Thief!

“...ninety-seven… ninety-eight… ninety-nine… One hundred!”

Daisy grinned as she put the final seed packet into the cart. Everything was ready for tomorrow’s Winter Wrap Up: Princess Twilight’s duty roster was completed to the minutest detail and copies were distributed across Ponyville, a meeting had been held to assign roles and duties, tasks had been rehearsed for maximum efficiency, and the whole town was hopeful to break the new record in how quickly they would wrap up winter once again. Not that long ago, if somepony had told Daisy that winter could be wrapped up in less than five days and without half everypony getting in each other’s way, she would have laughed in their face! How quickly that attitude changed when one had a capable leader who knew how to organize everything like clockwork! As far as Daisy understood clocks and how they worked, of course… it had to be an unbelievably precise mechanism… but that was beside the point. She knew what to do tomorrow, her team vest was cleaned, ironed, and hanging ready over the chair, and her seed supplier had been well on time with the packets she’d ordered. They were all accounted for, great! She couldn’t wait to start planting all the seeds alongside Lily and Roseluck tomorrow!

But there was plenty of the day still left, and Daisy was getting restless with anticipation. Could she, perhaps, start a little early? Maybe just to clear the snow from her backyard? That would allow her to start planting a little ahead of schedule… But snow-clearing was the weather ponies’ job, and they had a schedule too! What if they ended up doing their part too quickly and Twilight’s roster and schedule fell apart and she had to make a new one in a matter of seconds? Oh, the horror! After years of gradual improvement, the town would be miserable to see it all crumble, and it’d all be Daisy’s fault! She couldn’t let that disaster happen!

Breathe… slowly, in, out… in, out… she told herself. It would do nopony any good if she fainted over this!

The breathing helped slow her racing heart and rein in her rising panic. She took a few more deep breaths for good measure, then wiped sweat off her forehead with a whew. Catastrophe averted, at least for now!

Okay, no interfering with the schedule, she decided. What to do, then? Her house could do with a bit of sweeping, but she was too giddy for that. She couldn’t think about anything other than tomorrow’s activities! Well, the flowers would grow soon and she’d be putting them in vases at the market… Were they still in good condition? Undamaged in storage, and nice and clean lest they drive away her customers? She might as well check the storage shed.

The vases were all fine at first glance, but the shed was dark. Daisy decided to take the vases out into the light for a better look, humming the winter-wrap-up chant to herself as she did so.

Between the vases, Daisy’s eyes wandered around her backyard, resting every so often on the cart full of flower seed packets. The cart seemed to have attracted the attention of a bird, too; it was gradually approaching the cart from across the yard, glancing around as it went, until it flew up into the cart itself and devoted its attention to the packets inside.

Silly bird, Daisy thought, those aren’t edible seeds! But how did the bird know there were seeds inside the packets? Could it smell the insides through the sealed bag?

And wasn’t this the kind of bird that Blossomforth was supposed to go fetch from the south tomorrow? What was one of them doing here already?

As if sensing Daisy’s suspicions, the bird snatched a packet from the cart and flew away.

“Oh no, it’s a disaster!” Daisy cried, dropping her vases and launching into a gallop. “A horrible, horrible disaster! Give it back, you thief!”

But the bird only flew faster.

Daisy followed it out of the backyard and into the street, screaming and wailing as she tried to keep up on the slippery snow, nearly crashing into a house or an innocent bystander every time the bird changed course, but somehow regaining her balance every time, never taking her eyes off the stolen seed packet. The nerve that bird had! Stealing stuff right in front of her snout! Ooh, when she got her hooves on it…

She was so tunnel-visioned onto the thieving bird that she almost collided with poor Granny Smith as she strolled by, hopping over her in the best Scootaloo fashion at the last second as attempting to run around her at that speed would have been doomed to fail even on dry ground, leaving the elderly pony spewing complaints in the snowdust. She paid no attention to the stares her impromptu acrobatics had earned her. Rainbow Dash obviously hadn’t been in the crowd to see it, or else she’d have already been on her tail, asking who they were racing against. Too bad; she could have used Rainbow’s fast wings to catch up with the bird! Where was a Wonderbolt when you needed one?!

