We arrived in a small storage room and Verso leaned against the door to keep it closed, still glaring silently at Lyra, who was heavily sweating. He strangely decided not to say anything and just waited, glaring. In front of us, Lyra was terribly nervous and was trotting on her spot, frantically looking around. It took five excruciatingly long minutes for something to happen. That something being Lyra breaking into tears.

"I... I'm sorry I..."
"Shut up," Verso silenced her. "I'll ask you a few questions. Depending on you answers, I may decide to let you go untouched."
"I..."
"Shut up. No talking until I ask something."
Do you have to be so mean? Look at her! She looks so sad!
I have to if I want answers. It has to be afraid of me.
But still... I don't like that...
Do you want to go to sleep? You don't have to watch me do that.
I... Only if you promise not to hurt her while I'm sleeping!
... As long as it doesn't try to hurt us or to call for help, it is safe. Is that enough for you?
Okay... Please don't be too mean...

--

The very instant Recto went to sleep, I groaned and stared at the mess of a creature standing in front of me. I had extended my sense field across the room behind me to make sure no one was coming our way and to monitor the other 'changelings' chatting with the ponies, but I had no clear idea what to do. I didn't know a thing about these creatures' powers, other than they could apparently change their form to that of a normal pony and that Twilight at least considered them dangerous. Thankfully, my spell could see through the coat of magic that changed their appearance, and allowed me to discover what they were. But I knew the situation was dire.

The bug in front of me looked like it would shit itself for the smallest thing, and I had trouble believing Twilight. But, again, I didn't know crap about them. First thing that needed to change.

"Are you a 'changeling'?" I asked, even though her body language and my spell answered this question long ago.
"I... I don't see..."
"Listen here, bug. This can only end in two ways : either I crush you like a cockroach or I don't. A good portion of this choice relies on you not taking me for a moron, so choose your answers carefully, alright?"

It gulped and started to cry again. Could such a pushover really be that dangerous? Then again, I guess that a species made entirely out of shapeshifters would be pretty good at acting. Was it trying to get me to lower my guard to attack me as soon as it saw a possibility?

"Are you a changeling?"

It nodded, her throat too constricted to speak. Whatever they were doing to imitate the pony anatomy, it sure was messing with my spell, like two things being in the same place at the same moment.

"Did you take Lyra's place?"
"No!" it cried, surprising me. "I... I'm the only Lyra there is!"
"Interesting. Why would you disguise yourself as a pony, if not to take their place?"
"I... I'm not a spy! I just wanted to try to live like a pony!"

Okay, it had me confused there. Ponies were obviously rather accepting of other species, or I would be bound in chains by now. That could only mean that they had problems with changelings in particular. And why would it assume that I would think it was a spy? It could have easily just decided to replace a pony to live her life.

"Can you change back to your natural form?"

It nodded and exploded in green fire, making me create a shield to protect me. I was about to go medieval on its soon to be corpse when I realized that it hadn't moved an inch and had changed appearance to look exactly like a bug-pony, with a black chitinous exoskeleton, a horn protruding from its skull, fly-like wings and glowing blue eyes, a freakishly long pair of fangs and a few holes in her legs. For some reason, it still had her turquoise and white mane and tail, which didn't fit very well with the rest of its body, but then again, I was in a world of colorful and magical talking ponies, so who am I to judge? All in all, she looked way cooler than she did as a pony, but I figure that it doesn't mean much.

"Were all the pyrotechnics mandatory?"
"Yes," it barely whispered.
"Okay. Next question : why are you hiding your true form, if you aren't disguising yourself as anyone else?"

I think it stared confused at me, but her bug-like features didn't do such a great job to carry her expressions.

"Well... Did you look at me? I'm a changeling, for the Hive's sake!"

Well, wasn't that an interesting way of swearing? That wasn't indicating anything good at all. My sense field warned me that the main room was becoming a bit more agitated and that I had to hurry.

"Why are there so many of you here?" I asked, concentrating now more on the other room.
"What do you mean? I'm the only changeling in Ponyville!"
"Yeah, right, continue lying when I can feel seven other changeling barely twenty meters away from us. That's a good idea."
"There are others here?!" it yelped, surprised, and strangely panicked.

Okay, I must admit that its reaction took me by surprise. It sounded genuinely surprised, and even more genuinely scared.

