Max woke in the early morning, a warmth on his chest as well as the emotions said warmth radiated making him grin. The two large beings were sharing a tent( Luna wouldn't even consider any other possibility) and it had helped Max keep warm. The nights were still slightly cool, and having a warm-blooded body to snuggle with kept away most of the chill.

That and he'd begun to enjoy her scent overall. It was a slight modification to his biology, one he'd not really noticed amidst all of the more prominent changes. Ponies in general smelled 'good' but Luna smelled amazing. The normally less than appealing scent of sweat, her hair, her blankets and pillows, a sniff of any of them perked him up. He breathed it in, taking in the aroma that was Luna...and frowned, looking down to his chest. It wasn't a mischievous pair of eyes that greeted him though. Instead, with his changeling vision, he could see a gleam of moisture in the darkness of the tent. A gleam that followed a teardrop pattern he was intimately familiar with.

"Luna, as fun as this would be, were in the middle of the camp and less than a day from our destination. If we end up doing it here we'll be walking into Copper Road Keep smelling of sex."

The alicorn groaned in irritation, looking over her back to him with a pout.

"What if we keep it clean? I won't let any make a mess and-"

"And I am physically incapable of keeping this end of you clean," Max sighed, watching as her nethers winked. "You leak like a faucet when you get going. Even if I were to use shape shifting to get some sort of seal between my lips and yours I don't know if I would be able to take it all."

"That's actually kind of weird. How do you get so wet? I would think it physically impossible to produce that much without becoming dehydrated."

Luna's ears fell flat and she sat up, smearing what little arousal she'd worked up onto his chest.

"Fine. Fine, we'll wait until later. I swear to you, Maximus, that this week of travel shall be reimbursed once we return home. Why must we worry about such things? Did you not spend hours telling Tia and I that we should relax and be ourselves?"

"First impressions," he answered, sleepily rubbing a hoof against his eyes. "I don't care what you do at home but this is a public appearance. What they see, and smell, will impact how they treat you in the future. As such not only will we be avoiding sex for the day, but I want you to make sure you clean yourself up thoroughly. There's a river coming up and while it's not the best choice, we should be able to rinse off most of the sweat and grime from our trip."

"This isn't just the four of us having dinner and shooting the breeze, chatting about whatever crosses our mind. As much as I think it's important to relax, it's also important to be able to pull your pants up and sit up straight when talking to those with authority. Even if it matches your own."

"You know the river will be cold, correct?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I know. It will suck, but you only get once shot at a first impression. I'd have suggested perfume of some sort but I could't find any in the Keep. Just your shampoos. I suggest you use one. Preferably one with a powerful smell to it."
Max rolled over and lifted himself up, grabbing a towel to clean himself off.

"I gotta wonder if I'm having some sort of effect on you. It's either that or alicorns are horny as hell."

"We are equipped with larger ones than unicorns, yes," Luna said, gesturing to the protrusion from her forehead. At Max's stare she giggled, shoulder-checking him as she walked to the entrance of the tent.

"I jest. Come, let us see this trip finished."

An hour later and the caravan was sitting near a slow-flowing river. The water was crisp and cool, and Max would swear he'd not often seen such crystalline water. Unfortunately, some of them were going to be desecrating this water with their filthy bodies.

While a few guards went farther upstream for water and the rest of the group guarded the gear, Max and Luna were cleaning themselves up.

"Alright, I'll wash myself on the shore. If I try to wade in that I'm going to freeze to death."

Luna chuckled, filling a bucket and hitting it with a heating spell before passing it to Max and wading into the water. She shivered a bit, but otherwise seemed unaffected.

"Cool, but not too terrible. I have bathed in worse."

The changeling used his magic to dip the towel into the water and wiped it over his shell.

"I really need to learn magic."

"You have been gifted telekinesis from Crystal, correct? Did you learn nothing else from her?"

"Not really..." Max mumbled, shaking himself a moment later. Wet mares, oh why did he have to behave for the next few hours?

