“Hey Steady. How’s it going? Anything new happen?” The grey coated pony named Steady Saunter smiled at the mare standing in front of him.
“No. Not really. Just a couple of pretty mares.” He responded casually.
The Pegasus he spoke to blushed slightly, “Oh you little flirt. You better not let my husband hear you talking that way.”
Steady put on a fake sad expression, “Aww. Here I thought for sure I was winning you over.”
After another blush and wave of her hoof the mare giggled as she said, “Oh, go off and clean the living room already, you devil.”
Steady complied and set to the work what he was there for.
After a short cleaning and a casual goodbye, Steady Saunter made his way down the road. His dark grey mane and tail flowed in the wind. He looked up and smiled. It was beautiful day in Canterlot just like yesterday…and the day before. It was even like the day before that. Starting about a month ago all the days had been absolutely perfect.
He continued his trot until he came to another house. He set down his cleaning equipment and knocked on the door and waited. Soon it opened and a brown coated stallion stepped into the doorway.
“I’m very busy, can you come back tom…” he began but soon the tan maned Pegasus’ face changed from annoyance to happiness, “Oh. Steady! Nice to see ya pal. You here to help me organize again?”
Steady smiled and nodded, “Nice to see you too TV. Yes, I’m here to help organize you n…house.”
TV Signal smiled and spoke again, “Well that’s all fine and dandy. Upside Down came over last night and ruined just about everything. I just don’t understand how one pony can cause mass destruction in a place as small as this. Then again, he did manage to break an ‘unbreakable’ plate so I shouldn’t be surprised. Come on in.”
Steady walked inside and took a deep breath of air. Today was just getting better.
The day was almost over and it was finally time to head home. Steady Saunter trotted slowly towards his apartment on the other side of the city. Heading inside he walked up to the front counter.
“Hello Miss.” He said, “Room 13 please?”
The Unicorn mare, with complete disinterest, floated a pair of keys out of a drawer and towards Steady. Before he could reach them however, they stopped and she spoke in a monotone, “Only if you stop calling me Miss. We’re friends Steady Saunter.” Her blue aura floated the keys over to him once more and he caught them in his mouth.
He smiled deviously, “Thank you Miss” He said and walked away to his room completely unaware of the tiny smile creeping upon her lips.
On the third floor he found his apartment with memorized practice as he’d been there enough times. Opening the door he looked around the small room and sighed. Today had been perfect. Absolutely perfect. Walking over to his room he took off his work closed and went to his bathroom to prepare for a night of sleep.
Looking into the mirror his smile stayed strong as a bright blue flame engulfed his body. A second later in his place stood the unmistakable form of the love sucking creature known as a changeling.
“’Ponies are love concealing monsters who only care for themselves!’ Ha!” He said to himself as he transformed into the very queen he spoke of, “’Oh Amare, you’ll never become a good changeling unless you learn how to be a heartless monster.’” He said in a mocking voice. He then returned to his own form and smiled at the reflection. Amare Cadere was his name. He sighed.
“They may not know what I am, but they know who I am.” With this thought in his head he went to bed and fell into a deep sleep.
The sun once again shone through the window right upon the face of a certain changeling as he lay in bed. Slowly, he opened his eyes and was greeted with the wall to his apartment. He rose and looked at the clock. His eyes were blurry from the sleep in them so he rubbed his eyes to allow better sight. Looking at the clock his heart stopped.
“Ten twenty-six!? I’ve got a house to clean in four minutes!” Amare Cadere Attempted to jump from his seated position, unfortunately forgetting his legs were wrapped in a blanket. He fell flat on his face cursed in an unknown language. Untangling himself he hurried to get his stuff and ran out the door.
“I feel like I’m forgetting something.” He said to himself as he landed at the bottom of the stairs. Just before rounding the corner into a crowded area he remembered. After a flash of cyan fire he was once again Steady Saunter, best house cleaner organizer of Canterlot and certainly not a changeling.
He galloped out the door and sprinted down the paths of Canterlot.
Three and a half minutes later he found the address he was searching for a collapsed at the door. Thankfully, being a changeling who could exit the city temporarily to fly was a great advantage.
After catching his breath he reached up and knocked on the door of the slightly large building with a hoof. After a few seconds of silence, a voice sang.
