Spinnekop woke up with rather strange and forgotten stimulus, the sun.
The large ball of Plasma rose above the horizon, piercing through the glass and directly onto Spinnekop’s closed eyes. Being used to sleeping underground in a dungeon with no way of telling time, and then suddenly having a bright light shine on her face was not a good thing, especially given her fear of one specific pony.
As the light hit her eyes, it was less a rude awakening, and more a metaphorical slap in the face. Her eyes shot open and she quickly forgot all about sleep as she let out a small high-pitched chirp and fell off the couch she used for a bed.
Quickly scrambling to her hooves she ran behind the couch and curled up there, trying very hard not to hyperventilate.
“No! I didn’t do anything! Please don’t roast me alive!” She said, holding her hooves in front of her face. When she began to peak through the holes in her hooves, she noticed the sunlight peaking from the bottom of the couch. “Oh…” She let down her hooves and resisted the urge to slap herself. Celestia did only say it was Minor Healing afterall… She let out a sigh.
It had been less than twenty-four hours since she met with Celestia, and the thought of the Solar Alicorn suddenly changing her mind about trusting her made Spinnekop tense up. Calming down her heart, she looked over the couch to see the sun was just barely peaking over the horizon.
She sighed in annoyance. She had promised she would relax, and she had been resting for most of the day after Shining Armor went back to work. While she normally would have enjoyed a chance to sleep in, now she was wide awake, and sleep didn’t seem like a possibility anymore, as by the time her adrenaline stopped flowing, the sun would already be high enough to keep her awake. She decided it would be best to get to work while she could…
While she had absolutely no idea how a hoofmaiden was supposed to work, she figured it couldn’t be much different from a Queen’s Caretaker. She herself had never been one, but she had an acquaintance with one that she became quite good friends with because of all the time she spent in the castle.
It was a Caretaker’s job to see over the Queen, however since she rarely needed help with… anything really, the Caretakers became the overseers of the castle. When that wasn’t needed, they handled care of the pupa.
“We can hardly trust the brain-dead Breeders to be good mothers and fathers to them,” She had said. “They wouldn’t know the first thing about caring for a child.”
“How can you be sure?” Spinnekop asked as they sat down for lunch one day.
“Well, I saw not one, not two, but FIVE Breeders that mistook the eggs they had just laid, for food,” she replied as she munched on some hay.
“Not all Breeders can be like that though…” Spinnekop replied. “Some of them must be better than that.”
The Caretaker nodded. “Oh of course. A few of them are smarter than the whole lot of them. I once had a thrilling conversation with one by the name of Rosemary. Sweet darling, not sure how she became a Breeder, but we talked for a while on proper care of nymphs.” She took a sip of her water. “And she was rather knowledgeable. I think she would have made a great mother.”
“What happened to her?” Spinnekop replied.
The Caretaker stabbed a fork at the pile of hay. “I’m not sure… I got pulled into the castle not long after that. Something about an escape from the Breeders that was assisted by a Caretaker.” She tossed a couple oats into her mouth.
“I wonder what happened to her…”
Spinnekop sighed as she remembered the rest of her friends she grew to know over her time in the Hive. Those friends she would never get to see again… She shook off the memories and instead opted to attempt flying for the first time since she entered Canterlot.
She looked back at her thin, membranous wings as she extended them. There was no apparent pain, but she would need to see how they reacted to flying. Tentatively, she began to slowly flap them; when she felt no pain, she began to increase the frequency of the wing beats. As she sped up the flapping, her wings began to produce a low buzzing before slowly lifting her off the ground.
As she got a few inches of the ground, she decided it would be a rather good idea to see what kind of cleaning needed to be done near the ceiling. The room had a rather high ceiling and Spinnekop doubted most ponies were willing to climb enormous ladders to clean some place that ninety percent of the normal guests never look at. Or if there were even ladders that tall lying around in the castle…
As she flew up to the top of the room, she transformed one of her hooves into a griffon claw and ran it along the top of a curtain. Pulling it away and looking at it, she shook her head as she noticed a rather thick layer of dust that had settled down near the top. Wiping the claw off on her chest, she transformed her tail into a feather duster and began sweeping it back and forth over the top of the curtain.
While certainly not her favorite job, she did admit to having a bit of pleasure from seeing things clean, which was probably going to have a very different meaning now than at the Hive as well.
In the Hive, the definition of "Clean" was “Does not look like a place five thousand Changelings walked through every day.” Four thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine was fine, but once it got over that five thousand mark, it was dirty.
Whereas here, "Clean" seemed to mean “So bright and shiny you could have sworn you would be able to eat off of it.”
There was another reason why Spinnekop liked doing a bit of dusting and cleaning: it gave her time to think. Just like when she was a nymph, she still preferred to do things with her hooves. Part of the reason they stopped posting a Guard outside her cell was because they got annoyed by the constant tapping, so she thought best when she was either whittling or cleaning.
So enraptured in her thoughts was she that she hadn’t noticed she moved from dusting the curtains to cleaning the large ornate chandelier until a small crystal shard smacked her in the eye. It didn’t hurt, thank Chrysalis, but it was annoying.
She finished cleaning off the chandelier, before she looked back down at the ground to see Shining Armor had woken up and was looking up at her, a strange mixture of curiosity and hatred etched across his features.
“Morning, sir!” Spinnekop said happily as she flew out from underneath the chandelier. “How was your night?”
Shining Armor kept the confused look, but the anger was now slightly peaking through more. “What are you doing?”
