Change of Pace
Early at night, Suncloak found himself standing in front of the cave’s hidden entrance in the Everfree Forest. Tonight was the last time he could join the other changelings in their hideout to share friendship lessons, but he felt a bit too anxious to enter. Possibly a bit scared, too.
However, he owed it to them. The others need to get their report ready, and Suncloak had promised to help them. He needed to get his act together, get in that cave, talk to them for a bit, see them off, and then go back to his normal life.
The thought made him grimace. ‘Normal’ life. Hadn’t this weekly appointment become normal as well? It was strange; when the other changelings had just come to Ponyville, Suncloak hated them. But now, when they were about to leave, he didn’t want to see them go. It was almost frustrating.
It took him a few moments of nervously pacing around, but Suncloak finally managed to work up the courage to enter the cave. He crawled underneath the bushes and entered, walking down the narrow path and into the first room of the cave, the one filled with flowers. “Hey everyling!” he shouted ahead as he walked across the path through the flowers. He could already see the other changelings sitting next to the small lake in the next room of the cave.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he joined the others. “Emerald was pestering me about something, and I didn’t know what. Turns out she just wanted to pester me.” That, and he spent a few minutes outside the cave, but they didn’t need to know that.
“Hey Suncloak,” #14 said in a rather pensive tone of voice. “We were just discussing something.”
“Your report to the hive, right? I came prepared!” Suncloak said, extending one hoof forward. With a whirl of green flames, a hole appeared, or rather reappeared in his leg, revealing that he had stored a scroll in it. The paper unfurled, dropping to the ground and covering a considerable distance. “I took the time to write everything we’ve learned on this scroll. Making that report will be easy!”
#14 sighed. “Yes, well, about that...” She paused for a moment. “Uh, I don’t really know how to say this.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Suncloak said. “I know you’re not exactly looking forward to leaving. We’ll just go over all these lessons real fast, so you can get going as soon as possible.”
“Would you stop talking for just a second?!” #14 groaned. “You don’t need to help us all with that report.”
Suncloak raised an eyebrow. “Huh? You need to have a complete report ready, that’s standard procedure. You can’t return to the hive with empty hooves.”
“That’s just the thing,” #14 said. “We—”
“We wanna stay in Ponyville!” #145 piped up.
Suncloak paused for a moment. “Are you serious? You all want to live here? Among ponies?”
“Not all of us,” #21 said. “I’m returning to the hive. But them?” He motioned towards the others. “They’re absolutely serious about it.”
“But...” Suncloak’s jaw flapped up and down uselessly for a few seconds. “You can’t do that! That’s disobeying a direct order!” He sat down on the ground. “It’s treason! Queen Chrysalis will punish you and degrade you to one of her measly personal servants!”
#2 tapped his chin with a hoof. “Not really. She can’t do anything to Equestrian citizens. We’d be in no danger.”
“Are you listening to yourself?” Agitated, Suncloak stood up and paced around. “I was forced to live here. You have a whole life back at the hive, and you’re going to just throw that away?!”
“Not ‘just’,” #7 said. “I’ve been thinking about this for weeks. The hive is where I was born, but...”
“Living here feels so much better,” #45 said. “Queen Chrysalis treats every changeling like any other drone, but here, I have friends who care about me.”
#18 shrugged. “Food is way easier to come by when you’re living among ponies. I don’t see why I should go back.”
Suncloak pointed at #21. “Ask him! He’s going back!”
“Whoa, hey, don’t look at me,” #21 said. “This friendship thing is cool and all, but I just miss the hive, and the thrill of deceiving ponies.”
Suncloak slapped himself in the face with a hoof. “You’re useless. How can I convince you guys not to do this?”
“You don’t have to,” #14 said. “We’ve been thinking about this for a long time, even Lofty, and we brought it up before you got here. We agreed really quickly that this is what we want to do.”
“Okay, okay,” Suncloak said, forcing himself to calm down. “You could’ve told me earlier.”
#145 fidgeted nervously. “I didn’t say. I thought it was really weird and that you’d laugh at me.”
“Same here,” #14 said. “I thought you’d be happier, though.”
Suncloak sighed. “I’m just really surprised, that’s all.” He went over to the pond and stared at his own reflection for a second. “So, how do you want to do this?” He walked back to the group. Oddly, the scroll with friendship lessons was still stuck on his leg, dragging behind him, so he kicked it loose. “I mean, it’s not that hard, you just keep on living here, but it’s going to be pretty hard to keep up your disguise for years.”
“Uh, yeah. About that...” #14 said. “I don’t really know how to say this.” She looked at the others in a silent plea for help.
“We don’t wanna be disguised anymore!” #145 said.
“Oh.” Suncloak’s eyes widened. “Oh! You want to just go and tell them you’re all actually changelings? How were you planning on doing that?!”
#21 picked up the scroll Suncloak had dropped on the ground. “And that’s what they don’t know.” He squinted a few times as he tried to read what Suncloak had written. “Sheesh, your mouthwriting is terrible.”
The other six changelings gave Suncloak awkward grins. “We were hoping you could help us,” #14 said.
Suncloak sat down and buried his face in his hooves. “So none of us have any idea whatsoever. Great.” He sighed and stood up. “I’ll see if I can find out how to... Well, how to introduce six more changelings to the whole town, after having lied about it for months.”
The awkward grins quickly turned into happy grins. “Really?” #14 seemed the most ecstatic of them all. “You really want to help us with that?”
“Sure,” Suncloak said. “It’s not as if I can order you to return to the hive or anything. This is your choice, and I’ll support whatever you want to do.” A smile crept across his face. “Though this decision sounds a lot better than all of you leaving.”
“Except me, of course,” #21 said. “Speaking of which, I think I can just take this whole scroll as the report.” He prodded the scroll a few times. “If anyling at the hive has any questions, I think I can explain it to them myself.”
Suncloak shrugged. “Sure, take it. That’s why I made it, after all. When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow morning,” #21 said. “So this is the last time I’ll see you guys.”
Suncloak sighed. “That’s too bad. Did you tell your friends?”
#21 nodded. “Yeah, they got all sappy with me. It’s been fun, but I want to go back to the hive.” He rolled up the scroll and put it in one of the holes in his hooves. With a whirl of green flame, the hole disappeared, storing the scroll inside the changeling’s hoof. “But hey, maybe we’ll see each other again sometime.”
