Sunburst's eyes followed to the same place as much of the rest of his team. Sharply-dressed men were intruding on their workspace, not with news of how their recent work was being received, but new orders and complications.

"Study him until you have a reliable sensor," was the simple command. "Keep us updated on your progress. If you happen to make any peripheral discoveries on the nature of changelings, document and pass it on. He is yours to do with as you please."

Sunburst blinked at that softly. "He volunteered for that?"

"I did," suddenly spoke the colorful reformed changeling, sounding grimly resolved.

"As he said. We look forward to your progress."

"One thing," added a different agent. "He has lofty dreams of being president. He admires Mister Rason, so don't be surprised if he imitates him."

The scientists got a chortle out of the idea. A changeling, president? How silly is that? Sunburst was one of the quieter there, watching the FBI agents go before he moved towards their new test material. "So, hello. I'm Sunburst... and I have a strong feeling we were only told half the story."

Rason lifted a tuft towards Sunburst. "You were told what you needed to know. Right now, you need to be able to detect my shapeshifting reliably."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Confident in their success, one of the scientists were leading John towards their clean room, still full of sensors from their work deciphering Sunburst's magic step by slow step. "If it's anything like unicorn magic, it should show up, even as a new sub-variety."

Once inside and with people at the computers to see what they reported, the same scientist depressed a button to speak to him, "Go ahead and change, we'll see what they pick up, or don't."

John considered a moment, looking arond the room. Rather than become John Rason, he opted to assume the form of the pedestal there with a bowl, making it seem like someone had set two such pedestals side by side after a brief flare of green flames.

"Hm..." There had been something, a nice flare up of noise. It wasn't what the computer would have called magic, but it was power along the same lines. It represented a tremendous amount of power, possibly explaining the visible effect that accompanied it with some heat and other radiations spilling out as mass and composition were played with in ways that should not be possible.

"I want to see something. Step on the scale." The scale in the room began to glow a soft white, making that square on the ground quite visible.

"Alright." John resumed being a changeling and sepped over onto the scale, revealing his weight. "And now?"

"And now change into the heaviest thing you can think of."

Becoming John Rason included getting an educational level that fit. One of the heaviest things that jumped into his mind was lead, so he casually became lead, a great pile of lead bars stacked high and neatly.

The scale reacted to the new weight, the number increasing rapidly moment by moment until it arrived at the new, much larger, number. The scienstists all whistled softly, witnessing another few 'laws' casually destroyed. Sunburst's horn glowed as he pressed the intercom button. "For sake of argument, what about the lighest?"

"Alright." John wasn't entirely sure how small he could become. He tried for a feather, but even changeling magic had its limit, and he became a rather large feather, drifting down to the ground to rest.

"Hm," murmured a scientist, taking note of the upper and lower bounds of weight. "Considering the body has to contain whatever qualifies as 'you' that is in there, I suppose it makes sense that you can only become so light, but you can gain mass much more readily. We're not biologists, but I imagine one could take a lifetime trying to decipher the mechanisms at play here."

"You can go back to normal," added Sunburst. "Thanks."

Each transition was also helpful, adding to the database of such changes to categorize and puzzle through. "That important part," added one of his co-workers. "is that he does put out some of the same radiation as unicorn magic, which means we can detect it. It's different, sure, but that isn't nearly as hard as it could have been."

It was time to apply science.

Head watched as the tunnels grew further and further. There were vehicles too, none larger than a van, ferrying people and materials in and out of the cave at a steady pace. Such a vehicle's vibrations were far from strong enough to meaningfully detect, she thought ruefully to herself.

It was all so obvious, in retrospect. The worms has been avoiding the sudden new tunnels and the mass of dogs making them. Had they been scared? Had they been immediately scared? She wondered if they had come into conflict at first. If they had, the dogs must have won, decisively, and the other worms kept away rather than risking trying again to reclaim their dominion over the underground.

Then again, the dogs had been making tunnels for quite some time, before the humans ever appeared. Maybe they and the worms knew how to av... Oh.

No wonder they reacted so swiftly to her message. They were used to hearing the messages of the worms. If they weren't busy foalnapping her, they could have been a valuable font on tatzlwurm signals and codes. They may have known quite a few more phrases to communicate with them. For just a moment she internally warred with the desire to learn and the desire to be freed and get to safety.

Her senses returned to her as she was roughly shoved aside for some marching diamond dogs hurrying past her to extend the tunnel. She scowled at them, able to see them clearly. Despite being an underground tunnel, it was actually rather well lit. The entire massive thing was made for ease of movement, she figured. Lights hung, supports were placed, and the ground was flat.

It was a feat of engineering prowess. A pity she was tied up in it. "Excuse me?"

