My Little Behemoth: Friendship is more than Food

Chapters

First Impressions: Part 1
First Impressions: Part 2
Wedding Crasher
Trial Run
Trip Down Memory Tunnel
A Helping Hoof
Big, Dumb Animals
Welcome to Ponyville, Cyr-Part 2
Up and at 'em
Impius Lepus
Resolutions, and Sentiments
Undeserved Payment Pt. 1
Undeserved Payment Pt. 2
Insomnium
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones...
Epilogue
Author's Note on Sequel Complications
Welcome to Ponyville, Cyr-Part 1
The Body of a Behemoth, nay, but the Spirit to Challenge One
Credits/ Q&A

First Impressions: Part 1

A/N: Hey guys. Sorry (Glad? Not sure. Take your pick.) to say that there will be NO SHIPPING in this story. I mean, who doesn't like a good romance sub-plot to make a nice filler? But I got so tired of writing/reading them. So yeah. Y U NO EVER PUT OC IN FRIEND ZONE? Sorry for the rant, needed to get that out of my system. On with the show.....I mean story.

Today was just absolutely invigorating. The sun was shining bright, various birds were chirping their mating calls, and multitiudes of flora sprouted and added to the glorious rainbow of colors that constituted Canterlot's breath-taking image. The pegasus weather teams had done an excellent job clearing any stray clouds in preparation for the Royal Wedding. Well, at least from receding brush of the Everfree Forest that led to hilly mountains did Canterlot's sprawl and castle truly complement it's natural scenary. What lay inside the city was contradictory to its visually stunning exterior...

A single pastel-yellow Earth mare, sporting a curly, carrot-orange mane, noted her overwhelming surroundings while traveling on the Canterlot mountain side, but she wouldn't allow herself to be distracted from her task. Pushing along a wooden, creaking wheelbarrow, she soon cleared the tall trees of Canterlot's portion of the Everfree, and viewed what she was preparing herself for: A fenced acre of various vegetables. She unlocked the gate, and soon got to work.

The sun traveled across the blue sky, blaring it's rays of light and heat down for hours on the laboring pony. Caked in a thin layer of mud and dirt, she stubbornly refused to take a break until she pulled the last carrot with her teeth from the cool, muddy soil. The mare, eying at her now produce-brimming wheelbarrow, finally rose up, and stretched out her strained back, proceeding to elicit her spine to crack multiple times.

Ahhhhh. That's the ticket...

Her mind slowly formed a consensus to inevitably take a breather and rest her lactic acid-stricken muscles. As soon as she wearily inched the wheelbarrow outside of the garden, she locked the fence, and plopped to the ground outside her garden, closing her eyes to let the earthy smells of the forest envelope her.

To her luck, she finally found a use for the acre that she had been unfortunatly tricked into buying. A seemingly trustworthy salespony had knocked on her door one day and had somehow enticed her into signing a contract for a timeshare plan of some Canterlot condos. The price was very, very cheap, and she was feeling generous that day, so she agreed to the plan. Things got suspicious when she later found out her "condos" were located on the edge of the Canterlot forest, and the salespony had a fake address on the business card her gave her. Grudgingly, she forced herself to look at the positives in her recent purchase of land in the Canterlot hilly mountain side. It gave her a chance to travel to new surroundings if she ever got tired of Ponyville's rural lifestyle, and many ponies of her "economic stature" would kill to see Canterlot's beautiful landscape. The majority of ponies that lived in Canterlot were stuck-up and arrogant, but you can meet some nice ones once in a while. And plus, the mountain climate and soil was perfect for growing rare roots and herbs that would sell for exorbitant prices back home, as some of them are even derived into medicinal drugs and herbal tonics in clinics. The income she was going to get after she harvested her produce from both her Canterlot garden and her Ponyville vegetable patches would also start to give her business enough bits and attention to compete with her friend/super arch-competitor (or to use the colloquial term: frenemy) Applejack, and her apple farm.

She relieved her sun-burnt coat on the refreshingly cool ground and thought to herself, "How could a mare like me get this lucky? Carrot Top, you may have finally outdone yourself! Even after all you've went through, you've managed to create another perfect day for yourself!"

She lazily opened her eyes and her self-imposed state of relaxation suddenly shattered. Celestia was slowly dragging across the sun in the distance, and Carrot Top sluggishly remembered that her train ride back home was scheduled to leave at sunset.

Nearly as fast as Rainbow Dash in a sonic rainboom, Carrot Top sprinted to her wheelbarrow and started to push it back to the path towards the Canterlot city. In her rush to travel back, she accidentally tripped on a tree root as she struggled to push her produce-laden wheelbarrow down a hill, placing her full weight and sudden inertia onto the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow finally edged over the hill and raced down to the bottom.

Rising her head off from the ground, her sand-irritated eyes viewed the cart as it was arriving at a sudden curve on the brush-sandwiched road. Carrot Top could only freeze in horror as she realized that if the wheelbarrow continued on its straight path, it would rocket down the mountainside and all the hard work she had exerted to grow her vegetables the past year would have been for nothing. Out of her terrorized stupor, she sprinted down the hill and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Somepony help me! Stop that wheelbarrow!".

Oh who am I kidding. Nopony lives in the Everfree forest or even on the Canterlot mountainside. My life is offically ruined. I'll have to room with Derpy again after my business fails, and I'm not even sure she would be able to. She has a family now. Why did today of all days have to be so horrible!

The futility of chasing after the cart had stopped Carrot Top in her tracks. She collapsed onto the ground and sobbed desperately. After her coltfriend had cheated on her and her own friends rejected her in jealousy when she was the only pony that had been able to grow crops during the Equestria Famine last year, the only thing that held Carrot Top together was her garden. It was the only thing that sustained her during those hard times, both economically and emotionally.

Her garden plot in Canterlot was her only chance to gather enough money to pay rent for her house. She was falling behind on sales and her normal income selling vegetables to restaurants weren't cutting it. Now, her only oppurtunity to preserve her hobby and livelihood had been slapped away from her hooves by Fate.

She truly felt that all was lost.

First Impressions: Part 2

Carrot Top couldn't control herself. Her life was ruined. There was nothing left for her to enjoy in life. She had no choice but to cry. Her bawling echoed through the woods, "Why does life have to be like this? Why does Fate enjoy ripping apart the hopes and dreams that ponies rest comfortably with in their sleep? Why me?!"

But Carrot Top couldn't hear the immense thud of her runaway wheelbarrow stopping all of a sudden, as if it had crashed into an invisible road block, above her emotional sobbing. The wheelbarrow effortlessly then traveled back to Carrot Top's location. Behind it was a shiver of bending light. The thing of bent light, walking towards the poor mare with her precious cargo, eventually exposed itself from its Disillusionment ability as a matte-black, towering hulk of a being with a pair of glowing, pupil-less orange eyes. It's hooves contained holes big enough to fit a pony's head through, almost as if they were punctured clean through by a drill. It's webbed "mane" quivered in the air around it, as it was still translucent from the beast's recent act. Its gargantuan fangs ran along perpendicular to its powerful jaws and its titanic carapace was scarred with carvings of magical glyphs hybridized with healed wounds from battles of old, adding to its fearsome image. But the beast didn't dare expose it's true form. It decided to stay partially translucent to not terrify the mare he was now in front of.

The sun had started to exert its last influence over Canterlot as it reached the neighboring mountains. As the glorious star was being dragged down by Celestia, it radiated the most beautiful light it could muster as a temporary farewell to all the ponies that enjoyed it's loving display. But to Carrot Top, the sunset was....blocked in some way. She rubbed her swollen eyes with her hooves, and clicked open her eyes to see her wheelbarrow right in front of her.

Ecstatic with happiness, she sprung up and squealed with excitement and relief. She almost didn't hear a deep, disembodied voice utter, with a light brogue nearly similar to a Trottish accent.

"Why do you cry, little one?"

Carrot Top froze. She slowly looked up to find herself in the shadow of a ghost-like monster. She could view a blurred landscape through its body, but its whisped outline betrayed his shape, and nightmarish features: The large, hole-furnished hooves, a body large enough to rival the size of any alicorn, and, as her eyes finally reached its facial features, its colossal fangs.

The only thing that kept her from screaming in terror was its eyes. They were dull and without any youthful shine, but they were observing her with utmost compassion and kindness.

When she had gathered enough courage, she meekly said in return, "Nothing really. I was just sad that a year's worth of work was about to tumble off the mountain side. I'm guessing that you were the pony that saved my harvest?"

She gestured to the wheelbarrow, and behind it were impressions on the road that suggested that the heavy load was indeed stopped and dragged towards her.

"You are correct," answered the Goliath of a pony with a hint of a withdrawn tone. Carrot Top realized that he was probably distracted by something.

"Thank you so much! Here have some carrots as a token of my gratitude!"

The giant glanced at the vegetable produce.

"Sorry. I'm not a herbivore."

Carrot Top started to shake and edge away from the giant, "I-I'm sorry...I-I-I d-don't have any m-meat with m-me right now....please don't e-eat m-m-me...."

The behemoth smiled, not with amusement, but with a gentle kindness, "I don't consume living beings either. I have a very.....ascetic diet."

Carrot Top sighed with relief and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

"Would you like any help, little one? Burdens aren't meant to be carried alone," he carefully rumbled.

"I would like that, especially since I have a.....DEAR FAUST, I HAVE A TRAIN TO CATCH!!!!" Carrot Top realized.

The behemoth-like creature strained himself to return to his translucent form. He then proceeded to push the wheelbarrow and followed a panicking Carrot Top. They quickly journeyed down the mountain path and eventually reached the edge of the Everfree Forest. Carrot Top had started to sprint towards the direction of a Guard checkpoint, surrounded by the giant magical shield dome that had been cast over Canterlot by Shining Armor, that lead to the Canterlot train station when the creature stopped.

"This is as far as I go, little one. I'm afraid that you'll have to carry along on your own."

"It's not a problem...You helped me enough for a lifetime.....ummmm. I'm sorry but I haven't caught your name!" Carrot Top replied.

The towering creature chuckled, its form reflecting the distant sunset, "My name matters not. Yours, however, matters."

"It's Carrot Top. And I'm sure that your name-"

"Little one, now is not the time. You must leave Canterlot quickly."

"Look, I probably already missed the train already. I'll pay for another ticket, and-"

The creature sighed, "Time is running out. You need to promise me something, little one. You must never tell to any pony you meet about this, not even your loved ones or your beloved Princesses!"

"Promise me."

Carrot Top slowly replied, "I...promise." The giant eyed the orange mare carefully. "Okay, okay, I Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony what you are about to tell me." She then started to blurt out the ridiculous chant that followed the sacred promise.

The giant grunted in exertion. It's translucency was starting to cloud over with his natural black color.

"You must leave Canterlot by tomorrow. I'd rather that you leave this place and return to where you came as soon as possible."

"Why though? Canterlot is the safest place in Equestria, especially with the Princesses! That makes it-"

The behemoth, its carapace now semi-visible, interrupted hastily, "-the most targeted place in all of Equis. There are many forces outside Equestria that wish to conquer your rulers. One of them will attack tomorrow." Its voice was now a strained whisper.

Carrot Top's eyes widened, "So...that means...you're one of...."

"Go, young filly. I can trust that you'll keep your promise of not telling anypony. I can't bear to watch the Innocent suffer for the deeds off the Condemned any longer. Go. Do not worry though. Justice always finds a way to defeat the evil among us," it smiled weakly.

Carrot Top trotted off into the clearing, and turned her head as she was about to enter the checkpoint. She mouthed, "Thanks".

The creature could only watch as Carrot Top entered through a temporary entrance of the shield barrier and received help with her wheelbarrow from nearby conductors and other ponies as she reached the train station entrance.

A sly voice crept behind him, "Hey, Tiny. You managed to let another FANTASTIC opportunity to get some love off of some dumb pony slip through your hooves. Sometimes I even wonder if you're a Changeling, like us."

The behemoth was silent.

The Guard Drone trotted towards his titanic Behemoth comrade hiding in brush and hissed, "You've become soft. After everything that the Queen and Hive has done for you, you act as if you have no obligations to them. Act like that one more time and we'll-"

The Behemoth boomed, "You'll do what, brother? Kill me? Not without a fight. And considering the fact that you are just a newborn filling in the hooves of a commander, you do not have the experience or right to treat me as if I'm just filthy grub from the worker caste."

"You dare question me? You would think that they would have taught you better manners, or at least some obedience, down in the tunnels...."

The Behemoth rose up and walked away. If he didn't he would find himself squishing the impudent Changeling with a single hoof. And he did not wish to see the color of a living being's internal organs mix with the earthy brown of soil ever again.....

Wedding Crasher

In a flurry of viscera and green waves of sinister magic, the Queen Changeling shed her false form in front of the wedding invitees and shouted at the true Cadence, "My changeling army will break through. First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!"

Princess Celestia interjected, "No. You won't. You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!"

Celestia had flown in the air, and released an epic barrage of solar light towards the Changeling queen, which she had returned with her own emerald beam of magic with baneful contempt. Their power had seemed equally matched as their beams had met and were struggling in a stalemate, but Chrysalis's ominous blast of her morbid energy slowly gathered momentum and collided in contact with the Princess's horn. A horrific explosion of pain and terror struck Celestia as she was literally thrown to the ground by the shockwaves of the resulting magical backfire, as forlorn and helpless as a ragdoll caught in a tornado.

Twilight Sparkle ran to her shouting, "Princess Celestia!"

"Ah! Shining Armor's love for you is even stronger than I thought! Consuming him has made me even more powerful than Celestia!" remarked Chrysalis. She began to walk towards her opposition for the final blow.

Princess Celestia weakly replied to her faithful pupil, "The Elements of Harmony. You must get to them, and use their power to defeat the queen."

"Sister? Anypony? IS SOMETHING WRONG IN THERE? WE HAVE BROUGHT A CONTINGENT OF ROYAL GUARDS!" yelled Luna outside of the reception in her Royal Canterlot voice. "We have found numerous Changelings on the streets! I am afraid that we may have to cancel the wedding...." There was only silence, which had replied in Celestia's place with its trademark response.

"....Sister? Art thou in there? ANSWER ME!" She shouted again.

The moment of silence was interrupted by the Elements of Harmony bursting out of the door and sprinting away from the reception as if lives depended on it. But that's absurd. There shouldn't be any sort of panic at the wedding..... already.

"Ah Twilight! Have thou seen-"

"No time to talk. Changeling queen. Invasion. Gotta get to Elements. Protect Celestia!"

Princess Luna's gaze widened as she looked in the recital and saw its inhabitants subdued and a dark figure looming over her sister's prone body.

"CELLY! NO!!!!!"

Luna began to charge into the scene of the ruined wedding, but the doors glowed with a green aura of magic and closed shut, and left her outside with a group of anxious guards and an approaching horde of Changelings behind them.

"Lieutenant, command thy Guards! Protect thy Princesses and Equestria from the Changeling invasion! Unicorns, with me! We shall need thy magic for this-" She stopped as the image of the doorway began to waver, as if it was a sample of entertainment from a mirror house.

"I am truly sorry for this. But it must be done..." a disembodied, deep voice had uttered from the recital entrance. A towering specimen of Changeling had materialized from thin air, its cloaking magic now fading away. Its transparent carapace and massive hoofs glinted off of the sunlight, carved with ancient, foreign glyphs; the monster's leviathan stature, glowing orange eyes, and predator-like countenance had followed in the wake of the spell's cancellation. As soon as it saw the shock in the Lunar Goddess's eyes, a sign of recognition of his visible form, it galloped into a charge and rammed himself towards Luna's mass into a nearby mass of buildings.

He smashed himself into the next block of edifices, with bricks, rubble, and debris clinging to his form and slowed himself to contact Luna's body into a barricade of shops and various buildings. The brick had shattered and splintered on contact as the Goddess soon accelerated into beams of construction and became embedded into a wall surounded by sediment of ruin.

"THOU DARE ATTEMPT TO HARM THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT?! THOU SHALT FEEL THE TORTURE OF A THOUSAND DEATHS, FOUL CREATURE!!!" Luna shouted, undeterred by its charge. Her eyes glowed to a pure white and her horn emitted a column of projectile magic. Luna, calculating that her enemy would be too slow to dodge the attack, had expected the titanic Changeling to absorb and be knocked back by the hit, but to her surprise the luminescent sapphire beam of harmful energy simply glanced the Changeling's side and only singed its chitin-based armor upon impact.

She froze. A blast of that magnitude should have knocked a manticore off its feet. So it was going to come to this....

"GUARDS! APPLY SUPPORT WHILE I PREPARE FOR AN OFFENSIVE SPELL!" she commanded. As Luna freed her limbs from the wall, and aimed a buck towards the monster of a Changeling's head, Unicorns from the Royal Guards rushed into the ruins and provided an artillery wave of magical strikes. Pegasi Guards had dropped from the sky and proceeded to charge at the Changeling. Their combined efforts drove the monster out of the ruins and forced it to stagger onto the cobblestone boulevards of Canterlot.

The Changeling kept a wary eye on the recital entrance, and satisfied to see that no pony was attempting to forcibly enter, he turned back to view Princess Luna's location. And her appearance was far from cheerful.

Scuffs and bruises had permuted her cobalt blue coat, and her eyes and mouth were emanating a pure white glow as rifts of dark magical waves circulated around her. Her celestial, night-sky hair was no longer blown by gentle cosmic winds, but were furiously rippling and fluctuating about as if they were a lively blue blaze.

Princess Luna uttered in a distorted screech, "WE WILL GIVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE! SURRENDER, OR SUFFER DIRE CONSEQUENCES, FOUL BEAST!"

The "behemoth" of a Changeling fixed her with an exasperated stare and calmly stated in reply, "My fool of a Queen demands I serve until the end. I am afraid I cannot abide by your wishes."

"THOU DARETH HARM OUR CITIZENS AND OUR SISTER, AND YET THOU ADDRESS US WITH SUCH UTTER ARROGANCE?" bellowed the Princess of the Night in her Royal Canterlot Voice-harmonized rage. "SUCH INSOLENCE WILL ONLY BRING FORTH MORE SUFFERING FOR THOU!"

Her opponent vaguely acknowledged, "I will not mind suffering by your hooves, Princess. As long as my Queen will not allow others of my caste suffer for my failure, my demise will be welcome."

Luna almost flinched at its remark. It was almost if the creature was trying to tell her something, as if it was in a predicament itself. Its statement was solemn, yet she couldn't believe that a Changeling would fight for something else besides himself or its Queen. Recalling him use the term "fool of a Queen", as if the Changeling had emotions of abhorrence for Chrysalis, she had begun to lower her guard for a split second, only to resolutely change her mind in an instant.

It's getting in your head, Lulu. Celly is waiting for us....

The mere thought of her sister brought her back from her recollection of thoughts, along with her fury.

"Thou hath been warned, beast!" She hissed in a deep, monotone voice full of hatred. She unleashed her magical attack with a whisper of an Ancient Equestrian incantation, and soon a stream of pure lunar magic erupted from her horn towards the immense Changeling. The stream soon grew in magnitude mid-velocity into a mushrooming crescent blade of energy and sped towards the creature. Luna's attack of offensive magic struck and enveloped the Behemoth, and drove him back with its hooves firmly grounded into the boulevard.

Luna's attack spell heaved apart the cobblestone road in the Behemoth's direction and was beginning to disintegrate its organic chitin armor. The Behemoth, overcome with pain, fell to its knees.

Luna had stopped her barrage to find the Changeling quite damaged. It's greenish-blue blood was oozing and coagulating from its joints and whole sections of where its natural armor once was were dissolving away, revealing its raw wounds and internal anatomy in its damaged body and carapace. The membrane on one of its eyes, or in Changeling terms its visual receptors, was cracked in a spider web fashion, allowing precious orange chemicals essential for capturing light, and therefore for its vision, to leak out of its socket. There he was, injured and partially blind.

To add insult to injury, the Behemoth had enough volition to try to get back up on its hooves, but was interrupted during its feeble task by the spears thrown by nearby Pegasi Guard plunging into an exposed joint on its left foreleg. Thinking the creature to still be dangerous, as it was still moving, they flung themselves at the injury and bucked the Behemoth's already skewered leg into an awkward angle. A sharp crack signaled its exoskeleton positioned on its leg could no longer handle the abuse, and had broken. The limb now useless, meat started to pour out of the injury.

The Changeling bellowed in rage and pain. With a final push, it lifted itself up with 3 of its forelimbs, rose up, and stomped on the ground, creating a severe tremor that had collapsed almost all buildings in the vicinity and knocked the Guards and Luna off their hooves.

Viewing that its distraction had succeeded, the Behemoth began to tug at the useless forelimb with its teeth. Its incisors crushed and pulled at the hoof, and with a brunt of a scream, the foreleg was disconnected from the Behemoth's body.

The unfortunate changeling gently placed the barbarically amputated forehoof onto some of the Guards.

"Do not worry. I bear no grudge for what you did, and your lives will be spared. But this may leave some bruising."

Leaving behind the group of writhing Royal Guards, who struggled to free themselves under the sheer weight of the discarded mass of muscle and chitin, the Behemoth slightly hopped towards the direction of the recovering Princess Luna. Using up the last remnants in his emergency reserves of love, the Behemoth sprouted with considerable effort a new foreleg out of the stump he had for a left foreleg. It was tired, ragged, and heavily wounded, so it sincerely hoped that its efforts to regenerate his limb was worth the energy.

Spying the Behemoth regenerating a new limb, Luna mentally gasped in surprise and poured her concentration into the attack spell once more.

This time.....the monster shall not rise again.

Her destructive spell once again struck the Behemoth, tearing away its exoskeleton, and soon its flesh, even further. The Unicorn Royal Guard recovered from the violent tremor also and concentrated their magical barrage at the sole Changeling.

The Behemoth bellowed, and overwhelmed by the magical bursts directed at him with deadly accuracy, began to stomp on the ground again. Its desperate action had once again inhibited the Guards and tossed them into the air with the tremors, but the Princess remained steadfast and unwavering to her task. Ignoring the inferno of burning pain within her horn, Luna pressed on her attack and intensified her efforts.

The Changeling Behemoth struggled against the wave of Lunar magic cutting across its carapace, dissolving and obliterating its chitin exoskeleton piece by piece, molecule by molecule. Yet the thing's impulse to give one more glorious charge forced its failing limbs to move forward towards the source of the magical current, agonizing step by agonizing step. The Behemoth's already-crippled vision in its remaining eye began to blur and shunt the light towards the center of its vision, almost as if it was in a tunnel. A very, very painful and resistant wind tunnel that was trying to destroy the Changeling with a cyclone of magic.

The Changeling was mere meters away when its muscles ceded to the magically-induced pain cutting against it. His hooves dropped, and its center of mass soon followed, the stinging ache finally reaching down to the bare layer of the Behemoth's exoskeleton.

Luna, seeing the Behemoth collapse, ended her spell, and walked with a fatigued droop in her step up to the corpse- no...the still-twitching body of the Changeling. Before her banishment, Luna led regiments of the Equestrian Military on violent campaigns of bloodshed. She had maimed, crippled, injured, but she could never bring herself to kill.....on purpose.

So she granted the Changeling some respite to die peacefully and trotted past her defeated enemy to begin rallying the Royal Guard for another attempt to breach the locked doors of the Royal Wedding recital. She helped the Guards struggling to escape the weight of the Changeling's disconnected foreleg get back up by removing the rotting obstruction, and heard that beast mutter.

"Celestia will still be alive. The Queen has plans for her and her fellow subjects."

"Thou art still alive? We had hoped that with thy defeat and the end of thy life, thy arrogance and deception would have ended as well."

