> Sky's Changing Secret
>  by Sky Sprinter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> An introduction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville, 3 years ago

A green stalion, then-17 years old, exited the train from Manehatten, his name was Sky Sprinter, he lived there for a couple years after his parents sent him to “experience life away from Cloudsdale,” along with his then-12 year old Green Pegasus sister Stardust, and his then-6 year old Red Pegasus sister Redwind. 

They started heading towards the rest of Ponyville when they were greeted by a very enthusiastic, some might say insane young pink Earth Pony mare, she quickly said, “Hello there new ponies! My name is Pinkie Pie! What’s yours?” 

All three looked at her as if she was crazy, which she probably was, for 2 minutes before Stardust blinked her eyes and then said, “Um, my name is Stardust Sprinter, the filly to my left is Redwind Sprinter, and the frozen pony to my right is my big brother Sky Sprinter.” 

Sky’s eyes regained focus and he shook his head a couple times before saying, “Yes, that’s the three of us.” 

Pinkie then immediately said, “Hello Sky, Stardust, and Redwind! You all deserve a ‘Welcome to Ponyville, Sprinter Siblings’ party! The audience demands it!”

This causes Sky to raise his eyebrow, “Audience? There’s no pony out here.”

“Not the ponies, silly,” Pinkie replied, “The ones out there, they’re watching us right now,” she then pointed a hoof towards a space above the ground that didn’t look any different from anywhere else really, then she looked towards that space and said, “Kinda creepy you guys, don’t you have anything better to do than watch us do stuff? Doesn’t it get boring after awhile?”

“Um, there’s nopony over there, Pinkie Pie,” Sky said while Stardust raised her hooves to about ear level and circled them in the, “she’s crazy” sign while looking at Redwind, causing the little filly to giggle. Causing Sky to turn his head towards them and the two immediately stopped. 

“Of course there’s somepony right there, you just can’t see them because you don’t have my Pinkie Senses,” Pinkie said matter-of-factly.

“Pinkie Senses?” Sky asked.

“Pinkie Senses allow me to see what happens before it happens, and apparently to see the audience, beware the twitchy tail!” she said before her tail twitched, she pointed a hoof towards Sky and said, “Twitchy tail! Move!” But he didn’t move before a random cloud unloaded all its rain right on top of him plus a few pebbles.

“That’s unusual,” Stardust noted.

“That’s my Pinkie Sense in action,” Pinkie said to Stardust before turning back to Sky, “I told you to move, silly, not stay there and take it.”

“Well, there may be better explanations than some sort of sixth sense, but I won’t pursue it, for now at least,” Sky said, ‘I might have to pursue something later, maybe, after we get settled in then I think that I might, if I had any scientific equipment, oh well, I’m sure somepony will try to figure it out, I’ll love to know what happens to that pony when they do try.’ 

“Alrighty then! It’s time that I begin planning the party! See you later, all three of you!” Pinkie said before running off.

“Well, that was interesting,” Sky said. 

The three were about to continue on when a mare’s voice yelled, “Watch out!” Right before a grey Pegasus mare crashed into the ground in front of them of them.

Sky, worried due to the fact that somepony just crash-landed, said, “Oh my Celestia! Are you ok?” 

The grey Pegasus raised her head, revealing that she had crossed, some might say Derpish, eyes, she then replied, “I’m fine, thanks for asking, I just lost focus and, um, this happens a lot actually,” 

Sky then noticed numerous letters scattered around the grey mare, “Let me help you with those,” He said as he gathered them up. The two of them plus Stardust gathered up the letters and put them back into the grey mare’s saddle bags.

“Thanks, I’d probably be out of a job if I lost those, more often. Anyways, my name is Derpy Hooves, or you can call me Ditzy, I don’t care much, what’s yours?” 

Sky then introduced himself and his sisters before Derpy abruptly said, “Wanna be friends?”

Which caused Sky to say “What?”

Derpy then repeated, “Wanna be friends? The Doctor always tells me that I can never have too many friends, unless they’re Daleks, because ‘Daleks are creatures that are only satisfied with the extermination of other species and following orders.’”  

She said that last part with a mocking tone before a stallion’s voice said, “It’s true though, they are quite nasty buggers.” The four ponies turned their head towards the source of the voice, which turned out to be a Brown colored Earth Pony stallion, “Hello to you three, I see you’ve met my-“

“Marefriend!” Derpy said interrupting him.

The stallion nodded his head, “Yes, my marefriend, Derpy Hooves. I shall now introduce myself, I am the Doctor, you may either call me by that name, Doctor Whooves, or perhaps Time Turner, oh yeah, that one is good, considering my cutie mark is an hourglass and I do love my various travels through time, what do you think Derpy?”

Derpy thought for a quick second, “I much prefer calling you the Doctor, because you are my Doctor,” Derpy then hugged the Doctor very tightly,

“Yes, indeed.” The Doctor said happily. He then remembered the three ponies in front of them, “Oh yes, you three, anyways, never trust Daleks and Cybermen and will you be Derpy’s friend, as she asked?”

Sky thought for a moment, “Sure, living in a new place, I think having friends would be great for us.”

the Doctor smiled and said, “Very good, if you have room for one more friend, I’d like to occupy that space, not like how the Daleks tried to occupy many different planets or how the Earth’s Germany occupied much of its surrounding area but the good kind where one is simply in a place, or something like that, oh I know! Occupy like chips occupy the space next to fish, or like bananas at a party.” 

“Sure, the more the merrier, right?” Sky replied smiling.

“Indeed.” the Doctor said.

Derpy then asked the Doctor, “Can we show them the-,” before he covered up her mouth with his hoof. 

“Not yet, Derpy, now’s not the right time to show them our blue box.” He said. He then turned his head to the Sprinter siblings and said, “No need to worry about what my dear Derpy said, you’ll find out long enough, but please don’t bombard me with questions about it, Pinkie takes up approximately 4.9752% of my day in just questions, she’s quite the observant and intelligent mare, although you don’t usually get that impression with the way she acts at times, but oh well, enough about that subject, Derpy and I will take our leave now, no need in taking up anymore of your time, yes?”

“Oh don’t worry about taking up our time, anytime used speaking with friends is time well spent in my opinion,” Sky said. And with that the Grey Pegasus mare and the Brown Earth Pony stallion went on their way to who knows where, while the three Sprinter siblings continued on their way towards the main area of Ponyville.

Ponyville, Present Day

Sky, now 20 years of age, looked at the sky outside the window of his room, and thought, I remember that day so well, so many friends made that first day, first Pinkie became my friend, then Derpy and Time Turner, then that fantastic party, the emotions were great there, and that cake was delicious too, that Pinkie Pie is definitely a great party mare. He finished that thought before closing the blinds on the window and then a green flash overtook his body, and so the Green Pegasus stallion was replaced by an equally black changeling with green eyes and a green shell. “Too bad they’d never befriend me if they knew who I was, even the Doctor doesn’t know, they wouldn’t understand it” The changeling said before being engulfed in green flames once again with Sky Sprinter emerging from the flames as he walked out of his room, down the stairs, and out of the house to pick up Redwind from school.
> Just a normal day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville schoolhouse
Sky waited outside the schoolhouse arriving about 10 minutes prior to the end to the school day, “I don’t care what Rarity says about being “Fashionably Late” it’s just being late, it makes no sense to make yourself late just because of fashion or whatever, sure in some places it might be rude to arrive early, I’m not sure where though, but here it certainly is better to be early than late, good thing all of those mares are at that royal wedding over at Canterlot, Rarity would probably overhear me and explain to me why being fashionably late makes sense to her," Sky said to himself. Why he thought about Rarity at that moment he had no idea. His mind then drifted to the Royal Wedding over in Canterlot and he then once again began to say to himself, "It certainly seems pretty cool that the Princess of Love and the Captain of the Royal Guard are getting married.” Sky stopped talking when he noticed a few ponies looking at him, so he nervously cleared his throat and looked up at the sky to hopefully get the eyes off of him. 

Blabber mouth, speaking your mind out loud! What if you gave up the secret, all those years wasted, my mom would be heavily disappointed and sad, if I got captured. Thankfully they’d probably just freak out and run screaming away, perhaps I’m just getting Mom’s rhetoric too well into my head, they don’t have a reason to want to throw us into their dungeons, right? I mean after all, it’s not like Changelings would just openly attack Equestria, right? Surely none of them are stupid enough for that, heh, right? Alright, now I'm being ridiculous

Just then the bell on the schoolhouse began ringing and soon out came plenty of little fillies and colts. One of them being his little sister, who came out talking to three other fillies, the “Cutie Mark Crusaders” if he heard correctly from the many times the trio yelled out their club name plus Redwind’s occasional-to-frequent speakings about them. He knew that two were related to two of the Elements of Harmony, Applebloom with Applejack and Sweetie Belle with Rarity, plus Scootaloo was Rainbow Dash’s number one fan and probably as close to being RD’s sister without any blood relation nor RD’s mom adopting Scoots.  The trio and Redwind parted ways before the trio yelled out something about Cutie Mark Crusaders and bugs, Sweetie’s cheer was not as enthusiastic as the others, meanwhile Redwind had arrived next to Sky.

“Hi, Sky,” the little red filly said while giggling at her little rhyme, she had begun greeting him like that about a year or so ago and she showed no signs of stopping.

“Hey there Redwind, how was school today?” Sky then said smiling as the two began their walk back home.

“It was fine; we began learning about things like multiplication and division.” Redwind replied.

“No problems? You understand everything and nopony’s treating you wrongly?” Sky asked.

“No problems at all, none at all.” Redwind replied. 

Her words made Sky suspicious, he had heard from the random rumblings of the fillies and colts after school days about two fillies apparently bullying everypony, especially the CMC and those around them, which of course worried him considering Redwind did hang out with the CMC a lot and he’s sure she’s even mentioned joining the little group’s club. He was at least glad that Redwind was having such an easy time getting friends, unlike Sky and, on a smaller level, Stardust. Sky had been an introvert during school which obviously made it harder to make friends; thankfully he had been able to come out of his shell as he got older. 

After a quick stop to get the two of them hayburgers, plus one for Stardust when she got back from her work as a mailmare, the two reached the house and Redwind flopped herself onto the couch.

“Tomorrow, I’m gonna go to the Crusader Clubhouse after school, I’m gonna join the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Redwind decreed after she got onto the couch.

“That’s fantastic, Redwind.” Sky said. Yep, definitely better at making friends than me.

“I wonder if Rainbow Dash will be back by then, you can finally ask her out then.” Redwind teased causing Sky to slightly blush.

“Oh quiet you, don’t be ridiculous.” Sky then replied nervously, “I told you about that crush out of good confidence that you wouldn't tease me about it."

“Oh come on, I’m your little sister, it’s my job to tease you about that, and at least I didn’t tell Stardust about it.” Redwind said smiling.

“Tell me about what?” the mentioned mare asked while dressed in her mailmare uniform.

“Nothing! Nothing about anything!” Sky yelled nervously hoping Redwind wouldn’t say anything.

“Sky, come on, tell me now or I’ll just continue asking or worse find out in another way.” Stardust threatened.

“Sky has a crush on-“ Redwind began before Sky’s hoof covered her mouth.

“Sky, remove that hoof, or I remove you.” Stardust said quite creepily causing Sky to quickly remove his hoof from Redwind’s mouth.

“Rainbow Dash.” Redwind simply finished. Sky’s cheeks were fully red now at this point.

“Rainbow Dash? Hmm, that’s interesting; honestly I’d have thought it’d have been Fluttershy, maybe even Twilight, heck Derpy even, especially considering we’ve been friends with her for so long."

“I don’t know, she’s just so cool, she’s Loyalty for Celestia’s sake, she seems like a good pony, you know?” Sky said.

“Oh I just can’t wait for her to get back from Canterlot so I can tell her!” Stardust said excited.

“No no no no no no no! Not a good idea at all!” Sky yelled.

Stardust laughed for a quick second before then saying, “Alright, big bro, I won’t then, doesn't mean I won’t tease you about it though.” The mailmare then flew upstairs to her room to change out of her mailmare uniform.

Sky meanwhile turned his view to Redwind, “Darn you,” He said, which caused the filly to begin laughing hard for about a half an hour, and Sky meanwhile rolled his eyes.

A half hour later and Stardust had finally returned downstairs to find Redwind sleeping on the couch and Sky nowhere in sight. She took a quick look into the kitchen and found a note next to a HayDonald’s bag.

“Dear Stardust, I’m gonna leave the house for a few hours, just got some job hunting, maybe, to do and I do like taking a quick flight around Ponyville, maybe I’ll even find the Doctor and get him to show me that blue box of his? Maybe, maybe not, oh well, I’ll be back soon either way.” 

Stardust read the short letter before saying, “Interesting, and I didn’t know he liked taking brief flights around Ponyville? I guess I do remember seeing him sometimes during my mail run, I was only home as early as I was since it was a light mail day plus I was a bit faster than usual today, even Derpy finished early.” The mailmare then looked at the HayDonald’s bag and found her hayburger in it, “Oh cool, I guess they got some HD’s on the way home, that’s nice of them.” She then smiled before unwrapping the burger and taking a bite, “Mmm, I love those HayDonalds hayburgers, I’m glad they got me that.” She then flew to the couch not slept on by Redwind, hayburger in hoof, and once there, sat down and continued munching on its deliciousness.
> I am who I am, and that's ok, right?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I say job hunting, but I’m just flying around, perhaps if there’s a help wanted sign then maybe, but other than that not really.

Sky flew outside of Ponyville towards the Everfree outskirts. There was no way he was heading into the heart of that place, and besides the place he needed to go wasn’t deep in anyways. Landing near a tree 500 or so paces away from Fluttershy’s cottage.
Sky took a quick look towards the cottage, the sounds of the animals able to be heard from this distance, but thankfully nothing was here that would catch their attentions and bring the Element of Kindness following, but still, it doesn’t hurt to check.