"You didn't know?"
"N... No! Changelings don't usually go to same place to feed when they're not in..." It stopped mid-sentence, visibly coming to a realization while I was more concerned about its 'feeding' remark. "Oh, crap. Oh, crapcrapcrapcrap...." it started to repeat, running in circles. It then stopped and looked at me intensely. "Is Bonbon okay? You can feel her with your spell, don't you?"
"She's alright. What was that about the feeding?"
"I don't have time to explain! Ponyv..."
"Yes, you do, because we're not leaving this place until I say so."
"But..."
"What was that about 'feeding'?"

It looked conflicted and took a moment before answering.

"I... Changelings feed off emotions from other species, mainly off their love," it started to quickly explain.
Heavens, even monsters sound sweet in this place...
"So we either replace a pony who has a partner or we disguise ourselves as ponies and get love the 'romantic' way in order to feed. But having too many changelings in the same place is dangerous! We could get caught, drain a population dry or interfere with each other without knowing!"
"Why are there so many changelings in this place, if that's true?"
"Well, another way to... 'feed'... is to place ponies into a cocoon that keeps them hallucinating and nourishes them while we feed off them. That's what hives do..."
Oh, fuck, it just went a hell of a lot darker. So much for the sweetness.
"Are you saying that a hive is about to attack Ponyville?"
"Yes! That's why we need to get out! We must stop the hive before it's too late!"

I took a second to weight my options. Either Lyra was lying to get me to lower my guard to kill the only creature it knew to be able to detect disguised changelings, or it was saying the truth and we were on the verge of a really crappy situation. Wasn't that great? But, if it was lying, I would have been able to kill it in an instant. If it was saying the truth, I would need some help with this situation. All in all, there was only one way to find out.

"What do you suggest we do to fight off an entire hive? Also, change back back into you pony form. I hate bugs."

It... She looked at me with what I recognized to be gratitude and changed back into a unicorn.

"Well, hives work in a peculiar way: they are centered around one changeling, the Queen, who shares some kind of mental connexion with her changelings. That means that we have to defeat the Queen if we want to stop the hive."
"Doesn't sound too complicated."
"Yeah, well, you may want to rethink that. The last hive queen that attacked the ponies was powerful enough to defeat Princess Celestia herself, with all the power she had gained from draining love. Queens are very powerful!"
"Sounds a bit more complicated, but nothing we can't get around. How do we find the Queen?" Did she say that they could gain power by draining others? That's... interesting.
"I... I don't know... She's probably not too far from Ponyville."
"We just have to search then... I wonder exactly how far I can stretch my sense field now... Time to find out!" I exclaimed, sitting down. "Would you mind watching the door?"
"What are you going to do?"
"Trying to replicate the NSA."

I ignored her obviously confused state and closed my eyes to concentrate on the field. Of course, I couldn't keep my usual level of precision and scan the entire town without frying my brain with an overload of informations, but I decided that I didn't need to be so precise. I twitched my trick here and there and activated my new 'city scan field'. I heard Lyra gasp when I did, meaning that it was probably visible, but I had other problems at hand. Mainly, trying to regulate the insane amount of informations coming from the fact that I could feel every object bigger than a football inside my brain in a five hundred meters radius and trying to localize something in particular in all of that.

That's pretty much how I discovered why there were so few ponies walking outside of the town earlier: they were all in their houses, inside what I would definitely describe as a cocoon of goo, surrounded by changelings.

"Crap, they already have captured a lot of ponies..."
"You can feel them? That's..."
"Compliments later. Where would a Queen be?"
"Hum... Search for a high concentration of cocoons. Queens usually feed a lot more than they should."
"Who wouldn't..." I muttered, as I mentally searched across the town some kind of feeding ground.

It took me some time, but I finally found such a 'supply reserve' inside a house guarded by an entire regiment of changelings wearing armor pieces. I also found what I presumed to be the Queen, shining like a freaking magical lighthouse now that I knew where to find her. It made me worry: she was nearly as powerful as Luna-bitch, and that wouldn't be good for me if I were to fight her. Of course, with Twilight and her friends, we could overpower her by a large margin but... I had some questions to ask. Questions I'd prefer that none knew about. Especially if that Queen could really drain others' power to make it her own.

