"Jade stop!" Nimbus wasn't used to fast-flying, she stuck mostly to gliding, but for her friend's sake she wouldn't turn back. "Jade you have to talk about this!"

"I don't!" Jade's anger and sense of betrayal gave her more strength than normal, powering her flight to the outskirts of town. Glancing back she saw no sight of her friend. Circling down, she landed in a plaza devoid of any other ponies, only to have Nimbus drop down beside her not a moment later. "Leave me alone!"

"No. Not until you tell me what is up." Nimbus puffed out her chest and glared at her friend. "He's just a changeling, it's not like-"

"It isn't that. It isn't that at all!" Jade stomped away, finding a small pile of rocks. "He lied to me, Nimmy, lied since we first met. Buck, I don't even know if that was the first time we met!" She flicked a rock into the air with her wing, then delivered a sharp buck with a back leg.

"How long have you been seeing each other?" Nimbus walked over to her friend, gathering some more stones into the pile for her.

"Nearly two weeks now. We… oh Celestia we had sex!" Jade suddenly froze, terror running through her. A pair of forelegs wrapped around her neck, relieving half the shock of the moment. "We… I should go to a doctor… are changelings even… uh… compatible?"

"I… you know I don't know." Nimbus gave a sigh. "Let's both go and get checked out." She squeezed the other mare significantly.

"Wait, are you telling me your… is the… oh buck indeed!" Jade drew back and looked intently at her friend. "What are we both getting into, Nimmy? Stallions will be the end of us!"

"Careful is a nice stallion, he told me like the first time we really became serious… I guess stallions are plot-holes or nice even if they are also changelings." She gave her friend another hug and let go. "You are totally missing out, though."

"What do you mean?" Jade launched another stone. "Don't you dare try to get us back-

"No, forget him. If he couldn't see how amazing you were to fly after you himself he isn't worth it. But there are other changelings around now. Did you see the captain of the guard?" Nimbus fluffed her wings a little.

"But… isn't that a mare?" Jade had just flicked another stone up, but let it drop. "You know my type, Nimmy."

"Big, tough, and willing to tell you the truth? What about a changeling that is so self-assured that they will march around the Crystal Empire without a disguise on? That can become the biggest and toughest stallion you have ever seen?" Nimbus flicked the next stone up, her friend connecting and sending it off like a shot.

"Okay, that does sound my type, except for one very important thing." Jade looked at her friend and rolled her eyes. "I don't do mares, Nimmy. You remember how 'we' went? And we got on together really well."

"You should have just said you needed a good bucking. There are toys I could have gotten!" Nimbus was relaxed and in common territory. "Let alone some cute studs we both could have hunted."

"No, Nimmy." Jade sent two rocks up, connecting with each. "But I am thinking of joining the guard. For one thing, hunks a plenty." She booped her friend on the nose. "And for another… work is slim for a mare on her own, the Empire is growing, but there are plenty of hooves coming here to grow it. Plus you know I can fly."

"Jade, you can fly almost as good as a Wonderbolt, but you need to keep your eyes peeled, you didn't even see me before." Nimbus Cloud spread her wings and lifted up into a hover.

"You are joking? Nimmy, what do you do for the super secret 'can't talk to anypony or you have to arrest them' group thing you have going? You fly high and keep an eye out without being seen, right?" Jade took to the air and started flapping in a circle to gain altitude. "I would say that if I had seen you, you weren't very good at your job!" Jade's strokes were more powerful than her friend's, but she tried to keep her flying prowess a little under control.

Passing the tops of the tallest buildings, bar the castle of course, the two mares winged their way to the main hospital of the Empire and landed out the front. Without the noise of their wing-beats to muffle their words, Nimbus continued the conversation. "I am great at my job, thank you very much. It just worries me that I may be out looking at things-"

"Spying." Jade poked her tongue out as they walked into the hospital.

"As I said, looking at things. And if I find something I need help with, and call for Guards… and you show up and bumble into things." Nimbus poked her friend's shoulder.

"I don't bumble, I glide gracefully, or dive like a hawk!" Jade lifted a wing and gave it an unneeded preen.

"Hello, my name is Nurse Soft Touch, can I help you with something?" Soft looked at the two pegasi who had entered together.

Nimbus blinked, suddenly lost for words. She looked to Jade for help.

"We both have very hasty attitudes towards stallions and are prone to bad decision making." Jade gave a sigh as she finished dead-panning the words. "Please help."

Nimbus' dry-spell was quickly ended by her friend's humor. "Hey, speak for yourself. My choice in stallion is a good one, I can't help it if somepony expects hers to have no brain cells, then gets surprised when they do."

"Oh, uh, check ups, pregnancy test, and…" Trailing off, the nurse looked specifically to Jade. "Maybe something to help you avoid needing the latter quite so soon?"

Jade blushed a little and gave a nod. "Probably a good idea." She straightened up and ruffled her wings. "I guess I should if I am going to try-out for the Guard."

The nurse blinked. "But you're a mare!" She froze at the suddenly stormy look on Jade's face. "Uh… but I thought only stallions could be Guards?"

"Nope, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining invited me themselves!" Jade struck a pose.

