My Life as a Changling

Chapters

At Least I Have Chicken...
Maretelgen?
Tired of These Goddamn Ponies, in my Goddamn Castle!
Magic, and Mama Bear
Bird is the Word
Screw This, I'm Outta Here!
I never really was on your side... or was I?
in which things start going downhill.
Welcome to hel- er, parenthood
fixing a leak
playing with your food
Sugar's POV: This Can't Be Happening!
how do I HM02?
Sugar's POV: Am I Being Hit on by a Bug?
Famous First Words
Sugars POV: A Small Freind
Brutality
Molting
unforseen consequences
Drunken shenanagans, and a hangover.
Investigation
'would you kindly'
The Last Preperations
A Nightmares Ressurection
A breath of freash air... and fire.
Well, thats a thing...
infiltration
Family Time.
The deleivery
Expermenting and learning something new
nymphs and a lost soul
Prologue

At Least I Have Chicken...

My aching everything...

It feels like my spine got ripped out my ass, had a railroad spike driven into my forehead, and had parts of my skeleton and internal organs rearranged and/or removed.

But then again, I should feel like that after getting hit by a car at 70 miles an hour.

Wait, feel?

If I'm feeling this, then I'm not dead, if I'm not dead, then why am I not a bloody mess and screaming in pain?

I opened my eyes, only to see a shroud of neon blue. After blowing to my face to clear it up, I was greeted to a shocking sight: Trees, trees everywhere. Back-dropped by the setting sun.

Well nuck fuggets, I've seen enough HiE's to know this is going. Also I apparently have neon blue hair, totally awesome.

Soooo... Did I turn into a pony, or am I still myself?

Moving my forelimb into my field of vision i was greeted to...

Black.

Cheese.

Changelings it is then.

That still doesn't explain why my rear feels so heavy.

Looking behind me, I turn to see...

A giant stinger.

Well shit, not even five minutes in Equestria, and I'm already going to die.

...

I open my eyes again, only to see the stinger still hovering there. So, if it's not a manticore's, then who's tail is that?

I do a double take and notice that it's connected to my flank.

Yep, it's mine. Screw logic... Because ponies.

Looking further down my back, I notice that my wings are also different from a normal changeling's, while a normal changelings wings look like a fly or mosquito's, mine looked like a beetles, complete with one set being essentially an armored covering running from my shoulders to my rear, for the other pair. Wiggling the inner pair around, I discovered their was actually a large bubble of space running down the center of my back, presumably for my tail to fit in while i was disguised as somepony else.

That probably means that while I wont be very maneuverable in the air, I will be well defended on the ground.

Feeling around in my mouth, I also realize that I have rather sharp fangs, as well as numerous other teeth, ranging from ones meant for grinding, to crushing, to tearing, to shredding. It makes sense if you think about it, a changeling would need to be able to eat the same kind of food as whatever or whoever their disguised as to maintain the deception. Plus I probably look terrifying when I grin.

Now then, standing, standing is important. Just treat it like your walking on your hands and knees.

After standing up and pacing around for a bit, I noticed something, walking made no sounds.

So THATS what the holes are for...

Now first thing was first, I had to get used to five extra limbs, on top of now being a insect-pony hybrid...

The tail isn't too difficult, it flexes in a way reminiscent a persons arm. Its the wings that are a problem... And that goddamn blue stuff is in my face again! I try to swat it away when the feeling of it makes me realize its my hair/mane.

Heh... Anime hair...

"Cool."

Oh, so that's what I sound like? Nice. Gruff, dual-toned, and cold.

Sweet Faust that sounded awesome!

After about five minutes walking in a random direction, I caught a wiff of something.

Blood...

Which meant either one of two things; either there was an injured pony, which meant I could get directions to the nearest town, as well as give myself a good reputation by saving their flank, or injured wildlife, which meant FOOD!

Wait, why am i thinking that? I thought changelings only fed off love?

"HELLLP!"

Okay definitely ponies, save them now, question biology later.

Trotting as fast as I could without falling over, the scent and scream led me to a 10-foot drop, and what was at the bottom, made my heart stop cold.

Scootaloo, cornered by a trio of timberwolves.

Screw stealth, even if I'm a changeling, I still have morals dammit!

Leaping down I was shocked to see one of the wolves leap at Scoots...

"INCOMING!" *CRA-SLAM!* And promptly got thrown to the ground by my impact with its face. With it stunned, I reared up and brought my forhooves down on it's head at full force, crushing it. and spraying tree sap everywhere.

Moving to put myself in between Scootaloo and the other two timberwolves, I glanced at my tail, then to Scootaloo, and then to the groove in my back. My tail was larger then the filly... Ideaaaa!

"Get in if you want to live." Scootaloo complied, more then likely in to much shock to question it. flipping my wings shut again, Scootaloo was snugly embraced in the groove, protected by my wing coverings, and just in time too, as I was promptly slammed to the ground by the smaller of the two remaining timberwolves, who had flanked me during my exchange with the filly.

Luckily, before it could pry the coverings apart, I managed to get my tail under it and flicked it off into the rocky wall of the drop, stunning it.

Only for the larger one to pounce right in my face. Now considering I didn't have the time to try aiming my tail, and didn't want to accidentally skewer my head, I did the first thing that came to mind. I let instinct take over.

I ducked and sprang up, intercepting the wolf and sending us crashing into the ground, with the wolf pinning me down. What I did next, I was glad Scootaloo wasn't able to see. I feinted the wolf into trying to tear out my throat, before letting out a feral snarl and chomping down on where the wolfs would have been. I was rewarded with a strangled yelp. Apparently even wooden constructs need to breath, whoda thought?

Regardless, I closed my eyes preparing for the inevitable spray of sap, and ripped its neck open, getting showered in said sap in the process. frankly, it didn't taste anywhere near as bad as I thought, instead, it tasted like a cross between celery and beef jerky, smothered in maple syrup... And then I accidentally swallowed...

Well... Shit... I'll have to worry about that after I finish off the third one. shaking the sap out of my eyes, I turned and was greeted to the third timberwolf finally getting back up, before it turned towards me and let out what could only be described as a cross between a bark, and a roar. Still running on instinct, I took it as a challenge, and feeling a fiery sensation in my throat, voiced my displeasure. The final timberwolf let out a whimper, before bolting with its tail between its legs.

"I-i-is it o-over?" I could barely hear Scootaloo's whimpers from under my wing plates. Opening them, I angled my head to face her.

"Yeah it's over, but it's not pretty..." Kneeling and allowing her to hop off, I took in the carnage I had caused. Frankly, I'm surprised by the fact that those things never managed to puncture my chitin. I'm so gonna need a bath after this though, I'm covered in tree sap.

"You okay there little one?" Getting a better look at her, I noticed she was covered in a lot of cuts, bruises and dirt, but nothing was severely bleeding. She nodded her head.

"Not the worst that's happened to me, that would the time me and the Crusaders tried for Cutie Marks in cooking." I tilt my head in interest. She shakes her head. "We do not talk about the Cutie Mark Crusader Chefs incident..."

"Hey Twi, I think it came from this way!" It's about damn time, isn't it?

Turning back to Scoots, I bid my farewells. "Nice meeting you kid, names Shinkirō for future reference, and now I'm gone like one!" Before bolting off deeper into the woods.

*Third-person, about five minutes ago*

Dash was panicking, after Applebloom and Sweetie Belle had come running screaming that they had gotten separated from Scootaloo while fleeing from a trio of timberwolves. Considering how urgent was, she didn't have time to rouse Fluttershy or Pinkie, so she told the duo to go wait with Applejack and Rarity, while she bolted off to get Twilight.

Upon reaching the Golden Oaks Library, Rainbow saw Twilight up on her observation deck, waiting for the sun to set so she could begin stargazing. That would have to wait. Dash flew up there and landed in front of Twilight. "Rainbow? What are yo-"

"Scootaloo, Everfree, timberwolves, danger, no time to explain, we need to go NOW!" Twilight could clearly hear the panic in Rainbows voice, and immediately teleported to street level, before her and Dash rushed towards the Everfree.

Upon reaching the entrance to the forest, a cry rang out. "HELLLP!" This spurred them to run even faster, upon reaching a ten foot drop, they where greeted to roar that stuck more fear in them then any dragon's ever could.

"What in the name of Celestia was THAT!?" they said in perfect unison, unable to hear each other over the ringing in their ears. After the ringing in their ears had died down, they overheard Scootaloo talking.

"We do not talk about the Cutie Mark Crusader Chefs incident..."

"Hey Twi, I think it came from this way!" Dash pointed down the drop. Before she she could fly down however, she heard a second voice.

"Nice meeting you kid, names Shinkirō for future reference, and now I'm gone like one!" Dash, upon flying down, was unable to find the owner of the second voice, before she took notice of the two dead timberwolves.

"Uhhh... Twi? You might want to come see this..." With a flash of lavender, Twilight teleported down, and gasped in shock. Scootaloo was standing there, a stupefied expression on her face, in the middle of two dead timberwolves.

"Scootaloo you're okay... But what the buck happened here?!?" One of the timberwolves lay twitching, its head crushed beyond all recognition, while the other looked perfectly fine, until Twilight flipped it over with her magic, and discover a huge chunk of its throat had been torn out. "what in Luna's mane could have done this?"

"It was some weird pony-bug thing. It lept off that drop you two came down, and landed on one of the timberwolves, before crushing its head. As for the other two, I have no clue how it took them out." Scootaloo had finaly spoken, but her voice was flat and emotionless.

Dash turned to face Twilight. "Why is she so calm about this?"

"I think she's still in shock." turning back to Scootaloo, Twilight voiced her curiosity. "What did this, 'bug-pony' look like?"

Scootaloo continued, practically on autopilot. "It was about the size of one of the Princesses, had beetle like wings, had a tail that should have been on a manticore, and its hooves and horn were full of holes."

Twilight looked both worried and intrigued. "How exactly, did it protect you from the other one?"

"It had me crawl into the space between its wing coverings and its back, before closing them. It was pitch black in there, and everything sounded incredibly quite. I got jostled around a bit, but nothing serious happened to me."

"It almost sounds, intelligent..." Twilight was quite interested at this point. She picked up the more intact of the two timberwolves, and motioned for Dash and scootaloo to follow her back to Ponyville.

Upon reaching the edge of the forest, Twilight stopped and turned to her compatriots. "You two go on ahead, I need to get Fluttershy to give me an idea of what could possibly match Scootaloo's description.

*first person, Shinkirō*

Well, judging from Scootaloos reaction, this was before the wedding and invasion, meaning that they don't know what a changeling is yet.

After waiting a few moments to make sure the ponies had truly left, I exited the bush I had been hiding in, and walked up to the ledge I had jumped from to save Scoots. "Now how the cheese am I supposed to get back up their?" Yeah, I wasn't stupid enough to try flying, as the last thing I wanted was to incapacitate myself in an accident, and leave myself at the mercy of a predator. "Climbing it is..." Now apparently, changelings have a really good grip, as I was having no problem climbing up the near vertical slope, that is, until a rock broke loose under my rear hooves. "Shi- Omph!" Dafuq? why aren't I sliding back down?

It was about this time that I realized that my forhooves felt like they had claws digging into the wall. looking at them, I noticed nothing different about them. Trying to 'let go' with one of them, it immediately slid off and left me hanging my a single limb. "Ow ow ow owww." I swiftly swung my other forhoof back up, and 'grabbed' the wall, relieving some of the pain.

wait, how the fuck do i grab something with a hoof? then it hit me. "Derp, changelings can walk on walls and shit!" Continuing the process of 'letting go' before swinging a limb up and 'grabbing' the wall again, I quickly reached the top.

About the time I managed to climb over the top, the adrenalin from fighting the timberwolves had worn off, and I gave into the growing urge to sleep.

Author's Note

Shinkirō -> Mirage

Also yes, I'm rewriting this fic, I've improved my writing skills somewhat.

Maretelgen?

*thirdperson*

the next day...

Fluttershy and Twilight were currently following Mister Chucklenuts, one of Shy's squirrel friends, who was leading her to what he claimed was a 'cheese legged bug-pony.'

"Do you know what this means, Fluttershy? This might be the thing that saved Scootaloo from those Timberwolves!" Twilight was extremely excited, as this meant a chance to catalog a new species. Her enthusiasm was also evident is Fluttershy, for the same reasons, albeit quite tame in comparison.

Upon reaching the large drop from the other night, the duo was shocked to see the creature sleeping at the top of it, sprawled out like somepony who hadn't had their coffee in the morning. Of course, before they could do anything, Chucklenuts ran up to the sleeping creature, and began tickling its snout with his tail, causing it to smack its snout, the noise scaring him badly enough to flee into the woods.

"Huh?! I'm up, and if I find shaving cream on my face, there will be retribu-" It opened it's eyes. "oh... Merde..."

"Merde..." Well crap, I open my eyes, and who am I greeted to? Twilight and Fluttershy. They were staring at me, blankly, before I spoke, snapping them out of it. "Is there something you need, gentle mares?"

...

Yes, I did indeed say it with a French accent...

Fluttershy promptly fainted. That makes me feel bad. Very bad.

"Bu-buh-buh. W-w-wha. Huh?!?" Oh god, Twilight.EXE has stopped working.

"What, is there something on my face?" No seriously, I don't see why else Twilight would react like that. I get no response. Really getting into it, my eyes slowly widen. "There is, isn't there?" Luckily this gets Twilights attention.

"No, its just... I've never seen anything like you... This is an amazing discovery! A new sapient species!" I realized something, do I really want to get dragged into their antics? No, I don't.

"Distraction!" The moment Twilight looked away, I bolted deeper into the forest, hearing her yell 'get back here!' Crisis averted.

*Snnnnnnnrk!* I spat out a loogie, hoping to get rid of the phlegm in my throat... Wait, how is it sticking to a tree and not sliding down, and why the nuck fuggets is it blue? Walking closer to investigate, I poked it with my hoof, it felt solid... Is this the stuff those drones used to restrain the guards during the wedding? Liquid duct tape... Best. Evolutionary. Adaptation. Ever.

Walking deeper into the forest, I was eventually greeted to a familiar bridge which had apparently broken down again after the Nightmare incident. Slowly lowering my self over the edge, I clamber down the side of the gorge, not knowing what to expect. When I reached the bottom, I was surprised to find a large number of caves. A loud rumble came from one of them, which sounded almost like snoring. Inching towards the cave, I was blasted in face by a combination of the worlds worst morning breath and brimstone. Must be a dragon.

Walking up to the ceiling, I began following the noise, sticking a glob of phlegm to the ceiling at every intersection, so I could find my way back out. I eventually came across a massive cavern, full of all kinds of gems and other valuables, as well as a huge ass dragon.

"Woaaaah..." upon my exclamation of aww, the dragon snapped awake. Crapcrapcrap, don't look up, don't look u- he looked up... waving a hoof awkwardly, I tried not to run screaming. "Ummmmm, hi?" The dragon blinked before glaring at me.

"And just what are you doing this far from home, pony? And your ability to walk on walls fascinates me." apparently he doesn't know about changelings either.

"Umm, sir, I'm not a pony, im a changeling." I open my wings and allow my tail to show. The dragon appears intrigued by this. I can literally feel my abdomen tighten in fear, painfully. Inching my way down from the ceiling, I feel it slowly getting worse. Unfortunately, a thought hit me. I never bothered to determine if I was still male, did I? The pain gets worse, and I feel something begin to shift. [Redacted]! I'm *bleep*ing laying a [Data Expunged] egg! And in front of a ****ing dragon no less! Said dragon had actually shifted up to my face, and I was now staring at one of its eyes, which was nearly as big as me. "Can't talk, too much pain!" The felling had shifted to my rear, and it began hurting even more. Yes, I was literally in enough pain to not care that there was a Kaiju sized dragon not an inch from my face. Everything became a blur at that point, and when the pain stopped, I noticed a few things, one, my throat hurt like hell, two, the dragon had leaned back in shock, and three, there was now an egg behind me, a neon blue one to be precise.

"Never, in all my millennia of existence, have I heard such a string of profanity, not even during Celestias infamous drunken rant." what. Celestia apparently gets Tourettes when drunk. Fun. Then it hit me.

I'm a female, alicorn sized changeling, that just laid an egg... I'm a Queen... and I still have a dragon standing in front of me... I don't want to die... I began whimpering, and cower in fear. "Don't eat m- *hack*" my throat burns.

"Leave, and speak not of this place." I nod, as any further attempts to speak were too painful to try, before picking up the egg, and getting the hell outta there. Upon finally reaching the exit, I realized something. How the hell do I climb back up while carrying an egg? Its not like I can tape it to my back... Baka! Adhesive mucus/phlegm you moron! Guess its loogie time. Oh god that sounded wrong.

Sitting myself down, and holding the egg up against my stomach, I hack up more O.D.T. (organic duct tape!) And use it to adhere the egg to my belly, before waiting for it harden. When it did, I began the slow walk up the other side of this gorge. Upon reaching the top, I can't help but feel a warm sense of anticipation, as the egg pulled on my stomach. Wait... Kuso! How the flarp am I supposed to get this off? I slowly apply hoof to forehead. I'll figure that out later.

Eventually I reach the old castle, and realize that it would be the perfect place to set up camp. Pushing the doors open, I entered the main room. Even in its decayed state, it was breathtaking. Watching as the mo- wait, moonlight? I must have been walking for longer than I thought. Either way, watching as the moonlight filter through the stained glass windows, I felt at peace. Walking up a spiral staircase, and opening another door, I reached the throne room.

Now how the bloody hell do I get the egg off me? Considering the stuff doesn't harden in my mouth, maybe my saliva would do something? I lick my hoof, before rubbing it against the O.D.T. which begins to dissolve rather rapidly. I lick my hoof and rub it against several more parts of the adhesive several times, until I can feel the egg beginning to slip. Quickly catching it, I walk over to the throne and use more of my O.D.T. to stick it to the floor and back of the throne.

Something glinted in the corn- no, that can't b- it is! IT'S NIGHTMARE FLIPPING MOON'S ARMOR! I release a fangirl level squeal of joy that nearly shatters several windows, before bending over and nearly coughing up a lung. God I need water. Taking a side door and staircase back to the ground floor, I enter the kitch- correction, what USED to be the kitching, and was now a gaping hole in the ground, over a underground river. Walking down the wall, I eventually reached the river, and started drinking from it, trying to quench my thirst. Suddenly, something long and slender shot from the water, witch I instinctively plunged my tail into, and felt a muscle contract, before the snake like creature went limp. Seeing it was still breathing, I assumed that I had just injected it with some kind of paralytic venom.

*grumble* for some reason, looking at it made my mouth water, and stomach growl. But aren't changelings love eaters? *grumble* screw it, I'm eating it, even if I don't have the rice and seaweed. The first thing I did was chomp down on the back of its neck, severing its spine and granting it a quick death, before I dug in. It tasted like a cross between snake meat and salmon. After eating everything but the head, skeleton, and digestive system, I coated it in my O.D.T. to keep it from smelling and sent it down the river, so that predators weren't drawn here.

Climbing back up the wall, I trekked back up the stairs to the throne room, and eyed Nightmare's armor. I want to see how how badass I look in it. Slipping my tail into its grove, I walked over and picked up the chestplate, before strapping it on. The hoof guards just slid on, and it looked weird as all hell consider my hooves had holes in them. Last, but not least, I put the helmet on, thankfull my horn could fit through the opening. I can already feel my badassery increasing. I wonder, how much do I resemble Moony anyway? At that thought, I felt something slowly began crawling up my legs. Looking down, I saw bright blue flames slowly consuming my body. My common sense began running around screaming 'putitoutputitoutputitout!' While my inner brony flipped open a folding chair, muttering 'this gonna be good.' As they reached my body, I felt my tail shift into a cloud of hair, and my wings fusing together before become avian.

When the last of the flames dissipated, I ran to the nearest window, and looked at my reflection.

...

I'm freaking Nightmare Moon! Do I sound like her to? Clearing my throat, I test that theory. "Can you feel the sunshine..." okay... the fact that echoed through the castle made it even creepier. Now how do I undo this? Once again, at the thought of that, I was consumed by flames, except I returned to normal nearly instantly. You're kidding me, its that easy?! Trying several more times, I confirmed that yes, it was that easy. I did notice, however, that every transformation into Moony was faster than the last, until I was doing it in about three seconds... Must be the changeling equivalent of muscle memory. Eventually feeling tired, I went and tore down a curtain, and after applying some of my O.D.T., I had a makeshift sack, which I deposited the armor in. Before slinging it over my shoulder, and began searching for the castles library... after I set something up. Returning to the main floor, I found my way back to the wreaked kitchen, and started hauling pots and pan to the entrance, where I stacked them. That oughta make enough noise if somepony comes in here. The library, it turns out, was located behind the throne room.

Looking around, I wandered between bookshelves, looking for a particular subject. Eventually encountering the section of relevant books, I grabbed the first one that looked like it was for beginners, 10 basic spells every unicorn should know, and the mechanics behind them. by Dr. Mystic Traveler, before bunkering down for an all nighter...

Dreamscape

I watched as Harbinger quickly lost a beam-o-war to Godzilla, who was then body checked by Metroplex, who waded through an Emperor class Titan's full frontal assault without flinching. Man this popcorn is good, I stuffed another hoof full into my mouth. Elsewhere, Chuck Norris, Saxton Hale, and Captain Falcon were trying to determine who was the manliest, only for Ausra to beat the three of them out of existence.

"This... is more chaotic than Discord at his worse... I was right to come here..." ER MAH GURD IZ BEST PONEH! Slowly swiveling my chair around, I was greeted to a shocked Luna. "You're that changeling From Scootaloos dreams!"

"Yes, yes I am. Its was simply a matter of being the right mare, in the wrong place. It was- If you value your sanity, I would suggest you do not open that door." I caught Luna walking up to a door with sign saying '/b/ DO NOT OPEN!' "No seriously, DO. NOT. OPEN. THAT. DOOR! Your brain would more then like eject itself from the sheer levels of NOPE it would encounter."

"What in Tartarus are you talking about?" 4chan Luna! YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW!

"I'm talking about the oozed drippings of brains, liquefied into a slurry of madness ment not even for the eyes of Discord. 4chan... as for what's behind that door, it is every kind of sick or disgusting thing, blended into a serum of mindfuck powerful enough to drive even the most pure of being into a twisted, perverted shadow of their former selves... /b/" I shudder, unable to so much as think that name without remember the unspeakable things within. Luna backs away from the door so fast she skids across the room on her rump.

Meanwhile the room a giant '÷0' appears, before everything outside the room is sucked into the resulting paradox. "Now that the distractions are gone, I believe there was something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"What are you doing in Equestria?" Do I really have to lie to best pony?

"I came here, to the Everfree, so wouldn't be a danger to other, while the last shreds of my sanity slipped away..." as I said that, I looked towards the door. Luna followed my eyes, and realized why I went insane.

"What would a Queen, be doing alone in the Everfree?"

"I wasn't always a Queen, as a matter of fact, I was still a drone when I went off the deep end. All I know is that I saw and felt a rainbow, and the first fragment of my true self rose from the grave that had become my mind..."

Luna seemed surprised by that. "And just what do you plan on doing now that you're sane?" Now I can be truthful.

"Let's see, start a hive, keep the local wildlife in check, and hopefully not go on another expletive laden rant to outmatch Celestias drunken one." Luna's eyes widen.

"How do you know about that, and how did you outdo it?"

"To answer how I out did it, laying an egg HURTS! Especially when it's your first one and you didn't know it was going to happen. As to how I found out, it happened In front of a dragon bigger than a Ursa Major."

"So... You met Zoun, huh?"

*CRASH!*

"Crud, early warning system, gottagobye!" Everything faded to white.

Tired of These Goddamn Ponies, in my Goddamn Castle!

The sudden noise of pots and pans snapped me awake. Bolting into the throne room, and using the telekinesis spell I found, to put on the Nightmares armor, I position myself in front of the throne, ready to protect my egg by any means necessary. Several sets of hoof steps, and a pair of wings flapping, echos from the main stairway.

"So you're saying, that that gunk covered skeleton came floating down the river?"

"So we came all the way here, over a gunk cove-" whatever Rainbow was going to say, was interrupted by them seeing me, crouched and ready to pounce at the slightest movement, the Nightmares armor adding to the shock factor.

Rainbow charged me, going for a punch, but I used my superior mass to plow her out of the air, before pinning her to the ground, my forelegs crossed over her neck, ready to snap it if she struggled, as well as my tail ready to impale her head. Several cries of "RAINBOW!" Assaulted my ears. Wait, I only count five of them, wheres Fluttershy?

"Oh, my... Girls, I think we disturbed her nest, no wonder she's reacted so violently..." Ninjashy was now behind the throne, staring wide eyed at my egg. Giving Dash a 'move and you're dead' look, I sprinted to put myself in between the egg and any potential harm. Fluttershy took one look in my eyes, and realized something. "Girls she's running purely on maternal instinct, we need to give her space!" Fluttershy slowly circled around me making sure to keep her distance. The Mane Six huddled together, whispering, before all but Fluttershy returned to the main floor, she gave me a pleading look. "Why would you retaliate so viciously?"

A quote sprang into my mind. "There is no such thing as excessive force, only varying degrees of overkill..." Fluttershy flinched at the masculine tone of my voice. "Perhaps if we talked about this downstairs?" Yes, they would not be able to get to the egg before I could intercept them. I let myself relax, before following Fluttershy down to the main room, where the other five had seated themselves on the floor. Me and Fluttershy joîned them.

"Soooooo... What are you supposed to be, and why do you look like that hallucination I had the other day?" Having regained control of myself, I smiled, even as Rainbow gave me a death glare.

"That wasn't a hallucination, Twilight." She blinked, surprised I knew her name. "And to answer the other part of your question, I am a changeling."

"How do you know my name?!" Oh, [PUPPIES].

"Scootaloo mentioned you after I saved her." Stay calm...

"Waitaminute, thats Nightmare Moons armor! Where did you get that?!" Wow Twilight, took you long enough to notice.

"Found it, apparently being in the Everfree is enough to dissuade looters." I refuse to mention my fangasming. Twilight seemed skeptical of that, and Rainbow seemed to not buy it at all.

Rainbow has a cocky grin on her face. "I see you have wings, you any good with them?"

Twilight adds on to that. "You have a horn as well, can you do magic?"

"To answer, yes I can do magic, and I've never actually tried flying-" I get up and walk over to a wall, where I remove my hoof guards, and walk up it. "When I can do this instead."

"Interesting..." Twilight, never change...

"Eh, I'll take flying anyday."

'"So, why'd you come here anyway?" I hopped off the wall, and slipped the hoof guards back on, because these things are actually pretty comfy.

"Somepony found a skeleton covered in blue, hardened mucus floating down the river, so we got Fluttershy to come to check out what caused it." Oh, tittysprinkles. I grin as innocently as possible, only for everypony to flinch.

"What?!"

"That was you?" Ah, the marshmallow speaks. My teeth must have given me away...

"Yeah... but stop freaking out, I'm an omnivore, an OMNI, VORE, I can eat plant matter too... and timberwolves. I guess that makes me the only know hunter of timberwolves, as anything equipped to kill em won't have a reason to, due to them being made of wood."

"If it keeps them varmin off mah farm, I see no reason to object." Thank you, Applejack, you can be more level headed than Twilight sometimes.

"What about the mucus? Or why you sent it downriver? Where did you even find the river?" Clever, Twilight is... Yoda, I am not...

"The mucus? Oh you mean my organic duct tape! That stuff is useful, sticks to practically everything, not to mention my saliva dissolves it. As for sending the skeleton downriver coated in it, It was the only way I could think of at the time, to dispose of it without the scent attracting predators. And that river runs under what used to be the kitchen."

"Hehe, we never got you name, silly!" Pinkie Pie is now my hat, I have won Team Fortress 2. And shes right.

"Shinkirō, my over excited friend, I never got any of your names either, did I?"

Pinkie giggles, before hopping off my head. "I'm Pinkie Pie!" God... I can literally feel the happiness shes fee- Emotion eater, right. Being an empath is practically a prerequisite.

"Applejack, pardner."

"Rarity..." okay, she seemed creeped out by me...

Dash smiles, and does a small loop-de-loop. "Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria!"

"Fl-fluttershy..." Now she gets shy?!

I sigh. "Look, I'm sorry about the whole nearly killing Rainbow and being more aggressive than a pissed off dragon, but I was asleep when you guys entered..." Rarity and Applejack seemed to get where I was going, considering I was defending my egg.

"Ah understand your reasoning, sugarcube, if somepony broke into my home in the middle of the night, and woke me up, mah first reaction would be to defend Applebloom with extreme prejudice as well."

I shudder. "You really need to make sure nopony else comes here, catching me off guard like that could have fatal results... doesn't help that I have no concept of 'excessive force', just varying degrees of overkill..."

Twilight yawned. "We really should head home girls." Everypony else voiced their agreement, before they got up and left.

Waiting a few minutes to confirm they had indeed left, I trotted back up to the throne room, before curling up beside my egg, and drifting to sleep...

*dreamscape*

"YABBA! MY ICEI-" *BANG!* damn zombies.

"How is this not a nightmare?" Luna watches as I blast a fast zombies head off with a shotgun.

"Oh, hey Luna, watch out for the headhu-"

'Skraw!' "Eeeek!" *Splurch!* Oh my god. The zombies vanish, and I start rolling on the ground, laughing. Luna got a headcrab impaled on her horn!

"Nice... Hat..." I manage to wheeze out between fits of laughing. After I finally settle down, and Luna removes the headcrab, I chuckle. "I REALLY needed that..."

"Please explain."

"Bunch of ponies walked in, and triggered my early warning system. I was running on a combination of instinct and adrenalin, and was ready to kill to defend my egg... Thank god that one of them was smart enough to realize why I was so aggressive, and get her friends to back off, I had to head to the main floor before my instincts decided they were far enough from my egg to be less of a threat, and let me think rationally. That was a REALLY tense encounter..."

"What did they want? do you know?"

"One of them found the inedible parts of a eel covered in my mucus, drifting down the river, and decided to bring her friends to investigate. Fun fact, the river under the kitchen here apparently leads to Ponyville."

"I thought changelings fed on emotion?" Damn, she looks cute when she tilts her head like that.

"We do, I blame the rainbow light for that, at least I can eat plant matter as well now."

"And why did you decide to take up residence in me and my sisters old castle?" And now the accusing glare.

"Because its a feasible position for a hive, its easily defendable and half of the thing already built for me. Plus there's still a bunch of goodies laying around here... Like that armor I found."

"Armor?" Luna might LOOK confused, but I could tell she was worried.

"The stuff you wore during your 'incident'." Her face briefly becomes one of shock, before leveling a nasty glare at me.

"Why would you want that armor...?" Ohh boy.

"Because, one, its armor, two, it makes me look even more intimidating, and three, it matches my mane..." what the deuce, brain! I'm starting to think like a mare!

The area around us slowly shifts to that of a train, and a voice echoes. "Wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up, and smell the ashes..." before my world fades to white...

Magic, and Mama Bear

Wow, this armor really is comfy, I actually fell asleep in it! Getting up and stretching, I ponder what to do today. Ah yes. The spellbook. Walking down to the library, I picked up the book in my telekinesis, before walking down to the kitchen, and after removing and storing my hoof guards, I walked down the wall to the river. Opening the book, I resumed reading from where I fell asleep the other night, and was now looking at a basic offensive spell, a blast of kinetic energy.

'The kinetic beam spell is used as the basis of many advanced combat spells. The process involved in casting the spell is simple, build up magic, and release it in the direction of the target. A word of warning: if improperly cast, spell may backfire and harm the caster instead.'

Seems simple enough. I charged up some magic, and after taking aim at a stalactite, released it. The cyan bolt of energy impacted, knocking the stalactite into the river. This really makes me think of ki attacks... Idea! Charging up another beam, I continue to pour magic into it... I am about to fulfill one of my childhood dreams... I rele-

*BANG!* The spell exploded in my face, flinging me into the wall. Thank god for chitin softening the impact. Picking myself up, I levitate the book over, and begin the next chapter.

