The Truth in Forgery

Changelings don't sleep, they merely lie in wait. The horror stories about their kind said something akin to that, but in reality they required a period of reverie just as any other creature would. And Forgery, mode-locking himself into his disfigured pony form the prior night, awoke to a clatter of hooves on wood.

Ruby Shield bucked the door open. He saw the deadbolt, he set it in place in case his form lost cohesion during the night. But there she was, fuzzy through bleary eyes, looking smug at her handiwork. Hooves carefully rubbed the sleep from his eyes, as he rose upright. "I take it the day has begun?" He asked his intruder, voice cracking from the night's disuse. She seemed just a bit too cheery for someone on his tail about everything yesterday.

"Better! You missed breakfast, and its almost time to get into formation for today's duties!" The red mare informed him with unsuppressed glee. Forgery had to hold back an equal smile in return, glad to avoid needing to consume pony "food" just yet. He wasn't sure if he was ready to kill for maintaining his disguise, at least, not this instant. Instead, he leeched a little of the schadenfreude from Ruby, until he noticed her blinking oddly. He stopped and tilted his head at her.

"Oh, sorry... I thought I felt something for a second there..." She murmured, almost to herself.

"Well, if you feel something for me, I can understand that." Forgery stoically took the clop to the head as she whacked him. The bloodflow to her muscles and the topic change would keep her from thinking too much on that earlier sensation. He had to be more careful, take smaller amounts from many ponies and not make a breakfast from just one. She may not be a unicorn, but he knew any species could feel their feeding, the siphoning process wasn't entirely subtle, after all.

He belatedly remembered he was supposed to be putting on a persona. "Ow. Guess not. Well, I suppose that makes us even now. I traded blows with the Royal Guard and came out scathed but alive! We get our assignments now, right? Oh, I can't wait." Hopefully the pegasus would accept it as early-morning sleepiness to explain the earlier laconic personality.

She did. "Yes. Let's get you working, before you say something more and wind up losing a tooth."

Guard Captain Shining Armour was waiting for them, fully armour-clad and standing at rigid attention. 'He really does reek of duty. It's almost like being back in the hive, feeling a particularly zealous worker drone. I bet he'd ignore his own family if the slightest duty got in the way of even merely a letter.' Smiling at the silly thought, no pony, so full of emotions, could be that uncaring about their family, Forgery stepped in line with the gems and a few others, and gave a mostly-synchronized salute.

"At ease, soldiers. Here are your orders. Pike, Sharps, Wren, and Feather, you're all on cleanup duty. Ruby, Garnet, Edge, Moonsprite, you get to listen to petitioners in the throne room." This was met with a groan, but hard to saw from who or how many. "Deal with it. Silverspeed and myself will be giving a day in the life tour for our fan Forge Aerie here. Don't be jealous, it's a full-day job, she's stuck with us two colts for fifteen hours. Everypony else, standard patrols. Do a flyby in front of Luna's tower at least once early on each of your aerial patrols." The remaining guards nodded or rolled their eyes. "It helps her sleep knowing there's ponies who care." Shining Armour added, for the newbie's benefit.

The group scatters, some to their destinations, others to toss on armour since they finished breakfast late themselves. Their captain clearly didn't mind, there hasn't been a serious threat in a lifetime or more, after all, but Forgery could tell he would have preferred them to be a bit more professional, judging by a twinge of irritation. There were still thieves after all, and while golden utensils could be replaced, it wasn't something anyone wanted to do.

"Well, you made my job seem like a punishment. Two dashing stallions... A double shift isn't long at all." She must be Silverspeed. Her coat was... Silver. 'And a pegasus, I'm sure a speedy one. Self-descriptive names are nice and all, but it makes it seem like their entire population has the naming sense of my Queen, only worse.'

Instinctively, Forgery sized up this achromatic mare. She seemed... possessive. It was the only word for it. Desire and envy gave her aura a veritable green tint, or would if such things were visible. Odd, the other ponies he's felt out were very well-behaved, or at least weren't so dominating in their negative traits. Best to play along until he was certain, then. "Well, that's a long day! Seeing as we'll be guard-mates, I'm Forge Aerie. Nice to meet you." He extended his hoof.

"Glad it's me." She clopped her hoof against his, and looked him over. "There's something off about you though..."

