Echo yawned and blinked at the dark blue ceiling above her and shortly after yawned again, rubbing one side of her face. Apparently she'd banged the side of her head against the backboard, though she had no idea how she'd managed it.
Due to her mocking Lyra's hobby the previous day she'd collected a bit less energy than she had the days previous to that one, and due to this she had been sent back to the house early rather than returning to the hive. Because of this she had awoken a little earlier than she normally did and the sun had not yet risen more than just enough to begin lighting up the world.
Seeing an opportunity to get an early start in her collection Echo got out of bed, glanced at herself briefly in the mirror, and then headed for her door, and down to the kitchen to make breakfast for Lyra before she could be up and about.
Halfway through preparing a batch of Prench toast Lyra came into the kitchen with a small plushie floating next to her that vaguely resembled the female main character from the third Icarna book. Lyra herself looked less than half awake and lazily stuck her tongue out and licked her lips several times without actually looking interested in anything and blinked her eyes very slowly. Her mane and tail both hung where they were not tangled or knotted and her ears were drooping.
“Good morning, Lyra!” Echo greeted cheerfully.
“Mmix naffer ghin malleck...” She said in perfectly fluent gibberish, and slowly blinked again.
“We're having Phrench toast for breakfast today.” Echo continued, pretending not to hear Lyra's failed attempt at communication. “Would you like strawberry jam with it, or just cinnamon this time?”
“Cinnamon” She mumbled and yawned, her mouth opening as big as it could, revealing her pearly whites and her tongue and part of her throat as well. She made a 'snit snit' sound with her mouth as she ran her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and then pulled out one of the two benches that Bonbon and Lyra normally kept underneath it. She climbed onto it and sat down in normal Pony fashion and stared blankly ahead of her.
“One piece, or two?”
“One's fine.”
“Fork and knife?”
“Sure.”
Echo lifted Lyra's portion onto a plate along with two kiwis and then carried it to her and set it down before her.
“You sleep well?” Lyra shrugged and grunted.
“I'll let you know when I've actually woken up.” Echo smiled in response. It was most likely that since Lyra had today off that she'd stayed up until the early morning hours reading again, or perhaps trying to draw a scene the book talked about. It would not be the first time.
With the last of the syrup-soggy toast now cooked Echo turned off the flame-stove and carried her own plate to the table and sprinkled some cinnamon of her own on it. Also taking a fork and knife, Echo cut off a piece of her materiel breakfast and also partook.
When Lyra finished her meal she smiled and rubbed her stomach, and then belched loudly.
“Lyra!” Echo objected, genuinely annoyed.
“Oh come on, Bonbon!” Lyra rolled her eyes. “It's not like there's anypony here other than us! Lighten up!”
When Echo finished her part of the meal she gathered up both her plate and Lyra's, and then put both in the sink and ran some water over both. Taking a glass from one of the cabinets Echo held it under the faucet until it was half full and then shut the sink off and drank her water. Finding herself still thirsty, she refilled it, and drank again while Lyra joined her and retrieved a glass of her own.
After they'd both satiated their thirst, Lyra stated that she was bored and asked Echo what her schedule contained. Echo pulled her list out from a drawer in one of the counters and looked it over.
“I need to make a few dozen candies for the shop down the street, but other than that, nothing really. Why?”
“Because I heard a few days ago that Cheerilee's students were going to be putting on a play today and I didn't feel like going alone. How long do you think it'll take you to make those candies?” Echo looked at the cuckoo clock on the wall and then hummed a moment while she considered.
For the actual Bonbon, given that her special talent was making candy it probably would not take her long at all. Echo on the other hand, though she had access to the experience of other Changelings that had done it had not participated in it herself. Knowing how to do something and knowing how to do something were two different things. She could at least give an estimate, based on what she currently knew, though.
“At least three hours. There's several different things that need to be made, and if I run out of one ingredient or another I'll have to go out and buy more. What time is the play?”
“Four-thirty-ish. It depends on how long it takes for all the children to arrive.”
