There was a tower. This was a bit troubling, because Sundance couldn't remember a tower when he'd left. Once, in what felt like a lifetime ago, he'd come back home to find a tower missing. What a shock that was. But now, he returned home and there was a tower that he could not recall being there before, and this was more surprising than he could ever manage to put into words. And what a tower it was; it was rather whitish, or maybe a dull greyish colour, and appeared to be made from stone rubble.

It was difficult to make out the details from this distance, but it almost looked as though it were a puzzle, assembled in such a way that each bit of stone somehow seemed to fit together with the others around it. And the size, too. It had to be at least fifteen or maybe even twenty yards tall, it was hard to tell from this distance. Sundance marvelled at it during his approach, mystified by its very existence. He would require a thorough explanation when he landed.

There was also an airship hovering over the barony, a massive naval vessel by the looks of it. An older model, the kind with a hull suspended from the lift nacelle. Something about the old wooden ships appealed to Sundance, but he liked the new monobodied ships with internal lift systems as well. This one was huge though, downright imposing, and he could not help but wonder just how many visitors he had right now. When he landed, there would be a lot to sort out and things might just be a little stressful.

Such was his life now.

It was good to be home.

Quite some crowd had gathered. Perhaps too much of a crowd. Why, he barely had his hooves on the ground and already the mob was closing in. And what a mob it was, a truly tremendous herd of ponies, only some of whom he recognised. This was the risk of leaving and then returning a few days later; things had happened and now he needed to be brought up to speed on the goings on that he'd missed while he was away.

Corduroy appeared quite harried. Not hairy, as one might expect because she was a diamond dog, but harried because it was clear that she'd been hounded. A hounded harried hairy diamond dog was quite a thing, and that thing was whatever Corduroy was right now as Sundance folded his wings and prepared to speak with her. As for the huge herd of ponies that gathered around Sundance, something wasn't quite right with them. Something was off. Whatever it is, it was disturbing, and made him wonder about his new wards' first impression of the barony.

"Alright," Sundance said in a voice loud enough to surprise himself. "Don't crowd me and don't everypony talk to me at once." He paused, because he had to pause; one of the ponies in the crowd just became a griffon right before his very eyes. "I don't want the new kids crowded either, so a bit of space if you don't mind." Spreading his wings, he waved them about to shoo away the encroaching mob. "Corduroy, report. Just the basics. We'll sort out the details later."

"Report," she sighed, and then she reached up to rub her quivery, whiskery jowls. "Well, there's a lot to report, Sundance. We have a new school teacher. Puddle Jumper arrived, and he has papers from Twilight Velvet. He's the jumpiest, twitchiest, most nervous pegasus I've ever seen. One of the screaming owls caused him to rocket skyward this morning. I feared he was lost to space, but he came down. Eventually. I got a cup of that calming tea into him, and he's somewhat okay now. The shaking stopped… at least.

"You have a guest. Doctor Dew. Doctor Honey Dew. She's with Paradox right now. Doctor Dew delivered the changelings that Princess Celestia promised, all forty-nine of them. Most of them are here right now because they're eager to greet their saviour, the pony that was kind enough to take them in. Say hello, fellas."

"Hello," they all said in unison, in one voice, which was the creepiest thing that Sundance had ever witnessed in all of his existence.

"Um, yeah… hi. Look, don't mean to be rude, but priorities. I need to take care of these kids and get them checked in." Then, Sundance squinted up at Corduroy and asked, "What's the deal with the tower?"

"Oh that." The nurse's eyes widened and her jowls quivered as her ears rose. "When the 'lings arrived, it was mentioned that they could be useful to our efforts. I asked for a demonstration. Well…"—Corduroy seemed to struggle for words and both of her paws waved about—"as a hive mind, they analysed every stone in the meadow, sorted out which stone would fit where, and they assembled this tower from the busted stone blocks and rubble from whatever existed here before. I should mention that they did this in five hours, Sundance. It's held together with some sort of biological glue that they produced themselves."

With a turn of his head, Sundance surveyed the tower, and thought about what was said.

"They then told me that if I can provide them with blueprints, they can build me a hospital. Can I have a hospital, Sundance?"

"Maybe later," he replied. "Right now, you can have Gerard, Pluck, Silent Thunder, and Flax. I want them weighed and added to the record. You might want to have a long chat with Gerard. Last night, just before bed, when he and I talked and I told him about you being a nurse, he wanted to know if he could learn from you. You might have a helper. But uh, he's squeamish. So it might be interesting."

"Oh my," Corduroy said as she turned her upper body to face the sky truck. "A helper might be nice."

"—oh, and I probably should have mentioned, Litany arrived," Corduroy said as Sundance allowed the door to shut behind him. "I think that's everything."

"What or who is a Litany?" asked Sundance whilst his wards herded themselves into the corner and Flax whined. Upon hearing the distress in her voice, he felt his heart sink. "It'll be fine, Flax. Remember my promises. Corduroy, do I keep my promises?"

"You work harder than any other pony I know to keep your promises," the nurse replied as she pulled down a heavy log book from a shelf. "If I recall right, a litany is a type of prayer that is recited or sung. But in our case, Litany is a unikey—"

"A what?"

"You'll see. She's uh, very striking… and not just because she has that scary skull mace she hauls around. Litany was sent by Princess Luna to study something. She wouldn't tell me. Which is fine, she's following orders. That weird mare spent most of last night studying the crystal tree."

