Forbidden Flowers

Chapters

Chapter 1: Coffee in Manehatten
Chapter 2: Another Day on the Job
Chapter 3: To Kill a Killer
Chapter 4: Meeting in the Night
Chapter 5: Settling One's Mind
Chapter 6: Confiding in a Friend
Chapter 7: Recompense
INTERLUDE

Chapter 1: Coffee in Manehatten

The train pulls up at Hayston station, screeching to a halt and letting off its passengers. A changeling Heer officer steps off the train, carrying a large brown suitcase in her green magic. She takes a moment to breathe in and appreciate the sights and sounds. Hayston station is huge, made as the hub of travel for the entire eastern Equestrian seaboard. Long, black banners emblazoned with the trident of the Changeling Hegemony hang from the ceiling at regular intervals, illuminated from spotlights shining down on each of them. Sunlight pours through the domed, glass roof, providing the rest of the station’s light and causing an echo-like effect for the many conversations being held below. Ponies and changelings alike meander through the crowds, entering and exiting their respective trains or passing through customs. Some armed Heer soldiers stand near the exit, on the lookout for any trouble. It looks and feels so different from the hives, but not in a bad way. This place feels more inviting if nothing else.

Nyceris smiles, excited to finally be deployed, especially to somewhere so thrilling as Manehatten. It’s been one year since the Great War ended, and while she was in officer’s training during that time, she knows that there is still much to be done to secure Equestria, and for that, is ready to serve the Hegemony. She pulls her suitcase along as she begins walking towards customs. There is a long line of ponies standing in front of it, and another, much shorter line for changelings. She goes and stands in that line and waits. While waiting she can’t help but think about her future here.

“Okay Nyceris, you got this. This is what you’ve been training for.” She thinks, straightening her hat with her magic. “I hope I get somewhere exciting! Maybe near Bridleway? Regardless, it’s bound to be better than the academy.”

The line shortens, and eventually it is her turn. She steps forward towards the somewhat imposing customs station. A changeling officer sits in the booth, holding a ledger and a pen in his magic as his eyes meet hers. “Name and reason for visit?” He asks blandly, clearly too bored to put any emotion into his words.

She clears her throat and speaks. “Oberfeldwebel Nyceris. I’m here on deployment for the city garrison.”

He suddenly looks much more alert, and sharply salutes. “Oberfeldwebel! Apologies ma’am, I didn’t see your rank badge.”

Nyceris feels a tinge of embarrassment at the overly respectful display, adjusting her uniform with her hoof out of habit. Since she doesn’t want to make the same mistake, she looks at his badges to check. “At ease Unteroffizier. I just need to get through here to head to my post.”

“Of course, ma’am.” She hands him her documents, and he takes them with his magic, easing his posture. “Anything to declare?”

“No. Just my carry-on bag.” She gestures to her suitcase. He nods, and stamps her passport, then hands it back to her.

“Welcome to Manehatten officer.”

“Thank you.” She puts away her documents and carries on through the gate towards the station’s exit. She nods to the soldiers on her way past, and they respectfully nod back.

She emerges into the streets of Manehatten, and is instantly swarmed with all the sights and sounds and smells of the city in the morning. There are ponies absolutely everywhere, mixed together with the occasional changeling, including several patrols marching through. Multi-story brick apartments line the streets, with cars of all sorts driving down the roads in the middle. The sounds of conversation, car engines, and other big city noises are nearly overwhelming, and the smells of food, oil, concrete, and ponies is similarly hard to deal with. Despite it all, Nyceris’ eyes widen, and she can’t help but feel drawn to the place. “This is all so different from back in the Hives, but I think I am going to like it here.”

Shaking her head to pull herself out of her trance, she begins trying to orient herself. “Now, just to head to the right guardpost.” She pulls out the paper containing her orders and reads it. “District 7, southeast Bronclyn, position TBA by superior.” She flutters her translucent wings as much as would be acceptable in public. “Down near the port! I bet a ton of stuff happens there! Now I just need to get a bus.”

She searches for a little bit, being forced to ask some passing soldiers for directions, but eventually finds herself a bus stop, and boards once it arrives. She takes a seat near the window, throwing her suitcase in the seat next to her. She looks out the window and watches the scenery pass by as the bus ferries her to her destination. Hundreds of apartments and shops pass by, signs and entryways zooming past her vision as the bus carries along. She looks down at all the pedestrians going about their business. “There’s so many ponies here. I don’t think I’ve seen this many in my entire life.” A small pit forms in her stomach, causing her to worry. She knows she’s good at her job, and has all the training the Hegemony can offer, but despite that she still feels nervous. “What if I’m not good enough to control them? What if they try to fight back and I can’t stop them?”

Her thoughts carry on like that for a while until she finds her resolve. “No. I have to do my best, and it will be enough. There’s nothing that a bunch of ponies can throw at me that I can’t handle.” She smiles, thinking about ponies trying in vain to stop the Hegemony.

A few minutes pass, and she is suddenly drawn back to the world when she hears the squeal of the bus’s breaks. She looks around and notices that she is at her stop, somewhere in southeastern Bronclyn. The vague smell of salt hits her nose as the doors open, and she shuffles into the aisle, grabbing her suitcase in her magic. Stepping out onto the dull, concrete sidewalk, Nyceris pulls out her orders and reads them again, just to reassure herself. She looks up once more, and checks the names of the nearest streets. “SE Trotter’s Way and Celestial Ave? Who names their streets like that?! Numbers are way more efficient!” She hangs her head downward and her face scrunches in frustration. “Stupid ponies don’t even know how to name things properly. How am I supposed to find where I’m going like this?”

She tries wandering around at random, hoping that her destination is nearby, but instead she just wastes a bunch of time going through unfamiliar streets, passing unfamiliar buildings and unfamiliar ponies. Eventually, she starts to get desperate. She spots a pair of changeling soldiers patrolling on the other sidewalk, and she briskly walks across the street towards them, waving a hole-filled leg to let them know she’s coming. “Sorry to bother you, I am trying to find the District 7 HQ, but I am a bit lost. Could you point me in the right direction?”

The two soldiers obey without word, and the one on the left points her hoof down a nearby street. Nyceris nods her head in acknowledgement. “Thank you. Carry on.”

The soldiers give her a quick salute and continue along their patrol. She follows their instructions and travels along the road they pointed at. After about a block and a half of walking past more same-looking brick apartments and shops, she arrives at a large corner building with the words ‘District 7’ written over the front entrance. It is three stories tall, with Hegemony banners draped over all the windows of the second and third floors. Relieved to have finally arrived, Nyceris walks towards the entry door. There is a guard posted outside, though she looks bored out of her mind, and is leaning against the wall smoking a cigar.

Nyceris approaches her and greets her in an official-sounding voice. “Hello. Is this the District 7 headquarters?”

The guard turns towards her and looks up at her officer’s cap. Her eyes go wide and she pulls her cigar out, coughing out smoke. After taking a second to pull herself together, the guard stands at attention and salutes. “Officer, ma’am. My apologies for my slackness.”

Nyceris gives her an awkward smile. “As you were soldat, it’s alright. I just need to meet with the district commander. Are they present?”

She loosens up some more, and hastily responds. “Yes ma’am. He is on the second floor. Go right on ahead.” She gestures with her hoof to the door.

“Thank you soldat… um…” She looks to her to answer.

“Retrin ma’am.”

“Thank you Retrin.” She opens the door with her hoof and walks through, paying her no further heed.

The inside of the headquarters is made up of brick walls and a wood floor, with vertical windows spaced evenly along the outward faces of the building. There are several soldiers sitting at a group of circular tables off to the right, playing card games and doing general camaraderie, and in front of her is a long reception desk with an officer sitting in a chair using a typewriter. The left of the room is blocked off by a wall, with a closed door on the far side and an open area with stairs leading up. From the looks of it, this had to have been some type of inn or hotel before being repurposed for the military.

The officer looks to her as the door closes behind her. “Ah, you must be the new officer the commander requested.”

Nyceris nods. “Yes, I am. Oberfeldwebel Nyceris reporting.”

She hears some shuffling sounds, and sees that the officer is looking through a pile of papers which she assumes are her documents. After a minute, he finds the one he’s looking for and looks up to meet Nyceris’ eyes again. “Here you are Oberfeldwebel.” He hands over a piece of paper to her using his magic. “Just read that over and sign at the bottom.” He pauses for a second before continuing. “This is just to make sure that your arrival is recorded and such. Bureaucratic stuff.”

“Right. Do you have a pen? I seem to have forgot mine.” She says, somewhat ashamed of the fact.

“Of course.” He pulls out a pen and places it next to the paper.

She skims over the document and signs her name on the line, then hands it back to the officer. He smiles, and points towards the stairs. “The commander is in his office, fourth door on the right on the second floor.”

She nods appreciatively “Right. Thank you.”

He nods back, and Nyceris pulls her suitcase along as she makes towards the stairs, but she is interrupted by the officer before she arrives. “You can leave your baggage with me until you come back down.”

“Of course, thank you again.” She floats her bag over, dropping it behind the desk, and heads up the stairs.

The second floor consists of a hallway with stairs at the opposite side and two more hallways branching to the left and right of the center. There are doors along the walls, several of which are open, as command staff rush between them going about their business, the sounds of planning and organizing abound. The electric lighting was clearly put in long after the building was built, making Nyceris wonder how old these buildings actually are.

She walks past the other changelings, who mostly seem to ignore her, just moving around her if needed. At last, she arrives at the fourth door, and knocks twice. She hears the word “Enter” in a deep, authoritative double-toned voice.

Nyceris turns the handle with her magic and pushes the door open. Inside is a well-kept changeling officer with red, iris-less eyes and a small nick in his left ear. He is sitting behind a stately desk, with a window behind him obscured by a black banner, leaving most of the room’s light to come from a single domed ceiling lamp. There is a leather couch to the side of the room, and a coat rack behind the desk. She notices the officer’s rank and performs a crisp salute.

Looking up from a report he was reading, the officer glances her up and down before speaking. “At ease. You must be Oberfeldwebel Nyceris, correct?”

She relaxes, putting her hoof down. “Yes sir.”

He seems content. “Good. Please, have a seat.” He says, gesturing to the two chairs set in front of his desk. Nyceris obeys, and goes to sit down, closing the door behind her. He waits for her to do so and then continues speaking. “My name is Leutnant Caracin. I am the commander of the District 7 garrison.”

“Well met.”

He nods, then puts his hooves together on the desk. “I figure we’ll just get right down to business if you don’t mind.” He takes her lack of response to mean she does not. “Right. So District 7 has had some problems facing terror attacks since Manehatten was first pacified. When I took command recently, I requested more soldiers to fill the garrison. We are now having a dedicated patrol squadron for every neighborhood in the district, and that is why you are here.”

Nyceris makes sure her face is paying the utmost attention, but her mind can’t help but stay on what he just said. “Terror attacks? Have the ponies really been putting up substantial resistance even a year after they surrendered? That can’t be right… it has to just be accidents or foreign spies or something.” She notices her mind drifting and returns her focus to his words.

“…and because of that I will be assigning you to the Portside neighborhood. Mostly residential, within walking distance of the wharf. The nicer housing units in the area have been seized for use by changelings of course, so you’ll be living there. Specifics of your location and duties can be found in this file.”

He pushes forward a manila folder with the changeling trident on it. Nyceris grabs it, and turns back to the Leutnant. “Thank you sir. I will fulfill my duties to the best of my ability in the name of the Queen.”

“See that you do.”

As Nyceris stands to leave, Leutnant Caracin raises his hoof. “One more thing. I read your report from the academy. It seemed to me that you get along well with one Feldwebel Scutellum who was in the same class as you. Seeing as how we need everyling working at their best, I took the liberty of having him deployed here to work with you.”

Nyceris can hardly believe what she’s hearing. “Scutellum is here?!” She says, trying to contain the elation in her voice. He was a classmate of hers in the academy. They would always sit next to each other in class, and were pretty close outside of school as well.

“Yes, he arrived just yesterday. He should already be on duty down in Portside now.”

“Thank you very much sir.” She says as she salutes, happiness clearly present as she speaks. “We won’t let you down.”

He waves her away, and Nyceris is sure she catches the barest hint of a smile as he does so. She makes sure to take the file folder with her and leaves the room, turning to head back downstairs. The soldiers playing cards seem to be in the process of returning to their duty, leaving the room feeling much less jovial than it did moments prior.

She opens the file once she gets to the bottom and reads the contents. It provides instructions for her duties in detail, as well as her new living accommodations and address. It comes with a list of subordinates, as well as defining the area for which she will oversee. She only skims it for now, mainly focused on the address so she knows where to go.

She folds the file back up and makes for the exit. Seeing her approach, the reception desk officer floats her suitcase over the desk to her, and she picks it up with her own magic. She smiles at him. “Thank you for holding my bag.”

“No problem Ma’am. Good luck with your duties.”

Nyceris opens her suitcase and places the file folder inside so she doesn’t lose it. She notices a shelf next to the door she didn’t see on her way in. It contains a number of brochures and other papers, seemingly about the district and regulations and the sort. Spotting a pile of maps among them, she seizes one with her hoof and leaves the building, walking past Retrin on her way.

She travels by hoof to her destination, following the newly acquired map the best she can. The city’s layout is nothing short of chaotic, and everything is named instead of just having numbers like she’s used to, but despite that she manages to reach her garrison post just fine.

The exterior of the Portside garrison post is very similar to the District 7 headquarters, but much smaller and with only one side facing the street. She opens the door and walks in. The building clearly used to be a store, with empty display windows to the left and right in the front and a counter to the left. Stairs leading both up and down are on the far side, and a pair of soldiers stand off to the right, talking about nothing of consequence.

Nyceris takes a deep breathe, committing this place to memory. This is her post, and the soldiers here under her command. “I can hardly believe I’m finally here! I’ve dreamed of this day since enrolling in the academy, and it’s finally happening! And Scutellum should be here too!” She looks around, not seeing anyling besides the two soldiers. “Perhaps he's upstairs?”

She goes upstairs into what seems to be a repurposed apartment. There are several office spaces in the open area with several changelings working at them, and sure enough one of them is the changeling she's looking for. She strides forward, smiling warmly. “Scutellum! It’s good to see you!”

The slender, green-eyed changeling looks up from his paperwork, and upon seeing her his face stretches into a smile as well. “You’re finally here! Welcome to Portside!” His voice is cunning and smooth, just as she remembers.

Standing directly to the side of his desk now, Scutellum has to stand too, to face her properly. “Thank you! I’m glad to finally be here.”

“And just in time too. You may be the commanding officer here, but until you arrived I was, so I’ve been doing your paperwork for you.” He levitates a big stack of papers and files and drops them in front of Nyceris.

Her smile turns to faux fear. “Do I really have to do all of this?

“Yep. It’s not easy running a garrison squadron you know. You’re lucky I didn’t just save it all for you to do.”

She scoffs. “I guess.”

“But we can do that later. You just got here, and most of the squadron is on patrol right now. Why don’t we both take a little time off to celebrate your arrival, hm?”

She looks at him quizzically. “What do you have in mind?”

He speaks as he walks out from his office space. “Well, we used to get coffee a lot at the academy, so I was thinking we could go to a café or something. I saw a nice-looking one while on patrol last night. We could check it out if you’d like?”

Nyceris smiles. “That sounds great! Can I just leave my suitcase here for now? I haven’t had a chance to go to my housing unit yet.”

He points to an area next to his desk. “You can just leave it there. We can pick it up when we get back.”

“Okay. Thanks.” She moves the suitcase over to the spot he specified and leaves it there as the pair head downstairs.

They walk out onto the sidewalk, catching up on things they missed. Scutellum is telling Nyceris all about his one day as if he’s been here for months. “…but yeah, Portside isn’t the most flashy place in Manehatten or anything, but it has some character. The apartments we get are much bigger than the housing units in the hives, and nicer too.” Nyceris is listening as they walk, thinking about all the things she will be able to do here.

Scutellum continues. “And the ponies around here pretty much do anything you say. It’s great.”

Nyceris gives him a suspicious glance. “You’re not abusing that power too much I hope?”

He smiles flatly in response. “Don’t worry, I have my fun every once in a while but I know my limits.”

“Uh huh. Sure.”

Scutellum picks up on her sarcasm, and looks a little offended. “Hey! I’ve become much more professional since I graduated you know. I’m responsible now.” He stops and pounds his chest with his hoof.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

He sighs, then moves to keep up pace with her. “I suppose I deserve that. Still, we’ll be working together from now on, so I’ll have plenty of chances to prove it.”

They carry on in silence for a few minutes, allowing Nyceris to look around a bit. She notices two ponies, seemingly a father and child, coming in the opposite direction they are. Upon seeing her and Scutellum, the father ushers his foal into the street to allow them to pass. She meets eye contact with him for a brief moment, but he quickly looks away, clearly fearful. She doesn’t know why, but the exchange makes her stomach churn.

Scutellum meanwhile, remains completely unfazed. He keeps heading forward, and before she knows it, they have reached the place he was leading them to. “Ah, here it is. Quaint, isn’t it?”

Nyceris looks up at the words printed on the glass walls of the first floor. It says ‘Olive Branch Café’ in bold, white letters with a green outline, written in Equestrian. Inside it looks like a fairly cozy café, not unlike those in the hives. There are some tables off to the side with chairs next to them set up against the dark green wallpaper, several of which have patrons, mostly ponies but with some changelings as well, sitting at them, sipping their drinks and eating their pastries. At the back of the room is the serving counter, where a pair of ponies move about, taking orders and filling drinks for their customers.

She turns to Scutellum. “It looks rather nice. Shall we?”

He gestures towards the door with one hoof. “After you.”

Nyceris pulls the door open with magic, and a small bell attached to the handle jingles quietly. The two officers walk into the café, drawing the attention of a few ponies, who try to look like they are not watching them. “It's not like we're here to hurt you. Go back to your coffee.”

She walks up to the cashier, looking at the menu written on a chalkboard hung above the counter. She can read Equestrian pretty well, but many of the names for menu items include words she’s pretty sure are from other languages. After finding something she actually recognizes, she turns towards the barista. “I’ll have a…”

She finds herself paused for a moment as she meets eyes with the pony in front of her. She is an earthpony, with a deep purplish-red coat and a cream-colored mane tied up in a bun. She is wearing a plain, green apron and glasses, which only serve to accent her rose-colored eyes. Her face is quite pretty for a pony, but looks unsure. Then her muzzle opens to speak. “Yes?” She says, sounding a little nervous.

Nyceris shakes her head to refocus herself and tries again. “I’ll have a medium caramel latte please.”

The strangely entrancing pony nods, and picks up a pen with her mouth, writing it down on a piece of paper. She then looks up to Scutellum for his order. Nyceris stands off to the side while he tells the pony his order. “I’ll have a double expresso and a vanilla scone.”

The pony writes down his order and very politely says “I'll have that for you in just a minute.”

Scutellum throws a couple of bits on the counter, and Nyceris goes and sits down at an empty table, followed shortly thereafter by Scutellum. He gives her that look that says he’s trying to figure something out about her, which has always made her uncomfortable. In an attempt to change his focus, she starts conversation. “So, how are the other changelings at our post? Do they… do good work?”

Her ploy seems to have worked somewhat, as he shifts mostly back to his normal half smile. “Yes, they do. Though not much happens around here so they are mostly just bored. Maybe you should try giving them some more exciting things to do than patrol. I’m sure that’d boost morale and whatnot.”

“Maybe. Though what would I even give them to do?”

