Echo, still disguised, began to almost literally drag Ricochet -- or rather, in his current form, Key Stone -- into the dining room.
"Echo," He begged, his voice barely above a whisper, "Please, no. Let me go and look at more architecture or something, don't make me do this, I can't do this!"
She stopped dragging him for just a moment. "All right, Key Stone, rule number one to using a disguise without raising suspicion: Never use your real name, only ever use your disguise name. Rule number two: Never do anything that draws unnecessary attention to yourself. Leaving suddenly when there's a heavenly dinner set out for us would be very attention grabbing. Rule number three: Never let them see they got to you. If they can see that they make you nervous, then that will make them suspicious, which will also violate rule two. I know this isn't your idea of fun... it isn't quite ideal for me either... but trust me, okay? We'll get you through this."
"But... I mean, we're trying to help me live with ponies without having to use a disguise, aren't we? Shouldn't we just be honest and upfront?"
"All in due time, but for now, a surprise reveal wouldn't be a smart move."
"Mrs. Velvet didn't try to hurt anyone but your mom."
"Mrs. Velvet was not kidnapped and held hostage for Chrysalis knows how long in the labyrinthine caves under Canterlot like Cadance was, nor did she have her fiance impersonated for that same duration of time while also being subjected to changeling mind control and having her love siphoned off by a QUEEN -- you know how a Queen's appetite can get, I imagine? Ravenous. No, her reaction in trying to knock off my mother's block was a second-hoof response to those incidents. Given time and preparation, I'm sure that Shining Armor and Cadance could be persuaded to accept the both of us, but presently it would be an extremely unwise decision."
"I... I know you're right, but I still don't want to be here. I'm sorry, I'm not as courageous as you are."
"Courage doesn't mean not being scared, Ricochet. It means doing it anyway. Now come on, don't make me explain why I had to literally drag you to your seat. Rule number two, remember?"
"Rule number two... don't draw attention to yourself. Right. Okay." He stood, shaking a little, and took a few breaths to calm his nerves. He cracked a slight smile and walked into the room in perfect step with Echo.
Cadance looked up and smiled as the duo entered the room. "Ah, there are the two lovebirds! We were waiting for you."
"Lovebirds?" Ricochet stammered.
"Why does everypony assume we're an item?"
"Oh?" Cadance seemed surprised. "Are you not?"
"Nope, just friends."
"Really? That's kind of surprising, you two seemed perfect for each other."
"Cadance, honey, I know it's hard for you, but you don't need to be a matchmaker anymore." Shining Armor gently touched her shoulder.
"I was only trying to get to know them, Shiny." She chuckled. "Well, I'm sorry if I made you two feel awkward. Please, join us!"
The only two remaining seats were directly next to each other, so Echo and Ricochet sat directly across from Cadance and Shining Armor respectively.
Mrs. Velvet began to set the finished dishes in the center of the table to serve them. There seemed to be something from every corner of the Earth. Everypony except for the two disguised changelings and the Princess of Love immediately began to dig in with an almost animalistic fervor.
"So," she said after a few tense moments, "Tell me about yourselves. Where do you come from? How do you know my Shiny's family? Why don't we start with you, Blossom Delight? After all, ladies first, am I right, Key Stone?" She smiled sweetly.
"Of course you're right. One hundred percent right." This suited Ricochet just fine. It would give him time to collect himself and remember his own backstory.
This suited Echo as well. "Well, I was born in Manehattan," She deliberately chose a large city so it would be harder to call her bluff, "where I quickly found out that there was a substantial market for florists. Turns out when you live in a huge city, Hearts and Hooves day brings in a lot of demand for flowers. Doubly so since a lot of the ponies in Manehattan seem to not want to go pick their own from Central Park. I guess it was just too much work for them. I digress. The thing was, there were so many lovers' quarrels in Manehattan that I was never really struggling for business. As long as I kept a wide variety of flowers, there was always somepony who would pay me a visit."
"That sounds like it would have been right up my alley, if I didn't already have a job of my own. Where were you in Manehattan?"
Oh shit. All right, time to come up with something on the fly. "I was originally hoping to set up shop in Tribeca, but after a while I realized it made more financial sense to set up shop in SoHo, where I could rent both my business and living properties at the same time."
"Smart mare!" Cadance beamed. "So what happened to your business out there?"
"Well," Echo shrugged, "business has its ups and downs. Unfortunately I hit a down, and I hit it fairly hard. Throw that together with the insane cost of living in Manehattan and I was forced to consider different options for my living situation. I had heard that the Elements of Harmony were from Ponyville, so I thought that would be as good a place as any to see what fortune held for me. It would certainly be a safe place, after all."
