Trouble in Tiatarta

by RainbowDoubleDash

First published 5th of October, 2019

Queen Chrysalis accidentally Reformed, and now needs a vacation to sort things out. Ocellus and Smolder are summoned by the Cutie Map to solve a friendship problem. Surely these two things are unrelated. Surely.

Tiatarta! The hidden gem of Equestria’s resorts. Sandy beaches, colorful locals, and relative isolation make this the ideal vacation destination. So what kind of friendship problem could this tropical paradise possibly have for Smolder and Ocellus to deal with?

And what the HAY is Queen Chrysalis doing here?! And what did she do to her mane?

Reading Queen Chrysalis Reforms (Accidentally) is recommended for context.

1. All I Ever Wanted

Far away from the comforts of civilization, Chrysalis, rightful Queen of the Changeling Swarm, stood before Grogar the Ram, Father of Monsters, deep in the subterranean lair that the ancient goat maintained. She locked her newly blue eyes with his ancient ones. Opened her elytra and spread her newly purple wings. She felt the orange mantle of fur at the base of her neck fluff up a little, and the slight cream-white fuzz that now covered her exoskeleton stood on end. All visible signs of her being afraid. But Tirek and Cozy Glow were watching from the door and snickering to themselves. She refused to be weak in front of them.

“A lot has happened to me since I Reformed. I need a vacation,” the accidentally Reformed changeling queen said in as strong and regal and proud a voice as she could manage.

“Fine. Whatever,” Grogar responded.

Chrysalis had opened her mouth to begin objecting to a denial, laying out her reasons, demand that Grogar indulge her royal right to go where she wanted. She found the words catching in her throat, and her head tilted to the side. “Really?”

“Yes! Looking at you gives me a headache. I could use the break. Just don't do anything stupid to reveal us.”

Chrysalis shifted. “Well...good. I'll be back in a week or two.”

“Wait a minute!” Cozy Glow demanded, flitting in to Grogar's chambers, Tirek following after. “Mister Grogar, if Chrysalis is going on vacation, surely me and Tirek can too, right? We've been extra-special good, after all!”

“No,” Grogar said without hesitation. The old goat popped some of his neck joints.

“Well why not?” Tirek demanded, stomping his hooves and throwing his hands wide. “What has Chrysalis done?”

Grogar growled as he looked up to his other two minions. Eldritch light suffused him and yellow-black power bled off from the mighty Father of Monsters. “She was smart enough to be born a changeling!” He pointed a hoof at Tirek. “You're a red centaur three times the height of a pony and you,” he swung his hoof to Cozy, “have an unmistakable identifying tattoo on your flank!”

Chrysalis had to nod in agreement with Grogar, or at least the basic sentiment of the inherent superiority of the changeling race. “Whereas I can look like anyone.” Blue fire washed over her (she'd grown used to the color by now, even if she didn't like it), and subsequently there were two Cozy Glows in the room. With a saccharine smile she closed her hooves together beside her face. “Golly gee-whiz! It's almost like I'm a master of disguise! Yup-a-rooney!”

Cozy ground her teeth together. “I don't sound anything like that.”

Tirek crossed his arms, his glare if anything exceeding that of Cozy's, though he directed it at Grogar as Chrysalis changed back to her new natural form. “But you sent us to get the Bewitching Bell - ”

Grogar growled again. Tirek realized his mistake and quickly backed away. “And we failed! But I only mean, you didn't worry about us being seen then...”

“Because you were going to the middle of nowhere!” Grogar exclaimed. He pounded a hoof on the table before him, causing the crystal ball set into it to bounce. But then he took effort to calm down. “If you want to go camping in some forest somewhere, be my guest. But I will not have you exposing yourself, and thus all of us, to those worthless ponies!”

The fact that Cozy Glow took that insult in stride only fueled Chrysalis' belief that the little filly...wasn't. Cozy did screw up her face and grind her teeth even harder just as a petulant foal might, though. “But what about me?” she demanded as she landed on the table.

“You could go camping with me,” Tirek noted. Chrysalis flicked out her tongue and noted that he tasted pleased with the idea. “I actually know the perfect spot in my homeland, haven't been there in millennia but I doubt much has changed...”

Cozy started to grumble, but Grogar slammed his hoof on the table again and leaned in to glare at Cozy, muzzle inches from her own. “You are going camping with Tirek and you will like it.”

“Y-yes, mighty Grogar!” Cozy stuttered, backing away with her tail between her legs.

Chrysalis glanced between the two other members of Grogar's little legion of doom, and chuckled, or started to. But unfortunately, she could taste Tirek's lingering disappointment from Grogar's demand he remain hidden, and Cozy Glow's dejection at being forced to accompany the centaur. Her ability to do so wasn't new, of course, but it had once been much easier to ignore when placed next to her bottomless hunger for love.

But this new body, this Reformed shape she had metamorphosized into, could create its own love. The hunger came only when she used too much magic, and it sorted itself out in relatively short order if allowed to do so. So without really meaning it or even wanting it, she'd become more attuned to the emotions around her.

It was vexing beyond belief, especially given how bad emotions like disappointment and dejection tasted.

“I'll bring you two back souvenirs,” she groused. She hissed a little below her breath as she could feel two sets of eyes turn on her (Grogar already returning his attentions to his crystal ball). “Your disappointment tastes like curdled milk! I don't want to go on vacation with that taste in my mouth or come back to it after it's done!” She looked away. “I hate you.”

The mood change from Tirek and Cozy was immediately palpable. The centaur scoffed as he turned around to prepare himself for his camping trip, while Cozy's wings buzzed and she drifted over to the changeling Queen, grinning and tasting of cotton candy dipped in vinegar - the taste of mocking affection. “Thank you sooo much, Chrysalis! I want a seashell and a starfish and a red bucket full of beach stones and - ”

“You'll get what I bring you!” Chrysalis interrupted before she turned around and stomped off...her millenium-and-change old, regal, incalculable intellect filing away Cozy Glow's requests and wondering what Tirek would like.

“Hhhzzzkkk...” she hissed, making her way through the lair. That. That right there. The concern for them. That was why she needed a vacation. She needed a break from her friends - friends?! Chrysalis froze a moment. Where had that inane idea come from?! Just because the two had been helping her with her quite accidental but perhaps not entirely unwelcome after all transition into being a Reformed changeling, helped her realize that it wasn't all bad, they now assumed they could be her friends?! Tirek and Cozy had a long way to go before truly earning the right of friendship from the True Queen of the Changelings! Not like her most trusted and secret of confidants.

Chrysalis threw open the door to her chambers and locked her eyes on the image that greeted her, a pale, translucent shadow of Twilight Sparkle. “He said yes!” She exclaimed, closing the door behind her quickly. “And you doubted my abilities as a negotiator.”

The pale Twilight looked at her, then cast its eyes down in shame.

“Exactly,” Chrysalis hissed, trotting up to the shadow and jabbing one hoof into its ephemeral chest. “But at least you can admit your mistakes. And at least you stick around.” She smiled, and jabbed the shadow again. “Heh. Stick. I'm brilliant, aren't I?”

The shadow seemed to frown up at her, then disappeared. Chrysalis was left looking only at a slightly purple-tinged piece of wood, the shadow's home. “Well, fine! Be that way! But you're not going anywhere far.” She hefted the wood and looked directly at it. “You're coming with me - you've earned that much - but spend the whole time in there! See if I care!”

Chrysalis set the piece of wood down, and turned away from it. “I could use some alone time. I don't need you or Tirek or Cozy or anycreature else! I used to, as prey or as servants, but now, with this new body, I don't need anyone. Now I can be all alone.”

Chrysalis shifted. She blew some of her newly voluminous hair from her eyes as she took in her chambers and reminded herself that the emptiness didn't bother her. “Alone...”

“So you see class, that day the Cutie Mark Crusaders learned that even if you think you know what's best for two ponies, you shouldn't try and tamper with their lives without their knowledge.”

The ability of changelings to shapeshift was of course their greatest natural asset, but whatever force had created them had not left the default changeling body, or even the Reformed one, without natural advantages all of its own. Wings for flight, a horn for levitation and light (at least on many changelings, some lacked this appendage naturally), and a chitinous (and fuzzy) exoskeleton that was molted and renewed every year or so in adults, and more often in nymphs, that allowed them to shed any lingering external injuries. Not to mention being tasty to eat.

“Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had meant well, but by trying to create love between Big MacIntosh and Cheerilee artificially, they only caused a lot of drama and unneeded pain.”

For Ocellus, though, she'd always thought of the big, compound eyes of a changeling as the greatest advantage. It wasn't just that she had a large range of vision; the compound eyes allowed her to actually focus on multiple things at once without losing clarity on anything else she was looking at. For example, unlike her friends, she didn't need to turn her head to pay attention both to the blackboard that Professor and Headmare Twilight was writing on in front of her, while also writing in her own notebook below her, and while looking to her right at Smolder.

“There's also another lesson here, and that's that magic is almost never the solution to a friendship problem. It's certainly no substitute for just talking to a creature.”

Smolder had the forward-focused eyes of a dragon, of course. She needed to turn her eyes or rotate her head to look at something. It meant that whenever her eyes would dart away from the blackboard and to Ocellus, stealing quick glances, Ocellus would notice. Then she'd open her mouth a little and inhale, or lick her lips, and the scent and taste of what Smolder was feeling would reach her

And that was a problem, because Ocellus found herself unable to parse, exactly, what it was that Smolder felt. Certainly the love of friendship was there, the sweet taste that had been so small in all her friends at first but which had grown in all of them and in Ocellus herself over the past year. But over the past several weeks that taste had grown more complex – and not in a completely good way. There was affection and desire, but also possessiveness. Ownership. The tang that Ocellus tasted when Smolder counted the bits she kept hidden, or ran her claws along things she owned. Greed. And mixed in with the sweetness of affection and the tang of greed was the bitterness of shame, a truly vile taste that meant that Ocellus had avoided nibbling on any of Smolder's emotions except when trying to figure them out, what they all meant when taken together.

“I do have to admit that that's a lesson that took me a while to learn myself. It's going to come up a lot in this class, actually! True friendship takes work, not spells or potions.”

There was no aggression, no hostile emotions directed towards Ocellus. Smolder still laughed at Ocellus' jokes, still enjoyed her company and wanted her around, was still as fiercely protective of her as she was all her friends. And it was all genuine, not put on - Ocellus would have tasted deception, but there was none. And yet, the greed and shame remained too, grew stronger daily. Ocellus had tried to figure out how to broach the subject, how to talk to Smolder about what she was feeling the same way Smolder helped her whenever her identity issues flared up. But how was she supposed to do that?

Her friends didn't exactly know that Ocellus occasionally nibbled on their emotions, fed herself. Sure, yes, a Reformed changeling didn't need to steal love anymore...but try explaining the concept of “enough food“ to a being that had grown up starving. Even King Thorax admitted to his fellow changelings that he couldn't stop himself from small bites here and there when among other creatures, that it should be minimized, that the next generation should learn not to do it, but he couldn't fault any bug for eating if they were hungry. Going hungry now that there was plenty of food just seemed intrinsically wrong, like some kind of vice. Willing starvation was the closest thing the old Hive under Chrysalis had to the concept of sin, and that wasn't going away any time soon, not while there were still bugs who remembered her rule.

But none of that helped with Ocellus' Smolder issue, an issue that quite suddenly had to wait as the spines running down Smolder's head and neck began to pulse with magenta light and even vibrate slightly - even as Ocellus' own elytra, the shell that covered her wings, began to do likewise in their own pink coloration.

“Eep!” Ocellus cried out as she stood, turning to get more of her compound eyes to look at her back and ignoring the rest of the class and their reactions. She opened one elytron, then the other, but they didn't stop glowing or vibrating. It didn't hurt, but it felt bizarre. She saw that Smolder had likewise noticed the glow from her spines and was running her claws over them. Ocellus tasted confusion and concern, which rapidly expanded into fear when Smolder looked to Ocellus and saw her elytra.

Headmare Twilight had spun around, of course dropping her chalk at the sound of panicked students. “What's all the commotion...” she trailed off at the sight of the two students' spontaneously glowing body parts.

Ocellus turned to look at the alicorn head-on, which was polite even if not physiologically necessary for her. “H-Headmare Twilight? What's happening?”

“Yeah, what the heck is this?” Smolder demanded. “Why won't it stop?”

Ocellus had expected concern, or maybe curiosity from Headmare Twilight. Fear would have been troubling, but not surprising. Instead, Twilight Sparkle had an ear-to-ear grin, apparently doing her best impression of Professor Pinkie Pie. “You have a friendship problem!” She exclaimed, as her horn flashed and she teleported with a snap-pop to between the two of them, looking them over in detail. “Smolder, your spines are glowing just like when Spike's did! And Ocellus, looks like it's your elytra instead, that's fascinating!” Twilight spun around to look at the rest of the class. “Class dismissed! Or free period! Whichever! Ooh, I am just. So. Excited! Smolder, Ocellus, meet me at my castle after school! I've got preparations to make!”

With that, the Headmare disappeared in another flash-pop. The class stared at the empty spot where she had been in confusion. Twilight never ended class early. Still, a free period was a free period, so it was only a few moments before every creature began gathering up their books and pencils. No few glances were thrown the dragon and changeling's way as this happened.

“Wait, a friendship problem?” Smolder asked, scratching at her spines. They still glowed and vibrated. “Like those adventures that the cutie map sends Headmare Twilight and her friends on?”

“I guess so,” Ocellus said, pushing aside her concerns over Smolder's general emotions towards her, since right now all she tasted was confusion and concern. “But...we're only students! Why is the Cutie Map calling us? What kind of friendship problem could we solve?”

Gallus was one of her closest friends, and was also covered in very flammable feathers and fur rather than fireproof scales. So on an intellectual level, Smolder knew that it would be wrong to send a gout of flame his direction the way she would another dragon.

But he sure wasn't making it easy for her.

“Ha!” He chuckled as the two flew towards the School of Friendship's dormitories after the last class of the day. He still hadn't let up about what her spines were up to, the glowing and vibrating that hadn't abated in the slightest. “Seriously, have you seen yourself in a mirror yet?”

“No,” Smolder said through grit teeth.

“You look ridiculous. How long is it gonna keep doing that? You could start a new fashion trend back in the Dragon Lands.”

Smolder couldn't stop herself from exhaling smoke, and didn't try anyway. Smoke was harmless enough. Gallus flew through the cloud and started coughing, waving his claws in front of his face. “Eugh! Okay, okay, sorry!”

Smolder grunted as the two landed on the dormitory's roof. “Look, it feels really weird, okay?” She asked. “And why'd it have to happen to me? I thought friendship problems were just something Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony dealt with. Plus you know that I'm gonna end up with a whole bunch of make-up work somehow.”

Gallus chuckled. “Counselor Starlight has gone on a couple of friendship problems, and you heard Headmare Twilight say that Spike has as well.” His eyes widened. “Wait, you don't think that it has something to do with messing with the Tree of Harmony, do you? Because then all of us...”

Smolder realized where Gallus was going, and let a genuine smile split her features as she leaned down to look the griffon over inquisitively. “I'll bet...those tufts of feathers,” she flicked a claw over the crest he had on his head. “And your wings. That'll be what starts going off. I'll start thinking up material for it.”

Gallus fluttered his wings and ran a claw through his crest. “Hardy-har-har. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll make sure to have counter-material.” He flicked the talons of one claw, letting them shine in the sunlight as the two headed for the door down into the dormitory. “Or maybe I'll take these to your pillow.”

Smolder snorted. “Dragons normally sleep in caves! What do I care about a pillow?”

Gallus grinned a truly wicked grin as he took to the air and flew ahead of Smolder, hovering in front of her for a moment. “It's yours,” he teased, then turned around and shot off down the stairs and into the halls.

Smolder was already after him without even thinking about it, wings beating furiously to catch up at the threat to her stuff. “Gallus I swear by the Dragon Lord if you wreck my pillow...!”

The two creatures twisted and turned around the ponies that made up most of the School of Friendship, who were by now used to their antics. They knew how to bob, weave, or duck around the two rambunctious youths. Smolder paid them no mind, as Gallus was a faster flier than her so she needed all her focus on him and his little thieving claws. He had quickly reached her and Ocellus' dorm room door; it was locked, but he knew that it would be. He instead dove out a nearby open window, would go for the room's own window since Ocellus liked to leave it open...

She lost valuable time considering whether to chase the young griffin or enter her room. Concern for her stuff eventually won out over wanting to keep flying, so she landed in front of her door, unlocked it, opened it, and so was promptly hit in the face by a flying pillow. Hers, of course.

Gallus was already on the floor laughing. Smolder growled - though there was a lightness to it - then leapt for him. He wasn't quick enough this time, and so very quickly found himself with Smolder's claws grabbing his wrists and jaws going for his neck. But he rolled with it pretty well, hind legs kicking up and catching her in the ribs, launching her into the air. She powered her wings to stop her ascent early and come back down fast.

Smolder was glad that two of her friends were predators and so understood play-wrestling at an instinctive level, knew the tells for when she was genuinely angry and when she just wanted to knock something around and be knocked around in turn. The two of them might have continued for some time had a shadow not fallen over them from the door. A very big, very shaggy shadow. The two froze mid-grapple, turning with wide eyes to the door.

“Friends wrestling?” Yona asked, a huge grin on her face. “Yaks best at wrestling!”

“Oh no,” Gallus and Smolder said at the same time as Yona leaped at them. The yak was too big to avoid in the small confines of the dorm, and quite suddenly Smolder's world was nothing but a blanket of brown fur and crushing weight. Right. Two of her friends were predators who understood play-wrestling, and one was a yak, who understood all things smash.

As a dragon, Smolder didn't exactly need to breathe in the same way that other creatures did. That didn't mean that she liked being crushed. One claw was out from under Yona, and she was rapidly pounding it on the ground in submission, and she could hear the far more oxygen-dependent Gallus doing likewise. Yona got off her friends quickly enough, still grinning as she hopped up and down, shaking the floor. “Yona win like Yona win at everything!”

Gallus and Smolder picked themselves up. “I win our jangle poker night, like, every time,” Gallus pointed out.

Yona stopped hopping, but not smiling. “Yona let friend Gallus win at that so friend Gallus feel better!” She said, without missing a beat. She leaned forwards and, with gentleness that belied her size, patted Gallus on the head. “Yona is very kind to friends like that.”

Gallus and Smolder exchanged glances, then burst out laughing, Yona not hesitating in joining in. All three knew that in reality, there was simply no way to beat a creature raised in Griffonstone at poker, not unless they somehow got themselves a ringer. As the laughter died down, Smolder went over to where her pillow had landed. The last few minutes had at least distracted her from her spines vibrating and glowing. She picked up the pillow and went over to her bunk, flopping down on it and holding the pillow to her chest. “Thanks for taking my mind off this,” she said as she jabbed a claw at her spines.

“Eh, what are friends for?” Gallus asked with a shrug. He tapped one claw to his beak. “Hey, speaking of, you know what just occurred to me? You and Ocellus will be going on a friendship mission.”

Smolder felt her brow raising. “Uh...yeah? And?”

Yona's grin became just as sly as Gallus' as the two looked sidelong at each other. She leaned towards Smolder. “Friends Smolder and Ocellus go on friendship mission. Alone.”

Smolder's eyes had never opened as wide as they did just now at that revelation, and heat flushed though her whole body. “S-so?” She stuttered, and coughed, and tried to ignore the licks of flame and tiny wisps of smoke that came out of her mouth.

Gallus and Yona exchanged knowing glances. “Okay,” Gallus said, raising his claws in surrender. Yona copied the motion with her front hooves. “What do we know? I've never dated.”

“Yona taking time with Sandbar. Yak never rush true love!”

Gallus sputtered. “You've been on maybe three dates, how do you know if it's true love?”

“Yona don't know. That why Yona and Sandbar not rush.” Yona blushed. “But Yona really hope.”

“Oh, okay. That makes sense. Still, though, you're seeing what I'm seeing between our resident dragon and changeling, right?”

“Yona see everything! Yak eyesight is best! Yona see Smolder looking at Ocellus more than teachers.”

Smolder glanced between her two friends, although they were sorely tempting the limits of that word right now. “Guys,” she deadpanned. “I'm going to be busy with this friendship thing. I don't even know where I'm going or what I'll be doing, so even if I wanted Ocellus like that, there won't be enough time!”

“Uh-huh,” Gallus and Yona said at once. Gallus continued. “You know she's a changeling, right? Kind of an expert on emotions? If Yona and I can see it...”

Smolder turned away, growling into the pillow. “Dragons don't do love.”

“That's not what Professor Rarity said - ”

“Well, she's wrong! We barely do like. Even if I were to feel anything for some creature...” Smolder shook her head as she felt her chest tightening a little, and clutched her pillow harder, pulling it close, grabbing it, holding it, owning it. “...even if I felt something like that, all it would be is me wanting to own them. Possess them. Make them a part of my hoard. Make them mine.” She looked down at the pillow. “Ocellus deserves more than that. Every creature does.”

“Ocellus not thing to own,” Yona agreed. “But Smolder know that and want Ocellus anyway, yes?”

“No,” Smolder insisted.

“Yes,” Gallus countered. Smolder glared at him, but he just shrugged.

“Different creatures have different things that make creatures happy,” Yona explained. “Professor Pinkie Pie like parties and cupcakes. But sister Maud Pie like rocks. Express happiness in different ways. Why not other feelings?”

Fire blazed in Smolder's belly. “Because my version of those feelings has Ocellus stuck in a pile of coins and gems where she belongs!” She exploded. Then she realized what she'd said, and her claws shot to her mouth as Gallus and Yona stared. The silence lingered for a full ten seconds before Smolder's eyes narrowed and she lowered her claws. “And it's because I'm saying stuff like that, that I don't care what you guys think you're seeing with me and Ocellus. It's not real, it's just me being a greedy dragon.”

“Burying feelings is not best,” Yona said with certainty. “Smolder make things worse. Should at least talk to Ocellus since she probably know already.”

“No she doesn't, and she won't know because she can't know because there is nothing to know,” Smolder insisted. She threw her pillow back onto her bed before her claws started to tear into it. “It's something I have to work through on my own. I'm just acting like this because she lives in my d – because we share a dorm. So I'm just thinking of her as something else that's mine. But that's it.” She ran her claws over her spines. They still pulsed and vibrated. “Okay? I'll get over it.”

“Right...” Gallus droned, clearly not believing her. But he caught the message, and so stretched and fluttered his wings, brushing the thoughts aside. “Where are you two going, anyway?”

“I don't know yet. Have to go see Headmare Twilight at the castle. Hopefully whatever this friendship problem is, we can just get it over and done with and get back here.”

“I dunno,” Gallus said, as he stood up, Smolder and Yona following suit. They started filing out of the dorm room. “Honestly, it sounds like you could use a vacation...”

Author's Notes:

I wanted to write a story for Halloween, but I couldn’t really think of anything scary. So instead, have a sequel to Queen Chrysalis Reforms (Accidentally) and a spiritual prequel to Midnight Rendezvous (that is, it's not continuous with it but can be thought of as inspired by what it took for Ocellus and Smolder to get to it). Two for the price of one!

Also this is based on a game of Tails of Equestria that I wanted to run at Bronycon, but didn’t get a chance to. Smolder, Ocellus, and to a lesser extent Chrysalis are playing the parts I had planned for the player characters.

Finally, much like last year’s Ocellus’ Ordinary Day, I’m writing this entire thing on my phone at work (aside from editing at home) since it’s finally gotten slow enough for me to do so again. This might lead to weird autocorrect issues, but it’s a fun way to pass the time. Since it's not a proper Halloween story I make no promises that it'll be done by then. But, on the other hand, since I'm working on it at work rather than at home it shouldn't interrupt my other writing.

2. Thought I’d Forget

Sandbar shifted uncomfortably, moving slightly away from Ocellus as the two trotted along. “You’re staring at me,” he said.

Ocellus felt her eyelids fluttering. “How can you...?” She asked, head tilting to the side even as she turned to look at him more directly. “I’m looking at everything around me.”

“But you’re staring at me,” Sandbar said. “I can just tell.”

“Ooh, is it because he and Yona were going on another date tonight?” Silverstream asked as she fluttered along above the two of them, though she quickly dropped down between them. Sandbar blushed as Silverstream continued. “What’s it smell like?”

“Cinnamon,” Ocellus said without thinking. Her eyes widened when she did, and she quickly opened her still-vibrating elytra and buzzed so that she was flying backwards and in front of Sandbar. “N-not that I’m eating your love for her, or any of your love! It’s just like, the same way you can smell a pie without eating it...”

Sandbar chuckled, waving off Ocellus’ reaction. The subtle sweetness of faith’s scent reached her. “It’s okay! I trust you,” Sandbar said, and meant every word.

Ocellus clamped her mouth shut - changelings didn’t have nostrils so their scent organs were in their mouths - and landed, trying her best not to look guilty. She apparently succeeded since Sandbar and Silverstream started talking to one another about Yona coming over to meet Sandbar’s parents.

Ocellus didn’t subsist on others’ emotions anymore, no. The little bites she’d take throughout the day were so small that only a creature extremely in-tune with their own emotions would notice. Such inner clarity was rare to the point of being unheard of. She certainly wasn’t harming any creature.

Apart from betraying the trust that they’d all placed in her and her race. That their Reformation actually meant something.

“You okay, Ocellus?” Silverstream asked.

Ocellus glanced back up, and found she’d fallen several paces behind the two on the road to Twilight’s castle. “I...just nervous,” she said, trotting back up to them. Not technically a lie, even if it was misleading. She opened and closed her elytra a few times, showing off their glow and vibrations - Professor Fluttershy had at least assured her that those would stop once she and Smolder appeared before the Cutie Map. “I wish that the Cutie Map was calling all of us at once...there’s a lot of pressure on me...”

“And Smolder,” Sandbar said.

Ocellus modded. “R-right. And her.” And the cacophony of emotions that the dragon was feeling towards Ocellus. Some good. Some bad. And Ocellus would probably be spending at least a few days with her...alone...

Silverstream had a claw around Ocellus. “Cheer up, ‘Cell! The Cutie Map wouldn’t pick you two unless you were perfect for the job. Think of it like a road trip!”

“Didn’t we have a lesson or two involving road trips...?” Sandbar asked. “We’re Apples together, Apples forever!”

“We’re off - on the road to friendship!”

“Movin’ right along...we'll learn to share the load!”

A giggle broke through Ocellus’ malaise at her two friends’ impromptu singing competition. She smelled genuine mirth, but also concern for her. Ocellus came forward and drew the two into a hug. “Thanks.”

The two returned the hug tightly. Ocellus resisted the urge to grab a quick bite of the affection before the two drew away. “It’ll be okay,” Sandbar insisted. “Just make sure to return the favor if - when, probably - the Cutie Map calls me. Might need to drag me out from under my bed...”

Ocellus giggled again as they got under way once more, and Silverstream did as well. “Plus,” Silverstream said, “the last thing we want is Smolder seeing the two of us arrive with you looking depressed...”

“Huh?” Ocellus asked. She was about to ask for more details, but a familiar pounding of heavy hooves on the poor road greeted her ears. Glancing, the three of them saw Yona charging straight for them, Smolder and Gallus in the air above her.

“Friends!” Yona exclaimed, and then it was too late - all three were drawn into a tight hug. Ocellus gasped at the sudden warmth of both yak fur and yak affection. She didn’t feel guilty about eating some of the latter since, frankly, it was rather like Yona had shoved it straight into her mouth. The former, meanwhile, threatened her exoskeleton with an early molt.

“Breathing!” Sandbar exclaimed. “Need - breathe - sometimes!”

“Water!” Silverstream gasped, then remembered herself. “I mean air!”

Yona released the three, laughing as Gallus and Smolder landed. “Yak hugs make friends strong! Tough, like yak!” She waved a hoof at the three gasping creatures. “Used to not even be able to speak during!”

“See, this is why I keep to the air ‘til she - ” Gallus began, but Yona didn’t miss a beat in grabbing and squeezing him for several seconds. The blue griffin stumbled away once released before falling into Silverstream’s waiting claws.

Smolder took a very long and determined step away from Yona, not noticing that it brought her right up to Ocellus until Ocellus herself moved out of the way. “Oh,” Smolder said, running claws over her still-glowing spines. “Um...hi.”

“Hi,” Ocellus said, trying not to grit her teeth. The tang of greed was still there, not unpleasant on its own, but it was swiftly joined by shame. Ocellus did her best not to retch at the latter’s taste as she clamped her mouth shut.

The two stared at each other in silence for several long moments. Finally, Gallus came forward, grabbing a limb on each of them and then dragging them along. “Come on, you two, destiny awaits or something.”

Smolder quickly reclaimed her claw, but nodded. “Right. Let’s get this over with.”

The six closed the last few hundred feet to the Castle of Friendship in silence. By the time they reached the doors, they were already swinging open to reveal the small purple form of Spike. “Hey guys!”

The six all waved or otherwise greeted Twilight’s assistant. Only Ocellus, keeping focus on Smolder as she was, noticed that the orange dragon seemed to tense at the sight of the purple one, and step a little closer to her. The taste of greed grew. A tiny bit of smoke escaped one of Smolder’s nostrils.

Ocellus moved away from Smolder. “H-hi,” Ocellus said, opening her elytra wide and showing off their glow and vibrating, hoping that they were distracting. “Um...we’d like to...”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Spike said, taking to the air and flying up to Smolder, apparently not noticing how she’d just acted. He squinted at her spines. “I don’t know how you’ve put up with that all day, I came right here when it started happening to me.”

Smolder for her part seemed to realize what she’d done. The shame probably grew, but Ocellus kept her mouth tightly shut so she couldn’t be sure. “Didn’t know that was an option,” Smolder said. “Headmare Twilight told us to come after school anyway.”

“I think all the students think it’s a fashion trend,” Gallus chuckled. “Maybe Professor Rarity can start up a line of glowing scarfs or something.”

Spike laughed at that, and flew backwards, making room for the six. “Well, c’mon, I’ll show you to the Map Room. There’s just been a few kinks to work out - ”

He stopped then as his cheeks suddenly puffed out, then Spike belched forth a gout of green fire that swiftly realized itself into a wrapped-up scroll. He caught it with practiced ease before it could fall to the ground and unfurled it, eyes gliding along it. “Oh boy...”

“What?” Sandbar asked.

“I’ll...let Twilight explain.”

The six of them had gone on a brief field trip to the Castle of Friendship before, but that didn’t stop the Map Room from being a truly impressive chamber. A vast table displaying a map of Equestria and beyond, with seven throne-like chairs surrounding it, emblazoned with the cutie marks of the Elements of Harmony, with the roots of an ancient tree suspended from the ceiling and illuminating the room with dozens of gemstones that hung from those roots.

The whole thing, save the tree roots, was also made out of crystal. Smolder didn’t understand how it wasn’t covered in bite marks, and could only conclude that Spike had willpower that rivaled that of the Dragon Lord herself. For her own part, Smolder was only able to resist the urge because her own hoard was being threatened, and protection of her stuff took a higher priority than stealing another dragon’s -

NO! Bad Smolder! The young dragon raised one hand to her cheek and pinched it tightly, trying to focus herself with the sting. Ocellus wasn’t her hoard. She was a creature, a real living being. Her stupid instincts were just being stupid. Because they were stupid.

She brought her attention to Headmare Twilight, who was standing in front of the Map Room’s table, a small pile of books next to her and sheets of parchment, quills, and ink before her. She wasn’t alone, as Counselor Starlight was right next to her. Both looked annoyed, though at least not with each other.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do!” Starlight exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air. “I only met him once. I’m pretty sure he still wants to throw me into a bag.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, and in so doing spotted Spike and the six students. “Oh!” She exclaimed, wings flaring (and accidentally bopping Starlight’s muzzle as she did). “You’re here! All of you!”

Silverstream tapped her claws together. “Should we not have come?” She asked with a nervous giggle.

“No, it’s fine!” Twilight said quickly. “Friends should definitely see friends off! But there’s just a teeny-tiny problem...”

“Speaking of,” Spike said, flying over to Twilight and handing her the scroll he’d received.

Twilight took the scroll in her horn’s glow, read it, and then threw her hooves in the air. “Why does Pharynx have to be so difficult?”

The six friends looked between each other as Twilight, grumbling to herself, got a blank sheet of paper and started writing. Starlight rolled her eyes as she broke away from Twilight and came over to them. “Little issue with getting permission for you two,” Starlight said, waving a hoof at Smolder and Ocellus. “Or actually just Ocellus. Dragon Lord Ember said...” she levitated over a slightly charred scroll and started reading aloud, “I have complete faith in Smolder to look after herself. Smolder can feel free to bust as many heads as it takes to solve this problem. P.S. Not literally. P.P.S. Unless it makes things easier.” Starlight looked Smolder pointedly. “But it won’t, right?”

Smolder shrugged. “Depends?” She asked. It was too early to tell, really.

Starlight sighed. “I’ll take it.” She turned to look at Ocellus while also levitating over the scroll that Twilight had just read. “But you...well, read for yourself.”

Ocellus took the scroll into her horn’s glow, and started reading the back-and-forth missives on it aloud, which covered both sides, even as Smolder and her other friends crowded around.

Dear King Thorax,

It is my very great honor, pleasure, and privilege to inform you that Ocellus and her friend Smolder have been called upon by the Cutie Map to solve a Friendship Problem! This is a momentous occasion for Equestria and for the Changeling Hive. However before I send Ocellus away from school to solve the Friendship Problem, I just wanted to receive your permission to do so.

Sincerely,
- Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship

Dear Princess Twilight,

Oh my gosh! Ocellus is going to be the first changeling to solve a friendship problem? That’s GREAT news! I knew she was perfect for the friendship school!

- Thorax

Dear Thorax,

I’m very glad you feel that way! I’m so excited too! Ocellus has been doing exceptionally well in the School of Friendship, so it’s no surprise to me that the Cutie Map would call on her! However, I think you got a little over-excited. You didn’t technically give permission. Just to make everything official, could you please do so?

- Twilight

Dear Princess Twilight,

Of course I’ll

Princess Twilight,

This is Prince-General Pharynx of the Badlands Changeling Hive.

You will tell myself and King Thorax where you plan on sending Ocellus, the nature of the problem she is expected to solve, and why a pony can’t solve it.

Dear Thorax and Pharynx,

I’m sorry, I guess I got excited myself! To answer Pharynx’s questions, the Cutie Map seems to be sending Ocellus and Smolder to Tiatarta, or maybe to the Nook. The Cutie Map doesn’t exactly let me zoom. As to what problem she needs to solve, I don’t know! The Cutie Map doesn’t provide that information. It just calls up the creatures who are best suited to solving the problem, and then let’s them know where they’re needed.

- Twilight

Princess Twilight,

You assured King Thorax and myself that Tiatarta was safe when it was selected for the Nook! Now you’re telling us that one of your most powerful artifacts is telling you that it’s become dangerous, but it won’t tell you HOW, and you expect me King Thorax to let you send one of our bugs into harm’s way?!

- Prince-General Pharynx

Dear Twilight,

I’m sorry for Pharynx. He’s very protective of the Hive. It’s what led to his Reformation, after all! Unfortunately he is making a few good points. I know that most friendship problems aren’t nearly as dangerous as he’s suggesting, but on the other hoof...is Starlight Glimmer there with you?

- Thorax

Dear Thorax,

Yes, I’m right here. And I know what you’re getting at. But there’s almost no chance that the Cutie Map would send Smolder and Ocellus alone to deal with a serious issue like...well, me. Tiatarta probably isn't dangerous.

- Starlight

ALMOST no chance?! PROBABLY?!

Dear Pharynx Prince-General Pharynx (I assume),

What Starlight MEANT to say was CERTAINLY no chance! I can’t believe that Harmony would put two students in mortal danger without making sure that they would be safe as could be. Some creature else would be sent as well. And the Nook will be right there, so there will be plenty of changelings to watch out for her!

- Princess Twilight

Dear Twilight and Starlight,

I might not have personally done anything in Canterlot, but I still feel guilty about it, as do all most changelings, among so many other crimes we’ve committed as a race.

What crimes, we were hungry, it’s a crime to eat now?

I’m sorry, Pharynx keeps taking the letter from me. Anyway, I promise you, Starlight, I wasn’t singling you out and I didn’t mean to drag up bad memories. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings by bringing it up, but I do need to look out for Ocellus. In any event, what Twilight says is true, so I’ll grant p

Princess Twilight, King Thorax demands that a squad of ten ignore th TWELVE warriors accompany Ocellus before permission is granted OVER MY OBJECTIONS. The Nook is not yet ready to provide for its own defense due to my idi King Thorax prioritizing the Nook’s agricultural and economic needs first, though in light of these missives that will be changing.

No it won’t! Please ignore that, Princess Twilight! The Nook is a colony, not a fortress! - Thorax

The six young creatures stared as they finished reading. “Pharynx sound like good leader,” Yona said at length, drawing the stares of her friends. She shrugged “Sounds strong, like yak!”

“So...we won’t be alone?” Smolder asked, and couldn’t keep...some tone from her voice. Hopefulness? Disappointment? She honestly wasn’t sure which she felt. She was, however, suddenly aware of how close she was to Ocellus. How one wing was spread over the changeling’s back, not touching her but stopping the others from getting too close as well. How the shine in Ocellus’ compound eyes looked particularly lustrous...she withdrew her wing as nonchalantly as possible, but couldn’t bring herself to move away from Ocellus.

Starlight didn’t seem to notice any of this, instead just rolling her eyes at Smolder’s question. “Honestly, Princess Twilight is working on that. Usually having outside ‘help’ on a Cutie Map quest tends to cause more harm than anything...remind me to tell you about the time I swapped Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s cutie marks and almost destroyed Equestria.”

Sandbar let out a small eep at that, taking a reflexive step back so that he could hide his flanks behind Yona. When Starlight looked at him, he let out a nervous chuckle. “S-sorry...”

Starlight shook her head. “It’s fine. It all worked out in the end...but the point is, if a certain purple princess hadn’t been nettling me the whole time, I might not have done it. Ever since then Twilight’s has a policy of only sending the ponies summoned by the Cutie Map in its quests.” She looked between Smolder and Ocellus. “Oh, speaking of, I guess you’re just a little too far away...” She indicated their still-glowing body parts. “Just get right up to the table.”

Ocellus advanced quicker than Smolder, which surprised her. Was she trying to escape her? Great. Smolder had become something to run away from. The dragon trudged up to the map herself. After several hours of her spines vibrating, she’d almost grown used to it, but once she set a claw down on the Cutie Map the vibrations stopped. If not for her mood it might have been a relief.

Ocellus’ elytra similarly stooped glowing and vibrating. She turned her head a little to look at Smolder, and smiled. “Finally, right?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Smolder agreed. She forced herself to look away from Ocellus and at the Cutie Map, where a simplistic image of her and Ocellus’s heads floated above a peninsula on the western edge of Equestria that jutted into the Pegasus Bay. “So...that’s where we’re going? Tiatarta or something?”

Twilight looked up from the note that she and Spike were working on. “Oh, yes!” She said. “It’s a small resort town on the opposite side of the Pegasus Bay from Los Pegasus. I’ve never been, but it’s apparently a paradise! If a bit expensive. The mayor, Delilah Dusk, wants to put it more on the map as a vacation destination. Which...actually made setting up the Nook hard...”

“Yeah, that came up a few times,” Silverstream noted as the rest of the young creatures came up to the Cutie Map. “What’s the Nook?”

Twilight grinned. “I’ll let Ocellus answer that!” She turned back to her note. “Okay, how to appeal to Pharynx’s better nature...”

Smolder has a feeling that was a lost cause. She found herself looking back to Ocellus, though at least the rest of her friends were also looking at her, so hopefully her stare didn’t stand out. Ocellus wilted somewhat at first at so many eyes on her, but shook her head after a moment. “U-um...well, the Badlands Hive is getting a little crowded,” she said. “Actually, it's been crowded for awhile now. That's part of why Chrysalis did...what she did, in Canterlot. Too many changelings and not enough to eat. Reformation letting us create love ourselves helps, and with Chrysalis' throne destroyed the Badlands aren't actually so bad anymore so we can actually grow more food...but that really only put off the problem, it didn't solve it.

“So King Thorax has been negotiating with Princess Celestia to create colonies. Exclaves of the Badlands Hive. And the first of those...” She waved a hoof at Tiatarta on the Cutie Map, “is the Nook.”

“Like in beekeeping,” Twilight said idly, tapping her quill to her mouth. “A nuc, N-U-C, short for nucleus, is an offshoot colony. Although somepony started spelling it N-O-O-K at some point, but King Thorax liked it so the name stuck. Say, Ocellus, I'm not sure if Pharynx knows that Smolder is a dragon. Do you think that would put him more or less at ease, knowing you're going with her?”

Ocellus' eyes widened. “Um...well, I think he likes Dragon Lord Ember. Although not as much as Thorax.”

“So they both like her? Great! Maybe...” she got back to writing.

Ocellus turned back to her friends. Smolder tried not to think about how much her eyes resembled finely polished gemstones. The kind you treasured rather than ate. “Anyway, Tiatarta was selected by Princess Celestia because it's small, out of the way, subtropical - which is the kind of temperature us changelings like - and basically could serve as a proof-of-concept for an exclave being set up near a pony town without causing issues for either the ponies or the changelings.”

“Wait, why not just have changelings move to Manehattan or Los Pegasus?” Sandbar asked.

Ocellus shifted uncomfortably at that, turning her head away. It was Starlight Glimmer who answered as she came up to them. “Not many changelings have useful skills,” she said, then winced at her own words. “I mean. of course, they have a lot! But...I mean, for getting jobs. Higher education wasn't a huge priority for Chrysalis. That's changing, but...it takes time. And King Thorax and Princess Celestia don't want to basically deliberately establish a low-class neighborhood that could then be exploited. If changelings want to move to the cities on their own, they can, but for setting up exclaves they thought it was better to start in a more rural area.”

“There, done,” Twilight said off to the side. She rolled up the scroll and hoofed it to Spike, who sent it on its way. “Now we just hope...”

“Not to mention that no matter how much has changed,” Gallus ventured, tapping a claw to his beak, “I can't see ponies reacting well to, what, a couple hundred changelings just showing up all at once? More?”

If anything, Ocellus folded up even more on herself at that. Smolder felt herself growling as she turned to Gallus. “Maybe the ponies should learn to deal with it.” She emphasized her point with smoke.

Gallus backed away, “Whoa! Hey! I wasn't saying I agree with it...”

Silverstream, meanwhile, had taken to the air, hovering over the Cutie Map and looking down at its miniature depiction of Tiatarta and the Nook. “That actually sounds really fun, though!” She said. “It's like a game! Establishing a whole new town, building it up from scratch, figuring out how to make it self-sufficient, learning to get along with the neighbors...ooh!” She looked to Smolder and Ocellus. “And that should make things super easy! If there's a friendship problem, I bet it's you needing to smooth things over with the ponies and the changelings!”

Twilight let out a groan. “I should have thought of that - ”

She was interrupted as Spike once more belched green fire and produced a scroll. He grabbed it and unfurled it, reading it aloud for every creature to hear.

Dear Princess Twilight,

I'm giving permission for Ocellus to go to the Nook, and she can do whatever she likes there, but she must be accompanied by Smolder when she goes into Tiatarta and for the entire trip there and back. I've convinced Pharynx to not send any warriors as well as long as Smolder stays with her constantly while they're in Tiatarta, by her side at all times, and provided the two of them obey an 8 o'clock curfew to return to the Nook. I really, really hate to phrase it like this, but the next time I see any of you in person I'll ask to make sure every creature did as I asked, and I'll know if you or Smolder or Ocellus aren't honest with me, and Pharynx will know too, and none of us want that or what I'll have to do if you aren't honest.

Also Pharynx is saying that you should use your Princess pull to get Ocellus and Smolder an express train straight to Los Pegasus, then they can be ferried across the bay to Tiatarta, and I'll agree with him on that, too. I'll send word to Ecdysis that Ocellus is coming so that she can meet Ocellus there.

Sincerely,
- King Thorax

Is Smolder there? Because if anything happens to Ocellus then I'll transform into the prettiest she-roc ever just so I can convince all the male rocs to hunt her down and bring her to me as a trophy. THEN I'll start pulling one scale at a time fr

Ignore that. - Thorax

Smolder swallowed. More than a year with a changeling like Ocellus - delicate, shy, and kind - among her closest friends, while also being the only changeling she knew, had made her forget that the race had consumed entire kingdoms in the past, both covertly and in open conquest. Pharynx had brought that fact back to the fore. Not that she was intimidated by words on paper, of course, but she couldn't help but wonder if Ocellus or Pharynx was the more typical representative of the changelings these days.

“I think you could have skipped that last part, Spike,” Twilight said.

“Yona like Pharynx,” the yak repeated. “He tough, but Yona can tell he soft too. Like yak!”

“The softness is just a thin, porous layer that surrounds more toughness,” Starlight groused, rubbing the back of her neck as though in memory. “Me and Trixie...well, it's a whole story. Good lesson to it, though. If I ever have to substitute for you, I'll tell it.”

Twilight spread her wings and set her horn glowing. “Right! So now that that's been dealt with, I had a speech prepared...” she trotted over to her chair at the table and hopped up onto it, then turned around to face the six students as Starlight and Spike joined her, Spike standing in his own chair while Starlight stood on the other side. Twilight used magic to dim the lighting in the room. “Smolder, Ocellus...this is a momentous occasion. The Cutie Map is a direct link to the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful magic in all of ponydom. The virtues of honesty, generosity, laughter, kindness, loyalty, and magic that make up the Elements of Harmony have brought so much light and goodness to Equestria, and Equestria has always sought to help spread those virtues beyond its borders so that the whole world can prosper.

“Six ponies, myself and five of my many dear friends, used to bear the Elements of Harmony. We had to give them up in order to restore the Tree of Harmony to its full grandeur, but I think that there may have been another reason as well.” Twilight angled her wings forward, indicating the students. “And I think that reason was shown when a yak, a changeling, a hippogriff, a pony, a dragon, and a griffon all came together to help restore magic to Equestria. The school you attend was founded on the idea that all creatures are deserving of, and are capable of expressing, the magic of friendship. On that day the Elements of Harmony showed us that they were not just the greatest magic in ponydom, but the greatest magic of all creatures.

“But the magic of friendship needs help. It's something that must be worked on, nourished, maintained. And for that, the Tree of Harmony occasionally asks creatures to aid in maintaining the harmony of the world.” Twilight waved a hoof at the cutie map. “And just maybe, in helping others remember the magic of friendship, you'll help it grow inside of you as well. So...Smolder the dragon, Ocellus the changeling. The Tree of Harmony has called on you. Even if the problem it sends you on seems small, you should know that you wouldn't be called unless you were needed - no other creature but you. Will you answer the call?”

Smolder found herself blinking. She knew that Headmare Twilight had a thing for friendship speeches, but she'd never been the target of one before. Truth be told, her first instinct had been to say “no“, just for the laugh...but she found herself nodding instead. “S...sure,” she said.

“Yes,” Ocellus responded as well. She lifted a hoof and looked to it for a moment, then turned to Smolder and held it out to her. “No matter what...we'll do our best. Right?”

Smolder's hand reached out and took Ocellus' hoof without thought. She wrapped her claws around it tightly, not tight enough to hurt, but enough to hopefully let Ocellus know that she would be there for her. She'd do her best too - particularly, her best to not let whatever it was that she was feeling for Ocellus get in the way. The dragon exhaled a long breath, trying to push out everything but her friendship with Ocellus as she did. “Right. Plus, y'know...Pharynx will kill me if I don't.” She chuckled.

Ocellus licked her lips, then stood up straighter, smiling herself. Both looked to Twilight. “Okay,” Ocellus said. “So. When do we leave?”

There was a pause. It took several seconds before Twilight realized that everypony was waiting on her. “Oh, right,” she said, and chuckled as she restored the lighting to normal and tucked away her wings. “I'll see about using that 'Princess pull' that Pharynx mentioned to get an express train. I can probably have one here by tonight. It's about a day and a half to Los Pegasus.” Her eyes widened. “Oh! I have to talk to everypony to make sure you have plenty of homework...”

Smolder groaned, while Ocellus giggled, withdrawing her hoof from Smolder's grip. Smolder only belatedly realized that she hadn't attempted to keep hold of it, and decided to take that as a good sign. “We're going on some kind of friendship quest and we still have to do homework?” Smolder asked. “What if there's some kind of major disaster we have to deal with? We won't have to do it then, right?”

Twilight laughed as though Smolder had told a joke. Silverstream was between the two of them quickly, one arm around each of them. “Don't worry! Like Headmare Twilight said in her letter, if the Cutie Map was sending you somewhere dangerous, then it would send along creatures that could help! So I'm guessing you'll have pleaaaanty of time for homework since it's just you and Ocellus. Whatever you have to deal with can't be that bad!”

“Can I buy a ticket to Tiatarta here, or do I have to wait until Los Pegasus?” Chrysalis asked the pony in the ticket booth. She was currently disguised as a fairly nondescript unicorn, dressed in a wide-brimmed sunhat, sunglasses, and a simple but elegant summer dress.

“I can fix you up,” the pony responded, accepted Chrysalis' bits and passed back a pair of tickets, one with a train on it and the other a ferry, as well as a brochure for Tiatarta and its attractions. “Enjoy the vacation!”

“Oh, I fully intend to,” Chrysalis intoned, horn lighting up blue as she hefted her suitcase and the shadow's wooden home. She made her way into the train car, stowed her case, and set the shadow down in an aisle seat and herself at a window seat. Another pony attempted to sit where the block of wood was, but she hissed and he fled. At least she could still do a proper changeling hiss.

“You know,” she said to the shadow as the train began moving. It had come out of its home. “I've heard stories that I actually like lurking in dark, dank caves. And they do have a certain appeal, don't get me wrong. But I am actually looking forward to a week on a beach in the sun. Just me and the sand and the waves. Grab a bite to eat...the solid kind and the ephemeral kind. Relax, take my mind off of world domination for awhile. Doesn't that sound fun?” She looked to the shadow of Twilight Sparkle, who stared back, then nodded once. “Exactly! Maybe we'll work on your tan while we're at it...” she saw, through the shadow, a pony across the aisle staring at her. She glared back. “What are you looking at?” she demanded. The pony quickly turned away and buried his face in a newspaper.

“Hmph,” Chrysalis scoffed, horn glowing as she took up the brochure for Tiatarta. “Let's see...Cloud Spirit's Sky Diving into Los Pegasus bay, that sounds fun...relax and indulge at Sundance Spa, I definitely think I will...a coupon for Patios and Pancakes? Is it for the patios, or the pancakes? Well, I'll look into it...come and see the wonders of the newly established Nook? What is...”

Chrysalis managed only a single line before she had to use magic to morph away her vocal chords - else she would have been screaming at the top of her lungs.

3. Had to Get Away

Ocellus and Smolder returned to the dormitories with their friends to pack for the trip, get in a last game of jangle poker while they had the chance (Gallus cleaned them out of their spare change once again, as usual), and then say their see-you-laters when Spike came to let them know that the train had arrived. Twilight’s “princess pull” had indeed allowed her to acquire an express train from Canterlot - in fact, her own private train engine and set of cars, which was the first Twilight learned that she even had such. Apparently Princess Celestia had meant to tell Twilight about them, but it had slipped her mind. Ocellus knew just enough about the Solar Diarch to suspect that the “slipped her mind” part was a teasing lie, a bit of a joke on Celestia’s part, and the sudden reveal of the train having been around the entire time was the punchline.

Regardless, it meant that the trip from Ponyville to Los Pegasus was made in luxury. Smolder had quickly claimed a bunk in the passenger sleeping car as her own, putting her bag on the bed and crawling onto it, holding the bag tightly to her chest and keeping her eyes closed as she sat there, tiny wisps of smoke coming from her mouth and nostrils. Ocellus could at least taste that the nervousness mixed with possessiveness was aimed at the bag, it’s contents, and the bunk rather than Ocellus herself.

She elected to give Smolder some space as the train got underway, although there wasn’t too much else to explore. The dining car had a bar, though it’s wall was conspicuously blank, the more adult beverages having been removed. The cooler still contained water and various sodas and juices, though, and the fridge and cabinets were stocked with healthy snacks and a few basic groceries, Twilight having not sent along a dining staff. It would have been embarrassing to Ocellus anyway.

After the dining car was the crew car, then the engine. Both might have been intimidating, since they had the ponies running the train and Ocellus wouldn’t have been comfortable meeting new creatures in her natural form unless she had a friend for assistance, but she discovered to her delight that one of the articles of homework Twilight has left for her was to do a report on the train and the ponies that ran it, and a twenty-question quiz about both. The questions of the quiz and the tyrannical blank essay paper drove Ocellus to actually introduce herself to the crew, and they were glad to show her the train engine and tell her about themselves.

As Celestia set her sun and Luna raised her moon, Ocellus at last ventured back into the sleeping car, now wearing a train conductor’s cap she had been given by the deliciously amicable and knowledgeable ponies that were taking them to Los Pegasus. She found Smolder in much the same position that she’d left her, save that she now had the blankets of her bunk over her head while she continued to clutch closely and occasionally stroke her bag, and a few flecks of gem dust on the sheets that showed that she had eaten.

Ocellus couldn’t stop herself from giggling at the sight of Smolder’s comfy little cave. “Yours?” Ocellus asked.

“Mine,” Smolder confirmed, though she grinned as she did. Ocellus licked her lips, and tasted embarrassed mirth. “It’s not much of a lair. Or even a real one. But...”

Ocellus giggled again, slipping over to the bunk opposite Smolder’s and getting under the covers, wriggling her chitin against the soft plushness of the mattress and the sheets and the pillows. The greed and shame directed her way had abated in her friend ever since Twilight’s speech and Ocellus reaching out to her friend. It was good to be able to talk to her again without wanting to gag. “The Nook will probably have a cubby you can set up in,” she said. “Though if it’s anything like the Badlands Hive there’s probably a communal sleeping chamber.” Her hooves reached out, grabbing one of the pillows and hugging it to herself, and she nuzzled it a little too. “That’ll be nice...”

Smolder shifted. “You get lonely?”

Ocellus looked up, eyes wide at the sudden scent of guilt. “Oh, no! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to...I mean, we share a dorm. And you’re great company!” Usually, Ocellus mentally appended. She bit back a low hiss. Secrets were a luxury she was going to have to give up soon. “I don’t think I could sleep in a room by myself. But...you can never have too much of a good thing, right?”

Smolder shrugged, the guilt dissipating - she’d accepted Ocellus’ explanation. The sheet over the dragon’s head slipped and fell off; she adjusted it so it was still around her shoulders. Ocellus tasted a lot more ease and comfort than when they’d first arrived. “I definitely agree with that last bit,” Smolder said. “But I’ll also definitely take that cubby thing you mentioned. Sleep there.” She looked down at her bag, and laughed a little. “This...this is kinda’ ridiculous. I got a few gems in here for snacks and a few bits for whatever, but it’s mostly just school books and paper. That’s not a hoard.”

Ocellus took off the conductor’s cap she’d been given and hung it on a peg on the wall, then used telekinesis to shut off the cabin’s light. The moon- and starlight that came in through the windows was still more than bright enough for either the changeling or dragon to see by, but they were probably going to have a busy next couple days. “Maybe a hoard is whatever you want it to be?”

“It’s whatever I value that’s mine, which I think is starting to say something about what the school is doing to me,” Smolder said. She lay down on her side, hugging her bag still like Ocellus was hugging her pillow. “Not that I regret that. More stuff for me. And less stuff that other dragons will want to take.” She considered, and grinned. “Also the actual friendship and stuff is nice, I guess.”

“Mmn,” Ocellus mumbled. Smolder was trying to play it off like it was just a cursory benefit, but she could smell the sincerity and the undertone of contentedness for life in general mixed with affection for the friends Smolder had made...of which Ocellus, as they only one present, was now the target of. She buried her face in the pillow she hugged to hide her sticking out her tongue and licking at the emotions, taking them in and enjoying the sensation of them settling into her heart. A nightcap, she told herself.

“Hey,” Smolder said after a few moments of silence...during which time she hadn't broken eye contact with Ocellus. “I was thinking about something Counselor Starlight said, while I was in here. About how most changelings don't really have useful job skills or whatever.”

Ocellus' tongue froze halfway out her mouth. She slipped it back in, then lifted her head from her pillow. “Yeah?” she asked.

“I mean, I get it,” Smolder said. “Not like dragons are any different. I think we all know that I'm the worst at school with stuff like writing or reading.”

“Your math is good,” Ocellus noted.

“Yeah. Dragon.” Smolder laughed. “But I mean...I think either you or Silverstream are the smartest. And Silverstream's royalty, or whatever, so I guess that makes sense. She has to be smart. But, no offense, everything I've learned about changelings says that you don't have to be. But you definitely are.”

Ocellus closed her eyes, burying her face in her pillow. She'd known that sooner or later one of her friends was going to pick up on this. “There's, um...there's an exception. Chrysalis didn't need warriors or workers to really know all that much. But...the bugs who were expected to go and disguise themselves, infiltrate...”

Smolder let out a surprised laugh. “No way. You're a spy?”

“No!” Ocellus answered quickly, hugging the pillow tighter. She peeked up over it at Smolder. “That is...I was going to be, eventually. If Chrysalis had her way, and if I made the cut. I don't think I would have, I don't think I could ever...” Ocellus paused. She was about to say steal love, but every day she did in fact do exactly that, didn't she? She shook her head. “...hurt creatures to steal love.” That much was true. “But I was being educated better than most changelings. But then King Thorax saved us. I never disguised myself as a real creature, I never stole any love, I never even left the Hive before - ”

“Hey, calm down,” Smolder said quickly. “You don't have to prove anything. You say you didn't do anything wrong, I believe you.” She did, too. Ocellus could smell it. “It is pretty cool, though. But I'm getting a 'don't tell anyone' vibe?” Ocellus nodded, and Smolder shrugged. “So I won't.”

Ocellus took in a few breaths and let them out slowly. “I will tell everycreature. Eventually.”

“Cool. Or don't. I don't think it matters.”

She really didn't. Smolder's sincerity was still on Ocellus' tongue. Confidence. Certainty. It all blended together so deliciously. Ocellus couldn't stop herself from resuming her “nightcap“ with her muzzle hidden safely behind the pillow she hugged. She realized after a moment that Smolder, though she'd fallen silent, still had her eyes open...looking directly at Ocellus, as directly as any creature could look at a changeling's compound eyes, anyway. And Ocellus was holding that gaze as completely as she could, too. She tasted affection again...desire...and a touch of something even more filling...

Then quite suddenly, the flavor shifted, the other sensations overwhelmed by a new taste. The greed had returned suddenly and completely, as Smolder’s eyes narrowed just a little, focusing on Ocellus even more. It didn’t taste bad itself. But then Smolder’s eyes grew wide, and shame returned. Spread through everything. It was vile. Ocellus started coughing and gagging before she could stop herself, tongue snapping back into her mouth.

Worry and concern's scents permeated the air. “Are you okay?” Smolder asked, sitting up and letting go of her bag.

Ocellus waved her off. Doubt joined the other scents, and guilt. “I...I’m fine,” she said, clamping her mouth shut as much as possible save for a tiny bit so that she could still breathe, burying herself in the bunk, wishing she could breathe through her mouth without smelling things like most creatures could, or at least that she could shape-shift herself into one of those creatures without Smolder noticing. Her hind legs writhed and wings buzzed a little in discomfort within her elytra, but she quickly brought both under control. “F-fine. Something I ate for dinner. But I’ll be fine.”

Still more doubt, but also trust. Smolder believed that Ocellus would tell her if it was something that mattered. Ocellus buried herself in her bunk more, cocooning herself and rolling over so she wasn’t facing Smolder. She tasted shame on the back of her tongue...this time, her own. Which meant it wasn’t going anywhere soon. “It’s...going to be a long next few days,” Ocellus hissed from within her cocoon of blankets and pillows. “Goodnight, Smolder.”

“G’night,” Smolder said.

This was going to be a long next few days. For just a few hours, Smolder’s desire to claim a space of her own and hold tightly onto her makeshift hoard had allowed her to ignore and shove aside her desire to claim Ocellus, add her to her hoard. But then the lights had been switched off, and in the dark the changeling’s big eyes and glowed, and she'd shared a secret with Smolder, given Smolder something she didn't have before, added to her hoard. The way Ocellus should be part of her hoard. The moment Smolder had realized what she was thinking, she'd started hating herself again.

And it didn't escape her notice that almost immediately, Ocellus had started gagging, then turned in. The emotion-eating bug, the moment Smolder's emotions had changed. Smolder may have considered herself stupid, but she wasn't that stupid. Ocellus had smelled, or tasted, or both, Smolder's feelings.

Smolder got up from the bunk, leaving behind her bag and going to the dining car, needing a drink and to put space between herself and Ocellus. Though the fact that she felt safe leaving her hoard behind spoke volumes - she wasn’t worried about Ocellus stealing her hoard because Ocellus was part of that hoard.

She fetched a bottle of water from the cooler and sat down at the bar, drumming her claws on the wood, breathing, exhaling smoke and, after each swallow of water, a bit of steam as well. But even fogging up the windows of the train car didn’t help.

She wanted Ocellus. Needed her, like she’d never needed anything else before. Every other gemstone, every piece of gold, every stupid rock and dumb hunk of metal that she’d ever clutched in her claws was somehow lesser than the idea of taking those same claws and running them across the fuzz of Ocellus’ carapace. Clutching the changeling to her. Feeling her heartbeat and knowing that it beat because it was Smolder’s. Hers. All hers. No creature else’s.