“Then I should be there in plenty of time so long as things go alright here. Would you like to try helping?” Lyra made an embarrassed expression and shook her head.
“The only subject me and candy get along on is that candy is meant to be eaten.” She laughed. “I could be helpful if you need a taste-tester, though!” Echo smiled and shook her head.
“I think I can handle it, Lyra. Why don't you go for a walk or something while I work?”
“A walk for three hours? To where?” Echo shrugged.
“I was just making a suggestion. You could wash the dishes, you could read your book some more, you could-” Lyra's face lit up and she grinned.
“Great idea!”
“You washing the dishes for me? Why thank you, Lyr-”
“No!” Lyra hastily interrupted. “My book! The next one is due to come out in a week! I've got to finish book six!”
Lyra practically galloped up the steps to her room and left Echo in the room alone who looked at the dishes and frowned.
Why does nopony ever want to wash the dishes?!
__ __ __ __ __
The youngling Changeling was being specifically watched by his hive, and he knew it. It wasn't hard to tell, really, given that he'd been followed everywhere he'd gone today by one of the caretakers, but it gave him no time to practice the new form he'd discovered, to his annoyance.
I discovered it, and I want to know how to use it properly before I show it off to everyone! He inwardly grumbled. But I won't be able to do that with him watching my every move! Not that he was mad at the caretaker himself. It was likely that queen-mother was merely making sure that he did not try to eat or do anything else that might bring him to harm. To a degree he was grateful for her concern, but again, it was preventing him from experimenting. So, since he could not practice with the new body, he instead chose to review what Echo had read earlier, and searched about to see if anyone else in his hive had managed to acquire some of the Icarna books.
He brushed one mind after another and watched for a few seconds through their eyes, but found not what he was hoping for and instead considered taking Pony-form and trying to check out one of them from the local library himself. A stern warning-thought for the attempt from the queen-mother herself quickly squashed this idea. She then sent a series of images that depicted what might happen if he were to lose focus and get caught. The images were not pretty and he required no further persuading. He also needed no further proof that he was being observed and endeavored to follow his day as normally as possible, which was for the most part helping the fully-grown workers to expand their tunnels down deeper and outward into the ground by pulling the dirt by cart to the underground river that flowed through their hive and let the current carry the dirt away. Had they been in a more remote location they simply would have piled the dirt outside like a colony of ants, but they were not.
The task was simple, if tiring after several hours of doing so and only got more difficult the further and further the workers dug due to the increased distance and more-frequently discovered rocks and occasional old bones from animals long dead. He did not see a reason for them to be doing so given that their hive was so small compared to the others, but as the elders frequently told him it was not his place to question their queen's commands. After all, she had been around more much longer than any of them had.
She had not been alive nearly as long as the Equestrian rulers, but unlike the Alicorns, Changeling queens were not immortal, and once every thirty years had the option of producing an heir. If the queen at the time decided that one was not needed or wanted, she could simply bury the egg in the ground until a later date and recover it later. So far as they knew, there were only six hives, which meant that no other queen had decided to produce an heir yet either, though it was simple for for anyone who knew the reason to understand why.
When a new queen was hatched and reached its adolescent years it would gain the ability to produce and control a hive of its own, and also became extremely rebellious, or territorial. This event almost always in their race's history had led to a war pitting mother against possible-successor daughter, with the daughter normally being the one to die. Unless their queen were to leave their current home behind to her heir when she came of age the only option was for her to simply not produce one.
A small rock struck the youngling on his head as he returned to the tunnel he'd been helping to excavate with the cart and for a moment lights flashed across his vision and he had a brief headache. Blinking his eyes several times in the hopes of clearing his vision he stared at the mound of dirt before him where a part of the tunnel had collapsed in front of him, blocking the entire tunnel as well as his way to the Changeling he'd been accompanying. Frowning at the loose soil and stones that had fallen he once more began filling his cart to clear the tunnel and then trudged back the way he'd come again.
At the river he locked the cart's wheels and began shoving the dirt and other debris into the current when the ground lightly vibrated and some dust and grains of dirt and sand fell from the ceiling and he looked around, wondering what the problem was.
