Transparency: Q. Mint Jewelip

Recon blinked as she was roused to consciousness, a soft tapping sound stirring her to wakefulness even as it set her mane on edge. As the tapping continued, she found herself starting to flinch at the rhythmic noise. She could hear breathing around her, feel the heat of bodies, but it took her a few moments of thinking before she stiffened.

She had been fighting some changelings.

Cracking an eye open slowly, she muffled the groan that threatened to escape from the sudden stabbing of bright light. Her body felt as it were on fire, a scalding pain that radiated from her tortured eyes down her neck and into stiff limbs pinned to her sides by the warm bodies piled up against her.

The world was too bright and too soft and entirely too not-a-hiding-place for the situation to be considered safe.

Swallowing dryly as her she crushed her eyes shut again, she carefully checked her limbs, mentally going over the sensations as she tried to piece together what was happening.

She was in a white room, her brief peek having hinted at columns and drapes, surrounded on all sides by softly breathing bodies. She didn't feel injured other than the burning pain which might well be the result of being pinned so long. She didn't even feel terribly abused given the situation - more a lingering ache as her senses continued to creep back into full awareness.

But she was pinned, that much was certain. Whoever or whatever was on her back felt like they weighed a ton. The ones at her sides seemed no better, and the one whose flank her head had been resting on seemed like nothing so much as a velvet coated boulder given how firmly toned the muscles were under that soft coat.

Nothing for it though... if she wanted to get away, get back to Sleep Dep, and salvage what was clearly a very badly botched invasion, she had to get enough information to devise an escape strategy.

Drawing in a slow breath and bracing for the brightness again, Recon opened her eyes and had just noticed a balcony before wincing as the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon, nearly blinding her again in the sudden glare of the rising sun.

Blinking a few times as she tried to see past the stars in her eyes, she panned her vision across the room, taking in as much as she could.

There were columns and plinths, drapes and softly fluttering veils hung from thin rails near the ceiling. The walls themselves were white marble with just a faint tracery of gold to accent the tapestries and paintings that hung tastefully at invervals across them. A darkly polished table rested primly beneath a vase which held softly glowing blue flowers. There were no windows, instead the room seemed open to the elements other than the vaulted ceiling which was decorated with murals she couldn't quite make out from the glare of the rising sun.

And, as she continued her survey, a very large, very white mare with luminous magenta eyes, was watching her closely as her pastel mane drifted in an ethereal wind.

Recon swallowed dryly.

One did not swallow wetly when being watched by Princess Celestia and buried by Royal Guards.

"I do believe, we have much to discuss my little..... well, you're not quite a pony," Celestia smiled softly, "but that will have to do."

-~oOo~-

Deep frowned as he walked alongside Sleep Dep once more.

This was insane. There was no possible way that the 'plan' Sleep had come up with was going to work. Absolutely none.

Changelings were designed for infiltration, for espionage, for simple deception. They were capable at trickery and misdirection, more than skilled at basic combat, and exceptional at hit and run tactics, but this.... THIS was a bad idea.

He swallowed for the fifth time before finding the courage to address Sleep, "I know this is important to you but couldn't we just....?"

The unicorn beside him softly huffed before stopping her march and turning to face him fully...horrible mane style, magically, preserved with the disguise.

"Deep, I know you think you're protecting me right now, and I appreciate it, really I do," she reached out a hoof and gently ran it over his head and mane, smiling softly before grabbing him at the base of the neck and pulling him in close, "but I am rather upset at the loss of Recon at the moment and would ~hate~ to lose another good drone."

Deep swallowed back his terror, noting that Sleep hadn't even made the most basic attempt to hide her actions in the middle of a busy street which had the result of a number of ponies staring openly at the pair.

"Your Highn.... Sleep, please don't be mad. I'm only trying to help."

Deep Thought leaned back a tiny bit as his unicorn 'friend' closed what little distance remained between them before she quickly nipped him on the nose and trotted off... leaving his heart thundering in his chest and more than a few confused and disturbed onlookers.

One, a gray pegasus stallion, trotted over and asked "Hey... you ok? She looked pretty intense there."

To which Deep, wisely, shook off his shock and smiled thinly. "Don't worry about it.... long day."

-~oOo~-

Relay giggled cutely.

The pegasus smiled back at her awkwardly.

Relay skipped from hoof to hoof, almost prancing as she watched the pegasus watching her.

The pegasus swallowed and cleared her throat.

Relay did a little backflip, sticking her landing perfectly and throwing up her front hooves with a little cheer.

The pegasus smiled nervously and looked like she was about to say something.

Relay bounded in close, stopping just short of being nose to nose with the heavily armored pegasus guard who was currently hanging, upside down, over a rather large cart of broken pottery. "Yeeeeeeeees?"

The guard, wisely, smiled and nodded her head. "Yes... very nice work. You must have practiced quite a bit."

Relay's smile widened to the point where the pegasus mare started to shiver just a little at seeing the sawblade-like teeth of the little pink filly who was currently showing off her 'bat-tro-batics' on the ceiling of one of the castle barracks.

"Yep! Momma told me to work real hard so I could get good enough to distract ponies or I'd be just too cute not to gobble me right up!"

The pegasus smiled nervously. "She must love you very much."

And, just like that, Relay's smile disappeared. "You don't know my momma at all. She better not. If she starts to, I'll know who made her." At this, Relay leaned in uncomfortably close and whispered, "and I'd hate to see momma go hungry because somepony tricked her into loving me."

The pegasus swallowed again. "Um... "

"So! Wanna see me do a cartwheel?"

Tension broken, the mare nodded quickly... only to blink in confusion as the little pink filly was suddenly engulfed in flames, only to be replaced with a large wooden wheel.... inexplicably hanging from the ceiling of the barracks.

-~oOo~-

Mine smiled kindly as he strolled past unicorn after unicorn, politely dipping his head and offering the occasional courtesy compliment to his apparent betters.

He was, obviously, a stallion of purpose, of poise, of... greatness. His coat a glorious cream, unblemished by the brutal sun or faded by the uncaring moon. His hooves pristine in their subtle etchings, painstakingly filed and picked to bring out their 'natural' glow. His tail was brushed until the almost fiery glow of the dawn could be reflected in its immaculate luster. And his mane.... his mane was a work of art that not even the Maredolisa could compare to in sheer beauty and mystery.

It didn't hurt that after every other noble he passed, his pockets grew just a touch heavier or the rhinestones found themselves, somehow, replaced with priceless gems.

No... they truly would grow to envy him.

His betters? He snorted, politely of course. Never.