Stalwart Drone has been a Night Guard for a little over two years, and now he's being reassigned to the Crystal Empire, forced to leave his home and his talent behind only to have to readjust to living up in the frozen north.
Ruby Swift, conversely, has been in Equestria for most of her life, and recently she's taken a... darker look on life.
Forced to live in the same house as one another, the unlikely duo are going to have to live with what they fear.
At least, for now anyway.
Cover image can be viewed in its full resolution by clicking on it (or right-clicking and opening it in a new tab.) Spent a couple days working on it and I'll be uploading it to my DeviantArt gallery soon.
Chapters (5)
Yeah, I think I'm too busy to read thi I WILL READ THIS ALL HAIL THE HYPNOPONY!
Continue.
This is a nice couple! Keep going!
Neat little choice. And this is yet another item from you to fave and enjoy! And a guard story too! Huzzah!
Interesting take on the bat-ponies/Night Guard. Not sure how I feel about them being essentially mutated by a drug, though. (Usually they're a unique race of ponies, or 'blessed' in some way by Luna).
And I like the pairing here--Stalwart seems like an upstanding sort of guy, and Ruby...well, she's a Woobie through and through.
Watching this...
Not bad.
I like this. Very well done, character development is great. I'm very interested in how the romance will develop between the two.
Keep up the good work.
moar pls
Iiiiinteresting... I like this.
tinyurl.com/mbho6go
Hm. I like it, though I feel the word apiary could be used a little less. Using the word for an area where hives are kept or a collection of hives doesn't work well when it needs to be more specific. It's like saying town or block constantly when you are talking about houses. No one will hate you for calling them hives once in a while.
I liked your spin on the origin of bat ponies and I'm interested to see where this story might go. Liked and fav'd.
3269758
After a REALLY SHORT visit to Wikipedia I find myself once again educated. I'm not exactly a beekeeper (I work in I.T.) and as such it was a... simple mistake to make. For me, anyway. I still feel stupid, but thanks for making me aware of my stupidity and lack of research; I'll be sure to not do that in future. 
I was using it as the name of the actual structure in which bees are kept, legitimately unaware that they WERE called hives.
3269864
Heh, one of the bonuses of living in the country and being surrounded by orchards I suppose. I thought it was cool that you were using apiary in the first place since most people would call them hives every time, so don't feel stupid or anything like that. Though a bit of writing advice (I'm hardly a writer btw), if something is repeating so often, try looking up synonyms and playing with new words.
GL in the future!
It seems like it has a lot of potential to be an excellent story so far. I hope to be able to read more of it if you get around to adding additional chapters.
Good start! Can't wait to see what happens next.
This is one of the most interesting stories i have read here.....how often are you planning to update? because I could really get into this story.
You think, "Augh, not another goddamn changeling story" and I say, "Yes! Another changeling story!
"
This one seems particularly interesting so far, too. Looking forward to where you go with this! Keep up the great work!
Good!!!!!!
Stalwart is best pony, that's all.
Ruby's rich! ....I wonder how much Swag she could afford if she wasn't so modest.....
Love it
I think Cadance has manipulated more hearts and minds than Chrysalis ever did. She's just extremely subtle about how she does it.
Stalwart was a little quick to drop his prejudice, though getting told off like that by his superior probably did most of the work. Enjoyed the chapter quite a lot. Had to reread the last little bit to make sure I hadn't missed anything, what with Cadence possibly hinting at pulling some strings to help the two 'get along'. Can't wait to see what sinister matchmaking she might get up to.
Looking forward to more!
Damn if only I could favorite this again. I enjoy these fics that portray ponies as less then advertised, meaning there capable of being hate mongering bigots as much as anyone else but at the same time not sociopathic monsters. I'm liking the flow of everything too.
Keep up the great work.
I'm very much enjoying this fic =^^=
~bass
This Cadence really be true Princess Of Love!! She have love to all kind of people even Changeling. She still have reasonable even after what happened in her wedding!
This Cadence is best pony more than any Cadence in other Fanfic!!
Yay! I thoroughly enjoy this , very well written :D
I have two words for you, story fav'd
Oi, great chapter and I hope you'll update more often
I see nothing wrong with some alliteration
The bragging ponies being easy to find and easy to fine is deeply amusing.
Going a little fast with how quick everyone is trusting Ruby and how quickly her alibi was proven true. I would have expected Shining to try and stay as neutral as possible while the investigation took place(which should of taken more then a day, a week at least.). This also would have given Stalwart time to get to know Ruby before trusting her, and if Cadence did push them together it would've felt like she worked it in in a more subtle manner then how it is right now.
Just my 2 cents so far. I'll probably stick around for a few more chapters and see what happens.
3387669
Hmm, you've got a point in the amount of time it would take for the investigation to be completed, but I've also not indicated the amount of time they spent in the hospital recuperating; only that they were released that day/the day before. It's supposed to have been four-five days after their initial admittance into the hospital and I've not indicated that anywhere have I..?
Sorry for that, I'll get right on it.
awwwwwwwwwww man
This is Epic! I will be watching and eagerly waiting for future updates, but for now I will have to settle for giving my like and fav.
3390259
While that does explain why the investigation was so quick. It still leaves me feeling that there should have been more time for Stalwart and Ruby to get to know each other, so that way the reason why Stalwart protected Ruby wouldn't feel like it came out of nowhere and would of made Cadence's involvement a bit more subtle.
nice
3399193 I was under the impression that he protected Ruby because he has orders to do so.
This suffers from letting too much out too fast; Ruby would be more of a character if it wasn't a description of what happened. Actually writing out the events would have been better.
There really should have been a intro chapter for the two of them, where we had a glimpse of both of them, Stalwart on the job, Ruby on the run, and then got to this point. Then, to build relationships, you could have had more of a struggle to get any information about Ruby out, her refusing to say anything because all she wanted was her misery to be over, so it didn't matter.
I like the concept, and it's interesting to me, but you could have done much better on the intro.
Keep trying though!
3399193
His protecting her was, as has been suggested, pretty much duty bound; and Cadance's involvement so far? Girls and boys, she hasn't done anything yet.
I tried to write a short romance a couple years ago and it was, well, bad. I played it too short and missed half of the best parts of romance, so believe me when I say that so far we've not even gotten to the romance yet.
3426716 Protecting her yes, but there was no need for him to embrace her, especially when he doesn't know much about her is still reluctant about protecting her.
3429567 I have no real issue with him protecting her, just what I have said ^ there. As for Cadence, I might have been mislead by the last sentence, because to me it certainly sounded like she might have done something.
With all the confusion that the last line is causing, I'm tempted to tell y'all what is implied by Cadance having done something, yet nothing. All the evidence for what she has done is already in the story; it'll be made evident eventually, but for now I just want to make as clear as possible that she has not got them under a spell.
3431550
I think the main reason people(including me.) thought she used a spell, was because when Cadence ever dealt with a couple in the show she used a spell.
Oh and she is being secretive, so that must mean she used a spell
, because when you have magic at your disposal you must use it for everything! 
(Am guilty of this line of thought before, and will probably be guilty of it in the future as well.)
I just found this story. I love the fact that you made a changeling a complete innocent in this story.
This is a rather great story if you ask me so far, and pretty damn unique on top, shame you said you likely weren't going to work on it more, because I'd like to read it more.
Another great story. Well well well looks like someone got a new follower.
Got any estimate for how long we'll wait for a new chapter?
3431550 Black Ops info
brief case handoff
I would like this even more with a new chapter.
Soon.
Favin Like a Follower.
See what I did there.