A week later in the late night of a Friday I was at Act’s house. Not inside it, but on a neighbor’s roof to watch if Act goes anywhere. The only two reasons I wasn’t noticed was because I used a pegasus form to fly onto the roof, then used an easy invisibility spell I learned to cast a year before my schooling was finished. It’s designed to be used while staying completely still, so if you start moving, the illusion gets distorted.
What I learned after four night-time stakeouts was only that he doesn’t go anywhere after ten, he doesn’t seem to get many visitors, and that he goes to bed at about midnight. There wasn’t any changeling levitation spells I detected, and he didn’t shed his supposed disguise yet.
Thirty minutes after midnight I was about to leave when Act left his house and started casually trotting down the street. He wasn’t emitting any odd emotions, but if he was an infiltrator I couldn’t rely much on my emotion sense to know what he’s thinking. I quickly decided to follow him by flying high enough that he wouldn’t hear me, while still using the invisibility spell. If he tried to find where the noise was coming from, he’d only see the smooth and very even overcast despite the spell’s distortion.
At first it looked like he was heading to his law firm’s office or something close by, but he slowly started heading more towards the outer part of Canterlot. It seemed strange to me, so I kept following and he eventually exited the city entirely. He climbed down the city’s mountain for a few minutes, headed left, and entered a small cavern. I cautiously landed close to the entrance to cast the changeling detection spell to see what Act was doing in there.
It looked as though Act was standing still for several seconds, then my spell’s green highlight came up from the ground and engulfed his form’s highlight briefly. It went away and what looked like a different pony appeared. Who I assumed was still Act started trotting down the cave at a leisurely pace, so I tried to take a quick peek but it was too dark so I changed my eyes back to my real ones. I didn’t find anything noteworthy so I followed him inside, seeing as the spell’s range wasn’t far enough to stay out.
I stayed close enough so that my spell would still show his highlight, but still far enough away so that I could stay behind walls and other visual obstructions most of the time. I say visual because it didn’t take much time to follow him and the cave’s descent into what looked like a small mine with plenty of translucent crystals. By that time I started to feel like I might have actually known what I was doing.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see a small pile of crystal pebbles and stepped on them. The pebbles’ grinding caused Act to immediately look in my general direction, but I froze before he could see me. He scanned the tunnel for several seconds, his eyes darting around to look at what were probably potential hiding spots. It seemed as though he didn’t see me at all and started heading down the tunnel again.
I made a deep but slow and silent sigh of relief where I stood, then started following him again once I was out of his line of sight. After several more minutes of tailing him and being more careful about where I walked, he came to an exit that was much more close to the mountain’s base. He spread his wings and took off gliding, presumably to make less noise, so I did the same after he was a bit of a distance away.
He ended up landing next to a moderately thick forest and entered it, so once I landed in about the same spot, I went in as well. It wasn’t easy to not make any noise with all the flora on the forest floor. I stepped on a pile of leaves or a branch a few times and I could swear I made too much noise, but Act didn’t react much to it. Granted, I was about 12 meters away because I didn’t need a line of sight, but I was expecting more than him just stopping and looking around for a few seconds. When he did this, I stayed still so my invisibility spell would be effective. He was obviously ready if anything tried attacking him, despite his emotions remaining calm.
After a while, Act stopped and looked like he was gathering something, so I decided to sneak into a large bush and peak through it. He was taking some nets, ropes, and bear traps out of what looked like a secret compartment hidden behind a door that was made to look like it was part of the large tree trunk it was in.
Once everything was out he set one up at the tree and covered it with leaves, then started setting up more of them around the area. When he was done he flew up to his tree’s branches and laid down on a sturdy one to rest. Though after what felt like half an hour, Act got up and started to wander around as if he was trying to remember where on the forest floor he put something.
Is he looking for one of his traps? Maybe there was a noise I didn’t notice.