"What want?" grunted a dog, pausing a moment to hear her.

"Any chance I could... be less tied up?"

"No."

That had gone about as well as she could have reasonably hoped. "I need to, you know, make water."

"Not here. You wait." He went back the way he had come from, only to return with several other dogs. They attacked the side of the tunnel near her, burrowing into it with the same swimming natural grace of any worm. Soon a new side-room was formed, and she was tossed into it. Once they had bars firmly installed to keep her in there, she was untied, free to roam her little new home, out of their way.

It was a mild step in the right direction.

"Hey."

Hoku glanced to the right to see a familiar fox. "Why not in jail?"

The fox shrugged expansively. "I don't like jail, and they wanted to know things, so we both got what we wanted. Um, I wanted to thank you."

He had gone turncoat. Hoku frowned at the idea. Turning against one's family was pretty high on the list of things a warrior should not do in his book, but the fox had not struck him as much of a warrior. "Have question."

"Hm? Sure. Answering questions for Americans is practically my job these days." He smiled brightly, carnivorous teeth on display. "Lay it on me."

"How join army?" He hiked a thumb northward. "Why?"

"Oh, hm, that's a new one..." He tapped a furry foot on the ground. "But a good one... You'll laugh at me though."

"Not laugh," assured Hoku with an icey tone. He didn't feel like laughing about that battle.

"If you say so... um, so there was this vixen. I really liked the sway of her tail, if you get my meaning." He wagged his brows suggestively. "She was into tough guys, so, there I was, hey, I can be tough! I signed up to show her how tough I was."

"Then captured, break instantly." Hoku rolled a hand at him. "Not tough."

"Guess not." He barked out a laugh, a tear spilling from his eye. "I was young and stupid. Still pretty stupid I guess, and not much older. Hey, uh... Hoku was it?"

"Yes."

"I'm not afraid to admit it; I'm super jealous." He put out a balled hand. "You and your buds, you're the real thing, not like me."

Hoku glanced around, but saw no one else moving towards them. "Where should you be?"

"Cold... Look, I'll head back, I just wanted to say that." He turned away, vulpine tail giving a flick. "Don't get killed, alright?"

Hoku nudged him from behind and began walking with him. He saw the prisoner back to his jail where he had somehow slipped free. On the bright side, a review of the cameras involved showed that he had done as he said, literally slipped out just to seek out Hoku and talk before heading back.

It was all captured, except how the fox had actually managed the deed. It seemed the creatures of their wondrous world had many talents. "Hey, look, I just wanted to talk to Hoku. I'm being good, honest."

"Show us how you do that and we might forgive it." The soldier asking had no idea if it was something that could be imitated or not, but there was only one way to know for sure.

"With the war reaching a lull, we have good news to report; the Storm King's old territory has divided into three allied sections and assumed the shared title of 'The Confederation of Allied Creatures', or CAC. The CAC is already making murmurs of joining the EFC, but nothing official has been documented at this time. Pre-emptively, they've begun issuing passports to any of their citizens that requests one, and are building their infrastructure to better support the modernizing global trade of the world."

A window popped into being beside the newscaster, showing boats drawing into a small dock. "Though still building and recovering, they seem eager to jump onto the modern stage and are welcoming trade from across the world. American relief workers are being encouraged to stay and join their community, though only some are accepting the offer. Those that do are being given land in relation to the time they spent assisting the effort."

"In other news." The window closed, a new one popping open almost instantly, showing a steady barrage of prismatic missiles flying over the horizon. "Bombardment of the minotaur lands proceeds, but they are showing no sign of surrender. No word of the arrival of the minister named by Former-President Rason, though some are unsure if his replacement would honor the same deal."

The window closed and opened again, showing the senate floor. "The sudden resignation of the president has left the government confused for a few days, but they're already back to work under the new president, who has sworn to uphold his office until the next election. Rumors are spreading wildly about why Former-President Rason might have resigned, ranging from health problems to personal issues. He hasn't appeared in the public domain since resigning, going from a strong-spoken president to vanishing overnight."

Chrysalis stomped around her room, howling with fury. "That insufferable peon!" She had been betrayed... again! Again! She drove a hoof into the ground, grinding a rock that had been in her way. "It is time to go. Assemble!"

The loyal she had left were quickly gathered, arrayed before their queen with nervously twitching wings.

"We cannot assume this place is safe... That turncoat may reveal us at any moment, and... we aren't prepared." The admission of weakness was like acid in her mouth. "If America sees us as a direct threat, we're done for..."

"What should we do, Your Highness?"

Author's Notes:

Poor Chryssie has to face facts. Her plans, they have failed. What is the next step?

Written at the last day of BABScon!

Join the special community of folks who like my stories here atreon!

Join my discord to chat!