“Mommy!”

Rainbow dash stirred to awakeness at the mention of the name she’s been called by a certain some-ling for the past few months. She slowly opened her eyes when she felt tiny hooves on her chest.

“Mommy!”

Rainbow Dash blinked several times to get the sleep out of her eyes, before responding to the voice she’s heard enough times to recognize instantly. “Good morning to you too,” Rainbow said finally as she gently nuzzled the changeling right beside his horn. Said changeling wasted no time shooting his forelegs around Rainbow’s neck, although they were barely long enough to reach all the way around.

“I wuv you, mommy,” the changeling said as he rubbed the side of his face into Rainbow’s neck fur.

“I love you too, Bugsy,” Rainbow replied as she hugged the tiny changeling.

A few minutes of cuddling, Rainbow spoke up. “Fluttershy’s going to babysit you today.”

“Why?”

“Did you already forget?”

Bugsy thought about the question for a bit, but came up with nothing. “Maybe. What is it.”

“Well, if you forgot, then I’m not telling. It’ll be more of a surprise if you don’t know.”

“Awww,” the changeling said, before burying his muzzle into Rainbow’s fur, soaking up her warmth.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

“Coming,” came a quiet voice from the other side of the door.

A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal Fluttershy behind it.

“Oh, come in,” Fluttershy said as she stepped aside to let Rainbow in, with Bugsy on her back, hugging her mane.

“I’m here to drop Bugsy off for the you know what,” Rainbow said, trying to avoid alerting Bugsy to his surprise.

“The… you know what?” Fluttershy asked confused.

Rainbow just rolled her eyes. “You know… Bugsy’s birthday party?” Rainbow whispered into Fluttershy’s ear.

Fluttershy ‘Ohhhh’ed in realization. “Well, come in.” Rainbow slowly walked in, and turned her head around to face the changeling sitting on her back.

“Time to get off, Bugsy.” Bugsy did as he was told and hopped off Rainbow’s back.

“Well, I better get going. I gotta get ready for you know what.”

“Bye mommy.” Bugsy waved goodbye as he spoke.

“Pssst, Pinkie.” Pinkie jerked her head up from baking at the voice.

“Rainbow Dash? I can hear you but I can’t see you.” Pinkie turned her head back and forth in mock confusion looking for her, before she looking up to see Rainbow up against the ceiling.

“I need you to change the party I asked for into a surprise party,” Rainbow said. She looked around the room from the ceiling before continuing. “Bugsy forgot his own birthday.”

Pinkie’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. After a few minutes of Pinkie just standing there, Rainbow got down and poked Pinkie with a hoof.

“Uhh, Pinks? You ok?” After she said that, Pinkie snapped out of her stupor.

“Did you just… say… he… forgot… his own… party?” Pinkie slowly turned her head to Rainbow, with her left eye slightly twitching and a slightly evil looking grin on her face.

“Uhh, yeah,” Rainbow said with a raised eyebrow and a frown, dragging the ‘yeah’ out, signaling a half question.

Pinkie instantly went back to her normal cheery self. “We’ll just have to remedy that.”

Rainbow slowly nodded nervously. “O...k…”

“I’m taking you back to Rainbow’s in a few minutes, so get ready to leave,” Fluttershy said to Bugsy, who was petting a squirrel. At first when Rainbow took him to Fluttershy’s, he was a bit scared of most of the animals, especially the bear, Harry, but after a few visits he warmed up to them and vice versa. Even Angel… slightly.

“Ok,” was Bugsy’s reply.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

Fluttershy jumped at the sound of knocking on the door.

“Strange, I was going to take you to Rainbow’s,” Fluttershy stated in confusion, but that confusion soon turned into fear when she heard the voice of who the knocking belonged to.

“Fluttershy? You in ‘ere? A few of yer animals have been wrecken’ my farm agin’,” came the voice of Applejack, who wasn’t in on the changeling, due to her unnatural honesty, to keep him safe from Twilight.

“Err, coming,” Fluttershy quickly motioned for Bugsy to hide, which Bugsy knew that sign all too well, and quickly ran to his favorite hiding spot; under Fluttershy’s bed.

After Fluttershy watched Bugsy scramble into her bedroom, she walked over to the door and slowly opened it.

“Oh, hi Applejack,” Fluttershy greeted in fake shyness, but Applejack just raised an eyebrow.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

“N-no! Just… tired… yeah… tired.” Fluttershy slowed her movements to make it look more like it, but Applejack wasn’t buying it.