A few minutes passed then Act stopped at the tree, still scanning the area. Another minute later and he starting coming towards me, though it still didn’t seem like he found what he was looking for. He stopped a meter away from me and started looking in the treeline for the first time, so I tried to remain as still as possible for my invisibility spell and slowed my breathing to a crawl to minimize noise.
But it wasn’t enough. I forgot about the one important sense that changelings had.
No no no. I can’t let my nerves and fear get the best of me right now! I need to remain calm.
Act then switched back to searching the floor and after several seconds, he was looking right at me.
He found me!
I suddenly tried turning around and galloping away as fast as possible, with the invisibility spell still going in the hopes that it would camouflage me enough to make the difference. I heard Act chasing me as I ran and I could feel his determination to catch me, but I couldn’t look back to see how close he was because I needed to know if there was something like a low hanging branch in the way.
Oh, and that difference I was hopping to get with the spell? It didn’t matter, seeing as I tripped on something and my face was met with a pile of leaves, which lifted up to reveal one of Act’s net traps. The wings that I forgot I had got tangled in the net and I tried to undo them. After a few seconds, Act walked right in front of me, face to face, and I froze.
“You’ve been following me. Why?” he said with a suspicious look and dangerous tone.
I answered quietly with, “I, uh... thought you were a changeling.”
“How long have you been following me for?”
I lied to him with “Since I saw you on the mountainside.”
“You’re lying, which means that you probably know my usual disguise.”
“I-I don’t want to reveal you. To anyone.”
“Who are you?”
At this, I stopped my invisibility spell, changed back to my usual disguise and said, “I’m Shapeshift.”
At that, Act looked me over like he didn’t believe me, then he stopped and his emotions suggested that he might have realized something.
He looked at me quizzically. “Prove it.”
I charged up a high-power spell and intensely concentrated for a few seconds then cast it on a firefly which burst into flames, it’s ashes falling to the ground where some of the grass was burning.
“That did not prove anything.”
But the spell wasn’t over. Small streams of ash flowed up from the ground, came together, and in a flash of light the ash was transformed into a baby phoenix.
Act started rubbing his forehead in exasperated thought. “Well that definitely proves both things.”
Seeing as I proved my skill in casting transformation magic, I wasn’t sure of what the other proof that he needed was.
I slowly asked, “What was the second thing?”
While Act was stomping out the small fire I started he just said “Regret.”
Once he was done, he dropped the net and let me untangle myself while he checked the other traps. Once I was out and Act returned, I decided to tell him, “Act… I’m a halfling.”
“This isn’t some game, Shape I need to-” but he didn’t finish when I changed into his disguise in a burst of green flame.
In his voice I said “I’ve been like this for several weeks now.”
Act completely and suddenly lost his composure in from of me for the first time ever. “That just raises further questions! And don’t use my disguise!”
I changed back to my own, feeling a bit guilty.
Act then seemed to calm down and grow very intrigued about something. “Now, what made you suspect that I was a changeling?”
“Well, the first thing was that I created a changeling magic detection spell.”
He suddenly went pale at that. “You didn’t give it to the guard yet, right?”
“No, I need opportunities that the guard would eliminate if they had that.”
Act gave a sigh of relief. “Good. For a second I thought you might have in the last few days.”
“I’m not sure if it’s really ready to be used to… solidly confirm that somebody’s a changeling. It’s record is only 4 out of 4 changelings.”
“And it could have mistaken some changelings in disguise for ponies, which you may not have noticed.” Then Act’s demeanor suddenly shifted to serious. “But enough of this for now. You’re coming back to my house so we can finish discussing everything in full.”
I looked around as if there was someone who was listening in on our conversation, then quickly said, “I’d prefer that right now.”
He said “Good," while trotting to one of his other traps. I followed and noticed that it caught a cockatrice. Act immediately put his foreleg to my eyes. “Right. Don’t look at it or it’ll try to stare me to stone.” I covered my own eyes from it and Act removed his foreleg from my face.