"I can pull a few basic combat spells from her if I needed to but at that point I may as well just let her have the wheel."

Luna ducked under the water and splashed about for a moment before grabbing her soaps from the shore.

"Taking the wheel... I am afraid I don't understand the expression."

"Sorry, it means letting her take control. I mean I know I can look through her eyes and she can use mine, it shouldn't be to difficult to swap out every now and again. May be bad to keep swapped for too long but a quick swap like that shouldn't be bad. Then again, I don't know if that's harder to do than hive communications or not and if it has a more limited range. It's something we should probably mess with later."

Finishing wiping himself down, he looked back to the river just in time to see Luna wading out of the water, using a few spells to dry herself off. She sat down on the shore, spread her wings and smiled.

"Would you get the left?"

It was nearly two hours later at they reached the outside of Copper Road Keep, most of their equipment on the backs of other knights. It was something Max was hard pressed to sell to the blue mare, but it would have been counter-productive to carry a heavy pack and work up a sweat again after a bath.

They were stopped well before the gate and challenged as was expected. What they didn't expect was the arrow that landed near them as they slowed in sight of the Keep. It took a lot of soothing on Max's part to stop Luna from rushing forward and tearing every stone asunder in search of the one who fired at them.

Another few minutes farther back and with a few additional knights, they finally saw a small contingent of ponies trotting out to meet them. This time Max was unable to reel Luna's anger in.

"What was the meaning of that attack?" She barked as the Knights came into range. " we approached this Keep peacefully and made our intentions obvious! Still one of your archers shot at us!"

"You are trespassing," the lead guard said. "Take your pet and leave or we will remove you from our territory."

"We arrived peacefully and intended to make contact with the Lady of the Keep. I-"

"Luna? He's not listening. Don't let him get to you. Get Lady Copper for this. He doesn't give a damn. Though maybe he will when he ends up cleaning out the garderobes for the next ten years."

Seeing he had her attention, he smiled.

"I've been called worse, honestly. We'll find somewhere else to take out business. I don't like the idea, but we could always check out Silverblood Keep."

"Fine. I will not waste my time attempting to find an audience with a pony who cannot tell the difference between an envoy and a night-prowler."

With that Luna turned away and walked back to the rest of the knights. Max looked to the ponies from the keep, seeing and sensing the mixture of boredom and disgust they were focusing on him. He hated the idea that his presence was weakening the position of the two sisters but if the duchess wasn't even willing to consider hosting others at the moment, she was going to be in for a nasty surprise. The diamond dogs were going to be growing alongside these pony cities. The griffons were out there, the minotaurs, the changelings, the dragons, the...seaponies? He was pretty sure most people talked about them as a joke back home but they were a possibility as well. If they were turning away a predominantly pony group based on a single changeling, things were going to get nasty for Lady Copper Road in the coming years.

After returning to the rest of the knights and reclaiming her things, Luna was just giving the order to return home when Max managed to spot a second group approaching the keep from a nearby road. Just as they had noticed this second group though, the second group had spotted them. The group then began trotting towards them. After the last meeting, Luna and the knights were a bit wary of the second group's approach.

"Why don't you go ahead, Luna," Max suggested. "I'll stay back with the rest of the knights and you can speak to them."

"Nay. I shall not allow their ignorance and fear to alter my course," the alicorn responded, using her magic to pull Max along with her. "We greet them together. If they have so little spine, I do not want them as allies."

The group stumbled a bit, a few bursts of fear and worry radiating from the distance as Max and Luna cleared the knights and stood waiting for them but at least one pony in the group was seemingly unaffected by the appearance of the larger beings. A silver-gray pegasus in well-fitted and clean clothes.

"Hail and good afternoon," the leader of the group shouted as he came into hearing distance. "Who do I address?"

"You approach the Knights of the Alicorns, Princesses Celestia and Luna. I am Princess Luna, Alicorn, guardian of the Moon and sealer of the chaos spirit, Discord."

"So you say. Many are the beings who claim to have banished Discord," the stallion challenged.

