Beneath Twilight, flashes of every shade of green flew out. Her mouth opened wide. The majority of her muscles relaxed, and the letter opener fell to the floor. The lurker beneath her was no longer a lurker; it was something else. Its eyes of the purest of blacks had transformed into balls of vibrant turquoise, and its claws had turned to hole-covered hooves. She noted that the feel of the beast had changed, too — instead of the rough skin of the lurker, the thing beneath her was now soft, but slick. Smooth, but not silky. The razor-sharp teeth had been replaced with long fangs, which, she had to admit, didn't make much of an improvement.

It was not some deadly predator, but a real, living being. Twilight froze. It was the first, normal sight she'd seen for eighty-nine days, and all she did was stare at it like a moron. The thing in question stared back, its eyes focused directly on her own.

She was sitting on a changeling.

As soon as it realised the letter opener had been dropped, it pushed Twilight off with an annoyed growl. It looked back at the weapon that had, only moments ago, been inches away from its throat. After discovering that it was no longer a threat, and was now sitting still on the floor, it turned on Twilight. “What the hay were you thinking?” it asked impatiently. “Is that how you'd treat any guest to your home?” Twilight blinked. It was the voice of something other than herself.

“Buh... but, I thought you were one of them?” Twilight said slowly.

The changeling scoffed. “What makes you think I'm one of...” it paused, stroking its chin “Yeah, that's a fair point.” It sat up, offering a hoof. “The name's Effingo! What's yours?” Twilight backed up quickly, glaring at the extended limb. It wasn't attacking, but simply hovering... menacingly. When the changeling's brow furrowed, she grinned nervously.

“Effingo, eh? Isn't that—”

“Yeah, my mother wasn't very subtle,” it explained, rolling its eyes. “You gonna shake that, or just stare at it all day?”

Twilight looked at the extended hoof, and then back to Effingo. She hadn't shaken hooves for a long time. Probably because, if she'd tried with a lurker, they'd try to eat her hoof. No surprise there. The unicorn took hold of the changeling's hoof, shaking it gently. “I'm Twilight Sparkle,” she said, smiling, “and I'm sorry for attempting to kill you, Effingo.”

“Happens all the time, nowadays!” Effingo exclaimed cheerfully, releasing Twilight's hoof. “I'd prefer it if you just called me 'Eff', though. Much quicker in combat situations.”

“Oh, uh, of course,” Twilight agreed. She wondered if the two extra syllables would make a difference in any situation, least of all in combat, but it didn't matter. “Why, is combat a regular occurrence with you?”

“Well, it's already happened three times today, you being the third. Don't know what you'd call regular, anyway.” Eff shurgged.

Twilight stared back at the changeling, her expression unchanging. This had been the first time she'd talked to anyone besides herself in eighty-nine days. She had returned to conversation so... casually. Effingo tilted its head at her, as if trying to read her thoughts. It wasn't a lurker watching her; it was a normal being, and she didn't even care that it was a changeling. Twilight had long since forgiven them for meddling with her brother's wedding. They needed to feed on something, like any other being, but they'd still be strange creatures in her books.

“Say, Twi, if you don't mind me calling you that, when was the last time you saw anyone else aside from me?” Effingo asked, leaning on one of the bookshelves.

“Um, it's been exactly eighty-nine days,” she replied hastily.

“Wow, you keep count?”

“Only way to stay sane, yes.”

“Whatever floats your boat, I guess...”

“Heh, yup,” Twilight said, scratching her chin. “Hey, do you mind if I ask you a, uh, more personal question?”

Effingo raised its eyebrows. “Sure, go ahead,” it said hesitantly.

“What... what gender are you?” The changeling glared back at her, its eyes slightly narrowed.

“That's quite an odd question.”

“A question, nonetheless,” Twilight said.

“You really can't tell?”

“Well, no, not really. You look pretty similar to...” Twilight's voice trailed off.

“Similar to every other changeling?” Effingo guessed.

“Yes. I mean, no. No, no, what I really mean—”

“I'm a mare,” Effingo said abruptly. Twilight raised her eyebrows before quickly forcing them back down. Effingo was eyeing her suspiciously, her forelegs crossed. Despite what the changeling thought, Twilight always had difficulty in telling the genders apart. They did look very similar.

“It's just that—”

“No, really, it's fine,” Effingo said. “You did say it was going to be a personal question, anyway.”

