Silver Lancet gave the most terrifying look to his smallest brother he could’ve managed in a pony form. The trio was immediately stuffed in the kitchen of the gingerbread house after entering, as per the instructions of a certain pink mare. None of them ever got a look at what awaited them inside the guest area of Sugarcube Corner, and that unsettled the tall changeling.
“What do you mean we can’t go out there?” Shiftlight asked. “This is supposed to be a party for us! You promised us a feast of affection, and now you deny it? At least enlighten me about what we should expect!”
“Pinkie said we should wait a bit,” Buzzer tried to calm him down. “And she made me ‘Pinkie-promise’ I wouldn’t tell you!”
“Oh, so now we trust the one you were so afraid a few hours ago!” Lancet was getting truly furious. “What next? I thought parties were supposed to be social gatherings, where ponies do small talks, while sipping quality wines in fancy dresses and dance to slow music!”
“Yeah, that’s a Canterlot noble party you’ve just described,” Lime replied. “Pinkie’s parties are somewhat entirely different, a thousand times more fun, and well… a thousand times louder.”
That was the last straw for Shiftlight. He could endure the mass of ponies, he could endure the pointless small talks, he could endure wearing a fancy dress, crack he would even endure dancing. Anything but loud fun.
“Brother please,” Thorax argued, “we know you really can’t stand anything like that, but our lives are at stake here! You managed to endure Pinkie for half a day; you will manage to survive an hour or two at this party.”
“I won’t, and I mean ever, going to attend to another party like this understood?” He asked, pointing a hoof at Buzzer’s chest. “She makes a birthday party for me, you replace me, while I go and hide under a rock, agreed?”
“All right, fine!” Lime admitted his defeat. “Now I’ll go and see if we can get in there already!”
The short shifter went through the door, into the main hall of the shop, just to return a few seconds later.
“Almost all the guests are here,” Buzzer announced to his brothers. “We may proceed.”
The three changelings slowly entered the reception hall of the shop, two of them uncertain about what to expect, and one grinning like the idiot he was. The whole shop was dark, every curtain drawn in and every door closed. It almost resembled the hive for Shiftlight, if not for the sweet scent of sugary goodies. He tried to make out anything from the darkness, some silhouettes or something, but having the sight of a pony he couldn’t see a thing. Suddenly a blinding light stabbed them right in the eyes, accompanied by a deafening attack on their ears.
“SURPRISE!” Everypony cheered, while confetti rain covered the room.
“Retreat! We’re under attack!” Shiftlight panicked, and tried to turn back the way he came from.
The tall shifter ran head first into the door that Buzzer thoughtfully locked behind them, knocking himself out cold.
“I screwed up didn’t I?” Shiftlight asked, when he opened his eyes, and saw Buzzer sitting next to him. The tall changeling was lying in a bed, on the upper floor of the house-shop.
“Not really,” Lime shrugged. “You fainted, and we covered up the whole story with you maybe having a post traumatic stress from the Canterlot attack.”
“The best lies are often the ones based on the truth, right?” Lancet asked, offering a weak smile. “Shouldn’t you be at the party?”
“No party can keep me from watching over my brothers,” Buzzer shook his head. “Zaffre can handle himself. You’ve been only out for half an hour. But nice going; with this trauma cover story you might only need to attend to this party for less than an hour.”
“Yeah, right,” Shiftlight smirked. “Fat chance of Pinkie letting that happen.”
“Actually, she asked me to tell you she’s sorry for scaring you,” Lime said, hopping off of the bed. “And wishes you to get better. So, you just lay there for an other half hour and rest, and after that you can come down, when the first wave of the party madness had died down a bit.”
“Will do,” Lancet replied, closing his eyes. “Enjoy the party for me, would you?”
“All right.”
This is even better than the orphanage. Zaffre thought, standing in the circle of curious and more importantly very friendly mares. They asked questions about him, and he did his best to reply, not really going into the details, and asking back when it was possible. The weak affection the ponies radiated towards their newest ‘friends’ was like a feast for the changeling. He and his brothers already learned on the few infiltrations they successfully completed that even the friends of the ponies they replaced provided some nourishment, but none of them ever managed to get this many friends at one.
“So, how long were you planning on working with foals?” a cream colored mare with a purple mane and a pink tuft in her hair asked. As far as Zaffre remembered her name was ‘Sweets’ or ‘Candy’. “It’s fairly hard to find any colt out there who would even wish to be near to a foal!”
“Oh a while now,” Thorax replied casually to the pony. Her name was Bon-Bon, the changeling realized. “I mean I almost always managed to soothe the arguments between my brothers, and as I got older some of our relatives asked me if I could take care of their fillies for a day or two.”
“Foals are so cute wouldn’t you agree?” a vanilla earth pony with a red mane asked. Roseluck. The shifter noted. Need to remember as many names as I can.
“I wouldn’t practically call them ‘cute’.” Zaffre replied, shocking the mares. “It’s not that they aren’t adorable; just that every time I see a small foal I wonder if I was like that, and what could’ve become of me if the circumstances were different.”
“Well that sounds horrifyingly scientific!” a pink pony said. Right, she’s Lily
“I don’t know, that sometimes makes me think as well,” a familiar mare interrupted.
“Miss Cheerilee.” Zaffre greeted. “Pleasant to see you here!”
“Oh, a couple of foals from the school are around here too,” she replied. “I must keep an eye on them. Some of their parents would blame me if they were to get in trouble while in a gathering like this.”
“Must be hard for you,” the shifter said, walking towards a table with punch on it. “Want some?”
“Thank you. That would be nice.”
The disguised changeling poured a glass of refreshment for both of them, then hoofed the glass over to the earth pony.
“Well, congratulations on settling in!” Cheerilee raised her drink.
