The following morning, after preparing Artex a mostly liquid breakfast and dosing him with his pain medication, Vaiawa laid him down in his favorite chair to rest. Soon, he had fallen asleep as the mares all enjoyed their breakfasts in the room around him. As they finished, the female members of the herd all began making their preparations for the day.

The mares were all looking forward to Razor and Artex’ wedding, which Razor had firmly decided would occur before Hearth’s Warming. As time ticked inexorably closer to that wonderful date, the mares had begun to see their residence less as their house, and more as being their home. Slowly they had been arranging things around the home, nudging furniture into a slightly better position here, repositioning a favorite pillow there, and generally putting it to how they like it. Now, however, with the date closing in, though nowhere near immediate, instinct had begun to work overtime on the mares, pushing them even more to prepare their home for a large, happy family.

Razor Wit began in the kitchen, dusting and sterilizing every surface she could reach, and many she could not. Every pot, pan, and dish was removed, it’s cabinet cleaned, and re-organized. In most cases, the locations of the dishes and utensils of the kitchen were completely changed around to a much more logical arrangement, according to her reckoning. The tops of the cabinets were cleaned, each drawer removed and cleaned, the unicorn even going so far as to get beneath the stove. A rather dexterous feat of magic involving levitating the whole thing while she scrubbed beneath. Soon, Razor moved into the living room, giving it the exact same treatment. She had a drive to know her home, inside and out. She needed to know every possible space that little foals might be able to get into, and what kinds of places vermin and other unwanted pests might hide. In her mind, she was just cleaning house, though for some odd reason it felt rather like she was moving in for the first time.

Rose trotted outside, a single-minded determination pushing her into the tall grass of their yard. She loathed cutting grass. It was never a chore she had enjoyed, or even particularly made peace with. And yet, she found herself marching doggedly towards their never-used pull mower and inspecting it critically. Despite having never really taken the time to familiarize herself with it, the stout Earth Pony was soon hitched in, pulling it along their fence. As the blades rotated behind her, she figured she could use the resistance from the mower to get some quick exercise and worked into a trot, moving quicker and quicker. She could see her breath in the frigid morning air, yet quickly worked up a sweat running from one side of the yard to the other, pulling the mower. Some part of her felt good at the cutting, as if she were providing a safe place for her herd, free of camouflage for any potential predators lurking about. That mowing was reminiscent of a successful harvest likewise never entered her mind. As she neared half-way complete with the yard, she became aware of a loud yelling from the path from their mailbox into town.

She trotted over and watched as Darryl chased Cloud Cutter up and down the path. He had a crop in his hand and he was grinning like a bandit, "I said RUN, shrimp shit, not jog!" He ran up and swatted Cutter on his haunch. The young stallion let out a high-pitched yelp and sped up, but only marginally. He was already sweating hard. Darryl did not relent though, "What the hell do you call THAT!?" He ran up and swatted Cutter again, "Listen up, maggot! We're gonna run until I get tired! Now, MOVE YOUR LEGS!" Rose chuckled at the scene and returned to her mowing.

Oriana was busy pulling all the grasses and other vegetation from the soil around their large wraparound porch. She had chosen to leave her saddlebags inside, instead opting to wear a neck bag filled with seeds and bulbs of the Zebra homelands her parents had given her as an engagement gift. Her Zebra magic with all things grown would allow her to cultivate plants of any type and in any climate. These plants and herbs would be perfect for the potions, salves, and poultices she could make for trade and use by her herd. She bit down on the plant stems and pulled them up by the roots one at a time. It was slow, tedious work, but she knew it would be worth the effort for her family. She shivered in the cold, happy to be doing constructive work for her family.

Vaiawa, meanwhile, busily dusted and scrubbed every corner of the master bedroom and guest rooms. As a Queen, she had few instincts to do more than govern, protect, expand, and breed. She was more than happy to help her future sister/wives clean the house, though. She scrubbed every nook and cranny she could find, a veritable dust bunny massacre. She buzzed her insectile wings in a rapid bass beat to keep pace with her fast paced whistling. The one thing she missed from her old hive was her fife. A very old, yet solid, brass instrument. She remembered the songs she had composed and played on it. She missed it, lost when she had been arrested for defying Chrysalis’ orders to attack. The changelings who had restrained her on the ground had become an impromptu buffer from the love shield. She remembered seeing her fife sitting on the ground as she was violently thrown far from Canterlot. ‘I should buy a new fife when I go into town next,’ she thought to herself with a smile.