"Found her. We'll get out of this place and go get her." At least, I hope I'll have enough time to do so before I have to awaken Recto...
"On our own? Shouldn't we warn the Princesses?"
Fuck, a legitimate question. "The Queen has the upper hand. She could take actions and hurt her hostages if she thought that she was in danger. But I don't think she would suspect me to be able to fight her until it's too late." That's a... pretty good point, actually.
"Are sure you can..."
"I fought on equal terms with Luna. I can take her." At least, I hope I can.

She gulped and nodded. I opened the door, only for the pink-monster to pop right in front of me, false disappointment on her face.

"What are you doing in here? You are missing your party!"
"Oh, boo hoo hoo. How would I ever survive such a terrible idea?" I said, trying and failing to walk past her.
"With cake, obviously!" the party freak shrieked in excitement.

She grabbed me and dragged me to the table in the center of the bakery, upon which a gigantic blue and yellow cake with a somewhat accurate depiction of me drawn in the icing. I have to admit that I had to force myself not to drool in front of that beautiful, beautiful confection, but I had some rather urgent matters that needed attending. Like the alarming augmentation of the number of changeling in the bakery.

"Listen, it's nice and all, but I really have to..."
"Hush, silly," she giggled, turning to take a freakishly big and sharp-looking knife behind her, before looking at me with the same hint of madness that scared me a few hours ago. "Now, let's put a smile on that face!"
Heavenly crap! Is she serious?!

I would have jolted away from that psychotic pink monster of a pony, but I was surrounded by either ponies, changelings or the most beautiful peace of edible art ever known to man. Thankfully, it didn't matter, as Twilight sighed and magically grabbed the knife away from her and walked toward me, giving me the handle.

"Don't you think the pony of honor should be cutting the first piece of the cake, Pinkie?"
"Aww... But it's the second funniest part!" she cried, her eyes filling with crocodile tears to try and persuade her friend to give her back her weapon.
"Psycho..." I mumbled as I grabbed the knife, giving attention back to the crowd.
"What was that?" Twilight asked.
"Nothing. Just a human way of thanking people," I innocently answered as I turned to face the appetizing confection.

I don't think my thought process on how to cut that cake is to be relevant, so I'll just skip that part, if you'll let me. Not that you really have a choice, but I'll just tell you that for the most tiny of instants, it involved leprechauns. Do whatever the hell you want with that information.

The part that followed me deciding how to cut that first slice, though, is important. Twilight was nice enough to stay next to me while I manually used a knife for the first time in ages, and it just so happened that while I was grabbing a plate, my mouth was hidden from anybody else but her. Who wouldn't jump at such an opportunity to communicate without the dozen spies knowing it?

"Grab your gang and get back to your castle, now," I whispered just loud enough for her to hear.
"What?" she asked loudly, making me twitch.
"Whoops!" I said as I purposely let go of the plate, making cake fall everywhere. "Sorry, I'll pick that up," I called with a false apologetic smile, kneeling. "Be quiet, idiot!" I whispered again once no one else could see my face. "And help me, you tactless purple horse!" She did so, a perplex expression on her face. "I need you six to go to your castle and to send a letter to Celestia in thirty minutes."
"Why do you..."
"I'll explain later, but it's very important that you don't act suspiciously. Pretend you'rr on your way to organize next step of the pink one's welcome party or whatever. And don't let them out of your sight."
"What about that letter?"
"One word should be enough, if I understand the situation," I whispered as I got up. "Well, seems you've got the rest. I'll go outside for a moment. Us humans need our sun walking and shit. Be back soon."
"Verso!" Twilight called behind me as I walked toward the door.

Thankfully, she didn't continue, as she finally saw the beautifully written 'CHANGELINGS' I left for her in the icing on the floor.

I levitated another slice of that cake on my way out, not letting myself to be deprived of such a masterpiece because of a shapeshifters invasion. I may be mentally unstable, but I'm thankfully still far from that horrifying kind of madness. I sensed that Lyra hastily told something to Bonbon and ran after me as I got outside, and she arrived next to me just as I was finishing my first bite of that delicious stuff. Whoever baked that thing deserves a place in pony-heaven by the way.

