It's been a month since the incident with the Princesses and I must say a lot has happened. Well maybe not a lot but somethings have happened, for instance I'm pretty much a mercenary and I'm also The Elements "bodyguard" but I didn't need Celestia's enlistment for that job but oh well at least I'm getting paid for every crisis The Elements have to help out with. Which hasn't been many but the Princesses pay good money and as for the mercenary job I have to travel to the seedier side Manehattan and Trottinham to get any work which, again, isn't often. Partly because I spend most of my time in Ponyville, and I charge 150 Bits for any job unless it's a big job then depending on how big it is I charge a lot more. Like this one time, a pony in Manehattan wanted me to go all the way to the Griffin Kingdom to hit this griffin that apparently cheated him out of some money or something. Sense that job was so big and because of my dislike for travel I charged him 1550 Bits and he didn't have the money so I give him my Information and went back home.
That was about three weeks ago, last week Fluttershy said something about a wedding and asked if I wanted to go but I refused and went to the park instead. Ponyville was surprisingly empty that day save for the few ponies that stay to watch over their businesses and such, at least the rest of the Apple family was still in town and after I was done lazing around the park I went to Sweet Apple Acres to see if they needed help Big Mac and Granny Smith with the chores around the farm. Apple bucking proved to much for me so I was assigned to stacking the hay bales and feeding the animals. When I was done I was payed in a fresh apple pie, like a whole apple pie for me to take home. The rest of the week was uneventful but I could help but notice a purple-ish bubble around Canterlot which I thought was strange and watched it pretty much every day, and one day I noticed a dark cloud looking thing cover the top bit of the bubble. At the point that the the cloud was smashing into the bubble I was concerned to say the least, but there wasn't anything I could do from this far away and the train station in Canterlot was closed according to the pony at the station so I'll just hope for the best and keep looking around for work until I get more business.
Now back to current time. I have just gotten back from a job and it was night time by the time I got home, Fluttershy was sitting on the couch reading and it looked like she had a bad day.
"What's wrong, honey?"
"I just don't like your new job...."
"I thought you liked me coming with you during a crisis?"
"No your other job....."
"Oh that..... We've been over this already." A couple of days ago Fluttershy found out why I was going out of town sometimes.
"I know but....I still don't understand why your doing it."
"For extra money."
"But you don't need money that badly!"
"I know but a little extra Bits laying around isn't a bad thing..."
"But is it worth it?"
".....I don't kill ponies on all of my jobs, you know."
"Y....you don't?"
"No, I deliver messages, I scare ponies that owe money and very rarely I go after a griffin."
"How often do you k....kill?"
"Every five or six jobs so once a month depending on if the money owing ponies come with money or not."
"So what did you do today?"
"I delivered a message to somepony in Las Pegasus. He owes money to some company, and a representative payed me to go."
"I see..."
"Yeah so it's not all that bad and I don't enjoy it when I have to kill a pony but if they pay me then I do it."
"What if they don't?"
"Well sense I ask to get paid in advance that's not a problem," I chuckled to myself. "And the jobs that I have to kill are often follow ups to the 'Tell that no good mule to get me my money' jobs."
"That's not as bad as I thought it was."
"Honestly I'm surprised you didn't ask me about it sooner."
"I was afraid to...."
"I see. Well It's late and I'm tired. Am I sleeping on the couch again?"
"No....sorry about that..."
"It's fine. Come on the quicker we go to sleep the earlier we wake up and I don't have any jobs tomorrow."
We went up stairs and into our room and fell asleep almost as soon as we hit the pillows.
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The next morning was alright. I had the pony equivalent of coffee, which wasn't bad for coffee. We had toast with grape jelly for the food part of breakfast. Afterwards we just chilled in the living room talking a bit before we decided to walk around town and go to the park. When we arrived at the park we set down on our favorite bench and just enjoyed the peacefulness until I broke the silence.
"Hey what happened in Canterlot last week?"
"I don't want to talk about it..."
"You sure? I was very worried about you and everyone else. Please?"
"There was an invasion."
"A what?! By who"
"The changelings. The queen of the changelings wanted to take over Equestria to get food for her subjects and she was starting with Canterlot."
"Hmm....so that was the cloud looking thing. What do these changelings eat?"
"Love, that's why they chose the day of the wedding."
"That doesn't seem to bad. But the hostile take over thing was a bit much."
"It was...scary."
"Sounds like it. I should have gone maybe it would have gone differently. I'm glad you guys are safe though."
She smiled. "Thank you."
"But I do have one question."
"What would that be?"
"What defeated them I was doing a job in Manehattan and I wasn't able to watch it."
"The same thing they ate."
"Oh I see, to much of a good thing is a bad thing."
"Exactly."
After a couple of minutes I spoke again. "So what do you want to do now."
"Staying here for now is fine."
"Ok then just say something when you want to do something else."
"Ok."
I was beginning to wonder why she hasn't said anything for the last fifteen minutes but then I looked at her and she was asleep next to me. Shes really cute when she does this and I hate waking her up every time but this time I decided to take a bit of a nap as well. I woke up to Fluttershy gently nudging me.
