Author's Note

LIttle update, as i originally did not want the chapter to end there, but found it hard to get to the next one without hiccups.
So heres a little extra before the next real chapter <3

Chapter 3

Chapter 3, Patient Pony

Gleaming Shield was in a very weird spot. The long list of failures and misadventures prior in her life have made her very familiar with awkward situations. But this was a new one, even for her high standards to step in horseapples.

In not even a single day she was sucked through a vortex, impaled her horn in a wall, fought a mythical creature, got drugged in the process and was hauled off to no-pony-land. It would be an understatement to say that things did not go well for her.

It was not even her fault!

She tried…, really!

Honest…

She let a long heavy sigh escape through her lips.

“Easy girl, we´ll be there in soon. I´ll let you down in a second.” the by now familiar voice came from above her.

´Oh right, he´s still there...´

At the moment she was being carried, bridal style, by a said mythical creature walking on his hindlegs towards a smallish buildingat the far end of the clearing between the large houses. At least it appeared small to her compared to the rest surrounding it. ´Could be the distance though´ thought Gleaming, as she was still a long ways away from it. Gleaming saw that the building sported a flat roof and glass doors, which moved sideways whenever one of those monkeys entered or left it.

When the changeling lifted her from the carriage, Gleaming became aware of just how many more monkeys, of the kind she witnessed, were around. They seemed to mingle in this spot for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with this sea of carriages? All the monkeys she was able to see, either went inside or left one of these vehicles. The carriages were all over the place, which made Gleaming wonder if the clearing was made just for them. The mingling monkeys also were a cause of constant chatter all around Gleaming.

And they were lowd while doing so! Gleamings ears were on a constant swivel, barely keeping up to pick up all the sounds. She could not follow any of the conversations, due to the multitude of layers, but they were definitely chatting in Equish.

While oberserving the sea of carriages, and the monkeys roaming about in it, Gleaming also came to realize, that the first individual she saw probably was not so odd. These creatures lacked the defining colors of ponies, yet made up for it in the way they dressed.

Furter, they all shared similar features with their bodies. Fureless faces with short stubby noses, minotaur hands and a random patch of hair on their heads, or in some cases lack thereoff, could be found on any of them. Long and thin, short and stubby, young and old examples could all in be spotted, if one were to take a closer look.

´Is this where they live? And why do none of them react to the changelings presence? Are they under his spell just like the dragonling?´

A more detailed inspection of the crowd revealed a possible solution to some of Gleamings pondering: it was not just strange monkeys in there. Not by far.

While they looked simliar from afar, there were other bipedals hidden among the rest. They too covered large parts of their bodies in various fabrics, but the limbs attached to their covered torsos were vastly different from the monkeys. Gleaming could indentify at least two more individual species.

The first new kind Gleaming spotted, had featherey heads with big beaks in front and large pearly black eyes above them, almost like a gryphons. Their arms had wings attached to the underside of them, as they seemed to slightly open each time one of them gestured with its arms. An elongated mainbody rested on a pair of chicken-like legs with the kneecaps bend backwards. The skinny ckicken-people came in a variety of colors that rivaled those of ponies. Even their claws had individual markings!

´Did these two just lift off?!´

Just as Gleaming finished her summary of them, a pair of the strange birdkin took to the skies.

Next came a species of walking salamanders, who seemed to have more on common with snakes than dragons. Long necks covered in smooth scales, shimmered in the bright sunlight. A large webby fin went along their backsides, especially dominant in the head and tailsection of their bodies. Sharp teeth peeked out from behind the scaly lips of their mouths and small, cold but intelligent eyes finished their scary look. Everything about these snake-people screamed: I don’t eat greens. It was probably better to stay away from those…for now.

More and even more alien looking beings could be seen within the monkey crowd, but it dawned on Gleaming now, that with all these strange creatures, nopony would care about a random changeling in their mids. Allthough a few stray glances from said crowd went in his direction every now and then.

´Are they looking at me or him?´

The changeling did not pay them any mind and kept on walking on his planned path. Neither did the dragonling perched on his shoulders, aside from occasionally turning his head at whatever had piqued his interest.

Additionally unlike Gleamings previous assumption of the “black river”, which snaked itself through the presumed monkey-city, was actually solid ground to walk on. Not only the changeling, but every figure in sight was clearly able to move across it, without any trouble of getting stuck or sinking in. Also every carriage she could make out was either entirely on the black surface, or standing halfway on it.

´Must be serving as a road then, but why paint them black? Whats wrong with good old cobblestone? Its easier on the hooves too!´

During Gleamings internal musing on aspects of her enviroment, she frequently tested her limbs, to see if they would move. By now, she was able to crane her neck around a bit more, at least more than the time she woke up on the changelings carriage. Slowly but surely, Gleaming regained control of her own body and once she did…

`Payback time!´

Gleaming had to come up with a better plan this time though, if she did not want a repeat performance of their last battle. Maybe a bit of magic could do the trick? It would certainly be an ace against her captor, but she had to be subtle about testing her horn and preparing a spell beforehoof.

