Another week passed and yet Hamartia hadn’t met me at the bar yet. I was starting to worry a bit about him, but when it came time to wait for Metrion at the park I set it aside.
I waited there for nearly the entire hour, until he came galloping up to me out of breath.
All ‘she’ said between breaths was “Hey.”
“You want to take a minute to catch your breath?” I asked in my disguise’s soft-spoken voice.
He managed to say “I’m fine. Lets go to my school.”
Rolling my eyes I said, “If you say so," acting as though I’ve seen him do this several times before
We headed over there and Metrion led me to his locker where he took out a violin and a folder, then we made our way to the music hall where we went into one of the small practice rooms just as before.
After locking the door, Metrion told me “The changeling that you’re looking for might be one of the two that I’ve already been investigating.”
“That can’t be all that you know. I want specifics," I sternly told him.
He begrudgingly told me “Fine. The two were in the same attack squad that apparently crashed into your pony’s apartment. I don’t know who else was in it. Now if were done with your pointless desires, I’ve got info I snagged from the Manehattan Guard that shows possible changelings. I want you to do this part because of your freaky ability. I don’t care how you manage to take Ingress back to me as long as you’re not followed. You’ll get your changeling’s name when it’s done.”
He rudely hoofed the folder with said info onto my chest and I took a quick look. It seemed to actually be parts of a report from one of Equestria’s more covert branches, possibly the spy division. It’s analytical info wasn’t what the Guard usually looks for themselves, and they usually don’t go undercover for anything. Thankfully it looked like Metrion was smart enough to make copies of the info instead of just taking the original, seeing as the legibility was worse than I’d expect from such a professional organization.
“Alright, I’ll be heading over there today," I said.
As Metrion went to unlock the door he put on a sassy tone, saying “Good. Hopefully you’re all that you’re cracked up to be.”
As much as I hated him, he was my only inside changeling at that time so I sucked it up and said nothing else.
~~~~~~
After changing back to my usual disguise, I went looking for Act and found him at his law office. After telling him everything at his house, we got on the first train to Manehattan. Thankfully, we were able to have an entire private compartment to ourselves so we could plan things.
After locking the compartment door, Act said, “So, tell me how you plan on figuring these potential changelings out, alliances and all.”
“There’s an operation that’s being run to find all changelings in Equestria, and to confront them in a docile manner," I said. ”Nictis and Sky aren’t always present for the confrontation, so they sometimes just send one or two ponies for it. Sometimes the changeling that they think they’ve found could be hostile, which is when they send ponies to ask questions to the changeling and his neighbors. Of course, the ponies that they send don’t know who the changeling is, just who to question so that the changeling thinks they still have no clue. It’ll be easier to pose as the lesser known ponies while asking to come into their house to ask questions in private.”
“Not bad," Act complimented. “We already know your ability to detect changelings, so that’s easily covered. What if one of us is sure that the changeling’s a hostile after we enter their home?”
I answered with, “We would give the other an emotional signal that the changeling can’t feel, then I’d get close enough, dispel his disguise, and restrain him in my magic until you tie him up in resin.”
“I asked about just the signal” Act simply stated, though he also gave me a mischievous smirk. ”You’ve already gotten the rhythm of the actual capturing. I mean, you caught an infiltrator already. You even managed to fight and restrain three at once!”
“Only because my first move was a good combat decision," I said. “Not to mention that I feel like hitting all three of them at once was more of a fluke. It was also more of something an assassin would do.”
Act was still smirking. “Yes, but for an infiltrator that would be better than most.”
“I guess so. Anything else, ‘sensi’?”
“Just one more thing: If we need to, how are we going to follow a changeling?”
My response was, “The streets in Manehattan are relatively crowded, so I’ll use my detection spell to keep track of where he is while staying about ten meters back. He won’t even be able to see or detect us in general unless the crowd thins out.”
“And if it does?”
“Then we take an aerial pursuit, and if it’s nighttime we use a bat pony form with changeling princess eyes colored like a bat pony’s so we can still see in the dark.”
I sensed a bit of confusion from Act and he asked “Do bat ponies have good night vision? They’re not an ideal infiltrator disguise, so I never figured that out.”
I shrugged. “I don’t really know.”
“At any rate, I’ll see how well you do with everything else I taught you when we get to the city," Act said. “I’m also interested in how you’ll use your different emotion sense. Though for now, I’m going to take a nap.”
