Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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I yawn as I return to the waking world, smacking my lips. Lifting my head, I look to the entrance to the cave. The sun’s out, meaning it’s morning and it seems the storm’s over.
Cricking my neck, I look down to my barrel, where my two little charges are still sound asleep, nestled against me, Medley’s blanket wrapped a little haphazardly around the two.
I can’t help smiling as I look at the content smiles on their faces.
Trying not to wake them, I gently get up, before bending down and picking each up with my mouth, before depositing them on my back. At once the two snuggle closer to me, making my smile grow. They’re so adorable.
I shake my head, my expression firming. I need to find out if the Empire’s back or not. Sooner I find out, the sooner I can get us somewhere we’re less likely to encounter danger.
Seriously, Ponyville’s a nice town and I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t like to stay if it were just me, but I’ve two infants’ safety to think about, and between a town where Cerberus, a magic-stealing centaur, a unicorn possessed by an ancient magical artifact, among other things coming regularly compared to a place where I’ve only seen three big dangerous events, which were all spanned out with clearly big time gaps, I’ll take the latter as the safer place to be.
As I walk up to the cave entrance, however, I realize a problem I didn’t consider. How the heck do I get out when I’ve sealed up the entrance with resin?
A sudden stir gets my attention. It isn’t a physical one though, both infants on my back are still sound asleep. No, I felt this in the Hive Mind. It wasn’t much, a whisper at best, but it was enough.
Closing my eyes, I imagine the resin liquefying to the consistency of normal water. Opening my eyes, I see a gentle green beam of magic which, when looking up with my eyes, I find is coming from my horn.
The beam is hitting the wall, which is slowly melting. A few moments later and it’s just a puddle on the floor and quickly hardens.
Huh. Interesting. Will keep that in mind for later, should it be needed.
Stepping out into the sunlight, I feel movement from my back. Turning my neck around, I see the two little ones lift their heads and slowly open their eyes. God, I’m glad I’m a Changeling right now. That adorableness would kill another being, but since I now feed on such things, I’m good.
Though, now that I think about it, I don’t feel all that hungry. When I arrived I was practically starving despite all the love that was coursing through me from Cadance and Shining’s Love Shield, but now, the only hunger I feel is for normal food. Huh.
Putting those thoughts aside, I smile at the two of them. “Have a nice sleep?”
They turn their heads to me, before smiling and babbling in baby talk.
My smile warms more and I lean my head towards them, nuzzling each in turn.
With that done, I start off into the Everfree. I should probably go to Ponyville. If I can find somepony and ask how long ago the wedding was without making it sound weird, I might be able to figure out when the Empire will return.
___________________________________________________________
After leaving the Everfree several hours later, I head down a path, seeing Fluttershy’s cottage in the distance.
Hmm. She would be a pretty big help. She takes care of lots of animals and they have to be babies at some point, so I could get a bit of help from her... but I’d rather not take too much of a risk here.
Yeah, Fluttershy would be the easiest to convince the nymph and I are friendly, but I don’t know if she could keep us a secret if put under too much pressure. It is Fluttershy prior season 3 I’m talking about, after all.
Deciding to head into town and pray to whatever counts as God in this world Pinkie doesn’t find out, I hear the sound of voices from not too far up the path. I realize it’s ponies and panic, turning to the nymph. Without really thinking, I light my horn and my magic flares. When it fades, in the nymph’s place is a purple unicorn filly with a white mane with pink stripes.
I sigh with relief, before the voices suddenly seem far closer than I’d like and I recognize them, my eyes widening in greater fear. It’s Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Oh, shit! I am not letting them see I’m a changeling. Hell, no!
I quickly try to make my own disguise, doing my best to remember how it felt when I turned into Godzilla to crush that Manticore. I feel a cooling sensation going around my body as my magic covers it, bringing up a disguise.
It happens in the nick of time as the unicorn and Pegasus crest the hill and come within my line of view and vice versa.
The two pause when they see me, confusion coming over their faces and we all stand in an awkward silence for a few moments.