“Heh,” Smolder scoffed to herself. Directly across the bar was a mirror, and Smolder was staring at her own eyes. “Really does sound like I’m in love. Until you get to the ‘I’ll burn any other creature who touches her’ part.”

Dragons didn’t do love, but Smolder had been around ponies enough to know that wanting to keep a creature away from anything else wasn’t love. It was just dumb, brutal draconic greed that was being thrown off by Ocellus. Her natural instincts just weren’t equipped to interpret what willingly letting a living creature into her lair meant. Even two mated dragons keep separate hoards, but Ocellus was in her lair, among her hoard. But she wasn’t stealing her hoard. So she must be her hoard.

Or something. Smolder shook her head. Thinking was absolutely not her strong suit and was getting her nowhere. She finished the water, then stepped back into the sleeping car. With Ocellus buried, Smolder couldn’t tell if the changeling was still awake or asleep. She almost went to just head to her bunk, but something caught her eye - the train conductor’s cap that Ocellus had been wearing when she came in, hanging from a peg on the wall.

It was Ocellus’. It wasn’t Smolder’s. Or that’s what Smolder knew in her head, anyway. The rest of her, however, had her reach out and grab the newest addition to her hoard before returning to her bunk and climbing in. She grabbed her bag and held it close - but made sure to have the conductor’s cap laid out on top.

Smolder closed her eyes tightly and tried to will herself to sleep. She couldn’t stop herself from burying her snout into the cap, though, nor from whispering “mine.”

The following day passed in almost complete silence, which worried Ocellus. Smolder spent most of her time focused on her school work, which worried Ocellus even more. It didn’t help that Smolder had taken her work to the dining car, sitting at a table there; innocuous enough on its own, but Ocellus couldn’t help but think that Smolder was placing herself between the ponies in the engine and the changeling in her impromptu lair - guarding the entrance.

The shame was disgusting, but for her own sanity Ocellus had needed to sample some of Smolder’s emotions. There was small relief there, at least, in that apart from the possessiveness and shame, all of Smolder’s feelings towards Ocellus remained as positive as ever, if tainted by association. But Smolder wasn’t jealous of her, or suspicious, or anything that Ocellus knew to look out for in creatures - ponies, mostly - with boundary issues. Smolder was still no threat to her, would never hurt her. The affection that Ocellus smelled and tasted was completely genuine, not twisted. As odd as it sounded, while Smolder wanted to own Ocellus, there was no desire to control her.

Which just made things more confusing, and Ocellus more desperate to try and figure out what was going on. Unfortunately her previous friendship lessons at the school all said the same thing, basically: just talk to her, silly bug. But that would require Ocellus exposing that she was eating her friends’ emotions, even if only in tiny nibbles. Breaking their trust. Violating the promise her race had made, and probably revealing that almost all changelings around other creatures still did it too. She had no idea how any of them would react, other than with disgust and anger and betrayal. And then they wouldn’t be her friends anymore.

And that thought was so much worse than having to deal with Smolder’s inscrutable emotions.

The second night in the train passed in silence so complete that Ocellus might as well have been sleeping alone. Or lying there alone. She didn't get much sleep, and was relieved when the train finally pulled into Los Pegasus station just a few hours after the sun came up, sliding alongside a passenger train that had just come into the station itself. The two students thanked the train ponies for getting them to Los Pegasus safely, then set out for the ferry that would carry them to Tiatarta.

It was the most awkward walk of Ocellus' life, from the train station to the dock. Smolder had her head down the entire time, but she also stayed right next to Ocellus, keeping a eye on her like she could wander off at any moment. Which, with the wisps of greed and shame Ocellus kept getting, she almost wanted to. But the Cutie Map had called them, and Headmare Twilight had asked them. They couldn't walk away.

So Smolder and Ocellus bought their ferry tickets, boarded, and sat down aboard the S.S. Shoobedoo, a boat that could fit maybe a hundred creatures but on this early morning was looking like it was only going to carry half that number. Both glanced at each other on occasion, Ocellus imperceptibly, Smolder as covertly as possible given that Ocellus literally couldn't take her eyes off of the dragon. The awkward silence was deafening.

Smolder finally broke it, not by talking to Ocellus, but instead glancing across at one of the other passengers on the ferry. “S...so," she said. "First time to Tiatarta?”

The passenger had a brochure for Tiatarta held up in front of her face in an azure glow, and a slightly purple-tinged block of wood in the seat next to her for some reason. At Smolder's words, the brochure lowered at a glacial pace until the blue eyes of a gray-coated unicorn glared back at the two creatures. “I'm. On. Va-ca-tion.”

Smolder blinked. “Um...okay. Sorry for asking, I guess.”

The unicorn glared at Smolder. She turned her head slightly and glared at Ocellus. Then the brochure drifted back up in front of her eyes.

Chrysalis shifted her tongue and throat back to its natural changeling form without shedding her unicorn disguise, and flicked out her tongue behind the brochure, testing the air. From the dragon, she tasted love seasoned with so much greed that the latter was overwhelming the former (typical dragon), and shame over the second emotion since it and the first were directed at the changeling; at a guess, the teenage dragon was in love for the first time and didn't know how to parse it since dragons stupidly convinced themselves that they didn't “do“ love in an attempt to seem tougher. Because they were stupid.

From the changeling, Chrysalis tasted guilt, over something personal but also tied in to her feelings for the dragon. Given how the changeling kept having to stop herself from flicking out her own tongue, probably she had a habit of eating emotions and felt bad about it because Thorax was a weak, insipid fool who had convinced the Hive that emotions should be shared, not taken. There were also stirrings of love for the dragon, faint flickers of it mixed in with the general affection and camaraderie of friendship. But the guilt tainted the love in her as bad as the shame tainted the dragon's own.

Ugh. So, in sum, there weren't going to be any snacks on the trip over to Tiatarta, at least not from these two. Who sort-of looked familiar. Then again dragons all looked the same. For that matter, the Reformed changelings did as well: hideous. Not her, of course. She'd lost the regal majesty of her original form, but she wore the new one well. But all the other bugs? Eyesores. Except maybe Pharynx. Chrysalis had seen a picture of him. Not bad.

The ferry got underway. It was about forty-five minutes from Los Pegasus to Tiatarta and the Nook (which Chrysalis fully intended to avoid like the plague), and the Pegasus Bay was offering placid seas while the sky overhead was cloudless. The ferry was an open-air one; there was a tarp in case of poorly timed weather but it was retracted to let the sun shine down. The Queen managed to make it fifteen minutes before lowering her brochure again to gaze at the young not-couple-because-they-were-idiots. They were dead silent. Actually most everypony on the boat ride - every other creature was a pony - was being quiet, or talking in low voices. Something to do with the early hour, maybe. But if Chrysalis had wanted silence she would have stayed in Grogar's lair.

“Oh for goodness' sake,” Chrysalis said. The two teenagers jumped at the sound of her voice, looking at her. She glared back at them. “Your silence bores me. Talk. That's the only way to get over lovers' quarrels anyway.”

The word choice had the exact desired effect: the changeling's elytra opened wide and wings spread in shock, while the dragon began coughing smoke. Both blushed furiously. “We're...bu...not...” the changeling sputtered uselessly in the face of mere words. Pride of the Hive, this one.

“Dragons don't do love!” The dragon said, inheritor of her race's idiot genes that she was.

Chrysalis allowed herself a grin as she looked over to the shadow's home. She hoped it was watching. “Well, it's a start,” she said. She extended a hoof. Ponies were friendly, and she looked like one. “Nonchalant, relationship counselor.” The obviously false name was so obviously false that it had to be real. Chrysalis enjoyed disguises like that.

The two teenagers had recovered. The dragon reached out, and shook Chrysalis' hoof. “Smolder,” she said. “And this is Ocellus.”

Nope. Didn't ring a bell.

“We, um...we don't need relationship counseling, Miss Nonchalant,” Ocellus said.

“Doctor Nonchalant, I did not go through eight years of psychology schooling just to be called Miss.” In fact Chrysalis had never set foot inside a school in her life, probably, unless one of her victims had taken refuge in a school at some point in a vain attempt to escape her. Might have happened. “And you might not be lovers but you definitely need relationship counseling. Two teenagers by themselves going to a place like Tiatarta shouldn't be sitting silently and avoiding eye contact.”

“We're not - ”

“Why are you going to Tiatarta? No offense, but a dragon and a changeling being friends is a pretty unusual sight. Actually just a dragon or a changeling in general in these parts.”

Smolder and Ocellus glanced to each other for a moment, then looked back to Chrysalis. “We're from Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship, in Ponyville,” Smolder said. “And the Princess' Cutie Map is sending us to Tiatarta, or the Nook. There's a friendship problem that needs solving.”

Chrysalis pursed her chosen form's lips as she thought that over. The School of Friendship at least explained why the two looked familiar; they would be in Cozy Glow's yearbook, and the...Chrysalis was starting to lean towards half-windigo...was fond of showing off the pictures of the students there and describing her planned revenge in exacting detail. It was one of her more endearing qualities. As for the friendship problem...that couldn't be her, could it? On any other day she'd assume the answer was “yes“, but given that she hadn't even arrived yet and that she genuinely just wanted to relax at Tiatarta she couldn't see how that was the case. Surely one or two ponies drained of love and put into comas for a few days as a result didn't warrant Harmony's intervention. Unless, of course, it did. Harmony was petty.

Not that Chrysalis was remotely concerned. Harmony or not, these were a single changeling drone and a dragon whelp. They were no threat to her whatsoever. “So this is in essence a business trip, then,” Chrysalis said aloud. “My mistake, I thought you two were friends.”

“We are!” Ocellus and Smolder both objected.

Chrysalis scoffed a little as she leaned back in her seat. “Friends talk to each other. You two weren't. I call it like I see it.”

“You don't know anything about us,” Smolder objected. Like a dragon would. She also made a fist and pointed a claw at Chrysalis. Like a dragon would. Next would be...a-ha, a snort of smoke, right on time. “For your information, my friendship with Ocellus helped to save Equestria!”

Oh, so these two were from that group of friends that Cozy always went on about! Chrysalis smiled pleasantly. “Really?” She asked. “Well, that sounds like quite a tale! Why don't you tell it? I've heard stories, of course,” terribly biased ones at that from a little psychopath who was almost certainly distorting the facts beyond recognition, “but hearing it straight from the horse's mouth - or the dragon's, or the changeling's - would certainly help pass the time.”

Cue draconic vanity in three, two, one...

Smolder smiled. “Oh, it's great,” she said. “So there we all were, on field trip to Cloudsdale...”

Credit where it was due: the little dragon was a passable storyteller, incredibly animate in her descriptions and with a surprising attention to detail, evincing a keen memory if nothing else. Ocellus more had to be prodded in by Smolder on occasion, although the changeling did speak up once or twice to correct particularly egregious exaggerations. She also occasionally shapeshifted to provide some visuals, such as the various magical artifacts that Cozy had stolen, and once as Cozy Glow herself. The bug would have been a skilled infiltrator, if not for what appeared to be a fairly meek nature. Although a fair part of that could probably be blamed on Thorax's encouragement.

More importantly to Chrysalis, though, the storytelling by Smolder distracted the dragon from her mood, and Ocellus as well. She leaned back in her seat and folded her hooves in front of her mouth, hiding it and the subtle blue glow of her once again selectively transforming her throat and tongue to their true changeling forms. She began lapping up the excess positive emotions. Snacks had been provided, and entertainment with them, and the accursed silence had been broken. Excellent.

They were in sight of Tiatarta when a commotion began at the ship's right side from the ponies aboard. Chrysalis turned to look - which was really too bad as Smolder was getting to the part where apparently the entire school turned on Cozy due to the maybe-filly's own missteps - and saw that everypony was looking at an airship emblazoned with the words "Cloud Spirit's Sky Diving" on its balloon. It was flying close to the water. Very close. Just a few feet. At speeds that Chrysalis was fairy certain were unsafe when it was so low. And also jerking left and right erratically, as though whoever was driving the thing was spinning its wheel back and forth haphazardly.

Although in spite of that it was nevertheless making a fairly straight line directly for the ferry.

Smolder and Ocellus both stood at the sight. “What the...?” Smolder asked.

“It's out of control,” Chrysalis sighed as she stood herself, stretched, and grabbed the shadow's wooden home and her suitcase in her telekinesis.

“It's...it's going to crash into us!” Ocellus exclaimed.

“Well, into the boat, yes,” Chrysalis confirmed, coming up alongside the two and reaching out with one leg. “I'd guess we have thirty seconds. However there's life rafts over here and you two are just amusing enough that - ”

“Come on!" Smolder shouted, launching into the air and then surging forward as fast as her young wings could carry her - towards the airship.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Well, your friend's abandoned...” she began as she turned to Ocellus. Or where Ocellus was supposed to be. Instead, she found a distinct lack of blue-and-red bug, as the changeling had launched herself into the air after Smolder. Also, heading towards the airship.

“Oh for the love of...”

Smolder was a faster flier than Ocellus, and so reached the airship first. It wasn't very big as airships went, about the size of a fully mature dragon, with a gondola big enough for around a dozen ponies suspended beneath its wide balloon. With it flying so close to the water but swinging so wildly, the safest approach was actually towards the balloon rather than the gondola; Smolder spread her wings wide to stop her forward momentum and lashed out with the claws on her hands and feet to grab the balloon. She tore through the canvas easily, though next to the size of the balloon the rips wouldn't mean much. It did allow her to rapidly climb down the side of the balloon and throw herself onto the gondola, however. A moment after she landed, she was joined by Ocellus, whose changeling hooves allowed her to stand fairly easily on the wildly pitching and swinging gondola the same way she could crawl on a wall or ceiling, while Smolder was reduced to digging into the wood with all four clawed limbs.

“Wheeee!”

Out of everything Smolder had expected to hear, that was not one of them. The gondola was empty of creatures save the one at the wheel - a yellow-and-green changeling, of all things. But something seemed off about him. His eyes were wide open, yet somehow the way he swung his head around gave off the impression that he wasn't really seeing anything. The fact that he was just spinning the wheel back and forth didn't help. He was also laughing hysterically.

“Changeling passtimes are weird,” Smolder said. She glanced over her shoulder, and saw the ferry still getting closer. Pegasi aboard had already grabbed the ground-bound ponies they could and taken to the air, while the unicorns and earth ponies left behind had made it to the life-rafts on the other side and were beginning to hop in and lower them.

“I think something's wrong with him,” Ocellus said as she started making her way forward across the deck as fast as she could. Smolder followed. Fortunately anything that might have been loose and tumbling on the deck had long since fallen overboard, so the two had an unimpeded trip over to the changeling.

Ocellus tried to get the changeling's attention, horn glowing and waving a hoof, but Smolder had bigger concerns. Hoping that Ocellus wouldn't hold it against her, Smolder stood and pushed the changeling aside, then grabbed the airship's wheel and turned it hard to the right. The airship turned with it, but sheer inertia kept the vehicle also going forward. Smolder was treated to the wonderful sight of the ferry growing ever-closer, She winced and held her breath, grabbing the wheel tighter...

...but the airship just missed hitting the ferry - or rather the airship's gondola definitely clipped it, sending shudders throughout the airship and the boat both, but neither seemed to pick up any permanent damage.

Smolder sighed in relief, looking over the steering wheel. All around it were knobs and leavers, most of which Smolder couldn't even begin to guess the purpose of, but one was helpfully labeled “emergency brake“. She pulled it, and the airship let out a shriek as the propellers in its rear were suddenly stopped. The airship began to drift to a stop.

Having ensured that she wasn't going on an impromptu airship voyage, Smolder turned to Ocellus. She was down by the yellow-and-green changeling, who was still giggling to himself where he lay in a daze. “Flying is fun...” he intoned.

Smolder stomped towards the changeling, snorting smoke. “Yeah? Is crashing?”

“Kinda'...”

Actual flames followed that comeback, but Ocellus was between Smolder and the changeling in an instant before those flames could be directed, holding out a hoof. “Wait!” she exclaimed. She turned to the changeling, and waved a hoof in front of his eyes. It was several long seconds before the changeling acknowledged the motion, head swinging up and down trying to follow Ocellus' hoof, then making a half-hearted attempt to grab it that ended with the changeling falling forward, giggling still. “He's totally out of it,” Ocellus said. “I don't think he knows where he is or what he was doing.”

Smolder snorted more smoke, but crossed her arms and nodded. “Yeah,” she said at length. “Yeah, okay, that's pretty obvious. So...what, did he lick too much salt? Does that do anything for changelings the way it does ponies?”

“I don't think so,” Ocellus responded, getting down on her knees and helping the changeling roll over onto his back. She leaned in to him, opened her mouth and started to breathe in - but then a hoof smacked her on the back of her head.

Ocellus yelped while Smolder growled as she spun. She found herself looking at a gray unicorn mare - Nonchalant. "What the heck?” Smolder asked. “How'd you get over here?”

Nonchalant eyed Smolder. “Good question! The horn on my head is just for show, after all, it doesn't mean anything like, say, that I'm a unicorn with magical powers.” Nonchalant returned her attentions to Ocellus. “Don't eat his emotions. Don't even smell them if you can avoid it.”

Ocellus rubbed the back of her head. “Why not?” She asked.

“Because unless I'm mistaken,” Nonchalant said, trotting forward and tapping a hoof against the yellow-and-green changeling's side, prompting a giggle from him, “that's what got him acting like this. This changeling's been eating false love...that is, love created from a love poison.”

Nonchalant closed her eyes, and sighed. “I'm supposed to be on vacation...”

4. But I Thought it Was Just for Fun

Ocellus’ head titled as she turned to look at Nonchalant, though she still leaned down close to the yellow-and-green changeling. “How do you...” she began, when a scent reached her from the bug, and her eyes widened.

It smelled so good. She turned to the changeling, who was still giggling and writhing a little, occasionally mumbling something about airships and flying them and then giggling more, and the mirth, the joy, the sheer happiness...!

She felt herself being seized in a blue aura and dragged away across the deck. “No. Bad bug,” Nonchalant said, stepping forward and standing between Ocellus and the other changeling. “Love poison, it’s in the name!”

Smolder grabbed Ocellus from Nonchalant’s telekinesis, and stepped forward. “How the heck would you know that?” She demanded, growling and snorting smoke.

Nonchalant flipped her mane. “Relationship counselor. You think I don’t have to deal with love poisons and the effects of them?”

“Okay, but how would you know how they affect changelings?”

“Relationship counselor! You think I don’t have to deal with changelings?” Nonchalant laughed, though she turned and prodded at the changeling under her hooves again. “I could tell you stories. Wait, no I couldn’t. Doctor-patient confidentiality or whatever.” She leaned down and prodded the changeling in his cheek. “Bug. You’re ruining my vacation and it hasn’t even started yet. Who did you eat?”

The changeling’s eyes fluttered, but all that happened was he broke out into more giggles. “We’re flying...!”

Nonchalant whickered, then stepped back. “Fine, whatever.”

Ocellus took in a few breaths. Standing next to Smolder, but with Smolder’s focus on Nonchalant, she mostly smelled the confidence and certainty mixed with defiance of her friend, focused as she was right now on Nonchalant rather than her. The sheer joy of the changeling was washed from her throat. She forced herself to look back to Nonchalant. “W...will he be okay?” She asked.

“Eventually. Believe it or not, this is a mild reaction. Less than he deserves for actually - ”

“H-hey!” Ocellus objected. “No creature deserves to be like...like this!”

Nonchalant seemed taken aback by Ocellus’ outburst. She made to respond, when a buzzing filled the air. Turning to look, Ocellus saw three changelings flying straight at them with all the speed they could muster, perhaps because a few hundred feet behind them were an equal number of pegasi, one of which was carrying a purple-coated, black-maned earth pony.

The lead changeling had a red carapace with orange elytra and yellow eyes and wings; Ocellus realized she recognized her. “Instructor Ecdysis!” She called as the changeling landed.

Ecdysis didn’t acknowledge Ocellus, instead barreling right past her, Smolder, and Nonchalant to come up to the poisoned changeling, the other two bugs with her taking up flanking positions. “Turn into a rock!” She exclaimed to him. “A fish, a twig, something easy to hide or something we can throw overboard or - ”

“Boop,” was the changeling’s response, as he pressed a hoof to Ecdysis’ muzzle. Then he started giggling again.

“Clavicle, we don’t have time for this, get it together so that - ”

“So that nothing!” Came another voice. The pegasi had arrived, deposing the earth pony aboard the gondola. She was the one who spoke, and she came forward, also ignoring Ocellus, Smolder, and Nonchalant and instead getting right up to Ecdysis. She was taller than the changeling by just a bit.

Ecdysis took in a sharp breath, and winced at what she smelled. “Mayor Dusk, Clavicle is a subject of the Badlands Hive and I have diplomatic immunity - ”

“And he doesn’t, and we’re in Equestrian airspace over Equestrian waters and he stole an Equestrian citizen’s airship!” The earth pony - Mayor Delilah Dusk, Ocellus assumed, remembering Twilight’s offhand comment from a few days ago - exclaimed. After a moment her gaze softened as she looked down to the changeling. “Or...her? I’m sorry, I really am trying...”

“Clavicle presents as male, yes. That’s not the issue.”

“No, it’s not.” Mayor Dusk looked back to Ecdysis, then nodded back over her shoulder. “These officers are going to take Clavicle into custody. Cloud Spirit can decide whether or not to press charges for the theft, but even if he doesn’t...”

“But it’s not his fault!” Ecdysis swung a hoof back to the changeling at her hooves. “Look at him! He’s been poisoned, just like Obtect and Hyaline and - ”

“And all the other bugs you can’t seem to control.” Dusk’s eyes narrowed. “And I’ve been looking into love poisons. These aren’t the symptoms of a pony...sorry, a creature who drank one. He’s not making lovey-dovey faces at any creature. He ate the fake love, didn’t he?”

“Quite right,” Nonchalant spoke up. Ecdysis’ and Mayor Dusk’s head whipped to look at her, and she smiled. “Nonchalant. Relationship counselor. And yes, a changeling under the effects of a love poison acts like any other creature would. This,” she was still near Clavicle, and prodded him, “is what happens when a changeling eats the fake love.”

Ecdysis looked back to Mayor Dusk. “Small nibbles,” she pleaded. “We were born hungry, we were raised starving, tiny bites don’t hurt any creature, I explained this to you and you said that - ”

“And could this happen from tiny bites?” Mayor Dusk asked. She looked to Nonchalant. “Small nibbles?”

Nonchalant shook her head. “No. There’s at least one creature unconscious somewhere right now, drained of fake love. The good news is, they’re cured! No stroke-of-midnight nonsense or whatever. The bad news...depends on where they are. Does this town have a wolf problem? Coyotes?”

Mayor Dusk looked back to Ecdysis. “Clavicle comes with us,” she said with finality. “If King Thorax wants to try and extradite him, that’s between him and Princess Celestia, but until then...”

Ecdysis’ wings buzzed beneath her elytra. “Pleurite, go with him.”

One of the other changelings started to come forward. Dusk shook her head. “No, Ecdysis, that’s not how it works, Pleurite hasn’t done anything and I can’t just have...her?...sitting in the town’s stockade when she’s done nothing - ”

“Pleurite, go commit a cr - ”

Dusk’s hoof shot up and covered Ecdysis’ mouth before she could finish the sentence. “Really?” She asked.

“Really,” Ecdysis said around the hoof.

“Fine. Officers, arrest Clavicle, and Pleurite can come along.” The pegasi - they in fact were all wearing simple white, short-sleeves shirts and caps that identified them as police - came forward, the changelings making room for them to hoist up Clavicle. He apparently found the experience hilarious as two of the pegasi lifted off, carrying the giggling bug between them, while Pleurite followed. The last pegasus remained with the mayor, her ride back.

The silence lingered for several long seconds, before Smolder cleared her throat. “So...” she said, looking to Ocellus and pointing a finger at both Ecdysis and Mayor Dusk. “Friendship problem?”

The changeling and earth pony looked over to Ocellus and Smolder. The latter shook her head. “I’m sorry, who...?”

“Smolder,” the dragon responded. “And that’s Ocellus.”

“And I’m out of here,” Nonchalant spoke up, heading over to the edge of the airship a gondola and squinting at the nearby ferry. “Good practice for my teleporting, I suppose.”

“Actually, Miss - ”

“Doctor.”

“ - Doctor Nonchalant,” Mayor Dusk said, “I’d appreciate it if you could stop by my office at Tiatarta. Any expertise on love poisons would be appreciated.”

Nonchalant barely hesitated in her response. “No. I’m on vacation.” With that, blue light momentarily engulfed her, then she disappeared, and reappeared on the deck of the ferry.

Ocellus, meanwhile, had trotted over and up to Ecdysis. “Um...Instructor,” she said, though she couldn’t keep from wincing at the melancholy scent that came off of the red changeling.

Ecdysis turned to look directly at her, though she kept Mayor Dusk in her vision as well. “Ocellus. King Thorax said you were coming. There was supposed to be...” she drifted off, then shook her head. “I’m sorry you arrived to this.”

Smolder came up alongside Ocellus, hands on her hips. “Instructor?”

Ecdysis looked to Smolder. “Old job, during the Bad Old Days. Ocellus was...a mediocre student.” But she smiled a little as she said that, and for just a moment warm affection broke through the morose aroma that surrounded her. “But in a good way, it turns out.”

“Oh,” Smolder said, glancing to Ocellus. “For that thing you were gonna be?”

Ocellus flinched. “Y-yeah.”

“Still think it’s cool.”

“Excuse me,” Mayor Dusk spoke up, trotting over to the two students and Ecdysis, “I’m glad you three all know each other, but you,” she pointed at Ocellus, “weren’t with Ecdysis when she flew over here, and...” she tilted her head to the side. “Are you really a dragon?”

“Yeah,” Smolder said, crossing her arms and leaning towards Dusk, “what’s it to you?”

“Just wanted to be sure. There’s a changeling at the Nook who spends all his time as a potted plant. Except when...ugh.” She put a hoof to her face and dragged it down slowly. “I miss when Venter was the biggest problem bug.”

“Me too,” Ecdysis intoned.

“In any event,” Mayor Dusk said, looking to the two teenagers again, “what are you doing on this airship?”

“Oh, y’know, saving it from crashing into things,” Smolder explained. Ocellus, Ecdysis, and the other changeling could all smell the confidence and pride coming off of her, strong enough to clear the air a bit of the otherwise sour mood. “Me and Ocellus were on that ferry. We’re from Princess Twilight’s School of Friendship, and were sent here because apparently you two,” she pointed to Ecdysis and Dusk, “have a friendship problem!”

Ecdysis and Mayor Dusk looked between each other. “No we don’t,” Ecdysis said. “Delilah is just protecting her town.”

“And Ecdysis just wants to keep her bugs safe,” Dusk added. “This isn’t personal. I actually admire the lengths Ecdysis is willing to go to,” she glanced over at the red changeling, “even if she may have skirted the edge of Equestrian law just now.”

“And I know you can’t bend those laws on a whim,” Ecdysis confirmed. “And that you’ve done a lot of work to incorporate us in to your plans for Tiatarta, Delilah. Plans that I want the Nook to be part of.”

“Me too.”

Smolder glanced between the two adults discussing their problems in a calm and mature and open way. “Okay! Great! Friendship problem solved, right?” She glanced up at her spines. In spite of herself, Ocellus looked at her elytra. Neither were doing anything extraordinary. “Darn,” Smolder said.

“It wasn’t going to be that easy,” Ocellus chided.

Mayor Dusk looked between the two students. “Well, that explained...very little...but if you did save this ship and the ferry, then congratulations are in order. If you stop by the town hall I might be able to arrange something. Discounts at some of the local attractions.” She frowned as she stepped back from them, and looked back to Ecdysis. “For what it's worth, Ecdysis, I really hope we can get to the bottom of this soon - before some creature does get hurt more than your changelings already have been. But until then, I apparently have at least one love-drained creature to start looking for - ”

“My bugs will help,” Ecdysis said quickly. “We...we might be able to think of some places where a changeling might...stash some creature.”

The stink of guilt poured off of Ecdysis, and the other changeling with her... and Ocellus, because she could, in fact, think of a few places most towns had where she might stash an unconscious victim for later. In fact she was standing right next to the bug who had taught her.

Delilah Dusk didn’t miss the implication. “Advice would be appreciated...but under the circumstances I don’t think it would be a good idea for have changelings combing the environs right now.”

“We could do it in disguise - ”

“I don’t think that would help at all.”

Ecdysis froze, then nodded, and Ocellus had to clamp her mouth shut as the awful scent of shame began assaulting her senses again. The distinct piques that made it different from Smolder’s didn’t help in the slightest.

Mayor Dusk cast a sympathetic glance Ecdysis’ way, but then turned to the pegasus still aboard. “Let’s go,” she said. The pegasus nodded, grasping her about the barrel and taking off.

Smolder and Ocellus watched the two ponies fly back towards Tiatarta. The silence lasted for only a few moments before Smolder looked back to Ocellus. “I think Pharynx is going to kill Headmare Twilight,” she said.

They had flown back to the ferry to retrieve their bags, then taken to the air and flown off at a slow pace towards Tiatarta, leaving the airship hovering where it was for now. Ecdysis has introduced the other changeling as Vertex, but quickly sent him off to catch up with Mayor Dusk so as to aid in searching the town.

Smolder fought very, very hard to not keep herself between Ecdysis and Ocellus. She couldn’t stop herself from flying over the two, though, a position of aerial superiority, with fire rumbling in her belly and ready to be spat forth if Ecdysis tried to make off with her hoard. If the changeling noticed, however, she didn’t show it.

“So, Instructor,” Smolder asked, trying to take her mind off of the violent thoughts that Ecdysis hadn't earned, “how long has this been going on for?”

Ecdysis didn’t turn her head; with those big yellow compound eyes, she didn’t need to. “Trouble in general? From the moment we got here.” She answered. “And please, just call me Ecdysis. I’m not an instructor anymore. In any event, at first it was just normal growing pains. Changelings getting used to ponies, ponies getting used to changelings.” She waved a hoof at the town they were approaching, about half a mile out. “Tiatarta gets vacationers from other races fairly often. It’s why it was chosen by King Thorax and Princess Celestia. I’ve seen diamond dogs, griffons, camels, even a full-grown river serpent.”

Smolder looked to Ocellus, who turned her head a little to acknowledge the look and smiled. “Steven Magnet?” Ocellus asked. The day he had substituted for Professor Rarity and they had learned how to weave baskets underwater had been fun.

“I didn’t get his name. In any event, there was some initial distrust from the ponies, of course. And it didn’t help that...” she trailed off a moment, then flipped around in the air to look directly at Smolder, though she kept flying fairly well for being upside-down. “Look, freedom is new to us. For centuries we said what Chrysalis told us to say, did what Chrysalis told us to do, were who Chrysalis told us to be. And King Thorax is completely different, he’s kind and caring and generous and puts every other bug before himself...but he’s still the king, you know? Still the big bug in charge. So when we all came out here and set up the Nook, away from King Thorax, basically no adult supervision, is the best way to phrase it...”

Smolder burst out laughing when she realized what Ecdysis was implying. “Oh, wow. I actually think I’m sorry for missing it.”

Ecdysis has a grin split her features as well, licking her lips as she flipped back around. “It’s something me and Delilah can laugh about now...but yeah. First wave of colonists to the Nook were a hundred bugs with no sense of personal property, personal space, or moderation. We didn’t mean to hurt any creature, but...” she laughed. “Well, in my case I ran up a huge tab at Patios & Pancakes. I was so used to dine-and-dashing as an infiltrator that I forgot that I wasn’t supposed to do it anymore.”

Ocellus was grinning too. “I...made a few of the same mistakes in Ponyville,” she admitted.

“I didn’t,” Smolder said. Which was technically true, though enough of a technicality that Ocellus glared at her and Smolder hung her head in defeat. She’d in fact known full well what “paying” was. She just hadn’t, at first, felt any real need to do it unless she’s had no other choice. But then Professor Rainbow Dash has intercepted her attempt to walk out of Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelry with a necklace, explained that she needed to pay for things, and threatened to send her back to the dragon lands when Smolder had been about to defiantly eat the necklace. And then beat her in a wrestling match when Smolder tried to eat the necklace anyway.

Also the fact that Gallus tipped better than her had gotten under her scales.

“But those were growing pains,” Ecdysis continued. “We all got acquainted with the town stockade a few times, but any real problem bugs were shipped back to the Badlands. The rest of us learned from our mistakes and got better, and the changelings in the Badlands were better prepared and trained before being sent here. We’re five hundred strong now...and starting to grow on our own.” She grinned, and turned to look directly at Ocellus. “We just finished a hatchery.”

Ocellus’ eyes widened as she put her hooves to her cheeks, one of the biggest smiles Smolder had ever seen the changeling produce suddenly shining from her. “Any eggs?” She asked.

“Some on the way.” She turned so she could once again have both Ocellus and Smolder in her vision. “These will be the first eggs lain outside the Badlands in centuries. The first grubs hatched in a place that Chrysalis never touched.”

“Congrats,” Smolder said, and shrugged as she crossed her arms. “But, uh...getting back on topic...”

Ecdysis blinked a couple times, then sighed. “Right. Three weeks ago a changeling named Obtect stumbled through Tiatarta, and he was...well, acting a lot like Clavicle was. He’d been fine when he left the Nook for a night out, but then early the next morning he was found, um...let's say, adding some decorations to the statue of the town’s founder. He was brought back to the Nook. We didn’t know that it was a love poison at first, we just knew he smelled and tasted too euphoric and thought that draining that might help him. And it sort of did...by spreading it around to every changeling that fed on him. Then every changeling that fed from them...”

Smolder chuckled grimly. “An early Hearth’s Warming party?”

“Kind of, actually. When I came-to a few hours later I was lounging in a pool of punch. Anyway, Obtect doesn’t remember what happened to him. We looked into it, I contacted this brain bug I know named Urtica back in the Badlands Hive, and she figured out that it was from eating fake love.” She shook her head. “Which doesn’t make sense. Obtect’s a good changeling, just a worker bug even during the Bad Old Days and a farmer now. He might nibble on a stray feeling but he would never actually drain a creature, but draining a creature is the only way for a changeling to get that messed up according to Urtica. A few small bites wouldn’t do it.”

The three had reached Tiatarta by now. The town was smaller than Ponyville, and sported different architecture as well - white-walled stucco buildings, mostly, with red-tiled sloping roofs, the buildings framing the white sand beaches that Tiatarta was apparently known for. On a warm and sunny day like today, the beaches had dozens of creatures lounging on towels or beneath umbrellas, or else playing in the warm water. Most of them were ponies, but Smolder did indeed see a couple of griffons, a number of sea ponies, and even a changeling trio, the last of which all waved up to Ecdysis, oblivious to the mood of their flight. She waved back.

Ecdysis banked left and flew south along the beach, and Smolder and Ocellus followed. The town gave way to somewhat rocky terrain, scrub near the salty water but transitioning into a thick forest just a few hundred feet from the shores. “The really strange thing,” Ecdysis said, “is that we never found Obtect’s...victim, the creature he must have drained. No creature has been reported as missing, no one in Tiatarta remembers seeing any creature acting like they were affected by a love poison.”

“Maybe they’d only just taken it,” Ocellus ventured, “and Obtect drained them too fast, and maybe they don't remember. You did say that he went out at night...”

“That’s what we thought. Hoped.” Ecdysis said. “But then, starting a week and a half ago...first a bug named Hyaline, strung out on the beach, making sand-angels. Then another, Nervure, wouldn’t leave the Chill Spot, a spa and ice cream parlor. Had to be dragged out. Then Fovea...Trophus...” her flight speed slowed to a crawl, then halted as she hovered in the air, head down and limbs hanging limply. “There’s more than two dozen bugs down right now, and without the rest of us siphoning it off and spreading it around it takes longer for them to return to normal. Days. The only pieces of good news are that we learned after Obtect not to try and drain them, and that at least none of them are violent or harmful - ” she paused, and put a hoof to her chest. “At least...not until Clavicle.”

“But Clavicle’s not violent or harmful!” Ocellus objected, flying in front of and beneath Ecdysis so she could look directly at the older changeling. “He didn’t resist us or even try to, didn’t mean to hurt any creature...the most 'violent' thing he did was poke your snout!”

“And almost crash an airship he'd stolen into a boat with fifty creatures on it,” Smolder said. Ocellus whirled to face her, and Smolder didn’t need to be a changeling to all but taste the sense of betrayal. “Look, I’m just saying what happened. It means that this is serious.” She crossed her arms as she drifted over to in front of Ecdysis, looking at as much of her yellow compound eyes as she could. “Which means that it’s time you told Thorax.”

Ocellus opened her mouth to begin to retort, but then closed it as she turned back to Ecdysis. “You didn’t...no, wait, of course not. Because Thorax would have told Pharynx, but Pharynx thought that Tiatarta was safe until the Cutie Map sent us here...but...why?”

Ecdysis tilted her head up, and her eyelids narrowed. “Because the Nook has to work. It has to. If we can’t prove that changelings can live alongside ponies, or away from the King...then we’ll all be stuck in the Badlands. Our numbers will grow. The food supply won’t. We’ll get hungry again. Starve again. And then the only way we’ll be able to fix that will be...” she drifted off a moment, before shaking her head. “I...I was an infiltrator. I was good at it. I was in Canterlot, too...and I was good at that as well. Never again. I won’t let us go back to that.”

Smolder began to object, opened her mouth to point out all the reasons why that was stupid...but instead found her jaw hanging open when Ocellus came forward and wrapped her hooves around Ecdysis’ neck, hugging the bigger changeling as best she could while both were flying. “Okay,” Ocellus said. “Okay. That’s...that’s a good point.”

“What?” Smolder asked. “No it isn’t!”

Ocellus looked to Smolder. “Yes it is. You don’t know, Smolder, you’re a dragon. You can eat rocks. You could live off the sand on the beach down there. You’ve never starved.”

Smolder grunted. “The Nook isn’t going to be called a failure just because some creature is poisoning changelings. We’re just here for a friendship problem, Ocellus! This isn’t that.”

Ocellus’ head titled to the side, and she actually smiled playfully. “You think some creature who’s poisoning innocent changelings doesn’t need to learn a lesson about friendship?”

Smolder once again began to object, and once again found herself with a hanging-open jaw. She shut it after a moment, glancing away. “That’s stretching and you know it,” she huffed.

“Sounds reasonable to me,” Ocellus countered.

Smolder stared at Ocellus, who matched the gaze, the tiny changeling somehow shedding her usual delicateness and conveying determination like Smolder had never seen her possess before. Absolute, rock-solid certainty that what she was saying was right, that what she wanted was the way things had to be. She was radiant.

She was so valuable, Smolder just wanted to grab onto the changeling and never let go...

“Okay,” Smolder gave in, grabbing at her bag and the mediocre hoard within in an attempt to distract herself. “Okay, fine. I guess this is probably what we’re here for. Or if it’s not then we’ll stumble across it while doing this.”

Ocellus nodded, then after a moment flew forward and lightly hugged Smolder as she had Ecdysis. “Thank you,” she intoned.

Smolder struggled to stay airborn - her wings weren’t as great at hovering as Ocellus’ were - but didn't hesitate for a moment to return the hug, breathing in sharply at finally feeling the soft fuzz and pliable carapace beneath it in her hands. The surprising warmth that came through Ocellus' carapace. The feel of Ocellus' cheek against her own...but even as she did, she forced the primitive wyrm chanting mine over and over in her head back into its cave and focused. “The second my spines and your elytra start glowing and vibrating, though, we let Thorax know. Deal? I'm not even saying that we leave. Just that it means that we found the real friendship problem and solved it, so that means that this has to be handled by some creature else, and we can help them.”

She had expected an argument, but instead Ocellus only tightened her hug for a moment. ”Deal,” she said, then released Smolder - Smolder letting go of her only after several seconds - and turned to look at Ecdysis. ”Right? We'll help out if we can, but if it turns out we can't...”

Ecydsis lifted her head. Nominally it looked almost like she was staring between them, but Smolder knew that she and Ocellus had the red changeling's complete focus, even as she turned her forehooves over themselves. ”I'll...have failed...”

”No,” Ocellus said. ”You'll have learned that you needed help. And there's nothing wrong with that.”

Ecdysis closed her eyes, but nodded. She started moving again, and Smolder and Ocellus followed behind her. Smolder looked over to Ocellus, who turned her head to look directly back. ”Was...” she began, then considered whether she wanted to know if Ocellus had just done that - let her grab her, hold her, possess her for just a moment - on purpose or not to help get her way, and finally shook her head. ”Nevermind. Doesn't matter.”

Ocellus held her direct gaze for a moment, then nodded. ”Right. And...thank you.” She took in a deep breath, then licked her lips. ”Um...Smolder, since we're going to the Nook, you should know...the changelings there are probably used to...well, feeling each other all the time. Scenting each others' emotions. I just want you to know, it's not meant to be invasive. It's just what we're like...but it might be off-putting.”

”Uh-huh.” Smolder confirmed. She'd already figured as much, and was trying to figure out how to disguise...well, what she wanted from Ocellus, which she doubted would go over well in the Nook. Probably it would just be more-or-less like being around dragons. Act big and tough. Distract from weaknesses by pointing out the weaknesses of others. She grinned a little at that as she looked back to Ocellus. ”Honestly I'm worried about what I'm going to smell.”

Ocellus' eyes widened. ”Wh...what do you mean?”

”Changelings might have a nose, or whatever, for emotional scents, but for real ones...remember your first month at the school?”

The tiny changeling began to blush furiously. ”I...bu...”

”Professor Rarity ended up scheduling a field trip to the spa?”

”You - it's not like I was dirty!”

”Uh-huh. Which is why while we were there she had a bunch of cleaning ponies fumigate our dorm room.”

”That's not fair! I'd just molted earlier that week and hadn't finished eating all my carapace - can't believe they almost threw it out...”

”Honestly I think my favorite part was when Yona - Yona - was laying out a bunch of scents for you to pick from and you finally just asked 'but what is soap?'”

Blue fire washed over Ocellus and she transformed into a bugbear that proceeded to grab Smolder from the air and pinch her cheeks furiously. Totally worth it, though.

Ecdysis. Unlike Ocellus, Ecdysis was a name that Chrysalis recognized, if not recall any particular details about beyond that she had been a reasonably skilled infiltrator. Still, it meant that she deserved to suffer forever for betraying her, turning on her, abandoning her like all the others. Ocellus at least had the excuse of having probably only been a nymph at the time, or at most only a molt or two into adulthood. Ecdysis was older. She should have known better than to betray her queen.

So Chrysalis had made sure that Clavicle - a name she didn't recognize - would end up in the possession of the ponies, because it would hurt Ecdysis. Deliver just a measure of well-deserved suffering on her. Besides, she'd hardly thrown Clavicle to the wolves in the process. A few days working off love poisoning in an Equestrian stockade would hardly be the most traumatic experience for the drone.

Love poison...

Chrysalis shook her head and turned to lie on her back. She had ridden the ferry the rest of the way in, checked into a hotel, and went straight for the beach. An umbrella lay open overhead to keep out the worst of the noonday sun, but she could still feel herself getting wonderfully warm in the subtropical heat as she lay on a large green towel. Tomorrow she'd try and find a secluded cove somewhere to luxuriate in her natural form, but for now the heat spreading through her assumed unicorn body was relaxing.

Love poison is hardly natural. And from the sound of things, this Clavicle wasn't the first...

Chrysalis grunted, and rolled back onto her stomach. She scooted off her towel and into the hot, fine sand, and smiled as she buried the tips of her hooves into it, wiggled her barrel against it. Cleaning it off wouldn't be an issue, just a simple shape-shift, or she could always go for a swim. So while it was coarse and rough and got everywhere, Chrysalis could enjoy the sensation of it across skin and under fur she didn't normally have, rub her cheek against it, maybe even consider shifting herself into a pegasus body so that she could try out that sand bathing thing that some pegasi recommended. It was novel, not discomforting.

It seems so roundabout, too. First whoever is doing this would have to poison at least one creature, possibly more depending on the type used, then get a changeling to feed on them, then find somewhere to hide the formerly poisoned creature...

Chrysalis growled. She rolled back onto her back. She was in direct sunlight now, but it wasn't so bad, at least for a few minutes. Celestia had many insufferable qualities, but the sun wasn't one of them. A bright ball of magic and fire burning in the sky, warming everything beneath the world it orbited. On days like today the sunlight could actually almost feel like it was carrying emotions with it...love, in particular. Might have had something to do with her currently-equine form given how mare bodies reacted to increases in light and temperature. And if that feeling of love was somehow ephemerally carried from the Alicorn of the Sun through her celestial body and then shined down onto the world? Well, then Chrysalis would eat it up. No changeling, not even the queen, would turn down a free meal.

And why bother hiding the poisoned creature? If the goal is to discredit the Nook then by all means have some love-drunk changeling stumble around town making a fool of themselves while some poor, innocent foal can find an unconscious, love-drained victim in an alley and be traumatized for the next five years. That's how I'd do it.

”Hhhzzzkkk...” Chrysalis hissed, opening her eyes. She saw the shadow of Twilight had come out from where its home lay next to Chrysalis' towel, and was currently sitting beneath the umbrealla's shade, looking at her. Chrysalis glared back. ”What?” She demanded.

The shadow stared at her.

”What is it? Speak when you're spoken to!”

The shadow stared at her.

”Hhhzzzkkk...this is about the love poison, isn't it? Well, I don't care! I'm on vacation! And why should I care? They all abandoned me! So what does it matter if some creature is attacking them? I could have told them that would happen! That they'd never earn real friendship or trust! That any love they got would only be marginally more real than a love poison's!”

The shadow stared at her.

”I could have! I would have if they would have listened like they were supposed to! Now this Nook is weak and vulnerable and exposed and surrounded by other creatures and clearly lacks a strong...leader...”

The shadow stared at her.

”...oh. Ooooh...devious! You're right!” Chrysalis rolled over onto her stomach and looked at the shadow. ”Whoever is doing this...they want to discredit changelings, almost certainly! But that can be turned around, can't it? I could show the Nook...show them that the other races aren't to be trusted. Show them how much of a fool Thorax is! Show them how much better they'd be with me...”

The shadow stared at her.

”I will definitely reward you for this one. Maybe carve something on your home? How about a picture of you with cute little grubs crawling all over you? Would you like that?”

The shadow disappeared back into its home.

Chrysalis pursed her lips. ”Well...we'll workshop that, then. I think that would look good, but you did well today so we'll want you to be happy with it.” Chrysalis considered, then lay back down on the beach, wiggling into the sand. ”Tomorrow. This becomes a working vacation tomorrow. I've still earned at least today, right?”

The shadow of Twilight didn't reappear, and Chrysalis decided to take that as confirmation. The True Queen of the Changelings giggled delightedly to herself, outlining her plan. First, find those two students of that friendship school. Ocellus and Smolder. They'd been sent here by Harmony and it had to be for this, right? The forces of destiny and fate and whatever were urging them forward. So she'd present herself, Doctor Nonchalant returned to aid them with her expertise on love poisons.

Second, find the culprit. The one who was love-poisoning changelings. Should be easy, it was a small enough town and they probably stank of malevolence when near a changeling, so sticking near Ocellus would sooner or later turn up the guilty party.

Third, drag the culprit before the Nook so that they could drain them of love in vengeance - she would not touch their love herself just to show how considerate she was of her bugs - and present her case and reveal her glorious form. Thorax was weak for trusting other creatures. She'd ruled them for a thousand years, directed them, guided them, found them food, kept them strong. If the bugs at the Nook returned to the fold fast enough she'd even keep her punishments to a minimum, just to show how merciful she could be.

Fourth, wreak terrible vengeance upon Thorax and Starlight Glimmer and Princess Cadance and every other creature who had wronged her.

Yes...tomorrow was going to be perfect.

5. And I’m not so Strong

The scrubland and forest that Ecdysis, Smolder and Ocellus were flying by was eventually broken by a wide, slow-moving river. Ecdysis turned to guide them upstream, low over the surface of the water that gradually became less and less salty as they flew, though the water remained muddy, with Smolder not able to see the river’s bed.

“There’s a road connecting us to Tiatarta as well,” Ecdysis said, “but I prefer this approach for first-time visitors when possible. We’re already in the Nook’s land - it’s everything within five miles of the Nook itself.”

“So technically we’re in the Changeling Kingdom, not Equestria,” Ocellus noted, once again in her true form. Her voice was light, though she still cast an occasional glare towards Smolder that she responded to with a stuck-out tongue and a small snort of smoke.

The river turned a few times, even as the land started to rise up and slope, becoming increasingly rocky. The forest that had framed the river gave way to cleared terraces, vertical farms on the sides of hills with rows upon rows of trellises or tilled fields being flitted over and tended to by dozens of changelings, some in their natural form, some letting blue fire wash over them to take on forms more appropriate for what was needed. A maulworf to dig a trench, a minotaur to pull a cart, teams of rabbits to rapidly dig holes and plant seeds.

And then, the Nook itself. The river led up to a waterfall that fell a few dozen feet from a cliff’s face, the river itself having over eons carved a cleft a hundred feet deep through the cliff it flowed off of. The Nook was set into either side of this cleft - holes dug into its faces, burrows that wound their way deep into the earth. But the changelings has also built up and out, the rock of the cliff covered by colorful, semi-translucent resin that rose from its top in spires that stretched a few hundred feet into the air. The whole thing was covered in moss, lichen, and vines, even across the changeling’s resin. All in all, it looked almost like an organic, vegetation-covered crown that had been split in half

“Not bad,” Smolder allowed as the three flew towards a road that led up to the cliff from the north. The main entrance to the Nook lacked a door or gate, instead simply being yet another burrow into the cliff’s side with an overhang, the tunnel beyond sloping downwards. Smolder couldn’t help but grin a little as they all landed, thinking about her pony friends, particularly Sandbar. He’d probably wonder why the changelings had built a tunnel and cave network, ask why they didn’t build houses or something. The answer was of course obvious: caves were better.

“No welcoming committee?” Smolder asked as they advanced inside, glancing around while adjusting her bag into a more comfortable position on her back. She saw only rock, and glowing moss and lichen to light the way. “Or are some of these rocks changelings?”

Ecdysis turned her head enough so that she could see Smolder behind her as the three walked past a particularly large rock. “No, everything here is what it appears to be. I’ve gotten every bug to agree to be in their natural forms when non-changelings are...” she trailed off, then turned to look directly at the rock. “Oh, no - ”

And that was as far as she got before the rock suddenly was awash in blue fire, and something black and fanged and full of holes was charging right at Smolder and Ocellus. A changeling. An unreformed changeling.

Ocellus let out a cry of fright, wings snapping open and dragging her backwards - though she reached out and grabbed Smolder with hooves and telekinesis both as she did. Smolder fought the instinct to fight her off even as she took in a deep breath, then exhaled a gout of flame straight forward. The unreformed changeling ducked the fire...but rather than press the attack, it remained crouched on the ground, hooves over its head and eyes closed against the heat. After a moment, it opened its eyes. “Watch it!” He - based on the voice, anyway - buzzed. “You almost burned me...”

“She almost...that would have been your fault, not hers, Venter!” Ecdysis exclaimed as she stomped up to him.

Ocellus had paused in her retreat at the exchange, and Smolder's instincts once again took over, grabbing her friend and pulling her in front of her - but only so that Smolder could hold onto the changeling tightly, fold herself around her, crouch, and spread her wings wide, ready to retreat. Her tail pounded against the stone floor beneath her even as she exhaled smoke and a few licks of fire. “What the heck was that?“ she demanded.

“Wh-what Just happened?” Ocellus asked as well. Smolder was careful to avoid blowing smoke her way. Ocellus didn't seem to mind the changed position, holding on to Smolder's arms tightly as she was. “Wh...why is there...“

The unreformed changeling - Venter, Smolder gathered, and recognized the name - took in a sharp breath, then smiled as he stood back up. Changeling magic once again washed over him as he stepped up closer to Smolder, heedless of her growling or her smoke. Once the magic faded, it revealed a Reformed changeling, pink-and-white in coloration, with his tongue licking the air before he let out a satisfied buzz. “Mmmm, that’s the good stuff!”

Ecdysis, meanwhile, was covering her face with her hooves. “This is Venter. Yes, he's Reformed...somehow. He just actually likes the smell and taste of fear and does this...too often. far too often.”

“Ah, thock,” Venter said, tongue still lapping at the air. “Thock, nogh hear, hear oh herror ihingh ah hooh - ”

Smolder’s hand lashed out, grabbing Venter’s tongue and pulling the changeling close so that she could fill as many of his eye segments with her as possible. “You have to ask before eating my emotions,” she growled, then blew smoke directly in his face as she pushed him away before she scooted back from him herself, still clutching Ocellus tightly. The changeling coughed and sputtered as he stumbled. “So he’s the problem bug,” Smolder said, remembering what Mayor Dusk had said.

Ecdysis nodded, peeking out from behind her hooves. “I’m so sorry, he’s a genius at resin-casting so we keep him around, otherwise I would have asked King Thorax to take him back...”

“Come - eugh - on, Ecdysis - ” Venter had to pause then as he waved his hooves in front of his face, gradually blowing away the smoke, “If - if I can't eat then you shouldn't - eugh - lie, just ‘cause the dragon can’t smell it. You like me too much. Plus I’m the only one who even pretends to do guard duty when it’s my turn. Where’s the other bugs, by the way?”

Ecdysis at last lowered her hooves, and cast her head down. Venter took in a breath, then his eyes fluttered. “Oh,” he said, and wasted no time in going over to Ecdysis and hugging her. Before Smolder knew what was happening, Ocellus squirmed out from her grip, and did likewise, though she cast a smile back at Smolder first.

The dragon breathed in and out a few times, closing her eyes and crossing her arms - mostly because she somehow now felt vacant without Ocellus. Once she settled herself, she looked up, and found the changelings still hugging things out. “There’s gonna be a lot of this, isn’t there?” She asked. Ocellus nodded without letting go of Ecdysis, and Smolder rolled her eyes, waiting it out, though she tried to think happy thoughts at least for their benefit.

It took awhile, but eventually the three changelings separated, taking in deep breaths - to taste the air or to steady themselves the way she had needed to, Smolder didn’t know. “Okay,“ Ecdysis said, “let's get going. Venter...please stop. For the love of Thorax, please.“

“Well, for a little bit,“ the pink changeling promised. He waved to Smolder without turning his head. “I'll leave you alone, don't worry. No more jump-scares.“

Smolder grunted, walking by him with her wings still flexing and unflexing. She snorted more fire. “I won't miss next time,“ she said. Venter looked in no way intimidated, and Smolder wanted to fix that, but Ocellus was already walking away. She hurried along.

The passage they walked through was twisting, with side-chambers and little caves dig out every dozen feet or so, most of them empty. There was a growing sweet scent the deeper they went, but the smell as they reached the main chamber of the Nook wasn’t actually as bad as Smolder had been expecting. The changelings had either found or dug for themselves a large cavern, easily big enough to fit hundreds of bugs at a time on the floor alone - but changelings also clung to the wall or ceiling with ease. The chamber was supported by pillars of both stone and resin, many of the latter having hollows throughout them for changelings to crawl into. Light was provided through a great hole in the roof through which sunlight shined in and changelings came in and out, though Ocellus couldn’t help but wonder what they did when it rained.

What Smolder hadn’t been expecting, but in hindsight was obvious, were the personal touches. Every changeling seemed to have a space in the chamber of “their own”, and decorated them as they liked, with cubbies for their belongings, personal art projects, hanging decorations...what the chamber lacked, the wyrm lurking under Smolder’s scales couldn’t help but note, was walls. Doors. Even privacy screens. Everything was completely open, free for the taking...she felt herself flexing her fingers and wings a little, the back of her mind imagining her rushing towards one of the cubbies - maybe that one, she thought she saw something shine within - and grabbing it, shoving it into her bag, then flying off. Down one of the tunnels, or straight up out the hole in the roof. Flying off with her prize...

She felt a nudge from Ocellus, who was looking at her pointedly. “What?” She asked, then realized when she noticed that a lot of other changelings were looking at her, either giving her a wide berth or shuffling closer to one another, or their stuff. Smolder sighed. “Oh. Right. Um...should I make a big announcement that I’m not really going to try and make off with as much as I can carry?”

“Just stop feeling it,” Ocellus said in a low voice.

“How do I just stop feeling something? Intentionally?” Smolder demanded, but tried anyway, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. “Okay, okay...happy thoughts...happy thoughts...”

It wasn’t that Smolder wanted to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down (and nothing was in the Nook). Well, she did, but that was just her instincts: she was in a new place with new things and so she wanted them, needed them. Unfortunately, changeling senses didn’t make much of an allowance for instinctual drive verses intellectual knowledge. Ocellus couldn’t stop herself from shrinking up a little at the sight of so many changelings moving away from Smolder - and thus her. Even Ecdysis’ own pace quickened as though to put distance between her. Greed didn’t smell or taste bad, but changelings weren’t blind to what an emotion meant just because it was edible.

“S-so,” Ocellus said, stepping up to Ecdysis. “We should probably start with the changelings affected by the love poison. See if we can learn anything. I know you’ve already tried, but...”

Ecdysis caught Ocellus’ worry and embarrassment, and nodded. “Of course. We’ve been keeping them in another chamber, this way...”

The chamber was off and up from the main one, requiring a flight up to its entrance followed by a nearly vertical climb up its passage. Ocellus and Ecdysis made the walk easily, while there was enough room for Smolder to fly rather than having to climb and damage the resin-covered walls with her claws.

The chamber they entered was dimly lit via windows to the outside cliff face, with sound of running water and the waterfall outside filtering in. A couple bugs stood guard, or rather sat at guard, by the entrance, which immediately led to a dip down into a sort of wide, shallow pit covered with soft moss and lichen where more than two dozen changelings lay around in what could only be described as various states of inebriation. Some of them just lay in place, giggling to themselves; others were grouped together and taking animately, but with slurred speech. A few were asleep, while one green-and-blue one, on seeing the three, spread her elytra and flew unsteadily towards them. “Queen!” She exclaimed happily.

Ecdysis froze, and enough shock came off of her that Ocellus was surprised Venter didn’t suddenly appear to lap it up. “Nervure, I’m not - ”

“Whatever,” Nervure said as she landed, stumbling a little. She smelled sweet, the same cloying joy and elation that had poured off of Clavicle, though subdued enough that Ocellus’ mouth at least didn’t start watering. “You’re...in charge a’ the Hive. Nook. Hive Nook. You’re resposs - Heeellloooo...”

She had turned to look at Smolder, and grinned widely. Licks of blue fire stuttered over her, and Ecdysis and the two teenagers were looking at another teenage dragon, a male that shared Nervure’s colors, taller than Smolder and strongly built. Yet at the same time, he was off, the eyes not quite fully missing their changeling sheen, and the wings were gossamer.

He nevertheless stumbled forward and up to Smolder. “N-never ha-ad a dragon’s love before...” he slurred, reaching out to Smolder.

“Yeah, no,” Smolder grabbed Nervure’s wrists before he could embrace her, holding the transformed changeling at arm’s length easily - another sign of an incomplete transformation, the muscles only being cosmetic. She looked over to Ecdysis. “I thought you said they weren’t violent.”

Ocellus shook her head. “What’s going on?” She asked. “We...we don’t steal love anymore!”

“I’m askin’!” Nervure objected. “Was just...makin’ an offer. Hugs aren’t violent, you...you...little orange...cutie.”

Ocellus’ eyes grew wide, and before she knew what she was doing she had cast off the school bag she carried, turned into a dragon herself - her preferred beige form - and grabbed Nervure, pulling him off of Smolder since her transformation and the draconic strength that came with it weren’t merely cosmetic. She felt her assumed belly filling with fire. “She isn’t an adult yet!”

“I mean, that’s kind of a complicated concept with dragons,” Smolder noted, one hand resting on her hip as she looked Ocellus up and down.

Ecdysis sighed, flying up and grabbing Nervure from Ocellus, dragging him backwards. “Love poison seems like it slightly damages a changeling’s ability to nourish ourselves with our own love for as long as it’s in our system, slows our ability to process it even though we still consume it normally, so the bugs end up getting a little hungrier then we’ve grown used to over the past few years. It’s also nearly useless for magic, hence the bad transformation.”

As if to emphasize this, Nervure transformed into her original self. She shook her head, then wobbled. “I’m...I’m just...just a little peckish, is all. Wasn’t gonna...take.”

In spite of the risk and the temptation it would cause, Ocellus turned back into her own true form so that she could take in the scent of Nervure, needing to be sure. Beyond the cloying sweetness of the love poison, she did indeed smell sincerity, and a touch of embarrassment. “Okay,” she said, though she stepped a little closer to Smolder nevertheless, conscious of the dragon eyeing her and her reaction to Nervure making an advance on Smolder. Ocellus shuffled on her hooves, not entirely sure what to make of it herself.

Curiosity poured off Ecdysis as well, but she turned her attentions to Nervure, landing in front of her and pulling the literally love-drunk changeling into a hug. Nervure’s tongue snaked out of her mouth, and she lapped up the offered affection. “Just a few more days,” Ecdysis promised. “Then you can come out.”

Nervure giggled, hug on Ecdysis tightening a moment before she withdrew. “O-okay, m-my...” she shook her head, then put her hooves in Ecdysis’ shoulders and stared directly at her. “Y’sure you don’ wanna be called a queen? ‘Cause this is a hive, an’ that dork Thorax put ya in charge...”

