Alterations

by Battlemuffins

Alterations Ch.3

Alterations Chapter 3

Rainbow saw the bright flash of light and, despite being so high up in the air, she and Celestia had to turn their heads. The two looked at each other, then back to where the light came from. The flash of light had faded away and Rainbow was looking back to see if her friends were OK. They were all looking to where Twilight was standing, so she looked to find her. She scanned all over but didn't see her friend. Where could she be? She looked back to where Twilight should have been standing and saw something new; a new pony, a gray pony. That was odd, Rainbow thought. Where was Twilight? Then, as the bright pure blue eyes flashed, the realization came rushing over her like a stampede. She had only seen eyes like that one other time. But by this time it was too late. As quick as a flash, four loud banging noises rang out and quick as lightning four ropes were flying towards Celestia. They had a green tint around them; they were enchanted. Before Celestia could even move, the ropes wrapped around her and tied themselves tight around her body, trapping her wings. She began to fall. That must be why Twil...er...the changeling was found hanging out around here so much, Rainbow realized. With Fluttershy on the ground covering her head with her hooves, and Pinkie Pie still in complete awe about the changeling situation, it was all up to Applejack and Rainbow.

As Applejack was getting ready to charge the changeling, she yelled up, "Rainbow, catch the Princess!" Rainbow didn't need to be told twice. In an instant she was in a full dive flapping her wings to catch up with Celestia. Applejack got a galloping start, and when she reached full speed, she jumped at the changeling, prepared to take it to the ground. She was just a few feet away from landing on it when all of sudden there was a quick green flash, and then she landed. She opened her eyes and saw that she was lying on the ground. Where was the changeling? She looked around but couldn't find it. Then she looked up. The changeling had teleported and was on Celestia’s back, grasping her horn and glowing green. "Consarnit! Rainbow, it's on Celestia!" Applejack yelled up to her friend.

Rainbow sped up, faster and faster. Why didn't the Princess just teleport to safety? It had to have something to do with the changeling holding her horn. "C'mon girls!" Applejack shouted to the others as she ran towards where the Princess was falling. The girls followed. Rainbow tried harder and harder to pick up speed as the wind arced around her, making what looked like a cone of wind. She was afraid she wasn't going to make it. She was so close, but the Princess was closer to the ground.

The three picked up as much speed as they could to catch her just in case Rainbow didn't make it in time. They were so close, but the Princess was closer to the ground.

Closer and closer they all began to converge at a focal point where Celestia was to meet the ground, but the girls weren't having it. They mustered up all they could to catch up. Just as the three stopped under where Celestia was going to hit in about three seconds, Rainbow started screaming and sped up even more. And just as Celestia fell upon the three girls at the bottom, Rainbow had reached full speed and connected with Celestia at the same time she connected with the three on the ground. As soon as they all met one another, you could see the brightest flash of light. It had to be the most painful and beautiful thing to watch. The explosion of light was what happened when changeling magic melded with a Sonic Rainboom.

Now, under normal 'breaking the sound barrier' circumstances, the Sonic Rainboom is a disk of colorful light bursting from the point at which sound was broken. It's quite an amazing sight in itself. But this, this was combined with changeling magic. This particular Sonic Rainboom erupted from Rainbow Dash like a tornado of color, fluctuating outwards slowly and picking up speed and shooting rays of light in different directions. It was so magnificent that it seemed to suck the color out of everything around it just to magnify its own beauty. As the ‘Rainado’ Boom covered up the entire block, it slowed down and stopped spinning. It began to twinkle and the colors began changing and switching places like a game of musical chairs where the music never stopped. The colors themselves sped up and became a blur of motionless motion and color, but the colors didn't blend; you could still easy distinguish one color from the next. Then as the colors continued their movement, the tornado itself began to retract to the point of its origin, slowly at first. Then it began rotating in the opposite direction of which the colors were moving. It gained speed back to the center and, almost as suddenly as it had appeared, it snapped back to where it came from, with Rainbow and everypony else still near it. Last, a giant rainbow beam of light shot straight up in the air, into the clouds and into space, and dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. Hopefully, everypony was OK.