"How long was I out?"
"About half an hour sleepy head." She giggled.
"Whoa didn't sleep that long." My stomach rumbled. "Oh look I'm hungry, how about you my dear?"
Her stomach rumbled as well, causing her to blush slightly "Yes."
"Shall we go then?"
"Let's."
And we left to go and find something to eat.
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Dinner was good, we decided to go to the same restaurant we went to when I was an alicorn. It was alright, just not great. Fluttershy needed some things so we went to the market. She handed me the list of groceries.
"I'll get the celery and carrots and if you could get the cherries, pears and apples, we will have everything we need for now."
"Ok Fluttershy. Meet back here?"
"Yes, if you want."
"Works fine for me. See you in a bit." She nodded and we went to pick up our parts of the lists. Since the pear stand was closer, I decided to go there first and then afterwards went to the cherry stand. Next was the apples and none other then Applejack. She saw me and waved and I walked over.
"Howdy Applejack."
"Howdy! Whatcha need?"
"Uh...lets see here...five apples."
"Alright." She grabbed a sack and put five in. Why do they have to use their mouths?
"Thank ya kindly A.J. Hey mind if I stay and chat a bit?"
"Not at all. It's kinda boring just standing here all by myself."
"Alright," I walked behind the stand. "I'll even help out a bit while i'm here."
"That's awful nice of ya. How are things with Fluttershy?"
"Pretty good. We hit a rough patch last night though but we got through it."
"Ah see, What about?"
"I don't really want to talk about it. Relationship confidentiality and all, you know?"
"Well ah wont pry, but if y'all want to talk about anything ah'm here to help."
"I know, thank you and I'm sure Fluttershy knows."
"Yep she does." A costumer walked up and ask Applejack for a dozen apples for a discounted price. She shook her head and put her business face on. "Ah'm mighty sorry ma'am but 12 apples is 14 Bits."
The costumer had a dismayed look on her face. "But I only have 6 Bits left!"
"Hmm.....what do you think Ezekiel?"
"Give her the apples, I'll make up for the money she doesn't have."
The costumer looked very surprised. "You would really do that??"
"Sure but don't get used to it because I'm not always going to be here, okay?"
"Thanks a lot Sir." Applejack nodded her head and put the twelve apples in her saddlebags.
"There ya go ma'am, yer all set!"
"Thank you both so much!" She trotted away happily.
"That was mighty nice of you Ezekiel."
"I just happened to have a few extra Bits on me."
"Oh would ya stop being so modest! If Rarity wasn't the Element of Generosity you certainly would be."
"Don't over do it A.J. I was just being nice."
She blushed a little bit and shook her head. "Yeah uh....sorry about that." There was a sudden commotion coming from over by the flower shop. "What's going on over there?"
"Hmm...let's go see."
She put up a "Back in 5 minutes" sign and came with me.
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There was yelling and all sorts of hollering. We walked up to a pony in the back of the crowd and asked him what was going on and he said he didn't know so we pushed forward. I got close enough to the front to see that there was a small pony shaped, insect-like creature being yelled at by the ponies in the front. I was a little unsure but I got a bit mad all the same. Applejack saw this and told everybody to back off and as soon as they saw why she said that they did, except the ponies in the front because they were to busy yelling to hear her. I guess the reason I was so mad is because I remembered myself being in the same place. I calmed down a bit and walked over to one of the ponies and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and I asked her what's going on.
"Don't you see it!?"
"Yeah but what is it?"
Applejack walked up next to me and gasped. "What's a changeling doing in Ponyville!?"
"It looks hurt." I looked over at the mare I tapped on the shoulder with fury in my eyes. "Did you hurt it?"
"N....no none of us did, i....it....we f...f..found it like this!"
"And is yelling at it going to help?"
"No....but it doesn't belong here."
"You ponies thought the same thing about about me, so why don't you leave it alone?"
"O...ok...." She left and I looked at the still yelling ponies. Some of them where kicking dirt and dust in its face. I looked at Applejack and she wasn't making an effort to do anything. I sighed and walked over to it causing the ponies to quiet down except for the few the thought I was going to kill it, they cheered until I glared at them.
"You should all be ashamed!! Can't you see that it's hurt!?!?"
"But it...."
"Don't even speak to me!! You don't have the right!" I looked the changeling over and saw that it had a broken leg and a few cuts. I gently picked it up and looked at Applejack. "I am disappointed in you A.J."
"What did ah do?"
"Figure it out! I'm going back to Fluttershy to see what she can do. Next time you talk to me, you better have out what you did or rather what you didn't do."
"B...but those things are trouble!"
"And so was I. Go back to work and think on this, I'm leaving." She said nothing and lowered her head and walked back to her stand and I walked over to the meeting spot. Fluttershy was waiting for me when I arrived. She saw what I was carrying and jumped about 5 feet back. I told her that it needed help and I continued walking towards the house. She was about to say something but I didn't stop so she followed me. I really want to help this thing.