"Verso!" she called. "What are..."
"You hungry?" I interrupted her as I walked towards the Queen's headquarters, levitating the cake right next to her face.
"Thanks, but I can't process it. What..."
"Too bad for you. I don't envy your species," I told her, biting into that piece of heaven.
"What are you doing? We can't just..."
"There's about fifteen changelings in that bakery, not taking you into account. I'm not risking my well-being against so many opponents. What did you tell to your food?"
"What... That's not like that!" she yelled at me, half horrified and half blushing.
"Why not? You know, humans can eat horses too, so don't worry about referring about her as..."
"Bonbon's not food! She's... It's more like... I really do love her!"
"If you say so," I said, not convinced.
"Are you calling me a 'lyre', sir?"

I stopped dead in my tracks, my brain simply refusing to mentally process the horror my ears just reported to it. I mean, no sane intelligent being could possibly fall that low, could they? My eyes fell on her flank, seeing lyre depicted there, then moving toward her face as she was grinning like an idiot. It just couldn't, could it?

"Tell me, your real name isn't 'Lyra', is it?"
"Nope," she said with her dumb grin.
"And you're a changeling. Hiding, lying to everyone."
"Yep."

The horrible, horrible truth was slowly crushing me, taking its time.

"Did you make your name out of the most terrible pun ever put to words?"
"I did."

Horrible, horrible truth, ripping my brain apart. That would usually force me to go cry in a corner of our mind, but I didn't currently have the luxury of having someone else to fly this ship while I was questioning the very meaning of the universe. So, instead, I just forced myself to brush it off.

"Okay."

And I resumed my pace.

"Oh, come on!" Lyr... Thingy shrieked in frustration. I like 'Thingy'. It's a beautiful name. Full of meaning. "Aren't you going to react to this?" Thingy continued. "I've literally waited for years to use that one!"
"If you don't ever talk to me again, I may not get brain damage because of you. Go put your food-friend to safety or something. Just... Stay away from me. Forever."
"Hey! I said..."
"Stop talking. I kinda need full use of my brain for the stunt I'm about to pull. Now, shoo!" I said, waving my hand to signal her to get away from me.

She harrumphed in frustration and, thanks the heavens, trotted away from me. Now that I had one problem dealt with, I could just concentrate on the task at hand : getting to that changeling Queen, if possible alive and well. Yeah, that would be great. I finally arrived at my destination and glanced at the house, that looked just like every other house of the town. I waved at the two disguised changelings I saw through the window and knocked lightly on the door.

I sensed that they glanced at each other and hissed something before one of them, disguised as a stallion, walked to the door and peared it open.

"Can I help you?" it asked.
"I think so. You see, I'm new around here, and since I'm an 'exotic creature' according to your mayor, she felt that it would be great if I could at least say hello to most of the townspeople," I said with what I remembered to be a warm smile.
"Oh, is that so? Welcome to Ponyville then, mister..?"
"Call me Verso," I answered. "Oh, and if you could take me to your Queen downstairs, that would be nice."
"Wha..."

I didn't let it finish and kicked the door, bashing it against its head and knocking it out, the bug-like creature taking its true form as it fell. The other changeling lunged at me only to hit my instant-shield head first and falling unconscious on the floor, its disguise dissolving.

I really need to ask Twilight how to get that shield to last longer, now that I'm thinking about it, I thought as I magically closed the door and activated a more precise version of my sense field, that let me know exactly what was happening in the house and its basement.

Downstairs, I felt the changeling Queen hissing and clicking at its guards, surrounded by at least a dozen strange pods with unconscious ponies inside. Half of the Queen's guards left her side and buzzed - get it? Because they're bugs!... Oh, heavens, Lyra rubbed off me... - upstairs, and I simply leaned against the wall in front of the door leading to their position, waiting. Just as the first one was about to reach the heavy, wooden door, I magically bashed it open on its skull with enough force to let me hear a really satisfying 'crack'. Ah... I love this sound... Kinda like music, y'know?

Back to business. The second changeling was flying right behind its friend and I violently closed the door on its neck, again with that beautiful music of cracked chitin, and it fell limp on the ground. I quickly charged a magical energy beam while the third buggy shapeshifter cautiously approached the door. It's horn ignited with magic and it opened it, only to be fried alive by my attack. The two remaining changelings were looking dumbfounded at me and I could feel the Queen's anger a few meters below me. I raised my hands to show that I wasn't willing to continue this fun but senseless fight.