'The basic shield spell may be weak, but it is versatile, able to block or soften most forms of attack. Casting it requires one to gather an above average amount of energy into ones horn, then channel it back and over the users body, forming a second skin.'

Okay, this one sounds a bit more complicated. Charging up energy, I try to force it over my body, only to be met with a weird tingly feeling, almost as if I had transformed. Opening my eyes, I notice my body had turned slightly transparent, and coated in a shell of blue magic, that was occasionally emitting wisps of excess magic. I look like a bloody ghost, what the hell gives? Wait, the tingling, bizarre interaction with changeling transformation abilities, maybe? Cutting of the flow of magic, I was relieved for the sensation to stop, and my body return to normal.

The next chapter covered three different spells.

'Elemental spells are the bread and butter of any battlemage's skillset, fire and ice spells tend to be mutually exclusive, with unicorns generally having an affinity towards one, and being completely unable to use the other, in rare cases, one might have have an strong enough affinity to perform 'elemental manipulation' and control the results of the spell, for example, a unicorn with an extreme fire affinity could chose what the flames burn, and what remains unaffected. Another feat of fire manipulation would be controlling the flames like they were an object in the users telekinetic field.

Energy spells are used by gather magic similar to a kinetic bolt, but compressing the magic before releasing it, users with even a small affinity can, with enough concentration, detect a ponies bioelectric aura.'

Electricity huh, worth a shot. Gathering energy, I compressed it, before releasing it at another stalactite.

*KRA-BOOM* ow, ow, ow, Forgot about the noise that superheated air makes when a lighting bolt passes through it, and the caves acoustics did not help... I watched the shrapnel that was previously a rock fall into the river while I waited for the ringing to stop.

I skipped over ice spells, as I had a hunch that my affinity was in the other direction.

'Fire spells tend to be the most destructive, but also are the most energy intensive, and cause the most collateral damage. A fire spell is cast by gathering energy, and forcing it to ignite. There are rumors of a more advanced version used by Celestia against the chaos spawn, described as 'emerald flames of ultracondensed magic, capable of burning even the ethereal.' Make of this what you will.' okay... Celestia can use [YAY!]ing BALEFIRE!

Once again gathering energy, I tried to spark it, before it finally burst into blue flames. Despite my horn being on fire, I only felt warmth, not painful heat. Taking aim, I launch the fireball at a stalagmite, and watch it explode. When the dust clears, I notice several pieces of it are still burning. I also felt the flames drawing on my magic slightly, and they even felt like I was holding them in my telekinesis. Trying to lift one, I was so shocked when it rose, that I dropped it on my bo- [BOB SAGET!] Please dont be burned, please dont be burned, ple- huh? Its not even singed? Wanting to test a theory, I grabbed one of the rotten floorboards that had fallen in here, and ignited it, before willing it to not be burned, and lo and behold, it wasn't burnt. Willing it to burn, it was nearly instantly consumed by the sapphire inferno. Cutting of magic to the flames, I watched as they died out, before I was overcome by a wave of nausea and exhaustion. I think I used too much magic. I read through the rest of the book, finding the basics for a healing spell, teleportation, and a cloaking spell, but I didn't try them.

After climbing back up to the kitchen, I felt a faint itch in my head and chest. Taking off and storing the remaining pieces of armor in my drape turned sack, along with my book, I tried to scratch the itches, only to realize my chitin was in the way. "Ohhh, joy..." doing my best to ignore the itching sensation, I open my wings, studying them. Moving the inner pair around, I tried to get an idea of there range of motion. After moving them in a circular motion a few times, trying to figure out how to generate lift, I sped up dramatically. A buzzing filled the kitchen, and I felt my body slowly leave the ground. "I'm actually doing this..." I was now hovering about a foot of the ground, when I began to feel a burning sensation in what I assumed to be my wings muscles, and began losing altitude. I am really going to need to build up my endurance. Landing, I felt my stomach began growling... heading back down to the river, I wade into it, scanning for motion... THERE! I swiftly lash out with my tail, and impale something.

Lifting my tail out of the water, I discovered I had just gotten a pony sized fish. Hauling it back to shore, I tore into it, trying to sate my hunger. After devouring everything edible, I no longer felt so tired, and incinerated the remains with a fire spell, before snuffing out the flames.

My ear twitched, and I swear I could hear voices coming from downriver. Quickly climbing up into the kitchen, I peered down and listened.

"We got TWO ponies today, Cainus! TWO ponies! You were right about hanging by the river! Boss will be so proud that we found new ponies for gem hunting!" MOTHER[BUNNY!]ING diamond dogs! I can feel my face morphing into a feral snarl, and force myself to remain calm. When a duo of dogs entered my line of sight however, I was frothing at the mouth. They had ponynapped Derpy and Dinky! The two of them were tied up, and being dragged across the cave floor. The dogs stopped at where I had incinerated the fish leftovers, and were staring at the scorch mark. One of the two, this one black and muscular, went and sniffed it, before reeling back.

"Rex? Something was killed here, I smell blood and ash..." Activating my barrier spell, wanting to be ready if things went south, I felt the tingle of it interacting with my transformation ability, and saw Derpys eyes widen. Quickly holding my hoof up to my mouth is a shushing gesture, I winked, and she seemed to calm down. Climbing down the wall, I sneaked up on the smaller of the two, Rex if heard right, and plunged my tail into his back, injecting him with a paralyzing venom, and watched as he toppled to the floor, before I grabbed him and set him down gently, not making any noise.

Now comes the fun part... creeping up behind Cainus, I began breathing down his neck, and watched as his ears folded down in fear. "Rex, thats not funny... Rex...?" When he turned to meet my bared teeth, he screamed.

"Run." I had apparently started unconsciously mimicking Nightmare Moons voice, which just made that single word all the more fear inducing. And run like a chicken he did. With him gone, I untied the two mares, before grabbing the other dog and heading up the wall.

"...are you an angel?" Oh god, was not ready for concentrated Dinky. My heart skipped a beat and I felt my blood sugar spike tenfold, but managed to not 'dawww' and ruin the image I was trying to give myself.

Turning and shaking my head, I replied cryptically, trying to be as mystifying as possible. "I am one with this forest... I am neither good nor evil, I merely am." With that, I returned to the kitchen, still carrying a paralyzed diamond dog. When the mares left, I deactivated the barrier spell, I hacked up more of my adhesive, and used to stick the dog to a wall and immobilize him, before heading back up to the throne room, and began binding most of the doors shut, excluding the one lead to the library, and one I found that lead in a circuit around the edge of the castle, and then to the main entrance. With that, I felt relieved knowing that anyone who did come here would be less likely to find my egg, before I found and dealt with them. Returning to the kitchen, I waited for my guest to wake up.

*Thirdperson*

*Ponyville*

Twilight was in disbelief, there was no such thing as spirits, right? Let alone one that looked like that changeling in the old castle! "What happened after you saw it?"

Derpy was still trying to understand what in the name of cranberry muffins had happened, so Dinky took over. "Well, Mommy looked like she was going to scream, when it gave her a shushing motion and winked at us, calming Mommy down. It walked down the wall, and stuck its tail in one of the dogs back, before the dog fell down, and didn't move except to breath. It hadn't made a noise the whole time! It snuck up on the second one, and waited for it to turn and seeing it making a scary face full of pointy teeth, before telling to run, that scared me, it sounded like that evil not-Luna... I asked it if it was an angel, but it said 'I am one with this forest... I am neither good nor evil, I merely am.' What did it mean by that?"

Twilight wasn't sure which was scarier, an actual ghost, and if its voice meant anything, the ghost of the thing that possessed Luna, or a magical construct that gave damning proof the Everfree was not just sentient, but SAPIENT. What concerned her the most, was that it might have already killed something, if one of the dogs comments about smelling ash and blood was correct. "Spike, take a letter, this is beyond serious!"

*Shinkirō's P.O.V.*

The bugger had woken up, and been panicking for the last fifteen minutes. Activation barrier spell, and managing to imitate Nightmare Moons voice again, I began cackling, and made sure to make my hoof steps obvious. As I entered the kitchen, the dog began struggling with renewed vigor, but it was futile. "Now listen very carefully, mutt. Ponies are under MY protection now, and I will not tolerate what your kind has done to them, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!" The spittle in my shout slowly began weakening the dogs prison. The dog nodded rapidly. An idea came to mind. "This constructs displeasure is merely a fraction of the collectives..." The dog had nearly gotten free. "Tell your people, the Everfree is angry..." The dogs eyes widened to unnatural proportions, and the moment he broke free, he fled into the caves like a bat outta hell. If Discord had seen this, he would probably be reattaching his ass about now, having laughed it off.

Walking back to the throne room, I checked to make sure everything was secure, when that goddamn itching started again. This its going to get real annoying really fast. Still on an adrenaline high, I drifted into a half-asleep state, still aware of what was going on outside of me. I don't know how long I was asleep for, but a massive flash of light woke me up. Running to the nearest window, I was shocked to see Celestia and half a dozen guards, standing in front of the castle. Not good! Feeling that same irrational surge of violence as I did when the Mane Six appeared, I positioned myself so that I could swing and blast any intruders, and not a moment too soon, as the one of the only two entrances to this room swung open, only for a kinetic blast to strike the area right in front of the leading guard... wait, theres only two of them, where Celly and the other fou- two of the doors were blasted open, and guards surrounded me. I was desperate. Desperation is good right now, necessity may be the mother of invention, but desperation is the bastard father. I don't know how I did it, but my thought process of fire + barrier = guards backing away, lead to me setting myself on fire...

"WHOAH!"

"It set itself on fire! What the bu-"

"STAY BACK! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE IT! IT'S MY FLESH AND BLOOD!" The guards promptly backpedaled like mad when they saw the floor beneath my hooves melting.

"A Quee-" I whirled around and launched an energy bolt spell over Celestia's head, and by the time the guards had recovered from the unexpected flash, I had lept over them, and now had myself between the egg and Celestia.

"Back away, and nopony gets hurt..." to show I was dead serious, I cancelled the spell, and gathered every shred of magic I could into a flame spell. Just as I pumped the last of my magic into it, I felt it spark, and increase tenfold in intensity. Looking at the shock on Celestia face, I realized that the flames around my horn were GREEN. Kill it with fire, no, KILL IT WITH HELLFIRE! The two unicorn guards were slack jawed for some reason. Celestia slowly walked around me, keeping away from the egg, with a look of fear on her face. When she and her guards hat backed up to the door, I cancelled the spell. And got a migraine that could only be described as someone playing Freddy Fazzbears screech though a Bass Cannon, in my head. In G major. It took all my will to not black out, and I fell to the floor. "I don't care who you are, harm my children, and no matter how far you run, or how well you hide, I will find you, and I will make you WISH I had killed you..." Celestia actually did a double take at that.

"You would have used a balefire spell, knowing full well you would have been in the blast radius, to protect your child...? Now I see why Luna said you wanted to keep ponies away from here..."

"Just don't hurt the egg and make it painless..." I slowly curl into a ball, fully expecting a swift death... And began sobbing. I'm a monster... Why can't I control myself!? I fly into a goddamn rage at any perceived threat! I nearly killed FLUTTERSHY for the love of [BLUEBERRY WAFFLES] god! Wait, why am I still thinking, shouldn't I be dead?

When nothing happened, I look up to see Celestia giving me a rather appalled look. "Why would you think that!?!" Wait, you mean I'm not going to die? Must, resist, urge, to hug.

"So i'm not going to die? Oh thank god!" Shakely getting up, I trot back to my egg and gently hug it. "Don't worry, momma's here for you..." brain, what are you doing, brain, stahp. Why am I okay with being female?!

"Dawwww..." did... Yes, one of the guards did indeed 'dawww' at this.

"Quite frankly, I'm surprised that this whole exchange didn't attract whatever spirit is haunting this place..."

"That... was me trying to make this place as scary as possible, so that ponies would avoid coming here. Hehe, funny story how I figured out how to do that. This one barrier spell interacted weirdly with my transformation ability, so whenever I use that spell, my whole body turns the same color as my magic, including the transparency... at least I think thats what happend." At this point, my mind is screaming to keep an eye on them, but my body is saying go to sleep. "Look, I'd really like to continue this, but I need sleep very badly..."

Celestia seemed to get the message, and after rounding her guards up, teleported out. With no obvious threats left, I fell into a state of half-sleep.

Bird is the Word

"Can't believe those uncool flip-flops..." the sound of someone talking roused me to an alert state, except whoever it was had taken the long way around and was entering the throne through the library. Positioning myself over the doorway, I waited...

The door swung open. "I mea- oh pluck, nest, nope, nope nope nope, angry mother, do not want!" The source of the voice retreated rapidly. Quickly regaining a hold of myself, I followed. At least SOMEPONIES smart enough to get the hell outta do- correction, someone. After having made a wrong turn, Gilda was now looking around, confused. Heh, they never bother to look up...

"You were quite right about that..." I couldn't help but smile when she whirled around like a maniac, before realizing I was above her. "Why hello there..." crud, is it me, or has my voice gotten softer and higher? Anyway, detaching from the ceiling and using my wings to slow my descent, I landed in front of her, and gave her a smile. "Don't worry, I'm not going to eat you." Oh god, the look on her face. I can't keep a straight face! I roll on the floor, giggling.

"What."

Composing myself, I get up off the floor. "So stranger, what brings you to these parts?" Gilda gives me a sour look, and sighs.

"You wouldn't get it... nobody gets griffon tradition." She huffed, and kicked the floor in annoyance. Leeme think for a second, other than dragons and diamond dogs, I don't think there are any other carnivorous civilizations, and I don't think griffons would interact with either of those two. Meaning it might be because of the griffons predator mindset...

"Try me... It's not like you've got anything to lose, miss...?" This I want to know, especially since I'm finally talking to someone WITHOUT having nearly killed them. Not being squeamish about me eating meat is just a bonus.

"Gilda... And if you really want to know, its a griffon 'coming of age', where upon reaching maturity, we are sent out into the world for a few years, with one simple goal; survive... only then are we considered adults."

"Ah... return to you roots as a predator, and 'live off the land', correct? As a carnivore, you shouldn't have to rely on others to fend for yourself right?" She nodded. "Only partially. A well coordinated attack between two or three individuals is more than capable of taking down something several times your size. Not to mention you can prove you're the better griffon by swallowing your pride and working as a team with someone." She seems to get the hint.

"Why does that make more sense then I think it should...?" She seemed to pause, thinking.

"Go ahead and take your time, I'm going fishing, you coming?" She nods.

"Never seen how a non griffon hunts, I'll bite..." we both groan at the unintentional pun she made. Leading her to the kitchen, I couldn't help but grin like an idiot.

"So, tell me about yourself." She raises an eyebrow at that.

"Most ponies and whatnot just assume every griffon is prideful and quick tempered. I will admit to having a bit of an ego, but I actually find most things quite fascinating... especially weapons."

"Remind me to tell you about firearms sometime, that will be an interesting project..." She seemed to stumble for a second.

"You know about those? We only got past the concept this year!" Half eagles with guns, sounds like America in a nutshell.

Opening the door to the kitchen, I chuckled when Gilda saw the hole. "Only time I'm gonna need to leave is if I get sick of fish." Gilda simply flew down, and gave me a puzzled look as I walked down the wall.

"How do you do that anyway?" I have no clue whatsoever.

"It's like Pinkie, questioning how it works just leads to headaches... funny story how she and her friends met me, actually."

"If Dash was involved, I'm surprised she's still alive, let alone unhurt."

"Yeah, she bum rushed me, only for me to tackle her out of the air, and pin her in such a way I could snap her neck if she tried to escape."

"How did you not get beat up for that?!"

"They were quick to forgive after Fluttershy discovered I was protecting my egg."

"I just realized something, how are you going to fi-" She blinked at me when I stretched like a can and let my tail unfurl from beneath my wings.

"Simple, impaled with extreme prejudice... do you suddenly feel like you're being watched?"

"No, why?"

"Must just be my imagination, now watch and learn." Wading into the water, I began scanning for a sign of movement. After several minutes of nothing, I was getting suspicious. Gilda screamed and before I could even register that, I felt something clamp down on my midsection, and began crushing it. It was about that time I realized that I was being bitten by a stone crocodile, a rockodile if you will. "ARRRRRRRRRG! KILLITKILLITKILLIT!" My tail was bouncing uselessly of it's hide, and I was in too much pain to use magic. Gilda rushed at it while it was preoccupied with me, even as it began dragging me to the deeper parts of the river. I felt my wing coverings give, and a second wave of pain washed over me as both sets of wings were punctured. Gilda was clawing at it, to minimal effect.

*Splurch!*My tail penetrated something, but I was in too much pain to have thought of injecting venom. The rockodile's hold loosened on me as it roared in pain, and after I rolled free, saw that I had pierced on of it's eyes. Trying to focus through the pain, I cast the barrier spell, hoping to avoid further damage. That was probably what made the difference between the chiten on my barrel cracking, instead of shattering, when the rockodile tail slapped Gilda into me. Frankly, I was now pissed. I hauled Gilda out of the water, before charging up a bolt spell and slowly advancing towards the rockodile. The moment it opened its mouth, I fired. Unfortunately, it turns out that the rockodile DOES conduct electricity, as I felt every single pain receptor in my body fire at once, and began spasming uncontrollably, before my vision started to fade...

I smell smoke... Slowly opening my eyes, I realized I was in the castle lobby, and Gilda was cooking pieces of... something over a fire. It smelt delicious, but when I tried to get a good whiff, I discovered that deep breaths where a bad idea, as a new wave of pain washed over me. Gilda turned to me and blinked.

"You just won't stay down, will you? And just when I thought it was impossible to be more reckless than Dash, you go and shoot of a lightning spell, while standing in the river with that croc! Not to mention you where bleeding pretty badly, your blood is not only flipping yellow, but it plucking glows..."

Wheezing between breaths, I chuckled. "Not the- ow, the most... stupid thing I- ow, I've done..." and looking at the stains from hr dragging me across the floor, I confirmed that my blood was indeed yellow and glowing.

The steady pitter-pattering of rain finally registered to my ears. "I still can't believe that you slept through an Ursa Minor attacking Ponyville... and I never got your name, either." Shit, I slept that long and deeply? Damn, I missed best unicorn...

"Sh-shinkiro..."

*KRA-KABOOM!* "EEEEEEK!" Or maybe not, if the scream outside was any indication. I hear pounding on the main door, which I never realized had a latch until now... My head feels like it's going to split open.

"Mind letting her in, Gilda?" She gave me a nod, before walking over and pulling it open. Yup, Trixie. She was staring, slack jawed, her hat sagging from how drenched it was.

"Trixie would like to know what the buck happend here!?" I winced, the volume not helping my headache.

"Please... tell m- ow, me you know... a he-nrrrg, healing spell?" She shook her head. "Piss... No cho- nrrrg! Choice then... To Ponyville... Help me-owch, me up..." Gilda, with Trixies help, hoisted me up onto her back. Owowow... and so we began our march, but not before Trixie, in a show kindness I didn't know she had, removed and draped her cape over me, giving me a sad smile. "Th-thank... y-you..." every movement brought pain, but I did my best to contain it.

Frankly, I was scared that the scent of my blood would attract a predator, but my fears were unfounded. It took us a few hours to take an alternate route around the gorge, but eventually the forest began thinning, and Ponyville appeared in the distance. The rain had only intensified since then. The pain had dulled, and every single one of my limbs had gone numb...

"Oh my Celestia! What happened!?" Fluttershy?

"Rockodile attack, now isn't really the time to get into details!"

"I'll go ahead and get help, just keep going!" Fluttershy zoomed of at Dash worthy speeds.

Within five minutes, the sound of rather heavy hoofsteps began approaching, all my fuzzing over vision could see was a blob of red approaching.

"Eyup. That's bad alright." The ground suddenly rushed towards me.

*thirdperson*

"Don't die on me now!" Gilda was having a panic attack, as Shinkirō had suddenly toppled off of her. With Big Mac's help, the two of them hauled her back up, and began sprinting towards Ponyville General, with Trixie and Fluttershy spearheading the group, getting the occasional pony out of the way for the large pony and griffon behind them.

Upon bursting into the hospital, Macintosh and Fluttershy witnessed the extent of Shinkirō's injuries. Blood was seeping from the cracks in her chitin and pooling on the floor.

"Faust... what the buck is that, and what in Tartarus happened!" Dr. Flatline was the only pony keeping a level head at the time, and upon seeing the sheer amount of blood, went to autopilot. Save now, question later. "Get it to the E.R. now!"

Screw This, I'm Outta Here!

*firstperson *

I'm still alive...?

"...fractured chitin, pierced wings, electrical burns and a bruised lung... how in the world did it survive that? easily, your organs can take a massive beating, its punctures that are hard to survive, as well as blood loss." Who's that? My eyes fluttered open, but everything was blurry.

"So tell me Flatline, will she make it?" My vision slowly clears to show Gilda talking to a doctor.

"It looks a lot worse than it actually is." Dr. Flatline was looking over a clipboard, muttering to himself. I try to say something, only to groan in pain. Why does it feel like I got stuffed in a sack? Oh shit...

"I think I'm shedding..." Both Dr. Flatline and Gildia spin to face me.

"It can talk!?" The look on his face was rather conflicted between surprise and curiosity.

"And 'it' has a gender, thank you very much." I wack one of my forelegs against the nearest solid surface, and am greeted to the sight and sound of the old layer of chitin splitting in half down the middle, and falling off. Repeating the process for my other legs and tail, I stare at my chest. Yeaaah no, i can feel the damage to the layer underneath. I close my eyes, bracing myself... and punch myself in the face. Hey, at least it got the chitin off... I looked at Gilda and the doctor, and was greeted to confused looks. "What, never seen a changeling shed before?" They both responded in the negative. "How long was I out?"

Dr. Flatline finally regained his composure. "About half a day, miss...?"

"Shinkirō." He raises a hoof. "It translates to Mirage." His hoof dropped back down.

"Look, I know I'm probably a hypo-whatever-"

"Hypocrite."

"Thank you, Sweetie. Now as I was saying, I'm more than likely being a hypocrite, but this is SERIOUS BUSINESS, if that's the same creature that saved me, then the LEAST I could do is comfort it." Oh god, CMC launch detected, brace for impact! When the door swung open, Gilda gave them a stern look.

"And just what are you squirts doi-"

"I remember you, you're that filly I saved in the Everfree, Scootaloo, right?" Scootaloo nods, a grin spreading across her face, before she dashes over and leaps up onto the bed, just to hug me. I felt a weird warmth spreading from where she hugged me, and it dulled the pain as it washed over me... it was only after she stopped hugging me did she notice my shed chitin. Sweetie and Applebloom had already started examining it.

"Cool! What is this stuff? it looks like armor!" Applebloom was holding one half of my faceplate up to her face. While Sweetie was just hesitantly poking a part of my tails chitin, like she was expecting it to rear up and attack her.

"Oh yeah, Shinkirō, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, Shinkirō." I give the two of them a wave, my pain having been reduced to a dull ache.

"What's Shinkirō mean? I've never heard that word before." This, is why I want a Sweetie Belle themed dictionary.

"It means Mirge in your native tongue." Happy Sweetie is best Sweetie, I already feel the diabetus setting in. Its embarrassingly cute.

Everyone is staring at me. "What?" Dr. Flatline finally recovers from the CMC happening, and points out why I'm suddenly the center of attention.

"You're blushing... yellow." How the [PANCAKES] did you get a medical degree if you don't know how blushing works, stupid!? I have [SQUEE]ing yellow blood, you moron!

"You don't say!?" I realize something. "Wheres Trixie, anyway?" Gilda shuffles nervously about.

"I tried to talk her out of it, but she went back to look after your egg." Ohgodohgodohgod! I sprung up and bolted through the door, running on adrenalin and ignoring the pain. "Oh pluck... WAIT FOR ME!" Gilda quickly followed after me.

All I can remember is parkour, lots of parkour, before I reached the castle, and headbutted the door open. Rushing up the stairs, I heard a sad voice.

"Don't worry... even If she doesn't make it... Trixie will keep you safe..." opening the door and seeing Trixie hugging my egg, made something in my head click into place, and label her 'safe.' I felt the urge to kill drain from me, and rational thought return, as well as pain... Gilda had finally caught up, and upon seeing that Trixie wasn't dead, returned to the lobby, presumably to cook what was still left of the rockodile.

"I never did ask, but why did you help me out of the blue like that?" I could see tear stains on her face.

"Trix- no, I, was reminded of somepony very dear to me by you..." I sense a backstory.

"Do please go on, you have my interest..." I sat down, expectantly.

"I-i-i'm sorry, but I can't, the memories are too painful." She rubs fresh tear from her cheek.

"Why did you come here in the middle of a thunderstorm anyway?" I already knew but I wanted to get inside her head, see how she thinks.

She regains her composure. "Trixie, was run out of town after the Ursa incident, despite her trailer, her home, being destroyed. Trixie fled into the Everfree, hoping to find shelter in the old castle, not expecting it to be inhabited."

" well I kno-" *Grumble* "oh god no, not again... please don't hurt so bad this ti-" I inhale sharply, trying not to scream in pain, as I felt certain muscles begin contracting, pushing something out, as Trixie stares on in shock. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, OWOWOWOW!" Wow, I'm halfway there already? The pain is already decreasing. With one final push, I feel the egg slide out. Quickly picking it up, i notice its smaller then my first egg, only 3/4ths the size. That confuses/worries me. Taking and adhering it beside the first one, I turn and see an amusing sight. Trixie was cringing in pain, covering her marehood, in a reaction usually reserved for a man watching a fellow male get sacked. "Painful to watch, I take it?" Trixie nods her head. "As I was saying before that happened, I might be able to build you a new trailer, albit a very spartan one."

"Really!?" Hopeful Trixie is hopeful. "Hey, what's in this ba- really? Why would you wear armor, when you're already covered in it?" Oh, she found my makeshift sack.

"One word, rockodiles..." screw you life, screw you. Anyway, there's bound to be a medical room in this castle somewhere, and considering what medical practices where like a thousand years ago, I can repurpose a bonesaw for cutting wood."

At this point, Gilda walks u to the doorway. "Bonesaw, eh? Good thing I found one when I went looking for something to cut that rockodile up with." Well then, I believe we can get started...

*day one of construction*

"Alright, so we're going to make this bigger than your old trailer, Trixie."

"Why...?"

"Because, I've realized that it isn't safe here for my eggs, the whole damn forest and surrounding area is a magnet for weirdness, me and Gilda are thinking of tagging along with you, and I'm going to need somewhere to keep my eggs safe, so we're going to need to make it bigg-"

"TIMBER!"

*Crash!*

"Damn, Gilda's a natural at this, now hold still while I remove the branches." Launching a wave of fire over the trunk, I burnt the branches clean off, leaving the trunk intact.

"Okay, Trixie admits that is impressive control of fire magic..."

*day three of construction*

"Finally got the last of the trees we need, now we can begin putting it together!"

"Trixie wonder's how you are going to do that without a hammer and nails..."

"Simple, I make my own super-glue!" After saying that, I hacked a bit of adhesive into my hoof, before rubbing it on a log.

Both Gilda and Trixie 'Ewwwwwww'ed at that.

*day seven of construction*

"And then I was like 'I like turtles'..." *Grumble* "OH SHITE, LAYING AN EGG, BE RIGHT BACK!"

*day ten of construction*

"We finally got the base attached to the wheels, now comes moderately difficult part..."

"Say what!"

"Trixie hopes she never finds out your definition of impossible."

*day thirteen of construction*

"This has gone faster than expected, I'm honestly starting to believe that you were a pony with a lumberjacking cutie mark in another life, Gilda... all thats left now is the roof and interior."

"Trixie seconds that motion..."

"Ug... I have to agree with you two..."

*day fourteen of construction*

"Trixie is impressed with how fast this was finished."

"Owwwwwwwwwww..." it appears I'm laying eggs on a: weekly basis. This is gonna get real annoying. At least I managed to get my eggs in here before I felt the contractions... The trailer was about the size of a typical RV, and had four rooms, a storage room, Gilda and Trixies quarters, the main room, and my quarters/nesting chamber. What am I missing... Books! "Hey Trixie, one last thing I wanna do, gonna grab a bunch of books on magic, might be some interesting stuff." Grabbing my drape-sack, I ran into the castle for the final time, and entered the library, hunting down the magical section, and started grabbing any book that seemed relevant, like Advanced Combat Magic: A Primer. or Hypnopony's Stage Magic For Dummies. and stuffing them into the sack, when one caught my eyes. The Elusive Changeling Race. By Starswirl the Bearded. I swear to god, if it mentions changelings sparkling in sunlight... kill it with antimatter hellfire...

Returning to the trailer, bag of books and armor slung over my back, humming the theme to Luigis Mansion, when things get weird...

*MOOBAK-ARK* the fu- *Splat* did... a waffle just landed on my face... Well, at least the fallout from Discord be tasty, but he aint my problem.

*Splat*

*Splat* *Splat* Oh no...

*Splatsplatsplatsplatsplat...* oh [WAFFLES], a waffle storm!? Aint nobody got time for that! Rushing into the trailer, I was greeted to a snickering Trixie and Gilda... Oh, I have a stack of waffles impaled on my horn. "Hey, I brought food, don't judge me." Levitating them off, I passed some to Gilda and Trixie, and started munching on the others. My eyes widen. This... This tastes like... that one time I wrapped a ghost chili in cheese and deep fried it...

"Is it just Trixie, or do these waffles taste like a daffodil sandwich?"

"Really? I thought they tasted like fried tuna... Shinkirō? Why are you watering at the mouth...?"

I bolted out side, and started stuffing my face with waffles until I felt like I was going to puke, before slowly trudging back into the trailer, grinning idiotically. Fishing that one book by Mystic Traveler out of my bag, I headed for my quarters, and after getting comfortable, reviewed the last three spells, as I had yet to actually try them.

the basic healing spell, is little more than pumping raw magic into the intended recipient, and using it to accelerate cellular growth. It is highly unadvised for ponies inexperienced with biology to use this for healing internal injuries, as their is a high likelihood that they will only make it worse.

Great, does that help me at all? No, I have nobody to practice it on.

Moving on...

Teleportation, the art of moving instantly from from one point to another, can be broken down into two steps, picturing where you want to go, and willing you magic to put you there. WARNING: it is highly recommend to use locations from memory, and under no circumstances should you attempt teleportation while mentally impaired in any way, as the loss of accuracy may cause the user to teleport inside of something, displacing it violently, in an event know as a 'teleportation fragmentation.' The sheer magical energy used up in such an event usually killing the user, as well as anyone unfortunate enough to be teleported inside of. One should also be aware of the fact that momentum is conserved while teleporting.

Teleportation? The amount of yes cannot be comprehended. Firing up my magic, I teleport to Ponyville.

"Go ahead... Friendship me..." oh, this is the perfect time. Trolling the ultimate troll, how can I not resist? Doing my best impression of a robot, I quote the only fitting meme, for this situation.

"Hate detected..." Discord spins around to see me with the mother of all shit eating grins, just as Twilight and co. rise into the air. "Firing Orbital Friendship Cannon." He gets blasted mid turn, with a look of 'OH SHI-' frozen on his face, before the wave of rainbows washes over the town. When it hits me, it... Wow, tastes like snozzberries! Wait, did I just EAT, the Elements friendship blast... yes I did, and now I feel full in two different ways... not only did my stomach feel full, but my everything felt warm, if that makes any sense... yeah, I'd better get out of here before questions are asked. Teleporting back to the trailer, I walked in to face a confused Trixie.

"Trixie wonders how you went from you room to outside when Trixie was here the whole time?"

"Teleportation, of course!" Cue happy Trixie.

"Trixie demands you teach her your skills!" Oh hell yes, I get to teach best unicorn!

"Challenge accepted, but first, lets get out of here before more weirdness happens."

"Trixie is confused, why is you chest no longer covered in cracks?" Wait, what? Taking a look, I discovered that apparently, the Elements of Harmony had healed me.

