> Look Twice: A Changeling's Tale
>  by ElectromagNick
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: A Usual Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Prologue: A Usual Day


Two mares walked downed the cobblestone streets of Ponyville.  One of the mares, a earthen-coated Unicorn with a flowing, two-tone dark red and watery-blue mane and tail with a paintbrush for a cutie mark, was laughing as she finished her story.  “So Steel Anvil just had to prove me wrong, running off before I could get a word in edge-wise.  The next day, I go over to his house to make sure that he's still alive, but when I get there, he has the Timber Wolf dancing on its hind legs and balancing a ball on its nose!”  She could barely contain her laughter, and her companion was giggling in disbelief.  “It just goes to show that there are few limits as to what ponies can do.”
The other mare, a starry-gray Earth pony with a nightly-lavender mane, laughed for a while longer.  “The only thing I could find as more impressive than that is if he taught an Ursa Major a formal dance.  You have got to introduce him to Fluttershy.  I'm certain they'll get along splendidly.”
The Unicorn chuckled as the two walked over a bridge, the brook babbling underneath.  “Silver's a bit... eccentric.  I think Fluttershy'd be overwhelmed.”
“Have you met Pinkie Pie?  They're opposite in almost every regard, and they're best friends.  I think, even if Steel's over-the-top, at least he'll have something to talk about with Fluttershy.”
“Yeah, but introverts-”
“Oh, rubbish!  Tell me you don't actually buy-in to all of that stereotype nonsense.  She's shy, she loves animals, and she finds solitary walks refreshing and crowds exhausting, but she's not antisocial.  Just catch her on a good day with common interest and she could listen – or talk – for hours.  Sure, she's an introvert, but there's far more to personalities and preferences than just that.”
The Unicorn just looked around for a while, thinking, until they turned off of the main part of town and onto a well-worn dirt road.  “Starlight, how do you-”
“Think I know so much about personalities?  Study.  I had an interest in psychology for a while, but I realized that I didn't want to make a profession out of it.”
“I guess a job like that could be stressful.”  The two walk on for a bit further in relative quiet until a fork in the road, where the duo stopped.
“Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Rosie.  We're still meeting up with Blossomforth for lunch, right?”
“Yeah, she told me she'd meet up with us at Dandelion Café at eleven-thirty.”
Starlight gave a smile and brightly said, “Perfect.  Spring Flower and Coconut make some of best food in town.”
Rosie Sunset giggled a bit.  “They really do.  See you tomorrow, Starlight.”  And with those friendly words, the duo traveled down their separate paths, Starlight Silver's home being the further one from town.
Starlight reached her house, unlocked her front door, and took one more deep breath.  It was mid-afternoon and the late-summer air was beginning to cool.  It would be autumn, soon.  “It's a beautiful day.”  With that, she stepped inside and began emptying her saddlebags of the groceries she bought earlier: some apples, a bushel of sprouts, daisies, eggs, and some other ingredients and foodstuffs.  As she was putting them away for later date, she stopped for a moment and remembered that she was going to pick up a book.  “Oh, ponyfeathers.  I forgot about the library.”  With a glance outside, she decided to head back out.  “At least it's a nice day.”

After grabbing her library card, she locked her front door and began the casual stroll back to Golden Oaks Library.
“Good afternoon, Starlight!” called a friendly voice from above.
Starlight looked up to see Cloudchaser and Flitter hovering overhead.  “Hey, Cloudchaser.  Hi, Flitter.  How have you two been?”
“Peachy!” Cloudchaser exclaimed, quite genuine.
“No complaints,” Flitter stated nonchalantly.  “And you?”
Starlight looked back to the path as the two pegasi landed next to her.  “Still having trouble sleeping.”
“I'm sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah, that can't possibly be fun.”
Starlight just shrugged, her lavender mane falling in front of her dark citron eyes.  “I've more or less adapted to it.  I was going to pick up a book about insomnia from Golden Oaks earlier, but it slipped my mind.”  She gave a bit of a chuckle.  “I guess I was tired.”
Flitter and Cloudchaser both gave a small giggle with their Earth pony friend.
“At least you can joke about it.” Cloudchaser said.  “So, how's the shop?
“Great.  Zecora's been a huge help with some of the new recipes and profits have been pretty steady for while, now.  It's a partnership I'm glad to have.”
“That's great to hear,” Flitter remarked.
And the conversation continued on for a while longer, each talking about some small thing that made the day just a bit more enjoyable.  Starlight enjoyed it.  It was the small things that a pony could take joy in that made life a little bit sweeter.
“Well, I've gotta fly,” Flitter said.  “See you tomorrow, Cloudchaser.  Bye Starlight.”
“Yeah, I should be off, too.  Bye, Flitter.  I'll see you later, Starlight.”
“Have a good evening, both of you.”  And with the friendly good-byes, the trio split up.

Not a minute later, Starlight arrived at Golden Oaks Library.  Starlight knocked on the door.  A few moments later, the door opened and Starlight was greeted by an amicable baby dragon.
“Hi, Starlight.  What brings you around here?”
The Earth pony smiled.  “Good evening, Spike.  I'm here to check out a book.”
“Okay, come on in.”  The dragon stepped aside and the pony walked in.  “What book do you need?”
“I've, uh, been having some trouble sleeping this past week.  Do you have a book on acute insomnia?”
Spike thought for a moment.  “Huh, acute insomnia...  Oh, yes!  I know where that is!”  He walked over to the ladder, pushed it to the “R” section and climbed to one of the upper shelves, selecting one of the books.  “Here it is.  'Restful Sleep: A Pony's Guide to Acute Insomnia.'”  He slid down the ladder and handed it to Starlight.
“Thanks, Spike.”  She took out her library card.  “It's a week to return or renew it, right?”
“Yup.”  Spike took the library card and put in a file near the back of the main room.  “You're sure it's acute insomnia?”
“Yeah.  Nurse Redheart looked over the symptoms and reviewed my sleep journal.  She recommended that I check out a book for some tips about dealing with it.”
Spike shrugged.  “Okay, then.  I hope it helps.”
“Me too.”
“Anything else?”
Starlight took a look around.  “Nope, I think that's everything.”  So Spike and Starlight sorted out the basic paperwork – some ponies thought that Twilight's system of checking out books was a bit too much, but books never got lost – and Starlight left.

About ten minutes later, Starlight was back at home and the book was on the table in the main room.  She grabbed a towel and went upstairs, stepping into the bathroom.  Her form faded away in a ring of green flames, revealing a black mass with insect wings and blue eyes with blue-to-white gradient pupils.  She began to run water for a bath when somepony started to knock at her door.  With a sigh, the same green flame ran up her body.  With a quick look in her mirror, she noticed that the her cutie mark was a bit off.  It was a collection of three decorative bottles of varying sizes and colors, like the ones Zecora used for potion bottles, but they were in the wrong order.  The ring of flames surrounded the Changeling once more and the error was rectified.  It was a small detail, but an important one.  She walked downstairs just as the pony knocked on her door again.
“Starlight” opened the door to see a familiar gray Pegasus with crossed eyes.  “Hello, Ditzy.”
“Hey, Starlight!  I've got a package for you.”  She took a small package and a letter out of her delivery bag and handed them to the pony.  “And I need to you sign here.”  She grabbed the clipboard out of the pouch on the other side of the saddlebags.
“Alright.”  Starlight signed her name and gave the pen back.
“Okay, that's everything.”
Starlight smiled.  “Have a good evening, Ditzy.”
“You too.”  And the gray Pegasus took off to deliver more parcels.
Starlight stepped back inside with the package and letter, shutting the door behind her.  “Velvet Cloak, 173 River Street, Hollow Shades,” she read aloud as she walked back upstairs.  She put the package on the desk in her room and opened the letter, once more in her Changeling form.
Dear Double-Take,
I'm sorry that it's taken so long for me to respond to your previous letter, but work has been piling up recently.  To make up for it, I'm sending this letter with a package of your favorites; Crystal-Melon Lollipops and Sweetbark Delights.  I know it's been a while since you've had some around, so I thought it'd be nice to send you some fresh from the Hollow Shades Sweet 'n' Treat Emporium.
Regarding your letter, I'm glad to hear that things have been going well in Ponyville and that your health has been steadily improving over the past two years.  It's no end of relief that you can sustain yourself with ambient love and kindness with the addition of pony foods for prolonged periods.  I guess that old book you read about historical Changeling culture was accurate enough.  It's a shame that Chrysalis is bent on darker goals.
On another note, things have been going pretty well around here, as well.  The potion shop has been receiving a steady amount of business, thankfully for non-dangerous ailments and some special herbal brews.  All and all, life is pretty good for both of us from the sound of things.  I look forward to hearing from you again soon, and I hope that we can get together for a weekend outing soon.

Your friend and alias,
Starlight Silver

P.S.: Velvet says hello.
With a small giggle of delight, Double-Take set the letter aside and returned to the bathroom, turning off the water to the nearly-full tub.  She slipped into tub and poured a small amount of bubble bath into the steaming water.  “Running away from the Queen was the best thing I could have ever done,” she said to herself, completely relaxed.
> Chapter 1: An Unforgiving Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 1: An Unforgiving Past


“We watch you, Abandoned...”
The voices, synchronized and musical and somber, taunted Double-Take as she ran through corridors of black stones and gray mirrors that each seemed to hold a reflection of somepony, something other than herself.  “Leave me alone!”
“You deserted, Abandoned...”
“You have no ide- Ah!”  She tripped and stumbled, crashing into the icy floor, the solid surface sending a bone-shuddering impact through her rib cage and knocking the wind right out of her lungs.  Her chitinous hide, thicker than a pony's but not quite an exoskeleton, did little to absorb the jarring shock.  She scrambled to her hooves, the sound the galloping equine insects closing in forcing her onward.
The voices broke into separate entities, each distinct and familiar.  Voices she wanted to hear again... and hoped that she never would.
“You left us.”
“We saved you.”
“We needed you.”
“Traitor!” the first called again.
“You're a failure!” accused the third.
“You left us to die...  'Miles to go,' Double-Take,” taunted the second once more in a sing-song melancholy.
Double-Takes eyes were tearing up, her friends' voices accusing her, trying her for a crime she...
Did she regret?  “Do I?” she asked aloud with a shaken voice betraying only a small hint of inquiry, tears rolling down her cheeks.
She continued to run, but she didn't remember why.  All she heard were the some accusations from the same voices, Changeling guards beating at her hooves.  Rounding a corner, Double-Take charged for the nearest door.  It burst open at her approach.  She didn't question it.  “These things happen... don't they?”  She entered the door, full gallop, and found herself amidst...
“No...” she cried silently, her throat dry and her breath gone.  She was in the middle of a distinguished group of guards.  No, not guards, soldiers.  The Shadow's Wings, Chrysalis's highest agents.  She was staring at three Changelings on the Falsity Gallows, nooses around their necks, their horns broken and their wings bound.  She recognized each one by name.  They were all at one time her friends.  They joined the Abandoned, the underground rebellion against Chrysalis.
The Tyrant Queen herself was there, up on the gallows, presiding over the execution.  “This is what happens when you defy me, Whelps!”  Her voice was ruthless, commanding, bloodthirsty.  “You faceless fools, abandoned worms, who are so sure of yourselves as to declare open war, ha! your rebellion is a failure and you'll all die traitors.”  She looked into the Shadow's Wings and spotted Double-Take.  “You, Underwing!” she called.
“Yes, Your Ladyship?” Double-Take responded instinctively.
Chrysalis smiled.  “Stand tall and know that you have proven yourself even among my highest.  On this day, at this execution, you are no longer an Underwing.  You rise in rank and gain the title 'Inquisitor!'”  Cheers rang up from the crowds in the courtyard.  “Do not squander this opportunity.”  Her voice was biting with the last command.
“I will serve you to my fullest, Your Ladyship.”
Each of the Changelings on the gallows gazed down to her, and she met each of their hazy, tired, accusing stares.  Their thoughts merged with hers.
“Double-Take...” Mirage thought, simply.  She was best at being simple.  “You should have left with us.  This could have been different.”
Phantasm's mind was less organized.  He had a lot that he wanted to convey, both good and bad.  He damned her for betraying them and commended her for her skills in words that weren't really intelligible.  He was too anxious, but his eyes would never betray it.  Double-Take's heart stopped for a moment.
“I'm sorry it had to end like this,” Spectral Illusion at last communicated.  “Find fire, old friend.”
And a Changeling in dark-blue armor pulled the lever.  The three fell and, after several heart-wrenching moments, the ropes pulled taut with a single, simultaneous, sickening snap.

