Ocellus stared out of her room's window, her multifaceted blue eyes swiveling ever so slightly to take in all the information she could in that moment. She could taste a melange of emotions wafting through the school. Mostly joy, which tasted like roses. A faint hint of worry and fear which tasted like lilies. And sadness which tasted ever so much like raspberries, tart and sour on her proboscis. She sighed as she packed up her belongings and turned, all ready to meet up with Thorax and get ready to go on summer vacation. She buzzed around unhappily, unsure of what to do.

A pitter patter of claws broke her slightly out of her emotional funk, the blast of emotion like a ray of sunshine in a world without light. She could just feed off that pure emotion and drain it and. . . Ocellus shook her head, her body feeling warm at the thought of things that she had tried to stuff down to fit in here in school, emotions and thoughts that were new and fleeting to most Changelings.

"'Cel, great news." Smolder, her best, and technically only dragon friend stood in the hallway. Her scaly orange hide buzzing with excitement as her purple frills waved around as she jumped in the room. "Great news. Great news."

Ocellus smiled ever so briefly. "What? Did Twilight find a new book in the archives or something?"

Smolder stopped for a moment and cocked her head. "No, also besides you and the Headmare, I'd doubt there's creatures that actually like new old books. Or is that old new books?" Smolder shot a quick look. "I mean getting back on the point, no. Better news. Twilight said that we could go on a trip together. Something about how Ember and Thorax are busy with something. Came in the mail today." Smolder tossed her a letter and the changeling quickly grabbed it.

Scanning the letter, Ocellus was thoroughly confused. She had planned to tell all of the hive about the year and try and follow Headmare Twilight's overall idea for spreading the idea of friendship past ponykind. She scratched out her mental checklist and tried to be hopeful about it. Thorax and Ember seemed too okay with this and the letter seemed odd to her, though she could not taste emotions off of inanimate things. "Thorax doesn't just announce something like this off the top of his antennae. He's very much like the Headmare- he'd have planned out the ambassadorship and the itinerary and the emotional meal plan to see how the country we'd be entering would react to better Changeling relations."

Smolder yawned and fished out an old emerald from her knapsack of possessions, carefully chewing it as she talked. "Maybe he had a change of heart. Do you have a heart or is it a weird bug thing? Not saying that you are a weird bug, I just am saying that I have no idea how you work internally."

Ocellus sighed. "Smolder, I'll tell you later. What I have to figure out is what to do with my things. I'm underprepared for something like this."

Smolder laid back on Ocellus' bed and hummed as she thought. "Well just follow Rainbow's rules of the outdoors."

Ocellus rolled her milky blue eyes. "Her list starts with 'Be Awesome' and ends with 'Don't Die.' I don't think that's a good-"

Smolder shook her head and laughed. "Well, yeah. But there's also how to maximize space, the essentials, and all the times she took us out to test our skills in the real world."

Ocellus shivered. "But Yona almost died. By drowning."

Smolder let out a quick breath and scratched her chin. "Um, well, Dash didn't know yaks couldn't swim super well. But neither of us are yaks and you can turn into anything, so we'll probably be okay. Plus it's only a trip to the dragon lands. What can go wrong?"

***

Manehattan

Ocellus was staring at the twinkling Manehattan skyline like a moth drawn to a flame. She tried to sit still as the train pulled into the station with a wooshing sound and a throng of ponies all began to disembark the Ponyville Express. She had tried to stay silent in the train, holding back her whirling head as she tasted the melange of smells that the passengers all gave off. Warm pumpkin pie, strawberries, a hint of ash, and honeysuckle assailed her- guilt, joy, love, death. She felt a slight pang at that. She didn't feel a lot of death related feelings in Ponyville, especially with Pinkie being a cotton candy filled experience that made her feel overstimulated and groggy. Death was an odd feeling, and kind of foreboding with her dragon friend lazily eating an amethyst that the train had on standby for the rare dragon that decided to take the train. She giggled at the thought, seeing Spike as one of the few other dragons that could fit in a train like this.

"Don't know why you are looking like that." Smolder tapped the glass pane and glanced out at the lights of Manehattan, seeing Ocellus as a lime green earth pony with a light blue mane. "I mean we're in Manehattan. Though not for long. But still I bet there's Changelings all around us totally fine with their look."

