//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Then and Now // Story: The Half of It // by Shapeshift //------------------------------// Act started off training me every other day for two weeks, which was exhausting but worth while. But before any of the actual training he gave me a few tests. One of them seemed to be like an infiltration training version of hide and seek. “We’re going to do this in the city, so well need to come up with a question to ask to who we think is the other, and a certain answer. The question is ‘Do you know of a great place to eat?’, and the answer should be the Celestial Cafe.” “But a pony might say the same thing," I told Act. “That’s pretty unlikely cause they’re not all that well known, and the changelings aren’t even 1% of the total city populace. Now, you’ll need to give me a five minute head start, so stay in my house and don’t use you’re detection spell until you can start looking.” I waited out the five minutes, then took a pegasus disguise and started flying around low with my detection spell active. After asking the questions to several ponies disguised as changelings, none gave the right answer so I rethought what I was doing. Realizing that looking for an infiltrator in only pony disguises wasn’t good enough, I started looking for changelings disguised as another changeling. It took a while but I was able to find one in a park reading a book. I came up to him and asked the question. He gave the right answer then got up from the bench and flew off as I trotted off. While I was returning to Act’s house something about his strategy gave me the idea of a metamorphic shape-shifting spell, which I decided to start on as soon as I could. Once Act invited me back into his house he said, “Alright, now we reverse roles. I’ll give you a ten minute head start.” So I exited the house with the pegasus disguise still on and Act said bye to me like I was leaving as usual. My first decision was to change disguises in the mines under Canterlot, seeing as very few if any ponies go in there. Once I was back in the city with a different pegasus disguise I didn’t really know for sure how I should be hiding. I mean, I was only able to hide in plain sight because I was once a real pony and still had all the mannerisms of one, and my shape-shifting spell didn’t break under the disguise dispels. Turns out that my stomach decided for me and I went to one of my usual places, the Currier’s Croissant. I like their stuffed croissants, and for some reason I’ve recently acquired a taste for the sea food they serve. They also manage to keep what they serve tasting pretty great for how fast they cook everything, and a lot of it can be eaten on the go. I entered the place to see their most common customers, of which are couriers of sorts, getting a bite. I ordered a fish stuffed croissant and sat down at a table to wait. Once I had the food I decided to eat it in the building, but a few bites in I changed my mind and left to find a nice cloud to finish eating on. I soon forgot that Act was supposed to be finding me and I was becoming a little tired, so I took a nap. Upon waking up I checked the position of the sun and realized that I was asleep for about 2 hours. I started worrying that this exercise would cut into something else on his schedule, but quickly assumed that he made plenty of time because he didn’t say that there was any time limit. Suddenly a pegasus mare approached me from behind and asked, “Hey, know of a great place to eat?” I told her, “The Celestial Cafe is good.” “Thanks!” She then changed her eyes to a color similar to her own and flew off. I supposed that the color change was a subtle way to be sure that I knew it was Act, so I flew black to his house after a few minutes. After Act let me in he asked me, “You want to know how I found you, right?” With some excitement I said, “Yeah!” “Okay, your first mistake wasn’t going to a restaurant, it was which one you chose. I know the places you like to eat at, so I could start by looking for you at those. The second mistake was, for the most part because of the fish, what you ordered. They had other things on the menu, but you got a croissant, as usual. “The third and most important thing was your emotions. When you had a short spike of worry after a two hour nap I could assume it was about a schedule, because you took a look at the sun’s position. You didn’t know if I set aside enough time for this and you hate being late with me. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Act continued, telling me about how he found me by feeling ponies' emotions while discretely following them and comparing it to mine. He quickly went on to tell me how an infiltrator’s disguise needs to be “more than skin deep”. He started my infiltration education with how they use their emotion sense to learn and make accurate guesses about others. He also did some small side lessons about things such as making changeling resin. I was particularly glad to know that it’s infused with magic energy. There was also two or three combat lessons because I’d be likely to get into a fight at some point. After several sessions of practicing emotional control and reading others with my sixth sense, I asked Act how I was doing. “Well, you still aren’t very close to controlling your emotions like an infiltrator can. More specifically, you’re having trouble with anxiety and sadness, the latter of which I’m not too surprised about.” I gave him a calm but self-concerned look and asked, “Are you saying I’m clinically depressed?” He continued in his teaching tone with, “Well, you’ve recently been sleeping for several hours more than usual and not really taking care of yourself as well as you should. Though that’s just what ponies see.” With a slightly irritated and unimpressed look I told him, “Can we not make a lesson out of my depression?” “Oh, sorry… Anyways, the good news is that you’re decent at shape-shifting for an infiltrator and, as far as I know, fantastic for a soldier! Now, I’ve never seen much combat myself, know a lot about it, or heard many stories, so I’m not sure about how much praise this should get: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a changeling with the skill to change between different bodies so quickly and use them that effectively in combat. You might be better at combat than infiltration.” “Haven’t hive changelings always tried to be conservative with their magic?” “Yes, which is why there probably aren’t many changelings with that skill. It’s a lot more draining than only switching once or twice per fight, compared to switching every minute or even few seconds. So I wouldn’t recommend doing that in battles with several opponents.” “I’ve been noticing that and keeping it in mind.” “Good! So anything else?” After a few seconds of thinking I remembered something I kept forgetting to ask him, “I’m pretty sure I’m getting far more emotional background noise than most changelings. It feels a bit different than emotions directed at me, but they don’t seem as scrambled together as you describe it.” Act put a hoof to his chin in thought. “The background noise for a changeling's emotional sense is