Adventures in the life of Beetle

by Symphony_in_152mm


CH.3: Questions and Answers

Previously...

Derpy looked away from the bushes and idly scuffed the ground with her hoof.

'Yeah, she knows I’m here. She’d have moved on and kept looking by now.’ Zach rolled his eyes and huffed, deciding that there wasn’t much point in trying to stay hidden from her anymore.

For better or worse, the decision had ultimately been made for him.

Our Story Continues...

She might have seen me earlier; its plausible, considering she started her search near here and not further in the forest where she last saw me.’ He rose to his hooves and stepped out from the bushes that had initially concealed him. Hunger mercilessly jabbed at his stomach and nipped at his thoughts in aggravation; it took effort, but he managed to ignore the worst of it for the time being.

Derpy’s ears perked up and she immediately turned her head to face him. “Oh, there you are!” She said with a smile and a feigned tone of surprise.

Zach spoke, blunt and to the point, “You knew I was there the whole time, didn’t you?”

“Wha- heh, whaaaat?” She furrowed her brow and forced a smile in a facial expression that effectively broadcast that she was being dishonest. “Noooo, no I didn’t know you were there!” The nervous chuckles only made it worse.

He tilted his head and arched an eyebrow, “Was it at least difficult to see me in the bushes? At all?”

Derpy hesitated, she puffed out her cheeks and looked away. Although, one of her eyes was still looking in his direction, maybe by accident. “Well, uhhh…no. I mean, kinda, maybe. A little.” She avoided making eye contact, but Zach knew better.

“What gave me away?” He asked, then glanced back to his hiding spot to try and discern that answer for himself. Zach did not like the idea that, despite his efforts to hide, he was still easily spotted and by a pony with vision impairment no less!

He tried to rationalize it, so as to give himself some reassurance that trying to hide wasn’t pointless. ‘Maybe it was the contrast between my chitin and the green leaves? From a distance it wouldn’t matter, but up close the contrast is probably more visible. Then again, how’d she not spot me back in the pricker bushes if that were the case? I think-..’

“It was your eyes.” She answered plainly, looking at him again.

Zach blinked, “My…eyes?”

Derpy nodded her head, “Yeah, they’re really shiny! They stuck out against the bush you were hiding in. I mean, it was a nice hiding spot otherwise, really.” She smiled at him.

The explanation she offered seemed reasonable enough to Zach, so he accepted it. There were more important things on his mind than a simple hiding spot he intended to abandon later anyway. “How did you know I was here?”

Derpy replied bluntly, “I saw you.”

Zach gently planted his hoof upon his face for a moment and elaborated, “I meant, why did you start looking for me over here specifically, and not, say: where you originally saw me earlier?”

“Oooohhhh! Well, because I saw you here.” She replied with a tone and expression as if the answer was obvious. A few moments passed before she then went on to explain, “I was flying around nearby, hoping maybe I’d see you again…and I did! I thought maybe you went back into the woods, because I couldn't find you at first when I came over here. I’m glad you didn’t though, the Everfree Forest is dangerous!”

Zach cast a glance to the less-than-welcoming forest that lie just beyond the tree-line, then looked to his hiding spot, “Right…” His earlier assumption had been proven correct and he felt just a little bit vindicated; she must have spotted him by chance while he was practicing using his wings. It was a lucky break for him that it had been her that saw him instead of another pegasus.

He softly exhaled and shifted his train of thought to the more pressing concerns at hand. Zach had questions, a lot of them; Derpy hopefully had answers. He spoke, taking great pains to try and come across as ‘friendly’, despite how difficult he believed his changeling voice made it. “Derpy, I overheard you and the other pegasi talking about the Summer Sun Celebration. That’s tomorrow, right?”

A look of surprise graced Derpy’s face and she lightly gasped, “You know my name? How did you know my name?”

Zach would have assumed her reaction to be that of suspicion, but the way her voice carried notes of curiosity and wonder told him otherwise. It caught Zach off guard, causing him to stammer for a brief moment as he tried to regroup his thoughts. “I-err, uh, Well…” He blinked and his jaw hung slack for a few seconds before his thoughts organized and the information he needed came to the front. “The other pegasi were calling you Derpy; that’s your name, right?”

Judging by her response, that seemed to have worked. “Ohhh, that’s right! You were nearby when we were cleaning up the storm, weren’t you?” She closed her eyes and had a mildly embarrassed, yet cheerful expression now. “I forgot.”

Zach lightly exhaled with relief, “Anyway, as I was saying…”

Derpy blurted out, “Yeah, its tomorrow. The Celebration, I mean.” She paused, gathering her thoughts, then asked, “Do bug ponies celebrate the Summer Sun Celebration too?”

Or you can just interrupt me, that’s cool.’ His eye lightly twitched with mild annoyance; Zach ignored her question and pressed on with his own, “That’s an annual event, right? What day is today?”

Derpy was quick to answer, “Today? That’s easy, today’s…uhh…” She paused with a less confident expression and tapped a hoof to her chin. “Umm…yesterday was… June 19th? I’m sure that was yesterday, so that means… Yeah, today’s June 20th and tomorrow’s the 21st!” Her smile returned afterwards with a hint of triumph.

