Beneath The Surface

The sun was out, ponies were walking with their noses in the air, and nopony was paying attention to the lone Pegasus walking between the market stalls. Pegasi were hardly rare in Canterlot, they made up a good third of the population. Why would they pay attention to this particular Pegasus? Because he's a thief. Not just any thief though, this thief was also a Changeling. Not the 'rip apart your family by brainwashing your hubby' Changeling, just a street trash, sleep in the gutter, steal food to survive kind of Changeling.

The Changeling in disguise strolled through the market, attempting to barter with stuck up vendors and taking note of where the most buyers were. You see, more buyers meant that less attention would be put on a single pony, but it also meant that there were more ponies who could notice something through their peripheral vision. As a thief, every consequence had to be weighed, and the associated risks compared. Deciding to go for one of the lesser populated edges of the market, he waited until one of the vendors wasn't looking so that he could quickly slide a few carrots into his saddlebag. He repeated this process a few times at different stalls without being noticed. Things were going well, until he sensed something behind him. Changelings had an innate ability to feel the emotions of those around them without having to focus too hard. When he felt a ping of confusion mixed with curiosity being directed towards him from behind, he decided that he was done for the day.

As the thief began to walk away from the market and down the street, he could sense the curious pony trailing behind him. 'Here we go' he thought as he ducked into a nearby alley, only for the ping of emotion to pick up speed towards him. He waited behind a trash can, hoping that the curious pony wouldn't see him and would leave. Having no such luck, the curious pony started to walk down the alleyway. He cursed silently at his rotten luck and started to search for some way that he could escape unnoticed.

"You are aware that theft is a crime in Canterlot, correct?" A mare's voice called out.

Just then, the changeling felt another ping of emotion farther down the alley behind him. 'Caution?' Just as quickly as the ping appeared, it was gone. Emotions only disappeared like that for three reasons; the Pony had immense willpower and mental control, somepony teleported, or the emotions were being blocked artificially. All three were extremely rare, usually only found in one type of Pony, 'She has a guard with her,' The changeling thought to himself, 'Who is this mare?' Royal Guard armor was enchanted to create an illusion around the guard, changing their appearance. The enchantment had an unintentional effect of helping hide the Guard from a Changeling's emotional senses. The effect wasn't very reliable, so an adept empath could still locate the Guard if they tried. After a moment of concentration the illusion was breached. A light scent of determination filled the alley, almost blocked by the mare still waiting for her answer. With his only escape route blocked by the hidden guard, the changeling's only option was to get around the mare and disappear into a crowd. He stepped out from behind the trash can so that he could get a good look at her. She was a unicorn with a light blue coat, with a near-black mane and turquoise eyes. She was only a couple feet away from him, and didn't seem to be very strong.

"Yes, I'm aware its a crime," he said, "Call off your friend behind me, I'll go peacefully."

"Friend? What friend?" the mare said with legitimate surprise, masking her shock.

"Oh you know," said the stallion, inching closer to the mare "Your guard friend blocking the alleyway."

The mare seemed taken aback for a moment before he pounced and shoved her to the side. Without looking back, the thief charged out of the alley and down the street. "Guards!" shouted the mare in the alley "After him!", but by the time that she got onto the street, the thief had already vanished into the crowds of Canterlot.

I sighed as I walked through the entrance to the crystal catacombs beneath Canterlot. Even after the invasion 16 years ago, the catacombs were still empty besides the vagrants that called it home. Walking past a few of the cavern's other inhabitants, I found my way to the pile of junk that I called home. The caves were far from comfortable, but I made due. As I closed the door to my makeshift house I dropped my disguise, revealing my black chitin and orange details. While most changelings had a blue or green hue to their eyes, mane, tail, and wings, mine were all orange. Several months after the invasion of Canterlot, a group of changelings, my parents included, broke off from the Queen and formed a new hive. I was born not long before the split. Shortly after, the new hive decided to change our colors to orange. My family had wanted to separate ourselves from The Swarm, Chrysalis' hive, and a long time ago color was the main way to separate hives. After everything that had happened to me, this difference was the only connection I had to my family.

"Out!" a stallions voice suddenly called out, "You are all on government property! Now leave before I have you all arrested for trespassing!" I peeked my head out of my shed and cursed. A group of Night Guards were walking through the cavern, weapons drawn, wading through the mass of homeless ponies they were kicking out. I disguised myself as a red pegasus, grabbed my saddlebags, and left my shed. This wasn't the first time I had been kicked out of a home, and it wasn't likely to be the last. I had only taken a few steps before I noticed that the blue mare from the market was among the Guards.

