The Sneezing Changeling

Chapters

A Bad Time to be Sneezed
The Useless Siege
Getting Involved
The Cold Worsened
The Ability to Trust Somepony
The Questioning
Rainbow Dash's Doubts
Tortured By Their Own Thoughts
Fluttershy's Feelings
In a Bed
From Camouflage's Point of View
Preparations
The Hunt
The Confrontation
The Adoption
New Way of Living
Stuck With Fluttershy
The Welcoming Party

A Bad Time to be Sneezed

There are two kinds of changelings in Equestria. The first kind was the most obvious to the pony population. They were the ones who lived under the reign of Queen Chrysalis in the Hive. The ones who invaded Canterlot six months ago. The ones who were feared by the ponies. And then there were the outlaws: Doppel Ganger, Camouflage and Mimic. They never swore loyalty to the Queen.

As far as Doppel was concerned, he found that the Queen's methods weren't good enough for his race. He argued that, despite invading various town and using force, they could live better without violence. This idea caused the other changelings to dislike him. His only ally was Camouflage. She didn't approve it, but she found, in a certain manner, he was right. However, one day the Queen heard of his complaints and summoned him to explain himself. Doppel didn't change his version for her. Chrysalis made him remember that he had to swear loyalty to his queen.

“I'll never swear loyalty to a Queen who only seeks violence and steals to feed her changelings,” Doppel blurted out.

It wasn't his brightest idea. Chrysalis banished him, ordering him to never come back and above all, to never again cross the road of the Queen. Strangely, Camouflage was banished soon after him. She never wanted to explain to him how it happened though. Finally, Mimic was banished a few weeks before the invasion of Canterlot, several months after Doppel’s banishment. He had mentioned something along the lines of the wanted to be free and not have to follow the rules of the Queen.

Being outlawed wasn't the worst thing that could happen to a changeling. However, once the three of them moved to the Everfree Forest, their lives got better. The three of them would go into Ponyville from time to time and feed on the love from various ponies. The fact that there were only three of them didn't arouse any suspicion.

Living on love was vital for them. Changelings couldn't survive more than a week without it, so they disguised themselves and refilled their love meters. Doppel always found it ironic that his kind couldn't feed off of the love of its own species, but instead was forced to feed upon the other ones. Here was the goal of their disguise: it was used to steal from a pony who didn't suspect anything and who was attached to the form in which they had taken.

The form Doppel used the most was a green mint unicorn who had a relation with a beige pony. Mimic and Camouflage did have their preferences too. The disadvantage with this system were that the changelings had to know their double’s life perfectly, they had to avoid meeting their double, and they had to avoid feeding upon the same pony too much.

The beginning of their outlaw life was a difficult one, but after about a year, nothing seemed to be troubling their peaceful lives in the Everfree Forest. Until now...

“Achoo!”

“Don't sneeze like that! You look like the wall eyed pegasus that Mimic uses,” Camouflage complained.

For a changeling, catching a cold was the worst curse they could be burdened with. At each sneeze, they either changed back to their original form, or changed into another disguise. It restricted a lot of abilities of the ill changeling, even if the disease only lasted for a little more than one week like a usual cold. But for the duration of the cold, the changeling couldn't be near ponies without risking having his cover to be blown by a sneeze at any moment.

“I told him to not stand near the water...” Mimic said.

“I didn't know that I was going to meet a manticore when I was drinking!” Doppel responded. “I was surprised, and I fell into the pond. It could have happened to anypony!”

“Not to a changeling who lived in the Everfree Forest for a year,” he argued.

But how could three little changelings defend themselves against all the atrocities of the Everfree Forest? It was thanks to their shape shifting abilities once again. Each living being in Equestria was afraid of at least one thing. They simply transformed into this one thing and generally, they didn't have any problems. This task was made even easier by the fact they could feel the feelings of their opponent, whether it was pony, changeling or simply monstrous.

“Achoo!”

“Oh, look at you Doppel. You look like the unicorn you usually disguise yourself as now,” Mimic teased. “Maybe it's time to go to town and feed upon some love.”

“Isn't it a bit dangerous?” Camouflage asked with concern.

“Less dangerous than if he stays here and infects us with his germs. Which in this case, we'd all in trouble.”

“Alright... I'll go. I need to eat anyway. I'm not going to hold out until my cold ends,” the sick one concluded.

He went to Ponyville, sneezing several times during his trip, thinking that he shouldn't worry to know in which form he was in before he arrived at the gates of the town.

--|-|--

Fluttershy was taking care of her small animals like any other day. But today, her heart wasn't focused on her work. She was more distracted than usual. She gave fishes to the birds and seeds to Angel. He showed his disagreement on the served food by knocking the bowl over on the head of the timid pony.

“The last critters I have to feed now are the squirrels,” she said aloud, as loud as her voice could.

She dropped a pile of nuts at the base of a tree before seeing the critters come to take it. Fluttershy had at last finished her daily routine. The next question was what was she going to do for the rest of the day. This wasn't the spa day, and Pinkie Pie didn't seem to have found something she could use as an excuse to have a party today. She couldn't find any valid reason to disturb her friends if it's was just to visit them. So she decided to go get her journal and write outside. The day was so nice.

--|-|--

Doppel arrived at the edge of the woods. He had taken care to clear his nose out as much as he could to delay a possible accident. His disguise focused now on a grayish brown unicorn stallion with a purplish-blue mane. He still hesitated to change his form, because he knew that Bon-Bon would be with Lyra today and that he would have trouble getting rid of the unicorn so he could take advantage of her companion. Finally, he decided to keep his disguise and choose the first pony he met and feed upon their love. Under his condition, he should be quick nonetheless. I don't like being forced to use this method, but I don't have a choice.

Before going to Ponyville from out of the Everfree Forest, Doppel had to pass a little cottage where a pony he never saw up close before lived. This yellow pegasus seemed rather timid at first sight and, as a matter of fact, quite unapproachable for the changeling. It was easier to steal the love of a pony who was more extroverted than introverted. He decided that he should at least enter Ponyville.

The town was more bustling than usual. How could I have forgotten that it's market day today? Doppel made his way closer to a couple of ponies, but his nose chose otherwise and forced him to run in a dark alley to sneeze out of sight. It won't be easy if I can't stop myself from sneezing. He noticed that he had changed into a zebra. I need to change back to the form I had or else ponies are going to get suspicious. He transformed back into the grayish unicorn he looked like a few seconds before and went out of the alley like nothing had happened.

Attempt number two. He approached a young mare who was visibly fascinated by a poster on the wall. She's isolated. It'll be easier to find a way out if I have any trouble. He passed behind her, lifted his hoof to touch her, but then put it back down. How can I get her attention? He sighed. I don't need to get her attention if I use this method.

Suddenly, the mare turned around and looked at the changeling, still disguised as a unicorn. “Can I help you?”

Startled by the reaction, Doppel only muttered, “What do you think this contest is about?” He asked even though he had just read the poster.

“Something like a fashion contest,” the mare answered. “But I don't think that you're the target demographic for this.”

Perfect, she's talking to me. Maybe I could use my method after all. As he tried to continue the discussion, a harsh itch came to his nose. He looked around for anything that could hide him and chose three barrels placed near one another other. A loud sneezing was heard with an outburst of green flames.

“Are you okay, sir?” the concerned pony asked, approaching the barrels.

Doppel watched himself. Oh no, I didn't look like that before. He was now disguised as a blue light pegasus mare, with a particularly frizzy mane. What was the disguise, what was the disguise? As soon as the young mare arrived, he took back his former appearance. “Yes, yes, I'm okay!” Without adding anything else he ran to escape the danger of being there with his illness.

Once out of the town, he stopped running and walked into the Everfree Forest with his head low. It's impossible to feed on love when you have a cold. I need more than thirty seconds to feed. He passed in front of Fluttershy’s cottage. Well, if it isn’t Fluttershy. It's uncommon to see her in front of her home. The timid pegasus seemed to be more relaxed now than all the other times he had met her. She was writing something in her journal and talking to herself. I said that I'd take the first pony I met, but that didn't work. So I guess this one will have to count too! And then again, I’m dying to know what could interest her so much that she's this relaxed. It's said that curiosity killed the cat, but it was in the nature of a changeling to be curious. Knowing everything, and then some, all the gossip, was helpful for acting correctly when he had to transform. It's decided! I'm going to talk to her! Doppel suddenly changed directions and headed to the cottage. Fluttershy was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear him arrive. As soon as Doppel had reached her, he heard the pegasus talking.

“Is this really love that I feel? Maybe, I should talk about it to Rarity?” she wondered. “No, I can't do that. I need to talk to Rain...”

She was deprived of finishing her sentence when the changeling interrupted her by asking, “So, you have a very special somepony in sight?”

Fluttershy stared at the Changeling, turned over, and then started walking back towards her cottage.

“Oh sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!” Doppel apologized. “My name is Cobalt Crescent.” His mane color was the basis of this name, directly from his invention. A changeling should be able to improvise at any given moment. “I just arrived in Ponyville and saw you here alone. I thought that you might be able to recommend me to some nice places to visit?”

The changeling only received a moan from the pegasus as answer. Not very effective his technique. He should have announced his arrival instead of suddenly appearing behind her.

“I forgot to ask your name. You are?” he continued.

Another moan from Fluttershy. Doppel hoped to have at least a tad of confidence from her. She was completely terrified. This feeling hit the changeling strongly. I only need some compassion, or friendship, or something along those lines. But not fear!

“You're Fluttershy?” he asked with a joyful tone.

“Yes...” she weakly answered. At least, an audible answer this time. “How do you know my name?”

“You are famous! This cutie mark and this characteristic demeanor of yours, you're one of the Element of Harmony!” he explained. “It isn't every day when you meet a pony who saved Equestria several times!”

“It isn't always really us who... Well, you see...” she whispered.

She began to open up a little. Doppel could felt less and less of the fear of the pegasus and felt that his praising led somewhere, even if he also felt a kind of embarrassment come up. He should stop his praising now. He had to be interesting to her. He decided to approach her a little bit more, but in his strides, he stepped on her journal.

“Oops, sorry!” he apologized, with a light tone, “I didn't mean to step on your journal.” The changeling used magic to pick up the journal and hold it out to the pegasus. “Don't worry. I haven't read anything in it,” he reassured her.

Fluttershy caught it, slightly bewildered by the demeanor of his visitor. But, for Doppel, something wasn't right. Something was missing. And suddenly, without any warning, he shouted a big achoo.

This sneeze made him lose his pony form and shift back into his changeling form. At this sight, Fluttershy ran to her cottage and locked it immediately. Doppel remained frozen for a few seconds before figuring out what had just happened. He then ran to the Everfree Forest. He had just been found out in the most abrupt way possible, and he had to find a solution to his problem soon if he didn't want to be pursued by a group of ponies who wanted him dead.

Author's Note

If you need a timeline for the story, it is set after Keep Calm and Flutter On and before the last episode of the season 3. If I do that, it's because I've started writing this story during the last summer holidays and the time to write it and translate it, we are in February. I tried to insert every additional canon which appeared in the episode, but I had to stop somewhere.

So yes, the story is more or less already finished.

Little trivia on this chapter. It was at first the shorter chapter of the story. Many elements like the explanation of why Doppel is outlaw and the passage on Ponyville's market weren't in the first draft of the chapter.

I hope you'll like the story nonetheless.

Edited by elmohipster

The Useless Siege

Doppel flew at full speed, zigzagging between the trees of the Everfree Forest. He tried to escape his imminent capture and possible execution. Spotted by a pony? Now I'm dead ! Why did I try to use that method knowing that it'd take too much time in this case ? Now Fluttershy is going to alert everypony and soon, if I don't manage to hide well enough, I'll be put in jail at best.

The changeling flew as if he were being pursued and he wanted to lose his pursuers. He arrived at the pond, the same pond which was the cause of his cold. It wasn't very large or even all that deep. The changeling remembered how it happened. He was drinking peacefully when the manticore suddenly jumped out the bush and roared. Doppel was startled and fell into the pond. The water was freezing and he couldn't help but shiver. The worst part was the fact that the manticore didn't even want to do harm to the changeling. It just wanted to say hi.

“Achoo!” he suddenly sneezed. “I hate this cold!”

He transformed once again as he sneezed. Hopefully, he was still a pegasus so he didn't fall by the loss of his wings. He didn't care which form he took since he was going to alert his friends that they'd have to move soon after being spotted.

“Guys! I made a mistake!” he cried out.

The two other changelings rose their heads and saw someone who looked like a gold pegasus with a light cyan mane flying towards them at full speed.

“Raindrops?” Mimic was surprised. “Oh no! Quick, we need to shape shift to something scary for her!”

When he tried to change, Camouflage alerted, “No, wait! It must be Doppel!”

As strange it may sound, changelings are unable to detect when one of them is in disguise. They have to use a spell to be sure. Obviously, if they are taken by surprise, the disguise works as well on the changelings as it works on ponies.

“Obviously it's me!” Doppel complained, changing back to his normal form, this time by his own will.

“And what brings this rushed come back?” Mimic asked, relieved to learn they hadn’t been discovered, but also, slightly angry to have been tricked by Doppel's disguise.

“I accidentally changed form in front of a pony. We've been discovered! We need to move out now before they get us!”

“We can't move like this!” Camouflage explained, buzzing her wings in annoyance. “We need to wait for Illusion to come so she’ll know we won't be here anymore!”

Illusion was also a changeling. She wasn't an outlaw like the three hiding in the forest, but she served as a spy for them. She often came to tell stories of the Hive and also to inform them if the Queen was going to possibly cross their path. She also warned them about big events that would happen or had happened, like the failed invasion of Canterlot, which it made more difficult to take a trip to Ponyville. Ponies were more suspicious of strangers during the month that followed the invasion.

“We can't just wait here like this!” Doppel exclaimed. “They could find us at any moment!”

“These ponies are way too cowardly to even enter this forest. We’re safe here” Mimic laughed.

“Staying here is taking an unnecessary risk,” Camouflage argued. “We’ll return to the cave and figure out what we’re going to do from there.”

The changelings flew back to where they lived. It was a little cave that was possibly inhabited by a bear in the past. They had already taken a good look around and knew that it had only one entrance. Mimic lit a fire in the center of the cave while Camouflage paced back and forth to find a solution to their problem.

Doppel suddenly sneezed and took the form of a pink pegasus with a brownish mane. Stupid cold. It's because of you that we need to do this. He changed back to his natural form just a few seconds after.

“I know what we'll do!” Camouflage said.

The female changeling explained her idea. It was a imperative that they moved from this place. It would soon become impossible to fool anypony if all the town knew that changelings had invaded the place. However, a lot of Ponyvillians were scared of the Everfree Forest and didn't dare to enter it, especially if they had to fight against something like changelings in there. This fact would give them enough time to wait for Illusion to come.

So their plan was to guard the cave while they waited for Illusion to come. If the situation became worse, they could still flee and hope to find Illusion somewhere else. Illusion would give them a place to live where no changeling had been detected already. So, one changeling watched over the area to see if ponies were arriving while the others were resting.

However, this plan was less fun for Doppel. He didn't have the surveillance duty to do. He was simply kept out of things. A quarantine was established around him to avoid the spreading of his germs. One sick changeling was enough for the time being.

A deathly silence reigned, only broken by the sneezes and transformations of Doppel. He knew that his friends didn't bear a grudge against him. A changeling could feel it. He knew that Camouflage and Mimic didn't hate his cold but, they preferred not to move out of their cave.

Time itself seemed to drag on. There was nothing to do. In addition, they had to stay silent, just incase ponies were close. A little chat would help pass the time, but Doppel was too far from the others to discuss without shouting. With this quarantine, I'm booored. Even Mimic and Camouflage couldn't talk if they wanted because when one was watching the area, the other was sleeping.

--|-|--

Hours passed. In the Everfree Forest, it was difficult to know if it was day or in night. The wood was so dark that it made it nearly impossible to tell the difference. Soon, a rumbling was heard along with Doppel's sneezes. The sick changeling hadn't eaten since the beginning of his cold and Illusion didn't come. If only they had a way to contact her without waiting helplessly.

Camouflage woke up. After stretching, she sat at the left of Mimic. He jumped before whispering loudly, “Is it already your turn?”

“No. I cannot sleep with the rumbling of Doppel's stomach,” the female changeling answered.

“I bet you Doppel tried to use the second method and that's why he was discovered!”

“What? He could have used the first method,” she complained as quietly as possible. “I know that he doesn’t like it, I don’t either, but in situations like this, he can’t turn his nose up”

Doppel raised his head, hearing that his friends was chatting. Camouflage and Mimic stopped talking when they saw him him waking up. Finally, the sick changeling shrugged and fell asleep again. The silence continued for a few seconds before being broken by another rumbling.

“I guess Doppel isn't the only one who’s hungry,” she blushed.

“What will you do?” he asked.

“I think I'll keep the zone under surveillance. It'll prevent me from thinking of my stomach,” she answered.

Mimic nodded and entered a little further in the cave. He lay down and began to rest.

--|-|--

Doppel opened an eye. He saw that Camouflage had taken her turn of surveillance. He stretched and sat up, looking at the fire burning near him. A new wave of rumbling came from his stomach. He tried to sigh but his nostrils were clogged. All it did was to tickle his nose and that made him sneeze. He now took the form of a zebra. He turned back to his natural form. His sneeze hadn't even started Camouflage. It's either because she's used to my sneeze by now, or because my stomach is making so much noise it covers the sound of my sneezing.

He stood up to walk so he could stretch his legs. Camouflage turned around and glared at him . Her look said 'Stay in the quarantine zone'. Geez, don't worry! I won’t infect you with my germs Camouflage. Finally, the female changeling resumed her surveillance. Doppel backtracked and laid down again.

--|-|--

Mimic woke up. He had lost track of how long they had been holding up in this cave to hide from the ponies. He turned towards Camouflage who was leaning against the wall. Finally, he decided to talk to her.

“Still no news about Illusion?” he asked, whispering.

“No,” the female changeling sighed, “Nothing from the ponies either.”

“Oooh, I'm hungry!” Mimic complained, in a volume that even Doppel could hear.

“She shouldn't be long, now,” she reassured. “She tries to come every week”

“Achoo!” Doppel sneezed while he slept. It transformed him into a mint green unicorn.

“I wonder, how have the ponies not found us yet?” Mimic asked.

“You're right,” Camouflage added. “Doppel makes so much noise each time he sneezes that they must know where we are”

“Maybe... Maybe they’re taking advantage of the fact we're trapped here so they could launch an attack and we wouldn’t be able to escape!”

“Your hunger is making you rave,” she joked, “or maybe you’ve got too big of an imagination.”

“It'd bother me if it was Derpy who came to stop me!”

“You're awake enough to take your turn now,” she noticed. “I'm going to take a nap. I can't stand sitting there anymore”

Mimic nodded and Camouflage lay down to sleep.

--|-|--

Doppel was wide awake now. He was staring at what remained of the fire standing at the center of the cave. There was nothing else for him to do. Sleeping twenty hours a day was too much for him, even with a cold. He knew every rock and every crack of the cave from where he stood. However, he still tried to find a way to distract himself so he wouldn’t think about how hungry he was. It was several days since he had last eaten.

“Achoo!”

His last sneeze transformed him into an amber earth pony, with a brown mane and three horseshoes as cutie mark. He noticed every detail of his new form. It was a good way to occupy himself. But it wasn't enough. He took back his former appearance and sighed.

“A changeling can survive seven days without eating love,” he ceaselessly repeated, trying to convince himself that he’d be fine.

This sentence also helped him to check if he was still able to talk. It was so long since he had said anything that he wanted to be sure. His sneezes were louder than his current voice anyways.

“A changeling can survive seven days without eating love.”

Mimic looked behind him to see Doppel getting more and more agitated. He sighed and continued his duty. Camouflage was still sleeping just beside him.

Suddenly, Doppel cried, “I can't!”

This shout made the other two changelings jump.

“We can't carry on like this! I'm not letting myself starve waiting Illusion to come. Who knows? Maybe she'll never come!”

Camouflage waved her hoof as to say 'Not so loud! You're gonna alert everypony'. But it had no effect. Doppel continued his shouting.

“I'd rather get caught by ponies than suffer here for days on end waiting for nothing! I'm going to go to Ponyville and see how the situation has evolved!”

On this sentence, the sick changeling flew away to Ponyville. The last thing he could hear was the sentence Mimic shouted as he left: “You're completely insane!”

--|-|--

As he flew towards the village, Doppel looked all around him. Nothing seemed to have changed in the woods. It was like nothing had happened. Strange... The Everfree Forest should have changed a little by the commotion in town. It worried him. It isn't normal. Was this a good idea? He began to reconsider his actions.

A loud sneeze added with a transformation made him stop in his tracks. I can still wait one or two more days before he would starve. After all, Illusion comes every week. The sick changeling looked at the two directions he could go. Ponyville or the cave? He didn't know what to do now.

What if Illusion got caught in Ponyville? He remembered that the spy needed to fly over the town to reach the cave. I need to check and make sure she didn't get caught. I mean, what would the others think if I turned back now? He finally convinced himself and continued to go Ponyville.

--|-|--

He finally arrived at the edge of the woods. The situation on the outside was the same as the one in the inside. Nothing had changed. It was like nothing had even happened. But he needed to be sure of it. He sniffed hard to make sure that he wouldn't sneeze for the time being and shape-shifted in a brown stallion with a dark mane. His cutie mark looked like a suitcase, the perfect businesspony. Every detail counted now. He couldn't be spotted again.

He arrived in front of Fluttershy's cottage. She was the pony who saw his real form. When he was raising his hoof to knock at the door, he loudly sneezed. Geez, it’s impossible to restrain myself. Now I look like a crazy old farmer. He heard some commotion inside the house and quickly took back the form of the businesspony. He waited several seconds before knocking at the door. There was a little squeal, and then silence.

“Are you ok?” he shouted from through the door. “I heard somepony scream.”

Doppel knew this sentence would make Fluttershy react, at least enough to check if she was still alive. Suddenly, he heard several locks unlocking and saw the door open halfway. Only Fluttershy’s muzzle came from behind the door.

“Good morning,” began the changeling, “I come from the society 'Protection for Everypony' and I'm here to tell you about our products which will protect you from the changelings!”

If this doesn’t make her tell me everything about what happened during the last few days, then I don’t know what will. His plan was perfect. Fluttershy was going to explain to him everything since his flight and he could use this knowledge to protect himself against the ponies. However, there was a flaw in this plan.

“Are you the changeling from the other time?” she asked in a sweet but worried voice.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, here the second chapter of The Sneezing Changeling.

Edited by elmohipster

Getting Involved

“Are you the changeling from the other time?” Fluttershy asked in a sweet but worried voice.

How could she have seen through me like this? My disguise is perfect. Doppel looked at himself to see if he had transformed at all. Now I need to decide. Either I flee again, or I kill her. I don't like this, but I don't want to hide during the day to protect myself again.

“Are you okay?”

The changeling started and noticed that he hadn’t answered the pegasus’s question. Careful. Maybe if I trick her into thinking of something else, I won’t have to flee or kill. A big drop of sweat ran down his cheek.

“What do you mean?” he overacted. “Do you mean that there is a changeling near this house? Luckily, I'm here! With these products, you'll be safe for a long time and...”

“No. I think you're the changeling... Oh sorry, I cut you short!”

A sneeze ended the remaining doubt about Doppel's identity. With this sneeze, he took back his native form. He stood there without moving, completely stunned. Okay. Now I don't care what will happen after that. I need to know!

“How do you see through my disguise so quickly?” he asked, with a little anger in his voice.

“You're the only one who’s talked about changelings for months now,” she answered, hidden behind her mane and afraid.

“The only one?”

How can this be possible? I showed my true form in front of her and nopony talks about that? Is the entire population of Ponyville insane?

“And what about the fact that I appeared before you? Why has nopony tried to lock me up or kill me? Why would everypony act as if nothing had happened?” he snapped.

“I didn't dare tell somepony,” she whimpered, moving backward.

Typical Fluttershy. I think that even if she wanted to tell somepony, nopony would be listen to her with her weak voice. Doppel looked now at the pegasus at the front of him. She lay on the ground, shaking slightly. Great. Now I'm scaring her. Maybe it's better like this. She won't want to report it now. Or maybe now she'll want to? The changeling looked again at the shaking pony. He sighed.

“Okay fine. I'm leaving now. I’ll leave you alone,” he said out of spite.

He turned around towards the direction of the Everfree Forest. If I had known, I wouldn't have stayed hidden in the woods for several days. I'm sure that Mimic and Camouflage will be happy to know that we can stay in Ponyville. Unless Fluttershy reports us, but...

“Wait!” Doppel heard from the cottage.

Fluttershy had completely opened her door and now stared at Doppel with interest. The changeling stopped on the little bridge leading away from the cottage.

“Can I at least know your name?” she asked.

Doppel hesitated for some seconds.

“How can this be interesting for you?” he asked back. “Won’t you try to report me if you knew my name?”

He got closer to the cottage. She was standing up now, but she still couldn't look him in the eyes, but it was already a feat for her to talk to stranger that seemed pretty scary to her.

“Oh no. I wouldn't dare,” she finally succeeded to say. “It's just that I'd like to know your name... If that's okay with you”

“Doppel Ganger,” he answered concisely.

At the hearing of his name, Fluttershy began to relax more. Like if the fact that the changeling said his name made him less of a threat. Doppel was still unable to understand the behavior of the pegasus. She reacted as if she were talking to a normal stranger. She was scared, but it was the normal kind of scared for her.

“You may find this a little weird, but I find it odd that you aren't very scared or worried that there is a changeling in front of you,” he argued. “I know that a lot of ponies would run at the sight of me. I could be part of an invasion. And as seeing as you didn't report me, I'm free to continue it! Maybe I just act nice so I can kill you because you're a threat to the Hive.”

He grinned. Now I'll know why she isn't scared of like any normal pony is.

“You don't seem nasty,” she admitted.

“Maybe it's also just an act!”

“You fled the first time we met,” she pointed out.

“It was also an act...” he argued back. He looked at the pegasus for a few moments and then continued, “Okay, you win. I'm not here for an invasion and I don't want to hurt you. Really.”

Doppel was sure now. Fluttershy wasn't going to tell to anypony that she had found a changeling. Strangely, she trusted him now. I'm sure that if she were a changeling, she'd be a very good one. She read me like an open book.

He prepared to leave when his stomach made another rumbling. His face turned a shade made of red. Great. Try to look serious with this kind of sound coming from you.

“Oh! By the way, you must be hungry. Wait here. I'm going to pick up something for you,” the pegasus exclaimed.

“Changelings don't exactly...” Doppel began, but it was too late. Fluttershy was already inside her house.

Doppel tried to decide what to do. Should he follow her, or just wait outside? The only thing the changeling did was sneeze. His new form was a purple earth stallion with a blue mane. A musician this time...

“You can come in Mr. Ganger,” Fluttershy said from inside her cottage.

“There's no Mr. with me,” he stressed. “Just call me Doppel.”

He entered the house. He had never visited Fluttershy's home. He guessed that he was standing in the living room. It had several bird nests, mouse holes, and pet baskets. It had to be a menagerie also inside. Doppel expected the bedroom was in the second floor. Ponies like their comfort. Totally useless for a changeling.

The changeling took a few steps before being stopped by a white bunny who was frowning. What do you want with me? The rodent didn't move a bit. He was staring at Doppel like he was the worst thing ever. Relax, I'm not going to steal your Fluttershy! The bunny shrugged and left as if nothing had happened.

“Oh, there you are Angel,” Fluttershy exclaimed as she entered the room. “How do you want your...”

She didn't end her sentence as she began watching the changeling. She couldn't help but giggle at him.

“I didn't know that you liked music,” she laughed, “or ponies who play music.”

Doppel looked at himself. He completely forgot to take his natural form again.

“I know that you're a changeling. No need to hide it now,” she continued.

The changeling blushed before shape shifting back to his normal self.

--|-|--

In the Everfree Forest, Camouflage and Mimic was still awaiting news from their friend. His departure was so quick. They were expecting to see guards arriving at any, ready to treat them like they treated the changelings. They didn't even dare to imagine the scene.

“He's nuts!” Mimic complained. “His hunger got the best of him!”

“All we can hope is that he is still alive and is able to find a hiding place,” Camouflage said.

They sighed. Again, their stomach rumbled .

“I'd like if this could stop. I'm tired of being hungry,” she admitted.

Suddenly, a black shape landed before them. The two friends shouted at the surprise to see this. It was another changeling, Illusion.

“Illusion! Don't scare us like this ever again!” cried Mimic.

“And you Mimic, stop calling me that! Changelings don't have names!” she argued back.

