The changeling known as Spot lay on his back on Angel's bed, his forelegs curled up to his chest as his back legs kicked lazily. Angel had darted out of the house screaming about Discord about an hour ago, leaving her "dog" behind to fend for himself. Spot had spent most of that time curiously going through Angel's things, many of which he didn't recognize, and raiding the small fridge. He was now just waiting around for Angel to return, trying not to aggravate his still healing wings.

He winced as he sat up, turning his head to look at the tattered shreds that hung limply off of his back. Changelings could recover from most any injury, but only in their natural form or if their chosen transformation possessed a similar body structure to them. His Golden Retriever form had allowed his body to mostly recover, but it left his wings untended. He sighed, laying down on his stomach and wishing he'd had enough power to transform into a pegasus when he'd been discovered. It would have been harder for him to hide, but at least he wouldn't have had to keep sneaking healing sessions in his natural form. As it stood, he was at risk of being caught every time he reverted back.

"Just a few weeks," he muttered to himself. "A few more weeks of recovery and I should be healed enough to get the heck out of here. Maybe head down to Appleoosa. I'm sure someone down there could use a good dog or some-"

*BANG*

"CHANGELING!"

Spot shrieked, leaping to his hooves. Unfortunately, the edge of one of his holes caught on the blanket, pulling it out from under him and sending him tumbling off the bed. He looked up from his tangle of blankets and pain to see Angel standing in the doorway, a finger pointed straight at him and a triumphant grin on her face. Caught and unable to make a quick escape, Spot said the first thing that came to mind.

"HUMAN!"

Not his finest moment.

"Indeed," said Angel, stepping in and closing the door behind her. "Human. Which is why I haven't led an angry mob here." She walked over to the bed, turning and leaping backward onto it, letting out a sigh as she relaxed. "I've read enough fanfics to not judge a changeling by his cover," she said, placing her hands behind her head. "Or in your case, lack of cover. Dissy told me you've been a ling this whole time, so I figured you would have killed me in my sleep by now if you wanted to hurt me." She reached into her pocket, pulling out a couple of cookies. "Chocolate with cookie chips, or a giant raisin with oatmeal and cookie chunks?"

"Um..." Spot eyed the two "cookies" warily, slowly getting to his hooves. "Neither?"

Angel shrugged, tossing the raisin aside and taking the bite of the chocolate. "Hm, tastes like bacon." She shrugged again before taking another bite.

"So," she said, sitting up as she finished, "what's the deal?"

"The deal?" Spot asked, freezing from where he'd been inching towards the door.

Angel rolled her eyes. "You know, your story? Why you're in Ponyville? Why you were so hurt? How you're going to keep getting love from me?"

"Um, well I've been in Ponyville for years, but- Wait, WHAT?!" Spot stepped back, eyes widening in fear. "Y-you know that I was- that I've been-" He swallowed nervously, hunching his shoulders and bowing his head as he squeezed his eyes shut. "P-please don't kill me! I-I was desperate, and week, and I would have died if I hadn't had something to eat! A-and your affection was just so delicious, I- I-" He paused as he felt Angel's hand on his head. He opened one eye, slowly tilting his head to look up at her.

Angel smiled down at him, her eyes soft and comforting. "You really aren't like the ones from the show, are you?" Her hand moved to the back of one of his ear frills, scratching there and making Spot moan as he leaned into the touch. His eyes snapped open and he jerked away, blushing even through his chitin as Angel giggled.

"S-s-so, um, ahem," Spot stumbled over his words as he tried to regain a shred of his dignity, "y-you aren't mad, then?"

"I was at first," Angel admitted, sitting down in front of him, legs crossed in front of her. "Discord told me back in Canterlot. I was furious when I thought of how you'd been tricking me for days, probably leeching off of my emotions." Spot winced. "But then I remembered how hurt Fluttershy said you were. She told me that if you'd been left alone for another day or so, you wouldn't have made it." Angel leaned to the side, getting a look at Spot's wings. "And it looks like you've still got a ways to go."

Spot nodded, scuffing the floor with a hoof. "Y-yeah. My wings can only heal if I have them out, even if they're transformed into bird or pegasus wings. But since dogs are land-bound..."

