In Sheep's Clothing

by Kydois

Chapter 3 — Feeling the Street

Myiasis

Excuse me?

The ponies did not come. We were unable to complete our task.

You waited at the castle, did you not?

We did, My Queen, but they never came close enough for us to detect them.

I see. What did you do after? You were gone for four days, infiltrator. Surely your group was not lost for three of those days.

We were not. We waited at the castle on the day they were to enter the forest, but as night fell, we saw a burst of light in the treeline. We managed to track down the source of the explosion from the smoke column. It appeared the ponies were attacked by a manticore before they could arrive.

What did you find there? Speak. I assume that you have more to report.

The manticore was killed by the explosion. The blast removed the entire head and a significant portion of its upper body. There was a great deal of blood everywhere, though it was hard to tell how much of it was from the ponies with the manticore’s remains scattered everywhere. There were no other signs the ponies were there besides a few dropped quills and parchment.

Unfortunate. Is that all?

No. We discovered one last detail, perhaps the most concerning. There may have been plenty of blood around the site of the attack, but the manticore’s claws were stained a bluish-green color.

Oh? Are you implying what I think you are implying?

Yes, My Queen. Changelings.

Hmm, but who would send changelings into the Everfree? Queen Mimic would not dare interfere with us after our last agreement. Queen Chrysalis, perhaps? No. Unlikely. She has always been quite shrewd. It would be uncharacteristic of her to send a changeling that gets seen unless she wanted that changeling to be seen, and what would she gain from such a course of action?

Nevermind. This is a discussion for another time. Continue.

We were uncertain as to how the changelings were involved with the ponies, but we believed at least one pony was injured, so we visited the nearby hospital in Ponyville.

And?

Only one of the ponies was injured to the point of requiring extended hospitalization: the unicorn named Overwatch. Our attempts to learn more, however, were stymied by the unusually vigilant nurses. With the possibility of the nurses being infiltrators, we decided to abort the attempts lest we raise too much suspicion. Your policies were to be especially careful when dealing with potential changelings, My Queen.

I understand, though I am slightly disappointed. Is that all?

Yes, My Queen. Do you have any orders for us?

Indeed, I do. The ponies are returning to Canterlot, which means we missed our best opportunity to replace them away from any possible witnesses. Getting an infiltrator close to Celestia will have to wait until we can deal with our potential pests first. Keep an eye on those three ponies, especially Overwatch. Bait the lure. See to what extent the other changelings have… interfered.

Understood, My Queen.

Nymph

Redheart was right. I was declared fit for discharge the very next day. I was uncertain how much influence my new hivemates had on this decision, but when my doctor started talking about results for tests I’d never taken, I figured they had done something right.

Steel Blade and Vice were waiting patiently for me the following morning when I finally entered the lobby, just as expected. Steel Blade made sure to get the right time from me before he ran off to purchase train tickets.

Vice perked up when she finally saw me, and I let out an undignified chirp when she set upon me with a friendly foreleg over my shoulder and a noogie. The giant earth pony was going on about how “leetle pony Overvatch is dihrty fighter, make short vork of bully manticore” and the infinite merits of explosives and how I could impress all the stallions with my scar, but I only caught a few snippets here and there as she dragged me around with a single foreleg.

I was off balance for most of the walk to the train station as she hugged me to her body like a plushie, but I stayed upright for the most part because it was Vice Grip holding me. In the back of my mind, I was surprised she didn’t bump my injury at all with how roughly and casually she could toss me around. The front of my mind was screaming something about the sanctity of personal space.

The train station was packed. The tickets Steel Blade had barely managed to snag for the trip to Canterlot were scheduled a mere hour after I was supposed to be discharged, but we managed to arrive half an hour early. The murmur of sleepy voices around us soon meshed together into white noise as we waited. Steel Blade stood there stoically with two sets of well-worn, battered saddlebags, apparently having scooped mine up from the Everfree as he and Vice rushed me back to the hospital. He refused to let me take them back, stating that I shouldn’t be straining myself as per my doctor’s orders.

I rolled my eyes and went back to waiting. Despite how early it was, there were a lot more ponies waiting around for the train than I would have expected from the small town of Ponyville.

