Conversion

Chapters

House of all knowledge
Not expendable
Price of having friends
Feeling lucky
Bumpy road ahead
Twisted consequences
Insectoids of war
Inner turmoil
Volatile solutions
United we fall
Suppressed truths
Reunions hurt
Things go down
Torn apart
Epilogue: Rising
From beneath
Feast for everyling

House of all knowledge

The three changelings searched the whole spa for anything they could use to achieve their future efforts: finding a small village near Canterlot. They read all the flyers and pamphlets, took down the names of the possible targets. They even managed to find some of the currency the ponies used. Armed with a newly forged plan, they headed outside, to find a place, where they could catch some shuteye, before they would move to the next phase of their plan.

After inspecting several buildings, Buzzer suggested that they would be best off in a ruined and abandoned restaurant. Shiftlight was about to start an argument, but Thorax quickly agreed to the suggestion, and so his elder brother gave up any resistance.

The place was wrecked, massive parts of the ceiling were missing, and the moonlight dimly lit the whole reception hall. Rubble was scattered all over the floor, but some of the furniture managed to survive without major damage.

They searched the place for any signs of life, and after finding none, Thorax sprawled on one of the couches in the smoking area, while Shiftlight simply laid down on one of the carpets. Buzzer moved to the kitchens, and returned shortly with a cookbook. He sat down in front of the door, and started reading the text, keeping guard over his resting brothers.

Shiftlight closed his eyes, but didn’t sleep. His thoughts rambled around in his head, and he felt way too exposed without his disguise. But they all agreed that they should keep using their magic to a minimum, as doing so would inevitably lead to them starving to death too soon. He tried to force himself to rest, but that left him too exhausted to dream. Unsuccessful in his attempt to sleep, he stood up, and walked next to Buzzer, who seemed to be lost in his book.

“Are you feeling ill?” Buzzer asked Shiftlight, not even glancing up.

“Hm? No, I don’t. I’m just not sleepy, that’s all,” he replied disoriented, sitting down. “Are you mad at me?”

“Mad?” Buzzer was surprised at the question, and looked at his brother with an innocent face. “Why would I... oh. About the argument? No, I’m not mad, I’m... sorry.”

“You what?” Shiftlight was taken aback. “But why?”

“I... questioned your intentions,” he closed the book he was reading. “I thought you were simply selfish, when you said we should return to the hive. I know now you were only loyal, and I know you would give your life to know that the hive is in peace with itself.”

“But I was selfish enough to not take in consideration your fate,” Shiftlight interrupted. “I never thought that by forcing you to return home I might as well kill you myself. We are all brothers and sisters in the hive... until our Queen goes missing.”

“We will return,” Buzzer said, placing his Swiss-cheese leg on the other’s shoulder. “And we are going to be fine.”

“Is that book any interesting?” Shiftlight tried to change the subject.

“Well, I could hardly say it is that interesting,” Buzzer showed its cover to him. “But I know it lets us see our cattle as something else than food. If we’re going to live among them, knowing what they eat and how they prepare it might not be a bad idea.”

“Would you two just quiet down?” Thorax moaned. “I can’t get a decent sleep with you two loudmouths blabbing!”

Shiftlight and Buzzer looked at each other. The short changeling smiled at his brother, who in return tilted his head.

“Get some shuteye,” Shiftlight suggested. “You can read your book later.”

“You want it?” he asked, levitating the object in front of Shiftlight’s nose.

The taller changeling shook his head, and turned his attention to the dark corners of the room, while Buzzer looked for a place to lay down his head.

When the first beams of sunlight hit the ruined restaurant, the three changelings were already walking the streets of Canterlot. They were wandering around aimlessly, trying to find someone, who wasn’t a guard, and looked helpful enough to point them to the Canterlot library. They all agreed before that it was the best to gather knowledge about the area around the main city, and also to find out how they could survive in such hopeless conditions. Although changelings were required to complete field infiltrations, no mission took more than two weeks.

“Excuse me ma’am,” Shiftlight asked a pony in the mask of a light blue stallion, with gray mane, blue eyes and three stars as a cutiemark, “my companions and I are foreign to this city; could you please point us towards the Canterlot library?”

“Well, of course!” the mare with a light tan coat, a brown mane, blue eyes and a fancy dress replied. “See this street? Go straight, and at the second cross turn left. That’s the main street of Canterlot, it will lead right to the palace. And on the left side of the palace the huge building, with the statues and fountains all around is the library.”

“Thank you kindly ma’am,” Shiftlight obliged, and was about to leave when the pony stopped them.

“Mind if I ask where can I find such fine stallions as you and your companions?” she asked. Shiftlight did a quick calculation and used his magic to slightly “taste” the mare’s emotions. Unhappy with the result he was about to answer when Buzzer interrupted him.

“Trottingham ma’am,” he said. He was wearing the appearance of an earth pony with white coat, blue mane, light blue eyes and a constellation cutie mark. “We’re here on a business trip, which got interrupted a few days ago. We just received an invitation to the library, and we’re in a hurry.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude...” She started.

“It’s okay ma’am. Without your help we would be lost,” Shiftlight cut her off. “But if you’ll excuse us, we really need to go now.”

The mare stepped aside, and the three changelings trotted away, following the directions. They chose their disguises carefully, knowing that even the smallest mistake could betray them to the royal guards. Thorax took the appearance of a dark gray unicorn, with gray mane, blue eyes and a crescent moon on his flank. All of them wore simple yet elegant clothes, mimicking the main population of the city around them, who were still a bit shocked from the invasion, afraid that anything they wear might get torn apart.

“I don’t like this,” Thorax muttered, as they reached the main street, which ran alongside the city walls. Several groups of guards patrolled on the road, making the changelings unease in their current situation.

“Keep our aim in mind, and don’t let anything stray you from the path,” Buzzer said. “Sergeant Fangmill, before you ask.”

Thorax seemed to shudder for a moment at the mention of his superior, but then he pulled himself together, and managed to appear as a self-confident business stallion.

The reception hall of the Canterlot library housed a small reception desk with a unicorn mare behind it, and one pegasus guard on each side. Shiftlight mustered up all his courage to approach the desk without hesitation and shuddering, his brothers following him closely. He almost bit his tongue in his attempt to make his voice sound confident.

“Excuse me Miss” – He glanced at the unicorn’s nametag. – “Parchment, my colleagues and I are here to occupy ourselves during this day. Our business here in Canterlot was interrupted by the invasion, and we just received news yesterday that we will resume tomorrow. May we ask for a temporary access to your library?”

“Certainly sir,” she replied, filling out some papers, and handing three cards to them. “These will be your guest cards, and I’ll need a signature here, here and here from all of you.”

They all obeyed, taking one card each. After this small paperwork the mare got out from behind the desk, and opened the main doors to the library.

“Go right in. If you need any help with finding anything my colleague, Golden Compendium can help you. He’s usually behind the huge round desk in the middle, but sometimes he wanders around in this labyrinth. If that’s the case just ring the bell, and he’ll be right at your service.”

“Thank you kindly Miss,” Shiftlight said, giving the mare a warm smile.

The three changelings got inside, and the door slowly closed behind them. Sure they managed to get in a small library before, but usually it was a small backwater village’s collection of books. What lay before them was the ultimate collection of knowledge from all across Equestria.

“We are so lost,” Buzzer remarked, his jaw hanging open. “How are we ever going to find anything in here?”

“We won’t,” Thorax replied silently, pointing at a unicorn stallion with golden colored coat, “he will.”

“Excuse us sir,” Buzzer walked to the librarian, “could you help us find a map and some books about the villages near Canterlot?”

“Oh, but of course,” Golden Compendium replied, his face lighting up. “What kind of knowledge are you looking for? Historical, economical, sociological, or plain tourist information?”

“The last one please,” Buzzer answered, taken aback by Compendium’s enthusiasm. “We are planning to stay in one of the small villages near Canterlot for a while. Nothing too much of a tourist trap, just a normal village.”

“Oh, I might just know what you are looking for.” He answered with a wink, running off into the depths of the library, just to quickly return with a huge pile of scrolls and books. “Here you go gentlecolts. If there is anything else I could help...”

“Yes, thank you.” Buzzer interrupted the excited unicorn. “We’ll just grab these and find a quiet place to think.”

“If I might recommend...” He started, but Thorax gently cut him off.

“Thank you for everything, we would like to handle it from here.”

Thorax used his magic to grab the giant stack of paper and the three changelings rapidly moved to a silent and isolated part of the library. They found a couple of reading desks with quills, inkwells and rolls of paper, divided the large quantity of knowledge into three almost equal parts and got to work.

“Any of you ever thought about what professions we should choose?” Buzzer asked suddenly, stopping the others in their tasks. “I mean, we never truly had to pick a job during any assignment. We just had to replace somepony, and do their job for a while.”

“No simple job would do.” Thorax replied silently. “We cannot buy love for bits.”

“And there is little chance that we would be performing the same work together.” Shiftlight added, shuddering at the thought of separation. “It has to be a job that keeps us well fed, in case of emergencies.”

“So we shouldn’t replace anypony.” Buzzer concluded. “Or they might notice. We’ll have to come up with new aliases, entirely original, with fake pasts, fake identities.”

“Whatever we’re going to do, we’ll have to be good at it. Good enough not to get discovered.” Shiftligh continued.

“We’ll have to start from the bottom.” Thorax said. “What jobs could we list that have any connection to couples in love?”

“A server in a restaurant.” Buzzer replied, his face lit up with excitement. “Ponies take their loved ones to romantic diners. And I just began reading a book about how to cook. Might be my ticket to a new life”

“A hospital worker.” Shiftlight added. “Anyone that gets hurt will be visited by their loved ones. And I was always fascinated by pony anatomy. I might just pass as an apprentice medical worker.”

“That leaves only my future open.” Thorax said, staring at the floor. “I never truly excelled at anything. Well, not counting the tending of larvae.”

After a moment of silence he looked up, just to see his brothers stare at him with their jaws hanging. He looked at each of them confused, not understanding their reaction.

“What?”

“You lucky bastard.” Buzzer shook his head.

“You never heard the story of Swiftwing from Cluster four?” Shiftlight looked at his brother. “He once managed to impersonate a caretaker at an orphanage.”

“He was pretty lucky because the foals in the orphanage loved the true caretaker so much, he barely managed to stay for an hour, before he felt sick from being so full.” Buzzer explained. “If you could find a fitting orphanage, you would never starve again.”

Thorax let out a wide grin, slowly nodding. Now that they had an idea what to look for, they worked faster and more efficient. Soon only three villages remained on the list.

They needed to stay relatively close to Canterlot, in case their hive would attempt another siege, or negotiations. The latter was highly unlikely, but it was still a possibility that could not be ignored. The village should have a train station, at least a small hospital, several cafés or other food serving establishments, and at least one orphanage.

The changelings arranged their list according to their chance of success, and then asked Compendium for a bunch of history books, to fabricate their new aliases.

“What names should we choose?” Thorax asked.

“According to pony ways, their names are connected to what they are good at, or their personality, or something.” Shiftlight said. “Like a surgeon’s name would be something like Silver Lancet.”

“What names could we... cook up for a server?” Buzzer inquired with a grin. “As far as our knowledge goes the competition in that particular job is quite vicious.”

“I don’t know. Some unusual combination I guess.” Thorax suggested. “Like Lemon Cookie, or Orange Muffin...”

“How about Lime Biscuit?” the short changeling asked, turning the pages of a book.

“Sound all right.” Shiftlight agreed. “Now, you are the only one left.”

“Well...” Thorax looked at multiple open books. “It says in several places that ponies sometimes get their names from the color of their coats.”

“So? You’ll become Red, Yellow or Blue?” Buzzer asked jokingly.

“I was thinking of the name Zaffre.” his middle brother replied.

“What kind of color is that?” Shiftlight inquired, not able to decide whether to laugh or cry.

“It’s a shade of blue.” The asked changeling replied annoyed.

“Then what about the name “A Shade of Blue”?” the short changeling was giggling like a dope.

“Very colorful.” Thorax answered, with a smile. “We probably should start designing our new selves.”

About an hour and a dozen of sketches later the three shifters managed to create themselves new aliases. They each grabbed a book they could learn the basics of their new professions, tucked it under their wings and covered it by their disguises, then headed for the exit of the library.

“Gentle colts if I may,” – Compendium’s voice interrupted them. – “Did you find everything you needed?”

“Yes thank you very much,” Shiftlight replied. “We’ll just head off to the city for some snacks.”

“Then maybe you should leave the books here,” he said. Thorax stepped behind his taller brother, while Buzzer moved forward, to keep the attention of the librarian on himself.

“I’m really sorry, but what books?” he asked, as a heavy lexicon was lifted by green magic behind Compendium. “It can clearly be seen that...”

With a loud thud the lexicon hit the head of the unicorn, knocking him unconscious.

“Let’s clear out of here,” Shiftlight said. “If we’re lucky, the guards haven’t been noted of our presence yet.”

They quickly rolled the body in a carpet, and left it under a desk. Thorax opened the door, and only managed to glance outside, when he heard a loud yell.

“In the name of Equestria, stop right there!” a royal guard ordered the changelings.

“So much of our luck,” Shiftlight murmured, as the trio faced a group of pegasi in golden armors.

Not expendable

Shiftlight immediately counted at least a dozen of guards in the reception hall, four of them unicorns. In a minute their disguises would be blown away like smoke in a whirlwind. In the seconds following that they would be pinned to the floor, and tied up. Well, at least that would be the case if they didn’t do a thing.

“Scatter!” Thorax yelled, the trio acting as one, shifting to another form, and launching themselves towards the blockade of guards.

The usual changeling tactic, which worked in most cases was that when they were discovered, they gave as much trouble to the guards as they could, trying to help the survival and escape of at least one member of the hive. Then they force themselves to never look back, and return to their home.

This time, it was different. The brothers took on a disguise unlike their normal selves, and all headed for the exit. Buzzer appeared as a huge changeling, charging at the toughest spot of the blockade. When he got close, he shifted to his true form, slid beneath the unicorn guard in the middle, and kicked upwards while still in motion. A painful yell from his victim let him know his strike found its target, and the shifter quickly moved out from beneath the collapsing pony.

Thorax looked like a short but bulky changeling, and with this disguise he flew at a small group of pegasi protecting a unicorn. While mid-air, he closed his eyes aiming to dash right into the unicorn, casted a blinding flash, and landed on the pony magician, knocking him out.

Shiftlight had other plans instead of charging boldly into the blockade. He took the appearance of one of their superior, General Stinkhole, who was tall, muscular, had bruises and scars all over his body, had a broken fang, and a missing eye. He immediately grabbed the pony closest to him, the librarian Miss Parchment from behind the desk in the reception hall, and held her as his hostage.

“Let me go or she’ll get a nice bitemark,” he threatened. “And I don’t think you know what I have chewed on before.”

The group of remaining guards, two unicorns, and five pegasi blocked the exit almost completely with their bodies. The other guards were away chasing his brothers, except for the knocked out unicorn, and the other magician moaning in pain on the floor.

“Let her go, and you won’t get any more scars on your body,” a unicorn guard said, stepping forward.

“You think I care about my body?” Shiftlight laughed, drooling saliva on the librarian in his grasp. “I have chewed on the body of a dead rotting rat, and drank sewage water. I think my bite is poisonous enough to kill. Your choice.”

The unicorn guard stepped away from the door, the other ponies following his example. Shiftlight slowly dragged his prisoner towards the exit, keeping an eye on all the guards. When he had a clear shot at an escape route, he bit his victim, and took off to the streets of Canterlot.

Thorax was running. Not like he was in a bit of a hurry, but the six pegasus guards chasing him were a good motivation to test his fitness, reaction time and ability to make good decisions. Like any field infiltration this had its ups and downs. The pros? It seems like he managed to avoid the first chance of getting caught. The cons? The guards didn’t give up easily.

The changeling took on many forms to keep the guards on adapting to him changing. His plan was to find a large mass of ponies, jump in the middle and erupt a green flame, while not changing, making the guards think he have, then avoid detection, and get out of their sight. He was in luck, because after a few turns, he noticed a huge mass of ponies gathering in front of a small shop. He guessed they were there for free stuff, so the mass would be tight. Just what he needed.

He jumped up high, aiming for the middle of the gathering, and erupted in a green flame while still mid-air.

“Changeling!” Thorax yelled, disturbing the ponies. His shout stroke a nerve, as every individual started panicking, and the mass started running in every direction.

He was about to aim for the nearest small street when he was grabbed by a female unicorn, who then dragged him all across the frightened mass, heading towards a group of guards. Thorax became frightened, but he couldn’t risk blowing his cover. If everything else fails, he could still hold the mare as his captive.

“Help!” the female unicorn yelled. “Changelings! Here on the streets!”

“Don’t worry ma’am!” a pegasus guard replied. “Just stay behind us, and you’ll be fine! Spread out and search for the shifters!”

Thorax never said a word, being dragged behind the guards, and was too shocked to notice that the mare was now hugging him and sobbing on his shoulder. After a while he managed to pull himself together, and as he was looking around, he noticed that all the guards took of to search for him and his brothers.

“Are they gone yet?” The mare asked with an unusually cold voice.

“What?” Thorax was surprised by the question.

“Slime, you’re a stupid one,” she replied, and looked around, wiping her tears off. “That’s taken care of. Let’s head to the train station.”

“Brother?” he asked the unicorn. “Is that…”

“Who else?” Buzzer asked back in the mare’s image. “Turns out male pegasus guards are required by protocol to wait for a female officer to inspect a female citizen. I just had to find the only boutique and mimic myself as a mare.”

The two changelings headed for the train station, keeping an eye on patrols, and looking for their brother.

Shiftlight was getting impatient. His fruitless attempts to find his brothers through trying to start a conversation with everypony was infuriating enough, even without the constant thought of them not returning to their hive. But with the royal guards patrolling around the train station it was worse than his nightmares. He barely managed to take the appearance of a light-red colored pegasus, and the patrols were eyeing him frequently.

“Excuse me miss, are you headed for Ponyville?” he asked the same question the fifteenth time. “It’s my first time in Canterlot, and this huge station is confusing me.”

“No, I’m sorry, I’m headed to Las Pegasus,” she replied, and left. Shiftlight bit his tongue to not swear out loudly, and started looking for the next possible targets.

“Hey there sexy,” a female voice said to him, “you said you were heading to Ponyville?”

Shiftlight examined the mare in front of him: unicorn, with a vanilla coat, fire-red mane purple eyes and a seductive look.

“Took you long enough to get here,” the tall changeling replied. “Where is our remaining brother?”

“Buying our tickets,” Buzzer answered, heading towards a locomotive. “Our train luckily leaves in less than ten minutes. We’ll inspect it for guards first, get off, and wait till the last second, to see if any gets on.”

“I’m glad you made it here,” Shiftlight whispered, following his brother. “I thought about giving up and going back for you.”

“Strange that normally this shouldn’t bother any of us,” Buzzer remarked. “After all, they teach us that we’re expendable.”

“This isn’t normal,” the other replied, “and we’re not expendable anymore.”

The train started without complications, and the three changelings finally managed to catch their breaths for the very first time. Their plan was in motion; the royal guards weren’t on the train, so the chance of being discovered dropped to almost zero. They even inspected the conductor, to see if he was a unicorn, but turned out to be a simple earth pony.

“I have no idea how long I could’ve held out in those horrifying conditions,” Buzzer sighed. “The constant stress of being discovered, the lack of constant food source, and the lack of backup from the hive made it unbearable.”

“Tell me about it,” Thorax replied, “I had to shift to about a dozen different forms to make it out of their grasp alive. If I don’t get some love in this Ponyville, I won’t make it to the next village.”

“We’ll make it,” Shiftlight said. “We always do. If this won’t work, then we get some food the other way.”

“Crack yeah!” Buzzer yelled. “Time to stalk our prey like we did in the old days!”

“You mean after we ruled out every other possibility,” Shiftlight killed his sibling’s joy. “Remember, the way it is with ponies, they know every major event, no matter the distance. We should tread carefully.”

They slipped into silence. Only now did they all feel the weight of their situation. They will be completely cut off from their home, they should be unable to use their magic or their abilities as changelings, and they will be forced to master their masquerade to become somepony else. Somepony, who never even existed before.

Buzzer closed his eyes, and let his thoughts drift off. He thought about the hive, where he was the target of constant mocking and bullying, he had to train at least eleven hours a day, sometimes more, and he got beaten by his superiors, for being small. Yet, he wished he was back there. He had no chance to survive, if he was discovered, had nowhere to escape, and couldn’t rely on anyone. But then he realized something: he had a new life in front of him. He was taught that ponies almost never risk the life of others of their kind, so almost every attempt to barter with ponies while holding somepony captive was successful. That means, there is a chance, that if they play their cards right, they won’t need any magic, seduction or other trick to get love from ponies. All they have to do is make many friends.

“I’ve been thinking.” He said, opening his eyes.

“That’s never good.” Shiftlight replied.

“I’m serious.” Buzzer continued annoyed. “I’ve been thinking about our training, and what we could use from it in our situation. Ponies care about each other more than we do, and their caring comes with our food. They care about their families and their friends. Well, obviously, we can’t become anypony’s family. Conclusion?”

“The more friends we have, the more chance we stand on surviving.” Thorax said. “Not bad.”

“So, we do our jobs, we make friends that’s clear. When do we start gathering intelligence?” Shiftlight asked.

“We have no idea what to gather.” Buzzer answered. “But maybe you could make some friend and ask them to teach you.”

Thorax let out a hearty laugh at Shiftlight’s displeased expression at this sentence, while Buzzer tried to show a serious face. After failing miserably, he joined his brother in a stream of giggles and laughs, while Shiftlight turned towards the window with a stoic expression. Deep inside he was glad that his brothers were happy. But he was also terrified, of making friends. While he barely ever showed it, he hated any social interaction, be it talking, helping or even sitting together in silence.

Just one year, he said to himself.

The train pulled into the Ponyville station, and the ponies started to get off, each heading towards their own destination. Three ponies, one lime colored unicorn with light blue mane, blue eyes, a half-lime half-cookie on his flank, one pale gray with brown mane and tail, blue eyes, a scalpel cutiemark and one deep blue, with purple eyes, dark gray mane and tail and a dream catcher mark got off from the same carriage.

The trio of changelings then stood in front of a map displaying the layout of the village, planning where to go next. They stole some bits from the spa, the ruined diner and Golden Compendium, but most of it was used on the train tickets. Since the day was at its noon, they decided to first ask around for any opening in their desired jobs, and then meet in a local inn, the Retching Griffon. But before they could move away from the map a high pitched voice stopped them in their tracks.

“Hello complete strangers!” the owner of the voice, a pink fluffy mare greeted. “Were you on the same train as we were? That would be so cool! I heard a hearty laughter from one of the carriages, with my super-sensitive ears and I used my detective skills to try and track it down, but when I got there, it vanished! Anyway, I’m Pinkie Pie, and I’m still looking for the ones who managed to be happy on a train, because almost everytime I travel everypony is so boring and so stoic you couldn’t imagine, it’s like I’m traveling with a bunch of zombieponies. Is it your first time visiting Ponyville? Are you here to meet your friends or your family? Do you need a tour guide? I’d love to be your tour guide. There are…”

The shifters stood there taken aback, as any attempt to flee was blocked by the flood of words erupting from the volcano with a cotton-candy mane. They began to feel kind of uncomfortable, as slowly every single pony’s attention was focused on them.

“Go ahead.” Buzzer hid behind Shiftlight. “Time for you to make a friend.”

Price of having friends

Shiftlight opened his mouth hesitantly, then closed it, then opened it again, trying to interrupt the onslaught of words coming from Pinkie Pie. After the changeling noticed that the mare seemed to talk without taking a breath, he simply used another method to silence the pony.

A sudden hoof in her mouth muffled the party maniac’s voice.

“Thank you for offering to guide us through Ponyville, but I think we can manage,” he said. Pinkie Pie frowned and went silent, as Shiftlight turned to walk away.

“Don’t worry Miss,” Buzzer interrupted in his most silky manner, “my brother is just a bit frustrated from the long travel. We all had a hard day, and he’s just a bit more antisocial than usually. I think it would be a lot of help for us if we would have a first sight from somepony who lives here.”
A loud and happy squeak and another stream of words let the trio know that the short changeling managed to please the pink pony.

“You’ve doomed us all,” Shiftlight remarked. “What were you thinking?”

“She knows the village,” Buzzer replied. “She might know the ponies.”

The tall changeling snorted, but turned to follow their hyperactive volunteer guide. That was before a group of mares stopped all four of them in their tracks.

“Pinkie, what are you doing?” a purple unicorn mare asked. “You don’t even know these colts!”
“Oh, come now dear,” the other unicorn replied, a white female with swirls in her mane and tail, “she’s just being Pinkie, that’s all. She is the last one of us who would need supervision.”

“I don’t know Rarity,” a blue pegasus said, “I’m on the same page as Twilight this time. Pinkie usually finds and remembers everypony on every train. It would be strange for her to see someone for the first time after she gets off.”

“Well, that is hardly proof for anything now, is it?” Rarity asked back.

“Allright everypony,” an orange mare with a cowboy hat stepped between the two. “Gossips later, introductions now. I trust that if Pinkie would find them suspicious, the last thing she would do is offer them a free tour. Gentlecolts, Ah’m Applejack.”

The earth pony extended a hoof towards the disguised changelings. Thorax stepped forward, and did the same, shaking the limb as pony custom required it.

“I’m Zaffre, these are my brothers, Silver Lancet and Lime Biscuit.” he replied, gesturing towards his siblings. Buzzer waved a hoof, while Shiftlight merely nodded. “Pleased to meet your acquaintances.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” the purple unicorn introduced. “These are my friends; Rarity, Rainbow Dash and… Where is Fluttershy?”

Applejack stepped to the left and a vanilla colored pegasus appeared from behind her. With a squeak she quickly retreated back behind the earth pony.

“Nevermind, she’ll get used to you,” Twilight turned back to the trio. “Well that is if you plan on staying long enough.

“As a matter of fact we do,” Lime Biscuit stated. “The careers we started were unluckily crashed by the fiasco a few days back, and after a long argument we decided to start over in a quieter place.”

“That sounds horrid!” Rarity placed a hoof on her chest. “What were your professions?”

“Zaffre worked with small foals, and my smallest brother learned the art of creating desserts,” Silver Lancet answered. “I myself learned basic pony anatomy, figured I might find a chance to gather some practical experience while the Canterlot universities are up and running again.”

“Well, if there is anypony who could help you it’s Pinkie,” Twilight replied. “She knows everypony, and everypony knows her. I bet my bits if it’s up to her, you’ll have a job by the end of the week.”

“And a welcoming party!” Pinkie added, popping up behind the surprised changelings, hugging a bunch of balloons. “Don’t forget the surprise welcoming party!”

The six ponies and their changeling companions were walking the streets of Ponyville, with Pinkie Pie hopping in front of the group, loudly announcing every small building’s owner or function or everypony’s name. Buzzer tried to keep up with the hyperactive pony, while Shiftlight was engaged in a conversation with Twilight and Rarity, and Thorax was simply walking next to Rainbow Dash, listening to her stories.

“And this is Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie announced. “This is where you can get the most delicious baked goodies in the entire village! Also, I live and work here!”

