The Element of Identity

by CEverw00d

Ch 3 Part 3: A Bakery in the Library

Ch 3 Part 3: A Bakery in the Library

“Wake up…hey…”

Exulus groaned, he didn’t want to wake up.

“Wake up…!! Hey! Wake up!”

Someone is shouting. Why do they want him to wake up?

Suddenly, someone socked him in the gut with their hoof and Exulus was awake. He rolled over and got on his hooves. There, staring back at him, were Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Spike. They were all glaring at him, as if ready to beat him up. Why?

Exulus looked down, he was in his changeling form. He had fallen asleep without making sure he was somewhere secret first. Did they know he was the cat, or did they just wake up and find a changeling in their house?

“Who are you!? How did you get in here!?” Rainbow demanded.

Exulus growled, “What a stupid question. I’m a changeling, I’m whoever you want me to be. And I got in here through the door you stupid shit.”

“What was that!?” Rainbow raged, ready to tackle this punk and beat him senseless.

Why did this have to happen? Pff….of course. They can never accept me in my changeling form, nobody can. Exulus thought as his expression wrenched.

“What did you do with Kitty Cat?!” Twilight demanded.

They don’t know…good… Exulus smirked, “That cat? He ran out the door as soon as I came in.”

“Why are you here!?”

“No reason, I just needed a place to sleep for the night. I’ll be taking my leave now.” Exulus ran and bashed down the door and took off flying. However Rainbow Dash was in hot pursuit and very easily catching up.

Exulus looked around. He needed to be crafty. She’s fast, but one problem with speed is that it’s harder to turn. The advantages of having insect wings instead of bird wings.

Exulus did a nose dive, increasing speed and heading straight down for the buildings. Rainbow Dash paused a moment, then pursued. Exulus dove into an alleyway with Rainbow Dash following and quickly gaining. As they got out of the Alleyway, Exulus made a sharp right turn, then another into another alleyway. Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, had to make a wider turn and had to slow down, allowing Exulus some space to get away. He made another sharp right and was out of view before Rainbow Dash could make her way through the alley that he had taken. However, when she passed through, she couldn’t see him anymore. All she saw were a group of small birds pecking at the ground.

She searched around one more time before heading back to Twilight’s house and reporting how she lost him.

Exulus checked his surroundings carefully from the disguise of one of the small birds. When he was sure all was clear, he changed back into his changeling form, then quickly into his cat form. He was flustered, he was angry, and he was saddened. Why couldn’t he just be himself and fit in like any other species? Changelings have to live their lives being something else in order to be loved, so why couldn’t they just be something else that was loved in the first place? Were they really such a despicable species?

Hanging his head low, the Exulus cat slowly made his way through the alley and into the streets where he was promptly tripped over by somepony.

He got up and looked at who had tripped over him and it was none other than Pinkie Pie. She gasped and said, “Mr. Kitty Cat! Sorry! Didn’t see ya there! You’re all sorta small and fuzzy and black and stuff! Say, you look kinda down in the dumps! Then again, I don’t think I’ve seen a happy cat before, or a sad cat, or a mad cat. I’m not sure I’ve seen any sort of expression on a cat! Though I guess Opal has some expressions, like furry and more furry and not-so-furry and styled-furry and some sort of angry-furry and messy-furry. You don’t seem to be any of those kinds of furry though. Well, you’re furry, but not like an expression furry.

Oh Celestia, she just keeps talking. This is one hundred percent of everything I don’t need right now. Exulus thought, irritated and frustrated. He laid his ears flat on his head, a typical sign that a cat was going to attack, though this time it meant he was in a bad mood. He turned to walk away from the rambling Pinkie Pie when she grabbed him in her hooves and said, “And where do you think YOU’RE going? Don’t think I don’t know about you MISTER! Oh no, you’re coming with me!” Despite his struggles and squirming, he was powerless as Pinkie Pie brought him to Sugarcube Corner and plopped him on the counter. She pointed to the counter and said, almost threateningly, “Now you wait right here MISTER!”

Exulus sat still, looking around. There were many great, sweet smells in the bakery, as well as many delicious-looking confections. He was reminded about how he hadn’t tasted any of them, but stayed put, knowing that eating any of them would cause trouble.

Yet, within moments, Pinkie came back with a tray of various pastries and various party decorations. She set the tray next to Exulus and quickly decorated the bakery, then moved up to Exulus’s side quickly, “Go ahead and eat these! When I heard that you were a stray cat, it made me sad because I knew that if you were a stray, then you’ve never been to a party! No birthday parties, no surprise parties, no going-away parties, no coming-back parties, no parties at all! Then I knew that if you haven’t been to a party, that you probably never had cupcakes or cake cakes or donuts or croissants or danishes or muffins or ANYTHING! So I’m throwing YOU, Mr. Kitty Cat, a you’ve-never-had-a-party-before party! Now stay there and eat those, I’m gonna go round up some guests!” And with everything said, she dashed out the door to recruit some random party guests.

Exulus looked down at the tray and sniffed the pastries. They weren’t poisonous. Actually, they smelled really tasty. He took a nibble of the donut, a simple donut with powdered sugar on it. His eyes widened as he thought, This is delicious! I wonder what the others taste like! He took bites out of the various pastries one after another and enjoyed each bite. He was enjoying them so much that he didn’t even realize that Pinkie Pie had come back with about nine other guests for this party.

Exulus was shocked when Pinkie Pie suddenly shouted, “Let’s get this party starteeeeeed!” She put on some music and the party commenced. Exulus sat and observed, not sure what he was supposed to be doing. He didn’t sit for long, however, before Pinkie Pie started pushing him around to the various games, punch bowl, even a few gifts. They were all cat toys, but they were still gifts.