“One moment.” Once again a few second of silence announced it’s presence until the door finally opened. The door opened to reveal a blue coated earth pony mare with a two-toned green and grey mane and tail, her mane being tied up in a pony-tail. He noticed her cutiemark was a pink pillow in the shape of a heart.
“Yes?” She said.
Amare was stunned and would have compliment her looks if not for the wedding wristband around her hoof. Regaining his thoughts he spoke, “Hello. I’m here for the cleaning Miss…?” He then remembered he hadn’t even looked at the name on the letter. Luckily she wasn’t the type to get offended easily.
“Seat. Love Seat.” She smiled warmly and continued, “…and I’m really glad you’re here. The house hasn’t had a proper cleaning in about three years. Come in, come in.” She ushered him into the house and he happily complied.
Once again her kind voice spoke again, “You sound pretty winded. I hope your coming has caused any problems.”
Amare became aware of the deep breathes he had been taking and small pain in his chest. He attempted to shrug it off, “No, no. I’m fine.”
The mare shook her head, “That will not do for me I’m afraid. Come into the kitchen and let get you a drink.” The way she said this, and with the amount of assertiveness his changeling sense caught, Amare assumed it might be best to simply submit to her orders. She was his employer today after all.
“Yes Miss Seat.”
They walked into the kitchen and Love Seat opened the fridge pulling out a bottle of water. She gave it to him and he eagerly accepted the contained amount of the perfect afterlife with a thank you. After a few chugs he set the bottle down and began to set up his ladder. As he did so Love Seat spoke again.
“I’m sorry. I never caught your name.”
The disguised changeling smirked, “I don’t believe I dropped it.” The two of them laughed as he pulled out a couple cloths.
“You’re a little jokester aren’t you?”
Without answering the question Amare smiled and said, “Name’s Steady Saunter. Friends call me Steady.”
Once the introductions were done he continued his work as Love Seat left the room.
Everything was quite for about ten minutes until the clopping of hooves could be heard. A voice yelled out, “ZOOM! Here comes the plane! It’s gonna crash! BAIL OUT!” Before Amare could react, a green coated unicorn filly came running through the kitchen opening and ran head first into the ladder Amare stood causing him and his source of balance to wobble. He fell backward on his back but noticed right as he hit the floor that the filly was in the way of the ladders falling course. Thinking fast he pulled the filly out of dodge with a small use of his magic being careful not to use too much and attract attention.
Unfortunately, an expensive looking vase on a coffee table wasn’t as lucky as the little filly.
“Virdy? What’s the noi…Sweet Celestia! What happened!” She shouted arriving upon the scene. Bits of the vase scattered over the floor, her daughter and current employee on the ground with a ladder far too close to the filly, “Viridian Comic? What is the meaning of…this?!”
The little filly looked downtrodden. Her hoof had been caught in the cookie jar. She didn’t say a word.
“I’m sorry Miss Seat. It was my fault.” It took Amare several seconds to realize he had said those words. Not wanting to stop now he continued, “She wanted to know what my job was like so I began stepping down to tell her and I slipped. I can really be klutz sometimes.”
Love Seat stared at Amare and then to Viridian Comic, and then stared back at Amare with a look that quite loudly stated ‘I don’t believe a word of that.’
“Okay then. As long as you’re more careful then I guess I can let it go. Come on Viridian. You wanted to show Mommy your latest comic collection didn’t you?”
During this time Viridian had looked at Amare in bewilderment. Upon hearing her name she smiled and stood up, “Yeah. It’s The Power Ponies Meet Doctor Hooves! It’s gonna be the best of the whole series I think!” The two ponies walked out of the room leaving Amare to continue with his work.
Amare sat at the family table of Love Seats house. He had protested greatly but she had insisted he stay for a bite. He knew it would bring him no nourishment and that no food could ever trump the taste of love but he relented and ate at their table.
“So you clean houses? Why do you clean them? Are the ponies too lazy to clean up themselves? I know I am? What don’t clean my room? Then I’ll never have to. I can go play with my friends instead. Do you know any of my friends? What’s you name?” the barrage of questions assaulted Steady Saunter as he pretended the food was all he ate. The love that Love Seat had for her daughter was enough to feed ten changelings so he had plenty to eat.