The Changeling watched Rose Thorn mowing the lawn. She was hidden well in the forest by the house. She watched intently as the Earth Pony turned around with the mower harness hitched to her back, and started back in the other direction. The Changeling turned to her comrade and spoke quietly in a language which was decidedly not Velensovth, "Are you certain this is the place? We cannot get close enough to the town to see."

The other Changeling, identical to the first one to all but those who knew what to look for, replied in a quiet tone, "This has to be the place, but we have still not seen any others here, just the Pony and the Zebra."

The first Changeling looked back at the house, "This doesn't feel like any sort of place for Changelings, especially so close to the Alicorns' lair and open to the air. Dragons could swoop in and start feasting at any time."

The second Changeling shrugged, "I don't know. I still think that Pony was mistaken. Changelings living openly? It goes against everything we've ever been taught."

"Not that strange. We have Ponies living with us." The first Changeling said. Her face fell, "You could have taken the language from her when you scanned her memories though."

The second Changeling shook her head in small motions, "They have been raised only around us. They do not know anything else. They grew up thinking we are normal, they have no basis for fearing us." She gestured to Oriana and Rose, "From what that Pony in the last town said, a Queen attacked the Alicorn's lair and was repelled somehow. I find it difficult to believe that the entire hive was not hunted down and slaughtered." Her eyes flashed to the first Changeling, "And about taking the language? We don't need it. All we need to do is isolate one Pony and scan their memories then go home. None of them will ever know we were here."

The first Changeling buzzed her wings in confusion, "How should we approach this? We cannot wait all day. We only have a few days left before we need to begin our return trip. You're lucky the Queen was willing to send us out." She puffed up her chest proudly, "Think about it. We're the first to leave the confines of the hive for untold generations. We're going to be famous!"

The second Changeling clenched her jaw, "Not if you get us discovered with all your shouting." She whispered harshly, "Come on, just like the last town, use your disguise and trot around like you belong there. Find an isolated Pony, put them to sleep, scan their memories, and go. Remember, the Queen specifically said not to injure any Ponies and I'm sure it goes without saying that the order extends to Zebras and anything else intelligent." She shifted into her disguise as an orange Earth Pony mare and pushed through the bushes.

A snort of hot air drifted down the back of the first Changeling's neck just before she took her disguise. She froze and slowly turned her head. A large pair of nostrils dominated her vision. She raised her head slightly to see what the nostrils belonged to. She saw a pair of beady brown eyes peering at her and two pairs of tusks framed the eyes like crosshairs. The Changeling suddenly spoke out to her comrade, "And what are we supposed to do if we encounter dangerous giant animals?"

The second Changeling suddenly stopped and turned around, "We sho..." she trailed off as she spotted the very large, brown Great Pig.

* * *

Rose and Oriana both looked up at the sudden ruckus in the woods. There were grunts, gasps, and a few sounds of magical blasts then all was quiet once more. The two mares shared a confused look across the yard for a brief moment before Suey trotted out of the trees carrying two Changelings, held by their tails, in her mouth.

Oriana galloped toward Suey while Rose unhitched herself from the mower, "Suey?" She skidded to a halt in front of the Great Pig, "What's going on?" After a year, Oriana knew Suey well enough to know that she must have had a good reason to have subdued the two Changelings.

Rose galloped up beside Oriana just as Suey dropped the Changelings onto the ground, "I found them hiding in the woods." Her voice was silky smooth, but deep for a female, "They were speaking in a language I didn't understand, but one of them took on the form of an Earth Pony. Her disguise lifted when she tried to use her magic on me, but I don’t think they knew about my resistance to magics. I think they were trying to infiltrate the town."

Author's Notes:

Much thanks to my editor: Nightwatch, for fixing my IMMENSE f**k-up.