Seeing as Act told me to not bring anything, I had barely anything to do on the train after that, so I started looking out the window. I couldn’t help but think about my dilemma with Hamartia at that moment.
I can't think of any way Hamartia and me could possibly make a relationship work...
I've never been the one who wanted to break up with anyone before, but do I treat it like that in this situation? He still loves me some, but I don't care for him in quite the same way anymore, so I guess I do treat it like a breakup. How can I even approach this with how little I seem to know about him? How could I possibly say "You've searched for me for years, but I've decided that I'm not interested anymore", in a way that won't upset or anger him much? Is it even possible to do that with him at this point? We can sense each other's emotions towards the other, but is that enough to help with what I end up saying?
I've gotten myself into the perfect storm, and the only way to survive it isn't going to be easy for either side of our friendship.
“You look like you’re taking that scenery pretty seriously," Act joked.
“No," I idly said. “I’m thinking.”
“About what?”
So I told him, “I had a marefriend near the end of my schooling. She just up and left one day without explaining anything, then she comes back to visit me after Twilight’s coronation. She showed me that she was a changeling the entire time. Or, rather, I figured it out before he was going to tell me.”
“Sounds like a big problem, but I’m afraid I can’t help you there," Act said. “I mean, I know you’re only interested in mares but I’ve never dated outside of infiltration. Which reminds me. I hate to be to be the one to tell you this, but from what I know about your personality at the time, you were probably an infiltrator magnet.”
I sighed with slight irritation at that, still looking out the window. “Oh, great. How many ponies did I know who were actually infiltrators?”
“I wouldn’t know, but I do know that you’re interested in why I’ve never seriously dated before. The reason for that is I don't want to keep my secret from the marefriends I'd be dating, nor do I want to give anybody a reason to accuse me of something that would lead to my reveal.”
“Sounds reasonable enough," I stated.
After a few minutes Act suddenly said “I hope that, someday, all of Equestria can be as accepting towards changelings as Ponyville is.”
“Me too...”
~~~~~~
A few hours later, the train arrived in Manehattan after crossing a long, metal bridge and we got off to head to our first lead with both of us in a unicorn disguise. I knew some things about the city because my dad grew up there, though I don’t travel much and I never had a reason to go there until then.
It was just like how he described it from the time he lived there. Busy ponies crowding the sidewalks everywhere, street-side venders at many corners, and there were skyscrapers everywhere. Most ponies living there were of the earth variety with few unicorns or pegasi. Things were laid out in districts for things such as fashion, haypacking, and dinning.
As we were heading to one of the boroughs, Act paused for a few seconds to cast some kind of spell, then continued.
Shape, can you hear me?
Yeah.
Good. I forgot to remind you. If any of our leads offer anything to eat or drink, don’t actually consume it. I can’t have you passing out on me or dying.
Okay. Anything else?
Be prepared for the leads to ask why them specifically. As long as we can get in without being discovered by ponies, we’ll be fine.
Once we were passing by the small apartment building of our first lead, I casually started my detection spell and took a look. There was only one disguised changeling in the entire building, so we went in for further inspection. I was sure he was on the second floor, which was where our lead lived, so we went up the stairs and found that he was in the exact unit number as the info.
I knocked on the door and the changeling answered as a middle aged earth pony mare that gave us a confused look.
“Can I help you with anything?" he asked.
“Yes," I said. “We’re here on changeling affairs business. While we don’t know who it is, we have reason to believe that there’s a disguised changeling living in this building.”
Something about that caused the changeling to emit a small spike of irritation and hate, though it wasn’t directed at us. As for how he felt about us, he was trusting. Yet he didn’t feel the same for anyone else, even before we mentioned changelings.
Either this was a former or current infiltrator.
“Can we come in to ask a few questions in private?" Act asked.
The infiltrator stood aside and motioned for us to do so with a small smile. We trotted in and the infiltrator closed the door while facing us. He then led us to the living room, saying, “We’ll talk here, but I’ll be getting a drink first. You two want anything?”
It might have been a bit risky, but I decided to say, “I’ll have a cider.”
This caused Act and the other changeling to give me a look of confusion.
After I emotionally conveyed to Act that I was testing the infiltrator, the infiltrator said, “Are you sure?”
So I casually shrugged and told him, “Being on the job hasn’t stopped me before," which the changeling reacted to with slight disgust.
He then turned to Act with a smile. “You need a drink?”
Act told her, “Yeah, I’ll have a glass of water, milk, and orange juice.”