´Hopefully my horn has rested enough…´

*whoosh*

While Gleaming was busy cracking her head for useful battle tactics, the changeling had finished crossing the distance between his carriage and the building. He was positively huffing at this point and readjusted his grip on her a few times. Is that the heat from the sun taking its toll on him or was it-?

´No I´am NOT fat!´

…

´Maybe a few pounds more than I like in minor spots…, but I´m defintely not FAT!´

Looking up to confirm her theory of weight versus heat, Gleaming spotted the sun shining brightly from the sky above…´Ahh what a lovely sight to see…´…and its little white twin shining just as brightly.

…

`Wait…what!?´

Gleaming did a double take to reaffirm for herself that, indeed, there were two suns up there. One yellow like the fireball belonging to the one and only princess of the sun and a much smaller but still visible white orb floating right next to it.

´Okay…-THAT- is not normal at all…where did that thing come from? The vortex-portal-thingy couldn´t have transported me further than the Equestrian border…right? RIGHT?´

…

´Stay calm Gleam, you´ve in worse spots before, you can do this! Like that one time where…where…´

…

´No you haven´t!!...WHERE THE BUCK AM I?!´

*whoosh*

The sound of a door opening brought a slightly panicking and heaving Gleaming back to the immediate present in a flash. Deep down she knew that her attention was needed elsewhere, if she was to survive, until she could either escape of wait for rescue. Celestias best never left anypony behind, not matter the situation!

´All I have to do is stay calm and use my head. How hard can that be?´

A strong gust of cool air rushed over Gleamings face as the glassdoors of the flat house fully parted…and carried with it the stinky smell which every zoo produced in midsummer: tons of animal sweat.

`Oh for the love of Celestia, somepony get an airspray!´

Past the door the noise from outside was dimmed quite dramatically, allowing for a small reprieve from the constant assault on Gleaming ears. It was quite the contrast to the quiet city that Canterlot usually was. Sure the capitol had background noise as well, but never this much…outside of national holidays or the marketplace. A lot of nobles petitioning for a quieter neighborhood in certain areas of the city probably had a part in that too.

´Hurray for small miracles…doesn´t help with the smell though.´

The interior of the flat house was fairly spartanic, with tiles covering the floor and half of the walls. Skeletal, but colorful, seats and benches were arranged in a neat line to the left and right. A few of those were currently occupied by a monkey, who held a two headed bird on a leash, and one of those snake things fom outside with an oversized crab on its lap. Far in the back, past the seating areas was a low wall, with a table behind and a sign above it. Gleaming could not make out what it said, but another monkey reading a book of sorts was sitting behind it.

´A reception?´

*whoosh*

*dingdong*

Once the changeling stepped inside completely, the doors closed behind him. That unfortunately meant the foul air with its offending smell no longer had any means of escape, thus intensifying its unique aroma and restarting its relentless assault on Gleamings sense of smell.

´Honestly, did something die in here?!´

As Gleaming tried to get rid of the smell in her nostrils by scrunching up her snout and moving it around, the changeling meanwhile resumed his walk, his destination this time seemed to be the reception area in the back of the structure. The monkey seated there looked up from its reading material upon his entry, with a bored expression on its face. As soon as its eyes landed on the slowly approaching changeling, the monkeys mouth turned from plain bored, into a clearly fake smile in a matter of seconds. It was obvious to anypony, that the monkey was not happy about yet another patron entering, despite the fassade it put up.

But when something, that Gleaming could only think of as recognition, flashed in its eyes, the direction of its look drifted back down to the book immediately. The fake smile vanished from its face along with the down motion of its head. Leaning its head to the left and supporting its weight by using one of its arms as support beam, the monkey resembled the definition of boredom and desinterest.

´Does it hate the changeling in peticular or just the fact that he bothered to come in?´

´Maybe both?´

When the bipedal changeling came within one-pony-length of the receptionist, the monkey started speaking without taking its eyes from the book, “Welcome to Nemora the vet. The best care for your pet. What is your problem, Sir?”

The monkeys voice carried with it the enthusiasm of a slug being told, that it had just entered a marathon competition. Also it sounded like a females voice to Gleaming, which in turn left her with at least a faint idea to tell all these monkeys apart from one another.

Moving her eyes up and down on the receptionist, Gleaming scanned her for any other notable features to air herself with indentification in the future. Gleaming had stepped in that kind of horseaples once and did not-

´Hold on a second…did she just say vet? As in veterinarian?

…

This Luna-damned changeling took me to a vet-clinic!? What is he thinking?! I´m a proud Equestrian citizen, for Celestias sake, not some kind of dumb…´

Gleamings internal ranting halted at that point. Recent memories of the way the dragon and changeling reacted, and in the latter case behaved towards her, came back, along with the strange scene with the stallion being led on a leash outside.

Suddenly it all made sense to her!

´Not sure if I should feel relieved or offended at the fact that he thinks im a stupid animal.´

With a huff the changeling stopped in front of the counter, and leaned over to address the female behind it: “You know who I am, Bethy. Just let your boss know im here.”