emotion not directed at the changeling in question, but it’s still useable as an indicator of what a pony’s generally feeling… It could be that you’re sense is at least a little less tuned towards emotions directed at you and more towards the ones that are not, but you’re not strictly a changeling so I can’t say for sure what it could be.” “I guess I’ll need to test it sometime. Anyways, I’ve decided today to start finding leads to whoever can tell me what happened during the attack. I’ll specifically be on the lookout for potential hive changelings.” “That’s fine. Just be careful and you won’t get into much trouble if any, and if you need to do some interrogation you can contact me for help.” “I’ll definitely do that, but right now I should get home. I haven’t had my apartment completely cleaned in far too long.” So until Saturday I cleaned and worked on making new spells. The research for the metamorphic shape-shifting spell was proving to be daunting. I had to build a library of alternate ways to create each of the twenty predefined sections of the shape-shifting spell, and I was aiming for twenty different ways for each section. For each alternate construction method I focused on using methods from as many of the other classes of magic I could so that making a dispel for this would prove just as daunting. But there lied the problem. There wasn’t a lot of books on changeling magic, Act wasn’t the best with the magic theory that infiltrators needed to know, and as with all my other changeling spells I couldn’t ask Modus for help. The only new meaningful thing I had from that time span was an optimization for my changeling magic detection. I was able to narrow the detection down to the user’s cone of vision, which gave it better range. Once Saturday night came around, I headed over to the pub for drinks with Blitz and Modus again. When I got there I saw Blitz by himself and started towards him, but a changeling popped up on my right and startled me with a short hiss. I staggered to the floor while I grabbed one of the changeling’s reared up forelegs with my telekinesis and tossed him in a random direction like a ragdoll. The next thing I heard was said changeling yelling, wood cracking, then a thud. After I picked myself up I heard some of the pub’s patrons laughing hysterically, but I payed little mind to that. Scanning the room, I found Modus lying on the floor in front of a spot on the wooden wall with a long crack line and dent. I stood where I was for a few seconds, realizing how much that probably hurt and that I didn’t remember the last time I used my telekinesis for fighting. I sighed in irritation and approached Modus, who I could tell was still conscious due to his worry at himself and everyone else, and his surprise at me. “Why did you try to startle me?" I asked Modus in an unamused tone. While Modus was wobbly getting up he asked, “What?” I repeated myself a bit louder and so he calmly said, “I thought it would be funny.” “Well it turned out to be pretty stupid," I said. While Modus said, “I didn’t think your telekinesis was that strong," I realized how oddly quiet the pub was so I took a look around to see that everyone was pointedly minding their own business and trying to not look at me. I also noticed a pony highlighted in green. Bingo. Now I need to find out what side he’s on. I quietly said to Modus, “Well, it looks like everyone here doesn’t want to ever mess with me," as Blitz started towards us. “I’d think they have a good reason not to. I feel like I might have a concussion and a fracture or three in my chitin.” Blitz said that he’ll take a look, and after his short examination he told Modus, “It looks like you have a spiderweb of fractures on your back. They seem to go all the way through at the center. There’s also a few small spots of your flesh exposed and bleeding a bit around that area.” It almost sounded like I was scolding Modus when I said, “I told you my telekinesis was easily usable in combat," with a hoof to my forehead. Modus craned his neck to get a look at it and saw that Blitz was right, then turned back to me to say, “I guess I can’t say that this wasn’t mostly my fault, despite the fighter’s reflex you’ve suddenly obtained.” “Hey!” someone yelled. All three of us turned to see that it was the pub’s owner, who came out of his back office. An office that likely shared part of the same wall that I damaged. “What’s with all the ruckus?” After noticing us he seemed to want to know why Modus had chitin cracks, but changed his mind when he saw the wall he hit. The owner’s tone became more disapproving and angry when he almost yelled, “And why did somepony damage my wall?!” Modus was going to say something, probably snarky, but Blitz spoke first. “I saw the whole thing. Modus startled Shape on purpose and Shape reflexively launched him at a wall with his magic. I’ll be sure that one or both of these guys pays for the repairs.” The owner still looked displeased and I could feel it. “Fine, but don’t let it happen again.” Modus then blurted out the exact rhetorical that I was thinking. “Does any of this look like anything anyone would want to have happen again?” Blitz wacked him on the back of the head after that and Modus told him, “Do I look like I need to be in more pain?!” With an awkward smile, Blitz said, “Uh… Force of habit, I guess?” Modus exhaled through his nose in an irritated fashion. He wasn’t wobbly anymore, so he started heading for the table Blitz was at before. “Let’s just sit down already.” Blitz and I stayed by his side and noticed Modus grimacing almost every step. Blitz said, “You should probably see a doctor and be a little careful not to make the fractures worse.” Modus and Blitz took a seat in front of their cider. Modus practically chugged his drink and said, “Yeah, I’m going to make an appointment. Can we talk about something else now?” while I sat down as well. Seeing him in pain that night didn’t make me feel like a nice pony, so I rubbed the back of my head while quietly saying, “Not quite yet. I, uh… want to say sorry for throwing you at the wall. I didn’t even bother to look at who it was.” “It’s fine, Shape. Just remind me to never scare you again.” I carefully said, “If you say so…” “Actually, this scene I made reminds me of that story you never told me about you two and the spinach.” Remembering that was always amusing for me, and Blitz thought of it similarly. I immediately said, “Oh, that story! One of the most ridiculous school stories I’ve been a part of.” “It might not sound funny at all at first, but the last part definitely is," Blitz added, as Olivia came up to us. “Hey, Shape! What would you like today?” “I’ll try the Stonefarm cider.” Olivia gave me a confused look. “Are you sure about that? It’s made by rock farmers so it’s the driest cider in Equestria.” “Oh, no. I’ll have the Rambling Ridge then.” “Okay," Olivia said. “You want a refill, Modus?” “That would be great," Modus answered. “Alright, your drinks will be out in a jiffy!” she said with a smile, and practically pranced off to another table while I started my story. “So… the story. I was two years away from graduating at the time and Blitz