The outlaws were an exception to this rule. Changelings under the queen's domination had the least individualism possible. They bore no name, no personalities. They lived only to follow Chrysalis' orders. The outlaws had the privilege to be different. They could have a name, a real personality. They named the spy, even if she still was loyal to the queen, only to make things simpler.

“We're happy to see you!” Camouflage stated.

“Why so happy? Usually, I bring bad news,” she said. “Where's Doppel?”

“That's the problem!” Camouflage continued. “He was discovered in Ponyville. We hid here for days waiting for you so we could move somewhere else. We can't stay here anymore.”

“But... Ponyville is completely quiet,” Illusion explained. “Everypony’s living their lives as usual.”

“Then why hasn’t Doppel come back yet?” asked Mimic. “He left because he couldn't stand being hungry.”

“I don't know. He isn't in danger, I'm sure. You can go to Ponyville if you want.”

“Phew, I'm relieved!” Camouflage sighed.

“Otherwise, I bring some news from the Hive, as agreed,” the spy began. “The Queen is beginning to form an army again. I don't know when or how, but in two weeks, a new invasion will take place. She wants to take revenge on the ponies who humiliated her. A word of advice, don't go to Canterlot anytime soon. I thereupon leave you here. Or else, the Queen is going to wonder why I'm not there anymore.”

She flew away, leaving her friends alone in their cave.

“I suppose that we can go to Ponyville to eat now?” Mimic suggested.

“I think we're going to go together. I cannot wait any longer!” answered her friend with a hungry tone.

--|-|--

Fluttershy had served a daisy sandwich to Doppel. Eating pony food was entirely optional for a changeling. At best, it slightly extended the time that they could go without feeding upon love, but that couldn't save them. Though the sick changeling agreed to eat what she had served.

“You aren't a normal changeling,” the timid pegasus said, before hiding again in her mane. “Well, I don't mean that you're weirder or uglier than any other changeling.”

“I know. In fact I’m an outlaw,” Doppel answered.

He noticed that Fluttershy took the sentence in a meaning he didn't intend. She stepped back and lowered her head.

“No! Not an outlaw like if I murdered or stole somepony,” he corrected himself, “I just never wanted to swear loyalty to queen Chrysalis. Each outlaw changeling has a different reason to do so. Mine was that I hated the method that the queen used to feed on love. One day, she called me in and I said some words she didn't like. And when I said that I'd never be loyal to a queen like that, I was banned by her. It's the only thing that happens to the changelings like me, exile from the Hive.”

“Oh my... You must really feel lonely all by yourself,” the pegasus exclaimed.

“No, it's okay,” he reassured her. “A changeling isn't really alone. We mingle with the ponies in a town. It’s not the best, but you don't know how much I’ve learned about Lyra and Bon-Bon now. After a year, it would be a shame.”

Fluttershy seemed surprised by his reply. Was this because he was alone during one year, or because he was there for a year and nopony had seen him until then? Finally, the answer became unimportant.

“I talk a lot about myself, but I still don't have the answer to the question I asked the last time,” the changeling mentioned.

His species has a good memory indeed. Like the curiosity, this was something essential to survive as a continuous impersonator.

“Which question?” the timid pony asked.

“You had been wondering something about your special somepony?” he said, in a very eloquent way. “Forgive my curiosity, but I'm wondering who he or she might be?”

Doppel never had seen so much red on a pony's face, well, maybe on Big Mac's, but that wasn't the same. He had the feeling that if Fluttershy could dig a hole and bury herself, she'd do it.

“Come on, this can't be so terrible,” he reassured her. “Anyway, I can't reveal this to anyone since I can't show myself too much.”

The pegasus whispered something inaudible for anypony to hear. Seeing that the changeling didn't understand what she said, she breathed for a long time and repeated louder this time, “Rainbow Dash.”

“The weather mare?” Doppel exclaimed. “And it's mutual?”

“I... don't know...” she whimpered, with all the courage she could muster. “I wouldn't dare to tell her... I'm not even sure that...”

“You want to know if it's mutual?” the changeling offered, interrupting the pegasus. “I can help you!”

Aaah these ponies and their questions about if the other likes them or not. For the changelings, love stories were simpler. Every changeling could feel what the other thought of them. If a changeling was in love with another one, the other knew almost instantly their feelings. They didn't hide it and wonder for months about what the other could feel about them. But it wasn't the case with Fluttershy who wasn’t a changeling and who kept a shade of red while he talked about her.

“Come on! You don't want to know?” he insisted. “Maybe it's because I'm a changeling, but I'd be very frustrated to not know about it.”

“And how will you manage to do that?” she say.

“I'm a changeling,” he boasted, “I know what ponies feel. I owe you for not reporting me, and for giving me food.”

On that, he went out of the house and headed for the center of Ponyville. Fluttershy stayed there trying to understanding what had just happened.

On his way, Doppel sneezed, taking the shape of the green mint unicorn he usually used. I may have bit off more than I can chew. I still have a cold and I could transform at any time when I sneeze. His stomach rumbled despite the food he ate. Well, as long as I'm in this disguise, I might as well go at Bon-Bon's house.

He suddenly changed direction to arrive in front of Bon-Bon's home. At the moment when he was going to open the door, he heard that somepony approaching. He hid in the small alley near the house. He saw Lyra coming out with her saddlebags hastily, bidding goodbye to the cream pony that Doppel wanted at this moment. After the unicorn disappeared from his sight, he entered the house.

“Lyra? Aren’t you supposed to be gone?” Bon-Bon asked when noticed that she wasn't alone anymore.

“Yes, but I forgot something!” the changeling lied.

He pretended to take something from a drawer and fed upon the love that the pony felt for the unicorn he embodied.

He tried to keep his face as straight as possible, but his nose was beginning to tickle. I can't sneeze now! It must not happen. He was making faces to avoid to sneeze.

“Why are you making faces?” Lyra's lover wondered.

“I’m thinking of taking drama classes, and I was trying to see if I can make good faces for the public,” Doppel made up.

I have to leave now. I can't hold it anymore.

“Drama class?” Bon-Bon repeated, with a tone of doubt.

“Yeah, maybe a bad idea. Gotta go!” the changeling said quickly.

Without further ado, he stepped outside as fast as possible. As soon as he closed the door, he sneezed loudly, causing him to transform. Doppel didn't dare open his eyes. He just sneezed in the middle of a street.

Finally, he decided to open his eyes. Lucky for him, there was nobody outside. He looked at himself. Safe, I look like Fluttershy who’s waiting for me in her home. And since I already have the right disguise, I may as well start looking for Rainbow.

Doppel began to scan every cloud that he passed. He obviously knew the reputation of the prismatic pegasus. He had to find a cloud where she was sleeping. He didn't need ten minutes to find her taking a nap above Sweet Apple Acres.

But how to wake her? That was the question. Doppel had to play the role of Fluttershy, staying in the character. How would Fluttershy wake Rainbow Dash up? He thought about it for a few seconds before realizing. She wouldn't wake her up, she'd let her sleep! I begin to understand why she has such a hard time telling her. He moaned, trying not to be out of character too much, but still to attract the pegasus' attention. He finally decided to poke Rainbow with one of his hooves as gently as he could.

“Er... Rainbow? I'd like to... say something... to you,” he said with the most hesitant tone he could find.

The weather pony only gave a moan and snored immediately after it. She can’t listen her friend when she's talking to her? He poked her on the head.

“Fluttershy, I want to sleep!” Rainbow muttered. “Applejack stopped me from sleeping the entire morning already”

But Doppel needed that the pegasus was awake to know what was her feelings were for the timid pony. Suddenly, his nose itched again. Fortunately, she's sleeping. I can hide for a few seconds, sneeze, and then come back like nothing happened. As he was starting to leave, Rainbow rose her head from her cloud swiftly.

“Okay! What do you want?” she asked on a frustrated tone.

The changeling froze, being observed by the pegasus. His brain was put on automatic mode, and the only thing he did was sneezing. His appearance changed and he took the form of a mustard colored pegasus with a grayscale rainbow mane. Rainbow gasped at that scene and ran towards the biggest tree in town. Doppel stayed frozen, trying to understand what just happened. When he realized what he’d done, he also fled. This time, he was sure that Rainbow Dash wouldn’t spare him.

Author's Note

Edited by Elmohipster

The Cold Worsened

Doppel lay on something relatively soft. He couldn't remember his cave ever being this comfortable. His thoughts changed as yesterday’s events came back to him. This isn’t the cave. I'm still at Fluttershy's house! He tried to open an eye to see what time it was, but the sun was too bright. It must be late if I can't even open an eye.

He felt hot. Very hot. Too hot. He wasn't used to sleep with blankets inside a room. He tried as much as he could to push them away with closed eyes, but didn’t notice they were already gone.

This would be so much easier if the room stopped spinning... The changeling felt his body and found his holes on his hooves. He should changed back during the night. Well, one more hour to sleep and then, I'll leave.

“Doppel, are you okay?” a worried voice asked.

The changeling painfully tried to open one eye again. Everything he saw was totally blurred and the entire room was spinning.

“What's wrong?” he drawled.

“It's already noon and you weren't awake. Your face is red, are you feeling Ok?” she continued.

Noon? I slept that much? Doppel tried to get up, but fell flatly on the ground. His hooves didn't carry him anymore and he found it difficult to breathe. What's happening to me?

“I thought you didn't feel well,” Fluttershy said helping him to get back in her bed.

“I think my cold’s gotten worse,” he admitted sheepishly. “Don't worry, I'll be leaving soon anyway. I don't want to take advantage of your kindness any more than I already have.”

He attempted to get up again, managing to stand, but he felt that his legs were wobbly. How long could he stay in this position? As he tried to take a step, he fell once again on the ground.

“You can't go anywhere in this state!” the pegasus said, putting him into bed again, before going downstairs to look for something. I'm trapped again in Fluttershy's house. If somepony finds out that I'm here she's going to have problems. Why does she insist on taking care of me? The pegasus came back with a ice bag. She put her hoof on the changeling's head before putting the ice.

“You're burning hot!” she exclaimed. “I don't know anything about changeling illnesses, so there’s not much I can help you with.”

“Don't... worry...” he answered, panting.

Suddenly, they heard somepony knock at the door, jumping at the same time before falling into a heavy silence fell, staring at each other.

“Oh no, it's my spa day with Rarity today!” she remembered. “What are we going to do?”

“Fluttershy dear, are you okay?” the fashionista asked through the door.

“Yes, I'm coming!” she lied.

She radiated worry now. She knew Doppel wasn't in state to be moved, and her friend was going to come in. She needed her meeting to be as short as possible. She hurried to the door to let Rarity enter.

“You took your time to open the door. Is something wrong?” she asked.

“One of my animals is very sick and I'm worried about him,” she answered, attempting to lie the least she could. It was true that in her room, there was a living being very sick, but he didn't look like a woodland critter.

“Oh the poor dear, can I see him?”

“Oh no! You might scare him and it would be bad for his recovery,” Fluttershy made up. “Not that you'll scare him, but I don't want to take any risks.”

“I understand completely!” responded the unicorn. “So, why don't we head for the spa then?”

Fluttershy hesitated a few seconds and finally said, “I think I prefer not going this time. I'm very worried about him. If that’s Ok with you of course.”

Rarity frowned for a moment, but dispelled it quickly. “No, of course it is. The health of your little friends are more important than a common spa appointment that can be postponed. I hope he'll recover soon.”

“I hope too.”

The unicorn headed for the door but stop just before the door. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No. I think I can handle this myself,” Fluttershy said, in a false confident tone.

“Well, feel free to call anytime if you need help for something. I should take my leave. I can't allow myself to bother you when your little friend needs care,” Rarity said before waving. “Ta ta!”

Fluttershy closed the door and quickly went upstairs, and as soon as she entered in her room, she sighed, looking at the changeling who was still panting.

“Is she... still here?” he asked, worried.

“No, she's gone.”

“I'm sorry. Because of me you have to hide and lie, even to your friends,” he lowered his head.

“Don't worry. The important thing is that you'll recover,” she assured. “Let me change your ice bag.”

She left the room with the bag with melted ice, leaving Doppel with his thoughts. Fluttershy, can you be a little more assertive? I'm a changeling and you're putting yourself in danger just to save me. He turned in the bed. But if she wasn't here, I'd be dead a long time. I'm not even sure if I can still transform. He tried to transform but failed miserably, only causing small flickers of green ember.

“I can't shape shift anymore!” he shouted out loud.

Fluttershy just entered the room with a new ice bag. She saw the changeling begin to panic, and rushed up to calm him down, putting the ice on his head. After a while, his panting stopped, and he looked at her, taking in her calm demeanor.

“How can you look so calm, even though you're so worried?” Doppel asked.

“I've always been worried... I've just learned to cope,” she continued to calm him down. “It doesn't matter if you can't change. Nopony knows you're here and I won't let anypony find you. All we need to do now is find out how to make you feel better.”

She looked after the changeling for hours, sitting there, powerless. She knew hundreds of medicines to give to the woodland critters, but knew nothing about changeling illnesses. All she could do was to lower the temperature.

“You need to go to the hospital,” she finally concluded.

“I can't...” Doppel replied, not getting that Fluttershy didn't really think to bring him there.

“I know we can't, but I can't do anything,” she admitted. “We'd need somepony who know about changeling illnesses more than I do.”

Camouflage and Mimic may know some things. But I'm not able to explain to her how to get them, and I'm not even sure that they could do anything anyway.

“I know maybe somepony who can help you!” she exclaimed before running to the door.

“Wait!” the changeling managed to cry out.

“Don't worry. I'm sure she can help you,” she reassured him, leaving the house.

--|-|--

Rainbow Dash had been wandering around Ponyville, staring at each pony that she passed to see if they had quirks they didn't usually have. The changeling hadn't reappeared since the last time she had seen it, and she even began to doubt if she really saw it at all.

She was so focused on somepony else, that she bumped into Derpy. The mailmare fell and all the letters in her saddlebags flew in the air. Dusting herself off, she stood up and began to pick up the mail.

“Sorry Derpy, I didn't see you,” Rainbow apologized. “You've got something for me?”

“Nope,” the wall-eyed pegasus replied.

“Weird... I'm supposed to receive my monthly magazine about the Wonderbolts today,” she wondered. “They’re never late.”

“I'm not the only mailmare in town,” Derpy explained. “Maybe Raindrops has it.”

She continued to pick up the remaining letters and put it in her saddlebags and prepared to leave.

“Alright, thanks,” she bid, taking off before immediately coming back. “Eh, by the way, did you see Lyra doing anything strange?”

“What do you mean? She's always a bit strange, talking about those humans...” the weather pony joked.

“No, I mean like sneezing or being suspicious.”

“The only strange thing I've seen today is you,” Rainbow worried. “Lyra is in perfect health and was eating with Bon-Bon at the restaurant today.”

“Never mind. Gotta go!”

As she left, Rainbow watched her with a questioning look.

“I know she really likes her job, but I can't remember the last time she took a holiday,” the cyan pegasus thought. “I think she needs to rest a little.”

--|-|--

Fluttershy stood in front of the Golden Oaks library. She was sure that Twilight could help Doppel. Several books had to be written about changelings and even if they weren't really numerous, it had to have one with changelings illnesses.

However as she stood there in front of the door, all the confidence that she bore vanished in a second. She had to reveal to Twilight that she was harboring a sick changeling at her house. She already had trouble convincing anypony for smaller favors, but for this, it was too much.

“Come on, Fluttershy! It's for Doppel! He'll never get better without me!” she asserted, giving her enough confidence to continue.

The effect was short lived, when she started to imagine every scenario in her head. The best best scenario, their friendship was broken and Doppel was put in jail, still sick and suffering.

“No, I can't think like that,” she proclaimed. “Twilight is a very comprehensive friend. I'm sure that won't stop her.”

She finally took a resolve to raise her hoof, knocking on the door, but it was so weak that she wondered if anypony even heard it. Apparently they had, since Twilight opened her door.

“Oh Fluttershy? You know, you don't have to knock to come in. We are in a library, you can enter as you want,” she joyfully said.

Spike went downstairs and noticed the pegasus. “Oh hi Fluttershy! It's been a long time since I've see you.”

“Twilight... er... I want to talk to you in private if it's possible,” Fluttershy whispered.

Spike rolled his eyes as Twilight gave him a look. “Fine, I'm going to go tidy up the second floor.”

The Spike gone, they sat on the cushions in the center of the room.

“What’s so important that even Spike can't hear it?” Twilight asked.

“Well... You see... One of my friends is very sick and I'd like to borrow a book on uncommon sickness and...” she started before being cut by the unicorn.

“I know nopony better than you to treat little animals. I've been under the impression that you know more than the books about it.”

“He's not really a wood critter,” the pegasus admitted.

“Well, why doesn't he go to the hospital?”

Fluttershy began to tremble slightly. Obviously Twilight was going to tell her to bring her friend to the hospital.

Seeing the pegasus distress, the unicorn added, “Well... I’m guessing he can't go to the hospital?”

“Yes... He can't really go,” the timid pony replied, happy to find a way to not reveal who Doppel was really.

“So, if I understand correctly, you want a book on uncommon illnesses to cure a friend who doesn't want to go in a hospital?” the librarian summed up.

“It seems strange being said like this, but yes.”

“Fluttershy, it's not that I don't want to let you borrow the book you need, but the time you read it, your friend’s just going to get worse.” Fluttershy made two or three step backwards, lowering her head. “I'm not a doctor, but I've read nearly all the books here,” Twilight continued, seeing her friend's disappointment. “I can take a look at your friend and see what I can do.”

For a moment, the pegasus was very pleased to hear that, until she realized what it meant. “Er... I can try to explain all of his symptoms,” she attempted. “So you don't have to leave the library unattended.”

“Don't worry Fluttershy, Spike can take care of the library while I'm not here.”

The yellow pegasus had ran out of ideas to prevent Twilight to go to her house. She had to tell Twilight now, before she jumped to conclusions.

“Before we go,” Fluttershy began, “I need to tell you something...”

“Yes? What is it?”

“My friend is a c.h..li...” she mumbled.

“Sorry didn’t quite catch that,” Twilight said, leaning in.

“He's a ch..g..ing..”

“Come again?”

“He’s a changeling!” Fluttershy ended up yelling.

Author's Note

Edited by War10ck111.

The fourth chapter is now correctly edited too. I had uploaded the unedited version.

The Ability to Trust Somepony

The Ability To Trust Somepony

“He’s a changeling!”

It was a full minute before Fluttershy whimpered, “I'm sorry.”

“That explains why Rainbow Dash was so convinced that she had seen a changeling...” Twilight remembered.

“He's very sick, and there’s nothing I can do! You have to help him!” the shy pony insisted.

“Help a changeling?” the unicorn scoffed. “After what they did in Canterlot, at the wedding?”

“He had nothing to do with them!” Fluttershy defended.

“How do you know? It's a changeling!” the librarian yelled.

Fluttershy remained speechless. She knew that Doppel didn't want to harm her or Ponyville. She felt tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

“Fluttershy...” Twilight said, a little calmer. “We can let a changeling plan an invasion like this. I know they can be very good actors. His illness might just be a ruse to infiltrate us. I don't want to take any risk.”

The silence fell again. The unicorn didn't know what to do now. In front of her stood one of her best friends on the verge of crying, but she was defending one of the creatures that brought chaos six months ago.

“He doesn't want to invade us. He's been here for more than a year. He changes himself into Lyra and steals a little love from Bon-Bon before going back to the Everfree Forest,” the pegasus explained.

“So you want me to save a changeling who, not only has already invaded, but steals from Bon-Bon?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“He’s never caused any trouble!” Her tone being more assertive. “Lyra and Bon-Bon aren’t any different. He’s even helped them when they had an argument to reconcile them.”

“Okay...Okay... He hasn't probably done something wrong until now. But how can you be sure that he won't do in the future, under the Queen's orders?” Twilight pressed.

“Doppel says he'll never obey her laws again, and he’d rather meet ponies undisguised than obey the queen again,” Fluttershy tried to defend his friend the more she could.

“Doppel?”

“It's his name...”

“But I read that the only changeling that has a name is the queen,” the unicorn retorted, searching now inside one of her books.

“That’s what he told me first, but when he became an outlaw, he gave himself a name, to assert his identity,” the pegasus continued.

“This doesn't make any sense! Why would a changeling reveal so much information while trying to invade us?” Twilight wondered. “I understand that he could just give out a little information just to trust him, but this... At this rate, he'll give up the way to invade their home. It'd be the worse double agent of the history of Equestria.”

Fluttershy couldn't help giggling at Twilight’s antics. The anger of the unicorn seemed to be replaced by the curiosity. She decided to use this to her advantage.

“He’s even tried to help me too. And that's why he was discovered by Rainbow,” she explained. The librarian stopped muttering to look at her. “By sneezing, he changed his form and hid at my house. Because of his sickness, he's stuck in my bed.”

“By sneezing? That sounds like just a cold.”

“I think he said something like that too,” she remembered.

“Fine. I think it's useless to talk like this. I need to see him. It'll be easier,” Twilight concluded, standing up and heading for the door.

Fluttershy blocked her way to the exit. “We can't see him like this. The poor dear will be afraid.”

“Fluttershy, it's for our own good, even for him.” she assured. “That, and it's you who came to ask for my help.”

The shy mare nodded and ended to follow Twilight who headed for her cottage.

--|-|--

Doppel lay in Fluttershy's bed, unable to get out of the bed or even transform. The white bunny perched on his chest, glaring. Stupid rodent. Taking advantage that I'm powerless. Despite his state, he could still feel the emotions radiated by the angry pet, hitting him like a cart. Jealousy.

While the week hadn’t gone as planned, Doppel thought that it could be worse. The worst creature he had to face until now was the stare of a white quick-tempered bunny. In the Hive, he wouldn’t even have one chance. Being weak and helpless was not what the queen wanted. He also thought about Camouflage and Mimic, still in the forest. If he had stayed out there with them, he wasn't sure that he would make it, even if he would entrust his life to his friends to defend him in this weakened state. Finally, Angel got bored at staring at the changeling, judging that he wasn’t worth his time, hopping down the stairs and out of sight.

At the same time, Doppel heard the door open. He didn't know what to make of it. Was this the coming of the so-called savior? Or was it the coming of the executioner who was being led to his death bed. He heard a loud voice that he didn’t recognize.

“Now, let see if he didn't run away while you came to get me.”

It's obvious that she doesn't trust me at all. I hope that Fluttershy’s convinced her enough to not try to kill me as soon as she sees me. The door opened and Doppel saw a lavender unicorn come in with the yellow pegasus. So the help is Celestia's protegee, Twilight Sparkle. The little sister of the groom who beat the Queen months ago. I'd say that it’s a fifty-fifty chance that she’ll try to kill me right away. Twilight's horn started to glow. The changeling tried to escape, but his hooves wouldn't respond. He just laid in the bed, powerless. This is how I die. A wave of light went through his body. Doppel shut his eyes to prepare himself for the pain. However, nothing happened. He opened his eyes to see that he was still in one piece.

“Yes, he's got a changeling cold,” the unicorn stated. "At least, he didn't fake one. But I'm still not sure that he didn't do it on purpose."

“What was that spell?” the sick changeling asked, with a weak voice.

“It's the spell I use to check if Spike is faking any illnesses to avoid chores," she explained. "I adapted it to work for changelings, after the invasion, to interrogate the remaining ones who didn't get blasted by Cadence and Shining. Their acting skills are so good that I had to check to see if they were faking it or if it was genuine.”

“You said he has a changeling cold,” Fluttershy worried. “Is this serious?”

“Not more than our cold, apart from the fact it causes them to lose the ability to transform correctly.” A doubt had taken the tone of the voice of the unicorn. “But here, we have a very serious case. That must be because of his fast that he forced himself.”

“Fast?” the pegasus was surprised.

“I might stay four, maybe five days without feeding upon love,” Doppel admitted, still weak. “I couldn't eat since I began my cold. The last time I had a chance to eat was when I visited Bon-Bon yesterday.”

Doppel was too weak to hide something now. It’s not like they can gain anything from that.

“Oh my!” were the only words that the pegasus could muster.

“Unfortunately, I can't do anything against this sickness,” the librarian explained, in a sorry tone. “It's the same cold as us, we can just wait the sickness to cure itself.”

“Is there a chance that he might not make it?” the shy mare worried.

“Fluttershy... I'm sorry but this is just a changeling. That’s just how nature works... And I won't be the one to mourn the loss of a changeling.”

At least, she's honest with this. I like it better like that. I’ve lived like a sick outlawed changeling for too long anyway. He sighed, closing his eyes. He breathed calmly. Knowing that nothing could be done calmed him. Why to worry if nothing will change? However, he noticed that a silence had descended on the room. Fluttershy seemed to be devastated by the news and stood stock still, staring at Twilight insistently, as if this was going to change Twilight’s mind.

“Okay, I’ll try something,” the unicorn finally blurted. “But I don't know what will happen because I’ve never tested it on another pony, let alone on a changeling, but don't get your hopes up too high.”

Her horn strongly glowed. Doppel felt his body being enveloped by Twilight's magic as he began floating slightly in the air. A bright light flashed through the room, throwing the unicorn against the wall as the changeling heavily fell back onto the bed. He could feel the changes in his health happening by the second, his strength returning to the point where he could stand, the room didn't spin anymore, and his mind was clearer.

“You cured me?” he asked, in a nearly euphoric tone.

“Not quite,” the librarian responded, having some trouble getting back on her hooves. “This is spell I usually use to help me during exams. It lets me reduce the effects of fatigue. So, roughly speaking, I reduced the severity of your illness but it's going to stay for a while. I'd say more than a week, maybe two. So, you're going to need to stay in bed for a while.” She paused and then continued in a happier tone, “But your life isn’t in danger anymore!”

“Oh thank you, thank you, Twilight!” Fluttershy exclaimed, hugging the unicorn.

“Th... thanks...” Doppel mumbled.

“But don't think that I trust you yet," The librarian replied. "You still need to earn it. You're in no condition to resist us if you lied about your good intentions.”

Doppel gulped. He couldn't help it. Maybe it was because his species was hated by the ponies or because Twilight really thought it, but the last sentences of the unicorn frightened him.

“But the questions come tomorrow. This spell was very exhausting. I'm going back home,” Twilight yawned.

Without saying goodbye, she trudged down the stairs and made her way home.

--|-|--

The night had fallen and Mimic had sat all day in the forest. He had fed enough the day before, maybe even too much, but Camouflage had found out that he hadn't been very discreet when he was searching for Doppel yesterday, so the female changeling had taken his place for the day. She even took the form of the wall-eyed pegasus that Mimic usually used. She couldn't transform into her usual pony because of Octavia who was always at home this time around, rehearsing for an important concert.

At the sound of rustling leaves, Mimic saw her fellow changeling coming through the usual entrance.

“How did it go?” Mimic asked.

“Good, I think...” Camouflage answered, with a pinch of doubt. “But something was bothering me. What was Derpy supposed to do today?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because some ponies looked at me weird when I talked to them, and Rainbow Dash asked some strange questions.”

“Oh, she went to Manehattan for the holidays. She left two or three days ago and she's supposed to come back in a week...” he replied, just before being cut by Camouflage.

“You idiot!” she shouted, shaking her friend. “You said that I could take her form when you knew she was on holiday!? Are you trying to get us caught?”

She dropped Mimic and let go a sigh. She started to pace to and fro, mumbling. Finally she yelled incredulously before stalking back.

“I don't know which one of you is more dangerous. Doppel with his cold or you being,” she paused one second to find something relevant, “you!”

“Give me a break!” he countered. “It's not the first time that ponies found something strange about her. Do you remember the filly Derpy?”

“It was you?” she roared.

“Yes, and the time she got out of a well?”

“It was you again?”

“Yeah! In fact, I wasn't looking where I walked. And I'm sure that Pinkie told you that she saw Derpy in a snow globe.”

“How did you even...” she snapped.

“Wait, that time it wasn't me! But I still don't understand how she managed to do that...” he responded.

“If you're saying you're the one who destroyed the town hall, you're...”

“Have you found Doppel?” Mimic cut, finding that the arguing was leading nowhere.

“He's nowhere to be found,” she worried. “He been gone for two days now. I'll be surprised if he’s survived. The probability he kept his disguise with his cold in a pony's home is nearly nil.”

“And how are the ponies in town behaving?”

“They don't seem to be reacting. It's like they don't know anything,” she said. “He had to be caught in secret to avoid spreading fear through the population.”

“We’re in danger!” Mimic said fretfully. “Because of him, we’ll have to hide again!”