Cave-in? another of his generation inquired, not aiming the thought at a particular target. Several 'yes' answers replied from more of their kind in several different locations, each one coming from the same general location, and sending images of where they were so others could render assistance when available.
Casually (or at least he hoped she would think it casual) he glanced at the queen-mother's mind to see what she was doing, and then he withdrew and looked around him visually as well as mentally. No one was paying any attention to him at the moment, and he smiled. Finally!
Picturing once more his transformational target, the dark tunnel briefly flashed purple and then was once more dark. Too dark for him to see anything at all with his changed eyes.
Grunting as he once more fell onto his front he tried moving his fingers again and had a little more success than he had last time, but not by much. He could fold his fingers over, but that was of little help when he could not yet move his arms or legs to push himself up to his feet.
Drat this body! No wait...drat me. Okay, relax first... He took a deep breath, and exhaled, emptying his mind as best he could. and don't think. Just do. Your body knows how to move. Let it. This was a lesson that was told to them every day that they were to practice shape-shifting. It was a simple lesson, but not easy when you were excited, as his messed-up transformation yesterday and just now had proved. Okay. Pushing myself up with my front hoofs- er, arms...don't think, just do like I normally would for my own body. He sighed. Even though my own body has such a different frame!
Several more attempts later he managed to move first one arm and then his other next to his torso. Okay. Next step, prop them up, and place the flat of my hands on the ground... The lower half of his arms slid drunkenly toward his head and again after a few minutes he succeeded. ...and push! This time he body reacted much faster than he'd expected and his upper body rose into the air with ease.
“Woah!” He exclaimed at the almost-instant reaction, and in his surprise he fell back to the floor again. “Oof!” Need to be a little more careful next time!
@ @ @ @ @
He's doing it again! The queen realized almost at once. Part of her wanted to investigate, but the more responsible part was busy coordinating the rest of her hive in freeing their trapped brethren after the cave-in.
Cave-ins were not out of the ordinary, especially in soft earth like the soil they had made their home in, but this did not make them any less serious. While she could replace them fairly easily in terms of numbers their colony was not one like true insects. Bees did not have individual minds and simply worked. Her children could form their own plans for a situation and act on them without her needing to get involved directly, which made managing the hive as a whole much easier on some points as long as they weren't trying to do something that was foolish. While she doubted that what the youngling was doing was truly dangerous, it was distracting, as when his mind vanished from the link it was like one of her children dying, which on their mental connection to her felt like being kicked; not really painful, but definitely distracting.
The queen joined her children at the site and examined the roof for a possible secondary cave-in. It would not do if they too were buried in the attempt at rescue. Finding it to be at least acceptable, she gave the command and her offspring rushed at the pile shape-shifting as they went into a smaller and more canine-like breed of Diamond Dogs for their digging capabilities. In less than an hour the others were freed, and she was free to investigate the youngling personally.
__ __ __ __ __
Aaaand...uprigh-
“Oof!”
The youngling banged his head on the gritty dirt roof of the tunnel that was too small for his increased height and lowered it again to rub it with a ill-aimed hand and instead rubbed his left ear. He had not been able to properly judge the distance without his sight, and now was hunched uncomfortably over in the darkness. He also had soon begun to feel chilled without his exoskeleton to keep him insulated from the cool air of the underground and occasionally rubbed his bare skin for warmth. Maybe trying this down here wasn't really the wisest choice. I should have gone outside again first, or at least into a larger area! Hind-sight could be a funny thing, but with his growing discomfort this was not one of those times. Alright, I've had enough for now. Goodbye blindness, hello warmth!
He let himself revert and began to feel warm again almost immediately. He also felt the queen's presence as she approached the tunnel and panicked and quickly began filling his cart with dirt again.
“Don't bother trying, youngling. I know that you've been up to whatever it was you were really doing last night!” She called down the tunnel ahead of herself. He dropped the head-sized rock he'd been carrying and sat on the ground to wait. Thirty seconds later she joined him and looked him over. After a little more than a minute of neither delving into his mind nor saying anything she spoke and asked him quietly why he was trying to keep a secret from her. “I will find it out sooner or later, youngling. Why not just tell me now?”
