Lyra yawned from her quilted bed and blew out her reading lamp. She had been reading for several hours past the time she should have gone to bed, and knew that she was going to regret it in the morning, but in her opinion, it was worth it! Just as Rainbow Dash was addicted to the adventure, mystery, and action-filled Daring Do series, so too was she addicted to a story series of her own: the Icarna series. It was this series that had captured her affection for literature more than six years ago, and the author was still going on strong, churning a new book out of her head almost without fail every year.

The Icarna series was centered around a fictional race of creatures from an ancient myth living on a large island out somewhere in the world's ocean that walked on two legs rather than four, and where their front hoofs should been instead there was an odd appendage similar in shape to that of a Gryphon or Dragon, except they lacked claws or scales and instead of talons they had 'fingernails' which though they could be used for fighting, were not really good for it.

They had no tails, had a limited color-spectrum for their skin, which either lacked fur entirely or had very little save for their mane, referred to as 'hair', and could not use magic, nor fly without use of a machine or balloon of some type.

Squashing the urge to release a foalish fanfilly squeal at the end of the escape scene she'd stopped at as well as the urge to keep on reading Lyra sighed and set the book down on the dresser next to her bed and pulled sheet that she normally used as a covering up to her chin. First breakfast, then work, then come home, then MORE ICARNA! She kicked her back hoofs excitedly and then closed her eyes and began trying to relax her mind.

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Meanwhile, outside her window a pair of green eyes lacking pupils watched her silently, clinging to the wall next to her window as easily as a spider. The eyes were attached to a creature with a black chitinous body with a pair of wings resembling a dragonfly's. This creature was another mythical being, only far more real than the ones in Lyra's book, as Ponykind had recently discovered the hard way. This creature was a Changeling, and it had just finished gorging itself on the positive emotions radiating out from the minty Pony dozing off in the bedroom on the second floor.

Had it been permitted to do so, the energy it had just gained would sustain it for three days and nights. Unfortunately it was not just it alone. There was never truly any 'being alone' in a Changeling hive. Even if you were the only Changeling or living creature within a fifty miles, so long as you were within one hundred and ten miles of the queen or another Changeling of the same breed you could always feel a presence in the back of your mind. This Changeling was within that distance, and it could sense the rest of its retrieval group nearby.

This one would return to the group and divide the energy it had gathered amongst the others, as surely as they all would. Once they all were level on their energy stores, they would return to the Hive, and give half of it to their queen, and the next day go out and do it again.

The Changeling let go of the window and began quietly buzzing its way back to their meeting place outside of the town.

Gathering sustenance this way might not always be as efficient as taking it directly, but it made for an easier escape should they be discovered, and there was already one of their hive inside the house concealing itself as the minty-Pony's house co-owner. She fed off her during the day, and then the Changeling that we are now following along with would come during the later hours when Lyra was reading and feed off her then.

But their hive was careful, and rather than steal love as another hive had done (and they paid for it when their queen became greedy), the green-eyed drones were only sent instead to collect what emanated from their targets like a flower taking in the sun's light. In this manner, they avoided detection from both the Ponyfolk and from other hives, and got all the food they needed with little risk.

The returning Changeling reached the meeting place first, and sat down on a large and still-warm flat stone to wait. With its task being complete, it now had a few moments alone to itself. Or rather, as close to alone as a Changeling could get. It turned its multifaceted eyes to the sky, taking in a few dozen images of the same thing: the crescent moon, hundreds of stars, a few stray clouds, and for a brief moment, a shooting star that streaked across the sky for two and a half seconds, and then was gone.

It knew what the shooting star really was, of course. Every member of 'his' hive did due to a few of them having impersonated a local star-gazer or two at one time or other. Their transformations did not grant full knowledge of the being they impersonated, but there were enough 'memory echoes', as their queen called them, to be able to piece together the language over time, and then read what was written in books and such.

The Changeling ceased gazing at the sky as a buzzing sound he knew all too well reached what was their equivalent of ears and stood once more, not bothering to look in the direction it was coming from. On 'his' left landed another of his group, followed shortly by two more, and lastly, a younger Changeling that had only recently grown its wings. It was still rather small, and often took to replacing some of the young in the town they'd been assigned to.

Sustenance sharing began immediately, with each of them having a mist the same color as the night sky extending from each of them and meeting in the middle of them. The mist continued to gather in the center until all five of them were left feeling weak, and then five streams extended from the mist mass in the middle and flowed back to them until once more the space between them was empty and they all ceased feeling pangs of hunger and the weakness in their bodies faded .They turned as one and left the ground, heading north-east to where their hive had been burrowed into a small hill.

Being collectors rather than thieves also meant that their hive was rather small in comparison to the four of the five others, but of the five others, one had been decimated by a tropical storm that had flooded out their burrow, a second (and the largest of them) had tried to conquer Equestria and was defeated, leaving them weakened, and being the reason that their race needed to be more cautious. The other three were located in other parts of the world, with one in Gryphon lands, one lived in a desert, and the last on the other side of the ocean, the last one being the largest with a population as large as Manehatten given that there was no competition on their feeding grounds, and the locals of that continent knew of them already and had decided they had more to gain by allowing them to stay than trying to kick them out or exterminate them.

Their group landed five hours later and entered their hive, making their way directly to their queen, who was currently hanging several egg sacs from the ceiling. When they arrived they stood and waited for several minutes before she was done, and then approached her and knelt. She nodded and took their daily offering, and then dismissed them.

They were worker drones, and so they worked. This was their job, this was their life. When their job was complete they would be allowed to rest or pass along their knowledge and experiences to the others. It had always been this way, and as far as any of them knew, always would be.

The Changeling that had been masquerading as Bonbon however needed to leave and return to Ponyville immediately in case the co-owner of the house should awaken and notice her friend's absence. The journey back was uneventful, and in short order 'Bonbon' was once again snuggled beneath her bed covers and sleeping soundly.

Her collection team would not return until the following night, and Lyra would performing at a local diner in the morning, which meant that, for a time, she would have the house all to herself.