Dragon-Ocellus swings the blue slate door open, rather proud of her first lockpicking success. A column of turquoise fire flashes around her as she becomes Ocellus-Ocellus again. He'll react better if I look like me. Her receptors are open and she can taste the love in his thankfulness.

She samples a little. Gallus won't mind. The flavor of mackerel with hints of tomato soup and spiced chocolate fill her, warming her entire body. The gloom of the palace seems to ebb in the wake of it.

If that is what actual mackerel tastes like, she thinks with a smile, I have to find a form for going fishing with Gallus.

Ocellus starts, looking down at herself. The memory of having unintentionally taken dragon form around Smolder flashes through her mind. She lets out a caught breath as she sees she is still nymph-her.

Ocellus chuckles nervously, running a hoof over the back of her head. She notices that Gallus has his saddlepack now. He had abandoned it in a corner of the Envy Room to crawl through the duct.

"I've got that," he tells her. "We can't talk if you're carrying it in your mouth." Their conversations thus far had involved a lot of stopping to put down the lantern.

I've never just been a dragon around Gallus, the nymph realizes. There were times she would transform around him as part of a joke or fun activity, or because another form was needed to accomplish a task. But she didn't just casually hang out with Gallus... or any of her friends, really... in a form other than her natural one. Except Smolder.

She shakes her head. No, that's not right. But what is right is hard to put into words.

Ocellus stops abruptly as they turn the corner into a familiar hallway. Gallus continues walking until she steps (gently) on his tail. The griffon chokes back a squawk of alarm.

Ocellus' eyes narrow, glaring forward. "That credenza had three goblets on it when we came through before."

The nymph's thoughts churn. What now? She knows one of those goblets is a changeling, but she doesn't know which one. And what do they do with it? She is not transforming into Chrysalis again. If she and Gallus keep fighting drones, some creature is going to end up seriously injured. She can't keep knocking them unconscious. Eventually, she'll kill one that way.

Ocellus gasps as Gallus throws her lantern at the goblets. By the time she registers the desire to catch it, protecting the little lantern from harm, it is already knocking through the quartet of cups. A flash of green bursts over the credenza.

The changeling drone glares at Gallus, hissing. Then turns and shoots off down the hall.

"Wait!" Ocellus cries out, taking to the air! "You don't have to starve anymore!"

The drone reaches the end of the hall, diving through the open stained-glass doors. The doors swing shut in the wind of its passing.

Ocellus scrambles after her poor lantern. "No throwing my lantern. Treat her nice."

As Gallus pulls open the stained-glass double doors to the drawing room, Ocellus cautiously steps through.

"I get not wanting to hurt them, Ocellus. But if they attack us..." Gallus frowns. "Hurt is an outcome of fighting."

"I am so not suggesting that!" Gallus says defensively. "But if we're going to be fighting changelings... those kinds of changelings... we need a better way to do so."

Ocellus scowls at him. But she cannot blame him for the awkwardness he must be feeling. How do you talk to a changeling about love-starved changelings?

The cloudy-white wallpaper makes the room much lighter and more inviting than any other part of Nightmare Moon's Palace so far. But the wallpaper is peeling, and there are several odd stains. One whole section near the gothic stone fireplace is rotting.

Chairs, couches, low-sitting tables. Ornate lamps of moonsilver and polished adventurine tipped with figurines of Nightmare Moon. And the most unusual feature...

"Okay, I might not be up on goblet counting," Gallus says flatly, "But I know that grandmare clock wasn't ticking when we came through last time."

Ocellus had noticed the tall, gaunt gothic clock their first time through. Carved onyx with moonsilver weights and pendulum, arched bat wings rising up behind its face, the face itself softly glowing moon devoid of numbers, the time noted by moonsilver forks.

"Do you think it's a changeling?" Gallus asks, his ears dipping back and his tail curling with anxiety. "Or did our fleeing friend just decide to wind up the clock on its way out."

"Her way out," Ocellus corrects. She pauses, and feels gratitude when Gallus does not ask how she can tell. "And I don't think so."

