Changelings Are-A Changing

by ScarlettDaze

Chapter 2

"Huh. You don't see that everyday!"

Junebug jumped a little at the sudden voice, turning to see Derpy had walked up beside her at some point. A quick glance around shows that they aren't alone, a good portion of the morning crowd pausing to look at the newest craziness in Ponyville.

"Oh! Well, yes, I suppose not. It's always something with these girls, huh?"

Despite trying to keep her focus on Derpy, she can't help but let her gaze wander back to Sugarcube Corner, just from the sheer oddness. Most of the building seems to be mostly the same as always, but there's a huge, black... mushroom, seemingly having taken the place of the short cupcake tower thing on the top of the building. It's hard to see from down here, but it looks like the top of it is mostly pink, and pastel pink fungal curtains hang down from the edges and stem, shading the whole building like a massive umbrella.

Now that Junebug is paying attention instead of just staring in shock, she can hear some kind of musical beat, dull and echoing like it's coming from deep within the building, yet still strong enough that she can just barely feel it in her chest, slowly growing stronger.

"Well... at least it doesn't seem like the bad kind of chaos?"

"One can hope, Derpy. Do you... not have mail rounds to be doing?"

"Yeah, but I figure that I won't get any real work done until after whatever this is blows over."

"You know what? Fair."

Junebug gives the mailmare a respectful nod, though her attention is quickly drawn back to Sugarcube Corner when the thrumming beat quickly begins to pick up the pace, getting stronger each time. She almost mistakes it for the start of a Heartsong, but a quick internal check doesn't show any reaction in her magic to the building music. This is apparently entirely manual, though Junebug has no idea what kind of instrument could be causing the building to literally bulge a little with each beat, the fungal curtains fluttering in the wind.

...is the giant mushroom dancing a little?

Before Junebug can figure out if it's just natural swaying or something else, all the windows and doors of the building break outward, sending the doors flying open and the window glass across the cobbles, getting a good few startles and shouts out of the crowd. Right after, a variety of trumpets poke out of Sugarcube Corner, sounding out what she is pretty sure is an exact replica of the tune used for a royal entrance, like for Princess Celestia. Oh yeah, and then changelings started swarming out of the building.

This, understandably, lead to a little bit of panic, which Junebug may or may not have participated in.

Alright, she'll be honest; everyone goes running about and screaming. Well, what do you expect? Even if they look weird, smaller than a normal changeling, with shells and eyes and everything else in a mix of black and shades of pink, they're still changelings! Everyone in Equestria knows what they did just a few months ago at Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance's wedding! Though, once Junebug is properly cowering underneath a nearby picnic table, she's got the chance to see exactly what the swarm is up to, and it's... definitely odd.

Once again their smallness peaks her interest-not quite foal sized, but definitely not as big as a full-grown pony, and that paired with their color and the little antennae over their eyes gives off the distinct impression of ants more than anything. As for what they're actually doing, well... at least they aren't attacking people? Instead they just kind of, seem to be doing party tricks. Lots of cartwheels and acrobatics, dancing with each other, bouncing around all over the place like foals on a sugar rush! Which, well, considering they came out of Sugarcube Corner, that's honestly not implausible is it?

She can also see some of them bringing more and more stuff out of the building, an eclectic mix of party supplies, baked goods and oddly sophisticated looking machinery, seemingly macgyvered together with a mix of random furniture and a strange, crystal-like pink material. The changelings seem to... yeah, they're spitting the material out to keep their machines in place, quickly hardening into more of that pink crystal. A bit gross, honestly, but not the weirdest thing Junebug has seen-

"Hey there! What's your name?"

"AAAHH!"

All of a sudden there's a changeling's upside-down face filling her view, which Junebug feels like is a perfectly good reason to scream, no matter how high-pitched and filly-like the scream ended up being. The changeling seems completely unfazed, just continuing to grin at her, and it takes her a minute to realize that it must have landed on top of her hiding spot, just kind of... leaning all the way down over the edge of the picnic table to face her.

"Well hi there Aaahh! You know, there's a lot of people with that name around here, was there some kind of big hero named Aaahh that everyone named their kids after? Ooh, ooh, or what about a famous superhero, or a really good ventriloquist, or a chef! Oh yeah, what's your favorite food? Is it a desert? I haven't had anything other than sugar and pumpkin pie so far, but they were absolute-ively delicious! What about you, have you had anything other than that? Well of course you have, you probably got born, like, years ago! Man, you're old huh? What's that like? I've been alive 14 hours, 23 minutes and 16 seconds, I can't even imagine being alive one year, let alone more! So yeah, what's your favorite food?"

The word scramble finally ends, though it takes a few moments for Junebug to actually process that, still struggling to try and pull as much meaning from it as she can. The whole time the bug just keeps smiling at her, patiently waiting for her to respond. And, it's just... not what she expected from a changeling? Like, at all? Granted, Junebug had never met a changeling before, but all the stories were about how cunning and vicious they are-these ones are just hyperactive little foals.

"Um... spring greens? And, well, my name isn't 'aaahh', it's actually Junebug."

"Oooohh, yeah that makes more sense! Nice to meet you Junebug, I'm Babypop! So, me and my sisters think that we might have spooked you ponies, which was totally not what we were going for, super sorry about that! But now that we're friends, would you like to join the celebration?"

"Uh, celebration? Celebration of what?"

Junebug barely even realizes that she's started to crawl out from under the table, or that she's already much more relaxed. These miniature changelings are just too dang friendly, and her small-town manners have taken over. Babypop on the other hand simply jumps down to stand next to her, though 'bounce next to her' would probably be the more accurate description.

"Why what else? We're celebrating the founding of the Jestlings, and the pre-birthday party for our Queen!"

Ah. Well, that sounds somewhat more concerning than them just being little party animals.

Comments

[Richer19]

I'll keep an eye on this.

[Skyblazer9]

I'm already loving these jestlings.

[Somebodynobody10]

... I've only just started this story, yet I already have the biggest grin on my face.