“Virdy, One question at a time. I don’t think mister Saunter can answer all those at once.” Love Seat looked at Amare, “I’m sorry. Viridian is a very excitable type of pony.”
Amare smiled, “Oh it’s fine. I like kids anyway.” He turned to Viridian and answered, “Yes, I clean houses for a living and it may be true that some ponies are too lazy to clean up after themselves but that just keeps me in business. It’s not really a problem. I doubt however that your mother would approve of me cleaning your room. You’re not lazy are you?” He finished his statement by placing grey hoof on his chest in faux concern.
“What? No. Not me.” Viridian said with a giggle. She then looked at her mother and added, “Tell mister Saunter I’m not lazy mom.” Love Seat went silent and smiled. Her daughter didn’t find it amusing, “Mom!?”
Amare woke up once again, ironically earlier than before even though it was Saturday and he wouldn’t be working anyway. He rose and walked into the kitchen to make some coffee. Just because it didn’t bring nourishment didn’t mean it couldn’t still effect him like other creatures.
He began sipping his very black coffee and sat down with a newspaper. He skimmed the information without interest until something caught his eye. He looked at a certain photo and noticed that it was a picture of Viridian and her mother.
He decided to read the article but as he did his heart stopped.
Early this morning, Love Seat, the widow to famous movie-star Autograph, was found dead on the east side of Trough Street. It is suspected that she was killed by a group of thugs who had just recently shoplifted a store armed with knives. Mulitiple wounds were found in the body and head of the victim.
Her daughter Viridian Comic has gone missing and authorities are currently looking for her whereabouts.
Author's Note
I rewrote this entire thing because I did not like the original. Thank 42Herooftime for the name of the filly and thank Makazi for the idea of rewriting the story. They are both awesome.
A crowd was gathered around a house in Canterlot. It was somewhat impressive how many ponies could be in the same area at once but that isn’t important. What’s important is that one of them is on a mission. His mission far exceeded the mission of any other pony there that’s for sure.
The pony well known as Steady Saunter rushed through the multitude of mares and stallions, hurrying to his destination. He finally made it to the building. He unfortunately wasn’t allowed to go inside due to the guards standing outside the door.
“I’m sorry sir.” Said one of the guards, “There was a crime commited.”
“No shit Sherlock!” Steady yelled. After he took a breath he spoke again, “Look, I just want to know if the foal is still missing.”
The guard replied with a motionless expression, “I do believe everypony already knows that from the papers. We are running an investigation for…”
But Amare didn’t hear anything past that. Instead his hearing went numb. It was a familiar sound. Without responding to the guard he trotted away to an alley. He made sure no one was looking before concentrating his magic he activated his mental link.
“This Amare Cadere.”
Drone 326, you are ordered to return to the hive.
“Sir?”
You heard me. Get to the hive now.
“I...uh...”
What was that?
“N…nothing sir. I’m on my way”
Amare cut the link and sat down. He had to leave. After all he had done. He’d made relationships with others. He had lived a normal life.
That doesn’t matter. He had a mission and he carried it out. Get information on the security of the kingdom. He shouldn’t care whether or not he had built a good reputation in the little city.
“I’m being silly.” He said more as a reassurance to himself, “My Queen beckons me once more and I must obey.” Amare sneaks out of the metropolis and heads towards the changeling kingdom, his form returned to its natural one.
Amare’s’ chitin hooves clopped on the ground as he landed in front of the changeling castle. He sighed and walked into a hole that had just appeared in the wall. In a hurried pace he went down several corridors in a similar fashion. Soon he got to the barracks. He went inside and greeted his fellow changeling invaders. Most of them were either hoof wrestling or flat out wrestling. He ignored them went to the end of the hall where his captain slept. He knocked on the door and waited. It soon opened and a large changeling stepped out, his body covered in scars from past battles. The worst of these was the one on his eye causing his eye to have a ghostly look, hence the name…
“Captain Ghost sir. Invader Cadere reporting.” The Captain smiled deviously.
“Well drone, how did you like your vacation? Sickening wasn’t it, living with those ponies? The colorful bastards.” Said the Captain spitting the word pony out like a piece of rotten fruit.