“We should ask Illusion if she knows anything.” Camouflage suggested. “Until then, I refuse to stay here starving because we’re at risk of being discovered. If your stupidity doesn’t get us in jail I suppose that we can stay here for a few more days.” She saw her friend nod. “And for pity's sake, don't shape shift into filly Derpy again, okay?”

--|-|--

Rainbow Dash finally made it back home after her long day of searching. She had wanted to warn Twilight that she didn't found any strange behavior from the ponies she saw today and that meant that the changeling is very good at hiding and could be anywhere, but when she checked in at the library, Spike was the only one there and he didn’t know when she would be back, so she decided to try again tomorrow.

She stopped to look at her mailbox, noticing a corner of some paper sticking out. When she took it out, she immediately recognized it as the magazine on Wonderbolts she had been expecting. So Derpy isn't the only mailmare in Ponyville. Seems normal but why they need two mailmares at the same time for a small town like this? Do they doubt Derpy that much?

Rainbow went to the sofa to read her magazine, but couldn’t concentrate on the pages. Her mind kept going back to Derpy’s odd appearance. Why am I so concerned about Derpy? Is she supposed to be somewhere? She tried to think for a few moments, but decided to ask Twilight when she saw her next, going back to the pages of her magazine. The first few pages were about the new stunts that the Wonderbolts accomplished these last days. After, there was the usual interview with one of the team. This time, it was about Soarin' and his love for pies, particularly the apple ones. The next pages caught Dash's attention. A tall red pegasus stallion with an orange mane stood in the center of the picture. The title of the article read, "I've Seen In Spitfire A Safe Investment of the Wonderbolts Ever Since I Started Training Her". What? He was the one who trained Spitfire back in flight school? My old coach a celebrity? How could that even be possible? She continued to read, grumbling from time to time.

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111 who gives me his time to proofread this story.

The Questioning

Doppel spent all night and the next day sleeping; the Twilight’s spell working wonderfully. His breathing was steady, the room had stopped spinning, and the fever dropped, but he still couldn't really get up and his fatigue had yet to leave him.

He heard somepony knocking at the door. He opened an eye with some difficulty but couldn’t tell who it was, though it didn't matter as Fluttershy poked her head through. Poor Fluttershy. I’m forcing her to sleep on her couch while I use her bed. I know she’s the Element of Kindness, but I still need to ask her if she doesn't want her bed. My convalescence wouldn’t change either way.

His thought were cut by the discussion the pegasus had with the pony beside her.

“You see Twilight,” she stated to the librarian, “I told you that he wouldn't run away.”

“Well, I'm pretty sure that he isn't really able to anyway,” Twilight retorted.

The mares looked back at the changeling. I didn't want to flee, mostly because of the fact that I'm still sick and I could be found within the hour.

“At least he looks better now,” she noticed. “Now changeling, I'm going to ask you a few questions. See yesterday I made some research on what you said and I'd like some clarification on some of the details. I want to be better prepared, especially after the wedding disaster.”

Doppel nodded. Twilight took out a very long parchment. She coughed a little and looked down at her list.

“So, Fluttershy said to me that you had a name, except that in my books about the changelings, it says that only the queen has a name.”

“Yes, my name's Doppel Ganger, and the reason I have a name is because I'm an outlaw. I never swore an oath of loyalty to the queen. I decided that her methods weren't all that good for both us and the ponies.”

“What is the purpose of having a name when you live all by yourself?” Twilight asked.

“I never said I live alone.”

There was a shocked silence. It was true that he had never talked about his friends in the Everfree and that they could take it as an invasion. Too late for taking back. Anyway, they'd find out about them sooner or later.

“I have two friends who live in the Everfree Forest, but don't worry, they don't want to invade either. They also prefer method 2 and we are very cautious to not disturb the ponies on which we feed.” the changeling explained.

“The method 2?” the unicorn demanded, like he just spoke squirrel.

“Doppel explained to me that a changeling has three methods to feed love. The first steals love from a pony without doing anything else. The pony will suffer loss of feelings. The second is when the changeling use one form that the pony is in love with to feed from the love he send. This method is far less damaging than the first one. And the third one is when the pony is in love with the changeling. No secondary effect,” Fluttershy responded.

Doppel was astonished by the memory of the pegasus. He thought that for the lack of enough courage to talk in public, she's a good listener.

“So, by the method 2, you tried to cause less damage as possible on ponies' feelings,” Twilight summed up.

“Er, yes, something like that,” the changeling nodded.

“And your friends?” the librarian continued. “What can you tell me about them?”

“They are called Camouflage and Mimic. We agreed to not take the same prey.” Doppel saw the mares winced to the word. “They're outlaws like me, so they don't take orders from the queen either. Mimic was the last that joined us. He arrived shortly before the invasion of Canterlot since that was the reason he left.”

“Shortly before the invasion? If he's the last one to be arrived, it means that you had nothing to do with the invasion?” Twilight was surprised.

“It’s been more than a year since I started living here.”

“But then how did you know about the invasion?” the librarian retorted.

“It was on everypony's lips. But we also had Illusion.”

“Illusion?” Twilight asked, skeptically.

“Yes, she's a changeling who doesn't live with us. She just informs us about what happens in the Hive. It's very bad for an outlaw to come in contact with the queen. So I assure you that Illusion doesn't live with us. Also, she doesn't like her name, but we find easier to call her-”

“She?” Fluttershy was surprised, cutting Doppel in his explanation.

The sick changeling give a puzzled look on his face. Why is this strange to them? Illusion’s a very feminine name to have isn’t it? He looked at Twilight who was giving him a different kind of stare. Not one of suspicion, one of curiosity. It seemed that his question had gotten her out of her distrustful shell.

“You have males and females?” the librarian asked dumbfounded.

“Yes, and?”

He didn't see why it was so important. But the fact that Twilight was curious about this allowed him to be more relaxed.

“I thought that your behavior on the subject was more like the society of insects. The queen gives birth to every changeling forming the Hive. It was what I read in the books,” she admitted.

“Er no... Our mode of reproduction is closer of yours that the ant one. It's one of the only things that the queen has no power over,” he explained.

“So, Illusion is a female. And you are?”

Doppel rose an eyebrow. Really? You had to ask that question? Then he realized that it wouldn’t have been simple for the ponies after all. They weren't used to seeing them after all, so all the changeling must have looked the same for them.

“Male!” he disclosed, with a tone of exasperation that he couldn't hide.

He heard a small squeak come from Fluttershy. She must have not given it a second thought, since she was a bit preoccupied. Twilight became more and more curious, the questioning stemming less to prove that he's not dangerous, but more focused on knowledge on the changeling's society.

A characteristic tickle came to his muzzle, causing a violent sneeze, making him take the appearance of Twilight. A wide smile flickered on his face.

“I've recovered my transforming abilities,” he said joyfully.

“You sneezed and changed your shape,” the unicorn said calmly.

“I couldn't change my form before, but now I can!” he explained, amusing himself to transform several times, just for the fun of it. “Your spell works wonders!”

“Yes... But I remind you that all the energy you lose now must be recovered in the future,” she lectured.

Doppel immediately stopped the series of shape shifting that he took, struck by the fact that he had to save his strength. He took back his changeling appearance and lay down in the bed correctly.

“I think its a good sign that he could change forms again. If somepony were to come, he could hide,” Fluttershy confided.

“Yes, and I think I shouldn't tire him out too much with my questions. I think I should come back tomorrow,” Twilight concluded. “Mister, I warn you. You have to be here when I come back or else...”

“I think I get the idea,” Doppel joked.

After giving a final nod, she waved goodbye to Fluttershy and left.

--|-|--

Rainbow woke up shouting like a scared little filly. She looked at every directions before noticing that she was napping on a cloud. She lay down watching the sky.

“Stupid magazine... If I didn't read that interview, I'd never had that dream,” she mumbled.

She looked down at the ground. She was in fact near the Golden Oaks library, still waiting for the unicorn to come back to tell her what she wanted days ago. Yesterday she couldn't do it because Spike said that Twilight slept the entire day for a reason even he didn't know. Today, she left early before she even woke up.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Twilight coming up the road. Rainbow came down from her cloud and directly faced the unicorn.

“Twilight, you have to believe me,” she insisted. “I know you didn’t think that I was telling the truth, but I think that what I saw wasn't a dream. And seeing how all these ponies aren’t freaking out yet, this changeling is very talented. His act is perfect. He's very dangerous Twilight, we havta do something now!”

Twilight stopped immediately in her tracks, a drop of sweat trickling down her head. She thought about Doppel in Fluttershy's bed. She tried to smile, but it appeared forced.

“I know Rainbow. I haven’t forgotten!” she assured. “I just did some research myself. I think he must be in hiding now. If I was him, I'd be gone for a few days before coming back trying to feed on love again.”

“And where do you think he could be hide?” the pegasus asked.

“Somewhere nopony even dare to go,” the librarian misled.

“Yeah, you're right!” Rainbow exclaimed. “I'm going to search for him again.”

And she flew away, leaving her rainbow colored mark behind her. Twilight sighed and opened the door. ask she walked in, she looked at the book she had been using the day before to get ready for another changeling attack. "I’m still not sure if saving that changeling was right." She levitated the book to her and began to read it again, before stopping mid-page. "Why am I reading this again? The information isn’t even right."

--|-|--

Mimic rested near their cave in the Everfree Forest. Camouflage had put a ban on long term trips to Ponyville, only being allowed for a short period of time to feed, while she took the responsibility to search for Doppel. She continued to use Derpy's form despite the real one being on holidays mostly because the real Octavia was still busy and pretty unknown here in Ponyville.

“Where could he be?” Mimic moaned. “You can't just disappear like this... let alone if you’re a changeling with a cold.”

“You’re talking to yourself now?” a recognizable voice stated.

The male changeling jumped before looking at his speaker. “Illusion!” he complained. “You're insane to startle changelings like that!”

“I'll stop when you stop calling me that,” she remarked.

“Then what am I supposed to call you?” he sneered.

“Well... just do call me anything. I'm not an outlaw and I have no name.”

“Can you stop arguing you two?” a third voice shouted.

Before them stood a gray pegasus with a blonde mane. It was obviously Camouflage coming back from her investigating to find where was Doppel. She took her former appearance back. “We need you Illusion,” she demanded. The spy made a frown at the pronunciation of her name. She decided to not say anything. “You didn't hear about a changeling who get captured some days ago?”

“The royal guards did catch one, but you mustn't know him. He was part of the invasion army who took Canterlot six months ago. He got lost and was caught yesterday.” Mimic and Camouflage looked disappointed and relieved at the same time. However, Illusion rose an eyebrow. “But I was thinking... It's been awhile since I’ve seen Doppel. What’s he up these days?”

“That’s exactly our problem. We don't know where he is and what he’s doing,” Mimic said in a morose tone.

“We haven’t seen him since he left to feed,” continued Camouflage. “That why we wanted to know if there had been a capture that the other ponies didn’t know about.”

“Sorry, but I’ve not seen or heard anything about him. Although, if you see him, tell him that he needs to be really careful. The changeling's arrest in Canterlot had doubled Chrysalis' urges to invade Canterlot. The army’s nearly complete. I’ll try my hardest to keep her from coming through here.”

On these words, she left the changelings. They stared at each other.

“Well, I think we really need to warn Doppel,” Mimic proposed heading towards Ponyville. “You coming or not?”

--|-|--

Doppel opened one eye. How much time was I asleep? It couldn’t have been that long since I'm still tired. Using all the energy that he could, he sat up to look at the clock. Wow, I nearly slept an entire day, he thought before sneezing and taking the form of Lyra.

Alerted by the noise, Fluttershy poked her head inside the room to check if everything was okay. She was followed by Twilight who came back for her “questioning”.

“I didn't know that you lived with Lyra Heartstrings,” the librarian joked.

“Oh no, it's Doppel. He had just changed his form,” the pegasus explained, not understanding the joke. “Oh sorry Doppel, I forgot to knock.”

The changeling took his former appearance before gesturing that he was okay.

“I was wondering. How can you speak Equestrian so fluently even though you aren't a pony? Don't you have a changeling language?” Twilight asked.

“Are these questions still to check if I'm a threat to Ponyville?” Doppel replied, somewhat sarcastic. There was a long pause as Twilight mumbled something. “It doesn't matter, I understand. It doesn't bother me. We don't really have a changeling language anymore. By the fact we always need to take a disguise and speak foreign languages, we ended up to not have a language anymore. Only a few words remained because they're untranslatable in Equestrian.”

“That's why the queen seemed to speak so fluently,” Fluttershy realized.

“Well, when I looked in my notes from yesterday, I noticed that Mimic and Camouflage live with you in the Everfree...” Twilight continued, stressing the name of Doppel's friends.

“They are not dangerous!” he cut, like if the mares were going to capture them.

“No, it's not what she meant. We've discussed it with Twilight,” the pegasus explained. “The Everfree Forest is a really dangerous place to live there. How can you survive?”

“Don't worry about them. It's been more than a year that we’ve lived there. That and changelings have some useful defense techniques. Besides, if you went there without me, they could use it against you, thinking you're a threat.” Fluttershy and Twilight stared at him, with a questioning look. “We use the fear of our opponents to scare them away,” he continued. “As soon as we know their feelings, it's very easy. For example, for you Fluttershy, I'd change into a dragon. And for you Twilight, I'd scold you with the form of your Princess.”

“That’s a pretty great defense mechanism!” the librarian admired.

“Yes. But don't try to look for them,” the changeling warned. “Or you're going to meet your Princess riding a big dragon.”

“Let's go into a bit more detail about Mimic and Camouflage. First, male or female?” Twilight resumed.

“Mimic is a male and Camouflage a female,” Doppel started, before thinking a moment. “Why is this important to know if we're dangerous?” Silence again. “Actually, you trust me now and it's just your curiosity which is driving you to continue.”

“No, not at all. It's... I mean... It will be easier for all of us if I use the right pronouns,” Twilight looked for excuses.

“I'm a changeling. I know that you’ve trusted me for a while now. Otherwise, I wouldn't be speaking to you like this. I feel everything you feel towards me. right now, it's particularly curiosity, with a hint of distress at being read like this. I'm sorry, I won't do that again,” he explained. “Well I won't tell you because I can't really prevent it,” he added just afterward. “So, it's useless to hide that kind of thing from me. I would know it from the start.”

“If you knew, why did you continue to answer?” the unicorn demanded.

“Because it doesn’t really matter to me. All the information I give won't probably change my life anyway. And if it changed the Hive's life, then it's even better. I'm an outlaw, I don't see why I should feel sorry for the Hive's changelings when ponies like me more than them.” Twilight stayed open mouthed. A sneeze later from Doppel (with a transformation to Bon-Bon). “So, now, don't hide me anything and say that you want this for your research, okay?” he spoke again, with one of the Bon-Bon's voice.

The unicorn nodded and took another notebook, visibly to ask questions about the behavior of the changelings. "So, maybe you can help me to fill the gaps with our knowledge on changelings."

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111

I hope you still can distinguish my changelings. Doppel is obvious, but the three others?

Rainbow Dash's Doubts

A filly Rainbow Dash walked into a room filled with prizes and diplomas with her head held low and stopped in front of a desk, where a red stallion stood, mumbling some unintelligible words with a frown on his face.

“You called me coach?” she asked to the stallion.

“Yes!” he replied, turning around. “Just what exactly were you thinking Rainbow Dash?”

“It's not my fault!” she argued, cringing back.

“Not your fault?” he barked. “Because of you, a filly has totally disappeared, and I have her parents on my back. To top it off, your little stunt broke all of the windows in the next town. Who's gonna pay the damages?”

“I was...” she tried to excuse.

“No. I'm sick of this!” the coach yelled. “You're gonna...”

The adult version of Rainbow Dash woke up with a start in her bed. She was sweating. How many more times am I going to dream about him?

--|-|--

“A week!” Mimic shouted, his patience wearing thin. He was pacing inside the Everfree Forest near their cave. “It's been more than a week since Doppel’s vanished without attracting any attention.”

“I know,” Camouflage firmly said, in a low volume, hoping that the discussion would end soon.

“If he's alive, why doesn't he come back?” he continued to yell. “If he's dead, why is everypony acting like he never existed?”

“Quiet!” she loudly whispered. “If you keep shouting, ponies will notice us!”

“Sorry,” he apologized, on a more reasonable volume.

“We don't know anything about what happened to Doppel. It's obvious that we have to keep searching him. But if he's alive, I think he can't leave wherever he is. We have to trust him now. There’s nothing else we can do.”

“Yes... Luckily, his cold should be cured. Hiding is probably easier for him now.”

--|-|--

Rainbow stood in front of the library. More than a week had passed since she last seen the changeling. She was certain that it really was a changeling. She was sure that if she had dreamed about her favorite heroine, it would be in a stifling jungle and in some ruins with great treasures, not something like a weird transformation of her friend above the Sweet Apple Acres.

She reported everything she found during the week to Twilight, though her friend was acting weirder and weirder when she talked about changelings. The first time, she honestly seemed concerned by the fact the town could be in danger, but the last few times, it looked like if she wanted to avoid the discussion altogether.

Rainbow was starting to doubt Twilight. She and her friends had fought during the wedding. She knew better than anypony the real danger of a changeling's invasion. Then why was she acting so optimistic and careless about the subject? What if Twilight was the changeling I met? No, she couldn't. The Element of Loyalty couldn't doubt her friends like this. After all, nothing had gone wrong since then. It maybe Twilight was right, and it was just an isolated little changeling who wasn't going to destroy Ponyville. But Rainbow felt that something wasn’t right.

“I really need Twilight to understand! We need to be more careful!” she shouted out.

She burst into the library. The librarian watched her with a tired look. “Rainbow, what is it this time?” Obviously, the unicorn was going to leave.

“I need to talk to you about the changeling I saw!” the pegasus insisted.

“Again? How many times do I need to tell you? We can't do anything! If a dangerous changeling was here, he'd already moved.”

“But strange things have been happening in Ponyville. There are ponies asking around if something strange has happened. And then, Derpy is popping up everywhere.”

“Rainbow, I don't have time to fool around with this. I need to go to Fluttershy's. She asked me something very important.”

The weather mare felt that something was wrong. Twilight wasn't very good at lying. Clearly, she wanted to avoid her. While the unicorn tried to get out, Rainbow caught her by the withers and made fall her saddlebag, revealing a detailed picture of a changeling.

“What is this?” the pegasus exclaimed, picking up the parchment. “It's a drawing of a changeling. Why do you have this?”

“Okay... I'm interested in changelings at the moment,” Twilight admitted. “I'm interested in their way of life and I find that changelings could completely live in harmony with us. It's why...”

The unicorn continued to talk but Rainbow's attention was already gone, studying the drawing from every angle again. Clearly, she couldn't be a changeling. Maybe if an invasion happened, her knowledge could be useful, until then, it was useless.

As soon as Twilight stopped talking, the pegasus shouted out a “Very interesting Twilight!” before flying away.

--|-|--

Rainbow couldn't really count on Twilight this time. Flying carelessly, she ended up swooping into the Ponyville mailmare. The mares fell on the ground after their crash.

“Oops, my bad!” Derpy apologized.

“No, I think it's my fault this time,” the rainbow maned pegasus replied. “Especially this week, you had nothing to reproach yourself for. The letters were sent to the right ponies, we didn't have uncalled storm and there was still muffins at noon at Sugarcube Corner. Even your squint had weakened this week.”

“Eer Rainbow...” the mailmare admitted. “I just came back from Manehattan after a two weeks' holiday. I couldn't have done all that.”

The revelation astonished the cyan pegasus. Here was the proof she wanted. The changeling she met was under Derpy's disguise all week. She need to tell Twilight about this. She flew in direction of Fluttershy's cottage where the librarian was heading.

--|-|--

Arriving in front of the pet caretaker's house, Rainbow Dash came to a full stop. Indeed, she had a proof that there was a changeling and it was disguised as Derpy, but she had nothing else. She was not sure that Twilight would be very happy with only that.

She briefly wondered why Twilight was suddenly going to Fluttershy’s house so much. She often ran into Spike who had told her that Twilight was gone. Did they have a secret that Rainbow didn't know? What if Twilight and Fluttershy were hiding a changeling? No, that's silly. They'd never do that. Twilight probably just wants to study a critter that Fluttershy’s taking care of, and that's why she's here.

She considered to knock at the door to explain what she just found. Finally, she decided against and turned around. The only progress she made was to confirm that there was indeed a changeling in Ponyville, something Twilight didn't refute even if she didn't seem to take it seriously.

She looked at the Everfree Forest near the cottage. Her only duty was to inspect every place a changeling could hide. And this was a potential place. Why didn't I think about it sooner? The only place where a changeling is almost certain to never cross the path of a pony. She grinned at the idea. Besides, it must feel safe there. It could even drop his disguise and make the job easier.

Rainbow flew inside the forest. Soon, she began to hear voices. They were very quiet but surely they were voices. They seemed arguing about something. Rainbow trusted her hearing, and began to make her way to where the voices were coming from.. They started to get louder and louder as she came near a little cave near the pond.

Suddenly, the voices fell silent. Rainbow started to doubt that she could catch the two changelings herself, but then she remembered fighting dozens of them at the wedding. As she was thinking, she heard a shriek and then nothing. Undeterred by any potential danger, the pegasus rushed towards the cave.

“Look out! Here I come!” she triumphantly shouted.

She didn't remain triumphant for long. She faced two pegasi now. One was red with a golden mane and the other looked like a small mauve filly with a look could kill an Ursa Major. Rainbow remained paralyzed.

“Coach? What are you doing here?” she finally said with a shivering voice.

“Rainbow Dash! I thought I was clear at flight school. You won't ever obtain a diploma with your abilities! Your actions only cause catastrophes!”

“But.. but...” she stammered.

“I have to expel you from this school. We've already received too much complaints about you. No flight school will take you anymore with a record like that. You're too dangerous,” the coach stated.

“You'll never become a Wonderbolt! You'll never become a Wonderbolt! You'll never become a Wonderbolt!” the filly repeated, on a mocking tone.

“You'll be too dangerous to be a Wonderbolt!” the coach added.

Rainbow wanted to protest but nothing came out. The only time I can show him that he was wrong all this time and I'm standing here like a scared little filly. Without thinking, she jumped back into the air, fleeing from the ponies she faced. Why am I running away? I went to the Wonderbolt academy. I’ve already proved myself. Even with this in mind, Rainbow couldn't go back to face her coach again.

As soon as she left the forest, the two pegasi flashed green, taking back the shape of the two changelings. “She was afraid of her former coach?” Mimic laughed. “I would have never guessed.”

“After all, she never spoke about her past in flight school,” her friend pointed out.

“I wonder why she's flying around alone in the Everfree. You think she knows that we live here?”

“We’ll need to be more careful now!” Camouflage stated.

They stood in silence, before Mimic remembered something.

“Why did I change into a filly?” he complained.

“Because you like fillies obviously,” she joked.

“It was an accident. I wanted to do the adult Derpy, not the filly one.”

“I'm sure...” she poked fun.

--|-|--

Twilight arrived at Fluttershy's cottage, walking in without knocking at the door. She got used to it, mostly because each time she did so, the pegasus and the changeling hid for minutes on end, which wasn't good for Doppel's recovery.

She went upstairs to meet up in the bedroom. She heard laughing coming from the room. When she entered, she saw Mayor Mare lying on the bed, looking like she was giving a speech.

“And I declare that today, the hair dye will be obligatory and the pink manes will be forbidden!”

Fluttershy couldn't help laughing. She felt a little shame at laughing, but she was having so much fun. Suddenly, Mayor Mare sneezed and transformed into Fluttershy.

“Hey! You don't need mirror anymore. You have me. I'm better than a mirror! You can even look where you couldn't with a plain old mirror.” Doppel directly got going after looking at himself a few seconds.

The laughs of the true yellow pegasus doubled. Doppel changed his appearance again, this time on his own will. He took the shape of the clown pony. He picked three balls and began jungle with them. After a while, every ball ended up falling on his head.

Twilight coughed a little to announce her presence. Doppel jumped and took back his former appearance. Fluttershy blushed and looked away, trying to get serious again.

“Doppel, I already told you that if you don't stop shapeshifting, you'll take more time to recover,” the unicorn lectured.

“Sorry,” he apologized, a little shameful. “In my defense, shape shift doesn't need a lot of energy for a changeling.”

“Talking about energy,” Twilight asked. “It's been a week that you're here, stuck in this room, and nevertheless you don't seem suffering starvation. You aren't stealing love from Fluttershy by force are you?”

Doppel looked at the librarian, bewildered. Stealing her love? I’ve never done that! It's against my rules. I always use the method 2. That’s why I'm stuck here and not in the Everfree now. But it's true that I'm not starving. Can it be?

“Doppel?” she repeated.

“I think I’m using method 3,” he beamed. In the front of the puzzled look of the mares, he added “It's great. The changelings that can do it are counted on the holes of one hoof.”

“Don't we need to feel love for you to take it?” the unicorn asked.

“Friendship isn’t really the same thing, it's true,” the changeling admitted. “But with this method, there are absolutely no secondary effect, so I don't hurt anypony. Then, Fluttershy is always here, so I have it all the time.”

Doppel saw the timid pegasus blushed a little hearing this. Oh no... don't tell me she's embarrassed by what I just told. There is absolutely no insinuation.

“So,” Twilight continued, seeing that the silence became awkward, “I'll ask you a last question. It's clear that you don't want to harm anypony. Well, you do feed upon love from ponies you and your friends... But I also know worse changelings than you in this world. So, what are you going to do when you'll have recovered?”

The question hit the changeling full force. He hadn’t thought about it yet. He could return in the Everfree Forest and take his former life back. It'd be weird now with Fluttershy and Twilight knowing his true identity. Seeing what happened, I think that nothing will be as before. Maybe I'll visit Twilight and Fluttershy when I'll go to Ponyville. It'd let me space out Bon-Bon's visits.

Then something sort of hit him in the face. It was the feelings of the pegasus. A clear disappointment was read in her face, as if she only just realized that the situation we were now wasn't going to remain for ever.

“So?” the librarian insisted.

“I... don't know,” he confessed.

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111

Tortured By Their Own Thoughts

Doppel kept tossing and turning in Fluttershy's bed. The bed he felt ashamed to be using like this. It was true that in his given state, he was having fun with the yellow pegasus. He almost forgot how much of a precarious situation he was in. He also forced Fluttershy to use her couch to sleep. He wasn't even sure that if he had a couch and a bed, he'd do that for somepony. Even if the pegasus' feelings didn't say anything to the contrary, it had to bother her a little.

Now, adding to that, he had to know what he was going to do. If it was one week ago, he would have immediately said that he wanted to go back to his former changeling life, promising to be quiet. At best, he could say a little hello when he would go to Ponyville. But after seeing the sadness on Fluttershy's face, he wasn't so sure now. A little voice in his head yelled to him that it would be good if he stayed.

Why am I hesitating between the two choices? It'll be safer if I return to the Everfree. A changeling lives hidden, though it isn't the case for ponies. Then, I don't want to stay here and remain a burden to Fluttershy!

He turned again in the bed. Doppel felt that his energy was progressively coming back. He was sure also that he could have left the house now, as long as he didn't count the sneezes he still got.

I think that Fluttershy is not the only pony to have befriended me. I befriend her as well. It's ironic, a changeling being the friend of a pony.

Doppel started again to think about his friends. He hadn't seen them since they hid several days for nothing. He hoped that they ended up leaving the forest, at least to feed. Illusion probably came and said to them that they had nothing to fear outside.

The changeling loudly yawned. He had to give Twilight an answer, but there was no hurry. The unicorn had advised to keep the bed for some days to be sure about his recovery. He ended up falling asleep.

--|-|--

Fluttershy came back home. She put away the groceries and began to prepare the food for her small animals. She didn't have only small animals but also a changeling. She went upstairs to see the sick one.

The bed was empty. She searched the entire room to see where Doppel could be but he was nowhere to be found. It was like he just vanished into thin air.

“It's impossible!” the pegasus panicked. “Where could he be?”

She continued to search in her house and then in the surroundings, avoiding the Everfree Forest. But it was very clear, he left without saying anything.

She dragged herself to her house and sat on her couch, near tears. Angel hopped onto it. “You want to cheer me up, Angel?” The white bunny patted her head. “I know he's a changeling and his place is not in a pony's house,” she lamented. “But he could have at least said goodbye... Say something... No, nothing. I guess I didn't know him very well.”

Angel slapped her and began to shake her. Fluttershy woke up. She was sitting in the same place of her dream but it was night. Even the bunny was at the same place, shaking her too. He had found that his caretaker had to make a nightmare and decided to wake her up. His stare was full of worries.

“Phew, it was just a dream,” she was reassured. “Thank you Angel to wake me up of this nightmare.”