Act went back to his secret space and came back with a butcher’s knife. “If you’re like the typical pony, you’ll probably want to look away.”
This was one of those times that my morbid curiosity got the best of me, so I said “No, I’m fine.”
Act gave me a confused look but said “Alright. Let’s get rid of another problem waiting to happen," in an eerily calm tone, then took the cockatrice in his magic and put it’s face and neck to a tree. “Last chance before you see how long this one will last without a head," he warned, without looking at me. He waited a few more seconds with the thing squirming in his magic to get out, then drew back the huge knife.
~~~~~~
The experience was disturbing but not enough to give me nightmares, nor gruesome enough for me to heave, yet still bad enough for it to stay at the forefront of my thoughts until after the fire-portal to the cave from earlier, then another to get us to his house. The last fire-portal worried me much more than the cockatrice at that point.
“Act, shouldn’t we have traveled back in a less conspicuous way?”
“Nothing to worry about with that. You’re magic’s color is similar enough to a changeling’s so I can just say that it was your pony magic. You’re here so it would check out with any witnesses, especially if you walk out the door instead of using any other method to leave after we’re done.”
“Oh, okay.”
Act put the meat away in a secret wall freezer, while I took a seat on the couch in his living room, and listened to what he was doing while I thought.
He once told me that there were numerous locations in many houses that would allow for one to create secret compartments in the ceilings, floors, and walls, but I didn't think before that he'd have any. I didn't think he'd have any reason to have them.
Act came out from his bedroom, where the hidden freezer was. He closed all the blinds, shed his disguise with a burst of green flame, and sat in the lounge chair that was facing the coffee table like all the other furniture in the room. The couch I was using was positioned on the adjacent side, so I shifted to where I could still lie down and face him with my head propped on the plush couch arm.
"Seeing as you technically stalked me to be sure that your suspicions were correct, I would think it's fair that I ask my questions first", Act said with surprising calmness.
"Sounds fair", I said.
"So can you show me what you really look like?"
"Yeah." Green flames tore away at my disguise and Act looked more surprised than he'll ever be for at least the next month, yet he also wore a large sly grin.
"Your eyes! They're the eyes of changeling royalty!"
With a look of confusion I said "Green slitted eyes mean royalty? But I'm not."
The surprise and grin on his face grew. "And your voice has the same distinct property as Chrysalis's! How did you become...", he motioned to me with his smile still on, "this?!"
I sighed and gave only a slight frown to hide how bad I really felt about it. Though that was more out of habit, seeing as I knew Act was a changeling. "The only thing I know is that for some reason I drank my experimental potion during the Canterlot attack. I want to know exactly what happened, even if it means infiltrating Chrysalis's swarm itself, so I need to find an infiltrator that will train me."
"So you want me to train you", Act said in a thoughtful tone.
"Yeah", I plainly stated while radiating optimism.
It was Act's turn to sigh. "You do realize that it takes years to make somebody an infiltrator, right?"
"Yeah but considering my habits and knowledge, I figure it wouldn't be to hard for me to learn how to blend in. But I know there's more to it than that."
Act thought for several seconds. "Alright, we'll start on Sunday at seven."
A sly grin grew on my own face as I sat up on the couch and I said "I'll see you then. So I guess it's my turn for questions?"
"Shoot."
With confusion on my face I asked, "Why are you keeping meat around when you know it could get you caught? Is it a nutritional need?"
"Well, unfortunately, when I don't eat enough of it on a regular basis my muscles slowly get weaker. If I don't eat it at all I eventually unable to so much as get out of bed anymore."
I gave him a concerned look. "Wow, that's... pretty awful."
"It's worse, considering no other changeling has this disorder, so there's little to no knowledge on how to alleviate it. At least I know that you'd help me if it somehow comes to the worst."
"True", I said with a smile. "So on to my last question, which is a bit- well, pretty broad. Why did you leave the hive?"
"Ah. The story of my life. Do you want to hear the longer version of it or do you want me to get to the point?"