Ecdysis shook her head. “No.”

“Princess.”

“No.”

“Rani.”

“What? No. What’s a rani?”

“Frog. Ribbit.” With that, Nervure began giggling, stumbling back from Ecdysis and taking to the air, then landing down among the other love-drunk changelings, where she joined one of the other less-inebriated ones in a song.

Smolder came up to the edge of the pit, looking down herself. “Wait, but they’re probably feeding off each other, right?” She asked. “That’s not making it last longer than it should, is it?”

Ecdysis shook her head. “I don’t know. We don’t know enough about love poisons. They are coming down, though, so even if it’s slow, it’s better than leaving them alone.” She looked to Smolder. “And I’m sorry, but I swear we’ve made sure they’re fed enough love that they won’t snap. That was just...like if you were carrying around a tray of cupcakes. She wanted one but didn’t think to ask first.”

“My cupcakes,” Smolder noted.

She probably meant it as a joke, but Ocellus felt a pang of guilt going through her. She nibbled on those cupcakes all the time and Smolder was none the wiser. Ecdysis stiffened a little when she scented the guilt, but before she could dive into it Ocellus stepped up to the edge of the pit as well. “We should try and talk to some of the more lucid changelings,” she said. “See if they remember anything, or at least learn where the last place they remember being was.”

“Right,” Smolder said, spreading her wings. “You stay up here for now. Don’t want you eating the wrong stuff.” She hopped into the air, then glided down, back towards Nervure to start with - before Ocellus could stop her, as it left her alone with Ecdysis.

The red changeling stepped closer to Ocellus. “Guilt?” She asked quietly, tongue flicking out, then scrunching her muzzle at the taste.

Ocellus cast her head down. “Y...yes,” she whispered, knowing lying would be pointless. It was a luxury she could have at the School of Friendship, but not around other changelings. “I’m sorry...but there’s no other changelings at the School of Friendship, and no creature there even knows that I’m eating their emotions, and I know King Thorax said we should try not to but its like being always surrounded by every flavor of cookie...”

Ecdysis smelled of confusion rather than scorn, something which only confused Ocellus herself. “But I mean, guilt over...” she trailed off, then shook her head. “Nevermind. It’s not important right now. Look, I have to tell the rest of the Nook about Clavicle. Please, if you have to go down there,” she pointed to the pit of love-drunk changelings, “turn into something else so you can’t smell or taste the love poison. Okay?”

Ocellus nodded, and Ecdysis turned, though she paused before leaving as she looked to the two bugs who were still sitting guard. “Why didn’t you help with Nervure?” She asked the two.

Both guards shrugged. “The dragon had it,” he said, and his companion agreed.

Ecdysis mumbled something under her breath, frustration filling the air as she trotted past them and started crawling down the hole. Ocellus watched her go, then sighed and turned around. Considering a few shapes, she settled on her dragon form again, and leapt in after her friend.

Time passed frustratingly slowly with the inebriated changelings. Their attentions wandered aimlessly, and they’d segue into discussions about anything and everything. A bug named Hyaline recognized Ocellus even in her dragon form and would not stop talking about she was the pride and joy of the Hive, the first in a bright new future, and eventually broke down crying over how happy he was that things were working out for Ocellus - and also over how much he loved pancakes, something that all the other changelings sober enough to hear agreed upon.

“Is our best lead,” Smolder asked hours later as the two climbed out of the pit and to the hole that led down towards the main chamber, “seriously a place called Patios & Pancakes?”

Ocellus sighed even as she sloughed off her dragon form, picking up her school bag from where she’d dropped it and putting it back on, a complicated process if she wanted to leave her elytra free to open for her wings. “Tiatarta isn’t very big. I don’t think the fact that every bug down there has been there means much. They’ve all been to the Chill Spot too.” Also half of them had just started chanting “zeppelins” when Clavicle’s situation and Cloud Spirit’s Sky Diving had come up. That had taken a few minutes to stop.

Smolder was about to respond to that, but Ocellus yawned, and Smolder ended up catching it. “It’s only, like, noon, why are you tired?” The dragon asked once she was able to close her mouth again.

“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Ocellus responded before she could think about it - and then nearly bit her tongue at the wave of guilt, greed, and shame that assaulted her from Smolder. The other two changeling guards caught the scent as well and started coughing.

“Eggshells!” One exclaimed, pressing back against the wall and staring directly at Smolder. “You have issues.”

The negative scent didn’t abate are that, but it was joined and then overwhelmed by another: draconic anger, far out of proportion to the insult. Ocellus’ eyes widened, and she dashed in front of Smolder before she could advance more than a step towards the guards. “S-Smolder!” She exclaimed. “Just...just leave them alone. Maybe you...I mean, I d-don’t think you got much sleep either, did you?”

Smolder growled, but the guilt and shame began to overtake the anger. She snorted smoke, then turned to the exit and hopped down it, spreading her wings. Ocellus followed, though not before casting an annoyed glare back at the guards.

By the time she’d reached the bottom, she’d lost track of Smolder, or at least visual track. She probably could have followed the emotional scent like a trail - if not for being hit by a sudden miasma of depression.

Ocellus’ eyes widened as she clamped her mouth shut. She found that the changelings in the main chamber were all gathered together in groups, talking among themselves. As she got closer, she scented other emotions, anger or fear or uncertainty. But depression was the biggest. Given how often Ocellus heard Clavicle’s name mentioned, along with the words love poison, it wasn’t hard to figure out the source of the depression.

Ocellus grimaced, trying to steel herself, remember lessons that Ecdysis had taught her back when both had fangs and black, identical carapaces. Emotions were like fire. They spread from one creature to the next as they were expressed, and no creature could sense that spread better than changelings. Controlling it was a different matter altogether. If Ocellus had been an infiltrator she would have had to not let the happiness, the joy, the contentment or the love of those she lurked among affect her. The easiest way to do that would have been to focus on her hurt and pain and anger.

The same lesson could be applied here, just in reverse. Ocellus focused on happiness and joy within herself. Good times with her friends - the Hearth’s Warming they had spent together. The spellvenger hunt. The tea parties that she and Smolder secretly enjoyed. She almost laughed at the unbidden mental image of Smolder in a dress standing between her and the negative emotions of the Nook.

So girded, she sought out Ecdysis, and found the red changeling moving among the other bugs, trying to get their spirits back up. It worked while she was in front of them...but no sooner would a Ecdysis leave given changelings behind than would the depression of other changelings come back. She was fighting a losing battle against the emotional tide that would put every changeling here in a malaise for...for however long it took for something to change it.

It wasn’t just over Clavicle being arrested, Ocellus knew; that would be too simple, even if it was how most bugs articulated it. It was something deeper. Even with two dozen changelings above them drunk on love poison, the bugs here had been able to ignore or move past the implications. The bugs were getting better, would be fine, and no creature had been hurt. It could be brushed aside or reasoned against.

But with Clavicle now in a pony stockade, all alone except for one other changeling, facing punishment for a crime he’d had no control over...

...or had he? The crimes the others had committed had only seemed victimless because no victims had been found. But somehow, changelings were being poisoned. Draining ponies of love. The Bad Old Days, all over again.

Maybe changelings couldn’t...

Ocellus shuddered as she flew away from the rest of the bugs, finding an empty nook in one of the main chamber’s pillars and landing on the soft moss that covers it, hunkering down. No. Changelings had changed. All of them, they were better than they had been. More. Ocellus sucked in a breath and shuddered again, hugging herself.

But then, she stole love all the time, didn’t she?

Chrysalis had acquired sunglasses. Ponies on vacation needed sunglasses, and they went well with her hat. Otherwise she’d quite enjoyed her hours in the sun, physically doing nothing except making sure she didn’t cook under its rays, mentally refining her plan to claim the Nook as her own - although even she could admit that this mostly took the form of a fantasy of her triumphantly throwing some nondescript pony to the bugs, watching them get drained, and then all of the Nook turning to her and apologizing and begging forgiveness. Probably it wouldn’t be that simple. The last time she’d expected things to go simply, she’d found herself with fuzz and a mane thick enough to lose a boat in. But, also, a capacity to generate her own love. Feed herself. So maybe that was a good sign?

A growling stomach at last drew her from the beach. As long as she kept her magic basic she never had to worry about love anymore, but more basic physical hunger was a plague that would never go away. So, she packed up, dropped off her things at her hotel, had a quick shower to wash off the sand - just before I take my revenge on Thorax, I really should thank him for the shampoo recommendation, she mused as she regarded the glossy look to her fuzz that made it far more tolerable to look at - and then set out to see what Tiatarta had for eateries.

And bumped right into Smolder as soon as she stepped from the hotel.

“Gah!” The dragon exclaimed. “Watch - oh. It’s you.”

Chrysalis glared down (her chosen body was just tall enough) at the dragon whelp. “Yes. It’s me.” Her eyes narrowed, though not so much at the affront of being bumped into (though that was galling), but more the fact that she had a plan and it wasn’t supposed to start until tomorrow and yet here was Smolder and...

...actually, where was Ocellus? “What happened to your better half?” She asked.

Smolder glared at her, shifting a bag she held in her claws rather than across her back. “What do you care?”

Chrysalis huffed, and started chanting think of the plan over and over in her mind even as she affected a bright smile. “I changed my mind,” she said, coming up alongside Smolder. “Whatever is happening to those poor changelings is a travesty, so I’ve decided to help you and Ocellus - because, let’s be honest, that must be what the Cutie Map sent you here for. So...where is she?”

Smolder grunted, starting to walk again through Tiatarta’s street, the town to her left and the beach and Luna Bay to their right. Chrysalis followed nonchalantly - ha! - stopping every now and then by a few eateries that had ponies offering free samples outside of them and popping them into her mouth. Appetizers. Delicious. Whatever else could be said about ponies, they certainly knew how to cook. Although she questioned the existence of hay bacon every time she encountered it. Didn’t stop her, though.

“Ocellus is back at the Nook,” Smolder said, hugging her bag tighter as she walked, hunched over it. “I needed some alone time, away from...stuff.”

“Hmm...” Chrysalis mused as she followed Smolder. Another free sample, this one of some fruit smoothie, went down the hatch. “Among changelings, ‘alone time’ is a punishment, you know. Even infiltrators spending months or years away from the Hive would at least be planted among other races. Surrounded by them. Bugs don’t do well...alone.” Chrysalis found herself contemplating her own words. Almost. She was the queen, she was made of sterner stuff than any drone. Besides, she had the shadow for company. She checked her bag to make sure it’s wooden home was safely there, and smiled when she found it was.

Ooh, was that a tiny cupcake? She devoured the free sample from the bakery. And another.

Smolder glared into Chrysalis’ assumed eyes. “You don’t really get the concept of ‘alone time’ yourself, do you?”

“I think it’s an interesting point of conflict between you and your lover. Dragons are all about standing alone and apart, after all.”

Smolder growled, turning on Chrysalis. “I don’t love Ocellus. Dragons - ”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Chrysalis insisted, holding up a hoof. “I used to think that too. Hmm...” she trailed off as the two walked by a seaside diner that advertised a surprisingly eclectic menu, including fish for visiting carnivore or omnivore races. All of it looked fried and greasy and salty and fattening - the perfect vacation lunch, then. The salmon free sample outside was delectable. “Yes, this will do. Are you hungry?”

“Are you buying?” Smolder responded.

“For you? Absolutely not. I’m a relationship counselor, I spend every moment of my life helping others. This vacation is supposed to be a chance to me to act a little selfish. Poor, vulnerable changelings notwithstanding.”

With that, Chrysalis went in. She was almost surprised that Smolder followed her - almost, but not quite. “Now then, Smolder. We’re not going to do much to help the Nook if you and Ocellus are having your little spat the whole way through. And if you really wanted alone time then you would have found somewhere in the forest or on the beach, not flown five miles to Tiatarta. So I think what you wanted was less alone time, and more time away from changelings.” She chuckled externally, but inside she was grimacing. “They’ve become that bad, have they?”

“What are you talking about?” Smolder demanded.

Chrysalis held off on speaking for a moment as she ordered and paid for hay fries and smoked salmon on a stick. Ponies occasionally would eat fish, so it wouldn’t break her cover beyond odd looks from unadventurous ponies who found carnivory in equines to be distasteful.

Smolder ordered nothing, but she did sit down at the same table. Chrysalis took a few moments to squirt lemon juice over her salmon and then take a few bites before pressing on. “Changelings used to be driven by one thing,” she said, horn lighting up to lift up fries. “Hunger. It gave them both focus and purpose. Everything was linked to hunger. Everything came back to hunger. When a changeling masqueraded as a friend or loved one they felt no guilt no matter what they did, because they were hungry, and that justified everything.”

Chrysalis paused in chewing on the salmon, and examined it. There was some bone still left in, probably an accident by the griffin cook. She finished off the meat and then used her telekinesis to crack open the bones. The marrow was the best part, tiny slivers or not. “But now, the changelings aren’t hungry. And just like a blind pony gaining better hearing, the changelings have become...sensitive, to things that never used to matter.” Chrysalis pulled out the marrow with magic and slid it into her mouth. Tasty.

She looked to Smolder, who was instead of looking appreciative at this lesson had her rather gem-like eyes focused on her plate. Chrysalis looked down at it herself, and saw nothing but an ordinary empty plate, a good meal consumed. “What?” She asked.

Smolder shook her head, the light glinting off her scales. “The only creatures I’ve ever seen eat that fast are Ocellus and my other friend Gallus.”

Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed. “I like food,” she said. She’d ordered a drink as well, a soda pop that she drained in moments, fighting past the brain freeze.

“I’m just wondering if you’re projecting your own stuff about hunger onto - ”

“One of us h-has a wall with a diploma on it and one of us doesn’t.” It was actually more likely to be Smolder than Chrysalis, seeing as she knew she had no such diploma, but whatever. “My point is...” she paused, furrowing her brow a moment as she stared at the dragon. What was the point? Oh, right. “...that you’re a dragon. You like strength, and changelings have become soft and weak. You like to bottle things up, but changelings can smell your insecurities and issues f-from across a room. Including one changeling in particular.”

Chrysalis grimaced at the pounding in her head. The slight stutter hadn’t escaped her notice either. Fine, she’d pace herself with cold drinks from now on. She stood after a moment and exited the restaurant, Smolder still in tow. “This sounds like a lot of knowledge about changelings for a relationship counselor,” Smolder said.

“I can have hobbies. Who s-says I can’t?”

“And you’re still wrong.” Smolder flapped her wings, though she didn’t take off. Chrysalis eyed the wings. Quite strong, not delicate like a changeling’s. There was a lot to admire about dragons physically, though maybe not right now as she’d almost tripped over...something. “Still has nothing to do with - ”

“Yes, yes, yes, dragons not f-feeling love.” She paused at another free sample, a pony mare offering tiny sandwiches. She grabbed two in her telekinesis, one for her, and held out the other to Smolder. “Eat.”

Smolder stared at the sandwich. “I thought you were trying to be selfish.”

“Yes, but this is free and you’re a growing y-young dragon. Eat.”

Smolder sighed, grabbing the sandwich and swallowing it in one bite. Chrysalis ate her own. “Good. Now as I was saying, that’s a load of...of horse...something. Doesn’t m-matter. Doesn’t your back hurt?”

Smolder’s muzzle scrunched. “What?”

“Walking like that. Hunched over your bag. Doesn’t that h-hurt?”

“No...you’re acting kinda’ weird, Nonchalant.”

“I’m sorry, I think - ”

Chrysalis froze, words catching in her throat. She had just apologized. To a nice young dragon that was only trying to look out for her -

What.

Chrysalis put a hoof to her forehead. Warm. Stuttering, slight slur to her words too. Headache. She’d almost tripped and needed to brace herself to stand - uncoordinated. And when she looked to Smolder she saw a young dragon with lustrous orange scales, strong and tall spines. She picked out not the weaknesses in Smolder, saw only the corded muscles and the powerful wings.

“I’ve b-been love poisoned.”

Smolder took a step back from Chrysalis. “What?”

“Love p-poisoned. I like you. A...a lot. Suddenly. M...maternal love, I th-think. Want to h-help you grow. S-seeing only positive...” Chrysalis breathed in, trying to steady herself, focus on the important thing. “You and Ocellus really need to just sit down and...”

No, wait, that wasn’t right! Chrysalis focused. “Take. M-me. To. Th-th-the. Nook.”

6. I See I Was Wrong

There wasn't much time. Chrysalis' mind was at war with her poisoned heart and losing. Badly. She focused every ounce of her intellect on fighting the effects.

Hate hate hate love hate hate hate hate

Her poor little dragon backed away another step from Chrysalis' demand, looking her up and down with those clever eyes of hers. Chrysalis couldn't blame Smolder, she knew she probably looked ill, and manic, what with trying to fight off her affection for the sweet thing because...why, exactly? What did it matter? It seemed important...but it wasn't, not really. Several other creatures on the street were staring as well, wondering what was going on, not that it was any of their business.

“Whoa, wait,” Smolder said, “how could you know if you've been love poisoned?”

Hate hate hate love hate hate love hate

Chrysalis took an uneasy step forward, shaking her head and smiling. She felt sweat on her pony body. The headache getting worse. “I-it's not the first time,” she said, and was glad that it was the truth despite the circumstances, both then and now. Lying to such a sweet young thing would have been a shame - wait, but wasn't she doing that right now by wearing the guise of a unicorn? Maybe she should -

Hate hate love love hate hate love hate

FOCUS. Smolder thought she was a unicorn and the dragon had enough going on in her life right now, what with her Cutie Map quest, and the spat that she and Ocellus were going through. It would break Smolder’s heart to learn that Nonchalant, her loving mother, was really Chrysalis, even if it would change nothing about how Chrysalis felt. She hated to do it, but she kept her unicorn guise. “Smolder, p-please listen to me. It's setting in. I don't-t have much time. A-and depending on the kind of l-love poison...m-maybe it will wear off, or maybe it could become permanent if we w-wait too long. You wouldn't want that to h-happen to me, would you?”

Hate hate love love love hate love hate

“But if a changeling drains it out of m-me then I'll be fine.” Chrysalis shook her head, still seeing uncertainty in Smolder's eyes. Ponies were still staring, which was kind of rude, this really should have been a private conversation between mother and focus focus focus focus FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS. Chrysalis advanced another step, getting close to the dragon, reaching out and putting a trembling hoof on Smolder's shoulder. “I only want t-to remove...remove the poison. It won't change the way I f-f-feel about you. There's no n-need to worry about that.”

Love hate love love love hate love hate

Smolder shook her head. She was a young dragon, defiance was second nature to her, Chrysalis could hardly blame her for that, could really only admire it. That attitude would take the little whelp far in life! “No way!” Smolder exclaimed. “There's already more than two dozen love-drunk changelings, you want there to be more?”

Love hate love love love love love hate

Chrysalis put a hoof to her mouth, hiding the small gasp. “Oh...thinking about others. That's so sweet of you! B-but think about it...they'll be fine i-in a few days...b-but f-f-for me, it...it could be p-permanent. R...really, Smolder, it's...it's important. I c-can help...help with the...” She closed her eyes so tight it almost hurt, breathing heavily, her hoof moving to her chest as her other legs wobbled even as she felt an ache in her heart about putting so much pressure on the little dragon. Almost as big as the pounding in her skull.

But this was important to Smolder, connected to the very reason why she'd come here, and that meant it was important to Chrysalis too. She had to focus, fight through the pain. “P-poisons...love...kn-know...about them. Won't be useful i-if I'm...doting on y-you..." She felt her eyes snap open, and she looked into Smolder's own.

Love love love love love love love hate

She didn't want to cry in front of Smolder, she needed to be strong for her teenage dragon. A solid foundation, that's what was needed for any youngster regardless of race. But there were tears in her eyes anyway - false eyes, but real tears that she didn't understand the source of as she smiled and leaned in and pulled the surprised dragon into a tight hug.

“H-h-h-help-p m-m-meee...”

Love love love love love love love LOVE!

Smolder stiffened. “O...okay, fine. Just let go of me!”

Chrysalis instead only squeezed a little tighter at her little dragon acting so concerned for her, but only for a moment. The headache felt almost like it snapped in her skull, then at last passed. And her trembling stopped as she ceased fighting against the love she felt.

She let go of Smolder and put on her brightest smile. "Good! I know I can be difficult, but I only want what's best for you.” She nodded, then noticed the other creatures staring at the two of them. “Yes? What is it? Can't a mother talk to...” She looked to Smolder, and giggled. “Well, I love you like a daughter, just as much as any daughter I've ever had of my own! More, even!”

The closest creature was the pony who had been offering free samples of those delicious sandwiches. She looked at Chrysalis closely. “I'm sorry, did you say you'd been love poisoned?”

“Yes, not that it means much,” Chrysalis said. Smolder had been moving her bag onto her back, but Chrysalis pulled her into a tight hug once more, nuzzling the dragon. “It's only a chemical reinforcement of how I already felt for her! She's going to grow up into a great wyrm one day. Kingdoms will open up their vaults for you, my little snugglebug!” She looked at the plate of sandwiches. “I don't think it was those, else Smolder would be showing the symptoms too. Still, maybe throw them out just in case? Artificial love isn't good for a growing filly or colt.” She looked to Smolder and tapped a hoof against her snout. “Or whelp. Boop!”

“Nonchalant?” Smolder asked, pushing against her. “We need to focus...”

“Oh! I'm embarrassing you! I'm so sorry, sweetie!” Chrysalis let go of Smolder. She felt bad about continuing to lie to Smolder about her form, but it was necessary for the moment. Although when the changelings drained out the silly poison, took her love...oh, but that had an easy solution too. No problem! Although she should wait a bit before telling Smolder. For now she could devote her attentions entirely to the most wonderful part of her life. “Now then, the first thing we need to do is get things sorted out between you and Ocellus.”

“Uh-huh, which means going to the Nook...”

“Right! Lead the way! It will have to be on foot. Strong as you are I don't think you could carry a full-grown mare like me all the way there with just your wings, but just you wait!” The two set off at a brisk pace, Smolder taking to the air so that Chrysalis could canter rather than merely trot. “Now about Ocellus...tell me about her. I should know more about your significant other.”

“You really shouldn't...”

“Please, Smolder, I only want what's best for you, like I said! Are you worried that I'm being judgmental because she's a changeling? Because I promise you, I really don't mind.”

“Uh-huh...”

“Love is love, my scaly little snugglebug! Well, that's not true, there are actually more kinds of love than can possibly be counted, even within just one race, to say nothing of how different races parse emotions. Each with their own flavor and texture. Ponies like to think sometimes that they're the most loving of all the races, but that's not true at all. Love can be found in equal proportions among all the races. And all love has the same fundamental texture, the same essence.”

Smolder glanced over at Chrysalis. “You know, I'm not sure which side of you I prefer...”

“Oh, this isn't really a 'side' of me. It's artificial, the real me is sort of asleep. Possibly forever if the love poison isn't removed in time!” At Smolder's wide-eyed glance, Chrysalis realized she'd misspoken. “No, no, honey, don't worry! I'm sorry, I spoke without thinking. I want you to know, I won't love you any less even if the love poison was removed. I never could! All the love poison did was chemically reinforce what was already there, I promise! And even if the real me stays asleep forever, would that be so bad? It just means that I'd be like this, forever!”

“Okay, yeah,” Smolder beat her wings, backing up and hovering over Nonchalant before grabbing her about the barrel and lifting. “I'm carrying you. Don't care how far.”

“Such a strong young dragon! You can do it, honey! Now, about Ocellus...”

As much as she wanted to hurry, Smolder couldn't carry Nonchalant all the way back to the Nook, no matter how much she'd tried to push her wings. But she did make it about halfway before being forced to set the love-addled pony down on the ground, and the two hurried towards the changelings' exclave as fast as their feet and hooves could carry them.

“Smolder, sweetie, you really should just tell me more about Ocellus,” Nonchalant insisted as they ran. Her eyes were wide and a grin had been plastered on her face the entire time. It was, frankly, freaky. “Look, if you could just explain how you feel about her, I'm sure - ”

“Nope. Not listening to a love-poisoned pony!”

“Dear, please, I promise I'm only...”

There was, at least, a trick to dealing with Nonchalant. Any deflection concerning her love life was met with long-winded speeches and reminders from Nochalant that as Smolder's “mother“, she only wanted what was best for Smolder, that Smolder was old enough to make her own choices but that didn’t mean she had to make them alone, and that as her mother Nonchalant would love her no matter what.

Nonchalant kept up a good pace, her four legs allowing her to easily keep up with Smolder’s two. Even still, the sun was edging downwards by the time the split-crown appearance of the Nook came into view. It was an uphill climb, literally, to get to it, but at least the end of the trip was in sight.

For the first time, Nonchalant paused in her trot to keep up with Smolder. “Sweetie, can you...hang on a minute?”

Smolder did pause, flexing and unflexing her strained wings. “We really don’t have time...”

Nonchalant nodded, smile still on her face, but for the first time since the poison had fully taken hold it showed slight cracks. “Yes, no, you’re right, my little snugglebug. And it is so uplifting to see you caring so much for me! Why any mare in Equestria would be so lucky to have you as a daughter and...a-and I’m just so happy it’s me...”

Smolder covered her face with her hands as Nonchalant began crying tears of joy. “You do know that most dragon parents kick their kids out as soon as they’re old enough to start wanting their own hoard, right? That we’re mostly raised by gangs? Last time I saw my mom she was shoving me into a pool of lava.”

“Well! I hope that I can be a better mother than that!” Nonchalant exclaimed. The tears were gone, now replaced by a maternal fury as Nonchalant rushed forward and grasped Smolder into another tight hug. “Smolder, I will never put your life in danger - ”

“Dragons are fireproof and don’t need to breathe.”

“It’s the principle of the thing! What if there had been lava turtles?”

“Not a real thing.”

“Or other dragons?”

“There was. My brother Garble. I joined his gang. There was a big welcoming ceremony and everything. I had phoenician balut.”

Nonchalant's embrace just became that much tighter. “Oh, you poor thing! Forced to join a gang! Well, don’t worry, I’ll raise you right. I’m sure your brother did his best but you’re with mommy now and she’ll do even better, teach you to look after yourself in this big scary world, we’ll start your pouncing lessons tomorrow - ”

Smolder struggled against Nonchalant’s surprising strength, pushing the unicorn away from her. “Look, we really need to get to the Nook, like, now.”

Nonchalant looked down to her, and nodded as she let go. “Right! But there’s something important I have to tell you first.” She backed away a few steps. “But you have to remember that mommy still loves you, okay, pumpkin? This doesn’t change anything!”

Smolder was about to ask what, but then licks of blue fire washed over Nonchalant, and Smolder found herself looking not at a unicorn, but at a Reformed changeling, with a cream-white carapace, orange elytra, and big, bright blue compound eyes.

Smolder snorted. “Honestly, I’m not surprised.”

The changeling looked surprised even as she set about adjusting the saddlebags she wore to accomodate her elytra. “R-really?”

“No. You knew way too much about changelings. Can we get moving?”

“Of course!” The changeling lifted herself off the ground, wings buzzing as she surged forward and grasped Smolder tightly before she could do anything. “Now my little lovebug,” she said as she flew them both, “I showed you this because if the changelings at the Nook had drained all my love - because I don’t think that they could really distinguish between real and fake love - mommy would have been starved to death. I don’t want to alarm you! Non-changelings just go to sleep for a few days when their love is drained, but changelings...we go feral, then die. But! There’s a simple solution. I just have to feed on love while the false love is being drained from me. Easy as pie!”

Smolder struggled against Nonchalant’s grip, but sighed after a moment and just let herself go limp. “Fine, sure, whatever, just hurry, you’re the one that - stop licking me!”

“Just cleaning you, Smoldy-Woldy!”

Nonchalant didn’t have far to fly, but it was still the longest flight of Smolder’s life as they set down outside the Nook’s main entrance. Venter was there, looking somewhat depressed, though his elytra opened and eyes widened when he spotted the two - and in particular the fact that Nonchalant kept a pastern locked around Smolder’s hand. “What the - who's this?” He demanded, stepping foraward. “I thought I knew every bug in the...Nook...” He took in a few deep breaths, and his eyes grew wide a moment, then his elytra snapped open and his wings dragged him back into the cave, away from the two. “Love poison!”

“Yeah, I know,” Smolder said, trying to detach Nonchalant from her hand to little success.

“I'm not letting her into the Nook, we're in a bad way right now and the bugs in there would eat her alive to feel better!”

“Bad way...?” Smolder began, but shook her head. “Look, just get, uh...Ecdysis and Ocellus, I guess, and a bunch of sober changelings, and tell them to bring Nervure and...Hyaline? One of the other love-drunk changelings that's sober enough to listen to instructions. We need to get this poison out of Nonchalant or she could be stuck like this - ”

“Oh, yes,” Nonchalant said, taking Smolder's hand into both of her forehooves. “Definitely bring Ocellus! We need to have a talk with her, if you're going to settle down with her one day. Also we'll have to discuss plans for the future, I know dragons live a very long time but when do you start being old enough to lay eggs? I want grandkids! We'll have to use magic, of course, then again as long as we're using magic anyway I suppose Ocellus could be the one whose eggs get - ”

“PLEASE HURRY,” Smolder begged. She was not too proud to beg at the moment. To her relief, Venter waited only a moment more before turning around, the pink-and-white changeling flying at his best possible speed into the Nook.

If the flight with Nonchalant trying to clean her was bad, the wait for changelings to show back up was even worse. In spite of her best efforts she learned far, far, far too much about the many magical ways that dragons and changelings could have offspring. It was bad enough to cause Smolder to start having smoke and licks of flame come from her mouth and nostrils, and she had to remind herself that Nonchalant was being forced to act like this, that she literally had no control over it.

“S-Smolder?”

Smolder opened her eyes at the familiar voice, and saw Ocellus flying towards her, somehow outpacing the larger Ecdysis and Venter in her flight - and no other changelings. Smolder almost started asking where the rest of the bugs Nonchalant would need to feed on were, but then saw Ocellus' eyes. Their rims were tinged red, and the fuzz around her cheeks was matted down with moisture. “Ocellus?” She asked, coming up to the changeling as soon as she landed. “Wh...what happened?”

Ocellus started to take in a deep breath, but stopped herself. She did lean into to Smolder, embracing her tightly. “I'll...I'll tell you later,” she said, “explain later. I need to apologize...”

“Oh...that's so sweet!” Nonchalant's voice interrupted. In an instant the cream-white changeling was there, turning the embrace into a group hug. “See? You two just need to be there for each other! You'll be a bottomless wellspring of support and - ”

Smolder grunted, putting a hand in Nonchalant's face and pushing her away. “Please stop.”

Ocellus almost looked like she was going to tell Nonchalant to go away herself, but the moment her mouth opened her eyes went wide, and she licked her lips. “Oh...oh wow...I could use some of that right now...”

At that, Smolder grabbed Ocellus and dragged the tiny changeling away from the bigger, poisoned one with a flap of her wings - Ocellus was a light load - putting as much distance between herself and Nonchalant as possible. “Okay, no, we're not letting you get love drunk!”

Ocellus must have realized what she had been saying, because she immediately clamped her mouth shut, and buried her face in the crook of Smolder's neck to hide herself. "S-sorry!” She mumbled. “J...just keep me away from her...”

That was easier said than done, as Nonchalant was giving chase. Smolder was faster than a changeling in the air, but the lovebugs were more nimble. “But Smolder, light of my life! I just want to help you!”

Nonchalant began babbling about a mother's love again. Smolder's grip on Ocellus tightened, feeling like she was playing a game of keep-away. Fortunately, dragons were exceptional at that game. She looked down to Ecdysis and Venter as she bobbed and weaved. “Okay, long story short, this is Nonchalant, the relationship counselor. Remember her from the airship?” At Ecdysis' nod, Smolder pressed on. “Apparently she's really a changeling. I have no idea why she was in disguise and I don't think we're going to get a lot useful out of her right now.”

“Except love and affection for all your days, my scaly little snugglebug!”

Ecdysis shifted in place. “Okay. I see why you wanted a love-drunk changeling, but...Smolder, Nervure is almost ready to rejoin the Nook, Hyaline too...I'm not just going to force them to stay in there longer!”

“Well the alternative is leaving Nonchalant like this or infecting some new changeling!” Smolder pointed out.

“Yeah...that's the plan,” Ecdysis said, wings opening and taking to the air. “I'm not going to let any more of my changelings get hurt. I'll eat the poison. Venter, Ocellus, Smolder, between the three of you Nonchalant can drain love from you without causing any real damage.”

“Wait, what?” Venter asked, following Ecdysis up. “Ecdysis, you're the boss bug, you can't just take yourself out, the Nook needs you. I'll drain - ”

“No! I'm not going to sacrifice a changeling just to keep myself safe, that's what Chrysalis would have done - ”

“Depended on the circumstance!” Nonchalant noted.

“ - and we're trying to make the Nook show what changelings are like without Chrysalis!” She surged forward, grabbing Nonchalant from behind and pushing the cream changeling down towards the ground. She opened her mouth, but before she could start drinking Venter tackled her off and tried himself. But then Ecdysis was back, leaning in closer to Nonchalant even as she tried to shove Venter off, while Venter tried to push her away himself, and Nonchalant struggled to get out from beneath both of them.

It started off almost comical - but as Ecdysis and Venter took more and more of the false love into themselves, their shoves against each other became less and less forceful, while they both started redoubling their efforts to hold down Nonchalant. Dormant instincts to feed took over. Their eyes narrowed, they leaned in close to Nonchalant with tongued lolling out, sucking down and swallowing great, gasping, greedy breaths of love. Nonchalant, meanwhile, had her own eyes grow wide, her own struggle to escape becoming more and more desperate, motivated as much by survival as by the false love she felt for Smolder. Her limbs shook and wings buzzed, but both began to grow weak. Bursts of blue fire surrounded her like she was trying to transform, but the love-powered magic was drained by Ecdysis and Venter just as fast as they could drink it.

Ocellus glanced up from Smolder, looking down at the scene. Her eyes grew wide. “W-we have to get down there!” Ocellus exclaimed, pushing off from Smolder and diving down. “Th...they're gonna take all her love! She'll die, or - or drink their tainted love, and...”

Smolder felt a needle jab into her heart as she followed Ocellus down, grabbing her before she could get too close. “Ocellus, I was kind of counting on there being a bunch of changelings here for her to drink from! If she only has you...”

“So help me!” Ocellus exclaimed, turning and grabbing Smolder's hands and then pulling the dragon forward with surprising strength, in spite of Smolder's wings beating to try and pull her away. “Between the two of us, we'll...make it. We'll definitely make it!”

“But dragons don't do love! Which means it'll be just you, and I won't let anything hurt you!”

“I'll be fine!”

“No!” Smolder grabbed onto Ocellus tightly, digging her heels into the ground and pulling her back and away from Nonchalant. She snorted fire, put muscles strong enough to propel her through boiling pools of liquefied rock to use in holding Ocellus back. “You're too precious, I won't lose you! You're mine!”

The sound of Smolder's own words in her ears almost made her let go of Ocellus, but her instincts made her grab on tighter - at least until Ocellus turned around in her grip, mouth open. Smolder had just enough time to realize that changelings actually still had fangs, just much smaller in size from before their Reformation, before Ocellus snapped her head forward and plunged those fangs into Smolder's arm.

The young dragon cried out in shock and pain, letting go of Ocellus. She fell to the ground, eyes wide, elytra and wings spread. “Hhhzzzkkk!” She hissed, a feral buzz to her voice that had never been there before. “I. Am not. Yourzzz!” With that, she turned around and dashed up to Nonchalant where she still lay under Ecdysis and Venter. The later two had fallen off of her, too drunk on the love poison to really put any effort on holding her down anymore - but Nonchalant had become too weak to put up any real resistance, either. The moment Ocellus was close enough, however, she grabbed and held Nonchalant in a hug, her horn glowing blue and touching Nonchalant's own. Feeding her love into the starving bug.

Smolder stared in shock, mouth hanging open, one hand grabbing where Ocellus had bit her. For just a moment, she felt as though she had been rooted in place. Petrified like she had been before earning her wings. Utterly helpless. She should have just been thrown at the nearest roc nest and left for the hatchlings to chew apart.

But in the next moment, she found herself beside Ocellus, grabbing and hugging her tightly. “I'm sorry!” She exclaimed. She felt Ocellus struggle against her at first, but once it became apparent that she wasn't going to move her, the tiny changeling stopped fighting. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry...I'm sorry...”

Ocellus turned in her hug to look at her a little more directly. She smiled just a little, and it was like a firework went off in Smolder's belly. “I...I know...I'm sorry too - I've been - ”

She didn't get any further, as Nonchalant's hooves reached out and grabbed them both around the shoulders, pulling them into a hug - or what seemed like one at first. But then Smolder felt herself encased in a blue magical aura, and the same one closed around Ocellus. Then, a pull, like static all across her scales, like something was burrowing under them and creeping and clawing its way through her body and into her chest - her heart - her soul - and pulling.

She grit her teeth and grabbed onto Ocellus tighter as Nonchalant began draining love from them. She felt her consciousness start to flicker around when the cream-white changeling stood up, kicking Ecdysis and Venter away from her with her hind hooves without letting go of either teenager. She tried to fight back against the pull, but Nonchalant's grip was stronger than iron as she let out sibilant, satisfied hisses.

Smolder's eyelids fluttered closed just as Nonchalant finally released her and Ocellus, and the pull on the two of them ceased. Both collapsed to the ground....and it was Ocellus who grabbed onto Smolder this time, holding on for dear life even as unconsciousness rose up to claim them both.

Pain. And hunger. Hunger like Ocellus hadn't known since the Reformation, since the day King Thorax had burrowed down and uncovered the entrance to the hatchery after overthrowing Chrysalis, since he and the other adults had shown each and every nymph and grub how to share their love, cast off their old forms, and escape the clutches of starvation.

But there was food. Her mouth was open, and she was breathing it in, tasting it even if not yet eating it. Ocellus' eyes fluttered open, and she found herself looking at an orange dragon wyrmling. They were both lying on a bed of moss in a small cave, light coming from tiny clusters of bioluminescent fungi in the walls. There was no more than three or four candles' worth of illumination, but for a changeling's eyes that might as well have been a bonfire. The entrance was in easy sight directly overhead, while a couple of school bags lay nearby.

Ocellus felt her body moving. The dragon was lying on her side, facing away from Ocellus; she crawled over on instinct, every hoof-fall quieter than the footsteps of a beetle. Soon she was looming over the dragon, taking in a long breath. Her eyelids fluttered at the bouquet of aromas that reached her. Draconic confidence and certainty and pride. The tang of greed...and love. There was love there, sweet and silky and smooth and just waiting for Ocellus to drink it down, fill her stomach and warm her heart...

...but she recognized the dragon. Smolder. Her classmate. Her friend, even if their relationship was rocky at the moment. Ocellus clamped her mouth shut, closing her eyes and counting to ten. She reminded herself that the rumble in her stomach and the ache in her heart would go away on its own. She was still blue, still fuzzy, still Reformed, still capable of creating her own love. So instead, Ocellus reached out and placed a hoof on Smolder, gently shaking her.

“Mmph,” Smolder mumbled, rolling onto her back. Her own eyes fluttered open - dragon eyes were about as good as changeling ones in the dark - but were slow to come into focus as she ran her hands over her face. “Ugh...let's...let's not do that again.”

“No, let's not,” Ocellus agreed, and giggled a little as Smolder sat up, one hand still rubbing her face, the other reaching around until she found her school bag and pulling it over to her, against her chest. She grabbed Ocellus' as well, though that she only set next to her. “Are you okay?”

“I'll make it,” Smolder said, glancing over to Ocellus and chuckling a little. The laugh died in her throat, though, when her eyes caught sight of a wound in her arm. A few scales were bent, even cracked a little, though they had done their job - there was no sign that the actual flesh had been broken. She regarded the injury for a moment, then looked back to Ocellus.

Ocellus stared back. “I...I'm sorry, I just - ”

“I deserved it,” Smolder interrupted, hugging her bag close to her chest and looking away. She closed her eyes. “I'm...I'm a stupid, greedy dragon who's just so stupid. I've been living with you in my...in our dorm. But all these stupid instincts in me make me think that that room is my lair, and everything in it is my hoard. That you're my hoard.” She took in a deep breath, then exhaled a little fire. “I'm sorry. You're not property, you're a person, and I know that. I really do...”

Ocellus shifted. She'd suspected as much. She swallowed a few times. “I've...I've b-been eating your emotions,” she said, closing her eyes.

“Huh?”

Ocellus turned away, rubbing one leg against the other. “Yours. Gallus'. Yona and Sandbar. Silverstream. And the other students, and the professors...I'm the only changeling in school and no creature even realizes I'm doing it. It's only tiny nibbles...little bites throughout the day. Never enough to hurt any creature, you'd never even notice...a-and I'm not the only changeling...” She let out a shuddering breath. “B...but it means it was a lie. It was all a lie. R-Reformation was never real and I'm horrible.”

There was silence in the little cave for a few minutes...and then Ocellus heard Smolder chuckling, then laughing. Her eyes fluttered open, and she saw Smolder clutching her bag even tighter, but only becasuse she was almost doubling over where she sat cross-legged on the floor. “Wh...what?” She asked. “It's not funny!”

“Yeah it is!” Smolder exclaimed between chuckles. She forced herself to calm down, looking to Ocellus with a bright, honest grin on her face. “Ocellus...we know you've been doing that.”

Ocellus' jaw dropped. It allowed her to taste the sincerity in the air, at least. “What?” She asked.

“Yeah. I think Sandbar put it together first, when he learned that changelings eat emotions with their tongues, and you licked your lips a lot around us. We were gonna confront you about it, but Gallus made us promise not to. He said something about getting where you were coming from. Which Silverstream put together why after Hearth's Warming, since he used to be destitute.” Smolder turned so that she was facing Ocellus directly. She set her bag aside, next to Ocellus' own. “We decided that it didn't matter. You're not hurting any creature, and you're not gonna forget years and years of starvation just 'cause you haven't starved for two or three recently.”

Ocellus shifted, rubbing one leg against another again. “But...but what about everycreature else?” She asked. “I...I mean, the fact that us changelings are still doing that, it's probably what's led to all of this in the first place!”

“No,” Smolder said, “what led to this is some jerk love poisoning creatures. And we might even have a lead on that now...”

“Ugh, back to business already?” a new, but familiar, voice demanded from above them. Ocellus and Smolder glanced up, and saw Nonchalant - in her changeling form - crawling in through the opening in the roof of the cave and, for some reason, carrying a purple-tinged stick with her in her telekinesis as she went. Once inside the chamber, she opened her wings and glided down to them, landing so she was standing over Smolder and narrowing her blue eyes. “For the record: you are not my daughter, and I never want you to be my daughter, and I hate you.”

Smolder flashed a toothy grin. “So the love poison's gone, then?”

“Yes. Also I hate you, snugglebug - ” she paused, took a moment to glare at the purple stick she held for some reason, then looked back to Smolder. “There may be some lingering minor symptoms. They'll fade, as long as I fight them. On that note: I hate you.”

Ocellus looked between the two, before she settled on looking at Nonchalant. “So...you're a changeling? But not part of the Nook...wait, why didn't you just tell us from the beginning? Nonchalant isn't a changeling name, either, who are you really? Why didn't you help out Clavicle?”

Nonchalant sat down, tapping her hooves together in thought. “Let's see...just because I'm Reformed doesn't mean I want anything to do with Thorax. I've built a life for myself without the Hive. No, my real name is not Nonchalant, but we'll pretend it is, keep things simple. And I didn't help Clavicle because I was too busy truthfully informing Mayor Dusk about the effects of love poisons, and also if the idiot was stupid enough to get love-drunk, he deserves whatever the ponies do to him. Which let's be honest, will probably be to sing some song about the dangers of gluttony at him and then send him on his way.” She shifted back into her unicorn form so that she could roll her eyes, a feat that was anatomically impossible for a changeling's true form. “I hardly fed him to a manticore. Also I hate Smoldy-woldy - gah! The dragon! I hate the stupid dragon!”

“Right,” Smolder droned, making to stand, “we've got a - whoa!” She wobbled on unsure legs, then fell backwards, avoiding a painful landing only because Ocellus quickly moved to catch her - although all that happened was both ended up in a heap, as Ocellus' own legs trembled at the effort of rapid movement.

Nonchalant watched the two evenly. “Mm-hmm. Nope. Neither of you are going anywhere at the moment, not while you're still recovering from me drinking your love. Besides, you've already been out for hours, the Sun's gone down anyway.” She shrugged as she shifted back into her changeling form. “Might as well sleep. Personally I'd go and end things myself, but, Cutie Map. I guarantee that if I went to try and solve things myself, the culprit would run off and make their escape, or somehow turn me to stone or poison me again, or whatever. Forces of destiny, it has to be you two. So instead...I'll be up there.” She tilted her head up, looking at the exit. “The...Nook. With other changelings. First time in a while...” She turned to her purple stick. “Shut up.”

Ocellus and Smolder had disentangled themselves from each other, and looked at the older changeling oddly. “The...stick?” Smolder asked.

Nonchalant grabbed and held the stick close to herself. “Yes. And also you because I hate you.” Her elytra snapped open, and she flew back up to the entrance and began crawling out. “I figured you'd be more comfortable down here anyway, dragon. Ocellus, you can come up if you want.”

Ocellus almost made to - she had enough strength to crawl to the walls, she thought - but paused. She tilted her head so she could keep both Nonchalant and Smolder in view “N...no,” she said. “I mean...Maybe tomorrow night. But tonight, I...I want to stay here.”

Nonchalant looked back to them, and grinned. “Excellent. Sleep tight, lovebugs! I hate you!”

With that, she scurried up the shaft, back to the main chamber. Ocellus turned to look at Smolder again, who was once more sitting up, clutching her school bag and looking at Ocellus pointedly. “You don't have to stay,” she said, and grunted. “M...maybe you shouldn't. Being around me...I'm just going to want to hoard you more.”

Ocellus considered. She knew that...she knew that very well. But at the same time...the barriers that had built up between the two over the past few weeks were finally starting to crack. Light was shining through them...and in truth, as much as Ocellus wanted to go up to the main chamber, settle in to the buzzing and the voices of a room containing hundreds of changelings, feel the presence of so many bugs lull her to sleep...the cadence of being in a Hive again would be...missing something, without Smolder. And Smolder probably couldn't be comfortable sleeping around so many other creatures...but Ocellus could be comfortable sleeping around her.

So Ocellus shook her head. "N-no. I want to stay." She smiled, her horn lighting up and grabbing her own school bag, bringing it forward and pulling out some books. “We have homework to do. Just a little, before we turn in.”

“But - ”

“I'm staying.”

“Is that really a good idea, though - ”

“I'll bite you again. For real this time.”

Smolder let out a surprised laugh at that. “Okay, then,” she said, glancing at her arm and rubbing where the scales had cracked “That wasn't for real? Youch.” She fished out her own school books, as well as a couple of gemstones. She bit into a ruby, crunching on it for a few moments as she considered the other half still in her hand. “Um...as long as I'm eating...you can too. Just to be clear.”

Ocellus' eyes grew wide at that, wings buzzing a little beneath her elytra. “O-okay,” she intoned, as she settled down, eyes on her book and on Smolder. Smolder rolled over onto her own stomach, head in her hands, with her book in front of her, tail lazily waving back and forth behind her as she read, munching on a ruby.

Ocellus sampled the air. Embarrassment, tinged with uncertainty. It almost didn't smell good, but both scents gave way to draconic greed that brought with it the sweet affection that Smolder always had for Ocellus and all her friends. The shame...a touch of it lingered, but it was abating. And now that it was leaving, Ocellus scented something else in the greed, a fundamental new flavor that was part of it, that had been there the whole time but which the shame had smothered...

Her jaw dropped open. Ocellus knew that scent. Every changeling did. She licked at the air just to be sure, and sure enough, felt it trickle down her throat and into her stomach - and warm her heart. The draconic greed came with it, but did nothing but compliment it, gave it a spice that Ocellus had never scented in it before...she found herself scooting a little closer to Smolder, eating another bite.

Love. Real love, directed at her. There was no mistaking it. And suddenly, everything Smolder had been doing, the way she had been acting around her, everything made sense.

Smolder looked to her. “So, um...what do I...oh, diamonds on fire, there is no way for me to ask what I want to without it sounding weird.”

She didn't know, Ocellus realized. Hadn't figured it out herself yet, didn't understand her own emotions. Ocellus almost giggled, but managed to suppress it, instead shaking her head. “Good,” she said. “Just...good. Let's leave it at that, for now.”

7. I Should've Known All Along

Chrysalis suppressed a yawn as she emerged from the oubliette - well, it didn't have a door and neither creature inside was particularly hindered by the entry being in its ceiling, but it was basically an oubliette otherwise - and found herself looking at a half-dozen changelings who were all surrounding it and looking at her. “What?” she demanded.

The changelings smelled of deep concern and worry, an active sort that broke through the general malaise of depression that permeated the Nook's main chamber right now and poked incessantly at her tired mind. “Are they alright?” One finally asked. “You didn't...I mean, I know they were willingly giving you love, but you didn't completely...they'll be okay, won't they?”

“The dragon will be,” one of the other changelings said, “but what about Ocellus? Is she hungry? Too hungry? Does she need us to - ”

“The last thing that bug needs is the stench up here getting to her down there,” Chrysalis interrupted as she finished climbing from the oubliette. She couldn't keep from yawning this time - a day in the sun followed by several hours of love poisoning were catching up to her. “They're both fine, leave them be.”

“But - ”

But? This bug was questioning her?! “But nothing!” Chrysalis exclaimed. “Focus on your own problems, you worthless wastes of chitin!”

The changelings all stepped back at that. The scent and burn of Chrysalis' own anger scorched her tongue and scent receptors in her disguised mouth. Her compound eyes allowed her to see that dozens of changelings all around her had stopped what they were doing and were staring down at her. Snarling, she took off, daring any bug to stop her as she headed deeper into the Nook, needing to get away from the miasma of depression. None followed.

She'd come out of her love poisoning and subsequent feeding frenzy outside with a quartet of creatures around her, either unconscious from her own hunger or else inebriated to the point of uselessness. It had been sorely tempting to take the opportunity to stomp open Ecdysis' carapace, but there would have been no way to hide or justify her action to the bugs of the Nook. So instead Chrysalis had taken the four into her magic and brought them in, the inebriated bugs to go to their drunk tank and the teenagers to be sequestered until they could sort out their issues...and then she'd spent nearly a full ten minutes gagging. Chrysalis had told Smolder that changelings had become sensitive, but this...

The Hive had suffered setbacks before. Failure. And for a race of empathic emotivores, of course failure and the depression that resulted form it could run the risk of flowing throughout the swarm. Misery loved company, after all. But there had been defenses against it running out of control. First and foremost had been hunger. Starvation was a powerful motivator, and no malaise could stand long against the primal need to feed. Failure was a lesson learned and a reason to approach the problem from a new angle, or seek out and find a new source of food.

But second had been Chrysalis herself. She would not let her bugs dwell upon their failures. Drones lying around feeling sorry for themselves were less than useless. Over the centuries she had become adept at whipping them into shape, moving them past failure and on to the next target. There was always a small village or a tiny hamlet somewhere that could put up no defense, which could be swarmed and consumed as a means of filling their bellies and moving the changelings on to looking forward instead of backwards.

Without hunger, there was no internal force driving the changelings to move on. Without a strong leader - without Chrysalis - there was no external one to redirect their malaise. Clearly Ecdysis herself was not up to the task, in any event; little surprise from an infiltrator who may have been intelligent enough but who had been trained to operate alone, not to lead. Hence why she'd done something as stupid as “sacrifice“ herself and drink Chrysalis' false love herself rather than merely let another drone be out of commission for a few days. And so the malaise spread, and they all smelt it and tasted it in the air, and knew the reason, and so it spread further, seeped into the very hearts of the bugs. It was like a miasma, a thick cloud choking the motivation from the Nook.

It was infuriating. Enough so that no bug had disturbed her as she'd brooded just within the oubliette, accepting her quick, short explanation of being an infiltrator who preferred living among ponies to the Hive. Her anger was too intense for them to taste the deception. She'd made sure to force through a calm façade before talking to Ocellus and Smolder, but the moment she had left them behind, the anger had returned in full force.

Chrysalis had left the communal chamber behind as fast as she could, intent on trying to find some deeper part of the Nook to lurk and brood and vent to the shadow of Twilight Sparkle. Her currently-compound eyes took in every detail as she went. At least the Nook was competently excavated. The tunnels were well-crafted, resin placed appropriately to reinforce the walls, prevent any collapses. But there were also metal pipes and pony machines in some of the chambers, most notably a cistern chamber that had pipes running through the water, heating the pool up so that steam rose from the water's surface. A communal bath, big enough for dozens of changelings at a time. Elsewhere there were granaries and larders for the storage of solid food - with more pony technology to refrigerate or freeze the contents for longer storage. There were also a number of dug-out chambers that didn't have any apparent use yet...and one chamber that made Chrysalis stop cold.

It was in the deepest part of the Nook, probably directly under the river that split the small hive in half. It had only one entrance, a gentle sloping corridor that let out into a wide chamber that was a fraction the size of its counterpart in the Badlands, but which would surely grow one day. The floor was smooth, but nests of resin had been constructed at regular intervals across the surface. The resin here was soft and pliable, and once the eggs were placed they'd be half-buried in still more resin, held tightly in place so that nothing could disturb their gestation.

The shadow of Twilight Sparkle came out from its home where Chrysalis had tucked it beneath her elytra, glancing curiously at Chrysalis. “A hatchery,” she explained, yawning again as she sloughed off her assumed form, stepping into the chamber as she truly was. It was devoid of eggs at the moment, and every nest was completely new. Waiting for the first generation of Nook changelings. The shadow of Twilight bent down with Chrysalis to inspect the craftsmanship of one nest, and found no flaws.

Chrysalis saw the shadow staring at her, and shook her head, brushing hair from her eyes. “What do I care?” She demanded. “Of course the Nook has this. No hive is complete without a hatchery.” She rubbed tired eyes. “But it doesn't matter, because we just saw how useless they are. One thing goes wrong and they all fall apart! Their leader can't even keep her bugs under control or directed! They're weak. Helpless. They need me!” Chrysalis punctuated the last with a stomp of her hoof - straight through the nest she was next to, breaking through the resin and shattering it.

The shadow was beside Chrysalis now, staring down at the broken nest. It eyed her.

She eyed it back. “What?” She demanded.

The shadow stared at her.

“Oh...fine,” Chrysalis spat, both figuratively and literally. Ooze flew from her mouth and landed on the broken nest, and she spent a few minutes shaping it with with a combination of her hooves and magic, the shadow helping her. She'd made countless thousands of these nests herself over her long, long life. Even while sleepy, she was unarguably the most skilled maker of nests in the world. Soon, it was like the the nest had never been broken, save for the detritus of Chrysalis' stomp, which she gathered up and shoved into a corner.

The shadow stared at her still. Somehow there was no ooze on her hooves at all, while Chrysalis had to spend a few minutes licking her own hooves clean before the ooze could calcify into resin. “There. Happy?”

The shadow nodded.

“Good.” Chrysalis stepped away, over to a relatively clear area of the hatchery and settling down, folding her long legs under her barrel. She shivered a little at the cold of the floor, but she could manage. She managed in Grogar's lair, after all. “Might as well sleep, then. Not much to do until tomorrow anyway...”

The shadow stared at her.

“What?”

The shadow stared a moment more, then turned and walked from the hatchery. Chrysalis blinked. “And where do you think you're going?”

The shadow didn't answer, having passed beyond sight. Chrysalis got up, shifting back into her assumed guise as a normal Reformed changeling as she went. By the time Chrysalis had reached the top of the sloping corridor that led down to the hatchery, the shadow had reached the end of another corridor, passing out of sight.

“Shadow!” Chrysalis hissed as she took after it, wings buzzing since she could fly faster than she could gallop, carrying the shadow's stick in her telekinesis. “You idiot, you look just like Twilight Sparkle, if the other bugs see you they'll wonder what she's doing here!”

The shadow was at the end of another corridor, dozens of feet away and staring back at Chrysalis. It shrugged, then walked out of sight again. Must have been teleporting or something since it never seemed to be doing anything but walking, yet Chrysalis was constantly far behind it. “Get back in your home!” She called after it...

By the time she finally caught up to the shadow, she was at the entrance to the communal chamber again. The shadow disappeared just as Chrysalis arrived, back into its home. Chrysalis grabbed the stick and shook it a little, hoping it discombobulated the shadow. It deserved dizziness for running off and disobeying her rightful queen...

Chrysalis glanced up from the shadow. She'd spent enough time wandering the Nook, and then within the hatchery, that the changelings of the Nook had started going to sleep, laying down on beds of moss and lichen. No changeling slept alone, many of them piling together in groups of four or five or more. A few changelings flew from group to group, passing out blankets or pillows, checking to make sure the rest were comfortable before settling in themselves. Meanwhile, overhead, a great, translucent awning had been stretched out, letting the light of the moon and stars down into the communal chamber but proofing it against any surprise rainfall. And as the changelings fell asleep, the miasma of depression gave way to a general scent that Chrysalis needed a few minutes to recognize. It was the vague taste of hope, that tomorrow would be better.

But...how? They didn’t have a leader. Ecdysis was strung out in the drunk tank. So who had directed the Nook to this new emotional state? They couldn’t have done it on their own. They needed a leader...

Chrysalis didn't know how long she stood staring at the Nook turning in. Her reverie was broken by another yawn sneaking up on her before she could press it down. Grunting, she made to turn around and return to the hatchery, or some other chamber, but paused after just a few steps. She remembered how cold the stone floor of the hatchery had been, and the air within it too, while meanwhile the Nook's main chamber was warmed by the body heat of hundreds of changelings. The moss and lichen was certainly more comfortable as well. Chrysalis found herself turning around and taking a few steps into the communal chamber, settling down near the wall.

She wasn't going to snuggle up with any other changelings; that would be absurd for the Queen, disguise or no. But she did cast a quick spell over herself, locking her form so that when she fell asleep she wouldn't shift back into her true body. She clutched the shadow's home close to her chest as she closed her eyes, surrounded by the sounds of the Nook's bugs breathing, wings buzzing slightly, shifting in place, a few quiet conversations from changelings who weren't sleepy yet...the presence of so many changelings all around her...

Ocellus had woken up the following morning to the realization that she was trapped in the clutches of a dragon. It had been surprisingly comforting while it lasted...if just a little confusing. She hadn't gone to sleep snuggled up to Smolder, though on the other hoof it wasn't the first time she'd woken up in the grip of a friend either. After their ordeal beneath the School of Friendship, when she and her friends had needed a heck of a nap after what the Tree of Harmony had put them all through, she'd woken up to learn that both Silverstream and Yona were clingy, and she'd ended up sandwiched between the two. Likewise a camping trip where she'd shared a tent with Gallus had seen her moving in her sleep under the wings of her griffin friend to fight back the cold of the Whitetail Wood's night.

But this was different, because now that Smolder had revealed the source of the emotions that she'd been feeling for Ocellus recently and Ocellus hadn't rebuked her or them, the shame had lessened down to basically nothing. Now Ocellus mostly only scented - and tasted - the greed an the love, the two emotions entwined and mixing with one another in a rich bouquet of flavor.

So much for dragons not “doing” love...and now Ocellus had to decide what to do about it. Did she feel the same way? The question wasn’t as straightforward as it probably should have been. For all that changelings ate love, they had spent so long viewing it as just a form of food and otherwise being distracted by their hunger for it that Ocellus really didn’t have any kind of experience trying to parse how she felt about her own emotions. She knew she loved all her friends, including Smolder, and that she loved her family back in the Badlands. And she knew that the love she felt for the two groups was different.

Was the love she felt for Smolder different too? Still just friendship, or a third kind of love beyond that for a friend or family? Smolder’s love for her smelled of the sweet cinnamon of romance...what about her own? Scenting one’s own emotions was always tricky unless they were particularly intense, but just because her feelings weren’t intense didn’t mean they weren’t there...

Ocellus was literally shaken from her thoughts as Smolder clasped a hand onto her withers, nudging her a little as they flew. “Hey, Equestria to Ocellus,” she said. “You missed the turn.”

Ocellus blinked, and realized that in fact she had kept flying in a straight line away from the Nook, which would have taken her out to sea, instead of banking towards Tiatarta. A few hundred feet away, Nonchalant hovered, still in her changeling form.

“S-sorry,” Ocellus mumbled, following Smolder back over to Nonchalant, then the three resuming their flight to Tiatarta. “Just...thinking. Distracted.”

“Are you still hungry?” Smolder asked. She glanced between the two changelings. “No offense, but changeling breakfasts...I don’t think three papayas really counts as a meal.”

“Three papayas and an agate,” Nonchalant noted of Smolder.

“I'm just saying, maybe we can check out that Patios & Pancakes place.”

“No. That would be foolish,” Nonchalant insisted. She turned in the air to look at Smolder directly, though managed to keep flying straight. “I think my poisoning yesterday was a mistake.”

“Well, yeah, I doubt you meant to start smothering me - ”

“Not like that! Think about it, dragon. The Nook has dozens of love-drunk changelings, but Tiatarta has no love-drained victims.” She turned back around, and her eyes narrowed. “Our culprit is growing sloppy...or bold. Or both. In any event I wouldn’t advise eating anything in Tiatarta, not unless you see some other creature eat it first and be unaffected.”

Smolder crossed her arms, snorting a little smoke. “But we know where to look, right? That fish place?”

