The month had passed by faster than he'd had thought. He was glad that he was able to return to Ponyville. He had almost forgotten about the place, even though he had recovered all of his memory by the end. He still needed Lyda's help to get out still most of the path required flight, and his wings were broken.

"Thanks for letting me stay here. I'm pretty sure things are safer back at Ponyville now that a month has passed since the attack," he said in grattitude. "This has been an interesting time here at the hive."

"Well now the secret's out about us living in Equestria," the Queen responded, "so that was the least I could do. Be thankful that it wasn't the worst I could do."

"Well in that case I feel a lot more safer now that I'm leaving," he muttered. He was even more glad that he was leaving. He assumed that becoming a changeling was painful, but he pushed past it. As time worn on, his eyes grew heavier and heavier from being awake and falling asleep at the wrong times. His hooves eventually started hurting from the immense amounts of walking an walking and walking. Still, after years in the Royal Guard and going through a fight in Canterlot, this was nothing compared to them.

"Come on. It's time to get used to Ponyville again," said Lyda. "Besides. We're here." They'd been standing on a cliff just in front of Ponyville. Terminal was amazed at how fast they got there, so he had his jaw down for a while. "Close that mouth of yours. It's getting tiring of watching you do that." There was a long pause between the two of them. "Well go on. Go back to your home. Live the life you had a month ago again."

About a second later, he looked at her with surprise, and ran towards the edge, and slid down it. Once he reached the bottom, he continued running through the town to find it hadn't changed much since his absence. He still kept running, and went to his house, and the plants had happened to be well kept even though he hadn't been there in a month. He found a note on his door reading:

Hi Terminal it's me Cheerlie. I kept your garden nice since you disappeared. I figured you wouldn't mind if I did this.

You're welcome,

Cheerlie.

"Thanks Cheer. I owe you one." He took the note inside, and kept it in a box. He knew her because Lyda had taken him on a tour of their town when he first arrived. The inside was also kept nice and neat. There was no note anywhere so he assumed it was Twilight since there was no other neat freak besides her in Ponyville that he knew of. "That's nice of all of you. Keeping my stuff nice, clean, AND organized. Thanks."

"How did you know we were here?" asked a voice closely to Rainbow Dash's.

"I heard Pinkie's rapid breathing," he responded. "There's nothing you can hide from me except secret's you know. Only one's been revealed to me during my time living here."

"Who's was it? Come on TELL!" asked the hyperactive pink pony, Pinkie. "I GOT to know otherwise I will FREAK OUT!"

"Calm down Pinkie," said Twilight.

"Yeah Pinkie jeez." he said. "Besides, I swore not to tell. She is very secure about it that she's decided to stay away for a while. So yeah. I'm not telling you what it was, or who it was. She can read my mind so she'll know if I tell you or not."

"It was Lyda wasn't it?" guessed Twilight.

"How did you-"

"Call it a hunch."

"Well," he continued, "I guessed that's settled. What is it that brought you here?"

"It was the attack on Canterlot a month ago," started Twilight, "I noticed you originally came with Lyda and saddlebags. Something tells me you know something about the attack."

"Can you get to the point please? I'm getting bored listening to this. As Rainbow would say, um, you're an-"

"Egghead." she finished. "I thought you would say something like that so I decided to get myself ready and along with my-"

"Your awesomeness?" he asked. "So come on Twilight get to the point please."

"Alright," she continued. "Are you, or did you interact with the changelings?" She had asked very seriously as if it was an interrogation.

"HNGH!" Terminal was getting a major headache. He fell to the floor in extreme pain with his hooves on his forehead.

It's OK Terminal. You can tell them if you want to. They'll find out sooner or later. So why not now? Go ahead. told him a familiar voice. He assumed it was telepathic since no one else could hear it and he got a headache.

"What's wrong? Are you having a hard time?" Twilight asked. He seemed to have stopped getting the headache after she had asked this. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I'm fine now. You didn't do much but otherwise I'm doing fine."

"Can you answer the question now?" she asked. "Did you have any interaction with the changelings before or after the wedding?"

He stared at her for a while. He opened his mouth and answered with a simple "Yes." The others backed up in shock. "Lyda was one since birth. She hadn't told anypony about it because she promised to her parents to keep it a secret. She didn't tell me until the day before the wedding."

"Alright. What about after it. Why were you gone for a month without telling anypony?"

"I passed out in the middle of the fight. Lyda says she took me here but they didn't believe her. She didn't know about Manehattan or Phillydelphia, and she didn't say anything about Cloudsdale, so she took me to..." he froze in the middle of it.

"Where did she take you?" Twilight insisted.

"She took me to..."

"Where?"

"She took me to," he gulped in nervousness. "Her hive."

"WHAT?!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash.

"It wasn't Chrysalis' so I guess that's a plus."

"Yeah but it's a HIVE! A CHANGELING hive!"

"RAINBOW! Let him explain." said Twilight.

"Thank you." he said. "There are more than just Chrysalis' hive. Now this queen, I don't know her name, she never told me, but she's nicer than Chrysalis. Her personality is different. She let me stay for a month. I lost track of time and ended up staying there the whole time."

"So that explains it." said Twilight. "Is Lyda ever going to come back?"

"If she does, can I beat the stuffing out of her?"

"Rainbow, please! She's not like the ones at Canterlot! I don't know if she's coming back or not. She just left me here and went back." She went silent. She stood there as if she just heard something that broke her heart.

"So what now?" asked Twligiht.

"I know! Let's throw her a welcome party when she comes back!"

"Parties aren't always the answer to everything Pinkie," Terminal told her.

"I know. I still want to throw her a party! Can we?!"

"Pinkie. Just let her be." Soon after he told her this, the earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn left his house. Rainbow Dash stayed at the door for a while.

"Sorry about saying that about Lyda," she apologized. "The Canterlot incident gave me one perpective that it blocked out all the others. I didn't think different hives would have different personalities."

"It's alright Rainbow. I forgive you and I bet Lyda would too. She's a nice pony, or changeling, or whatever the heck you want to call her." He was forgiving as well.

Soon after she had turned around, she noticed a figure standing on a hill top. She looked in it's general direction, and it stared at her back. After about half a minute of staring, the figured walked off disappearing from sight. "Huh. I wonder who that was." She looked at Terminal's house, which was a few meters away from her, and she noticed Lyda going in through the back door. Lyda made a quick shimmer of her changeling form and back to her pegasus form. She smiled, and went behind Terminal's house. "Was that... did she just... how did?" she asked herself in severe confusion. "Right she's a changeling. They can use magic just like every other unicorn." She pushed past it, and flew off to some place that she felt like going to.

Author's Note

The ideas for this chapter came at me like a wrecking ball. I had trouble sleeping because of this story. The ideas would not stop flowing through my head. Some may be asking, "Where's the sad part come in? I've read this much and it's not sad yet. When is it coming?" Trust me it's coming in a future chapter. I had this chapter all planned out. I had to change the name of this chapter because it would be too long to fit this chapter, and the next one together. I even had a sequel planned out! A SEQUEL! It kept me up for hours! I'm glad I finished this chapter though. One down, two more to go. (Actually one. The second one's an epilogue.)