He looks at her wryly. “I don’t know, I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

The pony from before comes over carrying a tray in her mouth. She places it on their table gently as to not spill the drinks. “Thank you.” Nyceris says softly. The pony quickly nods in acknowledgement and hurries off.

She pulls her latte off the tray and brings it to her mouth, ready to take a sip when Scutellum remarks on her words. “You know you don’t have to say ‘thank you’ to ponies right?”

Nyceris lowers her coffee, opening her mouth to speak without thinking but deciding better of it. Her ‘thank you’ was very much not intentional, but he doesn’t need to know that. So she quickly comes up with something to say as justification. “Well, I’m trying to show that ponies don’t need to be afraid of us, and it would be hard to do that if we don’t ever speak to them properly.”

Scutellum suppresses a laugh. “Changelings are supposed to dominate ponies, not befriend them.”

She looks down nervously. “I know, but still. It would be nice…”

For once he doesn’t speak, instead taking a bite out of his scone. She takes the opportunity to sip her coffee. “Hm, it’s pretty good for something not made in the hives.”

The two finish their drinks in silence so awkward it's palpable, then get up to leave. “I rather like this place; we should come back sometime.” She says nonchalantly, hoping that Scutellum has already forgotten about their previous conversation.

“Sure, it can be our new place like we had back in Vesalipolis.”

“I’d like that.”

The two changeling officers walk out of the café, ready to return to their duties in service of the Hegemony.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading the first chapter of my first fic on this site! Hopefully you enjoyed, and I appreciate feedback if you have it.

Chapter 2: Another Day on the Job

It’s been a whole year since the unimaginable happened. Since the changelings pushed Equestria to the brink, and forced their surrender. Since her life changed irreparably and forever.

Orchid writes down another customer’s order. She works at a café as a barista, and has done so ever since the changelings came along. She used to work at a floral shop before the war, something she loved doing, but the necessity of wartime forced her to take up employment at a military factory, making ration kits for the soldiers on the front. The war ended of course, and the florist closed, so she had to find somewhere else to make a living.

“Stupid changelings, ruining everything.” She pours some expresso into a paper cup, followed by milk and cream. As much as she wishes she could say things like that to somepony, she knows she can’t. The changelings are always watching, and many of them take any excuse to be cruel to ponies like her. It all just makes her incredibly frustrated, and most of all scared.

She’s thought about doing something about it before, such as joining the rebellion, but she knows she’s just a regular earthpony, and no fighter. All she knows how to do is keep her head down, do her job, and try to live her life, even under changeling occupation.

She places the lid on the cup, and puts it on a tray, which she picks up with her mouth to bring to her customer. “Here you are ma’am.” She says after placing the tray down in front of a pegasus. She smiles and thanks her, and afterward she walks back behind the counter and plops down in a chair. The morning coffee rush is always exhausting, especially because she has to work with Sun Lily. Her coworker is currently at the register, awaiting any customers. Orchid knows she’s not a bad pony or anything, she’s just annoying and very bad at her job. She also knows her boss keeps her around just because she’s pretty and good with the customers, but he’s not the one that has to redo an order every time she messes one up.

She sighs, leaning her head back against the wall. “Only 8 more hours before I can go home.” Mercifully there are no customers coming in right now, allowing a space where she can breathe a little, though her current train of thought doesn’t exactly help her relax. “Perhaps I should think about something else… Let’s see… Sky Scraper’s birthday is coming up soon, I should probably get him something. What does he like again? Rocks? Maybe I should find a fancy rock for him or something.”

The bell on the door jingles, ending her moment of respite. She looks over to see who came in and freezes up. “Shit, it’s those two officers again!” Or at least she’s pretty sure they’re the same ones. It is hard to tell changelings apart from looks, but she recognizes the voices. They’ve come in nearly every day the last week, and it freaks her out every time. She was sure at first that they were here because the café was in trouble for some reason, but they really just seem to want their morning coffee. It would be more reassuring if she could actually hear what they talk about, but they always speak in Herzlander with each other.

She sighs again, bringing her hooves back to the ground as Sun Lily takes their order. She overhears what they say and starts making it immediately, not willing to take the risk of giving Heer officers sub-par service. Sun Lily turns around to fulfill the order, but seeing that Orchid already has it nearly finished, the unicorn just smiles and returns to the register.

Orchid rolls her eyes, and picks up the tray, bringing it over to the table the changelings chose to sit at. She sets it down carefully, and backs away, nodding respectfully. The one with blue eyes thanks her, while the other one scoffs. She quickly trots back over to behind the counter, not wanting to spend any more time near them.

“That one always thanks me…” She thinks back to every time a changeling has ever come into the café, and as far as she can remember the blue-eyed officer is the only one that ever actually thanks her like a pony would. “It’s too strange to not be a ploy of some kind. Changelings are known for deception and trickery after all. She must be trying something.”

She watches them out of the corner of her eye for the rest of the time they are in the café, and occasionally she thinks she sees the blue-eyed one look back at her. It makes her nervous. She continues doing her job like normal until they leave, and finally she can breathe a sigh of relief. “I know they’ll probably be back tomorrow, but at least I’m safe for today.”

“You were looking at those officers an awful lot, something the matter?” Sun Lily says in that annoying voice of hers. If even she picked it up, then the changeling must have.

Orchid tries to cover up the situation before Sun Lily gets any ideas. “Just making sure that they are enjoying themselves. Don’t want them to have a bad time here, now do we?”

Sun Lily clearly doesn’t pick up on her tone. “I thought you didn’t like changelings.”

At that, Orchid quickly shushes her, and looks around to make sure there isn’t anypony too close. All the customers in here right now look like ponies, but you never know with changelings. She looks back to Sun Lily and whispers. “You’re right, I don’t. But please don’t say things like that in public. You’re going to get me in trouble one of these days.” Sun Lily looks genuinely apologetic, and it makes her feel kind of bad for being harsh on her.

“I’m sorry Orchid. I know you have problems with them. I just have a hard time understanding it sometimes. I find them kinda pretty, actually.”

“Of course she does.” She speaks in an even quieter voice to make sure that only Sun Lily can hear her. “They’d be pretty if they weren’t militarily occupying us and treating us like servants!” She puts her hoof over her face and sighs. “Listen, just… be careful around them, okay? I know we may have our differences, but I don’t want you getting hurt.”

She doesn’t seem to fully understand, but she nods. Orchid takes that as the best she can probably get, and returns to work.

The pair continue their job for the rest of their shift, speaking every now and then but overall being much quieter than usual. Orchid feels a bit guilty for saying all that to Sun Lily, but she knows that they were things she needed to hear. Eventually, the sun lowers in the sky, and her shift finally ends.

She puts her apron up on a hook and grabs her saddlebag, throwing it onto her back. Sun Lily is staying behind for a bit to clean up and wait for the evening shift to arrive, which Orchid is technically supposed to be helping with, but she’s been leaving as soon as her shift ends for months and Sun Lily hasn’t really cared, so she feels it is okay. She pushes the door open and begins her trek back home.

She steps out onto the sidewalk, walking alongside the shops and stores of Portside. Many of them are boarded up, having had to close for one reason or another. Orchid watches as a car drives past her. “This place used to be a lot busier…” She keeps moving forward.

Eventually a sign catches her eye, and she looks up towards it. It reads ‘Portside Tavern’. She and her friends sometimes meet up here to get drinks and generally hang out. Orchid stops to think about it for a moment, before deciding. “Maybe just one drink.”

She pulls the door open and walks into the bar. The inside is fairly spacious for a pony bar in lower Bronclyn, with several booth seats around the walls, a small stage for the occasional performance, and of course the bar table off to the far left. Music is playing on the radio, a rerun of some concert from downtown, filling the otherwise slow environment with some more life. Only a few ponies are sitting around the tavern, eating food and drinking with their friends, leading to a much quieter atmosphere than she’s used to here, but she supposes that the bar rush hasn’t hit yet. She’s somewhat thankful for that, means she can drink in peace.

She trots up to the counter and addresses the bartender. “Hey Bluestar, how’s work today?” She’s been here enough times to know them pretty well.

Bluestar smiles warmly at her, their horn lighting up with a purple aura as a glass floats down off the shelf. “Good to see you, Orchid. It’s been a pretty slow day today, so not bad. How about yourself? You look a tired, something been happening at work.”

“Intuitive as ever.” Orchid reflects on all the times that Bluestar has helped her out before; they’re really a pillar of the pony community here. “Yeah, work hasn’t been great recently.” She sits down on one of the bar stools, pulling her front legs up onto the counter and resting her head on top of them.

They continue smiling at her sympathetically. “I’m very sorry to hear that. I know that work can be tough for anypony, especially with the Cutie Mark system long gone, and the occupation.” They pause, then continue. “Just try to keep your head up, okay? Doesn’t do yourself no good to only look at the bad.”

Orchid smiles. “Thanks for that. I’ll try my best.”

Bluestar nods. “Now can I get you something? I assume you didn’t just come here for reassurance.”

“Yeah. Could I just get a beer. Something light?”

“Of course. We have some on tap tonight.” They go over to the other side of the counter and start filling her drink.

She is resting her head when she hears a familiar pair of voices coming in through the door. She turns around to see none other than two of her best friends, Marble Mark and Sky Scraper. The grey and aqua colored stallions are joking with each other like usual as they walk up towards the counter. After a moment they seem to spot her too, and Marble Mark waves at her. “Hey! Orchid! Long time no see!”

Her day suddenly gets a lot better. “Hey! What are you two doing here on a weekday?”

Marble Mark wraps his front leg around Sky Scraper and pulls him close. “Well as you know, Sky here’s birthday is coming up in a few days, so I figured I’d buy him a drink or two to celebrate early since I’m going to be ‘out of town’ then.”

Sky Scraper pushes Marble’s leg off, nodding. “And what about you Orchid? What’re you doing here on a weekday.” He says, joking intent clear as day despite his serious-looking face.

She looks back towards the beer that has been placed in front of her. “Oh me? I’m just getting a drink before I go home. Work’s been really stressful recently.”

Marble nods. “Oh I hear ya there.”

Sky nods as well, and then gestures towards one of the booths, smiling. “Hey, since you’re here, why don’t you join us Orchid?”

She thinks for a second to make sure she has the time. “Sure, don’t got anything better to do.”

Orchid and Sky Scraper go over and find seats at a nearby booth while Marble Marks head to the counter to get drinks for the two of them. She brings her own drink with her, and starts up some conversation once she sits down. “Sorry I don’t have anything for your birthday. I was thinking about getting you something for your collection, but haven’t had the time yet.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. I’m just happy that you guys are here with me. Work’s been stressful for me too.” He looks almost forlorn thinking about it.

Orchid looks at him with concern. “Do you want to talk about it?”

The aqua-colored pegasus shakes his head. “Maybe later. I’d like to have a few drinks in me first.”

“That’s alright by me.”

Marble Returns carrying two brimming glass mugs in his maroon-colored magic, placing them down in front of Sky Scraper and himself. “There we go!” He slides into the seat next to Sky, and raises his glass. “A toast! To our good friend Sky Scraper for managing to live 25 whole years!”

Orchid picks up her beer with her hoof, and Sky does the same with his wing. They clink their mugs together, and all take a hearty swig. “Thank you guys for being my friends these past few years.” Sky says, looking the happiest she’s seen him in months. “It means a lot to me.”

Orchid smiles at him. “Of course! I’m glad to be friends with you too.” While they’re all friends now, they used to just be coworkers at the ration factory during the war, where they met each other. Marble was a teamster, and even now he continues that work in a way. Sky was just another line worker like she was, and then there was Blueberry, their manager. “Oh speaking of Blueberry…”

“Was Blueberry going to come with you?” she asks.

Marble shakes his head. “No, it was just going to be me and Sky. I figured that you and her would be there for his actual birthday. I’m just celebrating with him early because I’m not going to be here for it.”

Orchid raises her brow in curiosity. She knows what he does of course, but out of necessity she can’t know all the details. Still, she decides to try her luck to see what she can get out of him. “What’re you doing this time?”

He puffs his chest up proudly. “I’m going to be helping smuggle some ponies out of the country. It’s hard to get past those damned U-boats, but we’ll be pretending to be just a regular transport vessel.”

“That all sounds very exciting.” She looks impressed for him, because she knows he appreciates it, but she can’t help thinking about how it could go wrong. “It sounds really dangerous too. What if they catch you?” She looks to Sky to see if he’ll help with the situation, and when she notices that he doesn’t seem to be paying attention, she feels it is left to her to try to talk some caution into Marble.

She quiets her voice in case of eavesdroppers, gesturing her hooves for him to do the same, and says “Just remember to be careful out there Marble. I know that you’re a big rebellion hero and all, but that just means if the changelings catch you, it’ll be bad. Really bad.”

He furrows his brows, but thankfully follows her gestures and quiets his voice too, though he still speaks with some contention. “I’m well aware of the danger Orchid. But I wouldn’t have joined if I wasn’t ready to handle it.”

She sighs, peering down into the soft bubbling of her drink. “I now. I know you’ll be careful, I just get worried about you sometimes.”

“Well don’t be. Nothing will happen; the bugs are stupid as all Tartarus. They won’t catch us.”

“If they were so stupid then how did they win?” She finds herself staring at him off and on while the three sip their drinks in silence for a moment.

Eventually Sky breaks the ice and starts talking about less worrying subjects like the latest hoofball game or the new project he’s been working on. He works as a carpenter, and has apparently been helping renovate a fancy house in the upper city for some wealthy changeling. He speaks about how nice the neighborhood is, and how it’s a shame only changelings can live there now, as well as the differences between various types of wood, for which Orchid could not care less.

Later in the night, after a few drinks, he even opens up about what happened earlier today. A mis-balanced support beam collapsed during construction of an extension to the house, which crushed the hind leg of a coworker of his. Sky seems really freaked out having to recall the injury, and he notes that his boss was not happy about losing a worker, and made everypony else pick up the slack.

Orchid notices his distress at the memory, and tries to turn the conversation towards her work instead, which would hopefully be less stressful for him.

“…so as you probably could guess, Sun Lily is useless as ever. I almost feel bad for her sometimes.”

Marble shakes his head in mock disappointment, slamming his newly emptied mug into the table. “How dare you feel bad for that incompetent bitch! I bet she even likes the changelings that come by!”

She looks a bit remorseful at that remark. “Hey I wouldn’t go that fa…” Then she remembers what Sun Lily had told her earlier today. “I guess she did say she thought changelings were pretty earlier…”

He shakes his head again, and at this point Orchid is unsure whether he is joking or not. “See? I knew I had a bad feeling about her. Traitor on top of being lazy.”

Orchid finds herself getting a little defensive of her coworker, something she did not see herself ever doing. “She’s not all that bad. She’s just…” She pauses for a second to think about her next works. “A little naïve I guess. She doesn’t even notice when somepony is hitting on her let alone noticing how dangerous the changelings really are.”

Marble opens his mouth to speak, his face contorting in what appears to be anger, but Sky comes to the rescue and interrupts. “Enough about Sun Lily. Anything else been happening at work Orchid?”

It doesn’t take her long to think of something. “Well, there have been these two Heer officers that have been coming in the morning everyday recently. They’ve been really freaking me out.”

Sky looks concerned, and Marble’s anger immediately, and surprisingly, turns into something much more pensive. Sky manages to speak first. “Have they been doing anything worrying?”

“No, odd as it is. They just order coffee like everypony else, talk for a bit, and then leave.”

“Do you know what ranks they are? Were you able to get a look at their badges?” Marble asks.

Orchid arches her eyebrow in confusion. “Um, no. Maybe? They had little chevrons on them I think? I don’t really remember.”

Marble seems to be thinking something through after her answer, which makes her even more confused and even somewhat worried. After a moment he asks another question. “Did you ever overhear them talking?”

She shakes her head. “They always speak in Herzlander from what I can tell. I can’t understand a word. Though I know they speak Equestrian pretty well. They barely even have an accent.”

“Hmm…” Marble puts his hoof on his chin in thought, while Sky just watches the two of them in puzzlement and mild concern.

Orchid can’t help but find herself worried about what Marble has to say. “I know You’re a bit of a rebellion firebrand, and that whatever you’re thinking probably isn’t good for the changelings, but still… what are you getting at Marble?”

At last, he speaks, putting her ponderance to rest. “I have an idea, and I need to know if you are on board with it.” He looks strangely serious, and it frightens her a bit.

“Um… what is it?”

“I would like you to see if you can get some information out of them. The officers I mean. Anything you could find would be of serious help to the rebellion.”

She quickly stands up and pounds her hooves on the table, nearly knocking over her drink. “He said it so casually for how big of an ask it is, what the fuck is he thinking?!” There is some anger in her voice, and she stutters as she starts to speak. “Y-you can’t be serious, right? You want me to talk intel out of them?”

He nods calmly, seemingly uncaring of her sharp reaction to the proposal. “I know it is quite a lot to ask of you, but you’ve been provided with a unique opportunity to aid the rebellion against the changelings.”

Orchid looks dumbfounded by his nonchalance. “You know how I feel about working for the rebellion Marble.” She waves her hoof into the air for emphasis. “I make coffee for Celestia’s sake! I’m not rebel material.”

He just looks at her knowingly. “I know how much you hate the changelings Orchid. I also know the only thing keeping you from the rebellion is self-doubt. I’m not asking you to join us permanently, but at least be brave enough to help with this?”

Clearly seeing her emotions spiking, Sky tries to interject. “Stop it, Marble. She clearly doesn’t want to. Don’t pressure her like that.”

Marble just shakes his head in response. “Whether she wants to or not, we could really use the help. I’m not asking for an answer right now, but could you at least think about it?” He gives her one of those hopeful faces that he knows she has trouble resisting.

She plops herself back onto her seat and sighs heavily before speaking. “I’ll try… I’ll think about it. I know this means a lot to you. Just… give me some time, okay?”

He nods, and Sky leans into his seat looking somewhat exasperated. Orchid finds herself doing the same. “Fuck… am I really going to consider this? There’s no way I can do this. If I get caught…”

She decides that now would be a good time to make her exit. She slides out of the booth and stands up, grabbing her saddlebag as she does and slinging it over her back. “Sorry, I just realized how late it is and I have work tomorrow. Goodnight.” She turns to leave before remembering. “Oh, and happy early birthday Sky.”

“Thanks. Take care of yourself.” She walks away without answering.

She pushes open the door and starts down the street towards her house. The walk isn’t long, the tavern is basically just up the street from where she lives, but it feels like a much more arduous journey than it should be. Practically every step seems like a conscious effort, and she suddenly feels like every passerby is watching her. Inevitably her mind dwindles back to the conversation with Marble, but she quickly shakes her head to clear her thoughts. “If I allow myself to think about it I might accidentally say something and somepony… or someling might overhear! No, just hold out Orchid, you’re almost home.”

At last, she arrives at her building, a humble five-story brick apartment in the poorer part of Portside. The changelings may have taken a lot of the nicer homes in the area, but she already lived down here, so they never took her home, yet. She sighs, and opens the door, stepping into the entryway. The walls are covered in a slightly ripped, dark-green wallpaper, and there is an old red carpet leading up the creaky stairway. The smell of dust and ageing wood fills the stale air, a scent she is quite used to.

She ascends carefully to the third floor, making sure to avoid the faulty step on the second flight. “Pretty sure that one is going to hurt somepony eventually. Maybe I should see if I can get Sky Scraper to fix it. In the meantime at least everypony living here is already aware of it.”

