"Kevin, you definitely needed a new name, we can't go using changeling names around here, it would be silly!" Pinkie Pie, beamed at the little drone. "Now, again, what's your name?"

"Nea…" Neat inhaled deeply, for a pony town, it smelled a lot like home. "Kevin!" He was bowled over by a blast from a hidden cannon that was, apparently, loaded with confetti.

"Yes!" Pinkie set off another cannon for good measure. "How are you doing with a disguise?"

Kevin looked at the mare in confusion for a moment, just staring at her, not saying a word until… "There, did it work?" He smiled, going cross-eyed as he tried to see if his snout had changed.

"Not quite…" Pinkie rubbed her chin. "I know, what about if-" The pink pony, or rather the changeling disguised as her, stood stiff as a board as her back leg started to twitch, then her tail turned at right angles and finally she bounced three inches to the right. "Somepony is spying on us!"

Drat, thought Twilight. She was huddled in the corner, invisible. But apparently Pinkie-Sense could see through such magic. Using a teleport spell she left Sugarcube Corner and stood just out front. Lifting up a hoof, she activated the little spell there. "Operative ay bee, do you copy? Over."

Gray froze, she had been pouring some volatile mixtures together, under the strict watch of Twilight, or rather, the changeling Twilight. "Aw shucks, look at the time!" The filly looked up at the clock. "Princess Twilight, Ah gotta run home!"

Sharp Mind smiled widely at the filly. "Of course, Apple Bloom. But you will be back tomorrow to finish, right? We are only halfway through the list!" She gave a little tremble, something about the alicorn's life had just snapped in, perfect. Organization, regimented, good friends to feed off, even some little ponies to teach. She shook her head. "I'll just put all this away for you."

The changeling disguised as Apple Bloom frowned a touch, she hated lying now, it still came easy, but it felt wrong. "Bye Princess Twilight!" She got out of the castle and lifted her left forehoof up. "Ay bee here, what's up Twi?"

The invisible mare sighed. "Gray, can you confirm target princess zero zero one is busy? Over." Twilight waited.

A giggle came over the magic spell. "Sure Twi, she is busy helping target filly five nine eight with rebuilding her scooter. I took a part and hid it, they should be busy a while."

"That's… actually pretty clever. Thanks Gray." Twilight sighed in happiness. A quick glance around revealed nopony watching, so she dropped the invisibility spell and sauntered into Sugarcube Corner. "Hi there, Pinkie!" Twilight was used to changelings, she had dealt with enough on a personal basis now that she didn't flinch. "Hi Kevin!"

"Princess!" Neat smiled, remembering the kind pony that had treated him so well on the train. "Pinkie was helping me remember my new name!" He leaned into the attention when the alicorn trotted up and hugged him with one wing. "Hi, I'm Kevin!"

"So you are!" Twilight had run so many calculations, built so many huge functions and graphs to map the town's transition, and then Kevin had arrived. "When is that party?"

"What party?" Pinkie Pie blinked, her eyes wide with innocence.

"Pinkie, the 'welcome to your name' party, for Kevin." Twilight heard the pink party changeling gasp in shock. "How are you going with your disguise?"

Neat hung his head. "I still can't get it right." The sudden sadness in the lost 'ling was intolerable not just to changelings who could taste emotion directly. Twilight gave him a hug.

"You will get the hang of it, just keep trying." Twilight squeezed 'Kevin' tight and let him go. The changeling looked from Pinkie to Twilight, tasting a feast before him. There was nothing for a 'ling to do but smile. "There you go, just remember, nopony in town will hurt you, I promise."

Twilight's magic communications spell bleeped, trying to get her attention. "What was that?" Pinkie stared past Twilight, trying to find the source of the sound.

"Oh, uh…" Twilight tried to think of what to do. Of all the changelings disguised as her friends, Pinkie was the only one who had thus far seen through any of her tricks. "Oh! It must be my new spell! I was working on it and set a timer!" She held up her foreleg, showing the communicator off. "Yup, I better go back to the castle and check on it…" She didn't wait, panic had gripped her. With a 'blap' of sound and a puff of smoke, she was gone from the shop.