When I voiced this observation, Steel Blade shrugged as if he were expecting it. “I’m guessing most of this crowd are just tourists. Probably the last big rush to get to Canterlot in time for the Summer Sun Celebration. It’s only two days away.”

Makes sense, if only a little. I’d heard about the ponies’ Summer Sun Celebration, but I never really understood what all the fuss was about. It was just the longest day of the summer, wasn’t it? What’s the point of having such a big celebration for such a mundane occurrence? Where did it even come from?

The reasons were probably lost to the ages. Short of asking an actual immortal like the queen, I probably wasn’t going to find any real answer to that question besides “because Princess Celestia,” as if that summed up everything I needed to know about the holiday.

I felt a little ping at the back of my mind, like the drip of a water droplet, followed by another ping like the distant crashing of the waves of the ocean. My head turned to and fro as I tried to pin down who in the crowd were my new accomplices, but even in my empathy sense, I couldn’t sort out Sinister and Dexter from the rest of the crowd. I sent out my ping, a flutter of dragonfly wings, and immediately received a pair of return pings.

I ran out of time to figure out who sent them. The train pulled into the station, just a few minutes late, and the mass of ponies began to move. The little niggling sense of claustrophobia looming over me quickly threatened to blossom into panic. I was actually thankful when Vice wrapped a hoof around me again and pulled me through the crush of pony bodies onto the train car. Better to be strapped against my will to a solid rock than pulled under by the current. Steel Blade had pushed up farther ahead, and though he wasn’t nearly as large as Vice, his two sets of saddlebags still made maneuvering through the crowd difficult. His natural flightiness as a pegasus was likely not doing him any favors either.

With a few quick apologies, stammered pardons, and “accidentally” stepped-on hooves, we managed to secure a single seat together. Steel Blade, after neatly pressing the saddlebags against the wall on the floor, took the window seat, and I was neatly deposited in the middle before Vice took her spot next to the aisle. I was still uncomfortable being within touching distance of other ponies, especially sandwiched between two ponies larger than I was, but my sudden bout of claustrophobia had abated for the moment.

I sent out my own ping again, once again answered by the return pings by my two hivemates.

“Ahh, perfect! Looks like we’re finally off to Canterlot,” Dexter’s voice echoed over on the hivemind. “Anyways, we have just one little thing to tell you before we leave you alone.”

“Mrrr?”

“Good answer. Since we’re working together, we’ll have to set up some sort of meeting time to share information. Any complaints about Saturday?”

Steel Blade was saying something, and I replied with a couple of mumbled responses as the train finally lurched forward.

“Mrrr.”

“Excellent. We’ll see you then. Oh, and don’t be surprised if we pop up at your place beforehoof. We might have to establish a reason for us to be meeting so regularly. You never know who’s watching from the shadows.”

“Mrrr.”

The train car fell into silence as a couple of the other seats pulled down the shades on their windows. The dull, rhythmic roar of the rolling train soon became the only sound in the car, save for a few muffled coughs. The hivelink was silent.

I felt my eyes drooping, and without offering much resistance, I fell asleep.

---

“Mooom… ” I snuggled deeper into the warm, fluffy thing. “Dun buzz’r wings like ‘at, it tickles.”

“Um, Overwatch?” A wing softly prodded me in my side. “We’re here.”

I let out a murmur of protest, but I eventually lifted my head from where it rested on Steel Blade’s shoulder. With a loud groan, I swayed back upright and looked around the car, blinking sleepily.

“Huh? Wha’?” I said, still woozy. I stretched my forelegs up and back, my right reaching slightly higher than my left, before plopping them back down. I felt better than I had in ages. Besides working out the lingering stiffness, I felt revitalized, like I had plenty of energy to tackle the day with.

“We’re here. In Canterlot,” Steel Blade stated. “We’ll be pulling into the station soon. Make sure you didn’t forget anything.”

A change in the background buzz of the decelerating train signalled our impending arrival, and Steel Blade raised the shade across our window to let in the bright afternoon sun. I hissed as I rubbed at my eyes, but I adjusted fairly quickly, enough to see the bright white, gold, and purple buildings of the capital of Equestria whizzing by.