She arrives at her door, labeled ‘#302’ in brass numbers. The brown paint is chipping off it, and the doorknob has seen better days, but it hasn’t broken yet, and she hopes it stays that way. She twists the knob with her hoof and pushes the door open, revealing the living room of her apartment. The furniture is old but well taken care of, and the tan wallpaper is holding up pretty well. Orchid normally likes to keep her apartment cleanly, but lately she’s too stressed to put in the effort, so there are some dirty dishes on the coffee table and dust accumulating in the corners.

She closes the door behind her and trots right over to the flower-patterned couch, practically falling down on top of it. She absently takes off her saddlebag and drops it onto the floor besides her. “Aughhh… why can things not just be normal like they used to.” She says to nopony in particular.

Orchid rolls over so that her face is directed up towards the ceiling. At last, she allows herself to think about Marble’s request. “Trying to get information out of a changeling officer huh?” She has to admit that she sees the logic here. She’s the only pony who has an alibi to regularly interact with them to her knowledge, well, besides Sun Lily, but even still, she has difficulty thinking of herself as a secret rebel against the Hegemony, her not wanting to aside. “That jerk… why would he ask something like this of me? And after I said I was stressed already…” She groans and puts her hooves over her muzzle.

She lays there, mulling it over in her head for what seems like hours. Fatigue begins to creep at her vision, and she knows she’ll fall asleep on the couch if she doesn’t move to her bed soon. She pushes herself to get up, and slowly meanders over to her bedroom, stepping through the open door. She quickly changes into her night clothes before laying down in her bed.

Pulling her soft patch quilts over herself, she removes her glasses and turns to place them on her nightside table, but instead her gaze is inexplicably drawn to the side. Placed between her lamp and her clock is a framed picture of her and a uniformed stallion standing next to each other, her front leg wrapped over his shoulders, both of them smiling. She winces, and pulls the lamp string, plunging the room into total darkness, save the glow of the streetlight permeating through her window drapes. She tightly closes her eyes, and pulls the covers up close. “Fine Marble. Have it your way.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading my story! I intend to update about once a week if I can with a new chapter. I appreciate feedback and please leave a like or comment if you feel like it.

Chapter 3: To Kill a Killer

The blaring ring of her alarm clock jolts her awake, causing her to spring upward. Nyceris yawns and slides out of bed. Out of habit she carefully pulls her covers tight to the frame with her magic, making sure it would pass a military inspection. She then walks slowly over to her dresser and clenches the handle, pulling the door open and revealing her uniform, as well as her few civilian clothes, hanging from hooks. She pulls out her hat and uniform, and smoothly dresses herself with a mixture of hooves and magic. Wanting to make sure she looks her best, she walks over to the bathroom. Pride swells in her chest as she looks in the mirror, checking to make sure she didn’t miss anything. She smiles, and licks her fangs. “Time for another day securing Manehatten!”

She steps out into the upstairs hallway and flips the light switch. The opaque, glass sconces on the wall light up, illuminating the sterile hall. The floor is clean, white carpet like most of the rest of her home, and the walls are clad in decorative wood and wallpaper. Besides the small holes and lack of discoloration indicating pictures and painting having been hung on the wall in the past, it is rather barren. “The Heer must have taken most of the previous owner’s belongings when the city was taken. Maybe I should get some decorations for the place? It would help fill the emptiness I see each morning.”

She ceases her thoughts on décor for now, and walks down the wooden stairs, emerging into the living room of her new housing unit. It is a townhome-style apartment that came with some pretty nice furniture, though probably just the stuff too big to have been taken already. Nyceris looks around at her spacious surroundings, from the kitchen to back up the stairs behind her, and sighs. “Do ponies really just need this much space or something? I swear this place is big enough for several changeling families to live comfortably. I guess I’ll just have to get used to it.” She slowly walks over and sits down on the cushiony couch, feeling the softness of it as she leans back. “It ‘is’ kinda of nice though…”

Suddenly, a loud ringing sound echoes across the room. Her heart jumps for a second, but when she looks over towards the noise, she realizes it is only the telephone on the wall near the door. Confused as to who would be calling her before the sun even comes up, she steps over towards the telephone and floats the receiver up to her face. “Hello, Nyceris speaking.”

A voice patches through the line, and she quickly recognizes it as Scutellum. “Hey Nyceris, we have a situation down at the post and I need you here ASAP.”

Nyceris feels a tightness in her chest. “What is it? Did something bad happen?”

“No. Well… not yet anyway. So yes? Either way I can’t tell you over telephone. Just meet me at the post. I’ll explain when you get here.”

She nods, even though she knows he can’t see. “Understood. I’ll be there soon.”

“What the fuck happened Scutellum?! I was only off duty for eight hours to sleep and something goes wrong?” She places the receiver back on the holder, and hurriedly prepares to leave. “I’ll just have to get there as fast as I can so he can explain himself.”

She briskly walks over to the entryway closet and pulls out her work briefcase and gun, strapping the gun to her sides and holding the briefcase in her magic as she closes the closet with a thud. The front doorknob twists in the grasp of green magic, and she rushes through the exit as it pulls open, slamming it behind her and locking it as fast as she can. She orients herself in the direction of the garrison post, and slides out her gossamer wings from behind her carapace, taking off just above the ground and buzzing through the air as swiftly as she can in city streets.

She passes by confused changelings and frightened ponies as she goes, and she manages to arrive in mere minutes. She lands in front of the post, tucking her wings back in, huffing from the journey. “Still got it!” She starts walking forward slowly to allow her time to catch her breath, eventually heading in through the front door and straight up the stairs past the saluting soldiers. She comes to the office space she’s quickly becoming familiar with and finds Scutellum pacing in a small circle within his desk area. He notices her before she can say anything, and he immediately takes to his much-needed explanation.

“There you are!” He says, looking uncommonly exasperated. “We have a big problem, and we have to fix it before the Leutnant finds out about it.”

Nyceris gives him an exasperated look. “Would you please tell me what happened already?”

He takes a deep breath to recompose himself, and looks back to her. “While on patrol last night, a pair of our soldiers were ambushed. The assailant killed one of the soldiers, Gefreiter Pretyrnx, but his partner was able to catch a glimpse of the terrorist before they escaped. The news hasn’t been great for troop morale. The fear of being murdered at any given moment is causing some of the newer recruits distress, and I’m afraid that if we don’t find the killer as soon as possible then we’re going to get in trouble with the Leutnant.”

Her face wrinkles in both fear and anxiety for a brief moment, before she regains composure. “Come on Nyceris, you didn’t spend four years in officer school to let a situation like this get the better of you. You got this! You are the commander, and it is your responsibility to protect your soldiers.”

She returns her gaze to him, looking much more in-control now, and tells him what she is thinking. “The Leutnant didn’t seem like the type of changeling who would punish us for losing a single soldier, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be in trouble. I think you’re right, we need to find the killer as soon as we can to give our squad peace of mind, and possibly ourselves as well.”

Scutellum nods approvingly. “Right. I figured I’d wait for you to get here, since you are the commanding officer here. I did however take the liberty to interrogate the surviving soldier about what she saw, and wrote it down in this report.” He levitates a file folder over to her, which Nyceris picks up with her own magic and reads through it.

“Incident occurred at 0140 hours as reported by Soldat Dityris; unknown pony assailant attacked and killed Gefreiter Pretyrnx with a knife while on patrol, body was recovered; assailant was a light green pony wearing a jacket and bandana, presumably an earthpony or unicorn given lack of perceivable wings; after incident, Soldat Dityris returned to the garrison post and filed a report.”

“Okay, so we already have a description.”

Scutellum nods in agreement. “We’re just lucky they were able to get a good glimpse of the assailant. Narrows down our search significantly.”

“Right. First things’ first, have the squadron blockade any exit roads to Portside, we don’t want our culprit escaping. Next you and I will lead a party to search houses for any pony fitting the description. Lastly, we will interrogate the suspects until our culprit is found.”

“Understood. I’ll get a crew together for the blockade now.”

“I’ll work on gathering search parties.”

The officers nod and head downstairs together, Scutellum immediately yelling for some troops to gather while Nyceris walks towards the operations officer. She approaches the wide-eyed changeling as he watches the frantic energy of soldiers following Scutellum outside. He only notices Nyceris when she is standing right in front of him.

His wings stretch out for a moment from the surprise, but he quickly pulls them back in. “OH! Apologies commander, I didn’t see you there.”

Nyceris dismisses his lack of awareness and moves on to the reason she is here. “Not to worry Unteroffizier. We have a situation as you may have heard, and I need for some things.”

He looks nervous, but still manages to respond cooly and professionally. “Of course commander. What do you need?”

“Well, first I’d like to speak with Soldat Dityris.”

The officer’s nervous demeanor fades away at the mention of the Soldat. “Right. Naturally.” He coughs to clear his throat. “I believe she is off duty at the moment. I figured she deserved it after what happened.”

“Have someling go and get her. In the meantime I need you to gather as many soldiers as you can while Feldwebel Scutellum blockades the neighborhood. We’re going to find the killer.”

The officer opens his mouth as if to speak, but decides better of it, and simply nods. He moves off to fulfill her orders, yelling at one of the confused soldiers standing around the post to go get Soldat Dityris. Nyceris looks around at the changelings doing everything they can to follow her instruction. “I’ve got this under control. I am in charge here. I shouldn’t have worried.”

She walks back upstairs to her desk, finding a small stack of paper and files placed on top of it neatly, likely put there by Scutellum while she was off duty. “I guess he really has changed…” Her mind can’t help but compare his newfound professionalism to the brazen and disorganized changeling she remembers from the academy. “I guess the a year of staff work really helped him pull himself together.”

Nyceris closes her eyes and opens them again, helping her reorient herself from reflection back to the task at hand. She sits down in her chair and starts briskly looking through the paperwork. “Let’s see here… mostly status reports, the incident report from last night, and several dissidence reports. I’ll have to look into those, though it doesn’t look like I have to sign anything yet. Hopefully it will stay that way.”

She closes the files and quickly put them back into an orderly stack with her magic before getting up and heading back downstairs to oversee on the operations officer’s progress. “I’ll have time to check those in detail later.” She emerges into the first floor, but sees only a single guard remaining, leaving the building feeling much emptier than it did minutes prior. There is a lot of movement and grey uniforms fluttering past the front window outside, so Nyceris walks over and pulls the door open.

In front of the post is a group of about twenty or so changeling soldiers, huddled together without much in the way of organization, but there nonetheless. The officer is speaking with a soldier who is sitting down with a portable radio set, presumably relaying orders to patrols. There are no cars travelling along the street, and any signs of ponies have long since vacated the area. “Good, Scutellum must be getting the lockdown started.”

Upon seeing their commander, the soldiers begin filing into rows, standing at attention. The officer turns from the radio operator to Nyceris, and gestures towards the assembled soldiers. “This is everyling that isn’t helping with the blockade. Called them all back from patrol.”

Nyceris nods, impressed with the efficiency. “Good. Stay at the post as dispatch.” He nods in acknowledgement while she turns to face the troops. “Good morning everyling. As you likely already know, one of our squad was killed last night by a pony assailant. This is unacceptable. The Hegemony will not tolerate terrorism. Because of this, we are going to put the entire neighborhood on lockdown. I don’t want any civilians, be they pony or changeling, leaving until we have the situation resolved. You will all be split into smaller teams to go around calling the ponies out of their homes. We are looking for a light green earthpony or unicorn, so inspect each one, and bring any ponies resembling the suspect to the station for interrogation. Am I understood.”

The soldiers all shout “Yes ma’am!” in unison.

“Good. Dismissed!”

Nyceris lowers her stance a little as the troops disperse, already starting to feel tired from having to put up an authoritative front for this long. “Today’s going to be exhausting…”

The operations officer approaches her, smile on his face. “Good work commander, I’m sure we’ll have the killer caught in no time.”

She weakly returns his expression. “I’m sure we will.” Her smile disappears and she straightens her face to one of what she hopes is pure professionalism. “Now where is the Soldat? You sent someling to find her did you not?”

“Yes ma’am, I did. They should be returning with her shortly.”

“Excellent. Direct the Soldat to my office when she arrives, I’ll be there.”

“Understood.” He salutes, and heads inside with the radio operator.

Nyceris, now standing alone in the street, lets out a breath of relief. She adjusts her uniform , and a thought crosses her mind. “This is all a lot harder than it seemed… Is this how the Leutnant feels?”

She sighs, and looks around at her surroundings. It suddenly became very quiet after all the soldiers left, and the lack of ponies in the streets only contributes to that. There aren’t any pedestrians or cars or conversations or anything like there would usually be in a Manehatten city street. Suddenly, a she sees a blur of motion in the corner of her eyes. She looks up towards it passively and sees that there is a pony watching her through a second-floor window across the street. The moment that the pony notices she can see them, they duck and close their curtains. “I guess they really are afraid of us, huh.”

She sighs again, though deeper this time, and retreats back inside the garrison post towards her office, as there is no point in remaining out here any longer. Walking past the radio dispatch station up on a table nearby, she goes straight upstairs and sits in her chair. She gathers the stack of papers from earlier, and begins sorting through the files one at a time.

Nyceris had barely even read through half a dozen of the documents when she hears the front door slam shut downstairs. She puts the paper she was holding in her magic back down on the desk, and watches as a pair of soldiers march up the stairs, though one of them is only wearing her uniform coat. They walk right up to her, and the properly uniformed one salutes. “Oberfeldwebel Nyceris! I have retrieved Soldat Dityris as requested.”

Nyceris nods. “Good, thank you. Go and see if dispatch could use your help. You are dismissed.”

She salutes again, and exits back down the stairs, leaving the anxious-looking changeling behind. Noticing that she is alone with her commander, she quickly licks her fangs and props up at attention. Nyceris gestures towards a nearby folding chair. “Please have a seat.”

Dityris complies, pulling the chair over with her magic and sitting down. She remains nervously silent.

Nyceris sees that she is failing to make eye contact, and smiles in an attempt to offer consolation. “You must be Soldat Dityris, correct?” Her voice is warm yet to the point.

Still not meeting her eyes, Dityris answers in a slightly quivering tone. “Yes ma’am.”

“You don’t have to be afraid. You’re not in trouble, I just want to know more about what happened last night with you and Gefreiter Pretyrnx.”

She looks a little less apprehensive at Nyceris’ reassurance, but finally manages to meet her eyes. They are a light purple, with a shimmer of fear still in them. Dityris remains silent for now, forcing Nyceris to continue. “According to the report, you and the Gefreiter were attacked last night at 0140 by a single pony assailant. Is that correct?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Where were you when this happened?”

Dityris looks down again, seemingly staring at the floor. “We were patrolling near the wharf.”

“And then the pony attacked?”

“Yes.”

“You described them a bit in your interview with Feldwebel Scutellum. Could you do so in more detail for me?”

She nods, head still bowed. “They were either an earthpony or a unicorn, I couldn’t see very well since it was dark, but I could see well enough to tell if they had wings or not. They were wearing a black jacket and a green bandana of some kind, but I could tell that they were light green, I could see that much.” Dityris pauses for a moment, as if not wanting to remember something.

Nyceris finds herself feeling a bit guilty for pressing her so hard, but she knows that it is something that needs to be done. “Anything else.”

“Me and Pretyrnx were patrolling by a pair of warehouses, when the pony came out from behind a wall and stabbed him three times. I was able to get a look at them with my flashlight, but then the pony lunged at me too, and the only thing that saved me was my pistol. I managed to shoot them once, in the hind leg I think, but they got away.”

“You were very brave there Dityris, it is just unfortunate that the Gefreiter was not as lucky as you.”

Dityris nods in acknowledgement, though clearly doesn’t accept the compliment, and instead seems to become agitated. “It’s not fair that Pretyrnx had to die like that! He was a good changeling and a good soldier.”

Nyceris lowers her head, saddened more than anything. “I’ve never been in a life-threatening situation, I can only imagine what it feels like. But even so, nobody deserves to die like that.

Deciding that she has enough information, she decides to focus on calming down the Soldat. “It’s a tragedy that this had to happen. You just have to keep pressing on, as the Queen would have us do.” She pauses for a moment to assess Dityris’ reaction, and continues when she sees it is helping ever so slightly. “Why don’t you take some leave. A week should do. In the meantime we’ll find the killer and bring them to justice. You may be dismissed Soldat.”

Dityris nods appreciatively, and stand up to leave. She heads towards the stairs, but stops at the exit to turn her head around. “One last thing, the pony is a mare I think. She didn’t speak, but I did hear her scream when I shot her.”

Nyceris looks up from her paperwork, grateful for the information. “That is very helpful, thank you Dityris. Enjoy your leave.”

The Soldat nods, and heads down out of sight. Nyceris sighs. “I hope she’ll be okay.”

She turns back to her desk, and continues reading through reports for the next two hours. With some time to reflect by herself, the weight of the situation begins to set upon her, and despite her constant reassurances, anxiety slowly builds. She thinks of her orders, and Scutellum, the Leutnant, Dityris, her troops, and even the operations officer. Her job relies on the efforts of so many others, and in turn they rely on her. “What if I fail them? I already let one of them get killed because I was asleep. I can’t let that happen again! They depend on me, and I need to protect them. The Hegemony needs us to protect it and everyling in it. I cannot fail them!”

Nyceris’s thoughts start to take a course of their own, and she slowly becomes barely conscious of her surroundings. Then she hears a knock from the stairway, pulling her out of the trance. She looks over to see none other than Scutellum, leaning against the wall staring at her. He has a smug look on his face, meaning he probably completed the blockade already.

He saunters towards her, and begins speaking in a voice betraying an unusual amount of concern for him. “You look like you were lost in thought again. What was it this time?”

Nyceris awkwardly smiles at him, a bit embarrassed to have been caught like that again. “Oh, just thinking about the situation. Making sure that we resolve this quickly before the Leutnant catches wind of it and we get in trouble.”

He nods a few times, and his signature smirk reappears where before there was a hint of care. “Riiight. Anyways, I completed the blockade. No changelings or ponies are getting out of Portside until we are done here.”

Deciding it would be best to take the out, Nyceris follows along, and smiles appreciatively. “Thank you. Now we can focus on the investigation. Have any of the suspects been brought back yet?”

“Quite a few actually. There are already a few dozen of them in outside.”

Once again, a tinge of embarrassment fills Nyceris’ chest, this time for not having noticed, though she manages to maintain an authoritative face. “Good. Have the soldiers get all the ponies’ ID’s, and find their files if we have them.”

Scutellum’s smirk grows wider. “Already on it! I have a pair of soldiers gathering files right now. Anyways, why don’t we go down and begin the search, yeah? You and I can work side by side, just like we used to back at the academy.”

“Yeah, only this time it’s searching for a terrorist instead of doing homework.”

He waves his hoof around dismissively. “Eh, same difference. Anyways, let’s go get set up. The rest of the suspects should be arriving here soon.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be down in a moment, go on ahead of me.”

He shrugs, and heads down the stairs. Nyceris cleans up her desk, stacking the reports into neat piles for future reference, and follows.

In contrast to the relatively quiet upstairs office, the downstairs is a flurry of activity, with several soldiers moving tables around and locating files, the radio dispatch in the corner calling in the remaining patrols, and the sounds of ponies and guards from outside.

She marches past the changelings going about their orders, ensuring that she puts on her most commanding presence, and opens the door to head outside. She meets Scutellum past the entrance, standing in front of a growing crowd of likely over fifty ponies, all shades of light green. The nervous collection of civilians is surrounded by armed Heer soldiers, and she can see two more groups being brought in. The operations officer is already out there ordering around some soldiers and gathering identification from the ponies.

