Roadtrip

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 8

Chapter 1

Roadtrip

July 7, 2013
I walked slowly through the damaged SeaTac Airport Hilton Hotel and Conference Center. The smoke was beginning to clear from the air. It seemed like fighting had been confined to the building instead of spreading out into the rest of the city. Around me, there was copious destruction but the structural integrity of the building still seemed to be okay. The battle that had just taken place would probably make the national news, although I couldn't say exactly what would be reported. Maybe they would write it off as a terrorist attack. Some of the more fringe reporters might claim alien invasion. Both stories contained some truth.

I saw a friend of mine stumble into the main atrium from a side hallway. It was Mr. Tristan, a fellow ponyfiction website user and brony who had invited me to the convention. As an event organizer of Everfree Northwest, Seattle's convention for fans of My Little Pony, he probably felt terrible that the 'con had gone so wrong.

"Hey, Sandy," he said as we met. "Good to see you're okay. I was doing some checking around. I don't think anyone was dead or dying. Most people evacuated when the fighting started. We won."

I nodded, hearing the good news. "What happened to The General?"

Tristan shrugged. "I'm sure he's fine. He kind of has his own little army for protection, and they were all angry that the fanfiction panel where he was speaking was interrupted."

That was true. The whole reason I called him The General was because he had a few thousand people - the equivalent of a small brigade - following his online profile. Many of them had turned up for the convention.

I glanced around us. Debris was everywhere and someone would have a large cleanup bill coming their way. Tristan seemed to be thinking the same thing. He nudged a chunk of plaster with his shoe. "Well, this is one goddamnfuck'n mess to take care of. I feel terrible, organizing this whole thing and then it turned into a disaster."

"Hey, you didn't know. Honestly, it's more my fault than yours."

He turned to look at me. "Yeah, I meaning to ask you; what made you think it was a good idea to bring the queen of the changelings to the convention?"

I raised my hands. "I screwed up. But admit it; you would have done the same thing."

He shook his head. "I guess we'll have to figure out a new venue for next year." His face brightened. "But think of the publicity we'll get!"

Chapter 2

June 28, 2013
I unlocked the security chain and swung the front gate open. The wire fence was old but not ancient enough to have the galvanizing flaking off. It had become a little overgrown since the local government had taken over the complex.

The old military radio site had been mostly dismantled. Why the US Navy needed a facility in northern Michigan took a little explaining. Back in the day, it used extremely low frequencies to provide communication around the world. The ELF signals could penetrate water which made them useful for talking to submarines. The transmitting antennas needed to be miles long, which made the otherwise uninhabited forests of the Upper Peninsula a perfect place to build. When the facility was decommissioned in the early 2000’s, the township took possession of the property.

When the gate was open, I walked back to my car and drove through. After moving recently, I had started working for a new office and hadn’t managed to borrow the keys for a government car. I would have to do the paperwork later to get compensation for driving my personal vehicle. Somebody wouldn’t be pleased. My car is not very economical.

The exhaust rumbled pleasantly as I drove slowly into the complex. It was not the first time I had been there, and I enjoyed sightseeing. Only a few buildings remained, but it was interesting to inspect old foundations and try to imagine what might have once stood there.

For various reasons, I was never in the military myself but found employment inspecting government sites. I’m the kind of guy who likes hardware and construction. It’s what I study and what I inspect. Earning a civil servant’s salary is not exactly my idea of a dream job, but at least I find it interesting. They send me all over Michigan, and when someone local can’t be found in another state I cover that, too. My home office used to be down in Lansing, but I just recently moved up north.

At the facility, there was one set of power lines connected up to a functioning pump building. The county used it for water in the event of a forest fire. Three-phase electrical service was required to power the heavy-duty pumps. Those three wires plus one ground wire decorated the electrical poles leading to the building. A transformer was located some distance away.

I stopped the car and got out, the antique doors squeaking in a way that lubrication could never quite fix. Even if an old car is refurbished, it’s still, well…old. With a build date of 1972, my car was older than me. Going around to the front, I leaned on the hood beside the Plymouth badge to double check that all the information on my clipboard was correct.

Date: June 28

Location of site: Republic, Michigan

Name of inspector: Sandy West

Everything seemed right. When I was ready, I put on my hardhat and headed towards the building. The government is big about protective equipment. I didn’t have to wear any kind of uniform, but a t-shirt, jeans, and steel-toed boots were my usual attire for these kinds of jobs. My prescription glasses did double duty as eye protection.

I knew the hatband would screw up my mohawk, but I wasn’t at the office today and didn’t have to look presentable.

But Sandy, doesn’t having a mohawk kind of defeat the purpose of looking presentable in the first place?

There’s no written personal appearance standards. After getting to know me for a while my coworkers eventually stopped caring. Those at the new office were still getting used to the style, and honestly I did kind of enjoy the shock value. Maybe when I turn thirty I’ll be a little more mature. I still have a few years left.

Inside the pump building everything appeared the same as the last time I had inspected it. I checked for leaks, dirt buildup, and wiring flaws. Everything seemed to be in order. I marked the boxes on the clipboard with my pen and turned to go.

Outside, I noticed that the orange paint of my car had taken on an unusual green cast. So had everything else I could see; the pavement, the building, the sky. I looked up. “What the…?”

I was an only child, so I talk to myself a lot. However, considering the strange green-glowing portal in the sky, I think my comment was completely justified.

The wormhole or whatever it was didn’t seem to be at an extreme altitude. There seemed to be clouds behind it, in fact. If asked to give an estimate, I probably would have put it at no more than a few thousand feet above the ground. It wasn’t directly over me, but still too close for comfort. After a moment of astonished staring, I started to run towards my car. Fight-or-Flight had kicked in hard, and my brain decided the latter was a better option.

Something dropped from the emerald portal in the sky. I stopped, my hand on the car’s door handle. I couldn’t tell what was falling towards me, and while my mind was screaming that nothing good ever comes out of wormholes, my curiosity had been piqued so much that all I could do was stare.

The object tumbling through the air was black and had an irregular shape. The way it moved, the way appendages seemed to flail, I thought that it must be some sort of otherworldly creature. Whatever the thing was, it had been accelerating throughout its fall. My eyes tracked its decent, realizing it was going to land a few hundred yards away.

I had forgotten about the power lines. The thing fell into them, coming down lopsided near a pole. There was the thrum of high-tension wire and even in the bright sunshine I saw an arc of electricity. The electrical transformer near the impact site exploded in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. A few of the power lines were severed and dropped to the ground. A small inferno from the blazing transformer surrounded the area.

“Oh my God.” My hands went to my face in flabbergasted emotion. I discovered that my mouth was hanging open and I closed it. I just saw an alien get barbecued. Glancing up, it seemed that the weird green portal had disappeared. The sky was back to normal and other than the burning wreckage nearby everything seemed normal.

I quickly got into the car. Several thoughts tried to cram themselves through my head all at once. I should leave as fast as possible. I should call the police. I shouldn’t go over there and poke it with a stick. Yeah, I like the sound of that plan.

Once again, however, curiosity fought to the forefront of my mind. When was the next chance I might get to see an alien? I could drive by on my way to the gate. Just one look.

I started the engine and put the transmission into drive. Steering clear of the downed power lines, I drove over to where the flames were still licking the ground. A crumpled black form lay among the debris and smoke. It was not like any creature I had ever seen before. My eyes went to part of it that had been torn away. I realized it might be a leg. Green blood had pooled on the ground. The loose limb was shot through with holes which I initially took to be further injury but didn’t see any of that strange blood dripping from them.

Okay, so if it had one leg you would think it would have more, although at the time ideas about symmetrical biology didn’t occur to me. I did a quick count and came up with three more legs that were still attached to the body. There seemed to be bits of other appendages on the body, but I wasn’t sure if they were vestigial or instead had been burned or torn away.

The skin or whatever the exterior was seemed to be divided into limited sections for movement. An exoskeleton, maybe? The black color reminded me of the aliens from Alien. The mouth was a lot smaller, however. As I looked at the rest of the face, it seemed vaguely familiar. The eyes were closed and the expression seemed to be locked in a state of anguish.

It was at that moment I realized that my foot on the brake had brought the car to a stop and I was ogling the thing out the window. I wanted to leave, but it troubled me that something that was obviously unearthly still bore a resemblance to something I had seen before. Exactly what it was escaped me at the moment.

A few more seconds passed. I swallowed hard and put the car in park. It took a little while longer to get up the courage to actually open the door. The heat from the nearby fire was not too intense to withstand, but in terms of danger I was more worried about the mysterious creature. The legs were blunt and the mouth was small. It didn’t look like it possessed many natural weapons. Well, maybe that horn—

Oh God, it’s a changeling.

That revelation hit me harder than I expected. Other than the two episodes of My Little Pony and numerous pieces of fan art, I had never seen a changeling before. Of course not; they’re fictional!

Well, obviously not. Either that or I was seeing things. This one wasn’t animated like a cartoon, so that lent credibility to the not-crazy evidence. I searched for clues to prove things one way or another. The body, the features…it may have been missing the delicate mane, wings, and tail, but after a fall from the sky I could understand that.

As I took in the overall shape of the body, face, and horn, a strange thought occurred to me. This wasn’t a normal changeling. Much like the ponies, the leaders were taller, more statuesque. Was I looking at a queen? The Queen?

I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but the only other option was that I was hallucinating. I suddenly had a lot of questions about a lot of things besides sanity; metaphysics, Lauren Faust’s control of the universe…

None of that told me what I was supposed to do now. I stood beside the car looking down at the injured changeling. I thought it (she?) moved slightly, breathing.

Should I try to help? That leg was—well, it was freaking torn off. I don’t know how it could have been a worse injury. But what could I do? I knew basic first aid, but only for people.

But did I really want to assist a changeling? They had tried to take over Equestria. Or was I assuming too much? Just because a character from a cartoon I watched had materialized on Earth didn’t mean that they were just as guilty as their Flash-animated counterpart.

Maybe my faith was terribly misplaced or maybe I’m too nice for my own good. I had to get the changeling some help. I started forward but stopped. Despite my earlier conviction, I really didn’t want to touch anything like that.

Turning around, I popped the trunk and grabbed a pair of gloves. I also pulled out a travel blanket and unrolled it. It looked like there would be just enough to wrap the creature.

It was not an easy task to get the unconscious changeling onto the blanket. I grasped the back legs using the holes to give my gloved fingers a little more traction and pulled until the torso was more or less in the center of the blanket. Grimacing, I picked up the loose leg and placed it securely with the rest. It’s a good thing the blood was green or my feelings of nausea would have been worse.

I tried to be gentle, but there really was no easy way to lift a limp body. I estimated the weight to be somewhat less than me but still fairly hefty. One leg (still attached, thank God) slipped out of the bundle and dangled towards the ground. If standing, the changeling would probably be about eye level with me. That put a few more points towards it being someone (somepony? somechangeling?) who had a leadership role.

The trunk of a Plymouth Valiant is just about the right size to carry a stricken changeling. I didn’t feel good about that, but better than riding in the back seat and bleeding on the upholstery, or worse, being seen. Not everyone is a brony, but regardless of that the government would probably still want to keep things under wraps. Trust me. I work for them.

Closing the trunk lid, I got back in the driver’s seat and took off. Should I drive speedily to get help more quickly or slow to avoid hurtful bumps to my passenger? I picked somewhere in between those two velocities.

I didn’t stop to lock the gate. That reminded me that I’d dropped the clipboard at about the same time that I saw the portal in the sky. Couldn’t be helped. Today was Friday, and work wasn’t expecting my report until Monday so I had the weekend to fix things. Either way, that was a minor problem compared to the one I had just taken on.

The winding road took me towards the town of Republic, which was really more of a collection of dispersed houses than an actual establishment. The house my wife and I had just moved into was as isolated as any of the rest and I probably wouldn’t be seen while moving an extraterrestrial inside.

I couldn’t really go to the hospital. They weren’t equipped to deal with nonhuman patients. In fact, there really wasn’t anyplace that could truly help. I had to start thinking about who I should call to take the changeling off my hands.

My workplace would be no help. We just did paperwork related to old facilities. I had plenty of friends and family in the military, but didn’t know if any of them could do something. If they were cleared for super secret alien stuff, then they couldn’t have told a civilian like me so I could keep their number on file in case anything like this happened. And so, inadvisable as it was, I decided that going home was the best thing to do. At least that way I could try to get some answers from the internet.

There was a thought—this whole situation sounded like fanfiction. Trust me on this; I’m a writer. In fact, what had just happened reminded me a little of this one series, where ponies fell from the sky. If he had anything to do with it, the author responsible for the series creation was going to get a piece of my mind.

I set the changeling down on the unfinished floor and pulled back the blanket. It—she, I had decided—was still out cold and barely breathing. Some more blood from various places including the torn leg dripped through the blanket. It was a good thing we were still fixing the house up and the main flooring hadn’t yet been installed.

Taking a breath, I paused to think. That was a big mistake. My earlier purposefulness began to bleed away into fear. I really had no idea how to handle this situation. If this really was Queen Chrysalis, then I was looking at an extremely powerful magical being, possibly even more powerful than Princess Celestia. Even as strange and improbable as that sounded, I didn’t want to take any chances.

Ducking into the bedroom, I opened the drawer of the bedside table and pressed my fingers to the electronic lock of the pistol safe. It opened with a beep and I picked up my gun. Just because this was a perfect excuse to be paranoid, I did a brass check and also dropped the magazine to make sure it was full. Bright .45 caliber cartridges were in abundance, and I breathed a little easier.

Say what you want, a 1911 pistol just simply works. Here’s a tip, though: don’t buy a gun made of stainless steel like I did. It’s too shiny for its own good and fingerprints get everywhere.

I went back out into the main room where Chrysalis still lay. Putting the handgun down beside my computer, I grabbed the mouse. Internet searches failed to reveal anything related to the visitor I had discovered. It probably would have been impossible to find something relevant among everything else pony-related all over the ‘net. I tried a few somewhat more targeted searches. Even checking Twitter for up-to-the-minute coverage didn’t turn up anything.

I chewed my lip for a moment. There was a large network of people I could contact from places all over the world who might be able to give me specific answers to my questions. All I had to do was ask. After a little more consideration, I decided to enlist their help.

My favorite ponyfiction website had been good to me. I’d met all sorts of people on the site, and for the most part they were nice, friendly people. What I was about to do might freak them out a little. Either that or they would think I was drunk again. Still, I needed information.

I posted a blog explaining where I was, the fact that something strange had happened, and that I really needed to know if other strange things were happening. I kept my wording purposefully vague, not wanting to reveal too much in case the government had for some reason decided to monitor me. Funny how an unexpected guest can bring out the paranoia in you.