“So it’s an analogue of the Summer Solstice, huh? That makes sense.” Zach said aloud to himself.

Derpy cocked her head to the side and had a look of confusion, “Huh? Wh- no, it’s the Summer Sun celebration. Its not an analogue, or a Solstice.” Her expression quickly changed to a more inquisitive one and she asked, “What’s a Solstice? Is that what bug ponies call it?”

They must use the same calendar structure we do. That’ll make things a whole lot easier with keeping track of events, although I still don’t know what point in the show I’m in.’ Zach thought to himself. There was the obvious possibility that he was near the pilot episode, or shortly before then, since tomorrow was the very same holiday seen in the first episode.

However, he didn’t want to jump to that conclusion just yet. He’d only established that this was prior to the season 2 finale, or within a timeframe that the news of that particular event hadn’t spread yet. ‘I’m going to need more info before I can figure out where I am, timeline wise.’

In a moment of further contemplation his mind went on, ‘I kinda question why they’d use our calendar, seeing as this is a completely different world from our own. Though, to be completely fair, I also don’t know a thing about Equestrian history outside the tidbits the show told me. Whatever, none of this crazyness makes sense anyway.’

Zach considered his options, there were quite a few specific things he could ask Derpy that’d make it easier for him to find what point in the show he was in, one way or the other.

First, and most importantly… he needed to determine the ‘changeling’ situation. He had a good idea of what the situation was already, but he wanted to make absolutely certain that this was the case. Better safe than sorry.

Zach elected to be blunt about it, there wasn’t much point in subtlety when he considered the implications of Derpy being undeterred by his appearance. “Derpy, do you happen to know what a changeling is?”

Derpy blinked a few times, before she briefly scrunched up her face in thought, “A changeling? Hmm… nope, I don’t think so.” She looked to him with curiosity, “Is that what you are?”

That offered him significant relief and settled any doubts he had. If she didn’t know what changelings were at all, it was almost guaranteed that he was in Equestria at a point prior to the changeling incident at Canterlot. It would only make sense for the news of that to spread pretty quickly.

He was also pretty sure the Canterlot wedding didn’t take place anytime near the Summer Sun Celebration. That was, at least, from what he could remember of the season 2 finale.

Having settled that with certainty, he could move on.

He had an easy way to know for certain if this was prior to the pilot episode: he could check and see if Twilight had arrived in Ponyville yet. If twilight wasn’t yet moved into the Ponyville library, that told him it was prior to the pilot episode. Alternatively, once night time rolled around, he could just look at the moon. If the dark splotch in the shape of a pony was still on the moon, then that’d mean Luna was still up there.

All things considered, he really didn’t want to have to wait that long, especially if his arrival in Equestria turned out to not be prior to the pilot episode. Zach needed to know where he was in the storyline and he wanted to know sooner, rather than later.

He scoured his brain for other notable events in the show that Derpy would possibly recognize, which he could ask about, that would give him a better sense of where he was in the episodes. A task that was a bit more difficult being in the heat of the moment.

Derpy’s voice interrupted his train of thought, “Are you ok? Am…am I bothering you?” Her face and voice held a deeply discouraged tone to them as she spoke. One of her forehooves was idly patting at the dirt. “I don’t mean to, really… I can leave you alone if you want me to.”

Zach blinked, unsure as to how she came to that conclusion. He quickly addressed it, nonetheless, “No, not at all; why would you think that?”

“O-oh! Sorry; you went silent and all,” her expression changed from disheartened to more neutral, “I thought that…maybe you were tired of talking to me. Like, you want me to leave, but you’re trying to be polite about it and stuff…”

Zach understood that sentiment all too well. If he had a dollar for every time he’d found himself in that situation, he wouldn’t have needed a job. “You’re fine; I’m just thinking, that’s all.” Again, he reassured her; she had already proven to be helpful, plus he still had questions and other things she might be able to help him with. Zach did not want for her to get the wrong idea and leave.

Derpy lightly smiled, “Oh, ok! I was just making sure.”

“Trust me, if you were bothering me, I’d tell you.” Now having averted that potential problem, Zach hummed idly and considered what he needed to know.

Derpy took that moment to ask her own question. “So, are you a Changeling? Is that what you’re called?”

Zach briefly considered telling her the truth, but a few thoughts in the back of his mind staunchly opposed the idea. He didn’t want to lie either, so he did the next best thing.

He ignored her question, and instead blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. “Do you happen to know what time it is?” It wasn’t the most important thing to know, but it changed the subject well enough. “I know its daytime, sometime in the late afternoon, but I don’t know the exact time.”

Derpy paused, then tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. “The time? Lemme think, the tiiiime was, uh… Oh, right!” She lifted a wing and uncovered a small satchel at her side. She rummaged through the thing with her mouth for a quick moment, pulling away from it with a pocketwatch held gently between her teeth. “Here!”

