Sweet Leaf awoke to the sound of Fine Roast’s alarm. She groggily pulled the covers up over her head. Her brain insisted the comforter would make the irritating noise disappear.
She hadn’t slept well the past few nights, but last night was quite nearly sleepless. Because Hoofington was nearly half a day’s train ride away from Canterlot, there would likely be no news until at least a day or two after the wedding.
“Come on, sweetheart.” She heard a voice yawn from beyond the veil. “We've got a coffee shop to run.”
The sleep-disturbing noises earned a well-intoned grunt followed by a rumbling grumble from beneath the sheets.
“Yeah yeah, sleeping beauty, I’ll be in the shower,” the voice said again. “Try not to hit the snooze button too many times.”
Pony life had made her soft. Back in the hive, she’d have far more work and little sleep or love as a reward. She idly wondered how that might change in the coming days, weeks, or months. Sweet sleepily fantasized as one is known to do when ignoring their alarm in favor of just five more minutes.
That annoying, irritating, want-to-throw-it-against-the-wall-and-blast-it-with-magic buzzing noise interrupted her almost-dream once again. The tired Sweet Leaf begrudgingly pulled the covers off her head, exposing herself to the cold bedroom air. She rolled over to Roast’s side of the bed, eyes still closed, and gave the alarm a swift smack. A flipped switch later and it was turned off for good. As much as she hated it right then, she needed to get up and check the morning paper, preferably before Roast got to it. If something were to happen, she wanted to be the first of the two to know.
She sat up out of bed and hung her legs over the edge. The covers slipped off her disheveled coat and she barely squinted her eyes open. She looked at her bedside clock and saw it was only a few minutes after five in the morning. The papercolt would be delivering the Hoofington Herald to their shop in about ten minutes. Sweet Leaf closed her eyes again and took a long, deep breath. A long, grumpy groan accompanied her attempt to convince herself that getting up really was the better option.
Sliding off the bed and onto all fours, she began towards the kitchen. She heard the shower in the master bathroom turn on and a frown crossed her face. He had a tendency to spend an extra-long time in the shower, often leaving no hot water left. She’d asked him why, but all she got was a non-committal grunt and something about the hot water feeling too good. Just a thing to live with, Sweet Leaf convinced herself. Everyone had their quirks. One of his happened to be giving her cold showers.
She snorted and put it behind her as she did every morning.
Sweet Leaf went through the motions of using their espresso machine, more akin to a zombie than a pony. A thirty-five second brew, some water, and a little cream, and she sat down at the table with her Equestriano in hoof.
As she took a sip, she couldn’t help but find herself amused. Despite living in a coffee shop with a professional espresso machine, both in the shop and in their own personal kitchen, nearly none of Roast’s mornings consisted of coffee. She still had no idea how he could live in a coffee shop and not be a caffeine addict. For Sweet Leaf on the other hoof, coffee was a necessity to get started. She quite didn’t use to be this way and wasn’t sure how that interacted with her changeling biology. Nonetheless, she’d developed a craving for the dark drink in the years she’d been with Roast.
She jumped at A loud pop. Sweet whipped her head over before she realized she’d also put bread in the toaster. With a small huff and a glare, she retrieved the toast, buttered it, and set it on the table next to her espresso.
Her ears perked at a quiet slapping sound out the front window. Sweet Leaf’s eyes went wide and her heart leapt into her throat. The arrival of the paper worked better than a triple shot espresso.
Dread washed across her chest at what she may or may not find. She headed downstairs, unlocked the cafe’s back door, and stepped outside. Spotting the newspaper a few strides away, she walked over and picked it up in her hoof. She turned and went back inside. Back upstairs at the table, she set the paper next to her toast. She sat down and closed her eyes, then took a deep, calming breath. Being all out of sorts in front of Roast would not be good.
Heart still racing, she managed to keep tremors out of her forelegs as she reached out and untied the string around the paper. She checked the front page and read the headline.