"Don't worry, guys, they're still alive. Well, this one is in a world of hurt," I added, pointing at the fried bug, "but I think he'll be fine."
"What are you doing here, 'human'?" one of nearly spat. "How did you know of our presence?"
Oh, so they know what I am. I'm not sure that's a good thing. "I've come to have a little talk with that Queen of yours. You know, ask questions and everything. I'm a rather curious being, and changelings are so fascinat..."
"How did you know?!" the other one loudly inquired with a surprisingly feminine voice.
"Now, now, if I answer that, I won't have anything left to bargain with you guys. Well, I guess I could still kill you all, but that's beside the point. Oh, and just so you know, if I don't cancel an order of mine in, say, twenty-five minutes, Celestia will know that you're here."

Oh, they didn't like it. Judging by their expressions, I knew I had enraged the girly bug enough to charge me if its... her... Well, I don't really know what term I'm supposed to use with these, so I'm just telling you that the other changeling had to bite her tail and swing her back to stop her from attacking me. It was rather funny to watch, by the way.

The Queen downstairs was fulminating and clicked and hissed something to the changeling next to her. The next second, they had swapped appearance and the two bugs in front of me looked into space for a moment before they made way for me to get to the stairs. I must say that it would have been pretty clever if I couldn't sense their disguise.

"The Queen will see you, human," the girly one said. "But be warned: if it even looks like you're going to attack her Highness, you're dead."
"Oh, woe me, I'm so terrified!" I sarcastically answered as I walked in front of her.

A roaring-like thunderclap that I knew all too much resonated in my skull, followed by a wave of pain, informing me that I had very little time left alone outside.

Dammit, I reinforced his prison just yesterday! I thought, hopefully not letting my panic to be seen by the two bugs. I should have at least had an hour! It's been ten minutes at most! I'll have to be faster than I thought...

I was escorted to another wooden door, that my buggy escort kindly opened for me. Inside hanged the dozen cocooned-ponies that I felt earlier, slightly glowing with a green light. I front of me, a Celestia-sized bug pony with a blueish foam-like mane and tail, wearing a little black crown on the top of its head, was looking at me like it was about to erase me for the surface of the world with her green, nearly cat-like eyes. And, of course, she was also surrounded by four other 'normal-looking' changelings, but it's not like they were that important in any way, were they?

The disguised queen was on her double's right side and had the most venomous stare I had seen in years. Even the excited girly one behind me looked like we were best friends in comparison.

"I am..." the fake Queen started to say.
"Your Highness," I interrupted her, kneeling in front of the real Queen. "Thank you for accepting to see me on such short notice."

Now, her venomous look had disappeared, replaced by a half surprised, half horrified one. Just like I love them.

"How did you..."
"Could you make me the honor of showing me your true appearance, your Highness?" I asked, mockery obvious in my voice.

She grunted and her body was engulfed in green fire for a second as she took her proper body back. Coming to think of it, her fangs looked pretty damn menacing. And the glare she was giving me wasn't making it feel any better.

"How did you find us, human?" she asked with a strangely deformed-sounding voice. "And how are you able to see through our disguise?"
"First of all, you can call me Verso, changeling," I stated. "Secondly, I'll explain that later. Thirdly..."
"You will tell me right now, you filthy ape!" she shouted, her horn filling with energy to form an attack beam.

Fortunately, I was ready for that one and, taking a page out of Celestia's book, I deflected her attack with a magical shield, the beam instead hitting one of her guards and throwing him against a wall. I immediately caught the two changelings behind me in my magical grip and threw them between me and the Queen as meat-shields. The other guards had illuminated their horns and looked ready to bite, hissing like snakes, weirdly enough.

"I think we should all calm down before somebody does something that you will regret, your Highness," I clamly said, tightening my grip on her subjects' neck. "Let's start again: I'm Verso, nice to meet you."

The Queen grinded her teeth and her glare would probably have made a normal man's heart freeze in fear, but I still had the upper hand for the moment. Reluctantly, she replied.

"I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. Now, how did you find us?"
"Isn't that so much nicer?" I remarked. "Now, I'll satisfy your curiosity: I know a spell that allows me to feel my surroundings and can sense the magical imprint of different ponies races. I activated it a few minutes earlier and detected you and your subjects all around the town. So, since I am currently offered asile by the ponies, I decided that it would be a good idea to confront the threat before it was too late."

She didn't look like she was happy with my explanation, and it only took her a few seconds to understand the situation; that her species was in danger simply because of the existence of such a spell. How could they hide, infiltrate and feed off ponies if they couldn't disguise themselves anymore?

