Elu's ears perked up as he woke up to a strange buzzing noise. He blinked a couple of times, rapidly coming to his senses after a reasonably long and peaceful sleep. In just a few moments, he was fully awake, now aware of the odd droning in the background. His ears swiveling, he looked around, trying to find the source of the noise.

The room was just as before Elu went to sleep, everything was where it belonged, and the door to the room was closed just like a few hours ago. Plain Runner was still asleep, lying on her back. Her ears were twitching from time to time as she peacefully dreamed her dreams.

Slightly confused, the colt stood up and made his way to the nearest window, still wondering what the noise was. Climbing onto a nearby chair, he placed his hooves on the windowsill and raised himself to be able to look outside.

His eyes widened as he saw a myriad of black dots high in the sky like a cloud. At first, he thought they were a swarm insects like locust. However, the longer he gazed at the swarm, the more he saw, and it wasn't anything like regular insects. He let out a silent gasp of realization — it was a swarm of changelings.

They flew high above the ground, heading in one direction. Some of them separated from the main group and descended to the village. Suspecting what it might mean, Elu quickly jumped down and rushed to Plain Runner. Mumbling incoherent words loudly, he nudged her, and soon she was awake.

"Mh..." she moaned as she opened her eyes. "What... what is it?"

"Ch-ch..." Elu tried to say as he gestured at the window.

"What? There's nothing there, Elu," the filly looked confused and let put a yawn.

"Ugh!" the colt exclaimed in frustration, dashing back to the windowsill and swiftly climbing on top of it. Then he pointed at the sky. "It! It!"

Still mildly puzzled, the pegasus made her way to the colt and looked out the window. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks as she let out a gasp of fear. Her ears drooped, and after a moment, she started to look around frantically, trying to figure out what to do.

Meanwhile, Elu felt something in his head. It was an odd feeling, an unfamiliar one. It resembled a light headache and yet it didn't hurt; it wasn't more than some pressure from the inside. Unfortunately for the colt, he didn't have much time to think about it and analyze as Plain Runner snatched him, rushing to the closet. She swiftly opened the door to it, the two got inside, and then the filly shut the door close. They were left in nearly total darkness, only dim light from the narrow slit above the door coming through. The space was minimal, even claustrophobic in a way. Even they had trouble fitting inside among all the different things that were stored in the closet.

"Now, Elu... Let's be quiet, a-alright?" Plain Runner said with a shaking voice. "J-just stay quiet..."

Having no need to be told twice, Elu did as asked, and the two waited. A minute slowly passed, crawling like a snail. The second followed. Third, fourth, and fifth passed. The colt swore he could hear his own heartbeat alongside the filly's one, thumping like hammers. The odd feeling from before reappeared; this time, there was more to it — his horn started tingling.

In this nearly perfect silence, Elu heard the front door opening downstairs. Slow, careful steps resonated through the house, and only the ears of the colt could pick them up; the filly seemed completely oblivious to the sounds. For a considerable chunk of time, whoever entered the house inspected the first floor, and even words were exchanged; they were too muffled to understand, unfortunately.

The steps became louder; whoever entered the house was going upstairs to the second floor. Elu breathed slowly and deeply, trying not to be too loud. This situation resembled when he played hide-n-seek in his apartment. This time, however, he wouldn't giggle at the seekers for not being able to find him. Worst of all, he had to understand and accept that he couldn't defend himself if the need came today. He was small, relatively weak, magicless as of yet. He didn't have any weapons, he didn't have anything at all to protect himself. A passing thought in his mind was a note to buy something to fix this problem as soon as he possibly could. Maybe even get back into swordsmanship, work out, and probably even get hoof-to-hoof martial arts training as well. However, it would only come if he survived this encounter, whatever it might be and however it might go.

The steps were growing closer and closer. Elu felt Plain Runner hugging him, keeping him close. To their great fear, the door to the closet swiftly opened. Unfortunately for them, it was a changeling who opened it.

Big sky-blue eyes looked straight into grayish-green eyes of the colt. He could see the long fangs, the carapace, and the holes in the limbs. It was more than a drawing could show, more detailed than the most perfect three-dimensional computer model. A mix of a giant bug and an equine, an insect and a mammal, a changeling was both fearsome and interesting.

Elu wished to know what the changeling felt during this moment. Was he — or was it even a he? — interested in ponies in this way? Did this changeling even feed on love? How did he do it? What did it felt during it? So many questions, so many things the former human wished to know.

The changeling was silent, staring into the eyes of the colt. Its emotions were unreadable despite it having equine facial features. This made another question appear in Elu's mind — were changelings a group of individuals, a hive mind, or a mix of the two? Were they even intelligent in the first place?

"Hello," the changeling finally spoke in a friendly tone; its voice was, without a doubt, male. "Don't worry, we won't hurt you."

