David had barely enough time to realize he was asleep to take in the fact that there was a Luna standing in front of him, staring.

"Oh jeeze!" he exclaimed, hopping back to land on his old computer chair, sliding backwards through several hallways before he was dumped rudely out onto concrete flooring. Luna stepped over him, looking down at him with one brow raised.

"You are dreaming," she states as fact as her horn shone with the spell that banished the sleeping fog from him. "We have no time for games. Tell me now, where do I go?"

David clambered up quickly, dusting himself off as he went, "Well, she agreed to see you."

"We were not aware it was a choice," stated Luna, "Where is the changeling?"

David held up his hand, "Hold your horses." She frowned at him quickly. "Sorry, stupid saying. Anyway, she still hasn't done anything wrong, and has done a lot right."

Luna raised a hoof to point at David, "By your own words she has assaulted you."

David shrugged, "I'm not pressing charges. She panicked, and I'm not hurt."

"Pressing charges?" asked Luna, "I don't know what that means. You can explain it to me in person. Enough, tell me." Her horn began to glow as the information was nudged towards the surface. In a pony it likely would have been instant, but a human mind was alien to Luna's expertise and the going was far slower.

David swayed as thoughts jumbled around in a disordered mess. Old memories floated to the surface as the last sentence faded away entirely. He grabbed Luna's horn, not in attack but to steady his dreamself as everything went out of balance. Sensing she had perhaps pushed too directly, Luna released her spell and waited for David to recover. "Please, David, just tell me. I swear I will listen to your story when I arrive, and hers as well, but she cannot be allowed to wander freely."

David nodded slowly, taking a soft breath that didn't truly exist. "Manehattan." He pulled out the letter they had followed to find the building and offered it to Luna. "Don't come rushing in with guards or through a wall. She's not a criminal."

Luna's wings flared wide, "You are bold to tell me what is or is not a criminal in my domain." The wings slowly folded to her side as David shrank back. "I will give her a chance to speak for herself." Luna frowned then, "You are aware, human, only powerful changelings claim a female gender beyond their momentary disguise. Be wary until my arrival."

Luna faded, and the dream around her collapsed, leaving David to a restful void of benign dreams.

David woke up to the feeling of a hoof poking his chin. Opening his eyes he saw Rough Draft nudging him. "Heya."

Rough smiled, "You were out for hours. Everything OK?"

David reached up to poke Rough on the nose, "Besides humans, name two other humanoid races in humanway." He sat up while he waited for the answer from the stunned looking Rough Draft.

"Uh, halflings and kanomes," said Rough Draft, "Why?"

"Kanomes? Really?" asked David, rising up to his feet.

"What's wrong with the Kanomes?" asked Rough, looking sheepish. "They're small and crazy. Ponies like them plenty."

"They are 'Nomes' where I'm from, with a silent G at the front," explained David as he looked around. He saw a plate of food had been left untouched on one of the counters and moved over to it, "This mine?"

Rough Draft quickly nodded, "They made it for you while you were asleep." As David started to eagerly devour the already cool meal of mashed potatoes and corn, Rough continued, "So you had Kanomes too? That's so weird. But you didn't say why you asked."

David set the half devoured plate down as he looked to Rough, "You could have been a changeling. I expected you to figure that out."

Rough raised an ear, "Oh yea. I guess I... Wait, can they become human?"

David shrugged, "Dunno, but they haven't yet. I figure if she wanted to seduce me she'd try turning into a human female, but maybe she has to see something to copy it, so she's in for a long wait to find a woman." He picked up the plate again and set to devouring the other half messily and quickly.

Rough Draft laughed and blushed at the idea, "Oh Celestia. One human is already close to too much. Is Luna coming now? Did you reach her?"

David replied with an ear scratch to start before nodding, "Yea. I don't know how long it'll take her to get from Canterlot to here? Think she'll teleport?"

Rough Draft shook his head, "I'm no expert, but that's a long way to jump. We should tell Nicole." He rose to all fours and strode from the room with David trailing behind. "Do you think she'll try something stupid?"