"Makes sense to me. What about you, Key Stone?"
"I build things." He nodded.
Cadance put a hoof to her lips and giggled. "I had assumed as much. I mean, where did you come from?"
"I come from... well, nearby but kind of far away, too."
"I think what Key Stone is trying to say," Echo gently interjected, "is that he's spent most of his career going from town to town, and doesn't feel that he has one single home town."
"That... is correct, yes." He nodded. "I apologize, I am very, very nervous." His nodding became more vigorous.
"Okay, Key Stone," Echo said gently, "you can stop nodding now."
"Please," Cadance gingerly took a bite of one of the particularly sweet-smelling dishes in front of her, "don't be nervous. Just because I have 'Princess' in my name doesn't mean I'm anything more than another pony in this world."
"Yesh it doesh," Shining turned toward her and nuzzled her gently, "y'r mah wife."
It was at this point that Echo leaned over toward Ricochet and began to coach him on what to say next.
"Shiny, dear, swallow your food before you speak." She turned back toward Echo, Twilight, and Mrs. Velvet (who were all roughly on the same end of the table) and laughed gently. "Honestly, how is a mare expected to civilize wild stallions like this?"
"Gib id up!" Night Light chimed in, sitting at the head of the table next to his son. He was in a similarly stuffed state. "Th' boy'sh got too much o' me in 'im. Hon'stly, th' fact is dat -- OW!"
Mrs. Velvet had lit her horn and grabbed a wooden spoon, with which she was lightly smacking Night Light on the back of the head. "Stop that."
Cadance's small giggle became a fully-fledged laugh. "I feel like I should be taking notes!"
"You should, dear." Mrs. Velvet smiled gently before returning the spoon to its previous home in the kitchen.
"Where were we?" Cadance turned back to the two disguised changelings. "Oh, right. Key Stone's story."
Ricochet was now prepared. "Right, well, I was born in Raneigh. Ma always said I'd taken to building things early on, even with my old 'tinker toys'. I found out it was my special talent after Hurricane Floyd came through and wrecked the coast. My pa took me a couple counties over -- he was a construction worker by trade -- and I helped him with rebuilding for some of the victims in Greenville. I actually liked it a lot, but got my cutie mark when I was looking over a set of blueprints and started making some modifications that helped increase the structural integrity of our projects against future hurricanes. From there, I finished going to school and set out across the country, mostly helping out when natural disasters took ponies' homes, but sometimes just contributing to a few designs for major projects. Never seen anything like what you have in Canterlot though!"
"Oh, you should see the Crystal Empire. I think you'd probably find it fascinating."
"I think we'll consider that at some point in the future." Twilight smiled as she interjected. She didn't want to rope Ricochet into heading up to the Crystal Empire, in no small part due to her own uncertainty over whether or not the naive changeling would be able to contain himself around the overflowing font of love that the Crystal Heart had become after Flurry Heart's Crystalling.
"I'll wait for your letter, Twilight." Cadance smiled brightly. "Now, tell me, Key Stone. How exactly did you and Blossom Delight meet?"
Oh Exuvia, she's on to me. She knows. She's trying to back me into a corner. He looked around nervously.
"I'm sorry for interrupting," Echo spoke, "Key Stone is still a little nervous is all. We actually met thanks to Twilight. I had just dropped by to visit her -- to meet the legend, as it were -- and get some tips on Ponyville to figure out where I would be best to set up my shop. He was dropping by because he wanted to see the architecture on her new castle. Coincidence was that we were both there at the same time. We struck up a conversation and found we were compatible as friends."
"Of course." Cadance looked between the two of them and giggled into her hoof again before taking another bite of food.
Echo leaned over and whispered into Ricochet's ear again. "Rule number three."
"Never let them see they got to you. Right. Sorry." He whispered back.
When the two looked back over at Cadance, she was smirking and chewing on a bit of asparagus. She gently pointed her fork at them. "Sharing whispers? I feel like there's something you don't want to share with the rest of us."
"Cadance, come on, what did we say about not doing this to ponies anymore?" Shining Armor laughed, obviously just a bit exasperated by his wife's meddling behavior.
"I just call it like I see it, sweetheart." She impaled another mouthful of vegetables and shot the pair another smirk as she chewed.
Echo felt her cheeks redden, and a quick glance at Ricochet showed he was in a similar state, though he adamantly refused to make any eye contact with her.