“Maybe.” Suncloak chuckled. “That is, if they don’t label you as insane and never allow you to set a hoof outside the hive ever again.”
#21 chuckled as well. “Yeah, I can see my superiors doing that. Some changeling comes in, yapping about friendship? I’d lock ‘em up!” he said, drawing laughter from the other changelings.
“Seriously, though,” #14 said. “We’ll miss you. I guess it won’t be the same without you.”
“Psh, missing other changelings?” #21 scoffed. “How very not-changelinglike. But I think the changelings at the hive will miss you guys, too. Or to be more precise, they’ll wonder where you went. And then I’ll have to explain how I lost six changelings.”
“I’m sure they’ll understand,” #18 said. “And if they don’t, that’s not our problem.”
Suncloak shrugged. “I guess they wouldn’t care all that much. Especially not Queen Chrysalis. I think she couldn’t care less about six missing changelings.”
“That leaves just one thing,” #14 said.
Suncloak nodded. “Yes. I’ll have to ask around to find out how to do this the best way. I know who to ask, but I’ll have to be careful.”
Deep in thought, he rubbed a hoof on his chin. “I’ll have to be subtle...”
“So, let me get this straight,” Twilight Sparkle said, “you’re asking what the proper procedure would be if you wanted to introduce a group of changelings to a town, even though they’ve already been living in said town for a few months while disguised as ponies, learning about friendship the whole time.”
“Yes,” Suncloak said. “But I’m not really doing that, it’s a ‘what if’-scenario. I was just curious.”
Considering Twilight Sparkle was the smartest pony in Ponyville, and she lived in the library, it was a no-brainer for Suncloak to go there first. The morning after his discussion with the other changelings, he immediately went to the library, and was now sitting at the table with Twilight, having just asked her what he needed to do. Hypothetically, because Suncloak couldn’t let Twilight catch on to what was actually going on.
Twilight gave Suncloak a deadpan look. “You know, that’s an awfully specific scenario.”
Suncloak shrugged. “Hey, I’m just asking. In case it ever happens.”
Twilight groaned and slapped herself in the face with a hoof. “Suncloak, I can tell that you’re lying.”
Uh oh. She was onto him. “Are you sure?” Suncloak asked, hoping it would change her mind. He added an exaggerated, but hopefully convincing grin to it.
“Yes! I’ve read multiple books on lying and on top of that, you’re really bad at it!” Twilight slapped herself in the face with a hoof again. “Though this time, I can’t say I was aware of the whole charade.”
“Okay, I’m sorry!” Suncloak sighed. “I wanted to see what you’d advise before telling the truth.”
Twilight sighed. “It’s okay.” She stood up from the table and went to one of the many bookshelves. “But it’s a really complicated issue,” she said, peering at the titles of several books. “I mean, you were the first changeling to come live here. Now, there’s six more joining you. Who’s to say what happens next?”
Suncloak wanted to say something, but he couldn’t find the words. He hadn’t even thought about that. Right before he started living in Ponyville, he had run into #21. Suncloak had kindly requested him to leave, but after a short while, he came back with a few other changelings. Now that #21 was going back to the hive, it might just happen that other changelings would want to try a new lifestyle as well.
Or they might not care at all, and Ponyville would forever know only seven changelings. Suncloak had no idea what would happen, though both options sounded equally good to him. Living among ponies seemed to have made the other changelings much happier with their lives, and that was a good thing. On the other hoof, who knew how the majority of ponies would react to more and more changelings wanting to live among them? Maybe having their numbers remain small was better.
“I don’t know what’ll happen,” Suncloak said. “They only told me they wanted to stay last night, and I hadn’t even thought of the possibility before that.”
Twilight grabbed a few books of the shelf with her magic, quickly leafing through them. “To be honest, I doubt any book can tell you how to do this. This has never happened before.” With a sigh, she closed the books and dropped them on the table.
Suncloak looked at the various books. All their titles were made up of some weird law mumbo-jumbo. He pulled one towards him and opened it, but the contents of the book were even more confusing than the cover. “There has to be something you know,” he said, closing the book.
Twilight sat herself down again, opening one of the books. “Not off the top of my head. There might be some obscure law hidden in one of these books, but I doubt there’s anything referring to changelings.”
Suncloak raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you run into that sort of stuff when I started living in Ponyville?”
Twilight shook her head. “No. I made an exception that time, because I knew there was no legal procedure for making a changeling an Equestrian citizen. Now that you want to introduce six more, though...” She sighed. “I don’t think we can make an exception this time.”
Suncloak groaned. This was turning out to be way more difficult than he had thought. “This was a really bad idea, wasn’t it?” he asked as his face drooped.
“Not at all!” Twilight said. “Actually, I’m glad to hear about this. I’d never have imagined the magic of friendship working for changelings, too! This is wonderful data for my studies of friendship.” She put her book down and grabbed another. “It’s just a bit complicated, that’s all.”
Suncloak let out a sigh of relief. He grabbed a random book and opened it, but it might as well have been written in Ancient Equestrian. That might even be the case, he couldn’t tell. “I have no idea how to read this stuff,” he said, closing the book. “What can I do to help?”
“Um...” Twilight tapped a hoof on her chin. “Those other changelings are sure they want to go through with this, right?”
Suncloak nodded. “A changeling wouldn’t just leave the hive on a whim. It’s the only home we know, so for them to want something else... I can tell you, they’re absolutely sure. I think they’d go ahead with revealing themselves no matter what.”
“If it’s unavoidable, you could try revealing them to only a couple of ponies first, see their reaction,” Twilight said. “Ponies who don’t know a thing about them. Ponies you can trust.”
“I can do that,” Suncloak said as he stood up. “I’ll get right on it.” He made his way to the door and opened it, already knowing which ponies he’d pick for this task. It’d push their trust to its limit, but Suncloak was willing to risk that.
“Wait a second, Suncloak,” Twilight said, making Suncloak halt and turn around. “You do know I’m going to have to inform Princess Celestia about this, right?”
Suncloak’s heart stopped for a split second. “Uh, now I do.” That didn’t sound good. If anyling had a good reason to dislike changelings, it’d be Princess Celestia. Sure, it had turned out Princess Luna at least didn’t mind Suncloak, but he doubted the princesses would be very happy with more changelings living in Equestria.
Suncloak turned back to the door and shuddered. “I-I’ll just get going.” Even though he’d been proven wrong about Luna, the mere thought of the princesses still scared the changeling. Princess Luna had already scared the living daylights out of him, and Princess Celestia... Well, he couldn’t come up with a good metaphor for that.