He knocked on the wood no more than three times and pushed on the bark, it gave way and the interior of the tree was shown, which was a hole to the underground. Grooves in the ground for Sky to use as a ladder-type device were meticulously made shortly after the Sprinters moved to Ponyville.

At the bottom of the hole was a sizable underground room, the walls were covered in a glowing green substance, and what was this substance? Love energy, made to be solid and glow, one of the main parts of the changeling magic, along with the whole transformation, emotion-related things, and other various perks of being an insectoid pony.

Changeling magic lesson aside, the other details of the room included pictures of Sky’s siblings and parents on black desks, which was another use of emotion energy, a slightly-cracked mirror, and dozens of jars of a green jelly-like substance, the substance being emotional energy. The jars were an emergency supply should he need to duck out of Ponyville, one had to be prepared after all, no matter how heart-breaking it might be.

Sky trotted to in front of the mirror, and breathed out a sigh, and then a green flame enveloped him. His changeling body revealed once again, this time somewhere much more secure then in his room, you never knew when a Pegasus might accidently crash in your room while you were taking a breather from disguising. Embarrassing and very bad if it were to happen.

He didn’t know why he took these trips to his duck-out location just to get a look at his body. Perhaps it was to reconcile the fact of what he really was, or maybe it’s a small protest to his self imposed rules, who knew? He just knew that he felt better about himself when he did it, and perhaps it was just a relief to get a look at your natural self? Hiding in that false skin, it was demoralizing at times, especially since it was a lie, a lie to his siblings, his friends, to everypony. On the flip side, he felt safe in that false skin as well, it was a strange existence to live.

Sky’s body was largely matte black chitin plates, with tough leathery yet supple skin at his major joints only able to be seen as different from the chitin with a close look. The transition between the skin and chitin plates was seamless. If one were to look through the holes in his hooves, they would see that nothing filled those spaces; these holes were also sensitive to various sensations, basically like erogenous zones, meaning using them to parry weapon strikes would be very embarrassing for the attacker and, especially, the defender. At least that’s what his mother told him when he asked about the use of those holes in defense. An embarrassing conversation about the birds and the bees (or was it the Griffons and the Pegasi?) ensued for the then decade old changeling and his mother, of course since when has anypony had that conversation gracefully?

Sky sighed and went towards the ladder and went up, he wanted to feel the sun on his chitin just once but just as he was about to open up the tree door he hesitated and then put his disguise back up, “Not today, not today.” He said to himself, and so he opened up the door and after taking a quick peek he exited the hide-out.

Sky flew up into the air and headed towards the town market, he felt a craving for apples at that moment, and so decided to see if he could alleviate it. Thankfully Big Mac was there and so Sky approached the stand and after a brief conversation with the large red stallion he bought a sack of apples and took a bite of one and then enjoyed the savory goodness of an Apple Family apple. Apple Family apples were the best apples, as far as Sky was concerned.

After finishing off that first apple, Sky flew up into the air and took a quick detour back to the house, opening the front door and placing the sack of apples on a kitchen shelf before leaving again, not arousing the attention of his sleeping siblings.

Sky then flew back up into the air when a thought hit him, I could go visit the Doctor! Maybe he’ll agree on letting me touch something in the Tardis! He then flew quickly to the Ponyville clock tower, knocking on the big blue box just outside, “Doctor! Are you there, Doctor?” He said to the Tardis doors. 

“Watch out below!” a familiar feminine voice called out from above and behind. Sky ducked down just as the blue doors opened up, a shriek was heard before a crash happened. 

Sky rose from his position to see Derpy on top of the Doctor, “Get a room, guys, or at least close those doors,” He laughed upon seeing their position.

“Oh ha ha, very funny Sky,” The Doctor said sarcastically as the two got out of that position, red and warm faces and all.

“Yeah, it kinda was, anyways, I have one question though,” Sky stated.

“If it’s to touch the controls to the Tardis then my answer is a resounding no,” The Doctor said before Sky could continue.

“Oh come on, I want to figure out how it works! I helped out when you and Derpy were running low on supplies and bits after you came back from the Windigo Event, that should definitely earn me one examination!” Sky begged.

“And I thank you for that, but still Sky,” The Doctor ended with a sigh.

“Oh come on, you’ve been teasing him about the Tardis since he first arrived and you’ve only let him have quick look at it, when did you become so defensive about her?” Derpy then said to the Doctor.

“I guess that is true, and it’s less than I’m being defensive about her, but I want to be a bit more mysterious about the Tardis than I have before, I guess it has been long enough, and Sky has been a great friend during all this time,” The Doctor replied.

“Ooh, then does that mean?” Sky asked holding himself together to not get visibly excited.

“Yes, Sky, you may touch, but be careful,” The Doctor said before he moved out of the way as Sky rushed into the Tardis. As he closed the doors, the Doctor said to himself, “Please don’t let myself regret this.” The doors to the blue police box closed, cutting them off in a way from Equestria until they are opened again. Surely nothing would change outside those doors, right? Nopony would dare do something with a wedding going on?
> The tour of the blue box and a new start
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sky stepped into the blue box and soon wonderment filled his expression as he finally was able to fully take a look at the control room. 

“She’s beautiful,” he then said.

“Yeah, she really is, and we've both been through so much together, she’s one of those few constants I had over all those many years,” The Doctor said.

“Wow, that is really de-ooh button!” Sky said as he caught sight of a big red button.

“No! Don’t touch that!” The Doctor yelled about to pounce towards Sky but Derpy beat him to it as she flew and stopped Sky’s hoof.

“Um, Sky, I wouldn’t do that,” Derpy said.

“Why not?” Sky asked.

“The last time that button was pushed… well, let’s just say that a pony was sent into exile for 1000 years,” The Doctor said.

Sky thought for a moment and the lightbulb went off, “Oh, so you mean-”

“Yep, part of all that mess was our fault, we stopped her from taking over the Equestria, but the damage had already been done,” The Doctor replied.

“Wow, that’s an interesting bit of trivia,” Sky said after a moment of silence.

“If only you knew everything I’ve seen, Sky, it’d rock you off your knockers,” The Doctor said.

“Knockers?” Sky asked, not knowing the slang term.

“Nothing, slip of the tongue,” The Doctor quickly said while Derpy grinned, “Oh shush, you got them as well as every other mare.”

Derpy poked her tongue at the Doctor, which cause the Doctor to chuckle a bit.

“Where have you gone most recently?” Sky said as he took a look at one of the monitors showing the area around the Tardis.

“We visited Star Swirl the Bearded, it was fun being at such a different time than today,” Derpy said.

“It was quite a different time, and it means you’ll be able to understand Princess Luna in the times she uses that old-timey lingo of hers,” The Doctor said.

Sky nodded and looked as Miss Cheerilee walked through the area in front of the Tardis and appeared on the monitors, “Have you ever visited anytime of the recent past, like Princess Luna’s return or anything like that?”

The Doctor shook his head, “No, one cannot visit a time they existed in, it would cause all sorts of timey-wimey disruptions, and should one change the wrong moment in time, it would cause that time-line to be destroyed.”

“Seems extreme,” Sky commented.

“All in the name of keeping timelines clean and orderly, you can’t have some random fella waltzing into time and space acting like he owns the whole bloody space,” The Doctor replied.

“Reminds me of a certain pony,” Derpy joked causing herself and Sky to laugh.

“Oh shush you two, I haven’t reached the age of 1200 without earning the right to be clever about it all,” The Doctor laughed.

Sky looked around more as he wondered about just what this old machine and the Doctor had gone through before that point and looked towards one of the hallways, “What’s down that way?”

“The pool, despite the changes this old girl has gone though, she has been adamant on keeping that pool,” The Doctor replied, “It’s a nice pool and all but why the pool? I’ve never gotten an answer out of her though.”

Hours later, Sky had basically finished the tour but stayed anyways just to keep looking at the console room. In a room much like a kitchen, The Doctor and Derpy spoke about the changeling, “I told you he wouldn't touch anything,” Derpy said.

“Except for that close call with the button, but other than that he has been quite a good guest,” The Doctor replied. He then noticed Derpy about to ask a question so he answered, “I know what you are gonna ask and we are not taking him with us, he’s needed here.” 

“Oh come on, wouldn’t it be nice to have somepony else to share in our adventures?” Derpy rebutted.

“I’m perfectly fine with just the two of us, thank you very much, and he’s pretty young besides,” The Doctor replied.

“Never stopped you before,” Derpy replied with a smirk.

“Oh come off it,” The Doctor replied with a smile, “He’s not coming and that’s final.”

“Oh fine then,” Derpy replied sourly.

The Doctor and Derpy re-entered the console room and bid Sky goodbye. Once Sky was outside he saw a pink-colored wave in the sky, and black spots within that wave. He waved it off in his mind as nothing.

One day later, as Sky was reading the newspaper, he read an article about the invasion of Canterlot. “Oh this is not good,” Sky said to himself. He needed to make especially sure to not be caught now. He resolved to only shapeshift in that secondary home of his and to visit it only once a month.



A year later, Sky is in Twilight’s castle. Nothing significant happened since the invasion except for the various happenings that were becoming quite often in Ponyville. Why is Sky in Twilight’s castle you may ask? During the whole Tirek episode, Sky was in that secondary home of his and thus was unknowing of Tirek having found Ponyville until he heard the explosion that destroyed Golden Oak Library. He left that hole of a secondary home and Tirek found him. After sucking the magic from Sky, Tirek left to try to get Twilight. Sky was left near the hole into his secondary home without his magic and thus without his disguise. He was found soon after the ponies got their magic while Sky was still weak despite having his magic back. He wasn't sure why he took longer to recover from that, probably something mental. Anyways, He was found and, after some protests, was sent to the dungeon in the castle without Twilight’s knowledge. He had been in there for about a fortnight before the Princess found out he was in there (Probably due to her avoiding the castle until her friends spiced up the place).

So, as Sky stood in presence of the Princess in his cell, he nervously thought about what was gonna happen to him and his family. 

What if they punish them for raising me? What if they find out that mom is a changeling? 

It didn’t help that he was forced to be in his natural form by some spell in the dungeon.

Sky’s thinking was interrupted by Princess Twilight suddenly appearing surprising him. She then asked., “How long have you lived among us?”

The sudden question confused Sky, this was totally different from what he thought would happen. He expected a lot more hostility in her voice, he wondered if she was hiding it. Seeing no reason to lie now, he answered, “All my life, so around 21 years.”

“21 years? How have you escaped detection all this time?” Twilight asked surprised.

“Luck is a big factor, I guess it finally ran out for me,” Sky answered again.

“Alright then, now why have you lived among us so long even after Chrysalis’s invasion? Were you a part of the invasion? And do you follow Chrysalis’s demands?” Twilight continued asking.

Sky answered, “I always lived among ponies, I simply saw myself as just a unique pony. I was not a part of the invasion and I don’t follow that Queen’s orders. Changelings aren't a hive mind.”



Over the next few hours, Princess Twilight began to feel more and more sympathetic about the changeling in the cell. She asked one final question, “Do you feed on other ponies?”

“All the time, I’ve learned how to collect the background emission of various emotions by other ponies and of course I’ve learned to feed on emotions other than love. It doesn't hurt the pony being fed off except for a small drop in energy,” Sky answered truthfully.

“Thank you, I will be making an inquiry to Princess Celestia for a decision on what to do with you,” Twilight said ending the interrogation before leaving the room. “Spike, I need to send a letter to Princess Celestia.”

A few hours later, Twilight returned to Sky. “Sky Sprinter, Princess Celestia and I have agreed that having you rot in this dungeon would be a terrible thing to do to you. So we have agreed on a probationary term for you. I will watch you and keep you out of trouble. If you don’t cause anything to give us reason that you are a menace to society then you will be released. However, you must live here in the castle with me and Spike so that we may closely keep watch on you.”

Sky was at first elated at the fact that he’d finally be out of that dungeon, sure it wasn't too bad but it was still a dungeon. When he heard about the probationary term he understood why but then the fact that he’d have to move out of his house got to him. “I-I can’t return to my home?”

“Oh you can visit all you want, but you must live in the castle until we deem you worthy of it,” Twilight answered, "You must always be watched by at least one member of the Elements of Harmony."

It can’t last that long, right? It can’t be too bad, correct?
> A rude awakening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning
“There’s the bug, look at him sleeping so soundly. Twilight's probably under his spell, I think we should beat it out of him,” A voice, almost tomboyish, said.

“Rainbow Dash, we've already settled on talking it out, there’s one of him, and five of us anyways,” A voice, perhaps an imitation of Canterlot’s accent, replied.

Rainbow Dash? Sky thought to himself before opening his eyes and the sight before him both excited him and terrified him. The Elements of Harmony, minus Twilight were around his bed in the… basement? He thought of this room as a basement at least. Anyways the Elements of Harmony were around his bed and not looking happy.

“There you are, you varmint. Now we are going to ask some questions,” Applejack said to him. The apple farmer was probably the most sane of the five ponies around him, at least that’s what Sky thought.

“Who are you and what have you done with Twilight?” Rainbow Dash said aggressively. The pony on whom Sky had a crush. Even when angry at me she’s beautiful, he thought. “What are you smiling at? I’m being serious here!” RD yelled snapping Sky out of his thoughts.

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about, I have done nothing to Princess Twilight,” Sky replied.

“That’s a lie and you know it! Twilight would never let a free changeling into her castle!” RD stubbornly said.

“I-it’s true though, I've done nothing,” Sky said feeling threatened.

RD was about to say something when an orange hoof stopped her. “Alright, that’s enough from you Rainbow,” AJ said. AJ then turned her head to Sky, “Alright, let’s start at names. I’m Applejack and these ponies are my friends, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity, we are the Elements of Harmony and now that we have introduced ourselves, I reckon that it is time for you to introduce yourself before we begin questionin’ you.”

“That’s not exactly fair, I already knew all of your names,” Sky replied.

“Please darling, you are not in a position of power to make any complaints,” Rarity then said.

Sky couldn't argue with that power, especially as his fear grew of what could happen in these ponies just left him in the room with RD who looked ready to beat him into a pulp. “M-my name is Sky Sprinter,” he then said.