Rarity is thankfully the one to break it. “Why, hello, there, darling. I don’t believe we’ve met. Are you new in town?”
“Oh, no. We’re just passing through and...” I pause, having noticed what voice was coming out of my mouth. It sounds almost like Rarity’s only slightly different.
“Huh? Never seen a rainbow maned Earth Pony before,” Rainbow says, folding her forelegs and giving me an odd look.
Oh... Oh, please, do not tell me I turned into who I think I did.
Quickly looking myself over, I inwardly groan at the rainbow with a cloud on either end of it Cutie Mark, the cyan fur and rainbow tail. I turned into G3 Rainbow Dash? You have got to be fucking kidding me!
I inwardly sigh. Well, I guess it kinda makes sense. I was panicking and just tried to transform without really thinking about what to look or sound like and, with Dash and Rarity being forefront in my mind, I guess my subconscious merged the two in my mind due to Rainbow Dash being voiced by Tabitha St. Germain, who also voices Rarity in FiM and took G3 as the best choice. Great.
“Is something wrong, dear?” Rarity asks, sound a bit concerned.
Looking back to the two ponies, I try to think of something. Thank God I perfected the “Think of something to say or do, quick” thing back in high school, because a thought pops right into my mind and I start talking, hoping my brain will keep up with my mouth. Sometimes it doesn’t and those times are way awkward.
“Oh, no, darling. I’m quiet alright. I was just surprised to find anypony out at this time.” Okay, so far so good. Brain, please don’t let me down. “My name is Spectrum. I’m just here visiting with these two foals I’m looking after for the day.”
It’s now the two ponies notice my charges. Rarity coos, whilst Dash looks impressed. Gonna guess that’s because she sees Medley is a Pegasus.
“Oh, aren’t they just adorable?” Rarity says, coming closing and leaning towards the two of them. They both cheer in baby talk, the nymph reaching out and grabbing Rarity’s muzzle.
Guessing since she’s a Changeling, she’s excited by the emotions coming off of Rarity. Thank God I can read emotions. This would be a lot harder to do if I couldn’t.
“So, if these ain’t your tikes, whose are they?” Dash asks, causing my brain to screech to a halt and back peddle like crazy.
“Oh, just a mare I owe a favour to,” I say quickly. Dammit, I should’ve just said they were my kids. Crap. Then again, that would mean needing to keep this G3 Dash disguise up and like hell am I staying this pony.
Dash gets a little suspicious. I don’t even need to see her expression to know it. I can feel it. “So, who is this mare?”
“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity says in a scolding tone. “How would you like if somepony asked you such a question? If Miss Specrtum here is looking after another mares’ foals, we have no right to question who’s foals they may be. Honestly, how rude.”
Dash blinks, before her suspicion turns to a shame as she looks to me, scratching behind her head. “Sorry, Spectrum. Guess I’ve kinda been on edge since the wedding a couple days ago.”
The wedding was a few days ago? Okay, good to know.
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” I smile politely, though I’m thanking her more for the unintended info, not so much her apology.
She blinks again, becoming confused. “How’d you know my name?” Then she gets a sly grin. “Then again, I bet my name’s known pretty far. You heard of me?”
Okay, I can answer truthfully as say yes I have heard of her... or I can point out the more obvious reason. I nod my head towards the white unicorn. “You’re friend here just said your full name, did she not?”
Dash looks blankly at me for a moment. “Oh.”
“Well, it was lovely talking with you both,” I smile, looking from one to the other. “However, I feel I should be heading off. Don’t want to keep these two waiting for their food.”
Either they somehow got the hint or were actually hungry, because both apparent ponies on my back start making whining noises.
Rarity chuckles lightly. “Very well, darling. Have a good day.”
I nod and turn to leave, when I notice a trail of sparkling smoke coming in our direction. It moves passed me, splitting into two before taking the shape of scrolls that float before the two mares.
Rarity opens hers, before a slightly amused expression plays across her face. “Oh, my. It seems Twilight would like us to join her at the library.”
