The heavy mahogony door which awaited the duo at the end of the long corridor was an intimidating sight. Though it was completely lifeless, Blue felt sure that, as she looked up at the towering wood, she hadn't felt so uneasy in a long time. Ever, perhaps—something about the door just oozed, "watch out".

Coalburst, much to her surprise, also seemed a little less joyful. Though there was still a smile plastered on her muzzle and a bounce to her walk, she eyed the door warily and sniffed at the air a little. She didn't even try to hide the fact that her horn had begun to spark in readiness; with baited breath, Blue rushed to follow her lead and retrieved the deadly rapier which she had held under her wing, clenching it in her teeth as she fought to inhale and exhale steadily.

"What's wrong, Coal?" Blue whispered, giving her best unaware expression. The filly, much to her dissapointment, did not seem to feel the need to indulge her.

"I thought this place was abandoned," she murmured, glancing about herself. She cringed slightly as she did so, though nothing  was particularly out of place. "But I... Eh, whatever. I'm just being stupid!" Coalburst nudged Blue's shoulder gently and forced a grin whilst she wagged her tail just a little slower than usual.

The door, peculiarly, slid open without so much as a creak. It was, in a word, silent—and that was perhaps even more unnerving.

Coalburst took the lead quickly as the very tip of her horn began to glow dimly. She only glanced about herself slowly, still with a smile on her face, but the way her ears swivelled betrayed her. Nevertheless, Blue was not going to call it out; she was quite happy to keep silent.

The foyer, in comparison to the grandeur of the entrance hall, was relatively small. As a rough guess, Blue couldn't imagine that any more than twenty ponies would fit inside comfortably. Nevertheless, despite the numerous doors around the edge, the limited space was for once reassuring; it made assessing the dangers easier. And, for once, it seemed that there was none to be found—but neither she nor Coalburst lowered their guard, just in case. Something about the way the wooden boards creaked and the way the silence was interrupted by muted shuffling... It didn't do much for one's confidence.

They were, at the end of the day, stuck there. There was no way they could go back yet; not while those two hunters still lurked with their dog. Neither could they simply wait it out here in the confirmed safety; Coalburst's returned curiosity would never allow it. Hence, with a quick glance back to her armour-covered flank which was held together by partly-healed stitches, she stepped forwards slowly.

The first rooms, labelled with the numbers twelve to eighteen, were left ignored for the time being in favour of the narrow set of stairs, illuminated by bright red LEDs. The glow was both warm and yet warning, bold enough to send shivers down both ponies' spines. But it wasn't enough to stop Coalburst by far, and Blue was in no mind to be left alone here. So, with hooves which dragged and a slumped posture, she crawled forwards and heaved her unwilling legs up the stairs.

The landing was the exact same as the one before had been, the sole exception being that a large set of of stairs was positioned up against the furthest wall. It led up to a landing in front of an elevated door, larger and better decorated than all the others; what was more disturbing, however, were the numerous bodies which were strewn over each step, not yet rotted but certainly lifeless.

"What... What happened here?" Coalburst's voice was suddenly weak and, when Blue glanced down at her, tears shone in her turquoise eyes. Her tail was low and held between her legs. "They're... They're all dead."

Blue nodded slowly, her body suddenly even heavier. With the rapier held tightly in her mouth, she then whimpered but walked forwards, wiping the tears from her eyes as she approached the bloody mess cautiously. A quiet creak made her squeak and hunch up, cowering a little on the floor; when no zombie-ponies attacked, she spared a glance back to the heartbroken filly whose dreams had been crushed in that one instant and knew she couldn't let the poor thing suffer any more. And so it was she, quivering body and all, who sheepishly stepped closer, wings opened and ready to be used. Repositioning the rapier between her teeth, she then nudged the closest body with the tip and shot backwards with a squeak, then letting out a breath when it did not attack. It was then that she finally could interpret the stench; it was death, no doubt about it.