“Sky Sprinter? The same pony who modeled my stallion clothing for a short time while my manikins were unavailable?” Rarity asked.

“Um, yes, Miss Rarity,” Sky replied.

“I would have never thought that such a nice stallion would turn out to be a changeling!” Rarity said loudly, “Who knows who else out there could be a changeling.”

“Wait, so you modeled for her?” Rainbow asked before starting to laugh.

“Oh come on, Rainbow Dash, modeling isn't all that bad, scary perhaps, but still,” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Fine, now that we know his name, what do we ask him now, hmm Applejack?” Rainbow Dash then stated.

Before Applejack could reply though, Twilight entered the room, and not looking happy. “What are you guys doing in here?” she asked demanding an answer.

“We heard about your predicament and decided to help you, darling,” Rarity answered.

“Predicament? What predicament?” Twilight asked confused.

“Um duh, this changeling here has tricked you into letting him stay here so he can get you by surprise,” RD answered.

“Rainbow, I’m not being controlled by him. Trust me, he does not have the ability to do such a thing anyways. His magic levels are very low and his overall knowledge of magic can’t be much higher,” Twilight explained.

“Hey, I know.... stuff… about magic,” Sky tried to defend himself before realizing that she was right.

“He could be messin’ with your instruments, Twilight,” AJ pointed out...

“Spike could back up my claims, and he seems fine with the arrangements and believe me, I’d know whether Sky messed with something of mine,” Twilight answered.

This seemed to convince everypony except Rainbow Dash, “I don’t believe that this changeling is what you are saying he is,” she said before flying out of the room.

“Rainbow!” Twilight tried to call before RD left but it was too late. She then said to the group, “Alright how about you guys get back to your homes or anything else you guys have planned, I have a full schedule today and no time for anything else. Spa day is gonna have to wait Rarity,”

“Oh alright, darling, I guess it’ll just be me and Fluttershy this week,” Rarity replied.

The remaining 4 ponies then took their leave and left Twilight and Sky in the room. “Sorry about my friends, they can get quite a bit overprotective at times. But I guess they have good reason, a year ago, even a week ago, I wouldn't have thought that I’d be having a changeling live in my home. They simply don’t know you nor have heard your story,” Twilight said to Sky.

“I guess. I just hope that everypony could see that I’m not malevolent at all,” Sky replied.

After a few moments of silence, Twilight started to leave but said, “Breakfast is ready, Spike made pancakes.”




10 minutes later 
Sky was in the dining room slowly eating pancakes while Spike was thoroughly eating his own and Twilight was in the middle in terms of speed of eating. “Sky, I have an idea for how to get my fellow ponies to be less ignorant and more knowledgeable about you,” Twilight suddenly said.

“Really? How? What is it?” Sky said hoping for some way to be more known about and have other ponies be more sympathetic rather than the xenophobic attitude that Equestrians, or at least Ponyville’s residents, seemed to have.

“The best way for ponies to know about something when they want to or need to know is by reading books. There are few books about changelings and most of them were written after the Canterlot Invasion so they usually were incredibly xenophobic and racist in nature. I think that the best way to reverse this xenophobic attitude is by writing a book based on the facts. The biggest reason for the xenophobia is that ponies don’t really know anything about changelings except for the invasion and small bits of knowledge beforehoof. The best way to get such a book out is to learn the facts, and the best way to learn the facts is from a primary source,” Twilight answered.

“Whoa whoa whoa, you mean you are gonna study me? For a book about changelings?” Sky asked not knowing whether to be frightened or excited.

“Yes, I am. It’s for a good cause and it’d be just like a doctor’s examination, except a bit more poking and prodding and tons of more equipment,” Twilight answered, “It’s the best way for other ponies to know more and after the physical parts it’ll all be questioning and answering.”

“How much more poking and prodding?” Sky asked.

“That depends on what I find, could be little to none or the majority of the time would be spent poking and prodding,” Twilight answered.

Sky felt a bit uncomfortable about that possibility but he couldn't deny the good that such a book could cause. He would have liked a bit of warning before she asked the question but it was too late for that now. “Alright, I guess if this book would help then I guess I have no reason to to say no,” he finally said.

“Terrific, and don’t worry, you’ll be fine and it’ll help out everything that may occur in the future,” Twilight promised.

“I’ll hold you to that promise,” Sky said smiling on the outside, meanwhile his insides are churning in nervousness. 

She promised that it’ll be alright, she wouldn't lie, right?
> The examination
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That is a lot of scientific equipment,” Sky said as he looked at the room around him. The room was quite sizable, like most rooms in the castle, and was filled to the brim with rolls of paper, wires, writing devices, a chalkboard, and various other devices for who knows what. 

“Yeah, I guess you can say that, thankfully I was able to get Princess Celestia to requisition some funds to help me pay for all of this,” Twilight said as the two walked towards a chalkboard the center of the room.

The two ponies reached the chalkboard and Twilight asked, “Can you wait for a second while I grab some materials?”

Sky nodded while Twilight used her magic to bring over the a pen and a notepad. “Is that all?” Sky asked.

“For now, I think we’ll begin with question and answer before I get the scanning equipment and all the various other bits of equipment to study you with,” Twilight answered. She then used her magic to grab an inkwell and she asked her first question, “How do changelings feed? Do you simply absorb emotional energy like a sponge or is there a specific way that they feed on ponies?”

“Both actually, I guess. I involuntarily pull emotional energy from around me, it doesn’t cause any ill effects to ponies around me as far as I know. We can also pull energy from emotions that ponies outwardly radiate at high levels. Ponies that radiate high levels of anger, sadness, and happiness could feed a changeling for months, I suspect. Although happiness tends to taste better than those other emotions,” Sky answered, “Another way is through direct contact like hugs and such.”

Twilight wrote all the information down before looking at the notepad using what she learned to ask her next question, “You mentioned that happiness tends to taste better than anger and sadness. So I suspect that every emotion has a unique taste, correct? And do they have a taste similar to that of any foods that we ponies eat?”

Sky answered, “What each emotion tastes like depends on the pony. Pinkie Pie’s happiness taste like pure cotton candy, my sister’s sibling love tastes like a Hayburger, and your curiosity tastes like a nice fresh Apple from Sweet Apple Acres.”

Twilight’s expression changed to one of slight disgust before she hid it away, acknowledging that she shouldn’t be affected by him talking about how her emotions taste, but the feeling that somepony is feeding on you can reasonably be expected to feel weird. She then said, “Next question, changeling social structure, how much of it do you know?”

Sky then answered, “Not much to be honest, having been born in Equestria, I never learned much of it.”

Twilight nodded and then asked, “The holes in your wings, hooves, and legs, what is their purpose?”

Sky blushed a bit at the inquiry, recalling the time he had asked that very same question of his mother. "Well, you see, the holes.... the ones on my legs and hooves that is, they have a lot of really concentrated nerve endings, so they are extremely... uh, you know, sensitive. As to the holes in my wings, no one ever told me why. My guess would be something to do with letting them flap more quickly?

Twilight mulled it over for a moment and realized why he had been so embarrassed at the question. She coughed and quickly glanced down to her notebook, recording the leg and hoof holes as “erogenous zones.” and the wing holes as unknown. She asked her next question, “Your eyes and shell are green while the changelings of Chrysalis’s hive had blue eyes and shells, why do you have a different color on those areas of your body?”

“Eye and shell color are dependent on hive and changelings born without the influence of a queen have a random color,” Sky answered.

Twilight then asked, “It depends on hive? So there are multiple hives then?” She, like every other pony in Equestria, only knew about Chrysalis’s hive.

Sky nodded to Twilight’s question, “What I know about how hives work is that they consist of a central Queen and drones. The drones are independent but they do follow their queen’s orders like how ponies follow the laws and decrees by Equestrian law, except it’s more finely ingrained into a changeling’s psyche and so a changeling’s very mind could become subordinate to his birth queen. Changelings like me however are more like the ponies that I’ve grown up near since I have no birth queen.”

Twilight wrote the information down. It was really exciting that she was getting this type of information straight from a primary source. Her next question concerned magic as she asked, “How useful is that horn of yours and how powerful are your magic and flying abilities?”

Sky wondered why Twilight took his information at face value, surely she wondered how he got that information despite him saying that he lived all his life in Equestria? Whatever the answer to that question was, he could face it later as Twilight waited on an answer from him. 

“Changeling magic and flight ability while disguised follows the observation of horn power and flight ability of the to-be replaced pony or what a changeling feels would cause the least amount of attention in creating a new disguise, along with that changeling’s own ability in those fields. A Princess Celestia or Rainbow Dash disguise is very unlikely to be 100% airtight since no changeling has the power of Celestia’s magic without the help of tons of love and Rainbow Dash’s flight ability isn’t exactly something one can easily match,” Sky replied to Twilight’s question.

“You mentioned love in your answer but not any other emotion, does love have a special power that other emotions don’t have?” Twilight asked.

“Power, along with it’s terrific taste and being quite a healthy emotion, makes love the most useful emotion that a changeling could consume. Enough love could push even a little changeling foal to Chrysalis and Celestia power, although getting that amount of love would be pretty hard to accumulate. I’ve wondered why Chrysalis focused on love so much after the invasion even though it should be so obvious to me. The hear-say from the period after is really interesting concerning the rumors that spread. There was one crazy pony who after seeing the love wave began following it. When he arrived, a friend of mine entered a long conversation with that stallion. I guess the guy thought that Chrysalis was some sort of messiah or something, that’s the impression that my friend said he got,” Sky replied.

“This friend of yours, who is he?” Twilight asked wanting to know the identity of this pony Sky had befriended.

“Oh he’s nopony, I haven’t seen him for a few weeks actually,” Sky said hoping not have said to much about this friend of his.

“Now come on, Sky, I know there’s more to what you’re saying, just tell me who this pony is. I just want to know his name. No harm can come of that,” Twilight said now really interested.

Sky finally resigned to telling Twilight who this friend of his was. “His name is the Doctor, he’s quite a cool pony actually.”

“Doctor Who?” Twilight asked as the name sounded familiar but she wasn’t too sure.

“Exactly, he’s just the Doctor, although he’s been open to nicknames though,” Sky answered.

“And this ‘Doctor’ is there anypony associated with him? Family? Friends? A significant other? And what does he look like?” Twilight then inquired now thoroughly interested in this pony who had a name that seemed to ring some bell in her mind.

“N-no he’s not really with anypo-” He began to answer when a look from Twilight interrupted him.

“Sky, that is a lie and you know it,” Twilight said bluffing.

Sky didn’t catch the bluff and instead replied, “Alright alright, he does have a marefriend, no family, and he’s a light brown pony with a brown mane and an hourglass cutie mark.”

That description sparked a set of memories in Twilight’s mind, “Did he usually appear with a grey-ish colored mare? What was her name again? Ditzy Doo? Derp Hoof?” Twilight asked hoping to cement the memory.

“Derpy Hooves, and yes he did,” Sky answered.

“Oh now I remember, strange pony, talked a lot about some blue box, hated pears with a passion,” Twilight said as she fully remembered the pony.

“Yeah, that sound like him,” Sky commented.

“Onto the next topic, I think I’ve gained as much from this Q&A session as I could and I think next will be the physical examination. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to conduct a full examination of your external anatomy,” Twilight said as she wanted moved on to Sky’s external physiology instead of just answering questions from a possibly lying source, although she had no reason to believe that Sky was lying outside of what she had already caught him trying to lie about.

Sky wasn’t completely comfortable with the idea of somepony studying his native form so closely considering he wasn’t completely comfortable with his natural looks, but his inability to disguise due to that darn spell disabling his ability to shapeshift meant he was going to have to get used to anypony around him seeing him like that. He only nodded in assent to the next part of this study.

Before Twilight could get close to him though, Spike appeared in the room as he called Twilight’s name. “Twilight, there are two ponies outside, they say that they are Sky’s sisters,” the little dragon called.

“Alright, Spike, we’ll be over there in a second,” Twilight called back.

Sky, meanwhile, was close to having a mental breakdown, simply repeating, “Oh no”  to himself. The day he was fearing, among many other days that he feared, had come. “My sisters are gonna know, the secret is ruined,” was added half a minute later.

Twilight felt pity for the poor changeling, his entire world had come crashing on his doorstep and he had no control. “Don’t worry, it’s gonna be alright, Sky,” she said to him trying to calm the changeling down.

“No no no no, it’s not gonna be alright, this is almost the scenario that I’ve been fearing, except I’m not in a dungeon cell forever, but still it’s close enough! And, um, something is gonna happen to my family,” Sky said.

“There’s no need to worry, Sky. Listen, I promise no harm will come to your family. As long as they’ve lived on the legal side of life,” Twilight said.

“A-are y-you s-sure?” Sky asked.

“I Pinkie Promise, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Twilight said while doing the motions of the Pinkie Promise.

“Alright, I’ll trust a Pinkie Promise,” Sky said. Nopony breaks a Pinkie Promise.

“Nopony…” A voice like Pinkie’s said in his head. That caused a shiver in his spine, his first encounter with the Pinkie Promise was quite a doozy.

> A happy reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cloudsdale: 15 years ago

“She’s your new baby sister,” Sky’s mother, a red Pegasus mare, said to a five-year old Sky.

“Where are the leg holes, Mom?” Sky said confused at the lack of leg holes. He remembered that his “super secret skin” had leg holes.

“Oh don’t be silly, Sky, ponies don’t have leg holes,” Sky’s mom, said while winking, hoping her son would get the hint.

“Is there something in your eye, Mom?” Sky said, obviously not getting the hint.

“No, son,” She then said while taking a glance towards the green Pegasus stallion, her husband, next to her. “Foals and their imaginations, right, Cloud?”

Cloud Sprinter smiled and responded, “So hyperactive his imagination is, Candy.”

Cloudsdale: 9 years ago

“Sky! Stardust! Come see your new baby sister!” Sky and Stardust’s mother called to the other room. The six-year old Stardust, and eleven-year old Sky, immediately made their way to the baby room of the cloud house.

