The next morning Serenity had problems keeping her eyes on her charge, but she couldn’t help it.
She and Nymph were on a stroll through the streets of Crystal Empire. It has been only a few weeks since she left it, but it felt like forever to her. Serenity’s gaze continued to slip from the changeling in disguise to the familiar corners of her hometown, admiring their beauty she missed so much. Not that Ponyville was ugly, far from it, for there was this simplicity to it that made the small town a very good place to live in.
Serenity had never imagined that she would leave Crystal Empire. Back when she was a filly, she had always assumed that she would join the Crystal Guard and help other ponies, along with her brother…
A familiar pain in her heart awakened at the thought of the Sentinel, which didn’t escape the notice of Nymph. “Is everything alright?” she asked, glancing at her with concern. “You were so happy a moment ago, and now you’re sad.”
“Oh, it’s nothing, I was just thinking about my brother,” Serenity replied; being a crystal pony, she had no specific grudges against her kind. In fact, the paladin wasn’t even sure if the changelings had ever been within the Empire, as they first heard of them from Equestria just months before King Sombra took over. “He was a crystal guard, and he was killed by Sombra a thousand years ago.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” Nymph said sympathetically.
“Thanks,” The paladin could read from her face nothing, but sincerity. “Do you have any siblings?”
“No, I was the onl-” the changelings paused, looking troubled.
“Oh right, Sir Lightbringer had mentioned you cannot speak about your kind yet,” Serenity remembered. “Sorry, then, I won’t pry.”
“Thank you for your understanding.”
Serenity stayed silent for a while, nodding greetings to the few passersby who recognized her armor and pondering what it could be that Nymph was going to say. “Since she clearly isn’t allowed to say it, it couldn’t be something like foal. ‘A single egg’? ‘A single larva’?”
“So, how are you dealing with everything?” she asked, deciding that it didn’t really matter.
“Well, I’m not surrounded by an angry mob, so… that’s an improvement,” Nymph replied with an uneasy smile. “But it is mostly due to the fact that majority of the Empire is unaware of what I am. The second I drop my disguise it will be yesterday morning all over again.”
“You don’t know that,” Serenity objected. “Crystal ponies never had much of an issue with changelings, so they wouldn’t turn hostile on you. Beside, you’re with me, remember?”
Nymph’s eyes widened as she had realized what she was suggesting her to do. The changeling glanced at the few ponies around them, who paid more attention to Serenity than her, then looked back at her, uncertain. The paladin nodded to her encouragingly. She honestly believed what she said, and thought that it would be good for her to walk a bit in her own form.
“Um… okay,” she finally said, closing their eyes. Opening them sharply, she added: “But if we cause a panic throughout the Empire it’s on you, deal?”
“Deal,” Serenity giggled, watching with interest how green flames erupted around her charge, returning her to her own look.
The crystal ponies around them all gasped as they stared at Nymph, making her cringed and Serenity prepared a prayer for protection in her mind. But after a moment she relaxed; none of the ponies began shouting, nor did they look angry. If anything, they were startled as they took a step back from them, and continued to eye the changeling with suspicion and curiosity.
“They’re not happy,” Nymph observed, and Serenity detected a hint of hurt in her odd voice.
“True, but they’re not angry, either,” the paladin pointed out. “I cannot sense anypony bearing any malicious intentions towards you.”
“Wait, you can do that? I don’t recall such ability being mentioned in our records about crystal ponies.”
“Oh, no, that’s an ability granted me by the Holy Light,” Serenity corrected. “Paladins can sense evil, from dark magic to evil intentions.”
“I... see…” Nymph murmured, her face losing all of her earlier fright and awkwardness; now her brow was frowned in a deep concentration. “But how would you define ‘evil intentions’? If they attacked me because I am a changeling, then it wouldn’t be evil from their point of view.”
“True,” she replied, recalling all the ethical and psychological aspects of working with the Light. “But if the intent is born of hate, then it can never be ‘good’ in the eyes of the Holy Light.”
“You speak of it as it was… conscious. Aware.”
“Well, it is. Kind off...” Serenity paused; it became much easier for her to understand it once she had passed the Initiation and was touched by the Light. How was she going to explain it to the changeling?
“You know what?” Nymph said sympathetically; could she sense her discomposure? “Since I cannot speak about changelings, you don’t have to tell me about your ‘Light’. It’s only fair.”
