Transparency: Q. Mint Jewelip

The repeated noise, a clanging of hoof on armor, more than the calling of his familiar name, roused him from his cot in the Royal Canterlot Barracks.

"EARLY! GET YOUR FLANK UP YOU LAZY MILKSOP! I'M NOT GOING TO COME IN THERE AND DRAG YOUR HALF-TON FLANK OFF THAT COT LIKE MOMMY WOULD!"

"Ruddy, blasted, screECHING, HARPY OF A PEGASUS, WHAT?!?!?" was his well thought out and articulate response. It earned him a sore muzzle as Beachhead threw his helmet directly at him with a laugh.

"Early! Finally! You were out cold bud. Now, get your lazy flank in motion, you're gunna want to see this."

Blinking blearily at his commanding officer, it took only a moment longer before his eyes snapped fully open and he found himself tumbling out of the cot and scrabbling to his hooves with a hasty salute. "Sir! Yes, Sir!"

Beachhead, a surprisingly tough little pegasus with a mess of scars, smirked before rolling his eyes. "Forget all that, you're off shift, but move your rear."

Nodding quickly, he kicked off the blanket that had become tangled around his legs, grabbed a loose brush and checked his face in one of the long mirrors across from the cots. With nothing horribly presentable, he grabbed up his helmet, wiped off the smudge from it having rolled on the floor, tossed it on, and nodded to Beachhead.

With a continued smirk, Beachhead flipped his head towards the barracks entrance and the two departed.

-~oOo~-

"Soooooo......" he started.

"Yheah. Just like that. Little bug just thought he could waltz right in here, smug as Sombra, but never thought that we'd actually check the roster."

He raised an eyebrow. "So, he came in... looking like me... and you guys let him in?"

"Well yheah! But that was only so we could jump him with a whole squad! I mean, LOOK at him! He's gotta be ready to pass out from all those sweaty stallions laying on top of him."

He wrinkled his nose. "Yheah... still... eeeew. Will Celestia even approve of that though? Isn't it cruelty or something?"

"Probably, but they invaded us first... and then came back. Either way, he ain't going nowhere fast. Heh... good thing you always check in though or he might have fooled us. Paranoid's been twitchy since the wedding, and even SHE only knew he wasn't you because you checked in earlier." Beachhead shook his head again, "Damn bugs are good at this impersonation stuff. Had your voice down, even had some flying-pig story about being coltnapped, but he didn't know you were already back."

"Dang. And you guys just jumped him though?"

"Heck yheah, we did! We're the Royal Guard! We're trained for this!"

"Yheah, but I mean, you jumped the obvious changeling."

"That's kind of the point, but yheah."

"Beachhead... buddy, permission to speak freely?"

Beachhead raised an eyebrow but nodded, "Yheah, you ain't on duty so let 'er rip."

"You jumped the obvious changeling."

"Yheah... we covered that Squaddie."

"No, I mean, you jumped the ~OBVIOUS~ changeling."

"Yheah, we jumped the...oh crap."

"Yheah, they're infiltrators... so if one did something that dumb, it's because they would have needed a distraction."

Beachhead frowned hard, running scenarios through his head as he was known to do. It didn't look good. An obvious changeling meant an obvious deception. An obvious deception meant a clear decoy. A decoy meant another changeling had used the distraction to infiltrate in the ensuing chaos. They'd been fighting the blasted things all over the city, but had stopped all the major attacks. For all intents and purposes they'd failed at every attempt!

"Hey boss?"

"Yheah, Early?"

"Nopony's checked on the Princesses recently, have they?"

"Celestia's holding court, Luna's asleep, no news there."

"Yheah, but when was the last time anypony's ~actually~ checked?"

"Few hours? Since Celestia raised the sun. Saw her walk back in myself."

"And then?"

"Then what?"

"And then no word? No response to the invasion? No new orders?"

"Nah, she just asked to have some guards watch one of the changelings we caught."

"Watch? Not imprison? Not interrogate?"

"Nope, did that all herse....lf." Beachhead frowned.

The two stallions looked at one another, pegasus commander to earth pony infantry, before sounding the alarm.