Blue shuddered and backed up towards Coalburst before she wrapped a hoof around her; the filly, however, was in no mood to accept the embrace and she instead stepped forwards slowly. She wiped her nose with a hoof before she then whispered, "They're... They're the enemy."

"What?"

Blue trod up to Coalburst's side and took a closer look at the masses, her muzzle scrunched up. At first, she hadn't taken much notice of the ponies themselves; now that she did so, she could understand what Coalburst meant. The true ponies were glossier than most and their eyes, wide open but unseeing, were crystalline in effect. Among them were the black masses that she had wrongly assumed to be ponies; rather, their bug-like wings and hole-ridden bodies, hidden slightly under their comrades, revealed them to be changelings.

She shuddered and stepped back, but not before she spared a glance up to the door at the top of the stairs. She then shook her head and murmured, her voice quavering, "How about we go search these rooms? We..." She trailed off, unsure of what to say, and gently placed a hoof on Coalburst's shoulder. She then pushed her forwards gently but stopped her before she could open it. "We should find out what happened. Right?"

The filly looked up slowly, eyes filled with tears which she quickly wiped away. Nodding, she then hopped past Blue and placed her handle on the door knob and said, before there was chance to protest, "I wanted to come here, so I should go first. And I'm better at surviving than you." Coalburst gave a weak smile before she then took a breath, turned the handle and pushed the door open, her horn alight—only to find a standard-looking room.

As the pair walked inside, both on their guard, Blue couldn't help but whimper a little at the likeness to her old room in her facility. This one was called the Chameleon Facility, but she had no idea what her old home had been known as; it was, she supposed, not such a home after all.

But it had been warm, and it had always seemed safe at least. And, in this tired and half-destroyed place, very similar in size and layout to her own, she couldn't help but feel as if she were once more back in her bedroom. Back in her home, where she was fed well whenever she pleased and where everyone scowled at her when she passed—but, notably, didn't try to kill her.

"Blue?" Coalburst looked up at her and tugged on her mane gently. "Blue, you okay?"

She nodded quickly and tried to smile, though the sight of the window made her heart ache more. "Nostalgia, that's all. And sadness, I suppose." She shrugged a little before she picked the filly up in her wing and carried her the few metres to the wall on which the shattered window could be found. "Look at that."

Coalburst, too short to properly see, climbed ungainly up onto Blue's back to glance into the fragmented glass. Her jaw dropped as she did so and her breath caught in her throat at the sight before her; the sky, just as it should be. And then, before she could be stopped, she reached out with her magic and carefully removed one of the shards, still with the illusion of the sun pictured on it as she pulled it closer. She hopped back down to the floor and trotted over to the bed, snagging a bit of the material so that she cut a small patch off. Then scratching the shard against the wall the smoothen the edges, she wrapped it in the piece of cloth and placed it in her hoof, holding it with her magic between the wall and the frog.

"That's beautiful," she finally whispered, looking up to Blue with still tearful eyes—but there was a small smile on her muzzle now to replace the frown. "It's just... Perfect."

Blue smiled at Coalburst's awe and wrapped her closer in a wing to nuzzle her gently. "Thought you'd like it," she whispered before she then picked the little thing up, pushing her forwards. It seemed a shame to waste the filly's moment of glee but, at the end of the day, they had a job to do here.

But she couldn't bring herself to tell the filly that they had to get on; the poor foal had pushed a half-broken dresser to the window—which, Blue supposed, was perhaps more of a well-disguised mirror—and was now gazing intently up at the illusion of a fixed sky. She touched her hoof to the glass and traced the rays of sunlight as they fell across a normal, non-mutated land; they were bolder and stronger and more beautiful than anything she had ever seen.

With a sigh, Blue let her wings fall open and she then trod forwards slowly, rapier held tightly in her mouth. The room was, just as hers had been, very small; the only real difference was that the window was positioned on the right wall here, as opposed to the back just behind the headboard as had been the case for her.

