Chapter 68+1
She leans back, looking at the ceiling. “Come on, Morning. You can do this.” She closes her eyes. “You’ve lasted this long, you can last the rest of the year.” She takes a deep breath before bending over the toilet once more, to stain the toilet water even more violently pink.
Once she finishes, she rises back up from the toilet, sighs at the sacrilegious waste taking place, and flushes the veritable treasure trove down the drain. “Good bye, again.” She shakes her head. “I’ll be back tomorrow, with more. And the day after.” She rises to her feet. “I wonder where it all goes every time…?” She shrugs, unlocks the stall, and steps out to wash her hands- and mouth- in the sink.
There was once a time in her life, when such waste would have gotten her executed instantly. But now… she has no choice. Either waste egregiously… or overwhelm herself and, very possibly, die. She doesn’t doubt she’d die happy if that were to happen- but she’s not ready for her time to end just yet, not for a long time.
She shudders, looking at herself in the mirror. There was a time, once upon a time, when she didn’t have to worry about overfilling. No; instead, she was almost constantly starved. There just wasn’t enough of that precious pink jelly-like substance to go around.
She remembers her Queen’s plan to secure a greater supply of it. Seemed a bit of a weird plan to her, but it wasn’t her job to question her Queen.
Someling should have questioned it. She’d participated, exactly as she was supposed to- but the invasion of Canterlot hadn’t worked. Rather fortunate that the barrier that had thrown the entire hive out of the city had been crafted from the very substance she’d just disposed of- the entire hive had a good meal, allowing them to survive the landing. She’d been one of the few that had managed to stabilize their own flight paths before landing, and so land gently. She’d been one of the first ones running around, locating her fellow hivemates.
And for her loyalty, when the ponies showed a week later, she’d been left behind.
Fortunately, she’d been able to pretend to be a captured pony, and escaped that way. There had actually been some real captured ponies, so that story should even have held up to scrutiny.
But that’s of no matter. As soon as she- and the captured ponies- had gotten away to “safety”... Well, she didn’t know where the rest of her hive went, so she went where she could on her own. She’d been way too far out to reach the rest through the hivemind.
So she’d split off from the rest of the ponies, created herself a new identity once she was out of sight, and traveled to Manehattan. She’d picked the city not for the food supply, but for the size of the crowd. It was a lot easier to disappear in Manehattan than it would have been elsewhere.
Even though she was on a starvation ration the entire time. She’d never been trained as a love collector, so it was all she could do to stay alive on passive absorption- all she knew how to do. She’d had to attend every event that came along, just to survive.
That had gone on for a couple years, before she’d finally gotten comfortable with her identity- comfortable enough she thought she could stand up to scrutiny without trying all that hard.
She’d moved to Ponyville. A smaller town, sure- but she figured that’s what it’d take. A much closer-knit society, with bonds of friendship every which way. It had been her last hope, really; Manehattan was killing her, very, very slowly.
Ponyville hadn’t been all that much better, right off. It had seemed almost like a ghost town when she arrived- but it had, from the start, fed her better than Manehattan.
Then, just three days after she got a seasonal ‘summer job’ at Sugarcube Corner as an assistant baker, the town had suddenly been overpopulated. Pinkie Pie had thrown so many parties she’d thought she’d never see the end of them.
Much of the rush had gone away, many of the ponies returning home… but the town still held onto a much higher population than it’d had before.
It had taken her only a few days to find out what that had all been about. She’d completely forgotten about the strange ‘Hogwarts’ thing in the news a year prior- but, as it so happens, the door to that world had been opened in Ponyville.
Just two months had gone by before a letter appeared out of thin air in front of her… addressed to her. Thankfully, it was addressed to ‘Morning Sun’, her assumed identity, rather than her true identity- that would have been… difficult to explain.
Hogwarts was inviting her.
She’d made sure to top off her love reserves- thanks to Pinkie’s endless parties, and the greater summertime population density, she had no real difficulty doing so- before the scheduled start date.
Then, on a stroke of luck, the doorway had been reopened right on time, and she’d come to Hogwarts.