"Do... Do the ponies know that spell too?" she asked after a minute of reflexion.
"Not yet."
Her stare concentrated on my head. "So you're the only one who can detect us?"
Oh, crap, I thought. "I gave a message to Princess Twilight Sparkle," I started to lie. For some reason, she snorted. "She'll open it if I don't stop her in now twenty minutes."
"And how does that..."
"It describes the detection spell and explain the current situation. If I don't stop her, she'll send everything to Princess Celestia. You see where I am going?"

She once again grinded her teeth, highly displeased.

"I could still kill you, take your form and stop that damned princess," she stated.
"I don't think so," I replied, still calm. "I fought on equal terms with Princess Luna twice yesterday and the spirit of Chaos is my current protector." She growled in frustration and I continued. "As it is right now, I am able to kill you and your changelings, so don't even try to think you have the upper hand, m'lady."

She was furious. No, furious doesn't even begin to cover the intensity of her rage against me. I don't think there are words to describe how much anger and hatred she must have felt towards me at that precise moment. I loved it, but it was working against my interest.

"Now, I'm not here to fight you. At all," I stated, surprising her. "In fact, I mainly came here to ask you a favor."

There, she was downright confused. I mean, all that I had done until then was knocking her subjects unconscious, insult her and threaten the existence of her entire species. Doesn't look like something any beggar would do, right?

"What do you want?" she cautiously asked.
"First, I want you out of Ponyville. I won't say a thing about your presence at any point, and I'm fairly sure none of the townspeople will remember any of this."
"You're asking for my retreat?"
"That's not a question. If you don't, I will warn Celestia myself, kill every last changeling breathing in this town, keep you barely alive so that I can slowly dissect you alive out of pure curiosity, teach my spell to a massive amount of unicorns and go on a search for other changelings and Queens that I can play with," I stated with a slight spark of amusement deliberately left in my voice.

I don't think she expected such an answer, especially with my nearly happy tone. I don't think anyone would. She looked a bit horrified at the happy smile I was now displaying.

"You bastard..." the girly changeling I was still strangulating managed to hiss.
"Hush, kiddo. Grown ups are talking."
"You couldn't," Chrysalis whispered. "No sentient creature could..."
"Did you know that there isn't any other sentient beings where I come from?" I asked, interrupting her. "Wanna know why?" I didn't wait for her answer and continued. "That's because humans are predators. We killed hundreds of other species. And when we ran out of species to kill, we started to kill each other for made up reasons, or for fun. Do you think that makes us monsters?"

She weakly nodded, shocked. I gave her the most predatory smile I could muster.

"You're right. But here's the catch : I was considered a monster even among them."

She gulped, her irises shrunken to the size of pinpricks. Which was the plan: to get her afraid of me. People tend to run as far away as they can from creatures they fear instead of attacking them. Except when they're humans. Then, they just imprison the fucker, study him and shoot it dead when their crazy cult leader says so. Here's hoping she wasn't like that.

"So, I'll repeat myself: you and your changelings are leaving this place, freeing your prisoners and making sure none of them remember these events. Have I made myself clear, 'your Highness'?"
"... Very..." she growled, angry.
Hum... She could still attack me as soon as I turned my back... Time to get to the good OH SKIES ABOVE, MY FREAKING HEAD! I thought, interrupted by a second wave of intra-cranial pain that nearly made me lose balance. No time to waste, I gotta move on.
"Now, I think you'll appreciate the next part," I said, massaging my temples to get rid of the remnants of my headache. "I won't be teaching my detection spell to anyone, so your kind should be safe. And I won't report any of this to anyone either. You can attack any other city as far as I'm concerned, just not where I'm living. I don't really care what happens to ponykind in general."
"And how do I know I can even trust you, human?"
"You don't. But you should." She looked pretty pissed at my answer, but I didn't have anymore time time to lose to let her think. "So, do we have an agreement, Queen Chrysalis?"
"... We do. I'll order my changelings to free the ponies and to leave Ponyville. We'll need time, though..."
"Don't worry about that. I can watch you evacuating from anywhere in town. You have until sundown tomorrow to go," I said, happy with her cooperation."Well, now that we are no longer in conflict..." I said, releasing the two bug-ponies I was still using as shields,"About the favors I mentioned earlier..."
"Do you really think that I would even consider grant you anything after you threatened not only me, but my subjects and my entire kind, human?!"
"Depends: would you rather have me neutral of indebted to you?"