Without looking up from her reading material Bethy replied back: “Very well, please take a seat, Sir.”

Gleaming could hear the changeling drawing in a breath to respond, but apparantly thought better of it and released it in a slow controlled exhale, before smoothly turning around on the spot and facing away from the reception. Then he started walking again, aiming for the nearest free seat, where he proceeded to gently put Gleaming down. After that the changeling all but collapsed on a free stool next to herself.

Letting out out a long sigh of relief, he put his head so far back over the headrest of his stool, that he ended up staring at the ceiling, his forelegs hanging losely down one each side of his seat.

´What a drama Queen…´

*flap* *flap* *flap*

A sudden gust of wind and the sound of wings beating air, were the only warnings Gleaming had before the familiar face of a purple dragon once again obstructed her view. The lizard had landed right in front of her muzzle, facing her and turning his back to the exhausted changeling. His radiant blue eyes curiously peered into Gleamings own, looking for…something.

`Sorry little guy, but I can´t help you, right now.´

Gleaming watched as the tiny dragon began to extend a claw in the direction of her snout, almost as in response to her thoughts. Bit by bit he eeked closer and closer, eyes constantly scanning Gleaming for any sign of movement, until he finally made contact and…

*poke* *poke*

When Gleaming scrunched up her muzzle up in response to the dragons antics, he let out his familiar laugh again, “Meheheheheheheh!”

´At least somepony is having fun.´

“Pokey, let the angry pony rest, we don´t want her to create a scene in here.” the changeling chided the dragon without turning his head, which made it look like he was talking to the ceiling. Gleaming could see the corner of his eye twitch though, which meant he was keeping his sight on both of them, despite his overall show of non-interest.

The dragon blew a raspberry in his direction before returning his attention to Gleaming.

`Not create a scene!? I´ll give you one tartarus of a scene once im able too, you mind controlling bastard!´

But Gleaming knew that now was not a good time to pick a fight, even if she could move more than her head and tail. The enemy was observing her every move, despite thinking she was stupid.That however could work in her favor. If Gleaming could keep him thinking that way, maybe she would be able to use this as an ace in her plans to overthrow him!

*Squawk*

*Squawk*

The random outburst of bird noises caused everyones attention in the room to shift, from Pokey and Gleaming, towards its two headed feathery occupant. While the right head appeared to be sleeping, the birds left head was wide awake and cawed loudly through the waiting lobby. Its owner was trying to get it to calm down by petting the very noisy head repeatedly, with no real success.

With each new set of noises from the bird, the loudness of its outcry increased, which in turn made every individual in the room cringe more and more. The owners attempts at hand petting grew more frantic by the second, along with an increasingly embarassed smile on her face, which spoke volumes by itself.

As the cawing went on, the second head slowly woke up and silently rose to the same height of the noisy head. Gleaming watched on as the recently awoken twinhead then started pecking the squawking one with its beak. The cawing emenating from the left head immediately seized, when it realized that it was under attack… and was instead replaced with angry fighting bird noises from both heads.

While its head were busy fighting, the bird was shifting its weight from one leg to the other, which caused its claws to leave marks on the floortiles. Both of its wings flapped wildy during the spectacle and filled the air around the small bird with parts of feathers. Additionally it whirled up some dust from under the seatings, creating a small grey cloud. Yuck!

The monkey-owner of the twin-bird withdrew her petting hand in one quick motion as if she touched something hot and glanced desperately from her feathery friend(s) to every other occupant of the room and back. It was obvious to Gleaming she did not know what to do and was seeking urgent help. When no one made any move to assist with the distraught twin bird, she let her head sink into her hands in shame and was probably about to weep.

“…have you tried feeding them a snack yet?”, came the lackluster voice of the changeling from next to Gleaming. He still had not bothered to righten his posture, but from the grimace on the part of his face Gleaming could see and his flattened webby ears, he was not a fan of the rackus either.

The monkey perked up and appeared to remember something, before rummaging through a bag she had on her lap. After a few moments, the action produced forth a see-though bag with brown cubic objects inside. Wasting no time, she hastily ripped the top lid open and extracted a handful of wrinkled balls from within and held them out with a shaking hand to the arguing bird heads.

When the twinheads took note of the items being offered to them, the fighting ended instantly and was replaced with pecking and crunching noises as the bird creature consumed the apparent nut snacks at an impessive rate. This went on for while until the right head was seemingly satisfied and went to sleep again, leaving its sibling to keep on pecking and eating to its liking.

With a relieved expression on her face and her head held high again, the monkey then turned to the changeling, “I´m sorry, I didn´t think of that myself…I´ve just recently inherited these two from my grandmother and I don´t even know what they are…and I´m not used to them being around…and…and…thank you! How´d you know it would end the fighting?”

The changeling once again kept his head dangling backwards over the headrest, but from the corner of his eye glanced to the female monkey as he spoke, “What you have there, Lady, is called an Urobo. A rare type of flightless bird found on a jungle planet not far from here.”