Scutellum turns to her as she moves beside him. “Impressive, isn’t it? We made this happen in only a few hours. Imagine what we could do with more resources?”

Nyceris gives him a nervous glance. “I don’t think we should be getting our hopes up about promotions just yet. We still have to find the killer.” She looks out over the assembled ponies. “There’s a lot of suspects to interrogate. This could take a while.”

He just waves dismissively. “I’m sure it’ll be done real quick. Ponies aren’t known to be very tight-lipped.”

The operations officer approaches the pair, having come over while they were conversing. “Commander, Feldwebel, all the patrols are in. This is every light green earthpony and unicorn in Portside.”

“Excellent work.” She gazes back out towards them, and remembers the last thing Dityris said. “Please have the troops send all the stallions back home. I have it per first person account that the assailant was a mare.”

Scutellum furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Wait, I don’t remember that when I was interviewing the Soldat. When did you hear that?”

Nyceris shrugs. “I guess she must have failed to mention it before.”

“I see…”

The operations officer coughs in an attempt to regain the two’s attention, and they both turn to face him again. “You want me to just send all the stallions home? We already collected all of these…”

“Just do it.” She says sternly.

Stunned for a moment, the officer recovers, then salutes. “Of course ma’am. As you say.” He walks off to give the order, and the soldiers quickly begin dispersing all the stallions they brought, leaving only about two dozen light green mares left.

Scutellum stares at them, and starts speaking without looking to Nyceris. “There’s still quite a few of them. Any other things the Soldat forgot to mention?”

Thanks to the reminder, Nyceris remembers the other missing detail. “Yes actually. Soldat Dityris says she was able to shoot the assailant in one of her hind legs before she escaped. Search for any pony with an injury there.”

Shaking his head in what she presumes to be disappointment, Scutellum takes a step forward and shouts the order. The soldiers begin investigating the remaining ponies, which garners a chorus of protests from the invasion of personal space. Several ponies are asked to remove their clothes, and what used to be a passive anxiety in the crowd quickly evolves into agitation and fear.

While watching the investigation, her eyes drift to a middle-aged earthpony mare, taking the opportunity caused by the ruckus to edge towards the border of the circle. Suspicious, Nyceris tells Scutellum to keep supervising, and strides over to the sneaky pony. She comes up by her side, and inquires about her actions. “Where do you think you’re going, pony?”

The earthpony nearly jumps from surprise, and nervously backs up several hoofsteps, folding her ears against her head. “N-n-nowhere officer! Just trying to get some space.” Nyceris notices her imbalanced stance, and gives her a faux smile.

“Riight. Then I suppose you wouldn’t mind being investigated like the rest of you ponies then?”

She quickly shakes her head and responds in a fearful voice. “Not at all ma’am! Be my guest.”

Nyceris gestures to a nearby changeling. “Soldier, come here. I need you to search this one.”

The soldier obeys, and marches over to her and the pony. He slings his rifle over his back, and demands that the pony pull up her pants. She looks highly apprehensive, and takes several moments to comply, and only after a second order to do so. She slowly begins to remove her clothes, eventually revealing her hind legs in full. The soldier goes in closer to inspect them, but Nyceris can already see it plain as day. There is a recently acquired bullet wound scraping the edge of her left hind leg.

Before she even realizes what is going on, the pony has pulled a knife of out hives-know-where and placed it against the soldier’s throat. Nyceris reactively draws her pistol and aims it straight at the pony, determined to save the soldier, but by the time she’s lined up a shot, the pony is already standing on two legs holding the terrified captive as a shield. Fear and anger rage in the pony’s eyes, and she begins shouting. “Don’t you dare shoot changeling! I’ll cut this one’s throat if you try anything!”

Several other soldiers aim their weapons at the pony, and she can see Scutellum running past the now screaming ponies, gun at the ready. The killer moves herself with her hostage so that her back is against the street and all the soldiers are facing her frontside. Nyceris’ heart is racing, and she shakily aims her pistol at the terrorist, who she notices is struggling to stand, the wounded leg shaking more than the rest of her.

Mustering up her courage, Nyceris tries her best to put on a visage of authority. “Put him down, pony! We know you were the killer from last night. You won’t escape from justice!”

The pony laughs despite her evident fear. “Ha! You think there’s justice in the Hegemony?! You changelings are all the same, ruling through terror and hoping that ponies will just fall in line. Equestria will never submit to your tyranny!”

Nyceris feels an unwelcome tightness in her chest, and finds her veneer failing her. Scutellum finally arrives, and him along with the other soldiers begin closing the gap. The pony yells for them to stay back, and takes a few steps back herself. On the third step backwards, her wounded leg collapses, and she trips, pulling the soldier with her and letting the knife fall to the ground.

Scutellum takes the opportunity to charge for the pair, but the pony manages to fling the soldier off her in time and start awkwardly galloping off down the street. Seeing her chance, Nyceris lines up the shot with her pistol, and prepares to pull the trigger, when she spots the pony’s flank mar. It is a stuffed bear toy leaning against a blue book.

For some reason, she hesitates, holding her shot but not opening fire. Her heart is thumping and her mind is racing. She knows she needs to fire, to end the threat to her squad and the Hegemony once and for all, but she can’t do it. “Come on Nyceris! You need to do this! Why can’t you do this?!”

A loud bang echoes throughout the street, and the pony collapses to the ground, red blood quickly pooling beneath her from the wound in her flank. Nyceris turns towards the source of the noise to see Scutellum, holding his pistol in his magic, barrel smoking. He shouts at a trio of nearby soldiers to go and fetch the body, and they run over to the pony, still crumbled in a pool of her own blood.

Nyceris is standing there, feeling helpless, when Scutellum slaps her on the back jovially. “Looks like I’m still better at shooting than you are! Guess not too much has changed it seems.”

The sudden shift in mood distresses her even more, and she can’t offer him any more than a sound of vague acknowledgement. “Now is not the time for jokes Scutellum.”

The soldiers sling the pony’s front legs over their necks and begin ferrying her towards the garrison post, blood trailing behind them. As they get closer, Nyceris realizes with slight horror that the pony is still alive. She motions for the soldiers to halt as they pass her, and approaches the injured pony. She looks down at her trembling form, and into her terrified eyes. “Why did you do it?”

The pony looks confused and near delirious. “W-what?”

Nyceris asks again, slower this time. “Why did you kill one of my soldiers?”

She musters a single laugh, breath weak and airy, before looking her dead in the eye. “Because you changelings killed my son.”

Nyceris opens her mouth to respond, but can’t find the words. Instead, she gestures for the guards to take the pony away. The operations officer begins shouting for the rest of the ponies to go back home, and many of them run off the moment they get the chance.

Eyes lingering on the killer as they drag her off, Nyceris begins heading back inside the post. Changeling soldiers rush this way and that trying to preserve some semblance of order in the situation, but it calms down quickly enough on its own once the ponies are all gone. Scutellum looks a bit perturbed by her ignoring him, but quickly finds someling else to yell at.

She stands now in from of the garrison post, eyes still fixed on the pony. She sees the soldiers throw her against the wall besides the window as she passes through the doorway. She flinches as a gunshot rings from outside.

Nyceris shuts her eyes tightly. “I’m sorry.”

Chapter 4: Meeting in the Night

“Come on Orchid, try to keep up!”

“I’m almost there! Wait for me!”

“I’m going to go on ahead, I’ll meet you there!”

“Wait! I’m coming!”

“There you are! What took you so long?”

“You’re the one who ran off like a jerk.”

“Yeah, well, you were slow.”

“It’s not my fault. You’ve always been faster than me.”

“Hey Orchid?”

“Yeah?”

“I have something to tell you.”

“What is it? You know you can talk to me about anything.”

“I’m… going to be leaving for a while. I…”

Orchid springs upwards, abruptly awoken by somepony knocking loudly on her front door. She rubs her eyes, trying to reorient herself to reality. “That dream again…” Her head is lightly throbbing from the drinking last night, but its small enough to mostly ignore.

She reaches her hoof out towards the bedside table and feels around until she finds her glasses. She places them delicately onto her face, then tosses her covers off before sliding out of bed. She checks her clock, worried she might have overslept. “Why in Tartarus is somepony knocking at 4:45 in the morning?”

She sluggishly trots over to the front door as a third series of knocks echoes through her apartment. She looks through the peephole, and sees a light grey batpony. She has a worried expression on her face, and is rearing her hoof up for more knocking. Orchid slides the lock and opens the door for her neighbor.

As soon as she does, the thestral breathes a sigh of relief. “Praise Luna, you’re awake!” She grabs Orchid’s front leg and pulls her into the hallway.

Greatly confused by the situation, Orchid pulls her hoof back. “Moonlight Stream? What is going on?” Her neighbor’s serious face begins to raise concern. “Is something happening?”

Moonlight nods. “Yes, look!” She gestures towards the hallway window, and Orchid moves up to peek out of it. Down below on the street, there is a group of changeling soldiers marching into houses and apartments, occasionally dragging ponies out of them. There is an open-top changeling military car in the middle of the street, with a single soldier on top of it shouting into a megaphone, she didn’t really pay attention to the noise before, but now that she is listening, she can hear what they’re saying.

“Attention all ponies. Please leave your homes and come into the street immediately. This is a mandatory special inspection. Resistance will be met with force. If you are cleared, you may return to your homes. Attention all ponies…”

“Shit!” She backs away from the window, a jolt of anxiety shooting through her chest. “What are they doing here?! Do they know about that I talked with Marble about the rebellion last night? I knew we weren’t being quiet enough!”

She feels a hoof on her shoulder, and Orchid turns to see Moonlight, who looks just as panicked as she is, and points at the window. “I heard them shouting a few minutes ago, they were dragging ponies out from their homes, I decided to knock on your door to let you know, since I didn’t think you were up yet.” She breathes in again, having done that all in one go. “I’m sorry, I’m just really scared.”

Orchid stares down at the carpet. “I am too.” She musters up her courage and puts on a brave face. “But we’ll get through this together. Do you know what they are here for?”

Her effort seems to work, and Moonlight seems to collect herself too. “They said they wanted everypony out in the street for some sort of inspection I think. I haven’t heard any gunshots… but still, I think it would be best if we just obey and go down there.”

Orchid sighs, obeying changelings is the last thing she wants to do right now. “We don’t really have a choice here, so I guess that’s what we do then.”

Moonlight dips her head, and the two ponies walk down the stairs together. They hear talking from the first floor, and as they come around the corner, Orchid peeks down the hallway. There is a changeling soldier going around and knocking harshly on each door. Not wanting to be seen, the pair sneak past into the foyer.

Orchid looks to Moonlight, who returns her gaze with her slitted, yellow eyes. “I’m glad you were the one knocking on my door instead of that soldier. I don’t know what would’ve happened if it was.”

Moonlight gives her a warm, fanged smile. “You’re one of the only ponies here who actually talks to me; I’m not just gonna leave you to the Heer.”

She smiles back. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Moonlight gives her a sweet nod, then moves forward to open the door. The two of them step out onto the street, and are immediately met with the cacophony of the situation. Ponies of all types stand on the sidewalk, many undressed or in their nightclothes, muttering to themselves about why they had to be pulled out here. Changeling soldiers move all about, checking the ponies one by one, as others break into homes to rip out the reluctant occupants. All the while, the one with the megaphone keeps repeating their message.

Orchid tries to get a handle of the situation to calm herself down, but in doing so notices that there is a group of ponies huddled behind the car, with a guard overseeing them. All the ponies have light green coats, and all seem very afraid. She taps Moonlight on the shoulder and gestures towards them. “What do you think is going on over there?”

The thestral stares at the scene for a moment, looking just as puzzled as she is. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re categorizing? I honestly have no idea.”

“Me neither.”

A changeling soldier marches in front of them from somewhere over to the left, nearly giving Orchid a heart attack. He looks them up and down for a brief moment, then motions with his hoof for them to leave. “You two clear. Go to you homes.” He says in broken Equestrian.

Deciding that pointing out his grammar would be anything but productive, she follows his instruction and walks back inside their apartment building, followed shortly after by Moonlight. “What in Equestria are they after? Did somepony do something they didn’t like? And what was with all the green ponies? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Safely inside now, the pair walk up to their floor, and nervously watch the changeling entourage from the window. Moonlight sits down, and starts typing in the air with her hoof. Orchid doesn’t comment on it at first, instead keeping an eye on the activity down below. The changelings seem to move through whatever they were doing quickly, and start moving further down the street with a growing band of light green ponies.

With the changelings finally having moved on, Orchid allows herself to breathe freely again. She turns to Moonlight, who is still typing things with her hoof. “Why are you doing that? Is something the matter?”

She pauses, and looks up to her. “No, not at all. I’m just trying to write out some ideas I had after what just happened. Maybe something would fit for the story I’m writing.”

“Oh yeah, you like writing, right?”

Moonlight looks down to her flank, at her Cutie Mark of a typewriter with a piece of paper sticking out of it. “It is my special talent after all. I’m mostly just sad that there isn’t really much money in writing. Especially after the bugs took over.”

“I understand. I had to stop doing the job for my special talent because of the war.” She thinks of her own Cutie Mark, a bouquet of flowers set in a vase. “A lot has changed recently.”

Nodding, Moonlight stands up. “Well, thank you for going down there with me. I probably would’ve freaked out a lot if you hadn’t.”

Orchid shakes her head. “No, thank you for waking me up! I’d take seeing you in the morning over a changeling soldier any day.”

Moonlight smiles in appreciation. “You’re very welcome! Now you should probably go rest before your work. I need to get to bed myself, I just got home about an hour ago.”

Confused, Orchid is about to ask how she handles working so late, but then she remembers. “I’ll be honest, I forgot that you’re nocturnal.”

“Don’t worry, that happens a lot. Anyways, I’ll see you later, okay?”

“See you later.”

The two go back to their homes, and Orchid quickly closes and locks the door behind her, contemplating never going outside ever again. “Sweet Celestia, what the fuck was all that?!” She sits down on her couch and holds her temples in her hooves, the fear she was holding back for Moonlight’s sake finally resurfacing. “I knew the changelings aren’t a fan of ponies minding their own business, but that was just ridiculous!”

She grabs a nearby throw pillow to hold in her hooves, and closes her eyes. “Why can’t I have just one normal day…” She sits there for a long while, squeezing the pillow tightly and thinking about everything from the changelings just now, to work, to Marble’s request. All of it makes her want to cry, but she knows that she can’t let herself. If she gives in, then they win, and she can’t let that happen.

In an attempt to recenter herself, she tries focusing on sensory things to distract from her thoughts. The softness of the couch below her, the plushiness of the pillow in her grasp, the steady beat of a typewriter next door, the ticking of the clock on the wall, and even the hoofsteps of her other neighbors downstairs. It takes several minutes, but she finally begins to calm down, and slowly releases her grip. “I still have to be at work in an hour, don’t I?”

She takes a deep breath, and pushes herself up to her hooves, dropping the pillow back on the couch. “I just have to do my morning routine like normal, and everything will be fine. I can worry about Marble and the changelings later.”

Orchid performs her routine, brushing her teeth, showering, tying up her mane, eating a quick breakfast, and getting dressed for work. She manages to finish just in time, locks her door, and begins her commute. She keeps an eye out for changelings, still paranoid from earlier, and fortunately sees none. “They must be busy doing whatever that was from earlier.” She makes it to work uneventfully, and unlocks the back entrance, stepping into the empty café. She checks the clock on the wall. “5:50. Good, I got here a bit early.” As usual Sun Lily hasn’t arrived yet, allowing Orchid some time to set up for the day in peace.

She sets down her saddlebag by the back room, and pulls her apron over her head, sitting down to tie it behind her back. With that out of the way, she is finally free to enjoy some quiet before the café opens. She checks the coffee presses to make sure they are working and changes out their filters. Next, she cleans each table and pulls the chairs down. She continues with other monotonous tasks, the simplicity of them helping to put her mind at ease with the repetitive rhythm.

She hears the handle of the back door twist open, and looks over to see Sun Lily coming in, a few minutes late as usual. She sets her own bag next to Orchid’s and walks over to the counter, waving. “Good morning Orchid! How are you?”

Orchid is definitely not ready for Sun Lily’s pestering today. “I’m fine. Now can you make sure the register’s stocked.”

Sun Lily smiles and nods. “Yes, ma’am!”

Turning back to her own work, Orchid shakes her head. “How is she so enthusiastic all the time? Did the changelings just avoid her earlier or is she just that naïvely cheerful?”

The two mares work in silence for a while, and eventually the first few customers begin to trickle in. The mornings are always the busiest, but she expects a smaller amount than usual due to whatever the changelings are up to. It is at this point that she remembers her agreement to Marble’s request. A tightness suddenly appears in her chest. “I decided to help him didn’t I…” She recalls what exactly she was asked to do. “He wanted me to get information out of the changeling officers that visit the café, right? How in Tartarus am I even supposed to do that? I can’t just go up and talk to them, can I?”

Performing her job as normal, she can’t help but feel nervous at the idea of the officers suddenly walking in. “I’m not prepared, I don’t know what to say or do and they could easily ruin my life or worse if they wanted to.” She would be burying her face in her hooves if she wasn’t currently carrying a tray to a customer. “Why did I agree to this?”

Time passes, and the hours of the morning press onward, yet the officers never come. At first Orchid was confused by this, seeing as they have started to become regulars here, but she comes to the conclusion that they must be busy whatever they were doing earlier. “At least it gives me more time to figure out how I’m going to do this.”

She is just about to take her daily break when she sees her boss coming in through the back door. The red pegasus stallion struts into the café, meeting eye contact with Orchid. He is wearing a bowler cap and is dressed in a partially unbuttoned dress shirt, with the start of a beard on his chin. She quickly straightens up in front of him, not wanting to look like a slacker in front of her boss.

He gives her an insincere smile, and begins speaking in a gruff Manehatten accent. “There you are, just the pony I wanted to see!”

She awkwardly smiles back. “Hello Mr. Bristle, is there something I can help you with?” She has always felt a bit uncomfortable around her boss for a number of reasons, including his habit of changeling bootlicking, the way he looks at Sun Lily sometimes, and his generally sleazy demeanor. Despite all of that, there isn’t really anything she can do about it.

He gestures towards the back room. “Just need to discuss something with you. Please, come into here where we won’t disturb the customers.”

She tentatively follows him inside of the back room, which consists of some shelves full of supplies and a pair of chairs leaning against the wall. As soon as the door closes, he gets down to business. “So I heard from Sun Lily that you do a lot of great work here.”

Orchid is caught off guard. It isn’t common for her boss to give compliments, and she especially didn’t expect that out of Sun Lily. “T-thank you sir.”

He continues. “As such, I need to ask a favor of you. You see, Violet Glow called out sick today, and I need somepony to cover her evening shift. So I figured since you do such good work you wouldn’t mind helping out your coworker and taking her shift today.”

Internally Orchid is screaming. The last thing she needed today was a double shift, but she knows that she can’t exactly refuse her boss without losing her job. “Of course sir, I can cover Violet Glow’s shift.”

Smiling, Mr. Bristle opens the door with his wing. “Excellent! It’s only eight hours, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Orchid smiles through gritted teeth, and exits the room. She decides that taking her break in front of her boss wouldn’t be the best idea, and returns to work. Sun Lily is working on an order, and Mr. Bristle follows her up to the counter. Orchid helps her out with the order and takes greater charge. Sun Lily and her boss start chatting for a bit, leaving Orchid to run the café single handedly.

