> Change My Life
>  by JasontheDemon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Back Where I Belong
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



As I walked the halls of the Canterlot palace, something felt... off. I was returning to report my success at yet another mission given to me by Celestia, but in the back of my mind I felt a voice screaming to run. I couldn’t do that, however, because it was my job to report my latest findings to the princess directly. It was night and the only light source was Luna's moon shining through the tall castle windows. I hadn’t seen a single pony since I arrived, which gave the whole place a desolated and eerie atmosphere. I neared the door to Celestia's chambers and focused my magic on the doorknob, but as I turned it a feeling of dread filled me. What the cause was, I didn’t know, so I pressed onward.

Upon opening the door, I was blinded by a bright light. My vision cleared and I found myself in a very different castle than the one I started in. It was dark, sinister, and very familiar… I knew where I was and that made my heart drop into my stomach. My heartbeat quickened as I heard the voice of the one I thought I defeated so long ago. 

“Hello... my faithful apprentice.” Discord said, a serpentine hiss accenting his words as he stepped out from the shadows. “What’s the matter? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost…”

“What are you doing here?!” I shouted in absolute shock. “I sent you hurtling into deep space! You should be gone!”

He arched an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? You have been working for me for nearly a year now, see?” He pointed out the window and instead of the beautiful landscape I would normally see, there was nothing but chaotic wasteland. The dark swirling clouds shooting out red crackling lightning, the ground scorched and ravaged by dark spines that jutted out from the earth. Floating in the air were orbs of what appeared to be blood… weightless like gravity had been shut off. “Oh and nice job on your latest chore… now be a good lad and clean up the mess.”

I looked at him in confusion before following his gaze to the floor near my hooves. What I saw horrified me beyond belief. There… at my hooves… was everypony I cared about. All dead and splattered in their own blood. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Vinyl, Octavia, Gilda, Luna, and Celestia… they were all scattered around me. Their dead eyes frozen in fear… staring at me. There was one thing that was on my mind the whole time though: ‘where's Twilight’? My question was soon answered.

“Hey before you bother with that, I would actually like your opinion on this. Should she be mounted over the fireplace, or my throne?” Discord asked, levitating a crucified Twilight above a brightly burning fire. Twilight was dead… dried blood streaked under her eyes as if she had been crying the red life essence and a hole in her chest showed that her heart had been ripped out.  Right when I thought things couldn't get worse, her eyes opened and she let out a horrible scream. 


* * * * * *


I awoke with a gasp, trembling from the nightmare that had been plaguing me for several months now.

“Whoa, easy there buddy. It’s all alright.” said the gruff stallion pulling the cherry cart.

It then came back to me. I was finally heading back from my latest quest and hitched a ride on the stallion's cart. His name was Crafty Crate, he was a pegasus, and he had been selling cherries since he was fired from his last job for not checking to see if the newbie closed the back of the shipping van. It's kind of hard to keep from getting fired when you let a pony get crushed under a piano. 

He was heading to Ponyville as well, and after my ‘adventure’ I needed some rest. I told him I would pay him for the ride at Manehatten and he agreed to give me a lift as long as I gave him the money once we arrived at our destination. Vlad flew down and landed on my chest, looking at me with those big concern filled eyes. I gave him a small smile and pet his head to show that I was okay. 

“Hey mac, we're almost at Ponyville. While you’re there, you should stop by the library. The pony that runs the place is one heck of a psychologist. I was havin’ some pretty bad dreams myself and after one visit with her, it cleared up like that.” The stallion advised. 

“I’ll make sure to do that.” I replied with a smirk, knowing that the one he was talking about was someone I would be seeing whether he told me about her or not. 

Once we stopped I hopped out of the cart and started to walk, but before I could get too far I was interrupted by Crafty Crates clearing his throat. “Hey, you forgetting something buddy?” He asked holding out his hoof.

“Oh, right. Totally spaced it. Here you go.” I said pulling out two bits from my jacket pocket and levitating them into his awaiting hoof. It was obvious by his expression alone that he wasn’t pleased.

His glaring eyes fell on me. “Excuse me, but what is this?! We had an agreement! You said-”

“I said that I would give you every bit I had on me after getting to Ponyville. Two bits is all I had. It's not my fault you were so eager agree to the deal. Really, what did you expect to get from a wandering pony with a ragged jacket, a long shaggy unkempt brown mane, and a dirty brown coat?” I asked, stopping his oncoming rant in its tracks.

Since Crafty Crate knew he was beaten, I left him with his two bits and returned to walking towards Twilight's place. I didn’t make it far though, and was soon sent tumbling to the ground from a sudden impact. Once I stopped rolling, I saw the double image of my assailant. 

“Hello Rainbow Dash! How are you this fine day?!” I said, apparently unable to control the volume of my voice, which in turn made it sound like she knocked a couple of my screws loose (probably because she did).

Her lips were moving, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. Her words were warped and obscured by the dull ringing in my ears. I didn’t want to make her any angrier at me, so I said the only thing that I could without knowing what she was actually going on about.

“That’s nice, see you tomorrow! Bye bye then!” I said, still sounding a little broken while I waved.

She simply scowled at me and said one last thing before flying off. Knowing her it was probably something like, ‘you had better believe you’ll see me tomorrow, and next time I won't be going easy on you’. Since my face off against Discord, her and three of the other mane six hated me… thank god Fluttershy and Twilight was still on my side. 

Rarity was sort of indifferent and we were more acquaintances. I only went to see her when my jacket needed repairs. I payed for her work and we didn’t fight, which was good enough for me. She also gave me some coffin shaped saddlebags for Hearths Warming, complete with a cross shaped latch, so that was nice.

My vision started to clear and the first thing I saw was a scaley purple claw. “You know I think that was a bit too much, even for a nerdy jerk like you.” 

I gave Spike my hoof and allowed him to help me up. “Meh, it’s not all that bad… she does restrain herself enough to keep from doing serious damage. So how is my favorite mailbox doing?” Spike's outlook had changed greatly from when we first met. We were almost like best friends at this point. I would now often find myself hanging out with him and carrying on a pleasant conversation like he was just any guy back on Earth (which meant we would occasionally flip each other crap like all good friends did).

Spike shrugged. “Same old, same old. Twilight has been getting pretty restless though. She’s worried that you will end up not coming back. I told her that you were too stubborn to let that happen.” 

“Heh… well, I can’t argue with that.” I said while testing out my shoulder, rolling it in its socket to ensure the kinks were all worked out. “Okay, everything seems to be in working order… let's surprise a certain lavender mare.”


* * * * * *


We soon arrived at the library. The large hollowed out tree brought back a lot of memories and gave off the distinct feeling of home. I no longer lived there, but the connection to the place still remained. Spike opened the door and let me walk inside first. Twilight was busily reading a rather large book and sipping at some cider. A small smile graced my lips as I looked at her. 

Without even turning my way, she levitated her now empty glass towards me and said, “Hey Spike, can you get me a refill on this?”

Thinking that this was too perfect to pass up, I replied, “Wow, seriously? I get back after all this time to protect Equestria and the first thing I hear is ‘get me a refill’? I’m sorry but I don’t care if you are a princess now, that is just plain rude.”

She gasped and nearly dropped the glass on the floor but I caught it with my magic just in time. I was then barely able to set it down before being tackled and embraced by a hug… well, actually it was more like being strangled but I knew she wasn’t doing it on purpose because she didn’t follow through and soon released her hold. She gave me a heartwarming smile… then proceeded to slap me once across the face.

“OW! What the hell was that for?!” I shouted rubbing my sore cheek.

“Do you have any idea how long you’ve been gone?! It's been-”

“Three weeks, four days, eighteen hours, and thirty-seven minutes. Wait… thirty-eight minutes.” I said, cutting her off. “I know it's been a long time, but this is what I do now. You have to realize that there are some things that will come up that will take more than a few days to solve, but you don't have to worry… I will always come back. This is my home now, and nothing can stop me from returning to you. Not even four out of the seven Dragon Lords.”

As soon as those words left my mouth, Twilight looked like she was about to have a heart attack. “THE DRAGON LORDS?! Don’t you know how powerful they are?! They are the seven strongest dragons on Equus! Tell me you didn’t actually fight them!”

“Me? Fight them? Oh hell no. They would obliterate me if I tried that. I was just there to convince them to not attack Equestria. Turns out the peace treaty Celestia sent was taken and a much more threatening letter was put in its place…”


* * * * * *


“...And so after I caught the pony responsible for hiring the mercenaries and writing the forged letter, I let the Dragon Lords decide the punishment for him and his treasonous acts against them and Celestia.” I said, concluding the tale of what kept me away for so long. Spike had gotten popcorn as he always did when I told of my adventures to save Equestria from its next threat (which happened a hell of a lot for some unseen reason).

Twilight, though, was not as enthusiastic. She didn’t enjoy hearing about me risking life and limb. I saw how much it scared her, but it was my duty to follow Celestia's orders. I was the only defense against class 5 threats (a.k.a. doomsday scenarios), especially since the elements were no longer available for use. Discord managed to plant some literal ‘seeds of chaos’ before Celestia and Luna had first banished him. 

I was busy applying a retainment spell for some ancient jerkbag in Tartarus at the time. He kept going on about how friendship was only a way to imprison me and keep me from my full potential. I humored him by saying that I agreed, then he asked me to join him. Of course I declined and he asked why… I merely replied ‘because look where it gets you. I may be a prisoner to care for others, but it beats being a prisoner in hell any day.’ 

But I digress, I was now out of work because my last little quest was all that Celestia could foresee as a threat to harmony within the near future. She may not have had as much power as me but she was wise and could tell when there was the slightest shift in balance or if something bad may happen (yes, like a psychic). There was supposedly nothing left to do in part of preventing life threatening disasters. Or at least that was what I thought at the time. 

Vlad flew to the nearby table and his eyes lit up with a bright red as he opened his mouth. He was receiving a call from Celestia.

“Jason, I am sorry for any inconvenience this may bring you but I need you at Canterlot as soon as you are able.” Her voice came from Vlad's vocal chords. It was odd, but the spell I created made our pets the first functional cell phones in Equestria. The few phones that existed already were far more insignificant than our own, so it was necessary for us to do this for quick communication. I wasn’t too happy about her message this time though.

“Seriously?! Can’t the report wait? I just got back! I haven't even had the chance to get back home to relax! I don't mean to complain, but I’m on my last legs here.”

“I know, and I apologize but this is not about your report on the previous mission. I have a ‘special’ task that I need you to take part in. Twilight will need to assist you as well.”

That caught Twilight's attention and she rushed up to Vlad. “Really?! That’s great! I’ve been bored to the edge of tears here!”

I placed my hoof on her shoulder and looked at her sternly. “No, not great. You aren’t going to involve yourself when I can do it. I won’t put you in harm's way, no matter who tells me otherwise.”

Celestia’s light and airy chuckle caused us to turn our attention back to Vlad. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, but it won't be necessary. The task poses little physical threat and I promise neither of you will be harmed by it.”

I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “If it’s so safe then why have us both participate? Better yet, why ask for my help on it if it’s that simple?”

Another laugh. “I never said it was simple. No, this will take much of your undivided attention and will cause a great deal of stress from time to time. So much that it really would be better for you both to split up the burden.”

“What the hell are you talking about?! Either it’s easy or it’s not! Make up your mind!” I said getting frustrated from the lack of logic she was using to explain.

“It might just be easier to show you when you arrive. Please come at once, and don’t forget to bring Twilight along.” After that there was a click sound and Vlad went back to his usual self.

“This had better be good or I’m going to shove my hoof up Celestia’s royal-” I was suddenly cut off by a squeal of excitement. 

“I can’t believe we’re going back to Canterlot! We haven’t gone together since the time you met my parents!” 

I frowned at that. Since I fought Discord, things between me and the rest of Twilight's family were more than a little tense. Her mother was never happy to see me and her father was a bit like Shining Armor… which is to say they wanted nothing more than to see me dead. Her parents were more reserved on the matter and knew that I was powerful enough to level their house without breaking a sweat (not that I ever would, but I was capable). 

Shining Armor was different though. The first time he saw me, he put my arms behind my back, shoved me against the nearest wall, and whispered into my ear, ‘you’re lucky you’re under Celestia’s protection or you wouldn’t get off this easy...’. Most of the time I tried to avoid him so it wasn’t too big of an issue.

After Twilight and I boarded the train, I decided to take a nap. We left Spike in charge of the library like always. I told him to stay away from my saddlebags until we got back since I always brought back a ‘souvenir’ from my escapades and he would always want to play with whatever I picked up… which was bad because the things I got were normally powerful artifacts. 

I guess it was about half an hour later that I felt something lay on top of me and cuddle up against my chest. Cracking open one of my eyes, I saw it was Twilight. She was resting on my chest as I leaned back towards the window. The gentle smile on her face was all I needed to feel like all my work was worthwhile. She had no idea how grateful I was to have met her. Simply being near her gave me joy… something I never thought I would feel again. I just wished that I could somehow be worthy of her love.

Everyone knew me as the disrespectful, ill-tempered, dark, and brooding stallion of Ponyville. Some liked me, others were indifferent, and a few hated me for defiling their quaint little town. In a peaceful kindhearted place like Ponyville, you tend to stand out for being negative, but I couldn’t help how I was. Twilight was the only one that truly loved me though, and being as kind as she was, I couldn’t figure out why she was drawn to someone as dark as me. The most puzzling thing was that she still loved me even though I had come within an inch of killing her nearly a year ago while under Discord's influence.

It felt like she had given me life and I had nearly taken hers away at the same moment. How do you make up for something like that? I liked to keep things balanced but this was so far off to one side that balancing it out seemed absolutely impossible. Even though I had been gone for most of the year fighting to keep everyone safe, I still felt like a monster. I would do my best to keep up a smile around others (and by ‘a smile' I mean my usual apathetic expression), but when I was alone I would often ask myself if I was even safe enough to be around.

I had done things that even astounded myself. I cured a village of ponies from a mutated strain of poison joke, I fought my way through Tartarus and back twice to keep Equestria from going to hell, and I even trapped an evil stallion who could see into the future in a temporal loop. I did all that alone, and that horrified me. If I happened to lose control, I would be an unstoppable time bomb of armageddon. One stallion protected Equestria from total destruction, but the real question was… who was protecting it from him?

Twilight suddenly opened her eyes, a mix of confusion and worry clear in them. “Jason? Is there something wrong? Your heart is beating faster than normal.”

“No… everything's fine.” I replied, before thinking to myself, ‘for now, anyways’. After reassuring her, Twilight went back to resting back on my chest, her wings covering us like a feathery blanket. For the first time in nearly a year… I allowed my hoof to rest on her back and enjoyed the simple fact that we were together in each other's embrace. I only hoped that she could see how much I cared for her as well. Right at that moment though, it was just us… nothing else mattered.
	
