SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

“Hello, Billow.”

“You again? Why do you keep coming back? There’s no point.”

“There doesn’t have to be a point. Isn’t wanting to see my brother enough?”

“It would be, if he were here. But he’s not. That other mare who’s usually with you obviously has the right idea.”

“It’s hard for Mom to see you like this. She was going to come with me, but she just... she just couldn’t bear it. But I wanted to come anyway. I miss you, Billowy. And Gusty misses you even more.”

“I miss him too.”

“You do? Really? Billow, that’s fantastic! Have you started to remember—”

“I miss how delicious his love for his daddy was. Made it a lot easier to stay undercover when I didn’t have to go sneaking around Canterlot looking for food.”

“...Oh. I... for a second there...”

“You thought you’d actually convinced me I’m him? Please. Your lies don’t mean anything to me. I don’t even have a name, no drone does. And if I did it certainly isn’t Billowy Cloud.”

“Well, he misses you anyway. Gnarled Root and I talked about it and we’re going to have the lawyers go ahead and appoint us his guardians. When you come home of course we won’t fight you for custody, but there’s a lot of things you have to be a legal parent for. I’ll still be Aunt Crosswind. I’m certainly not going to force him to call me Mom after what happened.”

“You should bring him to see me. I’ll tell him all about how I killed his mother.”

“We’re going to find her, Billow. Wherever they took her after the changelings stole her away, she’s out there somewhere. I’ll never stop looking. I loved her like a sister, and I owe her at least that much. I’m so sorry they took her away from you and left that... thing... in her place. We’ll find her and... well, at the very least we can give her a proper burial.”

“What are you talking about? Why would the Queen replace both halves of a married couple? We can’t feed off each other. See, those kinds of gaping holes in your story are why you’re never going to convince me I’m a pony instead of a drone. The hive is my family.”

“We’re your family.”

“Even after I murdered your sister-in-law?”

“You didn’t have a choice, Billow. It wasn’t really her, and if that kitchen knife hadn’t been there she would have done the same to you and Gusty. You were protecting your son from a monster. She’d be proud of you for being strong enough to save him.”

“The only monster in that house was me.”

“He cries himself to sleep every night. He lost his Mom, and no colt should have to live through that. He doesn’t understand why his Daddy can’t come home.”

“Well I hope you told him that it’s because his Daddy is trapped somewhere he’ll never be found. He has to find out sometime.”

“I told him his Daddy was going to come back someday.”

“So you lied.”

“No I didn’t. I’ll be strong for him, for as long as it takes. I’ll keep coming back even though seeing you like this is tearing me apart.”

“Must be hard for you, seeing your dead brother’s face on a bug.”

“You could change that.”

“Huh?”

“If you really wanted to prove to me that you’re a changeling. Why don’t you transform right now?”

“I don’t feel like it.”

“It’s because you can’t, isn’t it?”

“I could if I wanted to. Ask the guards. I turned my coat black just yesterday.”

“Yes, Doctor Inkblot mentioned that they had to take away your writing privileges. They’ll move you back to your old room once they’ve cleaned up the ink you smeared everywhere.”

“Well of course they would say that. They don’t want the other prisoners to panic.”

“They’re patients, not prisoners. This is a hospital for ponies with... your sort of problems.”

“Call it what you want. The point is you’re keeping me here against my will so you can interrogate me. Trying to make me think you’re my friends so I’ll reveal the swarm’s base of operations? Never going to happen.”

“I swear to you that one day you are going to walk out of here. You can stay with us for as long as you need to get back onto your hooves. I know Shimmer would love to have her Uncle Billow start to come visit again.”

“I bet she’s upset that she has to share her toys with your brother’s son.”

“Your son. And yes, she was a bit upset at first. It’s been a big adjustment for all of us. Once I sat down with her and explained that her cousin was her brother now, she came to accept it a bit better. I’m proud of her.”

“What difference does it make whether they’re siblings or cousins?”

“Big sisters are there for their little brothers. Always.”

“Cute. Did you practice saying that in front of the mirror before you came here?”

“Always, Billow. Never forget that. I will always love you.”

“Another lie. You don’t love me at all.”

“Of course I do.”

“Then why can’t I taste it on you?”

“Because ponies don’t eat love.”

“I’m not a pony.”

“You are.”

“Guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.”

“Doctor Inkblot asked me to try something, I guess he thought it might help you. Do you mind if I ask you a question? If you’ll answer it he said he’s willing to lower the dosage on your medication.”

“The one that’s keeping me from feeling the hivemind?”

“That’s not... look, will you answer the question or not?”

“I guess you can ask it, then I’ll decide. What’s the question?”

“Alright, you say that you aren’t Billow, but I want you to imagine that you were. What do you think he would say if he could talk to us?”

“What kind of stupid question is that?”

“Doctor Inkblot came up with it, not me.”

“How should I know what he would say if he were here?”

“Well, if you really did replace him—”

“Which I did.”

“—then you’d have to get inside of his head enough to pass as him, right? So you must have some idea.”

“Fair enough. If I had to guess, I bet he’d say that he was sorry.”

"Sorry?"

“I think he’d say that it was supposed to be his job to protect her. He promised her on their wedding day that he would, that he would be by her side when they faced the bad things together. But when it really mattered, he couldn’t. He couldn’t until it was too late and the monster drove a knife into her chest and there was so much blood everywhere, and now he’s trapped somewhere dark and scary and he doesn’t know how to get out. He’s sorry he’s such an awful burden and he just knows that the ponies who loved him are going to give up and he’ll be stuck there in the darkness forever, and he’s screaming all the time but nopony can hear him and nopony is going to save him and he’s never going to get out. There are monsters in the darkness, Crosswind, and he doesn’t know if he’s fighting them or if he’s one of them, and he wants you to save him but if you save him he’s only going to hurt somepony he loves and he doesn’t want to do that so he doesn’t want to be saved. And he just keeps going around and around and all he can hear is her screaming and begging him to protect her like he promised to why didn’t he save her why wasn’t he strong enough why did he... why did he...”

“Oh, Billow. I’m going to save you. Hold on. I promise I’m coming.”

“...but Billow isn’t here so I guess we’ll never know for sure if that’s what he would say. It was a stupid question.”

“I... I... I’m going to go talk to Doctor Inkblot. I’ll come back to say goodbye before I leave. I have to get going or I’ll be late picking up Shimmer and Gusty. I’ll come back to see you this weekend, okay? And I’ll try to get Mom and Dad to come with me next time.”

“Like I care.”

“Humor me. Take care, Billow.”

“Wait!”

“Billow?”

“...”

“Billow, what’s—”

“Always?”

“...Yeah, Billow. Always. Always and forever.”