Twilight went over to Suncloak and put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “She’s a kind and generous ruler. I’m sure she’ll make a decision that’ll make everypony happy.”
“I hope so,” Suncloak said, quickly leaving the library.
The next day, Suncloak had gathered Derpy, Lyra, Bon Bon and Vinyl Scratch in the living room of his house. The other changelings were currently upstairs and disguised, waiting to be introduced.
Suncloak paced back and forth in front of his pony friends and cleared his throat. “I’ve asked you to come here for something incredibly important. I can’t tell you exactly what, but I can tell you is that it has to remain a secret, at least for now.”
Derpy gave a salute. “Affirmative, sir!”
Lyra hopped up and down in excitement. “This is so cool! I feel like a super secret spy or something! Oh, oh, oh! Will the secret message self-destruct?”
Suncloak stood still, looking himself over. “I hope not.” He waited a few seconds to see if he’d actually explode, but that didn’t happen. Good, because exploding would be really inconvenient. Satisfied, he continued his pacing. “Before we continue, I wanted to ask something. You all trust me, right? You wouldn’t think any less of me for any reason?”
“Of course we trust you, sweetie!” Bon Bon said. “I wouldn’t see any reason not to.”
Vinyl grinned. “Yeah, and you’d have to do something worse than Discord for me to want to stop being your friend.”
“Good. Thanks.” Suncloak breathed a sigh of relief. He was pretty sure they would answer like that, but actually hearing his friends say they trust him made him a lot more sure about what he was going to tell them. “On the day I met the four of you, you might have noticed that I acted a little... distracted.”
“Uh, I don’t know,” Derpy said, scratching her head. “I thought you were just acting a little strange because you had to get used to living in Ponyville.”
“Not exactly,” Suncloak said. He went around the room, closing the curtains on all of his windows. Had to make sure there were no accidental eavesdroppers. “I met someling else that day. Well, a few somelings.”
“Pfft.” Lyra waved her hoof dismissively. “So you have friends besides us, that’s not such a big deal.”
Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “Lyra, I think it’s a little bit more complicated than that. Right, Suncloak?”
A quick smile crossed over Suncloak’s face. Of course Bon Bon would catch on quickly. “Yes, it’s a bit complicated. That’s why I’ll just show you.” He went upstairs and motioned for the six disguised changelings to follow him into the living room.
One moment later, the six changelings stood opposite Suncloak’s friends. They didn’t say anything, awkwardly standing there. #14 had put on her usual purple and red unicorn disguise, and #145 was exactly as Suncloak remembered him, a red and white pegasus colt, with a yellow streak in his mane and tail. #2 was disguised as a yellow and green earth pony, #7 as a blue and yellow pegasus, #18 as a black and blue unicorn, and #45 as a green and brown earth pony.
With all eleven of them in one room, it started feeling pretty cramped. It wasn’t doing the other changelings any good, as their faces made it evident they were incredibly stressed and tense, even #145. Currently, they all intently stared at Suncloak’s friends.
Suncloak positioned himself in the middle of the groups, standing at the sideline. “Well then. These—” he motioned towards the ponies “—are my friends. And these are...” he trailed off as he motioned towards the disguised changelings. “Well, they’re... You’ll see.”
Vinyl raised her sunglasses a few inches with her magic. “Am I supposed to see something weird? ‘Cause I’m not seeing it. Could be because you closed all the curtains.”
“One moment, Vinyl,” Suncloak said. “These six ponies have been living in Ponyville for about as long as I have. They’ve made friends, they’ve had their fair share of everyday Ponyville life and the occasional... weirdness that comes with it. They really liked living here, and they want to stay in Ponyville, but they have a secret.” He took a deep breath. “I think it’s best if we just show you.” He nodded towards the six disguised changelings.
The six of them took a second to prepare, and with six whirls of green flame, turned back into their normal form.
The four ponies all gasped loudly. “But— What is...?” Derpy said, looking towards Suncloak.
Lyra, on the other hoof, approached the six changelings, who recoiled a little in response. She looked at each of them for a few seconds before going on to the next, stopping at #145. She stared at him for a long while, neither of the two saying anything.
“Lyra?” Bon Bon asked. “What’re you doing?”
Lyra answered by shoving the little #145 in Bon Bon’s face. “Check it out, Bon Bon! It’s a changeling foal! Isn’t he cute?” She used her hooves to smoosh the young changeling’s face. “Look at him!”
#14 took the opportunity to speak up. “Actually, a young changeling is called a ‘nymph’. But most changelings say ‘grub’ or something similar.” She spoke in a kind tone, having lost a lot of stress all of a sudden.
“Oooh,” Lyra said. “A changeling nymph, then! I didn’t think changelings could get this small!”
Bon Bon smiled. “Well, if I had to guess, I’d say changelings grow up just like ponies.”
“Well, aside from the fact that changelings hatch from eggs, yes,” #2 said.
#145 tried saying something, but Lyra’s hooves held his jaws in place, making his words come out sounding like “Hah hoo weh wooh, weah?”
Lyra let go of his cheeks. “Whoops, sorry. What did you say?”
“I asked if you could let go,” #145 said. “Thank you!” He looked at Lyra for a few moments, deep in thought. “Are you Lyra?”
“Sure am, kid,” Lyra said, puffing out her chest in mock pride. “Suncloak must’ve told you all about me!”
#145 nodded vigorously. “Uh-huh! He told us all about you when he was teaching us about friendship. And he also told us about Derpy Hooves, and Bon Bon, and Vinyl Scratch, and—”
“Whoa, hold on a second,” Derpy interrupted him. “Suncloak was teaching you about friendship?” She raised an eyebrow and looked at Suncloak, the other ponies joining her in equal surprise.
“They asked me to show them how to live like me,” Suncloak said. “So I did. I told them about everything I learned in Ponyville.”
Vinyl grinned. “So you told them everything you learned from us! I guess that makes us their teachers too, a little bit.”
“Hey, I learned a lot of things on my own!” Suncloak said. She made it seem like they told him everything! ...Which they did, except for two or three times. Whatever, he made his point.
Bon Bon tapped her chin with a hoof. “Doesn’t that make you their leader?”
“What? No! I just...” Suncloak groaned. “I only told them what I learned about friendship and helped them blend in a little, that’s all.”
