//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: The Best and Worst Night Ever // Story: The Half of It // by Shapeshift //------------------------------// Once the train arrived in Ponyville, I went right to the Horse-fly Inn and asked which room the half-ling got, then trotted to it and knocked to have the half-ling ask why I had a cast on my foreleg. So as I entered, I told him that it was from taking care of a dishonorable changeling, and he left it at that. After taking the rest of the day to just relax, I went to bed, but my injury was making it difficult and it took a full hour before I got any shuteye. Then I woke up a few hours later in my bed, back at Canterlot, which was familiar in some kind of bazaar way that got me thinking I was in a dream. So I left my apartment to see that my unit wasn’t in the right spot, and that there were two groups of singing ponies, each on a different yet intersecting road. Both of these details were also familiar in the same way, as well as the groups joining together to sing. But after they went for an entire block it all felt off, and a lovely yet familiar voice came from right behind me. “In the waking world we can not always forget things, because of our minute control over our surroundings. Yet in the dreamscape we can not always forget either, as our mind has significant control. Our troubles are-” Yet Luna had no time to finish as being in my real form in her presence gave me a panic attack, which in turn quickly destabilized my dream. Now, there have been times when I was a filly that it took me several hours to fall asleep, but it wasn’t because of typical threats, like being fillynapped. It was odd things and the unknown, like urban legends and ominous predictions. The whole thing was more or less a phase, but having the real possibility of a demigod trying to capture you can make you a spastic mess, even if you're a decently sane adult. Jolting up in bed, I knew that Luna possibly knew that my form in the dream was my real one. If that was the case, knowing that I was specifically known as a non-changeling by the Guard and that both forms are very similar, Luna would be able to put two and two together. Worse still, her attraction to a good challenge would further drive her to find me, and more so if my real form it’s self piqued her interest. In contrast, as I started to sweat, I tried convincing myself that I could still remain hidden from her. She may have thought that the dream gave me that form, in both the one I just had and the one months prior. Though that train of thought stopped as I remembered that a changeling’s disguise can partially fail under excessive emotion. After silently making my way to the bathroom, I took a look in the mirror to realize that my eyes reverted to their real slitted form, while my horn had also changed back to it’s curved and pointy self. Despite this worrying me further, I tried several times to fix it, succeeding after about the eighth try. Feeling more relieved, I took a few seconds to look my disguise over for any other failures. Until my eyes reverted again and I started panicking like I was when I woke up. At this point, there was only one thing I could think of to calm myself with what I had. It was a song that was laid back and reassuring. As I quietly went back to bed, I sang it to myself in my head. It seemed to help a little, but several minutes later I found myself getting up to pace around for a few minutes, despite my injury, then going back to bed. This bed and pacing cycle continued for what felt like several hours, though when I checked the clock, it was only one. And while I stayed quiet when pacing, the half-ling woke up anyways. “What are you doing?” he groggily asked while still under the sheets. While quickly searching my mind for an excuse, I stalled for a few seconds. “I can’t sleep.” “Because?” “Because of my injury.” “So you’re trying to put weight on the injury that’s preventing you from sleeping?” he rhetorically asked in a flat tone. “I don’t need my emotion sense to know that you’re going crazy, but if you’re not going to tell me why, I really don’t care.” As usual, despite what he said, I could sense that he still did care. Though I didn’t continue the conversation and resumed my pacing and bed cycle again, until I finally fell asleep a few hours later. ~~~~~~ Waking up, the first thing I noticed was that I felt pretty refreshed. The second thing being that, oddly enough, it was still nighttime. After pacing around the dark room for a few minutes, I noticed a slightly odd colored light through the room’s thin curtains, so I went to the window to have a look. Opening the curtains, I saw Ponyville as it normally was. No houselights were on, the streets were mostly dark due to the streetlights being few and far between, thatch roof stone wall houses being the prevalent buildings. Though there was a