When the two reached the room they were greeted by their father and mother, their mother putting a small red foal into a crib. “Say hello to Redwind Sprinter,” their father said.

The two walked over to the crib and then peeked over the side. Redwind was sleeping soundly. Sky knew how important the secret was by this point and he knew that neither his sisters nor his father could know or mass craziness could ensue…

Ponyville: Present Day

Sky timidly walked through the hall following Twilight. I knew this was gonna happen! Why didn’t I prepare more!? He thought to himself. A few minutes later they reached the opening hallway of the castle. Before they rounded the corner, Sky composed himself and kept on following when he heard shrieks, a combination of fear and surprise. He certainly could taste the fear but there was a smidgeon of confusion mixed in. He immediately hit the “Fluttershy Position” which is the position Fluttershy usually assumes when she’s scared by anything. Cowering between hooves or wings, in this case hooves, shaking, and a wee bit of whimpering to top it all off. Using a hole in his legs he took a quick glance towards his two sisters talking to Twilight. He could taste quite a bit more confusion being mixed into the mix at the moment.

“HE’S A WHAT!” he and everypony in the hall, heck maybe even all of Ponyville, heard Stardust yell.

He moved his eyes away from the hole but he could hear Twilight talking to his sisters. There was soon a sound of hooves going near him so he clenched up hoping to make himself as small as possible.

“Hi Sky,” he heard Redwind say. The kindness and sincerity surprised him enough to make him look up. “Princess Twilight says that you are a nice changeling, but if you are the same Sky as the one who helps me get ready for school then I already know.”

“B-but I’m not even a real pony, I’m a bug compared to normal ponies, my cutie mark isn’t even real,” Sky said incredulous that Redwind was so fine with Sky’s true form.

“You are the same big brother as before, even if you have bug eyes and holes in your legs, and a horn,” Redwind said smiling.

“Th-thank you, Redwind,” Sky said as his eyes teared up. Then he and everypony in the room were surprised by Redwind suddenly hugging him.

Sky was stunned by the sudden hug but he was able to get a look at Twilight and Stardust. Behind the massive amount of love being radiated from Redwind, which should feed Sky for weeks, there was a small amount of betrayal and hostility radiating from Stardust mixed in with her indecisiveness and confusion. Twilight was talking to Stardust who didn’t look like she was in the mood for listening.

There were tons of emotions swirling from the two ponies; there was so much emotion around the area that Twilight’s massive apple-like-in-taste curiosity was a mere hoof-note compared to the entire mix from the Sprinter Sisters.

Once Redwind released him from the hug, Stardust approached. She didn’t look him in the eye; in fact she seemed to be looking past him, as if trying to keep from seeing him.

“Hi there, Stardust,” Sky said timidly.

Suddenly Stardust’s tactic changed and she was now looking straight into his eyes, almost like a lesser version of the Stare. “I have a few questions for you, if you really are Sky Sprinter,” she said to him.

Sky nodded in assent, but he knew that no questions could show that he’s not the real Sky Sprinter since he was, well, the real Sky Sprinter.
“Where were you born?” Stardust asked.

“Cloudsdale,” Sky replied.

“What job does our mother have?”

“She currently works a small candy making and delivery service.”

“What job does our father have?”

“He works at the weather factory, mostly rain-related functions.”

“What are our parent’s names?”

“Our mom’s name is Candy Runner and our dad’s name is Cloud Sprinter.”

“When we first arrived here in Ponyville, who did we meet first?”

“Pinkie Pie, and the party she threw was quite a bit of fun, even for a introvert like myself.”

“Who were our first real friends here in Ponyville?”

“The Doctor and Derpy Hooves.”

“What job do I have?”

“You are a mail-mare”

“What job do you have?”

“None, but I’ve thought about trying to be a weather pony or something like that.”

“Who is Redwind’s best friend?”

“She actually has three, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.”

“How old are the three of us?”

“I’m twenty, you are fifteen, and Redwind is nine.”

Suddenly the emotions coming from Stardust changed to a great amount of confusion and indecisiveness with a small speck of that sweet, sweet love that Sky missed.

“Alright, I’ll believe you. If Redwind and Princess Twilight believe you then I guess I have no need to worry about being deceived, right?” Stardust said before embracing Sky in a tight hug.

“Stardust, I’m-“ Sky said before being interrupted.

“I don’t wholly believe you, changeling-who-may-be-my-brother, so I’ll be watching you. If you do anything that makes me doubt that you are truly Sky, then I will make sure your flank lands in a dungeon deep under the ground, and if that fails then I will find a way to make you suffer,” Stardust said quietly under the guise of the hug.

Sky was equally relieved and saddened. On the one hoof his sisters didn't hate him, but on the other hoof, Stardust wasn't 100% trusting of him.

The hug ended and Stardust turned to Redwind and said, “I think we’ve spent enough time here to get reacquainted.”

“But Stardust, we haven’t seen him in so long,” Redwind complained.

“Sorry Redwind but I’ve got some overtime I need to do and I’m sure the Princess here is too busy to watch you,” Stardust said.

“Actually I’ve got plenty of time on my hooves, despite being a Princess; the Princess of Friendship actually doesn’t come with all that many responsibilities as compared to the other three who either run Equestria or the Crystal Empire.” Twilight interjected, “I can watch your little sister since I’m already watching your brother anyways, and also it’s a good way to make sure Sky’s been telling us the truth, nothing ever brings the truth to light quite like family members.” She personally knew that as was seen during the whole wedding invasion situation less than a year ago.

“Can I stay, Stardust? Please, can I stay?” Redwind pleaded.

“Oh, alright, if the Princess here is alright with it, just be careful and behave,” Stardust said.

“I will,” Redwind responded,

“Alright, I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” Stardust said, “Thank you, Princess.”

Stardust zoomed out of the castle out to fulfill those overtime hours. Sky then asked himself, “What kind of overtime does a mailmare do?”

Twilight interrupted his thinking and said, “Alright, where were we? Oh yes, the examination, if you wish to, Sky. We could continue tomorrow if you would like.”

“Oh no, its fine, we should get over this now anyways,” Sky answered.

“Alright, let’s step back into the examination room, you can follow if you’d like to Redwind, if not then Spike can show you around while me and Sky finish this up,” Twilight said.

“Ooh, I want to see more of Sky,” Redwind said following them.

Sky was sure he wasn’t gonna enjoy this part of the examination but he hoped that the information for ponies eventually helps the standing of changelings to ponies. Perhaps it can even make it so that the secret is unneeded.

> We've got to go back! Back to the examination!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three ponies entered the examination room. Sky went back to his place near the chalk board while Twilight grabbed the pen, paper, and inkwell. Redwind meanwhile was halfway between Sky and the door as she took in the entire room looking at everything.

Twilight returned to Sky and said, “Alright, I’m gonna first take a quick look-a-round to get a basic bearing on external changeling physiology before I begin the more intrusive parts of this.

Sky nodded and closed his eyes still not completely comfortable with the whole process.

Twilight took her quick look at the general parts of Sky’s changeling body that one can get at a general look-over. She took in the leathery skin at the joints, the black chitin, the seamless transitions between, and the color; the fairly light black of the skin and chitin and the green of Sky’s shell. She wrote every detail down on the pad.

Twilight then slightly stepped back and said, “Alright, now I’m gonna take a closer look; starting with the head then to the limbs and ending with the barrel.”

Sky nodded and allowed her to get in close; the air was thick with the taste of apples.

Twilight came in close looking deep and noting various things; she noted where the chitin became skin around the face. Areas around the mouth, eyes, and ears received this treatment and she took in how tough and supple the skin was. She then had Sky open his eyes so she could study them.

“Hmm, your eyes seem to actually be a sea of green in front of a white light. What causes that effect, I’m guessing, is perhaps a large lenticular single-color lens and the area around the iris being a bit more translucent compared to the rest of the eye allowing the light reflecting off the retina to almost be bounced back to the world,” she said while writing it down.

Twilight then asked Sky to open his mouth and so he did while Twilight made notes. She made notes on the fangs and molars, the incisors and upper-molars.

“An omnivorous mouth from the look of it, it seems to indicate either earlier in their evolution Changelings had a omnivorous diet, they currently have such a diet, or even are able to shift into species with meat-eating tendencies,” she said taking notes. Both she and Sky shuddered at that thought, Sky’s being more pronounced; meanwhile Redwind continued her looking around the room.

Twilight next took note of the ears noting how they would twitch and how they were structured to be useful for the dissertation and generally picking up sounds while keeping the theme of missing bits of the pony counterpart which changelings seemed to have around their whole body.

Finally she looked at the horn which had a very unique structure seeming to be even more a part of the changeling body than a unicorn’s.
“Alright I’m gonna move onto the legs and hooves,’ Twilight said to inform Sky.

Twilight moved herself to Sky’s legs, taking note of the chitin and the skin around the joints of the shoulders and thighs, the elbows and knees, and the hooves. She took note of the holes and what their functions were according to Sky and wondered exactly what purposes those zones would have there. Next she wondered the ramifications of those holes, their concentrated nerve endings, and the effect of air running through them which brought her to say a little, “Oh my…” in response when she thought of a particular one.

“It could explain why Chrysalis and the changelings were so smiley during the invasion, I guess,” she said to herself eliciting a small chuckle.”Alright, next I’m going to take a look at your wings, Sky,” she then said to Sky who nodded in assent. The amount of apple he was taking in was almost intoxicating, so much that his body involuntarily stopped soaking in emotions to completely take in and churn the emotions he’d already taken in that day, the last time his body did that was during the “Welcome to Ponyville, Sprinter Siblings” party.
“Whoa,” he said to himself.

‘What is it, Sky?” Twilight asked.

“I just stopped taking in emotional energy,” he replied.

“Is that bad?” Twilight then asked worriedly.

“Actually no, it means that I’ve taken in so much emotional energy that my body needs time to really use it and store it,” Sky explained.

Twilight nodded and then inquired, “What do you mean store it?”

“Normally every month or so, a changeling takes half of the intake of emotions from that month and expels it for use later on during lean months,” Sky answered.

“What do you mean ‘expels it?’ And how did you collect that much energy today, is it your time of the month?” Twilight asked.

“First off: no it is not, actually I have about a week until that time, and besides I’d have told you earlier about this perhaps as I’d have asked for jars, lots of them actually. Second off: By ‘expel’ I mean regurgitate, like how a mother bird feeds it’s child except I’m feeding myself later on. Third off: the total amount per day for a changeling to intake, I believe, is dependent upon that changeling’s metabolism as a changeling is only able to intake a certain amount of emotional energy per day,” Sky explained.

“Is there a certain measurement or does it just happen?” Twilight asked.

“It just happens,” Sky answered.

Twilight nodded and returned to her examining Sky’s wings.

“The wings seem incredibly dissimilar to Pegasus wings suggesting a separate evolution in that area similar to the horn. Yet again there are holes in this area of the body; if your suggestion of them allowing them to flap quicker is true then this will certainly challenge some ponies ideas of the physics behind Pegasus flight. Now Sky, if you’d allow me to, I’d like to test the sensitivity of your wings. Yes? Alright, I’m gonna stroke my hoof up and down a wing and you are going to tell me the feeling, now I’m gonna make sure you are fine with this. You are? Good,” Twilight said while taking her notes of the wings.

Sky wasn’t 100% comfortable with the idea of Twilight touching his wings considering that in Equestrian society it was quite the intimate moment but he could tell that Twilight was solely doing it for the science so he allowed it. Plus there was a part of his mind that thought it cool that such an, admittedly, attractive mare was touching his native form like that, but that was a small part of his mind that was holed up in his unconsciousness.

When Twilight finally brought her hooves to Sky’s wings he shuddered as the sensitivity got to him, he had to convince her to continue. It took just under a minute but the awkward moment was soon over. Twilight seems to focus more than usual on her writing afterwards, which Sky guessed was to take her mind off that situation, unfortunately for Sky he had nothing for himself so he looked over to his sister who took small glances in the direction of the two;  he wondered how long she had been doing that.

“Alright Sky, now for the final part of this examination I’m going to examine your barrel and tail,” Twilight said before Sky nodded allowing her the opportunity. “The chitin to skin transition happens around the waist, midriff, leg joints, the neck, and the flank. The shell starts off as a light green but transitions to a darker green, I hypothesize that it is a chitin material, the color variation, if it is defined as you say it is, is probably a biological function that the queen of a hive is finely in tune with tweaking and without that influence it is chosen by the brain to whatever it believes is needed, unfortunately with only one subject and no future birth to view the results of I cannot test this hypothesis.”

Twilight then viewed Sky’s tail, noting how it and Sky’s mane both had a fur-like feel combined with an insectoid chitinous texture and they, like the changelings of Chrysalis’s hive, were grey like the bands on Sky’s side.

“Now Sky, I’d like to move onto the undercarriage,” Twilight said full-on-into the science of the moment and about to take a look underneath before being stopped by a hoof on the forehead.

“I think that’s far enough, Princess,” Sky said not comfortable with an examination down there.
“Oh, sorry about that Sky, I guess I got a bit too into the science, um, I believe we’re done now. You and your sister can walk around the castle while I compile my notes and, um, try to sort out what information to put where. It might take several months before we’re ready to release the book,” Twilight said blushing and, after the first sentence, not looking at Sky.

Sky nodded and both he and Redwind exited the room to spend some quality time with each other before Stardust’s overtime ended.

> Home on the range
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sweet Apple Acres, The next day

“So working at Sweet Apple Acres is what you meant by probation?” Sky asked Twilight with some trepidation as the two walked towards the barn, “I don’t think I’m exactly built for farm work, especially in this form.

“First of all, your probation includes that magic limitation ring, calibrated to keep your magic at bay. Second of all, I plan to have you work at different workplaces until we find something that fits your abilities as part of a whole ‘prove yourself’ type of program. It’s also kind of a plan to get you a job so that you can help provide for both you and your family after all this is over and done with. Finally it’s a terrific way to get everypony in Ponyville used to the presence of a changeling in their town,” Twilight replied.