> Meeting the Brat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After arriving at Canterlot I gave Twilight a few extra moments of peace before waking her. She had actually fallen asleep on me which reminded me of my niece back on Earth since she did the same thing on multiple occasions. The only difference between the experience was that Twilight didn’t drool on me quite as much.

“Wow, I didn’t realize that I was that tired,” Twilight said through a massive yawn. 

“Well when you go to sleep at two and wake up approximately five hours later your body tends to disagree with your wants and forces you to rest,” I replied.

“I don’t do that anymore… I learned from my mistakes and now I go to bed at one,” She said defensively.

I just rolled my eyes and exited the train. The sight of the pristine city and all the white stone and marble always left me in a bad mood. It was way too bright and clean. Every road looked like it was scrubbed free of any marks or imperfections. The whole place was so perfect that it gave off a surreal feeling that made me feel nauseous. 

Twilight had gotten a lot better at flying since I last saw her. It almost made me wonder why she didn’t fly instead of taking the train. She used to avoid flying but this day she hovered by me almost the whole way to the castle. Her wings made me nervous at first because I thought it meant that she would be too interested in flying to care about me. When I found out my initial thoughts went to her flying away and never seeing me again… until I found out how awkward it was for her. After seeing her ‘in action’, I instantly knew that my fears weren’t going to transpire.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Twilight asked nervously before feeling around on her cheek. “Is there something on my face?”

With a light chuckle, I replied, “No, I was just thinking about your wings.”

That caused her to smirk. “Jealous are we?”

“Hardly… flying doesn’t interest me in the slightest since I have magic.”

Twilight frowned and she fell to the ground, walking instead of flying. This was one of those rare moments where I knew what was wrong but couldn’t fix the problem due to a lack of words. My big mouth used to get me into all kinds of trouble back on Earth, and it looked like it didn’t stop there. 

Thankfully we passed a familiar stallion on the way… Blueblood. He took one look at me and ran. Apparently he was still freaked out about the thought of me staining his coat with blood. Twilight didn’t complain though since it meant he treated her with more respect, which before hand was thought to be impossible for him. A lot of ponies were actually pleased with his new attitude, and whenever he ever got out of line someone just had to mention a ‘unicorn in a jacket’ and he would practically wet himself. However, I wasn’t as happy to hear that I scared him that much. I just didn’t want him bad mouthing Twilight.

Upon reaching the castle doors, the guards bowed and let us in. The prospect of others bowing for her still weirded Twilight out and I could see why. Nothing had really changed other than her gaining wings and a new title so being treated differently was just odd… or at least that's what I believed. Twilight wasn’t me though, so I couldn’t be sure what was running through her head.

While lost in thought, a voice echoed through the room and got my attention. “Wonderful! You are here! Now we can get something done.” Celestia said, walking up to greet us, Luna not far behind.

“Indeed. Maybe now I can get a decent days rest,” Luna said before giving a large yawn. 

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been having trouble sleeping?” 

“Yes, two things have been keeping me awake lately,” The night princess replied. 

“Like what you called us here for?” I asked. 

She nodded and looked at me specifically as she said, “That and… a few disturbing nightmares that I can’t seem to shake despite how ridiculous they may be.”

I looked down and felt my ears fall to the sides of my head (something that only happened rarely and without my control. Pony ears just sort of did whatever they wanted). It was obvious that she wasn’t speaking of her own nightmares, but mine. My subconscious was not just causing me to suffer but the guardian of dreams too. It felt like everything was out to make me feel terrible this day. I just hoped that whatever Celestia wanted wouldn’t add to that pit in my stomach.

“So what have you called us here for exactly?” Twilight asked her new equal.

Celestia smiled nervously. “Well, it’s a… a changeling.”

I deadpanned. “A changeling? That’s it? Okay Celestia, let me remind you who I am real quick… I’m your secret force against the most dire threats in Equestria, not your husband that you call on to squash an insect. Furthermore, I don’t kill, so if that's what you had in mind you can forget it. Even if it's the most evil changeling on the planet, I am not going to take a life because you tell me to. And finally, I am tired… so no matter what you say, I’m not taking care of it. I don't care if ‘I’m already here’, you take care of it!”

“Actually the reason why I asked you here isn’t to ‘take care of it’.”

Luna then turned to her sister with a confused expression. “But you said that was why we needed them. We were going to ask them to take care of it, right?”

“Yes Luna, but he was implying that we dispose of it whereas we really are asking for them to literally care for the little thing.” Celestia replied.

Twilight's jaw dropped and mine followed her lead. Seeing our shock, Celestia turned to us and did her best job at explaining. “Before you say anything, I want you to know that this was not something I desired to do to you. I am sorry, but you are our last shot at...”

“Your last shot at going insane!? I couldn't agree more! Changelings are supposed to be dangerous tricksters and you want us to take care of one?!” I shouted.

To my surprise Twilight laid her hoof on my shoulder and looked at me in a way that said ‘lets hear her out’. I knew that look all too well. Sighing, I let Celestia resume, secretly hoping that she was just kidding.

“Thank you Twilight… now as I was saying, we exhausted all of our options. We can not do it while keeping to our royal duties. Cadance and Shining Armor were not keen on the idea…”

“Gee, I wonder why…” I muttered under my breath only to receive a kick to the shin and a glare from Twilight.

“When it comes down to it, you are the only suitable pair to attempt raising it.” Celestia finished.

‘Raising it? What is she getting at?’ I wondered to myself as we were led to where it was being held. Twilight was right by me the whole way, but she seemed incredibly chipper compared to everyone else. It baffled me how she could smile at a time like this. I knew she had issues with changelings, but here she was, casually strolling along without batting an eye at what lay ahead. It was a look of confidence… fearlessness. I simply loved it when she got like this. I suppose you could say her happiness led to my happiness.

Before I knew it, we were in the dungeons of the castle. They weren’t unbearably dark but the light emitting crystals lining the walls did make it dimmer than natural daylight. We passed gloomy cell after gloomy cell, each one labeled with a number by the barred door. After a while we arrived at a staircase that led down through multiple floors… all with the same halls lined with the dreary cells. I assumed that the design to only have one staircase that linked up the many floors was so if there was a massive jailbreak, the criminals would all clamor to the stairs and essentially clog up the single exit. And those who did make it to the top floor would be forced to go through one at a time, making the job of halting their escape that much easier for the guards. It was a clever bottleneck strategy, but at this time it was useless since there was no prisoners… save for one changeling of course. 

My mind was racing at the thought of taking care of it. How would I keep it from hurting Twilight? Or anybody else for that matter? Not much was known about them other than their ability to take other forms and feed on love. It was difficult to keep them alive because they would eventually starve while being retained for study. Love was the key to their survival and when under observation by a bunch of scientists, that was the one thing they would never get. They would either be hated or looked at as just a test subject.

Upon reaching the bottom floor, I saw Shining Armor up ahead. I let Twilight stay in front of me so I wouldn’t be immediately targeted by her brother. He still noticed me and glared, but as long as Twilight was between me and him, he wouldn’t attack. I wasn’t afraid of him hurting me, but it was probably better to avoid confrontation.

“Has there been anything we missed while we were gone?” Celestia asked as she reached him and peered past the iron bars.

“No, your highness… it has hardly moved since you left. Perhaps it has died.” Shining replied, the corner of his mouth twisting up so slightly it went unnoticed by the others.

The sun goddess's gaze narrowed a bit. “I don't think it would have remained sitting up like that if it had. No… it is still alive.”

I decided to get a look for myself and carefully walked over, keeping my steps as quiet as possible. Once I was close enough, I stopped and looked inside, but what I saw wasn’t a changeling… it was another Shining Armor facing away from us all. 

‘What is it doing in a disguise if it was already found out?’

As if reading my mind, Luna spoke up. “It is still reluctant to show us its true form. We can’t determine its age or gender for certain, but we believe it is quite young. It may even be a child… although that is only an assumption.”

“How do you figure?” I asked, still looking at the Shining clone.

“Well on top of what the guards said of it being small when they found it, it has an odd habit of… for a lack of better phrasing, acting a bit immature.” 

“It's a brat, that's what it is…” Shining Armor growled. That was the moment when it turned around. It had a mischievous grin that stretched from ear to ear. Shining snorted in contempt as the changeling walked towards us and pressed its face against the bars, getting as close as it could. 

“Did I make the cry baby mad?” It said, mimicking Shining's voice perfectly. “What’s the matter? I thought a previous captain of the guard was able to control his emotions perfectly… or were you wrong? Not as tough as you thought you were, are you? Nope, you’re just a bunch of talk… talk, talk, talk, talk, talk!”

The stallion just a few feet away raised his hoof as if to strike at the changeling, but it got caught by Celestia's magic. “You have done enough… we can take over from here. You are free to return to the Crystal Empire.” She said sternly.

Shining lowered his hoof and left after giving me one last ‘death stare’, muttering to himself angrily. While I was watching him leave I noticed that this must have been big for him to be called here. He was hardly ever away from the crystal castle he called home, and for him to travel all the way here just to make sure a changeling didn’t escape must have meant that this was no ordinary changeling. No, something about it must have sparked Celestia's interest… and that sparked my interest.

Learning was one thing I did very well. Most of the people I had known didn’t understand what power a little bit of knowledge held, but I did. Also, after ending up in Equestria I had a desire to learn even more. There was so much that I didn’t know and figuring out something new that I could use made me ‘giddy’, much like Twilight. Now I was close to something else I could learn from… however, it was still dangerous. The only question was, could I afford to let it get close enough to satisfy my intrigue? There was only one way to find out.

“Celestia, I wish to talk to it… face to face. Could you unlock the door?” I asked, turning to her.

She nodded and magically opened it, but she did so with a smile. Something about that made me wonder what she knew that I didn’t. I shrugged it off and walked inside, shutting the barred door behind me. At the moment I approached it, the changeling shifted its disguise to a perfect copy of me. I chuckled at the very thought that it was going to try imitating me to escape. Even if it could copy my appearance and voice, there was no way it was going to be able to take me down in combat. I had a spell that shut down all signals to the muscles of those I targeted. It took up a lot of magic to perform, however it didn’t matter when my opponent was helpless on the floor.

“If you are thinking of escaping, don’t.” I said with a confident smirk.

“If you are thinking of escaping, don’t.”

It just mimicked me for no apparent reason. There was even a few seconds of delay. What purpose did that serve?

“Huh… cute.”

“Huh… cute.” It said immediately after I finished this time.

I raised an eyebrow in slight confusion but continued anyways. “Okay I’m going to-”

“Okay I’m going to…” The changeling interrupted.

“Please dont do…” It had completely synchronized with me. I was practically speaking to a mirror now. The realization that it had adapted to copy me so perfectly in such a short time scared me.

“You had better knock that off right now,” it said with me. “I mean it, this isn’t funny.”

I could see the mirth in my double's eyes as we spoke. It was enjoying my rising anger… so I would have to say something that would give me pleasure, as cliche as it was. 

“I’m an idiot.” I said, but this time I wasn’t copied.

The changeling smiled, “I can agree with that…”

I can’t say I expected that reaction exactly, although it did give me what I was looking for. It would have been impossible to get a straight answer through that copy cat routine, so I broke the cycle. There was a bit of information that I gathered from our conversation so far… and that was this changeling was definitely immature just like Luna had said. Actually, it was more like childish… 

“Okay, so I have a few questions for you. I would be grateful if you would answer them.” I said, showing no emotion. The changeling snorted and rolled its eyes, which was odd seeing as how I had never gotten a good look at myself doing that before. “You are a changeling, correct?”

I was met with a look that said ‘you must be stupid to ask that’. “No… I’m your long lost twin brother. Really, you already should know that I’m a changeling.”

“Alright, so if you are a changeling and it's so obvious to everyone that you are… why stay disguised?” I asked raising an eyebrow. “I’m sure it's not hurting you to do so, but it must be more comfortable to be in your true form. Why keep up the charade if there is no benefit?”

The changeling turned away and growled, “Because…”

“Because why?” I pressed.

“JUST BECAUSE ALRIGHT?!”

I smirked and looked deep into those eyes that matched my own. “Because you are a child and want to be treated like an adult, right?” The bitter and angry look I got told me I was right.  

“Get out…” my doppelganger snarled. 

I shook my head. “Sorry but I’m not done with my-” 

“GET OUT!” It yelled with tears now welling up in its eyes.

I had no choice but to leave. A line had been crossed that told me that I wasn’t going to get anything else for today. As I calmly exited the cell, I saw Celestia frown. 

As if reading my mind she explained the reason for her unhappiness. “I was hoping that you would be able to make more of a connection. The reason I asked you here wasn’t for interrogation purposes, it was for adoption…”

“Adoption?! What is wrong with you?! You know me and children already don't mix! What makes you think a changeling child would be any better!?!”

Celestia shot me her legendary ‘stern ruler glare’ and firmly said. “Because you are not as bad as you believe you are. You may think that you would be the wrong pony for this task, but that is where you are mistaken. I have seen what lies in your heart and I have also seen you while you were near fillies and colts. What you don't realize is that you are giving them every reason to like you, only you have blinded yourself to your actions. It is true that you are strict and a bit rough… however that only supports my theory that you would make a good father figure to this young creature.”

I could feel my eye twitch at the sheer stupidity I was faced with. I mean really… me? A good father figure? I’ll believe that when Pinkie starts acting like a normal civilized member of society (and since nopony is really ‘normal’, its gonna be a while). “I have heard a lot of crap in my life, but that takes the triple-fudge quadruple-decker upside down cake. Even Twilight will back me up on this one… right Twilight?” I heard only silence so I turned around seeing that she was missing. “Twilight?”

It didn’t take me long to look inside the cell and find her right behind the changeling who had once again faced away. Before I could try to stop her, she put up a barrier that blocked access to the door. The possibility of breaking the barrier in such a tight location was not a good idea. Anything used to break it could either be too strong and end up hurting Twilight on the other side, or be too weak and bounce off to hurt the royal sisters as well as myself. Teleportation was also out of the question because Twilight's magical shields not only blocked off the ability to enter physically, it also negated magic… and I mean STRONG magic. It was even able to purify Discord's chaos magic which, when used correctly, trumped mine three fold. 

I banged my hoof against the transparent magical pink wall that denied me access to her. “Twilight! Get out of there right now! You have no idea what that thing will do!” I barked.

She looked back at me with the fiercest glare I had seen from her… yes, the same one that she had when she was trying to understand the ‘Pinkie sense’. Without really knowing why, I stopped and just watched as it looked like she was speaking to it. She was speaking so softly that I couldn’t determine what she was saying, but by the look of it, she was probably trying to make friends with it. She was smiling and keeping her movements gentle.