------

Rarity simply stood there completely stunned, jaw agape, as this magnificent sight happened before her very eyes. Spike, who had been cowering in the bushes, was now standing beside her, watching this awe-inspiring lightshow. This was unrivaled in beauty and raw power. And as the beam of light that had shot into the sky had gone away, she looked at Spike and asked him what had happened. He explained to her that Twilight had in fact been a changeling and had been growing powerful by feeding off of their love for her. He explained how it had set a trap for the Princess, but that the girls had sprang into action.

After her initial shock and horror to learn this, she took a moment to soak it all in. "Well I'm glad that you're OK Spikey Wikey. I just hope that the others are OK too.” she said looking concerned as she turned her head to where the explosion had occurred and quickly galloped over with Spike right behind her.

"Girls?” she called out, "Girls are you all OK?" When none of them answered she began to get scared. She ran forward frantically shouting, "Girls, girls where are you!" Then she heard a faint groaning noise coming from her right, just over the hill. Spike noticed that they were a little ways from Sugarcube Corner, maybe about 600 feet. Rarity and Spike ran over the hill to where their friends and the Princess were, possibly hurt. They made it to the top of the hill and looked down, but they didn't see their friends. All they saw were two ponies on the ground but surely that had to be two of their friends. As Rarity drew closer she got a good look at the two ponies. One of them began to stand up; this was a girl pony, and she somehow looked familiar to her. "Hello, are you OK? Who are you if I might ask?” she asked curiously.

The mysterious pony looked around and then gave herself a quick look over. Her coat wore an orange like color like Applejack, and her mane was tied up in the same way, but it was colored the same way as Rainbow Dash’s. She had no wings or horn, so she must be an earth-pony. And her tail looked just like Rainbow’s, both in style and color. Her eyes were strange; each eye held a different color, the left one was a kind of darkly shaded pink and the right was like a hunter green. The cutie mark was what threw her off. It was strange, a cloud that seemed to be raining rainbow colored Zap Apples.

Rarity gave this pony a long look and then looked over to the other pony, who was still on the ground. This was also a girl pony. She was yellow with a pink fluffy mane styled like Pinkie Pie’s and a long flowing tail of the same color, but styled like Fluttershy’s. She was a Pegasus pony but, the odd thing was, her wings were not yellow like her fur; they were in fact pink like her hair. Her eyes were two different colors as well; the left one was a sort of robin’s egg blue, almost a little green, while the right was a very clear sky blue. The cutie mark, like on the other one, was somewhat strange; three big balloons with butterflies on them. Two of the balloons were pink, but the third one was green. The butterflies on the pink ones were orange, and the butterflies on the green one were red.

They were the strangest ponies Rarity had ever seen in her life. Spike had just stood and looked.

"Don't you recognize me?" said the first mysterious pony. Rarity looked back to her. This pony looked so familiar, she just couldn't put her hoof on it. Then it clicked. "Applejack? Or...Rainbow Dash?” she asked skeptically. The other pony just smiled and said, "Yeah, it's me." Her voice was a little raspy like Rainbow’s, but she had a country accent like Applejack. Rarity looked as if everything in her life just changed. She thought and asked, "Well, which are you?"

The pony thought about this for a moment and replied, "Actually, Ah'm both of 'em." Rarity almost fainted. How was this possible? "And I suppose that is Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?” she queried. "Yes it's me.” said the other pony as she stood up. Her voice was different completely; it wasn't high pitched and shrill like Pinkie’s nor was it soft and shy like Fluttershy’s, it was just normal. "Where are Celestia and the changeling?” Fluttershy and Pinkie asked. "Ah hav'nt seen 'em” Applejack and Rainbow said. "Nor have I.” Rarity replied.

But it didn't matter, because all of a sudden it hit the yellow pink pegasus like a wave of knowledge she already had, but just got access to. She looked over to Applejack and Rainbow, and the look on her face showed that she felt it too. "Actually, Ah just sort of...remembered, Ah guess you'd call it. Celestia is with that changelin’ somewhere. Ah'm not sure where, but neither does that changelin’ fella. Ah recon’ Celestia will be safe for at least a week and a half." Fluttershy and Pinkie confirmed this with a nod. "Oh…well, alright then.” replied Rarity. She had no idea how they could possibly know something like that, but she trusted her friends (no matter how many of them there might be).

