A Changing Perspective

by Dragrace

Chapter 33 - Reunion

Twilight stumbled through the assortment of trees. Every time she had ventured into the Everfree forest, there was the overwhelming feeling that the forest was out to get her. Most of the time she had ventured through the forest, straying from the path, the results never went nearly as well as she had hoped. This time, however, she saw the exit to the forest approaching quickly, as she darted around a tree. In the distance, she could still see Luna being followed by the swarm of changelings, and at the rate she was running at she didn't stand a chance to catch up to her. Out of breath, Twilight stared blankly at the shield surrounding her home, slightly surprised that she had gotten out of the forest so quickly. Once the mare had finally caught her breath, she looked back expecting to see Jack following up shortly afterwards. Nothing happened for a solid minute, and Twilight became a little worried. The Everfree forest was a common place for many ponies to get lost, and some never came back. It was rare, however, but there was always the slim chance that he could get lost. When Twilight remembered that he could fly (to a limited extent) she felt some tension relieved, but became more worried when she saw multiple pairs of eyes hidden among the trees, glaring towards her.

Twilight couldn't remember when she started running, but she had already reached a full sprint by the time she thought about what she had just seen. Quickly circling the large shield clockwise, she attempted to find the small hole that Jack had made a while back. Still unsure if she was being chased or not, she continued sprinting, ignoring obvious landmarks which may have been used to identify the position more easily. When she finally had found the gap leading into Ponyville, she scurried in, quickly blocking the exit behind her with magic. Scanning the outside of the shield, she saw a few changelings had gathered and were chasing her, but there were far fewer than she had seen in the trees. Now that she was safe, she collapsed onto the ground, physically exhausted from running all day.

>---<

Jack knew he was lost. He had only really figured out he was lost after passing the exact same creepy looking tree for the fourth time. He had gotten lost enough times in Ponyville alone, which he always blamed his poor geography skills, but this time he knew he could easily get out. As much as he disliked flying, this was one of the occasions he would have to fly. With a buzzing sound that even he was annoyed with, he quickly took flight, careful to avoid the twisted branches of the trees around him. After finally reaching the skies above, he saw the distant aura of the shield glimmering in the sunlight. Changing his momentum towards Ponyville, he was caught off guard when he was suddenly tackled out of the air by something. Landing hard against the ground, he quickly pushed whatever had hit him off before assuming a defensive position.

Peering upwards to his assailant, his eyes met with a pair of familiar magenta eyes. Of every single pony that could have possibly tackled him, it was Rainbow Dash. The mare's expression was quite surprised, with a hint of confusion. Without notice, she suddenly burst into a full out laughter and collapsed on the floor. Jack, uncertain of what would happen if he stayed, decided it would be best for him just to leave, especially since he was stuck in his changeling form. Once Rainbow had finally recovered from her laughing fit, she instantly noticed the pink changeling walking away casually in the distance.

"Hey!" She yelled, quickly catching up to the changeling. "Where do you think you're going?"

Without responding, Jack continued pressing forward towards where he thought Ponyville was located. As much as he disliked Rainbow from previous encounters, he maintained his composure, knowing that he couldn't blow his cover.

"Pinkie... Err... Pink guy!" Rainbow stuttered, careful not to compare the changeling to ponies she knew. "Aren't changelings supposed to be black? And aren't they supposed to like... feed off ponies they find? What's wrong with you just walking around like you own the place after being tackled by me?"

'Yeah, because being tackled by you makes a huge difference...' Jack thought, rolling his eyes.

"HEY!" Rainbow yelled, shoving Jack into a nearby tree. She grabbed him as firmly as possible with hooves and stared into his eyes. "I know what you changelings do... And don't think I don't know where you're going! I'm NOT going to let some insectoid FREAK get my friends!"

'Ouch. That hurt quite a bit more than I expected. Sticks and stones may break my bones... Sometimes words can be just as bad I guess... Jack thought, 'But enough of that. What was I going to do about Rainbow again? I need a plan here…'

As the cyan mare pulled Jack off the tree, Jack instantly applied force going in the direction she was pushing him. Completely unprepared for the additional force, Rainbow lost her balance and Jack took off again towards Ponyville. Dodging through the trees had become much easier, after running through such environment so frequently. Glancing behind him just for a brief second, it was quite evident that Rainbow was not prepared for such terrain. Somehow, she had managed to get tangled in a group of vines, then proceed to land face first into a tree. Snickering as he continued running through the forest, he found himself running through a group of changelings. As one of the changelings stepped out into his path, Jack came to a skidding halt.

"Ummm... Hi?"

>---<

Celestia waited impatiently for Spike's return. When she had arrived in the library at first, it was seemingly empty. When she announced her visit, however, Spike quickly rose from his slumber and stumbled down the stairs, greeting the princess with a bow. After that, not much had occurred. Spike was still very worried about Twilight, seeing as she hadn't been home in in a full day, and managed to express his feelings without having a complete breakdown. Of course, Celestia was there to comfort the dragon, and when she finally told him she was going to look for Twilight he finally perked up.

Spike had left the Tree-brary for the first time since there was the announcement at town hall about the possibility of changelings. It wasn't because he didn't want to leave, he wasn't really afraid of the changelings, he never left prior to Celestia's arrival because Twilight never gave him a reason to leave. As for the princess of the sun, her sudden arrival, as well as asking for information about the minister, Spike instantly took off to ask everypony around town. Based on Celestia's previous analysis of the situation, Spike would have little luck getting a single pony in town to talk to him.