At one point in particular, I saw my copy shake a little… it was laughing. Whatever Twilight said to it made it laugh. Meanwhile my thoughts kept returning to the same question time after time: ‘how can she be so kind to something that caused her so much grief? She should be showing some hostility at least, but she isn’t...’. I turned to Luna and Celestia just to make sure I wasn’t alone in my confusion, but what I saw was far from helpful. They were grinning! Didn’t they understand that the changeling could easily tear out Twilight's throat with a single bite?! Didn’t they see how much danger she was in?! WAS I THE ONLY SANE ONE IN THIS PLACE!?!

Suddenly a bright flash of green got my attention. When I looked back at where the changeling was, there was an uproar of lime green flames. I started unintentionally holding my breath as they died down and my gaze kept going lower without any signs that the changeling was still there… until I saw the pointed tip of a black horn. As it went down it bent and curved slightly almost like a branch off the trees in the Everfree Forest. Next I saw what appeared to be dark teal hair with a oddly shaped black ear poking out. The hair was almost web-like in some areas but mostly it just looked like a curtain of smooth silk. It was cut somewhat like a bob style, a curved angle at the right side but evened out towards the back and was completely level on the other. Strangely it reminded me of Chrysalis’ mane, especially at the front where a few locks were hanging down as though they were vines meant to obscure the changeling's face. 

The next thing I noticed was the size of it. Roughly the size of the cutie mark crusaders, the little thing didn’t even seem like a threat anymore. In fact, it actually looked like it could have been a few inches shorter than even Sweetie Belle. I would have laughed, but it opened its eyes. Those eyes… they were such a bright green, they put what remained of the lime fire to shame. They looked exactly like Queen Chrysalis’ eyes. I was scared of that but at the same time… intrigued. Was this something that occurred in many changelings? Or was it related to the queen in some way? Or was it the queen in disguise? I couldn’t tell if any of that was true or not. So little was known about the species that I was just taking shots in the dark.

Soon enough, Twilight's shield went down and she walked out. Stopping to look back, she said, “Come on. It's alright, we’re all friends here.” 

The changeling stepped out from Twilight's shadow and followed behind her. It had an expression of bitter determination, something that you would normally see from a Canterlot guard. Right as Twilight stepped back into the hall, I gave the changeling a small telekinetic push and slammed the door shut. Looking over to Twilight with a glare, I shouted, “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! When I say ‘get out’, listen to me! You could have gotten hurt! Or worse! Do you know what that would do to me?! I wouldn’t be able to live with my-”

With a loud smack, Twilight slapped me… hard. I was not physically strong or resilient so her hit sent me flying into the nearby brick wall, knocking me out. Usually I could use a spell to make me tougher than I actually was, but when I was caught off guard like that, a pony as weak as Twilight could send me to the land of dreams. However, none of this was the point right now. The point was that for the first time ever, she had seriously hit me… and at that time I had no idea what I did wrong. 
> Through a Changelings Eyes Pt. 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Changeling, monster, love-sucker, abomination, and my new favorite… brat. I was called all this by the ponies, but nothing they called me was my name. My name was Baclox, or in their language, ‘mistake’. My mother hated me and thought I was nothing but a mistake since the moment I was born. Her hate was not returned though. All I cared about was making her proud and giving her a reason to love me half as much as she loved my dead brother. I never knew him but from what I heard, he was a prodigy. The stories about how he could shapeshift into any pony perfectly just by looking at a picture were awe inspiring. Other changelings in the hive told me he could even mimic their voice without ever hearing it. 

His name was Morph and he was all my mother ever talked about. ‘Why can’t you be more like Morph?’ ‘If Morph was here he could teach you what it means to be truly great.’ ‘You’ll never amount to what Morph was.’ She said his name more than mine and he died seven years ago, before I was even born. All that was left was his stone body that stayed in the hives inner gardens. He had stumbled into a nest of cockatrice and when he was found there was no way to get him back. The thing that stood out to me whenever I saw him though was that he was smiling peacefully… he looked almost happy to be a statue.

Whenever I was upset about something, I went to see him and talk about whatever was making me feel sad, or angry, or… lonely. I don’t think he could hear me, but it was nice just to pretend he could. Changelings aren’t supposed to make friends. Friends make you soft and easy to take advantage of, but I didn’t see anything wrong with making friends with my brother. He couldn’t be used for a hostage if he’s stone. I may have been looked at as a mistake by my mother, but at least I still had him. 

The changeling way was to do anything for the good of all other changelings in the hive. Even though we didn’t socialize like the ponies, we were supposed to be completely selfless. We never ran away from a threat, we never questioned orders, and we never thought of doing something that would only benefit ourselves… or at least the others didn’t. I was caught time and time again wanting more for myself. A room of my own, a bed to myself, a toy to play with. To the rest of the changelings I was a freak for wanting those things. I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere, not with ponies nor with my own kind. I was alone, forced to be an outcast.

About a year and a half ago, almost the whole hive went to try to take over Canterlot since we were running low on ponies to drain love from. As far as I could tell, we were getting close to starvation through our normal method of sneaking around, so we had to abandon our strength in stealth to conquer the capital by force. It was a bad idea though, we aren’t any good at attacking directly… we are too slow and weak to hurt ponies like that. The only thing we had going for us was how many of us there were. 

A week after mother and the other changelings left, we got news that they were blasted out to the badlands and were most likely dead. The few other changelings that were too old or ill to join in the fight were the only other changelings besides me that were still alive. The elderly changelings broke down and accepted that we were just going to die off. I had other plans though, so when I was sure none of the others were awake, I left. I went from town to town posing as a little homeless filly as I drained the love of mares stupid enough to buy into my whole ‘helpless child’ story. I was doing really good until a pony that was in a hurry to get somewhere ran into me and made me lose my disguise. I wasn’t used to flying yet but I did my best in order to get away. By the time they stopped following me I was completely lost. I wandered around aimlessly for days and soon enough collapsed from hunger. 

When I woke up I found myself in a barred cart that looked like a cage (probably because it was). I was being hauled into Canterlot by at least five guard ponies. I shifted into a guard myself in an attempt to make them think that I escaped and put a different guard in my place. It didn’t help at all… they actually laughed and made jokes about how I changed in front of them. This was why I hated ponies… they say they are all kind and tolerant, but then they make jokes at your expense. On the bright side though I could see a young couple just a few feet away from the cage as they wheeled me along. I got as close as I could and opened my mouth, then inhaled their love aura. Ponies couldn’t see it, but it could tell a lot about what they were feeling and it was more intense when they were with the ones they loved. 

I only got a little taste of their love before the guards noticed and hit me on the nose. They looked at me with disgust. Most muttered names under their breath. I was being punished for trying to live… I might as well have been in Tartarus. 

We soon entered the famous Canterlot Castle. I didn’t know if it was my hunger or the fact that I was in the same place where my mother had given her life, but my stomach was soon in knots. Shortly after the main doors closed behind us, the guards opened the cage and quickly put me in shackles, chains, locks, and everything else possible to keep me from making any real movement. They then escorted me to what had to be the throne room. The alicorn sisters and co-rulers of Equestria were seated in front of me. The guards forced me to kneel and I took that time to change into the blue alicorn. 

“Would you look at that Luna? It seems to prefer you over me.” The white alicorn said, turning to the one she called ‘Luna’.  

Luna smiled and replied. “That it does sister.”

This was my chance. “Sister, don't listen! I am being falsely accused! Help me!” 

The white one simply laughed at my efforts. “Watch out Luna, this one is looking to replace you.”

“That shall be the day. What I wouldn’t give for a replacement so I may take a few days off.” Luna replied with a chuckle of her own. “Sir Jason’s nightmares have become so frequent and vivid that I have considered a vacation. Perhaps the beach?”

The two princesses continued to chat idly as I stayed kneeled in fear of what would happen if I tried to stand back up. The guards were even more impatient than I was, although I was happy to wait since it delayed my punishment. As they sat there talking I was trying to think of some way to get myself out of my metal bindings. I quickly came up with a clever solution to my dilemma that surprised even myself. Since I was too big to slip out... I would just make myself smaller.

After coming up with my brilliant plan, it didn’t take long for the guards to convince the princesses to send me to the dungeon. We started to head to the throne room doors. I patiently waited for the perfect moment. They had no idea who they were dealing with. I wasn’t going to let it end here! I refused to die in this den of pony filth! The moment they opened the doors, I made my move. Changing into the filly form that I used to fool so many ponies in the past year on my own, the restraints fell off me. I was free! 

Flying up out of reach I turned in mid-air to face my ex-captors for one last taunt. “See you later suckers! I’m ditching this place and theres nothing you can do about it!” I shouted, sticking out my tongue and blowing a raspberry to further their humiliation. I thought I was so clever… until the white alicorn ‘whats-her-face’ trapped me in a magic bubble! That was when I learned that you flee, then gloat when you are out of harms way.

“LET ME OUT!” I shouted as I floated closer to my captor. “This isn’t fair! Magic is cheating!”

She cocked her head back slightly in surprise and I expected fear to follow shortly after… but again I was wrong. All I got was a laugh in response. That stupid laugh. By the Hive I hated that laugh. I disliked most laughter from ponies, but this one was enough to drive me insane. It was the kind that sounded like she was amused… like I was some cute innocent little foal. I wasn’t going to sit around and give her the privilege of mocking me so I changed into the mare I saw earlier. You know, the one I tried to snack on because I was starving? 

Anyways, nothing I did phased her as she guided me to a cell. The princess named Luna told me that it was for my safety. She actually stayed with me for a long time after her sister, who I later found out was named Celestia, left us alone. Luna would talk, or do her best, while I remained silent. She spoke of many things and kept asking me questions as if I would answer. I didn’t know why she was talking to me. She never asked me anything important, just if I knew what ‘cake’ was, if I could eat ‘normal pony food’, how old I was, what I did for fun… weird things like that. 

I don’t know what she was trying to do since I was only waiting to die. When ponies capture changelings, that is the end of the road for them… they are either starved or killed. That’s why my mother was dead… she went into pony territory to take over with the others and they weren’t able to. Seeing as how the city was still thriving with so many ponies and no other changelings it must have been bad. The thought of that alone made my past year look so pointless. If I stayed with the hive I was dead, going out alone led to death… no matter what I chose, I was going to die. For the first time in a long time I felt my throat tighten and my eyes water with tears. ‘Why am I forced to die just because I was born a changeling?’ I thought as Luna kept talking away. ‘Why does everyone hate me for being what I am?’

As I felt a few tears roll down my face, Luna finally shut her mouth. I half expect her to tell me that her work is done, but she doesn’t say another word. No… instead she opens the cell door with magic, walks inside… and wraps her hooves around me. I had been hugged before, but only by ponies that I had tricked. Ponies were never nice when they found out what you were, or at least that’s what I was always told… yet here was this princess, hugging me. It was strangely comforting, even without feeding off her love. That was another thing I noticed while she held me. She had the smallest boost of love to her aura. The only time that happened was when a pony really cared for another near them, but I was the only other one there.

We sat like that for a while and when I felt brave enough to try, I snacked on her love. She either didn’t notice or didn’t care when I did, but she left soon after. She said she had to work but she would ‘return’ later. She sounded a little like my mother but kinder. I spent the time she was away sleeping. My energy was drained from so many transformations in one day. It wasn’t hard to keep up a disguise, but going from one to another was way different. I heard it was the same sort of feeling that unicorns get from overusing magic. Since I liked to be a pegasus more than a unicorn I never really used magic so I wouldn’t know. Lots of changelings avoided being unicorns because our magical ability depends on how much love we’ve eaten. Not being able to use magic as a unicorn because you’re hungry is suspicious, and suspicion is dangerous.

The next day I woke up to see Luna already sitting outside my little slice of paradise. She looked tired and my first thought was that I drained more love than I thought, but that wasn’t it. Her love aura was stronger than ever. Something else must have been bothering her, but what it was I didn’t know. She started off by floating a plate of food over to me before she went on talking like the day before. She opened the door only long enough to get the plate through then shut it. It was a typical Equestrian breakfast with eggs, hay bacon, and toast covered in some sort of jam. This wasn’t jail food… this was a caring meal. A meal for a changeling.

Cutting her off in her endless babble, I quietly asked, “Why are you doing this?”

She looked at me almost as if she was shocked that I could speak, “You said something?! Oh my that is great news! I was starting to believe I was talking to one who was mute! The way you glare made me think I was offending you by thinking you could talk back.”

“I asked you why you’re doing this.” I growled at her, in no mood for idle chit-chat.

She smiled in a way I wasn’t familiar with and replied, “I am just trying to give you what you need and make you as comfortable as possible given the conditions of your stay. I’m sorry to say we know next to nothing about changelings so what you can and can’t eat is up in the air. If you tell me what you would like I can fetch it for you.”

I squinted at her trying to figure out the angle in all of this. She couldn’t have possibly just wanted to be nice to me. She was still a pony after all. Our kind don’t mix… they are natural enemies just like the minotaurs and the griffons that were always at constant war with each other. There was always some squabble over land, food, money, or even just some stupid bet that lead them to fight it out. Ponies and changelings were only different in that we were more than happy to sneak our way in to get what was needed. We were thieves, but for a very good reason. We stole to live and that’s it. It wasn’t for mischief or conquest, it was for the simple fact of needing food.

Looking down at the plate before me, I flipped it over, spilling everything onto the dirty dungeon floor. I looked back up at Luna angrily. She had no idea how easy she had it. None of them knew what it was like to hunt for food like I had to. 

Unable to control myself anymore, I shouted, “This isn’t going to help! I need love! You’re lucky you can eat this and get something out of it! It won’t do anything but leave a taste in my mouth! You can give me anything you want, but until I can steal some love off some oblivious pony, I’M AS GOOD AS DEAD!”

Without even flinching, Luna responded, “Do you have to steal love? Is it really crucial to take it without the pony knowing you are feeding off them?”

“Of course! How else would I get love?! Ask for it?!”

“Why not?” She asked, flipping the conversation back on me.

“Because they would hate me and try to kill me!”

“How is that any different from what you experience as of now? Have you ever had anything taken from you without permission? It isn’t something you just let happen. It can make you mad especially if its something personal and dear to you.”

Yeah sure, the only reason why I was hunted like a vicious monster was because I didn’t go, ‘hey do you mind if I eat some of your love?’. That was the reason behind it all, not that I was a hideous changeling. I don’t know how much cider this princess has been drinking, but it must have been a lot for her to say something so stupid.

Well back to the matter at hoof… she was a lot less talkative from then on. A few days went by and we did have something similar to conversations every so often. I was informed that I was going to have a chance to leave the cell if they could find some ponies that would want to take me in. They had two couples in mind, one I had never heard of, and the other… the other were supposedly the ones that killed the rest of the swarm sent to invade. They were the ones that killed my mother along with everyone else I knew, and I was going to make sure I didn’t end up with them. The others I wasn’t too sure of but they couldn’t be worse than the changeling slayers.