"Don't know, don't care, now let's hitch up, and roll out!" Following me, Trixie and I went outside, and hooked ourselves up to the trailer, and started pulling. Surprisingly, the trailer wasn't as hard to pull as I thought it would be... waitaminute, If I was able to walk up a wall without any strain, then I must be absurdly strong!

"Trixie wonders where Gilda is..." a snoring echos from onto of the trailer.

God... Dammit... Gilda...

I never really was on your side... or was I?

"So Gilda, like I said, feel free to go wander about town, me and Trixie have got a show to preform." Yes, after Trixie walked in on me experimenting with combinations of spells we agree that we could, together, achieve extreme levels of awesome... and more bits.

"Nah, this I want to see!" Good to see even she's hyped for it.

"Trixie is ready, let us begin." Walking out to the front of the trailer, and gathering crowd, Trixie started the show.

"Fillies and gentlecolts of Dodge City! Watch in awe, as the Almighty Trixie blows you away with her magical prowess!" Watching from the top of the trailer, my cloaking spell active, I made a burst of fire erupt from behind Trixies, shocking the crowd. She started of simple, performing a few tricks I had shown her, like the ol' bit in your ear routine, before we began the finale. "Now behold, as the All Powerful Trixie, summons a monster most of you are familiar with!" Cue skeptical response from crowd. Still cloaked, I transformed and walked down to the front of the trailer, before waiting for Trixie to fire up her magic. When she did, I caused a pillar of fire to erupt around me, and while concealed by it, disabled my cloaking spell, and activated my shield spell, watching myself turn transparent.

"THOU DARES TO AWAKEN THE NIGHTMARE!? SHOW THYSELF AT ONCE, SO WE MAY WELCOME THOU TO THY DOOM!" Ham mode engaged. Also, the crowd is utterly slack jawed at this point, because to them, Trixie had just summoned the ghost of Nightmare Moon

"The Great and Powerful Trixie dares, Nightmare!" I spin to her, and fire a weak kinetic blast, which Trixie deflects easily. "The Supreme Trixie is unamused by this..." She fires of a similar kinetic blast, which I fake recoiling in pain from.

"THOU MAY PROVE A WORTHY ADVERSARY AFTER ALL! VERY WELL, HAVE AT THOU!" Blocking a flurry of kinetic blasts from Trixie, I slowly began pretending to be pushed back. "TIS NOT POSSIBLE! WE WILL NOT BE BEATEN SO EASILY!" Just a we rehearsed, Trixie momentarily let up on the stream of blasts, only for a wave of fire to wash over, her, and for her to emerge unaffected. She then, using an illusion spell, appeared to fire a Kamehameha sized blast of magic. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo..." I quickly reengaged the cloaking spell, and after disabling the shield spell, shifted into another from.

The crowd burst into an uproar, everypony stomping on the ground, and multiple bits getting flung in front of Trixie, which she quickly levitated into her hat. "Trixie thanks you for your patronage, but it wouldn't have been possible without her sibling and assistant Mir- where is Mirage anyway?" At this point, I uncloaked behind her, and disguised as Fluttershy, snuck up on her.

"Right behind you..." Trixie whirled around in fright, Before I shifted into the form we agreed I would use in public, Mirage. I basically looked like Trixie, complete with hat and cape, but I was purple with blue clothing instead of the other way around, and my cutie mark was a crescent moon wand, with a beige flare streak.

"As Trixie was saying, this was only possible thanks to the mare of many forms, my sister, MIRAGE!" The crowd burst into applause, except for one pony, who was staring at me intently. It set off warning bells in my head, and I took the time to memorize what she looked like. A pegasus with a neon green mane, cyan eyes, and a white coat, and a cutie mark of a spider web.

I gave a short bow. "The Elusive Mirage, gives you her thanks." And yes, I decided to sound like Fluttershy, except not a quite. After we both gave a few more bows, we retired to the trailer, where Gilda was waiting.

"So, I see things went well." We both nodded, before Trixie went and deposited the bits she had collected into a sack. "Still, that was one of the most awesome things I've seen!" Returning to my base form, I noticed something... A very faint presence at the back of my mind, and it filled me with joy. "Why you so happy all of a sudden?" I hadn't noticed, but a dopey smile had indeed spread across my face.

"I can feel her..." brain, stop, you're freaking me out. "She may not be ready yet, but I can feel her mind forming..." Trixie and Gilda were giving me WTF looks. What the hell was I just saying?! Shaking my head, I exhaled. Keep calm Shinkirō, keep calm... wait, Celestia said I was a Queen at one point... I look like an insect pony... And I'm feeling a mind forming... Oh bloody hell... a hive mind!? Jusssssst greaaaat... I really don't want to start referring to myself in plural.

"- Shinkirō! You there?" Trixie was waving her hoof in my face. I blink.

"I'm here all right, just thinking about something... you know what, you two go out and buy something, I'm taking a break." Walking to my quarters, I smiled upon seeing my eggs, and curled up in a corner.

The sound of somepony knocking on the door, however, caused me to go into high alert. With a burst of flames, I resumed my identity of Mirage, and went to open the door. It was that same pony from earlier. "The Elusive Mirage would think Trixie had established we don't do autographs."

"Not what I came here for."

"Then Mirage does not want what you are selling."

"Enough with the act." I felt myself tense up.

"Are you accusing the Elusive Mirage of being a fraud!?"

she sighed. "Enough with the pony act."

"...Very well, step into my web, said the spider to the fly." The slightly startled look on her face made me smirk.

Once she had entered, I shut the door behind me, and watched as she went up in emerald flames, revealing a green maned changeling. She looked quite different from me. She lacked a tail, and had more mosquito like wings, and only had a pair of fangs, more then likely as a holdout weapon instead of for eating.

"Ah, you wish to speak to the real me." I let my disguise dissolve, before opening my wings to let my tail unfurl, and yawned, revealing my numerous kinds of teeth to her. I smirked evilly at the look of fear on the changelings face, now that I towered over her.

"Wha... what are... what are you doing here? Please don’t eat me.”

I managed not to show disgust at that implication, and instead tried to act like it had not fazed me. "Oh, its simple really. Trixie and her friend helped save my life. Between them and me, we managed to construct this here mobile lodging, and shes been so kind as to let me live here, in exchange, I help her with her performances, the question is, why are you here?"

"Sc... scouting, for my Q... Queen!" My grin morphed into a full fledged slasher smile, as I let my tail hover menacingly overhead. I was so going to milk her for information.

"Your Queen?"

“Qu... Queen Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis..? Aha! I knew I was forgetting something! The wedding, Chrysalis would invade it! But... I have to tread lightly, lest the butterfly effect bite me in the ass.

"Tell me, why would you risk meeting me, when you might get caught because somepony decided to snoop in here?"

"As... as soon as I relayed the fact that there was a member of another... another hive to my Queen, she directed me to scare the scout off... B-but you're no scout!"

"Alright. You got me. I'm a Queen... OH GROSS!" I apparently just made the poor changeling piss herself. "Now I'm going to have to clean that up!"

"DON'T HURT ME!"

"Woah there, do you have any idea how freaking hard it is to get rid of blood stains?" Yes, I was taking the whole 'evil psychopath' thing and going with it. She looked seconds away from fainting, when her eyes suddenly started glowing a sickly green.

"So, a Queen, helping ponies? You disgust me." That was definitely Chrysalis' voice coming from the scouts mouth. The bitch finally showed herself, huh?

"Oh, so now I'm worth your your time."

"Tell me. Why shouldn't I have every single drone within my territory hunt you down?"

Oh fuck, gotta think fast!

"Because you'd run a high risk of revealing yourself. Now my dear Chrysalis, I have a proposition for you..."

Author's Note

The plot thickens. Also, I finally updated something!

in which things start going downhill.

The drone Chrysalis had… ‘assumed direct control’ of, smirked. “What kind of proposition?”

“Well, lets just say I could quite easily… silence anyone who got too close to the truth. I know you have plans, after all.” I gave large grin, waiting to see how she would react.

“Who doesn’t have plans?”

“Please, I know your hive has been running low on love. you're going to need to pull off something big, and that greatly increase the chance of getting discovered. I can solve that, and ‘fix’ those leaks.” There was a brief flash of fear on her face, before she recomposed herself. “So tell me, where were you planning on getting so much love? Canterlot, maybe?” I had her backed into a corner now. “It would be a shame someone found out about such a plan, no?”

“And what make you think that my drones can’t do that little job, hm?”

“Please, I had your ‘drone’ so scared that she lost control of her bodily functions. and besides, why use magic when you can use toxins?”

“You have a point. Why waste precious resources when I can just use yours.”

“Now I have no intention of taxing your already limited resources in exchange for my services, what I seek instead, is knowledge.”

“What kind of knowledge?”

“The kind that the public doesn't know about… Things the Princesses would rather never be known in the first place.”

“That can be easily arranged.” The glow from the droes eyes intensified, and I could feel something… Poking, at my mind. So, A Queen can connect to another Queens hivemind? Very well. The moment I allowed the connection to form, I was hit with a surge of information.

It appears Chrysalis isn't as incompetent as I though. Just the one spell as advanced payment. “I assume that the rest shall come after I’ve delt with your ‘leaks’?” Still, a spell to bend one's mind to my will… so many applications…

“Yes, but hard to use that one. It needs constant focus and repeated casting.”

“Have you considered potentially creating a trigger for a command to be activated at a later time without recasting it?”

“I have, but I think this is the wrong spell for that.” Guess I’ll have to find a test subject then.

“So do tell, who do you need ‘dealt with’?”

“Here in this little town, somepony is snooping around. I believe she thinks her partner is just cheating on her, but she’s already come close to finding out. I already have a changeling in place, but why don’t you deal with her.”

“Very well. In meantime, I would recommend you leave, as my associates should be returning shortly, and this is something that should be kept under wraps, no?”

“Of course, I would hate to have to kill you food source.” We both resumed our disguises, and the glow left the drones eyes, before she nervously made her way out. Now, as much as I wanted to do something flashy, I had an idea of how to use my newly aquired spell, to turn Chrysalis’ so called ‘leak’ to our advantage.

Now how would I find this pony? Chrysalis said she thought her partner was cheating on her… I guess the local bar/tavern/pub is always a good place to start. I noticed the sun was going down, which meant it would be the perfect time to go on the prowl. but first…

After a carfully apllied flame spell to boil away the urine, a flash of blue fire erupted around me, and when it cleared, gone was Mirage, and in her place was brown stallion, with a black mane, and an anvil cutie mark. After I grabbed a few bits and a saddlebag, I opened the door, and snuck out before closing it behind me, making sure nopony was watching. The city looked quite different in the dying light of the setting sun, and I spent the time thinking. If what I have planned for that little mind control spell works, I’ll need to use it to set up some contingency plans. First and foremost, as much I hate to say it, I need to keep my family safe. I know Trixie can counted on to keep them safe, but one mare wouldn't be enough. As for the wedding, I know Twilight and co, as well as the CMC, and Celestia, knew of my existence, so I would need a way to either keep them ignorant of the entire thing until I stabbed Chrysalis in the back, or let them in on my plan without alerting Chrysalis to it.

It didn’t take me long before I spotted the sign for it. ‘Golden Mugs’? It could be worse. I stopped for a moment, preparing myself. Opening the door, I was greeted to the overpowering smell of alcohol. It was hard to make much out over all the chatter, but a few things did catch my attention.

“...told the nutjob ‘so what if I put oatmeal in my salad, I’m not the crazy one.’”

“Been hearing rumors that there's some kind of spirit in the Everfree, in the old castle to be precise…”

“...Something off about that Mirage character, if she’s that good at illusionary magic, I should have been able to find something on her…”

“...It was the weirdest dream ever, my buddys date spontaneously combusted, and turned into some kind of bug-pony hybrid! of course, it was just a dream, and me and him woke up in a back alley, with both a hangover and a concussion.”

The first thing I did, was head to the counter, to get a drink. The pony manning it gave me one look, before giving me the greeting he no doubt gave every other pony to set hoof in here. “welcome to the Golden Mug. You her to get buzzed, plastered, floored, or ‘wake up in a back alley with no memory of what happened last night.’?”

I chuckled. “More like ‘Who needs a liver anyways?’. Give me the strongest stuff you got.”

“Nice knowing you. One mug of Dragonslayer coming right up.” What I got, was mug full of what looked like antifreeze, but practically smelt of fire and brimstone. I was going to regret this tomorrow morning. The stuff lived up to its name, because it burned like fricking thermite! after finishing it off, I set the mug down, and gave the bartender a smug look. Shit burned going down, but I didn't actually feel very inebriated. Whatever caused that smell gave it its taste, but either pony drinks are a lot weaker than what I’m used to, or changelings process alcohol a lot differently than ponies.

Getting up, I paid for my drink, then made my way towards the group of laughing stallions, intent on getting some more information. from what I just heard, that stallions acquaintance could be the stallion that my target suspected of cheating on her. I sat myself down at the only empty seat at that table, grinning. “So I overheard you colts talking about your drunken mishaps…”

“Yeah, we still don’t have one to top Brick here.” the largest of the group, a yellow earth pony, gave the grey pegasus sitting beside him a pat on the shoulder. “I mean, you don’t even remember drinking, then have a dream that your best buds marefreind was some kind of bug-pony, before waking up with said buddy in a back alley? just one of the many incidents Crash Test has gotten into.”

“Three words. Alcohol and fireworks. Ludacris property damage ensured.” The look of surprise on their faces amused me greatly.

“Wow… even Crash wouldn't do something that crazy.” this time it was the azure unicorn that spoke up. “I believe you own my 5 bits now, Bulk.”

“Celestia dammit. I bring it next time for ya, eh Flash?” the earth pony, that I now knew was Bulk, sighed angrily.

“Bulk Order! for the love of Luna! how many times to I have to tell you and Brick Breaker to call me Flash Fire! I get sick of all those ‘you're not Flash Sentry’ remarks!”

“Please, can we not be civilized ponies? What I want to know, is why this Crash fella hasn’t joined you three here.”

“He was the one that wound up with a concussion. Still in the hospital, they want to make sure there was no brain damage. I swear, Crash Test winds up there at within a week of getting out.” Good, I have a full name, and a location. I’ll be sure to see that fellow tomorrow, find out if hes the pony that my target suspected of cheating… then its just a stones throw away from dealing with her.

“Sounds like my old drinking buddy Keith. except the damn featherbrained griffon wound up in prison instead of a hospital the last time. ‘Disturbing the peace’ they said.” The trio broke out into laughter at my comparison. Drunks are so easy to amuse, its almost sad. “How he wound up with his head stuck in tuba, I’ll never know.” All lies, of course, I just have a very creative mind. Very good thing to have when you're a shapeshifter. “Now as much as I would like to get drunk off my flank, I have somewhere else to be, so I guess I’ll be seeing you guys later.”

“Dude, we never got your name!”

“John Smith. Don’t ask how I got that first name.” I’m so punny. Getting up, I made my way to the door, giving the trio of stallions one last wave before I exited the building. Once I outside, I had some time to think. I had one massive unknown to deal with. I had no clue when the eggs I laid would start to hatch, nor how long it would take the… nymphs, to reach maturity. Plus, I do not want to wind up in the same situation as Chrysalis, with too many mouths to feed. I’m just glad the whole emotion absorbing thing can be done passively, or I would have starved quite a while ago. Once the trailer was in sight, I released a sigh that I never knew I was holding in, and then made my way to the door.

...Until I was grabbed by an orange aura of magic and was yanked into a side alley, before getting pinned to a wall. Once I had come to a stop, I was able to see that I was apparently being held up by a black unicorn, who had a dagger gripped in his magic. “Duuuuude… what’s with the lightshow?” Yes, I was acting like a stoner just to piss the stallion off.

“Of all the ponies I could have grabbed… Buddy, just give me whatever money you have, and this will end peacefully.”

Heh. Now comes the fun part. “Son. Y’all about to have a real bad day.” I had to resist the urge to cackle as as I revealed my true form.

The stallion rapidly back up, holding the dagger in front of him. “St-stay Back!”

“You really think that toothpick is going to scare me off?” I let my wing plates open up, and my tail unfurl. “You chose the wrong changeling to mess with sonny, and now you’re going to pay the price.” The moment my horn lit up, he swung his little dagger at me, only for it to bounce off my chitin, before I wrenched it from his grip with my telekinesis and embedded it in a wall. “Lucky for you, I’m not going to kill you painfully. No, you get to be my test subject.” I watched as his eyes grew wide in absolute fear, before I used the spell I received from Chrysalis. The whole basis of the spell was projecting your will, and a moderate amount of magic, onto the target. I knew it had worked, when the ponies eyes lit up with a pale blue light. Good, it worked. Now, If the information I got was correct, verbal commands make this easier. “Look at me.” He turned to face me, the motions rather twitchy, I suspect that problem will iron itself out over time. I could actually feel the stallions mind struggling under my magics grip, which more than likely ment somepony with enough willpower would be able to fight the effects of this spell. “Now sit down.” I watched as he slowly sat himself down, like a malfunctioning machine. “Answer me truthfully, was this actually a random targeting, or have you been following me?”

“I saw you leave the trailer, and knew you must be loaded after those performances, so I waited for you to return.” Good, so I hadn’t been found out.

“Now, when I end this spell, you are going to forget this entire altercation happened, leave, and the next time you hear the word ‘donkey’ you will vomit uncontrollably at random times, for the next 72 hours.” I cloaked myself and ended the spell, watching as the glow faded from his eyes, yet they still appeared dull. he rather slowly walked out of the alley, before the color returned to his eyes, and he clutched his head.

“What the hay was I just doing?” Note to self, delayed or triggered commands apparently still show signs of manipulation, just not as obvious. Still, that was tiring.

After waiting a few minutes to make sure my assailant turned victim had left, I ended the cloaking spell, and with a flash of sapphire flames, resumed my identity of Mirage. Once I had gotten inside the trailer, I let the disguise drop, and flopped to the floor, feeling drained of energy. It felt like a void had formed inside me, and it hurt.

I don’t know how long I spent on the floor groaning in pain, but I eventually heard the door being opened, before someone gasped. “...Shinkiro?” Trixie? what… is that sensation… I want more of it… like a warm blanket… “Shinkiro? whats wrong with you?” Want… warmth…

My head shot up from between my hooves, and I stared at Trixie hungrily. A faint rumble coming from my throat.

“Shinkiro… You're scaring me…”

“Hungry.” Give me… the warmth…

Trixie slowly backed away, something else tainting that warm feeling coming from her. I wanted the warmth… The moment she looked behind her for an escape route, I lunged, causing her to scream and stumble back. She didn’t get far before I lept and pinned her facedown to the floor. I could taste the feeling now. A pink mist started to rise off Trixies coat and wrapped around my horn as I absorbed it. I picked Trixie up off the floor and held her in tight hug as she tried to get away. I was much bigger than her, so her feeble attempts at escape failed and were only growing weaker as she screamed for me to let her go. The wonderful feeling was starting to spread across my body, and I was starting to feel all warm and fuzzy.

Only when the feeling stopped coming from Trixie did I finally let her go. She collapsed on the floor of the trailer, exhausted from me feeding on her. She looked up at from her position on the floor. Her eyes were dull and as soon as she asked “Why” in a dull and empty tone, she passed out. Whatever haze had settled around my mind, slowly lifted as it occurred to me what I had just done.

My god… Did… I just drain her dry? Never again… I need to pay attention to how much energy I have left. I just lost control of myself and mercilessly drained my freind of love!

…I can’t just leave Trixie laying on the floor. I picked her up in my magic and slung her over my back, before making my way to her room. There was no way I was going to use that mind control spell on her to make her forget that happened… It felt wrong even thinking of doing that to her. She deserves to know. I pushed the door open with my head, and walked in, before setting Trixie down on her bed. “...I’m sorry.” I curled up at the foot of her bed, feeling tears streak down my face. I was losing control of myself...

“Wake up.” The voice was Trixies, but it sounded flat and emotionless, like a machine. I really hope this isn’t permanent.

“Trixie?”

“Why did you attack Trixie? What did you do?” It was relieving that I would be able to explain myself to Trixie without her freaking out about it, so I took a deep breath to calm myself.

“I… Think it was a survival instinct. I feed on love, and after a certain altercation in a back alley, I was dangerously low on energy. I think I drained you dry of emotion in an attempt to sate my hunger.”

“Are you going to do it again?”

“No. I’m going to control myself. That was the first time I lost it, so I’ll be better next time. I promise.”

She just sort of stared at me for a few minutes, it was somewhat creepy and I was starting to feel very uncomfortable, until she spoke again. “...Trixie feels empty.” Scratch that, she is creepy.

“Lets… get you something to eat.”

Author's Note

minor changes, because of a brain fart that caused me to forget that Shinkiro doesn't know how to do someetihng.

Welcome to hel- er, parenthood

“HUAAAAAARG!” Yes, that was me vomiting. it appears changelings do not like alcohol. “Oh god why… HUAAAAARG!” It still rattled me that my vomit was composed of that bioadhesive I could spit up. In other words, I had blue vomit.

“Trixie wonders why you are vomiting.” Oh god, shes at the door. at least she sounds a tad bit livelier than earlier.

“Changelings and al-HUAAAAAARG! ...alcohol do not mix!”

the sound of the door being opened caught my attention in between my episodes of vomiting. “Hey Trix, is that Shinkiro in there?”

“Yes.”

“What’s with you?”

“Today I learned to never approach a famished emovore.”

Not sure if serious or bad attempt at humor. “Wait… are you saying…”

“I feel empty.”

“WHAT THE PLUCK SHINKIRO!”

“I don't… HUAAAAARG! ...Feel so good…” Everything was starting to spin, when to toilet bowl jumped up to hug me....

I was woken by something splashing over my face, and bolted upright. I was only able to get one of my eyes to open, and saw why. I had apparently passed out and falling into the toilet bowl, getting the left side of my face covered in my own bioadhesive.

“Good, you’re awake. you have any idea how to get that blue junk off your face? I’ve tried everything.” Gilda was holding a bucket in her talons, having splashed water all over my face. Trying to lick away the adhesive sticking my lips together, I noticed Gilda staring at me.

Once the last of the bioadhesive that had my jaw stuck shut was gone, I gave the griffon a look. “What?”

“Are you sure you're a changeling, and not some kind of shape shifting chimra? I mean, you look like a cross between a pony, a beetle, a manticore, way to many kinds of teeth, and you have a forked tongue! Whats next? Acidic urine!?” wait… I stuck my tongue out and actually took a good look at it. Well, damn.

“I don’t know about the last one, I don’t go to the bathroom. I just throw up this blue junk. On the plus side. its like having a built in liquid duct tape dispenser.”

“Ew.”

“Yeah… It’s pretty gross when you look at it like that.” I took the opportunity to lick my hoof and rub it against the adhesive still clinging to my face, feeling it begin to slowly dissolve. Once it was out of my eye, I cracked it open and winced a little at the light, squinting my left eye in an attempt to alleviate the pain. “I mean, I guess you could say that drinking got me pretty ‘shitfaced.’”

“That’s really disgusting… You’re disgusting.”

“Hey, it doesn't smell, its actually sanitary, and it make a great glue substitute. Its not any worse than an owl, unlike your smelly bacteria filled fertilizer.”

“Cute. Anyway. I want answers. Exactly what the pluck did you do to Trixie?”

“Ummm… I may have drained her of emotion after nearly depleting myself of energy.”

“You what?”

“It was instinct! I had no control, and I feel horrible for doing it!”

“Why did you even use up so much energy in the first place? you were fine yesterday.”

“I was ummm… experimenting with my shapeshifting. turns out the bigger something is, the more energy it takes to turn into. exponentially more energy. Unless I had some sort of source of infinite love energy, there is not a chance of me being able to transform into a dragon.” That was more than likely actually true, and it served its purpose of keeping Gilda from finding out what I was doing under the radar. “Is… Trixie getting any better?”

“Slowly, she went back to bed, said she was bored.”

“Thats good, shes feeling something now. I was afraid it might have been permanent. I don’t even really remember what happen up until I realized I had just drained her dry.”

“Its probably for the best. from what Trixie descirbed, you looked freaky as heck. your eyes were glowing yellow and you were salivating uncontrollably.”

Wait. “If I remember, after you saved my flank from the rockodile, you told me my blood glowed. I know its yellow allready, so that whole glowing eyes thing isn't that farfetched. in other words, if I have bloodshot eyes and am salivating nonstop, please keep me from doing something stupid again. I never want to actively feed off someone again.”

“Actively?”

“Ummm… if you didn’t know, I passively feed of anyone nearby, skimming off the excess emotion. Its like breathing, I just do it.”

“You’ve been feeding off us!? How long?”

“Like I said, its something I just do! I can’t turn it off! Why do you think I join Trixie on the stage after each performance? I’m not doing it for the recognition, I’m doing it so that I stay fed!”

Gilda relaxed and slumped her shoulders. “Sorry. Just… keep to the crowds.”

“I will.” I might need a ‘emergency stash’ in case I need to actively feed again, but where could I keep it that would be readily accessible, yet somewhere Gilda and Trixie wouldn't notice it?

… Am I really considering kidnapping somepony to use as an emergency source of emotional energy? But… when the eggs hatch, how will I keep them all fed? I don’t think I’m willing to go that far. What else could I do?

“Uhhh, Shinkiro? you there?” Gilda was snapping her talons in front of my face.

“Thinking about how I can keep my children fed. Emotions aren't exactly something you can buy at a store.” I can’t believe I’m even thinking of something like that. But I might have to do some ‘rather unsavory’ work. It feels so wrong to even think, especially since i used to be the guy. “Theres gotta be an option other then doing… that...”

“You’re not thinking about kidnapping are you?”

“No actually, I wouldn’t want to do that either, but its the only other option I have. its kidnapping or...” just the mere thought of it made me whimper and try to cover myself.

“...Or?”

“Or… that unsavory business.”

Gilda seemed a little sympathetic towards me. “If it really comes to that, I supposes you can… uh, feed off me. Only if it’s necessary!”

“That might keep me and a few hatchlings fed, but I probably still have more on the way.”

“Then you can put on a bigger show.”

“Gilda, stop and think. do you know what an insect hive is like? thats a lot of mouths to feed.”

“Well that isn’t an option either, I’m not letting my friend whore herself out for food. There has to be something else!”

If I can just hold out until the Empire reappears… “I don’t want to leave behind a family of orphans… Without me, they'd starve… just the thought makes me sick to my stomach. Please don’t let my babies suffer such a fate.”

“I… no, of course not. But, are you really going to whore yourself out? I doubt that’ll be enough later on.”

“It seems like I… like I might not have any other choice… unless the rumors are true.”

“What rumors? I haven’t heard anything important.”

“Well its to do with the ponies. Lets just say legend has it that about a millennium ago, their was a great empire in the north, and at the very center of it, an artifact that protected the empire with the power of love. Unfortunately, that empire vanished into the earth, and legend foretold it would return a thousand years later. Within the year, if the rumors are true, it will have returned, and I might just have an endless supply of emotion energy waiting there for me and my children. Its a long shot, but its the only hope I’ve got to keep an entire hive fed.”

“I don’t know. That sounds to good to be true. And if it is true, if it’s protected by love. What make you think you’d be able to get in?”

“I doubt back then they ever considered an underground approach… or balefire.”

“I don’t know what that is. But, If the thing goes underground, then what?”

“Simple. Balefire burns through magic, as well as just about anything else.”

“Well, I’m not going to say I know anything about magic, But… That sounds incredibly stupid.”

“It’s my only option, sooner or later the swarm will grow too large to support by myself.” I paused, I could feel something. Whatever it was felt… like me, but its own separate entity at the same time .It was calling to me… wait. “Its happening.”

“What happ- Woah!” I rushed past her, straight to my little nest, where I saw the largest of the eggs wiggling, something moving inside. I could feel her prodding at my mind. there was no need for words, she knew I was there for her. “What going… woah, already?”

“Shhh! just watch.” I huddled down so that my face was inches from the egg, a smile growing on my face. I could hear a faint squeaking coming from inside, as the rocking motions of the egg intensified. It rocked backwards one last time before with a brief ‘thunk’ a horn penetrated the shell from the inside, causing cracks to spiderweb out. From there, the hole was widened with a hoof, before the eggs inhabitant peeked her head out, a piece of the shell balanced on her snout. I gently helped her by put my hoof where she could reach, and pull herself out of the egg. She looked so similar to me, the most noticeable difference other than size being the shade of her mane and eyes, and icey sapphire instead of the neon blue I had. what had me slightly concerned was how she felt slightly cold, so I held her close to me, and felt a small tug on my energy reserves. She wanted her first meal, and I happily obliged, letting her feel herself, feeling her warm up as she did so, before she returned my hug.

“How did you know she was trying to break out of her egg?”

“I could hear her… You wouldn't understand, but every changeling Queen has a hivemind, that all her offspring are connected to.” How I know these things continues to baffle me, just like how I so easily adapted to having an exoskeleton. The muscles are arranged completely differently, yet I’ve been moving fluidly since the first time I woke up!

Gilda seemed confused, but, either ignored it or didn’t care. All she asked was. “...What’s her name?”

“...Peeko.” upon hearing her new name, Peeko’s eyes seemed to sparkle in infantile curiosity, as she begun looking around the room, awed by the world outside the egg.

“Sounds about as strange as yours. I’ll go wake up Trixie, she might want to see this.”

“You do that. I just want to be with my daughter.” I took the opportunity to brush the piece of eggshell of her snout, causing her to giggle. The sound of her voice filled me with warmth, and I watched with amusement as her tail swung about like an excited puppy, while she batted at a strand of my mane.

The sound of hooves and claws said Trixie was up. “Trixie was told an egg hatched?” Her voice no longer sounded completely monotone, but it still lacked much emotion.

I took the time to carefully turn myself around, still holding Peeko in a one legged hug. “She’s… shes my little bundle of sunshine.” I felt my eyes watering, not in sorrow, but in joy. “Trixie, meet Peeko.” She stared at Trixie intently, completely fascinated by her.

“Trixie is impressed she hatched so quickly. How old was the egg?”

“I lost count, a few months?”

“Trixie is being stared at. Does Trixie have something on her face?”

“No, you don’t. Peekos never seen a pony before, considering she just hatched a few minutes ago.”

“Then why isn’t she ogling me too?”

I noticed Peeko had tilted her head and stuck her tongue out slightly, scrunching her face up in mock concentration.

The display made Trixie's eyes widen a bit, and I could sense something coming from her again. She found it adorable. That’s good, she’s getting better. “I see you're recovering nicely. Just please remember, If she starts acting like I did when I was starving, get me immediately., and don’t get too close to her.”

“Yes, Trixie does not wish to experience that again.” I picked up a bit of nervousness from her, meaning she really is starting to get better, as well as the fact she understood the severity of this issue.

"Good. Its okay right now, I just fed her. I think she wants to hug you, and I agree, you do look fluffy." Peeko gave a delighted squeal and giggled, before giving Trixie the dreaded puppy eyes.

She huffed in annoyance, but her emotions said otherwise. Regardless, she still scooped up Peeko and hugged her, letting Peeko bury her face in her fur. Peeko giggled, and took the opportunity to lick Trixie's face, leaving a trail of bioadhesive, before making a disgusted noise and begun trying to get the bits of fur off her tongue.

“Trixie feels like there’s something on her neck, what is it?”

"You just got slimed." Trixie passed Peeko back to me, and held a hoof to the affected area. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Too late. Trixie touched the blob of goo, and she tried to pull her hoof away, she couldn’t.

“Trixie is stuck!”

I snickered. "I warned you. You do realize that apparently changeling saliva is the only way to get that off?" I stuck my tongue out slightly, giving her a grin.

“Trixie will get it off on her own!”

"Fine, just ask Gilda. She tried to get it off my face and was met with no success whatsoever.”

Trixie looked to Gilda for support. “Yeah, that stuff doesn’t come off. Ever. Just let her do it, I just found out she pukes that stuff out, instead of going to the bathroom like normal.”

"By the way, thanks for saving me from potentially drowning in my own adhesive vomit."

