76 – Trials

Later that day, the train from Canterlot must have arrived. Or maybe a pegasus flew in, she didn't know for sure. In her current condition, she didn't care.

During one of her more lucid moments, she heard the ponies gossiping in near panic about Canterlot, and that the Guards had a new spell that they were to use on everypony they met. And then she saw the Guards, only two, move through the park, reassuring the frightened ponies. They had done the spell so many times they almost reflexively cast it on every pony they saw.

To Elly's horror, the spell was designed to strip a ling of its camouflage. Well, at least, that's what she overheard. She was not about to volunteer to see if it worked as advertised. Fortunately, the ponies knew next to nothing about lings, and didn't know to check things other than ponies.

She knew any lings they might have captured would never divulge any of the hive's secrets, or secrets in general about the lings. They would rather die. Just as she would.

Fortunately, nopony ever zapped a rock with that Guard spell. Other ponies? Yes. Rocks in a playpark? Nope.

So, she had remained hidden where she had landed. In the Ponyville Playpark. As a rock. Nobody every zapped a rock with that Guard spell. Other ponies? Yes. Rocks in a playpark? Nope.

She had already resigned herself to the likelihood that she would end up making a desperate attempt to flee to the forest. Her not yet healed broken legs would condemn her to being caught. If not by the Guards, then by the wildlife in the forest. But she didn't intend to just starve to death here at the edge of a park.

And that had been a fortuitous decision, that first panicked reaction, that day. Ponies came to the playpark to have fun. The parents enjoyed watching their foals have fun, and the foals had fun running around and climbing on the rocks strategically placed throughout, along with the slides, swings, and other equipment. Sometimes a pony would lie against or on her, in her rock form, and she could feel the love he or she had for their foal.

The first time that had happened, it had shocked her. But she had been in too much pain to really think about it. Instead, she had just accepted the love flowing out from the mother as her foal cuddled against her in the summer sun.

Then, that night, she had discovered that the adolescents liked to use the cover of her rock to exchange kisses. More love!

It hadn't been a lot, hiding as a rock and waiting for ponies to wander by. But the flow of love, sporadic though it might be, was sufficient for her needs. Gradually, slowly, she had healed.

And she was so lonely. Being unable to feel even the tiniest flicker of emotion or thoughts from her sisters or Queen Mother after that first day was debilitating. The deaths echoing towards her from the forest told her how the rest of her sisters faired in that first week. If she hadn't been in so much pain those first few days, she probably would have had a panic-attack and undone her transformation by accident. And then been caught.

By the time she began to stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time, she had grown somewhat used to the loneliness. Being a rock made it a bit easier to simply exist, without too much contemplation of her situation. Rocks simply endured, and so did she.

She hadn't been a rock the whole time. When her reserves were sufficiently built-up, which took months, she would transform late at night. Then she would sneak over to the pub and listen under the window to the gossip. Later, daringly, she would adopt the shape of a pony she had seen in Canterlot, and actually go inside. She'd snatch an abandoned mug before the waitress got it, and hide in a corner seat, pretending to nurse her drink along.

She didn't dare to take any of the love that drifted around her, afraid it would somehow give away her position. However, the low murmur of conversation reminded her of the hive, in a dull, limpid manner. It was a poor substitute, but it did a tiny bit to alleviate the loneliness she felt. She pretended what she was hearing were her hive-mates.

She rarely visited the pub after the first few times. It was too worrying, depressing, and dangerous.

The winter had been the worst. Foals didn't play for very long, and ponies didn't linger after dark. When her reserve had once more began to reach the desperately low level, she forced herself to act. Staying in the park as a rock in winter was slow starvation — and unacceptable.

Elly had built-up a pile of dirt and snow to simulate her rock shape, then hidden in the attic of a boisterous family's home. There was love flowing there — enough to survive without revealing herself. If she had been an actual Infiltrator, she would have swapped places with the wife or husband for a night or two, filled up on love, then returned to the hive to off-load what she had harvested.