“Just cleaning… I’ll admit I don’t know when I started working on the chandelier…”
“Why?” He demanded.
“Well… I figured that the place could use some-” She didn’t get to finish as Shining Armor cut her off.
“Get down here,” he ordered.
“Yes, sir,” she said, quickly flying down to the ground and landing in front of the Captain, she raised her hoof only to realize it was a small wrench now. She snickered a bit before quickly turning it back. “How can I help you?”
“First off, you can stop calling me ‘sir’.” Shining Armor replied. “You can call me that when I actually trust you. Second, you stay on the damn ground.” He glared at Spinnekop. “I’m telling you this once: hurt Cadence, I make sure that you stay in that Dungeon.”
Spinnekop gulped. “Yes… Captain…” She replied unsure of what to call the stallion giving her a worse death glare than Dagger ever did. “W-What would you prefer me call you?”
“Captain will work.” Shining Armor replied. “If I find that you have been feeding off of anypony forcefully, I’ll see your sorry flank shipped out to the Badlands.”
Spinnekop tried to shrink herself down, her eyes widening. Not the Loveless Plains! Anywhere but there! Her legs began shaking. “I-I-I Under-erstan-and C-c-capt-t-tain.”
Shining Armor snorted. “Good.” He stood up and began walking towards the door. Spinnekop kept herself as small as possible until she heard the door slam. Even then, a majority of her muscles refused to loosen up until the sounds of hooves had left fully. Letting out a very relieved breath, she closed her wings and walked over to a counter. She transformed her tail back into a duster and wiped down the counter as best she could without needing to use her wings. This ended with her sticking her flank in the air while her tail mechanically wiped down the farther side of the counter.
As she finished with that, she walked over to the bathroom. However, instead of doing what most would do in the morning, she simply walked over to the sink and turned the knob before realizing she now had access to a bath and shower.
She turned off the sink and walked over to the bath. She turned on the stream of water and once she was happy with the temperature, she draped her tail under the stream, feeling the warm water covering her tail and flowing freely through it, dislodging the dust from it. In order to make sure all of it was gone, she whipped her tail a few times and rung it out.
After that, she swished her tail back and forth to air dry it, and once she was happy, she walked back out into the room and, seeing nothing else that she could do without flying, she decided to sit down and wait for Cadence.
Spinnekop didn’t have long to wait, as the Pink Alicorn walked out of the room and into the main area of the suite. Spinnekop straightened up as she entered. “Cadence!”
“Morning, Spindle,” Cadence said. “Sleep well?”
“Yes, your Majesty.” Spinnekop replied with a small bow. “Is there anything I can assist you with?”
Cadence sighed. “Spindle… You don’t need to do that. You’re a friend, and above that, I don’t own you. You don’t have to bow to me.”
“Oh…” Spinnekop replied. “Sorry… I’ve only ever seen Caretakers… That’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a Hoofmaiden I could talk to… It’s only customary to bow to royalty.”
“I understand that… But I’ll feel weird if every time I address you, you bow to me. Just… Calling me Princess when there are others around will be fine.” She replied. “You can still call me Cadence when we are alone though. I’m not too big a fan of unneeded formalities.”
“Okay Cadence…” Spinnekop replied. “But… I’m not really sure how to be a Hoofmaiden…”
Cadence sighed. “Well… I think I could help with that, though I’m not sure how well you would take it.”
“What is it, Cadence?” Spinnekop asked. “I’m willing to do whatever I have to!”
“Well…” Cadence looked away for a moment. “I have some important royal duties I need to take care of, meeting with diplomats, meeting important ponies, that kind of stuff, so I have a pretty full plate today. I’m not sure you would enjoy it very much, a lot of just standing around. So I think I know how you could learn to be a Hoofmaiden…”
Cadence sighed. “I know you won’t enjoy it, but I want for you to spend the day with the cleaning staff of the castle… They can give you a couple of hints on how to be the best hoofmaiden you could be, but…”
Spinnekop looked at her confused. “What?”
“You are going to have to show them what you actually are…” She replied.
Spinnekop’s jaw hung open. “What?” She replied. “I-I can’t do that! Th-They would never trust me!” She sat down and put her face in her hooves. “I’ll be an outcast… Just like back then…”
Cadence walked over and placed her foreleg over Spinnekop’s shoulder. “I know it sounds bad… But I don’t need you to show everypony you are a Changeling, I only need you to show the Head Maid. If she is alright with it, then the others will be.”
“But… the guards…”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t do anything that rash. She’s just very… strict when it comes to the castle staff… She wants to be sure everypony is who they say they are. Can’t have any thieves in the castle.”
“Well… I guess it wouldn’t be too bad then…” Spinnekop replied.
“Plus, I’m sure she would be more than happy to have somepony that could fly. Help clean those higher windows and chandeliers the others keep complaining about.”
Spinnekop gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah… about that…” she replied. “Shining Armor told me I needed to stay on the ground…”
Cadence blinked before giving an agitated sigh. “Honestly that Stallion…” She shook her head. “He’s really protective… but a bit paranoid. I’ll talk to him later. Now, let’s go and see about that training job.”
Spinnekop began shaking a little. The thought of any more ponies knowing about her than was absolutely necessary. She was also well aware of the gossiping nature of some mares. There was no telling how far this could spread should even one of them know… “Cadence… I really don’t….”
“Do I need to carry you there?”