PRINCESS MI AMORE CADENZA CASTIGATES WEDDING STAFF
The title earned a raised eyebrow. She read the story and realized it was news from Saturday, the day before the wedding. Apparently her queen had gotten a little testy with many of the workers and the hastily chosen organizers. Sweet Leaf found it interesting that they were printing two-day-old news on the day after the wedding. She guessed the reports must have been late getting out from Canterlot.
She breathed a sigh of relief that at least nothing bad happened the day before the wedding.
Sweet Leaf thought back to the previous day. She’d spent a good portion of the time with the other collectors, huddled around in Skitter’s living room as they gossiped about the wedding and traded stories.
Spindle had made the claim that there was no way news was going to get from Canterlot to Hoofington and off the presses by the morning paper. Sweet Leaf supposed she was right. Tarsus made his statement that if everything had gone as planned, there wouldn’t be any interesting news to read. That was the consensus of all changelings present that no news was good news. He was right, but it didn’t help the knot in her gut.
Sweet Leaf sipped her coffee, ate her toast, and read through some of the newspaper’s articles. Once she was finished reading, she folded up the paper and put it on the table next to Fine Roast’s chair. He always liked to stay up to date on the current times. It certainly made it easier to make small talk with customers.
As she popped the last bit of toast in her mouth, the bathroom door opened. Sweet made sure to put on a bleary look before Roast trotted down the hallway.
“Hey, sweet cheeks,” he said. She heard him clopping up to her and offering a quick kiss.
Sweet Leaf met him halfway and tried to behave as she normally did in the mornings. Her half-lidded gaze ended up making her kiss his snout instead.
“I guess that works,” he chuckled, trotting off to the fridge. “I love you in the morning.”
“Hey!” she sleepily exclaimed. “Get back here!”
Roast pulled out a bottle of orange juice and some milk, then turned back to the table. “Think you can aim this time, babe?”
Her hooves grabbed his face and she smooched him hard. She harrumphed and playfully pushed his face away. “Jerk.”
The cream colored stallion chuckled again and set the milk and orange juice on the table. He pulled open a cupboard and pulled down some cereal. “If that’s what I get when I’m a jerk, maybe I should be one more often.”
“Yeah, see how much you’re going to get in bed if you keep that up,” she teased.
Silence filled the room as Sweet Leaf sipped on her Equestriano and Fine Roast poured his cereal and looked at the morning paper.
She idly wondered, once again, what life was going to be like after changelings took over Equestria. Would ponies be slaves, forced to love changelings forever? Perhaps they’d all be put in cocoons and have their love drained while dreaming happy dreams. Or maybe the changelings and ponies could form happy, blissful friendships and never want for anything again.
She snorted, In a fairy tale maybe.
“Something funny, dear?” Roast asked.
“Hm?” Sweet looked over at him. “Oh. Just saw that front page article.”
“Mhm.” He flipped the paper around to see the front again. “I suppose being the bride of a royal wedding must be pretty stressful. Though most weddings are, royal or not. Ours wasn’t anything of the sort.”
Sweet Leaf shook her head“No, it wasn’t. To be fair, ours was pretty small and we weren’t rushed at all. I imagine they had this scheduled a long while ago, but couldn’t really begin full preparations until they announced it four days ago. There’s no way that wouldn’t be stressful.”
“You’re right, I can’t imagine doing that.” Roast set the paper down and drank the remnants of his milk. “I’m pretty sure that would have driven me insane.”
“You and me both,” she said with a yawn and a stretch before scooting out of her seat. “Well, I think I’m heading off to the bathroom to get ready for the day.”
“And maybe,” she mumbled as she walked down the hallway, “there’ll be some hot water left…”
The clamor of half a dozen conversations and cups clinking slowly began to fade from the cafe as the lunch rush neared its end. Sweet Leaf had elected to run the counter for the morning while Fine Roast made the drinks. Mondays were always particularly busy with ponies needing caffeine to help their bodies recover from the weekend of sleeping in.
“Thank you for your order.” Sweet Leaf finished writing the customer’s drink on their cup. “We’ll have it at the serving counter shortly.”