Pulling a few books off a nearby shelf, Celestia sat herself on the wooden floor. Looking at each of the titles, she found none of them appealing to her taste, but decided to read one anyways. It was titled 'Equestrian Myths and Lore', and it was in relatively poor shape compared to most of the books in the library. Carefully opening the cover in hopes of keeping the book together, Celestia heard a loud crash from outside and the sound of glass shattering.

Rising to her feet, Celestia teleported to the front of the library in panic of what may have happened. Instead of finding some sort of riot, or Spike being thrown through the window, she instantly noticed her prized student staring blankly at the sky. Rushing over to her, she gave the unsuspecting mare a crushing embrace. In response, Twilight gave a quiet squeal before noticing who had approached her. Giving but a smile in return, without even a 'hello', Twilight pointed towards the sky, forcing Celestia to look upwards as well. The shield that had been protecting the small town from any sort of entry (or exit) had a massive hole in it. Directly below, was a collapsed black object, with at least a hundred changelings slowly charging the collapsed being. Stepping forward, in hopes of stopping the changelings, Celestia conjured a powerful blast, forcing all the creatures in the sky back out the small opening they had entered. Rushing over to the collapsed mare, Celestia found herself face to face with her sister.

>---<

Jack weaved his way through the various floras, before finally coming to the sole opening between the forest and Ponyville. What instantly caught his attention was the mass of changelings sent flying through the air, as well as a large hole in the shield supposedly protecting Ponyville. Still being cautious of any other potential pegasi ready to assault him from the sky, he crept towards the small entry way he had used to get in and out of the city. Upon arriving at the passage, he found it to be roughly twice as big as it used to be, and now there was a small protection shield blocking the entrance as well. Casting his head in the sky, he let out a long sigh. So long as there was no way to go under, he would have to go over. Still, it could have been worse; they may not have been an entrance at all except for that hole.

'Wait, how did that hole even get there in the first place? And where did all those changelings come from, and what sent them all flying away?'

Shrugging it off, knowing that it could have easily been Twilight, Jack returned to the sky once more. Still wobbling slight after takeoff, he was quickly able to straighten himself out and continue towards the hole at a constant velocity. When he finally reached the opening, Jack found himself staring downwards towards two ponies, one of which was an alicorn (judging by the distinctive coloring it was Celestia), the other one was a purple unicorn (obviously Twilight) and they were both positioned around what looked like a large collapsed pony. Nervous to approach the group, Jack hovered just outside the shield for a moment before entering. Twilight instantly caught Jack's entry, and quickly whispered something into Celestia's ear. She nodded, and looked towards Jack, before slowly approaching him.

Looking up to Celestia felt odd. Mostly because he was slightly taller than many other ponies and changelings alike, but in comparison Celestia was massive. He expected to be smaller but not nearly as small as he actually was. Ignoring the other blatantly new features about the sun goddess, he noticed she was looking towards the collapsed pony, which Jack recognized instantly. The dark mane flowing through the air, the starry images projected onto the mane, as well as a distinctive cutie mark. It was Princess Luna, and she looked very hurt.

"Luna sort of... Broke through the barrier." Twilight whispered to Jack.

"Is that bad, or was it some sort of incredible feat?" Jack whispered back.

"A combination of both. It's amazing that she was able to break a shield so strong with her body alone, but as a result she took serious damage to her body in recoil. We still don't really know what state she's in yet."

Jack nodded his head and returned to watching Celestia. Her horn was ignited with a magical aura, and she stood completely motionless directly beside the collapsed princess of the night. It seemed like the air around the group stood still, the area was completely silent, void of even the sound of wind blowing through the grass. The breathing of each pony was extremely quiet, Jack could hear his own heartbeat over his breath. Suddenly, the tension in the air was broken when Spike came crashing through a nearby window, followed by some yelling from within the building. Spike quickly recovered from his fall, looking towards Jack. His expression changed from that of being slightly hurt, to that of complete shock. His jaw dropped, his eyes went wide, and he raised his fist.

"This isn't good!" Spike yelled, pointing at Jack.

"Why? We know there's a changeling there, Spike, he's on our side." Twilight responded in a low tone.

"Not that, look behind him!"

In the sky and in the forest, there were changelings as far as their eyes could see. The numbers vastly outnumbered the population of Ponyville, and they appeared to be moving towards the hole in the shield.

'Well, that tells me just about how many changelings there are total...' Jack thought.

There was a crashing sound from behind, and whirling around quickly to see what caused that noise Jack noticed Trixie, as well as Aegis, standing in the now broken doorway. The minister was staring blankly towards the group, while Trixie was giving a menacing glare towards them. Slowly walking down the staircase, the two began closing in on Jack. Twilight fired some sort of spell towards the duo, which deflected wildly into another building. Laughing, Trixie continued closing in on the group. Outnumbered, and now surrounded, Jack took a few steps backwards in hopes of at least buying some time. He had a plan, a crazy one at most, but he needed more time. It was all or nothing.

Comments

[omega-ze-wargod]

i like it

[Cold Spike]

I like it too but I think I have been reading too many stories, I'm assuming Twilight is still a changeling now but not really acting like it? Sorry just a bit confused heh.

[Dragrace]

1665442
Thanks!

1665929
Yes, seeing as she has the ability to change form she just went back to looking like her old self. But yes, she is a changeling.

[LuckyBlitz]

I want t1.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/35/90/88/400_F_35908891_yIZBuSsy548nAjvPbjSgCfaR7rAPa9wP.jpg chapters its sooooo awesome

[NataProblem]

Dont forget ! That jack WAS a human