She placed it upon her outstretched wing and flicked it open. “Let’s see! The time is… its…” Derpy squinted and attempted to move her head around to try and get one of her eyes to focus on the watch. “The time… the time is… uhhh.” Her voice conveyed her frustration.

“Forgot your glasses?” Zack joked after watching her struggle for a few moments. He kicked himself mentally for making a joke at her expense. As innocently intended as the joke was, it was just as likely to be seen as an insult.

Surprisingly, Derpy seemed unphased by the question in the slightest. She didn’t seem to take offense and the humorous intent went over her head. “Nooo, my eyes are…wonky.” She shifted her head around and to both sides, back and forth, repeatedly attempting to focus her uncooperative eyes upon the pocket watch. “I can see, they just… don’t go… where I… need them… to go, sometimes.”

Zach mentally sighed in relief at her response, then proceeded to berate himself, ‘Nice job, moron, the first pony you talk to and you practically insult them to their face! Boy I'm off to a fantastic start aren't I?’ He stepped forward and gestured to the pocket watch. “Here, let me see.”

Derpy angled her wing and presented her watch.

“Four o’clock.” Zach stated.

“The time is four o’clock!” Derpy repeated with a bright tone and a smile, then deftly slipped her pocketwatch back inside her satchel.

Zach lowered his brow, “I just said that.”

Derpy looked to the treeline of the Everfree forest and spoke with concern obvious in her voice. “Hey, mister bug pony, are you sure you wanna be this close to the Everfree forest? Nightfall’s not for another few hours, but evening isn’t very safe either.” She looked back in his direction with an expression to match her voice.

Zach considered Derpy’s question. She seemed eager enough to help him and showed concern for his well-being. Derpy definitely knew this place better than he did, hands down. Maybe she could help him find a safer spot to hide out until night? Thinking a step further, maybe she’d be willing to help him with his plan?

Unfortunately, his inner smart-alec got in on the action and got the better of his judgement, blurting out an attempt at wit. “I’ll probably end up as a snack for some horrific monster, no big deal. Probably take a bite out of me, add a few extra holes, make myself more aerodynamic.”

Derpy’s jaw dropped and her eyes went wide, “Whaaat!? That won’t be fine at all! Why would you say something like that!?”

He’d spoken with a playfully sarcastic tone, but judging by the reception, either Derpy was just as bad at recognizing sarcasm when it was directed at them as he was, or he’d utterly bombed his attempt at humor. Zach was fumbling over his words, struggling with a combination of annoyance, guilt, and remorse stemming from her reaction. “I- wh- nonono! That was a joke! I wasn’t being serious about that, not at all!”

Derpy’s ears drooped, as did her tone and expression, “Ohh..that was a joke? I see, I’m sorry.” She smiled, albeit with a sadness behind her eyes. “I have trouble with jokes. I don’t always get them, not right away at least. Ponies have to explain them to me a lot of times… and then it ruins the joke… and then I end up feeling dumb.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it; believe me, I know that feeling. I have trouble getting the punchline sometimes myself.” He idly glanced to his legs and casually commented, “I have no intention of letting any monsters take a bite out of me. I think I have enough holes in me as it is without adding any more into the mix.”

After a few moments passed in awkward silence between the two of them, Derpy eventually asked, “So…if you know there’s monsters, why are you out here in the Everfree?” Her concerned demeanor returned.

The question itself confused him ever so slightly, “What do you mean?”

Derpy glanced in the direction of the Everfree’s treeline, or what Zach assumed to be the official barrier separating the forest of bad-times from the rest of Equestria.

“You’re not in the Everfree now, I mean, but you were earlier…” She looked back at him with expressed concern once again. “The Everfree really isn’t safe for ponies, or bug ponies for that matter.”

Zach replied with a twinge of annoyance at her repeating the warning about the death forest. “Yeah, I knew that already.”

“Well, what were you doing in there then if you knew it was dangerous?”

Zach idly gestured, unsure how to answer that, “I don’t know, I didn’t intend to be in there, I kinda just… I just…” He trailed off and considered what he was going to say next. What could he say, that wouldn’t either make himself sound insane, or incredibly suspicious? Was there any real answer to this that didn’t sound like a lie or completely ludicrous? Was he overthinking this and there was a simple answer staring him in the face?

“You just… got lost?” Derpy answered for him, to his surprise.

He blinked and decided to roll with it, “Yeah, that.”

“It’s ok, I get lost too, lotsa times!” She gave Zach a sympathetic look and reached out a hoof to lay on his shoulder.

He immediately recoiled and pulled away, eyeing her hoof with suspicion.

Derpy clearly wasn’t expecting that reaction, and he could see it in her expression as much as he heard it in her voice. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

“I don’t like being touched,” Zach quickly tried to explain.

“Is it a phobia?” She asked, tilting her head to one side as she tried to understand.

Zach half frowned, half grinned and cocked his head back in a mix of confusion and amusement, “What!? No! Who has a phobia of being touched?” He shook his head and quickly stated, “It’s not an irrational fear, I just- The sensation is… Look, it’s very personal, alright? Bottom line is, I don’t like it when people touch me, ok? Makes me uncomfortable.”