slightly red tint to everything. Taking a look around, I noticed that there was a blood moon. Then I heard the sound of rustling sheets from the half-ling’s bed, so I took a glance to see him with a bloodshot and moderately jaundiced pair of my eyes. “Don’t mess with me right now,” I told him. The imposter responded in my real voice with, “I’m not Dew," though he talked with a leader’s louder and clearer inflection. Turning around to face him, I started my detection spell to realize that he was not the half-ling. His body was exactly the same as my real one and, for some reason, he was wearing a dress suit with no tie. The spell wasn’t even detecting any changeling magic from him. “You don’t have to reveal yourself, you know.” he said, with a shady smile. “You’re metamorphic spell can keep you hidden for a long time. Possibly enough to take revenge on the hive it’s self for invading Canterlot and get away with it for your entire life.” “Who are you?” I demanded. His smile only faded slightly as he explained. “I could be your greatest ally. Or greatest enemy.” Clearly irritated, I said, “Stop being cryptic,” while I noticed a subtle lime green and purple glow, along with an odd dark fog that seemed to stick to him with his every move. The imposter slowly started taking steps towards me as his smile slowly faded. “Why?” he said. “We both enjoy confusing others and giving out punishment. Just think back to what you did with the infiltrator that replaced Blitz.” This stroke a nerve with me. I took him in my magic and bashed him on the wall several times, causing a spiderweb of cracks and pieces of the wall’s outer layer to fall off. Yet after I dropped him to the floor, he still got back up with no visible injuries. The imposter made an irritated look of his own as he slowly came towards me again and said, “I’d think that was proof enough of the latter.” I was starting to get nervous. Something that could survive something like that would be hard to even just incapacitate. “How did you survive that?” His only response was “I think you’ll find it quite hard to wound me,” before he lit his horn. I suddenly felt my own telekinesis spell grab hold of me, and before I could react I was tossed through the window with a sharp sound of shattering glass. I instinctively changed into a chitin-shield of a changeling in mid-air before limply landing on the road with a roll that ended with me lying on my side for only a split second before I got back up. It felt like I only managed to get a shallow crack or two from that, but I didn’t have time to examine that as I was a little distorted from the throw. Not to mention the fact that my imposter shortly landed less than a meter away from me and quickly took me in his magic again to force me down, my back to the ground. He put his face inches from mine, a grin on his face once again. “You can fight all you want, but I know what you seek.” My only reaction was to blast him with a quick fire spell to the face, causing him to let go of me and recoil a few steps back. I was a bit surprised that he even reacted to that, but I still got up while grabbing him in my magic to continuously slam him on the road while I galloped him to a building’s wall. I then proceeded to slam him on that several more times. Unsurprisingly, he still seemed conscious, but thoroughly disoriented. I knew that if I didn’t find one of my imposter’s weakness, I wouldn’t stand a chance, so I fled through the alleyways. Then a thought occurred to me. If he was effectively a copy of me he’d know all my spells, which meant that as long as I was in disguise he could easily find me with my detection spells! I immediately shed my disguise, but it wasn’t enough as my imposter flew up a few dozen meters and yelled, “There he his! This isn’t over yet!” Still running through the alleys, my changeling eyes allowed me to clearly see an earth pony with a shovel in the moonlight. He tried to take a swing at me, but before he even started I tossed him into an intersecting alley with my magic. Right after, I emerged at a road with no streetlights in sight where two unicorns were waiting. Then out of seemingly nowhere somebody bucked me, sending me several meters away. “If he knows where you are, keep your distance you idiots!” one of ponies barked. Getting back up, I changed to my highly armored build again and started my detection spell to see that the pegasus who bucked me isn’t who he appears to be. It was also then that I noticed the same subtle dark glow and black fog on all three of my imposter’s lackeys. My next move was a concussive blast at the unicorn mare, who tried to dodge by rolling but failed, killing her momentum. During that, the stallion unicorn tried to throw a rock at me with his magic while the fake pegasus took to the air. I ended up trying to dodge the rock, but still took a hit in the left foreleg, right before the pegasus