My typing hadn’t been the most clear. I usually prided myself on solid spelling and grammar, but sacrifices must be made in times of crisis. I waited a few minutes, thinking about my guest. If she really was covered with an exoskeleton, I wondered if my handgun bullets would penetrate. Something more powerful, like an assault rifle, might do the trick. In moving, however, some stuff still hadn’t been transferred to the new house. My AR-15 was one of those items.

The first few comments on my blog started to come in. I had a mild panic attack when blackouts across the country and dead zones of no communication were being reported. It took a few seconds to realize that the post had probably been made by someone who thought I was playing a character. Still, it gave me something new to check on Twitter.

The rest of the comments were split about half and half with people thinking I was starting an apocalypse roleplaying blog and people who reported nothing strange happening. I gradually began to relax my alert posture, but grew more troubled. Okay, so ponies dropping out of the sky wasn’t happening worldwide. Fanfiction was not prophetic. The global population was apparently blissfully unaware.

However, I still had a problem. I was the only person in the country this had happened to. Why, exactly, was a question I couldn’t find an answer to. Maybe someone up there—God, Celestia, Dr. Manhattan—was screwing with me.

I didn’t like being a pawn of the universe, but it’s not like I could do much about it. I glanced at Chrysalis again. She was still breathing faintly. I wondered how much longer she would survive in the condition I had found her in. Generally, losing a limb proves to be fatal if not treated. I fidgeted a little. It felt like I needed to do something for her, but what? Maybe handing her over to the government would at least keep her alive.

If only she would wake up so I could ask her how to treat a changeling’s wounds. That is, if we spoke compatible languages. If she didn’t see me as a threat and attack. If she didn’t use freaky mind control on me.

Once again, I was troubled by how much I didn’t know. I could just go by the gospel of the show, but Chrysalis was only in two freaking episodes. That still didn’t tell me loads about changelings. Apparently she was also in the MLP comics, but I had never read those. There was another point; with all the different takes on her character from the show to the comics to piles of fanfiction, which one was correct?

There was the noise of a large diesel pickup truck driving up to the house. My wife, Maria, had arrived. A sudden spike of panic went through me. She knew I was a brony, but I couldn’t guess how she would respond to the comatose MLP villain lying on our floor. Or the travel blanket I had ruined.

I got up from the computer, shoving the gun into my belt behind my back. It was not the same thing as a holster, but it would have to do. Until I believed Chrysalis wasn’t a threat, I wasn’t about to let down my guard.

There came the sound of Maria’s key in the lock of the front door and then I heard her come in. Her steps came down the hallway and she stopped suddenly in the doorway. Her eyes widened as she took in the green bloodstains on the blanket, the changeling lying on top of it, the dismembered leg nearby, and the frazzled look on my face.

Maria’s eyes went to me, questioning, incredulous, and more than a little displeased.

I raised my hands. “I can explain.”

Author's Note

Hello, and welcome to a nice new story! I hope to have it completed at about the same time the convention is. See you there!

Disclaimer: This is a fictional story. Lots of parts (i.e. my personal details) have been changed. Don't take it as TNaB gospel. And I'm hopefully not this narcissistic in real life.

Although they aren't mentioned by name to avoid FIMFiction's meta restrictions, I'd like to thank Pen Stroke, PiquoPie, and TheSlorg for allowing me to use bits of them in this story. They're cool people - go check 'em out.

Chapter 3

Maria’s eyes went between Chrysalis and I. The braid in her hair bobbed as her head moved. “Sandy, what is going on here?”

I gestured at the bloody changeling. “She, uh, fell from the sky. And now she’s here. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Maria took one step closer to Chrysalis and then another. “Is that...?”

“I think it’s a changeling. I know how crazy that sounds.” I watched as my wife slowly sank into a crouch to examine the injured creature.

“Well?” I prompted.

“We should get her cleaned up. I’ll get my bag. You go to the bait store and buy some maggots.” Maria got up and turned for the door while I still stood there. She stopped and looked at me. “Sandy, did you hear me?”

“Yeah, but...aren’t you going to freak out or something? We have an evil cartoon character in our living room.”

Maria glanced at Chrysalis again. “Let’s get her stabilized first. We can freak out later. Now go get the maggots. We can use them to clean up the dead flesh, but also it’s an indicator as to the suitability of her body to this environment.”

I thought I understood, but lingered a little longer. “How will maggots help with that?”

“Non-Earth life could have different chemical characteristics. Perhaps it’s not carbon-based, or maybe the amino acids are of opposite orientation. Or maybe she’s just poisonous.”

I nodded. I was really glad I had worn gloves to move Chrysalis. “So you agree that she’s female?”

Maria gave me a look. “She has an ovipositor.”

“Oh.”

My wife turned back to her work. I left the house and got in the car. Maria had parked her truck beside it in the driveway. The old pickup had magnetic decals on the side advertising her veterinary business. The cargo compartment was covered and inside were supplies and equipment.

I made a quick trip to the bait shop to pick up some maggots. The gun at my back was uncomfortable against the car seat and I made sure to cover it with my shirt before going inside. The cashier assumed I was fishing and didn’t ask why I needed maggots. I don’t think I could have come up with a very good lie on the spot. Then again, why was I worried what someone thought about me buying bait at a bait shop? It’s not like I was sneaking away from my wife to go fishing. Actually, knowing Maria, she was more likely to do that to me.

It was only as I got back in the car that I realized that I had left my wife alone with a potentially dangerous creature. My drive back home was well above the speed limit. Luckily, Chrysalis still hadn’t moved from where she lay by the time I got there.

Maria had put on nitrile gloves and moved Chrysalis to a more natural position. Her wounds had been partially dressed. Maria was still working, but stood up as I came in. “She’s still breathing, but I don’t know about the condition of her internal organs. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. Now, would you mind telling me how this happened?”

I ran through the story for her. I could see that Maria was skeptical, but the proof was right there on the bloody blanket. I finished up with, “And so here we are, looking at some kind of alien-bug-pony thing in our house.”

Maria shook her head. “Why did you decide to bring her here? I know all the ‘pony on earth’ fanfictions begin that way, but this is real.”

I shrugged helplessly. “I guess I just wanted to help. I couldn’t just leave her lying there.”

My wife nodded in understanding. She wouldn’t be in the veterinary business if she didn’t care. She stepped towards me, keeping her gloved hands covered with changeling blood away. I knew the purple nitrile material was more resistant to oils and acid than latex. Maria said, “Well, I suppose we’re committed now. We’ll find a way to make it work.”

As a technical person, that was supposed to be my line. Still, I leaned forward to accept a kiss. We stood close for a moment, just enjoying being together. I felt more confident that we would indeed find a way to make this work.

Our reverie was interrupted by a raspy moan from the floor. I jerked in surprise, staring down at Chrysalis. Her sides rose and fell, drawing breath deeper than before. I saw her head move slightly.

My hand rested on the gun. Maria and I glanced at each other and we both stepped forward. I knelt by Chrysalis’ head, watching as she twitched again. Her abbreviated leg moved slightly at the shoulder joint.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I certainly didn’t want to touch her. I shifted my weight in preparation to stand up again. Chrysalis’ large green eyes snapped open and focused on me. A half second passed as we stared at each other in surprise. She reacted first.

I understood how meeting a strange creature for the first time can cause confusion and panic, but biting me may have been an overreaction. Her fangs jabbed into my forearm as I fell backwards while reflexively jerking away. The movement pulled my arm out of her mouth and I scrambled to put distance between the two of us.

Maria’s hand dove inside her medical duffel bag where I knew she kept a pistol. I shot to my feet and grabbed for my own gun with my other hand. She’d bitten the arm I usually used.

Several tense seconds passed. Chrysalis tried to get up but was too weak. She shifted her position to be less exposed but remained on the blanket, glaring defensively at Maria and I.

“Tell me where I am.” Her voice was clear, commanding, and carried a faint buzz of inhuman inflection. At least it was an understandable language.

“You’re in our house. We’re trying to help you,” Maria told her. I thought she sounded much more calm than I was. Granted, her job gave her experience in working with panicky creatures.

When Chrysalis shifted her attention to Maria, I took a moment to glance at my arm. The bite wasn’t very deep but it had drawn blood. The shock was already starting to wear off and give way to pain.

The changeling looked around the room, taking in the bare walls and floors and the moving boxes we hadn’t unpacked yet. Her eyes lingered on my computer. She looked back at us. “Why do you want to help?”

“You’re hurt; I’m a doctor. It’s my job.” Maria edged closer, holding both her hands non-threateningly. Chrysalis looked distrustful, but let her begin finishing the bandaging of her stump of a leg.

“What’s your name?” Maria asked conversationally.

“I am Chrysalis, Queen of the changelings,” she replied, confirming what we had suspected.

I asked, “How did you get here?”

Chrysalis looked in my direction. I still stood several feet away, drops of blood beginning to slide down my arm and my pistol held at my side with the other hand. While she might not have known what a firearm was, I’m pretty sure Chrysalis understood that I was still on edge and not happy with her. Furthermore, she was in no position to defend herself.

After composing herself to answer, she replied, “Enemies of mine attacked.”

“The Elements of Harmony?” I said without thinking.

Chrysalis looked mildly surprised, but nodded. “I do not know what effects their magic had, but it seems that I have been banished from my world, leaving my herd leaderless.”

A herd of changelings didn’t seem like the right word. Maybe hive would have sounded better. Still, what did I know? Maybe Chrysalis was running a public image campaign and replacing objectionable words with friendlier ones.

Maria finished up. “I’m afraid there’s nothing more we can do for your leg.”

“I have not received such a grievous injury in a very long time.” Chrysalis sighed. “With access to enough love, I may be able to recover.”

She could grow it back? I began to get nervous again, thinking that perhaps subsonic pistol bullets wouldn’t be enough firepower.

Chrysalis’ eyes fell on the small container of maggots I had brought. They squirmed around inside the the plastic container. “What’s this? A snack?”

I could see Maria’s medical mind considering that. If regeneration was possible, then maybe we didn’t need the maggots to remove the dead flesh. She opened the container and set it down in front of our guest.

Chrysalis’ tongue reminded me of a mosquito’s proboscis, and it was more than a little unsettling to see her begin spearing the small insects and pulling them into her mouth one by one.

“I thought changelings ate love,” I commented.

She paused. “We eat anything. We thrive on love.”

Eat...anything? Yeah, bringing her home was starting to look like less of a good idea.

Maria pulled me away to the kitchen sink and took a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a long roll of gauze from her bag. The peroxide - chemical formula H2O2 - bubbled in the wound, the extra oxygen stripping away to leave just plain water. It was not a disinfectant, but worked well as a cleaner.

“This is serious,” Maria whispered. “We don’t know if she has venom or is carrying a disease.”

I had considered that, and didn’t want to think about it. Maria slathered my arm with antibiotic ointment and wrapped it up with a bandage.

Chrysalis was just about finished with her, uh, snack when we came back. I pointed to my bandage. “What did you do to me?”

“I’m very sorry about that. You surprised me.”

“I’m not going to get sick, am I?”

She looked taken aback. “My bite is not poisonous, if that’s what you’re asking.”

I didn’t know if I could believe that. I had been taking every single word that came out of her mouth with a grain of salt. When somebody has such a bad reputation, it sets a negative precedence before you even meet them.

“Why don’t you tell us a little more about what happened to you,” Maria suggested.

“I think I should ask a question first.” Chrysalis looked contemplative. “I’ve never seen creatures such as yourselves before. What are you called?”

“The species is homo sapien, commonly called human beings, or more casually, people,” replied Maria.

“Now I’m sure that I am no longer in my own world.” Chrysalis’ ears drooped. “And if that is the case, how do you know about changelings and things like the Elements of Harmony?”

Maria’s mouth opened slowly, clearly unsure how to explain My Little Pony to a character that came from the show. Luckily, a great idea hit me.

“Surveillance,” I said. “As you can see, we have more technology than you’re accustomed to. We have large telescopes that can watch your planet.”

“Then how is it that we speak a common language?” Chrysalis asked.

I shrugged, feigning casual. “You just came through a magic portal; you tell me.”

Crysalis paused for a moment in consideration. “What do you know about my changelings and I?”

This time, I wasn’t so cool and collected with a ready answer. Maria and I shared a glance. I replied, “We know you aren’t afraid to invade a city and impersonate a princess.”

Chrysalis looked away. “I was doing it for the well being of my changelings. My intentions were not violent, but that plan unfortunately fell apart.”

“Why don’t the ponies like you?”

She snorted. “Haven’t you seen? We’re different. It wouldn’t take much to keep us all content, but they don’t trust the unknown.”

There might have been a barb in that comment aimed at me. She knew I didn’t trust her. I thought I had a pretty good reason, though. If Chrysalis was willing to take the place of Princess Cadance and lock the real one in the caves beneath Canterlot Castle, then she was more than capable of lying about her true purpose.

At the same time, I couldn’t afford to assume anything. All I knew about her came from what I saw on TV, and that hadn’t exactly been a documentary.

Right or wrong, I figured that the best option was to find a way to send her back to Equestria. If she was evil, then the ponies could deal with her. I just wanted her off my planet. Then again, maybe that’s exactly the same thing the ponies were thinking when they sent her here. Hopefully they didn’t do it again and we started some sort of interstellar game of tennis with Chrysalis as the ball.

I couldn’t afford to be distracted by thoughts like that. Forging ahead, I asked, “What would it take to send you back?”

“Hmm. First I would need to be able-bodied. Magic is as much physical as mental. After that, I would need to send a signal for help. Once assistance from my world was obtained, I would be able to complete a spell to go home.” Chrysalis’ look turned more serious. “I would need a very large amount of love. That doesn’t seem to be in abundance in this area. In fact, I haven’t even sensed very many humans or other sapient creatures around here.”

“I guess we’ll have to figure something out.” I felt conflicted about helping her. There was still a high likelihood that she was evil, but even if she was, helping her to go back was certainly better than letting her have free reign of Earth. I had seven billion people to think about, not just me. Ugh, talk about responsibility.

I glanced at Maria, and she seemed to agree that our best plan was sending Chrysalis back. But where would we find so much love?

The answer came to me in a moment. “Everfree Northwest.”

Maria caught on. “I can’t think of a better place to find love and tolerance than an MLP convention.”

Crysalis’ ears perked up. “What is that?”

“Next week, we had planned to go on vacation to a convention. When you showed up, it made me forget all about it. There is a show about ponies that some people like to watch.” I gestured to my wife. “That’s how Maria and I are so well informed about you.”

“Fans of the show congregate at conventions?” Chrysalis guessed.

I nodded. “Right. Your personal views on ponies aside, you have to admit that they’re a good source of love. I think maybe a large group of fans could have the same effect.”

“Interesting,” Chrysalis mused. “Perhaps I could be a special guest.”

I shook my head. “That’s not going to work. The show doesn’t depict you in a positive way.”

