Roland sat up from his typing. His students, eclectic as they came, were picking up English quite well. Most importantly, they thought outside the box. Wild ideas of conspiracies had some uses, and when applied to a very real, and very undefined, force that was acting against them, they had countless ideas for countering it.

The result was the first English web page in a while. Sure, they had to obfuscate it on the back end, make the page perform code to arrive at the English rather than storing it directly, but it didn't seem to fade away into Ponish. Writing on a paper tends to transition in about two to three days. Recordings of someone speaking went faster, maybe 12 to 32 hours. Web pages were the slowest at about 5-8 days.

The concealed pages had survived an entire month so far without the translating magic finding it and forcing it to Ponish. Better yet, people could learn from it, as his newest student had proven.

Yes, there was a war raging, but that was officially out of his jurisdiction. He could wish America well, but he wasn't feeling the urge to do promotional pieces about it. He was quite too old to be suddenly drafted, if they ever tried to bring back that idea. The war just wasn't his problem, so he focused on the lost language.

"Admitting what you've done doesn't absolve you of the guilt."

"I know that." John Rason, the changeling, looked up at his interrogator. "I will help in any way I can."

"You're very friendly, for an admitted enemy agent." He walked away at a casual pace. "Coffee?"

"No, thanks... Look, you don't need to get psychological with me. I did bad. I did a lot of bad, and I know that. I'm here to answer questions, then be punished. The sooner we finish this, the better, for everyone else." The world he had built for himself, the house of lies on lies, was flat on the floor, and he was not reaching for the scattered cards.

"If you insist." He turned back, a fresh cup of coffee in hand. "Let's start with the basics, your employer. I want to know everything about her. Don't filter. You know her shoe size, share it."

"Employer is too kind a word... Her name is Queen Chrysalis, but she stopped being queen of anything worth using the title for." John took a slow breath. "I was one of many drones born in her hive, back when she had one. I was raised to idolize the ground she deigned to touch. It would be through her action that the hive would benefit, or so I thought... I thought it hard enough to run away from the reformed changelings, fearing... well, change. It's funny looking back on it. Change is what we do."

"We have some data on changelings, but we'll get to that, stay focused on Chrysalis." He rolled a hand, prompting John to continue. "She's a changeling too, I presume?"

"Mother of me and many others... You can think of her like a queen bee, if there was a kind of bee that wanted to suck you dry of emotions. Unlike a queen bee, she is not pinned in place as part of her... duties. She has no hive at current, but that could have changed during my time serving under the name John Rason. My contact with her was zero, minus that last call. I presume you have that recorded?"

"We may." He neither confirmed nor denied. He wasn't there to answer questions. He was there to get them answered. "What is your original name?"

"Was... I... don't even remember." He sagged in place, insectoid ear-tufts lowering. "I had to become John Rason. I had to learn every little detail of every part of his life. There was no room for 'me' in there. I was... am... used to be John Rason. If you find him, pass him my apologies, though I know it is scarcely enough."

A hand came down in a sharp slap just beside the wall behind John's head. "You sick bastard, you slept with his damn wife. If we find him, I doubt he'll really want your apologies."

John did not resist the hate directed at him. He deserved it, as far as he could tell. "Let me do what little good I can, then you can dispose of me as you wish."

"Back to Chrysalis." He sipped from his hot cup, eyes on the changeling formerly known as John Rason. "What was her goal?"

"I honestly couldn't say. You heard the conversation, she wanted America." John let out a lone bitter 'ha'. "As if it was that easy. America will never fall to her."

"Mighty patriotic sounding for an enemy agent." He tipped his coffee cup towards John. "You went native, hard."

"Yeah... Can you blame me? This is a country worth fighting for." John lifted his forehooves in an expansive shrug. "I will do what I can for her."

"Shame you're so damned guilty... Back on topic, are you aware of the location and duties of any other enemy agents?"

"I don't," he confessed with a soft grunt. "Changelings don't give many tells until you force it. You know that from how long I lived as John Rason. I was the bloody president of the United States. If I can fill that chair, they could be anywhere."

"You have anything to offer to stop that?"

"Yes." He sat up tall. "I know about the magic research and development. I will gladly help provide all the data they need to get sensors working for our specific variety of magic. They can fine tune on my shapeshifting until they get it right, then any changeling swapping forms on American soil will be noticed."

"You're leaving out a few steps in the process... but your offer is noted." It wasn't as if any such sensor would just instantly be scattered across the country, nice as that idea was. "Your motion to pardon John Rason, by the way, declined."

"Huh, why? He didn't do anything."

"Exactly." He extended a finger. "What would we be pardoning him for? You're the lawbreaker, and you aren't really John Rason."

John the changeling let out a soft breath. "Oh... sure, fine. How's... the VP handling things? The bulls give up yet?"