After about a half hour, Mr. Bristle finally takes his leave, allowing Sun Lily to return to her actual job. From that point onward, the rest of their shift flies by in a breeze. Throughout the whole thing, Orchid is mentally cursing out her boss, the changelings, and even Marble sometimes. She manages to keep her annoyance with everything to a visible minimum, but Sun Lily’s casual cheeriness makes that very difficult.

At last, her normal shift comes to a close, and as the sun dips below the lines of apartments, the number of ponies entering the café dwindle to near none. Sun Lily finishes up her cleanup, and gives Orchid a friendly smile as she goes home for the day. Orchid can’t help but feel a little jealous. “How does she stay like that despite everything. It’s annoying.”

Starting up the second shift that has been thrust upon her, she sits on the stool behind the counter, waiting for any new customers to show up. She takes the smaller number of ponies showing up to get some rest, pulling her hooves up on the counter and leaning her head on top of them. “I bet I have to go to work tomorrow like normal too…”

The last customer leaves, and for the first time since her first shift began, she is completely alone. She looks at the clock, seeing that it is well past when she would usually be in bed. She moans in fatigued frustration and shuts her eyes, rubbing her head with her hooves. Some more time passes, and no pony else shows up. “Why do we even keep our café open this late if no one comes here?!”

Relenting to the calls her body is giving her for sleep, she decides it would probably be safe to take a quick nap. She leans her head back down into her hooves, and tries to get whatever amount of rest she can. She rests quietly for a few blissful minutes, then she hears the soft jingling of the bell.

Thrown back to the world from the brink of sleep, Orchid snaps back into focus, and looks towards the entrance. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”

Having just pushed through the door stands the blue-eyed changeling officer. She isn’t looking at Orchid, and instead just lethargically walks over to a table by the wall and plops herself down in the chair. She buries her face in her hooves and her hat falls off, though she doesn’t seem to notice.

“What is she doing here?! They normally only come in the morning! And why does she look tired?” Despite her exhaustion, Orchid begins to panic. She looks around frantically, seeing absolutely nopony or changeling within sight besides the officer and herself. “This would be a good opportunity to try to get something out of her… but I’m still not prepared and oh sweet Celestia she’s right there! Why is she even here if she’s just going to sit there?”

Orchid keeps a wary eye on the changeling for what feels like an eternity, but after the first few minutes she doesn’t move aside from the soft rising and falling of her chest. “I-is she asleep?”

Nervously, tentatively, she steps towards the officer, almost expecting this to be some sort of trap. The changeling is still completely unreactive despite her approach, with her face tucked between her hooves. Orchid looks her up and down to check for threats. She’s wearing the black uniform of a Heer officer, with the symbol on her hat that of the Changeling Hegemony. A pistol is holstered on her flank, right below her folded, translucent wings. Other than that, the changeling seems to simply be sitting there sleeping.

“Is she toying with me, or is she really asleep? Do changelings even need sleep?” Deciding that this is something she needs to do, she tries to muster her courage, and manages to get a word out. “H-hello?” The changeling gives no indication of hearing her, and continues breathing peacefully. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” She carefully reaches out her hoof, and gently taps the officer on her shoulder.

The changeling stirs, and raises her head, looking around with a groggy look. She makes eye contact with Orchid, causing her a surge of distress. She takes a few hoofsteps back, yelling at herself internally. “Fuck me, why’d I have to go ahead and be brave?!”

Looking at her with what Orchid is sure can’t be sympathy, the changeling speaks in slightly accented Equestrian. “It’s okay, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Orchid freezes, unsure of what to do. She realizes she didn’t really think this far ahead, and continues to silently curse herself. The changeling is still staring at her with that same look.

“What were you doing?” The officer asks, seemingly more confused than anything else.

Gulping, Orchid tries her best to respond. “I-I was just checking if you were okay. You looked like you were unconscious for a while.”

A tinge of embarrassment passes across the changeling’s face, and she picks up her hat with magic and places it back on her head. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Just… tired.”

Orchid nods, trying her best to not do anything that might upset the armed Heer officer in front of her. She then remembers what Marble told her to do, and given the changeling’s seemingly amicable mood, she takes a risk. “Why are you still up at this hour, if I may ask? Especially at a café.”

“Just… a lot happened today, and I still have so much paperwork to do after the Leutnant figured things out and told me I was supposed to file things for all the troop movements and I really need a coffee to get through this, and I realized I should not be telling a pony this.”

Orchid stands there in stunned silence, unsure what to say or do and suddenly regretting asking anything. Despite her trepidation, she can’t help but find a strange sense of empathy for the changeling’s struggle, but tries to shove it away when she notices. “She could still hurt you at any moment Orchid, don’t let your guard down.”

The changeling looks around to make sure no one saw the exchange, then sighs, rubbing her eyes with her holed hooves. “Can I just get my usual. With Love on top please.”

Initially unsure just what in Equestria she means by ‘Love’, she remembers that to the changelings, love is a physical thing, and a food source they get from ponies. The thought gives her chills. “A-apologies, w-we don’t serve Love here.”

The officer looks slightly disappointed, but also contemplative. “Oh, that’s okay. Sorry for asking. Just my usual then, please.”

Orchid near gallops away to fulfill the order, thankful for the moment of reprieve. “Celestia, I’m not going to make it through today. I’m too tired for this shit…” She carefully pours the coffee and cream and stirs, placing the lid on and putting the cup on a tray. She begrudgingly returns from her safe space behind the counter to the changeling, and places the tray on the table. Turning to leave, Orchid’s escape is interrupted by the officer addressing her.

“Hey, you’re the pony that’s normally here in the morning, aren’t you?”

She pauses, turning around slowly. “Yes, I am.”

“Do you normally work this late?” A slight hint of concern in the changeling’s voice.

Orchid shakes her head. “No. I am covering for one of my coworkers.”

“I see. What is your name?”

Surprised, Orchid opens her mouth to answer, but nothing comes out at first. No changeling has ever asked her name unless they were IDing her. After a tense moment, her voice finally works again. “My name is Orchid.”

The officer gives what passes as a smile for a changeling, fully revealed her fangs. “My name’s Nyceris. Nice to meet you.”

“I’d say the same if you weren’t literally occupying us.” Orchid stays silent, trying her best to keep calm.

Nyceris gestures for Orchid to sit in the chair across the table from her. “Could you sit with me for a bit? Today’s been stressful, and I could use some friendly conversation, even if it’s with a pony.”

“I’m stressed today too, but you’re the reason.” Despite her instincts telling her to say no, refusing a changeling never ends well. “On the bright side, I suppose this is a perfect excuse to help out Marble.” She follows the instructions and sits in the chair, still not trusting this changeling to do as she says.

The changeling called Nyceris once again smiles at her, with appreciation this time. Orchid is convinced it is some kind of ploy. Nyceris meets her gaze with those blue, iris-less eyes, and apologizes. “Sorry for this, I know you’re probably busy.”

Orchid shakes her head. “Don’t worry, I haven’t had anyone come in for a while.”

Nyceris seems to be examining her face, once more creating a sense of nervousness. After she’s done, the changeling gives her a sympathetic frown. “You look tired. Perhaps you should get some coffee too.”

“I can’t. I’m not allowed to take coffee for free.”

Out of a small pouch on Nyceris’ belt floats a pair of bits, held in a green aura. “Here, get yourself one. I know that changelings can’t function if they’re sleep-deprived, and I bet it is the same for ponies.” She places the coins down in front of Orchid.

Completely flabbergasted, Orchid suddenly finds herself questioning the changeling’s motives once more. “Why are you being nice to me? I’m just a pony.”

“Despite what you may think, changelings aren’t here to hurt you. I even heard that the Protectress wants to encourage friendship between our two species.”

Orchid hesitantly takes the bits in her hooves. “Thanks then, I guess. I’ll be back.” She stands back up and goes to make herself a coffee, reluctantly thankful for the changeling’s unexpected kindness. As she pours her cup, she reflects on what Nyceris said. “Friendship between ponies and changelings… what sort of nonsense is that?! If they wanted to be friends, they wouldn’t have started the war.”

She finishes making her coffee and places the bits next to the register to deal with later. While she’d rather be doing anything other than sitting and talking with a changeling officer, she knows that it isn’t an option, despite what Nyceris would have her believe. Orchid returns to the table, and sits back down in the chair, sipping her coffee. “At least I won’t pass out now…”

Nyceris looks at her with an unreadable expression, and drinks from her own coffee before speaking again. “You’re afraid of me aren’t you.” She says it more as a statement than a question.

Orchid stares at her incredulously, her prior nervousness returning in full force. Of course, she is afraid, but it is something else about the changeling’s words that she doesn’t understand. “Why do you sound like you don’t want me to?”

The two sit silently across each other for a moment, the awkwardness of the situation viscerally apparent. Unable to take any more of it, Orchid stands up in one quick motion. “I should get back to work. My boss will yell at me if I spend too long talking to customers.”

Nyceris looks surprised and a little disappointed at the declaration. “Oh, okay… I should probably get back to work too. Goodbye, Orchid.”

Orchid trots back over behind the counter and pretends to be searching for something down low as to allow her to hide. She waits for a moment, before hearing the door open and close, bell jingling. Daring to check if the changeling is gone, she peeks out from below the counter, seeing only an empty café. She breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank Celestia…”

She thinks about what just happened, and realizes something important. “Marble, I might have just found a way to get what you’re looking for.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading, I appreciate feedback and comments. Also, I will likely need to slow down a bit on writing this due to stuff happening, but I will still try to get one every week if I can.

Chapter 5: Settling One's Mind

A green pony lies before her, sprawled out on the ground, red blood pooling beneath her hole-filled hooves. The pony stares at her, piercing eyes full of defiance, with a seething hatred buried beneath.

Nyceris meets her gaze, a tightness forming in her chest that she is becoming increasingly familiar with. “Why did you do it?”

The pony looks confused, the severe blood loss preventing her from thinking clearly. “W-what?”

“Why did you kill one of my soldiers?” Nyceris asks again, voice harder this time.

A bellow escapes the pony’s mouth, followed by a deathly laugh. The once fearful glare in her eyes turning upon Nyceris, boring into her very being. “Because you killed my son.”

The weight of the words hit Nyceris like a wave, nearly knocking her over into the blood underhoof. She runs away, galloping through the darkness towards a building standing alone in the distance, desperate to find solace within its walls. She violently throws the door open with her magic, and near jumps inside. The door slams shut behind her, and a gunshot echoes across the void.

She clenches at her head, the sound reverberating through her mind. “Please! Make it stop!” She shouts, anguish clinging to her words. “I’m sorry!”

A pinprick hits her shoulder, and again, much fiercer this time. She feels the world around her begin to fall, disappearing into the void while she remains in place. A third prick strikes her, and she is finally pulled back into reality.

Nyceris lurches upright, the adrenaline from her dream still coursing through her black-blooded veins. As she comes to her senses, she notices a pen levitating next to her, held in a magical aura. She traces the magic with her eyes back to its master, seeing a blurry black form nearby. She rubs her eyes to clear the fog, and looks again, this time seeing Scutellum sitting at his desk, jagged horn glowing with green magic, and a wry look of amusement upon his face.

“Enjoy your nap?” He asks, with no small amount of sarcasm in his voice.

Despite having calmed down significantly after waking up, Nyceris still finds she doesn’t have the patience for his snarky remarks right now. “Fuck you.”

His smile stretches slightly higher, and he shakes his head in faux disappointment. “Jeez, can’t a changeling ask how his CO is doing without being reprimanded? What is this city coming to.”

Nyceris sits up straight in her chair, trying to regain some semblance of professionalism. Letting oneself be seen in a moment of weakness like that could seriously damage the respect she has garnered from her troops. “Noling saw me like that did they?” She asks, nervous of what the answer might be.

Luckily, Scutellum shakes his head. “Nope. Most of the squad are on patrol right now. Besides, I only let you sleep for like, an hour.”

Surprise and worry rush through Nyceris as she turns towards the clock to verify his claim. She doesn’t remember exactly when she fell asleep, but considering it is definitely later than she feels it should be, his words are likely correct. “I’ve been asleep a whole hour?! Damn it, that’s too long! I still have so much paperwork left to do!” She slumps down into her seat, blue eyes frantically searching through the stacks of files and paper littering her desk.

“Don’t worry about it Nyceris. Barely anything new has been coming in, so you have plenty of time for all that. Crime even decreased by 30% after our operation yesterday, according to today’s report.”

She lets out a soft sigh of relief, and relaxes her muscles slightly, the scope of the situation beginning to lessen. “That’s good to hear.” She turns to look out the window. “I’m just glad the Leutnant was happy with our results. I didn’t even know we were breaking regulations doing all this without filing all this paperwork first.”

Scutellum waves his hoof dismissively. “I’m sure it can be thrown to emergency discretion. We have record of it now, and that’s what matters.”

“I guess…” She says doubtfully. “I just want to get through this so I can finally get some proper sleep again. A changeling can’t subsist off of caffeine alone.”

“It does certainly get you far though.”

She gives him a disparaging glare, not in the mood for his quips.

Scutellum’s smile drops, and his expression becomes sour. “You’re no fun today.”

“Just finish your work Scutellum. So we can both go home already.”

He shrugs. “Fine, whatever. You’re the commander here. I’ll be here if you need me.” He turns back to his desk, and starts reading over some documents held in his magic.

Nyceris sighs, and returns to her own paperwork. There is still a decent sized pile left, mostly status reports from her soldiers and complaints from changeling residents about the disruptions. “Why am I the one who has to deal with these? Shouldn’t there be someling else for that?” Unable to be bothered with it at the moment, she quickly sorts through the papers, pulling out the complaints, and tosses them into the shred bin. “I don’t have time to respond to upset civilians, there are more important things to focus on right now.”

She starts working on the remaining files, reading and signing and writing memos, only stopping once to stretch her legs. The hours pass on by, and the afternoon arrives before she even knows it. The exhaustion of nearly a day and a half without any actual sleep begins to get to her, and she’s certain that if not for her nap earlier, she wouldn’t be able to function.

Her mind begins to drift, reflecting on the hectic events of the last two days. She inevitably finds herself thinking of the encounter in the cafe, and the stress that came from being seen in a moment of weakness by a pony. “Orchid, I think her name was?” The whole situation there was a lovely mixture of embarrassment, interest, and an unusual sense of guilt due to the barista’s obvious fear of her.

Despite her mixed feelings, she finds herself curiously pondering the pony’s actions. “She seemed so nervous, even more than the usual I get from ponies, yet she took the effort to check if I was okay…” The thought bounces around her head for a while, causing no small amount of confusion. “Why in the hives would a pony like that care about me of all creatures?”

From her contemplation emerges an admittedly terrible idea. “I could try asking her?”

She knows that talking casually with a pony is risky. Changelings are superior to ponies, and aren’t supposed to be caught interacting with them outside of the relationship of a master and servant. However, she also knows that as a garrison commander, noling except the Leutnant and maybe Scutellum would dare question her about it.

She mulls it over in her head until she formulates an acceptable excuse should she be caught. “I’ll just be going to talk to her about discretion. Yeah, that’s it. I did say things she wasn’t supposed to hear after all. Any unrelated questions can be excused as a whim.”

She resolves to find the pony again after she finishes her work for today. Hoping that the conversation will clear up any remaining questions and doubts she has.

A few more hours pass, and the already dwindling paperwork finally disappears, signaling the completion of nearly twenty hours of effort. She near collapses from the sudden shift of weight from her mind, and takes a moment to recollect herself, surveying her environment for stability. She looks around towards the other office desks around the room. Most are empty, with the exceptions of hers, Scutellum’s, and the operations officer, who had come upstairs after finishing with the radio dispatch unit below.

Nyceris looks out the window, seeing the city outside through the blinds. The three-story apartment across the street blocks most of her view, but she is still able to view the sunset past the tiled roofs and brick chimneys. The sun is just dipping below the horizon, or at least the cityscape, and is casting a calm, orange glow across the sky mixed with bands of pink. Her many worries seem to melt away at the beautiful sight, and she finds herself completely entranced by it. Despite the remaining stress and fatigue, a soft smile spreads across her face.

“There was nothing like this back in the Changeling Lands. It was all just wind and rocks and snow.” She looks down at the ponies trotting along the sidewalks by the street below. “Here though, views like this happen all the time…”

The sound of a passing automobile pulls her back to focus, and she risks a peek at the clock mounted on the wall. “6:54 PM... Could’ve been worse I suppose.”

She slowly stands up from her chair and rolls her head around, stretching all the muscles weary from staring down at paper all day. “I should probably go home now. I could fall asleep in an instant.”

Nyceris grabs her bag and pistol, strapping both to her belt before making her way towards the exit. Scutellum gives her an absent wave goodbye, which she weakly reciprocates before trudging down the stairs. The changelings below are too busy with their own duties to pay her much heed, most having just returned from patrol, ready to go home themselves. The notable exception for this is the door guard, who performs a salute for her as she passes by, departing through the door’s threshold.

As she enters into the street, she is immediately hit by the wind of a passing car, cold air brushing across her face and body, the chill making it a little easier to keep her heavy eyelids open. Nyceris looks up past her hat’s visor to the sunset once more, though unable to see anything past the obtrusive city buildings besides the dimming blue of the sky and fluffy white clouds.

Facing to fly back home, she suddenly remembers the thing she had promised herself she would do. “Right. The café pony. She’ll probably be finishing up her shift soon, I’ll need to hurry.”

She crosses the street after checking for cars, and walks as fast as she can in the direction of the café. It’s not a long walk, but after a few minutes her legs begin to ache, and her whole body screams with exhaustion from the lack of sleep. Undaunted, she musters her strength and pushes forward, determined to get this off her mind.

As she treks on, Nyceris passes a few pony pedestrians, who step out of her way, either onto the street if they are an earthpony or unicorn, and above her if they are a pegasus or thestral. She pretends not to notice, though inside she feels irrationally bothered by it, and so tries to convince herself to stop. “I’m a Heer officer. They’re supposed to make way for me. This is as it should be.”

As the sun dips below the horizon, and the streets become illuminated by the light of electric lamps, she at last arrives at her destination. The familiar sign printed upon the glass panels that make up the front wall. She glances inside, seeing noling, or nopony, in there except a bright-yellow unicorn putting up chairs for the night. “Damn! She must have already left.”

Nyceris frantically examines the area, looking for any sign of the pony she is looking for. Her eyes scan over buildings and a pair of soldiers on patrol across the street, on a light turning off through an upstairs window and a car zooming by, when she finally sees her target. Just down the street from her, she spots the purplish-red earthpony, still in her white work clothes, and with a saddlebag slung over her back.

She pulls out her wings and flutters after the pony, catching up in a matter of seconds. The skittish earthpony freezes at the low buzzing sound of changeling flight, and turns her head to examine the officer that just landed beside her. A look of surprise and fear flickers across her rose-colored eyes, as well as a hint of recognition. “Good, she remembers me.” Nyceris tucks her wings in, and clears her throat. “You are the pony from last night, correct? Orchid, I believe?”

Orchid nods, apprehension evident on her face and from the subtle shaking in her hooves. Nyceris recalls how frightened the pony was when they first spoke, and seeing a similar situation playing out now, she feels she should attempt to reassure her, not wanting to cause more anxiety for her. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. I merely wanted to talk.”

The pony looks at her disbelievingly, backing away slightly before speaking. “I-is that right?”

Nyceris nods, as sincerely as she can, trying her best not to cause the pony more distress than she already has. “Yes, I just had a question, about something you said last night.” She glances over at the nearby park area. “Do you mind if we walk?”

Glancing around helplessly, Orchid seems extremely hesitant about the notion, though eventually relents. “O-okay.”