Double-Take opened her eyes to see the simple layout of her room in Ponyville.  She blinked a few times before forcing herself upright.  She was sweating, her heart pounding, her breathing burdened.  Looking out the window, she saw that it was still dark, but a small shimmer of gold appeared on the horizon.  She sighed, placing a hoof over her heart.


After a minute, she got up to wash her face with cold water.  When she was gazing into the mirror, unsure, her eyes wandered instinctively to the large scar across her side.  It was a sword wound from years ago.  She froze for a moment, a sour memory infiltrating her already uneasy mind.  With a shake, she said to herself, “No, that's in the past...  The war doesn't concern me...”  She shook her head again decided to make some tea to settle her nerves.
She settled down on a chair near the window of her balcony, staring into the morning horizon.  She wanted the fresh air and she knew that it would do her well, but she couldn't risk being in disguise.  It was a heart condition, unique to Changelings and rare among them.  If she suffered any major stress, physical or psychological, and tried to shapeshift too quickly afterward, she could put herself into cardiac arrest.  There were some other triggers for other Changelings, but Double-Take had only experienced the attacks with stress.  “Maybe if I just open the window...”  She stood up, easing herself off the chair, and pushed the window open, the fresh air rushing inside.  After a few deep breaths, she sat back down at her writing desk.  With a quill and a few pieces of papyrus, she wrote down every detail of the dream that she could remember.
A little while later, after finishing her tea and slowing her heart-rate to normal, she made some oatmeal for the pony-food part of her sustenance.  She felt a bit weak, but it wasn't an alien feeling.  She had adapted, just as she always had...  Just as she had always needed to.
“No, that part of my past of done.”  Her mind was absolute and her voice was defiant in her self-reassurance.  “I will never go back, and I will never be forced to make those decisions again.”  But her breath left her lungs in a heavy sigh once again.  She shook it off.  “It's a new day and you've got a lunch date with Rosie and Blossomforth.”  She sighed, betraying both relief and disappointment.  “In about five hours.”
So she got to work with her morning routine, which ate up about a half-hour.  She had just finished making her bed when the package from the previous night caught her eyes.  “Maybe just one...”  She opened it up eager anticipation.  There were two layers, separated by a layer of wax paper.  The top held lollipops that looked like crystalline fruit, primarily melons: watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, even apples and lemons.  The bottom layer held a sweet cake-like candy with a honey sugar-base, flavored with cinnamon, rosewater, and lemon peel, coated in dark chocolate and topped with mint.  Sweetbark Delights were her favorite treats when Starlight was nursing her back to health in Hollow Shades.  The Dragonfly brand was family-owned and operated in the forest town and had goods shipped all over Equestria.  Double-Take decided to take one of the Crystal-Melon lollipops, a watermelon specifically.  The lollipops were based on an old pony's tale about a Kingdom carved entirely from crystals, where even the ponies seemed to shine like translucent gemstones.  But the legend says that the Kingdom, a province loyal to the Royal Pony Sisters, was usurped by an evil Unicorn.  After a series of conflicts paramount to war, the Kingdom vanished, along with everypony in it.
Regardless of whether the tale was true or not, the lollipops were actually a special type of crystallized fruit, most of them shrunk through one means or another to a standard size.  They looked like gemstones and were renown for a very unique taste.  “Maybe I should give one to Spike.”  She picked out a big crystal-apple and wrapped it up for Spike.  “Hmm.  Maybe Twilight would like a watermelon...”  She shrugged.  “No sense in having them if others can't enjoy them, too.”  So after wrapping a few, she took a deep breath and shifted into her usual disguise, the same pony who sent her the delicious treats.  She exhaled after the green fiery ring had subsided and then put the lollipops into her saddlebags, finally enjoying the one she picked out for herself.  She smiled and closed her eyes, the sweet taste bringing back sweeter memories of two mares in a woodland town, smiling at their changeling friend.
> Chapter 2: Letters and Shadows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 2: Letters and Shadows


The Changeling, in her starry-gray disguise, trotted along road through town, careful as to not reveal the troubles of the morning.  But her posture betrayed just a hint of stress.  Her mind wandered and she lost track of time, passing by Golden Oaks Library and continuing on for a few moments before she realized where she was.  She looked back and blinked, once, twice, a third time she closed her eyes, holding them shut as she tried to physically shake the daze from her thoughts.  “Focus, Starlight,” she said, reminding herself that she was out in public and in disguise.  So she turned around and knocked at the door of Golden Oaks.
The door opened to reveal Twilight Sparkle, ready to welcome any and everypony to the library.  “Good morning, Starlight.  Come on it.”
“Hello, Twilight,” Double-Take greeted as she stepped into the hollowed oak.
“Has the book helped at all?  I saw that you checked out A Pony's Guide to Acute Insomnia.”
“It's only been a day, and there's a lot of strategies to try.
“Right, I guess we can be sure of anything for at least a week.  I just wanted to check.  You know, a bit of friendly worry.”
Double-Take smiled, her eyes revealing a stressful tiredness.  “I appreciate it, Twilight.  But your right, I wait until the end of the week before drawing any conclusions.”
“So, what brings you to the library today?”
“Right, I almost forgot.  I was going to give you-” she reached into her saddlebags and retrieved two of the lollipops, “-these.”  She presented the neatly wrapped treats to the lavender Unicorn.  “One's for you and one's for Spike.”
Twilight examined the lollipops, grasping them in a field of magic.  “Are these Crystal-Melon?”
“Yeah, Velvet sent me a package of some treats from Hollow Shades.  One's an apple and the other is a watermelon.  I figured that I'd share them some friends.  I've learned that life's too short to live selfishly.”
Twilight chuckled.  “I find it hard to believe that you were ever selfish.”
Maybe not in the classical sense, Double-Take thought, carefully keeping the aside from Twilight.  “Anyway, that's really all I dropped by to do, but it's always nice to catch up with you.  So much time- er, rather so little time and so much to do.”
The Unicorn nodded.  “There just aren't enough hours in the day.”  With a playful chuckle, she continued, “But I don't think anypony could convince the Princesses to increase the duration of celestial cycle.”
Double-Take laughed a bit, finally lightening up.  “If something's worked for several millennia, why change it?”
Twilight giggled a bit, relieved to see Starlight relax.  “Why don't you stay for some tea?”
“Well,” she titled her head in a thoughtful nod, “what time is it?”
“Nine-thirty.  Is there somewhere you have to be?”
“I'm meeting up with Blossomforth and Rosie for lunch at Dandelion Café.  I have plenty of time and I'm in no rush.”
“So that's a yes for tea?”
“That's a yes for tea.”
“Great!  I have a kettle of peppermint tea steeping right now.”  The two stepped into the kitchen.  “The tea should be ready in a minute.  Make yourself comfortable.”
So Double-Take sat down on a chair, still a bit tense.  She closed her dark blue eyes and took three deep breaths, each longer than the previous.
“Still a bit stressed?”
“Huh?” Double-Take remarked, turning her head to Twilight, eyes half open.
“You seemed stressed earlier and it seems like your a bit unfocused now.”
“Oh, it's, uh, it's nothing.  Really.”  The Changeling put on a smile that, to most, seemed entirely genuine.  She was a master of disguise, after all.  But Twilight wasn't fooled.
“Right,” she agreed, not really believing her but not wanting to push the conversation further.  “Well, the tea's been steeping for a little while now.  It should be ready.”  She magically retrieved three cups and three saucers from the cupboard and gently placed them down on the table.  “Spike, the tea's ready!” she called as she filled the three cups.
“Coming, Twilight!” the baby dragon answered from upstairs.  “I was just finishing up some- Oh, hey, Starlight.  I didn't know we were having you over.”
Double-Take gave a slight laugh.  “Neither did I.  I just dropped by to give you and Twilight some lollipops and Twilight invited me to stay for tea.”
“Lollipop?  Oh, Crystal-Melon Lollipops from Hollow Shades?”
She nodded.
“Is there an apple?”
“Yep.”
Spike smiled delightfully.  “Thank you, Starlight.  Those are the best.”
“I'm sorry it's just one, though.  There are a few more ponies that I wanted to share them with than last time.”
Twilight smiled.  “Don't worry about it.  They're your treats.  It's nice of you to share them with us, even if its just one per pony.”  Twilight glanced to Spike.  “Or dragon, for that matter.”
Spike shrugged.  “What?  I said thank you.”
Twilight and Double-Take both chuckled, and Spike just rolled his eyes, taking his seat between the two mares.
“Hey, Spike?” Double-Take asked after taking a sip of her tea.
“Yeah?”
“What do gemstones taste like?”
“That's...”  Spike paused and put a claw to his chin.  “Huh.  I can't seem to think of a good comparison.  They have pretty unique flavors, depending on the type.  I guess I could...  No, that's too sweet.  But then again, they're not bitter.  They sort of have a...  Hmm.  That's a good question, I haven't had any pony food that tastes quite like a gem.  And I don't think ponies can eat gems, so it's not like you could try it yourself.  I'm sorry, Starlight, but I'm stumped.  I just don't have a good answer,” he finally gave up, still scratching his head over the question.
The mare shrugged, not too bothered by the answer.  “I was just curious.”
“So, how's the shop been?” Twilight asked.  “I heard that Zecora has been helping you out on occasions with certain remedies.”
Double-Take nodded after another sip of the sweet, calming tea.  “She's been a big help.  She knows a lot about medicinal herbs and pharmaceutical remedies, but you've seen that first-hoof.  I count my blessings daily, Zecora's help being among them.”
“You don't take much for granted, do you?”
She shook her head, her eyes a bit heavy.  “It's just how I grew up.  I know that things can change in an instant.  Every day is precious.”  She wasn't lying, but she only told the bare minimum of the story.  Life can be cruel, she thought.  But a moment later she shook away the thought and perked up a bit.  “Enough of solemn things.  How have you two been lately?”
“No complaints,” Spike said plainly, followed by a large gulp of the peppermint tea, perfectly content to move on to a brighter subject.
Twilight echoed the desire to change the subject.  “Things have been pretty quiet ever since we got back from my brother and Princess Cadance's wedding.  It seems that everything calmed down pretty quickly in Canterlot, or so Shining Armor wrote me.  I'm just glad that nopony was badly injured, all things considered”
“Yeah, thanks to us being there!” Spike excitedly chimed in.  “We were...”  He stopped as Twilight shot him a disapproving look.  “Right.  Twilight saw through the Changeling queen's disguise, but we didn't believe her.  She found the real Cadance and stopped the wedding before something really bad happened.  There's more to it than that, but I'm certain you don't want to be bored with the details.  It was all covered in Equestria Monthly.”
“I'll read through the article later.”  Double-Take looked pensive once again.  The mention of Chrysalis was disconcerting.  A little while later, they had all finished their tea and Double-Take helped to wash the cups and saucers.
“Thanks for helping clean up, Starlight,” Spike said, genuinely enjoying the company.
“It's the least I could do,” she replied after drying the last saucer.  “The tea was delicious, by the way.  Peppermint is my favorite”
Twilight smiled as she moved the dried dishes to the cupboard.  “I'm glad you liked it.  It's actually one of Rarity's mixtures.  There's just a bit of lavender and chamomile to help even out of the flavor and give it some extra taste.”
“That's interesting.  I've never really tried mixing teas, but I'll keep it in mind.  I be sure to bring it up with Rarity later.”
“She loves discussing tea brews.”
After a moment, Double-Take glanced at the clock and saw it was only ten-fifteen.  “I think I should head out.  I have some errands I want to run before meeting up with Rosie and Blossom.  Thanks again for having me over.”
“It's no trouble.  I love having company over.”
“Yeah, it was fun,” Spike added.  “It gets boring sometimes with just Twilight, Owlowiscious and me.  If we still had Peewee...”
“Spike, you know we had to take him back to his nest eventually.”
The baby dragon sighed.  “I know.  He belongs with his family, free to roam.  It was nice having him around, though.”
Double-Take smiled, more relaxed than anything, the trouble of the morning seeming so distant.  “For whatever it's worth, I think you made the right decision letting him go.”
“Thanks,” Spike replied, perking up at the kind words.
“Well, I'll see you two later.”
“Take care,” Spike said as he opened the door for the starry-gray mare.
“Come back any time,” Twilight finished.
Double-Take left, simply delighted by the small diversion.  “Now, what was I doing before?  Ah, right, I was handing out lollipops.”
She handed out some of the lollipops to Cloudchaser and Flitter, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and ten other ponies around town.  After a while, she finally ended up at the Marketplace about twenty minutes before she planned to meet up with Rosie.  So she sat down on the bench across from the fountain, placed her saddlebags on the ground next to her, and closed her eyes, taking in the late summer air.