Spinnekop shook her head and sighed. “I’ll come… You promise me that she won’t tell anypony else…”
“Lace?” Cadence relied. “No… She’s actually the one that stops the others from gossiping. Says it’s bad form to talk about others when they aren’t present, especially if they don’t want it known.” Cadence smiled at Spinnekop. “Now come on, Lace Trim isn’t going to wait for us forever.” She replied.
Spinnekop quickly transformed into Spindle and walked to stand next to Cadence as they walked through the marble halls of the Castle. It was a very stark contrast to the dungeons she had stayed in, which were made mostly of gritty gray stone that was designed to hold and less for aesthetics. Perhaps a remnant of some bygone era of Pony civilization? I should probably look into that… Might be some interesting inspiration there…
Spindle looked over the style of the marble and golden designs. On many of the pillar structures that were incorporated into the wall, there was a snaking golden pattern, intricate flowers and small curves etched into the material. A few of the arches above held a small etching of a golden sun on them, and looking out one of the tall windows, Spindle saw the gardens of the castle. Even from this far away, she could tell they would be glorious to look at, the various flowers and plants all seemingly arranged to be easy on the eyes when compared to the rest of the area, transitioning from some golden and white flowers to the deep red of roses.
Spindle sighed as she looked at them. One of the things she enjoyed about Earth Ponies, besides being dependable and sometimes stubborn, was that they always had beautiful gardens. Sure a Unicorn or a Pegasus could be the best gardener in Equestria, but many times over, Earth Pony gardens were just… more vibrant, lively, and distinct, though Spindle would take magic for gardening any day.
Cadence noticed her expression and smiled. “We can go and look at them if you want.”
Spindle shook her head. “It’s alright… I just… I miss them sometimes…” Spindle replied. Cadence walked over to look out the window with her. “Back home we used to have these flowers, they would actually change depending on what emotion their tender felt. It was always beautiful to walk through the small cave we had for them… The flowers would all open and react to anyling that walked past… There was a story I was told, that once a stallion proposed to his love there. All throughout the cave, the flowers opened up and fired off magical spores that exploded like tiny fireworks…” She sighed.
“It sounds beautiful…” Cadence replied imagining the flowers themselves. “But didn’t you say the Queen hated everypony that wasn’t useful for combat?”
Spindle nodded. “The Gardeners helped create herbs needed for special healing potions and other such things… I never really got a chance to talk to them… They were too busy working.”
Spindle sighed. “Alright… Enough reminiscing… I need to focus on not messing up…”
“You sure?” Cadence replied.
“Yeah… I want to show I’m not just violent… and… Hopefully I can avoid making ponies fear me…”
Cadence nodded. “Her office is this way.”
Spindle followed Cadence for a few more minutes before coming to a door with an image of a feather duster on the wood. Cadence knocked on the door and from behind it a voice replied, “Come on in.” Cadence pushed open the door and was followed by Spindle. “Oh Princess, I didn’t expect you to come this early!”
“Oh it’s alright, Lace,” Cadence replied.
“Well, what can I do for you?” Lace asked, she was a light gray Unicorn, her light lavender mane pinned into a bun behind her. Her amber eyes looked as though they were either scrutinizing Spindle’s every move or trying to calm her down. “There wasn’t any kind of complaint with the night staff was there? Because I got rid of Darklight a while ago, so if he is still…”
“No, it’s not about that.” Cadence replied. “I’d like you to meet Spindle Weave.” The Middle aged Unicorn looked at Spindle. “She’s a good friend of mine that wanted to be my Hoofmaiden.”
Lace looked at her again. “Hmm… Well… Do you have any kind of qualifications that put you above anypony else?”
“Uh…” Spindle replied.
“That’s actually why we wanted to talk to you…” Cadence replied.
“Oh?” Lace asked. “And what does that entail?”
Cadence sighed. “Lace, I need you to be fully honest here, what do you think about Changelings?”
Lace looked at Cadence then back at Spindle. “Well, I will certainly say that they were unwelcome. They made a huge mess of the castle, and that goo they left still isn’t cleared off the roof of the reception area.”
Spindle coughed.
“Though… I suppose that if one were to come back, I wouldn’t have any real reason to hate them…”
Cadence sighed. “Well… Spindle here is a Changeling…” Spinnekop removed her disguise. “She does want to be my Hoofmaiden, but the problem is…”
“She has no idea how to do that does she?” Lace replied. “Well, I may be able to help there.” She grinned. “Provided you do me a very big favor…”
Spinnekop nodded. “What do you need?”
Lace sighed. “Well, you’ve probably never noticed, but a majority of our staff are unicorns or Earth Ponies. So we leave a lot of the… difficult-to-reach places alone. It always leaves me with that small twitch whenever I pass a chandelier. But there aren’t any huge ladders around for us to use, and I don’t like the usage of gravity spells, they are just asking for trouble. Our only non-Thestral Pegasus is on vacation right now, so a lot of the chandeliers are dusty. If you are willing to help us clean all of them, I’ll give you some tips.”
Spinnekop looked at her questioningly. “Really? That’s it? You just want me to clean some things and then you’ll help? No… Weird rules or anything?”
Lace chuckled. “Oh… I didn’t say that, I have quite a few ways to encourage good behavior among the staff, and also dissuade those who only seek to get in because of the proximity to royalty. I’ll give you the same treatment.”
“Oh…” Spinnekop replied. “Well… I uh… I should tell you that I don’t want everypony to know…”
“Oh they won’t know it’s you.” Lace replied with a mischievous grin. “They’ll know that a Changeling within the cleaning staff has been revealed. And that she is trusted by Celestia… So I allowed it.”
