“So, during all that time we spent in the dinky little donut shop, you guys kept playing with your food and stacking towers of menus?” Pharynx groaned as he slapped one of his hooves against his own face, while holding a bag of donuts in his other hoof.

“Hey, at least we got Flutterwings to eat some, but she seems to only prefer all of the chocolate ones,” Venom answered.

“What else is new, then?”

“Pharynx, I think my donut is broken,” Flutterwings said to the changeling prince while holding a rather long pastry that was covered in chocolate. “It doesn’t have any holes in it.”

Pharynx looked at the “donut” she had. “Flutterwings, that’s an eclair.”

“An... eclair?”

“Uh, yeah. There’s a cream filling in it.”

“Really?” She bit into it. Hard.

Well, a little too hard, actually. The white, creamy filling came gushing out of the pastry, squirting right into Pharynx’s face.

She looked at him. “Pharynx,” she said, “now my eclair’s broken.”

The dark cyan changeling sputtered and gagged as he tried wiping the cream off his face, specifically out of his eyes. He groaned. “You got a napkin, kid?”

“I don’t think so,” the nymph replied, quickly shaking her head, before sticking her tongue out at the changeling, obviously trying to get a taste of the white cream.

Pharynx’s brow furrowed as he pushed the nymph away by the head. “Don’t even think about it, kid,” he grumbled in subtle disgust at her.

“Come on, let me get it!” She said, still sticking her little tongue out at him.

“I said no, Flutterwings,” he snapped sternly.

“Come on, please?” She begged.

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pleeeease?”

“Did someone ask for a napkin?” The two of them turned to the random changeling, who had appeared out of nowhere offering a couple of white napkins to the messy changeling prince.

“Uh... thanks,” Pharynx said in a reluctant tone, before handing Flutterwings a small white paper bag. “Here kid, hold the donuts, will ya?” he said to her as he took a napkin to wipe his face clean.

Flutterwings nodded, before using her mouth to grab the top of the bag and carefully holding it between her jaws.

With the bag in her jaws’ grip, she watched the changeling prince clean himself up and asked, “Ah dese donnats shoc-wit?”

Pharynx looked at her. “It shouldn’t really matter. They’re just donuts.”

“Dey shay shoc-wit tists like luff!” the nymph claimed, still struggling to talk with the bag in her mouth.

“Now who made up that crazy theory?”

“I dunno!”

“Okay, just let me finish up so I can take that bag away from you,” Pharynx stated with a roll of his eyes. It was clear that he was starting to get annoyed by Flutterwings’ constantly muffled sentences.

Flutterwings waited for him completely finish. She decided to take a glance around the area from where she was currently standing. She saw a few fillies and colts playing, stallions and mares talking, and even a few royal guards in the area.

None of those seem to catch her attention like the random changeling in the area, however.

And it wasn’t even a reformed changeling.

That changeling was sitting far away from everything that was happening with the ponies that lived in this area. Heck, he didn’t seem to be caring about the many stares (or glares, rather) that he was getting from the ponies, many which kept a far distance from him.

Flutterwings spaced out the longer she stared at this strange changeling. Actually, strange wouldn’t be a good way to describe him.

He wore the same armor as any other changeling guard would, but it seemed to have a much more purplish tone than the usual blue. The same went for his eyes, which were a deep blue violet.

“Alright kid.” Pharynx’s baritone voice broke her out of her trance, making her jump a teeny bit. “Now, who were you talking about again?”

“Uhhhh...”

“Flutterwings? You dropped the bag on the ground!” Pharynx frantically picked up the bag of donuts back up.

“Sorry Pharynx! Just got distracted for a moment.”

She went back to gazing at the changeling. Upon squinting, she saw what appeared to be... bandaids? On his legs? Covering his holes? The changeling guard appeared to be struggling to pry those bandaids off with his teeth.

She turned around to see her brothers, telling them that she was going to see the guard. They were reluctant to let her at first, but they came to an agreement that the brothers would stand nearby so that they could watch their sister.

Flutterwings thanked them, before making her way to the changeling guard.

The guard suddenly whirled his head around to glance at the nymph next to him, a mix of both confusion and annoyance in his expression.

Flutterwings could only manage one word at this point: “...Hi.”

The guard only rolled his eyes and went back to trying to peel the many bandaids off his legs with his fangs.

At least he didn’t rip me to pieces then and there. She thought with a quiet sigh of relief.

“So um... I see you’re still one of those pre-reformed changelings.”

“The more you know,” he grumbled in one of those matter-of-fact tones.

“Er... yeah, heheh...” she chuckled sheepishly, before holding out a front hoof. “Name’s Flutterwings, Mister uh...”

He gave an aside glance to her before mumbling in a low voice, which was just loud enough for her to hear; “Cornalis.”

“...Cornalis, huh?” she looked up at him. “Never heard that sort of name before. It’s a good name.”