“It wouldn’t have been possible without you!” Zaffre raised his glass as well. “As soon as I heard the chaos from the inside of the orphanage I considered tucking my tail and running away.”
“Oh, the foals could be somewhat hard to endure when not under proper supervision, but I guess you won’t really have a problem with them,” Cheerilee took a sip from her punch. “Give them the proper attention they need, don’t give them everything they want and they will be more than easy to handle.”
“Thanks for the advice!” Thorax, and noticed his short brother descending from the upper floor. “Oh, I don’t think I ever appropriately introduced you to my brother. Hey Lime!”
The green unicorn heard his sibling and joined the pair.
“Lime this is Miss Cheerilee.” Zaffre introduced them to each other. “Miss Cherilee, this is my smaller brother Lime Biscuit.”
“So I heard you and Lancet don’t really see eye to eye?” The mare asked.
“We see eye to eye, but usually only when we’re yelling in each other’s faces.” Buzzer joked, and Cheerilee let out a short laugh. “But usually my brother ends up cowering under his bedsheets like now.”
“Lime, that’s not really nice.” Zaffre scoffed his brother. “You know he didn’t really take the attack’s consequences well.”
“Hush. We endured worse.” Lime said, looking over the gathered ponies. “So, what fun is there that we could enjoy?”
“Well, some play pin the tail to the pony, others play some silly game with colors and limbs…” Thorax started, but Cheerilee interrupted.
“They’re playing Hoofster?” She squealed. “I love that game!”
Cheerilee ran off, and the brothers were left alone. Pinkie just announced the next group of musicians entering the stage, when Buzzer’s breath stopped, and he felt his heartbeat quicken. He was staring at the unicorn mare leaving the stage, her coat aquamarine, her mane the same color decorated with a white tuft, and beautiful amber eyes. He couldn’t say a word, the beauty of a pony stunning him to the point of absolute stillness. He couldn’t interpret his own feelings, but of one thing he was certain.
“Zaffre.” He pulled his brother closer, pointing towards the mare, who chatted with another pony. “You go distract that light purple unicorn. I need to talk with the mint-blue one.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Thorax asked. “You’re stranger than usual.”
“I don’t know.” Buzzer replied. “I just… feel like I need to talk to her.”
“Since when did you listen to your –” Zaffre started, just to watch his sibling walking towards the mare absolutely mesmerized. “– feelings?”
“Uh, hi?” Lime said shyly to the mare with a harp on her flank. “My name is…”
“Lime Biscuit right?” She asked back, and the changeling heard her voice as the bells of heaven ringing. It annoyed him, not knowing what came over him, but he never wanted it to end. “I’m sorry, I hope I haven’t bored you with my performance too much. Pinkie only gave me a short warning; I didn’t really have the time to practice.”
“Oh, I apologize… I was upstairs tending to my brother,” he explained. “I only managed to catch the very end of it. But if I’m not too offensive, I would like to hear more of it. Maybe over a cupcake and a tea tomorrow afternoon? My treat!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I need to attend to a small wedding ceremony tomorrow,” she replied, blushing. “But I hang around in the park somedays. I’m sure I could come by sometime, if it’s not too disturbing.”
“Yes, that would be good,” Lime said, and quickly corrected himself. “I mean, I would like that very much.”
“Well, I need to go. Practice makes perfect they say, and I’m far from it!” she said, and tucked her lyre in a saddlebag. “See you later!”
“You’re not as far as you think you are,” Buzzer murmured to himself, hypnotized as the mare ran off.
“Did you even manage to catch her name?” Zaffre disturbed his brother’s quiet daydreaming.
“What?” He turned around, staring at his sibling. “She had a name?”
“She’s called Lyra, you dumbnut,” Thorax said, examining his brother. “Don’t tell me you’re getting weak.”
“Weak? Me?” Buzzer asked taken aback. “What do you mean? I just… felt something strange pulling me towards her.”
“Do you know what you looked like to me?” the other shook his head. “Like a pony under a love-spell.”
“Well, then it’s good we can’t feel too many emotions, right?” Lime asked, a sudden fear creeping into his voice.
After all Buzzer thought to himself that’s what makes us really different from ponies.
This is ridiculous. Shiftlight thought laying in the bed. I may not be a perfect infiltrator, but this isn’t the grand castle, and I’m not trying to impersonate the captain of the guard to murder the princess.
The tall changeling got out of the bed, and started walking in circles. He barely understood why he couldn’t manage to muster up enough courage to walk down the stairs and face the crowd. His brothers did fine, and it’s not like he was going to perform a previously practiced monologue to these ponies. He only needed to get down there, and make some friends. Not hard right?
I can’t do this. His head hurt. I can’t just get down there and pretend I’m one of them. I fear them. I don’t know them, and I always feared the unknown. I feared the forests, but I know what makes what noise, and I overcame that fear. I know the badlands, the everfree, the sewers. I can’t stand these irrational sources of emotion. I can’t handle not knowing how they would react, what makes them suspicious. I can’t stand…
I can’t stand being without a hive. He dropped on his flank, letting out a deep sigh.
The shifter stared at the window, trying to imagine what went on back in his home. Were the changelings really murdering each other for power? Did their queen ever return? What fate awaits those he knew, those he was loyal to, and those he held close in his heart? How could he leave the hive behind, and accept they would not return for a year? How could he abandon the way of their hive?
“May I come in?” a female voice asked softly from the doorway. Shiftlight turned to see Nurse Redheart enter the room. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
“Please do come in,” he replied. “I’m just daydreaming, that’s all.”
“That’s strange,” she said, closing the door behind. “I’ve never imagined that changelings could daydream.”
Shiftlight’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
“Yeah,” she answered the unasked question sitting down in front of the shifter, “I know.”