"Weird mare, you say?"

"Like I said, you'll see soon enough. For the record, I like her. She's one of us. Even if she's one of Princess Luna's." Hunkering down, Corduroy turned her attention to the kids in the corner. "Don't make too much noise. That's Flicker over there. He's recovering. Now, I need to weigh you all, and ask you some very simple questions. Who's brave enough to go first?"

Silent Thunder, the little opportunist that he was, shoved Pluck forward.

"Betrayer!" the betrayed colt muttered.

"Missing eye," Corduroy said, mostly to herself. "Extensive scarring. Musculature suggests a body suited for speed, not strength. We have a runner."

"How'd you know that?" asked Pluck, who looked up at the towering nurse, mystified.

"I'm good at what I do," replied Corduroy.

"What's a scary skull mace look like?" the earth pony colt asked.

"It's some kind of bird skull," the nurse replied as she beckoned the colt to come closer. "Nasty weapon. The beak is pointy and hooked. I'd imagine that it would work like a can opener, except the head of the victim would be the can. Just open it right up and let the insides out."

Pluck gulped, and so did Silent Thunder.

"I have to go." Sundance felt guilty, but he knew that he needed to get on top of things. "Flax, you be good. Trust me, you'll love Corduroy, I promise. Just give her a chance. Pluck, don't give her no sass, or you'll find out what it means to be scrubbed almost to death. Thunder, be charming. Don't be an annoying little cuss, or you'll go right into the bird bath. As for you, Gerard… you're in charge while I'm gone. Keep me informed if there is any sort of misbehaving. All of you will be meeting Hollyhock soon enough."

"You keep putting Captain Barf Buzzard in charge," Pluck whined.

"Show me that you're capable, and I'll put you in charge," said Sundance in return.

Annoyed, Pluck huffed, but had nothing to say.

"Alright, I'm out. I need to get my barony sorted out now that I'm back. Good luck, Nurse Corduroy."

The pony in the bed rolled over, groaned in pain, and then said, "Welcome home, Sundance. Be nice to the bugs. I think you'll find them to be an asset."

Good governance? Good riddance. Sundance thought about his grandmother's old joke and he still didn't fully understand it. The barony was a bustling place at the moment, packed with ponies. Most of whom were not ponies at all. He'd agreed to this though, agreed to this and gave his word to Princess Celestia. Sure, he had some second thoughts, but he was positive that he'd get over this and accept it with time. That was just how he worked, and he knew it.

Lacking a podium, he pronked up onto a rock, slipped on some moss or maybe lichen, almost fell right off in the most majestic manner possible, flapped his wings to keep his balance, decided that the rock was a terrible idea, abandoned the rock, stumbled back down to flat ground, almost slipped on a stone that rolled beneath his right front hoof, recovered his balance, tucked his wings against his sides, and then just stood there hoping that he didn't look at all sheepish, because that would just be awful.

Some distance away, Hoe Hum sat down, balanced herself, and clopped her front hooves together. Beside her, a pony that looked exactly like her in every possible way did the same. Then, Hoe Hum slipped her foreleg over her doppelganger, pulled her look-alike close, and they banged front hooves together in a shared clip-clop clap. Sundance realised that at some point, while he was away, the acceptance part had already happened. Maybe the construction of the tower had wowed them.

Seeing this gave him pause and he took a moment to consider his own feelings. Why the sudden acceptance? Was it the isolation? The desire to have company even if it were strange? Maybe it was the lack of modern media around here. No movies or radio that told them who the bad guys were, who to fear. Well, there was a radio, but it didn't work very well, and Paradox didn't much care for fear-mongering, so those stations weren't listened to. Now, Hoe Hum and her look-alike played some complex clip-clop game and acted just like two fillies.

This place had become Weirdsville, and his mother would not approve.

Mass-hysteria; ponies and changelings living together.

"Alright, alright, let's get this sorted out," Sundance said. "Which one of you is in charge? Who do I speak to so that all of this can be sorted out? Which of you are changelings? Right now, I am not even sure who the real Hoe Hum is. Help me out, new friends."

One by one, each of the changelings turned into him. There was suddenly a whole lot of Sundances, an army of Sundances and he found himself looking at himself. The swarm began to gather and Sundance suffered something of a miniature existential crisis because he was no longer the unique creature that he was, but part of a collective that all looked the same. He was a clone now, a copy, and even though he was the original, he found no pleasure in that fact. Just another look-alike face in the crowd.

"Don't be silly."

Ears pricked tall, Sundance's head whipped around to see who had spoke. What he saw was jaw-dropping. A pony, though not a pony. She was a plant pony and she had a twiggy wooden horn. Her hide was mossy green, and her mane consisted of foliage. This creature was as weird as she was beautiful, and she was incredibly beautiful in her own way.

"Doctor Dew," she said, introducing herself. "Before we begin, I wanted to thank you for taking in my brood. They're quite playful, as you can see. They mean no harm. Consider it flattery. Simulacra, you are needed. Where are you?"

One of the many Sundances came forward and presented themselves. "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."

"Come… let us find a private place so that we might converse. There is much to talk about. So much to say. Come… come… Simulation, do keep the others mostly behaved."

Another smiling Sundance nodded, just one among the many.

Things were about to get strange—but at least strange wasn't boring.

Author's Notes:

Doctor Honey Dew:

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/336021/together-they-fight-crime