“Wow, you live in a real gingerbread house?” Buzzer asked, faking amusement. “How come it still stands, despite any bad weather?”

“Well, it’s magical gingerbread of course, silly!” Pinkie giggled. “It still looks like the stuff, smell like real, but never rots, soaks, or anything. Of course, they say it’s unwise to eat it.”

“Well, judging from the first impression, I’d say you’re talking from experience,” Buzzer remarked with a grin.

“You bet!” she puffed her chest. “Oh, I just remembered that we’re here: your brother said you excel at making desserts!”

“Well, in reality I’m merely a beginner, but I’d be happy to learn from an expert!” Buzzer said in a somewhat cunning way.

“That’s great! You know, Mr. and Ms. Cake had twins not so long ago, and recently they are having a hard time with the foals, so they can’t fulfill their work completely. Would you like to help out?”

“Would I? It would be my utmost pleasure!” the changeling replied, licking the sides of his mouth in his imagination. “I only wish for a few bits, and a ceiling above my head as a small repayment.”

“All right then. You can start here tomorrow!” Pinkie yelled, embracing her new colleague in a warm hug.

The small changeling blushed, and became highly confused. Things went too smooth. Become friends with somepony on their first day, and even get a job? He felt in his thorax that sometime he and his brothers would pay a high toll for this.

“That settled, next stop: Ponyville Hospital!” Pinkie dropped Buzzer and hopped happily towards the health institution.

“No.” The white earth mare stated. “There is no way, I’m letting an inexperienced foal work in my hospital.”

“But, Nurse Redheart!” Pinkie pouted.

“Miss Pinkie, if you would excuse me,” – Shiftlight interrupted, – “Miss Redheart, may I speak with you in private for a moment?”

The nurse looked at the two standing in front of her, than waved at her office. The shifter in disguise stepped inside, and the mare closed the door, walked behind her desk, and sat down, with a questioning experience on her face.

“Sit down,” she ordered, and the changeling obeyed without resistance. “You have two minutes.”

“I think it would be best to say, that I am to blame here,” Shiftlight started, “my enthusiastic pink friend got a little carried away, and must have misunderstood something. I am not here to apply for a job.”

“Really?” Redheart wasn’t convinced. “But she clearly stated that you and your brothers…”

“My brothers are here to work, yes.” He replied. “But with my habit of remaining silent, I never got to tell Miss Pinkie that I am here to learn. I know my knowledge only comes from books, so I intend to learn from being close to someone, who actually practices the art of healing others.”

“That sounds fascinating. Why here?”

“Mostly because of my brothers.” The changeling, now also known as Silver Lancet answered. “Our parents in Canterlot could fund the fee of a small flat for the three of us, but after the fiasco they had to make repairs for their own selves. The dreamjobs of my brothers were crushed in the attack too, and so they decided to try their fortune elsewhere. We spent a whole day, arguing whether or not to move, but I was the only one on the side of staying. So we moved, and now I’m here.”

“Your story is breaking my heart.” Redheart remarked unamused. “Unfortunately I already know how to cure myself from such illnesses, so it was rather…ineffective. Inside the body where is the radial carpal flexor muscle?”

“Next to the deep digital flexor muscle, in the forelegs,” the changeling replied, showing the spots on himself. He came here expecting to be tested, knowing he had one shot at this.

“What should be done if the patient is experiencing pain in his or her eye, or if there is a small injury in one of the eyes?”

“Warm saline solution should be applied to the eye of the patient. It should taste like tears.”

“So what, you know the basics?” Redheart scoffed. “Wow, real impressive. What causes horse colic?”

“Multiple causes are possible,” Shiftlight said, tapping a hoof to his chin, “since it is in fact a symptom for abdominal pain. The frequent causes are: spasms of muscles, blockade in the intestine, gaseous distention or intestinal catastrophe.”

“What can you tell me about strangles?”

“Scientific name is Streptococcus Equi, a common respiration illness,” Lancet replied self-confident. “Treatment involves penicillin, if the problem is discovered early, but usually antibiotics are required, and hygiene conditions should be scrupulous. And that’s as far as I have gotten in the books.”

“So you like to read huh?” she disappeared behind her desk. “That’s good. I have a lot for you to read.”

The nurse pulled out a huge stack of books from beneath the table, and put it in front of the surprised changeling. Shiftlight looked quizzically at the pile of parchments.

“You’ll read this.” Redheart explained. “Or you won’t, I don’t care. You write a test tomorrow morning. If you pass, you’re worthy of my time. Otherwise don’t ever bother coming in, unless you are dying.”

“Now I know why you’re called Redheart, and your colleague has the name Tender Heart,” the shifter remarked with a sarcastic grin. “No offense.”

“None taken,” she replied surprisingly soft. “You can have one of the empty patient rooms, and study there.”

The changeling stood up, and packed as much of the books in a saddlebag as he could, then turned around to leave the room.

“Nurse Redheart,” he turned back from the doorway. She looked at him. “Thank you very much.”

“Just don’t go around telling ponies that I went easy on you.” She replied with a vicious smile.

“So where do you want to work?” Pinkie interrogated the last of the changelings. Silver Lancet stayed at the hospital, with the excuse that he had a lot to read. “I know where the school is, or I know some foals you could babysit or…”

“I think I’ll try to find my own way around thanks,” Thorax replied. “We were already led around for quite a bit, and I’d like to have some space to think and figure things out.”

“But… but,” the pink mare frowned.

“Come on Pinkie, you can still show me the inside of Sugarcube corner,” Buzzer tried to cheer the pony up. “I would be glad to have some practice before we get started tomorrow.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” she cheered.

“I guess it is time for us to leave as well,” Twilight said, holding out a hoof for Zaffre. “It was nice meeting you all.”

“Thank you for the tour, and the warm welcome,” the shifter replied, shaking the unicorn’s hoof. “We really appreciated it. Have a nice day!”

“And please tell your tall brother if he ever needs a medical coat, come see me!” Rarity said with a wink, before trotting after the others.

“Yeah, will do,” Thorax murmured under his nose. “Last thing he needs is some piece of cloth he could morph anytime for himself.”

He started walking in the orphanage’s direction. He almost lost track of where he was, given the route of the pink mare, but after drawing a small map on the ground for himself, he quickly figured out the way towards the institution. Satisfied with the peace and quiet around him, the changeling started humming a simple tune.

The orphanage was a large old building, looking like a farmhouse. It was painted dark-green, and had a huge garden surrounding it. Most of the garden was filled with nasty vegetation, showing that it hasn’t been cared for in a long time.

When he got close to the orphanage, the shifter noticed a pale magenta colored earth pony trotting towards the same building, holding a bag in her mouth. She had three smiling flowers on her flank, and hummed a happy song, galloping to the door of the orphanage. Thorax quickened his pace, and caught up with the mare, before she reached the door.

“Excuse me miss,” he said, trying his best not to startle the pony, “are you headed to the orphanage too?”

“Oh, hi!” she stopped, and put her bag down. “Yes, I am. Are you here too? Here to adopt a foal?”

“Me? Oh, sadly not,” he replied, trying to appear shy. “I barely have the funds to manage on my own. I would not risk caring for a foal. What about you?”

“Oh, I’m caring for way too many foals!” she answered cheerfully. “I’m the teacher in the Ponyville school. My name is Cheerilee.”

“Zaffree,” Thorax introduced himself, shaking hooves with the mare. “So why are you here then?”

“Oh, just brought some old books for the foals, who try to learn,” – she waved towards her bag, – “and some stories for them to read.”

“That’s very generous,” Thorax said. “Let me carry that for you.”
The two continued their short route to the orphanage. When they got close the changeling heard noises from inside the building. He recognized the noise of playing foals, and thought he would face a disaster as soon as they would knock on the door. The shifter had second thoughts about the whole orphanage thing, but the thoughts disappeared as soon as Cheerilee knocked on the huge oak door. Because after the knock, there was silence.
“Yes?” a small white filly with blonde mane plucked her head out. “Hi Miss Cheerilee!”
“Hello little Stork!” Cheerilee greeted. “May I come in?”
“Of course!” the filly replied, and opened the door, yelling inside. “Miss Cheerilee, is here! She brought her coltfriend!”
“Children.” Cheerilee remarked with an unpleasant smile. “He’s not my coltfriend!”
Thorax followed the mare inside, and almost drooled as soon as he felt the surge of love directed towards her. He could almost reach out and taste it. Instead he stood still, concentrating on not acting suspiciously, as the foals bombarded him with their curious questions.
“Are you here to adopt?” they asked continuously, and he shook his head vigorously.
“Really, you never told me what brought you here,” Cheerilee stepped closer, shooing the small ponies away.
“Well, I’m looking for work,” Thorax replied smiling meekly. “In an orphanage.”
“Oh, how generous of you!” the teacher smiled. “Well, who is going to lead him to Madame Tender?”
A dozen of hooves raised into the air, and the mare pointed at one of the ponies. The vanilla colored unicorn filly with a light green mane trotted towards the inside of the building, followed by the disguised shifter. The duo silently walked into the back of the building, to a comfy living room. In a rocking chair, in front of the window sat an old brown mare, wearing a red skirt and a pink vest. Zaffree stopped in the doorway, while the filly walked to the old mare, and introduced her visitor silently.
“Thank you Sweet Flower,” Madame Tender whispered. “Please leave us alone for a while.”
“All right nanny,” Flower replied, and left them, closing the door. Thorax stood there silently.
“Come closer, I won’t bite,” the old mare broke the ice after a long pause. He obeyed, setting down next to the pony. Thorax only noticed then the strange way the mare’s eyes looked.
“Are you… Blind?” He asked, and the compassion in his voice surprised even him.
“In one way we all are,” Tender replied with a faint smile. “But indeed my eyes grew old faster than I did.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Thorax said, staring at the ground.
“So, you said you want to work in an orphanage,” she changed the topic. “It is a hard choice. Have you thought about it thoroughly?”
The changeling bit his lips. He could lie, say he was devoted, but after sensing compassion in his own voice, he feared he might screw up, and bust his only chance. On the other hand, the truth, that it was indeed his only chance of survival was a bit harsh to be spilled out.
“I did,” he replied finally, mentally slapping himself for being so undetermined for this long.
“Hm,” Madame Tender replied, rocking in her chair. “I grew old and blind, but the foals managed to take care of themselves for a while. With the occasional aid of Miss Cheerilee of course.”
The changeling felt his heart beat loudly in his ears, as fear grasped him in its cold hard hand. It was over. He probably has another day, maybe less, then his disguise will fade away. He must hide to keep his brothers safe, and in the end, he would grow too weak to sustain himself. Thorax felt his worst nightmares come true, as in his imagination, he became abundance for his brothers.
“On the other hand,” Madame Tender resumed, snapping Zaffree out of his dark visions, “they are still just small foals. They deserve a foalhood, and I intend to help them get it some way.”
“So?” Thorax asked, his voice filled with hope.
“Tell me what you need, and we may work out an agreement.”

Feeling lucky

Lime Biscuit was occupied. Not really busy, just merely concentrating on keeping up with the pink whirlwind of Sugarcube corner, as she was running around, performing multiple steps of baking cupcakes simultaneously. The disguised changeling felt his head spinning, as he tried to take mental notes of everything.

“Combine the chocolate wafer crumbs, softened butter, 2 tablespoons white sugar, and the cinnamon.” He muttered to himself. “ In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. No wait, that’s another recipe. Preheat oven… I can’t keep up with this!”

“Oh.” Pinkie suddenly noticed his colleague’s distress, and slowed down. “Sorry, I guess I became a bit too excited.”

“No kidding.” Buzzer growled. “But may I ask a question?”

“Sure can do!”

“Since you’re so good at this, how about in the first few days you handle the kitchen, and I handle the serving in the rush hours.” Lime said. “And in the slower hours I get to handle the kitchen, to learn the ropes.”

“Ropes? But why would we need ropes?” Pinkie asked, tapping a hoof to her chin.

“I hope that’s a joke,” Buzzer replied. “So how about it?”

“I guess that could work. Ya gat yerself a deal partna!”

“Ah think, sugahcube, that’s mah line,” Applejack said suddenly.

“How long have you been standing there?” the two colleagues asked, staring surprised at the newcomer.

“Long enough to hear enough,” Applejack replied. “Pinkie are ya sure ya want the newbie to handle things? No offense, but you don’t exactly know him. Nopony here does.”

“But Lime has a point!” she argued. “I know this stuff, I’ve been doing this since I got here! He doesn’t have as much practice, not to mention a Pinkie-sense!”

“What’s a Pinkie-sense?” Buzzer cautiously asked, not knowing whether it was common knowledge or not.

“Oh, just a special knack I have,” Pinkie puffed out her chest. “Sometimes I get these strange signals my body sends me, telling me that there will be something happening soon. Like if my tail twitches, something will fall.”

“Trust me partna,” Applejack took over, before Lime could open his mouth, “ya don’ wanna question the pinkie-sense. But back to tha topic at hoof, I don’t know Pinkie; a new face might not be the thing the ponies want to see here. Especially after Canterlot.”

The changeling in the room almost screamed. Buzzer saw his meals suddenly swimming away, but Pinkie saved his confidence.

“I’m sure Applejack,” she replied. “Lime here might have a sour name, but he has a sweet tooth, and an even sweeter manner. I bet the girls coming here will like him.”

“Thanks Miss Pinkie,” Lime Biscuit said, trying his best not to blush, “but Miss Applejack is right. Really nopony knows my face. I might frighten away the customers.”

“Well, if nopony knows you that’s because I haven’t thrown you a party yet!” Pinkie cheered. “Which I will! Right after I baked these muffins!”

The pink whirlwind got back to work, while Applejack examined the lime colored pony in front of her.

“Call me paranoid, but something about ya is a little off,” she said, walking around Buzzer. The changeling dared not to move. “Where did ya say you were from?”

“Trottingham,” Lime lied fluently. “Our parents decided to move to Canterlot a few years ago, and my brothers and I continued our studies there. My mother was originally from Canterlot, and our grandparents had a few connections. But after the, well… ‘wedding’, the three of us decided to move out of the city.”

“And your parents let you go just like that?” Applejack asked. “Seems hard to believe.”

“Miss Pinkie, exactly how old were you when you came to Ponyville?” Buzzer asked the pink pony, knowing the story of the mare’s whole life, since she told it among the billion other things she blabbed about the whole day.

“Five,” she replied, without stopping. Buzzer gave the farmer a deadpan look.

“You managed to prove me wrong,” Applejack admitted her defeat, raising her hooves. “But only because it’s Pinkie.”

“You were only four when you traveled to the city of Manehattan alone,” Pinkie countered, not stopping her work for a second.

“Allright, fine, Ah get it,” she replied in an unpleasant tone. “Ah juts don’t want anything to go wrong.”

“Don’t you worry Granny Applejack,” Pinkie said, finally giving a moment’s rest for herself. “I’ll keep my eyes on this changeling myself!”

“Yeah right,” Buzzer needed all his training and nerves to stay calm, and continue his act. “I’m a hideous creature, and will devour all your love!”

“See?” the pink pony argued. “No changeling would have a sense of humor like this!”

“Ah’m not entirely convinced, but given time Ah might will be,” Applejack said, extending a hoof to Lime Biscuit. “Until then, farewell partna!”

The changeling shook the farmer’s hoof, and watched her leave. After they were alone, he let out a small sigh. He wanted to start thinking, but a hoof on his shoulder disturbed him. He looked up to see Pinkie with a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry Lime,” She said. “I don’t care what others think you are, I know.”

“Really?” he asked, surprised.

“Of course!” Pinkie cheered, embracing the other in a tight hug. “You’re my friend silly!”

The changeling felt the love of Pinkie flowing around him. He closed his eyes, and hugged the mare back.

She wouldn’t mind me having a small snack. He thought, devouring a small portion of the pony’s love. After all, my brothers might not be this lucky.

My brothers will never be this lucky. Thorax thought when Madame Tender introduced the new caretaker to the foals. The small ponies greeted the disguised shifter with a stream of joy mixed with love. Thorax only had to reach out and drink from the flow of emotions, restraining himself from trying to devour it all. He knew if they would get suspicious, his cover would be blown, and his brothers would be in danger as well. So he only took enough to share it with his brothers, and then concentrated on his new tasks. It was late in the afternoon, and he still had to meet at least his younger brother in the Retching Griffon tonight. He was sure he would spend all his remaining bits on a huge mug of cider to celebrate.

“And this is our bedroom,” a small filly announced, showing him a room filled with beds. “We used to clean it up, but I guess that will be your job too from now on.”

“Now small Dandelion, it is everypony’s responsibility,” Madame Tender gently scoffed the foal. “He will have his tasks, but you might ask him nicely to help you clean up.”

“Oh don’t worry, it won’t be a problem at all,” Zaffre said smiling. “I’d be glad to help such young fine ladies.”

The filly blushed at the compliment, and they closed the door and moved on.

“Is there any particular bedtime story you like?” Thorax asked Dandelion.

“Well, most of the colts like the legends of Starswirl the bearded, but us girls like tales about the princesses,” the filly explained. “There’s a whole shelf of these books in the playroom. I used to read them to the others. I could read them for you.”

“Thanks, but shouldn’t I be taking care of you, instead of you taking care of me?” Zaffre asked playfully. This resulted in Madame Tender chuckling softly.

“Oh, so eager to prove yourself to any handsome stallion, aren’t you now?” the old mare asked giggling.

“Nanny!” Dandelion yelled, cheeks flushing red. “That’s not true!”

“Oh, hush little one, I was fooling around!” she scoffed the filly, smiling. “Can’t an old mare have a small joy in her life?”

“Sorry.” Dandelion cowered a bit.

Madame Tender rustled the foal’s mane, and asked Zaffre to take her back to her room. The small filly ran off to play with the others, while Thorax led the mare to the room in the back. After she was settled in her rocking chair, she grabbed Zaffre before he could walk away.

“I’m glad you are here.” She said to him. “I don’t know what winds blew you here, but with us being this close to Canterlot, we were the first to get a surplus of foals after the attack. Dandelion and Stork may have been able to fulfill minor tasks and aid me, but now there are a lot of other foals, and our tasks have been doubled.”

“I will do my best to help you,” – Thorax touched the hoof on his shoulder, – “and help them. I won’t let you down.”

“Thank you,” Madame Tender replied, and let go of the shifter. “Don’t forget to lay them to their beds at exactly half past eight! Some of them are expected to attend to a class tomorrow morning!”

My brothers are definitely luckier than I am. Shiftlight thought, slowly turning the pages of the huge anatomy book in front of him. Nurse Redheart gave him quite an enormous amount of knowledge to be swallowed in less than half a day, but he intended to give it his best shot. He was already halfway through the stack of parchments, but his mind needed some fresh air and a bit of peace to digest the information. Most changelings were taught to read quickly, and learn necessary knowledge in a short amount of time, but everyone had their limits.

For the tall changeling this limit was the part of the book explaining the various treatments of the Pars Pituitary Intermedia Dysfunction. The vast amount of medical terms, the meaning of which he either guessed or looked up in a medical dictionary tired his nerves to the point he could barely concentrate on not forgetting what his fake name was.

“Silver Lancet.” He said to himself, taking a sip of the hot cup of coffee he made for himself. “My name is Silver Lancet. Crack this, I need some real energy.”

His head hit the table with a loud thud, the muscles in his neck giving up under the weight of his knowledge. He almost drifted off into sleep, when another, slightly quieter thud was heard from the window of the room. He slowly looked up, and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when he saw what was on the outside. The changeling walked to the window, and opened it.

“Hey there, brother!” a small lime colored unicorn greeted.

“The cricket are you doing here Lime Biscuit?” Silver Lancet said. “Shouldn’t you be baking cakes and muffins and pot bellies?”

“What?” Buzzer asked, as Shiftlight facehoofed himself, shaking his head. “Never mind, I got my first dose of affection. I wanted to share it with you, since I took a wild guess that you would be buried under those books of yours.”

“Ancestors bless you, you guessed right.” Shiftlight motioned his brother to get inside, who used his magic to levitate himself through the open window. “I could use some cold juice right now.”

Buzzer’s horn lit up, and a small stream of green smoke emerged from it, targeting the other changeling. Shiftlight literally sucked up the energy with his mouth, savoring the taste for a second, before gulping it down.

“Thank you brother.” Lancet patted his small sibling’s head. “I need to get back to reading.”

“Good luck with that!” Lime jumped out the window. “I have to get back to see if my first batch of muffins is ready!”

Shiftlight got back to his desk, opening up another book detailing the various treatments and complications of broken bones. He only got to page fifty before another knock from his window disturbed him. He stood up, and opened his window, looking outside again. He didn’t see anypony nearby, but before he could’ve closed the window, he heard a loud “Psst!” from above. He looked up, just to see his other brother hovering upside-down above him.

“Am I disturbing you?” Thorax asked in his disguise.

“No Zaffre, you aren’t.” Shiftlight invited him inside as well. His brother dropped onto the edge of the window and stepped inside.

“I brought you some juice.” The changeling in the pegasus mask said. “I was on my way to see both of you in the Retching Griffon, but then I realized you won’t really make it there, so I brought you a fair share.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you.” Lancet said, drawing the curtains. “Our smallest brother already visited me with a present too, making sure I wouldn’t starve.”

“Hey, I guessed you’re the one having the hardest time from the three of us.” Thorax dropped his disguise, and streamed a greater amount of magically collected love to his brother. Shiftlight slurped it up in a second, devouring every last drop before it could’ve disappeared into the ether. “Besides, the way you held out this long, you earned it.”

“Thank you again.” Silver Lancet replied, opening the window, as his brother took upon his disguise again. “I’ll make sure I’ll repay this somehow to both of you.”

“Hey, we’re from the same mother.” Thorax replied, turning back from the window, before leaving. “We never did this for any payment.”

Zaffre flew off, heading towards the inn, as Shiftlight closed the window behind him. He sat back to his desk, grabbing the book about broken bones.

I’m lucky to have brothers like them. He thought, before diving completely into the mysteries of pony anatomy.

Bumpy road ahead

“So, you finished?” Nurse Redheart gave a quizzical look to Lancet. Silver lancet hoofed the stack of papers over to the mare with a stoic face. “Are you trying to impress me?”

“Impressing somepony is the last thing I would have in mind, considering the fact that we will be making decisons that affect ponies lives directly,” Shiftlight replied without expression. Sure he finished his test in a record time, forty minutes, and Nurse Redheart first thought he gave up halfway, but when she saw that there was writing on the last page she reconsidered.

“Modesty won’t get you far in my field,” she started turning the pages. “Knowledge however, now that might just do.”

“If you’ll excuse me Nurse Redheart,” Lancet apologized. “I would very much like to see my brothers and ask them how their jobs turned out.”

“Sure, sure, run along little foal,” she gestured with her hoof. “See you later, I’ll read your scribble until then.”

Shiftlight turned around and left the nurse alone, trying to clear his head along the way to Sugarcube Corner. The changeling tried to familiarize himself with the place, greeted everypony with a nod and a ‘good day’, memorizing the important places and faces along the route. Soon enough he saw the gingerbread house, and felt the smell of baked goodies too. He quietly walked up to the shop and opened the door cautiously, expecting Pinkie to jump out from an unexpected place.

“Welcome weary traveler to the home of sugary goodness here in Ponyville!” A familiar masculine voice greeted. “We have all sorts of biscuits, cakes, muffins and cupcakes. Feel free to ask for a free taste!”

“Lime Biscuit?” Shiftlight asked, taken aback. His brother jumped out from behind the counter. “What are you doing?”

“Lancet!” Buzzer greeted. “I was expecting you! How did your test go?”

“Gave it my best shot,” he replied. “How was your first workday so far?”

“It’s ten in the morning,” Buzzer said a bit annoyed. “I had one customer, coming to pick up his order from yesterday, other than that it’s all you can see.”

The whole shop was empty around the two brothers, the ponies yet to feel the need for anything sweet except their tea or coffee. Shiftlight wondered why anypony would bake cakes and muffins this time, but seeing the question written all over his face the other changeling gestured towards a table and sat down himself.

“Pinkie says life only begins at half past eleven, when some ponies come and take a batch of sweeties for their colleagues at their workplace. After that around noon ponies get out for a walk, a talk and a snack. Many of them come here, so Pinkie is working to prepare for that too.”

“So, you haven’t started your real work yet?” Shiftlight asked.

“I was in the back myself, when Pinkie’s sense told her that there will be somepony coming into the shop,” Buzzer replied. “By the way, how did you like my greeting? I was thinking about it the whole morning.”

“It was a bit too long,” the other confessed. “But I suppose in the duller hours it would suffice.”

“Yeah, I thought it was long too,” Lime tapped his chin with a hoof. “I’m trying to imitate Pinkie as much as I could without arising suspicion. As far as I concluded from her unstoppable blabbering, she is very popular.”

“Just tread lightly,” Shiftlight warned. “We must not be discovered.”

“Yeah, I know,” Buzzer nodded. “But we talked about this; we need many friends. Which reminds me.”

The short unicorn ran off into the back of the shop, and soon returned holding an envelope in his magical grasp. He landed the envelope in front of his brother and sat down with a curious look on his face.

“Go ahead,” he nudged Shiftlight. “Open it.”

Shiftlight cautiously grabbed the envelope and opened it, expecting it to explode anytime, spreading confetti and muffins everywhere, but no such thing happened. He took out the parchment, and unfolded it, reading the contents out loudly.

“You are hereby invited to the official welcoming party of the Terrifying Trio, the three newest members of our ever-growing village! The party will take place at Sugarcube corner at the evening of this day, celebrating the successful settling and warm welcome of Silver Lancet, Zaffre and Lime Biscuit. Bring along anypony you wish! XOXO Pinkie Pie” Lancet gave a quizzical look to his brother. “Terrifying Trio?”

“Pinkie’s idea,” Buzzer replied. “I went along with it, hoping it might be spicy enough to make us somewhat known.”

“It’s a social gathering.” Shiftlight stated, his brother nodding. “I hate social interactions.”

“Part of why you never truly qualified as a perfect infiltrator.” Lime smirked. “But this is just what we needed. If we can make ourselves look like the perfect stallions, we would have a greater chance of survival.”

“You and your overconfident plans,” Shiftlight shook his head.

“Pinkie would’ve thrown us a party anyway,” Buzzer stated. “Might as well make the best of it.”

“All right, all right, if it means that much to you, I’ll come,” the tall changeling raised his hooves in defeat. “Just to thank you for bringing me that special something yesterday.”

“No need to thank me. –” Lime hopped off of the chair, and turned to leave. “– Well, if you really insist, you could take the news about the party to Zaffre. Yesterday we met he said he established his work at the orphanage.”

“Will do!” he replied, standing up, heading for the exit. “See you tonight at the party.”

I hate foals. Shiftlight noted to himself, when he entered the orphanage. The small ponies ran circles around him, bombarding him with useless questions, when he clearly stated he wanted to see Zaffre. After five minutes of noise and annoyance a familiar voice greeted him… from the door he came in a little while ago.

“Brother?” Thorax asked in his disguise, dropping a huge bag of food on the floor. “Here to adopt a foal?”

“Very funny and original Zaffre.” Shiftlight remarked with a frown. “Lime sends his regards, and asked me to hoof you this invitation.”

