“I can do that.” I say. Silence fills the large room before I remember why I came here. “Oh, changing the subject I actually came here to check on Chrysi.” Surprisingly they don’t change expressions, which kinda weirds me out.

“As you wish, follow me please.” Celestia says with a smile. Ok, they’ve either gone along really well with Chrysi, or something has happened to that changeling and they couldn’t be happier to get rid of her. And I’m leaning towards the former. Celestia and Luna lead me through the maze of hallways to an insignificant-looking door. Luna opens it to reveal Chrysi reading a book. The sound of the door squeaking open causes her to look to us. Upon seeing me she squeals.

“Ember!” She jumps up and flies to me, grabbing my torso in a tight hug.

“Hey Chrysi, you missed me?” I chuckle, she looks up to me with a gleeful smile and thumps my chest.

“Be quite smarty pants. Yes I missed you!” Nothing else needed to be said; she missed me, mainly due to the fact that I may or may not be her only friend. Chrysi just continued to hug me, she even nuzzled into the feathers on my chest. I look to Celestia and Luna in a ‘give us a moment’ look. They smiled and nodded, I walked into the room, and they closed the door behind me. I decided to sit on the only couch occupying the room. And I got to take a good look at the room while Chrysi never stopped hugging me. The room was big, even by human standards. And it looks like an exact copy of the room I stayed in last time I was here; a large, heavenly-looking bed with beautiful red curtains hanging around it, a lovely looking rug in the center, and what anyone would normally expect in a hotel room. Except there was a bookcase by the window. Presumably to keep Chrysi happy or something. “Ember?”

“Hmm?” I Look down to Chrysi, and she’s staring up at me like a puppy.

“What’s wrong? You’re all… quiet.”

“It’s nothing, just a few things have happened in the last few days.”

“Really? Like what?” She gets off of me and sits next to me on the couch.

“I recently had to deal with more of those assassins who wanted me dead because of some stupid tradition.”

“‘Tradition’?”

“Apparently if the first ponies fail to get rid of a target, all of them stop whatever they’re doing and try to take the target out.”

“Oh...” Her face falls.

“But,” she looks up. “I think I convinced them to stop the crap.”

“How?”

“Lets just say I had a ‘talk’ with their boss.”

“You think this ‘talk’ worked?”

“For the most part, yes.”

“That’s good to hear, I’m not very fond of unexpected visitors in the dead of night.” I chuckle.

“Especially when said visitors want me dead.” She giggles a little. The room fell silent once again, Chrysi decided to lean up against me like how a dog would. We were both content with how we were for who knows how long.

“... Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“You know I really missed you right? Cause, you’re really the first real friend, ever.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s understandable that you would miss me this much. Hell, I’ve even been in the same situation.”

“Really?” I nod.

“Yeah, before I got here I pretty much had no friends. There were just people who I would make small talk with. Hell, at least you have family.”

“I guess, but they never really cared about me.”

“Oh really?” She nods. “Then why did two changeling come looking for you a while back?” She looks up to me, surprised.

“R-really?” I nod.

“Yeah, they asked me if I’ve seen and other changelings around. Heh, the fuckers even started a fight because I was being short with ‘em.”

“Oh… didn’t, kill them, did you?” I shake my head.

“No. I let them go after I kicked their collective asses. They even came back the next day with two more of them to apologize ‘on the queen’s behalf’.”

“Hmm… That’s, really surprising.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So there really wasn’t anything else interesting?”

“Beside the fact that I made a new friend, nothing.” I say nonchalantly.

“Oh! I remember Princess Celestia telling me about your new friend. Her name is Spark right?”

“Yes.”

“Cool. Is she from a different world like you or Golden Streak?”

“Not exactly. I actually made a new friend.” I emphasized the word ‘made’. It took Chrysi a second to understand what I meant.

“You mean… You made a living being with magic!?” She screeched. I just noticed that her voice gets weird when she yells, an overlapping similar voice makes it sound like she’s speaking through two microphones. And both audio tracks are being played with one a few milliseconds before the other. It’s comprehensible, I know what she’s saying, it’s just weird when she yells.