“Sorry. I’m sure Sir Lightbringer will be able to explain it to you in better details later. Or you could read through the books in Chapel’s library,” Serenity suggested before she decided to change the subject. “So, back to you and ponies - surely, it’s not just different ponies that treat you better. I mean, Sound Wave and Cherry Bomb both smiled when they saw you this morning.”
“Yeah, I suppose having sex with them had unexpected side effects of improving our relations,” Nymph’s voice was almost nonchalant, especially given what she said.
Serenity’s jaw dropped hearing the calm information. For a second the changeling stayed oblivious to her companion’s utter shock, but in the next she noticed the change in her emotions. She glanced to the side and looked at her puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?!” Serenity gasped, and then quickly, in a lowered voice, she added: “You just said that you had sex as if it was nothing!”
“Err… because it was? Oh! Sorry, I forgot that we changelings view sex a bit differently from ponies.”
“‘A bit differently’? What do you mean?” the paladin asked, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
“You know how we need to feed on love to survive. To do that, we usually impersonate a pony and hang around their loved ones, which usually mean that we have to have sex with their mates, spouses, and so on,” Nymph explained casually, as it was a scientific debate. “If we thought about it as most ponies do, as something that should be only between those in love, we would have died of starvation centuries ago.”
“But…” Serenity stuttered; this all made sense, but it was so wrong! “What about Wind Reaver?! He has an… an intended mate!”
“Yes. We still fall in love in each other, although we cannot feed off ourselves… and if we could, it would be technically cannibalism...” Nymph trailed off, thinking about the thought, then shook her head. “Anyway, just because a changeling has a mate it doesn’t mean they’re exclusive. Mated pairs often work together to gather love. And they also have sex with other changelings from time; like to you ponies, it’s also highly enjoyable to us too.”
“But that’s just…” Serenity was too shocked to form a proper sentence. “... it’s just so…”
“Should I be worried that you now find my whole kind disgusting?” Nymph asked, her face a mix of amusement and confusion, and the paladin detected a hint of sadness in her question.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean…it’s just so weird to me. I mean, I read somewhere once that pegasi had somewhat similar habits prior to Founding of Equestria, and that the sea ponies often have casual sex, but…” Serenity trailed off, not wanting to offend her. She shook her head. “So, um… did Sound and Bomb had… I mean, where you…?”
“Myself?” Nymph hinted. “Of course not. They didn’t even want to do it with me in that unicorn shape I wear usually. I asked them if they wanted to have sex because I was hungry, so when they asked me to change my shape into someling else, I didn’t object, it only seemed fair.”
“That’s so- wait, they didn’t ask to change into me, did they?” she asked, blushing. “Please tell me they didn’t ask you to change into me!”
“... They didn’t ask me to change-”
“Oh, for Light’s sake!” Serenity exclaimed in outrage and embarrassment. “I can’t believe them!”
“Wait, they asked me to change into a lot of ponies!” Nymphs tried to calm her down. “You were- wait, would telling you which number on their list of fantasies you are in will make these things worse?”
“I…” the paladin trailed off, for a split second actually thinking about it, then stomped angrily, startling a few crystal ponies and causing them to give them even a wider breadth. “Nevermind. Let’s just forget about this conversation. For Light’s sake, I thought that Tucker hitting on me was bad enough…”
Serenity paused. If Tucker had been here, would he have also slept with Nymph? “He would,” she thought angrily. “You cannot put anything past that unicorn, not after what he did with all those Pinkie clones. He wouldn’t even wait for Nymph to suggest anything. And those holes in her legs…”
The paladin stopped her mental rant when she noticed that her charge was giggling. “What’s so funny?”
“That you complain about Tucker hitting on you when you like him so much,” Nymph replied, flashing her fangs in an awkward grin.
“What? I don’t… I don’t like him! I mean, he’s a fellow paladin, so I like him, but not like him like him, just… why are you laughing?!” she stomped once again in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. “Weren’t you all socially awkward like half a day ago?”
“Yes, it’s um… a common side effect of overeating love,” Nymph answered, now she a bit embarrassed. “And that Crystal Heart of yours isn’t helping, either… anyway, overeating causes changelings to have a slight personality change, so for a while I’ll be more… cocky. And going back to Tucker - I can sense your emotions. Do you want me to change into him and start feeding off you to prove my point?”
“No, you don’t need to, because you’re wrong!” Serenity said. She was certain that there were red spots on her cheeks. “Why would I like like a pony who thinks only about sex all the time?”