About twenty minutes in, Exulus was already exhausted with being shoved about to each game. There came a knock on the door and when it opened, Twilight was outside. Pinkie Pie hopped over to her, “What’s up Twilight? You here for the party?”

“Party?” Twilight inquired, “What’s the occasion?”

“It’s Kitty Cat’s never-had-a-party-before party! I threw it for him today!”

“His party? He’s here?”

“Uh, DUHHHH! Why would I throw a party for him if he wasn’t here?”

“Good point. Where is he?”

“He’s over there by the punch bowl!” Pinkie Pie directed with her hoof.

Sitting by the punch bowl was Exulus. He was wearing a party hat and a beaglepuss. His stomach looked bloated, full of pastries and punch.

Twilight made her way over to him and sighed with relief, “I’m glad he’s alright.”

Exulus looked up at Twilight, the same one that had both treated him kindly yesterday and stared daggers at him today. He couldn’t blame her, but it was still a bit saddening.

“So Twilight,” Pinkie Pie started, “Are you staying for the party too?”

“Well, I sort of have stuff to do today…”

“Is it stuff that’s more fun than a party?”

Twilight thought about it and tossed a glance to Pinkie Pie who was staring with a wide and expecting grin. Twilight gave in, “No, of course not!”

“Alright! Then leeeet’s party!”

Exulus enjoyed himself for the duration of the party. He didn’t know most of these ponies, but he didn’t care. This was so much more fun than being with his changeling siblings who he DID know.

The party concluded and Exulus went home with Twilight Sparkle, this time without Rainbow Dash. Exulus sat atop the central table and looked around at the library. It was a nice and orderly place, though none too exciting.

Twilight paced around the table, “I should bring you back to Rarity’s so she can take care of you again. Though, you seemed fine last night and I guess you must’ve already eaten at the party. But what if that changeling comes back? What was up with him? No, Rainbow must’ve scared him off.” She stopped in her tracks and looked at Exulus, still in his party hat and beaglepuss. She giggled a bit and nudged the silly accessories off of him, “I guess you can stay here for the night. It should be okay. I’ll just have Owlowiscious keep an eye out tonight. Spike and I will sleep upstairs, do you need a place to sleep?”

Exulus shook his head, then laid down on top of the table.

She smiled, “Alright then, sleep tight!” Then she headed up the stairs.

Exulus, of course, was not going to make the same mistake this time and fall asleep in plain sight. He looked around for an open window, open door, something. He finally spotted it, an open window, the one that Owlowiscious uses to get in and out. Exulus made his way up the stairs and over to the window when he heard a “Hoo.”

He turned quickly to see Owlowiscious perched on a nearby chair and staring at Exulus. The owl spoke again, “Hoo.”

“Meow.” Exulus responded.

“Hoo.”

“Meow.”

“Hoo hoo.”

Exulus made is way out the window and through the branches, higher into the tree. It wasn’t the most comfortable place, but with all the leaves and branches, he was safely hidden. He shut his eyes and slept.

The following morning, Exulus awoke to scrambling about below as well as Twilight calling out, “Kitty Cat, oh Kitty Cat! Where are you!?”

Exulus changed into his cat form and made his way back inside through the window, then let out a “Meow” to grab Twilight’s attention.

She scrambled to him and heaved a sigh of relief, “Don’t scare me like that!”

Exulus twitches his ears and said nothing more.

She reached over and rubbed his head with her hoof, then turned and went about her usual morning business.

Today was one of the days where Twilight decided to expand her ability to cast spells and so had a particular spell book open that she was flipping through. She was systematically going through the book and learning its spells and when she was done, she planned to go onto the next one and so on. Exulus sat next to her, also reading the book.

“Here we go,” Twilight said, getting to where she last left off, “The Wil-O-Wisp spell. An easy-level spell. It creates a magical flame that can burn anything and stay burning forever. The most typical use is igniting the air to create a small source of light and heat. That seems useful. It also says ‘Warning: This flame will spread like regular flames if the flame has a place to spread to and will burn whatever is set aflame. The flame cannot be put out with traditional means and can only be doused with the following spell. Use with extreme caution.’ “

She turned the page to look at the spell for dousing, the ‘Will-No-Wisp’ spell, then flipped back to the previous. Her horn began to glow as she attempted the spell and created a small glowing purple flame in the middle of the air a little in front and above her. She looked at it and smiled, “Seems pretty easy!”

Unknown to her, however, was that Exulus also attempted the spell. The tip of his tail glowed red and the small purple flame now had an added red flame flickering within it. This puzzled Twilight, but as most flames were some sort of red, she shrugged it off. She then attempted the Will-No-Wisp spell. A slight breeze with a purple-ish hue emanated from her horn and blew out the purple flame, revealing the red flame for a moment. Exulus quickly imitated the spell and let off a slight red-ish breeze that doused the red flame.

The breeze seemed to have come from behind Twilight, leading her to look over her shoulder to see behind her. Nopony was there. Maybe it was just part of the spell. She shrugged again and began looking into the next spells while Exulus remained by her side, imitating the spells without her knowing.

All changelings had the potential for magic. The transformation itself was a spell, but it was one that all changelings knew on instinct. Rarely, however, did they take the time to read a spell book and learn anything more. The Changelings themselves did not have any spell books to learn from, and magic was never particularly needed beyond the transformation spell. It was for these reasons that most changelings did not know any additional magics.

The rest of the day passed like this. It was calm, it was simple, and it was relaxing. These past few days have been nothing but learning experiences, and each one was another fond memory. If only days like these could last forever.

Nothing lasts forever.