Her husband was loading another portafilter as Sweet walked over and the empty cup next to two others. “Here you go, hun. Looks like that’s the last of the rush.”
“Thanks, Sweet,” he smiled and went back to filling the order.
With the line finished, she decided to take a quick trip around the cafe. She brought a rag and began to collect used cups and wipe down tables. After making a few trips with no new customers, she decided she’d have time to go outside to clean the tables there.
“Honey? I’ll be outside for a minute,” Sweet called and received an affirmative response.
As she walked out the front entrance she saw there were no customers. Though, because of the lunch rush, it was likely because all of the tables were used and hadn’t been cleaned off yet. She went to work, gathering cups and discarding any waste.
As she was cleaning the last table, she saw a familiar light blue unicorn coming into the shop’s patio. The mare seemed nearly out of breath.
“Bobby Pin? Are you alright?” she asked her disguised friend, concern rushing through her.
“Oh thank goodness, Sweet Leaf. I made my way over as fast as I could.”
Sweet Leaf noticed that her fellow collector had a newspaper in her magic beside her. “Really, Bobby? The news from this morning is hardly anything to rush about.”
“Oh no. This isn’t from this morning. This just came off the press.”
“A midday news story?” she asked, her heart rate rising. “That’s only if something big happened. Bobby, tell me it didn’t…”
Bobby Pin simply nodded her head.
Sweet Leaf extended a wing forward and Bobby Pin floated the paper over. Grasping it with her primary feathers, she held it in front and read the top news article.
Her heart dropped into her stomach. “Oh my stars…”
CANTERLOT INVASION!
MYSTERIOUS CREATURES ATTEMPTED ROYAL WEDDING SABOTAGE
A picture of undisguised changelings below was all she needed to see. The rest of the story told her in excruciating detail exactly how much every changeling’s worst nightmare had just come true. Her queen had been discovered, the army had invaded, and they’d been summarily cast out of Canterlot.
“W-what… what do we do now?” Bobby Pin asked, her eyes wide as she fidgeted in place.
Firefly took a deep breath. She had to be the strong one here. They were both still in disguise, they were both undiscovered. If things went right, none of the collectors here would be found.
The disguised changeling in front of her had only been a collector for a few months, straight out of training before that. She was barely out of nymph-hood. Bobby Pin was smart, but those smarts barely extended beyond the book.
“We do exactly what we’ve already been doing,” Sweet Leaf said as she looked directly into the unicorn’s eyes. “Nothing has changed unless you hear otherwise. Do you understand?”
The panicked mare closed her eyes, visibly steeling herself. A few breaths and she opened her eyes again. “Yes. I understand.”
“Good. Now, as a good friend, you’ve come to tell me the troubling news that just struck our nation. You’ve generously given me the newspaper. We’re going to hug, then you’re going to go back to what you were doing before you saw the news,” Sweet Leaf said. She extended her hoof and she felt the other mare come into her embrace, a bit too hard for to call it an act. Sweet held her friend for a long moment before Bobby Pin pulled away.
“Okay. Okay. I think I’m good. I can do this,” the unicorn said to herself.
“Darn right you can. Now get back out there. You’ve got a life to live.”
“Thank you, Sweet Leaf.” Bobby Pin nodded and turned to leave the cafe.
Sweet Leaf tucked the newspaper under her wing. Once she’d finished her cleaning duties outside, she headed back into the cafe proper and towards the kitchen.
“Hey, honey, is everything alright with you and Bobby Pin?” Roast asked quietly before she passed through the archway.
She stopped for a moment. “Do you have a minute?”
“Sure. Let me get this last drink done and I’ll be in there.”
As she waited, she placed the outside’s dirty mugs into the sink and trash was put into the kitchen’s waste bin. The best thing to do was to tell Roast about this now. Regardless of her actual relation to those on the front page, there was no way a good wife would keep this kind of news from her husband.
And Sweet Leaf considered herself an excellent wife.