Spinnekop and Cadence looked at her surprised. “You can do that?”
“Yes. I’ve worked alongside Celestia for decades. Celestia seems to accept you, and I will so long as you don’t mess up any of the jobs I give you.”
Cadence nodded to Lace. “I’m glad that you are doing this Lace.”
“Oh no need to thank me, it will be a wonderful experiment for me and my staff. So long as young Spindle here doesn’t mind a little… embarrassment…”
Spinnekop shook her head. “I’ve done a lot of embarrassing things before… I think I’ll be fine.”
Lace’s grin turned to a smile. “Well then, Princess I know you have some important duties, so allow me to talk to Spindle here in private for a little bit.”
Cadence nodded. “Don’t have too much fun, Spindle.” She said as she walked out of the room, leaving the Changeling with the unicorn.
“So…” Spinnekop said as Lace got up and walked to a wardrobe near the corner of the room. “What kind of initiation do I have to do?”
Lace opened up the Wardrobe and let Spinnekop look in. There was a number of what looked like dresses of various sizes all covered up. “Well first, what sizes would you say you are?”
In the Hive, there had been many instances of embarrassment amongst Changelings. Your darkest secrets could easily be revealed to everyone if you didn’t keep your mind off them. And the first time a Changeling gets aroused was like opening a can of worms inside a fish tank. Other than that there were many other opportunities for Changelings to embarrass themselves, Spinnekop had usually been on the receiving end of many of them… Yet they had never been like what she had to do now.
“Come on dear.” Lace said as Spinnekop tried desperately to hide…Well everything about her current situation. “All of my staff have gone through the same thing.”
“That doesn’t make it less demeaning…” The Changeling replied.
“Spindle, I promise you it will only be for a little bit…” Lace replied.
Spinnekop sighed before stepping out of the changing room. She was dressed in a frilly pink maid outfit; the one-piece dress and skirt had a rather lucrative amount of pink fabric used throughout the entire outfit. Where the black would normally be on a maid outfit, it was replaced with a similar pink fabric, and a majority of the lace was a pink as well. Around both her forelegs were pink wristbands; with the normal white lace around it, interwoven into it were small bells that rang whenever she took a step. She was wearing long black stockings around her hind legs that gave way to the pink shoes she was wearing. Luckily she convinced Lace that she needed her forelegs to help clean, which was true, because if she didn’t, she would have had to wear the same things over them as well.
She felt extremely uncomfortable in the outfit, mostly because she felt that it was supposed to draw attention to her, which was something she didn’t want, both because of integrated teaching, and nerves. Mostly the nerves, though. Oh, and the threat Shining Armor made… that was a factor as well.
She reached up and adjusted the pink and white headpiece that lay on her carapace. And she used her magic to try and pull the skirt down any more than it would allow, but it felt much smaller than she needed it to be. Luckily, her pendant was allowed to hang above the dress, which Spinnekop hoped would let the small green gem take attention from the rest of the outfit. “I feel… really exposed…”
“Oh it isn’t that bad.” Lace replied looking around the outfit herself. “Many of the guards don’t try to make advances on new staff they see wearing this, though it might be more difficult for them to hide it from you…”
Spinnekop groaned. “I know… This is going to be one of the most embarrassing days of my life…” She said rubbing her head. She tried to adjust the skirt again, but ended up wiggling uncomfortably in it to try and get comfortable. “It can’t get any worse than this, could it?”
Lace smiled again before readjusting the skirt with her magic. “Oh, that’s because you haven’t had the finishing touch applied yet.” She opened up a drawer of her desk, and pulled out a bright pink ribbon that had a bell attached to the middle of it.
“You… You aren’t going to make me wear that around my neck are you?” Spinnekop asked eyeing the ribbon, knowing that a lot of ponies, those she specifically avoided at all costs, were into that.
“Oh no…” Lace replied. “Close your eyes for me.”
Spinnekop did, and she heard Lace humming a little bit before Lace told her it was all right. Spinnekop opened her eyes and looked down at the outfit she was wearing, but couldn’t see anything really different, until she moved her tail.
She heard a ringing sound and looked back at her tail, where the ribbon was tied into a bow around the base, so that whenever she moved her tail, the bell would ring out, that added to the bells around her legs, and she would be jingling like it was Hearth’s Warming. She pulled her tail under her legs in hopes it would stop them from jingling.
“I stand corrected…” She replied. “This is the most embarrassing day of my life.” She laid down on the ground and put her hooves over her face. “Is it too late to go back to the dungeons?”
Lace chuckled. “Oh come now Spindle, it isn’t that bad…”
“Really?” Spinnekop asked. “I’m going to be flying in the air, exposing my flank to the Guards below while jingling like a cat toy…”
“Come to think of it…” Lace replied tapping her chin. “Clear View did say that she didn’t fly her first day working here…”
Spinnekop groaned. “I’ll be a laughing stock…”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Lace replied. “You’ll be more glared at in hatred than anything else. And if any of the stallions give you a wandering stare, you could always say that you’re more into mares.”
Spinnekop groaned.
“Oh come on. I’m sure it won’t be that bad. It’s only for the first part of the day. I’ll come and get you when you can take it off. It won’t be for the full day, I promise.” She pulled Spinnekop to her hooves. “Now get out there, you have cleaning to do.”
Spinnekop slunk out of the room, trying to keep the various bells from ringing, but Lace opened the door and called to her. “And don’t forget to be polite, it’s an important part, no matter what the others tell you.”