His statement had a bit more aggression in the tone than he intended, but Derpy didn’t seem too phased by it. All she responded with was a simple, “Ok; no touching, got it!” and that smile of hers that seemed to radiate warmth and friendliness.

“It’s not that nobody can touch me ever, it’s just, ugh, nevermind.” He decided not to bother with the drawn-out explanation. It was complicated and he really didn’t feel comfortable going through personal details about himself with a side character from a cartoon series he used to watch. ‘I’m getting sidetracked here, c’mon, focus!’

His stomach’s aching needs jabbed at his thoughts, ‘Not now, shut up!’

Zach closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Derpy beat him to it. He hoped the annoyed look he formed on his face would give her a hint, but it didn’t.

“Waaait, if you didn’t mean to be in the Everfree forest…” she started, “then that means you don’t live in the Everfree forest…”

Zach let out a rough sigh and grit his teeth in mild frustration. “No, I don’t live in the Everfree forest, I thought we’d have already established that with the whole ‘it has monsters in it context, and me not wanting to be eaten by said monsters.”

Derpy either ignored his retort, or she was too involved in her own thoughts to have processed it, because she continued right where she left off. “…You don’t live in Ponyville…and you probably don’t live nearby if you’re lost…” She looked at him with piqued curiosity, “Where do you live? Do you have a house somewhere?”

They hopped once in place with noticeable excitement before adding, “I could walk you to it if you want!” She tapped a hoof to her satchel as if to punctuate her next sentence. “I know I said I get lost all the time, but that’s why I carry a map, just in case!”

Derpy briefly paused before continuing, “If it’s too far from here though, then I can’t go… or else then somepony would come looking for me, then they’d be angry I left town again without telling somepony. Then somepony would yell at me again… and I don’t want that.”

Her eagerness was promising, but her questions about where he came from were presenting a problem. “Derpy, I appreciate the offer, but what I actually need right now is-…”

She interrupted him, for the third time now, “You aren’t homeless are you, mister bug pony?”

Zach’s face scrunched up with indignation, “What!? No! I’m not homeless! I just… I don’t have a house here is all.” He overreacted a bit, admittedly, but the ever-present gnawing of hunger made it difficult for him to keep his composure consistent.

“So…you are homeless…here, but not where you came from.” She said as she scratched her head with one hoof. “Where did you come from then? Is it far away?”

Gah, that’s not what I said!’ He cried out in his head. ‘I mean, she’s not wrong, technically, but still.’ Zach’s mind was digging deep now, having come to another fork in the road. He groaned and shoved aside the hungry demands of his stomach and sifted through what options he could come up with.

Zach considered being honest with her and telling her the whole truth, here and now. He could try and explain that he was originally a human turned into a changeling (assuming they even know what humans are), that he isn’t from this planet, or this universe as far as he knew…

The idea didn’t last for more than a few seconds before he shot it down. There was no way she would believe his story, it was too ridiculous. Even if Derpy somehow believed the ludicrous tale, she’d only ask more questions afterwards and want to know more, then other ponies might want to know, which would cause plenty of problems further down the line. ‘In all likelihood, she’ll probably just think I’m screwing around and spinning some fabricated story. Heck, even I think it’s absurd and I’m living it!

Speaking of ‘fabricated stories’, his other option was to do just that: fabricate a believable lie. He could make up something she’d be more likely to believe, then from there, make sure said lie was kept consistent without going into any further details than necessary.

Yeeeah, that won’t work either.’ No, he’d worry incessantly about that lie eventually unweaving, to the point of making an avoidable mistake. That’d lose him any and all trust he’d built up with her and anyone else he met. To top it off, he’d feel terrible for lying to everyone, that was the worst part!

Alternatively, there was a third option… He could tell her parts of the truth, half-truths even, omitting information while still answering any questions he might be asked. He wouldn’t need to go into any details that could complicate things, he wouldn’t have to lie either. It still carried with it its own slew of problems, but it was the best option he could think of.

Derpy opened her mouth and gently voiced her concern, “You’re…still thinking, right?”

“Yeah, sorry, I’ve got a lot to think about.” Zach ventured ahead with the idea, he quickly came up with what he felt was an adequate response. “You know, I guess you’re right; I don’t have any place to stay, at least nowhere I can get to before sundown…or within any reasonable timeframe.”

He continued, hoping to clear up any further questions she might ask. “See, I live in a place really far away from here, at least I think I do. I don’t know where ‘here’ is, compared to where I was, so I wouldn’t know where the place I used to be would be compared to here…and…” Zach paused, seeing as Derpy was visibly having difficulty following along.

He huffed and tried again, “OK, simplified version: I don’t live anywhere near here, I’m hungry and I’ve got nowhere to stay.” That was of course an oversimplification, but it got the job done. She understood enough to give a response at least.

“If you’ve got nowhere to go, what’re you gonna do? You can’t just stay out here in the woods!” Derpy asked with the same level of concern as before.

Zach thought about it and shrugged, “I dunno, I honestly don’t have much of a plan for what I’m going to do. I mean, I kinda do, but nothing long term.” He gestured a hoof over in the direction of the forest line, “I know for sure that I’m not staying out here next to the monster forest of doom overnight.”

