//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Two Steps Forward One Step Back // Story: The Half of It // by Shapeshift //------------------------------// Following my lead through Manehattan wasn’t all that hard. Sure, the disguised changeling was a bit paranoid, but the number of ponies out and about were still high enough at that time of night for me to only change disguises once because of his suspicion. Once he entered his apartment building it was a snap. As he was climbing the stairs I lagged just one floor behind and when he got to the fourth floor he exited the stairwell. I stayed on the floor below so I could easily see where the changeling entered his unit. After I was sure that he did, I came up to his floor, then noted the unit number and that there weren't any other disguised changelings in the apartment. I then left for the changing spot as planned. Once there, Act and I put on our repairpony attire, changed into burly ponies, then left for the lead’s apartment. We entered it’s lobby, which had a clock that said it was ten fifteen. It was a bit of an odd time to be doing repairs, so we had to come up with something that would need more immediate attention. No one bothered us as we went to the stairwell, climbed up to the lead’s unit, then knocked at his door. The changeling became a bit irritated and suspicious but opened the door anyways and took a quick look at us with a deadpan glare. In a moderately flat tone he said, “I didn’t tell anypony that something needed fixing.” “Probably not," I said. “It’s a little urgent. A pipe close to your water heater is probably the culprit of a large leak spilling into the unit below. We may need to break down a part of one of the walls. Maybe the floor as well.” The changeling’s suspicion grew a bit more, but he sighed with some disappointment but no anger, and said, “Alright, come in. I’d rather not pay for water I’m not going to use.” After we walked in, he closed the door and told us, “I’ll be reading in the living room if you need me for any reason.” Though as he turned around to do so, I took all of him in my telekinesis and started bringing him to the bedroom without any struggling on my end. I also took note of any potential exits. There’s a fire escape, which might be useful. A ceiling vent? Too small, probably can’t climb down that very safely. I switched to the interrogation voice and told him, “I know that you are a changeling and if you deny it, your disguise will be gone for several hours.” This got him to stop his squirming and remain in silent, trembling fear. Once Act and I were in the bedroom, I closed and locked all the doors and windows, and closed all the blinds while Act tied the changeling to a chair and gagged him. Though I reminded Act that I had an interrogation stun spell, to which he responded by removing the gag and bindings while I cast the stun spell. “Remove your disguise," I commanded. The changeling did so with a green flash of flame, and I started exclusively watching for other changelings with the detection spell. Act took on the interrogation voice as well and told the changeling, “If you call for help, my friend will cast the disguise dispel so you can not take on any disguises. If you cooperate, you will not have to go back to the hive. In fact, my friend and I would not want that either. As for why we are here, we know what you planned to do when you left the hive.” The changeling responded with confusion, but didn’t say anything yet so Act continued. “But we are not with the hive. We have our own agenda and can choose to let you go if you can prove that you want to stay.” “I-I’m not the changeling you want," he told us. “I’m just covering for him because he’s in a coma. Though I’m fairly certain he wants to stay.” Act asked, “Can you take us to him?” “I-” was all he could say before I interrupted with, “We have two disguised changelings heading our way in the hall!” “I’ll fire-portal you two to the hotel," Act said, though I was skeptical about it. “And not yourself as well? How are you going to evade them? We don’t know how much they know. They’re infiltrators and they may figure you out before you can leave! You fire-portal yourself and him, while I escape through the fire escape with my invisibility spell," I said. “Are you sure? It makes obvious distortions when you move and there may be another hive changeling watching from the sky.” I started saying, “I can make do with-," but just then I realized how I could use the vent. “Never mind that. I’ll use the air vent in the living room.” The changelings then knocked at the door. “Okay, that’s good enough," Act said with haste, then told me the hotel’s address and his room number. He then started up a fire-portal while I went to the bathroom to switch to a changeling baby and take a screwdriver, then swiftly went to the vent. The changelings knocked again while I was making my way up the wall towards my exit and by then Act and the lead were gone. Once I opened the vent cover and got in I tried closing it, making sure to put it back exactly the way it was in as quiet a manner as possible. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to shut it and lock it back in place right before the changelings used a key to enter. As I felt the air being sucked to the outside, I could see them through the vent cover. They called out for somebody then started searching around. I didn’t want to stay so I silently continued up the dry, dusty ventilation shaft with my flat-head screwdriver. It was harder than I thought it would be to resist the urge to cough in there, so I let out weak and shallow ones for a minute or two. By then I found the end, which had a fan and vent cover behind it as I expected. I waited for the fan to stop moving and tried to squeeze through, but no dice. It appeared I had to bend one of the fan blades, so I first undid the vent cover behind it and started the invisibility spell. Next I bent a blade out of the way, crawled out, then bent it back to make it look as much like before as I could. If they thought of looking in the vent, they would still likely notice that someone bent it but at least they wouldn’t be sure who did it. Though I wasn’t out of the woods yet. I mentioned before that there might have been a changeling watching from above, though it was less likely that they would notice me even with their night vision. The maintenance access hatch leading to the building interior had some kind of imbedded combination lock on it, but thankfully the roof had a small control room for something. Sure, it had a lock too, but I was able to remove the back of it with the flat-head screwdriver, some time, and a lot of magic force. Taking it’s insides with me into the room, I closed the door and simply left it on the floor. After using it as a changing room, I came out as a pegasus filly with a blue coat and purple mane, then flew off towards the hotel. Once I was close, I went to a different hotel and, seeing as it was late at night, there was minimal risk to using the public bathroom to change once again. Exiting the building as a unicorn stallion, I went the rest of the distance to the hotel where I knocked on Act’s room and thanked him as I went in. The lead was still stunned, so I asked Act, “Do you think it would be okay to dispel the stun?” He responded with a shrug. “Yeah, he’s been pretty cooperative so far and he asked himself. He also needs to use the bathroom.” So I lit up my horn and cast the dispel, after which the changeling immediately said, “Bathroom!” and immediately headed to it. After he came back out he said, “So about the changeling. He’s being taken care of by a small group that prefers to not live with ponies or the hive anymore. If you want to get in without infiltrating, you’ll have to be evaluated by someling.” “A psychological evaluation?" I asked. “Yes. His shop stays open late into the night, so we should be able to meet him there.” Act responded with “Then let’s not waste any time. I’d suggest you use your personal disguise. We don’t want want to attract the hive members with Ingress’s disguise.” The changeling wasn’t all that surprised that we knew Ingress’s name, though he probably wondered how we got the information about him. Nevertheless, our lead changed disguises and led us to an aesthetically impressive clock and watch shop where we waited just outside the back office while our lead conversed with another changeling. After about five minutes our lead came out and sat down while the other changeling came out to call Act in first. While waiting I came to the conclusion that the owner of the shop was an infiltrator. After all, what other kind of changeling would be doing a psychological evaluation this important to their security? After about fifteen minutes, Act came back out and the infiltrator called me in. I sat down in the comfy chair on the opposite side of his desk and he began. “The evaluation is simply a series of questions. Nothing you haven’t heard before.” Nothing I haven’t heard before? What does that mean? “So lets begin. What are you strengths?” “Overall?" I asked. “Yes” “I’m good with changeling and transformation magic, naturally not being noticed, and generally being nice.” “What are your weaknesses, in general?” “I’m a little shy and have a small anxiety problem.” At that point, I noticed he was keeping his emotions distant from the interview. He was likely trying to keep me from measuring them to figure out what to say. “Why do you want to access our hideout?” “To find out if Ingress genuinely wants to stay in Equestria.” “Why should we let you in?” This is really crafty! He’s using job interview questions to gauge our verbal and, more importantly, emotional response! I answered in a calm manner with, “Because if you don’t, I’d infiltrate it to find out the answers myself.” “What do you know about our hideout?” “Nothing more than what the changeling who led us here suspects we know.” “What is your greatest failure and what did you learn from it?” “I had an accident with a transformation once, when a friend drank a potion I made that turned him into a mouse. My cat ate him whole, then I had to force my cat to eat shreds of paper to vomit him up. I learned to make sure that the cat wasn't in the room when using potions that turn others into smaller creatures, and to keep my transformation