"A portable timer? I gotta get me one of them." Pinkie pondered the idea as she got a pair of cupcakes out, passing one to Kevin.

Twilight appeared in the upstairs room of Fluttershy's house. She looked around and couldn't see anypony. Except Apple Bloom. "Hi!"

"Gray?" Twilight watched the filly nod. "Perfect, what did you need to ask?"

"Ah thought you might want some tea." Gray pointed with one yellow hoof at the floor. "Fluttershy and I were going to… Twilight, are you okay?" She waved a hoof in front of the mare, who's left eye had started to twitch. "Twi?"

It was impossible to get actually mad at Apple Bloom, even if it was a changeling disguised as her. Twilight calmed herself. "Things seem to be going really well, I was thinking Pinkie Pie might be the next one." She turned and started heading for the door, Gray following.

"Ah could try to talk with her more, she really seems into her role." Gray had had more and more of that drawl enter her voice, since the dream. She just didn't fight her urges to be a good pony, and felt better for it. "Maybe get the other girls involved, get her to have some kind of party!"

"That could work. Oh, she is going to be throwing a party for Kevin soon." Twilight walked down the stairs slowly only to find Fluttershy had a guest. "Oh! Uh, hi Rainbow Dash."

"Hi, Twilight." Easy Glide loved some aspects of her disguise as Rainbow Dash, but hated others. "So, Flutters, you want to help with bringing out winter this year?"

"Oh my!" Fluttershy looked to Twilight, realizing that she was the real Twilight Sparkle, and not a drone like the changeling disguised as Rainbow Dash. "I have a lot of things to take care of, all my little friends need their homes reinforced."

"Ah could help!" Gray bounced up to Rainbow Dash. "If'n you got any low clouds I could buck!" to show off her performance, the filly lashed out at the chair, thankfully just after Twilight managed to grab it and hold it steady. "See?"

"I'm sure you can, pipsqueak, but most of these clouds will be up high." Easy gestured up to the ceiling. "Although it would be pretty awesome if we could get an alicorn to help this year" To Twilight, it sounded just like her friend, but the changeling disguised as Rainbow Dash was the first ever she had seen that had tipped her off so quickly.

"I…" Twilight knew she was stuck, if she said yes, her doppelganger would get in trouble for not knowing anything. If she said no, that same changeling would be getting ragged on by the blue pegasus for no reason. "I'll think about it. Swing by the castle tonight and ask me again."

"I'll put you down as a maybe." Easy shuffled a touch, still not used to wearing the shape of a mare. "Anyway, I'll see you at the party tomorrow."

Twilight blinked. "What party?" She looked between Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

Pulling out a card, Easy showed it to Twilight. "This one. Pinkie gave it to me just as I got here. Apparently that doofus changeling finally worked out how to remember his own name."

Gray and Twilight shared a little look; while a little ribbing was Dash's style, that level of insult was a bit beyond. Not for a second did Twilight question how Pinkie Pie, well, the changeling disguised as her—who had apparently developed Pinkie-esque powers—had managed to get the invitation out here before she could teleport with magic.

"I better get going, who knows what Stormwalker is going to mess up next." Easy got up and trotted for the door, spreading her wings and shooting off into the sky. Closing her eyes a moment, she enjoyed the simple act of flying in a body that was built entirely for it.

"What are you going to do about her?" Gray looked up at the alicorn. "Ah mean, if she don't want to be friends?"

"Oh my, she certainly seemed friendly to me. It was only when you came down." Fluttershy drew back, half hiding behind a chair that was between her and Twilight.

"She is nice to you, Fluttershy?" Twilight didn't move the chair, but she did address her friend, who nodded. "Then of course she stays. I certainly don't expect this to all work overnight, that I have had two successes already only makes me more determined to see this through."

The acceptance of her shaky friendship with the changeling perked the worried yellow pegasus right up. "So you aren't going to send her back to the hive?"

Twilight turned and looked to Apple Bloom. Gray stared back, her eyes unfocussed a moment as she remembered what it was like in the hive.

"Where is my lunch?" Chrysalis spat the words, looking around the huge hall, as if there were changelings hiding everywhere. "And it had better not be apples again!"