The bunny shrugged before returning to his little home. Fluttershy stood up and stretched a little. Suddenly, she doubted. This dream looked so real. She had to know. She rushed upstairs to her room. She softly opened the door and noticed that Doppel was still here and slept soundly.

She couldn't help sighing. She returned to her living room. Her nightmare wasn't premonitory and the changeling didn't decide to leave the house without saying anything. She lay down on her couch. She tried to find sleep but didn't manage to do it. Her dream continued to haunt her.

It was clear that Doppel wasn't going to leave her like this overnight. But he could leave at any moment after he recovered. She had to part with the changeling, the one she had taken care of for more than a week now.

It had only been a week, and it felt longer for the shy pegasus. It was like she’d always known Doppel. It was true that as changeling, he had met her already before she noticed. Moreover, he had a great memory and seemed to remembered each pony he met. It wasn't like she was very special. He knew everypony, and even more Lyra and Bon-Bon with his habits.

However Fluttershy didn't come to split up like this. She even couldn't hide her disappointment after Twilight's question. She didn't think that he would happen one day. Nothing forced him to stay. He only was a changeling.

She tried again to find sleep. In a corner of her mind lay a faint glimmer of hope. The fact that Doppel didn't know what to do either.

--|-|--

Spike tried to sleep soundly. Try was the word because of an incessant hoof sound on the main room of the library. After attempting to cover his ears or dig himself in the pillow, he decided to see what Twilight was doing at four in the morning. He went downstairs to find her foster mother pacing up and down in the room. Spike sighed, regretting already what he was going to do.

“Can I know what you're doing at four at the morning?”

“Fluttershy and I have a little problem, and I look for a solution that suits everypony,” the unicorn explained, wandering in the room, like if it gave her the solution.

“You argued with Fluttershy?” he asked, hardly awake.

“No, nothing like this. It's hard to explain...”

“It can't wait tomorrow like for everypony else?” he groaned, only thinking going back to his basket.

“I'm afraid that somepony might make a mistake,” she said, stopping, taking a serious and then starting again to pace.

“At four at the morning,” he insisted. “I’m going to bed if you don't mind.” Spike rubbed his eyes before going upstairs slowly to the bedroom.

“Spike!” Twilight yelled, making the baby dragon jump. She teleported just in front of him. “I need to confide this to someone. I'll go crazy if I don't.”

“I know what you become when you go crazy,” he mumbled. “And I suppose that can't wait tomorrow either?” he continued, at a louder tone.

“You need to promise me that you won't tell somepony about this,” she demanded.

“Promise...” Spike only thought of one thing, going to bed.

“Pinkie Promise?” she insisted.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye,” he recited in a robotic way, barely avoiding to poke his eye with his claw.

Twilight took a deep breath before saying in a quieter voice possible (in case the walls had ears), “Fluttershy has a sick changeling at home.” Spike took a false surprised look before returning to his former state. “You don't seem to be too surprised?” she complained.

“Well, I had thought so. Between Rainbow Dash claiming that she have seen a changeling everywhere, you being suddenly interested by the changeling and owning a complete encyclopedia on them and your daily trip to Fluttershy's, I made connection,” he explained, counting on his claws.

“And you didn't tell this to anyone?” she panicked.

“No. I supposed that if you needed to know, you'd ask,” he concluded.

“So I can ask you the question! When Doppel recovers, what should he do? Because he can't stay in Fluttershy's bed for his entire life.”

“It isn't up to them to make this choice?” the dragon thought aloud. “If they live together for a moment now, I think they'd be able to deal with that.”

“That’s the best advice I’ve gotten tonight,” Twilight was delighted. She yawned before adding, “I think I'm going to bed. Otherwise, I won't be able to do anything tomorrow.”

--|-|--

Illusion flew over the Everfree Forest to find the outlaw changelings she “took care of”. She could keep her normal appearance during the night because there were very few ponies outside at this hour and that the color of the night hid well her body. She quietly landed near her two friends who slept pressed against each other. She couldn't help grinning.

“Ooh, look how cute they are,” she shouted out.

Mimic and Camouflage jumped, looked at each other, yelled, saw Illusion, yelled again and finally sighed.

“It's not nice to scare us like that!” the male changeling blamed.

“Come on... You two are enjoying yourself when Doppel isn't here,” Illusion teased.

“We're doing nothing like that,” Camouflage complained.

“Don't tell me that you didn't think to do it a single time?” the spy insisted. “You'd look cute together.”

“What is the meaning of your late visit?” Mimic demanded, wanting to pass to a more serious subject.

“I'm sick of sitting in the Hive. This invasion seems to be going nowhere. Everypony is excited for it, but I only see this as a failure. We are not enough to invade again Canterlot,” Illusion explained. “So, I decided to meet the only changelings who aren't pleased by an invasion.”

“In short, you want to become an outlaw?” he hoped.

“No!” she snapped. “I remain loyal to the Queen, even if she doesn't seem to make the best decisions for the Hive at the moment.” She turned around, ready to fly away. “And Doppel? You're still looking for him?”

“We tried looking door to door. But it's not easy, the ponies don't always want to open their doors either.” Camouflage answered.

“I haven’t seen him either. I suppose that he's still alive somewhere hiding. Let's hope that everything's gonna work for the best,” Illusion concluded, getting ready again to fly.

“Eh! Illusion! Before you go, know that my suggestion about being an outlaw is still on,” the male changeling repeated.

“And my answer is still the same. And forget this name! Illusion, it doesn't fit me at all,” she shouted, before flying away.

“Did you need to mock her?” Camouflage remarked.

“But notice that she didn't say that we can’t give her a name. She forbade us to give her that name.”

“Go to sleep. You're annoying when you're tired,” she gave up.

--|-|--

The sun began to rise slowly. With it, Doppel's eyes abruptly opened. He stood up with a smile. He found the solution. Sleeping on it was a good advice. It's decided. I have to leave Fluttershy like this!

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111

Doppel's time stuck in a bed come to an end.

Fluttershy's Feelings

Doppel got out of the bed he had occupied for over a week now. It's pointless to stay in bed, if I can move. And I need to go away as soon as possible, or else it won't help her.

He went downstairs to go to the living room, but stopped he in case he was seen by the pegasus if she was still on her couch. He wanted to respect her privacy as much as possible. Moreover, he didn't show any sign that he was better to the point where he could walk without problem. He heard Fluttershy whistling while she gave food to her small animals. He concluded than Fluttershy had been awake for a long time now.

He stepped into Fluttershy’s line of sight, and the timid pony jumped at the sight of him. She breathed heavily for a few seconds while looking at the ground. After recovering her shock, she looked at the changeling, worried.

“Doppel, aren’t you supposed to be resting in the bedroom?” she inquired.

“No, look! I'm better!” he proved by moving all his limbs.

Fluttershy continued to watch him as he danced. Suddenly, the changeling stopped and sneezed, taking the appearance of Lyra. He grinned while a blush came on his face.

“Well, this hasn’t gone away yet but I can live with it,” he laughed. The pegasus' worries climbed to a new level.

“Well,” he took a more serious tone, “First, I want to thank you for everything you've done for me. Without you and Twilight, I probably never could have recovered from my cold. But I can't stay like this in your house and risk putting you in danger every time a stranger came.” He took a deep breath. He felt sadness coming from Fluttershy. Perfect... She already suspects that I'm gonna leave. It'll be easier for me.

“I spent a wonderful week here. Well, I was sick the entire week, but I had fun,” he carried on, on a joyfuller tone. “But my place is in the Everfree Forest. I wish you all the happiness you deserve.” He winked before adding up, “After all, it could help me in the future.”

Without looking at the pegasus anymore, Doppel turned around and left the cottage running. He wanted to make sure that Fluttershy wasn't going to follow him. It's funny. I didn't thought that leaving was going to hurt me too. But I didn't have a choice. Without this, I wouldn't be able to follow my plan. I promise that I'll help Fluttershy, and I'm gonna do it.

He stopped after few more steps, somewhere he was sure that nopony could see him. Now, to let the disguise of the green unicorn down to take the appropriate form. With a greenish flash, he shape shifted into a cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. Here's the perfect Rainbow Dash disguise. With me to guide her, I'll be able to give her enough confidence to say what she feels about her special somepony.

He turned around again and returned to the cottage. He knocked at the door, rather loudly, but heard no response from behind the door. Come on Fluttershy. Don't do this to me. I know you're here, I left not even thirty seconds ago. He knocked again.

“Fluttershy! You there?”he shouted through the door. “It's me, Rainbow Dash!”

Unlocking noises followed the call of the changeling. The door opened and the yellow pegasus popped her head out. Ouch, she looks like she cried.

“Oh hello Rainbow Dash,” she sadly greeted. “You didn't see Lyra leaving in a hurry did you?”

“No, I didn't,” the changeling lied. “But I did hear from somepony that you have something to tell me?”

Stop being sad about a changeling leaving your house and think more about your lover-to-be now. Rainbow, lucky mare... You don't know how lucky you’ll be with somepony like Fluttershy. He stared at the timid pony who was blushing now and was trying to say something. No, this isn't good. Where is the powerful emotions, the love? There nothing else but friendship and a lot of admiration. Hmm, some respect too. He thought without letting anything show on his face. According to his act, he waited a response from the pegasus.

Oops, I never thought of how to reveal that it's me? Because if she tells me everything and then, she meets the real one, there is going to be misunderstandings. At the same time, she’s getting her feelings wrong. She feels friendship, not love. His muzzle began to itch. Doppel tried to stop it by making faces, but he was fighting a losing battle. Oh no. Not now!

“Achoo!”

This sneeze caused him to change back to his changeling appearance. Well, the question about how to tell her that it's me is resolved. He studied the pegasus, still a little stunned by the loud sneeze he had tried to hold back. She finally got up, her body still tensed. She frowned at Doppel, ready to scold him.

“How dare you?” she exclaimed.

“I just wanted to help you confess your feelings to Rainbow Dash but my cold said otherwise,” he admitted like his life depended on it. “It wasn’t my best plan, I’ll admit.”

Fluttershy threw herself at the changeling, hugging him tight. Hmm? Unexpected...

“Don't do that to me ever again!” she sobbed on Doppel's shell, Doppel who was still wondering how he had survived the shock.

“Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere for the moment, I promise you,” he assured. “And no more Rainbow Dash's disguise without letting you know. At the same time, I have something to tell you about that.”

He took a deep breath like he was going to announce a death. He decided to analyze the feelings of the pegasus to check if she was able to take the hint. Oh, there’s the love I was looking for while I was Rainbow Dash. It took him several seconds to realize what that meant. Wait a minute. If I feel love from Fluttershy, it means that it’s aimed at me while I’m in my current form, undisguised. It would mean that... His eyes widened at the thought. He pried himself from Fluttershy's hug as best as he could. Even if the pegasus wasn't very strong, she had a very firm grip.

“Listen... erm...” he stammered, blushing. “I'm not going to break up with... hm no, leave you. I already promised that. But... I need to do something in town before we can continue this discussion!”

He changed his appearance into Lyra and rushed out the house. The pegasus stood silently, trying to understand what just happened. Two seconds later, the changeling reappeared, still disguised.

“And whatever you do, don't talk to Rainbow Dash until I come back!”

With that, Doppel left again. Fluttershy let slip a giggle at his weird little outbursts.

--|-|--

Twilight was whistling while she worked inside the library. The discussion she had last night had cheered her up a little, even if she wanted the solution to the problem as soon as possible. She wrote a line in her report and sighed.

“Spike, can I have the third volume of Supernatural and Magical Creatures of Equestria,” she asked the baby dragon who was sweeping the floor.

“At your service, Twilight!” he saluted, before heading towards the librarian's bedroom to find the book.

“After I get that book, I can finish my report perfectly,” she said excitedly, looking over her work.

“Twiliiiiight!” The unicorn heard yelling outside the library.

The door suddenly slammed open, and a mint green unicorn burst into the room.

“Lyra, what a surprise! What are you looking for? It's been awhile since I’ve seen you,” she greeted. The changeling rose his eyebrows before figuring out why she didn’t recognize him. He made his eyes glow green to make his point. “Oh! It's you Doppel. You should have said so earlier. Come in!”

Doppel sat on the first cushion he saw, and before he could say anything, he was overwhelmed by the torrent of questions thrown at him. “Sweet Celestia, aren’t you supposed to be resting? Is a changeling's cold shorter than the pony's cold? Aren't you taking a big risk in coming here? Are you sure that you won't collapse in middle of the street? Does Fluttershy know you're here?”

Seeing that the changeling didn't seem to answer the questions, Twilight stopped talking. Finally, she asked a question he could answer. “So what did you want to tell me?”

“It's a complete disaster! Fluttershy loves me,” he moaned.

“I like you too Doppel. I don't see what's wrong?” she wondered.

“Not like that! She's in love with me,” he rectified.

“Okay. What makes you so sure that she is?”

“I'm a changeling. I know what everypony is feeling like. And I felt love directed towards me while I didn’t have a disguise. So she had those feelings for me,” he explained on a weary tone.

“So why is it such a disaster?” the librarian tried to understand.

“Hello! I'm a changeling.” He waved his hooves over his head. “Changelings and ponies don't exactly get along! You were there when the changelings invaded Canterlot, you should know.”

“I was also there when ponies and changelings helped each other,” she remarked. “The real question is, are you in love with her?”

“In love with her?” he repeated, lowering his head. It was a few moments before Twilight broke the silence she caused.

“Sorry, that was a stupid question,” Twilight apologized.

“No, it's just that I hadn’t thought of it. Usually, it's the special changeling who tells us if we are in love with them. But in my case...”

“So you're going to think about it?” she proposed.

“You're really open to this idea?” he exclaimed. “A changeling and a pony, together? Why not Spike and Rarity together too?”

“It's not the best example you could choose,” the unicorn said with a forced laugh. While Doppel tried to understand what she meant, she continued, “If you're happy together, I don't see why I should stop you. After all, I've read in a book that love is something powerful that cannot be stopped.”

“So, what should I do for Fluttershy? I don't want to mislead her, but I don't want to break her heart either,” Doppel worried.

“But how would you let something like that happen? She didn't fall for you overnight. She had to have loved you before now, so why did you barely see it now?”

“Well, the power to feel what the others feel is like a sixth sense for us changelings. So try to imagine that you're able to see, but if you don't focus on something, you see it blurred. Or something that’s behind you, you can't see at all,” he explained. “With this sense, it's the same. If I don't focus on the pony, I don't know what he or she feels, and seeing as Fluttershy was with me all the time, I didn't constantly 'scan' her.”

“I think I understand,” she thought out loud.

“So, I guess I'm going to go back to Fluttershy's and think about it. She must be wondering why I'm taking so long,” the changeling said.

He turned around and headed towards the door. Just before grabbing the handle, he sneezed hard which made him lose his Lyra appearance to his former form.

“Twilight, I found your book, but next time, try to-” Spike complained while he went downstairs, but cut his own sentence off at the sight of Doppel still in front of the door, completely frozen by the fear.

“This cold has decided to ruin my life,” the changeling whimpered, head low. Without any reaction from the dragon, he turned around again to see the damage done.

“You're the changeling Twilight’s been talking about?” the assistant exclaimed.

“Yes, his name is Doppel. He came for some advice,” Twilight replied, seeing that Doppel wasn't in state to respond.

“You told him about me?”

“If it'll make you feel better, he suspected long before I told him,” the unicorn confessed. “On the other hoof, I can see that you haven’t recovered from your cold yet!”

Doppel lowered his head. “It's okay for the moment. I don't plan on leaving Fluttershy's cottage. I just need a little bit more time to put all my thought in order.”

He transformed for the third time today into Lyra and started to gallop towards Fluttershy’s cottage..

“Be careful and don't sneeze!” Twilight shouted out, before closing the door behind her.

--|-|--

So, now I just need to explain this to Fluttershy now. How am I going to do this without her shying away before I finish my explanation? Furthermore, it's going to be my first time confessing anypony else’s feelings. Never thought I’d say that. It had been ten minutes since Doppel had arrived to Fluttershy's home. Suddenly, the door unlocked and Fluttershy grabbed the changeling still disguised as Lyra before closing the door.

“Fluttershy, what the-?”he asked astonished before Fluttershy cut him off.

“It’s been ten minutes that you’ve been waiting in front of my door, and I was afraid that you'd sneeze and be discovered,” the pegasus explained. “So, I decided to just pull you in myself. If that’s okay with you.”

Doppel stood quietly, staring at the timid pony, and Fluttershy started to blush. After a few more moments of silence, she continued, “Why were you standing in front of my house?”

“Er, it may sound strange, but I was almost afraid to come in.” He smiled sheepishly and rubbed his hoof behind his neck.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” she apologized. “I’ve taken some lessons with Iron Will to assert myself before and I may have scared you. I promise I won't do it again.”

Doppel continued to stand in silence again, looking at the pegasus. I really never bothered to look at her clearly. Fluttershy tilted her head, waiting for a response from the changeling.

“Sorry. No, you didn't scare me, I just didn't make myself clear.” Stop daydreaming and get to the point! “Well, it’s just what I wanted to talk about.” He took a deep breath. “When I changed into Rainbow Dash, I could scan your feelings about her. Er... And I know that you're not in love with her. It's something between a great friendship and admiration.”

“How do you know that?”

“I'm a changeling. When it comes to detection of love, I'm a expert.”

“Do you know who I do love then?” she wondered.

“Sorry, no,” the changeling badly lied. Why did I lie about this? Confessing the feelings of the others is normal between changelings, so why can't I do it? She'll notice it one day anyway. It's useless to postpone it. “I'm sure that someday you'll find your very special somepony!” I just keep digging myself deeper and deeper.

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111

Doppel had promised that he'd help Fluttershy in the third chapter but until now, he couldn't do it. Doppel likes to keep his promises (no need for him to make Pinkie Promise).

In a Bed

In A Bed

So, let's sum things up. I know that Fluttershy’s in love with me and not Rainbow Dash. I managed to make her understand that there's probably no chance that she and Rainbow Dash would be marefriends. But why did I lie about the rest? Lying is a second nature for a changeling, which helps us survive, but I had no reason to do so. And furthermore, it's probably my only chance to say to another living being, in all honesty, that she likes me. Being an outlaw changeling tends to prevent it by being more or less all alone.

“Achoo!”

“Oh, you need to go to bed quick!” the pegasus advised. “Or your cold will worsen.”

Good bye Lyra, and hello again old me. Doppel headed to the sofa. “I think I'm just going to lay down on the couch,” he drawled.

“No, you'd be better in a bed” she proposed.

Again? It's an obsession. I'm an outlaw changeling! I’d slept on the ground for a year and a half, I don't care anymore.

“I don't need the bed. I'm okay,” he answered very calmly.

“But it would be more comfortable, isn't it?” she insisted.

This pony could get stuck with the Stockholm Syndrome right as she knew she was being kidnapped. I could be considered like an invader, and yet she offers her bed and sleeps on the couch. Even if she told me that her couch is just as comfortable, I couldn't bring myself to take her bed without feeling a little guilt.

Why should I care anyway? Changelings are opportunist living beings. Why don't I take the bed that she’s wanted to offer me so badly? Oooh, if I was still in the Hive, I'd be the laughing stock to even think about declining that offer.

“Why don’t we just both take the bed? That way, no one has to sleep on the sofa!” he finally snapped.

On this sentence, Fluttershy's face went from yellow to red in a second, unable to look Doppel in the eye. Why did I suggest that? Did my brain decide to take a holiday without telling me? Now, she's embarrassed as hell and I sound like a pervert. The changeling looked everywhere, as if he was searching something that could help him. His attention stuck on pegasus' bunny who stared him with a frown. Don't look at me like that Angel. I may have said a strange sentence, but I didn't hurt her... I think.

“Sorry, I'm...” Doppel try to speak, deciding that the awkward silence should end.

“It's okay,” she cut.

“Bh? What?” he managed to gibber.

“I said that it was okay for your proposition,” she whispered, behind a beautiful shade of red. “Well, if you still want.”

Oooh colt. This is going to be a very awkward night.

--|-|--

Doppel was lying down in the bed, alone for the moment. Fluttershy was in the bathroom, preparing herself to go to bed. The changeling waited for this instant with apprehension, his cheeks red. Why am I blushing like this? It's not like she is going to come back indecent. I know Rainbow Dash told something like that, but what can she hide? He shook his head after thinking about how the pegasus could come back from the bathroom. Stop thinking about things like that! She's just going to lie down beside me, like Camouflage and Mimic did when it was cold. She obviously has to press herself against me to fit in the bed and... On this thought, the changeling's face reddened more. Oh, I'm ridiculous. Fluttershy finally got out the bathroom.

“Since I’m going to be staying here, shouldn't we consider buying another bed?” Doppel asked. “Because I'm sure that you'll never let me sleep on the floor or even on the couch.”

“Do you really like sleeping on the ground?” the pegasus whimpered. “My bed isn’t that uncomfortable is it?”

“No, no” Why did she jump that far ahead already? I only said that I don't need a bed, and she takes that as a lack of hospitality. I must get used to explaining everything in a manner she cannot take negatively. “No, the bed is very comfortable. I tried to say that I feel bad about taking your bed every night since I'm already used to sleeping on the ground, and you having to take the couch, that although might be very comfortable too, couldn’t replace your bed.”

“Oh no, it's okay. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable about this.”

Fluttershy looked at him in silence. If I had bits, I'd already have bought the bed. “Go to sleep. We talk about that tomorrow,” Doppel suggested.

He moved over to let some room for the pegasus to enter in the bed and put himself on his flank, looking at the door. Fluttershy did the same looking at the other wall. They both had their hooves out of the bed, even though they were back against back.

“Do you have enough space?” the changeling demanded.

“Yes, it's okay” she stammered.

How did I get myself into this? Oh yeah, it's my fault. Why did I suggest to her for both of us to take the bed? She's embarrassed, I can feel it. If she was changeling, she have to feel my awkwardness too. So why did she accept? Because she loves me?

Doppel moved a little to get more comfortable. His back rubbed against the pegasus', which sent shivers down his spine.

I’m shivering now? I've done some things pretty indecent with Bon-Bon when she cornered me under Lyra's disguise and it never embarrassed me. Obviously, I tried to find an excuse to get out of it. Doppel thought of it a little more. A slight blush crept over the changeling's face. Though this isn't that bad. I could get used to it...

Fluttershy moved in her turn, her mane caressing Doppel's head.

Her mane is as soft as she is. If this continues, I won't be able to sleep if I have to react every time she or I moves. Oh no, I have to sneeze! The changeling put his hooves against his nose to prevent sneezing but it had no effect. The only thing he managed to was sneeze silently, but he cannot prevent the transformation into Carrot Top.

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy worried.

“Yes, don't worry. Go back to sleep,” he reassured.

I definitely can't stay in this bed with her. If the shivers weren't so bad, I still wouldn't be able to sleep either. And my sneezes will wake her up every time too. It's decided, as soon as she sleeps, I'll go downstairs and sleep on the couch.

Doppel looked over his shoulder to check if the pegasus slept. She closed her eyes but her breathing was too fast for somepony sleeping. He decided to wait a little more.

--|-|--

Fluttershy was going through all the events that had happened that day. For her, the changeling's behavior had been very strange. At first, in the morning, where he managed to stand up when he wasn't able for days, only for him to say he was leaving. It happened just the day after her nightmare. After, it had Rainbow Dash's arrival- No, his come back. It was him and he never intended to leave at the first place. That was what he said. However, he had suddenly blushed and left again, promising that he'd come back.

Was it because I was too assertive that he left, telling me that he'd come back? No, he came back after all. Even if I had to make him come in by force.

She sighed. It was true that apart from the time he entered with the disguise of Rainbow Dash, he’s never came in by himself.

He really doesn't want to bother me. He even tried to help me as a repayment for what I've done. He's really good when he embodies ponies. He made me believe that he was Rainbow Dash. She blushed at the thought. I've could tell him that I already knew that the feelings I have for Rainbow Dash wasn't love.

She stared at the wall, particularly the clock which showed her the time she’d spent awake. She turned around to see that the changeling had taken back his native appearance.

I thought that it'd be more awkward to sleep with him. Maybe it's because he had to do it already with Bon-Bon. But it feels so natural. I wonder what he'd say if I hugged him during the night. She wanted to turn over and test it, but she gave up the idea.

Anyway, we're already back to back. It's funny, his carapace doesn't feel weird to me. It's not fur, but it's not disgusting either. She moved a little to feel it better. It only made him shiver and move a little towards the end of the bed. “Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you,” she apologized.

“It's okay,” he answered.

It's not okay. I'm the one who decided that we'd sleep together. Why did I do that anyway? I'd be embarrassed to do that even with my friends. Why didn't it matter with him? He even sacrificed his comfort for this. His hooves aren't inside the bed and he looks like he is going to fall at any moment. I can't let him spend the night like this. It would be too uncomfortable. As soon as he's asleep, I'll go downstairs and sleep on the couch.

--|-|--

Look at you, Doppel. You're being pushed outside the bed by Fluttershy. A few more inches and I'm on the ground. He lightly chuckledat the thought. Fluttershy would never forgive herself if I fell.

But why can't I push her a little more to get me space. She's treated like a doormat even sometimes by her own friends. Every changeling would do this. Though if she pushes me off the bed slowly, she wouldn't notice that I'd left the bed. It's perfect! However, more time that passes, more I don't want to leave.

He sighed. It's very uncomfortable sleeping like this. I already hate sleeping on my flank, but now it’s even worse. Why are we even sleeping back to back? I'm going to lie on my back. It wouldn’t be that bad. He moved to get himself more comfortable. He smiled as he put his front hooves on the cover. He heard Fluttershy move a little and moan. Shoot, I think I woke her. Guess I’ll need to stay longer.

--|-|--

In Ponyville's library, nearly all lights were shut down, except for one. It came from Twilight's bedroom. The unicorn was devouring an entire book collection. In his basket, Spike was sleeping. He had run all over the place to help his foster mother during her last research.

“It's a good thing you're here Owlowiscious, because Spike is exhausted.”

Suddenly Spike woke up in one stand and spat a small fireball which transformed into a letter. “Mail? This late?” he wondered. “It's from Princess Celestia!”

Twilight picked up the letter by telekinesis and opened it before her. “What does it say?”

“Good news?” the little dragon hoped. The unicorn skim through the letter twice before letting out a squeak. “So, it's not good news?”

--|-|--

Neither Doppel, nor Fluttershy kept their promise. They were currently sleeping soundly, cuddling in each other hooves.

Author's Note

Sorry for being so late. The beginning of the month was crazy (because I moved to another town and have to enrol in an other college), but here's the next chapter.

As usual, edited by war10ck111

From Camouflage's Point of View

From Camouflage's Point Of View

Doppel hadn’t slept like this in a long time. Throughout all the events that were caused by his cold, he’d never felt well enough to sleep soundly. Now that his nose wasn't so clogged and Ponyville was so peaceful, he could rest at ease.

Suddenly, he felt something climbing on him. After some recognizable swipes of the paw, the changeling moaned with a sigh, “Get off me, Angel. I don't want to play with you now.”

He swiped at the bunny to make him get off. After succeeding his operation, he brought back his hoof where it was resting before. Strangely, it was softer and hairier that he remembered. Opening an eye, he saw Fluttershy's face sleeping three inches from his head. He couldn't help yelling out, which woke up Fluttershy. She noticed the same thing and squeaked in reply. Angel, in a corner of the room, facepawed at the situation.

Doppel got off the bed like if it had a wasp nest inside. “Nothing happened last night!” he exclaimed. Fluttershy got off as well with a giggle. “I assure you, I was going to go on the couch later during the night, but I fell asleep before I could go.” The yellow pegasus continued to chuckle. “Why are laughing?”

The shy pony stopped laughing and blushed, looking anywhere but at him. “I wasn’t trying to make fun of you. I was laughing because I was going to do the same thing as your excuse.” Doppel gave her a puzzled look. “I was going to sleep on the couch to leave you alone in the bed. You didn't look very comfortable.”

A smile flickered across Doppel's face. “You know, I wonder if we better off in buying another couch,” he smirked, “seeing as nopony wants to sleep on the bed.”

--|-|--

Octavia (?) was waiting near a house with her cello on her back, observing any movements coming from inside. “Come on... She has a rehearsal.” She looked everywhere, watching the passer-bys to see if they didn't find it too strange that the bassist was standing in front of her own door. “I wouldn't have transformed like this if I’d have known that I was just going to have to wait here. Everypony’s looking at me funny now. Why would Octavia be waiting in front of her own house?”

Suddenly, some faint sound were heard from the house and Camouflage, still under Octavia's disguise hid to the side, while the real Octavia ran out hastily. As soon as she vanished from sight, the changeling came out her hiding place and went inside.