Angel nodded. "I see. Anyway, I got really worried after that. I thought that maybe someone had attacked you while you were a dog, and I got really angry again. But then I thought about if someone had seen you as a changeling. Were you doing something wrong, or did they just attack?"

"The latter," Spot said firmly. "I've been in Ponyville for twelve years without causing trouble. Haven't even had contact with the hive since I ran away twenty years ago."

Angel smiled. Glad to see some confidence coming back. "I figured as much. If you were some sort of troublemaker, you wouldn't have been so well-behaved these past few days. Not to mention being right next to me while I was sleeping." She hesitated before asking, "On that note, you are a male, right? You didn't just choose that for your transformation?"

Spot chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Yes, I am. Don't worry, I can get another bed if that's uncomfortable for you. I know how ponies feel about males and females sharing a bed." He raised an eyebrow, smirking. "And Twilight Sparkle and I are both intimitely aware of your species' obsession with sex."

Angel blushed furiously, looking away. "N-NO! I mean, it's not- I wasn't thinking about- STOP LAUGHING!!!"

But Spot wasn't listening. He rolled onto his back, legs kicking in the air as he laughed uncontrollably. Angel pouted and glared to the side, arms crossed and face flushed. "I'm never going to live that down, am I?" she muttered.

"Not, snrk, not likely," Spot snorted out, beginning to recover himself. he rolled onto his stomach, turning to face her. "So," he said with a smirk, "you were saying how you realized I wasn't a threat because we've been sleeping together?"

I swear, he said it that way on purpose. Angel sighed before continuing. "So yeah, I pretty much worked out that you didn't want to hurt anyone, or at least not me. Figured the best thing to do in that case was to just confront you directly and talk about it."

"By slamming open the door and shouting 'changeling'?"

Angel smirked. "It worked, didn't it? If I'd taken my time coming in, you would have just transformed before the door finished opening." Her smirk fled as her tone grew serious. "So, where do we go from here?"

Spot sighed and shook his head. "Honestly, that's mostly up to you. I doubt you'll be able to feed me affection anymore since you know I'm not just an animal, and I'm going to guess that lust is off the table?"

"Definitely."

"Good." He chuckled at Angel's look of offence. "Nothing against you, but I hate the taste of lust. Too... dirty, I guess. Too much like greed or gluttony. So that leaves only stronger forms of love: friendship, platonic, sibling, parental, juvenile, and romantic."

"Huh. You've really got it down to a science." Angel mulled his words over for a moment. "So, I think it's obvious that romantic, parental, and sibling are out, and I'm guessing that 'juvenile' is like a crush?" At Spot's nod, she continued. "So yeah, that's out too. Er, no offense."

"None taken."

"So that leaves friendship and platonic," Angel concluded, "which I'm guessing is basically a stronger form of friendship."

"Pretty much," Spot agreed. "Unfortunately, the ponies here don't seem to keen on extending the 'magic of friendship' to a changeling."

Angel's eyes flicked to his wings. "You were found out?"

Spot nodded, glaring at the ground. "Yeah. Most ponies either run away or cower in fear. The former I just stay away from, and the latter I'm usually able to explain myself to. But this one..." He shuddered. "She knew what I was, even when disguised. I felt her eyes following me for days before she struck. She attacked me the night you found me. I barely escaped with my life."

"And you hoped that Rainbow would discover you and take you in?" Angel asked.

Spot nodded. "I didn't know that one of the Tyrant's weapons lived there, but yeah, I hoped that whoever the pegasus was, they'd discover me and take pity on me. Take me to the vet, at least. I'd be relatively safe there until I recovered, and then I'd be able to split town before she could strike again."

Angel frowned at his term for Celestia. "The Tyrant?" she asked. "She can't be that bad if Equestria is so peaceful."

Spot snorted, glaring out the window where he could barely make out Mount Canter through the deluge of chocolate rain before the sudden onset of night obscured his view. "Equestria maybe," he muttered, holding his glare, "but at the expense of the rest of the world."

"Discord said something about that," Angel said, leaning forward. "I told him the show was for little girls, and he replied that it must not show outside Equestria much."

"And does it?"

Angel thought for a minute before shaking her head. "Only two, maybe three episodes I can think of. One was a trip to Gryphonstone, another took them to the Dragon Lands. There was one more that took them to 'the edge of Equestria,' but all they found there was a tatzelwurm."