A rhythmical beating chimed in Double-Take's mind.  It felt natural, yet somehow unnerving.  It was like...  Her eyes burst open and she began to scan the crowd, eyes darting from one pony to the next, looking for an unrecognized face.  Ponyville is a very small town, sixteen hundred ponies at most, so noticing a new face isn't particularly difficult.  Each face was familiar and not a single eye revealed an inconsistency.  If anypony was hiding anything, she'd feel it.  It was a skill uncommon amongst even the most experienced Changelings, not even The Shadow's Wings had perfected it, and only those who perfected the skill could hide from it.  She heard a ruffle come from beside her, her head snapping that direction, but all she saw was a envelope sticking out of her saddlebags.  One last scan of the crowd confirmed that the pony who left it was already gone.
She picked it up cautiously and inspected both sides of it.  No address, to or from, but it was closed with a simple seal that she knew all too well.  It was three concentric circles with a diagonal line bisecting all of them.  Her heart rate began to rise.  “No, no, no, no, it can't be from them,” she thought.  She ripped off the seal and hastily drew the letter before catching herself.  “Calm down, Double-Take, reveal no distress.  Confirm your fears and deal with them as they come.”  She unfolded it calmly and looked at the page.
Blank.  No, not blank.  The text was hidden with a special type of ink.  The Abandoned used it transfer information in secret via courier.  The ink required the simultaneous use of a spell and a special neutralizing agent to reveal the text, both of which were deeply held secrets.  It was one of the few advantages the Abandoned had over Chrysalis and her regime.
Double-Take folded the letter neatly and placed it back in the envelope which she then quickly tucked away in a secret pocket one of the saddlebags, careful to not reveal the pocket's existence.  She made sure everything she needed was in the other bag.  “Best not tempt fate,” she concluded in the silent haven of her own thoughts.  Even the queen's elite had difficulty reading Double-Take's mind, and she had only gotten better at hiding her thoughts over the years.  It was one of the reasons she was so quickly admitted to The Shadow's Wings.
A few minutes later, Rosie showed up and Double-Take recomposed herself.  If there was ever a time to hide her true feelings, it was when Rosie was around.  She didn't need to know the Starlight was really a Changeling named Double-Take.  She didn't need to know about the civil war.  She didn't need to know...
“Hey, Starlight!”
“Hi, Rosie.  How's your morning been?”
The earthen Unicorn smiled.  “It's been fine.  And yours?”
“Pretty well.  I had tea with Twilight and Spike.  That sort of just happened, though.”
“Nice.  Anyway, ready to head out?”
“Sure.”  So she put on her saddlebags and the pair began to walk over to Dandelion Café.
It wasn't too far from the Marketplace and it was one of the smaller restaurants in Ponyville.  They didn't say too much, Rosie for the simple fact that she enjoyed the moment; however, Double-Take couldn't take her mind off of the letter.  What could it say?  How did the Abandoned find her?  Was The Shadow's Wings closing in, as well?  She'd just have to wait until she had time to read it, but she felt confident about one thing: it wasn't a death threat.  The Abandoned didn't usually pursue deserters if they knew that they wouldn't return to the Tyrant Queen, and Double-Take had every intention of avoiding Changeling contact as much as possible.  It must be important to track her down.  Maybe a request for her to rejoin the Underground?  Or could it be a warning?
The duo arrived at the small eatery a short time later.  Blossomforth was already waiting for them.  “Hey!” she called.
“Hi, Blossom,” Rosie replied in her usual jovial manner.
“Good morning,” Double-Take greeted.  “Or, good noon.  When does morning end?”
Blossomforth rolled her eyes with a smile.  “I don't think there's a consensus as to what time morning ends.  Or if there is a time between morning and afternoon.”
Rosie just shrugged nonchalantly.  “Let's just get a table.  I'm starved.”
“Agreed.”
A mint-green Unicorn with a dark green mane and tail greeted the three at the entrance of the small café.  “Hello, girls,” she said in an almost musical voice.
“Good morning, Spring Flower,” Rosie said with a delightful smile.
“Just you three today, or are you expecting Thunderlane to join up later?”
“Just us three.  Thunderlane is hanging out with Rumble, Flitter, Cloudchaser, and Snowflake today.”
“Okay, just the three of you.  I assume you'd like a seat outside, as per usual?”
Rosie turned to her friends.  “Any preferences?”
Double-Take wanted to recommend a seat inside after receiving that letter, but she thought of the unlikelihood of an attack by the Hunters Deceit, the elite Abandoned-hunting teams of the Shadow's Wings.  It was safer in wider view, and there was no guarantee that anyone other than the Abandoned had found her.  Finally, she simply replied, “It's a beautiful day.”
“True,” Blossom added.  “I guess we'll have a table outside.”
“Excellent choice.  Right this way,” and let the trio to a table just near the entrance, plenty of other ponies around.  “It's a bit busy today, so order may take a bit longer than usual.”
“That's fine,” Blossom said, warmly.
Spring placed a menu down for each of them and left to take other orders, leaving the trio to decide what they wanted.
“It's good to see the business they're getting.”
“I wonder if they're thinking of hiring some helping hooves.  They work themselves to death,” Rosie added.
Double-Take just gazed off, unfocused to say the least, oblivious to the conversation at the table.  Rosie and Blossomforth were discussing their week and Rosie mentioned something about Silver Anvil, but the Changeling catch little else.  She still felt the same rhythm.  It wasn't any “louder” than before and she still couldn't get a sense of where it was coming from.  “Who are you?” she wondered silently.  “How could you have found me and why?”  She knew she wouldn't get a response, and she was too cautious to actually let her inner words be heard.  She could inquire directly from the Changeling in town, but without direct eye contact, or knowing who it was at the very least, there was no way to send her thoughts in a way that wouldn't risk an psionic eavesdropper.  No, unless she had complete confirmation that no other Changeling was in town save the courier, she wouldn't dare will her thoughts to any but herself.
“Starlight?” Blossom asked, but the Changeling still stared down the street, the same rhythm calling out as if in warning.  “Starlight?”
She snapped out of it.  “Huh?”
“Starlight, are you okay?  You seem a bit off, today.”
Double-Take blinked twice after shaking her head.  “Yeah.  I, uh, I just didn't sleep well last night.”
Blossomforth frowned, and said with authenticity in her eyes, “That's too bad.  I know you've been having a bit of difficulty with insomnia lately.”
Double-Take smiled.  “Thanks, but I'm fine.  Just a bit tired.  I got a book from Golden Oaks and it has a lot in it.  Nurse Redheart suggested I look in to acute insomnia and some tips on dealing with it.  She also said that if I still have trouble in about two weeks' time, she'd schedule an appointment with Doctor Stable.”
Blossom was still frowning, but she sighed.  “Okay.  I'm just worried about you.  The amount of stress you must deal with has to have something to do with it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you run your own business and, up until recently, have had to manage everything by yourself.  For the longest time, you've refused to take weekends off.  It can't be easy.  Unless that slipped your mind.  You need to relax more.”
Double-Take simply put her hoof on Blossomforth's shoulder.  “Blossom, I appreciate your concern, and I'm not disregarding your point, but I'm fine.  Really.”
“Alright.  Just... try to take it easy for a little while, okay?”
The Changeling smiled.  “I can at least do that.”  Spring came back to the table, and it was only then that Double-Take noticed the glasses of water and fruit skewer appetizers at the table.   “I guess I have been a bit distracted,” she thought.
“So, are you ready to order?”
“Starlight, are you ready?” Rosie asked.
“Yeah, I'm ready.”
“Then we're ready,” Blossomforth said.
“Okay then, orders?”  Spring Flower's horn began to glow, a quill and notepad floating from her bistro apron.
“I'll have the meadow salad, extra dandelion greens, with a side of baked hay fries.”
“The apple and daisy stew looks good,” Rosie said.
“I think I'll have the maroon carrot soup with a small salad on the side.”
Spring finished writing down the orders and smiled.  “Alright, they'll be ready a few.”  And she trotted off to the kitchen, likely to help Coconut with the orders.
Double-Take picked up one of the fruit skewers and took a big bite of the apple.  “Fresh from Sweet Apple Acres.  Best apples this side of Canterlot.”
Rosie nodded in agreement.  “Yeah.  When are you finally going to tell us about your travels, by the way?”
Double-Take cringed with a silent, “Ponyfeathers.”  After taking a sip of water, she sighed.  “Soon, hopefully,” she said.  “Time just gets away from me, y'know?”
Blossomforth shrugged.  “We'll have to make a point of it something next week.  Have anything else planned?”
“Yeah, Ditzy's giving Snowflake and I muffin-baking lessons on Saturday.”
“You and Snowflake getting close?” Blossom joked with a bit of a sly smile.
Double-Take just looked at her for a second.  “Eat your fruit skewers,” she retorted with a chuckle, taking another sip from her glass.
“I don't know why we don't just do it tonight.  We're all free.”
“Yeah, but I think the rest of the group would want to be there.  It wouldn't feel right excluding them.”
Rosie sighed.  “Fine.”

After about ten minutes, Spring returned to the table with all of the orders.  “I'm sorry it took so long, we're short-hoofed today.”
“It's fine, Spring,” Rosie warmly replied.  “It's good to see you've been getting so much business.”
Spring looked relieved as she set the last plate down.  “Thanks for understanding.  Will there be anything else?”
“No, that's everything,” Blossom said.
With a nod, Spring rushed off to help fill the other orders.

The rest of lunch was rather uneventful, the conversation maintaining more mundane topics, a relief to Double-Take.  “I have something for you two,” she said after the trio paid the bill and walked for a bit.  “I entirely forgot that I had them on me.”  She opened one of her saddlebags and retrieved the last two lollipops, each carefully wrapped and with the flavor marked on the side.  “Velvet sent me a package of treats, so I thought I'd share them.”
The duo smiled, remembering the last time Starlight shared her stash of Hollow Shades sweets.  “Crystal-Melon Lollipops?” Rosie asked.
“Yep.  Here's a cantaloupe for you and a honeydew for Blossom.”
The Unicorn and Pegasus each took their respective flavor and thanked their friend in turn.
“When will we get to meet Velvet?” Blossom inquired.
“She and I were actually discussing when the best time to meet up would be.  She and my sister are planning a visit.”  Double-Take didn't like the idea.  She loved the thought of seeing her longest pony friends in person again, but she hated the thought of Starlight pretending to be somepony else just for her sake.  Starlight had already discussed it with her in previous letters, and Double-Take was finally beginning to relent.  If she was so adamant about it, why not?  But after the letter, she wasn't so certain anymore.  She didn't need to know what it said to know that bringing the only two ponies aware of what she was to Ponyville was a bad idea.
“That sounds great.  But, I think Pinkie Pie would be upset if you didn't give her warning a few days before they arrived.”
“Remember what happened when my brother came to visit?  Pinkie threw together a party so quickly that I could have sworn time slowed down just to compensate.”
Double-Take gave a slight, tired but genuine laugh.  “I'll be sure to give her the dates when they finally finalize their plans.”  She sighed.  “I think I might go home and take a nap.”
Blossom nodded.  “That sounds like a good idea.  Want us to walk with you?”
“You two don't need to do that.  Enjoy your afternoon.”
“Alright.  See ya, Starlight.”
“Bye, Star.”
And Double-Take, after one last smile and wave goodbye, headed home.

