Chapter 20:
Friends

"Name." I sat across from the changeling that we'd found with the group of researchers. We'd excluded ourselves into my personal room of the habitation section of the compound that had stayed relatively untouched while ponies were working to clear the bodies from outside and searched the ruined hangar. Outside of the walls press and civilians were also starting to congregate to try and find out just what had caused the massive explosion in their relative backyard.

"T-Thorax," he answered, nervously glancing at Rainbow Dash who was sitting in the corner and glaring at the changeling.

"What was your role supposed to be in the attack?" I continued, folding my claws together. My assumption was that a race that could mimic other creatures would be very good at playing up a character and the main reason I had any trust in him was the passionate defence Ignis had given for him when we'd picked him out for interrogation.

"J-Just a regular attack drone. W-We were supposed to attack after the infiltrators had replaced most of the guards," Thorax answered, making himself smaller.

"Just like Canterlot then?" Rainbow growled, breaking her silent glare.

"Y-Yes?" Thorax croaked, managing to make himself even smaller as the sheer venom present in Dash's voice hit him with the force of a cargo train. The pegasus huffed but didn't follow up further.

"So what drove you to warn my people?" I continued after the small interruption.

"Your people?" Thorax questioned, surprising me I'd thought he'd at least know who the project lead of the site they were attacking would be.

"Yes. My people."

Once again Thorax proved that he could make himself even smaller. “P-Please don't k-kill me...”

“I'm not. I still want to know why you decided to warn my people.” He seemed to be genuine, the fear he exuded almost tangible and beside that, if he hadn't come forth the changelings would have probably been able to smoothly take over the compound without issue.

“I don't want to hurt anypony. I just want to make friends...”

Rainbow huffed. “Your kind feeds off of our emotions, why would we ever let you stay around us?" she venomously asked.

"We don't need to feed aggressively! We can sustain ourselves of ambient emotion too!" Thorax suddenly exclaimed in self-defence, shrinking back down as Dash was off of her chair and in his face within a fraction of a second.

"Listen you-"

"RAINBOW DASH. OUT!" I thundered, the pegasus' ears dropping as I put my paw down, her being there not helping the conversation. There seemed to be too much bad blood from the invasion of Canterlot for her to be useful to keep around.

"Jack-"

"Out!" I pointed at the door, making myself very clear. With her head lowered and no further word Dash left the room, I waited until the door was closed again before locking my gaze back onto Thorax's.

"M-mister Jack I-"

"I believe you," I cut him off. "Ignis' vouching already works very much in your favour but don't be mistaken, I still have some misgivings. You are going to have to explain exactly how your feeding works to someone and also how your disguises work. We need a way of reliably dropping disguises to avoid another massacre like the one today."

"Of course!" Thorax immediately replied without a second thought, his bug eyes widening further somehow. "Taking ambient emotions doesn't hurt the creature that's doing it. It's like standing next to a furnace, you're getting warmed up but aren't actively dampening the flames by doing so. Only when you overfeed are you starting to damage the pony you are feeding off!"

"So why aren't all changelings doing it?" I challenged him, trying to get him to further explain.

"My way wasn't very... appreciated, in the hive. The queen only wants to take love..." His ears drooped as I got the distinct impression that the changeling was staring off into nowhere and deep in thought.

He acts so similar to ponies... I wonder if they have a common ancestor or are related in any way to each other.

"I cannot guarantee how the princesses will react but I'll put in a good word. For now though I'm going to have you assigned to a permanent guard until further orders from the top how we proceed with you since you are undoubtedly going to become a target," I layed out for him. "But that'll come in a bit, it's a pleasure to meet you, Thorax. I'm Jack Grey" I held out a claw for him to shake. Thorax eyed the appendage for a moment, unsure of what to do before slowly reaching out with a hoof of his own until I took and shook it.

"Good to meet you too, mister Jack."

"Now, let's go find you someone that can watch over you. I still have a lot of things I need to do." Standing up I got out of the room, finding Rainbow Dash sitting against the wall opposite the door, a devious plan forming in my head.

She's really going to hate me for doing this.

