//------------------------------// // 68 - Dawn // Story: A Penny for your thought // by Damaged //------------------------------// Dray woke to the new day. He felt so very naked. Looking down at his black hide, his tattered wings, he barely recognized the changeling he was. "Dray?" Pretty leaned in and nuzzled against his jaw. His hoof came up, filled with holes, to rub her cheek. "Sorry dear-heart, didn't mean to wake you." He kissed his wife on her perfect lips. "I… would you rather I…" His voice halted enough to get Pretty to open her eyes and look at him, her sleepy mind forgetting for a moment who the changeling in her bed was. Dray saw the reaction and the flames encompassed him, remaking him into the unicorn he really felt he was. "No, you don't have to, I just…" Pretty sighed and closed her eyes. "Do you want to stay as Dray-the-unicorn?" "I just want to be at your side." Dray wrapped his hooves around Pretty and pulled closer. "I don't even know what I want anymore, apart from you." There was a chuckle from the mare. "Silly stallion, just like my Dray to focus down to one thing. What about your company? Your workers?" He trembled a moment. "I just can't face them. They will all know by now, surely…" "The princess closed the court, remember?" He realized that was true, that only half a dozen ponies knew. "I need to tell them, but not today." "No." His wife nuzzled his neck up to his chin. "Today you need to go and greet a new princess. How were you surviving?" The question came from right field, Dray couldn't lie anymore, though. With the biggest lie of his life revealed there was just no deception left in him. "I fed lightly. I was so careful of you, but my workers love their jobs, there are enough of them that I could feed and never do harm…" "You will need to pay them a little more." Pretty chuckled. "For services rendered." He blinked his eyes at that, wondering how many good workers he would lose. "I will, the company is doing well enough for it." He was delaying, but he had set a time schedule that would let him delay and procrastinate a little. "Does it use more energy, keeping your disguise up?" Pretty was poking him gently all over now, examining what she knew was a facade. "Keeping it up? No. It is the changing that uses energy, unless I were silly enough to try a form larger or smaller than I am." Dray let the flames come and became a changeling again. Looking at Pretty he saw no horror in her eyes now. The look on her face was like throwing great logs on the fire of his love and he wrapped her in his forelegs, squeezing her tightly. "I love you, my Pretty mare. I would do anything to keep you smiling." "Silly stallion, I thought those were flashy words before, but now I see how much truth there is behind them. You gave up your life, for me… I can't help but feel amazed at that." Dray pressed his snout in against her neck. She felt the fangs that pressed so gently, that didn't even hint at breaking the skin. The knock at their front door was loud and the pair both blushed as they pulled apart. Dray, however, got a last kiss on his wife's nose. "That is probably Hay. She said her friend would come with us to the hive." Sure enough a changeling drone was standing at the front door with their daughter at their side. "Hi Mr Cart." Stick lifted a hoof in greeting. Dray lifted his own and clopped it against hers. He did find it curious that she had some holes in her own. "Just need to get some things." He told the pair, leaving the door open as he retreated inside to get his bags. He contemplated changing his form back to Dray-the-unicorn but shook his head at that. "You have a good day, and be nice to the princess, she is new." Pretty kissed him one last time, the mare making him shiver a moment. "How did I get so lucky?" He kissed her back, smiling as their lips touched. As they pulled back Pretty had his answer. "You got so lucky because you worked at it. Go now, before I change my mind and keep you for the day. I best go to the factory and tell On Time that you won't be in today." He smiled and turned. His eyes were closed a moment, wanting to plant the memory of Pretty firmly in his thoughts for the day. As he opened them it was to see Hay and her friend at the door. The filly he had raised was everything he could have hoped she would be. Smart. Pretty. Compassionate. "Lets go." He walked up to the pair and, together, they left his house. "You don't chitter, at all." Stick looked up to him. He puffed his chest. "Required as an infiltrator, but more, I hadn't seen another changeling out of disguise since I left the hive, then Princess Fast turns up with tons of them. I was scared I would be discovered, but if there is one thing spending my life as a pony has