Soft tapped a hoof to her jaw. "He isn't technically a prince yet. But I guess if they both said it would be alright then a mare in the Guard would be okay… OH! That is why you want to control your-"

"Nurse Soft Touch, please maintain a modicum of dignity for our patients. Hi there, I am Doctor Horse. What is the problem today?" A young stallion rolled his eyes at the nurse and focused on Jade and Nimbus.

"Can we talk in a private room?" Nimbus decided it was time to not have the nurse likely blabber their personal details all over the hospital.

"I was just about to suggest that." The doctor gestured to a consultation room and trotted in himself. "Now," he began, once the door was closed, "what do you need?"

"We have both… had changelings as partners." Jade couldn't stop blushing a little, although the embarrassment was tempered by a resurgence of anger at the deception.

"One of us still does." Nimbus stuck her tongue out at her friend, getting a bump in the shoulder for her teasing. "So really, we need information and a checkup. I think Jade might want a little more."

"Well, I was really thinking on joining the Royal Crystal Guard, I guess it would be a good idea to have something to… well, keep me a little safer." It was easier telling the rude nurse than telling this egg-head stallion… although he is a little cute, in a sort of smart way… Jade decided it was best to hedge her bets and batted her eyelashes at the doctor.

"Really?" Nimbus couldn't keep back her own laugh. "Doctor, I think my friend needs mental help too, she clear…" She trailed off, watching the doctor write something down on a piece of paper and slip it to her friend.

Jade's eyes focused on the doctor and she mouthed, "after this" to him and got a wink back. "So, what do we need to do first?"

"Oh, uh…" Doctor Horse looked at his notes, which mostly consisted of a sketch of a pegasus presenting herself. "The tests, of course. Have you both had something to drink recently?" He added a few more anatomically astute details to the pegasus.

"We had milkshakes not long ago." Nimbus couldn't believe how much her friend had suddenly shown interest in the doctor. "We need to pee on something, don't we?"

Two little enchanted sticks were provided, each mare being shown to a bathroom and, after a little tricky angling by both mares, soon back in the doctor's office. "Well," Doctor Horse looked at the sheets before him, entering the room where the mares were already waiting for him, "good news and great news."

Jade and Nimbus looked at each other, each sweating in a panic suddenly.

"The good news is, the tests worked properly. The great news is great only because I understand you both were hoping for negative results?" Horse lifted an eyebrow in question.

"Don't do that to us!" Both mares trembled and slumped in their chairs.

"Oh buck, I thought you were going to tell me I was pregnant." Nimbus shook her head. "I… okay it wouldn't be so terrible, but I still want a little more time before I start a family." She looked over to Jade, but her friend had apparently recovered quicker and was looking up at the doctor. "So is there anything we need to know about being with changelings?"

"I… really don't know." The doctor had to snap his eyes away from the pegasus tempting him. "They were only really made official citizens recently."

"So, if I am all clear, and you can't help me with that… I think I can leave Jade in your care?" Nimbus got a wink from her friend and shook her head. "Use protection, both of you." She hugged Jade, then glared at the doctor, before leaving.

Taking to the wing, Nimbus circled up and up from the hospital, riding the warm breezes until she was well clear of any buildings again. "She is a good flier, I should probably go and talk to Gilt about her." She squinted down on the area reserved for the Guard training. It wasn't hard to spot the changeling Captain, particularly in the shiny new armor they wore.

Gilt blinked as a pegasus she somewhat recognized landed beside her. "Nimbus, isn't it? Careful's fillyfriend?"

"Got it in one. Nimbus Cloud, at your service." Nimbus ruffled her wings and folded them at her sides. "And I wanted to talk about a mare who is going to come to join up."

"Sloppy." Gilt walked slowly along a line of guard recruits attempting to work in formation with their spears. "I meant you, Nimbus. You fly really loose." She flashed a toothy grin at her hivemate's mare.

"I prefer to glide." Nimbus blushed a little. "But I guess I could work on my regular flight." Stretching a wing to the side, she looked down its length. "My friend who wants to join is a lot better flier than I am, but what I wanted to warn you about was her… tastes."

Gilt gave a slight sigh. "Another mare hoping to wet her hips with as many stallions as she can? At least tell me she is going to-"

"She has a… way, yeah. But she is a good listener, and if you get her to focus I am sure she will make you proud of her… and I made sure she is getting some protection from a doctor." Nimbus' eye was caught by a group of pegasi, flying rapidly from one end of a field to the other and back again, while somepony was timing them.

"You want to join in? You are already part of the… uh, higher-up division, or so I understand?" Gilt saw the pegasus' wings twitch a little. "Soldier!"

The shout, right by her ear, stunned Nimbus into standing dead-still and staring ahead.

"Join the other cadets flying pacer tests this second!" Gilt's order had Nimbus moving before she even finished. "That is one pegasus I don't think I need to bring to Careful's attention." She grinned as the blue mare joined the queue of ponies to perform their tests next.

Author's Note

Question for Jade Wings: "Do you think that you will give "Sorrel Step" a second chance?"

Jade looked a little sweaty, her chest rising and falling quickly, but she only grinned. "Sorrel Step? Sorry, I give a stallion one chance, he lied to me about who he even was." She tilted her head and looked up to judge the sun. "If you will excuse me, I really need to go and... uh, apply for a new position." She gave a wink before spreading her wings and leaping into the air.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

So I do this "Ask x" thing, 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! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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