Satisfied, she smiles, though it only seems to put the pony more on edge for some reason. The two walk alongside each other for a moment as Nyceris leads them into the park. They step from the concrete sidewalk onto a gravel trail leading through a tunnel of green-leaved poplar trees. She checks to ensure that there are no other creatures around, other changelings especially, before speaking. Seeing that all there is around them are the gentle rustling of leaves and the occasional squirrel, she feels safe to begin.

“I’m just going to cut to the chase here. There’s something that I’ve been wondering about since last night, and I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Orchid watches her expectantly, anxiously.

Nyceris takes a preparatory breath, and speaks. “Why did you show me concern yesterday? You seemed so frightened, yet you were… nice to me? I don’t understand it.”

The pony freezes in her tracks, still looking straight ahead, then continues walking after a few seconds. Nyceris notices she is still trembling ever so slightly, and the tightness clasps at her chest. An eternal moment passes, and Orchid sighs, before opening her mouth to speak. “I don’t know honestly. I guess I just saw somepony… someling not looking well.”

This time it is Nyceris’ turn to pause. The pony’s words echoing in her mind as she desperately tries to wrap her head around the sentiment. “There’s no way you did it just because! Noling is kind like that unless they want something. What are you after?” She casts a suspicious glance at Orchid, which causes her to flinch, regret immediately filling her eyes. Despite how bad that makes her feel, Nyceris resolves to press the matter. “You expect me to believe that you were nice simply because you saw me like that?”

Orchid visibly swallows, and shuts her eyes tightly as if expecting some sort of retaliation, only opening them again when she realizes it won’t come. “I… yes? Is that unusual?”

Nyceris blinks, disbelief surging through her thoughts. “Of course it’s unusual! Any changeling would have chided me for showing weakness in public. Most changelings only act nice if they’re close to you or they want something.” She shakes her head, centering her thoughts. “You ponies really are something else. Yes, I do find that unusual. Noling ever does that with a reason.”

A brief look of pity crosses Orchid’s face, which causes a strange feeling of anger within Nyceris. Seemingly unnoticing, the pony responds. “It’s pretty normal for ponies to care for each other like that.” The way she ends the sentence upwards implies she was going to say more, but decided not to.

“Of course ponies would do that… they’re all about ‘friendship’ and ‘harmony’. Only idiots would allow such displays of weakness.” Despite her words of reason, she finds them almost hard to believe, as if the tenants by which she grew up believing have become eroded by a single gesture of genuine good will. Scared at that line of thinking, and angered by the unwanted pity, Nyceris desperately tries to regain control of the conversation. “That would explain why you ponies are so weak, you give kindness to failure when you should give punishment.”

Finally seeming to realize Nyceris’ building frustration and desperation, Orchid takes a breath to steel herself, and counters. “Kindness isn’t weakness. It helps those who are in need and makes everypony stronger for it.”

“You… I…w-what?” Nyceris stutters, completely disoriented by the alien logic. Her anger dissipates into the wind blowing through the trees, and is replaced by a strange emptiness. “That’s not how it works.”

Despite her visible anxiety, Orchid holds her ground. “You asked why I was kind to you, and I gave you my answer.”

“I… um…” Nyceris finds herself unable to respond to the spectacled pony, too wrapped up in her own conflicted thoughts and feelings to construct an appropriate comeback, and unwilling to hurt Orchid because of it. “You’re lucky I’m not any other officer, or I’m sure they would’ve.”

She decides to retreat into the familiarity of military professionalism, and stands up as straight as she can, bearing her full presence upon the now frightened pony. When she speaks, it is with the cool refinement fitting of a Heer officer. “I must return to my duties now. You are dismissed back to your housing unit, pony.”

Shrinking back from the suddenly imposing changeling, Orchid quickly nods in acknowledgement, and gallops off through the park, gravel crunching beneath her rapid hoofsteps.

Nyceris sighs. “I guess that’s that then.”

She exits the park herself, walking in the opposite direction of the pony, and emerges back onto the street. The calm of the park is replaced with the return of the sights and sounds of the city. Nyceris takes a moment to orient herself, using what she knows of the layout of the neighborhood after having studied the maps at least a dozen times.

With a heading found and fatigue pulling at the edges of her eyes, she slowly makes her way back to her home. It doesn’t take long, and with the entirely uneventful trip back, she arrives at the street she has come to call home.

It is in the nicer part of the Portside, the area where changeling settlers and soldiers have made their new homes after moving here from the hives. There are lampposts spaced at regular intervals along the street, with Hegemony banners hanging from each one. Lining the edges of the light on either side are two story apartments. They are all connected to each other, brick walls built as one continuous stretch of housing units. Several of them have plants of various kinds next to their doors or hanging from window planters, but many others are simply left empty. A few changeling civilians saunter along, likely out on an evening stroll, and one is bantering with a soldier.

Nyceris walks along the street, finally within sight of her own housing unit. She arrives at her home here in Manehatten, apartment 45, and unlocks the green-painted wooden door. She gently shuts it behind her, and the dim light of the streetlamps fades away into the near total darkness of her apartment. Changelings have better night vision than most creatures, but even they can’t see in something like this.

She reaches to her right and feels around for the light switch with her hoof, eventually finding it and flicking it on. The room is bathed in incandescent light, and she breathes a sigh of relief she didn’t know she was holding in. “For Queen’s sake what was that?! You let that pony trot all over you! What sort of officer are you that an earthpony could get the better of you like that?”

Too tired to care at the moment, she unbuckles her belt and tosses it onto her couch, the pistol and satchel still attached. She storms up the stairs, and into the hallway bathroom. She flips on the light, and looks at herself in the mirror. Her black uniform is still well-kept and clean, though the officer’s hat is askew and her tie out of place. Her face looks rather bedraggled, creases from stress and exhaustion line her face, and her normally vibrant blue eyes look sunken and dull. “Hives… I’m a mess.”

She pulls off her hat with magic and places it besides the sink while turning on the faucet with her hoof. She splashes cold water over her face, and instinctively licks her fangs to remove the chilly liquid. Turning off the water with magic, she dries herself with a white towel hanging next to the shower, and exits the bathroom, making her way towards her bedroom. “Sleep. Sleep will do me good. I just need to rest a bit, and everything will be okay.”

As she comes upon the near divine sight of her bed, she unbuttons her coat and lets it fall to the floor. She flops down upon the soft blanket, uncaring whether she is dressed appropriately for it, and pulls herself into position so her head can rest on a pillow. “Just a little bit of rest, and I’ll forget all my worries, and especially what that stupid pony said.”

Despite her assurances to herself that it will all be okay, the thoughts of all that transpired linger, and the weight of exhaustion overtakes her. She drifts to sleep, dreams abounding with lying ponies and traitorous thoughts.

Author's Note

Apologies for taking a bit longer than usual to post this. Due to life events, I will be aiming to post a chapter every other week now instead.
Also I know this chapter is a bit shorter than normal, the content I had planned for it didn't run as long as I thought it would. Oh well, knowledge for next time.

Chapter 6: Confiding in a Friend

The door slams behind her as Orchid enters into the living room of her home. Another long, exhausting shift has come and gone, and the particularly stressful conversation with that changeling officer has left her reeling emotionally. She drops her saddlebag against the wall by the door, and strides over to her couch, nearly falling down on top of it with the weight of the day.

Leaning back into the comfortable, flower-patterned fabric, she tries her hardest to forget the things she had said only minutes prior. Despite her best efforts however, her mind inevitably ends up berating herself for it. “Stupid! You don’t talk back to a changeling! What were you thinking…” Her anxiety getting the better of her, and she buries her face within her hooves and groans. “I’m gonna get sent to a camp or something… they probably know where I live too!”

She finds her determination to continue helping her friend wavering in the face of fear. “Why did I have to agree to help Marble? Every time I’m near that officer I swear I’m two trots from a heart attack.”

Sitting upright again, she rubs her eyes with her hooves, pushing her glasses up onto her mane. “Sweet Celestia, Orchid, get a hold of yourself!”She says to herself. “Remember what Sky taught you. Breathe… You can do this! It’s for a good cause.”

Slowly taking breathes in and out for a few minutes, Orchid finally manages to calm down. She sits there on the couch for a while more, quietly shoving her thoughts to the side. “I can deal with those later. I’m home now.” After making her head as empty as she can, Orchid relaxes, finding the moment rather pleasant.

Her calm, however, is broken too soon by a pang of hunger in her stomach. She lurches upright, suddenly acutely aware that she hasn’t eaten anything besides some oatmeal today. “Dammit… I should probably get something, sleeping on an empty stomach isn’t fun.”

She begrudgingly pulls herself to her hooves, and trots over to the kitchen. The room is a rather simple affair; separated from the rest of her house by a half wall, it contains only the bare necessities like a stove, sink, a refrigerator, and some cabinets. Orchid never has a whole lot of food in the house, but she makes sure that she at least is stocked up on staples like flour and oats and such, as well as any leftovers he might have.

She checks inside the fridge, scanning over the sparse contents until she sees half a daisy sandwich she didn’t finish the other day. “Better than nothing I suppose.” Removing the plate from the metal rack with her mouth, Orchid brings it over to the coffee table by the couch and sits back down. She eats her dinner slowly, taking off her work clothes in-between bites and placing them besides her. The daisies are a bit wilted from having spent a day or two in the fridge, but it still tastes good, even if her food doesn’t last long.

Having finished her meal, Orchid’s face relaxes as her hunger subsides. She’s not full by any means, but it should at least tie her over until the morning. Casting a cursory gaze up to the clock, she expects it to be time to go to bed given her unusual schedule the last few days. Instead, she is pleasantly surprised to see that it is only 8:02. “Huh. I guess having to work overtime yesterday threw me off a bit.”

Given that she has some free time this evening, Orchid begins considering the option of hanging out with one of her friends with the time she has left. It might be what she needs to get her mind off of things. “Perhaps Blueberry is open? I should call her.”

Orchid gets up and walks over to the telephone mounted on her wall. There is a book of phone numbers laying around somewhere, but she has the number she will be dialing memorized, having called it many times before. She enters the numbers one at a time, spinning the dial with the tip of her right hoof and holding the receiver to her ear with her left. A series of prolonged beeps follow as it connects to her friend’s line, and eventually a familiar voice comes through.

“Hello, Berry residence, who is this?” Says a mare. It is definitely Blueberry, given her warm voice and Bronclyn accent.

Orchid leans up against the wall by the telephone, shifting the receiver over to her right hoof. “Hi Blueberry, it’s Orchid.”

The voice on the other end of the line suddenly becomes much friendlier. “Oh Orchid! Good to hear from you hon. How’re you doing?”

“I’m alright.” She lies. “I was wondering if you would maybe be open to meet up somewhere this evening? Perhaps get some drinks at the tavern?”

A brief pause follows before Blueberry responds. “Uh, sure! Yeah, that sounds lovely. Just let me get ready and I’ll be there in about half an hour, that sound good?”

“Yeah, that’d be perfect. See you soon.”

“See you soon.”

Having successfully arranged the meet up, Orchid places the receiver back on the box with a clack, and takes a deep breath. “Guess I should get ready too.”

Pulling herself away from the wall, she heads over to her bedroom and pushes open the door. Orchid figures that since she actually has some time today, she might as well put on some better clothes than the simple, white dress shirt and pants she wears for work. “I’ve been caught in that far too many times recently. Now I finally have the chance to wear something that actually looks nice.”

She thinks of the sparse times she’s had the time or energy to socialize, with most of them being at the Tavern immediately after work. At the thought of her job, her face furrows in annoyance. “If I’d known they’d be making me work so long all the time I wouldn’t have signed up!” She breathes out in frustration, but then deflates in defeat as she remembers a certain key detail. “Though I guess that is just the normal now… damned changelings…”

Orchid puts her thoughts aside for now and finishes getting dressed. After some deliberation, she decides on a soft, violet-colored sweater and grey slacks, perfect for a casual evening hang out. Looking at herself in the mirror, she manages to smile for the first time she can recall in several days. “Oh, how I miss actual clothes! I’m glad Blueberry was open, otherwise I’d probably just sit here watching television until bed.”

With her outfit selected and a rare positive attitude gracing her, she grabs the small bag containing her bits and identification then heads out the door, locking it behind her. The walk to the tavern isn’t long, since she lives just up the street from it, something she is frequently grateful for. The nighttime breeze brushes against her face and mane, bringing with it a pleasant chill which her clothing selection is perfect for.

The sidewalk on the way is fairly empty, with only one other pony, a tired-looking unicorn stallion, passing her, though they pay each other no heed. Within a few minutes of trotting since she left her house, she arrives at her destination. The familiar entryway to the Portside Tavern is lies in front of her, and she can hear the sounds of merriment inside. A gentle smile spreads across her muzzle at the welcoming sight, and she moves in through the door.

Unlike the last time she was here, it is much livelier, with about two or so dozen ponies scattered throughout the booths and barstools. She pays a respectful glance towards Bluestar as she enters, who gently waves a hoof back at her while taking an order with a pen and piece of paper held in their magic. Orchid then surveys the place in search of her friend, in case Blueberry beat her to it.

Her suspicion appears to be correct, as she eventually spots the light-blue earthpony sitting at a table by the window. She marches straight over and taps her friend on the shoulder with her hoof to let her know she’s here. Blueberry turns around, and a warmhearted smile stretches across her face as she recognizes the pony behind her. “Orchid! It’s good to see you! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Orchid takes the seat across from her, returning her friend’s smile in earnest. “Yeah, it’s been far too long. Over a month, I think. What’ve you been up to?”

Blueberry leans back in her chair, and looks out the window. “Oh, not much. Work’s been a pain as usual, and I had to stay home a few days last week because my son got sick. My boss wasn’t very happy with that, but it’s not like she can fire me for it.”

“Is Berrytwist okay?” Orchid asks, voice laden with concern. She’d only met Blueberry’s son once a few years ago, but she remembers him being quite young at the time, around 4 or 5.

Thankfully, Blueberry nods. “Yeah, he’s fine now. Just a bit of a cold. Bad enough that he had to stay home from school though. He’s still trying to catch up on the homework.”

“Well I’m glad he’s better now.” She offers.

Her friend nods again. “Me too.” There is a momentary pause as she still looks through the window, then turns back to Orchid. “How about you, hon? Anything been happening recently?”

“That’s a hard one to answer…” She considers the events of the last few days carefully, weighing whether to tell her or not to tell her everything. “I really don’t want her to worry about me, and I especially don’t want to have to think about it more than I need to. But on the other hoof, having somepony to talk to about this might be nice.”

Another moment passes, and Orchid finally makes her decision. “To be honest, a lot has been happening lately… a little too much, I think. I’ve been having a hard time because of it.”

Blueberry’s face tilts in concerned compassion. “Oh hon, I’m so sorry to hear that. Is it something at work? Or that weird inspection the changelings did a few days ago? Something else?”

Orchid takes a deep breath in preparation, then begins to explain. “Well, yes, but it was mostly something else. So about three weeks ago, a pair of changeling officers started making it a regular thing to visit the café in the morning. It was a little nerve-racking at first, but I’ve had changeling customers before.” She pauses to take another breath, then continues. “But then Marble said that I should try to get in with one of the officers to see if I can get anything helpful for his rebellion. I didn’t want to agree at first, but something… I don’t know… I was convinced to help him anyways. So I was building up my confidence when that inspection happened, and my boss gave me a double shift like an asshole and then when it was just me alone in the café, one of the fucking officers came in and asked me to talk with her a bit and I got really scared and then she came and approached me on my way home earlier today and we talked about things and I might’ve said things I shouldn’t have because I was trying to help Marble and I’m probably going to get arrested or beaten on something…”

She doesn’t realize her whole body had tightened until she feels a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, and the caring smile of a friend. “It’s okay hon, breathe. No changeling is going to hurt you on my watch.”

Orchid near collapses on the table from the release of tension. She feels like crying. “I’m so sorry, that was a lot and I kinda ranted a bit, I know you probably have your own problems…”

“Orchid, stop it. I’m more than happy to listen to your problems, especially when it seems to be impacting you this much. Please, just, calm down a bit. I’m here for you.”

She follows the advice and breathes for a few moments. Orchid definitely didn’t realize how much she had been bottling up, and feels guilty for pressing it all on Blueberry. She knows that her friend is the type of pony who would care for her no matter what, but that doesn’t stop the aching feeling in her chest. “Thank you… I didn’t realize how much I needed to talk to somepony about all this.”

Blueberry smiles, and takes one of Orchid’s hooves in her own in a comforting gesture. “I’m just glad you decided to call. I can tell you’ve been letting this get to you.”

Orchid merely lays there, absorbing the comfort in silent appreciation.

“Now about Marble getting you to do all this…”

The sudden shift causes Orchid to jerk upright, not wanting Blueberry to get mad at her other friend for something she chose to do. “No no no, it’s fine. I’m the one who did this, please don’t get upset with Marble over this.”

All she gets in return is an incredulous look. “You really expect me to believe that you, the pony who I’m pretty sure gets a panic attack from looking at a changeling, chose willingly to talk to one to help a rebellion she’s said before she wanted no part in, completely of her own volition?”

“Well when you put it like that it sounds ridiculous…” Orchid looks around nervously, still trying to defend her friend’s integrity. “Yes?”

Blueberry sighs. “Look hon, we’ve both known Marble since we met in the factory, and we both know he takes whatever he does very seriously. I wouldn’t put it past him to try to force something like that on you, and given your explanation that seems to be exactly what happened.”

“I… He… It’s not like that…” She turns to look out the window in an attempt to avoid her friend’s glare. “He asked me to, and I agreed to do it.”

“Uh-huh. And how is that going so far?”

She groans quietly at the memory of earlier. “Auugh, horribly. I feel terrified whenever the officer speaks to me, despite the fact I seem to have caught her attention for some reason, and I’m pretty sure I caused her an existential crisis or something? I don’t know, she looked really distraught at one point and I actually felt kinda bad.”

Blueberry raises an eyebrow in a quizzical expression. “Orchid? Feeling bad for a changeling?” Her tone somehow comes across as both joking and serious at the same time.

“Shut up!” Orchid retorts, emotions too muddled to sound like anything in particular. “I’m trying my best!”

Sighing, her friend sits back in her chair to give her some distance. “Look hon, you’re clearly really stressed from all of this. If I were you I’d just forget about whatever Marble said and go back to doing your normal thing.” Orchid attempts to look away, but is caught by an intense stare. “If you want to talk about it more, I’m here for you, but please just stop. This isn’t healthy.”

Verbally cornered, Orchid finds she has no choice but to concede. She sprawls her hooves and head across the small table before her, simply exhausted from how much she has carrying on her shoulders. “I’m sorry… it’s just been so much…”

Orchid’s drooped ears perk up at a gentle stroking sensation felt across the top of her head. She looks up from the dark embrace of her forelegs to see Blueberry comforting her, a serene smile upon her face. “I know hon, I know. It’s a really brave thing you tried to do. Just relax for now, I’m here for you.”

Accepting the gesture, Orchid lays there within her hooves for a moment as her friend strokes her head. The calm, repetitive sensation sends warmth throughout her troubled mind, and finally she begins to unwind the tangle of stress and worry.

She sits up again, eyes slanted downward, a little embarrassed, but calm. “Thank you. I really needed that.”

Blueberry smiles. “You’re very welcome. Now, did you want to continue talking about it, or should we get some drinks?”

“Drinks please. I think I’ve had enough of all that for one day.”

“Alright then. I’ll go up and order some. What do you want?”