taught me, and that is how not to be recognized." "I tended to the breeders, back in the hive." Stick walked easily with the other changelings. It felt good to talk with Dray, he was nice. "It was such a shock when old Queen-Stupid-Butt demanded we all give chase to the ponies. I couldn't fight her demands until Fast stood against her." "You love Fast?" Hay cut in and got a laugh from Stick. "Of course I do, she saved me, looked after me. She is… I called her mom last time I visited." The drone blushed hotly. Dray was changing his opinion of this new queen more and more by the second. "How did she react?" Stick's blush faded into a dreamy look of happiness. "She hugged me." They neared the hive and Stick could sense the trepidation in both father and daughter. "I say, is that one of my business partners escorting the daughter of Dray Cart to the changeling hive? Does your mother know you are here young lady?" Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee were just leaving the hive, it seemed. Hay blushed brightly but nodded. "Yes sir. She…" Looking to her father for support, Hay found it. "Her mother and her father," green flame enveloped Dray as he became his normal unicorn self, "are behind her." Fancy's monocle popped out in shock. "From where I stand either you are the boldest changeling I have met today, which is unlikely given your company, or I need to sit down and have a chat with you." Dray colored, realizing that his canny sometimes-partner sometimes-enemy saw through him. "The latter, would be good." He felt at a disadvantage but the hoof that reached out and clopped against his side had him widen his eyes. "Buck up old chap. Not the end of the world being outed. Just means I might have a better chance of guessing your motives now." Fancy levitated his monocle back in and grinned. "You seem to have business with a princess first. Maybe after lunch?" Nodding, Dray was flabbergasted. He hadn't realized Fancy was quite as well acquainted with the hive as this. "Sure thing." He replied automatically, but almost bopped himself on the forehead because of it. Fancy had the upper hoof, again, Dray would probably be distracted by his meeting with Fast. The meeting settled, Fancy and Fleur turned. Dray only just realizing the mare had been talking with Stick and his daughter. "See daddy? Even your friends are taking it well." Hay beamed with the innocence of a pony who didn't understand the power-game that had just played out. It did occur to Dray that Fancy did, indeed, take it very well. He barely noticed as Stick swept them back into motion. "Journeydrone Stick, Hay Cart and Dray Cart, to see Princess Fast Change!" Stick loved using her title. "I will get the queen!" One of the drones was about to run off but got a bop on the head from the other. "Princess, and just let them in, they are expected." The other, it seemed, was a touch brighter than his fellow. They wandered in and Dray shifted back to his changeling form, once inside. "This is different. This hive is all above ground?" "Not all." Stick pointed down side passages. "Some of the drones just can't seem to sleep above ground, something about noises and echoes. Princess Fast will likely be in her throne room." There were huge doors that Stick knocked on. "Enter!" Came a voice from inside. The drone had to push her magic into opening the door but inside she beamed at the figure lounging, in a manner that was a mix between casual and flaunting. "Hi princess!" Stick waved a hoof and gestured to Dray and Hay to enter. "I present a lost stallion, hiveless but wanting to at least make good ties to yours. Dray Cart. His daughter, half bred of a changeling and a unicorn of the finest stock, Hay Cart." Stick's introduction had both Dray and Hay bow to the queen of the hive. "Don't bow." Fast's words carried weight. "No, stay bowing." Stick whispered. Both ponies looked confused but after a moment of further bowing Fast clopped her hooves together with delight. "A leader and a daughter who can ignore a queen's demands. Be welcome to my hive." Dray was in shock, he hadn't even realized what the little test was about. "Leader? I am a drone…" "Were." Fast dropped off her throne and trotted over to the trio. Her first attention was on Stick, pulling the changeling into a tight hug. "How has my little daughter been?" Stick blushed with delight at the attention. "I found some lost friends of your hive, my mate's belly grows with our foal. Times are good!" This surprised Dray, who hadn't known about the details of Stick or her marefriend. "She would have a half-bred foal as well?" Stick nodded enthusiastically. "Like you, I took a form that we hope will ensure they lean more toward pony than changeling. I don't think Penny