“In different cups, right?" she asked with slight nervousness.
Act said, “Nope," with a straight face.
The changeling seemed to suddenly make a small noise and shortly gulped, while emitting a tiny bit of short lived hate at Act and I. It seemed that Act had the better idea, though I was set on beating it.
“Are you okay, ma’am?" I asked.
He waved a hoof with a strained smile and said, “I-I just have a lot of phlegm in my throat. I’ll get the drinks!”
She quickly did so and when she came back out with the odd drinks, I asked, “Do you have any meat gelatine?”
The infiltrator gave me a huge, split second spike of hate right before upchucking. He probably had a way to self-induce vomiting that I didn’t recognize. A useful infiltration skill, but not something that would fool me.
After he finished his first stream, Act closed all the window blinds while I swiftly closed the gap to the infiltrator and enveloped all of him in my magic. After I let him empty his stomach as much as he wanted, I kept his mouth shut and started using my interrogation voice.
“I know you are a changeling, an infiltrator of the hive. But I do not have to hurt you or dispel your disguise and stun you as long as you do not call for help, attack anypony, or cast any spells at all.”
The infiltrator shook and I could see fear in his eyes just as easily as I could sense it, though it wasn’t genuine. I proceeded to cast the interrogation stun spell on him and set him down. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’ve been living here for a year now!" he told us as I did so.
Though Act changed his voice to mine and proved our claim with, “Your little hate slip up and lack of disgust when you barfed in your mouth a little and especially right before you actually emptied your stomach was proof enough.”
This caused the infiltrator to let his act go. He let his disgust and anger for us flow, and he spoke with venom in his voice. “Hive secrets are staying just that, you freak changeling!”
I lightly chuckled for a few seconds. “I have all the hive secrets I would want already, and I already know I am a freak. Say it all you want.” I then turned my head towards Act, who was standing right beside me at that point, and asked, “Is it worth some light torture?”
“I would not think so.”
“Alright," I said. “I will give you one last chance. We are looking for a changeling by the name of Ingress.”
“I have no idea who that is," the infiltrator claimed, though Act was telling me that he was lying.
“Well, I lied anyways. I am not feeling like you are worth much more effort than what I did with the others," I told the infiltrator.
He responded with, “The hive has no interest in your little messages.”
“On the contrary, you actually care a lot. We have been messing with your infiltrators enough that you would obviously make an effort to find out who we are. I am willing to bet that you have a team of sorts analyzing every message we give. How many infiltrators is it taking to screw in this particular freak light bulb?”
At that, the infiltrator grew more agitated. “That joke makes me want to dry heave.”
As I charged and held the full stun spell I said, “I can torture you with bad jokes, but as I said before…”
I then let the spell go on him and followed up with the disguise dispel.
“So we are doing the usual with him, right?" Act asked.
“Yes, I will start with the slabs and you can start the cocoon.”
“What is going to be on it this time?”
“Your hive lives in tragedy, you can not stop to stare, and still your queen walks on by pretending not to see," I told him.
“I like it’s inspiration," he said with a smile.
So Act started on the cocoon and after I made the slabs, I helped him with it. The process went much faster than usual and once we were done, the infiltrator was in the bedroom closet floating in the cocoon.
“I haven’t done infiltration work in years. I’ve forgotten how exhilarating it is!" Act said with a hushed voice and devious smile. He then changed to a pegasus and told me, “Just to be safe, we’re fire-portaling out.”
So while we were still in the bedroom with the blinds down, I stood next to Act and he did just as he said. The next thing I knew, we ended up on top of a skyscraper. Though the first thing I noticed about it was that the edges had no railing, so it wasn’t meant for public access. At this I immediately and instinctively gave myself a pegasus form.
Are you okay?
Act must have noticed my emotional reaction.
As I was casually trotting to one of the edges, I thought Warn me next time you fire-portal me to high places!
Sorry. I didn’t know.
As I took a peek over the edge with Act right behind me, I could still sense Act’s confusion towards me. What?, I thought without looking at him.
It’ll look strange being a pegasus that’s afraid of heights.
I backed away from the edge and gave him a straight look, thinking Fluttershy is also afraid of heights, and being a pegasus gives me more control over falling to my doom.
Alright. As long as it doesn’t look too strange.
So we flew off to our next lead, which was a house on what appeared to be the opposite side of the city from our first lead’s house. As my detection spell was still on, I noticed a changeling in the house seconds before landing. Once on the sidewalk, Act telepathically asked me if there was one and I confirmed over the link, so Act said to use the same method to gain entry as before.