“Seems a bit fool-hardy, don’t you think? I doubt anypony would be comfortable working with, nor near, a changeling,” Sky then asked, “I ‘m grateful of the help and all about trying to find me a job after all this but wouldn’t this just add friction?

“Trust me, I’m sure that the citizenry of Ponyville will be sated if an Element of Harmony were to keep watch over you, as well as an announcement by the Quadarchy of Equestrian Princesses in favor of you,” Twilight answered.

“You and I both know you made that name up, Twilight,” Sky then said with a smirk.

“Oh shush it, but I’m serious though. I know both Celestia and I both support you and I’m sure Luna would put her word in for it, considering her own experience with Nightmare Moon,” Twilight then stated.

“That still leaves Princess Cadence, and she was the one whose wedding was almost hijacked by Queen Chrysalis,” Sky said not convinced.

“Trust me, I will find a way to get her on board with this. My plan includes getting Mayor Mare on board of a city-wide bill to include a temporary writ of protection towards you so that you can experience full Equestrian-rights until Celestia and I can get a changeling rights amendment onto the Equestrian Constitution, as the current form only includes non-enemy races and unfortunately Changelings are on that list of enemy races,” Twilight began to explain.

“I was born here in Equestria and yet still…” Sky said stopping for a moment.

“I know Sky, like I said, don’t worry,” Twilight said, “The next part of my plan is finishing that book while setting up a campaign to get at the xenophobia to get de-facto Changeling acceptance. Once we get that, you won’t have to worry anymore.”

The two ponies continued on their way to the house at Sweet Apple Acres. They passed a few working ponies on their way but they finally made it to the doorstep and Twilight knocked on the door. 

“Consarnit. On my lunch break?” Applejack said, as she could be heard from the room she was in.

Lunch? It’s only like 9:00? Sky thought.

A moment later Applejack opened the door and saw Twilight and Sky, so she said, “Twilight, what are-,” before she did a double-take and took notice of Sky, “Oh yes, this varmint. Um, Twilight, I thought when you told me this plan yesterday; I’d have thought you’d give me more than a night to prepare. We can’t just willy-nilly a random stallion into our workforce. It takes time to fully screen a worker to see what he is best at or if he’s even fit for farm work.”

“It’s only going to be for today, Applejack. I’m trying to desensitize the public to him so that he can have his old life back,” Twilight explained.  
“Darnit Twi, fine, I have a position for him if it’s only for today, it’s not near any other worker, it’s just in my section of the trees. If your rules are needin’ to be followed then I ain’t goin’ to break ‘em. Even if it means giving a part of my grove to see if he bucks good,” Applejack resigned.

“Thank you, Applejack, I’m going to go to Mayor Mare for the next part of my plan,” Twilight said turning to leave.

“Darn her sometimes. Alright Sky, follow me to the grove so we can see how well you buck,” Applejack said after Twilight was out of earshot.
Sky followed AJ to the grove and worried about how bad he’d do. He hadn’t done this type of physical activity before. He began to wonder about what his sisters were doing and heck he was wondering about his parents, they hadn’t heard from him in a while, and vice versa so he felt a bit worried. I need to get a hold of them at some point, especially Mom.

“Alright Sky, first let’s see how well you buck compared to me,” Applejack said before bucking a tree.

“Um, alright,” Sky said before trying and failing.

“You’ve gotta build up more on that, the trick is getting your core bundled up so that when you release it, all that build-up just goes into the kick which knocks all the apples off of the tree,” Applejack explaining.

Sky tried again and this time he got a few apples knocked down. “I did it,” Sky said happily.

“Good job. Now, I’m going to be working so you keep doing that until Twilight comes back to get you, or supper for the workers comes around,” Applejack said before turning to go deeper into the grove.

Several hours later and Sky was bucking one final tree before he decided to take a break but just as he bucked that tree he heard a loud scream a short distance away, he looked over towards the sound and saw Sweetie Belle run to behind a tree. He then heard hooves going to the area and instead of running away he cowered in Fluttershy position. He then heard some gasps, two of which were familiar, and then a call of Sweetie Belle’s name by Twilight’s voice. Sky then looked through a hole in his right leg to see what was happening and he saw AJ and Twilight talking to Sweetie Belle. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but at least it was just those two and not two random ponies, he’d have been run out of town had that happened.

A few minutes later, AJ and Sweetie Belle left, leaving Sky, who had left the Fluttershy position by now, and Twilight alone.
“Come on Sky, I think that’s been enough for today, tomorrow you’ll be working with Rarity, both she and I have come up with an interesting idea,” Twilight said motioning for the two to leave, “And don’t worry about Sweetie Belle, thankfully she seems on board.”
Sky was thoroughly confused; surely it wouldn’t be that easy to convert anypony to their cause like that, right? Even a filly, despite the success with Celestia, Twilight, and Sky’s sisters, it still seemed too easy to convince Sweetie Belle.

> To cross-dress or not to cross-dress? That is the question.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carousel Boutique, The Next Day

"So now I can shape shift?" Sky asked confused.

"Yes, darling. Twilight and I thought it'd be best to allow the two of us to adjust the ring as we see fit. And considering the kind of work that you are going to do for me today I think it's best to allow you that power," Rarity answered. "Now your task today is basically a revival of your old job, but quite possibly more permanent if my thoughts of the usefulness of your 'abilities' are correct then I believe we can end this whole charade today. You can get a job and protection while I get a perfect mannequin."

While Rarity was in her dreamland, probably dreaming of having changeling workers up the wazoo for mannequin purposes, Sky decided to try out his reclaimed ship shifting powers turning into a green Earth Pony mare with a purple mane with Rarity's mane style, a black Unicorn stallion with a green mane with Soarin's mane style, and finally into his normal Pegasus form.

"It's been too long since I've seen this face," Sky said to himself while looking into one of the mirrors.

"Alright, first I'm going to need you to turn into the form of a Unicorn mare, with white fur and a long purple mane, if you please," Rarity said hoping to begin business.

Sky then disappeared in a green flash and was replaced by a mare of the description previously stated. "Good yes?" said Sky with a much higher tone than his normal voice, it was quite a bit more feminine.

"I can see that voice modification comes with the ability, very good Sky. Now I just need you to stand still so I can visualize the dress so that when I begin I'll have an even better idea to imagine the dress on the mare," Rarity said excited as she began work immediately.

Several hours later, a knock was heard on the front door. "I'll get it, just stay right there Skyla," Rarity said leaving to see to the visitor.

"Don't worry, I will," Sky said while cloaked in a dress-in-the-making, "And please don't use that name, even if I were to use a female version of my name it'd be something like Sky with an E on the end, none of that Skyla business. Skye not Skyla." Of course Rarity had left by then.

A minute later and Rarity re-entered the room and lo and behold Sweetie Belle followed her in. "Ooh, who's that?" Sweetie asked.

"Oh, well you see, Sweetie, she is a new employee," Rarity answered.

"Don't worry Rarity, she already knows, can you get this stuff off of me so I can shift without ruining your work," Sky said. "She already knows my sister as well."

"Oh alright darling," Rarity said as she began to remove the dress she was working on.

"What are you guys talking about?" Sweetie asked confused.

Once the dress and various tools were off of him, Sky enveloped himself in green flames and out came his natural form.

Sweetie screamed a little bit before recognizing the changeling in front of her. "Hey, I know you, you are that changeling I saw at Applejack's.

"Um, yeah, that was me," Sky said shy all of a sudden. Why did I just do that? I usually don't ever do that.

"Ooh, Twilight and Applejack told me all about you, after I left I told the Crusaders about you and how you aren't like the scary ones ," Sweetie said.

"W-Why would you tell them about me?" Sky asked concerned that this might mess up Twilight's plans.

"Why wouldn't I? I made sure they knew about Twilight's whole plan and they are on board especially Redwind." Sweetie replied.

"It's nice to know that at least one sibling is 100% on my side, although I can't quite blame the other one," Sky commented.

"I knew it! Scootaloo so owes me 5 bits!" Sweetie said smiling.

"I think I need to step in on this conversation, I'm not finished with the dress enough to call it a day so Sweetie if you'd please?" Rarity said interrupting. "And betting is unladylike, Sweetie."

"Oh yeah, that," Sky said sheepishly before shifting into the Unicorn mare form from earlier.

"Oh all right, me and the Crusaders were about to go crusading soon anyways," Sweetie said leaving the room.

Two hours later, Rarity finally pulled the dress off of Sky and she placed it on a display manikin. "Alright, I think that's enough work on that dress for today, I need to thank you immensely for your help today, I think we might have something going quite well here. I really do believe what Twilight said when she told the five of us her plan with you. I hope that book of yours gets the word out about how useful changeling can be," She said as the two walked down the stairs.

"I certainly hope so, if everypony could see that not all changelings are bad then perhaps I wouldn't have to have these Writs of Protection and such," Sky said as he changed back to his Pegasus form, he wanted to use it as much as was possible before Rarity adjusted the magic limiter again to deny him that ability.

Right at that moment, Sweetie returned, this time with her fellow three Crusaders. She entered the boutique saying, "He should still be here."

The four Crusaders entered and immediately saw Sky and Rarity. Redwind immediately ran towards Sky who had reached the bottom of the stairs and tackled, or rather attempted to tackle him, in a hug, "Hi Sky! Are you working for Rarity again?" she asked.

"Just for today, Princess Twilight came up with this plan to get Ponyville acclimated to me. Have me seen as much as possible, or at least be working beneficially, until we find a job that I'm suited for. Honestly I think this job is gonna be it, my abilities makes me basically a living manikin for Rarity, it allows me to actually use my abilities for good, and I kinda enjoy it, I don't know why but I do," Sky replied.

"So this is the changeling you have been hyping up all this time, Sweetie Belle?" Scootaloo asked Sweetie not amused, "I thought they were supposed to be ferocious and scary."

"Hey, I can be ferocious and scary…" Sky said without any weight behind it.

"No you can't Sky," Redwind said smiling.

"Come on Redwind, I'm trying to at least sound cool, failing possibly but it's worth a try," Sky said lightly laughing, "Not everypony is as naturally awesome as Rainbow Dash but still…"

"Are you also a Rainbow Dash fan?" Scoots asked suddenly interested due to the mention of the "most awesome pony in all of Equestria."

"Sky has had a cru-" Redwind said before Sky stopped her with his hoof.

"A cru-crucial understanding of her awesomeness, yes, um, to truly live with a Dash, or whatever bad pun I can make to mean living like Rainbow Dash," Sky quickly said. The taste of curiosity was unwelcome to Sky at that moment.

After taking a second to wonder about that little exchange between Redwind and Sky, Sweetie Belle then turned to Rarity and asked her, "Rarity, can we borrow Sky for a little while, please?

Rarity replied, "Now Sweetie Belle, Sky isn't just some sort of toy to play with, and besides it's time for him to get back over to Twilight's home so that they can continue on her plan for him."

"Aww," All four crusaders said disappointed.

"You guys might be able to convince Twilight, depending on what you all were planning," Sky suggested.

"That's a terrific idea!" Applebloom said excited.

"Ooh yeah, what we were planning was seeing you do all your shape-shifty moves," Scootaloo explained.

"Sorry to crush your hopes on that, but without me nor Twilight you couldn't see that," Rarity said as she lit up her horn to re-apply the restriction on Sky's magic limiter.

"Darn it," Sky said as he felt his disguise fall due to the re-adjusted magic limiter ring.

"Ooh," the four crusaders said at the same time.

"We could just go to Twilight's with Sky, right?" Redwind suggested.

"I guess that is something you darlings can do," Rarity replied.

"It's settled then," Applebloom said.

The crusaders nodded their heads and exclaimed, "Cute Mark Crusader Changeling Watchers!"

"Come on Sky," Redwing said as the Crusaders left the boutique.

"Coming," Sky said to Redwing. Before leaving, Sky said one final thing to Rarity, "Thank you and hopefully I get to return to this soon."

"You're welcome darling, and I hope you get to return to this as well, you are the best model I've had since Fluttershy," Rarity responded.
> Wibbly Wobbly Shifty Shapey
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you able to turn into Princess Celestia?” Sweetie Belle asked Sky.

“Theoretically yes, it’s possible for a changeling like me to physically change to Princess Celestia’s shape but I would never be able to imitate her magic abilities like a changeling queen hopped up on the love of a newly-wed spouse could. Alicorn magic is a whole different animal to normal Pony magic,” Sky answered.

“How?” Sweetie Belle inquired.

While Sky answered Sweetie Belle’s question, with small understanding on Sweetie’s side, Applebloom and Scootaloo were conversing with Redwind.

“So you’ve known him for your whole life and you didn’t know?” Scootaloo asked Redwind.

“Nope, he was very good at keeping us from not knowing,” Redwind answered.

“But he doesn’t really seem that good at it at all from what Sweetie told us, I reckon that he had luck on his side for all those years,” Applebloom interjected.

“His entire life has basically been just like a pony though, it can’t be that hard to blend in with a bunch of ponies you grew up with, right?” Redwind rebutted.

“Perhaps, I reckon we should ask Princess Twilight about that when we reach her castle,” Applebloom relented.

“Good idea,” Redwind agreed.

“Wait a minute, if Sky’s your brother, doesn’t that mean that you are a changeling too?” Scootaloo asked.

“No… well… hmm… I never thought about it that way, I mean, why would he be one and not me or Stardust, right?” Redwind wondered.

“Yet another question to ask Princess Twilight, right?” Applebloom suggested.

“I think so,” Redwind said.

Several minutes of conversation and walking later and the four Crusaders and Sky finally made it to Twilight’s Castle.

“-just like Zecora then?” Applebloom asked as they entered.

“I guess you can say that, it certainly seems like when the townponies of Ponyville are scared of something they usually either just hide in their homes or just stand and stare in awe, which is interesting considering how often crazy things seem to happen in this town, at least since Twilight moved to Ponyville,” Sky answered, “And there are differences between Zecora and me.”