She’d been worried the school would be a bit more like Manehattan than Ponyville.
She shouldn’t have been.
She’s still only absorbing ambient love- though…
Well, she’s not sure how to describe it. The Equestrians that came here are no different- but the humans that live in this world… It’s almost like they’re pumping it into her. She’s started wondering if ‘love’ is even the correct term. She’s still amazed she hadn’t been detected during those first couple days, when she was adjusting to the massive influx of ambient love, before she had figured out just how far down she has to empty herself to avoid overfilling in a single day.
And now… She wastes so much she could probably feed the entire hive back home alone.
She takes a deep breath, shuddering inside. One of those human love-factories is walking down the hallway outside this bathroom. That’s fine; she’s prepared herself for that. She’ll last an entire twenty-four hours before she needs to empty out again. Unfortunately, since it’s ambient she’s absorbing, she hasn’t been able to limit it, or she would have. She hates disposing of it- and not only because it’s wasteful, but because she might be detected doing it.
She takes a deep breath, looking at the bathroom door. It’s magically locked; she’s done that every single time, save those first few… and never been interrupted, even by someone walking past the door. The love-factory in the passage right now doesn’t count- it’s most definitely a boy, and she’s in the girl’s bathroom.
She turns her back to the sink, brushing her bright yellow hair out of her face and once again contemplating using her shapeshifting ability to get it under control. But no- just like she’s been avoiding everyone with even a remote tie to anyone important as much as she can, using her shapeshifting ability to alter her appearance, even by the slightest amount, is out of the question. All it takes is one lowly child to notice the difference, and tell someone else… and somepony like Twilight might come looking.
Even- Queen forbid- Princess Cadence. Who, she fears, might be impossible for a changeling like herself to hide from.
She smiles at the door. “You’ve got this, Morning Sun,” she tells herself.
Then the impossible happens.
The beacon of love, pure and clean, walking cheerfully past outside, is suddenly tainted by fear, about a second before it’s snuffed out.
Not… Not completely, though. She closes her eyes, feels into her empathic sense. It’s been mostly blinded by this odd love-dumping lately, but when she concentrates, she can see through it.
No, he’s still alive. Only barely, but he feels stable. There’s another one with him- must be one of the ghosts. They show up on her empathic sense, but don’t produce love of their own- almost like changelings, though they also don’t seem to use love. She can’t sense anything else.
She racks her brain for what might have happened.
She can’t think of anything.
Did she just witness an attack?
She searches for the attacker with her empathy sense… but doesn’t find anything anywhere nearby.
She walks slowly to the door. “Alohomora.” She opens it slowly, sticks her head out, looking up and down the passage. No sign of any attacker, just…
Yes, it is one of the ghosts after all. She exits the bathroom completely, walks closer. This is… Justin Finch-Fletchley, and the Gryffindor ghost, that everyone calls ‘Nearly Headless Nick’.
She decides that a regular first-year student, upon crossing this, would probably panic in some way or another. Not that she’s much better- she’s absolutely terrified. Rather fortunate she designed Morning Sun’s fear reaction to match her own. She looks up and down the passage. “H-Hello?”
Silence.
“Anyone there?”
More silence.
She shudders, and finally uses her magic to lift Justin off the floor, and… Nick feels strange to her magic, but she has no difficulty moving him around with it. If nothing else, she can get them to the Hospital Wing.
She takes off running, floating them both in front of her.
Less than thirty seconds later, a door bangs open, and Peeves bursts out.
Relief practically bursts through her. “Peeves!” she calls, even though he’s obviously looking for her to cause some mischief. “I found them back there- can you tell someone?” She points her thumb over her shoulder.
Peeves blinks, staring at them for a second, before filling his lungs and yelling at maximum volume.
Well, she supposes, he’s doing what I asked.
Mere seconds pass before a second person, this one with bright pink hair- Fluttershy- appears out of thin air, holding the massive thing she normally has on her back. “Where?” she demands, taking one look at Justin and Nick.
She shivers in fear- this had not been the person she had in mind to summon- and points her thumb over her shoulder. “I found them by the bathroom.”