-~oOo~-

WC was standing in a well lit room made of stone and ribbed with metal bars.

WC was standing in a well lit room made of stone and ribbed with metal bars and wrapped in chains and bolted to the floor.

WC was standing in a well lit room made of stone and ribbed with metal bars and wrapped in chains and bolted to the floor and surrounded by no less than 8 ponies in full armor with weapons drawn.

WC was still smiling. Of course he was smiling. He was playing freeze tag with these very fun ponies.

Even if they had forgotten to tag one another.

Or choose a new 'it'.

Or even tell him the time limit for being frozen.

Or even followed the basic idea of freeze tag... what with moving him after he was frozen.

But they were ponies, so they were prone to doing silly things.

WC was alright with that. WC loved to play with ponies. They were fun and exciting and silly and sometimes even surprising.

But WC knew it was almost time for him to stop playing freeze tag.

Sleep Dep had been very specific about him being certain places at certain times. She'd told him to go stand in the park near the fountain by the fly-boats. She'd told him to be there EXACTLY at the time when the bakers were turning out their bread pans. She'd told him to have fun and play with the ponies that showed up, that they just wanted a game or two and that he should be careful not to hurt himself or them unless he had to.

She'd made him repeat it back to her four times.

WC was a good changeling. WC knew when Sleep Dep was telling him something important.

So, when the ponies had moved him while he was frozen, he'd watched everything they did carefully.

He'd counted the doors they'd gone through.

He'd remembered the turns they'd made.

He'd memorized the keys on the keyrings that the door-ponies used.

He'd listened to the names of the ponies as they talked.

He'd memorized the faces and distinctive marks of all the ponies that had been playing with him.

And he'd even remembered that when he was done playing, he was supposed to go home to Momma.

WC smiled.

"You know, Caltrop, I think it's finally gotten to him."

"Oh? What makes you say that Fodder?"

"Well, I mean, we wore him down and he just gave up when he realized he couldn't beat the skill and training of the Royal Guard."

"You.... do remember that this thing was pretty much just throwing us around like confetti, right? I mean, we couldn't even TOUCH it and it was making us look like foals."

"Nah. I mean, why would he give up if he was that good. He was probably just lucky and gave up when he realized we'd eventually just wipe the floor with him."

"Yheah, I'm pretty sure that's not it, Fodder."

"I'm just saying... if he was that good, why stop?"

"No idea. Those things are grade-A weird. So... why'd you bring this all up anyway?"

"Oh... right. Well, I just noticed, he's smiling now. Figured his little buggy brain finally just gave up."

"... Fodder."

"Yheah, Caltrop?"

"... call for help. Now."

"Um... why?"

"Because, if it's smiling, I'm betting that it was just waiting for something. Call.... for... help." Caltrop set his hooves and braced as the rest of the Guard did likewise, shields up and weapons ready.... except for Fodder.

"Caltrop, there's like.... a dozen of us and only one of him."

Seven Royal Guard glanced around the room as the captured changeling shifted its body, causing numerous chains to clink and clank as bolts on the floor and wall strained. One guard, Fodder, just smiled as he gestured to the changeling. "Seriously, Caltrop, it's not like he could even get out of all that in the first place."

A flash of green and silver fire erupted from the mass of chains as the large changeling wrapped within suddenly seemed to shrink, causing the chains to fall to the floor around it.

"Fodder, you're an idiot." The chorus of agreement went almost unnoticed as a second flash returned the changeling to an even larger, and more intimidating form. Where before he had been twice the size of the ponies, he was now almost as large as Celestia, black plated, and sporting a massive flare of armor around his head. Thick legs, terminating in hammer-sized spikes, turned the massive changeling to face the guards nearest the door, a pair of pincer-like mandibles clicking ominously.

Caltrop screamed like a filly while Fodder blinked in surprise.

WC liked to play with ponies. They were fun. But Sleep said to go home when the time was right, and he wasn't going to get in trouble for staying out too late, not even if his new friends wanted him to sleep over.

WC was going home to see Momma... and he didn't care which walls were in the way.

-~oOo~-