“Shhhhh!!” Autumn hissed, throwing a nervous look at the door. “Not so loud!”
“Come on! I’ve known you for eight years. You’re not a racist!”
“It’s not racist if it’s true,” Gold Star held against her, though keeping her voice down. “You attacked Canterlot, trying to enslave the entire city! And it didn’t even make sense! I thought you guys feed on love. How were you going to get love from a ponies that despise you?”
“Beats me. I’ve left the hive over a decade ago.”
“Oh.”
“Look. If you say you aren’t racist, then there must be possible for me to do the right thing. So what would that be? Leave the hive? Done that. Be nice to others? Done that. I hope.”
“Don’t lie?” Gold Star suggested.
“That’s unrealistic.”
“Fair enough.” Gold Star sighed. “Okay. But you prove to me you’ve always been Autumn and didn’t kill her last week, or I’ll report you on the spot! I’ll tell the mayor! And Twilight!”
“Ask away.”
“The first thing I said to you.”
“’Hey, nice daffodils’.”
“Actually,” Gold Star said with a frown, “I don’t remember what I said.” Pause. “But you do have nice daffodils.”
“Thanks. I always memorize the first thing somepony says to me. It’s part of the job.”
“Mh.” Pause. “So how is it being a changeling in hiding?”
“It sucks.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. You always gotta worry. What if someone finds me asleep? What if I mess up? What if Twilight or someone finds a way to detect us? Actually I think there already is a spell, but only single target. But, beats me, she could come up with a spell that puts up a shiny red arrow pointing to the nearest changeling. And aside from that, you don’t have any benefits. I’m just living a normal life, plus risks.”
“Oh.”
“And I could fall over dead at any moment.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Ponies don’t know this, but changelings don’t age. We just fall over dead at some point. But it’s totally random when that happens. They say, if you aren’t being killed by someone, you always have about a sixty year life expectancy – no matter how old you already are. The unluckiest changeling so far died after 9 days. Others are 500 years old and going.”
“FRICK!” Gold Star’s lips quivered, and she could feel tears dwelling up inside her. “Oh, Autumn!” she cried, running over and hugging her friend. “That’s so unfair! Everything is so unfair! I’m sorry! Of course we’re still friends! I’ll never tell your secret to anypony! I swear it!”
A trillion miles above Equestria, there is a large crystal sphere.
Let an invisible eye move through the rift. Once outside, many things change. What before was a web on the surface, is now a web all throughout the sphere. Countless lines are woven, some ranging from just beside the rift all the way downward, two trillion miles, hitting the sphere’s other side.
Only those connecting to the rift itself are leaving the sphere. Leaving the known universe.