slammed me flat into the ground. He then shed his disguise to reveal himself as the imposter, and threw me at a nearby wall like a ragdoll. “Restrain him with your magic! From a distance!” my imposter ordered to the unicorns. Once they took hold of me, I was held up by my forelegs. I tried to break free but I barely made any progress towards the two, while my imposter came up to stand between them. With a small dark smile he told me, “You’ll learn that it won't be so bad. You may leave everyone you know behind, but it will keep you from ever being found. You could give all the punishment you want to anyone you please. Oh, and don’t worry about Frost. He’ll get a good home.” At this, I started charging up another spell, which prompted the stallion to throw another rock at me. Almost dodging it, I was only hit on the ear as I managed to finish the casting and hit the rock throwing pony with an intense fire blast. The others thought fast enough and successfully dodge rolled out of the way, during which their magic hold on me let go, letting me fall back on all fours. As soon as the blast was gone, it appeared that the rock thrower was completely gone, while the unicorn mare took a hold of my foreleg with her magic. Though her alone wasn’t enough, as I took a stronger and slightly less armored changeling form for reasonable resistance. Then, noticing my imposter coming in from the right of me, I shot a more focused fire blast at him, to which he reacted with a foreleg over his eyes. Taking a quick look at the unicorn mare, I noticed that her black mist had considerably diminished. Quickly thinking that their weakness might not be the fire it’s self, but the light from it, I cast an exceptionally bright light spell. This dispelled the mist from the mare after only a few seconds, while it looked as though it was slowly doing the same to my imposter while he shielded his eyes and galloped for cover. Letting the mare run off in fear, I focused the light spell and went after my imposter, who jumped through a shop window, shattering it. Sure of an impending victory, I myself jumped in. While following the detection spell’s silhouette of the imposter, it looked like he was moving things around in the back room as I was approaching it. Upon entering it, I was met with a reflection of my own light, momentarily blinding me. The next thing I knew, I was hit with something. It didn’t feel like a concussive blast, though it did cause my muscles to stop responding, resulting in me falling to the floor. A short few seconds after, my imposter started dragging me somewhere, saying, “In the end, it's never just the light you need," before he stopped for a second to hit me on the head, causing me to go unconscious. ~~~~~~ When I awoke, I felt the pain of my injuries again, and it seemed as though I had very little sleep. As I hadn’t opened my eyes yet, I was wondering why it felt like I was in a bed again, until I realized that the fight was just a dream. “Awake yet?” the mare next to me in bed asked. It took me no time at all to realize that I did not take a mare to bed with me last night. And that the voice was Twilight Sparkle’s. SHE FOUND ME OUT! Screaming like a little filly, I jumped out of bed and galloped right out of the hotel as the ponies I passed watched in confusion. As I ran away from said building, several ponies in town noticed the terrified look on my face, but nobody stopped me. Despite my wounds, I didn’t slow down until I entered the Everfree, where I continued at a jogging pace, keeping an eye out for a good place to hide. I could swear I was about a half mile in before I decided I got enough distance from Twilight. It was then I started looking for a hiding spot, which ended up being a dug out space under a tree’s trunk. As I spent an hour or so in it, I started wondering if I was still dreaming, but I eventually doubted it and calmed down enough to come back out of my hole. I still couldn’t explain how or why Twilight of all ponies ended up in my bed in the morning, let alone why she was so casual about it. So I stayed in the Everfree, keeping an eye out for any princesses. Two hours later, the half-ling shows up on hoof, and finds me with a confused look on his face, emitting concern. Highly suspicious, I asked, “How did you know I was out here?” He just shrugged. “Probably a lucky guess.” So I started my detection spell to check if it really was him and not one of the princesses in disguise. Judging from the magic trail, it was him. “Why did you run from me while I was in Twilight’s form?” the half-ling asked, unamused. “You said before that you wanted to date her.” I gave him an angry and stern look, which he responded to with some guilt as I told him, “It’s none of your business. Why and how did you change into her?” He looked like he was having trouble looking at me as he said, “I was only trying to help… Your nerves