Ocellus tapped her hooves together, sighing as she got up and grabbed her bags. "There is. I can smell them. Or really just kind of feel them. You know how Changelings are, right, hive mind and all?"

Smolder groaned. "Now if you are going to transform into Professor Fluttershy and tell me about the habits of Changelings, I'd rather you wouldn't. I wouldn't want to try to decode what you meant with animal metaphors. I think Sandbar's still slightly put off by her after that birds and the bees demonstration- with actual bees." Smolder giggled. "Anyway, summer vacation isn't about learning and books. It's about vacation stuff. Like lava diving and sharing old dragon stories and fighting contests."

Ocellus rolled her blue eyes and stared at her faux cutie mark, a ladybug, and continued. "I liked her Critters of Comfort and Conflict class, Smolder, and to the point, we mimic creatures. Their emotions, their thoughts, sometimes their memories though that is now explicitly banned under the new Changeling code of conduct. But we taste different."

Smolder laughed. "What?" as she walked through a side street to enter the dragon area of Manehattan. "Gross."

Ocellus frowned slightly, her pony disguise showing far more emotion than she was fully used to. "Changelings mimic emotions. Not perfectly. And we never needed to learn because there were few natural predators for us. Apex predators." Ocellus shivered slightly at the thought of Chrysalis infiltrating Canterlot. So easy to destabilize an entire country just to feed on every emotion in a large banquet. She slid closer to Smolder, whose excitement was like chocolate on her tongue. She breathed out and let the fear pass.

"We're here."

Ocellus blinked and let her eyes adjust to the dragon district of Manehattan. She walked around vendors who sold rather odd wares of glinting metal and gems, a few stalls of actual meat in a pony city, and more dragons than she'd ever seen in one area before. Well, outside of the few dragon migrations she had seen over the hive. She tried to keep her fear down at the mass of creatures that were squeezing into the crowded and sort of tiny space. Not that it was small, but that many of the dragons were in between their adolescent and adult phases, at least what she remembered from Professor Fluttershy's lectures, and so they took up a lot of space anyway.

She would have sat there all night and marveled at the wonder of everything around her, taste each and every new mixed emotion that she could, and buzz relatively unnoticed through the throng of dragons, happily shifting between a few different forms to fit in and be forgotten about. She would have, if Smolder didn't pull her into a nearby alley and sighed.

"Drake's tooth, I nearly forgot."

The changeling stared at her friend. "What?" She never liked unforeseen circumstances- she planned out each and every step to a well defined set of routines that she could recite in her sleep. So she quickly froze and slid up to the wall, her disguise fading with a poof of blue flame. She felt her bug wings buzz unhappily as she looked at her friend. "Smolder, what's wrong."

Smolder ran a claw through her scales as she paced back and forth. "Forgot that there's a strict dragon policy. I mean besides the festivals and the outskirts of the dragon section, it's really insulated."

Ocellus felt her cheeks bloom with slight heat as she stared at Smolder. "How'd you forget that?"

Smolder raised her claws in defense. "Garble took me to Manehattan once. And we didn't take the boat." She quickly pointed to her small wings. "Flying's easier. So I forgot. And it's not like you'd do the same if we went to your hive. I bet there's some crazy rituals that are anti-dragon." Smolder frowned and leaned against the alleyway.

The blue changeling sat there and looked out at the street. For a brief moment, she felt lost and pulled back to the hive, not a random Manehattan alleyway. She breathed out and felt her emotions boil to the surface for a brief moment. She let them surround her as she was assailed by memories of the hive. The deafening buzzing all around her, the connection to each and every Changeling ever made, the sheer devotion that surrounded the Queen. She breathed out and looked down at her carapace, tracing the lines of her middle, the bright red wings and just comparing that to then. The love of one. She had grown up in a world where Chrysalis was both mother and father, lord and master, goddess of the hive and she sat there in silence. She looked at Smolder and sighed. "No. We may have hated ponies at the time I was a pupa, but we never hated dragons. Mother. . .I mean, Chrysalis, loved dragons."