The Changeling ignored the insult and painfully chuckled and choked on its blood, "I had hoped so too. But fate has yet to bestow upon me the mercy that you have just given me. For that I am truly grateful."

"Thou mock us with false intentions! Thou shalt-"

"I assure you that your sister and citizens will be safe. Changelings feed off of love, not corpses. They need living subjects to fulfill their hunger."

"What art thou attempting to suggest?"

The Behemoth could no longer feel its limbs. The utter pain that had once seized its nervous system were numbed by the cold grasp of death.

"Do me a favor....make that dirt beetle of a Queen...have a taste of her own medicine. She owes me that much," the mutilated Changeling whimpered pleadingly. Its head had slumped onto the brick-laid road as he no longer had the strength to hold its own head up.

A hardened tear had formed on the fringe of the Behemoth's ruined eye.

It uttered with enough finality to project his words to every being it remembered or met, whether they were dead or alive. Its chilling words would have to compensate for the damage it was and had been responsible for its entire life.

"I'm sorry."

Trial Run

Celestia slowly sat on her throne (shared throne, if one counted the sleeping Luna, hooves splayed out upon a throne seat adjacent to Celestia. Sleeping on the job, Lulu? Tsk tsk.) for the first time in.....well, 27 hours since the Royal Wedding. She never liked to stay away from work for too long, even if she DID injure herself while fighting the queen of a species of insectoid impersonators. It was the crack of morning, and after she had completed the tedious task of guiding a 875 thousand mile-wide ball of flaming gas across the horizon, she returned to the Canterlot castle and began yet another task: reviewing governmental reports.

Ignoring the "petite" snoring of her sister in the throne seat next to her's, she got down to businiess and had come across the occasional statements from the Equestrian Revenue Service (if there ever was a hell....), the usual complaints and requests from nobles, Treasury reports (turns out that the wedding was costlier than she could have imagined), and....a letter from Twilight Sparkle.

She absentmindedly tossed everything else into a small rubbish bin behind her throne, and began to open Twilight's letter, wondering why she didn't have Spike send the letter to her magically.

She skimmed over the letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,
I'm mighty sorry if you were expecting a letter from Twilight herself, but she insisted that I use her address and namesake to get this letter directly to you. Sweet Apple Acre is gettin' slightly short-handed right now, with Big Mac's broken hoof and all. So I've tried to put some of them "advertisements" in the newspaper to get some extra help 'round here, but nopony has arrived yet. I've tried every single gosh darn thing to reel in some help, and apple-buck season is getting closer and closer. As much as I hate to admit it, I won't be able to do everything by myself. If I can't supply enough apples this season, and if I'm not able ta pay my annual taxes to the ERS this year, I'm afraid that mah family is gonna be in some mighty deep trouble. Is there anything you can do to help? If you can't do anythang, I'll understand (being a Princess and all). But if you could loosen the noose around my neck, it would be much appreciated!

Thank you for everything!

-Applejack

As Celestia finished the letter, she felt troubled that one of her subjects, and a personal friend to both her and Twilight, was having a hard time in Equestria's present economic situation. Celestia was barely able to keep the New Yoke Stock Exchange running when the "Big Dipper" hit, but she was starting to grind against the curb when the recession started to creep in. She, and her fellow ponies, managed later on, but the farming community was hit the hardest by the new export and land taxes that her idiotic law counsel "brilliantly" thought of.

She would have loved to help, but any show of favoritism to anypony, even if they WERE the Element of Honesty, would send her entire kingdom reeling at her hypocrisy for not helping everpony else.

Well this starting to become a quite depressing morning. Now what to do....

A gruff voice of a Royal Day Watch Guard provided a distraction for her thoughts, "Princess, your prisoner is here for his punishment hearing."

Luna woke up with snort and uttered, "My moon pies!". The announcement had apparantly brought a quite unfortunate end to the pastry-related reverie during her slumber, and brought an endearing smile to her sister's face.

"Why hello sister! Mother of you, tis morning!" Luna shockingly realized.

The guard repeated, "Princess?"

Celestia replied, "Guard, I'm sorry. But let us begin."

Luna positioned herself correctly on her throne and cleared her throat.

A pair of Guards and a very large Changeling (the thing was quite larger in stature then even Luna) in chains marched into the room. They trotted to a stop in the middle of the royal throne room and bowed.

What was most curious was that the Changeling had also bowed, not in a scornful manner, but in one with quiet respect.

The guards rose and announced, "Princesses, your prisoner has arrived."

"Thank you," Celestia endearingly said. Her tone quickly changed into a cold pitch that would have frozen the sun, "What is your name, creature?"

The Changeling rumbled, "They call me Cyr, Princesses." He bowed again, his ancient joints creaked with the rise and fall of the shackles and chains around his holed hooves and neck.

Celestia mentally furrowed her brow. The fact that she had not detected even a hint of sarcasm or hate in its voice troubled her more.

"My sister was quite right. You are a most peculiar member of your species."

The Changeling thought for a moment and mystically returned, "So I have been told."

Luna stared at the orange eyes of the colossal insectoid, one of them still sporting the same injury on its visual receptors that she had inflicted during their struggle.

Luna telepathically started a conversation with her sister, "Tia, Doth thou think that the creature will cooperate with us?"

Celestia returned with a transfer of her own thoughts, "It would be wise if you would start using a lie-detection spell on it, Luna. I hope that the creature didn't injure you."

"Oh 'twas nothing. The brute simply pushed us around. Frankly I'm glad that no pony died because of it."

"I see you're getting use to modern Equestrian. You aren't using the Royal 'We' anymore."

"Celly! I'm surprised! Doth thou hath no faith in me?" Luna mentally teased. "I'll get on that spell right now."

They ended their telepathic tête-à-tête, and when Luna's horn began to glow, Celesita started again.

"You had trespassed on our kingdom with harmful intent, and proceeded to assist Queen Chrysalis with her plans to take over Equestria and steal the love of my little ponies for their consumption. You have committed acts of assault, battery, damage to private and government property, attempted murder of a Princess and a battalion of Royal Guards. And yet you have the audacity to arrive here with such calmness and neutral emotion. Are you mocking us? After everything you did to my subjects, you still do so?"

Celestia, in her fair share of interrogations and trials, had expected two events to occur: the violator would either start begging and sobbing for mercy, or would shout themselves hoarse of how much of a tyrant she was and the self-righteousness of their cause or reasons. But, surprisingly, neither had occurred.

Cyr responded to her tirade, "I have no intentions to mean any form of disrespect. I accept those charges and I await a sentence. But I meant no harm in my actions. I'm afraid I had no choice but to carry out Queen Chrysalis's scheme."

Luna interjected, "Thou assaulted my Guards and I when my fellow sister needed me! Thy actions speak louder than thou petty lies!"

Cyr asked, "So I was lying? What about that spell of yours?"

"Wha- How doth thou know?"

He patted his horn, "This thing does more than cast disillusionment and force-magnification spells. And in your conversation, you referred to me as an 'it'. Would you be so kind to note that I am indeed a male of my species."

Celestia whispered to Luna, "Was he actually lying about his intentions?"

Luna looked down and returned, "No...."

Celestia commanded her Guards abruptly, "Leave us!"

They balked, "But Princess!"

"Do you think that the prisoner couldn't have escaped already? I'm sure one of your comrades can describe how this creature is capable of tearing itself through buildings and our defenses with ease. We shall deal with him."

The guards hesitantly saluted, "Yes, Princess Celestia!"

They exited and shut the massive doors behind them.

It was the Changeling's turn to ask the questions.

"Why did you not let me perish? Why am I not dead?"

"It is not our way to let a being die, no matter how much it wronged others," said Celestia. "We have also hypothesized that you need love to continue your healing abilities, so I persuaded Princess Cadence to revive you with her magical ability. Why do you ask trivial things?

Cyr didn't answer. He stopped himself from saying anything but finally uttered, "Maybe my priorities didn't seem as clear to you as I had wanted them to be. You should have left me in the ruins of Canterlot. Perhaps I shouldn't have held back, and you would have considered me with more contempt if I had killed. Maybe then I wouldn't be here."

Luna whispered to her sister, "I have detected nothing yet, sister. Only truth."

Celestia could only ask, "You wanted to die?"

"Why not? I've lived a full life of 417 years. I've experienced many friendships and betrayals. I can only atone for what I have done to ponies and my fellow Changelings alike. And if I no longer live....."

Cyr had said enough. "I await my punishment."

Luna pushed on, "Thou hath finished thy defense? Very well. On accordance to Royal Order, I order thee, for thy crimes against the Equestrian royalty, to be beheaded, quartered, and thou head will be paraded throughout our fair city on a bloody pike roped with thy gory entrai-"

"Luna!" hissed Celestia. "Execution was forbidden over a thousand years ago!"

"Tis nothing but fair justice!" Luna pouted. "That beast ravaged our city, harmed our citizens, and stopped me from saving you from Chrysalis! It deserves nothing less than a cruel, painful demise."

"We...do not...kill, Luna!"

"Have thou seen the casualty reports?"

Cyr bursted, "Notice how they are titled 'casualty', not 'mortality' reports. I did not take any lives during my attacks. I did not provide your guards or citizens with injuries that may have been permanently harmful to their health."

"Luna, quiet!" Celestia warned. "And how do we know that your intentions were purely philantrophic? You may have managed to counter Luna's lie-detection spell with your horn. You already have the ability to listen to telepathic conversations, so do not be offended when I say that we simply cannot trust you."

"Then hopefully my execution shall be swift. I am nothing but chitin and memories now."

Celestia, with every pore of her being would liked to see the creature suffer for its evil-doings, but what if it was right? What if it indeed was forced to? How could she justify a punishment if they are experienced by an innocent being?

Celestia solemnly questioned, "You say you have your memories? You wouldn't mind if......they were collected. For our archives. We have yet to understand Changeling Hive structure and its evolution since their Diaspora from Equestria."

She could sense with her magic the internal disputes of Cyr's mind. At first he decided to hesitantly evade and disagree to it, but a rebellious spirit against the Queen repelled the thought, and had constituted his answer.

And a rumble from Cyr's jaws emerged.

"So be it"

Trip Down Memory Tunnel

Celestia was going to witness one of the most loving scenes she would ever consider had occurred in a Changeling Hive.

Her magical, astral form stared at the scene in front of her. There lay in the catacombs and surrounded by legions of Changelings, a Changeling Queen. But her complexion was far more vivacious than Chrysalis's. The Queen had lovely, warm navy-purple irises that glowed in the dark, damp tunnels, complimented by her locks of a golden auburn mane, strands of which were tied back during the momentous scene. A scene of the most beautiful, yet painful moment of nature that would ever would happen. Childbirth.

The Queen was no stranger to laying Hatchlings. The pain and exertions had numbed her over the years, especially with the larger sized Royal Matriarch Hatchlings. But among the hundreds that she would lay that month, this one was a blessing. A Worker-caste Changeling. Not only were they smaller, but they were the only Changeling caste that, during birth, selflessly helped their Birth Mother by using their developing muscles during the birthing process to crawl out and avoid several more awkward hours. Even when they barely enter the world, they serve their Queen.

"Queen Flux? Would you like to see the Hatchling?"

The Queen carefully recieved the Hatchling from one of her Nursery Changelings, Saifra, and looked into its enormous, and adorable orange eyes. Though Hatchlings are born blind, she could feel its stare. She detected a smile starting to crack on its face. Delirious with birthing hormones and tired after the 23 hour struggle, Queen Flux had found its smile so delectable that she snuggled it even closer to her being. She could feel its love feed her, and will her to continue on.

Queen Flux weakly announced, "This Hatchling will be named Cyrilius, named after the great Changeling conquerer of yore! I sense greatness will follow this one! And he will make a glorious addition to our Hive!"

The memory suddenly flushed in darkness, and Celestia found herself observing a new scene at a Changeling Nursery.

No longer white, pale Hatchlings, the developing Spawnlings scurried along the walls and floors of the room, playing, fighting, biting among the Spawnlings who were born into the Soldier Drone caste.

They were fighting over the "honor" and "beauty" of the nearby Royal Matriarch Spawnlings, whose already sneering faces were enjoying the show of brutality over themselves.

The Nursery and Worker-caste Spawnlings were safe from harm, as they retreated to the corner of the room. The crowd of Nursery Spawnlings were training to become their larger counterparts, but they had failed in the attempt to stop the havoc and ruckus contained in the room.

Among the crowd was a single Worker. It was a rather lonely soul, with kind eyes and a strong, silent smile. It tried to distract the Nursery Spawnlings from the scene by making faces at them, and enjoying quiet conversation. Its attempts to plaster a smile on his face and calm the mood with a few jokes had cheered the Spawnlings, but it only hurt itself more.

Today was not a good day for the Worker Spawnling.

He had heard rumors of a change in the Royal Structure. A fully-grown Royal Matriarch named Chrysalis was rumored to have rebelled against the Queen Flux herself. The Queen was not seen since their confrontation.

And though it was quite young, the Worker knew what a new regime in the Hive meant.

New rules. Change. A fork in a tunnel that either led to an era of thriving civilization, or an iron-hooved dictatorship of evil and ruin.

And to the Spawnling, it was beginning to look like the latter.

The entrance suddenly was kicked in. A contingent of Soldier Drones, along with Saifra, Cyrilius's birth nurse, walked in the Nursery and forcibly removed the Worker Spawnling from the room.

As they dragged through the catacombs, they sneered, "Grub, you will begin your service to our new Queen in the mines tonight."

As the approached the mining tunnels, Saifra whispered to the young Worker Spawnling, "Cyrilius, my dear aphid, if you wish to live for another day, you must work. Our new Queen Chrysalis demands Spawnlings to be used in the labor force."

Cyrilius squeaked, "What happened to Mother? Saifra, I do not wish to go!"

Saifra cried, "Hush insolent grub!"

She was sobbing and tears trailed down her darkened cheeks. "Your new mother Chrysalis will take you under her wing. Serve her well, and forget about me. I will only give you false hope down there." She painfully and slowly walked away from the young Spawnling.

"Saifra? Wait! NO! SAI!! NOT THERE!!! ANYTHING BUT THERE!!!!" Cyrilius screamed. Hot tears gushed from his eyes. They dribbled the ground, and he began to lose sight of her and any sign of light as he was dragged and occasionally bucked off the ground throughout the tunnels. He got deeper and deeper into the mines....where it is said that hundreds die every day.

The memory faded again. Celestia, distraught with conflicting emotions, could hardly compose her thoughts in a coherent sentence for a while. She recovered when her new surroundings, dimmer than the last memory was, had appeared before her.

In the near darkness, she could hint at the outline of Changelings digging with their hooves and simultaneously charging at the walls of a cavern, horns alight with a spell that somehow pummeled stone and rock with simple horn contact. Bamboo-like shoots supported the tunnels as stilts, and it seemed with every blow to a wall, every hoof shoveled into the soil, the ceiling crumbled down small chunks of rubble and dust.

Celestia had seen these horrific conditions before. In the Shetland Mining Riots, she had witnessed bare-boned miners weakly strike their pickaxes on cold stone for days on end all for a few bits. And, like history was repeating itself, one Changeling fell under the weight of a boulder that it had been tasked with clearing from the mines. Celestia looked away, as the pony miners of the past would have ignored such an event to save their strength for another day. But unlike in the hellholes of Shetland mining, the others noticed their fellow Worker Changeling's suffering and had diverted their attention from their work to help their unfortunate brother.

Three of the Worker-caste had assisted in removing the boulder, and two more helped up and dusted off the poor Worker with the efficiency of an ant colony.

One of the Changelings by the victim's side spoken up, "Jeez, Cyr. You sure took a beating there."

Cyrilius wheezed, "I'm...ungh...fine."

"Can you still move? How about your wings?"

"They're fine, Talc. Thanks."

Talc shrugged modestly in the dark, "Not a problem. We're all in this mess together, right?"

Cyr chuckled and coughed.

"I wouldn't mind being crippled for the rest of my life. It'd be kinda peaceful in exile."

Talc hushed Cyr, "Don't say that. Word's getting around that Chrysalis is experimenting with some of the injured Changelings. She's changing 'em, Cyr. They end up more broken than they already were, or transformed into giant monsters."

"Getting a little ahead of yourself aren't you? Didn't know that you were one to believe in mares' tales."

The veteran miner looked at Cyr seriously. "You can never be too sure."

"Fine, look can we just get back to work now? I kinda wanna forget this ever happened. Pretty embarrassing when you find out you can't lift up a rock that's twice your own size," Cyr nervously grinned.

Cyr had let his hoof rest upon a wall, but he accidentally pushed on and clumsily broke one of the main supports along the tunnels.

As he did, the ceiling above them started to crack and fall down with instability.

"CAVE IN!!!!" Talc yelled. He started to gather as many Worker Changelings as he could and directed them towards the exit. Through all of the panic, dust, and stale fear that had become as stale and cold as the air around them, he still helped them.

Peculiar

Cyr sprinted with the others and had twisted and turned along the maze of tunnels until he reached the mine entrance. The joy of freedom and safety had excited him to a degree of fervor that he could almost taste it. Taste the fresh air outside the mine. Taste the warmth of the surface world.

However, with the cavern collapsing around him, the diminutive Cyr almost hadn't noticed that Talc had been tripped on a rock a few meters back.

Cyr absent-mindedly turned back and dodged the rubble collapsing on top of him. In the heat of the moment, he pulled Talc up, re-enacting what Talc had done to him a few moments before, and galloped out of harm's way into the exterior of the mine.

As he lay Talc onto the ground, Cyr noticed a towering figure watching over him. Her glossy blue hair, vert green eyes, and a belittling glare cast an overall disgusted and horrified emotion to all who saw her, including Cyr.

"Who is responsible for this! I, your new Queen, demands to find the idiot traitor who had caused this damage to our new tunnels!"

Celestia, even when she heard the words of the ruler in her astral form, felt an anger build inside her. The Queen held more concern for her Hive's infrastructure than her own subjects. It made Celestia's blood boil.

One Worker Changeling among the frightened crowd stood up.

Cyr said, "This was my fault. Dearest apologies, my Queen."

The Queen looked amongst the crowd for her soon-to-be target of her rage.

"Guards! Seize the treasonous fool!"

In a moment's notice, five Soldier Drones shoved Cyr to the ground. One of them bucked Cyr in the face, causing him to lose consciousness.

Darkness succumbed the vision of Celestia again. She could only feel the deepest sorrow for the young Changeling. Her moment of pity was again rudely interrupted by a haze of light.

The light had soon faded away, as her new setting was discovered to be somewhat similar to a throne room, if throne room were to have stalagmites, spiked vines coursing through the walls and ceiling, and a heavy presence of Guards as normal decor.

She was apparantly in the midst of the trial. A very biased trial that was already lost.

A Changeling was there on the lowest floor of the many step leading to the throne itself, inhabited by the horrid Queen.

"Please, my Queen! Please don't kill him!"

"I will not accept fools and Weaklings in my Hive! Your idiot friend Talc is too injured to work! He is an obstruction that needs to be crushed in order to seek a greater prestige for the Hive!" commanded the Queen.

"Queen Chrysalis, I-I will do anything!" Cyr hesitated. He was about to gamble his and Talc's life on a rumor.

"I will even participate in your experiments! Just let him live!"

Chrysalis froze and cracked the tiniest of evil smiles. "It was indeed wise to let the gossip spread throughout the Hive. Let this be your punishment. I will let your crippled friend live, as is the power of my infinite mercy."

Celestia barfed a little in her mouth. Even at an early age of reign, Chrysalis was disgustingly pompous.

"I have need of a Worker-caste Changeling in my work. One that is actually healthy. And one that displays the stubborn, yet foolhardy qualities that you have shown today. You must serve me with every fiber of your being. If I find that your service is unsatisfactory.....well let's just say that a certain Nurse that had raised you and an entire Worker Spawn that you have grown yourself familiar with the last several years will mysteriously vanish. I'm sure you understand?" Chrysalis simpered.

Cyr grounded his incisors. Queen or not, she had insulted him and threatened the lives of those he cared for. But he fought against his impulses and barred his anger.

"I shall serve you 'till my last breath, my Queen", Cyr struggled to articulate.

"Perfect." The Queen's pernicious smile grew larger. Her horn was glowing an emerald green that cast shadows onto her ugly features. "Your service starts today, Behemoth."

"Wha-"

Cyr couldn't finish his answer, or ask what she meant by a "Behemoth". He was struck by a beam that emerged from Chrysalis's horn with lightening precision. The light enveloped his form, and began to carve his carapace and body appendages with strange symbols and glyphs. Celestia, even with her eons-old experience, was unfamiliar with the symbols.

Celestia stared in horror as she saw Cyr's face displaying incredible pain. He could feel his insides reconfigure with raw intensity and burst out of his exoskeleton. A thick membrane grew from his body and surrounded him in a tank of chitin. He could feel himself extend, stretch, grow past his normal diminutive stature, and started to feel the membrane thicken and darken. His mind had processed new spells and predatory tactics that he was not familiar with, as if they emerged from a stranger's conscious that was only concerned with cold vengeance and warfare.

Molecule by molecule, piece by piece, Cyr was reconfigured into a hulk of a being. He towered over the Guards, and had even surpassed the height and frightening eminence of the Queen herself.

The transformation had finished, with the air smelling of roasted flesh and ozone. Cyr stumbled with his new legs and steadied himself carefully.

"Guards" The Queen stated regally, albeit with a small amount of fear. "Welcome your new comrade."

Celestia's view of the memory flushed about in a torrent of images, as if in a corrupted slideshow.

Hundreds of images flashed by her in Cyr's perspective. One memory was of Cyr stomping, with a heavy heart, on a rogue Changeling. Another was of him staring at the interior of the Hive in an entirety, a vast network of tunnels and complexes. Another was him outside the Hive staring at the Moon and sighing. Another was of a familiar purple bubble surrounding Canterlot. Then came an image of him pushing a cart of produce towards one of Celestia's subjects. The pony was crying, and Celestia could feel the sorrow he had felt on that day.

What was her name? Goldern Harvest? Carrot Har-? Carrot Top. Yes. It was her. But why would he help a pony?

Then Celestia witnessed the fierce fight in front of the recital. She could understand why Luna was furious, but she saw Cyr purposefully avoid any confrontation that would result in him harming any of the attacking Guards further.

He expresses a form of compassion that even some of Celestia's subjects do not show.

I....I have made my decision. Cyr's memories had melted away in the familiar darkness.

Celestia had opened her eyes. She gave Cyr an understanding stare.

"Are they still alive? Even after hundreds of years, they still live?"

Cyr, thrown off by the abrupt question, said, "Yes, Changeling's have surprisingly long lifespans. But most of my species never witness a ripeness of age in their line of work."

Celestia nodded. She looked next to her, and gave Luna an annoyed look when she caught her sharpening a wooden pike behind her back. Celestia, despite the Luna's harmful sentiments, gave a chuckle of her stubborn sister's behavior.

"His sentence will not involve a parade of gore today, Lulu."

"Thou art such a tease, Sister." Luna spitefully said as she teleported the pike away.

Celestia had turned her head and caught her eye on Applejack's letter.

Why does today have to be so dreary? Wait a minute....

"Guards!" shouted Celestia. A full mass of them collapsed through the door and presented themselves.

"Prepare for the transportation of the prisoner. Cyr, as per Royal Command, I hereby sentence you....."

Cyr lowered his head and stared at his hooves. It was perhaps the last day he would ever see them again.

"...to Community Service. Trial is adjourned. Guards, we leave for Ponyville."

Cyr's eyes widened in shock. No, he was not expecting that to happen.

He recomposed himself and started to walk out of the Royal Throne Room. He wished to avoid seeing the two Royal Sisters argue again.

But he stopped mid-step. He asked one last time, "Princess Celestia?"