She looked surprised for a moment, before she gave it a thought for a few seconds and finally looked resigned at me.

"Speak. I'll consider your demands."
"Thank you, your Highness," I said. Heavens, I hate being such a toady... "Could I watch you 'eating'?"
She looked taken aback. "Why in Tartarus would you..."
"I'm curious about how you can consume something as abstract as the feeling of love."
She huffed. "We don't really eat love, that would be ridiculous," she said as she walked closer to a pod. "But pony-magic is infused by their feelings, and love has a lot of power in itself, making it easier to prey on. Now watch."

I watched indeed: through my sense-field, I could watch precisely as she first bit into the pod. Her magic darted through her fangs and penetrated the magical flow of the pony currently unconscious. The link intensified during half a second before it stabilized and she started to 'suck' out the pony's magic via this connection. The magical flow directed itself toward her stomach and accumulated there until she stopped leeching on the pony and broke the link.

The foreign magic was still different from her own, resting inside her belly, not showing any clear sign that it was reinforcing her in any way.

Looks like she can prey onto others rather quickly, but how does she get more powerful that way?
"Satisfied?" Chrysalis asked as she walked back in front of me.
"It was fascinating," I answered, not about ask her to explain the process entirely and risk her thinking I wasn't as strong as she thought. "Now, my second favor: can we stay into contact?"

Once again, she looked nearly shocked at my demand. I mean, I understand why she would: who in their right mind would like to stay in contact with a dangerous creature threatening to end their very existence?

"Why would you..."
"Well, to be fair, I've been with the ponies for only a day and a half. Who knows if I'll want to stay in their company in a year or so? Better to have somewhere else to turn to, don't you think?"
"And why would I..."
"You would get to monitor my actions and maybe gain my support if you try something big like, I don't know, fighting the princesses?"
"I... Wait there for a minute," she said.

She only glanced at a few of her guards and retreated a bit further in the basement, followed by them, which lead me to theorize that at least some of them were advisors. Meanwhile, girly-bug was glaring impending doom at me.

"What do you want, bug?" I asked. Hey, it's funny how she has the same eyes as the Queen, I remarked. Must be some sort of changeling fashion.
"You're the the most arrogant, monstrous and disgusting creature I've ever seen, ape."

I found it funny how every other changeling around us stopped chatting and just looked at her like she was completely crazy. To be fair, I was kinda looking at her that way too. Then, I don't really know why, but I laughed.

"Hahaha! Oh, you're a funny one?" I said. "For a moment, I thought you wanted me to break your legs and to rip your wings off, you know?"
"You're just saying words since the beginning," she said. "You haven't proved to be half as strong as you pretend to be."
Oh, crap... I thought as the changelings started to stare at me with doubt in their eyes. I sighed. I really shouldn't do that when that bastard is attempting to break out, but I don't really have a choice, do I?
"You're saying that I'm bluffing, am I right?" I asked, as I mentally prepared myself for my next stunt.
"I am," she replied.
"Okay."

Right after that one-word answer, I used an old complicated trick I had up my sleeves and 'ignited' my power. It was supposed to make me look more intimidating by displaying a good part of my magic, but it didn't do much back on Earth. But here, in Equestria, where my power has grown by an immeasurable amount, it is much, much more effective than I first thought. I felt the ground shake around us, just as my own aura surrounded me, making me apparently float with power. My eyes turned entirely yellow and started to emit light, and my voice was like a hurricane when I talked.

"IS THAT ENOUGH FOR YOU, YOU OVERGROWN COCKROACH, OR DO I HAVE TO ERASE YOUR PITIFUL EXISTENCE FROM THE FACE OF THIS WORLD TOO?" I kinda roared in her face, throwing her against a pod simply by talking.
"Enough!" Chrysalis shouted, and I stopped my spell, a bit weary. "Don't you dare threaten another of my subjects again, human! I may not be willing to face you right now, but don't think I am not able to!"
"As childish as it sounds, she started," I replied, examining my nails to hide my shortness of breath.
She glared at me for an instant before she turned to look at the girly-bug. "And I should have known better than to bring you with me this time, Nymph!" she scolded her. "Your attitude is unbecoming of a changeling princess!"

If I had been drinking, I would have spitted everything out in an instant.