She got to the door of her two story cottage when she froze.  The rhythm was stronger, closer.  She still couldn't get a lock on it, but she knew better.  She looked over her shoulder to make sure nopony was watching, and turned her attention to the door.  She drew from her saddlebags the key to her home... and a concealed dagger of Changeling design.  “Best be ready for anything,” she whispered so quietly that her voice was lost in afternoon breeze.
She slowly opened the door, the hinges oiled so frequently as to allow the door to open silently, stepped inside, and scanned the room for immediate dangers.  Somepony was here.  Some Changeling was searching for an Abandoned, but the motivations eluded her.  The closing the door behind her, Double-Take stepped softly, her training in the Queen's elite permanently locked in her worst memories.
The floor creaked on the opposite side of the room, and Double-Take instinctively snapped to the direction.  Just as Double-Take was about to move toward the noise, a voice, calm and commanding, stopped her.  “Put your dagger away and listen to what I have to say, Double-Take.  Grant me that, at least.”
It wasn't the tone of the voice, or its suddenness, that stopped the Changeling.  It was the familiarity.  “Perfect Guise?  W-what are you doing here?”
The candles in the room flickered to life as the curtains pulled closed.  The light revealed a Changeling, larger than Double-Take, sitting on a chair in the kitchen.  He didn't look toward Double-Take.  He simply spoke with a calm composure.  “I'm here to speak with you, nothing more nothing less.”
Double-Take sheathed her dagger as a green flame peeled away her disguise like shreds of scrolls in a burning library.  “Did you deliver that letter to me?”
“No.  I'm not technically here on official business, but I do know that the letter was delivered by one of the Freedom's Elite couriers.”
“How do you know?”
“You should remember.  I'm Grand Façade's second-in-command.  There is a grand total of five Abandoned that know who your alias is and where you are, and all are in high-ranking positions.”
Double-Take filled a kettle with water and loose green tea, and asked as she did so, “So why are you here?”
“I came to ask you why you left.”
The mare stopped in her tracks for a moment before putting the kettle over a flame.   “I don't see how that's your concern.”
Perfect Guise sighed.  “You changed the tide of the war all those years ago.  We fighting a lost caused.  And then you joined.  You are the highest-ranking Changeling to ever successfully rebel against Chrysalis.”
Double-Take looked to her scar.  “Not without sore retribution.”
Guise stopped for a moment.  He knew better than to mention the Catacombs, or her failed execution and subsequent escape.  “But you succeeded.  An Inquisitor rebelled.  That gave Chrysalis pause.  That gave our cause credence.”
“And after she failed to execute me publicly, a large number of Changelings began to question.  She grew desperate.  She grew clumsy.  Her tactics began to fail.”
“You became a keystone to us.  Your knowledge of her tactics and of the inner workings of her organizations gave us, for the first time, an advantage.  So why?  Why did you abandon us?”
That was it.  That was one of the voices in her dream the previous night.  They weren't the voices of the friends she had damned to execution before her defiance, they were the voices of her comrades afterward.  She closed her eyes as her heart beat faster.  “I...  I was tired.”  She spoke slowly, trying to find the deeper reasons herself.  “I was selfish.  I was a coward that hated violence, and I abandoned you all!”  She was halfway to tears.  She had never admitted cowardice aloud.  Her pride had been humbled over time, but every feeling of regret and fear from the past three years hit her like a tidal wave.  Every emotional floodgate opened.
Guise saw the distress on his old friend's face.  “I don't mean to attack you.  I can understand your motivations.  You want a life of peace and honesty.  It's a life that you've found here.  That's what we've always fought for: a life free from the turmoil of the Hive and from the tyranny of Queen Chrysalis.”
There was a long moment of silence, broken only by the sound of the kettle.  Guise removed it from the flame and placed it on its metal platform to cool while Double-Take recomposed herself.
Double-Take finally broke the silence, her voice more steady and calm.  “After that expedition to the Library in the Shifting Sand, I was convinced of the Underground's cause.  I learned of the peaceful state we existed in nearly eight hundred years ago.  I believed that we could be that again.  But I don't have the stomach for warfare.  I think I rose in ranks in Chrysalis's guard by complete mistake.  I'm not violent.  I hate violence.”
“And that's why you were admired by so many of us.”
Double-Take closed her eyes again, steadying her breathing.  The initial wave had passed, but the floodwater remained.  “Undeserved.”
Guise placed a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.  “I have a feeling that letter is both a warning and a request.  The Hunters Deceit is searching for you again.  Be cautious in these coming weeks.  You still have some of the Agent to read the letter, right?”
“I have the ingredients to make some.”
"Good.  But there's something else.  Something big is coming, and I think Chrysalis knows it.  She's been moving her forces around frequently, preparing for something.  I don't know what it is, but I can tell it's going to have far-reaching consequences.  By her recent moves, she's either desperate or even more arrogant than we thought."
"I'll be careful."
Guise smiled, warmly and genuinely, at his old friend.  “Then I'd best be going.  Stay safe, Double-Take.”  He broke away from the scene and headed for the door, a ring of green flames surrounding him.
“Wait.”
He stopped, his disguise fading away before it was complete.  “Yes?”
Double-Take looked to him with warm – if sad – eyes.  “Would you like to stay for some tea?”
The Abandoned smiled again.  “I wish I could, but I've stayed here for far too long already.  Take care of yourself, whatever you decide.”  And he left, disguised as a chestnut stallion with a black mane and tail, a map and compass for a cutie mark.
> Chapter 3: Thoughts and Unpleasant Things
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 3: Thoughts and Unpleasant Things


Double-Take, disguised again, stood on the second floor balcony, her hooves on the guardrail, the wind in her mane.  She knew that she didn't want to read the letter.  Whatever was in it, whatever Grand Façade had to say, she knew she wouldn't like it.  The fresh air and the late afternoon sun helped to calm her nerves.  Looking around, a duo caught her eye.  It was Ditzy Doo and Dinky Doo.  It looked like they were out on a walk, enjoying life.  As simple as it may have been, it brought a smile to break the monotony of Double-Take's pensiveness.  If anypony was a testament to taking joy in simplicity, it was Ditzy and her daughter.
Double-Take sighed.  “I guess I can't run from it,” she whispered under the her breath.  “Not any more.”  The wind was howling so quietly as to whisper secrets, calling like a siren's song.  After a moment, she finally pulled away from her balcony and into her cottage once more.

It took a while, but she finally mixed together some of the Agent.  Some of the ingredients were plants common in potions and the other ingredients were commonplace in the Everfree Forest, but rare in the rest of the world.  There was one final ingredient that was always mixed in last, just before it was used: Changeling blood.  Thee drops would suffice, any less would be too impotent and any more would ruin the Agent; just another security measure.
Double-Take took her dagger and made a very shallow cut across the cannon of her foreleg, the letter laying out on the desk and the vial of inactive Agent resting on a stand.  A small bit of blood on her dagger, be it her own blood or the blood of fallen foes, was a sight she had never missed.  The sheen of the dagger and the jade green of Changeling blood...  Just the smell of Changeling blood brought with it undesired thoughts and memories.  She held the blade over the vial and let the viscous fluid lazily roll down it to the tip.  Each drop of blood changed the color of the Agent until it was a celadon shade at the third drop.
She closed her eyes and let her magic flow.  The Agent siphoned out of the vial and began to drip, drip, drip onto the blank papyrus until the entirety of the letter of the covered, neither dripping nor soaked, hardly a drop of the Agent remained.  The magical aura then surrounded the letter, turning from the warm insectoid green of Changeling magics to the a blackish fog, wisps of silvery light slithering through the opaque aura, forming an intricate pattern of organic composition giving way to geometric designs; circles and triangles connected by lines and squares like constellations in an astronomer's atlas.  After several moments, the aura and the light dispersed in an instant, filling the room with a black mist and silvery specks, suspended like the winter's first snow in stasis on a moonless night.  The remnants of the magic, hidden from the outside by blackout curtains, faded a minute later.  It was a spectacle to behold, but one to be performed in secret, away from prying eyes.  It was a spectacle that Double-Take had seen enough times.  Only after the last of the misty aura and foggy remnants of the spell had gone did Double-Take open her eyes.
The papyrus in front of her now was now covered in an alphabet that would appear abstract and alien to the ponies of Equestria.  Every character was written in an ink of brilliant dark green that caught the glow of the candles around the room, giving the letter an eerily luminous quality.  It was enchanting.  It was beautiful.  It was terribly unnerving.
It had been years since she read Changeling, but the characters were as familiar to her as the faces of the friends.  Changelings were good at recognizing both information and faces.  They could tell apart identical twins in identical outfits that they had met moments prior in the blink of an eye, and the best could easily distinguish an original painting or photograph from amongst dozens perfect copies in a glance.  It was a natural ability of the shadowy species, and one that could be honed.  To a Changeling, others of the species were as distinct as a griffin among ponies.
Double-Take took another deep breath before reading, though she read the words as though they were written in Equestrian.
Double-Take,
I regret disturbing you.  I know that you no longer desire to take any part in this war.  I know why you left and I can understand why you might never want to return.  But I write this letter in a time of great uncertainty.  This letter is threefold: the first is a warning, the second is a request, and the third is a simple collection of facts.
You are being hunted.  The Tyrant Queen has once more ordered a bounty to be placed against you and three assassin teams of standard size have already been dispatched.  I do not know if they are aware of your location, but I promise you that Quick Wit will not be followed.  You remember him, I'm certain.  Quite possibly the fastest and most cautious courier we have.  He is a dependable drone that I trust with my life.  I know of the assassins because we have agents working within the Tyrant's ranks.  None are in positions of power, but their observations have been a boon.
I want to speak with you personally.  You gave us an advantage that few others could have.  You had done enough for us while you were within our ranks.  I know that you bear no ill will toward us, so you are free to deny this request.
Finally, the Tyrant Queen is getting desperate.  Unfortunately, so are we.  Chrysalis's end goals are becoming apparent, and they involve Equestria.  She seeks domination and power.  She seeks a food source on a massive scale.  Her purpose of invading Canterlot several weeks ago was to slowly drain the emotions of the city's denizens until nothing remained but husks, slaves for her to control with simple words.  She would bolster her armies, create an expendable labor force, and use every resource gained from the conquest to crush the Abandoned.  We would stand no chance.  After we were dealt with, Chrysalis would refuse to stop.  Power consumes, Double-Take, and some are more easily corrupted than others.  She would turn her sights to the Northern Reaches, to Saddle Arabia, to the Griffin Kingdoms, and to every other sovereign nation in this world.  Total dominion.  And, much like dominoes in branching paths, each part of the sequence would simply increase its momentum.  It would become more difficult to stop until nothing remained to defy her but simple obstacles, trampled like weeds or brushed aside as though they were dust.
I do not write in uncertainty, Double-Take.  This is her final goal.  But I believe that there is more at work than Chrysalis.  There is something that doesn't bode well for anyone.  There is an urgency with which I write this letter.  There are reasons for sending this beyond a request and a warning, but I dare not put them to paper.  You know where to find me if you decide to speak with me.
Grand Façade
Double-Take set the letter on the desk and leaned back, her wings heavy and eyes tired.  With a single sigh, she mumbled a Changeling curse.  “This is not something I want to deal with.”

She spent hours pacing.  “What should I do?” she asked herself, nearly expecting a response.  The chairs offered no advice and the mirror simply stared blankly at her troubles.  “At such a scale...  Is Chrysalis really so desperate as to resort to conquest?  Only a fool fights a war on two fronts.  Only a desperate fool fights a war on two fronts simply to use the resources gained from the conquest of one to fight another.  Does she perceive herself infallible?  After a failed invasion, would she really try it again?  What else could she-”  Her words caught in throat, heart beginning to race.  Another foul memory found its way to the front of her mind.

She felt the heat of flames rending asunder the darkness of night.  She heard the wind calling, howling, screaming.  She saw the glowing embers amongst blackened wood, the scorched rubble of stone, and the bodies of the citizens of a town five times the size of Ponyville.  The architecture was far different from Equestrian design and ever body was a Changeling's, some in guard uniforms, some simple citizens, and others in tattered and singed cloaks sharing an emblem; three concentric circles with a diagonal line bisecting all of them.  They were Abandoned cloaks, but the uniforms were standard and simple, betraying only their purpose of protecting the town.
Double-Take ran through the streets, her helmet dropping to the ground with a ringing clatter, fearful worries in her eyes.  The twists and turns of the streets were almost unrecognizable in the wake of warfare.  She tripped and stumbled, but never fell.  It was too important to fall.  One last corner she rounded, revealing a house among many in the residential district.  The doors were blown off their hinges, scorched and battered.
She ran through the entryway, the house faring no better than the rest of the town.  “Hello?” she called.  No voice rose to responded.  The only sound breaking the silence was a fire still raging off in the distance.  Double-Take ran through several rooms until she came to the common room, her fears confirmed.  She stared upon three bodies, daggers in each of their necks.  Dropping to the ground, her began to cry.  She never screamed, yet she never tried to hide her mourning.
She couldn't tell how long she cried, but she remembered one last thing.  Several Changelings in identical armor to hers entered the house.

