“You can’t be serious.” I shake my head, struggling not to trip over my hooves as I step closer to Mike. “I may not be a doctor, but I’m feeling fairly cognisant.” My mind reviewing the scattered memories of the consciousness scale. I was aware of myself, responded actively to my environment, even if my info was inhibited, which being a pony would certainly be explained by that would be hallucination. I was dropped earlier, that indicates ability to feel pain. “I think your vision might be broken a bit there.”

Mike just stares at me, then shakes his head. “I can’t understand you. I don’t speak horse.”

I facepalm, then wince at the firm appendage hitting a lot harder than I was wanting. “Sweet mother of Faust, can someone translate and give us some answers here?!” My eyes searching each of them, Angela just shrugs but the other bat steps forward.

“The nature of our adversaries suggests a more likely origin, and I can understand you. Are you familiar with our--the human’s lore regarding these creatures, the changelings?”

“A little, I did a little reading when you all first mentioned them. Families used to claim that disabled children were...were imposters.” My mouth suddenly feels incredibly dry and my chest tenses. “You aren’t….are you saying we are changelings?”

“No, we would have been able to see if you were. I believe you are exactly what you appear to be, a pony from Equestria, our homeland.” He pauses for a few moments, looking over at the remaining changeling in the graveyard. “My mare and I were chased through a portal that led here when thousands of them raided our capitol. Our magical defenses had fallen, and our guard had been incapacitated.” He looks over at the both of us.

“Does that mean our parents are these horse things too? Why wouldn’t they have told us about it, and none of them said anything about these pendants?” As fascinating as their history was we had more pressing questions.

“That ties into the second part. I don’t know where the pendants came from, but I’ve recognized that kind of magic before. They look similar to the Elements of Harmony, powerful artifacts that are the manifestations of the accumulated minds of our entire species. Not the elements themselves, but those artifacts I’d be willing to bet were made by an earth pony familiar with them.”

He sighs before continuing, looking up at the moon as if trying to beg it to answer for him. “This won’t be easy to hear, and by Luna I wish it wasn’t the most likely option. When we were exiled the portal was under the control of the lings. That means nopony got through they didn’t want to. That, plus the souls that look exactly like you means that you were brought here as captives. A perfect prison that drains at the magic of all who dwell within it, a jail as strong as Tartarus.”

“You see, the catch here, is that humans keep track of everything. When I first arrived they were obsessed about papers, documents, and where I had come from. Things you cannot live without here. The changelings likely realized they couldn’t just keep their captives in a prison. The humans would find it. They also couldn’t let you just naturally turn into a human, you would still have your resonance that could be tracked.”

Something clicks as he speaks, as if I had just remembered I had left the stove on. The back of mind starts to ache and burn as something forces its way to the front of my mind. Then everything goes white.

I’d been dragged across the ground for sometime now. Encased in that sickly green slime I could hardly even move. Hours had passed by, feeling every tree root, patch of grass, and patch of mud. The air here reeked of things I didn’t even have names for.

“Did you find a mark?”

“Yeah, we have one about the right age. Seems such a waste, but leaving them around could cause trouble later.”

In their grasp is a little bipedal creature, their mouth covered in green slime and they’re clearly trying to scream. They seemed like a dragon, but without wings, scales, or a maw. What were they doing with them?

“Let’s get this over with, the parents will be back any minute. Queen would flay us all if we messed this up.” The creature is forced to their knees right in front of my cocoon. The three changelings tracing a circle on the ground with a magical flame. An enchantment, but for what?

“Tell me you remember the spell…” One of them glares at the one standing behind the youngling.

“Of course I do! Shut your yap!”

“Faust, I miss the old ways, this just seems going too far.”

“The old ways failed us, the new order is what will bring us all to prosperity.” The supposed leader growls. Then they start to chant in a language I don’t recognize.