Canterlot. It was at the same time a step away from home and a step closer to home. Further away from my broodmother and the rest of the hive, yet somehow familiar.

The train cruised into the station, slowly applying its brakes to come to a smooth stop. With a final hiss of steam, the train announced our arrival and the doors slid open. The passenger car we sat in began bustling again as ponies slowly shuffled down the aisle and off onto the platform.

“C’mon, we should make sure we didn’t leave anything behind.” Steel Blade hopped off the seat now that the train was no longer in motion. With two quick motions, he picked up his saddlebag with his teeth and tossed it onto his back before doing the same with mine. He lowered his head and briefly scanned the floor of the car.

“Umm,” I began, still in my seat as Steel Blade did his final check of our seating area. “Y-you don’t have to take my bags, you know.”

He shrugged. “It’s no problem. Nothing I can’t handle, and besides, Sarge always said we needed to stay fit for the job,” he said with a warm smile. “I’ll just help drop these off at your condo, and then you can burden yourself with them all you want, how ‘bout that?”

“Ah well… Okay, I suppose,” I said, fidgeting with my hooves.

“Aha! Pardon us, little pony.” Vice seemed to have found a gap in the line, because she stood up to her full height and fluidly squeezed into it. “Ve go here,” she said firmly, backing up slightly to give us room to slide into the line in front of her, only marginally bumping the ponies behind her. It was honestly astounding how well she was able to work her muscled bulk around.

I probably stared for longer than I should have, because I caught a few ponies in the line clearing their throats emphatically. A little bump from Steel Blade, and I quickly hopped off my seat and trotted up with the rest of the ponies in front of us. I was almost surprised my claustrophobia hadn’t set in again, but then I remembered Vice could probably control the pace of the entire line by herself in the enclosed passenger car. No way to crowd me if there wasn’t a crowd.

“So, where’re you off to after we get off?” I heard Steel Blade asking Vice as he stepped out into the aisle. The gap in the aisle closed as the line slowly shuffled after Vice.

“Probably home. Then guard house,” Vice said tersely. “Ve haff to make report first. Then ve see ‘bout filling out patrol.”

Steel Blade let out a hum. “Ahh right, I’ll probably end up doing the same. I’ll drop these off and meet you there, alright?”

I blinked. One of the things Steelie had said earlier finally registered in my mind, namely the part where he said he was going to help drop my saddlebags at my condo.

My condo. In Canterlot, the city I had never visited physically until now.

My heart beat faster. This would be a great time to access whatever memories I had transferred over from myself, but no matter how hard I racked my mind, I couldn’t remember the exact route back home. I got inklings and suggestions here and there, but absolutely nothing on which streets to take, let alone the exact address I lived at.

Where did I even leave my keys?

Okay, I at least had an answer for that one. My keys were in my left saddlebag, first pocket towards the front. I specifically told myself I needed to remember that tidbit when I left for Ponyville.

From… Canterlot.

I felt a headache coming on, and I rubbed my forehead with a hoof as I stepped out of the train car. The crowd spread out over the station platform like at the mouth of a river, either reuniting with family or rushing off to find a taxi cart before they were all taken. My hoof landed on the wooden flooring with a resounding clop, and I immediately felt more comfortable. It sounded right.

The alpine asters scattered around the city were in full bloom, leaving their perfume wafting across the air, just as they always did at this time of the year. Despite the blazing sun above, the mountainside city had a cool breeze flowing through it.

I took in a deep breath and held it as Steel Blade trotted to my side.

“Good to be back, isn’t it,” he said, a faint smile on his muzzle as he stared at the city skyline.

“It’s like I’ve only taken my first steps here…” I murmured dreamily, my eyes closed as I basked in the fresh air.

I jolted back into reality, registering exactly what my words were. I held my breath as I slowly turned to Steel Blade.

I can’t believe I said that. Did I already break disguise by letting that slip—

Steel Blade let out a lighthearted chuckle. “Yeah, Canterlot in the summer has a habit of reinventing itself, doesn’t it,” he said, before turning to me. “C’mon, let’s get these bags of yours to your condo before traffic picks up for lunch hour. I don’t want to try getting between hungry ponies and their food, especially on a great day like this.”