Luna balked at his retort.

"They what?"

"I've had at several ponies demand rewards for defeating him. Not one had even a fraction of the power it would take," the stallion replied casually. "Two didn't even know what the demon actually looked like."

"That's...not all that surprising, actually. There's nobody to confirm or deny that it was you," Max whispered to her. "It's insulting, but don't think he means anything by it. As long as it's profitable there will be cons and from the sound of it this guy's run into a few."

The mare rustled her wings but otherwise relaxed.

"Right. I understand, my apologies. Celestia and I have only recently been made aware of that side of ponykind. We just removed a group of ponies claiming nobility from our Keep. True or not, they did nothing but steal from us and once we demanded answers for their inaction the proceeded to attempt to steal our actual property, not just our food...we do not need that sort of 'help'."

The stallion chuckled, nodding in agreement.

"Indeed. I think one of those made their way to my own home. Claimed to have been wrongly accused by two mares with egos so large- er, anyway, I must ask. What brings you here? You seemed be looking to make contact, so why do you linger?"

"The guards fired upon us," Luna growled. "We approached and an arrow nearly struck us. Then a small group of guards approached and demanded my 'pet' remain outside."

Max chuckled as he listened, his grin growing when Luna's angry stomp at the reminder of the guards caused the other group's knights to jump slightly. After all, when an alicorn puts her hoof down, everyone feels it.

His amusement earned him the attention of the leader of the group.

"And what, pray tell, is this creature? I hear it speak, but never have I laid eyes upon it's like before. Is it an alicorn as well?"

"Maximus is a changeling. A larger specimen than most, much like how alicorns are larger than ponies. What did you call your type? A Viceroy?"

"Yes. As far as I can tell not even the other changelings have a name for my kind, though they have seen changelings similar to myself. I hate doing this but I'm afraid you have us at a disadvantage, sir."

"Oh, look at me, getting distracted like a foal given a shiny coin. The name's Silver. Duke Silver Blood."

"That..." Max started, not sure what to say at first "is an odd coincidence. We recently received a request for aid from a small town in your land."

"The only one I can think of that would try that would be..." Silver started, his expression turning irritated. "It wasn't Coltson, was it?"

"I'd guess you're not surprised to hear that?" Max asked.

Duke Silver scowled.

"I forbid the settling of that region, actually. It was too far from the roads, with nothing of value out there. If I did set up roads and employed the knights and guards it would require to keep the area secure, it would be coming out of my pocket. Considering how little I'd be getting in return, that would be no small amount. Even the last reports I received from the town said they barely were doing enough to make ends meet.

"Then there's the fact that I've lost a few scouts in that area. I don't trust it. Not the town, nor the forest. Not only did they create that town against my orders and then demand protection, they don't pay any taxes nor do they clear enough of the forest to be safe! They didn't even create a wall!"

"Coltson did petition for aid in repelling some unspecified bandit threat," Max said. "Princess Luna checked it out overnight and found that they are still a wall-less town even now. That and she said she felt as though she was being watched even after not seeing a single pony."

Silver looked to Luna in surprise.

"You were in Coltson? Did you see any sign of ponies that could have been scouts? I have two who are missing."

"I saw nothing. In fact, that is one of the things that disturbed me. The town had no sentries keeping watch even late at night," the alicorn answered. "It was actually at Maximus' request that I explored the area. Celestia and I were about to make our way there to remove the threat with a full contingent of knights. Maximus suggested a more, what did you call it? A tactical approach?"

"My first thought was it was an attempt to ensnare these two in hostilities with your own forces. They want to help others, even if the ponies are under another's rule. When Princess Luna told me of the town's complete lack of anything for defense I started worrying it may be something deeper. The entire thing smells of a trap, though I don't know who or what the trap was set for."

"The fate of a town that foolishly believes itself too important to need walls isn't why we are here though. We are attempting to learn about the local powers as well as initiate a possible trade deal, both on our behalf and the behalf of an ally."