“Good to know what it is, but I still don´t really understand them. I couldn´t find anything on the intranet or cyberspace. Grandmother only left us with a small guidebook and the little guy…I don’t understand how and why its doing the things it does…”, the monkey ended with her head sinking a bit again and fed another handful of the brown balls to her pet.

Pointing at the bird with his hoof, the changeling went on, “Like I said, it’s a rare type of bird. Technically it’s a mutation…” at this the monkeys head shot around to look at the changeling and adopted an alarmed expression, which the changeling seemed to be aware of as he quickly added, “but not a fatal one in most cases.”

“Can you tell me what happened there at least?”, the monkey pleaded with little hope in her voice at seeing the changelings rejective body language, while she stowed away the bag of snacks.

´How rude!´ Gleaming shot her captor an angry glare. She could not harm him directly, but she would try her hardest to at least make him feel her drilling deathstare! It was the same Gleamings mother used, whenever dad came home late.

She never had to use it often.

The changeling gave a small sigh, dropped his foreleg and reluctantly began to explain, “The two-headed version is working on a time sharing principle. While one head is sleeping the other goes looking for food.” He paused. “ However in this case, the left head had nothing at all to find and finally was fed up, that it couldn´t do its part. That’s why it vented its frustrations with loud squawking-” another pause “-to get your attention to feed them. Unfortunetely that also woke up its resting sibling, who had probably done its share prior to the rest and now witnessed its brother slacking off, while it felt their shared hunger growing. That’s why it became mad and punished its brother for being lazy. Food being offered was the only way to solve their struggle quickly at this point, as the other option would have been to wait for them to tire themselves out.”

The monkey had her hands clapsed together in front of her now and had listened through the changelings elaboration with bated breath. Once he finished, she was looking at her twin-bird again with a look of understandment in her eyes.

The bird looked back with its active left head and tilted said head to the side.

Gleaming was very much surprised at the changelings level of insight on the matter, especially since he seemed to pay the bird and every other being in the room little mind, considering his pose. Also she could not recall the changeling taking a close look around when he entered. He seemed more intend to drop her off fast, with the large steps he took.

´Is he always acting like this?´ Gleaming wondered.

When the monkey turned back and opened her mouth to speak once more, the changeling beat her to it, “If you have any further questions than that, try to immerse yourself in their situation, or read an analog book called: -The wonders of Jungala-. You won´t find anything about them in digital media, as it is too much of a niché, outside of their planet of origin.”

The monkey lady closed her open mouth at the changlings rapid response. Looking at her face, Gleaming could see, she was torn between asking for more and trying not to offend the changeling by being to greedy.

She appeared to consider the risk of offending him for a second, but ultimately settled on being grateful for what he had already shared with her and decided to bring their talk to a close, “I…I…thank you, Mister!”

The changeling did not respond back other than harumphing silently at the end of their conversation.

´Well…That was odd.´

The changeling had no reason to help her out…and obviously was not very enthusiastic about it…yet he relented at her pleading still and went a little beyond ending the noisestorm. Also Gleaming could see joy and relief on a face where, just seconds before, embarassment and despair resided.

*ding*

*beep*

“The doctor will see after your patient now, Miss Glennis. Please head over to Examination 2.” The receptionist called out over the waiting crowd without looking up. Her left arm still supporting her head, as she turned a page in her book with the free right arm.

´Being rude seems to be the norm around here…´

Gleaming watched the monkey-lady rise from her seat and gently led her bird, on its leash, to a door to the left of the reception area, past the small desk with the unfriendly lady behind it.

The bird stopped for a second to pick at the reception-tables legs, before quickyl catching up with its owner. Then both, master and pet, disappeared inside the next room, the door sliding shut behind them.

´Seems like she´s like that to everypony. I just can´t shake the feeling, she knew this changeling… somehow…´

With the formerly angry and loud bird gone, the waiting lobby quietened down to almost silent levels. The only remaining noises to be heard were various sounds of breathing from everyone left outside of -Examination 2- and occasional bubbling, caused by the crab whenever it moved its mandibles. One could hear a needle drop…

The dragonling, by the name of Pokey, had other plans however.

“Wah-wah!” the young dragon addressed the changeling and waved his frontclaws, as high in the air as the short arms allowed, to get his attention.

Gleaming heard her captor draw in a long breath and exhaling it just as loudly, before raising his head back up to its original position. Then turned to the left and fixed Pokey with both eyes, shooting him a tired look.

“What is it now, Pokey?”

Pokey had lowered his claws and semi-answered back, “Wah-wah!”

“I know waiting is boring, but it will be the last stop for today, alright? There is nothing I can-”

Narrowing his eyes the dragon interrupted him, “Wah-wah-dou!”

´Wait, what? Is he humoring the dragon or actually talking to him?!´

The changeling let a long, drawn out sigh leave his muzzle at this and rubbed over his face with one of his hooves, “You want to play cards again? Is that it?”

Seemingly happy with being understood, the dragon gave applause with his claws and voiced his joy, “Meheheheheheheh!”