"Trixie is disgusted! Get it off me immediately.” Not wanting fur on my tongue, I instead licked my hoof, and proceeded to rub the saliva into the slime that held Trixie's hoof to her neck, watching as I begun to dissolve. Once it was gone, I gave her a little smile.

"All done!"

“Trixie will be in the shower. With industrial disinfectant.”

Author's Note

so it begins...

fixing a leak

I felt something warm, and wet being dragged across my face, and a pressure on my chest. Cracking open one eye, I stared into Peekos, who had stopped licking me the moment I woke. She's like an intelligent puppy right now, her tail was happily wagging behind her. She buried herself into the crook of my neck, and I gave her, her fill. Feeding a growing proto-queen took a lot of energy. Peeko made a happy squeal and hugged me.

I was going to need to find a way to keep both of us fed. Preferably without resorting to that unsavory job. Getting myself off the floor, I smiled at the eggs surrounding me, my soon to be children forming inside them. I lifted Peeko onto my back and made my way to the main room, where Trixie and Gilda were already eating, egg salad and tuna sandwiches respectively. "Hey Trixie, Gilda? I have a rather large favor to ask of you."

"What could you possibly want?"

"Ummm could you and Trixie maybe... Look after Peeko while I take care of some business? She doesn't know how to transform yet, and I don't want her getting hurt."

"Don't look at me, I don't know how to handle children."

"Its easy. Make sure she stays inside and out of trouble, don't let any pony see her, and don't touch the blue gunk. I don't think I need to explain that last one, do I Trixie?"

"One of these days Shinkiro, Trixie will send you straight to the moon!” Well, she's feeling well enough to actually express herself.

"Love you too Trixie."

Peeko poked over my shoulder, making a happy squeal and pointed at Trixie. I smiled and nuzzled Peeko, giggling. No words were needed, as the hive mind allowed us to intimately connect our minds, we were both part of a greater whole. It was like rivers flowing into a sea, our thoughts mixed without any conscious thought, with much better clarity. “Shes right. you do look particularly ‘floofy’ today Trixie.” A massive blush formed on Trixie's face, she was embarrassed beyond a doubt, and made a choked squeak. Perhaps all this emotional stimulus is speeding along her recovery? “So, could you two please keep Peeko out of trouble today?”

“Well… okay.”

“Trixie does not see any alternative.” Peeko gave an excited squeal, and slid off my back onto the the table, running over and hugging Trixie… Before licking her face, and then gagging as she tried to get the fur off her tongue. At least this time there wasn’t any slime.

“Eww! Get it off, get it off!” she rapidly shook her face in an attempt to dislodge the perceived slime, causing me to giggle.

“Its okay, she didn't slime you this time.”

“Oh. Of course, Trixie knew that all along.”

“surrrrre you did.” As I said that, Peeko poked trixie’s nose, before giggling happily. “She really likes you.”

“Trixie knows that.”

“Just be careful not to poke yourself on her tail.”

“Yes, Trixie has noticed.”

“Yeah, otherwise you’ll be spending a few hours as a ragdoll… and she’ll probably lick you a lot to try and wake you up because she will most likely though you fell asleep. Make sure she stays out of trouble!” With that, I took the form of my cover identity, John Smith, and left, with no freaking idea where the hospital was.

It took me a while, and a stop to ask for directions, but I found the Dodge City hospital. When I walked in, the pony at the reception put down the coffee she was drinking, and sighed. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for a pony named Crash Test.”

“Another friend of his I suppose. South wing, room 35-C, visiting hours end at 4. Have a nice day.” Are all secretarys this indifferent?

“Thank you kindly miss…”

“Sun Dry.”

Walking down the hallway, I made my towards the south wing, taking the opportunity to duck into a corner and transform into Bulk Order, as I need to appear as a familiar face. once I reached room 35-C, thankfully without encountering anypony, I made my way in.

“Bulk? it you buddy? Thought you would have a hangover from drinking last night.” a large brown earth pony, with a… oh god, his cutie mark is that same symbol on crash test dummies! I had to suppress a chuckle at that. but anyway, he was laying in a bed, looking at me.

“Oh, I do, I just stopped by to make sure you were alright after your latest misadventure. That, and it fascinated me enough to want to hear your side.”

“Heh, like the noodle incident.” Damn, now I want to know what that was!

“Yeah.”

“Well, it started after I met this one mare, Reflection. I was drunk at the time, so I completely forgot Sugar Bomb was my mare friend. well, me, Reflection, and Brick Breaker rented a motel room, and after a couple rounds of drinks, were starting to get really into it. Next think I know, Reflection goes up in green fire because I felt her up, turning into what only can be described as the love child of a pony and a bug, before grabbing a frying pan and... well. I woke up in a back alley.” I wasn’t sure to laugh at the reason he thought a pony spontaneously combusted, or cry at how stupid that was.

“You do realize Sugar is going to find out your back here again sooner or later, right? I might as well tell her now and save you getting shouted at.”

“Ah, she’s going to yell at me any way. At least I didn’t cheat on her.”

"Ha! That's true. She'd probably skin you alive if you did!"

"You're more right than you know. Well, if she doesn't use the garden sheers first."

"Celestia have mercy. You poor sap! Should I try and talk her down?"

"Yeah, that might be a good idea. She should still be at the sweets shop nearby."

"I'll be sure to explain to her why not to geld you." I secretly took great pleasure in watching the stallion wince, before walking out the door. After checking to make sure nopony could see me, I transformed back into my Pegasus disguise. Making my way outside the hospital, I looked around, until I noticed a sign. 'Sugar Bomb's Sugar Shack'? That doesn't sound like a candy store at all...

Popping inside, I looked around trying to find the pony I was meant to silence. With no luck, I simply headed into the back of the building, where it looked like a fight had gone down. Crates were dented or smashed, their contents leaking, a pony sized hole in one of the windows, yet not a single feather to be found. A few scorch marks on the walls suggested magic blasts, and the final thing to catch my eye was a thin trail of blood. Pony blood.

I could feel myself tense up, something about this seemed off. Chrysalis said she had told the changeling she had ready to take this pony out hold off on it. Had they gone through with it anyway? I shifted to my normal form, my gut telling me that something was going to go horribly wrong, and begun following the trail of blood, which lead to a large walk in freezer. I cautiously walked inside it, bracing for something to happen.

"Not today..." A brown blur suddenly entered my field of vision from around the door frame, and impacted my face, causing my vision to flash white with pain, before I crumpled to the ground.

I eventually awoke, feeling groggy, inside the freezer. Everything felt sluggish, as the cold had already chilled me to the bone. It was only when the fact that something was dripping from my nose occurred to me, that I remember what happened. That mare was expecting me, and managed to ambush me, and gave me a bloody nose to boot! I trudged to the door, and tried to open it, only to discover it was locked. The cold made it to difficult to concentrate, making any form of magic impossible, and I felt oh so sleepy.

"G-godd-damit, why is i-it so chilly in h-here?"

"H-hello? W-whos there?" I slowly looked around for the source of the voice, where to my surprise I found a fellow changeling. She was half buried beneath a shelf of frozen treats, and judging from the pool of green around her, she had been badly injured when the shelf fell on her. "He-help..." I tried to shake myself out of my stupor, and bolted over to her.

"Its g-gonna be okay!" I looked at the shelf, trying to find somewhere I could put as much force as possible on, and settled for positioning myself beneath it, before I pushed. I pushed hard, and could feel the shelf beginning to rise. I pushed harder, feeling my muscles stretching, until with an almost feral growl, I pushed the shelf over.

"H-how... D-did you do th-that?! I co-couldent even bu-budge under th-that!"

With the crisis over, the tiredness returned, and felt myself drooping. "So t-tired and c-cold..." I flopped to the floor, feeling my body grind to a halt, and everything fade to black, as the other changeling shouted at me to stay awake…

*Dreamscape*

So, another dream? or am I dead? because this endless void was unnerving for some reason.

“I must admit, your mental defenses have improved. it is not easy finding you amidst the cacophony of dreams near you, and any attempt at force was met with… unpleasant results for me.” Oh. joy. Luna again. Turning around, I was amused by her frazzled appearance. it looked as if something had just blown up in her face, judging by the way her mane was blasted back.

“You were expecting just me, weren't you? thats like saying you were only expecting one wasp, and then disturbing a hornets nest.”

“I… Do not grasp the relevance of your analogy.”

“A hive mind, my dear Luna. With me at it’s center. Your attempts at force most likely brought every changeling capable of thought to my aid… not just the ones that have hatched.”

“That… makes them awfully protective of you.”

“Trust me when I say that the similarity to insects is more than just appearance. I’m the equivalent of a Queen Bee. Now why have you been poking around in my dreams anyway?"

"You've been hiding something, but what it is I can't figure out."

"Good." I took the time to idely exam in my hoof. "The last few times you showed up here, I was alone so I played nice, for all I knew you could have rendered me brain dead... You're probing for a weakness, aren't you?"

“You accuse me of doing you ill will? No, there is something else about you.”

"Its only called being paranoid until it actually happens. And frankly, my 'unique' diet means that if I was somehow incapacitated, my children would starve..."

“Yes, I know. My sister informed me about your… incident when she went looking for the ‘Everfree ghost’. That was rather reckless.”

"Instinct overtook my higher reasoning. She probably neglected to tell you how I was not simply aiming to injure or scare her off. 'Mutually assured destruction' they call it."

“Were you afraid that my sister would do something to you or your children?... Are afraid of what I might do to you here, in your dreams?”

"You, not so much afraid, as wary. You were able to slip past the hive mind after it became aware of you, but you are rather transparent. Celestia though... I can't get a read on her, and who knows what lurks behind that mask of serenity. All those years wallowing in guilt over your banishment might have had a lasting effect on her."

“My sister is a lot different then I remember, but such is to be expected. After all, I have not seen Celestia for a thousand years.”

"What was she like back then?"

“Let us simply say that, I was known as the compassionate one and my sister was the strict one.”

“how strict?”

“To start, my sister is certainly a lot more patient now. When I first reinstated the night court all I got was nobles trying to go behind my sister back. It did not go well for them.”

“Oh, do tell.”

“Well, I… believe it ended with most of the windows being shattered.” A light blush of embarrassment came across her face.

"Damn." I let any emotion leave my face, before looking her in the eye. "The right man, in the wrong place, can make all the difference in the world..." With that, I let the hive mind eject Luna from my dream.

I awoke in a sea of green, feeling much warmer. It felt like I was swimming in warm syrup, and I practically panicked when I realized I should be drowning, but wasn't. I could breath perfectly fine, even if the fluid did tingle with magic...

Wait, was I in a pod? I tried to stretch my limbs, only to be met with growing resistance the further out I pushed, until I stopped pushing and felt my limbs snap back up against my sides. I could sense Peeko was right outside, and was standing guard over something. Regardless, I think that changeling saved my life! As well as pointed out my freakish strength, but that's another matter entirely. I hope shes okay.

I could feel Peekos excitement when she realized I was awake, hopefully she hadn't gotten hurt. I didn't want to come out yet though, it felt warm and comforting in here, even with the walls of the pod forcing me into the fetal position. I knew I wasn't going to get to stay in here any longer when I saw Peekos horn pierce the membrane of the pod, and split it open like a box cutter. Once Peeko had opened the pod, I reluctantly crawled out, my magic practically running on autopilot as it washed over me, cleansing my chiten of any goo still clinging to it before it hardened. Looking around, I discovered I was in my room in Trixie's trailer, surrounded by my eggs, as well as a pony laying sprawled out on the floor beside me. I could tell due to the small frame it was a mare, and she was pink as hell, with banana pudding yellow mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a candy cane patterns bomb, causing me to growl slightly. That was Sugar Bomb all right. Before I delt with my 'guest', I picked up Peeko and let her have her fill of emotional energy, knowing she must be hungry.

After setting my daughter down, I turned my attention back to the mare. She was just staring at the ceiling, the only sign she was alive was her breathing. Peeko had apparently stung and paralyzed her. Growling, I begun spitting up gel, and wrapping the mare in it, forcing her forelegs against her chest, until she entombed from the neck down in hardened gel, her shrinking irises showing that she was fully aware of what was going on, but helpless to stop it. Climbing up the wall, I levitated the entombed mare up with me, and used some more of my adhesive bio matter to attach her to the ceiling, so she was dangling from it upside down, like a piñata. "I know you can hear me, Sugar Bomb. You're not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. The venom should be wearing off soon, but until then, you can listen. First of all, you should be thank full I didn't kill you. All my... 'Employer' said was that I had to silence you. Never said how I had to do that." I noticed her mouth moving slightly, a few mumbles audible. I let my front legs detach from the ceiling, and pushed them gently against her chest, my face now a few inches from hers. "Good, it's wearing off. Now, there were several other options I had available, such as simply enslaving your mind to my will, but I don't think that's necessary yet."

I took a sick pleasure in watching her breathing accelerate, and giggled madly. "No..."

"I'm sorry, but I've already told you I can't just let you go. You know too much now, and after that little stunt you pulled with locking me in a freezer till I died of exposure, I can't exactly let you walk around unsupervised. If it hasn't already occurred to you, I have children to look after. Maybe in the future I might give you some more freedom, but for now, you're a threat that must be properly contained. Now are you going to keep your voice down, or am I going to have to make sure you stay silent?"

"I don't care about your Faust damned children! I want out! I-mmmph!" Her rant was cut off by me spitting up a blob of gel and smearing it over her mouth, silencing her.

"Wrong answer.” Peeko soon crawled up the wall to join me, scurrying over to me and climbing down on to Sugars body, even as she weakly thrashed against her prison. It was time for Peeko to feed. I watched as she hunkered down right next to Sugar and sucked the emotion out of her, causing her struggling to grow weaker. Peeko quickly ceased feeding and crawled off her, burping cutely to indicate she was full. Sugar still had plenty of emotion left in her, and it was mine. I let myself succumb to my growing hunger, and watched as the pink mist flowed from her, her struggling briefly picking up intensity before she slowly went limp, eyes dulling to the outside world.

Backing away from Sugar, I scooped up Peeko and held her against my belly, feeling her curl up into a little ball of chitin and cuteness as she cooed and made a soft humming sound.

The sound of the door opening interrupted my thoughts, as I turned my head to see a wide eyed Trixie.

“The bu-”

“Shhhh! shes sleeping.” Trixie jumped in fright before looking up to see me clinging to the ceiling, before I caught a whiff of fear from her. Did she think I was going to do this to her as well? She slowly backed up out of the room, and gently shut the door, before I heard her bolt off. I simply held Peeko closer to me, feeling her squirm slightly before burying her face into my stomach, where I could feel the air she exhaled blowing across my shell. “You truly are beautiful, you know that Peeko? This probably sounds out of left field coming from someone who used to be a male, but being a mother is probably the best thing thats ever happend to me.” I know we were linked, but I had to say it out loud, show just how deeply I felt that. There I was on the ceiling, clutching my baby up against me, with a certain meddlesome somepony securely cocooned beside us.

I wonder how Chrysalis will take the news that somebody tried to beat me to the punch, and only made things worse? I just hope I can keep Sugar around as a food source instead of having to 'dispose' of her.

It was slow getting back down to the floor with only three legs available, but I managed. Looking over at the pod that I had tossed into a corner, I was surprised to see that its contents hadn't hardened, nor leaked. My curiosity drawing me to it, I set Peeko down in front of it, and looked it over. The cut Peeko had made had somehow sealed shut, leaving it in pristine condition. Do I just stab it with my horn and use it like a knife? That's what Peeko did, so it must be.

Deciding to test my theory, I plunged my horn through the pods membrane, feeling the warmth of its contents on my horn, before I flicked my head up, creating a large gash. I crawled inside it, feeling it stretch as I maneuvered myself so that I was facing upwards, before I let my limbs be pushed into the fetal position once more, and watched through a green filter as the cut I made slowly shrunk, before vanishing entirely, the pods magically charged contents filling my lungs, yet still letting me breath. The warmth and the feeling of compression felt wonderful, it felt rejuvenating, and I could feel myself drifting off... Not to sleep, but... Into the hive mind. I could feel the developed minds in some of my older eggs, and I could feel Peeko's mind as well, even more clearly than before. I was even aware of something inhabiting my body, albeit very faintly, and hollowly at that, like it was but a shell, with no personality or thought. That... That's something I should worry about later.

Concentrating on Peeko, I was surprised when she suddenly shot up, standing at attention like she was waiting for orders.

’Calm down, it's just me.’ I was mildly surprised to hear my voice echo through my own head, and judging by Peekos reaction, so was she.

Letting myself return to my perception of reality, I quickly sliced an opening in the pod and clambered out, using magic to remove the slime still clinging to me. And was now standing face to face with an impatient Gilda.

“I have three questions. Why were you in that thing again? Why is the pony stuck to the ceiling with your poo goo? And why does she look like Trixie did, after you drained her?” I had to resist the urge to laugh at the phrase ‘poo goo’ and forced myself to calm down.

“In that order, its warm and cozy, she knows too much, and me and Peeko got hungry.”

“You got hungry?” Gilda raised a brow, questioningly at me.

“Okay, maybe it was also because she smashed me in the face with a bat, then locked me in a freezer, where I discovered I don’t handle cold that well.”

“And why does she ‘know to much’?” Oh bugger, she had to ask about that. what do I say to avoid this going downhill… Ah.

I pointed to myself. “She saw me undisguised. plus she knows about Peeko, and my nest. The only reason I avoided doing this to Rainbow dash and her pals was because their disappearance would be noticed too quickly, and spark a nationwide marehunt to find them. Even then, when Celestia came knocking on my door, the only reason she left me alone is because I threatened to bathe the entire Everfree in magic balefire.”

“Wait, You threatened their Princess, and she backed off?!”

“She walked into my nest. Why is it whenever ponies see an egg, they have to go investigate it? they never realize that whatever laid it must be close by, and ready to defend it! Well, other then Fluttershy.”

“Or me. But then again, you chased me down anyway.”

“You turned tail and ran. I was running on instinct at the time. Of course I was going to chase you.”

“So what should I have done? I didn’t know what laid it, I just knew not to go near it.”

“You should have backed away slowly, and not have made any sudden movements.”

“Should I continue to do that? Or am I good?”

“Your safe.”

Gilda looked up at the poor pony I would be feeding off of from now on. “Will you ever let her go?”

“Once I find an alternative food source and wipe any memories of me, yes.”

“I’m, not even going to question that. As long as you let her go.” Gilda turned to leave my room, once she left I looked up at Sugar as she started to stir. I lost interest quickly and laid back down with Peeko.

Author's Note

more minor fixes due to the same brain fart as before.

playing with your food

It had been a long, uneventful trip from dodge city to baltomare. That meant that other than keeping my... 'Guest' and Peeko fed, I had been doing one thing. Scheming. With the recent revelation of my weakness to cold environments, getting the Crystal Heart was going to be a lot harder. And that was without Sombra. Not a chance in hell was I going to fight him head on, if canon is correct, he fought both Celestia and Luna to a standstill. The bigger issue was going to be if I wound up being seen by Cadence, assuming my plan for the wedding and Chrysalis was successful, I might find myself in a prison cell.

A small squeak broke me from my musings, bringing my attention to Peeko, who was currently nuzzling my foreleg. She had grown quite a bit since we left Dodge City, and was now the size of a filly. Her teeth had fully grown in, yet, somehow, it only made her look more adorable.

Peeko nudged my foreleg again, making a distressed whining sound as she did so, causing me to stop plotting, and see what was wrong. Judging by the fact she was acting like she had been rolling in itching powder, she was ready to moult.

...And there I go again, knowing things that I shouldn't know! That is really starting to creep me out.

I watched as Peeko frantically scratched at herself, unsure of what to do. It was when she started crying in sheer frustration at her inability to relieve the itchiness that I pulled her into my forelegs, and softly nuzzled her.

*Crack!*

Oh, there we go. I flinched as Peekos chiten split open down the back of her head and along the length of her back, before Peeko begun extracting herself from it. I watched, enthralled at how different moulting was compared to how I shed my damaged chiten. Peeko squeaked in fright, causing me to sigh. "You need help, don't you? Alright, just hold still for a moment." I held a hoof to her tiny forelegs, applying just enough pressure to create some friction, and watched as Peeko tried to rear up, causing the crack along the back of her head to travel up to the base of her horn, before splitting open, allowing her to pull her head free. The first thing I noticed was how her new layer of chitin was a lighter shade of black, and glossy with some kind of fluid as well. She tried to continue extracting herself that way, but hit a snag at her wings. After the first attempt caused her pain, she whimpered and stared at me with quivering eyes.

I caved instantly. Curse your adorableness! I took the shell in my forehooves, and split the from open further, so she could slip her forelegs out, and then slid forward, sliding her wing coverings free of their old plates. Gently grabbing her tail in my mouth, I held it straight so she could slid the rest of the way out, getting her hindlegs and tail free as well, the sudden lack of resistance causing her to tumble completely free of her old shell, before flopping onto her belly. Gently pulling her into a hug, I noticed how she felt soft and slippery.

I was not going to look forward to moulting myself. Shedding was one thing, but outright moulting? No thank you. At least I was no longer laying eggs on a weekly basis, after I had laid about a dozen and and a half, it stopped happening. At least, it had stopped happening until, in a fit of curiosity, I felt around for unfamiliar muscles in my thigh, and laid another by accident. That little incident left me embarrassed beyond all belief.

Peeko squirmed in my forlegs, causing me to smile. This. This is what makes doing the things I had to do, worth it.

“Mmmph!” What perfect timing…

“So You’ve woken up from your nap, have you?” I turned and grinned at Sugar, who was still suspended from the ceiling, struggling futilely inside of her cocoon. Setting Peeko down, I walked up the wall, and over to my ‘guest’, looking her straight in the eyes the whole time. The first thing I did was pull her cocoon free of the ceiling via my magic, before I set her down on the floor. “Honestly? I’ve gotten tired of waiting for you to cave in. So I’m going to have to manually re-educate you.” Her eyes widened as my horn started glowing with magic, before the spell took hold, enforcing my will upon her mind. “Now then, before I let you out, I’m going to have to set a few ground rules. Rule one: You will not attempt to harm me, Peeko, the eggs, or any hatchlings. Rule two: You will not attempt to leave this room, with the exception of going to the bathroom, during which you will go straight there and come straight back after finishing, or with my explicit permission. Rule three: You will not attempt to damage anything.” With that out of the way, I begun the long and tedious process of getting her out of the cocoon.

When the last of the gel had come off, but I had decided to leave the gel gag on her, Sugar jumped to her hooves, and predictably, tried to bolt out the door. instead however, she slowed to a stop as she approached the doorway, not setting a hoof into the hallway. When it dawned on her that she would never escape this room, she began hyperventilating. “Oh, don’t fret, its more comfortable than being bound up and hung from the ceiling, right?” I walked over to the panicking mare, and placed a hoof on her shoulder, watching as her entire body tensed up. she more then likely wanted to spin around and hit me, but the latent commands I had placed in her mind via the spell prevented her from doing so. “Now now, be thankful I decided to just keep you here. there are more…” I leaned in and whispered the last bit right into her ear. “permanent ways of keeping you quite, but this way, you do have some freedom. It would be such a shame if I had to rectify that...”

Standing back up, I cackled at the look of absolute terror in her eyes, her mind most likely coming up with increasingly gruesome ways that she might meet her demise. “Aw, don’t be afraid, you won’t be alone…” Peeko conveniently chose that moment to walk up to Sugar Bomb and brush against her leg, causing her to go stock still, before she shuddered a little, refusing to look at my daughter. Growing bored, I picked the pony up in my magic, taking a perverse pleasure in watching her flail and scream into her gag, before depositing her in the middle of the room, and left.

Sugar's POV: This Can't Be Happening!

[Sugar Bomb’s POV]

This can’t be happening, I knew I should have just abandoned ship after the first one showed up, but noooo… I had to wait around for either another one to show up, or the first one to wake up, so I could figure out what the actual buck was going on! Now I’m trapped here, that… thing having messed with my head somehow, making it so that I couldn't even leave this room, and couldn’t do a damn thing to keep it or it’s vile offspring from… Doing whatever it did to me again… It made me feel so dirty, it felt so good, and then… nothing, I just was. No anger, no disgust, no horror, nothing!

What about Crash!? How long before he gives up and leaves me for dead? What if he gets too involved in this mess? Oh dear Celestia, it’s going after him, isnt it! Not Crash! Please! Just leave him be!

I’m sorry I got you dragged into this Crash… so, so sorry…

I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer, and curled into a ball, trying to wail in sorrow despite whatever that beast had plastered across my lips, to no avail. Even if I did somehow escape, I would never be able to forgive myself for getting Crash unintentionally entangled in this fiasco, further fueling my wracking sobs. Why was I so foolish!?

Oh Faust… What will it do with me when I’m no use to it anymore!? It’s going to eat me, isn’t it? The look in that things eyes, and those teeth, it was going to eat me when it was through with me! And who knows what it might have done to me while I was out! Its already messed with my head, it could make me do whatever it wants and like it!

...All because I had to bucking stay around to try and figure out why the hay these freaks where after me! Could this get any worse!?

*whimper.*

Oh horseapples… That monstrosities offspring is still here, why is it looking at me like that? It… looked ready to cry, with the way it was pouting, its huge eyes watering, and that… that just plain pathetic whimper… I feel like I just kicked a puppy… NO! It’s trying to trick me! It just wants to do… that to me again! I quickly pushed the little abomination away, but nowhere near as hard as I intended to…

...And the little cretin started crying. Serves the little bug right.

Suddenly I got the feeling that I should hold it, comfort it. I did my best to ignore the feeling but it got worse real quick. Like when I tried to leave after I was let out. But much, much worse. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack if I didn’t do something!

Whimpering against my gag, I reached out and pulled the thing in. Already, I was being forced to do something I didn’t want to.

Again, I started to cry.

how do I HM02?

After nearly an hour of trekking, I had reached the treeline. Finally, somewhere out of sight and away from anypony… I could literally feel my wings vibrating with excitement, I was going to fly! Once I had that down, there would be literally nowhere I couldn't get to, between that, and my ability to walk on walls, as well as the teleportation spell. I let the plates of chitin covering my actual wings open up, feeling around for the right muscles, grinning in anticipation.

I felt my wings twitch, meaning I must be close! Okay… no muscles in the wings themselves, makes sense, these aren't avian wings, there insectoid. Turning my head so that I could see what muscle moved what, I watched as they slowly stood up. Now if can just figure out how to pull them down…

Bingo! I felt myself become lighter for a fraction of a second as they came down much faster than I expected. okay, so up… down… up, down. I will not attempt to deny that a squeed at the sight of them picking up speed. Soon, they were going fast enough that leaves were being kicked up, and a loud, deep, and slightly reverberating buzzing was audible. once they were going fast enough, I felt myself ever so slowly lifting off the ground.

Wait… how do I go forward? I facehoofed, unable to believe that I didn-

Oh. OH CRAP! the sudden movement had put me off balance, and I had no idea how to correct it, leaving me accelerating forward uncontrollably. How do I stop!? Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, this will most definitely end in pain!

by now, I was moving faster than I could have ran… and headed straight for a tree, so I did the only thing that came to mind: snapped my wings shut and ate dirt.

several minutes of tongue scraping later, I looked at the trench I had dug with my face. I am so glad I have chiten right now, or my face would look like a train wreck. As it was, my mane looked like something had tried to make a nest in it.

okay… time for attempt number two. Opening my wings again, I managed to get them up to speed much faster this time, now that I was more familiar with how to use them. Once more floating off the ground, I slowly leaned forward, stopping the moment I started to move in the same direction. Okay, so I just lean in the direction I want to go? seems simple eno-

*WHAM* “Owwwwch…” Of course. I stop paying attention, and I hit a fucking tree. George, I now feel your pain. Plus, I managed to embed my horn in said tree, all the way up to my freaking head. Just wonderful. Now how do I get down from here?

Ah, that should do it. Sapphire flames washed over me as I transformed into a generic earth pony… And promptly realized that I couldn't cling to walls while disguised.

“Aw crap.” The moment that last syllable left my lips, gravity took hold, and I plummeted to the forest floor, where I impacted rather forcefully. The end result: lots of cuts and bruises, as well as a rather nasty scrape on my left hind leg.

“Okay… Ow. Thats enough flying for today.” Now that I was free of that tree, I let the disguise drop, returning to my more natural form and looked over my cuts and scrapes, expecting to see my luminescent yellowish blood welling up on my chitin. Only to see that the injuries I had sustained where now just tiny white scratches, plus a small white patch where that scrap was on my leg. No blood, unlike my disguise. I turned back into a pony and looked them over, the cuts had a small red line of blood, same with the scrap. I wiped one cuts, but the blood didn’t smear. It wasn’t really there. Now that I’m focusing on them, they didn’t really hurt. Good to know, the injuries my disguise shows don’t really reflect my real injuries. Fucking magic.

This will make my disguise more realistic, but it gives me a whole new set of problems. If I’m injured, all of my disguises will share the same injuries. I’ll have to be careful about that in the future. Cracked chitin probably means broken leg, even if it’s not really broken it might look like it. Which probably means I should avoid any more attempts at flying until I find a lake or something where I won’t injure myself if I crash.

Being out in the forest by myself just felt natural for some reason, as I somehow navigated the undergrowth without making a sound, until I saw something. A squirrel. Just looking at it for some reason gave me a craving for red meat… Sure, I guess I didn’t need to eat, but I still liked to. I crept closer, keeping low to the ground, and trying to stay out of the moonlight, while remaining silent. So far, it hadn't noticed me, and I was getting rather close. I hunkered even closer to the ground, feeling my muscles coil like a spring…

Wait for it…

With agility I didn’t even know I had, I sprung forward, and was upon the little critter before it had time to realize it was screwed. I quickly clamped my jaws around its midsection, feeling my fangs dig into it, before its struggling rapidly ceased, despite the miniscule amount of bleeding. I don’t think I bit through anything vital, as there was no crunch of bone, so why did it die so quickly? Oh well, least I have some food now.

Sugar's POV: Am I Being Hit on by a Bug?

[Sugar bombs POV]

This just isn’t fair! I can’t stop myself from trying to comfort the little beast, despite how much I hate it for what it and that abomination did to me, and to top it off, this bug wouldn't stop crying!

*Grumble.* Oh… Joy… I get to starve until that thing decides to feed me… And that little monster WON'T STOP CRYING! I was still holding the cretin in my forelegs, rocking it back and forth while humming an old nursery song, all because of that bucking ugly horsefly messing with my head! Yet all that had achieved was turning the wailing into whimpering, meaning I was stuck rocking the bug, despite how much I wanted to do anything but that. What had I done to deserve this?

*Plop!* I turned my head so fast I nearly lost my balance, and was horrified to discover that it had returned without me noticing. Although it looked like it had taken a tumble down a hill or something, considering the amount of debris stuck in its mane, and the small scratch marks on its hide. On the plus side, at least the little insect in my forelegs had shut up.

“So, I guess its been awhile since I fed you, hasn’t it?” It was then that I noticed it had a few apples held in whatever vile magic it was using. Wait… why do I smell blood? “Yes, yes, I’ll give you your food after I’ve fed Peeko.” It was only then that I looked at what it had dropped on the floor, and released a muffled scream upon seeing the dead squirrel. The sudden noise caused that little monstrosity to practically jump out of my forelegs and run over to its larger compatriot. NO longer being compelled to try and comfort the little demon, I rapidly backpedaled away from the dead creature, until I was in a corner.

The larger of the two beasts nudged the dead mammal towards the smaller one, nodding. The small one sniffed at the body a few times, before leaning over to take a bite out of it, at which point I looked away and covered my ears so I would not have to experience what came next. Choking on my own vomit would not be a pleasant way to go.

After what felt like several minutes, I risked taking a peek. All that was left was a skeleton, bits of fur, and a blood coated bug pony creature, that left the room to no doubt clean itself.

“You’d better get used to seeing that, because its a fact of life.” I scream into my gag in fright, that abomination had snuck up on me again! “Now do you want your food, or not? Don’t worry, it’s not meat.” I quickly nodded, not wanting to lose an opportunity to eat something after having not eaten for a whole day. My captor licked its hoof, before gently rubbing the spit into the substance it had used to gag me, causing it to dissolve.