“It’s a start...but I doubt any of the employees there are our culprits. You use poison because it can be done discreetly, without any obvious evidence leading back to the poisoner. You don’t just openly hand your intended victim a dish you laced with poison and then wish them bon appetit.”

Ocellus blinked a moment, then shuddered as she flew. “That...I’ve heard that before. Almost exactly those words. Ecdysis taught me that.”

Smolder glanced back at Ocellus, smirking. “More spy stuff?”

“Y-yeah. B-but I’ve never poisoned any of you! Never thought about it!”

“Which is exactly what you’d say if you had...” Nonchalant said in a sing-song voice as she did a little roll in the air over Ocellus. She must have tasted Ocellus’ embarrassment and shame, though, as she swiftly nudged the smaller changeling. “Calm down, bug. Chrysalis would have realized infiltration training was wasted on you within five seconds of talking to you once you’d molted into an adult. The Hive could always use more workers.”

“Thanks...?” Ocellus responded. She wasn’t sure if being told that in the old Hive all she would have been good for was physical labor was a compliment or not. “I, um...c-could have helped with swarm lore, too.”

Nonchalant considered. “Maybe.”

“Hey, uh...” Smolder said as she dropped back to fly beside Nonchalant, “don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem...different, this morning. A lot less snippy. You sure the love poison’s worn off?”

A wave of surprise came off Nonchalant and reached Ocellus’ scent receptors. The older changeling was silent for several long moments as the three flew. “I slept well last night,” she finally mumbled, then pulled ahead of the two teenagers, putting several dozen feet between herself and them.

Smolder looked to Ocellus. “You know, usually when a creature says that they make it sound like it was a good thing,” she said.

Ocellus weaved in her flight, the closest thing she could do to a shrug while flying. Given that Nonchalant was obviously a former infiltrator, she guessed that the other changeling had simply spent a long time away from the Hive and needed time to readjust to being around others openly again.

They flew in companionable silence until they reached the outskirts of Tiatarta, when Nonchalant flew down into the first narrow ally and took on the guise of a blue-coated, white-haired pegasus mare. “Right, fish shop, it’s still the best starting point,” she said. She considered Ocellus. “You, look like a pony too, then when I tell you transform back into a changeling. Our culprit will probably have a burst of hate and maliciousness that we’ll both be able to scent if they’re there.”

Ocellus obliged, turning into her favorite equine form: a lanky, green, young earth pony mare with a ladybug cutie mark. “What about Smolder?” She asked. “She was with you yesterday...and she said you weren’t exactly subtle about the poisoning. So if she goes in there with us, the culprit will probably guess we’re really changelings, and keep their emotions in check.”

“Hmm...” Nonchalant considered, ruffling her assumed wings. “Good point. Smolder, give us some space, let us go into the restaurant on our own, then come in after a few minutes have passed.”

Smolder eyed Nonchalant, then looked to Ocellus. “You sure?” She asked her friend. When Ocellus nodded and smiled at her, she gave a small shrug. “Fine. You’re the spy.” She chuckled a little at Ocellus’ sputtering reply, then beat her wings and took to the air. “I’ll be close, though, keep you in sight. Don’t want Pharynx to...well, you know.”

Ocellus nodded and smiled a little at Smolder reminding her that she was Ocellus’ designated chaperone. “Just...don’t stay too close. But don’t look like you’re trying to stay away.”

“Fly casual,” Smolder agreed with a smile of her own. Then she took off, beginning to lazily circle the area.

Nonchalant, meanwhile, came up alongside Ocellus, comparing her assumed form to the younger bug’s. Little flickers of changeling magic danced along her as she made some adjustments, brightening her coat and turning it more towards green, thinning her frame, and losing the wings in favor of being an earth pony as well, though she kept the height and age difference intact. She reached out a hoof and put it to Ocellus’ face, turning her head this way and that as she inspected her. “Name?”

Ocellus fidgeted under Nonchalant’s gaze. “Um...B-Bitta Luck.” She swallowed, knowing what the veteran infiltrator was doing. Sure, Ecdysis had called Ocellus a mediocre student...but only in the sense of having the wrong temperament. Ocellus never forgot any lessons she'd learned. “I sh-should be able to just...just use my actual history, I won’t need a real legend. I’ll just leave out the School of Friendship, use pseudonyms for my friends if they even come up...”

Nonchalant smiled a toothy smile. “Excellent. Bitta Luck? I’ll be...Bitta Tea, then.” She glanced back at her flank, and the cutie mark that had been there, a magnifying glass, was replaced by a teacup. “Just a mother and daughter out on vacation from Ponyville. Come along, Bitta Luck.”

Ocellus followed her “mother” out from the alleyway. They weren’t clandestine about it at all, instead trotting like it was the most natural thing in the world. Ocellus kept pace alongside Nonchalant, keeping to the inside of the sidewalks they trotted along. “You’re good at your...abandoned course of study, Bitta Luck,” Nonchalant said. She’d changed her voice too, affecting a more Ponyvillian accent than she had before. “Shame you lack the drive. You would have been quite useful in the old days.”

Ocellus blanched, not sure if this was meant to be a test or not and wondering if walking down a street full of other creatures was really the best time or place for one. And even if it was, did she pass if she could keep character, or pass for breaking it? “N-no,” she insisted. “I wouldn’t have been. I could never, um...” Ocellus cast about for a suitable metaphor to use that wouldn't sound suspicious if overheard, “...eat seafood. So why would I want to...to go fishing?”

Nonchalant grinned. “Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.”

Ocellus chewed on her pony lip. “No. We...moved to Ponyville. We don't have to go fishing anymore.” She looked over to Nonchalant, hoping the metaphor wasn't getting too obtuse. “I mean...you moved to Ponyville too. Right? You gave up fishing.”

It was Nonchalant's turn to look surprised. “Not by choice,” she insisted. At Ocellus' confusion, her eyes narrowed again. “Yes. Believe it or not it's possible to move to Ponyville by accident. I was...” she took in a breath, holding it, before letting it out in a long groan. “There is no possible way to explain it that you would understand.”

Which probably really meant that Nonchalant couldn't think of a way to keep it coded. Ocellus considered. “Do you regret it?” She asked.

Nonchalant's mouth opened, almost looking like she was ready to shout, but the words caught in her throat. She glanced away. “There are advantages. There's more to eat. And it's less expensive to live there. But I was really, really good at fishing,” she turned once more to look at Ocellus, and the young changeling was almost certain she saw the older one's eyes flash to their true color beneath her disguise. “But now it seems like nopony wants to go out to sea anymore. And I miss it.”

Ocellus considered, taking a few moments to put together her retort. She brushed her assumed form's mane from her eyes. “The sea was really dangerous,” she said, “full of waves, and monsters. And fish that bit back. And it never really provided us with enough.” She lowered her voice. “Our...captain never provided us with enough.”

Nonchalant bristled, and stepped right up to Ocellus. The younger changeling froze as the older one loomed over her, getting almost muzzle-to-muzzle with her. “A captain,” she said, “has to think about the entire ship, not just any one member of the crew. She might not have provided any one of us with enough, but she did provide all of us with enough. And she did it for a very, very, very long time in spite of those waves and monsters and fish that bit back.”

Ocellus swallowed. “But there was another way,” she whispered. “That's why we moved to Ponyville.”

“The captain didn't know. Couldn't have known about Ponyville. The sea had always provided.”

“I don't think she was even looking. Even if she didn't find Ponyville, their was...” Ocellus shook her head, “there was...another crewmember, who got on a boat and went out and found a place where he could live, and everypony else could have too. The Crystal Empire. And the captain never even looked for that. Even if she didn't know about...about moving so far inland to Ponyville, there was always the Crystal Empire.”

Nonchalant snarled, the sound almost un-equine. She realized it, though - and realized that others in Tiatarta were starting to slow their own pace and look at the way she was regarding her "daughter" - and so she backed away from Ocellus. “Come along, Bitta Luck,” she said, resuming her trot, affecting a happier face. Ocellus followed, hoping she wasn't shaking too badly. Before she could say anything, though, Nonchalant leaned in to her ear.

“What if it hadn't worked?” She whispered harshly. “We were secret. Hidden. Myths and legends and creatures of shadow and fear. What if we had thrown all that away and shown ourselves...and the ponies said no?”

Ocellus wanted to have a retort for that...but she realized that Nonchalant had a point. Sure, yes, it was easy to look at things now and say that things could have been different, should have been different. But with how changelings had survived for so long, as predators, parasites, preying upon others, relying on trickery and subterfuge and silence, sweeping out of the shadows and then slinking back into them...after all, the ponies had spurned Thorax at first. It had taken an impassioned plea from Spike to get them to change their minds. What if they hadn't listened? What if Spike hadn't made that plea?

“Right!” Nonchalant said as she stopped in her trot. “Now then, I really do think you should at least try some seafood.”

Ocellus blinked. “No, I don't need to try any. We live in Ponyville now and - ”

Nonchalant put a hoof to Ocellus’ mouth, glaring down at her. “Bitta? We're having seafood for lunch.” She glanced pointedly behind Ocellus, who turned to look and saw that, in fact, the two had arrived at a seafood restaurant, presumably the same one that Nonchalant had eaten at and poisoned herself at yesterday.

“Oh,” Ocellus said, suppressing a nervous giggle. “R-right. Seafood. I guess I can try it...” And test out how well she could feign a distaste for seafood. Silverstream and Sandbar had both introduced her to it.

Nonchalant rolled her eyes once more. “You're the one who chose it,” she said - probably meaning the metaphor - as she pushed her way inside, Ocellus following. As the hour was still relatively early, there weren't many customers yet, only one of the tables occupied with a pair of unicorn vacationers. Ocellus spotted three cooks behind the counter, two ponies and a griffin who all seemed friendly enough. Unfortunately while in the guise of a pony, Ocellus had no ability to taste their true feelings...

“S-so, um...mom,” Ocellus ventured. “What do you recommend?”

Nonchalant scanned the menu closely, before looking to the cooks, one of which was waiting at the counter. “Salmon. And...as a favor...could you leave the bone in?”

Ocellus suppressed an urge to grumble to herself. No doubt they were only ordering the food for show, they weren't going to risk eating it...which meant she was going to miss out on the marrow. The best part.

Smolder waited five minutes after Ocellus and Nonchalant entered the restaurant, then went in herself. She spotted the two sitting at a table, kabobs of salmon meat and fries and full cups of soda in front of them, but not eating it. Instead, Nonchalant was talking, something about "Bitta Luck's" grades at school, whoever Bitta Luck was and whatever that had to do with their mission to find the creature who was poisoning changelings. Smolder supposed that she should keep up the illusion as well, and went up to the counter and ordered a meal for herself. She went with the cisco and onion rings, then went to her own table, relatively close to the disguised changelings but far enough away that she didn't suggest that she knew the two, about the same distance she put between herself and the other occupants of the dining area.

And...now she was staring at a plate full of food. Which she'd paid for. But couldn't eat, because then she'd turn into a lovey-dovey moron until yet more changelings were put under draining the poison from her.

Smolder drummed her fingers on the table, other hand supporting her head. She glanced over at Ocellus and Nonchalant, catching the latter's eyes and raising an eyebrow, wondering when she planned on unveiling herself. Nonchalant just smiled and waved in a friendly-but-unfamiliar manner. Solder did her best to return it, then sighed as she flopped down on the table. Her thoughts almost turned intwards to Ocellus, but she forced herself to not dwell on the tiny changeling right now. She needed to focus, for her friend.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity - certainly long enough for her cisco to stop steaming - Nonchalant clapped both her hooves on her table. “Right!” She exclaimed, standing and trotting up to the counter, bringing her food with her and indicating that Ocellus should do the same. “I actually wish to register a small complaint, if you don't mind.”

“Complaint?” A cook, one of the ponies, asked, looking at the dishes. “You haven't even touched them...”

The griffin let out a squak at that. “Yeah, what gives?” He asked, coming forward. “Them's fresh fish, right outta the Luna Bay, caught this morning!”

Nonchalant smiled. “Yes, well, you see - I have a terrible allergy...to poison!” Nonchalant glowed blue, revealing her cream-colored true form, with Ocellus following suit a moment later. Both changelings took in sharp breaths...and had looks of disappointment overcome their features.

The two ponies and one griffin glanced between each other. They’d reacted with surprise, at first, but then one of them sighed. “Great. Two more crazy bugs...”

“They’re not crazy...” Smolder droned from her table, sighing. “Yesterday I had a friend eat here and she got love-poisoned. We were looking into this place to see if you were the ones who did it.”

“Congratulations, you passed,” Nonchalant said. “Honestly I didn’t think it likely, but it was worth inspecting.” She trotted over time Smolder’s table and sat down. “Well, eat up, no sense in letting food go to waste...”

Smolder let out an appreciative growl, grabbing her cisco kabob and biting in to it - even as Ocellus cried out and her horn lit up to take it from her, though too late. “What?” Smolder asked as she chewed.

Ocellus bit her lip, but was glaring angrily at Nonchalant. “Just because those cooks didn’t poison the meal doesn’t mean it’s not poisoned!” She exclaimed.

“Hey!” One of the cooks objected. “We don’t - who do you think we are, claiming we’d poison our own guests?!”

“Mmm-hmm,” Nonchalant intoned, apparently ignoring the three. “Give it a few minutes. And stop looking at me like that, Ocellus, it’s not like we’re worried about arsenic or wyvern venom...”

Smolder blinked, considering. She decided that she was in for a jangle already, so she might as well go in for the full bit and dig in. Even as she did, Nonchalant began telekinetically pulling apart her own fish, inspecting it closely.

“Look, you three,” the griffin cook said, flying out from behind the counter. “You can’t just come in here and make accusations like that! We have a reputation to consider.”

Nonchalant’s horn glowed blue, and she leaned in close to the fish, squinting and still ignoring the accusations. “Love poison is so hard to detect...”

Smolder finished her cisco, then sat back and waited. Ocellus has her eyes locked on her. “I feel fine,” she noted. “Do I sound fine?”

“Of course you do!” One of the pony cooks objected. “We do not - wait, sir, ma’am...!” He came out from behind the counter as well to go after the unicorn couple, who had risen from their meal and were rushing out the door with panic on their faces. “This is a misunderstanding...”

Ocellus paid them no mind. “Y-yes,” she said, coming around the table and leaning in close to Smolder, breathing in, tongue flicking out. So nervous was she that her tongue's forked tip lightly brushed Smolder’s neck, causing a jolt to travel straight from the point of contact through Smolder’s spine and making her wings flare out.

Ocellus leapt back at that, chuckling nervously. “S-sorry! I, um...you smell and taste normal. Normal love.”

“Dragons don’t - ”

“Y-you do,” Ocellus insisted. “You...you really do.”

Smolder growled a little. Okay, sure, so her friend could taste and smell and eat emotions, but that didn’t mean that she actually understood them. Especially not in dragons. Dragons did greed and possession instead of love. How many times was she going to have to repeat that?

“I think we’re safe,” Nonchalant interrupted. Wincing, she bit into her fish, chewing slowly. “Smolder isn’t showing any signs of infection.”

“Ma’am, one more word about infection or poison or anything to disparage this establishment and I’ll - ”

Nonchalant turned to glare at the cook, wings opening, eyes narrowing. ”You’ll. What?” She asked.

The griffin matched her gaze, before turning deliberately away to look at one of the others. “Go fetch the police,” he said.

Ocellus finally turned her head so that she wasn’t directly looking at Smolder anymore. “The police?” Ocellus asked. “No, wait, we’ll just - ”

“Relax, little grub,” Nonchalant said, reaching out a hoof and pulling Ocellus back down into a sitting position. “We haven’t broken any laws, the most that the police will be able to do is escort us from the premise. And I think better under pressure anyway...” she stared at her fish, then held forward a bone that had been left in to Smolder, telekinesis pealing it open to expose the marrow. “Eat this.”

Smolder’s head tilted to the side. “I’m...actually not a big fan of marrow.”

“But it’s the best - ” Ocellus began to object. No sooner were the words out of her mouth that the marrow was lifted from the bone and shoved into her mouth by Nonchalant. Another creature might and gagged or spat it out - Smolder certainly would have - but Ocellus chewed and swallowed without thinking, before her eyes widened. “Oh no, I just...I don’t...”

Nonchalant leaned in to her, breathing deeply. “Ugh. Nothing. I really thought I was on to something there...What about the soda? Has any creature had any soda yet?”

She asked this even as Smolder had a straw in her mouth. Nonchalant stared, breathing a few moments, then sighed and drank her own soda. “Nuts...wait, why do I taste smugness?”

Smolder removed the straw from her mouth. “I hadn’t drank anything yet. That’s for trying to poison Ocellus.”

Nonchalant glared at her, but said nothing as they waited. “I hate you,” she said after several long moments, but resumed drinking her soda.

Smolder chuckled, having some of her own. “Okay. So I guess we learned...you’re right? Whosever is poisoning changelings probably just made a mistake yesterday and didn’t mean to poison you. They didn’t even know you were a changeling.”

“It must have been a mistake,” Ocellus said. “Two dozen love-drunk changelings but not a single victim of love poisoning until yesterday.”

“Are you really not going to leave until the police drag you out?” The griffin demanded.

“We won’t be dragged out, they’ll ask us to leave and we will,” Nonchalant said. “Now shut up. No, wait...” she turned to look at the griffin, eyes wide. “You said ‘crazy bugs’, not poisoned or drunk ones...”

Smolder realized what she was getting at. “Yeah...and you seemed surprised to learn about love poisoning even though it’s been going on for weeks. Its what’s been making the changelings act crazy, they’re being attacked somehow.”

The griffin bristled, feathers rising high on his body. “Changelings are some of my best customers!” He insisted, then glared at the three of them. “Present company excluded. Why would I poison them? The Nook has been great for business!”

“N-no, not that,” Ocellus said. “They mean...how could you not know about it? Unless no one’s told Tiatarta why changelings have been acting so strange...”

Nonchalant stood, looking between Smolder and Ocellus. “Can I presume that your saving that airship got you in good with the mayor?”

“She offered us coupons if we went to visit her,” Smolder said.

“It’ll do. Let’s go visit Mayor Dusk and find out why she’s been keeping secrets from her town.”

“Good! You’re banned!” The griffin shouted after them as the trio headed for the exit.

Nonchalant froze, then glanced over her shoulder and smiled. Blue fire flared around her, and she shifted through a half-dozen forms: an elderly pegasus, a crystal pony colt, a buffalo soldier, a diamond dog miner, a manticore in a tutu, Queen Chrysalis, and finally settling on the unicorn form she’d worn most of yesterday. “Good luck,” she drawled, heading out.

8. I Wish I'd Stayed

While most of Tiatarta followed the pattern of red-tiled roofs and white walls, there were plenty of oddities to be seen as well, novelty-shaped buildings much like what Ponyville sported. The town hall was one of these, a five-story building almost palatial in design, covered with large windows, surrounded by palm trees and with a flat roof that appeared to have a garden atop it. But that wasn't what caused Smolder, Ocellus, and Nonchalant (still in her preferred unicorn form) to pull up short. Rather, it was the fact that set just before the town hall was a statue. And while the first thing that Smolder noticed was that the statue appeared to be covered in gold, making her fingers twitch and tail wag just a little, as soon as she got a good look at the statue's face her draconic greed was pushed aside by rather more universal confusion.

“Is...” Nonchalant asked.

“...that...” Ocellus added.

“...Pinkie Pie?” Smolder finished.

If it wasn't a statue of Pinkie Pie, it was of her identical twin sister. The same eye shape, the same mane and tail style, the same proportions...she was even rearing up on her hind legs while throwing her forelegs open wide, as though waving them in surprise, or about to hug the onlooker, both things that Pinkie Pie would likely do. The sole thing that threw off the dragon and two changelings was the cutie mark, an etching made to look like a steaming hot pie with a slice of apple resting on top of it.

The three drifted closer to the statue - wary of it moving out and scooping them into a group hug at any moment - and looked at the plaque set at its base. “Auntie Pie, or Tía Tarta in Mexicolt,” Ocellus read aloud, “was the keeper of an inn that provided food and lodging to weary travelers in the Pre-Classical Era for many years until her mysterious disappearance. That inn eventually became the center of a small hamlet that gradually grew to be the modern town of Tiatarta.”

The three looked up. The statue of Auntie Pie looked down at them. “Time travel?” Smolder suggested.

“Nope,” Nonchalant immediately cut in, hurrying away from the statue. “Nope. No. No, no, no. Because that is the most sensible thing I can think of and I refuse to follow that line of thought.”

Smolder looked to Ocellus, who glanced back. Both burst out laughing, following Nonchalant through the steps and into the town hall. The foyer was decorated with pictures of iconic locations in and around the town, with the most notable thing upon entry being a blown-up photograph taken with a familiar-looking waterfall and river in the background, the Nook's location before any digging or building had begun; while in the foreground, Ecdysis and Delilah Dusk were both clasping hooves and smiling towards the camera as a number of changelings and ponies stood around in a mixed group. A plaque below it read “Tiatarta Welcomes Our New Changeling Friends“. Smolder was pretty sure she heard a sibilant hiss from Nonchalant at the sight.

“We sure she's Reformed?” Smolder whispered to Ocellus, slowing her walking pace so that they fell back a bit from Nonchalant, who was following the signs that lead to the mayor's office. “She seems to kind of, well...hate changelings.”

Ocellus' wings buzzed a little beneath her elytra. “She's still adjusting to it, I think,” she said. “I...don't know. It's hard to get a read on her. She's very good at guarding her emotions, better than you, even.”

Smolder raised her brow, crossing her arms. “I'm not guarding anything,” she said, one claw picking at the dented scales where Ocellus had bit her arm, wiggling a few of them. They were kind of like loose teeth, they needed to come out at some point so new scales could replace them. She noticed Ocellus looking at the wound - wasn't sure how, not with those compound eyes, but she could just tell. “It's fine, Ocellus, I got worse from my brother's gang all the time, and gave worse back too. Plus, like I said, I deserved it.”

Ocellus glanced down. She looked like she wanted to say something, but ahead of them Nonchalant had gone through a set of double-doors. Following her, the two teenagers found themselves in a small waiting room. A pair of large windows let sunlight in and illuminated the small palm trees in pots that sat in three of the room's four corners, the fourth take up by a large door leading to the mayor's office proper, while behind a desk a pegasus secretary was looking nonplussed with Nonchalant. “...in a meeting,” the secretary finished insisting, fluttering his wings in annoyance.

“Well, she'll want to finish it up,” Nonchalant insisted, trotting right up to the desk and leaning in towards the secretary, glaring at him. “Because this is important.”

“Everything Mayor Dusk does is important,” the secretary countered, “that's why she's the mayor.”

“Oh, yes, very important position, a mayorhood,” Nonchalant droned. “Look, it concerns the changelings in the Nook and the fact that they've been acting out and that the mayor has been covering up the reason. I'm quite certain that a peon like you hasn't been properly informed either, probably she'll want deniability or something, but if you could just stick your tiny little head - ”

“Okay, no.” Smolder said, coming forward and grabbing Nonchalant's withers, pulling her away from the desk. Nonchalant seized up at the touch and whipped her head around to Smolder, starting to snarl before the dragon's free hand clamped her mouth shut. “Nonchalant, we're not gonna do ourselves any favors by making a scene here.”

“Please,” Ocellus begged, trotting up to the disguised changeling and looking her straight on. “Let's just...try to be nice here.”

Nonchalant batted Smolder's claw from her muzzle and shrugged off the one at her withers with surprising strength. She glared at the two teenagers. “Fine,” she said, looking around the waiting room before picking a seat, heading over to and sitting in it, and picking up a magazine in her telekinesis, crossing her hooves as she angrily read it and muttered to herself.

Ocellus, meanwhile, turned to the secretary. “S-sorry,” she said. “We're just, um...going through a lot, all three of us. Do you know how long the mayor will be?”

The secretary ruffled his wings a little more, but at least seemed grateful to the two for getting Nonchalant under control. “Not long,” he said, and put on a pleasant smile. “Your friend - ” Nonchalant let out a laugh, “ - mentioned the Nook's troubles. Mayor Dusk is actually in a meeting concerning that right now. They've become fairly regular, she's meeting with the chief of police and a specialist in alchemy recommended by Princess Cadance.” The secretary turned to look at Nonchalant. “The mayor does ensure her peons are properly informed.”

“Just as long as you know your pl - wait a minute,” Nonchalant glanced up from her magazine. “Princess Cadance? So Mayor Dusk has informed Canterlot, but no one's informed Thorax? Not even the Princesses?” She almost literally seemed to chew on this information, before laughing. “Oh that's rich. So trustworthy, these ponies...”

Smolder scratched at the back of her neck. “Uh...yeah, actually, that's...kind of not good.”

The secretary shook his head. “I don't have any further details about who has and hasn't been informed, miss.”

Smolder once again glanced to Ocellus, who could only shrug herself. The two made their way over to another free set of chairs on the opposite side of the room, giving Nonchalant space, and settled in. Smolder tugged at the loose scales more, wiggling them. It kind of stung, but unlike with ponies it wouldn't heal if she did stop picking, so she kept at it. Ocellus, meanwhile, used her telekinesis to grab a magazine, a cooking one, and opened it up. She didn't seem to be reading the articles, just going through looking at the pictures...Smolder thought she saw her mouth watering a little.

The dragon chuckled to herself. Changelings were as uncomplicated as dragons in their own way. The chuckle gave way to a low hiss when she felt the scale she was picking at finally tear a little at its base, coming loose from flesh. She grimaced as she pulled it out, while a sliver of steam and a tiny stain of red crept out from her arm.

To her left, she noticed Ocellus shiver a little, and gag just slightly. It couldn't have been because of the chocolate funnel cake she was looking at in the magazine...meaning that she'd probably taken a tiny bite of Smolder's emotions and gotten a mouthful of annoyance and pain, however mild. Smolder almost just shrugged and went back to work on the next of the three or four scales that would have to come loose, but then paused as a thought occurred to her. Grinning a little, she set to work on the next scale, but only halfheartedly as she closed her eyes and turned her thoughts inwards. She thought of her hoard back in the School of Friendship, her dormitory and everything in it. Her bed and her lamp, her stash of coins and gemstones under her bed, her closet that had a few dresses sized for her in them. She couldn't help herself either, she also thought of the things that nominally belonged to Ocellus: her shelves full of books, her top bunk that was more pillows than actual bed, the costume that she'd worked on for the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant.

She thought about Ocellus herself, sitting on the top bunk like a crown jewel resting atop a mound of treasure.

Just this once, Smolder forced herself to not feel bad about wanting Ocellus' things, thinking of them as her own - nor about wanting Ocellus herself, wanting to be near her, have her, hold her for centuries. Dragons didn't go in for touchy-feeling stuff normally, but it wasn't hard for her to focus herself on her things. Everything she had that shimmered and shined or was soft to the touch...everything that was hers, her things, her Ocellus, her hoard...

...and then, knowing her friend well enough to know how long it would take, she opened her eyes and looked to Ocellus, who was looking back at her with wide eyes and mouth hanging open a little, tongue baited at the edge of her mouth, and a blush creeping up and glowing through her carapace. Smolder reached out a claw and lightly poked Ocellus' snout. “Gotcha,” she said, and laughed.

Ocellus shuddered at the touch, before her eyes started fluttering rapidly and, if anything, her blush grew. “Wh...buh...Smolder!” She hissed, leaning in close, her voice a whisper. “Did...did you just make yourself feel all that love on purpose? Just to mess with me?”

“Yeah,” Smolder chuckled, turning back to her damaged scales and pulling loose another one. She still had the first in her hand, wasn't sure what to do with them. She paused a moment. “Wait, love? Dragons don't - ”

“I literally need it to live, Smolder, I know the taste.” Ocellus interrupted.

“Okay, but I'm the one feeling it, and I'm telling you that you're wrong.” She dug a claw at a third loose scale, and tried to push down her rising annoyance. “I was thinking about my hoard. That was definitely greed.”

“It was love.”

“Greed.”

“Love.”

Smolder turned to Ocellus, eyes narrowing. “But I was thinking about my hoard. Everything that I think is a part of my hoard, including you. So trust me, it was greed, it has to have been.” She turned away, snorting a little smoke as she grew fed up with this particular scale and didn't bother to wiggle it loose, just yanked it out. She hissed at the sharp pain. “Ugh, this is what I get for just trying to have a little fun...”

Ocellus flinched at that. “Smolder, I - ”

She didn't get to finish her thoughts, as the door to the mayor's office opened, and a unicorn wearing a police uniform came trotting out, carrying a satchel in his telekinesis. He nodded to the secretary, but paid no mind to the other three as he went on his way. “Quill?” A familiar voice - Mayor Dusk's - called out from beyond the door, probably to the secretary. “You can let them in now.”

“Oh thank Celestia,” Nonchalant exclaimed, throwing her magazine aside and heading straight for the door, Smolder and Ocellus following. She glared at the two teenagers. “If I had to listen to one more minute of you two...oh, lovely, Princess Cadance's expert is a cat.”

Smolder felt little but confusion at that last statement, at least until walking into the mayor's office. Overall it looked like what she'd expected, a large room with the left wall leading to a balcony, and large windows set behind the mayor's expansive desk. Small palms and tropical flowers dominated the corners of the room, while the right wall featured a map of Tiatarta and a bookcase - and a small bar, presumably for when some meetings required lubrication to go smoothly.

Mayor Dusk wasn't behind her desk, instead she was sitting alongside one of the chairs on the other side of it, sipping at something in a novelty mug shaped like a coconut. The chair was occupied by a middle-aged, brown-coated, orange-maned Abyssinian - a bipedal feline creature who hailed from lands far to the south of Equestria, this one clad in a light maroon dress with white trim. Even sitting, the Abyssinian was tall enough to look Mayor Dusk in the eye. She, then, was probably the “expert“ that Princess Cadance had sent.

“Doctor Nonchalant,” Mayor Dusk said as she set down her mug. “I could have sworn you insisted that you were on vacation and not going to be looking into the changelings' problems. Then again, perhaps going into random restaurants and claiming that they poison their customers is a vacation for you. In that case, you and I are going to have a problem.” She looked past Nonchalant, at the two teenagers. “And I'm not happy with you two either.”

Ocellus shifted. “S...sorry,” she apologized, looking down.

“We're just trying to help,” Smolder insisted, crossing her arms and trying to remember that she was currently annoyed with Ocellus, not the mayor, although that annoyance was fading fast the way it always did. She could never be upset with her friends for long. “Nonchalant ate at that place yesterday and was love-poisoned. It was the best place to check.”

“Mm-hmm...” Mayor Dusk droned, stepping behind her desk. “To be frank, badmouthing a restaurant is hardly the worst thing that a pair of teenagers have gotten up to in Tiatarta, so I'm willing to let it slide...this time. You can forget about those discounts I mentioned, though.” She looked over to Nonchalant. “You're an adult...or at least you're choosing to look like one right now. What's your excuse?”

Nonchalant sighed. Blue fire slid across her body, unveiling her Reformed form. She took a moment to open and close her elytra before glaring at Mayor Dusk. “Incompetence.”

“Uh-huh. I think I know what you're going to say - ”

“Yours. Or at least I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming it's that, and not outright maliciousness.” Nonchalant trotted right up to the desk, eyes narrowed as she looked at Mayor Dusk straight on. “Why are the creatures of your town surprised when I tell them that some creature has been love poisoning them?”

Mayor Dusk blinked a few times. She took a moment to take up her novelty mug again, drinking down the contents. “Tiatarta depends on tourism,” she said. “Vacationers. Summer isn't that far away. Now if we were talking about shark attacks, unsafe drinking water, what's-her-name, that evil little pegasus filly being seen around town - ”

“Cozy Glow,” Nonchalant, Ocellus, and Smolder provided.

“Right, her, then that would be one thing. Of course I'd be telling every creature that their safety was at risk.” She waved a hoof as she finished off whatever was in the mug and set it back down again. “But so far, until yesterday, your love poisoning, there have been no victims besides the changelings. No creature reported missing, no creature displaying the symptoms of love poisoning, no creature being found unconscious in an alley or a ditch or some place drained of their love.”

Mayor Dusk put her hooves on her desk, though she leaned back at a little. “The only victims have been changelings acting out. Causing a nuisance like they'd been drinking all night, though until Clavicle at least they weren't belligerent.”

“Clavicle wasn't belligerent,” Ocellus objected, stomping one hoof. The impact was fairly muted from the tiny changeling, but it did get her annoyance across clearly. And also, Smolder had to admit, looked adorable, which probably wasn't her intention.

The mayor certainly didn't seem put-off by Ocellus' act, though her gaze quickly softened as she nodded. “I'll grant that. But he was dangerous, even if only by dint of drunken negligence.” She pressed her hooves together. “I'll be blunt: at this point I'm more inclined to think that there's some substance out there that can simulate false love, and the changelings have been partaking of it.”

Nonchalant scoffed. “There is no such substance. I would know.”

The Abyssinian purred, or tried to suppress a chuckle. In either case it reminded every other creature that she was there. “Oh, don't mind me, dears,” she insisted. She was leaning forward in her chair, looking almost like she was about to spring up, slit eyes wide and focused intently on Nonchalant. “Please continue.”

Mayor Dusk did so. “There does not appear to be anything wrong with the town,” she said, “only the changelings. Ecdysis needs to get her bugs under control. At the moment if anything by not bringing it up, by telling the police to handle the matter discretely, I am doing Ecdysis a huge favor.”

Smolder still had her arms crossed, and tried her best to think over what Dusk was saying. She had a point, sort of...except for one thing. “But wait,” she said, stepping forward, “look, it's cool that you're doing this. But some creature is love poisoning others. Nonchalant was love poisoned yesterday.” She shivered a little. “Trust me. I was the target. And Ecdysis got herself love-drunk to cure Nonchalant - ”

“She what?” Mayor Dusk exclaimed, eyes growing wide. “Is she okay?”

Nonchalant's form shimmered with blue fire again, taking on her unicorn appearance - so that she could roll her eyes. “She's in the drunk tank with the rest of the poisoned bugs. A few days and she'll be fine.”

“The point is,” Smolder continued, “that we know for a fact that Nonchalant was love poisoned. So doesn't that prove that there's something going on?”

“No, dear, that only proves that she was love poisoned,” the Abyssinian noted, waving a claw at Nonchalant. She stood and stretched herself out, joints quietly popping, then stepped away from the chair and over to the small bar, running a paw over the collected bottles there before selecting several, laying out two glasses, and beginning to get to work mixing something. “It could very well be a coincidence. In fact with, what, twenty-six, twenty-seven love-drunk changelings but only one love-poisoning victim, it most certainly seems like one.”

The Abyssinian finished mixing whatever cocktail she was making, and brought over the glasses, one for Mayor Dusk - who took it eagerly, apparently needing something to steady her nerves after learning about what had happened to her changeling friend - and the other for herself. “I presumed paranoia on your part would prevent you dears from drinking anything I made,” she said. “At least, if I thought there was some maniac going around love-poisoning creatures, I wouldn't be eating or drinking anything I wasn't sure of.”

“There is,” Nonchalant insisted. “Because a drug that induces drunken euphoria like false love on changelings doesn't exist.”

The Abyssinian smirked. Actually she hadn't stopped smirking since Smolder had first laid eyes on her. She set down her glass, then reached into her dress and produced a corked vial about the length of her finger, containing a pinkish liquid that almost seemed to glow. She swirled the vial a few times, then popped out the cork, leaned forward, and waved a paw over it in the direction of Nonchalant, only a couple feet away on the other side of the desk.

Nonchalant scoffed at first...but then the nostrils of her assumed unicorn form flared and her eyes widened, mouth dropping open. Blue fire started to stutter over her as though she would change back to her true form, but she let out a hiss that didn't match her equine form, physically pushing herself away from the desk. Her head snapped to Ocellus. “Drone! Rock form! NOW!”

Ocellus let out a surprised eep at the command. Her own changeling magic washed over her, and she was suddenly a rock about the size of her head. She retained her eyes, which was a little creepy, but Smolder was more focused on Nonchalant taking on the form of a black-and-green dragon, as big a one as could fit inside the mayor's office. “Put that away or I will burn the air to clear it!” Nochalant shouted, green flames leaping from her mouth to show it was no idle threat. Smolder, meanwhile, picked up Ocellus and hugged her to her chest, stepping back and behind Nonchalant. She didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't going to let Ocellus get caught in dragon fire.

Mayor Dusk had quickly set down her own glass, glancing between the enraged, scared older changeling and the Abyssinian, who just chuckled and corked the vial, doing as Nonchalant asked and tucking it back into her dress. “I'm impressed,” she said. “You looked like a unicorn, but selectively retained your ability to scent and taste emotions? You are a very skilled shapeshifter.”

Nonchalant took a few cautious sniffs of the air, creeping forward and towards the desk as she did while her wings beat to stir and clear the air, eyes never leading the Abyssinian's. “Explain. Now.” She demanded at length, though she did transform back into a Reformed changeling - and went over to the windows, opening them wide and sticking her head out one of them to take in deep breaths of fresh air. Smolder looked down to Ocellus, who just blinked, probably the closest she could do to shrugging while in this form.

The Abyssinian's offered a helpless shrug of her own, her smile still not leaving her face. “A few chemicals and ingredients in the proper proportions, darling, and one can do most anything. That was a proof-of concept I finished mixing just this morning to show that one can create a substance that simulates false love.”

“Ingredients.”

The Abyssinian's smirk finally changed - it grew wider. “Trade secret, I'm afraid,” she said. “But I think now, dear, you can see why Princess Cadance recommended me.”

“Very highly,” Mayor Dusk added, finally rejoining the conversation now that she'd finished the cocktail that the Abyssinian had made for her. She opened a drawer on her desk and produced a letter on lightly pink-tinged paper, bearing the seal of the Crystal Empire and with Princess Cadance's signature prominent on it. She looked between Nonchalant, Smolder, and Ocellus - still in the form of a rock and still being clutched tightly by Smolder. “I understand that you three want to help out...but as you can see, there's an expert here already, and you did turn down my offer yesterday, Doctor Nonchalant. Your own love poisoning was unfortunate. I recommend making a report to the police so that we can look into things. But I'm going to insist that you cease your investigations if you're going to be conducting them by randomly accusing townsfolk. You're not helping any creature.”

“We might not have a choice in that,” Smolder objected, clutching Ocellus tighter. “Me and Ocellus were sent here by the Cutie Map. There's a friendship problem in this town, and we're the ones who have to solve it.”

Mayor Dusk offered a slight smile at them. “If changelings are getting drunk on false love...I don't think the problem is in this town. If their supplier is here, and he or she is caught, then we'll see about maybe letting you talk to him or her.” Her smile faded. “But until then, stop. You understand? I'm well used to banning unruly creatures from coming to my town or kicking them out if need be.”

Smolder began to object again, but Nonchalant held up a hoof to stop her, then turned back into her unicorn form and trotted from the office. Smolder watched her go, then looked back to Ocellus. The rock in her hands just closed her eyes. “Okay, I guess,” she said, flexing and unflexing her wings. She might not have participated much here, but she felt almost like whatever had happened, she'd lost. She didn't care much for that feeling. Smolder did pause at the door, however, looking back to the Abyssinian. “Oh, wait...what's your name?”

The Abyssinian clasped her hands together as she gave a curt bow. “Catrina. It was a pleasure to meet you, dear. And your...friend.”

It was only when the three of them had left the palatial town hall that Ocellus realized she was still a rock. It was always an interesting experience...when a changeling turned into a thing, they became that thing, inside and out. So she sort of felt like she was holding her breath, except that she had no lungs with which to breathe, and no actual brain demanding oxygen. Which opened up a number of questions as to how she retained her sentience - or what her eyes were sending signals to when she opened them (a very difficult trick to pull off, but one that had been taught to all infiltrators-in-training) - but Ocellus had yet to really discover any satisfying answers to those questions beyond “magic“. She almost wondered why she hadn't transformed back yet, but then shivered when she realized she knew the answer (she wasn't sure how shivering as a rock worked either given that she had no muscles, but it did). She hadn't turned back because Nonchalant hadn't commanded her to. When she'd barked the order to transform at Ocellus...the voice was different, but something about the inflection, the tone, reminded Ocellus of a voice she hadn't heard in years...and could have gone years more without hearing again.

Chrysalis. The Queen. Nonchalant's command had almost felt like it was a command from the former ruler of the changelings, a voice that Ocellus had been raised to obey no matter what. And while intellectually Ocellus liked to think that if she were face-to-face with the real Chrysalis she'd never do anything the old queen said, in the heat of the moment, the authoritativeness of Nonchalant's command coupled with a very slight but real tinge of fear had made Ocellus instantly jump to obedience. Which...if that really had been some kind of liquid false love, was a good thing, right?

Ocellus realized that she was still a rock. The young changeling released her magic, turning back into her true form. Given that Smolder was still holding her, the result was that her dragon friend found herself with her arms wrapped around Ocellus' midsection, Ocellus' elytra against Smolder's chest, and her legs tucked up against her barrel, like Smolder was holding a particularly large puppy. She stifled a slight gasp at her sense of touch suddenly returning, or tried to, but Smolder's grip was tight enough that it forced a little bit of air from her lungs anyway.

Smolder stopped her walk - they were near the golden statue of Tía Tarta, which Nonchalant was pacing around while muttering to herself, clearly furious - and loosened her grip a little, though she didn't immediately put Ocellus down, instead grinning. “I was wondering if you were going to change back.”

Ocellus wiggled a little in Smolder's grasp. Her dragon friend was warm, though given that she almost literally had an inferno blazing in her belly, that made sense. Looking into Smolder's eyes, she remembered the love that had been pouring out of the dragon only a few minutes ago, and resisted the urge to lick her lips as Smolder set her back down on the ground. “S-sorry,” she apologized.

“Eh, it's not like you were a big rock,” Smolder said, flapping her wings a little as though trying to blow away Ocellus' concern. “So...you had eyes, but how much did you hear?”

Ocellus shifted. “Nothing, really. And, uh...King Thorax sort of overthrew Chrysalis before I really learned how to...to read lips. Or at least I'm not very good at it...”

Smolder's reaction was somewhat predictably to just smile down at her. Ocellus could smell a mixture of admiration and happiness even before Smolder spoke up. “When we get back to school,” she said, “that weekend, we're all gonna play a dragon game called Hoard Seeker. It's sort of like a scavenger hunt mixed with hide-and-seek and capture the flag. And you're gonna be on my team and use all that spy stuff you know, and we're gonna kick butt.”

Ocellus managed to stifle the giggle that almost came up at that. “I...I guess it would be kind of neat.”

“It'll be the best. Now c'mon, let's go deal with...” she waved a claw at Nonchalant, who was still pacing in circles around the statue, “that.”

Ocellus steeled herself, taking in a deep breath, drawing on the scent of confidence and surety that Smolder always had around her. The two teenagers made their way over to the unicorn-disguised changeling, who had at least stopped talking to herself and instead looked like she was deep in thought. Every hoof-step came with a loud clack, though, and Ocellus did her best to keep her breathing under control lest she inhale the almost visible anger coming off of her.

“Okay, quick recap for what Ocellus missed,” Smolder said. “That Abyssinian is named Catrina, she came recommended by Princess Cadance, and she has a theory that the changelings at the Nook are getting false-love-in-a-bottle instead of actually attacking ponies. Which is something Mayor Dusk believes. Also we're to stop looking into things.” Smolder glanced between Ocellus and Nonchalant. “Are we actually going to do that?”

“Yes,” Ocellus said - and to her surprise, Nonchalant said the same thing, or spat it, rather. The disguised changeling took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. She looked to Ocellus. “Impress me. Why are we stopping?”

Ocellus flinched. There was that commanding tone that reminded Ocellus so much of Chrysalis again. “U-um...” she said. “N...not because Mayor Dusk asked us to. I mean...sort of because she asked us to. Sh...she's going to be watching us. Or...well, Smolder, actually.” Ocellus turned to look at her friend straight on, offering a sympathetic smile. “Nonchalant and I could disguise ourselves, but...you can't. And I have to stay with you, King Thorax said so and I don't want to disobey him, not when he's just looking out for me. So that means that neither of us can look into the love poisoning.”

“And since that's probably what the Cutie Map called us here to deal with...” Smolder continued, nodding. “Argh, that's annoying. Like you said, Nonny - ”

“Call me that again. See what happens.”

“ - since we were sent here by Harmony itself, it has to be us that solves the problem.” Smolder turned to look at Nonchalant. “Right, Nonny?”

Nonchalant bristled. “I hate you. But...you are correct.” She grinned wickedly, however, looking to Ocellus. “But not totally correct for why. I admit to having information that you don't, though. More importantly, information that Mayor Dusk and Catrina don't.”

Ocellus and Smolder glanced to each other, then back to Nonchalant. “What is it?” Ocellus asked. “What information?”

Nonchalant paused. Her anger abated, and Ocellus actually smelled trepidation in the air as she glanced between the two of them, her unicorn eyes lingering on Ocellus. The scent passed quickly, though, as a wall of pride and certainty came back up around Nonchalant, reinforced by anger - the emotional barrier that Nonchalant usually wore, keeping Ocellus from really scenting or tasting her true emotions. Outwardly, Nonchalant sat down, and tapped a hoof on the ground. “First...that was not Princess Cadance's signature. I was...involved...with her replacement before the Battle of Canterlot and am quite familiar with it. The facsimile is decent enough for a glance...but I could see the imperfections.

“But secondly...I lied. I know there is a way to create false love that changelings can directly consume...or that there used to be a way.” Her eyes narrowed. “Water. Rose thorns. Pure rainbow extract. Distilled essence of cacao bean. Wisp from a cirrus cloud...and witchweed.” She looked between the two teenagers. “An extinct flower. Rare to begin with, but Queen Chrysalis made sure that every last bloom and seed were wiped out, completely and utterly, everywhere.”

Smolder placed her hands on her hips, head tilting to the side. “The heck did Chrysalis have against a flower?”

“Because false love might as well be liquid death to the Hive!” Nonchalant exclaimed. “At least in love poison form, idiot ponies have to drink it first, and those idiot ponies - or griffins or whatever - can only contain so much false love. The damage can spread only so far and the further it spreads, the faster it burns out. But if false love were directly created?” She stomped a hoof, and Ocellus backed away at the force behind it. Nonchalant may have looked like a unicorn, but a stomp that hard in a unicorn body would have cracked a hoof. Nonchalant's was completely undamaged. How good was she at shapeshifting?

Nonchalant noticed Ocellus' reaction. She stood, advancing towards Ocellus, who gave ground as the taller creature started to loom over her. “Cast your mind back, drone. Before Thorax. Remember your hunger. Day in. Day out. Your heart always aching. Your belly always empty. Then imagine a small vial, a tiny thing smaller than your horn, thrown into the hatchery. Imagine its glow...imagine its smell. So sweet, so inviting, filling your throat, tickling your tongue. Imagine it...and tell me that you wouldn't have torn apart any bug that stood between you and that vial.”

Ocellus backed further away at Nonchalant's advance. She shook her head. “N-no! I wouldn't have - ”

“Liar.” But Nonchalant stopped when she noticed Smolder growling, snorting smoke. She waved a hoof. “Or maybe not. But if no bug stood between you...you'd have drank it, wouldn't you?” Ocellus shivered, but couldn't stop herself from nodding. In truth, the only way she'd been able to really resist all the false love she'd been exposed to was because she was Reformed. She didn't go to sleep hungry, her heart didn't ache, beg, for love. Nonchalant nodded as well. “Now imagine more than a vial. Imagine gallons of the false love pouring into the Hive. Imagine it even now, if you want, Reformed as you are. Bugs would drink it, fill themselves up on it, become drunk...and useless. Lie in euphoric bliss until they starved without even realizing it because the false love made them think their bellies were full and their hearts whole.”

“Oh, I get it,” Smolder said. “Y'know, you could have just said it was basically a weapon that could be used against changelings. I would have gotten that, no need to try and scare us. But what's this got to do with Catrina?”

Nonchalant looked to Smolder, and Ocellus got the sense that she already had a low opinion of Smolder's intellect and that it had just plummeted further. “Because witchweed is supposed to be extinct. Queen Chrysalis made sure of it, dedicated decades of time to it, would put entire conquests on hold to follow rumors of tiny groves remaining so as to see them burned and salted. So what do you suppose the odds are of two surviving sources?”

Smolder blinked a few times as she considered that, before her eyes widened. “Pretty slim,” she said. “I mean, not impossible...but really unlikely. There's probably just one. So if Catrina actually had a vial of false love, and she'd need witchweed to make it - ”

“ - then her source for the witchweed is almost certainly the same as the culprit's source,” Ocellus finished. “Or, more likely...Catrina is our culprit. She's the one poisoning changelings.” She shook her head. “But...why? Mayor Dusk really does like Ecdysis. When Smolder told her that she was love-drunk, the concern I smelled was definitely real. And what would Catrina get out of it?”

Nonchalant's grin returned, and if anything was even more wicked then before. “We'll just have to ask her.”

Author's Notes:

How to play Hoard Seeker:
1) Hide treasure somewhere
2) Don't tell any dragon where it is
3) Try and find other dragons' hidden treasures and add it to your own treasure.
4) If all treasure becomes your treasure, you win!

You are allowed to move your treasure if you want, or plant decoy treasures. You are also allowed to attack other players to steal their treasure. Or if they are trying to steal your treasure. Or if you think they're gonna try and steal your treasure. Or if they look at you funny. Or if some other dragon paid you to attack them. Or if you just feel like it.

9. Meant to Be Spent Alone

Witchweed. There was witchweed in Tiatarta, and it was being used to make false love. Liquid death to the Hive. Images of the innocuous flower hidden among its grass-like leaves plagued Chrysalis' mind. Visions of a cauldron somewhere boiling with the glowing pink liquid death. In her mind she saw dozens, hundreds of drones laying on the ground, eyes wide and yet barely seeing the world around them, giggling as they moved only to guzzle down more of the false love...curling on themselves and laughing as they starved, and Chrysalis in her mind saw it at eye-level with those drones because she was on the ground too, her own laughter echoed in her mind, her hoof reached out for more of the false love that was so sweet, so cloying, so delicious and filling and yet the hoof trembled and was weak because she was starving...

The worst part of it all was that this wasn't her imagination. This was a memory. An old one, even for her...but just as vivid as ever.

The witchweed had to be found, eradicated, now.

Chrysalis hurried the two teenagers off and away from the town hall, out onto the beach. They were standing out in the open, easily observed by any skyclad officers that may have been sent by the mayor to keep an eye on them, but the same openness meant that they could easily ensure that nopony - or any other creature - was nearby to listen in on them. “Alright,” she said, “here's what we'll do. Tonight, Ocellus and I will disguise ourselves and - ”

“Nope,” Smolder interrupted, crossing her arms. “We have a curfew.”

Chrysalis stopped talking. She glanced to the drone, then the dragon, then back to the drone, then to the dragon once more. “...and...?“ she eventually managed to ask, feeling her anger abate just a tiny bit as some confusion broke through.

Ocellus shifted. “W-well...Prince-General Pharynx was nervous about me coming here if there was trouble...so the deal was that Smolder would stay beside me the entire time we're in Tiatarta, and also that we'd follow an 8 o'clock curfew to be back to the Nook.”

“Look, if it was me, I'd play hookie,” Smolder said with a shrug. “Ember doesn't have to know.”

“But King Thorax would,” Ocellus said. She shook her head. “A-and he said that if I broke the rules he'd have to...well...do something about it. Something we'd all regret.”

Chrysalis felt her eyes flutter as her brain struggled to process the idea that the drone seemed to be genuinely intimidated by Thorax. Thorax. “What, he'll put you in a time-out?“ She spat. “What could that giant green eyesore possibly threaten you with that would mean a single thing to you?“

Ocellus shivered, and stepped a little closer to Smolder. “Take me out of the School of Friendship,” she answered. “I...I've already run away twice before in the past, first when we first joined, almost caused a war...and then when the Tree of Harmony was destroyed, King Thorax came after me personally when that happened and I ran away. I don't want to push my luck.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? We have a creature poisoning changelings and you’re worried about your bedtime?”

Smolder had moved closer to Ocellus herself, putting a hand on her withers and lightly rubbing at the base of Ocellus’ neck where her fuzzy chitin was thin, trying to soothe her. “Look, Thorax seems great and all, but even he’s got to have his limits, and Ocellus doesn’t need to find them. Plus Pharynx threatened to do some pretty creative things to me if anything happened to Ocellus, and that probably includes convincing her to play hookie.”

Chrysalis was pressing her hooves against her temples, millennia-old intellect still trying to wrap around what the two were saying. Thorax? Really? “Fine!” She exclaimed. “Fine. Fine. Plan still works in broad daylight, we’ll just be doing it in broad daylight. We track down Catrina and make her reveal the location of her witchweed, and destroy it. No witchweed, no false love, problem solved.”

“Make her...?” Ocellus began to ask, though her eyes swiftly widened as what Chrysalis was implying hit her. “N-no! I won’t! No matter what Catrina might have done, we can’t hurt her!”

Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed as she leaned down towards the drone. Smolder tried to get in her way, but one outstretched hoof with the strength of an earth pony inside of it held her back. “And what do you suppose we do, then?” She demanded. “Catrina attacked the Swarm. She’s an enemy of the changelings - your enemy, my enemy.”

Ocellus wilted under Chrysalis’ gaze, at least for a moment. But when Chrysalis narrowed her eyes further, instead of driving her point home, it seemed to spark some inner resistance from the tiny drone. She swallowed, but leaned forward. “We can still try and learn more about Catrina,” she said, “but we can just ask her. Talk to her - ”

“Talk to a creature who’s been poisoning us? Poisoned me?!”

Ocellus didn’t back away. “Y...you didn’t let me finish! Smolder can’t leave my side, so I can’t disguise myself effectively. B-but...but you can. So - ”

“So you and the dragon can find out where she is staying and then I can investigate it, yes, I know your plan. It's a stupid plan!”

”N-no it isn't! If we find out where Catrina is getting her witchweed, we can show Mayor Dusk. You can tell her everything you know about it. And if we find where Catrina is making the false love, if we find more than just a few vials, proof that she's been making it for weeks - ”

Chrysalis snarled. ”If I find out where the witchweed is, I'm not going to show any creature. I'm going to burn it! Burn it and salt the land where it grew! And Catrina...she shouldn't be turned over to the ponies, she didn't do anything to ponies, she should be dragged back to the Nook and consumed!”

Ocellus and Smolder both backed away in shock at Chrysalis' outburst. She realized she was breathing heavily, eyes wide, legs far apart and unicorn horn glowing - she was letting her fear of false love show. Snarling again, Chrysalis put a hoof to her chest, taking in a deep breath and letting it out as slowly a she could manage. Control. She needed control. She was letting her...her concern towards the false love get under her carapace. Concern, that's all it was. Deep concern. She had every right to be concerned, but she shouldn't be letting it control her.

Ocellus shifted from one hoof to another herself, then stepped forward. She was trembling a little, but she was also looking straight on into Chrysalis' disguised eyes. ”We can't do it your way,” the drone said, her voice quiet and calm and steady. ”The Nook is trying to live alongside ponies. I...I know you don't care about that idea, but the changelings in the Nook do. We can't just take justice into our own hooves. It would ruin everything.”

Chrysalis shot the best withering glare her unicorn body could manage at the drone - and was nonplussed when Ocellus didn't even flinch. She pressed on anyway. ”What do I care?” she demanded. ”Why should any bug care?”

Ocellus looked down, closing her eyes. ”I...” she began. ”I want to tell you because it's better this way...but I don't think you think that. You...you said you missed the way things used to be, this morning. That you were good at it.”

”The best,” Chrysalis confirmed without hesitation. She couldn't believe she was explaining herself to a drone, but Ocellus only knew her as a drone. And besides, it demonstrated her control. ”But it's not just that. We used to be strong. Catrina shouldn't be a threat like this. Ecdysis has five hundred changelings under her command. She was an infiltrator, there must be other former infiltrators in the Nook as well. She should have come into Tiatarta weeks ago, found the culprit and removed the threat. These ponies couldn't have stopped her. It's what would have happened under Chrysalis. How can you tell me that this, the Nook quivering in fear and despair and doing nothing to defend itself, is better?”

Ocellus didn't respond at first, instead biting her lip, her head still downcast and her eyes still closed. At length, however, she set her horn glowing. It was blue at first, but the drone grimaced and forced the magic to turn green. Jade fire consumed her for a few moments. When it faded, Chrysalis had to stifle a gasp and suppress a pang of recognition and nostalgia that went straight to her heart at what Ocellus had become: black chitin lacking in any fuzz. Legs full of holes. Exposed wings with no elytra. A short horn, and long fangs. A solid, spined, pointed frill down the back of her neck.

A true changeling.

Ocellus opened her eyes - the only part of her that stayed the same - and looked at her holed hooves as she sat back on her haunches, poking at a hole in one leg with the opposite hoof even as her wings flickered and buzzed against her back, a completely different sound than they normally produced. ”This...this was me,” Ocellus said at length as she finally lifted her head, looking at Chrysalis straight on. Even her voice had changed: a little higher and drier, with a slight warble to it. She looked at Chrysalis through a hole in her hoof before finally lowering it. ”This was me, and it was you, and it was every changeling. I don't miss it, even if you do...” she flicked out her tongue a little and turned to look at Smolder, ”and even if you think it looks cool.”

Smolder opened her mouth, considered, but then shrugged. ”I like the real you better, though,” she said.

”I know.” Ocellus smiled at the reassurance, then turned back to Chrysalis. ”So this was me...but it's not me anymore. If I wanted to I could look like this all the time, be this all the time. And if you wanted to, you could do it too. Pretend to be the old you. But that's all either of us would be doing.” She shook her head. ”Pretending. I can't go back to the way I used to be, and no matter how much you want, Nonchalant, you can't either.”

Blue fire traced its way across Ocellus, revealing her true blue form. She breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing her legs as though checking for holes, then standing and walking up to Chrysalis, looking up into her disguised eyes. ”And...we can't. Changelings, the Hive, the Swarm...we can't go back to what we used to be. Not just in looks, I mean, things will never be the same again. Chrysalis exposed us at Canterlot - ” Chrysalis opened her mouth to begin objecting, to exclaim that she had won at Canterlot if not for the ponies and their cheating magic, but Ocellus was somehow faster, reaching up and putting a hoof to Chrysalis' lips, ” - and it doesn't matter why she did it and it doesn't matter why it didn't work. The other races know about us now, know where we live and what we can do. We can't go back to the way things used to be. So we have to move forward and try and find a way to get along with the other races. We have to change.”

Chrysalis stared down the length of the hoof and leg at her mouth, changing back into her Reformed drone form - because it had sharper teeth and she wanted to bite Ocellus for her impertinence. But the moment she did, restoring her full changeling senses in the process, she was hit by the emotions coming off of Ocellus. She'd expected a smug sense of superiority for the new paradigm. She had not expected remorse. Ocellus felt genuine sorrow for Chrysalis-as-Nonchalant. It wasn't pity, for it lacked the tinge of disappointment. It was just sadness, and a touch of desperation - a desire to be able to reach Chrysalis.

And then Ocellus leaned forward and hugged her. Chrysalis went rigid - had she been frozen as a block of stone she would have been more mobile. She didn't know how long she stood there with the tiny changeling pressed against her, hugging her, begging her to see things her way, smelling and tasting of remorse and sorrow and empathy and compassion...stirring something inside of Chrysalis herself...

Chrysalis suppressed a shiver as she fought a three-front mental battle against the insipid, soft emotions trying to find purchase within her, the outpouring of empathy from Ocellus trying to worm its way inside of her, and most insidious of all, the reasoning Ocellus had given her, the argument she had made. She extricated herself from Ocellus' grasp with some effort, pushing her fellow changeling away - though she left one hoof on Ocellus' withers as she took in a deep, steadying breath, then exhaled. She crushed the emotions inside of her. She brushed aside the outpouring of others from Ocellus. But the words...

The teenage bug...

...she...

...had a point.

She wasn't right, exactly. Of course she wasn't right, she was only a fraction of Chrysalis' age and experience. But she raised a good point. Changelings had...changed, not just in body, but their entire situation. Thinking it through, if Ecdysis had swarmed Tiatarta...well, the ponies would know, and know exactly where to strike. And even if Ecdysis and her five hundred bugs abandoned the Nook...ponies knew about changelings now, knew them as more than myth and legend. They were facts. They could look for, and find, any new hive that Ecdysis tried to establish, and they could also turn on the Badlands Hive because they knew where that was too, and it was no longer protected by Chrysalis' throne. So Ecdysis and Thorax would have to take the changelings and flee far to escape the ponies' wrath. Was it worth it, when what prompted it was just a few dozen love-drunk bugs who would recover on their own in a matter of days?

”...fine,” Chrysalis said slowly. ”Fine. You may be right. Even...even if Catrina simply disappeared without evidence, the ponies would blame the Nook. It's not prepared to defend itself. And the situation could...escalate.”

Ocellus let out another relieved sigh, and smiled at Chrysalis. She reached up and put a hoof on Chrysalis' own, gripping it slightly in her pastern. ”Right. That's the reason.”

”Don't patronize me, bug.” Chrysalis snapped, withdrawing her hoof quickly. She felt the loss of Ocellus' own hoof on her own unusually keenly. It annoyed her. She reinforced her emotional defenses with that annoyance, glaring at Ocellus. It continued to lack the desired effect of cowing her into submission.