´Did he seriously understand the little guy just now? How on Equus did he do that!? A translation spell perhaps? But his horn even didn´t glow, let alone spark!´

Hooves moving to the many pockets on his vest, the changeling seemed to screen them for the items requested by Pokey. Most pockets were empty, as they flattened upon being pressured. A single somewhat bulgy one, on the pants near the knee, finally bore fruit to the search. Opening the lid, a black hoof went inside and retrieved a stack of playing cards with a red backside. Random amounts of various things, which appeared to Gleaming as fruits, were displayed on the front. As soon as the the cards came into view, Pokey extended his claws trying to reach out for them.

The changeling held the stack visible above the dragons head and spoke to him, “Alright, fine. But no more than five games, are we clear?”

The dragon still reached out, making grabbing motions towards the cards, barely out of his reach.

Not deterred in the slightest the changeling cleared his throat and asked again, “Eherm eherm,… I said, are we clear Pokey?”

Pokey seized his futile grabbing attempts and looked up to the changeling, blinking. Then after a small pause, in which he slightly glared, nodded frantically and tried to grab the cards again, seemingly forgetting that he could just fly up and get them.

Nodding once to himself, the changeling mixed the cardstack and hoofed it to the eager lizard, who promptly took off individuel cards, with their backside up, arranging them in two smaller separate stacks. Eventually the original stack was gone and Pokey pushed one stack to the changeling, while keeping the other for himself.

´Did that just happen? How can this changeling have a casual conversation with this dragon?´ Gleaming squinted her eyes at both parts of the card playing duo. ´Is there trick to it?´

If there was indeed a trick to talking with Pokey, Gleaming was determined to find out about it now.

Gleaming carefully observed the strange duo, playing a card game right in front of her nose at the very edge of her seat, where Pokey had originally landed mere moments before. The dragon had scooted back a bit to make room for the used and discarded cards, which occasionally left both players hands in pairs as the game progressed.

She could not wrap her mind about the fact, how the changeling managed to make out any of the messages Pokey uttered. To her it was only unintelligent garble-warble, the kind of which baby foals used when learning how to speak their first few words. The same kind of level Gleaming was sadly reduced to, since her first time waking up in that metal room.

´Does that mean I simply have to relearn how to talk?´

“You got a wumpa seven?”

“Meheheheheheheh!”

And the cards went flying, as the first rounds victor was decided.

Time went by in the vet practices lobby at a snails pace, as such places never had many sources of entertainment. Usually Gleaming would at least try to read through one of the old magazines scattered over the many little tables between the seats. There was always the faint hope of finding an article in the -Canterlot Canterer- she had not read yet, even though it was printed two weeks ago. Even old gossip was sometimes juicy!

Today she no such luck however, as the changelings drug still prevented Gleaming from moving freely about and forced her to stay in one place.

Despite Gleaming having a first row ticket to the interaction behind changeling and dragon, and the card game they played, it proved to be only a minor source of distraction. The main reason for that was not the game itself, Gleaming had a fair idea of the rules by now, but rather the outcome of each round the duo played.

Pokey always won. Always.

Which made one very happy dragonling and a grumpy changeling.

With every game that ended, the changeling appeared to became increasingly frustrated with the cards, as he spend an ever increasing amount of time to mix the stack after each loss. Also he glared almost visible daggers at the printed fruits backside.

´What a sore loser…´

While the game itself served little, to kill the time for herself, it did at least occupy the changeling enough, that Gleaming felt it safe to try and access her magic. She repeatedly summoned small amounts of energy and found no immediate discomfort with it. When the power left her horn though, the troubles started.

Firstly, even the smallest amount Gleaming was able to summon and maintain, demanded a lot of concentration from her. So much that she had to close her eyes on each attempt and she was sure that sweat formed on her forehead. This would render her horn useless, if she had to stop midfight and go into an almost sleep-mode to cast!

Secondly, as soon as she dropped the summoning of her power, it left her with a feeling of utter exhaustion all over her body. Her muscles ached, her head throbbed and she felt hungry enough to gobble up the entire menu at McBurgers. Twice!

It reminded her a lot of the first days of horseshoecamp, when all she could do was drop dead into her bunkbed and hope there would not be an alert exercise that night.

To sum it up: Gleaming was screwed.

At least if she tried to rely on her magic in fight.

The power tests revealed a glimmer of hope however, as Gleaming mentally went through the necessary charge levels needed for utiliy spells. A lightspell was not much, basically just charging ones horn to glowing levels and densening the amount of power in the tip, but better than nothin. Also with a little more time to heal, maybe she had a chance at recovering her telekinesis as well!

“Aw cmon! How can something simple be so hard?!”

The outcry called Gleaming back to the events unfolding in front of her muzzle. As expected the changeling once again lost the card game and a cheering Pokey was waving his arms through the air.

Gathering up the cards strewn about and rearranging them to a single stack, before putting them away, the changeling spoke towards the victorious dragonling, “Alright, alright I concede. I ll get a different set of cards next time.”

“Meheheheheheheh!”