"Yes, mother..." she replied, glaring nastily at me while I was just staring wide-eyed at her.

Okay, let me stop right there for a moment. I want you to remember that Chrysalis, the Queen, had sent some of her guards to attack me earlier. I will also remind you that two of them were currently having a severe head trauma and that I nearly fried the last one to death. And you're telling me that amongst the guards she had sent to stop a threat of unknown power was her own daughter? And that this princess had also be irritating me and insulting me since then, nearly provoking me enough to kill her here and there, maybe dooming her entire species to be hunted down? Needless to say, I was stunned by such a level of caring by the mother and hotheadedness by the daughter.

I needed some time to process that. But Chrysalis and the bastard giving me killer headaches didn't want this to happen. First, I felt the drawback of my little stunt when a new, horribly painful wave of thunderous screams resonated to my ears, and nearly making me fall as I lost balance for a second. I thankfully caught myself soon enough so that the Queen didn't see any of this. Instead, she turned to glare at me and to give me her decision.

"I'll leave a changeling in Ponyville with you. She'll be able to communicate with me. Don't try to trick us, human. Even with your abilities, you wouldn't like the result."
"Don't worry about it, your Highness. And I still have a name."

She didn't even give it a speck of attention and continued.

"Now, get out of here," she growled. "We have work to do."

I bowed slightly and walked outside of the house, careful not to be seen, still keeping an eye on them via my sense field until they were out of my normal reach. I headed towards Twilight's Palace, checking my internal clock.

Crap, I have less than three minutes left!

I ran as fast as my body would let me , entered the Palace and found the throne room in which all of Twilight's group of friend were waiting, visibly distressed. Spike was holding a scroll in his claw and was breathing in, just as I typically thought a dragon would before her torched something.

"Don't you dare send that letter!" I shouted.

I magically pulled that piece of paper out of his hand just in time to save it from the fire escaping the little dragon's mouth. I then faceplanted against the rock hard floor when another horrible headache decided to show the tip of its ugly nose.

"Ow..." I groaned weakly.
"Recto!" Fluttershy exclaimed, running to me. "Are you alright?"
"Your correspondent is not reachable at the moment, please call again later..." I groaned as I rolled on my back, still dizzy, showing them that I was currently alone in the commands.

Fluttershy squeaked and stepped back, just to let Twilight's purple face to pop above me.

"Verso! Could you please explain me what's going on? You just left me alone with your message and vague instructions!"
"Hey, tone it down a little bit, would you? I'm having a migraine, and your high-pitched voice isn't helping." She muttered a soft 'sorry' and moved back as I sat on the floor. "Plus, my instructions were clear: you just had to gather your friends here and to send Celestia the word 'changeling' half-an-hour after I left you."
"That doesn't explain anything!" she cried in frustration.
"Yeah! What do these things have to do with anything?" Ms. Flying Colors asked. Loudly.
"Ouch, my head!" I groaned again. "And it doesn't mean anything!"
"Then, why did you..."
"Your world is interfering with my sense spell!" I lied. "Made me feel like some ponies were something else. Based on what I asked to Twilight, I thought they were these 'changelings' or whatever. So I went out to check it and covered the possibility that I was right by getting you out of there and making you contact Celestia if I was confronted to them. But it looks like my spell is catching interferences or something with around here that warp my sight, if you would."
"So, you made us all worry about nothing?" Twilight asked, clearly not pleased.
"Uh... Yeah?" I barely whispered.

I don't like remembering how much she shouted at me then. Especially when I had to endure it while that bastard was maintaining my migraine. Heavens know that I should have awaken Recto by that point, but it would have made the conversation much more tricky to me, where I could just invent a good version of that story to give him later. All in all, I got out of this mess with an army calmly leaving Ponyville without hurting anyone, a course on leeching magic, a contact with another species leader, a slice of cake and being assigned to the next three book-reshelving, whatever they were.

All in all, not such a bad day.

Author's Note

And a nearly all-Verso chapter, with a bit of action. I'm sorry to disappoint those who thought that he would just go all 'rage monster' and eradicate every changeling in sight, though. But he still knocked out, like, five of them! That's great already, isn't it?
In the next chapter: Pinkamena, cupcakes, rainbows and bad news.
As always, I'll appreciate if you could point out what you liked and disliked.
See you soon on the next chapter: The Crazy Baker.