//------------------------------//
// Old Injuries, Part 2 
// Story: Mare Do Well: Rebirth 
// by MagnetBolt 
//------------------------------//

Whisper West wiggled, trying to get comfortable on the concrete. The hoofcuffs didn’t give her a lot of room to change her position, and she was starting to cramp up between the cold and being unable to stretch. She looked over at the masked pony, who’d been trotting around the warehouse and doing something in the shadows she couldn’t quite make out.
“What’s your name?” Whisper asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” the masked pony said. His voice echoed in the wide space. As her eyes had adjusted, she’d seen that the warehouse was full of train cars in various states of disassembly along with the tools to do it.
“I need to call you something,” Whisper said. “Please?”
There was a long pause, the sound of a peg being hammered into concrete, and the masked pony walked back towards the light, putting a sledgehammer down and picking up a screwdriver. “If you have to call me something, Pest Control is fine. It’s what I do.”
“What are you doing?” she asked. It couldn’t hurt to at least try to make conversation.
“I’m getting ready. The bugs are going to come along to try and get you back.” He walked over to a door and tested it a few times before closing it securely and doing something to the hinges.
“You mean they’re going to rescue me from somepony crazy,” Whisper said.
“I don’t expect you to understand,” he said. He didn’t sound mad about being called crazy. The insult just rolled off him without hitting home. “I almost feel sorry for you. You’re a victim. They’ve got you twisted around their broken hooves and you don’t even realize it. You’re being eaten alive and you’re hoping the monsters doing it come back soon to gnaw on you more.”
“I’m not a victim! For one thing, King Thorax is a reformed changeling. He doesn’t need to eat love!”
“That’s what they tell ponies,” Pest Control agreed. He picked up a box held together with tape and attached it to the door he’d been working on.  “The other one isn’t even pretending to be reformed. I think I respect her more. She isn’t pretending.”
“It seems to me like you’re fighting a war all on your own. If you want ponies to take you seriously, you could at least tell me why you’re acting like this. The Changeling Hive is an Equestrian ally. I’ve known plenty of nice changelings. You said you don’t want to hurt me, so on some level you must want to help ponies, right? You can’t expect them to accept your help if you won’t tell them why they need it.”
“It should be obvious why they need it,” Pest Control said.
“It’s not obvious to me. What happened to you?”
Pest Control walked between two defunct train cars and strung something between them. “If I tell you, you’ll write about it.”
“Do you want me to write about it?”
Pest Control paused. “Yes. But I want you to tell the truth. Ponies have been lying to themselves for too long.”
Whisper nodded agreement.
Pest Control started without preamble, no real emotion in his voice as he spoke. “I was in love. It was a long time ago. I was a teenager. I didn’t know it, but that kind of first love is apparently delicious to changelings. Like fine wine. The pony I was in love with didn’t even exist. She was just an infiltrator looking for easy prey.”
“I’m sorry,” Whisper said.
“That would have been bad enough. Would have broken my heart. But I didn’t have many connections. Orphan. Not a lot of friends. Ready to do whatever the pony I loved wanted. They tricked me, and I was taken away to the hive. They captured me and drained me dry. Not much to say about that. It was like being in dreams that kept turning into nightmares until I couldn’t feel anything anymore.”
He opened a steel case and extracted a long-barreled weapon, putting it on a makeshift bench and checking it over as he spoke.
“When I wasn’t useful anymore, they let me go. They dragged me out of a pod, on legs I hadn’t used for months, and threw me into the badlands. I was supposed to die. I almost did. Vultures thought I was dead. They did this.” He motioned to his face with his hoof. “I don’t know how I lived. Dragged myself somewhere other ponies found me.”
“That’s awful,” Whisper said.
“It was almost worse when I got back,” Pest Control said. He finished what he was doing and walked over to her. “Therapists didn’t believe me about changelings. Ponies didn’t think they existed. I spent years recovering, then I started fixing Equestria. I could see the signs. I squashed every changeling I could find.”
“Why didn’t you go to the Royal Guard and show them proof?” Whisper asked.