Maria added, “In addition, many people think it’s fictional; that you don’t actually exist. They don't know about the telescopes.”

We traded a glance. Both of us kept telling these lies, building the story further, and it was lucky we were managing to pull it off.

“Well, it’s a good thing that blending in is what changelings do best.” Chrysalis smiled. “It may take me a few tries to pass as human, an injured one, but I think I will be able to manage. When are you going to the convention?”

“We’re leaving a few days from now. The trip will take four days.”

Chrysalis suddenly looked worried. “How are we traveling? I’m certainly in no condition to walk.”

I smirked a little. She had a surprise coming her way. “It won’t be a problem.”

Maria checked her watch. “It’s past dinnertime. Are either of you hungry?”

I hadn’t realized it had gotten so late. “Yes.”

“I think I need my rest.” Chrysalis grimaced. Now that we’d gotten to know each other a little, she had time to take stock of her condition. Due to her unique physiology, she was already a lot better off than a human amputee would have been, but we couldn’t expect a lot from her while she recovered.

We got her some blankets and pillows and made her as comfortable as possible on the living room floor. After that, Maria and I went to get something to eat. Neither of us could be bothered to cook an extensive meal, so we just heated some soup.

We were within earshot of the living room. I pulled out my phone and set it down on the table. Maria did the same. We carried out a silent conversation through text.

I don’t think we can trust her, honey.

No kidding, Sandy?

Still, she might be telling us the truth about how bad her condition is. I didn’t see her demonstrate any ability to use magic.

Would you know it if you saw it?

I shrugged and changed the subject. How far do you think we can string her along with the telescopes story?

Depends on her reaction to seeing the show.

Maybe tell her that the telescopes aren’t that good and we have to recreate it with animation?

That could work.

I remembered something I had seen in the news section of Everfree Northwest’s website. A few voice actors from the show are going to be there. What if Tabitha St. Germain actually does sound like Rarity? How are we going to explain that?

Maria shrugged. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I think a more important question is: how the heck is this real? I mean, maybe there’s some sort of parallel universe where Rarity does the voice for an animated Tabitha, but the concept of that is still really hard to wrap your mind around.

I nodded in agreement. Just thinking about it was making my head hurt. Still, meeting Chrysalis had opened up a lot of possibilities. I could no longer say that things were black and white, possible or impossible. Suddenly being unsure of your place in the universe was more than a little terrifying.

We cleaned up after dinner and began to wind down for the night. I had a feeling that getting to sleep would take a while, so I wanted to get an early start at it.

After showering, I checked on Chrysalis again. She was breathing steadily and her eyes were closed. She may have been scorched, beaten, and broken, but somehow managed to look almost cute lying there. “Goodnight, Chrissy,” I murmured.

Maria and I went to bed. Both of us lay there quietly for a while. Maria turned slightly and touched my bandage. “How does it feel?”

“Still a little pain. I made sure to keep it dry in the shower. I don’t think anything weird is going on.”

Maria’s hand slid up my arm. I could faintly make out her face in the darkness. It was nice knowing that no matter what our guest might do, I could count on my wife. We scooted a little closer under the covers.

The first kiss was quick and to the point. The second was a little slower and more thoughtful. I was considering a third when there was a flicker of green light over by the door. The lock clicked open.

My handgun was sitting on the bedside table and I grabbed for it. On Maria’s side of the bed, she had already picked up her .40 caliber SIG-Sauer.

The door slowly opened and a pair of luminous green eyes appeared. Chrysalis grinned at the two of us lying in bed. “Don't mind me. Go on with what you were doing.”

Chapter 4

June 29, 2013
I was not surprised to wake up still feeling tired. Chrysalis was unaware of human bedroom customs and courtesies. She had apparently just been following the love when she barged in on Maria and I. Even after getting her to go to sleep it hadn’t been easy to get any shuteye of my own.

I awoke with alarm clock assistance at seven. I hadn’t reset it to let myself get a little more sleep on the weekend. I suspected Maria might also have been awake but refusing to get out of bed. This assumption was based on the fact that she moaned loudly enough to indicate her opinion that the alarm clock should take its business elsewhere. I couldn’t blame her. The sudden arrival of a changeling in our midst would cause anyone to want to sleep in.

Somebody had to deal with our guest, however. Even if that somebody was me, I still felt justified in dragging my feet a little. I knew that when I emerged from the bathroom I would have to deal with Chrysalis, so I resolved to take as long as possible.

I pulled my straight razor out of the drawer. I didn't usually shave with it because it took so much longer than a standard safety razor. There was also the additional risk of cutting myself. Still, it felt like a cold steel kind of day.

Shave soap works better than shaving cream. Not only is is slicker for the razor to slide on, but unlike more robust creams it leaves a thin mild film that you can see through. When you're using a straight razor, any bumps on your skin hidden under shaving cream will be painfully removed if you don't see them coming.

The soft scraping sound let me know the blade was working. I shaved downwards, reapplied soap, and then shaved a second time against the grain. The whole process was the closest shave a man could get, but took about half an hour from start to finish. Done right, it was therapeutic in a way.

I straightened my mohawk out, needing just a few quick swipes with the comb. I didn’t usually use gel. My hair is wavy enough to hold together reasonably well.

I finally emerged from the bathroom after finishing my other regularly scheduled morning activities. I picked up my glasses from the dresser and put them on. Maria was still in bed and I let her sleep. I guess that meant I was dealing with Chrysalis through the morning.

The changeling was resting on her makeshift bed when I stepped into the living room. I decided that if I had been taking time on my shave then I might as well spend a while to go all out for breakfast with bacon, eggs, and pancakes.

Chrysalis awoke just as I was putting the bacon on. She dragged herself with a hobbling three-legged gait but managed to make it to the breakfast bar in the kitchen. There was no way she could get her butt on a stool but she shifted slightly to lean against the wall for support.

I glanced at her as I tended the bacon. “Good morning.”

She nodded and yawned. Her teeth and tongue looked as scary as ever. She sniffed the air a little. “Is that...flesh?”

“Pig,” I replied.

She licked her lips and smiled. I turned away and focused on the cooking. She still creeped me out, and somehow that made even bacon seem less friendly.

Maria stumbled out of the bedroom just as I was finishing breakfast prep. I got out three plates and filled them with tasty things from the stove before serving them up on the breakfast bar. Chrysalis was tall enough to eat directly from the plate, her neck bent only slightly.

She ate with her face in the food, not using magic to lift bites into her mouth. Maybe she was still too weak for that, yet she had somehow unlocked the bedroom door the previous night. I was still somewhat wary that she was feigning being weaker than she really was.

Chrysalis seemed to enjoy the meal, judging by the bacon grease and pancake syrup remaining on her lips and the clean plate before her. I held out a napkin. She gave me a look, still balancing awkwardly on three legs.

“Sorry,” I muttered. I wiped her mouth as best I could. I really didn’t want my fingers that close to her teeth. A little dirt and ash came off with the breakfast remnants. I glanced at the temporary bed. Everything was dirty. “We need to get you cleaned up.”

“Perhaps that would be best,” Chrysalis acknowledged.

“I’ll put away the dishes,” Maria volunteered. She gave me a look that said, Good luck figuring out how to give a changeling a bath.

Chrysalis staggered a little as I led her towards the bathroom. Letting her lean against me helped somewhat. This was the closest I’d been to her so far and I made a few observations. Her hide was stiff and tough, but somewhat flexible. I couldn’t tell if it was the same chitin that composed regular insect exoskeletons or something else. Certain parts of her body had short stiff bristles, like something you might see on the body of a housefly. I wondered if more of them had been burned or sheared off during her accident.

I had to assist Chrysalis in getting over the edge of the bathtub. “How hot do you like your water?”

“Just warm, please.” Her tone was civil and friendly. It helped me forget that I was in the bathroom with a naked, sapient female who wasn’t my wife.

With one bandaged arm, I was only of limited usefulness in trying to scrub her. A sponge or loofah would get caught in the bristles on her body. In addition, I didn’t want to be too rough on the spots where she had been injured.

While her cleaved leg was the major concern, Crysalis’ gossamer wings had also been torn away. There wasn’t much left, not even enough to get a basic idea of how they might have functioned. Based on what I remembered from the show, they had never looked physically capable of supporting her weight. Maybe there was a significant amount of magic involved.

While scrubbing didn’t do much good, the flowing water did wash away plenty of soil and charred ash. I knew we would have to reapply Chrysalis’ bandages, but that was probably a smart idea anyway.

I wrapped her in a towel and and brought her back to the living room. Maria had anticipated the need for new bandages and looked up from her medical bag as we came in. Her mouth quirked, trying not to smile at the sight of Chrysalis swaddled in a fluffy towel.

We got Chrysalis to lie down again and checked her wounds. Even if only a day had passed, they seemed to be healed noticeably. My arm hadn’t, however, and I still felt somewhat cross at her for that. At least my injury hadn’t become any worse.

Still, Chrysalis seemed remarkably good at garnering forgiveness. Even if she was fully healed I wouldn’t call her cute, but lying on her back wearing a faint smile as we tended to her she looked less like a bug and more like a puppy.

“Where’s your leg?” Maria asked.

I looked around. Sure enough, the detached appendage was nowhere to be seen.

“I cleaned it up,” Chrysalis explained, licking her lips for emphasis. “I don’t know if I can find proper vitamins and minerals for healthy growth on this planet, so I shouldn’t waste any. Also, I felt that I should be a good guest and not leave parts of myself lying around.”

That was so...creepy. Practical, perhaps, but creepy. She could give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money in terms of casual cannibalism.

Maria finished up with the bandaging. “I had a few appointments scheduled for later today. I needed to take care of them before going on vacation. Can I leave you two alone together?”

“Yes ma’am,” said Chrysalis, lazily saluting with her good foreleg.

“I did have a few things to do,” I said. I turned to Chrysalis. “Are you well enough to change shape?”

“Let me see.” A ripple of green magic began to lick at her body like fire. Her shape distorted and changed, becoming somewhat smaller and more mammalian. In a few seconds, she had transformed into a large dog.

One foreleg was still missing and the fur was scraggly, but at least she didn’t look like a changeling anymore. Maria nodded and gave her a quick scratch behind the ears. “Good girl.”

Chrysalis stood and practiced walking. With shorter legs, she seemed to have an easier time of it. Maria went to get ready for the day. I went into the bedroom to change. I put on a long sleeved shirt to cover the bandage on my arm. It also did pretty well at concealing the pistol holster I threaded onto my belt. The 1911 dropped into place and I tested to make sure it was secure before covering it with the shirt.

I left the bedroom and headed for the front door. “Coming, Chrissy?”

She panted and wagged her tail, beginning to get in character. I led her outside. Chrysalis paused, looking at the two vehicles in the driveway. “I assume that these are conveyances of some kind?”

It was strange to hear the words come from a dog’s mouth, although whether it would have been more or less strange to get them from a non-disguised changeling was up for debate.

“That’s right. They’re pretty common in this part of the world.” I opened the passenger side door of my car for her and rolled down the window. The morning was already getting warm and I wasn’t planning to drive fast enough to make the breeze uncomfortable.

Chrysalis settled herself awkwardly on the seat. Larger breeds of dogs don’t fit well in cars, and when the dog is actually an alien insectoid pony thing unused to the shape or having a missing leg, it only gets worse.

I went around and got behind the wheel, also rolling my window down. Chrysalis looked around as the engine started, hearing and feeling the rumble. My car is not outrageously powerful, it just has dual glasspacks.

I backed out of the driveway onto the main road. I thought about telling Chrysalis to wear a seatbelt, but that would have looked weird on a dog. Besides, if she could fall from the sky into power lines and only suffer injuries that could be regenerated, I figured a car accident wouldn’t hurt her too much.

We went out to the old radio facility. The front gate was still hanging open and I drove through. The weather was dry with no morning dew, and I found my clipboard just as I had left it. I thought Chrysalis should probably see the place where she had landed. Maybe it would give her some clues as to her situation.

She stepped out of the car and spent a few moments surveying the area. There was a blackened crater decorated with bits of metal and downed electric wires. Chrysalis looked up at the sky, not seeming to find anything of value. She turned around. “I don’t know why I landed here, but I still think that the original plan of visiting the convention would be best. I don’t think the location of my departure point for going back to Equestria matters.”

That was good to hear. We got back in the car and drove to the gate. After shutting it, I spent a moment finishing the paperwork, including a note about the strange site where, oh, maybe a meteor or something had knocked down an electrical transformer. Got to watch out for that space junk.

After that, we headed for town. I had made arrangements to drop my report in the office mail slot so I didn’t have to come in on Monday morning. Chrysalis looked around, sometimes hanging her head out the window to better observe the town. It must have been clear to her that it was a small settlement, but the architecture and other vehicles might have provided some clues about our technology level. She seemed fascinated by the bank’s animated time/temperature display.

I stopped at an intersection. Republic was too small to have stoplights, so I wasn’t delayed long. However, just as I was about to take my foot off the brake a voice called out, “Hey Sandy!”

With a quick prayer, I turned to look out the passenger window. I had been accosted by Taco, a man regarded as the local nut.

He stuck his head in the window. “Oh hey, you got a dog. Where did you come from, girl?”

For a panicked moment, I thought she was going to answer him. Instead, she played it cool and only wagged her tail, accepting a pat on the head from Taco.

“This is Chrissy. She’s a rescue,” I explained.

“Hmm, yeah, she looks like she’s seen a lot.” Taco frowned at her injuries. He was instantly back to smiling, however. “Hey Sandy, I saw an alien the other day!”

I stiffened. “Really?”

“Yeah, he was all tall and green and wanted to see my leaders. I told him to shove off because I don’t believe in government.”

I exhaled. “Good for you, Taco.”

“Thanks Sandy. See you around.”

Chrysalis gave me a look as we drove away. “Are you visited by aliens often?”

“Well, no. Taco claims to meet them all the time but I have yet to see any evidence that he’s telling the truth.” Despite that, I suddenly decided that I would start being a little more tolerant of him from now on. Call it empathy.

We drove on and I stopped outside the office. After dropping off my paperwork I got back in the car. It was still midmorning. I realized I didn’t have very much to do for the rest of the day. There was so much I could teach Chrysalis about Earth, but was that a good idea? For example, what would she do with access to the internet?

There were other things she could learn about, however. Republic was a tiny town. At the very least I could show Chrysalis a larger place so she wouldn’t be completely overwhelmed when confronted with Seattle.

“How about a little jaunt?” I suggested.

Chrysalis seemed to agree with that and wagged her tail. I appreciated her staying in character. Her focus on staying inconspicuous would make things easier when she had to pass for human. If our plan of using the brony convention to draw love was successful, she might have to blend in as part of the crowd.