#7 shrugged. “You’re the closest thing we have to a leader, though. You know the most about friendship and you even helped #14 out last week.”
Suncloak sighed. “You know, that’s normal for ponies. But whatever helps you sleep at night.”
“#14?” Lyra asked. “Who’s that?”
#14 stepped forward. “That’d be me. But my pony friends know me as Shining Nova.” She idly kicked at the floor and mumbled, “I like that name more, though.”
“Oh, right!” Bon Bon said. “You all know our names, but you never told us yours.” She blushed a little. “Maybe we should’ve asked that first.”
#2 cleared his throat. “I’m #2, but my friends call me Steady Step. Considering that there’s about a thousand other #2’s in the hive, I prefer that last name. It’s a bit more personal.”
“And I’m #7! But you can call me Cloudsworth, which sounds a lot better,” #7 said. The other changelings rolled their eyes, to which he answered, “What? It does! It took me a long time to come up with that, you know.”
“Terrible names aside,” #18 said, “I’m #18. Or Moonglow. But since all my friends call me Moonglow, it’d seem a bit silly for you four not to.”
“My name is Pinecone,” #45 said. “Uh, I mean, #45. Well, I mean...” He tripped over his words a few times. “Just call me Pinecone.”
“I’m #145!” the little changeling said. “But everyling at school calls me Lofty Wings, so you can do that too!”
“Lofty Wings?” Derpy gasped. “Hey, you’re in the same class as Dinky! She told me all about you.” She looked at all the other changelings for a moment. “You’ve all been hiding like that, huh?”
#14 nodded. “Yeah. But we don’t want to do that anymore. We want to live just like Suncloak, not under a disguise. My friends deserve that honesty,” she said, which the other changelings agreed with.
Vinyl snickered. “You know, you kinda sound like Sunny there.”
The six changelings all blushed in embarrassment. “I, we just, I mean,” #14 stammered, “that’s not important. We like living in Ponyville, and we want to continue living here. Except without the disguises.”
“So, what did you need us for?” Bon Bon asked. “I mean, it’s nice meeting you and all, but I don’t see how we can help you.”
“We wanted to see your reaction,” Suncloak said. “I’m sorry. It’s not very nice, but it seemed like the best way to find out. I hope the rest of Ponyville will react like you guys.” He smiled. “Really, you were a lot more positive about this whole reveal than I had expected!”
Lyra went over to #2 and wrapped a hoof around him, pulling him close. “Of course we’re positive! Any friend of Suncloak’s is a friend of ours, right?”
#2 stammered a little, initially very confused by this sudden contact. “Uh, same goes for me? I think?” he looked at Suncloak and gave an awkward grin in a desperate plea for help.
Huh. The other changelings, his friends? Suncloak hadn’t thought about it like that before. But that could wait for later. “Good! Now that we have an idea of what the reaction will be, we can start working on revealing your identities to the whole town. Though I don’t know how we’re going to do that yet, I’ll have to discuss that with Twilight.”
“What should we do?” #18 asked.
“You can go home,” Suncloak said. “I’ll handle this, don’t worry.”
The other changelings nodded, changing into their disguises again. As #2 wrested himself out of Lyra’s grip, they all said their goodbyes before heading out.
Suncloak waited until he heard the door close. Immediately, he ran toward his friends, sliding down on the ground and clasping his hooves together in a pleading gesture. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I should’ve told you, but I didn’t want to ruin our friendship or rat them out! It seemed like a good idea at the time!” He added a pout for good measure, because he might as well go the whole nine yards.
Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “What’re you talking about? You don’t have to apologize, Sunny.”
Derpy hopped up and flew around the room, opening all the curtains. “Yeah, we can’t blame you for being nice to them.”
Lyra extended a hoof to Suncloak, helping him up. “It would’ve been way, way worse if you hadn’t helped them! You’d be kind of a jerk if you did that.”
“So... You’re not angry or disappointed that I’ve been lying to you for months?” Suncloak asked. He had at least expected them to be not entirely positive about the whole deal.
“Well, you didn’t really lie,” Bon Bon said, “I’d say you... just didn’t mention it to anypony. That’s not exactly nice, but I’d say the alternative would’ve been worse. But of course we’re not mad, sweetie! We’ve told you a billion times, we’re your friends.”
Suncloak let out a sigh of relief. “Okay. Yeah. I knew that. I was just a little bit worried, that’s all.”
“I gotta say, though,” Vinyl said, “those guys really listen to you. I thought you said changelings from the hive were jerks?”
Suncloak shrugged. “Not after you let them live among ponies for a few months. They’d rather stay in Equestria than go back to the hive.” He let out a sigh. “It’s up to the ponies to actually let them live here, though.”
Derpy made a small loop and landed right next to Suncloak, wrapping a hoof around him. “You’ve got my support. They seemed really nice!”
“Well, duh.” Lyra rolled her eyes. “They’ve been learning from Suncloak, who is the nicest changeling ever.” She paused for a moment. “And the only nice changeling. Except not anymore, because we have six new ones now.”
Suncloak opened his mouth to protest, but quickly closed it again. He realized that Lyra was sort of right. As far as changelings went, they only ever met him, so of course his friends would say he was the kindest changeling ever. Especially considering that the most recent changeling any pony had talked to before that was Queen Chrysalis, and she wasn’t exactly nice.
“Thank you for understanding, everyling,” Suncloak said. “Now I can push this whole migration thing to the next phase.” He paused for a few seconds. “That is, as soon as I know what the next step is.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Bon Bon asked.
“I don’t know,” Suncloak said. “I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve spoken with Twilight.” They were already a big help, anyway: just their offer made Suncloak feel a lot more confident.
“You should go to the library, then,” Vinyl said. “Whatever you’re going to do next, I’m sure you can do it.”
Suncloak smiled. “Yeah.” The smile turned into a grin. “Yeah! I’m sure it can’t be that hard!”
“This is the hardest thing I will ever do in my entire life.”
Suncloak anxiously paced in circles in the town hall. The other changelings, who were again disguised and about equally anxious were watching him. “Hardest thing in your life?” #14 asked. “We’re the ones who are going to reveal ourselves in front of the entire town here!”
Suncloak opened the front doors just a tiny bit, revealing a whole crowd of ponies gathered in front of the town hall. Most of them were talking to each other, presumably wondering about why they were asked to gather here. “Yeah, but you don’t have to tell that to the whole town and answer their questions! If something goes wrong, I’m done for!”
