//------------------------------//
// Settling in, part 3 
// Story: Iridescence 
// by Serpent_Underscore 
//------------------------------//

Area 51, Nevada: Monday January 23rd, 1995

Simona Ion rested her head back against the wall, listening to the regular tapping noises of hooves against cement as one of their more recent arrivals paced the barren room.

She couldn't blame the changeling. If she were in its place, she'd be more than a little anxious herself. Thrust into an unfamiliar environment and waiting anxiously to see if anyone they knew had made it to the new world alongside them, with no way to know what state their friends and family were in, or even if they were still alive, wondering what the intentions of their hosts were and if they were really as friendly as they appeared, or what the future would hold.

That didn't make the incessant tapping any less annoying, especially after three hours had passed. Simona shifted in her seat and groaned slightly as she lifted her head up from the wall. Might as well try to take its mind off of things. "So, what's your name?" she asked.

The changeling jumped a little as if startled, then hesitantly answered, "Prosody Perception, but most people just call me Proper for short."

Simona nodded thoughtfully, "Gimmick, Mirror Breaker, Winning Prize, Prosody Perception, from what I've heard so far I think it's safe to say that you guys have some very different naming conventions than we do. My name's Simona by the way."

"Does it mean anything?" Proper asked curiously.

Simona smiled, "I'm sure it does, but I don't think I've ever taken the time to look up its origins. How about you? What does prosody mean?"

"It has to do with the stress, intonation, rhythm, and tone of speech. Basically, I was named that because I'm really good at sounding like somepony else. I mean, any changeling can copy somepony's voice, but I'm good at picking up on the subtle cues that make it sound authentic, like it actually belongs to the original rather than sounding like there's something subtly wrong about it that you can't quite put your hoof on."

Simona arched an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term. "Somepony?"

"Sorry, 'someone.'" Proper said. "I don't know if you have them here or not, but where we come from, ponies are a race that bear something of a passing resemblance to us and that rule over the majority of Equestria. Until pretty recently, we've had to hide our existence from them, and after a while it starts becoming second nature to use their equinocentric speech patterns." Proper paused and gave a short laugh, "At least it becomes second nature for us Harvesters that have to interact with them on a regular basis while disguised that is."

Simona cast a questioning look in Proper's direction. "Okay, now I have another question. What are harvesters? And why have you guys needed to stay hidden from these ponies?"

The changeling looked awkwardly at one of the other changelings in the room, an older-looking female who sighed and got up from her spot on one of the chairs. "Our society is divided into seven distinct callings," she began, her voice buzzing slightly, "Warrior, Keeper, Shaper, Worker, Coordinator, Healer, Harvester. Every changeling must choose one of these paths to tread when they come of age."

The old changeling's face was neutral as she continued. "A Warrior's role is to protect the hive from threats, whether they be wild monsters, rival hives, or hostile races. They also help to keep the peace within the hive itself should altercations arise.

Keepers are our link to the past and the guardians of our future. They are charged with preserving the knowledge and wisdom of the hive and passing it down to future generations. Scholars, historians, mages, recordkeepers, teachers, caretakers of the young, all of these things fall under their domain. They are also entrusted with storing and safeguarding the magic of the hive during times of plenty, to be distributed during times of need.

Shapers are the artisans, crafters, and engineers of the hive. Creation is their domain. Unlike the Worker class, Shapers are a skilled labor force often specialized in a single area of expertise.

Workers are jacks of all trades and masters of none. They fulfill a catch-all role for any day to day needs not covered by the other callings and make up the bulk of our society. Like the Shapers they are often employed in tasks involving creation or mending, but in an assistive capacity requiring little specialized skill. Flexibility and adaptability are key traits for their class.

Coordinators ensure that the different roles work together optimally, and help oversee many aspects of hive life. They are the leaders and visionaries, ever focused on the larger picture while at the same time also remaining aware of the needs and problems of those they are assigned to and balancing their actions accordingly.

Healers are charged with maintaining the health and well-being of the hive. As might be expected from their title, they are responsible for treating wounds and tending to the sick, but their duties also extend to the mental well-being of the hive. 

Our empathic senses help knit the hive together and strengthen our sense of community, but they also leave us more vulnerable to negative feedback loops. When many changelings feel despair or depression at once, their ability to sense emotions becomes a curse, and their negative feelings can be magnified. Worse, they can potentially spread their malaise to unaffected changelings around them, creating a downward spiral of negativity that can tear entire hives apart from within if left unchecked.