My eyes widen as I see one of the changelings legs shift into a serrated blade. Their horn with the others making the circle glow in sickly green light. I see them reaching forward. They can’t possibly be...oh buck NO! I scream within my encasing, the little youngling across from me, their face wet with tears, and yet oblivious to what is truly happening.

The blade is quick, in that, there are small mercies.

The little one moves forward, their neck splashing blood over the cocoon, as I feel my slimy prison soak up every drop like a sponge. The pain is agonizing as if I was being surrounded in fire as the slime turns red. Looking down I see my hoof start to flex and crack, a finger starting to form from the cracked keratin. My fur melting away into the mush, my back and hips cracking as my bones reshape and mend. My scream is silent in the slime, only making me choke as I struggle to properly breathe.

Th-these monsters! H-how could they do this to the little one? My eyes unable to look away from their stare as I see the life leave their eyes, the barest hint of my reflection in their vacant eyes, but it isn’t my reflection for long. I feel a rush as their life passes, memories not my own flooding into my mind, each one as nonsensical as the last even as my own start to grow distant. I whimper in realization. They had just killed both of us.

The snap back to reality is...grim, to say the least. The others looking at me with concern, none of them realizing the extent of what had just happened. Tears were already streaming down my face from the memory.

“They killed them.” I choke back a sob before pointing at Angela. “They killed you, they killed me, and then they killed whoever we used to be.”

“We were never human, we were monsters living in a skin that wasn’t ours. Stealing a life we stole from the dead.” My stomach starts to revolt as the memory crops up anew, I stagger over to a tree and promptly lose everything I’d eaten in the past hour. The taste of bile fitting for how disgusted I feel with myself.

“You aren’t making very much sense Arty.” Angela states, though she seems to have gotten the idea, but I really don’t have the nerve to spell it all out for her. Luckily Mike’s dad comes to my aid.

“You are from our homeland. The changelings abducted you, then to keep you hidden performed a blood ritual. A ritual that sacrificed a child for you to steal their lives and be impossible to find for any that might try to find you. Does that make sense to you?” He spits fuming with rage. “They are senseless monsters that deserve to rot in the depths of Tartarus!”

He gestures over to the unconscious changeling. “The young that are selected to be infiltrators or other higher classes get implanted into the living. Slowly devouring them from the inside until they hatch, then kill their entire families for food before returning to the hive. Tell me, does that make sense to you!?”

“We can’t just kill them now, they are unconscious, unarmed in an almost literal sense.” I stare at their body, the memory resurfacing of what they had done. “They are young, like we are. Like that child was that they killed. We don’t know hardly anything about them.”

“Didn’t your little flashback show you what these bastards do? Faust, you really are bleeding heart ponies. Some villains can’t be redeemed!”

I don’t really have anything to say to that. I’m not really in the best state to be making these kinds of choices. I just couldn’t stomach the idea of being part of a murder. Well, another one. I’ll never be able to sleep at night again, their face… my face staring back at me, seeing the life leave their eyes. What did that make me? Was I them? Were they me?

“We can’t kill them dad.” Mike finally speaks up. “Evil or not, this one tried to save my life. I couldn’t live with their death now. The other changelings didn’t seem to be on the same side, we can’t say all humans are evil because of a few.” He pauses, then looks up into the moon. “Mom said so.”

Eclipse just groans and stomps on the ground in frustration, walking in an anxious circle while deliberating. “We need a place to put them then, we’ll get answers and when they show you all how evil they really are we will kill them then.”

He looks sternly at Mike, but they don’t meet his gaze. If Mike were clenching his teeth any harder I swear they would break, clearly pissed about something, but he says nothing. Instead I just give an awkward cough. “Well, Eclipse, you’re the adult here and the only one of us who knows anything about where we came from. What the hell are we supposed to do?”

“We survive and keep a small profile.” Angela scowls at that, her wings clearly portraying her mood with their little flicks. Good thing it had a wide collar or else it would have ripped.