and I were friends for a few years by then. I was going to my next class when Blitz came up to me and slapped me on the cheek to try and be funny. It didn’t hurt much, but did irritate me even though I was sure at the time that he didn’t mean for it to actually hurt. The disguised changeling just seems to be chatting up the stallions for now. Though the background noise in my emotion sense is making it too hard to pick out the disguised changeling’s emotions from everyone else. I’ll have to let that go until it’s easier. “Once I entered the classroom I saw that Blitz was there. Not that it wasn’t his class, too. Anyways, I sat down near him as usual but the teacher noticed that I had a hoof mark on my cheek before class started. So she takes me into the hall and asks who gave me the mark, but I didn’t know I had it and stayed silent ‘cause I didn’t want Blitz to be punished for a small accident. The fact that I’m currently the center of attention with my friends isn’t making it easy to get any good looks at the changeling’s face either. “She asked me if it was a bully, but I still stayed silent. She then asked if it was a friend, and I still said nothing. She probably read me pretty well because the next thing she said was that whoever did it wouldn’t get into trouble if I didn’t want them to. At that point I finally told her and we went back to the classroom.” “Wait," Modus interjected after finishing his drink. “What does this have to do with spinach?” “I’m getting to it.” Blitz took a large swig of his drink then picked up the story with, “Yeah, so I was just waiting for class to start when the teacher comes up to me and asks for me to come with her into the hallway. Instead I tried to attack Shape because I thought he got me in trouble, but the teacher restrains me and takes me out of the room for questions.” “I was also taken out for more questions a few minutes after," I added while analyzing the disguised changeling. He looks like he may actually be looking right past the stallions he’s interacting with. He may be uninterested with all of them. Though some don’t quite seem to care, so I may get to find out exactly what his intentions are if he brings one with him to a secluded location, like maybe his home. I was still paying enough attention to Blitz in case he or Modus asked a question about the story. “Not long after school on that day I met Shape and told him that I was really sorry for trying to attack him and giving him the slap. Shape was a bit awkward with it but said that it was okay, so we decided to go to my house to do stuff together. Our friendship was a bit awkward for a week or so but we didn’t let that event split us apart.” Olivia came to our table with a large plate of several drinks on her back and handed Modus and I one, saying, “Here you go! Anything else?” After a second or two of none of us saying anything I said, “I don’t think so.” She said, “Alright then. If you need anything else, just call for me!” then happily bounced off to another table. Modus and I took a few gulps of cider while Blitz continued the story with, “So after a few days I heard from the other students that I actually fought Shape and won. Some of them asked me if it was true and I said that it was.” I interjected with, “And I still don’t really care that he lied about that.” “Why was that?" Modus asked. I answered with, “It’s in the past. It really doesn’t matter anymore.” I then sensed confusion from him, but I didn’t say anything. “No, I mean, why didn’t you care when he told you?” Blitz answered for me with, “It was for my reputation with the other students, though we both knew at the time that it was useless after my schooling was over. Anyways, this is where it gets ridiculous and funny! “Part of rumor was that I attacked Shape because he stole my spinach, even though I didn’t have any nor do I remember ever bringing any to school that year.” Modus snickered for a bit after talking another swig of his drink and asked, “How did that rumor even start?” Blitz shrugged. “I still have no idea.” I said, “I still think it was because you said ‘You son of a bitch.’ before trying to attack me, and a student in an adjacent room heard it but thought you said ‘You stole my spinach.’” I didn’t need any sixth sense to tell that Modus was amused at my theory, though Blitz said, “I’m still pretty sure that that’s not how the spinach part started. Though I can’t blame them for making something like that up.” Modus quirked an eyebrow, or at least the part of his face that would have one if he was a pony. “Why’s that?” Blitz drank some more of his cider and said, “Well, I grew up in a place where if you so much as steal someone’s potato chips, the usual thing that happens is they punch you as hard as they can a few times. Though I definitely never thought that spinach was worth doing that. I mean, I don’t even like spinach!” I could tell Blitz about the changeling, but if I do that I can’t get any leads from him. I’d likely have to get it out of him through interrogation after providing a good enough excuse for the Guard to let me. But even then, the Guards would be listening so it would be nearly impossible to get it out of him in that setting. Not to mention that the info I’d want from him would raise questions from the Guard. Yet I have to start somewhere and this changeling may not actually be malicious, so- I then felt someone poke me in the cheek and turned to see it was Blitz. “Shape, you haven’t been looking to well recently," Blitz stated. “Are you okay? You look distracted too.” Not this again. I was afraid he wouldn’t remember much of the last night he got manurefaced. I tried to appear like nothing was wrong when I said, “I’m fine enough. You don’t need to worry.” Considering that Blitz said, “You’re not all that adventurous, so you could probably use a change of some kind," he knew I wasn’t all that well. “You could really use a marefriend," Modus casually added. I began to look just barely to the right of Modus and said, “I… don’t feel like now is the time for that.” Blitz rolled his eyes. “What excuse do you possibly have this time? Last time you were too focused on getting a job, moving out, and messing with spells.” I gave an irritated sigh, shifted in my seat a bit and told them, “Something personal is getting in the way. I can’t be dating right now because it might… worry them.” “I saw you taking glances at a certain mare here tonight, so you’re clearly interested in dating again.” Modus observed. “Besides, knowing you, what ever it is, is probably not as bad as you think.” “I may be interested, but I know I shouldn’t be dating because I have self control. I know my problem will complicate things too much.” Modus thought while taking a drink then said, “I think you still should. If you have as big of a problem as you claim it is, just keep it to yourself until a month or more in depending on how badly she’d want to know.” I rolled my eyes while casually saying, “And when I tell her, she’ll leave me. What possible reason would she have to stay?” “Because she’ll think you’re worth it, Shape. She knows that we all have problems, some bigger than others, but despite even