But she was a lone ling with no requirements to harvest on a schedule. She could afford to harvest at a distance and simply maintain her stores She needn't top-off her reserves and then give them to the hive. Which meant she didn't have to take any risks to gain love.

So, she could hide in the attic or under the floor in relative safety.

At least, that was, until the ponies had decided on the day for their Winter Wrapup. Then it was back to the play-park, and going back to short rations until it warmed up enough for the foals to once again flock to the park. It was an unpleasant return to worrying if she would have to take action to restore her reserves.

She had been terrified hearing about and then seeing Tirek come into town that spring. How she had managed to remain hidden mystified her. The magic allowing her to hide as rock simply vanished. She barely had time to scramble into a nearby tree before the almost all of her magic disappeared. Barely enough remained to keep her alive, much less actually move. It had left her dangling between branches in her native form where the slightest breeze might have dislodged her. Or a panicked pony might've seen her.

The ponies were too occupied with their own issues to notice a missing rock, fortunately for her.

Then, just as she despaired that her little remaining magic was about to give out and she died, her magic mysteriously returned. She quickly transformed and hid again, in plain sight. And hoped no one had noticed anything in all the confusion.

Not much later — time moves faster when you're a rock — and still in the park, news of the ponies building an enormous wall through the Everfree had gotten her attention.

Several late-night visits to the pub, now always crowded with Guard ponies, had been nerve wracking, but necessary. She had copied the friends of few soldiers who had been too drunk to notice that their friends had either left or passed out, and cautious questioned them.

That it was not a secret was startling.

That almost no pony outside of Ponyville was paying attention, according to the Guards, was just as startling.

The Guards all thought it was funny.

Which had led her to here, waiting to go to another world where she wouldn't be hunted.

If it hadn't been that she knew the hive was deserted, she might have tried to return home. Then she would have been hailed as a hero for bringing back this valuable news. Queen-mother would have rewarded her richly.

Of course, if the Hive had been occupied, she would have made her way there as soon as she was well-enough to travel, and never found this information, made it all a moot point, anyway.

That she hadn't even felt the tiniest glimmer of emotion from her Queen-mother over the link merely reinforced that she was alone. That she hadn't felt anything of even another changeling on their mental network pounded that fact home. If there had been any lings left, the Queen-mother would have made sure that every village was visited on a regular schedule to harvest for the hive, and to search for lost lings. However, she hadn't detected any such ling activity in over a year.

She briefly considered that maybe Queen-mother was avoiding this area because of the Everfree, but that didn't make sense.

Finally, the late-hour approached and she roused from her thoughts. It was time to act. The portal awaited her.

It was the hour just before the morning shift change, when the ponies on duty were most tired, and least attentive. Their reactions would be likewise delayed and slowed. It was the best time to act, her instructor had repeatedly said.

She transformed into a large dog. She placed her book back into a small bag with the interior expansion spell to join her gems, and bits — she had swiped it from the Guards' Barracks. Then she used the shrinking spell to fit it in her mouth.

She had to shake her head in exasperation. Why had no ling ever thought of those two spells?

Hopefully, when she was changed by the portal, she would at least have a mouth and wouldn't lose what little she had. That would be inconvenient, at the least.

It went about as she expected.

She knew the drill for using the portal, having heard the ponies remind their friends. She thought about that strange name, Little Whinging, as she pushed into the tree. There was a flash of wood, then a flash of light. She quickly forced herself into the form of a large dog and rushed into one of the dressing rooms. She chose a large dog because she didn't want to be small enough to physically be caught by one of these humans. She hid behind some of the hanging robes.

She heard a voice that said, "Hay! Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"That flash of green light by the portal and something moving."

"No . . . and nopony is scheduled this late at night. Not without a guard."

"No, not a pony. Too small."

She heard soft steps at the far end of the centre hallway. She moved down the room she was in towards the other door, keeping to the cover provided by the robes hanging on the hooks. It, like the corridor, was nicely lit — unfortunately.

The door to the changing room opened.

