Why me?

by Miner

Ponies secrets

A day had passed since the changeling had chased me. But then you might ask, why am I still in bed? Well, this is the only place that is still safe. If I stay here, no more changelings want to kidnap me. No more mares are trying to harm me. No more anything. I want to be left alone. Is that too much to ask for?

"Jessica?" Rarity calls out to me.

She has been trying to get the door open for a while now.

"Jessica. Listen here. Ever since you came back yesterday, you have locked yourself in that room." Rarity firmly taps on the door. "Since you are a guest in this house, I insisted you open this door right this instead."

"But if I do that, I will not be safe."

"What are you talking about."

"Changelings and everything else. But mostly changelings."

"Jessica, I can assure you that there are no changelings within Pony Ville. Not after Pinkie and those other ponies took that changeling into custody. You have nothing to fear." I remain silent, which only infuriates Rarity. If I am quiet, she will go away. They always do. It is better this way. She sounded like she was going to say something but was cut off midsentence. It sounded like she was talking to somepony, but I wasn't paying attention as I lay my head on my forelegs. What is wrong with me?

A voice calls out to me from the door, but it isn't Rarity or her sister. "Jessica, we are friends, and we are worried about you. Please don't shut us out." A hoof thuds onto the door. "Don't shut me out." It's Exclusive. Silently I get out of my nest and moves to the door. Once there, I unlock the door looking at them. Before they could move, I spoke up. "Just him." Rarity looked offended about being left out, but she didn't say anything as I let Exclusive into the room, closing the door behind him. We move to the nest and lay down next to each other, not saying a word for a minute straight. I couldn't take it anymore as I wrapped my forelegs around him, hugging him tight as tears went down my face.

"I can't do it."

"What do you mean?" He said, petting my mane.

"All of this. It is not fair. I want to have a peaceful life. To grow up as a regular girl with a normal life. But as soon as I get started. I get pulled out of my homeworld to be constantly chased by wild animals, dogs, ponies, and changelings. And there is nothing I can do about it. What did I do to desire this?" He doesn't say anything as he continues to comfort me as I bawl into his shoulder. "I not as strong as I make myself to be. I would talk big and have an attitude, but that was all an act. I can't fight, I am not smart, I am a scaredy-cat, I have no savings, and I live alone. I want to help those around me, but how can I do that when I can't help myself? All I can do is run and hide. That is all I am good at. What kind of life is that? I want to be left alone. Is that too much to ask?"

"Yes, it is." I look at him in shock. "Because I don't want to leave you alone."

I don't know what came over me. I can feel more tears go down my cheeks as I stare into his eyes. How could he say that after I told him the truth about me? He should be disgusted with me. He shouldn't want anything to do with me. He should be leaving me alone to cry myself to sleep like everyone else. So why is he still here? And why can't I think of ever leaving him? Before I knew it, I wrapped my hooves around his neck, pulling him into a kiss.

---

Third P.O.V.
Rarity puts a hoof to her mouth and stops herself from making a sound as she watches the scene in front of her from the doorway. She had no idea Jessica felt that way about herself. Not to mention how much Jessica is in love with Exclusive. She looks down, sad, and leaves them alone. Rarity goes to her kitchen and enters the closet before pressing her hoof against the back of the wall, revealing a slide before she goes down it.

At the bottom, Rarity finds herself in Pinkie Pie's secret meeting place she had set up ever since Chrysalis got away. This place links all the manesix houses to meet in secret with a slide that takes them to and from their house. She didn't question it. No pony questions Pinkies logic. Lining the left walls are pictures of possible hiding spots, with some of them crossed out in a red "X." To the right are the rest of the slides for her friends. And the wall in front of her was a picture of Pony Ville with Pictures of six different stallions at each of the manesix houses. With detailed notes about each one. Pillows and blankets and snacks for anypony wait for the other to show up at the center of the room.

As she lies down on her fainting couch, she pulls from somewhere; she can hear noises from one slide. It wasn't long before a happy squealing ball of pink came rolling down a slide and bowled itself into the side of the wall, causing papers to scatter everywhere. As the papers settle, a giggling Pinkie Pie lays there waving at her friend.