“I hate you…” As badly as I wanted to hit that thing in the face, I couldn’t muster the will to actually do it. I grabbed an apple and hungrily devoured it, before reaching for another, my appetite not even remotely sated.

“Of course you do, I would be worried if you didn’t.” Did that thing just insult me?! I gave it a very angry glare while I continued to eat. “Cute. You really think you’re going to intimidate me with that look?”

“Buck you.” All my retort did was cause it to raise any eyebrow, before smirking.

“You’d like that, wouldn't you?” ...What? Oh dear Faust, its actually licking its lips, like its really going to...

“I… you… we… Gah! Nope!, Nope, nope, nope! Bad image! Do not want!”

“Not even if I did this?” Oh Faust, it is going to do it!

“No, nononono, I don’t wanna be r-Mmmph!” Oh sweet Celestia, its kissing me… and it feels good. I wanted it to stop, but I didn’t want to end it. Why does something so vile have to kiss so good!

Something warm, squishy, and sticky traced its way across my lips, before I felt my jaw get pushed shut as it pulled away. “Mmph?” Oh… Buck. It used that… slime to gag me again! And it tasted like the inside of that things mouth!

I feel so dirty...

Famous First Words

Hehehe, That actually tasted good, her conflicting emotions, revolution, confusion, and a bit of desire. That last part was a bit confusing though, I just wanted to mess with her. Oh, and the look on her face after I re-applied the gag was priceless. And by god was Peeko a messy eater, I didn’t even know a squirrel had that much blood. Guess now I have to clean her off so that she doesn't start smelling, or getting cranky for that matter. Still, it was kinda entertaining watching her try to lick the blood of herself like she was a cat.

“Hey shin, what die- oh, I see Peeko got her first real meal…”

“Yes Gilda, yes she did. I didn’t even know squirrels had that much blood.” I chuckled at her confused look, causing Peeko to squeal with laughter. “Of course, now she needs a bath.”

“No kidding.” With that, Gilda headed for the kitchen, the thought of meat more then likely making her hungry.

Lifting Peeko off my back, I set her down by the sink, and begun filling it with warm water, before picking Peeko back up, she took one look at the water, and freaked.

“Noooooo!”

Oh my God, she just spoke… I could feel tears of joy welling up in my eyes as I pulled her into a hug, even as I felt her surprise and confusion. After several minutes of simply cuddling her in joy, I felt her start squirming. “You still need a bath, don’t you?”

“No!” Well, there are worse option for her first spoken words…

“So you don’t want a bath?”

“No!”

“Okay, bath it is.”

“No!” This time, I ignored it, as she didn’t even know what it meant, she was just saying it because it was the only thing she knew how to say. Gently setting her down in the sink, Peeko flailed the moment she was in the water, splashing it everywhere. It wasn’t until I gave her stern look that she settled down, allowing me to grab a sponge and start washing off her chiten. She gave a protesting squeak at first, but soon the warmth of her bath had permeated her body, so she had stopped complaining and simply rested her chin on the rim of the sink, allowing the rest of her to relax and sink into the water.

“See? Baths aren't so bad, now are they?” Peeko cooed in response, enjoying being scrubbed down, as I managed to get the last of the blood off of her. Shutting the sink off, I picked Peeko up and placed her on my back, where she yawned. It was probably one of the cutest sounds I’ve ever heard.

...I still need to clean up the mess Peeko left in my room, don’t I?

After having used a very carefully controlled fire spell, I had managed to incinerate the remaining blood without damaging the floorboards at all, I just had to clean up the ashes left over from it, which was much easier than trying to clean up the blood that had soaked into the wood. Of course, I think I might have scared Sugar Bomb with my casual use of pyromancy, because she started hyperventilating when I set the mess Peeko had made eating on fire.

What had been bothering me though, was why none of the other eggs had hatched yet. was it just because of Peeko being a proto-Queen that she hatched faster, or was there something wrong?

…

No. I don’t need to start panicking, the last thing I want is to worry Peeko as well. After all I can still feel them, they’re just taking their time. They do feel pretty close though.

*Knock, knock* Opening the door to my room, I looked out to see Gilda standing there. “Uhh, hey. Just wanted to let you know, Trixie decided that she's going to drag me out to this place called the Salted Mare, apparently, they have Griffonia liquor, something I haven’t had in a long time, so… Yeah, you’re on your own for the rest of the night.”

“You do that.” She didn’t need to be told twice, and promptly exited the trailer alongside Trixie at a brisk pace.

Setting a sleeping Peeko down on the bed, I turned to see Sugar sitting in a corner, glaring at me.

Sugars POV: A Small Freind

I was expecting it to laugh at me, or mock me, not give me a depressed sigh. “Look, I’m sorry about you having to witness Peeko’s first solid meal, but its something I’ve been meaning to do ever since her fangs finished coming in. I never had anything against you personally, but you knew too much, so I had to keep that information from spreading, and since I… ‘eat’ emotion for lack of a better term, I decided it be much more practical to keep you around as a source of sustenance rather than simply dispose of you. I know you probably don’t give a damn, but I’m actually trying to give you some measure of comfort instead of just keeping you in a cocoon and sucking you dry of emotion repeatedly for the rest of your life.”

...What? its apologizing to me!? But… Why would it do that? If is sorry, then it should let me go! At least… At least it hasn't actually physically harmed me… And gave me food… But it still essentially ponynapped me, its messed with my head as well, and its basically eating me!... even if it… No! don’t think about how it feels. Don’t think about it. Or about how I think it was coming onto me… and now I have that image burned into my mind for the rest of eternity… But it felt soooo good…

“Hmmm? Why are you blushing? and is that… Longing I sense?”

Oh. Oh Buck, am I actually… Am I actually liking this!? I’m going nuts from the isolation, aren't I? It planned this didn’t it!

“And we’re right back to anger, and confusion. Did you not realize that being an empath is basically required if I was an emovore?”

Then that means… It knew I liked it when it… no! It felt good, but I did not like it! what am I thinking!? But… that creatures my only form of social interaction, if you can even call this an interaction when I can’t talk… Gah! None of this makes any sense!

“Peeko? I thought I you were asleep?”

Wait… Oh sweet Luna, when did the small one wake up!? I whipped my head around to face it, unable to get away due to already bring in a corner. Now that I looked closer, it actually looked… worried? Why would it be worried? It walked right up to me, and start rubbing against my foreleg like a kitten… Before I knew it, I found myself absentmindedly stroking its mane, as it made this adorable cooing noise. It felt, therapeutic.

“Tired.”

It… It spoke… I was too flabberghasted to even think of resisting as it nestled its way between my forelegs.

“It seems she’s taken a liking to you, hmm?” I glanced away from that manipulative abomination, to the… foal curled up between my forelegs. It might be that monsters offspring, but it never showed any real contempt towards me. She, at least I assume its a she, still had a filly like innocence about her, even after she had eaten… well, that. Maybe it won't be so horrible with this little filly around...

Brutality

Author's Note

Major gore warning.

Brutality

I smiled as I watched Sugar curl up on the floor, Peeko still nestled between her forelegs. Peeko would definitely be kept fed if this became a regular thing. With them both asleep, I could finally go about getting rid of the shell Peeko had shed today. Carrying it out of the room, I stuffed it into a bag while I shifted into the form of Mirage once more. Silently making my way out of the trailer, I glanced around to see if anyone might have been following or watching me. When I failed to notice anything, I snuck into the night, trying to find somewhere to discreetly dispose of Peekos old shell. Maybe I should bury it? Yeah, I should actually. Burning it would just attract too much attention, the only reason I did that to the mess Peeko made was because I didn’t want the trailer to start smelling of blood or rotting meat. Turning down an alleyway, I was overcome by the feeling that something was watching me.

Trying my best to not show any outward signs of knowing, I marched onward, hoping I was just imagining things.

The sound of a footstep behind me told me otherwise.

*CLANG!* I felt something impact the back of my head, and everything went black for a few seconds, before crumpling to the floor, stunned from the surprise attack. I kept my eyes shut, trying to fake them into thinking I was out cold.

“Did you have to hit the mare so hard Umbra?” Yup, I’ve been jumped.

“Uhhh, yes, that the point, knock her out. Or are you really that dense Lead Head?”

“Both of you just stop, stop it now. I am not letting you start that pile of horse apples again, shes out cold, so lets see what she has in that little bag of hers…”

“Sure thing Swipe.”

“Glider, have I ever told you that you're the only pony I know who isn’t a complete idiot?”

“Yes Swipe, you've told me that every other time we… Uh… What the buck is this?” Oh crap… They found Peekos shell!

“Not worth a damn bit, thats what. Well, at least we have something worthwhile…”

Wait… are they…

“Good point Swipe, been awhile since we’ve ‘blown off some steam’...”

NOPE! Nope, nope nope nope! I am not going to let them do that to me! That’s it, you don’t know what I am, and you’ve basically just threatened to rape me… YOU'RE ALL DEAD! Opening my eyes, I noticed that the band of thugs consisted of a aquamarine unicorn, a fire engine red pegasus, a brow earth pony, and… Is that a fucking thestral?!

“Uhhhh, Swipe?”

“Yes Lead Head?”

“Shes awake, and angry.”

Glider’s POV

What the actual buck!? How can she get up so quickly after a blow to the back of the head from a iron pipe!?

“Boys…” Oh god, how can a mare sound that intimidating? The crackling of flames caught my attention, a circle of eerie blue fire had surrounded her… And her horn wasn’t glowing. That circle became a pillar of fire, erupting upwards, and leaving behind…

“Wh-what… The buck is that!?”

“You all dun goofed.” It was huge, almost as big as, if not bigger, than Celestia herself! its horn was equally massive, albit looking nothing like a unicorns, and its hooves! they were full of bucking holes! Its eyes… they looked like, and held as much fury, as a dragons. but the worst part? What I thought was its back opened up, revealing it to actually be a pair of coverings for a set of beetle like wings… and a stinger that should belong on a manticore. “Now who wants to die first?” It’s voice echoed when it spoke.

“We still have you outnumbered, freak!”

“Lead! NO!” Lead Head charged straight at it, screaming a war cry.

The beast didn’t even flinch when his attack connected with its head, instead it barely even moved. “You first.” It said. It grabbed Leads foreleg twisted him over and slamed him into the ground, before it revealed that its maw was full of fangs, and tore Leads bucking throat out!

“You monster!” Swipe tried to retaliated, while me and Umbra just stared as Lead’s frantic grasping at the hole in his neck rapidly weakened, before ceasing entirely as he slumped over, dead.

“Monster? You couldn’t be more correct.” It snarled, and charged, prompting swipe to try and sidestep it… Only for its tail to whip to the side, its needle point stinger dug into his neck.

He fell to the floor with a heavy *Thud*

“Buck this! I’m out of here!” Umbra tried to take to the sky and fly away.

“Uh, no.” It then proceeded to run up the side of a bucking building and pounced at him, sending both beast and thresaral plummeting to the ground.

I couldn’t watch. I needed to get out of here. Using my wings, I took off staying close to the ground. I heard a loud *Thud* and the sounds of bones breaking as I flew away.

*Shinkro*

The thestral didn’t even survive the impact, getting crushed between the dirt alleyway and my body… Fuck… where'd the fourth one go? Something moved at the corner of my vision, and I realized as I turned that it was the unicorn I stung. He was trying to crawl away, but only managing to twitch a little.

“Awww… I was just starting to have fun… I guess I’ll have to settle for making an example out of you.” I walked over to the unicorns paralyzed form, watching as his horn flickered faintly. If I was going to be exposed, I was going to make sure that nobody would want to mess with me. “I’m going to break you.” I bent down, and gripped the unfortunate ponies horn in my mouth, bracing a hoof against his face. Surprisingly, I felt a little bit of arousal coming from him when I did that. So the horn is sensitive huh? good, then he’ll really feel this. I then bite down and twisted, using my hoof to keep his head from turning, until with a loud crunch, his horn snapped off in my mouth. I promptly dropped it on the ground, and after turning his head so that he would be forced to watch, I crushed the piece I had snapped off under my hoof. “And we’re just getting started…”

I lifted my hoof, and brought it down with force ontop of his right foreleg, smiling wickedly at the sound of bone snapping, before repeating the process several times until his leg looked like a wet noodle. I even shook it about to make sure all the little bone fragments moved around. Moving to his other foreleg, I begun utterly destroying that limb as well and shook it about too. By now, everytime he breathed his breath hitched with a slow exhale. Most likely his screaming.

Now came the really painful part… for him. I backed up a bit, and skewered his hind leg with my horn, before using it to rip his calf muscle open, then used a fire spell to cauterize the the wound, leaving even the slightest breeze to brush against whatever exposed nerves survived, causing him pain beyond measure. Picking up the lead pipe that one of the thugs had been carrying, and no doubt hit me with, I bent it until it snapped in half, and begun heating the broken ends with pyromancy until they were glowing white hot. I drove one half into his only uninjured leg’s knee, and the other into its fetlock. “Hehe, for this next part, you’re going to be part of a little experiment…” I had something I could use to test if my theory about why that squirrel that I fed Peeko died so quickly without any visible wounds minus the ones my fangs inflicted, and I wasn't going to waste it. I bit into the leg I had just finished driving superheated metal into, and waited.

Soon, his body started spasming, and his mouth was held open in a soundless scream from the pain it must have caused. That scream quickly stopped however as he begun frothing at the mouth, and the convulsions decreased in frequency until he became completely motionless. I smelled for his emotions, A lot of pain and death but he wasn’t actively giving off emotions anymore. Confirming that he was indeed no longer among the living, I checked myself over for injuries.

The chiten on the back of my head had been outright shattered by the impact, causing me to shudder and wince as my hoof touched the still developing layer of chitin beneath it. I was not going to risk finding out how an injury like that carried over if I shapeshifted into a pony. My only other option for going unnoticed would be the cloaking spell I knew, but I was rather hard to focus enough to do that when I had this really annoying itch in… my… Oh bugger. I had no choice. Focusing, I eventually felt the spell take effect, and made a beeline back to the trailer.

Molting

Oh god, so itchy! I dropped the cloaking spell the moment I shut the door behind me, the singular need to relieve this infernal sensation overpowering any higher reasoning. Now I know why Peeko was reduced to crying in frustration when she was ready to moult! As soon as I stepped into the trailer, I felt my chiten start to crack open, spreading from where I had taken that impact from the thugs sneak attack. Groaning, I frantically arched my back in an attempt to get myself free of my old shell. How the hell do I do this when theres nothing to keep my shell from moving with me!? “Gah! So. Fucking. Itchy!”

“Momma..?”

I was fucking ready to scream, it wouldn't. Stop. Itching! “Make it sto-o-op! Make. It. stop!”

“Momma!?”

I was practically clawing at my chiten, the sensation was just so. Damn. Aggravating!

*Thump!*

Oh god its on my fa-

“Momma!”

“Peeko? Gah, this is… Nrrrrg! It wont stop itching-i-ing!”

Sugars POV

Sweet Celestia, that thing is making a lot of noise! The first thing I noticed after stirring from my sleep was that the little one was no longer resting between my forelegs, and was instead just entering the room with a worried expression on her face. It was when it eventually crawled in that I burst into silent laughter. Faust, it looked pathetic right now, with the way it was desperately clawing at itself, tears running down its face.

“Help!” The little one was now tugging on my foreleg, pointing to the creature that had trapped me here in the first place. like tartarus I was going to help it.

“P-please? It itches, it itches s-so much.” Uh… no. No way I’m helping you. “Pleee-e-ease!” Oh sweet Luna… is it begging? “I-I’ll double your food, how about that?” It leaned in and... kissed me again?! I wiped the mouth and stuck out my tongue in disgest, and realized it took that vile gag off me.

“Why should I help you? I’m enjoying watching this.”

“P-please, I’ll let you have full run of the house!” Its actually trying to bargin with me… dear Faust...

“I don’t want ‘full run of the house’ I want out of the house!”

“I c- can’t do that!”

“And why not! I deserve to be home with my coltfriend.”

“He d-doesn’t even know you’re gone!”

“And why’s that, did you brainwash him too?”

“No, I can’t… I can’t tell you.”

“And why not, I want to know!” I started getting more frustrated with this creature not telling me anything.

“Because you’re supposed to be dead! I was put on to kill you, if she finds out I didn’t we’re both dead!”

“Who is ‘She’, that a monster like you is scared of her?”

“This isn’t my t-territory, as long as I’m in Equestria I w-work for her. And I don’t mean Celestia.”

I paused for a moment to think this over. Something that has this monster scared of her is clearly not something to go up against. Something that’s not the Princess, but still seems to, according to Itchy here, own part of or works within Equestria. And wants me dead for some reason. “Fine. If I help you, I want full run of the house, access to the fridge so I can feed myself, and no more gag.”

“As long as you stay in here wh-when theres guests here… any one of them could w-work for her.”

“I guess thats fine.”

“Now for the love of god, help me! It won’t stop itching!”

“Well excuse me, I don’t exactly know how to help!”

“Ju-just grab part of my exoskeleton and keep it from moving, I can get myself out if it can't move with me.”

“O-kaaay…” I reached up and grabbed i- no, her face, and pulled in one direction while she tried to pull in the other, the little one trying to aid me, but just hanging from her leg uselessly. With a sickening crack and squelch, her head slipped out of the back of her shell’s head, looking ghostly white, and covered in something. No doubt something gross.

“Oh god that feels so good! Now please, try and widen that opening.” I complied, and grabbed the shell in my hooves, trying to split it further open. When it finally gave and started cracking, she almost immediately grabbed the crack and forced it further open, until it had gone down past her chest. “Ohhhh that feels so much better.” She squirmed a bit, pushing against one side of the crack, until she managed to slip her foreleg out, then repeated the process with the other foreleg, after coaxing the little one off the limb.

I backed away slightly when I saw her wing covers open up, and her tail unfurl, afraid I had somehow angered her. But I was quickly proven wrong. “My tail is stuck, can you pull it loose for me?”

“Nuh uh! I am not getting near that!” Nope, I was not going to risk getting stung by that.

“Oh for the love of… then just grab it near the base! Or if you really that scared of it, just grab one of my hind legs!” Okay… that I can do. Just don’t look up while i’m doing that. I walked around her, and gripped her left hind leg as she tried to pull herself out.

With a loud, wet pop, she broke free, the sudden lack of resistance made her fall forward, where she simply laid there.

*Shinkiro*

Oh sweet jeebus, it’s finally over!

“Ew, what are you covered in anyway?”

“I don’t really know, but it makes it easier to get out of my old shell.” Sugar took the opportunity to try and wipe some off my back, before sh-

“Ohhhhhhhhh…” I practically melted at the touch, causing Sugar to to ‘eep’ and and rapidly retract her hoof, blushing. Good grief, I was really sensitive right now. “Please don’t do that again… That felt ’good’ if you get what I’m saying.”

“I’m just going to try and desperately forget that just happened…”

“I can make you forget if you want that.”

“...I’m guessing you’re going to need to use that on me again anyway, to uphold our deal?”

“Eyup, now just hold still and I’ll get this over with.”

unforseen consequences

*third person, Baltomare police station*

“Whatever it was, it was brutal in how it killed them.” Glider barely managed to whimper it out. “It killed Swipe with a single touch of its tail!”

“...That wasn’t what happened to him… The bodies were recovered a few hours ago, and it isn’t pretty. Now can you please tell me what it looked like?” Shield Rack had been trying to get answers out of Glider for the last few hours, to minimal success, as Glider hadn’t even responded to his voice until a few minutes ago, instead, he had been just sitting there, staring at the wall with a haunted look in his eyes.

“At first it looked like a normal mare, pretty easy target. she went down an alley and we moved in, Lead took a pipe to her head and knocked her down, we went through her bags and only found this… shell thing, no bits. That’s when Swipe thought we could get something else from her. But she stood up before we did anything. That’s when she burst into a pillar of blue flames and our ‘easy target’ looked pissed off. It was covered in black shiny chitin, like a beetle, even had wings like one too. Like some type of beetle pony.”

“You said something about its tail? How it took down Swipe with a single touch of it?”

“Yeah, yeah. It had something that looks like a manticore stinger, it hid it under its wings.”

“How did the fight go down? I’ve seen the aftermath, but I need to know what happened.”

“Lead rushed it with the pipe he used before, it blocked him and r… ripped out his throat! Swipe was next, he rushed after Lead charging up a spell, probably a paralyzing spell he’s used before, instead of blocking this time it dodged him and caught him with its tail and he went down. Umbra tried to fly away and I would have followed him, but I saw it run straight up the wall and I flew away, not up, just away. I heard something hit the ground and b-bones b-breaking as I flew.”

“Umbra was the lucky one. He died on impact. Swipe on the other hoof…”

“Swipe didn’t die to some sicko poison?”

“No, he did, but we found two different poisons in his bloodstream. He was paralyzed while that creature went to town on him. Both poisons were fast acting, so for him to take that much of a beating and then die suggests he was given the lethal poison afterwards, as none of the wounds he sustained would have killed him in the given timeframe.”

“That thing beat him? How badly did it torture him before it killed him?”

“Not sure I should tell you, we’ve never seen an act of violence of this magnitude before. Before, you said it looked like a normal mare. Could you describe what it looked like before the incident?”

“b-but, it’ll come after me if it knows I brought this to you ponies!”

“I wouldn’t worry about that, we’re taking you into custody, you’ll be under our protection.” ’Pending an investigation into several thefts, but he doesn’t need to know that yet.’

“It was one of those performers that came into town, the light purple one!”

“I think thats all I needed to hear for now.” Shield Rack stood up, and left the room, heading for the main hall, where every guard in the city had gathered, waiting to help take down whoever or whatever did this. “Guys… I finally got him to talk. And the news isn't good.”

“Define ‘not good’ please.”

“It can shapeshift. And its not alone either, if that shell we found at the crime scene is anything to go by. It’s also potentially venomous, with both a paralyzing agent and a neurotoxin, both fast acting. And judging from what our witness told us, its had combat experience, considering it didn't take a single hit after it revealed itself. Its also possible that it can fly and seems to have some form of magic of it’s own. Its a killing machine, pure and simple, one that can pop up nearly anywhere, at nearly any time, with nopony knowing until its on the attack.”

“You're kidding, how are we supposed to take on something like that!?”

“We may have to turn this over to the Lunar Guard.”

“And who know what that monster is thinking right now…”

*Shinkiro*

“I don’t know weather to laugh, or be plain disgusted, at what you were doing in that shower. I mean, if me touching you was that pleasant, then what made you think it was a good idea to take a shower?!” Yeah… that happened. god I feel so dirty...

“I wasn’t thinking, I felt gross and wanted to get the gunk off.”

“And that wasnt all you got off in there.”

“Don’t remind me…” I didn't realize my mistake until after the shower had begun pelting me with water, which essentially overloaded my sense with how… great it felt. Sugar had heard me moaning, and walked into the bathroom to see what the heck was happening, and well… It wasn’t just the gunk going down the drain.

Drunken shenanagans, and a hangover.

“Pawny!” I nearly daww’d at the sight of Peeko pointing at Sugar and trying to identify her.

“Peeko? I thought you went to sleep after I finished molti- oh… Loud noises woke you up?” She nodded her head. Great… my ‘shower’ woke Peeko up.

*Knock, Knock!* I almost reflexively transformed back into Mirage, as both Sugar and Peeko quickly, but quietly, made their way to my room, while I went to the door.

“Open the bucking door Shin, I know you in there!... *Hic*” ...Wow. Trixie is one mean drunk. Opening the door, I let a smashed Trixie and Gilda into the trailer. “The bars can’t even handle me right now!” with the coast clear, I returned back to my undisguised form.

“They kicked you out because you were so drunk you kept missing your mug… and grabbed the bartender in you magic by accident.” I could see the faintest of smiles on gildas face as she said that, no doubt trying to annoy Trixie.

“Shut up… Shin? are you okay? you look really pale.”

“Uhhh, I’m fine. I molted. And no you can’t feel me, I’m really sensitive right now.”

“I think I can see your veins. Your blood’s yellow, right? I forget.”

“Yeah. You also said it glows in the dark...” Gidla walked up to me and tried to get a better look. “Trix, can you give me some more light here?”

“Oh… *hic* kay.” Trixie walked around to the other side of me, and her horn lit up with a bright light.

“Duuuuude. I can see your everything.”

*Sugar’s POV*

Now that I knew it was just her housemates, I no longer had the overwhelming urge to hide in her room, meaning I could peek out the door and… okay. Ew. just EW. it was gross, I could see her veins and the blood in them was yellow! And a lot of it was gathered around her… oh. right, the shower.

...wait a minute, where’s her intestines? or liver for that matter. and more importantly, if shes some kind of bug. why does she have a skeleton as well as a shell? I thought bugs had a shell instead of a skeleton! ...Holy buck. Does she actually have a second pair of lungs?

There’s so much thats wrong with this picture.

“Hey… *hic* Gilda? why is she all puffy down there?” A lot of her blood quickly pooled in her cheeks. She was blushing.

“Stop looking at my part and pieces, you drunken perverts!”

“She was in the shower earlier.” Everypony turned to look at me. “The shower head was too much for her.”

“When she said she was sensitive, I didn’t think she… *hic* ment she was that sensitive… Now I have to ask, how many times?”

“Seven.... ”

“You want to make it eight?” Now it was time for everypony to look at Trixie. “What?”

“Please don’t, I’m sore enough… ” I could practically see the gears turning in Trixies head.

Sure enough, a wide grin graced her features and Gilda was quick to follow. I dived back into my room right before I heard a yelp and more moaning. I’m forced to live in a crazy house!

*Still Sugars POV*

*The next morning*

Oh, sweet, sweet coffee, how I’ve missed you! “You look a lot more solid than you did yesterday.” Shinkiro, I had learned my captors name, had gone from a translucent milky white to dark gray overnight. Not quite back to her shiny black self yet.

“Yeah, I noticed, I think the reason I’m so sensitive is because otherwise I wouldn't be able to feel a damn thing through my shell.” That… makes sense. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Nope. Especially since I had to drag you out of there to get you to shut up.”

She sighed. “Sorry.” We sat there for a while in silence.

…

… *Rumble*

I looked at Shinkiro who had a slight blush of embarrassment and knew exactly what it meant. I slammed my head into the table with a groan. “Just… get it over with.” I really hated how it felt when she fed off me.

“I’ll try to avoid sucking you dry like the first few times I fed off you. Despite what you might think. I actually find it rather creepy to see someone as an emotionless husk.” I shuddered. I did not need to be reminded of that. It felt… wrong. “Now come here, I can at least make this comfortable for you.” I hesitantly approached her, somewhat reluctant to find out what she meant by that. The moment I was within her reach, she picked me up and held my back against her chest in a hug. Her shell actually felt fairly hard now, but there was still some give to it.

Knowing that struggling would be pointless, I just let her hold me, waiting for the overly pleasant sensation that signalled she was feeding off me… One moment, I was relaxed, the next, I shuddered as a pleasant sensation ran up my spine. That sensation spread throughout me, leaving a warmth in its wake. I had to bite my lip to keep myself from making any noise. It felt so good, better than anything I’ve ever felt before. Everything blurred together until it finally stopped, leaving me feeling woozy, and ashamed of myself for liking it so much.

“Uhh… can you please let go now?”

“Oh fine… I need to give Peeko her share of energy anyway.” She let me slip back down to the floor and back to my coffee. I noticed a distant look on her face and was about to ask her when.

“Food?” within the minute, Peeko had trotted into the kitchen, a curious, or at least what I think was a curious look, on her face. She quickly hopped into Shinkiros waiting forlegs a small smile on her face.

“How..? First she tracked you down after you came after me, then she followed me into your room without being told anything when somepony was at the door, and now she comes looking for food the minute you mention feeding her? What gives?”

“Hive mind.”

“A what mind?”

“Like I said, a hive mind. To put it in a way that you can easily understand, its a telepathic link shared between me and all my children, with me at it’s center.”

“So you can talk to each other with you minds?”

“Uhhh… Not without a lot of concentration. Its more like… Uh, how do I put this into words… God this would be a lot easier to describe if you knew what a centralized computer network was… AHA! I basically ‘see’ the raw thoughts as if I was the one thinking them, before they're even made into coherent words or images.”

“What? I don’t understand.”

“Ummmm, a transfer of knowledge, among other things?”

“Oh… Wait, what do you mea-”

*CRASH*

“...Two questions. Why was Trixie hanging from the ceiling, and why does Trixie feel like she did something she will regret in the near future?” Trixie had just fallen straight from the ceiling onto the table.

“Yes, you did do something you’re going to regret.” Oh Luna, Shinkiro looked ready to leap at Trixie and strangle her! “Lucky for you, I can wait before I deliver retribution…” A sudden look of surprise spread across her features. “well damn. took long enough!” She set Peeko down on the table, and quickly made her way to her room, with all of us following her.

*Shinkiro*

Its happening! I could feel… him trying to get out of his egg, so I followed the sensation to the egg from which it was originating from. I had my face inches from it, waiting for him to break through the shell. after a few rather violent back and forth motions, a hoof puched through the shell, before he begun trying to push his way through headfirst, his… why is his mane a dark green, and his eyes are scarlet? At least Peeko’s mane color was explainable as a difference in pigment density, but this? Watching him crawl out, I noticed when he crawled out, he had a normal pony like tail, the same green as his mane, and he had a band of neon blue chiten around his stomach. Wait a minute… Red eyes, green mane, and a blue band of chitin?

“Girls, say hello to Pigment!”

“Trixie is going to go pester Gilda until she wakes up.”

“Why are its eyes… solid?”

“Thats normal. Hes a drone.” I gently picked him up, feeling the familiar tug on my energy that came with feeding my children.

“There are different changelings?”

“Well yeah. I guess you could say we’re kinda like ants in that regard. I think you can guess what that makes me.”

“The queen.”

“We have a winner!”

“But then what does that make Peeko?”

“A proto-queen, she’ll be my replacement if I die or when I become too old to properly care for my children.” speaking of Peeko, she had climbed up me to get a better view of Pigment, who was still held against my chest, and I now saw that he was roughly half the size of Peeko. “Isn’t he adorable? I mean, he like a kitten, just so tiny and adorable! how can you say no to a face like that?” I watched as Pigment stared at Sugar, tilting his head slightly to the side.

“Can… Can I hold him?”

“He’s probably going to lick you if you do. Thats what Peeko did to Trixie when she held her. Left a big streak of slime on her neck, and Trixie made the poor decision to try and wipe it off… Wound up with her hoof stuck in the slime.”

“I don’t care, I’ve been covered in the stuff lately.” Oh, you would care if you knew what it essentially was, Sugar.

“Oh fine.” I took a moment to address Pigment. “Just don’t slime her, okay?” I gently handed him over to Sugar, who held him firmly in a hug.

“How does he manage to look this cute?!” Sugar was about to say something in addition to her statement, when Pigment decided to turn his head and lick her right across her lips, leaving a trail of slime, with what I swore was a smug smile on his face before he scamped down to the floor. Surprisingly, I didn't feel that much hatred coming from Sugar over that, at the most, it was a strong dislike… and embarrassment?

“Heh, you’re starting to get used to that, aren't you? Or are you actually starting to like it?” The embarrassment coming from Sugar nearly tripled, causing me to give her a knowing grin.

“Mmmhmph, mem mph!” She tapped the the gel wanting it off. I gave Pigment a disapproving look, before I picked her up, and removed the gel the fastest way I knew how: I kissed her. Setting her back down, I watched as she wiped the remaining saliva from her face. “Do you have to get it off that way?”

“Well, its the quickest way.”

“It’s not like I’m in a rush to get anywhere.”

“Really? I thought you liked it when I did that.”

Sugar shot me look and turned to leave. “I’m going to take a shower while I can, I haven’t had one in days.”

“You do that. Lord knows you deserve one.” As she walked out of the room, Trixie, and a rather grumpy looking Gilda, entered.