"Well, this is...should be an excellent place to do so. I was just coming to visit Lady Copper myself. She's normally an excellent host who loves meeting new ponies. Also serves a wonderful brew of tea."

Silver looked to Max with a grin.

"And new anythings, to be honest. I don't see why there would have been an issue. I shall see if there's a deeper reason for your problems at the gate."

With that the Pegasus stallion left them to approach the Keep. Max watched him go, a confused expression on his face.

"That went nothing like I expected after what the two of you told me of him."

"I must agree. He was much more level headed than I was lead to believe."

Looking from the Pegasus to Max, Luna's frown deepened.

"You do not believe those nobles were attempting to pre-emptively sabotage any diplomatic attempts, do you?"

"It's possible," the changeling said, letting loose an irritated sigh. "It's also possible that the nobles who were speaking about him had prior interactions with him and they didn't enjoy speaking to him. I don't doubt some of them would lie about how horrible he was just to tweak his nose."

Luna nodded, watching as Duke Silverblood and his entourage approached the keep. The group didn't bother stopping a distance as Luna and Max had as they were already known. The sentries on the wall noticed the group and...

Max really didn't have time to think. He'd barely gotten Luna's name out when the alicorn ignited her horn and teleported herself right beside the duke and his knights, throwing up a shield around herself in an attempt to protect the ponies even as the sentries rained arrows down from above. The alicorn kept her shield up as the smaller group retreated, two of the knights dragging away allies with arrows lodged in their bodies.

"Prepare to receive wounded, drop those liters and get ready to move them the moment they're close enough to set down. Once we can, we move them farther away. The keep is considered hostile!"

"How are they?" Max asked, moving past her and watching as the knights tended to the wounded. Silver wasn't among them, but the spray of blood on his otherwise pristine form told the changeling just how close the attack had come to ending him.

"I-I don't understand. Copper was always tolerant of others, she never sought to expand, she never, I mean I just don't see how this could have happened and it just doesn't make sense. She was always so kind to me. We were going to have tea like we usually do and-"

Pulling the slightly frazzled alicorn from the group, Max used his hooves to cup her face.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied, smiling at his display of concern. "I am only confused. This makes no sense. Why would they fire on a friend?"

"I can think of several reasons off the top of my head. The first being a change in management."

"A change in what?"

"What if Lady Copper isn't in charge of the keep?"

Luna's eyes widened and she looked back to the keep, her mouth hanging open.

"You think...you believe it is possible the keep fell?"

"It's only one possibility of many, but it explains the reaction to Silver. We'd know instantly if something happened back home and Celestia was removed from the keep. Silver there isn't so lucky. For others it could be days, weeks, months, maybe even years before they find out about a change like this. Having access to the changeling link gives you and your lands an advantage Earth didn't see until the nineteenth century. If she suddenly caught a bad disease or was killed in an accident and nobody sent out information on it, you wouldn't hear anything for years."

Luna looked over the keep once more before shifting her wings.

"So you think something has happened to Lady Copper?"

"Possible. It's the only sensible reason I can think of, at least. Silver doesn't seem to have an over-inflated ego. Not enough to dismiss someone's anger at him at least. He also seemed genuinely surprised we weren't well received."

Joining Luna in her observations, Max grinned.

"I could look tonight."

The alicorn mare looked to Silver before looking back to the distant keep with a scowl.

"I do not like it. I could do this as well, Maximus, and I can teleport out if things become too harrowing."

"I'll be careful, I promise," he said, leaning closer and planting a quick kiss on her cheek. "Besides, we need someone to watch the little guys out here and I don't think I'm up for that. Heck, you can start to escort Silver home tonight or tomorrow morning and I'll be able to just follow you based on your emotions. I can follow those easily, and from quite a distance. I could still feel you for a long while after you left."

"I'll even be going out of my way to not be seen, not to mention I can use disguises. I can walk on walls, disguise myself, I think I can even make myself a bit transparent. Crystal managed it a while ago. That would be better than an invisibility spell I think, especially in the dark."