Double-Take tried to shake the memory away.  “That damned Purge...” she muttered with such contempt.  “Of all the...”  A tear began to well in her eye.  “No.  Not again.  Chrysalis may be so ruthless, but she's no fool.  She would only invade if she was certain of success.  And now that she knows of the Elements of Harmony, she won't be so rash in her tactics.  She will invade again, but she will be far more cunning.  I guess that leaves only a single option.  I can't leave the world to burn.”  After a moment of thought, her mind turned to the shop.  “But I can't leave so suddenly.  How will I explain this to Zecora or Rosie?  Or the rest of the group?”  She parted the curtains to see that the moon was rising in the sky already.  “And I thought I might actually get some sleep tonight.”  With a sigh, she grabbed a journal, a quill, and an ink well.

I leave this note with a heavy heart.  To those curious about where I am, about what I'm doing, please forgive me, but I can't say.  Knowledge is dangerous, both to those that seek it and to those that already have it.  For your safety, I can only say that my past is catching up to me.  The less you know, the less likely you are to be dragged in.
I don't know who will find this letter first, but I beg you not to investigate it further.  I thank everypony for a wonderful life here in Ponyville, but all things end eventually.  The day ends and the night begins.  Lakes are finite, rivers end in lakes or seas.  The only clouds to last are those used in Pegasus architecture, and those are subject to change over time without maintenance.
I've always been secretive, and I know that many have been curious.  I don't know if anypony ever suspected me of a secret past, but if there are those thoughts, I will simply say that some things are best left forgotten.  There are some mysteries best left unsolved.
This is my final goodbye.  I don't know if I'll ever return, or what awaits me once I leave.
Double-Take ripped out the page and crumpled it up, dropping it to the ground to sit, forgotten, with nearly two dozen of other pages.  “How to say it?  What to say?  What is there to say?”  She leaned her head back and hissed in frustration, her thoughts eluding organized scrutiny.  After several moments, one though crossed her mind that she had wished arrived hours earlier.  “Starlight and Velvet...”
She stood up and opened the window once more.  It was just after midnight and she knew that she would see little rest until long after morning.  With a few deep inhales followed by slow exhales, she sat down at her desk once more and took several sheets of loose paper from a drawer.
> Chapter 4: Assassins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 4: Assassins


Dear Starlight and Velvet,
I fear that my past is catching up to me.  I recall that I told you both of the Changeling civil war, but I don't think I said much more than that I had fought on both sides, and that both instances ended with my desertion.  The punishment for desertion from the Royal Army is execution, and I've avoided that retribution for seven years, now.
But I received a letter from the leader of the Underground, an Abandoned named Grand Façade.  In his letter, he warned me that there's another price on my head and that assassins are already searching for me.  I know Chrysalis.  These teams will stop at nothing to kill me, even if it means using something important to me as bait.  That would be you both.  You're the only two that know who I am, and I fear that you may both be in grave danger because of it.  I beg you both to stop writing letters until I can confirm that communication is no longer a threat to your lives.  Regrettably, that makes this my last letter to you for the foreseeable future.  I don't know how else to say it.  I don't dare say more than that, but please forgive me, and please be careful, both of you.  If something were to happen to you two because of me, I'd never forgive myself.
I want to thank you both one last time.  For everything.

Your ever-thankful friend,
Double-Take

It took a half-dozen drafts and much heartache throughout, but Double-Take finally finished her last letter.  “How to send it without drawing attention,” she pondered, looking over the letter.  With a long, almost exaggerated, yawn, Double-Take struggled to keep her eyes open, forcing herself to stay awake for a few moments longer.  With another sigh, she simply set the letter back on the desk.  “I'll deal with it in the morning.”  And consciousness seemed to fade away as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The sun's golden rays brought Double-Take's few short hours of sleep to an end, the warmth of morning light shattering whatever dreams or nightmares the Changeling's subconscious had devised.  It took nearly all of her willpower to simply force herself upright.  Her eyes lazily drifted around the room until they fell upon her desk, her mind shifting to the matter of her final letter to Starlight and Velvet.  She ran both of her hooves down her head and neck, brushing over the frill where a mane would be.  After a few moments, she raised her head once more.  “I'll send it from Fort Freedom.  I could get one of the couriers to deliver it.  Yes, that should be the most secure option...  Assuming one of the couriers would be willing to help me out...”  With a sigh, she simply climbed off the bed and proceeded to the kitchen, her stomach speaking louder than logical thoughts.
She took on her disguised form and opened the window before she began mixing together some daisy pancake batter, letting the sunlight and fresh air fill the room.  It took some amount of energy to maintain the disguise, but she wasn't willing to take any risks.  Not today.  Any small hint of danger was enough to trigger her acquired instincts, and the Abandoned's warning the previous day was more than a small hint.
As she cooked, her mind wandered, turning to more... unpleasant things.  Matters that she knew she needed to address.  There was the issue of the shop, but she wasn't the only apothecary in town.  Zecora's hut wasn't too deep into the Everfree, though most wouldn't risk the walk even in daylight, but she visited town weekly for supplies and friendly talks.  Then there were the assassins.  Even if she was adamant about refusing to rejoin the Abandoned, the Hunters Deceit would find her eventually.  Did Grand Façade actually request her to rejoin?  It was just a request to talk.  Why had she assumed the worst?  Or was it the best?  She-
Another rhythm hit her, her head snapping to the road leading in to town from the main road.  It was different than the previous one, but she recognized it as a Changeling's thoughts, nonetheless.  Most rhythms were nearly identical, but this one was distinct.  Vague.
It was gone.  Just a brief several seconds of a rhythm projected across a wide radius.  “No distinct thoughts,” Double-Take silently analyzed.  “Just a presence...  A slip, perhaps?  ...Or a beacon?”  Whatever it was, she didn't like it.  It could have been any of a myriad of things: a careless courier, a haphazard Abandoned on leave to regain his or her strength, a cunning Hunter Deceit, or just some poor fool searching for something just out of reach.  Double-Take reassured herself of one fact that she had to learn long ago: to assume the best is suicide, to assume the worst is acquired paranoia, to assume anything is a fool's advice.  “Simply acknowledge it, expect the best and the worst, and deal with it as it comes.”  And she returned her focus to her breakfast, adding a diced apple to the batter just before cooking it.
A short while later and the pancakes were done.  It wasn't the most efficient food to make, and it wasn't the fanciest for those that have the time, but it was a simple meal of some small joy to the Changeling.  Much like the candies and cuisine of Hollow Shades or stargazing on a summer's night, it was such a simple luxury.  The simple luxuries made the less-than-ideal aspects of normal life more than worth in her eyes.  Those luxuries were things she lacked under Chrysalis's authoritarian grasp or during her time as part of the Underground.
With every bite, Double-Take felt just a little bit better.  Every bite gave her a small bit of strength and reassured her that she was going to do the right thing.  The goal of the Abandoned, after all, was the freedom of the Changelings.  A better tomorrow where every could simply live without fear, without deception, free from the want of anything.  By the time she finished her breakfast, her fears seemed to nonexistent.
“I'll leave today.  I'll only take the train part-way and I'll cover my tracks.  They have no reason to risk war by harming the rest of the town.  I'll just destroy anything connecting anypony to the Abandoned.  The Hunters are anything but reckless.”  Her eyes wondered the streets, searching, though she knew she wouldn't find anything.  It was just a nervous habit triggered by instinct.  Finally, she pulled herself away from the window.
She needed to focus her attention on collecting anything she had about the Abandoned or about Starlight and Velvet.  Forming a mental checklist, she started in her room.  The letters from Starlight and Velvet were first to go as they directly mentioned the Changelings, not always, but often enough to be a threat to their lives were one of the assassin teams to find it: over two years-worth of letters sent on a semi-weekly basis, with only a few dates missed.  She kept every letter for sentimental purposes.  In retrospect, that may have been a mistake.
After a half-hour of sorting papers and notes and scraps, she assembled every letter she had received from her Hollow Shades friends.  She placed the stack of papers in the hearth on the den and lit a match, placing it carefully on the center of the top page.  In seconds, the dry and aged papers were alight like a dragon's breath.  Double-Take refused to take her eyes off the papers until she was certain that nothing remained of them.  She didn't have to wait long.  In no time at all, all that was left of the papers were a few scorched scraps and a pile of smoldering ash.  Not a single word was left.  The Changeling let out a small, relieved sigh, just a small weight lifted from her shoulders.  That was one mistake corrected.
“My weapons.  I'll take them with me.  I should have gotten rid of them long ago.  But they'll have use again.”  She closed her eyes and held her head just a little bit lower, her shoulders dropping, feeling just a little bit defeated.
It took a minute, but she refocused herself again.  She moved through the cottage, collecting the weapons she kept hidden throughout the building.  After a while, she ran through another list; a dozen throwing knives, her dagger, and a sword.  She hated violence, but she knew the importance of self-defense.  If the Queen's agents ever found her, she was willing and ready to put up a fight.  There was only one room left in the basement.  The room was well-ventilated and the air was cool and fresh.  The room held dozens of bottles and a far collection of ingredients, but there wasn't much else.  At least, not to the untrained eye.  She walked to the opposite corner of the room, her disguise disappearing in a ring of flames.  She couldn't use her magic or her wings while disguised as an Earth pony.  It was one of the limitations of her alias, but the inconvenience never bothered her.  She pushed aside the cupboard and cast a spell on the blank floor.  With a small shimmer of slight, not nearly as complex as the spell used to reveal Abandoned letters, the illusion faded.  In place of an empty floor was a trapdoor leading to a square room no wider than two ponies long.  It was a secret room she used to hide her old Abandoned armor.  The metal would change shapes with her, so she could wear it while traveling in disguise without risking suspicion.  She took the armor and placed it with her weapons.
“What else?” she pondered to herself.  “I destroyed the letters, I have all of the weapons and armor in the cottage right here, so what's left?  The letter from Grand Façade and the letter to Starlight and Velvet, but I'm taking those with me.  That should be everything.  Then I guess I'll get ready to go.”  Those last words came a bit too naturally.  They were somehow unnerving.  It was only natural, she guessed.  After all, she was running away again.
She shook the thought, choosing once again to focus on the task at hand.  She donned her armor and emptied her saddlebags of everything she didn't need.  She packed her bit purse, her throwing knives and daggers, some food, and a tinderbox, just in case she'd need it.  Almost as an afterthought, she collected some medicinal herbs, plants and extracts from the basement, packing them up.  All that was left was to grab the letters on her desk and-
There was a knocking on the door.  Double-Take resumed her Earth pony alias and rushed to the door sitting room next to the entry way, cautiously peeking out the window.  No pony was there.  “Odd,” Double-Take thought, her eyes getting heavier.  Was her mind playing tricks on her?  Had she reached the point of exhaustion where rational thought began to slip away?  How much longer could she go without a full night's sleep?  She couldn't think about that now.
With a deep breath, she opened the door, something disturbingly obvious catching her eye: a Changeling throwing knife stabbed into her door, holding a note in place.  Her heart raced.  In Changeling culture, placing a knife like that was tantamount to a death threat.  She pulled out the knife and shut the door quickly, eager to be out of plain sight.  The note was scrawled in Equestrian.
There's a Changeling among you dedicated to anarchy.  Do not protect this criminal.
That was all it said.  Double-Take placed her hoof over her heart as it raced, faster and faster, dropping the knife and note on the coffee table in the middle of the entry room.  “How rash are they?”  She had to leave.  Fast.
But a knocking interrupted her once again.  The assassins?  No, that wouldn't make sense.  But they had already made such a bold move.  She couldn't think about it.  Peering out the window again, she saw a friendlier sight, but an unwelcome one.  Rosie and Blossomforth looked... shockingly calm.
Double-Take uttered a frustrated groan.  Just one thing going wrong after another.  “Calm yourself, Double-Take.  Just deal with it as it comes.”  She shook her head as she refocused on her friends.  This wasn't going to be pleasant.  She opened the door with as calm an expression as she could muster.  “Oh, hey.”
Rosie was giving a genuine smile.  “Hey, Starlight.  How've you been.”
Double-Take shook her worries aside.  “Tired, as always, but better.  What are you two doing here?  I don't remember us having plans.”
Blossomforth looked like she had a lot on her mind.  “What's with the mark on your door?  It looks like someone stabbed a knife into it.”
Something wasn't right.  She said “someone” and not “somepony.”  Only Changelings used “one” as part of pronouns.
“Rosie” started to look a little worried as she examined the knife mark on the door.  “Why would anyone do that?”
These weren't Double-Take's friends and she knew it.  “I don't know.  A prank, maybe?  I'll deal with it later.  In the meantime, would you two like to come in for some tea?”
“Sure,” Rosie answered with Blossomforth agreeing quickly.
Double-Take stepped aside and continued toward the kitchen.  The door closed as soon as her back was turned, but she didn't react.  She knew what to expect.
The curtains around the downstairs shut suddenly and Double-Take jumped to the side, a bolt barely clipping the tail of her disguise, no doubt poisoned.  It was just hair, though.  She landed on the coffee table and rolled off, taking the knife with her, and flipping the table on its side with a kick once she hit the ground, another bolt hitting piercing the wood less than a second later.  It was an awkward maneuver and the impact sent a shuttering jolt through her bones, but it saved her life.
“Perceptive, Abandoned!” one them laughed in mock congratulations, the green glow Changeling transformations lighting up the dim room.
Double-Take would have none of it.  She never understood the purpose of gloating and mockery.  She listened to the hoofsteps.  One pair in each direction, falling in unison.  Ambush tactics.  Taking the knife in grip, she jumped out of her improvised cover, throwing the knife as she flew through the air, landing into a tuck and roll and proceeding to jump halfway up the stair, running the rest of the way, a bolt nearly striking her neck.  Her weapons were in her room, packed away her saddlebags.  She realized that leaving all of her weapons in her room was a mistake that very well may cost her her life.
The other assassin snickered, his hoofsteps indicating that he was climbing the stairs fast.  “I guess I should have expected no less from the former Inquisitor.  But why do you still hide?”
Double-Take's form faded as she hastily tore every object from her saddlebags.  She pressed her back against the wall next to her door.  It would open in the opposite direction and give her time to strike them.  Her magical aura enveloped all of her throwing knives, unsheathed them, and proceeded to lift them into the air, all facing the door.  The hoofsteps reached the room and, by the sound of it, there were two sets still.  The previous knife hadn't found its mark, but it served its purpose, regardless.  The door opened and Double-Take launched all of the knives at once, using her magic to make the spread out once they reached the doorway like a scatter shot.
There was a scream of pain and a body hit the floor, but only one.  Good.  She needed the other one alive.  She levitated her sword to her, refusing to enter the line-of-sight of the remaining assassin.  “Come and get me!” she shouted in what she expected to be a futile effort to goad the assassin into rushing her, hoping rage would be the catalyst needed for him to make mistake.
No response.  She assumed as much.  She scanned her room for anything that she could use to form an indirect line-of-sight.  Nothing.  She didn't keep any mirrors in her room.  She needed something...  “With a sheen,” she thought, looking at her sword.  It had been a while since she needed to think on her toes, but it was coming back.  If he tried to rip it from her grasp with a levitation spell, she still had the dagger on her bed, and the smaller blade would be better in a confined area, anyway.  She lifted her sword and twisted the blade, using its edge to scout the hall.  One body confirmed, but she couldn't see the other.  “He must be around the corner.”  Her words were still silent, but her heart seemed to beat like a war drum, nearly drowning out her thoughts.  She wouldn't dare peak around the corner.  One of them would have to give, or else they would remain stalemated.  “Stalemate,” she finally announced.
“Shrewd.”  Finally, a reply.
“Unlike you, I have nothing to lose.  Leave without my head, and you risk the Tyrant's wrath.  Stay, and you risk the same fate as your comrade.”
“Trying to goad me on will get you nowhere.”
“Then tell me this, at least.  Where's the third?”
“Like I'd tell you.”
“Very well.  What about the ponies you were impersonating?”
“The same as always.”
“Where?”
“Telling you is pointless.  You'll die soon enough.”
“Then what's the harm?”
“Then think logically.  Where else could they be?”
“The forest, then.  I assume it's just deep enough to keep ponies from stumbling on to them.”
“You're just delaying the inevitable.”
“Then what are you doing?”
The assassin gave an annoyed huff, only just audible to Double-Take's keen ears.  “Touché.”
“Changeling Code of Honor?”
“What honor do you have left?”
“It's the only way we'll get anywhere without trying to starve each other out.”
“I have time.”
“So do I.”
“I have backup.”
And Double-Take felt it.  The third assassin was somewhere in town, but they couldn't communicate through psionics without Double-Take listening in.  “I know.”  Double-Take sighed.  This was getting her nowhere.  She had to get to the Everfree and find the chrysalises containing her friends.  They'd likely be dazed when she woke them up.  They wouldn't fully come to for a few minutes afterward, and everything during the daze and shortly before being imprisoned would just feel like a bad dream.  It wasn't the worst way to end imprisonment in a Changeling chrysalis.
Another thought came to Double-Take.  She scanned the landing again using her sword, this time making a note of her knives.  She knew the cottage well enough to visualize where they actually were, rather than where they appeared to be when reflected.  She could use that to grasp her knives without a direct line-of-sight.  It was skewed and awkward, but it had a chance of working.  After a few moments of thought, she saw the reflections of the magical aura as the knives pulled themselves free.  They turned and launched themselves again.
She saw a black mass jump and roll out of the way.  That was her chance.  She jumped around the corner as quickly as she could and dashed toward the assassin while using her wings to boost her speed and balance significantly.  The assassin recovered, but turned just a moment too late as Double-Take slammed into him, the two toppling onto the ground with Double-Take having the upper hoof.
The assassin looked up at his mark, her blade to his throat.  “Well played.”
The wrathful expression on Double-Take's face dropped into one of reluctance.  She didn't have the stomach for violence, and her foe was nearly helpless.  She wasn't ruthless, but the last time she let an adversary live, it cost two of her comrades their lives.
The assassin kept waiting for a strike that never came.  "You're hesitant.  Why?"
“Because I'm not like you.”
“You assume.  Is it a weakness not to kill a subdued foe?  Or a strength?  I never had the stomach to hunt helpless pray.”
Double-Take raised an “eyebrow.”  “Yet you're still one of the Hunters Deceit?”
“You were an Inquisitor.  Honor can be found anywhere.  But it must be earned and maintained.”
“Settle this with a duel of swords?”
“Agreed.”
Double-Take let the Changeling up and backed away, her sword in her front hooves as she balanced on her back legs, her wings assisting in the awkward stance.  The assassin drew a blade of his own and took a similar stance.  With a mutual nod, they clashed.
They were nearly equal in skill with swords, one parrying or dodging the blade of the other with such symmetry that one could mistake it for a dance.  How long had they dueled?  Double-Take lost track of time, but finally the assassin overstepped, his last swing slightly clumsier.  Double-Take parried the blade with ease and, as if on instinct, seized the opening, running the assassin through.
He dropped his sword, his breath leaving him nearly instantly.  He collapsed, Double-Take gently setting him down as he sputtered his last words with what she could have sworn was a smile.  “It was an... honor... former Inquisitor.”  And that was that.  He was dead.
Double-Take closed the assassin's eyes.  “Find fire,” she said, wishing her foe farewell with a somber voice.  After a moment, she stood up, once more on all four legs, her mind switching to her next task.  She had to find Rosie and Blossomforth.  She'd worry about the cottage later.