“Not with magic, I created her using human tech. She’s literally an artificial intelligence that can learn and adapt.”

“... So basically another human like you?”

“To put it simply, yes.”

“... Dear mother...”

“What?”

“I never thought I would live to hear that a living thing was made by another living being.”

“Well if I never showed up here that would’ve true. That’s something to think about.”

“Yes, it sure is...” She pauses for a minute. “Can I meet her?”

“Of course! That’s why I came to see if you’re alright.”

“Oh mother finally! It’s been really boring here!” She hops from the couch and looks to me expectantly.

“Hold on, gotta let Celestia and Luna know.”

“Ok.” I get up and head out the door. Luna and Celestia were right outside.

“Were you two eavesdropping?” They maintain straight faces. But a slight twitch of Luna’s lip gave it away. “Ugh, you’re terrible liars. Me and Chrysi are going back home, but I guess you two already knew that.” I say and walk back into the room. “I need to learn a soundproofing spell or something...” I mutter.

“How did he know?” I heard Luna whisper to Celestia.

“You need to learn to keep a better poker face Luna. Plus you two are pretty predictable.” I turn around when I’m next to Chrysi. The sisters both have blown away looks on their faces. Kinda made me laugh my ass off as I teleported me and Chrysi back home. Those faces of pure shock and awe will forever be burned in my brain. In a good way.

“Where’s Spark?” Chrysi walks around like a dog excitedly looking for something; she looks behind doorways, behind the couch, in the kitchen, basically anywhere she thinks Spark might be.

“Relax Chrysi, Spark’s probably out doing… whatever the fuck she’s doing.”

“Can I go see where she is then?” That question caught a little off-guard.

“... You know you don’t have to ask me that right?”

“Oh, right. Ehe...” She smiles sheepishly. “I’ll... be back then. Bye!” She moves to bolt out the door.

“Hold on.” She freezes. “Might as well go with you, it’s been boring here anyway.”

“Ok!” She bolts out the door, leaving a cloud of dust shaped like her which quickly dissipates.

*A little too eager, aren’t we?* I jokingly think to myself as I walk out the door to follow Chrysi. Then I remember something. “Change into a pony!”

“Where the hell could she be?” I asked no one in particular.

“I don’t know.” Chrysi answered. She managed to change into the brown coated mare like always, before anyone saw her in her true form. We’ve been looking all around town for Spark. At this point I was thinking that she either went back as soon as we left, or she unknowingly managed to get around town better than we can find her. The latter seems to be the situation right now. As any of the ponies we asked told us where they last saw Spark led us to where she used to be, and the next we asked told us she was somewhere fucking else. So yeah, it was almost like a wild goose chase. Except that we were ‘chasing’ an android.

“Hey Caramel.” Said pony looks to me.

“Oh hey Ember! Can I help ya?”

“Yeah, have you seen another human around?”

“Hmmm... I think I have… Yeah! I have! It’s name is Spark right?”

“Yes, her name is Spark.” I always get a little pissed when any of the ponies call us ‘it’.

“Uh… y-yeah.” He stammers. “She actually asked me if there was anything she could do around here.”

“And?” I politely ask.

“I said no and she went in that direction.” Caramel pointed a hoof towards a path that led back home.

Fuck me.

“Alright, thanks Caramel.”

“Anytime buddy.” He waves to me as I walk off with Chrysi towards home.

“Well this was ridiculous.” Chrysi spoke.

“Agreed.” At the pace we were walking, well, more like my pace with Chrysi doing her best to keep up, we got to my house in no time.

“Alright, if Caramel was right she should be here.” We both walk after I open the front door. “Spark!?”

“Yes!?” I heard from downstairs. Next are some footsteps and Spark emerges from the door to my room.

“Oh, it’s you Ember.” She says with a cheery voice. “And who’s this?” She directs all attention towards Chrysi. Who is staring in awe at Spark.