David shrugged, "I really hope not. I kind of put my neck on the line saying she was worth at least hearing out. I'll look real stupid if she comes off as a scheming no-good changeling after all that."

Rough Draft nudged David in the knee, making him stagger mid-step, "It makes you look like a pony."

Regaining his balance and punching the button to summon the elevator, David asked, "How so?"

Rough smiled brightly, "Ponies trust with their whole heart if they are trusting, and are scared entirely of what scares them."

David poked that sensitive nose of Rough's, "So do I scare you, or do you trust me?"

Rough pressed his snout against that finger, soon nuzzling his palm lightly. David took this as a good enough answer.

They arrived at Nicole's floor to find her near the elevators, holding a large glass of something likely alcoholic in her green magic. She looked up when they arrived and nodded, "So the executioner is on her way?"

"Yea," said David, "But don't call her that. You both got some heavy labels. Just call her Luna, or Princess Luna to be polite. Tell the truth, be yourself, and trust she will accept there's more to it than black and white."

Nicole snorted and took a heavy pull of her drink, "Black and white are the colors a pony lives by, no matter how brightly colored their pelts."

"I... don't think you believe that," countered David.

Nicole sneered, "What makes you think that?"

David rolled a hand, "You wouldn't waste your time trying to change the public mind if you thought that."

The elevator gave a soft 'ding'. All eyes turned to it as the imposing stature of Luna stepped out, flanked by two lunar guards with their bat wings flaring the moment there was room. "We have arrived. David, tis good to see you in waking." She looked from him downwards, "Rough Draft. I have seen many of your dreams, odd as they may be." And onwards she went, settling on Nicole. "Yours I do not recall, but your face is familiar."

Nicole looked like she wanted to hiss or spit, but instead deflated. She sank to her belly, her glass landing gently on the ground. "Alright, you can behead me now."

Luna started, "Are you not going to plead or fight for your life, changeling?"

David snapped his fingers suddenly, "Green." He reached out a foot and nudged Nicole, "Can you get the real Nicole?"

'Nicole' looked up at him with confusion, "What?"

"Really," said David, "We need a face to face with the real parties involved."

The psuedo-Nicole tucked her tail between her legs. With a flash of green flames, a changeling was left behind. "Alright," it said in its more masculine and insectoid voice. "Mistress! They have seen through the guise."

A door opened elsewhere and Nicole approached from around a corner with a sigh, "How do you do that?" She looked David up and down, then turned her gaze to Luna, "I do surrender. I would say it is a pleasure, Princess Luna, but that remains to be seen."

Luna's guards advanced on the lesser changeling, who offered no resistance as they put hoof-cuffs on all four legs and bound them together. Luna herself looked over the new Nicole, "You do carry yourself more like a changeling queen."

Nicole hissed softly, "I am no queen. I have no nest, and I don't want one."

The drone in the guard's hold whimpered softly, looking like he wanted to say something but kept it to just the whimper.

"Very well," said Luna, "The human, David," She looked towards him and then back to Nicole "He said you had a story to share. I have given a promise that I would hear it before judgement is decided on. You have surrendered willingly, I will also bear that in mind, now speak truthfully."

Nicole grabbed the abandoned drink with her blue magic and sipped from it gently. "I was born to a hive near the badlands. The queen of the time was still well in her prime and she ordered my disposal. My two best friends decided to ferry me away instead and fled to the pony lands with me as a grub." She smiled gently at the captive drone.

"We could do nothing less for our queen," whimpered out the drone, squirming in his chains.

She approached him and struck him across the top of the head, "You are my friend, not my drone, blast it."

Luna cleared her throat, "Please continue."

Nicole nodded softly, "Yes, well, they raised me, pretending to be stallions while enrolling me into school. I become Nicole Foalman, and, for the most part, I lived as a pony." She took a soft sip of the alcohol before sighing. "I became an actress. It seemed a natural fit, considering." She glanced up at Luna, "A few other actors know, close friends. I built a career for myself, and here we are."

Luna gave a soft huff, "How did you feed? Food alone will not fill the belly of a changeling, especially not a queen, whether or not you accept the title."