Off to the side, Smolder cleared her throat, reminding the two changelings that she was there. Or Chrysalis, at least, she doubted Ocellus forgot about her friend's presence.. ”Okay, so we're going with Ocellus' plan,” Smolder said, ”but I think we should probably wait a day in either case. If Mayor Dusk is going to have skyclad officers following us the last thing they're gonna want to see is us having this little meeting and then going straight for Catrina.”

Ocellus looked back to her friend. ”W-well, no, we should deal with Catrina as soon as possible - ”

”No, the dragon's right,” Chrysalis said, and almost immediately gagged - an action that was about one-fifth authentic and four-fifths a distraction from what had just happened. She put a hoof to her mouth, going through the motions. ”Ugh, saying that has an aftertaste...but she's right. If we're not just going to disappear Catrina then we have to move slowly.”

”But - ”

”But nothing!” Chrysalis snapped. ”I'm not even supposed to be dealing with this. I'm supposed to be on vacation! Getting away from everything!” She used a hind hoof to kick sand away from her. ”The Nook can survive another day without me.”

She didn't wait to hear if Ocellus or Smolder had any objections, and would have ignored them anyway. She turned around and launched herself into the air, transforming into a pegasus for extra speed and getting away from...

...from whatever had just happened on the beach.

Chrysalis returned to her hotel room, adopting her Nonchalant disguise before entering the lobby and heading straight for her room, then assuming her true form once she was safely within and placing the shadow's home on her bed. She'd been carrying the shadow's home and the room key within her elytra and within herself when she transformed, a neat trick she'd learned centuries ago. She was fairly certain she remained the only changeling capable of such selective shape-shifting.

The hotel room inside was silent. Not quiet. Quiet was what the Nook had been last night in the depths of night. Quiet was a whispered conversation, the sound of breathing, the shifting and rustling of life making tiny noises that filled the air. Silence was no words at all. A held breath. Utter stillness.

Chrysalis hated silence. She turned on her room's overhead fan. The tiny mechanical whirring and the gentle whoosh of air was something to fill the room with just a tiny bit of noise. It helped...a little.

Alright, so she'd gotten away from the teenagers. She was leaving the Nook behind for now as well, focusing on herself, because that was the entire point of the vacation she was supposed to be on. And...and the Nook was full of traitors anyway, she reminded herself. Traitors and betrayers and mutineers and any other synonym she could think of for what they'd done. Turned on her. Abandoned her! Why did she even care if it came under attack? Shouldn't she just leave it to its fate?

She felt the shadow's eyes on the back of her neck keenly. One wall in the hotel had a mirror, and she glanced at it, and saw the shadow sitting on its barrel upon the bed, staring at her. ”Oh...read a book or something!” Chrysalis snapped, using magic to tear open her suitcase and throw some train-station jangle dreadful at the shadow. It landed atop the bed, and the shadow glanced down at it, but then back up.

“What?”

The shadow’s head titled to the side. Her horn glowed blue and she pushed the book away from her, then resumed looking at Chrysalis.

“If you have something to say,” Chrysalis growled, “then just say it!” She stomped up to the bed, glaring down at the shadow, looking it straight in the eye. “I tolerate your silence because you’re normally easy to read. But if you’re just going to stare at me then speak!”

The shadow was silent.

“I may have lost my form, my home, and all my changelings, but I haven’t lost you! I am still your Queen! I created you! So speak!”

The shadow’s head tilted to the other side, but its lips didn’t move.

Chrysalis felt herself snarling. She lashed out with a hoof, but it passed harmlessly through the shadow. Eyes that looked like Twilight Sparkle’s bore into her.

“What do you want?!” Chrysalis screamed.

The shadow regarded her outburst. It tapped a hoof on the jangle-dreadful novel, while it’s other hoof tapped Chrysalis’ chest, her heart.

“How...I’m feeling? You want to know how I’m feeling?”

The shadow nodded.

“Idiot! I’m angry! Can’t you tell?”

The shadow pressed both its front hooves against Chrysalis’ heart, leaning forward a little.

“I have every right to be angry! Furious! I had everything! I had a throne, I had legions of servants. I had Equestria itself in my grasp twice! I ruled the changelings for a thousand years. I brought Celestia herself low. I had power! I had control! I had focus and purpose and now look at me, LOOK AT ME!”

Chrysalis whirled around, glaring at the full-length mirror as magic consumes her body. Blue fire burned away her orange mantle of fur and her too-big mane and her cream, fuzzy carapace and showed black chitin and green eyes and a mouth that sported a pair of needle-like fangs. She tromped up to the mirror, glaring at her old self.

“You had everything!” she screamed at her reflection, her old self. “But you failed! You’re an utter failure! I should shove you in a pod. I should drain you of love for this...this incompetence! You failed! You FAILED! I FAILED!”

Chrysalis took in deep breaths as she stared at herself in the mirror, eyes wide. “I failed before,” she said to herself. Defended herself. “I’m old. Failures happen. But there was always...always another way. The failure was never this...this total.”

Blue fire consumed Chrysalis. She was looking at her new true self again. She ran a hoof through the orange mantle of fur. Her long purple wings buzzed. She keenly felt the tiny fuzz that covered her carapace. Finally, she turned around and looked back to the shadow.

“I don’t have a throne. I don’t have subjects. I don’t have my own body. I don’t even have my hunger, the one thing I thought I could never lose. And...a-and...Ocellus...is right. Things...h-have changed. And there’s no way to change them back. All I'd be doing is pretending. But if I don't pretend, then what do I have left?”

The shadow got up from the bed and came over to Chrysalis, sitting beside her, looking into the mirror. The shadow’s horn glowed blue and carried over the jangle-dreadful. She put a hoof in it again, opened it to the very first page, then tapped a hoof against Chrysalis.

Chrysalis understood. “A very, very long time ago,” she explained, “I was smaller. Smaller than you, only a little bigger than a normal changeling. And I woke up for the very first time. I was trapped in fluid, drowning. I pounded and bit and tore my way from my prison and found that the world was a cave and I had been trapped in a rotting tree, and that cave was full of creatures that almost looked like me...but I had two things they didn’t.” She lifted a hoof and pointed to her eyes. “I could focus. See one thing at a time, remove distractions.” She tapped her snout, breathed in, “and I had this. I’m the only changeling with a nose. Isn’t that strange? But it’s not just for show. I can smell normal scents as well as a pony. And I can scent emotions at a much longer distance, and parse them better, then any changeling.”

Chrysalis shook her head. “We were born starving. The other changelings were already attacking each other, trying to consume each other, but didn’t know how, and changelings couldn’t feed on other changelings. But me...I could smell food somewhere else. I flew out of the cave. There was a traveling pony, an earth pony. I drained her. I saw she was traveling on a path and I followed the path back to a small village of unicorns. I lurked in the shadows for the next few days, ate my fill...then returned to the cave. The changelings there had never thought to leave. They hadn’t noticed me leaving and couldn’t smell the food outside of it. They were weak. Could barely move.

“So...I went back to the unicorn village. i seized one of them, an old stallion, and dragged him back to the cave. Threw him to the others. They fed. I fed them. I was the reason they had food. I’d been followed, though. The unicorns came after their missing pony. We fought back...and lost. Of course we lost. We didn’t know anything about ourselves yet. Didn’t know how to shapeshift or how to use magic. Didn’t even know how to speak. So the unicorns overpowered us easily and drove us into the wilderness.

“But they didn’t destroy us. In the wilderness we learned. We learned how to use magic like the unicorns had. How to change our bodies. How to create cocoons. We lurked in that forest for months, feeding on animals, on pony caravans...”

Chrysalis drifted off. She could barely remember those days, because they’d been a blur of instinct and hunger and misery punctuated by bare moments of success and gluttony when things had gone right. Pure survival, and nothing more. Slowly learning how to imitate ponies, first their forms, then the sounds they made. Gradually understanding the sounds, learning what they meant, learning language. Learning reproduction, how to grow the tiny swarm. Learning mortality, that the other changelings died and she didn’t. Individual bugs were transitory. She was eternal. And everything that changelings were, she had made them.

The shadow regarded her. It reached out with both hooves, pressing them to Chrysalis. “What?” She demanded. “What do you want?”

The shadow shook its head, then nodded at Chrysalis.

“What do I want?”

The shadow nodded.

Chrysalis' reaction was immediate, visceral, pure. “Revenge! It’s all that’s left to me. I want to take Starlight Glimmer and wrap her in a cocoon and drain her by inches. A little more every day until she’s nothing more than a husk!”

The shadow waved a hoof, as if to ask, what do you want?

“I want to take Thorax and pull his stupid antlers from his head. Make him watch as I drain the love of every single traitor in the Badlands and leave their meat for carrion birds! Leave him with just enough so he feels it when the vultures start to tear open his carapace!”

What do you want?

“I’ll go to Canterlot. The love and power of the Hive will make me more than capable of obliterating Celestia. Brushing aside Twilight Sparkle. I’ll destroy every one of her friends! Then I’ll do the same to The Crystal Empire, to Cadance and Shining Armor and Flurry Heart!”

And then what?

“I’ll burn the fields of Equestria so the ponies starve! Salt their land so nothing grows here again! They’ll starve like I’ve starved! They’ll wither before me and I will laugh!”

And then?

“Then! Then...” Chrysalis' mouth opened and closed on its own a few times, but no sound came out until she forced herself to keep speaking. “Then...my revenge will be complete,” she said. Even to her ears, it sounded lame. She pressed on anyway. “Then I’ll have taken everything from every creature that’s wronged me. Then I’ll...”

Chrysalis fell silent. Then she’d...what? Take a vacation? Go to some tropical paradise and lounge around for the rest of eternity? Spend her days sitting in a hotel room with nothing but the shadow for company?

The shadow shrugged. Yes, probably.

Chrysalis glared at the shadow. “Then I’ll rule the ponies instead.”

You had the absolute loyalty of a race you molded yourself for a thousand years, and they turned on you in an instant once another creature offered them more and better food. You think the ponies won’t turn on you?

“Then what else is there?”

The shadow was silent. Chrysalis wasn’t even sure if it had spoken at all, or if that was just her own mind. Before Chrysalis could speak again, the shadow shrugged, then disappeared back into its home.

Chrysalis stared at it for several long minutes, because she knew what she’d see if she looked back to the mirror. But eventually, she had to look...and in the mirror, just as expected, she saw her old self. Black, smooth chitin. Green eyes. Holed legs. Thin hair that behaved itself rather than poofing around her. Blue wings without elytra.

Chrysalis stared at her old self’s face, which stared back with the same expression, one that was impossible to read. Finally, Chrysalis looked at her old self’s wings, then back at her own. She stretched them and buzzed them. “Mine are longer,” she informed her old self.

Queen Chrysalis - the real one and the one in the mirror - scowled. But she couldn’t deny the truth.

Chrysalis spent a few hours reading from the jangle-dreadful novel, trying to ignore the sight of her old self in the mirror, and the faint ringing in her ears from a nearly silent room save for the mechanical whirring of the fan overhead. By the time she left, “afternoon” had transitioned into “evening”, with the sun sinking down towards the horizon. She wandered from the hotel and out into TIatarta's streets almost in a daze. She wasn’t sure where she was going. She was hungry - physically - but she had no way of knowing what was love poisoned and what wasn’t. She eventually solved the problem by going to the beach, wading out into the water, and transforming herself into a seal. She caught several fish. That was cathartic, at least a little.

After an hour of this she left the water and returned to her Nonchalant disguise, hunger satiated and yet having no idea what to do. It was supposed to be “nothing”. That was what a vacation was for, after all. But really, was that any different than what she’d do once she got back to Grogar’s little Legion of Doom? Conquer Equestria...and then?

Taking over the Nook had lost its appeal too. Those bugs were conditioned to despise her, and even if they could get over that...she could take it over, become a Queen again. Wrest control of it from Ecdysis and spit in Thorax's eye, take the changelings there and...fly somewhere else...and make a new Hive, probably in a worse location than the Nook but isolated...and then?

Chrysalis hadn’t known that she could hate two words more than “Starlight Glimmer”, but, here she was.

She went to a club and tried to lose herself in music. Something called salsa. That worked for an hour, or at least she spent an hour telling herself it was working. But while her body went through the motions and she even smiled and winked at a handsome stallion and got him to dance with her, inside, it was just empty. Eventually she just stopped pretending and walked away, ignoring the stallion’s protestations.

It was, frankly, a relief when she spotted a certain Abyssinian entering a large building done up to look like an ice cream sunday bowl, calling itself the Chill Spot, carrying a large satchel that looked somehow familiar as she entered it. Catrina...Chrysalis pushed the cursed words and then from her mind as her eyes narrowed. Right now, she had something she could focus on: the destruction of the witchweed. She could not allow the plant to exist, a way for false love to be created. She could resist its scent better than any changeling, but if she tasted it...

Of course, her relief gave way when she noticed another pair entering the Chill Spot: Ocellus and Smolder, moving with all the clandestine grace they could muster...which was to say, with the grace hippopotamus having a stroke in a maternity ward. It was simply not possible for any being to look more like they were trying to follow a creature without being noticed.

The annoyance that welled up inside of Chrysalis at least broke her malaise finally. She ducked into an alley long enough to transform, emerging as a gray-coated unicorn teenager with a yellow mane, tail, and eyes. Then she headed towards the Chill Spot, grumbling to herself as she did.

I take back everything I thought about Ocellus' capabilities as an infiltrator, she groused to herself. She could have turned herself into a hat for Smolder to wear. Or a pony and just remain within ten feet of Smolder or whatever is the minimum distance. Idiot. Speaking of - Smolder, you moron, waiting until tomorrow was your idea! I should have known Ocellus would try and butter you up and of course you fell for it...

The image of Ocellus trying to “butter up“ Smolder was at least amusing, given the changeling's apparent lack of subtlety, and helped put a smile on Chrysalis' disguised face as she entered the Chill Spot. She wasn't exactly sure what she had been expecting. The ice cream wasn't a surprise; there were booths along the wall near the entrance, and a counter where ponies were ordering it. But the fact that the building also made room for a huge public, heated bath threw off Chrysalis, plus a wall further back contained directions towards a massage parlor, sauna, mud baths...the Chill Spot was a joint ice cream parlor and day spa. A Sun-day spa, one might say.

Chrysalis had spent a thousand years eating ponies, and yet she still didn't get them.

The changeling queen pushed her thoughts aside as she scanned the spa for signs of her quarry. She just managed to see an orange, scaled tail turn down a hallway that led to the sauna, and grunted as she set off after it. “I really hate that dragon,” she mumbled to herself, throwing an arbitrarily large amount of bits at a desk-pony who sat near the entrance to the day spa section of the Chill Spot. She ignored his asking if she wanted any change and instead headed straight for the sauna, reaching it just as the door closed.

“Idiots,” Chrysalis hissed, walking up to the door and opening it. “Morons, foals, waste of chitin and scales...”

The heat and humidity of the room hit Chrysalis instantly, of course. Stepping into the sauna presented Chrysalis with a wood-walled room, but the steam made it hard to tell how big it was or who else was in here - she couldn't see the opposite wall, nor even either side one. Chrysalis wasn't entirely certain but she was pretty sure that meant that too much steam was being used. Maybe the Chill Spot should stick to ice cream.

She walked into the sauna, peering against the steam. Eventually she saw a trio of dark spots, figures, and headed towards them. She found herself looking at Smolder and Ocellus facing Catrina, who had disrobed and was sitting on a bench with her arms up and over the side and legs crossed, tail swishing casually...and already looking directly at Chrysalis as she came in through the steam. Chrysalis had retained her natural scent receptors, and breathed in deep. From Catrina, she got the exact same smug superiority that she's scented in Mayor Dusk's office, while from the teenagers, she could smell...

...Nothing? What? The two were clearly there, they were too real to be illusions or dummies...so where were their emotions?

“Good evening,” Catrina said, “your majesty.”

Chrysalis recovered from the lack of emotional scent coming from the teenagers, focusing on Catrina, or starting to. But then what the Abyssinian said hit her. “What did you call me?“

Catrina glanced at her claws, checking them for dirt. “Attack.”

Aggression filled the air as Smolder and Ocellus whirled on her, the dragon exhaling bright magenta flames. Despite Chrysalis' dual shocks, one thousand years of survival instinct meant that it wasn't the slightest impediment as she ducked down under the gout of flame. With her disguise useless, she sloughed it off, taking on her true form and rising with her horn glowing blue. “Betrayal!” She exclaimed, stepping forward and smacking Smolder away from her.

She heard hooves on the floor and spun around, seeing Ocellus charge at her while letting out a war-hiss, aggression that Chrysalis didn't think the tiny changeling had even been capable of pouring off of her. Chrysalis' reach was longer and she had something to the effect of fifty or sixty times the teenager's years worth of experience in reacting to surprises, though. Her horn glowed and she seized the changeling. Ocellus continued to scrabble and hiss, however...

...no, not Ocellus, not really at least. Ocellus wasn't capable of this level of vitriol. Catrina had done something to her, and to Smolder as well. Poisoned them in some new way. Turned them against her - forced them against her. “Hhhzzzkkk!” Chrysalis exclaimed, throwing Ocellus into Smolder as she tried to stand, though with her new realization she made sure to hold back her full force. They didn't deserve her full wrath.

Catrina did. Chrysalis' telekinesis was already reaching out behind her. She hadn't seen Catrina leap, but she knew it was coming, and a glance behind her confirmed that, indeed, she had the Abyssinian held in her blue aura. She squeezed. “You are an idiot,” Chrysalis growled, pulling Catrina towards her but making sure her claws remained out of reach. “Two charmed teenagers and a middle-aged Abyssinian? You knew who I was and you thought that would stand the slightest chance against the Queen of the Changelings?!”

Catrina didn't look perturbed at all. Instead, she her chest heaved, and she spat at Chrysalis...but it wasn't saliva. It wasn't a hairball, either. It was a glob of greenish-black ooze, and that shocked Chrysalis enough that she didn't move in time as the glob struck her right front hoof and splattered across it and the ground, the glob instantly cementing itself in place and clinging to Chrysalis' chitin.

Chrysalis' jaw dropped as she looked to Catrina. The aroma of smugness had given way to naked agression. “You're a changeling?!” She demanded.

Ocellus emerged from the steam then, heaving and spitting out ooze at Chrysalis. The queen deflected it with telekinesis, but Smolder then leapt out from behind Ocellus - spitting ooze of her own, splattering it across Chrysalis' right hind leg. Chrysalis let out a hiss as she threw Catrina at the imposter teenagers just as the three were readying more ooze, slamming them into one another with much less gentleness than she had managed previously, She set her horn glowing, blasting at the rapidly calcifying ooze. But the three were made of sturdier stuff than Chrysalis had anticipated and had recovered quickly, charging back through the steam, horking up more ooze. Chrysalis telekinetically caught the ooze in the air and lobbed it back at the trio, striking them in their chests with enough force to send them away once more...

...but then she felt something tap on her withers, and the odor of smug superiority was back in full force. She turned with one of her free hooves sweeping out, but the creature, another Catrina, slipped out of her reach and held a palm that was full of yellow powder, exhaling and blowing the stuff into Chrysalis' face. Chrysalis sputtered and coughed as she inhaled it, falling awkwardly as her legs suddenly gave out, her horn's magic flickered and died. Her eyelids suddenly felt like lead as darkness crept at the edge of her vision.

“By the way, no, I'm not a changeling,” Catrina said, as she was joined by her doppelganger. Catrina looked her up and down. “And no, they're not...entirely. Not bad, though, hmmm?“

The false Catrina, Ocellus, and Smolder all glowed with pinkish flames - but blackness claimed Chrysalis's sight before those flames cleared. The last thing she heard was Catrina clapping her paws together. “Take her to the mirror.”

10. Can't Seem to Get my Mind off of You

Ocellus had made to go after Nonchalant, but Smolder flew up and grabbed Ocellus by her hind leg before she could get too far, stronger wings easily stopping the changeling’s forward momentum. “I think she wants some alone-time,” Smolder said.

Ocellus turned to put Smolder in her field of vision, though also kept herself angled so that her compound eyes could see Nonchalant as she flew off. Smolder was a dragon, so she didn’t really understand how impossible what she’d just said was. “Th-there’s no such thing as a changeling who wants to be alone,” Ocellus insisted. “Changelings don’t do well on our own.”

“Well, Nonchalant wants it,,” Smolder said. She let go of Ocellus and flew up alongside her, crossing her arms. “Trust me. You follow her and she’ll breathe fire at you...or bite you or whatever.” She pointed a thumb at her chest. “Dragon. I can just tell. Heck, I think she almost did bite you.” The last note turned into a low growl, and a brief flash of anger came off of her. Ocellus got the impression that the only reason Nonchalant wasn’t on fire right now was because she herself had been in the way.

Ocellus rubbed her forelegs together, hoof over hoof as she watched Nonchalant angle herself down towards Tiatarta, disappearing behind the buildings of the town. There’d be no finding her now unless she wanted to be found. Ocellus let out a long sigh. “O...okay.” She dropped from the air, landing back down on the beach. Smolder followed her down. “But...I can’t believe you’re just letting her leave like that! And just letting the poisoning continue!”

Smolder shrugged. “Dunno if you noticed or not, but what you said really got into her and messed Nonchalant up. Last thing we want is to go running around without our heads in the game.”

Ocellus dug her hooves into the sand. Of course she’d noticed that; Nonchalant’s emotional barriers had slipped again. Robust though they were, Ocellus’ stark framing of her predicament had been like the claws of a maulworf. And above and beyond anything else, Nonchalant was lonely. Ocellus dug her hooves further into the moist beach beneath her. “But...”

“Look, it’s that,” Smolder said, holding out one claw, then raising a second, “or I just start burning the town down. That’s how dragons normally deal with attacks, just immolate everything within a mile of whatever’s bothering us. But this place is actually kinda’ nice so I don’t want to do that.”

Ocellus shook her head. Right - there was more going on then just Nonchalant, even though the older changeling couldn’t help but loom large in Ocellus’ mind. But without Nonchalant, how were the two of them supposed to find out what Catrina was up to?

“Unless...” Ocellus intoned, looking up to Smolder so the dragon could occupy as many of her eye segments as possible, “we...we could at least do the first part of what I was suggesting. Learn what we can about Catrina. Then when Nonchalant gets back, we can tell her everything we know.”

Smolder decided to meet that with her hands on her hips rather than verbally, letting her pose - and the emotions that Ocellus could no doubt smell - speak for themselves. The silent stare eventually caused Ocellus to shift from one hoof to another. ”Wh-what?” she asked.

”You're making me be the responsible one,” Smolder said. She smelled of annoyance.

Ocellus winced. She could tell that Smolder just wanted to go back to the Nook and wait. Maybe that was draconic patience, or maybe simple practicality, but in either case it wasn’t what was needed right now. Ocellus was sure of it, the Nook needed to be helped, and that meant investigating Catrina, trying to figure out what she was up to. Smolder wouldn't listen to reason on this, though, not with her desire to protect Ocellus, seeing her as part of her hoard to be squirreled away to some cave somewhere. But that didn't mean that there weren't options.

Ocellus turned her head from Smolder, like she was glancing away submissively, rubbing one leg against the other again because she knew that it was an action that Smolder found cute. “I know...” Ocellus said. She turned her head further, then sank to her barrel, laying her head down on the sand, the image of dejection and defeat. She closed her eyes, taking in a breath and letting the emotions she scented guide her actions as she did what she could to try and elicit some guilt from Smolder. ”I'm sorry...”

She scented the guilt she had been seeking coming off of Smolder now. She counted to five, then opened her eyes once more, looking up at Smolder even as she tried to emphasize how sad and small she was. Normally not a great plan with a dragon, but given the affection that Smolder felt for her, it was something she could play on. “It's just,” Ocellus said quietly, “we're here to solve this problem, remember? How are we going to do that if we're avoiding it?”

The scent of guilt grew...and of annoyance. It was a delicate game that Ocellus was playing right now with Smolder's emotions, but Ocellus swallowed a little and fell back on what she remembered of her infiltration training from Ecdysis. How to say just the right things, move in just the right way and give off just the right signals. The Nook needed her.

Smolder grunted, exhaling smoke. The annoyance and guilt mixed together with the affection she generally felt for Ocellus, then a powerful aroma of determination filled the air as she tapped a thumb against her sternum. “I’m supposed to be keeping you safe, that’s what Twilight had to promise Thorax and Pharynx to even get you here. Looking for trouble with Catrina, or looking for whatever trouble Catrina is causing, or whatever, isn’t doing that.”

Ocellus rose to her hooves, coming forward and getting up to Smolder. As she approached, smell of affection grew. “Dragon Lord Ember told you that you can knock as many heads together as it takes to solve the problem, though,” she said. She decided to play her last card, reaching out and taking one of Smolder's hands into both her forehooves. A burst of surprise and affection reached her scent receptors. “Please,” Ocellus begged. “I...I can’t just wait, not while the Nook is in danger. The Nook, changelings as a whole...they’re like my hoard. I have to protect them.”

Smolder was still, though she held tightly onto one of Ocellus’ hooves. Her thumb, probably without Smolder realizing it, rubbed back and forth over Ocellus’ fuzz. Her face was some strange combination of longing and annoyance, and the emotional scents coming off of her were just as confused. She knew Ocellus was trying to get to her emotionally, but the thing about emotions was that while they could be controlled, they could not be stopped or ignored. They were like fire, they burned and spread, and while dragonhide was thick, it wasn't proof against this sort of fire.

”Okay, look,” Smolder said, flexing her wings a few times as determination won out...though with no little bit of resentment lingering in the air. “How about this: we don't try and follow Catrina. Let's...go to the places where love-drunk changelings have been found, see if any creature there remembers seeing Catrina or anything else suspicious. There's no way she's been able to poison so many changelings without leaving some kind of clue.”

Ocellus knew that this was the best she was going to get out of Smolder. She nodded, and started to smile, but Smolder finally pulled her hand away from Ocellus hooves and jabbed a claw against Ocellus’ snout. “If we actually see Catrina,” she said, “I’m grabbing you and flying away. Got it?”

The resentment had risen to an almost unbearable stench all of a sudden. Ocellus nodded quickly, if for no other reason to get the odor out of her scent receptors. “O-of course,” she promised. Smolder drew back, crossing her arms and turning away, setting off across the beach. Ocellus followed, unable to avoid inhaling annoyance, anger, resentment, and...

...and nothing else, actually. Smolder’s emotional aura was devoid of any positive emotions. Even the perpetual affection was gone - not just the love, since that was something that was only possible to scent when Smolder’s guard was down anyway. But the friendly love that Smolder felt for all her friends, the desire to be with Ocellus, the cameraderie...

Ocellus blinked. She knew, intellectually, that it was only temporary. Smolder might resent her emotional manipulation, but it was something she’d get over. Surely she would, a small argument wasn’t enough to hurt a friendship meaningfully, and Ocellus had good intentions. Smolder understood that, didn’t she? So that excused Ocellus exploiting Smolder’s feelings - which was what Ecdysis would have told her a few years ago while she was being taught and trained on how to infiltrate. What Chrysalis would have told her. What Nonchalant probably thought now.

Ocellus shut her eyes tightly at that thought, but all that happened was she found herself looking at a black, holed, unreformed changeling drone that shared her proportions, looking back at her. And she saw Chrysalis herself standing next to the drone, reaching out and putting a hoof on the tiny drone’s back and telling her how good a job she’d done...Ocellus opened her eyes back up, not wanting to see that, but the sight of Smolder walking forward, arms hugging her torso, wings wrapped around her shoulders like a cloak to ward off everyone else, smelling of low anger and vexation, was almost worse.

The two teenagers walked in silence into the town, Ocellus feeling like all the progress she’d made with Smolder over the past day had gone up in flames, burned in the fires of Smolder’s resentment. It didn’t matter if Smolder would get over it, that didn’t excuse what she’d done. And yet Ocellus couldn't apologize for it, because if she did then Smolder might say they should go back to the Nook, but this was important...

Ocellus’ reverie was finally broken when Smolder stopped in front of a long wooden pier that jutted our into the bay - though at the end of the pier wasn’t a boat, but rather a twenty-foot staircase that went up so as to allow creatures that climbed it to board the airship that hovered above the water. The airship’s balloon had the words Cloud Spirit’s Sky Diving emblazoned on it.

The dragon looked back to the changeling. “I figure we can’t go back to that fish shop,” she said, pointing a thumb down the pier, “so this is the next-most-recent place we figure Catrina’s been, right?”

Ocellus nodded slowly, keeping her mouth closed as much as possible, trying to breath through the sides and not smell Smolder’s emotions. It kind of worked. She examined the balloon, where Smolder had needed to tear it open when climbing aboard, and saw that new patches of fabric had been stitched into place. Ocellus swallowed and tried to seize on that as a distraction. “It’s been repaired already - ”

“Yeah, and the next cruise leaves, like, now,” Smolder said as she jabbed a finger at a sign showing launch hours, heading down the pier and to the boarding tower. Indeed, they only had a few minutes to go. “C’mon, lets get a move on.”

Ocellus hesitated a moment at her friend's brusqueness, but quickly followed Smolder as she took flight and landed most of the way up the boarding tower, just behind an earth pony and pegasus couple. She shuffled on her hooves as she landed behind Smolder. The dragon still wasn't looking at her...but this was for the Nook...but her anger...

“W...we should go,” Ocellus whispered. Smolder didn't react, so Ocellus cleared her throat and tried again. “We should - ”

The line moved forward, and Smolder moved with it, right up to a blue earth pony wearing aviator goggles. He looked the two of them up and down. “Hey, I know you,” he said as his eyes widened. “You're the two who saved my airship, aren't you? I'm Cloud Spirit! I was hoping I'd run into you - I was stuck ashore during everything yesterday of course, but I need to thank you! Without you I'd be right up a certain creek right now - ”

“Yeah,” Smolder said, stretching her wings out. Ocellus was still behind her, but the dragon stepped to the side so that she'd be in full view of Cloud Spirit. “Look, not to seem ungrateful or whatever, but I'll let Ocellus do the talking here. It's important, isn't it, Ocellus?”

Ocellus flinched, hunkering down on herself, and moreso when Cloud Spirit turned to look at her. She fought off the desire to turn into something small and scurry away, instead forcing one leaden hoof to move forward, then another. “W...w-we were just, um, wondering...did, um...d-did...”

Did any Abyssinians give away a glowing vial of poison to a changeling yesterday that you saw?

Did you maybe overhear an Abyssinain talking about a desire to poison changelings?

Did any creature leave behind a vial of something labeled "poison for changelings as part of my evil scheme"?

Ocellus was staring, mouth working a little but with no sound coming out. This was stupid. Nonchalant had been right, this was a stupid plan, what kind of questions could she ask Cloud Spirit that would actually get any useful information? How would she have asked the same questions of Catrina? Did she expect to just go up to her and have her start explaining everything in detail like it was one of Headmare Twilight's friendship lessons? Was this really what she had just manipulated her supposed friend's emotions for? She saw Smolder staring at her. Glaring at her. Resenting her and what she'd done, for being here, for putting herself in danger with no plan, for forcing Smolder to go along with it...

Ocellus took in a deep breath. “N-nothing,” she said. “Never mind, it...i-it doesn’t matter, we should go - ”

She made to turn around, but Cloud Spirit reached out to put a hoof on her withers. She flinched and gasped at the unexpected touch, and a powerful blast of anger reached her from Smolder as the dragon hissed and came forward, her own claws glinting. “Let go,” Smolder rumbled, snorting flames.

Cloud Spirit did so, of course, stepping back and holding up a hoof. “Sorry!” He apologized. Smolder stood between Ocellus and the pony. “I didn’t mean anything! It’s just, before you go...I wanted to thank you for yesterday. Maybe I can offer a free cruise? You, uh...” he leaned over so he could look at Ocellus, hunkered down, and Smolder, flexing and unflexing her claws and wings with her tail snapping quickly back and forth behind her. “You look like you could use a break.”

Ocellus' wings buzzed beneath her elytra at that, and she put a hoof to her chest. She almost made to refuse the earth pony, but remembered what she had done to her friend. She shook her head, trying to adopt as neutral a posture and appearance as possible as she looked to Smolder. ”Wh-what do you want to do?” she asked.

Smolder looked down at Ocellus. With effort, she folded her wings back up, stood up straighter and crossed her arms. She actually looked like she was reeling her inner wyrm back into herself and trying to push the person back to the front. She glanced up at the airship's balloon, then back to Cloud Spirit. ”Sky diving isn't that big a deal when you've got wings,” she said. It sounded dismissive, and it was, but it was still a lot more personable than how she'd just acted. After a moment she did add a ”no offense,” at least.

Cloud Spirit, however, smiled. ”Oh, not sky diving like that! We never actually get too high. No, I offer diving tours of the sea floor out in Luna Bay. Today we'll even be heading to the wreck of the HMS Pinion Fore. We have scuba gear, though I'm guessing your friend won't need it and you'll just want a mask.”

Ocellus blinked, the earth pony's words getting through her malaise. She tentatively stepped forward, up alongside Smolder. ”Water diving?” She asked. ”But...why an airship?”

Cloud Spirit smiled a little. ”I get seasick. But not airsick! So what do you say? Free tour?”

Ocellus thought of the Nook, of Ecdysis lying in a drunk tank, of Catrina poisoning her fellow changelings for who-knew-what reason, of Nonchalant sitting somewhere alone and stewing in her own thoughts as her worldview fell apart around her...and she thought about how she'd put all of that before Smolder, her friend. A dragon who loved her, even if she was too stubborn to admit it or realize it or understand it. And who Ocellus...

The changeling's wings buzzed again as she looked up to Smolder, reaching out a hoof and placing it on Smolder's crossed arm, careful to avoid where Smolder had pulled loose her damaged scales. ”If you want to,” Ocellus said. ”It's...what I wanted to do...isn't important.”

Smolder looked at her, considering a few moments, before shrugging. ”I mean, it kind of is,” she said, and looked to Cloud Spirit, ”but this diving thing sounds kind of fun too.” She considered a moment more, then looked to Cloud Spirit. ”Hey, any Abyssinians go on your tour and talk to any changelings yesterday? Maybe give them a glowing vial of poison and talk about their evil plans?”

Ocellus tried to both gasp and let out a surprise shout at the same time, and the result was stopping breathing for a moment as she put both forehooves to her mouth. Cloud Spirit for his part just looked confused. ”No?” He asked.

”Cool.” Smolder looked to Ocellus. ”There, we did something you wanted to do, so now we can do something I want to. Which, yeah, diving sounds fun. Let's check it out.” Smolder boarded the airship, hands behind her head as she walked.

Ocellus took to the air so that she could fly after her and leave her forelegs free to smack at the dragon, but unfortunately Smolder's scales and Ocellus' weak natural form meant that the blows didn't amount to much. ”S-Smolder!” Ocellus exclaimed as Smolder sat down on an available chair, and Ocellus continued trying to get her to at least flinch. ”Th...that was mean!”

Smolder caught an incoming smack and pulled Ocellus down into her own seat. Their actions had attracted stares from the other cruise-goers. ”Yeah, dragons are pretty good at that.”

”I mean...I deserved it...b-but I meant well...but that doesn't excuse what I did...but...”

Smolder had her arms up and over the seat's backs; one of them reached around and pulled Ocellus into a side-hug, extending one wing over Ocellus' back for extra coverage. ”You're even doing my side of the argument! No wonder you're best in Professor Rarity's generosity classes.”

Smolder's words just riled up Ocellus more, and the fact that Smolder now smelled of bemusement didn't help matters, even if Ocellus could also smell that the affection was back, the feeling settling into Ocellus' heart and reminding her to never let it go anywhere ever again. The amusement at the antics of the two teenagers also permeated the air around the other creatures on the cruise, which really only got under Ocellus' carapace even more. She glared at Smolder, even as at the other end of her vision she saw Cloud Spirit as the earth pony walked over to the steering wheel of the airship. ”How long until we dive?” Ocellus asked.

”About twenty minutes,” Cloud Spirit answered.

Ocellus nodded while trying to dig a hoof into the soft scales of Smolder's belly. ”I'm going to get you for that once we're in the water.”

Smolder just grabbed Ocellus' hoof to stop her, easily pushing it back. ”Love to see you try.”

”Oh, you will.”

Smolder chuckled. Ocellus shifted, getting comfortable and succeeding after a moment. It took until the cruise was underway for Ocellus to realize that Smolder's arm was still draped over her withers, and her wing still curled around her back, and her hoof in Smolder's hand, the scent of greed-love filling Ocellus' mouth. It took Smolder that long to realize her position as well.

The faintest aura of shame began to flare up when she did, but Ocellus acted quickly, grabbing Smolder's hand with her hoof before she could withdraw it. ”Lo...greed smells nice,” she told Smolder.

”But it's me wanting to own you - ”

”It's fine,” Ocellus insisted. She took in a deep breath, letting her eyes drift close as she did. ”It's fine, Smolder. I'm not worried.” She shifted a little, leaning more into the hug, the warmth of her friend. ”And I'm comfy. You're like a heated pillow.”

Smolder sputtered a little at that, though her reaction was the squeeze Ocellus tighter. ”I'm not a pillow! I'm a dragon! My scales are like a hurricane! Or...wait that's my wings, my scales are...darn it how's it go...” Ocellus only giggled, not feeling guilty about this particular bit of emotional manipulation, this push to keep her friend from feeling bad about her instincts, about her love, or greed, or whatever she wanted to call it. And she was comfy...

And Ocellus...

Twenty minutes of cruising had been enough to carry the airship north along the peninsula's coast and then east and out into the bay. The entire Luna Bay was more like a large depression in the land rather than a drop in the continental shelf. Its deepest point was just shy of a thousand feet, and they were well clear of that with only a few dozen feet of water beneath them by the time the airship came to a stop and hovered about ten feet above the placid sea, dropping anchors to hold it in place. The water below them was crystal clear, allowing the cruise-goers to see straight down to white sand, coral reefs, colorful fish, and the sunken hulk of a tri-masted galleon overgrown with polyps and seaweed. There was even a small shark in sight, about as big as Ocellus, though Cloud Spirit assured every creature that Bruce was docile and actually loved a good snout-rub.

Aside from Ocellus and Smolder, every other creature was a pony, so they were given air tanks, masks, and flippers. Smolder only accepted a pair of goggles designed for a draconic head while flexing and unflexing her wings and stretching her tail, getting them ready for the swim, while Ocellus simply reminded herself that when she was done she should exhale first before transforming back into a changeling, lest she want lungs full of water.

”Okay,” Cloud Spirit informed his customers as he extended a plank for ponies who wanted to walk it, while also dropping a rope ladder for ponies who preferred a less sudden entrance and so that the fliers in the group wouldn't need to carry every creature else back up, "there's yellow flags in the sea floor that mark the limit of the diving area, every creature please stay inside of them, Cloud Spirit's Sky Diving is not responsible for what happens to you outside of the designated area. You can feel free to explore on your own, but if you want to follow me I can show you some of the highlights of the area, including a tour of the Pinion Fore. And...dive on in!”

No creature took the ladder. The earth ponies and unicorns and even one of the pegasi all hurried off of the plank with laughter, pausing only long enough to make sure that the last pony got out of the way. The remaining pegasi simply leapt off of the edge of the airship and dove straight down.

Smolder smiled at Ocellus as she climbed up onto the railing of the airship, spreading her wings wide as she sat down on it and looked at the water. ”So...something about getting me back?” she asked, putting her goggles on, ”you know I'm almost as fast as Silverstream in a straight line, right?”

Ocellus returned the grin, stepping out onto the plank. ”So slower than me.”

”I've seen you swim, Ocellus, you just kinda' float there. And your seapony form isn't as fast as I am.”

Ocellus' grin widened. She stooped down on the plank, readying herself...then turned quickly and dived at Smolder even as she flashed blue. A beige dragon collided with the orange one, wrapped her arms around Smolder so that she couldn't spread her wings, and then dragged both of them from the airship and down into the water. Smolder let out a sound that was half-laugh and half-roar as Ocellus used her own, free wings to flip around, making sure that Smolder hit the water first in a back-flop.

The sea was warm, though not as warm as Smolder, or Ocellus herself for that matter as the internal fires of a dragon heated up inside of her. Smolder squirmed out of Ocellus' grip - as a true dragon she was stronger than Ocellus could be as a copy - and kicked away, wings pumping and tail beating side-to-side, easily gaining her distance. Ocellus used the last of the air in her body to fuel a burst of exhaled fire at Smolder, though in the water it instead transformed into a boiling cloud of reddish steam. Then Ocellus flashed blue and took on her seapony form, and sucked in some water, enjoying the sensation of it gliding over her gills

”Gotcha,” Ocellus said, and winked.

Smolder couldn't speak effectively when underwater, but she could let out a growl tinged with excitement, diving forward. Ocellus giggled and beat her tail, diving away from Smolder and down. Just like in the air, Smolder was faster than her, but Ocellus was more nimble, able to change directions quicker and easier as Smolder gave chase. Schools of brightly-colored fish scattered before the two teenagers as Smolder raced after Ocellus.

Ocellus tried to lose Smolder in the coral reef, diving beneath a pillar of coral, around a bend, and then through a crevice, careful to avoid the stinging anemones as she went. But Smolder knew she wasn't as nimble as Ocellus - and also knew the changeling didn't have compound eyes at the moment - and so when she had dove in among the coral hadn't even bothered to give chase, instead swimming up and over the reef. As such, when Ocellus finally slowed to suck in some deep gulps of water, she fell victim to a surprise attack from Smolder from above.

Just as planned.

Smolder's claws grabbed Ocellus' forelegs, while her knees grabbed tightly onto Ocellus' tail. The intent was to immobilize her while she went in for a halfhearted nip at the neck, a 'win'. But that didn't happen because Ocellus' form flashed blue once again. One tentacle wrapped around Smolder's mouth, clamping it shut. Two more were wrapped around Smolder's arms, and another two her legs, one more her tail, and two wrapped around her wings. Ocellus the octopus couldn't grin, but she did tap the tip of the tentacle against Smolder's snout before trying to move her towards her beak to get a winning bite of her own.

But Smolder was having none of it. In spite of the tentacles being pure muscle, they still weren't up to the task of restraining her mighty draconic thews, adapted to propel Smolder through liquid far denser than water and let her do battle in that liquid if need be. Smolder was barely prevented from beating her wings and pulling herself away from Ocellus' beak. Her tentacled arm was hardly hindered in reaching over to the other one and grabbing the tentacle there, taking it into her hand and pulling it loose from around her with some effort, but much less than any actually aquatic creature would have needed. With the methodical patience of a creature that would see centuries go by in her lifetime, Smolder gradually unwound the tentacles from around herself and gathered them into her hands, holding Ocellus by the tips.

Of course, then she faced a predicament of what even constituted a winning bite on a creature with no neck. Before she decided to drag Ocellus above the water until lack of that water forced Ocellus to turn into something with lungs again, Ocellus transformed into her seapony form. It certainly wasn't as strong as an octopus, but it did mean that Smolder's one hand wasn't enough to hold all of Ocellus' limbs, freeing her tail and one finned foreleg - and she used the fin to tickle the end of Smolder's snout.

She got the effect she wanted - Smolder's face screwed up before she could bat the limb away, then Ocellus had to duck as Smolder sneezed, exhaling a cloud of magenta steam directly over her. Ocellus felt Smolder's grip loosen and she beat her tail, pulling away from Smolder and trying to escape - but the loosened grip had been a feint. Smolder's other hand reached out and grabbed Ocellus around her waist as she tried to flee, arms and legs both wrapping around her, holding on tightly and pinning Ocellus' forelegs to her chest. Before Ocellus could grow too large or too small or too slippery and get away, Smolder had her jaws grabbing the back of her seapony neck, a sensation that made Ocellus reflexively stiffen and freeze. Heat that was almost hot enough to sting pricked at the back of Ocellus' neck alongside teeth that were sturdy enough to chew apart diamonds and yet would never be allowed to pierce Ocellus' skin.

Smolder leaned back after a moment, and after a moment more let go of Ocellus and gently pushed her way forward to look Ocellus in the eye. She'd used up all her air in the sneeze and so settled on grinning in triumph as she floated slightly above Ocellus' eye level. Ocellus giggled, kicking her tail and heading towards the surface a few dozen feet above them. Smolder followed, and broke the waterline first, laughing as soon as she could pull fresh air into her body. ”Aw, yeah,” Smolder chuckled while floating in place. ”Dragon-1, Changeling-0!”

Ocellus made sure to expel all the water from her gills, then took in a breath of air with her seapony lungs. ”I think my surprise attack at the beginning counts for something,” she insisted.

”I mean, it was cool, I guess,” Smolder allowed, waving one hand in a so-so motion, then splashing some water at Ocellus. ”But that's not how you win. You gotta bite a vulnerable spot.”

Ocellus grinned. ”Okay,” she said, letting her changeling magic wash over her again - but this time she went small instead of big, turning into a small winged bite-acuda and lunging forward before Smolder could react. Her jaws clamped onto Smolder's neck. ”One!” she exclaimed. Smolder let out a cry, grabbing Ocellus and throwing her away, but Ocellus beat her wings and plunged down after Smolder when she dove back underwater, catching up to the dragon quickly and chomping down on the tip of her tail. ”Two!” she laughed.

Smolder spun around in the water and reached for Ocellus, grabbing her and glaring at her. Ocellus matched the stare, not dropping her grin as she glowed and went big again - huge, even. Something she'd seen in a book on ancient animals called a megalodon. Smolder's eyes grew wide and mouth dropped open as Ocellus opened up and chomped down around the dragon, completely enveloping her for a few seconds before spitting her out and resuming her seapony form. She was gasping, or whatever the underwater equivalent of that was - she couldn't maintain such a huge size for long. But it was worth it. She crossed her forelegs and smiled at Smolder. ”Th-three,” she said.

Smolder fumed. Actually boiled might have been a better term, as the water around her started to bubble slightly. She spread her wings wide and shoved herself forward. Ocellus dove away from her and giggled again, flicking Smolder's soft underbelly with her tail as she did. ”Dragon-1, Changeling-3!”

Ocellus had an early edge thanks to her shapeshifting, but changing forms took up magic/love and was also physically exhausting. She faded in a stretch as hunger and tiredness got to her, and their impromptu game was called when the score was Dragon-10, Changeling-6. Physical hunger started to set in as well, but Ocellus satisfied that with some kelp and other pellagic plants while in seapony form - some of the fish looked tasty too, but they were part of the tour so it would probably be rude to eat them. Smolder elected to wait for the Nook so that she could chow on some ”real” food plus her supply of gemstones. The two also caught up to Cloud Spirit and the less rambunctious divers, and were lead through the wreck of the HMS Pinion Fore, which had regularly spaced and cleaned plaques throughout explaining various facts about it and the events that had seen it sunk.

Getting back onto the airship almost presented a problem; Ocellus' true form was soaked, inclduing her gossamer wings, which would have made it nearly impossible to fly even if she hadn't been exhausted, while the ladder looked daunting for a tired, hooved creature. She almost transformed despite her state - she wasn't that far gone, she simply wasn't looking forward to the effort - but Smolder scooped up the tiny changelings in her arms and pushed them both out of the water with a few powerful leg kicks and tail strokes, at least high enough for her wings to clear the sea and catch air instead.

”Th-thanks,” Ocellus said as the two flopped down onto the deck of the airship.

”Don't mention it,” Smolder responded easily. Cloud Spirit was already aboard and hoofing out towels for every creature; Smolder used one to supplement her body heat, while Ocellus got to work on her own carapace, though her wings were too delicate for proper toweling and would have to be air-dried. Smolder pointed casually at Ocellus. ”Did the professors ever land on if shapeshifting in gym class was cheating? Because if we just built up your stamina you'd win, like, all the time.”

Ocellus grinned a little despite her exhaustion. Ugh, she was going to be feeling this tomorrow morning. ”Th-the rule is I can pick one form at the s-start of any game and stick to it. But...win or lose, I'd rather do it as me.” She shifted a little as she finished drying as much of herself as she could, then opened her elytra and spread her wings wide. She also put a hoof to her chest. Her heart ached - not as bad as last night when she was recovering from Nonchalant's feeding on her, but it was still more of an emptiness than she was used to.

Smolder noticed the motion. She came over, drawing Ocellus into a hug. ”C'mon, it's not love but it's close enough.”

Ocellus resisted the urge to chuckle to herself at Smolder's words. The affection of friendship was and always had been nourishing even if most creatures didn't really think of it as love in a true sense. Changelings knew better. But even beyond that, with Smolder making sure that she was thinking only positive thoughts - and with her knowing that her greed tasted good to Ocellus - she wasn't letting her shame get through, meaning that Ocellus could lap at that instead. The spicy cinnamon of draconic greed-love slid easily into Ocellus' heart, its burn warming her just as much as Smolder's own inner fires warmed the dragon.

And Ocellus...

The airship made it back to Tiatarta as the Sun started dipping down towards the horizon; the two teenagers were going to cut their eight o'clock curview close at this rate. In spite of that, though, Ocellus couldn't bring herself to hurry as the two made their way into Tiatarta. Part of that was because her wings still needed to dry out and so she wasn't flying, instead forcing her tired hooves to trot along beside Smolder.

But if Ocellus was being honest with herself, part of that was because she was trotting alongside Smolder. The dragon was filled with contentment and happiness like Ocellus hadn't smelled coming off of her for weeks. Despite the rocky start to it, today had been a good day...because Ocellus knew how Smolder felt about her, or how Smolder thought she felt about her, and so even though she still felt shame over her greed she no longer felt like she was suffering it alone, like she was truly terrible because of it - because Ocellus had told her that she wasn't. Had told her she liked it.

Because she did. Even before Ocellus had managed to parse the love that was entwined with the greed, she'd still enjoyed its taste and aroma. For the aroma alone, though? For the taste and texture? Did she like it and want it for that shallow a reason? Or...did she want it...because she felt it too...?

Such was the depths of Ocellus' musings that despite her compound eyes, she only barely noticed it when Smolder stopped and let out an annoyed ”Oh, come on.” Shaking her head a little, Ocellus saw that Smolder had stopped becasue a certain gray-coated unicorn was was trotting towards them in the street. Any creature in Nonchalant's way earned a glare that convinced them to move out of the disguised changeling's way. It may have been growing later, but in a resort town like Tiatarta that only meant the streets were more crowded, not less, as the night life began to wake up and invite customers in.

Smolder crossed her arms as she glared at Nonchalant's approach through the crowd of ponies and other creatures. ”I thought you said the Nook could survive another day without you,” she said when Nonchalant was close enough.

Nonchalant flicked her mane over to the other side of her head. ”Yes, well...I reconsidered,” she said. She waved a hoof. ”Catrina must be dealt with...”

She kept talking, but Ocellus didn't hear it as her infiltration training, dusted off and put to use so much recently, suddenly started screaming at her. She managed to force herself to keep her reaction as subdued as possible, just a flicker of her ear-fins, and was grateful for being in her true form with its compound eyes that were nearly impossible to read.

She's talking about Catrina openly. We're surrounded by creatures who could listen in. Nonchalant wouldn't make a mistake like that.

”It'll have to wait, Nonny,” Smolder said in response to whatever Nonchalant had finished saying, pointing up at the sky and the fact that it was a bit more orange than blue at this point. ”We're gonna have to hurry back to the Nook. Curfew, remember?”

Nonchalant grumbled, and Ocellus could smell the impatient annoyance drifting off of her. ”Of course. It will give us time to plan anyway. I've been...constructive with my time.” She grinned. ”Very constructive.”

”G-good,” Ocellus said, wishing she could cast a glance at Smolder in this form. The two teenagers started walking again, Nonchalant falling in beside them - beside them. Nonchalant would never walk beside a creature who knew what she truly was, it wasn't in the infiltrator's nature. She all but thought of herself as Queen Chrysalis, she'd want to lead.

Ocellus took in a sharp but quiet breath, trying to parse Nonchalant's emotions closer. But she only tasted annoyance and a smug sense of superioty, the same kind she tasted from Nonchalant all the time. Yet something was still off...Ocellus didn't like the idea of trekking back to the Nook with her, her and Smolder and Nonchalant alone on the road to the forest, or even in the air.

She thought quickly, taking in her surroundings and spotting a conveninece store. ”H-hang on,” Ocellus said, stopping outside of it. ”Smolder and me have been swimming all day in salty water...I'm kind of thirsty. It should be safe to drink bottled water, right? There's no way that Catrina could know which bottles to love poison.”

Nonchalant turned her glare on her. It certainly looked like the kind of glare that the expert infiltrator would give...but Ocellus was also scenting the air, still parsing Nonchalant's emotions. And they didn't change - there was no emotional reacton whatever, not even the slightest flutter to Ocellus wanting to change Nonchalant's plan, or to her openly talking about Catrina.

”Fine, let's get you something to drink,” the unicorn said. The unicorn...or something...that wasn't Nonchalant.

Ocellus ducked into the store, Smolder following her as she quickly hurried to the back, which fortunately was where the coolers were. She turned to look at Smolder quickly, but Smolder spoke up first. ”I don't think that's Nonchalant,” the dragon said in a low voice.

Ocellus blinked a few times, then slapped a hoof to her forehead. ”You called her 'Nonny' and she didn't react,” she realized.

”That plus she just seems...off. And I don't think she's forget that we have a curfew.”

”She talked about Catrina even though we were surrounded,” Ocellus added. ”And her emotions, it's like...like they're a projection. She's feeling the same thing no matter what. I don't know any creature that can do that, just not react...” She shiverred, suddenly feeling her aches, her tiredness, even more acutely. She was glad that Smolder had fed her, at least, so that her magic was fully available. ”Wh...what do we...”

She paused, as she saw at her vision's edge that Nonchalant - or the thing that looked like Nonchalant - had come into the store. Only she looked slightly different...Ocellus was surprised that it took her several seconds to realize how: Nonchalant's ears had changed, growing longer and taller, like a rabbit's. They would have almost been comical to look at, if not for the fact that both were pointed straight up and forward at the two teenagers, matching the gaze that was locked onto them. She'd heard everything.

Ocellus swallowed, mouth going dry - she really could use that water now. Both teenagers turned to regard the faux unicorn, who looked back at them for another moment before turning around to the store's door - and locking it.

”Uh, hey,” the earth pony at the counter said. He'd been reading a magazine, but came out from behind it at Nonchalant's action. ”Lady, you can't just do that - ”

Nonchalant's ears glowed with pink flames, shifting back into a more equine shape, while a similar magic wrapped around her mouth and throat and barrel. There was no outward change, but Ocellus still tried to let out a shout of warning to the convenience store clerk. But she was too late - Nonchalant heaved, then spat, black-green ooze shooting from her mouth and hitting the clerk in the face, hitting his eyes, his muzzle, his mouth.

With a muffled scream, he fell to the floor, clawing at his head in panic as the ooze expanded and solidified around his head. Provided that was changeling ooze, then he wouldn't suffocate since it was porous and would allow airflow. Given that Nonchalant spat a second glob that pinned the pony to the floor, that probably confirmed that the clerk hadn’t been neutralized. Somehow the fact that Nonchalant hadn't tried to kill the clerk didn't make Ocellus feel better.

”Uh...” Smolder said, glancing to Ocellus. ”Run?” - ”

”Run,” Ocellus agreed. They were near a door marked "employees only" and bolted for it. Nonchalant let out a sound that was somewhere between a hiss and screech - and decidedly familiar to Ocellus - and charged at them. The two managed to run through the door and found that it did in fact lead to a back area and not a broom closet. They'd just reached the employee exit in the back when a globule of ooze narrowly missed hitting either of them - but did collide with the door's handle, glueing the thing shut.

The two teenagers turned quickly, Smolder snorting smoke laced with flames. Ocellus elected to turn into a dragon as well, wanting the armored scales, the claws, the fire. ”Okay, fine," Smolder growled at Nonchalant at where she stood, maybe twenty feet away. ”I'm still a dragon! Ocellus is too! We can melt through your ooze, you get close and we can bite your head off, and you turn into a dragon too and all we'll do is set fire to this whole place and get the police and the fire deparment here, which I'll bet you don't want!”

Nonchalant smiled. ”Why not?”

That seemed to take Smolder aback, but to Ocellus it was an admission that was as plain as day. ”She controls them,” Ocellus said. ”Or...or Catrina does.”

”Not all of them,” Nonchalant corrected. ”You never need everything. Just the right things.” She smiled. ”The right ingredients in the proper proportions at the correct time. The right pieces in the right places playing the right parts. The right words in the right ear accompanied by the right gifts - ”

”She's stalling,” Ocellus interrupted when she realized. ”Th...there’s backup, there must be backup coming!”

Nonchalant's eyes widened at being found out, then she started heaving again. Smolder ducked the glob of ooze that was spat at her, while Ocellus gathered her courage and charged forward screaming, exhaling rust-red flames at Nonchalant as she did. Nonchalant let out a hiss of her own and leapt to the side, turning her focus on Ocellus, heaving, and spitting ooze that hit Ocellus's hand, knocking it back and pinning it to the wall.

But Smolder was on Nonchalant then, literally, leaping onto her back and wrapping her arms around her neck. Nonchalant flailed, bucking like a bronco to try and get Smolder off, succeeding when her back glowed pink and she suddenly possessed a pair of pegasus wings that flared up and out, pushing Smolder off and onto the ground. She stomped a hoof down on Smolder's chest, eliciting a pained shout.

Ocellus managed to free herself - she'd used her fire to burn off the ooze on her hand, and leapt at Nonchalant, grabbing her mane and pulling her back before she could spit ooze on Smolder. Nonchalant hissed and swiped out a hoof, slamming Ocellus in the stomach, and the young changeling let out a surprised cry of her own, unused to the feeling of pain as she fell to her knees, gripping her stomach.

But striking her had been a mistake. Smolder roared - exhaling fire - and shot to her feet, bringing her fist up as she did. The magenta flames blinded and distracted Nonchalant, and Smolder's blow landed squarely on Nonchalant's jaw. Before she could get away, Smolder spun and whipped her with wing and tail, sending her spinning, then brought both fists clenched together onto the back of Nonchalant's head. She let out a weak hiss, before pink fire consumed her and she fell to the ground.

Ocellus sucked in a breath - dragons didn't need to breathe but she was just reflexively used to it - and assumed her own true form, clutching at her stomach. Smolder was already beside her, hands on her withers, posiviely reeking of panic and concern. ”Are you okay?” She asked.

Ocellus nodded, hugging herself as she turned a little to put Nonchalant in her field of vision...and froze as she did. Smolder looked at the felled creature, and sucked in a breath of her own.

It had carapace, covered in dark blue fuzz...but its legs had holes throughout them. Its back had elytra, but the wings beneath were similarly holed. Rather than a spine or frills, a mane of dark purple hair covered its head and ran down the back of its neck, as well as sprouted from the small tail at its dock. Its mouth, hanging open, had fangs, but they were relatively small, and most of its teeth were flat. Atop its head was a horn, short and slightly curved like a changeling's but also spiraled like a unicorn's. The thing was smaller than a typical pony but bigger than a changeling drone. Its eyes fluttered a few times before it slipped fully into unconsciousness, but they were open just long enough for the teenagers to see that while the eyes shined like a changelings, they also had distinct pupils and irises and scelera like a pony or dragon.

The holes in its legs and wings meant it wasn't a Reformed changeling. But the elytra, fuzz, and color meant that it wasn't an unreformed one, either. And the mane and tail and spiral in its horn meant that it couldn't possibly be a changeling at all - no changeling had hair except Queen Chrysalis, but this was definitely not her.

”What...” Smolder tried. ”What...is that?”

Author's Notes:

How the Hell did this chapter get to be over 8,000 words?

11. I Should've Run

Smolder's eyes fluttered. “That's not a changeling,” she said, “or...is it? Is it...like, stuck halfway?”

Ocellus shook her head slowly. “Wh-when a changeling is unconscious, we revert to our true forms. Veteran infiltrators were taught a spell to lock their form to get around that, but...but I don't think that happened here. This is its true form.”

Smolder inched forward, poking the...thing...in the frog of one hoof. Its leg twitched, but it otherwise remained knocked out. Smolder got a little closer and lay a hand down upon the creature's barrel, and pressed slightly. The carapace gave, not quite like flesh and muscle would but also with a lot less resistance than a true carapace would - than Ocellus' own did. “Carapace feels thinner and softer than yours,” she told Ocellus, then lifted one of the creature's legs, looking at the elbow joint. On Ocellus, the two sections of carapace fit closely together, with mottled, accordion-like sections that gave her limbs the ability to rotate and bend. On this creature, instead, the carapace simply didn't cover the joint, exposing the skin underneath. “And it covers less. More gaps.”

“I noticed,” Ocellus said, and despite the nature of her eyes it was clear to Smolder that every single one of Ocellus' eye segments were locked onto the holes. Ocellus swallowed. “I think...I think it's some kind of hybrid. Half-changeling, half-pony.”

“Is that even...” Smolder began, but then remembered Nonchalant yesterday. “Nevermind. Nonchalant seemed really sure that with the right magic we could breed, so I guess a pony and changeling could.”

Ocellus sputtered even as she began blushing, turning to look directly at Smolder with her elytra and wings spread wide in shock. “Wh-why were you asking Nonchalant about...?!”

Smolder felt heat going through her face an her own wings flaring at that herself, as she realized what she'd accidentally implied. “No no no! Not like that! She was love poisoned and treating me like I was her daughter, she kept talking about wanting grandkids! I didn't ask her!”

“Oh! Oh...”

“Right!”

“R-right.”

