Author's Note

I have two stories I am currently working on. I'm going to try to push out a chapter once every week, alternating between the two. (If you do not read my other story, it's practically like this story will just be updated every other week.) Same business as usual; I have no editor and a small time slot each week to write, so If youspot some errors, tell me about them. Leave comments if you want me to feel fluffy inside.

Here is the song for this chapter. c:

Separation

--Separation--

"You know Darling, you really should come to more of our spa dates. You're simply a delight!" Rarity was climbing into the ever so sensible "mud bath" at the local spa. Aloe, one of the spa workers, handed us what looked like food. Cucumbers, I remember Fluttershy calling them. Aloe promptly turned away from the three of us and left without a word. It was a shame, I wanted to thank her for the snack. I went to take a bite before noticing the other two girls putting them over their eyes. Which was odd, to say the least. I was quite reluctant to adorn the thick slices myself, yet, I followed suit. I had to keep from looking too awkward during my spa visit.

Despite its many odd rituals, the spa was pleasant. I had received my first massage treatment, which was horrifying up until the years of collected knots under my skin were pressed away. I feared for some time that my fake form would have some anatomical inaccuracies, but the spa ponies never screamed in utter terror nor gagged in overwhelming disgust. I must have done well.

The sauna was nice. Its passing and filling heat felt just like home, which filled me with a longing comfortableness with a slight pang of longing. This was even more odd than the edible eye wear, because I was far happier here with Fluttershy than I was back at the hive.

"Huh, I thought I was pretty dull." Rarity laughed at this, shaking her head. Apparently she found me funny.

"Not dull at all dear. Certainly in better taste than most." I removed the cucumbers blocking my line of sight for a moment to get a good look around the room. It was vast, but private. Both the other mud baths were empty, leaving the room silent other than our occasional chit chat. Rarity was sprawled out a few feet to my left, Fluttershy daintily nibbling on her cucumbers to my right.

Either way, this bath was relaxing. It took me all of the energy I had not to pass out while I waded. There was a long while where the feeling of muck sliding around my legs repulsed me, but the feeling passed with time. Still; the bath could make some pretty awful noises if you moved around too much.

"Most ponies here must be in really poor taste then." Again she chuckled, nodding in agreement. Fluttershy frowned.

"Well that's not very nice Rarity..."

"Oh Fluttershy, you know I'm only jesting. Though, It wouldn't kill Applejack or Rainbow Dash to spend a day or two in here." Rarity flipped over, letting her jaw rest on the tiled edge of the bath, her mane falling into the mud and becoming lost with the rest of her. I looked back to Fluttershy who shrugged, gently starting to nibble on her cucumbers once more. I gave mine to her.

"Now Toffee. My apologies for prying, but, where did you say you were from again?"

"Fillydelphia." I subconsciously dipped my body farther into the mud.

"Ahh... That's right. I've been there but once. After being treated crudely by the owner of the hotel I resided in and coming down with a dreadful food sickness, I have decided to never return. It was a terribly unlucky time of my life. Not to be shrewd of course, the weather was quite nice."

"Oh of course. It's always sunny in Fillydelphia." Giggling ensued.

I couldn't dislike Rarity. My first impression of her wasn't particularly great. During the first few minutes of my visit to the spa she came off as quite a high strung mare. She talked far too fast, her vocabulary reeked of affluence, and she calmly told me that I looked "Uncouth." I was quite offended. Overtime she settled down, however. I felt it easy to just tune into the conversations she shared with Fluttershy, only piping up when I knew I had been silent for too long. She ended up being particularly enjoyable.

Still, as she waded at her corner of the tub, I couldn't help but feel slightly unsettled by her presence.

I heard the sound of approaching hoof steps before I caught glimpse of the owner. I figured it would be Aloe again, but the sudden presence of her sister promptly proved me wrong. Lotus was nearly identical, but she her coat a soft blue rather than the pastel pink of her sister. She also seemed much...sweeter.