I pointed the car towards the highway. The city of Marquette was about thirty miles away and the road leading there was scenic. Forests lined the pavement, occasionally giving way to fields and low hills. The elevation changes were small, nothing coming close to mountains. After all, the highest point in Michigan is less than two thousand feet. A glacier passing through several thousand years ago mostly flattened the whole area.

The road was built beside the small Teal Lake. The sun sparkled off the water and a few boats were out taking advantage of the Saturday morning. Chrysalis seemed appreciative of the scenery, from what I could tell of her doggy expressions.

A few more miles passed and Marquette came into view. It was just about that time that my stomach growled. Making breakfast for a guest had stretched everything a little further than I would have liked.

Fortunately, a solution soon presented itself. I turned off the road into the McDonald’s parking lot. Chrysalis sniffed the air, clearly picking up the smells from inside.

Pulling around to the drive through, I ordered a quarter pounder with cheese from the speaker box. I glanced at Chrysalis and amended, “Actually, make it two.”

We collected the burgers and I paid. Chrysalis seemed suitably impressed by the efficiency of human restaurants, and sniffed the bag closely. The disguised changeling paused and rolled her eyes upward to look at me without removing her nose from the bag. It would be an incredibly cute thing for a dog to do. I turned away and kept driving.

The road dead ended at the shores of Lake Superior where there was a small parking lot. Chrysalis and I sat on the hood of the car and ate our cheeseburgers while staring at the crystal blue waters that stretched to the horizon.

I had to hold her sandwich for her while she took bites. Chrysalis was kind enough not to chomp my fingers in the process. She seemed to like McDonald’s food. I guess changelings really will eat anything.

When I noticed Chrysalis sniffing earlier, I wondered about her senses. I figured they were probably better than my own, but were they affected by changing forms? Was her nose better when she was a dog? Actually, that was an interesting line of thought. How much were her powers affected by different forms? Did she need to be au naturale to use magic?

I filed those thoughts away for later. We got back in the car and headed for home. Chrysalis panted happily and seemed to be enjoying herself. I smiled slightly.

I wanted to like her. Other than the biting incident that she had apologized for, and walking in while Maria and I were in bed which she hadn’t realized was a faux pas, she hadn’t been much of an antagonist. No mind control, no evil behavior. She didn’t seem as bad as I had expected.

At the same time, I couldn’t afford to put any blind faith in her. Despite her innocent behavior, the fact remained that I knew next to nothing about her situation. Was that prejudice or just cautious? What would the ponies do?

I used the episode where Discord came back as an example in my mind. Fluttershy helped, but the rest shunned him. Ultimately, the problem was solved with kindness, but what if it had gone the other way? Well, then her friends would have been prepared to kick some tail.

There was a lesson there. Speak softly but carry a big stick. I just hoped I could handle both. Not everyone can be Theodore Roosevelt.

As we drove west again I thought about some priorities. Tomorrow Maria and I would need to pack in preparation for the trip. If possible, maybe we could help Chrysalis get used to being in human form.

I felt conflicted about that. A dog disguise I could live with, but somehow an artificial human rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't like the uncertainty. She would walk, talk, and act like a real person but I would know that she wasn’t. Maybe this was why ponies detested changelings.

My mind began to drift to more and more random thoughts that were only vaguely related to the situation. If Chrysalis existed, then clearly the mane six and the rest of the show’s cast must. Was there I chance that I could meet them? Maybe I could even meet...Best Pony? That would be cool. I would gladly put up with a changeling in exchange for that opportunity.

The only way it could be better was if Teddy Roosevelt was also there.

Chapter 5

June 30, 2013
For various reasons, we didn’t go to church on Sunday morning. Partly the fact that we had just moved and didn’t know our options, but also taking Chrysalis along seemed like a bad idea. Leaving her home by herself was probably even worse.

As she seemed to get more comfortable around us, her curiosity picked up and she investigated everything. I didn’t have kids of my own, but corralling her made me think of herding children. I almost forgot that she was a queen of a legion of love-sucking bugs.

I didn’t see any harm in letting her look at an atlas. We would be driving across the country anyway. Similar to her as-yet unexplained ability to speak English, she seemed to be able to read the language very well.

Maps were fine, but other reading material I was more hesitant on. I had picked up a twenty-year-old set of encyclopedias from a library book sale for five bucks, intending to use the books as a slow, offline search engine if the need should ever arise.

Luckily, before Chrysalis could go asking about them, Maria came to the rescue with a pile of harlequin romance novels that kept Chrysalis busy for most of the morning. She was happy with all kinds of love, it seemed, even if it was fake and text-based. If it ever became necessary to tell her about fanfiction, it was good to know I could pacify her with clop.

At some point, however, the topic of human transformation came up. I was still feeling weirded out by it, but knew that it was probably our best bet for getting Chrysalis into the convention without raising suspicion. The hotel probably didn’t allow pets.

Maybe easing into it by quenching some curiosity of my own would help. Plus, if I was careful I could learn more about her ability.

I still felt conflicted about trusting Chrysalis. I hadn’t witnessed with my own eyes anything to indicate that she was a threat. There was still so much we didn’t know, however. For that reason, I agreed to help Chrysalis transform into a species she’d never tried before.

Maria and I had moved in enough furniture to have seats for us. Chrysalis lounged on the couch, but her face was alert and inquisitive.

“Explain to me about the clothing,” she requested.

“It’s socially required,” I said. “Also, people don’t have a thick covering of hair.”

“That complicates things.” Chrysalis reached a hoof up to rub her chin thoughtfully but with her other leg missing she fell over on the couch. I restricted myself from chuckling.

“Forming clothing might be difficult, but I think I could manage.” Chrysalis sat back and repositioned her hind legs to hang over the edge of the couch in a Lyra-like posture. Then, the green flame-like sparkles of her magic began to wash over her body.

The tip of her horn went first, the green fire washing down over her head and continuing across her torso. Her missing front leg translated into a missing arm. The change kept going all the way down across her lower body.

I leaned forward in my chair, stabbing a finger towards the near-clone of Maria that had appeared on the couch. “No, absolutely not that!”

Chrysalis blinked, looking between me and the woman she’d used as a model. She might have been confused, but my outburst was enough motivation for her to try something else. Slowly, her hair color began to change and the structure of her face shifted somewhat. Her body changed slightly, stretching a little in a couple of directions.

She still resembled Maria enough to be related, but now there was something else recognizable blended in. At first I couldn’t figure out what it could be.

The realization of what it was hit me so hard that I sat back in my chair in astonishment. I was looking at what could have been our adult daughter. Her appearance was parts of both Maria and I, and looked twice as unsettling as it sounds.

I sat frozen, staring at her. I expected that this would be weird, but I had no idea exactly how much. The implication, that she could literally be anyone, was frightening. This was reinforced by the almost perfect imitation of my wife she had pulled off.

Chrysalis’ face contorted, her mouth dropping open to gasp for air in sudden exhaustion. Her skin began to turn grey as if attempting to shift back to her natural shade. Lumps and wrinkles appeared, and her hair visibly degraded right before my eyes.

Maria and I were both out of our chairs and by Chrysalis’ side in an instant. The changeling gasped, “Too much too soon.”

She hadn’t gone back to her usual form completely, but at the moment resembled some sort of twisted chimera. Taking deep breathes, Chrysalis managed to get herself under control. Slowly, she began to shift back towards the more human end of the appearance scale. Unfortunately, Chrysalis’ efforts only succeeded in her resembling a burn victim. She was more like a human-shaped mass of scar tissue.

“I’ll get better at it,” she said, catching her breath. “It may take a while.”

I relaxed. While I might be skeptical about her, I still cared for Chrysalis’ wellbeing. Regardless that she was the possibly evil queen of the changelings, I really didn’t enjoy seeing her suffer.

Well, I supposed we could lend her some clothing so she didn’t have to generate it herself. Also, we could potentially spin her marred appearance in our favor. If something so obvious was wrong with her, maybe people would overlook something else that wasn’t quite right about Chrysalis.

Despite her unhealthy look, Chrysalis seemed to be fine after taking a moment to recover. I cringed slightly as she put her disfigured arm around my shoulders but I helped her to stand anyway. She wobbled slightly on two legs. Her irregular shape and one missing limb probably didn’t help.

“Why don’t people have tails for balance?” she muttered. “Dragons are stupid, but at least they know how biology works.”

“People don’t have claws, scales, or large teeth, either. Our big advantage is being smarter than anything that wanted to take us down,” provided Maria. While that might not have fit with our campaign to keep Chrysalis as in the dark about people as possible, I decided that it served as a fine demonstration of humanity’s capabilities. Hopefully that would prove a deterrent against aggression if it came down to it.

Chrysalis grew a little more confident and tried standing on her own. She was not very stable, but managed to walk a few steps without falling.

Apparently picking up on my thoughts from earlier, Maria suggested, “Why don’t you come with me? I’ll get you something to wear so you don’t have to imitate it yourself.”

She took Crysalis’ hand and led her into the bedroom. I turned and sat down at my laptop. There was an itemized checklist I had been typing up that theoretically contained everything Maria and I need for our trip. Now that we had another guest coming along, I would have to edit it. That could wait a little bit. I pointed my mouse to the favorites and selected the ponyfiction website of which I was a member.

This was the place where I had spend more time than any other website over the last two years of my life. Even if it wasn’t about ponies, I liked the atmosphere and constructive criticism. Sometimes I read stories. Usually I wrote them. Some other people on the site liked what I wrote. It was a good arrangement.

I pulled up the messages page and found a particular user. He had been the one to invite me to Everfree Northwest. He’d told me that his name was Mr. Tristan. Regardless of whether that was true or a pseudonym, I trusted him enough to ask a few questions.

While the ‘con did sell tickets on site, I knew Tristan was some kind of organizer and would know more. I typed, I have another guest joining my wife and I. What do you require for buying a ticket at the door? Picture ID, or just cash in hand?

Tristan must have been online because he responded in minutes. Being three time zones behind my own Eastern, I wondered what he was doing up so early on Sunday morning. Maybe with the convention coming up, he had stopped sleeping.

The reply from Tristan was long. Just add the extra badge to your Everfree account and pick them all up when you get there. The account holder would need ID but I don’t know why the guest would. I think last year they would have taken cash or credit/debit at the door but they were sold out. Some people never made it in after flying across the country, or so I heard. This year we should have space though. Email registration@everfreenw.com about the ID. I’m just helping with panels this year but if they allow parents to pick up badges for kids without ID then I don’t see why picking up adult badges that you paid for as a set would be any different. It’s not like you need security clearance or something.

What’s the problem with ID? Did Twilight walk through your mirror or something? ;D

I had a bit of a reputation for human fics. Well, actually I had a reputation for warfics, but in figuring how to fit weapons into ponyfiction, introducing people seemed like the ideal way most of the time. I can't help writing about war; I just want to be Tom Clancy when I grow up.

I might have replied to Tristan's message, but the wall of text I had received from asking just one question was a deterrence. Instead, I did as he suggested and went over to the Everfree Northwest website to modify my account.

As I was finishing that up, the bedroom door opened and I turned. It looked like Maria had given Chrysalis some pointers on proper body shape. Even if her skin was still crude, she looked a little more like a human female rather than a bad copy that incorporated equal parts woman and man.

She wore a pair of jeans sized to fit Maria, and a sweatshirt too large for her that I recognized as my own University of Michigan hoodie. Not that I was complaining. Anything of Maria’s that fit better would have had objectionable logos on it. Maria went to Michigan State, you see.

One sleeve of the sweatshirt was tucked into the front pocket. It was a reasonable way to conceal her missing arm. With the hood up, most of her face was hidden and she only had to work on making a small part of her skin presentable.

“I guess we have to go out in public sometime,” I suggested. “We might as well go to lunch.”

Maria mentioned that she needed to stop by a local horse farm and drop off a few supplies in preparation for some foals to be born, so she drove. Her grey Dodge Ram was a decade old but she kept it neat as a pin. There were magnetic signs on the doors that listed her business and phone number.

Getting into the truck, Chrysalis seemed to appreciate having a body appropriate for the seats. Maria was already behind the wheel so I had to get in the back seat.

We drove into town. Taco was in his usual place and flagged us down. “Hey guys! Who’s your friend?”

“This is Chrissy,” said Maria.

Taco frowned in confusion. I quickly blurted out, “She’s named after the dog.”

That was the opposite of what I meant to say, but it seemed like enough explanation for Taco. He smiled and nodded. “Nice to meet you, Chrissy. See you all around.”

As we drove away, Chrysalis asked, “How does he know you so well? I thought you just moved to this town.”

I shrugged. “I guess Taco’s friendly to everybody. Maria and I haven’t had time to get acquainted with a lot of people around town yet.”

We stopped at a local restaurant and went inside. Maria and I instinctively moved close to Chrysalis to hide her from view. Or was it for her protection? Chrysalis huddled under her hood, seemed to sense our feelings about remaining incognito.

Thankfully, the waitress didn’t seem to be paying much attention. She dealt out menus and left. Chrysalis studied hers, occasionally asking for clarification about something. The corners of her mouth turned up. “So much meat.”

I suddenly felt really guilty about being an omnivore. I don’t think Chrysalis meant to, but she kept finding new ways to creep me out. Worse, I couldn’t blame her for it. Not only didn’t she know better, but she kept finding entertaining ways to make up for it.

Like when the waitress came back to take our orders. Chrysalis looked up and smiled. “I would like a ground beef hamburger, please.”

“How would you like that cooked?”

“They come cooked?”

We passed it off as a joke and the waitress laughed. As Chrysalis, Maria, and I were left alone to wait for our food, she took a few contemplative looks around the restaurant. Some customers had come with their families, others were in pairs or all alone. Observing this, she asked, “Are humans social creatures?”

“We are, although not to the extent of some species,” Maria explained. “Independence and adaptability is something we do well.”

A great quote from Heinlein came to mind, but I didn’t mention it. Chrysalis considered what Maria had said. “So how is the government structured?”

“How do you know we have a government?” I asked.

She smirked. “The restaurant’s license to operate that I saw hanging on the wall had to come from somewhere.”

Once again, I reminded myself that this was a possibly immortal being who had held the title of queen. She was not an idiot, and I would have to be careful of everything I said to her. Answering the question, I said, “Almost all government officials are elected. Furthermore, many of them can be removed from power if the people aren’t happy with their performance. Around the world things are a little different. Some places still have royalty, but the elections are still common.”

Chrysalis frowned. “But then how does anything get done? It seems inefficient.”

I could have explained how US government function trickled down through congress and the functions of everything in the system. Like any responsible individual, I knew the structure of my own government. To avoid spending too much time on the subject and also perhaps deny Chrysalis the knowledge of how to eliminate the senior leadership, I simply said, “It just works. Somehow. Sort of.”

That didn’t let me off easy on the questions, though. Even as our food arrived, Chrysalis continued to ask various things, mostly stuff she just happened to think of at the time. “How do the sesame seeds stay so perfectly on the hamburger bun? I understand the salt shaker, but why pepper? When did your culture evolve to using paper napkins?”