were awfully frayed last night, so I used your Princess Twilight disguise spell to have you wake up to a nice view.” I angrily sighed. “Do not do that,” I said, as I started my way back to town. I knew it was a bad idea to keep that spell. I’m burning it as soon as I can. The half-ling followed me back to town, at which point he continued back to the hotel. Feeling tired and paranoid still, I went to pick up some coffee while I kept an eye out for any of the princesses. By the time I came back to the hotel, I had finished my coffee and decided that I was still too tired to hunt for ingredients in the Everfree. What I ended up doing instead, despite what just happened, was finally starting on a fix for the half-ling’s shape-shifting. I specifically aimed to stay awake until I usually went to bed, as I was too frightened of risking extra chances for Luna finding me undisguised in my dreams again, or any of the princesses finding me in the waking world. I say ‘aimed to stay awake’ because by sunset I got tired of being so paranoid. I thought that having a benevolent demigod probably trying to find me was worse than having the enemies I’ve made find me. So I decided on revealing myself in Ponyville first, then Canterlot, seeing as ponies in Ponyville have gotten pretty used to changelings. About an hour later, the half-ling came up to me and said, “You know, you could at least fix my shape-shifting," with a slightly annoyed tone. But instead of telling him that that’s what I was doing, I told him, “I’ve got a better idea,” with a cocky and slightly crazy looking smirk. “I don’t like that grin,” the half-ling said with a bit of fright. I responded by grabbing his hoof and dragging him out of the hotel, despite my injuries and fatigue. As we came out of the hotel, he nervously asked, “What are we doing? Where are we going?” I only said, “You’ll see.” A minute later, the half-ling asked “Does this have anything to do with this morning?” but I didn’t answer to that. Upon being close to the center of town, I stopped and the halfing asked, “What are we doing here?” Yet again, I didn’t answer. Instead I cast an anesthetic spell, sighed, took a deep breath, and started singing. It was a song about being lonely, scarred, and depressed, but being all of it together. About bearing it all, together, to help each other. I quickly attracted a drummer, who played to my singing first. I then started marching down the road, and once I was only a few lines into the song, an entire band started playing behind me! I looked behind me with shock at the turnout of several ponies, some changelings, and some disguised ones as well! As I continued my song, the half-ling was marching along cautiously and seemed to be thinking about the song. A bit later into it, the half-ling suddenly noticed a green flash beside him. I let my disguise go. And absolutely everyone following me stopped what they were doing. Then the most muscular pony I’ve ever seen burst though the crowd following me to yell, “YEEEEAH!” to which everyone started playing again. Soon after, I purposefully passed by Sky’s house and coaxed at least one changeling to come out and join! A few changelings were even coaxed enough by the song into letting their disguises go and carrying me! By the time I reached town hall, I literally pulled in ponies who were down on their luck, I climbed on top of the statue near town hall, started swinging around on the hall’s support beams, then had the absurdly muscular pony throw me to the top of it right before the end. All in all, it felt fantastic, even if I only managed to get the half-ling to happily sing along with everyone. Once I flew down from town hall and got rid of the wings and fake voice, many ponies were conversing with the newly open changelings, while some came up to me, the mayor among them. “Please don’t climb on the historical landmarks! They’re irreplaceable!” she told me. Looking slightly embarrassed, I said, “Sorry, I uh… was caught up in the moment,” with an awkward smile, to which she gave me a stare that was an odd mix of exasperation and confusion. “It’s my real voice, and I’m not a changeling king. Those don’t exist.” “Just remember what I told you,” was all she irately said, right before she trotted off, leaving others to talk with me. “Was your voice always that deep?” one mare asked. “Yeah, but the whole thing about it sounding like two talking at once is new,” I sheepishly said. A stallion asked, “How did you end up like that?” “It was an accident during the changeling invasion of Canterlot. I don’t know any details.” “Were you the one that mysteriously dropped off the evil changeling at Canterlot Castle months ago?!” another mare excitedly asked. “Yeah. Why?” “Want to go get something to eat with me some time? Maybe at a place as exotic as you?” she asked, sidling up next to me and rubbing my chest. Stiffening up a little, I told