“Ponies don’t like to think about big problems. When I showed them proof, they thought it was one lone monster. There was no way it was a conspiracy worming its way everywhere. Infesting Equestria. Then the Canterlot invasion happened, and I thought ponies would finally understand. I thought I could stop. You know what happened next.”
“Thorax overthrew Chrysalis, and the changelings reformed,” Whisper said.
Pest Control nodded. “They found a way to hide again, but out in public this time. They can walk among ponies openly and ponies call them friends. They’re monsters. They might look shiny and pastel now, but they’re the same monsters that drained me dry and left me to die. One of them out there pretended to love me. Ponies didn’t just forgive, they forget. They act like it was different changelings that invaded Canterlot. They’re the same creatures, just wearing different faces. That’s what changelings do. They wear different faces and trick you. But they won’t trick me. Never again.”





“...So…” Thorax coughed. Loopy could taste the awkward in the air. “Are you and Miss West…?”
“If you’re asking me for permission to date her, the answer is no,” Loopy said. “We’re not involved, but I’m definitely not letting her get involved with you.”
Thorax groaned and shook his head. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Whisper West is my friend,” Loopy said. “I helped her with her books. I’ve used her as bait. And now somepony else is using her as bait against me.”
“It’s just, you know,” Thorax coughed, trying to act casual. He casually, twice as large as Loopy and as a giant neon-colored moose bug, leaned against the hotel wall. “It would be okay if you were in love with her, or somepony else. Sharing love is actually really healthy!”
Loopy rolled her eyes. “Did that little speech work with any of the other changelings you used it on?”
“Not really,” Thorax admitted.
“I figured,” Loopy said. There was a knock on the door.
“Are you decent?” Bon-Bon asked.
Loopy looked up and shifted into her usual disguise, black chitin disappearing behind pink fur. “Come in.”
Bon-Bon stepped in, holding a letter and looking at it, thinking. “A courier dropped off a letter at the front desk. I had Lyra look it over, but it doesn’t seem like there’s any of that bug spray he was using before, so it should be safe.”
“It’s a ransom letter,” Loopy said, without even needing to look at it.
“Sort of,” Bon-Bon confirmed. “He wants to trade hostages. He’ll give Whisper West back in exchange for King Thorax. I don’t know why he expects--”
“I’ll do it,” Thorax said, immediately.
“Yeah, we’ll definitely trade them,” Loopy agreed.
Bon-Bon blinked a few times, obviously confused. “What? King Thorax, no offense, but we can’t do that. You’re royalty, and the leader of a nation. Whisper West is a good pony, but there’s no way this is a fair trade.”
“As a leader, I can’t let a pony get hurt because of me,” Thorax said. “Changelings are still finding their place as part of Equestria. Whatever problems he has with changelings, I might be able to talk to him and at least understand what happened and try to make amends.”
Loopy shrugged. “I just like Whisper more. It seems like a fair trade.”
“It’s not even going to be a trade,” Bon-Bon said. “He wants Thorax to come alone. It’s obviously going to be a trap, and he’ll just make more demands after he has what he wants!”
“I still have to do it,” Thorax said. “Thank you for your assistance. Where does he want to make the trade?”





“Hello?” King Thorax asked, as he walked through the old train graveyard, as if it wasn’t possible to see him from a mile away. “I’m here, alone, just like you asked. Let Whisper West go!”
Spotlights snapped on from directly ahead, the glare blinding Thorax.
“I know you don’t like changelings, and I understand,” Thorax said. “I didn’t like my people either! That’s why I ran away. I’ve been doing everything I can to help them change and become better creatures. We want to make up for what we did, but the first step is understanding each other. I want to talk to you, and we can work something out!”
A shot cracked through the darkness and impacted a pace in front of Thorax, a magical shield briefly shimmering into visibility. Thorax sighed, his antlers glowing softly in the dark.
“If you’ll just listen--”
A second shot bounced off the shield.
“I told you,” Mare Do Well said, from the shadows of a broken-down passenger car.