I answered most of them without much thought. As I was pulling out a few bills to pay, however, Chrysalis glanced at the money and asked, “Who is God?”

“Huh?”

“‘In God we trust.’ God must be important to you.”

I put my answer together as the waitress left to make change. “God is a deity. A really popular one.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“What do you mean?” I frowned. “God never really came up in conversation.”

“Not even when we were discussing how to send me home?” she asked.

“God doesn’t really do that,” Maria answered. I saw her hand dip into her purse.

“Then what does he or she do?” Chrysalis looked at the two of us. “Can you go and meet this god?”

“Not exactly.”

Her eyes narrowed. In a different tone, Chrysalis asked, “Does God actually exist?”

Wow, I don’t think I’d ever seen such a quick jump from ignorance to agnosticism. I said, “Yes,” although immediately afterwards I myself wondered if it was true. Having my universe so thoroughly twisted by the arrival of an evil cartoon character was the obvious cause. Immediately after that, I felt bad for having such flimsy principles. I had always liked to consider myself as someone who stood for things.

“God exists. Regardless of whether that’s true literally or figuratively, we all need something to believe in.” As Maria spoke, I saw a few beads of her rosary emerge from her purse wrapped around her hand. Her tone held a little more conviction than mine had. Don’t get between Catholic girls and their religion.

Chrysalis seemed about to say something else, but reconsidered as if thinking that it would be impolite to argue. She mercifully let the subject go. I didn’t know whether the concept of actual deities existed in her world. The Equestrian alicorns might be considered that by some, but since Chrysalis defeated Princess Celestia, clearly she was unimpressed.

We left the restaurant and headed to the horse farm. Maria said that her business there would only take a few minutes and left Chrysalis and I in the truck. A curious horse wandered over and stood by the fence, staring at us.

Chrysalis stared back for a few moments and shook her head. “It’s always so dull to see a species without anything to go on emotionally.”

While I was no vet like Maria, I thought horses had fairly well defined emotions. It was mostly in the ears, but body language also played a part. To be fair, I only knew that because I had spent a while studying horses. My first girlfriend left me for a guy with a horse, and it took me some time to get over it.

But back to my point, maybe Chrysalis wasn’t very good at reading expressions visually since she was so experienced with love and other intangible emotions. It was an interesting thought that I filed away for later.

Maria came back and we went home. Packing for the trip probably should have happened earlier than the night before we left, but obviously there had been mitigating circumstances.

Chrysalis sat there watching as I filled my suitcase. She had shifted back to her usual form, expressing a sigh of relief as if shedding uncomfortable clothes. Her mane and tail had started to grow back. I only use those words for convenience because the delicate green membranous material didn’t really look like hair.

I paused in my packing and glanced at her. “What happened to your crown?”

“My what?”

“Exactly what I said.” I gestured. “That pointy thing that’s supposed to go on your head.”

“You must mean my crest,” she corrected. “Yes, I suppose it does look a bit like a crown; fitting for a queen, yes? It is a biologic adaptation that denotes leadership among changelings. I seem to have lost mine when I was injured.”

“Well, you seem to be doing a good job of growing everything else back,” I noted.

She smiled. “Thank you. I think I can attribute most of it to your hospitality.”

With a compliment like that, I didn’t even mind when she went off to bed still wearing my sweatshirt.

Source

Author's Note

I guess I haven't really been emphasizing how much Piquo Pie has worked on this story. He's pretty much the filter between my typing and internet posting.

This chapter was guest preread by Kicks Mcgee

Due to one thing and another, there will likely not be a new chapter of Roadtrip until July 1. It's not a hiatus if you know exactly when you're coming back, right?

Chapter 6

July 1, 2013
Monday morning dawned, and we set about getting ready to leave. Over breakfast, we debated which vehicle to drive. Maria’s truck was newer, but my car had a larger interior, was easier to park in the big city, and ran on gasoline which was cheaper than diesel. Also, Chrysalis seemed to think that more people looked at the bright orange Plymouth with respect and admiration, which apparently were emotions she found appetizing.

Maria and I got our luggage packed in the trunk. We also took along a bag of extra clothing for Chrysalis. The concept of things like toothbrushes, deodorant, and makeup was foreign to her, so she traveled light and without a lot of things most women would have.

I made one last trip through the house. I wore another long sleeve shirt today to cover the bandage on my arm. I left it untucked to cover my gun. The nonresident handgun permit issued to me by the state of Florida was also accepted by the states we would be driving across.

Satisfied that I hadn’t forgotten anything, I went out and joined Maria and Chrysalis in the car. The engine started easily and we were on our way.

We drove south and west, angling to meet the larger highways and interstates. The first four-lane we encountered made Chrysalis look around in surprise at the amount of traffic and the variety of vehicles including semi trucks.

The trip was pleasant, as I knew it would be. The bench seats in my car were about like La-Z-Boy couches and the 2.76 gears provided a good cruising speed. Acceleration was not a problem, due to something called torque. Never heard of it? That’s okay; if you don’t drive a V8, you probably don’t have any.

We made it to Minneapolis by the afternoon. The streets were crowded and so was the hotel where we had reservations. As Maria and I had not been expecting to have a guest, we’d only booked one bed. Chrysalis would have to continue sleeping on the floor.

When I apologized to her for it, she shrugged it off. “Carpet is still better than the floor of a cave.”

Somehow, with the title of Queen, I had expected a little bit better accommodations. There was still a lot I didn’t know because the TV show only revealed a small slice of the world. Depending on how long Chrysalis would be around, I should ask questions about the environment in order to better build the world in my stories.

Chrysalis, Maria and I joined the crowds and made our way towards the baseball stadium. As the closest professional team to my house that wasn’t the Brewers, I might as well be a fan of the Twins. Maria tolerated them, and I figured that Chrysalis might enjoy the experience.

After getting an extra ticket from a helpful scalper outside, we walked into the stadium. The grandstands weren’t full yet, but they were getting close as we found our seats. I could see Chrysalis’ eyes widening at the size of the place. “How many people are here?”

I vaguely remembered the answer. “Forty thousand, give or take.”

“Is this...is this a large sporting event?”

“Not really.” I grinned and indicated her borrowed sweatshirt. “The University of Michigan pulls in crowds of more than one hundred thousand to every home football game.”

“Don’t forget the Indy 500,” put in Maria, alway willing to top any Michigan story I told.

“Yeah,” I acknowledged. “The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has seats for a quarter-million, and sometimes standing crowds add up to about four hundred thousand.”

By this point, Chysalis’ mouth was hanging open. I thought it was partly in amazement and partly in appetite. In turnabout for providing information, I wanted to ask how many changelings were in her herd and how many ponies were in Equestria. I lost her attention, though, as she shook her head a little and glanced around the crowd. None of the other fans were paying us any mind. I wondered how the emotions related to the game would feel to a changeling.

The teams took the field. The game that night pitted the Twins against the Yankees. The crowd’s excitement and volume ramped up as the pitches were thrown and occasionally hit.

Unfortunately for the Twins, there were not enough hits and the Yankees won 10-4. This was apparently the first of a four game series in Minneapolis, and I hoped that maybe things would turn around by the end of it. The first night’s performance was not encouraging.

Chrysalis looked around, realizing that most of the hometown crowd was disappointed. “I take it things would be different if the outcome had changed.”

“Pretty much,” I replied as we walked back to the car.

“Why do you have so much emotional investment in how others play a game?”

That was a good question. I shrugged. “Maybe people like to be part of a winning team. If you’re going to do that, it also involves standing loyally by through the losses.”

Chrysalis considered that. “I think I’m a Yankees fan. They have a better win-loss ratio.”

“You can’t science baseball! Think with your emotions, not with your statistics!"

She seemed confused. “Why? That logic doesn’t make sense.”

I could make a joke about Mr. Spock, but she wouldn’t get it. I shook my head. “Sometimes it’s just more important. Love, or something like it, trumps a lot of common sense.”

It seemed like I had given Chrysalis a lot to think about. She didn’t say much for the rest of the night. We went back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. There was a long drive ahead of us.

July 2, 2013
We had a couple of options in planning our route west of Minneapolis. The three of us talked about it over breakfast in the hotel.

Chrysalis inspected the hotel’s offering of small pastries and cereal while not contributing much to the conversation. Maria glanced at her and then back to me. “Why don’t we take a more southern route? If she feeds on love and positive emotion, North Dakota is definitely not the place for her.”

I opened our travel atlas on the breakfast table and traced a route with my finger. The drive wasn’t that much further if we cut a bit more south. Either way, we needed to get going.

We drove south on I-35 heading for I-90 to take us west. The Spam museum was nearby, a few miles out of our way, but Maria firmly said no. I suppose Chrysalis wouldn’t think it was so novel because she had never even heard of the stuff. She did say she could eat anything, though.

The drive was mostly uneventful. We stopped in Sioux Falls for lunch. Mitchell came into view that afternoon. I’d heard about the Corn Palace there and we had a few minutes to spare in order to drive by.

It was a building with minarets and onion domes that was completely covered in colored corn.

“Huh.”

“Imagine that.”

“Let’s keep driving.”

Unfortunately, between Mitchell and our next destination there was nothing. About an hour into the drive, we crossed the Missouri river and passed the town of Chamberlain, population 2,400. The next two hours revealed even less, only open prairie with low rolling hills. The road only curved once every few miles.

As we continued driving further west, however, the horizon started to rise. The Badlands of western South Dakota were drawing closer. Finally, a little elevation change.

A sign beside the road caught my eye and I instinctively took the exit it pointed to. Maria had been dozing and woke up as the car slowed down.

“Roadside attraction,” I told her.

“What is it?”

“It’s the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.”

She rolled her eyes in the exasperated way that a woman does when her husband is slightly obsessive about nuclear weapons. I pulled into the parking lot of the visitors center, getting out and tipping the seat forward so Chrysalis could climb out of the back seat.

She looked at the building and the equipment sitting nearby. “What is this?”

“Just a little history lesson.” In terms of a demonstration of human capabilities, this was perfect. I escorted her into the museum, pointing out interesting things as we went along. Old black and white photos, sketches of missiles, a video of a nuclear explosion.

The looping film had no sound, but Chrysalis stared at it with her full attention. After a moment of silence, she asked, “How powerful are these weapons?”

“They used to test these things out in the Pacific Ocean. There used to be some islands out there that were wiped off the face of the Earth during the tests.”

I paused for a moment and then added, “There are several thousand of these weapons produced by several countries around the world.”

Chrysalis tore her eyes from the screen. “But why could you need so many? Why could you need them at all?”

“It’s a concept called mutually assured destruction,” I explained. “If one country wanted to destroy another, the second country would have a large number of weapons so that any of the weapons not destroyed in the initial attack could be used to strike back.”

“But if that many of these nuclear bombs were used, would it completely annihilate the planet?”

“Probably,” I admitted. “It would be even worse with the aftereffects and fallout continuing to poison the environment.”

There were a lot of other things at the museum, including a tour of a bunker and missile silo. I didn’t want to keep Maria waiting, though, and Chrysalis didn’t seem to want to stay either.

When we went outside to the car, Maria was sitting behind the wheel. I paused for a moment in mild surprise and then got in the other side after helping Chrysalis into the back. Maria started the car and drove us away.

It was easy to criticize my wife’s driving. She wasn’t as practiced with the Plymouth, and didn’t handle its operation nearly as smoothly as I would have. As I glanced at her, I saw Chrysalis looking at me curiously. I turned back to the front and kept my mouth shut about Maria’s driving.

We headed on down the road and my thoughts went back to the museum. While I felt a little bad about depressing Chrysalis, nukes sure served as a valuable lesson about why you shouldn’t mess with the human race. Still, she could do with some cheering up. So could Maria and I.

It was fortunate, then, that the town of Wall appeared. All across the state we had been seeing billboards for a place called Wall Drug. The signs advertised things like statues, music, food, and free ice water.

Because there isn’t much else to do in South Dakota, the billboards had been like a beacon inviting us to a worthy destination. And what a place it was.

Wall Drug was sort of like a shopping mall with restaurants, a museum, a chapel, gift shops, an art gallery, dinosaur statues, and a large fiberglass jackalope that you could sit on. Everything had a decidedly western theme. It was a tacky tourist trap, but I must admit some fascination in walking through the corridors and spotting something new with every step. Sure enough, they had free ice water.

There was a smile on Chrysalis’ face at the novelty. I’m sure that among all the tourists there was probably plenty of emotion to snack on. Speaking of, it was time for dinner and we ate average food with above average prices in one of the shops of the complex.

Sitting across the table from Maria and I, Chrysalis pulled down her sweatshirt hood for the first time in days. The hair she had grown looked realistic and glossy enough to be in a shampoo commercial. Her arm was still just a nub, but overall she was looking healthier all the time.

After dinner we got back on the road again, heading for our reserved hotel room in Rapid City. After arriving, Maria claimed first shower. As the water began to run, Chrysalis asked, “Why did you seem so annoyed when Maria started driving?”

“Well, I sort of feel that it’s my job. It is my car, after all.”

“Was she somehow getting back at you for stopping at a landmark that she had no interest in?”

I shrugged. “Maybe. I probably deserved it. Honestly though, the chance to relax a little and let someone else drive was nice.”

Chrysalis leaned towards me, evidently disagreeing. “I saw you keep throwing her looks. If you were so displeased, why didn’t you say something?”

“Well…my dad once gave me a piece of advice about being married. ‘Pick your battles.’ Telling her how I felt was only going to make things worse, and for what? Neither of us will probably even remember this tomorrow.”

That thought was clearly a new one to Chrysalis. She sat there pondering it for a moment. “Marriage is like a give and take working relationship? I didn’t realize love was complicated.”

“Heh, really? I thought you were the expert on love.”

Her face flushed. It was a nice touch to her human disguise, I must say. Chrysalis said, “Well, I just have a very specific view of love.”

“Wait…so you subsist on love, but don’t really have any of your own?”

“I didn’t say that,” she quickly corrected. “We just don’t have a formal concept of marriage or family groups.”

“Hmm. What would happen if you tried? Then maybe you wouldn’t have to rely on ponies to get your love?”

“It won’t work,” she said suddenly, forcefully.

“Have you ever tried?” I pressed.

“It’s not a concept that could be applied to the changeling lifestyle.” Her tone had changed and it was clear that Chrysalis no longer wanted to continue this line of conversation.

“Well, okay.” I said. “If that’s how it really is.”

“Would I lie to you, Sandy?”

Would she?

“Well...I guess not,” I said. The water in the bathroom shut off and I collected my things for a shower. True to my guess, Maria seemed to have forgotten the earlier incident with the car and we went to bed with no hostility between us. I glanced over the edge of the bed before going to sleep. I saw one of Chrysalis’ green eyes give me a wink in the darkness.