“Anyway…” he continued, “If you’re wondering why you’ve been called don't get the idea that you’re special or anything. The Queen has been calling as many changelings as possible. After the failure at Caterlot we can’t take any chances. We need every changeling available.”
While Captain Ghost continued his tirade Amare simply began to tune him out. It felt weird being back after the last month. He had lived with ponies so much the bland colors of the hive were…boring? The darn ponies were to blame. They ruined his taste in changeling culture. He needed to concentrate, dinner would be soon and he didn’t want to lose out on his fair share of love.
“…and Bone broke somelings neck again. That’s the third one this week. The Queen loves it.” Amare realizing that the Captain hadn’t notice his faze out, decided to speak.
“Well, that’s an…uh…interesting story but…” he pointed to the hole in the wall, “…I’m getting hungry. Those ponies like the Queen said are heartless. I barely got a full meal.” He saluted and then left.
Changelings sat at the Feasting Table savagely sucking love from the cocooned ponies on the table. Some were even fighting over who got who causing the room to become a fight fest. Only one changeling remained in place, taking tiny sips of love from a grown stallion in front of him. The stallion was a guard and was crying in his cocoon.
Amare didn’t quite like taking love, but he was a little hungry after traveling for so long earlier so he took a little more than normal. Suddenly he saw something strange, it was another guard. Amare looked up and saw he was no longer in the hive. He was on a battlefield. He looked around and saw something that made his heart quench: a brown Pegasus guard, dead on the ground. At least he thought he was dead. He began to speak.
“I have found you.”
Amare snapped back to the hive and fell out of his chair. His mind was a blur of feelings, those of which he had never had before. He looked up and saw the face of the guard he had been sucking love from. The ponies eyes were open and he was smiling. Then he closed his eyes, with a smile still on his face.
Three hours, one therapy visit, and two minutes later Amare found himself standing at attention for the daily inspiration meeting.
“Once again we have proven our strength!” yelled Queen Chrysalis, “We have captured hundreds of ponies from all over Equestria. Ponies from Canterlot…” Amares’ heart burned, “…ponies from ponyville, and even ponies from the Crystal Empire!” After a little villainous laughter she stepped off the stage and Captain Ghost stepped onto it.
“Alright drones! Here is the list of participants for todays torture chamber…er…torture-and-then-kill-em chamber! Spine! Wreck! Drain!...”
Amare started to ignore this part. He was never chosen for this job, that being because he didn’t sign up for it.
“…Dummy! Code! Amare! Jake! That’s all! See you there sickos!”
Time froze.
As all the changelings began to walk away, one stood frozen. He continued to stare at the stage. When time and reality returned to the changeling, Amare decided the best course of action would be to find the captain and ask what in Tartarus was going on. He ran down the corridors, ignoring the snickers of changelings around. He found the changeling he was looking for on his way to the torture chamber.
“Captain! Sir!” He said as he neared Ghost, “Wh…why am I on the torture team today? I don’t understand.”
Ghost smiled, “That’s right. You don’t understand. You have feelings for those ponies. Don’t think that just cause you’re a drone I’m not gonna check your emotions to make sure you’re not breaking code.”
One of the female changelings nearby spoke, “He didn’t break me sir. I’m a virgin.”
“Not break you Code. Break the code.”
“Oh.”
The Captain sighed, “Anyway, you were chosen because you have the least experience and we need all hooves on deck. Got it? Good. Let’s go. I’m not letting you outta my sight till we get there.”
Amare groaned as he followed Captain Ghost. As they neared the entrance to the torture chamber, Amare felt something familiar. It was something he had felt a while ago. It was an emotion, but not any emotion, a distinct emotion from a particular pony. He wasn’t sure who could possibly have that description but it irked him none the less.
The two changelings walked through the new hole in the wall and went down a staircase. The wall were made from red sapphire had a much more eerie. Amare had never been in here and he didn’t like being in here. Soon they got to the ground floor. Torture items of every kind littered the place. Blood stains were also visible on most of the equipment. This was nothing though. At the end of the room was a line of ponies. They all seemed scared out of their skulls. Many of them had their eyes shut, trying not to show any pain as they cried. One pony however was what stood out.
“Viridian?”