“What is this?” He asked, taking the paper and reading it through. “The Terrifying…”

“Don’t ask,” Lancet replied. “Will you attend the party?”

“Well, I promised Madame Tender to help but…” Thorax hesitated. “I might be able to ask her to make an exception.”

“If you won’t come the pink nightmare would be devastated,” Shiftlight stated. “And so would be our brother.”

“Well, if it makes you both happy, I’ll be there,” Zaffre promised. “I might ask Madame if it would be appropriate to bring along a few of the foals.”

“Oh, please do.” Lancet’s voice was filled with sarcasm. “I do so enjoy the company of small foals.”

“Now now brother.” Zaffre scoffed. “Without them you would’ve starved yesterday evening.”

Shiftlight sighed at his brother’s statement, turning to leave. Thorax accompanied him to the doorway and they bid their farewells till the evening.

“You know, it feels like I’m cheating, with you helping me prepare for your surprise party,” Pinkie remarked to Lime.

The two of them enjoyed the sight of their work; party decorations hanging from everywhere, confetti cannons waiting for the unsuspecting guests of honor, huge batches of muffins cupcakes stacked on the tables, along with punches and hot sauces of various kinds, and of course a stand for living musicians.

“You mean my brothers’ surprise party.” Lime Biscuit replied. “Which of course is mine too, but I know what my brothers like, and you know what the majority of Ponyville likes. With the two of us organizing, this party will be perfect for everypony!”

“I guess you have a point!” Pinkie agreed cheerfully. “I wish it would be evening already!”

“Why being impatient?” Buzzer asked.

“I just want to see ponies smile!” she replied. “I was always happy to make others happy! It’s what I got my cutiemark for!”

“Oh, I see,” the shifter said, tapping a hoof to his chin.

“Also, I think it’s because I’m the Element of Laughter too!” the pink pony continued.

“The what now?” Lime inquired, expecting another Pinkie-ish joke or some other unexplainable quirk.

“Oh, I guess we aren’t that famous after all.” She said to herself, thinking. “Well, we only saved Equestria two times so far. Three times counting Twilight, but with all the elements, only two.”
“You helped saving Equestria two times?” Lime faked amazement, while being freaked out of his own chitin husk. “How so?”

“Wow, were you living under a rock or something?” Pinkie asked.

You have no idea. Buzzerthought, but replied otherwise. “I heard of the elements, I just never knew I would have the chance to meet them personally!”

“Well, duh! You met all of them already!” Pinkie replied, placing a hoof on the changeling’s shoulder. “Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Twilight and me, we’re all of the elements!”

If these elements saved Equestria two times, we’re in trouble. Buzzer thought. One time might’ve been when they wiped out all the changelings in Canterlot.

“Oh, reminds me!” Pinkie sunk into her abyss of thoughts again. “I need to ask Fluttershy to bring along a couple of birds. They would perfectly sing along with the songs Lyra will play!”

“Pinkie, you mind if I go check up on my brothers to see if they’re really available tonight?” Buzzer asked, trying not to be suspicious. “You know, there might be some complications with Zaffre now working at the orphanage and such.”

“Okie-dokie-lokie!” Pinkie replied. “Just make sure you’re all here at seven o’clock!”

“Will do!” he said quickly, almost screwing up his act.

Buzzer ran off into the streets of Ponyville, frightened of the information only he knew.

“Now now Shinetail, it was Fancy Dress who played with the dolls first!” Zaffre scoffed the little filly. “You might ask if she would let you play with her and the dolls, but it’s rude to forcefully take them from her.”

“I’m here to see Zaffre!” An annoyed voice yelled in the doorway. “Let me pass!”

“What a pleasant surprise to see you brother!” Thorax said, as his annoyed brother passed him by, grabbing the blue pegasus in his magical grasp, dragging him away from the playing foals.

“You. Me. Private. Now,” Buzzer ordered his brother, who immediately pointed at a door.

Buzzer dropped him, and huffing from exhaust he entered the kitchen. Thorax followed him, locking the door behind them. Once he made sure they were completely alone, he used a spell to muffle their voices to anypony, who would eavesdrop on them, and then turned to Lime.

“What’s the matter?” he examined his brother. “You look like you ran a marathon from Sugarcube corner to here!”

“Matter? Oh nothing important really!” Lime yelled. “We’re in the only village in Equestria, that is home to the most dangerous weapons these herbivores might ever have!”

“Slow down!” Thorax raised his voice. “I don’t follow you.”

“The Elements! They are here!” Buzzer explained. “In this very village! They were the first ponies we ever met!”

“Elements?” Zaffre raised a brow. “What elements?”

“I don’t know!” the other replied annoyed, his hooves holding his head, like it was about to launch into the ether from frustration. “But they saved Equestria two times! Two times brother!”

“Okay, so they did,” Thorax admitted. “So why the panic?”

“Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash!” Buzzer counted. “They are the elements! Yesterday the mare named Applejack said she is suspicious of me! What if they are onto us? What if the party is a plan to eliminate us?”

“Calm down brother!” Zaffre placed a hoof on his brother’s shoulder. “I’m sure with our skills they don’t suspect a thing!”

“I’ve doomed us all!” Lime cried out. “I've killed my brothers!”

“No you haven’t!” the taller changeling slapped Buzzer. “Everything will be fine!”

That seemingly calmed the short shifter for a second, and Zaffre let go of his sibling. Immediately after the physical contact was ceased the small changeling cried out again, and with his magic opened the window of the room, jumping off and running away yelling something about warning their tallest brother.

“I hope Lancet has the ability to slap some sense into him.” Zaffre remarked, closing the window and letting out a sigh. “And I hope Lime isn’t right.”

“Brother! Brother! Brother! Brother!” Buzzer called out under Shiftlight’s window, jumping up at every word. “Brother!”

The tall changeling opened the window furiously, and smacked his sibling in the face.

“What is it nutjob?” He asked. “I was taking a rest to prepare for the party, I don’t need any stress!”

“Elements! Danger! Run!” Lime wheezed from exhaustion. “Warned Zaffre! Wouldn’t believe!”

“Shut up, take a deep breath, calm down, come inside, explain what happened.” Shiftlight ordered Buzzer, who seemed to react to the cold words rather well.

“The mares we met the first day, you remember them right?” Lime explained once inside and sealed off with a muffling spell. “They are all part of something called the ‘Elements’. They saved Equestria two times already! I suspect they know who we are, and will try to eliminate us at this party!”

“Of course they will,” Shiftlight replied sarcastically. “It will be a public execution.”

“Something tells me you don’t believe me either,” Buzzer raised a brow.

“You have a tendency of overreacting small things,” the other explained. “Even if it’s not a small thing, keeping a cool head is important. I thought you have learned this.”

“Lancet, you surely understand what ‘saving Equestria two times’ means,” Lime retorted “So why aren’t you worried?”

“Because we have a plan, and if it fails we have no backup,” he replied. “Panicking won’t get us anywhere. If they are truly suspicious, us disappearing would only prove them right.”

“So we stay and wait?” Buzzer asked, and his brother nodded. “Well, I guess it will be my fault if we all die in the end.”

“Keep up that positive attitude Lime,” Shiftlight advised. “It will help you through the difficult times.”

“All right. Thanks brother,” he said, opening the window to leave. “See you at the party tonight!”

“Next time learn to use the door!” Lancet yelled as a farewell. “Idiot.”

Twisted consequences

Nurse Redheart slowly took a stack of papers out from her saddlebag, and dropped it between her and the unease changeling. Shiftlight realized it was the test he wrote that morning. The score was a hundred and ten.

Out of a hundred.

“You completed the test far too quickly, and far too precisely,” the mare explained, answering the obvious yet unsaid question. “Other than that I barely saw you out of your room, and haven’t seen you devour any sort of physical food. Nopony could really go without at least a snack and read through all those books I gave you. Much less get about four hours of sleep and then score ten points above the full score on this test. Well maybe except Twilight Sparkle, but she’s the Princess’s protege for a reason.”

Shiftlight let out an unease sigh.

“What am I going to do about it right?” Redheart contiued, before Lancet could open his mouth. “For starters, I could report you, crush your plans, and the party for you, then ask the princesses for a permit to study you, while you growl at me locked up in a cage.”

Shiftlight stared at the pony, trying to consider his chances. He couldn’t wipe her memory, killing her would eventually blow everything they worked for, and he couldn’t escape fast enough to warn his brothers without arising suspicion.

“I intend to listen.” She said, surprising the shifter.

“Why?” Lancet said after a minute of silence.

“Why?” Redheart asked back. “Why not? What reason do I have to see you captured and locked up?”

“Canterlot.” he replied.

“True,” the nurse tapped a hoof to her chin. “But I also know what it’s like when you have no option, but to obey an order. I had several moments myself, when I would’ve gladly ended the lives of those lying on the operating table before me. The lives of many ponies ended thanks to the hoofwork of criminals I had to get in proper shape to be presented to their court. I could’ve killed them. I had the chance to do what I wished to do. Instead I obeyed, for Celestia knows what reason.”

“How do you know I followed orders?” Shiftlight interrogated further. A voice in the back of his skull asked him to stop, but he silenced it.

“Because I hope now you’ve tasted freedom,” Nurse Redheart answered. “I suspect that you experience something entirely new. You gave your best shot at this test, and performed, may I boldly predict that even beyond changeling standards. You got careless, but it comes with taking your first steps. You want to do this, and as a nurse, the only thing I truly care about is the benefit of every creature.”

“Even a changeling?” Lancet asked, entirely unconvinced.

“Why would you deserve a lesser treatment than ponies?” Redheart gave him a quizzical look. “And don’t say ‘Canterlot’.”

“We feed on you.” Shiftlight pointed out.

“We feed on grass and vegetables. Sometimes we drink milk, and use eggs to bake cakes. I have barely seen any vegetables, cows or chickens attack ponies.”

“Your point being?”

“You don’t need to kill us to feed on us,” she stood up. “And I’m certain that if you do your part of work, the meals you take from the ponies are entirely… well let’s say that you can feel it’s justified to take enough to sustain yourselves.”

They both slipped into silence. Shiftlight was trying to take in what the pony just said. He couldn’t really believe it. The logical part of him said he should take his brothers and run. But the small voice, the voice he heard so many times before and yet he easily ignored, convinced him otherwise.

“I…believe you,” he slowly said. It was hard for him to say it, much less admit that his voice wasn’t poisoned with lies and betrayal.

“That was… unexpected,” Nurse Redheart said, her face stoic as ever. “I hoped I would have to hold you down against your will and literally beat some sense into you.”

The changeling tilted his head, not able to decide whether it was a joke or not.

“I guess your silence doesn’t come free,” he replied after a small pause.

“Of course not. I would like you to drop your disguise.”

“No.” Shiftlight shook his head.

“I didn’t mean ‘now and always’.” Redheart scolded the shifter, like he was a small colt. “I am simply interested in your anatomy that’s all. Also, I’m extremely curious as of how you survived in Canterlot. You satisfy my hunger for knowledge, and you can feed all you need in the hospital.”

“I hope your hunger is not insatiable,” Lancet said with a small smirk.

“If you’re done joking around, you have a party to attend to,” Redheart remarked. “And our first session in changeling anatomy will begin on Saturday morning. I hope you don’t have anything planned.”

The changeling shook his head, and after setting the details the two of them returned to the party.

Two hours later the party was winding down. Zaffre already left with the few foals he managed to sneak out to the party, and only a hoofful of guests remained. The musicians were long since gone, the muffins and cupcakes were almost all devoured, and everypony was getting too tired to play games. Soon, only a few ponies remained, with the intent of helping Pinkie and Lime clean up some of the mess. Lancet was among them, reorganizing the tables to their original positions, torn between reality and his own thoughts.

“Hey! Lancet!” Buzzer jumped on top of the table his brother was pushing, poking him on his forehead with a hoof. “Where do you plan on taking this one?”

“Hmm?” Shiftlight looked up, letting go of the table. “Where it belongs?”

“It surely doesn’t belong in the restroom!” Lime replied, pointing at the door that the other shifter was pushing the table towards. “It belongs in the kitchen.”

“Sorry,” Lancet apologized, pushing the furniture to its place. “I guess I’m a little dreamy that’s all.”

“Hey, don’t worry!” Lime reassured his brother. “Pinkie and I are more than enough to clean up the place. If you wish you can go, take a walk and clear your head.”

“If you say so,” he answered. “I’ll just head back to the hospital.”

His small sibling nodded, and used his magic to move the rest of the furnishings back to their original place. By the time Shiftlight got to the door everything was almost back to the ordinary, with both bakers sweeping up. The tall changeling let out a sigh, stepping outside into the quiet evening of Ponyville.

What am I supposed to do? Shiftlight thought. I screwed up, and endangered my brothers. I should’ve warned them, and we should’ve left the village. Start over somewhere else. But no, I decided to remain silent, and be a part of that pony’s game!

“What is wrong with me?” He asked out loud.

“Who are you talking to?” A familiar voice called out to him. He turned around to see Lime trotting towards him.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, you seemed worried, so Pinkie made me come after you, to ask whether it was the party that got you so down.” Buzzer explained. “That, and she said you left without a goodbye hug. Also, the hospital is in the other direction.”

Shiftlight shook his head. It was no easy escaping the reach of that pink monster, and now his small brother was under her influence. Could things get any worse?

“Lancet, there is something wrong with you.” Lime stated, stepping closer to his brother. “You act like you’re under some confusion spell, or something. What bothers you?”

“Do you… Would you get mad if I said I would not like to discuss that topic?” he asked back.

“Mad? Ancestors no!” Buzzer shook his head. “Curious as of why, yes, but mad?”

“It’s… complicated.” Shiftlight said, hoping it would be a sufficient explanation. “Something I heard during the party. But it’s not important.”

“Of course the latter I guessed.” Lime replied. “If it would be, I’m sure you would’ve told us by now. Well, I’ll leave you to your thoughts then. Oh, I almost forgot!”

The small unicorn embraced his brother in a hug. Shiftlight stood there shocked, waiting for an explanation.

“Pinkie ordered me to give you a goodbye hug.” Buzzer said, letting go of his sibling. “I hope you didn’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Shiftlight said with an unease smile, though his brother could barely see anything in the dark. “Well, have a good night!”

“You too!”

The two of them parted ways, each heading towards their new homes. Shiftlight felt like he could scream. Not only did he keep his talk with Nurse Redheart a secret, but with his brother’s words, he also felt like he was downright betraying them.

What is happening to me? He thought, looking up at the moon. When did I get so weak?

When did I become so weak? Zaffre asked himself, as he sat on the bed of the small pegasus foal. Black Cirrus, the small colt whose bed he was sitting on, woke him up an hour ago, with the reason that some monsters kept him awake. Thorax felt like he should just reassure the foal that there was no such thing, and return to sleep, but there was something in the eyes of the colt that made him change his mind.

I can’t believe it. He thought. He’s been asleep for half an hour now. So why can’t I get myself to leave?

His mind urged him to move, yet every other inch of him refused to obey. He just sat there, eyes on the small foal, still ready to reassure him that he’s safe from the monsters.

I am a monster. He realized, and that got him to move. He opened his fake wings, and soared to the door, landing softly and silently on the carpet in the corridor. He closed the door and headed for his own room. Once inside, he locked his door, walked to the window, sat down and stared outside, at the moon.

What am I becoming? He thought, unable to find any answer.

“Why are you staring outside?” A small voice asked. “And why did you lock the door?”

Thorax quickly turned around, just to see another small filly cowering on his bed. It was Dandelion, he realized.

“I don’t know.” He replied, sitting down. “Something’s just bothering me I guess. Why are you here?”

“My tummy hurts.” She said, scratching her belly with a hoof. “I guess I ate too many muffins at the party.”

“Well, you can stay, until your pain goes away.” Zaffre offered with a faint smile, hopping next to the filly on the bed.

“You shouldn’t have locked the door.” Dandelion said, shuddering a bit. “It won’t be safer.”

“I guess I just wanted to be alone for a while.” Zaffre replied, gently hugging the filly. “No big deal.”

“May I tell you something?” She looked up at the pegasus with pleading eyes. “Something that’s been bothering me?”

“Sure, I’d be glad to listen.” Thorax said.

“I… was once like this.” Dandelion started, and the changeling realized: he was about to hear a long repressed memory of the filly. “Something bothered me, and I thought locking myself in my room would help me clear my head. That being alone would make me feel better. My parents tried to get me out, but I… I yelled them to leave me alone. I was so wrong.”

The small unicorn let out a heavy sigh. Zaffre felt uncomfortable: he wanted to help the filly, but realized he should just listen for now. The inside of his mind was a mess; he felt good, because he was there for the foal, but on the other hand it confused him that he cared so much for a creature he fed on.

“We lived in an old house back at that time. Much like this farmhouse, just a bit older.” She continued, trying to remember what she suppressed for so long. “I was inside, when some fire broke out. Nopony knew what caused it, but by the time I realized why my parents were yelling, it was too late. I ran to the window, and luckily some pegasus just passed by, and heard me shouting. He saved my life.”

Tears were streaming down on Dandelion’s cheeks. She buried her face in the blanket, and continued with a muffled voice.

“My parents burned inside, and all because I locked the door, and they tried to get me out!” She cried, and Zaffre pulled her close, embracing her in a warm, comforting hug. “I wanted to be alone, and I got my wish! Oh, dear Celestia, I still hear them calling out to me, trying to help me, when I selfishly pushed them away! I never want to be alone ever again!”

Thorax gently jumped off of the bed, walked to the door and opened it.

“You’ll never have to fear that.” He promised, getting back next to the small unicorn. “I’ll never ever close my door again. If something bothers you, you can come talk to me; I’ll be here.”

He hugged the filly tight, Dandelion crying herself to sleep in his embrace. The changeling’s thoughts only drifted off when the small unicorn was deeply dreaming. Thorax felt her love around him, but couldn’t bring himself to devour any of it.

What made me become so soft? He wondered. And why am I not bothered by it?

The third changeling in Ponyville had no such problems. He did his fair share of work that day, lay down on his makeshift bed in Pinkie’s room, and was already fast asleep.

Sweet dreams however, did not come without a price.

Buzzer dreamt of his hive. In his sleep vision he walked inside the web-tunnels connecting the underground spires of his home, enjoying the buzzing sound of hundreds and hundreds of his siblings. He saw the huge tower in the middle of their enormous city, the Ascended Citadel, throne room of his queen, surrounded by smaller towers, containing the precious hatching chambers. Those always reminded him of his time spent as a small nymph, along with dozens of his siblings. His two brothers and him, they all hatched on the same day, along with at least twenty more eggs from their cluster. Only seven of them ever managed to learn the basics of infiltration, and only four of them were ever sent out to the field. The fate of the fourth was always somewhat of a sad memory for the small changeling. He was just reaching the guard-tower of cluster nine when his dream took a different turn.

The web-tunnel in front of him disappeared, torn apart by an unknown force. He quickly took flight, and watched as not flames, but a strange blue mist burned his home to ashes. He heard the screams of his siblings, the unmistakable cracking of fire, and almost felt the smell of burned chitin. Slowly, the smoke surrounded him, and he saw the silhouette of a tall familiar-looking figure.

“My queen!” Buzzer shouted in his dream, dashing towards the shade, only to be stopped by a harsh voice.

“We are not thy queen!” The voice boomed, and a blue alicorn appeared in front of the shifter. “But thou have trespassed in our realm of the dreams! Thou should not be within our reach, unless of course…”

The changeling cowered, fearing what was about to come, as the princess of the dreams moved closer, leaning down to face him.

“…Thou art sleeping on Equestrian soil.” She stated coldly. “Tell me little changeling, what art thou doing in our kingdom, feeding on our subjects?”

“I have to wake up!” He yelled to himself. “This can’t be happening!”

“Thou will not escape us!” The lunar empress yelled in her royal Canterlot voice, grabbing the shifter in her magic, holding him in front of her, her nose inches from the changeling’s. “Mark our words, we will find thee, and we shall make thee pay for thy crimes!”

Buzzer awoke from his dream, his carapace burning under his disguise, ears ringing, limbs shaking, and his head spinning. He remembered it all, knowing that from that point on his very life was in danger every time he would even just as much as take a nap.

Insectoids of war

Celestia slowly took another sip of her tea, as she listened to the continuous rumbling of her younger sister. Her face remained as stoic as it was throughout the ages, shielding any emotion deep beneath.

“It was here sister, we could feel it!” Luna said, tapping a hoof on the table between them, as if the gesture would give more power to her words.

“And what do you propose we do with this changeling of yours?” Celestia asked. “Neither of us knows its location, and so far nopony have reported any signs of changelings.”

“We know sister, and we are in possession of the knowledge that all of Equestria have heard of them as well,” Luna replied. “Still, it was only one, even if his presence was somewhat faint. What if there are more, and they cloak themselves from us? What if we managed to catch one unlucky bug, that got a bit too careless?”

“Did you spy on the dreams of the changeling queen, when she was in Canterlot?” her elder sister asked back, and she shook her head in response. “I guessed you didn’t. And yet everything turned out fine. If we survived one invasion, thanks to the elements and my nephew, I’m sure they would think twice before trying to invade us again.”

“I hope thou art right, our sister,” Luna said, still concerned. “But if thou dost not mind, we would like to keep our eyes open still.”

“Do as you wish, my dear Luna,” Celestia replied, drinking the last drops of her tea. “I’ll just go about my royal duties as I always have been.”

Buzzer woke up to the worst headache a changeling could ever imagine. And if it wouldn’t have been enough, his limbs were sore, probably from him hugging his pillow tighter than a boa constricting its prey. And to put the frosting on his cake, it was Saturday.

The busiest day of their week, as Pinkie said.

The shifter let out a long and loud groan, letting everypony in the room know of his poor state.

“Ate too many muffins?” Pinkie inquired compassionately. “Happens to me all the time!”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he replied. “Had nightmares.”

“Oh, I just use the old ‘Giggle at the ghosties’ in my dreams, and it always works!” she replied laughing.

Even when the princess of dreams is out there to rip your hide off of your living flesh? He asked in his head, but kept quiet as he got up to make himself presentable for work.

The changeling locked himself in the bathroom, and dropped his disguise. He hooked a towel onto the doorknob, preventing anypony to peek in through the keyhole. The only way somepony might have seen him was through the window, but the curtains took care of that. He climbed into the bathtub, and levitating the shower above himself he opened the warm flow of water.

Buzzer loved the showers. Changelings only had small boiling ponds of thermal water in their caves, and even those were less than comfortable to stay in after a few minutes. But the shower? It was like music to the changeling, whose chitin surface was more sensitive than one would’ve believed. The rapping of the water on his hide was almost like a concert, but instead of only hearing the music, he could also feel it vibrating on his skin. He usually considered these sermons of showering a weakness, but when he was standing under the artificial warm rain, he couldn’t help but enjoy it, and leaving every feel of guilt in a distant cavern of his mind.

Thorax on the other hand had his doubts about showering ever again.

“I wanna brush his mane!” a small cream earth pony under the name of Well Mess yelled, standing on Thorax’s back. “We agreed that you do his tail, and I do his mane!”

“But I changed my mind!” His partner, a chestnut colored unicorn filly squealed. “I wanna do his mane!”

“Hmph,” Mess replied, but seeing the pleading eyes of the other foal he gave in. “Fine. But you owe me Muddy.”

The otherwise quite coltish unicorn filly, otherwise known as Mudbath, let out a happy cheer, and changed places with her colleague. Zaffre in any other case would’ve been proud of the foal, as she used her coltish side to sometimes intimidate others, or just win an argument, and yet when those methods failed she was always read to use either her natural charm or other feminine tricks to achieve her goal. The disguised shifter saw her as somewhat similar to a changeling, but right now, her presence was most infuriating.

The two foals have decided that they would give him the spa experience of a lifetime. Mentally listing the things needed for a spa experience, Thorax already counted a high number of items missing. The hot water tubs, the comfortable beds and any kind of oil or other massage equipment, proper shampoos and brushes, and of course the years of training.

This day is going to be so long. He thought to himself.

An hour later a soaking wet blue pegasus stepped out of the bathroom of the orphanage. Zaffre did his best to contain his embarrassment and anger, but the disappointed expression crept onto his face. Some of the foals noticed, and moved quietly out of his way. He simply went into his room, and closed his door. After a quick check whether there was anypony in his room, he dropped his disguise, grabbed a towel with his magic and dried himself. Even though chitin wasn’t like fur, and so water never really soaked changelings, Zaffre felt highly uncomfortable being even a tiny bit wet. In the changeling hive it wasn’t really required to bathe regularly, since the underground air was somewhat humid and carried a heavy scent that suppressed any other smell.

After feeling comfortable, he engulfed himself in green flames again, and after the fire died there was the well-known blue pegasus, with the dream-catcher cutiemark. Just in time too, because somepony gently rapped on his door. He opened it, just to see the two small volunteer spa-ponies in front of his door, avoiding his look. The shifter let out a heavy sigh.

“We’re sorry,” Mudbath said, and Zaffre felt his anger disappear. “We only wanted to help.”

“You mean help yourself get your cutiemark right?” he asked, gently scolding the foals. He knew from some past experiences what important part it was for ponies to get that stupid magical tattoo on their flanks.

“We promise we won’t force ourselves on anypony again,” Well Mess added.

“While I highly doubt that, I hold no grudge,” Thorax replied with a gentle smile, and that eased the foals. “You have no idea, what else I had to endure with my small brother.”

I wish I could endure it all over again. He added in his thoughts.

Two years ago.

“Ouch! Get them off me!” a changeling yelled under the onslaught of nymphs. “I swear these things are more ferocious than any of our soldiers! Why don’t we release them on Equestria?”

“Now now brother, they are the seeds of our future; we should teach stealth and deception above ferociousness,” Thorax scoffed his brother, tending to a small group of recently hatched changelings.

The two drones were ordered to help out Cluster Eight with their newcomers, since their own cluster wouldn’t have any new eggs in the next two weeks. Thorax was glad to help, since he always thought of the small shifters as an unregulated army that he has to take care of. Any other changeling would’ve tried to get rid of this job as quickly as possible, but the young shifter thought that if he can regulate an uncontrollable group of nymphs, he can create order in a mass of grown up simpletons. Maybe this was a way to become a great leader on the long run.

“How are my little larvae?” A third voice asked. Thorax immediately recognized her as the mother of all these eggs.

“They are quite lively today Flitterspark.” he replied. “My brother here has some problems with their insatiable hunger, but I think they are manageable.”

“Oh, really?” She asked, and let out a whistle-growl like sound. All the nymphs suddenly panicked and started running around, looking for a place to hide.

Thorax reacted immediately. His horn started to glow, and he enhanced his voice with his magic.

“STAY!” He boomed, and all the nymphs he tended to immediately gathered in a small group around the young changeling. Thorax looked at Flitterspark, who gave him an admiring look.

“Not bad.” She said, walking around him. “Three days after they hatched, and you already manage to control them on a primary level. You might make a great cluster-leader one day.”

Today.

Thorax awoke from his daydream in the mess hall, sitting at a table with some of the fillies. In front of him lay a daisy sandwich on the plate, and he hasn’t even touched it. The shifter quickly took a bite, before anypony would get suspicious, and swallowed it. When he looked around he saw the foals happily chatting with each other, making plans for the day, and swarming Madame Tender with questions. Thorax quietly slipped back to his own memories.