After walking the short path to the front door, I knocked and the door opened to reveal the disguised changeling. Act calmly told him, “We’re here on changeling affairs business. The info we have led us here, so we’d like to ask some questions.”
At the first mention of changeling affairs, he gave off a lot of panic and remorse. He was obviously not an infiltrator. Though to his credit, he hid it better than most common changelings.
“Of course," he said, as he stood aside for us. “Come in and have a seat. I’d imagine it’d be better to discuss this in private.”
As we came in, we noticed a mare who the changeling obviously loved. The emotions he had for her were so intense that I had no doubt she was either his fiancee or wife.
She sat down with the three of us, and the changeling asked what we need to know.
Act started with, “Have you seen anypony acting even the least bit strange?" while I was concentrating on emitting serenity, trust, and optimism toward the changeling.
This seemed to help him calm down as he answered Act with, “There’s a pony that visits a local bar. I’m sure he’s acting a bit odd, but I can’t quite put my hoof on it. He has a green coat and brown mane, but I never knew his name.” Though his emotions for me indicated that he thought I might have been a changeling, because he had a feeling of hope and trust towards me. He also had worry for his mare and I assumed it was because he hadn’t told her yet.
“I haven’t noticed anything myself," his wife said, while her stallion only started worrying more.
So I asked, “So what’s the bar’s name?" and the couple answered in stereo with, “The Bar of Cats.”
Okay, they’re definitely married.
The changeling then told us, “There tended to be a lot of cat fights at that bar when it first opened, though there aren’t as many now. The owner also brings his cat to work, though it drives away ponies with an allergy for them.”
“The cat starts fights, or the mares?" I asked, partly out of curiosity.
The changeling answered with a roll of his eyes while telling us, “It’s the mares. Otherwise it’s a nice place.”
“Alright," Act said while we got up. “I think that’s all we’ll need. Thank you for helping us.”
“You don’t need to thank us. Helping you is what everypony should be doing," the mare said with a smile as we made our way out. Though this further grew her stallion’s worry for her, though he started to feel more trusting of her as well.
So when they closed the door, I told Act, “Wait” while he said the same thing to me. So I used my invisibility spell on both Act and myself and crept up to the wall closest to the couple. The mare became worried about her stallion for a minute, while the changeling was worried for her as well.
Suddenly, he showed her what he really looked like, which startled the mare a bit. For a few seconds her emotions were in a mild turbulence, though it was clear that she was unsure of something about him. The changeling was beginning to feel sad about it, like she told him that she didn’t know what to think of him anymore.
Though she suddenly became glad for him and just as suddenly hugged him, which made the changeling love her even more than before. I couldn’t help but feel glad and happy for the two as they stayed that way for several seconds.
Once they parted, the changeling noticed my emotions and seemed to tell her something that she completely understood, then he headed over to the front door. I did as well while stopping the invisibility.
When he opened the door, he had a straight face and wasn’t in his disguise anymore. He told me, “So I guess you’re not really a pony.”
To which I told him, “Something like that," and became a little embarrassed as I said, “And I guess you caught me.”
“Doesn’t matter. You didn’t ruin the moment," he said, and rubbed the back of his head as he told me, “I guess I should tell you a bit more.”
So Act and I came back in for a minute and the changeling told us that the supposed changeling gave off suspicion towards him, seemed less social and a bit paranoid of everyone ever since about two months ago.
After Act and I left, we started making our way to The Bar of Cats. On our way I was thinking on my recent odd feelings until I finally put it all together. I did, in fact, want to start dating again. Yet with what I got myself into I still didn’t think it was wise to do so. I couldn’t tell my dates about what I was secretly doing, so they wouldn’t know about it, and if they were captured because of me it would be a complete surprise that anybody would get angry about.
I put those thoughts away well before getting to the bar and once we arrived, we went up to the counter and I asked the burly bartender, “Have you seen a pony with a brown mane and green coat?”
“Yeah," he said, “though it doesn’t look like he wants any visitors. Don’t know why.”
“Well, this is the only lead I have that could help me find my brother," I said with a bit of a down expression.
“In that case, from what I know of him, he lives somewhere in the eastern part of the city. An apartment. He also visits this place about every week or so.”
