Shifting Priorities

by FaelaArts

Levitation Deception[SR]

Skid awoke the next morning to some tapping on a wooden surface that began to fade away. He wondered why the hive mind was quiet before remembering his mission and transforming into his disguise with ease. He was getting quicker at waking up, a talent he would no doubt find useful in the future. As he untangled himself, he jumped on to the floor and opened the door to find no one there. He frowned, and headed down the stairs and saw Twilight was up and about very early considering the late night they had.

"Aah!" she jumped, dropping the book she she had been reading in shock as she glanced up and saw him gazing at her. He walked over and picked up the book, holding it out to give to her.

"Celestia's horn, Skid you scared me," she took the book off him and gave a grateful smile before flipping the pages and resting it on a certain page. Turning back to him, she motioned to the stairs.

"Did I wake you up coming down? Sorry, we still have some time left before we need to get up so I was going to do some light reading." Skid gazed at the book, and admired her view on what was ‘light' reading.

"Yeah but no biggy" he began, realising he was starting the get the hang of using his voice down finally.

"I mean few hundred pages you could probably finish that easily." He wasn't kidding too, he could tell this Twilight read way too much to not be wearing glasses all the time. She giggled in response, bookmarking the page and closing the book.

"Not really, I don't actually read as fast as people make me out as, I'm just an expert skimmer when we need the information quickly." Skid gazed at the bookmark and saw she was in reality only a few pages in. So Twilight couldn't read as fast as she made was made out to be, interesting.

"So do we have time for a quick breakfast, is there any cake left?"He asked, thinking of the piece of cake as he bit into it. His mouth began to salivate.

"Cake isn't a good breakfast, but I promise I'll leave you the cake and you can come and get some when you want" she laughed at his enthusiasm, but he didn't care. Even if his Liège wanted him to talk formaly, he was going to enjoy every second of that cake.

"So why isn't cake a good breakfast?" he asked her as she made her way to the kitchen. She paused, seeing a sleepy dragon carrying out a plate of food.

"Thought you might want some food" he spoke, rubbing his eyes as Twilight levitated the plate away from him. Placing it down, Skid didn't hesitate to start eating.

"Thanks Spike, are you going to eat?" The dragon held out a ruby of some sort proudly, and Twilight rolled her eyes as he walked away to nurse his treat.

"Skid, you can't have cake in the mornings because it's pure sugar, I'm surprised Pinkie doesn't pack on the pounds from how much she eats, but she does move around a lot." She paused in speaking to take a bite of her food, and Skid stopped himself from eating more than half, no matter how delicious they were.

"Bah, I don't believe you, you just want the cake for yourself" he scolded her, his eyes suspicious of her motives. It was his welcome cake, and he would welcomely eat it. She chuckled and shook her head.

"Of course I won't Skid, I'm not much of a cake person in the first place." He blinked looking at her as if she was an alien, which she was in his eyes. How could she say that, about cake of all things! She rolled her eyes.

"Alighty then, shall we get going?" He frowned at her question, and she paused.

"Wait where are we going?" he asked and Twilight grimaced in response.

"Well, Applejack wants some taste testers for some recipes she wants to sell." Skid tilted his head, but followed Twilight to Applejacks.

"Say Twilight, how many friends do you have anyway?" he asked, wondering just how popular this purple pony was.

"I have lots of friends; however I have 6, including my assistant Spike, that are my closest. What about you?" he blinked, caught by surprise at the question. He paused for a moment, and decided he should probably be mildly truthful. Keeping a disguise was easier the less you had to distort the truth. It meant he couldn't get facts as wrong as they could be if he wasn't listening to what he was saying.

"Well, unless you count an imaginary pet, you're my first one." Twilight gazed at him, a look of understanding on her face that made him take a step to put some distance between them. He didn't like that look, it made him feel strange.

"I used to have only Spike before I moved here, being alone is hard" she spoke, her face focusing on the road in front of them. He shrugged,

"I was never really alone, I had plenty of-er- people around me." She paused for a moment to glance at him, before continuing to walk.