Ducking out from behind a chair, a drone bowed before his queen. "Your highness, it is being brought down, we caught you something very tasty!"

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the changeling. Just a drone. "It had better be fast, I am famished." She leaned back into the hard corners of the chair. "And you know what I eat when I don't get served something tasty?"

The drone was bolting for the door and had made his escape before his queen had finished the threat. "Grind! Where is that useless nymph? GRIND!"

From around the corner, just the drone Sever wanted to see came, flanked by a whole squad of other changelings. "Grind, is that the meal?"

"Yes! I got one!" Grind did a happy dance. "You just watch, she is going to be so pleased she will let me lead the next invasion!"

"I don't think you understand what happened to the first 'lings in the last one…" Sever spoke under his breath. "Young? Healthy?" His questions were loud enough for the other drone to hear.

"Definitely, both! I found them doing work, trotted up as a cute filly and, before he could think to move, I snared him and got him into the pod!" Grind turned the corner into the Queen's Chambers. "Your Highness!"

"Ah, lunch is here… one way or another." Chrysalis raised her eye as the pod was brought closer and hefted up onto her table.

"Of course, Your Highness, I found the most tasty pony I could and, rather than drinking him dry, I thought just how much my wonderful queen would like such a prize." Grind gesticulated wildly with his hooves. "With less drones in the hive lately, I figured such a dish would be perfect for you to sample first."

That her drone hadn't even properly tasted the pony, Chrysalis was more than a little touched. "Drone, come here." She pointed to the ground right beside her chair and waited for Grind to take the spot. "Do you mean to tell me, you only had the barest taste of this pony? Not even one gulp?" Her slit eyes narrowed to the barest line.

"No, My Wonderful and Amazing Queen." Grind felt his heart bubbling with happiness, he had worked so hard for his queen.

Chrysalis' eyes widened. Honesty, and such devotion. She almost drank from her drone she was so delighted. "Grind, you are going to g-" She froze, having pulled the pod closer, close enough to see inside. "Grind…" Chrysalis' tone was icy cold, her delight had drained away and left less compassion than she had felt at the wedding. Pointing into the pod with a hoof, she lifted her voice well beyond even what the Royal Canterlot Voice was capable of. "WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT BRINGING ME APPLES?"

Inside the pod, Braeburn looked out at the furious changeling queen, he really knew he shouldn't talk to strange ponies so much, but he promised himself that if he survived this and got home, he never would again!

Author's Note

Twilight looked down at the scroll her assistant, Spike, passed her. "I am glad everypony was so interested in my new experiment, I don't think I have ever had so many want to hear all about the delicate balance of friendship within changelings outside of their normal hive-vironment. The first question is for me," the mare flushed a little with nerves, then she reads the scroll and blushes a lot more, "I... I don't know... romantically?" She tilted her head to the side and reached up above her head with her magic, tilting a little sign. "You know it says E up there, right? Anyway, I believe the next one is for you, Crag- I mean, Spike!"

Spike squinted at the alicorn but shrugged. "Uh, hi!" When he didn't say anything else, a scroll floated over to him in magenta magic. "Oh, a question for me?" His brow furrowed as he started to read it. "Dragon fire? Oh! This?" He lifted his head and breathed a gout of green fire. "Simple, when a changeling takes the form of somepony, or something, they get most of the same tricks as them, and some insight into using them. Like Twilight there and her magic, or her cutie mark, or Spike and his fire breath!"

To the side, Twilight's wings flared up in surprise. "Spike... you weren't supposed to tell them I was a changeling, the Princess is busy and she can't answer all these-"

Two large canes reached in from each side of the stage and yanked the pair roughly off as the lights dimmed.

"You want my answer too?" Princess Celestia steped in on the stage from one side, golden hoof-shoes clacking down on the wood with each measured step. "The truth of the matter is, I have always listened to my former Student and have always told her what she most needs to hear. In this, she has come up with a delightful plan that I am sure will fulfill all her hypotheses." A plate bearing a thin slice of the most decadent cheesecake known to pony floated up in golden magic. Before the princess takes a bite, she smiles. "Or is that just what you need to hear?"

"Ask x", x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post!

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