Those in the Healer class provide counseling for troubled or distraught changelings, organize parties and other communal events to keep up morale, try to cheer up any unhappy changelings they come across, and generally spread positivity throughout the hive. They are one of the bright spots in our lives that we treasure.

Finally, Harvesters procure resources for the hive. Food, magic, building materials, knowledge of current events, anything the hive requires but cannot supply from within. Along with warriors, they are the only class that are ever expected to come into contact with the outside world. Some might be farmers tending fields, others might be miners or fishers. Regardless of their particular specialty, all Harvesters are expected to be adept at disguising themselves and blending into pony society unnoticed."

The older changeling paused for a moment, considering her words. "As to why disguise is necessary, the ponies have treated us with hatred and distrust since ancient times. In their eyes we are nothing but monsters to be driven out or contained. Our ancestors were the ones to earn this reputation, and to be fair it was an accurate one at the time. It is the way of civilization to begin in savagery and gradually progress toward enlightenment, and our race was no exception.

It took us longer than most races to settle down and learn how to be civilized, and by that time we were trapped by our reputation. We were forced into living in secret and doing unscrupulous things to survive, which only perpetuated the image of us as monsters skulking in the dark and fueled the same sentiments that drove us to resort to such measures in the first place. It was a vicious cycle, one that we hope to break now that we've been given a fresh start in a new world."

Simona looked thoughtful as she considered the answer she'd been given. She was sure that the old changeling had omitted more than a little unflattering information about her kind during her explanation and had deliberately tried to put a positive spin on things, but she didn't get the impression that the old changeling was lying to her. 

For one thing, the changelings hadn't been given enough time alone yet to coordinate any big lies about their background. If they had something to hide, then they'd probably either avoid the subject and stay silent on it, or twist the truth until it was palatable enough to reveal, but not to the extent that another changeling would contradict what they said if questioned separately.

If she were in their place, she supposed she would probably do the same. There were plenty of unpleasant things about humanity and its history that she wouldn't want to reveal right off the bat, especially if she was a refugee at the mercy of a complete unknown and trying to convince them to take her in.

Well, one way or another it wasn't her job to pry secrets from their visitors. All she needed to do was keep an eye on them here while the search teams looked for the others. She'd let the specialists worry about piecing together what their goals and motivations really were.

"If that's the case, then I wish you luck," Simona said. "It can be hard adapting to a new way of living, but at least here you can have the chance to be judged on your own actions." It was both encouragement and subtle warning, and she was sure both changelings had gotten her subtext. The older changeling nodded and turned away to sit back down where she had been before.

Simona brushed her blonde hair away from her face with one hand as she looked back at Proper. "So, you guys are divided into a bunch of different roles huh? That sounds a little restrictive."

"Not really," Proper said, "It's a lot more flexible than the ponies' way of determining how they'll live their entire life based on what cutie mark they get, and each of us gets to choose for ourselves what we think will best benefit the hive." 

Simona's face lapsed into a barely contained expression of incredulous amusement. "Cutie marks? Care to run that by me again?"

Proper smiled back, her own amusement clearly visible on her face as well. "Hey, I didn't name them. They're basically a magic flank picture that appears when a pony foal discovers what they're good at, and it pretty much determines their entire destiny from that point on. You'll never see a pony with a scroll and quill cutie mark working as a plumber, or a pony that has a loaf of bread for a cutie mark becoming an artist." Simona motioned for Proper to go on. "Here, why don't I just show you what they look like, it's easier than describing them."

With a burst of green flame, Proper vanished and in her place stood a creature that Simona could only assume was a pony. Except it was like no pony Simona had ever seen in her life. For one thing its proportions were very different from normal ponies. For another thing, its fur was the most shocking shade of blue she could imagine and its mane was an equally bright shade of pink. 

Although the eyes were the same size as those of the changelings, their more familiar features made them seem that much more striking. It featured a stylized tornado on its rump, looking for all the world as though it were a natural part of the fur. 

Oh, and the pair of birdlike wings at its sides were another subtle indicator that it was unlike any terrestrial equine Simona had ever seen. It looked almost as if evolution had decided one day that cuteness was as good a criteria for fitness as any, and spent the next few eons creating a creature that exemplified the concept to an almost dangerous degree.