“Yea, yea just you wait, I will find a game to beat you in! No one has Fortuna on his side forever!”

´I highly doubt that. And who the buck is this Fortuna? The dragons mother maybe?´

*ding*

*beep*

“Mister Pearce, head over to Examination 1 with your luggage, Doctor Nemora will see you now.”

´Ah it’s the employee of the month again. But who is-´

As if to answer her question, the changeling suddenly rose up to his full height again. Then he turned and held out his foreleg in Pokeys direction, to which the dragonling responded in jumping up and climbing along its length, until he was safely seated in the changelings neckarea again.

´That´s his name?!´

The changeling bend down a little and moved his forelegs under her to grab onto Gleamings form from below. She felt his forelegs wiggle, to gain a firm grip, before lifting her from the seat.

When he got up and rightened his spine, Gleaming saw, that the other seat, with the snake and crab on it, was now vacant. She must have zoned out completely with her focus on magic testing to have missed their call coming up. Moving towards the reception area and banking hard right, changeling “Pearce” carried Gleaming through a door on the opposite site of Examination 2.

The inside of which was brightly lit, so bright infact, that Gleaming was forced to blink a couple of times. Before she realised it, Gleaming was dropped on a hard flat surface in the rooms center, with a light right above her head. Gleaming tried to get a better look but found herself limited in her movement still. Once again Gleaming found herself lying on her side and from her current location, she could only take a look at about half of the room.

From what she could see though, the room was mostly covered in light blue tiles and had a cupboard, shelfes and a half-table on every free spot on each wall, which left hardly any room to move between the central table, she was lying on, and the edge of the furniture. Metallic looking instruments were lying on a few of the free surfaces or strapped to the walls. Lastly, Gleaming could spot one half of a window, which must have covered the entire walls opposite the door, out of the corner of her eye.

Except for the entry, there was no other way in or out of the room within her sight. Said entry had been closed by “Pierce” with a kick from one of his hindhooves, which caused it to shut with a small click.

´Speaking of doors…´

Gleaming heard the telltale noise of a door being being opened behind her, which must be the one the doctor was supposed use to switch between the patients, like in any Equestrian horspital. Short steps accompanied by an audible clickclack on the tiles below, approached Gleaming from behind her. Gleaming ears swiveled back, as each stride caused the noise to get a tiny bit louder.

The clickerclacker on the tiles told Gleaming, that the newcomer had claws on their feet. And by the sounds they made, they must have been quite sharp.

Then the noises stopped and Gleaming could feel a light breath of air flowing over her body, like a predator taking in the scent of a piece of meat.

Gleaming would have been fairly sure, that the next thing to come upon her was saliva dropping down all over her body, if it was not for the fact that this place was a vet´s clinic.

She could hear the clicking of a tongue and a raspy, yet clearly female voice began to speak, “Well, I didn´t expect to see you back so soon, Aiden!”

´Aiding? Who the buck is that now?!´

The changeling came back into Gleamings sight from the left and leaned with his back against the counter of the cupboard on the wall in front of her, so that he was facing the speaker behind Gleamings back. He let out a sigh, and crossed his forelegs in front of his chest before replying, “Didn´t plan to Nem,” then he motioned with his head in Gleaming direction, “but this little bugger popped up in my ship on the way back.”

`He´s Aiding AND Pierce? Is that a regular changeling name? Aiding Pierce…almost sounds like a ponys…

…and then there was this Nem character…is this the local vet? Nemora?

Hold on a second! Did he say ship? As in a floating vessel?´

Gleaming scrammed her brain for the most recent memory of the metal box she woke up in. Back then It did not resemble a ship at all to her. Let alone the fact it was made out of metal. Anypony with the least bit of sense in them, would be aware that a metal ship could never float without magic, and would promptly sink to the bottom of the ocean or fall out of the sky.

The clickerclacker moved to the window somewhere on the right and Gleaming heard a drawer being opened and somepony rummaging through its contents, before the female voice filled the air again, “Really? Ohh, poor thing! Any leads on how she ended up in there?”

Gleaming ears perked up instantly. This was a topic she was burning to know about!

Was she finally about to have some luck and find out what exactly happened to her?

The changelings eyes dropped down from the doctor, who was out of sight to Gleaming, into Gleamings orbs. Aiding seemed to go into himself for a moment, as he kept eye contact, thinking things through.

´Come on! Spill it!´

…

“I don’t have any actual clue.”

´CELESTIA BUCKING DAMMIT!´

There went Gleamings hopes for an easy way out.

“But I do have a couple of ideas.”

Now that had Gleamings interest! Finally something useful!

The airflow on Gleamings fur from above told her, that Nemora had moved into her first spot again and was likely leaning over her body once more. Was she using the examination table as support?

“Oh? I´m all ears, you do know I like me a good story!”

*flap* *flap* *flap*

The purple dragon, formerly perched in the changelings neck, had apparantly decided to not be left out and landed in front of Gleamings muzzle. Immediately after touching down he loudly proclaimed his presence and waved his paws through the air, “Wah-wah!”

