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Prologue1,058 words
FlutterFly1,562 words
How do you like that Apple1,250 words
Drone Dash and Soured Apple1,365 words

How do you like that Apple

"Fluttershy! No, stop-!" Twilight cried, her eyes wide in panic. "It's me-"

"Hey! Flutterbug!"

The enraged changeling whipped her head over her shoulder, spotting the now full-sized draconeqous. Fluttershy shrieked at him and went to lunge at him in turn when she found herself stuck to the ground by what appeared to be a pool of maple syrup. She gave and shriek of anger, thrashing desperately.

"She- she attacked me!" Twilight stammered, horrified.

"Yes, fancy that, I'm sorry I thought it was obvious that she didn't remember you?" Discord scowled, arms crossed. "Now help me out, will you?"

"I- I just..." Twi got onto her hooves, frowning at the thrashing, hissing changeling.

"Hush, now I need you to do that memory zapper on her," Discord said, grabbing Flutteshy's head firmly with his hands.

Fluttershy's eyes flashed briefly and then the swirling circles that Discord he had once placed in all Twilight's friends' eyes, hypnotized almost as the once-pegasus fell still, numb.

"What are you doing to her?" Twilight blurted, alarmed.

"Same thing I did to you, I'm disrupting the uh- shall we say, 'hive-mind'. If I didn't and you tried that little spell of yours, it wouldn't get through to her, now are you going to stop asking questions and fix her or not?"

The mare glared a bit but hurried around to face her friend. Despite her changed body Twilight formed a purple glow on her horn which flashed into Fluttershy's already bewitched eyes. The pink-maned changeling jerked, her eyes slamming closed as she shook her head rapidly.

"I...oh..." she whispered.

Her eyes opened, once again the familiar blue that Twilight was accustomed too. She stared just a second and before Twilight could say anything she let out a gasp of terror, attempting to get airborne only to realize she was stuck to the ground.

"Changeling!" she cried."No, go away! Please, I don't taste good!"

"Fluttershy, it's me! Twilight!"

"Yes, please keep yelling! I think there's still some of the swarm in Manehattan that haven't heard you yet!" Discord added snarkily.

"D- Discord?" Flutterhy blinked, calming a bit at the familiar face. "What...what's going on? Where am I? Who-...Twilight? But...But..."

"Fluttershy...it's me, try to keep calm," Twilight frowned. "I don't quite understand what's going on but we need to find the others. You-...we're both...we're changelings, we have to find the others and find a way to undo this."

Fluttershy stared, eyes unspeakably wide as she stared up at her friend with the same expression a dog would give the vet about to give a shot.The quiet mare let out a soft, high-pitched whimper, her legs trembling violently.

"Oh- oh dear...this..this is a nightmare, yes that must be it, it's a bad dream..oh, wake up Fluttershy, you featherhead, wake up!" she scrunched her eyes tight, knocking her hooves against her head.

"Now now, my dear, we don't have time for that," Discord said with a frown, patting the distraught mare on the head. "We have to find the rest of your little friends if there's any hope of undoing this, right? So come on, on your feet."

"I- I-" she cut off in another whimper.

"Fluttershy, please...you need to be brave," Twilight said, nervously looking around for any changelings that would come in. "We need to leave, please-"

"Wanted enemy of the hive, Discord." A voice carried flatly. "Surrender now."

Fluttershy let out a squeal of fright, curling up in a ball as Discord and Twilight quickly directed their attention to the opening of the nursery where about five changelings donning helmets and greaves had entered. Discord let out a colorful string of words and snapped his fingers, the entrance behind the drones sealing up with what appeared to be jello.

"Discord-! Why did you-?" Twilight gasped, horrified at having their only escape blocked by their supposed ally.

"If they get out we're toast," he snapped, his wings flapping behind him. "They'll tell the others, we need to get rid of them all. Here."

"Get...get rid of them? You mean kill them?!"

"We don't have much other option at the moment now do we?" Discord said mock sweetly, the claws on his eagle foot sharpening into very large, cruel looking talons.

"But-!"

"Applejack?" Fluttershy's soft voice whispered in a choked gasp.

"What? Fluttershy what do you mean?" Twilight looked down at her friend.

Fluttershy was still curled up and was only viewing the scenario from peeking out of one of the holes in her foreleg, trembling. Twilight went to ask her but instead followed her gaze, locking onto the changeling beside what was obviously the lead drone. The blank green eyes were exactly like the others and helmet obscured the straw-yellow mane, but...

"Well, dears Flutters has a great eye," Discord's eyes lit up his face along with a smirk. "There's honesty, parading around as a shape-shifter, I do so love irony."

"That's Applejack?" Twilight tensed.

While they had taken their sweet time talking, however, the changeling drones along with Applejack charged them, hissing and biting. Fluttershy gave out a cry of terror, Discord scooping the frightened mare up into his tail while he slashed his elongated talons through one, effectively slicing it into thirds.

Twilight dodged one's pounce on instinct, quickly doubling back and then blasting one with a burst of green magic from her horn, stunning it. She heard a hiss and the air left her lungs when she landed harshly onto her chest, a drone pushing down on her grossamer wings. A shriek of agony quickly followed and she felt the pressure lessen, quickly scampering out from under it. Twilight whipped around and shot at the first drone she saw; for a split second her heart stopped when the thought that perhaps she had shot Applejack crossed her mind but was quickly relieved when the stunned changeling's helmet fell off and the typical changeling 'mane' was seen.

"Oh thank goodness- wait! Where's-!?"

The scholar froze, staring at the scene before her. Three of the changelings were in pieces on the ground, oozing out some green goo that stained some of the wriggling larvae, which didn't hesitate to start devouring their fallen elders. Before she could express her horror Discord appeared by the changeling she had stunned and sliced it like the others. Twilight gaped as the body seemed to split in slow motion, sliding askew from its other parts and falling to the ground. She didn't know how long she stood there before Discord snapped his fingers in front of her muzzle.

"Focus, Twilight, we have business to attend to."

A limp Applejack hung from his arm, eyes closed as Fluttershy clung to Discord's side, burying her face in his fur to muffle her own terrified sobs.

Author's Note:

Sorry this is late, finals knocked all the creativity out of me and it's been an...eventful, summer to say the least. I'll be quicker with the next one

~DreamCatcher~

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