“Spark, you remember that changeling I told you about?” She nods and Chrysi gives a weird look. “Well this Is Chrysanthemum, Or Chrysi for short, she’s the changeling. You can… show yourself Chrysi.” Chrysi nods and a burst of grey flames envelopes her body for second, before the flame quickly dies out. Leaving the changeling in her true form; a changeling. Yes that was supposed to be a joke.

“So that’s what a girlchangelingman looks like.” Chrysi and Spark both spoke at the same time. I could tell what they both said, but the statements just kinda… got jumbled up at the end.

“I’ll… just leave you two alone.” I say as I head to my room to go to bed. It was getting pretty late anyway.

“So Corey, how does it feel like to get the short end of the stick?” I ask as I dangle the bastard over a tank of great white sharks with a flimsy board and thin rope.

“Fuck you, you piece of shit!” He yells as he struggles to break free. When that rope snaps he’s fall, right into a shark's mouth.

“Yes. keep struggling, I love it!” I put on a gleeful look, waiting for his gruesome demise.

“Wait…” Fuck. “Fuck that!” He stays still.

*Fuck he found out.* “Don’t prolong your demise Corey, just fall already!”

“Fuck! YOU! You’re lucky my gang’s not here!” A sweet, fluffy aroma started to permeate the air.

*The fuck’s that smell?* “Oh, you mean these fucks?” I snap my fingers and his ‘gang’ swings in, slamming into Corey, making me laugh my ass off when I hear the air leave his lungs, through my teary eyes I see his rope split a little. I wipe my eyes so I can properly see him fall into the water when the whole roped snaps. Which happens just as I clear my eyes. Time seemed to slow down as Corey fell towards the water. But the sweet smell got stronger, and everything was going out of focus.

“Oh come the fuck on!” I yell before everything goes black. Meaning I woke up early from one of, if not the, best dream I’ve had. “Fucking smell, woke me up from the best dream I’ve had. Who’s making what anyway?” I groggily get up from my bed and walk to the main floor. The smell gets stronger towards the kitchen. “The fuck..?” I mutter. I walk into the kitchen and Spark is making pancakes. Chrysi’s off to the side where the dining table stands, eating her stack of pancakes.

“Mornin’ Ember!” Chrysi says through a mouthful of pancake.

“Good morning Ember.” Spark says as she flips a pancake in the air. “There’s a stack of pancakes for you on the table.” She points to the table and right where he pointed there was a plate with a thick stack of the fluffy things, something I somehow missed when I looked at Chrysi.

“Uh, thanks.” Pushing back the questions that need to be asked. I take a seat after I grabbed a fork from one of the drawers and take a bite of the fluffy-looking pancakes. As soon as the fried bread touches my tongue each taste bud is set ablaze with fluffy goodness. Making my eyes turn into dinner plates. “Good god these are amazing! What and where did you get the stuff to make this?” I then begin to wolf down my breakfast.

“Here, try it with syrup.” Chrysi offers me a bottle of it and I grab it from her. Pouring the liquid sugar on the pancakes and in my mouth.

“To answer your question, Chrysanthemum and I went to the store because she wanted some breakfast, we settled on pancakes.” I shoot Chrysi a questioning look.

“Sometimes we like to eat physical food. But for us it’s like drinking water.” I nod and give her a thumb up in a ‘got it’ sort of way. But then another question came to mind. Before I can even ask it Spark answers.

“We used the bits you have in that bag.” She points to the duffel bag containing all my wealth in the corner of the room. I envelope it in my magic and bring the bag over to me, I take a look inside and behold the sight of a few hundred thousand pounds of gold in the form of little coins about the size of a dollar coin of American currency.

“You’re lucky I’m ok with that.” I say when my mouth isn’t full of fluffy goodness.

“I knew you would. Considering that we thought you’d love the pancakes.”

“Yeah yeah yeah. What do you put in these things anyway?”

“Oh the usual ingredients. Except I added a little vanilla extract, cinnamon, white chocolate, and blueberries.”

“So that’s what the little spots are. These are fucking good Spark.”

“Mmhmm!”

“Thank you.”

“How did you even figure out what to do?”

“I just followed the instructions on the box the mix came in. Chrysanthemum suggested I out in the extra ingredients.” Said changeling smiled brightly.