I spent the day (or maybe night since I had no way of knowing the time) preparing myself for whatever could come my way. My heart was beating out of control, telling me that I was scared. I knew I had to hide how I felt just like I had hidden what I looked like during my time in the dungeon. I didn’t want them to think less of me because of my age. Pony fillies are dumb compared to changelings. We learn a lot faster and are a lot more perceptive. We can see the smallest facial twitch and figure out things that ponies don’t even realize themselves. Not to mention we learn how to read before we can talk and are forced to learn enough words to compare with an adult pony with an above average vocabulary. The last thing I needed was to have them talk down to me like a baby.

When I heard the sound of hoofsteps getting close, I did my best to clear my mind. They couldn’t know I was afraid… I had to play them out; misguide them to trip them up. I would have the upper hoof in this, not them. The first pony I saw was Celestia as she passed by the bars in front of me, then Luna, and finally some white stallion who I was going to guess was this ‘Shining Armor’ I had been hearing about. He was known to changelings as simply ‘the male slayer’, for apparent reasons. He didn’t look all that bad from what I heard of him… but appearances can be deceiving and I wasn’t chancing it. I started what I had planned by turning into him.

He reacted to my transformation by jumping in shock and saying, “Wow, I was not expecting that.”

“I don’t see why not. You were told that it was a changeling we were dealing with.” Luna retorted, laughing at him, and now that I knew his voice I could laugh along too.

“I don’t sound like that, do I?” He asked, put off by me mimicking him.

“No, not at all… you sound much dumber.” I replied with a malicious smile.

He turned to the princesses by him in disbelief. It was obvious I was already getting under his skin. He didn’t make any effort to hide his emotions at all. His name might as well have been ‘book’ since I could read him like one. I was going to have a lot of fun with him. 
> Through a Changelings Eyes Pt. 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A few hours after I began I was finally bored of toying with this Shining dork's feelings. I had done everything from make fun of his face to make fun of his wife who could not join him. He was absolutely livid, but was unable to touch me due to the direct order of Celestia. I turned my back to the door so he could not see how happy I was at his anger. I even gave fake yawns to secretly eat his fury laced love since it was my personal favorite (mostly because it was better than being bland and usually easy to get ponies riled up). The only type of love I hadn’t had before to my knowledge was pure, caring, compassionate, direct love. This was because it was only gained through disguising as a pony who was truly loved by another and taking their place. That was the riskiest but supposedly most rewarding way of feeding, but I was never going to get the chance now. I was found out… nopony could be fooled by me now. 

I heard hoofsteps approaching again, but this time I could actually smell the love of a pony. Whoever it was had a lot of muddled and hazy emotions that were so unclear I couldn’t tell how he or she felt, then it suddenly stopped. As impossible as it sounded it was like the pony had just turned off all feeling. I never heard of such a thing. Feelings weren’t supposed to be like a candle flame that you could just blow out and get rid of, but I didn’t have any other way to explain the sudden halt in the potent muddled love that I picked up on.

“Has there been anything we missed while we were gone?” I heard Celestia ask from behind me.

“No, your highness… it has hardly moved since you left. Perhaps it has died.” I heard as I could feel the white stallions anger flare up. 

‘Yeah, in your dreams you pony jerk.’ I thought to myself while remaining still.

“I don't think it would have remained sitting up like that if it had. No… it is still alive.” Celestia replied, releasing a wave of what smelled like relief.

A few moments later Luna decided to speak up,  “It is still reluctant to show us its true form. We can’t determine its age or gender for certain, but we believe it is quite young. It may even be a child… although that is only an assumption.”

‘She knows? Why has she spoken to me like an adult if she knows I’m not?’ I wondered.

“How do you figure?” I heard a new voice ask. This one was male like the last pony they brought in, but more… weak sounding. I felt nothing coming from his direction and his voice was almost monotone. This was the pony that must have hid his emotions from me.

“Well on top of what the guards said of it being small when they found it, it has an odd habit of… for a lack of better phrasing, acting a bit immature.” Luna answered.

“It's a brat, that's what it is…” I heard as I felt another surge of anger. It was at this point that I wanted to see how far I could push him. He called me ‘a brat’ and that made my ears tingle in delight. It wasn’t nearly as bad as what I had been called in the past, however it was still bad enough to know how close I was to sending him over the edge. I turned around unable to keep myself from smiling. I ignored the new light brown unicorn and walked toward the one I had chosen to target. For the first time since being locked up, I pressed my face on the bars holding me inside. I was so eager to feel his rage!

“Did I make the cry baby mad? What’s the matter? I thought a previous captain of the guard was able to control his emotions perfectly… or were you wrong? Not as tough as you thought you were, are you? Nope, you’re just a bunch of talk… talk, talk, talk, talk, talk!”

I had pushed his buttons in all the right places and was rewarded with the biggest flood of raw anger yet, but I when I saw his hoof raise up to hit me I started to regret it. Thankfully the princess stopped him with her magic. “You have done enough… we can take over from here. You are free to return to the Crystal Empire.”

‘That could have been bad. Maybe I should stop trying to get a rise out of ponies for the sake of better quality love… NOT!’ 

Before leaving, ‘Shining Armor’ looked at the new pony a lot like how he looked at me. That told me one of two things… either he was a maniac who would take his anger out on any random pony, or this new guy made him just as mad as I had at some point. I bet it was probably the second one since I saw a little blip of regret come from his really faint aura. I swear, if he didn’t have that tiny line of love aura around him, I would have thought he was another changeling in disguise.

Being so difficult to read made me instantly dislike him. Ponies you couldn’t read were unpredictable and that meant dangerous. Sure here I was safe, but as soon as this pony had me alone without the princesses to stop him from doing whatever he wanted, I was at his mercy. His eyes were cold and empty as he stared at me. I forced myself to not show any signs of fear.

He then turned to the princess. “Celestia, I wish to talk to it… face to face. Could you unlock the door?”

Celestia let him in, smiling like she always did. Well at least she wasn’t laughing. When the stallion got close enough I changed into him, hoping to get the same reactions as the last one… but nooooo! I couldn’t get that! Instead HE was the one who laughed. I was going to fix that by unleashing my most devastating technique. By the time this was done I would have him crying like a filly!

“If you are thinking of escaping, don’t.” He said. The confident smile he had was perfect. It was time to crush him.

“If you are thinking of escaping, don’t.” I repeated.

He raised his eyebrow in confusion. He was taking the bait just like I wanted. “Huh… cute.”

“Huh… cute.” I repeated a little faster. ‘This guy is going to be so easy!’ I thought, nearly unable to contain my excitement.

Lifting his eyebrow again, he stared at me. “Okay I’m going to-”

“Okay I’m going to…” I cut him off now. I could interpret a pony's movements and react so fast that I could mimic them with such little time between us that it sounded like we were saying the same thing at the same moment. I actually called it my ‘mirror move’ because it looked like one pony talking to a mirror. The reactions I got were always so funny! I believed I had figured out this pony's way of moving and talking enough to sync up with him completely.

“Please don't do…” We said at the same time. I had it down... now he was mine! “You had better knock that off right now.” 

‘Never!’

“I mean it, this isn’t funny.”

‘Yes it is!’

He was getting irritated and stopped talking for a while. It was obvious he was thinking of something to say to make it end, and the only way ponies have been able to do that is by saying exactly what I want. They insult themselves to make it cease every time. I trap them in my web of anger and they get so irritated that they do my work for me! How fun is that?! Now I just had to wait for him to say whatever he managed to think of. What he said next was priceless! It was so perfect...

“I’m an idiot.”

‘Mmh! Like music to my ears! Simply beautiful!’

I couldn’t help but smile back at him. “I can agree with that…”

I was expecting the stallion to react like the murderer known as Shining Armor, but instead I was surprised to see absolutely nothing. There was nothing to feed on. No anger, no joy, no sadness... it was just him. He just stared at me like he was reading a book… and that was my thing! I didn’t even know his name yet and already he was getting on my nerves.

“Okay, so I have a few questions for you. I would be grateful if you would answer them.” 

I rolled my eyes when he said that. That just screamed ‘dork’, and what he asked next screamed ‘stupid’.

“You are a changeling, correct?” He asked that with such sincerity it made me question if I was having a nightmare. No pony could be that dumb right?

Anyways I answered his question even though it was the dumbest thing I ever heard. “No… I’m your long lost twin brother. Really, you already should know that I’m a changeling.”

What? I never said I was going to be nice about it. Besides he was almost begging for sarcasm. The rule is if you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer. Not that my answer was stupid or anything but… you get the point. I guess you could say that I wasn’t expecting anything smart after that.

“Alright, so if you are a changeling and it's so obvious to everyone that you are… why stay disguised? I’m sure it's not hurting you to do so, but it must be more comfortable to be in your true form. Why keep up the charade if there is no benefit?”

And right there was when I felt the first bit of fear. He wasn’t dumb at all, he was playing with me! It was like I shrunk to the size of an ant when he asked that. He struck me so speechless that I couldn’t think of any good excuse. My mind went blank for the first time since before my mother left. I always had something to say… until just this moment.

I couldn’t bother to look at him as I said the worst possible thing I could, “Because…”

“Because why?”

“JUST BECAUSE, ALRIGHT?!” I shouted feeling like something in me suddenly broke. I didn’t know what it was, but it was horrible and caused my heart to beat funny. The only thing I could think of doing to make it go away was to get him away from me. 

“Because you are a child and want to be treated like an adult, right?” The pony asked with a smug smile. That was the last straw. He had to go!

“Get out…” I ordered, feeling my face getting really hot, especially my eyes.

“Sorry but I’m not done with my-” 

“GET OUT!” I yelled, feeling my eyes burn and fill with tears until everything was too blurry to see.

He finally left and I blocked everything out as I turned my back once again, but this time it was to keep them from seeing me like this. Changelings don’t cry. That's what made me Baclox... ‘a mistake’. Knowing that only made me cry more. I was weak and pathetic for it, yet there was no way to make it stop. It was part of me and I hated it… I hated me. I had flashbacks of growing up in the Hive. How they all looked at me like a freak. I just thought that if I could make it on my own, even for a little while, maybe I would change and be tougher like the others. That was the biggest mistake of all...

Now I was a prisoner and I couldn’t drive away the one unicorn that I really didn’t like who was going to be taking over the job of watching me. Was this my punishment? Being stuck with a pony that I couldn’t feed on? No, Luna wouldn’t do that to me… wait, what am I saying?! She’s the enemy here! They all are! It’s them or us! That’s how it’s always been. We were too different to care for one another. 

The door to my confinement then suddenly opened and closed again. I was just about to ask what he wanted to do to me this time but stopped when I felt a light airy love aura fill the room. It was different from Luna and Celestia. There was no way it was from the other stallion because he would feel a lot madder and I don't think anypony would come back after being that angry without running in to kill me… especially him. That narrowed it down to being a new pony… a sympathetic one at that.

A dull thud followed by muffled mumbling resonated behind me. A quick burst of some odd emotion I had never felt before flared up then went away just as fast and was replaced by the same sympathy as before .

“Who are you?” I asked, doing a poor job at controlling my trembling voice. “And what reason do you have to feel sorry for me?”

“Hm? Oh, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I feel sorry for you because you don’t deserve this.” This new mare said as she got right up beside me, talking to me directly.

“If you’re his mate and as kind as you seem, I would get rid of him…” I told her, looking at her out of the corner of my eyes without moving my head. She was pretty for a pony and had a very sincere smile. Where the stallion was unreadable, this ‘Twilight’ mare was showing me nothing but sincere concern. It radiated off her like the warmth of the sun.

“Well, I would, but he comes in handy and has his moments.” Twilight answered. “So you know my name, would you care to tell me yours?”

Upon being asked that, I almost told her my real name. Before I said anything though, I laughed as a thought crossed my mind. This could be my chance to start things over. To become something besides just Baclox… I could become worth something. I needed a new name, but I couldn’t think of any that fit me so I did what anyone would do in my place… lie. “I, uh… don’t have a name. Most changelings aren’t named.”

“Oh that’s okay, we can come up with one for you.” She said, still smiling. “In the meantime how about we get you out of here?”

“And be around ponies that want to do nothing but treat me like dirt? No thank you.” I replied. 

“I promise I won’t let you get treated badly. You are a child, right? Well, no child should be treated like a monster, no matter what they may look like.” Twilight said before suddenly looking like she just forgot something vital… but in my point of view it wasn’t. “Oh! That reminds me, I don’t know what you look like! That’s no way to start any sort of friendship!”

Although I didn’t think it was possible, I liked the idea of having a friend. It's a good thing my mother isn’t alive to read this or I would be locked in the hive dungeons until I was her age. The word ‘friend’ should have meant nothing to me… but the more I thought of it the more I felt myself wanting it. I didn’t believe she could have actually been a friend to me, being a pony and all, however I didn’t care. I wanted to take a shot at it, even if it meant falling into an obvious trap. 

I took a deep breath and peeled off my disguise. The change went from top to bottom like always, slowly revealing my true self. At the point of emerging from it, I felt amazing. Shapeshifting was like wearing another skin and it was always uncomfortable. Reverting back left you feeling like you could finally breath and be free. It wasn’t the worst feeling to be disguised as a pony, but it sure wasn’t the best. 

When I felt it stop, I opened my eyes to get a good look at my surroundings in my true form. The first thing I layed my eyes on was… ‘him’. That stallion was by far the worst pony I ever met and I wasn’t going to let him get the best of me. I put on a stern cold expression like him just to show he didn’t scare me. 

I hadn’t even noticed that Twilight started to leave until she said, “Come on. It's alright, we’re all friends here.”

Before I could follow her out however, I was pushed back by something I couldn’t see and the door slammed closed. The next thing I knew Twilight slapped the stallion and his head hit the wall so hard I could almost hear a ‘crack’! If that stallion was only awake to see me grin it would have been the best moment of my life. Actually… no, it was the best moment of my life! I had never been so happy. He got what was coming to him and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. You know, I think I’m going to enjoy being with them after all… especially once I throw in a few nudges in the right direction. This is going to be fun.
> The Decision
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I awoke with a throbbing pain in my head which meant one of two things. Either I had been drugged, or someone had decided to knock me out for whatever reason. You would be surprised how much this happened. It seemed like every other day I was waking up with a huge migraine and a lump on my head. It happened so much that I often felt that something was missing when I wasn’t suffering from a splitting headache. What took me by surprise this time though was who had caused it. 

Sitting up and opening my eyes I saw Twilight laying at the end of the oversized Canterlot guest bed. She was reading and looking very grumpy. “You know if you hit me like that again you might cause some serious brain damage.” I said jokingly in an attempt to brighten the mood. Twilight wasn’t laughing.

She slammed her book shut and glared at me. “What is wrong with you?”