her “I… I don’t think so,” without looking at her. The stallion she was with rolled his eyes. “Way to be subtle, sis.” While she gave him a glare, I separated from her grasp, then another mare asked, “Do you live in town? I almost haven’t seen you around here at all.” “I live in Canterlot.” A changeling asked, “What magic can you do?” “I can do both species’ magic,” I said, as I noticed which pony had a changeling themed parade float. The only pony I knew of that would possibly have something like that. Pinkie Pie. I probably passed Sugar Cube Corner, but I didn’t think I passed by any of the other Element’s houses. Yet she would’ve told them about it, so I guessed that the others were still in Canterlot. The half-ling then came up to me, still in disguise, to casually say, “I’m going back to the hotel.” Externally, he looked just fine, but I sensed his sadness, confusion, and some frustration as he started his way back. I concluded that he needed to think about what just happened, while some of the mares expressed disappointment that I seemed to have a marefriend already. Then somebody poked me on the shoulder, so I turned around to see another mare who asked me, “What’s wrong?” “I… It’ll eventually be sorted out,” I said as I shrugged. “Oh,” she said. “Well, my name’s News Flash and I’m with the Cloudsdale Cumulus. Can we do an interview?” I casually told the pegasus, “Seeing as you’re not a disguised changeling, sure.” Her amount of confusion at the response was just a bit odd, but her nervousness was much more so. “Can we do it tonight?” she asked. “Actually, I’m pretty tired. Can we do this in the morning?” “That’s fine. Does ten sound good?” “Yeah, that will work for me,” I said, wanting to get it done a little early to leave time for ingredient harvesting. “Alright, I’ll-” but before she could finish, Pinkie somehow pounced me from out of nowhere. “Oh my gosh! I knew it was you! You were the changeling all along!” Everybody gave Pinkie a confused look for just a second or two, while I asked, “Wait, what?” Still standing over me, she explained. “Twilight mentioned that you were going to the library during your stays and that you always read books on transformation magic. She also mentioned your green eyes and thought that you might have been a changeling until she remembered you did unicorn magic and that your magic color was a pale green. But even if the Guard was convinced, I wasn’t! Every time you came to town, my Pinkie Sense went off.” Imitating the pattern, she said “Teeth clattering, eyes dilating, wobbly back hooves, and an itchy nose. It was saying to make a parade float, which meant that you weren’t evil, so I went with it and gave it the theme it obviously needed!” Pinkie then picked me up and gave me a hug, saying, “I’m so so so happy that you finally let your fear go!” Putting her muzzle a little close to my ear, she whispered, “You don’t have to have a party if you don’t want to. I remember the last time I did that for an infiltrator.” At the moment I ignored what she might have been implying and continued hugging her back. Until she whispered, “It’s getting a little awkward for everypony else now,” at which point I let go. She giggled and smiled as she said, “It’s nice to meet the real you,” then bounced off humming the song from the parade. Turning back to News Flash, she hoofed me a small paper and left after saying, “Here’s the address to the hotel I’m staying at. I’ll see you there!” I was still just as happy as Pinkie was after conversing a little more with the locals and arriving back at the hotel. Though, despite the half-ling saying he’d be there, he wasn’t, so for once I was a little worried for him. About two hours passed before the half-ling came back feeling much better. He seemed to have some kind of interest in me, though his apprehension was preventing him from asking about it. About an hour before midnight we both went to bed, then after several minutes the half-ling said, “Shape? Are you awake?” Without opening my eyes, I said, “Yeah. You want to know something about me?” “No, I was actually… I’m wondering what it is about ponies that make them want to help changelings,” the half-ling asked. I thought on this for a minute before replying. “Ponies don't take emotional energy as food, but it doesn't mean that, after a pony helps a changeling, the pony doesn't appreciate seeing the positive energy of the changeling being manifested into actions that the emotion drives them to do. It takes far more to put emotions into meaningful action than just emitting it… and it makes the pony feel a lot more like the changeling cares for them, so ponies try to keep ponies and changelings they know happy.” While I was talking, then thinking of what exactly to say next, I heard the distinct sound of a pencil lightly writing on a clipboard. Continuing on, I said, “There's a physical and vocal layer to