"Did you find anyone, Clypeus?" another male voice sounded from the main room.

"Vex, they're foals," the one called Clypeus turned around. "We should leave them alone. They're scared."

"I'm hungry."

"I know, but... they're foals. You know that some bad things can happen if we force love out of them," the first changeling argued.

Elu felt the tingle in his horn growing, a ringing appeared in his ears along with a buzz very similar to an electric one.

"Look, nothing bad will happen if I take just a bit."

"We better not take our chances."

The colt closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh, losing the conversation as the buzz became stronger.

"Step aside," Vex said with a hint of anger in his voice, shoving the first changeling.

Without a warning, Elu exclaimed as a lightning bolt struck the changeling, sending him to the ground, twitching. Clypeus was quick to duck as another lightning bolt was shot from the horn of the colt, colliding with a wall and dissipating with a loud thunder-like booming sound.

"Shh, everything will be alright..." Elu heard Plain Runner whispering as she hugged him. "Just let it out."

With a yell, colt released a wave of electricity, taking down both changelings, avoiding the filly somehow. Just as suddenly as this strange occurrence happened, it went away, leaving a strong smell of ozone in the air and a pleasant feeling in Elu's body. He sighed in relief, finally opening his eyes. His body was shivering slightly, a few tears rolled down his cheeks.

Electricity. A thing that killed him was back, and it returned to help him. He didn't develop a phobia of electricity or fear of baths but he still regarded that event in his life as something not to think about too much.

And yet, he didn't have a choice but to remember that fateful day. A bathroom that has seen better days way before his birth, now looking like something one would find in a run-down public hospital; a cord extender, ready to be dropped into the bathtub; warm, perfect water that begged him to stay in the bathtub for longer; the pain of electricity coursing through his body.

Ever since he appeared in Equestria, he tried to put that day behind him. It was a part of the past, and it wasn't what he would want to change. Through those moments of agony, he died and was reborn in another world. He was given a second chance, one that might be better than his first one. He thought it was all that mattered, and yet that day of suicide haunted him. It didn't help that his first magic outburst was or at the very least resembled electricity.

Elu breathed deeply, calming down, coming back to his senses. He could think about the past later. Or better, he could try to forget it, put it behind. There were new things to look forward to.

Finally, he looked around. The changelings were gone, the smell of ozone was still there, and Plain Runner continued to hug him. Awkwardly, he tried to nudge her away. He appreciated the gesture but he wasn't entirely comfortable with such close contact with anyone he barely even knew. If he were to be honest, the only reason it was easy for him to hug his new parents was because they had been taking care of him ever since he was reborn. They had already proven to be trustworthy, someone that could be and should be hugged. It was a seemingly minor thing, and yet it was just important to Elu as other close physical contact.

In truth, the only physical contact with other people he experienced for many years was handshakes and nothing else. The change from that was welcome, but Elu knew he needed to take quite some time to adjust to it and accept it.

He let out another sigh. He already had enough problems as was, but then there were the changelings. Thankfully, it seemed like they were going away; the buzzing became quieter. If his predictions were correct, they would partake in the invasion of Canterlot in just a few hours, lose, and scatter. Of course, it would only happen if it went according to the canon of the show. Elu knew what the Butterfly Effect was, and maybe his appearance alone dramatically changed the future of Equestria and maybe the whole world.

Deciding to put self-importance back in check, he discarded those thoughts. He was probably important to Luna, but that was it. To most other ponies, he was just a colt. Maybe a smart colt, a colt older than he looked, but still a colt nonetheless. He might change the future, he might not. There was no way of knowing.

However, one thing was certain — Elu was born just around a month before the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot. Now he had a vague idea of where he was in the timeline. Assuming nothing would change, he might be able to help the ponies in some way. There was a problem, however — it might cause the things to deviate from the original script. It could be for the better or it could be for the worse. Elu couldn't predict the future, so there was no way of knowing once again.

The colt finally focused on the present. The changelings were gone, and he felt he needed some more sleep; the strange thing that happened to him drained him almost completely. He yawned loudly, feeling his eyelids grow heavy. He heard Plain Runner say something, but at that point, he didn't care as he fell asleep.

Perhaps, things would become clearer later. Luna might contact him again hopefully. Maybe something else would happen that would be beneficial for him in one way or another. At the very least, the imminent danger was gone, allowing Elu to spend his time on what he was very good at — sleeping without a care in the world.

Author's Notes:

This chapter is slightly shorter than the other but I hope it was good. And yes, I do sometimes think about that day. It's less and less, so... I think i recovered from it... mostly.

I'll just try no to think about it too much lest I, well, think about it too much and get obsessed with it to the point of feeling more depressed and- well, I think you get what I mean.