Zach then turned and looked out towards Ponyville. “I’d love to find a spot in town to stay, but I’m not sure how folks will react to seeing me. I don’t exactly look friendly.” In reality, he was confident he knew exactly how folks in town would react to his appearance.

It had been a while since he’d seen the episode involving the zebra, but he recalled how the ponies reacted poorly to what was essentially a horse with stripes. He could only imagine how disastrous the reaction would be of folks in Ponyville seeing a horse shaped insectoid, even without them knowing what he really was. ‘Speaking of Zebras, that’s another event I could ask Derpy about.’

Before he could do so, his stomach let out a loud, gurgling growl that interrupted him. It was loud enough that apparently Derpy heard it. She made as much obvious when she quickly glanced around, before looking to him and commenting, “Woah, was that you?

Zach, now with a mild self-consciousness about it, admitted such. “Yeah, that was me, sorry.”

“When’s the last time you ate?” Came her question, predictably.

He shook his head, “I…” he hesitated briefly, “I…don’t know.” That was a lie, but at the same time, could he really count the things he ate earlier if they didn't do anything to sate the hunger that continued to claw at his mind with its demands?

Derpy seemed to think about it for a few moments, then spoke up, “There’s rooms for rent in town, if I’m remembering right, or you could stay at a hotel. There’s plenty of places to eat too, I could show you if you want!”

A part of Zach was relieved to hear that he had options for the future, if he wound up staying in this world for an extended period of time. There was the issue of his appearance still, which Derpy seemed to either forget, or intentionally ignore. Another glaring issue was a lack of money.

He knew the Equestrians used a currency called ‘bits’; of which, he had none of. “Thanks for the suggestion, but I’m broke. I don’t have a single coin on me.”

Almost immediately, Derpy responded, “I could lend you some bits if you want, I’m sure other ponies would be willing to help too!”

Zach almost declined her offer then and there on principle. She’d only just met him, yet she was offering him money and suggesting others would do the same? He couldn’t accept that! Well, he didn’t want to accept it, but hunger and his fear of the unknown (plus the things he knew of that lurked in the Everfree) all offered strong counter-arguments.

Still, as hungry as he was, a significant part of him didn’t want to accept her offer without some assurances. “Derpy, I appreciate the offer, but are you sure about this? You just met me, you don’t know who or what I am, but you’re offering me money…just like that?”

“You seem like a nice enough pony, err, bug-pony; you’re out here all alone, hungry, without any place to stay. I can’t just ignore somepony in need, can I?” She declared it with enthusiasm, with an earnest and genuine demeanor.

Zach hesitated, before admitting, “I… can’t argue with that.”

There was a brief moment of silence, Derpy awaited Zach's response with eagerness apparent in her expression.

Eventually he did respond, “Derpy, I’m grateful, really, but I don’t think its such a good idea.”

“But, why?”

He hesitated again, “Its, uh, complicated.”

“What are you so worried about?” She attempted to reach a hoof out, but she stopped herself when Zach gave her a look. “Are you…afraid of ponies or something?”

Zach grew uncomfortable and frustrated with having to explain his reasoning. There was only so much he could really explain without divulging the details that he was a love-sucking insectoid monster. “Derpy, I’m not afraid of ponies. I want to take you up on your offer, really I do. I’m gonna need a place to stay, at least for the night. That, and I’m so hungry it feels like my stomach is eating itself. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for me to set foot anywhere near Ponyville, not with the way I look.”

"What's wrong with the way you look?” She asked, innocently enough.

“Derpy…I’m a bug monster in the shape of a pony.”

She shook her head at that and retorted, “You’re not a monster though, you’re just a bug pony.” Derpy had a hint of sadness as she spoke, “I don’t understand, why do you think that’s such a bad thing?”

“How isn’t that a bad thing!?” Zach stopped himself and sighed, going for a gentler tone as he tried his best to explain things in a way that she might understand better. “Look, Derpy, think about it: how do most ponies react when they see a normal bug? Not a bug pony, not a giant bug, just a normal sized, harmless little bug?” He gave a little extra weight to specific points of his argument, hoping it would sink in.

There wasn’t any better way he could think of off the top of his head to properly explain the real reason he was so afraid of showing himself to Ponyville. Then again, composing arguments under pressure was always a weakness of his. Zach just knew he’d come up with something else later, then get angry at his brain for not coming up with it in the moment…

Derpy spent a few moments deep in thought, judging by her facial expressions. Thankfully she appeared to have come to realize what he’d been getting at, “Ohhhh, I think I understand what you mean.” She looked away briefly, scrunching up her face in what Zach could only assume was more thinking.

He nodded sagely, “That’s why.”

Derpy glanced back and quipped, “Not everypony is afraid of bugs, you know?”

Zach rolled his eyes at that, "You're missing my point.."

She shook her head, “No, I get it... you’re worried about ponies seeing you and being afraid of the way you look."

"Huh, I take it back."

Derpy continued, "If you're that scared, why don’t you just disguise yourself?”