"Yes?"

"The Royal Wedding. Did they happily wed?"

Celestia smiled. He truly is a caring being.

"Shining Armor and Princess Cadence are currently on their honeymoon."

Cyr smiled back. "Glad to know. That must have been an very interesting wedding to reminisce about."

A Helping Hoof

"Applejack!"

Ears perked from hearing her name distantly called, the orange earth mare turned her head away from her work. She brushed away the sweat from her brow, only for more to start entering her eyes and dripping down onto the manured soil below her.

The voice was deep, and familiar. But it took her longer than usual to connect that voice to Big Macintosh's. Today had been one of the hottest, windless days she had ever experienced, and she was starting to become so dehydrated that she couldn't even trot properly. As she started to head back, she suffered as the sun's heat beat her spirits down and weighed heavily on her.

Dadgummit. The heat today is worse than at Appleoosa. And tha' was in the middle of a desert! I hope that mah letter to the Princess made it through!

As she finally reached the farm, she was beginning to truly believe that the heat was making her hallucinate. In front of the farm, there was a very large crate, a carriage, two Royal Guards, and two familiar alicorns that she had met again only a day before.

Big Mac, with his hoof in a sling and cast, hopped/trotted up to her and said, "Welp, ain't ya gonna welcome the Princesses?"

So the alicorns weren't a hallucination. Awwww horseapples. I was just managing to end the day...

Applejack bowed down in a hurry, but her tired muscles had finally failed her, as she ended up collapsing and face-planting into the ground. She recovered and recomposed herself into a proper bow.

"Yer Majesties. It's a pleasure to have ya here on our farm!"

Celestia inclined and brought Applejack up from the ground, "The pleasure is all mine! I have read your letter, and I plan to help you indirectly with your crop quota with this." She gestured to the titanic crate next to Luna.

Applejack, hearing such words of hope, sprung up and forgot her physical condition from working in the fields non-stop for the past two days, resulting in another dizzy fit and another fall.

Come on ya dang useless hooves! Don't fail me now!"

Luna walked up to the earth mare. "We have decided to let thou rest. Thou have done so much with so little help. Rest while our...." She paused and stared at the crate with utter contempt. "...solution attends to thine matters."

"Ah don't know, yer majesty. I never was the type to use them fancy contraptions farmers are usin' nowadays."

"Do you hear that Celestia? She is uncertain," Luna smiled eagerly. "There is always.....this." She teleported what looked to Applejack to be a sharpened wooden pole, almost lance-like. Applejack, in her water-deprived mind, could only wonder what she needed a really sharp stick for.

Celestia sighed. She whispered to the crate, "Do you need to eat something?"

There was a profoundly deep response, which Applejack didn't bother straining herself to hear, "No. What your Princess has given me will be enough for two months. Workers have longer longevity than Drones do."

Celestia proceeded to ignore Luna's pleads and say to Applejack, "Drink some water and go rest. We shall leave you with our....help. But I must warn you. Do NOT panic when you see something strange working in your fields."

"Can do, Princesses. Thank ya kindly. I owe you a debt a' gratitiude," she said tiredly.

"Not after you saved my niece's wedding. If you have ANY trouble, go to Twilight. She knows of this situation and has been ordered to give me regular reports. Farewell, my little ponies."

Celestia and Luna entered the carriage, and waited until Applejack returned to her abode.

"Sister? Doth thou think that this may have been the wisest idea?" questioned Luna.

Celestia paused. It did appear she placed a little too much faith in rather unconventional ideas, this being one of them.

"I trust in the Behemoth's compassion. He will make the right choices. If not you'll never let this go, will you?"

Luna touched her chin, and pulled her face in a pseudo-thinking pose.

"Hmmmmmm.....no," She playfully decided.

Celestia sighed. "I thought not."

As the carriage began its ascent, and soon became a faint dot in the clear sky, the crate door cautiously creaked open.

The being inside carefully observed his surroundings. The climate was as dry and hot as.....well Cyr had lived in tunnels for his whole life, so he had nothing to compare his present situation with. But the farm and the acres of apple trees were a rustic, yet pristine and breathtaking, sight.

"So a change of scenary and some farm labor. I'm not sure this is a form of punishment I'm familiar with," Cyr murmured to himself.

He double-checked his area, and as soon as he confirmed no-pony or any-ling saw him, he trotted out of the humongous wooden crate and walked into the fields.

He became entranced with the new smells of manure and earthy organic plant life. Even from afar, the faint yet sweet scent of apples carried with the breeze and entranced Cyr. It was almost too good to be true.

Cyr sighed. "Here I am acting like a new-born Spawnling."

He gathered his thoughts and set to work. But he found that it was quite....awkward for him to remove the apples from their branches. If he attempted to buck them, he would have uprooted the tree in its entirety. He could not remove the delicate fruits with his mouth either, with his incisors and all.

But, I could....Oh Chrysalis condemn me if this goes wrong....

He rose his upper forehooves up into the air, and from his upright position, he stomped down onto the soil, sending seismic tremors throughout the acres of land and trees. Soon millions of apples dislodged themselves from their respective trees, and began to roll downhill. Cyr could only stare as he soon became hoof-deep in a literal avalanche of apples.

Well that was easier than I thought. Time to get started.

Cyr waded through the apples to collect some nearby barrels. With his mouth, he carefully avoided crushing a barrel altogether and began scooping the apples up.

Big, Dumb Animals

BOOM

Applejack cracked open one of her eyes. A deep rumbling had started to enter her ears. It's probably nothing. There hasn't been a tremor in Equestria for....how many years?

Her thoughts were interrupted by sounds of creaking from the house's foundations and the rocking back and forth of her bedroom's furniture and herself.

Applejack had soon become shaken up from the violent vibrations that shook her house and her bed, and had even found herself being tossed up out of bed and onto the wooden flooring.

"It's a tremor!" she realized. She started to steady herself and sprint out of her bedroom when the quake had stopped as abruptly as it began. She heard some hoove-steps clop up the stairs and arrive near her room in a hurry. Big Macintosh, abnormally more verbal than he was in the past, crashed into her room and shouted, "Applejack, ya alright?"

"Ah'm fine. How's Applebloom and Granny Smith?"

"Granny Smith is.....well, Granny Smith. Applebloom is out with her friends at Rarity's. Ah'll go visit town and see if she's alright."

"Now now. Steady there, Big Mac. You're the one injured. Ah'll go." Applejack lumbered out of the room and steadily fumbled down the stairs.

"Applejack, you were the one workin' all day. Ya can't even trot properly. Rest, Ah'll go. Applebloom is as much of a sister ta me than she is ta you." Big Mac worriedly stated.

"But-"

"No, buts. Just stay on tha couch. I don't want ya to strain yourself for the rest of the day. The Princesses said that they would help ya out. And they are. Just relax." Big Mac guided his sister to the couch and made her lie down. Big Mac trotted out of the house quickly, not wanting to deal with Applejack's stubborn nature for a second longer.

The house became silent again. To Applejack, today was just peculiar. Not only had BOTH princesses just visited her farm with a giant farming mechanism crate, but for the first time in....lets just say a very, very long time, there had been a natural quake.

Her mind tiredly pushed away the events of her rather strange day, and collapsed onto the couch. Her head collided with the small mass of pillows on one side of the upholstery. Ah'll deal with all this tomorrow.

However, just as she began to close her eyes, a series of repetitive knocks on the door made Applejack wince and moan in exasperation. Right, when Ah was about to get some shut-eye? This better be good.

"Come in," Applejack murmured.

The door was almost ripped out of its place, when an extremely distressed pastel-yellow pegasus burst through the doorway and plotted a collision course with Applejack's sore body. The yellow blur slowed down on top of the orange earth mare and started to mumble quite shyly.

Applejack had never heard anypony's voice speak so quickly, yet quietly in her life until that moment.

"Applejack! I need your help! I can't find my birds. One moment they were there and the ground started to shake and I turned around and they all flew away and I want to find them ohpleaseohpleasecanyouhelpmefindthem?" the pegasus' serene voice blurted. "They might get hurt, or maybe some brutal carnivore would start to eat them! I don't want them to die!"

The poor pegasus was heaving her chest as if she had just ran a marathon. Applejack had almost never seen Fluttershy use her wings to fly that fast, and with her dilated pupils and frisked, frayed mane, Fluttershy looked all the more desperate.

"Fluttershy, Ah'm sorry but-"

Applejack cut herself off when she saw glittering tears start to gather in her dear friend's eyes.

Aw shucks. There goes mah day off.

"Alright. Ah'll help you. What are friends for?"

"Oh thank you, thank you SOOOOO much. I feel so much more better right now!" A sad, slightly relieved beam began to form on Fluttershy's once terrified facial expression. The smile faded away shortly, leaving behind a downcast look of concern.

"I just hope that they're safe."

Cyr had set a full barrel down onto a wagon with his teeth. That should be the last one for this field. Let's go to the next one.....again.

As he trotted off into the next enclosure, he sighed. He never wanted his surroundings to be this quiet. Silence often left him inside his own thoughts, and the more time he spent outside his memories, the better. But at least he had work to preoccupy him...until the Princesses decide what to do with him next. You can't just let a Changeling that had just attempted to, as in modern slang, "lay a beat-down on one of the Royal Sisters" go without real punishment. He had even looked forward to Luna's "option". Sure it was a bit too morbid. But Cyr found that, with his four centuries of life experience, Death had a great way of making you feel eternally peaceful.

Lost in his bitter thoughts, he would have continued trotting along, but a twittering of birds had bothered him. Not that birds at this time of day weren't normal, but the frequency and the sheer amount of noise could only represent panic.

Cyr wandered into the countryside not far from the fields towards the source when he found a tree quite near the Everfree Forest. The sole tree was literally and unnaturally covered in hundreds of individual avian animals. He couldn't see why the birds hadn't just flown away until he saw a pack of canines made out of wood snapping at the birds.

Cyr had found himself overcome with conflicting emotion. He was a firm believer in survival of the fittest. Nature has to regulate itself in certain specific areas, whether anyling or anypony likes it or not. And the Everfree Forest was one of them. If he stopped the timberwolves from getting their meal, they, and their cubs, would starve.

But he caught himself in the observations that the birds were quite....innocent. They seemed well-cared for and unfamiliar with the surrounding area, almost as if they were pets that were accidentally lost. Thus explaining why they clung together on a single tree. They were probably familiar with eachother.

Sigh. Let's just get this over with.

"Ahem," Cyr growled. "Return to where you have come, young wolves. Or you will soon find yourselves unbecoming to even be firewood."

The distracted pack made way for the alpha male. The fierce timberwolf barked in anger towards Cyr, to stay away from their kill. Their property.

And Cyr barked back. Except make that less of a bark and more of a 200 decibal sonic roar.

For further emphasis, he hooved at the ground, breaking a thick, fallen branch with a dull thud.

Oh, that got 'em running.

The pack leader, understanding Cyr's message, whimpered and fled into the Everfree Forest with its tail between its legs. The rest of the timberwolf pack eventually followed.

Cyr looked towards the birds hiding themselves on their tree sanctuary, and motioned for them to go.

"Go on. It's safe now."

They didn't budge, nor was a single chirp announced. They would only shake with fear.

Cyr sighed, "Fine. I'll go. But you need to get back home to your owner, if you have one."

He turned and trotted away, and Cyr began to return to the fields. After several minutes of walking, he started to hear a weak hum behind him.

He turned. There was nothing there. Only an empty dirt pasture.

"Wierd."

He continued his journey, only to hear the humming again.

"Indeed, my mind is growing duller and duller by the second." Cyr mumbled. "Oh well, schitzophrenia can't be that bad."

The humming continued, this time accompanied with small taps to his noggin. Cyr lifted his head and saw a lone hummingbird.

"Well, aren't you a brave one? Did you fly here all the way from that tree?"

The hummingbird nodded. Yup, I'm crazy. I'm starting to think that animals can actually understand me.

"Do you not know where your home is?"

The hummingbird shook his head and shrugged the universal "I-have-no-clue" signal.

"Well, I'm traveling to a nearby apple farm to work. Is the apple farm familar to you?"

The hummingbird nodded its beak enthusiastically and had impossibly flexed the sides of its beak in a relieved smile.

"Would you like me to take you there?"

Again the hummingbird nodded, but raised an objective wing. It whistled and out popped from the fields the mass of birds he had encountered eariler.

"Well, then." Cyr remarked. "The more the merrier I guess." They started to hop onto his carapace and head as Cyr began to walk further down the dirt pasture, with apple fields distantly calling to him.

After about 15 minutes of walking, or according to Cyr's extreme guess-timation of how long he had trotted, he entered into the respective field he had worked on. Many of the birds, knowing their way from there, flew away. But some, curiously, stayed behind and remained on Cyr's head and carapace as he began to work.

Cyr, noticing his guests, asked them, "Don't you want to leave with the others?"

Many of them shook their heads or shrugged, except for one woodpecker that started to hammer its beak into Cyr's head.

"Fine I guess. And you there, I only have so much chitin on my head. Don't drill a hole in it."

The woodpecker nodded, but slyly and slowly returned to his task when Cyr wasn't looking.

As Celestia's sun began to set, Fluttershy couldn't bear it anymore. Her fearful whimpers turned into cries of despair. It grated Applejack's pride that she couldn't do anything more to help her friend.

"Don't worry, sugarcube. Ah'm sure they'll be fine."

"They haven't returned to me yet. They always return to me," Fluttershy blubbered.

She stopped in her tracks and fell on her flank. Fluttershy hid her face with her hooves.

"I'm a horrible caretaker! They always were there for me, but I was never there for them!" she sobbed. "I don't know what to do!"

Applejack couldn't take it anymore. "Fluttershy, HUSH! That attitude ain't gonna help ya look for 'em. Out there, your birds are struggling ta find ya. What will crying do? Nothing. Now Ah'm prepared ta help ya through this, but only if ya can help yourself. Ah'll stay with you looking for 'em through the night, but you need ta get a hold of yourself!"

After a while, and several futile attempts to calm herself, Fluttershy finally managed to whisper, "Okay Applejack. I'll stay (sniff) strong. Thank you." Fluttershy hugged her.

"It's not a problem. Now let's get a move on. We're burning daylight."

Cyr had finished up gathering the last of the apples in the fields with only the moonlight to guide him. Changelings didn't need to sleep as long as ponies, but Cyr managed to make himself exhausted. The majority of the birds, even the sneaky little woodpecker, had started to make nests in the holes in Cyr's hooves and on the ridges of his carapace to sleep in. But a few, like the adorable, little hummingbird, stayed up with Cyr all night, even helping Cyr gather a few apples.

With only a last couple pools of apples to go, Cyr tiredly whispered to the hummingbird, "Rest. I think you've helped me far more than you ever could have dreamed of today. Thank you."

The hummingbird began to resist, but a mute yawn and a severe decrease in wing-flapping were signs of its over-exertion. It flew up and snuggled itself right behind Cyr's horn.

Cyr shoveled the last apples into a half-full barrel, and as he trekked on his last time back to the wagon-loads of apple barrels, primed and ready for their delivery, a wandering thought floated through his tired, sluggish conscious.

In nature, birds of small stature regularly gravitated their habitance and interactions towards larger, more aggresive-looking pack mammals in the wild. He had just experienced today, a similar grouping of that behavior. He used to notice that small birds were attracted by the presence of larger, and rather stupid animals. Cyr realized that, therefore, he was a big, dumb animal.

His reasoning, if actually possible, irritated itself.

He chuckled and partially hated his self-logic for the inference.

Cyr shuffled around for a spot to rest, finally spotting a rather large apple tree. He lay himself down on his stomach and looked to the heavens. He had always enjoyed watching the moon rise. There was something solemn about seeing a ghostly, white orb jettison being pulled into the midnight, oily sky.

As Cyr closed his visual receptors, he noted that the moon was ever so beautiful tonight.

In Applejack's eyes, Fluttershy was a mess. Her mane looked like somepony had attempted to attack it with a rake, her swollen, damp eyes had a blank, heavy stare, and her hooves dragged themselves through the dirt. She couldn't cry anymore, as there weren't anymore tears left for her to release.

"Look sugarcube, we can always look for 'em tomorrow." Applejack could almost hear her words echo throughout Fluttershy's mind. Hello? Anypony there?

"Ya can stay with me for the night. It's too late....I mean early for you to trot around all by yourself," Applejack corrected herself, as the sun was already starting to dawn across the horizon.

Fluttershy gave an empty smile and nodded. She walked ahead of Applejack and soon passed the apple trees. And there was a rather overgrown one, alongside multitudes of wagons of apple barrels.

Applejack walked towards the wagons.

"Holy smokes! Ah guess Ah won't have ta worry about applebuck season after all!"

Applejack, in her joy, couldn't see Fluttershy's despairing facial emotion until it was too late.

Fluttershy wailed loud enough to scare a few geese out of the Everfree Forest. She couldn't hold back her tear-ducts, and soon enough, her floodgates couldn't handle the pressure anymore.

She sniveled in light of Applejack's happiness. Feelings of guilt, anger, and betrayal had emerged and pained her heart to endure such a dynamic of emotion. The rage in her chest wouldn't stop, so all she could do was cry on Applejack's shoulder.

The tearful outbursts of Fluttershy had woken up a sleeping hummingbird near the large apple tree. It started to wake up, and recognizing the source of the voice as Fluttershy's, started to wander towards her.

The hummingbird flew up and landed on Fluttershy's crinkled nose and whistled a cheerful tune.

Fluttershy, stopped with an abrupt hiccup, and opened her blurry eyes. She saw her fellow hummingbird.

She gasped loudly. "You're here! You're still alive! I was so worried about you! Where are the others?"

The hummingbird....well, hummed how the rest were on the "large animal" (Fluttershy didn't understand this) or at the cottage.

"But what's this about a large animal?"

The hummingbird continued how an animal that worked at the fields during the day had rescued the birds from the timberwolves and brought them back to the farm.

"Well where is the animal working at the farm?"

Applejack interrupted. "Wait. It means the pony that helped me get in all of these apples for applebuck season? Well ah'll be. I have ta personally thank him for doing all this. Where is he?"

The hummingbird whispered in Fluttershy's ear.

"He says that it isn't a pony."

"Wha?"

"And he says that it's right over there."

Fluttershy fearfully pointed with her hoof at a breathing, matte-black mass next to the tree.

Reacting to the sudden noise, and ever the light sleeper, Cyr began to open his orange eyes.

Welcome to Ponyville, Cyr-Part 2

5 hours earlier...

The bustling crowd in front of Ponyville town hall stood, waiting for Twilight's speech with apprehension and slight boredom. The majority of her speeches have never exactly been the most relevant to other pony's lives except for the occasional news of panic. She approached to podium, and the crowd instantly silenced.

Well, here goes nothing.

"Hello, everypony! I'm here with some rather-" Twilight looked down at the letter in her hooves reading

My dearest, most faithful student Twilight,

I have kept you in touch about our recently arrived "friend" so far. I'm sure you were just as surprised that something such as this had come up. And, apparently, so was my council. The nobles were not quite as understanding as you were. Also, I have been thinking about how our Changeling friends might react to this, in case they have been eavesdropping in our activities. Though now might not be the most perfect of moments to release the news, I have a feeling that my subjects must know what is hidden in their fair town. Don't argue that this may be the worst idea I have ever formulated; This is all according to my plan. I will be sending Luna for the planned task, as my hooves are a bit full right now with royal duties. It will be your job to calm her, as she did not have the most pleasant of encounters with our new guest. All will be explained later. I'm sure you'll bring the news to the Ponyvillians as gently as possible!

Your truly,

Princess Celestia

"-foreboding news from the Princess."

The crowd waited in anticipation.

"We have all come to accept our fellow ponies in this town. I remember the time when I found out Ponyville had ousted Zecora simply because she wasn't like other ponies. But in the end we accepted her with compassion and friendship. So now, Celestia has sent this letter to me directly to inform you all about a Changeling refugee that is in our midsts."

The crowd gasped. Some ponies started to gaze accusingly at eachother.

"Now, it's not like that. He is not disguised. In fact, Celestia mentioned to me how impossible it would be to not notice him if he walked into town. Princess Luna will travel here to take care of this issue, though Princess Celestia's letter had not made certain of what she means to do with the Changeling."

Smile and wave, Twilight. You KNOW what's going to happen to that Changeling. Nopony has to know that Equestria was going to be one bug-pony short by today.

"So have no worries. The Princesses will solve this, and I hope that you'll treat this Changeling with as much kindness as you had given me when I arrived here!" Twilight emphatically forced a fake smile. The crowd was silent in confusion, fear, indecision, just waiting for a catalyst to light the fuse and break the tension with an explosion. She knew what they were thinking. How could they possibly believe that the Princesses could protect them after they were nearly defeated by during the Royal Wedding.

Twilight, staring nervously at the crowd, was jerked out of the way by a pink blur.

Incoming Ponyville tradition in three.....two....one....

Pinkie Pie pushed Twilight off of the podium and screamed, "EVERYPONY RUN FOR THEIR LIVES!!!!"

And there we go. Mission accomplished, Twilight. Now we play the waiting game 'til Pinkie stops having her fun and the town's marching riots and the arson-lit domestic fires are put out.

Twilight sighed as she got back up amongst the general disorder. Everytime, there just HAS to be that one little pony to make everything worse...

Later....

"Uh, Twi? You mind answering mah question?" Applejack asked again, her voice laced with a hint of impatience.

"Heh. Depends. How is everything going on outside? Any buildings lit on fire yet?"

"Wha? No. everypony looks a lil' riled up. But other than that, they seem fine."

Twilight exhaled in relief and wiped her brow with a hoof, "Glad to know that's over with. The town took the news pretty well, I suppose. Now we just have to wait until Princess Luna gets here."

Twilight walked out of the library with Applejack, "So what will you be up to. Apple-buck season's over, so I expect you to finally get some rest?"

Applejack exclaimed, "Ab-SO-lutely! I mean, yeah I guess. Just after Ah check up on Applebloom."

"What'll you be up to?"

Twilight bitterly answered, "I need to have a serious talk with Pinkie...and her sense of timing."

"So you weren't hurt?," Cyr interrupted.

"Well, kind of. They don't visit me anymore, but they still bother me every now and then. I wish they didn't tease me though," Carrot Top said.

"How would you have reacted? I should have just ignored them."

Cyr grimly smiled, "Let's just say, contrary to how I am right now, I wouldn't have handled it quite as graciously as you had. Don't fret. Every being has their breaking point."

"True companions accept your abilities and faults. Some friends you have; they believe that they have the right to persecute you based on the fact that you have a more successful experience with planting crops than they do? Even when you supported them with the fruits of your own labor? Good riddance."

"They weren't very nice to you. You should make new friends," Fluttershy brightly added. "Same thing happened to me during Flight School. I was teased a lot, so I only stuck with the ponies that truly accepted me, like Rainbow Dash."

Fluttershy looked away towards the setting horizon when she realized something.

"Oh no! It's getting late. I should have been back to my cottage already. It's been really nice talking to you!"

Fluttershy sped away, leaving the two alone under the colossal apple tree. From a distance, they looked almost comical, as they were both sitting next to eachother like old acquaintances, making the differences in their size all the more apparant. If a pony had walked by, and ignored Cyr's unnatural features, they would have given them an awkward look, and wonder how in Celestia's name a Changeling with the height of a alicorn and the girth of a manticore had gotten to know a regular earth mare.

Carrot Top asked, "So what are you doing here? I'm guessing that you're not doing this out of the kindness of your own heart?"

"No. Princess Celestia put me up to this, as joyful as today's work was. And Changeling's don't have hearts."

Carrot Top gave Cyr a look of disbelief, "Yeah, I'm not following you."