Silence momentarily filled the library. Twilight couldn't end the conversation on that note. “I'm... I'm not racist, Eff, just confused. I swear to Celestia!” she exclaimed, giving the changeling her most serious expression.

“Whatever you say, Twi,” Effingo said with a chuckle. Twilight felt her cheeks blush, which only made the changeling laugh further as she tried to cover them with her hooves.

“So, uh, nothing says 'sorry I tried to kill you and then proceeded to mistake your gender' like some food, right?” Twilight said, pointing over to the piles of hay beside her coat. Effingo gestured to herself, only to be furiously nodded at by the unicorn.

“Well, thank you! Not everyday you get some grub down you!” she said, moving over to the hay. Twilight knew there would less for her in the end, but it seemed wrong not to offer any. Food was a rare commodity in this day and age, but, then again, allies were rarer. She joined Effingo by the hay, taking a small hoofful to eat. Twilight looked at the changeling sitting rather relaxed on the library floor next to her. The changeling had completely let her guard down. Why, if Twilight wasn't a better pony, she could kill her where she sat... but she wouldn't.

“Effin— I mean, Eff, do you know how... all of this happened?” Twilight asked hopefully. Effingo raised her hoof, finishing her mouthful.

“You don't know?” Eff answered, almost disappointed to hear the question asked.

“Well, I've been on my own for eighty-nine days... as I've already told you.”

“Right, right,” the changeling replied. “So, from what I've heard, the queen decided to use this ancient thing—”

“Queen?” Twilight asked nervously. “Which queen?”

“Not sure — all I've heard was that it was the queen.” Eff tilted her head. “Why, are there any more queens?”

“Of course there are! I mean, it doesn't really matter, but there are,” Twilight said before huffing. She noticed Effingo glaring at her strangely. “Continue”.

“Thank you. Now, the queen tried to use this ancient... device thing. Rumours say that she wanted some form of revenge, but something went wrong,” the changeling said. She spread her hooves out, simply saying: “boom”. “I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened next.”

Revenge? What kind of queen would want revenge in peacetime? Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof, attempting to retrieve her memories. It didn't matter, really — whoever it was was most likely long-gone by now. Lurkers had seen to that. The unicorn took another hoofful of hay, munching on it quietly before taking notice of Effingo. She was a strange cookie; the changeling was always giving her an odd look. Not a polite look, but not a hateful one, either. It was as if she was just content to stare, to watch her actions.

“So,” Twilight said, going back to the subject at hoof, “how did you survive becoming a lurker?”

“I'm not too sure about that, either,” Effingo admitted. “I just woke up, and everything was like this.”

“Just like me!” Twilight exclaimed. “Did you have a massive headache afterwards?”

“I can't remember. My memory's faded since that day, but most likely,” Eff said.

Not only was Effingo strange, but mysterious, too. She had some form of immunity to the... lurker-ism, much like Twilight. There were no obvious similarities between the two; Effingo was a changeling, and Twilight was a pony. That was already enough difference. The silence in the room was interrupted by a rather uncouth yawn from Effingo, who hadn't even bothered to cover her mouth.

“Well, I'm pretty tired, Twi. Do you mind if I have a kip?”

Twilight gasped; she didn't even think about having someone accompany her, much less a guest. “Of course you can! There's a spare bedroom through the corridor over there,” she said, pointing her hoof to the place. “It's got a bed and everything.”

“If you were always alone, why did you have a spare room ready?” Effingo asked suspiciously.

With a chuckle, Twilight replied: “I always hoped, Eff; I never let that hope go”. The changeling looked at her for a split second before shrugging. She walked over to the corridor, eyeing the rooms cautiously. When she was gone from Twilight's view, a wide smile spread across the unicorn's face. For the first time in eighty-nine... no, make that ninety days, as Twilight confirmed after looking at the clock, she had a guest. It wasn't a predator of the night, nor a wild manticore, but a changeling. A simple changeling.

It was funny how quickly Twilight had leaped back into conversation. After such a prolonged time of loneliness, she'd returned to social situations fairly well. Things were looking up, as it seemed. It had only taken ninety days to do so, but Twilight would gladly take it.