"Please pardon my interruption. You have a special visitor who would wish to speak to you. May I bring her in during your bath?"

"Of course." Rarity flipped over and removed her cucumbers. "Who are we do deny a guest?" Fluttershy nodded and I shrugged.

"Ahh. I'll send her in." Lotus hurried off without another peep, I think she was apologizing under her breath. Subsequently, her hoof falls where noticeably quieter on her exit over her entrance. We made the poor mare nervous. So back down into the mud bath I went, attempting to settle in once more. Sadly, whatever magic the spa had done me thus far was wasted, for I felt on edge again. It baffled me that the entirety of the spa's relaxing magic wore off within seconds,and for something so simple.

All was silent for but a few moments. Slowly the sound of hoof steps rose once again, undoubtedly our visitor. As they entered the room, I watched both Rarity and Fluttershy's eyes go wide. Rarity's with clear delight, Fluttershy's with sheer terror.

"P-p-p...Princess..."

"Celestia!" Rarity hurried out of the tub and bowed to the regal princess. My head tore around at hyper speed, the frail heart locked within me thumping against the walls of my chest. It was evident I was going to faint. "Oh no... No, no, no..." I tried not to stare but that was an impossibility. She was such a stark contrast to my vile queen's description of her.

She was incredible.

For a moment I almost didn't feel the need to run. She was a towered above me, but not menacingly like the average hulking beast. Her height made her look regal, her calm facial expression showed a beautiful simplicity. I had thought she would be condescending, but she bowed back to Rarity.

"Please girls, you do not have the need to be formal." Her voice was smooth, and without hesitation. It held the confidence one would gather over thousands of years of life. She gazed over the room until her eyesight fell upon me nearly submerged in the mud. Her eyes widened.

"Who is your friend?" I realized I was blatantly staring at her. We made eye contact for a few moments, but despite her gentle smile I could not hold her gaze. She was a beautiful and elegant danger to me. This calm and collected creature of pure magnificence was easily the most dangerous being I had ever laid eyes on. She had laid her stakes as the, arguably, most powerful being throughout all of Equestria. The only recent competition she has had was Chrysalis and her corrupted Sister, Nightmare Moon. Both my queen and her sister lost their battles. Swiftly.

I gulped, hoping that I did not look as nervous as I felt. I opened my mouth to speak, but my tongue was cut in lead, my throat dry and sore. Only a pathetic squeak escaped my lips. Fluttershy spoke up, coming to my rescue once more.

"O-oh, Her name is T-toffee. She's from Fillydelphia, B-but she'll be staying with me for a bit." Celestia nodded, smiling at me again.

"I would stay to chat, but I'm afraid there are very... dark matters I need to address. Quickly, I might add."

"O-Oh! Oh my goodness! Has something happened in the castle?" Rarity stood in front of the princess, using a towel to rub off some of the mud left on her hooves and body.

"Not exactly." Celestia shook her head. "I do not wish to speak to you here about this predicament, but rather with all of the elements at once. Twilight has already agreed that we shall meet in her library." Both girls nodded before she turned to me. "I'm sorry we cannot get acquainted, Toffee. This is a dire situation that must be addressed without haste. However, it is not entirely private. If you wish to attend the meeting you are free to do so. But be warned, this is not a light topic." Celestia turned and began heading out of the spa. Aloe and Lotus both moving out of the door way and seeing her out of their business. "I must get the others. Please be prompt, girls."

"The elements..." I stood motionless, letting her words sink in. The ponies I had been relaxing in the spa with were the dreaded elements of harmony. I had spent the whole day with them. My eye twitched.

Two guardsmen previously unnoticed by me seemingly peeled off the walls, following their princess on her way out. As quickly as they came, they were gone. The three of us all sat in silence for a time, A somber mood drifting through the room like a chill on the wind.