"It's a figure of speech. Well, I think. We steal love to survive, yes? So apparantly, over the millenia, other species branded us with the term "heartless" because we can't give nor create our own love, so that must obviously mean that we don't have said organ of compassion. But other than that, it's simply a joke among Changelings. No being ever really vivisected a Changeling before, have they?"

Cyr gave a short, sad laugh. He stopped when he saw an speck in the dusk sky. It had the familiar and distant shape of a chariot.

"Your brand of humor is really....off," said Carrot Top.

"Don't mind me. Just letting off some steam. And you said you were looking for Applejack, correct?"

"Yeah."

Cyr gestured with a massive hoof over to a very convenient figure trotting over the hilly path, "She's over there."

"Oh. Thanks!" She got up and started walking away. "I'll be meeting you again soon, right? I've heard about all the hubbub in town that Princess Luna was coming to see you."

Cyr spied at the chariot again. "Yes. But can I ask you something?"

"Sure. I already wasted your time with my life story!" The mare chuckled. "What's up?"

"Can we have that chat later? I've been looking to getting something off my chest. The past few days....haven't been kind to me," Cyr sighed uncharacteristically. He normally had a zen demeanor, but the slowly-developing preoccupied tone had started to creep on to Carrot Top's conscious.

Carrot Top went up and gently touched his hoof with her own. Cyr, not used to having his personal space compromised like the majority of ponies are, almost recoiled from the mere touch, but he resisted in case he hurt his new-found companion's feelings.

"Of course. Anytime you want. What are friends for?"

"Friends?" Cyr questioned. These ponies must be really easy-going if they make friendships as fast as rabbits spawn offspring.

"Well, yeah! What else would I be? You never had friends before?"

Friends? The only Changelings I've gotten to know were- Talc. Saifra. Oh, how I miss you both. Hopefully nothing happened to you...yet. Celestia sending Luna as a substitute over here can only mean one thing to me.....your safety.

"I've had some before. But not in a manner that you have just demonstrated."

Cyr gestured again to Applejack. The chariot was getting nearer.

"Now don't you have another friend to meet up with?"

Carrot Top facehoofed. "Oops. Forgot about her. Well, see ya later!"

Cyr waved goodbye and started to walk away into the fields and away from the farm.

He reached the outskirts of the fields, where the chariot was arriving towards.

As the chariot traveled across the sunless sky, the moon had risen in place of the sun, and waves of stars streaked from their eastern origin behind the chariot. Millions of the individual celestial bodies had lit up as if they had just blinked into existence and found themselves to be moved magically into their place throughout the space outside Equestria's atmosphere. Soon the moon had elevated passed the horizon, and joined its starry children in the night sky, beckoning them to stay close and away from the darkness.

The Behemoth continued to follow the chariot's path after watching the dynamic scene unfold.

Heh. Never get tired of seeing that.

The chariot angled down and, nearly heading towards the Everfree Forest, landed onto a grassy plain.

Cyr followed it and presented himself in the open.

He bowed to the alicorn that trotted out of the chariot pulled by two Night-Watch Royal Guards.

"Rise. We have much to discuss," Luna said, a bit coldly. She summoned a book of ancient languages and walked towards an empty portion of the pastures.

Awkwardness doused the conversation into a quick silence. Luna obviously didn't want to be here. Cyr still felt absolutely guilty, and he kept a wary eye towards the rather Fenrir-like Royal Guards she had brought. They both kept a steady glare at him and followed at his tail.

"Stay still. We have to attempt to translate the glyphs on thine carapace."

Cyr did as he was commanded, and after a few minutes of poking and prodding, Luna came to a revelation.

"Aha! 'Twas such a simple solution!"

Cyr asked, "May I ask what it is?"

"Engraved on thee is an ancient, yet simple spell encantation written in Pri Equus. A counter-spell should disperse its effects."

"What happens next?"

"Simple. Stand over there in the open as I prepare the counter-spell," Luna replied.

As Cyr trotted over to a vacant, clear area, he asked, "And what will this specifically do to solve your problems and mine, if I may ask?"

"Thou don't have to worry about that. These aren't thine problems."

Cyr stubbornly continued, "They are. You have helped me beyond what any simple compassion would require. While I'm on this topic, why do you help me? I have apologized and I will do so again for anything my kin and I have done to your subjects, but I'm sure that you haven't accepted my sentiment, and neither do most of your subjects. Considering what you suggested last time we met, I'm sorry to be blunt enough to say that I question your motives."

Luna placidly looked up.

"We hath been rather out of character these few days. My sister hath, in a way, been a bit too trusting during our rule. But thou can say that we hath formed a grudge against thee. We hath given thine situation some thought, and we will follow our sister's manner. We shalt assist thou, and we shalt never bring up the past again. We accept your apology from our encounter. Final last words should be honored."

"You meant that pitiful 'I'm sorry'? Some glorious eulogy that was."

"Speaking of thou demise. Here's the thing....we have to kill you."

Cyr nearly tripped on his hooves and half-roared in a panic, "Wait. What? What was with all of the 'never bringing up the past again' sentiments?!"

"Not literally," Luna whispered. "The townspeople hath been warned of thou presence. Small towns such as Ponyville consist of ponies that keep secrets well. We first must discard thou mutated form in a manner that simulates thine death. The pesky nobles of the court in Canterlot will free my sister and I of orders to remove thine presence. And, from what thou hath told Celestia, thou Changeling kin will be safe.

"We should be considered more of a Royal Jester rather than a Princess if we thought Chrysalis wouldeth not placed spies in our fair country. After we conduct the counter-spell and display thou in a manner that would presenteth thee to be dead, any spy would relay back to the Hive with the information. The Queen and thou Hive will relish the idea that ye perished, and thou friends will not be harmed."

"And how will you make me 'dead'? I'm quite worried that you'll not be able to disable the PriEquus incantation. It's centuries old...."

"And we hath been here longer. Dead languages and transformations are quite natural to us, as thou can see." Luna bent her fair head towards the two Night Watch guards, still following behind Cyr.

"Leave everything to us." Luna gestured for him to stay in a spot, and back-trotted away from Cyr.

Cyr said nervously, "In case, this doesn't work. And if something goes wrong, I wish to say to you that.....

.....I've always enjoyed your nights. They kept me company over the years."

Luna gave a small grin. She's not that bad, I guess. More than I ever could be

"Well, hath no worries. Thou will be alive to experience a great many more."

Her horn ignited with a pitch of light that contrasted with the darkness around them in the field. She steadied herself and concentrated her energy towards Cyr. Soon a thin beam connected with Cyr's body and his outline slowly began to disappear with the light radiating from the powerful lunar magic.

For miles to see, a brief lapse of light expanded from the far fields of Ponyville, and as soon as it came, it faded away, leaving only the light from the moon and stars to guard against the massive gulf of night.

With the brief counter-spell over with, a titanic husk of Cyr was all that remained. The sheer weight of the center of his mass creaked the joints of his chitin limbs and finally fell to the ground with a teeth-shaking thud.

There. If the light show didn't clue in Chrysalis's imposter's, the slight tremor will.

She commanded her two, soon to be chiropractic patients, Royal Guards, "Drag the husk into fair Applejack's barn. And make thou movements as unnoticeable as possible."

The Guards, with an unsure look, saluted and proceeded with their manual task.

Thump

The ground shuddered in the wake of the spell. The now-alert Changeling that had been tailing the traitor and the ridiculous Royal Sister had woken up from its brief slumber. He rustled in the brush near the Everfree Forest to get a better look at his surroundings.

It chittered, "Everything is still the same. They both are still there, and...."

The Changeling stopped in mid-sentence in view of what the Guards were dragging behind them.

It's the body of the traitor.....

It stopped its rustling and froze in place when the Guards were coming nearer and nearer along the dirt path.

The Changeling even stopped his breathing in fear that it would experience the dishonor and fear that capture would bring forth. Not to mention the pain and the starvation it would endure if it was going to be thrown into a dungeon after a little "welcoming party" from the Guards there.

So far, so good. Almost there. And....oh no. The ponies are beginning to slow down. WhatdoIdo.WhatdoIdo. The Queen will-

In the midst of his hysteria, he quickly noted that the Guards stopped only to take a short break from their task. After they had uttered a few swears and phrases of complaint, they continued on, leaving behind the now-relieved Changeling.

The pure ecstasy that followed in the behavior of the Changeling once it determined they clearing was safe to escape, was the most triumphant in its short, miserable existance. It took flight, unknowing that its actions were expected by Princess Luna.

It eagerly hummed as it flew away, "The Queen will be pleased...The traitor has died at the hooves of the ponies."

It shortly added, "Though, Her Majesty was so looking forward to the executions....."

Up and at 'em

Dear Princess Celestia and Luna,

I hope that the Canterlot courts are giving you both an easy time. It's already been a few weeks since Luna had arrived and left Ponyville, so they should be calming down about the matter Cyr provided. Now on to more important issues. You have asked me to monitor our "guest" for you. He has already adapted himself quite well to the life here, though I'm getting quite worried that he isn't continuing his feeding habits (normal Changeling Drone/Royalty's can last barely around 5 days without their usual diet, though it has been a few weeks since Cyr has eaten, and I'm assuming that it's because of physiological differences between members of the Worker-caste and Soldier-caste). He shows no signs of hunger, and has refused to continue his eating habits of joyful emotion. His size has remained, unfortunately, the same, but his abilities have been weakened severely since the attempted de-transformation. He is only able to use the sheer basics of his force-manipulation spell, and a more basic disillusionment form, yet he still retains his abilities.

He seems happy here. But I'm afraid that I won't be able to keep an eye on him. You are aware of Princess Cadence's situation in the Crystal Pony Kingdom, correct? Well, my attempts to help my sister-in-law will leave me and the Elements unavailable to keep observing Cyr. I'm sorry, but I think it's time to let the filly ride a scooter without its training wheels, if you know what I mean.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle

Two weeks earlier.....

"Applebloom!"

Boisterous snickers echoed out of the household remarking Applejack's surprise.

"YEAH! CUTIE MARK CRUSADER PROFESSIONAL PRANKSTERS!

Three fillies fled the house and raced towards the barn.

As the mischievous fillies sprinted to their only refuge from Applejack's wrath, Applebloom popped her head out of the trio, and yelled, "Sorry sis! I'll make it up to ya later! Pinkie told us that we could get pullin' pranks as a special talent!"

They rushed in and locked the barn door.

Sweetie Belle asked, "I don't know about this. Didn't we go a little too far this time?"

"What are you talking about? That was awesome!" Scootaloo, out of breath, haggardly responded.

"But did we really have to involve Opal and that bucket of-"

Applebloom, expectantly staring at her own flank, absent-mindedly said, "Don't worry too much. Mah big sis forgives easily. And Ah bet that we'll be gettin' our cutie marks ANY second now...."

All three fillies began concentrating on their own respoective flanks.

"Any second now......", Applebloom hoped.

Sweetie Belle pressed, "Applebloom, I don't think its working."

"Just give it a few more seconds."

After a few minutes, Scootaloo yawned, "Applebloom, I think we're still blank flanks. Whelp, better luck next time. Hope your sister is pretty easy-going about all this."

Applebloom, slowly building up her personal hysteria, admitted, "Gosh darn it! We did all that for nothing! Sorry girls. Ah'll try to apologize to mah sister for all ya'll."

"No way!" Scootaloo said. "We can't let ya take the blame for everything! Sweetie and I were involved, too!"

"But it was mah idea. A really bad one. And Applejack is mah sister, after all. She'll go easier on me."

Sweetie Belle walked up. "Are you sure about this, Applebloom?"

"As sure as Ah was before."

Scootaloo said, "You know that isn't very convincing. Just look at how this turned out...Ow!"

As Scootaloo recovered from Sweetie Belle's knock to her noggin, Sweetie Belle said to Applebloom, "If you really want to do this, I guess we can't do anything to change your mind. We'll get out of your hair, but we owe you for this!"

Applebloom sheepishly grinned, "Nah. We're pretty much even after what happened today. Rarity won't be too happy to find out what Opal got drenched in. Now go!"

Applebloom pushed both her friends out of the barn, and tried to think up of any counter-arguements she could use against her sister.

Nope. Ah got nothing. Well, let's get this over with.

As Applebloom was about to exit the barn door, as she was hearing her sister's characteristic "anger-stomping" nearing the barn, she heard a faint crackling, almost like the sound of little chicks hatching.

She looked around her shadowy surroundings in the barn. Applebloom inspected the usual empty interior, sometimes coming along some of Applejack's and Big Mac's supplies and farming tools. Eventually, as her eyesight lined up with the numerous bales of hay that the ground consisted of, she saw a massive form amongst them.

Its outline in the poor lighting revealed a rough shell outside a pony-like figure. Black cracks started to snake down sluggishly down its surface where the face would be on a pony.

The fissures increased in length, and the slow crackling starte to grow in frequency. Chunks started to peel off of the un-Faustly statue.

Applejack crashed through the locked barn door, shouting, "Applebloom, just wait 'till Ah get mah hooves on ya, you're-"

"SIS!" Applebloom sprinted towards her sister, and latched onto her foreleg. "W-w-what is t-that horrible thing?"

Applejack gave a puzzled look towards her sibling, "That? Ah wouldn't be worried too much about that. And you're gonna have to apologize pretty darn soon."

"Of course, sis. Ah'm sorry for what Ah did. Ah didn't mean to-"

"Oh, yes you DID. And Ah wasn't talking about mahself." Applejack mentioned as she grasped the barn door.

As she stared back into the entrance of the barn, she scolded Applebloom, "Ah was talking about somepony else. It's disrespectful to call other ponies horrible."

The barn doors closed with a creak, leaving Cyr alone in the darkness of his husk.

At the diminutive, apple red-maned filly's remark, Cyr was silently taking the insult.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Not like it was the first time anything called me "horrible" before.

Cyr shrugged and started to re-adjust his position in the husk, which was nearly impossible, considering the narrow shell encompassing his form.

Forget it. The filly seemed pretty nice. Gotta stop judging ponies on first encounters. And....GRRRRH. There's more room in a grub tunnel than there is in here. How did the Princess want me to get out of this anyway?

It's not like I can just punch my way out....or can I?

In the embracing darkness of the husk, Cyr struggled to lift his hoof. With a huff, and some exasperated sighs, Cyr's hoof started to errode away at his prison. A couple of minutes of scratching at the constricing walls soon rewarded his actions: a gleaming sunlight that struggled to brighten the interior of the husk through the cracks.

Cyr began to further continue his task until his forehoof had broken free from its binding shell. Cyr's shoulder soon followed, and with a satisfying bash that contacted the forehead, his head was soon liberated also.

He heckled his way out of the coccoon-like husk, and strode out of the barn. At once, only with his exposure with the outside world, did he realize that familiarity of his surroundings. A bit too familiar.

Cyr stared at the size of the barn and soon walked away towards the apple fields. There he compared his stature amongst the harvested apple trees.

Luna's spell should have resulted in a complete decrease in his size. Nothing had changed. Cyr finally had to accept the idea that her plan was only partially successful.

Impius Lepus

"Are you in pain?"

"No."

"You don't feel different in anyway?'

"No."

Twilight huffed, "Are you going to say anything besides 'No'?"

Cyr contemplated and said, "Yes. So what next?"

"No idea. You seem healthy. Your magical output has decreased by a LOT though. I'm afraid the majority of your magic you're familiar with won't be usable from now on. I'll try to tell Luna about it, but you're going to have to keep your hooves occupied while she gets the letter," Twilight said. "Stay away from public eyes. You're suppose to be dead remember?"

Cyr thanked her and walked away through the apple fields, feeling like he had the air of a Changeling patient with a case of terminal thorax rot. His image flickered as he stubbornly attempted, and failed multiple times, to cast an disillusionment spell

Twilight returned to the farm and tried to think of something to say that would supplement Cyr's mood, when a familiar face popped out.

Applejack greeted her, "Howdy, Twi. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine AJ," Twilight answered, "Just had to tell our guest the bad news."

"How is the big feller?"

"He's healthy, and somewhat still his regular size. But he's starting to struggle using his magical abilities. I think he's kinda depressed about it. Say, you don't have anything else to do on the farm, do you?"

Applejack replied, "Not really. The big guy already took care of that."

"Well, can you keep him distracted? I'm a bit worried that he won't be acting his usual self from now on. And I can't be watching him constantly. Cadence is starting to have a little trouble with her side of the kingdom, and I think I'll probably have to go over there sometime soon. I'll be taking leave, but can you give Cyr something to do while the Princesses decide what to do?"

"Sure thang. Gotta help out our friends don't we?" AJ called out, and Twilight was starting to trot out of the farmland.

Twilight turned and smiled, "Glad we all think about him that way."

Cyr just had to ask. He wasn't one to involve himself into things without a "where" and "why".

"So....Any reason why you're dragging me near town?"

Applejack said, "Carrot Top has a vermin problem in one of her cabbage patches. Don't see why we can't help, can we? While Ah try to talk to Fluttershy about it, you'll have to guard it for her."

"Awfully nice way to treat the competition."

"She's been through a lot, that one. And you always manage to cheer 'er up."

Cyr went silent and said nothing for the rest of the trip except for a cryptic reply, "So it seems."

They arrived at a rather damp portion of the Ponyville swamplands. Hooves caked with mud, the pair trekked on until they arrived at a fenced area in the marshes. Cyr saw bobbing up and down a carrot-orange mane that he had been accustomed to see the past few days.

Hearing the wet suctioning of hooves pulling and plopping themselves through mud, the owner of the mane rose her head and directed herself towards her arriving friends.

Carrot Top welcomed, "Hiya! Small world, huh? I can never seem to get away from you guys!"

"Ready to go to Fluttershy's, CT? Got somepony to keep an eye on things!" Applejack said. "Right, big guy?"

Cyr whispered to Applejack, "You really haven't told me what I'm supposed to do when we got here."

"Relax. Carrot Top and Ah will be back in a jiffy. CT says it might be a rabbit infestation, but Ah can't really be sure," Applejack replied. Her and Carrot Top started their journey to Fluttershy's cottage, leaving Cyr in the marshes.

Some time later, Carrot Top admitted her doubt, "You sure he can handle it?"

Applejack smiled and added, "Ah'm sure."

Not much to do around here except listen to the frogs sing and the marshes bubble

Cyr sighed and got up from a rare patch of dry soil that was sieged upon by hoof-deep water and oil-like sludge surrounding Cyr.

Why she picked a swamp for raising vegetables, I'll never know.

Suffering from boredom's grasp, Cyr started to inspect rows of cabbage patches. They were decently healthy, except for some he encountered.

The rotting brown balls, which managed to camoflauge themselves into the muddy waters perfectly, were clothed with wilting leaves and exposed roots that were visible from the ground up. The heads of cabbages' natural yellowish/green had faded, and instead cast a deathly infusion of brown with specks of purple. Foreboding its fate, one of the cabbages had a neatly scribbled sign (if there ever was such a contradiction that Cyr would consider true...) declaring:

"Varmints ate this; Use as fertilizer"

'Tis a pity. Something born for life, marked for death.

Why I have such sympathy for a single head of cabbage, I'll never know....

This might be because of utter boredom, but I still can't believe I'm going to do this for, what? A bunch of plants that are going to be consumed anyway?...

Cyr imbued the plant with some of his love. With a few seconds of saturation, Cyr stepped away and viewed the greenish hue, and some of their size and leaves, returning. He continued this for a couple more of the ill-fated cabbages until he reached one that was being attacked by a mass of white fur.

"Um...You mind not doing that?" Cyr requested. He knocked over the animal with a light push from his hoof to reveal that the rabid blur of mass was in fact a bunny rabbit.

The animal gave him an annoyed scorn, as if Cyr had interrupted him in a task that would be considered imperative.

"Look, I've been working the past couple of minutes trying to fix what you wrought unto the cabbage patches. Can you please stay away from here now on?"

The bunny stuck out a tongue and blew a raspberry. That cheeky....

"I want to be nice about it. I really do. But your attitude isn't helping. These plants aren't your own."

The bunny shook a paw at him. No, wait. One of his individual digits positioned in the middle of his paw was poking out of the closed appendage. He returned to his feast.

"I'll ignore what you just did, and your brash impetuousness, if you walk away right now. Or I WILL use force," warned Cyr.

Come on, you insignificant mammalian pest. I dare you....

The bunny rabbit stared at Cyr. And he stared back. After an intense 5 minutes of complete eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose, hate-driven staring, the bunny started to back off.

"That's more like it-oof!"

A partially-consumed, rotten vegetable was thrown at Cyr's head, staining his brow, cheek, mane-frill, and fangs with bacterial-infested juices that stank to high heaven.

At that certain moment, Cyr's veneer of patience, carefully maintained after centuries of mental and physical barrages, broke.....into trillions of dissolving shards. That were then incinerated into oblivion by his incurred rage.

Deciding to conserve his almost diminished supply of love, Cyr decided it to be far wiser, and satisfying, to physically enact what he was going to do to the little beast without his weakened forms of Changeling magic.

With a speed that contrasted with his sluggish manner of trotting and his tank of a body, Cyr swung a hoof into the bunny's body, shooting it across the field into the swamp.

"EAT DIRT AND SCUM, YOU RODENTIAL CRETIN OF PESTILANCE AND FUR!" roared Cyr.

Invigorated by his success, Cyr nearly hadn't noticed the sea of white fur that rushed out of the shadows of the swamp, led by the kicked-at bunny rabbit. And noticing the similar characterisitcs of the army of rabbits (some even had eyepatches, beards, and tribal tattoos), Cyr observed that the probabiliy they were the kin of the abused bunny were very, VERY high.

Cyr chittered a swear, and bellowed, "If you think your family of inbred yodels and hicks for rodents will conquer me, than I surely was not given the name 'Cyrilius' at birth!"

It was official. Cyr was no longer sure that he was born with his namesake. And he didn't even believe his reality as a Behemoth was possible any more. Why you may ask? Because none of this should be happening, ESPECIALLY this.

Cyr wished he had wings again. The feeling of having the knowledge you could escape all your earthly troubles with just a tuft of membrane grown on your back carapace and a wing flap-rate of 300 movements per second was extremely comforting. Cyr would have given anything right now (A limb, a heart, or a lung) to get some wings right now, since he was being chased by a horde of bunny rabbits, that are actually omnivorous.

I bet all the ponies here already know that rabbits especially favor the nutrients and crunch of bug chitin. Curse their hypocritical allowance to let potentially carnivorous animal species live amongst them!

And I don't even think they'll believe me if I told them that they like eating bug species, especially Changelings. Even with the teeth marks and chunks on my carapace that I believe are missing right about now.

He looked behind him. The horde was gaining on him. They already tasted his flesh, and now they wanted more.

Panicking enough to actually run into and through trees, Cyr sprinted out of the swamp and headed towards Fluttershy's cottage, which was fairly close the swampland, thankfully.

Well look at the bright side, Cyr. They won't be eating those cabbages for a while now....they have you as the main course.

Resolutions, and Sentiments

"So, are you gonna help us, or what?!"

Applejack placed a patient, yet forceful hoof on Carrot Top's mouth.

"Now, 'Shy, what Carrot Top was about to say is if you're willin' to help us out...on that problem."

As per the usual of her "church-mouse" persona, Fluttershy began, "It's no trouble-"

"Yeah, uh-huh. Well, I'd like to keep your courteous exchange going, but a few of us like to keep a schedule," Carrot Top butted in. "You know, since I have to get everything in the surplus by the time winter comes...and I won't be able to do that if, say, I'm here bumbling around like I've got time! So please, go on."

Applejack scowled, "Nah, that ain't such an attitude to bring around friends."