Her question caused Zach’s heart to skip a beat, “D-d…disguise myself? I uh, I…” His mind immideately jumped to the first conclusion that sprang to mind, ‘How does she know about that?! Was she lying to me and knows more about changelings than she let on!?’ Zach shook his head and adamantly pushed back with rational thought, 'Wait, no, that can't be it; she's given no indication of knowing about them up until now!'

Despite his shaken nerves, he answered with a decent hold of his composure, “I don’t know how to do the whole disguise thing, otherwise I wouldn’t be out here.”

Whaaat?” Derpy slowly tilted her head with a boggled expression, “You never played pretend as a foal? Never…celebrated Nightmare Night?” She waved her hoof in a circular motion, “You know, dressed up?”

The reality of the situation came to light; her visible confusion helped greatly in his efforts to pull his mind away from the paranoid conclusions it was ready to leap to. “Oh! Oh, that, yeah; I’ve done that loads of times! I thought you were talking about something else.” He chastized himself for foolishly mistaking what she was referencing, it was pretty obvious in hindsight.

She raised an eyebrow at him with even more visible confusion, “What else would I be talking about?”

Zach waved it off with a forced smile, “Ahh, don’t worry about it, I just misunderstood you; it’s a bug pony thing.”

Derpy blinked, but she seemed content with his excuses and went back to her idea. “Well, ok I guess. Why don’t you just disguise yourself so the ponies won’t see that you’re a bug pony? That way, you won’t have to worry about it!”

It was almost funny to him that Derpy suggested the idea of wearing a disguise. Zach had thought of, and considered, just such a thing earlier. He would have definitely done it, if only he had an outfit to use, or if he knew how the changeling’s shape-changing ability worked. Ultimately, he elected to go with his original plan, for now at least. Once he could get himself situated and fed (however that was going to work), then he could work on a long term solution.

Speaking of his original plan, it’d probably benefit him to run it past someone who knew the area and could help him plot a route into town after dark. Derpy fit the bill well enough, plus, maybe she could toss in her two cents and give him some feedback? “I like your idea, but I think I’m going hide out here until nightfall.”

“And then?” She prodded.

Then, I’m going to try and make my way into town under the cover of night, while most of the town is sleeping. Maybe I’ll find a bite to eat if I'm lucky, find some shelter if I'm luckier...” Zach trailed off, not wishing to further elaborate on it. Hearing himself explaining the plan out loud made him realize just how poorly thought out it was, he was already poking holes in it himself and he hadn’t yet gotten into any of the real details!

Derpy frowned at Zach’s explanation, seeming to take issue with it in one way or another, or multiple ways. Zach could only guess, given how questionable his plan sounded in hindsight to himself.

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away sheepishly, “…Ok, the plan is a work in progress, admittedly.”

“I’ll say!” Derpy started, “How are you supposed to fly in the dark?”

Out of all the things she could have taken issue with regarding his plan, Zach had not expected it to be that. He got his thoughts together and simply stated, “I can’t fly, haven't figured that one out yet.” Now he was finding himself curious as to why she’d taken issue with that specific detail, of all things.

Derpy squinted her eyes in disbelief, “You can’t fly? Well, how are you gonna get to town from here if you don’t fly?”

“Uhh, walk, like a normal person?" Zach shrugged, "How else would I get there?”

She blinked and had a mildly confused expression, “You're going to walk all the way around the rivers... in the dark? The bridges into town are all the way over there, on the other side of the branching parts of the river.” Derpy eyed his legs and her expression shifted once again to that of genuine concern, “Most of the main river is too deep to wade through; I don’t think you’d be very good at swimming, with the holes and stuff.”

Wait, rivers? As in, more than one river? I thought there was just the one on the other side of town?’ He recalled Derpy mentioning keeping a map with her; he needed to know for sure if what she was saying was true. “Would you mind if I took a look at your map?”

Derpy blinked at the question, but then smiled and nodded, “No problem!” Again, she rummaged through her satchel and pulled out a rolled map. “I never leave home without it, just in case I get lost!”

She was more than willing to share, as he expected. Wordlessly, she unfurled it out onto the ground and nudged it over to him. Zach looked over it to verify what Derpy said about the paths into ponyville.

The map itself was a simple colored depiction of the local area in and around ponyville, nothing fancy, but it did the job. Derpy pointed out where the two of them currently were and Zach could see where he’d made his mistake.

The river ran along the east side of ponyville and split off just after the endpoint of what looked like the town’s plaza, or whatever the south eastern most part of town was. From there, the river branches ran to the south and to the east. Whether he went north or west, he’d end up hitting one of the branching rivers before he’d get anywhere near town. ‘Dammit! I thought that river was on the other side of the town! Go figure, it’s just my damn luck today.’

Zach looked out into the distance towards town. Glancing back to the map for reference, he found the main river, the northern portion of it just before it reached town, right where the map said it would be. The branching sections and the portion of the river alongside town, however, were obscured from view by a few gently rolling hills, along with various trees and bushes.

He groaned and ran a hoof over his face.

