Magpie turns the shower off, lets the lukewarm water drip down through his sand-colored feathers and rusty coat. The common shower room is quiet now that everyone has left to prepare for dinner, and the griffon simply sits there, breathing. He knows he can’t stay her too long, so he shakes as much water as he can off and reaches for the towel on a hook next to the showerhead.

“Hah?!” from the corner of his eye, he catches a glimpse of something black and pink directly behind him, “Three?” he clutches his chest and gasps for breath, “How long have you been just sitting there?” he asks the changeling watching him with a friendly smile and unblinking eyes.

“Eh,” Three waves his foreleg, “Not too long. You always look so wary of everything and on edge, so I didn’t want to bother you when you felt so peaceful for once.”

“And why are you here? Are any of the unicorns trying some shi- something again?” Magpie starts toweling himself off. Physical privacy is something the mercenary hasn’t known for quite some time, and he’s been watched in the past by much worse things than a small, happy changeling.

“Nope, they’ve been really helpful yesterday, actually.”

“Good.”

Sensing that there won’t be any further conversation from Magpie’s side, Three speaks up again.

“Umm,” he lowers his voice into a whisper, “Would you like to get out of here?”

“Free, although either bland or downright bad, meals a day, the opportunity to wash myself every morning and evening, and a cellmate who doesn’t bother me too much. In fact, one who sleeps under the mattress ever since she dislodged most of her joints getting under the bed without having any idea how. If I had some proper reading material, this would literally be the best place I’ve lived in since I had to escape the- nevermind.”

Three scratches his head, visibly trying to decipher the semi-sarcastic answer.

“Is that a no then?”

Magpie facetalons.

“Despite what it looks like on the surface, this place is pretty well protected. Unless you have some amazing escape plan, I’m not risking making my stay here needlessly unpleasant. The way it’s now is alright, not counting the possibility of the royals deciding that we’re to be executed for our role in destroying the universe. Besides, I’m not leaving Harriet and Gem here,” he adds to himself, “Good thing Pack Rat didn’t have anything to do with us bringing the dragon or he’d be stuck here too. I wonder where he is now...”

“Well, I’d like to get all of us out, but only after I’m done helping princess Candy with the food growing machines. That’s what boss sent me and Thirteen to do so that’s what we’ll do.”

“And then you want to escape.”

“Yep, unless you have a reason to stay here.”

“My reason for staying here is that I can’t get out, and I’m pretty sure Gem is still here only because she wouldn’t be able to easily get Harriet and me out.”

“So if there was a way to get all of us out, would that be okay? I mean, miss Gem’s medical knowledge is top-notch, and she can do waaay more good outside than in here.”

Is this changeling for real?

“Yes, that would be okay,” says Magpie slowly.

“I’m just asking because I asked those unicorn brothers to help me get into Tartarus and they said they could do that if I help them get out, that they have a plan. They agreed to wait with it until I’m done translating the blueprints, and I’m allowed to take anyone I want with us.”

“And you trust those assholes? They tried to kill you!”

“They said they learned the error of their ways and that they won’t bother you, mister minotaur, or Thirteen anymore.”

“And that’s enough for you, is it?”

Three nods, which makes Magpie grind his beak and rub his temples to fight off the incoming migraine.

“Ponies are really nice if you show them you trust them, mister Magpie.”

“No, they’re not!” he hisses, leaning down to Three, “Your weird group of underground changelings are, and from what Gem told me it’s mostly your king’s doing. Up here on the surface, if you don’t watch your back, you’ll find a knife in it soon enough.”

“Neat, a free present!” Three beams.

“...areyoufuckingkiddingme…?” Magpie’s eye twitches and Three’s chuckle only makes it worse.

“Mister Magpie, the first time I offered real friendship to a pony who truly hated us, he was a paladin and killed me by stabbing me in the brain through my eye,” the changeling’s voice turns serious, “He tried to kill all of us over and over. That was...” he raises his forelegs and watches his hooves for a moment while counting under his breath, “Over two hundred and fifty years ago. And you know what? In the end, he understood. He forgave his friend who helped us and about whom he thought he betrayed him and he helped us close a void rift over the Crystal Empire. It was tiny in comparison to the one that supposedly munched the whole sky last month, but it was super scary anyway. Look, I don’t know if those unicorns are trustworthy. I just know that if I don’t offer them a hug, who will?”

“If you keep doing it, one day someone will-” Magpie sighs.

“Do what? Kill me?” Three tilts his head and sticks his tongue out at the griffon.

“Yes! And successfully this time,” Magpie loses control, grabs Three’s shoulders, and shakes him. With the size difference, Three wobbles like a bobblehead, “What will Gem think? What will your king think?”

“If I don’t do that, then I’m not the Three I want to be and the Three they all know,” he gives Magpie a defiant glare.

The griffon rolls his eyes, takes a slow breath, and puts Three down.

“Do what you want, I don’t even know why I let it get to me. If you can break us out, good. If the unicorns betray you and you end up face down in a ditch, it’s not like it’ll harm me in any way.”

“That’s the spirit!” Three beams again, “They also promised me they’d teleport me to Tartarus so that I can find the big baddie and tell him to fix the sky he broke. You don’t have to come with me, though. Just make sure miss Gem is okay. From what I heard when she visited us before she got sent here, she likes travelling with you.”

