Conversion

by CrutioAstarothChaos

House of all knowledge

The three changelings searched the whole spa for anything they could use to achieve their future efforts: finding a small village near Canterlot. They read all the flyers and pamphlets, took down the names of the possible targets. They even managed to find some of the currency the ponies used. Armed with a newly forged plan, they headed outside, to find a place, where they could catch some shuteye, before they would move to the next phase of their plan.

After inspecting several buildings, Buzzer suggested that they would be best off in a ruined and abandoned restaurant. Shiftlight was about to start an argument, but Thorax quickly agreed to the suggestion, and so his elder brother gave up any resistance.

The place was wrecked, massive parts of the ceiling were missing, and the moonlight dimly lit the whole reception hall. Rubble was scattered all over the floor, but some of the furniture managed to survive without major damage.

They searched the place for any signs of life, and after finding none, Thorax sprawled on one of the couches in the smoking area, while Shiftlight simply laid down on one of the carpets. Buzzer moved to the kitchens, and returned shortly with a cookbook. He sat down in front of the door, and started reading the text, keeping guard over his resting brothers.

Shiftlight closed his eyes, but didn’t sleep. His thoughts rambled around in his head, and he felt way too exposed without his disguise. But they all agreed that they should keep using their magic to a minimum, as doing so would inevitably lead to them starving to death too soon. He tried to force himself to rest, but that left him too exhausted to dream. Unsuccessful in his attempt to sleep, he stood up, and walked next to Buzzer, who seemed to be lost in his book.

“Are you feeling ill?” Buzzer asked Shiftlight, not even glancing up.

“Hm? No, I don’t. I’m just not sleepy, that’s all,” he replied disoriented, sitting down. “Are you mad at me?”

“Mad?” Buzzer was surprised at the question, and looked at his brother with an innocent face. “Why would I... oh. About the argument? No, I’m not mad, I’m... sorry.”

“You what?” Shiftlight was taken aback. “But why?”

“I... questioned your intentions,” he closed the book he was reading. “I thought you were simply selfish, when you said we should return to the hive. I know now you were only loyal, and I know you would give your life to know that the hive is in peace with itself.”

“But I was selfish enough to not take in consideration your fate,” Shiftlight interrupted. “I never thought that by forcing you to return home I might as well kill you myself. We are all brothers and sisters in the hive... until our Queen goes missing.”

“We will return,” Buzzer said, placing his Swiss-cheese leg on the other’s shoulder. “And we are going to be fine.”

“Is that book any interesting?” Shiftlight tried to change the subject.

“Well, I could hardly say it is that interesting,” Buzzer showed its cover to him. “But I know it lets us see our cattle as something else than food. If we’re going to live among them, knowing what they eat and how they prepare it might not be a bad idea.”

“Would you two just quiet down?” Thorax moaned. “I can’t get a decent sleep with you two loudmouths blabbing!”

Shiftlight and Buzzer looked at each other. The short changeling smiled at his brother, who in return tilted his head.

“Get some shuteye,” Shiftlight suggested. “You can read your book later.”

“You want it?” he asked, levitating the object in front of Shiftlight’s nose.

The taller changeling shook his head, and turned his attention to the dark corners of the room, while Buzzer looked for a place to lay down his head.

When the first beams of sunlight hit the ruined restaurant, the three changelings were already walking the streets of Canterlot. They were wandering around aimlessly, trying to find someone, who wasn’t a guard, and looked helpful enough to point them to the Canterlot library. They all agreed before that it was the best to gather knowledge about the area around the main city, and also to find out how they could survive in such hopeless conditions. Although changelings were required to complete field infiltrations, no mission took more than two weeks.

“Excuse me ma’am,” Shiftlight asked a pony in the mask of a light blue stallion, with gray mane, blue eyes and three stars as a cutiemark, “my companions and I are foreign to this city; could you please point us towards the Canterlot library?”

“Well, of course!” the mare with a light tan coat, a brown mane, blue eyes and a fancy dress replied. “See this street? Go straight, and at the second cross turn left. That’s the main street of Canterlot, it will lead right to the palace. And on the left side of the palace the huge building, with the statues and fountains all around is the library.”

“Thank you kindly ma’am,” Shiftlight obliged, and was about to leave when the pony stopped them.

“Mind if I ask where can I find such fine stallions as you and your companions?” she asked. Shiftlight did a quick calculation and used his magic to slightly “taste” the mare’s emotions. Unhappy with the result he was about to answer when Buzzer interrupted him.