"Hi, Rarity."

"Hello, Pinkie."

"What is the problem?"

"I will wait for the others to get here first."

"Okkie dokie," Pinkie says before righting herself and hopping to the center of the room.

As they chatted away one by one, each of the other manesix arrived, with Twilight and Starlight being last. They were surprised to see Starlight was also here. "Starlight, it's so good to see you." Rarity greets her. "However, what may I ask are you doing here?"

"Well, once somepony finally told me that she already knew about six changelings in Pony Ville." She stares at Twilight, who smiles sheepishly back. "I insisted on coming along."

"Sorry, Starlight," Twilight says as they lay on the pillows. "I didn't mean to leave you in the dark. It was just a precaution."

"So, how long did you guys know they were changelings?"

"Since the beginning," Rainbow says proudly with a hoof to her chest.

"Uhm, actually," Fluttershy chimes in. "Discord mentioned something about them that didn't seem right when they arrived. But we thought that it was due to them being from another world. It wasn't until Thorax came to Pony Ville recently that we knew for sure that they were changelings."

"So why don't we go out and capture them?" Starlight presses on.

"That is what I said!" Rainbow throws her forelegs into the air.

"Girls," Twilight speaks up. "While it is true that we could arrest them now. But that would still leave one big problem on our hooves."

"Their Queen is still out there somewhere." Applejacks finish.

"Exactly, since we already know where these six changelings are, including the new one we are tracking. All that is left is to follow him to Chrysalis. And if that doesn't work, we have a backup plan thanks to Starlight."

Rainbow huffs crossed her forelegs. "Okay, I will bite what?"

"Well, you see, Chrysalis is coming to Pony Ville soon."

This causes all ponies to mumble to each other before Rainbow speaks over them. "What causes this?"

"Apparently, she seems interested in Jessica and her supposed homeworld through the mirror." Twilight moves her hooves to make quotations marks. "Regardless, her objective is mirror portal and Jessica."

"What are we going to do about it?"

"Right now, nothing."

Rainbow pulls her face downward. "Not again."

"Rainbow," Twilight scolds, "If we tell Jessica. How does that help her? We must continue to make the elite six believe that we don't know their secret. Meeting here in the middle of the day was already risky enough."

"But we can't let her alone. I mean, there is a changeling queen after her." Rainbow guesser to a picture of said changeling eating chocolate.

"Don't worry, Thorax left some changelings to help us, and I have told them to watch over Jessica and protect her when the time comes. But we are getting off-topic. After all, I wasn't the one who called this meeting." Twilight looks to Rarity as the rest follow suit. "Rarity, did something happen?"

---

Hemolymph's point of view,
I had no idea that getting away from ponies was so easy. You would think ponies having magic would know that changelings could easily change their appearance. However, I have to be grateful to that random pony who looks just like me, who knew that dressing up like a changeling was a popular costume. But more importantly. "I lost her again!"

I slammed my hoof into a tree as hard as possible and made it shake a little. "How hard is it to capture one pony?! I may not be the one who got the princesses captured and tied up back to the hive. But I was given the same training. I am strong. I am smart. I am fast. So how can it be that I can't get my hooves on one pony!?" I kick the tree again, causing an acorn to drop on my head—dumb tree.

"Does she have a special talent for escaping or something?" I rub my chin in thought. "That has to be the reason. She must be some special spy pony trained as a filly to escape from any form of danger. Yeah, that's it. There can be no other explanation." I take to the skies toward the castle in the Everfree. "I have to report this to her highness." But I pause in midair. "But the last time I came, Her highness presences without notice. I was sent to bed without snacks for a week. In that case, I should ask one of the elite six in Pony Ville to contact her." I start flying in circles. "But I was told not to interrupt their mission and make myself useful somehow. That is how I ended up summoning a snack from somewhere else, just like the book said. But not only did that snack turn out to be a slippery pony. She turns out to be more than I can handle. I need help. But Orders." I groan, grabbing the side of my head. "I never should have left her in that tree in the Everfree. But how was I supposed to know that a bunch of Diamond Dogs would capture me in my sleep? What in the world was in that mare's bag anyway?!"