"Well where is Twilight?" said Rarity frantically as she remembered that their friend had been an imposter and the real one was probably trapped somewhere. "We know that too actually. Twilight is being held in the dungeon of the castle of Queen Chrysalis. They don't plan to harm her. She is in no immediate danger, so our first priority should be separating ourselves.” Fluttershy and Pinkie said. Wow, that was extremely well thought out, Rarity thought for herself. She must be able to think more rationally in a state of having a combined mind. At least that's how Rarity saw it, and she actually wasn't that far off.

"Well if I'll be spending time with you, we must come up with a simpler way to speak to you. I can't use both of your names every time I wish to speak with you.” Rarity said.

"Ooh ooh ooh, let me do this! Pleeeaaassseee!” begged Spike, while giving his best puppy dog face. He gave her the ol’ lip quiver (that one always gets 'em). "Hmm, alright.” Rarity replied with a smile. He looked at Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "Hmm.......AppleDash!" he exclaimed. She thought about this for a moment and agreed. "Ah like it!” AppleDash said smiling. "What about me?” Fluttershy and Pinkie asked. Spike thought about this one for a little bit, but finally settled on "PinkieShy!" The yellow and pink pegasus thought about this for a moment, then slowly smiled and said, "I love it." She fluttered her pink wings a bit, and then proceeded to fly up and test them out. She enjoyed this a lot. She then slowly descended to the ground and landed with a back flip (Pinkie Pie clearly wasn't lost in there).

"What're we gonna tell folks when they ask about us?" AppleDash asked in thought. "I suppose we tell them the truth if we aren't too busy. We can use all the help we can get. But for the sake of ponies not knowing about Celestia, let's try not to draw attention shall we?” Rarity replied. PinkieShy thought about this. "That sounds reasonable.” she said in an emotionless voice, "I propose we go visit Princess Luna and see what she has to say about all of this." AppleDash agreed, "Sounds good to me."

"But first lets go to Sugarcube corner, cuz I'm hungry!” PinkieShy exclaimed as she ran around in circles. "Let's do it!” AppleDash cried. She then jumped in the air and arched her back a little and then straightened out. Then she met the ground with a hard thud. She had attempted to fly, only to remember that she no longer had wings and at the same time never had them. She got up off the ground, brushed herself off and hung her head. Rarity looked at her with a sad look on her face, "I'm so sorry AppleDash…" It was odd for her to say this name, to have both of her friends as one pony. She couldn't imagine how it must feel to be the same and yet so terribly different. "We will put this right.” she stated matter of factly. "We might, but we probably won't. This is something nopony has probably ever seen before. There's almost for sure no known way to fix this.” PinkieShy remarked in a depressed manor.

Rarity didn't understand how this pony could be so happy one minute and so sad the next. This was something she didn't want to have to see her friends go through. "Come now girls, lift up those chins. Let us go to Sugarcube Corner and get all of our favorite treats, then perhaps a Spa-treatment, then off to Canterlot. What say you girls?” Rarity asked with a large grin on her face. "Well that just sounds downright lovely.” AppleDash said with renewed enthusiasm. "But what even are our favorite treats anymore?” PinkieShy asked solemnly. AppleDash thought about this for a moment and honestly she answered, "Ah...Ah hav’ no idea." Rarity interjected, "Well then we will just have to inform the Cakes of the situation and I'm sure they will be kind hearted enough to allow you to try treats until you come across the ones you like." This put a little more enthusiasm on the faces of the two ponies. "Spike, can you write a letter to Princess Luna?” Rarity asked. Spike’s eyes grew wide and took on the form of hearts, "Of course Rarity, whatever you want!"

"Then write and ask her if she would kindly send us a carriage to Canterlot castle within the next few days, as we are in a situation and will explain this to her upon our arrival."

"Right away!" he exclaimed, and then he scampered off back to his home... without Twilight. He had no idea how he would sleep tonight; he was just a baby dragon and had never been on his own before. Perhaps the girls would let him stay with one of them.

"Well girls, let's hop to it shall we?” Rarity said as she began to walk towards Sugarcube Corner. AppleDash and PinkieShy followed. PinkieShy looked as sad and depressed as she had been, and AppleDash made another attempt to fly, but hit the ground with an even louder thud than before. Rarity heard this and it broke her heart. She would make things better for her friends somehow, and soon.