I immediately got back into my home, closing the door again. 'How did they find me?' I thought, I had spent an hour taking random routes and transforming into several disguises to ensure that I couldn't be tracked. I transformed again, this time to a brown unicorn before pulling a panel of wood from the back of my house and slipping out through the hole. I had spent time making multiple escape routes just in case I needed them. I knew that the Guards would be looking through the ponies leaving through the main entrance first, so I had a little bit of time to make my getaway.

The shantytown that had been built in the caverns wasn't to large, but the caverns themselves went deep into the mountain. If they managed to follow me deeper, then I could lose them in the abandoned mine shafts that snaked their way under the city streets. Changelings were naturally gifted, it seems, when it came to navigating our way through caves as I had been able to recognize paths fairly quickly once I started to explore my hideout. I felt a little bad about the next part of my getaway plan, however. A few shacks down from mine was a young, blue pegasus named Rain Puddle. I walked up to his door, but he opened it before I could knock. He looked like he had just woken up, and his confusion told me that he probably hadn't heard the Guards clearly.

"Hey, Puddle," I said, getting his attention, "There are ponies by the entrance were looking for you. They had a blue mare with them, maybe a relative or something"

He looked past me towards the mouth of the cavern, "I wonder what they could want with me? I'll go take a look. Thanks!" I nodded my acknowledgement towards him before turning and trotting away. I had been keeping my disguises similar to other ponies that lived around me whenever I was out thieving, that way I could make a quick distraction in case of this exact event. It was a dirty move to throw Rain Puddle at the Guards, but the worst that would happen to him was a few days in prison, whereas I would probably face a summary execution.

"You!" An uncomfortably familiar voice shouted from behind me, "Stop right there!"

I turned to look back, and saw the blue mare from before running towards me, brushing past Rain Puddle without a second glance. Putting that bit of information away for when I was safe, I bolted off into a nearby cave. I could hear the thunder of armored hooves turning into the cave, telling me that the Guards were also following.

'This is bad,' I thought 'I haven't eaten in to long, I don't think I can outrun them very long' Coming up to a fork in the cave, I opted to take the lower path, before diving into a flow-through ventilation shaft. I landed one level below my pursuers, and made a sharp right before sprinting down a corridor. Once I had run for a few minutes I slowed to a walk to catch my breath. Most of my life I had been near starved, having to rely on food for sustenance. While I could live like that, It didn't allow my body to build much strength naturally.

I tried to cast out my senses to find the Guards, but this deep into the mountain I couldn't feel much. I sat down for a moment, trying to listen for hoofsteps or any other signs of my pursuers. Hearing nothing, I thought back to when they found me. 'They didn't even notice Puddle, and I haven't used this disguise in awhile. They shouldn't be able to follow me, so how are they?' Before I could think any more about it, I heard more hoofsteps coming down the corridor. It only took a moment before I could hear the distinct sound of armor plates clanking around. With a desperate sigh, I continued running down the cave.

More sharp turns, long halls, and near escapes found me at my last idea to escape. A small tunnel going straight up through the mine coming out in an abandoned shack in the shantytown. Opening the hidden entrance, I shed my disguise before hovering up into the tunnel. My body was on the smaller side due to my lack of nutrition, but it was still a tight fit for me. A Royal Guard in armor wouldn't be able to follow me, even if they did manage to find the tunnel once I closed it up again. It took a few minutes, but eventually I emerged into the shack.

Exhausted, I applied a random disguise, opened the door, and stepped out. There was no one in sight, The Guards were still down in the caves and the vagrants had left before anyone else showed up to arrest them. After a deep breath, I began to make my way out of the caverns. I began thinking of a new place where I could rest, most likely in the lower levels of the city, When there was a soft pop behind me and a wave of frustration washing past my senses. I turned around to see that the blue mare was now standing behind me, glaring a hole through my head and panting slightly.

"Oh come on!" I shouted, dropping onto my haunches, "Why won't you just give up and leave me alone!?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "My Guards will be here in a few moments. Come with us peacefully, I only wish to talk."

I scoffed at her, before turning to run away again. This time, however, a large black object filled my vision before hitting my head with a Bang. After a flash of pain, everything went black.

One Hour Later

When I regained consciousness, I realized three things, I was tied to a chair, I was no longer disguised, and my face hurt. A lot.

