The sound of voices pulled Stinkbug up from the depths of darkness. Groggy, disoriented, he pieced together what little he knew of his surroundings. He was laying on something soft, he was covered by something warm, and his pain felt dulled. His eyes weren’t working quite yet, but as his body awoke, his senses became more and more alert. There were incessant itches in several places on his body, places where he was growing new chitin.
He thought about the alicorn and the harpies. He had been saved from them. Or perhaps the alicorn had spared him for whatever odd reason. Alicorns were strange creatures, fickle, and oh so very dangerous. Feeling a growing sense of caution, Stinkbug lifted his head.
“Oh, you are awake!” a rather excited voice said to Stinkbug.
When his eyes focused, Stinkbug saw the creature of nightmares. The alicorn was here, beside him, and she was smiling, for whatever nefarious purpose she had in mind. Try as he might, Stinkbug couldn’t muster a sense of panic. His body was too sluggish, his mind and senses still far too dull.
“Hi, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I want to be your friend,” the alicorn said in an overly chipper voice that made Stinkbug’s ear holes ache. “Try not to move too much. You’re safe and with friends. I bet you’re worried, but you don’t need to be.”
With a muffled plop, Stinkbug’s head fell down upon his pillow. He lay there, feeling very, very confused, and not knowing what to do. The alicorn was now inches away from him, peering at him, and there was a wide, disconcerting smile upon her face. There was another pony beside her, an earth pony.
The earth pony was somehow more terrifying than the alicorn. The earth pony was a seething caldera of raw emotion. The love she generated made Stinkbug feel dizzy, dopey, it made his head throb. There were other emotions there as well, but they were broadcast at such a volume that Stinkbug couldn’t tell what they were. She was chaos, that earth pony, at least on the inside. On the outside, she looked sleepy and perhaps a little bit bored. She looked sedate, calm, she showed no emotion whatsoever.
“Your friends are safe and recovering. Your harpy friend is right here in this room in fact. I’ve been working on becoming friends with her. I’ve never had a harpy friend, usually, I have to obliterate harpies to protect my fellow ponies.”
“Not like others,” Stinkbug managed to gasp. It took him several long seconds to realise that he was overstuffed on love, and love-drunk. It was the weird earth pony mare that was messing with his senses. She had a crazy amount of love about her and it left Stinkbug stoned.
“No, she’s not like the others at all, from what I’ve been able to gather.” As Twilight stepped away from the bed, her smile became an expression of concern and compassion. “We’ve been able to help her a lot more than we’ve been able to help you. We know almost nothing about you or your physiology. Celaeno keeps talking about how nice of a bug you are.”
“She’s awake?” Stinkbug asked.
“Not at the moment, she’s napping,” Twilight replied.
“Hachikō?”
“He’s fine. He was poisoned pretty bad, but he’s recovering. He keeps asking about you.” Twilight paused and then a warm smile spread over her muzzle once more. “I bet it feels nice to know that you have friends that worry about you and ask about you.”
“The burro—”
“Azure Serape?” Twilight’s ears twitched as she spoke the two words. “Oh, she’s fine. She made it to safety. She and Yam are here as a matter of fact. They’re with Hachikō, as he recovers.”
“You saved me, why?” Stinkbug looked into Twilight’s eyes. Before she could answer, he added, “It was a pony who hurt Celaeno. Why save us?”
For a second, Twilight looked troubled. “Mistakes can be made. I know I’ve made them in the past. I’ve learned from them though.” She clucked her tongue and then continued, “I just so happened to be in the area because I was called in by Tarnished Teapot, a friend of mine. There was some trouble and he and I were having a little debate about what to do about it when Yam shows up. When we caught up to where we thought you would be, you and the others were gone. We found harpy darts and dead harpies. Azure found us and then we had to track you down and figure out where you went. Tarnish and I saved you.”
“He’s my husband,” the earth pony said in a flat monotone.
“This is Maud, by the way,” Twilight said, introducing her friend.
“Twilight, about what we talked about—”
“Yes, yes, I know, Maud. Pebble wants to meet a changeling. Give him time to get sorted out and I’ll keep my promise.” Turning her head, Twilight looked at Stinkbug. “You have an admirer. Somepony is just beside themselves wanting to meet you. Her name is Pebble and she’s almost a yearling and she’s really quite nice in her own special way.”
Overwhelmed, Stinkbug just lay there, not knowing what to say.
“She likes bugs,” Maud said in a voice that revealed no emotion whatsoever. “She’s in a bug phase right now. We try to encourage her hobbies because that’s what good parents do. I hope you are not offended by being called a bug. If you are, I’ll have a long talk with her about it.”
The enigmatic earth pony was almost terrifying to Stinkbug. Her voice offered no hint of the emotion inside. He had trouble reconciling how her insides and her outsides did not match. There was kindness there, however, and that brought him a little comfort. It made her easier to deal with.
“I’m going to go and check on Pebble,” Maud announced. “It was nice meeting you, Stinkbug.”
Laying still, Stinkbug watched the earth pony go and he heard her hooves tapping upon some hard surface. The alicorn was still here, and she wasn’t a danger, no matter what his ancestral memory suggested. Twilight turned around in a circle next to him, her face now thoughtful. He could feel her worry, but also her optimism. She was excited and happy.
“I feel bad that we couldn’t do more to help you,” Twilight blurted out. “We just don’t know enough about you though. Tarnish cooked up a concoction that neutralised your stink, in fact, you sort of smell like roses now—”
Sniffing, Stinkbug realised that he couldn’t smell much of anything.