“Mhm...” Cornalis mumbled monotonously as he continued picking at his bandaids, while also muttering, “Ow... ow.. ow.”

“Gee, what happened to you?” she asked as she watched him go through this somewhat painful-looking procedure.

“Those dang Canterlot foals...” he grunted as he quickly tore off a bandaid off his front leg, wincing a bit. “A bunch of them came up to me and they kept plastering them all over my legs. Ugh, these old fangs of mine keep getting in the way. Heck, I keep biting myself in this dang process.”

“...You sure you don’t want me to do it for you?” Flutterwings offered as she moved closer to him.

“Kid, I’m fine,” Cornalis insisted with a low growl. “I can do this myself.” Thus, he continued to tug at his bandaid-covered legs.

“Hate to break it to ya, but by the time you finally finish that process, I will die of old age,” Flutterwings said with a snicker.

“Nice try, kid, but I’m the older guy here. Therefore, I’d be dead by the time I finally get these things offa me.” Cornalis rolled his eyes. “Or rather, if I ever get these things offa me,” he added.

“Oh for crying out loud,” the nymph uttered quietly, before leaning towards the male changeling, using her teeth to latch onto a bandaid, and carefully peeling it off his dark chitin. For her, it was rather easy.

Cornalis looked at her, his deep violet eyes widening. “How’d you—”

“Dunno,” she responded, spitting the bandaid onto the stone ground. “I guess it’s easier when you don’t have fangs.”

She went for another bandaid, peeling it off. “Eugh,” she groaned in disgust as soon as she saw a couple of red patches on the “pad” of the bandaid. “What were those kids thinking? This one’s got bloodstains on it. Man, pony foals are crazy!”

Cornalis chuckled a bit. “Indeed, they are...”

It still took quite some time for Flutterwings to remove all the bandaids off the changeling’s legs, but hey, it didn’t take her forever, thankfully.

As soon as she pulled off the last one, she flopped down onto her stomach with a heavy sigh. “Thank gosh that’s over,” she uttered softly, staring at the stone ground. After a moment, she felt a hoof gently rub her head.

“...Thanks, kid,” Flutterwings heard Cornalis say. She looked up to see him calmly smiling with a genuinely thankful expression. She silently smiled back at him, trying to resist the urge to blush.

“Uh... Flutterwings?”

The nymph turned to see Spiny standing behind her.

“Thorax says we’re making our way for the train, now,” he said to his younger sister.

Flutterwings picked herself off the ground, dusting herself off. “Right, right,” she chuckled before turning back to Cornalis. “I, uh... I guess I’ll be going, then,” she said to him, shyly brushing a hoof against the ground.

He lifted her chin with a hole-infested hoof—and not a bandaid-infested one, obviously—still keeping that warm smile on his face.

Ohhhh man, oh man, oh man, ohmanohmanohmanohmanOHMAN. Her mind raced the more she stared at him. Keep it together, Flutters! Don’t you dare make yourself look like a freaking idiot!

She immediately nuzzled the changeling guard in response, burying her face in his armor in attempt to hide the blush on her face.

“Er... Thanks,” Cornalis chuckled in a sheepish tone, gently rubbing the nymph’s head.

Flutterwings, you freaking idiot.

She immediately stepped back after a moment of embracing him. “Well... bye, then.”

“See ya, kid.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t very hard for all of the changelings to pile their way into the train cars. Sure, it did take them a while, due to how many of them there were, but hey, everyone found had already a seat, and everyone was happy...

Oh... wait.

“You’re kidding, right?!” Venom uttered at Thorax.

“No, Venom. I’m not.”

“Well, I’m not doing it.”

“Come on, Venom. I’m not saying you have to sit directly next to Pharynx,” Thorax stated.

“But to sit next to him on the same train car is enough for me,” Venom firmly claimed while pointing at his chest with a hoof.

“Come on, Venom, please?”

“I’m not crazy enough to be sitting next to that guy!”

“Yes, you are!”

Venom sat and grumbled in his seat, constantly turning and glaring at Pharynx from afar. “Hmph...”

“Well, Venom, just be glad that we’re the only seven in here,” Scorch said to his younger brother from his seat. “This is actually like, the very last train car. You know, the one in the back. Neat, huh?”

Venom only rolled his eyes at Scorch’s desperate attempt to change the subject.

Pharynx, on the other hoof, was at least getting a kick out of the fact that he wasn’t in one of those train cars; the ones with either hundreds or thousands or even millions of drones and nymphs in them. Mostly the ones with tons of nymphs, though.

“Keep complaining about my existence all you want, Venom,” Pharynx quietly curled up in his seat, “because I’m not gonna deal with it. I am just going to sleep peacefully, and there’s nothing you guys can do about it. Plain and simple.”

“Hey, guys, didn’t we just pass the village of—”

“Spiny, please don’t turn this into another history lesson!”

Pharynx grumbled and forcefully shut his eyes. This was going to be a long train ride.

Author's Note

You can tell I had at least some fun with this one.