It would have been one thing if he could make a bee line for the town, but having to navigate around that river was going to be a lot of trouble. He supposed he could try and go straight through the river, but he didn’t know how reliably he’d be able to swim, if at all, since his legs were filled with holes.

Normally, now would have been the point where he’d rant to himself about how he ‘always procrastinates’ and how ‘his habit for refusing to study was really coming to bite him in the butt’ and other such things. Considering he was presently in a world that originated from a children’s cartoon show- a show that he’d stopped watching five years ago he might add -could he really be that angry with himself for not doing any research ahead of time?

Who am I kidding? Even if I knew I was gonna wind up here ahead of time, I still would have procrastinated and never got around to it.’ He half-jokingly admitted to himself.

The plan he’d worked himself up over had effectively gone up in smoke before he had the chance to attempt it. “Well…damn. I guess that plan is a bust. I mean, not that it was all that great of a plan to begin with.”

Derpy tried to reassure him, “It would have been a good plan if the river wasn’t there.”

Zach shrugged, “I guess so, but it is what it is; I'll have to figure something else out.”

“You can still always try disguising yourself, right?” She offered.

He nodded, “True, true… The only problem is: I don’t have anything to disguise myself with.”

Zach idly poked at his chin in thought, ‘I wonder if Derpy would be willing to lend me a cloak or a coat? Coupled with a scarf or something to cover my mouth, it could work. I’d still have the problem of suspicious ponies, but…’

Derpy blurted out, “I’ll be right back, I have an idea!” Then she took to the sky before Zach could respond.

“What are you-,” By the time he spoke, she was already headed off in the direction of Ponyville. “W-wait, Derpy!”

Zach wanted to raise his voice and shout out to her, but he stopped himself. He didn’t care so much that she was leaving, he was more worried that either she’d bring someone with her, or someone would follow her here.

“Dammit!” He scuffed his hoof against the ground.

He moseyed back to his hiding spot and plopped down on the ground, seeing as there wasn’t anything he could do about her running off. If she came back with someone in tow, he’d just have to deal with it the best he could. How? He had no idea, but worrying about it wouldn’t help in the slightest bit.

Zach’s stomach chose now as the perfect time to angrily renew its complaints at the lack of sustenance. This took his mind of the imminent threat potential of being discovered by someone or some-thing that may or may not try to attack him.

Ironically, hunger was turning out to be his biggest threat, going after his thoughts and viciously chewing at them. The annoyances of the day reached a boiling point for Zach, and he bit out a few choice words to vent his frustration. “God would you stop already!? I get it, I’m hungry, I know this, thank you! Message is received, crystal clear! When I am able to find food, you will be literally the first to know about it!” He growled out in bitter frustration as he finished his rant to the intangible entity that stood-in for his hunger.

Unfortunately for him, his rant did nothing to mitigate the deep ache of need that gripped tight around his stomach. He considered eating some more leaves, but what would that accomplish? Zach knew what he really needed, Love. That’s what changelings ate, he knew this, thought he still had no idea how he’d go about eating an emotion.

“Hopefully this body knows what to do, and I can just follow some instincts or whatever when the opportunity presents itself. I can only hope, unless there’s some kind of book on changelings I could read; Ha! fat chance of that.” He ran his tongue over the prominent fangs at the front of his mouth, and his heart sank a bit as a grim thought crossed his mind. “What if I have to drain somebody like a vampire would? I don’t think I could live with myself if I had to hurt people to feed!”

Zach recalled Chrysalis feeding on Twilight’s brother, at least he assumed that that's what was happening in the episode in question. The action definitely didn’t seem like something particularly pleasant for the party being fed upon…

he shook his head and rid himself of the thoughts; Even if this was all some weird fantasy in his head, he still did not like the idea of hurting anyone whatsoever. Besides, he already decided he was going to treat this under the pretense that it was real, even if he was still undecided if he wanted to accept this as any kind of ‘reality’ yet. Hopefully, this whole feeding thing wouldn’t be as bad as his paranoid mind imagined it would be…

Whichever the case, he needed to figure it out, and fast. The stomach pain was growing less and less manageable as time passed, to the point where he was uncertain if he’d have ever been able to last until nightfall before his hunger forced his hand. “Yet another hole in my original plan. God I suck at planning.”

Zach took a few deep breaths to sooth his nerves and try to take his mind off the grip of hunger. “On a more positive note, that encounter with Derpy could have gone infinitely worse than it did. All things considered, I think it went pretty well.”

He softly exhaled and tried to get as comfortable as he could, hunger making that considerably more difficult. He waited, hoping for Derpy to return soon, praying that whatever idea she had in mind would help his situation.

Sooner, rather than later, Zach heard the familiar crashing of feathers and hooves through branches and leaves that signaled Derpy had returned. He leisurely glanced in her direction… then immediately panicked.

With a startled yelp, he leapt to his feet in time to dive out of the way of the crash landing pegasus.

Luckily for Derpy, the bush Zach had been using for shelter broke her fall and saved her from faceplanting into the dirt and grass. Unfortunately for Zach, this ruined his makeshift shelter. Well, about as much as one could ‘ruin’ a bush that had its branches moved around.