The changeling nymph feels a chill. Another idea occurs to her. "Maybe it started when we took Envy?"

"Points for ominous." Gallus shies away, moving towards the opposite set of stained-glass doors.

Ocellus finds herself drawn to one of the walls, observing the odd stains. In some places, it almost looks like the clouds in the design had rained, ruining the paper.

The changeling nymph turns away from her wallpaper inspection, catching a somber note in Gallus' voice.

Gallus is looking back at her with a sadness in his eyes that she can't quite define. She tastes the love from him, muted heavily by a dominant emotion she cannot taste. The tomato soup is gone, replaced with a cool mint.

"I know a bit about facing personal nightmares here. What you did back there, changing into her..." Gallus says carefully. "That was the bravest thing I've ever seen you do. And I'm guessing the hardest."

Ocellus doesn't know what to say. For a moment, it appears Gallus does not either.

Ocellus feels a moment of almost bitter confusion. Why would it matter that you aren't Smolder? You're my friend too! The thought is almost immediately followed by an uncomfortable acknowledgement that she would prefer to have Smolder with her. This is the sort of deeply private thing she only shares with her roommate, and only during their secret tea parties.

Gallus winces. "Let's get out of this room before that clock drives me crazy." He sets down the lantern and grabs the double doors by both handles.

Ocellus' eyes widen as the light from the lantern shines through the stained glass. She can see the shattered remains of two more stained glass doors laying in the next room. Her ocelli flick upwards along the doorframe, taking note of the splintering. "Gallus...!"

The stained-glass doors Gallus is holding erupt in green transformation magic. A pair of changelings pin Gallus to the ground.

Gallus squawks in fright, too surprised to be terrified. He struggles, but together the two drones are stronger.

One opens her mouth, siphoning smoky wisps of love from his chest. The other helps hold him down, hissing at Ocellus.

Something bright snaps through Ocellus at seeing Gallus' love violated. As the smoke curls up towards the drone's open jaw, a brilliant turquoise light cascades in front of Ocellus.

Ocellus flashes across the room in an instant -- a blazing turquoise comet that tears through the intervening furniture -- slamming into the two drones and smashing them into the far wall of the next room.

Ocellus steps back wobbly, shaking her head to clear the ringing in her ears. The two drones lay limply at her hooves.

"Thanks for the save," he says. It is unnecessary. She can taste how grateful he is. "But if you don't mind my asking, what kind of magic was that? I didn't know changelings could do more things than change shape."

Ocellus closes her eyes. Forbidden memories resurface. Memories of attacking Canterlot. Shattering that pink shield surrounding the city. Surrounding herself with her collision barrier as the drones around her did the same. Bombarding the city like a green star shower. Shooting down a hundred feet and slamming into a mare at full speed. Recovering. Feeding.

Ocellus sighs heavily, shaking off the foul memory. "Something I haven't used in a long time."

She was lucky she didn't kill that mare. But then, she hadn't wanted to kill her. You can't feed from a corpse.

"I'm just saying," Gallus bites, "If we find Smolder in here, and she's in a dress, I called it."

Ocellus stops, the griffon's words finally cutting through the melancholy. She feels a warm flutter inside at the thought. "Do you think so? That more of our friends are here?"

Gallus looks relieved to hear his changeling friend talking again. "Maybe. It's possible. If you are right about the evil queen dragging us here to get the anti-Elements for her, then... how many of them are there again?"

"Four," Ocellus answers quickly. So if she was right, that meant two of her four other friends were in this place as well. Assuming they didn't all escape. "Did any of the others get away?"

The words taste sour. She hasn't told Gallus yet what is happening to Luna. Or that any of their friends who aren't here are probably also being drained of their memories.

"Last I saw before the tentacle wrapped around my face was Yona breaking free," Gallus says, offering hope. "Apparently, yaks are best at not being paralyzed."

As he passes and turns the corner, Gallus adds glumly, "I didn't see what happened to the others... whoah."

Ocellus flies around the griffon to see the hallway before them. She mentally echoes his whoah. They have made it back to where he fell out of the ceiling.