'Is she really that dense?' There was no suspicion in her flavour. She was genuinely confused about something. The wings, then, but not even noticing it. The trainings for the guard here in Equestria were clearly not as comprehensive as the ones back home.

'Home... No, it isn't anymore. It's the Hive. Still four letters, still an "H", but it is just a geological feature. Home is where the hoard is, and I've got nothing to this name.' The changeling didn't let his saddening though show on his face, instead looking at Shining Armor, in anticipation. "So you work standard days, what do you do?"

Shining Armor laughed, a rare bit of emotion showing through his mental coat of arms. "Well, I said a typical day, but that wouldn't do to show everything we do at the palace, so I pulled a few strings. Never let anyone say Shining Armor isn't as generous as the elements themselves. We're starting with basic showpony duty: We're a symbol, and so we're expected to display our knowledge of the castle to anypony who requires it."

So saying, he turns, and begins marching towards the exit.

...Forgery had to give a hoof for the captain. He was an expert in trickery, but as he stood in the gilded hall, eyes glazing as they stared at stained glass windows, he knew the captain could put a deceptively positive spin on anything related to duty.

They were tour guides.

"...And this pane depicts the triumph of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony over the incarnate god Discord, you can get a better view of him in his draconequus form in the statue garden. They were led by a unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, not much older than some of you here at the time." Shining radiated pride as he recited this factoid. How he could be so proud from something completely unrelated to him, the changeling had no idea. He gathered the royal guards were quite useless at the time, after all.

His mind zoned out, and it was clear Silverspeed was doing little better. Since the captain was all too eager to explain the things in this "Hall of the Elements", bristling with an energy not prior seen in the stallion, both ceded the right to play tour guide to him. In theory, they were guarding the vault that lay at the end of the chamber, containing six magical artifacts that channeled emotive energy into pure manna, but in practice, tour groups came by looking just a bit lost, and their job was to enlighten them, since no one could get past the Sun Princess' protective spells anyways.

The only thing that worried Forgery was the somewhat distorted feeling of having an extra pair of eyes gazing through his own, listening intently to the tour he mindlessly tuned out. He did his best to ignore it, to block the passages ingrained in his mind, but only time would be his savior, his Queen's presence leaving him after the first tour.

Silverspeed was still looking him over. 'She's still confused? The poor foal must be daft.' Thankfully, her intense staring was interrupted with a chorus of bells' clear chimes. Shining Armor approached the two at the sidelines, and gestured towards the front door with his head.

"The next shift starts, some guards are coming to relieve us here. It's been quite the three hours, hasn't it? I hope this taught something, we're here to make all of Equestria happy. We're not just pawns on a chess board, protecting our princesses. We're here to help everypony, from the highest royalty to the lowest schoolfilly. Mare or colt, princess or pauper, uni-- Oh, our relief is here." He interrupts himself so smoothly, the flow seemed intentional, tripping up his audience.

The captain of the guard points to the two incoming pegusi. 'It's always pairs. There's probably some significance there.' Shining Armor grins at Forgery. "You're going to love this next bit, it's time for lunch."

'Lunch? Oh no...'

The auditorium, for there was no real better word for it, could easily sit fifty ponies. The elegant and gold-gilt table of mahogany dominating the centre of the room could easily serve fourty large dignitaries. Instead, only seven were at the table, and none in the stands. Four guards, Shining Armor, Celestia, and Forgery.

The meal was lavish for a private luncheon, Forgery supposed, but harshly reminded him of the murderous nature of ponykind. Flowers of all sorts, their lives sliced short and essence bleeding at a rapid rate in every colour of the rainbow. Carrots and lettuce cut in intricate displays, trying in vain to heal their gaping wounds, living to survive long enough to win a sentence to death by mastication. Loose sheafs of hay, decapitated and ripping asunder, decorated each piece. It was a plating fit for a genocidal ruler, lording the fragility of life over its lessers. It was all the changeling could do to not choke and run for a pail to be violently sick in when the guards began eating.

Not wanting to risk a cover being blown, he seeked anything, at all, that might save him from participating in this cruel carnage of crudities. Looking, they shimmered at the edge of his reach. Strawberries. A thoroughly unique plant, its seeds didn't digest in pony stomachs, it used being eaten to procreate. Good enough, he supposed, and grabbed an armful to nibble on, hopefully nursing them long enough to last the meal.

