I had been staring at the ceiling for over an hour, it was a pretty nice ceiling to be fair, but it was very uninteresting after the first 30 minutes. I got up and grabbed a little box from the shelf, inside was equestria's equivalent of a rubiks cube, it was made of steel and had sides inlayed with different metals for the different colors, copper, brass, silver,blackened wrought iron, suprisingly some gold, and bare steel, I scrambled it and began to solve it.

About 2 hours later I had scrabled and solved it 3 times and just as I finished solving it a 4th time I heard a knock at the door, not a loud knock by any standards but enough to hear. I put aside the puzzle cube and opened the door, I saw a unicorn maid standing at my door with a piece of paper in her hand and a duster in the other.

"What is it" I said in a slightly bored voice.

"I was assigned to dust this room, the princess also told me to bring you this," she was about average height and had a teal coat, orange eyes, and a blue and pink mane,

"Whatever, just don't break anything," I took the sheet of paper as she walked in. I opened it and read the message sloppily scrawled accross it, it had only 5 words, they were 'ENJOY YOUR LAST 10 SECONDS', I turned around and saw the maid looking at me with a smug grin, she gripped the duster jumped at me, she pulled the duster's fluffy end off revealing a long green crystal blade. I tried to dodge but the doorway blocked me and I felt the blade swipe across my chest.

" shhhiiitt, YOU SHITSUCKING ASS WAD, YOU ARE DEAD!" I yelled and swiped her legs, she fell and I punted her across the floor, her knife going rolling away, I pulled my knife and put it against her throat, "WHY DID YOU DO IT" I said in a seething mad voice

"What" she squeaked

"Why did you, try to KILL ME!" I said whilst pushing the knife harder against her neck.

"What" she said again

"Say WHAT one more time and I'll remove your HEAD!" I yelled, she remained quiet and then spat in my face, I held her limbs with magic and wiped off the... Not spit, I pulled away my hand and saw green. I immediately slit the obviously not a maid's throat and watched as green blood spurred out and it transformed back into a changeling, it's black chitinous body going limp.
***
Celestia Pov

'WHUMP' I looked up from my paperwork and saw Nova standing at the foot of the throne, there was a dead changeling on the floor in front of her.
"Nova, why is there a dead changeling there?" I asked, I kept a straight face while mentally worried about why it was here.

"Little fucker tried to kill me, I killed it first" she answered in a tone that made my skin crawl.

" Are there any more?" I asked hoping Nova wouldn't do something stupid.

"I dont know, but if they show their ugly little faces, I'll turn em into a green smear on the floor," she said again in that disturbing voice, I looked her over, her shirt was shredded and I could clearly see the scar Luna gave her, as well as a new one running from her right breast to under her left, the blue shirt she wore framing it for all to see, I looked to my guards, they had wisely stepped back, I looked at her she looked back, I saw her expression noticably calm down, and she turned and walked off.

I looked at the body,

"Guards, please remove the body, and conduct a standard changeling test on all castle staff, if they look like they came from Chrysalis bring them to me for interrogation," I spoke and the guards immediately sprung to action, they dragged off the body, and hustled about in every direction before they were gone and a new set or guards was protecting me.
***
Nova Pov

I'd calmed a bit, I looked at the knife in my hand, it was the weapon the changeling carried, it glowed a soft green, I could feel magic in it, I looked at the wound, it was now a long scar, my shirt was shredded and stained with brownish dried blood, whelp there goes this shirt, I thought as I walked, I wasn't looking where I was going and ran into something, I turned my head and saw Luna staring back at me.

"Uhh, hi Luna...." I said hesitantly

" Greetings, Nova, we were looking for thee," I stepped back and she looked at me, "What hath happened?, thou look terrible,"

"Unfriendly company, if you want to know more ask your sister" I said to her as I fiddled with the knife.

"How unfortunate. Although we hope to cheer thee up, we hath purchased thee a self propelled vehicle," she said putting on a smile

"Well at least theres some good news, thanks Luna,"

"Our sister hath told us to teach you to operate one, and to find one that thou would liketh, follow us to it,"

"Ok, lead the way," I said as she walked down the hall and I followed. We walked for about 2 minutes and we finally came to a large door,

"This is the royal garage, most of the vehicles are owned by our sister, we shall show you thine's vehicle.

"Cool," I said simply as I looked at all the various wheeled vehicles, everything from a palanquin to the more modern self propelled transport.

"We hath arrived, looketh upon it, doth thou like it?" she asked while standing next to my new set of wheels.

"Now that's cool," I said as I looked it over, since equestria's cars looked a bit dieselpunk- ish this was no different, it looked like a 39 plymouth pickup, without the fender mounted headlghts, smooth hubcaps and odd tires, a shorter roof, lower stance and a large engine with side exahaust pipes, it was primarily plain steel, but the front was painted with flames, I was still confused by equestrian tech, considering they still occasionally used steam cars and carridges, but had things like computers and advanced electronics.