Scorch marks cover much of the walls and floor. The changeling queen goop has fully solidified into a luminescent green resin, looking like a dozen twisted and malformed changeling pods. Resin hangs from the ceiling and dangling vines in warped stalactites and splatters the walls like unholy eczema. Between the fire damage and the weight of the resin, several more ceiling tiles have collapsed. More vines hang limply from the enlarged opening.

Ocellus lands, folding her wings in tight under her elytra. There is no danger to stepping on the resin smattered over the floor, but she doesn't want to risk snaring one of her delicate wings on the hardened, knife-like strands that hang like luminescent green icicles. Behind her, Gallus follows suit.

Ocellus nods. "I grew up around this stuff." She eyes a twisted clump rising from the ground like a half-melted changeling. "Although I've never seen it this creepy before."

Gallus stares about. "So, there is a changeling queen making... what, grenades of her throw-up?"

Ocellus makes a face. Then stops as she spots two of her dice that had fallen from her saddlebags. She writes off the ten-sided that is fully encased in green resin. But one of her twenty-sided dice sits in a rough circle of clean between mounds of glowing resin.

It made its saving throw, she thinks, giggling inwardly as she lowers her saddlebag to scoop it up.

The changeling drone kicks her hard, sending her flying back across knife-edged grotesqueries of resin. Lime blades slash across her, scraping her elytra harmlessly but cutting deep into the softer chitin of her legs and the back of her neck.

Ocellus crumples into a bleeding heap, crying out from the pain shooting through her limbs. She squeezes her eyes tight, tears seeping between her eyelids. Through closed eyes, she can see the flash of her own transformation magic.

Bunny-Ocellus rolls onto her bleeding feet and scampers as fast as she can, dodging and jumping the hardened resin splatters, fighting through the pain that lances up her with every leap. The only thing on her mind is getting free of the hallway. Hopefully drawing the drone. She does not want to fight in the hall of resin knives.

She hears Gallus shout just as she clears the last of the bioluminescent lime aftermath. She curses inwardly, realizing the drone went for her other target. Bunny-Ocellus spins around, expecting to see Gallus being drained. Not registering the tone of the griffon's shout.

Bunny-Ocellus stares as Gallus tussles with Gallus. The two Galluses somersault over each other, rolling across bladed resin. Both are bleeding. The griffon's saddlepack has been severed from his back, laying on the floor near a hall bench.

With a flurry of wings, the fight goes airborne, one Gallus slamming the other back against the charred remains of an oil painting. With a grunt, the other Gallus pushes back against the wall, his strong lion hindlegs propelling them both into a bundle of vines.

Ocellus tries to taste which of the two is the real Gallus, but she's getting nothing from either of them. Anxiety, fear, determination... even primal survival rage are often experienced by a creature during a fight. Love almost never is. It's why this tactic caused so much confusion in Canterlot: not even the changelings could tell each other apart from their prey.

Ocellus opens her muzzle only to shut it again. This isn't like the hole in the ceiling. Asking Gallus to feel love in the middle of a struggle for his survival will not work. As fast as she can, Ocellus mentally sorts through her repertoire in the hopes of finding a form that will help.

The nymph shrugs with a smile as she wraps her bleeding left foreleg in bandages raided from Gallus' saddlepack.

"It was the only form I could think of that I knew you would react to and he - she wouldn't!"

Ocellus looks over at the changeling drone hogtied in torn vines. She knows that isn't going to hold her. Ocellus knows she would just change into a bunny to get out. This drone would probably turn into a cup. They seemed to have an odd affinity for goblets. She wonders idly if that is the first form they are taught to mimic.

Either way, once Ocellus had choked the girl out, it seemed cathartic for her friend to tie up the Gallus-impersonator, so she said nothing.

Ocellus is distracted from her thoughts by Gallus's cheery voice. "Hey, Ocellus. I found your real twenty-sider."

Ocellus looks over at where Gallus has stopped, his head bent and eyes on the ground.

"Oh great! Thank you." She pauses. "...Assuming it's not another love-starved drone."