Flitterspark was one of the few mothers he ever knew personally in the hive. Changelings had about ten females and hundreds of males in every cluster. The cluster Thorax was from, Cluster Four was lucky: they had twenty females. This meant of course that Zaffre never had a chance to truly know who his mother was. He was too young to remember anything, and they got separated before either side could establish any bond. Flitterspark however was somewhat of a motherly figure to the changeling. She taught him many things: how to control, deceive, and manipulate others, even other changelings. But most of all, he taught him how to truly care for others.

Thorax never forgot when their Queen heard of her having a bond with one of her own nymphs. The other drones learned about it, when they found her singing a lullaby for her larvae, and afterwards she refused to stop visiting them when ordered. She was immediately dragged away, and became part of the nightmare of every changeling: Cluster Thirteen.

Every disobedient changeling was sent to that part of the hive. The food was scarce, they had no medical attention and every egg or nymph they ever had was either kidnapped or suffered a fate much worse. Thorax saw several shifters attempting to escape the tower of Cluster Thirteen, only to fall to their deaths before reaching any of the tunnels leading to the outside world. Each and every one of them was too weak to leave or fight, and their numbers were constantly dropping.

Thorax got rid of the unpleasant thoughts, and concentrated on his daisy sandwich. Anything he learned about true kindness would come in handy in his near future. He realized that his chance of survival was not in his acting skills, but honest caring. Sure he must wear his pony mask and his fake name, but he could get used to that. What mattered is that he shouldn’t fake his attention towards the foals.

“Zaffre!” a small black pegasus disturbed his thoughts.

“Yes Cirrus?” Thorax asked back with a smile.

“We would like to go to the library to borrow and return a few books.” The colt explained. “Think you could accompany us?”

“Well, if Madame Tender has no other business for me, I’d be glad to.” Zaffre replied.

“I have a grocery list for you, but I think you can do that by yourself while the foals do their thing in the library.” Tender replied. “Just be back by lunchtime.”

“All right then.” Zaffre finished his sandwich. “Let’s write down the list and we’ll be off to the city.”

“Rise and shine my little test subject!” a pleasant feminine voice awoke Shiftlight. “Time for your vivisection!”

Lancet launched out of his bed in fear, and stood in an attacking position, his flank against the wall. In the door of his room stood Nurse Redheart with a smug grin on her face, and a plate in her hoof.

“Good morning Lancet!” She said, putting the plate on the table. “Slept well?”

“Yes.” He eased up, and appeared as his usual stoic self. “I presume you did too.”

“I hardly got any sleep, I was so excited about today.” Redheart replied in a singsong voice. “So I went ahead and cleaned all the scalpels, forceps, and other surgery tools we might need.”

“Good.” Lancet’s voice was dripping from sarcasm. “I’ll just eat this small breakfast of yours, and then we can start.”

“Oh, just to make it a bit tastier, I added some magic suppressant and sedatives!” she said, just after the changeling took his first bite. “I hope you like it spicy!”

The changeling swallowed the food, and gave a deadpan look to the mare, who was now leaving. From a sudden idea, he partially dropped his disguise, making his horn visible, and shot a tiny spark of lightning bolt at the nurse’s flank, making her jump and squeal.

“That’s for the vivisection joke.” He said, taking another big bite from his meal. “Be glad that the sedatives are ineffective.”

Half an hour later, when Shiftlight finished his meal and cleaned himself up, the two of them stood in the empty surgery room of the hospital.

“I’ve arranged this surgery to be empty, so you can drop your disguise.” Redheart said.

“Not yet.” Lancet shook his head. “First you need to answer me what you plan with the information you gain this way.”

“Well, I only want to satiate my –” she stopped after seeing the expression on the shifter’s face, “– all right fine. If you want to be really practical; I want to use it in case your kind attacks my kind again. And if that doesn’t happen, I can still present you and the information I gain to Princess Celestia, proving that you are sentient, cooperative, and able to coexist with us.”

“You’re an idealist.” Shiftlight remarked with a smirk. “I think I like that trait in you.”

“Just shut up and drop your disguise already.” Redheart replied with a blush.

The shifter obeyed this time, and the nurse got closer, to examine the body of the changeling. She gently tapped the chitin of Lancet on several points, asking how sensitive different areas were, took a small sample of the changeling’s hide, and looked at it under a microscope and asked the changeling to spread his wings, examining the veins inside the limb.

“This doesn’t look like blood.” She remarked, looking at the wing with a magnifier glass.

“Well, we aren’t sustained on physical nourishment.” Lancet replied.

“You only need love to survive? No need for water or any food?”

“As far as we know, we are beings of magic.” Shiftlight explained. “There seems to be some sort of magical fire burning inside each and every one of us, and the love we devour keeps it at bay. When a changeling starves to death, our insides literally burn to ash and the only thing that remains is the carapace.”

“Sounds horrid.” she said, taking out a stethoscope, and listening to the voices of the shifter’s inside. “But you’re right, this sounds more like a fire, than a heartbeat. Mind if I take a ‘blood sample’?”

“Well, you can try.” Shiftlight offered. “Although I doubt that you would be able to. No cut I ever saw bled.”

“So, you cannot bleed.” Nurse Redheart concluded. “Not even in your changed form?”

“We don’t truly change forms, we change appearances.” Lancet replied. “Even when we change genders, and… do the thing with the other sex, it’s more of an illusion what they feel that we force on their minds. Which is quite simple in those times, due to their unfocused state.”

“But you have genders and genitals, right?” She inquired, and Shiftlight could swear he heard a tiny bit of hope in her voice.

“Are you in heat?” He asked point blank.

“What?” Redheart blushed. “No of course… not.”

The changeling couldn’t help, but let out a hearty laugh, infuriating the nurse.

“That’s not funny!” She yelled, her face red. “I’m working real hard to fight it!”

“I know, I’m sorry I laughed.” Shiftlight replied. “It’s just cute to see you embarrassed.”

“Oh yeah? Isn’t there something that makes you embarrassed?” Redheart asked still furious. “Something you keep secret?”

“There… is nothing.” Lancet replied, avoiding the nurse’s look.

“Maybe you would like to be annoyed by your little secret?” She inquired in a cold voice. “Become embarrassed by the very thing you fight so hard to conceal?”

“I said there is nothing.” Shiftlight snapped, and for a second Redheart could see his expression shift into something… sad. “Believe it or not.”

“Lancet, I’m sorry.” She apologized.

I’m sorry. A memory echoed in the mind of the changeling, and he slipped into a long lost memory of his.

A year ago.

“I’m sorry,” the other changeling said. “This is just simply humiliating. We are different from each other, and they only let us know it so we won’t truly go insane.”

“Brother don’t do this!” Shiftlight pleaded his kin. “You know what punishment awaits. You saw what the ponies look like, what they act like, what their society has led them to do! They pull in all directions, and while they seem happy, that illusion has been shattered numerous times! We don’t hide anything from each other, and the laws are laws because they have kept us from dividing for centuries!”

“Yet when I look at you I don’t even know your name!” his brother replied. “I can’t remember you as anything else than ‘brother’, and I have hundreds of brothers already!”

“So? Then we both fight to earn the right to wield our name, and when we do, you can remember me as more than just brother!” Shiftlight suggested. “You know as well as I do, that wielding a name has its purpose! It’s not something to be given freely, otherwise we would’ve long fell apart!”

“Your head is filled with the same talk our superiors tell us every day!” The other changeling yelled. “I’m sick of this! I’m going out there, and telling everyling that my name is Shrapnel!”

Shiftlight stepped back at the heresy his brother committed, and watched in shock as two armored changeling soldiers dragged Shrapnel away. He never saw any sign of his brother from that day, and neither of his brothers even mentioned it. Changelings were rarely allowed to form any bonds, except during field infiltration, where they were forced to watch each other’s backs. In the hive, everyling was a brother, and if one of them went missing, no matter for how long, they were required to continue their duties to the last letter. If one never appeared again, they only mourned them if it was one of their superiors, or a female.

Today

Shiftlight felt something heavy pressing his insides, but nothing physical. He knew it was because of his memories from that day, and he fought the feeling. He told himself for so long that he wasn’t required to do anything, for so long he buried it under logical reasons, but now he felt plain wrong for letting his brother act so stupid.

“Lancet, is everything all right?” Redheart asked, and the changeling suddenly realized she was still there.

“I’m… not well.” He admitted. There was no point in lying. “Can we continue this later? I want to do a small research.”

“I’ll take the day off and keep you company.” She suggested, holding up her hoof to stop him from arguing. “I’m not taking my eyes off of you.”

Shiftlight let out a heavy sigh, changed into his disguise, and headed for the exit.

Inner turmoil

Buzzer walked towards the library, his limbs protesting against every step, as he approached the oak-house. He was tired, even though his disguise hid it pretty well, so when Pinkie saw his awful condition, she told him that there were some recipe books she ordered some days ago, and probably Twilight had them by now in her library. So Lime Biscuit set off to the town for a quiet walk.

He was taken aback when he saw the royal chariot in front of the building. His curiosity took over his fear, and he approached the library acting casual. When he stepped inside the oak however, reality hit him with a low blow.

“Thank you for your understanding, Twilight Sparkle,” The princess of the moon said to her. “Be sure to keep in touch.”

“Of course, Princess Luna,” Twilight replied, and then noticed the changeling, standing in the doorway shocked. “Oh, hi there, Lime!”

“Another of thine friends?” Luna asked, stepping a bit closer to the shifter. Buzzer quickly bowed. “We never saw him before.”

“Oh, he’s Lime Biscuit,” she replied. “He just started working with Pinkie.”

“My brothers and I recently moved here princess.” Lime explained fast. Maybe too fast he realized. “We moved here from Canterlot after the changeling invasion.”

“We see,” she nodded, but the changeling couldn’t see it, still staring at the floor in a bowing position. “Twilight Sparkle, we would like to have a word with thine friend here in private.”

“Of course princess,” Twilight answered, heading upstairs. “I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

“Thou may stand up Lime Biscuit,” Luna said, and Buzzer obeyed. “We have a secret to share with thou, but first thou must swear on thy life that you will not share this knowledge with anypony!”

“I swear on my life that I will guard whatever secret you entrust me with!” he replied, barely keeping up his act.

“We have a task for thee,” She continued. “We have knowledge of a changeling in Equestria.”

Buzzer almost fainted. He knew he was doomed, but the hope that his brothers may have a chance of escaping kept him conscious. But as Luna resumed talking, things took a very interesting turn.

“We wish of thee to keep thine eyes open for any sign of these creatures,” Princess Luna said, and Buzzer suddenly became very interested. “Whatever these changelings are up to it could not be beneficial for us. Therefore I’m tasking you with keeping an open eye here in Ponyville, and consult with my sister’s protege, Twilight Sparkle, if you notice any trouble.”

“But,” – the shifter was taken aback, – “why me princess?”

“Thou have said that thou and thine brethren were in Canterlot during the invasion, correct?” Buzzer nodded. “Then thou knows what these creatures are capable of, and thou have come here recently. For an outsider such as thyself others won’t take it too rudely if thou questions their friend’s or loved one’s behavior. Thou have a bigger chance at noticing anything that is even a bit different from the average, and thou can investigate it without too much attention. Thou art not popular yet in Ponyville right?”

“Well, we were thrown a party by Pinkie, but nothing too popular I guess,” Lime replied, scratching the back of his head.

“Good, then thou has been marked as an average pony,” Luna concluded. “And thine position next to Miss Pinkie is an excellent one. Keep a close eye on her, as she knows everypony in this town. We must go now our faithful subject. If thou wishes to send us a letter, thou can do by asking Miss Sparkle’s number one assistant, Spike.”

“I understand Princess Luna,” Buzzer bowed again as the alicorn passed him by. “I shall not fail you.”

“Farewell!” Luna said her goodbye, as the chariot started moving.

This is insane, the changeling thought, and gathered his shattered confidence.

He may have kept up his act, but barely, and now things took an interesting turn. He must tell this his brothers, and they must act as one.

But telling them could end up badly! He realized. Lancet might suggest we leave the village and start over somewhere else!

As much as he hated to admit it, Buzzer knew one thing; during the last few days he began to like this village and its silly ponies. He got a peaceful home, he got a job, affection, saw the most beautiful mare of his whole life, and he had access to a shower.

The only thing that might cause trouble is if they were somehow exposed. But for now, they were hiding in plain sight; a perfect cover. Any other course of action would blow their disguise, and that meant his task was to keep this a secret. So for now he has nothing to worry about.

Except that this illusion of peace will shatter soon. He thought to himself. And my life turns into a living hell.

He suddenly saw a familiar mint-blue mare trotting on the street.

Might as well make the most of it. He smiled, leaving the library to catch up with Lyra.

Zaffre barely managed to herd the group of foals towards the library, much less stop them from charging in on the front door. The herd of young ponies, a seemingly unstoppable force was however suddenly silenced by a serious lavender unicorn.

“Oh, hi Twilight!” Thorax greeted. “How are things going?”

“Oh, just fine, thank you!” She replied, somewhat twitchy. “First Princess Luna appears, asking a favor of me, then you brother, Lime arrives, and they both leave without a word, and now there is a small army of foals roaming around in my perfectly quiet library, disturbing the peace of others!”

“But there is no one else here except you,” Zaffre remarked, and then covered his mouth with a hoof. “Oh, sorry for disturbing you! Were you studying?”

“No, I was just furiously rumbling around thank you,” she answered with a wave of her hoof. “But enough of my problems. How can I help you with the magic of friendship today?”

“Well, the kids wanted to return what they borrowed a few days back, and I thought I would get everything I have jotted down on this list while they remain here and select a few books for themselves.” The expression on the mare’s face was calm and understanding up until the last few words.

“And how long do you think this shopping trip will last?” Twilight asked cautiously.

“Oh, maybe an hour, I guess,” Zaffre replied casually.

“AN HOUR?” she yelled. “This is a library for Celestia’s sake, not a daycare! What if I get an important message from the princess, and have to leave immediately? I can’t just leave them here!”

“Well, normally you couldn’t I suppose,” Thorax said. “But trust me, an hour is not that long, and I think they will behave.”

The disguised changeling let out a loud cough to grab the attention of all the foals in the library.

“If they would try to misbehave I’m sure they will learn their lesson while they’re washing up after the whole orphanage for a week,” he added, and his message found its target, as all the foals cowered. “I’m one-hundred percent they will be like little angels. Or else…”

The shifter turned around, leaving a surprised lavender unicorn and a herd of shivering foals behind. Even though Thorax hasn’t been part of their lives for very long, the foals learned to take his threats more than seriously. They experienced first handed how cold their new caretaker could be with them, if they would directly misbehave.

Zaffre closed the door of the library behind himself, and trotted away humming a happy tune.

“You know you can share anything with me,” Nurse Redheart tried to reassure Shiftlight. The pair has almost reached the library of Ponyville. “I’ve heard quite bad secrets and none of them caused the seal on my lips to break.”

“I’m sure about that,” Lancet replied. “But why won’t you believe me, when I say that right now I’m more comfortable with keeping this inside.”

“I’m just trying to understand why,” she explained. “Understanding why a patient does something is the first step in helping them.”

“You’re still an idealist,” Shiftlight giggled, and the white pony’s face turned red. “I like you for that.”

“You like me so much you’ll share your problems with me?” Redheart asked, a smug grin creeping on her face.

“Fine, I’ll share a piece of it,” he said, opening the door of the library, only to see a group of small ponies arguing over several books. “I hate foals.”

“I think that could hardly be a…” – Redheart was shocked by the same sight the shifter saw. – “Oh.”

“I say we take the newest Daring Do book!” a small black pegasus yelled.

“But we haven’t finished reading the one before this!” a unicorn filly argued. “And you can’t keep your mouth shut, and always spoil the ending!”

“Yeah, and if we take the Daring Do book, we can’t take the newest Cloudsdale magazine!” Another pegasus, a pale green added.

“Kids, what are you doing here?” Nurse Redheart asked.

“We’re trying to decide which book to take back with ourselves to the orphanage, Miss Redheart,” the cream unicorn replied.

“Figures,” Lancet remarked with a snort and a grin. “My brother released his army of pipsqueaks to invade the only place that contains the knowledge to defeat him.”

“Lancet!” Redheart yelled, and the shifter cowered. The nurse turned to the small foals. “If you cannot decide it yourselves, then wait until Zaffre returns, and then ask him to help you.”

“Told you we should do that!” The unicorn filly said to the black pegasus.

“Did not!”

“Just remain silent, or I might introduce you to body parts you never knew you had.” Shiftlight said as he passed the foals by.

Suddenly the library fell silent, and the two colleagues could start their research. Except, none of them had a clue where to start.

“What are we looking for?” Nurse Redheart whispered to Lancet.

“I don’t really know.” Shiftlight replied in the same style. “Whatever I feel was sudden, it was triggered by a memory, and it certainly didn’t feel like any sort of illness described in the books I read.”

“That’s because you felt an emotion,” she explained. “Or I guess you did. You never experienced sadness, anger, happiness, or something similar?”

“I experienced anger, maybe a form of sadness yes, and we can rule out happiness, I know the symptoms of that.” – Redheart giggled at the changeling’s understanding of the positive emotion. – “Maybe what I felt was closest to sadness.”

“Would you like to talk about the memory that triggered it?” Redheart inquired, but Lancet shook his head. “Not even just the baseline of what happened? It would help, you know.”

“I wish I could forget it all,” he replied. “It’s too unpleasant to remember.”

“You’re probably feeling regret or guilt,” she concluded, and the shifter gave her a quizzical look. “I have to read my patients better than I read an open book you know. Even if in your case it’s harder, since you don’t know the apparent reaction to an emotion.”

“There are apparent reactions?” Shiftlight asked.

“Even though we don’t realize it, there are certain behavioral patterns we pick up without knowing during out lifetime,” the nurse answered. “I must say it is quite interesting to see someone without these patterns.”

“Okay, so we’re looking for a book on how to solve my little problem with this ‘guilt’,” Shiftlight looked back to the shelves of the library. “Then I’ll be free to worry about managing my life as I planned it before.”

“I’ll go ask Twilight,” Redheart suggested, knowing that the most obvious answer to the shifter’s problem. “You just keep looking.”

Soon they stacked up a few parchments on a small table, their every move being watched by several pairs of curious eyes.

“Oh, Celestia, that’s what I was afraid of!” Twilight yelled, running down the stairs of the library. “Rainbow just arrived with a message from Applejack, saying they need some magical help in Sweet Apple Acres! I can’t just deny my friend’s request, but Zaffre’s not back yet either!”

“Don’t worry Twilight, Lancet and I are more than able to watch the foals!” Redheart assured the unicorn. “You just go and take care of your own business!”

“You sure it’s not a problem?” she asked back. “I can ask Rainbow to bring Fluttershy here and help you! Or maybe Cheerilee, or…”

“Twilight!” Redheart snapped. “Take a deep breath, and calm down! Everything will be fine! No need to monitor everything, it will work itself out in the grand scheme of things!”

“You’re right. Thank you!” she said and ran off.

Redheart turned back to Lancet, who sat on the other side of the table with a deadpan look on his face.

“You just had to make yourself the volunteer general of the pipsqueak army, didn’t you?” Shiftlight asked annoyed.

“Oh, come on, how bad could it be?” She teased the changeling.

“Lancet sir, why are you so always so grumpy?” A black pegasus inquired, managing to sneak close him, and Redheart couldn’t help but laugh. “Are you suffering from some rare muscle infection that stops you from laughing?”

“Why don’t you test that theory, and try to tickle him?” Redheart suggested, and Shiftlight’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

“No! Stop! Get them off me! Help!” Lancet screamed, as the foals found their courage and one by one attacked him. “I’ll laugh just leave me be!”

Redheart couldn’t help, but giggle uncontrollably, as the army of foals chased the panicking changeling around in the library. Unfortunately, her joy soon came to an end, as Zaffre returned for the foals, and they left in a hurry to get back to the orphanage in time to prepare their lunch.

“How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” she asked Lancet, who hid behind the stack of books.

“You can’t convince me with that huge grin on your face,” he replied, not even looking up from the book he was reading.

“I’m not even grinning! My face is as serious as a statue’s! See?” she pointed at her head with a hoof, hoping she would draw out Lancet from behind his book fort.

“Your voice betrays you,” Shiftlight replied. “And no amount of apologizing could make the terror you caused me go away.”

“Okay, I’m sorry I did that,” she apologized. “And I’m sorry for the vivisection joke too, but it was just so much fun to tease you!”

“Now I believe you,” he said, looking out from behind his hiding place. “But I still won’t forgive you.”

The nurse let out a heavy sigh, and placed her head on the table.

A few books later Shiftlight came to an impasse. He found an answer, but a rather unpleasing answer in his opinion. Either he would go and talk his problems out to somepony.

Or he would be swallowed up by this ‘guilt’ parasite of his. The latter somehow at the moment seemed more acceptable to the antisocial changeling. Sure he could tell his brothers of course, they trusted him, and he trusted them. But even he knew that talking about feelings was a weakness. Even when they tried to ease the other’s sorrow, they usually just said ‘suck it up’ and went on with their daily lives, while the ‘comforted’ enjoyed the short second, that someling else at least took notice of how they felt.

The shifter put down the last book he read, and let out a heavy sigh. Nurse Redheart watched him, a mixture of curiosity and concern on her face.

“So, what is the conclusion?” She asked after a small pause.

“Nothing. These books are no good,” he replied.

“That’s only because you are unable to socialize with anypony.” Redheart retorted.

“You knew it al along?” Shiftlight wasn’t even surprised at this point.

“Well duh, I’m a nurse!” she answered. “Ponies almost always feel guilty about the accidents they caused. I have healed more ponies in the past month with guilt than the flu shots I gave during my whole career!”

“Then why didn’t you say that in the first place?” Lancet inquired.

“I thought you should find it out yourself, and talk to somepony when you feel like it,” she scolded the shifter. “I never expected you to downright deny any help.”

“You thought wrong,” he stood up and headed for the exit. “I’ll find some way to get rid of this by myself.”

“I just hope you know what you’re doing,” Redheart said to herself, and then followed him.

Volatile solutions

Zaffre had no idea what he was doing. The book was telling him he was cooking food, but being a changeling had its advantages: love came in its pure and unchangeable form. So when the shifter had to prepare tomato-cabbage-vegetable soup, he had no idea where to start. Fortunately as always, a book was able to help him. He really considered wooing a mare, who would teach him how to cook. As far as dating books told him, a stallion that knew how to cook proved to be more popular than one who didn’t.
The boiling of the water brought his attention back to the meal he was supposed to prepare. He followed the instructions of the book precisely, and soon the soup was ready to be served. The changeling thought that his request for taking the rest of the day off wouldn’t be improper now that the meal was ready, so he headed for Madame Tender’s room.
“Ah, Zaffre, I can tell that our dinner is ready,” the blind mare said as he entered her bedroom. “Shouldn’t you be herding the foals to the table?”
“I thought I should ask it before the chaos erupts, if it’s all right for me to take the day after the meal off?” Zaffre replied.
“Trying to skip the dishwashing, eh?” Tender jested with a smile. “Sure, you can go ahead. Tell your brothers I send my regards!”
“But I never… how did you?” Thorax was shocked.
“So you are going to see your brothers,” she giggled. “And here I was, hoping you would at least try to date a proper mare!”
“But… Nevermind,” Zaffre said, still embarrassed. “I’ll just bring you your dinner.”
He returned with a platter with a hot bowl of soup and a plate stacked with cinnamon buns from Sugarcube corner.
“I hope life treats you and your brothers well,” Madame Tender said suddenly. “The foals tell me they are strange ponies.”
“Tell me about it, I’ve lived my life with them,” Thorax replied with a smirk.
“You should appreciate that you have them,” she retorted. “And they should be glad they have you. Family is a very important thing, and most ponies never learn it. I heard many sad stories from my little foals, and my heart goes out for the poor souls. They treasure family far better than other ponies do.”
“I don’t even know what happened to the rest of my family,” Zaffre whispered.
“All the more reason to keep what you have together,” Madame Tender replied.
“Thank you,” he said. “But then I should hurry up! My brothers might already be waiting for me!”
An hour later a blue pegasus left the building of the Ponyville orphanage, heading into town. He just passed by a small park, when he heard a familiar voice. He looked around, and what he saw made him feel really confused.

Buzzer was in heaven. He managed to talk more than two complete sentences to the mare that set his heart on fire, and she enjoyed it. The changeling couldn’t imagine any day to be better than this. Well, maybe, but for the sake of the present he pulled his mind out of the gutter, and savored the moments he could spend with Lyra.
He followed the aquamarine mare to the small park, and after watching her practice for a while, he couldn’t stop himself from approaching the mare, and engaging in a seemingly small talk. The two have been chatting for hours now, none noticing the time passing by.
“Imagine my best friend’s face when she found out I asked someone to magically enchant some of her favorite candies!” the mint-blue unicorn let out a hearty laugh. “From that day on for at least a month sometimes when Bon-Bon talked, her voice was different each time!”
“That’s a good one!” Lime chuckled. “I wish I would’ve played some pranks on my brothers! Unfortunately my sup… parents wouldn’t have allowed that.”
“Yeah, I know.” Lyra replied. “My parents wanted me to become some secretary in a famous company of Canterlot, but I was more devoted to music. I can create something with it; become somewhat more than a hollow shadow behind a desk!”
“I wish I would be more than just a hollow shadow.” Buzzer said, his voice filled with sorrow. “In a big family such as mine, we are barely different from each other.”
“Well, Applejack has a big family, and I never heard her having problems with that.” Lyra retorted.
“Yeah, well Miss Applejack’s family isn’t a Canterlot stuck up noble one!” Lime let out a heavy sigh. “All the regulations, all the etiquette, all the ‘you can’t do this’ attitude limits our opportunities. Actually now that I think of it, I’m glad I’m rid of them for a while.”
“That sounds harsh,” she replied. “Even though I can somewhat understand you.”
“Well, if I might be harsh for just a second more, then I’d like to say I’m glad I interrupted your practice,” Lime said with a smile. “I really enjoyed talking to you.”
“I liked it too,” she agreed. “I would like to resume this some other time.”
“Lunch in Sugarcube corner on Monday?” Lime suggested.
“Sounds good,” Lyra nodded with a smile.
“Can I join too?” A third voice asked.
The pair looked at the source; a blue pegasus with a dream-catcher cutiemark.
Oh, you just didn’t, Lime thought, recognizing his brother’s disguise.
“Sure, why not?” Lyra replied.
“Of course he could,” Buzzer added. “If he’s not busy in the orphanage, that is.”
“All right, I really need to get going!” the mare hopped off of the park bench she and Lime were sitting on. “See you later!”
“Are you insane?” Zaffre almost yelled at his brother, once Lyra was out of hearing distance. “Dating a pony? Has the fire burned your mind?”
“We’ll be stuck here for a year!” Buzzer replied. “What do you want me to do? Ignore her?”
“I suppose it wasn’t her starting the conversation.” – The retort made Lime blush. – “We’re supposed to keep a low profile.”
“So what?” Buzzer asked back, staring to walk toward the inn where they were supposed to meet Lancet. “Am I forbidden to socially interact with anypony?”
“You were setting up a date, Lime,” Thorax sighed, following his sibling. “A date.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“What if she wishes to meet with the rest of your family?” Zaffre asked. “Or wishes to know more about your past?”
“I’m a good liar. From the three of us I’m the best infiltrator!” he struck back.
“And we know that ponies don’t take it kindly if they’re being lied to,” Zaffre retorted. “It almost literally breaks them.”
“Well, I haven’t thought of it that… wait a second –” Realization struck Lime. “– are you putting the feelings of a pony before the feelings of your own brother?”
Now it was Zaffre’s turn to defend himself.
“Of course not!” He lied. “I just think a mare we hurt might turn the public attention against us.”
“I don’t know which surprises me more: the fact that I feel something towards Lyra, or the fact that you do too,” Lime shook his head in disbelief.
“Am not!” Zaffre argued. “I… just… oh, crack it, I am!”
“Really?” Buzzer asked. “I mean, in what way? Are you... attracted to her?”