"Ehem. That became quite harrowing rather quickly." Rarity started towards the exit as well. "I suppose we should be off then. Nice to get to formally meet you, Toffee. We should add you as a regular to our weekly trips. Ta ta for now." She waved goodbye to me, checking herself over once more for any left over muck from the bath.

"G-Goodbye..." I'm pretty sure she didn't even hear my reply, as she was already out the door. For such a proper mare, she could move decently quick; She even managed to leave a pile of bits on the counter for her time at the spa.

I felt a little bit more comfortable upon her exit. I wasn't that I was frightened by Rarity, but rather I was just unhinged by the constant nervousness I felt while having simple conversation with her. I was warming to her presence, but every time I spoke with the ponies around me I had to measure my words and the weight they carried. I had to be careful not to drag the conversation in the wrong direction, or to act out of place. It was evident that the guise that I was not from the same town and cultural background would only bring me so far. My non-pony like quirks began to show rather quickly. Her pressured departure left me alone with Fluttershy, which brought waves of relief to me as we sat. She looked uncharacteristically downtrodden, normally bright blue eyes cast to the ground, dull and without vigor. She was so nervous.

"You don't need to come with me to the meeting..." Her quiet yet sudden speaking stole away the lingering silence and startled me. "I-it would probably be best if you didn't... I-I, uh, don't want anything to happen between the princess and the other girls..." Her words made sense, and that made them more painful.

"Of course, I understand..." I nodded solemnly. "W-where should I go?"

"Back to my cottage, you can stay there if you would like. I don't think that I'll be gone all day. Do...do you remember the way back? If you don't, I-I can bring you." I nodded, telling her that I could figure it out. Ponyville was a pretty small place, after all. I brought the taller mare in for an impromptu hug. She didn't even look surprised, hugging me back immediately. I guess she understood how I felt. This would be the first time we would be separated since I found myself in her cottage. Despite our time together only being a mere couple of days, our separation frightened me. She had to be worried as well.

Then she too, was gone. I watched her leave the spa, but instead of turning right to head towards the edge of town she turned left to head deep into village. I sat by myself for a few moments to take it all in. My security blanket had left. The sole reason why I was even alive to experience this day at the spa had quietly exited my presence. If something, anything, happened on the trip back, she would not be there to help. I had to take deep, manual breaths to calm myself.

I was a soldier. Bred for war and filled with hate. A creature meant to fight in a desolate battlefield until the last ragged breath left my body and my head fell limp to the ground beneath my feet. I was a changeling, and all changelings were top tier warriors. We were ruthless.

But I was no longer a warrior. I was no longer ruthless. I was afraid, dependent. I was changing, but in a way no other changeling could. It was almost funny, for a changeling to be scared of change.

I sat alone for a long time.

"I'm Sorry to bother you, miss, but I overheard some of your conversation. I... I wish you and your friends good luck. They've all saved us before, and I'm sure whatever this is, they'll be okay. Don't worry about Miss Fluttershy, she's tough." Lotus trotted over to me and patted me on my shoulders, certainly the more caring one of the two sisters. She pointed to the exit. "Miss Fluttershy paid for you already, so you are free to leave whenever you would like. I'm sorry your day at our spa was cut short."

So I left.

Six young mares sat in a very crude line in the middle of Ponyville's town library, their princess sitting before them. They all shared the same look of worry, called to an urgent meeting with the same sparse details given to each of them. The amount of anxiety coating the room left a slimy feeling in the air. It only thickened with the passing of time.

"Thank you all for coming on such a short notice. We don't have much time to chatter, so I hope to be quick." Each mare collectively nodded, some more worried than others, yet none more worried than the canary yellow mare dead center in the line. The princess took a long breath and continued. "It seems that our recent victory was not what it seemed."

"You mean the one with Queen Chrysalis?" Twilight asked.

"That I do, my young student. I have gathered fleeting information from guards posted outside of the castle grounds that the battle we fought was just that. A single battle. There is word of stray changelings, undoubtedly cast from the hive, roaming our piece of Equestria." Applejack's face sharpened, sharing a nervous look with Twilight.