pony communication, and that is only what ponies can notice, while changelings also have a purely emotional layer that ponies can't feel or see at all. So if changelings that genuinely care about somebody act on their positive emotions towards said somebody, then it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship because the changeling gets fed for doing nice things for the pony. It also helps the changeling feel better emotionally, just like ponies.” After a few seconds, I asked, “Are you writing this down?” “No!” the half-ling denied, while he made rustling noises with the bed sheets. “Well, why did you want to know?” I asked. “Before I got back to the hotel this changeling came up to me, knowing that I was a changeling as well. He told me that, not too long ago, he was left in the Everfree without any food at all. He was highly distrusting of ponies, but he needed serious medical attention and food, so he came out to Ponyville. When somepony saw him, they rushed him to the hospital where they tried to help him as best they could, but he kept refusing it, even right before he passed out.” “They could have done anything they wanted to him, but instead they bandaged him up while another changeling who worked there fed him. When he woke up, the other changeling was in the room watching over him. He managed to gain his trust, and not long after the other changeling brought him to his home, he convinced him to trust ponies. There’s more to his story and he told me what he learned from it all, but I just feel like I’m still missing something about living with ponies.” I only managed to say, “Oh,” as I realized which changeling it was. I had no idea how the broken infiltrator would’ve reacted if he met me, knowing who I really was. I just hopped that he wouldn’t explode in my face. ~~~~~~ Waking up early the next day with a better night’s sleep by several hours, I did my morning routine and started over to News Flash’s hotel room with my detection spell active. Many ponies that joined me last night didn’t pay me any mind and some greeted me in passing, while others that didn’t know what happened last night gave me a confused look. Only a few ponies, such as one with a lily in her mane, ran off in terror. At that moment, I finally knew what Frost might have felt when ponies fled from just the sight of him. When I got to the reporter’s hotel, I realized that she didn’t give me the room number, so I approached the stallion who looked like he was doing paperwork at the front desk. “Excuse me.” The stallion flinched and looked up while saying, “Gah! Don’t-," at which point he recognized me from last night. “Sorry,” I said, while rubbing the back of my head. “I tend to sneak up on ponies by accident a lot.” He deadpanned at that. “Somehow I’m not surprised. So what do you need?” “I was told to come here by News Flash. Do you know which room she’s saying in?” He turned to some papers and looked though them for a few seconds. “Ah, she’s in room seven, second floor.” “Alright, thanks!” Before even arriving at the door, I noticed a changeling in News Flash’s room that looked as though he might have been impersonating her. I acted as usual when I got to the door and knocked, getting the disguised changeling. “Hey! Come in and take a seat!” she said, stepping aside and gesturing to the only two seats in the room, which were facing each other. Accepting the invitation, I sat down at one and she followed suit, taking a pen and clipboard from a nearby table. “So, what kind of spells can you cast?” was her first question. “I can cast magic from both species, and I’m highly proficient in the shape-shifting aspect of both. It’s my main talent.” “Interesting,” she said. “Were you always a hybrid?” I responded with, “No, I got this way from an accident with my experimental potion during the Canterlot invasion. I don’t really remember it.” “Memory loss… sorry to hear that.” she said with a sympathetic face. “But let’s continue. What was it like living under your disguise in Equestria?” “I was really worried and didn't go outside as much as I usually do at first, but I figured out how easy it was to remain hidden. I also didn't want to tell most of my friends until a few days ago. “How did that go? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.” Looking away for a second, I turned back to her with a slight frown. “It was… complicated. I did some things and they got in the crossfire, so I don’t really know how they feel about the change. Can we move on to something else?” “It’s fine,“ she said. “We can move on to something a bit different. What made you decide to let everypony know what you really are, and why in Ponyville first?” “Well, it was more than one thing. The first was that I didn't want to lie about what I was. The second was that, despite being almost undiscoverable by even the most… meticulous, synchronized, and discrete sweep of Canterlot, I was afraid that someone would somehow find out and have indisputable evidence.” Here, I smiled. “Also, my neighbor was trying to do this exact thing but failed miserably every time.” She smiled as well and told me, “That sounds entertaining.” “Yeah, it was.” Getting back on track, News Flash said “Anyways, how hard was it to keep that secret hidden?” After humming in thought with a slight grin, I told her, “Considering how well my changeling disguise can hold up to any series of dispels, it was nearly a trot in the park. The only problem I could have was if one of the Equestrian changelings sensed key emotions that give away the fact that I was secretly someone else. I would've especially hated it if it was one of the infiltrators or the changeling in the Royal Guard.” “A bold claim to make for your shape-shifting,” she said in thought. “But are you better at changeling or pony magic?” I took a few seconds, but decided on saying “I’m not sure. That’s too broad of a question.” “Alright, how about the just the transformation magic?” I gave a small smirk. “It’s clearly easier for me to use the changeling magic for that. It’s got a really low difficulty curve for me, and I can force a much faster transformation process.” “That sounds useful for infiltration... which leads me to my next question. Did anyone train you in infiltration?” “Yeah," I said. “But the changeling wants to remain anonymous about that.” “That’s fine, but may I ask how you used it?” I gave her a full on smirk while telling her, “Well, I was naturally good at blending in to begin with, so I used that for the most part. There was actually a pony in my class back in my later school years that completely forgot I was in his class because I was so quiet.” News Flash giggled a bit at that. “Anyways, I’ve done a lot with it. Many things you’d expect from an infiltrator under Equestria’s spymaster, and a few other things to mess with the hive.” “You worked for the spymaster?” she said with skepticism. My smirk disappeared. “No no. I did my own thing.” “Oh,” she said, a bit disappointed. “Well, as a hybrid, how much easier is infiltration?“ I started smirking a bit again as I said, “With the magic of both species it generally makes it twice as easy, if not more.” As News Flash leaned forward in her seat a bit, she asked, “Can you tell me what methods you use to uncover changelings?” “I’m only willing to tell you the traditional infiltrator methods, while my own are secrets that should remain a mystery for the changelings with bad intentions.” Here I gave my biggest smirk. “Speaking of, it’s very smart that the real News Flash is getting a changeling to conduct the interview.” To the changeling’s credit, he didn’t let any giveaways slip though that changelings could see. “I think you’re mistaken,” he said with a confused look. “You can plainly see and write about the interviewed subject's emotions towards you, and when they're lying. I never been wrong when I’m sure, and I’m absolutely sure about you.” Still giving the confused look, he said, “Then how do you think I am?” I then stood up, went to the bathroom, and faced the bathtub, which had it’s shower curtain closed. “Your ruse is over. Or rather, I knew it all through most of the interview.” The real News Flash opened the curtain and came out with a notepad looking a little embarrassed, while the changeling shed his disguise and came into the bathroom with a deadpan look, saying, “I told you your idea was bad from the beginning.” With my smirk still going, I told the two “I can sense emotions towards others far better than any changeling.” Turning to the changeling, I asked, “Were you a hive infiltrator? You seem to have the skills.” “Yes, I was.” the changeling said. “Now, are we going to finish the interview?” I replied with a simple, “Yes," and we went back to our seats while News Flash sat on one of the beds, ready to take notes of her own. The infiltrator opened his notebook to read the next question. “So, how worried are you about the changelings that may want revenge on you and why?” “I’m only a little worried, because I’ve probably done little in the way of anything that would be a major motivation for revenge. I’ve also been working on something to further prevent that from happening, but I won't give any details because it would… ruin the surprise.” This elicited a slightly questioning look from the infiltrator, but he continued. “Out of the ponies saved from abduction by the hive, how many did you save?” I considered the most important aspects of it before saying, “I’d say about fifty to eighty percent. There are no publicly released numbers on these events. The only other thing I know is that there were others that had acted on their suspicions and were lucky enough to be right.” The infiltrator looked surprised, which lead to News Flash being surprised as well. But not just at me. My