“Alright, that’s the last one for now. What’s wrong?” Roast asked, walking into the kitchen.
She simply gave him the newspaper. “Take a look.”
He raised an eyebrow and began reading. His eyes widened and head pulled back as his eyes scanned and rescanned the paper. “Oh, Celestia.”
She let him continue reading as she began to wash some of the mugs, setting them out to dry. Various states of shock and fear ran through her husband and she hated feeling them vicariously. The feelings always made her anxious, as if her time was coming at any moment. More than once had he been in such moods, but they always made it through.
Firefly desperately hoped they’d make it through this one, too.
Both of them were interrupted as the entrance bell jingled. Sweet Leaf glanced through the archway and saw a new customer walk up to the counter.
“We’ll talk about this later, okay, Sweet?” Fine Roast set the paper aside.
“Of course. We have customers to tend to.” Sweet Leaf put on a worried smile. She didn’t like how easy it came.
The news caused a boom in after-lunch cafe-goers as a great many ponies wanted to talk, chat, and gossip over the ‘ugly,’ ‘creepy,’ or ‘disgusting’ impostors that had nearly taken their capital. It was great for business, but the work hardly kept Firefly’s mind off other subjects. Soon after the release of the local newspaper, other sources began reporting, adding even more details and speculation into the already enormous mess of gossip.
The number of customers eventually slowed to a trickle. At six in the afternoon, Fine Roast only had to shoo two chatty mares out of the cafe for closing time.
After such a busy day, both owners were exhausted and silently began their cleanup routine. As Sweet Leaf began wiping down tables inside, she could feel a stew-like stream of emotions emanating from her husband. She found it odd that the most prominent was fatigue. He would need a good wife tonight, and she would happily fill the role of. She imagined he would need as much comfort for himself as he’d give to her.
Her being Sweet Leaf that was.
Despite the horrible news and revelation, there was one small silver lining. The bonding both of them could have over this and the enhanced love she could receive from it.
“I’ll get outside, honey,” Fine Roast called out as Sweet Leaf cleared refuse off a table.
“Okay. Is the serving area clean?”
“The equipment is, but the counter still needs some work.” Her husband stopped at the door and turned his head to look at her. “I can get it though.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m almost done here.” Sweet Leaf looked him in the eyes, offering a smile that felt as tired as he looked.
Fine Roast exhaled. “Thank you, sweetie.”
Sweet Leaf nodded. “I love you, Roast.”
“I… love you too,” he replied with a pause and headed out the door.
Sweet Leaf watched him go, her curiosity piqued. The news and the day must have hit him harder than she thought. Maybe she should pull out all the stops tonight and go for one of her infamous massages. Perhaps that would help alleviate some of his worries.
She went back about her cleaning and soon finished the tables. Just as she was starting on the counter, Fine Roast came back inside with two half full trash bags and locked the front door. He silently carried them through the kitchen and Sweet Leaf heard him exit out the back door.
As Sweet Leaf was working on the last particularly stubborn coffee stain, Fine Roast came back inside and poked his head out the kitchen doorway.
“Sweet? Everything is taken care of outside. I’ll be upstairs.” He disappeared into the kitchen.
“Okay, I’ll be up in a minute.”
Finally, after another long moment of scrubbing, she finished with the stain and made short work cleaning up the rest of the counter. With a huff of finality, she walked into the kitchen, wrung out her rag, and put it in the dirty bin.
She washed and dried her hooves and wings, then ascended the stairs. At the top, she spotted him in the bedroom on the left and went in to join him. She saw her spouse lying on his back on top of the bed’s covers, his head tilted back and eyes glued to the ceiling. A maelstrom of emotions washed over him, moreso than before. She climbed on her side and put her hooves around his barrel.
He pulled his foreleg out of her embrace and put it around her, giving her a little squeeze.
Sweet Leaf broke the silence. “Long day, huh?”
“Very long day,” he replied, “and apparently a very eventful yesterday.”
“So it would seem.” She let a pregnant pause fill the room.