"But did you ever hang out with them outside of work, share a laugh or anything?" He shook his head and she nodded, as if that was all the answer she needed. He had never needed to have a relationship; it only made working as a hive more complicated when people were trying to show they were individuals.

"Skid, this is Applejacks farm." Snapping out of his thoughts, he raised his head to see a nice little farm with a small field for carrots and rows upon rows of apple trees.

"Well she certainly has a lot of apples; does she feed the entire town or something?" Twilight chuckled in response, and he followed her toward a barn of some sort.

"Something like that, she sells apples and assorted apple products along with Cider when it is in season." He nodded, made sense to him to make a living out of feeding people, you would never starve. An orange earth pony answered the door, and spoke with a thick accent.

"Well howdy there Twilight, nice to see you. Nice to see you again too Skid, but shouldn't ya have headed home by now?" Twilight smiled and opened her mouth to respond.

"Skid's train got…delayed for an unknown amount of time. He's staying in my basement until the train gets repaired." Applejack mused for a moment, and gave a nod.

"Well ok, just be careful about keeping a stranger is ya house, no offence Skid." Twilight paused and glanced to Skid, and he took that as his moment to speak. He didn't notice himself fall into an accent exactly like Applejacks.

"Well, I dun thank ah could take offence from sometin as true as that there." As they blinked in shock at him, it took him a few moments before he realised what he had done.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry I honestly didn't mean to do that!" Twilight and Applejack frowned at him, and he took a step back, worried for what was coming.

"You're useless, you'll never amount to anything." He braced for impact, knowing what was coming.

"Well ah don't understand how you could not mean to switch accents like that but dun worry about it" spoke the orange one, causing him to raise his gaze and gaze at her in shock. Twilight nodded her agreement, than asked her own question.

"Is that similar to how you switched in Canterlot when we met?" He turned to glance to her, taking another step back.

"N-No I was just attempting to be courteous." Twilight nodded, and the two dropped the subject and returned to their reason for coming here. He had never been so glad in his life.

"Well now that that's cleared up, why dun we go and get some grub into ya starving ponies." Applejack led them past a barn and into a house not far away, and he gazed at the simple place and listened to the creaking of old timber. It seemed to him like this house was one that had been here for a while. Stepping inside the house, he noticed it filled with handmade junk and picture everywhere and closed his eyes and felt a sense of calm come over him. This place was an indisputable safe house, it simply stood here and make sure its occupants were safe for their time under its roof. Opening his eyes, he turned his gaze toward the fleeing form of Applejack and Twilight and followed them into the kitchen. Sniffing the room, he smelled all the scents that smelled good and bad at the same time, which made the room stuffy. A row of plates stacked on to a table revealed the source of the smell, and his stomach grumbled and cried out in fear at the same time.

"Well Skid, let's get started then, "whispered Twilight, giving him a fearful glance behind Applejacks back. A cold shudder went down his back, and he tried the first plate as an expectant Applejack watched on. The crumbled bread was swimming in some type of yellow liquid, and he managed to siphon off a piece and gently hovered a piece into his mouth and waited for the taste to hit. Twilight watched his eyes widen, his mouth bulge and his hair stick up straight before he settled down. Gasping for breath, he swallowed it and prepared a decent smile and faced Applejack.

"It's a little too sweet." Applejack nodded, putting a cross on this form she pulled from behind her back. Skid turned to Twilight, and his eyes narrowed and she rapidly shook her head.

"Alright who wants to try plate number 2?"Asked Applejack and silence filled the room in reply.

---

"Thanks for the help ya two, it saves me a lot of trial and error with customers ya know?" Applejack was plopping the plates into the sing, each making a clinking sound that made Skid flinch.

"It was no problem Applejack; if you need help you know where to find me." Twilight smiled and Skid followed her to the light up ahead. "No problem Twilight, happy to help ya, and if you want to help we're gunna buck more apples tomorrow if you want to help out." Skid could see Twilight didn't really want to, but she has already suggested it and didn't want to sound like a bad friend. He blinked; maybe he did know Twilight after all. "Twilight, didn't you say you were going to re-organise your library, how about I go in your place" he offered, Applejack turning to look at him while Twilight gave him a thankful glance.