But Daisy was somehow still keeping up with the bird, and the town outskirts were getting close! Chances were she wouldn’t have to worry about slipping and breaking her legs so much if the bird were to continue flying in a straight line with nothing to break Daisy’s line of sight with it! She could count on her earth pony stamina to carry her in a straight line and hopefully catch the bird before it flew into-

-the Everfree Forest…

Realizing where they were headed, Daisy felt the familiar dizziness of near-fainting and saw the edges of her vision go black, but she shook it off. She hadn’t galloped all this way only to faint! She wasn’t going to let this bird get away with theft! But her moment of weakness had slowed her down, and the bird was almost at the treeline now… she’d never find it if it disappeared in the foliage…

Against her better judgment and suppressing the scream that had been building up in her throat, Daisy pressed on into the forest.

It was dark under the thick canopy, but once her eyes adjusted, Daisy was glad she could see better, what with the lack of sun glare off the snow… except that, she realized, there was no snow on the ground here…

A wave of shivers washed over her at the realization. This was not natural… not normal… Who had ever seen snow fall and thaw on its own? Or trees deciding for themselves when to sprout leaves and when to shed them? Please, Celestia, she whispered, whatever curse commands over this forest, let it not carry over onto me…

At least the ground was dry enough for easy galloping, and the bright packet of seeds in the bird’s beak was a clear beacon to her against the deep green canopy.

The bird suddenly changed course, slowed down, and disappeared behind a collection of rocks.

That’s weird, Daisy thought. That species of bird nests in trees! I’ve never seen it nest in rock piles! What’s it doing here?

With her heart in her throat, Daisy peeked over the edge.

The bird landed next to a group of changelings. One of them approached it, and the bird engulfed itself in blue flames, emerging from them as another changeling, still with the seed packet in its mouth.

Daisy pressed her hooves into her snout to stifle a gasp.

“You were followed,” the changeling told the not-bird.

“I know!” she answered. “I messed up! Wait, how do you know?”

“Because she’s right there,” the changeling said, pointing a hoof at where Daisy was peeking from.

Well, no point in hiding any longer, Daisy decided. She circled around the rocks and joined the changelings in the clearing.

“You’re braver than the reports made you sound,” the changeling said. “Daisy, is it?”

Daisy gave a sheepish smile. “Oh, no, I just wasn’t thinking, and then it was too late. But who are you, and what are you doing here?”

“Right, sorry. I’m Antenna, and this goofball is my sister Elytra. There’s a dozen of us here. Some of us have been wanting to live with ponies again, and Thorax was fine with it, so we formed several groups, and this one came to Ponyville. Or the Everfree Forest, of course. We didn’t exactly have the money to rent a proper house. Maybe sometime in the future, heh… but for now, we’re kind of just setting up.”

“We’ve only been here about a week,” Elytra added. “We still haven’t figured out how we want to approach the town. Our old reputation might still precede us.”

“Even in Ponyville?”

“Well, not so much, probably, but some of us have had it rough in other cities,” Antenna said. “Elytra and I barely made it out of Vanhoover alive early after the reformation! A few others were brave, but the two of us don’t want to go there again anytime soon.”

“Yeah,” Elytra interjected. “Some ponies still can’t get it into their heads that we’re not going to be stealing love anymore!”

“About that,” Daisy said. “Why did you take my seeds?”

“Um…” Elytra fumbled. “Well, Antenna really likes flowers, and she’s been feeling a bit down lately… so I wanted to cheer her up…”

“You could have just asked! I’ve been wanting to outdo myself this Winter Wrap Up, but I could have easily given away a couple of packets if I’d known what was up! I thought you were going to eat them!”

Elytra smiled sheepishly. “Oops… But I wasn’t sure if you’d be okay with giving stuff to a changeling…”

“Then you could have bought it.”

“I couldn’t. Like Antenna said, we don’t have any money.”

Antenna facehoofed. “Elytra, you can’t stop stealing one thing only to start stealing another! Thorax would be so disappointed! Heck, I don’t want anything stolen, even if you wanted to cheer me up! That’s not who we are anymore!”

Elytra deflated. “Sorry…”

Suddenly, Daisy had an idea.

“Antenna, you may keep the seed packet,” she told her. “Yes, I freaked out and chased your sister, but that was when I didn’t know the whole story. Now that I do, consider this my gift for welcoming you to Ponyville!”

“Really?!”

“Yes! And I might even be able to help you with your money issues. Florist business has been really taking off lately, so Roseluck, Lily, and I have been considering expanding. We just haven’t been sure whom to hire, but if you know your way around flowers, we’d be happy to have you.”

“Oh, I spent a couple of years posing as a gardener in Baltimare, and I learn quickly! I won’t let you down!”

“I don’t suppose you know of any other job openings?” Elytra interjected.