“Trixie, why did you wake me up!?” The sound of… did Pigment just chirp?. I did not know that we could do that. “...Oh joy... their multiplying. Just what I need when I have a hangover… And what's with its mane?”

“Now, I’m not saying it was cultists, but it was probably cultists.”

“...What.” was Gilda and Trixies simultaneous response.

“Nah, I’m just messing with you, I have absolutely no idea.” Pigment turned around to give me a curious look, causing Gildas eyes to widen as she saw he had a perfectly normal tail, instead of the venomous stinger me and Peeko had.

“Can you at least explain that?”

“He’s a drone.”

“Don’t give me that. He doesn’t have a stinger, he has an actual tail.”

I sighed. “Gilda, thats the only logical explanation, and I’ve found no faults with it so far.”

“Whatever.” Gilda turned to leave. Probably to lay back down.

“Trixie for one, thinks it’s great that he doesn’t have a stinger.”

“Yeah… I just hope hes not a biter with teeth like those.” And possibly venom, if what I did to that moraless monster of a pony was indication. “Not to mention he already seems to be showing the signs of a rabble rouser in the making.”

“What did he do?”

“Slimed Sugar after I specifically asked him not to. He was grinning like an idiot afterwards too.”

“Trixie shall have to keep an eye on him them.” She gave him a bit of a glare. He smiled right back and stuck his tongue out. It was short lived, however, as she relented and sighed. “Confound you and your cuteness. If Trixie didn’t already have a hangover, you would be driving Trixie to drink.”

“Do you really need to remind me that I can’t stomach alcohol?”

“Oh… right. Trixie is sorry for bringing that up.”

Author's Note

can anyone name the meme Shinkiro refrenced? hint: its not the bit about sliming someone.

Investigation

the next morning

*Knock! Knock!*

“Who the… *Yawn!* heck would be knocking at this hour?” Groaning, I got to my hooves, and after taking the form of Mirage, made my way to the door, still somewhat sleepy. Opening it, I gave a rather scathing glare to the inconsiderate dumbass that woke me so early.

“Uh, I have a delivery here for a Mirage Lulamoon?”

“Uggg. Yes, thats me. I wasn’t expecting a delivery, let alone this early in the morning. Whos it from?”

“Chrysanthemum.” Chrysante- oh, OH! Clever girl… Chrysalis seems to know what shes doing with being subtle.

“Oh, her! I’ve known her by her nickname Chryssy for so long, I practically forgot it was a nickname!”

“Really?” He reached into his bag and pulled out a package the size of an old dictionary, and handed it to me.

“Yes, really.” Now what could it be…? “Now if you'll excuse me, I’m going back to sleep.” I then shut the door, quietly making my way to the kitchen. Setting the package on the table, I quickly tore the wrapping off, exposing an old, large brown cloth book, with no title or other kind of identifying feature. picking the book up to get a better idea of how old it might be, something slipped out from between the pages. It was a letter.

Shinkiro

I am severly disappointed in hearing that you let somepony see your true face, not only are just a few ponies aware, but the local guards are as well because of your… outburst. Because of this, I can no longer let my agents near you. For the time being.

None the less, the princesses have yet to hear of this because of me. You are welcome, and I expect you to repay me.

At the guard barracks in Filly Delphia are some letters and forum papers. I want you to get any of them pertaining to a Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, I need to see them. That is all you need to know.

Don’t get caught, Don’t be seen.

There was another small piece of paper in the letter that said, ‘Thanks for saving me. -Hardshell’ so that’s the name of the changeling I saved in the freezer. I wondered what happened to him. If I ever actually meet the guy, I’ll have to thank him for sticking me in that pod. But anyways, Chrysalis is moving forward with her plans now, and she knows about that incident with the thugs. Just wonderfull.

*Knock! Knock!*

“Oh for the… Can’t a mare get some freaking sleep!” Trudging to the door once again, I all but threw it open, to be greeted by a duo of rather unamused guards. “Oh… Joy. Are you two here because of some exceptionally drunken act of stupidity my friends may have performed during their night out?” The guards simply glanced at each other, and I sensed a bit of cautiousness coming from them.

“Perhaps. We wanted to ask you if you heard anything last night. Several were killed. We also want to ask you not to leave yet, until we sort this out.” Figures. Of course the one that got away went straight to the authorities.

“K- Killed!?”

“That’s right ma’am, we know you and your other companions are travelers so wanted to make sure you don’t leave just yet.”

I groaned. “I had a schedule I needed to stick to as well… Hopefully I don’t get too much grief for having to delay my next few shows.”

“We know Ma’am and we’re sorry, but we need to make sure we catch the killer and we can’t leave anypony out.”

“As much as this inconveniences me, I understand. I’d be more worried if you didn’t.”

“Again. If you heard anything, or notice anything out of the ordinary, let us know.”

“I’ll be sure to let you know if anything comes up, now is there anything else you need? because I would rather not get woken up a third time.”

“A third time?”

“Yeah, I got an early morning delivery.”

“Very well ma’am, we’ll be on our way. Have a good day.”

“A good day to you too.” With that, I bid the duo farwell, and shut the door behind me. Returning to the kitchen, I picked up the book I had received, and flipped it open to the first page.

”This book will act as my journal and diary as I research the bases of summons and magic constructs I call ‘familiars’...

*Meanwhile, with the guards*

“So, miss Cheer, what exactly occurred during the show those traveling performers put on?”

“Oh, it was fantastic! First, Trixie did all these cool tricks with her magic and there were fireworks and she told us all these grand tails -which I don’t think were true- like how she took down an ursa major! So cool! And at the end, she said she was going to summon the spirit of Nightmare Moon, which kinda scared me, there was the cercle rune thing that I didn’t notice was on the floor of her stage and it started glowing and then there was this HUGE pillar of light that turned black, and there was Nightmare Moon! Right in front of us, and the two did battle! It was awesome! And when Nightmare Moon lost she cursed Trixie and disappeared. We gave her our bits for the show and Nightmare Moon came back out on stage and bowed to the audience, then she burst into blue flames and this purple mare was standing there instead! She had used her magic to turn into Nightmare Moon! I so wish I could do that, it was awesome!”

I glanced at my partner and back at Cheer. “You said she burst into blue flames?”

“Yeah, I figured it was some effect she does to make her transformations more flashy at the end of the show.”

“Thank you for your time, that was quite informative.”

“No problem. Can I ask, why do you want to know about them? Did they do something?”

“We’re not sure, that’s why we wanted to know. farewell.”

'would you kindly'

*The next morning, still with the guards*

“You're kidding me… they just up and vanished, and took the trailer with them!”

Me, and any available guards, had been searching the area, but not a single trace had come up, other then a giant ‘fuck you’ burned into the grass. We’d been played!

“So when do you think our… ‘backup’ is going to get here?”

“I already am.” Everypony stopped and turned to see the new arrival who had seemingly appeared in our midst. I felt my jaw drop to the floor at what I was seeing. A Celestia-damned kirin! I thought they were just a rumor! It was big, easily larger than even the tallest guard here. its emerald, scaly hide furthering its intimidating appearance, not even beginning to take into account the fanged sneer on its face. Its eyes seemed to glow like brimstone, and then it hit me. Our ‘backup’, was a flipping,

“Mercenary!”

“You wanted help and it came, what does it matter if I am?” Judging by the voice, I assumed it was male.

I sighed. “I guess desperate times call for desperate measures… you do know what we’re after, and what it did, right? Because it was just gruesome.”

“Define ‘gruesome’.”

“...One of them was tortured before being killed, cut, burned, beaten, impaled, and poisoned twice. And thats just one of them, I’d rather not say what it looked like.” It shocked me that he wasn’t fazed in the slightest by that revelation. “...Who are you, anyway?”

“Emerald Blade. You want me to track down the killers?”

“Yes, but our primary suspect just up and vanished.”

“Who are the suspects?”

“We have one in particular, this pony that went by the name Mirage, light purple coat, slightly darker purple mane. At least, we think she's a pony, and two potential accomplices, ablit we have no clue just how deeply they are involved, or even if they're involved at all.”

“You think she's a pony? please elaborate.”

“Our survivor said she burst into blue flames and in her place stood a black chitinous creature, I’ll give the folder to you so you can read through it later. They came into town from the southern roads, likely from Dodge city if they’re show ponies.”

“Anything I should watch out for, for when I confront her and her lackys?”

“Three things. One, we know it can use magic and possibly has the ability to fly. Two, we believe it’s tail has a fast acting paralytic toxin in its stinger. Three, from what the doctor said about the body, it had one set of bite marks with swollen, discolored veins. Its bite held enough lethal toxin that its only comparable to a basilisk. Again, you can read the reports if need to.”

“I think I’d like to read those.”

Sugars POV

That small multicolored changeling, Pigment I believe he was called, had taken up residence in my lap and all but demanded that I pet him, as I every time I coaxed him off, he just hopped right back up. At least it was therapeutic, running my hoof through his deep green mane. It also kept the little mischief maker from starting anything, so theres that.

“Mine!” I was surprised when Peeko climbed up and pushed Pigment off me, before settling herself in his place. They were fighting over me? I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks as I witnessed their squabble, unsure of what to feel. Pigment climbed right back up, and tried to push her off me, causing her to retaliate and shove him right back off, before to my shock, she hissed at him. “Mine!”

He looked up at Peeko and whimpered, tears forming, before- “BWAAAHAHAAA!” he started crying.

“Off, off you go. Now look at what you did, you made him cry!” I shooed Peeko off my lap, causing her to give me displeased look, which I simply ignored, as I scooped the crying changeling into my forelegs. “Its okay… I won’t let her treat you like that.” His wailing soon quieted to a whimper, as he nuzzled my foreleg.

”YOU WHAT!?”

I flinched at the volume of the shout. That was Trixie’s voice…

“I didn’t have a choice! I knew what was going to happen if I didn’t do something!” Shinkiro’s response sounded distressed, leading me to assume the worst.

“That didn’t mean you had to… to kill them! Why couldn't you have just knocked them out and… did whatever you did to Sugar to them too?” I felt my blood run cold at those words. Shinkiro had killed somepony?!

“I’m not going to keep a group of potential rapists that close to my kids, let alone Sugar! Her stay here is hard enough as it is.” Oh my Celestia…

“Couldn’t you have turned them in?” A third voice, probably Gilda.

“Too many questions would be asked about how a mare who should have little to no combat experience managed to take out four thugs, let alone remained conscious after a lead pipe to the back of the head.”

“How did that happen? Sugar took you down with just a baseball bat.” I felt a little bit pride in that.

“Thestrals aren’t as strong as earth ponies. Yes, the hit knocked me for a loop, so I faked being knocked out… at least, until they found nothing of value, and decided that I still had something they wanted.”

Somepony sighed. “Trixie is not comfortable with this. And now it is likely the guard will be after us.”

“I wouldn't blame you if you wanted me out of your mane. Its just that, I’m the only thing keep my children fed...” The implications were left unsaid. If they had actually committed such a vile act, she would have been too traumatized to provide for her offspring…

“...You can stay.”

“Trixie is still unsure about this.”

“You’ve been making twice as many bits with her helping with your show.” Gilda said in a monotone voice.

“Trixie shall do all she can to help!” She said very enthusiastically. “As long as you don’t kill anypony again.”

“I won’t.” I heard hoofsteps making their way towards the room I was in. When the door opened, revealing Shinkiro, who seemed to stare at me hesitantly. “Can… can I please hold you?...” Her voice sounded… forced, like she was trying to not freak out. Had it really gotten to her that badly? nothing seemed to faze her, but now… Beneath that ruthless exterior, she was still just a mare.

“Uhhhh… okay?” I found myself nodding without even realizing it, as she approached me, causing Pigment to scurry out of my lap, before Shinkiro pulled me into a rather tight hug, my head getting pressed against her chest. it was smooth, and rather warm… It reminded me of when I was still a filly, pressing my face against the glass part of the oven, watching cookies bake. “I uh, overheard your argument…” She visibly flinched as I said that, gripping me tighter, and growled. “Do you wan-”

“No.”

“Ok.” With the way she said it, I was very quick to reply. She looked ready to smash something… At least, until she exhaled deeply.

“I don’t want to think about it. Every time I think of it, I wind up thinking of what could have happened, had they hit me any harder…”

“If its affecting you this badly yo-”

“Satō, just be quiet and let me hold you.” My mouth shut so fast I heard my teeth click, and everything below my neck went limp in her grasp. I looked up worryingly, hoping for an explanation for what she just did. “I’m sorry, I’m on the verge of breaking down, and I’m worried I might take it out on you. I was hoping I wouldn't have to use that trigger...”

“...” Nothing. Not even a wheeze. I couldn't even begin to hyperventilate, despite my rising panic. Nothing felt different, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make a peep, or even move anything below my neck. I could still feel everything, but nothing was responding.

What did she do to me!?

She gave me much calmer look, and must have noticed the sheer terror on my face. “Now, you’re probably wondering what I called you. It’s Japanese for sugar.” She chuckled slightly. “I was originally thinking of going with ‘would you kindly’, but then I realized that actually had a chance of coming up in a normal conversation, and I would rather not unintentionally trigger it. On top of feeling compelled to never leave the trailer and help with me with my nymphs, if I call you by that name you’ll be forced to do as I order you. Even kill somepony, but I’m not that cruel. Speaking of which. Satō, You’re never to tell anyone about that word, or it’s effects, directly or indirectly, and you can not say it yourself. You are taking this secret to your grave.”

I felt my last remaining vestiges of hope die upon hearing those words. All it would take is a single word, and I was under her complete command, and there was no way to warn anypony. At least… At least she’s never physically harmed me… she’s kept me fed… and she’s providing me with a roof over my head...

But... that book I had caught her reading... what was she planning?

The Last Preperations

Shinkiro

*the next day.*

“Trixie?”

“Yes?” She took a moment to stop eating her peanut butter crackers, giving me a quizzical look.

“I’ve had an idea in my head for the last while, it might sound crazy, but I want to try and bring something from my dream into reality.”

“That sounds ridiculous. What do you want to bring out, a milk shake?”

“...Tempting, but no. To put things in perspective, something has been entering my dreams. I want a piece of whatever magic it's using, so I can maybe figure out how to keep it out of my dreams.”

“Something has been entering your dreams?”

“Yes. What it is, I don’t know.” Blatant lies, of course, I knew it was Luna, but I doubt Trixie would be willing to help if she knew who it was. “And it’s stressing my nymphs out at night when it happens. Can you help?”

“Trixie can try. What do you need?”

“What I had in mind, was to somehow capture a piece of its magic the next time it entered my dream. Unfortunately, I have no clue how to do that, and I was hoping you might have some clue as to how I might achieve that.”

“Trixie knows a syphoning spell, it’s meant to absorb magic in case a spell goes out of control. Trixie knows how to store magic too, so that won’t be a problem either. Just one problem with your plan, how will Trixie know when to cast it?”

“Hivemind. I can still communicate with my children while I’m asleep, so I can get one of them to tell you when.” And then, I will have the last piece I need for for what I have planned.

Sugars POV

That motherbucker! This was worse then when she gagged me with that slime! at least with that, I was able to make some noise. the only good thing was that when she had stopped… holding me, I regained control of my limbs. but the worst part? I was forced to watch, and feel, myself comply...

“I’m back!” Joy. I turned around to see her entering the room, a smirk on her face. “Whats the matter? Did I… render you speechless?” Oh how I wish I could groan at her attempt to make fun of my situation. She sat down beside me, seeming to take joy in how I wanted to scream at her so badly, yet couldn't make a peep. “Look, I’m sorry about yesterday… Satō, you are no longer silenced, but no yelling… or swearing.”

“About time, you lay about. I swear, if I could would be screaming my head off at you so loud that the guards back in Baltomare would come looking for the disturbance.”

“Awww, how cute!”

“Don’t make me start throwing stuff, because there’s always the chance I might ‘accidentally’ hit you.”

“I have telekinesis, you argument is invalid. Anyway, Trixie will be in here soon to help me get a spell ready. Something has been getting inside my head and I want a piece of it.”

“Oh? What was it?” Something’s been messing with Shinkiro?

“I’ll tell you later, after I get a piece of the bugger.” I just groaned.

This was going to be a looong night.

*That night, shinkiros dreamscape*

*shinkiro*

I sighed. Another void? this was getting repetitive. The first thing I did was feel around until I found my link to Peeko, and told her to stand by to relay the signal.

This time, I actually felt her enter my dream, no doubt because she met the same amount of resistance as last time with her chosen method, believing she was entering undetected again.

“I know you’re there, Luna.”

“Your hive mind is proving quite bothersome when trying to enter undetected.” She stepped out of the void and into full view.

“I try.” I couldn't help but smirk.

“You certainly do.”

“Why do you insist on coming back here anyway?”

“I am not sure, there is just something about you that sparks my interest. Perhaps it is your unique dreams.”

“They’ve been pretty bland lately.”

“I have noticed.” She glanced at the void around us. “Maybe I can help with that?”

“It’s worth a shot.” ’do it now’ Her horn lit up as the void around us started turning green and blue. The spinning vortex of color formed a grass covered hill with a single tree at the top. I saw the trailer down at the bottom of the hill and a road that went into the forest. “Not bad.” She looked curious about something but seemed to dismiss it.

“I try.” She said with a smug grin. “Shall we have a look inside?”

“By all means.” Walking down to the trailer I pushed the door open and walked into…

My house!?

…

Right, this is a dream. “I was not expecting that.”

“This is part of your memories. Care to tell me where are we right now?”

“Apparently my previous life.”

“Your… Previous life? Explain.”

“I died.” Luna didn’t seem to buy into it at all. Understandable. “Seriously? Ever heard of reincarnation?”

“I am not familiar with it, no.”

“Okay… basically, I died, and woke up in this body. The freaky part is that I’ve been able to use most of my abilities unconsciously, despite how I should have no clue how to use them… or even walk, considering how different my biology is.”

“Tell me, what were you before?”

“Well… since you probably have no clue what a human is, lemme explain it to you. basically, a mostly bald, tailless monkey.”

“You believe you were a bald, tailless monkey?”

“Yes, I was a human.”

“Humans, the mythological creatures of conflict?”

“...wait, humanity is a myth here?”

“Indeed. The myth about humans is not the most positive. Competitive, egotistical and would always be caught is some war, either with themselves or one of the other races that populate this planet. Always trying to make sure the world saw them and never looked down at them. But only when they were grouped together, individually they were about the same as the minutars of the eastern islands. Still quite prideful but much more willing to listen to reason.”

“...” ’get her out.’ I watched as she suddenly clutched her head, before beginning to fade, no doubt taken off guard by the hive minds sudden attempt to push her out.

...now why is my face we-

“Gah!” I sputtered and hacked, having accidentally inhaled some of whatever had gotten on my face, and saw Peeko standing right in front of me, trying to look innocent despite having her tongue hanging out. I turned to trixie. “Did you get the energy?”

“Do not question my greatness, that nopony thats been messing with you had no chance at all.” She said, holding up a gem with a soft blue glow coming from its center.

“Excellent… you wouldn't happen to know a soundproofing spell, would you? I’m going to need some privacy for this next part. you could its a nightmare to get right...”

A Nightmares Ressurection

Sugars pov

She had started drawing some complicated shape in the middle of the room with a piece of chalk, after having gotten Trixie to cast that soundproofing spell. For some reason, just looking at what she was drawing filled me with dread. I dared not interrupt what she was doing, instead watching with a morbid fascination. As I looked closer, I noticed that it was some kind of pentagram. Soon, she began drawing symbols inside it, lots of symbols, yet the center of the pentagram had remained untouched. She quickly referred to that book she had, and drew some more symbols. She seemed to be smiling, looking over what she had done, before standing in the center of it. Then she bit her hoof hard enough to draw blood from one of the holes in it, and begun drawing another shape in the center of the pentagram in her sickly yellow blood. Every motion her hoof made seemed to cause the room to darken and chill ever so slightly, until when she had finished it, it might as well have been midnight. She opened a bag she had brought in here earlier, and pulled out a set of…

No... It can’t be!? It was Nightmares Moons armor!

“Komeyt Fin Vulon…” the entire room seemed to shudder as her voice momentarily became much deeper. What kind of gibberish was that? She begun placing the armored shoes at four of the five points in the pentagram and the helmet at the fifth, where the star shape intercepted the circle, and then placed the mantle along with the gem that contained the magic of whatever had been entering her head, in the center.

Then… It happened. The gem rose into the air under its own power, and shattered, leaving some kind of shadowy blob hovering in the air. soon, streams of arcane energy begun arching from the armor pieces to the blob, causing them to slowly disintegrate, as the blob begun taking on the form of an Alicorn. It looked as flat as paper or like a cardboard cutout. It was black but parts of its hooves, chest, and head were a light teal blue as if it had absorbed the armor pieces.

Shinkiro didn’t even blink, instead, a wicked grin spread across her face, as her horn glowed, followed by the thing she had drawn in her own blood. It gave of a blinding flash of light and vanished. When I lowered my hoof from my face, I gasped upon noticing my own shadow along with every shadow except Shinkiros, stretching towards the shadowy Alicorn whom was glaring at Shinkiro. “Who and what are you supposed to be?” It’s voice echoed, as if it was standing in a deep cave.

“Who am I? thats simple, you may refer to me as Shinkiro, as for what I am?” Suddenly, the shadows erupted from the floor and seemed to wrap around the dark Alicorn. “I’m your new master.” The fanged grin on Shinkiros face was downright bone chilling. Soon, the shadowy Alicorn was being dragged kicking and screaming towards Shinkiro, who was actually laughing. Once it was in front of her, tendrils seemed to erupt from Shinkiro’s shadow, and wrap around the Alicorn, before pulling it into her shadow, while it screamed. Covering my ears didn’t help, it still felt like my brain wanted to melt out my ears from how loud and shrill the screaming was. The echoing effect didn’t help.

*shinkiro*

After my spontaneous bout of maniacal laughter had subsided, I looked over to Sugar, who seemed to have passed out in sheer horror. Poor dear. “What do you want of me?” It was in my head. I was a bit surprised she wasn’t raging at me, but who was I to complain. Before the hivemind could react to another intruder, I did my best to mark the Nightmare as welcomed guest, so that the hivemind didn’t attempt to eject her.

’What can you offer?’

“I can offer many things, but what do you want? Power, fame?”

’Really? Fame? You’re asking a species that thrives on deception and anonymity if I want fame?’

“...” I had the feeling she was mentally berating herself for making a fool of herself.

’Define what you mean by power...’

“You will have better control over your magic and better efficiency, using less mana for more complex spell work. As well as expansive knowledge.”

’Well, knowledge is power. Especially the kind they don’t want you to know...’

“Black magic...”

‘Among other things. Its not just magical knowledge I want.’

“I can not promise knowledge of everything, but can I memorize anything you want.”

‘That would be extremely helpful. It would make it much easier to mimic somepony if I didn’t have to worry about getting the details wrong… and I only just realized, why am I hearing you in my head if you were pulled into my shadow?’

“I am apart of your being. Bound to the back of your mind by your foul magic”

‘You seem awfully calm.’

“I believe the it is part of the binding. And there is this thing here in your mind that prevents me from lying, it is most infuriating.”

‘Is there anything important I should know now that you’re bound to me?’

“Since I am here, I can protect you mind from invaders, and from the way you magic behaviors, am I to guess you’re a fire adapt? I am a lightning adapt. If I control the spell you are casting you will have more potent Lightning based spells. Just to start with.”

‘So is there any way to say… allow you to physically manifest temporarily?’

“Perhaps. I shall have to mess with these bindings to find out what I can and cannot do.”

I took a moment to look at a still unconscious Sugar, actually feeling a bit of pity for the poor filly. Did she really get scared that badly?

”Why is there a pony here with you anyway?”

“Food. To be precise, I feed on emotions. Not to mention, thanks to a little spell I know that lets me impose my will on a target, she has no choice but to look after my nymphs.”

”Nymphs?”

‘Yes, nymphs. I’ve layed what, nineteen eggs so far? Two have hatched already and I imagine another to hatch soon.’

”What are you, anyway?”

‘A changeling. I’m a shapeshifting emotion eater, who becomes extremely violent if I let instinct take over.’

”Violent?”

‘Do you want the abridged version, or the full story?’

”It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

‘So I got jumped while disguised as a pony, the four of them looking through my stuff, finding nothing of value. then one of them suggests that they… have fun with me… which causes me to snap. The first of them charged me head on, I made him regret it by tearing his throat out, I paralyzed the second one, and when the third one tried to flee, I ran up a wall and pounced on him, crushing him and killing him on impact with the ground. When I realized the fourth one got away, I decided to vent my frustration on the one I paralyzed. First, I broke off his horn, and crushed it under my hoof. Then I went to town on his forelegs until the bones were thoroughly shattered. After that, I got inventive, and cut his calf muscle open with my horn, then cauterized the wound, so that he wouldn't bleed out, but would feel immense pain from the air blowing across the exposed flesh. After that, I snapped the lead pipe one of them had used, in half, superheated the ends of it and drove them into his knee and fetlock. And finally, I ended him with a little bit of poison. Oh, and I made sure the bodies was found to leave a message that I was not to be trifled with.’

”How very brutal of you.” I could practically feel her amusement.

‘Now you said you were going to try and figure out what your limitations are? Because I need to wake up my food.’

*Sugars POV*

“Uggggggh…” I slowly regained consciousness, my body not wanting to respond, along with the feeling of something wrapped around me.

“Its about time you woke up.” My eyes snapped open at the sound of her voice, and I tried to twist around to look at her, but nothing below my neck was responding.

“Huh. So that command is still in effect.” She rotated me so I could see her face, and the childish grin plastered across it. “I think I’ll keep it. You make a great plushie.”

“I’d beat you into submission if I could, for a remark like that.”

“But you can’t, can you?” She leaned her head in and nuzzled me. “And you value your remaining free will too much to try and exploit a loophole. And with the help of my new… friend, if I really wanted to, I could strip you of all your free will, but leave your personality intact so you would have no choice but to watch yourself serve my every whim.” I averted eye contact, trying to not show fear, and gasped when I saw her shadow. A pair of teal, draconic eyes were glaring at me from within Shinkiros shadow. “And Satō? You’re to never mention my friend, in any way, shape, or form.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off Shin’s shadow and that thing that’s glaring at me. And it’s not the end, I saw it smile at me in a lipless smile filled with shape teeth and canines. ”I will always be watching… waiting...”
“Now then, you see? You stay cooperative, and you won’t have to worry.” I couldn’t hold back the whimper that escaped, I know that thing in Shin’s shadow heard it because its grin grew wider. “Or do you want me to turn you into a mindless servant?” I can’t take this! I’m completely defenseless, my freedom and potentially my life are in jeopardy, and I can't do a thing about it! I started crying, just wanting the torment to end., when this… wonderful feeling ran through me. “It’s okay, I wouldn't really do that.” I felt her hoof run through my mane, trying to reassure me. “You’re safe with me, and my friend won’t harm you without a very good reason.” She held me closer, continuing to stroke my mane. “I would never physically hurt you, I just needed to keep you in line, for your own safety.” It felt so soothing being held by her...

A breath of freash air... and fire.

The next day
*Shinkiro*

‘So, how did you suddenly appear in my shadow, when you weren't there before, and scare my food?’

”Yes, I found one loophole in my binds that let me out, but it’s limited. I might be able to stretch it over time allowing me more freedom for a longer time, though.”

‘What do you mean by limited?’

”You saw it yourself, a pair of eye and mouth is all I can do, for now.”

‘What else have you discovered about your bindings?’

”I found that method that you used to bind me was not entirely complete, another reason for there being a loophole, there are loose ends as well.” A small blue fire sprouted up in my shadow that I didn’t cause. ”But still, they don’t seem to be useless. They don’t help in binding me, but I wonder what else they’re good for.” She said in a sarcastic way, I saw why when a fiery blue chain came launching out of the fire on the ground until it latched onto the ceiling.

‘So, what good are they then?’ I replied with equal sarcasm.

”Tch” The chain retracted back into the small fire that then snuffed out. ”It’s a weapon.”

‘You don’t say.’

”I see why the pony dislikes you. You like to grate on others nerves.”

Ignoring her, I gently nudged sugar awake, watching as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She rapidly backed away from me though, pointing at my shadow.

‘You’re scaring her.’

”I’m not even doing anything.” She rolled her eyes at Sugar.

‘could you please do something to get her to stop cowering?’

”Fine” Her eye’s disappeared from sight. She just… closed them, didn’t she?

“Its safe now.” I tried to comfort the distraught mare, who looked at my shadow, and released a long, shuddering sigh upon seeing that Nightmare Moon was no longer there. “Considering we’re in the middle of a forest, and all the restrictions I’ve placed on you, I think I can take you outside.”

“I get to see the sun again?”

“Yes, but you’ll have to stay close to me.”

“Yay.” She blurted in an almost Fluttershy like fashion, before she started jumping up and down, repeating ‘I get to see the sun.’ again and again.

“Easy there. Satō, you are exempt from the compulsion to remain in the trailer for the duration of our outing, but you are required to stay within… six meters of me. Oh, and don’t run off and hide either.” I didn’t even have time to blink as she tackle hugged me, almost causing me to lose my balance, before I coaxed her off me. “Now then, why don’t you follow me?”

*later, outside*
*Sugars POV*

It felt so wonderful to have the sun shining down on me again, warming my coat after being locked up for... Who knows how long I was kept in a perpetual state of paralysis before Shinkiro let me wander around the trailer. It felt so good to stretch my legs, and feel the earth and grass beneath my hooves. Even if I couldn't stray that far from her, just being able to see the outside world again made me feel happy. It was somewhat unsettling to watch her out here though. She never made a sound walking… just the way she moved out here seemed to set off alarm bells in my head. It was like the only reason I could see her lurking in the foliage was because she wanted to be seen. It was like she was a predator, and I suppose she is.

I had spent the first few minutes just running in circles, feeling the wind against my face, and it was glorious. Trotting through the trees, I watched the light filter through the leaves. After spending who knows how long in captivity, everything seemed more vibrant. The two nymphs had been brought along to, and where following behind me, making several adorable chirping noises. The four of us eventually reached a pond, where I took the opportunity to sit down on a large flat rock and catch my breath. The two nymphs were tumbling about, Occasionally pinning the other nymph, before letting them get back up and resuming their roughhousing. Peeko was usually the one to pin Pigment due to her superior size, but Pigment did manage to pin Peeko once or twice. The whole time, I could just barely make out Shinkiro lurking in one of the bushes, her eyes either on me, the nymphs, or just looking around.

I felt something pulling on my tail, and looked to see Peeko, a frightened expression on her face. “Mama say trouble.” She pulled on my tail again, harder this time. I picked the nymph up, and looked around for the other one. Peeko just pointed towards a hollow log. I took her advice. after all, she had somehow tracked me down after I had knocked out Shinkiro and stuffed her in a walk in freezer. I was surprised when my body didn’t lock up and make me march in the direction of Shinkiro though. When I looked behind me, I saw Shinkiro leaping out of the bush at something, before there was a bright flash of magic, and somepony crash landing in the clearing. It looked like a… cross between a pony and a dragon. While I was busy staring, Peeko climbed off me and into the log.

The dragon-pony got back up, looking around, before spotting Shinkiro, who had placed herself between us and the dragon-pony. She was hunched over ready to pounce, wings spread, tail in the air, and hissing, fangs bared.

The dragon-pony didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by her. “Your description matches the file. Creature, you’re wanted for murder, now we can do this easily or do this the fun way.” What I was expecting was for her to taunt it back or something, not launch herself at it with a screech, and attempt to body check it with her larger frame, only for it to sidestep the charge and trip her. “Good, I was hoping for a fight.” She rolled right back onto her hooves and pounced at it, making another screeching noise.

Before she could even get close to him, flaming blue chains came out of her shadow and snaked around her neck and barrel, bringing her to the ground. ”You said you were violent, not a wild animal. This is pathetic. Use your magic, not brute force.” The eyes of that thing in Shins shadow were back and looking at her with disappointment. It seemed to snap her out of whatever berserker trance she was in, causing her to smirk ferally. Then she vanished. The dragon-pony randomly lashed out, and I heard the sound of its hoof striking something, before Shinkiro appeared out of thin air, having taken the hit directly to the face.