your biggest problems she knows you can overcome them with her help.” He then grew more worried about me and asked “Have you… ever had a marefriend before?” I applied my hoof directly to my face in irritation and said “Yeah, her name was Crooked Gallery," then put my hoof down. “She and I were dating for a few months near the end of my schooling. So I have experience, if that’s what you’re really asking.” At this point I had a strong urge to chug my drink and I wondered if I was becoming an alcoholic. But I just took a few gulps instead. Every time I remembered Gallery I couldn’t help but think of how close we were. Near the middle of our relationship’s time, at any time either one of us could cuddle in private, we would. Whether it was just for a nap, for the night, or watching something we were both equally happy to comfort the other. In the last month or so she would try waking me up by kissing me on the lips. At first I’d pretend to stay asleep most times, but one morning I decided to reciprocate by suddenly wrapping my hooves around her and kissing back. It startled her at first but she appreciated it, so I decided to do it again every once in a while. Gallery also occasionally teased me by reminding my friends about our cuddling, but she always said that real friends wouldn’t make fun of me for what I like to do. Blitz was the most real friend I had back then in that regard, and he still is. Then there were the times she kept trying to get me into creating visual art. I couldn’t find any personally suitable mediums for that. Instead, I somehow ended up with an appreciation for music, but I never played any instruments or sung. “Shape? You there?” “Oh, yeah.” “You zoned out again," Modus stated. “Oh! Now I remember her," Blitz exclaimed. “She was the one that made all those awesomely disturbing paintings. It’s too bad she left you after a few months because she was moving away.” I said “She never wrote to me," while my ears pinned back slightly. “You should try contacting her yourself," Modus suggested. I had another drink of my cider and said, “I tried a few times. I swore I had the right address but I never received a reply. She was the only one I ever dated.” So Modus cautiously said “I think you might want to talk to a psychologist about that.” “I don’t need to. I’m over it.," I said. Though my sigh might have suggested otherwise to Modus. “Can we talk about something else now?” Blitz finished his cider and said, “Yeah, I’m getting bored of where this is going already. Want to hear about my assignment in the Everfree? It was pretty crazy. Not like most visits to that place aren’t, unless you’re that zebra. I don’t know how she survives in there, even if she takes visits to the village.” Modus and I both said, “I thought you were going to tell the story” at the same time. Then Olivia came back to the table. “Hey guys! Need a refill, Blitz?” “I’m probably going to be drunk enough soon so something that burns going down is a good idea," Blitz responded while looking at the menu. “I’ll have an Alpine Fire next.” “Okay! Anything else?” Modus said, “I don’t think so.” I said, “Nothing I can think of.” “In that case, Blitz’s drink is coming right up!” Olivia zoomed off and Blitz said, “I forgot what story I was going to tell.” “The one about the Everfree," I reminded him. “Oh, right. So the reason we were sent to that place was that a pony went missing and the last pony to see him noticed him going into the Everfree. Usually, squads going there would have a well rounded team of ground pounders, unicorns, and pegisi, but for some reason we didn’t have any unicorns. One of us asked why but none of the higher up guards knew. So we went in and made sure that all 6 of us stayed together to help keep predators from attacking.” By then I realized that I forgot about the disguised changeling, so I took discrete glaces around the pub through my cider mug while taking drinks and found him at one of the tables talking to another stallion. “In the first hour or so a cragadile tried to kill us, but most of us knew what to do. Two of us distracted it while two of our pegasi prepared for an aerial attack and the remaining two that included me tried to keep a good position to help the pegasi. After the pegasi got enough altitude they started diving and several seconds later my teammate and I suddenly knocked the cragadile belly-up out of nowhere. One of the pegasi missed the creature while the other hit it right on the mark.” Considering how large an average cragadile is, I was almost sure it took more than two earth ponies. I asked, “How big was it?" to not only show that I was paying attention, but because I was actually interested. At that moment, the stallion that the changeling was trying to talk to obviously wasn’t interested in his persona anymore. “I’d say that it was a little less than average, but it was still tough to pull that teamwork off," Blitz told us, as Olivia came back. “Here’s your Alpine Fire, Blitz! Anything else?” We all said our nos, she said, “All right then!" and went off to wait other tables. Blitz drank a little cider and continued. “Anyways, the cragadile had enough and ran away, and we continued looking for another two hours. But just when we thought we wouldn’t run into another problem we came across a clearing where these four huge timberwolf amalgamations were starting a fierce battle with a hydra.” The disguised changeling started towards my general direction by then with another stallion. Hopefully the changeling sits at a table close enough to us so I can reliably read their emotions. Modus did a spit-take so hard that it thoroughly sprayed the empty table next to us. “Timberwolf amalgamations are a thing?!” he asked with wide eyes. “Yeah, they’re usually at least twice as large as a pony. Though these were at least three times as large, so when one came after us I thought that I might have been a goner.” With a slightly grim look I said “I’m pretty sure I would’ve thought the same,” while the changeling and the stallion took a seat three tables away. “So we decided to move some distance away before the giant timberwolf caught up to us. That way we wouldn’t be as likely to attract the other three or the hydra. Usually the best way to get a timberwolf to run from a fight is to show it that you can light it on fire. Though the creature just managed to knock out one of us and put out the fires we kept lighting with the few torches we brought, so we had to rethink our plan.” There’s still significant noise, but I think the stallion’s interested in what the changeling’s talking about. Though, if my emotion sense is able to pick up things directed at others, then the changeling is outwardly hiding his contempt for him and other ponies with a smile and half-lidded gaze. He seems to be up to something, so I’ll keep track of him. “Soon, a bunch of plants with some kind of knockout gas came into the fight and tried to snare and sedate everyone. Some of us tried to get rid of them with fire, and another one of us got knocked out from too much of their gas. But another one of us had an idea. She told us to stop attacking the plants and trick them into snaring just