Classroom Changeling

by Someguy458

Chapter 22: Luna's Regrets

I shuddered as my hooves felt the cold floor of Twilight's Castle. I didn't know whether to be excited or nervous to set foot in another dimension, but there were more pressing matters.

At least Os was with me. "This is so surreal! Though I wonder what Luna wants."

"Based on the circumstances, it's gotta be something important," I pondered.

Twilight soon piped up, still on the Earth side of the portal. "She's waiting in the Map Room. Just go down the stairs at the end of the hall, and it'll be through the doors at the end of the foyer."

Os blinked. "You're not coming?"

She shook her head. "She made it clear that she wants to speak with you two, not me. Besides, I still have to finish getting everything ready for our plan." We nodded in acceptance, and with a quick goodbye, we exited the room the portal was in.

Our hoofsteps rang through the crystalline hallway as we walked. The structure was much more impressive in person than in the few pictures I'd seen of it, but that was a given. I could even see our reflections in the walls, they were so clean.

Eventually, we reached the staircase leading into the foyer, just like Twilight had said. We both decided to fly down, our flying having gotten better over the past few days.

The silence was only broken once we reached the doors. "Well, this is it," Os commented absently. "Once we open these doors, there's no going back."

"I'd say we passed that threshold when we started searching for the Elements," I chuckled a little.

"You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

With that, we each pressed a hoof against the double doors, and pushed them both open.

Princess Luna sat in Twilight Sparkle's throne, with an aura of multiple swirling shades of gray — the colors of guilt and regret combining into despondence. Her ear perked up when the door opened, and she turned to see us.

That only made her despondence worsen. "Ah, you're here. I suppose it is time, then."

We both bowed. "It's an honor to—"

She waved a hoof. "No need for the formalities; I am not your ruler, and I would not deserve such respect regardless."

Os immediately countered, "What do you mean? Of course you're worthy of respect; you raise your moon!"

Her head drooped. "After what I've done, I fear I've lost all respect."

I chimed in, "Nightmare Moon wasn't that bad—"

"I am not referring to that."

Os and I looked at each other momentarily, before Os spoke up: "Then what are you referring to?"

Luna now looked closer to Fluttershy in demeanor. "This whole catastrophe... It's all my fault."

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought it was the solar flares causing this."

"That is only part of it," Luna admitted. "But I am the catalyst."

Os gave me a quick glance, which I returned. "What exactly happened?"

"It was just over a week ago," Luna began, "and I was reading Twilight Sparkle's notes on the Mirror Portal. Her solution to controlling when it opened was so ingenious, it made me wonder if we were trying hard enough to understand it.

"Tia tried to warn me; she said that she'd spent two hundred years trying to understand the portal, even going as far as creating a specific scientific branch for Research Into Multi-Dimensional Travel. But Twilight's immediate success with modifying the portal had incensed me; surely there'd be something I could learn if I just tried hard enough?"

"You tried messing with magic you didn't understand," Os realized.

Luna winced, but nodded. "I only meant to get a look into the magic that formed the rift between our world and Terra, but the solar flares messed with my spell-work, and I accidentally punched a hole into yours.

"Thankfully, the rift was stabilized when you created the new portal, but the damage has already been done." Luna lowered her head. "I thought I'd left my stubborn ways behind when Twilight and her friends rescued me from the Nightmare, but it seems I was mistaken."

I blinked. Now I finally understood what that second dream meant!

"So go ahead," Luna finished, tears welling up in her eyes, "tell me how badly I messed up. Tell me how much this has changed your lives for the worse; tell me how you never wanted the responsibility of becoming your world's Elements of Harmony; tell me how much you hate—"

That's all she could say before Os and I interrupted her with a hug. "You really need to stop being so hard on yourself."

She blinked, the tears now freely flowing. "You forgive me, even after what I did?!"

"Sure, it's changed our lives," I began, "but it's not all bad. I can't speak for everyone, but I've grown to like some of the changes." I twitched my wings for an example.

"And I know how hard you are on yourself already," Os added. "But that won't cause anything but trouble."

"Yes, I remember the Tantabus quite well," Luna commented. "Thankfully, I haven't sunken that low... yet...."

I looked at Os for clarification, and she whispered, "We'll get to that episode eventually."

I nodded, then turned back to Luna. "We all make mistakes; I almost didn't help Os with this because I thought that, if I just ignored it, maybe I could retain some sense of normalcy. What's important now is that we learn from our mistakes and move forward with that new knowledge, so we don't make that same mistake twice."

I broke from the hug. "Besides, if this hadn't happened, Os and I wouldn't be dating right now."