“Um, let me think…” the changeling crossed her forelegs and hovered above the crystal sidewalk, now gaining even more attention; thankfully, the buzzing of her wings managed to hide her next words, which she uttered after a few moments: “Well, based on most common psychological reasons for why there are such couples out there, and what I know about you… I would say you are subconsciously attracted to him…”
“Which I’m not!”
“... Because you… um…” she paused and lowered her voice while glancing at her, puzzled. “... you’re a virgin?”
Serenity uttered an ‘eep’ as she blushed even fiercer, gazing at the changeling with shock.
“Seriously?” Nymph asked (Serenity sent a mental thanks to the Holy Light for her speaking so quietly). “I know I just said that changelings look at those matters differently, but isn’t that a bit… weird, considering you age?”
“I’m nineteen!” she protested. “There’s nothing weird about me being a nineteen year old virgin.”
“No, you’re a thousand and nineteen year old virgin.” Nymph corrected her, and for an emotion-sensing creature she had a surprising difficulty in catching up how rapidly Serenity grew angry.
“It’s not like I was aware of the last thousand years.” Serenity hissed; “How did I get into this conversation?!” “King Sombra’s spell put us all into some sort of time-distortion… or something.”
“Oh, really? That must have been some powerful magic. Did you see what kind of shape the spell took once he was done with the incantation? I mean, he was fighting the two Princesses at the time so he must have-” Nymph trailed off, realizing how excited she had gotten. “Sorry, it’s just… my Queen was very interested as to how King Sombra made the Crystal Empire vanished, and how it returned. We had assumed he put you all in a sort of sub-dimension, but if what you said is true…” The changeling nibbled on her hoof, staying quiet for a couple of seconds, much to Serenity’s relief. “Hmm, I will need to think about it later. So, um… do you want to talk about it?”
The relief was short-lived.
“What’s there to talk about? I just never met a pony I would want to date.”
“And Tucker…”
“I am not attracted to him!” she hissed. “Why in Tartarus did you even think that me being a virgin would be the reason for that?!”
“Well, mares who didn’t have sex, despite their advanced-”
“Say ‘age’,” Serenity hissed, “and I will check which one is harder: my coat or your chitin. And how long will you stay in this state?”
“Until the extra energy I have will run out,” Nymph replied. “Sorry, I cannot help it; it’s more or less the same how ponies react to alcohol poisoning. And sorry for what I thought. I assumed you were aware of the last thousand years under King Sombra’s curse, which made you that old, despite your lack of aging.”
“Don’t worry, it’s okay. I already got a few snickers from other ponies about my ‘age’,” Serenity sighed and then, after a brief hesitation, she asked: “So why did you think I was attracted to Tucker?”
“Because you are so different, and while you seem to be not interested in sex, or at least not actively seeking it, you would feel drawn to a pony who… well, rather actively looks out for a chance to have intercourse. Oh, and who also is a virgin.”
“Wait, what?” the paladin glanced sharply. “He had sex with a-”
“- a bunch of Pinkie Pie’s clones, yes,” Nymph finished. “Except he hadn’t gotten around to putting anything anywhere other than his tongue into their mouths.”
“How do you-”
“One of those Pinkies in the armory was our… uh, spy,” she explained uncomfortably. “Sorry for that.”
“Oh, don’t be,” Serenity replied. “Thanks to that at least I will have something to make fun of Tucker if I’ll ever need to make him shut up.”
She giggled at the thought, and Nymph joined in. Serenity wondered if she knew what really make it funny for her; that Tucker, like her, is a thousand year old virgin. But then she recalled what Nymph had said and immediately stopped being amused. It would be better to now have something as bizarre like this in common with that unicorn.
“So how come you never had a coltfriend?” Nymph asked after a while.
“I don’t know. My parents died when I was young, so I suppose it ruined for me the whole concept of ‘happily ever after’.”
Serenity’s mind wondered for a moment to those dark years of her life; how her brother dropped from high school to go earn bits for their living, how he took care of her… It reminded her that since she was here, she might as well do something.
“Hey, you mind going with me to a certain place?”
Whatever due to her ability she figured out what she planned, or she was just being sympathetic after what Serenity said, either way Nymph smiled at her and nodded.
“Sure. Where to?”
“First, to the store. I need to buy something.”
“Do you want me to change back into a unicorn?” Nymph asked with concern. “The shopkeeper might react oddly…”
“Oh, no way in Tartarus!” she replied with a grin. Seeing confusion on changeling’s face, she explained: “A changeling and a crystal pony walking into a store? All we need is a dragon and we can stage a skit.”