“Cool. Speaking of you two. I can assume you two like each other?” When I ask that Chrysi goes wide eyed and she blushes. She misunderstood my question, god dammit.

“We’re good friends, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yeah, that’s what I meant. Glad to see you two got along.” Chrysi looks away in a relieved fashion. Spark turns off the stove and takes a seat with us, a plate with a stack of pancakes in her hands. “Uh Spark? You know you can’t eat right?”

“Quite the contrary Ember.” She grabs a fork from a draw before she sits down, cuts off a piece of pancake, and eats it. Something that leaves me speechless and astonished.

“I.. buh… wha… The fuck? How!? I never put any programs that allow to do that!”

“Wait, what’s a, ‘program’?” Chrysi asks. Spark beat me to answer her.

“Coded instructions to perform a specific task. And I can only think that this… magic,” She holds out her hand and a magic aura dances around the limb water floating in zero gravity, which colored a light yellow. “has given me certain abilities and attributes that otherwise, the body I transferred to wouldn’t have if it was done without magic.”

“... That makes a surprisingly large amount of sense.” Spark smiles and she take another bite. “... But, where does the food go? What happens?”

“I… actually don’t know. These pancakes are the only thing I’ve eaten so far.”

“Then how did you find out you could do this?”

“I ate some earlier.”

“Oh, you have an appetite?”

“No, I just eat whenever I want.”

“Oh, ok.” We continue eating our breakfast. The silence must’ve been getting to Chrysi, she’s fidgeting a little.

“So… What did I miss?”

“Not much, besides that I created Spark.” Spark nods in agreement.

“Yes, everything has been...” Spark couldn’t come up with a word to properly describe the last few days.

“Dull?” So I helped.

“I was going to say ‘normal’, but I guess dull is a good word to use.”

“Yeah yeah. Considering weird things happen here on a daily basis.”

“I know. This place is pretty strange.”

“Yeah, no offense Chrysi.”

“None taken… Hey!”

“Hey, me n’ Spark are basically on an alien planet. Give us a break.”

“I know… Just, stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop being so mean!”

“It’s not being mean, it’s being funny.”

“Well that wasn’t funny.”

“It’s not that it wasn’t funny, you just don’t have a sense of humor.”

“I do have a sense of humor!”

“If you did you’d be able to laugh at yourself.”

“Is that something humans do?”

“Yeah, well some of us do. Some are just fucking uptight pricks.”

“Oh… Does that make a bad changeling?”

“No. You still have a good personality. Just gotta learn to laugh at yourself.”

“Oh.”

“This is a lovely conversation and all. But I have a question.”

“Yeah Spark?”

“I’ve been wondering, where did you get those bits?” She points to the bag full of bits.

“Oh, that’s just my… I think weekly salary if I remember correctly. Speaking of which, where is this week’s pay?” As if on fucking cue, which is apparent on the dam planet, a knocking comes from the front door. “Speak of the fucking messenger.” I get up and walk over to the door to open it. “Chrysi you know the drill.” She nods and heads upstairs. Since I already explained this drill to Spark she just sat there and watched as I answered the door. I open it and the same pony that delivered my pay from last week.

“Hello.”

“Hey, weekly pay?”

“Yes. I just need a signature this time.”

“What for?”

“We need an official signature so we can keep track of each weekly delivery and so we can make sure it’s delivered to you.” He presents me with a small clipboard with a bunch of text, in equestrian. Luckily I can read that shit. And it’s basically confirming that I am me. So I sign it, the pony gives me my money, and I walk back inside to the kitchen. And just as I round the doorway claw gets caught in the floor. Have I ever told you that the house I live in has old door flooring? No? Well I should have, because that particular area had a small split in it. Which decided to grab my toe and make me fall over. And everything would’ve alright; I would’ve gotten up and act like nothing happened. And maybe Spark would crack a joke or something.

But no, whatever driving force that exists in the universe decided to have the bag of fucking GOLDEN bits fall right on my head since I held in my magic at juuust the right fucking angle. Fuck you omnipotent force.