July 3, 2013
We got up early and backtracked slightly on our route in order to visit Mt. Rushmore. We got to the surrounding national park early. Not only was the visitor’s center still closed but the parking lot was practically abandoned.

The complimentary breakfast at the hotel had not been very filling, and so we had stopped at a Starbuck’s near the park for muffins. I didn’t drink coffee, especially not the crap Starbuck’s claimed to have roasted, but Chrysalis apparently liked the smell so we bought her a cup. Fortified with caffeine and sugar, she was rather cheery and energetic this morning.

The three of us stood in the parking lot leaning on the car. The carved mountain cliff with Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and of course T. Roosevelt, was about half a mile away. It looked smaller than I expected. It must have been an effect of the distance. A nearby sign indicated that if they had bodies, each of the presidents would be 400-something feet tall.

Chrysalis took a sip of her coffee, using the nub of her healing arm for assistance. It had been slowly regrowing, and this morning reached almost down to the elbow. She nodded towards the mountain. “So who were these men?”

“Influential former leaders of the country,” I explained. I would have loved to go into the histories of each, but reluctantly decided that a simple one-sentence summary would suffice.

“It’s impressive work,” Chrysalis noted. “Equestria doesn’t have any rock carvings nearly so large. Of course, I don’t think ponies have egos that big, either.”

She grinned to confirm that it was a joke. Maria laughed. I rolled my eyes.

We got back in the car. Chrysalis shed the hoodie she had been wearing. As more and more of her body healed, she had started wearing fewer layers. I couldn’t blame her. The car’s old air conditioning unit struggled during the hot afternoons.

She still wore jeans, as well as some sneakers that vaguely fit. In place of the hoodie she had a borrowed blouse with a row of buttons. That had been something new for her. Buttons were not common in a place where most of the population had hooves. Chrysalis was getting better at blending in as a person.

In the spirit of humanity, our next stop was a milestone in mankind’s evolution: the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Well okay, maybe we were a month or so too early for the actual event, but the town was interesting to drive through.

Chrysalis studied the pictures on the local billboards. “Motorcycles? Why would you willingly ride something that looks so unsafe?”

I shrugged. “I never really understood it myself. I owned a motorcycle for about a year and decided that lifestyle just wasn’t for me. As a whole, however, I think humanity’s passion for building reckless machines of death for our amusement is probably the main reason for motorcycles.”

“And monster trucks,” added Maria. She and I shared a fist bump. I love it when we’re on the same wavelength.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully as we left South Dakota and passed through Wyoming on the way to Montana. Our stop for the night was in the city of Butte.

We all were strung out from the road, but not quite tired enough to go straight to sleep. Instead, we caught the late showing of Monsters University at a local theater. That movie seemed like a safer bet for introducing Chrysalis to Earth cinema than either World War Z or Man of Steel. Maybe she could even relate to being the outsider, the “monster.” Or maybe I was overthinking things.

We had unanticipated difficulties with the 3-D projection, but luckily the theater was mostly empty and only a few little kids got to see Chrysalis freak out at the visual effects popping in her face.

Once she calmed down, we enjoyed ourselves for the rest of the show. It was quite enjoyable, as Pixar films tend to be. I think Chrysalis learned quite a bit about Earth’s college customs and social experiences. The general good mood of people leaving the theater also seemed to be something she enjoyed. She didn’t even stay up that night to watch Maria and me sleep.

July 4, 2013
We got up a little early in the morning. The knowledge that we only had one more day of driving to reach Seattle helped.

During the night, Chrysalis’ mending arm had sprouted fingers and was at least close to being the right length. We chalked it up to the various emotional inputs from the movie audience the previous night.

The drive from Butte was fairly uneventful. We finished crossing Montana and drove through northern Idaho. The Rocky Mountains cropped up and some scenic views presented themselves. Maria would occasionally take a picture. Lunchtime found us in the city of Spokane, in eastern Washington.

Driving slowly through and looking for a place to eat, Chrysalis’ head suddenly snapped to the side and she pointed out the window. “There!”

“Hooters?” asked Maria incredulously.

Chrysalis nodded. “There’s a lot emotion in there. It’s not love, only lust, but that’s almost as good.”

Maria gave me a look.

“If that’s what she wants…” I tried.

My wife sighed in the way that heterosexual married women do when forced to go to Hooters. “Whatever.”

I turned into the parking lot, my nerves already tensing. I knew that many, many pitfalls awaited me in a place like Hooters and was going to be on my best behavior.

The Spokane Hooters had a casino attached for some reason. Chrysalis didn’t seem interested in gambling, and I figured that mostly only depression would be coming from that side of the building.

The restaurant was having some kind of 4th of July celebration. I don’t think it was strictly about the United States’ Independence Day - probably more about selling hot wings - but either way there was a lot of business.

Chrysalis looked curious and eager to find out what was going on inside the building. As we had agreed, she put on her hoodie for extra concealment in public and then marched up to the front door. She opened it with her good arm and stepped inside. Maria and I were right behind her.

I saw Chrysalis’ head go left and right, taking in the Hooters waitresses and the attention most of the customers were paying to them. A small grin of understanding crept across her face.

“Hi, I’m Hayley! Table for three?” asked one such waitress.

I nodded to the skimpily-clad woman and she led us away from the door. Chrysalis paid particular notice to her movements and manner, including how she leaned forward over the table while setting out our places.

“I really like your mohawk!” said Hayley brightly, giving me a smile as she stood upright.

“Thanks, I cut it for him,” replied Maria.

Slightly taken aback, Hayley departed and the three of us examined our menus. I hadn’t been to Hooters since getting married and needed to refresh my memory.

Nothing terrible happened in the next few minutes and I started to relax. We got our drinks and after placing our orders Chrysalis got up. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to the little fillies’ room.”

About a minute passed while Maria and I waited quietly. She suddenly touched my arm. “Wait, since when does she need to use the restroom?”

“Huh, now that you mention it… I don’t know; maybe changeling digestion doesn’t run on a regular cycle.”

Unfortunately, we were not left to wonder. The bathroom door opened and who – what – it was that stepped out drew every eye in the restaurant.

It was Crysalis’ human form, but not the same as before. She’d removed the hoodie and hung it over her sickly arm to conceal it. Her lips were fuller and redder, and the effect of artful makeup complete with eye shadow had appeared. The rest of her body had been reshaped by either a Greek sculptor or a comic book artist. It was, quite frankly, astonishing.

Of course it didn’t end there. This freight train of lunacy couldn’t be stopped that easily. The first few buttons of her blouse had been undone to leave only a little to the imagination. She wasn’t wearing any undergarments, after all. Chrysalis wore a smile so sultry that it would probably put a PG-13 movie over the top into an R rating, and the way her hips moved as she walked – strutted – back to our table probably caused several rappers to reevaluate their definition of badonkadonk.

As she passed by one table full of 4th of July revelers, one of them murmured “God Bless America!”

Chrysalis sat down across from Maria and I. There was an almost audible sigh of disappointment from every man within sight as she slipped her hoodie back on.

“That was stupid,” Maria hissed under her breath. I should point out that I was thinking the same thing, but having a harder time getting words to come out of my mouth.

“I just wanted to try it.” Chrysalis sounded taken aback. “At any rate, I’m not doing any harm.”

She had a point. Maybe if someone had tripped and gotten hurt while staring at her it would be different. Either way, I thought that as much as the show had, ah, caught my interest, it would probably not be a good idea to do it again.

It was then that I remembered who her appearance had been based on and I immediately felt extremely conflicted.

Chrysalis seemed properly chastised and did nothing nothing sexy for the rest of the meal. I did notice, however, that Hayley was remarkably less friendly after her little stunt.

The last leg of our trip took the rest of the afternoon. Finally arriving in Seattle, we checked into the Hilton. Beginning the next day, the attached convention center would host Everfree Northwest.

Within a few blocks of the hotel, we had a couple of choices for dinner. They ranged from Burger King and Denny’s to a local gourmet restaurant named 13 Coins. I asked Chrysalis what she wanted to eat.

“Oh, it’s fine.” She smiled. “I can feel this whole hotel filling up with feelings of love and excitement. These - bronies, you called them? - are certainly an emotional bunch. I think I’ll just dine in tonight.”

All this time I had been worried that maybe she wasn’t ready for all the convention goers. Now I was concerned that maybe they weren’t ready for her.

Chapter 7

July 5, 2013
The day started off early. Getting in line for convention badges was important. I had heard stories that waiting too long could result in hours of delay standing in line.

At least I was traveling light. I had a few business cards with my username printed on them, but little else. My phone and car keys would only get in the way, and my gun was against the rules of the convention center.

Maria and I had our badges waiting for us. The badge I had added for Chrysalis had been made in time for the ‘con and bore the name Chrissy. Maria and I had decided to tell people that she was my cousin.

Chrysalis’ head was on a swivel all morning, taking in the sights and sounds of the other convention attendees. She spent a while studying cosplayers, how they dressed up like their favorite characters. The pony ears, horns, and wings probably looked a little strange to her, although in thinking about it, I supposed plastic accessories to represent animated ponies looked a little strange to me too. No matter that a mohawk could vaguely be taken as a mane, I myself wasn’t into dressing up.

A white Power Ranger wearing a Kriegsmarine jacket walked by. I didn’t know what that had to do with pony cosplay, but maybe I just wasn’t getting the joke. There certainly were a wide range of costumes out there, from amazing, to minimal, to just plain weird.

The weather was warm, and a few people with outrageous clothing might have been suffering. Some may have noticed my long sleeves. My arm had stopped hurting so I didn’t have any tics to give away my injury. I had almost forgotten about it, really.

Chrysalis, too, was looking healthier. It was difficult to tell that she’d ever been missing a limb. Maria and I had talked her into toning down her admittedly distracting physical appearance. She wore simple clothing and blended in as just another person.

After getting our badges, we took a moment to scan the list of events. Some voice actors from the show were present. The things that I focused on, however, were the writing panels.

Mr. Tristan thought I could speak or something, and in the previous months while I was considering coming to Everfree Northwest, he offered me a chance to spread advice to other authors. I figured I could handle that, and was set to appear on a few writing panels.

If you're not familiar, a panel is where a couple of people sit at the front of the room and talk to people in the rest of the room about a particular subject. It helps if the speakers know more about it than the listeners.

The first panel was that morning. I showed up, talked my bit, and occasionally let the other panelists break in. Like most fan conventions, it eventually turned into a friendly banter that still managed to answer some questions and dispense with helpful advice. I myself learned a few things.

The other people on the panel were from the ponyfiction site I used, and included a few names that I had heard of. Maria and Chrysalis sat in the audience. It was comforting to have them close, as there was nobody else in the room that I had ever met before.

There were a few other panels scheduled for the afternoon. Chrysalis seemed bored with writing, and Maria guided her away to tour the exhibition hall. I stayed behind in the panel room to hang out with a few people.

One guy who had been fairly vocal during the panel approached and offered his hand in greeting. “Hi, I’m Gary Oak.”

I chuckled a little but said, “I don’t recognize that username.”

He shook his head, the world weary gesture of someone who is continually confused with a fictional character. “No, my name really is Gary Oak.”

“Oh.” I paused. “Nice to meet you.”

He carried a Rainbow Dash plushie and some other merchandise probably bought at the vendors’ hall. My mind wandered a little. I wondered if Maria was in a buying mood. I also wondered if Chrysalis would want anything. There were probably changeling toys available. Maybe it would remind her of home.

I hung out with Gary for a while until it was time for a screening of a new My Little Pony documentary about fanfiction. As it turned out, Mr. Tristan himself was hosting. I stayed in the back of the dim room and watched the projected movie. Tristan was the only presenter, but seemed to have things under control all by himself.

The documentary covered a few very well known authors and their thoughts on the fandom. I picked up a few things that I might be able to use. Right after the screening was a Q&A session to help make it better. A lot of the audience members had helpful suggestions.

It’s always seemed to me that the brony community went above and beyond to help their fellows. The charitable assistance regarding the documentary was a good example. In the rest of the convention, I had no doubt that Chrysalis would find enough love to consume. That put me off my happy mood. Pretty much any time I thought about changelings’ emotivore ways I felt weirded out.

Luckily, the next event was a meetup for authors and readers. I saw Gary again, as well as several people who read my stuff. Tristan also stopped by and introduced me to a few other people.

The big name in the room was The General. Whereas I had about the same number of online followers as an army battalion had personnel, he had a whole brigade; hence the title. His most famous work was some fic about Nightmare Moon being reborn as a filly in Twilight Sparkle’s care.

The General and I talked a little, and then Tristan broke in to ask if I was hungry. It was getting towards evening and I hadn’t had dinner yet. Getting some food sounded great.

We quickly made plans. Tristan grabbed a few of his friends and I went to find Maria and Chrysalis. I actually felt more comfortable with taking the changeling queen out with a group of bronies because they would probably pass off any weirdness as just the effects of the ‘con.

We walked a short distance to a place called 13 Coins. I had heard about the restaurant from Tristan, but never been there before. Based on the snatches of conversation that I heard when we walked in, I decided we’d found the right place.

“…it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, a midget is still a midget…”

“…and that’s how you get your kicks, stalking people…?”

“…but everypony’s gay for Braeburn…”

Tristan seemed to have caught the last one and picked it up, putting on a rather ridiculous, completely fabulous, tone of voice that entertained us for the rest of the evening.

Chrysalis didn’t seem to get the joke. I wondered if the ratio of mares to stallions depicted in the show was correct. It seemed to me that there were about five mares for every one stallion which either implied polygamy or at least some elements of homosexuality. Then again, if changelings didn’t form personal small-group relationships both concepts might be foreign to her.

When the others turned the conversation inward, I slid over to Maria and held a whispered conversation. “So what did you two do today?”

She shrugged. “I watched Chrysalis. I think she was eyeing the cosplay. She mentioned that participating in that would put her in the direct path of more emotion.”

I shook my head. God help us all if that came to pass.

Author's Note

Thanks to kingtiger666, GaryOak, Piquo Pie, and Pen Stroke

Special recognition to Silver Quill for giving me the term "emotivore"

Chapter 9

July 7, 2013
Sunday morning, I felt like I didn’t want to get out of bed. The previous night had gone late, what with reviewing the submitted fics for the contest, going to the author-reader meetup, and then hanging out at the Ponystock rave until the early hours of the morning.

Through it all, I had barely managed to hang on to Chrysalis’ secret. It was distracting, and several times during the course of the evening I had almost blurted it out; in the quiet hotel room while grading stories, in the busy hangout area with readers and other authors, at the bass-heavy dance party. At least the wubs would have made it impossible for anyone to actually hear.

I probably made the right decision, however. Looking back at it in hindsight, it was probably better to keep the secret and just go on with my life than it was to spread it everywhere and ignite some sort of alien invasion hysteria.