“Sorry, I forgot to take my bow!” she exclaimed.

Vinyl Scratch entered in the hall, with a smirk on her face. “It's been a while since you’ve done that.”

“Excuse me if I like to pay attention to my things,” Camouflage coldly replied. Couldn't that mare forget her things a little bit more? Just to give me a believable lie?

Seeing that Camouflage wasn't moving, the DJ blurted out, “Weren't you alreadylate for your rehearsal?”

“Oh yes! You're right!”

She ran to the door before being called back by Vinyl. “And my kiss?”

Camouflage rolled her eyes out of spite. Luckily for her, she knew that Octavia would do the same. She came closer to the white unicorn before making a quick peck on the nose.

“I suppose I have to wait until tonight to have some more?”

“Yes, I'm late!” The changeling thought a few seconds before adding, “And don't forget to remind me. I may be tired after the rehearsal.” She got out the house and sighed.

She then started to make her way back to the Everfree Forest. How could she wear something so heavy on her back? And I stole her a bow again. I have to start giving them back someday.

While she was walking on the streets, she watched everypony closely to see if Doppel was embodying any of them. Her spell still active since she wasn't sure that her friend noticed her. She started out trying to ask passer-bys if they’d seen a pony doing unusual things, but when the answers started going from “no” to “you”, she decided to stop asking to avoid arousing suspicion.

As she arrived at the edge of the forest, she decided to lift her spell, seeing as it was no longer useful. While passing by Fluttershy's cottage, she started to feel sorry for her. Poor Fluttershy. She's afraid of everything and she has to live near one of the most dangerous place in all of Equestria.

Her train of thought was interrupted when she saw the door open. And unlike she was expecting, it was Doppel who came out. Not Doppel-Lyra or Doppel-anypony. It was just Doppel the changeling.

When she got over the shock, she rushed over to her friend. “What are you doing undisguised, on Fluttershy's doorstep?” Her face was becoming redder and redder. The only thing she wanted at the moment was scold him like a little foal. “Do you really want to be discovered?”

“Ca...mouflage?” Doppel stammered, using his detection spell to check if he had guessed correctly.

“Do me a favor and change back into something suitable before Fluttershy arrives!”

“That would be pointless, seeing as she already knows,” he insisted.

“That’s even worse! Why didn't you tell us sooner? Did she torture you? How much time is left for us to flee?”

Doppel put his hoof in Camouflage mouth. “Can you let me finish?” he asked, waiting a nod from her friend. “She already knows and she doesn't care. I'm safe with her and she’s even taking care of my cold.”

He stopped talking a few seconds to see how she dealt with the new information. A grin started to get the female changeling's face. “In short, now I'm cured and I’m doing something that may surprise you, but I'm using method 3 now.”

“Wait! The one where a pony gives you their love willingly?” She had to sit to fully understand what he was saying.

“You do realize that if I wasn't an outlaw, I'd be in changeling's history books!” he boasted. “Well, I'm still a little embarrassed that she fell in love with me. She could’ve had a pony instead of me.”

He was staring at the ground, like if he was looking for something. Camouflage however, couldn’t stop grinning. “Are you sure that's only embarrassment?”

A green flash came from Doppel's friend. When he looked up at her, he gasped. “Flutter... Camouflage, what are you doing?” he stood back, blushing. She didn't answer. She just rolled on the ground, laughing while letting down her disguise. “Very funny...”

“You should’ve seen the look on your face,” she continued to guffaw. “Now I understand why you weren't keen to return to the Everfree.”

“What do you mean?”

“You haven’t noticed? Oh Celestia, you're so dense,” she said with a more serious tone. “You're head over hooves with her. My poor acting skills were enough to fool you. I felt your love for her even if you already knew it was me.”

Doppel lost himself in thought, turning back around to look inside the cottage. After a few seconds, he frowned.

“Are you okay? You seemed a bit out of sorts,” Camouflage worried.

Doppel dropped back into reality and faced the female changeling with a small blush. “Yeah, yeah. So, what's been going on with you and Mimic?”

“There's nothing between me and Mimic!” she snapped.

“I never said that,” Doppel said, surprised, stepping backwards after the excessive reaction of his friend.

“You're okay Doppel? I hear scream come from downstairs,” a soft voice concerned herself. “There isn’t a problem is there?”

Coming down from the second floor, Fluttershy stood beside Doppel. She was standing so close that the changeling could feel her feathers brushing against him, and couldn't help but blush a little more. Camouflage, however, was more on her guard. She even took some steps back at the pegasus' arrival.

“You must be Camouflage,” she exclaimed.

“How did you know it's her?” Doppel asked, dumbfounded. “I mean, yes, it's her, but how did you have recognized her?”

“She's slightly smaller than you and her horn is smaller too,” she explained. “I supposed by assuming you’re the same age, females should be smaller than males. And you mentioned there was only one female in your group, so that must be her.”

“I still can't believe that you can tell us apart. I don't know anypony that’s able to differentiate two changelings.”

“I’ve lived with you for more than a week,” she replied with a blush. Fluttershy looked at Camouflage who remained there, paralyzed. “Your friend hasn't said anything. Is she shy?”

Doppel couldn't help but giggle at the thought. Coming from Fluttershy, that’s kinda ironic. A sudden burst of green flames engulfed the female changeling and in her place, stood Octavia, or at least, in appearance.

“No, no,” Camouflage was finally able to say. “I didn't come here to steal Doppel from you. You can keep him as long as you want!” With that, she ran into the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy looking at her astonishment.

“Was it something I said?” the pegasus asked.

“For a changeling, it's awkward to be undisguised in front of a pony,” he explained. “It's like being naked.”

“Aren't we always naked?”

Doppel looked at her in confusion before sighing. “That’s not the same thing.”

“Did you feel the same way?”

“With my cold, I couldn't escape the fact that you'd seen me like this, so I thought that I had just had to get used to it,” he replied sheepishly.

--|-|--

“What is wrong with me?” Camouflage reprimanded herself. “Doppel was doing just fine undisguised in front of Fluttershy, and I panicked and took this stupid appearance.”

While ranting, she lost her disguise, taking off and fluttering into the woods. At least, I know where he is now. He's lucky. He'll never suffer hunger from again. At least, if he isn't discovered by somepony else. He also doesn't seem to be embarrassed by showing himself in front of her.

She passed by the pond that had started everything. Finally, his cold was actually useful. If the same thing would happen to me, I'd dive into this pond to catch a cold too...

Her train of thought was interrupted when she crashed into something. “Eh, watch where you’re flying will you?” Mimic shouted out, knocked over by Camouflage landing on top of each other.

“Oops, sorry,” she apologized, getting off of her friend. “But I have some great news. I know where Doppel is! He's been hiding at Fluttershy's during all this time!”

“He didn't get caught with his cold?”

“But that’s the best part! She already knows about it, and she even has feelings for him!”

“Oh the lucky bastard! While we were working ourselves to death to find him, he found the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

“You're not jealous of Doppel, are you?”

Mimic frowned. I'd like to have a pony love me without hiding. However, crashing through the undergrowth stopped their discussion. Both changelings leaned forward into a defensive position, waiting for the moment where a pony would appear and discover them.

Suddenly, a shape sprang up from the bushes and stopped short of them them. “Guys! I have something important to tell you!” Illusion exclaimed, tired from the long trek she had just made.

Mimic relaxed and smiled. “Illusion! It's nice to see you in broad daylight.”

“Later, it's important!”

“She didn't react to her name. It really must be serious... or she’s starting to like her name,” Mimic joked in a whisper to Camouflage.

“I have the day and the place for the next invasion! It's for tomorrow afternoon in Ponyville!” The other changelings stood open-mouthed. “You need to get away with Doppel as soon as possible!”

Author's Note

Here's the 12th chapter. This chapter ends what I call the third arc of the story. Now we're going to enter the fourth and final arc.

And as always, edited by war10ck111

Preparations

Doppel and Fluttershy were eating a snack. Or rather, Fluttershy was eating, while Doppel watched. After all, changelings didn't need to eat. Every now and then, he stop staring at the pegasus to sip at the tea she had served him. She's going to notice if I keep staring at her like this. It may embarrass her even more than usual and make the situation way more awkward than it needs to be.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “Well, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“No, I was just thinking about what happened when Camouflage's came by, and how we couldn't buy the extra bed we needed,” he explained. “Because, you see, I figured out something with Camouflage and I think that it's not actually a bad idea.” Go straight to the point! Why am I making so much digressions?

Fluttershy was now looking at the changeling with expectation. Well, here we go! A loud knocking against the door were heard.

“Doppel, open up! It's urgent!” Mimic shouted, behind the door.

Doppel stood up and went to open the door. As soon as he put his hooves on the doorknob, his friend rushed into the room, undisguised, like he was being pursued by an invisible threat. Mimic caught Doppel and pinned him to the ground. “Dude, we need to leave immediately! Chrysalis is on her way to Ponyville and she's going to invade it tomorrow afternoon.”

An oppressive silence fell during a few seconds. Suddenly, Mimic noticed the pegasus and transformed immediately into Derpy.

“You must be Mimic, right?” Fluttershy finally asked.

“Yes... er... sorry,” he replied. “I don't know what Doppel’s told you about me, but we don't want to put you in harms way,” he added, insisting on every syllable as if he explained something to a very young filly. “We just can’t meet the Queen.”

Doppel ended up pushing away his friend to stand up. “So, it's urgent,” he summed up. “Sorry Fluttershy, but the purchase of the bed must wait.” He rushed to the door and went out, changing into Lyra before going to Ponyville.

“Wait, you're going the wrong way!” his friend shouted.

Mimic sighed and turned around to see that the pegasus had came up behind him.

“So it’s true that changelings are embarrassed to show their true appearance in front ponies?” she asked.

“Yeah...” the changeling answered. “But that’s not important! If I were you, I'd leave Ponyville immediately.”

“I'll never leave my friends behind!”

“Do as you want. If you find Doppel, tell him that we're leaving the Everfree tomorrow at noon.” On these words, Mimic left the house.

Fluttershy remained watching the door, thinking about what she should do. Finally, she decided to see what Doppel was doing.

--|-|--

“Twilight!” Doppel yelled, barging in the library,carefully closing the door behind him.

“Oh, Lyra, what brings you h...” the librarian began after being interrupted by the return of the changeling to his normal form. “Oh yes, Doppel. It isn’t really the best time. I've something more important to do than worry about your love life.”

He was taken aback a few seconds and then shouted, “It's got nothing to do with Fluttershy. There's an invasion coming tomorrow afternoon. The Queen Chrysalis plans to take over Ponyville as she tried to do with Canterlot.”

“I knew it!” Twilight snapped. “I knew someday you'll betray us.”

“Technically, he's helping us,” Spike reasoned, having heard the statement. “You don't think that if he were part of the invasion, he'd tell you about it?”

“He's right!” Fluttershy intervened, coming in the library. “His friend just told us, and he wanted Doppel to flee with him.”

“Sorry, I think I got carried away. So you say that your Queen is going to invade us? Tomorrow morning?”

“Yes! Mimic would never lie about subject like this,” the changeling added. “Our lives are in stake when it comes to the Queen.”

“Just when I thought tomorrow get any more stressing,” Twilight complained. “Princess Celestia sent me a message yesterday saying that she was coming to visit tomorrow afternoon too.”

“Oh my...” was the only words Fluttershy could muster. Doppel sat on his rump, his mouth opened. Great! The only two living beings I never want to meet in my life will be here at the same time. I should have followed Mimic's advice and ran. Twilight and Spike stared at him, bewildered.

“If the princess came, that's good right? She'll stop the Queen without any problem,” Spike stated.

“She was beaten the last time! And I can't let one of her trips end in a disaster again. I'd also like it if ponies didn't run away like they do each time something happens. We have to stop this by ourselves before Princess Celestia gets here.”

“And how are we going to do that?” asked a very perplexed dragon.

“Fluttershy, tell all our friends to prepare something for the Princess and come here for tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I'll think about something for counter the invasion,” Twilight ordered.

Fluttershy saluted and flew off the library. Doppel remained at the same position without moving, still trying to grasp what was going to happen the next day. While Twilight began to noisily search after her books to find a solution, he came back to reality.

“Twilight, before you're being too absorbed in your research, I'd like to teach you a spell.” The unicorn dropped the book she was holding before staring at him with a puzzling look. Yeah, it may sound a little pretentious to say that I want to teach a spell to one of the best unicorn of her time. I could've chosen better words.

“You know how I love learning things, particularly about magic, but does this have anything to do with the invasion of tomorrow? Because this can wait if it doesn't help at all.”

“It's useful. Don't worry.” His face changed from sheepish to a frown. “But I don't know if unicorn ponies can learn it though. It's a changeling spell which detects if the living being in front of us is a changeling or not.”

“You can't recognize your fellow changelings directly?” she was amazed. “You have more weaknesses that I thought.”

“Yeah. We have the spell active all the time. But that isn't point.” Doppel stamped his hoof to compose himself. “I'd be surprised if Chrysalis came with her army undisguised. This spell will be useful to you to detect spies already here.”

“But, don't we have to call Rarity to lend a hoof?”

“I'd prefer not,” he declined. “If she suddenly wanted to test it on me, I'd have to explain my case to her. Seeing as I took three days to convince you, I don’t think I can manage to do it with her in thirty seconds.”

“So, how you're going to do tomorrow?”

“I will assume the disguise of Lyra, praying that I won't...” His sentence was cut with a loud sneeze, causing him take the appearance of Lyra in a torrent of green flames. “...sneeze.”

“I'm going to see if we have anything against the sneezes,” Spike added, leaving the room.

“Doppel, I think we should learn the spell as soon as possible,” Twilight stated.

--|-|--

The training lasted hours. Doppel was taking the appearance of Lyra while Twilight was using the spell on him. As the faithful student of Princess Celestia, she managed to perfect the spell rather quickly. The hard part was for her was to understand the hazy explanations from Doppel. After all, it was very natural for a changeling, thus difficult to explain. The night had fallen during the training.

Doppel sighed as he lay on the ground. “I think that should do it. I never thought that I'd have to teach this spell to somepony one day.”

“You never teach this spell to another changeling?”

“I already said that. It's pretty much natural to us.” His voice took a mournful tone. “Talking about changeling, I'm not even sure I’ll get to see Mimic and Camouflage ever again. They must have left to avoid the Queen.”

“I'd like to know. If they left, why did you stay?” Twilight asked. “You could’ve ran like them if you didn't want to face the Queen.”

“I made a promise to Fluttershy that I'd stay here.”

“And is there a rule among changelings that obligates you to keep your promises? Or did you made a Pinkie promise?” she joked.

“I think it's not really the good time for this, you don't think?” The end of his sentence was accompanied with a disapproving look from the librarian. “Okay, I'm in love with Fluttershy. Camouflage confirmed it last time I saw her.”

“That's wonderful!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah...” He did a forced laugh. “If I wasn't in love, I'd probably leave with the others.”

“If everything ends well tomorrow, remember that you'll stay with Fluttershy.”

“I know that! But, it's not easy when you know what will happen soon. I hope that you have something in mind for tomorrow already,” Doppel worried.

“Not yet, but since I know that the Princess had asked us for the Elements during the last invasion, I'm sure that the Elements should've done something. Now, we need to be sure that our trump card is in security and be used at the last moment.”

“Sure! And where are the Elements?” he asked, curious. Twilight looked at him with a suspicious look. “Come on! I won't betray you, you already know that.” A heavy silence fell on the library. “Fine, don't tell me. After all I have nothing to do with the Elements and will be incapable to use them. Just tell me if they are within reach.”

“Yes, they’re in a place that let’s us use them quickly.”

Doppel let out a sigh. It's better than I don't know where is the Elements. Less ponies know, the better it will be. “So, what's next? I'm just going home to Fluttershy's until tomorrow morning?”

“No, I think you can be very useful after all”

Twilight and Doppel discussed a plan for the invasion of tomorrow until midnight.

--|-|--

Doppel slept a very short night. Just after having discussed the plan, they agreed that it was too late for him to return to Fluttershy’s and Doppel had to use the spare bed that Twilight had. He tried to explain he didn't need one and that he will be fine on the ground, he found out rather quickly that the unicorn was really stubborn.

He noticed also that Twilight was very expeditious upon waking up. It wasn't like Fluttershy who even didn't dare to wake him up. Here, the librarian caught him with her magic and send him to the ground. The changeling opened his eyes with difficulty.

“Good morning Doppel,” she said with a large smile.

“Good morning Twilight.” His tone showed that he wasn't awake at all.

“I send Spike get my friends. They should be here soon. Do you want anything to eat for your breakfast?”

Doppel stood up and stared at Twilight to make her understand that she had said something stupid.

“Oh. Right, you don't have to eat anything...”

The changeling went downstairs to get ready before her friends came. As soon as he put his hooves on the ground of the main room of the library, the door broke open, revealing Rainbow Dash coming in, head first. Doppel only had seconds to take his disguise of Lyra before the daring pegasus noticed.

“I've told you Twilight! There are changelings here!” she blurted out, on a victorious tone.

Behind the door, Spike and the other Elements stood there out of breath. Apparently, Rainbow made all the others run to follow her. Doppel noticed just after that, that he was the center of attention.

“Is there any reason for Lyra being here?” Rarity asked.

“I'm going to explain everything,” Twilight began. “You all know that changelings are going to invade Ponyville today. You also know that the Princess will come today too. So, we are going to do everything we can to avoid that the Princess have to do something to resolve the situation.”

“Lyra and I know a spell that detects the changelings, even disguised,” she continued. “We're going to get rid of the changelings already here and that will help to overcome the sheer number of changelings later. Our ultimate goal is to use the Elements against the Queen to stop her.”

“What are we waiting for?” Rainbow exclaimed, clapping her two front hooves together.

“We also need to be discreet about this. I don't want a panic on the streets. Also, we need to prepare the arrival of the Princess. So, this is how we're going to team up. I'll go with Rainbow Dash, and Lyra will go with Fluttershy. A pegasus should be necessary if the changeling is disguised into a pegasus himself too.”

“Alright! We're going to kick some changeling's flanks!” The cyan pegasus made a spin in the air. On his side, Doppel gulped. Luckily, she doesn't know who I am yet...

“Spike will stay here to lock the changelings inside this room that I put a strong spell on. It'll allow you only to come in, but not come out. Now, Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity, you will prepare the reception for the Princess. Use all the help you want but not a word about what is going to happen. I don't want to see all Ponyville in panic.”

Everypony nodded. Rainbow dashed through the door not waiting for the librarian. She was followed by Applejack, Pinkie and Rarity, chatting about what to do for the Princess. Fluttershy stayed in the exact same place she was since the beginning of the speech. She was now looking distractedly at the books, waiting for Doppel to move.

“You made the team on purpose for me and Fluttershy?” the changeling whispered to Twilight.

“Of course!” the unicorn exclaimed. Doppel blushed at the answer. “If you're going to lose your disguise again, at least she knows about it.”

Of course it was because of that. this isn't the moment for that kind of thing anyway. The door opened again. Rainbow stood at the entrance with a very impatient look.

“Twilight, you're coming, or are you waiting for Chrysalis to invade Ponyville?”

“No, no I'm coming!”

Author's Note

Here's the 13th chapter of The Sneezing Changeling, edited by war10ck111.

Quick remainder, Twilight isn't an alicorn yet, seen that I wrote this story long before the season 3 started. I tried to incorporate the new canon each time I got them, but Twilight alicorn, I couldn't do it without altering a lot the story (and especially without knowing her exact role at the time).

The Hunt

Everything was in place. Twilight and Rainbow patrolled at ground level while Doppel and Fluttershy were doing it from roofs. The changeling went from roof to roof by changing momentarily his disguise for a pegasus' one. Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack were occupied with the preparations of the Princess' arrival.

--|-|--

“I've told you that there were changelings in town Twilight! You never believed me that that they were a threat,” Rainbow complained.

“And I've told you, I'm sorry! I should've listen to you. But for now, just take care of the changelings, would you?” She raised a hoof at Rainbow. “There, behind of you! It's not Doctor Whooves, it's a changeling.”

“Roger! I'll take care of it!” The cyan pegasus began to chase after the fake Doctor. Noticing that he was being chased, he jumped and start to run.

“Easy Rainbow! No panic remember?”

Rainbow thought about it a few seconds before blurted out a lie to explain her chase. “If I catch you, you're gonna regret using your blue box thingy on me!” The pursuit continued, but the attention from the ponies was diminished by knowing the cause of it.

“It's better than nothing,” Twilight sighed, watching the scene.

--|-|--

“I hope that we don't have to face a lot of changelings,” Fluttershy said as she landed on a roof.

“I'd like you to say the contrary, but...” Doppel turned round to see the pegasus. “It's an invasion. I doubt that they will be only a dozen.”

They continued to jump from roof to roof. The ambiance was now silent between them. Why won't she talk to me? I know that she's shy, but not anymore with me. I lived with her during more than an entire week. He turn around again to look at her in the eyes. Who have said that Doppel, the outlaw changeling, was gonna fall for a pony? Fluttershy looked away from him. Oh, she's trying to hide her feelings, that’s why she’s barely talking. I suppose it's because it's bothering her.

“Is something wrong?” the shy pegasus asked, feeling observed.

Doppel searched for an excuse for his behavior. He didn't have to look very far as he saw a brown pegasus with a gold mane randomly flying like if he was waiting for something. “There's a changeling behind you. It's the brown pegasus there.”

“How are we going to take him back to the library?” Fluttershy worried.

He thought about it some seconds. “I have an idea. We're gonna use my changeling's power to catch him.”

He whispered at her ear the plan he just found. She nodded before meeting the pegasus-changeling.

“What do you want?” he asked, in a conceited way.

“You see. If it didn't bother you, I would need your help,” Fluttershy stuttered. “My friend Lyra is stuck on the roof. She’s a unicorn and she can't fly. If it isn’t any trouble, could you help her down? I'm not strong enough. So I thought that... a strong pegasus like you could help.”

The false pegasus followed a little half-heartedly Fluttershy towards Doppel. As soon as he came close, Doppel caught him his hooves and wrapped him into a green bubble before taking him by magic to the library.

“One down!” he blurted, happy, despite the complaint of the caught changeling.

--|-|--

“Can't we go faster?” Rainbow Dash begged.

“No!” Twilight firmly answered. “I have to examine every pony and this spell isn't as easy it may seem. And we need to stay unnoticed.”

The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes. She thought having more action. But until now, they only found a couple of changelings. She was wondering if they were here because they had gotten lost. All Rainbow could do was to watch the crowd, fluttering alongside Twilight. Suddenly, something drew her attention. “It's Spitfire! Why didn't she tell me that she'd be here?”

She prepared to head to her idol, but is stopped by Twilight's magic. “Wait! It isn't Spitfire, it's a changeling!”

“Well this changeling has good taste.” More ponies came to ask the star an autograph. “How are we going to do? We can't kidnap her in front of everypony like this.”

“These are also changelings,” Twilight adjusted. “It seems that it's a group reunion.”

“I'm not strong enough to take out five in row while staying stealthy.”

They stayed there to think about the situation while continuing to watch the gathering of changelings.

“I'd rather not have to come to that. But this is all I have left for this situation,” Twilight said. Rainbow looked at her quizzically. “What I'm about to do isn't stealthy at all, but no one will understand what just happened.”

“So what am I going to do?”

“Do your best impersonation of the biggest fan of Spitfire, and let me do the job!”

The two mares came closer to the group. Rainbow began to squeal like she usually did when she met her favorite idol.

“I see a very big fan there!” the false Spitfire exclaimed.

“Now!” the librarian shouted, before teleporting everypony inside the library.

As soon they arrived, Twilight trapped the changelings inside a purple magic bubble and sent them inside the purposed room. On the other side of the main room, Rainbow was still groggy from the travel, her coat smoking a little.

“Just warn me the next time you do those kind of things,” she said, trying to regain her balance.

“Not enough time,” the unicorn apologized. “We need to continue our round. The Princess will arriving soon.”

--|-|--

Doppel and Fluttershy, from the top of a roof, stared at three ponies who were in fact changelings. They were wandering in the street, meddling in the crowd, unaware that they were being watched.

“How are we going to catch them?” the shy pegasus asked.

“Three of them. We could use the trick of asking for help, but I don't think it would work this time. We need something that make all of them follow me.”

They both sighed. If only they could be outlaws, it'd be less difficult. And it's annoying to always my nose itching. “ACHOO!”

On a time of a half of a second, Doppel took Pinkie's form and then immediately put his Lyra's disguise back. Fluttershy rapidly looked everywhere if somepony saw her friend. Everypony seemed continuing what they were doing without noticing.

“Sorry,” he justified, “it's the remaining of my cold. We aren't noticed, that's something.” And then, an idea came to his mind. “Yeah, I know. I will take the most random pony we know and we're going to trick them into something they’ll remember. You still have the net, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy raised the net between her hooves to show him.

“Okay! We'll need it. I'm not sure that I’ll be able to trap all of three inside the bubble if they aren't immobile first.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “But be careful.” She blushed after looking at somewhere else. Doppel giggled slightly at the behavior of his friend. I need to go and stop watching her.

The changeling landed on the ground and hid behind barrels. He transformed into Pinkie Pie and began to prance around. Arrived at the center of the street, some meters behind his targets, he hold his breath and then shout, “Eh guys! I'm a changeling!”

Without the time to say anything else, the three fake ponies took him in a dark alley, their hooves on his nose to avoid him saying anything more.

“Are you completely nuts? Do you want that the invasion to fail?”

Doppel began to laugh. “You forgot a small detail.” He looked up to the roof. “Fluttershy, the net!”

Like if it was coming from nowhere, a huge net fell on the three changelings, the outlaw having time to avoid it. Groans could be heard from the net.

Coming from nowhere, the true Pinkie Pie jumped between the changelings and Doppel, still disguised. “Wow, you caught three of them? Good job! Do you want me to bring them back to the library?”

The two others stayed quiet, too afraid to move. The party pony stared at Doppel, expecting something. How can I explain that I look exactly like her? Nothing's gonna work!

“I can explain. He's not a bad changeling...” Fluttershy tried to explain.

“Duh!” Pinkie interrupted. “Obviously it's not a meanie changeling. If he was, he wouldn't help us to stop the invasion.”

She caught the net and took away the changelings. For each hop she did, cries and hisses could be heard from the net. Doppel and Fluttershy watched her leave dumbfound.

“I wonder if it wouldn't be better that I took them to the library. They must be suffering hopping in that net,” he joked.

“She knows... And she hasn't said anything.” She was staring at Pinkie.

“It's Pinkie Pie. If I learned something coming here, it's to not worry about understanding her.”

“And what if she was arrested because you said you were a changeling under her form?” she asked. “They could take her for you and...”

“Don't worry!” he reassured. “She says so much bizarre things that my statement would like to her usual eccentricities. After all, apart from us, nopony knows that it's going to have an invasion this afternoon.”

“I hope so...”

--|-|--

The hunt continued, both groups bringing back one or several changelings to Spike. However the sheer number of changelings seemed pretty low, even with Pinkie Pie who began to hunt with the others as reinforcements.

“It's not possible,” Doppel blurted out, under the disguise of Lyra. “They couldn't try to invade a town like Ponyville with a couple of changelings. They are more or less a dozen.”

“I have a question... How did Pinkie manage to find hidden changelings?” Twilight wondered.

“It's very easy, in fact, I...” the party pony began before being cut by the unicorn.

“Actually, I don't want to know.”

“Maybe, we should make another round?” Fluttershy suggested.

“A new one?” Rainbow complained. “If it's for finding one or two more, what's the point?”

“Spike, still no news about when the Princess is coming?” Spike got out of the library and shrugged. “So we maybe have to use the Elements quickly. We should call back here Rarity and Applejack.”

“No need to call back Rarity, there she is!” Doppel exclaimed.

The alabaster unicorn was running to their friends. She arrived in front of them, panting. “Are somepony has seen Applejack?” The others shook their head. Rarity frowned. “She said that she need something but she never returned.”

“Spike, do you know something about it?”

“I heard her saying something like she need a book for pastry, so I didn't pay attention to it. Why?”

“We need to find Applejack, without her, we can't use the Elements!” Twilight ordered. “Rainbow, try to find her at Sweet Apple Acres!”

“Okay, Twilight!” Rainbow left in a multicolored streak.

“We should prepare the Elements already,” the lavender unicorn demanded. “As soon as Chrysalis reveals herself, we'll launch the attack!” Everypony nodded. “Lyra, could you not look at where the Elements are? It's only a precaution.”

“Do as you want!” Doppel, still disguised, turned around and looked at the street. Fluttershy sat just by his side, like if it was a reflex. I still don't know if she's aware of her crush, but coming right next to me is a pretty giveaway.