Silence permated the air as every occupant of the small room looked at the cause of the sudden interruption, until a chuckle behind Gleaming broke it.

“Oh, I´m truly sorry Mister Pokey, how could I ever forget to greet you as well? Hello there and good evening!”

´Evening?´

“Meheheheheheheh!”

Seemingly satisfied with his achievement, the dragon placed his paws on his belly and went silent as he sat on his haunches, while his eyes kept looking towards the doctor behind Gleaming.

Clearing his throat the changeling took up the conversation with the doctor again, “To be fair Nemora, you haven´t properly greeted me either.”

“Pffff, pishpash! We see each other often enough. But let´s not get off topic here, you said you have some ideas to my latest patients origins?”

The changeling hummed to himself, “…some ideas yes, but nothing solid. Yet.”

“Care to share? It might kill some time, while I do my work.”

Suddenly Gleaming became very aware again, that she was about to be checked through from head to tail like a newly bought Manehattian gold carriage. The slapping sound of gloves being put on by the vet, made Gleaming even more anxious as to what her checkup would entail.

It did not appeal to her at all.

Not the slightest bit.

As Nemora moved around to face Gleaming from the front, the unicorn could see her entire form for the first time in this room. Nemora was part of the snake-race, which Gleaming had spotted outside, and wore a white labcoat, fitting her profession. A few specks here and there were visible but nothing to bad. Her blue scales gave the doc an aura of royalty as well as the way she elegantly moved to and fro in front of Gleaming, her tail never even touching the ground. Various golden accessoires pronounced her features, especially around her head and along the fin and spikes on top, until it reached her neck. Two white bracelets with glowing dots on them kept the labcoat from slipping over her handclaws. Despite the many pointy teeth she revealed by keeping her mouth slightly ajar, she had a genuine and kind expression on her face at all times.

As the doc moved about and did her job, the changeling and Nemora kept a light conversation going.

“Alright, were to start…better wrap this up from the beginning…”, changeling “Aiding Pierce” stated more to himself than anypony within the room, then halted and looked towards the ceiling. A thing he did regularly as Gleaming noted from the encounter in the waiting-lobby. Was it to hide his eyes or to gather his thoughts?

“…as already said, I was on my way back from Telephus station-”

“Oh the new plant they started up a week back?”, Nemora interrupted him as she moved her gloved claws through Gleaming mane and fur. Occasionally she would move the hairs apart to check the skin beneath, humming and clicking her tongue. She was moving quite fast! Was this by experience or haste?

“Yes, exactly. I was there to get some spare parts for the windmill on the farm. As you certainly know, they have quite the low prices for spares right now, as they got delivered to much last cycle.”

Nemora had Gleamings muzzle in her grip now and was in the process of opening her patients mouth, “Yes, yes, I heard about it, get to the good parts already!”

Raising an eyebrow, if he had one (but the part above the eyesocket moved!), Aiding went on, “As I left the station, everything was normal and I plotted the course back home. Nothing unusual at the dock, a normal boring launch and a regular flight until approximately the halfway point. Then suddenly I have an FTL-dropout, due to cooling failure.”

Nemora was shining into Gleamings eyes with a bright light held in her claw, forcing the unicorn to blink. The whole examination was highly distracting, but so far bearable for Gleaming, as her attention was on the changeling and his story. Gleaming did not understand any of the nerd-speak nor did she recognise the place meantioned, yet it was all she was going to get in terms of intel for now. And if she was to survive here, she needed all the info she could get her hooves on, especially about this changeling and his machinations.

“Go on.”

´Yes, go on! Tell me your secrets!´

“When I went to check, I found her lying on the floor of the machineroom, out cold, and someone had drilled a massive hole in the pressure cylinder of the cooling unit for the FTL.”

Gleaming felt her ears being stretched and something cold was inserted in her ear channel, “Ooh I love a mystery!”

“Quite, as if that wasn´t odd enough, burned paper was scattered all around her.” Aiding paused, “I don’t have any paper anywhere close to the engines, as that would easily catch fire in there.”

´Uh oh….probably leftovers from Twilights precious collections…´

Gleaming made a mental note to find out, upon her return, which books were lost in her departure. Hopefully it were not to many…

Starting pay in the guard never made anypony rich after all. Even if she was gathering danger payment right now.

At least she hoped she did.

“I did a first quick checkup on her, got her as comfy as possible and told Pokey to watch her, while I went to fix the FTL. Only problem was, I just had a smaller version of the destroyed part. So it took me a bit before I managed to squeeze it in place.

After that, I heard Pokey chatting, excitedly as he always does-“

“Weeeeee!”

“… and went back to check on her.”

Nemora briefly stopped in her actions, “And what happened next?”

When no answer came, she propped her claws on her hips and leaned towards the changeling, “None of this explains, why you of all people have sedated a pony! I know they are usually at ease around you, but this is a new one.”

Staring intensely into Gleamings eyes, Aiding explained himself, “That’s just the thing, I don´t know what went wrong.” He paused, “Pokey was animatedly chatting with her one moment and she wasn´t scared the slightest bit! But when I stepped into view, her face almost froze solid and a few seconds later, she was attacking me as if her life depended on it!”