"Oh, for Pete's sake!" Scootaloo groaned, planting an elbow on the table loudly. "Would you two just kiss already and save us all the awkwardness?"
"SCOOTALOO!" Mrs. Velvet's voice rang out with an uncharacteristically scolding tone. Echo did notice the reflexive response that both Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle shared at the tone. The two seemed to snap to attention, their ears flat against their skulls. More interesting than that, though, was the fact that Scootaloo responded in much the same way. "That is absolutely inappropriate. No more of that or you'll be going back to bed without any more supper, and certainly without dessert. Now, apologize to Mrs. Delight and Mr. Stone."
The filly's eyes were wide, and she swallowed nervously. "Sorry Mrs. Delight, sorry Mr. Stone."
"It's... all right, thank you, Scootaloo..." Echo nodded, astounded at Mrs. Velvet's control of the filly. What kind of magic was locked away in her voice?
There was a tense moment before Cadance spoke again. "... on the other hoof, Scootaloo does have a point!"
Is she the Princess of Love, or the Princess of Putting-Her-Nose-Where-it-Doesn't-Belong? Echo resisted groaning.
"Come on," The Princess continued, "look at him, Blossom. See how badly he's blushing?" Echo did indeed. "Now what would you tell me if I said you were blushing almost exactly as badly?"
"That I'm mortified?" She responded honestly. She looked at Shining Armor, who silently mouthed out the words, I'm sorry.
Cadance sighed, seeming to resign. "All right. I won't force it then, but I'm going to suggest you two consider if you're being honest with each other, or even with yourselves!" She shrugged. "Give love a chance, I always say."
"I can see why your mother likes her so much," Ricochet mumbled to Echo.
"Despises her, actually."
"Yes, that 'likes' was in massive sarcasm."
"I'm aware."
"How much longer do we have to keep doing this?"
"Until it's time for them to leave."
"How long will that be?"
"Well, provided we have a small dessert and some slightly more brief after-dinner chatting, it should only be --"
"Hey, Twily, what would you say if we all had a big family game of Monopoly?" Shining Armor beamed.
"Oh, that sounds AMAZING!" Twilight responded loudly.
Echo let out a pained whimper. "Some time next month."
* * *
Three hours later, the game was starting to come to a close.
"I absolutely loathe this game." Echo snarled as she gave Cadance a sum of $1,500 when her poor, pathetic little thimble game-piece landed on Park Place.
"I'm starting to think that's just because you aren't very good at it, Blossom." Ricochet shrugged.
Her gaze snapped in his direction. "I've never needed to be good at Monopoly. I'm better at other things."
"Not including taking a joke, evidently." Ricochet held up his hooves in a mock surrender.
"I own all the railroads." Scootaloo beamed when Twilight found herself landing on the B. & O.
"Argh!" Twilight groaned as she counted some money. "Which means, Scootaloo, that you're owed $200 every time somepony lands on one of the railroads, and that happens on at least 64% of the rolls on average!"
Shining Armor had long since gone bankrupt at the hooves of his wife, just as his father had gone bankrupt at the hooves of his wife as well. The two were now sharing a couple of beers and chatting on the couch.
Ricochet longed to join them. Perhaps he could talk about hoofball? The mares didn't seem to want to talk about anything that interested him.
"You know, Cadance," Echo began, "Scootaloo here just recently got her first coltfriend."
"Really?!" Cadance's wings sprang out and she leaned over, excited. "That's great! What's his name?"
Scootaloo glared at Echo. "Thanks for embarrassing me." She looked back to Cadance and softened her gaze. "His name's Rumble."
"Oh, I think I remember Rainbow Dash mentioning him. Thunderlane's little brother, isn't he?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"See, now, Key Stone?" She turned back to the disguised changeling. "If a 13 year old colt can ask out a filly, then surely a grown stallion like you can ask out a mare on a date, right?"
"All due respect, your Highness, but you're married." He smirked and playfully jabbed Echo in the ribs.
"N..." She blushed. "Not me!"
"Aw, yeah! You made her blush, Key Stone! Nice one!" She held out a hoof for a hoof-bump. "That brings the score to ... what, two hundred to one?"
"Thirty seven to one." Cadance corrected.
"Oh my Ch-- Celestia, you've actually been keeping count, haven't you?"
"Ha! Pay up!" Mrs. Velvet shouted.
"Wh... nopony landed on any of your properties, Mom." Twilight corrected.
"No, no, not the game. Night Light! They did it, they made Cadance blush and she admitted it! You owe me fifty bits!"