There was, Blue was unsurprised to find, nothing to be found under the bed. Though a wonderful place to live, all things considered, facilities were hardly ideal for hoarders; very few personal items were allowed. She had never known why, though; it was just one of those weird and seemingly pointless rules. But whoever had inhabited this room had, it came to be known once she began to search the wardrobe, kept as much as they possibly could.

To be honest, nothing was particularly useful. A few small, multicoloured plastic balls sat at the bottom, surrounded by scraps of fabric and paper; handwritten notes, it seemed, but the ink was too light in colour to actually read. Every one was exactly the same; completely worthless to her, in other words. Hence, with a sigh, Blue picked up one of the little balls—they were good fun in such a bleak world, and an equally good distraction if that dog was still lurking—and tucked them under her feathers. She then turned back to Coalburst and, with eyes that sparkled slightly more than normal, she whispered, "We ought to go, little filly." When her posture slumped, Blue then finished off with, "There'll be unbroken windows in the other rooms? With different views, I'll bet."

Coalburst squealed and spun around, her eyes alight as she shot from the room. Blue hardly had time to react before the filly had opened the door to the opposite room and had bolted inside—and promptly let out a small scream, her horn flaring into life as a fiery glow engulfed it. She then reared up unsteadily on her back leg—how did she even manage that?—and shot a ball of fire towards whatever creature awaited inside; it screamed in response and, judging by the sounds of the crashing and clattering which rung true, panicked. A timid little voice then cried out, "P-please, wait! Don't hurt me!"

Blue's eyes widened and she trotted forwards so as to push Coalburst out of the way before she struck once again; the second fireball crashed into a nearby wall with such ferocity that the brick was blown to pieces. Shards flew out at rapid speeds, but she watched them approach as if in slow motion. With a yelp, she then grabbed the filly in her wing and dragged her to her side before she leapt into the safety of the room, though not before the shards sliced at her rear fetlock. She screamed and her leg buckled when she placed it down; landing on the floor, she then trembled and whimpered as she felt something hot seep from the new wound and, when she spared a glance, she felt her world spin and she lay her head back down. She was a lot stronger than she had been when she came outside; that didn't stop the nausea which arose when she saw her blood, though.

"Blue!" Coalburst's gasped cry was shrill and she was quick to escape from the feathers which had held her. When she leapt around to Blue's rear, however, she let out a small sigh of relief. "Wow, you're lucky. I thought it would've been bleeding more, but it looks like the changeling bite began to heal up already."

Blue moaned and twitched a little on the floor whilst she gagged. "There's a whole chunk out of my fetlock, Coalburst!" she hissed, then screaming when the filly unwound the bandage around her neck—a bloodied accessory which, Blue realised with a start, she had worn ever since she had met her—and then twisted it around the fresh wound. Hers was an old one by now; there was a most repulsive scab on the left side of her neck which oozed very slightly, but nothing other than that. When she spared a blurry glance to the filly to see what she was doing, Blue realised that she wasn't sure it was healed all that well; without the willpower to raise her head to speak, however, she merely grumbled and closed her eyes once again as she gasped for breath, as if doing so would ease the pain.

"This is my fault..." a timid voice said from the shadows, the same one that had screamed earlier. With the bandage now tied off, Coalburst hopped around to Blue's head and growled warningly as her horn flared into life; the other being yelped and then stammered, "No, no! I'm not trying to hurt you, I p-promise! Please, just give me a chance and I can help her!"

Coalburst growled deeper but hesitated when Blue, groaning and moaning as she did so, placed a shaky hoof on her good leg. She then sighed and, in as threatening a voice as she could muster but without directly snarling, she then said, "Come out so I can see you. And leave your weapons or I will kill you."

"O-okay!"

