Stage 3: Incubation
Deep in the Everfree Forest, Zecora meditated on her bamboo stick. Her clear mind could only contemplate on the subtle sounds of the forest as the very threads of creation flowed through her. She could sense something very wrong with the world around her, but could not place her hoof on exactly what it was. The zebra opened her eyes and climbed off the stick, thankful to the forces that be that Twilight or Applebloom didn't suddenly burst into her hut and knock her off.
She needed to find out what this dark blanket of dread was. Taking inventory, the zebra saw that she was short one vital ingredient to make the potion needed to give her better insight. She took two bottles and her favorite cloak and ventured out into the forest, towards the grove where the ingredient she needed grew.
She closed the door to her tree hut; when it shut, a drawl greeted her.
"Hey, Zecora! Where you goin'?"
It was Applebloom with basket of groceries in her mouth. In her mediation, Zecora had completely forgotten the errand she had sent the little pony on.
"Why hello there little Applebloom! I'm sorry I cannot stay and invite you into my room."
"Where you goin'?"
"A grove near here, little one, where a certain plant grows. It's a funny little mushroom called Mule's Nose. I need it for a potion, and need it very soon," she explained in rhyming canter, and her voice suddenly grew dim, "It will show me a pony's fortune, or perhaps their doom."
"Huh," Appleblom stated. "Hey, can I come with ya?"
Zecora nodded. "It is not far from here, but the path is still wild and I implore you to stay near."
The zebra turned and walked east from her house and the little filly followed. Few words were exchanged between the two as they pushed their way through thick thickets and brambly brushes to reach the needed ingredient to Zecora's potion. Applebloom was considered asking if they could just turn around when the forest suddenly opened up and both of them saw a small ring of mushrooms, with one larger mushroom in the middle. Zecora walked ahead and eyed each mushroom carefully.
"Somethin' wrong with 'em?" Applebloom asked.
"I must choose with respect the mushroom that we require. Choose hastily, and we invoke the forest's ire."
"Forest's ire, huh?"
Applebloom walked up to the ring as well. None of the mushrooms seemed any different from on another, and the prospect of waiting for hours for Zecora to check each mushroom made her youthful impatience got the better of her; she plucked a random one from the ring and held it up.
"What about this 'un?"
Zecora shouted something in her native language as the entire forest came alive. The plant life around them swayed wildly and a sudden gust blew through the grove. The noises of a hundred different creatures began to swirl around them. The noises drew closer and closer with each passing moment.
The trees seemed to be moving toward the grove and the wind howled, kicking up dirt and little blades of grass. Applebloom could see many strange and otherwordly shapes just beyond the trees. Just as they seemed ready to come into the grove they slowly began to fade back beyond the flora. The winds died down, the trees stopping their movement, and the forest returned to normal. The chrips of birds and buzzing wings of insects returned to the grove.
The earth pony grinned. "Guess I picked right! Wait, what woulda happened if I picked a bad mushroom?"
A clearly annoyed Zecora blew air out her nose heavily before she answered. "Our lives would have become filled with woe."
"What?"
"I believe ponies have a saying: you don't want to know."
The journey back to the hut was much less eventful and Zecora invited Applebloom inside. She instructed the pony to sit still as she prepared her concoction in her hot cauldron. Every so often she would toss some strange plant or piece of an animal into the pot and the potion would change colors or produce rings of smoke. After nearly an hour, Zecora finally dumped the mushroom they had collected into the stew, and placed both hooves on the edge of the cauldron to gaze into it.
Zecora seemed to read Applebloom's thoughts and began to talk about the nature of the potion when the filly opened her mouth. "This potion I mixed lets me see far, though it's as black as tar."
She motioned for Applebloom to peek into the stew with her. She took a stool to stand on and peered into the cauldron to see the same things in the pitch dark muck that Zecora seemed to.
Soon, two pony-shaped blotches emerged from the liquid. One was colored purple, the other white. They both possessed horns, and Applebloom pointed at them. "Is that Rarity and Twilight?"
Zecora was about to answer when the two splotches began to boil and were quickly consumed back into the potion. As soon as the two blotches were completely absorbed, two large green crescent-shaped spots that resembled eyes appeared in the liquid. After a moment they expanded, revealing huge reptile-like eyes. The cauldron shook violently at the vision and tumbled over to send the much all over Zecora's hut.
The zebra didn't seem to even notice the mess. "Rarity and Twilight are in much peril. Something had infected them; something vile and feral."
"Are they sick? Why didn't they just ask you for some medicine?"
"Their minds are clouded and motives impure. Even if they did come here, I have no cure."
"So now what?"