------

The changeling looked around, it was not sure where they were; a dense jungle with the greenest vegetation it had ever seen, with trees that seemed to grow endlessly into space. They had ended up next to a stream and the changeling decided to take a drink (it may live off of love, but it still needs water). It looked over to where the Princess lay and saw that she was unconscious. Good, this will buy some time, the changeling thought. There was no telling how far away from or how close to Similaria they had ended up. It had been granted limited use of teleportation by Queen Chrysalis to return with the Princess. But whatever that bright and colorful explosion was, it had interfered with the magic and sent them here. The changeling had no idea how long the Princess would stay unconscious and couldn't detain the Princess in the castle dungeon where only changelings could freely enter and exit (due to the special properties of the metal, it was penetrable only to changeling magic). The changeling needed to prevent the Princess from using her magic to escape. Luckily it was granted magic by the Queen for this as well. It walked over to a huge bush that had giant leaves almost as big as it was and pulled one down. It then proceeded to fashion the leaf into a tight cone and used the long blades of grass to weave it together so it would retain its shape. It then held the leaf in front of it and concentrated real hard, looking directly at it. Slowly but surely the leaf appeared to have a green aura around it that grew brighter and brighter until it finally faded away. The changeling had just infused this leaf with magic that will negate any kind of magic the Princess tries to use.

This kind of work took lots of energy, but luckily the pony it had taken the form of had friends who loved her very much, and over the past two weeks it had accumulated a great deal of power and become considerably strong. It slipped the cone over Celestia’s horn and tied it on with long grass.

Next order of business; the Princess cannot be allowed to run off. The changeling untied one of the ropes from around her and tied one end around her neck. It concentrated on the rope and, like the cone, it slowly began to glow green. The changeling had just enchanted the rope to ignore resistance from the end tied around the Princess's neck. Now there was no way she could get away. It hoped that the Queen would be happy for its efforts. When the Princess wakes up, they would start towards Similaria. As all changelings had a sense of which direction it was in, much like an internal compass, this would prove to be just a minor setback; things would be back on track soon enough.

------

Chrysalis was lying in her bed and thinking. How much closer was Discord to unraveling the secrets of the scrolls? How would she dispose of him when she no longer required his services? She was beginning to doze off. How was the capture of Celestia going?

The capture of Celestia....The capture of Celestia! Her eyelids flew open. They should have already been here. The instructions she gave her minion were to teleport to the Everfree Forest and wait until nightfall to teleport back to the castle. So where were they? She jumped up out of bed and galloped out of her chamber door, down the hall and descended the spiral staircase. Once she was in the west wing of the bottom floor, she quickly traversed the halls to the east wing and into the dining room. She flung open the metal doors and ran down the stairs to where the scrying pool was. Though this commotion had awakened Twilight, she thought it best to feign sleep and find out what was going on.

Chrysalis looked deep into the pool and uttered the words, "Show me Celestia." The green pool rippled and slowly began forming a picture. What she saw was confusing. Celestia was unconscious and tied up with a green cone on her horn, while her minion looked at her reflection in the stream. Chrysalis had no idea where they were at; she had never seen that land before. Her minion seemed to be resting while it awaited Celestia to get up and travel back here. Something must have gone wrong with the spell. Perhaps she had put too much faith in this minion. No matter, she would contact it in the morning. The important thing is that Celestia was captured. Things were going as planned. "Celestia is caught, and soon the second phase of the plan will be complete. I still must learn of a way to dispose of Discord when all is done.” Chrysalis said to herself. Content for the moment, she walked back up the stairs and proceeded to go back to her chambers.

------

Discord was working hard on the scroll (he hadn't gotten very far) and this really proved to be a long and arduous process. What he had uncovered still made no sense to him: ’Replicate the desire of flowers on the plains, only to have realized you must do this again’. It wasn't much to work with, but he was confident that he would understand as he translated more. He was beginning to work on the next word when the letters decided they wanted to draw matches and catch themselves on fire. As they burned, the scroll disappeared.

These spells were really starting to try his patience. He took a deep breath and stood up. He turned to his floating lemon and squeezed it. It then turned into a cake that he swiftly ate. "Since I have nothing better to do, I'll go check on Twilight again. I haven't seen her since this morning." He walked out of his room and made his way to the dungeon. He was startled when he heard some heavy hoofsteps echoing through the corridors. He quickly turned invisible and flew up. He was surprised to see Chrysalis hurrying to the dungeon. What had happened? He followed her to the dining room. She almost hit him when she threw the doors open; he had to throw himself to the left but the door still hit him, and he crashed to the ground. How had Chrysalis not heard that? No matter, since she didn't bother closing the door, he snuck in to see what all the commotion was about.