Eclipse continues on, ignoring her. “Listen, Equestria is gone. It’s taken over, going there is suicide. If the Lings are here, they could be anyone or everyone. The entirety of the government and law enforcement. We can’t trust anyone and rely on not being discovered.”

“We stay here, we are sitting ducks! You think they won’t notice that we killed a few of them and that they weren’t watching their prisoners?” Angela fumes. “We won this fight! And that was just the two of you! Let them send whatever they want, we’ll get better weapons, you can spot them and boom, dead.” She sprints in a circle around all of us for emphasis, her form a blur. “Last I heard they couldn’t do that.”

“A few, maybe. What happens when it’s ten? Twenty? How many do you think you could survive? Or better yet, how many innocent people will get hurt? I have a human wife, and three children.” He flies up on top of a gravestone. “They are assassins, influencers, and blackmailers. They won’t just kill us, they will destroy us. What happens when they see you on camera robbing a bank? Going on a shooting spree?”

I wince at the thought. No one knows about changelings in the first place either, they’d throw us into the loony bin for even suggesting it. Just...just like my mother. I need to see her, to tell her she’s not crazy, but then what? “So...we lay low. I doubt I could convince my family in any way to leave. Not to mention that they still know what we look like.”

“We kill the other one that got away before they report back and we can keep things quiet. Then we use this Ling to persuade the others that things are still fine. I’ve lived here for years, and now there are two of us to search.” Eclipse looks around the graveyard. “We stay here, play dumb and hide. So long as we aren’t making a scene and seem under control they probably won’t care too much. That’s the whole point of them banishing us here. They will search for the lost changelings and assume it was natural causes or human death. So long as we stay here we are safe.”

Angela sits under one of the trees. “We should move then. There was some weird anime chick chasing after us earlier and I doubt she would just give up. It’s a miracle they haven’t found us already. The changelings aren’t our only problem right now.”

“Speaking of which…” Mike interjects, his voice still terse. “I know it is probably not the most important thing right now but I promised my gal-friends dad I’d have her back before ten, and I think it’s a bit past that. Arty is the only one here that brought a car, and well, you shouldn’t be driving like that pal.”

“Oh buck, and I’m already on thin ice from the last time I stayed out this late.” I groan at the realization of how late it must be now.

“Each of you should go home. Try and...explain away this evening. The good news is that they want each of you alive. Else you would be dead right now. Evidently you were either somepony important, or related to somepony important. The both of us are the only ones in real danger here. So, we will take the body and dispose of the body properly.”

“The less I hear about this the better.” I state, grabbing the pile of clothes with my mouth while trying to drool as little as possible. I’d have to grab the car later, the excuse of delay would certainly at least make my absence explainable. Hopefully I would...well, what exactly? It’s not exactly changing back if this is what I really am.

“I need to get back soon too then.” Angela gives her wings a few flaps. “I love the wings, but they kind of make hiding from secretive government agents and nosey neighbors a problem and--Woah!” She tilts heavily to the side from one particularly strong flap. Her face cracks into a smile. “Okay, so we uh...meet again in a week?”

“We should also keep our online chatter quiet. Last thing we want is them to find any of our conversations and investigating.” My mind recalling the extent of all the internet archives kept of everything we say and do online as the paranoia starts to kick in. “I’ll show you all how to do proper encryption next time we meet. Monday?”

The others nod and start heading on their way. Eclipse hauls away the dead body on his back while Mike does the same with the still living changeling. Angela starts to run off using her wings to occasionally glide a little as she hops onto the rooftops in a way I can’t help but be a little jealous of. Left alone I start to slowly trot home, wondering how I could cope with the soul wrenching guilt of being the imposter on a child’s grave.

Losing the targets was certainly a blow to my plans, but hardly the end of things. I breathe in the air, feeling the tingle of magic. It was so powerful here. With a flick of my hand I levitate over a trashcan and thrust it against a wall hearing it crack from the impact.