potion storage locked.” “If I were your superior and asked you to do something that you disagreed with, what would you do?” I hummed in thought for a few seconds then told him, “I’d go as far as leaving the hideout to not do it.” “What was the most difficult period in your life, and how did you deal with it?” “When I moved out of my parent’s house. I just trudged through it to get used to it.” “Give an example of a time you did something wrong, then how you handled it.” The first thing that came to mind was… extreme to say the least, but I went with it anyways. “When I was about eight or nine, I snapped and strangled a bully in school. I talked with the principal about it, and I did feel sorry so I apologized to the colt.” “If you found out your friends were doing something against the law, like fraud, what would you do?” “If it’s against my own morals, I’d tell them that I might report them if they continued.” “What was the most difficult decision you’ve made in the last two years and how did you come to that conclusion?” I sighed at that, knowing full well what my answer had to be. “I had my ex-marefriend come back after some years, tell me that she was an infiltrator in training the entire time, and was hoping that he could get back together with me. I decided that I couldn’t because he and I wouldn’t be able to satisfy each other in… various ways.” “If you had to choose one, would you consider yourself a big-picture pony or a detail-oriented pony?” “Detail oriented.” “Tell me about your proudest achievement.” I gave a small smirk at that one. “I’ve found a way to detect some changeling spells. Are you aware that the changeling shape-shifting spell’s most noticeable weakness is that it doesn’t copy cutie mark magic?” The infiltrator looked right at me. His pupils slightly shrunk and I could sense some of his worry and nervousness seep through his act. “Are you saying…” My smirk grew at that as I sat up completely straight said, “I can detect changeling shape-shifting, during and after the casting. Even ponies don’t have much more than a basic understanding of cutie mark magic. It just so happens that our current understanding allows us to know what is and is not cutie mark magic and that the absence of such can be shown with the right kind of spell.” “You’re… not going to tell the Guard or any authorities, right?” I reclined in the chair again and casually told him, “As long as Chrysalis doesn’t command her changelings to start killing ponies. If she does, I will literally stop any and everything I’m doing to canter right up to one of the princesses and give them my detection spell despite any obstacle in my way.” “Let’s, uh, hope it doesn’t come to that.” “I don’t want that any more than you do. So what’s the next question?” Getting back on focus, he asked, “What do you like to do?” “Research changeling magic and transformation spells.” “What are your lifelong dreams?” “To create an omimorphic potion and be one of the best in shape-shifting magic.” His next question was, “What do you want to ultimately become?” This reminded me of a joke, and it wasn’t like it would ruin my chances of passing this test, so I casually said, “An attack airship.” “Uh, excuse me? I don’t think I heard that right.” I rolled my eyes. “It was a joke. I actually want to be a leader in changeling magic research.” “Okay. What three character traits would your friends use to describe you?” “Kind, cautious, and… predictable.” “What are three character traits you don’t have?” “Being outgoing, optimistic, and managing stress well.” “If you were interviewing someone for entry, what traits would you look for?” I thought on that for several seconds and said, “Kindness, respectfulness, and cautious.” “Who has impacted you the most and how?” That one was another obvious one for me, so I immediately responded with, “My dad. His… social nature wasn’t the best. He inadvertently taught me that subtlety, generosity, and temper management are important.” “What is your greatest fear?” “Right now it’s ponies discovering what I really am.” “What is your biggest regret and why?” “I have none, because there's no point in regretting what already happened if you learned enough from it, though there's still a reason to feel bad or sorry about it.” “What’s the most important thing you ever learned?” “Knowledge pays the bills, but intellect pays that and interest.” “How do you feel about taking no for an answer?” “With decent reasoning, it’s not a big deal.” “Tell me one thing about yourself you wouldn’t want me to know.” “I’m not quite a pony.” “Who are your heroes?” “Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Luna.” “What do you do in your spare time?” “I catch changeling criminals, create and modify spells and potions, and hang out with friends.” “Tell me ten ways to use a pencil other than writing.” “You can use it as a shiv, to copy the pattern of some physically textured art pieces, to help start a fire, completely remove the graphite for a prank, to extend your reach a bit… and I can’t think of anything else right now.” “If you had to be a different species, which one would you want to be?” “I’d prefer to be a changeling.” “How do you