"The corridor's empty. See anything in the stallion's room?"

"No," came the voice nearly over her head. "Nothing."

"Huh, nopony in the mares' room, either."

"Something's not right. I know I saw something come from the portal — and a green flash of light."

"Well, there's nopony here."

"Yeah. You're right. There's no PONY here! Maybe it's a changeling!"

There was an extremely loud whistle from the other pony. The pony right beside her sighed. "Look, I think you're seeing things," he said as he stepped further into the room.

"And if you're wrong?"

There was another heartfelt sigh.

She felt the robe over her head start to move.

The door was still open. She burst from her cover and darted out the door.

"CELESTIA! Something just ran out of here!"

She was in a large room. Two guards, in human form, were at a table seated across from each other. One of them had cards in his hand. He was turned towards her as she charged across the room at full-speed towards the exit.

"It's a big dog!"

The one seated closest to her turned and the leapt at her. His chair scraped and slid across the floor.

She concentrated as hard as she could on the door handle — a green glow enveloped it. The guard crashed to the ground behind her. To her surprise, not only did the handle turn, the door opened towards her. One of the humans was coming in. "Who sounded the alarm," the person coming in said.

Not stopping to worry about it, Elly rammed into the side of the human's legs and kept running.

"Ahhh!" cried her victim as she fell to the floor.

"What's a dog doing here?"

"An dog came through the portal!"

"No! A Changeling! It used magic!"

The room behind her fell into bedlam as the guards tried to follow her.

She immediately left the wooden walkway and charged into the underbrush. It didn't matter which way she went, as long as she put enough space between her and the guards to lose them. She leapt over a large, downed, tree-trunk, leaving a startled, "Celestia!" in her wake.

"I can't see where it went! It's too dark!" she heard from far behind her,

A moment later, the unicorns were casting light spells.

Incredibly, her pursuit fell off quickly! She had expected there to be pegasi on this side, not to mention earth-ponies. There certainly were on the other side.

She didn't stop running until she reached the stone wall she had heard surrounded the entire estate. Adding wings to her dog was easy, and she flew over the wall.

She had lucked out in choosing her direction to run.

There was only farmland out here. She kept running for a few minutes, then changed to a squirrel and climbed the nearest tree. She transformed back into a Changeling, spit the bag out of her mouth and stuck it to her chitin. Then she started flying. When she started to see lights through the trees, she turned left.

Half-an-hour later, she was burrowing her way underground as a large mouse, dragging her bag after her once she had the hole deep enough. She was far, far away from the portal.

She had made it!

Tomorrow, she would start exploring this new world.

While she waited for the next night, she slept, tired from her frantic escape. She was really out of shape due to hiding for so long without any exercise to mention. On the other hoof, she had sufficient reserves to last a week if she were careful and frugal in her use of magic.

۸-_-۸

The less said about Sunday, the better, Harry felt. For the first time, the girls did not climb out of his trunk to wake him.

The entire Gryffindor First Year cohort had difficulty meeting each other's eyes, especially the boys while they were dressing. The teasing in the Common Room from the upper years was bad enough, but breakfast was barely bearable as the entire rest of the school laughed at what had happened. There were many falsetto voices calling out, "Oh, Harry! I loooovvvve you, please come back!" and then cracking up into laughter. The only thing that made it bearable was that ninety percent of the teasing was directed at the Slytherin and Gryffindor First Year boys and not him.

Myrtle had been especially merciless to the Slytherins, when she wasn't flirting with one of the Prefects.

Immediately after breakfast, the five girls commandeered an empty classroom and dragged Harry inside. As soon as they got inside, and locked the door — which made him a bit nervous at first — they transformed into ponies.

Harry copied them.

"We have to talk," Hermione had said in her no-nonsense tone. "What happened yesterday was unforgiveable, even if it was a love potion that caused it all."

Sweetie Belle interrupted, "I'm so sorry, Harry," she had said, sobbing, "please don't hate me!"