To be fair, bronies would probably at least give the changelings a shot at being friendly. If that didn't work out, I wondered how some sort of fight would go down and decided that I didn’t want to think about it.

There were a few hours until the first panel later in the morning. IHOP was having some sort of pancake sale, so we headed down the street to get some. I was still a little zonked from the late night and Maria handled the driving. For some reason, there was a Delorean parked beside our car in the garage.

The elderly Sunday morning crowd at the pancake house regarded my Mohawk and tired dopey expression with distain. It was a good thing that I’d decided to go back to long sleeves after the previous day’s incident at lunch. I might have shown off my ink to draw attention away from Chrysalis, but fortunately that was not needed as she’d gone out “normal” for breakfast. I can only imagine what the old folks would have thought of her costume.

We had breakfast and came back in time for me to go to the first panel. It was still morning and not many people had arrived while we were setting up. I was talking with Moonglow beforehand when I felt someone shoving my away from the front row of audience seats. Gary Oak pushed in. “Sorry guys; you can’t ignore my girth.”

“You’ve been in the crowd on pretty much every panel so far,” I pointed out. “Maybe a little absence would make the heart grow fonder.”

“In my experience, absinthe makes the heart grow fonder,” replied Moonglow.

And that pretty much set the tone for the panel. It was a good thing no kids were in the audience. The next panel, half an hour later, had a larger crowd and was a little more focused on its subject. Mr. Tristan, The General, and a few others joined us.

I went to lunch rather than sticking around for the next event where the winners of the writing competition were announced. It helped that I had reviewed them and already knew who won.

As I was heading downstairs to grab a bite to eat, I spotted Chrysalis posing for pictures with fans. Several had t-shirts and merchandise depicting her natural form. Many more expressed their personal choice of Best Pony with sqees of delight when she came into view.

I was struck again how mind-blowingly perfect her costume was. Of course it was perfect – Chrysalis looked exactly like whatever she pictured in her mind. What I found most impressive, and somewhat frightening, was how she’d managed to blend human and changeling into something that was aesthetically pleasing and awesome by brony standards, while not going over the line into obviously alien.

I looked around for Maria and found her a short distance away, distracted with studying some of the items available for sale. She looked like she trusted Chrysalis enough to give her a longer leash.

I went over to Maria to say hello while I was passing by. My schedule was weird today, and we’d already made plans for her and Chrysalis to get lunch on their own time.

“The silent auction is still going,” Maria said. “Your story isn’t doing too hot, though.”

The ten thousand word story I’d promised to whoever won the bid wasn’t supposed to be a huge deal, but I would have liked to see it do well. The Seattle Childrens’ Hospital needed money just as much as any other charity. I took a moment to visit the gallery to see the depressing news. The opening bid was two dollars.

The morning had been pretty good. I’d probably made the right decision to keep my mouth shut about Chrysalis. We’d eaten pancakes for breakfast. I’d had a good time at the panels. Even being a speaker, I was still learning things about writing. Despite all that, I headed off to lunch knowing that the item I’d donated for bidding wasn’t even worth a Big Mac hamburger. It seemed like maybe the afternoon wouldn’t be so great.

By the afternoon, the time the last panel was scheduled, I’d recovered somewhat. Some lunch had been nice and I’d used my off time to do some writing. The panel was the last one before the convention’s closing ceremony.

We made it one to remember. The audience, led by Gary Oak of course, was active and asked a lot of good questions. Wrapping it up, I felt like we’d accomplished something and was happy to have been a part of it.

Stepping out into the main hall, I found a crowd of people waiting for the closing ceremony. After hunting around, I met up with Maria and Chrysalis. The changeling queen was beaming, clearly excited about something.

“I’m ready to go home,” she explained.

“Can it wait until we’re away from these crowds?”

She nodded. “Yes, I understand. Anyway, I’ve very much enjoyed the feelings I received. I will miss these bronies.”

We headed to the central area, the Mane Stage, for the closing ceremony. Despite my anticipation of seeing Chrysalis off, the event seemed to pass quickly. Perhaps also because overall I’d enjoyed the convention so much that I was reluctant to see it end.

The ceremony was brought to a close. After a thunderous wave of applause and self appreciation, Everfree Northwest was officially over. Making our way through the crowds, we found our way downstairs and out of the building. The evening was warm, and the sun was still high enough for plenty of daylight left.

Nearby, I saw that The General was trying to get away from fans and go home. I chuckled slightly under my breath. A couple dozen people had wanted to take pictures with him at the meetup the previous night. I almost felt sorry for the guy, but that’s what he got for writing well and being famous.

Eventually deciding that he wasn’t going to get away so easily, The General gave up and began to conduct an impromptu panel right there on the grass beside the hotel. A group of listeners quickly gathered.

I caught sight of Tristan in the crowd of people still flowing out of the building. He waded his way over to say goodbye. I shook his hand. “Maybe see you next year?”

He nodded. “Sure. Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you—

I didn’t get to hear what he was saying. My attention was yanked away, riveted on Chrysalis, who stood a short distance away and was looking upwards. Her eyes were wide, staring skyward while her horn blazed with green magic.

Then I saw a spot of light appear in the sky. It stretched open, widening into a portal that expanded over the hotel.

When the first changeling drones started to come through the gaping hole in the sky, I realized that someone - probably me - had a serious problem.

Chapter 10

Still July 7, 2013

“Fuuuuuuuuuuu-”

While I’m not particularly proud of my first words regarding the subject, I think it was a perfectly normal reaction to witnessing changelings appearing through some sort of time/space portal over Seattle.

Everywhere, people were looking skywards and staring in astonishment at the sight. Good, at least that meant I wasn’t seeing things. That didn’t solve the problem of what to do about it, though.

Chrysalis had disappeared at some point in the last few minutes. Was she afraid of what mankind would do to her? Had she already vanished through the portal? If so, then why were the changeling hoards still pouring through?

She’d mentioned how much she loved bronies. The thought that the whole convention center was about to be “beamed up” to Equestria crossed my mind. I’m sure a lot of people would be okay with that, at least at first. However, the only thing that happened was more and more changelings came through to Earth. It slowly dawned on me: they were invading.

Tristan grabbed my shoulder. “Sandy, what the-”

I waved him off. “It’s…complicated.”

“We need to do something,” Maria pointed out. “Just give him the short version and we’ll figure it out from there.”

The unscheduled appearance of what might be the whole changeling army had interrupted The General’s panel and he showed up next to Tristan. He looked partially glad for the chance to get away, but also as surprised and confused as the rest of us. Behind him, I saw Moonglow, Gary Oak, and for some reason the white Power Ranger.

“So, we’ve got a huge problem,” I began. “Um, this sounds strange and everything, but Queen Chrysalis was at the convention this weekend. She said she was gathering love to use as energy to return home, nothing about bringing in all her subjects.”

Tristan gave me a look. “Oh, Queen Chrysalis is your cousin? That explains so much. I knew there was something strange about you, Sandy, but-”

I cut him off. “Quit it. She isn’t really related to me, I was just trying to do her a favor and then this happened. I don’t know what to say; I didn’t expect an invasion. She never said she was going to do this.”

“The changeling queen lied to you?” put in Moonglow. “And you’re surprised?”

“Look, can we talk about this later?” I asked, glancing nervously skyward. “We’ve got bigger problems. General, take the lead.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Why me?”

“You’re the most popular author out there. Everybody knows you, and we really need a leader right now.”

“What, to fight changelings? This isn’t Canterlot. We aren’t the Elements of Harmony.”

It was just then that I realized that Maria, Tristan, Moonglow, Gary Oak, The General, and I made six. White Power Ranger could be Spike. Hmm…

I quickly shook those thoughts out of my head. “The ponies didn’t need the Elements to defeat the changelings. In fact, they used violence to start with and a big dose of love to finish them off. We’re human so the fighting comes naturally, but we’re bronies so we can also love and tolerate the shit out of them.”

The General shrugged. “Yeah, that works for me.” He grabbed up a bullhorn that had been dropped by a fleeing convention executive and turned to the assembled crowd. His magnified voice cut through the confusion

“A few people form up with Moonglow. Go back into the convention center and fortify it. There’s still plenty of swag lying around to pile up. We’ll need someplace to make a stand.

“Tristan, you’re part of the convention staff and a stickler for the rules. Figure out a way to tell if any changelings are in disguise. If they aren’t wearing a ‘con badge, they don’t belong.

“Gary, you and the rest of the Canadian visitors are in charge of organizing the transition from fighting to loving. As we Americans get tired of beating up changelings, start figuring out how to politely send them all home.

“We’ll need some way of containing the area and sweeping it clean of changelings. Sandy, you write a lot of military fics so I’m sure you have tactics for that in mind.”

The General paused for a moment and looked at the assembled crowd. It was, by and large, composed of nerdy dudes. Most of us wore glasses. There were a statistically significant number of fedoras per sample size. Also, plenty of costumes and even a few fursuits.

The General’s tone of voice changed from commanding to reassuring. “It’s okay to freak out a little. Just do what you have to do, and don’t let fear take over. ‘Giggle at the ghosties’ and you’ll be fine. That reminds me - White Power Ranger, go gather all the Pinkie Pie cosplayers that you can find. Everyone else who doesn’t have anything to do, come with me. This might be an invasion, but there’s no way we’re going to let it be as bad as Las Pegasus Unicon!”

A great cry rose up from the crowd and bronies stampeded in all directions to get started with their assigned tasks. Amazing what a little motivational speech can do. Maria touched my shoulder. “There’s bound to be injuries. I’m going to see if I can help.”

We shared a quick but intense kiss and she disappeared into the crowd. Task now in front of me, I quickly ran through in my mind what I remembered of the convention center and hotel. There were a lot of long, straight corridors but also a lot of small, subdivided rooms. We would have to organize a big effort to search every one.

Well, no time to waste. Thanks to rules of the convention center, my gun was locked up in my car. The parking garage was conveniently located right under the main hall and I ran towards where I’d parked.

The Delorean I’d seen yesterday was still parked there. Some time travel would sure be nice about now, so I could go back and tell myself I was stupid for trusting Chrysalis. My wife always said I was too nice.

Reaching my car, I found my pistol and strapped it to my hip. The aluminum baseball bat I kept under the seat seemed like another good thing to take along. Now armed, I ran for the stairs.

Up in the convention center, all hell was breaking loose. I didn’t know if the changelings were only concentrating on the ‘con or had spread out into the surrounding city. If that was the case, then it became the problem of the police, or hopefully the National Guard.

One part of my brain wondered about the ramifications of the attack. On the one hand, it would make bronies the world over seem way cooler to the public. On the other, well, it was basically an alien invasion. I wasn’t sure I really wanted my planet to go through that much adjustment.

Then a changeling came at my face and I stopped thinking idle thoughts like that. The drones were much smaller than Chrysalis, and not nearly as cute. My gun was holstered, but I caught the changeling with a bunt-like stroke from the baseball bat and knocked it away.

Other changelings were in the hallway and I had to whack a few on my way to organize a group to sweep the building. I saw a couple of them doing their changing thing, but were not nearly so practiced at a bipedal form as Chrysalis. Usually, it was fairly obvious who was an imposter human.

While I like to think of myself as competent, there was a good reason why I let The General take the lead. While creating a group to clean up any hidden invaders had worked well, I accidentally got separated from them somewhere around the place where writing panels were held and ended up bursting into the room all alone.

Chrysalis was there, back in her true form. This time I didn’t even bother with the bat and went straight for my gun. I felt betrayed and angry at her, pissed that she would dare invade Earth. My finger was still outside the trigger guard, but I drew the pistol and pointed it at her.

It was then that words failed me. What do you say at a moment like this? She was already sitting still, so “freeze” didn’t make any sense. I also didn’t really have time to go on about how she was a bad pony for toying with me like that.

Before I could even open my mouth, however, Chrysalis pushed me back against the wall with magic and pinned my shooting hand pointing away from her. “Sandy! I’m trying to help you!”

This time, I really didn’t know what to say. That didn’t mean my mouth didn’t try. “Wha…?”

“I’m going to let you go, okay? Just don’t make any hasty decisions.” Chrysalis’ horn stopped glowing and I felt the gentle pressure holding me ease away.

Fool me once, shame on you. There was no way I was giving Chrysalis the benefit of the doubt now, and I kept my gun at the low ready position. She eyed it, but turned her gaze back to my face. “Sandy, I didn’t do any of this. I opened a portal with the intention of going home, but those changelings must have sensed me and come through instead.”

I paused for a moment, my brain finally catching up to what was going on. “Those changelings?”

She looked away. “I didn’t want to tell you. I…I’m no longer a queen. My crest was both a symbol and an instrument of power. All of those changelings…I can’t control them anymore.”

“Then who’s leading them? Or are they on their own?”

“It’s possible that one of my high level subordiantes could have taken over after I disappeared.” Her voice grew more urgent. “The important thing, though, is that we need to stop this.”

“Why do you care?” I asked. There was still no way of knowing if I should trust her.

Chrysalis took a deep breath. “Sandy, I like you. I like people. There’s a broader range of emotion than in Equestria. I find it remarkable that humanity is capable of such violence and hate, yet can still organize something so loving and sweet as this convention. The wars and weapons are terrifying, but I know that everyone still hopes for something better. As a species, you know what you want and aren’t afraid to make the necessary sacrifices to get it. There is no way an invasion would work out in our favor. Changelings simply don’t have the drive and the spirit.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. Why do you want to help?”

She scuffed a hoof on the carpet. “Love. I mean, well...real love. I’ve seen what you and your wife have, what it means to be the target of romance and desire, not just sucking it up while in disguise. A successful attack on Canterlot would have given me what I needed to survive, but I don’t think it would have ever really satisfied. I want to be loved.”

I shifted uncomfortably. It put a whole new spin on things, both in my mind and definitely in the canon of the show. I wondered in what order Chrysalis had come to her decision. If she’d lost her crest and only then realized that she’d rather not be queen of love-stealing pests, or if she’d found that her title was unwanted and then kept it from growing back through unconscious will.

After a moment to organize my thoughts, I asked, “So what are you going to do?”

“What would a human say?” She tapped a hoof on her chin theatrically. “Kick some ass?”

“Hell yeah.” I started for the door but came up short. “Wait, what’s going to keep you out of the line of friendly fire? You’d be an even bigger target than a regular changeling.”

“I don’t know. I’m gambling that bronies would be willing to stop and listen if you explain the situation.”

It was then that I spotted the badge still hanging around her neck. She was an invited guest here, and hadn’t once harmed anyone during the course of the convention. It was my responsibility to stick up for her. I nodded. “Let’s do this.”

We left the room and Chrysalis immediately blasted a changeling drone with a jet of green magic. The unfortunate creature fell to the floor of the convention hall and didn’t move.