To the creature's credit, it crept forwards slowly and kept its belly to the floor as it did so. It whined quietly as it approached and kept its gaze averted, a demonstration of submission. Its appearance, however, was far from calming; it looked, if she had to compare it, similar to a deer of sorts, except with insect like wings at its side and a colouring which was much, much more eyecatching. Even more so than its coat, however, was the abhorrent state of its body; every single rib showed through its skin and there was surely not a single bit of flesh upon its back. Its eyes were gaunt and had lost their sparkle; its mane was thin and had mostly fallen out.

Coalburst could not contain the snarl which arose in her throat at the sight of the creature. Her words were filled to the brim with disdain when she then said, "What are you?"

The creature whimpered on the floor quietly and its tongue flicked out quickly, as if it were not in control. "I... I am a changeling," he whispered, his gaze still averted. "P-please don't hurt me; I really mean no harm!"

Coalburst growled at the cowering creature and stepped closer, but not before she spared a glance to Blue to check that she hadn't passed out. Though quiet, she still writhed and moaned quietly on the floor, which was a good sign, and so the filly instead returned her attention to the creature and reared up. She remained in that position for only a fraction of a second before she slammed her hooves down at either side of the changeling's muzzle, an act which made it yelp.

"If you're a changeling, why are you so bright?" she hissed. The accused merely muttered to itself for a few seconds before it then replied.

"I'm a reformed changeling. I was never part of Queen Chrysalis' attack!" he cried, sounding almost desperate. "But look where it got me! My hive was tricked and brought here... They said they were trying to find a cure for this plague, but they lied! They lied! And my subjects... They were all locked inside and starved, without any love to feed them... And they got desperate! You can't blame them, I can't blame them; they were starving and... And... And they reverted to their old ways! They abandoned my philosophy and everything I taught them and began to attack eachother, draining every last drop of love from their peers until all they knew once again was greed and lovelust! And now here I am, the sole survivor, only able to survive on the meager love that each of my subjects still spared for me before they died!" The changeling gasped and buried his head in his hooves. At first Coalburst thought he was trembling and she bared her teeth, ready to attack and end the thing; a moment later, it looked up and, it transpired, its massive but gaunt eyes were flooded with tears. "And now I'm starving, and I'm gonna die, and I don't want to die! I need to live, I need to teach the unreformed to be good!"

Coalburst narrowed her eyes and stepped back, grabbing Blue's fallen rapier with her magic. She then held it out in front of her and hissed, "You're lying. Chrysalis' attack was... Well, a long time ago! Too long for a pony to live for, at least!"

"I know, I'm sorry!" the changeling wailed before it curled up into something resembling a fetal position. "I know you don't believe me and I'm making you mad, and I don't want to make you mad!"

"Huh?"

Blue groaned as she watched the two arguing, her vision blurred from the pain which overwhelmed her senses. But the poor changeling—or supposed changeling, for she was just as skeptical as the filly— would surely end up dead soon; either at Coalburst's hooves, or simply from despair. And so with a muffled scream and with hisses and groans, she unsteadily wobbled to her hooves, the injured kept elevated, and limped towards the pair.

"C-Coalburst!" she snapped, her unfocused and watery eyes as vicious as they could be. It didn't amount to much, but her scowl at least—both from the pain and the situation—was evidence enough of her displeasure. "Let him spea—argh!" Blue's cry was laced with anguish as her hoof touched the ground and she eyed the changeling warily before she painfully fluttered up into the air, flying the few metres dangerously unsteadily before she collapsed on the bed. With a sigh, she then finished off with, "Let him speak. Please."

"But Blue!" Coalburst cried, her eyes suddenly wide and pleading. If she had to liken the filly to anything, she would have compared her to a puppy who'd just been kicked. "Just look at him! How can you trust him?"

Blue turned her head groggily and then let it flop down on the mattress; her leg throbbed and burned and screamed with every breath she took. "He hasn't.. hasn't done anything to us," she said slowly whilst she wiped away the tears with a feather. "He hasn't attacked us yet... Why shouldn't he deserve a chance?"