Ocellus gasps as Gallus casually picks it up and rolls it. The dice doesn't turn into a changeling. It rolls like a dice, stopping with a "20" on its uppermost face.

Ocellus nods, flying over and pulling off her saddlebags. The nymph deposits the rescued die in her bags as Gallus walks back to examine his own saddlepack. She sees him pick it up, eyeing the slashed straps. The griffon begins tying them together as best he can.

Her friend's expression brightens. The griffon looks over at her, a smile spreading across his beak. "Oh! Ocellus?"

Ocellus puts her hoof down. "I am not going to add dice to my change repertoire so you can cheat at Ogres & Oubliettes. Don't ask again."

Gallus turns back to his saddlepack, frumping, "Technically, I haven't asked the first time."

He pulls his pack onto his back. It looks tight and uncomfortable. His bandages are turning crimson. So are hers. The cuts on the back of her neck sting most.

The two move on, soon reaching the pillars where the void barrier had stood. The broom is still sticking out of the column, its handle buried deep in the hole. The broken bust of Nightmare Moon lays on the floor.

Ocellus blushes. "Actually, those are from me." At his look, she adds, "I'll explain later."

Ocellus rushes ahead. Gallus squawks and takes off after her, catching up as she reaches the wall mirror and the open closet.

The three adolescent drones are gone. Ocellus isn't certain if she should be happy or worried.

"Okay, what gives?" Gallus grumps as Ocellus turns to the mirror and starts clopping at it. Blood has soaked through the wrapping on her right hoof, leaving dark red smears on the glass.

"Luna? Luna!" The changeling nymph receives no answer. The mirror continues to reflect the open closet: shelves with odd supplies. A wall with a stain.

The stain eats into the back wall. Festering. The surface bubbles, decaying, collapsing inward like layers of skin being eaten by acid.

A pair of slitted eyes appear in the smoke. The smoke forms into the semblance of a batwinged pony, but doesn't solidify.

A voice emanates from the foggy apparition, the voice stilted and emotionless, the sound echoing within itself. The voice reminds Ocellus starkly of the voice of the Tree of Harmony pretending to be Twilight Sparkle. But it is not Twilight's voice. Nor is the voice dark and ominous, as Ocellus would expect, but overly cheerful. Like Professor Pie might have sounded as a little filly. Roiling blue and black mist imitate a moving mouth, but the movements bear no connection to the words.

The eyes of the apparition glow brightly, bathing them with light. Ocellus feels her cuts stop itching. The bruises beneath her chitin fade.

The specter's eyes stop glowing, dissolving into the smog. Then the entire pony-like thing loses coherency, collapsing back into the stain.

Ocellus feels herself locked in place. Her mind has seized. She is too freaked out to move.

Her friend finally moves off of her. Gallus helps her up, closing the closet door with his tail. As Ocellus gets her hooves under herself again, the griffon begins peeling off blood-soaked bandages. The wounds beneath are closed.

Giving the door a wide berth, he decides to go back for the broom, telling her there are too many things in this place he doesn't want to touch without a long stick. "Seriously, this place should be an attraction. We should sell tickets."

Ocellus counts five, but she cannot be certain. They keep switching places. At the moment, two are on the stairs and one is standing in the arch of the bathroom. Two are flying. One of the fliers lands at the base of the Grand Stair while the drone at the bathroom turns and walks into the ebony-bricked room. The one who landed starts up the steps as the drone on the left wing of the stairs takes to flight.

She looks to Gallus as they crouch behind a dark-stoned pillar. The griffon nods, holding the handle of the one true broom in one talon.

Fighting one or two drones at a time has been rough. She's not sure they can survive being attacked by a full patrol. Stealth is their best option.

Unfortunately, while she can turn into a tiny little bat and keep out of sight, Gallus...

His saddlepack is at her hooves. Ocellus looks around frantically. Where did he go? She was just looking at him! "Gallus?" she whispers, trying not to be heard.

She looks up. Above her, she sees the shadow of her friend crouched against the glass of the balcony, barely visible in the shadow. Then he is gone, slipping silently to the next shadow, getting closer to the stairs.