She blinked, then looked at us both and smiled. "That... That is nice to hear. I did notice the two of you in that first dream, but I hadn't gotten the opportunity to see anything past that."

"Yep," Os placed a wing onto my shoulder, "we're practically married already."

I spluttered at that. "I wouldn't — we're not that far yet, Os!"

" 'Yet'?"

I blushed, and they both got a laugh out of it.

Luna wiped away a tear. "Thanks, I needed that. But still, your forgiveness alone can't atone for what I did to the denizens of Earth."

Os pointed out, "Then why aren't you joining Twilight's plan? If you feel so bad, work to fix it!"

The Princess blinked, then slapped herself. "You're right; what am I doing, sitting here and feeling sorry for myself, when I should be helping to fix this!?"

She suddenly stood up. "Hold on, Sister, I'm coming!" With that, she lit her horn and disappeared in a flash of light.

After a moment of silence, Os looked at me. "So... that just happened, right? We just comforted and motivated a Princess?" I nodded, and she continued, "Good, glad to see it wasn't just my imagination."

Then she fainted.

---

Once Os woke up, we decided to fly back to my house and take a load off — that interaction may not have been much, but it was still emotionally taxing. Besides, it was pretty late in the day (Twilight only came back through at about 5:30 p.m.).

While we were flying, something clicked in my mind. "What was it that Luna said about 'the responsibility of becoming your world's Elements of Harmony'?"

Os blinked. "Huh, she did say that...."

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking that means?" I turned to her worriedly.

"That we're going to be the ones people turn to for help stopping anything magical that comes in the future?"

I gulped. "Exactly."

Os shrugged. "Eh, we'll worry about it when it comes. Right now, I'm feeling a little hungry."

"Oh?"

She then looked at me sultrily. "Yup. I could go for a nice, big, juicy snack."

I replied obliviously, "Well, we've still got some leftover food that's gonna go bad now that we don't need to—"

"Rove, I'm making an innuendo."

I paused, midair, and blushed. "Oh.... Are you really sure about this, Os?"

She nodded, and I could only detect very faint traces of nerve in her aura. "More sure than I've ever been about anything."

We looked each other in the eye for a moment, and she didn't back down.

Then I grinned my fanged grin. "Os, I would be honored."

She grinned her own fanged grin back. "Then let's do this."

And thus began the best night of our lives.

---

Meanwhile, somewhere else...

Harold Johannes stood in his bedroom, staring at a printed-out image of a changeling that was thumb-tacked to his corkboard. Just the sight of it made him irrationally angry.

'It's all his fault....'

He thought back to last week, in biology class. First, another classmate changed; the next day, several other students — including Harold — had been changed as well. Things like that happened for a reason; it was too similar to how disease spread to be coincidence.

'It's all his fault....'

His expression hardened into a scowl, and his horn lit up, fueled by his anger. With a *Zap!*, the picture was reduced to ash. He was finally ready.

"Just you wait, Rove," he growled. "Tomorrow, you're going to pay for making us like this."

Author's Note:

EDIT (5/23/2022): Edited Rove's dialogue to reflect his new arc.

Comments

[Someguy458]

10712092

Still confused why they think Adler has any benefit over anyone else in this...

Because he's a biology teacher, and they don't have a lot of resources to draw from when it comes to understanding their bodies.

And now, he's also this world's Element of Generosity, too, so he's kinda stuck being part of the group regardless.

[Someguy458]

10994402
Like how oil does that rainbow thing when it's in water, except with the skin of a reformed changeling?

That's actually a pretty dope thought.

[tsaukpaetra]

Oh Luna, you've been watching too much My Little Human, haven't you? Or maybe not enough. 😏
Best food feast ever!

11014989
Yeah, suppose one only knows what they know. Also, side hint, the site doesn't send notifications if you reply on the story page to a comment made in a chapter that's not the latest one. We didn't see it at all until we curiously expanded the reply-to link. 😇
It works fine for comments on the latest chapter, but for everything else you need to be in the same chapter the comment is in for it to work properly. You may also notice that your comment is similarly not in the relevant chapter, this is symptomatic of the problem. 👍

11017485
Healthy and whole changelings are naturally iridescent. It's when they're starving and malnourished that the shell loses that quality.

[Dis-Harmony Light]

This is really well written, I can't wait to read more.

[Someguy458]

11039511
Aw, thank you I'm certainly trying my best!

[Boof Man]

"Just you wait, Rove," he growled. "Tomorrow, you're going to pay for making us like this."

Somebody’s a little angy