“Nova? NOVA? What part of undercover and observation do you not get!? I know you can hear me!” His voice is evidently trying to be professional, but his rage is quite clear. Poor guy, just trying to do his job. Lucky for him our organization is in great need of people with his particular set of skills, all that stress will go away soon enough.

“I’m here, and I got an ID on our targets.” Play dumb, and let him be kept reliant on my observations. The Gifted will now be more cautious, buying me more time to convince them properly to join the cause. Just a little while longer to pretend that he is still in charge. Shouldn’t be too hard.

Have I mentioned that I love wings? I really love my wings. Feeling the crisp air tearing against my skin, the feel of the breeze through my feathers. If it weren’t so exhilarating I could fall asleep like this. Tap tap tap glide. I was really booking it, even if someone was looking up they’d barely get a glimpse and--woah!

I curse as I feel a bit of my thrust disappear, my shoulders aching as my wings start to numb. Unable to stop myself before the next edge I drop to the ground and slide trying to slow myself. I yelp as I feel the rough padding tearing at my skin regretting the decision instantly before dropping off the edge. Two stories pass by quick when you’re in a panic but the impact is rather...lacking.

I stagger to my feet a little dazed, but surprisingly intact. My arms, legs, and cheek are a bit rubbed raw though. Each stinging like a dozen hornets as they throb. “Damn roofs.” I curse and give the building a kick. Heading back to the street I see I’m not too far from home, with a final stretch I feel my wings finish receding into my back, losing the last bits of my true self with a depressing finality.

My mind goes through the conversation from earlier, trying not to think too hard about it. Poor Arty having an existential crisis, who cares what we’re made of? This is definitely me, and curse or no curse the less I was just the product of my human family the better. I belonged in the sky, that I’ve always known. The feeling of sprinting was always just so I could feel a small fraction of the sensation of flying, the wind blasting past me as I forced my way through it. I even remember earlier trying to convince my parents to let me have a motorcycle instead of my current car because I wanted to feel the wind. With how different I was from my parents they’d probably be relieved.

The walk home is short. Our house is fairly impressive, at least by relative standards here. My father is a businessman of fairly high prestige, my mother, an elegant lawyer for a pharmaceutical company. As such our house is fairly new. All that, but it still made me scowl everytime. What it represented about how my family spoke about others. I wasn’t a daughter, I was a trophy.

I give a brief knock before entering. I make my way slowly down the hall trying to keep quiet. Without my phone I’m unable to check my father’s schedule, and to walk into a potential meeting would certainly be bad for our relationship. Despite it all we got along okay, just so long as I kept out of his way. My mother and I tended to get along a lot more.

I’m halfway to the stairs when I hear the door creak open. “Angela? You’re late, could you come in for a moment? We have a guest.” I withstrain a groan as I hear my father call out. Slowly walking into the fancy living room. The blood drains from my face at who I see, a pool ball having spontaneously formed in my throat.

“Oh, there you are Angela. I hoped to catch you.” Sitting next to my father is Sheriff Redmond, holding my keyring while carrying a tamper evident bag next to him. The contents, I could more than guess. “Came across these keys the other day and thought to return them. There was a skirmish near the area and wanted to make sure you were alright.” He holds the bag aloft a little. “Perhaps I could ask you a few questions as well? Nothing bad certainly, but of a private nature. Mr. Fivouchi could we have a moment?”

“Of course.” He says sternly while giving me a glare that could fit an entire prophecy of doom into a single moment. A promise of what would happen if anything came of this. I sit down in the chair next to him feeling more like a marionnet who has just had her strings cut.

“Any recording device I should be aware of?” Redmond asks carefully. As if each word was a wire cut to a bomb. His face showing the depth of his years, his breath ragged with a slight wheeze to it. Yet something told me he still was as fit as a fiddle by the way he carried himself.

“No, my father only keeps those in his study or in person. Having one here is a legal liability with the kind of company he gets.”