I let out a relieved sigh before turning back towards the city itself. I led the way through the station and onto the street on the other side before I stopped, staring blankly at the roads before me.

Back at the main hive, many of the older changelings were so familiar with the routines of the Badlands Hive that they could navigate the entire changeling capital blind. After living in the hive for so long, they recognized the little patterns in the hive workings. A cluster of dormant minds here could indicate a well-known hatchery, or a gaggle of love collectors there could be the love magical storage area. Some say their hooves grew minds of their own, walking them through their routines without any input, carving out well-worn paths with a pounding of hooves each and every day.

I spaced out, mentally moving myself to the passenger’s seat and waiting to see what filled the empty space.

The streets before me, which seemed only faintly familiar before, came to life. I took a step forward, and like a snowball rolling down a hill, I soon gained momentum. Turn left at the crooked stop sign. Take a right at the antique shop. Cross the street and take a right at the intersection. Drop a bit into the Salvation Guard donation box. Keep walking past the nightclub and the drugstore. Do not turn to look.

I relished in the feeling of the pavement beneath me. My hooves knew these streets, and they carried me faithfully to where I needed to go. It wasn’t long before I found myself at the iron gate leading into my apartment complex.

“Oh hey, Overwatch!” an unfamiliar voice called. “There you are!”

I turned to find myself face to face with two stallions, one an earth pony and one a unicorn. The earth pony flashed me a winning smile, but the unicorn just scowled at me, tapping his hoof on the cobblestones impatiently. I didn’t recognize either of them, and I looked between the two blankly for a moment before I finally felt it: two pings, one a water drop and the other a crashing wave.

My face lit up. “Good to see you again!” I said earnestly as I sent out my own ping. “It’s been a while.”

“Oh hey, I don’t recognize you two,” Steel Blade said, putting on a smile of his own as he extended a hoof. “I’m Steel Blade. I work in the guard with Overwatch.”

Dexter returned the proffered hoofshake with enthusiasm and a wide, honest grin. “Candlelight,” he lied smoothly, before gesturing to the other stallion, “and his name’s Card Sharp. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Steel Blade said comfortably.

I cleared my throat, making sure I had their attention before turning to Dexter. “So you were looking for me?”

“Ahh, yes, we were. Are we still good for O n’ O on Saturday afternoon?” Dexter said amiably.

“O-oh, of course,” I stammered out. “My schedule’s still open then.”

“Perfect! We have to run for now, but we’ll see you then! Ta ta!” Dexter said, before trotting off briskly with Sinister trailing close behind.

“Huh. He seems nice enough,” Steel Blade said, before raising an eyebrow at me with a sidelong smirk. “You play Ogres n’ Oubliettes? I never took you for a tabletop gamer. It’s been a long while since I’ve played myself. I might have to bust out my old character sheets one of these days.”

“Oh uhh, i-it’s… it’s a fairly recent hobby,” I mumbled as I turned to focus on the gate. A little magic to jiggle the latch on the other side, and I was in.

The faint flowery scent of the city was present even here, mostly surrounded by two-story-tall buildings and trees flush with fresh green leaves. I turned left from the front entrance and walked over to the first condo on the row, situated with one side right next to the street.

I stopped, staring at my door. The dark, burgundy paint covering it was starting to fade, and even the doorknob was showing some wear and tear from the years gone by. The once-gleaming numbers identified this as condominium seventeen twenty-nine. It was a wholly uninteresting number which Dad nevertheless found fascinating. He once explained that it was the smallest number that was the sum of two positive cubes in two different ways. One and twelve, and nine and ten.

“Hey Overwatch, you alright?” Steel Blade said, causing me to jump at his voice. “You’re tearing up a bit.”

“I-I am?” I wiped at my eyes with a foreleg and it came away wet, to my surprise. “N-no I’m not,” I said quickly, trying to think of a reason for my odd behavior as I nervously adjusted my scarf. Did I know anything about Overwatch to make a convincing argument for the show of emotion?