“Trottingham ma’am,” he said. He was wearing the appearance of an earth pony with white coat, blue mane, light blue eyes and a constellation cutie mark. “We’re here on a business trip, which got interrupted a few days ago. We just received an invitation to the library, and we’re in a hurry.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude...” She started.

“It’s okay ma’am. Without your help we would be lost,” Shiftlight cut her off. “But if you’ll excuse us, we really need to go now.”

The mare stepped aside, and the three changelings trotted away, following the directions. They chose their disguises carefully, knowing that even the smallest mistake could betray them to the royal guards. Thorax took the appearance of a dark gray unicorn, with gray mane, blue eyes and a crescent moon on his flank. All of them wore simple yet elegant clothes, mimicking the main population of the city around them, who were still a bit shocked from the invasion, afraid that anything they wear might get torn apart.

“I don’t like this,” Thorax muttered, as they reached the main street, which ran alongside the city walls. Several groups of guards patrolled on the road, making the changelings unease in their current situation.

“Keep our aim in mind, and don’t let anything stray you from the path,” Buzzer said. “Sergeant Fangmill, before you ask.”

Thorax seemed to shudder for a moment at the mention of his superior, but then he pulled himself together, and managed to appear as a self-confident business stallion.

The reception hall of the Canterlot library housed a small reception desk with a unicorn mare behind it, and one pegasus guard on each side. Shiftlight mustered up all his courage to approach the desk without hesitation and shuddering, his brothers following him closely. He almost bit his tongue in his attempt to make his voice sound confident.

“Excuse me Miss” – He glanced at the unicorn’s nametag. – “Parchment, my colleagues and I are here to occupy ourselves during this day. Our business here in Canterlot was interrupted by the invasion, and we just received news yesterday that we will resume tomorrow. May we ask for a temporary access to your library?”

“Certainly sir,” she replied, filling out some papers, and handing three cards to them. “These will be your guest cards, and I’ll need a signature here, here and here from all of you.”

They all obeyed, taking one card each. After this small paperwork the mare got out from behind the desk, and opened the main doors to the library.

“Go right in. If you need any help with finding anything my colleague, Golden Compendium can help you. He’s usually behind the huge round desk in the middle, but sometimes he wanders around in this labyrinth. If that’s the case just ring the bell, and he’ll be right at your service.”

“Thank you kindly Miss,” Shiftlight said, giving the mare a warm smile.

The three changelings got inside, and the door slowly closed behind them. Sure they managed to get in a small library before, but usually it was a small backwater village’s collection of books. What lay before them was the ultimate collection of knowledge from all across Equestria.

“We are so lost,” Buzzer remarked, his jaw hanging open. “How are we ever going to find anything in here?”

“We won’t,” Thorax replied silently, pointing at a unicorn stallion with golden colored coat, “he will.”

“Excuse us sir,” Buzzer walked to the librarian, “could you help us find a map and some books about the villages near Canterlot?”

“Oh, but of course,” Golden Compendium replied, his face lighting up. “What kind of knowledge are you looking for? Historical, economical, sociological, or plain tourist information?”

“The last one please,” Buzzer answered, taken aback by Compendium’s enthusiasm. “We are planning to stay in one of the small villages near Canterlot for a while. Nothing too much of a tourist trap, just a normal village.”

“Oh, I might just know what you are looking for.” He answered with a wink, running off into the depths of the library, just to quickly return with a huge pile of scrolls and books. “Here you go gentlecolts. If there is anything else I could help...”

“Yes, thank you.” Buzzer interrupted the excited unicorn. “We’ll just grab these and find a quiet place to think.”

“If I might recommend...” He started, but Thorax gently cut him off.

“Thank you for everything, we would like to handle it from here.”

Thorax used his magic to grab the giant stack of paper and the three changelings rapidly moved to a silent and isolated part of the library. They found a couple of reading desks with quills, inkwells and rolls of paper, divided the large quantity of knowledge into three almost equal parts and got to work.

“Any of you ever thought about what professions we should choose?” Buzzer asked suddenly, stopping the others in their tasks. “I mean, we never truly had to pick a job during any assignment. We just had to replace somepony, and do their job for a while.”

“No simple job would do.” Thorax replied silently. “We cannot buy love for bits.”

“And there is little chance that we would be performing the same work together.” Shiftlight added, shuddering at the thought of separation. “It has to be a job that keeps us well fed, in case of emergencies.”

“So we shouldn’t replace anypony.” Buzzer concluded. “Or they might notice. We’ll have to come up with new aliases, entirely original, with fake pasts, fake identities.”

