I'll Always Come Home to You

"Hollow it out."

I'm standing on the street outside of my brownstone house. I've been walking for days to get home, resting wherever I can. It has been an all consuming drive. My family, what must they be thinking when I didn't return with my unit. I can't let them down. Smiling that I've made it I look up. Through the first floor window I see my wife Spring Rain standing next to me with our new foal. How am I looking at myself through the window. Something slams into me. I'm on the group still looking at the window but everything is sideways. I stretch my hoof toward Spring as darkness nibbles away at the edges of my vision.

"Get everything."

I cough, expelling the burnt dirt from my lungs. Struggling I raise my head. My fellow soldiers lie around me still smoking from the dragon fire. Ash swirls and blows through the air coating everything grey. I start gagging when I inhale tasting the remains of my fallen comrades.  Dead. How are they dead? Nopony dies in Her Glorious Highness Celestia's army.

"Be thorough."

I'm marching down the road with my fellow soldiers to a mountain on our northern border. A full thousand ponies are with me. Everypony's armor is as bright and shiny as the day it was made. Around me my comrades are singing songs and telling jokes. I find myself skipping along to the beat not a care in the world.

"You missed a spot."

I jerk upright in bed. Somepony is screaming outside. It sounds like it's coming from down the street. I check the time, it's still early, but not so early that I'll bother going back to sleep. I look over at Spring Rain. Thankfully she is still asleep. My eyes drift along her barrel before I gently cover her with a discarded blanket. Any day now our foal will be born, Rain Burst. I'll see our little one when I return.

"Don't forget the deep memories."

I'm Twin Thrust

I'm Twin Thirst

I'm Twin-

I'm Night Gale

I'm Sudden Sound

I'm Blue Skies

I'm

I'm

I-

"Sloppy, it wasn't erased properly last time."

...

"There, send it for reassignment."

The changeling stands in a brightly lit room. It is surrounded by its fellows. Row upon row of unmoving changeling, hundreds of them. All staring straight ahead. Not waiting. That would imply conscious thought. No. They exist. Those brave volunteers.

* * *

Excerpt from the Love for Happiness Treaty between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna of Equestria and the Changeling People.

Changeling Replacements hereafter referred to as Replacements will be conditioned to believe completely that they are the pony they replaced. They will have no sense of self beyond the pony that they now are.

If a Replacement is killed or severely injured while they are on assignment they will be swapped out for a fresh Replacement the same as if they were the original pony.