"There is no cure now, but that I will fix. A remedy I'll stew with a mighty mix. Deep study I'll need to find the right recipe. But first I need a clear head, and some hot tea." she rhymed, and walked over to one of the cabinets to prepare her drink. When it was complete, she calmly sipped her steamy concoction. .
"Wait a minute," Applebloom muttered, "Are you sayin' that you're gonna have to pour yourself into dark and forbidden arts and then prolly haveta go on some big epic quest to go get super-rare flowers and Celestia-knows what else before Twilight and Rarity turn into monsters?"
Zecora took a sip of her tea. "Correct."
Applebloom took a deep breath to say she was a Cutie Mark Crusader Cure-er but stopped herself when Zecora gave her a look of disapproval. "Sorry."
The clicking of the train upon its iron road was the only sound that could be heard as Rarity and Twilight slept. They stirred in their sleep, experiencing the same nightmares as before, but even more vivid and real.
Unbeknownst to them, the cabin door would slide open about every ten minutes and the conductor would peek on them. He eyed them carefully for any changes each time, and closed the door when nothing new had manifested itself.
When the train hit a particularly rough spot in the tracks and caused their cart to jump slightly, Twilight burst from her sleep and looked around in delirium before realization set in.
"Just a dream," she murmured sleepily, and almost returned back to her slumber when she heard a bump sound above her. She shrugged it off as the product of an old train's parts before a second, louder bump hit. It became constant. a slow rhythm of knocks in their cabin that seemed to come from everywhere.
Cautiously, Twilight moved herself from her couch and went over to nudge Rarity. The white unicorn mumbled about a changeling swarm consuming all her works of art until she was poked by her friend. She opened her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief that her dresses were safe for another day.
"Yes, Twilight?"
"Do you hear that?"
Rarity's ears perked up as she picked up the same noise that Twilight had heard: a steady march of thumps in their cabin. She listened intently for a moment before she looked up. "It's coming from the baggage compartment," she whispered, and pointed at the small door above the couch on Twilight's end before nodding off.
Twilight grew less tense, "Oh. Somepony probably just left their luggage in there, and now it's bouncing around. I'll get it."
She carefully pulled the little door upward. She had only opened it halfway when frantic shadow plopped out and bounced off Twilight's couch-bed. It then hit Rarity in the face; she broke from her sleep with a shrill scream. The shadow leaped from her face and hit the ground. Twilight's horn glowed with magic as she prepared to deal with whatever had attacked them, and when she pointed the light toward the little shadow both ponies stared in shock.
"Spike!?" they gasped.
The dragon was still woozy as he tried to regain his bearings. After a moment he shook his head to regain clarity and noticed the two ponies looking at him. "Uh, hi."
"Spike," Twilight scolded, "I told you to stay at the library!"
The dragon rose to his feet, "I couldn't just let you two wander off without some backup. Besides, you're going to the Crystal Empire; I think I have a little bit of experience dealing with that place."
Twilight sighed, "That's just it, Spike. If you're there, you're just going to draw attention to us."
"Or," Spike countered, "It means we could go anywhere we want in the city. I'd could just snap my claws and they would bring us any book in that library."
"It's a public library."
"Oh. Right."
"Don't tell me you've been alone in there the entire time," Rarity added as she nodded her head toward the compartment.
"Oh no, I had company. C'mon out, Peewee!"
A tiny little phoenix walked to the edge of Spike's hiding place and chirped before flying down to Spike. He landed on the dragon's outstretched arms and spread his wings.
Spike chuckled. "Little guy pretty much begged to come with me."
"Peewee? He's just a baby."
Spike scratched the phoenix chick's chin as he answered her, "I couldn't just leave him! Plus, he's a lot tougher than he looks."
Twilight was prepared to completely disassemble Spike's power trip with a verbal logic bomb when she heard the faint clop of hooves. "Spike, hide! If they catch you in here without a ticket they'll throw all three of us off the train!"
Spike nodded and Twilight helped him back into the baggage storage. Just as she had finished, the door to their cabin slid open to reveal the conductor.
"I heard screaming." he said, "Everything all right in here?"
"Just fine!" Twilight replied with a grin that was much too wide.
The conductor didn't seem to buy it. He didn't call Twilight out on her lie, though, and merely hmmm'd in a wary tone and closed the cabin door. When Twilight heard him open the door to another train cart and close it, she swiped a sweat drop off her forehead.
"That was close," she muttered.
Several knocks came on the other side of the baggage storage. "Is he gone? Let me out, it's cramped in here!"
"That conductor could come back at any time." Rarity said.
"Rarity has a point, Spike. Just stay there until we can think of a better way to hide you."