“Rainbow Dash, get out of the ghillie suit and put on regular camo.” Pressing my C7 and another clip of ammo into her hooves, she still had two good mags on her from before. “Thorax will be with you at all times until another security detail can be assigned. Where he goes, you go, where he eats, you eat, and where he shits, you shit. Am I clear?”

Her mouth fell open, an incoherent sentence of letters escaping it.

“Get going, I don't know if we'll be staying here or if we're moving to another location and I still need to write a report detailing what happened so the ponies of top also understand what we're dealing with.” I didn't give Rainbow a chance to get words together, turning my back and disappearing into the stairwell.

Either Rainbow is going to blow up or she may actually get to talk to him and lighten her animosity of changelings. I sighed as I really hoped the second option was the one that came to fruition. Of course, here in Equestria differences in species had an effect on how they acted, but I refused to just write off another species as evil entirely unless I had irrefutable evidence. Though I hadn't actually interacted with the species before, Thorax to me seemed to be evidence to the contrary for the changelings. Knowing Rainbow I'll have my answer before nightfall.

Setting it out my mind for now since there was nothing I could do anymore now and set off to find the pony that was managing the search efforts in the rubble. Most ponies walking around the compound now kept their distance, part of that probably was that I was still wearing the ghillie suit and had face paint on while the rest simply of the griffin conflict going on. A central tent without walls had been set up in the centre of the compound, the runners going in and out of there probably indicating the pony I was looking for was in there.

“Have we found the pony that was in charge of this place yet?” one of the ponies, an earthpony going over some documents asked.

“No, though the scientists indicated that that griffin-”

“-was in charge.” I finished for him, the ponies there looking up at me. “Specialist Jack Grey, Lunar Guard. I was the project lead, though another guard lieutenant ran most of the day to day and logistics. The fact I haven't seen him around makes me suspect he's buried under the hangar.”

“Well, horseapples. What were your team working on to attract all this?” the earthpony asked, dropping the documentation he was reading before.

“Classified...” every pony there rolled their eyes and suppressed a groan. “...But since I'll be asking you to retrieve our stuff, we were working on an advanced firearm design to counter the griffin's new muskets they have been using. I need to know if all our inventory is still here, I'll task my research team to verify all the documents are still here.

“Can you see if you can get a roster of everypony working here for us too? That way we'll know when we've found everyone,” the earthpony asked.

“I'll poke around the lieutenant's office to find the roster, be back when I find the thing." I turned to the office building and made my way over, the science crew and the few guards remaining had posted themselves at the entrances and were keeping everyone out that wasn't part of the compound crew. They wearily looked at me as I approached but stepped aside, giving me a salute as I passed before blocking the entrance once again. I'd already seen the inside when we'd cleared it of changelings but after the massive explosion that had levelled the hangar the mess had only increased.

LT's office first, I need to know if we don't have any more changelings running around disguised among my staff.

The guard section of the office was based on the ground and first floor, the lieutenant's office being placed fairly centrally in the building. The office, in particular, had survived reasonably well, only a few cabinets having been pulled open and their contents dumped on the ground. Sifting through the mess I scanned every one of the documents briefly until finding the roster in a file inside one of the drawers that hadn't been emptied.

"Specialist Grey?" One of the guards that had been going through the first floor stood in the doorway with a raised eyebrow, the fact shapeshifters were involved probably made me looking through documents suspicious. "What are you doing?"

"I was looking for the roster so we can get a headcount among the guard, that way we can account for everyone and since we still haven't heard from the LT... well, we need to work with the ponies we have."

That seemed to convince him. "I can take that to the rescue workers, sir."

"Much appreciated but I want to personally deliver this one," I replied as I folded the paper and stashed it away. He stepped closer.

"Really sir, I can take care of it." Now it was my turn to become suspicious as he walked up to the desk.

"That decision is final, sold-" Fangs flashed in his mouth alongside a forked tongue. He lunged forward aiming for my throat while I pushed myself back against the wall and pulled my pistol from my hip, firing three hastily and slightly panicked shots. The full weight of the changeling hit me as his disguise went up in flames which were remarkably cold to the touch. Not hesitating a second I pressed my hind paws into him and kicked him back into the desk where he remained motionless. Two more loud cracks rang out from across the facility that I immediately identified as my rifle which Dash had with her.