Simona broke out laughing, "Okay, I refuse to believe that's an actual creature and that you didn't just make it up on the spot."

"No such luck I'm afraid," Proper answered with a smile, "I take it you've never seen one of these before?"

"It looks like something that could have inspired the legends of the pegasus in ancient mythology, but no. That's certainly no earth pony," Simona said.

"Well of course not," Proper replied, "This is what an earth pony looks like-" Another burst of green flame consumed Proper, revealing an identical blue equine, only without wings. "-see? This is an earth pony, the one I just did was a pegasus pony- and by the way, it's odd that you have myths about a similar creature that has the same name- and finally, this is a unicorn pony."

A third burst of emerald flame revealed the same blue pony, only now with a spiraling horn jutting from its forehead. "I kept them all the same color to better illustrate the differences between the three pony tribes, but they come in every shade of the rainbow," Proper said.

"Hold on a moment," Simona interrupted, "When I said 'earth pony', I meant a pony from earth, not an 'earth pony' like the ones you're familiar with. I can safely say that there's nothing like any of those three here. Outside of mythology, the closest things we have to your ponies are farm animals that share the same name, but which are non-sentient and have very different physiologies."

"Dumb farm animals," Proper gave Simona a flat look, before bursting out laughing. "Okay, whatever else happens, now I know we ended up in the right dimension. Just wait until Golden Mask hears about..." Proper trailed off and seemed to visibly deflate, her good mood vanishing as quickly as it had come.

"What's wrong?" Simona asked.

"It's my brother," Proper answered quietly. "I don't know if he's one of the ones that made it out of the rift or if he's stuck between like they're telling us everypony else must be."

"Oh," Simona said after a moment, not sure how to respond. "Don't give up hope yet. There are still several teams out searching for you guys, there could still be a chance that he's out there somewhere." Simona tried sounding positive, but privately she had a much more pessimistic view. The reports of the search teams finding new changelings were coming in with less and less frequency.

She suspected that they were starting to run out of new ones to find altogether, and that by the end of the day there would be no trails in range that didn't lead back to Area 51.

"You and I both know that's not very likely," Proper said, "So far, I've noticed a common pattern among the changelings here. We... we were all standing near where Chrysalis was when she started casting the spell. My brother was in a different part of the cavern." Proper scrubbed at her eyes with one hoof, the fur of her disguise coming back damp.

Simona reached out and placed a hand on Proper's back in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. "Hey, listen to me. Even if we don't find him here, that doesn't mean he's gone forever." Simona's voice was confident as she looked directly into Proper's enormous eyes. A faint part of her noted that unicorn ponies had incredibly soft fur. 

"I know that if he's not on earth, then that means he has to be trapped between universes with the rest of your people," Simona said, "We still have the Kenfield Array. Between our eggheads and yours, I'm sure that we'll be able to work out a way to recover them eventually. You have to believe that once we do, they'll all still be alive and in good health." Simona gave Proper's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Hopefully time doesn't have any meaning in the gap between universes and they'll be kept in a kind of stasis until then."

"Do you really think so?" Proper asked.

"You'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable on the subject than me," Simona admitted, but then smiled. "I saw it in a movie once though, so it has to be true."

Proper snorted and shook her head, the faintest hints of a smile starting to tug at her cheeks. "In that case there's nothing to worry about then," she said wryly, and looked around the room as if seeing it with new eyes. "Funny, when I first came here I was so wrapped up in worrying about what you guys might be planning and what this whole thing might mean for me that I didn't stop to think of anypony else. But if all humans are like you, then I think a lot of those fears might have been misplaced."

Proper pulled Simona into a hug. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up Simona. I just hope that Golden really will be okay."

Simona hugged her back, knowing what it was like to worry about family. Privately, the little girl inside her squeed at being able to hug a real live unicorn, even if she knew it was really just a changeling in disguise. 

Glancing up at the dispassionate security camera in the corner of the room, Simona just hoped that the changeling's trust wasn't being misplaced.





Omaha Nebraska: Tuesday, January 24, 1995.

As I gradually drifted towards consciousness, the first thing I noticed was Kerrigan sleeping against my back, her front legs draped across my neck. The second thing I noticed was that those legs were smeared with something wet and sticky, which greatly hastened my return to full awareness.