"They are most likely hiding deep in the forests that neighbor our towns. They are very dangerous, more-so than you would think. However, my guards can round up the strays, there is a far worse matter than that." Fluttershy had started shivering, Pinkie Pie halting her bubbly wiggling.

"Queen Chrysalis lives, and she is thriving. My sister warned me that she's been having visions of her return."

"I-If the queen is still out there somewhere, what could we do? She could be anywhere." Twilight spoke again. Celestia shook her head in response. With a flash of her horn, she spawned a map of Equestria. She rolled it out on the floor between them.

"She will have gone back to her hive, She will be able to recuperate there." Celestia pointed to the small spot on the map dignifying where ponies resided. Canterlot was a star in the middle of the small dot. She dragged her hoof all the way from Canterlot to the other end of Equestria, where the map began getting more sparse. Eventually, it stopped showing landmarks and towns all together, gradually declining in quality as her hoof went onwards. It soon fell on a corner that was completely blank, unmapped by anypony throughout history. "There. There is her home."

"that doesn't show anything, princess." Pinkie looked quizzically at the map. "This isn't very much help." Celestia rolled up the map.

"I know. None of my guards or scouts, nor even I, have ever been there. I've been searching vigorously on the topic throughout these past couple nights, and as far as I can tell, only one pony alive has."

"Who?"

"His name is Sombres Forêts. And he disappeared a very long time ago." Celestia turned to look out the window as she spoke. "Back before you were born, the changelings were unknown to the mass majority of the population. They became a hearsay tale for scaring small foals. One man, Sombres, Seemed to have a curiosity with these tales. He wrote entire books on them..."

"Oh my goodness!" Twilight gasped and ran to her bookshelf. "I have one of his writings! I can't believe I didn't recognize his name when you first said it." She lit up her horn and pulled a dull green book resting on the top shelf. The bindings were coming apart, and there was a clear bend in the books cover. She levitated it to the princess.

"Ahh, this is him." Celestia grabbed the time worn book and began looking it over. Paranormal Probabilities. Why There Are None. "He wrote about the origins of many children's stories, but he mostly focused on debunking every bit of folklore or myth that he could. Quite the skeptic, I would say. In his last novel he stated that he was looking for the history on changelings next, and that his search brought him to this unmarked corner of the modern map..." Celestia paused and frowned deeply. Fluttershy noticed the bags under her normally lively eyes. It hadn't even occurred to her that a princess could get tired.

"What happened to the poor dear?" Rarity spoke for all of them.

"He went completely silent for months. Then one day, he just came back. He published a fresh news article claiming he had found their hive, that everything was true about the tales. He posted article after article of information about their awful civilization. Each dreary block of writing becoming more jumbled and sporadic until it was clear he was not fit for writing anymore. His last article was done in the dead language of the dragons. Correctly, I might add. The newspaper he was accompanied with and the publisher he relied on dropped him. That's the last anyone has heard from him."

"I-I knew he was telling the truth when I read the articles, but as a princess, I had to keep my ponies safe. If I backed his claims, panic would have surely spread. I couldn't have let that happen..." She sighed and slumped to the floor. "Oh what a fool I have been." Twilight gave her mentor a hug, Celestia only returning the affection with a sad smile.

"You six are the only hope Equestria has left to deal with Chrysalis. I never wanted my pursuit to come to this, but I'm afraid I will have to send all of you on a journey. A very dangerous one. You will be accompanied by my sister and one of my best trained warriors. I...I cannot guarantee your safety."

"They didn't seem to hurt anypony when they showed up in Canterlot. Why the dark tone, princess." Rainbow Dash floated above the other girls, restless from the long conversation.

"They were planning on usurping my throne, other ponies were not the priority. If Chrysalis had won, I'm quite sure their rule would have brought the demise of many. I've experienced their full effect on ponies hundreds of years ago, when I first began ruling Equestria. It is not foal friendly."