the timberwolf. Since it looked like the plants that were trying to immobilize it had only done so half way at best, and the other half or so of the plants were chasing us, we all went with the idea. “We didn’t take long to do it and by then the timberwolf was really struggling to get free. Though all the wolves in the amalgamation seemed to be in this situation before because it collapsed it’s collective self only to reassemble back, out of the plant’s grasp! Yet as unfortunate as we were on the trip at that point, a giant stone column fell out of nowhere and crushed the timberwolf and sedation plants. “So we took a few seconds to take stock of ourselves and the immediate area. That’s when the pegasus scanning the area from a tree saw that the stone column was actually a petrified hydra.” I knew a hydra could be petrified by a cockatrice but what surprised me was that, despite the fact that it was rare, he saw it. On the other hoof, Modus asked, “A hydra can be petrified?” “Yeah, it’s pretty rare so it would’ve been interesting to look at more if I wasn’t wondering how many cockatrices it takes to do that. So I asked the group about that and one of the pegasi said that it usually takes ten or more. The same pegasus asked ‘Run?’ and everyone else said ‘Run’ in the most terrified tone I’ve heard in months. Then we all immediately hoofed it back to Ponyville ASAP. “After we were back they sent another team in to look for the pony. The ponies in my team that were awake went to write a report, and the unconscious ones were sent to the hospital until they woke up.” “So you didn’t come across anything else on your way back?" I asked. “We didn’t, thank Celestia.” Modus pinned his ears back some and said, “It sounds like it was a miracle that you survived," while the disguised changeling’s conversational partner got up. The stallion seems to have a small sense of worry but not for, or of, the changeling. So he’s probably leaving the building. Hopefully I won’t have a good enough reason to follow the changeling. “I’ve fought several different creatures. Manticores, chimeras, diamond dogs. I’ve also competed with griffins, minotaurs, and yaks. But before that, I never saw a situation that insanely out of control.” I suddenly said, “Oh! That reminds me of this one insane pony I saw a few days ago at the park. Well, he might not have-” “Did you just see that?" Blitz interrupted while looking at the table. “See what?" Modus asked. I said, “I didn’t see anything.” “I thought I saw a face in the wood for a second. Hopefully I’m not going crazy, though I’ve had far weirder things before. Like the time I thought I saw a male Celestia walking down the street with a leashed filly Star Swirl the Bearded.” Modus gave Blitz a strange look. “You never told me about that one. Are you sure that I’m the most insane pony in this little group? Actually, you might be the one that gets drunk the most.” “Oh, wait. Shape probably wants to finish his story.," Blitz said while I took another swig of cider. So I picked up where I left off. “Yeah, so the pony might not actually be insane, but he was saying some insane stuff to everyone about urging them to pull out their dental fillings. So I decided to leave after it started looking like he actually was. He definitely didn’t look drunk and from the kind of pony he looked like he may have taken a dare.” “What did he look like?" Modus inquired. I tapped my chin in thought. “He had an orange hat on, a southern accent, and was pretty thin.” “Actually...," Modus said while looking towards Blitz “This is something that you would probably do for a dare.” “As long as I don’t get any negative attention from the Guard I would do it regardless of being paid, otherwise I’d be doing it in disguise and for at least one hundred bits," Blitz said. We continued onto other topics for a while and the disguised changeling went through several stallions, but I eventually had to go as the changeling was leaving with a stallion he seemed to pick up. The stallion’s emitting some lust and a lot of interest while the changeling may be outwardly happy, so they might be leaving for a secluded area. Perhaps one or the other’s house. I need a quick, sound excuse for leaving. “Obviously the diamond dogs didn’t have a chance as the hive’s soldiers quickly came and merely had to make an example out of one of them to scare them off. The queen herself told them that the hive would end them if they told a soul about us," Modus said. Blitz then looked down at his cider mug in thought. “You know, there’s a huge crystal mine under Canterlot. I’m surprised that we haven’t had a problem with them in such a long time.” I rose from my seat and said, “I need to go. There’s a potion order I forgot to finish and I’d need to leave a bit early to get it done.” “Alright, we’ll see ya later Shape," Blitz said. Blitz didn’t get suspicious, but I could sense Modus’ small suspicion. I’d deal with that later if I had to. I had a disguised changeling to monitor. I left the bar and scanned the area for a place to change disguises. There was an unused building close by, which could work, but I also spotted an unattended private carriage. This would work better. Less questionable than a building that I might have to break into to use and it’s Canterlot so every building is owned. Before entering I discretely looked around by itching my mane in a few places, turning my head and alternating between my hoofs to get at different sides. Seeing as no one was paying any attention to me, I entered the carriage and changed disguises then immediately cast a low level invisibility spell to keep anyone from seeing me. I slowly opened the blinds on the door window to take a look outside, then quickly but still silently came out as a pegasus that flew off. No one noticed, so seeing as I was using the same tactic as when I was following Act, I was safe from being noticed unless I was bumped into by another pegasus. Though that would be highly unlikely. Once I was higher than the buildings I started looking for the changeling’s disguise. It didn’t take long at all to find them three blocks away from the pub, walking to somewhere. I tailed them from above until they entered an apartment, then I searched the rooftops for the best spot to hide. There were both flat and vaulted roofs, but the flat ones didn’t have anything large enough to hide behind so I went with one of the vaulted ones close to but angled away from the unit I was watching. Activating my detection spell, I took a look at what the changeling seemed to be doing. It looked like he was reading a book, while the stallion was feeling content. They might have been discussing said book, but that wasn’t the kind of detail I was looking for. After a half hour, the changeling got up and seemed to levitate something to the stallion. This seemed to elicit mostly appreciation and maybe a bit of surprise. The disguised changeling continued reading until a few minutes after the pony’s emotions seemed to start slowly shifting at what seemed like random. The changeling decided to levitate something large, probably the pony for some reason, into another room. If this is an infiltrator, he’s