´Because it did!´

Silence was all that came from Nemora when Aiding finished talking, closely followed by an incredulous stare she shot between pony and changeling. Gleaming expected a large range emotions to sprout fourth from Nemora at any given moment now, but what actually happened caught her completely off-guard.

She laughed.

Hard.

So hard in fact, that Nemora had to support herself by holding onto her own belly. Breathing large gulps of air, as her laughter travelled through the buildings interior, she made multiple attempts to calm herself, but failed four times before catching herself again.

Pokey meanwhile added in his own laughter to it and applauded the jovial mood.

Gleaming felt left out. ´Uhh, what did I miss?´

“Oh…haha…this is….this is rich! The famous pony-whisperer being unable to restrain a wounded unicorn!” Nemora appeared to lapse into another laughing fit at her own summary of the events, and held herself up by leaning with one arm on a table nearby.

´A changeling being famous!? Wouldn´t that contradict anything about them being hidey and sneaky? And what is a pony-whisperer? Some kind of magic flute?

That’s it!

Maybe that’s the changelings secret! A magic flute to make ponys and other creature do as he pleases! He couldn’t have used it today though, Gleaming would have seen it…maybe it was not on him at the moment?´

Gleaming felt Nemoras other claw ruffle through her mane, “Well done, little one!”

´Little one?´ Last time she checked, Gleaming found herself to be average height for mare her age!

Aiding seemed less amused at Nemoras jovial outbreak and busied himself with glaring daggers at the laughing vet, “If you´re done laughing your tail off, at my expense, you may want to take a look at her bottom end. Or her flanks to be more precise.”

“Hmm? Oh? Ooohh! That’s not looking good!”

The cheer in the vets voice dropped out so fast, that Gleaming found herself worrying as well, despite not feeling anything out of place.

´What´s so bad?´

As if to answer her question Nemora picked up the conversation again, “Hmm that’s peculiar. I have only ever seen a few of those, but never on a pony before…and never so clean!”

´What kind of mark on my bottom end would-

My cutie-mark?!´

Aiding hm-hmed and chimed in, “After our little struggle I took a closer look at my stowaway and found that. It may very well explain her sudden aggression.”

Nemoras tone took on a very serious note, “Ever seen this version of it? I know you get around a lot.”

“No, and that worries me greatly. If the Syndicate is expanding their animal fighting business, the authorities need to act. Therefore, upon landing, I called the Marshalls office to visit me tomorrow.”

“Good move, maybe they know which part of the syndicate uses this kind of symbol.”

`This is no mark of an animal fighter for a crime syndicate! That’s my very own cutie-mark and I´m very proud of it, thank you!´

…

´Also there is no need to constantly poke at it!!!´

During her internal rant, Gleaming wiggled about and to her own surprise her flank actually moved! Enough at least to cause Nemora to seize her invasive action and withdraw herself from Gleamings frame, “She does not seem to like us touching it.”

“Which just confirms my theory, if its sensitive like that. It may even serve as a trigger.”

´No!! You got it wrong!´

Changeling and snake lapsed into silence again, until Nemora moved out of Gleamings sight and ,by the sounds of it, rummaged through another drawer. A few seconds passed and Gleaming felt a slight sting on her shoulder.

“I´m running a large blood test on her, to see if she has had any repercussions from her-“ Nemora seemed to spit the word “-matches.”

“I was gonna ask you to do that anyhow, as you clearly got the better Equipment.”

“Hrm-hrm, and that equipment does not pay for itself, Mister.”

Aiding seemed to know the direction this conversation was being steered into, “Alright, what do I owe you for this?”

Nemora realized the opportunity she had with him and her voice took on a certain predatory edge, “Ohh anyone else I would´ve made pay for this. Let us summarize, yes?

First you barge in late, even later than my after closing hours last minute calls. Second you do my job with that Urobo for me. And last you cause Bethy to miss her date.

So I´d say you owe me big!”

Raising a non-existential eyebrow, Aiding peered at Nemora, “What do you have in mind?”

“Weeellll, as you certainly know, my little nephew is coming off age and needs to find a place for himself and I could really use another hand or claw in here. So if you could kindly help me out and give him the year on your farm for free, I would consider letting you off easy…”

Sighing Aiding replied, “Throw in Scarletts treatment next week, and I´ll see if he isn´t half bad. Does he have any experience with animal handling at all?”

Nemora removed the gloves from her claws as she moved back into view and clasped the appendages in front of her face, as she answered in the sweetest tone possible, “He´ll get better with you in no time, I´m sure!”

Aiding snorted, “No better or worse than the last guy you send to me…” He slowly facehoofed and dragged the hoof downwards, “Alright, I´ll see what I can do. No promises though!”

Bouncing a little with joy Nemora hugged the gruffy changeling, “Thank you so much!”

Gleaming took a long careful look at the pair. Was there a tiny smile on the changelings face just now? No, almost certainly not, she must have imagined it…