“How come?” Dash asks, taking her own scroll and opening it.
Rarity chuckles. “Princess Celestia is asking her to Canterlot for a test.”
My eyes widen. Celestia asking Twilight to Canterlot for a test and her sending messages to Dash and Rarity to come to the library. I get the feeling the Empire has returned.
Okay, that’s good. I can get us to the Empire, take on a new disguise and we can blend in... except I don’t have any money.
“Blast it all,” I mutter, giving only a second’s thought as to why I’m suddenly channelling my inner Britain.
Rarity and Dash turn to me, looking confused. “Something wrong, darling?”
I blink, inwardly smacking myself for saying it out loud. Well, may as well be honest, for all the good it’ll do me.
I turn to them, my ears lowered. “I just realized I’ll need to take two train trips, but don’t have enough for even one.”
Rarity smiles, her right saddlebag glowing and opening, a small brown pouch levitating out and over to me.
“Oh, no, Rarity, I couldn’t...” I mumble, kicking myself. I feel like I just guilt-tripped her into giving me some money. Dammit!
“Oh, I insist, darling,” she says, the bag still hovering in front of me. “It’s not much and you can even buy the little ones a treat if you want.”
“May as well, take ’em, Specs,” Dash grins at me. “Rarity won’t take no for an answer when it comes to being generous.”
I wait a few moments, before sighing and nod, taking the bag in my right hoof.
They both bid me farewell (okay, Dash just says “See ya”) and they both head off into town, clearly towards Golden Oaks Library.
I stand there for several moments, berating myself for unintentionally taking advantage of Rarity’s generosity, before sighing and make my way into town to find the train station. I’ll need to be in Canterlot when the Mane 6 head for the Empire, so I can join them.
Though I do feel guilty that I’ll have to take advantage of Sombra’s chasing after them to be avoided by him so I can get into the Empire.
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wow its been a while, going to have to start from the begining, though it is good to see this continue
It lives, excellent
Nice to see this continuing.
Also props for using the old Rainbow Dash. 
Cool a update
So far, so good!
Always good to see a dormant story get up and be like, "Hey! I'm still here! I didn't die!"
I'm sort of scratching my head over this story. . . It seems reasonably well-written, and there are some interesting ideas and some things happening in it that are pretty cool. (G3 Rainbow Dash meeting FiM Rainbow Dash and Rarity was good for a laugh, but perhaps didn't live up to the idea's potential.) At the same time. . . There's so much that isn't explained or doesn't seem sensible.
Based on the many changeling fics I've read, it seems like they were scattered far and wide in all directions after being ejected from Canterlot, and then they all somehow landed in Everfree Forest. I'm just saying.
What were Melody and her parents doing there in the "Forest of No Return," anyhow? Ponies don't just wander in there by accident.
Random changeling attack is random.
And then our hero decides, out of all possible places to go for safety, the Crystal Empire is it? And just in time for the conflict with Sombra's ghost? Her reasoning really seems like a stretch. It's almost as though there's some unstated reason she's compelled to go there, and she's struggling to rationalize any kind of excuse to justify it?
7549769
more
Rarity said it, literally two seconds ago. Flat.
Oh, thank you Luna. I thought I was going crazy.
AWESOME!!
7549769
Needs update love it
8127085
Crystal Empire has a thing with Love Crystal...That is actually quite logical...
The time of its appearance isn't, though.
This is a fun story. I hope you can be able to do more... I like to see were this will go.
8099460
You spoke to soon
9561556
Funny how quickly on can be disproven.
Having to build from scratch is hard. But with Two charges to watch as well?
Hardcore... The Crystal Empire sure will be a good feeding ground
Hope they grow up safely
MC definitely has some struggling to do here.
The Crystal Empire has no records and it's a ideal feeding ground for Changelings, it should be nice if they can blend in.
Tabitha voices Rarity and Luna, Ashleigh Ball voices Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Earth pony Rainbow Dash is voiced by Venus Terzo.