“We’re here,” I said tersely. “J-just give me my bags.”

“Ah, alright then,” he said, suddenly finding himself treading on eggshells. Thankfully, he stayed silent as he shrugged off my saddlebags. I levitated them over to me and carefully took out my condo’s key, unlocking the door before hurrying in with my bags.

I swiveled around, peeking out from the gap created by the barely opened door. I flashed an awkward smile at Steel Blade. “Well uhh…”

He shifted his weight left to right. “I’ll be… headed back to the guard house then. No reason I shouldn’t be out on duty when I’m still fit to work,” he said carefully, turning to leave. “You take care of yourself, alright?”

A giggle bubbled up from my gut without checking in with my brain. “Don’t worry about me, you goofball,” my mouth said. “Your dumb doctor’s orders can go stuff themselves. I’ll be fine. I just have a few… personal issues to work through. I’ll figure it out. I always figure it out. Bet on it.”

He snorted and smiled at me. “Alright, I’ll take you up on that bet. See you soon!”

I gave him a final goodbye before closing the door behind him and twisting the lock. I slumped back against the door and slid down until I rested on the floor. I slipped into my empathy senses, and noted with some satisfaction that Steelie left my door tasting primarily of cool relief. Digging deeper, however, I found undertones of concern and a twinge of… disappointment? Or was it melancholy?

Melancholy? Why would he be feeling that? Did I do something wrong? Did I let too much of my disguise slip?

I rushed to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. I bared my teeth at my reflection. Completely fine there. My horn was still the straight spiral shape of a unicorn. My mane and tail were a bit on the disheveled side, I suppose, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed easily. I levitated over a nearby brush and absentmindedly dragged it through my mane as I ran my eyes over the rest of my body, finding no holes and no accidental wings.

I winced as the brush caught on a tangle in my mane, and I carefully separated the knotted strands with my magic before resuming my brushing, sinking back into my empathy sense. I could still identify which spot Steel Blade was. He hadn’t gotten too far yet, and I just sat there watching as he departed through the front gate and turned towards his intended destination.

As he left, however, I felt a change. Something in the emotional landscape shifted, and I quickly honed in on it. Like most changelings, I was both instinctively drawn to love and repulsed by hostility. Both sides of that spectrum glowed like beacons on a ling’s emotional senses, but rangers who were especially hypersensitive were taught to look for two other signals on their empathy senses. One was carefully controlled emotions, made to blend in with ponies.

The other was a lack of emotion.

Like dead spots on my radar, a pony displaying a lack of emotions tended to signal one of two things. Either the subject suffered from a mental disorder or trauma and is therefore unable to feel strong emotions, or the subject was purposely concealing something. There were a few professions that promoted a cool indifference to facilitate proper performance, but neither of the ones we were taught about at the hive were good ones.

Namely that of thugs and assassins.

One of these spots moved, and I realized with some horror that it was shadowing Steel Blade’s movements. A wider scan revealed two more of these spots nearby, and my legs began to shake. Who would send a thug after Steel Blade, and were they also watching me? Why?

My mind briefly wandered to the rival hive who had planned to ambush Steel Blade in the Everfree, but I quickly dismissed the notion that these were changelings. Our hive’s rangers were the only changelings capable of completely disappearing off the emotional landscape. Changelings who couldn’t hide their emotions completely would never let themselves be caught as a dead spot. An infiltrator with even the tiniest chance to be detected trying to hide their emotions ran the constant danger of being rooted out and eliminated. The trick would work on the basic drone or worker, but not on a half decent infiltrator. No, an intelligent rival changeling assassin would blend in with the ponies around them, requiring nothing less than full concentration to even get a glimpse at.

These had to be ponies, and that somehow made things worse. They were hired, but I couldn’t figure out whether they were hired by somepony or someling.

I moved to the front of my condo and peeked through the shutters, trying to line up my empathy sense with what I was seeing. My eyes narrowed at the thin alleyway between the condominiums on the other side of the complex. If I hadn’t been alerted to the presence of a pony there, I probably wouldn’t have caught him there, but once I made out his darkened outline, he might as well have been wearing a neon-yellow banana suit.