“But it won’t go wrong, right?” #145 asked.
Suncloak shook his head. “Nah. Twilight helped me come up with the whole speech and I practiced a lot. Plus,” he said, waving one of his legs, “I’ve got cue cards hidden right here, in case I forget. And Twilight told me about a few tricks.” He peeked through the door. “I just hope the ponies will be a bit accepting about this.”
Suncloak took a deep breath. “Well, I’m going in.”
“Break a leg,” #14 said, which made Suncloak grimace. That sounded incredibly sadistic.
“Wish me luck,” Suncloak said, stepping outside.
“But I just did!” #14 slapped herself in the face with a hoof. “Never mind, good luck.” The other changelings quickly wished him good luck as well. Good, because luck would be much more useful than a broken leg.
Still very nervous, Suncloak stepped outside. The ponies, busy talking among themselves, didn’t seem to notice him. There was a stand in front of the large group, which Suncloak stepped towards. With a quick whirl of green flame, a hole appeared in one of his legs. He took a small stack of cue cards out of it, putting them on the stand. There, now he had a little cheat sheet.
Suncloak propped himself up on the stand. “Everyling!” he shouted, grabbing the whole crowd’s attention. “Uh, I mean, everypony. No, wait. F-Fillies and gentlecolts?” All those eyes directed at him made Suncloak freak out.
No problem! He just needed to use a trick Twilight told him about, imagining the entire audience in their underwear. Which was a really weird tip, seeing as ponies were always naked. In hindsight, why did Suncloak believe this would work in the first place? Now he just felt stupid.
Suncloak bit his lip. This wasn’t off to a good start. He glanced behind him, seeing the other changelings peeking out the door. He had to do this. For them. It was just a lot more frightening to actually stand in front of a crowd, though.
He looked at the audience. All those eyes, staring at him. What he said to them would decide whether the other changelings would be accepted into the town or not. The only ponies he didn’t need to convince were his friends, standing at the front. The four of them looked at Suncloak with big smiles, and Lyra even waved at him.
The four of them were confident he could do it. Hopefully, that’d be confidence enough. Suncloak swallowed, then cleared his throat. “My name is Suncloak,” he said, flipping away the first cue card. “Not all of you may equally like me, but all I’m asking you is to hear me out.
“Quite some time ago, I was banished from my hive and ended up here. To my surprise, the whole town took me in with open hooves. A short while after that, a bunch of new ponies arrived in Ponyville. Ponies who quickly became friends with some of you. What I want to tell you is concerning those ponies.”
He briefly turned around and beckoned the six changelings to come forward. They did, gathering next to Suncloak. This caused a lot of ponies in the crowd to start murmuring again, most likely the changelings’ friends. “I’ll say the truth immediately: these ponies are actually changelings,” Suncloak said.
The six changelings turned back into their original forms. The crowd collectively gasped, as expected. The ponies started talking loudly with each other, although Suncloak couldn’t completely understand them. He could catch a few snippets of conversation, ponies asking each other if they saw this coming or what this meant.
“Now, if you’ll all just quiet down,” Suncloak said. Sadly, the crowd didn’t seem to hear him and continued making a ruckus. “Uh, hello?” he asked. “Rude? I wasn’t done yet.” But again, not a single pony seemed to hear him.
A very sharp, very loud whistle suddenly caused the whole crowd to quiet down and direct its attention to the front again. Vinyl had turned around and whistled, using a bit of magic to amplify the sound. “Hey!” she shouted. “He wasn’t done talking yet!” She turned back to Suncloak and nodded her head slightly. She probably winked or something, but it was hard to see because of her sunglasses.
“Uh, t-thank you,” Suncloak said. That, on the other hoof, wasn’t as expected. Thankfully, the crowd was now paying attention again. “These changelings came to me,” Suncloak continued, “because someling told them about my way of life. They wanted me to show them how to live exactly like me.
“All this time, they’ve been living here under a disguise, with fake backgrounds. But they didn’t lie about anything else. Their personalities, their friendships, that’s all real. So real, in fact, that they would rather stay here than return to the hive. And without lying to you about anything.”
The crowd started softly murmuring again. Not entirely positive, but at least they weren’t throwing things at Suncloak. Or running him out of town. So that was good.
Suncloak cleared his throat again. “You’ve showed them your love and friendship when they were disguised as ponies. All I’m asking is that you continue to do so, even though they’re changelings.” He paused for a second. “Uh... Please?”
Almost the entire crowd shrugged, mumbling things like ‘yeah’ and ‘sure, why not’. One pony, a pink earth pony mare with a yellow mane and tail, raised her hoof. “Is this a changeling invasion?” she asked.
“Uh, no,” Suncloak said. He briefly looked at the other changelings. “And if it was, it’d be the worst and most badly planned invasion ever.”
A cream-coloured earth pony stallion with a brown mane, tail and very bushy moustache raised his hoof. “But how can we trust you to tell the truth? You’re a changeling!”
“Uh... I promise this isn’t an invasion?” Suncloak said, adding an awkward grin. “If you’re not comfortable with us, you can see it like keeping an eye on us. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, right?”
Several ponies in the crowd murmured something again, seeming pretty okay with that answer. Meanwhile, #14 mumbled something like “And yet he does know that saying.”
“Are there any more questions?” Suncloak asked. This was going far better than he’d thought! He’d certainly be able to handle their questions.
One young earth pony stallion with a white coat, a brown mane and tail, and a whole bunch of acne on his face raised a hoof. “How strong do you think the impact of this revelation will be on the negative stigma regarding the stereotyping of changelings?”
Suncloak stared incredulously at the pony for a while. Okay, maybe it wasn’t easier. “Uh... Yes,” he answered. “Any other questions?” Ones that he could understand, hopefully.
Simultaneously, a whole lot of ponies raised their hooves, all wanting to pose their questions.
Suncloak sighed. “This is gonna take a while.”
Two hours, a whole bunch of difficult questions and an equal amount of awkward answers later, the crowd dispersed. The other changelings had quickly gone to their friends, and were now busy chatting, confessing, and surprisingly, laughing. Seeing that was enough to make Suncloak smile.
Those six changelings could now have a life they enjoyed far more than living at the hive, and it was all because of Suncloak. He made that possible, and knowing that felt pretty great. In fact, it was probably the best Suncloak felt about himself in his entire life.
Suncloak grabbed his cue cards from the stand, putting them back into one of the holes in his legs and making said hole disappear. He’d throw them in the trash later.
