."

Maybe the unicorn had been given the sight after being brought back from his mother's spell. Maybe he had developed a sort of spell that let him see through changelings' disguises.

Shining Armor placed his hoof on the pegasus's shoulder. "That's a good plan, kid," he told him. "If you ever decide to advance on that front, make sure you check the chamber, sharpen your spears, and always have a backup plan. Do that, and you'll have a good shot at success. You have my blessings if you ever need 'em."

Fangheart looked the unicorn in the eye, and said, "Th-thanks, captain."

He smiled at him, and said, "No problem."

Perhaps it didn't matter whether or not Shining Armor knew. Maybe he had, and was aware of the fact that he'd just allowed a changeling to consider dating his sister. But maybe he hadn't seen anything more than a timid, frightened pegasus, and has still given him his blessings.

The latter didn't make a shred of sense.

Fangheart stiffened, and a strange pang of itchiness poked at his right shoulder. He scraped at the muscles with his hoof, and said, "I... I hope you like surprises."

Shining Armor laughed, "After a princess saying yes, a changeling attack, and becoming more popular than my school bully, nothing can surprise me." He seemed so sure of himself, so proud, so naïve. He watched the racers cross the finish line, and said, "Alright, let's go again, gang."

Fangheart faked a laugh, "Yeah... Okay."

---

The doors swung open as Shining Armor blew his whistle.

Fangheart would have looked to see who it was, but he was already in the lineup. He launched himself forward, his eyes focused only on the track in front of him.

A purple object fluttered through the corner of his vision, and he kept running, swinging around the first turn in a thin arc. He didn't look away from what was in front of him, and jumped as the first hurdle came within a half a meter. He made it to the other side, losing some momentum, but not stopping.

He heard Twilight's voice, "...worst castle tour ever..."

He jumped again, just in time for Shining Armor's shout to fill the whole stadium, "Come on, gang! Are we gonna gallop or are we gonna trot?"

He landed on the front of his hoof, tripping, and tumbling over his back. That should have done him in, but he landed on all fours, and, after a fraction of a second spent idling, continued to sprint down the track, not really thinking about what had just happened, but relieved that he hadn't made a foal of himself on his first race.

He made a sharp turn, hugging the inside of the track, and jumped over the third hurdle. "Let's move, move, move!" came Shining Armor's shout.

He landed, his heart racing faster than he was. He felt his legs burning, his blood pumping, the wind on his fur. It felt good to be a pony.

He heard the doors burst open again, and veered out of the way just in time for an overly excited pony to overtake him. He promptly leaned forward, not really trying to catch up with the reckless pony, but trying to make sure she didn't lap him and knock him over.

He reached the finish line, and made a sharp turn to the left, panting as he screeched to a halt next to Twilight. Noticing that Rarity was missing from the group, he turned to Rainbow Dash, who told Shining Armor, "Wait. She's the Games Inspector. Let her do her thing."

The inspector in question was charging past the other racers, pushing them aside from the finish line. She was a yellow pony with a green mane and tail, the former of which had a pink band in it. She shouted, "Good, oh, these hooves, I'm outside."

Shining Armor asked Dash, "Why would she do that?"

Rainbow said, "I have no idea. But that's why she's in charge of choosing who gets the games and we're not. Heh."

Not a second later, there was a crashing sound, caused by the Games Inspector crashing through hurdles, which she did again. She crashed into a third one, causing a flowerpot on its post to fly through the air. It landed over her head, causing her to stop running, and shout, "Aah! Oh. Get me outside for a run." She turned left, and took off.

Shining Armor shouted, "Look out!"

The door was blasted into splinters as the inspector ran right through it.

Rainbow Dash flew into the air, saying, "Yeah. Okay. We need to stop her." She and Fluttershy both took off after the inspector, the latter a bit less hastily.

Fangheart would have followed them, but he'd never used his wings, and he'd just finished a race.

Twilight and her two remaining friends took off after the triad, along with her brother.

Fangheart spread his stiff wings, and grunted as his right shoulder lit up with pain. He knew, from the presence of a creature far too great, what was about to happen. He looked around, and darted towards the tunnel connecting the stadium to the palace. He closed the doors just in time for his entire neck to go numb.