When he had gotten down into the dungeon, Twilight was asleep and Chrysalis was looking into the scrying pool. He flew up behind her to look into it. What he saw wasn't what he expected. He had seen this place before, but where? How did he know of this place? He knew he hadn't been there, but still, he knew it. He kept that image in his mind. As Chrysalis backed up, he flew into the corner and landed. "Celestia is caught, and soon the second phase of the plan will be complete. I still must learn of a way to dispose of Discord when all is done." Discord raised his eyebrow at this. Chrysalis went back up the stairs and closed the door behind her. He turned visible and began walking around. "She wants to dispose of me huh?” he said in a smooth tone. It was anticipated though. "No matter, I shall continue working with her until the end. She isn't the only one who has a disposal plan.” he said as he looked over to the scrying pool. "That place in the pool... Could it be? Could that be the resting place of Starswirl the Bearded?” he asked himself, as he would definitely look into that. But for now, it was back to translating the scrolls. He flew up the stairs and exited the dungeon.

------

Twilight was asleep, dreaming that her and her friends were together and playing in the park. She had just thrown the whirley disk to Rainbow, when the ground beneath her hooves cracked and she was separated from her friends by a gaping hole. They called out to her but she just got farther and farther away. She was startled awake by somepony running inside the room. She opened her eyes and saw that it was Chrysalis. She quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep in the hopes of learning something. "Show me Celestia.” Chrysalis said to the pool.

Celestia? Why would she want to see Celestia? Surely the protective barriers of Canterlot would prevent that from happening. She hoped that everything was OK. No, of course it was; her friends wouldn't let Celestia be captured, neither would Shining Armor! Twilight opened her eyes and looked towards the pool. Luckily it was positioned to where she could just make out the picture. She got a quick glimpse and saw the gigantic trees, the huge bushes and how bright this place was. It was a paradise. As Chrysalis began backing up, Twilight quickly laid herself back down and closed her eyes. "Celestia is caught, and soon the second phase of the plan will be complete. I still must learn of a way to dispose of Discord when all is done.” Chrysalis said.

Celestia is captured? No! How could this be? Celestia is the Princess. She has really powerful magic. How could somepony have bested her abilities? Twilight couldn't believe it. There was no way this could have happened. She wanted to cry, but at the same time she didn't want to let Chrysalis know she was awake. She heard the door to the dungeon close. She wanted to dispose of Discord? So she was in fact planning to betray him in the end.

"She wants to dispose of me huh?"

What? Discord was here? She cracked her eye open to watch as he appeared in the corner of the room. "No matter, I shall continue working with her until the end. She isn't the only one who has a disposal plan." Twilight watched as he turned his head to look at the green scrying pool. "That place in the pool... Could it be? Could that be the resting place of Starswirl the Bearded?" She heard the last bit as a mumble as he climbed the stairs and exited the dungeon.

Twilight jumped up. Had he said the resting place of Starswirl the Bearded? Celestia was there? How? She had so many questions and no way to get answers to them. She wasn't used to this. She needed to somehow get out of here. She started pacing around. “So, Chrysalis and Discord both have plans to get rid of each other after everything huh?” Perhaps she could use this to her advantage. She had so much new information to think about. She would soon have to figure out a way to formulate a plan of her own. But for now, she was tired. She lay down on her makeshift bed, closed her eyes and slowly drifted back to sleep, to once again join her friends in a place she was happy in.

Comments

[Super_Big_Mac]

I don't want to be rude, but... I think I died a little while trying to read the first paragraph...

[Battlemuffins]

1000607Whys that?

[Super_Big_Mac]

1002036 It's just...the grammar! Ugh! I do not wish to be rude, but that's something I cannot, in good conscious, let myself read. I didn't dislike it, though. After getting up to the part where Discord makes his appearance, however, I had to stop for the time being.

[Battlemuffins]

1002884Yeah i know what you mean, my editor didnt actually read it when he said he did. But ive got a new one and he is attempting to re edit them and they should be reposted by at least tomorrow.

[Super_Big_Mac]

1004129 Cool! Can't wait to see it when it's actually edited.

[Battlemuffins]

1004731ill let you know ^.^ im about to post what should be a fully edited chapter 4