would care, even if she ended up laying an egg." Fast seemed to blush hotly for no apparent reason. She recovered though. "Let us start with you, Dray. Your options are many but, important matters must be stated first. To live in the city as a changeling, there are rules." The princess disengaged from her hug with Stick. "First rule, no eating unless either the reasons are grave or you have permission. And you best believe the former will be investigated. When taking the form of anything but a changeling, you must wear a cutie mark of a changeling." Stick demonstrated, flickering into a copy of Hay, with a stylized changeling on her rump, drawn mostly with sharp angles. "Like so." Fast gestured at the picture. "You may make it whatever you like, but it must be recognizable as a changeling. Finally, you are beholden to the laws of this realm." Fast looked to deflate. "Ugh, okay, the not-fun bit's out of the way. So, what are your plans?" Dray was left blinking, looking first to his daughter, then to Stick and finally to the princess. "To live my life, love my wife and daughter. I need to tell my workers what has happened, of course, and my business partners will find out and possibly drop ties with me." He sighed. "My wife did suggest that I pay my workers a little more, as compensation for drinking from them." Fast Change nodded. "Clever mare your wife. That sorts out most of the issues. What of you, Hay?" Hay gave a little 'eep' as the attention of her father, best friend and a princess descended on her. "I… I am not a changeling, but I… I need to know if I do get into this," she waved a hoof around, indicating the hive at large, "what it will be like." She looked up to Fast, unable to ask a princess all the personal things she needs to. "Sounds like we need to chat." Fast lifted her voice. "Bring drinks!" There was a flurry of activity, drones rushing in, bringing a table, soft pillows and finally a tea set. They looked absolutely excited to be serving their queen and her guests, even if those guests seemed so odd. Fast settled at the head of the table, taking Stick on one side and Hay on the other, she left Dray to find a spot on the far side of his daughter. "Now, the big changes." Fast sipped her tea. The mare got no sustenance from it but had learned, mainly from Fancy and Fleur, to enjoy the taste. "Becoming a changeling, really becoming one, was scary. My special talent as a unicorn was shapeshifting, but I could always assume my normal self." For emphasis, Fast did that now, becoming the red mare she was born as, crippled legs and all. Of those present, only Stick had seen her like this before, and there were little gasps from Hay and Dray. "But on that day, when I stood against Chrysalis, everything changed." Her lips curled at her pun. "Now, when I focus on 'me', on the pony I am, I become this." Green fire flickered barely a moment, Stick was quite impressed with just how easily her queen could change. "This is me now." Fast poked at one of the few holes in her hooves. "With my talent, I had walked the streets…" Fast faltered, she had almost slipped and added 'and sheets', "in many forms, gryphon, dragon, I had even taken this." She flickered again and ended up an odd cross between griffon and pony, a hippogriff. Stick was marveling at the shape. It looked to encompass all the awesome traits of both species. "But none made me fear being out, being seen, so much as my dark shelled self." Fast noticed the intense scrutiny of her daughter, deciding to wear it a little longer for her. "What I did, while wearing it however, has swung general opinion of changelings a lot. Princess Celestia is truly a great mare, she…" Fast almost lost it, she almost cried. A warm hug came from both sides. Stick and Hay both moving without thinking, hearing how hard it was for Fast to tell her story, to explore her respect for Celestia. Dray smiled. "I couldn't believe it. She seemed so calm. When I revealed myself, all she did was demand I tell the truth…" "So being a changeling. If I get this right. Hunger for food that is hard to get-" Hay was trying to tick off the points but got interrupted. "Not hard to get, just a little tricky. Remember Penny's promise." Stick booped Hay on the nose to the other mare's giggle. "Okay, so food is tricky, and anywhere but here there might be a little prejudice. I might get to fly… I might even get to shapechange…" "Might." Fast rubbed the mare's ears. The princess wasn't sure when, but she had found herself to be a little bigger than other ponies. "Okay, might. I could be left with the downsides but no upside." Hay pondered this and looked to her father. "I think it would be worth it, if only to know a little more of my dad, and how amazing he is."