Spinnekop nodded at her before walking down the hallways, still trying to keep her tail from jingling. Even as she tried to keep herself out of sight, the bells on her legs betrayed her every time. Eventually, she came to a rather uninhabited hallway with one of the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Doing a check to ensure that nopony was around; she took off from the ground and flew up to the dangling cluster of crystals.
She flew around the chandelier to see what needed to be done with it, and it turned out that there was a rather large clump of dust similar to the one she cleaned in the Royal Suite she had slept in. She transformed her tail into a feather Duster and began to wipe down the structure, ignoring the ringing sound it caused.
As she finished with the top layer of dust, she looked at the various small crystals and noticed that a few in the center were especially filthy. Taking a second look towards the ground to make sure nopony was there; she flew underneath the chandelier and began trying to get at the tiny shards with her hooves. I wonder what Cara is up to now?
Spinnekop sighed at the thought. She had tried desperately not to think of her old friend, but given there was nothing else to focus on, her mind began to wander. It went all the way back to when they had first met, when Spinnekop had still been in her shy phase. She had been so unwilling to talk, that she barely spoke to anyone other than Mimic. Cara was the first one she ever managed to give a full sentence to, and now… It hurt her to think back to the happy memory she shared...
Cara had been moved to the Barracks at the age of one, much like many other nymphs. She had been brought there a few days after she passed pupation; mentally, she was now on par with a four year old foal, though her body was still developing. She had spent a majority of her life living with her family, growing with them, and since then, she missed them greatly.
She sighed as she looked at the picture she had of her family before putting it back on the small bedside table. She knew it was going to happen; her parents were both soldiers before her, and now she was following in their hoofsteps. She wanted to become a Scout, help the Hive as much as she could… but now, she just wanted to be back home.
She looked out of the small window in the basic room, wondering if her parents were missing her, when the door opened up and a red-eyed Changeling stepped in. “Cadet.” He said.
“Hello sir…” Cara replied.
“My name is General Mimic, Cadet. I’m going to be your higher-up while you learn the ropes.”
“Cara, sir,” She replied.
“I’m glad to have you on board, Cadet.” Mimic replied. “Feeling homesick?”
Cara nodded.
“I was the same way when I started… Look at me now. Higher up than those other Alphas from my group.” He sighed. “Anyway, I am proud to tell you that we found you a roommate. Maybe you can…” He looked behind him. “Oh great… Spinnekop…” He sighed. “Come on out Spin… No I don’t think that she will make fun of you… Come on… It’s alright…” He looked back at Cara. “Sorry… she is very shy about others… I’ve been working on getting her to open up a bit… with mixed results.”
Mimic stepped into the doorway with a small changeling nymph behind him, peeking out from behind Mimic’s leg. There was a small necklace that fell to her knees as she wore it. “Spinnekop, this is Cara. She is going to be your new roommate.”
Spinnekop looked up at Mimic then back to Cara, giving a small wave. “hi…”
Cara waved at her. “Hello.”
Mimic stepped to the side and lightly pushed Spinnekop forward. “I’ll just leave you two to bond for a bit. Don’t forget that dinner is in an hour or so.”
Spinnekop nodded and Cara replied with “Yes, General.”
Mimic nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Spinnekop and Cara alone. Spinnekop moved her hoof in a circle on the ground. “So my name is Cara.”
Spinnekop looked at the ground.
“So uh… Your name is Spinnekop?”
Spinnekop nodded.
Cara looked at the Changeling curiously. “So… Do you have parents waiting for you?” she asked, looking back at the picture.
Spinnekop shook her head and then reached up to the pendant around her neck. “Oh… I’m so sorry…” Cara replied. “What happened to them?”
Spinnekop sighed and shook her head. She looked over at the picture of Cara’s parents and pointed at it curiously.
Cara sighed. “Yeah… That’s my family…” Cara grabbed the photo and showed it to Spinnekop. “They were both Soldiers before Dad got pulled because of his eye… He lost it to a Timber Wolf… After he was patched up, he was deemed unusable in the military, so my Mom switched to a Medic, while Dad helped make all the Emotional Gel.” She let out a sigh. “Every so often, he would get me a little more Love to feed on and we would have a little party…” She looked down at the picture. “Guess that’s over now…”
Spinnekop looked at Cara, curious, formulating a plan within her head as she watched Cara. She looked at the picture; on it were three Changelings, each one smiling into the camera. Her father had an eye patch on over his left eye and her mother was smaller than him. Cara was standing between them, smiling, her wings still unformed and tiny, her fangs barely growing in and her backplate was still pale white. Her carapace was a few shades lighter than now, so she was probably a few molts away from her pupation.
Cara looked down at the necklace Spinnekop was wearing. “Where did you get that from?”
Spinnekop pulled back slightly, but she raised her hoof and tapped at the picture.
“Your parents?” Cara replied. “I thought you said you didn’t know them.”
Spinnekop backed away from Cara, pushing her back against the other bed in the room, beginning to slink under the Bed.
Cara sighed. “No… It’s alright… I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me.”
Spinnekop had already hidden herself under the bed and Cara didn’t think she would be coming out any time soon.
“Well…” Cara said to break up the silence. “I’m just going to go… See if there is…” Sigh “anything that can make me feel better…” Cara got up and walked out of the room, leaving Spinnekop alone in the room as she walked down the barracks’ halls.