I smiled nervously and replied, “Can you give me a hint?” I knew that was the wrong thing to say but I really didn’t know what I had done to make her mad and I tend to joke around when I’m nervous. Yeah, it’s a weird way to cope especially since it normally ends up making the situation worse, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Right after I convinced that little changeling that she had nothing to be afraid of and we would be there to help her… YOU SLAM THE DOOR IN HER FACE! And that's not all! No, you just had to shout out every stereotype that there is against changelings!” Twilight shouted.

Being the ‘considerate’ guy I am, one thing stood out to me in all that. “Wait, rewind for a second here… ‘her’?”

I was met with a deadpan expression. “Yes… her. She is female and a child. You only treated her like that because of what she was born as. All I heard from you was ‘changeling’ this and ‘changeling’ that… not once did you treat her like a normal pony.”

Rolling my eyes I responded, “Well that is because ‘she’ isn’t. I saw what she was and I wasn’t taking any risks.”

“YOU NEVER DO! For just this once can you try something that involves a little bit of risk?” 

“Twilight, when you do something risky you have a chance to lose. There are always stakes bet in those risks and here the thing I’m betting is your safet-”

“Yeah, my safety, my safety… I’m telling you I don’t care about my safety! I want to do this! She doesn’t have anyone else to turn to and she’s all alone. I want HER to feel safe.” Twilight paused and took a moment to sigh. “You used to say you wanted to help everyone. I can't count how many times you told me that you didn’t care who it was, if they needed your help, you would be there. What happened to that?”

From hearing that statement I felt like I had a sledgehammer drive straight into my train of thought. What had happened to that part of me? She was right… I wasn’t acting like myself anymore and that part of me that wanted to bring peace to everything succumbed to my fears. This wasn’t me, and I had to do something to set things right, even if it meant taking a risk or two.

I calmly got off the bed and said, “Okay, I see your point. If it means that much to you we can give it a go… but if she does anything to make me think she’s planning something, she is gone. No second chances, no do-overs, alright?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “She looks like she isn’t even seven years old. What could she possibly be planning? How to get a cookie without getting caught? You worry too much.”

“Says the mare that wears grooves into solid oak with her pacing.” I replied with a smug smirk. “So… what is the little monster's name?”

“She isn’t a monster!” Twilight shouted defensively.

“It was a figure of speech! Geez, I can’t say anything anymore without getting in trouble!” 

Twilight blushed from her overreaction and smiled sheepishly as if that was going to make me… okay I admit, it helped me forgive her quicker than it should have. You try staying upset when you are put up against that face. There’s just no winning with their mastery over facial expressions!

“Sorry… I guess I’m just a little on edge. Anyways, she said she doesn’t have one, though I’m pretty sure that was a lie.”

I raised my eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

“First of all she hesitated.” Twilight responded instantly.

“And?”

“And she said that Changelings don’t have names, but we all know they do. We have gotten names from them before.”

I got off the bed and proceeded to stretch, popping a few joints in the process. “So she’s hiding her name for some unexplained reason. Really that could be either good or bad.”

“How so?” Twilight asked, preferring to stay on the bed rather than get up with me.

“If she is hiding her name she is doing it for a reason that she thinks is necessary to do so. She wouldn’t just be doing it for kicks. Furthermore, the reason behind it is to make sure we don’t know who she is for whatever reason. So in conclusion, she either just dislikes herself, or she dislikes us and believes that revealing herself would put her in harm's way from her identity alone.” I finished by jerking my head to the side to cause my neck to give a pleasurable pop.

“I still have no idea how you make it look so easy.” Twilight said shaking her head.

“The neck thing? It’s easy, you just-”

“No, not that.” She said, interrupting me. “How you can hear two seemingly meaningless bits of information and come up with some outrageous deduction from it.”

I shrugged. “I only use basic reasoning and psychology… really you should be able to do the same thing. Hell, I bet you can even do better than I can. I’m not the only genius around here.”

“That's unusually modest of you, especially since it's like one of those things you’re great at. OH! That reminds me, did you-”

Looking back at my flank I sighed in aggravation. “No, I still haven’t gotten my cutie mark. It isn’t as easy as I thought it would be to find out what makes me special. Sure I’m good at a lot of stuff, but I can’t find that one thing that makes me who I am! Now I know how the crusaders feel…”

Twilight laughs. “They wanted me to tell you ‘hi’ by the way. All three of them miss you… especially Applebloom.”

I could only imagine. Applejack was very strict about her not speaking to me while I was around. I believed the reason was because I lied like crazy the day I left with Discord and everything could have probably been avoided if I was honest with Twilight. I was so evil in her eyes she refused to talk around me and given Big Mac an order to not let me on their property… and they had a LOT of property. Sweetie Belle was able to see me a bit since I often had to take my jacket into Rarity’s boutique and Scootaloo would occasionally pass me in the street, but Applebloom hadn’t been able to even get close to me since everything hit the fan. Kinda sad when you think about it. Also I knew what she was going through… my best friend on earth was a nice guy but my dad didn’t like him so he did all he could to make excuses why we couldn’t see each other. Since I never had many friends to begin with, it hurt and took away what little social interaction I had in the outside world. Knowing that the crusaders were being subjected to basically the same thing sucked, however there was nothing I could do.


* * * * * *


Twilight and I talked for a while about what was going on in Ponyville since I was so overdue on an update. For the most part everything sounded like the same old stuff just on a different day. Everyone was doing fine, going about their daily business. The most recent news was that Daring Doo was actually real… and she was the writer of her own adventures. Seriously who does that sort of thing?! That’s just asking for people to bash your books! If other ponies knew she was real she would be hearing ‘what an arrogant piece of crap’ all day! Yep, you’ll never catch me doing anything that… uh, on the other hand maybe I’m being a little too harsh.

It was already sunset by the time I gained consciousness so we were going to have to stay at the castle for the night. Twilight and I had finished our chat session and I had the munchies so I thought I would get a snack. Celestia was supposed to have the best junk food in Equestria and I wanted to see if that was true for myself. I was casually strolling along, passing a few night guards every so often. They nodded silently as kept on my little jaunt. Everything was going smoothly… and then I heard a giggle. 

I turned around to see the changeling looking up at me with a wicked grin. She honestly creeped me out, but I was still hungry. I chose to turn my back and keep walking. Amazingly I didn’t hear her hoofsteps as she followed behind. I knew she was following me solely because I saw her shadow cast on the wall by the opposite wall mounted candles. The silent hoofsteps coupled by her speed shouldn’t have been possible and that only added to the creepy factor. Why was she following me? Was she hunting me? Wait, do changelings hunt? 

“I own you now…” I heard an odd wavering voice say behind me. 

I slowly turned my head to look at her in disbelief. “Excuse me? What did you just say?”

Her smile nearly stretched from ear to ear. “I OWN you!” She said widening her eyes.

I just raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really? How so?”

“Not telling… it will be so much better to keep that part a secret. You’ll find out soon enough though, and I can’t wait to see how you’ll take it.” She responded cryptically. The way she said everything was like some cliche Bond villain. I could totally picture her strapping me to a table with a slowly moving laser and saying, ‘no, I expect you to die’. 

I did my best to ignore her statement as she followed me into the kitchen and watched me raid the place. As I sat down, the little creepazoid sat in the chair opposite to me. She would have been kind of cute if it wasn’t for that menacing smile. I lifted a cookie to my nose and smelled it to check for poison before eating it. It was safe to say she was greatly disturbing me, and I’m not one to get disturbed easily.

A full fifteen minutes passed before I stopped eating and asked, “What do you want from me? Do you want me to wet myself from fear? Beg for mercy? Cry?”

“All of the above sounds nice.”

I snickered at her. “Well you are going to be waiting for a long time. I don’t really do any of that crap. You would have a better chance of winning the lottery, followed by getting struck by lightning three times in the same place, then winning the lottery again.”

“Oh I’ll make sure of it… even if it's the last thing I do.” She said, hopping off the chair and walking towards the exit. She paused to look at me one last time then left.

I sighed. “Jesus… of all the kids to get stuck with, I get the one that could make Damien look like a saint.”


* * * * * *


Having finished my taste test of Celestia’s stash of sweets along with a small bag of chips, I decided to wander the castle for a bit to gather my thoughts. How were we going to make this work? We were going to need her to stay with one of us, get her a place to sleep, figure out a name… and keep her out of trouble while going about our daily business. That already sounded impossible, but if you add to the fact that we know next to nothing about the biology of changelings nor do we know anything about how to keep them healthy, well… we’re basically screwed. I was going to tell Twilight all this, but she was really excited about trying so I decided to just let her enjoy it while it lasts. It will be kinda like getting a hamster for her. She’ll be happy at first, grow accustomed to it, then it will die. Sure she’ll probably cry for a while but she’ll get over it and have fond memories to look back on… hopefully. 

Being lost in thought, I bumped into Luna. Whenever I was thinking I was oblivious to nearly everything. The castle could have be falling down around me and I wouldn’t have realized. It was like being a heavy sleeper while wide awake and often ended up making me look like an airhead. I used to imagine that I looked like I was having some sort of psychic vision as I stared off into space, but Twilight informed me that it looked like I switched brains with Snails half the time, which was a nice way of saying I looked mentally challenged. The other half I supposedly looked upset or angry when I was deducing something or trying to solve a problem. Anyways, back to the matter at hand…

“Sorry Luna, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” I apologized as she pulled me to my hooves. I was met with a tired and stern stare. Luna and I were usually on good terms and were pretty good friends all things considered, though this night she didn’t appear to be in good spirits.

“I can see that. May I speak with you for a moment? We have a few things we must discuss.” She said with a calmness as cool as the night air.

I sighed and cast my gaze downward. “I know you have been trying to help me with my nightmares and I’m sorry you are suffering for it, but I can’t help it… I’m scared of what I could be.”

“Yes, I understand that much already, however that is not what has me worried.” She said with a serious expression on her face.

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, if that’s not the problem what is?”

“I worry for the little one. I have grown fond of her the past few days. I have watched over her and learned how worried she is. The biggest issue she has is she has no trust for anypony… it's as if she sees us as nothing but a group of murderers. My sister and I also believe she may be linked to the changeling queen somehow, yet we don’t know for certain.”
“I was thinking the same thing. That’s what has me so nervous.” I agreed, remembering how eerie the resemblance was with the two. “But I don’t see why you are worried about her.”

“I am not worried about her… I’m worried for her.” Luna said quickly. “You showed a complete lack of empathy towards her and Shining Armor didn’t do any better. The only reason why we have even agreed to let you watch over her is because Twilight has shown more than her fair share of tolerance for the changeling. All you did was treat her like a prisoner.”

“In my defense she was locked up in a cell.” I pointed out.

“That is not the point! I wanted you to be there for her the same way I hope that you’d be there for me if I were in her place! I think of you as a good friend Sir Jason-”

“Just Jason is fine.” I corrected her.

“Fine ‘just Jason’, I see you as a friend the same way I see Twilight as my friend. You are very nice just like her deep down and I only wish for you to try this one task for me. You have completed countless requests from my sister and I only ask for you to do the same for me this one time.”

I rolled my eyes at the night princess. “Come on Luna. I may not be happy about being put in this spot, but I’m not evil. There is no way I would just give up without giving it a shot first. I only want to make sure this doesn’t come back to bite us so I’m keeping my guard up. You know it's in my nature to be cautious.”

“I do, but while you were ‘interrogating’ her, you seemed to be more cruel than cautious. Even I could see what you said hurt her pride.” Luna told me, the stern look in her eyes telling me how she felt toward the changeling. The look wasn’t one of a princess but more of a mother being protective towards her child. It was almost a threatening glare that I hadn’t seen often from her. 

Luna's disposition towards the changeling issue only made me think that I had to do what I didn’t want to even more since there were two mares who I would be letting down if I didn’t… and I would legitimately have to try to make it work. Luna and Twilight were by far the two most clever mares I knew besides Celestia, who I already said was practically able to foresee future events. 

The only thing I could do at this point to assure Luna I was someone she could depend on was by degrading myself with a certain rhyme that I swore I would never utter. “Luna I promise I won’t do anything to hurt her or anyone else… cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Luna appeared to be pleased with my promise and nodded in approval as I was holding back the urge to void my stomach of its contents. She gave me her thanks, wished me a good night, and we went our separate ways. It was a good thing she was my friend or I wouldn’t have done what I had. Yeah, I tried to be a relatively nice guy to everyone, but for me to say something so sickeningly cute… well you had to be a bit higher on my priority list than just some random pony I happened to pass. There were certain circumstances that made me more likely to help another who I didn’t know, but to say something like the Pinkie Promise you had to mean a lot to me. Luna definitely fit the category though. She was subjected to loneliness and had a point in her life where she felt unappreciated no matter how hard she worked. That was the same feeling I got from my dad back on Earth. No matter what I did, no matter how perfect my grades were, no matter how much I struggled to attain pure perfection… it never seemed to be enough to make him satisfied. I could only imagine how hard it was for Luna to feel the same way about every pony in Equestria.


* * * * * *


It took some time to navigate back to the guest room we were staying in, but I finally found it. I quietly opened the door knowing Twilight had to be asleep by now. What I didn’t know was that I would find a copy of myself snuggling up to her already. 

‘That little…! She changed into me to take my place knowing I can’t do anything without waking up Twilight!’ I thought to myself, nearly ready to yank the imposter out of the bed and toss her out the fourth story window. This discovery did make me mad, but remembering my promise to Luna I chose to let it go since Twilight wasn’t being hurt.

The changeling cracked open an eye and grinned at me as it reverted back to its normal form, mouthing the words, ‘I own you...’. I ignored her and got on the end of the bed, laying down on it horizontally so as to not wake Twilight. I mouthed one last thing back to the maliciously grinning changeling before we went to sleep.

‘This isn’t over...’
	
> Tired of This Already
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Alright, I’m just going to say this now so it’s out of the way… I hate that little monster. It wasn’t enough that she took my side of the bed and forced me to sleep at the very end, but she was a kicker on top of it. Do you have any idea what it's like to have two little hooves slam into the back of your head every few minutes when you are trying to sleep? What’s that you say? Sleep the other way? Okay, and now instead of getting bucked in the head I’m getting my butt kicked! She was just lucky the back of my head was surprisingly dense and had a resemblance to sensory nerve damage, meaning it was practically numb. It didn’t really hurt when I was kicked, but it was jolting enough to keep me up. Twilight didn’t even do anything when I told her. She thought it was one of the funniest things she had ever heard. ‘The almighty Jason, defeater of Discord (among a plethora of other villainous baddies), was defeated by a sleeping child’... it’s times like this where I wish I still had a middle finger.

I yawned as we approached Celestia and Luna. I was so out of it that I didn’t hear a single word they said. Sleep was one of my few great pleasures. Gilda once even went as far as to say I would win in a napping contest with Dash… IF she didn’t hate me with every fiber of her being. The sad thing was to anyone who didn’t know us, it would be impossible to tell we were actually friends at one point. I bet it would actually look like she wanted to kill me. Yeah… we were closer to enemies than friends now, but as long as she was satisfied with using me as a training dummy, I wasn’t going to stop her. I believe it made her happy to hurt me so I was happy in return since I had already made her so upset before. The same thing went for all of them. I would put up with anything to make them feel better because that was the debt I owed.