only guess was that it had to do with the first article that The Horse's Mouth put out after the first two instances. Putting a neutral face back on, the infiltrator said “What do you think changelings would be best at, other than infiltration?” Seeing as I thought of that a few times before, I immediately said, “They'd be fantastic as psychologists, interviewers, and saleslings because they can read your emotions towards them and in general, like an open filly's book.” “I’m guessing that’s one of the reasons you didn’t attack me as soon as I answered the door,” the infiltrator said while he finished writing my answer down. “Anyways, what drawbacks do you know of for changeling integration?” “Crimes will be harder to figure out because of shape shifting being basically natural to changelings. Though ponies have been known to paint themselves to accurately look like another pony or one that doesn't exist at all, effectively doing almost the same thing. So it won't be too much harder than it already has been to prove the use of known disguise techniques.” The infiltrator then said, “You’re oddly sure of that.” I raised an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve familiarized myself with changeling shape-shifting in every way you can think of.” I sensed the infiltrator getting a bit nervous at the implications, but his face didn’t change. “I guess. So would you like to say anything else about changeling integration?” I took a few seconds to collect my thoughts before saying, “Despite the drawbacks, the fact that changelings will benefit ponies in emotional ways never before seen will be worth it. The understanding of emotion in general will even improve in leaps and bounds, like with the understanding of how deep of a coma it takes to shut off emotions that show character from highly sentient beings.” At the last half of my final sentence, the reporter suddenly became optimistic. “Hold on a second,” she said. “Does that mean changelings can communicate with comatose patients?” I turned my head to her wide eyes. “Yes, I’ve seen it myself.” “One of my friends has a relative that went into a comma after a construction accident. I have to send a letter right away!” With that, she practically bolted to the door and left, leaving it open. “Well,” the infiltrator said “that was the last question anyways. You can leave now… unless you have any good infiltration stories you’d be willing to tell.” I gave another sly smirk, then remembered that my two best ones weren’t really something I’d want to share yet. So I put on a thoughtful look, and eventually started with the time I dive-bombed three infiltrators after Twilight’s coronation. At first he liked the story a lot, but when I reached the part where I had the two ‘lings tied up, he didn’t believe me. “As if you’re that good with convincing someling to reconsider the truth,” he told me. “You’re right, I’m not.” “Then-,” he started, as though he had a retort. “Wait, what?” My smirk returned. “They were in Canterlot right before I came for them. It was right in their faces the entire time!” The infiltrator crossed his forelegs “I still don’t believe it.” I tapped my chin in thought, then smirked again. “Are you familiar with the phrase ‘You are running on empty, running blind’ or ‘You are slaves to the pink gold and your queen’?” Recognition flashed in his eyes as I said the first phrase, while the second made it obvious. “Chittri thought it was you! Queen Chrysalis didn’t want those messages or your talks with the infiltrators spreading, so she only allowed the infiltrators to discuss them in the hopes of using the resulting psychological profile to find you.” “I just searched for quotes on truth that made sense to me and figured out which quotes… could lead into another, creating a guide or framework for finding truth. Is she really that afraid of it?” “Yes,” the infiltrator said. “Chittri believed you practically created your own art of truth seeking. Chrysalis considered calling it the Exposed Framework at one point, because it could help expose any lies, including your disguise. The only problem we had after establishing that was getting close to you without suspicion, and even then you didn’t say much to give us reason to believe it was you. Also, whatever trick you used to at least look like you got past those checkpoints at Canterlot Castle severely confused us.” “And that’s why I’m not planning on being an infiltrator anymore,” I told him. “I’m better at being a counter-infiltrator or assassin, though I’ll stick with the former.” “Sounds like a good idea, but I want to hear the rest of your story.” So after I finished my story, he told me a story of his own, then I left to go back to the hotel to gather my harvesting tools then enter the Everfree. In a few days of harvesting I had enough, and the half-ling and I left Ponyville in the morning by train to go back home.