“Fluttershy, you know I can tell if you're lying or not, right?” Fluttershy flinched, which only confirmed Applejack’s statement.

“It’s not important,” Fluttershy quickly said, in attempt to keep Bugsy from being found out.

“OK, well, if you don’t want to talk about it. Anyway. I need you to come get your beavers, they’re flooding my farm again.”

“OK.” ‘That was too close.’

“I think this looks good enough, Pinkie.” Rainbow was getting slightly irritated by Pinkie’s antics.

“It has… to be…PERFECT!” Pinkie said right as she finished straightening the last decoration.

“Finally. Fluttershy should be here any minute now.” Rainbow walked in her cloud home over to where Pinkie was floating with not-logically-enough-balloons-to-hold-her-up-but-it’s-Pinkie-so-who-cares-about-physics?

In the middle of the living room was a table with all sorts of sweets on it, a large chocolate cake -Bugsy’s favorite- with the number '5' on it; beside it was a bowl of punch with some plastic cups and plates off to the side. Streamers of all colors hanged from the ceiling and balloons in every spot Pinkie could tie them to, which was a lot of places. Of course there weren’t many spots on the floor that weren’t covered in confetti thanks to Pinkie’s party cannon.

After a few minutes of waiting for Fluttershy and Bugsy, Rainbow started getting worried.

“Where are they?” Rainbow asked with quickening breath.

“I’m sure they’ll turn up soon, Dashie,” Pinkie replied, trying to ease her friend's concern.

Then, as if on cue, Fluttershy came into view out the window, with Bugsy on her back, holding on for dear life. At the sight Rainbow’s house, Bugsy breathed a sigh of relief, happy that he would see his mommy again. Fluttershy landed on the clouds right outside the door and knocked. The door slowly opened, almost mysteriously, and they walked in, Bugsy with a scared frown and Fluttershy with a smirk.

"SURPRISE!!"

If Fluttershy didn’t already know this was going to happen, she would have probably screamed. Bugsy, on the other hoof, had no idea there was a party and gave out a short, but very loud scream of terror and shot behind Fluttershy’s foreleg. After spotting Rainbow, he immediately flew and tackle-hugged her.

“Did you really forget your birthday?” Rainbow asked in a voice that just screams ‘You’re kidding, right?’

“I told you I forgot something,” Bugsy replied with a downcast face. But Rainbow wouldn’t let her adoptive son be sad on his birthday.

“Cheer up, kid, don’t be sad on your birthday.” Rainbow looked around for something to cheer Bugsy up, and spotted something that would make anyone happy. “Let’s get some cake, it’s chocolate, your favorite.” Rainbow dragged the ‘favorite’ out to try and entice him.

Bugsy immediately snapped out of his little sadness bubble and took on the biggest smile that would rival even Pinkie. “Really!?” After a nod from Rainbow, they both shot over to the table.

After an hour long party, Rainbow laid awake in bed curled around Bugsy. Ever since Bugsy came into her life 6 months ago, she’s had much less time napping or going out with her friends, and quickly had to learn responsibility. Every once in awhile, her friends would ask where she’d been, and she always had a reasonable excuse for it, such as: “Had a meeting in Cloudsdale,” “Filled in for an injured cloud kicker in Fillydelphia,” or even “Been binge reading Daring Do.” She was never short of an acceptable reason for not being around.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

Rainbow was pulled out of her thinking by the sound of knocking at her door, getting up, and making sure not to wake Bugsy, she quickly, but quietly, opened the door and slipped through.

Rainbow made her way through the halls, down the stairs, and to the door. With slight bags under her eyes from not getting a good night’s rest, she opened the door.

“Hi Rainbow,” On the other side of the door frame with Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship herself.

“Oh, hi Twilight. *Yawn*” Rainbow couldn’t help but yawn at not having slept yet, and it being about 10 o’clock. “What are you doing up so late?”

“Oh, I just had an Idea!” Twilight had a smile that only a crazed maniac could have. “And it involves you!”

“What do I have to do with… whatever you’re Idea is?” Rainbow asked as she almost dozed off, but stopped herself.

“It has everything to do with you!”

“And what exactly has everything to do with me?” Rainbow had to stop herself from dozing off again, but she wouldn’t last much longer.

“Can we go inside? It’s cold out here.”