Fluttershy nods, and vanishes very quickly down the passage and around the corner. She almost lets her breath out before more people start appearing. Most of them are Equestrians, but some aren’t. Draco Malfoy, child of a member of the British magical government. Harry Potter, famous in his own right. And Hermione Granger, friend of Harry’s.
That’s not counting all the other people that appeared. She doesn’t recognize any of them.
Harry himself moves straight to her. “Hey, you okay?”
She feels somepony else’s magic- she thinks it’s Draco’s, where he got Equestrian magic she doesn’t know- taking Justin and Nick out of her magical grasp. She lets him take them; she was already dangerously close to dropping them. “I-I-!” she stutters.
Harry wraps an arm around her, shrouding her in his crazy love output. “Don’t worry, Miss… Morning Sun. They’ll be alright. It’s only petrification.”
Her breath catches. Harry Potter, famous in this world, had read her name tag.
If she screws up, she’s screwed.
She notices Draco look at him weird, before running off. Did he screw up somehow? Did she cause him to screw up? Is he a changeling as well?
“Morning Sun?” Harry pats her shoulder, looking worried. “Are you okay?”
Would she be better off fleeing now, and creating a new identity, living in this world away from the school? That Gate might have converted her Equestrian disguise into an eleven-year-old human disguise, but it doesn’t seem to have put any limits on her shapeshifting power.
Her vision is swimming by now, but she’s not thinking about it. She’s… She’s… She thinks Harry is shaking her.
But everything goes dark.
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Maybe for the next year she could invite more changeling to be feed, and even the Queen...
9964632
She could...
Though, there is that part where she doesn't know the way back to 'em...
I find it amusing that, after not thinking about them for ages, I was watching a documentary on Beavis and Butthead only days before this chapter comes out and, now, you've pre-emptively guarded against their particular brand of amusement.
So...why did Silver run off? Did he use the analysis spell Lyra showed him? Or is he just scared?
9964676
Yeah...
One of my editors pointed out the "nicest" number a week or two ago, and I didn't want large numbers of comments that were wholly unrelated to the content.
(It would, however, have been an easy way to gauge about how many people are reading the chapter when...)
9964682
Uh... That would be the same reason he was there in the first place: An attack has happened, so the Agency- including Silver- is looking for the monster. Morning Sun doesn't know that, so to her, Draco ran off... after wondering, briefly, why Harry needed to read a nametag.
9964667
Just follow the ponies
9964702
Like, she doesn't know her way back to the Hive... and reformation isn't a thing in my stories, so said hive is totally secret from the ponies...
She'd have to chance across a new infiltrator in Equestria. Which is perfectly possible, once they start sending them in again.
An interesting twist on how a changeling (well, at least one, anyway) ended up in Hogwarts. Clear inspirations from Magic School Days, while essentially being the opposite in many respects. I'm glad you update so regularly, because every time I finish reading a chapter, I'm saddened that there's no more, hehe.
9964709
... MSD actually didn't cross my mind at all while writing this... it's just that it's the easiest way to separate a lone 'Ling from the rest, to put her in a position to be alone- and deathly terrified of detection- at Hogwarts.
And thank you!
... And are you sure you meant Magic School Days? There, the 'Ling to Hogwarts was a plant, if I remember right, ordered by Chrissy... Pretty sure If Wishes Were Ponies had the lost 'Ling finding her own way to Hogwarts.
9964699
Oh, I see. But I thought Harry looking at her nametag just meant he hasn't gotten to know everyone yet. Are you implying it's something else?
9964733
Yeah...
Because, as mentioned in the beginning of the fic, Harry has a "love envelope"- which means he shares Lyra's ability to see someone's name in their magical aura... through walls. That he needed to read her nametag was then strange, because he obviously didn't see a name in her aura. Or at least, one that he could tell was definitely hers...
9964734
Ohh. I get it now. Thanks. Just out of curiosity, why did you write 68+1 instead of 70?
9964737
... because 68+1 is not 70, it's 70-1. And the number between 68 and 70 has... ahh, adult connotations, and would result in possibly hundreds of comments saying nothing but "Nice", no matter the content of the chapter. I didn't want to open myself up to that kind of confusing (and high-spam) situation.
