Gel opens the back door, glancing around quietly. "...well, might as well get this done..." She closes the door only to open it back up, a pencil and clipboard floating in the air nearby. "...good thing the air's starting to cool down...I can finally inspect the yard for the little ones..." The changeling glances to her back, smiling softly at the critter there. "...thanks for joining me, Specter...I know you didn't have to come along..."
The squirrel stops his gawking at the trees keeping the yard from peering eyes of any of the neighbors and responds by chittering at her, giving a thumbs up, and hugging her neck.
She giggles, gently nuzzling him. "Time to go to work!"
She's soon flitting about, taking careful note of anything that might be dangerous. Every so often, she would offer her passenger some nuts or a bit of water.
After a few minutes, the shape of a pony approaches from the trees, but doesn't leave the treeline. It is clearly a stallion, and a pegasus. He freezes as he sees the changeling. Gel doesn't see him yet, when a sudden pressure presses on her mind.
Gel sighs, resisting the sensation and calling out to the forest. "Sergeant, I know you're there. Just come out and talk to me." She pauses before adding "And that's an order."
The form quickly approaches with a military march and pauses just in view. The disguised changeling seems to be in slight awe at his superior. "Ma'am, I must ask, why are you breaking protocol and walking around undisguised?"
She blinks at this, cursing in her mind. "No one is going to see me back here." She looks at her pet, smiling softly. "Besides, I hear pets can detect insincerity. I wouldn't want him to act scared." ...he doesn't know about pets, right?
He narrows his eyes at the squirrel, who does the same to him. "Hmm, I didn't know that. I'll have to remember that for my next cover. Regardless ma'am, my mission was to come and retrieve your report of your time here."
She gives him her best even look. "I'm afraid I don't have it put together, yet. You'll have to wait a bit longer, Sergeant." As she says this, she reaches her mind out to the stallion in the house, nervous. Rhino? T-the changeling's back...c-can you come out to the backyard? And please, be sure to call out my pony name so he doesn't suspect anything...I-I'm not exactly disguised...
The mental link stays silent before a single line comes from Rhino's mind. On my way. A few seconds later a voice comes from inside the house, getting closer. "Angel? Are you in the yard?"
She quickly levitates the squirrel off her back, shifting into the familiar white unicorn. "Y-yes, I'm out here, and so is Specter." She carefully puts him back down on her back, looking at the other disguised changeling expectantly.
He lets out a growl of annoyance. "Ma'am, I need something to report to command by tomorrow, no matter how small." He sees the door opening and shifts his face to a friendly expression.
Rhino approaches with a slight smile. "Hello, can I help you with something?"
Gel motions to the lower-ranking officer, smiling softly at her stallion. "Rhino, this pony just wanted to talk with me a bit." She turns to the pegasus, smiling apologetically. "...w-what did you say your name was, again? I don't have the best memory..."
The drone doesn't hesitate with his cover. "Cold Snap, ma'am." He turns to the stallion. "I'm just gathering the opinions of some citizens for my report to the Cloudsdale weather factories. Just making sure everypony has their comments about the weather heard."
Rhino nods. "It's been a bit warm lately, but what else can you expect from summer?"
The changeling smiles. "I understand sir, well, I won't take up any more of your time." He bows his head before taking off and winging away.
The white mare watches him leave, keeping herself from frowning at him. ...great...now I need to make a report for him to give command... She sighs, turning to look at her stallion. ...what should I do?
Though still wearing his forced smile, Rhino lets out a growl at the retreating false pegasus. I'm not the best one to ask right now... I was half tempted to bring a kitchen knife out with me... plus I don't really know much about military things...
She balks, eyes wide in horror. A knife? I'm glad you didn't! She shudders, shaking her head. If he didn't return, or came back with wounds, they would've sent one of the elite out here! And not a nice one like me!
He sighs. Yeah... I figured it would have repercussions like that... plus I really didn't know his exact intentions yet... I guess I just got protective because I thought they would take you away from me against both our wills... He rubs his forehead with a hoof. Good thing it was a reflex thought and nothing more...
Agreed. She walks towards the back door, brushing her tail teasingly against his side. Let's go inside, hmm? It's getting late. She giggles, walking inside.
Rhino looks one last time at the point where the other changeling had disappeared. He narrows his eyes at the spot before heading inside.
Unbeknownst to them, once he had flown far enough away, 273 had returned and had observed them from a cloud vantage point. He hums in thought as he takes off after seeing them go inside.
***
Later that evening, the nymph is working cheerfully in the kitchen. Gel puts down the cookbook, curious. "...he's been up there for awhile...well, the instructions say to let it cook for twenty minutes..." She takes off her chef's hat and buzzes upstairs. She slowly opens the door, poking her head inside.
The stallion in question is sitting at his desk, head leaned over as the small sounds of him fiddling with something can be heard. He sets whatever he is working on to one side as he brings a few sheets of paper over to himself and starts looking intently at them.
Wanting to know what he was doing, she quietly walks inside. She moves until she is behind him and to his right. She cranes her neck, trying her best to look at his project.
To his right, she can see a simple necklace with a sturdy silver chain and a sapphire slightly smaller than a bit with the chain connected to it. On the sheets in front of him, she can barely make out a few different arcane circles. They look slightly similar, but have differences. The stallion himself hasn't noticed her and is wearing a look of determined concentration.
She sits quietly, trying not to disturb him, but her curiosity quickly gets the better of her. "...Rhino? What are you doing?"