Double-Take rushed into the Everfree Forest quickly, the adipokinetic hormones from the fight and her worry for her friends were the only things keeping her going.  She stopped after a few minutes of walking and listened.  Something felt... off.  The forest was always unnerving, but it seemed eerily quiet.  The only thing she could hear was the muffled sound of the river not too far off.  She couldn't worry about it.  There were more important things than trying to understand the Everfree.
She vibrated her wings, creating a chirping “buzz” that resounded through the forest.  It was a few short bursts with just a bit of time in between every several “chirps.”  She listened closely for a slightly different sound than the normal echo.  Nothing.  Rosie and Blossom weren't within earshot, but Double-Take had expected as much.  She glanced around, trying to discern the best direction to start in when a pony caught her eyes off in the distance.  It was dark and the pony seemed to be nothing more than a silhouette.
“Hello?” she called, not really thinking.  She could have sworn that she saw... glowing eyes?  It was almost... mesmeric.  “Hello?” she called again, taking a step forward.
The pony took off with astonishing speed, and Double-Take followed suit, but she just couldn't keep up.  After a minute or so, she rounded a bend in a particularly thick part of the forest.  The pony was nowhere to be seen.
Double-Take sighed and turned around to resume her search, questioning why she had chased after the pony in the first place, when she glanced a luminescent mass off in the distance.  It had brilliant shades of blues and greens of similar nature to a Changeling's wings or tail.  A chrysalis!  She took off and landed on the same crook of branches as the Changeling pod.  She placed her hoof on the pod, a glow escaping her horn.  The pod began to crack until the front of it shattered, revealing a seemingly catatonic Blossomforth.  She would wake up in a few minutes, completely dazed.  That gave Double-Take a few minutes to find Rosie.  They wouldn't have hidden her too far off.  She could try to use her chirping to find the second pod, but the river was much closer now.  It could drown out the echo.
She didn't need to worry.  She saw the other pod in a tree just across the path.  The path?  “How'd I end up back on the path?” she pondered.  She shook it off.  It was the Everfree.  That was all the explanation she needed.  She flew to the other tree and opened the pod, confirming it to be her Unicorn friend.  Double-Take picked Rosie with her magical grasp, the task requiring a greater deal of concentration and will due her lack of sleep, and set her gently on the ground at the base of the tree.  With a recovery breath, she did the same with Blossomforth.  A moment later, she looked down on her friends from the branch of the tree.  “Could I get them back before they wake up?”  She shook her head, determination in her eyes.  “Even if I can't, I refuse to leave them unconscious in the Everfree.”
After a long, deep breath, the turquoise aura of her magic gently lifting the two ponies from the ground.  Double-Take jumped to ground, her wings slowing her fall, and began the trek back to Ponyville.

The walk, while slow and tiring, was shockingly peaceful.  She didn't see any timber wolves, or hydras, or even a single cockatrice.  Just the occasional phoenix, squirrel, or some other calm woodland creature.  It was almost beautiful.  But she had to keep focus.  As much as she'd love to stay and admire the beauty of the mysterious woods, she had to get her friends out of the forest before they woke up.  The last thing she wanted to do was answer their questions.  A few minutes later, she saw the trees thinning out.  They were almost home.
Home...  “No, I can't...”  She felt the last of her strength leaving her.  “Just get them home.”  She stumbled out of the forest, collapsing from her exertion, the two ponies hitting the ground with two distinct thuds.  “At least...  At least we're out of the forest.”
> Chapter 5: Flashback and History
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 5: Flashback and History


The fire crackled and cackled, the flames licking the hearth's stone structure and illuminating the cottage den.  Double-Take basked in its glow as the heat chased away the chills and shivers of her illness and fought further back the icy winds of mid-winter.  Her hostesses were kind enough to get her some water, which she desperately needed.  Starlight and Velvet sat on the couch, watching the Changeling's every move.  This was the first time she got up in… well, ever since the two mares found her half-dead.  Not long, in the grand scheme of things.  Still a long time to be bed-ridden, but far shorter than either of the mares expected consider the way they found her.
Double-Take looked over her shoulder, the flames silhouetting her already shadowy exoskeleton-like hide.  “You harbor a fugitive,” she uttered, equal parts grim and steady.  Her voice had a distinctly insect-like quality about it; rough, echoey, unnerving, but not unpleasant.  Eerie, in other words.
Velvet looked… shock?  …No, it was a look of awe; the dumbfounded expression of a mare who had just heard the most unexpected of things.  This was the first time the Changeling spoke.  And she spoke a foreboding warning of a wrong already done.  “You… can talk? I thought Changelings were all just-”
“Slaves to the Hive?” Double-Take interrupted.  “Mindless drones and worker and soldiers, following blindly a queen born to her position?  That we exist in that predetermined egalitarian society where our only concerns are the hive and the queen?  Where our roles are predetermined by our physical standings at birth?  What a grand lie would be."  She scoffed in contempt and turned away, walking to the window, her blue eyes scanning the flurries of snowflakes in early evening light, looking for nothing where everything was to be found.  Hunger was returning with a vengeance, and her head began to ache, as though a small insect was stinging at the back of her brain as pressure built around it.  "We are not typical arthropods.  We are as much insect as we are pony.  We do not follow 'typical' hive insect hierarchy.  We have no biological castes.  We do not even have differing tribes.  And the Queen is to us what an Alicorn is to you.  Your Princess Cadance did not always have her horn.  She was a Pegasus before, if the reports are to be believed.
“But that is beside the point."  She returned her gaze to the duo of mares.  "We Changelings are individuals.  We think, we speak, we love, we have individual families and, at the end of the day, we dream.  We do have a hive mind of sorts, though not in the traditional sense that equine fiction paints it.  It is more of a 'network' through which we may share thoughts, emotions, and, with enough practice, memories and even dreams.  It is second nature to us.”
“And you're only just now telling us this?  You've been here a week.”  Velvet bit her tongue and quelled her frustration upon remembering that the Changeling was mostly comatose for that time.
Double-Take made no reply.
Starlight simply took a breath and assessed the situation.  “What crimes did you commit?”
Double-Take sighed.  “Treason.  But not against Equestria.”  She shook her head, forcing herself to admit yet another thing she so desperately wished to hide and forget.  “No, the crimes I've made against Equestria are of a different sort.”
Starlight's eyes widened, Velvet following along with once more a dumbfounded expression. 	“Treason against…”
The question hung in the air for an awkward moment.  “Queen Chrysalis.  The Changeling Queen.  The Mistress of Deception.  Whatever you want to call her."  She turned again, as if fighting the urge to pace around the room.  "I call her tyrant.  We… call her tyrant.”
Starlight moved to speak again, but Double-Take once more interrupted.
“It's a long tale and I'm certain you do not wish to hear it all.  But simply my being here puts you both in danger.  I deserted the Queen three years ago.  I deserted the rebellion against her nearly two weeks ago.  Treason on both accounts.”
“I have the time to listen.”
The Changeling sighed.  “Then you've entered a rabbit hole that has no end.  To start from the beginning...”