“Because I found out that we could turn into-” He hesitated half a second, then finished his sentence. “that form!” His tone was objective and a little whiny. “I want to learn how to do it myself before everyone else starts using it! It's-” he hesitated, and then said in a soft and non-whiny tone “it's mine!” The queen raised a hairless eyebrow and tilted her head.
“'Yours', you say? Well then tell me, little one, what would you have done if a cave-in had happened to you and you were still blocked from communicating with the rest of us, hmm?” He opened his mouth to reply, but she was not done. “You likely would have been injured. Our bodies are tougher than most other creatures with exception to Dragons, but if 'your' form that you took did not have the same hard shell we do you might have even died!” The youngling said nothing. “Therefore, for your own safety you are henceforth forbidden to perform that transformation, whatever it may have been, ever again unless you are being supervised.” She looked him directly in the eyes. “I cannot access the memories you create while you are in 'your' form, but that does not mean I don't know when you are doing it. If you try it again without being watched by someone I will take it to mean you no longer wish to be a member of this hive and you will be permanently disconnected from our mental collective and thrown out to fend for yourself.” Without another word she straightened and turned her back on him and left him in the tunnel alone.
* * * * *
Echo rubbed her head. The happenings back home had not escaped her notice, and in fact had distracted her to the point where she had caramelized the peanut butter fudge she'd been preparing by accident and needed to start over again..Oh well. she sighed, pouring the contents of the silver saucepan into a ceramic bowl with a rubber lid. At least it can be used as an ice-cream topping. Perhaps the Cakes will want to buy it. It was more likely that Lyra would find it later and use some for a bowl of ice cream herself. Actually, that sounds pretty good after making all this junk food! She groaned and resisted the urge to raid the freezer, and then resisted peer pressure from her hive mates as well, some of whom had never tried ice cream before and wanted to know what it tasted like. NO! she shouted mentally. I don't have time for that, and I don't think the real Bonbon would appreciate me devouring her sweet, cool...smooth...chocolatey- She began to drool a little, and then shook herself and quickly sucked it back into her mouth. -no! she repeated, this time to herself, and with a little effort returned her attention to what was normally Bonbon's job and what for today was her own.
As she had predicted earlier that day Echo finished preparing the last of the candies and other sweets around ten o'clock and began wrapping them up in either plastic or wax paper. Another thirty-three minutes later she finished that bit as well and separated them into bags according to their type. Finally, she placed all the bags into her saddlebags that she'd earlier placed onto the kitchen table and placed the dirty dishes, saucepans, and utensils she'd used into and next to the sink to be cleaned later.
Now time for ice cream? Drifted a hopeful thought along the back of her brain from another Changeling, to which Echo rolled her eyes and ignored her disappointed sibling in favor of getting the saddlebags on her back for delivery to the shop down the street.
The small silver bell above the door to the Candy's Delights and Deserts shop jingled as Echo pushed open the door and entered. Candy herself was nowhere in sight.
“Hello?” Echo called, walking further in.
The shop was small compared to the Sugarcube Corner, but the SC was more than a simply shop and often was also a gathering place for the town's youth. Candy's shop was built specifically for the making and selling of specially-requested treats and so was quite a bit smaller.
The floor's tiling was a creamy white and red checkered similar to the colors that were normally attributed to Hearts and Hooves day decorations in tribute to one of the days that she got the most business. A single low round cherry wood table with five seats around it was in the back-right corner and a small potted tree was next to the door she'd just come in through. To her left was the checkout counter on which a register machine sat unattended and a paper cup of what smelled like grape juice, also unattended, rested next to it. The counter had about thirty inches from the opposite side to the back wall for somepony to walk along it from the doorway that led into the back where the small kitchen and underground storeroom was. The counter also had a glass display case underneath the also-cherry wood counter-top that housed several of Candy's wares. Wares that once more made Echo's sweet tooth ache.