He raises his eyebrow only a little at that and nods. “No need to explain that. I have more pressing concerns.” He lifts up the bag and cuts it open with a letter opener before passing it to me. “Found torn clothes, your keyring, and a broken phone that we used the SIM card of to find you.”

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but that’s a lot of work just to return a set of keys.”

“Suspicious then. Not that I could blame you. How about we take a drive? Your car is, after all, parked a ways away. All I ask is that you answer a few questions on the way. No trouble from any gangs, and no testimony unless you’re comfortable giving it.”

It’s suspicious, for certain, but I know I could likely escape or take him if I needed. Refusal would prompt further investigation as well, yet, I also had to take into account that he might be a changeling, but couldn’t let him know of anything that I did know. Where were the eggheads when you needed them? So I go with the simple answer.

“Sure.”

“I parked a little down the road as I was on another visit.” He states, but I don’t believe that for a moment. He parked away from here so I wouldn’t see him coming in. “We also had a bit of an incident at the school earlier today. Your father mentioned you were attending, I hope you had a good night up till then?”

“Yep.”

“Not very talkative then?”

“Nope.”

He sighs and just smiles. “You know I’m here to help right?” He stops and turns to look at me. I flinch as he reaches out a hand to my shoulder, and he cringes and pulls back. “I’ll be frank with you then. I have good reason to believe you’ve been involved in some rather...supernatural activities.”

“Oh?” I try to keep my breathing steady, not having expected him to be so direct. “Like E.T?” I ask, trying to divert his question with a question.

“Well, would you believe me if I said we’d found something?” He asks in return.

“Yes. I mean no!” Damnit! That was a trick question! “I mean, it would probably be just some strange cat or something right? Th-those are always faked.”

He smiles at my response as we approach his car. “You wouldn’t happen to be hiding any aliens in your basement would you?” He quips in a way just sarcastic enough to be considered sarcastic. Measured and exact in a way that makes me sweat.

“No, we keep them in the attic. Much easier to get into the UFOs that way.” Ha! I can play sarcastic too, Mr. Inspector!

“No, I suppose not.” He says and opens up the door to the back but I hesitate. “I’m not taking you to the station, it's just a ride. I’m fairly certain you’re not a criminal and I promise if you are, I won’t be arresting you here. Is that good enough for you?”

I scowl at him, then sigh. If I continue to refuse I look more suspicious, but getting in essentially makes me a prisoner, and yet I get in. “What is it you think I know about all this?” I ask trying to keep him on the defense before he can ask more questions. “You think I’ve seen an alien or are involved with one? You know this whole thing sounds ridiculous. Men in Black to a T.”

“Black is for funerals, and on wedding days. I think you might know something about some thugs that robbed a few people shortly after leaving the bar. I know you were at least close to the events that occured and might have been injured. I also know that you might know something about an individual that can move faster than any human should.”

“That’s a lot of things you think I know.”

“You’re a smart girl, and I didn’t hear no.”

“What would it matter if I did?”

“It’d mean protection, for us and you.”

“Some would say that’s a shady way to say prison.” I retort, making eye contact in the rear-view mirror.

“You know, I served a couple tours in my day. Unlike most cops I’ve had experience with what war and combat is. I also know that something is killing these creatures and that they may be at risk themselves. I’m asking you to tell us what’s going on before someone gets killed. I know I can’t force you, I can’t prove you’re involved, but I know you are.”

“Thank you for your service.” I reply a bit lamely after a moment of hesitation. I wish I’d studied more about changelings like the others did. Could really be helpful too, but how could I have him prove that he’s not one of them without letting him know I know to test him?

We pass by several blocks in silence, my eyes carefully tracking our progress in case he intended to change our destination. Not to mention that it also gives me a good excuse not to make eye contact.