“So Fluttershy, it means that you're staying with Lyra?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy jumped. “Oh-- hum-- Yes!”

“Okay, everypony, let's gather the Elements!”

Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity entered the library. The librarian caught a book at the top of a bookcase with her magic and put it at her level.

“I don't know if you noticed, but I think that Fluttershy may have a crush on Lyra,” Rarity suggested. “Isn't Lyra already engaged?”

“Wooh, does this mean that Fluttershy likes dangerous extramarital affairs?” Pinkie went one better.

“Girls!” the lavender unicorn shouted. “I'm trying to concentrate. This protection spell is harder to unlock that I thought.”

“Sorry...” they said.

“Oh no.” Twilight let the book fall on the floor. The book was now full open and nothing was inside. “I understand now why I couldn't unlock the book, it wasn't locked in the first place. Somepony has forced the lock and took the Elements. But who?”

She used a spell to detect the last users of the book. “Changeling's magic...” She stormed out of the library and stopped just behind Doppel. “Can you explain me why the Elements have disappeared and why there is a lot of changeling's magic all over it?”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” he defended. “I didn't even know where the Elements were!”

“Hum, Twilight? You are not making sense there,” Rarity worried.

“Who knew the exact place of the Elements?” Doppel reasoned, turning around to face Twilight.

“Only us six, and Spike.”

“You don't find strange that Applejack is not here now?” the changeling continued to think.

“You dare to think that Applejack could be allied with these beasts?” Rarity complained.

Doppel cringed a little at the words of the unicorn on changelings. “I'm not saying that Applejack is a traitor, far from it. I'm saying that the current Applejack may be...”

His sentence was cut by a soft shout from Fluttershy. “The Princess is here!”

On her golden chariot pulled by four white pegasi, Princess Celestia was coming down from the sky accompanied by an entire army.

“Is there a purpose of bringing her entire army to come here for a visit?” Twilight asked.

“Maybe she heard about needing help to defeat the Queen of the changelings?” Pinkie hoped.

The arrival of the Princess made come the ponies. Rapidly a crowd circled Celestia and her army. In a graceful jump, she got off of her chariot and started to walk, followed by the inhabitants.

“Shouldn't we welcome the Princess?” Fluttershy suggested.

As they were going to welcome her, Doppel put himself in front of them. “No, it isn't the Princess Celestia. It's Chrysalis!”

On these words, he jumped, or rather flew, to the center of the crowd. He stopped just before the hooves of what was supposed to be Chrysalis.

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111.

The Confrontation

Rainbow flew towards the farm as fast as she could. She had to find Applejack to bring her back to the library to be able to use the Elements against Chrysalis.

“That’s weird, the door’s closed. If Applejack’s here, why she's not in the barn?” Rainbow landed and knocked at the door. No response. “There's something fishy here.”

Rainbow took to the air again. “She must be at the orchard. What is she doing there though? This is not the time to be picking apples!” She flew through the entire orchard, inspecting the bottom of each tree rapidly, but there was no sign of the orange pony she was looking for.

“Something's not right.” She took off towards the barn. She knocked again at the door. Still no response. “She has to be in town. But how could I have missed her?”

As she took her stance to leave, she heard a small muffled sound from inside. Without a second thought, she smashed through the door and entered the barn. “I hope that Applejack won't be too mad at me for smashing her door.” She continued to follow the noise, leading her to the cellar.

Every member of the Apple family stood there, trapped inside green cocoons. Rainbow quickly freed them from their prison. “Phew! Thanks Rainbow. Ah thought we were gonna be trapped here forever. Why didn't you come sooner?”

“Sooner? But we saw each other like three hours ago!” Rainbow was surprised.

“We've been trapped here fer days. If these things didn't feed us, we'd starved.”

“Oh, this is bad. This is very bad.” The pegasus looked at the exit of the cellar. “Listen, there’s gonna be a changeling invasion soon.”

“Ya don't say!” Applejack mocked.

“It means that the Applejack we saw was a changeling. A changeling who knows where the Elements are and the purpose of our morning expedition!” Rainbow was flying from one side of the cellar to the other.

“You've lost me, Rainbow.”

“I'll explain you everything. We need to warn Twilight now, or the situation’s going to get ugly.” She flew out the room, followed by the perplexed Applejack.

--|-|--

Everypony was shocked by Doppel's action. He was facing Celestia, or at least her appearance. The crowd which was cheering the Princess was now silent. Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy didn't even dare to move. Even the guards didn't move anymore.

“How could I help you?” Celestia asked with a kind tone.

“You're not Celestia!” the changeling blurted out, still disguised in a green mint unicorn.

A shout came from the crowd. “Lyra, what are you doing there?” Bon-Bon appeared on the front row. “You can't stop the Princess like that and claim that she isn't the Princess!”

The true Lyra popped behind her marefriend with a questioning look. “What are you talking about? I'm right here!”

Bon-Bon successively looked her lover and the disguised changeling before fainting. Ponies close to them began to whisper louder and louder. Celestia was scanning the whole crowd which was beginning to panic.

Taking advantage of her moment of inattention, Doppel hit her with a spell. A big green flash brightened the area before making appear the true form of the pony the mob acclaimed minutes ago, still a little groggy from the spell.

The crowd moved away a little. Some ponies even fainted. “You idiot!” the Queen hissed. “How could you do this to your Queen and mess up the invasion?”

“I'm an outlaw! I don't take orders from you!” he blurted out.

Close to the library, Twilight and her friends watched the scene powerless.

“So it was really the Queen,” Rarity noted. “What do we do now?”

“We really need Rainbow and Applejack! And we need to find the Elements too!” Twilight paced up and down. “Where could they be?”

“We're here Twilight!” Rainbow exclaimed, coming back from Sweet Apple Acres. “And with bad news. This is the real Applejack. The one we talked to was a changeling!”

“Y'all been fooled by him and his friends.”

“I guess that Lyra was mostly right about this.” Rarity said. “Let's just find the changeling who took the Elements and...”

“Oh no!” Fluttershy wasn't paying attention to her friends anymore. She was only watching the argument between Chrysalis and Doppel. “He's gonna be unmasked!”

“He?” Rainbow rose an eyebrow. “We're talking about Lyra, right?” She looked at her friends. Applejack and Rarity shrugged, Pinkie continued bouncing like nothing was happening and Twilight had some sort of forced smile. “What's this now with Lyra? Why does she have so much importance? We barely know her.”

Before somepony had the time to respond to the questions, a loud shout cut them short. “I'm ready to fight to protect Ponyville!” Doppel now faced the Queen with his unicorn horn already glowing.

“Is that not something?” Chrysalis giggled. “Here's come Ponyville's savior. What if you show us your real appearance?” She buried her hooves a little in the dirt before throwing it to Doppel, creating a dust cloud.

“Achoo!” In one sneezing, Doppel lost his disguise of a mint green unicorn to his normal form. On the other side, the Queen laughed, enjoying the situation.

“A changeling! Obviously!” Rainbow blurted out. “It could be only it!”

“Twilight, can you explain?” Rarity asked.

“It looks like I have no choice. His name is Doppel. He's not the changeling we're looking for. He's been helping us from the beginning. I learn the detection spell from him. So there, he's buying us some time to find the Elements and stop the Queen. We must not waste that!”

“Twilight's right. We'll deal with him later.” Rainbow nodded. “Let's chase for the Elements!”

She, Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity headed for the center of the town. Twilight was about to follow them but stopped when she saw that Fluttershy wasn't going to do the same. “You don't come with us Fluttershy?”

“I can't...” she replied. “I can't leave Doppel like this.”

“The only thing you can do for him now is to find the Elements. The faster we are, the higher the chance we find them!”

“I know...” She couldn't even turn her eyes from Doppel. “But if I leave now, I'd feel like I abandoned him. I couldn't stand it if something happened to him.”

“I'm sure that he was aware that he'd have to fight alone to give us time to find the Elements. To him, he's just a changeling who is ready to-”

Fluttershy glared at Twilight, cutting her off. “I love him! I won't let him get sacrificed to buy us time.” Her hooves covered her mouth. “I'm sorry. I didn't want to say that. But, but...”

“Did you think he didn't know?” Twilight sighed. “He knew the moment you fell for him. I'm even sure that it's for that reason that he's facing the Queen. He's afraid of her but he’s doing it for you.”

The laughter of Chrysalis faded. The entire place was now silent. Fluttershy had her attention again attracted by the scene. Not only Fluttershy but the entire crowd was watching the altercation, breathless, ready to leave if something really bad happened. Even the guards behind the Queen was getting restless.

“We're even now!” Chrysalis sneered. “Guards, we'll conquer this place by force if need be.”

“I won't let you do that!” Doppel bravely blurted out.

“And what are you going to do? Trying to use a spell on me?” She laughed again. “Your pathetic spell will do nothing on me and all you're going to do is frighten more these ponies!”

As soon as Chrysalis ended her sentence, Doppel send a green magic ball in her direction. The ball stopped in midair, caught by the Queen. A few seconds later, it was send to a chimney, breaking it to pieces.

“This is how you want to play.” Her eyes glowed greener and she was showing her teeth. “This is a real attack spell!”

She casted the exact same spell but twice as large. It hit Doppel directly and made him fly a few meters behind. He landed on his flank, lifeless. Ponies near him stepped back, as if they were going to catch something from being too close. Chrysalis sighed, approaching the unconscious changeling.

“Not able to take one hit. You wouldn't even make a good guard. How could you even defy me? You're an outlaw who doesn't know how to fight! The only thing you should do is stay hidden and far away from my sight!”

Fluttershy leaped from their hiding place to help Doppel but was caught by Twilight's magic. She looked at her friend who was shaking her head. Chrysalis was now close to the unconscious changeling, her horn glowing a gruesome green.

“So, outlaw. You know the sentence for having cross my path even though I banished you.” She rose her horn menacingly. Fluttershy, on her side, closed her eyes and Twilight turned her head.

Two green energy balls flew from the top of a house. The Queen had just enough time to avoid them by jumping back. “Who has the nerve to stop me?” Two changelings appeared from the roof where the spells came from.

“Mimic! Camouflage!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

“What? Doppel's friends?”

“They came to save Doppel!”

The two changelings flew down from the house to land between Doppel and Chrysalis.

“Are you sure that it's the right thing to do?” Mimic worried.

“Shut up and be convincing!” Camouflage replied.

They crouched a little and bore their teeth. As menacing as it could be, their legs was shaking. “I've lost enough time with outlaws. You don't even deserve to be punished by me.” Chrysalis turned around and made a sign to her soldiers. “Guards! Do whatever you want with them!”

All the soldiers, still disguised as Celestia's guards, open their white wings. They took the air and flew towards the two trembling changelings. Suddenly, coming from above, one of the guard landed before Camouflage and Mimic. She lost his disguise and faced the army which was rushing her. She rose a magic shield as big as her. All the changelings, flying at full speed, crashed on it. With a bump of the shield, she expelled the entire army at the corners of Ponyville.

“Soldier, what are you doing?” Chrysalis bellowed.

The changeling placed herself besides the two others. “My name is not soldier. My name is Illusion!”

“A name? None of my changelings has a name!”

“I'm not one of your changelings anymore!” she blurted out defiantly. “I followed these three for months. They're happier than anypony in the Hive. They just blend in without any problems and no side effect is noticed. The life of ponies they tricked didn't even change, or if it changed, it's for the better for both parts.”

She rose a hoof in the direction of Chrysalis. “So, yes, I vastly prefer living with them than with you and your tyrannical laws. That's why I...”

“We want to protect this town,” cut Mimic, continuing Illusion's line.

Chrysalis snorted, rolling her eyes. “So, if you want to be outlaw, you'll be punish as an outlaw.” She took a step forward and looked at Doppel's body on the ground. Instinctively, the three changeling placed themselves in front of their friend to protect him. Not able to see Doppel anymore, the Queen stared at Illusion. “It's a shame really. From what I saw, you were a very good guard.”

On their side, Twilight had put back Fluttershy on her hooves who had decided that there was nothing she could do. The unicorn was now poking the shoulder of her friend to incite her to go looking for the Elements. “We should help the girls! Doppel's friends are giving us time!”

--|-|--

“Where would a changeling who stole the Elements go?” blurted out Rainbow who was flying alongside Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie. “He could have disguised himself as anything!”

“Hopefully, we have two magnificent detectors of changelings.” The fashionista looked all around her, searching after something. “Where is Twilight and Lyra?”

“You mean Twilight and the so called nice changeling?” Rainbow retorted. “The changeling stayed to stall the Queen and Twilight stayed to watch.”

“Great! Now, we've got no way to tell if the pony in front of us is a changeling or not?” complained Applejack.

“Wait, I maybe have an idea on which disguise the changeling we look for is.” The pegasus landed near her friends. They place themselves into a circle. “Have you noticed how well the changeling who helps us mimicked Lyra? I mean the changelings we fought during the wedding hadn't mimicked us at all, except for the fact they looked like us.”

“What do you want to prove?” Rarity asked.

“It means that changelings need time to master their disguise and the disguise of the changeling on our side must be Lyra. Now, last week, I discovered that there was indeed a changeling in town, but it wasn't this one. The disguise of this one was Derpy.”

“Are you tellin' that we have to chase Derpy all over Ponyville?” asked Applejack.

“Applejack!” Rarity shouted, pointing something behind her friends.

“No need to shout, Ah'm right next to you.”

“No, I mean, there's another Applejack on the other side of the street!” The three others turned over and looked at what Rarity was pointing. There was indeed a pony who was looking like Applejack staring back at them.

“The idiot... He disguised himself as Applejack!” Rainbow facehoofed.

“He didn't know that you found her trapped in her cellar and that you freed her.” replied Rarity.

The other Applejack ran towards the group and stopped in front of the original one, poking her with his hoof. “How can you trust something like her? Ah'm nothing like her. Don't ya see she had fooled you?”

“What are ya sayin'? I'm the real one!” The changeling hit Applejack to cut the argument short. “Eh! What are ya doin'?” A second hit started the fight between them. They rolled on the ground, trying to hit each other. The others were looking at the scene helpless.

“Just great... Now, I can't tell which one is the true one,” complained Rainbow. “I’ve followed Applejack since I freed her from the cocoon. I was sure that was her.”

Pinkie admired the scene before her. “We can tell that the changeling did the right thing to disguise himself!”

“It's true,” suddenly exclaimed the pegasus, “Pinkie, you're here! You and your senses can tell which one is the changeling!” She caught Pinkie's cheeks with her hooves and then turning her head towards the fighting ponies. “Tell us!”

The two Applejacks immediately ceased their battle. Now, they looked sheepishly at Pinkie while she stared at them. Big sweat drops appeared on their faces, both of them having a forced smile. The pink pony put her hooves on their nose and finally declared, turning over, “I haven't got a clue on which one is the real Applejack.”

Rainbow let a grunt of disappointment followed by Rarity's one. On the other side, one of the Applejacks sighed a little too loud. “The changeling is the one on the left!” promptly shouted Pinkie.

“How can you tell?” he defended.

“You were the only pony to be relieved that I didn't find the right one, silly!” she replied, in an amused tone.

The changeling, still under the disguise of Applejack, suddenly ran.

“Catch him!” Rainbow ordered. “We can't let him get away!” They rushed off at the pursuit of the false Applejack. It was only seconds before the pegasus caught the changeling and pinned him on the ground, his disguise dropped by the shock.

“Okay, okay, I'll tell you where are the Elements. Promise!” he pleaded with her, his eyes closed.

“Wow. I thought that it'd be harder to get answers from him,” Rainbow said surprised. “Apparently, there are also cowards among changelings.”

--|-|--

“Now, what are you going to do?” snarled Chrysalis. “Even if in your wildest dreams you could fight at the same level as me, what are you going to do with the rest of the army waiting at Ponyville's door?” Illusion's horn shone green. “I see your decision is made.”

The Queen shot another green ball of energy at the changelings. By instinct, Illusion raised a magic shield to protect them. At contact, the shield exploded, sending the three changelings to the ground.

“Pathetic...” sighed Chrysalis. She looked to her audience, which hadn't moved since the beginning of the confrontation. “Somepony else want to interfere again, or I can finish what I began?” She stare at one particular blue unicorn mare in the crowd who shrieked in terror. The scream made everypony run away in a disorganized manner. Ponies were bumping in each other, flower pots were falling, doors were closing. A few seconds later, the place was free from the crowd except for the four changelings lying on the ground, the Queen, Fluttershy and Twilight.

Chrysalis looked at the two ponies who were watching her. Before she could even do something, a green energy ball barely missed her. Illusion was now standing awkwardly on her hooves, her horn still smoking from the spell. “I can still fight!”

“I can see that.” Her attention back on her aggressor. “It would've be better for you if you were still lying on the ground.” She sighed. “Here are my opponents. Four changelings, three of which aren’t even soldiers.” She came closer to Illusion to the point where their horns touched. “How much time do you think you will stand against me alone?”

“Enough time I hope!” she replied back.

Twilight had now stopped asking Fluttershy to search after the Elements. The pegasus was shielding her eyes to not see what will happen next. A shout came from behind.

“We found the Elements!” exclaimed Pinkie, her Element already put on. The two remaining Elements being held on one hoof.

“Four changelings now?” noticed Rainbow, as soon she was close enough to admire the “battlefield”.

“Too long to explain!” urged Twilight. Grabbing her Element by telekinesis, putting it on her head. She did the same with Fluttershy's Element. “Illusion may not be able to take another hit and she's distracting the Queen now.”

The six mares placed themselves. Twilight's eyes shone while a bright aura and enveloped the entire group. Finally, a huge rainbow hit Chrysalis. Illusion jumped backwards and fell on her flank. A big flash covered Ponyville while a scream was heard.

The attack over, five changelings lay on the ground, indiscernible from an untrained eye. “Where is the Queen?” asked Twilight. “The Elements couldn't have...”

Illusion got up. After shaking herself, she claimed, pointing with her hoof to the farthest changeling, “Chrysalis is still here. She's the one lying right there...”

“But, she looks like a regular changeling,” exclaimed Rarity.

“Yeah, I know. But, the power of your Elements is to neutralize the evil in the hearts of creatures. And the way to do it for the Queen is to reduce her power to the levels of a normal changeling.”

After these words, Chrysalis stood up suddenly. She looked at her hooves before looking at the ponies that were the origin of her transformation. A few seconds later, she flew towards the exit of Ponyville.

“We can't let her get away like that!” exclaimed Rainbow.

“I doubt she'd be able to do anything harmful now. And the soldiers waiting outside won't take orders from a weakened queen.”

As soon Illusion finished her sentence, Fluttershy rushed towards Doppel, still lying on the ground. Illusion had just the time to take a step aside to prevent crashing into the mare. “Yeah, he took a pretty bad hit,” she said, a hoof behind her neck. “We fared better since my shield had reduced the impact of the attack.”

Fluttershy knelt before Doppel and poked his shoulders. “Please wake up Doppel.” The newfound silence following the aftermath of the battle intrigued the Ponyvillians hiding in their houses. They were coming out on the street and gathering around the battle scene. “He’s not waking up.”

“Wouldn't it be better to have a doctor take care of him?” Mimic suggested.

“Do you have doctors in the Hive?” Twilight asked.

“No, but you have yours.”

Fluttershy lifted her head and looked for a familiar pony in the crowd. After a fews seconds, her eyes stopped on a white mare with a pinkish mane. “Please Nurse Redheart, can you help him?” The pony in question flinched at the question, backtracking a little. “Please, he's not mean. He helped us against the Queen.”

All the attention of the crowd was now turned on the nurse. “I guess we owe him that.” She looked around her. “I need two strong ponies to help me carrying him to the hospital.” Two brown well-built stallions grabbed Doppel and carried him to the hospital.

A new silence reigned on the place. “I think ponies are watching us,” Mimic whispered to his two friends. After a short check followed by a loud gasp, the three changelings transformed themselves in their usual disguise or, in the case of Illusion, a guard of Celestia.

“It's too late to try to hide. We already know your secret.” joked Twilight.

Illusion laughed nervously. “It's rather difficult to explain.”

“You have all the time you need. Besides, we'd like to have some explanations too,” Rainbow retorted.

Fluttershy got up and looked at the direction of the hospital. After some hesitations, she turned to her friends. “I don't need any explications, I know already everything,” she stammered. “I'm going to look after Doppel!” On these words, she rushed over the hospital.

The others stare at her leave, wondering why she left so quickly. Twilight was the first to talk. “Well, I think I'll be the one who will be giving explanations then.” She looked at her friends and the changelings disguised. “What do you want to know?”

“Why Fluttershy is so keen to protect this changeling?” Rarity asked.

The unicorn sheepishly put her hoof behind her head. “I think it should be easier to ask her why.”

“I'd like to know how Doppel is doing.” Illusion had already begun to go towards the hospital. “I think it's the same case for Mimic and Camouflage,” she continued, pointing her two friends who were nodding.

Rainbow flew up and landed before her, blocking her path. “Where do you think you're going?”

“Rainbow!” Twilight was offended. “Illusion fought the Queen to buy us time!”

Illusion gave a playful glare. “You know, you can follow me if you want. I'm able to talk and walk at the same time.”

“Ah think we should all go to the hospital then,” Applejack concluded.

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111

Little trivia : in my first draft of this chapter, Applejack didn't have a role at all (even in the previous although). This show how much this chapter was modified during time between the writing and the upload.

The Adoption

“So, what’s the difference between you and the other changelings who attacked us?” asked Rainbow, as she flew in circles above the changelings.

Illusion decided to answer the question. “These two are outlaws.” After a short moment of reflexion, she continued. “As is Doppel, which means that they no longer obey the Queen's orders. Moreover, they’ve actually been here in Ponyville for quite some time now.”

“And you? You haven't told anything about yourself.” Rainbow was now nose to nose with the changeling who couldn't help stepping back.

“Come on, you can admit it Illusion. You’ve always wanted to live like us,” teased Mimic.

Illusion's stare went from the pegasus to her friend coupled with a frown. “My-Name-Is-Not-Illusion!”

“Of course your name is Illusion,” Camouflage was piling on it. “That’s what you called yourself when you fought Chrysalis.”

Illusion lowered her head. “I knew that was going to come back and bite me.”

“What's the big deal about names?” Applejack asked.

“The changelings who still are under Chrysalis' orders cannot bear any name,” Twilight answered before one of the changelings could even respond.

Rainbow pinned Illusion on the ground. “So you're on the Queen's side!”

“I'm... I'm not... anymore,” she managed to stammer, protecting her face with her hooves. “I just don't like the name they gave me.”

Rainbow let her go with disdain. “Fine... But I still don't trust you.”

Pinkie Pie appeared suddenly behind Mimic and Camouflage, making them jump. “Eh, eh, eh, I have a question, just a little question!” After a short moment of silence when the changelings didn’t object, she continued. “Do you keep the same disguise all the time?”

Mimic, after recover from his shock, replied, “Yeah, we keep the same disguise because we already know the life of the pony we impersonate perfectly. It lets us trick easier.” The others stared at him with a look of suspicion. “We have to fool you if we want to feed correctly. If we came without a disguise, you'd hate us! And hate is yucky...”

“So, you're always disguised as Derpy?” Rainbow asked vehemently.

“Yes, most of the time. But I can assure you that Town Hall wasn’t my fault.”

“So it was you I talked to when you were disguised as Derpy. You made me believe she worked on her holiday,” she exclaimed.

Camouflage placed herself between these two. “No, it was me. Octavia was busy that day.” She then threw a anger stare to her friend. “However, he forgot to warn me that Derpy was on holidays.”

Mimic blushed from the shame. “Everypony can make mistakes.”

“But you make them more often than the others,” Camouflage retorted.

“Twilight, what about the fourth changeling? The one who was disguised as Lyra and got sent to the hospital?” asked Rarity while the changelings continued their bickering.

“Doppel?” Twilight thought about it for a few seconds, tapping her hooves against her chin. “Actually, he's the only changeling I met before the invasion. Fluttershy met him first, while he was sick and couldn't transform anymore. She asked me to help him get better.”

“He could've just been faking it,” Applejack added.

“No, I've checked when I met him. He was really sick.”

Rainbow let a loud sigh. “And you didn't think that he could have used you to get him back on his hooves?”

“That's Fluttershy's problem.” Twilight paused and looked the other changelings who were still bickering. “But I think that if he’s the same as these, there's no risk. He might have thought of using Fluttershy at first, but it's definitely not the case now.” She couldn't help giggling a little. “You should have seen his face every time he turned up at the library.” The others stared at her, not comprehending what passed through their friend's head. She regained her composure. “He also taught me a lot of things about changelings, and he was the one who warned us about the invasion.”

--|-|--

Fluttershy was looking through every room of the hospital to find Doppel. She didn't bother, or have the courage, to ask where his room was at the reception desk, so she was trying to find it by herself, a little panicked.

As she was walking, she heard a continuous high-pitch beep coming from an open door. Fluttershy peeked inside the room to see a motionless Doppel in a bed with greenish blankets. Just next to him, a patient monitor was drawing a straight line on the screen.

Fluttershy rushed to the bed and started to shake the changeling. “Oh no, wake up Doppel! Wake up!” After seeing that nothing changed, she lowered him back on the bed, her tears was flowing on the blankets. “You should have never fought the Queen. You should have run like your friends said.”

The others came into the room noisily, but when they noticed the unmoving Doppel and the continuous beep, they became quiet, Applejack taking off her hat. Fluttershy resumed her mourning. “We could have found a solution against Chrysalis. You could have stayed in my cottage like you’ve had been these last two weeks.”

“Ah'm sorry to tell you that Fluttershy, but it was only a changeling.” Applejack felt the stare of the three other changelings reproaching her for the use of the word “only”.

“No!” she exclaimed. “He wasn't only a changeling.” She rose her head and threw an accusatory stare at Applejack. “I had known him for two weeks. He's not like the others changelings. Every changeling is different.” She stopped talking and watched Doppel. “Doppel is different... I loved him...”

She threw her head on the bed, sobbing. A hoof stroked her mane. “You think I didn't know?” Fluttershy rose her eyes and saw the tired look of Doppel. “I'm a changeling, I always knew what your feelings were.”

“Doppel!” The pegasus threw herself on the hooves of the changeling. “I thought you were dead!”

“Ouch!” he giggled nervously, making faces. “Watch it. I still just took an attack from the Queen.” Fluttershy released her grab, blushing. Doppel scanned the room, stopping on his changeling fellows.

“You’ve wanted to play dead for a long time right?” Illusion teased.

“I wasn't playing dead, I was asleep. I only woke up when Fluttershy shook me,” he responded.

“But I don't understand,” Fluttershy said. “Why did the patient monitor not register your heartbeat?”

Doppel looked at the machine, trying to understand its workings. “I think that the doctors didn't know how to link this thing to me.” He saw a doctor passing on the hallway, glaring at the changeling laid on the bed. “I can understand their confusion. It must have been the first time they’ve see a changeling this close.”

After the explanation, a new silence reigned. Fluttershy was rubbing her hoof on the ground. “Uh Doppel... About what I said about you, I...”

“Don't be sorry about that,” he reassured her. “Nopony can avoid their feelings. And I must say, it's an honor for a changeling to be loved by a pony.” Before he could even continued his tirade, Camouflage noisily coughed. Yeah, thank you for reminding me that no one is truly the master of their own feelings. He looked at Fluttershy and couldn't help his blush. At least when Fluttershy said it, she was under emotional stress. It helped get the message across. He opened his mouth and closed it immediately after. Why are they looking at me like that?

“So, what are you waiting for?” Camouflage blurted out.

Twilight's face lit up when she understood what the female changeling was after. “We won't leave until you admit it.”

Rainbow's doubts grew again. “Admit what?”

“The reason he fought the Queen with us...” the librarian added with a smirk.

You all aren’t helping. The others were glancing between the changelings and Twilight, not understanding what was happening. Rainbow was still keeping her guard up in the case she needed to intervene.

Doppel took a huge breath and turned to Fluttershy with her lack of understanding the same than the others. “You know, nopony is the master of their own feelings, and that also goes for changelings.” The pegasus began to blush, realizing where it was going. “Fluttershy, I'm also in love with you.”

The only thing Fluttershy could muster after that was a feeble eep. She laid on the ground and hid her face in her hooves. On the other side of his bed, Rainbow and Applejack stood there with their mouths agape.

Pinkie was jumping all over the place. “Whee, it's so cute! A changeling in love!” At these words, Doppel blushed. He looked again at Fluttershy who hadn't recovered yet from the shock.

“How romantic! The chivalrous gentlecolt, uh changeling, ready to sacrifice himself to save his beloved one's town, to protect her,” Rarity went further.