“Attracted? I don’t think so.” Thorax replied. “I think I would just feel sorry for her if she would fall in love with a lie, that’s all.”
“We should not mention this to Lancet.” Lime suggested. “I’m sure with us being this light headed, he’s the one who has the perfect life now. By the way, when did you become so soft?”
“I don’t know.” Zaffre said blushing. “I guess when I realized that I have to truly care for the foals at the orphanage to gain their affection.”
“Man, ponies are complicated.” Lime shook his head.
“Tell me about it.”

“Why are you so complicated?” Redheart asked, trying to catch up with Lancet.
“I’m not complicated!” He replied annoyed. “I am simply trying to get some peace for myself!”
“Well, as far as I can tell you’re infuriating your own self,” she retorted, and Shiftlight gave her an angry look. “The more you’re trying to suppress it, the more it will bother you!”
“I am not going to talk about it!” Lancet stated. “It’s a weakness, and I am not weak!”
“Wow, now you are just downright stubborn!” Redheart said. “Why can’t you accept help from anyone? Why won’t you let me help you?”
“It’s because –” the changeling stopped. “– we didn’t care about each other in the hive. Well, not in this way. We endured everything, and blamed only ourselves when things turned worse.”
“You blame yourself?” she asked taken aback. “For how many things?”
“I lost count,” Shiftlight replied, and started walking again. “I told you, I endured worse.”
“Wait!” Redheart said after a moment later, catching up with Lancet. “Look, I know I’m a pony and all but... if you ever find the courage to talk about it, you’ll know where to find me.”
Shiftlight stopped and looked at her with a stoic expression. He didn’t need to use any ability of his to feel the concern of Redheart for him. Not able to bear it he looked away.
“I must go now,” he said, turning to leave. “But, I’ll think about it.”

The Retching Griffon was Ponyville’s most average pub. It served the Apple family’s famous hard cider, among with other weaker brews and a few exotic drinks. Its interior was lit up by lanterns, which threw long shadows on the floor, on each of the tables was a candle, some lit up, signing which were reserved.
Zaffre and Lime selected an empty table, one near the entrance and far from the walls. From that table the three of them could watch every corner of the pub, looking for signs of suspicion.
“What may I serve for you today, gentlecolts?” the waiter asked. He was a pale yellow earth pony, with light blue mane and blue eyes.
“A Sweet Apple hard cider for me,” Buzzer said.
“I’ll have the strongest whisky you have,” Zaffre added, earning a strange look from Lime.
“Since when do you drink whisky?” he asked, eyeing Thorax.
“Since always,” the other replied. “During infiltrations I always drink whisky when I can. Helps me focus less on acting perfectly and more on acting continuously. Or it just makes me dull enough not to fuss over every little detail.”
“Figures,” Buzzer smirked. “Wonder when our–“
At that moment, the door opened, and a furious grey stallion entered the pub. He walked straight to the counter, ignoring his brothers sitting at the table.
“A mug of your strongest drink.” Shiftlight said, putting a hoofful of bits on the counter.
The bartender watched as Lancet turned around and took his place next to his brothers, who sat there, their jaws hanging open.
“If you say a word, I’ll promise I make your end very painful,” Shiftlight threatened Buzzer, who immediately closed his mouth with a loud snap. “And don’t ask.”
“All right, we won’t,” Zaffre replied, holding his hooves up in a defensive position. “Just calm down.”
“Okay, let’s sum up this week,” Buzzer suggested silently. “We managed to craft credible aliases, got a welcoming party, a whole lot of affection, a roof above our heads and some sort of jobs.”
“I think that is a success,” Thorax nodded with a weak smile.
“Your drinks, gentlecolts,” the waiter announced, putting two mugs and a glass in front of them. “A hard cider for the unicorn, a whisky for the pegasus, and a mug of absinthe for the earth pony sir.”
“Thank you Goldengrape.” Buzzer said, handing a small bag of bits to the stallion.
“Well, cheers?” Zaffre asked hesitantly after the waiter left, but seemingly Shiftlight couldn’t wait and was already swigging his drink.
“Maybe this will help,” Lancet said, burping loudly after he finished the absinthe.
“Help?” Buzzer asked cautiously, shooting a worried look at Zaffre. “With what?”
“Ain’t none of your business!” Shiftlight replied harshly, and Thorax gently touched Lime’s shoulder, shooking his head not to press the matter.
Buzzer gave a quizzical look to Lancet, but remained silent. Both he and Zaffre sipped their drinks quietly, keeping an eye on their third brother and the rest of the yet empty pub. Shiftlight did nothing else, but muttered under his nose, and stared at the bottom of the candle on their table. Lime and Thorax did not dare to make a sound, and both were praying to their ancestors that this night will pass without trouble.
Luck however denies to be kind towards those who most wish for it.
With a loud thud the door snapped open, and four stallions barged in, all of them at least tipsy, probably from the contains of a now empty bottle, levitated by a drunk unicorn. Shiftlight paid them little attention, but unlike him, his brothers were watching the scene terrified. Both of them knew very well, that in a busy pub, the best strategy to evade capture was to start a fight with a drunk customer. This time however, starting a fight was not an option for them.
“Aiee, waissar, we wanna drink, hic!” a muscular light brown earth pony with darker mane yelled. “Givuss your sstrongest drink!”
The other three members of his group, a grey earth pony with dark mane, a yellow unicorn with purplish-blue mane and a cream-brown scabby earth stallion agreed with a cheer, despite none of them having any idea what their leader said.
“Sirs, I might have to ask you to leave,” Goldengrape said, coming out from behind the counter. “You already appear to have drunk enough.”
“It’s bollocks I say!” the unicorn said, levitating the bottle in front of the waiter. “We only drank a couple bottles of these!”
“That’s the strongest vodka you could’ve found in this small village isn’t it, Comet?” Goldengrape asked giving the group a deadpan look. “We play this game every month, and you still think after the first occasion that you can just barge in and drink my finest brews like nothing happened?”
“It’s not like we didn’t pay for the trouble we caused!” the grey earth pony babbled. “Why can’t we come here for a nice drink?”
“Because you get tipsy even from drinking sarsaparilla, Felix!” the waiter replied annoyed. “And don’t get me started on the rest of you! Pigpen and Rivet you’re the worst! I see you lying on the streets, passed out from alcohol every week!”
“Issnot true!” the accused Rivet whined. “I can’t remember the last time I drank more than a bottle!”
“My point exactly,” Goldengrape retorted. “Now leave my pub! You’re scaring my customers away!”
“Well I ain’t leavin’ till I get a mug of cider at least!” Pigpen wobbled closer.
“Hey!” another voice joined the conversation, and all attention turned towards the table of the three changelings. “He asked you to leave, so you leave!”
“Uh-oh,” Buzzer said, as he and Thorax exchanged worried looks. Shiftlight already stood up, and he was walking towards the group, his movements telling that he was getting tipsy from the absinthe.
“Oh yeah?” Rivet asked, turning to face Lancet, who was a bit taller, but a lot skinnier than the stallion. “What are ya, a bouncer? Gotta hand it to you Grapey, you picked the skinniest bouncer in all of Equestria!”
His friends laughed at the comment, as Shiftlight’s expression turned more and more furious. Lime and Zaffre left their table, intending to stop things from getting worse.
“I could take you drunkards all by myself,” Lancet stated coldly, staring at Rivet. “And I wouldn’t even break a sweat.”
“There is no need for violence!” Lime stepped in between the two. “Or if you really intend to fight, do it outside!”
“You aren’t getting me out of this shop shortie!” The stallion yelled, shoving Lime out of his way.
Things suddenly turned rough, when the empty bottle hit Buzzer’s head with the speed of a missile. He turned to face the threat, only to get a quick glance at Felix’s flank and hind hooves. After that, the world turned to black.
Shiftlight immediately reacted when Felix bucked Lime in the face, sending him flying through the pub. The tall shifter ducked to avoid the first hit from Rivet, and then launched himself at the stallion, aiming a hit at his neck. When his hoof found its target, the earth pony shuddered and gasped for air. But quickly Pigpen was on him, wrapping his hooves around Shiftlight’s chest and trying to bring him to the ground.
Zaffre on the other hand had to deal with Felix and Comet, while Goldengrape ran behind the counter. The unicorn threw chairs at the changeling, who grabbed one, and threw it at Felix. It hit the earth pony on his head, but he quickly got on his feet again, and he jumped at Thorax. He took off, and bucked Felix in his head, knocking him out, when a table landed on top of him.
Shiftlight gave Pigpen the rodeo of his life, and after a short struggle the shifter managed to break free. Lancet quickly grabbed a chair, and knocked out the stallion, before he could try anything. By this time Rivet managed to catch his breath, and charged at the changeling. Shiftlight just turned around, and met his assault with a full-force buck. That stopped Rivet in his tracks, and after a shudder he collapsed on the floor.
Thorax climbed out from under the table and faced Comet, who grabbed another table to knock him out. Zaffre just smiled and pointed to the left of the unicorn. The drunk pony looked in the direction, and while he was distracted Thorax took off, and dashed right into him, putting him down.
After the struggle was over, Zaffre ran to his unconscious brother. After quickly examining him, he found that he was still mostly unharmed, but his shape wasn’t good.
“We need to fix him!” he called out to Shiftlight.
“Put him on my back, I know someone who can help us,” Lancet replied, walking to him.
“Are you insane?” Zaffre yelled in his face. “You drank a mug of the strongest drink and you started a fight! I’m not putting my brother on your back!”
“All right, I screwed up!” Shiftlight admitted. “But I still know who can help!”
“Put him on my back, and lead the way.” Thorax hissed, his eyes glaring at Lancet with fury.

United we fall

“You must be insane to think I’ll take my brother in there with who knows what injuries!” Zaffre said. “I’d rather take him to the orphanage and hide him in a closet!”
“I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me!” Lancet stated. The two of them were standing outside the hospital, with Zaffre carrying the unconscious Buzzer.
“Give me a reason to,” Thorax replied.
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Try me,” Zaffre retorted with an angry look.
“She knows,” Shiftlight said after a long pause. “About me, about us. Nurse Redheart knows what we really are.”
“This has better be a sick joke!” Zaffre hissed. “Or I swear to every ancestor we ever had I’ll gut you myself!”
“It’s the truth,” Lancet replied, stepping closer to his brother. “And you better believe it, because I bet my hide that you know just as much about healing as a rock.”
Thorax let out an angry hiss, but slowly started moving towards the entrance. Shiftlight followed him cautiously. Once inside, Lancet lead his brother to his own room, and after they put Buzzer into a bed, he left, just to return with Nurse Redheart.
“Zaffre, I suppose you two already know each other.” Lancet said, trying to break the tension. Thorax shot a murderous glare towards both his brother and the mare.
“What’s the emergency?” Nurse Redheart asked, ignoring the furious changeling, and moving closer to Lime. Zaffre stepped between her and his brother.
“You give me one good reason to let you even catch a glimpse of my brother, or I’ll tear you apart!” Thorax hissed, his disguise vanishing, showing his fangs.
“I am a medic,” she replied coldly, “and this is my hospital. If I was trying to harm any of you, I could’ve already tied up Lancet. Now move aside.”
Zaffre snapped his teeth before her face, and then walked out the door, erupting in green flames to take on the appearance of the blue pegasus again. Lancet let out a heavy sigh, while Redheart examined Buzzer.
“Can you dissolve his disguise?” she asked. “I need to see what injuries he sustained.”
Shiftlight dropped his own cover and with a flash of his magic burned away Buzzer’s. The nurse looked at Lime’s face, his chitin shattered, faint greenish-blue fire burning in the cracks, his eyes shut with some blue mist seeping out from under his eyelids.
“This doesn’t look good,” Redheart sighed. “What do you know about your own anatomy?”
“Not much,” Lancet replied. “Every wound heals over time, but scars usually remain. A broken limb can mend together correctly, even if it’s not splinted. Sometimes those with serious injuries are put into a cocoon, filled with enough liquid so they can breathe.”
“Are these liquids hot or cold?” she asked, putting a hoof on Buzzer’s forehead.
“I don’t know, but I know that these cocoons are in the coldest sections of the caves.”
“Okay, we need to move him,” Redheart said, moving out to the corridor. “He’s burning with a fever unlike any I’ve seen before. There is a huge tub in the west wing of the hospital, and there are icepacks in the freezer. We’re putting him in a cold bath, until we can figure out something better.”
“How can I help?” Zaffre asked.
“You can help by staying put,” she replied, pushing a gurney next to Lime’s bed. “And that means both of you.”
“But...” Lancet started.
“No ‘buts’.” Thorax interrupted. “You drank a mug of absinthe like it was water; I’m surprised you’re still on your feet.”
“If that’s true, we’ll have a lot to talk about when I get back.” Redheart added, shooting a furious glare at Lancet. “Zaffre, levitate Lime on the stretcher.”
The shifter obeyed, dropping his disguise and putting Buzzer on the gurney. The nurse covered Lime with a white sheet, and then pushed the unconscious changeling out of the room, leaving the other two bugs in the room alone.
Once he was sure Redheart was out of hearing distance, Zaffre closed the door and magically sealed off the room, preventing any sound from escaping the four walls.
“You mindless idiot!” he yelled, turning to face Shiftlight. “Our brother’s life and our fate is in the hooves of a pony! What insane reason did surface in your brain to make you believe this was the right course of action?!”
“Well maybe I was trying to be nice for once!” Lancet replied with the same fury.
“By what, making him the victim of a fight he never expected?!”
“By keeping it a secret and keeping all of us here!” the other cried out. “I saw how happy Lime was at the party, and you yourself brought along foals from the orphanage! I dare you to tell me that you brought them along for some other reason, than your own soft heart!”
“Are you blaming me now?!” Zaffre was now inches away from his brother’s face. Lancet seemed to shrink under the crushing anger of Thorax. “For your actions?!”
“I’m asking for forgiveness!” Shiftlight cowered, hiding beneath his hooves.
Zaffre snorted, turned around and left.
“We have no business anymore,” he said from the corridor, loud enough for Lancet to hear.

Redheart gently lowered the unconscious changeling into the bathtub. She only hoped that this would work, and the fragmented chitin would heal. The nurse couldn’t say the same about the bond between the other two shifters, but right now she could concentrate on one problem.
She examined Lime in the tub, and found that the cracks, which submerged under water along the side of the changeling, have stopped burning; the lines along the fractured hide still glowing, but the ethereal energy no longer escaping from his body. She grabbed a cloth, soaked and folded it, laying it on the shifter’s face. After some sizzling and cracking the room went quiet again. Redheart turned around to find a thermometer and monitor Lime’s temperature, when she bumped into a blue pegasus.
“I thought I told you-“ she started, but Zaffre interrupted her.
“I couldn’t bear Lancet anymore.”
“Oh really? Tell me about it,” Redheart retorted, passing him by.
“I would rather not,” Zaffre replied.
“Then you’re no better than him,” she said, hoping she could make Zaffre forgive Lancet.
“How is he?” Thorax asked, putting Redheart off.
“I don’t know,” she replied hesitantly, putting the thermometer in Lime’s mouth, and holding it there. “I’m trying to understand what’s going on here, but I’m flying blind.”
“The love we feed on transforms into that stuff,” he explained, “and it’s escaping through the cracks. Field medics usually use slime to stop it from leaving our body.”
“And you didn’t tell me this before because?”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly,” Zaffre answered calmly. “My feelings have clouded my head.”
“Just like your brother’s,” Redheart stated, reading off the scale of the thermometer.
“You know, it’s not going to work with me,” he said. “You would need a lot more skill to manipulate someone, who was taught to manipulate others from birth.”
“Are you blaming me for trying?”
“Why are you trying?” Zaffre inquired, unconvinced by the changeling-loving act of the nurse. “What motivates you to help us?”
“You mean as a changeling, or as a family?” she asked back, a tiny bit of fury and sadness in her voice. “Because I’ve seen a lot of the latter falling apart!”
“Touching-” Thorax remarked, but Redheart interrupted him.
“No it’s not!” she yelled. “I saw stallions leave mares because they suddenly became mothers, I saw unwanted foals at the orphanage, and you did too! So why are you so cold?”
“Because he made a stupid decision!” Zaffre hissed. “We were exposed, my brother could’ve died, and now I’m forced to trust YOU, to handle OUR fate!”
“Then let me help!” she touched the shoulder of the shifter with a hoof, but he pulled away. “I have sworn not to do harm, and Celestia is my witness that I will keep that vow! Just help me by letting me do my job!”
“I’ll come by tomorrow morning to see if he’s okay.” Zaffre said, heading for the exit. “Make sure he won’t try anything stupid, should he wake up.”
With Thorax gone, the room was now silent, except the occasional breathing of Lime. Redheart let out a heavy sigh, and sat down on the floor. She really didn’t think this through. None of them did. The changelings were experiencing unforeseen things; feelings that they barely dared to admit they felt, much less confess it to others. The nurse felt a cold grasp in her chest; no matter how much she tried to help Lancet, the unity of the trio was now breaking up. And she knew from experience, that breakups can sometimes hurt more, than one could imagine.
Especially if someone never experienced anything like that ever before.

“Zaffre, wait!” a voice called out for the changeling. “I... have something to ask of you!”
“I said; we have no business anymore!” he yelled back at Lancet. “The moment Lime is fine we’re leaving!”
“You may be, but the decision about his life is Lime’s, not yours!” Shiftlight retorted.
“And you think I would leave him here with you? All of us made a vow; we swore to watch each other’s backs!”
“And I kept that promise!”
“At what price?” Zaffre cried out. “We are not safe anymore! I don’t feel safe anymore!”
“Just because she helps us now, doesn’t mean we can’t take care of ourselves anymore!” Lancet stepped closer to his brother. “If we want to stay here for a year, we must trust them!”
“No,” Zaffre replied after a heavy sigh. “I refuse to accept it. I refuse to be a failure.”
“Don’t make the mistake I did!” Lancet pleaded. “Look what it lead to in my case! Just give it a thought, that’s all I ask!”
“Hmph,” Thorax snorted, and trotted away into the night. “I’ll do my best.”

Lancet locked the door behind himself, and lay on the bed. His head was still spinning from the alcohol, no matter how much he tried to surpass it. His thoughts still ranged over the events of the night, playing it all over and over again, like a bad dream. Shiftlight wished it to be nothing more than just a dream, and closed his eyes. He thought about trying to sleep, and forget all that happened, but his consciousness kept him awake enough for him to notice the faint sound of the door opening and closing. It didn’t take him too much to realize who could’ve disturbed him.
“I’m not ready to talk about it yet,” the shifter said, hoping Redheart would just leave him be.
“Like I give a buck!” she replied in a silent but furious voice. “You come here in the middle of the night, drunk, with your brother having injuries and think you can still dictate the terms? You are out of your delirious mind!”
Shiftlight sat up on the bed, and faced the angry nurse. Redheart’s cold blue eyes could’ve easily pinned him to the wall of the room, like a needle does with a bug, and Lancet shrank under the penetrating gaze.
“You will tell me everything, and I mean everything that might make you emotionally unstable, or so help me, I’ll rip your disguise off somehow, and tie you to the tip of the town hall!”
The changeling bit his lip. He knew Redheart’s threat wasn’t empty, but his drunk brain just couldn’t really comply with telling his personal secrets to a pony. Zaffre was right: none of them would feel safe in a situation like this.
“No,” he said after a short pause.
“Then leave,” Redheart replied coldly. “Now.”
“You’re throwing me out?”
“I trusted you so far, because I thought you wouldn’t do anything too unpredictable,” the nurse moved closer to the changeling. “But now you have proven me wrong; you hurt not one of us, but your own brother! If you can’t even control yourself to prevent this from happening, how am I supposed to trust you with practicing under my guidance to be a colt-nurse? So yes: I’m throwing you out. Pack your things and leave.”
“What about my brother?” Shiftlight asked vaguely.
“Do you truly think any of them would wish to see you if you’re turning down every attempt of help?” she retorted. “I offered my help several times, and you haven’t even gave it a chance. Now I’m returning the favor: no second chances anymore.”
“You wouldn’t...” Lancet started, dropping off of the bed.
“Three seconds,” Redheart said. “And I call the guards.”
Shiftlight didn’t make a sound as he left the room. The nurse looked at the door, and walked out into the empty corridor. She couldn’t see the changeling anywhere. She walked around in the hospital, her colleagues sleeping or working at their desks, but otherwise the hospital being all empty. She sat down in the reception hall, and looked out at the dark and empty streets of the moonless night.
“You bucking idiot,” she whispered to herself, as a tear ran down her cheek.

Buzzer soared on the edge of unconsciousness, as one half of his mind struggled to keep awake, protecting him from the threat of Luna. But the rest of his brain agreed on keeping the stress of being awake to a minimum, and dragged the tiny conscious spark down into the depths of the dreams.
In his sleepy visions he found himself in a cold dark-blue ruin of a castle, surrounded by deep-purple mist, with nothing but the starry sky above his head. The changeling moved around in the illusion cautiously, not remembering the place, watching out for any danger he might have to face. He hid behind every corner, leaping from cover to cover, and while trying to find a way around the maze, Lime bumped into a throne room. If he would’ve been awake, he would’ve definitely died from a heart attack, because in the throne sat no one else, but the princess of the night. Unfortunately the turn of events prevented him from waking up from the nightmare, so he could only hope his presence would go unnoticed.
“Dost thou not know we could feel thou, hiding in the shades?” Luna called out after a short while. Buzzer considered his options, and then replied.
“The faint belief that I might go unnoticed made me feel at least a bit safe,” he said from his hiding place. “But unfortunately it seems like I’m stuck here for a while. Probably thanks to the hind hooves of some drunken stallion.”
“Thou hast probably deserved that buck,” Luna remarked.
“For what, Canterlot?” Buzzer asked. “Like I had a choice in that matter!”
“Thou can always choose between right and wrong!”
“Well forgive me if I made a wrong decision just to stay alive!” Lime retorted. “I think I paid a price by being separated from the rest of my hive, maybe even permanently!”
“Is thou asking of us to pity thee?” Luna chuckled. “Forgive us if we find it amusing. It is rare that our enemies abase themselves so far as to beg for some sympathy.”
“I am not asking for pity!” Lime snapped, leaving his hiding place and facing the princess. “I am simply trying to understand what reason one could see in getting home just to be ordered to tear his own kind apart! I saw changelings devour each other to survive, I have seen cruelties your highness could never even imagine, I lived through things I would never thought of doing, just to find myself being forced to do them to survive!”
“And now thou art here, doing the exact same thing thine kind have done for, what, the last few centuries?” she inquired of him. “Hiding in disguises, trying to feed on our subjects...”
“I am only striving to survive!” he cried out. “Why am I to take the blame for being a changeling? You are a goddess, and your subjects love and respect you, but with our queen we fear and shun her! We carry out her orders because our fates are in her hooves! But surely an immortal alicorn such as yourself cannot understand the concept of death!”
“ENOUGH YOU IMPUDENT BUG!” Luna boomed in her Royal Canterlot voice. “Thou hast made us very desperate for flushing thee out! Mark our words; thou better decide to come to us, before we decide to find thee!”
Buzzer awoke with a gasp, splashing the water around him in the tub, panicking from the feeling of the cloth on his face, waving around with every limb he had, just to finally flounder out of the tub, and land with a loud thud. He looked around in the dimly lit hospital room, and noticed his disguise missing. He saw a mirror on the wall, and stood up, to examine himself properly. What he saw gave him more questions that answers.
His face was full of cracks, his left eyelid swollen, a piece of cloth was wrapped around his horn, and his left fang was broken. He recollected what he could from the events of the night, and soon, he was sitting on the floor, making theories about what he could’ve been missing. All of them involved him being exposed at some point, and the absence of his brothers probably meant that they escaped, and kept the hospital under surveillance, to see if he can make it out before the guards arrive. Buzzer decided he would try his best, and escape as fast as possible.
Unfortunately for him, his head hurt so much he could barely put on his disguise, much less blow a hole in the wall, and the shortage of windows left only the main entrance as a possible escape route.
“They will never see me coming,” he said to himself, hissing from the pain, as he erupted in green flames.
Once on the corridors, he moved cautiously. He expected a few guards to be at the entrance of his room with a cage, but the hospital was silent. Then the realization hit him.
They don’t know about me, he thought. If they would, the princess surely wouldn’t have offered me the chance to give myself up.
Feeling a bit safer with his new discovery, Lime made a run for the exit. He almost reached the door, when a female voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Lime!” Redheart called out. “It’s good that I found you before you left!”
“I suppose it is,” he replied casually. “I’m sorry I was such a bother.”
“Well, I wanted to talk to you about that,” she said, stepping closer to the changeling. “In private, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Well, I’m sure Pinkie is expecting me to be home at any minute!” Lime turned to leave.
“I know what you are,” Redheart stated, and that sentence froze Buzzer solid. “I just wish you to hear me out.”
“Give me a reason to,” Lime replied in a cold tone.
“Because I know why Lancet did what he did.”