"We found a stallion who wished to sell it, we thought thou would liketh it" Luna said as I looked at it, it was very cool, obviously had some time put into it and it looked like it would be loud and fast, it had a flat bed cover and the brand name was Pheonix.

"I can't wait to take this thing for a ride, where are the keys?" I asked, Luna looked at me like I was crazy.

"With thou know how to operate it?" she asked with a confused look on her face.

"Heh, yep, and I forsee a shit ton of fun coming from this thing.

"These are thine keys, proveth your skill to us," she handed me the keys and I got in, the drivers side was on the left as usual, I sat down in the somewhat used but comfortable chair and ratcheted it down so I could sit normally, I was glad that I'd gotten a well used truck, it had character, and everything was already broken in. I put the key in the ignition, which was in the dash, and turned it, the truck did nothing, I looked at the switchplate in the dash in front of the shifter, the switches were labeled, there was also a little number next to each, I went in order, power, fuel, ignition, start button, the truck whined and sputtered, then roared to life, I put it in first and gave it some gas, it moved to forward and I turned it toward the exit.

"We are impressed, please continue, we wish to observe your performance." she said as she reclined in her chair, I was glad that this thing had reclining chairs, otherwise my horns wouldn't fit, I drove it out into the streets and revved it, it rumbled fiercely, I drove it out to the main road and cruised it along, it handled well and was perky as fuck, I could tap the gas and it would jerk forward hard, when I got to a stop sign I giggled a bit in glee as I saw a noble in their fancy car pull up next to me. I had the window down and he had the top down on his and he turned to me and spoke.

"Do you wish to race?" he almost sneered

"Your on, what stakes?" I said back to him as I found some thick canvas seatbelts and strapped them on, it looked like an old aircraft harness.

" If I win, I should like to see you in the nude" he said, obviously very confident in himself.

" Alrighty then, if I whup your ass I get fifty bits, deal? I spat back at him.

"Deal, first to the end of the promenade is the Victor, butler, would you count us down please?" he said in his annoying snobby voice

"Very good sir," I heard the butler say as he stepped out and whipped out a cloth to start us off. "Three, two, one, start," thee butler said very simply as he flicked the cloth down.

I dropped the clutch, and felt the tires skid and then finally grip, the truck screamed at wide open as it took off, I shifted up and looked at the snob, he was right next to me sticking out his tounge like a little kid. I shifted again, the truck continued to plow along, I also noticed that it had 4 wheel drive, because I found the switch to engage it, I flipped it, I heard a metallic clunk, and the truck jerked a bit, I looked to Luna, she was holding on for dear life, and I had the biggest fucking grin on my face, I shifted to 7th (dang it has a ton of gears) and continued to floor it, I looked ahead and saw the end nearing swiftly, I had no idea if I was winning but I was the happiest living thing on the planet right now," WOOOOOOOOO, YYYEEEAAAAHHHHH, HAHAHAHAHAAAA!" I yelled in glee as I stomped the brakes at the end of the promenade, the truck turned sideways a bit then stopped. "That was the most fun I've had in a long time, thanks Luna, this is awesome" I put the truck in neutral, engaged the parking brake, and got out.
" who won,?" I asked the snob who stopped nearby.

"I believe it was too close to call," he turned to a nearby fellow snob, and asked him, "Did you see who got to the end of the shops first?" he asked, the other snob then turned and said,

"I believe you lost, by a hair sir, twas a fine race" he said before returning to whatever he was doing. Mr. Snob turned to me and opened his coin bag and handed me 5 ten bit coins.

" I do believe you have won, I may be unhappy that I have lost, but I will pay my due, however I do wish to race you again someday" he said in a disappointed tone, I pocketed the coins

" I'll see ya later, good race, even if I'd lost, I still had a ton of fun, if I ever see ya again I'll race ya again." I returned to the truck and saw Luna doing breathing exercises in the passenger seat, "little to fast for ya" I said with a smirk, as I started the truck again.

"We hath not experienced such swiftness in millenia," she said after she calmed down a bit,"We command thee as your princess, to not drive like that in our presence"

"Fine, I'll drive slow for now, but I'm not making any promises." I said as I drove back to the castle, "what's this do," I looked at a switch that had a cloud printed on it.

"That function hath been made in many pegasus vehicles, it allows thou to fly the vehicle and moveth upon the clouds, the pegasi hath designed it, we do not endorse its use in our presence," at the end of her explanation it sounded like she was pleading me not to push it.

" good to know," I pulled into the garage and stopped, it sputtered and the engine was silent, I turned everything off and disembarked.

Author's Note

Another chapter, I've been meaning to give Nova some form of transportation, i decided on diesel punk styling because it looks retro enough(30s and 50s) and it still fits a bit better than steam,(cuz magic and smartphones) magic engines will be a thing later. And I haven't forgot the changeling spies either.

See ya