I carefully got up and cracked open the blinds, letting the afternoon sun seep into the room. Kerrigan lay on the bed where she had been before, but I could see a suspicious trail of hoofprints leading out of the room. As I followed the trail, I absently rubbed at the encrusted substance Kerri had gotten behind my neck, wondering what it was and hoping it wasn't anything too vile.

The trail led to the kitchen, and I had a sinking feeling as I rounded the corner. The fridge door was wide open, and a carton of eggs lay smashed against the floor. By the look of it, Kerri had taken great pains to scramble the eggs with the eggshells and spread them as far across the floor as she could. There was also a carton of milk lying sideways on the floor, with milk slowly trickling out of a pair of neat puncture marks.

I took a deep breath and counted to ten. Getting upset wouldn't be of any use. It wasn't like Kerri was old enough yet to understand what she should and shouldn't do, and messes were a normal part of growing up. 

That didn't make it any less aggravating as I started cleaning up the mess, and I found myself wondering how long the fridge had been open and if any of the perishables had gone bad from being left out in the warmth. 

After the main mess in the kitchen had been cleaned up more or less, I took a sponge and knelt down to start methodically scrubbing at the spots on the hallway floor where she had left a trail. 

While I was doing that, I felt a weight settle on my shoulders as Kerri ran up the ramp my sloped back offered and chirped at me enthusiastically. "Well hello to you too," I said, "You've caused quite a mess, do you know that?" Her only response was to try and chew on my ear.

I sighed. "We're both going to need to get washed up after this." I continued cleaning her trail, careful not to dislodge Kerrigan when I changed locations.

As I was nearing the end of getting the mess cleaned up, I could hear a car pulling into the driveway. Given the time, it was probably Nicole having just gotten off from work, so I went to check it out. A surreptitious glance out the front window confirmed that it was her car, and I went to unlock the door for her.

"Hi Shaun, how's our little monster doing today?" she asked.

I grimaced. "Monstrously. I just got done cleaning up a big mess she made in the kitchen while I was asleep. Somehow she managed to get the fridge open and spread raw eggs and milk everywhere, before dragging it into the bedroom. I still need to change the bedsheets and get the two of us washed up.

"Now you feel my pain when I looked after her yesterday," Nicole smirked as she reached over my shoulder to tickle Kerrigan's chin. "Anyways, I had an idea about how we could avoid having to move her between our houses twice a day and risk discovery, but I wanted to run it past you first."

I removed Kerri from her perch on my shoulders and held her in my arms. "Okay, I'm listening."

Nicole brushed a strand of dark hair out of her face before continuing. "What if I moved in temporarily as a roommate to keep an eye on Kerri while you're off at work? Just as a roommate mind you, and only until she's a little older."

Okay, I hadn't been expecting that. Thinking on it though, I realized that it would help solve a number of our problems. Of course, that wouldn't help all that much if it introduced new ones in the process. "Wouldn't it be really awkward to have the two of us living together?" I said.

"Tell me about it," Nicole said, "I mean, we've always been best friends since we were kids, but we're just friends. Also, my mom would totally lose it if I ever told her I was living with a guy, and no one would believe us if we said there was nothing happening between us."

Nicole seemed to reconsider. "In fact, just forget I said anything at all. It was a stupid idea to begin with." 

"Not really," I said thoughtfully, "It just needs some more polish. Now, I'm not saying yes just yet, and if you want to back out that's fine, but we could probably find a way to make it work if we wanted to. You're right, not having to transfer Kerri back and forth between our houses every day would help to cut down on the chances of her being spotted by someone."

"Our work and sleep schedules also don't really overlap that much, so there should be less opportunity for awkwardness, and one of us will be present at all times to take care of Kerrigan," Nicole said, seeming to rally a little at not having her idea shot down right off the bat.

"I'll have to think about it, but it does seem like it could be a possibility," I said, "We'd have to lay down some ground rules and boundaries, as well as plan out in advance what to tell anyone else if they ask about us, but it might work."

The two of us stood awkwardly for a few moments until Kerrigan started squirming in my arms. "Right. First thing's first though. Kerri and I both need to get washed up." 

I turned to head for the bathroom. This was all getting a little more complicated than I had anticipated.