I thanked him and we left for the city outskirts. Once there, Act and I changed our disguises to unicorns, though Act wanted to know exactly what I was planning so he could fully understand it. I told him that the bartender might tell our lead that ponies are looking for him, but that it'll only take one infiltrator to monitor that. Though I was sure that there was a faster way, so it was merely a good preventative plan. I also said that I’d be the one to wait during the more likely hours until we figured out a better plan, because I’d be able to spot our lead on sight and more easily follow him.
Act thought it was a good preventative plan, so we went back to the bar, sat down at separate tables, and ordered a non-alcoholic drink. Act then started a psychic link spell.
So any better ideas yet?
Not any good ones. I thought about just asking about him in the area where he lives, but that may alert him in some way or another. Not that we haven’t made it inevitable already.
So if we want a better plan, we’d need to think of one very soon.
Yeah. I also thought of disguising myself as him, but we don’t have anywhere near a good enough description of him. I wish it was easier to get our hooves on some Guard armor without being found out at all.
So after an hour or so, Act decided to go somewhere to eat while I stayed and ordered a snack for the time being. At first I was thinking about possible better plans, but I eventually realized that the lead may not care anymore about going back to the hive.
If that was the case, then I’d feel like dragging him back to the hive wouldn’t be right, yet at the same time I wouldn’t be able to get Metrion the proof he wanted. It’s not like it was easy to get proof as solid as what we were after, so I thought of a few alternate methods for more directly revealing the other changeling still at the hive.
My first idea was to come with Metrion, under a disguise, to the hive and cast the disguise dispel on the imposter. Though it would be obvious that I wasn’t one of them if I used pony magic because of my lighter green pony aura. Metrion would also easily get in trouble for bringing me to the hive and I’d have to make an escape. If I didn’t make it out, they’d likely use me as a food source. Even if I did make it out they’d only want to put forth more effort to find me because of what doing that might imply about me.
Recreating the disguise dispel for changeling magic wouldn’t really help all that much either. Casting a spell like that in the hive would obviously get me noticed, not only because it would be unheard of, but also because they try to not use much magic, so finding the caster would be simple.
Act then came back into the bar and sat down at a different table again, starting the psychic link spell.
I bought some repairpony tools and clothes that would help us get into the changeling’s apartment. Anything else I should know before we plan this out further?
Actually, I’m using the metamorphic shape-shifting spell right now so the Guards won’t dispel it.
Good. So what do you think the plan is?
I’ll be the one to follow him, while you follow me not too far behind so that the Guard won’t think you’re with me and so they won’t dispel your disguise.
Not bad, but I have a better idea. You’ll follow him home alone while I go to the spot where I hid the repairpony things. It’s the same spot that we changed disguises. Once you know where he lives, come to the spot to put on the stuff and change disguises again.
We’ll then go to the lead’s apartment unit, claiming that we’ll need access for a repair request from the pony living below him because it’ll be easier to fix with access to his unit. Once we’re in and he shuts the door, we restrain him and ask questions.
Sounds good, but I want to be sure of what his alliance is. If he doesn’t like Chrysalis anymore, then I won’t want to send him back to the hive.
Well, this is your mission. I’m just here so I can help and give hooves-on training. As for alternate methods of getting proof, you could sneak into the hive to cause an accident that would give one of the imposter’s shape-shifting relevant organs an injury. It wouldn’t take much time before he gets found out.
But I still want to know what happened during the changeling invasion. It would probably be best to get him alone and cast the dispel, then get all the info I want.
True, but going to the hive ourselves to do anything is probably not a good idea in the first place. You’d pretty much have to reveal yourself as the changeling hunter to get your info, and the hive knowing that you infiltrated them would only raise the already high tensions between them and Equestria.
At that point I was a bit conflicted on whether or not I’d prefer that the lead wanted to stay in Equestria, though I was leaning towards him wanting to stay. It would make it harder for me to get what I wanted, but it also meant one more changeling that doesn’t like the state of the hive anymore.
~~~~~~
A few hours past sunset a stallion came in who matched the description, and more importantly, was highlighted by my spell. I took note of his large build and his sickle cutie mark, while Act started another telepathy spell.
Is he the right pony?
My detection spell says he’s a changeling, so probably. Looks like he’s here to drink, so I should have time to quickly change disguises. When I come back, one eye will be green and the other a green-blue.
I left the bar and searched for a quick place to change, which ended up being a different bar’s bathroom. Once I returned, I sat down at a different table and ordered a drink to have while waiting for my lead to leave. He eventually left about an hour later and I left to follow about ten seconds after that.