"I wasn't really going to organise, but it is due for one now that I think about it, what do you say Applejack?" Glancing between the two of them Applejack gave a chuckle.

"Tha' works fine for me, but ya know ya could have just said you dun want to right Twilight?" The purple pony turned and glanced to the ground. "I didn't want to sound like a bad friend" she spoke, her voice sounding sad. Skid merely watched the exchange, seeing a fragility to Twilight he had only touched the surface of. "Twilight, you know ah wouldn't care if ya don't want to do hard labour with me, we're friends remember? How about you two just come by fer lunch tomorrow?" Twilight turned her gaze to Applejack, and gave a smile that said she knew that.

"That sounds great Applejack, I'll see you then." Before they left, Skid opened his mouth to inject with a shrug.

"I can come by earlier if you want some help, honestly it would be nice to get to know you better before you ask me out on a date you know." The glanced to him, blinking before realising he was half-joking.

"Well sure, come by at sunup or anytime you feel like coming over, it's always nice to have more hands to buck them trees." So with tomorrow's details sorted out, and the sun beginning to set, they began heading back to Skids new home. Sid was happy with his progress today, he knew Twilight a little better and had managed to organise a chance to get to know Applejack too. It looks like his mission would be getting easier.

---

"Next time, WARN ME" he groaned, his stomach continuing to cramp in distress, Twilight layed on the ground on the library right next to him in an same position. They were so alike Spike has nicknamed them the ‘pain twins.'

"I know I know! I'm really sorry Skid it isn't normally that bad, normally there's more good than bad ones." Skid merely groaned in reply and soon enough the sun had set before they could finally move again. As Twilight went in search of a book, Skid decided now would be a good time to ask.

"Twilight, do you have any books on changelings?" Twilight turned, frowned, and her horn glowed and suddenly a dozen books flew off the shelf and landed in front of Skid in a neat pile.

"I'm going to read these in bed, see you tomorrow." Twilight waved to him, completely absorbed in her book. Heading into the basement he closed the door and got into bed and however a book over. As he opened the book he began to read it to himself.

Changelings and the hive mind.

Connected to their queen, the soldiers completely let go of their own sense of self to become a single consciousness, to serve their queen. If one were to keep their consciousness, the hive mind would collapse into a mess of voices, so the queen's job was to ensure they stayed as one single force. It is can be said that if disconnected from this state of mind for too long would cause-

Skid's eyes closed and he fell asleep while reading with a loud thunk

Comments

[FaelaArts]

D
D
D
When I press D I EXPECT A D TO APPEAR DAMNIT

[Wise2Fox]

1693384

A wild D appears.
D

[FaelaArts]

1694261

It's super effctive
Story got errors

[theRedBrony]

Last 2 chapters were better than the first in terms of flow. Still need to work on it a bit. I see you use a triple space to make separations, why not use [ hr] <- without the space between [ and h, or something like ------- etc?

And what's with you and the word 'hand'??

[FaelaArts]

1697157

Well I used enter once, got told it was too close together so started using enter twice for seperations when speaking and a third when the story is changing scenes or something like that

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what does this do?

Oh wow, that could be usefull

[theRedBrony]

1697172 lol

[FaelaArts]

1698505
Yeah

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I

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could

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use

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something

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like

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this

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very

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much

[kingthe13]

kikikikikikikikikiki
well this aint going to end well

[WithRegardsTo]

I'm sorry, but I saw one spelling error that made me crack up so bad. Tears to the eyes kind of laughing.

The pony's kind of hate changelings right? well, in your story, applejack says "Who’s yer new fiend". YOU FIEND! I think applejack saw through his disguise. Lol, I cracked up so hard, because of all the words to misspell, it would be friend into fiend, at the creature that the ponys would most likely call a "fiend".

[Dreadknight garen]

1787649 OH LORD I JUST THOUGHT OF SOMETHING.
WHAT IF PINKIE PIE INFECTED THE ZERG?
GOD HELP US ALL