Ocellus and Smolder stared at each other a moment more, before Ocellus broke eye contact first, rubbing one leg with the other again as she turned her face completely away. That cute thing she did when nervous, only this time Smolder was pretty sure it wasn't her trying to get under her scales intentionally. Didn't stop it from being cute. “U-um...” Ocellus murmured, “F...for the record...there's been new changeling grubs since the Reformation and they're already Reformed from hatching. S...so if we did, um...use magic...the, um, result, wouldn't have holes in its legs. Probably.”

Smolder was nearly certain an egg could have been fried on her cheek from the blushing she was doing. Her tail slapped the ground a few times in an effort to distract her from the subject. It failed. “Good to know.” She decided.

There was another bout of protracted silence between the two teenagers, before they heard a sound coming from the store - whimpering and muffled crying. Smolder's eyes widened when she realized what it was. “The clerk!” she and Ocellus exclaimed at the same time, then got up and ran back into the store proper. The clerk was right where he had been left, struggling to try and get up, but the creature had used ooze to pin two of his hooves to the floor, while the ooze around his head had stuck to the floor as well and solidified, creating an irregularly-shaped bubble that was semi-transparent, allowing the two to see wide, tear-filled eyes.

“It's full of tiny pores, he can breathe, but it's difficult,” Ocellus explained quickly as she and Smolder ran up to the clerk's side. He panicked and flailed at first until he saw that neither of them was Nonchalant.

Smolder placed a hand on the clerk's withers to try and hold him still, though she imagined the touch probably felt comforting as well. Something-something Professor Fluttershy's kindness classes, Smolder remembered something about that. “Okay, uh...” she said, looking him over. “I can probably melt the ooze on his legs without hurting him too much, but his head...”

“I can vomit out a fluid that will dissolve it,” Ocellus said. Smolder tried not to wince at the thought of Ocellus standing over the pony and puking her guts out. The clerk himself also looked less than enthused, whimpering more. Ocellus didn't pay him any attention, however, as she looked to Smolder. “B-but...but there's backup on the way, remember? C-could be here any minute, and dissolving it will take a few minutes, plus as it turns to sludge I'll have to make sure to keep it clear of his airways. A-and we can't just call for help, not when Catrina is controlling the police somehow...”

Smolder's tail slapped the floor again, this time in annoyance and more than a little panic. She looked down at the clerk, weighed just grabbing Ocellus and leaving. But if she did that, Ocellus would never forgive her - would probably fight back against her - and plus it was just wrong. Or at least that's what every single one of her professors would have said, and the fact that the primitive, selfish wyrm within her didn't agree was a pretty good sign that they were right. But what would her professors do...darn it, why didn't she pay more attention in classes besides Professor Dash's...

“Oh, come on,” Smolder groaned when a particular obsession of the rainbow-haired pegasus’ came to mind, a book series of all things following a character named Daring Do. It was full of inane plot contrivances that nevertheless seemed to always work out and which gave Smolder an idea. She ran a hand across her face, but couldn't come up with anything else. “Okay, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna melt the ooze on the back door and then hide that creature...I dunno where. Ocellus, get to work on freeing the clerk...and also, earlier, you made your magic look green. Could you make it look pink, like the creature's?”

Ocellus' face screwed up in confusion for a few seconds, then her eyes grew wide. “Oh no,” she objected, “No, no, no, I'm not - j-just because I was being trained to be an infiltrator doesn't mean...don't know enough about the creature...I know I impersonated Professor Rarity once but that was just for a few seconds and I was caught up in having made new friends and - ”

Smolder put her hands on Ocellus' withers, staring into her eyes. “You have any better ideas?” She asked, getting straight to the point. Ocellus shook her head, though she'd bunched up on herself, and was actually shivering. Smolder nodded. “You'll do fine,” Smolder assured her.

Ocellus stared back at the dragon for a few seconds, then threw herself forward, wrapping Smolder in a hug. Smolder returned it, squeezing Ocellus tightly. She felt a very tiny pull across her body, beneath her scales and reaching into her heart, and guessed that Ocellus was going for a quick pick-me-up of positive emotions. She needed it. Smolder glanced down at the clerk, who was looking at the two with terror and fear and a complete lack of understanding. As Ocellus released her, Smolder patted the clerk on the withers. “Just play along and we'll all get out of this,” Smolder assured him.

Smolder was “unconscious” on the floor of the store, hands and feet bound together by...well, frankly, she'd rather not think about how the ooze had gotten there. Ocellus had made the ooze weak, though, such that she would be able to easily free herself if she wanted. Ocellus herself was in the guise of Nonchalant, one hoof occasionally scooping away sludge from the store clerk's muzzle so he could keep breathing - her standing over him and vomiting up a slick, oily, slightly pink-tinged fluid had been one of the less pleasant things that Smolder had ever seen in her life. The ooze on the back door had been melted, and the creature had been thrown into a dumpster out back.

Smolder had to keep her eyes closed, of course, so she only knew that something was up when she heard Ocellus' hooves on the tiled floor of the convenience store, and the opening of the door. “Hurry up!” Ocellus-as-Nonchalant's voice demanded as hooves piled into the store; Smolder guessed three or four sets - not good odds. “Don't need a pedestrian seeing this, I only just managed to block the windows...”

“Why are they even here?” A new voice demanded. It was masculine. “You stuck the clerk to the floor in front of the door?”

“I didn't have a choice,” Ocellus objected. “The teenagers saw through my disguise, they were going to run, I had to act. I got the dragon, didn't I?”

“What about the changeling?”

“Got away, out the back door - spat dissolving fluid on the clerk first, though. The dragon covered her escape.”

There was a hiss from the masculine voice. “Fine. Gitta's gang is watching the Nook so they'll get her. The clerk...”

“N-no sense in wasting food, right?” Ocellus asked - with perhaps a little too much concern in her voice that Smolder hoped the...whatever they were...didn't pick up on. Smolder did her best not to tense. If the creatures here threatened the clerk's life then the two had to act, no matter the odds. They'd agreed on that.

But thankfully, she heard a groan of frustration instead. “Think with something other than your stomach for once, Bubblegum - ” The creature's name was Bubblegum? Smolder tried not to snigger, “ - we can't have missing creatures, this whole thing doesn't work if the ponies get too hostile. Catrina should be able to whip up a memory potion for the past few hours. Put the clerk back in here with an open bottle of whatever, let him lose his job.”

The clerk whimpered more. A new, feminine voice spoke up. “Don't know what you're crying about, kid, we basically just said you get to live. Speaking of, breathe in this...c'mon, you can't hold your breath forever...there. Out like a light.”

“There is good news,” the masculine voice said. “We just heard from the Chill Spot. We got her.”

“Well, there's that,” Ocellus said, keeping concern from her voice. Her could only refer to the real Nonchalant, Smolder figured...whatever these creatures were, they'd abducted the older changeling already. Ocellus was doing a good job acting the part as far as Smolder could tell, though she was more worried about these creatures' ability to sense emotions. Ocellus had said they had the ability to just project a single emotion, ironclad and unchanging, like a wall so that nothing else could be detected. The two could only hope that they didn't do that when around each other.

Smolder herself was struggling to keep her emotions in check. Ocellus had told her to just think greedy thoughts, that's what a dragon at rest tended to do. Smolder focused on that, imagined herself back at the school, counting her coins and, running her hands across her dresses, licking and tasting her gemstones...and because it would help she imagined Ocellus with her, helping her get into a dress or counting her coins with her, snuggled up with Smolder's arms wrapped around her most prized possession and she wouldn't let any shame through right now, because if she did then it would put Ocellus at risk...

“Alright,” the feminine voice spoke up, and Smolder heard a slight sucking and popping sound as the clerk was pulled from the floor, the ooze around him apparently finally loose enough. “I got him, Bubblegum, you grab the dragon.”

“Grow some wings, go out the back, then head straight to the Chill Spot. Got it?” A moment of silence, then Smolder felt herself being lifted and set across a pony's back - though the hoof that grabbed her squeezed her for just a moment. It was Ocellus. She heard the sparkle of changeling magic and felt a pair of feathery wings come up from underneath her. “Comet Shine, you stay here and cover for the clerk for now. We'll be back in an hour.”

With that, Ocellus and, presumably, the other creatures were off. Smolder chanced to open her eyes just a bit, and saw Ocellus-as-Nonchalant, now with wings and lacking a horn, beneath her; a beige pegasus mare carrying the now-unconscious but also now-free-of-ooze store clerk; and two more pegasi, these one stallions. Of course, probably none of them were actually pegasi, but instead more of those strange creatures...Smolder shut her eyes and thought greedy thoughts as they all headed outside, then took to the air.

Smolder risked another glance and saw that they weren't flying particularly close together, and her own head was relatively near to Ocellus'. With distance and the sound of wind and beating wings, Smolder decided to risk some noise. “Clerk's gonna be fine, we should run,” she murmured, hoping it was loud enough.

Ocellus shifted Smolder on her back. “Nonchalant,” she said back. “We have to help her.”

Smolder disagreed, or at least disagreed with the timing - now they had a clear enemy who had actually attacked them, and knew where that enemy was based, and also knew that Catrina wasn't acting alone. Nonchalant's earlier plan of an army of changelings swarming the place was actually looking to be a pretty good one in hindsight, a fact that Smolder was sure she and Ocellus would be lectured about at great length by the older changeling. Nonchalant could be rescued as part of the swarming. But Ocellus wouldn't agree - and there was nothing Smolder could do to change her mind. She was certain of that, too.

They came in for a landing in an alley behind the Chill Spot, a building done up to look like a giant ice cream sundae - but entering through the back revealed a place that looked more like a day spa. A Sundae spa, Smolder supposed. Ponies were weird. Ocellus and her entourage encountered no actual customers as they quickly made their way through the halls, though, Smolder only briefly peeking through heavily lidded eyes. It wasn't long before they'd entered a sauna, though the steam that would normally occupy it was absent and the heat had faded. The quartet and their prisoners made their way over to a stone bench, with two of the creatures that looked like ponies being enveloped in pink fire for a moment and transforming into earth ponies. They then pushed the bench aside, revealing a steep set of stairs going down.

Oh, I don't like this...Smolder thought alongside her greedy thoughts of her hoard and her Ocellus. “Bubblegum” had no choice but to descend down the steps, though there was good news in that one of the creatures had to stay behind to close the door over again.

There was the sound of more changeling magic, including from beneath Smolder, and she found herself lain on the back of something with short fuzz and a soft carapace - Ocellus had taken on Bubblegum's true form. She suddenly stopped in her trot, however, freezing in place.

“What?” Some new male voice demanded.

“N-nothing,” Bubblegum's voice said. She felt Ocellus tense beneath her. “Just wasn't expecting to see your ugly mug.”

There was a hiss...but not really a changeling one. It was more sibilant and deeper and...draconic? Smolder wanted to chance a look, but if whatever Ocellus had seen had made her stop cold and then need to cover for herself, Smolder guessed she'd find it surprising too - and then she'd be exposed, and expose Ocellus too, probably.

There was a presence in front of Smolder and Ocellus, claws scraping at the floor. “I wouldn't be saying that when you failed at the task I gave you.”

Uh-oh. Whoever Ocellus was talking to was apparently in charge. Smolder thought even greedier thoughts, trying to keep her worry down.

“It's not my fault,” Ocellus said in her defense, now affecting a meek tone. “They saw through me somehow! Must have known Nonchalant better than we thought. But the changeling doesn't know anything, I didn't drop my disguise, so she'll just think that some other changeling attacked her and Smolder - we're not exposed. Maybe if I had more backup, though - ”

“There aren't enough of us, and they're a couple of teenagers.” Smolder felt a hand - a hand, not a hoof - close around one of her horns and lift her head, presumably so the hand's owner could look at her. A thick, heavy tail hit the ground in annoyance. What was this creature? “You got one of them. As long as Gitta gets the changeling, fine, it's enough - you can just go without your fix for the day. If Gitta comes back empty-clawed...three days.”

From beside Ocellus and Smolder, one of the other creatures let out a low hiss. “That's cold, Rep. Bubblegum did get one of them - ”

“It's a learning experience.” The male - apparently named Rep - thunked his tail against the ground again. “Who is this pony, why did you bring me a - no, you know what, doesn't matter. Take 'em both to the holding cells.”

“Is the other changeling there?” Ocellus asked first.

Rep snorted - again, a draconic sound, not a changeling one. Why was a dragon working with...? “'The other changeling'.” Rep said mockingly. “No, we cocooned her and Catrina brought her downstairs to the mirror. Once she wakes up, the Princess will make her offer. After that...it's up to the Princess.”

With that, the sound of Rep's footfalls indicated that he was walking off, and so Ocellus got moving herself. Smolder again tried to amp up her greedy feelings to shield her whirling mind. Okay, so these creatures, whatever they were, definitely had Nonchalant. But what was that about a mirror? What kind of mirror? Like, some kind of magical mirror that let you talk to creatures? That's definitely what it sounded like. They'd also learned that there apparently weren't a whole lot of these creatures, whatever they were, which was good news...Smolder risked opening her eyes again. She'd expected to see some kind of dark and dank cave, an underground lair, but instead this just looked like what the basement to the Chill Spot should probably look like: doors marked as containing various supplies or machinery, tubes in the ceiling that looked well-maintained for carrying water. It was even fairly well-lit. The creatures had only repurposed the place, it seemed, not created a whole new lair. That was good.

Also apparently Catrina was styling herself as a princess? That was a level of arrogance Smolder's inner wyrm could almost appreciate.

The 'holding cells' were actually cages in a large side-room that looked like it might have once been a massage parlor. Smolder was placed in one, and the genuinely unconscious clerk in another. Once they were locked, one of creatures that had accompanied them spoke up. “ You can stay and guard them.”

“Wh...but...oh, come on!” Ocellus-as-Bubblegum objected. “I make one mistake...”

“Pretty sure calling Rep ugly counts as another. If anything keeping you here might be doing you a favor.” With that, the other creatures left, closing the door to the room behind them.

Smolder opened her eyes and stood up in the cage once the door was closed. She began melting off the ooze covering her hands and feet with her fire immediately. Ocellus' own reaction was just as rapid, turning back to her true form and falling onto her haunches, both forehooves at her heart and breathing heavily. “I - can't - believe - you - talked - me - into - this!” she exclaimed, hooves going to her mouth now as she tried to stifle her own breathing.

“Hey, I wanted to fly away once we were sure he'd be fine!” Smolder objected from within her cage, pointing at the clerk now that she was free of ooze bindings. She then poked at the lock to her cage. “Uh, by the way...?”

Ocellus needed a few moments more of hyperventilation, which probably wasn't good, but there was little Smolder could do without breaking the lock. The key to it had been left behind, and eventually Ocellus had calmed down enough to seize it in blue, stuttering telekinesis. She missed the lock a few times, and Smolder finally grabbed the key from the air and did it herself. She immediately came over to Ocellus, wrapping her in as tight a hug as she'd ever given her, rubbing the carapace along the base of her gossamer frill where it was thinnest. Ocellus returned the hug with surprising strength of her own for her natural form.

“B-b-by the way...” Ocellus finally stuttered out, “The...the c-creature in charge, Rep...he's l-l-like a dragon version of these creatures. A dragon-changeling. Holes in his arms and legs and tail and wings. And...and I saw a griffon-changeling too, instead of feathers it had all these little tiny gossamer scales, plus I think Gitta is a griffon name...”

Smolder pulled away from Ocellus, looking at her. “You, uh...wanna tell me anything about what changelings get up to on their off-time? Why are there so many hybrids running around? Together?”

Ocellus shook her head, apparently still too frightened to be embarassed. “I d-don't know! I didn't even know hybrids were possible - you knew more about hybrids than me!”

“Only because of Nonchalant!” Smolder countered. She growled. “Speaking of, what's this about “Princess” Catrina making her an offer, you think? And a mirror?”

“I h-have no idea. Wh-what are we gonna do? I...we need to help Nonchalant, I'm sorry, Smolder, I didn't give you a choice but we can't just let these hybrids do...whatever they're gonna do to Nonchalant! Rep talked about a fix, what if...what if they want to get her addicted to something, control her? What if that's how Catrina's controlling all these hybrids? They still need love, they're not Reformed, but we know Catrina can make false love and...and...”

“It's okay,” Smolder said, “it's okay, we'll...think of something.” She glanced over at the store clerk. “Whatever we do, we'll have to leave him here. They're not going to hurt him, we know that, so he should be fine.”

Ocellus shivered in Smolder's grasp. “Y...you'll have to stay behind too,” she said. “I can shapeshift...I can sneak around easily, turn into a r-rat or something. But you...you can't.”

Smolder's grip on Ocellus tightened. A million objections came to mind, each harsher than the last. “What am I supposed to do, just sit here?” She growled. “And I promised I'd stay beside you the entire time we were in Tiatarta - ”

Ocellus shook her head. “We're going to be breaking our curfew anyway, there's no way we'll make it back to the Nook in time at this rate. And...” Ocellus shifted. “We'll be safest...safest if I'm on my own. I'll be safer on my own, at least right now. I know you want to protect me, but that's how you can do it.”

“Or we can just try and escape. Leave Nonchalant for now, go back to the Nook, get the changelings there, swarm this place. Nopony will blame us, nopony will blame the Nook when there's all this working against it. It won't put anything that the Nook is trying to do at risk - ”

“There isn't time!” Ocellus insisted. She hugged Smolder tightly. “Please, Smolder, please, Nonchalant is in danger. And I know, I sound just like I did on the beach, but please...”

Smolder felt the changeling's fuzz acutely, felt the surprising warmth beneath her carapace...and also wetness on her chest. Ocellus had tears in her eyes. Ocellus wasn't intentionally trying to emotionally manipulate her this time, though - use her for her own ends. Saving Nonchalant really was this important to her...and she was right, Ocellus had all the skills and abilities needed to help right now, to go out into the Chill Spot's basement and find Nonchalant without any creature knowing what was going on. Smolder...she was a dragon. She could bite and rip and tear and burn if need be, but that was it. She wasn't sneaky under the best of circumstances.

Smolder pulled away from Ocellus slightly, looking down into her gem-like, multifaceted eyes. “You're more important than Nonchalant, okay?” Smolder said. “If you find her, great. If you can help her without risking yourself, okay. But don't put yourself in danger. Run straight back here if you're spotted or found out or whatever. Please.”

It may have been the first time in her life that she'd ever actually said that word. Ocellus nodded, licking her lips - Smolder could only imagine the cacophony of emotions coming off of her that Ocellus was smelling and tasting. “I will, I promise,” the changeling swore. Smolder let her go, and suddenly felt incredibly empty as she did. But she backed away and got back into the cage, Ocellus closing the door over and maneuvering the lock on it so it looked like it was closed, without actually locking it.

The two teenagers stared at each other a moment. “Good luck,” Smolder wished at length.

Ocellus smiled weakly, then went over to the door to the room. She spared a final glance at Smolder, then ducked out. And Smolder was alone.

The average dragon lifespan, barring injury or illness (though dragons almost never got sick), was measured in centuries, and even living a couple millennium wasn’t unheard of. They also were solitary creatures by nature, at least once they reached their wyrm stage of growth, preferring to keep their own company more often than not. The mind and psyche of a dragon was naturally adapted to this. For all the fire that blazed within them, dragons were by nature patient. They didn't grow bored easily and were normally adept at sitting still and doing and even thinking nothing, a sort of inner peace and quiet normally attainable by other creatures only after years of ascetic living.

And yet Smolder was finding it impossible to enter such a state right now. Physically, she was lying on her side, apparently unconscious to any outside observer. She had her eyes open but could close them quickly enough if anyone entered the room. Mentally, however, her mind was roiling with emotion an thoughts.

The wyrm within Smolder, the titanic orange dragon that she would one day grow into, was demanding to know what she was doing, how she wasn't tearing through this place with tooth and claw and flame to find her Ocellus, place her at the center of her hoard like she was supposed to be doing with anything she truly valued.

And the tiny teenaged Smolder was glaring up at the wyrm and trying to explain why. How Ocellus wasn't a thing, she was a person with her own desires, how saving Nonchalant was so important to Ocellus. How she was outnumbered and Ocellus was genuinely right now safer on her own, without Smolder. And how if Ocellus really was her greatest treasure, her best and closest friend, then Smolder wouldn't put that at risk by denying Ocellus what she wanted, needed, to do.

None of that was literal, of course. There wasn't really some ancient dragon lurking inside Smolder trying to tell her what to do; that would be ridiculous. She wasn't crazy. But between the ebbs and flows of Smolder's desire to go out and seize Ocellus verses the knowledge that doing so would be a bad idea, it sure felt that way.

She tried to distract herself by remembering the day she’d had with Ocellus, the hours they’d spent in the Luna Bay, chasing each other, wrestling, floating, exploring. Smolder hadn’t really gained anything from it other than memories...but memories were like the best kind of hoard. They could be held on to forever, were completely unique, and were never at any risk of being lost. And every one of those memories was of Ocellus...

She’d almost managed to sink into something like draconic absence of thought when there was a noise at the door. Smolder closed her eyes just as it opened, though she risked waiting long enough to see what entered. It was one of those hybrids, a pony-changeling one with deep red fur and chitin and a dark golden mane.

Smolder heard nothing for a few moments as she focused on her greed, her want. “Bubblegum?” The hybrid finally asked. “For the Princess’ sake...” The door closed, but Smolder heard shuffling - the hybrid was still in the room, moving up to the cage. Smolder heard a sharp intake of breath, then heard changeling magic. After several more seconds, a hoof prodded Smolder’s tail, the part of her that was closest to the cage. Smolder tried not to react, but after a few moments the hybrid placed Smolder’s tail under his hoof and pressed down, hard.

“Ow!” Smolder exclaimed, reacting quite naturally as she flailed her tail, getting it out from under the hoof, then spun around on all fours, wings flared wide and glaring at what looked like a regular, unreformed changeling drone. Smolder did her best to look confused. “What’s going on? Who are you?” She demanded.

“Where’s Bubblegum?” The hybrid asked instead of answering. “The one that brought you here?”

Smolder snorted fire, and the hybrid backed away from the cage. “How should I know?” She demanded, shaking her head as though she was clearing it. She glared at the hybrid. “Why aren’t you Reformed?” She’d probably ask that question if she thought she was looking at a real changeling. Smolder focused on her very real anger.

The hybrid’s eyes narrowed. “Not every bug abandoned Chrysalis.”

Smolder wondered if that was true in general, even if she knew it was a lie in this case. “What kind of a changeling name is Bubblegum?” She asked.

“It isn’t.” The hybrid looked around the room - looking for signs of a struggle, maybe - but of course found none. He looked back to Smolder, then stepped back away from the cage, over to the door. “Well, I guess I’ll be keeping you company then, dragon, at least until Bubblegum gets back.”

Smolder shifted. “What are you doing?” She asked. “What are changelings doing in Tiatarta? Is Chrysalis here, is she starting some kind of new Hive? What’s it got to do with Catrina and love-poisoning the Nook’s changelings?” Smolder knew the Chrysalis part wasn’t true, but the hybrid didn’t know she knew.

The hybrid smiled maliciously. “Well, since you’re going to be silenced anyway, I might as well tell you.”

Smolder didn’t need to be a changeling to smell the sarcasm coming off of the hybrid. She snorted, crossing her arms and falling back into a sitting position. “If you were gonna kill me you’d have done it already. And I go to Twilight Sparkle’s School of Friendship. I saved the world a few months ago. You think you can just make me disappear, or replace me with a changeling? You think my friends won’t notice?”

The hybrid didn’t falter in the slightest, which worried Smolder. In truth, she was pretty sure about what was going to happen: Catrina was going to brew up some kind of mind-control potion or memory-wiping one. That Rep hybrid had said that there weren’t many of them, but the real Bubblegum had said that there didn’t need to be. If Catrina could really just brew up anything she wanted with the right ingredients in the proper proportions...

Of course, Smolder could flash-boil any liquid that got near her, and didn’t need to breathe and so couldn’t be forced to swallow if she didn’t want to. She’d honestly love to see Catrina try to drug her. It would not end well for the Abyssinian, nor any of the hybrids.

“You know this isn’t going to end well for you,” Smolder said. “You didn’t get Ocellus. She’s probably back at the Nook, rallying the bugs there. They’ll come to Tiatarta and find me, and find you. I’ll bet she watched you bring me to...wherever this is. She was training to be an infiltrator, you know.”

The hybrid scoffed. “The Nook isn’t going to be a problem for much longer, not now that we have...” he trailed off, and grinned wider, “...no, I’ll keep that as a surprise. Let’s just say that soon the Nook will have a new leader.”

“Chrysalis?” Smolder made a show of guessing, as long as the hybrid wanted to keep looking like an unreformed changeling.

“Huh, got it in one. Chrysalis is downstairs with the Princess. She’ll probably agree to help us.”

Smolder had started to laugh, but froze. “Wait, what?!” She demanded before she could think better of it. “Chrysalis is really here?”

The hybrid’s eyes narrowed, tongue flicking out. After a moment, he flashed pink, returning to his true form. “That shouldn’t surprise you...and this form should! I knew it. What did you do with Bubblegum - ”

Smolder acted quickly, diving forward and shoving the cage door open, throwing the not-really-locked door wide as she exhaled fire at the room’s door before the hybrid could go for it. He hissed as he stumbled away from the fire, but unfortunately for him that only brought him closer to Smolder. She was on him in a moment, throwing herself across his back and wrapping her arms around his neck, squeezing. Just like Bubblegum had, he tried to give himself strong pegasus wings to get Smolder off of him, but she was ready this time and just adjusted herself so that her knees pinned those wings to his barrel.

Gradually, his flailing became weaker as his brain was denied oxygen. He soon collapsed to the ground, and after a few more seconds his eyes fluttered closed. Smolder released him immediately, checked to make sure he was still breathing, and then got off of him. She stared at the hybrid in confusion. “Why didn’t you turn into something else?” She asked. “A snake or something...or a dragon...that’s what Ocellus would have done...”

Smolder shook her head, getting up and lugging the hybrid into her former cage, closing the door and actually locking it. “You guys are only half-changelings. Maybe you’re bad at it? Whatever.”

Smolder turned around, looking at the room’s door, flexing and unflexing her claws and beating her wings. Okay, she was pretty sure that the hybrid hadn’t been lying about Chrysilis being here, and that was officially a Bad Thing. It sounded like Chrysalis wasn’t directly involved with the hybrids, not if she was downstairs and would “probably agree to help” them...

...wait. The hybrid had said Chrysalis was downstairs with “the Princess.” With Catrina, as Smolder understood it. And Rep had mentioned that Nonchalant was going to get an offer from Catrina. She was probably “downstairs” too. But Nonchalant was just some changeling, maybe a skilled infiltrator, but why would Catrina care to reach out to her? Why would Catrina even bother to try? Especially if she could cut a deal with Chrysalis instead?

Unless...Nonchalant was defensive of Chrysalis, her rule, how she’d acted. She seemed to pine for the old days of the Hive. Knew things about changelings that no other changeling seemed to know. Knew things that only the Queen of the Changelings could really know.

Because she was the Queen of the Changelings. Nonchalant wasn’t real. It was Chrysalis, had been Chrysalis the entire time...and Ocellus was looking for her. She was out there right now, looking for Nonchalant, not understanding that there was no Nonchalant, that there never had been. She was running towards Chrysalis.

Smolder roared - or she started to. But even as she opened her mouth and felt the greatest conflagration and the loudest roar she’d ever exhaled ready itself in her belly, there was an explosion from somewhere else in the Chill Spot.

12. Now That I’m Away

Ocellus the rat scurried away from the room, keeping close to the walls and the shadows. She tried to bury her emotions as deep and as far down as she could, put her fear - no, scratch that, abject terror in a little box in her mind and close it up, leaving it there. The rat form at least let her scurry along unnoticed once she’d climbed a wall and made her way up to the pipes along the ceiling, crawling along the tops of them. A crack near where the pipes met a wall - chewed by real rats, probably - let her slip into the space between the walls, then navigate down, looking for another exit. Rep had mentioned that Nonchalant was “downstairs”, there must have been a sub-basement somewhere...

At length, she managed to find her way out from between the walls and into a new chamber. This one wasn’t sectioned off, but instead was one large room, sixty feet on a side but only about ten feet tall. One wall, the one Ocellus emerged from, was obscured behind water tanks and heaters and filters, no doubt for the various pools up above in the Chill Spot, but most of the room itself was dominated by long tables, atop which rested various beakers, burners, vials, mortars and pestles, and other alchemical supplies. The opposite wall had cabinets and shelves with clearly labeled ingredients, including witchweed, small boxes of the stuff taking up an entire case larger than one of the bookcases in the library at the School of Friendship.

Three other things drew Ocellus’ attention. The first was Catrina and a pair of hybrids: Rep, the green-scaled dragon-changeling who seemed to be the boss of the bunch, and a pony-changeling, both of whom were helping Catrina in her alchemy as she brewed up a trio of potions: one clear, one green, and one blue-and-pink. All three liquids glowed with inner lights.

Second was some kind of large object, five feet tall and four feet wide, resting off to one side and covered with a cloth. Ocellus wouldn’t have paid it any mind if not for the fact that the two hybrids and Catrina kept looking over to it. Part of her wondered what it was, but she decided she could find out later.

Third was a changeling cocoon. It had been suspended from the ceiling and anchored to the floor, almost looking like a support column for the room. Ocellus figured that Nonchalant must have been in there, and so scurried along the side of the room. There were other rats in the room as well, and it didn’t escape Ocellus’ notice that Catrina occasionally eyed them - and thus also her - hungrily. Some of the crumbs that the rats found on the ground looked scattered too evenly to have been an accident...

But concern about being eaten by Catrina soon gave way to a far more primal, visceral, real terror when she saw who was in the cocoon. At first she thought it was Nonchalant in her true changeling form with a magic-suppressing ring over her horn - the carapace color was the same. But the head, hanging limply in unconsciousness, was shaped wrong. The aquamarine hair was a dead giveaway as well; true changelings didn’t have hair. Ocellus briefly wondered if she was looking at another hybrid, but then she realized she recognized the face’s contours and proportions. And size - the being in the cocoon was far too tall to be a normal changeling...

...but just the right size to be Queen Chrysalis.

Queen Chrysalis. But - but at the same time, not the Queen. The color was wrong, white instead of black, and Ocellus could see within the cocoon that the Queen - stop it, stop thinking of her like that, she's not the queen anymore - had no holes in her legs, had elytra on her back, and her horn was still sharp but now straight instead of gnarled. She looked Reformed...but how could that be? How could Chrysalis have Reformed? Yet there was no mistaking Chrysalis herself, no confusing her for any other creature no matter how she looked now...

But Chrysalis wasn't supposed to be here! It was supposed to be Nonchalant! Unless...unless Chrysalis was Nonchalant? But that would mean that the entire time...and yet Chrysalis was Reformed, and trapped...but it was Chrysalis...

Ocellus scurried into the darkest corner she could of the room, one where she could look at Chrysalis and Catrina and the two hybrids, as she tried to figure out what to do, whether she could help Chrysalis, whether she should. She'd only just pressed herself into the corner when Catrina stepped away from her alchemy table, reaching into her robes and producing a small packet that she shook, tore open, an then blew the dusty contents of into Chrysalis' face. Her reaction was immediate, an animalistic hiss that Ocellus knew down to her bones, no matter what shape they were in - a snarl that completely banished any lingering doubts of who this was.

What do I do? Ocellus wondered, feeling a shiver go from her snout to the tip of her tail. She almost decided to scurry off, but she remembered all her interactions with Nonchalant - no, with Chrysalis. The lengths that Chrysalis had been going to to find out what was happening to the changelings in Tiatarta. Her pushing Ocellus and Smolder together, helping them get over the walls they had built between each other. And the emotions that Ocellus had been barely able to scent behind her emotional barriers...anger and pride galore, but also confusion and a deep, abiding loneliness...

Chrysalis had spent her first few moments of consciousness straining against her cocoon, but it had been well-made, holding her tight, while any attempt at using magic failed due to the ring around her horn. She tried to spit ooze at Catrina, but all that occurred was a thin greenish-black liquid spilling forth, dribbling down her chin and into a puddle on the floor.

“I dosed you with something to render all that inert, your majesty,” Catrina said in response to the attempt. She produced a cloth from her robes and came forward, wiping Chrysalis' mouth with short, deft actions. Chrysalis tried to bite Catrina continuously, but her limited mobility coupled with Catrina's reflexes meant that nothing landed. Once the Abyssinian was done, she held out the napkin...and a dragon-changeling hybrid came forward and took it, then carried it over to a wastebasket and threw it away.

Chrysalis' felt her jaw dropping dropping at the sight of the dragon-changeling, moreso when she looked noticed a pony-changeling as well. “Hybrids...?” she asked before she could think better of it. “But...who? They're too old to be from after Thorax's treachery, but I would have known if one of my changelings was out creating them...and why? All you get is a worse version of both races' magics!”

“Hmph,” Catrina responded as the hybrids scowled. She stepped over to the dragon hybrid and lay a hand on his shoulder before looking to Chrysalis. “Now that's quite rude, your majesty, and just not true at all. Perhaps Rep can only take on draconic forms, but while in those forms he has all the benefits of a dragon. And Zephyrwing over here can take on any pony form and gain their magics. What does it matter if they have to shapeshift to do so?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Because any changeling could become a dragon and a pony and anything else!” She glared at this 'Rep' creature. “Becoming a dragon takes the same amount of magic for him that it does for a changeling. And in this form? Resistance to fire instead of immunity, you need to breathe, you're not as strong as a dragon, and your breath is more smoke than flames.” Her glare turned to Catrina. “I bred hybrids with a dozen different races long ago and determined them to be wastes of time and magic to create. There is no point. If your plan involves creating hybrids, Catrina, then you might as well release me and let me go on my way. It will defeat itself without my needing to do anything.”

Catrina chuckled, patting Rep reassuringly as the dragon-changeling's wings - the skin between the wing's fingers was gossamer and full of holes - beat in annoyance and his long tail whipped the floor. “Well, we'll see if you still feel that way in just a bit, your majesty. But before we begin...” she made her way over to an alchemy table, tapping a finger on a vial full of clear liquid, peering into it, then lifting it and starting to shake it. “I've always wanted to know something. Once upon a time, far far away, there were two kingdoms who had been bitter rivals for generations. But one day the rulers of both decided to set aside their differences and live in peace. As a symbol of that peace, the princess of one kingdom would marry the prince of the other. But the princess was a snobby brat and the prince a boorish lout, and both hated each other. The two kingdoms wanted their peace to last, however...and so they created a love potion and gave it to the prince and the princess. The two fell madly in love with each other. But this love poison proved to be a disaster, for when the prince and princess became king and queen, they could do nothing but fawn over one another all day long, leaving their kingdoms effectively ungoverned. Both fell into chaos and disaster, and collapsed.”

Chrysalis bared her fangs, tiny though they had become in her Reformed state. The sound and the hiss was enough to send a number of the rats in the room scurrying back to their hidey-holes, and to bring her back into focus, allow her to ignore the hybrids. “It's been simplified,” she spat.

“Oh, I imagine,” Catrina agreed. She finished her swirling of the vial, then put it to her lips and drank down the contents, letting out a satisfied breath once done. She turned back to Chrysalis, licking her lips. “A useless king and queen wouldn't end two entire realms simply on its own. But it might prove to be a fatal distraction at the wrong moment, mightn'd it?” Catrina's perpetual smirk grew wicked, and coy smugness filled the air. “Was that you?”

“My subjects and I ate well,” Chrysalis intoned, “but it will be far more satisfying when I drain you of all your love, Catrina!”

Catrina shrugged, walking down the length of her alchemy table. A book lay open on the other end, and one of its pages had an illuminated drawing of a pony prince and princess staring lovingly into each other's eyes...as darkness closed all around them and two kingdoms burned beneath them. Catrina ran a hand over the drawing, then turned the page to a new one. “How about this one? Once there was a queen who fell madly in love with a simple peasant stallion, but he loved another. So the queen created a love poison and fed it to the stallion. Captured him. But the stallion's lover would not let his true love remain in the evil queen's grips, so he lead a revolt against the queen and cast her down.” Catrina looked to Chrysalis, grinning playfully. “So...were you the queen?”

Chrysalis shifted within the cocoon as best she could. “No.”

“The stallion's lover? Or is that simplified as well?” Catrina leaned back against the table, slit eyes staring into Chrysalis' own. She purred, tail flicking. “If I had to guess...the queen was real enough, and maybe her infatuation with the stallion too? What was he, some local hero, loved by all? And when he was taken, you and your changelings came, fed on the townsfolk's love for their lost hero, then disguised yourselves as a peasant mob and brought down the queen. But...where did the queen ever get the love poison to begin with?”

Chrysalis said nothing. Catrina's grin became one of supreme amusement. “Did you invent love poison?” She asked. The changeling queen remained silent, and Catrina's grin grew. She hopped away from the table with ease that belied her age, clapping her hands together, then began pacing back and forth. “One more story, one I wrote myself, but inspired by true events. Once upon a time there was an evil queen of monsters who could never feel love and yet who needed it to live, and so she and her monsters stole the love of others. But love in quantities great enough to satisfy the queen was hard to come by, so the queen invented love poisons. She could not consume the false love directly but she could dose her victims with it and feed off of it. And so the evil queen used the love poison to conquer and feed on kingdom after kingdom...

“...buuuut,” Catrina stopped her pacing, and looked to Chrysalis, “the false love of love poisons was insidious and addictive, but not nutritious. At first the evil queen - that would be you, your majesty - didn't realize it because it was consumed alongside true love and in small doses, a sort of icing-on-the-cake at the end of a conquest. But as time went on you would use more and more love poison in your conquests, which were now about seizing that wonderful euphoric high as much as they were filling your stomach. Yet your power waned and waned. So you tried to refine the love poison and in the process stumbled across a way to create and consume the false love directly. All it took was the right ingredients...one of which, was witchweed.”

Catrina chuckled, getting closer to Chrysalis, though still remaining outside of biting range. “So many centuries, so many enemies...but it was you who brought changelings closer to a well-deserved end than any other creature, wasn't it? And so you decided to make up for your mistake by wiping out witchweed. A terrible shame for the rest of us, do you have any idea how many uses that plant has - ”

She'd drawn close enough; Chrysalis spat. Catrina wasn't quite agile enough to avoid the projectile, and saliva and runny ooze landed on her dress. Maybe it wouldn't calcify into resin, but it would still stain. “If you're trying to make me feel guilty,” Chrysalis said, “you're wasting your breath. No, I did not create the original love poisons. I don't know who did. But yes, I used them as weapons against my prey. Yes, I grew addicted to them - got my entire Hive addicted to them. Yes, I created false love directly with witchweed and yes, it nearly doomed me and my subjects. We live only because we ran out and when I came down I realized what had nearly happened.” Chrysalis hissed again. “But no chemical is stronger than my will! I broke my addiction. I broke it in my changelings! Love poison had made changelings weak, made conquests too easy, and the false love offered false promises of another food source when the hunger of changelings could never be satisfied - but as Queen of the Changelings it was up to me to find food for my subjects, up to me to try.”

Catrina had produced another cloth from somewhere and was cleaning off her dress, her smile having finally, finally dropped and the odor of smug self-superiority having finally been broken - by annoyance, yes, but it was something. Chrysalis savored the small victory and drew her head up as much as possible. “I am the Queen of the Changelings, alchemist. No matter what indignities or abominations you try and inflict upon me I will never bow, never submit, never do what you want. And when I am free I will feed you piece by tiny piece to the rats infesting this place. A 'well-deserved' end for one who would attack the Queen of the Changelings and her subjects!”

Catrina's scowl deepened as her rubbing at the saliva-and-ooze had only left a green stain. But she took in a deep breath as she threw the cloth away, letting it out slowly, centering herself. Chrysalis' needling hadn't worked. She pressed her hands together, and looked at Chrysalis again. “My curiosity has been satisfied. Time for you to meet my employer.”

“...your what?” Chrysalis asked, her defiance cracking at the words. Catrina snapped her fingers a few times, pointing at something behind Chrysalis that she couldn't see in her position. The two hybrids moved to retrieve it, then dragged it into position. It was covered in a sheet and maybe five feet tall and four wide. They set it down on the ground and uncovered it, and revealed an ancient-looking wooden frame, in which was set a mirror - a broken one. Most of its upper and middle sections were intact, but the lower part was covered in spiderweb cracks and even missing large pieces, and a few other cracks marred the rest of its surface.

Catrina had busied herself near her alchemist's table, now picking up a beaker of a bluish-pink, glowing liquid. She held it out for Chrysalis to see. “Let's see, fastest way to explain this...broken magic mirror. Needs large infusions of magic to work, larger infusions still to be repaired. Now if we drained ponies or most other creatures we'd have victims to hide or bodies to dispose of, and in either case, missing creatures being looked for. Very messy...”

“...but in a changeling, love and magic are the same thing,” Chrysalis realized. “You can replace the stolen magic with false love. The changeling is starving but doesn't realize it...and other changelings will feed them love as a matter of course...and because they’re Reformed their love returns naturally...” Chrysalis blinked a few times. “We're...we're an accident? This isn't - you're not trying to attack changelings? It's a side-effect?!”

Catrina's smug grin returned with a vengeance as she sauntered over to the mirror and unstopped her beaker. “Yes, though one with potential long-term advantages. My employer has been very eager to meet you ever since I saw through your disguise yesterday and I told her who you were.” She poured the liquid, the stolen changeling magic-love, over the mirror, which immediately began to glow across its entire surface, the magic-love sinking into it. Catrina paid particular attention to its cracks, and Chrysalis noted that in some cases those cracks grew notably smaller. The missing pieces of the mirror, the gaps in its surface, also shrank just slightly. On either side of the mirror, the two hybrids bowed down.

Then it flashed, and it wasn't showing a reflection anymore. Instead, Chrysalis found herself looking at a throne room of some kind. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of bright pink crystal, with black banners lining the uneven crystaline columns along its side that were full of holes. A long red carpet ran up to a black stone throne that was also full of holes, and looked decidedly familiar to Chrysalis, if smaller than she remembered it: it was her throne, the one she'd had in the Badlands, the one that Starlight Glimmer and Thorax had destroyed when they'd led the Hive into betraying her.

And sitting on that throne...

She was tall, though shorter than Chrysalis herself. Her body was equine in shape, with a carapace covered in hot pink fuzz, though the carapace was thin and didn't cover much of her body, and the fuzz was black in those gaps. Her legs were full of holes. Her wings were almost feathered at a glance, but a close inspection instead revealed the “feathers” to be gossamer scales, like hundreds of tiny insect wings, pink close to her alulae but quickly fading to blue. She had actual hair for a mane and tail that was a familiar purple, pink, and cream. Her eyes had purple irises, but slit pupils. Atop her head was a black crown - Chrysalis' crown - and a horn that was spiraled like a unicorn's, but twisted in several places like Chrysalis' had once been.

”If I know Catrina, then she's told quite a few stories today,” the creature on the other side of the mirror said as she stood from her throne, walking slowly towards the mirror's edge, ”Let me tell one of my own. Once upon a time there was a scared, lost pegasus yearling, seemingly abandoned by her parents in the wild. The yearling was found by a changeling. The changeling supposed that a free meal was a free meal and so ate his fill of love from her...but the yearling was seemingly unharmed. So she was brought back to the Hive and the Queen there. The changelings all fed on her, and yet still she had more love to give. A bottomless, endless supply of love.

”The Queen, Chrysalis, named the pegasus Cacophony, due to her wailing and crying during those first, frightful days. Cacophony grew up in the Hive. Chrysalis stopped her conquests, for Cacophony would be able to feed the Hive for as long as she lived. But Cacophony knew she wasn't a changeling. She wanted to know more of ponies, but Chrysalis forbade it, forbade her from ever leaving the Hive for as long as she lived. However Cacophony fed the changelings now, not Chrysalis. She convinced some drones to let her leave the Hive. She went to Equestria, only intending to remain for a short while, not wanting to abandon forever the only home she'd known and the Queen whom she loved like a mother. But Equestria's ways were strange to her, so she got in trouble. This lead to her meeting a handsome stallion named Shining Armor.

“She fell in love instantly. She stole Shining Armor to bring him back to the Hive - 'if I could just have this one stallion, I could be happy there forever, and he will come to love me as I love him', she thought. But she was pursued by ponies - and intercepted by Chrysalis and her changelings, who had come to bring her back to the Hive. The changelings were exposed, secret no more. A fight broke out. And in the ensuing chaos...Chrysalis and Shining Armor both were struck mortal blows, Shining Armor by changelings, Chrysalis, by a pony named Twilight Sparkle. As her true love and her mother lay unmoving at her hooves, Cacophony's heart broke, and into that void spilled rage and hate...and Cacophony was a pegasus no more.”

The alicorn-changeling creature spread her wings wide, standing tall, proud, regal...and then she giggled, putting a hoof to her mouth. ”Wow. When I say it all out loud like that, it really does sound like I was just a spoiled brat back then.”

Chrysalis' mind was reeling. She looked to Catrina. “What is this?” she demanded of the Abyssinian. “Who is this? What kind of dross am I listening to - why does Cadance look like a hybrid?”

Catrina rolled her eyes, a motion that was copied in the mirror by this “Cacophony” creature. In the mirror, her horn glowed pink, and bubbles appeared all around her. ”There are worlds, shadow-of-my-mother. Worlds beyond your own.” She held forth one bubble, and Chrysalis saw a regal, noble-looking King Sombra defending ponies from feral, wicked versions of Celestia and Luna. Another bubble came forward and showed that show-mare Trixie Lulamoon and five other mares Chrysalis didn't recognize standing together as they battled a kirin in some arena. A third bubble, and Chrysalis saw an image of machines and primates with oddly familiar features wearing an odd amount of clothes. A fourth, and a gray unicorn pony Chrysalis didn’t recognize was picking her way through a barren wasteland of metal ruins. ”What I described didn't happen in your world. But it happened in mine, long ago - the timelines of worlds aren't always synced up.”

Chrysalis scoffed. “Ridiculous. I have no idea what you're trying to gain from this, Catrina, but any respect I had for your plan just went down the drain - ”

Cacophony scowled. Her horn glowed bright pink again, and the mirror was suffused with the same glow. Then the alicorn-changeling hybrid stepped up to and through the mirror, carefully stepping around cracks - which widened with the sound of breaking glass as the creature passed through - maneuvering herself deftly until she stood fully on the other side, in front of Chrysalis, wings spread wide once more.

“I am Cacophony,” the hybrid creature said. “I am Princess of Equestria, Queen of Changelings, Empress of All Creatures, the Alicorn of Love, and the ruler of my world.” She looked around the chamber they were in, and her snout wrinkled somewhat. “And this place is...unhygenic. You're letting rats run around, Catrina?”

“Alchemy shouldn't be performed on an empty stomach,” Catrina responded evenly, looking over the rats with interest. Her eyes actually flashed with some inner light as she did, and her smile grew wicked again.

Cacophony scoffed, turning her nose up at the room. Meanwhile, the pony-changeling in the room looked up from where she had been bowing. “Your majesty,” she said. Cacophony looked to her, and she flinched. “Forgive me, I only wish to say that there is no need for you to have risked coming to this world...”

Risk? Chrysalis wondered. She eyed the mirror again, the cracks, and suppressed a smile. Admittedly an easy task given that she had no way to act on her knowledge...

Cacophony, meanwhile, trotted over to her, running a hoof along the hybrid's cheek. “Oh, you're worried about me, Zephyrwing?” She asked softly. She flicked out her tongue, her rather changeling-looking tongue, and nodded. “That's sweet of you. You deserve a small reward.” She leaned down, touching her horn to the small one on the pony's head. A pinkish glow passed between the two of them, and the smaller hybrid shivered, eyes rolling up slightly and a smile spreading on her face. As Cacophony stepped back from her, the hybrid needed a few moments to steady herself. Cacophony looked to the dragon hybrid and repeated the action. “So you don't feel left out,” she said, voice full of cloying sweetness.

Chrysalis hissed. “Let’s say I believe you about this other worlds nonsense. What does this have to do with hybrids? With the love poison? With me?”

“Everything, shadow-of-my-mother,” Cacophony said with a giggle. “I was listening this whole time, you know. The mirror doesn't need much magic just for that. You forgot to mention something about hybrids, one immense benefit: they still have a changeling's ravenous hunger for love.”

“That's n - ” Chrysalis began to retort, but caught herself. Was she really about to claim that it wasn't a benefit? After all that the hunger, the drive, of the changelings had led Chrysalis and the swarm to over the centuries? She glared at Cacophony. “How does that benefit you?”

Cacophony giggled, looking to the dragon hybrid. “All you need is love. Isn’t that true, Rep?”

“Y-yes, your majesty,” the hybrid confirmed, still clearly basking in the feeling of false love that had been given him. Catrina had come over to him again, petting his scaled carapace lightly, an action he clearly enjoyed as he leaned into it while Catrina continued to eye the rats in the room. “We all need you.”

“All you need is me,” Cacophony confirmed, and giggled again, going over to the pony hybrid and stroking her cheek once more, looking into Zephyrwing's eyes as the hybrid looked back with desperate, undisguised awe and desire. “I am love, all love, even false love. And with that I have bridled my world. I have crossed the other races with changelings so that they all feed on love, can all be bound to the false love I offer them, all want me - all need me!”

No giggle this time - Cacophony laughed instead, spinning on Chrysalis, advancing quickly on her cocoon. “Need, you understand? The changelings never needed you, shadow-of-my-mother, and they never needed my true mother either. You lead them, guided them, molded them, yes, but another could have. You have been replaced here and in my world. But here the changelings do not need Thorax, while my subjects need me and the false love that only I can provide! And in this way, I now rule everything!”

She laughed again. It was pretty good, as laughs went. Chrysalis eyed Catrina, who was still looking between the rats, licking her lips, though the Abyssinian caught her gaze and shrugged. Chrysalis looked back to Cacophony. “If all you wanted was to brag to your dead mother, you’re wasting your breath on me.”

The laughter stopped. Cacophony snarled. “I know that, shadow-of-my-mother. My real mother was proud and cruel and strong. She would never have allowed...” she waved a hoof at Chrysalis, “this to happen to her. Reformation. Pfeh. A plague that hasn’t come to my world. My subjects’ dependency on me has ensured it...” she smiled, and sauntered up to Chrysalis. “Which brings me to why you’re here. Why Catrina is here.”

Catrina perked up at having been addressed. She patted Rep on the head, then stepped forward. “Princess Cacophony obviously can’t personally supply each and every one of her subjects with false love. She relies on carefully distributed alchemical substitutes. And to create and distribute it in this world she needed a native skilled in alchemy. Rep here contacted me, and the princess and I negotiated a deal where I get to keep some of the witchweed she sends for my own...personal needs.” She smiled again. “It has so many uses. Health. Long life. Magical powers like that of a unicorn mage.” She lifted a claw and pointed into a corner. “Also the ability to see through changeling guises - like the fact that there's a young changeling disguised as a rat over there. Hello, Ocellus.”

Chrysalis’ eyes widened, and her whipped to the corner, spotting a rat frozen in place, eyes wide and wearing an expression of stunned shock. “Run - “

Chrysalis got no further before Rep and Zephyrwing both hissed and made to attack, but Cacophony was fastest of all, horn glowing bright pink and grabbing the rat before it could scurry away. With an amused laugh, the alicorn-changeling sent a pulse of magic at the rat. It squealed even as blue fire washed over it, and Ocellus was forced into her true form as the tiny changeling was dragged forward and forced to stand between Cacophony, Catrina, and Chrysalis’ cocooned form.

Ocellus' abject terror forced its way down Chrysalis' nostrils and clawed at her tongue. It was a taste that Chrysalis normally enjoyed, but at the moment all it was doing was spurring her to try and tear through her cocoon again. Cacophony, for her part, simply amused herself by snuffing out Ocellus' magic each time the changeling tried to defend herself. “Excellent!” the hybrid princess said. “This is a lucky break! We won’t have to drag one of my changelings over here to use as an example.”

Chrysalis hissed at Ocellus. “You idiot!” She shouted, struggling against her cocoon. “What are you doing here?!”

Ocellus was breathing heavily. She turned her head a little to look at Chrysalis. “I - I w-was l-l-looking for you, o-or for Nonchalant...” her gaze managed to harden. “You...you l-lied to us...lied from the start!”

“I lie to everyone! You know that! Why didn’t you run to get help the moment you saw me, fool?!”

Ocellus was hyperventilating, hysterical. “You...I felt sorry for you...I was trying to help you! I wanted you to come back to the Hive, to f-find a new life...but you’re Chrysalis. You’re the queen...evil...I th-thought maybe you'd R-Reformed but I've been listening and you're no different then you ever were!”

Chrysalis snarled rather than respond with words, still struggling against her cocoon. Clearly the bug wasn’t capable of thinking straight right now, was useless. Chrysalis would have to be the one to act if they wanted to get out of this. Cacophony, for her part, just clapped her hooves together. “Perfect! Perfect! We couldn’t ask for a better example! Catrina?”

Catrina came forward, clutching a green-glowing liquid in a large beaker, the last of the three potions she'd had on her alchemy table. Cacophony’s magic intensified, forcing Ocellus’ mouth open, and Catrina poured some of the liquid down Ocellus’ throat. The tiny changeling sputtered and tried to spit it out, but Cacophony closed her mouth tightly first - stopping her breathing, and still stopping her from transforming into some other form. The princess didn't relent until Ocellus swallowed what Catrina had dosed her with.

No hiss this time - Chrysalis roared, shaking her cocoon, straining her muscles, turning her head and biting into the resin and tearing loose chunks as she tried to free herself. She'd almost managed to free one leg, but it was too little, too late as Ocellus started shaking, convulsing, and screaming. Cacophony’s magic released her, but the tiny changeling only fell to the ground, crying out as jade-green fire erupted first from her horn, then consumed her for several long, agonizing seconds. When it cleared...

...black chitin. Holed legs. No elytra, a spine down her back, and fangs. A changeling, a true one.

Chrysalis stopped her struggle, staring with wide eyes. Cacophony giggled, moreso when Ocellus' eyes fluttered where she lay, realized what had happened to her. “No...” she exhaled as she sat up, looking at the holes in her legs, wings buzzing on her back. She pawed at her fangs. “No...no! Wh...what...h-how...”

She glowed green and transformed into her blue form, but let out a cry even as the transformation finished. “I-it’s not real!” She cried, tears welling up in her eyes. She transformed back into her black form - her true form now, and looked to Catrina. “H...how?!”

“The right ingredients in the proper proportions,” Catrina intoned, teeth flashing as she folded her hands behind her back and leaned forward, looking Ocellus over. “It looks good on you, bug.”

Chrysalis had been staring at Ocellus, processing what she was looking at, what had happened - what it meant. She looked to Cacophony, who was looking back already with undisguised eagerness. “Release me,” she commanded.

Cacophony eyed her for a few moments, and smiled. “You know...I think I will.” Her horn glowed bright, and Chrysalis’ cocoon was peeled open. The Queen of the Changelings stepped from it with all the grace she could muster and quickly tore the ring on her horn from her head. She kept one eye on Cacophony as she trotted over to Ocellus, who had collapsed onto the ground sobbing, hooves over her head. When Chrysalis neared she let out a scream and tried to back away, but Chrysalis seized her in her blue magic, looking down at her. She reached out a hoof and placed it under Ocellus’ chin - prompting a flinch - turning the tiny changeling's head left and right as she looked her over.

“How long does it last?” Chrysalis asked.

Catrina considered. “For her, a week. The effects fade.” Ocellus let out a whimper at that, while Catrina pressed on. “For you, a being of your magical might and power...might require daily doses. But in both cases, repeated exposure and consumption should make it permanent.”

“No!” Ocellus screamed. She shut her eyes tightly, horn glowing bright green as she put her hooves to her heart. “I want to share my love...I want to share my love...I want to share my love...”

“Sharing requires a recipient,” Cacophony giggled as she came up alongside Chrysalis. “No one in this room wants whatever you're offering...whereas what I'm offering...” Her telekinesis had reached out and grabbed the beaker of green liquid from Catrina. Cacophony held the liquid out to Chrysalis, spreading her wings out and bowing a little to the queen. “Drink up, shadow-of-my-mother. If we were going to poison you or chemically enslave you, we could have done that while you slept.”

Chrysalis considered the vial, before doing as Cacophony asked, taking the vial into her hooves and tossing back the contents without hesitation. The liquid tasted vile, and it burned. It seemed to sink through her throat before reaching her stomach, and sought out her heart, stabbing into it like thousands of tiny needles. It was utter agony, and Chrysalis felt amazement that Ocellus had somehow remained consciousness at the experience.

But she was Chrysalis. She stumbled, but she didn’t fall. Jade-green fire consumed her. She felt holes being bored into her legs and wings again, felt her elytra dissolving, felt it as her fangs grew again, as her fuzz and the mantle of fur around her neck were consumed by the fire...all of it painful. But apart from a hiss, she did not cry out.

And when the fire cleared, Chrysalis stood tall. Proud. True. She panted heavily and shivered from the ordeal but cleared even that with a breath, letting the pain and agony fade away, forcing it away. The purple log that housed the shadow of Twilight Sparkle fell from her and clattered to the floor, as she no longer had elytra to hold it under.

Ocellus let out another sob. She sank to her barrel again, hooves over her head, staring up at Chrysalis with undisguised horror as she looked at the doom of everything she valued. Cacophony, meanwhile, had stepped back, and had a warm smile on her face. “Oh, yes...” she breathed. “No longer a shadow. A reflection. Beautiful and strong. Everything you were meant to be, mother.”

Chrysalis took in a final long, steadying breath. She felt...emptiness. An emptiness that hadn’t been with her for some time. She was hungry again...a hunger that started in her heart but started moving through her whole body. She wanted love. Her nostrils flared as she scented the shadow of love for her that Cacophony possessed, due to her resemblance to the alicorn-changeling’s adoptive mother. The cloying sweet, false love that poisoned the other hybrids in the room. The smug self-love of Catrina, so sure, so confident. And the love for Smolder and her other friends that Ocellus had, now tainted with anguish, pain, terror at what she had become - at the thought of what her friends would think of her now, of fear at what Chrysalis would do to all of them.

Chrysalis buzzed her wings...her shorter wings, producing a sound that should have been familiar but which now slid strangely through her ears. She scowled at her wings, then looked to Cacophony. “Talk,” she ordered. “What is it you want? Why go through this trouble?”

Cacophony grinned. She waved a hoof at the mirror. “One tiny, broken mirror will not let me invade this world, not to get the numbers I need - and I need my warriors to keep the chattel of my world in line anyway. No, I will need local help. Catrina...she is a highly skilled alchemist, but she is no general, no leader of armies.”

“True,” Catrina allowed.

“But you...” Cacophony said, smile widening. “I can give you back everything you’ve lost, mother. Reformation? Undone, as you have seen for yourself. You will make the changelings need to steal love to survive once more. Disloyalty? You will bridle the changelings with false love, make them need you as my changelings and hybrids need me. Changelings have been exposed in this world? You can turn that weakness into a strength! The ponies and griffons and dragons won’t suspect that the Reformation was a lie, won’t know until it’s too late!

“And you won’t be alone. As soon as the mirror is fully repaired, is no longer damaged by passage, I can send through forces of my own to aid you. Only small troops at first, but once we take Canterlot and the Royal Archives there we can learn how Star Swirl created these mirrors and duplicate them a hundred times!” Cacophony came forward, smiling up at Chrysalis, eyes wide as she advanced. “And all I ask in return for this? Tribute. Send me slaves, chattel, more food to feed and grow my armies - I admit that victory on my world has been costly, has made feeding my subjects difficult. But though this will be the first world to fall, it will not be the last! I will build an empire of worlds - but I will share. You want worlds too? You can have them! There is an infinite multiverse out there, mother - and we can have it all!”

Chrysalis had backed away at Cacophony growing ever closer to her, invading her personal space. Her hooves brushed up against the stick that served as the shadow’s home. She glanced down at it, picked it up, then looked to Cacophony. An empire of worlds...starting with this one. She could have her revenge. Have her kingdom back. Every pony, dragon, griffin bowing to her. Every changeling obeying her commands as they should...

“...and then?” She mumbled, so quietly even she wasn't sure she spoke.

“What?” Cacophony demanded, still close to Chrysalis.

Chrysalis looked to Cacophony. She ran her hooves over the stick she held in them. “And then?” She repeated. “What is your next step, Cacophony?”

The alicorn-changeling stared uncomprehendingly, mouth opening and closing a few times. “I...I just told you,” she said. “The next world.”

“And then?”

“The one after that.”

“And then?”

“The one after that!” Cacophony beat her wings. “And the next, and the next, and the next! As changelings have always done! The hunger of changelings can never be satisfied! It keeps us mighty! Powerful!”

Chrysalis looked back to the block of wood, then to Ocellus, who was curled on herself, crying openly. Chrysalis snarled, reaching out and grabbing Ocellus, forcing the tiny changeling to her hooves. She seized up at Chrysalis’ touch. “You...” Chrysalis hissed, using the shadow's home to point at her. “You are everything I hate about what my changelings have become - so soft and weak and pathetic. But now you feel that hunger again, don’t you? As acutely as I do?” Ocellus whimpered, but didn't answer. Chrysalis grabbed her tighter. “Answer your queen!”

“Y-yes!” Ocellus blurted out.

“The hunger is lurking inside of you. It’s been gone for years now but it’s back. The eternal hunger of the changelings!”

“Yes...”