Every muscle in the effected area tensed all at once, cramping. He grit his teeth, biting back any sound that might give away his position. He'd be lucky so long as no one saw him when the worst of the attack hit him.

He clamped his eyes shut, and forced his neck to roll, loosening up what muscles he could. He propped his back against the wall, and kicked his right foreleg a few times, trying to force the stiffness away.

The gaze of many a power left him, looking elsewhere for what it sought.

He sat there, panting, relieved that he'd not lost his disguise. Such an event once might have been explained away by some quirk of magic, but twice. Someone was actively trying to hurt him, and they knew what they were doing.

He looked up and down the hallway, making sure that no one had seen him. He stood up, drawing a sharp intake of air through his clenched jaw. He sat back down, and decided that he couldn't cause as much trouble if he stayed there.

He felt the city, and some spark of its emotion being fed into the wall behind him. He could feel it, love, simply flowing through the glass wall behind him, like blood through a pony, like water through a river. He reached a hoof to a small, black circle painted on the wall —not that he knew why.

His aches and pains melted away, as the city fed love into his hoof. He smiled a bit as his neck began to heal. It felt warm, like he was sitting next to a fireplace, cozied up with a cup of hot cocoa —which some of the infiltrators had shown him how to make, and proven to him that pony food was worth having.

He took his hoof back, and stretched a bit, checking that he'd be okay to walk. He stood up, and walked back into the stadium, before sprinting after Twilight and her friends. He heard Pinkie Pie's overly exaggerated shout of, "Nooooooo!" He then heard her immediately follow up with a dramatized, "Yes!"

---

He slowed down when he spotted the others heading to the train station, assuming that they'd return to the spa later. He'd just walk there and see how things were going with Princess Cadance. Now that he'd relaxed from his breakdown, he may as well talk to her, and see if he couldn't learn a thing or two about changeling specific offensive spells.

He froze when he felt it, the source of the city's love. He'd purposefully avoided it on his way to the stadium, but it was too intense to ignore any longer. He looked up, realizing that he'd come to the palace. And at the center of the city, where its four great roads met, stretching perfectly straight in all four cardinal directions, the emotion was too strong.

He spotted it, his eyes locking onto the city's mind, its heart, the one thing that made the city so much like a person. It spun so incredibly fast, blurring into a mass of love, shimmering and gleaming like the most polished diamond that could ever be.

He stepped towards it, his hooves moving without command.

It glowed, perhaps only to him, visibly. The air and the ground around it were glowing with love, so thick, so potent, so sweet, and so very fragrant.

He shook his head, snapping out of his stupor. His hoof had set down on the pedestal, and he could only gulp down his spit, which had formed in response to his hunger. He didn't feel very hungry, not as truly hungry as he had in the desert, but with the emotivore equivalent to a Hearth's Warming meal right in front of him, just sitting there, he couldn't tell any difference.

He'd only have one little bit, just a tiny fraction of what would even make a noticeable difference. It just had so much, that no one would notice if such a small bit went to ensuring his survival. Just one minute of feeding, one second, one breath. He'd be full for a year on just a tiny tiny bit of that.

Goddess, this thing could feed the hive for decades without problem. No one would ever know if he had so little.

He opened his mouth, prepared to inhale just the tiniest bit, just the equivalent of a single lick.

He bit his lip, and whipped his head around. He walked past it, beating himself over the head in his mind for doing the exact opposite of everything he'd been taught, of everything he was. Any sane changeling would've smashed the pedestal to bits, grabbed the spinning object, and shrunken it down so they could carry it.

He gulped again as the heart gave off a sudden wave of energy, as though it were calling out to him, signaling that it was there. He clamped his eyes shut, and continued walking.

Comments

[tsaukpaetra]

Haha the heart is teasing him....

[erictheblue]

7387519 oh i read a story called "song of change" where the heart actually talked to changelings!

[tsaukpaetra]

8088155 there are a few actually. We like the Heart in Shifting Melodies, it's pretty snarky!