“I would have saved Ponyville anyway, even if I wasn't in love, but it clearly helped,” Doppel clarified.

“You know, you're pretty harmless for a changeling,” Rainbow said, after she was able to shut her mouth again. When she saw Twilight’s glare, she corrected herself, “I mean, harmless for Ponyville.”

“No, I never wanted that. Even when we first met, I didn't want to bring harm to anypony. I just wanted to help Fluttershy with a matter concerning... Well, you at the time but not anymore.”

Fluttershy stood up. She couldn't muster to look at Doppel but she was able to talk. “I still don't believe it.”

“Neither do I,” Doppel answered. “But it's clear that I'm in love with you. Camouflage confirmed it.”

“Though he hit the jackpot,” Mimic complained by whispering to his friends. “His food source is in love with him, and he is with her.”

“No, the true jackpot would be her in love with him but not him with her,” Camouflage responded. “He wouldn’t have to do stupid things because of it.” The changelings stopped their chatting when they noticed that ponies were looking at them. “Sorry...” She lowered her head. Doppel giggled at the expense of his friends, embarrassed at their behavior. “Don't laugh at us. It's not funny!”

Doppel took a few breath and regained his composure. “By the way, why are you still disguised? Everypony knows that you're changelings.”

“We're not like you!” said Illusion, blowing through her cheeks. “We don't like strolling around undisguised.”

“It's tough at first, but...”

Twilight and her friends looked at each other, like if she was going to explain. They hoped to get a response from Fluttershy, but she was too busy staring at Doppel. Finally, Applejack asked, “What's the problem with not being disguised?” She said, scratching her neck with her hoof.

“It's embarrassing for a changeling to show himself undisguised in front of ponies.” Rainbow rose a hoof to protest, but Illusion continued her explanation. “And Doppel doesn’t really count.” Doppel looked jokingly hurt by the jab delivered by his friend.

“That's not what I wanted to ask. I want to know why during the invasion, you weren’t disguised?” the prismatic pegasus retorted.

“We were so many of us at that time that it didn't matter. Moreover we had adrenaline from battle so, it helped.”

“Your embarrassment may come from a physiological function,” Twilight intervened. A heavy silence showed that the attention was now on her. “The fact that you had to hide to survive has created emotions preventing you from dropping your disguise. One of those being embarrassment.”

A smile crept on Doppel's face. “So, you're not in danger here, right? Why shouldn’t you change back? If I managed to stay in my normal form and make my declaration in front of everypony, I don't see why you can't manage to only stay undisguised.”

Illusion frowned. “I still don’t think you're a normal changeling.” Doppel continued to stare her with his grin. “You're not going to let me live that down, aren't you?” He made a slight shake of the head to say no. “Fine...”

All at once, the three changelings dropped their disguise. As soon as the flames died, Twilight took out a small notepad and began to take notes. “Are you happy?” protested Illusion. “We look absolutely ridiculous.”

“Not from our point of view,” assured the librarian who was coming closer to Camouflage, her pencil ready to write. “But it's very useful for my studies.” She was studying from every angle the female changeling who couldn't help being embarrassed. “I’ve always wanted to know how you identify each other. For us, you all just look like the same. I need to do an extensive list of every difference I can detect.”

“Do... Doppel. Can you ask Twilight to stop looking at me like a science experiment?” stuttered Camouflage. “It's already hard being undisguised, but it's worse when you're stared at.” Twilight stopped counting the holes in the hooves of the changeling and smiled sheepishly.

“What are we going to do now that all of Ponyville knows about these four changelings?” asked Rarity.

Twilight took a serious face and dropped her notepad and her pencil. “First, we have to tell the Princess.” She turned to Spike. “Spike, take a letter!” He responded by a salute but was quickly interrupted by a white hoof.

“That won't be necessary,” came a warm and soft voice. “I already know everything.”

“Princess Celestia!” they all exclaimed. Mimic, Camouflage and Illusion all hid themselves in a corner of the room, shivering like they'd seen a ghost, and Doppel buried himself on the bed, hiding under the covers.

“No need to be afraid, dear changelings,” Celestia reassured. “I know what you've done for Ponyville.” Despite reassuring words, the changelings didn't move an inch. “I know that the Queen of the changelings attempted to attack Ponyville and was rendered powerless by the Elements of Harmony.” She approached Doppel, still hidden behind the sheets. “And you must be the one who revealed the deception of the Queen.”

Doppel took his head out and look at the Princess. “Yes...” What is the right phrase for her? Princess? Your Highness? Your Majesty? Your Royal Illustriousness? No, that one is a bit too much... “Yes, Your Majesty...” he finally managed to stutter.

The Princess couldn't help giggling. “It must be hard for you.” She took a more serious and kind tone. “You've always been told that I was a ruthless and tyrannical ruler that would torture any changeling who had the audacity to cross my path. Even as outlaws, these ideas remain, thanks to the years of brainwashing you faced. But I assure that it is not the case.”

“Princess, how do you know they're outlaws?” Twilight suddenly asked. “We never told you!”

"They fought the Queen by your sides. If they weren't outlaws before, they are now," Celestia explained. "I think fighting the Queen was something very terrifying for you but you did it nonetheless and I and the citizen of Ponyville thank you."

"But what are we going to do with them now that the entire population of Ponyville has seen the fight?" Twilight asked. "These changelings are no danger for Ponyville, but now that their cover are discovered, it will be harder for them to feed."

"Not for one of them," rainbow snarked, looking at Doppel still half hiding under his covers.

"It is clear to me that this event is going to change a lot of things now. We can't ask them to leave, less punish them while they helped Equestria." The Princess thought about it a few seconds. "I think they earn to live among us but laws are not adapted to them. Their ability to transform could lead to punish the wrong pony and left them unpunished."

Camouflage moved towards Celestia, her hooves shaking. "We assure you that we'll never use our ability to transform to get around your laws."

"Oh yes!" Mimic went on, putting himself beside his friend. "The last thing we want is to have trouble with you. Endure the wrath of one royal family member is enough for me." Camouflage hit him on the head to make him behave.

The Princess giggled again. "I pretty sure that you wouldn't dare to break the law. You wouldn't be here if that was the case." She took a more serious face. "The problem is that the Queen is longer in command and several changelings could be tempted to follow your kind of life. They will have to follow Equestrian's laws as much as you. So we need to find a way to make the newcomers respect the laws without hindering their freedom."

"To do that, we'd need to know every ability a changeling has and a way to deal with it." Twilight pointed out.

"I know, my dear student, that you have already gather a lot of data on the subject." She picked the notepad up and gave back to Twilight. "I'm sure that I will have soon a complete encyclopedia on changelings."

"Yes Princess!" She said happily before taking a somber tone. "But it still lacks some vital data. All information I gather is from Doppel. So I can't tell them apart and I don't know yet the difference between male and female."

Pinkie jumped among the three changelings. "But Twilight, you have three more to play with now." She caught Illusion around the neck. "Look at this one, he's funny."

"I'm a female changeling, thank you." she replied in a harsh tone.

"But what are we doing with them while you'll make the new laws, Princess?" asked Applejack.

Celestia looked at the changelings, trying to find an idea. Twilight spoke up. "We only need to make sure that we know all the time the identity of the pony in front of us." Her face lit up as she turned towards the changelings. "So as long as somepony knows where you are, we can't mistake you for somepony else. By assigning you a pony, you could go anywhere as long you don't leave them."

"It's a way indeed," the Princess nodded. "But let's ask the interest party to see what they think of it. Do you agree on that terms? I reassure you, it's only temporary."

"Doesn’t matter to me," Doppel answered. "I was intending to live with Fluttershy before the invasion. Fluttershy can vouch for me as well." He look at Fluttershy. "Unless you don't want me to anymore?"

"Oh no. I'd be happy to live with you."

"Great, one down, three to go!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"I could vouch for one also," Twilight said. "I need to complete my study on changelings and it'd be useful to have a changeling all the time near me, a female one if possible." She stared at the three changelings, trying to tell them apart.

After a short instant where they were looking at each other, Illusion moved forwards. "I think it should be me." She took one breath. "After all, I just arrived in Ponyville and all I know about this place is what these three have told me."

"So, you're Illusion?" tried Twilight, not sure at all.

"You really can't tell us apart, can't you?"

Before anypony could say something, Vinyl Scratch entered in the room. "Wow, I finally found the changelings!" The ponies in the room remained silent, staring now the newcomer. What would Vinyl Scratch want from us? "Which one of you was disguising themselves as Octavia?"

"How did you guess I impersonated Octavia?" Camouflage exclaimed. Vinyl's grin made her understand her slip.

"I think you just gave yourself away," said an amused Celestia.

"So, it was you!" The DJ walk towards the now embarrassed changeling. She took some rapid glance at her, like as she was trying to find any resemblance between her marefriend and her impostor. "I had doubt about it before... But when the changeling's army came and that you were there to keep it away, my doubts were confirmed; a changeling was taking the place of my marefriend from time to time."

"But I mimicked her behavior to perfection. How could you possibly have a doubt?"

"I admit you grasped her character pretty well. You fooled me there. But there is a little detail you overlooked. Octavia is preparing herself so much that she never forgets her things." Vinyl put her glasses on the top of her head. "Now, I'd like to retrieve the bows you stole from us. Because Octavia still thinks it's me who steal them as a joke."

"Yes…" Camouflage lowered her head like a foal who was scolded. "I was going to bring them back eventually."

Vinyl caught the chin of the changeling and rose it. "There, there. I'm not here to punish you. I find you rather funny. It was fun to tease you, trying to know how far you'd go to not be discovered." Camouflage only respond with a pout.

Twilight's face lighted up. "Eh, I have an idea. Vinyl, why don't you take Camouflage with you?"

"Come again?"

"I mean the changeling you find fun…"

Vinyl pondered about it for a moment. She finally put her glasses back on her nose. "You mean I could have my own changeling at home?"

"Eh, we're not common pets!" Camouflage complained.

Her comment was ignored when the DJ raise a hoof upon the roof. "You bet I want it! Now I just want to see the look on Octavia's face when I come back with the changeling." Her smile was growing larger and larger.

"Perfect! Doppel is with Fluttershy, Illusion is with me and Camouflage will be with Vinyl. Mimic, you're the last one."

Outbursts of voice came from the hallway. "I told you I’d get to the bottom of this!"

"But honey, I can assure you. I didn't cheat on you."

"I know that. But I'm making it clear that no one can touch my wife without…" Lyra appeared on the doorstep, accompanied by Bon-Bon, cutting her own sentence at the sight of the four changelings. Her pupils shrink in size. "Which one of you dared to use my face to hit on my wife?" Doppel hid under his covers. Being the only trying to hide, it became clear who was the culprit. "So, it was you!"

Great… I didn't know that Lyra was the jealous type. What do I do now? Doppel pushed the cover down to let him see the others. I wonder why I was afraid of the Princess when Lyra is way scarier. "Sorry. But, in my defense, I never wanted to take Bon-Bon from you. I simply used the fact she was in love with you to feed."

The only thing that Doppel was reading now was the disgust on Lyra's face. The truth wasn't the best idea to calm her. He joined his hooves in front of him. "Forget about feeding. I swear I never put my hoof on her. Each time she was making advances to me, I reject them."

"That's why you seemed colder from time to time," Bon-Bon exclaimed.

"So, you not only hit on my wife, but you made me pass as a cold hearted pony as well!?"

"Please, don't hurt me!" Doppel hid again under the covers. "I really meant no harm." How will I get out of this? Why do I have the feeling that fighting the Queen was easier than this? He poked his head out to see Lyra still boiling with rage. "I assure you that it wasn't in my interests to break up your marriage at all." A sudden realization came to him. "I even tried to help you."

Now, Lyra relaxed a little, still on the defensive. It seems to work. "You might remember when you argued with Bon-Bon about the melted chocolate on the oven? You left the house telling yourself that you would never come back and Bon-Bon would never forgive you for that?" The unicorn nodded, her eyes focused on the changeling. "I passed myself off as you and did anything I could to get Bon-Bon to forgive you, and I made her swear that she never told you about it."

"But that’s impossible. Bon-Bon found me later in the park to apologize." Lyra looked at her wife, not understanding the situation.

"I never found you in the park that evening. I simply waited you come back home." Bon-Bon explained.

"I assure you that she's telling the truth. She stayed home for the rest of the evening. But I can't say I did the same..." Lyra began to understand what Doppel was saying. "Sure, it wasn't nice to meddle in your relationship but it would have been a shame if you had broke up for a failed culinary experiment." Now the last argument. "If it makes you feel any better, I won't stick my nose in your relationship anymore." To prove his point, he tenderly gaze at Fluttershy.

"Okay…" Lyra grumbled. "I forgive you." She turned around to leave when she ended up facing the Princess. "Oh sorry, Princess!" She kneeled at once, along with Bon-Bon, not daring to look at Celestia's eyes. "We didn't see you were there."

Before the Princess could even reassure them that it didn't matter in this case, Vinyl grabbed Lyra's neck to face her. "Eh Lyra! What do you think of taking a changeling home?"

"Huh?" was the only word the green unicorn could manage.

"They’re giving changelings out to make sure they don't wreak havoc in Ponyville."

"And she's still talking about us like we're common pets," Camouflage complained.

"Why would I shelter the changeling who flirted with my wife?"

"No, he's already taken." Vinyl said, pointing to Mimic with her hoof. "It's this one. Imagine all the possibilities." She rose her hoof to the roof. "They could transform in anything you want. You told me how much you wanted to see humans… They could transform into that too."

Lyra now looked at Mimic who was smiling sheepishly. "Transforming into humans, huh?" She pondered it a second. "It won't be real humans… But it could help my studies so much."

"Lyra! You can't consider taking a changeling home? You don't remember that their kind brainwashed you at the wedding?"

Mimic took a step forward and lay a hoof on Bon-Bon's shoulder. "That kind of spell is far too advanced for me. Only the Queen and some spies are able to master it. I only know the basic spells that every changeling has to know." He looked at the Princess warily. "And then, even if I could do the spells, I wouldn't even dare to use them. I don't want any trouble with your Princess."

Celestia couldn't help but giggle at the remark. "No need to restrain yourselves like that. Unless the spell in question causes harm to somepony, you can do anything you like." She took a more serious tone. "However, I'll ask you one last thing." The changelings all looked at the Princess with apprehension. "I need you to find a disguise that isn’t an existing pony."

"Why is that?" Applejack queried. "Everypony knows that there are changelings in this town. It has no purpose to hide it now."

"Their disguise will serve three purposes on the contrary," the Princess responded. "Firstly, it will help us tell the difference between them. They look the same to us and so, it's impossible to tell who is who. Secondly, Ponyvillians are still afraid a little by changelings, no need to rushed things out. Let them gradually get used to them. And the more important one, if your vouching pony is unable to be with you at the moment, you could only wander off in that disguise. Obviously, it's only in case of emergency."

"Seems logical," Applejack said after a moment.

"I already know which disguise I’m taking." Doppel jumped on the bed and after a green fire whirl, a grayish brown stallion with a blue-purple mane stood there. "This was the disguise I used when I first met Fluttershy."

"You remember your disguise from that day?" Fluttershy wondered.

"It was a life changing day for me, so yes, I remembered. I also remember the name I used, Cobalt Crescent."

"The name is optional," the Princess said, with amusement in her voice. "Mimic, Camouflage, Illusion. You don't have to find a disguise right now." She turned to Pinkie. "But I think it should be a good idea to find one before the welcoming party that I'm sure Pinkie is about to launch."

"You can count on me Princess!" Pinkie saluted.

"I shall leave now. I will let our new changeling friends to get used to their new life."

"Thank you Princess!" The changelings bowed.

With that, Celestia left the room, followed by her guards.

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111

Here's the new 16th chapter. Some ideas I had but I couldn't put in the original have appeared in this version, like the fact that Vinyl already knew about Camouflage (only hinted in her chapter). This version is more conventional, than the other, but I hope more pleasant to read.

New Way of Living

The changelings finally left the hospital with Fluttershy in tow. Doppel, while stretching his legs, groaned a bit. It's nice to finally be out of there. Luckily, I had so much love stored that the healing was quick. He turned over and look at his friends, undisguised. "So, how do you like being yourself out here?"

"You were right, Doppel," Camouflage answered, looking confident. "It's easy to be in our natural form in front of ponies."

Illusion made a face. "You’ve been spending too much time with Doppel to say that." She turned into a purple maned blue pegasus mare. "The less I remain in my natural form, the better I'll be." She rose her nose as if it proved her point.

"You may have chosen the wrong vouching pony then," Fluttershy pointed out, "without wanting to contradict you." Illusion lose her haughty face to look at the pegasus with a deep incomprehension. "Twilight will want to study you in details to complete her report on changelings. That means she'll have to auscult you undisguised."

"Shoot, I hadn't thought about that." She looked at all the directions a little panicked. "You think I can still change my vouching pony?"

"You’d better get used to it anyway," Camouflage assured. "In a near future, we’ll all have to wander around undisguised."

"Remind me why I thought being an outlaw was a good idea?"

Twilight, accompanied by Lyra and Vinyl, came back from the town square. "There. I came to an agreement with Mayor Mare for you to stay in Ponyville, even if she wasn't happy about it." She examined the changelings before continuing. "She's going to ask you for a picture of your pony's disguise, so choose quickly.

"On a different note--" Twilight opened her saddlebag and gave everypony a flyer. "Pinkie gave me these. The party will begin at seven. So until then, it would be nice to get to know the changeling we're going to live with." She squinted her eyes. "So where's Illusion?" The three other changelings pointed her with their hoof, a grin upon their face. "Ooh, a pegasus. Interesting! You chose this disguise because you wanted to keep your ability to fly or there is something else?"

Before Illusion had the time to give an answer or even protest, Vinyl spoke. "I don’t think this is the right place to ask questions. Let's split up here and meet up in front of Pinkie's at seven!" She looked at the changelings, trying to find hers. Thinking quickly that would be impossible for her at the moment, she added, "Come with me Camouflage." Vinyl left the group, followed quickly by Camouflage.

-|--|-

"Tavi! I've got a surprise for you!" Vinyl shouted while she came back home, followed by Camouflage.

"Vinyl I swear, if it’s another cat, it's--" Octavia cut her own sentence as soon as she entered the room. Her face went to simple bother to shock.

"It's not a cat this time," the DJ smirked. "Tavi, here's Camouflage."

"What is that?"

"Thanks… The that is feeling very welcome," complained Camouflage.

"Don't you think we’ve had enough trouble with changelings already?" Octavia lost her temper. "And you brought one home."

"But, he's a nice changeling," Vinyl pled. "He was one of the ones that helped stop the Queen." She turned her head towards the changeling, raising her glasses on her head. "Which one were you during the fight?"

"The one who save Doppel before Illusion intervened," she replied with a deadpan. And if you could use the right pronoun, that would be nice too.

"Oh, you were the one who was trembling in front of the Queen?"

"You wouldn't fare better than us in the same situation!" Camouflage retorted. Seriously, I'm just a nurse and she's like, the most powerful changeling in all Equestria.

"Vinyl! What were you thinking when you decided to bring one here?" Octavia brought again.

"Well, they can't follow their Queen after they’ve fought against her." Vinyl took an exaggerated dramatic tone. "So, they don't have a place to crash anymore. And the Princess, in her generousness, has decided they could live among us. But our laws aren't made for them, so the Princess asked us to keep an eye on them."

"But Vinyl. Do you have an idea how much it's going to cost us?" The cellist was now pacing through the room. "We may have a comfortable life, but we don't roll in bits either."

"Don't worry," Camouflage intervened. "I feed from love and by the way, you won't have to spend any bits on food for me."

"Food is only one of my concerns." She now stared at the changeling and her fillyfriend successively. "You’d need clothes, household products. Not to mention a bed!"

"A bed?" Camouflage wondered. "You don't have to buy me a bed."

"I simply can't ask you to sleep on the couch."

Even the couch would be an improvement compared to what I used to live with. The changeling tried to open her mouth to respond but nothing came out. No, it's useless to try to dissuade them. That's what Doppel told me.

"Awww Tavi. It's unfair," Vinyl complained. "You made me sleep on the couch the first time I came here."

"You deserved it at the time."

"About the clothing. During my transformation, I can disguise myself with clothes. You won't need to buy that as well," Camouflage reassured.

"Oh yes. You need to find a good disguise for tonight," the DJ exclaimed. "You'll need it for Mayor Mare and Pinkie's party." She smiled. "I know perfectly what your cutie mark would look like. A bow!"

"Why a bow?" Octavia asked. "Changelings have some musical taste? Or they are musicians themselves? And how do you know that by the way?"

Camouflage rolled her eyes. She used her magic to retrieve the bows on Vinyl's saddlebag and guiltily hand them to the cellist. If she didn't understand why I'm here now…

"But these are MY bows!" she shouted, catching them with vigor. "Why did you have these?" She thought about it a few moments before turning to her fillyfriend. "Vinyl… Is there a reason why you were specifically chosen to look after this changeling?"

"This seems obvious, no?" Vinyl smiled. "This changeling was transforming into you to feed from love I gave."

Octavia jaws fell. Way to put things for sure. "I needed a reason to explain why you were coming back since you'd seem gone for a long time," Camouflage added. She couldn't resolve herself to look at the cellist's eyes now. "I forgot my bow was the most common excuse I use for that effect." She stopped talking to see her reaction. I didn't think I was going to be in Doppel's horseshoes so quickly. Jealous mares are the worst. "If it could reassure you, Vinyl isn't in love with me, even if she found out about me."

"Why did you let him continue if you knew what was happening?" Octavia complained, redirecting her anger on her fillyfriend.

"Because it was fun to see him trying to stay in character after my teasing." Vinyl turned to the changeling who was now pouting. "What, did I upset you? It was just a little joke for…"

She couldn't finish her explanation when Camouflage interrupted her. "It's her. I'm a female, thanks." The two mares looked at the changeling like she was an alien. I'm sick hearing everypony say he or him to me. She came close to Octavia and held out her hoof at her. "I think I've not introduced myself yet. I'm Camouflage. I'm a female outlaw changeling who’s lived in Ponyville for about a year now. I must stay with you until your Princess find a way to let us roaming freely in Equestria." The cellist mechanically shook hooves with her.

"Oh, kinky," Vinyl said when she was able to talk again. "So, you do have genders. It means that you can have the other gender and do some sort of experiments." She rose her eyebrows to stress her point. Octavia hit her in the back of her head to make her behave. "What? Don't pretend you’re not even curious to know what it would feel to be a male?"

Camouflage rolled her eyes. "For us, it's not a big deal." She tapped her chin. "Now, I have to find a proper disguise for the party." Her eyes were fixed on the ground while she thought about it. "Maybe my disguise should be male, just to make sure there will be no temptation." She stared at the DJ who put on a faux victim act. Yeah, even if she’s a proud fillyfooler, I'm convinced she would still be able to make a move on me if I was male.

"Don't worry," Octavia took part. "Even if I can reproach Vinyl for a lot of things, being unfaithful is not one of them." It doesn't look like it. "You can take whatever disguise you want."

Camouflage took a deep breath and transformed.

--|-|--

Bon-Bon was sitting on the couch, waiting for Lyra and Mimic to come back. Her wife, being chosen as a vouching pony, had to take care of some paperworks to make it work. "Wait for me at home and see if you can set everything up for him to live here." She sighed. "How can I do that? I barely know it, or him… Or her, I don't even know." She looked at the stairs. "We do have a guest bedroom, but for anything else. What are changeling's need?"

The door banged open, revealing Lyra and Mimic. As they entered the room, the unicorn turned to the changeling. "Hey! Can you change into a human?"

"Lyra!" Bon-Bon exclaimed. "He just got here and you’re already asking him to transform." She came close to her guest. "I don't even know your name."

"Mimic." He vigorously shook his hoof with Bon-Bon's. "Or you can name me as you wish if my name bothers you. After all, we don't have names normally and seeing we aren’t going to be outlaws anymore…"

Bon-Bon did a double take before adding, "Mimic it is." Seeing that the changeling surveyed his surroundings, she quickly explained, "Sorry, we didn't expect to come home with a changeling today. We don't have anything ready. We only have now the guest bedroom for you."

"Oh, but it's perfect. It's better than anything I’ve had." Mimic marvelled at the house. Bon-Bon looked at him with some concerns. "It sure beats living in a cave."

"You lived in a cave?" Lyra inquired. "It seems tough."

"Comfort for a changeling is secondary. But if you’re offering me a bed, I don't see why I should say no."

"So, what will you need other than a bed?" Bon-Bon continued.

"Hmm..." Mimic thought about during a few seconds. "Not really anything. As long as you like me enough, I should be good." He wandered around, looking at everything. After he got the feeling of the room, he turned to the two mares. They were radiating worry. "If you have trouble liking me, I still can find love somewhere else. You only need to be with me in that case." Mimic noticed that didn't relieve their stress. "What's the problem?"

"I have a question…" Bon-Bon asked. "Is our health in danger with you?" Mimic didn't respond. Instead, he stared at them quizzically. "I heard you steal love from your victims to feed."

"Oh that…" The changeling couldn't make eye contact now. "I could in theory do that. But since I’ve lived with Doppel, you know, the changeling who took your place, I can't resort anymore to steal love using that method." He rose his eyes again and smiled. "So I can only take love from ponies who willingly give theirs. The best part is, if you know me in my real form, you'll never endure side effects."

"Well then. Now that the presentations are over, you can change into a human?" Lyra interjected. Her tail was wagging as she expectantly waited the transformation. Her wife, in the other hand, looked less impatient about it.

"As you wish. But you'll need to explain to me what looks like a human, because I’ve never see them before,' Mimic replied.

"I have a book upstairs about that." As soon she finished her sentence, Lyra dashed to the second floor. The room suddenly became silent. A short moment after, the changeling and Bon-Bon hear a shout from upstairs.

They rushed to see what happened and found Lyra, lying on the ground, holding her head. "My head hurts…" she whimpered.

"Sorry," Mimic apologized. "I didn't think that I was hurting you feeding on love. I was using the third method, honestly."

"Are you okay sweetie? What happened?" Bon-Bon worried. "Don't tell me you banged your head on the door?"

"No," Lyra whimpered. "It just hurt all the sudden." She continued to hold her head, slightly shivering. Her wife send a mean glare to Mimic who lowered his head.

Then, the unicorn stopped shivering and relaxed. She stood up and stared at the others bewildered. "The pain went away."

"I haven't severed the link yet," said Mimic, as much bewildered as Lyra was.

"You got too carried away and gave yourself a headache. You worried us for nothing," Bon-Bon shouted.

"I don't really get it." Lyra turned around and looked at her room. "The book!"

"Wait!" Bon-Bon caught the elbow of her wife, preventing her from entering their bedroom. "I think we should focus first on the disguise Mimic will use in his everyday life."

"Yeah, you're right," she replied, a sad tone on her voice. "You have already an idea on what you want to look like?"

"The question you must ask is what disguise do you want me to use?" Mimic returned the question. "You’re going to need to like it as much as I do, seeing as you’re going to see me in this disguise everyday."

Lyra try to respond but was cut off by a hoof to the mouth. "No, not a human form. The purpose of his disguise is to blend with us, not to stand out more."

"I wasn't going to suggest that." The unicorn rolled her eyes. "I don't think about humans all the time either." She looked at Mimic. "No, the perfect disguise I see for him is…"

-|--|-

Illusion who was following Twilight to the library studied the inhabitants of Ponyville. So many choices here. I wonder why I didn't become outlaw before. There's food for years here. She began to drool at the thought.

"Are you okay, Illusion?" Twilight was looking at the changeling, still disguised as a blue pegasus. "You seem to have zoned out." Illusion shook her head to clear her head. "Are you sure that the Queen's attack wasn't too tough for you?"

"No, don't worry. It's just I have to come to the realization that I'm going to live here."

"I'm sure they are all going to warm up to you." Twilight made a large gesture to show the entire village. "After all, you sort of saved Ponyville."

Sure, I saved it. Illusion looked at the ground. If someone told me I'd side with the ponies and with Doppel a few days ago, I would have called them nuts. I've even called Doppel nuts to be banished from the Hive. And here I am, talking with the Princess' student.

"You haven't answered my question yet." Twilight spoke again. "Why did you choose a pegasus as disguise?"

"It was random, I have to admit. But, it's true that if I had to choose, I’d prefer keeping the ability to fly."

"Hm, it's interesting." The unicorn caught her notebook in her saddlebag and took some notes. "So, you do have preferences. Doppel prefers unicorns."

"Coming from him, it's not that surprising… He's not the strongest changeling I know and he's a very poor flier. It's logical for him to choose magic," Illusion replied.