I shrugged while saying, "I don't mind hearing some details."
"Well, it began when I started practicing infiltration in the field. I always kept an open mind towards different and new infiltration tactics, but when I entered my first pony settlement I saw how much better a pony's life was. I thought that they had so many frivolous things and, somehow, plenty of free time. Pony food was undoubtedly a commodity and so was positive emotion. They even got along with plenty of other species.
"After seeing that, I felt that I was lied to. I kept the thought to myself, at least mostly, knowing that I'd be shunned for my 'heresy'. So for the next ten years or so, I tried using some of my infiltrator training to subtly persuade other changelings that we didn't have to live in those Celestia forsaken holes in the ground in the middle of a wasteland. Unfortunately, every time it seemed like there was going to be a small group that wanted to change things for what I thought was the better, Chrysalis or one of the princesses stomped it out. Other infiltrators thought it was me who was implanting these thoughts into the others, but they never had enough legitimate proof. So some grew to have a vendetta against me and tried to catch me in the act, but I was too careful for them. After all, I was at least in the top twenty five percent of the infiltrators.
I got lucky. He should have some good tips from experience!
"I eventually became fed up with the close mindedness of the entire hive. After those ten years I was selected to go on a mission to Cloudsdale, so I planned to disconnect my association with the hive and leave it during that stay by leaving for Canterlot and never allowing myself to return to the sky city until changelings were welcome in Equestria. It wasn't that Cloudsdale was a place I didn’t like, I just don't want to be found by the hive.
"Anyways, I left by making a 'friend' then having him over a few times to establish to some of my neighbors that he was just that. With some ponies convinced of that, I exited my apartment disguised as him. The disguise was only good for exiting the apartment complex and a few blocks after, seeing as it could leave a trail by association and I could have run into the actual on accident. So I looked around for a discrete way to change into a third disguise. I ended up finding a single door refrigerator, so I emptied it out of everything, walked in a circle around a few blocks, then I climbed in and changed into a third pegasus disguise.
"From there it was easy. I flew away towards Canterlot and found a train running late at night towards the city, so I landed on the top of one of the cars as quietly as I could and rode it until I was near the top of the mountain. From there I started a new life as a pony, except this time I made it my real life to happily have."
I thought on this for a few seconds then asked, "That's a lot of measures to keep your identity a secret. Which hive mates would want to find you?"
Act's face changed to a slightly concerned look. "Well, you were a possible suspect of being a changeling even before your new form, so you probably have enough problems as it is. I can only tell you that most if not all of them would be infiltrators, so you'd probably not know them at all if you saw them right now. All the more reason to give you the training."
I looked a bit disappointed but also frighted by the answer. I wasn't going to push for more, or at least not in the wrong direction, so I asked, “So the infiltrators that don’t like you might come for me?”
Act remained calm as always. “There’s a chance, but it’s slim as long as we both keep each other’s secret.”
That kept me from worrying any further. Though the fact that it was well past midnight was taking it's toll on even me, a night pony.
I said, "Well, I should go before I pass out walking home." with a roll of my eyes, then rubbing one. I got up to walk out and we both changed into our usual disguises while walking to the door.
When we got to the entry way Act said, "Alright, but there's one more thing I need to say."
I turned to face him.
He said, "You'll be gaining adversaries along the way."
"Okay, I already know. So why tell me that?"
"Changeling integration has begun and I'm expecting a major effort on it to start in the next several years. I know you'll go out of your way to help with that, and it's doubtful that a movement that big won't have opposition, so be careful."
With a tired smile I said, "I'll remember that and I'll see you on Sunday."
"Alright, bu-bye."
My hard work payed off and I finally found someone. I feel better than I did since the changeling invasion, but I’m sure there’s more to this feeling than just helping changelings and getting the explanation I’m looking for. Unfortunately, I can’t give the guard the detection spell yet, so I’ll use it as a trump card against any changelings that go too far with me. Hopefully that won’t ever happen.