Coalburst rolled her eyes and slunk around the downed pony; her tail flicked and cracked like a whip as she did so. "Well, he reckons he's a hundred year old changeling! I can't count all that well but I still know that's a lot!"

Blue sighed and shuffled around to hang her head over the edge of the mattress, wiping her tears away again, on the duvet this time. "Well, did you let him—ugh—explain? If he can give us an explanation, then..."

Coalburst grumbled a little and hopped back from the changeling so that she now stood nearer to Blue. She then walked a little further away so as to glance in a shattered mirror and inspect her seeping wound when she grunted, "Go on then, liar."

The changeling whimpered a little and its lip pouted before it then said, "My name's Thorax. I was a drone back in Chrysalis' hive before the war."

"Ha!" Coalburst spun around and pointed an accusatory hoof, a grin on her muzzle. "You said you weren't part of Chrysalis' hive!"

Thorax whimpered and scrunched up a little tighter before he began to shuffle backwards slightly. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie, but I... I didn't lie, but I..." Thorax hung his head and took a deep breath before he then said, in a hardly more stable voice, "I left the hive and learnt about friendship, and learnt that changelings... We don't need to steal love to survive! And then I was reformed, and I became like this when I shared my love with my peers. And when they accepted it, they were all reformed too and we began our own, new hive. But Chrysalis... she didn't accept, and she fled with a few others. She started anew, built the hive again and she... Well, that was when she found Sombra's spirit. She helped to create a new body for him, demonic magic and all that. And then... Well, you know. They attacked Equestria and everypony died, or it felt like it, and I was caught in the middle!" Thorax whimpered again and wiped his hoof across his eyes; his tears looked almost like droplets of crystal. "But I survived the war, and most of my new hive did as well. We kept away from the fighting, kept to ourselves up in the Frozen North. It was tough, but we lived—and when we came out of our new hive, we found a mad world.

"That was years and years and years ago now, and ever since then our numbers have dwindled slowly. But we never died of old age; a changeling cannot die of old age. Starvation or injury, yes, but not old age. And that's why I'm still here today, still seeing the horrors of this land and watching every one of my subjects, my brothers and sisters, revert to insanity and die! And I shall perish soon, too, but what is there left? I'm a changeling, and it was tough to make friends before the war... With all the suspicion, it's impossible now."

Coalburst frowned and climbed up onto the bed; her hoof fiddled non-stop with her mane. Before she could speak, however, Blue sat up a little straighter, tears still shining in her eyes, and opened her own mouth. "Well, how do you know if you don't—nngh—try?"

"My species caused this whole mess," Thorax grumbled as he crept further backwards so that only his head was fully visible, everything else partially concealed by the shadows. "Who would trust a creature like me?"

Blue was quiet for a moment before she unfurled her wings slowly and flapped once so as to drift over to Thorax's side. After a quick glance about to check for weapons—she saw none—she then crumpled to the floor next to him, a gasp tore from her throat when she touched her wounded hoof down. "I would," she whispered, a smile on her muzzle. "You haven't done anything wrong, nor did you attack us. Why should I judge you?"

"Wha-huh?" Thorax shuffled away from Blue quickly and frowned before he scratched behind his antlers in puzzlement. "You're pulling my wing."

Blue shook her head quickly and glanced to Coalburst, her eyes narrowed. The filly was quiet for a moment before she then sighed and rose to her hooves, her scowl wide. "Fine. If you don't attack me then I'll... I won't attack you. But I'm not your friend."