"It's not that Doppel chose magic over flight or power, but that among changelings, you’d prefer some disguises over others while you said you’d want to reduce the differences between each other. Well, Doppel said…"

Illusion pouted, looking at nothing, trying to find something to say. "I know… But, as soon we have the slightest difference between us, the choice in disguises changes. Doppel isn't made for being a guard, he isn't swift or strong. An earth pony for him would be a mistake."

"I see. So you’d want things to be the same, but you aren't physically."

The discussion ended as they arrive at the library. Spike waited for them at the door. "You’re finally back!" He let them enter. "Mayor Mare didn't want much?"

"No, not really…” Twilight thought for a moment. “Wait! The photo! Spike, get me the camera." Twilight ordered. Spike made a military salute and run upstairs. "You're fine with your actual disguise?" Illusion nodded, not understanding really what she really wanted.

Spike came back and gave the camera to the unicorn. She grabbed it with her telekinesis and without a warning, took a photo. The changeling could only blink as the flash of the camera flared. "Thanks Spike. Could you now develop the film and take the photo to Mayor Mare?" Spike saluted again and left the library.

"You could've warned me. Thanks to you, I probably have a silly face," Illusion argued. "So, I guess that will be my disguise for the rest of my life?"

"As long as we can't differentiate each other, it is," Twilight replied with a smile. "Now, you're not obligated to keep your disguise at home. Doppel didn't."

The changeling nodded and sat. She looked at the books resting on their shelf. At least, I won't be bored right away. There are enough books to read for at least a year.

"You aren’t going to change?" Twilight interrupted the thoughts of Illusion.

The changeling looked at her dumbfounded. "I must?"

"No, but I thought you'd be more at ease in your natural form. After all, this will be your house for a long time, so this is where you’ll be able to relax. And, it must be magically draining."

"Nah, it's okay with magic. Staying in disguise, as long as the disguise is appropriate, doesn't consume much." Illusion reassured her. "Also, we're going to the pink pony's party and to avoid transforming over and over again for nothing, I might as well stay in this form." And above all, I don't want to be undisguised in front of anypony more than I have to.

"Oh well," Twilight sighed, "I wanted to do some research on your natural form before going at Pinkie's. But you're probably right. We don't have much time left after all."

Illusion spontaneously look at the clock. I wonder what we’re going to do at this party. I should have asked what purpose has this party to the others. A welcoming party… "About that, what should we do when we're there?"

Twilight took a surprised look. "Oh obviously, you don't know what will happen." She smirked. "Pinkie is going to present you and your friends in front of everypony. Don't worry, it looks intimidating but it's not. Ponyvillians are used to welcoming newcomers like that. It's a sign that you're not dangerous and you're accepted in town."

"This is all I have to do? Smile and wave?"

"Yes. And revert to your natural form, at least to show what you really look like to the others. They have to get used to see changelings wander in town after all." Twilight smiled at Illusion. "I think everypony is excited for this party to start. The day was particularly long."

Not everypony is excited, believe me…

--|-|--

Doppel and Fluttershy walked alongside to the cottage. The changeling began to speak. "This is not how I imagined we’d come back to the cottage while I was still in the hospital."

"You imagined a parade of honor with ponies congratulating you for saving Ponyville."

Doppel giggled. "No, not something like that. Even while dreaming, I try to remain a realist." He gaze at the trees lining the way, avoiding eye contact with Fluttershy. "I imagined that I hold you like a charming prince and fly you to the cottage."

"Oh no, you shouldn't. You just came back from the hospital. You need to rest," Fluttershy worried.

"Don't worry. Even fully rested I doubt I could do that anyway." He rose and lowered successively his hoof, before realizing what he just said. "Not that you're heavy, but I'm not the strong type as you may have already understood." He scratched his head.

"What are we going to do now?" the pegasus asked.

"I don't know. The only thing I know is that I'm going to live with you. No more hiding."

"It's not much," she laughed.

"I still have to come to term with the fact I'm in love with you, and you with me." Doppel closed his eyes to think. "I never thought I'd fall for someone, let alone a pony. When you're an outlaw, this is the last thing you'd expect."

"But aren't you a master of the love feeling?"

"Yeah…" he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "It's different knowing something theoretically or faking it and dealing with the real thing." He let a forced laugh out. "It even scares me a little."

"Being scared is something I'm the master of," Fluttershy joked. "I could teach you a thing or two."

"I think it's going to be fine. If thousands of ponies have managed to do it in the past, I don't see why we can't."

They stopped in front of the cottage. Fluttershy tried to reach out for the handle but stopped midway. "Even for us? I mean, changeling and pony?"

"It's not that uncommon," Doppel replied. He finally opened the door and he went inside, but stopped when he saw that he was not followed. He looked back at the pegasus. "What's wrong?"

"There are more outlaws?" she asked flabbergasted.

Doppel stood there silently, trying to understand what the problem was. "Oh, I get it now. You don't need to be outlaw to be in this kind of relationship." It seems that I have to explain. "When you're an infiltrator, you have two possibilities. Either you take the place of an existing pony and feed from the love the target feel for him, or you can make up an entirely new persona and try to make your target fall for you." He smiled before continuing. "The problem with flirting is that it can go both ways."

"But the changeling is always disguised!"

"Yeah… But when you're there for a long time, the persona you use isn't very far from who you are really. Apart from your appearance, it's you. The Queen didn't care how you bring back love, so you can do pretty much what you like, as long you don't bring harm to the Hive. So you can live for the rest of your life as if you were a pony in love with another pony."

"But you are the only one who are under his normal form," Fluttershy noted.

Doppel put his hoof behind his head. "Yeah… I think we'd have heard it if another changeling had done this."

He stare at the stairs leading to the bedroom. Still the same question unanswered. "You know, we should probably buy a two pony bed. Yours is a little too small for two."

Fluttershy let out a loud gasp by her standards. She tried to avoid the now quizzical gaze of Doppel. "What's the problem?" he asked. "Couples usually sleep together at night, no? We already did two nights ago too."

"It just seemed weird when you said it," she justified.

"You don't want to sleep with me?" the changeling said with a little disappointment in his tone. "I can sleep on the ground… I mean I can take the couch."

"No, I'd like that. I slept very well two nights ago. I'm just not used to it yet."

"I'm pretty sure you'll get used quickly," Doppel assured. Something that you don't know, it's that it seems weird to me too saying that. He tried to keep his facade the best he could. Normally, I wouldn’t have any trouble saying that, but here… It's so different.

He sat, still lost in thoughts. By the way, apart from sleeping both in the same bed, we haven't done couple thing yet anyway. Should I kiss her? He checked her lips. After a few seconds, he looked away. Way to look creepy, staring at her like that. And then, I'd know when she'll be ready for that. I knew for Bon-Bon wasn’t.

"Is something troubling you?" Fluttershy asked. "You haven’t said anything for a while."

"Nothing important," Doppel reassured her. "I'm just a little tired from the long day."

"Are you sure you'll be able to go to Pinkie's party?"

Don't worry about me Fluttershy. If I’ve survived the Queen, I think I should be able to handle Pinkie's party. Especially a party in my honor, or me and my friends' honor. He smiled. "I think I’ll have enough energy for this."

Author's Note

Edited by war10ck111

I'm still alive. Sorry this chapter took so much time. Don't worry, the next chapter should come faster (I already wrote 50% of it).

Stuck With Fluttershy

Doppel flew as fast as possible. Why did I promise to do something like that in my condition? Now I'm gonna be chased for the rest of my life by angry ponies. His breathing began to speed up, and not only because he was flying faster than he’d ever flown. He was nearly having panic attack. I'm sure that Rainbow Dash will do whatever she can to find me.

Without even realizing it, he had flown up to Fluttershy's cottage. Why am I stopping here? I need to return to the Everfree Forest or else, I'll make more trouble for her. He sneezed, going back to his changeling form. Great, now it's easier to find me. A yellow hoof caught him and pulled him in the front door.

“Doppel? What are you doing in front of my home undisguised?” she asked, worried.

“I...” he answered, looking for the right words. “I accidentally revealed to Rainbow Dash that I’m a changeling.”

Fluttershy paled at his words. “How?”

“I have a cold!” he snapped.

The yellow pegasus didn't seem to grasp why it was so important. Doppel realized that the implications of a cold weren't the same for the ponies than for the changelings. He sneezed again and took the shape of a pegasus from the guard of Celestia.

“See?” he said, gesturing to his new form. “Every time changeling’s sneeze, they involuntarily transform into something random. This time, I'm a royal guard.”

“That's why you revealed your real form to me,” she realized.

“No, you think?” he scoffed. “I love to reveal myself in front of the first pony I pass,” Fluttershy backtracked a little, lowering her head. Wow, sarcastic comments don't seem to work very well with her. “Listen, I'm sorry. I'm just nervous. I’m going back to the Everfree.”

“Wait!” she said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “Can you at least tell me what had really happened with Rainbow Dash?”

--|-|--

Rainbow had flown as fast as she could to Twilight's library. The changelings were coming back and she needed to warn her. Without taking the trouble to knock at the door, she barged in earning a surprised look from the unicorn.

“Rainbow, I've always said that you can come when you want but...” she began with an annoyed frown.

“Not now!” the pegasus said, cutting her off. “There are Changelings in town!”

Twilight’s frown deepened. “Changelings? Are you sure?”

“Well, Fluttershy was about to ask me something, but then, it wasn't Fluttershy! It was a changeling! Because Fluttershy suddenly changed to Daring Do! Twilight, we need to call the others!”

“So then, where are they?” the unicorn asked.

“They who?”

“The changelings,” she repeated. “Where are they? You seem like the only one who knows about them.”

“I don't know... I came here as soon as I saw this one,” Rainbow admitted.

“Great! So now we have to look for a changeling, which can be anypony in town,” Twilight grumbled. “And I suppose you only saw one?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So, we're not sure how many changelings are in town. It might just be him,” she continued. “What did he do to you?”

“Er, he kinda just stared at me,” Rainbow said. “Just froze up when he transformed.”

“So he didn't hurt you?” the unicorn reworded. The pegasus only nodded. “Strange... What were you doing at the time?”

“Well, I had been napping, but what does that have to do with anything?”

Twilight sighed. “You know what Rainbow? I have the feeling that you were still dreaming,” she said with a shake of her head. “By the way, I just read an interesting book on dreams. It said that they were the mirror of our subconscious. Fluttershy might have just been a-”

“It wasn't a dream!” Rainbow cut in again.

“And can somepony else confirm what you saw?”

“No, I was alone in Applejack's orchard,” the pegasus admitted. “But that’s not the point! You need to trust me. We can’t repeat the mistake we made at the wedding!”

“Listen Rainbow. The best I can do is to ask Applejack if she’s seen anything,” Twilight concluded. “But try to understand. I can't alert the entire town for a possible changeling only you’ve seen, especially if he's relatively harmless. I'll do some research, and if you find him again, catch him and bring him here.” She took a breath after adding. “But please, don't attack anypony on the fact they could be changelings.”

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash reluctantly accepted.

--|-|--

Doppel had just finished explaining what had happened between his visit, and he now looked like Caramel after several sneezes. He felt more at ease transforming here because of his cold, though he didn't know if his illness was transmissible to ponies. He finally took back his changeling appearance.

“So, Rainbow knows about you, and you came here to hide?” Fluttershy summed up.

“Er... No... In fact, I wanted to return to the Everfree Forest and stay there until everything blew over,” he remarked, “but you caught me before I could do anything else. That's why I was about to leave when you asked me about what happened.”

The pegasus looked at him apologetically, like if she had just accidentally kicked a puppy. Talk about guilt trip. Only one look to make me regret what I just said.

“You’re not thinking of going still are you? It’s dangerous.” she worried.

“It's not that dangerous for a changeling,” he proudly said.

“But, it's the first place where the others will look for you,” she explained. “I think it would be better if you stayed here. They would never think that I would hide a changeling here.”

That’s actually not a bad idea. Doppel began to weigh his options. He could hide in the Fluttershy's cottage to survive the turmoil period that would happen, but he would have to bother the timid pegasus. Not to mention his friends were still in the forest. On the other hoof, they could still transform of their own volition, while he could change form at any time because of his cold. Then again, she asked him to stay here. It couldn’t bother her too much.

“And you’re still sick. It isn't a good idea to stay outside in the cold night when you're sick,” she added.

Suddenly, a loud thud was heard from the outside. The sick changeling shrieked before hiding behind the couch. Fluttershy looked out of the window to see what made the sound. “It's only Derpy doing her job as a mailmare.”

Doppel came out his hiding place sheepishly. I must look like an idiot... “I think I'm gonna stay here for a while. If I react like that being hidden here, I’ll do even worse outside.”

--|-|--

In the central plaza of Ponyville, Derpy and Octavia we having a friendly discussion, or so they seemed.

“So, did you find Doppel?” asked Mimic, under the disguise of the mailmare.

“No, it's like he had disappeared,” answered Camouflage who looking like the musician. “He couldn't have been feeding since this morning; the poor dear wouldn't have any feelings left.”

“I hope he didn't hide like a coward with some dumb idea that the ponies were going to trick him and catch him.”

“Not so loud!” she scolded. “We're gonna be spotted if you keep shouting things like that.”

“Let’s just go back to the forest. I suppose he'll come back soon,” he concluded.

--|-|--

Doppel couldn't help but pacing as he waited. There should have been a commotion, but nothing seemed to move in Ponyville. What is it with this town? After the failed invasion of Chrysalis, they should have already found me. Instead, the town has never seemed so peaceful. He looked towards the pegasus who was resting on the couch. Maybe Fluttershy’s trying to trick me. She’s already showed me that she's tactical. He continued to stare the timid pony who had noticed that he stopped, and gave him a gentle smile. No, she isn't tricking me. She's nervous and she's giving off feelings of friendship. She's worried about me?

Fluttershy looked out at the sun before suddenly breaking the silence. “I think it’s time for dinner.”

Doppel gave a start and hid behind the couch again. The yellow pegasus started, not expecting his reaction.

“Ohsorry. I didn't mean to startle you, but you need to eat if you want to get better,” she apologized.

“It... It's not necessary to make dinner for me,” the changeling said coming out from behind the couch, getting his breath back.

He sighed as he got the interrogative look from Fluttershy again. “A changeling only needs to feed on love. We can eat food like ponies, but it's optional and doesn't really satisfy our hunger”

Fluttershy gasped and looked at him, a little afraid.

“I promise I don't use the method one!” he quickly added.

“Method one?” She asked.

Of course she doesn’t know what I’m talking about. He sighed, “Changelings have three methods to feed on love. The method one is the most barbaric. We simply steal love from our prey. After that, the pony loses any feelings he or she could have, from love to hate.”

“That's horrible,” the pegasus said with a shudder.

“That's why I don't like using it, but it's the easiest way for a changeling to eat. After that, we have method two, the one I use. I take the form of a pony that my prey cares about, and the and receive the love willingly. The pony can suffer a slight drop of the intensity of her feelings, especially if I eat alot, but nothing harmful.”

Doppel seemed to be proud of his explanation, reassuring Fluttershy that he wasn't a complete monster.

“And the third method?” she asked.

“Er. This one is rare. I’ve never met face to face a changeling that was able to use it. It’s when the prey has feelings for the changeling, and not the pony he embodies. The biggest advantage with this method is that no feeling is lost since the love is directed towards the one who is supposed to receive it.”

“You don't like each other between changelings?” the timid pony asked.

“We can only feed on other species. I don't really know why,” he answered, disappointed. If only we could do that, we'd have less problems.

“I'm still not comfortable with the fact you called the ponies ‘prey’...” Fluttershy whispered.

“Oops, sorry. I'm just used to saying that,” the changeling apologized.

--|-|--

Twilight was sitting on her bed reading, her nose practically touching the page. She was so absorbed that it took her number one assistant three times to get her attention. “Yes Spike?”

“Are you still on the same book?” he asked in a weary tone.

“Yes, it's very interesting!” she said excitedly. “I thought I’d done enough research changelings, but it seems that they have a whole lifestyle I missed!”

“Changelings?” Spike was surprised. “It's been months since I last heard about them.”

“Rainbow Dash kind of reminded me about them when she claimed that she saw one this morning. I tried looking around, but nopony saw him beside her. If this changeling exists, he might not be bad, but he can still be dangerous. That why I had to do some additional research on changeling lifestyles.”

“Are you planning on sleeping tonight?” Spike said in a sarcastic tone, but Twilight was already looking back at the pages.

--|-|--

The night had fallen on Ponyville. Doppel had spent the entire day at Fluttershy's house, and nothing had happened. The only notable event was the passage of the mailmare. The tension had slowly fallen as they discussed the past few days at the beginning of dinner.

“I think I'm out in danger now,” Doppel finally stated. “Nothing has moved since this morning and I think that if something was going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago. I'm going to go back to the Everfree now.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy exclaimed as the changeling headed for the door. Not again! “You shouldn’t stay outside when you're sick. You can stay here for the night.”

Doppel sighed. I suppose I don't have a choice. It can’t hurt to stay one night at Fluttershy's. He headed for a corner of the living room and lay down there. The pegasus stared at odd behavior of her guest.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Going to sleep?” he asked.

“Wouldn’t you rather sleep in a bed?” she offered, pointing the second floor.

A bed? I'm perfectly fine lying on the ground. It's been for more than a year since I started to live like this, why would I change now?

“I'm fine on the ground. I've gotten used to sleeping on a hard rock, so this is actually an improvement,” he reassured her. However, her worried look didn’t fade.

“I can’t let you sleep on the floor,” Fluttershy said with a determined look. “I’m not moving until you go upstairs.”

“So you’re forcing me to take your bed?” She only respond by a slight nod. Doppel sighed. “Fine, I'll take the bed.”

“Don't worry. The couch is very comfortable. I’ll be fine,” Fluttershy assured him, bringing the changeling up to her room. “Good night!” She said as she went back to her living room.

Well, better get some rest. He laid down on the bed. I'm not surprised that she's the Element of Kindness. I can’t take advantage of this. Tomorrow I'll leave after thanking her and I'll get back to my normal life. After a sneeze that made him take the appearance of Rainbow Dash, he yawned and fell asleep.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait. I hope I won't have any trouble for the next chapters.

Edited by War10ck111

EDIT : Now really edited ^^'

The Welcoming Party

Illusion arrived, still disguised, at the Sugarcube Corner, dragging her hooves behind a happy Twilight. The party had yet to begin. Lyra and Bon-Bon was having a lively chat with Octavia and Vinyl. Running from one side to the other, Pinkie prepared the last details for the party. Fluttershy, served herself something to drink.

As soon Illusion stepped through the door she was welcomed by her three fellow changelings undisguised.

"You're here at last!" Camouflage commented. She looked at her friend who was lowering her head. "Are you okay? It's like you've seen a ghost."

"Didn't they tell you what we are going to do at this party?" she replied, terror radiating from her eyes.

"Something like presenting yourself at Ponyville." Mimic responded, without a care in the world. "We know them but they don't know us."

Illusion scowled. Silence set as the three other changelings looked at her with apprehension. "We have to show ourselves without our disguise in front of the entire population of Ponyville."

A round of laughter met her last sentence. Illusion looked bewildered at them. "Why are you laughing? I'm serious!" Her friends regained their composure. Mimic had between whiles some giggles left. At that moment, she noticed the lack of disguise of them. "Why are you in your natural form?"

"There's no need for that now," Doppel explained. "Fluttershy keeps an eye on us." He pointed Fluttershy who was sipping at a smoothie at a corner of the Sugarcube Corner. "She's able to recognize any of us after all."

"You're not a good coltfriend." Mimic was poking his elbow on Doppel's waist. "You leave your fillyfriend alone to hang out with your friends."

"I invited her to hang with us, but I think she's still nervous around you," he gave excuses. "Not that you're changelings. She's like this with everypony."

During this conversation, Illusion kept a face riddled with concerns. "I don't understand how you can be so careless when you know you'll be undisguised in front of everypony."

"If you keep telling you that, of course it's going to be tough," Camouflage explained with a motherly tone. "Just forget you don't have a disguise and you'll see it's easy."

Before Illusion had time to protest, Twilight came to meet them. "I think we should prepare ourselves for the party." She took a notebook and a pencil. "I suggest that you present yourself first with your disguise, to make sure that you don't scare ponies too much at first."

"That's a good idea!" Illusion interrupted, and was soon silenced by a disapproving glare from the unicorn and the three other changelings.

"Now, Pinkie can make the presentation if you want." Twilight suggested, continuing on from where she had been stopped.

"No, I think we should do it ourselves," Doppel replied. "After all, we pretty much know everypony here, except for Illusion. The opposite is not true."

"Alright." Twilight checked a note on the paper. "Then I'll tell them that you'll not be a normal citizen of Ponyville, but changelings. At this, you'll drop your disguises and reveal to everypony who you really are. Then, I will explain that you're not dangerous, what the special rules you have, et cetera, et cetera."

"Does it have to be so dramatic?" Camouflage asked. "Doesn't that risk scaring ponies around?"

Pinkie suddenly popped into the conversation. "Dramatic is always better. This is how you remember a good party." She made weird noises with her mouth, mimicking some dramatic events before disappearing totally from the room.

"Maybe now it's a good time for you to show your disguises." When the remaining changelings were going to assume their disguise, Twilight stopped them. "Wait a moment, I'd like to take some notes on who you are before you change and make sure you assume the right disguise."

The unicorn made a sign to Fluttershy, who came over quickly. "Fluttershy, can you help tell me who are who?"

The pegasus began to point at every changeling successively. "This is Camouflage. That's Mimic and the one closest to me is Doppel."

"Wow, that's impressive," Twilight responded, amazed. "I really can't discern any difference, and you can tell them apart within seconds." She took some extra notes. "So, Doppel, you're first. Show me your disguise."

Doppel obeyed and changed into a grey unicorn with a blue mane. His tail was short and his cutie mark was in the form of a waning blue moon. "I think this is the form I talked to you about, if I remember correctly."

Twilight took some notes, raising her head after a few seconds. "Any particular reason for the cutie mark."

"Nope. I thought I had something else at first, but it's easier to remember that one."

"Okay then," she concluded. "Who's next?"

"I think I'm next." Camouflage came forward. She then immediately transformed without moving a limb. In her place stood a lilac earth pony mare with a pale yellow, unkempt mane.

"Three baby bottles for cutie mark?" Twilight pointed the changeling's rump. "Are you really sure about this?"

"I was a nurse when I was in the hive. So I thought it was the best cutie mark to describe me."

"Do you think it's a good idea to keep something from the Hive since you're an outlaw?" asked Fluttershy. "Wouldn't it better to try to forget what you hate?"

"I didn't leave the Hive because of my role in it." Camouflage replied. "And with Vinyl, I think it'll be necessary."

Twilight wrote the last pieces of information about the changeling nurse. "So, Mimic you're last. What is your disguise?"

Mimic rose a hoof dramatically before jumping as he engulfed himself in a torrent of green flames. "Showoff…" muttered Camouflage. Mimic was now on his hind legs, extending his front hooves like he was acclaimed.

"Mauve coat, a puffy mane half light pink half deep pink, a popcorn cutie mark, green eyes," Twilight listed, writing the details on her notebook, unimpressed by the stunt of the changeling. "Female?" She stopped writing. "Are you really sure?"

"Eh, I'm going to live with fillyfoolers. Being a male isn't going doing to me any favor don't you think?"

"From this perspective, I'd say he's right," Fluttershy agreed.

"But, you're going to confuse everypony with that disguise. They'll think that you're female," Twilight explained.

"That was Lyra's idea, not mine," Mimic defended himself. "I just chose the cutie mark. I find popcorn the best thing you ponies make."

Twilight tried to contest but Pinkie appeared just behind her. "You love popcorn?"

"Pinkie! We're trying to have a discussion here," the unicorn complained.

"I just wanted to tell you that ponies are already arriving so the party can begin." The party pony pointed at the door where some ponies were already coming.

"Well, too late to change now," Twilight concluded. "Try to mingle with ponies now."

--|-|--

The party had been in full swing for twenty minutes when they arrived. Mimic was playing his public entertainer along with an overexcited Pinkie Pie. Doppel, for his side, tried to convince Fluttershy, who was slightly intimidated by the crowd, to mingle. Illusion, while bobbing her head to the music, was spying on every ponies' doings and Camouflage took the initiative to present herself to everypony.

The music stopped. Twilight climbed on a scene. "I'd like that Doppel, Mimic, Illusion and Camouflage come join me."

The changelings complied and joined the unicorn on the scene. Fluttershy followed Doppel to place herself by Doppel's side.

"As you have already noticed, there were four new ponies at this party. From now on, they're going to live in this town. I'll let them present themselves."

"I'm Illusion. I was a guard before and very good with anything concerning defense. I'm going to live with Twilight to help her with her studies."

"I'm Camouflage. I think I'm good at taking care of foals, even adult with foal's mind. I'll live with Vinyl and Octavia."

"I'm Doppel. You can ask me anything. If you want to find me, I'll live with Fluttershy probably for the rest of my life."

"I'm Mimic. For my part, I'm living with Lyra and Bon-Bon. And don't get fooled by my appearance, I'm a male."

Some whispers came from the crowd after Mimic's presentation. Camouflage facehoofed. While the nervousness of the public increased, Twilight spoke again. "We organized this party in such short notice for a reason." She made a little sign of her head to the changelings. "Because our new residents are changelings"

As soon Twilight finished her sentence, the scene was set ablaze with green flames, revealing the real appearance of Mimic, Camouflage and Doppel. Only Illusion remained in her disguise.

Before the panic overtook the room, Pinkie jumped into the stage. "Don't worry, there are nice changelings. Look, there's one of them who forgot to change back!" She pointed Illusion.

"Change back immediately!" Camouflage ordered, giving a jab to the disguised changeling.

"Never!" Illusion stared at the crowd, keeping her disguise on.

Twilight coughed to restore order. "As Pinkie just described, these changelings are not dangerous. For three of them, they've already lived in Ponyville for a long time." She turned to the changelings. "You can now get your disguise back." The changelings complied.

"And how we'll know when and where the changelings are if they can take anypony's form?" asked Carrot Top, from the back of the room.

"Excellent question!" Twilight exclaimed. "Each changeling has an order to keep only one disguise for the time being and it's the disguise they wore for the moment. It was planned that they assume this disguise to give you the time to get used to it. Furthermore, they're going to live with a vouching pony whose goal is to look after them. The changelings cannot leave their vouching pony unless a serious event occurred. Illusion and I am going to study a method to let us ponies know how to detect them and differentiate them."

"Booooring," cut Rainbow, launching herself on the air. Twilight glared the pegasus. "It's a party, not a lecture. The only thing you need to know is that these changelings are cool."

Pinkie jumped into the crowd and threw her hooves in the air. "It's time to party!"

Everypony cheered as they returned to their party. Mimic followed Pinkie; ready to amuse each pony he could meet. Camouflage went down of the stage to keep an eye on her friend.

Doppel stayed on the stage, letting his brain time to catch up. "So, I'm accepted in Ponyville? It was so simple…"

"Yes, Ponyvillians are very accepting ponies. After all they went through, four changelings living in their town isn't a big stretch," answered Fluttershy.

"And it's because of you the changelings are accepted. If you hadn't blown the cover of the Queen, they would never have known that the Queen was there until it was too late," Illusion added, joining the other two. "And it's because of you if I'll have to wear this stupid disguise until the end of my life."

"Nothing forces you to keep this disguise," Fluttershy reminded Illusion. "You can stay under your changeling's form when you're at Twilight's."

"How about no?"

"And you know you can also be undisguised from time to time when you're in the streets to let Ponyvillians get used to have changelings around," Doppel added.

"You realize if I didn't want to do it in front of one pony, I probably don't want to do it in front of everypony?" Illusion complained.

"Twilight joined the group. "You should get of the stage and enjoy the party. After all, it's your party." She looked at Mimic balancing a glass on the tip of his nose under the glare of Camouflage. "Tomorrow, we begin the studies." She rose her eyebrows. "Unless you want to do it right away."

"Twilight is right! It's time to have fun!" Illusion claimed before she leapt into the dancing crowd.

Doppel came close to Twilight. "Even if she chose by herself to become an outlaw, I recommend you to keep a close eye on her," he said, in a tone barely louder than a whisper. "She isn't used to our methods yet and some troubles may arise."

"I'll remember that, thanks," answered Twilight. "And you, don't you want to party with the others?"

"I don't think I'm going to stay on this stage forever," joked Doppel. "And I should probably help Camouflage stop Mimic to breaking everything." He jumped off the stage, closely followed by Fluttershy.

Twilight turned away and went to rejoin the party. "Ponyville will be livelier with these four changelings. I can guarantee it."

Author's Note

Edited by Twilight_Scratch