“Yeah, but make it quick, I’m practically falling asleep here!” Rainbow slowly stepped aside to let her in. Rainbow sat on the couch across from Twilight.

“So, anyway, I had this Idea tha-”

“Mommy?”

As Twilight was about to ask the obligatory ‘What was that?’, Rainbow’s eyes were already pinpricks.

“Mommy?”

Both heads turned towards the new voice in the room, and as soon as Twilight’s and Bugsy’s eyes met, he gulped, turned tail and ran back to Rainbow’s room.

“Rainbow? You want to tell my why that changeling just called you ’mommy’?” Twilight asked with narrowed eyes as she looked at Rainbow. Rainbow gulped too.

“Nooooooooo...?” Rainbow’s voice went a bit higher than what could be considered healthy near the end.

“Rainbow…” Twilight said sternly.

“Ugh, fine!” Rainbow almost dozed off for the third time tonight, but added one last thing. “But I need you to Pinkie promise not to tell anyone about this, not even Celestia!”

Twilight was about to protest, but the look Rainbow was giving her killed any words of it. She just sighed and gave in. “Cross my heart and hope to fly-stick a cupcake in my eye.” She did the appropriate motions as she said an unbreakable promise.

“Ok, well it all started wh-” Rainbow started, but was cut off when Twilight started speaking.

“Wait, the others might want to hear this.” Before Rainbow could say ‘wait wut?’, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie walked straight through the wall. Rainbow just muttered something about getting solid cloud walls. Fluttershy and Pinkie, since they already knew, had faces of worry, while Rarity and Applejack with suspicion

“I suppose you finally got suspicious enough?” Rainbow asked with an almost deadly glare.

“Eeyep,” Applejack replied, “Now, do you want to tell us why you have a changeling?”

“Oh, fine! I’ll be right back, just don’t get creeped out ok? He’s completely harmless… Except that one time.” Rainbow added that last part with a quiet whisper. Since it technically wasn’t a lie, AJ couldn’t complain.

The door to Rainbow’s room creaked open. Rainbow slowly walked through as to not startle the already terrified Bugsy. She moved over to the bed and craned her head down under it to look at a teary eyed Bugsy.

Bugsy, who felt his mother’s presence, looked up to see Rainbow smiling warmly at him. He instantly brightened up.

“Mommy!” Bugsy latched onto Rainbow’s muzzle, after which Rainbow blew on his stomach, which resulted in giggles.

“Come on, Twilight wants to meet you.”

To Bugsy, it felt like his world just ended. “B-b-b-b-” Rainbow put a hoof over his mouth to calm him down.

“It’ll be alright, I won’t let anypony or anything hurt you. Ok?” Rainbow said in a soft tone.

At first, bugsy didn’t respond, but instead just chose to hug Rainbow’s hoof for a second before replying, “Ok.”

When Rainbow came back with Bugsy on her back, they all sat with the ones who did know about him on one couch and the ones who didn’t on another. For a few minutes, they all sat in silence, waiting for somepony else to speak first. When the silence finally got on Twilight’s nerves, she decided to break it.

“So… what’s his name?”

Rainbow looked up at Twilight, slightly in surprise, but mostly in relief that her first response wasn’t to banish him to the badlands.

“Well, after he stopped being scared stiff of me, he said it was Bugsy,” Rainbow said while rubbing her hoof on his head. Bugsy was lying down against Rainbow, fast asleep. It was very adorable. Pinkie would be bouncing on the couch if it wasn’t for the sleeping colt not three feet away from her, while Fluttershy was on the other side of Bugsy, with a few inches of space between them.

“Does Bugsy have a fashion sense?” Rarity quickly asked.

“Not to sound selfish, but he likes all things that remind him of me.” Rainbow had to hold back a small blush that was threatening to surface on her cheeks. “Such as my cutie mark, the color cyan, Daring Do, or even the Wonderbolts.” Rarity nodded her head and made a mental note to fix something up later for him.

“Does anypony else know ‘bout him?” Applejack wasted no time with her questioning. “Besides Pinkie and Fluttershy?”

“A few. There’s Nurse Redheart, Mayor Mare, some filly I can't remember the name of, Princess Luna-” Before Rainbow could finish, Twilight interrupted her.

“What!” Twilight quickly questioned in shock, before realizing her mistake and throwing a hoof to her mouth. “I’m sorry!”