Echo called again into the shop, this time a bit louder and still received no response in turn. Curious, Echo set the saddlebags on top of the counter and then headed behind the counter and into the back room. There she found Candy snoozing over the kitchen's cutting-counter island with a whisk under one hoof and her face lying in a small pool of carrot cake batter that she'd apparently fallen asleep on and tipped over.
Taking pity on the snoozing Pony Echo retrieved a rag from the sink and soaked it and began cleaning the mess around Candy, taking care not to disturb her. A few of her brethren were laughing at the silly position that Candy had gotten herself in, and Echo rolled her eyes and returned to the sink to rinse off the cloth.
“Mm? Who'zare?” Candy mumbled from her batter-splashed place.
“It's me, Candy. I've got your orders made and delivered.” Echo answered.
“Aah!” Candy exclaimed, realizing where she was and rising form the mess, causing the bowl to tip back up and rock in place a little before coming to a stop standing once more. “I dozed off while cooking! I don't have time to sleep! I have too many orders to fill, I-” Echo placed a hoof on her mouth.
“Don't tell me you stayed up all night again, Candy. You run this shop almost entirely by yourself; you're not Celestia, you know. If you get tired, then rest. You won't be doing yourself any favors if you set your shop on fire because you dozed off while baking something in the oven.”
“But-” Candy objected from the corners of her mouth.
“But- nothing. Go clean yourself up and go take a nap on that cot you keep in the cellar. I'll finish up here.”
“Really?! I mean,” Candy cleared her throat and wiped the eager and desperate expression from her face. “Are you sure? You've already finished your part, you know...” Echo smiled and nodded.
“We're friends, aren't we?” Bonbon's your friend. I'm not...not really...but she'd offer to help you. “I've got nothing to do until quarter 'til four. Go ahead.” Candy sighed and gave Echo a hug, and then slowly made her way to the steps that led into the cellar.
When she was gone Echo looked at the cork-board that Candy kept on one wall. There weren't many orders left to do, but all of them were of things that would take a bit of time to complete. It's just as well. No doubt I'll gather a lot of nourishment from this, and I do have a lot of time to kill until the play.
No. No, no no NO! Echo mentally shouted over the din of insistent siblings all talking to her at once, and all of them saying the same insistent thing: just one taste! Or a spoonful...or a mouthful...please? No! I'm working right now, and these treats aren't for me! Or for Bonbon! If you want a treat for yourselves, go to town when you're free, and buy some yourselves! Echo gritted her teeth and rubbed her head with her hoofs.
The bell above the door of the shop jingled and Echo removed the pair of what Ponies called gloves even though they had no fingers and landed set herself down on her back hoofs again and trotted out into the shop-proper.
“Ah, good! I was afraid that no one was here today!” A tan earth Pony with dark brown hair and an hourglass Cutie Mark said, smiling at her. “Hello, I'm here to pick up two large blueberry muffins and a small box of croissants. It should be under either Derpy Hooves, or The Doctor.” Echo gave him a puzzled look.
“You do know that this is a sweet shop and not an actual bakery, right? We sell mostly candies, candied nuts, and chocolates here. You must be thinking of Sugarcube Corner.”
“I am? Oh blast, I suppose I am! So sorry, miss undercover-Changeling, I'll just leave you to it, then!” He turned around and trotted out again, the door swinging shut behind him before Echo realized what he'd said and her eyes bugged-out and her jaw dropped.
Eek! How could he know that?! Her mind in a state of curiosity majorly overshadowed by panic at being found out she ran out of the shop and looked around for him, but he had vanished. Somepony in town knows that I'm a Changeling! But how?! I was careful, wasn't I? Wait, what if he tells the rest of the town?! Oh no, the play! At least half the town will be there! If he talks- I've got to find him!
Almost thoroughly terrified of discovery and her mood spilling over into the mental network that linked her hive's minds together, also freaking them out, she galloped back indoors, shut off the cooking equipment so the shop wouldn't catch on fire while she was out, scribbled a note of apology to Candy, and then tore out of the shop in search of this 'Doctor'.