At some point while Celestia was talking I shut my eyes and well… I fell asleep. I know I fell asleep because I hit the floor like a sack of potatoes and was greeted by three concerned princesses and a snickering black bug. ‘Yeah, go ahead and laugh it up… I will get you back soon enough’ I thought as I picked myself up.

“Are you alright?” Celestia asked as I rubbed my head. 

“Oh yeah, I’m just great… everything is a barrel full of sunshine and gumdrops.” I replied sarcastically. “Now what were we talking about again?”

Twilight groaned. “We were going over how we’re going to provide our new addition to our family with shelter and how we’ll get her to adapt to normal life in Ponyville.”

“Oh right… how are we doing that again?” I asked looking at her through my tired slitted eyes. 

“Twilight shall be taking you and the changeling into her home as she has the most room to provide you both with decent living conditions," Celestia began to explain. “You may choose to put her through public schooling or home school her, but she must be provided with some form of education either way. She will also be expected to choose one form to blend in with the other ponies so as to not create a panic. Further more she must only pick one disguise and it must be of a filly or colt of about the same age to ensure she doesn’t break any laws or give others a reason to question if she really is who she says she is. I have already heard she lacks a name so I am giving you the forms you must sign when you do decide on one.”

I just yawned and nodded in response since I had no energy to argue. Celestia obviously was summarizing for my sake but I got the basic idea of what she was trying to get across. We were adopting a changeling and we were supposed to do all that would be expected to make sure things went smoothly. Twilight was just overreacting over it all, which was nothing out of the ordinary since she did have anxiety issues. That was probably the biggest difference between us. I was never nervous or worried about future events while she freaked out over the smallest negative thought that ran through her mind. Luckily my calm and carefree outlook was usually there to catch her if she started to really panic.

“We should probably come up with the disguise now before you leave. We don't want to risk her being seen by ponies here in Canterlot.” Luna said looking down towards the changeling who was content with sticking by Twilight, though not TOO close. “How about it? Can you change into a filly for us? Or even a colt?”

“Why would I want to change into a colt? They are usually immature dirty vermin who are looked down upon because they are so empty headed.” The changeling snapped back as if insulted.

“It was only a suggestion… besides, I do believe a filly is better suited to your personality. You can take any form you wish as long as you are sure you will be happy to stay in it for a long time. You can be an earth pony or a unicorn or a…” Luna trailed off as the transformation began.

It was quickly completed in a matter of moments and surprisingly enough, I thought she made a good choice in design. She chose to don a set of wings and forgo the horn, making her a pegasus. Her mane was nearly the same but was free of any holes or anything to make one assume it wasn’t ordinary teal hair. The tail she chose was neat, plain, and cut short at an angle that was somewhat similar to her mane cut. She had a coat that was some strange pale mix of lavender and blue, but it fit to look nice and normal. I made a quick note of how she had a pair of odd looking theater masks for a cutie mark. I say ‘odd’ because instead of having the eyes slanted the way they were supposed to in order to make them look like laughing and crying, they were flipped to look like they were yelling in anger and smiling evilly. The toxic green color of her eyes was still there but they were no longer slitted and menacing like Chrysalis’. All in all, she looked like a normal everyday filly… that is until she opened her mouth.

“There, are you happy? Little changeling slave do good and obey big pony?” She snarled. 

‘Why couldn’t I have gotten a nice assignment? Like swallowing needles? Or pouring acid in my ears?’ I thought as I looked down at the spiteful filly. Somehow Celestia and Luna were able to smile as if what she said was cute to them. Personally I thought she was seriously overstepping her boundaries, however nobody did anything to correct her. It didn’t look like any of them noticed the cutie mark either, and that's when it hit me. I knew the perfect way to get back at her.

“Hey don’t you guys think it would help her if she started out as a blank flank? Applebloom and the others seemed to have a better childhood searching for theirs and it gave them a pretty strong friendship. Wouldn’t it help if she had to do the same?” I suggested, making sure to look like I was only thinking of how she could benefit from not having a cutie mark rather than solely taking away some of her bragging rights and dignity.

Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all leaned in to look at the mark they missed before, but Twilight was the first to speak. “That’s a great idea! See? I knew you would enjoy this when you got into the right attitude!”

‘Yep… I’m really loving this.’ I thought as I noticed the changeling looking up at me bitterly as I wrestled down my smile to keep a straight face.

Twilight proceeded to kneel down next to the scowling squirt to get her attention, “Hey sweetie do you think you can get rid of your cutie mark? We want you to have the best possible time while you’re staying with us and it would really mean a lot to us.”

She responded by looking down at the tiled floor in front of her, grumbling as a wave of green flames washed over her flank, erasing her cutie mark. Somehow it didn’t feel as good as I thought it would to see her lose it, but I chalked it up to how she didn’t get the repercussions of being a blank flank yet. Yes I was technically a blank flank too, but I didn’t get harassed by it too much. Children on the other hand… they are merciless and will ridicule anything they think is the slightest bit funny or different. I once had a friend named Luke in elementary school and it seemed everyone but me thought it was hilarious to call him ‘Skywalker’. He wasn’t into Star Wars and he didn’t look anything like Luke Skywalker, but they still made fun of the faint similarity in names.

Anyways back to the matter at hand, the whole ‘no-cutie-mark’ thing only stood to worsen her mood, but she remained silent as we finished up. Celestia insisted that we keep her in a harness/leash thing that was eerily similar to what I saw some parents use on their kids back on Earth. Normally I would have been against such treatment and said that it would be up to us to keep her in line without treating her like a dog, however changelings can be clever and very unpredictable when they want to be so I went along with it.

The whole time we were heading to the train the tethered changeling was remarkably obedient considering what I observed of her earlier behavior. Eyes pointed toward the ground five feet away, a steady pace without straying from well-behaved Twilight's side, no complaining or disrespectful comments… the change in attitude was so great that I wondered if we were somehow tricked into taking a normal well-behaved filly instead of the little brat from before. I would have been grateful if it didn’t seem so suspicious. I asked Twilight if she thought it was cause for concern but she told me that even if we didn’t receive trouble now wasn’t proof that we wouldn’t run into problems in the future and I should be content to have a break now while it lasted. The sad thing about it was… she was right.

As we entered the train everything was running smoothly but the moment we got to our seats in one of the empty train cars, the little terror went berserk… she kept demanding to get the harness off while also demanding that we stay back and leave her alone. It was a lose-lose situation. If we stayed back we were told to unstrap her and if we went to unstrap her we were told to stay back. We couldn’t get her out with magic because it was enchanted to resist magic so it was only able to be taken off manually. I never really wanted to kill a kid before, but this nonsense was getting me dangerously close to reconsidering. I was tired, it was a decent three hour trip to get to Ponyville, and there was a kid yelling at me no matter what I did to try to help. I was at my breaking point…

“SHUT UP! OKAY?! JUST SHUT UP! My god I could literally not care any less if you are happy or not!” I shouted silencing her instantly.

“JASON! She’s only a fill-” Twilight began before I cut her off. 

“Don’t give me that ‘she’s only a little girl’ crap! I am seriously not in the mood! I will not tolerate this sort of behavior around me! It’s better if she hears this now before I completely lose my mind and do something I might regret. You might be willing to take the kind and nurturing approach but that is not me and I can not deal with this.” I said pointing at the now stunned face of the nameless changeling before me. I turned around and headed to the next car over, “If you need me I’ll be taking a much needed nap away from miss ‘temper tantrum’.”

Shutting the door behind me, I looked for a nice soft seat to lay on. I knew some were more worn in and plush than others from my other trips on the very same train. Finding one I was satisfied with, I fell back on it and prepared to be whisked off to dreamland. For some reason though, I couldn’t get to sleep. I flipped onto my stomach and everything but slumber still didn’t come to me. Something wasn’t right. Flipping onto my back and letting out an agitated sigh I opened my eyes… and saw two green eyes glaring back at me with burning contempt.

“What are you doing?” I asked apathetically as the small head peaked over from the opposite side of the seat (just like a curious child would do).

She narrowed her eyes and growled, “Watching you…”

Resisting the urge to facehoof, I responded, “I can see that, but WHY are you watching me?”

“You’re different… I’m trying to find out how.”

“You aren’t going to leave me alone, are you?” 

A small shake of the head was all I got while she continued to stare at me. It was then I realized how much she reminded me of my niece. They both had a crazy attitude to the point of being hellspawn, they both were stubborn beyond belief, and they both had silver tongues. The two biggest differences between them was that my niece was only five years younger than me and she eventually settled down to the point where we were like siblings. We weren’t nice to each other all the time, but we did love each other and felt protective over the other. With how things looked right now though, I didn’t think either of those things would be possible for this changeling… especially the second one.


* * * * * *


You wanna know something startling? Changelings apparently don’t have to blink even when disguised. The whole trip to Ponyville I was stared at by unblinking eyes. Twilight eventually came around and talked to me about everything and apologized. She apologized to me! I told her that she had nothing to be sorry about and I was just cranky from being so tired. We hugged it out and all was forgiven… if people on earth could have been like that a little bit more often it would have been great. It always felt good to settle things by simply saying what you felt, giving a heartfelt apology, and then forgiving one another. There were cases where you wouldn’t be forgiven, but it was better than yelling to get your way. The way I saw it two wrongs didn’t make a right, however two rights didn’t made a wrong either. It’s better to right your wrongs before you bury yourself in hate in my opinion.

Anyways we were finally off the train and back in good old Ponyville. Someone was confused though.

“This is where you live?! This little pathetic excuse for a town?! I thought you were a princess! Where is your castle?!”, the small voice next to me squeaked.

Twilight chuckled. “Just because I’m a princess doesn’t mean I have to live in a castle. As ‘little’ and ‘pathetic’ as it is, I couldn’t be happier here.”

The stunned filly looked up at her in exaggerated shock and confusion as she gestured to the scene before us. “How could you possibly be happy here?!”

“Well, it’s where all my friends are. They are the whole reason why I’m here AND why I’m a princess to begin with. I would be nothing without them.”

“You have to be joking… you would give up the life of a true princess to be with a bunch of underlings?”

“They aren’t underlings, they are equals. Every one of them is just as important as I am. When you have friends of your own you’ll understand… isn’t that right Jason?” Twilight asked, turning towards me.

“Yep. Life is pretty empty without anyone to share it with. I should know since there was a time where I didn’t have any.” 

“Do you seriously expect me to believe any of that sugarcoated drivel? There is only one thing that really matters and it isn’t FRIENDS… it’s power! Power and the greed needed to get it! Friends are only stepping stones to get to the top of the food chain!”

I looked over at Twilight with a slightly worried expression and she sent me one back. We didn’t even need to say it to know we were both thinking the same thing. The filly changeling was like a little tyrant in the making, and that was the complete opposite of what we needed her to be. What we needed was a normal filly who didn’t rant about stuff like an anime villain. I suppose we could say she’s joking around at first but that would only last so long before ponies caught on. From this instance alone I could tell I had my work cut out for me.


* * * * * *


After we began walking into town, Twilight suggested that I gather some of my things to bring over to the library, since I would be staying there for at least a few days. I gladly obliged, knowing that there was a strong possibility that what I had left over at her place would last me. It’s crazy how many snacks supplies you can go through in about a month. I also had to grab my MP3 player. Even though I had it magically duplicated about five times incase it broke, I never liked bringing it with me on long trips. The darn thing would break so easily that the life expectancy was next to nothing when taking on a mission. In the end I decided it would be best to leave it with Gilda. I also came across a little bonus perk of leaving it with her after the first time I came back home.

Opening the front door as carefully as I could, I slipped inside to catch the griffon I split rent with rocking out to my music. She was standing upright, swinging her hips, whipping her tail back and forth, and dancing around as she swept. Her eyes were closed and she was totally oblivious to anything that was going on around her. Watching her gave me an idea of how I could mess with her. 

I slipped past her and made my way to the kitchen. Thankfully she had went shopping recently and the fridge had a decent stock of soda. I took one and brought it back into the living room. I stood by a wall and watched Gilda go from dancing to a beat that only she could hear, to using the broom as a fake guitar and mimic a solo. Once the song was done she paused the MP3 player and began to walk towards the kitchen with sweat rolling down her face.

“Thirsty?” I suggested, holding the soda out for her as she neared me. 

She grabbed it and popped it open. “Yeah, thanks dude.”

After pouring a bit in her mouth, her eyes snapped open and she did one of the best spit-takes I had ever seen. I smirked and offered her the second thing I brought from the kitchen... 

“Towel?”
	
> The Great Circle of Karma
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Once I had gathered everything I planned on bringing for my stay at Twilight's, I sat down and explained everything to Gilda. Like myself, she had a hard time believing that we were tasked with raising a young changeling. I assured her I wasn’t joking around and that I was going to be spending a while at Twilight's until we were sure I wasn’t needed all the time to keep watch. Seeing how stressed out I was from everything, Gilda offered to help. I shot the idea down immediately and told her that the changeling needed to get adjusted to Twilight and myself before being exposed to anyone else. Trust was the key issue right now and we needed to get her to trust us so we could in turn trust her.

Over the past year, Gilda had become much more mellow and helpful. When she saw that a friend of hers was upset she would do her best to give them relief. My relief came in the form of music… ‘Battle Born’ by Five Finger Death Punch, to be exact. Gilda’s preference of music was a bit odd but she was a rocker to her core like me. The only difference was that she was more into classic rock rather than newer more hardcore rock (some might even go so far to say I’m a metalhead). She also liked to listen to Linkin Park and a few songs from Eminem. However, one song she could listen to without ever wanting to stop was ‘Freebird’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd… kinda ironic, isn’t it? That was what she was doing when I came in too, playing along with the guitar solo. But I digress, she picked out exactly the type of song that would calm my nerves.

“So, what are you gonna call her?” Gilda asked.

I sat up on the couch and looked at her. “Call who?”

“The changeling, duh! You said she didn’t have a name yet so you were going to make one up,” Gilda explained. “Oh, I have an idea! Call her Snowball!”

“Snowball? Why?”

Gilda shrugged. “It was my nickname when I was a kid.

I rolled my eyes. “Even if I thought it would be a good idea to call her that, she doesn’t look anything like a ‘Snowball’. To be honest, that's why I’m having such a hard time coming up with a name… nothing makes sense with her appearance,” I groaned as the song changed. “Really, I might as well come up with something that doesn’t apply to anything. Some nonsense name like… like…”


As I tried to come up with something, I was given exactly what I needed. As if by divine intervention, the song that my MP3 player decided upon was ‘My Name Is Skrillex’. It played the same four words over and over while Gilda and I looked at each other with the same expression of speechlessness.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked.