Smolder chuckled. "Never knew that. She didn't seem the type." The orange dragon pointed at the relatively small airship that sat tethered to a nearby building, the prow of the ship decorated like a dragon, all blues and greens, with orange jewels inlaid for eyes. "We'll talk more. But for now, I need you to change slightly. While I prefer your normal look for everyday things, I'd think dragon would be better now. Less questions. And with how spread out we all are, you could easily lie your way through any check. Probably."

Ocellus narrowed her eyes at that, but she breathed out and reached for her magic, letting her imagine herself as a dragon. Breathing out, she encased herself in her aura, letting the thought become reality as she felt her insides shift for her illusion to work. If she wasn't so used to changing her form, so uncomfortable in her own body, she would say it was painful, unbearable to have her exoskeleton pop and crinkle as scales replaced them, her eyes squeezing in pain as she shifted them to a normal pair. She blinked and saw Smolder, now far shorter than her, stare up at her.

She never mentioned the pain, but she didn't care. Other creatures wouldn't understand. She closed a new fist, sharp claws digging into her palm as she shuffled back and forth.

"Scales, everytime I see you do that, I think that would be the absolute coolest thing to do. I mean you could be a roc, or a tatzlwurm, or a ogre. The sky is the limit for you."

Ocellus cringed, carefully brushing the dark brown, long spikes of keratin out of her eyes, wishing that Smolder would shut up. Not in a mean way, just she didn't understand anything about changeling magic. There being limits on what was changed and magical upscaling. She whisked through the list of creatures she knew she could do, and there were some there that was huge and useful. But she didn't use them ever. She flexed her faux claws and leaned against the wall, not listening to Smolder at all as she felt so worried about a creature she should never see again. Chrysalis was gone, not dead, but gone.

"Have you even heard a single thing I've been saying? 'Cel, you better focus cause all we have to do is get on the airship and go and then you can have a rad time with me." Smolder scampered away and Ocellus plodded after her, head down, crouching in self defense as she almost could hear Mother calling her name.

She cautiously kept her friend in her sight, trying not to be a burden or a bother to the other dragons in the street, weaving through an ever more worrying amount of dragons as she entered the small building that the airship was moored to. She breathed out, trying to think of happier thoughts and tried to focus on the present, not the past. She had overcome all of that and now was more important than all the things that could creep in the corners of her mind.

***

The Dragon Lands

Ember tapped her claws against her throne as she waited for court to be over. She hated court, even if it mostly involved brawls between the seven tribes of drakes, each with their own grievances and problems with one another. She loved the bloodshed involved, the sheer amount of skill that each fight showed off, the colorful scales of some of the more interesting drakes and vibrias, the male and female dragons so crudely defined in the rest of the world. She was lost in thought as she watched a particularly nice looking green dragon slice another dragon's wing, the appendage spurting blood as the dragons grappled each other.

Ember shivered as she thought of another green dragon, sometimes not, in her memories, She wished that she could let Thorax be more present in her affairs, outside of short trysts in small hideaways and Changeling controlled areas. She hadn't been able to broach the subject of her dating, or rather screwing, an outsider to the other dragons, and unless there was a good chance she wasn't going to be dethroned in a coup, there was no reason to mention it.

Ember grumbled as she picked up a claw and decided the match, the pair of drakes stumbling off in a haze of bloodlust. "Thanks to the seven tribes that saw me today, but I believe that Court is done. This throne is rather hard to sit on for too long." She bowed and out of the corner of her eye she saw the congregation of dragons bow back to her. Picking herself up and carefully gripping the scepter that conferred her title, she headed off to her chambers carved out of the mountain that she called her home. She was raised here by her father, so she knew each tunnel and valley that Drakesfang offered. She took a quick left and slipped through, waiting for someone. She basked on a nearby rock and waited for the telltale sign of claws that she was expecting.

"Sorry to make you wait, Ember, really." A greenish black dragon sat down nearby, letting a claw run through his large horns. "Pharynx was giving me trouble about what we were planning to do."

Ember groaned. "Is he still going on about the lying thing? Odd coming from him cause your whole race lived on lying for a while." The vibria crossed her arms and stared at the nervous changeling. "Or should I not bring up some rather thorny subjects about you eating love and all that. I mean if you paid attention to some of my letters I get from the ponies- that's all you are to some. Parasitic. Evil. Kind of a bore. Though that's shocking since I keep finding new ways you interest me. You are far more than any of these dragons I rule over. Though I've not had time to show it with all the work this job entails."