think I rate as an interviewer?” I thought on this for a minute and said, “At least a nine out of ten.” “Do you have any questions for me?” I gave a knowing smirk. “No, but it’s clever that you’re using job interview questions for the evaluation.” At that point the infiltrator revealed his emotions towards me, which included sympathy and severe confusion. Though he gave me a small smile and said, “That’s all of it. I actually liked your response to the regret question. I’ve never heard anypony say that one before.” I smiled at that. “Thanks!” “Oh, and sorry about your marefriend. Must have been pretty difficult to decide.” My ears drooped slightly at that. “I haven’t event told him yet," though I didn’t want to make it too awkward. “Anyways, did we pass or…” “Yeah, both of you did. Though we’ll need to keep a bit of a closer eye on your friend.” I rolled my eyes as I said, “I expected something like that. So are we heading off to the hideout soon?” “As long as you weren’t followed," the infiltrator said. “Pretty unlikely. We changed disguises before coming here.” He nodded in approval, “Alright then. Let’s head out.” We both came out of the office and the infiltrator told Act that ‘we’re all heading out’. So the infiltrator, the lead, Act, and I started making our way to the hideout. Though when it was apparent that it wasn’t in the city, I asked the infiltrator how far away it was and he told me about a few miles from the city. At some place in the woods we arrived at a large, flat rock with a crude engraving of a heart surrounding two lover’s names. The infiltrator then took the foal-sized heart in his magic, lifted it up to reveal a tunnel, then with a green flash of flame the two changelings became foals. Act and I followed suit, though at that the two changelings became even more confused about me. While starting our way through the dank, dark, mineshaft-like crawlspace, the lead said, “It’s about thirty meters long," in an adorable voice. After a few meters, my detection spell started to pick up something huge that seemed bigger than the spell’s range. My only guess was that their hideout was made out of mostly changeling resin. As we were nearing the end it seemed like our lead was right. As somepony who’s used transformation spells since colthood, I’ve grown accustomed to the varying spacial perspectives that come with it. It’s not too different from the perspective difference between a filly and adult. As an adult you think that a particular distance doesn’t look all that long, but when you were a colt or filly you probably thought that the same distance was a few times longer than it feels now. The difference between that and transformation spells are that it can occur for varying reasons. But I digress. Upon arriving at the room on the other side of the tunnel, the first thing I noticed was that it was made mostly out of solidified changeling resin, as I guessed, with some metal struts right behind it for extra support. So I decided to smell it before exiting the tunnel, which rewarded me with the faint aroma of window cleaner aside from the obvious dirt smell. I would’ve still come inside their hive if it wasn’t all that clean. I’m no germaphobe. Though I would’ve taken a shower after the visit if it wasn’t. The two changelings changed back to their real bodies, and Act and I changed back to our adult disguises. We then went to the only door in the room, which was one of the typical house variety. There was a single changeling guarding it, wearing the armor that Chryalis’s changelings wore and wielding a metal tipped spear. “Who are these two changelings?" the guard asked as he blocked the door. “They’re not members of our hive, but they don’t mean any harm," the infiltrator said. “They’ve passed the interview.” “Very well," the guard said, and stood aside. The next room looked to be a living room space. Aside from the resin construction it actually seemed to look a lot like a pony’s. Couches, recliners, coffee and dinning tables, lamps, and many other modern furnishings were present. The walls weren’t see-through like the entrance’s, probably for privacy in what I could only assume were the bedrooms and bathrooms behind the room’s many doors. Overall it seemed like a good place to live underground. The infiltrator led us to one of the doors, knocked on it, and the changeling on the other side answered with a mostly flat, “Yeah?” The chitin on his face had several interconnected scar lines, as if it took the brunt of major blunt force trauma. The infiltrator told him, “I need you to come with me to the meeting room.” “Who are those two?" he asked, emitting suspicion towards Act and I. “They’re why we’re having a private meeting.” “Oh, great. More outsiders," he said unenthusiastically. “You know we can’t house many more before we’ll have to expand, right?” “They’re not here to stay. They need something from us. From Ingress.” The scarred one sighed and said, “Alright," and came with us to the next door which opened before we even got close. A short, stout changeling came out and sauntered right up to us. “Oh. Are these two new residents? They look fun!" he said in a mellow but excited manner. “Not