"Sorry, but you've actually got time after you had some help, unlike [cough] last year [cough]", Carrot Top matter-of-factly stated with her imitation of the good ol' summer flu....if there ever was one. Applejack glowered at the mare next to her. She didn't like it when others criticized her stubborn moments.

"I can understand where she's coming from, though," Fluttershy gently assuaged Applejack. She was getting ready to, in a certain colloquial term, fly off the handle. Specifically in Carrot Top's direction. "Come on in, I'll only need a moment."

"I'll be right back. I just need to get gather up some woodland critters, and- hmmmm...I wonder where Angel wondered off to? Angel? Where are you?" Fluttershy glanced around the house. She wandered back in, continuing her calls.

"Oh there you are!"

The snowy white-coated bunny tried to disguise his out-breath state. Even though he did take a short cut to the cottage, the Ponyville marshes was quite a hopping distance from the main town.

Fluttershy asked, "Are you ok, Angel? Oh my, you have mud and filth all over you! What have you been doing all this time?"

Oh. Angel figured that he was caught now. It was one thing to casually lie to his pegasi caretaker, but to lie successfully was an entirely different matter. Oh, and he really needed to ask whether consuming rotting vegetation in a garden in the middle of an unclaimed swamp was really stealing.

Angel was about to gasp out an answer, as his silence and intense sweating (which was curious...and questionable, as bunnies didn't have sweat glands. Curiously questionable?) was making Fluttershy increasingly suspicious, when the door was suddenly knocked on, to Angel's silent relief, with dull, heavy thuds that had sounded like they originated from a battering ram. The door was soon bashed in as dramatically as possible, with a rampaging giant Changeling attempting to squeeze through the doorway, which wasn't accustomed to a guest of such...bulkiness. No fat joke intended.

"Cyr? What in tarnation are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching the garden!" Applejack explained.

Cyr yelped between panicked intakes of air, "They've followed me up here! They've....they've been in my...holes!"

Carrot Top was nearly in a giggling fit, and while Angel was trying to slowly sneak away from the scene unfolding, Applejack and Fluttershy gaped looks of confusion.

"Wha-"

Cyr said, still attempting to squeeze through the door, explained, "The pests were crawling all over me. Having the holes in a Changeling's hooves occupied or filled by anything is akin to the feeling a pony would get if some gravel or if maggots obtruded into an open wound of their's. Not a comfortable experience...oh, and if you thought I meant my posterior...well, I can't guarantee that it's intact and unconsumed."

Applejack motioned her hooves so they showed the frogs of her hooves, signalling Cyr to slow down with the information overload....and the awkward statements.

"Woah, there big fella. Take a deep breath, and slow down. Firs' of all, how'd ya find us? We never told you where Fluttershy's cottage was."

Cyr answered in a hesitant manner, "Well, would it, in your terminology, 'creep you out' a minuscule quantity if I said that I followed your scent here?"

"No, not at all."

"That's a relief, because in fact I-"

"It would actually 'creep me out' a lot if you did do that," Applejack said.

"Oh. Well then I saw you distantly all the way from the marshes....through all the brush and fog...because Changelings can do that."

"Uh-huh. And what followed you here?"

"Well don't get agitated when I mentioned that I left the garden. I'm pretty sure that I was their priority, so- YOU!"

Just as Angel was nearing around the corner of the room, Cyr caught sight of the little critter.

"You and your relatives will regret the day that you had dared to devour m-URRFFF!"

Cyr couldn't finish his incriminating statement, as Angel had leapt and muffled Cyr's mouth with his body. Cyr had to hand it to the small creature: the vermin had quite a pair of steely paws.

Angel Bunny shook his head back and forth rapidly towards Cyr, not wishing any trouble to come his way, and especially unwilling to face the wrath of his caretaker if she finds out what type of activity he had been participating himself in. Fluttershy's "anger" episodes were cans of worms that he never wished to open.

Cyr shook Angel off of his face, not an easy feat as he was stuck halfway through the cottage door. The bunny clasped his paws together to show the urgency of his pleas, though doing so a bit grudgingly.

Cyr stared at the bunny indecisively. For once in his existence, he had come at an decisive impasse in his mind.

Come on, Cyr. To that son of an aphid, you're nothing but an eggshell on a sidewalk. A doormat for others to step on. Nothing more. What's happened to you? You were once a cold, merciless enforcer of the Hive; Many foes, Changelings, Gryphons, Ponies, Dragons, have befallen under your hoof! One insignificant pest's much-deserving suffering and gloom will not even compare to the things that you yourself have endured.

Yet...It's still not right. The vermin is on his knees.

His in-bred relatives partially consumed you! When will you start acting for yourself? You left the Queen's side because she demanded too much of you, and here you are, bowing to the whims of ponies, plants, and small mal-evolved animals. They tell you, 'Cyr, do this. Cyr do that! Overthrow Equestria, Cyr! Help harvest a farm's apples, Cyr!' When will it end? You deserted so your friends would escape persecution, and there is no worthier cause, but when was the last time you started to think about your needs? A couple of centuries ago? When will you start considering, free from influence, of what you want?

Right. Now.

Cyr meekly continued, the mares around him urging for further explanation of what the heck was going on, "-to devour....devouring...my patience! Yes, that little bugger has been so...considerate in assisting me with my tasks. He tries to help everypony in town to the point of...annoyance." Cyr emphasized that last word for a certain woodland critter in the room.

"Isn't that right, Angel?" Cyr inquisitively asked, as he gave up on attempting to enter the cottage in his current state. Cyr proceeded to push himself out of the doorway.

Angel reluctantly nodded, and had to suffer a nuzzle from Fluttershy. His pegasus owner lovingly said to Angel, "Angel, you are such a dear. I didn't know that you were so selfless."

Angel nervously shrugged in response in a way that said, 'I guess I did?'.

"Carrot Top, I don't think you need to worry about your pest problem anymore. It's taken care of," Cyr commented.

"You sure 'bout that?" Applejack asked.

"Positive." Cyr limped away from the cottage, and left the two Earth mares to shrug and follow him.

But right before he left, Cyr feigned a friendly, yet deceptively forceful, hug with Angel and, pretending to smile, whispered through bared fangs so only Angel could hear, "You owe me. BIG."

As the two mares and Changeling took the long way back to the apple orchards and farming enclosures to avoid curious eyes, Applejack finally noticed Cyr's limping.

"Where'd you get hurt? Are you going to be okay?" she questioned nonchalantly, though with a hint of worry.

"Give it a night's sleep, and it'll probably heal right up, depending on how much love I have left. And you'd be surprised how many creatures in a forest would be interested in cabbages..." Cyr mentioned vaguely. His ear twitched, as he detected a faint buzzing in the distance. Probably just fatigue...it can't possibly mean...wait, buzzing ears? Oversensitive sense of smell?

Great. This is all I need right now.

"And why do Ah getta' feelin' that you were in a heap of trouble, but yer tryin' to hide it?"

"What makes you say that?" Cyr chuckled, and waved goodbye.

When they reached the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres, he trotted off to find a good spot under a tree. He never liked barns, they left him with a general feeling of claustrophobia.

Just as he got comfortable, the buzz once again had returned to Cyr from the ambience of his environment. To him, it was a warning signal of his end. Starvation for Ponies is nothing compared to those of Changelings'. Sure, stomachaches and the shrinking of all 3 stomachs were familiar symptoms for Changelings unable to find love, but the worst and most infamous of all were the over-heightening of senses, especially those of smell and sound. They were the point of no return for Hive members. Over-reactive sensation was their body's urgent efforts to go "all-or-nothing" before shutting down.

Maybe....I could just ask to feed- No. You can last a few more days. The ponies, even if they only want you around as their indentured servant, are quite friendly. They remind me of my fellow brothers and sisters. And Talc. And Saifra. And the rest of the Worker caste. I miss them dearly.

As buzzing grew more apparant, Cyr felt alone. Naked and isolated to the touch of Fate's cold touch. He never wished, in all of his life, to be alone, and certainly not starve, or even die, alone.

Or maybe....

A small hummingbird, it's outline faint in the dusk, landed on Cyr's horn, queuing the end to the buzzing.

...I'm overreacting.

"It's you again. Saw me at the cottage?"

His avian friend nodded and it flung its wings excitedly.

"I believe I never introduced myself. My name is Cyr. What's yours? Oh, do you have one?"

It shook its beak.

"Would you like one?" Cyr carefully asked. "I know that Fluttershy doesn't exactly characterize all of her animals with proper namesakes. How about....Fawkes? No....Toothless?"

The hummingbird had lifted an eyebrow, almost as if it retorted, 'Not impressed, Cyr'.

"You're right."

Cyr contemplated for a bit. He realized that, as the bird had arrived, he no longer felt alone in the dark. He felt a "flitter" deep in his chest; a fulfillment of his yearning for a friend. It was a sensation that screamed out that things were actually going to be...alright. Cyr even remembered an old expression that hope was a 'thing with...

...wings'. Cyr got it.

The name pertained to his 'flitter of hope' and a name of an recently popular Changeling repellant that some ponies were actually using. It was perfect; it was both ironic and sentimental.

"How about 'Flit'?"

"But, Granny Smith, Ah don't wanna go!"

"Young filly, if'n you wanna get fed, you gotta do yer part in this household. And your's is getting schoolin'!"

Applejack's eyes cracked open lazily. She was used to waking up to the bare wisps of light edging passed the picturesque mountains of Ponyville, being accompanied to the fields with nothing more than an unblossomed sun and a dark blue shroud of near-dark hovering about everything that she sees, but even this was too early for her. She stumbled half-blind, her eyes not yet adjusting to the concept of light at this time of day...night (she could hardly tell the difference) until she reached the epicenter of the argument in the Apple Family kitchen.

"Wha's all tha ruckus?" Applejack groggily croaked. Her eyes could only be able to detect vague blurs of her family members.

A high-pitched voice stung her ears to their core. Applebloom....

"Sis, tell Granny Smith tha I don't have ta go to school! Some of the fillies there, they make fun of me!" screeched the young filly.

"You're better then that, Applebloom," Applejack sleepily replied. "I know you are. Remember what Ah said to you? 'Sticks and stones may break my bones-'"

"Yeah, yeah. -'But words will never hurt me'," Applebloom finished the old saying. "This is different! Nopony ever tried to help us out whenever Diamond Tiara teases us on the way to school! They just laugh, and no matter how many times you talk to Filthy Rich-"

"Mr. Rich."

"Whatever! Even if you tell him to scold DT, she never stops! I'm getting tired of it, and Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and I can't do anything about it!"

Applbloom was on the verge of tears, and Applejack was guilty that the thought even came to mind, but she decided that it was too dang early in the morning for this. Even for her.

Applejack sighed, "Fine."

Her filly sister exclaimed, "Wait. I get to stay?!"

"Nope," AJ mimicked, resonating her brother. "You're still going, no matter what. Just follow me to the fields. I'm gonna hafta ask for another darn favor."

"Oh, and whatever you do, don't panic when you see Cyr."

Applebloom said, "Huh? Whose 'Se-er'?"

Undeserved Payment Pt. 1

A/N: Props to Gordon_Freemane for the improved story cover<3 ! I owe ya a hug! (or a drink, but I don't think I can mail beer to you :P)

As Applebloom followed her sister through the familiar orchard enclosure, she caught the gentle scent of apples, and the general, organic aura of any type of plant life. She never got tired of the experience, of the hypnotizing pathways of produce trees that traveled for acres. As soon as she reached a clearing, she saw gnarled roots exposed from the ground, and the ashwood trees they were foundations of. Applejack rarely ever traveled out to the boundaries of the orchard, so what was she hiding way out here?

Applejack stopped abruptly, and her little sister followed. Applebloom could only make out the bare orange blur of Applejack's coat in the darkness.

Tiredly, Applejack beckoned to her filly sister, "Now wait 'ere and, do NOT tell anypony what you saw, ya hear? This stays between us, and maybe even your friends. Twilight knows, Fluttershy knows, and both Princesses know, but everypony else, they don't for their own safety."

"But what are you talking about?" Applebloom eagerly pressed.

"Just...wait," Applejack replied, her voice laced with annoyance. She wandered not far off and whispered, "The things I do fer family..."

Applejack strained her eyes, searching for a holed hoof or horn or a pair of orange glows about, until she gave up. She turned, but tripped over what seemed to be a large, jet-black rotting root from a dying tree.

Somepony...or something groaned as Celestia's gift to the world peaked at the horizon, bringing revelation to Applebloom's eyes.

Whoa. That...is a big, big Changeling. Applebloom was familiar with what the insect infiltrators were shaped like during her interesting experience as a flower filly during the Royal Wedding. But she never saw anything like tha-

Her sister was knocking her hoof on what seemed like its noggin. Oh no.

"Sis...SIS! Let's get away from here!" Applebloom whispered.

Applejack whispered crankily back, "That'd kinda be the 'xact opposite of what I'm trying to do!"

Applejack returned to her regular tone, though slightly amplified, "Cyr. CYR!"

She bucked her rear forehooves into the Changeling's head. Now that got him going.

"Wha-," the Changeling stopped and looked around. It dipped its head so it would impact into the ground. It grumbled stubbornly, its deep voice muffled by the dirt, "Go away. I said I needed time to heal, didn't I?"

"Listen, I know that you probably done more than tha Princesses ever intended for ya to do, but can you help me on ONE last thin-"

"No."

"Ah didn't even fini-"

"No. Do I look like a pet? A plaything? A dog to the whims of ponies everywhere?" answered the beast. Applebloom knew the statement was rhetorical, but the way the Changeling was sleeping was reminiscent of how a canine actually slept. And the image her mind was not improved when the Changeling placed its hooves over its head as if looking at the ponies was going to harm him in some way.

"Errr...No? But listen, I just need ya for one last favor," Applejack argued. Like she said earlier...it was too dang early in the morning to plead for something.

"Applebloom needs a way to get to her school without some fillies seeing her. So, ya can do that invisibility thang, right? So...just let her ride...on...your back and deliver her to school! Sounds like a plan, huh? What'ya think?"

"I think, I will take the remnants of my pride, and not participate in this. Flit and I," Cyr motioned to the hummingbird on his horn who was also rudely awakened, "are thinking of going to the Everfree Forest. I think retirement is long overdue..."

"Come on, Cyr!"

"Four hundred years overdue!" Cyr breathed out. "And what is this for? So a young filly can't be teased for one day? I've been more charitable in the past, but everytime I participate in any shenanigans, whether formulated by ponies or a maniacal Changeling matriarch, I get injured and tossed aside like a doll whose raggedness would be deemed aesthetically unsuitable for further purposes. I might even die one day, because I simply I decided to help somepony."

Applejack edged forward, "Sooo, that's a 'no', Ah take it?"

"Yesss!" Cyr emphasized the 's' sibilance, as if he was relieved that he actually got through to her.

His head thudded to the ground, preparing for a continuation to his slumber. Applejack turned and began to trot away, looking back at jealousy that he, unlike her, was actually going to get decent sleep today.

But Applebloom didn't follow. She was grounded by the misery she predicted would happen today. Especially the heaps of abuse that would be screeched by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and directed towards her and her friends. One could take a day of it, maybe even weeks, if they had some decent friends to comfort them through it. But one or two years of DT's laughter at the Cutie Mark Crusader's expense was bringing Applebloom to her breaking point.

She groaned and collapsed onto the ground. She began to quietly sob on the ground. Applebloom admitted that, literally, she reached a new low point.

"Hey..." The Changeling quietly commented. Despite its gravelly, low-pitch quality, it was soothing to her.

"Yeah?"

"Can you keep it down? Somelings are trying to get some sleep to regrow certain limbs. Thanks," Cyr sighed.

"Why should Ah? You ain't gonna help me, Ah might never show my face in town again, and ya can't even spend some of your time helping others!" Applebloom yelled. She admittedly thought her little tangent was a bit selfish at heart, but she had had enough, and by Celestia she was going to scream her frustration out and get everything off her chest.

Cyr opened one of his visual receptors, its orange glow accompanying the rising dawn. Applebloom could make out a deep crack running along the iridescent surface of the "eye" through her tears.

Cyr would have potentially gotten away with his plan. To self-declare retirement. Hide from both villagers and Changelings alike in the vastness of the Everfree Forest, and when his time came, which would be very soon if he didn't find any love to consume, he would close his eyes for the final time, peacefully. This, he wasn't going to reveal to the ponies. To Cyr, they seemed naturally squeamish of such morbid things. And it would be, unfortunately, for the best.

But, he was going to have to put such plans on an indefinite hold. At least for today. The little filly was crying for Chrysalis's sake. Her stare, revealing shaking, over-dilated pupils, scrunched-up facial expressions, and the biting of the bottom lip, set something off in Cyr. It stubbornly reminded him of the Spawnlings at the Nurseries. And the ones down in the mines. And he knew he was going to regret this...

...but hey, retirement, and the eventual "croaking" idea, altogether would have been an incredibly dull experience.

Wait..I should think about this. Don't be a doormat, Cyr!

If only it was so easy though. Besides, I hate idleness.

"Applejack. Applejack!" Cyr roared.

"What?" the annoyed mare yelled back at a distance.

"This...will be one last favor," Cyr replied slowly. He looked at the filly in front of him. "You ponies trust strangers to the point of ignorance. Well, let's get this over with."

Damn those eyes...

"Soooooo," Applebloom began, "what's yer name?"

It was agreed, though grudgingly accepted by Cyr, that Applebloom would start to gather her friends and ride Cyr towards their school. Oh, and was the fact mentioned that Cyr was hating every moment of it?

"Cyr."

Applebloom repeated in her accent, "She-er."

"Cyrilius. That's the full pronunciation."

"Se- Seer...eol- olous.....Cereal?"

Cyr slapped a holed-hoof to his face and contemplated whether he should really correct her or not. "Close enough. Let's go. And it would help if all three of you were absolutely silent during the trip."

The violet-maned pegasus, one of the three, shouted, "You can count on us!"

The three fillies immediately screamed out jubilantly, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CHANGELING RID-"

"Shhhhh!" hissed Cyr. "What did I just say?"

The last to speak, a white-coated unicorn with a fusion of pink, purple, and native white in her curly mane, apologized quietly, a smile and eagerness still lacing her voice, "Heh, sorry!"

Dear Flux....what did I get myself into...

Cyr summoned some of his reserve energy from any erratic emotion he could sponge from his travels around the outskirts of town, diverting most of the love used to heal himself, and channeled almost everything he had into his horn. It didn't work the first time, irritation from certain impatient fillies riding on his back breaking his concentration every 5 seconds, but after some breathing exercises, Cyr got the disillusionment effect to finally, the first time in weeks, to work.

"Whoa..." exclaimed one of the fillies. Cyr didn't know which, but he didn't attempt to quiet her. He, too, was amazed that he succeeded after Luna's botched attempt to take away his abilities.

After exerting more of his energy to concentrate the spell to cover the fillies in the invisible, semi-opaque veil, he quickly began to take a shortcut through the Everfree Forest towards where the schoolhouse was located to avoid detection. He would, of course, have to be whispered where the location of the schoolhouse was, but the fillies guided him, and he would also have to "wing-it" as the self-proclaimed Cutie Mark Crusaders would have no idea how to directly travel to school from the forbidden collection of trees that is the Everfree. What Applejack doesn't know won't kill her, right?

During the surprisingly short trek, among the captivating organic odors of a natural forest, something tugged at Cyr's senses. To Cyr, it was an almost familiar chemical scent, but it did not originate from any pony machinery. It was faint, yet indescribable, as it was ingrained in Cyr's memories to detail something that every Changeling needed to know the day they were born into the world.

Eachother. It was a trail scent.

Cyr nearly panicked. Changelings...here? It could just be my imagination; There's millions of things I could have confused the Changeling trail with, especially in a diverse forest...

Cyr banished all thought of the incident, hoping that it was a coincidence.

After much rough estimations and some vague hoof-waving, Cyr arrived at one of the grassy hills that lurked at the background behind the Ponyville schoolhouse. Near the edge of the forest, Cyr de-cloaked, feeling the waves of fatigue pass through every fiber of his being, now relieved that the "strain-and-drain" effect of Changeling was over, as it drew on the love supply as fuel.

This is what happens when I don't do magic for a month...I need to start using my horn more or else magic exhaustion will get more gradual. And....I'm running on emotional fumes right now. Just wonderful.

"Let me...just lay down here for a while," Cyr wheezed. If he was a pony, he'd either be pale white or green with sickness. He was getting some very contradictory signals from his body right now, and they sort of collided forth and formed a type of "super" magic-rebound.

"Call me if you need me," Cyr said lightly, and when the trio of fillies jumped off, he fell on his back and began to close his eyes. Flit wandered around his unfamiliar surroundings for a short while, but eventually decided to tag along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Sometimes even animals needed a break from Cyr's annoyingly melancholy mood.

"See ya, Cereal!" Applebloom exclaimed.

"Thanks for the ride!" Sweetie Belle said.

"That was awesome!" a certain orange-coat pegasus yelled.

"Do you think that we annoyed him? He seemed kinda grouchy..." Sweetie Belle queried. Flit perched on Scootaloo's mane, finding natural kinship with another avian-like being.

All three fillies simultaneously pondered for a few moments, and at the end of their pondering, they all exclaimed, "Nah!"

The Cutie Mark Crusaders, enjoying the unfettered beginning of their day, proceeded to the school grounds only to encounter Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon deprived of their natural prey: the three fillies. However, the devious pair had found another victim to terrorize to fill the void in their usual mornings.

A high-pitched remark snarled through the usual hubbub of a school for young fillies, as they were still quite a distance away from the schoolhouse, "We met your mom the other day, Dinky! She seemed rather happy considering what an utter failure her life has been!"

"Yeah, especially after she had you!"

Banshee-like shrieks filled the air, signaling Diamond Tiara's and Silver Spoon's attempts at laughter.

A pale thistle-coat unicorn filly cowered and found herself isolated, with no pony bothering to look behind the school to see her torment. She quickly retorted, "That's not true! Mommy said that she loves me!"

"Well, what would you say to a mistake that you can't get rid of?", Silver Spoon screeched amusingly. "Don't be too full of yourself, Dinky. There's no shame in being an "oops" filly!"

The cackling continued.

"You're lying!" The last comment debilitated the young unicorn's perseverance, and soon the porttions of her coat around her cheeks were wet.

Scootaloo hollered, "Hey! You can't do that! Stop being so mean!"

Diamond Tiara scoffed, "Well would you look at who arrived, the Cutie Mark Crybabies. And why should we stop? It's not like we were lying or anything."

Silver Spoon sneered, "Oh, and we missed you this morning on our usual route. We've always had fun chats with you!"

"Get away from Dinky! She's done nothing wrong to you!" The three fillies gathered around the terrified unicorn.

"Make us, you-"

Silver Spoon never finished the sentence. A chittering, overbearing shadow has befallen the fillies. The scene just so happened to be near enough the Everfree Forest to awaken a nearby Scorpio. The fillies had just realized this.

But, for Applebloom, the sudden arrival of the creature was too informal, too inconvenient. So it must have been "Cereal" in disguise, right? Don't Changelings, you know, change?

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, in the instant they saw the predatory insect of lore, screamed and sprinted away from the scene towards the school, leaving in the dust Dinky Doo and the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Applebloom whispered to the Scorpio, "Ok, Cereal, that's enough."

"Uhhh, Applebloom?" Sweetie Belle mumbled.

"What?"

"I don't think that's him..."

"And what makes you say that?"

"He's over there," Sweetie said mortified, pointing a hoof of where they trotted from.

And there Cyr was, lying on his back, partially hidden in the brush of the forest's outskirts, with his lower carapace moving up and down from his respiration. One of his hooves were slightly twitching.