"Very well. We'll pull back about a day's travel so we're not in range of the castle's patrols and you're going to get some sleep. You will have every possible advantage I can give you."

"Awesome, I've always wanted to be a spy," the stallion chuckled as they walked back to the rest of the knights and guards. "I'll ask Silver if he knows where Copper's room is, then I'll check the dungeons. I'll even know if there's anyone present before I walk in."

"Duke Silverblood," Max called out, drawing the shaken pegasus out of his mumblings. "I have questions about the keep. With your help, we'd like to see if we can learn the fate of Lady Copper Road."

Max slowly approached the Keep under the cover of both the nearby forests as well as the low sun. His shell was currently a brown and green mottled mixture to help break up his color and profile. He crept through the taller grasses, watching for any movement on the keeps walls as well as any pegasus sentries. It was thrilling and nerve wracking at the same time, but for some reason the keep didn't seem to use pegasus scouts.

'Incredibly stupid,' Crystal mumbled, watching through his eyes. 'Pegasus would have been an excellent choice. They have better vision than unicorns and earth ponies. Even if they were just sitting on the battlements they would be an excellent sentry.'

'Are you truly surprised when the sentries fired on two targets like that? Both looking to make contact?' Seven responded, also watching. 'The patrols are poorly planned, the shifts too long for the stationary ones, and the torches they are lighting will only inhibit the night vision of their sentries. I have not seen a single patrol outside of the keep, either. Whoever is seeing to these sentries should be executed for incompetence.'

'Well for now their incompetence plays to our advantage,' Max said, slowly moving again now that the only sentries he could see were moving away.

It took a good bit of time, constantly slowing or stopping, altering his coloration as he walked closer to keep blended in, even resting for a little behind a large rock to allow his muscles to rest. The constant tension of moving slowly and quietly was actually kind of exhausting. if it wasn't for the fact that he was capable of burning a bit of love energy to refresh himself, he may not have even gotten that far before the sun finally set and the moon rose into the sky.

Looking around the rock to the keep, now only a few minutes away at a trot, Max felt a grin creep onto his face. The wall wouldn't stop him and he could already taste the varying emotions of the ponies inside the keep. It was just a matter of-

'Interesting, your vision is a little better than my own.'

'Luna? What are- you're with Crystal and Seven in the dream-side of the hive, aren't you?'

'Indeed. it seemed a good idea. At the very least, I will know if anything occurs or I am needed.'

Max nodded, grinning.

'Good to know such a beautiful mare has my back. If I find Lady Copper and this is what I think, I might appreciate a distraction.'

'Just be careful, idiot,' Crystal chided playfully. 'Seven and I both would suffer should something happen to you.'

The stallion rolled his eyes.

'Psh, careful's my middle name.'

'There's a pony there, stop.'

'Is there anyone in that room?'

'Did you change your coloration? This isn't the woods anymore.'

Max felt an eye twitch.

'What was that?

Did you see something?'

'I thought cars had to be invented before backseat driving became a thing,' Max thought to the three mares, earning a bit of confusion before he felt Crystal give a mental pull. He sent the idea of a car, as well as his mother doing exactly what these three were. There were some muffled conversations, the distance meaning thoughts did have to be focused on someone to reach him. Then the giggling began.

'God I'm going to have a headache after all of this.'

Scaling the wall had been relatively easy. With no external patrols, he'd slipped up the wall with ease and then over the wall while the patrols were focused elsewhere. At Seven's suggestion, he'd climbed the wall near the main keep, so it was barely a hop across the way to latch onto the walls of the main building. He'd then found a small window, used a scanning spell provided by Luna and translated by the other queens to check the lock, then popped it open with a burst of green energy.

Now he was playing AVP again, walking along the ceiling and watching for any and all activity. The halls were pretty empty, actually. Even Luna and Celestia's keep had patrols through it at night. Aside from the walls, there didn't seem to be much going on even this early in the night.