really," the infiltrator said. “They want something from Ingress. I’ll need you for their meeting right now.” “Yes, of course! We can pick up our game of Xiangqi later. I’ve already told my opponent that I’m needed.” While heading to the meeting room, our lead told me, “The hideout’s actually a hive for the most part, for changelings that didn't like Chrysalis much. They prefer to just live with other changelings for the most part under similar ideals to Equestrians for their own reasons.” The meeting room was small and had a round table that had six chairs at it. The short changeling was a bit suspicious of Act and I as well, though my sixth sense told me he was just as excited to see us as he appeared to be. Especially because after Act and I took a seat next to each other first, he sat right next to me. The infiltrator then sat next to Act, and the scared one sat next to the infiltrator and our lead. The infiltrator began by reviewing why we were here, then asked for the opinions of both the short and scared changeling. The scared changeling was the first to respond. “What would you do if we denied you access to information about Ingress?” “We’d leave," I began, “then return to infiltrate the place for the information we want. Depending on the results we’d get from Ingress, we may or may not take him back to the hive.” Our lead and who I assumed at this point were the infiltrator’s advisers became confused at that, while the infiltrator was only slightly confused yet thankful. “I appreciate the honesty," the infiltrator said. “But why?” With hope in my eyes, I told them “Because I want to believe that the changeling wants to stay, and I know that you believe it. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here.” “We all have to play with the cards we are given," the infiltrator told me. “You’ve played yours as well as anyling possibly could, but this leaves us with what to do if you end up infiltrating us for Ingress.” “You have any plans for that yet?" the scared one asked. “Yes, but this one," and he gestured to me, “implies that he’s not a changeling or pony in both his words and emotions. For all I know he could be an infiltrator or a Suneighrian demon.” “Then we need to discuss it before we do anything else," said the scared one. The infiltrator agreed and so Act and I were escorted, by the scared changeling, to a nonadjacent room to wait. While in there, Act and I kept to our own thoughts. I didn’t really know how anybody who knows how to pick their advisers does it, so I wasn’t sure if the infiltrator’s choices were normal. As far as I could tell, his advisers almost couldn’t be any more different. What confused me a bit was why he chose them despite that. In fact, I was sure that he chose them because they were opposites. Yet they would always have opposing opinions and suggest opposite actions, and among that kind of chaos he somehow makes his decisions. After about an hour of waiting and my mind wandering to other subjects, the infiltrator returned and led us back to the meeting room. We took the same seats as before, while the small changeling said, “Sorry about it taking so long. Web Head’s always paranoid and constantly neurotic. Unfortunately, whatever is going to happen, will happen.” Web Head retorted with “How can you be so laid back about this?!” “I have faith that this will go over smoothly," the small one said, reclining in his seat. Web Head gave him a deadpan glare, saying “Faith is blind hope.” Wow. He actually said something I agree with. “You shouldn’t worry anyways. It just leads to being neurotic and making unwise choices," the small one said. “Hey!" the infiltrator interrupted. “This meeting isn’t about philosophy!” He sighed and continued with, “Now, who are we going to simulate to get our answers? Keep in mind it’s unlikely that he’s capable of using his infiltration oriented skills very well, if at all.” Some of you may not know it, but ponies have been experimenting for years with how comatose patients respond to certain things. What they’ve discovered is that there is a whole spectrum to how deep a coma can be. Depending on that, they may not have all of their cognitive thinking, or they could have no emotional response to anything. In this case, Ingress had at least instinctual responses in his state. Act asked, “We need the pony to be one that’s close to him, yet doesn’t know he’s a changeling. Does he have a really close pony friend, marefriend, or coltfriend?” “While I do have one in mind, is it worth telling to these two, to any extent, who we’ll be simulating? Or even letting them see the changeling?" the infiltrator said. Web Head answered first with, “No. It'll put the pony in danger and make it far easier for them to take Ingress back to the hive.” “Even though it seems like you two wouldn’t fillynap anypony," the small one said, facing Act and I, “he does have a point. We’d rather not get tangled up in Guard investigations because of that.” “Well that’s that," said the infiltrator. “You two aren’t allowed to know who we simulate, nor see Ingress.” I turned off my detection spell at that, though not being content with how it was going to happen yet, I