A grumble flowed out from behind the compartment, but Spike protested no more.
"Don't worry, we'll figure out something at the next stop," Twilight consoled before she settled back onto her side of the cabin. It didn't take long for her to slip back into her dreams; dreams that were becoming progressively stranger.
Twilight found herself in the library sorting books, happily categorizing them based their name, date of publication, weight, and fifteen other factors. The tornado of books gracefully swirled around her until a loud hiss broke her concentration. A copy of The Unauthorized Biography of Princess Celestia dropped onto her head as every other book under her control fell to the floor in large heaps.
A green flash engulfed one of the books, and where there had been a book there was now a changeling, ready to attack. Almost every book repeated the same action until she was surrounded by the deceptive insects, and when they pounced upon her she woke up.
It was morning now, and the scenery had changed from the rolling plains and hills to the thick forests that blanketed Galloping Gorge. She looked out the window and saw the train station quite a distance off around a curve in the tracks, and went over to Rarity to wake her.
"Rarity, we're almost at the next stop."
The white unicorn's eyes opened lazily as she smacked her lips a few times, and a wave of horror appeared over her face as she felt over her teeth with her tongue.
"Twilight," she whispered, "I have a fang!"
"Lemme see," Twilight said, and lifted Rarity's lip. Sure enough, one of her front teeth had sharpened into a long canine.
"You feel any different?"
"Nrot Rrery," Rarity said through her parted gums.
She let go of Rarity. "Hmmm. At this rate, we might have a few weeks before this becomes total."
"Might?"
"I think you still look fine," Spike said. They both turned around to see that the little dragon had somehow opened the compartment door from the inside. His belly faced downward and his claws cupped his faces as he started dreamily at Rarity. That, however, wasn't what surprised them. Another one of those hearts had appeared above his head, and Rarity pointed at it.
"Spike, heart."
"Heart?" he repeated. "Oh! Where is it?"
"Above you."
Spike clawed in the air above his noggin, and finally grabbed it after a few moments of coaching by Twilight and Rarity.
"I still don't see anything," he complained, "Just feels like I'm holding air."
"Get rid of it!" Rarity screeched.
Rarity's command startled Spike as he threw the heart. It hurtled directly at the window and passed through it as it slowly floated away from view.
"See?" Spike said, "I got this."
Spike nearly fell from his hidey-hole when the entire train lurched and began to slow down. They didn't think much of it until a foul, dry smell filled the cabin.
"Is that," Rarity said as she sniffed the air, "Is that smoke?"
The train slowly ground to a halt in front of the train station and ponies began to exit their cabins and get off. All of them complained of the horrid smell as they disembarked.
"C'mon," Twilight said, "Let's get off so we can buy Mr. Stowaway here a ticket."
As they exited the train, they found the source of the smell. The locomotive engine was wrapped in a dark black smoke; several parts of the machine glowed red.
"Ugh, we're gonna be here forever!" Spike groaned. The perched phoenix on his shoulder chirped in agreement.
The train didn't seem to take kindly to Spike's complaint. One of the heated parts of the engine suddenly burst open and spilled out a torrent of steam. The entire train engine then buckled under its own weight and hit the metal tracks with a crash. Every wheel on the train engine rolled off, and with a lurch the engine fell over on its side; a minor earthquake followed.
Rarity and Twilight gave Spike the evil eye, and he only shrugged in response. "What?"
The dragon's stomach rumbled, "Woah. You think they have a lunch stand around here?"
"There's probably one inside the station," Twilight said as she walked toward the station, "Come on."
They didn't notice the conductor's glare as he watched them head inside. He did not pay the destroyed engine behind him much attention until the train's engineer ran up to him.
"Guard Rail!" the engineer shouted, "The entire engine's busted! Get a line sent while me and the boys try to put 'er out!"
The disguised conductor nodded stoically as he trotted off inside the train station as well.
As he entered the building, the engineer scratched his head. "Wonder what's buggin' him..."
The entire station was filled with ponies. More than a few of them complained to the ticket booth, with the poor earth pony inside trying to guarantee that the train would be up and operational "soon". That didn't calm the crowd at all, and Twilight and her two companions agreed that they should probably just wait on a bench until they had the train up to condition.
As they waited, Twilight winced in pain. She pulled out her scarf to get a glimpse of her neck. She scowled, and wrapped the clothing even tighter than before.
"Are you alright?" Rarity asked.
"It's spreading."
A janitor pony emerged from one of the doors near the bench, and Spike stopped him. "Hey, is there any place to eat around here?"
The old janitor scratched his beard, "Hmm. There's a sammich stand around back."