* * *
After another hour of stalemate, the group decided to call the game a draw. Cadance was exhausted, Shining Armor had found himself a little intoxicated, and the Princess had decided that getting him to sleep in their hotel room was the best course of action to ensure that nothing tabloid-worthy happened that evening.
"It was lovely meeting you, Blossom and Key Stone. It was also good to see you guys again, Twilight, Mrs. Velvet, Night Light." She put a foreleg under one of Shining Armor's, to help him keep his balance. "We'll see you some time tomorrow, all right?"
"No hanky-panky in my old room, Blossom Stone and Key Delight, oh-kay?" Shining Armor laughed, winking at the two of them. "B'sides, trust me, when you have a foal, it takes a lot out of you."
At that moment, both Mrs. Velvet and Cadance glared at Shining Armor, and seemed to speak in perfect unison. "You don't know the half of it."
Echo cleared her throat, recovering from her embarassment. "Well... it's been a pleasure to meet you as well, Cadance. I look forward to seeing you again."
Ricochet mirrored the sentiment, and the regents of the Crystal Empire departed for the evening with a cheerful wave goodbye.
As soon as the doors closed, there was a flash of green light, and both changelings dropped their disguises. "That went a lot better than I'd expected!" Echo beamed.
Twilight snickered. "I have to admit I was wondering if you two were going to be able to hold it together there a few times. I thought changelings were supposed to be good at blending in!"
"Hey," Ricochet crossed his forelegs, "I spent the first 20 years of my life never really needing to change my shape or come up with cover stories. The other two years I spent pretending to be Echo, so that didn't exactly give me a lot of practice making up my own ponies. All things considered, I think I did all right!"
"I... have no excuse other than being rusty. Haven't had to blend in like that since I adopted Scoot." Echo shrugged, stretching her wings with a buzz.
"Well, I guess we all better get to bed." Mrs. Velvet yawned. "I'll see you all in the morning, okay?" She grabbed Night Light's hoof and dragged him up the stairs as well.
Twilight Sparkle yawned, too. "I'll drop by tomorrow and make sure you two are okay. I had fun tonight! Maybe next time we'll try Scrabble instead, even though I promise you that Mom would annihilate all of us." She chuckled. "Anyway, see ya! Sleep well."
Another closing of the door later, and Echo and Ricochet were alone at the base of the stairs.
"Well," he said, "I guess it's time we go to bed."
"Yep." Echo started and turned around halfway up. "Are you coming?" She tilted her head.
"Uh..." He reconsidered his first instinct to make an off-color joke. "Yeah, I'm pretty tired." He started up the stairs once she turned around again. After he stepped in, he closed the door behind him.
Echo pulled back the covers on her side of the bed and snuggled in. Hesitantly, Ricochet did the same on his side. There was about a pony's width between the two of them, but he could feel the rise and fall of her chest through the bed.
"Echo...?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah, Ricky?" She turned to face him, smiling gently.
"Wh... what would you have said if I had actually asked you out when Cadance said I should've?"
Echo snickered. "That definitely would have gotten a reaction out of her. I don't know what I would have said, but I would've loved to see it."
"No, I mean..."
"... what?"
"... Echo, I ... I kinda, sorta... Y'know."
"Ricky, are you all right?" She sat up. "What is it?"
"Echo, I think I... Love you." He looked over at her expectantly.
Her eyes were dinner plates, and she stared at him in shock. After processing what he said, they took on a sad appearance. "Ricky, hey... listen..."
"No, you're right, that was stupid of me."
"No, it's just--"
"I shouldn't have said anything."
"I think we make better friends than a couple."
"I know, I get it, it's okay. I really shouldn't have said anything."
"It's not that you're not cute, 'cause you are, it's just that I don't really see you that way. Besides, I have Scootaloo, and I don't think I could handle her and trying to handle a romance, it's just not in the cards."
"I GET IT!" He barked. "I get it, I shouldn't have said anything. Forget I asked, okay?" He turned his head to face away, not wanting to betray any of the hurt he was feeling.
She began to reach out a hoof to set on his shoulder, when --
BOOM!
The whole house shook violently, nearly knocking both changelings out of the bed. They buzzed into the air and Echo made a bee-line for Scootaloo's room while Ricochet went to check on Night Light and Twilight Velvet.
"Stay there, Scootaloo! Don't come out until I call you!"
"What's going on, Mom?"
"JUST STAY THERE!" Echo buzzed out to check on their hosts with Ricochet. Fortunately, neither unicorn was injured.
"What happened?" Twilight Velvet asked, rubbing the side of her head.
"I don't know," Ricochet replied honestly.