One room he passed by without a second thought, the emotions dull and blurred from sleep. Most others were empty or similar. One though held both a swirl of varying emotions as well as the hushed words of several individuals. Slowing and perking his ears, Max moved as close to the door as he could, crawling down from the ceiling and even using a quick burst of magic to open the door a little.

"-way too early. If they hadn't been so quick the chicken wouldn't have escaped."

"Right. We obviously should have known that the weird pegasus/unicorn thing would step in, even after we chased it and it's bug-pet off."

Max's ears perked. There was no way- that kind of thing only happened in the movies, right? There was no way he'd found a few of the guys in charge just chatting...

Moving closer to the door in an agonizingly slow pace he leaned his head sideways so as to minimize the amount of his face visible through the slightly ajar door.

Four ponies were present in the room. One was a forest green unicorn mare, resting on a nearby sofa while watching the other occupants. Another was an orange earth pony stallion, pacing closer to the door, though his focus was on the second male. The other stallion, a unicorn with black fur and a blue mane was currently on the bed...

'Luna, settle down. I need to know if that's Lady Copper. Wake up and ask Silver. If not, see if he knows who it is.'

"Must you do that while we're here?"

'He's-!'

Max winced as the unicorn forcibly buried himself balls-deep inside the mare that was tied up on the bed, the minimal whimper of pain leaving him to wonder how long the mare had been subjected to this abuse.

'If you attempt to free her you will not only put Max in danger, you will forfeit this infiltration and possibly any chance of finding Lady Copper,' Crystal argued against her.

'She's experienced this treatment before,' Seven added with disinterest. 'The pain she's experiencing is dulled. It is unlikely he'll kill her. You can recover her later.'

'Give me the word and I'll talk to Celestia,' Crystal suggested instead. 'Have her send a full military force. Hell, have her come as well. Or I can lead them here. Do not attempt to take this Keep without information, though. Not when you have an infiltration going on. Attacking during an infiltration is the best way to get the infiltrator killed.'

As the unicorn settled into a...hearty pace, Max winced at the emotions being given off. Despair wasn't something he was used to. Coupled with the stallion's pleasure it left him feeling a little nauseous.

"I told you plots to tell me about this, shit at dinner," the unicorn growled as he rutted the mare. "If you want to, talk to me on, my time you deal with it."

"I don't see what the big deal is. So one fancy got away. There are others. You think that guy was the only one who talked to the nag?"

"That's the problem!" the earth pony shouted. "He goes and warns his buddies and suddenly the rest stop coming. We lose the easy catches, and we have nothin' to help us get into the other keeps."

"We have enough here to keep us fat and happy for at least two years," the mare retorted. "What good's loot if you don't enjoy it?"

"The window for this kind of opportunity is only open for a little bit. If we hit these other guys early, we walk away with more. If we sit on our flanks, what we have is all we'll get. Do you think every time we turn around there will be some snob with such an inflated ego they'll 'hire' us to get them their own castle?"

The unicorn on the bed began huffing a bit before he glowed with pleasure. A moment later and he was sighing, pulling out and shoving the used mare off of the bed before looking to his fellows with irritation.

"The stallion from earlier is gone. You can talk to the rest of the group about waiting longer later, but keep in mind that the freak is gone. The next target won't have an escape."

Max pulled back and shuffled back up to the ceiling as the other two began filing out of the room.

'Silver said it sounds like one of the serving mares,' Luna suddenly said, causing Max to tense. 'Crystal is already talking to Tia about removing this threat. I'm going to make sure Silver gets to safety before they arrive and give him the option to help in this. As it's a friend of his, he will likely wish to be involved. I still don't know how I didn't realize-'

'Don't give me that,' Max thought, rolling his eyes. 'Silver's been here many times and didn't know something was up before they started shooting at him. They slipped in and took the place without anyone noticing. From the sounds of it, they had help as well. Likely someone to open the gate to let them storm the Keep. Hit them at night before the alarm can be raised and you could possibly take it without a peep.'