Suppressed truths

Buzzer sat down in Redheart’s office. Across the desk in front of him sat the nurse herself, rubbing her forehead with a worn out expression. The shifter was thinking about why she was tired, but his thoughts were soon disturbed.
“You can drop it,” she said. “You don’t need to hide anything from me.”
“I feel more secure if I keep it on,” Buzzer replied.
“I’m going to make a wild guess, and say that it’s exhausting to keep it up, am I right?” Redheart asked. “You have injuries, and your body requires the least amount of stress. Just, drop it, please.”
Lime dropped his disguise after a short pause, and the nurse let out a small sigh.
“I’m glad you are at least half as cooperative as your brothers were,” she rubbed her forehead again with a hoof.
“Where are they?” Buzzer inquired impatiently.
“Zaffre went back to the orphanage,” Redheart replied. “And I’ll get right onto Lancet, but only after you heard me out.”
“I’m listening,” Lime stated, tilting his head a bit.
“Your brother, Lancet showed a lack of knowledge about emotions,” she started.
“That’s because we don’t need to know details about any other than love,” Buzzer explained. “We only learned how to identify potential sources of love, and how to exploit those. Other than that we never truly explored further, although some basic emotions we know about.”
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Redheart replied. “I meant he started feeling emotions, which he didn’t know how to handle.”
“He did what?” Buzzer asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“He felt guilt for some reason unknown to me. He kept telling me he would solve it, but I guess his solution was to get drunk.”
“You say he started feeling anything beyond anger, fear sadness and satisfaction?” Lime inquired, his curiosity washing away his professional poker face. “That is unlikely.”
“He said a past memory haunted him, though he never truly talked about it,” Redheart explained. “Listen, Lime, I wanted to help him, I really did, and I still do. But he won’t talk to me, and he seemed certain that he must solve it before you or Zaffre would learn about it.”
“That seems reasonable,” Buzzer said, tapping a hoof to his chin.
“Well, it’s not!” she snapped. “There is no way out of feeling guilty, not unless he talks about it! I tried to help him, Celestia is my witness I tried everything and he refused to accept! I saw families fall apart, I was forced to watch ponies experiencing pain beyond anything that physical harm could cause, and I was useless!”
“Where is my brother?” Lime asked point blank.
“I don’t know,” Redheart replied. “He ran off, after I told him that either he talks, or he leaves.”
“Then I’ll go find him,” Buzzer said, standing up to leave.
“Lime, I must ask,” the nurse stopped him, “Is there anything unusual you experienced in the past few days? Anything you felt?”
“Yes,” he replied after a long pause. “I felt something strangely... pleasant”
“Then maybe you should tell it to him,” she suggested. “Make him feel less like an outcast, make him realize he’s not all alone!”
“You think that will help?” Lime asked.
“I’m out of options,” Redheart stated with a frown. “I tried to help him. Now all I can do is ask others to try.”
Buzzer nodded, surprising himself how easily he trusted a pony.
The hive would cast us out, he thought. But right now, I either live, to become an outcast, or die obeying our ways.
The changeling closed the door, and sat down for a minute. Lime had no idea where to start. He was unconscious during the argument, and now had more to confess to his brothers, than Zaffre and Lancet could probably have. If he starts playing the ‘being honest’ game, he would have to spill enough to make his brothers panic.
And from the looks of it, Lancet was already panicking from something. Nonetheless sitting on his flanks brought no results, and Lime found himself exiting the hospital, taking off to the dark streets of Ponyville, putting his fate in his own skills.
After all, as a changeling infiltrator, he was the best at improvising.

Zaffre was tossing and turning in his bed. The shifter was unable to sleep, some strange feeling pressing his insides. The scene of him yelling at Lancet played over and over again, and he tried to convince himself he was doing the right thing. No matter how logical his reasons were, no matter how flawlessly he thought he preformed his duties, he just couldn't get rid of the memory.
What he did just didn’t felt right.
Zaffre decided to take a walk in the quiet old building, hoping that he might find some meaningless task that could help him occupy his thoughts. He looked around in the kitchen, but all the dishes were clean, and put to their places. The bathroom was clean too, and every foal was sound asleep in their beds. The changeling sat down in the corridor with his hopes crushed. He took flight, and proceeded to the attic of the building, which somehow he hadn't explored during his days in the orphanage. He found a lot of dusty boxes, all of them labeled properly.
“Black Cirrus,” he read the writing on the boxes, dropping his disguise to be able to dimly light up his horn. “Dandelion, Little Stork, Grey Spark, Fuzzy Moth... these belong to the foals!”
He curiously opened one of the boxes, namely Dandelion’s, and looked at what was inside. He quickly realized that any stuff that the foals wouldn’t need in their daily lives, but didn’t have enough personal space to store it in their bedrooms was moved up in there. He found several fancy clothes, some toys, a crystal ball, trinkets and an album.
Zaffre gently took out the album, and opened it. He found many photos of the filly’s family, her parents, grandparents, some of her friends, but what he found on the last page was something he would’ve never expected from a filly this young.
It was a photo of her parents’ graves, with one word written under the photo.
“Remember,” Zaffre read out loud the word.
The message sent shivers down the changeling’s spine, and he closed the album. No matter how deeply he tried to bury his own memories, now they were flooding his brain, breaking every dam he could ever raise. The pain washed over him, and after he was able to think again, he realized: if this was what Lancet felt, no wonder he wanted it gone so badly.
“No, I must not forget what happened to Lime!” he reminded himself, “We will think of a way to figure it out together, just the two of us!”

Meanwhile Lime was running around on the pitch black streets of Ponyville. He looked around in every park, every hiding place he could’ve imagined for a changeling infiltrator, but he couldn’t find any trace of Lancet. He asked every patrolling guard he encountered to keep an eye out for his brother, but so far none of them managed to find any trace of him. Lime almost gave up hope, when he reminded himself of an important fact.
I need to calm down, he thought, and think of what I’m doing.
He knew Lancet was confused. Hopefully not confused enough to think of returning to the hive, but he optimistically ruled that out as a possibility. His brother couldn’t have gone far; not to criticize Lancet, but he wasn’t really the smart one to come up with new ideas. Once Lancet learned something, or accepted a plan, he did it without changing anything, no matter what. So adding two and two together, he was somewhere in Ponyville, thinking that his brothers would never want to see his ugly chitin face again, but a coward enough to not try to return to the hive.
“The train station,” Lime concluded, a newly found hope brightening up his face. “He must be there!”

Lancet sat alone in the dark, certain that nopony would think of looking for him there. He got in using the junkpicks that they used back in Canterlot; after all they all decided to keep at least one with them at all times, should the worst case scenario happen. Lancet was glad he did so, and closed his eyes in the small dark room. His head began to get clearer, the alcohol burning up and his mind calming down; he was now able to think.
The changeling’s thoughts circled around Redheart; the nurse, who offered him help, knowing, that he might turn on her. The pony, who trusted her for no reason, who spent time with her, and practically stuck her neck out for a bug, who never even showed any sign of friendship. Redheart was the ultimate puzzle for Lancet to solve: a creature of no reason. He knew that ponies were sometimes sentimental, but he wouldn’t have expected somepony to behave like this.
Not after the downright invasion of their capital city.
Shiftlight was so caught up in his own thoughts that he noticed the sound of hoofsteps closing in too late. He let out a small gasp, then covered his mouth with both hooves. After a few tense seconds he heard the hoofsteps leaving, and after he was sure that the stranger left, he let out the air he held back. His muscles eased up, and his head hit the door with a gentle thud.
“Really?” Lancet heard from outside his hiding place. “The restroom?”
“Crud,” he swore.
“Excuse me brother, but I think, I shouldn’t risk losing your hiding place out of sight, so I’ll just laugh here,” the voice said.
“Lime, you slimebag,” Lancet hissed, hearing his brother’s uncontrolled snickering. “Thanks for the support, brother!”
“Oh come on!” Lime pleaded, opening the door. “I managed to forgive you for getting my face redecorated; can’t you look the other way while I’m laughing?”
“Fine, I can,” Shiftlight said, rolling his eyes, while Buzzer still giggled like a dope.
“There, all better!” he stated, once he managed to stop. “Now, why don’t we sit down and talk?”
“About what?” Lancet asked, stepping back, obviously trying to defend his own privacy.
“Lancet, I know you are experiencing something unfamiliar,” Lime said, dropping the joking act, turning dead serious. “And I had an experience like that too.”
“You too feel this ‘guilt’?” Shiftlight inquired suspiciously.
“No,” Buzzer shook his head. “I experience something less unpleasant, but similarly... unnatural.”
“Tell me about it.” Lancet asked his brother, sitting down.
“I... really wouldn’t,” Lime replied looking away, but then decided otherwise. “But I will, hoping that it would make you less distrustful.”
“It all started back the day we were thrown the party,” Buzzer started. “Zaffre and I were talking about something I don’t quite remember, and then... I saw her. It was like I was mesmerized by the mere sight of a pony, but I never truly found out what that feeling was.”
“What do you mean by ‘mesmerized’?”
“I told you, I can’t really describe it,” Buzzer answered. “But ever since then I... I crave for the mere presence of that mare. Like I’m...”
“Under a spell?” Lancet guessed. “Hypnotized?”
“Like I’m in love,” Lime stated with a weak smile. “I know it sounds stupid, but as far as my knowledge goes, it’s the closest thing I can imagine.”
“That is stupid,” Lancet agreed, and noticed the curiosity on his brother’s face. “So you wanna hear my story?”
Buzzer only nodded, and Shiftlight let out a sigh.
“Only if you tell me the mare’s name,” he said finally, holding a hoof up.
“Well, it’s Lyra,” Lime whispered, hoping that Shiftlight wouldn’t hear it.
“I couldn’t quite catch that,” Shiftlight replied, leaning closer.
“It’s Lyra!” Buzzer sputtered a little louder.
“I still couldn’t...” Lancet started, but his brother interrupted.
“I don’t care if your ears are bad; I want to hear your story!” Lime snapped, putting both of his hooves on Shiftlight’s shoulders. “So tell me!”
“Nope.”
The two shifters looked each other steadily in the eye, until finally Buzzer gave up.
“Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings.”
“Was that so hard?” Lancet asked with a grin.
“You’re going to use that to blackmail me!” Buzzer cried out.
“Like you won’t do the same with my secrets,” he replied. “But nonetheless, I shall tell you.”
“You remember our days as novice infiltrators?” Shiftlight asked, and Lime nodded. “From all of us who hatched on the same week only four of us became infiltrator material.”
“Yeah I remember; it was you, Zaffre our fourth brother and me.” Buzzer replied.
“Well, do you know what happened to our ‘fourth brother’?”
“Wait, are you saying that you feel bad because he got stupid?” the short changeling asked.
“No.” Lancet shook his head. “I feel bad because I was the one to report him.”

Nurse Redheart was sitting in her office, head resting on the desk, a cup of now cold coffee in front of her. She made the brown liquid half an hour ago, but hasn’t touched it since. Too tired to do anything, but too worried to sleep the mare was now hovering on the edge of consciousness, every little noise sparking up her imagination as of what was happening outside the boundaries of her office. One of her sleepy visions was that Lime and Lancet entered through the door together.
“Whoa, I really need to go to sleep,” She said with a weak smile, closing her eyes. “I’m dreaming awake.”
“Nurse Redheart?” Lime asked, but the nurse didn’t reply. “She must have worried herself sick.”
“No kidding, she has a fever!” Lancet stated, feeling the temperature of the pony with his hoof. “And a bad case of it! Quick, help me get her in a bed!”
“The corridor is empty!” Buzzer said, waving a hoof to his brother. “All clear this way too!”
Shiftlight put the barely conscious mare on his back, and swiftly moved through the halls of the hospital. The trio moved silently, with Buzzer leading the way to Lancet’s room. Once inside, Shiftlight put Redheart on the bed, and grabbed several books with his magic.
“Somewhere here I read something about fever,” he was viciously turning the pages with his magic. “We should get some cold ice packs, a lot of water for her to drink, and an injection of Algoponin.”
“A what now?” Lime asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Just stay here and watch her, all right?” Shiftlight answered, rushing out the door. “I’ll be right back.”
“Oh hey Lime,” Redheart said when she opened her eyes. “This isn’t my office. Wanted to move me somewhere more private to ‘extract’ my love?”
“Hoo boy.” Buzzer sighed. “Here we go.”

Zaffre was sitting on the roof of the orphanage, watching the moon shrouded by clouds, drifting in an ocean of doubt. He never wished to leave their third and only surely alive brother, but he couldn’t really trust him either. But he was keeping a secret too: He never told Lancet about Lime and Lyra. Or his own compassion towards the ponies. In fact, if their roles would be reversed, the ponies would be feeding off of his affection towards the foals of the orphanage. Zaffre never truly wanted to admit it, but he had a lot in common with the foals.
For starters, they lost their parents, just like him. In fact he was probably the truest orphan of them all; by pony standards maybe not even his brothers were his blood relatives. The only thing that surely bound them was that they all hatched on the same day. Nothing more, nothing less. They never had birthday parties on their own, no others to talk about their problems, nothing.
Thorax even doubted that they had a culture at all, or whether it was simply a masquerade, just like the everyday life of every infiltrator.
The changeling sighed, and shook his head. Being away from the hive, forcing their own selves to keep away from their home was one of the hardest decision they made, and the very thought took its toll on all of them. Distrust had seeped into the bond between, and now they were at each other’s throats, before their first week in Ponyville could’ve passed.
I need them to survive, just as they need me, he realized. Just as we needed each other back in our best days. Those who refused to trust the other, failed.
Zaffre stood up, and took flight towards the hospital. If he knew anything it was that he refused to be a failure.

Reunions hurt

A blue pegasus slowly walked towards the hospital of Ponyville, mumbling to himself. The streets were all empty, except for a few night guards, but they didn’t bother the disguised changeling, nor did he pay attention to any of them.
“I’ll just say sorry... No, that would seem like I have done something bad.” Thorax told to himself, thinking out loud. “I’ll just wait for him to say something. But what if he won’t say a thing?”
The pegasus reached the entry of the building, stopping for a second.
“Oh, shoot, I’ll just punch him in the face and then apologize!” Thorax said, upon opening the door, where he met his brother just passing by.
After an eternal silence, where both changelings looked at each other with shocked faces, Thorax managed to move his mouth.
“Well... this is awkward,” Zaffre said.
“Indeed,” Lancet agreed, frozen in place.
The two changelings were staring at each other, both unsure what to say. Zaffre fought the urge to make his brother choke on his own hind hooves, while Lancet tried to find a way to explain himself. The silence however was broken by a third voice.
“Excuse me, Mr. Lancet, do you know where Nurse Redheart is?” Nurse Tenderheart appeared out of a nearby office.
“Of course. She is with a patient, and wishes to remain undisturbed,” Shiftlight lied fluently. “She asked me to bring a vial of Metamizol for her, but I should be returning by now. Is the matter urgent?”
“No, of course not, just a couple of papers need signing, that’s all!” Tenderheart replied with a smile. “I’ll just leave it on her desk.”
“I’ll be sure to pass the message.” Lancet nodded, taking some medicine from a nearby cupboard. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, my brother and I have some things to talk about. Zaffre, I’m a little bit short on time right now, but if you’d accompany me, we can talk for a while.”
Thorax nodded, and followed his brother, confused. Shiftlight walked until they were out of hearing distance, and then suddenly turned around and hugged his brother. Zaffre blushed, and became more confused than ever before. After a moment of silence, he managed to blurt a few words.
“What the... I mean, Lancet! Get off for cricket’s sake!”
“Sorry,” Lancet apologized. “I just... thought this was the most fitting way to show my gratitude that you have actually returned, and managed to stop yourself from smashing my face when you saw me!”
“I’m still tempted to do so,” the other said. “So, our brother needs some medicine?”
“Oh these? These are for – oh ancestors!”
Shiftlight turned around in a hurry, and darted towards the end of the corridor. Zaffre followed him not a moment too soon, and after a short gallop they were right in front of the well known door of Lancet’s room. To the shock of Thorax from behind the door came loud moaning and the voice of a female pony filled with...
“Is Lime trying to seduce Redheart, or what?” Zaffre asked, confused.
“I fear this may not be the case!” his brother replied, and carefully opened the door.
What they expected was nowhere near to what their eyes met. Lime was tied up completely with the bed sheets, an annoyed expression on his face. A chair was next to him, with Redheart lying on it, whispering seductively into the ear of the changeling.
“...and then I’m going to tie you to the bed... wait I think I already told you this part, didn’t I?” she asked, tapping a chin to her hoof.
“Yes, you did,” Buzzer growled, and then noticed his brothers peeking through the open door. “Took your sweet little time! Would it kill you to help me already?!”
“I’m currently occupied trying to understand what’s happening here,” Thorax said, as Shiftlight rushed in, grabbed Redheart and lay her gently on the bed, preparing to give her the medicine.
“I’ll tell you what’s happening here: I’m being molested by a pony, that’s what!” Lime barked, while the nurse got injected.
“Be glad that I’m not like Celestia on her bad days,” Redheart said, giggling on the bed, as Lancet untied the knots, freeing his smallest brother.
“After what you told me, I thought you would enjoy it,” Shiftlight jested, which earned another growl from Lime.
“So you told him?” Zaffre asked, and Buzzer nodded. “Bold move.”
“Desperate times,” he replied. “But all turned out well.”
“Yeah, except that you still have to figure out how to manage the whole ‘dating a pony’ thing.”
“Wait, you’re going on a date with her?” Lancet snapped suddenly, which caused Lime to lay his ears back. “I thought you were joking with the whole ‘loving her’ thing!”
“I thought you believed me!” Buzzer whined.
“I thought we were on good terms now!” Zaffre added stepping between the two.
“I thought we were going to... you know...” Redheart moaned in the middle of her feverish dream.
“Oh, yeah, just saying; she has the hots for you Lancet.” Lime announced to Shiftlight.
“Oh, I do have the hots for that fine chitin flank!” the sick nurse reached out and slapped the hindquarters of the tall changeling with a hoof.
The trio stood there in awkward silence, while the mare in the room kept giggling like a filly.
“Let’s just not talk about this for a few days, all right?” Lancet suggested, and surprisingly all of them agreed.
Soon Thorax and Buzzer blurted out a short excuse to leave the pair alone, and both went their own separate ways. Although they could put their roughest night so far behind, they all felt that the future held much more trouble for them.

Buzzer arrived back at Sugarcube Corner an hour before opening. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cake were up and about, performing their morning duties; which consisted of feeding and bathing the twin foals. Meanwhile Pinkie happily bounced around, bringing out the freshly baked goods from the kitchen. Lime apologized for his disappearance, and immediately got to work. After all, on his previous workdays he barely managed to do anything; he felt he had to do a lot to make up for it.
Luckily, the Cakes decided to take the twins out for a picnic to the main park of Ponyville, and the shop wouldn’t open up until noon, so Lime remained all alone with Pinkie. Unluckily that would’ve only happened, if Pinkie wouldn’t have invited over some of her small friends.
“Cutie Mark Crusader Party Throwers!” Lime heard the yell from the doorway.
In the said entry stood three small foals with red badly stitched capes, and voices so high pitched that Buzzer was really tempted to just rip off his own ears and save the trouble of going deaf from listening to the fillies for five more seconds. Instead, he just simply grabbed two muffins and plugged them into his ears under his disguise. Not the best muffler, but it didn’t stick out from under his masquerade, and he was still able to make out the important part of the conversation.
“Hello, girls! Are you ready to prepare some fun?” Pinkie asked in her usual cheerful tone, jumping around.
“We’re not quite sure we get what you want us to do.” the yellow earth pony of the group said.
“I hope it’s not like last time, when she made us listen to her life story!” the other member, an orange pegasus murmured.
“Oh, cheer up Scoots, I’m sure we’ll be fine!” the third, a white unicorn with light purple-pink mane added. “Besides, don’t you want to earn your cutie mark?”
“Gee, if I’m gonna get my mark in listening to something, at least let it be something cool, like rock or metal.” Scootaloo replied.
“Now why would you wanna listen to a boulder?” the earth pony filly asked.
“Well, back on the rock farm, my pa’ swore he could hear the gems grow inside the stones!” Pinkie giggled.
The four ponies continued to chat, ignoring the changeling in the room, who gladly hid behind the counter, to wait for the fillies to leave. He managed to figure out from fragments of the conversation that the trio of foals wanted to get their blank flanks filled with some image that decides their future. Of course Buzzer knew about cutie marks, but he never truly understood the fuss about it. Changelings were usually multifunctional: just because he excelled at being an infiltrator, didn’t mean he was never assigned to mop up the floor of the queen’s chamber. Come to think of it, he mopped it up more times than anyling else.
“Lime!” Pinkie’s cheerful face frightened the changeling out of his daydreams. “You think you can bake the cookies I prepared?”
“Sure can do!” He replied with a reassuring smile. “You can leave the shop to me, I don’t have anything planned for today!”
“Oki-doki-loki!” Pinkie chirped, and grabbed her luggage in her mouth. “Come on girls; let’s throw a Happy-two-days-until-your-birthday party for Ambrosia!”
“Who’s Ambrosia?” the small white unicorn asked.
“A sweet pony, who helped us rebuild Sugarcube Corner once,” Pinkie explained, leaving the shop, “and the town hall once, and the...
As the mare’s voice faded away Buzzer slowly returned to his own thoughts. His ears started to itch, and he realized he still had the muffins stuck inside them. He unplugged them, looked around, and tossed them in a can.
The changeling could now look forward to a hopefully uneventful day.

Zaffre had a rough morning. He had to take a bunch of foals to Miss Cheerilee’s weekend classes, which she voluntarily held for the foals, do the shopping; return in time to cook the lunch; and realize that he forgot to clean the dishes after breakfast.
The changeling soon came to appreciate how easy his life at the hive had been. When he was caring for the larvae, he only had to feed the nymphs, clean up after them, teach them to obey the hive’s laws. Here, he had to clean up every room, do the dishes, cook, lead the foals around, be nice to them, play with them, read them bedtime stories, and sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to help them with some small problem, like the monsters under their beds.
Well, at least it’s way more rewarding, he thought. Barely ever did I have access to this nearly unlimited source of love.
He was currently putting the plates back in the cupboards. He thought about locking the doors and using his magic to liberate himself from the burdens of such a menial task, but decided otherwise when he heard gentle hoofsteps from behind him. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw Madame Tender enter the kitchen.
“Dear Celestia, what are you doing here all alone?” Zaffre asked shocked, helping the blind mare to find a seat for herself. “You could’ve just sent somepony to warn me that you needed help.”
“Oh hush dear, I’m more than confident that I can find my way around in this old mansion with my eyes closed,” the lady jested, while sitting down. “Besides, Dandelion is attending the weekend class, and almost every foal is enjoying this beautiful weather. Why I myself pushed my rocking chair out onto the balcony to enjoy the warm blessing of Celestia.”
“Are you this unobliging with every other pony too?” Thorax asked with a sigh, returning to his menial tasks. “I thought we agreed on letting me help.”
“And you fulfilled that to the letter.” Madame Tender replied. “You have no idea, how relaxing it is to not worry about finding me a set of eyes that thinks the same way I do.”
“But you still... lack the sight of a normal pony,” Zaffre replied in a low tone.
“I know. But life doesn’t always gives you what you ask for, does it now?”
“True enough,” Thorax said, tapping a hoof to his chin. “Still I would be more confident if you would give me the opportunity of helping you.I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I would feel a lot calmer if a pony that lacks a good set of eyes would –”
“Boy I lack more than just my sight!” The mare snapped, bringing her hoof down on the table heavily. “I lost my parents to a fire, and I never ever got to see them with my own eyes! I fear any fire, be that a dragon’s fire, or a stove’s fire! And now there are more foals under my responsibility because of the ruckus in Canterlot, caused by bugs that can engulf themselves in green fire, and come out as ponies on the other side!”
Zaffre took a few steps backwards at the outburst of the mare, considering to run for his life before they find out what he really is. If she knew, Thorax was sure that the old mare would try to tear him apart herself.
“I devoted my life to give other foals a second chance, to give everypony a second chance, to have a family,” she said, huffing from exhaustion. “Make no mistake: I fear fire. But fire comes from hatred, and not from fear; if one can give up hatred, they have a chance to be welcomed in someone’s family.”
How come someone, who is blind, knows more about life than we, who have healthy eyes? Thorax meditated. Maybe I misjudged these creatures; maybe there is more to them than just gathering food. Speaking of which, I have a meal to prepare.
With that the changeling quietly returned to his task at hoof; to prepare a fitting meal for a bunch of hungry foals.

Lancet never wanted to wake up. Well, at least not to this. Surely, sleeping a bed with a mare was more than an established custom for the changelings, but then again those mares never had a clue that they were sleeping in the same bed as a changeling. Now, close to noon, when Shiftlight woke up, he found himself lying on his side, hugging the only mare he hoped he would never find between his hooves.
Because in his gentle grasp lay the most savage mare he ever knew; Nurse Redheart. The changeling couldn’t really remember how they got in this position, or whether anything extraordinary happened, but he truly hoped that Redheart was a sound sleeper, and wouldn’t reproach this to him later. He tried to pull out his holey hoof out from under the pony, when she grabbed it with a firm grasp.
“Should I even ask?” she inquired in a low tone.
“Maybe not?” Shiftlight asked back, with a soft whine.
She sighed in reply, then let go of the shifter, rolled onto her other side, and kicked him out of the bed. Shiftlight hit the opposite wall of the room, and landed on the floor with a loud thud. The mare just yawned and covered herself with the bed sheets, while Shiftlight sat up, rubbing his sore back. The somewhat peaceful moment soon passed, as the door opened and Nurse Tenderheart popped her head in through the hole.
“Oh, sorry, I never intended to disturb anything,” she apologized, raising a hoof to cover her obvious grin. “Nurse Redheart, there is a matter needing your attention.”
“Can someone armed with knowledge like mine handle it?” Redheart asked back with a groan.
“Well, yes, someone could, but –” Tenderheart started, but the other mare cut her off.
“Lancet, see to it that the patient receives full medical attention.” The shifter’s jaws dropped. “Otherwise you’re fired.”
“I hear that threat way too often,” Shiftlight remarked, standing up, and turning to the other nurse. “Lead the way, and share the details with me please.”
The two of them left Redheart alone in the room, who rolled onto her other side, and tried to fall asleep again. Her brain however had other ideas, as it came up with the most confusing and pleasant thoughts ever. She had hollow memories of the three changelings united again, but that was all fuzzy, and it could’ve well been a feverish dream. But Lancet returned to her, which was a surprise, and it pleased her. Although she felt a bit sick, and combined with her heat it may have caused her to act well beyond the boundaries of rational behavior.
Well in the end it all added up to one thing: Lancet, anypony or anyling must never know how soft she really was inside. Or, that she fell in love with Lancet once she got a first glance at the real him.
Even now, she could barely keep her mind off of that fine chitin flank.

Why? Lancet asked of himself, for at least the twentieth time on that day. Why did I have to choose the idiotic earth pony form? A unicorn would’ve done fine, and even as a pegasus I could’ve passed as an emergency stretcher-bearer. Why did I pick the ancestors damned earth pony?
With these thoughts, he asked the helping nurses to hold his next patient down, while he tried to align the broken bone in a good position. Of course, he accidentally forgot to inject this pony with painkillers, mostly to learn his rich vocabulary of dirty words. Who knows when such knowledge might come in handy. He already treated three patients with fever, two with sprained joints, one was just plainly a drama queen, and several just came for the prescription of their usual medicine or a checkup.
“You mare-bucking pitiful excuse of a charlatan!” the stallion patient swore, as his fractured bone finally popped into place. “I’ll make you eat your own medicine you mother –”
“Sir that’s quite enough of that, thank you!” Nurse Tender replied in a harsh tone. “I’m sorry that you have to live through this, but maybe next time you won’t be as careless as to fall of the stairs.”
“Or you won’t be as drunk,” Shiftlight murmured, letting go of the old stallion. “You smell like a liquor shop.”
“I have my own right to enjoy some beverage now and then, don’t I?”
“Suit yourself. Last time I drank, I almost lost my brothers,” Lancet retorted.
The old pony just looked at his broken hoof, and kept his mouth shut. Shiftlight then proceeded to put the fractured limb in a brace, and moved on, to see to the needs of the next patient. The job was anything but dull, he had to admit it, and the occasional smile of the foals, and the grateful hugs of either the parents or the patients made it more than bearable.
Maybe Redheart didn’t seem too nice at first, but the changeling thought her heart was mostly in the right place.
But sometimes he wished it would’ve been in a jar on a shelf.