Double-Take closed her eyes, thinking of how best to explain.  "Changelings have the benefit of time.  You ponies average one hundred twenty-five years; we live twice as long, though the Queen might very well be immortal, much like your princesses.  About one hundred years ago, tensions between the Hive and the Griffin Kingdom strained to a breaking point."
"The Eastern Changeling Incursion," Velvet stated.
Double-Take nodded.  "We call it 'The Morning of Tragedy.'  Official propaganda in the Hive says that the Griffins started the war, but I know better.  Both sides were at fault and Chrysalis struck the first martial blow, but no one truly knows who started the diplomatic and political transgressions.  After about a decade of political crossfire and growing tensions, the Changeling Royal Council secretly declared war and Chrysalis launched a campaign within days.  She struck quickly and silently, capturing over a quarter of the Kingdom in a matter of weeks, and pushing the Griffins back to their deepest strongholds just after the six month mark.  She's a brilliant tactician and her campaigns rarely give her opponents the chance for open warfare."  Double-Take's voice began to quiver slightly, more from hunger than from the thoughts of the bloody conflict.
"But the Changelings lost the war," Velvet stated.
"Only after the Griffin Kingdom's allies intervened," Starlight corrected.
"Yes," Double-Take began again.  "She called for help, and Equestria, Saddle Arabia, and Tauren responded.  Equestria and Saddle Arabia placed an embargo, and all Equestria and Tauren sent troops to help the Griffins.  Chrysalis suddenly found herself fighting a war on four fronts with all trade cut off.  What happened then was... bloody.”  Double-Take sighed before continuing.  “After nearly a year a fighting, and… staggering casualties for both Griffins and Changelings – far fewer for Tauren and Equestria – the Griffins had reclaimed all of their land, and we were loosing our own territory.  We faced siege.  If not for Chrysalis's tactics, we would have been wiped out within days.  We had been driven deep into the heart of our own nation.  With little land and diminishing resources, we faced famine.  Changelings began to starve in the streets.  And without trade or travel, the Changelings that did have food grew ill from a lack of emotions.  Disease spread life wildfire.  Famine… and plague.  Those two things can reduce empires to ash, topple dynasties, destroy nations, break tribes.  Chrysalis surrendered.  She had little choice.  Her subjects were dying in the battlefield by the dozens each day and field hospitals could not… compensate, or they were starving in the streets, or flooding civil clinics.”  Double-Take was visibly disturbed.  The war took place before her time; she only had stories from veterans or books written by eye-witnesses and official reports.  But… it still ate at her.  Her voice was weak for a conglomeration of reasons.  “Chrysalis is a tyrant, but she is not evil.  She cares about her kingdom as much as Princess Celestia, or King Galewind, or Archon Labyrinthine.  She's simply... not as kindhearted.”
“Power-hungry?” Velvet proposed.
Double-Take's shoulder's slumped in resignation.  After a moment, she finally replied, though a defeated and almost regretful tone had taken hold.  “Perhaps.  That may be why she started the war when tensions strained.  She sought to expand her kingdom.”  Double-Take turned away once more, as if ashamed by the Queen's actions.  “It was one of her... few... miscalculations.”  After another sigh, she continued.  “We were given back most, but not all, of our land.  The rest of it was converted into a demilitarized wasteland.  The Hive is a region dominated by old-growth forests and primeval wetlands.  Even the flowers in what grasslands remain tower over ponies.  It is-  It was fertile land.  War fires and politics destroy many things.  Losing that land was-"  Double-Take had to take a breath.  The products of the war, its destructive consequences, still had ramifications. "It was devastating.  Many of the forests and wetlands were destroyed.  Only about a decade ago has grass begun to grow once more in the Wastes.  Crops still fail more often than not.  We… never truly recovered from the war.”  She swayed slightly, putting a hoof to her forehead.  The hunger was unbearable, now.  “I… think I need to… to sit…”  She nearly collapsed, and Starlight rushed to catch her.
“What's wrong?”
The Changeling's voice was weak.  “It's… it's been a while since I… last ate.”
Starlight tensed, but relaxed after a moment.  Double-Take had given them no reason to fear her, made no acts of malice to cause distrust.  “If you… need to feed off me-”
“No,” the Changeling interrupted, rushed and adamant.  After a moment, she spoke again, pacing her words more evenly.  “I refuse to feed directly.  I don't want to risk you turning to a husk.”
Starlight opened her mouth to retort, but she stopped herself.  Everypony in the room knew that Double-Take would die if she didn't feed, and the Changeling didn't need to be reminded.  “Would one time really risk you draining me of all my emotions?”
“Normally, no,” she answered, lowering herself to a chair with Starlight's help.  She continued at a slow, steady pace.  “But I haven't eaten anything of significant proportion in nearly a month.  Not of emotions, anyway.  We risk emotional starvation at about three weeks, depending.  With other, physical food, I haven't had much in about a week and a half.  Assuming I've only been here a week.”
“What more do Changelings eat, exactly?”
“Our diets are consistent with Ponies and Minotaurs, with the addition of emotions.  We physically need it.  We begin suffering from illnesses.  Fevers, chills, bone softening and chitin decay, as well as something resembling iron deficiency anemia.  But we're not restricted to positive emotions; they're simply more potent.  And we can feed off of strong or otherwise dense emotions passively, which is why we mostly spent our time in other nations, among other kinds.  You see, we can't take emotions from fellow Changelings.  Anyway, we usually use ambient love, friendship, and kindness to supplement our diets, but some resort to… parasitism.  At that point, they can survive off of emotions alone, but it's… unsustainable.  The victim dies, slowly.  They weaken, physically and mentally, until the last of their emotions are gone, and they become… husks.  Mindless, emotionless corpses, walking vessels for the Changeling's will.  Slaves, in other words.  It's horrific to see, and even more so to experience.  As far as I know, you're fully aware the whole way through…  To watch and be unable to do anything…”  Double-Take stopped.  She was visibly disturbed, as if some terrible memories, too horrific to mention, had resurfaced.  It was something she was trying to suppress for nearly six years.  “It takes a special kind of evil to do that without reason.  Only someone sufficiently desperate or twisted could watch someone suffer through that, or to cause it.  But there is always a motive.”
“What do you mean?” Velvet asked, her more scholarly side having followed the entire conversation.  It caught her interest.
“Emotions aren't just a necessity for Changelings.  It's also a source of power.  But only in sufficient potency and quantity.  The more we feed through parasitism, the more powerful we become.”
“Like a Vampony?”
The Changeling scoffed.  “Comparing us to a foal's tale?”
“I didn't mean any disrespect.  And there's actual evidence that Vamponies were real in some respects, and very well could-”
“Velvet!”
She stopped.  “I'm sorry, regardless.”
The Changeling's shoulders dropped even lower.  “The apologies are mutual.”
Starlight turned back to the Changeling, who wore another shameful look.  Starlight smiled.  “Well, enough talk about famine and plague.  What do you want for dinner?”
Double-Take tilted her head slightly.  "You're sure?  Even after I told you that I'm a fugitive?”
“Of course.  I don't know what you've done personally, but I have no reason to hate you.  You've been completely honest with us.  Even if the story's not finished yet.”
Double-Take fought the keep her head up.  If she had to trade the rest of the story of a good meal, so be it.

Starlight cooked up a quick dish for her “guest.”  Dusk carrot soup, a fresh spring greens salad, and a grilled cheese with tomato and avocado with a tall glass of non-alcoholic apple cider.  Starlight never did anything half-way, especially with guests.  Besides, the poor girl looked like she needed it.
Of course the Changeling accepted the meal eagerly, like an orphan foal lost in the woods, taken in from a storm.  The kindness of the gesture itself left a lingering sense of friendship, which was quickly drained by the hungry Changeling as her horn and fangs acquired a faint, luminescent, organic green shade.  She shuddered with the burst of warmth, her eyes brightening.  She sat slightly taller, energy returning to her.  She scarfed down the sandwich with starved ferocity, too hungry to maintain proper etiquette.  She had a decent grasp of pony mannerisms, though not of dining.  She never spent a lot of time in Equestria before, though it was enough to learn Equine and speak it fluently.  Most of her espionage for the Queen took place in Saddle Arabia or the Griffin Kingdom.  Next was the salad.  It was a side salad, but it had plenty of substance: arugula, kale, daisies, dandelion greens, walnuts, and so on.  It wasn't the most simple of salads, but Double-Take couldn't complain.  In fact, she was delighted by the variety.  If it was larger, it could have been a meal on its own, and it made a delicious compliment to the grilled cheese.  And finally, the dusk carrot soup.  It was a nightly lavender shade with a decidedly sweet, almost intoxicating, aroma, and the flavor matched perfectly.  The warm liquid did the Changeling nothing but good.  The apple cider wasn't anything special, but the Changeling didn't mind.  Apple cider, alcoholic or not, was one of her favorite Pony drinks.  She remembered it from the first time she was sent to Equestria.  It one of her first missions in the Shadow's Wings.
Double-Take finished her meal and, after a moment, looked to her hostesses, who were both finishing up the last of their dinners.  “Thank you,” she finally said, as politely as she could.  “It was delicious.  All of it.”
“You're very welcome, Changeling,” Starlight replied.  “But, I suppose you have a name.  I'd hate to have to refer to you as 'Changeling' all the time.”
She laughed.  "You would hardly manage to pronounce it, let alone remember it.  Our language is alien to most equines.  But my name roughly translates to 'Double-Take' in Equine Modern, so you can call me that.”
The starry-gray mare smiled.  “Double-Take it is, then.”