Thorax sighed, knowing full well of each and every time he had to atone for his Mother. Her actions in Canterlot marred the new Changeling mission of cooperation by being a major black mark that each and every creature brought up. "I could say the same. I've barely had time to myself with all the red tape that goes with being a newly minted ally to so many nations. That's why I'm letting Pharynx deal with some of the more difficult nations. Abyssinia has only let us trade on an infrequent basis thanks to those magical cats being distrustful of any outside 'ling mission. And the Storm Lands haven't opened up to us since we 'deposed our former ruler'"

Ember rolled her eyes. "I'd rather have to debate jewelry with Diamond Dogs than having to deal with cats. And the Storm King could rot for all I care. He's a pain to try and talk to. Always weaseling his way through treaties so we come out on the losing side. If he wasn't so good at ruling a nation with an iron hand, I'd think he'd be a dentist because he's fantastic at pulling teeth."

Thorax wryly smiled as he slid up to his mate, even if no one truly knew it besides them. "Which is why I let Pharynx deal with the cats and the Storm. I seem to be a better negotiator with certain dragons." Thorax bit playfully on Ember's neck as he wrapped his dragonic wings around her. "I do have to say my dear that this idea of yours is rather demonic. Though welcome. Smolder didn't realize anything?"

Ember blushed as Thorax hit a particularly sensitive part of her neck. "No, though since she's related to Garble, who I think is about as intelligent as a bag of rocks, that doesn't mean much."

Thorax's muffled giggling reverberated over Ember's scales. He broke his ministrations for a brief moment to stare into Ember's eyes as he entwined his tail with hers. "I think you think too little of that drake. I had a rather intelligent conversation with him about, of all things, the magical uses for marble. He has a rough exterior, but is soft when you get to know him." Thorax mused, letting one of his claws drag lower and lower on Ember's body. "Though I don't know if that is unique to him. Seems like every dragon I know personally has that character flaw."

Ember didn't protest as she leaned into his touch.

***

Skies Above

Ocellus stared lazily out the window on the airship, barely feeling the wind hit her face, listlessly hearing the small drakes scamper across the boards of the ship, and stretched out a claw, silently tracing the musculature in her head. She had had tons of practice like this with Chrysalis, delineating each muscle group in a hand, each bone white and gleaming on racks of skeletons, from dragons to ponies to the wayward gryphons. Chrysalis had been a wonderful, if macabre teacher of biology and chemistry of the material form. Ocellus sighed as she closed her claws, feeling the claws bite wordlessly in her palm, letting blood run down her arm as she stared down to the tiny lights below wondering if Chrysalis was down there plotting or not.

"What are you thinking?"

Ocellus broke out of her reverie as she felt a claw poke her in the side.

"Just looking at the scenery. Never really got out of the hive much before entering the school. So everything feels new- all the new tastes of emotions kind of shock me. You know there's like seven different kinds of love and each taste different? Totally interesting. Not to mention the sheer size of the world. Chrysalis made it seem like the Changelings were the center of everything and, yet, here I am in a ship. Interesting." The fake dragon shivered as she felt Smolder accept that lie. She couldn't say the real reason she felt so alien and awkward here. It would break Professor Rarity's rules of etiquette.

Smolder nodded. "Isn't that the truth. The elders were always going on about how great the times before Discord were. All about how the ponies bowed to us and. . ." Smolder shook her head and sighed. "Whatever. I just think every place thinks they are the best. Oh, almost forgot. Dinner's about ready. The captain said to mention it."

***

"-And then I mention that her payment was right between my legs." A pinkish dragon laughed heartily as she quaffed a tankard of ale, her tail curling in memory of the wenches she had made love to, their trysts and times alone all recounted as she took the two young dragons in her gaze.

Smolder and Ocellus blushed furiously as they tried to look away from the dragon, her laughs resounding in the small feeding quarters. Ocellus spoke first, her nails tapping nervously on the wood. "That's. . .a wonderful story."