Thorax nodded eagerly and rose to his hooves, but not before he lifted Blue onto his back so as to elevate her injured leg. He then pulled the bloodied bandage off—despite the filly's protests—and threw it in the corner. He then trod over to the other side, his eyes wide and ears prickedwhen he came to a halt next to Coalburst, and opened his dresser, rummaging for a few seconds before he pulled out an clean-looking white sock. He then unrolled it and handed it to the filly slowly before he turned to reveal Blue's injured fetlock for her to tie it onto. Once she had done so he then lay her down on the bed and stepped back before he closed his eyes and pushed his weak magic outwards, trembling as he did so; he then shot a beam of yellow towards the wound just as the filly began to retaliate and Blue screamed.

"You—" Coalburst's horn sparked dangerously and Thorax yelped before he fell to the floor and cowered, his hooves over his head; a moment later, just before the filly could attack, Blue pushed her away from the changeling to reveal her hoof, now encased in some sort of yellow gel which solidified rapidly around her entire hoof. The filly's snarl fell away to reveal a confused frown; Thorax only whimpered, his head lowered.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he cried, trembling. "I was only trying to help!"

Blue looked at Coalburst slowly and wrapped a wing around her in a quick embrace; she then opened the other and pushed up into the air, the yellow gel surprisingly heavy, and then floated back to the ground. Her heart thudded in her chest and she felt as if she were about to be sick—but rather than excrutiating pain, her wounded leg merely grumbled a little when it touched down. It was hardly any more sore than her mostly healed shoulder and her nearly better, stitched together flank; in other words, bearable.

"Th-thank you, Thorax," Blue whispered, her mouth open in awe as she touched the hoof down gently. The changeling, upon realising that he was no longer under attack, stood unsteadily and grinned. His legs trembled now and it looked as though his starvation was catching up to him; a moment later, he took a deep breath in and sighed. He then cantered towards Blue and threw his hooves around her armoured body, pulling her into a massive hug. Blue, dangling in midair, merely stuttered, "Th-Thorax! Ouch!"

The changeling yelped and dropped Blue immediately. As he jumped backwards, she came to realise that he wore a massive blush on his cheeks; it was a cute look. He scratched behind his ear before he then said, "I... I really can't say thank you enough!"

"What did I do?" Blue asked as she cocked her head. Thorax guffawed as if it was the most obvious thing ever; in just that moment, he'd regained the sparkle in his eyes.

"Your gratitude!" he said, his mouth open in a grin. "Your gratitude... It gave me love! It gave me food!"

Blue was quiet for a moment before a small smile rose on her muzzle and she giggled a little. As she did so she glanced over to Coalburst; upon realising that the little filly was sat with a scowl, she then rolled her eyes and limped over to her side. She dragged her from the bed with her wing and laughed at the unicorn's dazed expression. A moment later, Coalburst finally gave in and giggled a little too before she sat upright and nudged the yellow gel around Blue's hoof, amazed. She then turned her attention to Thorax and frowned before she gave him a forced grin; he returned the expression much more easily and then returned his attention to his dresser, out of which he levitated something small and round and red.

An apple.

"Here," he said as he levitated it down to Coalburst's and Blue's hooves and ripped the plastic packaging—Univac, of course—from the oh-so-perfect food. "It's not much good for me; it wasn't even grown with love, so I can't get anything out of it."

Coalburst harrumphed and turned away, pointing her muzzle up in the air (though her nostrils were flared at the oh-so-sweet smell). Thorax's expression fell at the sight for a moment before his ears then perked forwards and he took a bite. He looked neither happy nor offput at the taste. "See? Not poisoned."

Coalburst's eyes moved to land on Thorax as he chewed and swallowed his reasonably sized bite; she whimpered as she watched Blue dig in hungrily, who tore large chunks of the pre-war fruit with her teeth. But she kept her willpower and looked away; she fought the delectable aroma until the very last minute. And then, just when Blue was about to eat the last bit, she tore it from her with magic and threw it into her own mouth. She moaned at the taste and licked her lips as she swallowed; when she opened her eyes to see Blue and Thorax's amused grins, she couldn't help the small giggle that she made.