"I'm not at liberty to answer that question. Let's discuss how changelings work..."

It had become a web beneath their feet, spreading inch by inch across the country. Alaska, the mainland, even their island ports were not immune to their presence. The seismograph watchers were not asleep at their post, but it was an alien world with alien noises and alien motions in the ground. They were still re-writing the book on seismography just as rocket scientists reinvented how to get things into space and move through it.

It was in this vital moment of confusion that they pushed in, another strange noise among so many others. The bulls had green lit the tunnels long before the war, preparing for the day that they may become required. That day had arrived. Defenders withdrew from the battle line that the Americans had given up. The long-range pummeling was rough, but it meant their ground forces could be almost entirely diverted to the gambit. To invade EFC territory from as many points as possible, all at once.

Their forces spread far and wide, the people at the sensors only just starting to wonder what all the noise was all about beyond a general pondering on the strange behavior of the new world they existed on, where beasts large and small made regular habits of swimming through the rock and dirt as if it were nothing but water.

The attack awaited the final word.

Starlight moved to Twilight's room. The doctor had various things to keep an eye on, and left her as the acting nurse, making sure Twilight kept breathing and checking on her. "We're blood sisters, you realize."

Twilight quirked a smile at that, breathing heavily. "Speaking of... that, when will your blood stop making me bloated everywhere?"

"Doctor said he had not a clue." She hiked a brow. "Would you have an answer for a human suffering the same issue?"

"I suppose not..." She tried to sit up, but soon gave up trying to move, panting helplessly. "I don't want to be... ingrateful. He did save me from just... you know... It could be worse. Tell me, what happened? We were supposed to help those people and... we clearly aren't. Is the war over?"

"No. I talked to them." She held up a hoof to her face as if it were a phone. "The people we were with were... attacked, badly. They've withdrawn and they, the military people, wish you a speedy recovery along with a lot of apologies for failing to protect a princess from harm."

"Oh..." Twilight sagged in place for a sullen moment. "On the bright side..." She had to pause, recatching her breath. "No more plastic suits."

"Thank Celestia for that," laughed out Starlight, setting a hoof on her friend's shoulder. "May we never have to wear one again. Look, Twilight... This isn't where you belong. Equestria needs you."

"It does." She fixed her eyes on Starlight with a new intensity. "It also needs me to stop this madness. This is for Equestria. I won't rush back, promise. Promise..." Her eyes half-closed, her breathing still labored. "I wanna sleep..."

"Please don't." She gently shook Twilight. "Not until you can breathe properly. The doctor said in a real hospital they could jam a tube down your throat to keep your passages open, but this is a boat, not a hospital. I... Stay with me, Twilight."

"Ugh..." Twilight's expressive eyes rolled, a few tears of pain and fatigue escaping her. "So this is my alternative? What a choice..." She drew a sudden ragged breath, filling her lungs. "Starlight, did you tell Celestia what happened?"

Starlight's brows went up as one. "You want me to? I figured you'd never want her to know about this."

Twilight raised a hoof weakly. "She has to know. I almost broke her by going dark for so long. Please..."

Starlight caught her hoof, cradling it gently. "I will. Hay, I'll call her right now, and we can both say hello to her. Won't that be nice?"

Twilight's expression brightened a little. "That would be nice... Please."

Starlight drew her phone free in a hurry, dialing up the princess.

"Hello? Starlight?" came Celestia's voice over the speaker phone.

"Yes, hello." Starlight smiled at the floating phone. "It's me, and Twilight."

"Hello," weakly greeted Twilight.

"Twilight, you... are you alright?"

"Not exactly, but she's getting better," assured Starlight. "We're nowhere near the fighting anymore.

"That is a relief. Twilight, Starlight, please... Can you come home? Things are... changing."

Starlight hiked a brow at the phone. "I have no real objection to getting out of this, and we were both roughed up enough that I doubt the Americans will stand in the way of it, but the way you say that makes me full of questions."

"That will be answered when I can share a room with you. Starlight, see Twilight home safely, please."

The phone went dark, the call ended. Starlight peered at it skeptically before tucking it away. "You heard the mare. She wants us back in Equestria... as soon as this boat pulls into a harbor, or I feel 100% again, which I doubt will happen beforehoof."

"What did I do wrong?"

Starlight blinked rapidly, confusion on her face. "What even makes you ask that? I mean, besides being a brave pony that wants to make the world better, you didn't do a thing wrong."

"But I failed..."

"We all do sometimes." Starlight leaned in and kissed Twilight right beside her horn. "Life is full of mistakes, and we'll keep right on trying."

"Together." She pushed a hoof weakly into Starlight's chest. "Thank you."

Author's Notes:

Things are percolating to an angry boil. What will become as the pieces land? Did you forget about poor Roland?

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