“Like?” Applebloom asked.

“Well, she’s a Zebra, and unlike Changelings they haven’t ever really posed a threat to ponykind, so any fears of Zebras are completely unfounded while I can get why there’d be fear of changelings considering the only kind of contact these ponies have had with changelings would be from the Canterlot Invasion and that would be a terrible first contact scenario for anypony,” Sky explained.

“Did somepony say first-contact scenario? Twilight said walking into the main hallway. She took note of Sky’s “extra baggage” and said, “I see you got some Crusaders to be your escorts to the castle, Sky.”

“Yeah, they wanted to ask you a little something so I decided that they might as well come with me here,” Sky replied.

“Well, what is this question you guys wanted to ask me?” Twilight asked the Crusaders.

“We wanted to know if, maybe, you’d, perhaps, allow him use of his shape-shifting abilities? We could use the opportunity as like a learning possibility and maybe even he could help us find our cutie marks,” Redwind said hoping that Twilight would say yes.

“Redwind, I already told you about that whole cutie mark thing,” Sky said smiling and rolling his eyes.

“I already told you Sky, as a Cutie Mark Crusader I am sworn to forever follow the path of the Cutie Mark until I get it. Besides, I have a lot of fun with it. Sure it gets kinda messy,” Redwind replied.

“And goopy,” Sweetie Belle added.

“And gooey,” Applebloom also added.

“And awesome!” Scootaloo excitedly added drawing the eyes of everypony.

“Anyways, don’t worry. We have our bases covered, it’s not like we jump on run-away pumpkins for a living,” Redwind finished.

“You guys did that though,” Sky said unconvinced.

“Besides the point, you don’t  need to worry about it Sky,” Redwind replied, “Trust me, if they were to come up with something too dangerous then I’d pull out.”

“What about the high jump?” Scootaloo asked.

“We already said no to that, Scoots,” Redwind said before whispering back, “Don’t worry, I’m still getting the materials on that.”

“Alright then, Redwind, I believe you,” Sky said not truly convinced.

“Good, now back to the question at hoof. Please Princess Twilight; can we please use that ability of his?” Redwind said getting back to the question to Twilight.

“Well, I guess it might be possible to take some time away from Twilight time perhaps, and I’m certainly not doing anything, and since only Rarity and I can cast the spell, plus the other Princesses, perhaps some time with her…” Twilight said before ending in thought.

The five other ponies sat in wait while Twilight thought, and their wait didn’t last long as barely a minute later she said, “Alright, I have an idea. I’ll allow him usage of his transformative powers for you guys but either Rarity or I have to be there to keep watch over the proceedings, or at the very least close-by.”

The Crusaders cheered in excitement before all asking Twilight, “How about now?” 

“I don’t see why not, besides I’m sure Sky would love to keep using that power of his,” Twilight answered.

“You have no idea, Princess. It’s the same feeling that a Unicorn would have if they lost their horn, a Pegasus their wings, and an Earth Pony their… um… strength, I guess,” Sky said.

“Actually, I think I do get what you are talking about,” Twilight said thinking of the revival of Discord, the poison joke episode, and the Cutie-Markless town.

“Oh ok then, I’m glad you understand then,” Sky said a bit surprised and relieved to at least have that bit of understanding.

“Alright, I’m sure you understand the process by now,” Twilight said as she warmed up the spell.

“Indeed I do,” Sky said as Twilight began to cast the spell.

The Crusaders looked on in awe as a swirl of magic escaped from Twilight’s horn and wormed its way to Sky’s changeling horn and the magic limiter ring on it. The spell was simple in looks, but the power behind it, the ability to control another being’s ability to use magic, it’s quite amazing when one thinks about it.

“Alright, there we go,” Twilight said as she finished the spell.

“Cool,” Sky said before disappearing into a ball of green flame. The flame ended and in its place was a Twilight-clone. Then that disappeared into grown-up clones of each of the Crusaders (Cutie Mark-less to the chagrin of the Crusaders) before finally Sky’s normal Pegasus form appeared. “Don’t get me wrong, doing this for Rarity is cool enough but it’s nice to have some freedom with this for the first time in, well, ever! I don’t usually get to play around with this.” 

The Crusaders ooh-ed and aww-ed at the display as Sky changed into look-a-likes of the rest of the Mane 6 before returning to his Pegasus form again. Scootaloo practically had a fan-gasm when Sky changed into Rainbow Dash, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were impressed by accuracy of the imitation of their sisters, and Redwind particularly enjoyed the Fluttershy imitation.

“I can certainly see you’ve done some research on them,” Twilight said amazed at the display, despite her knowledge before-hoof on Changelings.

“I may be a bit of a klutz and a bit derpish at times but imitation is something I am legitimately good at. Changelings are naturally able to take a pony’s personality, with some observation and a bit of talent, and imitate it, but to do it well enough to be considered a success takes a bit of talent, which I’m glad, despite the rustyness, I still have. I’ll be honest though, it’s a bit weird whenever I change into a mare, the cool kind of weird but still,” Sky replied.

“What do you mean?” Twilight said as the group exited the main hallways and headed towards the dining room.

“Well… you know, there are external differences in anatomy that always take some differences, and the hormone injection one feels when they change between the two. A mare’s body and chemistry is different in quite a many ways from that of a stallion’s. Differences in anatomy, estrogen vs testosterone, and all that,” Sky said as scientifically as he could, considering it’s the only way he can somewhat comfortably talk about the difference between a mare and a stallion.

“I see,” Twilight said cataloging the information in her mind for use in the book.

“I don’t think anypony could quite understand the other side of the fence until they spent some significant time on that side,” Sky replied.
“I can’t imagine what it must feel like,” Twilight said.

“I doubt anypony could, really. It’s very strange that moment of change from a testosterone-fuelled stallion body and mind to the estrogen-ized mare anatomy and mental way of thinking,” Sky stated.

It was then that the group reached the dining room where Spike was waiting. Spike was about to ask about the Crusaders before Twilight said, “We’re gonna need a few more plates, Spike.” She turned to the Crusaders and asked, “You guys do want to stay for dinner, right? It’s already getting around that time anyways.”

The Crusaders had a quick meeting between the four of them huddled up before Redwind finally said, “We would love to,” in a profession tone before quickly giggling in glee and hugging Sky and yelling, “We’re gonna eat at the same table as a Princess! Sure there was that one time at that one Hayburger joint, and seriously Scootaloo the poses kinda gave it away, but now we’re eating at her table. There’s a difference between Twilight Time and now, Sky.”

“I already told you I look sad in pictures if I don’t pose,” Scootaloo said which caused the rest of the Crusaders to roll their eyes.

The next hour went by quickly as the Crusaders, Twilight, Sky (who was allowed to continue using his shape-shifting ability and so was able to eat whilst in his Pegasus form), and Spike (who was not too happy having to make four more plates but was used to such situations) at dinner. After the meal, the Crusaders tried to convince Twilight to let Sky go with them to the Crusader Clubhouse (presumably to continue seeing Sky use his ability) but Twilight was adamant that Sky stay as he had a full schedule the next day, as did she. 

After the Crusaders left, Twilight asked a quick question, “This has been on my mind for the past few days but what need do changelings have of food? Are you guys able to solely sustain yourself on emotions or do you also need food to fuel your metabolic processes?”

“Actually it is possible for me to sustain myself on emotions alone but it’s not all that healthy and it’s very hard to get the same energy level as one would get with food. The biggest use for emotional energy is its use for long-term storage. Where most types of food would spoil probably after a few months or even several months, emotional energy when being stored could last several years before losing its potency,” Sky said as the two reached the bed-chambers hall.

“Very interesting, I need to get all of this in my notes before I get my hours of studying in,” Twilight said before turning to get to her bed-chambers.

“Alright, how is the book going by the way?” Sky asked.

“It’s going fine, it’ll be a while before I finish it enough for publication though,” Twilight answered before heading into her room.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Sky said knowing that Twilight was likely going to be held up in her room for the rest of the day.

Sky entered his own room and grabbed a book from a near-by bookshelf. It was titled “A Treatise on the Changeling Parasite by Professor Starlight Rays” Sky rolled his eyes upon seeing the title, but he opened it anyways, he needed to see every book that ponies had produced so that he could remind himself of what the book Twilight was working on represented.


Ponies love laughter.  Changelings do not understand joy and fear it.
Ponies are honest.  Changelings tell only lies.
Ponies are loyal.  Changelings will stab you in the back.
Ponies are generous.  Changelings are selfish and greedy.
Ponies care about each other.  Changelings care only about themselves


“I could swear this was stolen from somewhere,” Sky said as he read the first page of the book.

> Who you gonna call? Cloud-busters!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Near Rainbow Dash’s House, The next day aka now

“This would work so much better if the Princess allowed me use of my shape-shifting abilities,” Sky said to himself as he tried to catch up to Rainbow Dash. “Sure I get nice looks at her flank but is it worth this amount of activity?”

“I win!  I knew that any bug-pony would never be able to beat me,” Rainbow Dash said as she crossed the home-made finish line. “10 seconds flat, right Twilight?”

“10 seconds indeed, Rainbow,” Twilight said rolling her eyes before she looked back at the lagging changeling who was only a tenth of the way through the course. A course that was really just two clouds, one was the start right next to Rainbow Dash’s home, and the other was the end, a good 100 meters away, where Rainbow Dash was. 

As Sky continued flying to the other side he thought about the day so far. After waking up, he had breakfast and then Twilight told him what the plan was today.



The Crystal Castle, That morning

“Today, we are going to see how your natural flight abilities are against Rainbow Dash,” Twilight had said before biting into a pancake.
“Ra-Rainbow Dash? Wh-Why?” Sky asked both excited and terrified.

“As I’ve already told you, we need to see what kind of jobs you can do, and besides it’s a terrific way to clock Rainbow Dash’s speed against that of an average changeling,” Twilight replied.

Sky had drifted off for a second to think about Rainbow Dash but he snapped out of it and focused on Twilight’s words, “I guess that’s a good reason. Still doesn’t explain the whole job part of it though.”

“Well first we’re going to see your athletic abilities against her and then we’re going see your cloud busting skills. Not only will this surely get us closer to finding a job for you-“ Twilight said.

“I’m pretty sure the Rarity job is it,” Sky interrupted.

“Still, best to get all the data we could get before coming up with a decision, yes?” Twilight rebutted.

“Fair enough,” Sky reluctantly agreed.

“Anyways, not only will today get us closer to finding a job for you but it will also get us invaluable insight on the flight capabilities of a Changeling drone, as academia has begun calling all non-Queen changelings, versus that of the self-proclaimed ‘best flyer of Equestria,’” Twilight then said.



Near Rainbow Dash’s House, Now

Sky finally made it to the finish line where Rainbow Dash and Twilight stood, “You know, Twilight, I’m thinking this whole, jobby thingy is kinda, a wild-goose chase. You know?” Sky said a bit out of breath before taking in a big breath and saying, “It seems awfully a lot like what my sister has been doing with her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders, it just seems like I already know what job I want and any more seems a bit… indulgent, now I can get the scientific parts of all this. I mean, who wouldn’t want to try their wings against Rainbow Dash, the most awesome pony and absolute best flyer in Equestria? It just seems like we’re stalling for some unknown thing or some other.”

“I guess it might be a bit much, but I think my point still stands on that this plan might be the best way to acclimate Ponyville to you,” Twilight rebutted.

“Doesn’t really work when everypony hides in their homes, does it?” Sky said hoping that Twilight would at least reconsider the current state of things.

“Alright, alright. How about we follow the plan for the rest of the day and I’ll see what I can come up with tomorrow? Rainbow Dash, I’m sure you can keep watch on him while I go to Fluttershy and Pinkie’s homes to inform them of the change in plans?”

“Don’t worry about this bug-pony, Twilight, he won’t go anywhere with me here,” Rainbow Dash said landing next to Sky with a smirk.
“Please don’t let your prejudice get a hold of you, Rainbow, he really is a good pony at heart,” Twilight said as she flew off.

Sky looked sheepishly at Rainbow Dash after Twilight left, “Um… so what’s next, Rainbow Dash?” His first time alone with Rainbow Dash was likely not going to be all hay and flowers as he wished.

“Well, Mr. Bug-Pony we’re going to see how good your cloud busting is,” Rainbow Dash said with a mischievous smile as she hovered next to Sky.

“How long are you going to call me that?” Sky asked.

“Either until I trust you or I’m tired of using it, and I’m sure neither will happen, Buggy” Rainbow Dash replied.

“I thought so,” Sky sighed.

“Alright, Twilight and I have been able to create a competition between me and you with three stops. First, single-cloud busting over Carousel Boutique, followed by group-cloud busting over Sugercube Corner, and finally, what I like to call, the Lightning Round over the lake,” Rainbow Dash said sounding pretty proud of herself, “The single-cloud busting involves a wide-open expanse of sky where each competitor tries to bust five single clouds as fast as they can before moving onto the next part. Group-cloud busting has us in a tight, confined space of clouds in which we’ll burst every cloud in the vicinity. Finally, the Lightning Round, for the hardcore ponies, in which we’ll be in a combination of the previous two challenges coupled with the added difficulty of these clouds being thunder clouds.”

“Doesn’t that sound at least a little bit dangerous?” Sky said a bit intimidated by the whole competition.

“Dangerous? Pff… Please. I’ve done plenty worse. And I’m sure you’d remember the whole Hurricane Fluttershy thing if you were truly here for as long as say you were,” Rainbow Dash said crossing her arms smugly.

“This is way different from that time, I mean, every eligible Pegasus, and me, the one changeling, got together to help out with that. This is one changeling versus however many lightning clouds you guys have out there at the lake, and I’m no you,” Sky said not as confident.

“Come on Mr. big, bad, bug-pony, it’s one little course, and besides, this is for, um, what did Twilight say? Oh yeah! This is for science” 
Rainbow Dash said wanting to get on with the competition.

“Of course she would tell you the one thing she knows will get me to do something like this,” Sky said as he readied himself for the flight by getting into take-off position on the cloud he stood on. 