'In either case, I believe the next step would be to check the dungeons. Are you comfortable doing so?'

'Sure,' he casually replied, slipping into and empty room and looking out an open window. 'That it?'

He felt Luna and Seven watch for a moment before the alicorn answered.
'It is. The layout is fairly simple, i-'

'Oh for pities sake,' Seven muttered in exhasperation. 'this could be much simpler. Let me-there!'

Max blinked, suddenly feeling the general layout of the prison, or at least a description of it, being pushed towards him. It wasn't comfortable but he accepted the information, feeling knowledge of the halls and passageways filing into his brain.
'Thanks Seven. I'll be sure to pay you for this.'

The smaller queen snorted over the link.
'You can start by returning and helping undo this damage you've caused.'

'Not going to argue that I didn't do anything?'

'I'm stubborn, not stupid. Between the...seizure? Between that and the discussion I had with the white female, I know something's wrong. I would prefer having my oath-bound sisters help me, but until I can reconnect with them, I have to deal with you...'

Max landed lightly on the ground beside the door to the dungeons, opening it and slipping inside since he couldn't sense any minds nearby.
'You don't know if their coming. If they're looking for you.'

The observation was met with silence, so Max decided to not push any more. Instead he focused on the fortress he was walking though. He paused, once more allowing his shell to ripple with magic as he altered his colors to better blend in with the surrounding stone. He also used a darker color in general, taking the lack of light into consideration. The first outpost was devoid of activity, only two smears of dried blood giving testimony to any previous struggles. Deeper inside and in a second outpost there was a mare on watch. And by on watch, she was currently watching the inside of her eyelids, snoring loudly as she hugged an empty mug. Beside her was another mare, this one staring sleepily towards a flickering torch on the wall. Which left her staring in the direct opposite way as the path Max found himself taking.

Still deeper he walked, checking several sections of the cells and finding several prisoners in various states of neglect. Like the previous areas though, there was almost no security. Picking a random stallion, Max moved closer and shoved him awake with a burst of magic.

The male's reaction was completely justified. He looked up, still in a sleepy haze, only to see slit pupils staring at him from the darkness, attached to a creature half-again his size. Still, as funny as the panic was to Max, it wouldn't do for the jailed servant to bring the guards.

"The guards are sleeping or staring at a wall," the changeling whispered through the bars before the pony could work himself into a proper panic. "If you make a racket, I can't help you."

"I am uncertain I desire your kind of aid, demon."

"Ouch, a demon now? First a bug-thing, then a pet, now a demon," Max chuckled, causing the pony to recoil at the sight of the larger creature's fangs. "I'm looking to learn what happened here and don't feel that I will get a good answer from the current, eh, occupants of this Keep. Considering they fire on visitors and rape the serving staff, I'm fairly certain this is a new thing.
"In addition, princesses Luna and Celestia, as well as Duke Silverblood I believe, are interested in removing this threat to both themselves as well as the common people. All I'm here to do is find out the how's and why's, and maybe find out what happened to Copper Road."

"That's Lady Copper Road, you uncultured-"

"It's alright, Clean." A fatigued but cultured voice called out. "I'm over here, creature."

The cells were shuffling with activity now, many of the captives awake after Clean's outburst. It was possible it had been the first thing to occur down here since Copepr Road Keep was taken.
Moving to the cell he'd heard the voice from, Max smiled as he came across the form of Copper Road. She was a little worse for wear, a little thin like the rest of the prisoners and her clothes were filthy, but she stared at him with enough fire to melt ice.

"Good, I was beginning to worry. There were plenty of stories back home of nobles being executed or worse upon capture by the sorts I was seeing upstairs. Do you know how this happened?"

The mare looked at him judgingly before shaking her head in irritation.

"A small group of ponies arrived a few days ago. They claimed nobility, so I allowed them entry and invited them to dinner. They wove some tale of being wrongfully exiled by some...you wouldn't have exiled ponies, would you? Now that I see you, I admit you do appear rather terrifying. They described a creature much like yourself as the reason for their wrongful removal from their home. A monster black as night with a soul to match, whose eyes gleamed with malicious intent. His horn as crooked as the lies he spun..."