“You aren’t the first person I’ve dealt with in a rough scenario. During my time in the East we encountered several individuals that were in places they didn’t want to be. I don’t know your place in this, but I’ll tell you the same thing I told them. We can protect you, more than you know.”

What could I honestly say here? I have to assume they are a changeling until proven otherwise, but how could I possibly prove them as what they are? The only time I’d ever really seen one...or at least remembered seeing one was in the graveyard. What made them different?

We arrive at the location and a solution comes to mind, just not a really good one. I have to wait as he comes around to open my door. As soon as I step outside time slows. With a smooth stroke I pull off his belt with one hand, and his gun from that with my other. Then I reach over my leg and push him to the ground and aim my gun at the spot next to his head because I’m not an idiot. I try to withhold a wince as I hear him go down.

“Not another move, Changeling!” I growl as fiercely as I can, pressing the gun against his chin. I watch carefully trying to see any hint of deception. The changelings would change form to fight and I knew they also had green blood.

“If you had intended to kill me you would have done so already.” He states with a calm that makes my body tense. “We are someplace private, and out of the way. If you were a killer you would have acted against those thugs in the alley. Only one of which is hospitalized, with a ruptured kidney. Something I can empathize with.”

“So you knew.”

“I had a hunch, the changelings, would that be one of those insect like creatures? We found one that had taken a few gunshots. I assume that was you as well?” He states with a little more caution, before coughing with a bit of a wheeze. “Yet, what is this supposed to prove?”

“I uh...well...it was supposed to…” Oh fuck, if he was human I was definitely in trouble. “If you are who you say you are, hold still.” I was in so much trouble, but if he was a Ling and I let him go now I’d be dead. At least with a human I’d be in prison. “I’m sure I’m in a lot of trouble for this.” I look through his belt while keeping his gun pointed in his general direction. I grab his knife and give a quick flick against his palm. A moment later I let out a sigh as I see red blood, setting his gun and belt down before backing away quickly.

He doesn’t waste a moment, scrambling to pick up his gun before ejecting the magazine and pushing in a new one from his coat pocket before smiling. “I knew you were faster than any human had any right to be, so I made sure my gun was empty, ‘course I forgot about the knife.” He winces as he holds up his hand and looks at the cut. “Could I ask what this is for?”

I sigh in defeat, sitting down on the ground. “A test.”

“To see if I was a changeling?”

I just nod.

“Have to admit that was awfully dramatic and could’ve really gone wrong in a dozen different ways. You are really lucky I didn’t just kill you, you should know better. Lucky for you I need answers, even luckier than that, I’m off duty.” He sits across from me, but at a distance, gun still in hand. Not that I could blame him.

“You’re right that it is complicated. Saying anything puts not only me, but several people at risk including yourself. The more you know, the more danger you and all of us are in.”

“I’ve been a soldier before, but I still have people to report to. I could promise to keep our conversation secret, but you know that’d be a lie. What you can trust me to do is to protect and serve and protect those under my watch, and so long as you act lawfully you have no reason to fear.”

“You have no idea what you’re up against. Those creatures you saw can become anything and anyone. They have abilities you’d hear about in fairytales. Lay low, and play dumb, and they’ll be gone. You try to find them, people are going to die and you’ll accomplish nothing.”

“Okay, we’ll lay low.” He says, standing up and quickly getting into his car.

“No you’re not.” I say matter of factly.

“Not really, no.” He says while turning on the car and pulling out. “I can’t force you to do anything, but when you are willing to talk, or trust us, I will be there.” He pulls out onto the street. “I just hope you come to your senses soon. You know where to find me.”

Author's Notes:

Oof! Sorry so long this chapter took to get out.
Inspired by the wonderful Damaged I'd like to start doing a few "Ask X a question." To help answer some reader questions from the perspective of the main characters.

As always, thank you for reading and remember that comments are a writer's food pellets!

And again, a thanks to the wonderful Alsey for doing a pre-read of this chapter. Give them all the love because they deserve it.