“You did tell me,” Thorax agreed. A third shot bounced away. “I can do this all day, but it’s not much fun. I think he’s behind the spotlights. I can’t see anything through the glare.”
“Just keep being a big neon moose target.”
Mare Do Well slipped out onto the next track over, sprinting low to try and avoid being seen by the sniper. She almost tripped over a nearly-invisible fishing line.
“Oh buck,” she whispered, just before the fireworks went off, flares launching into the air and completely eliminating any shade and cover she might have had. She spread her wings and took off, abandoning stealth and flitting as quickly as she could towards the spot the shots were coming from, a tent set up on top of an aging warehouse.
The barrel of the weapon protruded from a hunter’s nest shrouded by a filthy tarp. Loopy grabbed the edge of the tarp and yanked it back, ready to strike the pony behind the weapon.
There was no pony behind the glintlock. A few ropes and a clockwork timer were pulling the trigger and holding it on-target down the obvious sightline.
“What?” Loopy asked, confused, right before it went off in her face. Something dropped into a half-full jar and there was a thump of fire and smoke.
“Mare Do Well!” Thorax shouted, running for the warehouse. The rain was spreading whatever had been used as fuel, the puddle growing and fire dripping onto the ground in a hissing, bubbling mess.
The King looked up in horror at the blaze.
A dark shape rolled out of the flames, Mare Do Well totally enveloped by fire. Thorax was not the best pony in a crisis but he didn’t freeze up in the face of danger. He rushed for her and turned into a wet blanket, which was both literally and metaphorically one of his most finely-honed skills.
It took almost a full minute for the smoke and steam to stop and for Loopy to pull herself free, her costume just burned tatters now.
“Okay, that’s a little too intimate,” she gasped, shoving Thorax away. He shifted back, his chitin scuffed and burned in a few places.
“Are you okay?” he asked. 
“I’m fine. My costume isn’t.” She tore the rags off. “This guy’s really getting on my nerves. I don’t have a lot of spare outfits, you know.”
“We need to find him before he can do anything else,” Thorax said. “I don’t think he’ll be happy that I didn’t come alone.”
“I’m not hiding,” the pony’s voice boomed across the trainyard.
The rolling door to the warehouse opened with a loud squeal, and the armored pony stood waiting for them. He motioned for the changelings to come closer, brandishing a staff.
“So what should we tell the police your name is when we bring you in?” Loopy asked. “I’m sure they’ll want to meet a pony who attempted to murder an ambassador.”
“Pest Control,” he said.
The two changelings made it almost all the way there. A spring sprung, and a rope pulled taut. The dust under Loopy’s hooves shifted. She sighed.
“Buck,” she said, just before the net swept her and Thorax up, twisting and tangling them in a spinning motion like a giant spider wrapping them in a web, which was particularly distressing when there were, in fact, spiders large enough to do that.
The net stopped spinning and dropped heavily to the ground, Thorax landing on top of Loopy and knocking the air from her lungs.
“Why are you so heavy?” Loopy groaned.
The armored pony stepped out into the open, grabbing a trailing rope from the net.
Thorax’s antlers sparked, lightning crackling between them.
“I can’t use my magic,” Thorax groaned. “I can’t break us free!”
“It’s a zebra potion,” Pest Control explained. “It reveals a changeling’s true form when applied to their body, but when soaked into a rope, or a net, it suppresses your magic.”
“Can I at least get a separate net?” Loopy asked. “Stop kicking me!”
“Sorry,” Thorax whispered.
Pest Control dragged them into the middle of the room. He walked over to Whisper West and grabbed her fetlock.
“Leave her alone!” Loopy snapped.
Pest Control ignored her and pulled something out of his pouch. Loopy struggled against the ropes, trying to get free, and-- the hoofcuffs came loose. Pest Control hadn’t grabbed for a weapon. He’d produced hoofcuff keys.
“You’re free to go,” he said. “I got what I wanted.”
“I’m not going to--” Whisper started.
“You aren’t going to want to see what happens to them,” Pest Control continued. “It’s never pretty, and they smell worse on the inside.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Loopy mumbled.
“I won’t let you hurt them,” Whisper said, getting between Pest Control and the bound changelings. “You’re wrong about them.”