"Oh Faust, what happened?" I asked out loud, flexing my jaw. Looking around I noticed that the room was empty, except for a table and another chair.

From behind me, I heard a shuffling noise and a door opening. My head was still fuzzy, and when someone spoke quietly, I couldn't make out the words. As I heard a door being closed I realized that I wasn't sensing anyone in the room with me, and after a moment of focusing I felt a small ring around my horn. 'Their blocking my magic' I began to panic, without my magic I couldn't feed off of emotions around me.

Before I could fall deeper into my panic, a white unicorn stallion in golden Royal Guard armor stepped into my field of vision. He was bigger than me, not that that was surprising, and his face screamed boredom.

"So what's your number?" He asked, taking a seat across from me. I made a face at that, not knowing what he meant. "Let's just keep this simple alright? I know that you're not going to tell me anything important, but they require me to get your drone number for our paperwork, so what are you? Six hundred thousand and something? I think that that was the last one that we got"

Now I was really confused, "What are you talking about?" I said. His ears perked up when I spoke, and entire posture changed. Now the Guard seemed totally alert.

He looked deep into my eyes, "You're not a drone?" He asked in what sounded like disbelief. I didn't even get to answer him when he began to smile. Normally that wouldn't mean much, but the way his eye were lighting up made a weight drop in my stomach. His magic grabbed my head, pulling it over the table towards him, "You aren't! Drones don't ask questions, you're an actual Changeling!"

"And you have eyes, congratulations!" I said back without thinking. His smile diminished slightly and my head slammed into the table. I tried to reel back, but his magic kept me in a firm grip.

The stallion pursed his lips before making a small noise of disapproval, "Well then, lets start this." He leaned back in his chair, "What is your mission here in Canterlot, and is there a larger cell in play?"

I looked up at him from the table, "What? I have no idea what you're talking about." He let out a sigh before standing up and walking around to my side of the table. "What are you doing?" I asked as he stopped next to my chair. He leaned back and kicked the side of the chair's back, breaking part of the metal off and slamming me chest first into the table. The air was knocked out of my lungs and left me gasping for breath through the pain.

"Oh no, the prisoner is trying to break his restraints" He yelled in a flat voice, "If he doesn't stop he might get hurt. Please, stop you're thrashing to much." It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was threatening me.

"That's what you're mother said last night" No one has ever claimed that I was a genius. With a telekinetic pull, the chair was flung back onto the ground, slamming my head into floor. The broken edge of the chair sliced across my wing and back, leaving a small gouge across both. I let out a cry of pain as the Guard kicked my chair over, slamming me face first into the floor. I could only moan out in pain as the Guard walked back around me.

Before the Guard could start talking again, the door to the room flung open and a new pony stomped into the room. From where I was all that I could see were dark blue hoofguards instead of the gold my interrogator was wearing.

"Sergeant, you were instructed to notify me the moment the prisoner woke up! What do you think you are doing!?" It was a mares voice for sure, familiar, but I couldn't place it at that moment. Everything was starting to get cloudy again, and I could feel multiple cracks along my face leaking blood.

"Ma'am, I asked a few basic questions when the prisoner began to struggle against its restraints-"

"If I believed that for a moment, we would be having a different conversation, Sergeant." Her voice was slow and filled with enough authority that if I wasn't bleeding out of my face I probably would have tried to stand at attention or something. "Now, go fetch a medic and report to my office. We will have words after this."

The guard snapped to attention, before departing the room in a huff. I heard the mare sigh, before my chair was lifted up in her magic and I was cut free from my restraints. I started to fall off of the chair, when I was also grabbed in the magic and gently laid down on the table. I could feel magic pulsing around my wounds, numbing the areas as the feeling spread.

"I am sorry for the Sergeant's actions. It most likely means little to you, but he was only supposed to keep watch and notify me of when you awoke." My vision was red thanks to the blood in my eyes, so I couldn't see her. Her voice, though, was a lot softer than when she addressed the Guard. "A medic will be here soon, and they will see to your injuries. Once you are better we will have our talk."

I looked up towards the sound of her voice, but my muscles gave out and I slumped back onto the table, darkness filling my vision. She was tending to me, and I felt her wipe some blood out of my eyes. I tried to look at her again, blinking away the darkness and the blood to see a midnight blue alicorn looking back at me with concern written across her face. At that point, my exhaustion and injuries caught up to me and the world went black.