9964742
Yeah, that shows you two things:
One: I had a momentary brain fart in the math division
Two: I'm either young or very innocent.
Thank you for clarifying
9964723
Ugh, that's what I get for re-reading them both interchangeably (wishes on my phone and Magic on my computer). You are of course correct, Magic has Hope, plant and expeditionary scout, and Wishes has Elly, who would be the character I was thinking of who is so very similar to and yet opposite from Morning.
9964744
You’re welcome!
... I didn’t know about it myself until a week or two ago when one of my editors mentioned it...
9964742
Huh, and here I was thinking that Zinc (68+1/or Zn-69m) was a strang name for the chapter...
9964705
Or another changeling in Hogwarts... There is also a chance of that, right?
9964805
... Not really... because they’d be in range for her to talk to with the hive mind.
Sure, now I wait for the next chapter! Morning sounds a few steps from reformation. Let her meet Nymphadora?
9964810
True, but maybe in the next year another pony could be a changeling and they could find each other, and if that fails, maybe house elf magic could work
i'm laughing so hard at the title 68+1
9964697
Having recently done a chapter 69 without thinking of the connotations, I can report that I had exactly one minor mention of that nature.
9964972
Yeah... That's about what I would expect from this fandom. But still, I couldn't resist making a joke out of it. Especially after my own editor pointed out the "nicest" number...
You're talking about Off The Mark, right? Great story, by the way. I only got as far as chap. 13 or so, back in the day- don't remember why I turned away.
I take it the stairway has to be opened with the password, and not extreme brutality?
If theres iittle reaction now, noones going to even notice at Chapter 88?
9965078
... What stairway, password, or butality...?
And what does 9^2+7 have to do with anything...?
Discovering a changeling won't do as much as raise an eyebrow at this point.
Bah, it's going to be fine.
9965084
Sorry, I likely made a mistake, I havent rewatched the movies since they came out, or reread the books, so memories are years out of date. Thats not the toilets where the Chamber access is situated?
Hmm, That number which must not be uttered less an Extremely angry librarian treats you to a course of bananas and head removal? Or on achieving, you get to directly visualise the impact with a rotating air propulsion mechanism?
9964976
Yes, Off The Mark is the story that I am referring to. Just started on Book 3 of that tale.
9965128
Ahh... No, it'll do more. In this story, and in the headcanon for every one of my stories, the 'lings have basically disappeared ever since the invasion... except an occasional fight on the border that most ponies never hear about. They're very much enemies of the nation, as far as ponies are concerned.
9965213
Well of course, I wouldn't possibly pour an entire chapter into a brand-new character without good reason, even if it ends with her passing out in Harry's arms... In all seriousness, though, when she wakes, and realizes she's managed to attract the attention of numerous important people (by passing out in Harry's arms), she's going to be absolutely terrified...
... Before you ask, yeah, I've already written that scene. It's fun, but I don't want to release it until I'm sure I won't have to go back to adjust it to make future plot points actually work. Lockhart's Disaster Club was a literary disaster, and I'd rather not repeat anything like that if I can help it.
9965230
Not surprised, me too. I was asking because no stairs, passwords, or brutality was mentioned in the story at all... If you're referring to the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets, it isn't a staircase, and it isn't opened by either a password or brutality, but by a command spoken in Parseltongue (The books are my canon, not the movies). And no, she's not in that bathroom, either. That's where Myrtle is, and she'd never perform revealing Changeling acts where anyone- even a ghost- might see.
... googles it Oh, that. Well, since Hitler isn't exactly an adult theme (and/or something for half the internet to say "Nice" to), I'll probably not worry about it.
I’ve read it again, and I can’t figure out why fluttershy ascended?
9965983
That's actually a very good question. I have no idea why I ascended her, anymore- but it's a small enough event (relatively speaking) that I'm able to just gloss over it, at this stage, and pretend it was for good reason. I mean, it has come in handy, once or twice...
Chapter 70 - 1 is all kinds of interesting.
Most excellent.