He jumps a bit as he rapidly blinks, as if coming out of a trance. He looks to his right and sees her. "Oh, hello love. I didn't hear you come in..." He looks back to his work. He looks between the two most complete circles before filling in the runes in one and crumpling the other up and tossing it into the wastebasket next to the desk. "Just finishing up a little... project."
She quirks an eyebrow. "...okay, Rhino..." She picks up the paper, looking over it. "...what kind of project is it?"
He averts his eyes. "Well... the changeling earlier got me thinking... and a bit paranoid... about having you taken away. So... I'm using that rune I learned yesterday to make... well... a Gel tracking necklace." He flicks the necklace with a hoof. "You know... so I can always find you..." His voice is quiet, as if a little embarrassed.
She blinks, looking at him in confusion. "...that's sweet...but...how would this track me?" She stares at the circle, as if doing that for long enough would make it reveal its secrets. "...does one of these symbolize me?"
"In a way I suppose." He points to one that looks like a fishing net. "This one takes a sample of a magical signature, the linking rune uses that as a base."
She slowly nods. "...I think I understand...so...you need a bit of my magic?" She frowns, putting a hoof to her chin. "...how are you going to do that?"
He looks over his circle again. "Well, I've got this all planned out, so give me one second." He brings over the necklace as his horn lights up. On the face of the sapphire, a tiny version of the sketched circle appears in the green color of his magic. Once he ensures every single line is as it should be, his horn and the circle pulse once before he let's the magic go and they both go out. "There, just cast a little bit of your magic on this, even if it's just lifting it up, and it'll take an unnoticeable sample."
"...okay..." She picks it up, bringing it close to look at it. "...it's really quite beautiful..."
"Well, I was really going for a simple look since I'll be the one wearing it, but simplicity has it's own beauty I suppose." He gently takes the necklace from her and slips it on, closing his eyes to see that it worked as intended. Sure enough, in the back of his mind there was a constant itch telling him where she was relative to him. He opens his eyes and smiles. "Perfect."
She smiles softly, nodding a bit. "...I'm glad to hear that..." She turns to the door, looking at him over her shoulder. "...come on, love...I made you a small surprise for dinner..."
He finally gets a good look at her, standing there in a crisp white apron as she looks back at him. He quickly puts his spell-working materials in their boxes and follows her out of the room. "I don't know... I'm enjoying this surprise right now..."
She flicks his nose with her tail, blushing softly and smiling coyly. "Flatterer." She looks ahead, hurrying down the stairs. ...I hope I didn't burn it...four hundred for eighteen minutes, right?
He thinks back as he follows her. Why are you asking me? You made this as a surprise for me, so I have no idea what it is. He sniffs the air. Something does smell well cooked though.
She sniffs as well and immediately panics, running down the stairs and into the kitchen. She swiftly yanks open the oven, releasing a small cloud of smoke. She pulls out a black-and-yellow disc, on the verge of tears. "...w-where did I go wrong? I-I followed the instructions perfectly...i-it's only been twelve minutes..."
He walks into the kitchen and looks at the food. He smiles and kisses her on the cheek. "It's fine, love, it's just burnt around the edges. You're not the first pony to make a little blacker pizza than they were going for. Hay, I've eaten pizza blacker than this before. It's fine." He nuzzles her affectionately.
She sniffles, looking up at him. "...t-thank you, Rhino..." She sighs, putting it down on a plate she had set up. "...I wish I knew what happened, though..."
He gets out a knife and starts to slice up the pizza. "Why don't you check the instructions on the package, to see if you misread or missed anything?" He sneaks a quick bite of a slice, setting it on his plate afterwards.
She quietly nods, grabbing her cookbook and looking at the directions. "...no...everything seems to be just as I remember...wait..." She brushes a hoof against the page and immediately groans, falling face-first in the book. ...it wasn't eighteen minutes...it was ten minutes...a bit of oregano made the zero look like an eight...
He finishes serving the meal and walks over to her, leaning down and nuzzling her neck. "See, not your fault, just a sequence of coincidences. Now come on my sexy chef, we still have a meal to enjoy." He gives her neck a single nibble for emphasis.
Gel blushes brightly, nodding a bit. "...o-okay..." She moves to her seat, brushing her chitin against his coat as she passes him.
As the two start eating, Rhino pauses a few bites in. "Thanks for making dinner tonight, by the way. Love the apron too..." He winks at her.
She giggles shyly, waving a hoof at him. "It's the least I could do. You've done so much for me, after all."
He thinks on that statement. "I don't think I've done anything out of the ordinary... just being me I think. Well, you do get treated better than anyone else because you're my marefriend, but other than that I mean."
"...you got me a job...cared for me like no one else has before..." She smiles softly, nodding a bit. "...I couldn't ask you for anything more...except maybe a foal..." She winks and returns to her meal, embarrassed by her own words. ...you're also a lot better at putting things into words than I am...
He stays silent for a moment before responding. "True... but we talked about he steps before that... Actually, come to think of it, you have a very mature mind about, well, having foals. Most young couples tend to shy away from subjects like that but with us it seems like it's one of our most comfortable subjects. Nothing wrong with that of course, it's just something that occurred to me."
She blinks, thinking about this. ...are you saying that because I'm eighteen, or because we're still a young couple?
He raises an eyebrow. I don't see those as mutually exclusive. Again, I'm also not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying not everyone takes this approach.
She shrugs, returning to her meal. ...I suppose not...then again, not every mare is a nymph... She looks off in the distance, a thoughtful expression on her face. ...maybe...I just want to know what it's like to have one...or maybe it's something in my subconscious... She swallows, redirecting her attention to him. "I don't really know, myself."
He grabs another slice. "Well, I suppose we'll have more to talk about on that subject once a few other things happen..."