Spike hopped off the bench. "See you guys in a sec!" he said, and walked back out of the station with Peewee still on his shoulder.
The food stand was a welcome sight. The pony at the stand took the coins that Spike dug out his pocket and prepared the best-tasting cheese sandwich Spike had ever had. He savored its rich flavor, and even offered Peewee a piece. The phoenix did not greedily gulp it down like he expected the tiny bird to and instead started a fit. The bird flew off towards the forest behind the station, with Spike left well behind.
"Peewee, wait!" Spike with a mouth full of cheese and bread. He took the remainder of his lunch and scarfed it down with a single gulp before he gave chase.
Spike's chubby legs carried him as fast as he could, and he kept track of the little red ball of light that laced itself between the tall pines. Peewee was remarkably fast for his age; Spike couldn't even keep count of the number of times he would lose track of Peewee only for the phoenix to pop up a moment later and take off even deeper into the woods. If Spike didn't know better, he'd say that the little troublemaker had something planned.
Peewee finally stopped near a cluster of smaller pines and circled one of the branches with loud squawks. Spike caught up to him, completely out of breath. He attempted to chastise the bird for flying off for no good reason.
"You...need...to warn me next time you're gonna do that, Peewee. What if you got lost in here?"
Peewee ignored him and continued to circle around one of the tree branches, which drew Spike's attention to some greenish shape attached to it.
Spike squinted. "What is that? Looks like some kinda—"
"Cocoon," a raspy voice finished behind him.
"Yeah! Wait..."
Spike spun around to see creepy conductor stood only a foot away from him. The pony looked down at the dragon with a wry smile. Something was very wrong; instead of pupils, his eyes were almost completely blue, and his smile showed two sharp fanged that shined in the sunlight.
Spike looked back at the cocoon. Peewee pecked at it, and he could see the details of the actual train conductor, who floated inside his sticky prison in some kind of hibernation. He picked up a nearby stick and pointed it towards the false conductor.
"Stay back! I know how to use this!"
He threw the stick at the changeling. It harmlessly bounced against his disguised carapace and broke in half, settling into the fallen leaves below. The monster took two menacing steps towards Spike, and hissed in his face.
"HEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!"
Applejack and Big Macintosh were busy with repairs to the side of the barn when that feeling hit both of them. They glanced at each other with eyebrows raised.
"Applebloom's gettin' in trouble right now, ain't she?"
"Eyup."
"And there ain't nothin' we can do to stop her."
"Nope."
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And I JUST FINISHED COMMENTING ON THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS FIVE MINUTES AGO.
AWWWW YEEEEAAAHHH.
i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag40/Shanenator777/YEAH.png
More please? This is good and your production rate is staggering.
Awesome!!!!!!!!!
Pretty much every episode that Applebloom's in involves trouble.
Bwaaahahahaahahahaha
wowowowowowow
1734989
The world's greatest minds pooled their resources to make a machine that could write My Little Pony fanfiction at rates previously unheard of. I am that machine.
Fifty-five billion taxpayer dollars well spent.
welp. good luck
hope help comes
1735011 Well, that actually isn't that surprising.
Wow this was great. Dat cliffhanger. Also, Apple Bloom is an EXTREMELY lucky pony sometimes. Looking forward to what happens next!
This really is excellent. See it says so right here:
i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag40/Shanenator777/ExcellentBetter.jpg
i have a twilight changling picture 4 ya
imageshack.us/a/img15/9568/changelingtwilightspark.png
I like this fic
...
And now... MOAR!!
1735100might not wanna use it its the cover for "queens revenge"
1735205
no idea what you are talking about. I just wanted to post a Twilight Changling picture
The world's greatest minds pooled their resources to make a machine that could write My Little Pony fanfiction at rates previously unheard of. I am that machine.
Fifty-five billion taxpayer dollars well spent.
Oh great and Powerful waste of taxpayers money! We beg of you, double the Chapters and double the fun! If thou truly art such a machine you must be able to produce chapters in 10 seconds flat! So where is my story!
Lol, actually I know how difficult it can be to get chapters out quick, and I'm impressed with your skill. I feel as if the chapters are a tad short, but that's your choice on how you want to present them. Its getting interesting and I love Zecora. I take it she was influenced by the latest episode?
Did you mean to repeat this twice?