“Alright, count down, Buggy. From 5,” Rainbow Dash said getting into take-off position next to Sky.

“Um, alright… On go, ok? Um, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go,” Sky said as on “Go” they both took off towards Carousel Boutique.

Rainbow took off quite a bit faster than Sky and so she made it to Carousel Boutique before Sky by about half-a-minute and so by the time Sky made there she had already left.

“Of course,” Sky complained when he made it there and Rainbow was already gone. He got to busting the clouds as fast as he could and soon he was on his way to Sugarcube Corner. 

As he got to Sugarcube, he noticed Twilight leaving Sugarcube and he also began to notice the not-so-happy faces of the various townsponies. “I guess they got past the hiding stage. I hope Twilight has a plan for all of this,” he said as he got to cloud busting. He saw that Rainbow was also there still busting, “This is going to take quite a while.”

A minute later and Rainbow was finished with her clouds however, she seemed to be going slower on them, almost as if she was watching him. He smiled sheepishly as he busted the last of his clouds and he took off towards the lake, however before he left he saw Twilight waving at both him and Rainbow Dash and so he waved back.

At the lake, Rainbow Dash was already busting the thunderclouds and so Sky went to work immediately, only to be singed by the cloud. “Ow! Curse these darned clouds,” Sky said. 

“Come on Buggy! It’s not too bad,” Rainbow said smirking.

“It kinda is,” Sky complained as he busted the next two clouds.

As the two of them busted the clouds, the amount already halved by the two, but Rainbow had a clear lead. Sky was still surprised by the ease of cloud busting, except the occasional lightning touch which hurt like Tartarus. By the time Rainbow had almost finished her clouds, she began to slow down, at least that’s how it seemed to Sky. In between his kicking and flying he saw Rainbow watching him with that untrusting expression; he felt the wave of emotions with its combinations of confusion, anger, and hostility.

“And finished!” Rainbow said as she kicked the final cloud on her side before kicking a few clouds on Sky’s side. Half a minute later and Sky had also finished.

Sky collapsed on the ground as he tried to regain his breath, “Phew! That was a workout,” he tiredly said.

“Color me impressed, Buggy, I expected you to take quite a bit longer than this to finish the course,” Rainbow said.

“Thank you,” Sky said breathlessly.

“Don’t think I trust ya though,” Rainbow warned, “It’ll take more than flying quickly and busting clouds to get my trust, especially for a bug-pony.”

“I didn’t expect any less,” Sky sighed, it hurt a bit that she still didn’t trust him but he couldn’t really expect her to trust him even now.

“I see you two had fun,” Twilight said as she entered the scene.

“It was top fun,” Sky said semi-sarcastically.

“Good. So Rainbow, what do you think of him now?” Twilight then asked Rainbow.

“He seems like a hard worker, but I still don’t trust him, Twilight. For all we know this could still all be a changeling plot, everypony thought that Princess Cadence was herself, and not Chrysalis in disguise,” Rainbow answered.

“I was able to discern that she was Chrysalis though, Rainbow,” Twilight rebutted.

“But you knew Cadence since you were a filly, Twilight. You didn’t even know Buggy here until after he was in the dungeon,” Rainbow said stubbornly, “How could you know whether or not he’s just Chrysalis’s spy?”

“First of all, his eyes and shell, I’m thinking of just calling it a upper caraspace now, are a different color from those of Chrysalis’s hive,” Twilight replied.

“Changeling trick, they have to be able to change their colors. They can turn into ponies for Celestia’s sake,” Rainbow said.

“Second of all, he acts nothing at all like the changelings that we fought,” Twilight continued.

“You said it yourself, egghead. We don’t know a lot about them, he could be a different type of changeling from the ones that we fought,” Rainbow rebutted.

Sky stood by as the two friend’s argument grew in volume, he didn’t like that they were having such a bitter argument over him, and not just because the emotions that were being released were very bitter in taste.

“Um, girls?” Sky asked trying to get their attention but utterly failing.

“-your just going to have to trust me, Rainbow!” Twilight finally said loundly.

“Fine, but I’m still keeping an eye on him!” Rainbow Dash yelled before flying off.

Twilight sighed in defeat, “Why does she have to be so stubborn and hard headed?” she asked herself.

“She’s never gonna trust me is she?” Sky said sadly.

“She’ll turn around, she’ll see you for the good changeling that you are, one day,” Twilight said.

“Yeah right,” Sky said walking towards town sadly.

“I need to find a way to cheer him up,” Twilight said to herself as both she and Sky walked back to the castle. It took her only a few seconds to think up a way to possibly cheer him up, if he was happy enough when his sisters visited, and she could tell he loved playing around with his little sister, then he’d love another family member visiting and she knew exactly the family member, or two, who’d both, hopefully, cheer him up and give her some answers.

> Throw a dragon a bone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crystal Castle, The next morning
“So what’s the plan?” Sky asked as he, Spike, and Twilight ate pancakes for breakfast.

“It’s going to be a day-off for both you and Spike while I work on the book. I’ve already told Fluttershy about the change of plans today and Rarity that she might be expecting you two, just in case you guys might want to go over there, but if you guys do go, please be back by around 4:30, I’ve got something planned that has to do with the book and you Sky,” Twilight answered.

“So it’s only like two-thirds of a day-off in reality, or something like that?” Sky asked.

“Yep, pretty much,” Twilight replied before then saying to Spike, “I need you to send a message to Princess Celestia, Spike, after breakfast. It’s about the book.”

Spike saluted and said, “You can count on me Twilight.”

Outside the Crystal Castle, a few hours later
As both Sky and Spike exited the castle, his thoughts turned to his baby Dragon companion. Spike had been quite dutiful to Twilight through this whole process and he seemed to not be all that fazed by Sky as everypony else had been, he took the whole thing in stride it seemed. Which meant it surprised him when he sensed little bits of hostility and jealousy coming from the dragon ever since he had returned from Rarity’s two days prior and it was showing again now that the two were walking towards Carousel Boutique. At first he thought it might be the dragon being jealous of him spending so much time with Twilight, but now after thinking over when those two emotions flared, they always seemed to be happening whenever Sky and Rarity were mentioned in the same conversation.

“Oh hey, it’s Rarity, and I think she’s waving at me” Sky said out of nowhere focusing his emotion sensing on Spike as well as paying attention to the baby dragon’s actions.

“What? Rarity? Where? Are you sure she isn’t waving at me?” Spike said looking for the white mare. He was certainly sending out those emotions as well as the infatuation he had for the mare.

“I knew it,” Sky said, “Sorry Spike, I just needed to make sure that my assumption was correct,” Sky then said apologetically.

“What? What are you talking about?” Spike asked hoping that Sky wasn’t thinking what he thought the changeling was thinking.

“Come on, Spike. You can’t hide it from a changeling, Spike. You, my good sir, have a cr-” Sky said before Spike stopped the changeling with his hand.

“Ok, ok, but please don’t say it out loud,” Spike said.

“There’s nopony around to hear it,” Sky said confused.

“You never know whose ears might be listening,” Spike stated, “And promise me that you won’t tell anypony, please?”

“Fine then, I promise to not tell anypony about it,” Sky said without thinking.

“No, I want a Pinkie Promise,” Spike said, “Then I’ll know you’ll never break it.”

“Alright then, it’s not like I wouldn’t be able to keep a secret like that, I’m a changeling you know? Keeping a secret is kinda my thing,” Sky said rolling his eyes.

“Just do it,” Spike said.

“I promise not to tell anypony about your secret. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” Sky said doing the motions. “And don’t you do that creepy thing again, Pinkie. I know you’re watching!”

“What are you doing?” Spike asked.

“I feel like that mare watches me sometimes, I mean the first time I ever did the Pinkie Pie swear I could swear that I heard her voice telling me how those promises were forever,” Sky said.

“Forever…” Pinkie quietly said from behind a bush which, itself, was behind Sky.

Sky let out a mareish scream before closing his mouth. “Darn it Pinkie!” He yelled embarrassed.

Spike meanwhile was laughing about Sky’s scream, “Oh that was just perfect, Pinkie! I wish I knew you were gonna do that!”

Sky sighed, “I told you, who knows what areas that mare follows me into.”

Minutes later, the pair reached Carousel Boutique. Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and her eyes lit up in excitement, “Rarity, Sky’s here!” Sweetie announced.

“Hey, what about me?” Spike asked.

“Spike’s here, too!” Sweetie added.

“Oh perfect, it’s good to see my Spikey-wikey and little Buggy are here, we’ve got quite a bit of work to do, darlings,” Rarity said as Sweetie let the two into the boutique.

“Little Buggy?” Sky and Spike asked with raised eyebrows.

“Not a fan of the nickname?” Rarity asked.

“Not really,” Sky asked.

“Oh all right,” Rarity said, “Now, since Twilight told me that you guys have a few hours here before she wants you back, I think the perfect thing to do would be to get started immediately. There is this one dress that I’m trying to get done and I think that that shape-shifting ability will be of great help.”

“Alright, just tell me the details of the pony and let’s get this started,” Sky said as he saw Rarity’s horn light up.

“Actually, I’ve got a picture of the mare right here,” Rarity said as she brought up a picture of a white Unicorn mare with a long, flowing silver mane, somewhat in the style of Fleur de Lis’s as well as a tail in her style.

“A mare? Alrighty then,” Sky said as he took the image of the mare in the picture and pictured it in his mind. One flash of green flame later and that mare was standing in the room.

“Testing, testing, one, two, three, blue Pegasus really gets to me,” Sky said testing out the mare vocal cords, sounding a bit like Fleur. “You know, I’m getting a bit creeped out about how non-weird this feels, heck I might even create a normal female form for myself.”

“Woah, I’ve never seen you do that up close,” Spike said as he then took a quick look-a-round to see how different Sky looked. Gone was the chitin and in its place was just pony skin and fur, even the spot-light cutie mark looked authentic.

“Yeah, I guess it really is kinda cool, but when you’re the one who does it though, it kinda looses its luster after a few transformations,” Sky said to Spike. Sky then turned his head to Rarity and asked, “Alright, back to the dress room, correct?”

“Exactly, Sky. Come on darlings, let’s whip up a dress that’ll excite this client,” Rarity answered and then announced.

As the next few hours in the boutique passed by, Sky’s mind wondered about what exactly Twilight had needed a few hours to get prepared for, especially concerning the book. To go from the plan we had over a day ago to whatever she’s planned now… it couldn’t be all that much.

> Are you my mommy?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Outside the Crystal Castle, 6 hours after Sky’s arrival at Carousel Boutique
“I really need to ask Twilight if she can annul the anti-shapeshifting rule, I never knew how much I’d miss the ability prior to all of this. Crazy, isn’t it, Spike?” Sky said to the barely listening baby-dragon.

“Do you think she paid more attention to you or to me, Sky?” Spike asked, ignoring Sky’s question.

After pushing open the door of the castle so that he and Spike could enter, Sky answered, “Outside of the attention she needed to pay to me with the whole dress thing, definitely you.” Sky rolled his eyes at Spike’s worry.

“You sure? She seemed pretty focused on you that whole time,” Spike asked worriedly.

“Spike, bro, trust me, I could sense her feelings, she has a spark of that romantic love for you, you just need to give her some time, besides, once you’ve grown some and she’s ready to think about you in that way, you’ll be able to sweep her off her hooves. Trust me, she’s all yours, I’m not gonna mess with your whole thing with her,” Sky said trying to assure Spike that he had no thoughts of going after her.

“Alright,” Spike sighed.

“Besides, I doubt she’d go for me, I’m little more to her than friend/best-manikin-she’s-ever-had,” Sky stated. He didn’t mention that he doubted that Rarity would go for a changeling, what with the average pony’s view more than likely negative towards a changeling; their views on a pony-changeling relationship, one in which the pony knew that his/her partner was a changeling, would be like the tribal days when interracial relationships were taboo.

The pair split up in the map room as Spike went to his own room and Sky sat in Rainbow Dash’s chair and he looked at the map. The cutie marks of the Elements of Harmony were all congregated in Ponyville, except Applejack’s in Sweet Apple Acres. Sky knew he should probably be searching for Twilight, but his inner foal made him fly on top of the map and systematically put his hooves down on every major city in Equestria. Manehatten was smooshed, Fillydelphia was smashed, Los Pegasus got a sweep of the tail, and Canterlot got rolled upon. Right as Sky was about to step on Stalliongrad, he heard the sound of a pony clearing her throat.

“I see you’re having fun with having your way with Equestria,” Twilight said amused.

“We all have an inner foal, right?” Sky sheepishly said as he lifted off from the map and then landed on the ground.

“And yours definitely loves to smash stuff,” Twilight said.

“Heh, yeah,” Sky said embarrassed, “How much of that did you see?”

“Ever since you sat upon Salt Lick City,” Twilight replied.

“Oh,” Sky said knowing that was the third of twenty things he did on the map.

“Now come on, we need to get to the basement; I have a very special guest for you, Sky,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Buddhay? Allahay? Ahura Mane?” Sky jokingly asked.

“Nope, somepony much closer than those three,” Twilight said rolling her eyes.

“Somepony closer than the former dominant Eastern god? Than the former dominant god of Saddle Arabia? And the former God of Purrsia?” Sky asked in mock shock.

“Yes, Sky. I think you might know her,” Twilight said as they reached the door to the basement.

“Who?” Sky asked as they entered the basement.

“How about you take a look?” Twilight said motioning towards a smiling changeling with the light blue eyes and carapace of a Changeling born under the influence of Queen Chrysalis’s hive. Sky hadn’t seen this changeling in her natural form in quite a long time, but he could still recognize the loving eyes, the arms that held him as a small foal, the motherly smile, and if that didn’t give her away, then the pattern of the holes in her hooves gave her away.

“Hello, Sky, why don’t you give your mother a hug, hmm?” Sky’s mother said.

A thud was heard as Sky fainted.

10 minutes later
“I think he’s waking up,” Sky heard Twilight’s voice say.

“Oh thank Celestia,” Sky’s mother said.