Nicole smiled gently, "Is it not obvious? I am loved, as a star. Even now I can feel gentle waves of my fan's adoration tickling at me. It's not strong with them not in person, but it's always there. I'm never very hungry. They love me."

David and Rough stood there silently, captivated by the story being shared, and both entirely unwilling to interrupt either party. Luna gave a slow nod. "I see. Have you ever impersonated a pony before?"

Nicole raised a hoof to point at herself, "Well if you count this? Every day." Luna shook her head and Nicole nodded, "Didn't think so. I have done so in a professional capacity a few times." She raised a hoof to point at Rough Draft, "I copied him once, as a joke."

Rough Draft snorted, "It wasn't a funny joke." When Luna looked at him severely, he went rigid. "I wasn't hurt!" he squeaked.

David chuckled softly but said nothing. Luna was still looking at Rough, "Tell me, Rough Draft. What would you have me do?"

Rough perked his ears up, "Oh, uh. I'm not a princess, your highness... but, uh... I guess she isn't hurting anypony. She scares me, but she hasn't actually... done anything... besides foalnap us." David swatted him over the head at that, bringing Luna's attention to himself.

"Human David. You strike your companion for telling the truth. Why is this?" demanded Luna with an impassive face.

David shrugged feebly, "Well, she did, but it was a moment of panic. I don't want to hold that one moment of fear up against a whole life of being a good pony. She didn't hurt either of us."

"Verily." Luna turned back towards Nicole, who had set her drink aside. "Changeling Queen Nicole Foalman, rise." Nicole rose to her feet before the lunar princess. "Show us your true form." With a flash of green, Nicole revealed her sleek changeling form. Neither she nor the drone sported the holes that David had expected. "You have eaten well and often. The rot of hatred has not ravaged you as many other hives."

Nicole blushed red in her cheeks, "I don't... hunt. They love me, truly, for who I am."

Luna raised a hoof, "That is not entirely true. They do not know you are a changeling."

Nicole winced and started to sag, "Will you tell them? They will turn on me, hate me. I just want to be... me. I don't want to be a queen." Tears started to flow down her smooth black carapace as she groveled before Luna, "Let me be Nicole, please."

Luna took a slow breath before looking towards David and Rough, then to her guards. They remained stoically at the ready at either side of the prisoner. "By the letter of the law," spoke Luna, "You are to be detained and executed for the safety of the people." Nicole's ears fell as she closed her eyes. Luna put a hoof on Nicole's head. Nicole flinched, ready for crushing weight to follow and to be squished like the bug she was born to be. "But the letter of the law pertains to changelings, not to ponies."

Nicole looked up, scarcely able to see beyond the hoof still gently resting on her head, "What?"

Luna tapped either of Nicole's shoulders with the same hoof, "We hereby do recognize that Nicole Foalman has met all requirements for induction in the great kingdom of Equestria. You have attended our schools, learned our ways, paid our taxes and followed our laws. You are a model citizen, and it is my pleasure to welcome you officially. We will have to fine you for not applying for citizenship properly, you and your friends, but we trust this will not be an issue. You are also to perform labor of our choosing for the assault of one David and one Rough Draft. We will find something befitting an actress of your skill to perform."

Nicole scrambled to her feet only to collapse over the legs of Luna, sobbing into the dark fur while whispering her thanks repeatedly and clutch to Luna. All her anxiety poured out with her sobs of relief. Luna turned to David and Rough, nodding at them. "You were right to stay my hoof, human David, but do not make a habit of it." She raised her unimpeded hoof to point at him, "If you do not wish the same fine, you will apply for citizenship directly." The hoof lowered to Rough Draft, "And you are charged with ensuring this occurs." With both nodding in agreement, she gestured at the captive, "Release him."

Author's Notes:

Ha, wow. I just typed and typed and didn't look at the word count until I felt I hit a good pause, and I far over blew my target of 2k, which was good since I was a bit short the last two days. The changeling arc hits its end. What amazing adventure will our poor human get into next?

Scribes tend to get nervous around Princess Luna and a transcription error may result.