---

Not too far away

Two birds could be seen on a branch watching Hemolymph from a safe distance. "Come on, just fly to her already." One of them says, annoyed watching the spinning changeling.

"You think that he notices that we let him get away?"

"No. Hemolymph is many things but being smart is not one of them." He said as Hemolymph landed, rubbing his head. "He probably thinks he got away by himself."

"Out of all the changelings we could have to deal with, why it had to be Hemolymph?" The second one says as Hemolymph starts chewing on a tree.

"Better him than one of the elite six. They were the best of us. Dusk almost saw me twice since I got here. If we don't find Chrysalis soon. We will lose our only chance of finding her." They both look down sad as Hemolymph spits out wood.

"By the way. Weren't we supposed to be watching over some pony?"

"This is more important. Besides, I am sure she is fine."

---

Jessica POV
What happened? I feel so warm. So happy. Did I fall asleep? I open my eyes to see Exclusive sleeping soundly next to me. Oh, that is right. I kissed him and snuggled next to him, and fell asleep for some reason. Thinking about it is a bit embarrassing. At least nothing else happened. I don't think that I am ready for that. But I can't deny that I have feelings for this stallion. At this point, even if there was a way for me to go back home. I don't think I would go back. Not when my love is here. I tuck my head against him, smiling as rest finds me again. So why is it that I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong?

---

Earlier that same day,
Exclusive had finished working on new designs for the coming season when a knock on the door echoes. Moving to the door he opens the door to see Lyra there smiling. "No," he said closing the door.

Lyra slams on the door repeatedly. "Oh, come on I didn't say anything!"

"Lyra the last time I help you with something. I ended up mailing myself to Canterlot by dragon fire and had to take the train back. Which reminds me." He opens the door as Lyra looks away guilty. "You own me ten bits for the train ride."

"I will get back to you on that. But that is not important. Exclusive I Thought I saw-"

"Leave before I tell Bon Bon."

"You won't!" His glare doesn't let up. "You would." She sighs in defeat. "Fine. But I try to tell you." She leaves as he closes the door.

"What was that about?" Before he could leave the door, somepony knocks on the door. "What do you want?!" Exclusive says as he opens the door to see a brown mare with a purple mane glaring back at him.

"Is that how you want to address me. Exclusive?!" The mare says with venom in her words causing him to back away from the door. She enters the room, closing the door behind her. "I thought that I taught you better than that."

Exclusive drops to a knee, shaking in fear. "Your highness. Forgive me. I did not know it was you."

"If I didn't need you. I would have you stripe of your rank for such insolence."

"I thank your majesty." He lifts his head. "What brings you here your excellence? I thought that your arrival wasn't until two more days."

"As painful as it is for me to say this. My book of spells is missing and when I went searching for it. Do you know what I found?"

"Forgiven me, your highness. But I do not."

"I found two traitorous soldiers of Thorax following that airhead Hemolymph around the Ever free. Commander Dusk reports that Thorax didn't leave any troops in Pony Ville. So that means that our operations are compromised. And we will have to pull out with what we have."

"But we still don't have the elements. If we pull out now, it will be all for nothing."

Queen Chrysalis's body is covered with green flames as she roars at him in her true form, causing Exclusive to bow his head. "Did I ask for your opinion! Remember your place, soldier. Besides, we have what we need."

"Your highness?"

"I am aware of your relationship with a certain mare that has grown close to the elements as of late." Exclusive's eyes widen as Queen Chrysalis changes back into a pony, walking to the door. "Bring Jessica to the castle of the two sisters with or without her consent. You have until the end of the day. I am sure that you can do this at least."

Exclusive grits his teeth, not showing his face. All his life, he has listened to his queen without question. That is how he pony-napped the princess before her wedding. That is how he helped get the elements bearers and the princesses in one go. And how they are going to help her take back the throne. So why when it involves a single mare, he met one day. He is hesitating. No, he is a soldier, and that is all he will ever be. "At once, your highness."

Comments

[Northern Star]

So...any news with either one of these?

[Miner]

11559647
I think two or more chapters are left for this one. Also, I am not sure which other one you are talking about.

[Northern Star]

11559676
The one off short story one related to this