As he made his way down the front steps of the town hall, Suncloak saw Pinkie Pie, running from changeling to changeling, chatting with all six of them. It made him chuckle. Seems like being friends with Pinkie Pie was unavoidable for anyling, whether they were a pony or a changeling.
If talking to a large crowd for two hours was what it took to achieve something like this... it was great. Sure, it was scary, and something Suncloak wasn’t used to at all. Helping the other changelings and making them happy was more than worth it, though.
“Hey, Suncloak!” a voice sounded, pulling Suncloak from his thoughts. Bon Bon, Lyra and Vinyl approached him. “You did great, sweetie!” Bon Bon said.
“Uh, I was actually cheating,” Suncloak said, waving one of his legs around, the one that had the cue cards hidden in it. “But it went a lot better than expected.”
“That doesn’t count as cheating,” Lyra said. “Everypony uses those little cards, and it’s not really cheating if everypony is doing it, right?”
“Does it matter?” Vinyl asked. “It went really well, or you wouldn’t have been grinning like a crazy pony just now, Sunny.”
Suncloak’s cheeks suddenly felt really hot. Maybe he was smiling a little harder than he thought. “Hey, wait a second,” he said, looking around. “Where’s Derpy?”
“She went home to get something,” Bon Bon said. “She should be back any moment.”
Suncloak raised an eyebrow. “What’s she getting?”
“That’s a surprise, silly!” Lyra stuck out her tongue. “You’ll have to wait until she’s here.”
Great, surprises. Suncloak sighed. He wasn’t very fond of surprises, because almost every single surprise somehow ended up being negative for him. ‘Negative’ in the sense of ‘really painful’. It was highly unlikely that this surprise would be different.
Suddenly, Derpy skidded to a halt in the middle of the group, having just arrived. She almost tripped over her own hooves during the landing, but managed to stay standing. On her flank was a single saddlebag. “Delivery for a... Mr. Suncloak,” she said, grabbing a box out of the saddlebag with her mouth and presenting it to Suncloak.
It was a sizeable, but flat, green box, held closed with some purple ribbons. Suncloak sat down and took the box into his hooves, pulling off the ribbons with his teeth. He removed the cover, putting it down on the ground. Inside the box was a folded piece of grey cloth, decorated with a black image of a sun. “What’s this?” Suncloak asked.
Vinyl took the cloth out of the box with her magic, unfolding it to reveal that it was actually pretty large. “It’s a cloak, Sunny,” she said. “Here, try it on!” She levitated the cloak over Suncloak, fastening it around his neck with a clasp. She took a moment to adjust it, making sure it perfectly fell over the changeling’s body.
As Suncloak stood up, the first thing he noticed was that the fabric was really, really soft. Almost like satin, or silk, or something like that. He inspected the entire cloak, noting that the sun decoration was roughly in the same spot as a pony’s cutie mark, on both sides. The cloak also had numerous pockets on the inside.
“What do you think?” Bon Bon asked.
“It’s...” Suncloak took a moment to think. It reminded him of the cloak he cobbled together when he first arrived in Ponyville, except without a hood. But that was an old, shoddy thing, as opposed to this one, a brand new, beautiful cloak. One given to him by his friends, instead of stolen from a few then-unknown ponies. It reminded him of what were probably the most stressful days of his entire life, so... “It’s amazing. Thank you! How did you even get this?”
“We asked Rarity to make it!” Lyra said. “She said she still had to make something for you, so she was happy to help.” She suddenly wrapped Suncloak in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you like it!”
Suncloak chuckled. “Hey, watch out, you might damage the cloak.” Though oddly, he didn’t mind being hugged this time. Must be the cloak, mitigating the pressure.
“Whoops,” Lyra said as she let go of Suncloak. “So, what now?”
Suncloak shrugged. “We... do what we normally do? Except now, there’s six more changelings living in Ponyville. But I don’t think that much will—”
“Hey, Suncloak!” a voice interrupted him. Suncloak turned around to see who it was, seeing Twilight Sparkle running towards him. “I knew you’d still be here,” she said.
“Hey, Twilight,” Suncloak said. “Did you see my speech? Pretty good, huh?”
“Actually, I wasn’t here to see it,” Twilight said. “I was at the library, talking to... Uh, never mind.” She gave Suncloak a curious look. “What a nice cloak! Is it new?”
“Sure is!” Suncloak turned a full circle to show off his brand new article of clothing. “My friends gave it to me. So, uh...” He raised an eyebrow. “Did you need me for something?”
“Yes. I need you to come to the library with me as soon as possible,” Twilight said. “It’s for...” She suddenly looked very confused. “Well, it’s a surprise? I’m not entirely sure.”
Another surprise? Well, wasn’t this day just full of... Well, surprises. Considering the first surprise had turned out to be very nice and not at all painful, maybe this second one would be positive too! “Sure, I’ll come,” Suncloak said as he turned back to his friends. “Looks like I have to go now. Could you tell the other changelings that I’m at the library for a while?”
“Of course!” Derpy said. “We’ll talk to you later.”
“Great!” Twilight said. “Come on, Suncloak. We have to hurry.” She turned and headed for the library, walking at a brisk pace.
“See you later,” Suncloak said as he waved goodbye, before turning around and catching up with Twilight.
A few minutes later, they reached the library. Twilight politely opened the door and motioned for Suncloak to enter first. “After you.”
“Thank you,” Suncloak said, stepping inside. The library was a lot more clean than usual, with all of the books stored on their respective shelves. A bunch of pillows were on the floor, in various colours and sizes.
On one of these pillows sat a rather tall pony, with a white coat. Or a very pale shade of pink, it was difficult to tell. Her mane and tail were very odd, consisting of green, pink and blue, lazily shifting in a nonexistent breeze. She also had a horn and wings, and was wearing a golden necklace and golden horseshoes. Currently, she was drinking tea, taking calm sips and—
Oh.
Oooh.
“P-P-Princess Celestia?!” Suncloak exclaimed. He promptly lost all concentration, one of the holes in his legs reappearing, spilling his pile of cue cards all over the floor. “Well, it’s been nice meeting you, bye!” Suncloak said, promptly turning around and trying to walk out the door.
Sadly, Twilight Sparkle was blocking him. “Calm down, Suncloak. She just wants to talk to you.”