“And I suppose your worrying wasn’t for nothing,” he continued after a moment.
Sweet Leaf nuzzled into his cream colored chest. “I… I guess you’re right. I don’t even know what to think about it.”
“It’s crazy. Shapeshifters invading Canterlot. Who would have thought—”
Three loud knocks resounded from the downstairs kitchen.
Both ponies looked at each other with raised eyebrows. It seemed neither had an answer to their unasked question. Fine Roast sighed.
“Probably one of our friends. I’ll get it.”
Sweet Leaf reluctantly loosened the hug on her stallion and let him go. Once she heard him descend the stairs, she quietly crept out of bed and stopped at the top of the stairs.
She heard their back door open. A half a moment later, “Wavy? What’s going on?”
Wavy Palette? she thought as a spike of fear ran through her. What could Bobby Pin’s coltfriend be doing here?
“Hi, Roast, sorry I’m in a rush. Have you or Sweet Leaf seen Bobby?” Wavy asked.
“I know she came by and talked to Sweet around lunch. Why, what’s going on?” Fine Roast asked again.
“I…” Wavy Palette started, his voice cracking, “she’s one of them.”
Firefly’s eyes shot wide. She didn’t! How?!
“Bobby’s one of them?” Fine Roast asked hurriedly. “You mean—?”
“A changeling!” Wavy answered.
“Are you sure? How do you know?”
“It was surreal! I was coming into our room and it was there, just like the pictures. It looked at me and… flash! Changed right into Bobby Pin’s body!” He sounded almost hysterical.
Firefly grimaced and wanted to bang her head against the wall. How could that mare have been so careless?!
“When, Wave? When did it happen?”
“About twenty minutes ago. She stuttered, said something, and bolted past me out the front door,” he spoke frantically. “I was stunned. I didn’t know what to do. I checked with another of her friends before I came here.”
“Do you want to come in? We could figure out what to do and—” Fine Roast asked.
“N-no. No.” Wavy Palette interrupted. “My real marefriend could be somewhere out there, alone and afraid. I read they use their spit to tie up their victims and then suck them dry! I gotta go tell the guards!”
Before Fine Roast could reply, the echoing sound of hooves galloping away sounded before the kitchen door closed. Sweet Leaf decided that was her cue to descend the stairs.
“How much did you hear?” Fine Roast asked as she stepped into the kitchen.
“A good bit of it.” Her breath was shaky and it had nothing to do with acting. “Bobby Pin… I would have never thought she could be one of them. Could this day get any better?”
“I… I’m not sure,” the cream stallion looked contemplatively at the floor.
“Come on. Let’s go back upstairs.”
“Yeah. Sure,” he said, following his wife back up the stairs.
That naive little nymph! Sweet Leaf thought as she turned to their bedroom. What in star’s name happened that made her drop her disguise? Today of all days!
When they entered the bedroom, they both got up onto their sides of the bed and just lay there for a few minutes.
“So, what happens now?” Fine Roast asked.
Sweet Leaf turned her head to him.“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what happens now that one of your friends is a changeling? Or at least captured by one?” he asked and looked at her as well. “Do we question all of our friends? Or do we just continue like nothing happened?”
She hummed and stared back at the ceiling for a moment. “I think we do the exact same thing we’ve been doing. Open the shop and serve our customers. What can we do otherwise?” She gave him a little smile. “If we let suspicion take hold of every relationship we have, we’ll just become bitter ponies.”
Fine Roast sighed and rubbed his face with his hoof. “You’re right. I know you’re right. But it’s so easy to just…wonder.”
A series of knocks sounded again downstairs, drawing a low groan from Fine Roast.
“I’ll get it this time, dear.” Sweet Leaf scooted off the bed and headed to the hallway.
“Alright.”
Sweet Leaf stepped onto the first stair when the knocking came again. “I’m coming, hold on!” The back door came into view a moment later. She trotted over and opened it, only to find the worst possible pony.
“Sweet Leaf?” Bobby Pin said in disguise, a frazzled look staining her face. “I think I messed up.”