"I'll go outside and check it out." Echo turned and started toward the staircase when she heard the front door burst open.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs, there were four changelings standing just inside past the devastated portal. They didn't look familiar to her. They were each stocky males, most likely warriors. Their chitin had a faintly red sheen to it, and their eyes and back armor were a midnight purple, almost jet black in the right light.
"Who the hell are you?!" She bellowed.
One of them, the leader by the looks of him, chittered something to the others in a language Echo couldn't recognize. He stepped back, and the other three fanned out, advancing on her position. She snarled and dropped low to the ground.
The one on the right launched himself at her first. She rolled forward, slipping under him. As she righted herself, she planted a hoof in a square uppercut on the one that had been in the middle. Once he was disoriented, she wrapped a foreleg behind his head and pushed his face down to meet the floor. She spun around, keeping one forehoof on the downed changeling's temple, and kicked out with a vicious buck to the ribs on the third changeling. He was winded and fell back instantly, out of the fight.
Echo hissed as she felt a hoof make contact with her cheek. The first one whose attack she had ducked under landed a solid right hook that sent her reeling back. She shook her head quickly and regained her footing. The one she'd been standing on struggled back to his hooves. They shared a few more bizarre words in that foreign language.
She was able to read enough of their body language to know that their intent was no longer to capture her as it had originally been. They'd decided she was too great a threat, and they had shifted to lethal combat. Naturally, she would meet force with force. Fortunately, however, they seemed to not understand Equestrian. "Guys! Get Scootaloo out of here! Get to the castle! Go now!"
"What the hell is going on down there?" Ricochet shouted. "Do you need help?"
"JUST GO! DON'T ASK QUESTIONS, RICKY! GET SCOOT OUT OF HERE, NOW!"
Echo lunged forward, grabbing a vase in her magic off of a nearby table and smashing it over one of the combatant's heads. As he staggered, she chose a particularly jagged shard of ceramic and let out an enraged shout as she plunged it into the soft chitin behind the changeling's ear. Unfortunately, it seemed that these changelings didn't share her weak points. The ceramic broke as though it were made of styrofoam. She chose another piece and made an equally savage attack, this time aiming between the thoracic plates that allowed their abdomens to flex. She felt herself wince as she heard the chitin snap, and the stallion roared briefly before it turned into a loud gurgle. The shard of vase had penetrated into his thoracic cavity, through his right lung, and into his heart. He took two steps before collapsing. She bucked behind her again to put one of the two remaining changelings, the apparent leader of this squad, off balance for long enough to make a strike on the last lackey.
After seeing his brother in arms taken down, the lackey in question had charged for Echo. If his horn rammed home, she was dead. Her chitin was paper thin compared to theirs, and the amount of mass this changeling had behind his charge was substantial. She had one main advantage in this fight, though; due to the same lighter stature that rendered her weaker than her opponents, she was much faster. She bobbed a little side-to-side as she watched the drone rush her. Once he was a single hoofstep away, she sidestepped and kicked at his left rear knee. It buckled just enough to send him down to the ground, and Echo buzzed her wings. From a position a meter or so above him, she began to fire bolt after bolt of hot, green magic into his body. She filled each spell with the fury and hatred she felt at that moment, and it was obvious after only a few moments more that she had killed him.
Coming out of her haze, she searched for the last enemy. I can't believe I lost him! Rookie mistake, getting too focused on one enemy and losing sight of another. Where did he -- Her thoughts were cut off when she felt a burning heat bore into the chitin on her back, and she fell limply to the ground. She could barely breathe. When she turned her head, she found the last drone hovering above her, his horn glowing red as he charged another spell. He chittered something else that Echo couldn't understand.
"What, you want me to beg for mercy?" She choked out. "Eat me."
He smiled, and for the briefest moment, Echo felt fear. She saw it in his eyes, he was enjoying this. The cruelty of the kill was what he enjoyed the most. Her fear gave way to resignation. It's over. I failed. I just hope Scootaloo got out in time. I hope she's safe. I hope she can forgive me. This is the end.
The glow grew, and Echo stared directly into his eyes. She wouldn't give him the pleasure of seeing her cower.
There was a flash of red, followed by an even brighter green flash. During the time it took for Echo to realize she wasn't dead, she saw the drone's confusion just a moment before his head was surrounded in a green aura and twisted around a full 180 degrees, letting out a nauseating snap.
Echo turned her head weakly toward the door, where a snarling, but otherwise unflappable Chrysalis stood. After a moment, her expression softened, and turned into a very faint smile. "Princess Echo," she turned to face her daughter, "there's been a complication."