I couldn’t stop myself from being a smartass. “I think so, but how are we going to get Fluttershy to put on the cat costume?"

Gilda punched me playfully in the upper arm. “You are such a dingus.”


* * * * * *


Swinging the library door open, I called out, “HONEY, I’M HOME!”

Spike suddenly came running up to me and grabbed onto my jacket, looking into my eyes pleadingly. “Save me! She’s been nothing but trouble since she got here!”

Twilight walked up behind him, shaking her head dismissively. “Spike, she hasn’t done anything bad to you. If you keep this up, I’m going to have to suspend all Rarity related activity for the next month.”

“WHAT?! WHY?!”

“Because you are becoming too dramatic and I don’t want you to turn into a drama queen. For Rarity it works, but for you it’s just silly.” Twilight replied.

“Okaaaaay… would someone mind filling me in, because I’m totally lost here. What’s going on, and do I have to put a stop to it?” I asked, levitating the average sized suitcase through the door and onto the nearby table. Walking in and closing the door behind me, I turned my attention to Twilight.

“Spike is just upset because our new guest has found him interesting,” she summarized.

Right then, a pale lavender and blue pegasus filly dropped down on top of Spike. I was about to toss her off but stopped the moment I saw her stroking his scales. She was totally enthralled by him. She was looking at him closely with a hypnotic look in her eyes as she ran her hoof along his scales, watching them shimmer in the light.

I smiled at the scene before me. “Looks like the mailbox finally got a girlfriend,” I chuckled.

“Bite me… OW! Hey what are you doing?!” Spike shouted as the changeling nibbled his ear.

“You said that I could bite you, so I did.”

“It’s not nice to bite, Skrillex. If you keep it up, he’ll never like you,” I said, using her new name to test the waters.

“What did you call me?” she asked, letting her guard down just enough to give Spike the chance to slip away.

“Skrillex... do you like it? I hope so, because I’m not changing it.”

“No, I don't. I’ll never like a name you come up with,” she grumbled.

Twilight put a hoof to her chin as she looked up in thought. “Skrillex… where have I heard that name before?”

“It’s that one guy that makes the ‘weird noise’ on my MP3, remember?”

“I swear you have an unhealthy obsession with that thing,” Twilight sighed. “And why pick a name that you know is a male name when she isn’t male? Isn’t that a little bit strange?”

Making my way over to the couch, I said, “Well... other than you, me, and Gilda, nobody else knows it’s the name of some guy. Plus, the first time I heard it I believed it was a girl's name. It is so out of the ordinary that no one will be able to make heads or tails of it. And then there is how it sounds… Skrillex. That sounds like a changeling to me. It has a hiss at both the beginning and end and there is an ‘X’ in it. Every cool name has an ‘X’ in it...”

Twilight tilted her head as I plopped down on the cushion behind me and rested my arms against the backrest. “So what you are saying is that you like it and you aren't willing to settle with something else or discuss it?”

“DING DING DING! We have a winner folks! Give the young lady a round of applause!” I said, clapping my hooves together at her expense.

“Okay, I suppose it's better than nothing… even if I made a list of possible names already,” Twilight said before unfurling a long scroll of paper that must have been at least fifteen feet long.

Looking over the list, I saw what she had done. “Twilight, taking every existing thing you can think of and putting it on a scroll isn’t how you make a list of names. It looks like you didn’t even exclude any possible names. How would this narrow it down?”

“Simple! We just go through each one down the line and decide if we like it or not and cross out the ones we don't like, then repeat the process until we are only left with one name! Process of elimination at its finest!” she beamed.

I deadpanned. “There must be at least 2,000 possible names here. That would take hours, if not days, to accomplish. You have to learn how to just pick a name from the heart.”

“Okay, we’ll call her Skrillex… but if it doesn’t stick, we are doing things my way. Deal?” she asked, extending a hoof.

I responded in kind. “Deal.”

Without another word, Twilight levitated my saddlebags that I left behind a few days before. Setting them down in front of me, she gave an expectant smile. We kinda had a thing going where I would show her the stuff I brought back with me from missions then do a show and tell sort of thing. She loved seeing what new artifact I had brought with me so she could learn something new about magic. Though what she didn’t know was what I brought this time was special. It wasn’t something I just picked up; it was given to me as a reward and held great value.

Popping the latch open on my saddlebags, I slowly pulled it out. It was about the size of a shield and bore the general shape of one, but it was a pearly white, hummed with a soothing tone, and sparkled with a white glow as I placed it down on the table. The magical glow dimmed as I released it and the humming wore down like an electric motor losing power. Twilight took a hesitant step forward and looked at it with a curious stare. She poked it a few times as if it were explosive.

“What is it?” she asked, poking it one more time.

I laughed at her. “It’s harmless. Pick it up and try to figure it out.”

Twilight held it in her hooves and tilted her head back and forth, examining it for any characteristics she could use to piece together an educated guess. I sat back and watched her in amusement. I loved doing this to her… getting her brain working and seeing the same part of me that loved solving come alive in her. Back where I came from, nobody was ever excited about learning the same way I was. Here though, Twilight rivaled my curiosity and sometimes surpassed it altogether! That was what had me so hooked on her, our neverending pursuit of knowledge… well, and how she stuck her tongue out in the most adorable way when she was thinking. She wasn’t aware of it, but it was hard to miss.

As I watched Twilight try to solve what I had brought back with me, I felt something brush up against the back of my neck. Swishing my hoof around, I hoped that it was just a fly, but the feeling kept coming back. After a few minutes of this going on I jumped up and brushed my hooves against my neck like I had lost my mind. Once I was sure nothing was on me, my eyes darted around looking for whatever had caused my irritation. While scanning the room, I stopped to see the newly named Skrillex sitting in my spot… MY spot! She was laying on her side and smiling at me mischievously, holding a simple feather duster in her teeth. The little brat had annoyed me on purpose to steal my seat. I was about to send her flying with a bit of telekinesis, but I was stopped by a strange feeling washing over me. It’s hard to describe what I was feeling but it made me not want to get my seat back… I felt like she could just have it for now. Let it be known that I am merciful! Well, at least some of the time…

Twilight growled and rubbed her hooves on her head aggravatedly, ruffling her mane in the process. “You okay over there?” I asked while biting my lip to suppress an oncoming bout of laughter.

She slumped forward and rested her chin on the table. “No… I can’t make heads or tails of it. All I found out is that it’s a hard pearlescent plate that appears to be something that forms naturally, but I can’t figure out anything beyond that. My magic is coming up blank when I try to probe it, so there isn’t any way I can study it further without resorting to using my lab… and I just packed everything away so you can sleep down there!”

“Ah, see there? You found out something else about it… perhaps the most crucial detail,” I told her with the warmest smile I could muster.

“What’s that?” she asked without moving.

“It doesn’t respond to magical infiltration. It negated it. Now we know that it’s a naturally forming, magic negating object that is incredibly hard. What do you know that lives with hard things covering it that naturally negate magic?” I asked, trying to give her a little hint to point her in the right direction.

Twilight put on her ‘thinking face’ and within moments figured it out. Her eyes widened, she sat up straight, and stared at the gleaming white shield-shaped object like it had turned to solid gold. She pointed at it with a shaking hoof and I began to chuckle. “Is that…? Did you really…? Tell me it isn’t a Dragon Lord scale!”

“Surprise! They gave it to me when they heard I went through all the trouble of finding the traitor so I could keep you out of harm's way. It is actually brimming with so much power it warps reality itself and acts as the ultimate form of protection. You could combine my magic, your magic, Celestia's magic, Luna's magic, the magic of everypony in Manehatten, and hit it with everything we have… and it would still come out with hardly a scratch,” I explained to her as she held it up as though she found the holy grail.

“I know dragons have a resilience against offensive magic, but I never thought I would ever have something like this in my hooves! Dragon Lords are like the gods you spoke of from your world! Having this is like having the power of the world at your disposal! I MUST run some tests on this!” she said with a crazed look in her eyes.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was going to give it to Shining Armor as a Hearths Warming present. Now I know what you are thinking; ‘Why give him a present like that when the dude would probably only show up to your grave to piss on it?' My reasoning behind it is that even if someone treats you poorly doesn’t mean you should treat them the same way. If anything, you should treat them with more respect than they treat you with.

The voice of Skrillex brought me back to reality. “So if you are going to be sleeping in the basement, and she is going to be sleeping upstairs… where am I supposed to sleep?” she asked pointing to me and Twilight as she made note of our sleeping arrangements.

“Oh, your room is in there,” I said, pointing to a random door.

“But Jason, that’s a-”

Covering Twilight's mouth, I told her, “Don’t ruin the surprise! It will be so much better to see her reaction when she finds out for herself.”

Skrillex stuck her nose in the air like she was Blueblood, then proceeded to walk through the door I pointed to, closing it behind her. A few seconds later, the handle turned and the door reopened to reveal the angry little changeling. The handle of a broom fell to the floor by her as she glared at me with seething hatred. “This is a broom closet...” she growled through clenched teeth.

“And that’s the surprise! Do you like it?!” I said gleefully before bursting out in laughter.

“You are horrible. You know that, don’t you?” Twilight snickered.

“Oh, I’m not that bad… besides, you know it was funny.”

Skrillex just proceeded to grumble to herself as we laughed at the prank I pulled. However, our laughter was cut short by a knock at the door. It was too late to be a pony wanting to get a book from the library, so I expected it to be Rainbow Dash or Pinkie or someone. Our new little addition had already shifted back to her pony form before I made it to the closet by her. There was no way I was going to risk being anywhere close to the door if it was really Rainbow Dash like I thought. I soon found out it was worse than that though as I heard the voice I feared above all others.

“Hello Twilight. The Great and Powerful Trixie heard that a certain somepony was here and I thought we could catch up while we eat at the restaurant I happen to have three reservations to," the magic mare said, trying frantically to get a look inside. Today wasn’t my lucky day as she soon spotted me. A creepy smile formed on her lips as my thoughts instantly went to escape routes.

There wasn’t a back door I could leave through so my options of escape were limited to windows that were too small for a full grown pony to slip through, except… the platform Twilight used for stargazing. That was on the third floor so all I had to do was make it up there without being caught and I was home free! My eyes shot to the stairs and then back to Trixie. She saw what I was looking at, sadly, and bursted past Twilight as we made a mad dash for the stairs. I was able to get to them before her, but she was right on my tail… literally. She actually stepped on my tail to keep me in place as I scrambled to run from her.

“Get the hell away from me, you psychopath!” I shouted, still trying to get somewhere as she kept me in place.

“Hush you… Trixie is just giving you the opportunity to get to know her a little better,” she said in a lustful tone.

“I’d rather get to know the inside of a dragon's stomach a little better!”

Trixie laughed. “You are so funny! Always making jokes!”

“I was being serious, you stalker!” I cried out. “Celestia! Zeus! GOD! One of you guys save me! CTHULHU, YOU OWE ME!”

My pleas fell on deaf ears as Twilight was on the floor laughing up a storm. She always thought it was soooo funny when Trixie hit on me. I didn’t find it amusing at all, though. I hated Trixie since the first time I saw her on the show. She was that cliche bad guy that made it apparent that you were supposed to dislike her. I didn’t see any redeeming qualities whatsoever… she was a bland one-dimensional character that was only made to show that bragging like some arrogant douche was bad!

Seriously, I could not stand Trixie, but for some reason she was very attracted to me. I don't know if she was insane or incredibly stupid, but I know I’m not an attractive guy. Sure, I may not be hideous, but good looking was something I wasn’t. On top of that, I know I have a bit of an attitude and am very blunt from time to time, so personality-wise I’m not all that great either. The only thing I could think of that would make her want to get into my pants (metaphorically speaking) was my powerful magic that I had from being intelligent. That didn’t really make too much sense to me either since I knew Trixie was jealous of Twilight's power from when she first visited Ponyville to the point where she used the ‘alicorn amulet’ upon her second visit. It was the only theory I had going for me though, and I didn’t even want to get close enough to her to ask.

When Twilight finally stopped laughing, she asked, “So what sort of restaurant do you have in mind? I haven’t started cooking yet and a night out with a friend sounds great.”

“YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!” I exclaimed, feeling like I was in some horror movie, except the murderer is inviting you out to eat instead of just killing you in your home.

Ignoring me, Trixie replied, “Just a little place called… ‘The Golden Lotus Dragon’.” She smirked as she held up three golden tickets that read ‘reserved’ right by the date.

Twilight frowned. “Sorry, Trixie… we can’t all go with three reservations. I really wish we could though… ‘The Golden Lotus Dragon’ is one of the newest and most exclusive restaurants outside of Manehatten.”

“Huh? Why not? You, Trixie, and… Jason, makes three!” she argued, holding up the golden slips of paper.

Twilight smiled nervously as she explained. “Well... you see, we are, um… taking care of my niece for the time being and she can’t be left alone! Skrillex, come meet my nice friend, Trixie!”

She flew over and landed next to Twilight, looking as grim as ever. “Hello…”

Trixie looked a little shocked, but then smiled back. “She’s, uh… adorable.”

“Don’t let her fool you… she’s a wolf in sheep's clothing,” I said, causing Twilight to use her magic to hit me with a book as a warning.

“He’s just kidding! She’s really an angel! Isn’t that right, Jason?” Twilight asked, giving a strong ‘you had better say yes’ vibe.

“Oh yeah… she is perfect in every way. Too bad we don’t have enough reserved seats to take her. I was so looking forward to going to this resturaunt with you…” I said, each sentence dripping with sarcasm.

“Not to worry! I just so happened to keep a spare under my hat incase something like this came up! The night of fun is back on!” she proclaimed as she levitated a FOURTH reservation out of her hat.

Why did I have to open my big mouth?
	
> Picky Eater
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	After being ‘dragged kicking and screaming’ to the restaurant by Twilight, I soon found out that Trixie got the reservations from Pinkie Pie. It should have been obvious from the beginning that Pinkie was behind this. She often sabotaged me and put me into awkward situations through means that seemed harmless to everyone but myself. Once she gave me a ‘gift’ but when I opened it, it exploded with pink paint that got on everything in the house. I now refer to the incident as ‘the Pinkie bomb drop’. Then there was that other time she made a duplicate key to the house and gave it to Rainbow Dash… I still have flashbacks. The point is Pinkie was being Pinkie and that meant trouble for me.

The Golden Lotus Dragon was nice, though. It was like a chinese restaurant, but instead of being from China, the ponies here were from Neigh-jing, the pony equivalent to Asia. It was almost eerie how similar it was to the places on Earth. The red walls with golden accents, the large pillars that had golden chinese dragons spiraling down them, the music, the smell of the food, the language the ponies were speaking, even the pictures of tigers and cranes on the walls… it was perfect. 

While waiting for our food, Skrillex, who was seated next to me, kept hitting me under the table so the others couldn’t see. Of course I hit her back, but then she hit me again a little harder, I followed her action and did the same. It went on like this until Trixie asked me a question. “Did you know that both our orders contain powerful aphrodisiacs?”