1735011 Really? Cut to Bavaria, 1945. The most brilliant scientists of the Third Reich hurry to complete a final experiment before their base is overrun by the Russians. Pulling a lever in their Frankenstein-esque laboratory, lightning flashes and a conveniently placed orchestra crashes out a few bars of Liszt's Faust Symphony. When the smoke clears, in the centre of the room stands what should prove to be the first Ubermensch and the salvation of Germany. However, a miscalculation in the formula caused unintended side-effects, causing it to go on a killing spree, massacring the guards and scientists, before falling into a deep sleep for 50 years. Then, in 1995, he awakened, and stumbled out of the long-forgotten facility, into the deep greens and birdsong of the Black Forest. He is the epitome of Nazi Germany's science division. He is... kingtiger666. He can run faster, think better, and fight harder than anyone who ever lived before. He uses these skills to frag n00bs on Xbox Live. Truly, the greatest creation of science.
A marked improvement from the previous chapters. More intrigue, better description, and the last lines were hilarious.
Plus more stuff with Peewee and Spike. They need more time in the spotlight.
Congratulations, your story has graduated from "Read Later" to my Favourites.
1735011
Hang on... I could need some of that for college! Dumb brilliant scientific minds...
Spike. You and Peewee are fire incarnate. BURN THINGS.
1735100
I would...
1730529 *taps chin... thinks very VERY hard* Mr. Ed?
Something seems off about this sentence.....
1730686 No, I mean a completely different scenario could have been thought up for the unfortunate teleport. Something less dependent on the castle maintenance slacking off and embezzling the funds they're supposed to use for upkeep of the pipes.
1736308
Durr. Fix'd.
1735011
Glad to know our Tax Payers money is being well spent on this rather then shrimp treadmills
I mean that...
1735020 It is money well spent
Spike! Your teeth can CHEW DIAMOND!! You can SWIM IN LAVA!!!
Bite the bastard! TEAR HIS INSECT LIMBS OFF!! NO MERCY!!!
stuffpoint.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic/image/thumb/100187-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-mane-6-changelings.png
Did you get the picture from something like this?
-Ambassador of the Changelings,
Dopple Ganger
1736761
Yep.
1736767 Also, would it be wrong of me to want THIS to happen?
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcgm5jaYi61rwtoyuo1_500.png
-Ambassador of the Changelings,
Dopple Ganger
me likey...more? and soon?
1728735 an othrt thing. Whe nwas the last thing Twilight did soemthing logical if it involved The Princess
and Swarm of the Century 
I mean, we all remember Lesson Zero
That's just some cases that popped up in my head. There's plenty of them in the show.
I actually consider it OOC if she actually ASK Celestia for help
Apple senses... TINGLING~!!!
1736666
forget the melee! Spike has range!
Roast that Buzzer!
Or befriend it. But I don't think that will be a viable option here.
1738854 If Spike loses to that Changeling, I am really going to give up on this story. Spike took a beating from teenage dragons and bellyflopped onto lava with ZERO INJURY. Dragon innards can digest gemstones (meaning they're not exactly as squishy and slice-able inside as we are, think of the damage swallowing a simple small glass shard can do to a person). Come on, he's practically Superman-level invulnerable. What the buck can some stupid bug (with soft, gooey insides) do against him?
Heck, Spike should cough up some of his digestive juices and spit them on the changeling. Chyme that can dissolve gems? Yeah, we're talking "Alien"-level corrosiveness here.
1738914
On the other hand, he has practically zero combat experience and is still a baby dragon, with the mentality of an early teen at best.
If he thinks to use every ability at his disposal, he'll win handily.
But will he actually fight with anything other than blind panic?
Spike. You. Can breathe. Fire. Do so. You idiot.
Ah well. A quite enjoyable chapter. Definitely looking forward to more. I especially like the "Apple Sense." I wonder if Rarity has something similar for Sweetie Belle.
I had hoped that that it would be gradual transformation progress and it start with only slight changes in the pyche to recognize in the behavior as in the movie "The Fly"
All right, I was fairly intrigued by the plot's concept fairly early on, but I have to admit that the twist with the Changeling conductor has me sold.
1738964 All he has to do is bite. One solid bite and the Changeling is missing a limb. After than, even Spike can put 2 and 2 together and realize he can kick its ass.
He is also SIR SPIKO DEL DRACO!!! And with the irrepressible powers of his stache, he shall vanquish all his enemies with manliness!
Very well written story that kept me from sleeping(having a fever) still worth it!
1745749
Chapter 4 should be up in the next day or two, so keep vigilant!
Here, have a Twist to hold you over:
What more needs be said?
YES new chapter update
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW YYYEEEEEEEH
1747356
You seem excited.
Idk why, but I don't find the cartoony bits funny. Like Spike having stars floating around his head, etc. I dunno, maybe they're oddly placed or something, I honestly don't know why, they just stuck out. Otherwise, great so far, keep it up.
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