Chrysalis barred her fangs, and Ocellus flinched away, but Chrysalis wouldn't let her flee. She pressed the shadow's home against Ocellus' neck like it was a knife. “Wouldn’t that hunger drive you to do anything? If I left you with it for days - a week - and then threw Smolder in here - ”

“N-no!” Ocellus cried. “No, please no, I don’t - I don’t want to hurt her!”

“But you would! You’d rip and tear and consume, don’t deny it! You would drain every last drop from her to end it!”

Chrysalis looked at the shivering, tiny changeling in her grip over as she cried, tears falling to the floor beneath them. She put a hoof under Ocellus’ chin, tilting her head so that she could look into as many of the changeling’s eye segments as possible. “The hunger...it’s horrible, isn’t it?” Chrysalis asked, trying to sound soft...something she’d never tried to do with her true voice before. Ocellus hiccuped, staring back at Chrysalis uncomprehendingly at the sudden shift in tone. Chrysalis pressed on. “It’s like...like your stomach is opening wide and trying to eat your soul. Like your heart is full of holes and bleeding out inside of you. It’s a pain you grow used to...a drive that you follow...but...but that’s no reason to keep it. Familiarity breeds contempt...and we know this hunger very well. Don’t we, Ocellus?”

Ocellus nodded slowly. Cacophony stepped forward. “Mother, what - ”

“I am not your mother!” Chrysalis roared, turning on Cacophony, gnarled horn glowing green and lashing out with telekinetic force. The alicorn-changeling cried out as she stumbled away from the strike, hoof at her cheek and eyes wide in shock. Chrysalis snarled. “But if I was? I’d find you pathetic. False love? You need addiction to keep your bugs loyal? I ruled my Hive for a thousand years and I never needed that. Even when I was using love poison, I did not need it. I broke my addiction and their addiction and they remained with me for centuries after!”

“But they betrayed you - ”

“To end their starvation! I...I ruled for so long...and I did not want to give that up. Not for anything! The changelings are mine and mine alone, my creation, my subjects! By right of a thousand years of rule! Starlight Glimmer had no right to take my crown, turn my subjects on me, destroy my Hive, and then oh-so-graciously offer to let me have back everything she’d stolen if only I capitulated to her! And you, Cacophony, you have no right to offer them back to me either - they were never yours to give! They are mine! But...” Chrysalis looked back to Ocellus. “But...things...change. There was...there was another way.” She stepped up to the smaller changeling, looking into her multifaced eyes, seeing herself reflected back in each segment. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know! As your queen it was up to me to find you food. But how was I supposed to know that the solution was to...to throw up on each other?”

Ocellus let out a shocked laugh at the phrasing, hooves going to her mouth even as she did. Tears still filled her eyes, and yet the ghost of a smile appeared on her face. Chrysalis laughed herself. “Who would think that?” She asked between chuckles. “Who...who would ever imagine that?”

Ocellus shook her head. “N...n-no one.”

Cacophony's mouth was open, though no sound came out for several long moments. “I...I don't understand...” she stuttered at last, backing away another step. The other two hybrids, Rep and Zephyrwing, came up alongside her. “You...you're going to help that drone Reform. You're going to do it again yourself. Why? Why would you debase yourself so?”

Chrysalis grinned her most wicked, triumphant of grins, one she hadn't had cause to wear for what seemed like forever. “Because as queen, it is up to me to feed my subjects...and to make sure that nothing takes that food. Which is what you want to do - would have me do - by stealing Reformation from them. But also? Because I'm a predator and I always will be, and I can't help but bite down on any weakness I see in my prey.”

The words finally seemed to break through Cacophony's shock. She spread her gossamer-feather wings wide and hissed, one that was joined in by Rep and Zephyrwing, while Catrina had moved to behind the three of them, hands folded within her sleeves. “Prey?!” Cacophony demanded. “I am an alicorn princess and a changeling queen, shadow-of-my-mother! And you have forgotten that the timelines of our worlds don't match up. I have ruled for centuries - almost as long as my mother did, almost as long as you did before you became weak and let yourself be overthrown! What 'weakness' do I have?”

Chrysalis bared her fangs. It would probably be the last time she'd ever get to do so in what, to her, would always be her true body, and she wanted to make the most of it while she could. Her gaze shifted to Catrina. “You shouldn't have let me see how that mirror worked,” she said.

Cacophony only grew confused, while Catrina's eyes widened. “Stop her!” the Abyssinian exclaimed, hands emerging from her sleeves clutching two vials and throwing them. But Chrysalis was the faster, telekinetically seizing the vials in mid-air and cracking them open over Cacophony and her lackeys. The alicorn-changeling reacted immediately by putting a shield around herself, her hybrids, and Catrina, clearly not understanding what was going on as a red mist collapsed around the shield.

Chrysalis spared no thought for what the mist would have done had it hit her, turning to Ocellus. The far younger changeling looked back up, confusion all over her face at what Chrysalis was doing - but the air around her had the faint scent and taste of hope. “When the Hive betrayed me and Reformed, could you feel the explosion down in the hatchery?” Chrysalis asked. Ocellus nodded, and Chrysalis grinned. “Well. Mine...ours...will be bigger.”

Ocellus needed no encouragement. Her wings buzzed and she took to the air, closing her eyes and putting her hooves to her heart. Chrysalis rolled her eyes at the saccharine sight, but copied the motion herself, turning her senses inwards, to the love within her. It was easy to find - it was the food of her hunger, an all-consuming beast kept from devouring her only by the love she fed it. Chrysalis seized her love. The hunger grabbed back at it, tried to hold onto its prize, its meal.

Chrysalis crushed the hunger. Stomped it down. Beat it and cast it aside. It was her hunger, and she was the Queen, not it. No matter how old or how powerful or how familiar or how insatiable the hunger was, it was not stronger than Chrysalis, not even remotely. The love within her, meanwhile, was harder to grasp, a slippery, vague thing. It was power...but what was it beyond that? Was it anything beyond that?

It didn't matter. It was hers, and she pulled it from herself - not throwing it away, but holding it out, offering it up. Even as she did, she sensed more love from elsewhere - Ocellus offering her own love to the world. Chrysalis grasped the love of Ocellus, and Ocellus grasped the love of Chrysalis, the love of her queen. Chrysalis took all of Ocellus' offered love...but her own love had gone from slippery to jealous. Or perhaps Chrysalis had. It was hers, and she was just going to offer it up? Give it away? The hunger within her tried to rally, surge forth, crawl from her and seize the love she was so selfishly trying to just take from it...

Chrysalis opened her eyes. She saw that the shadow had emerged from its home once more, was standing in front of the mirror. It looked at the mirror, its cracks, then back to Chrysalis. A face that looked like Twilight Sparkle's smiled at her, then nodded and disappeared. In the mirror's reflection, Chrysalis saw that the red mist had cleared, and Cacophony had dropped her shield. She was screaming something, and lunging for Chrysalis.

The Queen of the Changelings grunted, then closed her eyes again...and let go of her love.

And changed.

Author's Notes:

As much as I love the Go-Go's, I'm kind of regretting my chapter naming schema at this point. I'm running out of chapter titles that even make sense...

13. Time Would Tell

Light and heat and pressure cleared, and Ocellus landed on her four hooves easily, just as easily as she had several years ago when Thorax had lead the nursery and hatchery into Reformation, the end of their hunger. Blue fuzz once more covered her carapace, which now lacked holes in her legs. Her gossamer red tail and frill and elytra were back, and she opened the elytra and spread her unblemished wings. She put her hooves to her mouth to help choke back a relieved sob, and felt that her fangs had shrunk down, no longer jutting from her mouth.

And the hunger. The pain and ache in her heart and stomach that felt like it was trying to eat her alive, that demanded she go out and find love to satiate it - that knew that Smolder loved her, was a vital source of love. The hunger had made Ocellus want to seek out Smolder not as a friend, but as food...but it was gone. Her heart was whole.

Beside her, Chrysalis landed with similar grace. Once more the former queen's carapace was covered with cream-white fuzz of its own, though at the bottom of her hooves it was orange. A mantle of orange fur surrounded her neck, chest, and withers. Her hair was voluminous and long and full, aquamarine at the roots on her head and dock but fading to lime-green as it reached the tips. The horn on her head had straightened itself out, and on her back were purple elytra that Chrysalis opened herself, extending four translucent wings instead of two, the hind wings about as long as her previous ones while the tips of the front wings extended up and past her horn, making them longer than even King Thorax's.

She'd helped her Reform. Chrysalis, the former queen, the evil tyrant who had ruled the Hive for a thousand years, had helped Ocellus Reform. More...she'd done it herself, and this time it had been no accident. Chrysalis' own love now lay within Ocellus' heart beside her own, filling her, feeding her, warming her, and if Ocellus was being honest with herself the result of Reformation for Chrysalis was to make her beautiful.

Chrysalis' eyes met Ocellus'. They'd turned from green to blue. Ocellus stared back with her hooves still at her mouth, feeling her lip tremble, her body quiver, tears spilling forth...Catrina and Cacophony had tried to steal Reformation from her, but Chrysalis had saved her, taken her shared love...

“If you hug me,” Chrysalis warned, “I will hurt you. Over a period. In an amusing fashion - ”

“Worth it!” Ocellus decided as she lunged forward, wrapping her forelegs around Chrysalis' neck, burying her muzzle in Chrysalis' mantle of fur and gripping her with all the strength her tiny true form could muster. Chrysalis flailed as she stumbled backwards and fell onto her haunches. Ocellus felt one foreleg close around her, and expected to be torn from Chrysalis, but instead it only rested across Ocellus' withers, even squeezed her slightly. Ocellus' reaction to the squeeze was another sob that was muffled in the warm mantle of fur that she'd been buried in. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She repeated over and over again.

Ocellus smelled and tasted a mixture of confusion and the tiniest hint of affection from Chrysalis. She wondered if the queen had ever been hugged in her true form before. After a moment, Ocellus felt Chrysalis nibbling on Ocellus' own outpouring of gratitude and joy and relief, following by a slight gag from the queen. “Blegh. Too pure,” Chrysalis said, lifting her other hoof and pushing Ocellus from her. “Fine, you get the one. And you will never, ever, ever tell any creature.”

Ocellus wiped her eyes, nodding. So great were her tears that their hooves were getting wet...no, wait, that wasn't possible, even Ocellus couldn't cry that much. The two changelings looked down, and saw that in fact the entire floor was beginning to flood. The water tanks in the room had burst open, all of them, from the force of the explosion of love. Water was spilling forth in great streams from both from the pipes that lead into Tiatarta's water supply, as well as from above as the pools in the Chill Spot no longer had pressure and the water drained out and down. Already half of the room was flooded to a depth of an inch. Chrysalis saw her purple stick floating nearby and snatched it quickly from the water; Ocellus wondered at it, but decided she could wait to figure out what the story with it was.

The damage from the release of love went further than just the water tanks. It had slammed into the alchemy tables, sending them flying in every direction away from the two changelings as they had embraced Reformation. Broken glass lay scattered everywhere, the shelves containing the alchemy ingredients had been splintered and their contents spilled onto the ground, with chemicals and ingredients seeping into the water and causing it to slowly turn a rainbow of colors.

Catrina had been hurled by the explosion of released love, Ocellus was sure, but the Abyssinian was already back on her feet, crouched on top of a fallen cabinet and hissing at the water that was slowly making its way towards her, her dress frayed and torn but intact. Rep and Zephyrwing were picking themselves up as well, wasting no time in going over to Cacophony. The alicorn-changeling princess had been hurled against a wall and then fallen to the ground, and hadn't picked herself up yet. She looked unharmed, and indeed her eyes were wide open as she stared at the magic mirror that had followed her flight and impact and lay beside her - or what was left of it. The force of the released love had been too much magic too quickly - its surface had shattered, leaving only its upper half in any way intact, barely two feet of smooth glass. Everything else beyond that was splintered, cracked, or missing entirely.

“Not quite the size of the entire Hive,” Chrysalis groused as she took in the force of the explosion, but then she perked up. “But bigger than when Thorax turned on me, certainly! I can live with that.”

“My mirror...” Cacophony intoned as she was pulled to her hooves by Rep and Zephyrwing, barely seeming to notice. “The...y-you...but...b-but...”

Chrysalis looked between Catrina, the two hybrids, and Cacophony, then to Ocellus. “It's probably too much to hope that Ecdysis gave you any combat training, isn't it?”

Ocellus shook her head, shifting from one hoof to another as she stood. “B...b-but I can turn into a bugbear or a dragon or - ”

“Teenage dragon, fine; bugbear, no, you'll exhaust your magic too fast trying to maintain such a large form for any length of time. Also minimize shapeshifting in general to conserve magic.” Chrysalis' eyes narrowed as she took in the situation, eyes darting left and right over the room. “I could probably take any two of them, or all but Cacophony at the same time. But I imagine after that explosion we're about to be swarmed by hybrids - ”

“You broke my mirror!” Cacophony screamed, spreading her wings as she whirled on Chrysalis and Ocellus, not caring that doing so smacked Zephyrwing and sent her stumbling away from her. She shoved Rep aside as well as she stepped towards Chrysalis. Her horn glowed and she picked up the mirror, sending magic through it. The intact portions glowed and fell into themselves, the portal functioning - but what was left was too small for Cacophony to fit through. “You broke...why?! How am I supposed to get home?! It will take months to make it big enough!”

Chrysalis stepped forward. “Well, if you were a real changeling, you could shift down to something small - ”

Cacophony screamed, and Chrysalis winced, the former queen seeming to realize that she'd made a mistake in needling the alicorn-changeling. Naturally, at the same time, the door to the chamber slammed open, ten hybrids came flying in - and the ceiling started collapsing.

That the explosion had cut off most of Smolder's roar and muffled the start of it was a blessing in disguise. The shockwaves made Smolder stumble, though she kept her footing, but needing to spend even a second thinking was enough to coral her inner wyrm, stop her from roaring and letting every creature know exactly where she was and have all the hybrids charge towards her.

She didn't know how many hybrids there were. They themselves didn't think that there was “that many” of them, but how many was that? Six? A dozen? Two dozen? Maybe one day she'd be able to laugh off those kinds of odds, but she wasn't an ancient wyrm yet, she was still a teenager. And no matter how much danger her friend, her hoard, her Ocellus was in, charging out blowing fire and challenging anything in her way just wasn't going to get her what she needed.

Plus the convenience store clerk was still in a cage behind her, still unconscious. If she lit the whole place on fire or started choking it with smoke, it wouldn't go well for him. She stomped over to his cage and tore loose the lock - she didn't care to find the key - and checked on him, smacking him lightly a few times, but consciousness wouldn't come. Smolder growled and snorted smoke as she stepped away, trying to think. Ocellus was in danger. Queen Chrysalis was here somewhere and cutting a deal with Catrina, it didn't matter what for, for all Smolder knew Catrina would offer up Ocellus to Chrysalis like some kind of prize to sweeten the deal...give away Ocellus like she was hers to give...take her from Smolder...take her hoard...

A low rumble escaped Smolder's throat and smoke and fire spilled forth. Before she reined her instincts in again she was at the door, fist raised and ready to punch through it rather than waste time opening it...she redirected the force of the punch down, into the floor beneath her, satisfying her inner wyrm's desire to break something right now. The tiles beneath her gave way, as did the wood and plaster underneath.

Smolder almost let out a roar of frustration, but stopped when she looked at her arm, still buried halfway to the elbow in the floor. And Rep had said that Nonchalant - that Chrysalis - was downstairs...

Smolder let out a long and relieved sigh. “Okay. Big stupid dragon had a good idea for a change,” she said as she withdrew her hand from the hole, then slammed it down again, then started putting her other hand to use, tearing away at the floor, her claws gripping and tearing loose anything that was in the way. There was treasure down below if she could just dig enough. Treasure with soft fuzz and a warm carapace and eyes that glittered like gemstones. All she needed was to make a hole big enough to reach it...

She'd resorted to actually biting her way down when the floor, weakened by her efforts, gave way underneath her. Smolder let out a cry of shock and tried to unfurl her wings to stay in the air as debris rained down. She heard a high-pitched, enraged scream, and then...

“Okay I take it back I love the stupid dragon!” A voice Smolder didn't know called out. Smolder had just enough time to register the sight of rainbow-colored water everywhere and a bunch of different creatures, but no time at all to take in their details as two of those creatures surged up and towards her. Smolder didn't care what one of them was because the other was Ocellus, who collided with her in mid-air. Smolder made to hug her, but Ocellus was pushing her up and through the hole she'd carved. They impacted the ceiling of the room, then fell back to the floor in a heap.

“Ocellus!” Smolder cried out as a series of blue and pink flashes came up from the hole.

“No time!” Ocellus cried, turning around. Whoever she'd been flying with had followed and become stuck in the hole, due to it being too small for her.

“My life will not end with me shot in the rear!” The creature - she looked like a giant, cream-colored Reformed changeling, only with hair and normal rather than compound eyes - forced her way through the hole she was caught in with Ocellus' help.

Smolder squinted at the giant changeling, then her eyes widened. “Chrysalis!” She realized, grabbing Ocellus' hoof.

“Dragon!” Chrysalis exclaimed back, horn glowing blue and shooting something down through the hole she'd emerged from.

“Cacophony!” Ocellus cried out at the sight of something down the hole, not letting go of Smolder but instead dragging her past Chrysalis and towards the room's door.

Smolder blinked. “Who?”

“ME!” A creature that looked like the offspring of Queen Chrysalis and Princess Cadance exclaimed as she burst through the hole, spreading gossamer-feather wings wide and gnarled unicorn horn glowing a hot, angry pink. She fired off a burst of magic, but Chrysalis stopped it with blue magic of her own, the beams meeting, struggling for a moment. Smolder didn't see much more as she was dragged out of the room by Ocellus, but there was a loud snap sound and then an explosion that tossed Chrysalis from the room and against the opposite wall. She landed on her side, but quickly picked herself back up and ran after Smolder and Ocellus. The convenience store clerk followed next, apparently having finally woken up, and ran in the opposite direction of the three. Then Cacophony came stumbling from the room, looking livid, and trailing her were hybrids - twelve of them, most of them ponies, but there was a griffin, an Abyssinian, and who Smolder presumed to be Rep the dragon-changeling as well.

“What did I miss?!” Smolder demanded. They'd reached a set of stairs and went barreling up them as fast as they could.

“Nonchalant was Chrysalis!” Ocellus exclaimed.

“Queen Chrysalis!” Chrysalis objected. Her horn glowed and she ripped the door ahead of them from its hinges, none of the three having to slow down as they barreled up and into the Chill Spot. It was already being evacuated due to the noise and shaking and screaming from below, but at the sight of Chrysalis with her horn glowing bright, angry blue and Smolder trailing smoke from her nose and mouth as she ran (and Ocellus was there too), the remaining patrons all fled at full speed.

“She's Reformed!” Ocellus continued for Smolder. “But there's was a magic mirror to another world that has an evil Princess Cadance named Cacophony and she's the one who's been poisoning the Nook and she's been working with Catrina to do it but then she wanted to make Chrysalis her general and get her to help but instead of helping Chrysalis saved me and - ”

“There's an alicorn-changeling and her minions trying to kill us!” Chrysalis interrupted and summarized. She skidded to a stop and spun around, horn glowing bright blue and shooting a beam of energy straight at the door, nearly taking the head off of a hybrid that only barely ducked in time to avoid it. Chrysalis looked to Smolder. “Are you any good in a fight?”

Cacophony came surging up, spreading her wings wide and taking to the air, her twelve hybrids coming up after her. Smolder flexed her claws and spread her wings and breathed fire, but also shook her head. “I could take one or two, distract three or four, maybe...but, wait, Nonchalant could teleport!”

“Idiot, I'm Nonchalant - oh.” Chrysalis realized, then let out a yelp along with Smolder and Ocellus as the three had to duck down and under a blast from Cacophony. Chrysalis rolled over Smolder without getting up even as she turned into Nonchalant once more and grabbed Smolder and Ocellus in her hooves, horn glowing bright blue. There was a flash-pop and a bare second of nothingness, then the three of them appeared outside and in an alley across the street from the Chill Spot. The Sun had fully set by now, though the Moon and stars overhead were bright.

“Alright, now one of two things is going to happen,” Chrysalis said as she resumed her true form, then stated herding Ocellus and Smolder away. “Either Cacophony is going to cut her losses, grab the mirror, and run, which is what I'd do - ” There was a scream of pure rage and hate and a bright flash of pink as a column of magic shot up into the sky, “ - or she's too mad to think straight,” Chrysalis finished.

“WHERE ARE YOU, SHADOW-OF-MY-MOTHER?!” Cacophony cried. “I WILL TEAR THIS TOWN APART TO FIND YOU! DON'T THINK I WON'T!”

“The other me did a terrible job raising her,” Chrysalis noted over the sounds of Tiatarta’a population letting out cries of fright.

“Wait, what?” Smolder asked, blinking. “You raised Princess Cadance?”

“No, another version of Chrysalis raised this version of Cadance,” Ocellus provided, though from the sound of her voice it had been a reflexive response. She swallowed, looking to Chrysalis. “Wh...what are we going to do?”

“What that one is too stupid to: cut and run.” Chrysalis' form shimmered, and she became an orange-coated pegasus. “Ocellus, pegasus form for speed. Dragon...” She looked around, then grabbed a tarp that somepony had discarded in the alley off the ground and threw it over Smolder.”This'll have to do. We get to water and then swim for Los Pegasus.”

“What about Tiatarta?” Smolder demanded, tearing the tarp from her and tossing it aside.

“What about Tiatarta?” Chrysalis retorted.

“What about the Nook?” Ocellus asked.

Chrysalis began to respond to that, but froze as she did, glancing away. “I...” she began, stopped, then steeled herself and looked back to the two teenagers, returning to her true form as she did. “I can't fight Cacophony and her hybrids all at once, all alone! Not to mention I have no idea where Catrina is and that...concerns me.”

Smolder put her hands on her hips as she thought, then snapped her fingers. “Wait, the Nook!” She said. “There's five hundred changelings there. Some of them must have been warriors, right? We don't stop Cacophony from going there, we lead her there, even the odds!”

A smile slowly crept across Chrysalis' face. “Lead the creatures behind the poisoning of my changelings to them...no hybrid is a match for a true, pure-blooded changeling and there's hundreds at the Nook...good idea.” She gagged a little at that. “Geh. Still has an aftertaste.”

“Laugh it up, Chryssy.”

“Dragon, if you ever call me that again I will break your horns from your head and shove them up your - ”

“I found them!”

The three glanced up and down the length of the alley, and saw the Abyssinian-changeling. She had wings like the other hybrids, long and thing like a dragonfly's, with fangs that were about the size of an unreformed changeling's. She was pointing down the alley and waving to her compatriots. Chrysalis' horn lit up and fired a blast that hit the Abyssinian-changeling in the chest, sending her flying, then she turned on the teenagers as the three started running down the alley. “Ocellus, pegasus form, fly to the Nook and let them know we're coming, get them ready.”

“Don't use Chryssy's name,” Smolder added. She looked to Chrysalis and flexed her claws and beat her wings. “I'll help with the fighting, cover Ocellus.”

Ocellus glanced between the two of them. Smolder could tell that she wanted to argue being sent away, but she also seemed to know that all it would do was eat up valuable time. So instead, as they reached the opposite end of the alley, she threw her hooves around Smolder, hugging her tightly. “Be safe,” she whispered.

Smolder returned the hug tightly. “I'm sorry that I've been so greedy towards you,” she returned.

Ocellus pulled away, looking to Smolder's eyes. “It's not greed,” she insisted, tongue flicking out, tasting the air, the emotions in it - and its tip catching Smolder's snout just a little, sending a jolt straight through the dragon to the tip of her tail, making her wings spread to their absolute widest for reasons that Smolder couldn't grasp. Ocellus giggled at Smolder's reaction before breaking away, then flashed with blue fire as she turned into a pegasus - not just any pegasus, but Rainbow Dash, a from that was ideally suited for speed even if Ocellus couldn't reach the same extremes as the real deal. “We'll talk more later,” Ocellus said, her voice unchanged, before she shot up into the air and off in the direction of the Nook.

Chrysalis grabbed Smolder and dragged the semi-stunned dragon into the sky. “Come on, lovebug,” she said, catching a small purple stick that fell from beneath her elytra with her free hoof. “Much as I hate to say it I could use your help.”

Smolder shook her head to clear it, getting her wings under her and flying under her own power. Glancing behind her as they trailed after Ocellus-as-Rainbow Dash, she saw that indeed the hybrids and Cacophony had caught sight of them and were giving chase...and their numbers had grown by two. Smolder recognized Bubblegum, who looked angry, as well as another pony-changeling hybrid, probably Comet Tail from the convenience store. Fifteen-on-two odds, and one of those fifteen was an alicorn-changeling princess...

Cacophony let out a shout again, firing a blast of energy. Chrysalis and Smolder both dodged away from it in the air, then Chrysalis responded by firing back a bolt of magic herself, though she missed as well. There was several hundred feet between them and the hybrids - but all the pony-hybrids had shifted into pegasus forms, granting them extra speed that had Chrysalis and Smolder both beat. The distance was closing; they'd soon be close enough to try spitting ooze onto Chrysalis and Smolder, and while both could escape the ooze in their own ways, it would still knock them from the skies.

They were, at least, out from Tiatarta itself, flying over the jungle. Smolder looked to Chrysalis. “Ready to go, Chryssy?” She asked.

Chrysalis hissed - whether in anger at Smolder's continued use of the nickname or as a war-cry, she didn't know. But her form did flash with blue fire, and she was suddenly huge, a giant bird, a great roc, with a wingspan comparable to that of a wyrm dragon. Those wings flared and caught the air, instantly cutting Chrysalis's forward speed down to almost nothing - and causing the hybrids behind her to slam into her back and wings, too fast for them to slow down. They tumbled from the air, stunned, while Chrysalis crowed with amusement.

A tiny part of Smolder had reacted with fear to the sight of the roc and put on a burst of extra speed, but the more rational part of her mind flared her wings, cutting her own airspeed. She collided with Chrysalis' chest-feathers, but quickly grabbed hold and used them to pull herself up and over the roc-form's shoulder. Cacophony was right there, horn glowing, but she hadn't been expecting Smolder's appearance, nor the magenta fire that Smolder exhaled right at the alicorn-changeling's head. She let out a scream as she fell from the air, hooves clutching at her face.

Chrysalis shimmered and returned to her true form. Smolder made to fly off again, but something grabbed her leg. She turned and breathed more fire - but her target was Rep, who grunted in some small pain at the flames but didn't let go, instead pulling Smolder forward and slamming a fist into her jaw. Smolder saw stars, but didn't let that stop her from lashing out with her tail, smacking Rep across his face with all the force she could muster - which was quite a bit, causing Rep to release her.

It didn't matter - the distance advantage that Smolder had enjoyed over the hybrids was gone, as a pony-hybrid and the griffon one both now closed in on her. Smolder stopped beating her wings and let herself fall so the two collided in the air, but Rep was back then, tackling her in the sky even as he glowed with pink flames just as Smolder went to exhale more fire. By the time she was actually breathing it, Rep had abandoned his true form in favor of a fully draconic version of it - and all the fireproof scales that came with it. He grabbed her face and roared at her, green flames of his own washing over Smolder.

The teenager grabbed Rep's arm with both hands, using it as leverage as she kicked out her feet straight into his gut, her toe-claws scraping at the softer scales here. Rep let out a surprised cry at that, but didn't let go, instead readying the claws on his other hand and slashing at Smolder's eyes - but just as the tip of one claw might have reached her, the hand was seized in a blue aura and wrenched away. Rep cried out as the aura completely surrounded him and tore him from Smolder.

Smolder glanced around, and saw Chrysalis hovering in the air. She'd spat ooze in the face of on pony-changeling, seized the griffon-changeling by the tail an was swinging it around to bash and batter at another pony-changeling, while her telekinesis or magical blasts kept lashing out at hybrid after hybrid. One closed in and tried to grab her, but she jabbed it in the eye with the purple stick she still had in another hoof, and it fell away screaming. “If you're not good for at least four at a time then you're not much use, dragon!” Chrysalis exclaimed, hurling the griffon hybrid down.

Smolder growled, or started to, but movement from below caught her attention - the hybrids that Chrysalis' roc-trick had stunned were climbing from the canopy they'd fallen into and launching themselves into the air. Smolder let out the best roar she could as she plunged down towards them, breathing fire as she fell.

Magenta flames caught one hybrid right in its gossamer wing. it screamed as the delicate membrane was burned away, falling from the sky. Just as Smolder thought she'd found a weakness, though, the remaining hybrids all glowed and transformed into pegasi once more - giving them more robust wings in the process. Smolder collided with one anyway, punching it square in the muzzle and breathing fire at next one that tried to get close. But then hooves collided with her back, sending her tumbling away. She flared her wings lest she fall into the canopy, kicking off from the hybrid she'd been pummeling. She saw Rep was back, still in dragon-form. She avoided his dive, but only just barely, and for the effort was rewarded with a fly-by attack from one hybrid catching her in the stomach. She gasped in pain and belched out smoke.

The next hybrid to try a fly-by attack was rewarded with a tail-slap. Smolder breathed in deeply and then exhaled more smoke, filling the air with a black cloud that she surrounded herself in, granting herself a few moments of respite - or that was what was supposed to happen. Instead she'd barely stopped exhaling when a hoof collided with her head and grabbed on, dragging her straight up and out of the cloud - a pink hoof. Smolder whirled in its grip and tried to breathe fire on Cacophony again, but the alicorn-changeling was faster, kicking her away and then lighting up her horn and blasting Smolder straight-on in the chest.

It hurt.

It hurt a lot.

It was in fact, by a wide margin, the worst pain Smolder had ever felt, too much for her to even let out a roar of defiance or even a scream in pain. She went sailing away through the air instead, whole body completely unresponsive as she stared at the enraged hybrid princess, her face was blackened by the fire Smolder had hit her with, but she otherwise seemed fine as she turned her attentions from Smolder and to Chrysalis, who had just fended off a trio of hybrids. Five more - Rep and four currently wearing the guises of pegasi - plunged after Smolder's falling form.

Well...at least I'm distracting more than four like Chrysalis asked...Smolder mused as she hit the canopy.The shock finally spurred a response from Smolder's body, letting her cry out in pain as she hit leaves, branches, and a tree truck, the last stopping her descent for a moment before she fell to the forest floor, belly first. That pain was at least a little more familiar, not much worse than smacking belly-first into a pool of lava. She could live with pain like that.

Smolder picked herself up onto four limbs, tail and wings both sagging, as Rep and the other four hybrids all touched down in a semi-circle in front of her. Rep was sticking to his draconic form, and smacked the ground with his tail. Smolder pushed herself up onto her feet. She noticed that the hybrids were breathing heavily, even Rep, and he shouldn't have needed to breathe while a dragon. Reflexive action, probably? Or...wait, they were unreformed. They only had so much love, and the shifting had to be taxing them. Maybe if Smolder could just outlast...?

Rep surged forward, roaring green flames as he did. Smolder fell to her knees - not out of pain, but rather so that she could launch herself horns-first at him. His eyes widened as he realized what was happening, and he stopped his charge just in time to avoid skewering himself completely - but Smolder's horns still nicked his stomach, and Smolder felt softer flesh give as Rep cried out in pain, stumbling away with one hand at his chest. The blow hadn't been debilitating or anything like it, but maybe it hurt around as much as Cacophony had hurt Smolder.

Smolder grimaced as she stood back up, eyeing Rep and the four hybrids. Their forms all shimmered as they took on hybrid forms once more - and started heaving, readying ooze. Smolder was grateful for the warning as she pushed herself backwards, wings beating for extra speed even as she exhaled fire in as wide a cone she could manage. Two of the hybrids reacted with a surprised shock that caused the ooze to get caught in their throats, while the other two managed to spit ooze anyway, but missed due to the fire blocking their line of view. Rep had charged straight on through the flames. Smolder met the charge, claws on both flashing. But Rep's slash was downward, and Smolder smiled as she leaned into it, letting the claws rake harmlessly across her natural armor, while her own claws went up, going against the direction the scales folded and finding purchase in the softer flesh beneath. Her reward for her clever move was a cry from Rep, but also a spin and smack with his tail. She stumbled away, but made sure to breathe fire as she did to keep the other hybrids away.

She had a feeling that Rep had never fought a dragon before. She also suspected he was probably a fast learner, however - and he had backup and she didn't, not right now in any event. So she took in a deep breath and belched out a wall of smoke again, then turned and ran into the forest. She only needed to last long enough...

Just because Ocellus looked like Rainbow Dash at the moment, it didn't mean that she was capable of the same extreme feats of speed, which relied at least partly on pegasus magic that Ocellus could only partially duplicate. But even still, the professor at the school of friendship had spent years training her body, sculpting it into a speed machine, and so Ocellus' precise replica of it was still the best possible option for fast flight out of any pegasus form she could have taken . A rainbow contrail of simulated pegasus magic followed her as she beat her feathered wings as fast and as hard as she could.

Ocellus was within sight of the Nook, maybe half a mile out, when the hybrids struck. Two pegasi and a griffon burst from the foliage of the jungle ahead of her, too close for her to slow down or avoid. She collided headlong into the waiting grip of the griffon, who let out a gasp at the impact but was expecting it and so reacted quickly, grabbing her wings in her talons. Ocellus' cry of fright was muffled as the pegasi closed in on her, forms shimmering with pink magic and beginning to heave.

They'd forgotten about these hybrids - the ones sent out hours ago to cover the Nook, the backup plan for Bubblegum's team. Ocellus almost shifted into a bugbear, but then remembered Chrysalis' admonishment - going large consumed a lot of magic, made for a poor decision in a fight.

But what about going small? It had worked against Smolder earlier today in the water. Ocellus burned briefly with blue fire, transforming herself into a rat that easily squirmed from the griffon's grasp and ran along her arm and onto her back, before resuming her Rainbow Dash imitation and shooting off again.

The hybrids let cries of anger, giving chase. None of them had assumed their true forms; they probably didn't know that Ocellus knew about them. Unfortunately, her lead on the pegasus-hybrids was tiny, just a few feet; they couldn't spit out ooze at these speeds, but glancing behind her she did see one focusing, pink fire burning on his forehead as he struggled to maintain a fully pegasus form and its speed...while also giving himself a unicorn horn. He'd be able to blast her or seize her with telekinesis.

Ocellus let out a cry, flaring her wings and sticking her hind legs straight out behind her, cutting her speed - and slamming her hooves into the hybrid's face. He let out a surprised shout, pink fire consuming his entire body as he returned to his hybrid form and fell from the sky, colliding with and landing in the canopy of a tree. He tried to move for a moment before falling fully unconscious.

But now Ocellus was behind the griffon and pegasus hybrids, and they spun around quickly. Ocellus beat her assumed wings to try and get altitude, but the pony hybrid followed her while the griffon proceeded forward and towards the Nook, anticipating Ocellus' attempt to turn her ascent into a sudden dive for speed and distance. It had been a transparent strategy. Ocellus wasn't a fighter.

But she was an infiltrator, or at least she had been training to be one. And the number-one thing an infiltrator learned was divide and conquer. The pony hybrid was now hundreds of feet away from the griffon one. Ocellus' form rippled with blue fire again, returning to her true form - restoring her own horn. The hybrid had just enough time for his eyes to widen before a blast of energy struck him square in the chest. It didn't carry much force, but it did stop his ascent, allowing Ocellus to surge forward and past him before transforming into Rainbow Dash again, shooting off.

That left the griffon hybrid as the only one in front of her. She squawked and started ascending; Ocellus watched it happen, the speed the griffon was rising at, grimaced, and pushed everything she had into simulating pegasus magic, pouring love/magic into giving her every ounce of speed she could wring from her assumed form. It wouldn't be enough to avoid the griffon...but she didn't try to. Instead, as she closed in, she spread her front hooves wide as she collided with the hybrid and wrapped them around her, pinning the griffon's wings to her back even as the griffon did likewise.

Both were falling...but momentum was carrying them forward, too. The griffon glowed with pink magic and readied to spit ooze all over Ocellus, but she just flashed with fire and returned to her normal form, smiling at the hybrid. It gave her pause - just long enough for the arc of their fall to finally cause them to dip beneath the lip of a great hole on the top of a cliff. The griffon hybrid let out another squawk of surprise, flaring her wings - easily breaking them free of Ocellus' weak grip - but Ocellus grabbed the hybrid's hind legs before she could fly away, transforming herself into a bugbear, for the extra arms - and the weight. The love she'd use in maintaining the form would be replenished soon enough.

The griffon hybrid couldn't escape as Ocellus flared her bugbear wings, checking her descent and stopping while hovering just a few feet off the floor of the Nook's communal chamber. Changelings had noticed her arrival and flew all around her - hundreds of them, a tornado of colors that surrounded her. “It's me!” Ocellus called out quickly before she was swarmed. “It's Ocellus! We found the creatures attacking the Nook - the ones responsible for poisoning us!”

“Let me go!” The griffon cried out, realizing her predicament. “She's crazy! I haven't attacked any creature - ”

Ocellus was doing nothing to hide her emotions, however - the changelings could taste her sincerity. Several of them flew forward and to the griffon. “What's going on?” One asked. “Why was a griffon - ”

“She's not a griffon!” Ocellus insisted. Grimacing, she released one of the griffon's limbs, but only so that she could smack the griffon in the back of her head, as hard as she could without taking it off. The griffon let out a squak of pain and all the changelings in the room recoiled at the sudden burst of shock and fear - but then the griffon slumped in Ocellus' grip, and glowed with pink fire, revealing her true form.

Ocellus didn't even need to be in her own true form to taste the shock at the sight of the hybrid. She lay her down on the Nook's floor and then resumed her own true form, stumbling a little and letting out a gasp as she did as the rush of so many transformations so quickly - including maintaining such a big one - caught up with her, tearing holes open in her heart. A few changelings got over their shock and were beside her immediately, opening themselves up for her, allowing her to replenish herself, drink of their love in great gasps.

Ocellus looked around at the changelings, who were all looking down at her, every facet of every compound eye in the entire Nook focused on her. “Please, it'll take too long to explain!” She said. “Nonchalant and Smolder stayed behind to buy me time, they're fighting more of these hybrids - and one of them is, is powerful. As powerful as Chrysalis was!” She hoped that Cacophony was only that strong, anyway. “Please, they need the Nook, need a swarm, right now!”

In other creatures there might have been hesitation, uncertainty, doubt. But every single changeling could smell and taste Ocellus' sincerity and desperation - and the ones among them who in the Bad Old Days has been warriors for the Hive felt their training and emotions and determination to defend the Hive stirring, buoying the spirits of the other changelings around them further, the fires of righteous aggression that blazed through the Nook.

One of those warriors was next to Ocellus. He reached out, putting a hoof on her withers as his elytra opened wide. “Take us,” he said.

Ocellus wasted no time in getting her wings back under her. “Pegasus form for speed,” she said, turning back into Rainbow Dash once more. Dozens of changelings followed suit, taking on pegasus forms of their own - they weren’t as familiar with Rainbow Dash as Ocellus was - and following her into the sky.

Just hold on, Smolder...Ocellus thought as they shot off. You too, Chrysalis...

Chrysalis had dropped down into the jungle below. Flight and the maneuverability granted by the open air was useful; the cover afforded by the thick trees outside of Tiatarta was better, however, when Chrysalis was facing ten hybrids at once - one of them an alicorn hybrid.

Cacophony’s horn glowed bright pink, which was the only warning Chrysalis got to flare her wings and catapult herself into the sky. A beam of energy followed her, terminating when Chrysalis dove back down and ducked behind a rock which promptly had its entire top half gouged out and disintegrated. She had no time to contemplate that as a pair of hybrids zoomed in from either side. One was already busy spitting up ooze; Chrysalis avoided it, letting it hit the other hybrid and pin her wing to a tree, then grabbed the first one in her telekinesis and held him up so that he could take an incoming telekinetic blast from Cacophony. Air was blasted from his lungs and he went flying from Chrysalis’s grasp.

Maybe he’d be down for the count. She didn’t have time to find out, instead launching herself away and into the branches of a tree. A hybrid was waiting for her and launched ooze at her. She let it hit her hoof and wrap around it, then used her other hoof to smack the hybrid away. She spared a moment to vomit forth dissolving fluid into her leg, and the moment cost her as two more hybrids climbed the opposite tree, took on unicorn forms, and blasted her with rays at once, sending her flying from the tree. She landed on her three free hooves and started running.

“I - just had - to make a stand...” Chrysalis groused to the shadow, which she assumed was listening even if it wasn’t in sight, its home buried within shapeshifted flesh for protection. “Couldn’t trick Cacophony into the mirror first...no, I had to have my shouting match...”

There was movement from Chrysalis' left; she did the last thing the advancing hybrids probably expected and turned towards them, running headlong into the first one and sending him flying, then grabbing both of the other two in her hooves and crashing their heads together - but that was a mistake, as while both fell unconscious, the dissolving fluid Chrysalis had spat out had not yet had time to eat through the ooze stuck to her hoof. She now had a hybrid passenger.

It worked out in the short term; another hybrid jumped at her, the griffon one with tallons raised. Chrysalis ensured the unconscious hybrid stuck to her got new scars instead of her and then smacked the griffon with her erstwhile passenger. But when she tried to run again, the hybrid made it difficult. And now Cacophony was here again, horn glowing angrily.

“You've ruined EVERYTHING!” Cacophony shouted, lashing out with a wave of magic. Chrysalis lifted the hybrid stuck to her, and he took the brunt of it - but the force was still enough to send her flying. It did, at least, cause the hybrid to come loose from her, taking most of the still-sticky ooze with it. Chrysalis met the next magical blast with one of her own, the two beams struggling against one another.

“I'm going to make you pay,” Cacophony hissed as she redoubled her efforts. “You will suffer, shadow-of-my-mother!”

“Trust me, listening to you whine is suffering enough!” Chrysalis countered, pushing her own magic forward. Pink and blue power lit up the jungle - and let Chrysalis see that she was surrounded by four hybrids. Once they noticed, they all dove for her; she waited for the last possible second, then ended her struggle with Cacophony and ducked. The beam hit all four hybrids squarely, sending them flying into the jungle. Chrysalis rose quickly, elytra opening as she pushed herself into the air. Cacophony followed, stronger wings allowing her to close in on Chrysalis rapidly - but Chrysalis was more agile, and she dove away from an attempted buck from Cacophony with ease and get in a buck of her own straight to Cacophony's chest. The princess when flying away, and Chrysalis laughed - or started to, but then a hybrid flew up in front of her, shifted into unicorn form in mid-air, and let loose a blast that hit Chrysalis straight in her face.

She saw stars and was vaguely aware of a sensation of falling. By the time she'd recovered the ground was dangerously close. She managed to get her wings working again quickly enough to slow her descent, but not stop it - that was accomplished when she found herself skidding along the ground trying to get her hooves under her, but failing because a certain annoyance orange dragon ran into her. She knocked over Smolder even as her own legs failed, and the two fell to the ground, finding themselves on their backs and staring up at the sky.

“Hi Chryssy,” Smolder groaned. She didn't look great, missing scales in a few places, a tear in the membrane of one wing. A constant fire and stream of smoke came from her mouth and nostils - her internal fires were an inferno at the moment.

“I hate you - ” Chrysalis began, but her words transitioned into a cry of pain as she heard the crunch of the carapace covering her stomach cracking - Cacophony had landed on her with all four hooves. Chrysalis struggled to take in air, dimly aware of other hybrids surrounding Smolder and spitting forth ooze onto the dragon, cocooning her faster than she could exhale fire, making certain to seal the dragon's mouth.

Chrysalis rolled onto her side, trying to spread her wings and fly away, but the remaining hybrids were too fast for the stunned, agonized changeling queen, leaping into action and spitting out ooze across the length of her elytra, sealing them shut. Cacophony's hoof came down again, kicking Chrysalis in the stomach once more, making her cry out. “This...” the hybrid princess said, breathing heavily, brushing her mane from her wide eyes, “this is a start, shadow-of-my-mother! A start to your suffering! You ruined my plans!”

Chrysalis took in a breath, breathing throguh her nose since any air through her mouth would have only turned into a moan of pain, and she didn't want to give Cacophony the satisfaction. She smelled fury and loathing from Cacophony, anger and desperation from Smolder. The hybrids were full of aggression mixed with blind adoration for their princess. And further out she smelled...determination? And love?

She blinked, then closed her eyes, form glowing blue - taking on her common Reformed changeling form, the one she wore as Nonchalant. Cacophony had begun to strike at Chrysalis when the morph began, but checked herself when it ended, staring without comprehension. “What?” She asked. “Why - why are you...why would you want to look like a drone?”

Chrysalis sucked in breath, opening her eyes and looking at Cacophony. She smiled. “Mine's bigger,” she said.

Cacophony's mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to process that - and by the time she started to make a sound again, they arrived in the night sky overhead. At first it was in the form of a flock of pegasi, but the flock moved as one and started plumming towards the ground - and blue fire tore across each and every one of them as they fell. Becasue they weren't a flock of pegasi - they were a swarm. Dozens of Reformed changelings let out war-hisses as they impacted the ground all around Cacophony and her hybrids, quickly getting to their hooves with elytra and wings spread wide and horns glowing bright blue.

The hybrids reacted with hisses of their own, falling in around their princess, who was looking at the arrival of the changelings with stunned shock. “What...?” Cacophony demaded. “But - but...how?! Why? Why - ?!”

She didn't get any further than that when the changelings charged.

Author's Notes:

I honestly didn't actually want to end this with another cliffhanger, but the chapter was growing long and by the time I reached the place that I wanted to end it at I think I would have been over 10,000 words. Sorry guys! I'm not doing this on purpose, I swear. I estimate only two more chapters after this, and possibly an epilogue.

14. Vacation

Ocellus was not lacking in bravery, but she also knew that she was a teenage changeling who'd had only a few molts since she was a nymph and that she wasn't a warrior. So as much as she wanted to immediately rush to Smolder's and Chrysalis' side, she held back until the Nook's impromptu militia surged forward, falling like a rainbow wave upon the hybrids and their princess.

However the moment that wave hit the hybrids and sent them back, Ocellus flew forward and landed next to Smolder. She'd been cocooned, but was already melting her way out of it, one arm free and steam actually rising from her scales. Ocellus helped, focusing a moment before vomiting forth the pinkish dissolving fluid that would liquefy the cocoon. Smolder closed her eyes against it and made a face, but Ocellus didn't care, it wasn't like her friends didn't have gross aspects to their own biologies. Once she'd finished, she turned to Chrysalis, who had taken on her Nonchalant-as-a-changeling-drone form.

“I d-didn't mention your name,” she assured Chrysalis as she helped her to her hooves. The former queen was clutching at her midsection, though it looked uninjured, but kept most of her eye segments focused on the battle even as it took to the skies. “W-we got here as fast as we could - ”

“Yes, I'm grateful, now shut up,” Chrysalis hissed, falling back onto her haunches and with both hooves at her midsection now, eyes narrowed and breathing in sharply. “I...I wasn't Reformed for very long, do we still molt?” At Ocellus’ nod, Chrysalis let out a short sigh. “Okay, that's good.”

Beside them, Smolder finally tore her way free of the cocoon, or enough that she could pull herself from it, though dissolving, steaming sludge still covered her from head to tail. Ocellus had to bite back a cry of shock at the sight of her friend, the fact that she was missing scales in some places, the gash in one wing's membrane. “Geh...ugh...diamonds on fire that is the worst...” She looked to Chrysalis. “You okay?”

“I'll live - ”

A pink-hued flash-pop was the only warning the three got before Cacophony appeared among the three of them. “MOTHER!” She screamed, leaping at Chrysalis even as her horn glowed bright. Smolder leapt at Cacophony, grabbing the hybrid princess about her neck but failing to slow her down as Cacophony's hooves collided with Chrysalis, grabbing on to her. Ocellus let out a shocked cry of her own, just managing to grab on to Chrysalis' body as a teleportation spell seized all four of them with another flash-pop.

There was a brief moment of nothing, but it gave way to the sound of rushing water. Ocellus was smacked away by one of Cacophony's wings, while she spun and bucked Smolder in the same direction, sending the young dragon flying into Ocellus. The two landed in a heap in three-inch deep water, though at least it served as something of a cushion for when Chrysalis collided with them, the pain apparently being enough to force Chrysalis back to her true form. Ocellus let out a gasp when she saw the injury that Chrysalis had been shape-shifting away, a crack along the length of the carapace at her belly, spider-webbed at four points where four somethings had impacted the carapace hard.

Ocellus took in her surroundings, and realized that they were back in the subbasement of the Chill Spot. The flooding had continued, nopony apparently having come down to investigate it or stop it yet, leaving the entire chamber to slowly fill up with water that was still being stained in a rainbow of colors thanks to all the alchemical supplies being spilled into it.

Catrina was still here. The middle-aged Abyssinian's eyes were wide as she regarded the four suddenly appearing in the room. She was standing in the water beside one of the fallen crates, arms full of packaged witchweed flowers and seeds. “Your majesty...” she purred after a moment. “Back so soon?”

Cacophony looked to Catrina. “Changelings are coming!” She cried out. “The shadow of my mother rallied the Nook somehow. Where's my mirror?”

Catrina used one finger to point to the floor, where beneath the rainbow-hued water the broken mirror still lay. Cacophony galloped up to it and hefted it telekinetically, looking it over. “Too small for me,” She hissed, but looked to Catrina. “But you will fit, alchemist! And then when I have repaired the mirror on this side I can return, and we will begin my conquest of this world anew!”

Catrina looked to the broken mirror, to Cacophony, and then to the trio. “Ah...no,” Catrina said, backing away towards the door and clutching her prizes tightly. “I do not think so, dearie. Spending a few months in another world as it falls apart around me? Definitely not.”

Cacophony spread her wings wide, her anger burning at Ocellus' tongue and throat as she helped Chrysalis to her hooves again. “What are you talking about?” Cacophony demanded. “What do you mean, 'falls apart'?”

Beside Ocellus, Chrysalis started to laugh, even though it made her clutch at her injury tighter and double over. Cacophony whirled on the trio with a snarl, but Ocellus and Smolder stood their ground even as Chrysalis continued to laugh. “You...” Chrysalis breathed, “are...a-an idiot! You're the one who w-went on and on about how much your world needs you.” She looked Cacophony in the eye. “A week without you? Two weeks without you? L-longer? What do you think is going to happen?”

Cacophony opened her mouth to shout, but instead it only dumbly hung open, one hoof in the air and ready to gesticulate. A low, strangled whine escaped her throat. “Wh...” she finally choked out. “N...no...n-no...NO!” She whirled on the mirror, horn glowing bright pink as she pushed magic into it, opening the portal in the mostly intact top half. “My court! My subjects! Hear me! ANSWER YOUR PRINCESS!”

Chrysalis tried to move again, but let out a cry as she only stumbled. Smolder caught her and held her upright, but Chrysalis' eyes weren't on her nor Smolder - they were on Catrina. The Abyssinian was backing away towards the door still, trying not to made sudden movements lest she alert Cacophony to her retreat, her own eyes wide and focused on the hybrid princess as her tail, fur standing completely on-end, flicked back and forth rapidly.

Chrysalis breathed in and out a few times, hooves still at her cracked carapace. “Ngh...f...f-false love,” she hissed through the pain. “Cacophony's d-distracted for now. Catrina...might still h-have the vial...”

Catrina's ears flicked and she glanced at the trio, noticing them staring at her. When they met her eyes, she turned and ran. “On it!” Ocellus called out, elytra snapping open and surging after the fleeing Abyssinian. She heard Cacophony let out a shout behind her, but then also heard dragon fire being exhaled. She didn't have any time to think of that as she followed Catrina through the door.

The Abyssinian was fast for a two-legged, middle-aged creature trying to climb stairs. Petals and leaves of witchweed scattered in the air as she ran. Ocellus didn't let the objects distract her, instead focusing on closing the distance as fast as she could, then reaching out with hooves, mouth, and telekinesis all to grab Catrina's tail. The Abyssinian let out a hiss and cry of pain as she fell forward and onto the ground just at the top of the stairs, but before Ocellus could leap on her she'd already rolled over and was swiping with her claws, two of them cutting a line right across and through the carapace on Ocellus' snout. She let out a pained hiss of her own, falling away. Rather than trying to run immediately, however, Catrina started trying to gather up witchweed seed packets.

Ocellus leapt forward. Catrina was lightning-fast in her response, claws scraping and cutting through the carapace on Ocellus' flank, but the young changeling hadn't been going for Catrina - she instead landed on the other side of her, then spun around, blocking her exit. She tried to focus past the pain as blue fire consumed her, turning her into her dragon form. Catrina hissed again, one hand clutching witchweed seed packets tightly to her chest, the other flexing and unflexing her claws.

Ocellus snorted smoke, but held up her hands. “Do you still have that vial of false love?” She demanded.

That gave Catrina pause. “What?” She demanded. “How addictive is that to you changelings?”

“Says the creature with an arm full of - ” Ocellus began, but then shook her head, spreading her draconic wings wide. Below them, she heard Smolder roaring, as well as another draconic roar - Chrysalis, probably. “It doesn't matter! Do you have any false love, yes or no?!”

Catrina almost looked like she was about to argue, but then heard Cacophony's all-too familiar scream of rage. She glanced behind her, then back to Ocellus as she reached into her robes and produced a familiar glowing pink vial, the false love she'd shown off in the mayor's office. She regarded it for a moment, then looked to Ocellus. “There's a good bet that it doesn't affect her, dearie,” she said, tossing it forward. “She is a Princess of Love, after all.”

Ocellus caught it. “You better hope it does,” she said, staring down at what Chrysalis had called liquid death for changelings, an innocuous glowing pink vial no bigger than one of her draconic fingers. “Because if it doesn't, Cacophony will be coming after you next.” She stepped aside.

Catrina eyed her a moment before slinking on by. Once she was past Ocellus, and the changeling returned to her true form, she offered a grin. “Good luck then, Ocellus,” she said, then shot off at a run.

Ocellus didn't want to let her go...but there were much bigger fish to fry. She clutched the false love in her hooves as her elytra opened and she flew back down to the subbasement.

Chrysalis had indeed taken on a draconic form, a black-and-green one about the size of Dragon Lord Ember that exhaled jade flames at Cacophony in as continuous a stream as possible, keeping her back while Smolder flew - badly with her injured wing - and kept pelting her with fireballs of her own. Cacophony had a shield up to protect her, one she had to pump continuous magic into since dragon fire had natural anti-magic properties...but she was the Alicorn of Love, a bottomless well of it even as she was a Changeling Queen, a creature for whom love and magic were identical. She could probably keep her shield up for a lot longer than Smolder or Chrysalis could keep their fire going.

She was proven right when, unfortunately, both Chrysalis and Smolder stopped exhaling at the same time - they might not have needed to breathe in those forms, but their inner fires did. Cacophony was quick, dropping her shield and lashing out with telekinesis, sending Chrysalis flying away and making her collide with a far wall with enough force and pain to force Chrysalis back into her true form, while she seized Smolder in her telekinesis and started squeezing.

“Fine...FINE!” Cacophony screamed, looking at where Chrysalis had been hurled, where she was struggling to get her hooves under her. “I don't have time for you, shadow-of-my-mother! I have too much to do - have to repair my mirror, return to my world! So you will die quickly and so will your minions but you will still all die all the same! Does that please you, mother?! Are you happy with the fate you have chosen?!”

Chrysalis couldn't respond as she stumbled and fell to her knees and hocks, glaring pure hatred at Cacophony as the alicorn-changeling squeezed her captive. Smolder struggled against the telekinesis, tried to breathe fire, but Cacophony lashed upwards with one hoof, smacking her jaw closed, then brought that hoof down and forced Smolder to the ground under it, pressing down as hard as she could even as she looked like she was trying to pull Smolder's wings right from her back. Smolder let out a muffled, smoke-filled shout of pain, squeezing her eyes shut while Cacophony's horn flared brighter, energy building at its tip...

But Ocellus, the moment she'd seen Cacophony turn her ire on Smolder, had transformed into a bite-acuda and swam up through the shallow water, unnoticed by the singularly focused Cacophony. She'd burst into her true form right beside the hybrid princess with a full changleing war-hiss, horn already glowing with telekinesis as she uncorked the vial of false love and shoved it into Cacophony's open mouth. “Zzztay away from my Zzzmolder!” she buzzed in an almost feral tone as she poured the contents down Cacophony's throat.

Her reward was a choked gag from Cacophony - and getting blasted full-on in the chest with the magical force that had been intended for Smolder. She went flying away like a rag-doll, rolling in the water and coming to a stop only when she hit the wall and heard cracks all across her body. It took several seconds before the pain of her carapace cracking open at her chest and along her back caught up with her, but when the pain did, it raced through every neuron in her brain and set them on fire.

But she didn't scream. She hissed and whimpered and trembled, but she wouldn't give Cacophony the satisfaction of her screaming. Instead, she focused on the alicorn-changeling hybrid. She'd let go of Smolder, her horn going inert as her hooves went to her throat. Cacophony was choking, gagging, tears in her eyes from having breathed in the false love as much as she'd swallowed it...but those eyes were growing wider by the moment, the pupils in them dilating. “Wh...what...” she wheezed, looking to Ocellus. “What did...wh...h-how...wh-where...” She took a stumbling step forward, then another. She started giggling. “Th...b-but you're...j-just a drone...heh...how...”

The giggle intensified. Turned into full-on laughter as she looked down. “Rainbows in the water...” she laughed, letting herself fall over onto her side, wings spreading wide and splashing it around. “Heh...haha! Look at...look at...l-look at the water! It's all...r-rainbows...”

Smolder had picked herself up - that she was still capable of standing, let alone walking even if it was in such a stumbling way, made some distant part of Ocellus jealous. Most of her was focused on the pain, however. Smolder, for her part, ignored Cacophony entirely as she rushed right over to Ocellus' side as quickly as she could, falling to her knees next to the changeling. “Ocellus...” she breathed, hands reaching out but stopping short of touching the injured changeling. She didn't want to risk hurting her more.

Ocellus reached out with an uninjured hoof, grabbing Smolder and pulling her into a hug. She hissed in pain as she did, but when Smolder tried to back away Ocellus held on tighter even though it hurt. “D...don't go,” she said, flicking out her tongue, eating some of Smolder's feelings...and this time, purposefully letting the tip of her tongue tickle the edge of one of Smolder's ear-fins. A burst of surprise and love and greed and concern all met Ocellus' tongue, were taken into her, settling warmly into her heart.

Smolder eventually shifted, not letting go of Ocellus but wanting to look over her injuries more. “W...will you...?”

“Y-yeah...I c-can...c-can induce an early m-molt...I'll b-be fine...” She giggled even though it felt like needles in her lungs. “I'm...in a l-lot of pain right now, though...”

Movement - well, more movement than what Cacophony was doing, lying on her back in the water and splashing it around with her wings - caught both their attention. Chrysalis had risen on shaking hooves, her own carapace not looking any better than Ocellus'. She looked between Cacophony and the two teenagers, determined that the latter were closer, and dragged herself on over, collapsing in a heap between the two of them. “S...so,” Chrysalis intoned, looking over at Cacophony. Her horn glowed weakly, but stuttered and gave out. “S-so...one of t-two things is gonna happen now...either...either a swarm of changelings are going to...to come down here and save us...or the f-false love is gonna wear off on Cacophony because I have no i-idea how long it'll affect her. And th-then we die.”

She fell silent, and Ocellus and Smolder were quiet as well. It was only for a few minutes, however, as before too long the door to the chamber once again burst open - and more than a dozen changelings came spilling into the room, as well as swarming down through the hole in the ceiling that Smolder had dug earlier. The changelings all froze at the sight of Cacophony completely strung-out - and as one, recoiled when they saw Chrysalis, and realized that they recognized her.

“Oh...good...” Chrysalis intoned, and then let herself fall onto her side, lapsing into unconsciousness.

Ocellus looked to her, taking in a deep breath - though it hurt like nothing else - and sighing. “That's...not a bad idea,” she managed to stutter, just as her adrenaline finally gave out, and blackness claimed her.

Smolder had only barely paid attention to whatever happened over the next few hours. All she cared about was Ocellus. She'd snorted smoke at the changelings as they tried to get close to her, at least until they'd explained that all they wanted to do was use ooze to seal up some of the cracks in her carapace, help keep it together until they could induce a molt. She'd allowed them close then. To her surprise, none of the changelings even tried to take Ocellus from her, in fact quite the opposite, they kept telling her to stay close to her and keep doing what she was doing. Which was exactly what she intended to do.

Cacophony had been cocooned tightly, the best prison to hold her for the moment. The anti-magic ring that had been on Chrysalis when she had been imprisoned had been stumbled across and put on her first, the best way to prevent any escape attempt. The magic mirror had also been recovered. It was about then that pony police and emergency responders had finally shown up. Things might have gone smoothly if not for one thing: Chrysalis.

The changelings had wanted to cocoon her just like Cacophony, but without another magic-suppression ring Chrysalis would be able to escape in short order. Some changelings had suggested taking more drastic steps, but Smolder had breathed fire at them and made it clear that any attempt to harm Chrysalis would result in the offending changeling being set on fire. The ponies showing up had been a better alternative; they'd offered to take Smolder, Ocellus, and Chrysalis to the nearest hospital. The wyrm within Smolder wanted all these creatures to just go away, but the actual person inside of her knew that a hospital was the best place for her and her friends. As they'd left, Chrysalis on a stretcher and Ocellus clutched tightly in Smolder's grip, she'd heard the changelings talking, buzzing among themselves as they saw their former queen...their former Reformed queen.