Back in the room, Spinnekop stayed there for a few moments before creeping out and walking over to the picture. She looked at it for a minute before putting it back and walking over to the bed she would be sleeping on later. She looked to make sure there was no one coming and perked her ears to make sure there were no hoofsteps. Sure that she wouldn’t be found out, she reached under the bed and pulled out a small letter opener that she managed to sneak out of Mimic’s office. She looked back to the bed with the blade clutched in her teeth.
Little over an hour later, Cara had walked into the dining hall. She had normally been there with her parents, but now she was alone with only the other members of her Barracks, all of who were talking to their own groups or roommates.
Cara walked up to stand in the line, getting her normal food; she walked over to a small group of Changelings eating quietly and sat down. It didn’t take long for her to notice that Spinnekop had entered extremely late, slowly walking through and grabbing the tray of food before going to an empty table and sat down by herself, reaching behind her neck and removing her necklace, placing it down next to the food.
However, as Cara watched, Spinnekop didn’t just start eating the food; she picked up the fork and actually began tracing something on the tray. She then took a piece of hay and oats and pushed them around the tray. Cara shrugged and turned back to her own food and began eating it.
She felt a bit empty, though; she would normally talk to her parents or listen to their conversation, or those of others, so not being able to talk with anyone around her made her feel a little out of place.
As she got half way through her food, her eyes wandered back over to Spinnekop, who looked like she finished all of her food. Cara blinked before looking down the table, seeing that a majority of the other Changelings were still eating, even those that got here earlier than both of them. When Cara looked back towards Spinnekop, she noticed the small Changeling had already left.
She looked back and forth between the empty table and her own food for a minute before looking at the grown Changeling now sitting across from her. She took a deep breath. “Um… Excuse me?”
The Changeling looked up at Cara. “Yeah?”
“Did you happen to see where the Nymph that was sitting there went?” Cara pointed at the table.
The Changeling looked over at it. “Spinnekop? I’m never sure where she goes… She just eats, then leaves; been doing it since the General managed to get her to come here. I’ve stopped wondering myself.”
Cara looked back at the table, then looked around the room. Not seeing any sign of her she shrugged and went back to her food.
When she finished, she began to walk out of the Dining Hall and saw the small Changeling slinking away near a far wall. “Spinnekop?” Cara asked, causing the small Changeling to jump slightly before looking back towards Cara and quickly scurrying off. “Spinnekop… Wait I just want to-!”
Spinnekop had already vanished. “Where did she…” She looked over at the area she used to be, then looked away and shook her head. “Guess I’ll never know.” Cara walked down the Hive, looking up at one of the clocks. She saw she still had a few hours before she needed to return to the barracks, so she walked down the various halls of the Hive until she came to a rather common place in the hive: a waterfall that flowed into the Hive and gave way to the plant life nearby. Cara walked up to the small pond the falling water created and laid down, just looking at the water flow.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, but when she got up, her legs felt a little sore. She began walking back to the barracks with her mind still focusing on her family. She just wanted some thing to take her mind off of it.
When she entered the barracks, a majority of her time had been spent looking at the ground so that when she entered the room, she looked over at the bed that Spinnekop would be in to see it stripped bare, and noticed that pieces of the bed sheet laid on the ground in tatters, like they had been cut.
Cara looked at the bed surprised, then looked back over at her own bed, which was still in good condition. She looked back over to her bed stand and saw that the picture on it was gone. Her eyes flicked around the room until she saw the picture near the bottom of Spinnekop’s bed.
She walked towards it and picked it up, flipping it around to make sure there was no damage on it, finding none, she sighed and went to put it back, as she did, Spinnekop crawled out from under her bed and shouted “SURPRISE!” A bit louder than was actually needed.
Cara jumped into the air at the sound and found herself whipping around to see Spinnekop smiling at her. “W-What?” Cara replied.
“Surprise!” Spinnekop repeated. She reached under her bed and pulled out a small cup full of pink gelatin, she held it up for Cara. “Love?”
Cara took the cup unsure. “How did you do this?” She asked.
Spinnekop pointed at her bare bed, then ducked underneath it and came out with a small letter opener. She walked over to Cara’s bed and pointed at the knife and then at the bed. She finally pointed up at the ceiling. Cara looked up to see that streamers had been made out of the bed sheet and were hanging on the ceiling.
Cara opened her mouth. “But… Why would you do that?”
Spinnekop sighed and pointed at the picture. “You… were… happy…”
If Cara didn’t hear her voice before, she could have sworn her ears were betraying her. “What?”
Spinnekop shrunk back a bit. “Well… you…” Spinnekop took a deep breath and closed her eyes and spoke rather quickly. “You said that you were sad and that your parents always cheered you up with a party, so I figured I would do that to cheer you up, but I’m sorry, I’ll just go…” She let out a breath after she finished and walked over to the door.
Cara spoke up first. “Wait!” Spinnekop looked back. “It’s… it’s alright.” She said with a smile. “I’m glad that you went out of your way to do this… but… Why? I mean, I get that I told you I was homesick, but I still don’t get why you wanted to do this.”
Spinnekop opened her mouth, letting out a small chirp, then closed it and tried again. “Because… I wanted you to… be happy…” Spinnekop replied. “We’re going to be… here… for a while… So I thought I would try…” She began clicking and chirping before she closed her mouth.
Cara looked at Spinnekop, then at the small decorations she had put up, and finally to the cup of Love she was holding. Stealing Love was seen as a terrible thing to do, it deprived at least one changeling of food, though the Breeders tended to never eat, so there was always some kind of excess. “How did you even manage to get this in the first place?”
