Amie went to her quarters after that, she needed to be alone to think. Her mission was obviously virtuous, but the odds against her seemed overwhelming. She couldn't turn to Equestria for help, the ponies thought they were monsters and wanted them dead. She couldn't retreat to her camp and organize a united front for survival, because camp wanted her dead too.
Then there was Ivy, who might find the key to sending everypony home, or might betray her directly to the princess on a whim. Bud might help them hunt, or call the guard to get rid of them when they got too troublesome.
It would all be so much easier if camp was filled with adults. Then she wouldn't have to burn herself with guilt every time she thought about having them help, or take risks. They could decide for themselves what was worth fighting for, instead of looking to Amie as their protector. If Equestria only knew who they were starving up in the mountains...
Amie spread her detailed map of camp on her table, circling slowly around it while she thought. Somewhere on those pages there had to be an answer, hidden in plain sight. All she had to do was take over from a much more experienced leader who surrounded himself with armed guards! What could be simpler?
Hoofsteps sounded on the balcony outside, heavy and familiar. She felt exhaustion through that door, someone just as overwhelmed as she was. Overwhelmed with real emotions.
Amie became a bat. The change was so easy for her she barely thought about it anymore, as mechanical as clipping the straps of her bra behind her back. Not easy exactly, but familiar. When the magic faded, her head was no longer high enough to see the map on the table.
The door slid open a few seconds later, and Tailslide stumbled in. He fumbled for the light switch with one hoof, not seeing her yet in the gloom. She waited by the table, silent until he flicked the switch.
The light briefly blinded her bat-eyes, making her bare her teeth for a second in instinctive fear. But it didn't last. Tailslide was back. "Hey!" She waved one wing in his direction. "Wondered when you would get back from work.
Tailslide froze, eyes wide. "You're—you're back already? Back from your diplomatic mission?"
Now that she wasn't going to startle him, Amie closed the distance in a few steps, so she was within reach. He didn't smell great, more of those awful forge chemicals. But he looked a lot healthier. Now that he had somewhere warm to sleep and enough to eat, he wasn't working to death. "Finished it. There was... more diplomacy to work through here."
He nodded weakly, then leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead. Magically speaking, the affection wasn't much. But for Amie, it restored more than any glamour could quantify.
He walked past her to the fridge, then flicked it open. It wasn't empty anymore, the stuff Wes usually stocked had all been moved. He took a large bowl of hearty-looking stew, then poured it into a pot. "Put the other one on too," Amie said, following him over. "I haven't eaten since breakfast, and I'm starving."
Tailslide shrugged, then obeyed. "Still doing that? I thought that might just be because I... wore you out."
Amie chuckled. Her face felt warm all over again, but now she was in private. There was no reason to feel shy. "In a way, I guess that's why. There's... a lot you don't know. Can we talk about it later? One of the luxuries of having a boyfriend is not needing to think. I'm ready to stop thinking for a while."
"Oh. Let me get cleaned up. You can tell me about your trip after."
Amie felt much better. She was back to aching all over, but it was the kind of pain that reminded her of why life was worth living. In her handful of previous boyfriends, none had ever been quite like Tailslide.
Amie didn't wear out the way she had the first time, either. So much emotion in one place refreshed her far faster than her strength naturally waned, and still left her far fuller than when she started. In the end, it wasn't Tailslide or herself wearing out that brought her back to reality—it was the hunger and amusement she felt through the wall.
Kaya's bugs might not be spying on her every second, but they were still here, watching and feeling everything. And if Wes noticed, she might just die of embarrassment. She couldn't have privacy here, not like the luxury of a little boat on the lake.
Good thing that strange desire to sleep didn't return, or else she might've had trouble with the weight of all her other responsibilities. She didn't have the time to rest.
For all his tiredness, Tailslide didn't either. He joined her at the table, settling onto his haunches beside her chair. "You were looking at the map before I got here. What is this?"
"Camp Stella Lacus," she answered, looking back at him. "Buck, I forget how much you don't know. Everything kinda turned upside-down during the trip. It's a mess, Tailslide. I'm not sure what to do."
"Maybe I can help." He leaned over the map, studying it carefully. "Your camp is bigger than I expected. It's bigger than some towns."
"A hundred cabins. Then this little neighborhood here, these houses are for the staff. Counselors live in cabins near the students. In busy years we sometimes have kids in military tents here. Thank God we didn't have the extra population."
Tailslide looked up from the map. "Commander Path thinks these are barracks. From the air, we can see obstacle courses, an archery range, and some other things. Before I met you, I believed him—thought it was training a changeling army."
Amie chuckled. "He doesn't have an army. A private police-force, maybe. But that's... that's what's bothering me. This isn't on you—if you don't want to hear any of it, I'll... I'm sure I'll figure this out. I just need to let the problem stew for a while longer. There has to be a solution here."
"What are you trying to do?" Tailslide asked. "Remember why I stayed in Agate. I didn't know if I would ever see you again, I just thought what Equestria was doing was wrong. I want to help the ones stuck on that mountain, I still do."