probably not going to do anything insidious. But if he isn’t this might be the time that he does. The changeling set what he’s carrying down on something, probably a desk or bed, then went to another room to shed his disguise. This was out of the ordinary for an infiltrator and it worried me because it meant that he wasn’t likely to be one so he might try something with the pony any minute by then. The changeling then came back to the room that the pony was likely in and started fiddling with something next to the pony. I tried matching what he was doing with various activities, but from the detection spell’s silhouette of him it seemed more and more like he was doing something with changeling resin. After several minutes of trying to recognize what he was doing, I was exceedingly sure that the changeling was putting the pony in a chrysalis. It was a sloppy spot to do it, considering an infiltrator would have fire-portaled or led the pony to some place extremely secluded, like deep in a forest. This meant that he definitely wasn’t an infiltrator, so I could read his real emotions much easier. But that just made it more strange. Why does he want to do this? If he’s considered a traitor to the hive then it would make some sense. He’d be trying to provide the hive with additions to their more stable food supply, but he’d also have to take the risk of being followed back to the hive. That wouldn’t be acceptable to them if he couldn't fire-portal. The changeling might intend for the pony to be his own personal food supply, but that would be a huge risk without several measures taken to not get caught and to keep the pony from being discovered. Though I doubt that he has the knowledge to take those proper measures. I decided to quietly fly out of the complex’s property, then stopped the invisibility spell after hiding in between a collection of large dumpsters and mulching bins. What I did next wasn’t something that infiltrators would do, but I was a half-ling. The same infiltration rules didn’t completely apply to me. I sauntered up to the apartment unit of the changeling and rang the doorbell to get the changeling’s reaction. He initially became very panicked which wasn’t what I was hopping for because it meant that he was almost definitely doing exactly what I thought. Once he took several seconds to calm down he opened the door with his disguise on. I immediately took him in my magic to keep his mouth shut and to keep him from resisting. I casually went right in, and closed the door while the changeling started freaking out again. If anybody saw that, it wouldn’t matter. I would be gone by the time someone came in to investigate and if I somehow turned up in the investigation, they wouldn’t and couldn’t know who I really was. While looking for the pony in the living room I told the changeling “I know what you are and what you’re doing with the pony," then let him speak. “Who are you? What are you talking about?" he demanded while squirming in my magic for a few seconds. It was all it took for him to know how ridiculously strong my telekinesis seemed to be and it didn’t seem like he was planning to cast any spells to get out. I lit up my horn and reverted him back to a changeling. “You know what. I’ll find him. I know you’ve done something with him," I said while looking through a bedroom. He responded with “I don’t know what you’re talking about!" just as I opened the bedroom closet to find the pony in a chrysalis. That’s pathetically cliche... I turned my head to him and gave him an angry look as I lit up my horn and said, “You’re coming with me," right before hitting him with a stun spell. I found a camera and decided to take pictures for evidence to leave at the house. I also did something for both fun and keeping the Guard’s investigation off my trail. I put the unconscious changeling in the chrysalis, then changed into a particularly cute changeling. I went into the bathroom and made a few faces to decide which would work best. I then went back into the bedroom and set up the camera to get all three of us with the changeling in the chrysalis behind us but still in clear view. I also noticed a pair of sunglasses on the bedside stand and put them on the pony. Finally, I started the camera’s timer and propped the pony up next to me with one of his forehooves around my shoulders and vis versa, then made the cutest smile my disguise could with my tongue sticking out. After the camera took the picture I looked at it and made an impish grin. I also decided to leave a note for the stallion to explain what happened. Pony, You were lured into a trap by a changeling. I managed to catch him putting you in the chrysalis after you fell asleep, and I went in to take care of him. The changeling will be delivered to the Guard and notified of your possible visit for this incident. I have made photos for evidence that you may turn in yourself. With love, A Changeling I then left the changeling in the chrysalis and set it in the closet for now. The stallion I left on the couch with the glasses off before quickly leaving to get Act. When I told Act that I needed his help with interrogation he gave an excited, mischievous grin and told me that it was going to be fun. I was a little nervous about the interrogation but admittedly a little excited. So Act cast a string of fire-portals to get us back to the hostile changeling, then to the mines under the city. It was worth noting that the pony wasn’t in the changeling’s apartment unit anymore when we got there. Act watched the changeling while I left to get to Cordial’s general store. It was close to closing time but Cordial usually stays for a little while after to do some paperwork. I asked one of the staff if he was there but they said that he left a few hours ago and hasn’t come back, so he probably left for home. I knew where he lived so I headed over there and rang the doorbell. Cordial opened the door and gave me a confused look. “Do you have anything that nullifies magic?" I asked. Cordial silently ushered me in and told me, “You know things like that are probably illegal to own without a license or something, right?” “I don’t really care. I’m in a bit of a hurry and I don’t need it on any record that I own that kind of thing.” In a conspiratorial tone he asked, “Were you followed?” “If you mean by changelings, then it’s unlikely. Guards haven’t been watching me either.” “Good enough for me.” He had me follow him into his basement, where he opened a door that had no handle with his magic. It was impossible to see when closed, as it seemed to have a minor illusion spell to make the small gaps around it disappear. The room behind it was dank and once Cordial started a light spell I saw that it was filled with boxes, locked chests, and random objects laying around that were slightly questionable to own. I started my own light and he started searching through chests and boxes as I looked around the room and thought to myself. Why would he want to have all this stuff? Is he selling it in an underground market of some sort? I don’t think that there are any in Equestria, but what use would he have for a perception filter coin, magic-ray