“That’s nice, but I don’t want to talk to her,” Suncloak said, trying to push past the purple unicorn. “I really don’t.” After a few seconds, he hopped up in the air to fly over her, but once he did so, he found that he couldn’t move. It might have something to do with the purple aura that surrounded him. “Hey, no fair!” he said as he realized Twilight was holding him in place with her magic.
Twilight rolled her eyes as she kicked the door shut. “I thought you weren’t afraid of princesses anymore,” she said as she stepped past Suncloak, dragging him along.
“I’m not afraid of Princess Luna anymore,” Suncloak said as he tried breaking loose by waggling his limbs. “But this isn’t Princess Luna.” Sadly, he failed miserably at getting away, only managing to look very, very silly.
“Just hear her out, please?” Twilight let go of Suncloak, placing him on one of the admittedly very comfortable pillows, while sitting on one herself as well. “I’m sorry, princess. He isn’t usually like this.”
“That’s quite alright,” Princess Celestia said as she took another sip of her tea. Her voice was very soothing, but not nearly enough to get Suncloak to calm down.
A few very silent, and for Suncloak very tense seconds followed as Princess Celestia set her teacup down on a nearby table. “That’s a very beautiful cloak you’re wearing,” the princess said, breaking the silence.
Suncloak wouldn’t dare say a thing. He didn’t even move, remaining completely stiff. If he didn’t say or show anything, he couldn’t accidentally upset the princess. And if the princess wasn’t upset, she might let him and the other changelings stay in Ponyville. She might not even know about the other changelings.
“Was it a present?” Princess Celestia asked.
Suncloak nodded. That was a question he could answer safely.
“From your pony friends, or your changeling followers?”
“They’re not my follow—” Suncloak quickly clamped both his front hooves over his mouth, forcing himself to sit down and almost punching himself in the face. He briefly shifted his hooves away to say, “I didn’t say anything!” before resuming his hoof-induced silence.
Princess Celestia laughed. Not the kind of mad cackling that Queen Chrysalis often used, but a gentle, soft chuckling. “Don’t worry. Twilight already told me everything she knew about your little adventures here in Ponyville.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” Suncloak blurted out. “It all just happened! It’s not my fault! Or, well, I guess it is, sort of. Or is it Queen Chrysalis’ fault for banishing me? Just don’t punish the others!” he begged, holding up his hooves in a pleading gesture. “Please?”
“I am not here to punish anypony, my little changeling,” Princess Celestia said. “I am only here to talk to you.”
Suncloak put his hooves back down. “Just to talk? Then why did Twilight tell me this was a surprise?”
“Don’t look at me,” Twilight said. “I just did what the princess asked me to do.”
Princess Celestia chuckled again. “My younger sister, Luna, told me about you some time ago. She told me you were quite afraid of her. I didn’t think you’d come if you knew I was here, so I asked Twilight to tell you there was a surprise.”
It was then and there that Suncloak decided that Princess Celestia was kind of a jerk. “What did you want to talk to me about, Your Highness?” he asked.
“Twilight told me that you were approached by a group of changelings who wanted to learn how to live like you,” Princess Celestia said. “You showed them, and now they want to stay in Ponyville, correct?”
Suncloak nodded. “Well, except one. He went back to his hive with a report.”
Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow. “A report? And what is this report about?”
“It’s about friendship,” Suncloak said. “Everything we learned about friendship is in that report.”
“How do you think the changelings who live in the hive will react to that report?” Princess Celestia asked. She briefly levitated her cup of tea back to her mouth to take a sip before setting it down again.
“Um...” Suncloak tapped a hoof on his chin. “Changeling society is very different from pony society. In the hive, the only two things that matter are Queen Chrysalis and yourself. Noling else is important unless you’re ordered to work together with them.”
He sighed. “Back then, I was only known as #37 of the royal guard. Nothing more, nothing less. But here, in Ponyville, I’m Suncloak. I have friends who care about me, and I’ve learned to care about them. It’s the same for the other changelings who live here now. The one going back to the hive will have to explain how he lost them, so... I guess there will be at least a few changelings who would be interested.”
“Then we have a slight problem,” Princess Celestia said. “Changelings are not covered under any Equestrian law. For one of them, you, we made an exception. Now there’s seven, which will be a little harder. But what about ten? Or fifty? Or a hundred?”
“That’s not a problem, right?” Suncloak asked. “I mean, we just have to... not get in contact with the law. No lying, no stealing, stuff like that.”
Twilight shook her head. “It’s not that simple, Suncloak. Laws are everywhere. Getting a house, buying things from a store... All of it. You’re going to come into contact sooner or later.”
Oh. At least that explained why there were so many books about them. “So, how can you solve this problem, and how can I help?” Suncloak asked.
“In most cases, it is rather simple,” Princess Celestia said. “Any changeling who becomes an Equestrian citizen will be bound by Equestrian laws. However, considering your shape shifting abilities, new laws will have to be made.”
“Shape shifting could be used to get around certain laws,” Twilight said. “And who knows how other changeling abilities might be used to do the same? We want to try to prevent that, just in case. Considering we don’t know all that much about changelings, we wanted to ask you to help us pick a representative for the changeling race.”
So, they needed Suncloak for his knowledge of changelings, but they also needed someling for their knowledge of pony society. To Suncloak, the answer was easy. “I’ll do it. I’ll be that representative.”
Twilight recoiled in surprise. “B-But it’s a really big responsibility! And you don’t know anything about laws or politics!”
Suncloak shrugged. “I can learn. Besides, who knows the most about both changelings and ponies?”
“That’s true, but...” Twilight was silent for a second. “It’s a very hard job, Suncloak. Are you sure?”
“If I take that job, I can make sure the other changelings can have the best lives they can, right?” Suncloak asked.
Princess Celestia nodded. “It will take a while, and it’ll be difficult, but that is certainly possible.”
“Then I’m absolutely sure,” Suncloak said. “When I saw how happy the others were when they could finally be honest with their friends, and when they were truly accepted, that made me... Well, it made me feel really good. I’d do anything to make sure they can continue living like that.”
Princess Celestia smiled. “Then it’s settled. We’ll appoint you as the highest representative of Equestrian changelings. Twilight, could you get me some paper and a quill?”
“Of course, princess!” Twilight said. She got up and went to a nearby dresser, opening a drawer and retrieving the requested materials. She levitated them over to Princess Celestia, who took the paper and quill from her and started writing.
“You can do that here?” Suncloak asked. “Doesn’t it have to be all official, in Canterlot, or something?”