A fearful scream emanated from the corridor. Without hesitation, Twilight ran through the library to find it; she couldn't just leave the only sane being aside from herself on her own. “Eff?” she called out loudly, “Effingo, where are you?” When no response came, Twilight growled. So much for team communication. The unicorn skidded to a halt outside of the spare room. Slowly pushing her hoof forward, the opened the door to find nothing. Of course, the furniture and various room belongings remained, but there was no changeling to be seen.

There was only one other room on this corridor, only one where Effingo could've gone. With a gulp, Twilight quickly left the room. She started pacing down the rest of the corridor, calling out Effingo's name several times in the process. Another door stood before her. This one was different — numerous locks littered the floor below the wooden frame, which must have been picked by some form of lock-picking spell. Well, Effingo was a changeling. Not to be racist, but they'd always been a dab hand at being sneaky.

All of a sudden, Twilight's breath grew more rapid; she could hear her own blood pumping around her body, and a chill went down her spine. “Eff?” she called out one last time, “are you in here?” Again, no reply. The unicorn let out an exasperated sigh. What if the... inhabitant of this room got free? What if she was talking to a corpse right now? Twilight decided to push the door open, to finally conclude the whereabouts of Effingo.

The changeling was still on the floor. “Effingo!” Twilight cried, running over to the body. She knelt beside it, carefully inspecting for... abnormalities. No bite marks, thank Celestia, and no scratch marks, either. On closer inspection, Twilight could've sworn she'd seen a rise in Effingo's chest. A second later, there was a decline. Effingo was breathing! Oh, Twilight would've hugged her, were it not for the vicious growl from the opposite corner of the room. Quickly, the unicorn stood over her new companion-in-sanity in a defensive stance. She glanced over at the table a mere couple of feet away. Pouches sat in their masses, but Twilight was too far away.

Twilight cast an illuminating spell, and the room instantly grew in visibility. She could now see the cage she'd constructed, which contained the lurker. It cried in pain as the light permeated its skin, as this one had been slightly weaker than the rest. The growling came to a stop. Bowing its head, the lurker shied away from the light. When she realised that it had calmed down, Twilight ceased the spell. She looked back at Effingo, who was still sprawled out across the floor. Grabbing a pouch from the table, Twilight held it under Eff's nose, using it as a sort of smelling salt.

Before long, Eff woke up. Her eyes darted around the room, as if looking for a threat. Twilight put a hoof on her the changeling's own, and Effingo jumped. “Relax,” Twilight soothed, “it's fine now.”

“But... but, there was a lurker here!” Eff exclaimed. “What happened to me, anyway?”

“You must have fainted from seeing it,” Twilight guessed. “I thought you were used to seeing them, no?”

“Well, I'd left my guard down!” Effingo countered. “Besides, what's a lurker doing here?”

Twilight gave a heavy sigh. She looked the changeling deep in her eyes before continuing. “When things were normal, ninety days ago, I was a librarian. This place was my home, and I loved all of the books here. I lived with my... assistant, who was a dragon named Spike. He was one of my greatest friends.”

“Ninety days ago, when you said that queen used an ancient device, Spike became this,” Twilight said, pointing to the lurker. Effingo looked over to the smallish lurker now cowering in its cage. She nodded to let Twilight continue. “I... I couldn't let him go outside and cause more pain, so I kept him in here. I had to feed him, of course, but I only gave him some hay from time to time.” Twilight smiled momentarily. “He still doesn't like hay.”

Effingo gave her another bemused look, as if Twilight was insane. “So, you're telling me that you keep a lurker as a pet?”

“Well, not exactly a pet, and it's not just any lurker—”

“No, that's crazy,” Eff dismissed.

“But, he was my friend!”

“Look at him,” the changeling said. “Does he look like he's still your friend?” Twilight glanced over to the lurker — to Spike — and saw his extended claws and teeth. He resembled nothing of the baby dragon she once knew, but she still held onto him like one. His scales had turned black, and his once clear, green eyes had clouded over into darkness. Not to mention his size — ever since the darkness had taken him, his size had increased exponentially; it must have sped up his growth rate, as he was now the size of a adolescent dragon.

“Not really, but—”

“I'm going to make this simple for you, Twi,” Eff said with a wave of her hoof. “As long as that... thing is here, I won't be.”

“He's locked up in this cage! He can't get free,” Twilight said, her voice pleading.

“I don't trust them, Twilight. I once saw one break the locks of his own prison, only to—”

“Speaking of which,” Twilight interrupted, attempting to change the subject, “how did you get in here? There were at least five locks on that door.”