Double-Take lifted her head to gaze around the field.  Rosie and Blossomforth were still unconscious, but Double-Take realized she had passed out in her true form.  With a tired blink and shake of her head, she forced herself to her hooves.  She had to get out of open, at least until she could transform again.
> Chapter 6: Better Days
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 6: Better Days


Double-Take dragged herself back to her cottage, fighting to keep her eyes open.  All of her energy was sapped from her body and the only thing keeping her moving toward home was the fear of being seen.  She placed her hoof on the door handle, took a long, relieved breath, and opened the door.
A thunderous crash resounded through the cottage like a dragon's roar, Double-Take jumped back in reaction.  She shouted a Changeling profanity as the resulting revelation slammed into her, a charging Minotaur of fear and threats.  Someone had tied a tripwire to the door and rigged it to a sound trap.  The last assassin.  It had to be.
A bolt rushed from the shadows inside the cottage, narrowly grazing the Changeling.  Double-Take cursed silently as she jumped around the building, adipokinetic hormones rushing through her blood.  She tensed as she ran a hoof across her cheek, then relaxed.  No blood, no wound.
A voice buzzed and droned out of the depths of the cottage, speaking in Modern Changeling.  “A touch, Double-Take.”
Double-Take sneered in disgust.  “Not a one, Perjury.  So you were the one to send her team to their deaths.”
The assassin scoffed from the shadows.  “I am not so ignorant as once I was.  I was meeting with the other team leaders and only arrived in this pitiful town an hour ago.  It was the discretion of my team that led them to their deaths.”
Double-Take closed her eyes and took a breath.  Perjury liked to play with her quarries, often leaving only her blades poisoned.
“You're still concerned about that bolt, aren't you?  Allow me to give you some comfort before you're death.  No, it was not poisoned.”
“Then you are boastful still.  The bolt otherwise drew no blood, caused no wound.”
“I said I was less ignorant, not less sporting.”
Double-Take rolled her eyes with growling huff.  “Sport?  I should expect nothing less from Chrysalis's elite.  Devaluing life as points in a game.”
Perjury laughed.  “Devaluing life?  You should know.  At least I have never drained a living soul of all emotions.  Now, how did you put it again?  A fate worse than death?”
Double-Take bared her teeth in a vicious, hating sneer, though she knew Perjury couldn't see it.  “You have no right to speak of that.  You don't know what I saw, what I had to endure.”
“No, and the only other soul that did understand is dust in an unmarked grave because of you.”
Double-Take magically loosened her sword from its hilt, raging and bitter blood beginning to boil.
“What was her name again?  Ah, yes.  Mirage.  Double-Take and Mirage, the sole survivors of a mission gone wrong.”
The world faded as rage consumed.  A magical aura enveloped the nearby window.  With a buckle and a shutter, the glass shattered into a maelstrom of jagged and biting shards like vicious teeth, though not one even scratched Perjury.  Double-Take rushed through the door and charged Perjury while the assassin was still dazed..
Perjury recovered, pulling her sword just in time to parry Double-Take's swing.  Double-Take's blade bounced back harmlessly, Perjury barely recoiling.  “I've always been better at magic and swordplay, Double-Take!  You've sealed your own fate.”


“A touch!” Perjury laughed, spinning the bated sabre in her levitation spell.
“Fine, that's another point for you,” Double-Take conceded.  “But that's the last one.  I'll get you this time!”  The young Changeling, still a child, jumped forward in an inexperienced lunge.
Perjury batted her opponent's sabre away, placing her blade in a favorable position and establishing priority.  She sighed.  “Lunges don't work.  They're too easily parried and they leave you open for a reprise.  Only use them when an opponent swings wide or if you have a clear shot and priority.  Come on, I'll show you.  Swing wide.”
Double-Take took a horizontal swing, only to feel Perjury's blade hit her squarely in the barrel.  She looked down to see where exactly the touch was and saw it was perpendicular to her; a lunge.  With a huff, she dropped to a sitting position.  “I'll never beat you, will I?”
Perjury chuckled.  “My dad is the guard captain, he and I practice all the time.  You'll get better.  You're already better than I was when I started.”
Double-Take, wide-eyed, smiled at her friend and rival.  “You really mean it?”
Perjury smiled back.  “I really mean it.  Now let's get something to eat.  You look hungry.”
“A little bit.”
“Well, come on then.”  She extended her hoof and Double-Take took it... only to be pulled down to the ground.  She felt a blade tap her mid flank.
“Ha!  A point!  That's two for me!”
Perjury laughed.  “And thirteen for me.”  Double-Take looked to see Perjury's sabre across her shoulder.  “But I guess you had priority, so I'm still at twelve.”
Double-Take frowned, but giggled a few moments later.


Double-Take shifted into a more stable stance, focusing more energy into the magical grasp on her sword's hilt.
Perjury did the same, her magic glowing a cooler, greener shade.  “It seems I have struck a nerve.  Oh, poor Double-Take.  She doesn't like to see her own hypocrisy.”  She laughed in derision, taking joy in her mockery.
Double-Take made no response.  Her eyes were locked on her opponent, dead and focused.  She struck diagonally.  Perjury swatted the blade to the side and thrust her own sword in reprisal.  Double-Take jumped back, pulling her sword to her just quick enough to brush away Perjury's attack, narrowly saving herself from a venomous wound.
Perjury pressed her advantage, taking four swings in quick succession.  Double-Take blocked each strike, albeit losing ground in the process.  On the final swing, Double-Take spun her blade magically in an attempt to knock the sword from her opponent's telekinetic grip.  The cool, green glow of Perjury's magic surrounded several shards from the window as the assassin launched them all forward with furious force.
Double-Take ripped her blade back to her as she jumped, her wings buzzing to life.  She winced as one of the fragments passed through a hole on her back left cannon, clipping her leg and drawing blood.  “Could have been worse,” she thought, acknowledging that luck alone saved her from a potentially devastating injury to her leg.  She slowly flew back toward the door, keeping her eyes on her opponent.
“What, running away?  The great Inquisitor Double-Take?”  Perjury took to the air as well.  “Oh, but I forget.  You're not Inquisitor anymore.  You're just a pathetic whelp.  Abandoned by the Hive for treachery.”
“Abandon,” Double-Take muttered almost silently, tempering her raw rage into a finely crafted blade, reminding herself of her purpose.  “Translated to Equine Modern, it has the second definition 'freedom.'”  A small, faintly glimmering object caught the Changeling's attention.  “I will wear that badge again.”  In a sudden flash, she bolted to the side, dropping into a roll and stopping behind the sofa.  A blade pierced the furniture, missing Double-Take's neck by a mere inch.
“I have the high ground, prey!”
Double-Take grasped the glimmering object in her hoof.  She jumped forward and spun, throwing the previously discarded knife at her assailant.  Perjury stopped the knife, but recoiled.  Her stance on the sofa was hardly stable and Double-Take knew it.  Within a split second of throwing the knife, Double-Take leaped forward with all the agility and speed she could conscript, thrusting her sword before her.
Perjury barely managed to brush aside the blade, but she felt the full force of her quarry's tackle as the two tumbled from the sofa, Double-Take landing on top, vicious shards of glass biting into Perjury's back.  Their eyes locked for a moment...


Perjury and Double-Take sat on the branch of a giant tree overlooking the lake outside their home town.  “Gorgeous day,” Double-Take said.
“Hmm?” Perjury mumbled, not really paying attention.
“I said it's a gorgeous day.  The plants are in bloom for the first time in, what, two years?  The wind is pleasant.  And I don't know if I've ever seen the lake so blue.”
“Oh, yeah.  It's nice.”  Perjury's eyes were still locked on the opposite horizon.
Double-Take leaned forward, turning her head to look into her friend's eyes.  “Hey, what's wrong?”
Perjury sighed.  “It's nothing.  I'm just...”
Double-Take cursed herself silently.  “It's the anniversary, isn't it?”  Perjury just kept staring.  “You know that if you ever need to talk, I'm here, right?”
“Yeah, I know, but...”  A few awkward moments passed before Double-Take finally placed a hoof on Perjury's shoulder and pulled her into a friendly embrace.  In a moment, Perjury's composure broke and she began to cry, throwing her forelegs around Double-Take.  “It's hard.  It's hard and I don't like it.”
Double-Take just continued to hug her childhood friend.  “Just let it out,” she whispered gently.
Her voice quivered.  “M-mom hasn't been the s-same since Dad died, and... Mirror and I h-haven't spoken since the f-funeral...”  She tightened her forelegs around the one insect to give her any sense of comfort in months, tears rolling down her face.  “I just want my family back to the way it was...”
“I know.  He was a great drone.  I know that he's found fire in next world.”  Perjury continued to shutter in her grasp, so Double-Take continued at a careful pace, her voice humming as gently as she could make it.  “I know that family leave voids.  Time's sands can fill them.  They'll heal.  We all die, eventually.  So let it out.  Just cry.  Cry and grow stronger for the time we have left in the world.”
After a few minutes, Perjury finally let go and wiped the tears from her face.  “I just wish that...  I just feel so...  I want to do something.  Could we just do something?”
“Like... play a game?  We could have a race.  Oh, we could go get Distort and Shimmer and have a relay race.”
With a sniffle, Perjury wiped away a few more tears.  “Yeah,” she quivered.  “A race should be... just what I need.”


Double-Take reared her blade for a killing strike, but another aura enveloped the sword.  Perjury mustered all of her magical strength in an attempt to rip the sword from Double-Take's grasp.  Double-Take responded in force, blasting as much telekinetic energy at the sword as she had to use, and the weapon finally sailed across the room, clattering to the ground with a set of mutely ringing thuds.  Perjury reached for her own blade, but Double-Take, perhaps in a thoughtless anger, magically threw it out the window.  If Perjury didn't know where the blade was, she couldn't levitate it to herself.
So Double-Take unleashed all of her rage into a brutal series of punches as Perjury tried in vain to struggle free.  The assassin, with each thunderous blow, could hardly react to the pain or her own outrage.  She had to fight back, but ho-  The sword.  Double-Take, in her rage, discarded her own sword.  And Perjury could see it.  Her horn glowed as the blade flew through the air and the air whistled with the weapon.
The sword made contact within a moment, piercing Double-Take's armor and mid flank, blood gushing from the wound.  She screamed in pain and rage, her shrill, echoing voice causing Perjury to wince.
“It's over, Double-Take,” Perjury muttered from a bloody and bruising face, coughing with the subsequent breath.
Double-Take looked into the assassin's eyes.  In an instant, Double-Take struck like a venomous snake, sinking her serpentine fangs into Perjury's neck.  Perjury uttered a pained, breathless scream as blood began to fill her throat.  Double-Take, with the last of her failing energy, put her hoof against Perjury's face and reared backward, tearing two massive wounds across the assassin's throat.  With a guttural, gurgling, muted scream, Perjury sputtered her last breath, her life draining with the blood from her wounds.
Double-Take fell to her side, off of the assassin's corpse.  “Die first... and find fire...” she muttered, as the last of the world's light fled.


Double-Take knelt before Queen Chrysalis.  “On this day, you, Double-Take, have been chosen to join my elite.  You are now an initiate of the Shadow's Wings.  Fly swift and hide well, child.”  She felt the Queen's blade gently tap on her shoulder.
“By my honor, by my word, I will serve you until my dying breaths, O gracious Queen.”
“Rise, Blackguard Double-Take.”
Double-Take rose to her hooves and stood in a salute.
Chrysalis turned to the audience in the throne room.  “It is a rare day when a new initiate is inducted,” she announced.  “I give you that rare day!”
Cheers rang up from the crowd.  A Changeling guard watched from the back, jealousy in her eyes.  “How is it that she has outdone me?” she muttered.  “I'm her better and her senior.  She's good, but she's not Shadow's Wings material, especially if I am not.”
The cheering died down as Chrysalis rose her hoof to quiet the crowd.  “Now, the matter of these 'Abandoned.'  These rebels are no more than outcasts and rogues.  We have long been aware of their presence, but they have not made themselves obvious.  That is, until now.  They openly defy me and threaten our nation!”  A riotous opposition thundered from the Changelings in the throne room.  “I will not tolerate their treason!”  Cheers boomed again throughout the hall.  “And they will soon see how grave a mistake their open treachery truly is!”  The crowd erupted one final time.
Perjury stopped paying attention.  She was just waiting.  After the rest of Chrysalis's speech, Double-Take sought out Perjury.  “Congratulations, Double-Take,” Perjury announced in all of the sincerity she could.  In spite of her envy, they were still friends.
“Thank you, Perjury.  For everything.  You're the real reason that I even have this opportunity.”
Perjury forced a laugh, and Double-Take caught the feign.  “No, you would have gotten here without my help.”
“Perjury, is something wrong?”
“No, nothing is wrong.”
Double-Take sighed.  “You can tell me.  I know that you're lying.  What is it you're trying to hide?”
Perjury took a deep breath... and released all of her emotions in a single burst.  “Why you?  Of all the insects, why you?  I'm your better with swordplay and magic.  I've been a member of the guard longer than you have.  Abyss, you even have a condition that makes shapeshifting useless for you if you're even slightly anxious!”  She bit her tongue.  “I didn't mean that!”
Double-Take closed her eyes.  She was sensitive about her heart.  “That's how you feel, huh?”
“No, Double-Take, I'm sorry.  I'm jealous and confused, yes, but I didn't mean to bring up the heart condition.  I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry.”
With a sigh, the newly initiated Blackguard let it go.  “It's fine,” she muttered.  “You're better than me, I agree.  You're more deserving than I am and we both know that.  But let's not let this ruin our friendship."  She placed a sincere hoof on Perjury's shoulder.  "Please?”
Perjury, after a moment, pulled Double-Take into an embrace.  “Of course.”