glasses, and an amulet of persuasion? Maybe I’ll buy the coin some time. I looked back to what Cordial was doing and noticed that he moved around several boxes and large items. He came out of the path he made through it and told me, “I found what I was looking for, but it’s an expensive chair.” So I took a look through the path he made and noticed that it was made of metal, had elegant etchings all over it, and a few gems near the top of the back’s front side. “Actually, this is exactly what I was looking for.” Cordial quirked an eyebrow, “Wait, wait. You of all ponies are interrogating someone?” I plainly said, “Yeah.” He just stared for a few seconds then said, “You’ve turned into a half-ling, a changeling who changed his name to Sky decides to live with ponies undisguised, others join him, then you become an interrogator. What’s the world coming to?” It’s coming to its senses. “Actually, I’m training to be an infiltrator.” “Oh, is this the end of days? Next thing I know Discord is going to become friends with the bearers of the Elements of Harmony!” I’ve never seen him this bothered by anything other than business stuff before. “Can I just… buy the chair or something?” He sighed. “Fine, fine. It’s worth at least fifty thousand bits, so I don’t think you can afford it. My customers don’t bother with even renting it and for good reason. But if you want to rent, it’ll be three hundred.” I didn’t like the idea of spending that much every time I wanted to interrogate, but using my telekinesis to restrain would be too draining and the subject could still use magic, while using the stun spell wouldn’t let them communicate at all. I needed to find a stun spell designed for this really soon. “What about a deposit?" I asked. “You’re deposit is me knowing what you are.” I caught on to what he meant and even though it felt risky, I knew he wasn’t a jerk so it sounded reasonable. “Alright, but I’ll need to get the bits and have a friend come to pick it up. How did you even come across this?” “I’m part of a hidden market run exclusively by changelings that left the hive. We rarely provide anything that’s more than… somewhat questionable. This chair being one of those things. But knowing you, it’s use won’t be anything more than questionable. How will I know who’s picking it up?” I looked around in thought. “He’ll ask about finding some ponies to hire for a magic armor project of his. It may also be a legitimate business proposal to talk with him about later.” “Using a legitimate, legal, and non-secret business proposal he’s been meaning to ask as the code, to hide another transaction. Whoever is giving you infiltrator training is doing a decent job so far.” “Well, I’m going to get the bits. See you later.” “Alright. Good doing business with you again.” I left the house the way I came and went to my house to get the bits, then back to the mines to give Act the bits, the address to Cordial’s house, and the code, which he thought was good enough. I watched the changeling for the time Act was away. He didn’t wake up or anything so it was mostly boring. Once Act fire-portaled back with the chair, he told me, “Cordial forgot to mention one thing about the chair. It was designed to be a trap, so unless you wear one of these," here he held out a bangle and I took it to put it on, “once you sit in it, the chair will automatically put your legs in position and the hidden latches will shut.” “That will make it easier to put him in," I thought out loud. Both of us were using a throwaway disguise already, so we took the changeling out of the chrysalis and set him in the chair which sprang to life. It put his legs in position and shut the latches, which turned out to be a hidden “feature” of the etchings. We then waited for the changeling to start waking up. It only took a minute for the interrogation subject to start stirring. He soon opened his eyes, looking very confused. Though soon realized that something was obviously wrong despite his mind’s haze from the chrysalis’s gooey resin he was previously floating in. “Why am I here?“, he quietly asked to himself. Upon seeing us, he tried getting up but the latches kept him in place. After taking a look at what had a hold of him, he turned his head to us and snarled, “Where am I and what do you two want?" at Act and I. Act sat in front of him and calmly started with, “You’re probably feeling a little sleepy, but you should know that you’re not in any position to be asking questions right now. That being said, who are the current princesses in the hive?” With an undertone of malice he told us, “I’m not with the hive anymore and I don’t care for you or any other pony.” “You didn’t really answer my question. How long ago did you leave the hive?” “I don’t care about your questions either!” Suddenly, Act switched back to a changeling, though not his own form. “Will you tell me now?” “What makes you think I care about a changeling tainted with the values of a pony?” I had just about enough of the subject’s attitude, so I approached him and revealed my real eyes to him. It was something unique to me, but at the same time it was something that would throw anyone off my trail unless they knew exactly what to look for. “Your situation is far more different than you think it is," I told the changeling. The subject didn’t look impressed and my sixth sense felt it as well. “It doesn’t take a changeling to do that trick.” So I took the form of one of the changeling princesses that would still likely be alive, as Act had educated me on. “Do you really want to take the chance that I’m not a princess?” I could sense his confusion and fear quickly rising. Though he still had one question. “Y-You never came back to the hive. Why is that?” I gave him a questioning look. “Is it so hard to believe that a master of infiltration would be able to survive and stay hidden on their own for nearly two decades?” I could tell that his fear of me actually being the previous infiltrator, Ceymi, was slowly winning him over, even though he didn’t care about the hive anymore. I guess Act was right. Changelings do fear the wrath of their princesses and queen more than I thought. The subject didn’t say anything, so I elaborated. “If you know anything about how I supposedly died, it’s likely a lie. All the infiltrator students I had tragically died one day when I took them on their first trip to a pony settlement, and so I found it the perfect opportunity to fake my own death.” The changeling’s confusion grew at this, so I continued. “I needed to know something. All our lives we were taught that ponies saw us as a species to be eradicated, but something about our explanation of this felt off. I needed to see not only the proof of this with my own eyes, but somehow the opposite as well. “I decided to take it upon myself to find proof of both answers to my burning question. This required me to fake my own death so no one would ask questions. The perfect moment to do this came to me in the worst way imaginable. I took my infiltrator prospects out to their first pony settlement for training, and all but one ended up dying from a few monsters. I faked my death in front of my last prospect