"If it's all the same to you guys," Gallus said, stepping out onto the Treehouse balcony and stretching his wings. "I'm going fishing. Lunches at the School of Friendship are delicious but they lack protein."

Ocellus smiled at the predator clearly eager to get his hunt on. Beside her, Smolder gave a thumbs up.

They watched their blue-feathered friend launch himself into the air, swooping high before diving towards the river.

She turns, looking for where the griffon has disappeared to. She searches the balcony. Her ocelli turn upwards. The vaulted ceiling is consumed in shadows. He could be anywhere up there.

Ocellus looks back at the Grand Stair. She gasps as she sees one of the patrol drones laying limply on the steps.

Unfortunately, another drone sees the unconscious form too. With a loud hiss of alarm, he darts towards the fallen guardian. He makes it halfway when Gallus slips out from behind a tapestry, wrapping the broom handle around the changeling's neck.

The two fall onto the stairwell, the caught drone swinging a foreleg to pummel Gallus' face as the griffon grunts, having to exert himself to choke through the softer chitin surrounding the drone's throat.

The slaps to Gallus' face become slower and weaker until the arm falls limp. The griffon starts to worm his way out from under the unconscious drone.

Ocellus turns at a shout. The drone who went into the bathroom shoots out, flying towards Gallus. But instead of tackling the griffon, the drone pulls up short. Ocellus' pulse quickens as she sees the tank on the changeling's back. "Gallus! Look out!"

Gallus thrusts the unconscious drone off himself, taking to the air as a stream of royal jelly sprays between them, coating several steps.

With a flash, Bugbear-Ocellus is in the air, climbing up behind the drone. He turns, swinging the nozzle around.

Ocellus sees a familiar instinct kick in: change to a form immune to poison. With a flash of green, the drone becomes a goblet, falling to the floor. The royal jelly sprayer drops to the marble, bouncing with a clank.

Ocellus feels a hard pang of guilt. She hated doing that. The sting wouldn't kill him, but it was going to cause him a lot of pain when he finally dealt with it. She doesn't want to hurt any of these poor, love-starved changelings. She really, really doesn't. It is not their fault they are living like this.

"Two more!" Gallus reminds her, flying up into the gloom above. She looks up, but the shadows have swallowed the griffon. She briefly sees his silhouette cut across the stars beneath the skylight. Then nothing.

Ocellus turns, trying to spot the two remaining drones. They are flying straight for her across the open space of the Grand Hall. She has a moment to wonder if two drones are really going to try to fight a bugbear.

As they flash with green, a jolt of fear shoots through the nymph. Not counting the swarm abomination, the only creature she has seen a member of this hive turn into is the one that drone was fighting. If her form causes two bugbears...

Her eyes drink in with horror the pair of black alicorns swooping towards her -- not realistic forms, but rather grotesque effigies of Nightmare Moon based on statues and stained glass windows. Their manes don't flow but crease and crinkle like glass under pressure; the dragon-like irises glaring at her are stained glass.

Gallus drops from above, slamming into the back of a Nightmare Moon, driving her to the marble below.

Ocellus claws at the other, only to swipe at cold air as the black alicorn suddenly dives. Ocellus spins about, trying to reorient. She sees the Nightmare Moon beneath her, flying upside down, grinning at her as her horn glows.

The Grand Hall lights up in dazzling white and stark shadow as the black alicorn unleashes a blast of lightning. Bugbear-Ocellus screams, her nerves burning. She collapses to the marble next to Gallus and his opponent, reverting to her changeling form as smoke curls from her back.

The Nightmare Moon underneath Gallus rolls, pinning him beneath her. She opens her mouth, showing rows of stained-glass teeth.

Gallus' eyes widen in horror as those teeth begin to shift, sawing back and forth as she tries to bite him. He thrusts the broom handle into her mouth holding her back. The teeth begin to saw through the wood.

"Oh come on!" Gallus protests, indignation mixing with panic. "That's not how teeth work! Changelings have teeth. You know that!"