Spinnekop sighed and closed her eyes again. “I snuck past them! They didn’t notice me since I took off my necklace and went to see if I could try and get some for you! I managed to hide it in my tail until I got back here and when I saw you I got startled and thought you found out so I ran!” She sighed again.
Cara looked at Spinnekop impressed. “How’d you get over your…”
Spinnekop sighed. “I… tried to… talk in a mirror… for a while…”
“Well I’m glad to see it worked out for you,” Cara replied with a smile. “And… I’m thankful you did all this.”
Spinnekop smiled. “Does… that make us… friends?”
Cara giggled and a slight buzz followed it out of her throat. “I suppose so.” She looked at the Love in her hooves and ate some of it. “Couldn’t we get in trouble if the General finds out?”
Spinnekop blushed. “Y-Yes… But… I uh… Do this rather often…”
“You throw parties?”
“No… I uh…” She pointed at the ceiling. “Do stuff like that…”
Cara looked at the streamers. “Well… I hope that doesn’t get us into trouble.” She raised the Love cup in her hooves. “To friends.” She ate the rest of it and smiled at Spinnekop. “Now I need to come up with some way to top this.”
Spinnekop laughed and then smiled. “You can… help by…”
“You want me to help with your nerves?”
Spinnekop nodded.
“Well I’ll see what I-“
Spinnekop was pulled out of the thought by a loud whistle from below. Jerking up slightly, she hit her head on the middle of the chandelier. Rubbing her head, she looked out from the dangling cluster and looked down the halls, to see that she had worked her way to the fifth one without even noticing. She then looked down towards the source of the whistle to see two Royal Guards, both looking up at her. One of them was looking curiously, the other looked annoyed.
Her first instinct was to transform, which ended with her turning into a pale sea foam colored Pegasus, before she realized what was going on and changed back.
“Why don’t you come down here?” A Pegasus guard called. “We don’t bite.”
The other Guard, a Unicorn, let out a sigh and shook his head.
Spinnekop had been deep in thought and quickly remembered exactly what she was wearing, so her face began flushing with red. She slowly flew down to the ground being sure to keep her flank facing away from the guards.
“And who is this lovely new Maid?” The Pegasus asked, while his compatriot facehoofed.
Spinnekop gulped. “M-My name is Spinnekop S-Sir…” She bowed. “I-I was in the cleaning staff before the attack… And I-I… I didn’t want to leave… B-But Miss Lace told me that I had to p-prove myself true… so I-I…”
“Well I have to say, you look marvelous in that…” The Pegasus replied giving her a smile.
“Oh… Uh…” Spinnekop began to blush, looking back at the dress she was wearing. “Well… I-I’m not sure…”
“You look beautiful, even for a Changeling.” The Pegasus replied. “I bet your disguises could never top what’s in front of me right now.”
“Oh… I uh… Um…” Spinnekop stuttered. Is this guard… hitting on me? “Th-Thank you Sir… B-But I…”
“Come on… I bet you’re better looking than all the others from your Hive. I bet that anypony would be lucky to have you.”
“I-I-I…” Just tell him... Just say it! Even if it isn’t true… Just say it! “I-I-I Actually… I’m not…” NO! Why does this have to come back now?
“So what do you say Miss Spinnekop?” The Pegasus replied. “Want me to show you around the town?”
Spinnekop blushed even more. “I… I… Uh… I’m a-actually uh…” JUST SAY IT! “I-I’m NOT INTO STALLIONS!” She blurted out, clasping her hooves over her mouth.
“Oh… Playing hard to get huh?” The Pegasus replied. “Well two can…” The other Guard slapped him in the back of the head. “OW!”
“Oh just shut up…” He said. “Honestly… You do this every time…” He groaned. “I swear…”
Spinnekop let out a breath.
“Well I can hardly doubt if ladies find me too hot.”
The Unicorn snorted. “Yeah, hot as the Tundra…” He shook his head. “Now I’m off duty, Hot stuff; you still have a job to do.”
“Yes sir…” The Guard replied giving him a salute before flying down the hall, giving another whistle as Spinnekop tried to hide her tail again, making the bell jingle.
“Honestly that stallion…” He shook his head. “I’m sorry about Wing there… He’s got a very strange… mindset about mares,” he replied. “Trust me, he does that with every new member of the cleaning staff…”
“R-Really…” Spinnekop replied. “So… he was…”
“Trying to hit on you, yeah,” The Guard replied. “He’s got a bad habit of flirting with anything on four legs.”
Spinnekop sighed in relief. “Oh good… I thought that he was really interested… I… I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet…”
The Unicorn shook his head. “No… He probably just wanted to say that he managed to get a Changeling to sleep with him… He’s such an idiot…” He held out his hoof to Spinnekop “Sergeant Mythic Spark.”
Spinnekop shook the hoof. “Sp-Spinnekop.” She did a small bow. “Sir.”
“So what is Miss Lace having you do?” Mythic asked. “And a second question, do you want any help with it?”
“Oh no sir…” Spinnekop replied. “I’m just cleaning out some of the chandeliers, since Clear View is on vacation…”
Mythic nodded. “Yeah I did notice Lace twitching when she walked under them…”
Spinnekop wiggled uncomfortably, only now noticing how tight the dress had become while she was looking through her memories. “Does… This draw too much attention to me?”
“Honestly the jingling gave you away.” Mythic replied. “And I actually think that it is going to help you more than… Well… Accentuating your body’s natural figure.” He said twirling his hoof.
“Oh… Why’s that?” Spinnekop asked, looking back at her tail as it jingled slightly.