"Oh....and if he's over there, then tha Scorpio is..." Applebloom trailed off. Her eyes caught the immeasurable blackness of the Scorpio's eyes. All eight of them.

"Awww, horseapples. And today was just beginning to be a great day, too," Applebloom cursed.

"CYR!"

Undeserved Payment Pt. 2

Don't you just HATE cliffhangers? XD

Sorry, here ya go. I think my monthly output has just increased tenfold by producing these chapters consecutively...oh my brain hernia (Yes, you can get those :P). Again, sorry about not writing for so long. RL stuff and finals have overwhelmed me.

Sleep is one of those things in life that has the most universal concepts, yet is the most difficult to explain in words. It has mystified the greatest minds in existence since the beginning of time. Starswirl the Bearded. Hoofsputin of Stalliongrad. And even the Princesses themselves.

Nopony was ever able to understand truly the properties of sleep and its erratic symptoms: sleepwalking, narcolepsy, and even the ability for the normal Equine body, though their consciousness has shut down completely, to avoid suffocating their own newborn filly or colt with their own bodies during sleep, or even the ability to wake up to familiar namesakes, like one's own.

And that was exactly what Cyr experienced himself. Again, his life interrupted by the befuddling principles of the universe.

"CYR!"

His ears twitched and eyes snapped open. The voice had a slightly gruff quality to it, despite its high-pitch, and he didn't like what had occurred during his slumber. But then again, who would want a giant arthropod attempting to devour the fillies you were suppose to be....well, foal-sitting? He snapped to his hooves and collided with the predatory insect bothering the foals. The Scorpio chittered its warning cry and warily staggered back to striking distance. Cyr noticed two blots distancing themselves quickly towards the schoolhouse, a sickly pink and a solid gray silver. Hopefully they didn't stay to watch the entire scene unfold.

Apple Bloom eased out, "We thought that Scorpio was you!"

"Members of the Worker caste can't disguise themselves."

"Why didn't you tell us you couldn't change?!"

"Just because I am a Changeling, it doesn't mean...actually it does-"

Another lunge interrupted Cyr.

"Fillies...I believe that you should enter your school. And do not tell a soul of this," decried Cyr.

Dinky was dumbfounded to the point of silence, so the foals didn't feel the need to quiet her.

The shrill voice of what Cyr recognized as Sweetie Belle's squeaked, "What about you?"

"What? This? A giant arthropod? This is foal's play, compared to what I've done. Go on now. Enjoy your day."

Bit of an ironic statement there, Cyr. Oh well, too late for regrets now.

"And as for you," Cyr, acting as a barrier advocating the retreat of the fillies, returned to the Scorpio, "I respect all living things, especially Ones of the Shell, but return to the forest-"

The Scorpio eagerly rubbed the pincers around its maw against each other, tracing the ground with its saliva.

"-or I will sit on you..."

The creature's response was a solid physical reaction: a swift swing of its stinger into the ground where Cyr was before he jumped back.

"So...be it."

At the moment the school's bell had rung, the tender Mrs. Cheerilee had entered her respective classroom, greeting the excited foals already seated, bundled with energy to learn of how utterly extravagant the world truly is.

"Why, good morning class!" She pronounced with a smile.

And her students returned with smiles, except for 6 nervous faces, "Good morning Missus Chee-

BOOM!

-ilee!"

And in the wake of the shuddering of the entire classroom, Scootaloo fabricated a false sneeze.

"Ah-choooooo! Whoops, sorry everypony. I didn't mean to sneeze THAT loud."

Scootaloo stared awkwardly at Dinky, who was looking just plain confused and frightened, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle, shrugging that at least making an excuse, no matter how cheesy, would be better than nothing...

Especially what nothing would do to all that nothing that was going on outside.

Cyr breathed deep before dodging another slash from the Scorpio's formidable stinger, but to Cyr, the Scorpio was a nice change of pace ever since the "Canterlot Showdown". Albeit his losses over the years, he missed the jerky, fast-paced reactions, and the spikes of adrenaline pumped through his open circulatory system by his nine chamber heart. Spoken like a true "old timer", he agreed with the personal assessment that he "still had it", even with barely any love.

The stinger of the Scorpio wasn't the only problem Cyr had. The rough, rigid pincers of the Scorpio warned off Cyr from making a move inside the range of the stinger. Cyr blocked a swipe from the stinger with a hoof, catching it in one of his holes, and attempted to flip over the Scorpio onto its unprotected underbelly. But when Cyr had tried to enact his plan, the beast wrested Cyr's hold on the stinger with a pincer and slowly squeezed Cyr's forehoof. Cyr was beginning to hear the slow, rhythmic, yet haunting cracks of his exoskeleton being compromised.

Cyr retreated several hoof lengths back, massaging his injured hoof. Damn thing.

The Scorpio's uncoordinated slashes in the air, followed by the screams of friction its appendage brought forward against the wind, resulted in its stinger embedding itself into the befuddled remains of a glassy plain outside of a forest. Seeing his chance, Cyr rushed forward and bucked donkey-style the thick, shelled armor of the Scorpio, sending the mythical beast soaring into the air, its plunging stinger free from the ground with a patch of topsoil and grass clinging to its tip.

Deciding that it had better snack opportunities in the Everfree, the Scorpio scampered rapidly into the depths of the Forest. Its near immaculate essence of pride had been soiled on, and grudgingly sought to reclaim its glory somewhere else.

Cyr sighed with a mix of satisfaction and resigned emotion that can only result from looking back at whether a past action was really worth becoming injured for, and finally decided to plop onto the ground.

He silently and tenderly considered the nearly crushed hoof while thinking to himself.

That fight was mood-lifting and all, to the point where it even distracted me from...current issues.

But where does this put me? I'm still here, aren't I? And I have a feeling that the more this plays on, the more melodramatic I'll become.....and it's that scent again....

Cyr barely noticed the Changeling trail scent from the forest, among his heightened awareness of an out-of-place emotion of misery in the direction of the town.

I'll get to that later. For now, I'll just wait till-

Cyr unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn.

-I mean, sleep until the fillies arrive back.

It was nearing dusk, and as Celestia, with all her power, was about to accomplish her physical task of preparing for the night, Cyr had finished his respective task. He returned the somewhat nervous, but overall excited fillies back to Sweet Apple Acres, as he found asking where their individual homes were a bit....creepy, especially considering his ripe-old age of 417. And the slight awkwardness he had received from the pegasus called Scootaloo when he asked about the location they would liked to be dropped off at, and about their parents, made him uneasy.

Parents, huh? Who needs them? I grew up just fi-

Scratch that thought.

Cyr trotted off towards the fields alone, left to have yet another solitary moment of his life, as Flit decided to either tag along with the fillies or return home. Cyr banished his thoughts of concern and found himself wandering through the apple tree fields, a sight he had gotten used to quite recently, until he reached the barn. The farm structure was garishly decorated with multi-chromatic lights and containers having trapped fireflies. Cyr...couldn't take his eyes of of the sight. He felt the instinctive impulse of any sane (or alternatively insane) insect to draw himself closer...and closer....and even closer to the bright, heavenly, euphoric lig-

"Hey, you OK?"

Cyr snapped out of his trance, and twisted his head around the barn in search of the origin of the comment. There he saw a cream orange-coat mare with heavy saddle bags draped over her back.

"Yeah, Carrot Top, I'm fine. Just...let's get away from here."

Cyr took a daring look behind his shoulder at the lights, but shunned all previous thoughts of returning to the decorated barn. He would have to talk to Applejack about that...

"So, what's with the lighting? Some sort of celebration occurring?"

"Hearth's Warming Eve. It's part of the holiday festivities to dec- Wait. You never heard of it? Oh Celestia, I can't believe it! No wonder you act like you have a stick up your flank all the time!" exclaimed Carrot Top. She added sadly, "It's that time where you try to cheer up others at your own expense! Heh."

Cyr noticed the slight nuances in her behavior, and matching two and two together from the negative emotion from earlier, decided to ask, "So...what are you doing here?"

"Oh, just moving some of my stuff over to the barn...for a place to stay. Applejack said she wouldn't mind me using the guest rooms, but I insisted."

"What happened? Did you lose your-"

"Evicted. Rather not talk about it. Turns out managing a garden ain't as easy as it used to be, especially when everypony hates you for how well you do at a specific talent-"

"Don't say that. Really, don't," Cyr cut off. "Sadness out begets more sadness in to fill in the vacuum. Trust me, I know this stuff. I'm a Changeling, remember? And if things get tough, I'll be happy to help out. I did last time right?"

"That isn't necessary. Really, it isn't. Oh! I almost forgot!" Carrot Top dug around in her saddle, her hoof pulling out a heavy bag with its metallic contents clinking together.

"Here. You get a fair share of my profits since you did help out."

She plopped the bag of gold bits onto the ground and nudged it towards Cyr.

Cyr only stared at the bag, in utter shock and confusion.

"This...you....I....You really don't have to do this."

"No, I insist-"

"Well, I insist back. What am I gonna do with a bunch of bits? Ingest them for mineral supplements? Bathe in them? I'm kind of a member of a species being hunted down by all of ponykind. Your intent honors me, but you need them more than I do. I'm glad to have a...friend like you, but I don't deserve your kindness."

"It wasn't enough to make the payment, strangely. So, might as well use it for something else."

Cyr looked in the impersonal expression of Carrot Top's face. Something was wrong. Cyr could not only feel it, but he could also see it. Carrot Top's countenance was as frail and impassive as any sort of mask. She was hiding something.

"There...is more, isn't there? Come on. You can tell me. I once told you that I needed your consoling, that I had a necessity to let go of pent-up emotion through literal expression. But I'm afraid you need it more than I do. So go on. Tell me all your worries," Cyr whispered with a small, innocent smirk.

"You know, I've never told anypony this," said Carrot Top. "But my life is ruled by what others think of me."

Her facade began to crumble apart. "My name...it's only a simple label that isn't even close to its original meaning! I mean, Carrot Top? No, that's just a silly nickname! It's Golden Harvest. I can't even say it without feeling like it's the name of a stranger. Oh, and 'Carrot Top'?. That was just to make fun of my mane! My mane isn't orange, it's green. A sickly green that I dyed because others think that it is equally sickly to view. I couldn't bear to hear anymore mares around me saying how green is 'such an awful, awful color!'"

"Green is my favorite color..." Cyr lamented.

The mare smiled weakly, "Thanks for trying, but the damage is done. And you know how these things go. Once they find a reason to dislike you, they only couple your little quirks as something they consider with even more hate. Like how I got lucky during the harvest season, while others didn't..."

"Don't say that. So, some ponies dislike you. Because of appearance? Jealousy? Bah, shame on them. I'm sure not everyling thinks that. Besides me or Applejack, there have to be others that see you as a friendly individual."

"Well...there is one."

She thought of her friend that could be something more.

"Good," Cyr clopped his hooves together. "Focus on that one pony, or thing. Such memories bring happiness during the darkest of times. And don't ever think you are less than you are."

Carrot Top wiped her face with a hoof and hugged one of Cyr's hooves. "Thanks. For everything. I feel a lot better now."

Cyr could literally sense the love (the platonic kind) oozing from her body, but fought every impulse to consume it.

No need to alienate her, Cyr. The basic stereotype of Changelings already has everypony around here primed for angry hoof-pointing.

But...hopefully you won't mind me taking some of your negative emotion, Carrot Top. I don't think you'll be needing it...It wouldn't be unkind right? I mean, it benefits both of us. I get something to keep me alive, and she discards her sadness...

And that trail again...it's stronger than ever, even when I'm far from the edge of the Everfree...I need to get some help.

"Say, Carrot T- I mean if you want to be called that."

"It's fine," she beamed.

"You wouldn't happen to know where Applejack is? Or Twilight Sparkle?"

Carrot Top answered, "Oh, Twilight had to go to Canterlot. Her friends went with her, including Fluttershy and Applejack. Something about a test..."

"Then you have to do something for me," Cyr suddenly became sullen. Seriousness clouded his recent expression of support and encouragement.

"I have to go to the Everfree. Something suspicious is over there. If I don't come back soon, get a message out to the Princesses. No more secrecy. Say it's from me. Do you know what the fastest transit is?"

"I...I know a mare," stammered Carrot Top.

"Alright," Cyr nodded. "If you need any help from now on, head over to Fluttershy's. Ask that conniving bunny she has, what was it's name? Angel? Tell him that Cyr sent you. He'll give you assistance on anything you need, whether it be emergencies or agricultural assistance. I think I made my mark here."

"You're leaving?"

Cyr absent-mindedly stared at the darkening sky. "After this...I don't know. The future holds many things for us. We can only hope that it works out for the best."

The familiar stink of humus and organic cultures hung in the air as Cyr proceeded closer to the trail. Luna's orb had risen during his trek, and had aided his sight with its lantern glow while in the forest. But something was rather off. There was no sound, barely a whisper or a squawk. In fact, all forms of movement seemed to cease, the wind temporarily as still as a corpse.

From afar, Cyr heard a stray branch bend and snap.

A holed hoof of Cyr stomped into the wet earth in a clearing surrounded by a gamut of cliffs and stone. He stopped.

He chittered out in a rumble, "What brings you all here? Answer me! Or, face me like the spineless shells you are!"

Silence greeted him. It had been a compelling, yet repugnant teacher to Cyr over the centuries. And it was the last answer that reached his ears.

A boulder that could almost rival the Sweet Apple Acres barn in size dropped onto his noggin. Then another. And then another. Under the duress of such force, the aged rock had broken into fragments upon impact, surrounding the area and clearing with rubble and dust.

Among the fog of destruction revealed the glow of the eyes of Cyr's former kin, altered in strength by their Queen.

And among the fugue of eyes lay an emerald glow of Changeling magic, characteristic of a certain Changeling member of royalty herself that began to envelope Cyr's body.

Chuckles echoing from the darkness joined the glow of antagonistic glimmer of magic and insect eyes.

Author's Note

Sorry guys, but I meant to finish the chapter on Christmas Eve, but...things came up.

As in certain people that wanted to play LFD2 at a certain time...

But Merry Christmas, anyways! Teh plot thickens! (and yes I did that on purpose).

And it may seem a bit rushed, but I have there are bigger things to focus on...as you had seen before.

Cross your fingers everything goes well for Cyr!

Insomnium

I made some minor changes and additions towards the ending of the last chapter. It'll make more sense if you read the changes and read this later. Sorry, but I wanted to make this as smooth as possible.

"Hello...helloooo?"

Cyr opened his eyes into a bright whiteness. He couldn't feel anything. The last thing he remembered was the sound of tumbling rock, a sudden, dull ache afflicting his head, and a green glow in the darkness.

"Ah, there we are!" Cyr turned to find a very jubilant Night Princess next to him.

Cyr questioned loudly, "What are you doing?!"

"Appearing in one of your dreams, of cou- well, if you could call this a dream...this isn't the result of a self-induced slumber," Luna answered. "And I'm sure what caused it, even if you knew, wouldn't exactly help the situation."

"I feel uninformed of something...and somepony adopted the modern Equestrian language!"

Luna stated bashfully, "It was a last minute struggle. Nothing to it!"

"So, what are you going to do now that you've, you know..."

Luna continued softly, "...died?"

Cyr's eyes opened wide to the size of dinner plates. He felt a swear begin to slip out of his tongue, followed by a scream that would fully describe the amount of misery and frustration he presently-

Wait. Was that laughing?

Luna was hysterical with laughter, her body shaking as her diaphragm was forced to contract rapidly in order to compensate for her rate of mirth and her chuckles echoing through the vast infinity of Cyr's subconscious. Or wherever they were. Whether he was in the deepest realm of Tartarus, or the Elysian fields, it still mattered to Cyr whether he was truly still...living.

"Y-y-you....you s-should have seen the l-look on your face! Hahahahahah!" Luna was left breathless.

She stopped abruptly, "But you are still alive. And what you may find outside of the Dream Realm, you may not quite perceive with optimism."

"Uh, yeah. About that," Cyr began. "Why are you here, in the first place? I'm sure that you have better things to contemplate with your time, what, with an entire kingdom to rule, rather than going into the dreams of random Changelings."

"This is what constitutes as part of my public duty nowadays. For me at least," Luna informed. "And it can get quite entertaining, yet depressing at the same time. Ever tried to create nightmares for other ponies?"

Cyr, in response, stared at Luna with a look of impatient annoyance.

"Do not give me that face! Nightmares force the individual to experience and confront events or problems that they choose to ignore in real life. 'Tis an important service I do for my little ponies every moon, and like many others tonight, it is your turn."

Cyr raised an eyebrow. "Can I wake up now?"

"No. You still have a mandatory 3 minutes before you wake up from unconsciousness," Luna plainly added while checking a miniature sundial strapped on to her hoof that she didn't have on a second ago.

"So, lets finish the chit-chat, and get down to business. I have noticed that you have trouble taking love," she said.

"Um, I'm sorry?"

"You can't hide it. I've seen your memories. You have had hundreds of opportunities of satisfying your appetite on certainly high amounts of friendship, love, or any other emotion, yet you hesitate even when attempting to consume negative emotion."

Cyr sputtered, "Well, it would have been a bit rude to just...take it. For nothing in return."

"For nothing in return? When my sister and I sent you to Ponyville, you have done many noble acts, much of them at your own expense!"

Cyr answered back, "And what was I to do? Ask for assistance? Ask for love? When the topic is as delicate as a pebble on the bare edge of a precipice, especially with the aftermath of my species' involvement in a certain Royal Wedding? I'd rather starve than alienate them, or worst yet make them despise me for who I am. A creature, no, a monster of a species that I can't change any aspect of."

Luna smiled at the Behemoth. She grinned, "What is this? You care for these ponies? And I dare say, friends?"

"Cyr, you delightful fool, you value your friends enough to weaken or harm yourself for them, even if they don't consider you the same manner (though I'm sure they do!). The friendship they gift you with is not held or connected within themselves, but are ripped directly from the source, their heart and soul, to be directed towards you! The friendship they contain within themselves still exists, and only grows stronger with every ounce of love they give you. As long as they give it to you, and you alone, you do not have to refrain feeding from your only source of nourishment. They, your friends, wouldn't want that. Believe me when I say that friends would want to help you in return as much as you already helped them."

Cyr smiled back. "Thank you. But...what now?"

"Well, you will wake up. And we will hope for the best. I will try to locate you as soon as possible, but I may not have enough time. You will have to hold out for as long as you can. I've contacted my sister, so I have just begun formulating a plan."

"The last thing I saw was a green glow. A magical glow, with magic traced with the essence of an alicorn," Cyr contemplated. "It's her, isn't it? Chrysalis?"

Luna sighed, "Yes, I'm afraid. And not only are you in danger, but those you have originally purposed your exile to protect. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It was only inevitable. This is what happens when one tries to run away from one's problems. They accumulate. But this time will be different. I'll stand up to her, and no matter what happens, only one of us will leave that forest."

Princess Luna worriedly hinted, laying a hoof on Cyr's shoulder, which was quite an awkward task as she had to slightly float with her wings in order to reach Cyr's appropriate height, "Don't do anything stupid, would you? We may have met as enemies, but I care for you now as a dear friend."

Cyr chuckled. The lighting of wherever they were presently having the conversation was dimming, leaving his vision to be swallowed by the darkness.

"No promises. But, you and your sister are so intensely trustworthy that I'm afraid I have no choice but to follow your wish to the best of my ability. Farewell, and the best of luck to you."

Cyr could barely make out the outline of the lunar alicorn next to him.

"Likewise, friend." Luna's voice echoed.

Cyr could not see anything now. His breathing became more erratic, and as a dull ache flooded throughout his carapace, the smell of humus and his fellow kin returned.

Well, let's end this.

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones...

Cyr dizzily woke up to a sensation, according to his reawakened imagination, as something similar to as if his exoskeleton had been crushed inwards to a pulp, and was greeted by the sight of the ground, mud and leaves coursing around his body.

He then realized that he was being roughly dragged across the forest floor. And he couldn't help but notice how oddly proportional his body was to his surroundings, almost as if he had gotten...

...Smaller. More miniscule than his original size, but his hooves, compared to the trees and leaves, were around the size and width of any normal pony's or Changeling's.

Don't tell me...she actually did it.

But the Changelings dragging him through the forest floor, as he correctly remembered, were far larger than him in comparison. They had three horns, the main horn where it's normal position would be on any magical creature or unicorn, the base of the head, but the other two rested on the paramount of their snouts, like those of a rhinoceros...if rhinos even had an absurd number of three horns. That's just Mother Nature's sign that you were trying to compensate for something.

Cyr, though he couldn't see clearly through the moonlight-tinged night, could feel a sudden acceleration forward into the air, then the downward push of gravity, and the sudden taste of dirt and manure in his mouth that combined with a taste of copper and the sensory information of his body hitting the ground. A shockwave shuddered through his body, shaking the meat and squishy organs beneath his exoskeleton.

Through the darkness was a deep whisper. "My liege. He's arrived."

"Excellent."

That voice. A memory pounced through Cyr's mind of a sickening, emerald green light.

He felt the ground shudder around him with heavy thuds. Many of them. Cyr figured his former Queen's subjects wre bowing.

There's...more than two. No need to panic.

Cyr rose his face from the dirt, and met the face of his Hive's Birth Mother.

No need to panic at all.

"Good to see that you still retained much of your respect," Queen Chrysalis darkly chuckled with amusement, gesturing at Cyr's splayed position from being thrown on the ground.

Respect my-

"None of it was intentional, traitor," Cyr attempted to rumble rebellously. His voice, even its deep, grizzly tone that could patronize an Ursa Minor, was reduced to nothing but its original self. Its original, annoyingly high-pitched, multi-voiced self.

His Queen chuckled, "What an adoring manner to speak to your superior, not to mention your dear Hive Mother-"

"You're not my Hive Mother! Flux was, and you had her killed!" Cyr screamed. One of the Changelings next to him rose, and smashed a holed-hoof down on Cyr's diminutive mass. He still managed to choke out, "I would rather kill myself than be a part of your...spawn!"

"You dare talk to our Queen in such a tone, you insolent worm?" The Changeling above pressed harder into the soft dirt, leaving Cyr's shape indented in the forest floor.

The Queen of Changelings rose a hoof in hesitancy, and continued, "Don't bother. He's too deluded to see the truth."

"You lie!"

"No, I believe I've done the best I could for our Hive. Would you like to know what our dearest Flux was trying to do? Hide. Let her Changelings subsist on the ebb and flow of nature! Maybe even consider a treaty with the Royal Sisters, as if we had wronged them in the past, when they were the ones that wronged us! The Changeling race never recovered from the Diaspora! We can never trust the Ponies ever again. And what was Flux going to do?"

Cyr felt the pressure forcing his organs up into his head recede.

Chrysalis screeched with a whispered rage, "She was going to repeat our dour history. No, we've waited for the Ponies to tolerate our existence. We've waited far too long. Canterlot was just the beginning. The ponies, they are fools if they think I would even consider using the Soldier Reserves, or only striking at a single location."

"And it starts with you, Changeling. You have the essence of lunar magic expelling from you. A certain alicorn must have tried to de-evolve you," Chrysalis chuckled condescendingly.

Cyr was going to respond, but he could feel the hoof pressing him down as soon as he opened his chops, so he could only eek it out through an interrupted whisper.

"You've become indoctrinated by the ponies. You've been duped into believing in their righteousness. Their own sort of morality. I'm willing to look past your betrayal-"

Cyr coughed, "You betrayed us all first."

"Silence!" commanded Chrysalis. She lifted Cyr magically and pounded him into the dirt. Cyr noted that he was no longer oppressed by the Soldier's hoof after the magically-induced beating. "As I was saying, I'm willing to forgive your past transgressions-"

You threatened my friends and my caste to join your cause, you cow!