“I don’t blame you for not understanding,” Pest Control said. “You’ve been tricked. Fed on. That’s what they did to me. You’ll be better someday. You’ll thank me.”
He twirled the staff he was holding.
“I promise I won’t do anything to you that won’t eventually heal,” he said. “I know you’re a victim like me.”
Loopy growled. “Get away from her!”
She bit into the rope netting, the zebra potion soaked into it burning her mouth like she’d bit into poison ivy. She gnawed at the rope, her fangs cutting into it.
“Move!” Pest Control shouted, shoving Whisper aside. She grabbed the staff he was holding and hung onto it, delaying him for a few critical seconds, enough for Loopy to tear free and stumble out of the net, spitting and trying to get the taste out of her mouth.
Whisper yelped and fell down, Pest Control dropping his staff and kicking her aside.
“Are you hurt?” Loopy shouted, her voice raspy.
“I’m okay,” Whisper said.
“Try to get the big moose idiot free,” Loopy said. “I’ve got this guy.”
Whisper nodded and got up, circling around Pest Control to get to Thorax. Pest Control lunged for her, and Loopy got in front of him. He flinched, and she felt that little surge of emotion, that little flickering flame that was still deep inside somewhere.
“You’re afraid of me,” Loopy said. “I sensed it when you ripped my mask, and again in the hotel.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” Pest Control denied. He took a step forward in defiance.
“You aren’t afraid of Thorax. Is that because you can look at the big clumsy moose and it doesn’t bring back any bad memories?” Loopy asked. She circled around him, watching to see if he was going to grab for a weapon.
“I’ve squashed worse bugs than you,” Pest Control said. He pulled a short, wickedly curved knife, holding it tight against his fetlock and taking up a fighting stance.
“Worse than me?” Loopy asked. She laughed. “Worse than me?”
Loopy blazed with green fire, doubling and then tripling in size. A terrible cackle filled the air. Pest Control’s fear came back to life, the ghost of drained emotions returning in full, terrible force. He backed up, falling on his butt as the strength left his legs.
“No. That’s impossible!” Pest Control gasped. He dropped the knife.
“Nothing is impossible,” Queen Chrysalis purred. She smirked and took a step towards him. “Oh, my little pony. It’s been too long. Don’t you remember all that time we spent together?”
“No. No!” Pest Control scrambled back.
“Where are you going?” Chrysalis asked. “Do you really think you can escape me? You’ll never really be free!”
In his blind panic, Pest Control ran for the door to the warehouse, his mind blank, all his preparation and training forgotten. Chrysalis spotted the package at the corner of the door, wrapped in brown paper and topped with a blinking light and a wire running to the handle.
“Wait!” Chrysalis shouted.
Pest Control opened the door, and the bomb exploded in a dull, heavy thump of roiling fire. The ground quaked from the shock, and the skeletal train shells slumped and slid as the floor began to crumble.
Chrysalis vanished, Loopy shifting back to her normal shape, the drain from becoming someone so much larger making her stagger with weakness. She almost fell, until a pony grabbed her, steadying her.
“I’ve got you,” Whisper West said.
“I thought I came here to get you,” Loopy quipped.
“We need to get out of here!” Thorax shouted, shrugging off the rest of the net. “The building is coming down!”
The roof was already weakened from the fire, and when the ground started shaking, the damaged warehouse couldn’t take any more. The rusted beams started twisting, and the load moved, twisting them further.
“That way!” Whisper pointed. “He didn’t trap that door!”
Thorax picked up both Whisper and Loopy with his magic, charging through the far door only seconds ahead of the destruction. They got outside with his hooves trailing dust and debris rolling out of the door behind them like lost puppies made of wreckage.
“Put me down,” Loopy grunted. Thorax carefully placed her on her hooves. She narrowed her eyes and watched the building collapse in on itself.
“It’s over,” Thorax sighed. He put Whisper down next to Loopy, gently pushing them together to support each other.
“Maybe,” Whisper said. “He survived a lot already. If there was a pony who might come back, it’s him.”