C-C-Changes - CTTheSeaWing - My Little Pony Generation 4: Friendship Is Magic (Cartoon 2010) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Starlight stood standing still, staring at her hooves. The strange, pale yellow lumps had seemingly formed overnight. Pimples. She had no idea why or how the pimples had formed at all or what exactly caused them. They seemed to just have sprung up randomly, dotting her hooves in ugly, yellow polkadots. The only thing that had really happened that could’ve caused this strange outbreak of pimples was Pupa biting her. But, if it had caused that, why would the pimples only show on her hooves? And the whole thing with Pupa too, Starlight was still reeling from that. That… rage. It reminded her all too much of Chrysalis’ last words to her, or of her own jealously turned rage at Sunburst getting his Cutie Mark first and ‘abandoning her’. She had realized that whole thing was maybe a slight overreaction. But she’d never felt so alone before.

That was another thing though. Since Pupa’s bite on her leg, Starlight has had a strange lack of appetite. She still tried to eat, but food just tasted like sand, or dirt, just… plain. She didn’t know what was happening, but it was like she had no desire to eat at all, nor did she really get hungry, for… food, anyways. It was more like she was just hungry for… pony connection. She didn’t know or understand why, but it was like Trixie alone wasn’t enough. Starlight felt strangely lonely, whether or not her wife was around. Why? That was the big question. She did she hunger for connection? Why wasn’t she eating normal food? Was her wound infected and that was affecting her appetite? But why would an infected wound cause a hunger for pony connection? What was it about Trixie, that wasn’t enough? Starlight suddenly heard something. Well, it wasn’t heard, per se, and the voice was a jumbled mess and hardly hearable. It said one word.

Star…light…

The voice was familiar, it sounded like a certain Changeling’s. But Starlight hadn’t seen her since her threat. Starlight simply thought that she must be hearing things. Maybe the wound is infected, and she’s just a bit confused by it. She once again looked to her hooves, at the strange pimples, and she saw that one had burst. Where said pimple had been previously, now left a gaping hole in her hoof.

A… hole…

Starlight startled when she saw this. Okay. This is definitely strange. Maybe she should Nurse Redheart about it? Starlight then remembered that the Nurse was out in the field, doing well, field work, and she wasn’t in Ponyville at the moment. Starlight groaned when she remembered this. That’s why the wound hadn’t been looked at yesterday, because the Nurse was out. However, there was another strange thing about the wound. It had healed in a matter of hours, and while Starlight didn’t doubt that certain wounds do heal that fast, this wound had looked bad enough to take a few days to heal. But what did she know? She wasn’t a doctor.

A gentle knock came from the bathroom door, surprising her. “Starlight? Everything alright? You’ve been in there a while.” It was Trixie’s voice. Starlight straightened her mane and tried to look like she hadn’t just woken up with yellow spotted hooves. She sighed and walked over to the door and opened it.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m… just having some sort of allergic reaction to something. But otherwise, I’m fine.” It was the best explanation she could come up with for the pimples on her hooves, anyways. “I’ve dealt with it now, so it should calm down in a few hours.” Starlight was sure that the last sentence was a blatant lie, as she didn’t even know herself what was going on. Trixie narrowed her eyes, but she seemingly believed Starlight and then smiled at her.

“Well, would you do Trixie the honour of joining her on a walk around town giving out flyers to her next show?” Trixie asked. Starlight rolled her eyes as Trixie referred to herself in the third person. Starlight smiled, deciding to forget about the weird allergic reaction she was having.

“Yeah, you’ll definitely need a guide,” Starlight retorted playfully, and Trixie huffed.

“You dare offend the Great and Powerful Trixie?!” Trixie crossed her legs and Starlight rolled her eyes playfully.

“Let’s get going,” Starlight said in response and they headed off, Starlight quickly putting on some socks before following her wife out the cart. Just in case the pimples were infection related. She didn’t want to risk anyone else getting sick if she was sick.

While Trixie was talking to the flower mares and explaining the show to them, Starlight took a peek at her hooves again. More pimples had burst, leaving holes in her hooves. Hiding her worry, she simply put the sock back on and tried not to think about how the holes weren’t even bleeding, and that she just had holes in her hooves. Which was fine. Trixie eventually stopped talking to the mares and Starlight stood up again, only her hooves felt… spongy. How many pimples had burst already? Starlight ignored the thought and tried to walk as normally as possible. As she and Trixie continued their rounds, her hooves got more and more spongy, and strangely, being out here in Ponyville made her feel… full? Like she’d just eaten an entire Pinkie brand cake. Which was strange, but she ignored it. Trixie’s eyes lit up at something to the side. “Hey! Butterfly!” She raced over.

“Um, it’s… Fluttershy,” the yellow Pegasus corrected. Fluttershy was lying down like she’d been tired and just had to lie down. Which was understandable seeing as she was carrying a whole bucking foal. Trixie stopped beside her.

“Hey. I have a show coming up, would you like to come to it?” Trixie said, using first person this time. Fluttershy looked up at her and Starlight could see the bags under her eyes.

“Um, I’m not sure. I um, don’t really like things like that and,” Fluttershy scanned the poster. “That’s um, that’s near to when Peach is due, so um… I don’t know…” Trixie blinked and Starlight walked closer.

“You’ve named it?”

“Trixie!” Starlight burst out. Trixie seemingly jumped as she realized what she said.

“Um, sorry Butterfly.”

“It’s Fluttershy.” Trixie winced.

“Sorry Fluttershy,” she said. Fluttershy looked back at Trixie and sighed. She smiled.

“It’s okay. Um, yes… she does have a name…” Fluttershy mumbled, but whether that was out of shyness or tiredness, Starlight didn’t know. The conversation petered out into awkward silence and Starlight and Trixie awkwardly trotted away.

“Maybe, you can give out your next poster without insulting a soon-to-be-mother?” Starlight’s retort came out soft. Trixie merely sighed. The conversation then faded to nothing and Trixie was soon distracted by some other pony. Starlight, on the other hoof, was more focused on how spongy her hooves now felt. Hopefully this whole ordeal would be over soon. Trixie gave out the poster to a few more ponies before the two headed home. Once there, Trixie was saying something, but Starlight couldn’t really focus on it, she was more focused on her spongy hooves. What Starlight did notice is when Trixie stopped mid-sentence. Starlight blinked and looked at her wife. “What?” Starlight asked, and Trixie blinked. “What wrong?”

“Nothing, your coat… just seems a little duller than usual. Are you feeling okay?” Starlight blinked.

“I’ll be back.” She walked into the bathroom and walked over to the mirror.

Starlight paled at what she saw.

Her coat, mane and tail were noticeably duller than usual, a darker, greyer, pink-purple than usual. But, the most shocking detail…

Her eyes

Only a sea of purple-blue greeted her. There were no pupils in sight.

She had no pupils, yet she could still see?

What’s going on?