“Just a beer will do. Bluestar knows what I like.”

And with that, Blueberry gets up and trots over to the bar counter, leaving Orchid alone at their table. She looks out the window at the street, watching the cars zoom past. She’s always been happy to live in a part of the city where there isn’t that much traffic, even if she only ever travels by hoof; it means that Portside stays pretty quiet compared to other places.

Thoughts drifting to the freneticism of recent, Orchid sighs. “I have to remember that all of this was only the last few days. My normal is manageable. Normal is okay, I can do this.”

She hears hoofsteps approaching, and turns to see Blueberry returning with a pair of glasses brimming with alcohol. She places one in front of Orchid and another in front of herself before taking a seat. “There you are, best one that Bluestar had on tap.”

“I really don’t know what I’d do without you sometimes.” Orchid says half-seriously.

Blueberry seizes her glass with her hoof. “Beer-lessly cry about your problems probably.”

She stifles a laugh. “Yeah, probably.”

The two lift their drinks together with a clink of their glasses, and take their first sips. As usual, Bluestar’s drafts are exquisite, and Orchid finds herself quickly downing a decent portion of it. There is a momentary pause in their conversation while they drink, but after that the words flow naturally again.

“So.” Blueberry starts. “Changelings and your dumbass boss aside, how has work been treating you?”

Orchid sips her drink, avoiding eye contact. “It’s been fine. The hours are a lot harsher than before the war ended, but it could be worse. The most annoying part is just my coworker.”

Blueberry raises an eyebrow. “Oh? What did she do this time? Her name was something about the sun right?”

“Sun Lily.”

“Right, I remember now.”

Orchid continues. “Anyways, she’s just an annoying pony to be around, and is way too friendly.”

Her friend snorts trying to drink from her glass. “Since when is being too friendly a bad thing?”

“You clearly haven’t met her then.” Orchid thinks, before deciding to try something less mean sounding. “It’s not usually, but with her it is. It’s hard to explain.” She quickly adds on the other detail. “She’s also just bad at her job, and constantly needs me to cover for her.”

“See, that part makes more sense.” She says, motioning outwards with her hoof. “Here I was thinking you didn’t like her just because she was being nice.”

Orchid feels a pang of guilt at that, but tries to put it aside. “She’s not a bad pony or anything, just annoying to deal with.”

Blueberry finishes another sip of her drink. “Sounds like the type of pony that would be better as a friend than a coworker. Perhaps you should try talking to her outside of work.” She goes in for another swig, leaving Orchid speechless at the suggestion.

“…outside of work? Her? Why would I want to hang out with her at all?” She finds herself wondering what Blueberry is trying to do, considering she has attempted to intervene on two separate relationships of hers just this evening. “She’s being way too motherly, I don’t need somepony to tell me what to do with my life… Then again, that doesn’t seem like a thing Blueberry would do. She’s probably just trying to look out for me… like always.” Orchid feels a little bad for doubting her friend, however briefly, and tries to return her focus to the mare in front of her. “Why would you say that?” She tries.

Blueberry shrugs. “I don’t know really, just a hunch.”

Completely unsatisfied with the answer, Orchid opens her mouth to press the issue, but decides it isn’t worth it. “I…see.”

A moment of awkward pause follows, and both ponies drink from their glasses quietly. The hubbub throughout the room around them grows as more patrons come into the tavern, and Orchid watches as her friend finishes off her drink and stands up onto her hooves. “Well, it was really good to see you again Orchid. I should be getting home now, my son needs to be put to bed soon.”

Orchid nods understandingly. “It was good to see you too. We should meet up again sometime.”

“Yeah, we should. I’ll call you when I know my schedule for this next week. See you soon.”

“Say hi to Berrytwist for me.”

Blueberry nods with a smile, and heads out towards the door. Orchid stands up herself, deciding that she should probably get back home too. “I do have work tomorrow after all, I can’t stay up too late.”

She grabs her bag and starts for the door, before remembering she hadn’t said a proper hello to Bluestar yet. Shoving her way past a few other ponies crowding around the center of the tavern, she finally makes it to the counter. Bluestar is there behind it, filling up glasses and mugs and dealing them out to the ponies sitting around them. The way they wield their magic has always been entrancing, as they have trained enough to be able to levitate multiple objects deftly without even needing to see them. “That’d probably be more impressive if I actually knew what using magic felt like.”

When they finally turn in her direction, she waves to flag them down. “Hey, Bluestar!”

They quickly spot the pony calling their name and looks towards Orchid with a smile, walking forward slowly while cleaning the counter with a rag held in their magic. “Ah, Orchid. Good to see you. You heading out I assume?”

She nods. “Yeah, I just finished with Blueberry and figured I’d say hi.”

They eye the window table they were sitting at moments prior. “Well thank you for the consideration. I saw you earlier, before Blueberry came up to get drinks, and figured you could use something good from how you were looking, so I put yours on the house.”

Orchid suddenly feels both flattered and embarrassed that they actually noticed that, but also appreciative for the gesture nonetheless. “Thank you, it was really good.”

Bluestar smiles. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“Anyways, now that I’ve said hello I should really get going now, it is getting late for a work night.” She says, glancing up at the clock mounted on the wall.

They nod in response. “Have a nice night, Orchid. Thank you for stopping by.”

She smiles warmly at them, thankful for their kindness, and takes her leave. Orchid begins the trek back home, actually feeling good for once. “I think I really needed that. I’ve been letting the stress get to me too much recently.” She stretches her back a little, allowing herself to gaze up at the night sky. The moon is already out, and the starscape behind it is quite beautiful, accented by the rising smoke trails coming out of hundreds of chimneys.

A few minutes later, she arrives at her building, pushing through the front door and climbing up the stairs as she’s done countless times before. For the second time today, she enters into her apartment, this time closing the door carefully behind her to not upset her neighbors.

She places her bag on a nearby counter, and goes to her bedroom to undress. Opening up her closet, she takes off her slacks and put the up on a hangar. While removing her sweater, standing next to her bed, she catches a glance of the black and white photo framed on the table beside it.

A tightness lurches in her chest, and Orchid finds herself thinking of what Blueberry had said. She considers the idea of simply ducking out from Marble’s request, and compares it to staying with it. “It would be easy to stop. He’s still out on that trip of his, so he wouldn’t know any better…” Despite her best arguments against it, she feels it is incredibly hard to decide to stop with the pony in the picture staring at her, that gentle smile seemingly urging her onwards. “Dammit Meadowdancer, why do you have to make this so difficult?!”

She finishes taking off her clothes, and starts her bedtime routine, resolving to figure out her dilemma tomorrow. Heading to the bathroom, she brushes her teeth and takes out the band holding her mane in a bun, allowing the cream-colored hair to flow free. Afterwards, she returns to her bed, where she sets her alarm for the next day and takes off her glasses, carefully placing them on the bedside table.

Crawling into the warmth and comfort of her sheets, she closes her eyes and pulling the blanket up close with her hooves. While her head is still swirling in the emotion of the day, she falls asleep quickly, carried by residual exhaustion from the night before, as well as the weariness of her own mind. For the first time this week, her dreams are peaceful.

Chapter 7: Recompense

It has been a full day since she spoke with that pony in the park. Nyceris avoided the café entirely yesterday, still trying to piece together her own thoughts, and worried that any more interaction with the pony would just throw her back into a spiral. “Hives, why can I not get her out of my head?! I’m a Heer officer for fuck’s sake I shouldn’t be debilitated because some pony got the better of me!”

She turns over onto her side, staring out the window from her bed. All she can see is the identical apartments across the street through the opened blinds, partially hidden in the darkness of the early morning. “Why did I even let her get away with that anyways? Scutellum would never let a pony push him around, and I shouldn’t either!”

Pulling her hoof up in front of her face, she lightly taps her jagged, black horn. She thinks of the gun it had held in her magic, poised to take the life of a pony. All it would have taken is a light pressure on the trigger, the slightest will to do it, and the gun would have fired. But she couldn’t. She had failed, and Scutellum did what she didn’t without hesitation.

Rolling over to her other side, she stares at her clock. There are six minutes until her alarm will go off, signaling the start of her day. She had woken up early, stirred by vagrant thoughts that she hasn’t been able to remove from her head no matter how hard she tries. She sighs, closing her eyes and pressing her head deeper into the softness of her pillow. “Why am I so weak? I need to be able to do this, to be the commander my soldiers need me to be. Why can’t I be that?”

Once again, her thoughts drift back to the café pony, who had stood her ground against her, and had been so kind yet so afraid. An all too familiar tightness swells in her chest, though it feels a little different this time. Her eyes clench even more, wrinkling along with her brow, and she finds herself mentally begging for the release of her alarm.

She opens her eyes, casting them in the direction of her clock. “One minute…”

Still unable to rid herself of the pony plaguing her mind, she makes a vow to herself. “Alright Nyceris, today, you are going to go to the café like normal, and you are going to tell that pony to meet you after her work, and you can finally make this right.” Her alarm goes off just as she finishes, its incessant chiming filling the previously silent room. “I need to prove to myself that I won’t let a pony walk over me, and that I can be the commander my troops deserve!”

Nyceris turns off the alarm with her magic, and tosses her covers off. Climbing out of bed, she flicks the lights on with magic and starts getting ready for work. She takes a quick shower, gently drying her fragile wings and cleaning her fangs with a brush. Next, she assembles the pieces of her uniform, carefully removing any blemishes and pulling the belt tight across her waist. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, she makes every necessary adjustment to make sure she looks the part of an ideal changeling officer: orderly, clean, and imposing.

Happy with her appearance, she flashes her reflection a fanged smile. “Okay. I can do this. I’m an officer of the Heer, and nothing can stop me.”

She marches downstairs and pulls her pistol and bag out of her closet. She ignores the kitchen for now, figuring she can get something to eat at the café later, and heads out the door. Without any urgency to the day, she peacefully struts along the sidewalk, purposely ignoring the ponies moving out of her way. Within a few minutes, she arrives at the garrison post and passes by the saluting guard to enter inside.

As usual, the post is rather quiet in the morning. The operations officer is sitting at a desk reading out orders for the radio dispatcher, and a pair of soldiers are talking in the corner while checking their rifles. The officer notices her entering through the door watching her while reading something, and Nyceris gives him a nod as she heads upstairs. It seems she is the first to go up here today, as the door to the second floor is locked. She pulls out a key from her bag with her green aura and unlocks the door, pushing it open and stepping into the dark room.

“Strange that I beat the other officers here, usually at least Scutellum arrives before me.” She shrugs. “It’s probably nothing. He might have just slept past his alarm or something.”

Flicking on the lights, she uses her magic to open the blinds on all the windows, and subsequently heads to her desk. Thankfully, she doesn’t have much paperwork today, allowing her to sift through the remaining files at her leisure. Suddenly, she hears the sounds of hoofsteps running up the stairs, and instinctively turns towards the doorway, alert and ready. Her alarm, however, is unwarranted, as the changeling who passes through the threshold is just the operations officer.

“Commander! Apologies, you came up here before I could let you know. Leutnant Caracin wants to see you. I already sent Feldwebel Scutellum there after receiving the radio transmission earlier today.”

Startled by the news, she begins worrying that she may be late, but makes sure that it doesn’t show on her face. “Very well, thank you. I’ll head out momentarily.” She takes a second to gather her things and re-sort the papers on her desk that she had displaced, only to look up and see the operations officer still standing there at attention. “You’re dismissed Unteroffizier.”

He salutes with deft acuity before heading back downstairs.

Nyceris rolls her eyes at the strict mannerisms of her subordinate, only to remember that she does the exact same thing when standing in front of her own superiors. “Huh, I guess it feels a bit different being on the receiving end of that…”

Once she has everything ready, she heads downstairs and out the building. Nyceris finds that she is a little annoyed at having to go after just having settled in for the day, but such is duty. Out on the street now, she opens up her wings and flies over the cars and ponies and patrolling changelings to arrive as quickly as possible. Changelings may not be as fast as a pegasus, but she is still able to travel multiple city blocks in only a few minutes.

She lands outside the district headquarters, easy to see due to the massive Hegemony banners hung over it. Straightening her uniform with her hoof and a bit of magic, she approaches the entrance. There are two soldiers standing outside at attention, much the contrary to the delinquent changeling she had met the last time. They salute as they see her officer’s uniform, and let her inside.

A brief interaction with the receptionist later, Nyceris is heading upstairs to the hectic hallway above, where she forces her way past a multitude of other officers to arrive at the Leutnant’s office. She looks inside through the open door, seeing Scutellum already present, sitting in a chair, and Leutnant Caracin perched in his own seat behind the desk. As she does so, the Leutnant notices her, and beckons her inside.

Nyceris obeys and enters, saluting once inside as the door closes behind her with a glow of green magic. Scutellum turns to look at her, and the Leutnant waves a hoof at a vacant chair. “Oberfeldwebel, you’re finally here. Please, sit.” His tone is bland and professional, but Nyceris thinks she can detect a hint of annoyance at her tardiness.

Suddenly filled with anxiety, and not wanting to give her superior any more reason to punish her, she lowers her foreleg and quickly takes her seat. She shares a momentary look with Scutellum, who only appears smug as ever, possibly even enjoying her nervousness given the slight twist of his grin. “Thanks for the reassurance, you jerk. I’ll remember that next time you’re late.”

Leutnant Caracin leans forward and addresses the two officers before him. “Apologies for calling you both in on such short notice. I know you are busy enough as is, but it is about to get a whole lot busier for all of us.”

Nyceris tilts her head in curiosity.

“You see, in central Equestria, the Love Tax has had a number of reforms to increase both efficiency and reduce the violence that can occur with the current system of random love feedings.” He continues. “They had been implementing this new system for a while, but only now have they become requiring the protectorates do the same. Protectress Lilac has jumped at the opportunity and will be implementing a trial run this month.”

He leans back in his chair, seemingly waiting to see if either of them has any questions. Nyceris doesn’t risk it, since without explicit permission it could be considered a breach of protocol, but Scutellum appears not to care and asks anyways. “What does this new system involve?”

Nyceris braces herself for her compatriot to be yelled out, but it never comes. Instead, the Leutnant just answers the question. “The inventors of the Royal Science Division back in Vesalipolis have built machines capable of harvesting love at a more controlled rate en masse. This has been proven to not only collect more love faster, but also be less draining on the ponies, meaning they can return to work the next day instead of taking up to a week for recovery like it would with a traditional harvesting.”

Nodding, Nyceris finds herself a little excited to implement this. She only ever has bought her love at a store rather than collecting it herself, so she doesn’t really know firsthand about it, but she has heard too many stories in which a changeling has nearly killed the pony they were draining from taking too much. “A better system is sure to help keep them under control too.”

Seeing the approval of his subordinates, the Leutnant continues explaining the plan. “This process is done on a monthly basis, with each pony only being drained once. This is to be implemented on a rotating cycle per district to prevent a total loss of labor on a given day. For us, that means three weeks from today. As the commanding officers of the Portside neighborhood, it is up to you to prepare for the harvest. I have files containing everything you will need to know here.” He pulls a pair of manila folders from a drawer in his desk and hands them to Nyceris and Scutellum respectively.

She takes hers with her hooves, and glances over the front page. The first thing she notices is the word ‘Confidential’ stamped in red across the first piece of paper. “What?! Is he sure he handed me the right file? I don’t want to get in trouble for reading classified documents.” Nyceris looks up to her superior for guidance. His resolute look of patience only leads her to believe that he did, in fact, mean to give her that file, meaning she is now considered a need-to-know changeling. “Great...”

After giving the two a moment to skim their folders, Leutnant Caracin breaks the quiet sound of moving paper to finish his orders. “With that, I trust you both to carry out the instructions carefully. The Love Harvest will be overseen by members of the Queen’s Guard, so ensure that everything is perfect, and that they have no reason to reprimand District 7. Am I understood?”

They both salute. “Yes sir!”

His mouth draws in the slightest hint of a smile. “Good. You are dismissed.”

And with that, Nyceris puts the file in her bag for later and stands up, eager to leave. She has already been stressed enough recently, and adding a whole new layer of complexity to it only fuels the fire. “And here I thought today might be calm… At least it is for a good reason this time, and not just me being an idiot.”

She leaves the office, with Scutellum in tow, watching as the door closes behind them. They walk through the busy hallway together in silence, heading downstairs, only speaking once they are outside. Scutellum turns to her as they trot down the sidewalk back to the garrison post. “Well, I can’t say I was expecting that. Probably for the best, though I’m a little sad that the love feedings will be coming to an end.”

Nyceris eyes him incredulously. “Of course you’d be the type of changeling to actually enjoy feeding directly off of ponies…” She knows she can’t really say that without revealing too much about herself, so she goes with something else. “I guess. I still think this is a major improvement. More discipline, happier ponies, what’s not to like?”

He mutes a laugh, so it comes off more as a scoff. “You care too much Nyceris.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I’m just saying, you emphasized discipline above the fact it’s just more efficient. Who cares if someling wants to have a little fun?”

She can’t help but just stare. It would be almost shocking if it weren’t completely in-character for him. “And what do you mean by that?”

He sighs, as if the answer is obvious. “What I mean, is that a few ponies being upset or hurt is hardly the end of the world.”

“That may be true, but it still feels wrong to hurt them unnecessarily.” She thinks, before trying an approach he may find more acceptable. “It is more efficient to keep them happier. Happy ponies work harder and cause less trouble. So, in a way, being nice to them means less work for us.”

He almost seems stunned at the implication, and Nyceris finds a bit of catharsis in his discomfort, as revenge for earlier. After a moment, Scutellum gathers his thoughts and responds. “I can see the reasoning there, but taking that too far could be dangerous. Being seen as a pony sympathizer isn’t exactly a good thing for someling’s career.”

Now it’s her turn to be stunned, having forgotten about that particular aspect. “Shit, he’s right. There are Queen’s Guard coming in only a few weeks, if I have a reputation as being too nice to ponies… well, that’d be the end of my career, or worse…” She nods nervously. “You have a point there. We can implement the new procedures as intended, but otherwise stick to how we’ve been operating. Does that work for you?”

His formerly concerned expression returns to his usual smug grin. “Wonderfully.”

They continue walking quietly for a while, passing by a changeling putting up some propaganda posters on the side of a building. Nyceris can’t help but feel like she had been outplayed. Her doubts regarding her position as a commander resurge, and she has to try her best just to keep Scutellum from noticing. Mercifully, they arrive at the garrison post fairly quickly.

Returning inside, they go upstairs to their desks and start delving into the confidential documents they were given. Sorting through the papers, Nyceris finds that it is mostly just a bunch of procedures for the day of the Love Harvest, but there is also a section about preparation steps, and most importantly some detail about how the machine functions. “I really have my work cut out for me today…”

As she finishes reading the file, she remembers what she had promised herself earlier this morning. “Right, I was going to tell that café pony to meet me later. I guess a coffee and a bagel wouldn’t hurt either, it’s gonna be a long day.”

She stands up to leave, and Scutellum turns to look at her, confused. “Going somewhere?”

Nyceris nods. “Yes. I was going to get a coffee.” She starts towards the door, but then figures that it would be rude not to invite him. “Would you like to come with?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, I had some instant coffee before I left home. Go on ahead, I’ll stay here and figure out these checkpoint procedures.”

“Okay, see you later.” She exits the post and heads off towards the café. While walking, she is mentally preparing herself for what she needs to do. “Okay, you can’t let yourself be distracted. Just go in there, order you stuff, and when she delivers it to you, tell her she will meet you after work. She’s just a pony, there is no reason this should be hard.”