Wait! Mom!? Sky thought as he suddenly shot up and then fell off of the table he was laying on.

“Sky, are you alright?” Sky’s mother asked concerned.

“I’m alright,” Sky said before he asked, “Mom? What are you doing here? In your natural form!?” Sky’s mind was racing, as this was totally unlike his mother! What happened to the caution? What happened to the mother who seemed to sever all ties to her true form? Where was the over-protectiveness and aversion to any suggestion of the use of shape-shifting?

“Sometimes a pony doesn’t follow what she preaches,” His mother replied.

“What!?” Sky asked incredulous.

“What I’ve been telling you all this time was meant for you to follow so you couldn’t get yourself into trouble. I guess the Goddess didn’t quite favor that line of thinking,” His mother said amused.

All of this was very hard for Sky to process, his mother had, after teaching him all he knew about their kind, basically forsaken her changeling form. It was only when the Talk came around that she had actually spoken about their true form again.

“Sky, I asked your mother to come over here, that’s what that letter I told Spike to send.

“Don’t those only go to Princess Celestia? Sky asked.

“Well, her and Luna, if directed. But the letter to Celestia was a request for a royal summons for your mother to my castle,” Twilight answered.

“Couldn’t you just issue one yourself?” Sky asked.

“Um… actually that’s actually what Celestia told me after she issued the summons,” Twilight answered blushing in embarrassment.

“And here I was, at home on my day off from the sweets shop when suddenly I hear a royal guard-pony yell out that I am summoned to the Crystal Castle of the Princess of Friendship. When I got here, I’m introduced to the Princess here by a cute baby-dragon and she proceeds to try to break to me gently that my son has been discovered,” Sky’s mother said explaining how she got there obviously not happy with how she learnt of her son being found out.

“To say she was worried would be an understatement, but eventually I was able to calm her down and I got to talking to her. She had some interesting stories to tell about you Sky,” Twilight said about his mother’s briefing. “How you managed to get yourself stuck in cloud-stairs, I’ll never know.” Twilight grinned.

“Mom! I thought we agreed on never telling that story ever again?” Sky said shocked to his mother.

“And I thought we agreed that your moving to Ponyville would ensure your safety and independence,” his mother said smugly.

“If it wasn’t for that magic-stealing demi-god, I would have never gotten discovered,” Sky argued.

“Perhaps... perhaps,” His mother smiled.

“I refrained from asking your mother questions for the book until you got here, but your mother had some interesting questions though,,” Twilight said as she levitated some chairs for the three to sit upon.

“Sky, if I knew that you were having mare troubles then I could have given you pointers on what a mare looks for,” Sky’s mother said suddenly.

“Woah, what mare troubles? I’m not looking for a relationship, Mom! I’m not really interested in that kind of relationship with a mare, at the moment.” Sky said alarmed. He did not want to be having this conversation, especially with Twilight right there!

“Nonsense, my son, you haven’t tasted romantic love yet so you don’t know what you’re missing out on! Oh when your father holds me in his embrace, I truly feel alive and full of energy! It’s the best emotion out there and one can almost call it addictive,” Sky’s mother said closing her eyes relishing in the thoughts of her husband.

Sky desperately tried to keep his mother from embellishing on the story further, as the whole relationship talk would only devolve into her pestering him about whether or not he had a crush, as it did every time that happened whenever he visited his parents. There’s no way I’m gonna tell her about my crush on Rainbow Dash! Twilight’s standing right there!

> A candy by any other name
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked, not believing the words coming from Sky’s mouth.

“Yes, I have an infatuation with the Element of Loyalty,” Sky said resigned but not deigning to say the word “crush.”

“Oh Sky! I knew there had to be somepony you liked!” Sky’s mother said before suddenly hugging him tightly.

“Can’t breathe! Too tight!” Sky said breathlessly.

“Sorry, I’m just so happy, my son is truly growing into a stallion,” Sky’s mother said happily.

“I’ve been living outside of the house for years and I’m already past 18, mom,” Sky argued.

“I don’t care, you’ll always be my little colt,” Sky’s mother rebutted, “Besides, I grew up in a society where a Changeling wasn’t considered an adult until their first successful seduction of a Pony.

“Wait! Sedu-what?” Sky said put off by that information.

“Oh, it’s a wondrous occasion when a changeling hits the age of adulthood, about 18-19 or so, and they are sent into Pony society to seduce a pony. The requirement is to come back to the hive with enough love for an offering to the Queen but the method of acquiring that love is up to the Changeling. Some go for tamer kinds, small bits of familial love, family reunions, wedding parties, and the like. Others go for more intimate methods, including methods that would make the Queen’s use of the classic “bridal switch-a-roo” seem tame.” Sky’s mother said whilst thinking about her own first seduction, a wondrous time for her, in which she first discovered her love for ponykind, to the future chagrin of the Queen.

While Sky processed what his own mother had told him, which made the situation so awkward for him, Twilight was writing all the information onto her note paper.

“Honestly, Pony society is so much more stuffy and closed-in compared to that of Changeling society, were it not for the Queen’s constant presence in my mind and totalitarian rule with such hostility towards the Pony races I probably wouldn’t have left,” Sky’s mother finished confirming Twilight’s own thoughts on Changeling society’s apparent openness to what in Pony society would consider to be something to be conversed intimate.

"Well then, I think we'll have a wonderful time discussing the topics related to the book," Twilight said after writing down the previous info, "I'm sure that there's much to be discussed and I hope you can fill the holes in on some questions I have, especially to the ones that Sky himself couldn't answer."

"Gladly. As much as Sky wishes he knew everything about us, I didn't tell him everything, more for his own safety and if he were to be captured by some anti-changleing pony they wouldn't know everything about us," Sky's mother, said.

“Compartmentalization? I guess that makes sense,” Twilight said writing down the info. 

“As much as teaching him everything about us would have been nice, continuing the changeling knowledge line outside of a hive, I thought that it’d be better for him to just know the basics, the needed parts of knowledge and some other bits of knowledge so that he could have as little as a bias towards ponies as possible. I taught him to be both cautious of ponies but also to be able to enjoy the company of one. If a changeling is unable to spend time with the ponies they are feeding off of comfortably, then the feeding process is less efficient for the changeling and much more harmful to the pony being fed off of,” Sky’s mother, said shrugging.

“Fascinating,” Twilight said awash in the flow of knowledge.

“Of course those who feed primarily off of more negative emotions are kinda forced to deal with that but I don’t know any who do, myself. It’s not common for a changeling outside of a Queen and her selected scholars to really know much about hives outside of the one they are born into. I could tell you much about Queen Chrysalis’s hive, but I couldn’t tell you about any other hive,” Sky’s mother added.

Sky, despite the awkwardness of just earlier, was fascinated and a tiny bit angered about his mother’s not telling him everything, even if he did get why. 

“I must ask, Mrs. Candy Happiness-“

Please just call me Candy or Candy Happiness, Princess, there’s no need for that type of formality, even in science,” Sky’s mother, now to be referenced as Candy Happiness, interrupted.

“Ah, yes, thanks, anyways, I must ask, Candy, do changelings, such as yourself, call yourselves under a different name. Given Chrysalis’s name, I’d imagine that, at least in her hive, the average changeling’s name would be different to that of a pony’s, correct?” Twilight asked.

“Well, yes actually. I actually even came up with a more traditional name for Sky in case I ever decided to return prior to Sky growing up,” Candy replied, “Before becoming Candy Happiness, and I guess to anypony from a hive or just really wants to use that name, I was called Nithrix. Exotic to a ponies tongue, I’m sure and the name usually used when disguised as the only time we’d use that name is around a fellow changeling, and of course that doesn’t really happen all that often. In the changeling tongue my name is-” Candy then cleared her throat before starting a short burst of clicks and ticks surprising both Twilight and Sky.

“I didn’t know we could do that,” Sky said to himself.

“There are quite a few things that I haven’t taught you, some of which I won’t even show Twilight; our kind has certain secrets we like to keep,” Candy said before turning to Twilight, who seemed to be trying hard to write down what exactly Candy did, and then said, “Princess Twilight, dear, don’t worry about trying to write that down, it’s basically impossible to write that down in Equestrian. It’s rather impossible for the language to be properly done by a pony’s mouth and anatomy and the patience needed to get even a rudimentary ability to mimic it would drive a normal pony insane.

Nevertheless Twilight tried to find a way to put down in words the exact noises which made up Candy’s name. Sky could tell that the process was likely to take quite a while.

Sky rolled his eyes and then said to his mother, “Come on, let’s get something to eat, she’s going to be doing this for a long time, and expect the Princess to want you to try to teach her how to do that.”

“Oh alright dearie, but I’ve got some questions I’ve gotta ask you,” Candy smiled.

“Wait, what questions?” Sky called after his mother who had, by then, started flying towards the kitchen.

> Everything you know is wrong
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Exactly how did you get caught, Sky?” Candy asked Sky as the two snacked on some Hayburgers that Spike had laid out, thankfully the Princess had quite a big appetite when it came to them.

“Well… I have this duck out hole that I sometimes use when the pressure gets too much for me or when I just feel like I need to give myself some bits of freedom every now and again,” Sky said as he explained the process of how he was captured.

“Oh my poor foals, I should have gotten here earlier! After that horrid creature came around stealing everypony's magic I should have at least visited!” Candy exclaimed.

“Mom, it's alright,” Sky said trying to calm her down.

“No, it's not alright! Sky, the pain you must have gone through as all your magic was sucked away from you! And what about your sisters?” Candy said.

“Mom, they are fine, I'm sure of it,” Sky said not liking that panicky tone.

“N-no, it's not alright! Oh Sky, I'm so sorry! I should have been there for you!” Candy replied.

“If you had come looking for me then you wouldn't have known where I was, I was in the dungeon,” Sky said still trying to calm her.

“Even then, Sky! The moment I would have found out about your predicament I wouldn't let anypony get in my way!” Candy replied.

“Mom, it's nothing, I'm fine now, and I've spoken to Redwind and she's taken this whole thing really well,” Sky tried to explain.

“And what about Stardust? Have you seen her? Did she seem OK to you?” Candy asked.

“Yes… she's suspicious… but…” Sky said trying to answer without outright saying how much Stardust didn't trust him.

“I can tell by your tone that there's something more there, Sky. I'm going to see for myself!” Candy said as she saw through Sky's try at deception.

“What do you-“ Sky had tried to ask before his mother flew off, sans-disguise. “Mom, your disguise!” Sky yelled before he took off after her. “Oh no, that is not good!” he exclaimed.

Sky wondered if he should have told Twilight before leaving but it was too late now. “Darn it mom, now is not the time to go crazy!” Sky yelled as he flew. He noticed the path his mother had taken by the wide-eyed ponies on the ground and a few Pegasi in the air. “One would think they'd be used to a Changeling appearing after having me around like this for the past week or so,” he said to himself.

Sky soon reached his sister's home, formerly his own as well. “I wonder if my jars are still there?” he asked himself before he reached the open door. 
“I'm your mother! Don't you recognize… oh…” Sky heard his mother say.


Sky looked inside and he saw his mother looking about herself whilst standing in front of a confused Stardust and a slightly terrified and somehow curious looking Redwind. A taste of the emotions swirling in the air certainly confirmed that, but somehow there was some excitement in the air as well.

“Mom! What are you doing? You just exposed yourself to Stardust and Redwind!” Sky yelled.

“Oh. Oh my, I… well…” Candy said sheepishly.

“I-I… M-mom too?” Stardust said.

“Yay! Mommy's a changeling too!” Redwind meanwhile said. That certainly explained the excitement in the air. “Does that mean that I am too?” she asked before her strained her face in concentration. “Become Scootaloo!” she loudly said to her herself with no hint of changing..

“N-no, Redwind, t-this is definitely a trick! You are not a bug-pony, a-and neither am I!” Stardust said as her fear seemed to engulf her.

“Stardust you-“ Sky started to say.

“Shut it bug!” Stardust interrupted, “I was willing to think that perhaps Mom and Dad just a-adopted you or something! B-but there's no way that my mother is a changeling! I'm a pony and I'm definitely not some insectoid deceiver!” She pulled Redwind away from the two changelings, both of whom wore a hurt expression.

“Stardust, sweetie, surely you don't believe that nonsense on those newspapers? Nopony in Cloudsdale took them seriously, and I'm sure few would here as well,” Candy said hoping that Stardust would listen.

Newspapers? Thought Sky.

“Enough of it seemed truthful enough, 'Mother,'” Stardust said disgust flowing from her mouth. The way she said “Mother” made both changelings wince.

“Stardust! I will not have my own daughter call me a liar and deceiver! I am NOT one of those fools who follow the Queen! I carried Sky, you, and Redwind to your births and then I held you as you were foals!” Candy said angrily.

“You? Not a liar nor a deceiver? You've been lying to us ever since we were born and to Dad if he doesn't already know! Seriously, first I find out that my, so called, big brother has been a lie all this time, and now my own mother is one of the bug-ponies as well! Am I a lie as well?” Stardust rebutted.

“I may have lied about who I was, but it was to protect myself and Sky! When I came near to Cloudsdale, pregnant with Sky and starving for love, your father saved me! I thankfully had enough strength to keep up the disguise I had or I would have likely have been sent to a dungeon or some scientist's examination table! Candy Happiness was the disguise I also had when I first met him so many years earlier,” Candy said as her eyes began to water.

All three siblings, ponies and changeling, stood shocked. They had all heard their mother say that their father had saved her from a dark time in her life but even Sky didn't think that it was THAT type of dark!

“M-mom? Y-your saying that you almost died out there? After you escaped from the hive?” Sky asked shocked.

“Yes. If nopony had helped me in the next week or so, then nopony in this room would be in here arguing.”

“What happened back then, mom?” Sky asked.

“Yeah, tell us Bug! Let's see if your story checks out!” Stardust yelled.

Candy looked defeated and pleaded with her eyes, to Sky and Stardust, hoping to not need to tell the story, but all she got was silence. She sighed and began...