Humming to himself, Three leaves the paralyzed and yet fuming griffon behind.

“Idiot… that guy’s a fucking idiot,” whispers Magpie too late for anyone to hear him.

Three weeks have passed in relative peace for not only Three but Thirteen as well who, unfortunately, spent most of it sleeping because of lacking access to Three’s mysterious and constant source of love due to Three spending most of his days either in the castle or inside his solitary cell exhausted by constant headaches. In the morning, Three had his daily session with Gem, just chatting and letting her recover through his ambient love glow. The castle was next, having usually been escorted out by the mixed group of guards or Prominence herself, and returning in the evening let Thirteen feed off of him only a little. Still, the constant beating of Crystal Heart in the distance meant that while Thirteen was hungry all the time, she wasn’t being drained to the point of any physical trouble.

During today’s “outside time”, Three, who was released from the castle early, approaches the unicorn brotherhood with a wide smile.

“Hi, friends!”

“Any news, changeling?” asks a grey, blond-maned unicorn whom Three saw several times but whom he hasn’t heard speak yet. The others shift away from him as he approaches Three.

“Yep,” Three nods, “The group of engineers in the castle have made the first prototype of the food growing machine thingy and are trying it out in the cellars. The first batches of edible moss should be done the day after tomorrow, although there are still some problems with powering it. It turns out that magic and electricity aren’t that easy to interchange. So, unless there is some unexpected trouble, they should be mass-producing them next week.”

“Good. The slop they’re feeding us here has been getting worse and worse with each day,” the unicorn sneers in contempt, “Alright, change- Three. My name is Deep Ambition, and I lead the unicorn brotherhood here. First, I want to thank you for sending our letter, because one of the… friendlier wardens brought us an answer.”

“Neat. Are your friends and families okay? I hope so, because the ponies I see on the streets when I go to the castle look super worried.”

“Heh. Yes, everything is alright and ready. I’ve even figured out what we need from you for our,” he lowers his voice, “escape from here.”

“That’s great. You can tell me now, I think, because I’m going to need some time to prepare a way to get my friends out too. Two of them are locked underground with the real bad guys, but don’t worry, my friends are nice.”

“Ah yes, those friends you meet with on a daily basis,” Deep Ambition narrows his eyes.

“Yep.”

“However, our deal wasn’t about rescuing those underground,” he shakes his head, “That’s a little too dangerous.”

“That’s okay, I’ll just have to figure out how to connect that part with your big plan. Though I think now would be a good time to share it or I won’t be able to do it, and I’m not leaving without them.”

“Alright,” he sits down, patting Three’s head, a touch that feels strangely cold to the changeling, definitely a polar opposite of when boss or miss Gem do it, “There are three steps to this, and we definitely need you for the second one. The first step is to get rid of these,” he taps the suppressor around his horn.

“Huh, I thought those were fake like that guy you sent for hurt me,” ponders Three with absolutely no rancor in his voice.

“I apologize for that misunderstanding,” Deep Ambition looks straight at Three with a smile, “Unfortunately, the rest of us still have the real suppressors on. The warden who helped us switch that one doesn’t work here anymore. We have several fake ones, but taking the real ones off requires very special circumstances.”

“Oh yeah, trying to take them off yourself really hurts.”

“H- Hurts?” Depe Ambition, “It’s impossible! The paralyzing agony completely fries your nerves and deprives you of all control over your muscles.”

“Miss One, miss Comfort, and even Gem took theirs off on their own each at some point in time. They did smolder for a while, though. Still, can’t you take each other’s off? I thought they just hurt the one who wears them.”

“As you can see, prisoners move around with only little supervision. If the suppressors were that easy to take off, they would be useless. No, these are enchanted so that only prison staff can take them off. However, they can be broken through physical means. We just need the right opportunity like a friendly warden looking the other way during crafts lessons.”

Three sits down, pondering the situation for a short while before saying:

“Do you still have the broken real one somewhere?”

Deep Ambition nods towards a unicorn in the back who presents a small pouch hanging around his neck to Three.

“Both halves are in the bread ball,” he says, “I can’t keep a broken suppressor inside a cell in case of an inspection, but keeping a small snack with me at all times isn’t suspicious at all,” he snickers.

Three reaches into the pouch and quickly finds the ball in question, scratching the dough off of the ring which had been clearly sawed in half. He taps it with his hoof, sniffs it, and finally he puts it into his mouth for few moments. After the thorough examination os over, he spits it out into his hoof, and then stashes it into a leg hole which closes around it.

“How can you shapeshift with a suppressor on?” asks Deep Ambition, watching Three’s foreleg with suspicion.

“I can’t. These are just… umm… miss Comfort calls it changes in surface tension of semi-solid membrane. I don’t really understand it, but to me it’s the same as moving my leg. I can’t transform into anypony else, though, at least not quickly,” Three shakes his head, “But I’m a drone and we’re the best at examining the structure of materials. I’ve got a pretty good idea what that suppressor is made of, now I just need to figure out some acid that would melt it quickly enough without hurting you.”

“You can do that?” Deep Ambition leans backwards.

“I definitely can’t. I tried to make several kinds of acid goop back home, but the samples didn’t melt anything and kept hardening. After trying one out, miss One started selling them as mint candy,” Three shakes his head again, “But luckily for us, I’m not the only changeling here.”