The Foundation

by Solar Caesar

More people.

Quarrel had not come into the observatory room with the others. He had chosen to stay on the bridge and watch. He, too, had heard the screaming.

He should have heard it, at least.

When they reached the bridge, Quarrel had a depressed look on his face. No one noticed, as Twilight and the others were talking about how Pinkie probably thought that SCP-1025 was a book of recipes.

Well, no one noticed except Rarity.

Quarrel was the last to follow, and Rarity went to the end of the pack to him.

"Is everything alright, darling?" Rarity asked the blue-eyed changeling.

"Eh...I'm about as alright as anyone would be right now." he replied.

"You seem upset."

"Well, I just saw a dude get his leg torn apart, so, yeah, I'm a little upset."

"Does it have something to do with Twilight?"

"Uh-huh."

"Tell me about it."

"Ugh..."

"What is it?"

"If I tell you, will we drop this?"

Rarity thought for a moment, and then nodded.

"I think that..." Quarrel started. He sighed. "I think that if Twilight killed a changeling, she might not hesitate to kill me."

"What!?" Rarity gasped. "Why on earth would you think that!?"

"I'm a changeling." He bluntly stated. "My people invaded Equestria. Apparently, none of us can be trusted."

"Well, she certainly seems to trust you." Rarity said.

"Okay, then how about this: I'm a death row inmate." he deadpanned. "I killed four guards in a bank. Would you trust me?"

Rarity thought for a moment.

He had a point. Normally, she would stay far away from somepony if they were guilty and sentenced to execution.

But this...This was different. Quarrel had proven himself not to be a remorseless murderer, but in fact a poor soul stricken by a bad childhood.

"Honestly, I wouldn't." Rarity answered. "But you have proven yourself. You aren't just some psychopath."

Quarrel shrugged. "Tell that to the judge who convicted me."

"You may have killed a few people, but you aren't insane." Rarity told him.

"I may as well be." he said. "If we never get outta here, I'll probably just run up to 173 and play hide-and-seek."

Rarity giggled. "Same here. Just remember that we don't see you as just a changeling. We see you as a survivor."

"Thanks for that."

They eventually reached the Heavy Containment Zone checkpoint. Pinkie Pie had, surprisingly, stayed put. She had also found a friend:

Another Class-D. D-7096, to be exact.

The female changeling had a nasty cut on the side of her face. "I had fallen and cut myself in the room with the red ice." she explained. "An entire bridge is completely busted. I also saw another guy like me. He was legit frozen over, under the ice."

She was talking about SCP-009.

Upon noticing Quarrel, D-7096 smiled. She walked up to him.

"Nasha natsiya?" she said. She was apparently speaking changeling.

Quarrel looked confused, and then replied, "Vy govorite na nashem yazyke?"

"Da. Otkuda vy?" she replied.

"Jaden." he said, in a more familiar sounding accent. "Kak naschet tebya?"

"Axlaria." she said with a smile.

Nobody had any clue what they were saying.

"We both speak the same language." Quarrel explained-in english. "Nice to know there's someone I can relate to."

"Right..." Shining said awkwardly. "Can we keep moving?"

Everyone snapped out of the changeling cultural trance they were in, and kept moving, with their new member on the team.

Author's Note:

For the changeling language spoken, I used Russian and google translate.

:P