Author's Note

Sorry about not updating for a long time, I had some... private problems in my life that needed to be taken care of. It doesn't mean I was just sitting idly, I have been working on my fics; I'll upload them regularly from now on after some polishing. Thanks for reading!

Things go down

Thorax lay outside the orphanage on a deck chair, seemingly enjoying the sunshine. In reality the changeling was far away in his thoughts, dwelling in his memories about the hive. Zaffre reflected their world onto this, having the leisure to relax, which he never had during the infiltrations. During field missions they were required to squeeze as much love out of anypony as they could, and then leave without a trace. This time however, they could only devour as much as they needed to survive, and they barely needed to have much surplus; so Zaffre had a lot of time thinking.
Thinking about things that were not allowed back in the hive. Like their names, and why there was noling that could know the other’s name. They were told it was supposed to keep them from comparing themselves to the others, and thus help to prevent competition among hive members. Earning the right to be called on your own name was a privilege, one that only high ranking cluster members were allowed to have. And also, not having a name helped the infiltrators getting used to calling each other the aliases they took upon.
But all this hid behind the little fact that they were given a name soon after they became full-fledged members of the hive. Why give them a name, if they were not allowed to use it? Was it to flush out the weak-willed? No, it could work without a name as well. Was it somewhat sentimental? But changelings barely ever got sentimental, not to mention where sentimentality would come from, if they were living like this for thousands of years as their queen claimed?
The changeling shifted position in the deckchair, letting the sun shine on his other half as well. He dropped the uneasy questions, and tried to think about something else. Thorax was mostly a listener, and a good one at that. He eavesdropped on his own brothers and sisters just as much as he eavesdropped on any pony he ever saw, so it was a rarity to find a rumor that he never heard of before. Still the most frequently heard rumor, or legend to be more precise, was the story of the Changeling King. A story so dumb that even Thorax never believed it. Because let’s be honest: no one believes the story of a male ruler, in a hive that was ruled by only queens for the past few thousand years.
Still, the dull story mentioned the existence of a changeling, that although may have been weaker in general than the queens, but had abilities that made every queen fear him. Thorax wished this was true, because right now, he suspected that the hive could’ve used a better leader, be it a king or queen. And let’s just say that Zaffre didn’t really think too highly about their own queen after the fiasco at Canterlot.
The shifter climbed off of the deckchair, and headed inside. He still had a lot of errands to run, and what little time he spent philosophizing, he could’ve already used to do the laundry.

Lancet managed to get some rest, in the form of a lunch break. The onslaught of patients, however, never seemed to stop. He already asked the receptionist twice to tell everypony that he was on a break, but when he returned, he found several ponies trying to get into Redheart’s empty office.
The changeling would rather deal with a hungry pack of timberwolves instead of this. The changeling soon learned that fate is a fickle master in point of wishes.
Shiftlight’s day suddenly took an interesting turn, when he heard screaming and shouting from the direction of the main entrance. Lancet immediately ignored everypony else, and rushed to the entry of the hospital. He saw a fuchsia colored earth mare, yelling about the horror that attacked their village.
“Please Ma’am calm down!” He tried to reason with the pony. “What happened?”
“Timberwolves!” She screamed, and fainted. Shiftlight barely paid attention, but he caught the mare in the last second before she fell.
Timberwolves. Shiftlight may have wished for this, but he never intended it to be true. Still, if what the mare said was true, he may have been more help outside than inside, so the changeling took off to see what the commotion was all about.
Little did he know, this was the worst decision he could’ve made.

Buzzer sat behind the counter, with a parchment and a quill in his magical grasp. He started writing a letter as a backup plan, after his continuous nightmares, but he still lacked a method to transport it to the recipient. He never truly had hope in the success of the letter, but during his years he learned that hope and luck always balanced each other out; when there was no hope, luck brought along a miracle. He finished re-reading the letter for the fifth time, when somepony entered through the door.
“Hey there Lime!” the aquamarine mare greeted the changeling. “How are you?”
“Oh, hey there Lyra!” Buzzer replied, getting out from behind the counter. “I’m fine thank you! Can I get you something?”
“Well, maybe. You see, I happened to hurt one of my best friends, and I want to apologize.” She sat down, and scratched the back of her head with a hoof. “I don’t suppose you have a cupcake with the word ‘sorry’ on it, do you?”
“As a matter of fact we have just the thing!” Lime said, disappearing in the kitchen. “I just need to find it.”
“Oh, really? That would be so great!”
“And to whom do you plan on giving it?” the changeling asked, secretly hoping it wouldn’t be a stallion.
“Well, do you know Sea Swirl?” Lyra asked. “She’s the kind of friend I share every secret with. Recently she began to miss some of our regular meetings, and never told an excuse. Well, I got curious, and blame me for thinking there was more to this than just a simple detour to water someone’s plants. Poor girl soon found me spying on her as she talked to flowers!”
“Wow, that’s kind of funny!” Lime giggled, grabbing the cupcake from the platter. Pinkie obviously put it in the place he looked last. “I mean, if you don’t take it seriously.”
“Well, I was worried! You know changeling invasion and all that; I thought she was being brainwashed by one of those bugs!” The mare explained. “Do you know what they did to me?”
“Wait, you personally met a changeling?” Buzzer asked, his heart racing in fright. “How?”
“Well, I was abducted.” Lyra replied. “Turns out by their queen no less! I don’t really remember, but I woke up, with two days missing and they told me I tried to attack Twilight Sparkle and Princess Mi Amora Cadenza!”
“That sounds horrible!” Lime said, frightened. He saw his chances of being with the mare slip away in the matter of a second.
“You know what sounds more horrible?” she asked back, when they heard a scream from the outside. “I wasn’t going to say this but... that does...”
Lime dropped the cupcake on the counter, and they both rushed outside. Ponyville was in the state of panic, ponies running around, some stallions and colts trying to stop wild creatures of the Everfree wreaking havoc. The two friends saw the peaceful landscape being destroyed by timberwolves. Buzzer quickly calculated the risks, and made a risky decision. The changeling grabbed the letter he wrote not so long ago, and showed it to Lyra.
“Look, there is no time for me to explain; I’m needed out there to help,” he said to the mare. “Grab this and try to get to the library! Ask Spike to send this to Princess Luna or Princess Celestia immediately! I promise I’ll give you an explanation, just help me now, all right?”
“I promise I won’t let you down!” she replied with the most beautiful smile Lime ever saw from her. “I’ll be back for that cupcake later!”
Lyra took off to the disordered streets of Ponyville, and Buzzer watched as she disappeared in the library’s direction. The changeling let out a sigh, and left the bakery, heading to the hospital to find his brother.

Stupid earth pony form! Lancet thought. The only way for him to keep the beasts away was to directly buck them in the face. Anything else could’ve exposed him as a changeling, and he didn’t dare to risk that just yet.
He yelled orders to the ponies to move the injured to the hospital, while he worked to keep the wolves away from the easy prey. He never truly got an explanation as of why they attacked the village, but right now he really didn’t care. What mattered is that he keeps his food source safe, and himself along with them.
His hooves met the face of another wooden creature with a loud crack, but in his action he missed a single wolf, who got close enough to him to take the changeling down in one leap. The beast lunged forward, and Shiftlight could closely observe the open mouth of the timberwolf, before a huge boulder smashed it.
“Lancet, am I glad to see you!” The sound of Buzzer met the ears of the tall changeling. “I gave up hope of finding some medical attention in this desperate time!”
“Are you hurt?” Shifhtlight asked, as Lime grabbed him in his magical grasp, and dragged him away. “What is the problem?”
“In case you haven’t happen to have noticed, the problem is a bunch of timbervolves,” the other stated. “And that we need to deal with it.”
“I was just doing that!” Lancet defended himself. “Before you dragged me away into this… abandoned alley?”
“Yes, cliché, yadda yadda yadda, listen!” Buzzer turned serious and dropped the other on his flank. “We can do much more about this than they can! We can fly and we have magic!”
“You’re not suggesting…”
“Oh yes, I’m suggesting!” Lime replied with a grin. “Howl to Zaffre! We’ll need all the help we can get!”
“For the record: this is your worst idea!” Shiftlight replied as Buzzer changed back to his true form and ran out of the alley. “And I mean it!”
“Then see how many ponies you can save in that earth pony form of yours!” the other yelled back.
He has a point. Lancet remarked to himself. A stupid point, but still a valid one.

Zaffre was just hanging the clothes out to dry when he heard the unmistakable howl of another changeling. The howl was usually used to signal other changelings to return to the hive, or to scare them away from possible danger. But Zaffre knew that his brothers would never expose themselves unless they were arrested by the royal guard, or needed help desperately. And the previous one seemed highly unlikely, because then they would’ve been already arresting him too. The changeling looked around, and seeing no one, took off, to find where the howl came from.

Lime became extremely vicious once he was near a fight. Sure he was knocked unconscious by some ponies, but he never expected a fight from a bunch of drunk herbivores. Probably those morons were better off that he was out cold, because he had no mercy for any opponent. Especially not for those who took away his food.
Fly around, land, duck, buck grab, smash, repeat. He recited in his head. The bugpony flew around the head of a wolf, landed in front of him, avoided his sharp teeth, trashed the face of the beast with his hind hooves, grabbed a nearby piece of rubble and collided the stone object with the monster’s head. Ponies were running around him, screaming, but he paid little attention; as long as they were out of harm’s way, he didn’t care.
He took down another timberwolf, the fourth one in a row, while Lancet was still trying to eliminate two at once. The changeling had a wide smirk on his face, while he struggled to keep the ponies safe.
“This is just a joke!” Shiftlight yelled, launching several flaming bolts at the timberwolves. “It must be a joke that I’m putting myself in harm’s way to save ponies!”
“Get used to it!” Lime shouted back, and moved closer to his brother to offer his help. “We have a whole village to secure!”
“Are you two serious?” another voice asked from the sky. “I mean, when did we become the dashing ‘heroes to the rescue’ types?”
The question originated from a third changeling, who hovered just out of the timberwolves’ reach.
“Good to see you brother!” Lime greeted. “I thought you’d miss the party!”
“You and your stupid parties!” Zaffre retorted, and leaped into action, trashing the flank of a beast. “I swear, if you ever throw me a birthday party, I am going to bury you alive!”
The trio of bugs got to work and cleaned up the remains of the pack in front of the hospital quickly. They saw from above that the wolves were already on the run, particularly driven out by six mares. To the suggestion of Buzzer and much to the disapproval of Shiftlight the shifters flew closer to the action, as Buzzer said ‘to prove their harmlessness and will to help’. They planned to land between the ponies and the wolves, and aid the herbivores.
“Show no hostility towards the ponies, or they might think we’re untrustable!” Lime advised to his brothers.
“I still don’t think this is a good idea!” Lancet replied.
“I start to agree with Lancet!” Zaffre added as they got closer to the now dying fight.
“Just trust me, I have a contingency plan if things get out of hand!” Buzzer replied.
The other two nodded hesitantly, and the trio landed on the frontline. Buzzer managed to arrive between a wooden carnivore and a rage-filled charging Twilight. He immediately leapt into action, jumping onto the head of the wolf, and shooting a small flaming blast into the eyes of the beast. The wolf let out a painful howl, as Buzzer continued to sting him with small blasts of his green magic, forcing it to dance around as the changeling wanted it to. Soon enough the wolf hit a building and collapsed, while Twilight was still watching the scene shocked. Lime waved to the pony with a friendly smile, and then flew to another wolf.
Zaffre was shocked when the ponies somewhat accepted his help. Both Applejack and Pinkie worked hard to contain two wolves, who somehow learned to work together against the ponies. So when the changeling entered the scene and with his magic used a nearby rope to tie the two hind legs of the monster together, the two ponies let out a loud cheer.
Well, that was until Applejack realized whom she cheered for. Soon after they took down the other wolf Thorax suddenly felt something constricting him tightly. As he looked down he saw a rope, and the end of it was in the mouth of Applejack. After another microsecond he also noticed Pinkie’s party cannon aimed at his face. Surprisingly, the world turned black after a loud bang.
Lancet barely got the chance to fight, because he unfortunately crossed the flight path of a certain cyan pegasus. After that he was bucked in the thorax, and the head, and he caught himself pleading for a chance to surrender himself.
“Well, that’s that!” Buzzer commented, watching as the last of the still conscious timberwolves ran away its tail between its legs. “I told you guys my plan would work!”
As he turned around he faced more than half the population of a still angry Ponyville, and soon enough his brothers landed next to him, both of them tied up tight. He looked up at the furious ponies with a weak smile, and only managed to blurt out a short sentence.
“I… surrender?”

Author's Note

Yeah, I'm.... not too good with describing combat. I just wanted to skip this part, but.... that would've been awkward. And I still wouldn't have tried to write down one. So yeah, this is my first fighting scene. Enjoy.

Torn apart

Shiftlight struggled against his bindings. Even though Buzzer kept asking him not to, he couldn’t help but fight the unpleasant sensation. He never before has failed so miserably, and he never before was tied up like this.
“I tell you; if you keep struggling, they will never trust us!” Lime said for the hundredth time.
“Harg, hrm, hgn!” Lancet replied, a rope constricting his jaws.
“That won’t really help either.”
“Maybe you can convince them to unbind us at least?” Zaffre asked, lying at Lime’s left side. “They seem to trust you enough to let you sit there without ropes!”
“I’ll try,” he replied, looking up at their captors.
Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack were all eyeing them with disgust written all over their faces. Twilight was in another room with Spike, writing a letter to Princess Celestia, and Pinkie Pie was with them; her voice, as she tried to explain everything to the lavender unicorn could be heard even from behind locked doors.
“Maybe you think you could –” Lime started, but Applejack cut her off.
“Nope,” Applejack replied firmly.
“Not even a bit?” Buzzer pouted.
“Well, we’re not being very nice to our prisoners, girls!” Rarity said. “They after all have showed no sign that they would try to escape; and they did ask politely!”
“I don’t trust them!” Rainbow replied, her gaze murderous enough to pin Buzzer to the wall.
Lime let out a sigh, and with a flash of his horn he burned away the ropes binding his brothers. Their guards almost jumped upon them, but surprisingly the three changelings were still doing nothing when the ropes were gone. Lancet and Zaffre were still lying on the ground, and Buzzer was still sitting with a reassuring smile.
“If we wanted to escape, there would be little chance that you could stop us,” Buzzer said. “We’re here, because we decided to be here. We’re waiting for a special somepony.”
“And who might this ‘special somepony’ be?” Twilight asked from the top of her stairs, accompanied by Pinkie and Spike. “A disguised changeling? Some ally from far beyond our borders, here to give you amnesty?”
At this second there was a knock on the door.
“This couldn’t be Princess Celestia; I just sent the letter for her!” Spike said shocked, running to the door to open it.
As the baby dragon threw the door open it revealed a tall blue figure standing in the doorway, accompanied by two grey coated royal guards in dark purple-blue armor.
“Princess Luna?” the ponies asked in shock, not noticing Buzzer standing up and walking to the princess.
The changeling bow down in front of the monarch of the moon, as she entered the library with her guards. Luna passed the bug, and walked up to Twilight.
“We request that thou give us a private space, and some time alone with thine prisoner,” Luna said in her old Canterlot manner.
“You mean this changeling?” Twilight asked, her mouth agape. “But why? I mean –”
“Twilight Sparkle, all will be clear once we have done our investigation,” Luna said, somewhat annoyed. “We ask of thee that thou cooperates with us in this matter, until we ourselves have completely understood the situation.”
“But… yes, your highness,” the unicorn replied defeated. “My private study room is at your disposal; it’s this way.”
“Follow us!” the moon princess growled at Lime.
Buzzer stood up and to the confusion of his brothers followed Luna without question or hesitation. Shiftlight and Thorax exchanged disturbed looks, as the princess and Lime disappeared behind a small wooden door.
Inside the study room, Luna used a spell to muffle every sound to the outside world, and draw the curtains on the windows. After she felt secure, she sat down behind the round table in the middle of the room, and motioned for Buzzer to do the same. After a minute of sitting silently, Luna took out a letter and began reading it.
“Your Majesty, Princess Luna,” the moon princess read out loud. “You may remember me as Lime Biscuit from Ponyville; we have met in the library, and you gave me an important task: to keep an eye out for any trouble caused by changelings. On that matter I have nothing noteworthy to report.”
“You also asked us to report any changelings we might encounter, and on that subject, with my deepest apologies, I have a confession I should’ve made a long time ago,” Luna lowered the letter and looked at Buzzer. “Because my brothers and I are changelings.”
The moon princess put the parchment gently on the table, staring at it with a weak smile, shaking her head slowly.
“We came here with our best intentions, to protect our subjects and we get fooled by the very creature we tried to find!” Luna said sadly. “We should’ve seen through thine disguise!”
“Princess?” Buzzer asked softly.
“What?!” She snapped. “Art thou trying to mock us? Or pity us? Wasn’t it enough that we were unable to find the right pony for the job, and trusted a changeling with the task of finding himself?”
“Princess!” Lime tried again with a little more force. “With all due respect, I think you made the right choice!”
“That’s nice, coming from a changeling!”
“Why?” Buzzer raised his voice in anger. “Aren’t we entitled to the right to say nice things? Changelings can only be cruel, right? We attacked Canterlot, because we were forced to! It was either obey, get killed or suffer fate much worse!”
“Because there is a fate worse than dying isn’t there?” Luna asked, trying to mock the changeling.
“Yes there is!” Buzzer yelled, rising up, losing his temper. “It is to be locked up with the part of my kind that is starving, and suffer a fate of becoming their next meal, or starve to the point where I must feed on others to survive!”
The last statement of the changeling shocked the princess, and Buzzer quickly noticed himself, and sat back on his haunches. Luna blushed, and with a weak cough she changed her tone.
“Thou said in thine letter that thou wishes to explain thine actions,” Luna said. “We think we are ready to hear thine story.”
“I’m sorry princess, and thank you,” Lime said. “Well, to be honest, our story begins back in Canterlot; we were part of the invasion force, tasked with flushing out ponies to the streets.”
“The three of us, my brothers and I, were tasked with searching the sewers for anypony who might’ve taken it to their heads to hide there. After an hour of searching we sensed the ground shake, and when we emerged to the surface, every last one of our kind were gone. Except for us.”
“They were banished from Canterlot by the combined power of Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amora Candenza.” Luna explained. “We don’t know what happened to them afterwards.”
“Well, after struggling for four days in the city without feeding, we decided not to go back to the hive,” Buzzer continued. “Because there is a huge chance that the hive is in a vicious turmoil right now, and if we were to return, we would be thrown onto the front line to become cannon fodder.”
“So thou hast decided to come here,” Luna concluded. “For how long?”
“We thought that a year would be enough for the hive to calm down.” Lime replied. “We created these aliases, and took up these jobs, where we can get love without forcing ourselves on anypony.”
“Thou still are criminals for what thou hast done back in Canterlot,” Luna pointed out.
“I know that, and I accept it. But tell me princess: have you chased any other changelings except us?”
“We can’t really say we have,” Luna confessed.
“Then the responsibility for my brothers’ fate falls on my shoulders,” Lime sighed. “It was my idea to stay away from the hive, to come to Ponyville and I suggested to my brothers to drop their disguise and help the village. Every decision we were supposed to make together I overruled, and now thanks to my efforts, they are in a situation that could very well mean their end.”
Luna leaned closer to the changeling, curious of what he was trying to say.
“I don’t care what you do to me.” Buzzer said. “Throw me to jail, put me on trial, put me in stocks for display, give me to the masses so they can lynch me, I deserve it. But spare my brothers, and let them go free.”
“And why should we?” the princess asked softly. “What could thou possibly offer us that would make us even consider such a deal?”
“I know everything about the hive,” Lime answered. “And by now I think it’s obvious that I wish to help my kind. Down to the very last grub we all were forced to invade Canterlot, and we came back from your city empty-hoofed. If you want to put someling on public trial, wouldn’t it be best for all if it would be the changeling queen?”
“Thou would be willing to betray thine queen?” Luna asked, not believing what she heard.
“I would be more than happy, if it would mean that someling gets a chance to help my hive! Since I was born I watched the hive degrade to a point where it became necessary to take action. My queen made a decision, which probably put the hive on the slippery road of self-destruction. What would you be willing to do, to stop your little ponies from tearing each other apart?”
“Answer us one last question,” Luna said “Why hast thou not come forward before?”
“You dwelled in my dreams, and made me fear your power. Still you ask?”
“We do, because we are unsure why thou decided to suddenly trust us.”
“I trust you, because when I followed my queen, I did it out of fear,” Lime explained. “And during this short time, while I didn’t have to extract every last drop of love from your subjects, I had the opportunity to watch them. To make plans of my own, to have fun, and feel… loved by some. Sure I wore a mask, but bad reputation has that curse; and I aim to help everyling I know, to have the same chance. Even if they have to wear a mask for the rest of their lives.”
“Thou has huge dreams,” Luna smiled weakly, standing up and heading for the door. “’Tis a shame we must crush them and take thou into custody.”
“So, do you accept the terms of my deal?”
“Should we?” She looked back over her shoulder with a grin. “Or should we expect a second invasion if we don’t?”
“That wasn’t funny,” Lime said, following the princess.

Twilight was confused. Or to be honest, she was more than that, but in her disturbed state ‘confused’ was the only word her dizzy mind could come up with. Did the princess just order her to release the changelings without so much as batting her eyelashes?
“Princess, I am very unsure this is a good idea!” Twilight exclaimed. “They are changelings after all!”
“Changelings, who, by thine very own confession, helped thou fight off the timberwolves?” Luna asked.
“Yes, but…”
“Changelings, from whom two have surrendered by their own free will, and the third got no chance to do such?” the princess continued.
“True, but still…”
“We trust them completely.” Luna stated.
“What?!” Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Applejack and Rarity asked all at once.
“Forgive me Princess, but, may I try a spell to check that you are not under changeling influence?” Twilight asked, unsure if she could push her luck.
“By all means, we ask of thee to do so!” the night’s ruler said with a smile.
“But Princess, if I may be so bold, aren’t they enemies of our state?” Rainbow Dash asked. “They attacked Canterlot, if I remember correctly!”
“Yes, we are aware of that,” Luna replied. She seemed to have anticipated this charade. “And this very changeling offered that he helps us track down the real culprit willingly!”
“You did what?” Lancet and Zaffre asked, both shocked. “Brother have you gone mad?”
“Really, you think that the way our hive lived before was such a good one?” Lime asked back. “Don’t you all see what we managed to do here? We were living with these ponies! Not exploiting them, not using them as a mean to an end, but actually befriend them, learn from them, and they showed on more than one occasion that they would be willing to help!”
“You became very sentimental!” Shiftlight growled.
“Tell me brother; did I not see you smile when we parted ways yesterday?” Buzzer asked.
“And you hugged me!” Zaffre added. “You from all of us!”
“We had the freedom of choosing in these past days!” Lime stepped closer, putting a hoof on Lancet’s shoulder. “Wasn’t it… unfamiliarly pleasant?”
Shiftlight stared at the ground. He found it hard to admit, but Lime was right; he felt relaxed. More relaxed than ever before. But to betray their queen for this? Betray everyling?
“I know what you think.” Thorax said. “But giving an opportunity like this to everyling?”
“The hive is wretched the way it is,” Lime added. “It is time we change something else, other than our appearances!”
“Then I wish you luck!” Lancet stood up, and hugged his small brother. “I hope you succeed!”
“Thank you brother!” Buzzer said, returning the hug. “And I hope you two enjoy your new free lives!”
“Just give us a howl, if you need us!” Zaffre said, following Lancet’s example, embracing Buzzer. “We’d be happy to lend you a hoof!”
“Before you go, I want to know who you were posing as!” Twilight asked. “Well, I guess we all do, except Pinkie, but would you mind showing us?”
“Well, I don’t,” Lime said, looking at his brother’s, both nodding. “All right then. Ladies, it’s been a pleasure; allow me to reintroduce you my brothers, Zaffre and Silver Lancet!”
The two changelings shifted to their disguises when they heard their names, and Lime did the same after they did.
“I’m looking forward meeting you in some more civilized manner!”
All the mares except Pinkie were standing there mouth agape. The pink mare walked up to Lime and hugged him tightly.
“Oh, this reminds me!” Buzzer said, when the mare let go. “Pinkie I want you to give the cupcake I left on the counter to Lyra for free. And give another one just like it, say it’s from me. I don’t think she’ll understand, but if she asks where I am, tell her I had an important business in Canterlot!”
“Oki-doki-loki!” Pinkie said in an unusually sad tone. “Just promise you will come back!”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly!” Lime said, waving a hoof to them as he and Luna left the library.

“We can’t promise anything good for thou during the court,” Luna said on her flying chariot. “But we promise we’ll try to put in a few good words.”
“There is no need, Princess,” Buzzer said, bound in shackles. “I’ll accept whatever punishment they might bestow upon me, if there is a chance it’ll help my hive.”
“Why art thou doing this?” the princess asked in a soft voice. “Thou had the choice to remain undetected, and continue to live like that. Why give it up?”
Buzzer looked at the sky, feeling the gentle breeze for a moment. He thought about it for a long moment, silently thinking what was the most accurate answer. Was it logical? Fruitful? It wasn’t even changeling-like to behave like this, then why?
“It just felt right.”

Author's Note

Well, cheesy-meesy me, look what a pathetic excuse of an ending I wrote. You may notice that the status of the work is not "Completed" just yet. Nuh-uh. I have plans for our heroes, big ones. Same goes for the characters of Leftovers (my other work, check it out if you liked this one). I will upload whatever little left there is from Conversion during the next week, and then I'll move on to writing some other ideas of mine. Not Leftovers, not just yet, since that seems like a good idea; I don't want to spoil by grammar mistakes and horrible twists. I'll write some other smaller ideas of mine, as a practice, and then I'll get onto Leftovers. Maybe work on the sequel to this too.

Epilogue: Rising

Zaffre was trotting through ponyville, watching the skies being cleared by pegasi. He noticed that Rainbow Dash shot a malicious glance at him, but he didn’t mind; he still had more freedom that he would back at the hive. Most of Ponyville didn’t even know what he was, other than Twilight Sparkle and her closest friends, who kept him and Lancet under close watch, nopony stressed over what they were.
Still he wished he could keep a close watch on his brother. Not Lancet; he was all too fine in the caring hooves of Nurse Redheart; he was worried about Lime. It has been six days, and he still hasn’t heard a single word from Canterlot. Other than the papers mentioning the capture of a live changeling, and putting him on trial behind well fortified doors, every little rumor was well suppressed by the royal sisters.
Which meant that Lime could’ve been dead by now, and they just didn’t know it. Still, Thorax had enough knowledge about the laws of Equestria to somewhat disregard that possibility, but it was still a possibility.
He was so preoccupied with his own thoughts, that he noticed the mint colored mare in front of him too late.
“Hey, Zaffre!” Lyra shouted in the changeling’s face. “Are you walking in a dream?”
“What? Oh hey Lyra!” Thorax replied, quickly snapping out of his daydreaming. “No, I was just thinking about something!”
“You have a minute to talk?” Lyra asked.
“Sure, if you don’t mind walking.”
“So, what was on your mind?” the mare inquired, following the changeling. “Must be something heavy to pull your head that low!”
“Nah, it’s nothing too serious,” Zaffre replied casually. “It’s just personal, that’s all. So what did you wish to talk about?”
“Well, I wanted to ask about Lime’s sudden disappearance,” Lyra answered. “And ask about why I got two cupcakes with the word ‘sorry’ written on them. I ordered only one you know.”
“Lyra, you might not like my explanation.” Zaffre stopped for a second. “Sure you want to hear it?”
“All you do with this talk is make me more curious; of course I want to hear it that’s why I asked!”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Thorax nodded slowly, starting to walk again. “When was the last time you saw Lime?”
“Right before the timberwolf attack,” Lyra said. “He ran off to help.”
“Any oddities you noticed about that attack?”
“Well, other than three changelings appearing, nothing,” Lyra pondered. “You don’t think the bugs grabbed Lime and ran away?”
“No, Lyra, I know they didn’t,” Zaffre replied. “Because my brothers and I were those bugs.”