"-and rejoin our side. And maybe I shall spare your friends..."

Luna's words echoed through Cyr's skull, 'You will have to hold out for as long as you can.'

At first, a vision played in Cyr's head of a glorious last stand, of him tearing his former kin limb from limb, and charging at his Queen where he would dodge her blows and provide enough of a distraction for the Princesses to arrive.

He would make her eat her words.

But that wouldn't work. Cyr no longer had the advantage in size or power. He would have to rely on nothing but his former stature, and his quick wits.

He took in a quick view of his new location. They were in a clearing of the Everfree, and Cyr deduced they were in or near the cliff of some sort of precipice. Chrysalis's "super-villain" speech was echoing and bouncing along the darkness-veiled walls near Cyr. He proceeded to sight at Chyrsalis's posture. Lanky, relaxed, and she even had her wings extended. If, per say, someling pushed her off a cliff, but after they clipped or injured her wings, wouldn't that just mean there would be one less megalomaniacal Changeling Queen to deal with?

Cyr decided to maybe just preoccupy Chrysalis. She's bloodthirsty enough to accept the suffering of anything, right?

This is going to hurt

Cyr finally responded, "I'll join you..."

"Excellent, my subject. You've seen the error of your ways, and we shall conquer the Po-"

Cyr interrupted, "..when I see you burning in Tartarus with me!"

He was no longer restrained, and the comment threw off Chrysalis's magical concentration long enough for him to sprint straight in the Queen's direction. He was nearing her. The bewildered, surprised look on her countenance pleased Cyr.

Cyr was almost there-

Something solid collided with Cyr, sending a massive kick of inertia into his body. It was the hoof of one of the Changelings, and they were far from approving of Cyr's action.

Chrysalis composed herself, "Ah, I forgot to mention. State your salutation, and goodbyes, to your successors: The Praetorians. And I do believe it was quite insulting of you to turn down our offer. I almost was about to tell you where I imprisoned Flux..."

Wait...what?

"Oh well, too late for regret now. Praetorians, it seems our trust was misplaced. End this sordid affair."

Chrysalis turned and began to trot away, as her personal guard began to surround Cyr. This time, his size helped him. He was quicker in movement, and he found himself having his wings again!

Oh, how he missed having them!

He quickly evaded the blows and charges supplied by their hooves and horns, succeeding each other with an uneven rhythm of screeching wind friction. His wings allowed him to give him extra agility and speed, so as long as he kept a distance, he should have been fine.

If only it could have stayed that way.

Yet, the vicious Praetorians adapted to Cyr's strategy. They encircled him, and using their advantage of stamina and height, they leapt and pounced, covering all exits for Cyr, keeping him within the closing walls of their bodies, until a massive CRUNCH was heard.

Two Praetorians, one from behind and another in front of Cyr, met in a collision between their horns...and Cyr's quick-beating chest. In the moment of it all, Cyr slowly peered down. The sliding sound of the horns escaping from the wound horrified Cyr. Massive spurts of arterial blood and fluid from his open circulatory system rapidly cleared out from his body and onto the ground below. There was a clear hole through the chitin of his chest, and in the still pumping organ behind his natural armor. The little black, nine-chamber heart of Cyr was slowing in beat, stained in the teal fluorescent blood of Changelings. Cyr fell to his hind-hooves, the feeling in all of his limbs growing numb and deadened.

The Praetorians, knowing that no Changeling could ever survive such a wound, withdrew from the scene with no pity for the degraded, mangled traitor, preparing themselves mentally for the start of the next invasion...in Ponyville. And only one thought occurred to them:

Violent retribution to the town responsible for housing the six villainesses of the Changeling world. The Elements of Harmony.

Cyr barely noticed Queen Chrysalis trotting back to him, and with much concentration of hearing her words through the sound of the beating cries of his dying heart, heard, "Good night, sweet subject of mine."

She mocks me. She plans to murder me. Tie up loose ends. She'll desecrate the town, ruin my friends.

She knows where Flux is...

A quiet exhale escaped Cyr's chops, with Chrysalis beckoning closer with a victorious smile reaching its full potential in size, "If I die...we'll die together."

Cyr gathered all of the love from the memories of his friends and family, of all the good times and the bad, and resupplied his muscles with enough energy to quickly push his body of its hooves and launch himself horn-first directly at Chrysalis's wings.

The horn, with its velocity, pierced the thin membrane of her wings, and the sudden force and momentum that Cyr's body supplied brutally positioned her to teeter near the cliff of the crevice.

Chrysalis helplessly flung her wings in the air and flapped them to their maximum speed, needing them to help regain her balance. Cyr saw her action that would make his dying act quite moot, and inter-placed his hooves between hers.

Chrysalis, her ego briefly reaching the heavens, now fell like her overconfidence as she discovered horrifically that she can make a mistake like any other mortal can.

Gravity pushed the pair down, and Cyr, accompanied by the fearful screams of his former Changeling Queen, thought he saw a fleeting image up in the sky. A brief sight of an alicorn's shadow outlined by the moon.

He couldn't concern himself with the view any longer, as he and Chrysalis reached the bottom of the precipice with a jarring crack.

Author's Note

Yeah, he shrank. Deal with it. And before any of you complain about it, yes, I know that doing so will completely destroy the main interest of the story, but I've noted your concerns, and I've created a compromise that I think will end the story quite nicely...in the next chapter!

Epilogue

Chrysalis peered into the fathomless darkness from an enclosure from her lonely slumber. A door had creaked open. Dramatically and slowly enough to know whoever it was, was taking his sweet, delightful time.

A slow rate of echoes from the 'clops' of hooves meeting a stone floor amplified, growing closer and closer to her location, to her prison, until suddenly the clip-clop of hooves stopped right in front of her.

A lantern was ignited, revealing the face of the current Changeling ruler.

"Enjoying your time here, my Queen?" Cyr snided.

"Kill me. Now. I am failure to this Hive. I failed in my task to preserve it and-"

"Quiet. I don't want to hear your drivel of repentance, or self-sorrow. Otherwise it would have been a complete waste of time searching all those months for you. And I hate wasting my time. You know what I'm here for."

"Oh, and what is that?" Chrysalis sniffed. She had hit her lowest point, where she couldn't even finish her monologues anymore.

Cyr's snout touched the bars of the cage enclosure. His face was dead serious.

"Where is Flux?"

"I have no idea what you're talking abou-ah!"

Cyr abruptly slammed his head in to the cage, instinctive from his Behemoth days, and leaving quite a dent in the bars.

He tried to hide his obvious discomfort when he repeated again.

"I'll say so again. Where is my Hive Mother?!"

"Wheeeee!" the young filly giggled happily without a care in the world, when Cyr lifted her up and made airship noises. Cyr slowly cruised the filly up and down through the air, and he could literally feel the happiness of the filly...and the enjoyment of himself.

"You spoil her, you know that?" Carrot Top said.

"Consider myself a third parent. Flux knows when I'll have little Spawnlings of my own. Mares don't go for age nowadays, and never will, so might as well just pretend that this is my little miracle, too."

"You can. You're her godfather."

"Hey, you're the one complaining!" Cyr laughed.

His chuckle was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," volunteered Cyr.

Carrot Top recieved the filly from Cyr, mumbling to herself, "Now, I wonder who that is..."

He sprinted towards the door after quickly yanking a hooded sweatshirt off of a nearby chair and placing it on to cover up his open heart. And, no, Cyr still found it annoying and slightly embarrassing that it didn't heal over yet.

Cyr proceeded to open the entrance of the abode and greet the mailmare. Irregularly-placed irises. Blond mane. Grey pegasus.

Ditzy Doo.

"Hiya, Cyr! Is Carrot Top around?" the mailmare asked. Cyr noted the crossed-eyes of the grey-coated pegasus the first time he'd met her not long ago when he returned to Ponyville, but gradually continued to ignore it.

You just have to accept things about others, and move on.

And he helped around with the foals whenever Ditzy Doo and Carrot Top met up or decided to attend social events, so he could say that they were pretty good fr-

Frrr-

Friee-

Frieeeend-suh. Friends. There. Said it. Cyr was still getting used to meeting new ponies that were actually eager to meet him.

Protecting your adorable unicorn filly from a Scorpio would, somewhat of course, lead to some sort of friendship.

He found such moments enjoyable though. Ditzy's filly still remembered Cyr even with his 'size reduction'.

Foals always seem to be smarter than their adult counterparts, somehow.

"Yeah, she's in the living room. But I'll give her the mail for you." Cyr answered. He gripped the slim packages with his fangs.

Cyr said, his voice muffled by the mail, "Say 'hi' to Dinky for me!"

"Sure will, have a nice day!

"Same to you!"

Cyr returned to the room and handed the mail to his friend.

"Thank you! Oh, wanna go get something to eat?"

"Nah, I actually..." Should I tell her?

Cyr looked at the filly. Do I really have to go?

"...I have to leave," Cyr revealed.

"What? Why?"

"Finally consolidated the treaty with the Canterlot nobility, but I need the signature of Changeling Royalty. Gonna have to leave today. I gotta see this through. I'm sorry, CT."

At Cyr's words, the filly's smile morphed into a frown.

"Go bye-bye?"

Cyr swore that his heart imploded. He looked down, and felt under his hoodie that his heart was intact...and still disgustingly exposed to the outside.

"Only for a little while, sweetie." Cyr exhaled, soon breathing in a little of the love from the filly. "It's only going to be for a couple of days. I have obligations."

Don't fret, dear. I'm not feeding off of you. It's just something to remember you by...

Looking at the filly's persistant facial expression, Cyr decided, "You know what? The day I'll get back, Your mother and I will go to the marketplace and get you ice cream. Any flavor you want. And I'm paying."

Funny that I have money now. And I have the sudden need to spend bits. Fillies can do that to you, I guess.

The filly grinned again, "Pwomise?"

"I promise."

Cyr said his goodbyes, and on his way out he ran into Noteworthy, whose bed-mane, lidded eyes, and yawning suggested he just woke up.

"Eh, another all-nighter, Notes?"

"Yeah, gotta keep those Canterlot musicians that can't compose their own songs happy. But...keeps food on the table," Noteworthy shrugged sleepily. All of a sudden, he realized who he was talking to.

Noteworthy's expression changed to one of slight anger and dazed surprise. His stance changed to a form prepared with the fight-or-flight response and his eyes quickly shifted back-and-forth from Cyr to his foal and his better half, half expecting there to be a massacre in the living room. Noteworthy blocked the doorway with his body to prevent Cyr from exiting.

Cyr said, "Now see here. Just because there's a Changeling in your house-"

The father of the filly hissed, "If you did anything- and I mean anything- to little Coda over there..."

"She means as much to me as to you."

"As a food source?" Noteworthy accused with disgust.

"No, as a foal. And I treat her as if she was my own."

Noteworthy's let his guard down slightly in surprise. "That must mean..."

"Nice to meet you finally. I'm the filly's godfather. Cyrilius. Or just Cyr. Things are simpler that way."

"Dude, I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you!" Noteworthy quickly apologized.

"No, need. But I'm in a bit of a hurry. Got a train to catch, so...just remember not to start off fights with any orange-eyed Changelings if you find them in your house, OK? They just might be me," Cyr blurted as he angled himself away from the bewildered father and rushed out the door.

Carrot Top trotted up to her baffled husband, nuzzling his neck, and said, "Good morning, hun! Did you see our guest out?"

Noteworthy responded sadly in his own colloquial terminology, "I didn't even know...that was him. I sounded like a complete douche!"

Carrot Top chuckled, "Cyr would understand. He's used to it, really. Maybe the next time he arrives to Ponyville, you can exchange with him a more pleasant conversation?"

Noteworthy asked with half-lidded eyes, "What did I do to deserve you?"

Carrot Top blushed at the compliment. "And this is why I married you. You can be so cute when you get all humble."

Carrot Top kissed him on the chops and walked away into the living room to ask the filly what food she would prefer to eat today, followed by her loyal husband.

She trotted into the dining room, and joked, "But for a second there, you sounded like you were really about to hit it off!"

The smell of hot dampness, the heat pressing down from the Badlands above the underground, radiated out from the network of tunnels, along with random scents of farmed fungi and plants used for structural supports in mining. Cyr encountered the familiar scents as he traveled deeper and deeper into the Hive.

Home is where the heart is, they say.

And Cyr truly felt at home. It seemed as if he'd been away from the Hive for almost an eternity, as being a Behemoth sort of placed a height restriction for most structures in the Changeling Hive, so the majority of his life Cyr physically couldn't revisit his favorite and most memorable locations in his home. But, now, Cyr was going to enjoy every moment of his regular size.

Unfortunately, today wasn't a day for tourism. It was a day for closure. Closure for the international community, and for himself. Cyr had learned the whereabouts of Flux some time ago, and as soon as he found her, he promised to reinstate her as leader of the Changelings...or at least the Equestrian division of it. Cyr wasn't allowed to have a say in the decision of other Hives, but he decided it was better to just get the ideal of Changeling-Pony clemency out there.

As for Chrysalis...Cyr regretted how he treated her. She cared for the Hive in her own way, so Cyr wouldn't exactly label her as negligent. Her efforts were simply...misdirected. So imagine her surprise when Cyr freed her. Unlike the ancestors before him, Cyr considered execution a rather barbaric practice. Too much had happened to simply add another death to the casualties of the Changeling Coup. Everyling deserved second chances. After that, Chrysalis's behavior had shifted. She was still her regal self, but she had become more compassionate. And she respected, even with Cyr's opposite ideology, that it wouldn't hurt to have other alternatives. Mercy and opportunity did that for most individuals.

And Cyr decided that was good enough, even after the numerous threats and attempts to have him killed, for Chrysalis to be re-titled as Queen Regent, that is, as long as she didn't perform anymore coups. That was his last act before leaving the throne. Power was never his thing. He could use it well, but he didn't trust himself enough with that type of responsibility.

Cyr was going to lead the modernization of Changeling culture and advancement, and he would do so even if the Changelings weren't ready for it. His people will become a great race once more. But he wasn't the right Changeling for the job. Sometimes, the best individuals best suited for something were literally born to inherit it.

Cyr finally arrived at his destination: The Royal Throne room. Behind the massive doors guarded by the still-implemented Praetorian Guard, he heard the private speech preparations of his Hive Mother.

"All the past we leave behind;

We debouch upon a newer, mightier world,

Varied world;

Fresh and strong the world we seize - world of labor and the march -

Pioneerlings! Pioneerlings!"

"Confound this! In the past, such words would simply flow out! Now, my brain requires rote memorization? Oh how things have changed!" The voice of Flux stated.

Chrysalis's voice boomed uneasily. She still never forgave herself for imprisoning the Matriarch that brought her into the world. "Now, mother, you have to look at it this way. You've simply acquired greater amounts of worldliness in your...travels."

"Dear, just say it. 'I'm old.' Don't try to coat it with cactus honey for me. I can take it. I've tolerated you over the years, haven't I? You owe me that much, at least."

Chrysalis decried, "Never, mother. Not after..."

There was a pause.

"Oh dear, I never expected to bring that up again. Cyrilius said so himself. The past is the past. We can only look towards the future," Flux reassured.

"But-"

"No, 'but's'. You are still of my Spawn. And I will love you equally so."

Cyr sensed the reconciliation between mother and daughter reached its climax, and waited a few more moments before he would knock on the doors and-

"My Queen! Our negotiator requests your presence!" A Praetorian shouted. Damn you.

There was a moment of silence. Cyr heard a bare whisper of chitin-on-chitin scraping.

Awww. They hugged...

Chrysalis responded, "Welcome him in..."

The Praetorian duo opened the doors for Cyr, and as he walked past them, they bowed.

As the massive wooden doors closed behind him, Cyr was greeted by the sight of his Hive Mother Flux.

Her auburn mane and navy-violet irises still had their beautiful, siren-like sheen, and almost nothing had changed about her, except for the most bare of wrinkles around her eyes. But such details were negligible.

You don't exactly greet your mother with the statement "Oh wow! You aged really well! How long has it been? 400 years?"

Cyr bowed in her presence, but his Queen shook her head. "Nay, you shall rise..."

He did so.

"...and share an embrace with your old Hive Mother," Flux finished with a telling grin.

And Cyr rushed forward to do so, yet again.

"How I missed you, my Queen."

"And how I missed you, my little Cyrilius." They absorbed each other's love, feeling their own hearts swell with warmth.

But they broke away, much to Cyr's disappointment. But Cyr didn't dare let it show, as there were more important matters to deal with. There will be much making up to do...later.

Cyr rustled in his saddle bags for the imperative sheet of rolled parchment, and presented his Queen with the treaty.

"The document, My Queen."

"Ah, the end to all our troubles..." Flux remarked. She lifted the treaty and a healthily-dipped quill with her magic and rejoined Chrysalis at the throne(s). As she signed the multiple signatures and initials in triplicate, Chrysalis waved to Cyr.

"My Queen-" Cyr bowed, but stopped mid-way much to Chrysalis's commotion.

"Oh stop that rubbish. You know better than I ever will that you deserved the Royal Position more than I."

Cyr humbly returned, "Well...we don't know that."

Chrysalis snorted, "Unbelievable. Do you know how long that took me to force myself to say? It's quite hurtful to one's pride, you know."

Cyr was about to apologize when Chrysalis interrupted him, her bristling gone, "Bah, such matters of the past are gone, as you've said to me months ago. Never mind that. I just wanted to tell you that there are a pair of very elderly Changelings that wish to see you."

She can't mean...

"Guards!", Chrysalis summoned for the Praetorians, who've replaced the standard position of the Soldier caste for Royal protecion. "Bring in the Nursery Changeling and Worker!"

The guests were presented. Then Cyr saw them. And they saw him.

One of the pair, walking towards him with a severe limp, shouted craggily, "Cyr, my boy. You look exactly the same as I remember you all those years ago! But seriously, how haven't you aged at all?"

It was true. With the removal of the permutation, Cyr seemed to have turned back to the exact age and form as he was before the transformation. It confused Cyr to no end, but magic...was magic. You just have to accept its eccentricities as well as its benefits.

"Talc?"

The other sweetly stated, with the voice of a female, "I'm going to have to agree with the old boy, here. Or what he should have said at first, at least. Nice to see you again. And you've grown so well!"

"Saifra?" Cyr questioned unbelievably. They nodded and smiled in response.

"So the Old Breed is back togeth-oof!" Talc screeched, as Cyr hugged them both with enough force to crack both of their chitin.

"Don't kill us lad! Allow us to breath for a couple of seconds!" Talc attempted to chuckle.

Cyr quickly let go. "I'm so sorry, I never meant to-"

Saifra smirked, "That's just his way, Cyr. He makes you feel sorry for things that you should never feel guilty about."

Talc and Saifra drew closer together, smiling at Cyr, as if they were waiting for him to ask the obvious.

"Is...there something I should know? You two are awfully chummy for a pair of Changelings that are complete strangers to eachother."

"Let's just say that being held in isolation as hostages forces a couple of old aphids to start knowing each other very well," Saifra hinted.

The geriatric duo crossed hooves, the ridges from their holes acting as hooks that kept their forelimb in a permanent caress.

Cyr whispered, "Oh...tied the knot, haven't we?"

They nodded happily.

"Well a celebration is in order-" Cyr's words were stopped in his mouth when Flux cleared her throat to interrupt the rejoicing.

"Maybe another time, my subjects? May you all please leave the room? Except for you Cyr."

Flux had a way with words. That's what Cyr missed most of all. She could make a decree or ruling sound like a gentle request, when in reality it was a royal command. A brutal action of power disguised as a socially-acceptable comment.

Saifra gripped Cyr's hoof. "We'll be waiting for you outside dear." She let go with a motherly smile, and rightly so, for she was technically Cyr's traditional guardian from birth.

Once Chrysalis, Talc, Saifra, and the royal servants trotted out, all that was left was Flux, Cyr, and the stale underground air between them.

"I'm terribly sorry, Cyrilius, but it had to be done. There are matters that are best told in secret," Flux reminded her subject, presenting him with a completed treaty.

"The deed is done. The war with our Equine bretheren is over. But our personal war, our war for survival in the grand, political rat race has just begun, I'm afraid."

Cyr questioned, "What do you mean, my Quee-"

"Stop. You deserved the full rights and privileges of the standing ruler of our race. We both know it."

"I wouldn't have handled the responsibility well, my queen. Power corrupts. I know wiser than to indulge myself unhealthily when there is far more at stake. I know my place in the world."

Flux laughed all of a sudden, "If only the rulers before us had shared in your wisdom. Much has been lost, and your ideology would have saved us the trouble of the past."

Her face grew sullen, all joy scraped off by the responsibilities of the throne.

"I need to ask you for advise. You are, by far, the most sage Changeling in this Hive."

"I wouldn't say that...but go ahead, my liege."

She shook her head, "Flux. Call me Flux. After everything you've done, you deserve to call me without title. In fact, it should be the complete opposite."

Cyr blushed at the suggestion, "No need to revolutionize the monarchy just yet. Now...Flu-"

"-Mother, what was your question?"

Flux smiled at Cyr's stubborness. Such a fine breed of her generation.

"What would you do, if you were in my position? I've heard of Chrysalis's account of your compassion...and mercy. You save such love for even your enemies."

"The effort anger needs to burn is better saved for something else. And I would call it even. I pushed her off a cliff," Cyr humbly shrugged.

Flux snickered again, "I shouldn't laugh. My own children have been wounded by infighting that I should have dissipated when I saw the first signs of it."

"It was all resolved in the end, Mother. And if you want my advise, you need only ask."

Flux beckoned him to continue, "Do tell, then."

"First, you should prohibit the birth system. Our genetic abilities should no longer be the basis of our future. What I learned from the ponies is that free choice begins equality, and equality begets internal peace and love. The caste hierarchy is a barrier to such an existence. Autonomy should gradually replace monarchy, and leave the future in the hooves of our subjects, slightly guided by the rule of a Queen, of course. It is the only way to reach your goal for Changelings to depend, not on the love of others, but the love from ourselves."

"Continue."

Cyr did as she commanded. "Second, replace our military with permutation units, like Praetorians and Behemoths, but gather them from volunteers. We have no need for a shape-shifting army. We are far from obscure since the Canterlot Wedding, and with the ability for unicorns to use identification and Anti-Changeling spells, it is better to compete with the magic and ability from the other races with our own. Stealth from the permutation units' light-reflecting camouflage should be sufficient, as from my personal experiences."

Cyr gasped for a breath, "Finally, create a public image. Present yourself and our race with pride, but self-control, to the Equestrians. Send envoys to other races, and start releasing our Changelings undisguised into Pony society in small quantities for gradual integration."

Flux nodded in agreement, solemnly considering them all in thought.

Cyr had quench his curiosity, "So...what was the speech for? I heard your rehearsal session."

"It is my address to our subjects in a few moments. I wanted to promise them change, but everything seemed so alien. So odd. Life, it seems, has continued without me. I'm simply catching my breath on the sidelines, while everyling else is crossing the finish line. I didn't believe the words I was planning on saying."

Cyr gave her an understanding look, but he spotted a hint of rebellion in her countenance. A small, clinging sign of hope.

Flux continued, "But now, I know what to do. I will carry out your plans to the letter, and we shall bring forth a new generation of Changelings, ready to accept and conquer the world with their grasps... figuratively of course. The idea of world domination is absurd and suicidal."

"Do you know what I consider your most prized quality, Cyr? You have an understanding of friendship that noling else in the Hive does. You not only understand that love and positive emotion is our sustenance, but our salvation. It is our lifestyle, our life force, our most prized possession and curse. But also our gateway to bring forth new opportunities and companionship. You understand that about our race, Cyr. You truly believe that friendship..."