She arrives at the café and pushes the door open, the soft jingling of bells announcing her presence. There are only three patrons inside at the moment, all ponies. Two of them, as well as the employees, give her a nervous glance before returning to whatever they were doing. Nyceris strolls up to the counter, where awaits a yellow unicorn she remembers seeing before. She places her order, watching the pony in the back preparing something and pretending not to notice her.

Sitting down at a nearby table, she awaits her chance. It takes a minute, but eventually the purplish-red earthpony she is waiting for comes by carrying her coffee. Nyceris watches her and can tell she is avoiding eye contact. “She’s afraid… at least that’ll make this easier.”

The barista sets down the tray, turning to leave before Nyceris stops her. “Hey, pony.”

Freezing in place, the pony turns back to look at her, obviously fearful. Nyceris’ own nervousness makes this difficult, but she holds an authoritative disposition, and gives her command. “I wasn’t able to finish with you last we spoke. You get off of work at 7 PM correct?”

The pony nods hesitantly, and Nyceris can see the panic in her rose-colored eyes.

“Good. You will meet me in the park we were at last time at 8 PM today. Ensure you show up.”

“Yes ma’am!” The pony squeaks, before practically galloping off to hide behind the counter.

Nyceris breathes a sigh of relief. “I did it! Now I just need to get through today, and hopefully have enough energy left to prove I won’t let a pony get the better of me again!”

She sips her coffee, happy with herself for being able to exert control over the pony, like a good commander would. Another pony, a pegasus, walks through the door and to the counter, eyeing her suspiciously the whole time. She returns his glare at one point, causing him to shrink away, suddenly entirely absorbed by the menu. Nyceris forces herself to smile. “I’m such. A good. Commander.”

A few minutes pass, and she finishes her coffee. She gets up to leave, paying one final look at the counter. She can only see the yellow unicorn, who smiles as their eyes meet. Nyceris turns away and exits through the door onto the street. “At least there’s one pony who isn’t afraid of me.” She then catches herself. “No, wait! My soldiers probably expect ponies to be scared of an officer. Shit, why is this so hard…”

The rest of her day goes by relatively uneventfully. She still has a lot of work to do, but there are no emergencies or anything that would prevent the day from interrupting the humdrum of filing and signing paperwork. Scutellum helps with it all of course, and as the evening draws near, they manage to fill out most of the forms they’ll need to request proper equipment for their soldiers and establish checkpoints on major streets.

Nyceris yawns, looking out the window at the setting sun. “It’s probably getting close to time.” She glances over at the wall clock, seeing that it is 7:37. “Close enough. It’ll take me some time to get there anyways.”

She turns towards Scutellum, who is still working through some paperwork at his desk. They’ve done more than enough for today, but she has come to know him as a rather hard worker, something dreadfully in contrast with her image of him from their academy days. Putting that aside though, she takes a step towards him to announce her departure. “I’m going home now. Thanks for the help today, goodnight.”

He waves a hoof at her without looking up from his work. “Goodnight. I’ll be here for a little bit more, I think. See you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Make sure to get some sleep.” With that, Nyceris leaves the room, heading downstairs and out for the park she had ordered the pony to meet her at. It doesn’t take her long to arrive, only about ten minutes she would guess, leaving her with plenty of time.

Walking through the park, she observes the otherwise still leaves moving whenever a car passes along the street. She finds her way to a metal bench, a little bit off the main path to allow for more privacy, and she waits. “You had better show up, pony. I promised myself I would do this.”

She waits for a while more. Nyceris doesn’t have a watch, so she can’t actually check, but she guesses that it is about time for their meeting. Looking around at her surroundings, she sees nothing but trees and bushes swaying in a gentle breeze, illuminated by lampposts dispelling the growing darkness of the sunset. After a minute however, she hears the sound of gravel crunching under hooves. She turns around towards the noise, and spots who she was waiting for. The pony is approaching carefully, her body visibly tense.

Nyceris stands upright, straightening out her uniform with magic, intent on looking as commanding as possible. The pony meekly walks up, stopping in front of her, avoiding eye contact. Nyceris nods. “Good, you made it. Please sit down, and we can finish what we started last time.”

The pony complies, and places herself on the bench, gaze magnetically drawn to the ground. Nyceris sits down beside her. She prepares to speak, wanting to get in the first word, but the pony starts first.

“W-why did you have me come here?” The pony’s voice is laden with anxiety, and perhaps even dread, causing the tightness to return, clenching at Nyceris’ chest.

Pushing through the discomfort, Nyceris tries her best to establish control of the situation. “You’re here because I wished to continue our conversation. You had been spouting some inane nonsense about friendship, and I have come to correct that.”

“I… see?” She seems confused.

“That’s not exactly the response I was hoping for…” She decides to try a more direct transition. “So, from what I recall, you were trying to sell the idea that your ‘harmony’ is somehow a strength, is that right?”

The pony nods apprehensively, clearly terrified of this whole situation.

“That’s more like it.” Nyceris tries to use the pony’s fear to her advantage, sitting upright and glaring down at her. “And how is that supposed function? You just be kind to someling and they magically be kind back? Expecting nothing in return? That’s not how it works.”

Eyes still glued to the ground, the pony provides her tepid response. “It worked for Equestria…”

“Oh please.” Nyceris chides, not having the pony’s indignance. “You’re telling me that for 1000 years, you ponies were just friends and had no conflict? What was all that up in Severyana then?”

“Of course we’ve had conflict!” She shouts, before noticing her mistake and backtracking into a more submissive tone. “But harmony only works if everypony wants it.”

Seeing her opportunity to defeat the pony’s inferior reasoning, Nyceris recounts some of the phrases she has heard time and time again. “And that is why it will always fail. An ideology cannot survive unless it can force others to its will. Queen Chrysalis knew that, and that’s how the changelings were led to greatness.”

The pony finally looks up from the gravelly ground towards Nyceris, her expression one of both fear and a tinge of resolve, something no proper changeling officer should tolerate. “We offered your kind friendship before, and she refused. You…”

Nyceris interrupts her, desperate to prove herself worthy of her position. “Our Queen refused for us because she knew that friendship would make us weak! Don’t you dare insinuate that we would ever accept your pitiful ‘kindness’, or whatever you’d call it, when without any help we have become stronger than any nation in the world!”

Hurriedly pushing herself back to the other side of the bench with her hooves, the pony shrivels in terror. The feeling in her chest only tightens, but Nyceris finally feels that tinge of assurance in her role. “This is what my soldiers expect! I have to be able to do this!”

She tries and tries to push her advantage while she has it, to really prove her strength to herself, but she can’t do it. Something in her conscience is preventing her from harming this pony, even though Nyceris knows she deserves it given how much she’s talked back to her. Instead, she only manages a sigh, and recedes to a less imposing stature. “Look. I’m not going to hurt you, but I would be remiss if I didn’t fix such indignant suggestions as kindness being a strength. It is unbecoming of a citizen of the Hegemony to imply such things.”

A heavy silence weighs for a moment, before the pony gives her retort, still sitting as far as possible from the changeling commander. “You’re wrong. Kindness is a strength. It is what keeps ponies together.”

Scoffing, Nyceris can’t help but be curious at her reasoning. “How do you suppose? Kindness makes for weak soldiers, and weak soldiers makes for weak nations. I would’ve thought that concept had been proven in the Great War.”

Instead of being the winning move she had intended, the mention of the war just seems to trigger something within the pony. Her previous timidity is suddenly replaced with a strange conviction which Nyceris hasn’t seen before. “Shut up! Equestria was the strongest, kindest nation in the world!” She shouts, almost frenetically. “Then you monsters came and destroyed it! You took everything from us, and now I have to live every day in fear because us ponies were too kind to do to you a fraction of what you did to us! Your strength lies in nothing but cruelty and terror!”

Nyceris sits there, utterly paralyzed. The pony is huffing with the ferocity of her reprisal, but slowly it seems to dawn on her what she just said, and a piece of her conviction melts into horror. Nyceris meanwhile, is not doing any better. The two sit beside each other silently, both unable to speak.

Eventually, Nyceris recovers enough to continue, though her voice is now timid where once it had been controlling. “I… we’re not monsters. We just did what we had to for our people to survive.”

Perhaps realizing that she lost control, perhaps just sensing her weakness, the pony regains some of her stance, standing up from the bench in anger. “Is that what you tell yourselves? Last I checked, survival doesn’t require slaughtering millions and enslaving their families! No. You changelings are all the same. Cruel, power-hungry, vindictive monsters.”

“Is that what ponies think of us…” The tightness in her chest becomes unbearable now, and her mind is racing with justifications, desperately trying to prove to herself that the pony is wrong. She thinks back to the pony she had nearly shot, and remembers how Scutellum barely seemed to care afterwards. Flipping through her memories, every changeling she can recall talking to either doesn’t care, pretends not to care, or actively enjoys the violence they inflict on ponies. “She can’t be right, can she?” With her mind embroiled in doubt, she only gets out a weak mumbling. “I…I’m…”

Nyceris is sure that the pony can see her distress now, there is no way she could hide it. It only seems to give the pony more confidence to fight, and she starts yelling at the fumbling changeling before her. “You’re what? What could you possibly have to say for yourself?!”

“I’m sorry!” She spouts. This is definitely not how Nyceris had seen this conversation going, and the situation has spiraled so far out of her control that she feels like she might cry.

Clearly sensing her weakness, the pony continues to press even harder, gathering more momentum as Nyceris loses her ground. The pony stands tall over her with ire, and points at the changeling accusingly. “You’re sorry?! Is that all you have to say for the years of misery your kind inflicted on Equestria?! Is that it?! You know what, I don’t even care if you decide you wanna shoot me or something. Getting shot is preferable to living in terror for the rest of my life, and it would only prove my point!”

Helpless against the pony’s verbal assault, Nyceris covers her head with her forelegs, trying to protect herself from having to look into those hateful eyes. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know!”

“How could you possibly not know! You’re some sort of officer right! That means you are the one who makes all this happen! I bet you’ve been harassing me these last few days just because it’s some kind of sick joke to you damned bugs!”

The idea that something like that probably would be a joke to changelings like Scutellum only makes the accusation dig deeper. “That’s not true!” She tries, her tone growing increasingly forlorn. “I just wanted to know…”

“Know what!?!”

Nyceris swallows. “Know why you were kind to me!”

The words seem to strike something in the pony, and the tension begins to diffuses, her rage transforming into some mix of frustration, resentment, and pity. She looks down at the officer’s cowering form, and an expression spreads across her face that Nyceris would only describe as guilt.

“Look, I told you already. I was kind to you because you looked like you needed it.” She sighs, pinching the bridge of her muzzle with her hoof. “You haven’t beaten or killed me yet, despite the fact that most changelings probably would, so you’re at least better than the average.” She pauses for a slight moment to breathe, still trying to recuperate.

Peeking out from behind her hooves, Nyceris suddenly feels a bit embarrassed at the position she took. She tries to straighten herself out, and responds as cooly as she can. “I still don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t… I’m sure the first thing they teach in fascist school is that kindness is bad, right?”

She doesn’t know how to respond to that.

The pony sits down on her haunches, looking exhausted, and perhaps a still a bit scared. “Why aren’t you punishing me anyways? Isn’t that what you Heer are supposed to do?”

Once more, Nyceris doesn’t know how to respond. Her words come out stuttered and clumsy. “I… I don’t know… I’ve been trying so hard to do as I’m supposed to, but over and over I haven’t been able to. There’s just this feeling in my chest whenever I see ponies being afraid of me, and it makes me feel bad when I know it shouldn’t and I just realized I should not be telling you this.”

Thankfully, her explanation seems to come as a surprise to the pony as much as herself, and the two just sit in the awkward situation they have found themselves in.

Eventually the pony breaks the silence, much to Nyceris’ relief. “If it makes you feel any better, I won’t tell anypony. They probably wouldn’t believe me if I did anyways.”

“Th…Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Another pause, as both of them avoid eye contact. Then once more the pony speaks first. “You know, out of all the changelings I’ve ever seen, you’re probably the only one that seems like an actual person, instead of just some faceless fascist drone.”

“I don’t know how I should feel about that, but thanks for the compliment I guess?”

The pony smiles weakly. “As weird as it is for me to say, I do mean it.”

Nyceris thinks it over for a moment, mulling the implications over in her head. She decides to try her best to return the pony’s compliment. “You’re probably the first pony I’ve ever really talked with if I’m being honest. You are very different from what I was expecting.”

The pony meets her eyes, intrigued. “Oh? What were you expecting?”

She gives an exaggerated shrug to emphasize her uncertainty. “I don’t know, the propaganda always paints you ponies as these weak, sappy servants who are too cowardly to defend themselves.”

“And I’m different from that?”

Nyceris gives an affirmative nod. “You still seem scared a lot, even right now, but you clearly have more feelings than that. It’s… difficult to process.”

“You can tell I’m still afraid?”

“Ponies are easy to read. You’re all very expressive compared to changelings.”

The pony turns her head away. “I suppose…” She pauses for a moment, staring off into the distance while considering something, then looks back to Nyceris. “About earlier, I’m sorry for going off on you like that. I know it’s not like you started the war or anything, I’m just really stressed and scared, and you coming to bother me these last few days hasn’t been helping.”

While the pony’s words still weigh on Nyceris, she finds herself fixating on one particular part of her statement. “You… you’re apologizing to me? Why?”

The pony smiles faintly. “I am trying to be nice to you. Is that so hard to understand?”

Despite everything that just occurred, Nyceris still does have trouble wrapping her head about the alien concept. The idea of kindness for the sake of it is simply something that changelings aren’t supposed to do. “I almost feel like I shouldn’t answer that.”

A laugh. The pony produces a short series of laughs, almost deliriously. The situation is so absurd to her at this point that Nyceris has trouble taking it seriously, and she can’t help but chuckle slightly in response, not knowing what else to do. After finishing whatever that was the pony sighs. She looks up to meet Nyceris’ gaze, and speaks, her tone awkward but lighthearted. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to make you understand then.” She sits up and extends her hoof towards the officer. “I know we technically already introduced ourselves before, but since we seem to be at some weird kind of understanding, why don’t we do it again?”

Unsure of what to do here, Nyceris just timidly takes the pony’s hoof in hers while considering the offer. “I have no idea what sort of thing you are planning, but it sounds harmless enough.”

“Alright, my name is Nyceris, I am an Oberfeldwebel in the changeling Heer.”

“I’m Orchid, barista at the Olive Branch Café.”

They both laugh again at the ridiculousness of the situation, standing there in the middle of the park, alone save for the sounds of cars and bristling leaves.

Orchid smiles, genuinely this time as she comes off her fit of laughter. “Well, I never thought I would be saying this to a changeling, but it is nice to meet you Nyceris.”

She smiles back, her disposition eased significantly. The tightness in her chest fizzles away for now, and for a reason she can’t explain, she feels grateful to have someling, somepony, to talk to. “It is nice to meet you as well, Orchid.”

Author's Note

Thank you for reading my longest chapter yet!
I had initially planned on releasing this about four days ago as reparations for not releasing anything for almost a month a bit ago, but I wasn't liking how it turned out, and had to redo it a few times. This is a fairly big turning point for the characters, and it took a while to get it to a point that I thought made sense for them.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and I will get back to you with more Forbidden Flowers when I can.

INTERLUDE

Author's Note

Hello everyone! I'm not dead!

I apologize for having such a long gap between posting there. I generally try to get things out at least 1-2 times a month, but I've been distracted by a lot of things like my mental health, my current obsession with another fanfic I'm doing, and just life in general.

Since I haven't really been feeling up to doing a full-length chapter recently, here's a little snippit of Nyceris and Orchid to tie you over until I get back around to Forbidden Flowers for real. There may be more of these, there may not be. Either way, enjoy.

INTERLUDE

“Hey Nyceris.”

“Hey Orchid.”

The two sit together on the park bench they have become increasingly familiar with, trying to act casual in case a passerby spots them. It has been a day since their rather intense second first-impressions, and both of them had agreed to meet here in a more friendly manner.

Orchid still finds being around the changeling officer rather uncomfortable, but she had promised both Nyceris and herself that she would be here, and she intends to keep her word.

“So… um… you work at the café right? What’s that like?” Nyceris posits, awkwardly scrambling for conversation topics.

Orchid shrugs. “It’s… fine. It keeps a roof over my head at least.”

“Doesn’t sound like you like it there very much.”

“Yeah, well, I would like it a lot more if I didn’t have to work 12-hour shifts…” Orchid waves her hoof dismissively. “It’s fine. I’m used to it at this point.” She decides she wants to shift the topic before her conversation partner digs into her too deep. “What about you? You’re um… military right? What’s that like?”

She watches as Nyceris adjusts her hat and tie within the grasp of a green aura. “Well, it’s not quite what I imagined it would be. The war is over, so I expected mostly paperwork, which is what I got, but I’ve also had to watch all you ponies be terrified of me all the time.”

A little confused, but also just wanting to press the matter out of curiosity, Orchid raises an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what you changelings want out of us?”

Nyceris’ face contorts in a slight frown. “Yeah… it is…” She actively avoids eye contact with the earthpony staring at her. “I’ve tried so hard to want that too, but instead all I get is bad dreams and this unbearable tightness in my chest, like something is telling me this isn’t what I want.”

Orchid quickly pieces together the meaning of her words, and risks commenting on them. “That sounds like guilt.”

“What?” Nyceris says, finally meeting her gaze with a puzzled expression.

“Guilt. You know… when you feel bad about things you did?”

Nyceris glances around awkwardly. “I um… I’m going to have to think about that one.”

Orchid laughs, almost finding the changeling’s complete lack of self-awareness endearing. Nyceris only looks at her incredulously in response while she calms down with a sigh.

“Did I say something weird?”

Orchid shakes her head while still smiling from the laughter. “No! Not at all. I just thought it was funny.”

“O-okay…”

A moment of silence befalls them, as the awkwardness settles in once more. Orchid takes the opportunity to actually admire their surroundings for once, realizing that she’s been too scared the previous times to do so. “Huh, this park is actually quite nice. How have I never really gone here before? It’s literally right down the street.”

After a moment more, Nyceris breaks the quiet, once again changing the subject. “So, who is that pony you work with? The yellow unicorn?”

Orchid takes a deep breath. “That’s my coworker Sun Lily.”

“What’s she like?” Nyceris asks genuinely.

She finds herself becoming stressed just thinking about her coworker, but tries her best to respond anyways. “She’s kinda annoying to be honest. She’s really bad at her job so I’m constantly having to do her work for her, and I’m almost certain my boss just keeps her around because she’s pretty.”

“Well that doesn’t really seem fair.” Nyceris forlornly raises her hoof and touches the badge on her hat. “Though I suppose I can’t really be one to talk on that.”

Suddenly Orchid feels a slight pang in her stomach. She reaches out a hoof and places it consolingly on Nyceris’ shoulder, though no words manage to formulate in her head to accompany the gesture.

Nyceris turns to look at her, then at the purplish-red hoof resting on her. “What are you doing?” She asks, equal parts confused and uncomfortable.

“I… Sorry.” She retracts her hoof. “I guess we’ll get there.”

They continue their often awkward conversation for as long as either of them can bare, with Orchid trying her best to keep her fears and preconceptions to a minimum. She finds that Nyceris is actually rather okay for a changeling, and seems open to speaking with a pony like her on roughly equal standing, though both of them find that difficult to conceive.

As the flow of topics begins to dwindle once more, Orchid realizes how late it is, and bids Nyceris a quick farewell. They agree to meet here again, the same time tomorrow, and part ways for the night.