"I don't hate you!" Harry had quickly replied. He looked around at the others, "I don't hate any of you. I know it's not your fault, it's just, well, embarrassing." He looked down at the floor, "And a bit scary, too. You should have seen the way you were looking at me."

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Ginny, and Hermione, stood at a respectful distance — they didn't want to crowd him — and blushed madly. Sweetie Belle stood to one side of them, still crying.

"Still, Harry," Hermione said, "The way we acted was . . . well, not how we wanted to act at that moment." She stopped and took a calming breath. "I like you . . . we all like you. A lot. You're a really good friend, Harry, and you've taught us such neat spells. We don't want that to change." She twisted her hands together, then said. "And we want to apologize for chasing you just like all the others did."

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry we put you on the spot like that. I'm sorry we chased you like cat chasing a mouse . . . not that you're a mouse," she hastily added. "Just that, well, we shouldn't have done that and I'm sorry, we're all very, very sorry."

Ginny mumbled her agreement and an apology.

Apple Bloom said, with a hesitant smile as Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle nodded, "Hay, we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and your our herd-mate. You know we'll always protect you and never would we make you do anything you didn't want to do. We're your friends above all else!" He had felt their sincerity. "And we're really sorry we chased you like that."

They all stood there awkwardly, looking at the floor between swift glances at Harry. He stared back at them, unsure of what he should say.

Finally, Scootaloo said, shaking her head, "Wow, Harry, I never realized just how fast and nimble you are! How come you never ran that fast in the Everfree? You would easily have out-paced us and we wouldn't have worried so much."

"Well, I couldn't just leave you all behind in the Everfree, now, could I?" he answered awkwardly, nervously rubbing his left-front hoof on his right-front leg.

They all apologized again, and Hermione and Ginny insisted that they considered him just a good friend, but he had the feeling that maybe they weren't being as truthful about the situation as they pretended. That they were down-playing how they felt. Ginny, he knew from what Ron had told him, had long fantasized at marrying him when she got older. Her crush on him during the weeks before they got to Hogwarts had been kinda impossible to ignore.

The group hug afterwards was awkward, at first, but then became more comfortable and settled into a pony-pile as they discussed what had happened. Gradually, by the time lunch came around, Harry was laughing at their renditions of the various boys, and some of the girls, caught up in the potion's spell.

He did refuse to tell them where he had hidden, on the grounds he might need a hiding place in the future if he got them mad at him. He did tell them about his teleporting successfully. Then made them Pinky Promise not to tell anyone who didn't already know — it made for an ace secret. He did say he would tell Twilight the next time he saw her.

Lunch was awkward with most of the school still ragging on the topic of Sweetie Belle's Love Potion Number Nine — the Gryffindor's weren't sure where that name came from — and its effects on various students. But the girls closed ranks around Harry, which brought on its own teasing comments about Harry's Harem from the rest of the Gryffindors. There were a few comments wondering if he would entertain adding a few Slytherins to the pack, comments which were not approved of by the girls.

However, Harry wasn't sure that a few of the Slytherins girls weren't actually being serious under the guise of humour.

Myrtle, though, did come over to them. "Hey," she said, leaning one hand on the table and giving the whole cohort a long look. "Are you all okay?" She frowned. "I know you all got accidentally dosed with a love potion."

Sweetie Belle blushed and ducked her head down, refusing to meet her eyes.

"I've seen a lot of things happen while I was a ghost, you know," Myrtle continued. "If any of you want to talk about it, I'd be happy to listen." Her gaze lingered on one student. "Harry, if you want someone uninvolved to talk to, all you have to do is ask. I can give you a girl's perspective that your friends might be too bashful or afraid to share."

Harry looked up at her, still blushing about the topic, and thought for a moment. "Not right now," he said slowly. "Maybe later?" He looked at his friends.

In fact, when Harry reflected on it, Myrtle seemed much calmer today than she had been in the previous few days. She almost seemed to glow. Her pimples were gone, he noticed, so she must have finely taken that acne cure the Madam Pomfrey had mentioned. The lack of pimples really did improve both her looks and her outlook. However, she must have tripped over something and fallen last night or this morning as she was walking a bit stiffly. When he later asked about it, she had simply laughed.