"Well you're lucky then," Spot said, still glaring out in the direction of Canterlot, though his glare broke briefly as the sun jumped into the sky to reveal a few chaise lounges chasing a group of ponies around. "The Gryphon Empire is pretty much as good as it gets outside this country. The Tyrant makes sure that none of it gets in, though. Keeps her subjects from hearing about what goes on beyond their borders, too. Only her secret police know what the rest of us suffer through."

"Secret police?" Angel shook her head, raising an eyebrow at the changeling. "Okay, you've got to be exaggerating now. Celestia doesn't have a deceptive bone in her body. There's no way she could command a secret police."

Spot shrugged. "Oh, it's nothing official," he said, waving her off. "The Tyrant can't even acknowledge them, or she'd have to apprehend them. But trust me, they're there." He spread his wings, taking his gaze from the window to give Angel a pointed gaze. "Trust me; I'd know." He closed his wings again, keeping his eyes on Angel. "They avoid contact with the Tyrant at all costs, but they're the ones who patrol the borders to make sure Equestria stays isolated. It took me three months of careful recon before I was able to sneak in, and even then they have agents in every major city." He glared back out the window, this time at Ponyville. "And around the Tyrant's student too, apparently."

"They have names, you know."

"Hey, I'm not the Pink Menace," Spot protested. "I can't be expected to know the name of every pony in the village."

Angel raised an eyebrow. "Pink Menace?"

Spot chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away. "Okay, so maybe I use nicknames a little more than I should. In my defense, I spend most of my time as an animal. Names don't really matter then."

Angel shrugged. "Fair enough. But, what's the outside world like, then?"

"Never you mind," Spot muttered. "You're better off not knowing." He got up, arching his back until a loud crack split the room. "Oh, that's good," he sighed, plodding over to the bed and hopping on. "Trust me," he said, lying down, "you'll be fine so long as you live out your happy little life here in Equestria. The Tyrant's dogs will keep all the 'bad guys' out and all you'll have to deal with are pretty little ponies. Maybe the odd zebra or gryphon."

"That and the changeling invasions," Angel muttered.

Spot's head shot up, his eyes growing wide. "W-what? Invasion? When?!"

Angel opened her mouth to respond, only to be interrupted as Discord shot out of it. "Finally!" the draconequus screamed as Angel clutched at her throat. I've finally finished with those infernal wings! I swear on my magic, I will NEVER work with code again. I mean, look at me!" He held out a hand, waving it in front of Spot. The hand was transparent, along with much of Discord's body. "I've had to up my chaos out there ten-fold just to keep from fading away!" He crossed his arms, closing his eyes and turning up his nose. "I certainly hope you're happy."

"A-actually," Spot stammered, rising to his hooves and backing away, "I th-think she's dead."

"What?" Discord turned around to see Angel lying on the bed, the light gone from her eyes and a trickle of blood seeping from her mouth. Discord looked up at his horns, finding strips of bloody flesh dangling from them. "Oh dear," he said, plucking the meat from his horns and fiddling with the ribbons of flesh. "My magic usually helps me come up easier. Guess I forgot how little my magic affects her." He shrugged, examining the elaborate bow he'd woven. "Ah well," he said, tieing the bow into Angel's hair. "I suppose it's about time for me to be turned to stone again." He snapped his fingers, summoning Angel's laptop and placing it in front of Spot. "Be a good little bug and give this to her when she wakes up, hm?" With a final snap, he vanished.

Spot looked between the laptop and the macabre sight of Angel lying dead, her hair decorated with a bow made from her own flesh. "This is my life now, isn't it?" He shuddered, nosing the laptop open and holding out a hoof. A flash of green fire turned the appendage into a gryphon's tallon and he quickly typed in Angel's password.

"Now," he muttered, navigating his way to Netflix, "let's see about that invasion."

Author's Notes:

I could NOT get motivated for this chapter. It doesn't help that it's fairly dialogue-heavy. These next few chapters should be more fun as we have Nightmare Night and the Running of the Leaves coming up. Get ready for some royal interaction and some hilarious high-speed deaths. I plan to explore EVERY problem people have EVER pointed out with the physics of super-speed, much to Angel's misfortune.

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