“Whatever we’re going to do, we’ll have to be good at it. Good enough not to get discovered.” Shiftligh continued.

“We’ll have to start from the bottom.” Thorax said. “What jobs could we list that have any connection to couples in love?”

“A server in a restaurant.” Buzzer replied, his face lit up with excitement. “Ponies take their loved ones to romantic diners. And I just began reading a book about how to cook. Might be my ticket to a new life”

“A hospital worker.” Shiftlight added. “Anyone that gets hurt will be visited by their loved ones. And I was always fascinated by pony anatomy. I might just pass as an apprentice medical worker.”

“That leaves only my future open.” Thorax said, staring at the floor. “I never truly excelled at anything. Well, not counting the tending of larvae.”

After a moment of silence he looked up, just to see his brothers stare at him with their jaws hanging. He looked at each of them confused, not understanding their reaction.

“What?”

“You lucky bastard.” Buzzer shook his head.

“You never heard the story of Swiftwing from Cluster four?” Shiftlight looked at his brother. “He once managed to impersonate a caretaker at an orphanage.”

“He was pretty lucky because the foals in the orphanage loved the true caretaker so much, he barely managed to stay for an hour, before he felt sick from being so full.” Buzzer explained. “If you could find a fitting orphanage, you would never starve again.”

Thorax let out a wide grin, slowly nodding. Now that they had an idea what to look for, they worked faster and more efficient. Soon only three villages remained on the list.

They needed to stay relatively close to Canterlot, in case their hive would attempt another siege, or negotiations. The latter was highly unlikely, but it was still a possibility that could not be ignored. The village should have a train station, at least a small hospital, several cafés or other food serving establishments, and at least one orphanage.

The changelings arranged their list according to their chance of success, and then asked Compendium for a bunch of history books, to fabricate their new aliases.

“What names should we choose?” Thorax asked.

“According to pony ways, their names are connected to what they are good at, or their personality, or something.” Shiftlight said. “Like a surgeon’s name would be something like Silver Lancet.”

“What names could we... cook up for a server?” Buzzer inquired with a grin. “As far as our knowledge goes the competition in that particular job is quite vicious.”

“I don’t know. Some unusual combination I guess.” Thorax suggested. “Like Lemon Cookie, or Orange Muffin...”

“How about Lime Biscuit?” the short changeling asked, turning the pages of a book.

“Sound all right.” Shiftlight agreed. “Now, you are the only one left.”

“Well...” Thorax looked at multiple open books. “It says in several places that ponies sometimes get their names from the color of their coats.”

“So? You’ll become Red, Yellow or Blue?” Buzzer asked jokingly.

“I was thinking of the name Zaffre.” his middle brother replied.

“What kind of color is that?” Shiftlight inquired, not able to decide whether to laugh or cry.

“It’s a shade of blue.” The asked changeling replied annoyed.

“Then what about the name “A Shade of Blue”?” the short changeling was giggling like a dope.

“Very colorful.” Thorax answered, with a smile. “We probably should start designing our new selves.”

About an hour and a dozen of sketches later the three shifters managed to create themselves new aliases. They each grabbed a book they could learn the basics of their new professions, tucked it under their wings and covered it by their disguises, then headed for the exit of the library.

“Gentle colts if I may,” – Compendium’s voice interrupted them. – “Did you find everything you needed?”

“Yes thank you very much,” Shiftlight replied. “We’ll just head off to the city for some snacks.”

“Then maybe you should leave the books here,” he said. Thorax stepped behind his taller brother, while Buzzer moved forward, to keep the attention of the librarian on himself.

“I’m really sorry, but what books?” he asked, as a heavy lexicon was lifted by green magic behind Compendium. “It can clearly be seen that...”

With a loud thud the lexicon hit the head of the unicorn, knocking him unconscious.

“Let’s clear out of here,” Shiftlight said. “If we’re lucky, the guards haven’t been noted of our presence yet.”

They quickly rolled the body in a carpet, and left it under a desk. Thorax opened the door, and only managed to glance outside, when he heard a loud yell.

“In the name of Equestria, stop right there!” a royal guard ordered the changelings.

“So much of our luck,” Shiftlight murmured, as the trio faced a group of pegasi in golden armors.

Comments

[Saerwen]

Some spelling mistakes, such as a missing letter or two, but overall a great story. I will enjoy reading this.

[erictheblue]

“No simple job would do.” Thorax replied silently. “We cannot buy love for bits.”

"money can't buy me love"...