“—and no offense, but that makes you a lot easier to deal with. But that’s okay, I’d still be your friend, even if you were stinky. It sure made you easy to find. There’s a few doctors here and they’re very curious about you, and I’ve kept an eye on them to make sure they stay respectful. Not that they would do anything bad, I just want them to remember that you’re more than a curiousity, you’re a thinking, feeling creature with emotions and needs. They’ve been very good so far though and… and… hey, I’m babbling, aren’t I?”
Stinkbug nodded.
“Sometimes I do that when I’m nervous or excited,” Twilight admitted. “Now that you are awake, I’m going to call in the doctors for a little checkup, if you don’t mind.”
Again, Stinkbug nodded.
The little room was now quiet. No more alicorns, no more doctors, Stinkbug lay in his bed and he looked at Celaeno, who was sitting in a makeshift nest beside him. Her head was bandaged, she was woozy, and the odd square pupils in her eyes kept changing size. After all of the hubbub, after all of the confusion, after all of the poking and the prodding, it was nice to have a quiet moment alone with Celaeno, his friend.
“Okay, Stinky, things didn’t quite work out as planned,” Celaeno said in a low, weak voice, “but that’s okay. We’ve still made friends. We didn’t get a chance to prove ourselves to make the ponies accept us, and my foolproof plan didn’t work out so well, but everything turned out okay though.”
Even though he couldn’t express it, Stinkbug was very, very happy to hear Celaeno’s voice. It relieved him and brought him comfort. She was… precious to him, even if he had trouble processing why. She was his friend, but being friends was an odd, almost alien thought to a changeling.
“We still have a chance at greatness.” Celaeno, too weary and weak to keep holding up her head, allowed it to come to rest against Stinkbug’s neck. She settled in, got comfortable, and then let out a contented sigh. “Stinky, we have a chance to become ambassadors to the ponies. Twilight talked to me about it. She wants us to become her friendship ambassadors. She thinks that if ponies can meet us, talk to us, and interact with us, it will make things better.”
“And what do you think?” Stinkbug asked.
“I think it will,” Celaeno replied. “Maybe it’s the concussion, but I think we can make a difference. Harpies don’t have to be gross and evil. Stinkbug, I’m so sorry that you had to see what my kind are like. Now you see why I had to leave them. They’re awful.”
As Celaeno spoke, Stinkbug thought about how the harpy had started to crack and peel away his chitin, the uncaring, unfeeling way that she went about it. She didn’t care that he was a living, breathing, thinking, feeling creature. She didn’t care that she was causing him pain. The harpy, he realised, was a lot like his Queen Mother. He shuddered and felt Celaeno move against him. He went still, fearing that he might disturb her state of comfort, and then let out a very pony-like sigh as his eyes started leaking again. The vinegary scent of changeling tears filled the room.
“Twilight is really very helpful. She gave me a long checklist on how to be a good harpy. There’s things on there that I didn’t even think of.” Celaeno shifted her body, settling up against Stinkbug, snuggling up against him. Her feathers fluffed out and she tucked her wings against her body. “Twilight and Tarnished Teapot took a big risk in saving us. We owe them, even if they say we don’t owe them, we do. We have a job to do, Stinky.”
“We do?” Stinkbug asked.
“Yes,” Celaeno replied, “we must become heroes. Once we get better, of course. The only way to pay back this sort of kindness is to go forth and save others, and then tell them that they don’t owe us anything. Then we’ll be debt free.”
That seemed reasonable, so Stinkbug didn’t disagree.
“I’m going to be a real hero someday,” Celaeno said in a sleepy voice as she struggled to keep her eyes open. “And you…” The harpy yawned and let out a drowsy whine. “And you, you’re going to be my conscience.”
“I’ll be your what?”
“My conscience,” Celaeno repeated. “You’ll be my guide. You know how other creatures feel. You can sense their emotions. With you around, I’ll be able to do whatever it takes to make others happy, so I can be a real hero someday. We’ll be able to find creatures who are scared or have broken hearts and help them.”
Somehow, Stinkbug’s chitinous face was able to express his utter confusion.
“The world would be a better place if more creatures had bugs acting as their conscience.” Celaeno’s eyes closed and her goat face lapsed into a peaceful, calm expression. “I have big plans, Stinkbug… big plans…”
It seemed that Celaeno’s big plans would have to wait, as the harpy slipped off into slumber. Stinkbug found something about the harpy dozing against him comforting. She was right, he would be able to sense those who were troubled. Perhaps she had the right idea. He thought about when they had first met, when he had watched her bathing in the water, and how she had expressed the desire to do good, so that they would be accepted.
Would he ever get acceptance? He didn’t know. He thought about the pony that had hit Celaeno with a rock. He thought about his own feelings of rage, his anger, and poor Stinkbug felt his emotions twist into a confusing mess inside of him. That pony didn’t know better. He thought about the savageness of the harpies, he felt the pain in his leg, and then, the most miraculous thing happened.
Stinkbug felt sympathy for the unknown pony that had hurt Celaeno.
Perhaps that pony had experienced the cruelties of the harpies. Perhaps he had seen, or heard stories, perhaps he had an encounter with a harpy that had left him wary. It didn’t excuse his actions, or make his assault any easier to think about, but it did give Stinkbug some sense of understanding.
He and Celaeno had an obligation. They had to show the world that changelings and harpies, enemies of ponykind, could be good. He could be Celaeno’s conscience bug if he had to. He could do his part to bring about understanding. After all, he had the gift to know what another creature was feeling.
The more he thought about it, the more he realised, he could be a hero.