“Oops… my bad…” came her self-conscious apology once all was said and done.

Zach sighed, though he set aside his frustration and helped Derpy to her feet. “Don’t worry about it, I was gonna abandon this anyway.” On a side note, he was glad that he hadn’t put all that much work into the shelter.

He quickly glanced behind Derpy, then to the skies around them. Once Zach was certain she wasn’t followed and didn’t bring anyone with her, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was at that moment that he noticed the saddlebags she was carrying. He wasted no time in voicing his curiosity, “What are these?”

Zach quickly reiterated, wanting to skip the back and forth that would have come from his initial question. “What I meant to say was: what’s in the saddlebags?”

Derpy smiled, as if she’d expected him to ask that. She titled the bags with her wings and dumped the contents of them out onto the ground. “This!”

Out of the bags came an assortment of scarves, socks, and a jacket.

Zach looked over them with a less than enthusiastic demeanor, “That doesn’t exactly answer my question.”

Derpy was quick to speak again as she used her snout to sift through the jumble of accessories, “It’s a disguise!”

As much as he didn’t want to be critical of a gift, he had to ask, “Wouldn’t a cloak be a bit more, ah, effective?”

“Yeeeeah, but this is all I had on hoof… sorry.” She smiled apologetically, then finished sorting out the accessories.

Zach felt a twinge of guilt nip at his heart over looking a gift horse in the mouth. No the pun wasn’t lost on him and he hated himself for thinking it.

“Say, bug pony, I never did get your name. I thought I asked you earlier, but I guess you didn’t hear me… or I forgot.” Derpy seemed mildly upset, as if she’d done something wrong; Zach didn’t see it as all that big a deal.

Telling her his name though, that wasn’t something he was too sure about. Nobody in Equestria had anything close to a human name, none that weren’t puns or a play on words or a phrase, at least as far as he could remember.

Derpy continued speaking while Zach thought it over, “I was just curious is all. You know my name already and I was wondering what yours was.”

Zach uttered a drawn-out monotone sound before he spoke his mind, “I’m not comfortable sharing my name right now…sorry…”

“Oh, that’s...” She began with an expression that gave a painful jab to Zach’s heart. Derpy shook her head and smiled anyway, “That’s ok! You can tell me later if you like.”

Once the clothing was neatly spread out, Derpy grabbed a scarf with her mouth at one end of it, using her wing to scoop up the other end. She stepped towards Zach and, with a few quick flicks of her wing and a careful toss with her mouth, threw the scarf over his face and covered it with the accessory before he could stop her. “Tadaa!”

Zach grimaced, shutting his eyes and pulling his head back. He hummed irritably, his mind stuck between wanting to rip the thing off his face and wanting to politely see where she was going with this idea of hers.

She quickly pulled the scarf off with a remorseful expression and a tone to match. “Sorry! Sorry, I forgot you don’t like being touched.”

He slowly exhaled, coming to terms with the probability that this would be something that would happen with more frequency in the future. “No worries. Anyway, this idea of yours, is it safe to assume you plan to have me dress up with all this?”

Having that sorted out, Derpy renewed her eagerness to explain the plan that she seemed so sure of. “Yeah, you get it! If nopony can see that you’re a giant bug, then nopony will be afraid of you, right?”

Zach had his doubts.

This was the middle of summer, nobody would be wearing all this in the summer heat. Plus, half of this stuff were mix and matched colors. He wasn’t usually one to care about style or fashion, but he had to draw the line somewhere. It would be tacky, out of place, highly suspicious and would attract a lot of attention if he wasn’t careful.

Heck, it would attract a lot of attention even if he was careful!

Then again, using these garments to disguise himself would keep the residents of ponyville from seeing his insectoid appearance. That in itself was enough of a positive point for him to consider going along with this idea of hers right there and then. He’d look like a fool with all of this on, but a fool wouldn’t be run out of town with pitchforks and torches.

Actually…’ Zach glanced to his legs, looked to his sides, the gears in his head clicking into place, ‘I wouldn’t necessarily need to cover myself up completely. So long as the worst of my changeling attributes are covered, like the holes in my legs and my bug wings, maybe the folks in Ponyville would tolerate my presence?’

It was a nice middle ground. Sure, the ponies in town would probably still be put off by his overall appearance, but he was out of options at this point and he wasn’t about to cook himself by fully wrapping himself in accessories. He needed food, he needed shelter, but more importantly he needed food. In his head he grabbed the stand-in for his hunger and shoved it forcefully out of his thoughts with a colorful expletive.

None of this was going the way he expected, yet it seemed like it just might work out in its own way. He hoped it would work out in its own way at least.

It was kind of funny in an ironic sense. Well, it would be funny, if he weren’t so worried about how the ponyfolk would react to seeing him, even with a disguise… and if he wasn’t so damned hungry.

Derpy leaned in, “Weeeell? What do you think?”

He took a deep breath and made his decision, not that he felt had much else of a choice at this point, “OK, I’m in; let’s give your idea a shot.”

If he still had fingers, they'd be crossed.