“Don’t worry, Bugsy could sleep through the apocalypse. Anyway, Princess Luna, Queen Chrysalis.” Rainbow fully expected the reaction she got.

“WHAT!!” They all screamed in unison, even Pinkie, but Fluttershy just rolled her eyes at their overactive response.

“Here we go again…” Fluttershy spoke with a face hoof.

Today has been a long day, although that can be said for any day when you’re taking care of a changeling. She got up, Bugsy still didn’t want to do anything but mope around all day. On his (Rainbow’s) bed, the couch, meal time, which was just a long session of cuddling with Rainbow, he didn’t care about anything at the time.

As Rainbow was flying home, Bugsy still didn’t do much other than lay on his guardian’s back, face down like his world just ended, which, for anyone going through what he was, you’d feel the same way.

Since Rainbow needed to keep Bugsy a secret from as many ponies as possible, she went a particularly convoluted path, one that almost nopony ever came near.

When Rainbow reached her house, she turned her head around and whispered into Bugsy’s ear. “We’re home.” Rainbow only received a quiet grunt in response. Rainbow smiled, as last time their was no reply, so he’s getting better. Rainbow opened the door and walked through.

“What would ya like to do, squirt?” Bugsy squirmed at that name, he didn’t like it, at least not much, he would tolerate it, but that didn’t mean he liked it.

“Food,” was the only reply Rainbow received.

“Alright, on the couch.” Rainbow followed her own command and quickly made her way over to the couch, picked up Bugsy off her back, and laid down on it. Rainbow pulled Bugsy into her arms and hugged him with love.

“You seem to be getting along pretty well,” came a voice that Rainbow slightly recognized, but couldn’t place the exact identity.

“W-who’s there?” Rainbow started to panic.

“Did you already forget someone as lovely as me?” With the way she put emphasize on love, realization dawned on Rainbow.

“Chrysalis,” Rainbow spat out, words dripping with venom.

Out of the shadows, Chrysalis stepped out into the light to reveal herself. “Why are you here?” Rainbow questioned.

“Why Bugsy, of course, why else?” Chrysalis replied with mirth.

Rainbow’s tail curled around Bugsy defensively. “And what do you want with him?” If looks could kill, Chrysalis would’ve died yesterday.

“Oh, nothing, I just wanted to make sure you could take care of him, that’s all.” Rainbow flinched with surprise. “And it appears as though you can’t. So would you like some advice?”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “So wait, you’re not here to steal him?” Rainbow said with suspicion.

Chrysalis suddenly found her hoof attached to her face, along with a ‘slap’. “The whole point of the invasion was to find food for my subjects. I’d be a hypocrite and an idiot if I stole him from you, just to sentence him to starvation in the badlands. I may by evil, but I’m not cruel!” Chrysalis finished her rant with a glare equal in intensity to Rainbow’s earlier one.

“Well, what’s your advice then?”

“Do you see how sad he looks?” Chrysalis pointed her hood at Bugsy’s near tear face for emphasize. “That’s not healthy for a changeling, if he stays like that for too long, he may die, depending on his age.” Rainbow’s tail found it’s way around Bugsy again, along with a jaw a bit too low.

“W-what! N-no!” Rainbow started to get teary eyes

“That’s why you need to cheer him up… do you know how old he is anyway?”

Rainbow slightly perked up at that, along with a few tears being denied an exit, but then frowned at that last statement. “N-not really. Do you?”

“Let me check.” Chrysalis zoned out for a minute, most likely searching the hive mind for the answer, but soon returned to reality. “4 years, 180 days exactly.”

“T-thanks… I guess,” Rainbow stared awkwardly at the floor, unsure of what to say, before finally speaking up. “So, anything else?”

“No, that’s it. Since Bugsy can’t do any magic, remember to give him lots of snuggles and cuddles!” Chrysalis said before finally walking out the door, followed by a green flash, most likely to stop ponies from recognizing her.

“Well, you heard her, I got to cheer you up.”

“Well, that was… interesting. I didn’t know changelings could die just from being unhappy,” Twilight mused, before Rainbow shot her a death glare at the mention of death. “S-sorry.”

“Ok, I can probably guess you had a nightmare that may have attracted Princess Luna, and Nurse Redheart for obvious reasons, but why does Mayor Mare know?” Rarity chimed in.