said, “I have to be there to sense all the emotions in the exchange myself. Can’t have you lying to us if Ingress still likes the hive’s state too much.” Though Web Head obviously didn’t believe me, and not just because he outright said “Changelings can’t sense emotions like that, and it’s not like you can’t have the infiltrator skills to lie to us.” Oh no, he had a skeptical and challenging look on his face as he did this while leaning into the table. For the small changeling’s part, he just said “I’m skeptical about it, myself.” So to prove it to Web Head, I told them “Your infiltrator is a little suspicious and fearful of my friend, the other adviser has barely any fear or suspicion towards my friend, and is in fact interested in him. While you fear, suspect, and have some hate towards him.” This elicited varying degrees of surprise from everyone I didn’t know well, except Web Head. His response was to suspect and fear me more than Act, while he tried to come up with a reason to still prove otherwise. “Infiltration skills can still tell you all that, even when used on other infiltrators.” All I responded with was a smug grin and, “You’ll see.” Web Head was going to say something else, but the infiltrator got out of his seat and cut in with, “Well, looks like we’ve decided on everything, so let’s head to Ingress. You and your friend will wait in a room close to him.” “Can’t I get a room next to Ingress for this?” I asked. “Okay," he said “but only because I want to know if your emotion sense works as you claim it does. We’ll use an interrogation room with you, your buddy, and Web Head on the other side.” “Why me?” Web Head asked, clearly unamused. “Because you’re being too antagonistic again," the small changeling quipped, which irritated Web Head. “He’s not wrong," the infiltrator told him. “Anyways, lets get a move on. I’ve got other matters to attend to, as I’m sure some of the rest of us do as well.” We left the meeting room and entered a hallway from the common area, where the interrogation room was connected. Before Act, Web Head, and I entered, the infiltrator told Web Head, “Let them hear the conversation.” All he responded with was irritation and, “Fine.” I was never in either side of an interrogation room before that, but after Web Head opened the door it appeared to be the viewing side, if the implication a few seconds ago wasn’t enough of a clue. There was a lack of tables, some chairs, a few speakers mounted on the walls, and a one-way mirror. After the three of us entered, Web Head closed the door, turned on the audio system, then stood next to the light switch. It was obvious he expected that we’d try to get a look at the two characters, but at this point his suspicion was starting to get ridiculous so I rolled my eyes at him. After none of us said anything for a while, the infiltrator came to the room to tell Web Head that he could turn on the mics, then left for the other side. Upon Web Head doing this, we heard what was likely some last minute preparation, then silence for several more seconds before hearing a stallion’s voice. “Are you the one who’s supposed to tell me what my coltfriend is feeling?” It sounded like the one to answer him with a simple, “Yes," was the small adviser. After that, I said, “Ingress’s fear spiked and he has some regret, but also hope and love.” The adviser said the same thing to the coltfriend, and he responded with, “I wish we could talk about this at a better time and place… but I have to say something important.” At Ingress’s reaction, I said, “He’s still just as fearful and regretful, but has some hope now.” The adviser said the same thing again, and the stallion told Ingress, “I still love you… even if you are a changeling. I’d say that you have no idea know happy I am to know that you’re willing to do this, but…," and here it sounded like he nervously snorted in amusement. Sensing Ingress’s feelings change, I said, “His fear is falling significantly, and his trust and love are rising moderately while he’s starting to feel acceptance towards him. He’s also humored a bit by the last part.” “I was afraid that our relationship was just an act to you, but allowing me to see you despite the risks of me telling somepony about this hideout proved it otherwise.” I told the same thing as the adviser did. “His love, acceptance, and happiness have gone up a bit more.” “But I don’t know if I can take care of you.” At this, Ingress became sad, and both the adviser and I said so. Though the stallion immediately said, “But I’m going to try," with determination in his voice. I sensed Ingress emitting some guilt but admiration at that. Both the adviser and I said so. “Even if I have to ask a changeling friend or hire one for us to communicate for however long this lasts, I’ll do it. I’m not going to give up, especially because I could be spending more time with you because of it.” “He’s feeling much less guilty, and giving off a little more love," I said as the adviser said the same yet again. “But I have to go now. I love you… and I promise I’ll come back.” I then heard the door on Ingress’s side open and close, which prompted Web Head to turn off the sound system. With