"Oh, nothing of the sort. I'm sure your girlfriends will be happy to explain it," she had said, smirking at the girls nearby. All of whom, when he looked, were blushing. She laughed again. He decided that was one question he could postpone asking.

Most of the witches seemed to notice Myrtle's change in attitude — she was no longer shooting fiery looks at every wizard in sight — but were split on whether this was a good thing or not. The ones with boyfriends kept casting worried glances at their chosen ones, and asking if they had really gone to bed the night before.

Some of the looks the First-year girls were giving Harry, though, still made him uncomfortable.

Myrtle smiled down at him, then reached over and ruffled his hair. Not that you could tell she had done anything, considering how difficult his hair was to manage, anyway.

"Just say the word," she said, then smiled at the group. "You all did me a wonderful favour, it's only right I pay you back — so, any questions? Come to me. Okay?"

They nodded and mumbled agreements as she turned and sauntered away.

Oliver sat beside the First Years at lunch — he had been making a point of sitting with them since the beginning of the year, as did the twins and the three chasers. After Myrtle left, he introduced the new Chaser, Katie Bell, a brown-haired, brown-eyed Second Year of average appearance. Then he said, "Quidditch try-outs are scheduled for this afternoon and I would greatly appreciate it if you seven would do so." He stared significantly at the fillies, Hermione, and Ginny. "You all played wonderfully at the Weasleys and I think you all would be a wonderful asset to the team."

After a bit more grovelling and pleading from the Quidditch Captain, the Gryffindor First Years found themselves being escorted by the Quidditch team to the pitch outside. Hermione, while happy to go along, absolutely refused to participate. "I am not nearly suicidal enough to actually play the game in a real team," she said, firmly.

The other Gryffindors came with just to watch and cheer their friends.

Once they were on the pitch, Oliver introduced everyone on the team to the Gryffindors. The only new face on the team was Katie Bell, a new Chaser. Since the only position that needed filling was the Seeker, Oliver pulled out a bag of golf balls, to Harry's surprise.

Seeing the puzzled looks on their faces, Oliver hefted the bag and explained, "The only position that needs filling at the try-outs today is the Seeker."

What followed was a series of hard-diving catches. Oliver would launch a golf-ball out with his wand, two prospective Seekers would race each other to catch it. He launched them at different speeds, directions, and angles. Then he did a round-robin match where each of the five prospective Seekers raced against each other. The highest three scorers repeated the tests.

The final ranking was Scootaloo, Harry, Ginny. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, while good, just couldn't quite match the two pegasi. And Harry just seemed to be a prodigy.

"You all did just great!" Oliver said. "I've seen you all play at the Weasleys' so I know you're all pretty good at spotting the Snitch, itself, so we can dispense with that part of the drill." He had grinned at Scootaloo, and said, "You'll be the best Seeker we've every had!"

Scootaloo looked down at the ground for a moment, then sheepishly said, "I'm really not that interested in playing Quidditch on a broom, it's far more fun as a pegasus."

Oliver looked as if he about to cry, but then he closed his eyes for a moment and sighed heavily. "Yeah," he said, "I can understand that completely."

He turned to the others, and frowned slightly. Harry and Ginny had been neck-and-neck for most of the trials, but Harry just seemed to have a better instinctive control of this broom that Ginny couldn't quite match. Oliver finally said, "Okay, Harry you'll be our Seeker, Ginny will be the substitute Seeker in case Harry gets laid-up." He looked over at the others. "Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, would you mind being substitutes for Chasers? And Ron, substitute Keeper? All four of you are far better than any of the older Gryffies, and no one else was interested in those positions, anyway."

Ron had been ecstatic at being on the team, even if it was as a Keeper substitute. He immediately started peppering Oliver with questions and the two of them became quickly engrossed in the details of proper defending.

۸-_-۸