That hit me like a sack of bricks. How could she say something like that in public?! Did she not have a shred of dignity?! She was staring at me with half lidded dreamy eyes which told me she didn’t care at all if we were being looked at funny. I now knew how it felt to be the cat from all those Pepé Le Pew cartoons. 

Calming myself enough to speak, I answered, “No, and I don't care. Believing that simple everyday ingredients can affect you enough to feel that way is foolish. What little does get to your brain isn’t enough to alter your affection towards another in any significant way. For example, chocolate contains a chemical that is linked to feeling love but to get the slightest boost in that feeling you would have to consume enough chocolate to give you diabetes.”

Trixie sighed longingly, “You’re so smart…”

I rolled the chop sticks around on the table in front of me and casually replied, “Uh-huh, sure, whatever…”

Twilight leaned over and whispered to me. “Could you at least act like you are having a good time? I don't like this any more than you do.”

“Do you remember the last time I faked a smile?” I muttered back as I continued to fiddle with the wooden eating utensils.

Twilight shuddered. “Okay, I get your point. Still you don’t have to smile to show you’re having fun.”

I smile lightly. Twilight being so pure hearted and happy… she’s blessed. Not in a million years would I ever be able to ‘just have fun’. Fun for me was always difficult, and as the years passed it only got harder to bring forth that spark of joy. Yes, I could feel the warmth of happiness now, faint as it may be, but enthusiastic joy was just as hard as ever to obtain. 

Trixie, Twilight, and I kept talking about random crap until our food arrived. It mostly consisted of bringing me up to speed on who was doing what and how everyone was doing. There weren’t any serious changes besides Rainbow Dash being super excited to announce that she would be a judge for some flag routine they were putting on at the school. She was supposed to keep it a secret until it was announced to the class, but that’s Rainbow for you. 

While we were on the topic of school, we started discussing what to do with Skrillex. I was all for having her homeschooled since I felt it gave a better chance to learn without distractions, while Twilight said that attending class with others would be more beneficial for making friends. In the end, Trixie was the one who broke the tie. She said that she was homeschooled as a filly… so public school it was. If being homeschooled was what made Trixie who she was, there was no way I was allowing the little nightmare beside me go through the same thing to end up being worse.

Speaking of the ‘demon child’, it first appeared that she was being very quiet and well behaved, but I noticed a very familiar look on her face… it was the same one I often had. She wasn’t just being nice, she was in deep thought as she observed… she was planning. The whole time we were talking, she was absorbing information like a sponge and putting it together like pieces to a puzzle. I know this because I did the very same thing when I was on missions. She was analyzing her enemies, looking for weak spots, and coming up with a way to take advantage of us. 

What Skrillex didn’t know though was I was playing the same game she was. I was watching her every move out of the corner of my eye while simultaneously playing with the tableware so I wouldn’t raise suspicion. If she wanted to play this way… I was going to play right back and show her how it’s really done. 

The food finally arrived and as we ate sweet and sour breaded tulip, chow mein, orange rose, and several other dishes, I kept note of what Skrillex did. She looked quite disgusted by it all and after sniffing what Twilight put on her plate, she looked like she was going to throw up. Nobody else seemed to dislike it in the least. In fact, everywhere else you looked, ponies were inhaling the stuff (myself included). However, Skrillex was barely able to get it down with the water. It looked like she was nearly in pain from trying to eat it. Water seemed to go down without a problem, but food was another story. Perhaps changelings aren’t suited to eat what ponies do?

Suddenly I heard a familiar voice speaking in a foreign language. “Yúshì wǒ shuō, Nǐ shì shénme rén?! Shī miàntiáo?!”

There was an uproar of laughter from a few ponies that I knew were Neigh-jingese in origin and a white mare with an electric blue punk manecut who was wearing sunglasses indoors.

“Hey Vinyl!” I called out. 

She turned and saw me raising a hoof. In an instant, she teleported in between Twilght and I, then gave me a bone-breaking bearhug that lifted me from my chair. “DUDE! I heard you were back in town!”

“AIR!” I squeaked. She set me down and laughed.

“Seeing you here is the weirdest thing! Octy and I were just talking about you!” 

I smirked. “Really? It looked like you were telling jokes in another language.”

Vinyl rubbed her head and laughed nervously. “Okay, so I was stretching the truth a little.”

“Hello Vinyl, nice to see you.” Twilight spoke up. “So are you on a date with Octavia?”

“Yeah, she thought we deserved a night out since we’ve both been working almost non-stop for a while. Are you guys doing the same?”

“No, nothing that serious. Trixie invited us here since she got reservations from Pinkie,” Twilight explained.

“Oh… so who’s the half-pint?” Vinyl asked pointing to Skrillex who was caught up poking the chow mein on her plate like it was an alien lifeform. 

“That’s my niece Skrillex. She’s going to be living with us for a while,” Twilight said with the worst poker face I’ve ever seen. Her smile was so forced it could have been Star Wars… get it? ‘Forced’? 'Star Wars’? Eh? Well, I think it’s funny.

“I didn’t know you even know your aunt had a kid,” Vinyl said rubbing her chin with a hoof while Twilight seized up from the unexpected flaw in her plan. 

Thinking quickly, I told Vinyl, “Well I didn’t know you could speak Neigh-jingese and she is a-d-o-p-t-e-d.”

Skrillex growled at me again and Vinyl nodded in understanding. She soon went back to get to Octavia and we finished eating. Twilight whispered her thanks and I shrugged in return. It wasn’t like I was just going to let her flail while I watched. I just did what anyone would do. 

Trixie attempted to convince me to let her stay the night for ‘fun’, but I shot her down. We had a long day and she would just make it worse. I know I certainly didn’t want her to be in the same house as me while I slept… there’s a good chance she would take advantage of the situation in the worst possible way. Sometimes I wonder if I should try getting Trixie admitted to an insane asylum… until I remember that the ponies there can leave like whenever they want. I suppose the reason why their containment is so loose is because the worst they have is a mare that thinks she’s a dog... crazy, but not really dangerous.

So after Twilight and I got inside the library, I just flopped down on the floor. This was for three reasons. First, I ate more than I probably should have… what can I say, I love chinese food. Secondly, I had been awake for almost two days straight. And finally, changelings are mentally and physically exhausting to look after. Yes, I’m blaming her again. I would feel fine right now if it wasn’t for her, so I am going to complain to my heart's content.

While I was busy getting acquainted with the floor, Skrillex walked by and said, “By the way... I know how to spell ‘adopted’.”

“That’s good to know… B-R-A-T.” I replied, getting up to head downstairs to my new sleeping quarters while Skrillex flew upstairs in bitter rage (like she wasn’t always like that). 

“You could stand to be a little nicer to her,” Twilight said from the bottom of the stairs.

I stopped to look at her. “Yeah I probably could, but that doesn’t mean I will. Besides, if she wants to be treated nice she will have to act nice.” 

Twilight rubbed her hoof between her eyes in frustration. “I can’t believe something so immature just came from your mouth…”

“It’s not my fault I get like this when I’m sleepy… get off my back.” 

“I get that this wasn’t something you wanted to do, but maybe if you show a little kindness towards her…” Twilight trailed off then sighed. “Why do I feel like I’m the only one trying to make things work here?”

I didn’t say a word and just went through the basement door, closing it behind me. Twilight was right again… she was the only one trying to make this work, and all I did was fight with Skrillex like a child. She had an excuse since she was a child, but I, on the other hand, should have known better. Damn logic, why does it have to be so logical?

Looking at my new temporary room only made me feel like more of a jerk. Where there was once lab equipment with beakers, test tubes, a seismograph, two polygraphs, an EEG machine, and various other scientific crap, there was now a bed with a suitcase placed by the headboard next to a wooden wall. By the bed was an end table with a lamp, an old fashioned alarm clock, and a copy of one of my favorite fantasy novels… ‘The Warrior Mare - Vol. 6; Quest for the Lost Heart’. It was the new continuation to the series and it hadn’t even been opened yet by the look of the spine. I was going to be the first one to read it. Twilight did all this for me, and I did nothing for her... a whole year, but I haven’t changed at all. 

‘Okay, that’s it. I’m making a change starting today!’ I thought to myself before looking at the time on the alarm clock… 11:15. ‘Alright, starting tomorrow then.’


* * * * * *


I awoke the next morning to the sound of the ringing of the alarm clock going off. Throwing my hoof out of the sheets, I hit it to make the noise stop. You probably know by now that I wasn’t a morning person, so any sound that woke me was the enemy in my books. I had to get up though since today was the day scheduled for me to ‘keep things in check’.

Rolling over, I flopped onto the floor still struggling to get up. I felt one of my legs wrapped up in clot, tying me to that which brought me comfort. It was almost like it was telling me it didn’t want me to go. Standing up, I made my way back over to it before leaning down next to the pillow and stroking it affectionately. 

“Shh… it’s okay. I’m only going to be gone for a little while. There's no reason to get all upset my sweet, I’ll be back soon enough. Stay beautiful for me,” I said jokingly.

“Wow… I didn’t mean to intrude on you two. Would you like five more minutes alone or are you ready for breakfast now?” I heard a voice say from the top of the stairs. Looking up, I saw Spike standing there with a big smile on his face. 

“I’ll have you know that she is very sensitive and gets lonely when I’m away for too long… but yeah. I’m ready.”

Following the walking mail delivery system, I got a whiff of Twilight's cinnamon apple waffles before he opened the door next to the kitchen. As it was nine o’clock (still fairly early in my standards), I was a little out of it and feeling goofy like I always did when I was tired. All these factors added together to make me start humming ‘do you like waffles’ when I got to the table. Sat across from me was, of course, Skrillex. I know that she was trying to look intimidating as she glared at me, but her mane was prone to bed head which made her look kinda like a grumpy toddler. Spike was still not sure how to go about dealing with her odd fixation on him, so he went straight upstairs to his secret stash of gems (which were under Twilight's bed).

Twilight soon arrived at the table with a large stack of waffles. I served myself and poured a little ‘Whitetail Woods’ syrup on them. Not much though, just enough to get an even glaze. I watched Skrillex closely as Twilight served her. As I expected, her expression was like a contestant from Fear Factor when they were supposed to eat bugs. Before Twilight had the chance to pour the syrup, I stopped her.

“Wait just a minute there, I don’t think she’s supposed to eat this kind of stuff.”

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean? She has to eat, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, but look at her for a moment. Does that look like the face of a hungry filly or a terrified changeling?” I replied pointing across the table. 

Twilight gave her a long hard look and then widened her eyes a bit. “I think I see what you’re getting at. How did you know?”

“I was watching her eat last night… each bite was a battle in itself,” I began to explain. “And based on how she reacted when you slapped that waffle down in front of her, I’m guessing changelings have a different digestive system and different nutritional needs from ponies.” 

Skrillex looked shocked. She was probably not aware that I was paying such close attention to her behavior. Well, surprise… I was. Jason-1, changeling brat-6 ½. I’m on fire!

“If you were going to get sick from eating you could have told me.” Twilight said.

Skrillex rolled her eyes. “So you are saying that watching me throw up last night was normal? You didn’t think I was sick from expelling everything I ate at that horrible restaurant? How stupid are you ponies?!”

“I thought that you were just not feeling well. That's why I made all these.” Twilight said as she gestured to the stack of waffles. “I thought that a good breakfast would do you some good, not make things worse!”

Skrillex was silent for a while but eventually asked, “Why are you all doing this?”

I looked over to Twilight and she looked back. Neither one of us knew what she was talking about. The way she said ‘this’ could have meant anything, and with how chaotic things have been the past two days, there was a lot of vagueness in her query.

“Doing what?” I finally asked. 

“THIS!” Skrillex shouted back swinging her hooves around in random directions. “Everything! I know this isn’t how you normally treat my kind, so why am I special?! Why do you spare my life to torture me?!”

I waited for a few moments to see if Twilight could come up with anything before I would give my two cents. She remained silent but seemed to be trying to think of an adequate answer. Twilight often took feelings into consideration when she was talking, but that is something we didn’t share. I was brutally honest and got straight to business without thinking ‘will that be too harsh’ or ‘I can’t say something that blunt’. I took a deep breath and said the first thing that came to mind.

“I have no idea why we are taking care of you. Really, I would have loved it if we didn’t have to. However that is not something I have a say in. Luna has taken a real liking to you for whatever reason and she wants you to be looked after by the best ponies she could find. Twilight has a heart of gold and I… well, I’m probably supposed to make sure you are protected.”

After my long speech, Skrillex cocked an eyebrow. “You are supposed to make sure I’m protected? I think a princess would be better than a normal unicorn.” She scoffed. 

“Yeah… you have a point there. Why would I be stuck here if an alicorn princess is so much more powerful than any unicorn could hope to be?” I then levitated a bottle of pills out of my inner jacket pocket, placing them on the table in front of her. “Do you know what these are?”

She squinted as she read the label. “It says ‘Arcanopam; instructions: take one per week. Do not exceed recommended dosage. If more than one has been ingested, provoke immediate regurgitation.’ So? You take some medication, what’s so weird about that?”

“Do you know what it’s supposed to do?” I asked her innocently. 

“No, the bottle doesn’t mention that,” she replied turning the bottle around, checking for anything she might have missed. 

“Well, it was given to me by Celestia herself as per my request. Now normally, you would have to go through mountains of paperwork to just get one of these as a doctor," I explained with a smirk. 

Skrillex sighed with disinterest. “Really? Why’s that? Is it like a super magic booster or something?”

“Close… it’s meant to lower your magic so much that you aren’t able to use it. It’s normally prescribed to extremely dangerous criminals and ponies who aren’t mentally stable,” I said, opening the bottle and floating a pill over to my mouth. I swallowed it and waited a bit for it to start taking effect. 

Seeing her chance, Skrillex picked up a nearby glass of juice and tossed it at me, expecting me to get drenched. I stopped the glass in mid air, then set it down, making sure that not a drop spilled on the table. Skrillex leapt up from her seat and pointed a hoof at me.

“HEY! You said that it was supposed to make it so you couldn’t use your magic!” she shouted.

“Well, it would have if I was an average unicorn… but since I’m not, it only lowered my magic enough to be a little over average. Without them, I would be powerful enough to take down roughly three ursa minors at once. What I’m saying here is I am the most powerful unicorn in Equestria and that is why you are here…”

Skrillex fell back into her seat and crossed her arms with an attitude. “I don’t believe you…” She said, staring me down from across the table. 

I shrugged. “I don’t need you to believe me. I told you what I believe and that’s all I can do.”

I didn’t know if Skrillex accepted what I said or just grew tired of talking, but she went back to being quiet while we ate. You know, for a changeling, she is pretty nice… when she isn’t complaining or insulting you or hitting you under a table or...