The captain smiled, rows of teeth glistening in the dim lamplight. "Now, less about me. More about you two. I mean I get some drakes and vibrias going up and down Equestria and our own land, but its summer. I'd have thought you would have waited for a few months to participate in the dragon migration. Or has it been such a long time that our Dragon Lord has stopped that practice and let little ones just wallow in the wonders of these ponies?"

Smolder stared at her hunk of steak and demurely shook her head, the older dragon slightly intimidating her by its size. She never did particularly well with Lust Dragons, but she pushed down her unease and quickly concocted a story, plausible but slightly exaggerated. "We'd love to do that. But see. . ." Smolder racked her brain for a second trying to come up with a name, slightly cursing that she wasn't fantastic in her creative writing class. "Amber here has a really sick mother with. . .what was it, rooster sneeze. Yes, something like that."

The captain narrowed her eyes for a moment. "Really? Never heard of it."

"It's a new thing. Really new. Had to go see some ponies in Manehattan cause they know a little more about diseases. I mean its a terrible disease. Without the right precautions, Amber's whole family here would get it and we'd have an outbreak of dragons going about the countryside uncontrollably burning things when they sneeze. Which is worse than the norm of just being bored and burning things."

The captain shook her head. "Ah, yes, the good old days." She chuckled. Staring off into the distance, the pink dragon turned to Ocellus and sighed. "So you are going to see your mother then?"

Ocellus coughed as she tried to compose herself. "Yes. My mother is very sick." Ocellus thought of Chrysalis, probably holed up in some kind of cave. Plotting revenge. "Got a letter from my. . .hmm, Uncle. Large family, spread out everywhere. I was the, uh, closest one to check up on my mother. Else I would have spent the summer somewhere else. With friends." Ocellus glanced at Smolder, feeling the waves of emotion radiate off of her as she kept speaking. "Well, she's sick and hopefully we can help her."

***

"Good lie, 'Cel. I mean that was really good. I thought the captain. . .Jade? Jasper? I was more focused on her stories, was going to grill you on us being out here. For a Lust Dragon, she thought more with her brain than I thought she would."

Ocellus grumbled at the dragon and pulled the ratty sheets over her head. "Yeah. I thought so too. I mean what with you stumbling over yourself. And rooster sneeze. You could have come up with something more plausible."

Smolder crossed her arms. "It came to me and I ran with it. I can't just spend all my time thinking up plans for my plans and run through everything. Dragons aren't good about that. It isn't in our nature to just plan out things."

Ocellus sighed. "Okay, okay. Not the best time to argue." She curled up in the blankets and peeked out an eye, watching Smolder prowl around the tiny bunkroom, her claw scratching slowly over the wood. Ocellus didn't want to speak since the smaller dragon seemed agitated, but she had one question still on her mind from dinner. "Why Amber?"

Smolder looked at the bundled fake dragon and imperceptibly smiled. "Gemology. Prof' Rarity mentioned a thing in passing. I mean I already knew most of the sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks, and most gemstones by taste- but she said amber was like tree sap that got all hard and sometimes had little bugs stuck in it." The dragon awkwardly scratched her head.

Ocellus' taste buds were filled with the rich, sweet taste of chocolate. She blushed and rolled over, bumping her nose on the wooden planks of the wall. "Thanks. I was just wondering cause I never had a name before."

Smolder cocked her head. "I don't follow."

Ocellus shivered. "Nothing." She held on to the feeling of having an actual name for the first time. Something that she could call her own. Not her form or function as a member of the hive- a name that she could have to herself. She heard the rain start outside from the pitter patter of raindrops from above her head and she blinked. For a moment, she could swear she was back in the hive. Alone in her cocoon, feeding on royal jelly, the overwhelming taste of memories blinding her for a moment. She wiped a tear as she was dragged back to reality and dried it on the mass of blankets. "It's nothing. Just tired."

Smolder ruffled through her bag and picked out a ruby, casually tossing it between her claws in a fit of boredom. "Well goodnight then. I might stay up a bit. Kind of restless. You know. Lot of things on my mind like what I'll tease Garble about when I see him next. Maybe something about his time in lava swim class when he thought he would drown in lava. That was a good one. Dragons can't drown in lava." Smolder leaned back and tapped a claw against the boards. "Yeah. Just go to bed. Long journey ahead and we can't have a bad first impression."