“When you've been on your own for so long, you learn to adapt, to survive,” Effingo explained. “Picking locks has become my speciality, as it seems. I had to check why you had this room locked, and now, thankfully, I know. Make your decision, Twi: a lurker or a survivor?”

Twilight looked from Spike to Effingo and back again. There was no other option. Even if Effingo was the only other survivor around, she couldn't simply abandon Spike. Twilight had shared a past with him, but she'd only known Eff for barely twenty minutes. Though she hated a part of herself, most likely caused by her survival instincts, Twilight couldn't simply leave an old friend. “Effingo, are you sure about this?”

“Positive,” she replied.

“Then I've made my choice,” Twilight announced. “I'm sorry, Eff, but I can't get rid of him; he means too much to me, even as he is now.”

The changeling shrugged. “Well, it would've been nice to set up camp, but I can't blame you. No point in wasting anymore time, so I'll be off.”

“I'll see you out, then,” Twilight said with a smile. Though her expression was happy, her mind was not. The best scenario resulted in all three of them living in the same library, perhaps forming a team of survivors, but that was obviously not going to happen. For whatever reason Effingo didn't trust lurkers in captivity, Twilight couldn't persuade her to stop.

Twilight walked with Effingo to the doors of her library. Silence filled the short journey. Even though she realised that this moment could be the last chance to talk to anyone coherent, she still stayed quiet. There was an overwhelming sense of disappointment in her mind, both in her unwillingness to release Spike and her willingness to see Effingo off.

They approached the door, and as they came to a stop, Effingo scratched a hoof on another. She looked deeply into Twilight's eyes, as if willing her to do what she wanted, but the unicorn would have none of it. It was her library, and that meant her rules. Even though her mind screamed obscenities and curses at her to stop, Twilight opened the doors of her library. Only then did she realise that this action could potentially kill both of them. Effingo would be alone once more, off to wander around in the lurker horde as one of them. Twilight could slowly starve to death, or go insane under the pressure. Was it really worth the safety of one of her best friends? She knew Spike would disagree, but, then again, he didn't really have a say in the matter, nor in anything.

“I wish you all the luck in the world, Effingo, though I doubt there isn't very much left,” Twilight said, her smile quickly changing to a frown. “If you ever need some help, food or anything, for that matter, I'll be here.”

“Thanks, Twi, but I doubt I'll ever see you again,” the changeling admitted. “This world is too messed up to make promises, so I won't.” For the second time that day, a green energy burst in front of Twilight's eyes. Effingo had transformed into one of the lurkers, her disguise immaculate in its details. Her fangs and claws were at the perfect length, and her black body blended well with the darkness.

“Are you sure that works?”

“Well, it's kept me alive these eighty-nine days...”

“Ninety days,” Twilight corrected, a sad smile forming on her face.

“That's even better, then,” Effingo said plainly. “See you later, Twi.”

“Goodbye, Eff.”

Twilight watched as she left her library — as she left her world. The only survivor beside herself was leaving, and she was too weak to do anything about it. The unicorn continued to watch until Effingo had fully merged with the lurker horde, almost laughing at the simplicity in which she did it. It wasn't until she'd lost sight of the changeling that Twilight felt moisture on her cheek. She could feel it running down her fur, sense it falling to the ground with a splash.

That was that. She had said goodbye to the only thing worthy of talking to for the last ninety days. Record-breaking time, too — about twenty-four minutes. Twilight could, of course, talk to Spike. After all, he was still her baby dragon under that masquerade of darkness of his. Even though he was unlikely to understand her, perhaps even to understand the sacrifice she'd just made, he was something to talk to. Spike wouldn't be able to respond, just as Effingo had only seconds ago, but it was still something to talk to.

“Don't go,” Twilight sobbed. “Please don't go.”

Author's Notes:

So, I'd like to apologise for the tardiness of this chapter. I've had numerous exams over the past couple of weeks, and I've barely had any time to write as a result. Although this is a relatively uneventful chapter, even in my opinion, please note that this story is not about predominantly about fighting lurkers. It is a tale to show how characters change under pressure, loneliness and despair, not wholly about how Twilight managed to wipe the floor with lurkers. I'd also like to thank you — the reader — for reading this. The amount of support shown for this story has completely shocked me, and I thank everyone of you.