“Well, for one, you’re a Changeling.” Mythic replied. “Not to sound rude, but you don’t exactly… have the most… friendly body in Equestria…” He replied. “And well… Given the recent attack, I doubt anypony would be willing to look at you nicely, though with you wearing that, the guards know Celestia trusts you…”
“Huh…” Spinnekop thought about that. “I guess… That makes sense…” She looked back at the outfit. “Even if this is one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever done…”
“Oh, I’m sure it will get worse,” Mythic replied. “And by the way, I know that it is a major pain to do this, which is why we try to hire Pegasus, but there is a way to lower the chandeliers if you want to work closer to the ground.”
Spinnekop’s ears perked up. “Really? There is?”
Mythic nodded. “Now… I didn’t tell you this, but…” He looked around the hall and then motioned for Spinnekop to come closer. “There’s a small gem imbedded in the wall, it’s a few feet down the hall, and if you use a levitation spell, you can get all of them to lower to the ground… Provided you can hold them all.”
“Oh… Th-Thank you sir!” Spinnekop replied. I won’t have to worry about stallions acting like that again!
“Before you go and pull all of them down.” Mythic warned. “I’m not responsible for any damages you cause, and you have to put them back up.”
“Very well, sir.” She bowed again. “I’ll… Try to be careful…”
Mythic nodded. “Now, if any of the other guards give you some trouble, just let me know. I’m aware that they may be harboring negative feelings, but if they begin to act on them, just tell me. I know the captain has been rather… aggressive, but he trusts Celestia’s judgment, so he won’t do anything too harsh… Probably…”
“Alright… Thank you sir,” Spinnekop replied. “I’ll be sure to inform you if anything happens.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want it to seem like we are all hate-filled and seeking revenge.” He sighed. “As much as the nobles hate to deny it…” He shook his head. “Anyway, I have some reports to fill out. Try not to cause any trouble.” He walked down the hall, keeping his eyes forward and focused on something Spinnekop couldn’t make out.
When he left, Spinnekop let out a long sigh. Chrysalis… I was just hit on by a royal guard… She snickered at the thought. And to think… Chrysalis had to brainwash one. She suppressed a laugh at the thought and went to look for the gem, the Guard mentioned.
She walked down the hall a few feet before turning to look at the wall, she didn’t really expect to find anything, but she looked anyway. Being on the ground is better than in the air… especially if Shining Armor comes through here…
After a few minutes, she managed to find the small blue gem. It was indeed imbedded into the wall, with a stone seemingly specially carved for it. The gem was at about head height for any normal Unicorn, and the gem shimmered slightly in the light. Spinnekop looked around the hallway, and then looked up at the ceiling. There were a few more chandeliers she still had to clean. She looked back down the hall and noticed that there were about nine chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. She guessed the weight of each of them and decided that it was worth it to try and use this gem.
When her horn lit up as she focused on the gem, she felt a very strong pull on her horn, causing her to practically face plant into the wall. It was like her horn was a hook being reeled in by a fisherman. Her horn slammed into the gem and she heard a quick whizzing sound. Looking up towards the chandeliers, she saw them quickly falling towards the ground as the mechanism was released.
Oh Chrysalis! Oh Chrysalis! What do I do? In her frenzied thought her mind skipped over the levitation spell. Her mind began racing around, trying to find a solution that was probably more complicated than it needed to be. When it finally stopped on the answer, she didn’t even think twice about it.
She activated the spell with as much energy as she could manage to throw into it. The weight on her head was outrageous as she tried to slow down the nine heavy clusters of crystals and metal before they broke on the ground. She remained focused on the spell, until she felt her horn detach from the wall as the tension was suddenly relieved, sending her spinning back to the floor.
She opened her eyes and looked above her to see one of the glittering crystals dangling in front of her face, the lowest crystal on the structure barely touching her snout. A cloud of dust falling on top of her, causing her to sneeze as she tried to move out from under the large crystal shell. Why does my head hurt so much? She asked, moving her hoof to her head as a light thumping interrupted her thought. I didn’t use… Oh…
She would have facehoofed, but she was afraid it would actually increase the amount of pain in her head. She had forgotten how low on energy she was, however long she was down in the dungeon, she hadn’t absorbed much love. She didn’t want to make her situation worse by feeding on Cadence, so she had barely eaten down there. While she had conserved energy by doing absolutely nothing and just letting her body heal itself, she didn’t even realize she needed to feed.
And here she was, having used an immense amount of energy to stop the chandeliers from falling to the ground without even a second thought. Now she had one of the worst headaches she could possibly give herself, and to top it off, her vision was blurring slightly.
She tried to stand up and ended up wobbling over to a wall. Oh Chrysalis… This is worse than that time in Manehatten. At least there I was drunk!
She held her head while leaning against the wall for a few minutes before her vision began to clear enough for her to see straight. Then she decided to lay down for a bit while she tried to figure out what to do. After a few minutes of calming down, she decided to just feed off the ambient emotions… Which wasn’t much…
Her horn began to emanate a faint green glow as she absorbed the emotions around her. While not much of a meal, it was a decent snack. Plus it cleared out the throbbing in her head, allowing her to actually see, even if there was a slight aching now.
After a few more minutes, she stood back up and walked over to the closest chandelier. She ducked underneath it and began trying to clean it as well as she could. As she tried to clean the intertwined crystals without using any of her magic, but she found her mind beginning to wonder off as she cleaned it as best she could. She sighed. “Cara… I really hope that you are doing alright…”