"You eat so daintily for a farm boy. Don't be afraid, I won't banish you for chewing too loudly." The white princess spoke to him. She hadn't eaten yet, obviously letting the guards have the first fill to check for poisons, a sensible precaution if an unneeded one. She was horrifying to Forgery though. She stood as tall as his Queen, he knew she could command the very sun with her magic, had thousands of years of court experience to see through deceit, and scariest of all, gave off no aura.

Now, no living thing gives off no aura, even invisibility spells only displaced it. If they knew they were being watched, a pony or a 'ling could fake emotions strong enough to feel them, and thus hide their intents. A ruler could convince themselves so thoroughly they were calm that only the one emotion showed no matter what. This went beyond it. Princess Celestia was, for all Forgery's feeding senses and empathic links, a very emotive rock. She spoke, compassion came forth, and cut off as soon as she finished talking, as if she knew compassion was the right emotion for that phrase, invoked it, then was done with it.

It was like speaking with a sociopathic skeleton's rictus grin. A major communication tool of his was suddenly gone in regards to her, like a pony suddenly speaking emphatically yet entirely silently, or sound coming without them moving their mouths; unnerving at the least. She continued, and Forgery couldn't tell if it was regardless to his introspection or not. For all he knew she seemed like she was just making friendly conversation until she could be allowed to eat.

"It has been a while since I have seen a case of genetic dimorphism so acute as yours splitting the nobler race. My star pupil has been working with a filly Earth pony with half-formed wings, also lacking the pegasus magic to grant her the levity to fly, so Twilight plans to enchant her when she finds the right spell, to... correct nature's mistake, I believe she put it." The simple turn of topic kept Forgery's mind on edge. There was so much information there. This Twilight was her pupil, likely the same who vanquished Discord, and was clearly still quite alive, something Shining Armor never mentioned in the tours. And he had an excuse for his body, a solid one backed by the Princess herself.

"Genetic di-what?" He had to ask; he was a bumpkin, after all.

"Dimorphism. When mixing blood gives traits of two sides of parentage when they should be just one. About one in a hundred ponies have it, but usually its so small that its unnoticible. A weak Earth pony could have a pegasus' hollow bones instead of a strong musculature. A unicorn could gain the need for flight but not the wings to facilitate it, leaving them feeling grounded and stuck." Celestia lectured, in a very well-practiced lecture voice, and while the conversation unnerved Forgery due to her losing an emotive state at the end of each sentence, the smoothness of a continuous run made it feel almost natural. Almost.

"Acute cases can have wings or horns when they shouldn't. Most compensate. I try to keep track of them, as our own race's history and origins are a bit of a mystery. Poor Scootaloo, though. When its so acute you can't tell their birth race, it can lead to complications from societal expectations. Although, looking like you do, I'm sure you're well aware of how forcefully our society treats outliers. It can be quite hostile, and executed with extreme prejudice."

'She knows!' Overwhelming panic gripped the changeling for the second time in as many days. Like before, many minds met his, offering understanding, courage, even empathic holes to share his worry so he could focus on the task at hand. He was no longer a Hive changeling though; he acknowledged the security blanket, and passed on it. 'No, she can't. Our magic is perfect, racially perfected over all senses. Calm. She is just speaking of her subjects. Take a strawberry. Bite it. Chew. Swallow. Breathe. She's a princess, not a longma, not a dragon, just a pony. A powerful pony, but a pony. Panicking is the last action of a fool. Another strawberry.'

Celestia sighed, presumably at the thought of her little ponies being intolerant, her own subtle tribalist leanings shoved to the wayside. She wasn't the only one in a lower mood from the topic, and Silverspeed, bless her wings, brought forth an alternative.

"So I hear Princess Cadenza is coming for her seasonal visit soon."

...The luncheon went on for an hour before Celestia even took a bite to eat, the unsettling goddess finally settling herself long enough for Forgery to catch his breath and slow his manic heartbeat. He would fear nothing in the future, this he knew, for he had seen the face of the devil, and it trailed fruit jam on its lips like a 'ling's brackish blue blood.

Noon had passed, but their day had only just begun. "Next, we're on to the sparing grounds. Come on, it'll be fun."

Author's Note: Sorry for a delay, I just really, really hated that previous chapter. I've been going over it a few times to try to "fix" it, but coming up as blank as Sweetie Bell's backside. I don't know why it irks me. Well, it is past, so hopefully I'll ignore it from now on.