Every person she told just made the risk of information escaping worse. But Tailslide wasn't going to run to Albrecht. Betrayal from him was far less likely than the orange bugs. Not that she expected it from either. "The bugs in Stella Lacus aren't just in trouble from Equestria—they're in trouble because their leader doesn't know what he's doing. I saw how things are like—it's bad. Someone has to take his place. I wish it could be someone else, but..."
Tailslide reached over, and brushed a few strands of her mane away from her face. "You want to... take over? That doesn't seem like you, Amie."
She hopped down off her chair, spreading both wings in a brief glide to the floor. What she said next was far more dangerous than any threats against an unseen changeling that Tailslide had never met.
"I don't want to," she said flatly. "If there was another way—I wouldn't. But Albrecht doesn't understand Equestria, he doesn't understand magic, and he doesn't understand changelings. He would still... be really useful in a lot of ways. Organization, logistics, and camp leadership. He knows the place, he knows the people. But he doesn't know our new world."
"Can you teach him those things?" Tailslide suggested. He held up one wing, defensive. "I'm not telling you that you wouldn't make a great leader. But I... am a little worried about the future of that camp. If you go back there, you're going to get swept up in whatever's coming. I don't know how long Equestria just... sits here. Commander Path would have attacked already if he knew how vulnerable you are. When he realizes..."
Oh God. Amie could tell truth when she heard it. Of course the commander had never mentioned any of his future plans to her, or any time she was around. She was just a hired actor, convincing his daughter to leave so she wouldn't pursue a military life.
"There's another reason it has to be me." She walked past him, gently pulling the curtains closed at the corners. They were already shut, but that little bit of extra light around the edges was still too much to risk with what she was about to do. Nopony outside of that window knew what she was.
"I know you've already seen what I really look like," she continued. "And you're... still here, anyway. But since the last time we met, I've changed. I don't know why—even the other changelings I visited couldn't tell me. But it happened."
Tailslide followed her. "I'm not afraid, Amie. I know you can look however you want. I figured you came up with that mare because you knew I would like her."
"Uh... okay, yeah. I could tell which of my different bodies made you feel more..." She shook her head vigorously, until she got it out of her head. It wasn't easy, with the smells of the last few hours still around them. "Honestly, I think I like being a bat more than anything else I've been so far. And I like being pretty—but I'm something else underneath, and that's what changed. I'll show you."
She closed her eyes, focused for a few silent moments. The bat vanished, and a changeling nymph took her place.
Tailslide was tall even for a pegasus, but now she was looking at his chin instead of his breast. She was still leaner and narrower, but not by much. Most dramatic was probably still having a mane, though that wasn't what his attention settled on. He stared directly into her eyes.
Amie wasn't limited to his physical reaction, though she had enough time around ponies to read shock when she saw it. His mouth opened and shut again, along with his wings, without producing any useful sound.
"Will you be upset if I say you’re more intimidating this way? Drones are… smaller, less dangerous. Now you’re all pointy. Reminds me of the wanted posters of Queen Chrysalis. Are you like her?”
Amie faced him again. She didn't move, not when his feelings turned so dark. He was afraid, and a nudge too hard might push him over the edge. There were other feelings present too—their last few hours proved that. She just had to lean on it.
"Queen Chrysalis is a monster—the things she did are evil. I'm not her—I'm Amie Blythe. I wasn't on your world when Equestria was invaded. I've never hurt a pony."
Tailslide closed one wing, then the other. He kept standing, as though ready to flee if he had to. Of course that wouldn't happen—if he decided to run, Amie wouldn't have the heart to stop him, no matter the consequences. "Why did you change? If I could choose, I wouldn’t copy her."
"I didn’t choose. So... you know how I said that changelings had tribes, like ponies? We don't have princesses, we have queens—every tribe does. The green tribe living in Camp Stella Lacus didn't have a queen... but now they will. Me."
She sagged onto her haunches, staring at the floor. Her wings spread limply to either side, betraying just how defeated she felt. How much pressure could one girl take before she exploded?
Not much more, surely. "We haven't been together long. If you're scared—I understand. I just ask if you're going to run that you not do anything that will hurt the bugs up in Stella Lacus. They're just kids, like Rick and Beth. They don't deserve to die."
Tailslide was silent for a long time. She had already felt pressure like this once, when Bud was deciding the survival chances of her changelings. Amie didn't really think he was capable of hurting the innocent bugs up at camp, but he could hurt her. It wouldn't take much.
"So you're the queen of your kind—the green tribe," he said. She couldn't read his feelings anymore—either he was keeping his emotions disciplined, or Amie's own confused them too much. She was definitely crying, so that didn't help. "You plan on taking over the camp?"
Amie closed her eyes again, then changed. Becoming the bat would probably be smarter, but the form just wouldn't come. She settled on another—the pegasus she'd designed weeks ago, when she tried to imagine what a pony version of Amie would have looked like. The version of herself she should've been here in Equestria, who could be welcomed by the ponies and probably helped to find a way home.
It was definitely easier for Tailslide to be near her this way. Some small part of him was still disgusted by the way changelings looked. That disgust came with shame, but it was still there. When she changed, only the shame remained.
"I have to," she said. Her voice was easier on him too, now that the strange reverberation of a bug's throat was gone from it. "Kids are starving up there. Albrecht doesn't know how to care for them, he doesn't know how to feed them. I have to—I can't let them starve."