Rainbow nodded and slumped to the floor, her lone question answered quite effectively. Nopony wanted to accept the situation they were in as one based in reality. Sleep would not come easy tonight, plagued by a task so daunting that the idea of it could steal a ponies breath away. The thought that death could be a possible result on their quest brought strange feelings so the surface of the imagination. Violence was suppressed throughout Equestria for so long that talk of it was unusual. It was no longer normal for a pony to be genuinely hurt by another.

Death was on another level.

"I have tracked Sombres down to the small town of LaFriesia, about an hour by train from here. Tomorrow at noon you will depart. You need to find him and get as much information from him as you can, I don't wish for you to go in to their hive blindly. Equestria needs you to pull through with the elements once more, and I fear that if this is left unkempt it could turn into another uprising. I don't want to risk them coming back.

"You can count on us, princess!" Rainbow took to the air again and saluted Celestia, all of the elements nodding in approval. All but two. Fluttershy was too busy fretting about the impending doom of her new friend, a doom she knew she could stop if she played her cards right. Applejack was too busy fretting about the impending doom of her old friend, a doom she knew she could stop if she played her cards right. The other girls were gaining a sense of confidence fed by each other's very similar confidence. Soon, the pleasantries of confidence surpassed the anxiousness that previously resided in the room. It could even be considered uplifting. Applejack, Celestia, and Fluttershy could not understand their friends' moment of bronze and vigor. Time was limited, and they could feel a clock ticking away every second of their lives, feverishly awaiting for time to run out.

I was half asleep on the living room couch when I heard the cottage's wooden door creak open. Tumbler after tumbler rolled, then swollen wood scraped against swollen wood. It took a lot of effort to not sprint out to see her as she trotted quietly inside. I could not hold myself back from pulling her into a long hug when she did enter the living room, however. The cottage was cold, she was warm.

She told me everything. She cried during most of it, afraid for her friends and herself, but mostly for me. The royal guards were now on an active hunt for my kind, and I knew first hand that royal guards are very skillful at what they do. I should have been alarmed, but I wasn't. Maybe I was expecting it, it was inevitable after all, or maybe I had just come to terms with the danger in my life. Either way, I felt blessed to have my friend back with me.

But then she told me that they had to go in search of my hive, and I was afraid again.

"Y-you can stay here, you'll be safe in Ponyville..." I handed her a tissue to wipe her eyes with, curtly shaking my head.

"I don't know well enough how ponies live. I'd never last on my own."

"B-but I could teach you, I could..."

"No, Fluttershy, I..I wouldn't live well alone here. I don't want , besides, I'm not letting you go back to my hive without my help." It was her turn to shake her head.

"I think a few of my friends are already suspicious of you... They would figure it out eventually."

"I can be crafty, my kind are quite sneaky. I might be able to help you get there sooner."

"But that'll be even more suspicious!" She was crying again, holding tightly onto me and letting her tears flow onto my shoulder. "You would look so out of place, and, and..."

"I'm coming with you. I'll stay until they start to figure me out, then I'll break away. And if I can't stay in the foreground, I'll just h.ave to shadow you as you make your trip. Either way, I'm not letting you and your friends make a trip back to My hive without my help. You helped me, so now I'll help you." She was still clearly nervous, but she stopped her weeping. I'm pretty sure she even cracked a small smile. I think I had gotten my point across successfully. We stopped embracing after a while, me going off and sitting on the couch, her to start making tea. This would be our last night in an actual home for a long while, possibly forever.

I stared at her as she made our tea. Even with the fur under her eyes stained a dark yellow from her previous tears, she was still beautiful. There was no way I would let anything happen to her, and if that meant protecting her friends as well, then so be it. I chuckled to myself. It took one kind, pretty mare and two days time to turn me against my kind. The "family" I was brought up in was now one of my many enemies. I was now a rebel, a traitor.

And I couldn't have been happier about that.