He was alone in the alleyway, but he shifted forward when the apartment block seemed quiet enough. He nodded almost imperceptibly to somepony off to the side, but kept his place half-hidden in the shadows.

I blinked. My empathy sense was telling me two more were moving together into the alleyway behind him, neither of which were dead spots. In fact, one of them was a disgustingly bright spot of determination while the other one was halfway between fear and panic. I stared deeper into the alleyway and saw movement. Whoever it was, it was bright green, but I couldn’t see hide or hair of the second body in there.

The green pony glided into place behind the shoulder of the thug, hanging over its shoulder before happily letting out a sudden, “Hey! Wha’cha lookin’ at?”

It was bright, it was cheerful, and above all, it was loud.

The thug’s dead spot flared up in surprise and anger, the mark of a badly trained hireling, and in one swift move, he swiveled backwards and connected a hard right hook into the face of his ambusher.

My mind shut down when I saw the green pony nearly do a somersault at the force of the blow, flipping out of sight.

I snarled as I twisted open the lock, nearly ripping my door off its hinges with how hard I was wrenching it open.

I had to do something.

Comments

[Guard Crimson Blaze]

Can she be detected by that spell that reveals if a pony is a changeling or not? Looking forward to the next chapter!

[Raugos]

The green pony glided into place behind the shoulder of the thug, hanging over its shoulder before happily letting out a sudden, “Hey! Wha’cha lookin’ at?”

Tracer reference?

I know it's not a crossover, but it's kind of hard to dissociate it from the game when I see Overwatch's name popping up all the time. Vice totally sounds like Zarya in my head.

[Kryssi]

Myiasis

Nice word.

(I’m calling her Maggot-Queen from now on.)

It’s party time.

Hell yeah, it is.

I can’t stop thinking that Overwatch’s a game, instead of the name of a pony. It might only be me, but it doesn’t read like a typical pony name.

7308587 I’ve only read the synopsis of Ponyville’s Tiny Librarian, but I believe this story is set far before the events of Canterlot Wedding, and even Nightmare Moon. So assuming that changelings haven’t been discovered by Equestria until the wedding, I doubt the ponies would know such a spell. For the changelings, on the other hoof…

[Kydois]

7309069
Funny thing. I was running a whole bunch of different accents and voices for this character through my head for quite a while before this chapter. Vice was just whatever crappy Russian accent I could drum up on the spot, but my green pony sounded like Starfire from Teen Titans at one point. After rediscovering some old favorite stories, I just couldn't stop imagining her with this outrageous Cockney accent, which was incidentally what Tracer had, and after realizing that I couldn't dissociate my fic from Overwatch if I tried, I decided to go whole hog and pitch her voice just a little higher in my mind, making her sound basically like Tracer.

Whether I continue doing this for characters is a pretty big mei-be, but it's unlikely I'll do anything really earthshattering.

7309280
Praise be to the Google machine for terms related to insects.

And yeah, the Overwatch name was used for a heck of a long time before this, and I just decided to stick with it, even with the release of an insanely popular game of the same name. If I had a choice now, I'd probably be calling her Sweet Spot.

[Fistfire]

Bug on bug fight! Kick carapace Overwatch!

[VanillaWaffle]

The name overwatch of course reminds me of the game, so when I read "whatcha lookin at?" Tracer and widowmaker just kept flashing before my eyes. Probably not intentional, but I laughed regardless.

[Sleepy_The_Zebra]

Does this fit in with Twiny canon? I'm noticing stuff that doesn't make sense (wouldn't Nurse Redheart remember Overwatch, as a medical mystery at the very least? Does Steelie remember their trip to the Everfree? Why did he act as though he didn't understand Overwatch's panic in Tiny Adversary, if he knows she was mauled? When did Overwatch/Nymph become so casual with her food/love metaphors?), but this is a good story on it's own, and I look forward to seeing more of Overwatch.

[ChibiChabot]

Just finished my reading of this chapter.

[Razzy]

Everybody was Kung fu fighting!

[Enderstorm]

7361287
It's 99% canon. There's probably a few inconsistencies.