Fly on the Wall

He’s not suspicious like I expected. Instead, he gives off more love. It’s almost scary. Fortunately, it allows me to concentrate on my appearance enough for me to speak. He sets the razor on a bedside table and wipes off the small amount of remaining shaving cream. He climbs onto the massive bed. I doubt even the princesses’ beds are this large.

“Indeed I am, my husband.” I say to him. “The business in Mauritania has ended early. The ponies allowed me and the others to leave early. I know you don’t mind.” I climb onto the bed next to him.

He kisses me on the lips. I can give away the love he gave me before. That kiss alone could feed an army of changelings. “You’re correct, Uzma. Before we do our reunion ritual,” he says with a wink, “I’ll let the guards know to not bother us for the next few days.” The love is temporarily replaced with lust as he steps off the bed and over to the door. He opens it. After a few seconds, a guard walks over. They talk for a bit. “No matter what you hear, don’t open the door.” I hear Toma say. The guard walks off with a smile that could be seen from orbit.

The door closes. Toma turns to me with a seductive smile. “It’s time for our reunion.” He says. He removes his shirt.

To be honest, I don’t know how much time passes. My guess is two days. Maybe? I don’t know. However much time passes, it’s absolutely amazing. Toma isn’t the kind of stallion that just ruts a mare. As a mare, I’ve never been with a stallion that’s been quite like Toma. I have been, as a stallion, with a mare like that. Either way, loving relationships like this are rare.

As much as I hate to do this, I have to kill him. The princesses sent me here for a reason. I know this will break his heart. Heartbreak is the worst thing a changeling can feel. Maybe the love I’ve gathered up from him will be enough to counter what I’ll have to experience?

I sigh. Toma doesn’t seem to notice it. I grab the straight razor. “Toma.” I say. He turns to me. His eyes lock onto the razor. The love he previously felt is rapidly replaced with fear. I have to feel his fear, too. “I’m sorry, Toma. I’ll make this fast. It will hurt us both less.” I promise.

“What? What are you saying, Uzma?!” He shouts. The fear grows suddenly. He probably remembered what he told the guards.

“Please, be quiet. I don’t want to make this longer than it has to be.” I say forlornly. I climb onto the bed. He backpedals and falls off. His head strikes a bedside table leg hard enough to break it. It collapses and falls onto him. His physical pain is not even remotely as bad as his mental pain. The fear is replaced with a sickening sense of heartbreak.

It’s strong enough to force me to drop my form as Malak Uzma. Toma locks eyes with me. “...Of course… A changeling.” He’s still heartbroken. “Is my Uzma alive?” I nod. His heartbreak is lessened slightly. I barely notice it. “Good. Take me out of my misery.”

I move next to him. I hug him and slice his throat. He gurgles a few times before finally, finally passing away. The only good thing about his death is that the sickening heartbroken feeling in the air is gone.

I take Malak Uzma’s form again and walk out of the door. I close it. I want to be caught, found out, and be executed for my crimes. The least I could do to make this for the better for any party would be to tell Princess Celestia about what happened.

I walk out of the castle without a word to any of the guards. I get a few strange looks. One of them asks why I look so depressed. I don’t answer him and instead walk out of the building. I head south. After a few kilometers, I shoot up a red colored flare and turn to the west.

During the long walk, my mind wanders over exactly what happened in the past week. My former family attacked Canterlot. My former queen was blasted from the castle into parts unknown. I’ll probably never know whether she survived or not. Honestly, I don’t even care anymore.

During the invasion, I was captured by the ponies. The princesses made me kill Toma Jabhir. I don’t even remember why they did anymore. Something about resources or spreading rumors? Does it even matter? What is a life worth now?

I wish the ponies killed me along with my family. I’m going to have to live with killing an innocent pony for the rest of my life. The bad thing is, changelings live for twice as long as ponies. I have over 100 long years of remembering this day. Having to live with what happened for an hour is hard enough.

My thoughts distract me enough that I don’t remember much of the journey to the small town that is my destination. A few ponies are there waiting for me. One earth pony, one unicorn, and one pegasus.

“This is him.” The earth pony says. He’s probably the leader of these ponies. “Sorry, changeling, but our magic isn’t strong enough to teleport us to Equestria. We’ll have to use a boat to get there.” He has a thick Arabian accent.

They notice that I don’t say anything. Even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. The ponies are all feeling very uncomfortable. “Anypony know body language? I think it’s the same for changelings as it is for ponies.”

The pegasus steps up. “I know some. If he’s anything like a pony, he’s pretty pissed off or depressed. Can’t tell the difference with this one. Either way, we should leave him alone for the trip. Equestria’s half way across the planet, so it’ll be a long trip. Five days at most.”

The pegasus is right. I’m not sure what emotion I'm feeling, though. Am I mad at the princesses for making me go through that? Am I depressed for having to go through that? Either way, I just want to be alone for the next few days.

The trip lasts for four and a half days. During the trip, I get over the murder-- not assassination-- for the most part. I identified my emotions during the trip. Both anger and depression. Mostly the latter. Funny that a creature with the ability to tell the emotions of others can’t tell what emotion it was feeling.