A few drops of her sickly yellow blood dripped from her nose. “Worthless.” The dragon-pony drew his sword now.

Shin wiped the blood away and charged him. She’s going to kill herself! When she closed in he swung at her but more chains come up from her shadow to her raised hoof, using it to block his sword. Shin took the chance to hit him square in the face, and then brought her tail down on his head for good measure. He was sent flying, but quickly recovered from the hit. She charged at him again but instead of swinging at her like he did last time, he thrust forward. The chains appeared again but it didn’t go to her hoof this time, this time it struck him directly as Shin dodged him.

Several more chains sprouted up from her shadow, which was now under him, and latched onto his hooves and neck. Shin said “Drop it.” and he was electrified by the chains. He didn’t drop his sword and got electrified again, and then a third time before he dropped his sword. “Good boy.” He turned to look at her and opened his mouth probably to retort but didn’t say anything.

A gout of fire abruptly erupted from his mouth, he really is a dragon-pony! Shin jerked away from him and he just got dragged along by the chains. Shin’s mane was shinged, and she looked confused for just a second before her face changed to that of anger. “You shouldn’t underestimate your opponent!” He looked ready to breath more fire, but Shin grabbed his sword and jammed it into his leg. His fire breath-scream went up into the air instead of at her, causing Shin to smile sadistically, before he was cut off mid yell by the chain tightening around his neck. His face slowly turned from green to blue as he was deprived of oxygen.

He stopped moving and Shin loosened the chains. One tiny flame escaped from it holding as Shin let all the flaming blue chains retract back into her shadow. The things eyes having long since disappeared. Shin walked back away from him, towards the edge of the clearing where we were. “Lets go, before he wakes up.”

“O-ok.” I stuttered. Now very aware of how strong she was and why I probably shouldn’t antagonize her anymore. With the dragon-pony thing dealt with, the nymphs crawled out of the hollow log I was hiding behind, looking rather frightened.

*Shinkiro*

As i trotted back to the trailer with Sugar and the nymphs in tow, I couldn't help but ask the spirit I had bound to me a single question. ‘What did you do to snap me out of that instinct driven rage?’

”I have found a total of seven loose ends from my binding so far, I used two of them on you to keep your ‘instincts’ in check.”

‘Thanks for that by the way.’

”You may not wish to thank me. I attached those two ends to you, I’m now down to five loose ends.”

‘Attached? Care to elaborate?’

”Exactly that, when I used them to stop you they attached to you. It would seem that if I use them on you they stay there, unlike how I used them against the kirin. You won’t have to worry about your instinct taking over now, but now you’ll need to be more cognizant about things you normally wouldn’t need to think about.”

‘Not everything in life is free. I can always perform it manually enough times that it becomes muscle memory.’

”Most of it likely already is.”

I could feel my stomach growl, signifying I would need to feed soon. Sugar groaned upon hearing that, before sighing. “Can you at least wait until we get back to the trailer?” I turned my head to answer her, and noticed a very faint blush.

“Yes, besides, I’d rather not have to carry you back after I finish.”

”I am somewhat curious to see this. You mentioned you were an emotivore and I have noticed you magic does not regenerate as it should, but instead steadily decreases...” Sugar froze mid stride, pointing at my shadow with a look of terror on her face.

“Sugar, just calm down. She’s not going to hurt you.” I kept walking, until she began following again, albit rather stiffly, forced to due to the command I had put her under to stay close to me. I did appreciate that technicality with the nymphs and the hivemind making my children considered an extension of me by that command, as it allowed Sugar to get out of harm's way though. I took a moment to mentally address the Nightmare. ‘Thats because I use that magic to keep myself alive as well. Last time I nearly ran empty I almost wound up sucking Trixie dry of her emotions.’

”You could do such? Clearly it is not permanent.”

‘I’d rather not know what happens if I take it all, I’ve noticed that the less I take at once the faster they come back. Of course, emotional stimulus helps as well.’

”That is concerning that you do not know, and it’s relieving that you have not needed to find out.”

‘On the bright side, sucking enough emotion out of them to temporarily leave them emotionless helps immensely with setting the ground rules for ponies I capture for food. Its so much easier to explain to them that I’m not going to eat them when they're not panicking.’

I chuckled and came to a stop momentarily as I noticed Peeko eyeing my shadow with interest. The moment I stopped, she started poking it. Immediately Nightmares eyes flew open. ”What do you want?” Peeko started giggling, I got the feeling Nightmare raised an eyebrow at her but I couldn’t tell.

“Hi Hidy!” She waved at the Nightmare, an adorable grin on her face.

”Hidy?” Peeko nodded, still grinning.

‘I think she’s referring to the fact that you ‘hide’ in my shadow.’

”Cute.” With that Nightmare closed her eyes again and hid.

Well ain’t she a bundle of joy today...

Well, thats a thing...

After trekking all the way back to the trailer, nymphs and Sugar in tow, I was surprised to see that the sun was already setting, and my stomach was starting to hurt, no doubt telling me I needed to feed soon. The moment I walked in… wait. why are Gilda and Trixie playing poker?

“You two know how to play? Why didn’t you ask me to join you?” I almost laughed at how childish Sugar sounded saying that, and patted her on the head.

“In a bit, I need my food first.” I escorted her to my room.

“Maybe next time Sugar, we don’t want you having an unfair advantage.” Gilda called out.

“Yes, Trixie doesn’t want you using your lack of emotions against us.”

“...Now why didn’t I think of that.” I wondered to myself… I sighed. “Come along Sugar.” Once we were in my room, I scooped her up and held her against my body, smiling as she went limp. Soon the feeling of her emotions being absorbed flowed through me, and the pain in my stomach slowly faded, while I watched as Sugar made this adorable face, like she was being scratched behind the ear.

”Why is she limp? Does does being fed on feel that relaxing, or does it temporarily paralyze her?”

‘Wrong on both counts. its more of... I may have implanted some triggers in her mind to keep her under control. its why I don’t just leave her in a cocoon’

”She is unable to do anything, though? What were all of these commands?”

‘Well, most of those ‘commands’ are more like compulsions, except for the ones I add via the trigger phrase. I did the basics, no leaving the trailer without specific permission from me, no trying break stuff or harm anyone, and I also included a compulsion to look after my nymphs when I’m not there. Now I did later wind up using the trigger phrase to get her to shut up, because she was pestering me to talk about a certain incident that left me rather rattled at the time, to the point where I used the trigger to tell her to ‘be quiet and let me hold you.’ I just decided to keep the ‘let me hold you’ part because she actually makes a nice plushie.’

”I’m sure thats the only reason.”

‘What are talking about?’

”Why else would you, an emotivore, keep the ‘Let me hold you’ Command.” I was a little confused. What was she trying to imply? ”Sex, I’m talking about sex. I can feel the confusion in you.”

“Excuse me?! I’ll have you know I did no such thing to her!”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Remember the shadow? She can talk to me telepathically.”

“Like you and Peeko?”

“Sorta.”

”As if you haven’t thought of it, how easy it would be to do. She already seems pretty content with you.”

‘Okay, even I have standards. And rape is not something I would want to force her to experience, especially after it nearly happened to me!’

”And if she said yes to it? It would be painfully easy to get a ‘yes’ out of her in this state. Not to mention the food it would bring.”

‘Not going to happen.’

”Fine, fine. I’m just trying to look at it logically. If she’s your only food source, you need to increase the strength of the emotions she puts out.”

‘...You just want to watch me have sex, don’t you?’

”Oh, no no no. The stronger you are the stronger I am and the less often you’ll need to feed.”

‘Can we please drop this topic?’ I mentally pleaded. I’d rather not become a nymphomaniac trying to keep my children fed. It was then that I realized the flow of Sugars emotions had begun petering out, causing me to immediately stop feeding. “Uhhh Sugar? you feeling okay?”

“I’m very tired.” I winced at the tone in her voice. I got distracted by Nightmare and ended up taking too much.

“Why don’t you go lay down for a bit.” ‘Look what you made me do!’

”Me?! You were you one who wasn’t paying attention!”

‘You think it’s easy trying to ignore you encouraging me to fuck her!?’

”Well excuse me! I was just trying to point out that you’d have more food! And I’ve been poking about in this body, it’s basically made for sex!”

‘Wat...’

”There are nerve endings at the base of your wings, although hidden. Nerve endings in the base of your horn, in between the segments for your tail, and in the holes in your hooves. Lets not forget the memory I came across of you in the shower!” I blushed profusely, rather embarrassed that she had found out about the shower incident.

‘You’ve been reading my memories?’

”All the way from the forest where you woke up and forward, you don’t seem to have have any memories from before that. I thought you may have amnesia, correct?”

‘...it’s complicated. I have memories before then, but they feel as if they don’t belong to me, yet do at the same time… some of events yet to come, which is why I am taking them with a grain of salt.’ I quickly lied. ‘You not being able to find them further cement my belief that they aren't true memories.’

”Hmm.”

‘Now then… since you were poking around in my body, what else did you find?’

”From your memories it would seem you are unaware of the second set of eyelids. They seem somewhat pointless, though.” I blinked, realizing I never even thought to look for extra muscles in my facial area. I took the opportunity to do so, feeling for something that felt unfamiliar, and almost jumped when the room grew a lot darker and tinted blue. ”Look at me, in your shadow.” I complied. ”Your eyes have turned a solid blue. They are semi-translucent, perhaps they are meant to protect you from bright lights that would normally blind you.”

‘That would explain why everything got darker.’ I did my best to put on a poker face, just to see how emotionless I looked like this.

“You look weird just staring at each other like that.” I heard the dull monotone voice of Sugar, who was just staring at me and the Nightmare from her bed.

*A week later, Filly Delphia*

It still amazed me how fast a changeling nymph could grow and learn. In only a week, Peeko had doubled in size, and was now speaking in full, albit simple, sentences. Pigments growth was slower, but if I understood correctly, it was because a drone was not as large as a Queen, but he was already beginning to speak, having heard Trixie speaking enough to parrot her name.

It was nearly time again, another egg was going to hatch. Except this time it was happening quite early in the morning. ”You’re up early today.”

‘One of my eggs is going to hatch soon.’ I absentmindedly replied to her as I tried to pinpoint which egg it was that was nearly ready to hatch.

”Hmm? Which one?”

“Umm… no, not that one… ah, there it is.” I tried to keep my voice from raising, not wanting to wake the others. I crouched down in front of the egg, waiting. ‘Any moment now...’ The egg shook. ‘It’s happening!’

Nightmare, once I had found the right egg, had pulled herself up from my shadow to look at the egg. That was another thing she learned how to do. Although, she could only pull her head up to look around with her own eyes, she was getting better at it. She was still transparent and you could walk right through her, but she was there.

The egg shook again, harder this time, as its denizen struggled to escape its confines and enter the world of the living. Soon, a horn burst through the shell, before retracting, and an emerald eye cautiously peeked through the opening. “C’mon, mamas here!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Nightmare looking at me strangely. I didn’t care, I was going to encourage him. “It’s okay, you don’t need to hide little one…” I cooed to the currently hatching nymph, who seemed to want to hide away inside the egg.

”Maybe use that annoying hive thing to reassure him, if you haven’t yet.”

...Goddamit. I didn’t think of that. I took a moment to focus, and tried to spread a sense of reassuring calmness throughout the hivemind. I smiled as the nymph peeked out of the hole he had made in the egg once more, before ever so hesitantly trying to wiggle the hole open further with a hoof. “Come on, you can do it!”

”You’re a fool.”

‘No, you.’ I quickly replied, before returning to watching the nymph force its way out. He eventually got his head through, his dried earth brown mane looking like the world's worst case of bedhead ever. I had to suppress the urge to giggle at how adorably ridiculous he looked right now. ‘Isn’t he cute?’
I heard Nightmare sigh. ”Yes, he’s cute.”

The nymph tried to retract his head so he could widen the hole, but soon found his head stuck, and started making a distressed chirping noise. Nightmare sighed again, she’s found the chirping that Pigment does very annoying. Luckily Peeko outgrew it already.

I gently gripped the egg in my magic, chipping away at the shell slowly until there was enough room for him to get his head back in, where he begun trying to kick the shell apart. It worked a little too well, and he fell to the floor with a thump. The moment I saw him start to inhale, tears forming in his eyes, a single thought crossed my mind.

‘Shit’

I quickly scooped him up, trying to keep the watery eyed nymph from waking up everyone else in the trailer. Nuzzling him managed to quell the whimpering, but he was still leaking tears, much to my dismay. “It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re safe now. Please don’t cry…”

“Now we have another one that can annoy me.”

“Hey, not cool. I mean, does he even act remotely like Pigment? He’s not going to be a troublemaker, that I can guarantee.”

“I’m not going to take me chances.” Nightmare lied down with a quiet and muffled thump as her eyes disappeared… somepony’s butthurt.

“Now what am I going to call you… So far you’ve been a lot calmer the Peeko or Pigment… ah.” I thought of a fitting name, one that also sounded nice as well. “Tranquil.” He made a happy little cooing noise upon hearing his new name, causing me to smile.

“Mommy?” I turned upon hearing Peekos rather distressed voice. I could feel the fear she was experiencing, as well as… relief?

“What are you doing up so early?”

She ran up to me and clung onto my free foreleg like a vice. “I had a bad dream…”

“How bad?”

“Dragon pony thingie hurt you and Sugar… and was after me and Piggy… Momma? why is your eye twitching?” As much as I already wanted to rend the flesh from that fuckers bones with my bare fangs, the last thing I needed was another murder on my consciousness. That, and the less ponies I killed, the more likely they were to try and capture me instead of kill on sight… Annnd I completely forgot to wipe his memories of our encounter. Just fucking great.

Screw it, is not worth worrying over right now, not when Peekos been so badly shaken by what happened. I took a deep breath to calm myself, not wanting to wind up scaring Peeko or Tranquil. “Its okay Peeko, I would never let something like that happen.” I was tempted to try and scoop her up into a hug, but considering I was already holding Tranquil, that would not be a good idea. Tranquil took the opportunity to peek his head over my foreleg and glance at Peeko, before ducking back down with a small ‘eep!’

“Huh?” Peeko was staring at where Tranquil had just glanced at her, confused. She quickly trotted over to me, trying to get a better look. She tried to pull herself up onto her hind legs, using a foreleg to brace herself against me. When that didn’t give her enough height, she crawled up me, causing me to shift my weight onto my hind legs so I could keep my balance. She soon smiled as she peered over my foreleg to see the newly hatched nymph I was cradling. And I mean smiled, causing Tranquil to flinch at the massive grin on her face.

“Alright, don’t scare him. He just hatched after all.” I paused, waiting for Peeko to settle down, before formally introducing her to the newest hatchling. “Peeko, meet Tranquil.” She had completely forgotten about the nightmare he had, to busy fawning over Tranquil, making those adorable chirping noises, like it was the changeling equivalent of baby talk, at first Tranquil just stared at her like she was crazy, but eventually made a few soft chirping noises himself. I had to resist the urge to hug the both of them because of how adorable this was.

It’s going to start getting really hectic around here as more of my nymphs hatch. I think I got lucky with Tranquil.

infiltration

After a brief nap, having had to cuddle Tranquil to keep him from freaking out again, I awoke to Peeko screaming. “My legs! Where are my legs?! MOMMY!” I somehow managed to bolt out of bed without disturbing Tranquil, and was off like a bullet, heading straight towards the bathroom where Peekos screech had came from. While everyone else in the trailer was stumbling about in a half asleep panic, I had already made my way to the bathroom, and just about sent the door flying off its hinges. I just about screamed when I saw what had happened to Peeko. Three of her legs where just… gone. No bleeding stumps, just gone, like they where never there to begin with, while all that was left of the fourth was a small stump. I was slightly relieved however, that there was no blood, but that didn't help me get over the fact that my daughter had somehow become a quadriplegic!

“What the hell happened!?” I scooped her into my forelegs, hoping that being in physical contact with me would somehow calm her slightly.

“I-I was trying t-to be Trixie! Like how you can be other p-ponies!” She was trembling in my forelegs, ready to cry. “M-mommy! What do I do!?” That was the last she managed to blurt out before she broke down crying.

‘Oh god whatdoidowhatdoidowhatdoido!?’

In that moment, something hard had decided my face needed to be realigned. I looked, stunned, at Nightmare as she was glaring at me, her shadowy limb outstretched as she had just hit me. “Tell her how to undo her transformation!” Just as Nightmare retreated back into my shadow, Gilda, Trixie, and Sugar all burst into the room.

“Trixie demands to know what's happening at once!”

“What she said, what the pluck is going on!?”

Sugar however, remained quiet, when I realized she was holding both Pigment and Tranquil against her body, trying to keep the two nymphs from panicking, as well as still looking a bit drained from my accidental overfeeding the other other night.

Now how did I undo my transformation aigan…? It honestly became a subconscious thing relatively rapidly, all I could really remember is that I could never quite fully relax myself while disguised, even at rest my body would feel like a stretched… rubber… band. Thats it! “Peeko, Listen to me. I need you to calm down.”

“But my legs are gone!” She wailed in response, tears still streaming from her eyes.

“Peeko. Calm. Down. They’re not gone, you just need to relax. The more you tense up or stress yourself out, the harder it's going to be to fix.” I tried my best to give her a reassuring smile. “Try and breath with me. In, and out. You can do it.” It tooks some time, but Peeko finally started trying the breathing exercise with me to calm herself down.

“W-why isn’t it working?” She was starting to panic again, so I cut her off before she could break into hysterics.

“You need to relax everything. Can you feel how no matter how much you you relax your muscles, something still feels tense? Don’t just relax your body, relax your magic a well.”

Peeko continued to take deep breaths, until a small, icey blue flame appeared at the tip of her horn, slowly making its way down her body. as it passed where her legs would be, it split off and seed to burn away the air, revealing her legs as it passed until it petered out at her hoof tips. once the main portion of it had reached her thighs and repeated the process with her hind legs, leaving her in her original, untransformed state. With the crisis averted, I looked at the gathered crowd. “Sorry for the rude awakening. Someone decided to try shapeshifting without any prior knowledge.” Peeko tried to bury herself deeper into my forelegs as I said that, and I could tell she was feeling guilty about scaring everyone like that. “You can stop panicking now and go about your day.” I didn’t even give them time to reply as I walked past them, carrying a still shivering Peeko with me. “Peeko. I’ll be blunt with you. don’t try shapeshifting again without my supervision. There are a lot of worse things that could have happened then just making your legs vanish. For all I know, You could have turned yourself inside out.”

’Gross’ Gross it may be, but I need Peeko to understand that what did was a very big mistake.

Peeko was staring at me with to look of a deer caught in the headlights. She knew she was in trouble. I mustered as much of an authoritative tone as I could, ready to lay down what was going to happen. “Now here's what's going to happen. you’re going to go to your room, and you're going to stay there for the rest of the day.”

“Ok mommy.” I set her down and with a few sniffles she went to our shared room.

As I watch her walk back to the room, Nightmare spoke up. ’Something strange just happened with your hivemind that hasn’t happened before.’

‘Huh? what do you mean?’

’When you were scolding Peeko, your hivemind acted strange. I don’t know what it was.’

Wait… I’m a Queen… I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that.

‘I think I just exerted my authority as the ‘queen bee’ as it were.’

’You did? Don’t you think that’s a little much for a simple scolding?’

‘I did it by accident. I was that worried about her. her little stunt could have had fatal results!’

’Speaking of which. I thought you where you were only able to transform into the same basic form, size changing aside.’

‘...So did I.’

’Peeko’s loss of limbs bring forth the idea of what else could be added, removed, or changed. Could you turn into Gilda? Claws are much different the hooves.’

‘Sure.’ it took me a moment to visualize Gilda, before the familiar wave of transformation rolled over me, and by god did it feels weird to shift into something less equine then my normal disguise. I actually felt a little giddy seeing I had something resembling fingers again. The novelty quickly wore off however, as I released the transformation.

‘So griffons are a go.’

’Try a dragon next or change parts of your birth form.’

Allright, this would require some focusing. I felt a flame burn in my throat, and once the feeling subsided, I gave my alteration a test. “...” Yep. I had effectively rendered myself mute.

’That’s what you change?’

‘Well yeah, I was already aware of my ability to change my own voice, so this was the safest thing to attempt.’

Once more releasing the transformation, I had an incredibly evil idea.

‘Say… Do you think it's possible for me to feed off of sympathy?’

’I wouldn’t know.’

‘Because I have an idea of how to get a lot of sympathy if I can feed of it...’

*A few days later, Filly Delphia. The royal guard barracks*

The first thing I had done was use my shapeshifting ability to transform into a nymph sized version of myself, as the smaller I was, the less likely I was to be seen. Which seemed a tad unnecessary as the security was pathetic. The second was to once again render myself mute, for multiple reasons; one, I had absolutely no reason to speak during this, and the quieter I was, the less likely I was to get caught. Two, if I was caught, they’d be unable to get any information out of me. And third, it would play into my plan to get out once I had the files.

‘So it begins...’

’Yes, now we can see if you can feed on sympathy.’

‘After I get the files.’

’Yes, of course. The sooner, the better.’

Having managed to sneak around the back of the guard barracks, I simply walked up the wall until I peeked over the lip of the roof, and saw a skylight. I couldn’t help but smile mischievously.

‘Remember how you hit me in the face? being a shadow, I think you can open this from the inside.’

’Sure.’ My shadows foreleg moved on its own, crouching down as if to open the skylight like normal and slipped under the frame. I could see Nightmare’s limb come out and flick the metal latch keeping it closed. With that handled, I carefully inched the tip of my horn under the frame until I could grip the frame with my hooves. With the skylight open, I stuck to the ceiling as I crawled inside, using my tail to slowly and silently close the skylight behind me.

‘They never bother to look up.’ this was why I rendered myself mute, because otherwise I would have already given into the urge to cackle maniacally. It was easy to crawl along the ceiling unnoticed until I reached what I suspected was the sergeant's office. If the plaque on the door that said ‘Sgt. Iron’ was anything to go by. Luckily, when I peeked in, nobody was there. Sticking to the ceiling and walls, I made my way in and over to the filing cabinet…

‘now would her file be under P, or C? Or maybe M?’ I began rummaging through the files, looking for Cadences file.

’Probably M. Mi Amore Something or whatever.’

‘Oh right.’ I looked at the files under M and found what I was looking for. Grabbing the files and sticking them underneath my wing plates, I silently closed the cabinet and made my way back into the hallways, softly shutting the door behind me. Now there should be a records room around here somewhere… I continued to creep along the ceiling looking for my next target, unsure of where the records room was located. At least, until a pony walked out of the doorway beneath me with a stack of files. Sneaking into the room, I saw shelf upon shelf of files.

‘thats… a lot of files.’

’You better get to searching then.’ Oh what I wouldn't give for Google right now… First, I had to locate the M section, and then start looking for Mi Amore. It took a while, but I eventually found something on her. Her current location. She was apparently meeting with a designer to get measurements taken. Grabbing the file, and sticking it beneath my wing plates with the other one.

‘Now comes the fun part.’ I silently made my way out, crawling out through the skylight. After climbing down a wall into an alleyway. I quickly crawled up into the dumpster.

’Wait, what are you doing? Have some self respect and get out of the dumpster!’

‘I know, it’s gross, but i’m going the whole nine yards.’ I transformed, the flames leaving a dirty grey coat in their wake. It felt rather odd having the weight of a wing on one side of my body, but nothing on the other, bearing what looked like a massive scar on my neck and back. I had taken the time to make myself look as malnourished as possible, as well as rather dirty. I still kept the nonfunctioning vocal chords, as the scar on my neck would play into my inability to speak. I waited for a group of guards to come close and soon started digging through the waste, looking for something. I soon found a half eaten veggie sandwich, making sure to make a racket, which to my surprise, actually looked and smelt edible to me.

’Don’t you dare.’

‘Imma do it.’

’Don’t. Eat. That. It’s garbage for a reason!’

‘I’ve eaten raw meat, and freaking wood before. Besides, it actually smells edible to me. So once more. Imma do it.’ I picked it up in my mouth, and discovered it was rather tasteless. Dropping it into my hooves, I was about to bite into it despite Nightmares objections, when the lid was thrown open, leaving me staring wide eyed at a stunned guard.

“Why are you in a dumpster?”

Seizing the opportunity, I begun tearing up, and using the single wing I currently had to cover myself, acting like I fully expected the guard to strike me, my body heaving with soundless sobs.

I felt myself being gripped in one of the guards magic, so I began flailing about trying to free myself, my one wing flapping about. “Hey, Stel. You see this? Filly’s missing a wing.”

The other guard, Stel, sighed at seeing my ‘missing’ wing. “Aiy, I see it. Put her down but don’t let go.” I felt myself touch the ground, the ponies magic holding me in place and keeping me from fleeing, causing me to tear up even more. “Why ain’t she making any sound. You’d think with all her flailing about she’d a been yelling at us.” I kept crying, not breaking my act for a second. I could taste the sympathy coming off the two of them. And lo and behold, it tasted edible. I slowly siphoned a bit off the two, not wanting my feeding to be noticed.

’Thank goodness you didn’t get to eat that rotten sandwich.’

‘I’m telling you, it looked and smelled edible to me!’

“Who would do something like this!?” I looked at the guard who had spoken, trying to shrink back in fear despite being held by magic. The guards look saddened by my reaction. “What should we do with the filly, we can’t question her about it if she can’t speak.”

“Take her into holding, see if she belongs to anypony and ask them about it?” Assuming they meant my ‘parents’ I just slumped, not even resisting the magic anymore, just looking miserable.

“Aiy, think it’s the orphanage’s caretaker, Caine? The guards always been on edge with him. Hey, little one.” I looked towards him, a defeated look in my eyes. “Did that old bat, Caine do this?” I shook my head, beginning to tremble. Whoever this Caine was, he clearly wasn’t nice.

“That settles it, we’ll take her to the sarge. He’ll know what to do.”

Family Time.

So. apparently I was getting to stay with one of the guards while this whole mess was getting sorted out, which was fine by me. After all, I was getting an all you can eat buffet of sympathy from said guard, and his wife too. That was actually quite a filling meeting…

*one day ago*

Well this was not how I expected things to go over. Apparently I was getting to stay with one of the guards while they tried to sort this whole fiasco out, and Stel volunteered to take me in.

“Honey! I’m home!”

I heard somepony sigh quietly, before they responded. “What kept you at work so long?” I flinched, badly enough for stel to notice, causing him to frown as he most likely assumed that I was afraid of being blamed for his lateness.

“No, you’re not in trouble.” Stel sighed, before responding to the pony who I assumed was his wife. “This is something you just need to see and I’d like to introduce you!”

A few moments later, a golden brown mare entered the living room, her dirty blond mane and tail done up similar to Sweetie Drops.

‘Oh god, the visual pun...’

’Her mane looks like actual honey.’

The mare, who I assumed was actually named Honey, gasped upon seeing me, causing me to once more flinch back, this time covering myself with my only wing. “Me and Longshot found her in a dumpster, we’re worried that she may have been an orphan at the Rolling hills orphanage. We’ve known that Caine isn’t nice to the foals there but we never found a reason to put him away. Little one here could be our best chance to get him.”

By now I had been peeking out from my wing “Oh, you poor dear.” Honey walked over causing my to hide again, and start shivering in fright. “Hey there.” I flinched at hearing her voice so close, peeking out from my wing again I saw she had crouched down so she’s eye level with me. “Hi, you don’t have to be scared of me.” I stood motionless, like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.

“Honey, she can’t speak. Or make much noise at all.” I took the opportunity quickly back away from Honey, and ‘trip’, falling onto my back, with the only sound out of my mouth being the rapid exhalation of air. I didn’t even have time to blink before she grabbed me in a hug, looking rather mortified as she just noticed my missing wing, and oozing sympathy. “And the worst part is that we can’t ask her how this happened.”

“Oh, you poor filly! What kind of pony can do this type of thing? Of course she can stay with us.”

’And like that, you’re in.’

‘And I’ll give any emotions I get to Peeko at night to pass around to the others.’

*Present day*

So apparently they were trying to feed me something nutritious enough to help get me back into shape, but not so nutritious that my body would reject it. Hence egg salad sandwiches with a side of bananas.

Even if this would just wind up as more of that slime stuff I can regurgitate, its free food, and it helped me keep my cover, so I wasn't complaining even if I did never like the taste of bananas.

“Stel, how old is she anyway?”

“I have no clue.” Stel turned to look at me, causing me to tense up. “Is there some way you could tell us?”

I kicked the table to get their attention, then eight more times. Stel looked back and his wife and she just shrugged. I did it again a little faster before Honey caught on. “You’re nine years old?” She looked awfully saddened at hearing my ‘age’.

I suddenly felt a familer presence, in the hivemind, calling to me.

‘could she have chosen a better time?’

’She’s probably worried, I’m guessing they all are.’

‘Awe crap. Its Tranquil. Tranquils crying and Peekos freaking out because neither she or Sugar can get him to stop.’ I took a moment to internally scrunch my face. ‘And Pigment… apparently finds Gildas tail highly amusing.’ I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from showing signs of my sudden horror to the ponies in front of me. ‘Oh fuck. oh fuck, fuck, FUCK!’

’What is it? What happened?!’

‘Tranquil just bit Sugar!’

’That supposed to be lethal, right?’

‘YES!’

’...Oh dear.’

I felt a wave of horror come from Peeko as I realized Sugar had fallen over. Then a sense of relief. ‘she's still breathing. not moving, but still breathing.’

“What’s wrong dear?” I was snapped out of the hive by Honey who was looking at me, Stel was washing the plates. Thinking quickly, I immediately freaked out and fell out of the chair, covering myself with my wing, making it look like they had just snapped out of some kind of horrific flashback. Honey rushed over to me and held me. “No no no, you’re ok now.” Now I had caught Stels attention too. I clutched the ‘scar’ where my other wing should have been, as if feeling a phantom pain, on the verge of hyperventilating.

’You’re a fast thinker, but you Still need to calm Tranquil down now that Sugar can’t.’

I curled into a little, shivering ball, trying to ignore what was going on around me so I could focus without breaking my disguise. Now able to focus on the hivemind properly, I tried to calm Tranquil down, as well as give Peeko a warning to *never* bite someone unless she intends to kill, as she most likely still has the same venomous bite I do.

“Honey? Maybe you should take her to the guest’s bedroom.”

“Good idea.” I felt myself being picked up, but didn’t make a move to acknowledge it, just kept shivering until I was laid down on a bed, and a blanket draped over me.

*later that night*

’Shin, wake up… Wake up! Peeko’s at the window!’

I bolted upright. ‘What!? What in the name of ducks is she doing out here!?’ I hopped out of the bed, and after a few jumps, managed to get enough height to reach to windowsill, where I popped the window open. And promptly got glomped by Peeko. I was about to chew her out for coming here, undisguised I might add, and trying to get my attention.

“Mommy, Why aren’t you coming home?” I paused for a moment, using my shapeshifting to restore my vocal chords to working order, before replying.

“Gathering food, lots of food.”

’If she’s going to be out, you should teach her how to transform properly. Not now, you don't want to wake Stel or his wife.’

“Look, I don’t want you coming looking for me, when you can’t even disguise yourself. I would never forgive myself if something were to happen to you.”

“Ok mommy, when will you be coming back home?”

“A day or two, there's also an important errand I have to run. but since you’re here, I have something I need you to do for me.”

“What is it mommy?”

“Remember that I said I was gathering food? I want you to take some back for you and the other nymphs.” I hugged Peeko, letting her absorb as much as she could. At some point she started to squirm a bit so I held back the rest. “Alright, take that and make sure to share it with everyone.”

“I will. Bye mommy.” She then climbed back out the window, before I shut it, and once more render my voice nonfunctional, waving to to Peeko as she headed back to the trailer.

’And to think somepony like you who’s so sweet has killed three ponies, is helping take over the country for a possible tyrant, and is currently tricking an innocent guard and his wife into feeding you for free.’