a slightly irritated sigh, he said, “Fine. I believe you," then walked out of the room. There was something obviously off about how Web Head reacted to the entire conversation between the two on the other side. Sure, he hated that he was wrong and he was jealous of their relationship, but during the exchange I noticed that he wasn’t just being ridiculous. He was empathetic and protective of the two for some reason. So after a few minutes we headed back to the meeting room while I thought on it. Did he lose somebody he loved? Did he even ever have a relationship? And does his scar have anything to do with it? Maybe he tried to protect them or stay together, but failed. I should ask the infiltrator about it. Maybe he’ll be willing to tell me, if he knows. So before the infiltrator entered the room, I asked him “Can I talk with you for a minute?” “I suppose. Let’s do this in my room," he said, then told everyone that he and I will be back in a few minutes. Entering his room, the first thing I noticed was a large art piece he had hanging over his bed. The artist used the same picture of Chrysalis that the news papers used in their article about the Canterlot attack. It showed her laughing with outstretched hooves amidst the chaos she created. Though that picture was just a base, because everything in the piece was made from only colored words. Some of the biggest words that made up Chrysalis were ego, hate, jealousy, and tyrant, while her changelings were made up of words such as blind, indoctrinated, and oppressed. At the bottom it read “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” The infiltrator also had a large collection of books on poetry and visual art, so I thought that he may have made it himself. “It’s never simple, is it?" the infiltrator said as he closed the door. “You want to know something about Web Head, right?” “Yeah. I noticed that he was jealous but also empathetic of the coup-” But I didn’t have time to finish, as he grabbed me with his forehooves and violently shook me, saying, “Why didn’t you tell me?! I’ve been trying to figure him out for years! What else did you notice?!” “Stop shaking me first," I said, and he did so. “Sorry," he said rubbing the back of his head. “He just somehow knows how to keep himself hidden as well as an infiltrator.” I rose an eyebrow. “Wait, why do you believe me? Did Web Head already prove my ability to you?” At this point the infiltrator was back to his usual composure. “Yeah, even he believes you now. So what else did you notice?” I tapped my chin in thought as I said, “Not much else. I was concentrated on the conversation the entire time but I did notice that, for some reason, he felt regret and guilt. I think whatever happened to him, whatever he experienced, was something he didn’t learn enough from.” “Yes, I remember from the interview, and thank you for telling me. I think this will help me reach out to him more than most, if not all the things I knew about him.” “I’m glad I could help, but I think we should get back to the meeting room.” “Right," he said, as he started for the door with me following behind him. Upon coming back to the room, it looked as though Web Head left. I had an idea as to why, but I didn’t bother asking anybody. The lead wasn’t there because he was told that he didn’t have to stay, and as for the small adviser and Act, they were discussing the outcome of the situation. “So it currently seems that we may have to infiltrate the hive," Act said as we came back in and sat down. “So if you know the name of that changeling that he essentially switched places with, that would really help. The changeling that sent us to Manehattan in the first place said he’d tell us the name, but now that we won’t be taking him in he’s not going to tell us.” The infiltrator opted to say, “Luckily for you two, that’s common knowledge in this small home.” He then grinned. “We even started a betting pool for how long it’ll be until he’s found out! Looks like I may be the winner, too.” “Don’t get your hopes up," the small adviser said with a smirk. “My bet’s not far from yours.” “I’ll just wait and see before I start bragging. I know not to make a fool of myself," the infiltrator said, before turning to Act and I. “Anyways, the name of that foolish changeling is Tricher. But why are you after him?” I put on a serious expression as I told him, “He owes me an explanation for what happened during the Canterlot attack. It turned me into what I now am, and I want to know who’s to blame.” “There’s a lot of ponies living in Canterlot that would appreciate an explanation from their attackers. But going through all this to find your changeling? I really hope it’s actually worth it, for your sake.” I simply responded with, “It is.” ~~~~~~ Once we left their little hive in new disguises, it was pretty late. There were some ponies still out and about in the city, but the streets were mostly empty. So it was a bit surprising that we could catch a late night train ride back to Canterlot. During which, we agreed to take turns watching out for hive infiltrators in case they managed to follow us. Neither of us wanted to be followed by the hive nor abducted.