The boat docks at Manehattan. I’m too depressed to pick up a form. The ponies put me in a box my size and smuggle me to Canterlot. They tell me they’ve done this hundreds of times before. What they’re doing is technically illegal. Celestia knows, too, but she’s giving them a break for it since it’s for the ‘good of Equestria’ or something.

The box opens. I’m back in the castle. Several guards are uncomfortable with me around. Some are angry at me. One feels sorry for me. The rest don’t care. One of the guards without any feelings towards me steps forward. “The princesses have information for you, changeling.” He says. Without another word, I follow him. We go into the same room as the first time I saw the princesses.

Like I expected, and as the guard said, the three princesses and the unicorn are in the room.

Princess Celestia raises her head to face me. She sighs. “I have some bad news and some good news, Changeling.” She says. “The bad news comes from sources in Saddle Arabia. That wasn’t Toma Jabhir.”

The news takes a second to click into my mind. It hits like a freight train. “That wasn’t Toma? That wasn’t who I was supposed to kill?” I ask quietly.

She reluctantly shakes her head. “No. The good news is--”

“Then who the fuck was that?!” I shout. “Who did I kill?”

“Please calm down, Changeling.” Princess Luna says in a voice that would usually be calming. Now? It’s just annoying.

“I killed an innocent pony, Luna.”

“That wouldn’t be the first time.” The purple unicorn says. The hatred flows off of her and into me.

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll make you join them.” I tell her. It’s not a threat. It’s not a warning. It’s a statement. If she keeps talking, I’m going to kill her and I won’t feel a damn thing. As if she’s a changeling, she senses my thoughts and stands down. I turn to Celestia. “Who did you make me kill?”

“That was Toma Khayri. He was Jabhir’s twin brother.”

“Twin brother.” I repeat. “Twin brother. Of all the things you know about this bastard, that’s what you mess up? I killed an innocent pony. If I knew about that, I would have killed his wife instead and take her place.”

“Do you think that Khayri wouldn’t have found out?” Luna points out. “He wasn’t blind. He would have found out eventually, Changeling. He would find out that you killed his wife. I’m certain he would feel even worse if that happened.”

I rest my head on the table. She’s right. “There isn’t a way to fix this, Changeling. We can, however, find where Jabhir actually is.”

“Have someone else kill him.” I say, lifting my head back up. If there was one twin, who’s to say there’s not a third? Or a fourth? I don’t want to kill anypony that doesn’t deserve it. After what these ‘princesses’ put me through, I don’t think Toma Jabhir deserves it. The ‘princesses’ deserve whatever piece of hell they get.

“You’re the only one that can, Changeling.” Luna says. “Jabhir knows we’re trying to kill him now. He knows what we look like. He doesn’t know about changelings, however.”

“His brother did.” I point out. “Who’s to say the actual target doesn’t? After you messed up who was in Saddle Arabia, I don’t know what to trust from you.”

“Changeling.” Celestia says in a soft, yet powerful, voice. “We are sending you back to Saddle Arabia. We know that Toma Jabhir is in Maredina. It isn’t our fault that you… retired the wrong pony. If the blame is to be put onto anypony, it would be who gave you the information, or you yourself.”

“You want to know who gave me that information?” I ask. They look up. “A pegasus named Shooting Star. He died because of this mission.” The unicorn looks shocked, like I just punched her in the face. I’m tempted to actually do so. “He didn’t deserve it. Neither did Toma Khayri. I don’t know if Toma Jabhir does, either. I’d be willing to guess you’re the corrupt ones and you’re just making shit up.”

“Changeling.” Celestia says again, this time with a stronger, louder voice. The unicorn visibly jumps, despite still being shocked at the news of Shooting Star’s death. “You will go to Saddle Arabia to kill Toma Jabhir. You don’t have any choice. With the way you’ve acted to my family and Twilight Sparkle, you don’t deserve any choices. You shouldn’t even deserve life, but we need you.”

“Then kill me. I’ve already lost everything I’ve owned. I’ve lost things that I haven’t even owned.”

“Changeling.” Luna interrupts the conversation in a soft, polite voice. It’s not as powerful as Celestia’s. There isn’t any anger, hatred, or any negative emotion in it. “You have a family now. A family in Equestria. I know, you do not consider us family. I consider you to be a member of mine, even if my sister does not.” A non-romantic, almost family-like love seeps from her.

Luna is the only one that could make me go back willingly. I sigh. “Fine. You’ve convinced me, Luna.” I say. She smiles. Celestia just looks displeased. Almost angry. “If this isn’t Jabhir, I’ll be killing another pony.” I say, staring into Celestia’s eyes. The guards raise their weapons. They don’t faze me at all. “That isn’t a threat. That’s a warning. Make sure this is the right pony you want me to kill.”

Celestia closes her eyes and loses any noticeable emotion in her face. She turns to the guards. “Stand down.” The guards quickly drop their threatening poses. “If I am wrong, I deserve whatever fate this changeling gives me. I have failed once. I do not wish to fail again.”

“I’m glad we’ve made one agreement.” I say. “What’s the good news?”

“You won’t be alone.”