“Simple,” Rainbow waited for a second to build up a bit of drama. “She helped with the adoption papers.” If you’d seen the looks on everypony’s faces, you’d die of laughter.

After a bit of zoning out from everypony other than Pinkie and Fluttershy, Applejack broke the silence.

“So, wait, yer not the just takin’ care of him, yer his actual legal mother?” Applejack asked in disbelief, and if it wasn’t for her lie detecting ability, she probably wouldn’t have believed her.

“Yep!” Rainbow said with a very big smile. After a moment, the other two finally returned to reality.

“But wait, you said she helped with the adoption papers, indicating somepony else was involved, who else was involved, if that's the case?” Twilight asked.

“Just sign here, here, and here.” Mayor Mare pointed to the blank spaces on the paper to indicate where.

“This is taking forever, she’s already signed like ten times, I don’t think she needs to sign three more times!” Chrysalis pouted.

“Shut it.” Luna commanded. Chrysalis just sunk in her chair off to the side.

“Actually, she has to sign three more times on the next page,” Mayor Mare said, almost a bit too cheerful. Both Chrysalis and Luna groaned loudly, while Rainbow let out a somewhat quieter groan.

“While I have respect for ponies brave enough for adoption, I wish it didn’t have so many papers to go along with it,” Luna said with obvious displeasure.

“Well you don’t have to be here you know,” Chrysalis said with even more displeasure.

“You know I have to be here to make sure there's no funny business with you.” Chrysalis just rolled her eyes.

“We’re done!” Mayor Mare interjected before a fight broke out.

“FINALLY!” Both Luna and Chrysalis screamed simultaneously.

A bit of ear ringing later, Rainbow pulled her chair in front of Chrysalis.

“So… how is this gonna work?” Rainbow’s eyes darted around the room nervously, waiting for Chrysalis’ answer.

“Are you ready?” Rainbow nodded. “Sit back, close your eyes, and hold tight to Bugsy.”

Rainbow did as instructed. Chrysalis lit her horn up and prepared a spell which would connect Rainbow and Bugsy through a hive mind, although with only two occupants, it wouldn’t really be much of a ‘hive’ and more like a permanent skype call.

“This might feel uncomfortable at first, but that feeling will go away after a moment.” Rainbow suddenly felt a slight tugging on her mind, like a small headache, but only for a moment.

“All done!” Chrysalis said with obvious joy that one less of her subjects would be doomed to starvation.

Rainbow waited a moment to see if anything happened, but after a minute or so, nothing.

“I don’t feel any diff-”

‘Rainbow Dash?’

‘Bugsy? Is that you?’

‘Uh-huh!’

‘Oh... Well, um, I guess you can call me-'

‘Mom?’

‘Uh, yeah, how’d you-'

‘Know? Hive mind.’

‘Oh, ok. But don’t do that, it’s creepy.’

‘Ok.’

Luna watched with approval that Chrysalis didn’t do anything stupid.

“So, um… What other effects does a ‘hive mind’ have?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, if you have them, and at the same time, your dreams have a high chance of being connected, and Bugsy can feed more efficiently from hugs and stuff. Other than that, since this is the first recorded linking of a changeling and a pony, I really don’t know. Maybe he’ll be able to eat normal food? Or maybe you might get a slight ability to shape-shift. I really don’t know.” Chrysalis paused for a moment to think of something she might have missed. “Oh, and, if you're not directly thinking of something, or thinking of something you don’t want Bugsy to know about, he doesn’t have the experience to pry it out of your mind, and he’ll know if you don’t want him knowing something.”

“Well, if something like this has never happened before, then we will be sure to keep record of it,” Luna stated confidently.

“So wait, you’re mentally connected?” Twilight inquired with a bit too much enthusiasm.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Have you had any connected dreams? Like Chrysalis said you would?”

“A few. But I don’t remember what any of them were about, so don’t ask.”

“Ok, so, we know Chrysalis is involved, you’re his legal mother, and that you’re connected with each other, but there’s one thing we still don’t know.”

“Ask away,” Rainbow said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“How did you came across Bugsy in the first place?” Applejack, Rarity, and even Pinkie looked at Rainbow and shrugged their shoulders, indicating that they want to know too. Although Fluttershy knew some of the story, even she didn’t know exactly how Rainbow came across Bugsy.

“This is gonna be a long night,” Rainbow said with a groan.

Author's Note

Tell me if I'm trying too hard.

Chapter 1/2.