Fuck, if they launch a second attack right now we are so screwed.

A few more shots run out over the compound from various rifles, two of which directly above me in the office building. letting out a few more curses I rushed up to the science staff there with drawn pistol and barged into the hallway where another dead changeling along with a heavily bleeding Ignis clutching a MK1.

"Damn- Hold on there big guy!" Sliding in next to him I could see the puncture marks of fangs in his neck, blood spurting out as the stallion was coughing up blood. "Stay with me here buddy, stay with me!"

"Ignis!" Tinkerer came galloping over and came to a halt next to the stallion as well, the mare's eyes wide as she saw the wounds in his neck right before I covered them and applied pressure in an attempt to stem the flow. "Nonononono, Jack help him!"

"I am. Go get a medic from the ponies outside!" I told her, feeling Ignis go limp below me. Muttering a curse I tried finding a pulse. Tinkerer didn't move a little bit as her horrified gaze was still locked onto Ignis. I sighed as I let the blood-soaked bandage I'd been using to stem the bleed drop onto the ground next to him.

"No..." Tinkerer whispered, placing a hoof on her dead colleague. "NO!" She started shaking Ignis' corpse. "Wake up! WAKE UP, YOU STUPID IDIOT!" she cried. I had to intervene and pull her off, squeezing her tightly against me as she struggled to get loose.

"He's gone."

"No! He can't be! H-He saved us! Took charge when the c-changelings attacked! He can't be dead!" Tinkerer sniffed as her struggling became weaker. More research aids also came out of their hiding spots which they'd jumped into the moment the shooting had picked up again, all of them shocked one way or another as they saw who'd been killed.

Rainbow was the next pony to arrive up the stairs, Thorax nearby as she scanned the corridor, saw the dead changeling, and them me holding a crying Almond Tinkerer in my arms. "Buck. You okay Jack?"

"I am. Got attacked in the LT's office, got very close. How about you? I heard you shoot too."

"Two of them. Thorax picked them out before they could get too close, they didn't make it far," Rainbow answered patting the C7 hanging in front of her chest. "Probably saved my flank as they came up from behind us."

"Good to hear. Thorax, can we expect more of this?" I asked as I looked at the changeling that was in turn staring down at the dead member of his species, frozen in place. "Thorax!"

"Y-Yes!" He shook his head. "I-I mean, no! This is one of t-the queen's praetorian guard, they would have been the backup plan," Thorax stuttered, clearly shocked to see the other changeling had even been killed in the first place.

"So an elite unit then?" I pressed.

"The best."

Rainbow huffed in response. "They missed you, me, and Jack. They only got Igni-" Rainbow shut up as she noticed the death glare she was getting from Tinkerer.

"Mostly because no-one is thinking on how to effectively use firearms yet," I said, slowly letting go of Tinkerer getting a research assistant to take her. "After verifying all our research we're packing up everything we can and leaving. Rainbow, can you take Thorax and clear out our room and then get back here?"

"We can. Come on, Thorax, let's go," Rainbow simply said, turning and getting on with the task. I turned back to Tinkerer who'd shakily gotten back onto her hooves.

"Will you be able to get your stuff? I'll make sure Ignis is taken care of." She gave a shaky nod, cheeks wet from tears. After getting a tarp to put it over Ignis' body and went to my own office to do something I should have done a little sooner and pulled out a dragonfire candle, quickly writing a message for command in case they hadn't been informed yet of all the crap that had been hitting the fan.

Baltimare Research Facility:

Attack on main compound by changeling forces from outside and within. Facility completely destroyed.

Total casualties unknown. Heavy casualties among the guard, at least 50%, moderate casualties among science team. Two research leaders are KIA, Lieutenant Rock MIA presumed KIA. Rainbow Dash alive and physically unharmed.

Changeling casualties equally in numbers as the guard, though near complete destruction of force. One changeling defector in custody.

Requesting immediate support.

-Specialist Grey, Lunar Guard.

Author's Note

More and more manure hitting the fan
They'll get a bit of a breather soon.

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