Matthias parried the strike from the crystal guard trainee and counter hit him, resulting in the colt getting disarmed.
“Better, but you need to remember to have a good hold on your weapon at all time,” he told him, then turned to the rest; “Practice those movements I showed you in pairs. I want you to be ready to show them to me in ten minutes. Move it!”
He watched as the group of ponies scrambled to begin their training. At dawn he began trotting throughout the halls of the castle, pondering what meaning his night-time finding could have. At some point he bumped into Shining Armor, who was hurrying to the training field to oversee the training of recruits. After being questioned about whether he and his wife reached a decision yet he replied negatively, so Matthias volunteered to carry his duties to let him return to Cadance. The stallion agreed - although he did complain on how the paladin’s comment from yesterday caused them to have a little fight - and left him to it.
Matthias left the training area, so that they would have enough space.
“I will give it to Shining Armor; he made a good work out of them,” Sound Wave’s comment came from behind Matthias.
Turning around, he saw him and Wind Reaver approach from the direction of the castle. A few trainees stopped their practice battles to look at the changeling, which usually earned them a hit from their partners.
“I agree. To be honest, I don’t particularly look forward to training the new initiates from scratch when it comes to fighting,” Matthias admitted.
“Ah, don’t worry about it. You can dump the basics to Guard; he’s quite good as instructor.”
“I will keep that in mind,” the paladin replied. He turned his attention to the changeling. “If I were paranoid-”
“Which according to our Intel you are,” Wind Reaver blurted, his eyes on the ponies training.
Matthias took a step back, speechless. After a second he recovers and rolled his eyes. “- I would have said that you are spying on their training.”
“Nah, I’m pretty sure we already have a guy on that job,” the changeling replied casually, then looked at Matthias with a smirk. “Want to have some fun?”
The paladin recalled what he heard about what his friends talked about with Wind Reaver when he was dealing with Chrysalis: that he likes to fight. Matthias grinned, taking the training sword into his hoof.
“Take one and we can have a little sparring match.”
“Do those look able to maneuver such weapons?” the changeling asked, extending his forelegs.
Matthias glanced at point were ponies’ hooves met the rest of their legs, and saw no visible joint separating the two, which would have allowed the changeling to move it despite the chitin.
“So how do you plan to fight? By… having them in those holes?”
“Yeah, why do you have holes in your legs, anyway?” Sound Wave asked, glancing at his legs as well.
“A few reasons… like this one,” Wind Reaver replied, taking a step back.
Matthias was about to ask what he was talking about when from the holes in his leg a green substances shot out, enveloping the limb and extending forward, forming a claw-like blade.
“We don’t use them against ponies, so you are probably the first to see changelings’ claws,” Wind Reaver said, a second one emerging from his other forelegs as he used his wings to propel his body to stand on his hind legs. Crossing the two blades in front of himself, he added with a smirk: “Don’t worry, Hivespeaker, I made them blunt.”
Matthias took a moment to examine the changeling claws carefully. Their shape was different, and they were made out of substance, but there was no doubt in his mind. Wind Reaver’s horn did not glow when they emerged.
Just like Tucker’s didn’t when he made his sword appear.
“Sound, we need some space,” he told the royal guard, focusing on the duel.
The unicorn nodded, taking his eyes off from Wind Reaver’s claws. His face showed that he hadn’t made the same connection as Matthias did as he trotted away.
“Okay, show me what you changelings got,” he told him, preparing for his attack.
Wind Reaver grinned and flew... up. Matthias watched in confusion as he quickly became a spot in the sky, and even faster grow bigger when the changeling dived…
… straight at him.
Matthias had read the report of how during the attack on Canterlot the changelings often applied a tactic of wrapping themselves in magic barrier while falling down on the city to maximize the damage to the defenders. Wind Reaver, on the other hoof, applied a completely different approached.
He didn’t do use his magic. He just swung both of his claws at Matthias, propelling his body up at the last second to avoid crashing into him.
Matthias watched as Wind Reaver flew a few meters further and landed, glancing behind at the paladin at the effects of his attack. He had managed to block the hit with both the training sword and his left foreleg, but he wasn’t undamaged. The sword had cracks across it and there was a dent on his armor.
“Our claws are so durable that they should be able to even cut through crystal ponies’ coats,” Wind Reaver told him with a smirk. “If you hadn’t used the blade to direct my attack around you but to parry it, all you’d have been splinters, even if they are blunt.”
“Interesting,” was all Matthias said before he performed his own attack.