"I didn't exile anyone," Max said, his eyes shining with a bit of mirth. Those descriptions were straight out of a folk-tale. "What I did was warn two lovely mares that they were being cheated. Princesses Luna and Celestia were getting the run-around while the ponies claiming nobility were eating all of their food. At the same time though, these ponies hadn't even overseen the installation of a well outside the Keep. They kept telling the princesses that things were "proceeding apace" or that "everything was under control". In the two years they helped the princesses though, nothing was done. Only endless courts and empty words. I suggested going out and taking a look for themselves and, well, let's just say it's hard to not notice something as simple as the lack of a well. Or walls, or the fact that the ponies outside had been setting up huts all over the place."

Max chuckled.

"I take it some of them came here?"

"Some of their mares at arms were bandits in disguise. Actually, I believe that all of their mares at arms were bandits. Being inside the gate, the ponies easily ambushed the gate-keepers while others started a fire inside the Keep. It prevented us from noticing them until it was too late. The next thing I know my Keep is over-run."

"And the nobles who betrayed you?" Max asked.

"Dead," Copper replied coldly. "At the very least I won't have to concern myself with them. They began making demands of the bandits, saying the Keep should belong to them. The bandits executed them."

Max nodded and closed his eyes.

'What do you ladies think?'

Crystal's response was immediate.

'Celestia and I are already making plans. I shall arrive with about half of our forces in two days.'

'I will be giving this information to Silverblood,' Luna said. 'I'm certain he will have his own warriors he will wish to bring to bear. Is there any way to evacuate the staff?'

'Maybe a tunnel from the dungeons. There are a lot of them. I don't think I can move them all without being seen. Not fast enough to get everyone out. I also don't dig as fast as...Crystal, is that drone still with the dogs?' Max asked after a moment of thought.

'I believe so, why?'

Luna began giggling a moment later, having caught on.

'An excellent idea. I whole-heartedly approve.'

'Right. Now I just need some way to keep these guys alive for a few more days.'
"Do the thieves give you food and water?"

"Very little," Copper answered, looking at him curiously. "It's supposed to keep us weak, but several of my ponies are-"

"I understand. Let me see if I can..."
'Is it possible to replace a guard? As a guard I can bring them extra food and water.'

Luna wasn't pleased at all.
'That's extremely dangerous, Max.'

'He'll be gone with the ponies if the dogs agree to help,' Crystal said.

After a moment of silence, Seven stepped forward.
'This is rediculous. I don't know what you expected to do without me.'

Seven began pushing Max aside, asking for control of his form until he mentally 'stepped back'. The mare than moved back up the stairs to the guards. The one who was sleeping she ignored, instead slowly reaching his jaws around the neck of the mare who was still staring at the torch. A quick snap of his jaws followed by a barely audible squeak of terror and the guard was out from a large dose of venom, being quietly dragged back down the stairs to an empty cell. There Seven began weaving a few spells even as she used adhesive to bind the pony to the ceiling of the cell. Instantly Max felt information start to flow. Her name, Slippery Sand. Her friends amongst the bandits. Her past, her attitude, her fears.

'I...I had no idea a changeling could-' Luna began, having been close enough to pick up on what was occurring.

'Most can't. A queen with the proper spells can, but it takes energy. More than I usually care to burn. If you need me to, I can even play the part. I'm uncertain how you are with societal infiltrations, Maximus, but for this you will need to BE this mare.

Max mentally nodded, feeling his mind getting fully pushed from his body followed by a weird pulling sensation. When he snapped back into full consciousness, he was in a large bed. Crystal was beside him and...

"Oh wow, that was weird."

Max stood up, his legs a little unsteady as he looked around the room he was in. He stepped off of the bed, looking in the mirror nearby to get a better view of himself.

Well, herself.

"Changelings are weird as hell."