The changeling turned onto his back and let out a yawn in his cold cell; he lost track of time a few days ago, and now fought boredom and insomnia. He tried to remain patient, but with a lack of knowing what time it is, one easily forgets how fast patience can run out. He let out another long yawn, when he heard some commotion in front of his cell’s door. He rolled onto his feet, and brushed some of the dirt off of his carapace to appear in a somewhat normal condition.
“I trust they treated thee well?” the princess of the moon asked stepping inside. “We apologize for the harsh conditions, but it would seem improper to treat a war criminal, especially one of a foreign nation that attacked us, differently.”
“I understand, your highness. I will wait patiently as long as I need to.”
“Thy hearing will be later; for now the council is trying to understand the matter of our little deal.” Luna explained. “It’s progressing slowly because we have royal duties to attend to; we try to make as much time for it as we can, but these are things we can’t ignore.”
“May I be so bold as to ask; do you have news of my brothers?”
“We have,” Luna stated, handing some scrolls to Lime. “They seem to have resumed their role as Zaffre and Silver Lancet, and are being watched closely by Twilight and her friends... well, most of her friends, except Fluttershy.”
“Twilight writes here that she tried to encourage her to meet any of my brothers,” Buzzer said, his eyes glued to the parchments in his hooves. “But seems like she refused so far. I hope she will make peace with them someday.”
“We are also here on more important and dire matters,” Luna continued, holding another scroll in her magic. “Take a look at this.”
“Several disturbances have been noticed in Cloudsdale, Tall Tale and Ponyville.” Lime summed up the contents of the scroll. “Connected to the timberwolf incident?”
“Investigations revealed that the event where thou exposed thineselves was caused by several small mistakes: the weather team dumped several clouds storm over the Everfree, creating a small storm and chasing the beasts to the border of the forest. A group of adventurous foals wandering close to the woods have somehow irritated the beasts to the point where they chased the ponies inside the village, causing the accident,” Luna explained. “These other incidents were way smaller, and consist mostly of thefts with the appearance of gallant heroes to the rescue, and the sightings of several way too generous ponies. Any thoughts on that?”
“Just one: the changelings are using bold tactics to gather love and call the attention of anyling who might be watching.” Lime replied. “Think of it as a way of sending a message to other changelings.”
“What is the message?”
“To put it in a nutshell? ‘Grab everything you can, and run. There is a storm coming, and everyling will be caught in it.’”

Lancet sat in Redheart’s office. He was tasked with sorting out the annoying paperwork, while the nurse was away treating patients. Shiftlight put down the quill for a second and massaged his forehead. He felt an urge to just pour all the ink on the stack of parchments, but his new job declared that he does this part too. Which of course made his head hurt. He mumbled some swears for himself, when he heard the door of the office open and close.
“Nurse Redheart is not here; and consulting hours are only in the afternoon!” He said, not even looking up.
“I saw the note,” the other replied. “I was looking for you though.”
Shiftlight looked up at the creature that disturbed him; a tall, light brown muscular unicorn with a mischievous grin. Squinting his eyes Lancet noticed several peculiarities on the pony: a scar on his left eye and one on his mouth, a crack on his horn, and several open wounds on his neck. He knew those wounds from somewhere, but he couldn’t connect the face to anypony he met.
“Do I know you?” He asked, slowly leaning a bit closer to the unicorn.
“Oh, even if you would know me, you wouldn’t know me, catch my drift?” the other replied.
Lancet silently listed all the ponies he remembered. The other let out a hearty laugh, and Shiftlight realized that he’s not looking at a pony.
“Knight Paladin Curelfang?” he asked shocked, as the unicorn slowly nodded with a smirk.
“Surprise soldiery” the other changeling replied. “The hive sends their regards.”
“Why are you here?”
“Why indeed I am!” Cruelfang replied dramatically. “The hive wants you back boys. And I intend on taking you back. But not today.”
Shiftlight stood there, watching in shock as the knight left the office, letting out a laugh. Lance knew, that his life of freedom was about to take a turn.
A very very dangerous turn.

Author's Note

Yeah, so as you can see: this is not the end. I'll try to write the sequel, but right now there are so many ideas in my head, I don't know which ones to write down first. I also have a huge amount of already written things currently being pre-read, so if you're interested, just follow me and I'll try my best to keep a regular updating schedule.
One other thing: I can't possibly thank you guys all for what you did. Reading, liking and commenting may not seem much to you, but during the past year, sometimes these little things were all that made my days brighter. You guys are awesome.

From beneath

The splashing of water echoed through the halls of the Canterlot sewers as two ponies ran in circles, trying to find something.

“Where did it go?” one of them asked. “I swear I saw it here a moment ago.”

“We’ve been chasing this shadow of yours for half an hour now Valve,” the other replied. “I swear, you must be losing your screws, like old Pipe Wrench.”

“Would you just pull your head out of the sewage and look around? If you would’ve kept an open eye instead of dropping your tools like an uncouth foal, maybe you would’ve seen something too!” Valve yelled.

“Well excuse me for not being a magical unicorn with a horn that glows every time my brain farts!” his partner struck back.

The unicorn sighed, “Let’s keep moving then. I don’t want you to get paid for no work at all.”

The duo left the corridor of the sewers, and not a moment later a green flame erupted from the walls.

“Last time I hide in the sewers!” a buzzing voice hissed, as its owner jumped out of the small hole. “We really need to get out of these tight spots!”

“And how do you think we should proceed?” A calmer, unnaturally resonating voice asked, another shadow slowly stepping out from the dark void. “For all we know, the smell of these waters could easily betray our identities.”

“Our tallest brother is right.” The third changeling emerged from the black emptiness, his voice easing the tension in the small corridor. “But even if he is, we can’t really stay here longer. We have less than a week, before we run out of juice. And then we’ll be exposed like a larva without a hive.”

The three changelings, Buzzer, Thorax and Shiftlight were the only ones of their kind left in Canterlot, after the failed invasion of the city. They merely escaped, because they were at the deepest cistern of the sewers, when the explosion, that did who-knows-what to all of their forces, happened. By the time they reached the surface, they only found ponies, and a city in ruins, but merely any sight of their own kin. Since then four days have passed, and the three brothers were struggling to survive.

“We should first get a bath, to get rid of the stench,” Buzzer suggested. “Then we could find a romantic pair in the Canterlot gardens, and...”

“The first part I agree with,” Thorax said, and his taller brother nodded, “the second: not so much.”

“To find a public bath, we should impersonate one of the sewer workers, and get their map of the sewage system,” the muscular Shiftlight suggested. “It may have an exit to one such institution.”

The other two nodded, and followed Shiftlight’s lead, to where they first met the ponies. Then they spread out, looking for a possible exit. Soon Buzzer found one: a large set of stairs.

“This looks different than any other we saw so far,” he stated.

“Nice going kiddo,” Shiftlight said, passing by his brother, “maybe you’re not a clustermock after all.”

Buzzer merely growled at the taunt. In the hive, they were divided into clusters, and a clustermock was usually the weakest one of such division. And thus, constantly the target of, well, mocking.

“He didn’t mean it,” Thorax said catching up to them, as Shiftlight ascended up the stairs. Buzzer looked at the other changeling, giving a faint smile, then followed his brother.

They stopped outside the door to the chamber of the plumbers. Shiftlight sighed, and erupted in green flames. When the flames died down, there was a brown coated earth pony, in a hard hat with a headlight, wearing a yellow vest, with a twisted pipe on his flank. The changeling then proceeded behind the door in his new disguise. Inside, he found a room, with three desks, two lockers, tools and pipe parts scattered everywhere, along with several parchments and blueprints.

“Hey there, Canal Twist! What brings you back?” an older grey coated pony greeted Shiftlight inside.

“Hello, Pipe Wrench,” – Shiftlight replied after a quick glance at the pony’s flank, – “Valve sent me back to fetch the sewage system’s map for him. He said we found a new tunnel he never knew existed. But after making me chase a shadow for half an hour, I wouldn’t be surprised if he would find a spa filled with seductive mares in the sewers.”

“Haha! Yeah that would be something to find now wouldn’t it be?” Pipe Wrench replied, grabbing a parchment. “Alright, here it is, just don’t get it wet, like last time! The Canterlot library ain’t gonna make us another free copy this month!”

“Alright, I’ll be careful,” Shiftlight replied taking the paper and grabbing a compass from one of the desks. He looked at the clock on the wall, “Be back by lunchtime!”

“Lunchtime!” the elder huffed. “You want to spend the entire night down there?”

Shiftlight closed the door behind him without an answer. His brothers looked at him curiously. He simply gestured with his hoof for them to get moving.

After a few turns, when they made sure they were alone, Shiftlight returned to his normal form with a green flash, and pulled out the map from under his wing, where he tucked it. He took out the compass and started to examine the parchment.

“We are about here.” He pointed at a small line on the map. “And we need to get to this east tunnel to enter the spa. When I was up in the office I checked the time: it was half past ten in the night.”

“So the spa should be closed for good by the time we get there right?” Thorax inquired. “That’s at least half good news.”

“Well, yeah, but how do we pick the lock?” Buzzer retorted. “I don’t know if you have noticed, but I’m currently out of objects that I could use, and that’s a not too long list.”

“Is a needle and a scalpel sufficient for you?” Shiftlight asked.

“What kind of scalpel?”

“Well, once we get to the hospital you can have all the scalpels you need,” he replied. “This way.”

After a considerable amount of wandering around in the sewers, they managed to get to the basement of one of Canterlot’s hospitals. They searched the tool sheds of the small room, and acquired a crowbar and a hammer.

“Hmm. These nails might be useful,” Buzzer said. “Check the room for a rasp; might not need those scalpels after all.”

“Found one,” Thorax replied, handling the tool to his brother.

“Great, thanks. This should only take a few minutes. Brothers, one of you should grab what we need. The other should watch the door for us.” His siblings nodded and got to work, while Buzzer turned back to the vise he wanted to use.

About an hour later they managed to leave the basement of the hospital, armed with the crowbar, the hammer, ten housemade lock picks, a set of rasps, a hoofful of nails, a screwdriver and an adjustable wrench. By pony standards they merely stole some tools from a workshop. By changeling standards, they were armed to the fang.

“Another hour maybe, and we will be just outside the spa,” Shiftlight stated. “How fast can you break us in brother?”

“Ten minutes top with these junkpicks,” Buzzer replied. “Let’s just hope we aren’t breaking into a ruined spa.”

“Real positive attitude,” Thorax sighed. “What did they teach you during the ‘Survival in hopeless conditions’ course?”

“How to see things as they are, when you’re trying to stay alive, and how to see differently when you can rest without being afraid that you’ll wake up next to your spilled guts,” he answered.

“Who was your teacher?” Shiftlight inquired.

“Sergeant Fangmill.” The other two hissed at the name of the training officer.

“Doesn’t he hate everyone?” Thorax asked, compassion in his voice.

“He especially hated me. That’s why I had to learn everything he ever said, showed or even thought.” Shiftlight let out a small chuckle at his brother’s misery. “Thanks for the support.”

“Hey, I may change my opinion about you.” Buzzer raised an eyebrow at him. “If you survived that course under Fangmill, you might be the toughest one of us.”

The Buzzer just let out a clicking sound, which was basically a signal for his pleased state. After that the trio kept silent, until they have reached the surface.

When Shiftlight stepped on the cobblestones of the street, he immediately transformed into a unicorn stallion, with the same colored coat as the stones were. His brothers followed his example, leaping out of the hole, morphing and after they all got out, they slid the lid of the sewers back into place. Thorax looked around at the buildings, and then silently pointed at a large building with a baroque style front. Buzzer rushed to the door, pulling out the picks from beneath his illusion skin, and got to work. The other two changelings watched the streets. Buzzer muttered something under his nose then, with a loud click the lock gave in, and the trio slipped into the dark void of the building’s inner halls.

Once inside, they shifted back to their insect-like forms. Their only hope was that only four days after their hive’s fiasco, the ponies would still be more occupied with fixing themselves up than fixing up their buildings. Thorax used his magic to dimly light up his horn just bright enough for them to examine the reception hall.

“Found a map,” Shiftlight stated, “it says they have several huge pools, but I think we can rule out those as a possibility. The relaxation areas are out of question as well. Maybe we should look around in the changing rooms.”

“Sign says that’s this way,” Buzzer pointed at a corridor.

The three changelings quickly and silently made their way through the empty hallway. They approached every corner with caution, continuously turning around to keep their eyes on every shadow, and their ears on every noise. Carelessness was not a luxury they could allow.

Soon they found the stallion’s changing room. After a few more minutes with the picks, the trio were soon under the hot water streams of the showers.

“You guys ever thought about how to go on?” Thorax asked the unease question, rubbing Buzzer’s back. “What do we do now?”

“Return to the hive,” Shiftlight stated. “What else should we do?”

“Yeah, if there is a hive left,” Buzzer replied. “I hate to be the bearer of bad suspicions, but if our Queen couldn’t return back home in time, the hive might be the worst place for us.”

They slipped into silence for a while. They all knew that if Chrysalis went missing or worse, their home would become a battlefield for the power hungry cluster-leaders. Drone would go up against drone, as every wannabe ruler would try to eliminate the competition’s larvae. Even if Chrysalis would’ve left with naming a successor, there would surely be at least a two sided turmoil in the changeling hive.

“Well, we should only hope there isn’t one then,” Thorax said, with a nervous laugh. “Surely she would never...”

“Then what do you suppose brother?” Shiftlight interrupted sharply. “That we forget returning home? We leave our hive and our kin behind? That’s what you think we should do?”

“I don’t know! Maybe!” Buzzer struck back. “I have no intention of going back to the hive, and become the murderer of my closest kin!”

“Now, no one said it will be truly that bad, did any...” Thorax tried to ease the tension.

“Then you would let them to tear each other apart? I would give my life for any other of the hive!” the tall shifter yelled.

“And what would you accomplish?” the shortest changeling raised his voice too. “Do you think that your sacrifice would suddenly melt the heart of General Stinkhole, for example?”

“Maybe we should really stay away from the hive for a...” Thorax started again quietly, just to be cut off again.

“I still would feel guilty to leave so many of my brothers and sisters murder each other over nothing.” Shiftlight hissed.

“Oh and you would stop murder with murder right? Never seen that fail before!” Buzzer stepped closer to his brother staring in his eyes.

“ENOUGH!” Thorax yelled, overwhelming both of his brother’s voices. “You fight like two larvae over a puddle of slime! For all we know we may be the last of the changelings, and you want to rip each other’s throats open! We need to stay calm, or our mistakes may mean the short extinction of the remaining of our kind!”

Buzzer stepped back, and Shiftlight cowered. Thorax was panting a bit, and then turned to his smaller brother, continuing to scrub his back.

“We cannot risk going back.” Buzzer said silently. “I won’t risk going back. Not now.”

“Then we find a place.” Shiftlight looked at his brothers. “A small village. We feed. We gain strength. We gain knowledge. We wait. And then, we go back to the hive.”

“A year should be enough.” Thorax added. “We need to wait a year. Maybe when we get back they’ll greet us as heroes. We could become our queen’s personal guardians.”

Thorax continued to blab, and other than that the only noise was the sound of the splashing water. Buzzer closed his eyes, and lowered his head, while Shiftlight stared into the darkness.

Just one year, he said to himself. I could live that long away from the hive.

Feast for everyling

Silver Lancet gave the most terrifying look to his smallest brother he could’ve managed in a pony form. The trio was immediately stuffed in the kitchen of the gingerbread house after entering, as per the instructions of a certain pink mare. None of them ever got a look at what awaited them inside the guest area of Sugarcube Corner, and that unsettled the tall changeling.

“What do you mean we can’t go out there?” Shiftlight asked. “This is supposed to be a party for us! You promised us a feast of affection, and now you deny it? At least enlighten me about what we should expect!”

“Pinkie said we should wait a bit,” Buzzer tried to calm him down. “And she made me ‘Pinkie-promise’ I wouldn’t tell you!”

“Oh, so now we trust the one you were so afraid a few hours ago!” Lancet was getting truly furious. “What next? I thought parties were supposed to be social gatherings, where ponies do small talks, while sipping quality wines in fancy dresses and dance to slow music!”

“Yeah, that’s a Canterlot noble party you’ve just described,” Lime replied. “Pinkie’s parties are somewhat entirely different, a thousand times more fun, and well… a thousand times louder.”

That was the last straw for Shiftlight. He could endure the mass of ponies, he could endure the pointless small talks, he could endure wearing a fancy dress, crack he would even endure dancing. Anything but loud fun.

“Brother please,” Thorax argued, “we know you really can’t stand anything like that, but our lives are at stake here! You managed to endure Pinkie for half a day; you will manage to survive an hour or two at this party.”

“I won’t, and I mean ever, going to attend to another party like this understood?” He asked, pointing a hoof at Buzzer’s chest. “She makes a birthday party for me, you replace me, while I go and hide under a rock, agreed?”

“All right, fine!” Lime admitted his defeat. “Now I’ll go and see if we can get in there already!”

The short shifter went through the door, into the main hall of the shop, just to return a few seconds later.

“Almost all the guests are here,” Buzzer announced to his brothers. “We may proceed.”

The three changelings slowly entered the reception hall of the shop, two of them uncertain about what to expect, and one grinning like the idiot he was. The whole shop was dark, every curtain drawn in and every door closed. It almost resembled the hive for Shiftlight, if not for the sweet scent of sugary goodies. He tried to make out anything from the darkness, some silhouettes or something, but having the sight of a pony he couldn’t see a thing. Suddenly a blinding light stabbed them right in the eyes, accompanied by a deafening attack on their ears.

“SURPRISE!” Everypony cheered, while confetti rain covered the room.

“Retreat! We’re under attack!” Shiftlight panicked, and tried to turn back the way he came from.

The tall shifter ran head first into the door that Buzzer thoughtfully locked behind them, knocking himself out cold.

“I screwed up didn’t I?” Shiftlight asked, when he opened his eyes, and saw Buzzer sitting next to him. The tall changeling was lying in a bed, on the upper floor of the house-shop.

“Not really,” Lime shrugged. “You fainted, and we covered up the whole story with you maybe having a post traumatic stress from the Canterlot attack.”

“The best lies are often the ones based on the truth, right?” Lancet asked, offering a weak smile. “Shouldn’t you be at the party?”

“No party can keep me from watching over my brothers,” Buzzer shook his head. “Zaffre can handle himself. You’ve been only out for half an hour. But nice going; with this trauma cover story you might only need to attend to this party for less than an hour.”

“Yeah, right,” Shiftlight smirked. “Fat chance of Pinkie letting that happen.”

“Actually, she asked me to tell you she’s sorry for scaring you,” Lime said, hopping off of the bed. “And wishes you to get better. So, you just lay there for an other half hour and rest, and after that you can come down, when the first wave of the party madness had died down a bit.”

“Will do,” Lancet replied, closing his eyes. “Enjoy the party for me, would you?”

“All right.”

This is even better than the orphanage. Zaffre thought, standing in the circle of curious and more importantly very friendly mares. They asked questions about him, and he did his best to reply, not really going into the details, and asking back when it was possible. The weak affection the ponies radiated towards their newest ‘friends’ was like a feast for the changeling. He and his brothers already learned on the few infiltrations they successfully completed that even the friends of the ponies they replaced provided some nourishment, but none of them ever managed to get this many friends at one.

“So, how long were you planning on working with foals?” a cream colored mare with a purple mane and a pink tuft in her hair asked. As far as Zaffre remembered her name was ‘Sweets’ or ‘Candy’. “It’s fairly hard to find any colt out there who would even wish to be near to a foal!”

“Oh a while now,” Thorax replied casually to the pony. Her name was Bon-Bon, the changeling realized. “I mean I almost always managed to soothe the arguments between my brothers, and as I got older some of our relatives asked me if I could take care of their fillies for a day or two.”

“Foals are so cute wouldn’t you agree?” a vanilla earth pony with a red mane asked. Roseluck. The shifter noted. Need to remember as many names as I can.

“I wouldn’t practically call them ‘cute’.” Zaffre replied, shocking the mares. “It’s not that they aren’t adorable; just that every time I see a small foal I wonder if I was like that, and what could’ve become of me if the circumstances were different.”

“Well that sounds horrifyingly scientific!” a pink pony said. Right, she’s Lily

“I don’t know, that sometimes makes me think as well,” a familiar mare interrupted.

“Miss Cheerilee.” Zaffre greeted. “Pleasant to see you here!”

“Oh, a couple of foals from the school are around here too,” she replied. “I must keep an eye on them. Some of their parents would blame me if they were to get in trouble while in a gathering like this.”

“Must be hard for you,” the shifter said, walking towards a table with punch on it. “Want some?”

“Thank you. That would be nice.”

The disguised changeling poured a glass of refreshment for both of them, then hoofed the glass over to the earth pony.

“Well, congratulations on settling in!” Cheerilee raised her drink.

“It wouldn’t have been possible without you!” Zaffre raised his glass as well. “As soon as I heard the chaos from the inside of the orphanage I considered tucking my tail and running away.”

“Oh, the foals could be somewhat hard to endure when not under proper supervision, but I guess you won’t really have a problem with them,” Cheerilee took a sip from her punch. “Give them the proper attention they need, don’t give them everything they want and they will be more than easy to handle.”

“Thanks for the advice!” Thorax, and noticed his short brother descending from the upper floor. “Oh, I don’t think I ever appropriately introduced you to my brother. Hey Lime!”

The green unicorn heard his sibling and joined the pair.

“Lime this is Miss Cheerilee.” Zaffre introduced them to each other. “Miss Cherilee, this is my smaller brother Lime Biscuit.”

“So I heard you and Lancet don’t really see eye to eye?” The mare asked.

“We see eye to eye, but usually only when we’re yelling in each other’s faces.” Buzzer joked, and Cheerilee let out a short laugh. “But usually my brother ends up cowering under his bedsheets like now.”

“Lime, that’s not really nice.” Zaffre scoffed his brother. “You know he didn’t really take the attack’s consequences well.”

“Hush. We endured worse.” Lime said, looking over the gathered ponies. “So, what fun is there that we could enjoy?”

“Well, some play pin the tail to the pony, others play some silly game with colors and limbs…” Thorax started, but Cheerilee interrupted.

“They’re playing Hoofster?” She squealed. “I love that game!”

Cheerilee ran off, and the brothers were left alone. Pinkie just announced the next group of musicians entering the stage, when Buzzer’s breath stopped, and he felt his heartbeat quicken. He was staring at the unicorn mare leaving the stage, her coat aquamarine, her mane the same color decorated with a white tuft, and beautiful amber eyes. He couldn’t say a word, the beauty of a pony stunning him to the point of absolute stillness. He couldn’t interpret his own feelings, but of one thing he was certain.

“Zaffre.” He pulled his brother closer, pointing towards the mare, who chatted with another pony. “You go distract that light purple unicorn. I need to talk with the mint-blue one.”

“What’s gotten into you?” Thorax asked. “You’re stranger than usual.”

“I don’t know.” Buzzer replied. “I just… feel like I need to talk to her.”

“Since when did you listen to your –” Zaffre started, just to watch his sibling walking towards the mare absolutely mesmerized. “– feelings?”

“Uh, hi?” Lime said shyly to the mare with a harp on her flank. “My name is…”

“Lime Biscuit right?” She asked back, and the changeling heard her voice as the bells of heaven ringing. It annoyed him, not knowing what came over him, but he never wanted it to end. “I’m sorry, I hope I haven’t bored you with my performance too much. Pinkie only gave me a short warning; I didn’t really have the time to practice.”

“Oh, I apologize… I was upstairs tending to my brother,” he explained. “I only managed to catch the very end of it. But if I’m not too offensive, I would like to hear more of it. Maybe over a cupcake and a tea tomorrow afternoon? My treat!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I need to attend to a small wedding ceremony tomorrow,” she replied, blushing. “But I hang around in the park somedays. I’m sure I could come by sometime, if it’s not too disturbing.”

“Yes, that would be good,” Lime said, and quickly corrected himself. “I mean, I would like that very much.”

“Well, I need to go. Practice makes perfect they say, and I’m far from it!” she said, and tucked her lyre in a saddlebag. “See you later!”

“You’re not as far as you think you are,” Buzzer murmured to himself, hypnotized as the mare ran off.

“Did you even manage to catch her name?” Zaffre disturbed his brother’s quiet daydreaming.

“What?” He turned around, staring at his sibling. “She had a name?”

“She’s called Lyra, you dumbnut,” Thorax said, examining his brother. “Don’t tell me you’re getting weak.”

“Weak? Me?” Buzzer asked taken aback. “What do you mean? I just… felt something strange pulling me towards her.”

“Do you know what you looked like to me?” the other shook his head. “Like a pony under a love-spell.”

“Well, then it’s good we can’t feel too many emotions, right?” Lime asked, a sudden fear creeping into his voice.

After all Buzzer thought to himself that’s what makes us really different from ponies.

This is ridiculous. Shiftlight thought laying in the bed. I may not be a perfect infiltrator, but this isn’t the grand castle, and I’m not trying to impersonate the captain of the guard to murder the princess.
The tall changeling got out of the bed, and started walking in circles. He barely understood why he couldn’t manage to muster up enough courage to walk down the stairs and face the crowd. His brothers did fine, and it’s not like he was going to perform a previously practiced monologue to these ponies. He only needed to get down there, and make some friends. Not hard right?

I can’t do this. His head hurt. I can’t just get down there and pretend I’m one of them. I fear them. I don’t know them, and I always feared the unknown. I feared the forests, but I know what makes what noise, and I overcame that fear. I know the badlands, the everfree, the sewers. I can’t stand these irrational sources of emotion. I can’t handle not knowing how they would react, what makes them suspicious. I can’t stand…

I can’t stand being without a hive. He dropped on his flank, letting out a deep sigh.

The shifter stared at the window, trying to imagine what went on back in his home. Were the changelings really murdering each other for power? Did their queen ever return? What fate awaits those he knew, those he was loyal to, and those he held close in his heart? How could he leave the hive behind, and accept they would not return for a year? How could he abandon the way of their hive?

“May I come in?” a female voice asked softly from the doorway. Shiftlight turned to see Nurse Redheart enter the room. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

“Please do come in,” he replied. “I’m just daydreaming, that’s all.”

“That’s strange,” she said, closing the door behind. “I’ve never imagined that changelings could daydream.”

Shiftlight’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

“Yeah,” she answered the unasked question sitting down in front of the shifter, “I know.”