Blue, part two: A shattered country

The sun was shining, her friends were visiting, her belly was full, and Applejack never felt more lost in her whole life. It was as if purpose suddenly decided to exit her life.

"M-maybe you should elaborate?" Fluttershy said, pawing at the ground. Applejack sighed, and rubbed her temples.

"Look, it ain't… I mean, no, I'm pretty sure I'm not, but really, that's—"

"Aaand you lost me," Pinkie announced cheerfully, taking a sip of her tea. Applejack rubbed her temples harder.

"It's like a, a void, ya know? Like I know we're making progress, but it doesn't feel like it at all."

"Oh." Pinkie deflated, putting down her cup. "I know what you mean. Lately it's as if there's no way to make ponies happy, just, uh, less miserable?"

Fluttershy followed the conversation with her eyes, but didn't say anything.

"Maybe it's just me," Applejack continued. "Maybe just the fact that I don't have anything to do right now, while Twilight is swarmed with those diddly-darn nobles trying to one-up her."

"Is it that Book crook again?" Pinkie asked. When she received a nod, she furrowed her brows. "Why does he keep nagging Twilight again?"

"It's 'bout this thief. He or she leaves a calling card at the scene of the crime. It always says 'Sparkle'."

"Huh. Wouldn't Twilight write her full name?" Pinkie asked. "That would be more of a Twilight thing to do."

"Yes, of course," Applejack waved dismissively. "Thing is, he's annoying the heck outta her, and she has to do all the organising stuff while the Princess is recuperatin'."

Applejack didn't miss the quick glance her friends exchanged, but decided not to bring it up. Fluttershy was barely talking, anyway. Not that it was much different from usual to an outsider, but Applejack could tell, being her friend. Friend. It gave her a pang of warmth all too rare nowadays.

"Besides," she continued, "I've no clue how to help her any more. Since the changeling situation died down, we're kinda just drifting around, checking up on stuff."

"D-died down? Goodness, you d-don't mean literally?"

If it was Pinkie that spoke, Applejack would've known to dismiss the question as a joke. Since it was Fluttershy who asked, she sighed, and got up from her seat.

"Just a sec," she said, trotting out the room. She entered Blueblood's study (why do ponies even need a separate room for studying, anyway?), and rummaged through the stack of correspondence on the mahagony desk until she found the one she was looking for. She grabbed it, and brought it back to her friends.

"Sorry, it was a bit buried there," she said, smoothing out the parchment in front of Fluttershy. "Apparently, this was the result of crossreferencing what we knew before to what we found now."

Fluttershy's expression barely changed, but even then it became somewhat steely. Upon the parchment, there were several diagrams detailing the dissection of changeling corpses found in the cleared hives. In the lower right corner, there was a depiction of a standard changeling drone and a warrior with several hastily scribbled comments under them.

"This doesn't make sense," Fluttershy said firmly. "I remember you saying you only found this new type of changeling guarding the hives, am I correct?"

"Yeah," Applejack said. "Somehow, only these super-aggressive soldiers were the only things we found."

"That's impossible!" Fluttershy said, slamming down slightly on the parchment. The sound brought her back from her concentration, and she shrunk when she realised the others were staring at her. "I-I mean…"

"S'alright, Shy, we don't bite," Pinkie said. Then, glancing at Applejack, "Well, at least I don't!"

There was only a slight murmur of 'that was one time and that jerk done deserved it.'

"S-see here," Fluttershy said, ponting at a diagram, "it says here that they have teeth like predators, and are larger, m-more aggressive, and stronger. Y-you also told us they were trying to bite the ponies as if they were hungry, r-right?"

"Yeah?" Applejack said, not quite catching her drift.

"B-but look here!" Fluttershy pointed at a very detailed (and gross) depiction of the creature's stomach. "It can't actually digest ponies! At least, not in a way to get proper nourishment from our meat! H-how would these even survive?" Fluttershy looked up, and seeing the utter confusion on Applejack's face, she stopped. "U-Um? D-did I say something wrong?"

"Holy moly, of course not, Fluttershy," Applejack said, scratching her head. "I just didn't expect ya to be so calm about all these gruesome details."

For her part, Fluttershy looked equal parts dumbfounded and offended.

"I don't mean to be rude, Applejack, but um, where did you think I got my knowledge to care for animals?"

"Uuuuuh, books?"

"That's right, do you know what kind of books?"

"Umm…"

"Anatomy books, Applejack," Fluttershy said, finding that small firmness in her voice she had before. "It was a long and ardous task to learn everything I could about my forest friends, but for their own sake, I had to learn how their bodies work, so I don't cause them pain, or discomfort. There's no easy way to give them what they need."

Applejack held her hooves in defeat.

"M'bad. I guess since I learned most of what I knew about our farm from family, I just… I dunno, I was kinda hasty. Sorry."

"N-no problem, I just got a teeny-tiny bit agitated," Fluttershy replied, trying and failing to cover up her blush with her hair."

"What do they eat, then?" Pinkie asked, looking at the parchment upside-down.

"I-if I'm correct, they have to be taken care of by the drones of the hive."

"But there were no – Oh. Oh darn. y'all saying they were starved?"

"I have a theory," Fluttershy said, poking at another diagram. "If this is correct, the nerves under their rear neckplate are constantly pressed between bone and plate. They probably feel incredible pain," she finished softly.

"A'ight, wait, wait, hold up." Applejack took a deep breath. "Are ya tryin' t' tell me these dang vermin are bred to be ill-tempered, aggressive and bloodthirsty? Did that blasted queen of theirs just up and made changelings that are constantly hungry, in pain, and can't even get food from the things they hunt? What in the fresh—"

Thankfully, a door opened, and Applejack perked up.

"Y'all stay put, Ah'm gunna tell this to Redblood. This ain't right!"

She hurried out with the grace and stealth of a heavily armored cavalry division. Pinki chuckled to herself.

"Did you notice she still slips back to her old way of speaking when she's upset?"

"Yes," Fluttershy said with a slight smile.

"Say, there's something I don't get," Pinkie said, turning back to the parchment. "You said these can't eat ponies. What can eat ponies?"

"Oh, predators, mostly," Fluttershy said, glancing at the picture. "At least, out of normal animals. Most monsters from the Everfree are probably able to chew on ponies without problems; if we're talking sentient, Dragons and griffons are mostly predatory, so if we dismiss moral concerns, they could easily eat ponies. Oh, and of course Changelings and ponies can eat ponies, too."

"Wait, what?" Pinkie asked, turning her head so fast that there was an audible creak.

"W-well, I mean, neither them or us could subsist on pony meat alone," Fluttershy said, slightly blushing. "Still, it would be feasible in emergencies, just not sustainable."

"Because everybody would eat each other," Pinkie interjected.

"Goodness, no, we're just not built to handle it."

Pinkie gave her the first grin of the day.

"You know, Shy, you're kind of like Twilight when you explain things."

"I-I guess she rubbed off on me," Fluttershy said, also failing to suppress a smile. It quickly faded, however. "I just wish we could help her somehow. I feel horrible as her friend that she has to shoulder every task while these nasty nobles only seek their own gain."

"I feel you, I really do," Pinkie sighed, spinning around one leg of her chair. "It's not like we can ask people from the starving areas to work on their local fields while we ship them relief food and estabilish a branch of our trust while simultaneously reestabilish local economy and infastructure to not only temporarily stave off the problem but actually solve it!"

"Pinkie," Fluttereshy said patiently.

"What?" Her brain caught up with her mouth, and her eyes widened. "Ohohoho! Maybe we should ask Mac about it?"

"Maybe we should," Fluttershy said, still smiling.