Princess Celestia rolled her eyes. “Oh, Canterlot is filled with boring nobles who would endlessly object to this. It’s much faster this way, plus it has less pomp. I’m not a fan of large, mostly useless gestures. Besides, I’m a princess. I think I can appoint an official by myself.”
“Speaking of pomp,” Suncloak said, “how did you manage to get into Ponyville without anyling noticing?”
“Strangest thing!” Princess Celestia chuckled. “I could easily get here without meeting any villagers. For some reason, they were all gathered at the town hall!” With a slight flourish, she finished writing, and levitated the paper and quill over to Suncloak. “Just sign this, and then we can start discussing the details.”
Suncloak looked at the paper. Most of it was some type of official wording he couldn’t understand. But hey, this was Princess Celestia, and she seemed very kind. At the bottom of the document was a large, horizontal line, so Suncloak took the quill with his mouth and wrote his name on it. One glance confirmed that his mouthwriting was absolutely terrible. Something he’d need to work on.
Princess Celestia rolled up the document and tucked it under her wing as she levitated the quill back to Twilight. “Congratulations, Your Excellency. I hereby declare you Ambassador Suncloak of Equestria!”
Suncloak blushed. “Um, just ‘Suncloak’ is fine, Your Highness.”
Twilight took the quill from her mentor, levitating it back to the dresser she obtained it from. “Tsk, just calling a government official by their name would be a grave mistake, Your Excellency,” she teased, bending forward in a mock bow.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” Suncloak said. “What do I do now?”
“Now, you will need to learn what it takes to be an ambassador,” Princess Celestia said. “Laws, politics, etiquette, everything. I’m sure my faithful student, Twilight, can help you with this.”
“Of course,” Twilight said. She went over to a nearby shelf, took a few books, and repeated this for almost every bookshelf in the library. She dumped what must’ve been about a hundred books in front of Suncloak. “I think this is enough to get you started.”
Suncloak swallowed. “Uh... Yay, I can’t wait?” He took one of the books and opened it. As expected, it was filled with gibberish. Considering that he might as well get started, Suncloak started reading.
That night, Suncloak laid on the roof of his house. Sleeping proved to be very difficult after an exciting and surprising day like this. It was cold outside, but his new cloak was able to keep him warm.
He sighed as he looked up at the moon and the stars. “Changeling ambassador, huh?” he mumbled to himself. Maybe this is what Princess Luna meant when she suggested he look at the problem from another side. Get ponies and changelings to live together. The thought made Suncloak chuckle. Both princesses had turned out far kinder than he had expected, and far more helpful, too. That only left Princess Cadance, but Suncloak wasn’t sure she’d be as nice, considering Queen Chrysalis did some pretty horrible things to her and her friends and family.
It’d be hard to completely integrate changelings into Equestrian society. Really, really hard. Suncloak had spent one afternoon learning with Twilight so far, as Princess Celestia needed to leave early for some official business. Probably the rest of the paperwork to make Suncloak an ambassador. That one afternoon was filled with confusion and a lot of questions.
It’d take a long time, but it’d definitely be worth it. Even if the entire changeling population of Equestria wouldn’t grow anymore, it made Suncloak happy to know he could help the other changelings make their lives as fulfilling as possible.
Moments later, Suncloak heard a buzzing sound. It came closer and closer, until it came to a stop somewhere next to him. “Can’t sleep?” a voice asked. Suncloak looked to his side to see #14 laying down next to him. Oddly enough, she now had a mane. The exact same red mane she had when she was disguised.
Suncloak shrugged. “A true ambassador never sleeps. What about you, #14?”
#14 chuckled. “Hey, it’s Shining Nova now. No more numbers. And I don’t need a bad excuse to stay awake.”
“Okay then, Nova,” Suncloak said. “What’s up with the mane?” He took a better look at her, seeing that Nova’s tail was red as well. “And the tail? I thought you didn’t want to be disguised anymore.”
“Oh, this?” Nova toyed with her mane, wrapping a few strands of hair around her hoof. “I thought that it’d be a bit difficult for ponies to keep us all apart, so I changed myself to look like this.”
Suncloak smiled. “Good idea. It looks nice. Have the others thought of something as well?”
“Thank you.” Nova blushed a deep crimson. “I don’t know about the others yet, I came up with this just a few minutes ago. But I think they’ll like the idea.”
They both remained silent for a while, just looking at the stars. “Nova...” Suncloak started. “Do you... Have you ever doubted that staying in Ponyville was the right decision?”
Nova shook her head. “Not at all. Every time I talk to my friends, I don’t just smell and taste their love. I can feel it, too. It makes me feel like this is where I belong.”
“Good,” Suncloak said. “It’d be a shame if you wanted to go back. Plus, I don’t think Queen Chrysalis would be very happy with that. Well, I don’t think she’d be very happy with our decisions in general.”
Nova shrugged. “Queen Chrysalis can stick it into one of her many holes, then. I’m staying here and that’s that,” she said with a hearty laugh.
Suncloak laughed as well. “Just be careful. If she hears you talking like that, she might banish you.” He snickered. “Oh, wait, she can’t exactly do that anymore.”
“Isn’t that something you can do now?” Nova giggled. “You know, ask Princess Celestia to banish someling to the moon, or something like that?”
“Nah,” Suncloak said. “The moon looks fine as is.” He pointed at the moon. “See? We don’t need a changeling in there.”
The two of them shared another laugh and went silent again, only sharing the sounds of their breathing.
After a minute of staring at the sky, Nova took a deep breath. “Hey, Suncloak? Do you...” She paused for a long moment. “Do you think it’s okay for changelings to feel love for each other?”
“Of course it is!” Suncloak said, turning to her. “I mean, we’re friends. We love each other.”
“Th-That’s not what I meant,” Nova said. “I meant... Uh, well, never mind.” She shivered a little and huddled close to Suncloak, pushing her side against his. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll explain later.”
Suncloak pulled his cloak out from between the two of them and draped it over Nova. “That’s okay. We have all the time we need.”
“So, what do we do in that time?” Nova asked.
Suncloak shrugged. “We live our lives among ponies, and hope it doesn’t get too crazy. Or too crowded. I heard there’s lot of newcomers lately.”
Nova snickered, resting her head against Suncloak. “I can live with craziness. And newcomers.” She let out a blissful sigh, staring up at the sky.
“As long as I can live with all of my friends.”