Ocellus pushes herself up, her muscles twitching hard but obeying, and throws herself at the Nightmare Moon on Gallus. The alicorn bats her away with a wing.

"They're not playing by the rules!" Ocellus grunts as she lands, her own head spinning. Alicorns are powerful, and maybe some of their magic is innate rather than learned spells, but this is insane!

The other Nightmare Moon cackles as she circles overhead. The sound is like a shattering mirror. Her horn glows, lightning flashing from its tip.

Ocellus turns her head. The royal jelly sprayer is just within one foreleg's reach.

The changeling nymph rolls, avoiding a blast of lightning that scorches the marble, and snatches up the sprayer. She doesn't have time to figure out how to use it. But the transparent tank is made of something hard enough that it shrugs off puckwudgie needles.

Ocellus flies towards Gallus and swings the tank as hard as she can against the back of his Nightmare Moon's head.

Gallus sweeps Ocellus up in both arms, clutching the nymph to his breast feathers, flogging the air with his wings. The griffon shoots straight up as lightning tears through the air where she had been.

The words of Luna come back to her: You will be safe inside. There are wards against enemies...

Gallus nods, not letting go, carrying his friend with him as he pumps his wings for all the mighty eagle's speed they will give him.

Behind, the first Nightmare Moon helps the second to her feet. They give chase, their horns beginning to glow as Gallus swoops up the Grand Stair and into the hall above.

The opulent doors to the Throne Room are open before them. Ocellus clings tightly to her friend as Gallus pushes for a last burst of speed.

Bolts of lightning rip across the hallway as Gallus and Ocellus fly between the Throne Room doors. The bolts strike the open air of the doorway like they are hitting water, dispersing in harsh brilliance.

The Nightmare Moons pulls back, stopping before they hit the threshold. They revert to drones, hissing angrily. Impotently.

Gallus drops to the floor, his grip on Ocellus turning to jelly. Ocellus collapses to the ground, her muscles feeling weak, her heartbeat rapid, her breath coming in gasps. An odd thunk reminds her that she is still holding the royal jelly sprayer. She discards it.

Gallus collapses against her on the floor, panting hard. The air is filled with the cursing chittering and hisses of the drones on the other side of the open door.

The analytical part of her mind wants to ask why she can enter this room when they can't. But right now she is too exhausted to be anything but thankful.

Ocellus and Gallus stare back as the two enemy changelings pace in frustration, shooting them hateful looks.

Still gasping for air, she asks Gallus, "Do you... have the urge... to nyah nyah?"

Gallus stares out the huge window at the bleakness of the outside world. "Wow. So that's... really the moon."

Ocellus knows exactly what he must be feeling. At least he isn't looking at it being a permanent home. "We'll get back," she lies, putting a hoof on his arm.

"And what's to stop the changelings -- the evil ones -- from just following us through?"

The two drones have left, reporting back to their queen. The hallway outside is silent again.

Ocellus really wishes her friend wasn't so perceptive. She looks away, her ocelli turning to the far end of the room, beyond the throne. But Luna is absent from the mirror. The surface shows only the nearly empty room, the two of them, and the moonscape beyond the window.

"I'm working on that," she finally says as she feels Gallus' gaze burrow into her. She cannot look at him when she says it. So instead, she gets up and walks towards the trio of onyx pillars.

"You're hiding something," Gallus observes, making her wince. Then, to make it worse, he asks, "Would you tell me if I were Smolder?" Gallus rubs his arm where she had been touching him.

As thankful as she is for Gallus, she can't tell him. It is terrible and wrong and ugly, but she cannot burden him with that. And his words only remind her of how lonely she is going to be. And while her thoughts focus on Smolder, her heart remembers how much she misses all of the others.

She hears Gallus get up, his talons clacking on ther floor as he approaches her. He stops a wing's reach away. The silence feels stilted, awkward and full of bad secrets. It presses against her like a ratty blanket that might carry disease.

Ocellus doesn't get up, but she slides herself to lie beside her friend. His tail curls around her.

Prey

by Kkat

Chapter 6: Do No Harm