Smolder didn't need to be a changeling to smell and taste their confusion and uncertainty. But she didn't care about it at the moment, either. She'd just followed the emergency responders out to an ambulance cart and held Ocellus as gently and yet tightly as possible, focusing on the tiny changeling's breathing, the occasional soft murmurs of her sleep. She'd occasionally take in long, slow breaths or lick her lips subconsciously, and in the latter case Smolder kept feeling a pull across her soul. She did nothing to fight it. Ocellus liked the taste of her greed, and Ocellus was hurt, so Ocellus could have all the greed she wanted.

At the hospital, doctors fussed over her, Ocellus, and Chrysalis, and police wanted statements. Smolder let the former do their thing and gave short, curt answers to the latter. She and Ocellus had been allowed to share a room, while Chrysalis had been put in her own under guard, a magic-suppression ring having been found and placed around her horn. Smolder wanted to care about that in some intellectual way, point out everything that Chrysalis had done to help them...but at the same time she knew that Chrysalis was at least twice over an enemy of Equestria, and besides, Smolder had a bigger concern: Ocellus.

She wasn't actually sure how she ended up in a bed, as she was pretty sure that she wanted to remain beside Ocellus the entire time, sitting in an adjacent chair and holding Ocellus' uninjured hoof as tightly as she could. She suspected the doctors must have overpowered her somehow and injected her with something to force her to sleep. A slightly acrid smell in the air and a little scorch mark on the wall seemed to lend credence to that idea. Nevertheless, she woke up to find Ocellus was awake as well, looking directly at her. The ooze that had been sealing the cracks in her carapace was gone.

“Hey,” Ocellus said softly. She was holding onto a plastic cup full of some kind of thick maroon liquid, was drinking it down even as she winced at the taste. She chuckled. “The dragon wakes from her slumber...”

Smolder rolled over onto her stomach, looking to her wings. The torn membrane had been stitched closed, and the wing was in a binding to keep her from stretching out the membrane and tearing the stitches. Across her body, damaged scales had been pulled loose, exposing raw although still tough flesh underneath; it would be weeks before everything had grown back. She was also pretty sure she was missing a few teeth, though those always grew back in dragons as well. “H...how are you?” Smolder asked.

Ocellus finished her apparently vile drink, setting it down on a nearby table with a trembling hoof. “I'll...be better once that kicks in,” she said. “It's a brew that induces molting. Takes a few hours. Ecdysis dropped it off.”

Smolder nodded as she studied a currently scale-less portion of her arm, before blinking. “W-wait, Ecdysis? But she's still passed out in the drunk tank...”

Ocellus shook her head, though winced at the effort. “We've, uh...been out for awhile, a few days. I only woke up an hour or two ago.” She shivered. “Th...the doctors say that you actually took a lot worse than me...but dragons are just built tougher.”

Smolder shrugged, though she winced as she did since her instinct was to spread her wings when she did that, but that pulled at the stitching along her membrane. She glanced at the thread holding her wings closed, picking at it with one claw for a moment before stopping lest she ruin what the doctors had done. “It's gonna take me weeks before I look normal again, though,” she said. “You'll be fine this time tomorrow.”

Ocellus began to respond, but froze. “Oh, uh...w-well, I'll be fine, and...and I promise I'll do everything I can to m-make sure that you're fine too! I won't...” she screwed up her face, gathering her courage as she actually tried to rise in her bed, though she quickly collapsed from the effort. But she looked to Smolder with determination. “I won't let him do anything to you!”

Smolder blinked, head turning to the side. “Him?”

Ocellus' horn stuttered a few times, grabbing a piece of paper that had been sitting on the bedside table and floating it over to Smolder. She grasped the paper from the air and looked to it.

Dear Ocellus and Smolder,

I just opened the paper this morning for the first time in a few days - myself and my friends have been busy in Canterlot with the Summer Sun Celebration, or the Festival of the Two Sisters as it'll be known from now on, but that's a whole other thing - and read about everything that happened in Tiatarta, or at least some of it, something about a conspiracy, and love poisons, and an invasion from another world? I don't know what's going on but I'll be there as soon as possible! Myself and Starlight will take turns teleporting, we should arrive later today!

- Headmare Twilight

Dear Headmare Twilight,

Don't worry, everything's okay! Me and Smolder and C another creature were able to stop everything with help from the Nook. We were kind of hurt in the process but the doctors say that we'll be fine, and all the bad creatures were taken into custody by either the Nook or the Tiatarta police! There was a little bit of concern since apparently Cacophony (an evil half-changeling half-alicorn from another world) was exerting some control over the police force but Mayor Delilah Dusk gave permission for the Nook changelings to also keep an eye over us along with the police. So everything's fine!

- Ocellus

Ocellus,

You don't understand! I read about it in Equestria Daily! And I know that the Badlands Hive has a subscription to it! Which means that Thorax and PHARYNX read the same thing I did: “the heroes are currently recovering in Tiatarta General Hospital and are expected to make a full recovery!”

- Twilight

It should have been literally impossible for Smolder's blood to run cold, and yet she was pretty sure she felt it turning to a gelid ooze in her veins as she read the last missive. “Oh no - ”

Either they had been waiting for Smolder to speak, or else the universe had a cruel sense of dramatic timing. In either case there was the sound of shouting from outside of their hospital room, threatening hisses and the buzzing of changeling wings. Smolder found herself badly wishing that Rep or some other hybrid had escaped their prison and was coming looking for revenge, but she had no such luck. Instead, the door to the hospital room was seized in blue magic and torn from its hinges and tossed aside, and Smolder got to meet Pharynx for the first time.

He wasn't much shorter than Chrysalis, his carapace largely a dark pine green, but with purple compound eyes, red elytra, and red antlers atop his head. And somehow, even though his fangs were proportionately no larger than Ocellus', Smolder just noticed them more, perhaps because his mouth was already open a snarl. His elytra snapped open and spread his crimson wings as soon as he stepped inside, and Smolder could just tell that every single facet of his compound eyes were focused on her.

Smolder had genuinely not believed that a Reformed changeling could be intimidating, especially not to her. She was very, very wrong. The moment he'd entered the room she'd started exhaling smoke defensively.

Pharynx hissed. “You. Had. One. Job.” He jabbed a hoof at Ocellus. “ONE JOB, DRAGON! KEEP HER SAFE! NOW I'M GOING TO - ”

“Pharynx,” a quieter voice intoned. Pharynx seized up at the sound of it, as did Smolder and Ocellus. Thorax came in after his brother, the King of the Changelings' entrance far more subdued as he placed a hoof on his brother's withers. “We talked about this on the train ride here, remember?”

Pharynx snorted. “Yeah, I remember you talking. I never said I agreed with any of it.” He looked at Smolder. “It's been awhile since I've eaten dragon but I remember liking the taste.”

“U-um,” Ocellus spoke up from where she lay. The two royal changelings turned to look directly at her. She wilted, but pressed on front hooves twirling around one another. “S...Smolder did everything she could to keep me safe, everything. B...but in order to do that, we had to break curfew, and she had to let me go off on my own, since it was the best way to keep me safe. But....but me running off on my own was my idea! So I deserve to be punished too.”

Pharynx snarled again, but Thorax once again held up a hoof, then came forward, looking down at Ocellus, and the remaining thick, maroon liquid in the cup she'd been drinking from. “So everything will be fixed by a molt?” He asked. When Ocellus nodded, he did too. “Alright. And thank you for telling me immediately that you broke the rules I'd laid out, but also why.” He smiled down at her. “It can be sort of easy to get into the habit of lying when you spend time around other races. I know I did when I lived in the Crystal Empire, never anything big or bad, but it was just so liberating in its own way. But it's not a good habit.” Thorax turned to Smolder. “If you don't mind, could you tell me everything that happened?”

Smolder swallowed. She knew exactly why Thorax had talked to Ocellus first, brought up the habit of lying before turning to her. Somehow, even though she was more viscerally afraid of Pharnyx - who was still standing in the doorway, elytra spread wide, snarling at any doctor or nurse that tried to get inside - she felt more intimidated by Thorax. Not in the sense of bodily harm, but rather the King of the Changelings just exuded this natural aura around him that almost made it feel like lying to him or disappointing him would be the worst thing in the world.

So Smolder told Thorax everything she could about what had happened in Tiatarta, everything she knew about the two days she and Ocellus had been in the town, what they'd gotten up to, what they'd learned...and who'd they'd met. The one time she'd paused, unsure, was when it came time in her retelling of events to reveal that Nonchalant was really Chrysalis. She'd wrestled with it for a moment before Thorax had reached out a hoof and put it on her shoulder and told her that he already knew about Chrysalis, that she was here. The burden of secrecy lifted, Smolder pressed on, leaving nothing out.

And Ocellus had been sure to speak up as well, to tell Thorax everything she could about Chrysalis, how she'd acted, what she'd done...including relating how Catrina and Cacophony had stolen Reformation from Ocellus, had offered a chance to steal it from every changeling, and what Chrysalis had said. What she'd done - embracing Reformation.

Pharynx scoffed. “Yeah, I'm not buying it,” he said. “Chrysalis just saw a way to hurt Cacophony, so she did. It doesn't mean anything.”

Ocellus started to object strenuously, but the effort instead resulted in a pained wheeze. Smolder was out of her own bed in an instant, pushing past Thorax and grasping Ocellus' uninjured hoof, ignoring her own pain. Thorax and Pharynx were only slightly slower, and the tiny changeling quickly settled down at the presence of the three creatures around her. “Chrysalis...is changing,” Ocellus insisted once she'd settled down. “She's changing. I swear she is.”

“I never knew her,” Smolder said quickly. She stood up straighter, spreading her good wing out. “But, look, here's what I do know: she could have just let the Nook suffer, but she didn't. She had a chance to steal Reformation from you guys, but she didn't. And she and me kicked butt and took names in the skies over Tiatarta. Maybe this is just me being a stupid dragon, but as far as I'm concerned, if some creature is willing to fight with you, they can't be all that bad.”

Smolder had been around Ocellus enough to know how to read changelings, knew that Thorax and Pharynx were looking between one another with uncertainty. Smolder glanced to Ocellus herself, and saw that Ocellus was looking back at her, and nodding as she shifted in place. Giving Ocellus' hoof a light squeeze, she let go, heading out to the door to the hospital room where a bevy of doctors were waiting. “Can we get a wheelchair for Ocellus?” Smolder asked.

“Absolutely not,” one of the doctors spoke up. “You shouldn't be out of bed, nevermind her, she's - ”

“Okay, let me rephrase,” Smolder said, “go get a wheelchair or I'm burning this place to the ground.” She heard a grunt from Pharynx, or maybe a short laugh. The medical ponies, meanwhile, looked between each other, unsure, before one of the orderlies decided not to risk things and hurried off to a waiting wheelchair, bringing it forward and into the room. Smolder took it from him, and the two brother changelings used telekinesis to heft Ocellus as gently from her bed as possible and set her down in the chair.

“This is a bad idea,” Pharynx said as the four took off, Smolder pushing Ocellus' wheelchair. He glared at the doctors who tried to follow them. “If she tries anything, dragon, you run with Ocellus. Thorax, you go high, I'll go low.”

“Got it,” Thorax said. He looked down to Smolder and Ocellus. “One other thing...Smolder, if you didn't love Ocellus as much as you do, she'd be much worse off. Your love is probably what's allowed her to even be conscious. So, thank you for sharing it with her.”

Smolder flapped her good wing. “Dragons don't do love,” she mumbled.

“Oh for goodness' sake,” Pharynx hissed. “You said yourself that Chrysalis drained you and Ocellus of love after she was poisoned. What do you think that was? Dragons absolutely 'do love'.”

Smolder felt a rumble in her chest, but before she could respond with her usual litany Ocellus reached back to put a hoof on her hand. “We'll talk later,” she insisted, glancing up at Smolder. “It's...it's important.”

She really didn't want to leave things at that, but Smolder found herself sighing and nodding, not wanting to rile up Ocellus right now. The quartet took an elevator to get to the hospital's next floor, and when it opened Smolder found herself looking at a trio of pony police officers - and a sextet of changelings, including Ecdysis, all standing outside one room, the entire rest of the hospital floor having been cleared. On seeing her King, Ecdysis instinctively went down on one knee, as did all the other changelings, though they also rose swiftly.

“She's still inside,” Ecdysis said. She flashed a smile at Ocellus, but her gaze quickly hardened as she looked at Thorax. “Mayor Dusk is letting us take point on how to detain her. I have warriors in the skies outside as well. She's been tethered in place and has a magic-suppression ring on, but I'm not taking any chances.”

Thorax nodded, then looked to Pharynx. Pharynx gave a nod of his own, then cricked his neck. “If nothing else,” Pharynx said, a smile on his face as he put a hoof on the handle to the door and turned it, “it should be a real hoot getting to see what the old hag looks like n - whoa.”

Chrysalis heard the door open, and turned to look. She had just opened the window to let some fresh air and sunlight in, so the sight that greeted Pharynx was of her unblemished, glossy fuzz shining in the light as a breeze blew at her voluminous hair; she brushed some of it behind her ears, out of the way.

Pharynx's jaw was hanging open a little at the sight of her, and Chrysalis could taste surprise and wonder in the air. She grinned. “Hello, Pharynx,” she intoned. “Congratulations on being the least-awful Reformed changeling to look at. Or rather...the second least-awful.”

The words cut through to Pharynx, who closed his mouth and scowled, stomping into the room with his elytra snapping open. He looked to the bed, and saw that the leather straps that had been holding her in place were completely intact, but also apparently completely useless. The magic-suppressing horn ring was lyng on a bedside table next to the shadow's purple wooden home. Pharynx looked to Chrysalis, his glare intensifying. “How?” He demanded.

Chrysalis laughed, ignoring the pain it caused her with practiced ease. “I'm the Queen. Don't question it.” Her own eyes narrowed. “Now tell that eyesore to get in here.”

He didn't have to, as Thorax was already entering. Chrysalis couldn't stop a snarl at the sight of him, the changeling who had dared turn again her, betray her, steal her Hive...to end his starvation. To find a way to end starvation for all changelings...something he'd succeeded at where Chrysalis had failed. Although it was nowhere in sight, she could somehow feel the shadow's eyes upon her, reminding her of all that had transpired, all that she'd learned, come to realize.

Chrysalis opened her own elytra and spread her wings wide, holding them up. The tip of her elegantly curved horn was about the same height as the points of Thorax's dumb antlers, and her forewings stretched up and beyond that height. Thorax seemed to realize what she was doing, and he let out a sigh, opening his own elytra and standing his own wings up as tall as they'd go - and their height stopped just short of the point of his own antlers. “You were right,” he droned. “Your wings are longer...mother.”

The Queen smiled at her small victory, tucking her wings away before the tremble in them could be noticed. Thorax did likewise as Smolder and Ocellus came in. Chrysalis turned her attentions to her erstwhile allies. “Smolder. Ocellus. The doctors have not been talkative, my changelings even less so. What's happened to Cacophony? The hybrids? Catrina?”

“Cacophony is being kept Tiatarta's stockade,” Thorax answered instead of the teenagers. Chrysalis glared at him, but he pressed on. “She's cocooned and suppressed, and being guarded by ponies and changelings. She's not cooperating with any creature. The hybrids...they're at the Nook under guard. False love withdrawal is starting to set in so mostly we're helping them with that. The Nook doesn't have any place to really keep them, though, so we'll transfer them to the Badlands Hive. I've worked out with Princess Celestia that we'll have custody over the hybrids, while Equestria gets custody over Cacophony. I think Princess Cadance wants to see her.”

Chrysalis gave a toothy smile, and shifted her balance from one hoof to another to relieve a building ache in it. “Oh, I would kill to watch that unfold. Tell Cadance to bring Shining Armor with her. It'll be fun.”

“We don't know what happened to Catrina,” Thorax continued. “She could be anywhere by now.”

At that, Chrysalis hissed, but waved a hoof as she sat back on her haunches, taking the strain off her front hooves. “Very well. Send out infiltrators into the southern realms, she'll most likely flee in that direction, towards Abyssinia where she can blend in better, and Abyssinian soil is suitable enough for witchweed. Once she is located, spare no effort in capturing her and finding out where she has stashes of witchweed. The plant must be wiped out at any cost.”

Thorax and Pharynx looked between each other. “What are you doing?” Pharynx finally asked. “Giving out orders like that? You forget what you did?”

Chrysalis hissed. “What I did is lead the Hive for over a thousand years. What I did was keep you secret and safe and fed as best I could for all that time. What I did - “

“Was run away!” Pharynx objected with a stomp of his hoof. Chrysalis kept herself from flinching, or at least hid it by lifting a hoof and resting it on her barrel. “You had your chance and instead you threw it in our faces and flew off.”

Chrysalis glared at him. “Stare down every living enemy you have at once some time, you jumped up drone! Them and all your subjects turning against you! See if you stand your ground!”

“But we weren't your enemies!” Thorax cried out, a hiss of his own just behind his words. “Starlight Glimmer was there, she held out her hoof to you, you'd seen that there was another way and we would have gladly kept you as queen in spite of everything!”

Chrysalis snarled. “Starlight Glimmer had no right to offer me anything! She stole everything from me and then offered it back if only I capitulated? No! The Hive is mine, the changelings are mine, I am your QUEEN - ”

She'd stomped her hoof at the start of the final word - and the result was a shock of pain that went straight up its length and throughout her body. She cried out, the hoof unable to support her, flaring open her wings to keep from falling over. But that only caused pain all down the length of her elytra, and she ended up stumbling and falling down to the ground anyway. Blue fire danced over her body, but she snarled, suppressing it.

Chrysalis glanced up from the ground, and saw Thorax and Pharynx had backed away. She growled, forcing herself back into a sitting position, though she breathed heavily as she did, an ache all through her body. Thorax's eyelids fluttered rapidly. “Wh...what's wrong?” He asked.

Chrysalis hissed instead of responding. She struggled into a standing position, then started limping over to the hospital bed, though every step felt like nails being driven into the frogs of her hooves. “Nothing. Dealing with you is just exhausting. Leave me.”

Pharynx actually went to, but Thorax held out a hoof to stop him. “No,” he insisted, stepping forward. His horn glowed and a light aura extended around Chrysalis. She hissed again at the thought of being lifted like some grub, but the aura only supported her, it didn't actually seize her. Chrysalis sniffed a little at the feeling, accepting Thorax's proper supplication and aid to her royal person as she made it to the bed and crawled onto it. She managed to keep her breathing at a mostly normal level.

Smolder and Ocellus reminded the older changelings that they were in the room then, Smolder wheeling Ocellus in her chair over to Chrysalis' bedside. The True Queen of the Changelings looked her youngest subject present in the eyes, as Ocellus' own eyes took in all of Chrysalis' unblemished body at once. She looked at her own wounds. “My parents once said that I should never shapeshift away wounds for too long,” she said softly. “That wounds don't heal if we ignore them, they just hurt. And...” she reached out one of her good hooves, putting it on one of Chrysalis' own. “And I bet if we went back far enough. you probably told that to one of my ancestors at some point, didn't you? And it passed all the way down from you to me.”

Chrysalis ground her teeth together, biting back a hiss. She looked to Thorax and Pharynx, then finally rolled her eyes, sighed, and released her magic - and immediately had to bite back a cry of pain as the wounds she'd been suppressing fully returned, the cracks across her carapace, especially at her stomach. She grabbed tightly onto Ocellus' own hoof once they all came back, and when they were back and the pain stopped mounting and became acceptable again, she looked at the tiny changeling, then turned her glare back on Thorax.

“How I bet you've dreamed of seeing this,” she hissed through her pain, “admittedly probably with me in my original form...but hurt and...weak. How many nights have you imagined the great and terrible Queen Chrysalis, the being who created you and everything you are, battered and broken and at your...mercy?”

Thorax took in Chrysalis' injuries, the spiderweb cracks at her stomach, the sections of her carapace where the fuzz had been burned away. One of Chrysalis' eyes was weeping of its own accord, she wondered if it was bloodshot. Hadn't had a chance to see herself in a mirror yet. The traitor king stepped up to the other side of the bed and sat down. “I've never had a dream like that,” he said. “But...I've had a few nightmares like it.” Chrysalis could taste the sincerity in the air. She scoffed anyway. At length, Thorax spoke up again. “What would you even do if you became queen again, mother?”

Chrysalis shifted on the bed, letting go of Ocellus' hoof so that she could look Thorax in the eye. “Again? I never stopped being your queen. I will always be your queen. You can never take that from me. I made you everything you are and everything you were and everything you ever will be, will always be becuase of me. You will never stop being my subjects, not even if you kill me now and scatter my ashes to the wind.”

“Alright, fine,” Thorax said. “Fine. But what would you do?”

Chrysalis paused. She was silent for a long time. Every now and then an idea came to her, but just as quickly her own mind turned against it. Before Reformation her answer would have been immediate and obvious: feed her subjects. But her subjects were fed. So...what now?

“I...” Chrysalis finally ventured, “I...don't know.” She looked at Thorax, the traitor...who'd fed her subjects. She shifted. “What do you do?”

“Make it up as he goes along,” Pharynx said immediately. He'd moved closer to the door at the sight of the injured Chrysalis, and turned slightly...so that while he could keep an eye on Chrysalis, he could also watch outside. Protect his Queen. He probably didn't even know that he was doing it.

“Pharynx!” Thorax exclaimed. “I don't...okay, yeah, I do. But I have help. I send letters to Princess Celestia all the time, and Dragon Lord Ember. And I've been reading a lot on what rulers are supposed to be like. And Pharynx helps out too, with the stuff I'm not so good at.” He shifted a little himself. “The Badlands...food is growing there now, but not as much as I'd like. It's still a pretty dry climate even with, uh...the thing that was killing all the vegetation gone.”

“My throne. The throne you blew up,” Chrysalis said.

“Yeah, that. So I came up with this exclave idea. The Nook was the first, a proof-of-concept. If it works out there's plenty of places in Equestria and beyond where other exclaves could be set up.”

Chrysalis considered. “Not...terrible. But the Nook is poorly defended, weak. I take it that was your idea? Trying to seem friendly and cute for the ponies? But look at what happened. There needs to be a proper force of warriors, infiltrators. Even ponies have police forces in their towns.”

“That's what I kept saying,” Pharynx muttered.

Thorax was silent for a long time, before finally nodding. “You're...you're right, mother.”

Chrysalis shifted once more. “But also,” she ventured at length, “perhaps...perhaps much of what happened could have been prevented...if I'd been in the Hive. If you had been...been better prepared to deal with and understand love poisons and false love.”

“Maybe,” Thorax offered.

For another length of time, silence reigned over the changeling race rather than Chrysalis. She licked her lips, tasting the air...and the multitude of emotions that reached her was staggering. Anger and hate and resentment blended with love and hope and sorrow and anticipation, from Thorax, from Pharynx, even from Ocellus and Smolder. It was impossible for even her millennia-old pallette to easily parse.

Finally, Chrysalis broke the silence once more. “I am your queen,” she said. “That will never change. Never. But...what being queen means...might.” She pawed at her bedsheets. “And...and I am very old and...and very used to doing things a certain way. But changelings don't need to do things that way anymore.” She glanced over at Ocellus, looking at the young changeling. “Things have changed for the changelings, and...and we cannot go back. We cannot pretend to be what we were.”

Even Chrysalis knew that she didn't really mean we so much as I, but fortunately no creature present saw fit to point that out. Chrysalis looked back to Thorax. “You...I will never bow to you. I will never call you 'king'. I will never acknowledge your right to rule over me because I am your queen, forever, and you and every other changeling in this world are mine. But...” she felt her own hoof lifting, was almost surprised when she reached out. Thorax lifted a hoof of his own. They touched. “But...you seem to have a...a grasp on how to lead the changelings forward. So...you may continue to do so.”

Thorax was looking at her hoof in his own. There were tears in his eyes, becasue of course there were - he wouldn't have been Thorax if there hadn't been. He used his other hoof to wipe them away, sniffing and nodding. “I'm going to do the best I can for the changelings, no matter what,” he said. “I...I want to make us into something we can be proud of - we can all be proud of.” The scent of hope filled the air so much that every changeling perked up at it. “Will you...will you come back to the Hive?”

Chrysalis looked down, considering, wondering what would be waiting for her at the Hive if she did. She was surprised at how quickly the answer came to her: her changelings would be waiting for her. Maybe not with open hooves. Probably there would be no “Welcome Back” parade. But...they would be there.

Chrysalis looked back to Thorax, feeling her wings buzzing against her back. “I will consider it - what is that noise?”

A low buzzing had filled the air, and a glow in magenta and pink. Chrysalis turned to look in the direction of it, and saw that the two teenagers were looking at themselves. The spines atop Smolder's head and which ran down her neck and to her tail had started glowing and vibrating, while atop Ocellus' back, her elytra had started doing likewise. It didn't appear painful, at least, as the two looked startled and curious but not otherwise troubled.

“What...what am I looking at?” Chrysalis asked.

“Yeah, what's happening?” Pharynx demanded. “Is this Cacophony? Catrina? Something else?”

Smolder and Ocellus looked to one another, and both let out a groan at the same time. “Oh boy,” Smolder intoned, rubbing her face. She looked to Chrysalis. “Okay...remember how we said that we'd come to Tiatarta to solve a friendship problem...?”

“I think...” Ocellus ventured, wincing at her words as she regarded her queen, “I think that...that the friendship problem was just solved.”

Chrysalis felt her eye twitching. The twitch got worse when a cyan flash-pop filled the room behind her. “Made it!” The voice that filled Chrysalis' dreams - for in those dreams it was screaming and begging for mercy in the most delightful ways - exclaimed. Starlight Glimmer sounded exhausted.

“Good work, Starlhiiiii every creature,” Twilight Sparkle's voice said, sounding equally tired. “Um...King Thorax...Prince-General Pharnyx...good to see you...so, hahaha...Cutie Map, am I right? Sometimes it wants you to help out a resteraunt, sometimes it wants you to save Equestria! Who knows! It's really quite - is that Chrysalis?! What did she do to her mane?!”

“I'm going to kill her,” Pharynx rumbled.

“I'm going to help,” Thorax - Thorax - agreed as he turned around.

Chrysalis rolled over, and there she was. Twilight Sparkle, yes, the Princess of Friendship was there...but standing behind her was Starlight Glimmer. The unicorn saw Chrysalis, and her eyes grew huge and mouth dropped open. It was a good look on her, although Chrysalis was sure she could puppet her mutilated corpse's face into an even more amusing expression.

“One side, bugs,” Chrysalis snarled as she clambered from the hospital bed...and promptly had her legs give out and so she plummeted to the floor. She hissed in pain. “Hhhzzzkkk...fine.” She looked up at Starlight, who was still looking at her with that stupid expression. “You have until I molt into a new carapace. Then I'm coming for you.”

Starlight, wisely, disappeared in a cyan flash, taking Twilight with her. Thorax and Pharynx left the room, though not before both lifted her up and set her back on her hospital bed. Chrysalis, meanwhile, chuckled even though it hurt. She looked to Smolder and Ocellus, who apart from glowing like Hearth's Warming ornaments, looked like they were wondering if their School of Friendship was going to need a new Headmare and Guidance Counselor in the near future.

“Battered, broken, barely able to lift my head,” Chrysalis said, reaching out and tapping Ocellus, “and I still send my enemies fleeing in terror. And that is why I'm still queen.”

15. Tomorrow’s a Day of Mine

“Are you sure about this?” Smolder asked as she knelt on the end of the hospital bed, holding Ocellus’ forelegs just above the elbows. The changeling’s eyes were wide open, and her back, especially around her withers, had developed what had started as a twitch but by now had become an ongoing series of convulsions, accompanied by an occasional wet crack. The whole thing frankly would have been frightening to look at and hear if not for Ocellus’ reassurance that everything was going fine.

Ocellus nodded – maybe, with her convulsions it was actually kind of difficult to tell. “Y-y-yesh,” she stuttered out, her jaw not quite moving right. “I-i-it’ll hhhelp.” With Smolder having to hold onto her upper forelegs, Ocellus was, Smolder couldn’t help but feel, very close to her. The distance disappeared entirely when Ocellus leaned forward, pressing her forehead against Smolder’s chest to brace herself. “O-on-n-n th-three-ee…o-one…t-two-o…three!”

Smolder grabbed onto Ocellus’ legs tightly, holding the changeling in place even as Ocellus pulled as hard as she could against the grip. The result was the loudest crack yet. Ocellus’ carapace split open from behind her horn, down her head and neck, and about halfway down her back. There was a feeling beneath Smolder’s hands like there was something moving under the carapace, because there was: Ocellus herself. The head and forelegs of her carapace went limp, but at almost the same time Ocellus’ real head and forelegs emerged from her old carapace, her new one a pale bluish-white and covered in a clear, shiny fluid. She set her hooves – the only part of her body that retained all of its former rigidity – atop her old carapace and held still for several seconds, taking in long, deep, shuddering breaths that sounded desperate. She shook her head just as Smolder moved to help her. “It’s fine – I’m fine – this is – normal,” Ocellus gasped out.

Smolder nodded, trying not to look down at the carapace’s old head – a head that looked like Ocellus’ own and with Ocellus’ face, but now limp and split, leaking whatever fluid Ocellus was covered in, its eyes having lost their shine.

Eventually, Ocellus began struggling, trying to slide more of herself from her old carapace. Smolder helped with that, grabbing where Ocellus directed on her old body and holding it steady while Ocellus pulled herself from it with a series of wet cracks and pops. As soon as her new elytra – which were likewise much, much paler pink than was normal for her – were free Ocellus opened them wide, spreading her nearly transparent wings. The wings seemed far too short at first, neither as long as their respective elytron, but as Smolder watched they actually grew steadily in length with each deep breath Ocellus took, as did the gossamer frill that ran along her neck and head.

“Are your wings full of air or something?” Smolder asked.

Ocellus shook her head. “No it’s – blood but – I’m timing – my breaths – to my – heartbeat,” she gasped out. “I need – to make – sure my – new carapace – expands.” Her breathing eventually slowed down to a more regular level once her wings were the length they were supposed to be, and she nodded to herself. “Okay, back half…um…” She glanced at Smolder, a blush readily apparent with how pale she was currently. “U-um…th…this is…awkward to ask…”

Smolder glanced to Ocellus, then down at where her hindquarters were still in her old carapace, and quickly put two and two together. She felt a blush creep beneath her own scales, and wondered if it showed through. “Uh…I might be able to…” she came up alongside Ocellus, sitting down next to her but facing the other direction, and reached around to grab her old carapace’s waist – but when she got too close to Ocellus’ still-sensitive, still-delicate new carapace the changeling let out a sound that was half-hiss and half-whimper, flinching away.

Smolder backed off, then looked to Ocellus. “There’s no way to do this without getting behind you, is there?”

Ocellus offered a weak, embarrassed grin, turning more red. “I…I can get out myself,” she said, struggling a little, kicking her legs like they were trapped inside of too-tight pants that were refusing to come off, “…eventually…”

Smolder felt herself exhaling a small amount of smoke as she got behind Ocellus, slowly reaching and laying her hands just in front of Ocellus’ hips on her old carapace. She didn’t break eye contact with Ocellus as she did…and wasn’t sure if that made the situation less embarrassing, or more, given what this position would look like to any creature that walked in on them.

“Ready when you are,” Smolder said, trying to sound casual about it despite being all too aware that her good wing was spread wide and her tail was wagging with a little too much enthusiasm.

Ocellus nodded, taking a few breaths before pulling herself forward, Smolder holding on tight. After a few seconds of struggling there was a wet pop, and Ocellus pulled herself completely free of her old carapace. Smolder made absolutely certain that she was staring at the ceiling rather than Ocellus’ plot as it came free, and did her best to ignore the relieved sigh from Ocellus that almost sounded like…something else.

Ocellus slipped from the bed once the process was done, standing with her four legs spread apart, elytra and wings wide, gossamer tail behind her slowly growing out the same way her wings had. Her entire body was still slick, her new carapace glistening brightly in the hospital room’s light. The fact that her new carapace lacked fuzz at the moment – that would take a few days to grow in – also contributed to the shine. It honestly made her look like a living statue carved from pale lapis lazuli, with two brilliant sapphires for eyes…

Smolder wasn’t sure how long she stared at Ocellus, but eventually the changeling moved, slowly sitting down like she was worried the experience would be painful and breathing out a sigh of relief when it wasn’t. She was very deliberate with her movements as she pressed a hoof to her chest, prodding lightly at the carapace, wincing a little at the touch. But she then looked to Smolder, and offered a tired but real grin. “Did I get any taller?” she asked.

Smolder blinked a few times, before shaking her head, bringing herself back to the here and now. “Uh…no, I don’t think so,” she said, hopping off of the bed and breathing out a little more smoke, trying to get her temperature under control. She stood next to Ocellus, holding a hand out to Ocellus’ withers. “The same, I think.” She reached a little closer to Ocellus, but stopped herself before actually touching her, pulling back quickly.

Ocellus, however, reached up and grasped Smolder’s hand with both her hooves. She looked the dragon head-on. “I know you’re curious,” she said. “You…you can feel it, if you want. Just b-be careful.”

Smolder had frozen at Ocellus’ touch, unsure at first despite Ocellus’ assurance, but curiously eventually won out an she slowly reached forward, placing her fingertips on Ocellus’ withers. Ocellus took in a sharp breath, and Smolder almost withdrew, but the changeling leaned up into the touch and held Smolder’s hand in place. So Smolder slowly, carefully ran her hand across the base of Ocellus’ neck, where she occasionally scratched her friend to reassure her. The fluid that still covered Ocellus was slick and oily to the touch, while her carapace was far softer and more pliant then Smolder was used to.

“I-it’ll take most of a d-day to harden fully,” Ocellus explained, eyes fluttering closed as Smolder’s fingers slowly rubbed the soft carapace, the dragon making sure to apply no pressure at all beyond what Ocellus wanted. “I’ll – ngh, that feels weird…I’ll d-darken down to my n-normal shade t-too…ngh…”

She was so vulnerable. Smolder’s instincts were pretty slow on the uptake with regards to how to deal with other creatures, but right now she knew that Ocellus was tiny and delicate and vulnerable…and yet instead of wanting to take advantage of that, to extend her claws and dig them a little into Ocellus’ new carapace, mark her, establish herself as stronger and torment the weakling, all Smolder wanted to do was make sure that nothing and no creature got close to Ocellus.

And Ocellus…this couldn’t be normal for a changeling, could it? Letting some creature touch them while their carapace was soft and delicate? Ocellus wouldn’t be able to molt into a new one even with another molt-inducing tincture for weeks, and one wrong move, one extended claw or snorted flame or even particularly hard push could damage the carapace, leave Ocellus in pain for that whole time…but Ocellus continued to instead lean in to the touch, occasionally lick her lips, feed on Smolder’s greed.

Changelings can get addicted to false love, Smolder reasoned, and she’s been eating so much of my greed these past few days…if a changeling eats too much of one emotion from one creature, could it…?

Smolder snorted a little more smoke, withdrawing her hand as quickly as she could without risking harming Ocellus. She used a towel to dry the molting fluid off of her hand. “R-right,” she said, trying to take back control of the situation. She needed to distract Ocellus quickly, before the changeling smelled or tasted the change in her mood. “Um…I can’t really smell much except smoke right now, but if I remember last time, you need a shower about now.”

Her light jab had the desired effect. Ocellus’ blush was immediately noticeable beneath her pale carapace, her cheeks actually turning truly red as she let go of Smolder’s hand. “S-Smolder!” she exclaimed, though she lifted a leg to her mouth and breathed in deeply. “It’s…it’s a new carapace smell. It’s nice!”

Smolder crossed her arms, pointing over her shoulder at the discarded old carapace. “That’s sort of a corpse, and the last time you molted, even after a week you didn’t notice the smell.”

“I mean…I did notice it! I just didn’t think it was that bad…”

“Uh-huh. But what is soap, right?”

Ocellus glared up at Smolder at that, trembling a little with her annoyance. “You’re lucky it’s a bad idea for me to shapeshift right now,” she said, leaning forward and gently poking Smolder’s chest. Or firmly. Her natural form wasn’t exactly strong enough for Smolder to really be able to tell the difference. But after that she did turn around and head towards the hospital room’s bathroom, which they’d already confirmed contained a small shower with a head that could be set to “mist”, a gentle enough water flow for Ocellus right now.

She stopped just outside of it, however, and pointed at her old carapace. “Don’t get rid of that,” she insisted.

“Yeah, I remember,” Smolder said, waving a claw. “It’s lunch for the next few days.”

“Exactly. And don’t have any without me!”

Smolder waved that off too, though it was only when Ocellus had stepped into the bathroom that she realized what Ocellus had implied – that it wasn’t going to just be lunch for Ocellus. Smolder shifted a little, looking back at the discarded carapace that had the contours and facial features of her friend…that Ocellus wanted her to help her eat. Dragons could eat just about anything, of course…and Ocellus sharing it was probably a big deal to her.

Too big a deal. The last time Ocellus had molted she’d hidden in her top bunk in an almost draconic fashion, asking – nearly demanding, as much as she was capable, anyway – Smolder leave her alone. Granted that wasn’t long after first meeting her. Nevertheless, Ocellus changing gears so much, wanting Smolder around, asking for help, letting her touch her new carapace, and now offering to share her old one…

Smolder didn’t like the implication. She grunted, making her way from the hospital room and out into the hall. Ocellus and Smolder had requested to be moved up to the same level that Chrysalis was on, a request that the hospital staff had granted after a little cajoling from Smolder and gentle words from Thorax. The floor still had both pony police and changeling guards, since in spite of Chrysalis’ earlier words and Thorax’s assurance that she was turning over a new leaf, she wasn’t exactly trusted yet.

Ocellus probably wanted to be on the same level as Chrysalis out of concern for the former queen, a desire to be there if she was needed. Smolder, for her part, had a slightly different reason. She walked over to the door to Chrysalis’ room, waving at the guards outside. She’d expected to have to talk them down, but the ponies deferred to the changelings, and the changeling outside just unlocked the door for her and let her in.

She found Chrysalis still resting on the hospital bed, a cup containing a familiar-looking maroon, thick liquid in her hooves. She was finishing it, retching slightly at the taste as she did. She locked eyes with Smolder as soon as she finished. “I am certain that Ecdysis spat in this,” Chrysalis said, waving the molt-inducing tincture’s cup before setting it down on her room’s table. “Joke’s on her, it improved the taste.”

Smolder regarded the cup, then looked to Chrysalis, grinning a little. “I don’t even want to know what that stuff tastes like if changelings hate it.” She considered, then crossed her arms as she leaned against one wall, careful of her injured wing. “Speaking of…what goes well with carapace?”

“I find anything becomes palatable when drenched in enough honey,” Chrysalis said with a wave of her hoof, “but the carapace itself should taste like lemongrass, perfectly fine on its own. Do you remember when I told you that alone time is a punishment for changelings? The only exception is when a changeling is molting. We prefer to be alone then, while our new carapace hardens and until we’ve finished eating our old one. We’re vulnerable. Weak. We used to despise weakness. One more thing Thorax has changed, I suppose…”

Smolder felt herself grunting again. Given how vulnerable a newly-molted changeling was and their inborn fear of starvation, she’d figured as much already – and that made her suspicions about what was happening with Ocellus all the worse. “So what would it mean if a changeling shared it?”

Chrysalis let out a low hiss. “Typically, it meant that we had been having a very rough patch, so I forced them to share their molts so that as many bugs as possible could eat.”

Smolder shifted. Forced them to share. That’s what she’d figured. “Y-yeah,” she said, glancing down. “Ocellus has said she likes the taste of my greed, and we’ve spent a lot of time together the past few days, just the two of us…and she actually let me touch her just now after molting, even though I’m pretty sure it hurt her a little. I think eating my greed is starting to affect her, somehow. Like, I think it’s making her want to be part of my hoard. I think I need to spend some time away from her – ”

“Hhhzzzkkk!”

Smolder started at the hiss, stepping back and looking back to Chrysalis, who was glaring at her with undisguised contempt. “You are an idiot, dragon.”

Smolder fumed – literally, smoke came pouring out of her mouth. “Says you! You want me to start listing your problems? I don’t have anything else to do tonight!” She smacked her tail against the nearby wall for emphasis.

“I have more on my plate than even you could count, but apparently I have to set it all aside and deal with you and your problems! You. Are. In. Love!”

Smolder growled. “No I’m not! Dragons don’t – ”

“Yes you do! I eat love! I’ve eaten draconic love! I know it’s smell, it’s taste. I know every kind of love from every kind of creature and I know that you are in love with Ocellus!”

Smolder growled again, stomping up to Chrysalis’ bed. The changeling queen lifted her head to look Smolder dead-on, not intimidated at all. “No, I’m not. I want Ocellus in my hoard. I want to own her. That’s not love, that’s just avarice!”

“Which is love, you stupid lizard! Or it is for you!” Chrysalis leaned forward. “Not every creature parses love the same way. You are a dragon, greed isn’t just some other emotion for you, it’s a feeling woven into every aspect of your biology!” She reached up one hoof and jabbed Smolder, with a lot more force than Ocellus could. “Of course you want to own Ocellus, make her yours. Because things that are yours are things you can protect. And you want her in your lair because that way you can be around her, be near her at all times. And that is love.”

Smolder tried to turn away, but Chrysalis lifted her hoof and put it to Smolder’s chin, turning her back with far more strength than Smolder would have thought the injured queen was capable of. “I bet if we got the Princess of Food here, Cadance would tell you all sorts of things about how love is made up of these big romantic gestures. Fighting a beast or delivering a hundred thousand flowers or presenting a horn-ring with a diamond so large it would cause neck problems. That’s how ponies like to think of love. But do you know what kind of love is sweetest? Most filling?” She released Smolder, leaning away. “The kind that simply makes you want to be around the creature you love. No gestures. No great proclamations. Just…sitting in a room, in the quiet.” She looked pointedly into Smolder’s eyes. “And that’s how dragons parse their love all the time. You are in love, Smolder, you’ve fallen for Ocellus and every changeling can tell.”

Smolder clenched her fists, glaring right back at Chrysalis. “And the fact that I want Ocellus sitting on top of a pile of gold and gems? I want her as a crown jewel?”

“You’re still a dragon. Cadance’s version of love involves lovestruck idiots inflicting grievous bodily harm on themselves if they’re not careful. Love is always a risk. But tell me this,” Chrysalis jabbed a hoof at the door. “If Ocellus told you she hated you and never, ever, ever wanted to see you again, and say there was nothing you could do to change that, what would you do? Be truthful, Smolder, I’ll know if you’re not.”

Smolder didn’t even need a moment. “I’d go back to the dragon lands. I’d drop out of the Friendship School. Or…” she thought, grimacing. “No…I wouldn’t want to just abandon all my other friends. Maybe move to another dorm? But I’d leave Ocellus alone like she wanted…I’d try to, anyway.”

“So in either case you’d give her up? Respect her wishes rather than try and make her yours? Seems like you have a handle on your greed already.” Smolder went to retort, but Chrysalis cut her off with a sweep of her hoof. “Also? There’s something you missed: Ocellus eats love too. I said every changeling can tell, didn’t I? She knows full well how you feel towards her, and she invited you to help her molt, be by her side during one of the most vulnerable periods in her life. Take a hint, Smolder!”

Smolder kept her glare on Chrysalis, fists clenched, good wing extended, tail lashing back and forth behind her…for all of five more seconds. But then what Chrysalis said, what she meant, hit her. She felt her eyes widen, her wing and tail gradually droop, her fists unclench as this information washed through her. “Ocellus…loves me?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, laying back down with her head in one hoof. “More of a snack than a meal at the moment, but yes, and if she asked you to help with her molt then I’d say her feelings have grown considerably. I think I remember her shouting something like, get away from my Smolder at Cacophony. You deaf, blind idiot.” She waved a hoof imperiously at her hospital door. “Do what you want with this information. I don’t care, I’m just sick of your ignorance.”

Smolder leaned away from Chrysalis, crossing her arms – hugging herself, as her good wing extended around her as well. Ocellus loved her too? Wait, too? Was she really accepting what Chrysalis said that fast? But on the other hand she was an emotion-eater…

She felt her tail wagging back and forth again. Stupid thing had a mind of its own. She also noticed the smug look on Chrysalis’ face, and scowled. She was not going to let Chrysalis win the conversation like that. “Well, thanks for the relationship counseling…Chryssy.”

Chrysalis bristled. “If you ever call me that again – ”

“Did you prefer Nonny?”

“I would prefer you show proper respect for the True Queen of the Changelings!”

“Hey, I’m not a changeling.”

“No, you’re a dragon and I know where you live, so if you keep it up I’ll find your hoard and take every last jangle.”

“You put one hoof on my hoard and I’ll – ”

“Oh I won’t be me when I do it. I’ll be you. It’s my hoard too! I deserve some of it.”

Smolder roared. Chrysalis hissed. The pony police officers outside rushed into the room, but the changeling guards, scenting the truth of the matter, were slower. Both found that while Smolder and Chrysalis were forehead-to-forehead glaring at each other, they were also both grinning slightly.

“I hate you,” Chrysalis said.

Smolder was certain that Chrysalis was trying to take advantage of the fact that Smolder couldn’t smell emotional cues, hoping that the dragon didn’t know that while she said hate, she meant something else. She decided not to push the issue. “I hate you too…Chryssy,” Smolder said – daring the queen to come after her hoard. She turned and walked from the hospital room “Have a fun molt.”

Smolder made her way back over to her hospital room. She found Ocellus waiting for her, having stepped from the shower, carapace now glistening with water rather than whatever fluid it had been covered in. She was in the middle of the room, laying towels on the ground.

She gave a sheepish smile to Smolder as she entered. “Sh-shower was nice, but, uh…drying myself w-without hurting myself is gonna be d-difficult.” She shivered a little.

Smolder was beside her the moment the shuddered. “Are you cold?” she asked, reaching out to put a hand on Ocellus before remembering herself. But when Ocellus nodded slightly, she still scooched closer to the changeling even as she stopped breathing, letting her inner conflagration start heating up her scales. “Just lie down on a towel, I’ll get you dry,” she said.

Ocellus complied, and Smolder set about the delicate task of trying off Ocellus without applying too much pressure or friction to her new carapace, which mostly consisted of laying them over Ocellus so they could soak up as much as possible, Smolder exhaling hot air over the towels to get them warm. She worked in silence, since talking meant breathing, which meant cooling her inner fire.

In time, Ocellus was dry (except her wings, which even normally were delicate and needed to be air-dried, nevermind these newly-molted-in wings), and Smolder uncovered the changeling. With one bed currently occupied by a discarded carapace – and its sheets stained with the molting fluid that leaked from it – Smolder easily gave up her own bed. Ocellus lay on her stomach on it, and Smolder carefully maneuvered the sheets around the changeling so they lay across her back but under her still-spread wings and elytra. When she noticed a shiver from the tiny changeling, she wasted no time in getting down next to Ocellus, spreading her good wing – which was just as heated as the rest of Smolder – over her back.

Ocellus finally broke the silence then with a giggle. “Y-you know,” she said pointing at one wall, “you could have just adjusted the room’s temperature.” Before Smolder could move to do that, though, Ocellus scooted a little closer to Smolder, pressing herself against her through the sheets. She winced slightly at the initial touch, but quickly leaned more into it. “I prefer this, though. You’re still like a heated pillow.”

Smolder chuckled. “No I’m not. I’m a dragon. My scales – ”

“Heating pads.”

“Well, my wings – ”

“Blankets. Definitely heated blankets.”

“The shock of my tail is a thunderbolt. Leave me with that, at least.”

Ocellus tilted her head a little so her compound eyes could see behind her, look at Smolder’s slowly wagging back-and-forth tail that in no way resembled a thunderbolt, shocking or otherwise. “Okay,” she allowed anyway. She lay her head on the pillow, even as Smolder curled her arms to use as a pillow for her own head.

Neither Smolder nor Ocellus spoke for some time after that…but Smolder’s eyes were open, and so were Ocellus’. They didn’t break eye contact, instead listening to the sound of Ocellus’ breathing, and Smolder’s own longer, slower breaths. The occasional flicker of Ocellus’ wings, or the gentle swishing noise of Smolder’s tail sweeping through the air. The occasional sound of Ocellus slipping her tongue out of her mouth, licking her lips…tasting the air, and Smolder’s emotions in it. The greed – the desire to have Ocellus, to keep her close, to be around her. The love.

Ocellus moved her head a little closer to Smolder’s. Or Smolder moved closer to her. She wasn’t entirely sure. She was sure that the movement didn’t stop, even though her eyes and Ocellus’ own drifted closed the closer they got. Just as Smolder lost sight of Ocellus, however, she found her again, her lips brushing Ocellus’ own.

From the outside, it wasn’t great. Neither had mouths exactly designed for kissing, the shapes were wrong. But Smolder nevertheless felt her inner fires blaze to life. A conflagration raced through her veins, making her curl her toes. When the kiss ended, she drew back. Her intent had been to half-open her eyes, to try and give a smoldering – ha! – look to Ocellus and maybe say something disarming, to keep Ocellus off-balance.

Instead her eyes shot open as Ocellus leaned in again, far more powerfully, pressing her lips to Smolder’s own with frankly surprising force for the tiny changeling. The fire within her burned even higher, to the point where a small part of her remembered to remove her wing from Ocellus lest she burn the changeling. Another small part noted that if that was an issue then it sure wasn’t stopping Ocellus from kissing her. Of course, most of her had abandoned thought entirely, in favor of losing herself in Ocellus’ lips.

Ocellus finally broke the kiss, leaning away and taking in great, deep breaths, tongue tasting the air again and again for several seconds. She finally settled down, half-opening her sapphire eyes and smiling at the effect she’d had on Smolder.

“Mine,” Ocellus said, breaking the quiet at last, her word containing an almost aggressive hiss within it. But then her gaze softened, and she reached out and put a hoof in Smolder’s open hand. “Please?”

Smolder blinked at the declaration, at being claimed…at being added to Ocellus’ hoard, like Ocellus was a part of her hoard. Their hoard. After several long moments, her wing draped over Ocellus’ back once more, and she leaned in, tapping the tip of her snout to Ocellus’ own. “Yours.”

Chrysalis had begun her life biting and pounding and tearing herself loose from being trapped within a dead tree. In a sense, the very first thing she had ever done was molt. So she was well used to it, and the difference between her Reformed form and her original one weren’t nearly large enough to make the experience all that different. She tore herself loose from her old carapace with practiced ease, although before doing so she’d made sure to telekinetically move everything in the hospital room in front of the door, ensuring that she wouldn’t be disturbed, or at least that she’d get ample warning.

Well, there were the windows. But she pulled the curtains for those, doing her best to simulate the small, dark cave she’d rather be molting in. But this was the best she could do with what she had, and it wasn’t really all that bad. In the old Hive she would have had changelings outside her chambers guarding her while she molted and her new carapace hardened, and this was almost the same.

“Is this a bad time?”

Chrysalis couldn’t help herself – she let out a yelp, while her head was still mostly buried within her old carapace. She flailed while her legs were only halfway out of her old legs. The action caused her to slip from the bed she was on, fall over, and she grimaced in preparation for what would be blinding pain as her body impacted the floor…but there was no impact. There was instead the shimmering sound of telekinesis holding her in place, then a series of cracking sounds. Piece by piece her old carapace was sliced apart without touching Chrysalis beneath it, though whoever held her captive saved her former face, in an awkward position staring at the floor and blocking her view of who held her, for last.

But eventually, Chrysalis found herself looking at the Father of Monsters. “Grogar!” She exclaimed.

“Good, you remember that much,” the ancient goat noted, his expression unreadable as he lifted Chrysalis and set her back down on the bed. He waved a hoof at the door to the room and a silencing spell appeared over it, even as his telekinesis also re-assembled Chrysalis’ old carapace. He watched his own work with interest as he fused the seams and cracks together into a perfect whole, a replica of Chrysalis’ old carapace…which he then began crushing in his telekinesis, smashing, compressing it all down with wet crunches until the carapace was a ball maybe a foot across. He then let it fall to the floor and shatter.

Grogar finally turned his gaze back onto Chrysalis, as the pieces of the carapace ignited, burning with blue fire before disappearing entirely. “This worked out well for you. I could take out some of my frustrations on that instead.”

Chrysalis tried to weigh her options…and none of them looked good. Her new carapace was soft, easy to damage, sensitive to even the slightest touch. The delicateness of the carapace also made changing shape a monumentally stupid idea; it was possible, but the pain would be so great that even Chrysalis doubted if she could function after it, not to mention the damage it would cause. Simple telekinesis and magic was an option, albeit likely to damage her carapace around her horn…but in terms of a raw contest of magical power against Grogar, Chrysalis knew she came up woefully short.

But she would not let her fear show. She struggled to stand and get down from the bed, spreading her elytra and new wings wide, taking in deep breaths to get her carapace to expand properly. Grogar actually waved a hoof nonchalantly at that, as though giving her leave to continue. Once she felt her new carapace no longer retract inwards too much when she exhaled, she tried to flip her mane casually – only to remember that at the moment, she didn’t have a mane. Or tail, for that matter, nor the fuzz and mantle that her Reformed state possessed. She found herself oddly missing the mantle in particular – the hospital room was cold to her soft, fluid-covered new carapace.

“This – this is an unexpected surprise, Grogar,” Chrysalis began. “I did say I would take perhaps two weeks vacation, and it hasn’t been even one…”

“And yet you’ve been busy,” Grogar noted. His horns flashed – and Chrysalis couldn’t help but wince – but instead of harming her, a copy of Equestria Daily appeared, with an overhead picture of Tiatarta dominating the front cover, and a headline that read “Trouble in Tiatarta!”. “Quite the understatement,” Grogar intoned at the title. “When I read this I thought to myself, no, not Chrysalis! She is a master of disguise, after all! There is no way she could be so stupid as to reveal herself to the ponies!”

Chrysalis scowled at the accusation, setting aside how strange it was to learn that Grogar read newspapers. “I revealed nothing,” she said. “I was found out… the creature who did it had magic that could see through my shapeshifting! It was nothing I could have anticipated.”

Grogar scoffed. His magic flashed, and the paper burned to ash. He walked over to the window, pulling one curtain aside slightly and glancing out. “And yet here you are, recuperating in a pony hospital. I understand you were even visited by Thorax and Twilight Sparkle. What is it you would say in your trade? Oh, yes…” he turned away from the window. “Your cover has been blown!”

“It’s not my fault!”

“I don’t care!” Grogar stomped away from the window, getting close to Chrysalis. “I want to know one thing and one thing only. What have you told the ponies? How much do they know about me, about Tirek and Cozy Glow, and our plans to bring ruination to Equestria?”

Chrysalis held her head up high. “Nothing,” she said – truthfully. “I’ve barely given you a second thought, Grogar. I’ve been…busy. There was a threat to my changelings, a colony they’ve established here. I needed to eliminate it.”

Grogar rolled his eyes. “I could have sworn that I’ve told you before that I don’t care about you or your problems! But you haven’t spoken to any creature?” His horns flashed, and magic washed over Chrysalis with an odd snap sound. She recoiled at it, but it didn’t seem to do anything to her. Grogar snorted. “Well that was unexpected. You’re telling the truth, it seems. And that makes deciding what to do with you all the more difficult.”

Chrysalis bristled, a bizarre feeling without fuzz. “What are you talking about?”

“Your resolve!” He lifted a hoof and prodded Chrysalis, hard, in the shoulder. Despite herself, Chrysalis gasped in pain, falling back and away at the touch. She glanced down and saw her new carapace was indented there now, she could feel it pushing against her in ways it wasn’t supposed to. She hissed at the sight, but counted herself lucky. It would be annoying and uncomfortable, but she could live with it until her next natural molt.

Grogar pressed on. “I recruited you to my side out of some modicum of respect for your age and power and skill. But now I read in the paper that you helped to save a town of ponies. Thorax and Starlight Glimmer are both in this town right now, two of your most hated enemies, and yet you lay here comfortably in a hospital.”

Chrysalis waved a hoof at her slick, soft body. “What am I supposed to do? A breezie could defeat me right now, or how I was before with my carapace breaking open!”

Grogar’s eyes narrowed. “Ahh…so you were biding your time, then? Taking advantage of pony hospitality and Thorax’s desire? Waiting for the perfect moment to strike, after you’d recovered?”

“No,” Chrysalis answered. That much was the truth. But she pressed on with something that was decidedly less so. “I remember watching what happened to Sombra, mighty Grogar. None of us are strong enough on our own to defeat Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Only together will we have the power. So yes, I planned to bide my time, recover in this hospital, perhaps even finish my vacation. But then I would return to the fold. At worst the ponies would have known where I had been – but they believed me to be free anyway, so nothing has changed. And if I disappear again, leaving them with the impression that I’ve changed? If anything this could work out well for us.”

The Father of Monsters kept his glare on Chrysalis for a few moments, before a slow smile crept across his face. “Insidious,” he allowed. “Exactly what I would expect from the Queen of the Changelings. Very well, Chrysalis. I still don’t trust a word you say – but you have impressed me enough that you will be given a chance to prove your resolve.”

His horns glowed, and yellow-black magic seized Chrysalis. She let out a gasp of pain at the feeling of all the fluid covering her dissolving, and another when a sensation like tiny needles across her entire body began. But even as she did, she saw and felt the result of the magic: her new carapace stiffening and hardening, the fuzz and the fur of her mantle growing back in seconds, joined swiftly by the full length of her mane and tail. The magic released Chrysalis, and she patted herself down, eyes wide in surprise at having had her tanning process accelerated. She looked back to Grogar. “Thank you, mighty Grogar,” she said, doing her best to sound grudgingly submissive.

“You can thank me by serving your purpose when the time comes for us to conquer Equestria,” Grogar responded. He turned from Chrysalis, yellow-black magic shooting at a nearby wall. A portal opened up, beyond which was the central chamber of Grogar’s lair. “But your vacation is over after this debacle! We are returning to the lair, now.”

“Of course,” Chrysalis allowed, though she couldn’t keep from grumbling, at least outwardly. Grogar would expect that.

Inwardly? Inwardly she was screaming. First and foremost because her royal sensibilities simply could not abide being commanded by any creature, ordered around like she was their servant.

But second…because this was not how thing were supposed to be happening. Chrysalis had wanted to return to the Hive, to see what had changed, what needed fixing and what Thorax had done right, determine for how long her effective appointment of him as ruler in her stead would last. Changelings had changed, she had come to accept that. They were exposed, but they were fed…and she was still their queen, and she had wanted to find out what that meant in this new paradigm that Thorax was no doubt clumsily, but also sincerely, trying to adjust to.

And yet here Chrysalis was, stepping through the portal, leaving behind the cool air of the hospital room and stepping instead into the moist, clammy air of Grogar’s hidden lair. What choice did she have? Grogar was ancient and powerful beyond her ken, he had demonstrated that readily and repeatedly. She was no match for him on her own, and she wasn’t going to throw her life away for nothing. And so she found herself with her hooves on wet stone, her eyes adjusting to a dank, dark, cool cave.

Grogar had just stepped through the portal himself when Chrysalis remembered something – or rather, realized she had forgotten something. “Wait!” She exclaimed, turning around just as the portal closed. Grogar looked to her curiously, and she met his gaze. “I forgot something in the hospital room. My…stick.” She realized how lame it sounded, but she wanted the shadow to remain her secret, something she kept from Grogar. “It’s important to me.”

Grogar rolled his eyes. “Is it?” he asked. “Then its absence can serve as a reminder for the consequences of failure.” Chrysalis started to object, but Grogar glared at her, horns glowing bright. “Yes?” He demanded.

Chrysalis retreated back a few steps at the glare. She shivered. “N…y…yes, mighty Grogar,” she got out at last.

“Good. Go do…whatever. But don’t leave the lair! Cozy and Tirek will return in a few days, and then this vacation nonsense can be over and done with!” He tromped off towards his own private chambers, disappearing into the darkness of the lair. “Then, we can get back to our plans of conquering Equestria!”

Chrysalis watched him leave, then shifted, looking around. Without Tirek tromping around or working out, or Cozy Glow flitting around being saccharine and trying to make friends with the two of them, the cavern was devoid of other creatures and the sounds they would make. The small pond in the cave was absolutely still, its surface as smooth as glass, and nothing lived in it to cause even the slightest ripple. There weren’t even any insects or bats or other animals that might have provided at least some background noise, a spell cast by Grogar kept them all out so that his cave would remain clean.

She scuffed a hoof on the floor, and listened to it echo. It didn’t do much to stop the ringing in her ears…the cacophonous silence that reigned over the cave. Chrysalis hated silence…because, she now realized, she hated being alone. She was a changeling. She didn’t do well on her own.

And yet…here she was. Alone. But only for a few days, only until Tirek and Cozy returned. Then she could learn what the two had gotten up to in their camping trip to Gar-Centauria, even as she told them about Tiatarta, impressed the centaur and the maybe-pegasus with her skill in uncovering an insidious plot against her changelings, how she’d defeated a mad alchemist cat and an insane alicorn-changeling and her army of hybrids with the aid of Ocellus and Smolder, how she’d spoken with Thorax and learned about how much her changelings had changed and how she was going to go back to the Hive and find her own place within it, find out what being queen meant to the Reformed changelings…

Yes. She only had to endure the silence for a few more days, and then Cozy and Tirek would return. The cave would fill with sound not of her own creaton again. The silence would end, and she wouldn’t be alone…

…and then…

Author's Notes:

Please be sure to also head on over to the Afterword!

Talking shop about the story! Characterization and plot choices! Personal favorite scenes - and outlining a few deleted scenes! And plans for future stories set in this continuity!

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