Ocellus nodded, her blanket bobbing up and down quickly as she tried to get comfortable in the tiny quarters. "Night."

***

Ocellus walked carefully through the hive, her hooves clicking gently as she worked her way through the twisting tunnels of the hive. She rubbed her wings together slowly, a tuneful hum echoing through the walls as she walked. The changeling thought briefly of her plans for the day, each and every routine action marked ever so gracefully in her mind and filed under important and immediate actions, the lesser actions she could delegate, and the things for tomorrow could be put off until then. She nodded at some Changelings who were passing by as a common courtesy, as defined by the rules of etiquette.

They did not look up.

She clicked her tongue, trying to not let that get her down since she wanted to put a good hoof forward for her meeting. It seemed rather important since it lay directly in her memory as a necessary action. She did not know what the meeting was since she was still a bit groggy from sleep and remembering things in the morning was, she admitted to herself, rather difficult.

She whistled as she dropped down to a lower floor, since the meeting was in the direct center of the hive. Thorax had, yes, that was it, Thorax wanted her to talk to Twilight. It had seemed important. Something about a treaty. Though she had tried rather to get him to deal with it. She was more unsure of where to place herself in the hierarchy of the hive. Things like soldier, speaker, worker, and queen. . .she quickly amended that as leader. Silly her, it had only been a few months since Chrysalis had been defeated. It took time to adjust. That was it.

She waved to a nearby worker, who oddly shuffled faster as she did so.

The doors stood in front of her now. Ocellus shook her head. It must have been a rather boring few minutes since getting from where she had been to the throne room was a good ten minutes away. She touched the door with a hoof and pushed it open.

"Chrysalis." Twilight, bound and with a dampening ring on her horn, stared at her through a myriad of bruises.

***

Smolder stood watch over Ocellus. She knew something was wrong by the sounds she was making- small buzzing noises, faint and low. Smolder crept closer to the bed, careful to not disturb her too quick since the last time she had, it ended with a squid in their bedroom. Ocellus, as a squid, spraying ink in surprise. She grimaced when she remembered having to sleep in inky black sheets for a week.

She had partially wanted Ocellus to come to the Dragon Lands to get the 'ling's mind off of whatever was bothering her. Even if the letter that came to the office reeked of some kind of weird joke. Too easy, too neat. But she had shoved all those concerns down as she had seen it as a rather nice way to get Ocellus out of her funk. A 'change of scenery', as Headmare Twilight would have put it. "Easier said than done" Smolder grumbled as Ocellus' clawed arm bopped her on the snout. She swore quietly as she rubbed her nose and sat carefully near the changeling.

"I'm here. Feel the emotion. . ." She had asked Professor Fluttershy about a hypothetical thing like this and she had replied that this odd and slightly humiliating thing could be the answer. Totally not a cute thing to do. Not at all. Smolder tried to think of calming things. Ice cream. Tea parties. Lava diving. Dragon stuff. She held those thoughts slowly and as focused as she could in the pitch black darkness. She tried to hold that thought and sprinkled in thought of the rain, hitting peacefully on the ship. Calming thoughts. She held that for what seemed like eternity and she slowly felt Ocellus calm down, her fists no longer having a slight punch to them. Smolder felt the Changeling scoot closer to the source of the emotions, which so happened to be her.

Ocellus stuck out her snout and it pressed onto the young dragon's own. Smolder blushed, the thought of being so close to something. . .special and, dare she say it, cute made her head spin for a moment. The orange dragon breathed, trying to center herself as she crawled into Ocellus' bed. She had her own, but she'd rather be slightly uncomfortable than the alternative.

She curled a small blanket around her and started to drift off to sleep. Smolder grumbled softly as she felt Ocellus wrap her claws around her like a cute and cuddly stuffed animal. For a moment, she tried to escape her predicament with a few soft kicks and light shoves, but it was like being stuck between a rock and a hard place- way too difficult to escape. She quietly wished that it was going to be an easy summer break since she could only deal with so much. Ocellus was a nice, but big enough problem.

One headache was enough for her. She buried whatever those odd feelings were in the deepest and darkest place she could and drifted off to sleep, slightly uncomfortable, but unable to do anything about it.

Author's Note

First time using Smolder and Ocellus.