Flux gazed at him with a loving grin.

"...is simply more than food."

This time, Flux's smile held. It didn't falter, and it was an effrontery to the sadness and utter chaos of the universe. That she could keep on going, keep on persisting no matter what.

"Cyr, I have a special duty for you. I have gotten word from the Princesses of Equestria that they not only have invited us to integrate ourselves in a united kingdom, but have trusted us to act as envoys to Dragon Territory, in order to unify the separated kingdoms. Think of it as an act of trust, and a test of our commitment."

"So deliver the treaty, Cyr. But I need a favor to ask you."

"Yes, Hive Mother?", Cyr eagerly asked.

"Our diplomats will accompany the Pony envoys during the trek, but I cannot trust our new allies to keep our own safe. I'll converse with Chrysalis later on the subject, but you are the main subject..."

"I will do anything you command, my Queen," Cyr bowed

Flux winced at the austerity of the title, but continued with her request, "How would you like to protect our diplomats..."

There was dedication in Cyr's eyes. He saw her hesitancy, and he knew what was coming. But the fierce determination in his eyes did not change.

"...as a member of the Behemoths, again?"

The End

Author's Note

Hmmm...needs a sequel...

Author's Note on Sequel Complications

A/N Account is on hiatus. Due to creative block and decreasing amount of personal interest, there won't be a sequel. Sorry :/

Welcome to Ponyville, Cyr-Part 1

At first, Fluttershy thought the hummingbird was mistaken. Of course that fallen log wasn't a pony, it was just extremely mishapen and strangely symmetrical. Though it was quite life-like, with its splayed roots almost looking like limbs.

Oh that hummingbird had SUCH an imagination, there was no way that the log was an animal. And plus there are giant holes in the roots and-

Well, those roots do look awfully like hooves, and the only time that she saw that many holes in a set of hooves was during the Royal Wedding...oh, that didn't end well.

"Ummm, did I hear that right?" Fluttershy confirmed with the hummingbird. It nodded.

Applejack interrupted, "Wait. It means the pony that helped me get in all of these apples for applebuck season? Well ah'll be. I have ta personally thank him for doing all this. Where is he?"

"He says it isn't a pony," Fluttershy said with disbelief.

She almost squeaked when the "fallen log" had two parts on each side of it's ventral "face" lift up. Iridescent orange slits from its front glowed in the early dawn lighting.

Fluttershy hesitantly pointed a shaking hoof at the mass. "And he says it's right over there."

The orange slits grew wider into two luminescent circles. Definitely not a log.

"Ummmm, Fluttershy? Are you seeing this?" Applejack said as she slowly trotted backwards.

"Oh....my...." Fluttershy's eyes grew as large as dinner plates.

"Fluttershy! Get away from it!"

The black mass rose up slowly and its form became apparant to both Fluttershy, hooves frozen in fear and shrinking to the ground as the hummingbird's newly-acquired "friend" got up, and Applejack, tugging at Fluttershy's tail with her teeth and urging her pegasus friend to move away.

Fluttershy could hardly believe it. As the beastly creature stood up, she could recognize most of its features with a Changeling's, except for, of course, its very elevated height.

It's eyes, however, were different. They teemed with intelligence and strife, and not a shadow of maliciousness hung in them. It had the daunting, tired eyes of an elder, but a horrific armor-like coat of a monster (and the glyph carvings on its body didn't help with its image).

She was snapped out of her hybrid trance of terror and curiosity by a furious tug on her tail. She finally noticed Applejack's efforts to escape from the creature.

And that's when it spoke kindly in a crackling, low call.

"Hello?"

Applejack never expected it to speak. She had been so used to the whole perception, especially during the antics she is involved in as a fellow Element, that somepony or thing with a leviathan or alien appearance was usually a monster out to wreak havoc across Equestria, or spread eternal chaos and darkness, or gobble-up her friends and family. She tripped on a root underneath the large apple tree they were presiding under in sheer shock that a "monster" could greet them so kindly in such a manner, especially since it looked like an overgrown Changeling.

But, she was caught from falling onto the ground by one of its holed-hooves.

"Are you alright? I thought the Princesses were requiring you to receive rest?"

"Ya....just saved me from fallin'. And you were the one tha' the Princesses told to help me out with the apple-bucking?"

The large Changeling seemed confused.

"Well, why would I let any pony fall on their face? Seems rather sadistic to just watch them fall without a care."

"And yes. I managed to finish retrieving your apples by the end of the night. I hope you are quite satisfied."

Fluttershy managed to say, "So, you're not going to attack us and steal all of our love?"

"Of course not. I'm surprised that one of the Princesses' pupils haven't alerted you all to my presence. I believe her name was Twilight Sparkle? Celestia informed me that my arrival would be told to your townsponies to prevent....panic."

He gestured a hoof to Fluttershy's and Applejack's general location. There was a pause, as both of the ponies tried to recover from the awkwardness of the situation, as they had treated one of their guests based solely on his appearance.

It was Fluttershy that first broke the silence.

"Well...thank you anyway. You managed to save my dear birds friends from timberwolves! You're just like the hummingbird described. You're not so bad. But I'm sorry for thinking that you were going to hurt me and my friends."

"And Ah'm sorry, too. It was mighty indecent of me for treating you like a monster when I was already told that you helped me out in a rather difficult time. I can never pay you back for what you've done to help mah family." Applejack tipped her hat in embarrassment.

The orange earth mare's voice was unwavering and strong. The yellow pegasus' expression oozed with sincerity. Cyr's non-existant heart almost shattered. Though not at first, they were truly grateful.

"You both are quite welcome. I am happy to see that I've done something to help others," he cracked a warm grin.

Applejack replied, "Stay here as long as ya want, partner. Ah'll be right back after Ah have a nice, long chat with Twi."

"Thank you. But the Princesses told me to inform them when my task was complete. Could you mention that to Ms. Sparkle?"

"Can do." With a rousing wave, Applejack looked awkwardly back, still embarrassed by the fact that she had almost wanted to buck Cyr into the Everfree Forest not a few minutes ago, and trotted into town.

Fluttershy, after a looking at Applejack walk in the rising red-orange sunlight, looked over to the still-present hummingbird and said to him, "Come on little fellow. I need to get all of you guys fed and cleaned."

The hummingbird reluctantly shook his head.

"What? You want to stay with him?" She directed a hoof at the Behemoth. She was soon abashed at what she implied about Cyr.

"Not that anything is wrong with you...."

"No offense taken." Cyr rumbled. "My young feathery friend, you have done enough today. I have no experience in caretaking animals, but this delicate, youthful pegasus does. It would be for the best if you go with her."

The hummingbird squeaked a sad tune and downcast its head.

"But don't be so gloomy. I'll come visit you soon. After the Princesses arrive again, I'll be sure to see you all."

The hummingbird sped towards the Behemoth and nuzzled his cheek. It flew away with an energetic pattern, dancing in the cool morning air. Along his journey back home, he passed by a carrot-orange maned earth pony that had trekked down the dirt road coursing through Sweet Apple Acre.

The light orange-tinged earth pony mare soon came across the wagonloads of apple barrels and she immediately saw Fluttershy, desperately trying to hoof-comb her messy, frizzled mane, talking to somepony she couldn't see. A patch of air shimmered in the direction that Fluttershy was talking to.

That's funny. From a distance she saw a tall stallion with a black coat next to Fluttershy. She swore she saw Fluttershy speaking to somepony.

Fluttershy, noticing the distant pattering of hooves on the road, turned and saw the earth pony. She greeted her, "Why hello there, Carrot Top!"

She waved her hoof over to the pegasus mare, "Hey Fluttershy! Have you seen AJ around? I kinda needed to ask her about the new crop taxes that the Canterlot nobles are starting to fling at us this year."

"She went back into town, but I'll be sure to tell her when she comes back."

"Gee thanks, Flutters! So....who were ya talking to? Is he hot?" giggled Carrot Top.

Fluttershy blushed furiously, "No no no no. He's just a....friend."

"Really? Well, I want to meet him. A friend of your's is a-"

On the right side of Carrot Top's vision, the seemingly empty space next to Fluttershy fluctuated between a shimmering image of the landscape and the tree, and a dark black obstruction.

The rumbling voice was....familiar.

"Nice to see you again."

This time she could see his more opaque form, unperturbed by his invisibility spell. Carrot Top looked up to see an even more familiar face, this time with a nostalgiac smile present.

She stammered, "Is that really you? You're not some other giant bug-pony that saved my flank back in Canterlot?"

He chuckled, "Well, I hope so. Because I've never properly introduced myself back there."

"My name is Cyr. How has your life been so far, little one?"

Twilight shut the library door behind her, with an exasperated sigh.

"Spike? You there?"

The purple baby dragon, cleaning up their bedroom, answered back as he jumped down from the stair-steps, "Yeah, I'm coming. Tough day?"

"Like you wouldn't believe."

"I know what would cheer you up. I'll heat up some mint tea for ya," Spike said as he entered casually into the kitchen.

"Thanks, Number One Assistant! You're a lifesaver!"

Almost immediately after Twilight collapsed into a lavishly cushioned chair, the door opened, and Applejack trotted into the library.

"Twi, I need ta ask ya something. Why didn't ya tell me about our guest?"

Twilight uprighted herself back onto the floor.

"I'm sorry, AJ. Only after the princesses decided to leave your farm, did they send a letter to me to tell everypony in Ponyville. The Canterlot nobles weren't exactly excited about their decision to free a megolithic Changeling into the countryside. So they're coming back, I guess, to.....modify his sentence."

"Sentence? What do ya mean?"

Twilight cringed at having released the detail, but finally decided to speak.

"Remember the Canterlot Wedding?"

"Yeah. Did it take part in anything that happened there?"

"Maybe...."

"But it seemed so nice! I don't know how a pony-"

"He's not a pony."

"Whatever! How could he be a...a...criminal? He didn't seem like the type, if you catch mah drift."

Twilight shrugged, "Circumstances, I guess. Celestia and Luna obviously have enough faith in him not to imprison him for the rest of his existence. But can you believe he's actually 417 years old? I can't wait to meet him! The knowledge that he must have, and I've heard that he could even perform pretty advanced magic. He can even cast himself invisible! Nopony has ever successfully developed a disillusionment spell before!"

Applejack sighed in partial frustration, "Twi, yer getting off topic. How did the folks in Ponyville react. Ah know that some of our friends, and myself, can accept him, but what about the others? Ya were just getting back from the assembly, right?"

Twilight facehoofed and exhaled deeply.

"Heh. Well, about that....."

The Body of a Behemoth, nay, but the Spirit to Challenge One

Light poked through Cyr's multiple eyelids. As he clicked open the last layer over his eyes, he was overwhelmed by the bright sensation of artificial light. He was laying in a bed with an confounding, incessant 'beeping' that seemed to originate from a...moving picture of some sort next to him.

The strange surface displayed a dull green line, followed by a number of rapidly-created spikes. It continued with its operation, and only then was Cyr distracted when he attempted to swallow. He found it extremely difficult to, as there was a thin tubing leading to his tongue, and every attempt to pull it out of his maw was met with a discouraging pinch.

Cyr tried to speak, but only a muffle was released in the room he found himself in, what with the tubing interfering with his tonsil fangs and his ability to move his jaw.

But the sound attracted the attention of a nearby nurse.

So he was in a hospital.

In public.

Where nopony was suppose to see him...

I'm calling it. It's Panic Time.

She hesitantly arrived at Cyr's side, and said, "I'm sorry, sir. The only locations that weren't completely covered in chitin were your...well, let's just say that placing a hydration cable there wouldn't be exactly hygienic. So all that was left to put an IV was in your mouth-"

Cyr mumbled, "Curgh roo gurgh irt errt?"

"I'm terribly sorry, sir. That's your only source of water right now, and you need plenty of it after your supplemental surgery," The nurse gestured at his chest.

There was a dressing fixed on the chitin of his chest with tape. Example of medical brilliance right there...

"And I'm afraid you are far from able to drink water on your own. So I cannot remove the IV line. Oh, but, some visitors would like to see you!"

Out of nowhere, Carrot Top landed on the normal-sized Changeling and gave him a bear hug that started to make his wound bleed again. From the direction Cyr had seen the mare jump out of, he saw the shadows of two alicorns watching at a distance.

Cyr suddenly felt a burning outline spread out across the chitin, as Carrot Top abruptly interrupted her own welcome gesture to give Cyr a slap in the face.

"Don't you EVER think about doing that again!"

"RURGHA RAH!"

"What a minute...are you the right Cyr? They found you in a hole in the middle of nowhere and you look smaller than usual."

Cyr ripped the plastic IV out from under his tongue, and successfully clearing himself through the immediate pain, he looked at her directly with his orange light receptors and yelped out, "I think I know who I am, Carrot Top!"

"Oh Celestia, Applejack and I thought we lost you, and we started to search all over for you when she got back and-"

"It's fine!"

"You don't look fine! And your voice! When did it get so...squeaky...and layered?"

"When I..." Cyr stopped. He didn't know how long he had been stuck inside the Pony Hospital.

"...actually I don't know. When did you find me?"

"Princess Luna came to me and said she found your body 3 days ago. And she said exactly that. 'Body'. Like you were dead already, and I didn't want to lose a friend and-"

"Like I said before, everything is going to be okay. Alright? Calm down! I'm fine!" Cyr attempted to give Carrot Top a smile so another could begin to eclipse on her face.

It didn't work.

Cyr asked with concern, "How are you? I'd feel a bit guilty to know that you were thinking about this the whole time I was..."

Left for dead.

Impaled.

Almost murdered by distant relatives.

"...errr, gone."

"I'm fine. But you? You almost...didn't..." Carrot Top couldn't finish. She was a tough mare, but the Princesses decided to give her some relief of not stating the news.

Celesta approached by Cyr's bedside, followed by Luna, and gravely informed, "You almost died, Cyr. That was more than we could have ever expected that could have gone wrong, and information of Changeling biology has been...lost over the years. Your actions were reckless, and misdirected."

"It was...stupid planning, on my part," Cyr nervously grinned. He foreboded a strong scolding for placing royal business in Canterlot at an indefinite halt with the absence of the Princesses.

Celestia's light scowl melted into a smile, "But...you did so with the intentions of saving the lives of others. You provided enough of a distraction to prevent Chrysalis and her forces from beginning their inevitable invasion. You grace us with a manner of sacrifice that even the most compassionate of ponies could not have summoned as immediately as you have. You of the heartfelt thanks of the Kingdom of Equestria. Consider yourself a honored member of it."

Both sisters proceeded to bow on the hospital floor.

Cyr quickly approached the Princesses, or at least attempted to as his legs wouldn't move when his mind told them to. The nerves were still deadened slightly from lack of oxygenated blood. "No, no, no. Stop, please."

The pair rose up from the floor, at Cyr's request.

"I did what any sane-"

Luna quickly mentioned, "Insane, you mean?" She giggled.

Cyr rolled his eyes and repeated again firmly, "I did what any sane individual would do."

"But, from what I hear from Luna, you did so for your friends. Your family. And you are humble about it also. There is no such stronger sign of benevolence, respect, or concern than that," Celestia warmly smiled. "Young Changeling-"

"I'm 417 years old," Cyr responded. "I think that disqualifies me from the 'Young' category."

Celestia chuckled, "Indeed. Cyr, Luna and I, the Regal Princesses of Equestria, owe you a debt of gratitude for your act.

"Well, as long as you make the sun and the moon rise and fall and keep madponies from gnawing on my flesh, then consider me satisfied," Cyr said with a blank face.

Luna pleaded, "Please. It's the least we can do for you. You've gone past the requirement of your sentence."

"A Royal-mandated punishment, I think, is a bit mood-killing to mention, don't you think, fair Princess?"

"To whom arth thou accusing the title of 'fair Princess', you-"

The same nurse from before interrupted the arguement, "Excuse me? Your Highnesses? The patient needs to rest."

Luna nearly screamed in opposition, "Nay! We demand an agreement from the second party to allow ourselves to commit him under an oath-"

The nurse opened the curtains behind her, revealing the crowd of ponies appearing around the patient bed.

The only word that escaped Luna's mouth was a quiet "Oh."

The nurse, and the crowd, then began to be surrounded by individual circles of green flame, each to respectively reveal themselves as members of the Praetorian Guards, which nearly rivaled in size of an alicorn.

Luna repeated herself, this time with a more prolonged effect, "Ohhh......sh-"

Celestia cut off Luna's exclaim of surprise with a furious shout, "You are all foals for arriving here! This Changeling is hereby an honorary Equestrian citizen! If you wish to claim his life, you'll have to get through us!"

"We haven't come here to fight," grumbled the Nurse-Praetorian.

Luna joined in to her sister's verbal barrage, "HA! So you admit to arriving here with violent intent! Wait....pardon?"

"We need to talk to the Behemoth-"

"Well, if you want to talk to him, go on ahead. Nopony will stop you, shapeshifting cretin."

The Praetorian, presumably the leader, shook his horned head. "No. Alone. You have no business in our matters."

Luna responded, "Excuse me, you declared war on us two months ago! Your matters are of our concer-"

"Our Queen is nowhere to be found. We arrived at where you found the bodies, but we could not find our Queen. She's still alive, but she had not found herself back in the Hive. She has been dishonored in battle by a..." the Praetorian paused to squint hatefully at Cyr. "...member of a lower caste. Her shame is great, and her accomplishments are naught but failure. Yet, this one, insignificant Worker, had survived the ordeal against a Changeling alicorn. Therefore, we wish..."

The entire group of Praetorians suddenly lowered themselves, much to the surprise of Cyr, Carrot Top, and the Royal Sisters, and mid-bow, they shouted in unison, "...to honor him as our ruler!."

Cyr was frozen for an entire half hour. The Royal Sisters removed the Praetorians from the premises to more suitable locations to wait for a lone Changeling to recover from shock. Thankfully they weren't imprisoned. But teleportation into suites under heavy guard inside the Canterlot Castle, figured Luna and Celestia, were more diplomatic terms.

Carrot Top decided to wait next to the open-mouthed Cyr, hoping that the sheer shock wouldn't catalyze his poor, repairing heart to go into cardiac arrest...or just implode on the spot.

Finally, Cyr whispered, "Tell me this is a dream. Or better, yet, that I died and woke up in Elysium."

Carrot Top bumped Cyr's ribs with a hoof, resulting in Cyr's painful exclaim.

"Nope. So...King of the Changelings, that's a nice gig if you decide to roll with it."

"Yeah..."

"So what now?"

Cyr closed his mouth, just realizing that a fly was bound to enter through it and clog his respiratory system sometime. And it was just his luck to probably happen.

"I...think I might do it."

"Well, I guess I'm friends with royalty now!" Carrot Top squealed.

"Not to burst your bubble, but-"

"Nope! Not gonna happen! Time to motherbuckin' celebra-"

"I'm not going to become a permanent ruler!" Cyr interrupted. "The Queen before Chrysalis, she's still alive. I gotta find her, and I need to make sure my caste is safe."

Carrot Top's face fell. "Oh..."

Cyr internally winced, "Heh. Sorry to ruin your expectations so soon."

"You just don't want a party because that would mean you'd have to get out of bed."

"You have me there," chuckled Cyr. "But tell me, do they only reserve these 'beds' for the sick and injured?"

"Umm...Cyr? Everypony has one."

"...I don't know what I've been missing!" Cyr exclaimed. "And this, what is this magical contraption? It drives me simply mad having to listen to it all day!"

Cyr gestured at the machine giving off an irritating, constant beeping.

"Cyr?"

"Hmm?"

"That's a heart rate monitor. Oh and that reminds me. Take off the bandage!"

"Wha-" Cyr began to protest.

"Luna arrived mid-surgery, and told me that even though we couldn't save any of the chitin, the heart started to partially heal itself, and...well you gotta see this!"

"Carrot Top-"

Cyr was interrupted when the mare tugged down on his patient gown and tore off the bandage.

Cyr saw that not only was the bleeding stopped, but the hole was still there. Along with the seemingly whole-bodied, untouched heart, pumping blood healthily.

To Cyr, the sight of seeing one's own organ was both incredible, yet disgusting.

Carrot Top smiled, "I guess Changelings have hearts after all!"

Cyr chuckled. "So what does this 'heart-rate monitor' do?"

"It detects whether you're still with us or not. It runs on electricity."

"Fascinating....what's electricity?"

Now the real nurse that was suppose to attend to patients that afternoon confronted the pair just as Carrot Top was about to face-hoof and begin to explain the most fundamental of technological principles in terms so simple that a filly could have understood.

Carrot Top shouted, as soon as she saw the linen-clad figure, shouted, "I don't think so! No Changeling's gonna hurt my friend while he's in injured! Hee-ya!"

Carrot Top clocked the nurse on the snout with a fore-arm.

Cyr inched forward, "Uh...CT?"

"And stay down!"

"Carrot Top..."

"Come on, Cyr, we gotta get out of here!"

"Carrot Top! That nurse was an actual pony!"

The nurse weakly rose up, along with some help with Carrot Top, and instructed, "Yes, and at the risk of getting assaulted again, I regret to inform you that visiting hours are over."

The nurse trotted away, declaring that same statement to other patients, while Carrot Top said to her, "Sorry, Nurse Redheart!"

She turned back to Cyr. "Listen, I need to tell you something. And it's really important that I get your response on something."

Carrot Top went from giggling to serious in a nanosecond flat. Not good.

"Okay, shoot."

With some apprehension, Carrot Top continued.

"I'm pregnant..."

Cyr's eyes opened wide. "Wow. And umm...the father?"

"Noteworthy."

"Should I...beat him up in a dark alley, or what? Congratulations, and all, but you haven't specified what you wanted to ask me."

"Would you like to become their godfather?"

Cyr hesitated, "Carrot Top, there is no way that your other half is going to agree to this-"

"I'll make him, even if I'm not married to him yet."

"I'm old enough to be your great-great-grandfather. I'm not suited for this."

"That just means that the foals will have some really interesting facts to tell about their extended family in the years to come," Carrot Top joked. She knew she was getting to him.

Cyr considered with a hoof to his chin. It can't hurt, I guess.

"I...would be honored to be the foal's godfather."

"Knew I could count on you," Carrot Top sweetly returned. She pecked Cyr on the cheek and left his room.

Cyr, exhausted out of his mind, quickly fell asleep. Too much had occurred before and after his bouts of unconsciousness.

And that last thought that was in his mind?

Godfather...

Author's Note

Before anyone complains about his size, read the next chapter.

Credits/ Q&A

First of all, I would like to thank all the readers that followed up on the story. Without you guys, this wouldn't have been emblazoned in the Feature Box 4-5 times! I owe each and every one of you a hug! (and a miniscule portion of my soul).

And if you're wondering, Flux's speech at the epilogue was by Walt Whitman. One of my fave American poets.

I would also like to thank KommandoLando for his story "Without Question" being one of two inspirations for the story (I was inspired by his story image and elements of over-description), and Niaeruzu for "My Little Changeling: Friendship is Wierd" (It supplied the idea for a deeper look into Changeling culture). And Nyerguds, thanks for editing! (Otherwise known as the person the wrote "Flitter", another imperative inspiration.)

Oh, and almost forgot! If you have any questions for me (For the Q&A) I'll answer them below.

Ask me anything! What my next stories will be about, what my favorite pony is, who's best filly, personal questions, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible! (Just know that I will have the right to ignore some questions if they're too...private).

Oh! And join this group. I'm sure that all of you hate this guy as much as I do!

The Anti-Kishin Group

It was a little inside joke some fellow writers had during a Google Docs session...

And if you haven't already, please consider watching me if you enjoyed this story fairly. I have much more in store for you all...

Have a wonderful day, my fellow bronies (and pegasisters)!