“Stunned,” Chrysalis told me, catching several other changelings with the same spell. The people within view had all turned to face her, and while slightly confused at her choice of targets, were advancing menacingly.

I stepped forward, lifting my hands. “Hold on. There’s a long, complicated story to tell, but basically it boils down to this: Chrysalis is trying to help us because this swarm of changelings is acting without her orders and she’s discovered the power of love and tolerance.”

Someone wearing a full body suit that depicted Shining Armor stepped forward. I thought it looked like a rather hot and stuffy outfit in which to do battle, but I wasn’t judging. Bending slightly, the costume-wearer read Chrysalis’ badge and then paused to look at her face for a moment.

They turned around. “Chrissy is best pony!”

A cheer went up from the crowd and we took off down the hallway.

The next short, or possibly even long, while was a blur. A lot of us beat down hostile changelings, but Chrysalis did more than most. The objective wasn’t to kill them, so we mostly let her work her stunning magic.

The battle took its toll on the building. I smelled smoke a few times, and some of the windows got broken. I felt kind of bad, but getting the venue to use for next year’s convention was probably the last thing on everyone’s mind.

By the end, word of mouth had spread and while some people probably still didn’t trust Chrysalis, there was no doubt that they believed which side she was on.

We’d run out of changelings in the immediate viscinity to take down, and Chrysalis paused, her sides heaving with the effort she’d expended. A crowd of willing bodyguards surrounded her, allowing a moment of peace.

I saw Maria pushing through the barrier of people. “Sandy, are you okay?”

“Fine.” I saw Maria’s eyes glare at Chrysalis who modestly looked away.

I caught Maria’s attention and pulled her close. “Believe it or not, this wasn’t her fault.”

Maria sighed. “Yeah, I heard.”

“I know it can be hard to belive that someone can change so thoroughly, but I honestly believe in Chrysalis. It took a while and a lot of relationship building, but roadtrips do wonders.”

“I’m not expecting an apology,” Chrysalis broke in. “I probably don’t deserve one, but I hope that this evens the score somewhat. I’m just afraid of what will happen once I go back. Not only do the ponies have no idea what’s just happened here, but they’ll probably want to lock me up for daring to fiddle with portals.”

“If humans can love you, I’m sure you’ll be fine,” I reassured her.

Chrysalis smiled. “Everything you’ve done for me means a lot. Thank you.”

I knelt and put my arms around her neck. I thought back to the first time I’d held her, back when she’d crashed to the ground and needed help. It felt like we’d come full circle. Maria hesitated a moment, but followed my gesture. The entire crowd took notice and before too long we had the worlds’ strangest group hug ever going on.

I heard Chrysalis sigh happily with emotion. She moved slightly and I took that as my cue to let go. When she was free to maneuver, her wings beat and she rose into the air above the assembled crowd.

“This spell should send them all home,” she told us. Her eyes closed and magic began to build in her horn.

The glow kept getting brighter and I had to shade my eyes and look away. Everywhere there was a stunned changeling, magic collected and began to stream towards the portal in the sky. More and more power built and I felt like if I didn’t close my eyes and cover them with my hands, I would be seeing nothing but spots for a while.

Abrubtly, there was some kind of final flash and the blindingly bright light winked out. I looked around. There were no changelings and no portal. A babble of excited voices went through the bronies around me. It was over. We’d turned the tide of the invasion and come out victorious.

I caught sight of a familiar face among the swarm of other convention-goers. Chrysalis, in human form, gave me a wink. She slipped off her badge and vanished into the crowd.

I stared, even after she was out of view. Maria pulled on my arm. “Hey, Sandy. I’m talking to you.”

“Huh? What?”

“I said I’m going to check up on anybody that might be hurt.”

I nodded and accepted a kiss from her. She walked away. I turned to go down the hall, walking slowly.

We were so, so screwed. Pretty soon the police would be here and they wouldn’t like a story about alien bugs from a cartoon trying to eat our love. The sky portal would raise all sorts of questions, and worst-case we might even have some leftover changelings to deal with. Hopefully the government would come and take them and we would never hear about it again.

I saw a few of my friends and checked in with them. Apparently, the crowd of Pinkie cosplayers was being used as a barrier between the convention center and the rest of the city. Good, we needed something to ease us into this brave new world.

I didn’t want to think about the implications of cross-dimensional contact at the moment. I could probably type for hours about that and never get anywhere close to making a point.

Tristan appeared and I talked with him for a few moments. He seemed depressed that the convention he’d helped organize had turned into a disaster, but optimistic about the publicity it would get.

“Oh, that thing I was trying to tell you before the attack happened,” he said. “I was the one who bought the story you contributed to the charity auction.”

“Oh really?”

He nodded. “I want you to write about this convention.”

“Seriously? I barely remember what I had for breakfast and you want me to write some crazy meta story that the website moderators probably won’t approve about my experiences this weekend?”

“And everything that led up to it,” he added.

I figured it in my mind. “I think that’s going to wind up being longer than the agreed-upon ten thousand words.”

He shrugged. “Do it for Chrissy.”

I considered that. We hadn’t exactly had a smooth relationship. Chrysalis came to me as an evil bug from another planet, after all. After getting to know her, however, I think I’d learned quite a bit. Responsibility, friendship, love. To my surprise, she wasn’t who I thought. That fact may have surprised her, too. She’d changed, and not just in appearance like her power enabled. She’d become my friend.

I smiled. “Yeah. I’ll do it for her.”

Author's Note

Fun fact: This chapter contains Pen Stroke's actual plan for dealing with a changeling invasion: fortify, identify, sweep, freak out a little, and round up the Pinkie cosplayers. Big thanks to him.

Piquo Pie was the primary editor for this story, convention organizer, source of humor, and generally all around cool guy.

Silver Quill is pretty much a character from a story in real life. Besides being really interesting to talk to, she taught me a few new things about writing, most of which probably don't actually appear in this story.

GaryOak - because Gary Motherfuckin' Oak

This story has a sort-of sequel in the form of The Incredible Happening of Golden Gates

Chapter 8

July 6, 2013
On Saturday morning, the convention organized a free breakfast for all badge holders. 13 Coins, the restaurant we'd gone to the night before, had been great food. A little pricy, but great. I had gone to bed feeling quite nice, and the idea of getting something to eat for free when I woke up sounded just great.

Maria, Chrysalis, and I went down to the convention center early to get a good place in the breakfast line. As the serving room opened up, we shuffled forward to receive tasty things. Looking forward towards the front of the line, I was glad to see oatmeal, cereal, and…

“Unexpected muffins,” I murmured happily.

“This is a brony convention, after all,” said a voice from over my shoulder. I looked back to find The General in line behind me.

I nodded in agreement. “There’s all kinds of other things on the serving tables.”

“I wonder what kind of cereal they have,” he deadpanned.

It took me a moment, but I got the joke.

I followed Maria and Chrysalis to a table after getting our breakfast from the serving lines. Music, mostly remixed songs from the show, played in the background. I unfortunately had to cut breakfast socializing short. There were more writing panels starting soon and I didn't want to miss them.

Maria had experienced no trouble dealing with Chrysalis the day before, so I again deferred to her competence and bowed out after eating, saying that I would meet the two of them back at the hotel room in time for lunch.

The first panel of the day went well. Mr. Tristan was there as well as a few other authors I recognized. In the banter among panelists before the event started, Tristan said, “Hey, is your cousin doing cosplay?”

I hesitated several seconds before eventually going with, “Maybe?”

He shrugged. “Well, I think I saw her. It was hard to tell because of the makeup and because the costume was so good. She makes an awesome Chrysalis.”

I let out a breath. Well, as long as he wasn’t freaked out or lusting after her, then she must have been restraining herself. I still didn’t like the idea that she was in costume. I suspected that it was done to garner more attention. That made me wonder where Maria was.

Helpfully, so I didn’t spend the whole panel worrying, Tristan added, “I figured that it was your cousin because your wife was with her.”

I calmed down a bit. That was a relief. In the few minutes we'd been talking, more people had come in and now it was time to begin.

We launched into the panel and had some good discussion along the way. The next panel coming up was to be in the same room, and while I wasn’t scheduled to participate, I hung around to listen. Even though I had been invited to the panels because apparently I knew something about writing, there were still things I was learning.

When the panel was over with, it was lunchtime. I headed back to the room to find Maria and Chrysalis. When I walked into the hotel room, Maria was reading a book and Chrissy was sitting on the bed and listlessly watching the Weather Channel. It was mostly sunny.

Despite her lack of enthusiasm, Chrysalis looked stunning. Her ensemble was black and green, with holes in all the right places and just the right edge of beautiful and bad girl that somehow stayed within the PG rules of the ‘con and still delivered something adults could appreciate. The horn, ears, wings, tail, and whatnot looked perfectly crafted and blended flawlessly with her human body. She wore a pair of high heels, black of course.

Chrysalis saw me and stood up. My eyes told me I was looking at a perfect cosplay, but as her tail swished a little, I knew better that it was no costume.

While I was not an expert on equine anatomy, the annoyed twitch of her gossamer tail seemed emotional. After comparing it with the look on her face, I asked, “Is something wrong?”

“She didn’t win the cosplay contest,” said Maria, without looking up from her reading.

“Huh? Really?” I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or merely gape in disbelief. Not only was it funny that a bug alien pony shapeshifter thing was trying to disguise herself as herself, but her costume was so amazing that I couldn’t imagine how she had lost. Although, I had once heard that Charlie Chaplain finished third in a Charlie Chaplain lookalike contest. Such things were possible.

Chrysalis growled. “They took points away. Something about ‘you forgot the crown.’ Idiots.”

I noticed that she still hadn’t regrown her crest, the small crownlike protrusion on top her head. Apparently, it was something she couldn’t fake.

“Is that a problem?” I asked. “You seem to have healed everything else.”

Something that may have been worry passed over Chrysalis’ face but she shook her head. “I will be fine. I will be ready to return home soon. Tomorrow, I think."

That was the last day of the ‘con, I noted. It was nice and convenient. On the trip back to our home, Maria and I would only have to pay for two.

Maria put her book down. “I didn't see any harm in letting her dress up. She's been good.”

Chrysalis' ears twitched slightly at the complement. I hoped that she was holding them stiffer like the plastic they were supposed to be while she was out in public.

“Are you two getting to be best buddies?” I joked. Chrysalis nodded. Maria shrugged, but a small smile crept onto her face. It was good that neither Maria nor I were so edgy around Chrysalis any more.

Returning the humor, Maria said, “I suppose I could have suggested that she dress as Cadance.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “You won't let me forget that, will you?”

It was good to know that our friendship had progressed to the point that we could joke casually about that one time she tried to imprison a city.

We went out to lunch. There was a Subway within walking distance to the south. The weather was rather warm for Seattle, and I rolled my sleeves up. I picked at the bandage on my arm a little, eventually deciding that it could come off. The large piece of gauze would raise more questions than a few scabs would.

I peeled the bandage off along with some arm hair and dropped it in the trash can outside Subway. Inside the building, the three of us ordered lunch. The guy behind the counter glanced at my mohawk and practically leered at me. “That’s a really nice ‘do.”

“I like your tats,” put in the other man working there, wearing a grin that was more than just friendly.

I chuckled nervously, wondering if it had been a good idea to roll up my sleeves after all. I had seen plenty of tattoos on display at the convention, and while the ones on my arms were not particularly notable, the creepy guys at Subway made me a little self conscious. Chrysalis positioned herself between them and me, helpfully blocking their line of sight. Her appearance was rather attention grabbing.

After getting our food, we decided to eat and walk. Chrysalis had a drink in one hand and her sandwich in the other. Her horn glowed and a cookie floated out of the bag towards her mouth. She scarfed it quickly enough that nobody but Maria and I noticed.

We both gave her a look. By now she should have known better. Chrysalis rolled her eyes, evidentially knowing very well that we weren’t under observation. She’d probably put herself between me and the weird sandwich people on purpose. I was continually reminded that she was a master of emotion. I suppose I had to admit that sometimes it even came in handy. Maybe we should consider giving her more slack. She wasn't stupid and had had plenty of time to learn about Earth and what was expected.

Before going back to the convention center I rolled my sleeves down again. It was easier than changing out of the long sleeved shirt. I went to the next writing event. It was a competition for people to write a short story in a few hours. Tristan introduced me to Moonglow River, the woman hosting the event. She was about six-foot-four and had blue hair. Easy to spot in a crowd.

I hung around for a while and got some writing of my own done with my laptop. I had heard Chrysalis was invited to the cosplay photoshoot and wandered down to the hotel’s pool to check it out. I couldn’t pick out who might have beat her at the contest and other than her still-missing crest she looked flawless while posing and strutting with the group of cosplayers.

Later that evening, there was a charity auction benefitting the Seattle Children’s hospital. I had donated a ten thousand word story to the proceedings with the stipulation that the winning bidder got to dictate the plot. That was one of the smaller items and would be sold in the silent auction the next day.

I watched the auction for a while. Let me tell you, nothing is more hilarious than Peter New, voice actor for Big Macintosh, playing an auctioneer while Andrew Francis (Shining Armor) and Andrea Libman (Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy) added their own twists.

Later that evening, Tristan, The General, Moonglow, and a few other panelists gathered to review the results from the writing contest. With nothing better to do, I agreed to help. We settled down in a hotel room with editing pens and pizza.

Reading fanfiction reminded me of what a mockery of normality that my life had become since Chrysalis had come to Earth. While the past few days had helped me get a little more used to it, the fact remained that I was dealing with something that felt just like a crackfic. I should know. I've written them.

I glanced around the room while everyone quietly read the fics we'd gathered. These were people who were probably the most experienced of the fandom on fanfiction. I wondered what sort of ideas they could come up with regarding my situation. I wondered if they could help.

“Ugh,” Moonglow muttered as she read someone’s story. “This prose is so purple it’s practically gone ultraviolet.”

I chuckled with the rest, pleased by the distraction. It didn’t last, however. A few moments later, I looked back down at the story I was reviewing, but the words didn’t really filter through my mind. Did I really want to tell someone about Chrysalis? If she was leaving tomorrow, would it hurt anything? Could I really keep pressured silence for so long about something so unique happening to me?

Maybe I could tell just a few people. Maybe just the people in the room. Then again, Maria sure wouldn't be talking about Chrysalis. However, she wasn't really a brony. It was a tough decision, one that I probably knew the answer to but was having a hard time coming to terms with.

They might think I was crazy, but just down the hallway I had proof. I wondered how they would react, not having seen her fall from the sky and begin a slow recovery to mend her body and magic. Chrysalis would probably be happy to meet them.

But this was just about getting her home, right? Could I allow anything to delay that for even a second? Chrysalis did say she was going home the next day. We still had tonight.

I tapped my pen in thought, still trying to figure out what I was going to do.