“I can ask around, just tell me your skills and preferences.” She gave it another thought. “Actually, why don’t you join us for Winter Wrap Up tomorrow? I’m sure Princess Twilight and the Mayor can find you some way to contribute, and you’ll get to mingle with ponies! You’re sure to meet some new friends, and who knows, maybe some of them can help you find jobs or a better place to stay than an enchanted forest!”

Winter Wrap Up day came, and the changelings were waiting at the town hall bright and early, so early that by the time the ponies started gathering up, Elytra was already worried they were at the wrong place, and Antenna feared the day may have been canceled or rescheduled at the last minute. Their peers had managed to convince them to give it a little more time, but the two drones sensed the entire group’s strung-up nerves, which didn’t help much. Were they sharing their concerns about Winter Wrap Up, or was it more about the uncertainty of how the ponies would react to them? Sure, some of them had followed Thorax to Ponyville for his award ceremony a while ago and everything had gone well, but that had been a one-time visit of a proven ally, and all of Equestria’s princesses had been there; would the ponies be just as welcoming if they knew their former enemies were hoping to make Ponyville their new home?

It turned out that all the fretting had been unnecessary. The earliest of ponies greeted them with warm smiles and eager conversations, and their high spirits burst even brighter upon learning they’d gotten some new neighbors!

By the time Daisy, Lily, and Roseluck arrived, the changelings had already made friends with a few ponies, and all that was left for Daisy to do was a request to the Mayor and Princess Twilight to assign duties to a few more participants than originally planned.

Contrary to Daisy’s expectations, Twilight didn’t have a meltdown at the prospect of alterations to her carefully-arranged roster.

“Of course they can join!” Twilight exclaimed, her wings fluttering. ”I’ll just have to arrange them evenly across all groups to keep the schedule synchronized! Any preferences?”

Antenna and Elytra raised hooves. “Can we plant flowers, please?”

“Yes!” Twilight added their names to the roster. “Next?”

Another drone raised a hoof. “Making nests for the birds sounds interesting, I’d love to try it, if that’s alright?”

“And I’ve always wondered what snow feels like!” another interjected. “Can I help clear it?”

Twilight noted them on the roster. “If two more can help clear the snow, I’ll move Flitter to cloud-clearing, and someling can take her place in ice-breaking. I take it that changelings can’t manipulate clouds?”

The changelings confirmed it, Flitter accepted the new assignment, and volunteers were quickly found for the requested duties.

“Great!” Twilight clapped her hooves together. “That just leaves planting vegetable seeds and fetching the southern birds! Any volunteers?”

The remaining changelings didn’t need long to agree on who would take what.

“Wonderful! Do you have your team vests?”

The changelings exchanged confused glances.

“Oh, shoot!” Daisy facehoofed. “I forgot to tell them!”

“That’s alright,” the nest-weaver drone interjected, morphing a tan vest onto herself. “I think we can improvise.”

The other changelings followed her example.

“That’s settled, then,” the Mayor announced. “Now, as you all know, it’s time to say goodbye to winter and welcome spring, and I’m so proud of how quickly and efficiently you’ve been doing that over the past several years! I have every confidence this year will be no exception, and with a few new friends to help us, I’m sure we can do even better and have the fastest, nicest, and happiest Winter Wrap Up ever!”

Everypony cheered, and the crowd dispersed to tackle their duties. Antenna and Elytra stuck around with Daisy, who introduced them to Lily and Roseluck, and since they had a moment to spare before the first patches of snow were cleared for them to commence planting, the three florists decided to use this time to teach their new apprentices the basics of flower care.

The changelings listened eagerly, and once the ground was cleared of snow, they proved themselves to be quick learners and hard workers. Instructions soon became unnecessary, as Antenna had a bit of prior experience, and Elytra must have either picked up on her sister’s skills over time or had a talent of her own, and before long, the group was singing and dancing in rhythm with their planting efforts.

Close to sunset, Ponyville was looking almost as if winter had never graced it with its presence.

“I can’t believe how quickly we’ve done this!” Daisy exclaimed, looking over the scenery. “This has to be the Ponyville record!”

“We’ve had help,” Lily reminded her.

“We’re not quite done yet,” Antenna said. “There’s still a couple more seed packets left.”

“Yes, of course… it’s still impressive… We couldn’t have done it without you!”

The changelings smiled.

“Alright, let’s officially finish this- Hey!”

A bird had flown in and snatched the last seed packet from the cart just as Lily was about to grab it.

“The horror! The horror!” Roseluck gasped, fainting on the spot.

Daisy facehoofed. “Not again…”