‘Hey, you’re skipping some pretty important details there!’

’That’s not going to stop anypony else from taking anything that you’ve done out of context.’

‘Pessimist. I fully intend to stab Chrysalis in the back just when she thought she'd won, maybe make it look like I was being influenced by her, and just broke free of said influence and exacted retribution.’

’So you intend to to trick the ponies into believing the truth?’

‘Yes, I know, total mind screw.’

*a few mintues latre, in shins dreamscape.*

*Nightmares POV*

I sat and watched Shinkiro’s strange dream as it played out. Occasionally something would come from the hivemind and effect her dream in subtle ways, parts of the dream blur out and refocus though it’s usually the creatures or Shinkiro’s own shape. All the while keeping an eye on the strange door that seems to be in all of her dreams covered in chains and police tape with sticky notes saying “Do not enter” or “Do not listen” and many others, the strangest one being “Do not R34”

Ignoring the door for now I look back at Shinkiro’s odd dream. It seems she is standing on nothing, but as she walks every hoof fall makes a ripple like water. She’s walking on a mirror like ocean and despite the wind there are no waves, only the small ripples in the water caused by her, currently, blurry form. Her mind is putting so much detail into the water and clouds that it seems unable to focus on itself.

I cast my attention back at the clearly dangerous door and see two of them, the same chained and tied up door as before and a new one. Curious, I went over to inspect it as I had the first when I saw it. It was a simple brown door and seemed to be the same as the other, minus the chain and tape, the only thing this door had that the other did not was the black chitinous lock above the handle. Was it a door to the Hivemind? If I could use it to move from changeling too changeling, I would most definitely be keeping the door here for use.

With the excuse of using the scientific method, I undid the lock and went through the door.

I was not prepared for the sparkly landscape that greeted me, or the thousands of doors that flowed through the area. Hearing a gasp I turned to see… what looked like a slightly warped reflection of me, the color was off, and the mane looked… different. I have the strangest feeling there was something not quite normal about this.

“I feel like I should know you.”

“You… I… that door… and you’re...” The other mare stammered.

“Your point?”

“You… how are you… No, I was the Nightmare”

“You’re crazy.”

“I’m not crazy! I’m you!”

“Then why are you claiming you used to be me?”

“I was. I am. I still am! Who are you!”

“I’m Nightmare Moon. Now answer me, who are you, and what are you doing attempting to enter this dream?”

“It’s my job to ensure my little ponies are safe in there dreams!”

“Really, She seemed pretty safe to me.”

“And how do I know you didn’t ruin her sleep?”

“Because I learned the hard way that doing so is a bad idea.”

“And why is that?”

“She has a.... vivid imagination. I don’t want to think about those Orne things ever again…”

“No doubt something you caused! Wait, what am I doing? You don’t exist, you shouldn’t exist!”

“But I do.”

“But you shouldn’t! You’re apart of me. Look!” The area around us shifted, the doors disappeared and the sparkly area darkened to a brightly lit castle. My eyes followed the long carpet down down to the end of the hall where there sat two thrones. One was made of gold and had a large purple pillow, the other was slightly smaller and made of silver with a blue pillow.

The sound of somepony talking drew my attention to the other side of the hall. There stood a mare with a white coat like freshly fallen snow. She had wings and a horn too and felt familiar, but I can’t seem to place a name. She was talking to somepony in a fancy suit.

“Sister!” The blue version of me stepped out onto a balcony overlooking the hall and spoke down to her sister. “We are tired of being shunned by our ponies while they seek your guidance and ignore us.”

“Luna ple-”

“Enough! If there can be only one princess of Equestria, then that princess shall be Me!” The now named blue mare, Luna stomped her hooves braking part of the balcony to make her point. Rising into the air, the moon following her as it eclipsed the sun and blocked out its light. So too did the alicorn, her coat turned from its royal blue to an inky black. I no longer felt like I was looking at a funhouse mirror, because I was standing on that balcony now. But I don’t remember this.

“Sister please don’t do this. The ponies need us to keep the day and night cycle going properly.” The white mare seemed to show a hint of fear on her face but hid it well. “Luna you must retur-”

“We are not ‘Luna’ any more, we are Nightmare Moon!” As the image of me shouted, everything faded away leaving behind only me, the door I came from, and the image of me that slowly changed back into Luna.

“You see? That was me, it has always been me. So who. Are. You?” Luna had started walking towards me, clearly angry. I didn’t know what to think, what to do, But I did know I didn’t feel like fighting right now and retreated for the door which I only now noticed I was still chained too.

As soon as I locked the door behind me with the strange lock, and put my own on it, I collapsed.

*The next day*

*shins POV*

I felt someone nudging me, trying to get my attention. “Little one, wake up.” Oh fuck, why is there someone in here with me!? My eyes snapped open, and I saw Honey at the foot of the bed, causing me to leap upright in fright before the events of last night caught up with me, leaving me breathing rapidly. Honey seemed to hesitate, and I was sensing the concern she was feeling.

“Careful dear, you’re alright. Come on, I have breakfast ready for you downstairs.” I managed to steady my breathing, and followed her back downstairs, acting a bit twitchy and tense. Oddly enough, NIghtmare was being exceptionally quiet, she usually greets me when I wake up.

‘Hello? has something happened? You’re being awfully quite.’

’N-no, nothing’s wrong. I was just… thinking.’

The deleivery

*The next night*

’There's someone at the window again!’

Seriously? again? I made my way out of the bed , and looking out the window, I found myself questioning what I was looking at.

Seriously. there was a powder blue stallion, with a curly blond mane, right at the window.

‘Really? am I being stalked by a child molester or something?’

’How disgusting. A broken nose can fix this.’

I smirked, as I managed to get close enough to the window to be out of the ponys line of sight, I let my true, full sized form show, but focused, trying to suppress the flames. it worked, but the transformation was a lot slower, and stung like a monkeys uncle. I quickly cast the soundproofing spell I had learned from trixie, and popped the window latch open with my magic, and the moment I saw a hoof reach over, I sprung into action.

I grabbed the hoof, and did what was probably the pony equivalent of a judo throw, leaving the unfortunate trespasser sprawled on his back, and as he tried to stand up, I pinned him with my body mass, applying just enough force to his windpipe with my foreleg to make breathing quite difficult, before I hissed into his ear. “Now, who are you, and why where you following me?”

”Don’t h-hurt meeeee!”

My shadow started to bend around my side before stopping in front of us. A single eye opened revealing Nightmare as she peeled herself off the floor with a manic grin showing off her fangs. She turned towards the pony in my grip as her eyes lock on him. “Why should we listen to a potential thief and foal molester?” Nightmare said as she leered over him.

“Oh sweet hive mother, I don’t want die!”

Wait… hive mother? ...shit, Chrysalis must have sent him to get the files from me!

“Oh… Chrysalis sent you, didn’t she?” I let up the pressure on his windpipe, not moving off him though until he confirmed my theory.

The ‘pony’ beneath me nodded rapidly. That seemed to bum Nightmare out as she frowned and backed off a little. I backed myself off, letting him stand up.

“Don’t worry, I set up a soundproofing spell the moment I got to the window… So rest assured, no one heard you screaming like a baby.”

I giggled at the unamused look on his face as he got up and shed his disguise. “You… you were a lot less scary when we met in that freezer…”

Oh god… I did not need to be reminded of that. Feeling your body shut down was not a pleasant experience

“And I’ve never seen someone, pony or changeling, move like you did a few minutes ago.”

“I believe you have a love interest, shinkiro.”

“Annnnd now that image is stuck in my head…”

”What image? you biting his head off after mating?” The color drained from Hardshells face.

“Nope! nopenopenope, NOPE!” He rapidly backed into a corner, scared shitless by Nightmares remark.

‘Did you really have to say that?’ I thought as I glared at her.

Nightmare just shrugged. ’Well, I thought it was funny.’

I sighed, pulling the files out from beneath my wing plates and tossing them to the terrified drone. “Just take the files and go back to your queen.”

With a stupefied nod, he grabbed the files, and after crawling out the window and getting to the ground, transformed into a pegasus and flew off.

‘You're getting pretty good at moving independently from me.’

’I’m becoming more solid too.’

‘I know, you hit me when I was freaking out about Peekos botched shapeshifting attempt.’

’You’re welcome, felt good too.’

I shifted around, beginning to feel uncomfortable for some reason. Kinda like Peeko did after she was filled to the brim with emotional energy…

Oh.

‘I don’t think there's much reason to stay any longer if I can’t hold any more emotion.’

’Then lets just go, whatever Stel and Honey think happened isn’t our problem. Your nymphs will be happy to see you again.’

‘I… actually feel kinda bad making Stel and Honey go through this...’

’Does it matter now? It’s not like you can just stay here forever, you knew that.’

‘I know… all good things must come to an end.’ I sighed as I hopped out the window, giving one last look back to those who I would leave panicking over a presumed missing foal. ‘I’ll be glad to hug Peeko again.’

After a long trek back, I finally reached the trailer, when I opened the door however, I was rather surprised by what I saw.

Sugar was curled up in a corner, rocking back and forth while crying.

’What happened to her?’

‘I have no idea...’ As I took in the state she was in, I noticed Trixie trying to comfort her, to no avail. “Trixie?” She jumped in surprise, having not heard me entering over the sound of Sugar crying. “Whats going on?”

“I dont know! the other day after recovering from getting bitten, she was complaining about headaches, and getting all shaky. she hasn't eaten at all since then either!”

‘...fuck.’

’Did that bite do this?’

‘No, what Trixie just described sounds like the symtoms of withdrawl.’ I took a moment to think of anything she could have done that she hadn't in the last while, and came to a single conclusion. ‘Well… Thats rather disturbing...’ Nightmare looked at me, waiting for me to continue. ‘apparently being actively fed off of is addictive.’

’If it’s addictive, then does that mean she only started to like you because of it?’

‘...To be honest, I was banking on Stockholm Syndrome, but this at least means even if she somehow breaks free of what metal manipulation I’ve applied, she won't be getting too far. As much as I don’t like having to do this to her, I need her around to keep me and my nymphs fed.’

’So you plan to keep her addicted to you so she’s be less likely to leave. I can only imagine what will happen to her when you let her go back to her normal life, if you even can by that point.’

‘hopefully when it gets to that point I can wean her off it.’ As I walked over and patted Sugar on the shoulder, she froze. Before I could do anything, she scooted away from me at ludicrous speeds, immediately beginning to hyperventilate, starting at me like I was some kind of demon. ‘Do you… think I might need to sedate her?’ I mentally asked Nightmare, as I glanced at my tail.

’You might. You feed on positive emotion and suppress negative ones, I’m willing to guess that the withdraw is all her negative emotions coming back to her. She used to be angry and scared of you, right? I think what we were just seeing was depression.’

‘Right. She can’t hurt me or my nymphs though and I can order her to not hurt herself, but I’d rather avoid it all together.’

’Why not stick her in the pod then until she’s calmed down?’

‘Good idea.’ I motioned Trixie over and and quietly told her I was going to have to sedate Sugar, for her own safety, before with a sigh of resignation, I drove my stinger into Sugars back, and watched her go limp as the venom paralyzed her. I then hauled her back to my room, where I looked at the pod I had woken up in after the freezer incident. I was able to breath whatever that goop was inside it, so it was safe to assume that sugar would be able to as well.

Driving my horn into the pod, I created a large incision, before gently forcing Sugars limp form in. It was actually kinda surprising to see how much that pod could stretch from the outside, as Sugars limp form was forced into the fetal position, and the cut begun sealing up.

For the briefest moment, I heard Nightmare chuckle, before something landed on my face making an excited squeal, and two more somethings latched onto my forelegs.

‘Did… I really just get ambushed by my own nymphs?’ I stared into Peekos eyes, before the three nymphs chirped out as one.

“MAMA!”

I giggled softly as I picked up all three of them in my magic, before hugging them. They're like adorable little ninja! “Mama? Why was Sugar acting weird? and why'd you put her in the thingy?”

“Uhhhh…” ‘Little help?’

’...She’s sick.’

“Shes sick, like really sick, and needs some time to get better.” Technically, addiction is a mental sickness, so its not a complete lie…

I just about jumped as a wave of panic washed over me, coming from Sugar. turning to look, I saw her bug eyed, holding her breath as tried to get out of the pod, but the lingering effects of the venom left her without enough strength to even get it to stretch slightly. The panic kept building as she kept trying to escape, until it changed to sheer terror as I noticed her starting to turn blue in the face. within a few seconds, her eyes nearly rolled back as a bubble of air escaped her and she inhaled sharply… and the terror become surprise, then confusion, as her frantic breathing begun to level out. She wouldn't be able to hurt herself from in there, meaning I just had to wait out the resurge of negative emotions until I could feed off the positive ones again. Knowing Sugar wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon, I turned back to my nymphs… And Tranquil was nibbling on a strand of my mane.

“Awww, look who's being an adorable little nymph!” I tried my best to tune out the expected anger from Sugar, instead focusing on the three little ball of cuteness I was currently holding.

“Where Hidey?” Pigment managed to blurt out, looking at me with infantile curiosity, causing Nightmare to make a ‘tch’ sound in annoyance.

‘Aw, peekos nickname spread! I'm so jealous!’

’Yes, I am over joyed.’

“Wanna hug Hidey!” Pigment shouted.

”Fine.” Nightmare peeled herself up and off the floor, coming around my side and causing another wave of fear from Sugar. As she help Pigment in a hug, I set the other two nymphs down, mouthing to them to ‘watch this’... And hugged Nightmare from behind. For a shadow, she felt surprisingly warm and cuddly.

”Shinkiro?”

“Yes?”

”What are you doing?”

“hugging you.”

”Shinkiro? Stop.”

“Hmmmmmm… Nah, you’re actually pretty cuddly.” Giving me a flat glare, she actually simply phased through me, leaving me holding Pigment. “Awww… You don’t like hugs?”

“I don’t want your brainwashing hugs, I’ve seen what you do to Sugar.”

“That wasn’t the hugs.”

”That doesn’t mean they don’t help”

“Why would I even want to brainwash you?”

”Am I not supposed to be evil? I know nothing about the binding spell used on me proving that it must be new.”

“Well, it wouldn't be very good binding spell if the being bound by it could figure out how to undo it.”

”Or killing it’s new owner. I’ve tried.” Well, that just killed the mood completely. ”I could try starving you, considering your food source, but that would be unwise as I no longer regenerate mana. Just as you rely on it from others, I now rely on it from you. And I can’t lie to you or trick you, your hivemind prevents me from doing so!”

“Well, would you rather still be dead?”

”Would it matter? I… I don’t feel like talking anymore.” With a sigh, Nightmare retreated back into my shadow. That was… enlightening.

“What wrong with Hidey?”

“I… don’t know Pigment… I don’t know…”

Expermenting and learning something new

As the sun's rays woke me from my sleep, I found myself staring into Peekos eyes, an expectant look on her face. Right. I said I would teach her how to properly shapeshift after she snuck out of the trailer to try and find me. “Alright, alright, I’ll teach how to shapeshift!” She giggled excitedly and hopped down to the floor, where I stretched myself out, before before shaking the last vestiges of sleep from my system. Once I was wide awake, a thought occurred to me.

How was I going to teach Peeko how to shapeshift?

Perhaps if she could see what she was supposed to transform into? I grabbed the pod containing Sugar, and levitated it over, causing its occupant to attempt to struggle, to no avail. I could feel she was angry with me, although not as angry as before. Apparently even passive feeding was enough to slowly get her emotions back under control. “Now, as I recall Peeko, you tired transforming in front of the bathroom mirror, and your attempt went… rather badly. Could you perhaps explain what you were thinking while trying to transform?”

“Ummm… Thinking of Trixie, then thinking of me being her… then I was wondering how to get rid of the leg holes…”

I don’t think that much focus was required to transform… ‘Hey, Nightmare, can I get your opion on this?’

’What do you want?’

‘I’m not exactly sure how to explain how to transform… the first time I did it I merely started it with a thought and it kept going even after I started freaking out, and beyond that, it’s basically been instinctual for me.’

’Than tell her that. Besides, you turned into a mute, scarred, wingless filly without your instincts.’

‘I said instinctual. it's basically like breathing at this point, I just do it.’

“Peeko, you're overthinking it. You just need to… uh, ‘spark’ it, and it will finish by itself”

“Okay momma!”

A quick plume of flames later, and I was staring at Sugar… albit with Peekos eyes.

“Did I do good Momm… oops…” She hadn't changed her voice either.

“Well, you did a lot better than before… Why don't you try one more time, just picture what you want to become, and once the flames start, let your mind go blank?”

Two burst of fire later, a perfect duplicate of Sugar was standing before me.

“Did it work?” She had even gotten the voice right this time

“It worke-” I didn't even get to finish my sentence before Peeko glomped me, still in the form of Sugar. And with her disguised as a full grown pony, the force of said glomp knocked me to the floor. And then promptly licked me while giggling like a maniac. “Heh, yes, I get you’re happy, but was that really necessary?”

“...Yes.”

“Funny. Pigments been a bad influence on you I see.” I coaxed Peeko off of me, where she reverted to her normal changeling form, before clearing my throat. “Now that you know how to shapeshift, I guess I could take you on a little hunt tonight.” With that out of the way, I picked up the pod containing Sugar, and after walking up the wall and onto the ceiling, expelling some of that adhesive slime to stick the pod to the ceiling, where nopony would be able to reach her.

*later that night.*

The plan was simple. Find a hobo, because nobody ever misses the hobos. The very first thing I had Peeko do was transform into a kitten, before I used my cloaking spell and hid in an alleyway, while I monitored what Peeko was doing through the hivemind. I watched as Peeko grabbed the bag of bits I had brought, and started making a trail starting at where I was, before eventually going around a corner. Watching through her eyes, I observed as she continued with that trail, stopping just before the corner to another alleyway, and setting down the bag, before peeking around the corner, revealing an dirty, orange stallion, who had a brown mane, and was currently wearing a rather beaten grey cap. As Peeko got closer, she, and by extension I, noticed the bottles strewn about. The sight of that made me a little queasy, remembering my previous experience with alcohol. Peeko mewed, causing the hobo to roll over.

“It's on. its on like-” He snored loudly, before suddenly jolting awake. “Wha-?” Peeko mewed again, catching his attention, before ducking around the corner, and grabbing the bag of bits, dashing back the way she had come, until she reached where I was. Peeko beamed at my sense of approval, before revealing her true form and crawling up the wall of the alleyway, peeking over the edge of it.

“Haha! My lucks finally taken a turn for the better, who’da thought somepony would lose so much money!”

He was taking the bait alright. As he walked into the alleyway, picking up the bits as he went, I got ready, sneaking up the wall, until I was right over top of him. I uncloaked, and as I readied a blob of gel to spit, he looked up. “What the fu-” I spat it, splattering it across his face, blinding him, and causing him to reel back in fright, just as Peeko jumped off the top of the wall and landed on him, knocking him to the floor as she drove her stinger tail into his back. Within a few seconds, he went limp, the venom having taken effect.

“See Peeko, it’s easy if you know what you’re doing.”

“I did good?”

“Yes Peeko, yes you did.”

“yaaay!” She glomped me again, wings buzzing excitedly. Looking at the hobo, I cast a cloaking spell, before dragging him in the direction of the trailer.

After wrapping the hobo up in a cocoon, and hanging him from the ceiling, I summoned the nymphs. Soon Peeko, Pigment, and Tranquil stood before me, Pigment looking a bit nervous. Peeko looked at him with squinted eyes, before transforming into him and booping him on the snout.

“Pay attention please.” I said calmly. The nymphs attention was almost immediately drawn to me. “Now, I want you to try and feed on this guy here,” Pointing to the tied up hobo. “Now I know I told you all not to do that on your own, but I’m not going to be able to do it for you all the time. And I didn’t want Trixie or Sugar getting drained dry, or Gilda. Who knows what an ampathatic meat eater would do. So, you can learn how to pull emotions from him instead. Peeko why don’t you go first, you helped catch him.” Peeko walked up to him, unsure of what to do, hugged him. “It might be a bit forced, I had to force love out of Sugar at first. Search through his emotions and find the one that ‘tastes’ best.”

I spared a glance at the pod that held Sugar, she seemed to be leveling out finally. It took her awhile but she did find love in him, it probably would have been easier to find if it wasn’t buried under a mix of over emotions. Now that she had found it, she looked confused at what to do next. “Now that you’ve found it, you need to pull it into yourself. This is why I want you to use the hobo instead of somepony else, figuring out how much to take at once. If you take too much they’ll be drained and it’ll take longer for them to recover, if you take too little it won't be enough to sustain you. Nither of which is good.” Peeko still seemed a bit confused about how to do it, I’m sure she’d figure it out like I did. Thinking about how I drew love from Sugar and thinking of a good allegory for it. “Like this, your magic and the love inside him and like spools of thread, tie yours to his and pull on it, unwinding his spool and adding it to yours. And when you’ve taken enough, cut it off.” Peeko scrunched her face up concentrating, and eventually, I saw the first few wisps of love energy begin being sucked into her horn. I smiled. “See?”

“Now, There's one other thing I need you to learn, how to pass these emotions on to the others.” Peeko gave me a confused chirp, like she thought she had done something wrong. Why can't I do that!? Giving her a soft nuzzle, I comforted her, telling her she had done nothing wrong.

“Mommy?” Peeko asked. “Why no make noise?” She chirped again to demonstrate. I felt myself flush at the cheeks, and heard Nightmare cackle in my head.

’You don’t know, and yet I have to listen to it drown out your snoring!

‘What do you mean?!’

’You chirp in your sleep all the time!’

My cheeks flushed further. ‘I-I do!? But, how do I do it? And why didn't you tell me about this!?’

’You never asked.

‘You suck, you know that?’ I replied in annoyance. ‘Be thankful im feeling merciful.’

“Mama? Are you talking to Hidey again?”

“Yes…” I blushed even more intensely. “Peeko? Can you show me how you do that?”

'You have to ask a child, how to do something that you should already know how to do?'

I quickly got the mental image of basically vibrating something that peeko didn't know the word for in your throat

I tried to imitate it, and after two or three coughing fits, managed to produce a deeper, more bassy chirp, which Peeko happily chipped in reply to.

“Trixie demands to know whats making all this noises, Is there a bird loose in here!?” We both turned and chirped at trixie in response. “... Trixie hates both of you.” With that being said, she slammed the door closed and walked away in a huff. I promptly burst into laughter, causing a chain reaction making Peeko laugh too, and I could hear Pigment laughing somewhere too, before Tranquil faintly joined in too with silly giggling.

“Okay, somebody care to explain what's so funny pigment just started spontaneously laughing?” Gilda inquired as she opened the door trixie had shut not moments ago.

“Trixie had a ‘fuck this shit i'm out’ moment when she found out i discovered how to make that chirping noise.” After a moment of silence, if you don’t count the giggling from Peeko or the others that could be heard, I chirped at Gilda. She sighed and walked away, muttering ‘i don't get payed enough for this…’ which prompted more laughing from everyone.

“Trixie believes you don’t get payed at all!”

nymphs and a lost soul

“Peeko, the light fixture is not your personal warm spot. How did you even get up there anyway?”

“Spider chase!” she replied, leaving me confused.

“Did you chase the spider, or did the spider chase you?”

“Spider chase!”

“Peeko, stop, your confusing me” I said, getting frustrated

“Spider!” She cried again

Sugar seemed just as confused about as I was. “Do you know what Peeko’s going on abou-”

“Spider!” This time it wasn’t Peeko that cried out. Trixie came running down the hall into the living room and nearly toppled Sugar over, and would have if I didn’t catch her. Trixie herself ran past us and towards the front door, yelling. “There is a spider in Trixie’s room!”

Both Sugar and I had to look down the hall to Trixie’s room. At the end of the hall, I heard pigment and Tranquil crying in the bathroom across from the doorway Trixie just came through. We shared a glance and I walked towards Trixie’s room. Visions of the monstrous creature that now laid claim to the room, fangs dripping with poison, and eyes black and empty. The eyes of a killer with no emotion, cold and distant.

I opened the door, Sugar behind me with a newspaper. The room looked empty. Walking in, I stepped on something. A chill went down my spine at the thought of what it was. Looking down at my hoof…

I had stepped on it. It was big though, could have passed for a tarantula. I can see why the nymphs would have been afraid of something big enough to Facehugger them, but Trixie?

“Well that was anti-climatic.” I muttered, scraping the dead insect off my hoof.

While messages can be intercepted. Dreams or rather nightmares can not and Shin left quite the impression on Glider and the guards. So much so Luna could not help but notice. “ In all my years i have never seen a nightmare this frightening”Luna said as she watch the large monster chase the stallion. The beast was a sight to see vaguely pony like with a mouth full of blooded teeth, too many to fit it a normal mouth, large bladed wings slicing lamp posts to pieces as it flies near them. A tail dripping with poison, and claws, very large sharp claws still covered in the remains of ponies most likely friends of the stallion named Glider. “I must alert sister about this monster hunting ponies this nightmare is too stable and similar to the guards to be fake,” Luna thought to herself as she gave the victim a dreamless sleep just as the monster was on him, drool pouring from it’s maw.

“Celestia there is a need for the elements summon your student this is dire news!” Luna yelled to her sister thankfully when there was a break in Day court. “What is it dear sister?”. Was Celestia’s response. “I will inform you when you student and her friends are here this need to be told all at once and i don't want to repeat myself.”was Luna’s response.

{Later when mane six arrive}

“Announcing the arrival of the Elements of Harmony!” a guard yells out attracting the attention for the princess as Celestia tries in vain to get Luna to tell her what she summoned them for. “So whats up Princess have another evil needs stomping or what” ask Rainbow hartley. “I'm afraid not this is no foe the elements can defeat.” Luna responded. “WHAT” they all yelled shocked “this is no being of evil or darkness the elements will have no effect. No we face a monster while i do not know how it came to be or what it truly looks like i am certain a monster roams the land i have seen it through the dream realm. Luna explained “w-what do you want us to do” fluttershy whispered cowering in fear “i simply ask you keep an eye out for this monster.” was all Luna could say. “I fear what this beast is doing right now”

“Peeko! Peeko! WHERE ARE YOU!! God damnit where the hell are you.” I shouted. Peeko ran outside into the woods spooked by the spider know we can’t find her. “Did you find her yet?” suger asked walking up behind me. “No. I can still feel her through our connection so i know she's alive but she's too young and panicked to give any idea where she is” I respond. If not for our connection I would be panicking so much but at least I can tell she's safe if at the moment spooked. At least that's what I thought before her panic skyrocketed. “Oh fuck!” i heard the echos of a small explosion. “OH fuck oh fuck oh fuck”.

“What in celestia's name was that!” shouted Sugar in absolute panic.

“I don’t know but i doubt it's good” I respond. Strange, Peeko still seems ok in fact she feels.. joyfull? Suddenly a few more explosions sound. Why does she seems happy all of sudden. If i could i’d be pissing myself right now.

“Um shin should we go check that out...please say no please say no? Sugar asks me shaking a little. “I don’t know sugar would make some sense peeko caused those but why would she be happy about it beyond me” I respond. “Well we can’t just stay here we have got to go find her and that would be the best place to start.” “dang it” Sugar mumbles to herself. We started walking only to hear leaves rustling. “Wh-what's that” Sugar sutters. I get ready to pounce. Only to see Peeko run out with a smile on her face and sap on her forehoof? “Mama mama I made boom boom”.

The only thought in my head at that moment was “how the hell?”

“I made a new friend she made plant go boom boom”. Oooooh a plant exploded wait a plant exploded why would a plant ex. Wait somepony found Peeko!!!!. Oh crap oh crap oh crap.

“Friends helped me find mama.” PEEKO LEAD THEM HERE!!!!. “Come out meet mama.” Peeko called out to the tree line. Soon after a small figure walks out where a heavy gray cloak it looks old as well. The figure is only a little taller then peeko. It moved silently not making a sound as it walk towards us.

There wasn't one discerning piece I could use to tell what the figure was. I decided to speak up. “Give me one good reason not to stuff you in a pod.”

“ Mama no! They friend!” Peeko wailed in objection.

“Sorry dear i can't let anypony i don't trust know about us” i responded not taking my eyes of the silent figure. “Well you going to say something or am i going to have to get creative?”. The figure does not respond. But it slowly reached to one of its forelegs and pulled up the cloak.

Cheese leg.

Fuck. The changeling won't be a risk in the same way. They won't rat me out, but they have to be from Chrysalis’s hive. She must have sent them to keep an eye on me. “Oh that's a pretty good reason” I respond lamely

“See mama friend safe.” I doubt that peeko, I doubt that.

”you could have just told me you were a changeling you know.” The figure made a motion to their throat then shook their head. “Wait you're mute!?!” they nod. Aaaand know I feel like a ass. Can I even use that term here? I think I heard donkeys are sentient here? “Well anyway come in I need to get Peeko ready for bed and honestly i’m too tired for this.”

{That night in the dream realm}

“You will not stop me today Shin I will get answers” Luna thought to herself as she entered the dream realm. “Where are you changeling.” Luna thought annoyed at how hard it is to find Shin even with her skill. there are so many dreamers the realm looks like its own solar system. “There you are” Luna muttered miles away from the nearest dream center. ”Ugh the connections are even stronger. Wait what this magic surrounding her mind? WHAT THIS IS MY MAGIC!” Luna screamed when she tried to enter. “How dare she!? I’m the mistress of dreams! no pony shall stop me fro- wait this orp is different but similar to hers.” Luna noticed a new dream orp near Shin. While Shin’s is a bright blue surrounded by many smaller orp this one a deep green. Or it would be but it's so gray almost all the color is had been sucked away, the green is only holding on by sheer will. “This dream it's, it's so cold yet there no bite like anger or hatred. No this cold I remember that feeling. The feeling of solitude of abandonment. Who are you young dreamer to feel such emotion as strong as mine those years ago.” Luna spoke solemnly as she enter the dream.

{The dream}

Upon entering the dream Luna was knocked back by the sudden chill of a blizzard. “By my moon this blizzard is is as cold as a wendigos at their worst.” and soon luna sees why as a wendigo flouts by ignoring her.” what has this dreamer been through to have them in their dream.” suddenly she heard a voice. “That voice it's from the dreamer. It sound so beautiful but so sad.”

Luna followed the song to discover a figure barely taller than a foal in a thick old gray coat. The figure is walking to what appears to be a cliff face.

The figure stops at the cliff face and places a hoof in the air only for it to stop and show a meadow. A meadow they can never enter.

The figure sung as it looked through to the meadow as figures of many color dance around. Some as small as a foal to three as tall as alicorns one white, one a dark blue, and one a deep black with a green mane. They all ignore the domed blizzard. The figure moves away but the meadow can still be seen.

The song ended as the figure walked away removing the hood . Its then luna realizes the figure never moved its mouth and not a single noise is heard as it walk through the thick snow. ”Who are you to face such sorrow.” Luna spoke aloud. The figure stop and looked behind and let’s luna see it.. No, her, eyes. Eyes a beautiful emerald sheen. If not for the empty look in them. No one could look in those eyes and be happy.

For in those eyes lay a life abandoned. Never to know the love of a mother.

Prologue

You've probably met me before, you know that guy at the bar who sits in the back and never talks to anyone? That's me. I've always had a knack for blending in to the point where its become a joke to say I'm secretly Asian and a ninja. (no offense meant) Anyways, I've always been an avid Brony, and honestly, ever since watching a Canterlot Wedding, I've sympathized with the changelings. (except Chrysalis, she was a total b**ch who deserved to be sent to the moon)

Anyway, I was sitting on the couch at home watching a Canterlot Wedding part 2, when I saw headlights coming up the lane from my window. 'Weird, nobody ever comes up here, its a dead end.' (with my house at the end) Turning back to the show, it had gotten to the part where Shining and Cadence blast the changelings away with a wall of love.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

I whip my head around, only to see, to my horror, the care from a few seconds earlier barreling straight towards me

"Well fu-"

*CRASH!*

Now most people think dieing is extremely long and painful, its not, its like getting the entire current of a nuclear reacter pumped through you briefly, then nothing...