and I was then free to search for answers. “Merely living among ponies and faking their mindset was not enough, so I ignored everything I knew about changelings except for infiltration. I found many of their values to line up with everything else about them, just as I knew before, yet my proof of what we thought continued to lack just as it’s opposite did. “I soon realized that the ultimate proof I needed lied within how a pony would react to discovering that their significant other was a changeling, and their relationship after if the pony was willing to keep it. Yet we could not reveal our species until one of us tried this. This meant that what we were taught was likely to be merely speculation, as this was also the ultimate quandary of any other changeling looking for the same thing. “Then one day, of all the changelings that decided to give away our existence, the one you know as Sky decided to do so. Upon discovering this news I investigated Ponyville. The proof that our species claim was wrong grew greatly. I must admit that it was very encouraging, yet the marriage and proof I was looking for was not there. So I continued to search, and yet I have found nothing new since. “So I tell you again. Who are the current princesses of the hive?” This seemed to thoroughly convince the subject that I was, in fact, a princess. He told me, “I-I’m sorry I did not recognize you, Princess Ceymi. I-It’s probably the same as when you were still at the hive, with the obvious exception you must already know. Chittri is the new infiltrator princess, Chara is military, Indress is labor, and Cocoon is breeding.” I turned to Act and I brought my head level and close to his from my high stature. He whispered to me, “All of those princesses except for Chittri are the same as when I left. This could help us a bit depending on the influence they have on Chrysalis.” I whispered back, “Do you think there’s anything else useful that we can get from him?” “If he’s been gone from the hive for any longer than a month then anything he knows about the changeling you’re looking for is likely too old for us. He seems to have been an average labor worker or something having little to do with anything outside the hive, so he wouldn’t know of their plans for Equestria either.” I turned to the subject and asked, “How long have you been gone from the hive?” He visibly tensed up at this but managed to say, “A-About six weeks.” So I told him, “Then I have nothing else to ask," in a casual manner, then lit my horn up, which caused the subject to tense up even more, and cast another stun spell on him. I told Act what I wanted to do and he saw very little in the way of problems with it, so he returned the chair via fire-portal while I wrote a note. Lieutenant Nightlight, You have helped me with a personal problem I’ve been having and as thanks, I would like to present the first malicious changeling I caught to both you and Sargent Shiny Sides. He was putting an unconscious pony in a chrysalis so I took care of capturing him for your Guard. The pony from the mentioned incident may come by, or has already. Best of luck, A changeling PS: Say hi to Memento Mori for me Act returned and told me to change now if I was planning to do it soon, so I changed into a pegasus. Act then fire-portaled me and the captured changeling on my back to a secluded location close to the castle and left for home while I finished the operation. I took to the air with the changeling after starting the low level invisibility spell and scanned the castle perimeter for an area with no pegasus Guards. They were thorough about spreading the three varieties of ponies throughout the perimeter, but I did find a spot that had a sufficient lack of pegasi. I quickly flew down towards them picking up speed, but I had no intention of stopping. Once I was close I quickly leveled off while dropping the changeling close to them on purpose, and ascended back up. Once I landed some distance away I canceled the invisibility spell and hurried back to the dropping spot. Once I was able to observe the Guards from the cover of an alleyway I cast the spell again and took a look at how it went so far. Two Guards, a mare and stallion were taking care of him. The former was reading the note I made and was very confused. The latter was examining the changeling for wounds from the fall in irritation and confusion. “Hey, is there a Lieutenant Nightlight or Sargent Shiny Sides?" the mare asked the other Guard. The stallion replied with some irritation in his voice. “No, but I was hopping that my shift would be the kind of interesting that didn’t involve changelings raining on me like it was the invasion all over again.” I was afraid I would do that by accident. “What does the note say?" the stallion asked in a neutral tone. “It says that the changeling is a present to whoever Lieutenant Nightlight is and claims that he was trying to put a pony in a chrysalis.” “It may be referring to Celestia and Luna.” The mare just became more confused. “But why refer to them like that?” “I have no clue, but the princesses might.” “And why deliver him like this? The only reason I can think of is that whoever did this doesn’t want to be connected to it.” The Guard stallion then mentioned, “I thought I saw some kind of partially invisible pegasus shaped thing right before the changeling landed on me, so I’d say that’s spot on. Why are we examining this situation? We’re not detectives, you know.” The Guard mare rolled here eyes. “Oh quit complaining, Mori. Are you done looking at him yet?” Oh, well this is an interesting coincidence! Mori said, “Almost," and once he was, he hoof cuffed the changeling then put him on the mare’s back and they went into the castle. Seeing no other reason to stay, I left for home. When I opened the door Frost complained about the lack of food, so I gave him some for the night and started making some tea to help me sleep. While the water was heating up I gave Frost some attention and thought about what happened. The background noise in my emotion sense seemed like something I was able to sort out with some concentration, but I shouldn't depend on it in any way that’s even near moderate yet. I can’t make definite conclusions about what it is and how it works from only one test. Whatever it takes to help me find the changeling responsible for my transformation, I’ll do, as long as it doesn’t cross my morals. I’ll even infiltrate the hive it’s self if it comes to that. Once the tea was done I poured some for myself but then I remembered going through an entire book on why it is or is not okay to give your cat certain foods, and wondered if Frost would even try it. So I poured some into a small bowl and gave it to him. He sniffed it for several seconds before lapping it up, and I just sat near him to watch until he was done. He rarely eats anything other than milk based food, meat, and the stuff I buy for him, so whenever I find an exception it always confuses me. He’s eaten peanut butter several times before but he stopped doing that a year ago for reasons unknown. After Frost was done with the tea I put the dishes in the sink, brushed my teeth, then went to bed.